# 008. Apocalypse Witch

## 01. Volume 01

### 001. Afterword

This is Kamachi Kazuma!

For some reason, I get the occasional urge to write a revenge story. This is a collection of the various ideas I had gradually built up whenever that urge hit me. It was originally darker than this, but it ended up like this in the end. I am just glad it ended up as a completed novel.

I had trouble deciding what kind of magic to use, but I ended up focusing on weather and calendars this time. Do you all remember the Central and South American calendar that supposedly claimed the earth would be destroyed in the year 2012? First it was 1999, then it was 2012, and now they’re talking about when AIs will surpass humanity. Even if I make a living based on this, I’m still impressed with all the different things they manage to come up with. Anyway, the fact that I still remember it may be a sign that it struck a chord with me. But to get back on topic, all civilizations around the world have tried to accurately predict the weather and climate conditions, especially when it comes to preventing disasters, providing a stable food supply, and planning the courses for ships. Like it said in the book, priests and priestesses carry the special power to bring people together to form a civilization and I thought that would be a nice theme to go with.

With the collision of energies coming from outer space and from the Original Crystal Embryo in the center of the earth, I created a magic system based on occult high and low pressure systems that people have to learn to read in order to wield their power, similar to how people read the weather map to grow wheat, prevent flooding, and raise their sails. I initially thought it would make for a prettier image to compare it to an aurora, but I ended up unifying the magic rules with the weather forecast format. You can think of the weather lady as a Halloween witch and the isobars behind her as a magic circle. The Catastrophe never actually happened (on the first ship), but just as the name suggests, that event is all about overcoming disasters. I thought that and the unidentified Threat lurking beyond it would make for a decent goal for them. What did you think?

I see God-Worshiping Magic as being the people who can’t read the world’s atmospheric conditions and instead locally determine the weather using artificial rain.

In that sense, there is an absolute wall between Crystal Magic and God-Worshiping Magic, but the former contains possibility the latter lacks. That should be the easiest way to sum up the balance of power there.

That said, I thought it would make for too surreal a visual if they were waving around calendars and horoscope charts instead of magic wands, so I rearranged that into an electronic device. And exposed circuitry would not be very appealing, so I expanded the idea from silicon wafers to silicon and then to silicon lifeforms to arrive at Crystal Blossoms.

I seem to see a certain romance in the idea of silicon lifeforms since I used that as a main gimmick in Blood-Sign and then this too. Making the protagonist’s weapon an expressionless girl he can give commands to is probably another form of romance.

Crystal Blossoms and Aine. They are both luxuriously beautiful yet delicate and brittle. I tried to include plenty of contrasting elements there, but I will leave that for all of you to judge.

The overall theme was focused on the idea of “the strongest”. But in addition to having strongest characters go on a rampage, I also decided to focus on what being the strongest would mean. That should be most obvious in the second half of Chapter 4 and the Epilogue.

No one can be the strongest all on their own.

Either they follow the existing rules to become the strongest or they become the strongest and twist the rules to match them.

When God-Worshiping Magic was the strongest, its users created a world that was most comfortable for them. And some people were sacrificed for the continuation of that age and their prosperity.

But once Crystal Magic rises to the forefront, it will apply pressure to God-Worshiping Magic.

This might look like a standard revenge story at first, but I hope you also saw it as the story of one set of strongests being overwritten, devoured, and removed by another set. When you view the big picture, you should be able to see why the Problem Solvers acted so unreasonably at the beginning of the story.

And before Crystal Magic or even God-Worshiping Magic, this fruitless cycle has repeated again and again in this novel’s world. I think of it kind of like humans being thrown in the furnace and hammered in order to gradually strengthen their culture and civilization.

Then what does it mean to be the strongest?

And who benefits most from propping them up?

I created a setting where the novel’s world should open up quite a bit if you think about those questions.

Being the strongest requires being surrounded by a system that praises that power.

You can think of the strongest as being both the characters themselves and that which creates the necessary situation. I think the people who place them on those rails and urge them onward are much more frightening, but what about all of you?

And.

If you could destroy that surrounding system, wouldn’t that make you the true strongest?

I give my thanks to my illustrator Mika Pikazo-san and to my editors Miki-san, Anan-san, Nakajima-san, Yamamoto-san, and Mitera-san. Thank you for helping me with this new series! They were wearing school uniforms, but the Crystal Magic armor could not have made it easy. Sorry for all the trouble I put you through.

And I give my thanks to the readers. This was a series of merciless battles, but it was the interaction of the boy and the girls that supported that. I focused a lot on that alternating slowing down and speeding up of the pace, but how did you like it? The standard methods won’t work and winning does not necessarily give you what you wanted, but this was still the story of a group who kept fighting to the end. I hope you enjoyed it.

And I will end this here.

It’s fairly unusual for me to use a katana as a main weapon, isn’t it?

-Kamachi Kazuma

### 002. Epilogue

If he was being honest, Utagai Karuta had not really thought about life after completing his revenge against the Problem Solvers. Or more accurately, he had never really had a clear vision of actually pulling that off. He had assumed they would either be killed along the way, or complete their revenge, protect the tropical cave containing Kazamuki Gekiha and the others from discovery, and then be captured by government pursuit leading to either their execution or a simple assassination without a trial.

Also, he had lost a lot of blood after being stabbed in the side.

Crystal Magic could heal even the deepest wounds in 30 seconds as long as they were not fatal. However, he had scattered crystal fragments in London, Northern Europe, and America. It should have been about time someone tracked them down, surrounded them, and captured them.

But that was not what happened.

The world was apparently a lot more colorful than they had thought.

He woke up to find himself in what was obviously the finest medical facility of an advanced nation. The wound itself would have closed up thanks to his Crystal Magic, but the extreme exhaustion was a different matter. The blood transfusion was a huge help.

There were no bars on the windows and the door was sitting open.

This was not how an international terrorist would be treated.

Of course, they were not terrorists.

“Welcome, our new world’s strongests. That title has been granted to the three of you. Or the four of you, I suppose,” said a large man in sunglasses and a black suit who looked like he had stepped out of a movie. The nondescript outfit actually made it stand out like a uniform. “This information has yet to be released to avoid unnecessary confusion, but the official announcement should come soon once international public opinion has been properly gauged. The old age has ended and the next has arrived. Instead of the five Problem Solvers, it is you four Crystal Magicians who bear the title of world’s strongest.”

“…”

“Everyone is sure to look up to the four new world’s strongests and your Crystal Magic will surely spread across the world in record time. Mr. Utagai Karuta, we do not know how common your entirely independent version is. You may be the only one in the world or more and more might pop up all around you. If that does happen, you might see those pale girls accepted as your neighbors at school and in the office. The world will look like an entirely different place. Much like how the Problem Solvers were so popular on TV.”

“What are you trying to do?”

“Nothing at all. All we do is position ourselves with the world’s strongest and adjust to match the current age where they reign supreme. All so we can one day create an age where we must not tremble in fear of the Threat.”

“But that will cause problems for a lot of people, won’t it? I don’t know what country you’re an agent for, but a bunch of governments are going to collapse after this, right? In fact, some entire countries might collapse before the next government can rise up. The world was entirely reliant on the Problem Solvers, both for the morale boost they provided and for the physical infrastructure they created.”

“Perhaps so.” The man in black shrugged. “But what does that matter?”

“…”

Some feeling Karuta could not identify crawled along his spine as he lay in the bed.

“Garbage disposal, power, industry, food, and the military. The global infrastructure in those fields collapsing will indeed bring chaos, but the human race will return to its natural state. There will be some changes, but it will settle down with time. Complain though they will, people have no choice but to adjust to the new age.”

“Who-?”

“There were once many countries and many civilizations out there, but most of them fell. Nevertheless, humanity as a whole remains intact. Even now, as we are exposed to the Threat. So why must we try to stop the natural way of things at this point?”

“Who are you?”

“Who do you think I am?”

He was different from the still-unseen Threat and from the group of five centered around Anastasia Blast.

There was something stranger and nastier about him.

He supported the world’s strongest so he could use them to his own ends and reap the benefits.

He was a part of some deep, deep darkness.

“Please take good care of yourself, Mr. Utagai Karuta. We long for the new world you will bring us as the world’s strongest. We long for it more than anyone else.”

That was all the large man in black said before setting a fruit basket on the side table.

He said one last thing as he left.

“Oh, right. About Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah.”

“The Problem Solvers are gone, so are you going to announce what happened there too?”

“How can we tell the tale of the new world’s strongests if we do not? As those Crystal Blossoms spread across the world, we might just consider commissioning a second ship . Especially since your missing friends will one day reawaken. Of course, this is only if you wish for it.”

“How much do you people know?”

“About that lovely blue cave in Southeast Asia? Let’s just say that we probably know more than you do. Yes, you should probably ask Student Council President Omotesandou for details there. Those people should recover much sooner than you expect, so a second ship probably will be necessary to have a place for them. And to advertise your tale of bravery.”

With that, he looked back from the wide hospital room’s door.

The corners of his lips were curled into a smile below the sunglasses that hid his emotions.

“ Of course, any and all announcements will omit our involvement as they always do. ”

That was all.

Karuta could not chase after the man right now.

And he was supposed to be the world’s strongest?

Anastasia Blast’s dying words replayed in his mind.

“I am sorry about what happened at Grimnoah. We were scared.”

They were scared, but of what? He had initially assumed she meant the Threat or of Crystal Magicians like him getting in their way, but she may have been referring to something else entirely.

He clenched his teeth while connected to the medical devices around the bed, but then some familiar girls came to visit him.

One was his curly twintails childhood friend, Amaashi Marika.

The other was the Student Council President in a wheelchair, Omotesandou Kyouka.

Now that Utagai Karuta was with them, the new world’s strongests had been gathered.

“Hey, Karuta.”

“I’ve heard. We definitely had to defeat the Problem Solvers, but someone else out there set the stage for it all. And they must have been snickering to themselves while watching our school sink to the bottom of the ocean.”

“Are you saying what I think you are, Karuta-kun?”

“I am, Omotesandou-san. Our revenge isn’t over quite yet.”

That man had mentioned a second ship.

He had said they would need a place for Kazamuki Gekiha and the others who would wake up unexpectedly soon.

If they could provide that, they could also take it away.

If Karuta’s group were not the kind of strongests that group wanted, if they were not a beneficial kind of strongests, that group would switch over to a different group of strongests. And it was obvious what would happen to Karuta’s group once they were no longer needed.

What had happened to the Problem Solvers who had used God-Worshiping Magic as the world’s strongest?

He knew that better than anyone.

If Karuta’s group followed this path, they would eventually be made helpless and meet the same fate. Yet if they left this path without a goal in mind, only ruin awaited them.

The only way out required strength.

They needed much, much more strength if they were to arrive at a happy ending that no one had thought of before.

“Power up,” he muttered under his breath.

A pale girl crawled out from the stomach of his surgical gown.

That mysterious crystal girl was not found in any known mythology or religion.

“Unit ID Name: Aine – power up complete. What are your orders, Sacri-sama?”

He slowly inhaled and exhaled.

Their position would change from here on. They would begin their lives as rulers instead of challengers. That gave them a lot more freedom.

The Problem Solvers had once stood before them like an insurmountable wall.

He may have glimpsed a true evil that even those five had been helpless to resist.

So he spoke the powerful words that answered the question asked by the crystal girl who was quietly tilting her head awaiting orders.

“Our revenge continues, so come with me.”

They would remain running through the darkness instead of in the light.

The world’s strongest could easily be swept aside and thrown out, so they were not about to stop here.

### 003. Part 1

The smiling face on the TV vanished as the screen went black.

No one had hit the remote’s power button. They had instead thrown the remote and broken the LCD screen.

The crystal girl in a clear white dress slowly tilted her head in the cramped room.

“Sacri-sama?”

“I can’t stand it.”

“But the TV did nothing wrong.”

“I’m sorry.”

Karuta obediently bowed toward the silent TV, but it was too little too late.

Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah had been annihilated in a single day. The students and teachers were gone. How could that woman even talk about the Threat when she was destroying the world too?

Karuta had escaped the disaster with relatively minor injuries and Marika had injured both her legs during the escape but did not have to worry about any lasting effects. That was all thanks to the healing provided by Crystal Magic.

This was a tropical island nation relatively close to that equatorial region of sea.

The people on that island of junk spoke a mixture of languages including English, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, and Japanese. A cheap used RV was hidden in a small cave on its coast.

Their academy had possessed a 500m ship of a new era, all the latest Crystal Magic equipment, 700 specialists counting both the students and teachers, and even escort ships, but nothing remained of that former glory.

Karuta heard a squeaking similar to a rusty faucet being turned.

It came from the sexy girl with long black hair inside the same RV as him.

Her name was Omotesandou Kyouka.

She had been a Regulation 3 and the Student Council President, but no matter how many commands she sent from her printed circuit board, her Crystal Blossom would no longer produce armor for her. Nor could she pull out her Flamberge, a flame sword said to be more than twice her height. The bare minimum of communication was the most she could manage. She had been talented enough that it was rumored she could travel not just across the ocean and through the sky but between dimensions as well, but due to a serious wound to her back, she could no longer even get out of that wheelchair on her own.

What had happened during that hell?

As long as the wound was not fatal, if a Crystal Magician’s limbs were chopped off, the damaged portion would crystallize and a rapid healing process would begin. After about 30 seconds, the crystal shell would be destroyed and they would be as good as new. But Karuta had heard the process would not function properly if a piece of shrapnel or something was lodged in the body such that it obstructed the healing.

Marika had been lucky and he had been even luckier.

But the Student Council President did not bemoan her fate.

In fact, she was wise enough to understand she was lucky simply to have escaped that hell alive.

“We were shown just how powerless we are, but we still chose a vehicle as our base. Is that a sign of just how much that school has influenced us?”

She spoke thoughtfully while slowly stroking her fingers along the edge of the fold-up table. A few handmade experimental Crystal Magic tools and printed circuit boards smaller than stamps were lined up on the table, but they were really little more than a child’s summer project. Keeping a Crystal Blossom fresh was no easy task.

The salvaged textbooks and reference books had soaked up so much seawater that the pages stuck together even after being dried, but using the information there, they had manually input the commands necessary to recover a digital user’s manual for the Crystal Blossoms.

(Gekiha.)

One of the books they had found had that friend’s name written on the back in permanent ink.

The textbook was the one the boy used to share with Karuta when he forgot his own book back in his dorm room despite the dorm being on the same ship as the school. The book had a flipbook crudely scrawled along the corner of the pages. It was obvious the boy had put far more effort into drawing mustaches and glasses on the pictures of the scientists who made historic discoveries than he had on highlighting the sections that would be on the test.

It contained such private and even defenseless things inside it.

No one had expected this to happen.

“…”

They had also found some possible weapons: an extendable baton, a stun gun, pepper spray, and a military flashlight. But they had clearly hit rock bottom when Crystal Magicians were trying to gather weapons instead of using their Crystal Blossoms. If all was well, they would have been honing their occult skills instead.

Nevertheless, he had to say it.

Utagai Karuta did so while toying with the longish military flashlight.

“It’s too soon to look back on it all yet. We have to get back at them first.”

He quietly spoke Aine’s name.

The girl had been seated on the sofa bed’s armrest, so she tilted her head in response, causing her silver hair to sway and reflect a rainbow of light. That was her standard “awaiting orders” pose.

That mysterious crystal girl did not appear in any known mythology or religion.

She was the greatest weapon the boy had available to him.

He opened the RV’s door, Aine supported the wheelchair from behind, and they used the barrier-free electric ramp so all three of them could head outside.

The blue cave reflected the sunlight in odd ways and it looked something like the crash site of a passenger plane.

There were so many of them.

Hundreds of clear crystal statues were lined up in the cave. The broken arms and legs had been gathered up, they had been assembled like a puzzle as much as was possible, and their human silhouettes had been reclaimed.

But it was still not enough.

The braided girl he had seen in the infirmary had been whole, but it was still thought the cracks above her navel would take 550 years to heal.

He heard the splash of something parting the water’s surface.

Marika emerged from the warm ocean of that tropical cave while wearing a racing swimsuit and a leisure oxygen tank.

“Don’t bother with the next shift. The rest of the pieces are too small for human hands.”

“…”

Karuta glanced over at one of the crystal statues among those lining the cave.

That was Kazamuki Gekiha, his former classmate.

They had gathered as many of the broken parts as they could, but they estimated it would take 7000 years before the boy came back to life.

They could never speak to the boy again in their lifetime.

But it could have been worse. The people working on the escort ships had been normal people. For them, that ocean really had been a watery grave. They had no second chance.

Marika tossed aside the oxygen tank and Student Council President Kyouka spoke to her.

“Even with the nonhuman girl, there’s only four of us. …Do you really think we can win against those world-class Problem Solvers?”

“More than that, whatever our reasons might be, I get the feeling we’ll be seen as terrorists.”

The girls seemed to be testing the waters with their words.

It was obvious they were not serious about backing out.

“We have to do it.”

“Why?” “Because it wasn’t anything great about us that let us survive that,” honestly admitted Karuta. “If we had actually tried to face them, we would have died. If we had run away like normal, we also would have been killed. The only reason we’re still here is because someone else was killed in our place. We hid in the forest of students and took shelter behind the shields of teachers to escape with our lives. We shut out the voices begging for help or wishing for a quick death and focused only on our own survival!!”

That was a very ugly way of putting it.

In a peaceful country where war was but a distant memory, they might have been criticized for that.

But no one laughed. They had all gone through that hellish rite of passage.

The only glimmer of hope was that those people had been Crystal Magicians.

They were stuck in cold sleep for what felt like an eternity, but they did have a chance at reawakening one day.

But therein lay the problem.

“Once those Problem Solvers notice this, they’ll resume the search. They’ll act like agents of justice to gain allies around the world who will rat us out almost immediately and then this cave will be discovered in what amounts to a witch hunt. Once that happens, there’s no stopping them. If Gekiha and the others are shattered into dust, baked into tiles, and used to pave roads all over the world, it’s over. They’ll never regenerate after that.”

“…”

If they could not be killed, there were other options.

There were ways of leaving someone unable to die but also unable to ever recover.

Just like something was obstructing the Student Council President’s healing.

“So we can’t let that happen. We have until they find this cave. We need to hunt all five of them down to cut off pursuit. The world has gone insane, so we need to fix it. I’m willing to do whatever it takes because this is our duty after surviving that hell!!”

He could feel a flame burning in his heart.

This was no different from self-harm. He was only burning himself with his own fury.

But he could not let those five get away with this.

Gekiha had apologized in his final moments and said he had been stupid.

But that was wrong. What was foolish about getting angry when the adult who supported your worth was killed and when your entire world was ridiculed and destroyed before your eyes? But that decision had led to such a disastrous result. The correct choice had been twisted to the point that it looked stupid. Someone had to make them pay for that. And that someone had to be Karuta’s group here since they had managed to survive.

The Problem Solvers were in the wrong.

They would make sure those five admitted it themselves.

“It’s true that might not be the most popular choice in the world. For the other 5.5 billion people out there, your classmates and the rest of the school’s students are irrelevant. What you are considering might only spread chaos through the world. But you don’t need to face that shame alone.” The Student Council President spoke softly. “Because we too refuse to let those pieces of shit take anything more from us.”

“…”

Karuta wiped away the tears that had welled up from his anger.

It was time to briefly forget about Kazamuki Gekiha and his pleasant days in the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy.

He coldly looked to the future.

“Now, what information do we have on Elicia Luxverg?”

A blatantly artificial light joined the mysterious blue light covering the cave wall.

Crystal Girl Aine had pulled a projector out from the RV.

Once she had regathered her wet hair into curly twintails, Marika leaned against the side of the RV while the Student Council President operated a remote control. Instead of the broken TV, it belonged to the projector Aine had dragged out.

“That was a live broadcast, so we know she is in this city’s broadcast station.”

A general map of the city was the first thing displayed.

The red dot in the center would be the broadcast station.

A large circle was drawn around that dot and it extended well outside the city.

“There is a heliport at the broadcast station and there are plenty of ports and airports within a helicopter’s flight range. If the control towers leave her flights off of the maps like they do with a president’s personal plane, then we will have no way of tracing her. Well, civilian apps have apparently revealed the routes of such planes, but there is another problem.”

Marika guessed at what the Student Council President meant.

“Elicia plays a role in the global infrastructure, right?”

“Yes. The Problem Solvers have a great influence on the world as a whole, but Elicia’s influence is especially strong in Oceania and the surrounding ocean. In other words, this tropical region is her home turf.”

“Her share of the global infrastructure is the garbage disposal and recycling. That monster needs less than half an hour to completely break down a large passenger plane or tanker that would normally take years, right?”

“Yes. She seems to have more than 20 megafloat ‘resource bases’ on the seven seas so she can let that dinosaur of hers run wild. And each of them is larger than Manhattan.”

Elicia’s dinosaur had been small enough to fit inside the gym, so why did she need such large structures for it? The answer was obvious.

Without the buoyancy and stability provided by that size, the dinosaur could easily flip over the entire megafloat once it was unleashed.

“Those resource bases can travel the world’s oceans by letting several boats pull them along and they also function as airports, naval ports, and submarine bases. They will retrieve passenger planes, tankers, submarines, or anything else when it reaches its lifespan. If she arrives by plane and takes a sub to another airport on a nearby continent, tracking her will be nearly impossible.”

“So we have to do it here before she disappears,” said Utagai Karuta.

They were all staring at the red dot on the map: the broadcast station.

When the Student Council President hit a button on the remote, the cave wall was covered by all the data she had been able to gather on the location in question. She had likely gotten most of it from the internet. It included exterior images, the number and locations of entrances and exits, a list of the companies that had designed and constructed it, estimated locations of the cameras and sensors installed around the building, and even photos of the trucks used to ship in materials or cater lunches.

“How did you get all this?” asked Marika while drying off her racing swimsuit with a bath towel.

“Well, it is a TV station. A lot of information had already been gathered by people straddling the line between fan and stalker who want to lie in wait for someone outside or even make their way to a dressing room.”

Omotesandou Kyouka gave a bewitching smile.

She had not managed to acquire the official plans for the building, but she had acquired a set of estimated layouts assembled by “volunteers”. Not only was the layout estimated based on the exterior appearance and the number of columns, but it even included actual studio numbers, so some of the parties involved may have snuck in as part-timers or cleaners.

“Broadcast stations are one of the critical pieces of infrastructure mentioned as possible terrorist targets, right? Should all this info really be out there?”

“Yes, you never know when it could fall into the wrong hands. Like ours.”

Also, the broadcast station in question was an ultra-tall building that stood 200-stories above the ground.

It was surrounded by a jumbled assortment of prefab buildings and barracks, giving that wealthy district the look of a sundial with the broadcast station in the center.

This was the same as the giant ship that had been the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy.

The new materials and technologies created as side effects of Crystal Magic had created a tendency for buildings and vehicles to grow extremely bloated and large.

“The building doubles as the actual broadcast tower, doesn’t it?” Marika softly sighed. “Y’know, Southeast Asia isn’t where I would expect to find the world’s largest entertainment broadcast station.”

“The TV industry is all about fighting over a piece of the pie,” said Karuta. “When a major content creator establishes themselves, they apply pressure on everyone around them. The domination of Hollywood has forced the European film industry out of densely-populated China and India, so they have been wandering the world in search of their El Dorado where they can find hundreds of millions of people. That’s why everyone seems to want fancy broadcast equipment and stations just because ‘that’s what they do in the West’.”

“So just like tea plantations, it’s all about making money,” added the Student Council President. “In that case, the security must be pretty strict. I wouldn’t recommend charging straight in using Crystal Magic.”

“Agreed, Omotesandou-san. Besides, we can’t hope to defeat Elicia that way,” he spat out hatefully.

“Sacri-sama,” cut in Crystal Girl Aine. “If you wish to avoid a direct battle with Elicia Luxverg, couldn’t you wait until she boards a helicopter on the rooftop? They do not possess Crystal Blossoms and thus cannot fly, so shooting down their aircraft seems like the most effective method.”

The answer to that was simple enough.

“That would mean attacking the helicopter pilot as well. And unlike with a car driver, they would never survive.”

“?”

“Basically, we don’t want to get other people involved in this,” said Marika with a bitter smile. “Was that too complicated for you, Aine-chan?”

But just because they had to reject that idea did not mean it was worthless.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka smiled a little.

“But attacking her when she’s off the ground seems like a decent idea, don’t you think?”

“If we do attack her in the broadcast station, how do we avoid harming the other people around?”

“I want to avoid that, of course, but if you recall, that station is a crucial piece of infrastructure,” said Marika. “We can’t allow Elicia to escape, but if we intentionally trip an alarm after capturing her, I would hope everyone else would be evacuated.”

“Then leave that to me while the rest of you focus on the battle,” said Omotesandou Kyouka. “I might be in a wheelchair, but I can still be useful. I want to help protect everyone…and help get back at those five.”

“Um, what exactly will you be doing?” cautiously asked Marika.

“People will let their guard around someone who looks like this, don’t you think?” The Student Council President shrugged. “I can mess with the gas pipes around the station’s grounds to trigger an explosion. I will omit the details, but that is sure to put them on high alert. And if it gets the nearby tourists to escape, that’s all the better, right?”

It was far from a bad idea.

Karuta and Marika exchanged a glance and a nod.

“Trying to break into the main entrance while they’re on high alert would be ill advised.”

“But we are Crystal Magicians. We can sneak in through places normal people would never even consider.”

“Then let’s go with that.”

They had long worked together while training for the Catastrophe and that paid off here. They were thinking more or less the same thing.

“Then it’s time to really get down to business.”

“Elicia ‘Saurus’ Luxverg. How do we send that dinosaur woman to her grave?”

Several reports were displayed on the cave wall.

They had not taken any photos or recorded any data during that horrific tragedy. They had used those loathsome memories to draw out a diagram of the ships and written out what had happened back then in as much details as they could manage.

(Gekiha.)

They would not let any of those deaths go to waste.

They would find a solution here and complete their revenge.

“That monster was made from weapons, shields, and other junk and it was shaped like a 15m carnivorous dinosaur.”

The Problem Solvers were valuable to and influential within international society in a number of ways beyond combatting the Threat.

They used their great power as a foundation of global infrastructure.

“That might not be all she can do. For example, its size may have been scaled down to match the ceiling of the gym.”

Elicia helped with garbage disposal.

She was especially useful when it came to breaking down giant structures such as passenger planes and tankers.

“But even then, I doubt it’s more than 50m.”

That would be easy enough for her. No longer did hundreds of people need to spend six months or a year using blowtorches to dismantle an old rusty tanker. That dinosaur could do it in less than an hour…no, less than half an hour.

“How can you be so sure about its size?” asked Marika.

Karuta shrugged.

“From how deep the ocean is where that huge ship sank. If that dinosaur could grow to 100 or even 1000 meters, she wouldn’t have needed to summon it inside the ship at all. She could have had it stand on the bottom of the ocean and use its great maw to tear through the entire ship.”

In such a one-sided fight, it seemed unlikely she had been holding back or bluffing in case it came in handy later. Assuming she was not extremely cautious, Karuta’s reasoning was sound.

The Student Council President nodded in agreement.

“I wonder if it would count as being an entirely separate power like Aine-san,” said Omotesandou Kyouka.

Being compared to that woman in any way made his skin crawl, but he suppressed the personal feelings.

“But sending my Aine at her would not be enough. Her mass and power are simply too great.”

“Sacri-sama, if you wish to expand my functionality-”

“No relying on uncertain factors. That’s no different from hoping you can draw on some ‘hidden talent’.”

“But that’s the real problem.” Strawberry blonde Marika rubbed her chin. “That dinosaur isn’t stopping time or teleporting through space. Nor is it shooting beams from its eyes or breathing fire. It’s just overwhelming mass. It converts its weight into power and forces its way through. …There’s nothing clever there, yet no one can stop it. If we don’t find a solution to that, we don’t even have a starting point.”

White-haired Elicia must have been quite confident in her power.

Otherwise, she would not have killed the headmaster in front of everyone, stepped up onto the stage where she had almost no cover, and stood in front of nearly 700 people. She had practically been asking them to concentrate fire on her.

Crystal Magicians had the preset abilities of flight, barriers, and regeneration.

God-Worshiping Magic provided none of that, yet that strongest of the strong had instantly sent Karuta and the others to pandemonium despite their cutting-edge presets and skills.

“…”

“Omotesandou-san?”

“No, please continue. Something is bothering me about this. It’s right there on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t quite lay my finger on it.”

He was curious about the way Kyouka held a hand to her cheek, but he decided to focus on brainstorming ideas…or rather, listing off the problems and discussing them.

“Marika, not even your Crystal Blossom would work, right? Even your lasers and masers would have difficulty against a mass that large. It’s like the difference between a vehicle covered in bulletproof armor and a solid hunk of steel.”

“More than that, would destroying it even accomplish anything? It’s like a bunch of nails gathered together by a magnet, so wouldn’t it regenerate each time we damaged it? I mean, that dinosaur seems even less biological than Aine-chan.”

“Which leaves an endless hell as the only option.”

“Can’t we just blow away that old woman herself before the dinosaur even shows up?”

If a surprise attack were to succeed, that would indeed be best.

But there was a problem.

“We can’t plan for that,” said Karuta. “Not when we don’t know how the dinosaur is summoned or how long the summoning takes after the command is sent.”

“Yeah,” said Marika. “Let’s hope it isn’t inside her body and can be summoned in an instant like with Aine-chan.”

“We still need to have a plan for if the dinosaur is there in case the surprise attack fails.”

Pale-skinned Crystal Girl Aine tilted her head.

Her silver hair swayed as she spoke.

“So are you saying the dinosaur is big, it can freely change forms, it can be stored anywhere, it can be summoned in an instant, and it’s impossible to destroy?”

“Whoops!” said Marika. “This sounds pretty bad when you spell it all out like that!!”

“Then why did Elicia Luxverg step up onto the stage back then?”

Everyone turned to look at Aine.

She kept her head tilted as she continued.

“Sacri-sama and I have some similarities with Elicia and the dinosaur. I am a fully separate power made of the strongest armor, while Sacri-sama remains unguarded.”

“What’s your point?”

“In that case, stepping up onto the stage was meaningless.” Aine answered his question bluntly and directly. “The safest and most effective arrangement would have been for Elicia to never even board the ship. She could have released the dinosaur and watched the havoc from a safe distance. But that is not what she did.”

“Then Karuta must be right about the dinosaur’s max size being no greater than 50m. If she summoned it outside the ship, it would sink to the bottom of the ocean.”

“Even that does not explain why Elicia made a direct appearance. It would have been better to send the dinosaur into the gym alone while she sent instructions from some hidden location. And remaining on some separate ship throughout would have been the best option.”

“Um…then was it a matter of pride? Did she feel the need to actually stand on the stage and declare war on us?”

“Wait. Dinosaur woman wasn’t the only Problem Solver there. The ones behind that light spear and that giant sword were there too. Did they really all board the ship?” Utagai Karuta dug down to the crux of the issue. “If not and attacking from outside the ship was an option, then why did Elicia bother boarding? It wasn’t a matter of pride and she wouldn’t bother putting on a show for mere ‘bugs’. I mean, we know the other members weren’t on that stage.”

“So was there some logical reason like an issue of distance?” The Student Council President was muttering under her breath. “Can she not control the dinosaur if she is too far away? But…”

How far Karuta’s instructions could reach Aine was a crucial issue, so it may not have been wrong to assume distance was a restriction.

But besides that…

“Why did she step up onto the stage?”

If distance was the only issue, she could have hidden backstage or in a duct. They thought back to what Elicia had said so confidently back then. More than that, they reviewed every last movement she had made.

Yes.

Why had she stood in the most noticeable and thus must dangerous location?

“Or are we looking at this wrong? …Oh!”

Omotesandou Kyouka seemed to have realized something, but Marika and Aine still looked puzzled.

They could not let the impact of the scene distract them. They had to think back to the original position that woman had so wanted to stand in. Where had that dinosaur come from? What had it broken through? What did it mean for her to stand with her back to that? What position had been important enough to warrant facing 700 students and teachers?

Utagai Karuta directed his thoughts outward once more.

He looked the others in the eye and gave the answer.

“ Why did she want to stand with her back to the wall? ”

### 004. Part 1

A loud crash echoed through the RV.

Instead of switching off the TV, someone had thrown the remote and broke the LCD screen.

“Omotesandou-san.”

“Oh, dear. How thoughtless of me. Sorry if I made you jump. Hee hee hee.”

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka smiled in a way that showed she was not at all sorry about what she had done.

The weather forecast for the night had been way off.

Or rather, the weather forecast “during the solar eclipse”.

Utagai Karuta and Kyouka were alone in the RV. Amaashi Marika and Aine were out getting some food for them all. He doubted those two would screw anything up and they could probably force their way through any problems even if they did. Before the attack by the Problem Solvers, they had been Crystal Magicians preparing to battle the Threat that was indiscriminately erasing countries, regions, and cities around the world, so even with the bolstered security during the summit, the police would not be enough to restrain those two.

They were in London.

It would have been unbelievable before the introduction of Crystal Magic, but the new materials and technologies that had led to a ship as large as their school had also created passenger planes large enough for an RV to fit in the general cargo bay. Those colossal ferry planes were often compared to winged whales.

Of course, it was that large size that meant it took years to break them down by hand and led to the entire human race relying on Elicia’s dinosaur.

Those five were given free rein because no one wanted to question their comfortable lifestyle.

And Karuta had been the same right up until he had everything taken from him.

“So we’ve been living together for a week now. This is really dragging on, isn’t it?”

“Yes, I suppose.”

He was living with Marika, Kyouka, and Aine. This small space with no real partitions was filled with girls. He was focused on taking revenge on the world’s strongest, hiding the crystallized teachers and students in the tropical cave, and protecting them from the Problem Solvers, but without those exceedingly heavy topics, he would have been overwhelmed in a different way.

The Student Council President laughed quietly.

“Are you starting to see the real me through the cracks in the ideal vision you had of me? I just hope I haven’t disillusioned you.”

“I never really knew anything about you. You were too far beyond my reach.”

“My, my. I don’t like it when people build walls to separate us. I thought I had won the election with my promise to keep things casual and friendly with everyone.”

That might have worked in a normal school, but they had been learning Crystal Magic to fight the Threat which could entirely erase a metropolis of a million people overnight. The top of their hierarchy would be the future world’s strongest, so no one could just walk up and talk to them like it was nothing. Instead of being called a pervert and receiving a slap, the entire earth could be destroyed.

“Boo, boo,” said Kyouka while childishly puffing out her cheeks. “Ahh, ahh. I’d love to be friends with Karuta-kun and talk with him more, but how am I supposed to remove this imaginary wall between us?”

“What are you talking about now?”

“Perhaps we just need to get to know each other more intimately. Oh, I know. We could take a bath together.”

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

She laughed at the indescribable look on his face.

“I’m kidding.”

“I should hope so.”

“But I am feeling sweaty, so I’d like a shower. Karuta-kun, can you help me?”

“Wait, were you kidding or not!?”

That said, he had no choice but to help her here. The RV had been customized in a number of ways, but it was not entirely barrier free.

It was a high-grade vehicle with beds, a sofa, a stove, a fridge, a microwave, a washer, and a dryer, but the bath was not up to the standards a Japanese person was used to. To save space, it only had a shower contained in a stall no larger than a phonebooth. There was no actual tub.

After pushing her wheelchair over to the shower, it was time to get to work. He needed to place his hands on her back and behind her knees and lift her into the shower room. That princess style was not strictly necessary, but when he had lifted her over his shoulder like a sack of rice on the first day, she had refused to speak to him for about half a day. That was apparently also called bandit style.

“Heh heh. I got Karuta-kun to princess carry me.”

“…”

He tried to empty his mind so he did not focus on the softness and warmth in his hands or the scent of her hair while he gently placed her butt down on the small floor of the phonebooth-sized space. She was still wearing her uniform at this point, but he could not help her change. She was not like a certain idiot who was willing to sleep in the nude with only a single sheet covering her.

“Okay, Karuta-kun, bring me a change of clothes.”

“Sure, sure.”

“And if I scream, come rescue me. I will leave the door unlocked.”

“I really don’t think you can drown on the floor here.”

“Just do it.”

She shut the door that folded up to the side to save space. Digging through a girl’s possessions was embarrassing, but she had given him permission and she needed a change of clothes or she would be stuck in there naked.

(This one is her bag, right?)

Given the limited space of the RV, they each only had a single sports bag of personal possessions. Kyouka had a sexy and mature appearance, but her bag had a cute pastel color design.

The neatly underwear neatly folded up within came in a lot of surprisingly colorful varieties.

“…”

Clear your mind, clear your mind!! he told himself.

He moved aside the thick metal detachable disk drives at the top of the bag and reached for the items he needed.

(She wants something to sleep in, so that means a large dress shirt and underwear. Um, this should work. The top and bottom should have matching colors, right?)

“This is to sleep in, so I don’t need a bra.”

He jumped and looked back.

His upperclassman’s teasing voice reached him from the shower room.

“They’re big in a number of ways, so they make it hard to sleep in a number of ways.”

Her words were making him feel things in a number of ways, but the bigger problem was how the foldable door was sitting partially open. A hand stuck out from there and dropped a blazer, a blouse, a pleated skirt, and finally some stripped-off underwear.

“Wait, um, Omotesandou-san!?”

“I am about to take a shower. If I left them in here, they would get soaked.”

She was absolutely right, but she was also absolutely teasing him.

With some laughter a little too mature to call impish, her hand pulled back inside and the door pulled all the way shut. Finally, he heard the gentle sound of running water.

Utagai Karuta focused even harder on clearing his mind.

Ahh, ahh. That sexy Student Council President is in that phonebooth-sized shower room, her beautiful butt must be seated on the floor since she can’t stand up, and is she holding the shower hose in one hand to wash herself off? Is that warm water flowing down her hair and dripping down the contours of her body!? Is it, is it, is it!?

A minor big bang was occurring in his brain.

And then he heard her voice from beyond the foldable door.

“Kyah!”

“?”

“Kyah, Karuta-kuuun!”

“…”

“Hold on. Didn’t you promise to come save me if I screamed?”

“Yeah, but that was way too fake!!”

“Just get over-…hyahn!? (Thud!)”

“Huh? Omotesandou-san? What was that?”

“Bubble, bubble, bubble, gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.”

“Geh, are you for real!?”

She could not have stepped on the soap and slipped since she was seated, so had she sat her big butt on it and slipped that way? Talk about a miracle. He decided he wanted to be reborn as a bar of soap in the next life. However, life-threatening crises were not always some big dramatic thing. People could drown even in a puddle.

That was why he rushed over and reached for the shower room door.

“We’re back! We bought the brands of oil and powder you asked for. Everything’s a real mess with the collapse in the first-generation resource markets for iron and aluminum, though. And man, the food situation in England can only be described as yikes. I just about fainted checking out the supermarket.”

“It turns out London has a Japanese confection store. Their gold powder monaka was the best.”

The two girls returned with the best timing imaginable.

“Hee hee.”

And the wet-haired, mischievous, and laughing girl curled up on the bathroom floor was not helping matters.

The resultant chemical reaction was more explosive than a thermobaric weapon.

The record for the world’s most dangerous mixture was broken on that day.

### 005. Part 1

The LCD TV went silent in the middle of the news.

No one had hit the power button on the remote. Amaashi Marika, a girl with twintails dyed a bright strawberry blonde, had thrown the remote at the screen.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka smiled softly.

“Marika-san.”

“Oh, sorry. That just pissed me off way too much is all.”

Marika pouted her lips, but she did actually bow her head.

They had taken their RV out of England and to the fellow European nation of Germany. They had a simple reason for that: two of the Problem Solvers had been killed during the G21 summit. The country was bound to be locked down while a largescale search began. Britain was an island nation, so it could be locked down more tightly than other nations. Once the circle closed around them, there would be no escape.

But why had it not been locked down immediately? They could guess the higher ups decided not to explain to the normal police what had happened because they feared the chaos and panic if word of what happened got out.

Either way, they had needed to escape while they still could.

Marika glanced over at the dead TV.

“How long are we going to be able to watch TV like this?”

“Yes, defeating Yukino caused the Sunny Side Up network to break apart in earth’s gravity, didn’t it?” said Kyouka. “The system was not 100% reliant on that, but losing a major source puts pressure on everything else.”

“Yeah, I hear the houses that run on solar power are having the solar panels stolen from their roofs now. It might not be long before people start stealing car batteries.”

Yukino’s defeat had destabilized the world’s power supply. The governments that had been using her for general power were scrambling to get their old power stations running at full capacity again, but that would leave the government supercomputers and particle accelerators without power.

Those were used to develop new drugs for incurable diseases.

Or so it was claimed to secure the budget to keep them running.

If they stopped, it was sure to cause various problems.

Utagai Karuta blankly listened to them from the sofa while losing himself in thought. Their revenge had reduced the number of Problem Solvers, which in turn increased the fury of the Threat. Quite a few countries, regions, or cities had entirely disappeared overnight this month alone and many unrelated people had met an unfortunate end.

Everyone talked about it like they were blaming Karuta’s group.

It was almost like the Problem Solvers were intentionally holding back to increase the damage done so they could place the blame on them.

But Karuta also had another thought.

“Does the Threat even exist at all?”

That was a fundamental question.

He had started to wonder back in London. Yukino Arakawa had tried to escape responsibility for mass murder by shoving the blame onto the Threat. What if they had done that over and over in the past? The Threat might exist or it might not, but someone was clearly taking advantage of the situation.

The Threat was beginning to function as a means of manipulating public opinion through fear and confusion and as a veil to cover up inconvenient truths.

That thought painted the previous news report in a different light.

Search out the villains who are attacking the Problem Solvers. The world needs to come together and hunt them down.

If the Problem Solvers had really destroyed several cities just for that, then they had brought their villainy to a whole new level. But at the same time, he could not help but note that the people who had destroyed their giant ship of a school could easily pull it off.

Not only did they have the ability, but they also had the lack of scruples.

“Anyway.” The Student Council President clapped her hands together in front of her large chest. “The dinosaur, the light spear, and the giant sword. We’ve taken out half of the Problem Solvers now, but you could say the real challenge is yet to come. You know why that is, don’t you?”

Crystal Girl Aine shook her rainbow-glowing silver hair, fluttered her transparent white dress, and quietly tilted her head in a corner of the RV.

Karuta sighed and refocused his mind.

“Unlike those three, we have no records of the other two fighting. We’ve defeated all the ones we saw use their God-Worshiping Magic at our school.”

“Yes. Our experience and data allowed us to put together a detailed plan and that made all the difference. The Problem Solvers are the world’s strongest and now we will be forced to go in blind and adlib our way through it.”

“By the way, Sacri-sama, is it possible the Problem Solvers not seen at your school did not actually participate in that battle?”

Aine seemed to be speaking on behalf of Karuta’s reluctance to kill, but it was him who rejected the idea.

“We know the dinosaur was on the ship and the light spear and giant sword most likely attacked from outside, so that means there was at least one more of them there: the woman who laughed over the ship’s speakers. This is only a guess and we can’t rely on it too much, but if four of them were a part of it, it seems unlikely just the one sat it out.”

There was no real cloud on Marika or Kyouka’s faces.

It felt wrong to consider the possibility that one of the Problem Solvers was actually a good person. They could not imagine it even as a hypothetical.

“But to be honest, going in blind is not going to be easy,” spat out his curly twintails childhood friend with a bitter look on her face. “What kind of attack do they use, how powerful is it, what’s its range, how often can they use it, etc. And beyond that, without knowing their name or where they live, we can’t fight them or even approach them. An intuition-based game of concentration using all 5.5 billion people on the planet doesn’t sound very promising.”

“We do have something to go on there,” said the Student Council President as she smiled and pulled something from the chest of her blazer.

It was a card-sized electronic device.

“The light spear woman was obliterated, but the giant sword one remained a little more intact, so I swiped her phone. And I made sure to modify it so not even the owner would be able to track it. …And by ‘modify’, I mean I checked the device’s plans and drove a nail through the transmission chip.”

“Are you saying that might tell us the location of a Problem Solvers base or personal information on the other members?”

“It’s worth looking into, don’t you think?”

### 006. Part 1

The flat-screen TV fell silent once more.

Crystal Girl Aine had thrown the remote at it to see how her reattached arm was doing.

“Hey! Aine!!”

“If it is broken, you do not mind if I dismantle it and extract the gold from the circuit boards, do you? That would be a much more efficient use for it.”

Aine showed no sign of guilt and instead made a strange suggestion while on the verge of drooling.

They had driven the RV from Northern Europe’s Finland to a rural Russian city to hide out. The news was more or less the same wherever they went. The only difference was the language being used.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka sighed.

“It feels like we are finally at home with being the villains.”

“They keep telling everyone to remain calm, but the scripts they read are clearly trying to get everyone worked up. In fact, they’re treating us like some kind of cryptid. Not that being seen as a terrorist would be much better,” said strawberry blonde Amaashi Marika while pouting her lips.

The Threat did not matter here.

Whether it existed or not, the governments had definitely used information concerning it to stir up anxiety and confusion among the people and manipulate public opinion to their liking.

No one trusted Anastasia, the final Problem Solver any longer.

It was doubtful she would simply return to guarding the space elevator.

The heads of state had to be at a complete loss now that they could not contact her. They wanted to make a comment through the Problem Solvers. They could not stir up anxiety and confusion and they had lost their means of controlling public opinion. Now that the ordinary people had regained their calm, they had to be erupting with the appropriate emotions toward those heads of state who had sat around having the Problem Solvers handle everything. At this rate, a few governments might even collapse. If the timing matched well enough to appear simultaneous, coordination within international society could be lost.

Right now, the enemy before their eyes mattered more than the Threat that they had no information on.

But this was still chaos and some might lament that needless chaos. Entire cities or nations might oppose it.

Nevertheless, Utagai Karuta’s group could not stop now. With even one Problem Solver remaining, the tropical cave containing the 700 Crystal Magicians could be found and they could all be left unable to regenerate which seemed like a fate worse than death. Even if they could never speak with those 700 again and even if there was a seemingly infinite expanse of time separating them, they could not let any further danger reach Kazamuki Gekiha and the others. They had defeated four Problem Solvers, but they would still lose everything if they gave up now. They could not save anyone’s life if they did not see this revenge through to the end. Not even a single life.

“So what do we know about the last one?” asked Karuta while looking up from the sofa.

“Discussing Anastasia Blast requires discussing what we recovered from Susannia Evans.”

“Huh?” Curly twintails Marika tilted her head while playing rock-paper-scissors with Aine. “I don’t remember finding her car or snowmobile or something.”

“Oh, dear. Did you forget?” The Student Council President gave a bewitching smile while turning toward the girl helping the crystal girl test out her arm. “We managed to collect something very important indeed: the cyborg parts stuffed inside her gut. They were scattered all around that crater, weren’t they?”

“Oh.”

“With products that specialized, neither the hardware nor the software will be found for sale on the general market and only a select few places will be able to produce them from a technological standpoint. So they can lead us to a hideout that the Problem Solvers fully trusted. And investigating the data on the control circuit boards was enough to see some rather distinctive signs.”

Kyouka shut off the room’s lights and operated the projector’s remote.

A red mark appeared at one point on the world map she displayed on the wall.

In other words…

“Silicon Valley in the United States of America. After they reorganized to handle everything from social media to drone factories, the city’s scenery has changed to become something like a strange precision industry district. One good example is the precision electronic weapons plant owned by Smart Arms, one of the world’s largest international arms companies. That is the most suspicious place. The supply of power and now food has been destabilized, but that money drain continues to run with a staff of around ten thousand and without using the giant sword woman’s factory☆”

Karuta just about asked how she could act so unconcerned when they were the ones that caused it, but perhaps he was too soft since he had yet to actually kill anyone.

“I wonder if arms production was one thing the all-purpose factory would not do.”

“But, Omotesandou-san, that’s the place that supplied Susannia with her parts, so why would we find Anastasia there?” cautiously asked Karuta.

“There is no guarantee, of course,” agreed Kyouka in the darkness. “But what if the online flow of money proves the factory has maintained an unnatural level of security even after Susannia went missing? This is the downside of relying entirely on an outside PMC to avoid military oversight as much as possible. We know someone other than the original owner is hiding out there, and who is the most likely suspect?”

“I suppose another Problem Solver would have an easy time slipping right in there. Plus, Anastasia is in charge of the military infrastructure and her share of the global business is in North America. This would have been the perfect fit for her.”

“Yes, very well done, Karuta-kun. You get a gold star from me.”

Of course, this could always be a trap.

The flow of data could have been faked to draw out Karuta’s group. Just like how the log cabin in Finland had been used.

Marika frowned.

“Arms corporations do business with entire countries, right? If Anastasia is hiding out there, wouldn’t the head of the company report it? Y’know, to the US President or someone.”

“Someone may be weighing their options. After all, this is the last remaining Problem Solver and no fighting force is rarer. The company might want that last member to be indebted to them or the White House may secretly want Anastasia all to themselves.”

This talk of the US President and the White House had no real basis to it, of course. Karuta spoke up while making sure not to let cowardly speculation bind their actions.

“Also, Anastasia is in charge of the global military infrastructure. I don’t know what exactly she does, but her presence is key to the jigsaw puzzle made from the national borders on the world map. Any country would want to control her if they could.”

“There is no way to know where word of her presence is being stopped, but this factory is still fishy. Of course, that means it is also extremely dangerous.”

That said.

Even so.

“Nothing will change if we don’t go there, huh?”

“Even if it is bait or a diversion, we might find another hint based on who gave the order and through what channels.”

The Student Council President pressed a button on the projector remote to display a photo of Anastasia Blast.

She was a sexy woman with long, wavy blonde hair.

They of course wanted as much information on her as they could get before fighting her, but there was unfortunately nothing else to display here.

“Just like with Susannia, she does not make public appearances. We took out Elicia in a surprise attack while she was out on her own, but they were waiting as a group at the London summit and Susannia had set a trap in Finland to kill us. …And yet Anastasia did not make an appearance at either of those.”

“So she’s either very cautious or a coward.”

That was an odd thing to say about a Problem Solver, but some people were both cowardly and powerful. Those people would go nuts and use everything at their disposal to crush even a small honeybee approaching them. That panic could create an opening, but they also never let their guard down or compromised. If someone like that had the power of the world’s strongest, they could be even more dangerous than someone who calmly worked out the optimal solution to their problems.

And what if that person directly controlled the world’s military infrastructure?

“We’re going in blind against the strongest again,” bitterly stated Marika while playing with Aine.

They had initially thought Susannia Evans’s God-Worshiping Magic was about mechanization when it was really about regeneration. If a misreading like that led them to make a misstep here, they could be wiped out. It was only natural to want to avoid returning to such a nerve-racking situation.

“But we can’t come to a stop, can we?”

“No,” agreed Karuta with a shake of his head. “We have to end this here.”

### 007. Part 10

“I think you screwed this one up,” said another one of the Problem Solvers over the phone.

Yukino Arakawa calmly responded from atop the building rooftop.

“What makes you think that?”

“You had to destroy London? Sure, these things happen. But there’s a G21 summit being held here and some of the people in attendance will know about the God-Worshipping Magic we use. They’ll know who did this and you won’t be able to pass this off as the work of the Threat.”

“Hee hee. Don’t you worry.” She laughed and tapped the bottom of her staff against the rooftop below her feet. “Once I am done, I will raze this building as well. I just have to eradicate anyone who knows the truth of the Threat and the Problem Solvers, right?”

“We’re talking about multiple heads of state here.”

“Why would that matter? More importantly, have you managed to contact Anastasia? I cannot blame this all on the Threat without her approval.”

“Well, I’m willing to bet she’ll go along with this. She wouldn’t want the framework of the Problem Solvers to fall apart over something this stupid.”

“Is that so? In that case…”

“But.”

“?”

“It looks like you were a little too slow.”

The voice speaking over her phone sounded disappointed.

Yukino felt a chill down her spine and attempted to analyze why that was, but it was too late.

She turned around to find a boy in a supposedly eradicated purple blazer standing on the same roof as her.

“…”

He said nothing.

His shoulders rose and fell as he caught his breath, he held a military flashlight that looked plenty heavy to use as a blunt weapon, and he slowly – very slowly – walked toward her.

Yukino Arakawa’s cheeks tensed somewhat.

Once he was this close, she could no longer use her light spears. They were so powerful she would destroy herself in the blast too.

This was checkmate.

Even if she did not like the result, the time for games had ended.

So with staff in hand, she spread her hands toward the approaching boy. Almost like she wanted to say they should abandon their plans for a picnic and head home early since it was raining.

She made a suggestion with a truly reluctant smile.

“Okay, I surrender. You win.”

She sounded like someone throwing their cards on the table because they ended up one card short of a winning hand.

She sounded like she was only going to lose a few stacks of chips.

“Let’s end this here. This is a fairly good deal for you too. I am one of the Problem Solvers, so I have a lot of pull with the world’s governments and I can get all of your past crimes wiped from the record. You’ll be pardoned! Yes, pardoned for everything! You can return to ordinary society without worrying about a thing! Wow, isn’t that incredible!? You can get off scot free, you lucky devil☆”

“…”

The boy did not respond.

He had not spoken a single word since arriving.

“And as a special bonus, we will stop pursuing you. I promise and swear it. I mean, you were looking for a way out after starting this and getting in way over your head, weren’t you? You were stuck on the path you had set for yourself. I mean, how long were you going to keep doing this revenge stuff? Did you really think you could keep getting away with it? It’s important to know when to quit while you’re ahead and the last train is about to leave as far as that is concerned. I have your ticket right here. I’m compromising quite a bit here, so you should really be thank- blwehhh !?”

Something exploded in her nose.

By the time she realized he had smashed the soft cartilage with a full swing of the military flashlight, she was already rolling along the rooftop.

The fiery pain caused her to let go of the staff and hold her face with both hands. She felt something sticky and a warm liquid dripped from between her fingers. An iron flavor spread through her mouth.

Her eyes opened as wide as they would go and she crawled on all fours while trying to figure out what was happening while her mind went blank with confusion.

Then scorching rage exploded in her mind.

“Y-y-you!? You hit a woman in the fa- gwelgh !!!!!!”

He did not speak a word.

Not a single one.

Instead, he swung down a second blow. This time to her jaw. Or was it her cheek? All she knew was that she felt a bone in her face breaking, her teeth no longer fit together right in her mouth, and her face’s skin felt unnaturally stretched. Now she really sensed danger. She knew she was in trouble. This boy had shut down all attempt at communication. He was not treating her like a fellow human being. He looked down on her with cold eyes like she was no more than an insect as he determined where to hit her next and then mercilessly swung down that heavy flashlight.

“Wait, no-”

A storm of blows awaited her. She did not even have time to think about standing up. She curled up, protected her head with her hands, and simply endured it the best she could. Her anger at this unreasonable situation was ultimately overwritten by the fear of having her understanding of the world no longer apply. Her body was enveloped by a feeling closer to heat than pain as she incessantly repeated the same word in her heart.

Why?

Why, why, why?

It’s wrong to hit a woman in the face. And it’s definitely wrong to use a blunt weapon to do it.

Yes.

All I did was unilaterally attack a useless school, slaughter all the teachers and students, and use my power as one of the Problem Solvers without bothering to listen to any of their screams or cries for mercy. That was a mere 700 people. Not that I actually counted. The escort ships? What, they count too??? Then that’s even more reason I can’t be blamed for missing one. Why does this have to happen to me just becomes one of them survived!?

“Ah, ahhhh, ahhhhhhhhhh.”

There was one thing here Yukino Arakawa did not realize.

And since she had never once lost – at least to another human being – that was hardly surprising.

The Problem Solvers always won crushing victories in any conflicts between humans. Her opponents had always grown utterly fed up with war, so when she brought up the possibility of a ceasefire or making peace, they would jump at the chance and accept even the worst terms. Yukino saw war as something she could switch off as easily as a lightbulb. She was always the one that decided when it ended.

But not this time.

This was entirely different.

This was a quagmire of a battle that would never end once it had begun. It would continue until one side or the other was dead and there was no room for compromise or negotiation.

She had never experienced this since victory was always assured for her.

And that had led her to push the snowball down the hill without realizing what it would mean.

So…

“…”

Every last part of her mind was trapped in a vortex of pain she had never before experienced and in the fear that she might lose.

She was fundamentally different from this boy whose loss was all but guaranteed but would try to tear out his enemy’s windpipe with his teeth even if his arms and legs had all shattered.

She could keep moving, yet she stopped.

While battered, bruised, and curled up in the fetal position, all she did was tremble. The purple blazer boy grabbed her black hair and mercilessly yanked her head up. He looked her in the eye and crouched down to speak.

“Work with me. Tell me everything you know about the Problem Solvers, about why you attacked our school, and about the Threat!! I have no reason not to kill you, so if you don’t want to die, you’ll have to give me a reason yourself! Got that!?”

It was like a switch had been thrown.

Suddenly – truly suddenly – a lightbulb went off in Yukino Arakawa’s head.

This boy did not want to kill her. He was inspiring so much fear and dispensing so much violence and he had driven her a step away from death, yet he was acting like he had done nothing wrong. She could tell from the look in his eyes that he did not actually want to do this. He did not want to take revenge. He was using the Problem Solvers’ actions as an excuse to fight and playing the victim to take the next step guilt free.

Was she going to lose to this?

Was she going to let him use her to have his happily ever after?

Before she had even taking this fight seriously?

When she still had not just her teeth but her arms and legs too???

Something ignited deep in her gut.

“!!”

She reached out a battered hand and grabbed her giant staff that was lying nearby. The blazer boy immediately tried to grab her wrist, but it was too late. And this was not a tool used to hit people.

“To hell with that. To hell with all of that, you garbage heap!! Don’t act so smug just because you briefly delayed getting fried! If you want to be blasted that badly, then today’s your lucky dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

“Wait, you idiot! You’ll hit yourself too!”

“I don’t give a crap! Blowing myself up with my own attack is a hundred times better than losing to some asshole acting like he’s some blameless victim!!!!!!”

He tried to steal away the staff but gave up on that and collapsed away from her instead.

“I beseech thee, Lugh, Celtic God of Light!!”

While sprawled out on the rooftop, Yukino Arakawa saw a point of glittering light in the night sky.

And a moment later, a light spear capable of slicing through an escort ship vaporized its own wielder.

### 008. Part 10

A loud splashing sound echoed from the lake filled with thick broken ice.

Karuta, Marika, and Aine were watching the source of the sound.

Karuta spoke while viewing the spreading ripples.

“How’s your arm, Aine?”

“Fine, Sacri-sama. This is not a problem. I have collected the severed arm, so it will automatically reattach once I return to your body. I will have to look after the Crystal Blossom at your chest during that time, though.”

“Come to think of it, our armor does recover from any damage when we have it withdraw,” said Marika. “Although it does seem like we’re breaking the law of conservation of mass when we do it.”

Then this was not a problem.

Only one Problem Solver remained: Anastasia Blast. But those Problem Solvers were all the strongest of some field. He definitely wanted to be in top form before attempting that final battle.

Also, Aine had lost her arm after shoving Marika out of the way on his orders. He would have felt bad if the damage was permanent.

Then a transmission from Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka arrived via their Crystal Blossoms.

“Karuta-kuuun, Marika-chaaan? All the bangs and booms seem to have stopped, so has everything ended safely?”

“Yes, only Anastasia remains now.”

“Then I hate to ask this of you now, but can you help me out?”

“?”

“The previous avalanche completely buried the RV, so I’m kind of trapped inside. Now, it is large enough to have plenty of oxygen and I have enough of food and water to last a while, but being buried alive is not exactly great from a mental health perspective.”

Karuta and Marika exchanged a glance.

Then they looked around them again. The road and the forest had vanished below the white, so judging distance had become incredibly difficult. It felt like everything had been buried and the entire terrain had changed.

“Where did we park the RV?” he asked.

“I thought you would remember! Was there no landmark or anything!? And how many degrees below zero is it out here? I really don’t want to be stranded outside!!”

One-armed Aine did not seem to feel any pain as she slowly tilted her head.

The three of them turned their back on the lake – on the secret base someone had built – and got to work digging the Student Council President and the RV out of the pure white.

They had no more interest in the lake.

Or in what had sunk into its depths.

Utagai Karuta felt a strange smile rising within him when he found himself more worried about the doll’s missing arm than in the clump of mortar stuffed with what had once been the human being named Susannia Evans.

Was that because this instance of revenge had not required an actual death?

Or was he getting used to it, growing corrupted, and crossing the point of no return?

Not even he knew the answer to that question.

### Between the Lines 3

She wanted to change.

It could be a good person, a bad person, a rich person, a poor person, a popular person, or a hated person for all she cared.

She simply wanted to become someone other than who she was here and now.

That was all.

That was Susannia Evans’s one and only desire.

She had intentionally turned away from the colors she liked and made frequent and wild changes in her hair and fashion choices. She had even tried plastic surgery on several occasions. She had also attended seminars that claimed they would change your personality.

She had changed herself inside and out, but none of it had satisfied her.

There was a hole inside her she wanted to erase, but it had remained with her to the very end.

“I am sorry.”

Her shadow changed shape.

The tearful and gloomy woman it formed did nothing but apologized without end.

“I am sorry, I am so very sorry. And all because I needed your help.”

She was Persephone, Greek God of Death.

She had technically been the goddess of spring, but she had gained that new attribute after Hades, Ruler of the Underworld, had taken her away. After spending too long in the underworld while also possessing the breath of spring, she had gained the ultimate regeneration that surpassed even Crystal Magic.

It was the worst possible curse for Susannia who wanted nothing more than to change or be changed.

If she received plastic surgery or even burned or sliced up her face, it would always return to normal, so she could never ever escape being “herself”. No matter how hard she tried to distance herself from it, she would be dragged right back to it like she was wearing a collar with a rubber band attached.

She had felt resentment.

She had half cursed it.

But none of it had been directed at her constantly crying shadow. Persephone was a deity who had always been toyed with by fate, so Susannia’s anger was directed at the fate that continued to torment her so.

“Don’t worry. It doesn’t really matter.”

“…? What do you mean???”

“There is still hope. I actually have high hopes for that Crystal Magic and Grimnoah.”

“You mustn’t interact with the enemy. Building any kind of emotional attachment will only lead to suffering down the road.”

“I don’t mean it like that.” Susannia smiled a little. “It isn’t on my level, but Crystal Magic has an excellent healing and regeneration power, right? And there are hundreds of them. …The error rate might be higher for them, so they might happen across some environment or circumstances where the healing or regeneration doesn’t work. Wouldn’t that be some must-have data? Then I can be freed from this rubber band of regeneration and finally escape being ‘me’. Nee hee hee.”

“I am so sorry. What I most want is for you to stop hurting yourself. I am so sorry. And I am supposed to be the one supporting you.”

“Hey, it’s fine,” said the woman without even a pause. But instead of being dismissive, it sounded like this was something so obvious to her it did not require any time to think. “This difference in opinion only happened because you’re still worried for me after so long, and that does make me happy, you know? No matter what end result it might lead to.”

Susannia and Persephone observed the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy from the outside until they finally arrived at a certain conclusion.

With an excellent regenerative ability, removing foreign objects from the body became difficult.

Especially toxins.

Something as simple as preventing bleeding did not allow the toxins out of the body. The system meant to repair their body would run in vain until their stomach and blood vessels were properly cleaned out, so they would end up in a repeating loop of needless crystallizations across their body.

For Crystal Magicians, it was hard to tell how much of a substance would be helpful versus harmful, so they apparently had to be very careful when taking medicines.

But what if you took that in the opposite direction?

Susannia only had to drive a wedge into her own body. If she could fill her body with artificial objects, machines, and components to intentionally trigger metal poisoning and rejection, her loathsome regeneration would be unable to keep up. She would make it spin its wheels so much it could not handle larger changes such as plastic surgery.

Susannia smiled and bowed in prayer toward her shadow that was still sobbing.

“Thank you.”

And she addressed her nemeses who had also reminded her what it meant to be alive.

“Thank you so much, Grimnoah.”

### 009. Part 11

Pain exploded from his body like he had been sprayed with boiling water.

“Ah, ahhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

He could tell his body was covered with distorted crystals.

His weak barrier was no use at all. He rolled and writhed on the roof. He forced himself to think of the pain as a good thing since it meant he was still alive. This pain was caused by vaporized Yukino Arakawa. He had been burned by the steam that had been her flesh.

More than half his body was covered by pointy crystals.

He was hit by the stench of human flesh being cooked.

Yukino’s last form of resistance clung to him with a feeling like melted cheese. He desperately tried to tear it away, but his dominant hand’s elbow and shoulder would not move. They were completely locked by the crystals.

He could only wait until the preset effect had healed his full-body burns. An intense feeling of disgust caused the core of his body to stir like an active volcano, but forcing himself to move during the healing process would be like opening a chrysalis or cocoon from the outside. If he carelessly ruptured it, he might never return to normal again.

He moved just his left arm as much as he could to wipe off his face and body and rid himself of the source of the pain.

It felt like being bitten by the corpse of the person he thought he had killed.

After thirty seconds, the crystals that provided him new skin fell away.

“Pant, pant, gasp.”

He rolled over, tried to catch his breath, and rubbed his eyes.

It happened again.

They had died again. They had disappeared before his eyes. Yukino had chosen death herself instead of one of his partners dirtying their hands, but the death still stung in his heart.

At any rate, this was two down.

The danger of the light spear was gone too. The people of London no longer had to suffer and the city would not be wiped off the map to cover up the evidence.

“Hey.”

A girl’s voice reached his ears while he thought about all that.

It belonged to Marika, his childhood friend with the curly twintails dyed strawberry blonde. She had activated her Crystal Blossom unit and descended onto the rooftop from the night sky.

“Were you trying to save her like last time?” she continued.

“…”

“Your decision to act as a diversion had nothing to do with revenge either. You were throwing away your own life to ‘go the other way’ and save the rioters who got caught in this mess, weren’t you?”

He gasped and looked up.

There were tears in Marika’s eyes as she bit her lip.

“No fair.”

She threw aside her crystal rapier and gently got down on her knees.

She lay down on top of the boy while he lay collapsed on his back and she pressed her small face against his chest.

“No fair!! We said we were going to fight together to protect everyone, we said we were going to take revenge on the Problem Solvers for that, and we gathered everything we needed to do it! So why do you keep going back and forth on this? We thought for ourselves and figured out a way to hunt down the Problem Solvers, so why do you keep giving yourself an out as insurance? Don’t leave us behind like that… Don’t leave us behind here!!”

“Sorry.”

Still lying face up, he wrapped his arms around her back, held her close, and rubbed her head.

“I’m sorry, Marika.”

“You won’t leave me behind again? You won’t leave me all alone in this dark world?”

“No.”

He slowly inhaled and exhaled before continuing.

“I’ll join you in hell.”

### 010. Part 12

Not everyone was aware what exactly was happening there.

At a point four or five kilometers northeast of the Palace of Westminster, an eyepatch woman stood on a rooftop in the City district, a business region filled with modern buildings. She was a beautiful Western European woman, but she wore a brightly colored kimono.

(I lost the connection. Does that mean she really did get herself killed?)

“I beseech thee, Susanoo, Wakoku God of Violence.”

With that thought, she pulled three dice from her kimono’s sleeve and casually tossed them. The multiple upward-facing surfaces acted as a general guide as an enormous sword suddenly appeared out of thin air. It truly was more than 100km long. When standing upright, that absurd length was enough to reach the bottom of the thermosphere and to be mistaken for a space elevator. That massive weapon was far too much for a human to wield.

“Well, not that it matters.”

Four or five kilometers was just about to the horizon. Sending out some paper balloons equipped with cameras would be enough to expand her field of vision, but she could not rely on tricks like that with the giant sword taking up both her hands.

However, she knew the target had to be somewhere around the Palace of Westminster. And it did not really matter if that was not entirely accurate. If she made a vertical slash with this sword, it would blow away everything in the vicinity. Of course, that would also destroy all the buildings and take all the lives along the line to that point, including the G21 heads of state in the target building, but she did not care.

She had already agreed to do this.

Yukino Arakawa pissed her off, but that woman’s suggestions had always been clever.

So…

“Sayonara, Yukino-chan. I’ll crush them along with your corpse!!” she shouted.

A blazing red trail similar to a shooting star and a contrail of disturbed air accompanied the absurdly long sword as she swung it down in both hands.

But something happened before she could complete its hemispherical course downwards.

A gunshot rang loud in her ears.

There was a gaping, volleyball-sized hole in the center of her chest.

“…Oh…”

The sword was supported by her magic power, so it vanished into thin air.

The eyepatch woman lost sight of when to die and slowly turned around while coughing up blood.

“Ah???”

She heard a metallic squeaking.

A sexy girl with long black hair had arrived on the roof with her at some point. The girl sat in a wheelchair and held…was that a handgun??? But something was clearly out of the ordinary. Instead of the magazine being inserted into the bottom of the grip, it was inserted in front of the grip like with a submachinegun or assault rifle. Also, it was far too big. The magazine was the size of a thick metal detachable disk drive.

“Excuse me, lady, but I assume you are Jessie Marcus who controls South America? Oh, perhaps it was rude of me to skip all the formalities like that. How careless of me. But I do not need to explain why I am killing you, do I?”

Her voice was calm but also contained a hint of charm that seeped into you.

And it was mixed with a toxic intent to kill.

“This uses 12.7mm rounds. Those are generally used for heavy machineguns or anti-materiel rifles. Shrinking this down to a handgun size was not easy, but that lets me carry it wherever I like by hiding it on my lap.”

“…”

“Oh, you look surprised. Did you think a girl in a wheelchair couldn’t fire such a large bullet? It is true it might break my wrist to fire this one-handed. Or maybe it would flip the entire wheelchair over. But surely you must know the answer. Or did you do all that without knowing? I, Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka, have already lost 58% of my body. I am like a dented-in doll that cannot maintain a human silhouette without supplementing my internal structure with my own Crystal Blossom.”

“––––––”

“After all, I had to do my duty as Student Council President after your rampage. I used my Crystal Magic to accelerate the time limit of the sleeping teachers and students by a rate of 10 thousand. All at the cost of a single body: my own. There is actually a good chance they will recover in less than a year.”

Then why had she not told Karuta and Marika that?

The answer was simple.

Whether it would take ten thousand years or a single month, a moment’s carelessness would reveal that cave’s location to the Problem Solvers and take away those teachers and students’ lives all the same.

Those five had to be killed to prevent that. So to preserve the other two’s burning desire for revenge, she had decided it was best not to tell them about the possibility of a more positive and hopeful future.

That was her plan.

Knowing might make them relax and trigger doom for them all, so she could wait until later to reveal that happy surprise.

“Firing such a large caliber gun in a wheelchair was something of a gamble, but I am willing to learn when it means a new way to kill you five. And I was bored stuck in this chair anyway.”

How had this happened?

The woman moved her mouth, but no words came out.

So the Student Council President continued giving the answers.

“The trick when setting up security cameras is to use as few as possible to eliminate all blind spots. The most common method is to place two cameras in opposite corners of the coverage area. When they are staring at each other, they each eliminate the blind spot below the other.”

So the Problem Solvers had done the same.

They placed the light spear in one corner of London and the giant sword in the opposite corner. Together, they could cover the entire district.

“Besides, the two of you are very similar. You both have surefire attacks with an extremely long range. Once you have our location, we are as good as dead. On the other hand, the motion is so large and the lag between attacks is so great that you do not want anyone approaching you. In that sense, it was not hard to realize the two of you would be covering for each other.”

They had held the Problem Solvers in place with that note that essentially claimed responsibility for the previous attack and announced another was coming. They had also decided to take out as many Problem Solvers as they could manage on the site of the G21 summit.

So Kyouka had known this would happen.

Just as they relaxed after defeating their primary target, another nightmarish attack would arrive.

So she had needed to take things a step further to save her partners.

But to put it another way, if the those two were positioned at opposite corners to cover for the other if anything went wrong, this was their biggest chance. They could easily work out where another of the Problem Solvers was hiding in London. And once something happened to Yukino Arakawa, the owner of the giant sword would be entirely focused on Yukino.

“To be honest, I don’t care what your name is, I don’t care what kind of person you are, and I don’t care what that giant sword of yours really is. I imagine it is uses weight-based magic that makes it feel light for you but heavy for your opponent, but, again, I really do not care. Only one thing matters to me: was that magic used to destroy our school?”

And that meant she would neglect to focus on everything except for Yukino.

It would create enough of an opening for a girl in a wheelchair to arrive this close.

“Are you familiar with the disgraceful idea that British cooking is bad?”

The Student Council President once more aimed her customized handgun at the eyepatch woman who still stubbornly refused to collapse.

She did not announce checkmate.

“People say their desserts are nothing but sugar and butter and their dinners are only flavored with salt and oil, but they are enjoying those things wrong. The food here is not made to be eaten on its own. The desserts are meant to be eaten with tea and the dinners are meant to be eaten with whisky or brandy.”

This was not over yet. She could keep going. The further she went, the more she could savor the flavor of revenge. Her entire body trembled at that fact.

“I thought there was no need to insist on revenge if it meant reducing my body to this. I thought I would stop at some point before straying as far as personally taking someone’s life. But really, this is the same as British cooking.”

Yes.

She could preserve her pure desire for revenge even with the more hopeful estimation of when the teachers and students would recover.

That true exacter of revenge made a bold announcement with that extra-large gun in hand.

“It’s strange, really. My heart balks at the thought of killing, but when I eat it with some revenge on the side, it goes down oh so smoothly. Yes, I fear I could get hooked on this☆”

Another resolution was reached.

With no one to interrupt, she indulged in more and more and more revenge until she was practically drowning in it.

### Between the Lines 2

Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah.

Yukino Arakawa had a single thought about that.

“I think that old man has the wrong idea about this.”

All the world’s resources and assets had to be focused on the Problem Solvers if they were to combat the Threat, so they had developed a project to eliminate anything that would interrupt that. Whether it was a physical presence or an online one, once it grew large enough, people would naturally start to gather. So they had to crush those things.

That was the idea anyway, but…

“He wants us to give a speech at the opening ceremony of their Catastrophe event? For real? All he’s done is gather a bunch of needless talent, so their classes are entirely pointless.”

“But he is completely serious about this.”

The shadow cast at her feet changed form and spoke with a refined male voice.

That was Lugh, Celtic God of Light.

“Some people think an elite few geniuses will crack under the pressure of everyone’s lives bearing down on their shoulders and they have a tendency to bring mass-production systems into the military field. Of course, the problem is that his attempt to help you is only taking your position from you.”

“Are you saying that old man is a danger to us?”

“Perhaps. But to be honest, I’m jealous. Fighting on the side that is doomed to fail is a warrior’s honor. I know I shouldn’t say this when I’m the one lending you this power, but always standing on the side of certain victory causes you to fester.”

“We cannot afford to be picky.”

“Fair enough.” Her shadow calmly scratched its head. “But anyway, the idea of a magic academy is pretty nice even if we ignore the whole Crystal Magic thing. Again, I shouldn’t say this when I’m lending you this power, but God-Worshipping Magic is so powerful that you can’t really practice using it. If someone developed a way to efficiently teach it, I might be saved from seeing the unsightly result of people borrowing my power and losing control the very first time they use it.”

“You need not worry about that,” said Yukino in a voice much kinder than the people she knew would imagine from her. But she was not announcing that she would create such a magic education system. “I am the strongest working with you now, so as long as I stay with you, you do not need to think about what will happen with the next one.”

“Yeah, well, you say that, but…”

“But what?”

“Well, um, uh, man, I’m really not sure how to put this.”

“If you have something to say, then just come out and say it. You are a god, aren’t you? Then you do not need to hold back with a mere human.”

Yukino wore something like a nun’s habit with bold slits in the sides, but her religion was not the monotheistic one symbolized by the cross and a holy book.

She only folded her hands in prayer to the god who had taken her to a higher stage.

That was why she felt no hesitation at all when it came to wielding that tremendous power. It was the ultimate performance that showed the world that she was connected to a god who loved her.

Even if that performance meant burning away her own body.

It was the same as exchanging rings and going on a honeymoon.

Sometimes you wanted a physical symbol of it all.

“Wh-what are the others doing?” asked her shadow. “Like Jessie of the giant sword.”

“She is the same as ever. It is hard to tell if their compatibility was devastatingly bad or devastatingly good because she is still developing into a complete berserker with no apparent distinction between her and Susanoo. Of course, that might be one way of bringing yourselves together.”

“So she just wants to fight and doesn’t care why, huh? I’ll admit I see the appeal.”

“Lord Lugh, surely you are not showing an interest in another human woman.”

“Course not.” Her shadow wagged its finger. “Bloodthirsty fights to the death are a warriors’ honor, but that isn’t something you enjoy along with the woman you’ve fallen for. The one thing I couldn’t stand to do is push you toward certain death.”

### 011. Part 2

What they needed to gather was simple.

They might be hard to come by in Japan, but they were not exactly rare in this country.

Karuta and Marika were walking in the gap between the slums and the wealthy. It was a unique scene where a driver was waiting in a black limo right next to where a man in a worn-out coat was gathering empty cans.

“That should be enough shotgun shells,” said Karuta. “I’d love to buy as much as we can carry, but they might get suspicious if we buy too many in one place. Maybe we should visit a few different stores.”

“What about the traps?” asked Marika.

“Igniting them won’t be very difficult. A single spark will do the trick, so we can create fuses out of a battery and aluminum foil. Of course, we’ll need a different device to switch them on.”

“We’re going to detonate them by radio? But there are bound to be signals on all sorts of frequencies flying around all the way up to the heliport!”

“Not to mention from the bugs set up by obsessive fans. Yeah, it might be best to pretend to be tourists while we walk around the building and check what frequencies are in use. There must be a bandwidth no one is using. More importantly, Marika, you’re our only hope here since you’re the only one who can use a standard Crystal Blossom. Do you really think you can do this?”

“Yesss, III caaaan. I’d really prefer to use lasers or masers, but I guess a non-nuclear photon rocket would be best here.”

“Whatever the case, you should test fire it first. We don’t want to find out too late that the force of impact knocks a connection out of place.”

“Obviously. In that case, I’ll want some rubber adhesive that works on building walls and some cushioning material if we have the budget.”

The two of them were out shopping.

Aine had stayed back in the RV to support the Student Council President just in case. That would not make much difference if one of the Problem Solvers tracked them down, but Aine would be able to fight off any thugs who tried to rob the place.

“I can’t believe former Crystal Magicians like us are buying parts for weapons at a hardware store,” said Marika.

“I’m down with anything if it gives us a chance.”

“Also, Aine-chan really was a lot of help, so how about you buy her a reward?”

“You mean a snack covered in gold leaf or powder? Do you think that would really construct semiconductor circuits in her body?”

“The whole thing is too unprecedented to say. I’ve never even heard of another Crystal Blossom that eats.”

“And she’s stored inside my body, so what happens to me if she builds pure gold circuitry inside her?”

“Wait, I thought gold leaf desserts weren’t digestible.”

They discussed that while pushing a shopping cart through a large store.

The cart’s handle was labelled “Stainless Steel – Fifth Generation Material”.

(You even see it here.)

This was a sign of Elicia Luxverg’s influence. She used her dinosaur to tear apart the passenger planes and tankers gathered from around the world because that efficiently dismantled them into usable resources that could be recycled. That was why first generation resources, the iron or aluminum directly dug up in a mine, were almost never seen anymore.

The news was playing on the phone of a customer who passed by.

“Steel dropped in value by 2 dollars and 50 cents today while aluminum remains stable at 40 dollars and 27 cents. Speculators are saying the influence on first generation resource deals will be…”

Marika whispered while reaching for a product.

“There’s something wrong with human society when the unrefined rocks are more valuable .”

They had a list of what they needed, but like they said before, buying it all at once place would raise suspicions. They did not have much time, but they still walked around town visiting different stores to purchase bits and pieces of their list while also visiting unnecessary shops along the way.

“Ohh, I just remembered alllll my new swimsuits are at the bottom of the ocean with the ship.”

“Really, Marika?”

“Let me buy one. Just one! It’ll help camouflage what we’re doing!!”

“You already bought that racing swimsuit for diving, remember? And you got away with buying a leisure model because the ocean is so warm around here!”

“Listen, Karuta-san. Just like a school bag and a brand-name bag are entirely different things, that swimsuit and this swimsuit are entirely different!!”

And so he was dragged into a sporting goods store.

The look in his childhood friend’s eyes was already scaring him.

“Ohh, I love this dizzying feeling of being surrounded by so many price tags. Heh heh, I can just buy them all, can’t I? I can buy as many as I want, right?”

“Are you insane, you greedy girl!? You’re just using the price on the tags to feel like you’re rich! Plus, we don’t have any real income!!”

“We gathered a bunch of valuable stuff from the sunken ship.”

“But it isn’t unlimited. Besides, we decided to leave 95% of it in the cave for when Gekiha and the others eventually wake up. We only have the bare minimum to work with.”

“Bikinis are nice, but the design is so perfected there isn’t much room to have fun with it.”

“You’re not even listening, are you!?”

“This is a necessary part of the bare minimum. Now, let’s check out the one pieces…ohhh! They’ve got a real tricky one here, boss! This doesn’t cover the navel or back at all! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

He had no idea why that was so funny to her. At the very least, he knew it had nothing to do with good fashion sense. She was the stereotypical shopaholic in that she was bound to cool down half a day after buying it and badly regret her decision.

That meant there was nothing he could do now.

She charged straight into the fitting room with a risqué swimsuit.

“Hm, hmmm. Hm, hm, hm, hmm.”

“Come to think of it, there’s no real reason for me to wait for you here, is there?”

“Are you trying to kill me with loneliness by having me try on clothes all on my lonesome? And check out this stupid swimsuit! It’s hilarious!”

Curly twintailed Marika threw open the partition curtain, but that was when it happened.

She was indeed wearing a swimsuit, but that forceful action caused the shoulder straps to come undone, leaving her very much topless.

“Ah.”

Karuta had to cover his face with his hands.

He was fairly certain he had seen a pair of indescribably bright mounds(?), but it would be best not to pursue the matter.

However…

“See, what did I tell you!? These are really cheap!! They’re poorly made, so you can’t trust them!!”

“~ ~ ~ ~!! W-wait just a second!!”

Marika blushed bright red and quickly ducked back into the fitting room. In the RV, she would sleep naked with only a single sheet covering her, but she was apparently still reluctant to directly show everything off by complete accident. And she seemed well aware that this was in no way Karuta’s fault. Being a clever girl could be difficult sometimes.

Meanwhile, the young woman at the register grinned over at him. He had a bad feeling she was the type of salesperson who left the sample on the verge of breaking and then claimed whoever broke it had to pay for it.

“This was all a setup!?”

“But, sir, you enjoyed the show, didn’t you?”

“…”

It saddened him he could not deny it, so he paid for it to silence the woman. He could only laugh.

“Bwa ha ha ha!”

“Ah ha ha ha!”

This was a world of only love and peace. Utagai Karuta’s laughter was even uglier than when he had felt so cornered by the Problem Solvers.

Once the fitting room curtain opened again, the two of them were complete strangers once more.

“Ugh…what do we do with this broken swimsuit?”

“Even if we do defeat Saurus with it, do not let this part get in the history books.”

He drove the point home with a more decisive look than was strictly necessary.

At any rate, the preparations were complete.

It was time to face one of the world’s strongest.

It was time to attack one of the Problem Solvers.

It was time to exact revenge on Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg.

### 012. Part 2

It was 2PM in London.

However, the mysterious solar eclipse meant it was as dark as midnight.

“Hmph.”

“Now, I would like to get down to business.”

“You need to apologize first! Apologize for everything!!”

“What are you so upset about!? And what am I even apologizing for!? What did I do wrong in that situation!?”

Curly twintails Marika had been collapsed on the sofa bed for a while, but now she threw her hands in the air and shouted back at him.

“Ughh, ahhhh! You need to apologize for having such bad karma!!”

“This is getting awfully dark awfully fast! Besides, that Student Council President set me up!”

This may have been a lot like their noisy days back at the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy. Karuta himself sensed something nostalgic in this storm he was caught in.

But things had changed.

They now had a sexy eye of the storm.

“Oh, how could you, Karuta-kun? After everything we did while they were gone, you’re trying to place all the blame on the girl?”

“Hey, don’t blush and place your hands on your cheeks like that. Was a thermobaric weapon not enough for you?”

Karuta asked this of the Student Council President who was wearing the dress shirt she used as pajamas. Crystal Girl Aine was standing expressionlessly in a corner of the RV, but she was simply awaiting further orders. She must not have understood the danger here because she silently tilted her head.

Karuta got straight to the point as coldly as a bank teller just before closing time.

“Okay, okay, that’s enough of that! Let’s get back on topic!!”

“Hmph!”

“(Oh, dear. Yet she’s the one who sleeps in the nude. How hypocritical of her.)”

However, the Student Council President was mature enough to keep those personal thoughts to herself as she got down to business.

“Our top priority target this time is Yukino Arakawa.”

She used the projector to cover the wall with photos taken from news sites or online articles.

“Unlike Elicia and her dinosaur, this woman did not directly board the ship. That makes it hard to say anything for certain, but she is almost certainly the one who sank the escort ships with the light spears. I saw her giving instructions from the open cargo door of their tiltrotor craft and, while it is unconfirmed, she is well-known for ‘bringing an eclipse’ wherever she goes. So she is likely in London right now. Of course, we do not know what the Threat itself is, so who knows how reliable any of this information is,” added the wet-haired Student Council President. “Every member of the Problem Solvers is a monster, but Yukino’s light spear is one I want to get rid of as early as possible. Both because of how destructive it is and because of its wide range. We should assume she controls everything within the range of that unnatural eclipse. That means there is no real safe zone on the surface of the earth. If she knows where you are, you are dead. The longer this fight drags on, the more information on us will become available, so I want to take care of her before she can narrow things down too far.”

Take care of.

Get rid of.

In other words, they were going to kill her just like they did Elicia.

This was very different from their classes where they had planned to face the Threat but had no concrete image of what that would entail.

Karuta was having trouble deciding if he could call that “growth” or not.

“But what even is that light spear?” he asked as if to distract himself from that issue.

Curly twintails Marika waved a hand dismissively while still puffing out her cheeks.

“Who knows, but it looked like laser beams from the sky.”

“I doubt she is using bombers because the attack came from much higher. I imagine she has something in satellite orbit, but I cannot say much more than that.” The Student Council President placed a finger on her lips. “Still, we do know the Problem Solvers were in charge of defending that space elevator that was thought to be useless junk, so what if there is a connection there?”

“You mean it might be solar power generators or interception satellites?”

“I have heard some rumors,” began Omotesandou Kyouka with a sigh. “It was never completed, but there was something known as the Sunny Side Up Project. It was said to be history’s largest planetary expansion project.”

“A fried egg?” asked strawberry blonde Marika while frowning on the sofa bed.

“Only fried on one side if you want to get technical,” responded Crystal Girl Aine while still tilting her head.

Kyouka sighed softly before continuing.

“The identity of the Threat is unknown, but it is known it does not leave the atmosphere. This plan intended to bring the ordinary citizenry outside the atmosphere and transform the blue planet into nothing more than farmlands and a cage for the Threat. The base of the elevator is supposed to be quite sturdy, so the combat personnel and the maintenance team for the unmanned farms would have been stationed underground there. There were blueprints showing a network of station houses surrounding the planet in a sphere one size bigger, so it was apparently more about expanding the surface of the planet instead of traveling out into space. Hence why it was known as a planetary expansion project.”

“Ugh…”

When looking at a cross-section, was the earth seen as the yolk and the outer shell seen as the white?

If you were going to slice it apart, a boiled egg or Scotch egg seemed more accurate, but whoever named it had probably let their personal egg preference dictate the choice.

“Its primary material was supposed to be a solid foam that is harder and more heat-resistant than steel and can also swell out to fill a large space with only a small amount of the original material. The presentation said the living space and the farming zone would be kept entirely separate so human-made contaminants would not find their way back into nature…but it was a little over the top even for an endeavor meant to support 5.5 billion people. The earth’s rotation differs between latitudes, so it seems like their network would fall apart if they did not find some way to match their relative speeds.”

The earth was already surrounded.

Sunny Side Up played two roles.

First, it allowed environmental adjustments on a global scale. By efficiently increasing the amount of natural land, there would be more food for the human population “temporarily” living in satellite orbit.

“So the light spears use their immense heat to stir up the air and create winds and rainclouds.”

And second, it would eliminate the Threat lurking on the surface.

“And at the same time, they are a weapon meant to literally shoot down the Threat?” asked Karuta.

Kyouka nodded.

He looked awed but also exasperated by the large scale of it all.

“Even if one shot is not enough, they must have thought they could wear the Threat down by continually firing from outside the atmosphere. Or maybe it was only meant to distract the Threat if it got too close to the farmlands. It is unclear how permanently it was meant to ‘eliminate’ the Threat.”

But it was more than enough when used against human beings.

Karuta and the others had learned all too well how powerful it was when it sunk those escort ships one after another.

“Since it has not been demolished, I imagine it is benefiting the world through its production facilities and power generation. Even without a largescale microwave or laser power transmission system, that remnant of an older age may still be in use to transfer the power.”

“The space elevator.”

“If it can carry a payload to the ‘outer shell’ for less than 1% the cost of using a rocket or shuttle, then it could be used to transfer batteries the size of cargo containers back and forth. That could provide just enough of a reason to not demolish that elevator. Yukino’s strength in the global business world is said to be in Eurasia, but everything from Europe to China is a little much, don’t you think? She would need some kind of product that can cover half the planet.”

It was meant to be a warning for the Threat and to save the entire world.

But who was it that had converted it into no more than a rusty old tower?

Did the blame lie with Crystal Magicians like Karuta whose methods turned out to be cheaper?

“The eclipse might not be the result of some massive object appearing overhead. It could be the sky was already covered and the holes of the ‘net’ close up when Yukino prepares for combat.” The Student Council President tapped her wheelchair’s armrest with a finger. “Of course, chemistry and physics are not enough to explain a system like this. Like I said, the earth’s gravity and rotation would tear it apart if they do not match the relative speed of the entire network, but constantly using thrusters to preserve that would drain all the energy they had hoped to generate. That means God-Worshiping Magic must play a role. I believe Yukino’s specialty is the Celtic light god Lugh. He is a war god also known as ‘the god of the long arm’. Yes, that would be perfect for energy production and projectile attacks.”

If the connection between the space elevator and the Problem Solvers was closer than officially recognized, then they might not have been pleased with the Crystal Magicians who rejoiced at the elevator’s failure. (Mostly because Crystal Magic only worked on the surface, so moving onto that “outer shell” would be a problem for them.)

But more than that, the Problem Solvers used the God-Worshipping Magic of the previous era instead of Crystal Magic. Had the rise of Crystal Blossoms looked like a threat to them?

(No, there are too many unanswered questions about them.)

“Anyway, that was very bold of you, Karuta-kun,” began Kyouka with a sigh. “One of the Problem Solvers is gone. The world might not want to accept it, but the other four will know. And then you send them an anonymous message.”

She operated the projector to display the message in question.

Marika spoke up in a mixture of exasperation and awe.

“ ‘One of you is gone now, but I happen to know where you can find someone even stronger than Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg. I would like to meet you for an interview, so what would be a convenient date?’ ” Once the curly twintails girl finished reading it aloud, she put on a mischievous smile. “You could take that as letter of responsibility, you know? You are aware of Elicia’s death despite it being covered up, you say you know where to find someone even stronger, and then you say you want to meet them.”

“But they can’t ignore it, can they?” bluntly asked Karuta. “They know Elicia is dead, but they won’t know who did it. They won’t want someone like that to slip away and disappear. It doesn’t matter to them if the author of the letter is that person or not. They just want to crush anyone it might be. And they just have to keep it up until the problem has stopped.”

Crystal Girl Aine kept her head tilted throughout and she spoke while her silver hair shook.

“So they will rush in despite knowing it is a trap?”

“It may be more accurate to say we’re getting them to set up a trap and wait for us,” spat out Karuta. “The Problem Solvers are international society’s most prized possessions, so they have to be held in reserve. We are pursuing them as much as they are pursuing us. We can’t let them go into hiding. Our top priority is Yukino Arakawa. That is the bare minimum here. We have to take her out first, but then we need to take out as many other Problem Solvers as we can while we’re at it. After all, we know they’ve all been summoned to London for the G21 summit.”

They would take out the Problem Solvers.

He could say it so easily, but only because they had already done it once with Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg. He knew they could be defeated. Proving that did wonders on the psychological front.

And with that in mind, he ran right into the problem he had been trying not to think about.

Yes.

“Okay, then that’s our next target,” said Marika.

“Yukino Arakawa,” said Kyouka. “This sounds like a worthy challenge. I have no complaints about holding a fight to the death against her.”

Karuta could not immediately say the same.

A bitter feeling had been building up in his gut throughout the planning, but Aine spoke to him while standing in a corner of the RV.

“Do not worry, Sacri-sama.”

“About what?”

“No one will steal your kill this time. Let’s make sure we kill her ourselves.”

If she was not shaped like a cute girl, he might have punched her on reflex.

### 013. Part 2

Note: the gold leaf is contained in a separate package. Sprinkle it on to enjoy the crunch!

“Is gold leaf actually crunchy?” groaned Utagai Karuta while reading the Japanese confection’s package.

A small plastic bag contained thin flakes that glittered gold. There was only about a pinch or two at the most. Instead of a single folded piece, it was even smaller than pieces of katsuobushi. It may have been more like a powder than a leaf.

They had bought this on the black market.

They had used that kind of sketchy store instead of a legit one because of the influence of the Problem Solvers’ defeat. The light spear had not been the only one to die in London that day.

The giant sword woman had as well.

The Student Council President had defeated the one who apparently controlled the world’s industrial side.

Simply put, that woman had run a giant all-purpose factory that could make anything if you sent her a request via email. For normal corporations, everything leading up to that email had mattered far more than the production infrastructure. In other words, the value of intellectual property like designs and plans had skyrocketed. They had started using analog microfilm as a countermeasure against hackers, that had led to the spread of business-oriented banks that specialized in safe-deposit boxes for that microfilm, and companies called for armored cars as readily as motorcycle couriers.

Then that entire system had collapsed overnight.

Corporations around the world had lost that all-purpose factory, but they could not prepare their own production infrastructure so quickly. They could not supply the products for the orders they were receiving. They all had to build their own factories in a hurry, but they needed money to pay for that. They were forced to sell off all sorts of things: their buildings, the designs of their products, and even human beings in the form of layoffs.

The chaos was unlikely to end soon.

The shelves of retail stores were empty and the foods and everyday items sold on the black market were going for exorbitant prices. It had reached the point where it was said you needed a knife or a handgun to even start haggling.

(But this won’t last forever.)

Karuta observed the situation with a somehow cold look in his eyes.

(Humans always find a way of bringing things back to normal. And I’m used to being hated by this point, so you can’t use them as hostages, Problem Solvers.)

Meanwhile, there was Crystal Girl Aine.

She must not have cared in the slightest about that human interplay of joy and sorrow because she was already leaning forward without considering the hem of her transparently white dress.

“H-hurry! Hurry up and sprinkle that crunchiness on the yokan and then give me permission to eat it! Pant, pant, ahh, woof, woof!!”

“This is looking more and more like some kind of dangerous withdrawal symptoms, so are you sure it’s safe to let you have this!?”

Her eyes were spinning and drool dripped from the corner of her mouth. She looked so frail that she would break if you held her too tightly, but that only made it look all the more inappropriate when she was staring so intently at the powdered contents of a small plastic bag. That mystery crystal girl did not rely on any god’s name to accurately calculate out the collision of the energy from the Original Crystal Embryo at the center of the earth and the supernatural forces pouring down from outer space, but at times like this, she made him look like the bad guy.

It was Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka who smiled gently.

She held a small plate containing a mille-crepe that was not a convenience store product. Karuta did not know the name of the tea she had on the table either and he doubted he would remember it even if she told him.

“My, my. But if you refuse to give it to her now, I am pretty sure she would throw a tantrum that would cause the RV to burst open like a jack-in-the-box.”

“She’s asked for gold powder and gold leaf before, but that doesn’t really change the flavor, does it?” asked curly twintailed Marika.

That girl lay on the sofa bed with a bunch of cheap snacks piled around her. When the time had come for each of them to choose their own snacks, she alone had ignored the luxury items and gone for quantity over quality.

“It is not an issue of flavor and the nutrients required by the human body are irrelevant to me. I need gold, pure gold. By adding wiring thinner than hairs inside my silicon semiconductor body, I can expand to even greater heights!!”

“I don’t really get it, but it’s creeping me out.”

How had this happened?

It was going to take some time to analyze the smartphone they had swiped from the giant sword woman’s corpse, so they had nothing to discuss concerning the other Problem Solvers who never made media appearances. With nothing to do, they had decided to head out and buy some food.

So where had the money for that come from?

That too was simple.

“The Problem Solvers really are loaded, aren’t they?”

“Impressively so. Can you see now why all the powerful nations want to call themselves the guardians of the law despite how annoying that position is?”

Basically, they had stolen more than just the phone from the giant sword woman.

They had taken a life without leaving any room for argument, they had checked over the corpse and stolen everything of value, and they had bought some luxury items with that money to take a nice break. As reluctant as Karuta had been, he could not deny they really were living the lives of avengers at this point.

Slender Crystal Girl Aine was the most lacking in morals (since she was not human) and now she was all fired up. Was he imagining things or was her long silver hair stirring?

“Sacri-sama, how long are you going to tease me? If you don’t give it to me soon, I am going to enter a rebellious phase.”

“I don’t think that’s how you’re supposed to use a rebellious phase.”

“Can anyone really say they used their rebellious phase the way they were ‘supposed to’?” asked Kyouka

“Does that mean even our gentle Student Council President had a rebellious phase?” asked Marika, whose interest here was straying from the point a little.

Meanwhile, Karuta first removed the main yokan from the small wooden box and placed it on a small plate on the side table. Once that was on standby, he only had to open the small plastic bag and sprinkle on the gold leaf.

“Listen, Aine. I will sprinkle the gold leaf on like you want, but this yokan is for the two of us to share. Do not eat the whole thing yourself, okay? And I mean it! No matter what, do not eat the whole thing the instant I sprinkle this on!!”

“Woof, woof, woof!!”

“Not exactly inspiring confidence here!!”

Going without a snack while everyone else had one would be too psychologically taxing. He kept a cautious eye on Aine who was in a very untrustworthy spinny-eye mode while he grabbed the small bag of gold leaf in both hands. Gold leaf or not, this was little different from the packages of soy sauce or Worcester sauce that came with convenience store bentos. He slowly tore off the top edge using the score in the side.

However…

“Oh, crap. I got some on my finger. I should have tapped on it to get it to settle in the bottom first.”

“!?”

He just about wiped his finger off on the thigh of his pants, but a viselike grip grabbed his wrist first.

It was the gold-loving girl Aine.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!! You’ll break it, you’ll break it, you’ll break it, you’ll break it!!!”

“Ahm.”

“And don’t just start sucking my finger like that! Stop it, Aine! I’ll do it right, okay!?”

“I han’t let it go hoo waste.”

His shouting accomplished nothing. He really did use his full strength to try and pull away, but this wrist was trapped more securely than in the base of a guillotine. Meanwhile, the boy’s fingertip was at the mercy of Aine’s surprisingly warm mouth. It felt like she was using her tongue to thoroughly clean off the bottom of the finger, the top of the nail, and even below the nail.

Seeing the enjoyment and love on her face as she consumed the gold leaf filled him with a weird feeling. She looked so much like a human, but this consumption of metal was an undeniable oddity. While it was true humans needed to consume iron and zinc, they would not start chomping on a screw or nail. Aine, on the other hand, probably would eat a pure gold screw or nail if she was given one.

It was unlikely that pale crystal girl would show any sign of rejection such as metal poisoning.

Meanwhile, the oddity of it all was accentuated by how her mannerisms were the same as a cute girl.

Something was shaken in his heart. The scene before him greatly worried him.

“Fwah… I will let you off the hook with just that, but pure gold is a valuable rare metal. If you do not treat it with the proper care, I will never forgive you even if you are my Sacri-sama.”

“You do know that would amount to a gentle form of suicide, don’t you?”

His wrist was finally freed from her viselike grip, but it sounded like he needed to be more careful from here on. In fact, he was a little worried that the Problem Solvers might throw pure gold caltrops on the ground in battle to distract her.

“But this stuff looks pretty tricky to use since its even thinner than katsuobushi. If I just sprinkle it on like normal, some of it would probably end up off of the plate.”

“Starting now, I will hold my breath until you have completed your objective,” announced Aine.

“You don’t have to do that. Besides, I just have to do it away from my face, you don't have to keep staring at me like that!!”

During that discussion, Utagai Karuta moved the small bag as close to the yokan as he could before sprinkling its contents.

However, a demon interrupted him.

“Mh. Oh, I got the rare planaria character! Hey, hey! Look, Karuta! These things can multiply endlessly if you keep cutting them apart! And finding one in your animal snacks is supposed to increase your monetary luck, so…ah…ah…”

He had a bad feeling about this.

And his bad feeling proved accurate.

“Achoo!!!!!!”

A great wind blew in just as he was attempting such delicate work. The glittering gold leaf should have fallen straight onto the yokan, but it was all blasted in the wrong direction.

Specifically, all over the body of the boy who had been so carefully handling the bag.

Karuta began to sparkle all over, but it may have been more like a human disco ball than a scene shown in shoujo manga vision.

Now, a question.

What had happened to his fingertip when he got just a bit of gold leaf on it earlier?

“………………………………………………………………………………Sacri-sama. Drool.”

“Wait! Stop, Aine! This is an ord-…”

“Sacri-samaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

A fairly serious hell of stickiness soon followed.

Just before the collision, Karuta tried to ignore the reality facing him by noting that the Student Council President cleverly grabbed her teacup from the side table and retreated.

### 014. Part 2

Silicon Valley, USA.

After hearing this was the world’s largest arms plant and that it had been kept separate from the giant sword woman’s all-purpose factory, Utagai Karuta had pictured an area covered in steel and concrete, toxic-colored smoke obscuring the sky, and the clanging of metal sounding around the clock, but the reality was much different.

The blue sky was refreshingly clear, green grass covered the ground, and a small bridge crossed a clear stream that glittered beautifully in the sunlight.

“A city of semiconductor factories needs clean water and air,” said Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka while looking out the RV’s window. “Hundreds of thousands of people live in San Jose, but other parts of Silicon Valley only have around ten thousand people. I hear the areas along the highways connecting the cities tend to look like this.”

“I’ve also heard the deserts are shrinking even in America,” said Marika. “They’re all starting to fill in with green thanks to the desert agricultural plants connected to Susannia’s mechanization…or regeneration, I guess. And thanks to the insects and small animals, I imagine they won’t need a certain someone’s flesh anymore once things reach a certain point. This greenery restoration work has its downsides, doesn’t it? If those areas take in too much weed DNA, not even off-road cars would be able to get through.”

People were not going to starve for the time being.

The quality of the food might drop, but once the farmers stopped focusing solely on the profit gained by the perfect selectively bred or genetically altered crop, the food would reach an acceptable level once more.

On the other hand, there was nothing here except for giant boxy factories and truck stops. There were no commercial locations outside of gas stations, diners, and pay showers, so acquiring food did not look easy. It was so bad they had needed to stock up at a supermarket in a town on the way. Even that had been difficult since Susannia’s loss had left the supermarket shelves nearly empty. (Stock would not run out that quickly, so that was probably due to other people stocking up so they could hole up in their personal shelters.) Tourists would visit en route to other places, but no one would stay there for long. Their RV would stand out if it stuck around for too long. Silicon Valley was known for its precision machinery plants, but in the places with nothing, there really was nothing .

Strawberry blonde Marika gave a skeptical look toward the “excuse” that was applying new pressure to the already limited space in the RV.

“Will this camera and telescope really work as insurance?”

“Stargazing is the #1 reason why someone would visit a place with no famous tourist destinations and where finding as much as a gas station is difficult, right?” said Kyouka. “And if we need clean air and as few artificial lights as possible, our presence here sounds all the more plausible. If we call ourselves meteor hunters, then we even have an excuse for being in some remote area or private property.”

“Meteor hunters?”

“Hobbyists who collect fallen meteorites and sell them for cash.”

They had taken a few astronomical photos and stored them on flash memory in case someone questioned them further. Surprisingly, it was the Student Council President herself who got the most into it. She had seemed endlessly calm and composed to Karuta, but she may have had a more girly side to her that loved astrology and horoscopes.

How visible had the stars been back on the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy?

He found he could not really remember.

The sky had to have been full of stars in that tropical ocean so far away from human civilization, but the giant ship itself may have emitted too much light.

Could the Student Council President have spent every night back then peering into a telescope and sighing at the unsatisfactory results?

At any rate.

The odds were good Anastasia Blast was hiding inside that plant.

And if they were going to attack, they were going to do it by the book. The focus on security would be lowest just before dawn. Waiting until then had been agonizing because they could not move, but they had also been so nervous it was hard to sleep. They had also needed to adjust their own biorhythms to match the timing of the attack. They had finished dinner before sunset and gotten what sleep they could in the early evening to late night.

“Hey,” said Marika while lying on the sofa bed like usual. “What do we do once we’ve finished our revenge?”

“I doubt we can return to a normal life. Even if we were justified, we still traveled around the world killing people. That said, guarding the crystal statues in that cave would only draw attention to them. Once we’ve dealt with the Problem Solvers who will actively search it out, it would be best for Gekiha and the others to leave it be.”

Crystal Girl Aine responded without giving it much thought while standing in the corner of the RV like usual.

“I am your Crystal Blossom, so I assumed I would stay with you after this.”

“Yeah, and I’m your childhood friend, so staying with you might be for the best.”

They seemed to be settling on a conclusion without letting him voice his opinion.

And the Student Council President naturally joined in.

“Once this is all done, I suppose I will step down as Student Council President.” She gave a somewhat sad-looking smile. “And are you going to kick me out after all we have been through? Doesn’t that seem a little cold?”

“So we’ll all stay together, huh?” said Utagai Karuta.

One of Marika’s eyebrows shot up.

“What, you got a problem with that?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“?”

These four(?) had been the only ones to escape that giant ship with their lives. Those survivors had decided to use every ounce of strength they had to take revenge against the seemingly unbeatable Problem Solvers. That was all it had been in the beginning So while it might sound cold, they were only together by chance. If it had been someone else who had survived, the group holding this discussion now would have been different. That was all that held them together.

Yet the next thing they knew, they had developed much stronger bonds.

Karuta had not realized it until now, but it felt weird to think of them saying bye and going their separate ways once this was over.

“Where should we go once it’s over?” he asked.

Marika and Kyouka gave separate answers while arguing with each other.

“I’m sick of the garbage-filled cities. I’d like to take it easy on a tropical island.”

“Ehh? Don’t the Alps sound nice? There’s no better retreat! And it makes you sound fancy.”

“I’m gonna say no thanks to anything that requires dressing warmly. Besides, I like the beach better than the mountains.”

“Ugh, I take it you’re not shy about being seen in a swimsuit, huh?”

“I love swimsuits. Bring on the micro bikinis and slingshots, if you ask me. Nothing helps keep your body looking nice like showing it off.”

Marika began some bewitching laughter and the Student Council President glanced over at Karuta for some reason.

Meanwhile, Aine stated what she wanted.

“I do not mind where we go as long as I am with my Sacri-sama.”

“I mean, you don’t really have a choice but to be with me, do you?”

“I will be happy as long as I have enough pure gold to bathe in.”

“What, are we supposed to search out El Dorado? Your request has got to be the most difficult one.”

Their discussion had a laid-back atmosphere, but a part of Karuta’s mind thought it sounded like some far-off future.

It did not feel like something that could happen in less than a day’s time.

Speaking their dreams out loud did not make them feel any more real. It was not that he did not want these things to come true. Part of him really did think they sounded nice. But he could not shake the feeling that there was some thin transparent film separating him from them. Something told him things would not play out quite so conveniently.

In fact.

The options laid before him felt so weightless, flimsy, and unsatisfying that he had to watch himself lest he speak a truly impossible wish such as “I want to go back to our school”.

This was their final battle.

The battle against Anastasia Blast had been saved for last.

She was a Problem Solver, one of the world’s strongest.

They could not plan ahead or construct a detailed strategy and they were forced to go in blind, making this extremely dangerous.

Whether this was their first opponent or their last, it was all over if they died. They would lose everything.

No one knew how this would turn out.

But there was one thing he could say for certain: we don’t live in a kind enough world to give us that ideal ending.

“Once this is over, I just want to take some time to relax.”

“We can do that. We’ve just been way too busy lately.”

### 015. Part 3

That absurdly large broadcast station had a range that crossed national borders to cover the entire Southeast Asia region.

After growing to a bloated 200 stories tall, there was one thing it was bound to have: elevators.

They needed quite a few of those to quickly and comfortably transport a large number of personnel and materials such as props.

There were general elevators for tourists and audience members, shipping entrance ones that could carry an entire loaded midsized truck, special ones that let entertainers sneak out the back way, and business ones for the other personnel.

The white-haired woman named Elicia Luxverg was riding a VIP elevator. It was made of glass to give a view of the evening cityscape, so it may have been similar to those at a resort hotel.

Its riders would normally be accompanied by station staff acting as a guide, their secretary, or a bodyguard, but Elicia was different.

She had a simple reason for refusing any of that:

“They would get in the way.”

The giant building had an unusually complicated layout to make sure the entertainers could avoid running into obsessive fans, but Elicia had learned her own way around. She also kept track of her own schedule down to the minute or second and she could intercept any unexpected attacker.

She was the world’s strongest all on her own.

With power on her level, not harming the people around her was the most difficult part of resolving any trouble that occurred. After all, her dinosaur did not allow for finetuned control. She went to the trouble of smiling for the cameras and performing some lip service for the masses, so she wanted to avoid making mincemeat out of an ally. That would waste all the effort put into that hours-long facial workout.

(Although the best form of defense is to keep your location a secret.)

In that sense, being at an obvious landmark and leaving by helicopter was not the best choice. If she was being honest, driving a half-rusted used car through a small road lined with plywood and prefab buildings was more her style.

Currently, she caught scent of something inside that empty elevator.

She pulled out her phone and made a video call to the station chief on the top floor.

“I am scheduled for four interviews, a one-on-one talk, and then dinner with some ‘influential people’, correct?”

“Y-yes. I do apologize for the busy schedule when you must be exhausted, but just think about how much good will come from-”

“Cancel them all.”

“Huh?”

She did not bother responding to his peace-dulled confusion.

She summed it all up as much as possible.

“You need to prepare yourself. You have an intruder.”

Her prediction proved accurate.

A moment later, the elevator’s lights cut out, informing her of a power outage.

She heard an ear-splitting screech similar to sparks scattering as a train’s wheels were caught by the emergency brakes. The elevator came to a rapid stop on its way to the top floor.

“…”

It was evening. The building was so tall these higher levels would somewhat extend the time until sunset, but it was still horrifyingly dark. Did the loss of the artificial lights really make this much of a difference?

Her phone’s screen cast some light into that darkness, but the call had ended.

It said “no signal”, so it must have been using this very broadcast station and tower to make the call. But there was no chaos in the city she could see through the glass, even though a largescale blackout would likely cause accidents at the traffic lights and train crossings. That meant the power was out only for the broadcast station.

(National broadcasts are key to restoring order in emergencies. Counterterrorism measures in place for this crucial infrastructure should have it back up in less than five minutes, but surely they don’t hope to attack during that short time.)

The digital floor display had vanished with the power out, but this was probably near the 190th floor.

The next noise she heard came from the center of the metal elevator door. A katana-like blade made of crystal jabbed out at her chest height. It slid down along the gap between the double doors and sliced through some kind of latch like a hot knife through butter.

The automatic doors were forced open by human hands to reveal who awaited her.

“I recognize that blazer.” The world’s strongest kept her voice low but she smiled despite being trapped in a dangling birdcage. “A survivor of Grimnoah, I take it?”

“No.”

It was a slender boy.

He was accompanied by a pale crystal girl wielding a bladed weapon.

A stagnant light filled his eyes as he introduced himself.

“I am the one who will kill and surpass you.”

### 016. Part 3

London was flooded with garbage and experiencing an eclipse.

The city managed an odd harmony between the asphalt roads and old-fashioned brick apartments, but piles of trash bags filled the sidewalks and even spilled out into the streets. Those piles were as tall as people. It might look like a boycott or strike by the sanitation workers, but it was not.

This was due to Elicia’s defeat.

While she had been in charge of garbage disposal, she did not actually deal with the household trash for 5.5 billion people. She had primarily dealt with breaking down large passenger planes and tankers, but with that role no longer being fulfilled, someone had to pick up the slack. Just as a small slowdown could lead to a long traffic jam, the pressure gradually spread and finally rose to the surface like this.

But no one was openly complaining about it.

They had bigger issues to worry about.

That city of fog was on high alert.

A curfew had not been put in place, but checkpoints had been set up while police cars and armored vehicles made irregular patrols. Helicopters equipped with floodlights were flying through the false night sky and patrol boats were navigating the rivers. The people who just wanted to grab a pint at their usual pub before staggering back home would sober up quick after being assaulted by a storm of police questioning.

A cheerful voice spoke from the disaster radio on the edge of a flower bed. It may have been left there by a homeless person driven away by the police.

“It seems the rising trend for Coronel Pharmaceutical stock is related to the global delays in garbage disposal.”

“Well, if unsanitary conditions lead to an outbreak of disease, sales of disinfectant and antibiotics are bound to rise. Also, Coronel has recently purchased a promising startup to enter the insecticide field, so they must expect a rise in the anti-fly and anti-roach markets as well.”

“Finding a way to benefit from anything is a human strength, isn’t it? Now, all the investors have already noted these things, so it is unlikely buying any shares at this point will amount to much. So what brand will be rising next? Could it be Gaia Agriculture who are receiving a flood of orders for home compost kits?”

“Stain Breweries might not be a bad guess. I bet a lot of people will want a drink after seeing the garbage flooding their city. Ha ha ha.”

In one such city, Karuta and Marika exchanged some quick words after stepping out of the RV.

“Okay, let’s do this as planned.”

“Got it.”

They set off in different directions. Also, Marika was not flying. She ran along the ground because taking flight and gathering attention would be an excellent way of getting herself shot down by one of those enormous light spears.

London’s streetlights kept things plenty bright despite the eclipse, although things were far from cheerful given the high alert. That was probably thanks to Yukino Arakawa herself. She provided power for the world, which allowed the pre-existing power stations to supply electricity for government supercomputers and particle accelerators that were making good progress on developing new drugs for incurable diseases.

And yet she had killed so many people like they were garbage.

It would make true philanthropists cry.

Karuta avoided those streetlights that felt like symbols of condescending charity and walked down a dark and deserted sidewalk while lightly touching the modified military flashlight in his blazer pocket. He muttered something under his breath while confirming its presence.

“Power up.”

The back of his blazer swelled out and the mysterious crystal girl named Aine emerged. She had silver hair, white clothing, a crystal sword, and a laser gun on the short end of the sword’s jitte-like branch. She gently held the weapon in her hand while quietly awaiting orders.

Karuta focused on the flower petals at his chest that would replenish themselves after scattering.

“You too, Aine. We’re heading different ways from here on.”

“…”

The pale girl’s cheeks puffed out a bit from within.

She may not have liked that idea.

“It’s about efficiency. I explained why this is the most effective plan, didn’t I?”

“Understood. Take care, Sacri-sama.”

“Do you really have to call me that?”

Neither of them sounded particularly happy with what the other said, but they still split up without any further words.

(London, hm?)

British food is bad.

Back at the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy, he had wondered if that commonly-held belief was really true, so he had snuck into the cafeteria kitchen and attempted a cooking experiment with the help of an exchange student from London. The result had been so-so and he had ended up with some indigestion, but since the exchange student himself had tilted his head when eating it, something of Karuta’s Japanese cooking may have wound up in those fish and chips. The truth of the matter remained a mystery to him.

That exchange student was no more.

Everyone there had been transformed into broken crystal statues.

“…”

He threw out his sentimentality and focused on the cold world of vengeance once more.

Their plan this time was simple.

“The Problem Solvers act as a kind of symbol, so they cannot leave their posts during the G21 summit. If they are seen running around, it will be reported as something being terribly wrong.”

A transmission that used no electricity reached his ears.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was speaking to him through the vibrations of his Crystal Blossom that was controlled by a printed circuit board smaller than a stamp.

“Yukino Arakawa is in the Palace of Westminster. That’s the national parliament building that is best known for its clocktower. It is nearly 10km from the RV as the bird flies. Sorry, but there was no getting any closer with all the checkpoints.”

“We’ll manage,” he replied. “Besides, it’s the light spears that worry me.”

“Really, isn’t a hit from that going to vaporize us no matter what?” cut in Marika. “And it moves at the speed of light, so you can’t dodge it after seeing it coming.”

“That is not necessarily true if you reach Regulation 3,” said the Student Council President in a joking way. “I don’t think we need to discuss Yukino’s God-Worshiping Magic. It is not worth thinking about. The average Crystal Blossom cannot stop something like that.”

“Then we just have to make sure she doesn’t fire it.”

“Well done, Karuta-kun. Yes, even if she has satellite weapons that can target any part of the world, how is she aiming them? She only ever fires on a single point. If we don’t let the impact of it all distract us, we might just be able to find a way through it.”

Karuta considered that point while staying in the shadows cast by the piles of trash taller than he was.

Targeting that school in the ocean would have been easy. Even the escort ships had been plenty large. Targeting by eye was simple enough on the empty ocean, but things would not be so simple in a labyrinthine metropolis like this.

Also, the Problem Solvers worked for the government and were seen to represent justice, so they would not have to rely on illegal things like bugs or spy cameras. They could use all of the official security measures to monitor the ordinary people.

“A lot of effort went into London’s counterterrorism infrastructure, so they have more than 5 million stationary security cameras, don’t they?” he asked.

“You can also add phones, intercoms, drive recorders, and countless other devices to the list,” added Kyouka. “The total number of lenses might be greater than 10 million.”

“Are you saying Yukino Arakawa is using that to aim?” asked Marika. “But…”

“That’s right, Marika. The data from that many cameras is far too much to manage with nothing but manpower. We just have to hope we aren’t caught by the program made to automatically detect suspicious people.”

That was why Karuta was intentionally choosing the shadows that were made all the deeper by the brightness of the streetlights.

London was a crime-prevention city with more than 5 million security cameras alone, but the plan felt accelerated and rushed. They must have had to acquire the requested number of cameras in a hurry and within a limited budget because each individual one was of poor quality. And cheap cameras had trouble with light contrast. When they automatically adjusted for the bright areas, the shadows would be entirely blotted out.

People could be identified with facial recognition, color charts, skeletal structure, and walking pattern these days, but none of that mattered when the original data was wiped out.

Also, the piles of trash bags rose up like walls in places not accounted for in the initial crime-prevention plan, so they would physically block the cameras’ view at times.

“But Yukino controls all the stuff in satellite orbit, doesn’t she?” asked Marika. “Can’t she look down at us from there?”

“She can, but satellite photos can’t use facial recognition as long as we don’t look up into the night sky,” said Karuta. “And we can intentionally alter our walking pattern. Night images end up grainy when the brightness is enhanced and thermo images only show the silhouette. That means she can tell someone is there, but not who.”

“?”

“Hee hee hee. Marika-san, London is a city of 8 million,” said Kyouka. “Include the tourists and commuters and that number passes 13 million. They might be on high alert, but there is no curfew in place and a lot of people are going to want to head out just to get videos or social media content. She can’t exactly vaporize someone just because they seem suspicious.”

“After all, London has more than 10 million lenses,” repeated Karuta.

There had been no witnesses other than her targets during the attack on the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy. It had essentially been the most wide-open closed room possible, so she had been allowed to use as much power as she liked.

But things were different here.

The Problem Solvers were the world’s strongest. That system and service that protected and glorified them would bind Yukino Arakawa here.

“But, Sacri-sama.”

Karuta received a transmission from Aine while a dark flame burned in the pit of his stomach.

“These are all assumptions and you do not know anything for certain.”

“…”

It was possible she had some unknown surveillance system that had already revealed their location to her.

Or she might lose her cool and fire her light spears on the city of London.

After thinking for a moment and slowly letting out a breath, Utagai Karuta responded.

“That is why we split up before starting toward the Palace of Westminster.”

If one of them was arrested or reduced to ashes, another could reach Yukino.

Once they were close enough to her, her absurdly powerful attack would hit her as well, so she could no longer use it.

That was their plan.

That was their choice.

The more he thought about it, the dizzier he felt. He made a point of regulating his breathing while he passed a group of walking police officers and some police cars. Since all he had in his pocket was a flashlight, he was not in any danger if they did stop him, but he still did not want any information to reach Yukino at the top.

While he just barely slipped past both the mechanical lenses and the human eyes, a voice informed him that something was not right.

“Hold on a second. This is odd. What’s going on?”

“Omotesandou-san?”

He spoke up in confusion, but he noticed it too before long.

It reached his ears, or maybe his skin.

A strange tension filled him like a weak electric current coursing through the surface of his body. It was like a premonition of a coming explosion. The police must have received word of something via radio because they grew much more active.

“Hey, you there!!”

“Kh. …Yes?”

A deep voice called out to him and one of the police shined a flashlight on him.

He narrowed his eyes and covered his face with a hand to protect his eyes while the middle-aged officer jogged over.

An unpleasant pressure bore down on him and he gradually lost control of his pulse.

But the police officer let out a breath and said something he did not expect.

“Are you a resident? Or are you a traveler? Either way, you should find a building to get inside!”

“Um?”

“It’s starting,” said the police officer with tense sweat on his face. “A riot is starting.”

### 017. Part 3

Time continued to flow even during that disaster, so it was late at night before long.

Aine loved small spaces, so she had retired to the prototype spaceship shaped like a bamboo leaf (because it was creepy having her arms and legs stick out of Karuta’s body as she tossed and turned in her sleep) and strawberry blonde Marika went to sleep in her usual spot on the sofa bed (with only the one sheet covering her nudity yet again). She ended up tossing and turning a lot herself, so that sheet seemed worryingly inadequate.

The faint light of a laptop screen was the only thing illuminating the RV at the moment. A cable connected the device to a smartphone.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was staring at the computer screen in just a large dress shirt.

“Are you still not going to sleep?” asked Utagai Karuta from behind her.

“I have to look after these babies.”

She apparently meant the computer. That phrasing made him curious how she mentally categorized Crystal Girl Aine.

The screen had a few windows open, but they all had a ton of alphanumeric text scrolling quickly by. He could guess she was trying to break some kind of encryption, but he doubted human eyes were quick enough to follow what was going on. His weren’t, at least.

“C’mon, it won’t take that long to decrypt. Karuta-kun, you can go ahead and get to sleep.”

“If it won’t take that long, then I’ll stay up with you.”

“Oh, dear. Trapped by my own wording.”

She gave a bewitching smile and leaned her head a bit to the left. He did not realize what that meant at first, but when she traced her finger along the shoulder that’s smooth skin was left exposed by the baggy dress shirt, he finally realized what she was inviting him to do.

“I’d be too embarrassed.”

“It’s my thanks for staying up with me.”

He got the feeling she would not move on unless he went along with it. He endured the silence for a bit, but he finally gave in to the awkward elevator mood.

He placed his chin on the shoulder she had “opened” for him. They both viewed the screen as if he were rubbing his cheek against hers while embracing her from behind.

He could sense the heat of her soft cheek and the scent of her hair.

And while giving him all that, she also whispered to him.

“Once we know what is inside the giant sword woman’s phone, we should have a fair amount of information on the other Problem Solvers. Then we can finally get to work.”

“…Right.”

“Karuta-kun, are you hoping the decryption fails?”

Since he was essentially embracing her from behind, she must have felt him jump ever so slightly. She may have also noticed his elevated heartrate.

If not for the need to protect the defenseless students and teachers, they may not have had to bare their fangs like animals.

If not for their revenge, the people in this RV might have been able to smile together in an ordinary classroom or clubroom.

### 018. Part 3

The promised time had arrived.

It was better called early morning than late night. Karuta and Marika left the RV at 4:10 AM, which was just barely before dawn. They were in a truck stop for long-distance drivers. Those places were usually busy even late at night, but this early morning period was apparently an exception. Everyone had their seat reclined while they slept below a blanket with an empty stomach.

The sky was changing from dark blue to purple.

Just like in his memories of the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy, he found it difficult to imagine the arrangement of the stars as the darkness faded away.

Curly twintails Marika looked up and trembled a bit in the chilly air before speaking up in annoyance.

“I can tell why we chose this time. Of course, we’re headed to the weapon production plant of the world’s largest arms company that didn’t even get help from the giant sword woman, so I doubt the place is this quiet.”

“If we only knew Anastasia was there, we wouldn’t have to sneak around like this. This is going to be the final battle, so we might as well break in and end it quickly.”

Of course, that assumed this opponent was someone they could defeat that way.

As they walked out of the truck stop and toward the semiconductor plant, they received a transmission from Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka who was waiting back at the RV.

“Karuta-kun. This is the world’s most secure factory, but do you remember how to get in?”

“It’s not really all that complicated.”

To keep out industrial spies and terrorists, the factory would have cameras and sensors set up inside and out. There were sure to be a thousand or even ten thousand in all.

But there was a way around that.

Simply put…

“Sensors are meaningless if they can’t sound the alarm after detecting an intruder,” he said.

“Yes, we only have to set things up so the alarm will sound around the clock and refuse to turn off,” said Kyouka. “Security will probably work hard to search the area at first, but they will gradually give up on that. Once they realize the sensors are malfunctioning, it will not take long for them to start yelling at the alarm to stop.”

“And no will notice us sneaking in when all the sensors are already sounding the alarm? Wow, that’s like the polar opposite of ninja action,” joked Marika while walking alongside him.

It might seem ridiculous, but there was no chance of sneaking in and covertly achieving their goal when they wanted to fight one of those Problem Solvers. Chaos would arrive sooner or later, so it all came down to deciding when that was.

The factory grounds were a 3km square and they included employee dorms since it existed in such an empty area, so it looked something like a small village. It was all locked down by a fence and gate, though. There were also a few large, boxy factory buildings and warehouses for temporary storage of products and materials.

On the way there, they spotted an unmanned transformer substation surrounded by a tall fence. Backup power would likely kick in if they destroyed that and it would require some very technical skills to bypass the switchover and cut power to the sensors.

But if they only wanted to cause a commotion, things were much easier.

“Marika, blast that thing,” said Karuta.

“Oh, so we’re finally getting started.”

After she said “Tezcatlipoca, power up”, the Crystal Blossom worn at her chest shattered and covered her arms and legs with translucent armor and wings. She swung her rapier to fire a laser beam from the unit inside the reversed guard that resembled a broken umbrella on a windy day. She sliced right through the fence and the boxy concrete building of the transformer substation.

Alarms began blaring from the sleeping factory and lights switched on with the brightness of a baseball night game.

Karuta gave a snort of laughter.

He had already experienced this while traveling through London while the city was on high alert. Bright lights seemed like they would help locate suspicious people, but the extreme contrast actually created blind spots in the shadows. It looked like they had little to worry about.

“Okay, we have to play the rest by ear.”

“This is getting exciting!”

Marika again used her laser beam to slice through the chain link fence to gain access to the factory grounds.

But something seemed off once they stepped inside.

“What?”

“Is something wrong?” asked the Student Council President.

“Um, we set off the alarms as planned, but there’s no one inside,” answered Marika. “There’s no sign of the security PMC or any workers who should be checking around after this extra-loud alarm clock woke them up.”

“…”

The alarms and bright lights most likely reacted automatically when the sensors detected something. They were overcome by an eerie feeling similar to arriving at school like normal but finding yourself alone there even as the bell rang to signal the start of class.

Then all the alarms went dead.

They had chosen a method that would make the alarms hard to shut off, yet everything went silent.

A young woman’s voice spoke from the emergency broadcast speakers set up around the area.

“No need to be so shy. The doors are unlocked and the PMC has been called off. Hurry on in. I really wanted to speak with you.”

“…”

“Whether you want to speak or not, you do need to meet with me, don’t you? You must be dying to kill me since I’m the last survivor. So hurry it up. I am waiting in the general reception lobby of Building A Floor 1.”

“(Hey, Karuta.)”

“(Yeah. We know there’s someone suspicious here, but there’s no guarantee they’ll be waiting there.)”

They stood back to back to keep an eye on their surroundings as they slowly made their way toward Building A.

Meanwhile, the young woman continued chatting from the speakers.

“Hey, Utagai Karuta. What are your thoughts on the Threat?”

“…”

“Oh, did I put you on your guard? It was not easy gathering information on you. I mean, checking the bodies wasn’t really an option when they all sank with the ship, so it was extremely difficult figuring out who we failed to kill. The report cards held by various governments and that fully separate Crystal Blossom you call Aine ended up being the keys there. A rare weapon can have its downsides in practice.”

This was more than just a unilateral broadcast.

She knew where they were and could see his wordless reaction.

“I don’t care what the Threat is at this point. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn you made it all up.”

“Ha ha. But that wouldn’t make any sense at all.”

It was her response that did not seem to make sense.

But he doubted she was lying at this point. She was not begging for her life, so she felt no need to worry how they felt about her. If she was going to silence them through death, she would not need to protect her image with them.

So what did that mean?

“The Threat does exist,” said the scratchy voice coming from the speaker. “It is hopelessly powerful, it is brutal with no room for negotiation, and not even the five of us working together could defeat it. It is known as a Metal-Derived Autonomous-Origin Higher Lifeform Combat Weapon, but who knows what that means. Whatever it is, it causes real damage and the world’s governments must not have been satisfied with how we were just barely restraining it. That is why they decided to develop and introduce new technologies such as your Crystal Blossoms.”

“Then why did you crush our school underfoot? Couldn’t we have all just gotten along?”

“Wasn’t fighting us enough to tell that we use entirely different formats?”

Her words seemed to decisively cast something aside.

“Your power is useful. It has in fact driven us to this point. But suddenly bringing a new weapon to the battlefield is certain to introduce confusion into the maintenance and utilization of all the weapons. We would trip each other up and fail to live up to our potential and that would cause the barely-contained equilibrium to collapse. We had restricted the damage to the occasional region or city, but from that moment on, the future of the 5.5 billion population would only grow darker and darker.”

“…”

“More power is not always a good thing. We suggested a future where the five of us continued to be updated until we could one day defeat the Threat. Everything beyond that would only hinder that future.”

“Are you kidding me? You slaughtered so many people just because they followed a different standard, yet you expect us to repent?”

“No.”

Did she resent Karuta’s group just like they did the Problem Solvers after their friends were killed?

“There is a punishment for every crime. Either I will kill you or you will kill me. But even if you defeat me, you will not escape this hell. Once you become the world’s strongest, the reality of the Threat will be thrust before you. No matter what happens, you will not find rest.”

Marika’s eyes wandered as she asked a question.

“Damn her. Is she really this insane? You killed so many people and you aren’t even talking in terms of good and evil? To hell with that! Do you not even realize what you did was wrong!?”

“We merely held different positions. And do you remember what we were tasked with protecting? You should have been able to see it from that giant ship.”

It was like a decorative piece of junk.

It was a skinny silhouette rising vertically from the horizon.

Karuta recalled what Kazamuki Gekiha had said while laughing.

“The space…elevator? What about it?”

“The world is reshaped by the victors. There was an age of mythology, there was an age of natural science, there was an age of majority rule, there was an age of God-Worshiping Magic, and now an age of Crystal Magic is arriving.”

“And you didn’t want that?”

“It all comes back to the different positions we held. We brought our magic to the table because we sensed that ordinary scientific technology would not be enough to construct a fortress against the Threat. The planetary expansion of Sunny Side Up was one option. But there were plenty of others. Elicia wanted to build a submarine city that perfectly recycled all of its waste, Yukino wanted the aforementioned planetary expansion, Jessie wanted to use largescale cold sleep to pseudo time travel tens of thousands of years into the future when the world’s environment would have recovered, and Susannia wanted to use special suits based on biological structures to endure the harsh environment. I too brought an option to the table like that. Although mine was rather bizarre. But more than that, it came down to whether or not we could construct a means of combating the Threat under own power. You could even say that was the requirement to join the Problem Solvers. Not all of it was necessary. As long as just one of us bore fruit, we would have a chance of defeating the Threat.”

“You don’t mean…”

“Yes, as you Crystal Magicians rose to prominence, you got in the way of those things. Your side effects – that is, the absurdly tall buildings and ridiculously large ships and aircraft – sucked the resources dry in the blink of an eye. No matter how bizarre a fortress civilization the five of us tried to create, your new technologies would get in the way. The planet would dry up and humanity would be wiped out before the Threat could do it. Nothing developed from Crystal Magic can defeat the Threat.”

How much of what she was saying could they believe? Karuta could not tell how much was true, but he knew something in there was not right. But as he focused on that camouflage story, he could not deny one thing. Whatever the specifics were, the birth of Crystal Magic was threatening to thoughtlessly destroy everything God-Worshiping Magic had built up.

It was not an issue of each individual power.

The rise of that new power was like an invisible hand attempting to drag God-Worshiping Magic from its throne.

Was that what the Problem Solvers had been fighting?

“For one thing, we never considered you Crystal Magicians yourselves to be good or evil,” continued the voice over the speaker. “The real issue was the Original Crystal Embryo. That gave humanity something we did not need. We could have continued combating the Threat with decent results, but that was getting in our way. Its thoughts and lifespan are unknown, but Crystal Magicians can only be found within humanity. Perhaps it hopes to wipe out the entire species and let a new green ecosystem spring forth over the course of tens of thousands of years. Perhaps it wishes to reorganize the pyramid so humans are no longer at the top.”

“…”

“Have you started to question it yourself now? Not even I know what will become of humanity if we abandon any new path and stick with what we have. Perhaps the resources and food will quickly run out and we will all die, or perhaps Crystal Magicians will find a new solution that not even the Original Crystal Embryo considered. But I do not like having the choice taken from us. Humanity must decide whether we do something or not. We do not need to cling to the skirt of that Original Crystal Embryo.”

They had nearly arrived at Building A.

Karuta and Marika gulped while the speaker continued.

“And this is not an issue of good or evil. It is about different positions. There was an age of mythology, an age of natural science, and an age of God-Worshiping Magic, and then Crystal Magicians were rising to the forefront. This is nothing complicated. The world is reshaped by the strongest. The strongest get to decide how the world works. In our attempt to work together and combat the Threat, we once got in someone’s way and led to the deaths of our predecessors and now others are similarly getting in our way. We remain the strongest until we are eliminated. When we are defeated is when the title of strongest is passed on. That is all it means to be strongest. It is a flimsy thing that leaves you so readily.”

“You…”

He shuddered.

He finally understood why she did not work with the other Problem Solvers. She wanted to combat the threat in every way she could and she wanted to use her full strength to achieve victory, but she did not think she would survive in the end. If other people’s lives were necessary to achieve victory, she would crush them and she would not hesitate even if her own name was on that list. She made no attempt to avoid the inevitable fall awaiting her. She would wait for it to reach her and she would crush it head-on once it did. She had survived this long that way. And she truly stood at the peak if she had managed to hold the title of the strongest with so little planning behind it.

“Simple, isn’t it? It might happen today or it might not. That is how we have lived our lives.”

They never arrived at the general reception lobby of Building A.

Something happened before they could.

The entire giant boxy factory was slashed diagonally from within.

Everything collapsed and so much dust filled the scene.

But that screen was sliced through and swept away so nothing remained.

Below the purple sky, a woman grinned at Karuta and Marika. She had long, wavy blonde hair and she wore a tight skirt military uniform with a yellow and black coloration that signified danger.

“I beseech thee, Anubis, Egyptian God of Judgment.”

This was Anastasia Blast.

She was the final Problem Solver and the undeniable world’s strongest.

She defined today’s justice, but she might not define tomorrow’s.

“So let us begin yet another day in our apocalyptic lives. There is no good or evil here. This is no more than a waking dream until I destroy someone or they destroy me. The shape of the world supported by the ‘strongest’ is no more than an illusion drifting in the gap between dreams.”

### 019. Part 4

How did they reach that point?

That bloated broadcast station was 200 stories tall.

It was bound to have a solid security network of guards, cameras, and sensors, but security was surprisingly lax at one point: the orange-dyed rooftop.

“No one would ever expect someone to enter a 200-story building from the very top,” laughed strawberry blonde Marika with translucent armor covering her body.

There was of course a heliport on the station rooftop, so they would have the bare minimum of control equipment. The entire station could function as a largescale broadcast tower so they did not have to use an external one and they could use the distortion in that signal to detect any approaching aircraft.

But.

What if?

“If you fly straight up along the building’s wall, the radar can’t detect you,” said Karuta after being carried up to the top. “Although a normal plane or helicopter would definitely crash into the building if they tried it.”

At 200 stories, they were more than 1000m up. The oppressive equatorial heat was swept away and replaced by a light chill. The nearby planter even had lovely alpine plants growing in it.

“If you ask me, we won’t be accepting interviews at TV stations.”

He suddenly recalled what his old friend had said.

“Won’t Crystal Magicians like us be more like special forces? Y’know, we’ll be wrapped in a veil of mystery that gathers the public’s attention without having to show off to the media. But we’ll be able to go see the movies based on Crystal Magicians and laugh at how inaccurate they are. Heh heh heh.”

“…”

Come to think of it, hadn’t that flipbook in the corner of his stuck-together textbook been an imagined scene from those movies he dreamed of?

Karuta narrowed his eyes, let out a white breath, and whispered under his breath.

“Power up.”

The back of his purple blazer swelled out unnaturally and pale Crystal Girl Aine appeared from within.

“Aine, prepare your weapon. We’re up against one of the Problem Solvers, so we can’t hold back in the slightest. When I give the signal, you give this your all from the very first move.”

“Understood.”

Aine swung her right hand and what looked like a crystal katana appeared there. The base had a jitte-like fork with a laser gun on the short end.

“You too, Marika.”

“Leave it to me.”

There were sensors on the rooftop exit, but they would mean nothing before long.

They did not even need to cut the sensor when the entire station would be flooded with alerts.

Karuta and Aine pressed against either side of the door while Marika headed to the boxes lined up where they would not get in the way of the heliport. Those were the large exterior air conditioning unit, the water tank, and the gear boxes for the many elevators.

“Now we have to wait for that Student Council President.”

They took their positions and waited for things to begin.

And begin they did.

The bright guide lights for helicopters all went out.

As soon as the TV station building blacked out, Aine’s sword sliced through the door’s hinges like a hot knife through butter and Karuta kicked the door in. Marika jumped into an elevator shaft through a different entrance.

The Student Council President’s voices reached them through the vibration of their Crystal Blossoms.

Omotesandou Kyouka’s job was to use gas line explosions to destroy the normal cables and the transformers outside the broadcast station and then to observe the TV station using binoculars.

“Elicia is using the third VIP elevator from the left. Um, it should be stopped at the 190th floor.”

“Got it.”

“The power should be back up in about five minutes, so make contact before then!”

Karuta and Aine ran down the dark emergency stairs to reach the elevator in question. He would have to use the crystal girl to neutralize anyone they ran into along the way, but fortunately, that was not necessary. That was probably thanks to the highest area being used for the executives, so it was nowhere near the actual production area. There were very few people this high up.

“It’s about to begin.”

Utagai Karuta clenched his teeth as he left the emergency stairway and ran down a hallway.

The fear in his mind was joined by an odd heat.

“It all starts here!! Aine, we’re about to challenge Elicia ‘Saurus’ Luxverg, one of the world’s strongest with the Problem Solvers! You need to be ready too!!”

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

They arrived at the 190th floor’s elevator hall.

Aine’s sword sliced through the metal door and Karuta helped pry it open.

And on the other side…

### 020. Part 4

The Palace of Westminster was the national parliament building symbolized by its giant clocktower. It was blocked off by even more barricades and armored vehicles than the rest of London during the high alert.

An Asian woman with short black hair sat on the rooftop.

She wore a nun’s habit…expect the slits in the skirt were too risqué and she was not wearing a cross anywhere on her person. She was also holding a metal staff taller than she was. She had a tall but slender build and her closed eyes gave her a somehow calm air.

Her name was Yukino Arakawa.

She was the Problem Solver who used the optical bombing known as a light spear.

This job should have been a simple one.

The death of Elicia Luxverg, AKA Saurus, had been a painful blow. They had also learned that the assassin was here in London. But the city was on high alert, so if anyone did anything suspicious, the network of police would immediately restrain them and she could drop a light spear there. They would have no chance to dodge or defend before they were vaporized along with a few police officers.

Yes.

If she received an alert or two, she could have dealt with this so easily!

“We demand all of the governments and the Problem Solvers release what information they have on the Threat!!”

“You have a duty to explain what happened to the missing countries, regions, and cities!!”

“How can we sleep knowing that could be us tomorrow!? I have a kid at home!!”

(Why must they all do this!?)

As that deluge of voices reached her like a distant rumbling, Yukino softly clenched her teeth behind her calm expression.

Her earphones played the voices of requests from police officers who did not properly understand the situation.

They were not asking for help from the power of the Problem Solvers.

“Problem Solvers, do not move from your current positions!”

“We must make sure the G21 summit comes to a close with the best possible security in place, so we lose if you move from your posts.”

“Don’t use tear gas! Bring out the water trucks! Bloody hell, why don’t any of the shops have their shutters down!?”

If her trap was not functioning, she was effectively in the jungle with a ferocious beast.

The safest option would be to leave this place and go into hiding, but the police would not let her. They insisted she stay put and get attacked.

She was seething inside, but then someone else contacted her.

It was a fellow Problem Solver.

“Kah kah kah. Don’t get so upset. And you call yourself one of the great Problem Solvers?”

“…”

“Besides, the police don’t know what’s going on. Not even that Elicia kicked the bucket. Of course they’re going to take a laxer view of things.”

“I am aware of that.”

“The media has a strong presence here and there are also a lot of amateur video obsessives who think they’re part of the media. Keep grimacing and you’ll lose all that pretentious vanity you love so much.”

Yukino thought for a moment.

The Problem Solvers preserved global order. If they were shaken, it would cause unnecessary chaos in countries and cities around the world. That was why their external image was so important, but that was also why they could not afford to be wounded in any noticeable way.

Even if it was only a scratch achieved through some kind of nightmarish beginner’s luck.

After completing the necessary calculations in her head, she slowly stood up from the roof.

“Then there is something I can do about it,” she said to her colleague. “I beseech thee, Lugh, Celtic God of Light.”

“Hold on, you aren’t doing that in London, are you? I know I’m not one to talk, but you can’t exactly ‘hold back’ with your weapon. You should let one of the others deal with this or it’ll just be a slaughter.”

“If necessary, I can have Anastasia take care of it.”

“Are you for real?” The person on the line sounded half shocked and half amused. “You really plan on crushing London, a city of 8 million? And in the middle of a G21 summit at that?”

The nun with large slits in her habit raised her staff as she responded.

She did not hesitate to give this answer.

“If necessary.”

### 021. Part 4

The Problem Solvers were the world’s strongest. They were the one clear method of fighting back against the Threat that was shaking international society. That meant great fortune naturally gathered around them along with plenty of assets, property, and real estate.

Finding their hideout or base was not as simple as finding the house in a residential district they had taken out a loan to purchase. They had nearly 2000 properties registered in their names around the world.

Twintails Marika breathed an exasperated sigh in the RV.

“This isn’t going to narrow anything down at all.”

“In fact, it makes them feel like international businessmen who are so constantly moving around the world that they don’t even think of things in terms of having a home or nationality,” said Karuta. “It’s more like they simply borrow some space in a mansion or luxury apartment wherever they happen to be at the time.”

“But can you see any strange activity among all that?” asked Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka while using the projector’s remote to display their list of data distributed as dots across a map. “It seems they have completely given up on guarding the space elevator and are flying around the world with their activities scheduled out to the second. Really, all five of them working together like for the elevator was a rarity and it looks like they generally work alone.”

“But they’re the center of the global infrastructure, right?” asked Marika. “Then can’t we lie in wait at those facilities?”

The Student Council President’s answer was simple.

“How many seats do you think they have in the five continents excluding Antarctica? They might each specialize in one continent, but their influence extends to the entire world. And each of those locations are so heavily guarded that making a careless approach would be enough to wear us down. And I am talking about the large armies of ‘ordinary people’ who gather around profit. Individuals like us who have no real backing can’t hope to stand up to something like that.”

“…”

“Ugh,” groaned Marika.

Kyouka laughed.

“Do not worry. There is a loophole. It looks like they have a tendency of returning to a specific location after completing a few jobs. It is not a stop on the way to their next destination and this is something they have done for a while and continue to do now.”

“Where is it?”

“Finland. The very country we are hiding in now.”

It was an Arctic world outside.

Looking through the frosted windows showed thick snow and a lake covered in ice. It was hard to believe they had been taking classes in a sweaty equatorial region not long ago.

“This is most likely their true hideout or base. Whenever something happens, they gather here and hold a secret discussion amongst themselves. They do not need to worry about the paparazzi, leaks to social media, or laser listening devices here, so this is where they reach a consensus. If they do not want anyone overhearing their conversation, I imagine they will hold it here. This is much more useful than that space elevator they have already abandoned.”

The five Problem Solvers had already been reduced to two. Having more than half of them killed was sure to have shaken even the world’s strongest. Their presence at the usual elevator would stand out too much. They wanted to escape the rush of government officials and media reporters so they could let out the feelings building in their guts and plan a comeback as soon as possible, so there was a good chance they would be here.

“If we happen across them here, we get what we want,” said Karuta. “And if they aren’t here, that’s convenient too. We know they visit here frequently, so we can set up a bomb or sabotage the gas line or something. Then we just have to watch from a distance and wait for someone to show up.”

“Also, I found some personal information on the remaining members. Only the smallest piece, though,” added the Student Council President. “The remaining two are named Susannia Evans and Anastasia Blast.”

“That’s all?” After waiting for more and receiving only silence, Marika voiced her disappointment. “Um, isn’t there something about the God-Worshiping Magic they use or records of their past battles?”

“I said it was only the smallest piece, didn’t I?” Kyouka did not sound any more pleased about it. “I get the feeling they knew the details of each other’s magic so well they did not bother keeping any records on it. Maybe it’s like how you don’t bother typing out your own phone number into your address book.”

“Th-then forget how they fight. What about their field of infrastructure? We might be able to figure something out about their magic from that.”

Marika dug in her heels because she wanted any information she could get, but the Student Council President sighed.

“Susannia controls largescale agriculture. She apparently helps establish food bases and holds back the spreading of the deserts. It is said her presence in the business world is felt strongest in Africa, but she is working to increase the greenery in all five continents save Antarctica. Since there is no guarantee she will be in Africa, it is fortunate that we could narrow things down to Finland. On the other hand, it is unclear what role exactly she plays in the largescale agriculture. Civilian satellites have only shown extremely large mechanized farms. Is she controlling the plants, controlling the machines, or controlling the moisture or weather?”

Karuta had heard of this too.

With uniform largescale farms covering most of the world’s grain-producing regions, individual regional brands were dying out. Specialized farms that produced things like French grapes, American beef, German potatoes, or Japanese rice worked to create the best possible version of their products through selective breeding and genetic modification and, once their flavor and nutrition reached acceptable levels, those genetics were incorporated into the grain-producing region farms that spread to the horizons in order to earn vast fortunes. It was sort of like a buried treasure tour where you were given a vague map of where to dig.

The food Karuta’s group ate every day was soaked with the sweat and tears of their friends’ killer.

And her flesh and blood were baring their fangs.

“Um, then what about Anastasia?” asked Marika.

“The military.”

Marika had been hoping for a more pleasant answer, but this was an even greater bombshell.

“Anastasia Blast is most strongly associated with North America and, unlike the other four, she is directly involved in managing the military infrastructure. But it is unclear what exactly that entails. Is she providing the necessary intelligence and firepower for the troops on the battlefield, is she transporting personnel or materiel, or is she developing or producing new weapons? In fact, what does it even mean to control the military on a global level? If she holds a central position that surpasses the interests of individual nations, then how does the world even function?”

None of this provided any answers.

Even intellectual Omotesandou Kyouka was reduced to questioning her own information.

Karuta summed it up for them.

“So in the end, we’re going in blind.”

“I did find photos of them.”

The Student Council President used the projector remote to display two photos on the wall.

The redheaded woman with a long braid was Susannia Evans.

The blonde woman with wavy hair was Anastasia Blast.

This part alone looked something like the resumes sent in to a modeling agency. Did they have natural good looks, had they spent a lot of money to that end, or was it both? And no matter how beautiful they were, they were undoubtedly two of the world’s strongest five.

These monsters were powerful enough to stand alongside the dinosaur, light spear, and giant sword women.

But it was fortunate to have photos.

At the very least, they would not foolishly attack the wrong person. They did not want to start a direct confrontation if they could help it, so it meant a lot that they could start fighting without having to call out to them and confirm their identity first.

On the other hand, that was all this gave them.

Even with extensive planning beforehand, they had only just barely won out in their previous battles. The tragedy on that sunken ship had hinted at what to do. But things were different now. They had no idea what Susannia and Anastasia could do.

When first seeing that dinosaur, Karuta had not known what to do and ended up crawling among the broken crystal statues. He had been unable to prevent the 700 students and teachers from being trapped in a nearly eternal sleep.

They were up against something on that same level here.

And they had to win the first time.

It would be just like that initial hell.

It would be a repeat of that nightmare.

They were essentially throwing themselves back into that colorful world of trauma they had never wanted to experience again.

“We have to survive this,” said Utagai Karuta.

They were avengers, so this was an odd thing to say. They were supposed to be the ones who snuck up and killed their opponents in their sleep.

But this was how he saw it.

“Aine, Marika, Omotesandou-san. It all comes down to this, so let’s pull through.”

### 022. Part 4

There was no need to hold back at this point.

Utagai Karuta summoned Crystal Girl Aine from his back and shouted to Marika who had already equipped her Crystal Blossom armor and rapier.

“Aine, you move out ahead! Marika, you take flight!!”

He gave instructions using his physical voice instead of the Crystal Blossom vibrations and, while Anastasia was focused on them, he moved straight toward her.

He pulled his modified military flashlight from his blazer’s pocket, activated a blinding beam of light made by combining a laser pointer with the special lens used for printers, and silently shined it toward Anastasia’s face.

But.

“Do you know what magic is?”

She vanished.

He heard a distortion in the black-uniformed woman’s voice and suddenly she was standing right next to where the laser was shining.

“That term refers to all attempts to understand the world around you that are based on worshiping the divine or believing in a religion. Can an arrangement of cards explain the Tree of Life? Can a special calendar reveal the day of the world’s destruction? Can a certain series of dance steps summon the rain at any time? The specifics go by many different names, but the root principle is the same.”

“Kh!”

Karuta continued to aim his blinding laser from the ground while twintails Marika switched her rapier’s guard to its reversed firing mode and launched truly deadly lasers from the sky, but none of them hit. They were not allowed to hit. Even with the speed of light on their side, Anastasia kept “disappearing” and they could not get in a proper hit.

(What? Is she teleporting or something? Or is she reading our thoughts as we aim!?)

“It is a simple matter.” Anastasia remained standing still. I said magic is all attempts to understand the world around you, didn’t I? That means it also applies to any attempts to understand the Newtonian physics that allows you to tangibly experience invisible quantum physics.”

“What?”

“Simply put, I can dodge attacks made of light if I move faster than the speed of light. And light is constantly hitting my body. If I add my own strength to the light that is already pushing my body, it establishes the following equation: (The speed of light) + (My athletic ability) = (My current speed). If I can add just a little bit on top of the standard value for light, then of course I can surpass it.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

That explanation was so absurd he suspected it was solely meant to confuse him.

It was such childish logic. No, even small children understood nothing could exceed the speed of light. Anastasia was producing such extreme results, yet the foundation of it was contradictory to an extreme. That creeped Karuta out to no end.

“And this is not limited to the speed of light. You saw the other Problem Solvers, did you not? Horoscopes and calendars? Your Crystal Magic may simply read the flow of power between heaven and earth, but did you really think that was enough to manage the world’s strongest power?”

“…”

The dinosaur, the light spear, the giant sword, and regeneration.

It was true those each felt like the strongest because they were from such different categories.

Any attempt to understand them had been abandoned by categorizing it all as God-Worshiping Magic.

He could not hope to understand them, yet there they were. That may have been what made them so frightening.

“There was an age of dinosaurs, an age of stone tools, an age of staffs and crystal balls, an age of guns and steam, and many others. I suppose the previous age was of electricity and petroleum. But we wiped it out. It was our ability to do that which established the age of God-Worshiping Magic and earned us the title of world’s strongest.” Anastasia laughed. “God-Worshiping Magic users are not brilliant geniuses or wise sages. In a way, we are the dumb ones. The power pouring down from space, the energy rising from the center of the earth, and the invisible mountains and valleys created by those things colliding are all irrelevant. While you stare at those occult weather maps, we create our own bomb cyclones. Because we can. …And once you reach that point, you reach a world where the speed of light is such a flimsy restriction.”

Her power felt like some kind of joke.

This was the definition of magic itself.

She was an incomprehensible monster in human form. Karuta felt his skin crawl while facing her, but then he realized a fundamental fact.

This was not over yet.

She could move faster than light. It felt like there was no hitting an enemy like that, but that was not true. That was simply how most people would view it since they thought of the speed of light as an absolute boundary.

After all…

(Anastasia’s childish form of evil does not think of…no, does not believe that light is the world’s fastest. She believes that plenty of things move faster than light.)

He gulped.

(So she knows how to conquer light, but she does not believe that is enough to bend the world to her will. It could be vibrations, or electrons, or wind, or fire. She believes that plenty of other ordinary things have the possibility of surpassing light. So, so, so…)

“Aine! Hit her directly!!”

(This only lets her dodge laser attacks since they use light, so another form of attack has a chance of hitting her!!)

A roar of wind came from a katana made from a translucent, crystal-like material. It had a jitte-like branch on the back of the blade and a special laser gun unit was attached there. Crystal Girl Aine’s clear white dress fluttered around her as she raced forward with weapon in hand.

There was less than 20m between them.

Her nonhuman legs could clear that distance in a single second.

But Anastasia laughed and took a step back.

That was all it took to kill Aine’s speed. She stopped. For some reason, she was running and running but could not reach the woman in a yellow and black uniform.

“I move back every time you move forward, thus you can never reach me.”

“Now you’re dragging out old Greek nonsense!?” shouted Marika from the sky while she charged in like a meteor with rapier in hand.

Anastasia could not use that method for an attack from above since she could not sink down into the ground. She could not bind the attack with the magic that let her ignore distance and speed, so Marika should have been able to reach her. However…

“The moon is pulling me toward it, so I can fly.”

“!!!???”

Anastasia disappeared.

Marika quickly pulled back her rapier, but then the weapon and her right arm’s armor were blown away. Even though she was using a barrier that (unlike Karuta’s) could deflect machinegun fire. The roar came a moment later. The twintail girl just barely avoided crashing and instead made an unsteady emergency landing.

Anastasia had passed through at a speed too fast to follow with the naked eye and her own right fist had been destroyed and her arm bones were sticking out at her elbow.

She stopped in midair, laughed, and kissed the back of her destroyed hand.

“I can kiss it and make it better.”

What happened next goes without saying.

There were no time limits or detailed rules like there were for Crystal Magic.

Sweat poured from Karuta’s body while he looked up from the ground thanks to the ordinary bonds of gravity.

Instead of tension or a fear of the unknown, seeing the true nature of magic filled him with disgust.

It was not that Anastasia did not know how things really worked.

She had said she could fly because “the moon is pulling me toward it”. That basis required knowledge of universal gravitation, but she still prioritized her own thoughts and believed in them without a shred of doubt. Because that was the age and the world they lived in. Was this her pride in claiming the title of strongest and remaking the world as she saw fit? Even if all the possibilities of every other parallel world would not allow this ridiculous conclusion, this world was different.

This was magic that distorted a world its user had truly never seen. It was a lot like drawing a map of the ends of the earth based on your imagination instead of actually going there.

(What do we do? What do we do!? This mixed up feeling from her is different from that dinosaur or light spear! It’s way worse! Is it even possible to come up with and follow a plan for someone like this? Can we really outdo the bomb cyclone itself simply by reading the weather map and following what it says? That just doesn’t sound realistic. She takes it so far I can’t see any way to outdo her!!)

“Sacri-sama.”

Aine jumped back toward him with her special katana in hand.

Marika waved from where she had landed a short distance away. She had taken a hit from Anastasia, but she could apparently keep fighting.

“Give me your instructions,” said Aine. “What should I do next?”

“Good question.”

That response came not from Karuta but from Anastasia in the sky overhead.

The yellow and black uniform woman smiled with the purple sky behind her.

“This is a taste of our apocalyptic everyday life. We are always destroying someone and we will be destroyed by someone someday. You started this, so let us end it. Are you out of options? What happened to your trump cards? Is it over already? Then it would seem today is not the day I die. I will hold onto the title of world’s strongest till at least tomorrow.”

Was this how it worked?

He did not know how many secrets and mysteries the world held. He had no way of checking to see which ones would blossom and cover the world if they were supported in the normal way. But their light faded so easily when up against something as baffling as this God-Worshiping Magic that was so mixed up and seemed entirely impervious to their every effort.

“All I did was recite a simple hex, focus my own actions on defense, and respond with the appropriate reactions to your attacks.”

They watched as floating Anastasia pulled something from the chest of her tight skirt military uniform.

The thick card set looked a lot like it could be for poker, but that was unlikely.

Or perhaps this was the original form of a card set.

“So now I will go on the offensive. Didn’t I say that magic refers to all attempts to understand the world around you? And that one of the prime examples is trying to explain the Tree of Life with tarot cards?”

The cards flew.

They followed some sort of rules to spread out like a shield in front of her.

“Technically, this is not how they are meant to be used, but I do promise you it will be entertaining.”

And.

“Enjoy my strongest.”

The ground broke apart and a giant form rose up behind Anastasia in the sky.

### 023. Part 5

At long last.

It really did feel like so very long.

Utagai Karuta encountered his sworn enemy.

The woman had long white hair and wore a pantsuit.

The stopped elevator was like a dangling birdcage trapping her.

But there was no fear on Elicia’s face.

She returned her phone to her pocket and did not even pull her hand back out.

“How stupid are you? You could have just played dead, you know? Or are you here to receive the honor of being trampled below the great Elicia Luxverg’s feet?”

“Just you try it.”

Aine kept her sword at the ready and the boy took a step back from the dangling elevator. The avenger boy stepped into the safe zone of the solid elevator hall and he smiled with sweat soaking his body.

“You are standing on very thin ice right now. Safety devices? Emergency brakes? There’s no way those things can support the weight of that huge-ass dinosaur. Summon it here and all that will snap, sending you tumbling nearly 200 stories down to the ground. But if you’re fine with that, then summon your strongest.”

This was their first move.

It was all logically sound. If Elicia summoned her prized dinosaur, the elevator’s wires and emergency brake shoes would snap and she would fall. And if she hesitated, he would send Crystal Girl Aine toward her. Summoning the dinosaur meant falling and not summoning it meant getting sliced and diced. By normal standards, this was checkmate.

Yes.

Assuming the monster known as Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg fell into the categories of “normal” and “standard”.

“Heh.”

She laughed. Her undaunted ferocity sent a chill down Karuta’s spine.

“Aine!!” he immediately shouted. “Cut her down!!”

But the crystal girl did not follow his command.

There was a simple reason for this.

“I beseech thee, Vishnu, Indian God of Change.”

That reason was directly behind him.

It came from the sturdy elevator hall floor, but still within five meters of Elicia.

Tens or even hundreds of thousands of rusty metal pieces gathered together to produce a dinosaur as if it were rising up from a body of water.

“Sacri-sama!!”

Aine’s pure white clothing whipped around as she immediately changed the course of her blade. Instead of attacking the target directly in front of her, she used it as a shield against the dinosaur approaching from behind the boy.

That must have been the correct choice.

But the dinosaur made from a jumble of swords, spears, axes, and bows had much more force behind its charge. It sent Karuta flying horizontally with the crystal girl trapped in the middle. They were thrown through the pried-open door and into the elevator.

“Gah!?”

He did not feel the solid floor.

He was instead surrounded by something oddly warm, soft, and feminine-smelling.

Elicia had spread her arms to catch him and then buried his face in her chest.

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

Sweat poured from his body.

When he looked up from her chest, he saw a grin on the white-haired woman’s lips.

He did not have a second – or even an instant – to spare.

“Aineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

His shout was answered by the crystal girl swinging her clear blade upwards.

The laser beam fired along the curving course of that blade tore through the elevator’s ceiling.

The thick wires, safety devices, and emergency brake latches were all destroyed and the boxy birdcage began to fall.

It happened in the moment just before the charging dinosaur broke through the doorframe.

The dinosaur just missed the dropping elevator, so it seemed to have crashed through the glass wall beyond that and flown out into the evening sky, but Karuta and Aine were too busy to check.

They had entered freefall along with the rectangular box.

Their weight seemed to vanish. Just like a weightlessness experiment using a rapidly descending aircraft or an astronaut training facility using the extra-large freefall inside a broadcast tower, they were able to forget about the concept of weight while still on earth.

This must have been a bit of a surprise for Elicia as well because he was released from her slender arms.

Once freed from her chest, Karuta glared at his sworn enemy.

“Your dinosaur is a gravity attack using its great mass, so can you really make use of it in a weightless world!?”

“A meaningless question. You have failed to trap the crucial dinosaur – my Avatar – in this weightless cage.”

“Don’t be so sure. This prevents you from abandoning the old one and summoning a new one inside the elevator. That makes you powerless. I can have Aine cut you down now or I can wait for you to die from the fall!”

“Again.” Elicia floated in the weightless box while pointing her thumb toward the orange world beyond the glass. “I said it was a meaningless question, didn’t I?”

A reddish-black cascade could be seen out there.

It was a rusty collection of weapons like swords, spears, axes, and bows, of junk like refrigerators and cars, and of components like screws and springs. They had abandoned their dinosaur form to enter freefall along with the elevator. In fact, they were maintaining the exact same speed to remain alongside it.

Then they formed the carnivorous dinosaur’s maw once more.

Within the resultant deluge of horrific sounds, Elicia Luxverg kept her back to the destruction and bathed in the light of sunset so her body’s outlines seemed to be burning.

“Now, ghost, I will be leaving. Incidentally, do you have an effective means of escaping this?”

“Aine.”

“If not, then it is you who will be splattered on the ground.”

“Kill her now, Aineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

The crystal girl responded with the short laser gun on the jitte-like branch of her transparent sword, but something else was faster.

The dinosaur had fully regained its form and the claws of its feet dug into the small concrete wall built along the steel beams running between the glass panels. It used this to slow down while crashing its great maw through the glass.

The tremendous vibration threw off Aine’s aim.

The beam of light scorched the empty air right next to Elicia’s face, but she did not bat an eye.

It was all over if the dinosaur took the entire elevator into its jaws. Elicia could escape by climbing onto the dinosaur, but the other two would be stuck inside as the elevator was tossed out into the evening sky like used gum.

But that was not what happened.

Just before it could, an orange beam of light pierced vertically through the elevator from top to bottom. A twintail girl with sharp crystal armor growing from her body flew into the large hole this created in the ceiling.

“Mari…ka!?”

The girl must have been too focused to respond.

She took Karuta and Aine’s hands while they floated in the artificial weightlessness and she flew down through the hole in the floor.

Sounds of destruction continued from up above.

Most likely, the dinosaur had dug its claws into the TV station’s wall to gradually slow its descent with the elevator in its mouth.

“Marika, this isn’t over! We haven’t rid Elicia of her ‘strongest’ yet!!”

“I know…that!”

Marika turned ninety degrees away from the elevator shaft to break through the thick glass wall and fly outside.

They faced Elicia, who was riding the dinosaur’s shoulder, from a distance of 20 meters.

However, they were standing on the vertical glass wall.

Karuta’s group was supported by Crystal Magic flight and Elicia was using the dinosaur’s claws digging into the wall, but they were both freed from the concepts of gravity and the ground.

They stood on that glass battlefield.

“So you are finally facing me head on, ghost.”

The white-haired woman was delighted.

They had dropped a lot, but their surroundings still looked like a sunset ocean. Their glass footing glittered as it reflected the orange light.

Some artificial light was mixed in with that.

The lights inside were turning back on. The broadcast station was coming back to life as it switched over to emergency power.

They had expected the blackout to last about five minutes, so all this could not have taken any longer than that.

What a dreadfully intense battle this had been. It felt like they had been fighting for days.

“Are you all out of tricks? Then let’s end this with me sending you back to your graves. Your experience on that sunken ship should have taught you that you cannot defeat my Avatar in an exchange of pure violence.”

Marika and Aine.

The boy could not even stand on this wall without those two girls’ support, but he still spat back a response.

“Don’t screw with us.”

“My obvious superiority is not enough to deter you? If this is what you’re like, I can’t imagine how you managed to survive back then. …Do it.”

Crystal Magic and God-Worshiping Magic.

The wielders of those different powers took action simultaneously.

They charged straight ahead on that glass ground to take the shortest route toward a clash.

A single hit from that dinosaur meant death.

The spatial vibration field and auto-regeneration were useless. Not even the 700 people in the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy had been able to defeat this world’s strongest. Just because Karuta’s group had gained a few personal reasons for fighting now did not mean they could overturn everything that happened and defeat this dinosaur.

So.

That had never been their intent.

“Marika! Our footing!!”

“Got it!!”

The guard of her rapier-like weapon moved. It had covered the back of her hand before, but now it turned inside out like a broken umbrella in a gust of wind to form a firing unit. A blinding beam of light surged from there.

Their footing was nothing more than glass.

It shattered and the flat battlefield suddenly vanished, as if the three of them were diving underwater.

“…?”

Elicia briefly looked puzzled while left behind.

“–––––!!”

But then she clenched her teeth.

Something else had begun.

### 024. Part 5

Utagai Karuta was curled up on a corner of the sidewalk with his back to the road.

The police were no longer here. They had probably withdrawn to the barricade. The sidewalk and road were both filled with men and women. It was like a flood of human flesh. They carried makeshift torches made by wrapping bandages or old rags around metal bats and lighting them and they shouted angrily as they smashed the windshields of cars parked on the road and of store windows that did not have their shutters down.

(Elicia managed the world’s garbage disposal facilities, so her defeat has apparently drastically reduced the price of first-generation resources like iron and aluminum that used to be as valuable as gold or platinum. So did they lose their jobs or something?)

That was Karuta’s analysis, but he was wrong.

This is what they were shouting:

“How are we supposed to get over our fear when we don’t know what the Threat even is!?”

“The government is only keeping it a secret to spread fear and confusion so they can increase the defense budget. You’re making a mockery of our tax money!!”

“Release the information! The real information!! We have a right to know!!”

Youths were setting fire to the piles of trash bags and entering the buildings through broken windows. Cash registers were thrown out onto the streets and boxy ATMs were dragged out and pried open with crowbars. Sweat, perfume, smoke, rotting garbage, and what was that? Many different smells mixed together and raw anger blotted out all else.

Karuta contacted Marika and Kyouka in annoyance.

“They claim to want information on the Threat, but I think they’re mostly here for the looting or to blow off some steam. Maybe a tenth of the people here seem to be protesting out of legitimate outrage. I bet a lot of people had their savings go down the drain after Elicia’s defeat. Omotesandou-san, was there no sign of this coming!?”

“In hindsight, there was. The Problem Solvers will never announce that one of them was defeated, not even to the ordinary police officers. Because it would damage their reputation as the strongest. I thought security was oddly strict, but I guess there were some suspicious activities besides our own.”

“There are a ton of people here too,” said Marika. “I’m just thankful they still haven’t reached the point of dragging people out and beating them up.”

“Marika, you’re a girl, so watch yourself among all those rioters.”

“Oh, you’re worried about me? …Kyah!?”

“Marika!”

“Just kidding. Ah ha ha!”

She was laughing innocently, but his heart had skipped a beat. He doubted any of these people would know they were responsible, but if they really had lost their savings due to the collapse in the iron and aluminum markets, then they might want to attack Karuta’s group for causing that. Sweat soaked his brow while his carefree curled twintails childhood friend whispered in a conspiratorial tone.

“But doesn’t this seem like the perfect opportunity? The rioters are taking out all the cameras with their bats and spray paint. With the usual surveillance network not working, we might be able to get close to the Palace of Westminster where that Problem Solver waits.”

“I doubt it will be that simple.”

Karuta was still concerned, so Marika argued her case.

“It would damage the G21’s reputation if they called off their international summit over some simple rioting, so they’ll stay there and so will the Problem Solvers guarding them. Yukino can’t escape right now. See, it’s the perfect opportunity.”

“…”

He too had considered it in a corner of his mind.

Could they take a shortcut while the police and the surveillance network were focused on the rioters? Or could they guide the rioters toward the Palace of Westminster? He was sick of this cheap idea of justice that was more of an excuse than anything. Almost everyone he knew had been crystallized and shattered before his eyes and his body seemed to burn with a desire for vengeance, so he found that kind of justice was more distasteful than wax food samples.

But could they really control it?

And what would happen if they could not?

“We have to do it,” said Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka. “Our feelings about this are too strong to restrain just because we ran into some unexpected trouble, right?”

“Right.”

He slowly exhaled and stood up from his curled-up position. He was unsure if he should follow or fight the flow of rioters, but he decided to take a different route to the Palace of Westminster while the police were focused on those rioters. Of course, he was using them either way.

With that thought, he nonchalantly slipped off of the frenzied major road and into a small alleyway.

That was when it happened.

A light spear fell from the sky.

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

He had no idea what this meant.

It had hit on the next major road over, a mere 20m away from him.

It was more sudden than a lightning strike and brighter than a spotlight.

A cascade of people filled the sidewalks and street there and one section of them was mercilessly vaporized. Human bodies were instantly converted into a spray that splattered over the surrounding road, walls, and survivors, creating a living hell of intense heat and pain as if boiling water had been thrown around.

This attack had been powerful enough to split the school’s escort ships in two.

A diameter of ten meters was torn away and the twenty meters around that was covered in a scorching hell. The unbelievable heat melted the asphalt and the stone walls of the centuries-old buildings glowed red like an oven.

Screams erupted from all around.

The many garbage bags flew through the air like popping popcorn and the heat robbed them of their shape as bags before they hit the ground. Crushed candy boxes and toilet paper tubes burned as they spread out through the air. So many trailing light sources fell on the city like the burning arrows pouring down upon a besieged castle.

No one would have known what happened and would not have known where to run. It devolved into a panicked shoving match that caused a dominos-like chain reaction spreading out from the landing points.

“What…?”

Karuta dizzily pressed his back against the alley wall.

“What in the hell!?” he roared before his confused mind finally remembered how to feel pain.

His entire body was covered by an itching pain as if he were being pricked by thousands upon thousands of needles.

He looked down to see his clothing was unnaturally swelling out from within. He touched his face to find it felt oddly rough. Was that a problem with his cheeks or with his fingertips? Whatever the case, his entire body had been injured and the crystallization was healing him. This had broken right through his weakened preset barrier.

If something else hit him now, it was all over.

If his body parts were torn away along with the healing crystals, he would lose them forever.

He would lose any chance at recovering.

“Pant, pant!!”

He lost control of his breathing at the thought.

And during that hellishly-long 30 seconds, it happened again.

The night was swept away.

The attack lasted ten full seconds, but it was further away this time. He could take a more objective view of how strange that light and heat was. It was like viewing the sun stretched out like a sugar sculpture.

“I saw it too!” said Marika with a fair bit of panic in her voice. “Yukino is using her light spears on London!! All to silence the rioters!!”

“The rioters are bringing down their defenses and preventing her from locating her real targets: us,” said Kyouka. “She must intend to annihilate them along with us if they insist on getting in her way.”

The crystal fragments fell from Karuta’s body with a dry cracking sound.

His limbs and face were fine.

They were all healed up.

“But how…how can she get away with this? This is the site of the G21 summit, so there’s a ton of reporters around! Not to mention the normal people can take videos with their phones and upload them! Is Yukino Arakawa committing social suicide for this!?”

“She may be playing the villain.” He was not sure what the Student Council President meant by that. “And since the Problem Solvers regularly battle the Threat, they can just say London was annihilated in an attack by the Threat. They can claim to have done their best to rescue the people of London but ultimately failed to save everyone.”

“But…but that’s absurd…”

“She can get away with it. Remember that no one knows what the Threat is or any details about the God Worshiping Magic used by the Problem Solvers. People are only aware of the end result: cities and countries erased overnight. So in the worst case, can’t they just lie about who was firing those light spears?”

“…”

He was truly speechless.

What did this mean? Did it not matter at all to Yukino Arakawa if there were witnesses of her committing mass murder? Could she escape all responsibility by calmly saying the Threat did it, she had nothing to do with it, and it was a shame what happened to London? How convenient a world did those strongests live in!?

“Sacri-sama, this could be an opportunity.”

“?”

“Yukino attacking the rioters is proof that she does not know where we are. That means we can safely approach the Palace of Westminster and catch her off guard.”

“But!!”

“Nothing else we do can stop her from firing those light spears. If your goal is to reduce the total number of deaths, then I recommend taking the shortest route to defeating Yukino.”

Even now, the world was intermittently switching between night and day.

The heat would last anywhere from a few seconds to a few dozen seconds, so how many lives were being lost each time?

He clenched his teeth so hard he thought they would break.

But he could not come up with anything cleverer than Aine’s cold answer.

“Dammit!!”

He pressed his back against a wall near the alleyway entrance and scratched at his bangs with a hand. He started to turn away from the main road filled with screams of fear and anger.

But he stopped.

A lot of people had fallen in that pandemonium of light, heat, and shoving, so the survivors were desperately trying to remain in that category by crawling below or climbing over the others.

He saw someone there among the rioters who had been demanding information on the Threat be released.

A small girl was sitting on the ground with a handmade sign. She must have come here with a parent or older sibling.

Utagai Karuta had crossed those piles of shattered crystal statues. While the other students wearing the same uniform had fallen, he had pathetically crawled behind those statues to escape the dinosaur. This was not his first time doing this, so he should have been able to do it again no matter how painful it was.

Except he had seen the messy writing painted on that handmade sign: “Tell us what happened to my big brother and the others at Grimnoah!”

He slammed his forehead against the alleyway wall.

His barrier meant he felt almost no pain, but memories of the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy returned vividly to his mind.

He could taste the fish and chips he had made late at night in the kitchen with some help from an exchange student in order to learn if British food was as bad as they said.

He could not do it.

He had hit his limit.

“Aine. And Marika too. Change of plans.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama. What should I do?”

“You two take the shortest route to defeat Yukino Arakawa. Stop her from firing those light spears as soon as possible to keep the damage to a minimum.”

“I’ll do that, but what about you?” asked Marika.

“I…”

He pulled the modified military flashlight from his blazer pocket and took a deep breath.

“I will draw her attention. Yukino has completely snapped, but if she knows where her target is, she won’t have a reason to indiscriminately attack the rioters. If I keep her focused on me, fewer of the ordinary people will die, so I’ll approach her in as noticeable a way as I can manage!”

“Sacri-…”

“This isn’t a debate, Aine. Just do it!!”

That last command was not just directed at the others.

And there was one other thing he had to do before he got started.

“Hey!”

He shouted from the entrance of the alleyway and the girl’s shoulders jumped. He did not care if he scared her and he did not need her trust, so he simply told her what she needed to do.

“Get inside immediately! Any sturdy building will do!!”

It looked more like she was running from him in fear than heeding his warning. She made sure to take the sign with her as she frantically stood up and ran toward a shop made of stone and metal.

She would be safer there than in the open outdoors.

But their fate still counted on what Karuta himself would do next.

He would not let them be targeted. No matter what.

(Okay.)

He once more turned away from the main road and ran further into the back alley. However, he was not abandoning the people who had come here to protest. Quite the opposite. If he was going to draw the attacks toward himself, he needed to stay away from them. Getting them caught in the attack too would be meaningless.

Gathering Yukino Arakawa’s attention from a distance was easy.

She was using the city’s security network to search for her target’s location.

Which meant…

(I just have to start taking out every camera I come across!!)

He reached into one of the scattered garbage bags and pulled out a half-full drink bottle that’s contents had turned to sludge. Then he only had to splatter that across the lenses peering down at him. While he did that three or four times, he felt a great pressure bearing down on his stomach.

The oddity would be reported immediately and an area with the security down would likely be seen as dangerous.

Focus would shift from that horrific main road to this back alley.

(I’m just getting started!!)

### 025. Part 5

Once he left the RV, the biting cold struck Utagai Karuta’s entire body.

His breaths were white and the snow crunched below his feet.

Instead of in a city, they were on a pure white mountain covered with conifer trees, so the road and the slope were nearly indistinguishable.

“It’s hard to believe that there’s this much snow during April,” said strawberry blonde Marika while breathing into her hands.

They knew where the Problem Solvers’ base was, but they could not exactly drive the RV right up to it. They had to walk from a few kilometers away. Kyouka’s wheelchair could not travel through the deep snow, so she was forced to remain in the RV. If Susannia or Anastasia’s magic was anything like the light spear, flying would be suicide. Drawing attention to themselves would get them shot down.

“But when you get down to it, what is even left?”

“?”

Karuta frowned at that odd phrasing, so his childhood friend explained while walking alongside him.

“They’re all the world’s strongest, so they must stand at the top of different categories, right? For example, a dinosaur inferior to Elicia’s would not have a spot in that group.” She thought for a moment. “The dinosaur, the light spears, and the giant sword. If you rule those out, what kind of ‘strongest’ is left? They were all so insane it’s easy to focus too much on the specific power and lose sight of what genre it belongs to.”

Karuta had not considered looking at it like that.

Those strongest five all had some kind of magic they had all accepted as the strongest in some way. After thinking some himself, he decided to list off whatever random ideas came to mind.

“What about mind control?”

“We definitely haven’t seen that one. Maybe they could choose a target and weaken them?”

“Or travel through time. Like go back to before their target was born and change history.”

“You’re getting pretty out there now. So how about creating parallel worlds?”

“A super-adaptive lifeform that keeps evolving from one second to the next would be pretty scary.”

They had been joking with each other at first, but a weight gradually built in their stomachs and they began talking less. If any of their guesses happened to be right, that was the enemy they would have to face. It was not the most enjoyable topic of discussion.

After walking a while, they spotted what looked like a log cabin next to a frozen lake.

If the information Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka had found was accurate, that would be the Problem Solvers’ hideout. There were no other obvious buildings in the area.

The first three Problem Solvers had provided garbage disposal, power, and production, but they apparently knew how to use low-tech solutions as well. While so much of the global infrastructure was collapsing, this isolated log house seemed to be doing just fine.

It may have beewn similar to Karuta’s group in that RV that was not registered to any city or country.

“…”

Back at Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah, he had brought a blanket, a music player, and a cooler into the space directly below the flat heliport to skip class and goof off. Marika had gotten after him for stuff like that, so it had primarily become a secret base he shared with Gekiha and Aine. He remembered the oddly liberating feeling of being cut off from the flow of time while everyone else was in class like they were supposed to be.

What had this log cabin been for those five?

How comfortable had they found that white villa cut off from the rest of the world?

“There’s a car parked next to it,” he quietly noted while viewing it from afar. “And the snow is piled up on the windshield. At least 3cm thick.”

“I picked up the recent weather data,” said Kyouka from back in the RV. “There have been a lot of on-and-off flurries recently, but not heavy snowfall. I doubt that car has been there for even a full day.”

Karuta and Marika exchanged a glance.

If that car did not belong to a maintenance company that made periodic visits to perform upkeep on the building, then they had already drawn one of the two cards they wanted. Was Susannia Evans or Anastasia Blast visiting? Or were they both here?

To be careful, they checked the license plate and sent that information back to Kyouka, but she did not have much luck with a search.

“No matches. I suppose that’s the Problem Solvers for you. They must have enough influence with the world’s governments to keep their information secret.”

The tension increased because this was clearly no normal car.

They still had no real answers as they were forced to charge blindly into likely death.

“Power up.”

Crystal Girl Aine slipped out from Karuta’s back.

She silently tilted her head with her special crystal sword in hand.

“Sacri-sama, if you wish to acquire information to increase your odds of success, you could always send me in first.”

“No, I can’t. Did you forget that we’re catching the Problem Solvers by surprise? They’re only gathering here because it’s a safe hideout. If we make any kind of attack and they grow more cautious, they’ll never come back. Then they can hide anywhere in the world and we’ll be forced to search them out from among the full 5.5 billion population. That clearly isn’t going to work even if we have 100 years to work with. So…”

So what did that mean?

They had to end it with this first attack. They had to kill whoever it was with their own hands.

Was that what he wanted to say? Proudly and with head held high?

“…”

He felt like his curly twintails childhood friend was giving him an appraising look.

“Anyway, we have to go do this, don’t we?” she said.

“Yeah, we do.”

They cautiously walked toward the lakeside log cabin.

There was no one in the car. They circled the building, but they could not see inside because all the windows had the curtains shut. In addition to the car, they found some firewood and mortar materials haphazardly piled up.

“Look.”

But Marika pointed at one window.

“The window is fogged up and it looks like there’s smoke coming from the chimney. It’s warm inside.”

That would never happen with a deserted log cabin. This was like a more old-fashioned version of determining if anyone lived there by seeing if the power meter was turning.

So someone was there.

At least one member of the Problem Solvers was inside. A great pressure weighed on his stomach. Was that person watching them from the crack in the curtains even now? Was it possible they could slice right through the log wall to attack? Or was his group already caught in some kind of spell? All sorts of speculation swirled through his mind.

“Kh.”

He shook his head.

That was like a toxin of his own creation. He would wear himself down before the fight even began.

“Let’s compare the fog on the windows. That should tell us which part of the cabin is warmest. If someone is here, that’s where they’ll be. Whether they’re using firewood in the fireplace or an air conditioner running on a generator, they won’t want to waste their fuel this deep in the mountains.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama. I can break through any window or door here.”

“That’s nice to know.” He smiled. “But if we’re doing this, let’s try to be cleverer about it. Everyone will be cautious of what they consider to be the possible entrances, so if we break through a wall, we might be able to catch them in a psychological blind spot.”

Marika activated her Crystal Blossom armor and worked with Crystal Girl Aine to blow through the outside wall.

They no longer needed to be careful about footprints and otherwise hide their presence. In fact, it all came down to what they could accomplish in this few seconds of confusion and uncertainty. The three of them stormed inside.

It was a large space that looked like a combined dining room and kitchen. Pieces of the wall and window were scattered across the wooden flooring, but it must have been a pristine space to begin with. A fire danced in the fireplace at the wall, but that was it. The TV and audio system were powered off and silence hung over the place like in a classroom at night. They did not see, hear, smell, or otherwise sense someone there.

“They aren’t here?”

“We just have to keep looking!”

They were up against one of the Problem Solvers. Every second counted, but splitting up here would be the height of folly. They stuck together while cautiously moving through the cabin. They threw open the many doors.

They found a bathroom with a bathtub, a large drying room for clothing wet with snow, and a food storage room piled high with cardboard boxes. There was no staircase and the flat log cabin did not have individual bedrooms. It was less like a villa for the wealthy and more like a nicer version of a mountain climber’s cabin. And despite their tension, there was no one there.

Marika kept her Crystal Blossom armor out and gently spun the rapier in her hand.

She also frowned.

“Did they notice us approaching and run off? There weren’t any footprints in the snow when we circled the cabin, but they might be able to fly like I can.”

“You think one of the Problem Solvers fled without firing a shot? I’ll admit it’s hard to say since we don’t know what kind of world’s strongest they are, but that’s hard to imagine.”

“But, Sacri-sama, there was a car parked out front and there is a fire in the fireplace. Plus, this cabin seems too primitive to be remotely controlled.”

There had clearly been someone here.

Yet it had not simply been a meeting for the Problem Solvers to reach a consensus.

So why was no one here now?

And why would they leave signs of their presence like the car and the fireplace?

“Oh, no.”

“Karuta?”

“Oh, no!!”

He finally looked up and ran toward the closest window while ignoring his confused-looking childhood friend and the crystal girl. He threw open the curtain and checked outside.

There should have been a frozen lake out there.

But when he saw something else filling his vision instead, he reflexively swore.

“Goddammit.”

### 026. Part 5

Size-wise, it was like a giant mountain more than 100m tall.

Shape-wise, it had a bizarre silhouette resembling a bipedal dinosaur crossed with a grotesque deep sea fish.

It felt like a great symbol of ruin with how it repeatedly crumbled and re-solidified at its outlines and how it gave off a strangely sweet rotting smell.

Paralyzed.

Completely paralyzed.

Karuta and Marika were too overwhelmed by the yellow and black to move. Crystal Girl Aine silently tilted her head, but she would not act unless she was given instructions.

“There are many different forms of tarot divination. Reading the future is the most well-known, but they can also be used to determine your compatibility with another person, to organize your own feelings…or to seek out something in the past that has already been lost.” Anastasia spoke with the giant form behind her. That monster seemed to accept that thing as perfectly normal. “This was originally an attempt to recreate a lost lifestyle by using the 22 cards of the Major Arcana and the 56 cards of the Minor Arcana. In other words, to revive a ruined civilization. But strangely, when I dropped the fishing line into the depths, I ended up catching more than just the one I was after. The line must have been a little too strong because it appears I have fished up every last thing known as a lost civilization. ”

“What…are you talking about?”

“Yes, yes! This one caught even me by surprise, but now I can believe it. I had not acquired just the one specific lifestyle. Oh, no. I had fished up all of the civilizations that have vanished since the dawn of history. Altogether, that is a series of 1056 dooms and apocalypses.”

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

What the hell was that?

How were they supposed to defeat something as absurd as that?

The category of civilizations could not be measured with something as simple as countries or populations. Thanks to the spread of globalization in modern society, it was impossible to say how many civilizations there were. If this woman had over a thousand methods of destroying an entire civilization – be they a meteor, a flood, a virus, a war, or quieter options like depopulation or isolation – she might be able to destroy the entire world with just a small fraction of them.

“…”

Karuta was overwhelmed.

He was truly speechless.

Someone had said Anastasia Blast was in charge of the world’s military infrastructure.

Was this what that meant?

She could protect her allies and kill her enemies. She could alter the power balance. The military was nothing more than the means of using lives to control the rising and falling of civilizations.

She viewed the world before her on the level of civilizations, so she did not focus too much on each individual life. If she appeared before a hero or dictator powerful enough to single-handedly destroy an entire civilization, they would realize for the first time they were nothing more than a side character. Even the Demon Lord with the power to destroy humanity would be killed instantly by a flick of her fingers.

All civilizations would fall one day.

Even if globalization progressed to the point that the entire planet could be considered a single civilization, it would still fall apart eventually if viewed in the long, long term.

That explained why she rose above the interests of individual nations.

If she could do all this but was still considered an ace on active duty – in other words, she could not fully destroy the Threat and retire – it made sense why the entire world so feared the Threat.

(What do we do?)

Utagai Karuta’s eyes rolled in his head and sweat soaked his body as he searched for some kind of salvation. Marika tried to catch her breath while down on her knees and Crystal Girl Aine awaited orders at his side. Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was also waiting back at the RV. Who could he order to do what in order to overturn this ridiculous situation!?

(Gathering all the current civilizations won’t be enough to match the total number that have been destroyed in the past. So what about Aine? She’s made from a Crystal Blossom from head to toe, so she doesn’t count as part of humanity and she might be able to deal damage from outside this conflict between human civilizations. No, that wouldn’t work. I still form the foundation as the Crystal Magician, so she’s only a portion of my civilization. Not to mention that Crystal Magic as a whole was created by human hands. So it can’t defeat that collection of our predecessors’ knowledge!)

“Hold on. Is that an ‘oh, no’ I see on your face?” There was clear amusement in Anastasia’s voice. “But I hold every civilization that has been destroyed since the dawn of history, avenger. And that would include that lost time that was stolen before your eyes and that you desire above all else. I do not know where in here the 700 from your Ocean Crystal Magic Academy can be found, but since their small Crystal Blossom civilization was destroyed, it must be found here.”

“Kh.”

(Gekiha!!)

That boy was not dead.

It would take a long, long time, but he would recover eventually.

But what if he was trapped in that large framework of a destroyed civilization?

“Ha ha ha! But instead of hoping for a reunion, your thoughts jumped straight to ‘oh, no’. That is who you truly are. You say you are fighting to protect the dead? You claim this revenge is to prevent us from taking everything from you? If that were truly your priority, you would have seen this as an opportunity, just like those nobles who indulge in seances to meet their departed loved ones again.”

This was the last remaining world’s strongest.

This was the temptation of Anastasia who controlled the world’s military infrastructure…no, who controlled the entire field of doom.

“This is the true essence of my magic.”

She moved her right hand like she was holding an invisible brandy glass and the frighteningly large form began to swirl around.

By the time a deafening roar reached his ears, the collection of doom had compressed to the size of a softball and dropped into her hand. Then it crawled out to surround her entire body. Some of it covered her limbs and some spread across her spine to cover her with yellow and black armor.

It almost looked like an incomplete Crystal Blossom.

That giant monster of more than 1000 meters had been made from all the civilizations that had met their doom in the past, yet even it was only a material to be used.

The world’s strongest reigned supreme as an individual. She was not like Karuta who let the entirely separate crystal girl do the fighting.

“Now, it is time for the final act,” she said while giving off an even more intensely menacing aura.

Even an ordinary person could tell this was the most efficient way to use that. They could tell this would bring about the ferocious destruction of the world’s strongest far more than letting that 1000m monster run amok.

“All who cannot overcome the doom of a civilization shall be crushed by my wall of doom.”

A yellow and black explosion followed.

As soon as he realized that was Anastasia Blast charging forward, the decisive moment had already arrived.

### 027. Part 6

Before making their move on the 200-story broadcast station, Karuta and Marika had gathered materials and made preparations in the jumbled city.

“That should be enough shotgun shells. I’d love to buy as much as we can carry, but they might get suspicious if we buy too many in one place. Maybe we should visit a few different stores.”

Those shells that scattered small metal balls were used for hunting and riot suppression, but they were not hoping to load them in a gun and fire them.

Elicia was known as the world’s strongest, so nothing like that was going to affect her.

“What about the traps?”

So they were using them differently.

They had chosen a method of detonating those shotgun shells without using a gun.

“Igniting them won’t be very difficult. A single spark will do the trick, so we can create fuses out of a battery and aluminum foil. Of course, we’ll need a different device to switch them on.”

They would function as tiny little bombs.

Aiming them at her would almost certainly fail. Even if one of the metal balls grazed her skin by pure luck, the explosive energy would not have been aimed in a single direction by a gun barrel, so it would not have much destructive force.

“We’re going to detonate them by radio? But there are bound to be signals on all sorts of frequencies flying around all the way up to the heliport!”

So it was a bluff.

They only had to make the target think she was being targeted by bullets or explosives.

“Not to mention from the bugs set up by obsessive fans. Yeah, it might be best to pretend to be tourists while we walk around the building and check what frequencies are in use. There must be a bandwidth no one is using. More importantly, Marika, you’re our only hope here since you’re the only one who can use a standard Crystal Blossom. Do you really think you can do this?”

What they had done was simple.

They attached a wireless detonator to the shotgun shells and then coated them with adhesive.

Then they only had to throw them against the TV station wall from a distance.

That would turn that wall into a minefield.

“Yesss, III caaaan. I’d really prefer to use lasers or masers, but I guess a non-nuclear photon rocket would be best here.”

Was that all it took to defeat Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg?

She had stood in front of 700 Crystal Magicians and used her massive dinosaur to block all the attacks sent her way and then crushed them all underfoot, so was this really enough to harm her?

“Whatever the case, you should test fire it first.”

The answer was yes.

“Obviously. In that case, I’ll want some rubber adhesive that works on building walls and some cushioning material if we have the budget.”

Because…

### 028. Part 6

“Oh?”

In her nun’s habit given large slits in the sides, Yukino Arakawa smiled in amusement on the building rooftop.

Her smartphone’s screen displayed a warning.

Cameras in one area were being destroyed one after another. She doubted this was just the rioters doing it on a whim. The spread of the damage was too quick for that, so it felt a lot more like someone was specifically targeting her “eyes”.

So…

(Could you not bear it any longer? In that case, killing some more civilians to rub it in your face might be amusing.)

She considered that detour, but decided to focus on her main target.

She raised the staff in her other hand and sent a command up to satellite orbit.

“Now, let’s brighten this dark screen with a light spear.”

### 029. Part 6

Thick ice covered a lake with a gentle elliptical shape measuring 300 meters long, but that ice was broken through from below.

What emerged was a giant cannon that looked like a steel tower tilted on its side.

The diameter alone was 10 meters, so the barrel could fit a 20-ton dump truck inside. The length was impressive enough to cover the full length of the lake. It glared at the log house from so close that aerial footage of the scene would look more like a pool cue just before it struck the cue ball than like a projectile weapon aimed at point-blank range.

“Hee hee☆ I beseech thee, Persephone, Greek God of Death.”

A beautiful woman sneered with that cannon connected to her shoulder.

The fearsome shell it then fired could have reached the moon if fired at the correct angle, but it instead erased the log cabin from the face of the earth.

### 030. Part 7

Pop pop! Pop!! Pop pop pop!!

Elicia heard small explosions bursting all around her.

She also heard something whizzing through the evening air, so had they included nails or fishing hooks to make this more lethal? Or were they using shotgun shells?

“!!”

It was the same either way.

Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg was one of the Problem Solvers, but she was only human herself. If she was shot with a bullet, she would die. If she was caught in an explosive blast, she would be torn apart.

(Did they lure me here? No, I should assume they placed explosives all around the station’s walls so they would have traps everywhere!!)

She did not know which it was.

She was the strongest when it came to physical attacks, but she was not clairvoyant or prophetic, so she had no way of knowing the quantity and location of the explosives.

And to reiterate, a single hit would kill her.

One of the world’s strongest would be killed in a trap set by some ghosts she failed to kill.

### 031. Part 7

A blinding light spear crashed down from the heavens.

“Gwaaaaaaaaaaahh!?”

Karuta had known there would only be a few seconds of lag between taking out the cameras in an area and Yukino finding it suspicion, so he took off running to put as much space between himself and that location as he could. Nevertheless, something like a blazing wind slammed into his body. He had escaped a direct hit, but the fearsome heat had expanded the air and formed an invisible wall.

The blow to his back shattered his barrier.

He rolled along the filthy alley.

Strange cracking sounds continued on and on as crystals covered most of his body. The thirty second countdown began. Another attack before then and it was all over. The healing process would be stopped, everything would be torn from his body, and he would die. That was plainly obvious to him.

“Pant, pant!!”

He checked behind him from the ground and saw both walls of the alley were orange and melted. The piles of trash had become pillars of fire reminiscent of giant fir trees burning down in a forest fire. The alley surface had melted like a sugar sculpture and it had collapsed down to create a large hole. That may have connected to the sewer or the subway.

“Kh.”

He slowly got to his feet.

He scattered crystal fragments across the ground as the healing completed.

He resumed running.

They had feared Yukino could search for them using thermo images taken by a satellite, but he was starting to think that was not a concern. The heat here was so high that the entire area would be blotted out with white. She could not use that to see if her target had survived.

(I only have to focus on the surface cameras.)

He clenched his teeth while taking out a few more security camera lenses with a drink or a spray can to draw the light spears toward him. He once more felt a sunburn-like pain in his skin.

The slight lag was working out for him, but the more cameras he took out, the more data she would have to predict his route. If her prediction was accurate enough and she fired where she expected him to be, he was done for. He would be vaporized before he could even feel the pain.

“Ha ha.”

He was running around and barely avoiding death, but for some reason, there was a smile on his face.

He had no idea what it was he wanted to do, but he felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders for the first time in a while.

“Ha ha ha ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

He had attended Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah.

He had learned Crystal Magic that used a Crystal Blossom via a printed circuit board smaller than a stamp.

He had trained to combat the Threat that put the world in danger.

In the end, what had he really wanted to do?

He no longer had that right. His days at that school and the future he had envisioned for himself had been stolen by the Problem Solvers and his group had sullied it themselves when they used Crystal Magic against Elicia after she had already surrendered. But the remnants of that dream had remained there somewhere in his heart.

However, that thought was interrupted.

Even if he outsmarted them and protected the civilians, the great evil of the Problem Solvers was still out there. And one part of that evil, the demon named Yukino Arakawa, was making her next move.

The night sky shined bright.

He knew this had to be another light spear, but instead of cowering in fear like an animal, he used his rational mind to send himself running even a step further before it hit.

But something unexpected happened.

“…?”

The light did not gather together.

The brightness in the night sky endlessly expanded instead of taking the form of a spear.

A chill ran down his spine.

It almost looked like a giant suspended ceiling of fiery heat dropping down to crush the city of London!

### 032. Part 7

A fearsome tremor spread out in all directions, making it feel more like a tactical weapon that used shockwaves instead of an explosive blast. As that propagated outwards, it triggered avalanches on all the nearby mountains and the conifer trees pointing sharply up toward heaven were knocked to the ground.

The log cabin was truly eliminated in an instant.

The countless splinters blasted away by the explosion functioned as projectiles as they scattered all around while breaking the sound barrier. Even if the cannon’s aim had been somewhat off and even if the target had fled the cabin and dove into the snow, that sandstorm of wooden fangs would have turned them to mincemeat.

There had been no escape anywhere on the face of the earth there.

Which was why they had gone elsewhere.

“Kh!! Wh-what was that? That thing that burst from the lake, I mean!! Is that a military application of one of those mass drivers that use staged detonation acceleration!?”

They had gone up.

Twintailed Marika had blasted the roof with her Crystal Blossom’s laser beam and then escaped into the sky, so now she was shouting questions while soaked with a tense sweat and breathing heavily.

But oddly enough, Karuta’s heart had gone cold.

He worked his mind while clinging to her hips and dangling down.

This opponent had not hesitated to destroy their own secret base to achieve their objective. No matter what memories that cabin held for them, they had blown it away along with the attacking assassins.

There really was no common ground there.

Karuta recalled the secret base he had built below the giant ship’s heliport. The Student Council had found it while he was away, dismantled it, and confiscated the things he had left there. That had not taken his dorm room or classmates from him, but it had still saddened him. So much so that he had felt no desire to build a new one.

Then he opened his mouth.

This opponent’s blatant deadliness rid him of any guilt.

“This must be her genre of world’s strongest.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“This is the world’s strongest mechanized human. She’s a cyborg.”

He thrust the reality of the situation into Marika’s dryly smiling face.

This felt like it would be Anastasia who controlled the world’s militaries, but could he really just assume something like that?

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka had said Susannia was the monster who controlled the global agricultural infrastructure, but it was hard to tell what role she actually played. The civilian satellites only showed giant mechanized farms.

Mechanized.

That meant this could be Susannia too.

“Did she lure us in so she could blow us up and ensure her own safety!?”

Crystal Girl Aine was not with them.

The boy clenched his teeth and looked down where not even the foundation of the cabin remained.

But he did not have time for sentimentality.

He heard a dull rumbling as the giant cannon changed its angle.

“Here it comes!!”

“Wait, really!? Okay, hold on tight!!”

The entire concept of sound vanished.

Their ears only felt some kind of compression.

While dragging around some dead weight, Marika flew in a complex figure eight to desperately avoid the back-to-back cannon blasts. This was not just an issue of weight or air resistance. The rapid changes of altitude brought changes in atmospheric pressure, the rapid movement brought inertia and air friction, they needed oxygen, and their body temperature could not fall too far. She was used to providing those protections for herself, but she had to provide them for Karuta as well this time since his weak barrier was not enough. That placed a greater burden on her.

“She doesn’t have cluster bombs, does she? That would be the worst! We’d have countless smaller explosives filling the air like fireworks!”

“We’ll be lucky if that’s all she has. We’re talking about a Problem Solver – one of the world’s strongest. She might not be entirely reliant on that one giant cannon!”

Just as Karuta gave that warning, they heard a sound like explosives splitting through a steel panel on the surface. A chill ran down their spines when they realized something had been purged, and then something stretched out its silver wings from above the frozen lake. The device installed on that person’s back ignited. They took flight with fearsome speed, almost like they had transformed themselves into a surface-to-air missile.

It was a tall woman with her red hair worn in a long braid.

She wore a skintight special combat outfit that resembled a black diving wetsuit, but various “components” must have torn through from within because her soft skin was showing all over her back and limbs like she was covered in torn stockings.

Karuta recognized her.

He had seen her photograph earlier.

“Susannia Evans!?”

This was different from a Crystal Blossom that was controlled using a printed circuit board smaller than a stamp and cables thinner than hairs. They had to begin a dogfight against a Problem Solver using four steel wings and several jet engines the size of a water bottles.

Crystal Blossoms used magic to ignore inertia and air resistance while flying, so they allowed for a dimension of flight not possible with fighter crafts. Simply put, they could make right angle turns at supersonic speeds with no risk whatsoever.

But this Problem Solver could apparently do the same with her older form of magic. Just how much had that beautiful silhouette been modified? A normal pilot would have blacked out from the blood not reaching their brain. In fact, they might have had all their blood vessels burst from the pressure, but she was flying through the biting chill without an oxygen mask or even goggles to cover her eyes. Any air force official or even UFO researcher who saw this would probably throw in the towel.

And no matter how cutting-edge the technology, the fundamentals were the same.

Unless they hoped to start some close-quarters combat using a sword or spear, head-on charges were rare during dogfights. The standard in aerial battles was to take up a position on your enemy’s tail while keeping them off your tail. Since Marika was the one being chased now, she constantly had to dodge redheaded Susannia Evans’s attacks. She could spin her rapier around and target behind her, but being on your opponent’s tail still gave you a tremendous advantage.

Both Susannia’s arms opened up from within.

The next thing they knew, both her arms were gone, something like the framework of a fan was spreading out, and that framework was revealed to be several cannons of various sizes. The volumes did not seem to match.

“!!!???”

Beams of red light pierced the white sky either as tracer rounds or as a form of intimidation. And not just a few; it was like a shower. Marika somehow managed to dodge them by twisting around and spinning her body like a spring or coil, but that kept her from flying freely through the sky. Just like in a chess problem, every move she took was being gradually guided toward the position where she could be taken out.

“Marika!”

“Shut up, you dead weight! Let me focus!!”

“Then could you manage if you dropped me?”

“~ ~ ~!! What did I say about not leaving me behind here!?”

That kindness may have been one reason she could not make any headway in this battle. Not only was she facing one of the Problem Solvers, someone she could not afford any kind of opening against, but she was attempting it while handicapped with this dead weight clinging to her slender waist. She had no chance like this. The two of them would be shot at some point and it would all be over.

Also, Susannia Evans’s transformation was not over yet. She must have grown impatient because she expanded even more weapons that were stored in her body. Her four wings grew to eight, the number of jet engines increased, and the area around her ribs stirred before several small supporting arms burst out like shrimp legs. Also, each of those arms was holding the grip of a Gatling gun made of several cannons or a laser beam cannon with exposed excitation rods.

Each new component further tore her wetsuit-like special combat outfit, but it no longer looked like a woman exposing her soft skin. This could only be described as a grotesque collection of machines.

“What the hell!?” Marika’s eyes bugged out as she flew around the sky, scattering shockwaves as she went. “Does that really obey the law of conservation of mass!? How do you fold all that up to fit inside that body!?”

Susannia had matched their speed while gradually taking an advantageous position, so they did not have a moment to lose.

After some thought, Karuta spoke up.

“Marika, we know we can’t escape, so do you think you could instead slow down to get us closer to her?”

“We’re 300 to 400 meters away already. That’s ‘right in front of her’ as far as dogfights are concerned. Even if I ‘returned’ the air resistance parameter to normal as a special maneuver for rapidly braking, getting within 50 to 100 meters of her is the best I could manage. And with how she’s been moving, I doubt even catching her by surprise will get her to overshoot us. But!! The closer we get, the harder it will be to dodge her attacks!”

“She’s using laser beams that move at the speed of light, so distance doesn’t really matter.”

“Surely you aren’t planning something suicidal like intentionally taking a hit to damage her with the Crystal Blossom fragments you scatter behind us.”

“This is nothing that heroic, but you’re in the ballpark.”

His casual response left her speechless.

He hesitated like a normal person more than the others did, but his ideas tended to be more out there than the others. And he made a suggestion while holding onto his childhood friend’s hips.

“We only have one shot at this. We can shatter her assumption that she’s safe if she’s on our tail.”

“What do you mean?”

“There is no safety here. Because we’re true avengers who are here to fight to the death.”

### 033. Part 7

It all came down to this.

Anastasia had become a yellow and black spear intent on piercing the earth, but then a puzzled look appeared on her face. The time did arrive, but it was far different from what she had expected.

There was someone in front of her.

“Aine.”

An ear-splitting clang rang out. The preset barrier meant nothing. The noise sounded like crystal colliding with crystal, but that meant it was a sound of collision and not destruction.

In other words, her attack had been stopped.

Crystal Girl Aine had moved in front of Karuta with her pure white outfit fluttering around her. She held her translucent modified katana in both hands. Instead of breaking or shattering, it had stopped yellow and black Anastasia Blast’s max speed charge from the sky.

“What!?”

“We came all this way carrying the weight of Grimnoah’s 700 people on our backs.”

An unpleasant straining sound could still be heard, but this was not over. She did not collapse. The target before Anastasia’s eyes would not die. Karuta gave a roar while the crystal girl protected him.

“You have every civilization that has ever been destroyed? You have 1056 kinds of doom? Who cares!? We can overcome that without even trying!! So what if you have an ice age, floods, eruptions, and even manmade atrocities and wars? That might have been too much in an age before those things had happened, but those rules no longer apply.”

They glared directly at each other.

As long as he realized something so simple, he could stand on the same level as that world’s strongest who held every kind of doom.

“Don’t underestimate Crystal Magic. Maybe no one else has ever been able to overcome that wall, but we’re different!!”

“Have you forgotten? Those destroyed civilizations include that school that taught Crystal Magic.”

“So you think you could crush us if you sent all five Problem Solvers after us? Even though we’ve already taken out four of you!?”

People grew stronger when they persistently worked toward a goal.

They could gain the power to overcome the kind of disaster that once would have been unavoidable doom for them.

“So we will overcome this! The doom of all past civilizations is no more than an obstacle we must surpass here!! We have to show you we’ve changed, that those older eras are a thing of the past, and that we’ve conquered those things so you can rest easy!!”

This had nothing to do with the occult high and low pressure systems.

It was not the same as using brute force to grapple with a monster who could create as many bomb cyclones as she liked.

They had to search out a way to control this magic user named Anastasia Blast who could be seen as the world’s strongest form of doom. It did not matter if these were cumulonimbus clouds or a bomb cyclone. People had used horoscope charts and calendars to learn the rules needed to bring disasters onto their side. They had learned to store water, farm the land, sail the seas, and so much more. They could not stop just because they did not understand something. They had to conquer it.

They had to attack Anastasia Blast and bind her with the rules governing her that not even she was aware of!!

“ Humans are not the dinosaurs who met their doom and were no more. We won’t just tremble in fear! No matter how pathetic, ugly, or lame it might be, we know how to learn from our mistakes and overcome them!! So we won’t let it end with our defeat. What you brought to that boat was undoubtedly doom, but that’s exactly why we have to keep going so it doesn’t end there!! ”

“Kh.”

They finally pushed back.

That childishly evil voice finally gasped.

“ We can learn from tragedy. The pain drives us to claim something even greater in return! The greater the doom you place before us, the stronger we will grow. From the moment you failed to kill us with your very first attack at that school, the small snowball had started rolling down the hill. You can try to stop it now, but we’ve already grown well past your expectations!! So much so that this isn’t going to end with the simple revenge we initially planned it as !!!!!!”

A cracking sound rang out, but not from Crystal Girl Aine. It came from Anastasia who was supposedly still charging forward.

“Yes, that’s right. I wanted to save everyone, even though I knew it wasn’t possible!” roared the boy. He roared straight at that absolute enemy known as a Problem Solver and one of the world’s strongest. “And not just Gekiha and the other crystallized students and teachers. I wanted to save Marika who was so excited by any glimmer of hope and by the thought of revenge. I wanted to protect the Student Council President’s smile!”

He had known revenge was the right thing to do, but something about it had not sat right with him.

He had felt oddly satisfied when he practically threw his life away to save the ordinary people participating in the protest in London.

If that was who he really was, then surely it had to be the driving force that had brought him so far against the Problem Solvers!!

“I wanted to tell them to stop dirtying their hands with revenge!! I wanted to tell them not to forget who they were back in that happy school!! So I took on as much of the burden as I could to prevent them from crossing the point of no return! That might sound like a ridiculous joke to those of you we were killing, but I risked my life for that!!!!!!”

The next thing he knew, sweat was soaking her face.

There was a smile plastered to her face as she spoke her mind.

“That may be true.”

But the world’s strongest was the world’s strongest to the end.

“ But that equation only applies to you; it does not apply to the entirely separate Crystal Blossom that has no civilization of its own .”

“!!!???”

The cracks rapidly shifted toward Aine’s translucent katana. They spread through her pale hands and arms like the propagation of pressure.

If she shattered, Karuta would be defenseless.

Then he could not avoid Anastasia’s attack, but he doubted Aine could push Anastasia back even if he gave the order now.

He breathed in and out.

What did he need to end this revenge?

He thought about it, arrived at a conclusion, and raised his voice.

“Return to me, Aine!!”

Both Anastasia and Aine looked taken aback.

Then Aine fell back. She slipped inside the boy’s stomach.

It was obvious what would happen once that wall, dam, and plug was removed.

The max speed charge was completed.

Anastasia’s arm, the yellow and black armor surrounding it, and the long claw-like thing extending from there pierced the boy’s side. The single attack was enough to break right through the spatial vibration field of his weak barrier. He doubled over and coughed up blood.

“Bh.”

And then Anastasia realized something.

The tactile feedback of the blow sent a strange tremor up her spine that her brain finally managed to verbalize.

(I missed…his vitals?)

Those were the words that came to mind, but her knowledge rejected it. She had attacked his vitals. She had followed the muscle memory that let her pull that off with her eyes closed. And yet Utagai Karuta had not died. There was still life in his eyes.

She heard a cracking sound.

She thought it might be crystals enveloping him to heal the wound she had just made…but it was not.

(No, did he intentionally harm himself to produce crystals in his body that lifted up his organs!? He forcibly rearranged his own insides!?)

“Gh, bh.”

Either Anastasia’s attack or the intense burden he put on himself caused him to cough up a large hunk of blood.

But he smiled.

The boy smiled fiercely.

He gathered his strength.

He grabbed onto Anastasia’s outstretched right arm with both hands and gave a command along with more blood.

“Come out, Aine!!!!!!”

Yes, as long as the Crystal Blossom was not active, the translucent armor would not take damage. As long as he was prepared to take the blow himself, he could preserve his trump card in a place of absolute safety.

So he had hidden his ultimate weapon inside his body.

He had hidden it and pulled it back out.

All so he could take Anastasia Blast’s head off in this moment.

“!!!???”

The world’s strongest’s eyes opened wide.

For probably the first time in her life, she looked like her throat had gone dry.

It was the same look the Problem Solvers had carved on the faces of everyone in that Ocean Crystal Magic Academy.

In other words, a look of fear and terror.

And.

In the few seconds of motionless forced upon her by punching through her target’s gut, the doubled-over boy’s back stirred.

His purple blazer pulled up.

The top half of a slender grim reaper with pale, pale skin popped out. She wielded a katana made of a cold, crystal-like substance and a short laser gun that branched off like a jitte. With her target within killing range, the crystal girl in white moved as accurately as a clockwork device.

There was no sound.

But the slash entered at the woman’s shoulder and cut diagonally down from there.

### 034. Part 8

After they broke through the orange-shining glass wall and entered the broadcast station again, Karuta finally felt a solid floor beneath his feet. He used that to run through the building along with Marika and Aine.

“She doesn’t have a body of steel and she can’t use Crystal Magic, but she always shows up on the front line and leaves herself open to attack. Why?”

They could hear the small explosions – no, gunshots – even from here.

If they did not reach their destination before those ended, they really would have no tricks left up their sleeves.

“The answer is simple: because nowhere is safer than by her dinosaur. That’s why she stood on that stage in front of 700 people in the ship’s gym. That dinosaur is tough enough to deflect any attack, but it can only shield one direction at a time. So her biggest fear was for the 700 people to spread out and attack separately. If she was surrounded, there would be a chance of an attack slipping through the gaps in her dinosaur shield and reaching her. That’s why she took a position where all those gazes were fixed on her from a single direction.”

So…

“She can only summon one of those dinosaurs. She can’t summon a second or third with the same mass and she can’t split the one into two smaller ones. If she could, she could stay in hiding with a bodyguard dinosaur while she sent in an attack dinosaur!”

What was Elicia doing now that she was surrounded by explosions on that building wall?

Was she unsure which direction to use her dinosaur shield?

Or…

“Karuta-kun, be careful. Elicia is acting oddly.” Student Council President Kyouka contacted him via Crystal Blossom vibration while she observed the exterior of the station with binoculars. “It isn’t shaped like a dinosaur anymore. It looks more like a crumbling donut as she forces it to shield her in all directions!”

“That’s fine.” Karuta’s group ran up the emergency stairs. “We were hoping she would panic and not know what to do, but this still keeps her from using the dinosaur.”

They ran down the hallway.

“I just hope she hasn’t considered this possibility!!”

They arrived at the glass wall decorating the floor.

Yes.

From Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg’s perspective, they were approaching from below her feet.

She had broken down the dinosaur and spread the rusty junk out in a donut shape to protect herself in all directions while it still maintained a single form, but those “all directions” were only in two dimensions.

Had Elicia forgotten she was using a glass wall like the floor?

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Karuta’s fist broke through the thick reinforced glass wall.

“Wha-!?”

This was a first.

His sworn enemy cried out in surprise for the first time while he grabbed her ankles and dragged her inside.

He threw her to the floor.

“Khah!”

The blow to her back left her collapsed there.

From there, she must have seen what looked like a demon pulling an extendable baton from his purple blazer’s pocket.

“Aine, Marika.”

The two girls faced the broken window from either side of him. The junk donut was rapidly retaking its shape, but before it could, they used the beams fired from their katana or rapier weapons to blast the half-formed donut and forcibly tear it away from the wall.

Once gravity took hold, the dinosaur fell toward the orange surface.

Elicia reached out a hand from the floor, but there was nothing she could do.

“Ah.”

“Can you instantly eliminate that one and summon a new dinosaur? Of course you can’t. If you could effectively warp it around like that, you wouldn’t need to stick by its side to stay in the one safe zone on the front line. Once it takes form, you’re stuck using that one.”

“Ahhh.”

“This is the 104th floor, so how long do you think it’ll take for it to climb back up the wall?”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

“As long as we kill you before then, we win.”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- bgwahhh !?”

He swung the first horizontal blow toward Miss Strongest lying screaming on the floor.

When he felt the raw sensation reaching his wrist through the weapon, he knew for certain that Elicia really did use God-Worshipping Magic.

She did not have the barrier or regeneration of a Crystal Magician’s presets.

He could do this now.

If he attacked her exposed human body, he could defeat this strongest!!

After delivering a second and third blow with the baton as if slapping her back and forth, it was the baton that broke and bent in a shallow V-shape. It was hollow inside to make it collapsible, but it was also quite cheap.

“This thing’s useless.”

“Pant, pant.”

He tossed it aside and pulled another weapon from his pocket.

These were knuckledusters, aka brass knuckles. He passed the four fingers of his right hand through the holes, clenched it, and prepared to throw a punch toward Elicia Luxverg with those brutal rings on his fingers.

“No, wait.”

He answered her with a solid thud.

But this did not last long either. After sitting on top of her and throwing several punches to her face, he heard an odd sound from the base of his index finger. A portion of the finger crystalized and began the 30-second healing process. He must have damaged the bone. Even though he had the barrier-like spatial vibration field, weakened though his might be.

“Dammit, are you kidding me?”

He tossed aside the useless hunk of metal and pulled out a modified military flashlight.

Elicia guarded her face with her hands. She looked just like some confused girl trying desperately to protect herself from the violence raining down her way without warning.

“How long have you been doing this!? We still haven’t killed a single person! You think this is enough? You expect me to believe you’ve learned your lesson!? You think you’re some helpless victim and it would be wrong to kill you? To hell with that!! You have to take responsibility for what you did! And that means you have to die, you piece of shit!!!!!!”

The flashlight was meant to blind an enemy, not beat them. It had a laser pointer in place of bright LEDs and its special laser pointer lens could spread that light out like a flashlight to fry someone’s eyes. This method was well known for being used by ill-mannered sports spectators and people trying to obstruct aircraft. But with a reinforced stainless steel exterior that lived up to the “military” descriptor, with the weight of the large battery, and with the amplifier attached to the back, it worked well as a baton.

He remained sitting on her and beat her some more.

He must have been screaming something as he did so, but not even he heard what it was.

White-haired Elicia Luxverg had been using her hands to guard her face, but eventually something must have snapped inside her. She went limp and stopped resisting.

Only his heavy breathing continued.

This was the person who had torn Kazamuki Gekiha in two, sunk the entire Ocean Crystal Magic Academy ship, and slaughtered the other 700 people in that school who he had smiled alongside as fellow Crystal Magicians. No, the number of deaths had to be several times that when the escort ships were included.

If the Problem Solvers learned that the crystalized victims were in that coastal cave and that those people would eventually reawaken, they were sure to desperately search the world until they found them. They would smash up those crystals as many times as it took, mix the pieces in with tiles or bricks, spread those around the world, and make absolutely sure those people could never be resurrected.

He knew that.

He knew every bit of that.

And yet.

Despite the heat blazing in his mind, he also felt something terribly bitter building up in the pit of his stomach. As he continued to punch Elicia, he grew irrationally angry at her for not just dying already and for clinging so stubbornly to life.

Killing people was hard.

That should have been obvious, but it really was hard.

So how could they do it so easily?

“…”

The hand holding the bloody modified military flashlight dropped.

There were tears in the eyes of Elicia Luxverg’s misshapen face.

He may have been crying too as he sat atop her.

No matter how unfair those tears were to each other.

“Sacri-sama,” said Crystal Girl Aine with a composed expression. She was not warning him that the woman really would die if he kept this up. “If you are having trouble achieving your goal, wouldn’t it be fastest to use me? I can end it with a single strike of my blade.”

“Pant, pant!!”

His shoulders rose and fell as his mind finally focused on reality once more. The heat of rage did not go away, but he managed to question himself again. Would he kill her or not? Would he kill to give her a tiny taste of her own medicine? Would he stoop to her level here?

A tremor ran through his body.

For a moment – only a moment – Gekiha’s supposedly shattered face appeared in his mind’s eye.

“Dammit!!”

He threw the flashlight weapon to the floor and loudly clicked his tongue. While still sitting on her, he grabbed the collar of that Problem Solver who looked like a squashed red sack.

“I have questions.”

“P-pant, g-gasp.”

“Tell me about the other Problem Solvers! What can they do and what are their weaknesses!! Give me every last piece of even remotely useful information you have! Keep anything to yourself and I’ll kill you. I should really be doing that regardless. Got that!?”

Her face was too swollen to tell her eyes from her nose, but she still nodded repeatedly.

He wanted info on the other Problem Solvers: their hideouts, where they generally lived their lives, the kind of magic they used, and their weaknesses. Elicia’s dinosaur was magic, so it was a technique. It was nothing more than information that anyone could learn. That dinosaur was a fearsome enemy now, but it would help immensely to be able to use it themselves.

He had dealt with this now.

Or so he though. Right up until a beam of light stabbed into one of Elicia Luxverg’s temples and out the other.

A blinding light similar to welding exploded a moment later.

He blinked his eyes for a bit to deal with the burning pain in his eyes and then he realized the person he was holding by the collar had died. Her entire head was gone. There was not much blood because the top of the neck had been burned entirely black.

(Laser…sniping?)

“Marika!?”

“What, we were trying to kill her, weren’t we?”

He raised his head, but he could not turn toward the voice.

He had never heard such an icy voice.

“Let’s say we tied her up and dragged her back with us. Then what? We don’t know what she needs to summon that dinosaur, so we have no guarantee even if we take all her weapons and armor and even strip her naked. That surprise attack wouldn’t have worked again and we’d be helpless if she was ready for us. Killing her makes the most sense.”

“…”

Utagai Karuta shut his eyes just once and then relaxed his hands. The corpse plopped lifelessly to the floor. Nothing remained of her dignity as the strongest. She was meat. Nothing more than a hunk of meat.

“Are you upset?” asked Crystal Girl Aine while slowly tilting her head. Her long silver hair swayed as she gave him a curious look. “If you had just used me, she would not have stolen your kill.”

### 035. Part 8

In that instant, Susannia Evans was closing in on her target using the many pieces of data and guidelines displayed in her biological vision, but she also wondered something beyond the tactical situation directly in front of her.

What had happened to that crystal girl from the reports?

It was obvious the enemy would prioritize the living over the nonliving. And if that girl had been abandoned when they escaped the log cabin, she would have been shattered along with the building.

But based on the fragments of information they had from the broadcast station and London, that was a Crystal Blossom that functioned entirely separately from its user.

It could be stored inside that user’s body.

So which was it?

Was the crystal girl there or not? And how would that influence this battle?

Just as she wondered that, the twintails girl altered how she flew. She rapidly braked to move in close to Susannia. If this was not some kind of tricky close-quarters combat using a sword or spear, then there was no real merit to getting closer. They may have been foolishly hoping she would overshoot them, but she was not about to fly past them and let them take up the offensive position on her tail.

But then something else happened.

Something burst from the back of the boy clinging to the twintails girl.

It was Aine, that deadly weapon with a delicate and slender body and pale skin.

“Wha-?”

The crystal girl took a very simple action.

She did not use her specially-shaped sword. Nor did she participate in the dogfight.

In that highspeed aerial world of dogfighting, she simply separated from her sacrifice boy. She was unleashed. She did not cling to anything, the fierce headwind pummeled her, and her silver hair spread out while reflecting a rainbow-colored light.

She was forcefully launched.

The slender girl flew backwards. Yes, she was slammed straight toward Susannia Evans who was on their tail.

Susannia frantically tried to dodge, but it was too late.

“You goddamn- agh!?”

She collided with a mass of a few dozen kilograms while moving at the speed of an artillery shell. That would normally have shattered both their bodies, but the crystal girl did not so much as crack. The shrill shattering sound that accompanied the impact was likely from the spatial vibration field of her preset barrier. She grabbed onto Susannia from the front. Her soft but cold arms and legs clung to Susannia like an octopus or squid’s tentacles or like a drowning child trapping the would-be rescuer who had jumped into the ocean or river to save them. And she squeezed with a tremendous viselike grip.

She chose bondage as a form of attack.

Susannia’s flight used magical power, but she could not altogether ignore the laws of physics like the brooms or Santa’s sleigh seen in storybooks. Her spread wings were forcibly folded back up and her bottle-sized jet engines were crushed, so she could no longer keep her body airborne.

“Wait, ah!? Dammit, you!!”

“Do not worry.” The cold girl rested her chin on Susannia’s shoulder and whispered in her ear with her legs still tangled around her. “I am not so fragile that I will shatter after a freefall drop from this height at this speed.”

“Persephone, do something!!”

Susannia’s face tensed as she sent a request inside herself to open all the shock-absorbing structures on the surface of her body. But that request was not answered. Aine’s tight hold on her body prevented the hatches from opening.

From there, they were a lot like a shooting star.

The two of them crashed into the snowy surface with their supersonic speed intact.

### 036. Part 8

Utagai Karuta felt woozy.

Not even he knew how he was still standing right now. An unbelievable amount of blood flowed from his side where the long claw slipped out. He should have been the one to die after losing so much blood.

But for some reason, the first to collapse was the woman in a yellow and black military uniform. He felt like he had no choice but to look down on her.

That was his duty as the victor.

“Karuta!!”

His childhood friend Marika frantically ran over. She and Crystal Girl Aine supported his unsteady body and he finally managed to let out a rusty-smelling breath. The wound must have been deep because the sound of spreading crystal had yet to stop.

A beautiful blonde woman was collapsed at his feet.

He could more or less tell that there was no saving her. Nor did she beg for her life.

Her yellow and black armor melted away.

He asked her a question as she lay collapsed on her back and slowly stopped moving with her face on its side.

“You could have twisted your wrist to widen the wound before pulling your hand out. That would have shattered the healing crystals and kept me from ever recovering. In other words, you could have killed me. Why didn’t you?”

Marika belatedly looked over at him in shock. If he had made a single mistake – no, if things had gone normally – he would not have made it. She seemed to finally realize the tightrope walk he had made.

On the other hand, Anastasia did not look his way.

She may have already gone blind.

“Didn’t I tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“This is my apocalyptic everyday life. I am always destroying someone and I will be destroyed by someone someday. If that day is today, then I must give up the title of world’s strongest. I have no interest in taking you with me. I have become an ordinary woman and you have become the world’s strongest.”

“…”

“But be careful.” She continued with a thin smile directed at who knows where. “You will now find yourselves trapped in a life where you must combat the Threat as the world’s strongest. On the path of the strongest, fellow humans will constantly get in your way as they try to help or have decided they are your rival and you will find no allies outside of your immediate group. If you ever wish to bow out, then let your guard down for even a moment. You will be devoured in no time at all. Either by the Threat or by your fellow humans.”

Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka.

Those four would reign in place of the previous five.

They would be the four rulers of a new era.

Was that what this woman was saying?

“I’m not interested in being the strongest.”

“But there is no escaping it.”

“…”

“You will not be able to escape being the world’s strongest any more than we could.”

“What…”

The boy could not say if the Crystal Blossom’s healing would be enough or if this would count as a fatal blow and his entire body would be solidified. He desperately kept himself conscious in order to ask this question.

He wanted to know the answer.

“What were you Problem Solvers? Where did you start from?”

“Before being bound by the title of strongest, we were no more than an ordinary girl and her friends.”

Her words sounded like some kind of curse.

“And now I have relinquished the title. The world’s strongest form of violence is considered justified simply because it is the world’s strongest. So now that I have fallen, nothing will work to defend what I do or say. So let me say this one thing to you, the new strongest who so foolishly reached this point.”

Anastasia Blast gathered the last ounces of strength from the fading flame of her life to speak these final words.

“I am sorry about what happened at Grimnoah. We were scared.”

The last of the world’s strongest was gone.

After hearing her out, the tension inside Karuta finally snapped and his mind fell into darkness.

He thought he heard someone shouting in his ear, but he could no longer respond.

His revenge, the driving force supporting his soul, had reached its conclusion on that day – in that moment.

### Between the Lines 4

“Crystal Blossoms?” the world’s strongest magician had once asked. “You think that could defeat us and become the next strongest?”

“Of course,” replied the old man who had been her sworn friend. “And once there are enough of them, the world’s distortion needs not be focused on individuals any longer. Crystal Magic will protect you five, so you can finally step down from the stage, Anastasia.”

### 037. Part 9

They returned to the RV they were using as a mobile base.

“Was I useful? I used the gas explosion to make sure everyone was evacuated, I cut standard power to the broadcast station, and I kept watch with my binoculars. That was a lot of work, but I’m pretty sure I kept anyone from being hit by the falling glass.”

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was waiting for them in her wheelchair.

She had blended into the background to provide logistical support, but she must have returned to the RV ahead of them. Also, the RV’s driver’s seat had been customized for her, so the gas and brake pedals could be operated with buttons on the steering wheel.

“Oh? You actually killed her, didn’t you?” was the first thing Kyouka said when they returned.

“…Yes.”

“But you don’t look very happy. Why aren’t you delighted we defeated one of the world’s strongest and took revenge for everyone?”

The boy looked up with his childhood friend and the crystal girl on either side of him.

Was he smiling or crying?

That avenger could no longer say for sure.

“I’m not sure myself.”

And he said more in his heart:

Sorry, Gekiha.

I don’t think we’re the kind of people who could appear in those action movies you dreamed of.

### Between the Lines 1

“Crystal Magic?”

Elicia Luxverg had been perplexed when she first heard that term.

Magic was the term for divine miracles performed by human hands, but this new version apparently did not require going to the gods themselves. A printed circuit board was hooked up to a unit known as a Crystal Blossom, a god’s name was sealed inside, and it was installed with a program based on that god’s legends and myths to “ride the supernatural currents” similar to someone reading the weather map before tilling their field or raising their ship’s sails.

Was that really possible?

And if it was, wasn’t it irreverent?

“It doesn’t bother me,” replied Elicia Luxverg’s shadow.

That was no metaphor. The outline of her shadow on the floor changed to create a shape very different from her own.

That was Vishnu, God of Change.

He was one of the primary Hindu gods alongside Brahma the Creator and Shiva the Destroyer. He was the preserver and one of his jobs was to take the form of ten different Avatars to resolve any problems that would disturb the public order.

Elicia’s dinosaur could be seen as a version of those Avatars created using Vishnu’s power to freely change forms.

“How can it not bother you? They are basically creating papier mache gods and drawing on your power without permission. It isn’t even an issue of good or evil. Can a real god like you really allow that to happen?”

“This isn’t about that.” Her shadow’s shoulders shook in amusement. “You cannot preserve the status quo simply by letting the flow of time take over. Standstills lead to the change known as stagnation. As a preserver god, I believe I understand just how difficult it is to preserve things. To be honest, I suspect the world has grown stagnant by the title of world’s strongest staying with you for so long.”

“…”

“So isn’t this a good opportunity to stir things up? This feels weird since I’m more or less praising the acts of that god of destruction and dance, but this should be a pretty good deal for you. Finding someone who will help you improve yourself is always a good thing.”

“There are already four other people with the title of world’s strongest.”

“You mean that group of five who have their hands tied because of a stalemate akin to nuclear strategy? When was the last time any of you fought each other?”

“What are you getting at here?”

“I am saying you cannot stop the world from changing, so you should position yourself to use that change as a tailwind. You five are so evenly matched you cannot hope for any more experience points there. Not as enemies or as allies.”

“I didn’t think you were the kind of god who gleefully sought out enemies.”

“Who says this new group has to be an enemy?” Her shadow laughed in amusement. “A formidable opponent can also be the kind of friend you can really open up to. That is what it means to find pleasant preservation.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“A friend, huh?”

### 038. Part 9

Night turned to day. No, it was more like a video that turned out entirely white because the exposure was set wrong.

A sunburn-like pain covered Karuta’s entire body. And it did not end there. The pain increased endlessly. He knew he could not stay here, so he slipped below a car parked on the curb.

His fingers were moving oddly.

Pointy crystals stuck out from all over his body like distorted scales.

(What’s happening now!?)

The attack continued for more than thirty seconds before night returned. He clenched his teeth at the pain, waited for the healing to complete, and checked on things outside. After a thirty second interval, white light filled the world once more.

“Kyah!?” screamed Marika.

“We did not see this phenomenon before,” said Aine.

“But we can survive brief exposure to this,” he said. “Can she switch between a focused and wide-angle version? Or…”

The next attack came, but when he took a closer look, he realized the blinding light did not fill the entire space.

It was more like a polka dot pattern or a mesh.

Countless light spears were piercing the city of London at a set interval. There were tens, hundreds, or even thousands of them and the space between that mesh of attacks was roasted by the residual heat. It was like how a grill efficiently heated food.

“Is this a scattershot!? She doesn’t just have the one satellite weapon. How many weapons are staring down at the planet!?”

“Sacri-sama, the light spears appear to be firing on the same coordinates each time. She likely scanned London’s terrain and calculated the optimal layout for evenly cooking everything with the radiant heat.”

“Thousands of attacks she can fire simultaneously with the added bonus of roasting an entire city if she scans the terrain?” said Marika. “I see. I suppose you would need something like that to count as one of the world’s strongest.”

“But, Marika, as convenient as this is, it isn’t immediately effective. She must be waiting for me to screw up, which means she’s lost track of me.”

“Argh, maybe it would be easier to travel along the subway tracks.”

“Sacri-sama, this much damage is within acceptable bounds for me. I can continue as is.”

“Pretend it’s hurting you. You’ll stick out like a sore thumb otherwise.”

He crawled out from below the car in between shots.

He had not expected this at all back then, so it was pure luck that he had told that girl to escape indoors.

And he had learned something. The attacks and the pause between attacks both lasted about thirty seconds. Once he knew that, this scattershot mode was no threat. By running into a boxy smoking area or a building with its windows smashed by the rioters, he could take shelter while making his way toward the Palace of Westminster. When he ran across a rioter writhing on the ground, he did his best to shove them underneath a nearby car.

“I’m not…”

He gasped for breath and felt sweat unpleasantly soaking his body, but there was a thin smile on his face.

“I’m not afraid of you anymore, Yukino Arakawa.”

The hunter ran through the dark city of London which had been transformed into a fiery hell.

He was drawing ever closer to the Palace of Westminster where his prey awaited.

### 039. Part 9

The result looked horrific.

A large portion of the white scenery had been torn away to reveal the contrasting dark soil below.

Marika viewed the 20m-radius crater from the sky and then slowly descended toward its center with the boy still clinging to her hips.

Crystal Girl Aine was waving to them from there.

Susannia Evans’s location was unclear. Or rather, she was scattered across everything. More than just torn apart, it looked like she had been reduced to shreds. And the mechanical components with a dull silver shine were scattered over an even wider area that passed beyond the crater. The disastrous scene looked like a passenger plane crash site and Marika gave an annoyed comment while having her Crystal Blossom armor and rapier withdraw.

“It really was like fourth-dimensional storage. This is more than just a multitool. You could probably build a pyramid with all of this stuff. How was it all contained inside the volume of a human body?”

“That was probably the magic she used. Anyway, that is Susannia Evans defeated. But what should we do now, Sacri-sama? If we are lucky, Anastasia Blast will be here too, but if not, we will have to start from scratch in searching for her.”

“Look, this is all iron, aluminum, and stainless steel. It’s all been refined from non-recycled first-generation resources,” pointed out Marika. “Back in their ‘age of peace’ before we started picking them off, that would have been a pile of treasure.”

“I am only interested in pure gold,” insisted Aine.

Karuta belatedly let out a slow breath while listening to their conversation.

He had killed someone. It had happened so quickly it still did not feel real.

He had not had any other options.

“She could fly and probably swim through the ocean too, but does she really travel the world like that?” asked Marika. “She was like their top secret weapon who kept away from the media, so I bet they would want to avoid letting anyone see her using her magic…or using those weapons, I guess.”

“What are you getting at?”

“She would use normal transportation as much as possible. That car next to the log cabin was bait and she blew it up with her first attack, but she might have had another car or a helicopter hidden somewhere further away. If we can find that, we might be able to find some information in there.”

Utagai Karuta thought to himself while listening.

They had defeated a Problem Solver. Susannia Evans had been scattered across the ground.

(But is this really over?)

He had no basis for his doubt. Everything had gone as well as could be hoped. It might as well have scored a perfect 100, but that was why it did not sit right with him. Things had been different with Susannia than with the other Problem Solvers. They had not glimpsed her magic at the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy and they had not had any advance information on how she fought. Careful planning had just barely been enough before, but now they had been forced to go in blind and adlib their way through the battle. It was like being thrown back into that nightmare world in Grimnoah. They had been helpless their first time against that dinosaur and those light spears. They had only managed to stand up to them after seeing that magic, analyzing it from multiple angles, and using a surprise attack.

Yet they had won so easily this time?

This was the world’s strongest who used mechanization God-Worshiping Magic and it was already over? It had not been easy by any means, but was she really weak enough to be fought off using some adlibbed plan like that? Could she really be called the world’s strongest like this?

No.

There was a bigger question.

Was Susannia Evans’s God-Worshiping Magic really and truly about mechanization?

“That composite armor is made from carbon, aramid, and fluorine-treated steel panels. These fiber optic cables were probably used for signal transmission. No, maybe they were for the laser beams’ power transmission. But they use chloride glass? In that case…”

The girls watched in confusion as Karuta stepped out of the dark soil crater and began checking through the scattered junk.

“What’s with you? What’s so interesting about all that wreckage?”

“Are there some rare earths worth a lot of money? Ah!? Could you gather all the semiconductors in these devices and melt them down to obtain a fair amount of pure gold? (Tremble, tremble.)”

“No, something isn’t right,” he cut in. “It is true modern medicine can artificially connect severed muscles and nerves. Even organs can be replaced with mechanical devices to a certain extent. And it’s probably all a lot more lenient when you can use magic to help. But this wreckage scattered around here is still strange.”

“Yeah, anyone could tell this wouldn’t fit in that body.”

“I don’t mean that. I’m talking about the materials used.”

“The materials?”

“Yes. The composite armor and artificial organs are all of the highest quality, but a human body would never accept these. The armor would lead to metal poisoning and the organs would be rejected by the body and necrosis could spread to the surrounding cells as well. There are a lot of medical devices made to be implanted in the body – artificial muscles, pacemakers, implants, etc. – but the materials used are chosen carefully. Yet I see none of that caution here. The things I see here would have been suicide for Susannia, so it doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe for a normal person.” Marika did not quite seem to get what he was trying to say. “But doesn’t that just mean she has some magic to force her way through that?”

“Maybe, but that changes things.”

This was his main point.

“Let’s say Susannia Evans had some God-Worshiping Magic that let her modify her entire body, fill it with dangerous materials, and completely suppress any kind of rejection. That would mean her magic wasn’t about mechanization or becoming a cyborg.”

“Wait, you don’t mean…”

“Her God-Worshiping Magic was one that doesn’t let her die. Or maybe one that causes her body to recover from any and all wounds interior or exterior.”

He breathed in and out before making his final statement.

“What if Susannia Evans’s God-Worshipping Magic was for regeneration!?”

In hindsight, the mechanization idea had never made much sense.

Even if you used largescale agricultural machines to cultivate the desert and desalinate the seawater, that scorching land was not going to become fertile so easily. Even with a supply of freshwater, the soil had to be properly developed or it would not contain the necessary nutrients and minerals. So how had Susannia done that?

The answer was simple: she had sown some form of nutrients across the vast desert.

For example, she could have chopped up her own flesh and blood. And conveniently enough, she had called upon the name of Persephone, a deity who, along with her mother Demeter, was closely related to the spring crop and winter hunger.

What had been used to grow all the world’s produce? What was indirectly contained in the foods they had been eating all this time?

But they did not have time to suppress an urge to vomit.

A clump of snow slowly rose up behind surprised Marika.

“Aine!!” shouted the boy.

The crystal girl shoved the curly twintails childhood friend out of the way just before something swept diagonally through that space. It was a scorching blade similar to a gas burner. Aine could not dodge in time, so her slender left arm was severed at the elbow. The barrier formed by a spatial vibration field was no use. The arm spun through the air and fell to the snow. Either she had no liquid circulating her body or she “tightened” the end of the stump because there was no bleeding.

And.

A redheaded woman emerged from the snow with what was more like strings than scraps of cloth draped over her. Was this the result and power of her regeneration? Her skin was tight and had an almost polished sheen to it and there was no sign of anything like a scar.

(This is after she was torn to pieces.)

Time seemed to have stopped, but Karuta still gulped.

(This is well beyond anything Crystal Magic can do. How far does her regeneration go!?)

“Susannia Evans!?”

“Ha ha.”

After being shoved out of the way, Marika finally managed to send a command to the printed circuit board smaller than a stamp, reequip her Crystal Blossom armor, and grab her rapier. She and one-armed Aine attacked from two directions at once. She slashed with a blade made from lasers or masers created from the vibration and excitation of crystal.

Susannia’s movements were far from perfect, but that must have been why she chose to make herself a mechanized cyborg. And she had used her regeneration to entirely ignore the burden on her physical body.

She had lost her mechanical parts and was nearly stripped bare, so she only had just the one close-range burner sword to work with. That was not enough to fully defend against Marika and Aine who had become incarnations of Crystal Magic. She took a few solid blows from the slashing lines of light, so her neck and torso were sliced right through.

But that was not enough to stop her.

None of it mattered to the Problem Solver who could regenerate.

She immediately recovered and resumed fighting without even collapsing. No matter how much they sliced and diced her, she never stopped. It was enough to give the illusion that they were fighting a liquid rather than a solid.

When her one arm was dangling down only half-severed, she cut it the rest of the way off herself to trigger a regeneration from the base.

She would not stop. Karuta had no idea what they could do to win this. Could the world’s strongest of the Problem Solvers really bend the rules of the world this far?

(Is there some core part like her brain or heart? Is she supported by some other object like a magic circle or some ritual artifact? What are we supposed to destroy? What can we attack to end this!? Does her regeneration have none of the rules that Crystal Magic has to follow !?)

“What should we do!?” asked Marika. “Withdraw for now!?”

“The target currently only possesses a close-range weapon,” said Aine. “If we fly into the sky to bomb her from a distance, we should be able to unilaterally attack her.”

“We don’t know how much of the wreckage scattered around here she can still use! Don’t give her any freedom! We don’t stand a chance if she reconnects to her cyborg weapons. That trick we used in the dogfight won’t work again!!”

Opening up her own gut without anesthesia to stuff filthy machines inside while on the receiving end of a fierce aerial bombing would be entirely insane, but Susannia Evans could pull it off. If she could handle the pain, her regeneration would do the rest. She could survive even the most absurd forms of mechanization.

Karuta hated the fact the he could only watch since he had no special abilities himself.

“She’s almost like a planaria. No, she’s even worse!” said Marika. “We’re lucky the cuts don’t bubble out to create multiple copies of her, but she regenerates way too fast!!”

(Wait, a planaria?)

He was reminded of a cruel experiment shown on a TV science program.

And it was something that only worked with the incredible regenerative ability of a planaria.

“Aine, Marika. I want to try something, so aim for her arms!”

“We’ve chopped those off countless times already!!”

“ Don’t cut them off like that. Slice through them lengthwise !!”

He was no longer talking about the woman like she was a human being, but Crystal Girl Aine mechanically complied.

She swung her crystal sword to slice between the middle and ring finger of braided Susannia Evans’s right arm and straight up to near the elbow. Instead of severing the arm, she opened it up in a floppy V-shape.

Susannia moved her other hand in response.

She intended to slice off her partially-damaged arm with the burner sword. She had done this before.

“Marika!!”

On his cry, Marika’s rapier pierced Susannia’s left hand to pin it in place.

“Kh, damn you!!”

For the first time.

Truly for the first time, the Problem Solver’s face twisted.

And a moment later, the regeneration began with a wet sound.

The split V-shape of her right arm did not reconnect. Instead, two right forearms grew out from her elbow.

“There’s a cruel experiment you can do using a planaria’s regenerative ability,” spat out Karuta. “If you partially damage them instead of fully severing their body, another body will emerge from the sliced portion. And it doesn’t just apply to the main body. Cut through the head, and it will grow two heads, brain included. Although I don’t know if that means your personality – or whatever you would call that mass of thoughts – is copied over or if it would be more like having two brains in the same body.”

The same thing was happening here.

Susannia’s regeneration was so absurdly good that they could take advantage of it.

Defeating her was not possible

Same for killing her.

But there was a way of ending the battle and keeping her from living her life even if they did not actually take her life.

“Marika, Aine.” The exacter of revenge made another cold statement. “Do not sever anything. It can be her arms, legs, torso, neck, or head, but just slice her up while keeping things attached like a kid trying to cut up some ingredients their first time cooking! That will transform her into no more than a hunk of flesh. Throw her soul into a prison of flesh where she can never, ever again move of her own free will!!”

### 040. Part X

Elicia Luxverg is known as one of the Problem Solvers.

That lady is always busy battling the Threat that has shaken so many of our lives, but today she has kindly offered to spare some of that time for us!

“You exaggerate how busy I am, so please relax and enjoy the interview.”

Miss Elicia, you are known to have protected dozens of cities, regions, and countries from the Threat and your many legends include the salvation of New York, the defense of Hong Kong, and the protection of Sydney. You are also well known for not discriminating based on politics, ideology, religion, military level, race, or any other basis when it comes to reaching out a helping hand to a region in need. Of course, the same applies to the rest of the Problem Solvers as well.

“I just so happened to be dispatched to heavy populated areas, that’s all. When we receive information on the Threat, it does not matter if it will happen in a metropolis of a million or at a log cabin deep in the mountains. We must do everything we can and there is nothing more to it.”

All information on the Threat and your battles is kept hidden, but it seems you have earned the nickname of Saurus. Can you tell us why that is?

“Heh. I am unable to answer due to those very information restrictions. Sorry about that.”

Can you tell us anything about your future plans?

“Again, the information restrictions do not let me.”

In addition to the aforementioned battles, you are also heavily involved with the infrastructure for garbage disposal. I do apologize, but I have trouble seeing what a lovely woman such as you has to do with waste disposal.

“Nothing in this world is beautiful or filthy. There is only the cycle of resources and products, so if one side grows stagnant, the other will collapse as well. Everything on this planet is finite. Efficient recycling and the new resources acquired through it are the only way to extend humanity’s lifespan. In a way, that is even more crucial than combating the Threat. …Oh, am I starting to give you a headache?”

How about we end the discussion of your work here.

Now, according to some exclusive information we have received, you are currently single. That seems like such a waste for a woman of your caliber! What kind of guy would be in luck if he hoped to marry up with you?

“I really wish the information restrictions could have covered this as well, but you can’t have everything in life. Also, I do not like the entire concept of ‘marrying up’. If that is why you are interested in me, then don’t bother and save us both some time.”

So are you the type who wants to be supported by a man?

“Surely even I have the right to dream of a Prince Charming.”

Oh, what’s this!?

“Why the surprise? But if you must know, step one for winning my heart is to be stronger than me. Are you listening, all you princes out there? I await your challenge.”

### 041. Part X

A special G21 summit is being held here in London. The signs point toward the topic being countermeasures against the Threat that has shaken so many people’s lives, so there is reason to suspect the Problem Solvers have been summoned here for more than just summit security.

The Problem Solvers are very busy, but we have managed to get Miss Yukino Arakawa to spare some time to speak with us.

“I must apologize, but I cannot provide any of the gossip you are likely hoping for.”

Is there indeed a connection between the G21’s primary topic and the Problem Solver presence here?

“I am simply providing security for the summit, so I have not even been informed what that main topic is. Thus, I cannot answer that question.”

The five of you are like our guardian deities, but you are also a central pillar of global infrastructure. If conditions destabilize, would it hinder those services?

“There is nothing to worry about there. For one thing, I am not sure what you even mean by conditions destabilizing and what do we have to fear anyway? Everyone watching this footage continues to receive power to their homes and what greater symbol is there of a rock-solid system there? Everyone is under our protection. Do not forget how reassuring that is.”

So to be absolutely certain, you are saying the Threat is not approaching this city and there is no need to evacuate?

“That I can answer with a wholehearted yes. The appearance of the Threat can be predicted in advance, so if danger signs are detected, the information will be immediately released and evacuating all of you will take top priority. And even if a full evacuation is not possible, there is nothing to worry about while we are in the area. We will swiftly deal with the Threat and keep the damage to a minimum.”

But no information on your battles with the Threat has been released and some tabloids and online news sites have voiced concerns that your success rate at driving back the Threat is not as high as we are led to believe.

“Are you making intentionally provocative statements to see how we respond? Information on the Threat is not released because we do not want unnecessary fear and chaos to spread to safe regions. Also, our combat methods are meant for use against the Threat, so we do not want knowledge of them to spread and perhaps fall into the wrong hands. I imagine some of the people making a fuss about the information restrictions are more interested in us than in the Threat.”

Also, it has been noted that Miss Elicia is absent this time.

“No comment☆ Mystery is the spice of life. Plus, we are talking about me at the moment, are we not?”

### 042. Part X

Yes, we are here in Rio de Janeiro.

As you can see, the city’s borders are blocked off by barricades and yellow tape so us normal folk are not allowed to see inside. Footage from helicopters or drones is not an option because the area has been declared a no-fly zone and civilian satellites have been forced to mask the data they release in accordance with the International Peaceful Usage of Space Treaty.

The details have not been announced as per the usual information restriction, but rumor has it the Threat did this.

Time and again this month, the Problem Solvers have been less than successful and people suspect this incident could have been entirely prevented if all five of those strongests had been deployed as usual, so public groups appear to be requesting the information be released.

Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg.

Yukino “Punish” Arakawa.

Jessie “Edge” Marcus.

Those three are known as the public face of the Problem Solvers while the other two have not left as much of an impression on us since they are more like secret weapons kept hidden from the public.

Some tabloids and online news sites have been suggesting there are not in fact five Problem Solvers and those three are it, but the truth will likely be difficult to find since not a single government is willing to say anything on the matter.

Meanwhile, the Threat remains an issue.

We can only pray that the Problem Solvers quickly recover from whatever is troubling them.

### 043. Part X

The public relations and state-run broadcasting networks of the world’s governments all remain silent, so the reporting from commercial broadcasters such as ourselves has become all the more crucial in bringing all of you the latest information.

We hope we can provide you with as much information as possible to eliminate your anxieties and fears while helping you view the world as it truly is.

First of all, there is still no news concerning the disappearance of the Problem Solvers. We have received no information or word related to them. We have decided that in itself is an important message of some kind.

Your memories of the chaos in London are probably still fresh, but the bits and pieces we have received from the local EMTs and medical examiners shows evidence that the chaos was part of an intentional attack on the Problem Solvers. The host nation of England and the rest of the G21 nations have not officially confirmed this, but it certainly sounds plausible. For example, couldn’t the silence of so many governments actually be loosening the restrictions on information and allowing previously unheard witness accounts to be heard on social media and elsewhere?

This also raises concerning questions about Miss Elicia Luxverg who has made no media appearances since her live interview broadcast across Southeast Asia.

Have they been injured in the fight against the Threat?

Are they being targeted by something other than the Threat?

Or is it both?

And if it is fellow humans attacking the Problem Solvers, what is their motive? The Problem Solvers can be seen as the foundation of the modern world. You could even call them the five pillars that support all of our lives. Why would someone want to take those away or destroy them?

In the past, we saw the occasional attempt to assist in the Threat’s destruction after linking it to religious motifs or passages from books of prophecy, but those were all one-off or short-term events and they never led to anything significant. After all, the Problem Solvers are the world’s strongest, so they have the strength to break through any plans built against them.

But perhaps that is not always the case.

We find this unidentified Individual X to be more frightening than the Threat. Whoever this is may be even stronger than the Problem Solvers. In other words, they are a truly uncontrollable monster. Perhaps one that surpasses even the Threat. As individuals, we would like to focus our attention on this Individual X. We will do our best to accurately grasp the danger at hand so that we do not trap you with needless confusion and speculation. Stay true to your usual self and do not be led astray by baseless rumors and fake news. That is the only way to deal real damage to Individual X.

### 044. Part of him definitely felt that way, but that part of him had made his childhood friend cry back in London.

She had asked him not to leave her – leave them – behind.

“Don’t worry,” said Omotesandou Kyouka. “I feel something similar.”

“Eh?”

At first, he thought this was some kind of leading question, but then she revealed what she meant.

“Revenge, vengeance, making them pay. It is simple enough to say, but I thought we were bound to fail at some point or another. I thought our desire for revenge would waver at some point and that would allow it to be worn down, transformed, and faded. And that is almost certainly what would have happened if I had been thrown out into the world all on my own with nothing but this wheelchair to work with. In fact, I may not have been able to take the very first step. There is no way I could have attempted anything as impressive as eradicating the Problem Solvers who rule this world.”

“…”

“But it’s strange.” The Student Council President in just a dress shirt seemed to be smiling, but he was too close to see her expression clearly. “People I can call partners gathered around someone as weak as me and coincidence stacked on top of coincidence to allow us to survive this long. My desire for revenge never faded and I really am working toward eradicating the Problem Solvers. ‘In a time of need, we only need to work together.’ Hee hee. When I said that at the school assembly, I never imagined it would come to mean something like this. At the time, we had found a blanket and cooler stuffed into the empty space below the heliport and we were trying to figure out who had gone to the misguided effort of setting up such a perfect slacking-off spot with both shade and a nice breeze.”

So.

Did that mean…

“Sorry,” said Karuta. “If we hadn’t run across you, you might not have been led astray like this.”

“Now you are just being overly self-conscious. Just like I could not have done anything on my own, I doubt the rest of you could have made it this far without me. You would have been defeated at some point or you would have failed to take the first step and stewed in your own hesitation. Don’t you think?”

“Maybe so.”

“Also, I doubt we could have lived a normal life even if we never started down the path of revenge. Like I said, we would have stewed in our own hesitation. Especially me since I have plenty I can use as an excuse. I may have ended up living a life where I blamed these legs any time I failed or gave up on something and where I worked to inspire sympathy in everyone around me.”

Karuta had no right to decide which was the better path for her.

She had to live her own life.

That was all there was to it.

A change occurred on the laptop screen. The scrolling alphanumeric text came to a stop and a new window opened instead. It showed a human-readable list of files.

“And here we have another coincidence to add to the stack,” said the Student Council President in only a dress shirt. She sounded partially excited and partially disappointed. “Now we should find some clues and leads. It seems our path of revenge has not come to an end quite yet.”

### 045. Prologue

“Incompetent,” said the demon. “Incompetent, incompetent, every last one of you is incompetent. Thus, Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah shall be immediately shut down!!”

A digital alarm clock went off in a dark room.

Utagai Karuta reached out from the large bed, but his fingers found something else instead. It was a lot like reaching for the book you wanted at a bookstore and accidentally bumping into another customer’s hand.

He was puzzled as someone spoke up from the darkness.

“Why would you set it so early, you goody-goody. Have you started training on your own?”

“Marika?”

He narrowed his eyes toward the familiar voice and could barely make out a feminine silhouette in the darkness.

This was his childhood friend of the same age. The girl’s long hair had been dyed a strawberry blonde and she wore it in curly twintails. She had a curvy figure for her short height. …Except something was not right. Would a clothed girl’s body lines really be quite this clearly defined in silhouette?

Utagai Karuta had a bad feeling about this, so he asked about it from the bed.

“Wait just a second, Marika.”

“Isn’t it a little late for that? We’ve shared baths and beds in the past, haven’t we? And while I’m not proud of it, you know what my room is like. I bought too many new swimsuits online, so it’s basically a warehouse with no room to walk around. This is hardly the first time I’ve snuck over here to get some help.”

“That is definitely a problem, but it isn’t what I’m getting at here. I’m talking about your state of dress.”

“Oh, this?” The sexy silhouette needlessly put its hands on its hips. “You know I can’t get to sleep unless I’m nude, right?”

“Waaahhh!!”

It was such a shock he rolled right out of the large bed.

As his last form of resistance, he grabbed at the sheet with his toes while rolling to the floor and threw it into the air. The girl’s muffled protests reached him after it fell right over her head.

“Oh, fome on. Is the familiar sight of your childhood friend really that much of an eyesore?”

“No, if anything it’s the opp-…!!”

(Oh, no!! Prime numbers! Pi! Anything that will distract me! Oh, I know! I can review my Crystal Magic knowledge!)

He frantically tried to refocus himself, but a few different pieces of bad luck aligned here. He really should not have messed with those weird IoT appliance settings. The automatic curtains were set to open at exactly three minutes after the alarm went off to help him get up in the morning.

The human internal clock was closely linked to sunlight, so artificially increasing the amount of light was one method used by jetlag recovery programs.

However, the image that crashed into Utagai Karuta’s heart was not the lovely morning sunbeams; it was a nude twintails girl shining bright in those sunbeams.

Of course, her body was somewhat hidden since he had kicked the sheet into the air a moment before.

“Good morning, Karuta-kun. The weather is fantastic again today.”

“Bwah! M-Mari-Mari-Marika!! Can’t you…can’t you cover yourself up better than that!?”

“Why bother when I’m about to take a shower? Oh, you’re fine with me getting the first shower of the morning, right?”

“Awawawawa.”

“And as thanks for letting me go first, you can enjoy a wonderful shower surrounded by the lingering scent of a lovely maiden.”

“Awaaaa!!”

(Awawawawawawawa! The human race cannot – boobs – directly control the weather, but by detecting meteorological phenomena such as high and low pressure and then “riding that current”, we can prevent natural disaster and ensure largescale agricultural success – boobies – Crystal Magic is used by electronically controlling a Crystal Blossom using a printed circuit board smaller than a stamp and sealing a god’s name inside – boobs and tits – to produce miraculous phenomena such as producing fire from the hand or flying through the sky, so – ah ha, ah ha ha, no, I can’t focus at all!!)

Karuta’s mind was exploding for more reasons than one and Amaashi Marika must have been satisfied with his panicked cries because she cackled and disappeared into the bathroom.

The boy started agonized over the running water he could hear coming from the other side of that wall, but while pacing restlessly back and forth, he stubbed his toe on a piece of plastic by the window.

It was shaped something like a bamboo leaf, but it was larger than he was while lying down. That item looked like a single-person board with a round cover on top was actually a prototype civilian spacecraft. (You could probably go on a small journey with it if you were launched from a space station outside the atmosphere, but you would almost certainly die of loneliness.) The barrier to entry for space development had lowered a lot recently, so you could find these things even at a “school” like this.

He sighed, crouched down, and lightly knocked on the surface of the spacecraft.

He heard a knock form the other side.

“Sorry about all the noise. Did it wake you?”

He heard another knock that seemed to be saying “don’t worry about it”.

Then he looked out the window that no longer had the curtain covering it.

The room had a large bed, a table, a microwave, and an electric water boiler, but there was no kitchen or dining room. The bathroom that twintailed Marika had entered was a prefab unit that included a bath and a toilet. Some people might think that sounds like a hotel room.

That was close, but not quite.

The view out the windows showed the ocean. And this was clearly not the ocean near Japan. It was the hot and emerald-sparkling ocean found near the equator. This room was on a giant ship. At 500m long, it was nearly twice the size of a nuclear aircraft carrier.

And.

Something flew by directly outside the window.

It caused the thick reinforced glass to rattle as it passed by and, if his kinetic vision was at all accurate, it appeared to be a human. It was a high school girl of around his age who had armor covering her arms and legs, wings on her back, and equipment made of a translucent and angular material.

This might be a very odd sight from a global perspective.

But Utagai Karuta was one of them , so it was a lot more familiar than his childhood friend’s nudity.

“Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah, huh?”

He once more thought about where he was standing and what force he belonged to.

Yes.

He too was one of the magicians who wore a new generation Crystal Blossom at his chest.

“What, you didn’t take a shower? Gross.”

After simply washing off his face, Utagai Karuta chose not to respond to his childhood friend whose skin was flushed from her shower. He could not bring himself to admit he was worried what would happen to his blood pressure if he spent too long in a shower filled with such a girly scent.

They were wearing their uniforms for this “school”.

They both wore purple blazers, but that was not the best choice for a location so close to the equator. Some of the students jumped for joy at the more frequent opportunities for the female students to shower, but Karuta was not one of those. He simply hated all the sweat.

His one form of resistance was to wear a running shirt below his blazer instead of a dress shirt.

“You’re headed out for some training, aren’t you?”

“What about you, Marika?”

“The cafeteria stiiiill isn’t open, so I’ll go with you. The Catastrophe is coming up, but more than that, food tastes better when you’ve worked up an appetite.”

When the two left his room while chatting, a classmate named Kazamuki Gekiha poked his head out from the neighboring room.

Marika did not care at all if she was seen leaving Karuta’s room (with her hair wet from the shower), so she spoke to him with a puzzled look.

“What, are you training too? When did our class start actually putting in an effort?”

“Try to have a thought for the neighbors. Your couple’s comedy skits have been waking me up early every morning lately.”

“Sorry. But just to be clear, these are not ‘couple’s comedy skits’.”

Gekiha ended up joining them. It was too late to go back to sleep and he must not have wanted to waste the time. The loose fit of his uniform and his slouching pose gave him the quintessential delinquent look, but he never could have gotten into the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy if he was not smart.

“So where do you do your training?” asked Marika. “The gym? The pool?”

That question showed just how large this ship was.

The single ship contained enough living space, classrooms, labs, lecture halls, gyms, and indoor pools for the more than 700 students and faculty members onboard. It already sounded like magic without even getting to the Crystal Blossoms.

Crystal Magic could only be used by a select few, but its byproducts had scattered across the world. It was similar to the relationship between great firepower and ironworking. The many new materials and highly-efficient new techniques developed by Crystal Magic had most blessed the field of construction.

Simply put, buildings had grown taller, underground structures had expanded, and ships and planes had grown larger. The world’s scenery had been changed by what was added on top of the existing technologies.

However…

“It doesn’t really matter where. Y’know, because my Crystal Blossom is a little weird.”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve got a point.”

“So I’ll go wherever you want to go. Where can you spread your wings the most?”

Once Utagai Karuta let the others choose, they knew exactly where they would train for the day.

They moved to the very back of that ship which was twice the size of a luxury cruise ship. The three of them arrived on the large flat heliport there.

Quite a few students had already gathered there, but they were not kicking around a ball or grappling each other on the heliport.

They were falling.

Falling from the edge of the heliport and toward the emerald-sparkling ocean.

“Tezcatlipoca, power up,” whispered curly twintailed Marika.

She wore something like a glass flower at her chest and it immediately began to move. The electrical signal emitted by a printed circuit board smaller than a stamp passed through cables thinner than hairs and the flower opened up. It blossomed. And then it shattered. The clear particles wrapped around her body and became cold armor that surrounded her arms and legs and extended in places to form blade-like wings.

The other notable feature was the rapier-shaped device made of what looked like translucent crystal. This was of course nothing as primitive as a device to slice through things with a honed blade. It would use ultra-rapid vibration and heat to obstruct the inter-electron activity that bound molecules together.

She did not need to worry about the flower petals. More were automatically supplied to make up for those that fell away.

“Thor, power up,” whispered Gekiha as well.

In his case, 10 large wings grew from his entire back.

His weapon was much less refined. It appeared to be made of the same delicate crystal as Marika’s, but it was designed as a cross between a chainsaw and Gatling gun that was longer than he was tall. His ability to easily swing it around in a single hand was another blessing of Crystal Magic.

Of course, not all Crystal Magic was the same. There was a large difference in the power one wielded depending on the deity being used. For example, these two could both produce a variety of phenomena that they wielded as weapons, but Marika’s Tezcatlipoca was based on light while Kazamuki Gekiha’s Thor was based on electricity.

Utagai Karuta breathed a soft sigh.

And he waved over at them with a smile.

“Have fun.”

They smiled back and then jumped from the edge of the heliport.

But there never was a splashing sound. Instead, there was a sound like a sharp whistle. He looked down to see the emerald sea split apart while the two of them freely skimmed just above its surface.

They moved faster than fighter jets and more delicately than figure skaters.

Legends said those forms could avoid 70 fully-locked-on missiles in a row and even shake free of a ship’s interception laser.

The flower at Karuta’s chest vibrated a bit while he remained back on the ship.

It quickly formed human voices.

They belonged to those two classmates who had gone on ahead of him.

“Whew! Okay, let’s start with some teamwork,” said Gekiha. “I’ll add markers for the slalom, so match my movements!!”

“I seriously doubt I’ll be on your team in battle, but, well, it’s just practice,” replied Marika.

“Man, those upperclassmen are something else, aren’t they?”

“Tch. They’re looking down on us again, aren’t they?”

Karuta also looked up toward the sky.

Crystal Magicians took a special kind of flower pollen into their bodies to “grow” that armor instead of “piloting” or “wearing” it. It was a lot more portable than the older staffs and card sets, and you could think of it like magical superconductors with nearly zero energy loss upon connection. The energy emitted by the Original Crystal Embryo said to exist at the center of the earth and the various powers pouring down from space would collide and create random “vortices of power” similar to occult high and low pressure fronts, but these monsters could access all sorts of supernatural phenomena by using their electrically-controlled Crystal Blossoms just like someone efficiently plowing their field or raising their sails to utilize the weather. Yes, it was just like the priests and priestesses of an older age who had performed sacred acts in accordance with a horoscope chart or calendar that showed everything from creation to destruction all so they coud obtain a power that brought people together to form a civilization.

But those rulers of the supernatural had a clear hierarchy among them.

Marika and Gekiha raced across the glittering ocean with ferocious speed, but there were a few silhouettes flying up above those classmates’ heads. They flapped their wings like angels or demons and they were likely Karuta’s upperclassmen. At the second year, they were known as Regulation 2.

It was like the difference between a small kart and a Formula 1 racer. Karuta and his classmates were only Regulation 1, so they had not even been given the right to fight alongside them in the school competition known as the Catastrophe.

Unless they used a special system known as Category Error.

“Kee hee hee,” laughed Marika. “Keep staring up like that and people will mistake you for a panty peeper.”

“!?”

Karuta jumped and she continued the verbal attack while cackling.

“Don’t worry, even the students in the other years know my pathetic childhood friend isn’t going to try anything. Anyway, I don’t see any Regulation 3s.”

“You mean those dimensional travelers?”

“I doubt that part’s true. Although I wouldn’t put it past that Student Council President.”

Crystal Magicians did not use lift or jet thrusters to fly or to skim along the ocean’s surface.

Crystal Magic used an excitation vibration to shake the space and dimension itself and create an invisible sail that let them ride the great currents that formed those occult high and low pressure fronts. Still, the more physical resistance and footholds the better, so Regulation 1s were limited to the ocean while Regulation 2s could reach the sky.

So what about Regulation 3s?

Legend had it they could increase the excitation vibration to the point that they pushed the dimension past its limit and ruptured it. It was said they could pass through that dimensional rift and make the other side into their own territory as well. Simply put, they could perform dimensional leaps similar to warping or teleporting.

(Skimming across the water, flying through the sky, and dimensional travel. …Well, they should all be impossible, but that order does fit how hard it is to imagine them, I guess.)

There was a reason why they had taken this so far.

There was a logical and pressing reason why they needed to acquire such great power.

“Aim at the drones flying around free,” said Gekiha. “Let’s mark A00 through N99. I’ll drive them toward you and you finish them off. Let’s aim for 30 seconds. Or is that too much for you, Miss Marika!?”

“Ugh, really!? This is why I don’t want to be teamed up with a trigger-happy optical Gatling gun freak! Don’t hit those upperclassmen flying up there, okay!?”

“It’s not like it would kill them if I did. The spatial vibration field will protect them, plus they’re pretty much immortal even if I break through that barrier.”

Thanks to Crystal Magic, they could regenerate an arm or a leg if it was blown off. With anything other than a fatal blow, the damaged portion would be immediately crystallized and return to normal in about 30 seconds. …However, that opportunity was lost if the crystalized part was shattered by a further attack while it prepared to regenerate.

With a fatal blow, their entire body would be crystallized.

In that case, the regeneration period was unknown. Or rather, it depended on the level of injury. A slit throat might be fine after less than a year, but if their torso was bisected or their entire body was blown to bits, even a century would not be enough. And if part of their original body had been lost, then the time increased tenfold or even a hundredfold. It may have been like being placed in cold sleep while they slowly healed.

“Can I say something weird?” asked Karuta.

“That’s par for the course with you, so don’t worry about it,” said Gekiha. “So what is it?”

“I think even Crystal Magicians die when they’re fatally wounded. I mean, the healing of wounds and the regeneration of fatal wounds clearly use different modes. With regeneration, their clothing is solidified along with them. I guess it’s like the healing keeps their soul inside while the regeneration doesn’t.”

“You mean like those Egyptian mummies?” asked Marika. “They preserve the corpse because the resurrected soul will need it at their destination, right?”

“What does it matter?” added Gekiha. “Either way, you can still come back after being beheaded or having your heart shot through.”

Did that seem like a second chance to redo your life, or did it seem like a punishment that left you wandering the world in a state where you could never die?

Your interpretation probably came down to your personal beliefs.

“…”

Flight, a barrier, and regeneration.

Those were the “presets” shared by all Crystal Magicians. In other words, they were standard.

But they also had individual Skills based on the deity they wore like armor, so there was a lot offered in the deal.

“I do have the Gatling gun, but I’m mainly a close-quarters fighter using the chainsaw,” said Gekiha. “It’s just that I already had the rotation structure in there, so I figured I could put it to good use in other ways too.”

“Either way, it is severely lacking in style,” said Marika. “Also, isn’t the greatest advantage of your Thor the boomerang-like alterations to projectile trajectories? So why did you focus so much on close-quarters?”

Karuta watched from the heliport as those two had fun flying along the ocean.

“Do you think the Threat really exists?” he asked without thinking.

Kazamuki Gekiha clearly did not like the question.

“How should I know when we aren’t given any information on it? Is it human or a monster? Is it a plant or an animal? Is it a living thing or a machine? Is it micro or is it macro? We don’t know a damn thing. It could even be a legit god or demon for all we know.”

“But we do know cities are disappearing around the world,” said Marika. “And in some cases, entire small countries. They’re just gone without at trace, like someone used a giant eraser. That’s the one thing we do know.”

The great pressure felt like a soft hand pressing on the center of the stomach.

Cities and countries were disappearing around the world.

And it always happened overnight without anyone able to resist in the slightest.

Nothing at all had been announced regarding the cause and masking had been applied so not even civilian satellites could see what was going on, so disconcerting speculations continued to grow unabated.

What was this thing that had to be hidden from the world?

That was why this academy was built as a boat. And why it was surrounded by so many escort ships of various sizes. No fixed location functioned as a solid base anymore. Not a superpower’s metropolis, not a shelter deep underground, and not some secret garden at the ends of the earth.

The Threat.

It may not have been anything occult. It might turn out to be nothing more than an ordinary army made up of enemy soldiers. But with all information hidden, they were forced to skip straight past the cause and process and look only at the result. That was more than enough to make it a real nightmare.

“I hate how we’re asked to fight something without being told what it is,” complained Karuta.

“This giant school and the Catastrophe exist to make sure we’re ready when that surprise party arrives out of the blue one day,” said Marika.

The Catastrophe was divided up between Regulations, but it was still a major event that determined a clear hierarchy within the students of the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy. However, this was not a martial arts tournament where the students fought each other, a sports festival where their athleticism was measured, or final exams where their academic ability was put to the test.

The name said it all.

They were thrown into some great catastrophe.

“The rumors I’ve heard say they’ll do pretty much anything,” said Gekiha. “They might spread liquid helium high in the sky to create a bomb cyclone, or they might stuff a 1000m pit full of explosives to trigger an artificial volcanic eruption.”

“I’d take either of those over the one where you’re taken to a desert island only to have agar carrying a genetically-modified pathogen rain down on you from the sky,” said Marika.

“Um, I’ve heard you can wake up after the anesthetic wears off and find yourself in the middle of a military conflict somewhere in the world,” said Karuta.

Natural disasters, plagues, and wars.

The catastrophe could come in any form. There was no advance warning and they were free to work with or work against the other students they found with them.

There was only one win condition: overcoming the catastrophe the academy tasked them with and ending the problems it had caused.

The number of catastrophes they had safely overcome and how active a role they had played would be quantified and the entire student body would receive a final ranking at fixed intervals.

This was not useless “theories” that only worked on paper or in a ring. They had to improve themselves as Crystal Magicians such that they could respond to any and all dangers.

However, the possible catastrophes were so varied that this gave no real hint what they were being trained to face. In other words, what the Threat really was.

“Anyway, you were the one who invited me to train this morning. If you can obtain Skills just by staring up into the sky, knock yourself out, but if not, then how about you get going?”

He realized Marika was right. He had no rebuttal.

He placed a hand on his chest, traced his finger across the Crystal Blossom that looked like glasswork, and he whispered.

He whispered to the printed circuit board smaller than a stamp, to the cables thinner than hairs, and to the Crystal Blossom beyond them.

“Power up. …I’m counting on you, Aine.”

As soon as he did, his Crystal Blossom shattered. But not like it did for the other students. No translucent armor covered his arms and legs and no wings grew from his back.

His back swelled out and then something crawled out of his flesh.

It was a girl.

She looked like a lovely girl of about 13 or 14. She had long hair, her skin was more pale than white, and she wore a transparent-looking white dress decorated all over with glittering crystal.

He called her Aine, but he did not actually know if that was really the silver-haired girl’s name.

In fact, he did not know if she was really a living being with feelings of her own.

She held what looked like a drawn katana made of crystal. However, the back of the blade branched off like a jitte and a short laser gun unit was attached parallel to the blade.

The concept of “property” did not apply here.

The name Aine referred to everything from the girl’s heart to the sword.

“Unit ID Name: Aine – power up complete. What are your orders, Sacri-sama.”

“I really wish that was short for Sacred Master or something instead of Sacrifice…”

He brought a hand to his forehead.

Crystal Magic worked by sealing a divine name such as Zeus or Odin inside a printed circuit board smaller than a stamp to use the god’s legend and mythology to calculate out the horoscope chart or calendar needed to catch the supernatural winds. People could not manipulate earth’s atmosphere, but with a weather forecast, they could efficiently plow their fields and raise their sails. This was the same but used to wield miracles.

However.

A slight mistake had been made.

In Utagai Karuta’s case, the Crystal Blossom had been activated before a divine name had been sealed inside, so the calculations had been made without anything to start with.

That had resulted in the creation of this unidentified crystal girl who did not rely on any known mythology.

He did not even know where the name Aine had come from.

The students who had been taking a break on the heliport looked up in slight surprise and focused on him. It was a little embarrassing, but they were interested in Aine and not him.

This was probably unique among all the students in the giant Ocean Crystal Magic Academy.

He had a fully separated Crystal Blossom.

“It’s pretty incredible,” said Gekiha. “Even if it’s hard to tell if it makes him a genius or a freak.”

“I’ll admit no one else can do that,” said Marika. “But it doesn’t give him any speed or defenses, so a single shot is enough to finish him off. I don’t see how it will help during the Catastrophe.”

“He could have her princess carry him around.”

“Ah ha ha! That would be perfect for that King of Wishy-Washiness.”

Their words were not as painful as the fact that they were not even wrong. Now, the trick to defeating Crystal Magicians during sparring was to aim for the gaps , so a Crystal Blossom like Aine could be seen as unbeatable since she moved all on her own. But that was useless when the entire school body already knew about it. They would simply focus their attacks on him. Of the preset abilities, the flight belonged to Aine, the regeneration belonged to Karuta, and they could both use the barrier, but there seemed to be some kind of conflict there because it was extremely weak. He could not deflect a single bullet the way things were.

Meanwhile, Aine silently tilted her head while waiting for a command.

“Aine, can you hear me?”

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

“Let’s do the usual test. I’ll vibrate the Blossom to send you my voice. Let’s see how long a distance I can stay in contact with you.”

This was a lot like mimicking a radio or tin can telephone, but he thought this had to be the most efficient method. As long as he was not defeated, she could not be broken by most any attack. It was like the difference between a bulletproof vehicle covered in thick armor and a box stuffed full of steel.

The boy sighed as he watched Aine hop off the edge of the heliport and toward the ocean. While dimensional leaps were too much for her, Aine actually could fly in the sky, but he felt it was best to show deference to their upperclassmen. (Marika and Gekiha may have been in a similar position there.) He himself had not done anything at all, so he sadly could not feel any pride in that accomplishment.

All he could do was stay in safe place and send messages to his crystal doll.

“Look, Karuta,” said Kazamuki Gekiha. “The sky is so clear today you can see that decorative junk in the distance.”

Drawn by his classmate’s comment, he looked to the horizon and saw something long and skinny rising up from it. He could not imagine how far it extended because it vanished into the blue sky.

“A space elevator, huh?”

He was pretty sure that giant structure had been developed in the name of carrying cargo into orbit more cheaply than with rockets or shuttles. It was still running, but it was deep in the red due to a number of reasons. Karuta and the others did not have much to do with the thing.

“To be honest, I’m relieved that project failed,” said Gekiha. “The Original Crystal Embryo is at the center of the earth and Crystal Magic uses the collision between the two powers here on the surface, so they say you can’t use it on a space station or a lunar base, right? Only 0.0002% of the population can use this, so it would be a huge waste if the modern age moved out into space and this ability was buried in the shadows of history.”

“The Original,” repeated Karuta. “We all use it, but no one actually knows what it is, do we? There are a ton of theories though, like that it’s a collection of knowledge embedded there by someone or that it’s the will of the planet.”

“That’s not our problem. Leave that to the theory group that never leaves their desks. Oh, and speaking of the elevator, had you heard some of the previous generation are visiting for an inspection? It’s those 5 known as the Problem Solvers.”

The Problem Solvers.

Those five were said to have successfully physically removed the Threat in combat.

And just as that name was mentioned, the blue sky was swallowed up by darkness as if a room’s lights had been shut off.

“…”

“––––”

The other two fell silent.

Karuta was likely also staring up at the sky that had suddenly changed from the rising sun of early morning to the darkness of night.

“Is that their way of announcing their arrival?” asked Gekiha.

“One of those five can control solar or lunar eclipses, right?” said Marika. “I’ve heard eclipses keep happening wherever they go, but that is quite a performance.”

It was definitely impressive.

Karuta could only summon a crystal girl from his body, so he could never hope to accomplish this.

However, that did not necessarily mean that power would help win the Catastrophe that could be a natural disaster, a plague, or a war.

Not to mention in a fight against the unknown Threat.

“I get that they’re powerful, but it’s hard to say how impressive that is when you don’t know what the Threat is.”

“At the very last, they have to be more powerful than you, Mr. Pathetic,” said Marika.

The Problem Solvers.

Their ability in combat tended to get all the focus, but they were used for more than just fighting.

Their powerful magic could support an entire era.

That included everything from the world’s production facilities to things like garbage disposal.

Those monsters could run global-scale infrastructure all on their own.

They were known as monsters because of that energy that was too great to simply call “massive” and because of their influence on the world.

Karuta’s group had their hands full with just the fighting part, so these people were on more than just another level.

The world would grind to a halt without them.

The internet, convenience stores, and air conditioning did not simply exist. Someone was supporting all of those things on a daily basis. And those monsters were the ones supporting those everyday things for 5.5 billion people.

“North America, South America, Eurasia, Oceania, and Africa,” said Marika. “Whatever it says on paper, it’s those five who effectively hold it all together.”

“Yeah, just those five,” said Gekiha.

A mere five people kept the world economy going.

The hard work of the other 5.5 billion people did nothing more than transfer some bills from one of their wallets to another.

“I almost feel bad for those VIPs,” said Gekiha. “No one’s even focused on that elevator anymore. They gathered plenty of money in the name of carrying cargo more cheaply than with rockets or shuttles, but once they started running it, the fear of spreading debris led them to an indefinite ban on civilian use. In the end, it can only be used for public policy.”

“And I hear that public policy isn’t doing so hot either,” said Karuta. “Since the point is to carry the cargo cheaply, they get their funding reduced with each consecutive project. And since they can’t gather more clients, the price just keeps going down. It’s like marking down a million yen bag to ten thousand yen but not getting any more customers into your shop, so it’s pretty bad.”

“I hear the Problem Solvers are personally defending it because it’s a cornerstone of public policy, but is that really why?” asked Marika. “If the Problem Solvers traversed the planet in top form, no one would need armies anymore. Now that we have some actual cost-benefit data to work from, no one has any hopes for the field of space development, so it seems weird for them to keep protecting a portion of it. Kind of ironic that they’re being held back by a facility they can’t afford to get rid of. The adult world sounds like a real pain. Although maybe they’re letting some other people have some credit to avoid any silly resentment.”

“At any rate, this is what it means to be too blessed,” said Gekiha. “With those five, no one needs the political world, the business world, the military, or the government. If they wanted to, couldn’t they destroy it all? If all of them were sent out around the world all the time instead of sending them out one at a time every so often, I bet they might have been able to keep those cities, regions, and countries from disappearing.”

“But.” Utagai Karuta chose his words carefully. “Those Problem Solvers don’t use Crystal Blossoms like us. I hear they use the old-fashioned God-Worshiping Magic.”

“Isn’t that what makes it so impressive?” asked Marika.

“Yeah, it makes you wonder why they haven’t switched to Crystal Blossoms,” said Gekiha. “It’s scary that they can go into battle with the presets of flight, barriers, and regeneration. Well, maybe they aren’t part of the 0.0002% that can use them, but that just makes them all the more monstrous for standing at the top like that.”

Utagai Karuta sighed.

Crystal Blossoms. That cutting-edge magic technology controlled printed circuit boards smaller than stamps to produce various supernatural phenomena by catching the optimal currents produced by the occult high and low pressure fronts created by the collision between the energy emitted from the Original Crystal Embryo in the center of the earth and the various powers raining down from outer space.

But you could never reach the level of the Problem Solvers by mastering that path.

There were a lot of rumors about the Problem Solvers like that their attack power was so specialized that they could resolve any situation with a single attack, or that they could use a barrage as fearsome as an Aegis ship to shoot down every last grain of sand of whatever might oppose them, but the details were unknown. They were world-famous, yet so very little was known about them that it was kind of creepy.

If Karuta and his schoolmates were the ones reading the weather maps, then those five were the ones firing dry ice or thermobaric warheads into the sky to produce artificial rain.

The students here could not stand up to them no matter how hard they tried.

Plus, Karuta’s magic was not even the standard Crystal Magic that he already knew was no match for them. His had been twisted so badly it had become a fully independent girl the likes of which no had ever seen.

“Ah, eh, ee, uh, eh, oh, ah, oh.”

While he was thinking, Aine’s voice reached him remotely.

“Can you hear me, Sacri-sama?”

“Can you please call me something else? It’s creepy.”

They managed to kill a good amount of time training.

Once the cafeteria was open for breakfast, everyone naturally started wrapping things up without being told.

The training group arrived first, so it was not yet what you would call crowded. Karuta, Marika, Gekiha, and Aine managed to get one end of a table to themselves.

“Sacri-sama, I want that. The gold leaf castella.”

“Why do you always want to eat the most ridiculously expensive things?”

“If that is not an option, the gold powder yokan would be acceptable.”

“Okay, how about you try again after figuring out what my issue with the first option was?”

Aine silently tilted her head and her silver hair swayed while giving off a rainbow-colored shine similar to a disk.

“If you insist, I could always eat a gold bar directly.”

“The gold is the problem! And why do you even need to eat if you’re Crystal Magic!?”

“You have already asked that 72 times, but I will faithfully answer it yet again. My body is made of crystal – that is, a silicon semiconductor – so by taking in pure gold, I can expand my internal circuitry and obey more complex and higher-level requests. So you could say this is all meant for your benefit, Sacri-sama.”

“More complex? Like what?”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………Blush.”

“Wait, why are you hanging your head and blushing with that complex expression!?”

Gekiha was clearly enjoying the show while chowing down on some toast with chocolate spread.

“You people are endless entertainment.”

“Hmph,” said Marika. “She was created from Karuta, so isn’t this just the ultimate one-man show? Hmph, hmph!!”

“I was including you in that ‘you people’.”

They continued discussing various topics from there.

They were teenagers, but their conversations tended to drift toward Crystal Magic.

“With crystals, converting the vibration into lasers or masers is the quickest way to a lot of firepower, don’t you think?” asked Marika.

“Wait, wait,” responded Gekiha. “Some of our upperclassmen have figured out how to use acoustic weapons.”

“You don’t just mean radar or sonar, do you?”

“I mean blasting things with pure sound. It’s like a fancy speaker cannon. Now, that’s not gonna kill us when we can negate the sonic boom of supersonic travel, but imagine getting hit by one of those head-on. It’s like a thick wall and it covers an entire surface. Wouldn’t that be an effective way to slow down enemies over a wide area?”

“And then blast them with lasers or masers? Now that would be the best.”

“Why do you like those shiny attacks so much?”

Meanwhile, a small hand tugged at Karuta’s sleeve.

It was Aine.

“Sacri-sama, if I am injected with argon ions or ions of a rare earth like yttrium, I could equip myself with a super thick laser. Woof, woof.”

“I hate to interrupt you when you look so proud of yourself, but which item on the cafeteria menu am I supposed to feed you for that?”

When he asked her that, she pulled her feet up onto the chair and wrapped her arms around her knees to curl up as small as possible. But not because she was hurt by his cold response. She simply did not like wide open areas. The civilian spacecraft shaped like a bamboo leaf in his room functioned as her bed.

So why did she have her own bed when she was usually contained within his body?

The answer was simple: she could not control herself as well while asleep, so when she rolled over or moved at all, her arm or leg would stick out of his stomach or back. And that was very creepy. The fact that most people with an out-of-body experience did so while asleep was perhaps no laughing matter.

“Sigh, I want to get inside you soon. (Squirm, squirm)”

“Can you find a better way of phrasing that?”

“Hey, I’m not one to kinkshame,” said Gekiha. “But the girl going inside the guy is taking things too far for me personally.”

“Hm? Hmm?”

Curly twintailed Marika looked baffled by this exchange and that was probably the normal reaction. Gekiha just had something of a dirty mind.

In the short free time they had until morning homeroom, Karuta visited the infirmary.

He did this every day, but not because he was ill or felt uncomfortable in class.

The giant ship’s infirmary had a bit of a unique design. The standard level was the same as normal schools: a simple examining table and a few beds divided up by curtains. The magic level was used to treat problems and side effects related to Crystal Blossoms and magic. And the isolation level was located even further in.

“Thanks for doing this so often. Just make sure you aren’t late for class.”

After receiving permission from the school doctor who wore a sweater and a tight skirt, he stepped into the isolation level to find a windowless space filled with a bluish light.

Large silhouettes lined the wall like the Greek sculpture section of an art museum.

These were all upperclassmen who had been transformed into clear crystal from head to toe.

They had been fatally wounded, so they had been fully crystalized as emergency treatment.

“Everyone wants to pretend this place doesn’t exist, so almost no one visits,” sighed the school doctor who had followed him in. “So I’m sure they are all delighted that you visit every day.”

“…”

It had happened for any number of reasons.

But not one of those reasons was valiantly battling the Threat.

What happened if there was trouble during a live fire exercise or the acrobatics at an air show? These victims of accidents had all been fatally wounded during classes or the Catastrophe, so the academy had retrieved them so they could wait for their resurrection.

“I’m not here out of kindness or anything,” Karuta said without thinking.

He came to a stop in front of a certain girl like he always did. She had glasses and a long braid. Several cracks ran through her just above the navel.

The time until regeneration differed depending on the severity of the injury.

The digital counter at her feet coldly counted down from nearly 550 years.

Even with cutting-edge Crystal Magic, resurrecting a single person from certain death was no easy task.

“I only come here to remind myself of the risk. The spatial vibration field and self-crystallization regeneration are not absolute. Death is our constant companion. …No one would be happy to know they’re being used as an example of what to avoid.”

“Even so.” The school doctor was undeterred. “The most painful thing for people is to be forgotten. To leave nothing behind and to not even act as a lesson for someone. So I do think they are happy you visit. Their life may not have gone as planned, but now they know it will at least be useful to someone.”

Once more.

Just once more, Utagai Karuta looked up at the crystal girl standing on that pedestal.

Not even he knew what look was on his face.

Nevertheless, he spoke in a tone one would never use with a mere decoration.

“I’ll be going, Senpai.”

Utagai Karuta was not clever enough to say he had seen it coming, so he was a little surprised when he learned first period was being preempted.

“It’s those Problem Solvers,” said his awful friend. “They said they’re coming for an inspection and they asked to have the entire student body assembled. Really, they should’ve waited and made one hell of an entrance during the Catastrophe’s opening ceremony.”

“I see.”

He, Marika, and Gekiha joined the other students in leaving the classroom. Aine was not with them. She was in his stomach at the moment. And not in a grotesque way.

They arrived in a large space with a tall ceiling.

The wooden flooring was polished bright.

Plentiful lighting covered the ceiling.

Basketball goals were installed by the wall and something like a theatre stage was installed.

Any school would have a gym like this, but anyone would be surprised to hear this was contained inside a ship. Thick plastic sheets covered the entire floor and hundreds of folding chairs were neatly lined up, so it looked a lot like an entrance ceremony or graduation.

The boys and girls were separated, so they had to temporarily part ways with Marika whose curly twintails were dyed strawberry blonde.

“Damn, I hope the air conditioning isn’t broken when we’re on the freaking equator,” complained Gekiha. “That solar eclipse made for one hell of a hot night.”

“There are 600 students and 100 teachers. I doubt the gym was designed to hold that many people.”

“And now we have to listen to the headmaster drone on and on. Ugh, I hope that old geezer passes out from heatstroke first and foremost. It’s high time he felt the pain we’re all experiencing.”

Meanwhile, the ceremony began.

The first to show up was not the five Problem Solvers. Gekiha was right: it was the handsome gray-haired headmaster. He was very popular, he knew how to manage a business, he was excellent at political dealings, and most importantly, he was skilled with magic. It was rumored his penchant for hopelessly long speeches was the flaw god had given him to balance things out.

The elderly gentleman used the stage’s microphone to slowly read off a script that was not going to move anyone’s heart.

“Yes, all of you have been most diligent in your efforts, so we have prepared some further excitement for you. Excitement is an excellent thing and you could call it the seed of all learning. Of course, a seed is naught but a seed and can only grow once given proper soil, water, and sunlight. I am sure you are all clever enough to know what that means.”

Everyone was entirely relaxed.

He enjoyed talking and did not particularly care what other people thought about it. It was well known that he was not the type to yell at a student he noticed slacking off like an annoying guidance counselor might.

“So today, I thought we could let you hear a few words from the Problem Solvers, your five predecessors who have traveled the world while actually fighting the Threat. We have sown the seeds, but how those seeds will grow comes down to your decisions as you- bgwehhh !!!?”

So.

No one understood what that sudden and disastrous end to the speech meant.

“Huh?”

In that moment, Utagai Karuta was unable to speak a single word even though a human life had clearly just come to end before his eyes.

That life had been taken far too vividly to believe.

The elderly gentleman’s entire head flew from his shoulders and a cracking sound came from his body. His dignity as a Crystal Magician must have just barely won out because his body and clothing grew transparent and he solidified in something akin to cold sleep.

Karuta jumped in shock at the loud thud of the microphone falling to the stage next to the headless crystalized body. That was how far behind his senses and understanding were.

Most likely, something had been thrown.

It could have been a sword, a spear, an axe, or a staff, but he had not seen what it was.

But he did hear some footsteps. No more than footsteps.

A new figure stepped up onto the wing of the stage while everyone watched like wind-up dolls with broken springs. It was a woman. She was so androgynous that it took a moment to judge her gender, but it was a tall and slender woman with long white hair and wearing a pantsuit.

A very bad feeling enveloped Karuta’s entire body.

Without even a glance at the headless crystal statue lying at her feet, the woman kicked up the microphone and caught it in her hand. She brought it to her mouth and made an announcement.

“Incompetent.”

That single word of complete rejection seemed to stab into them.

“Incompetent, incompetent, every last one of you is incompetent. Thus, Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah shall be immediately shut down!!”

Finally and at long last, the boys and girls forcefully stood from their folding chairs. That alone produced a deluge of sound. A normal person might have fled without a second thought. Or they might have collapsed to the floor, unable to even flee. But this was the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy. They were the next-generation fighting force prepared to combat the Threat that indiscriminately annihilated countries, regions, and cities around the world. They were the frontline fighters with Crystal Blossoms at their chests, so they chose to stand up as a solid wall to protest being called incompetent.

Almost as if their injured pride mattered more to them than the death.

Kazamuki Gekiha stood up next to Karuta. Marika may have stood up with the girls. The gym had become a forest of people. A thick forest.

But even so.

Utagai Karuta alone could not stand up. He curled up while soaked with sweat and tried to hide within that forest.

After all.

The headmaster had been a handsome gray-haired gentleman. At first glance, it might look like he would be easily defeated in an arm wrestling match, but he actually had great magical talent and had the skill needed to establish this enormous Crystal Magic school. Yet he had been taken out so easily? No normal person could have done that!!

While curled up, Karuta desperately tugged on Gekiha’s pants to signal him to do the same.

His classmate gave him a puzzled look while holding his brutal crystal weapon that combined a chainsaw with a Gatling gun, so Karuta desperately shook his sweat-soaked face.

He told him no.

And a moment later…

“Incompetent.”

That voice came from the speakers again.

“I am one of the Problem Solvers. You seriously do not understand our difference in power after seeing me for yourselves?”

Suddenly, the wall behind the white-haired woman broke through.

The floor shook below them.

No, the massive academy ship itself had tilted.

“I beseech thee, Vishnu, Indian God of Change.”

This was a divine power of transformation, but what in the world was it?

An enormous form moved up alongside her.

There were what looked like swords, like spears, like axes, and like staffs. And it was not limited to weapons. There were also shields and armor. There were what appeared to be rusted refrigerators and microwaves and crushed cars or containers. Even components like springs and gears were common.

No individual piece had any real meaning.

They all squashed together, gathered, and piled up to form something made of rusted metal. The monster waved a thick tail behind it, stood on two hind legs, had two forelegs folded up in front of its chest, and had a massive maw lined with razor-sharp fangs. It instantly broke through the top of the stage and grew large enough to graze the entire gym’s ceiling. It was…

“A dino…saur?” someone muttered.

It was not Karuta. In this worst case scenario, he did not want to do anything that would gather attention in a negative way. And that was why he was unable to stop Gekiha who was right next to him.

Something else happened before he could.

The woman calmly spoke into the microphone while facing so many crystal swords and cannons.

“Mere toothpicks.”

The roar was enough for everyone to flinch.

The unbelievably mass moved down from the stage.

The dozen or so trampled in the front row may have been the lucky ones.

The true horror came for those on the next rows.

The giant maw and fangs operated in just as gruesome a way as one would expect!!!!!!

“Agyaghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

“Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, owwwwwwwwwww!!”

“I can’t-…no. what? My leg…my leg!?”

It was more of a smashing than a tearing.

There were no colorful reds or blacks. With the sound of shattering crystal, the boys and girls’ limbs were torn from their bodies, their torsos were shredded, and their entire bodies were obliterated.

It tore them apart with a bite and then shook its head as it chewed. Their remains were not just scattered around; they poured down on the heads of the survivors.

They had Crystal Blossoms, they had Crystal Magic, they had translucent armor, they had a spatial vibration field that protected their entire body like an invisible wall, and they could recover from any non-fatal wound in 30 seconds, but the combination of all those things meant nothing.

The mass, density, violence, fear, and slaughter were on another level altogether.

The continuing cacophony did not at all sound like human bodies being broken.

“…”

Their power was supposedly used for peace and their energy was supposedly used to support global infrastructure.

Like hell it is, thought Karuta.

No matter how you tried to justify it, that was still the worst power humanity had ever produced. It was like a tempting demonic sword that regained its true shine through battle and bloodbaths.

Still curled up and desperately tugging on his best friend’s pants, Karuta realized Gekiha was looking at him while standing there in a daze. The boy had entirely forgotten to cry as he trembled, so Karuta used his eyes to beg him to get down while he still could. But Gekiha did not. He simply shook his head.

And he moved his lips: Sorry, that was stupid of me.

Karuta was not given time to say anything in response.

“…Ah…”

(Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?)

The boy’s torso was sliced apart in an instant. His armor and weapon shattered like mere glasswork. And his upper body was simply gone. Only the remaining lower body rapidly grew transparent and was thrown to the floor like a broken sculpture excavated from some ruins.

Utagai Karuta clenched his teeth and desperately suppressed his voice by covering his mouth with hands coated with glittering dust-like shards. Tears streamed down his face like the sealed scream was finding another outlet.

The light was reflected wildly by all the crystal fragments scattered one after another.

(The Problem…)

The geniuses wielding Crystal Magic produced translucent swords and staffs from empty air and fired lasers, masers, and acoustic weapons from them, but just like that woman had said, they were no more effective than toothpicks. They could not deliver a lethal blow to that enormous carnivorous dinosaur, but they did seem to rile it up. And they received shattering destruction in response. There was no stopping it. While Utagai Karuta trembled and curled up on the floor, more and more fine crystal powder poured down on him like diamond dust.

It was all so cold and unrealistic.

But he knew this was what remained of the flesh that had once formed human beings .

(The Problem Solvers are doing this!! But why!?)

He felt something stirring inside him. The Crystal Blossom at his chest was pleading him: let me out, use me, cut down the threat before you.

He understood, but he ignored it. Using his Crystal Magic and releasing Aine from him would be a sign. A suicidal sign of starting a reckless battle. He could not do that. He did not want to die here.

Crystal Magic was like reading the wind and raising your sails.

The energy from the Original Crystal Embryo at the center of the earth and the various powers raining down from outer space would interact and produce variation points similar to high and low pressure, and their power simply read where those were and used the invisible tailwinds to produce supernatural phenomena.

But the Problem Solvers were different. They were like artificial rain. They used giant bombs or dry ice to directly alter the atmospheric pressure, produce clouds, and mess with the weather. They called in a storm for their own convenience. Studying the weather map was no use against a monster like that. Forcing up your sails would only get your ship capsized.

“Pant, pant! Gasp!!”

(What about Marika!? What happened to her!?)

His entire vision seemed covered in white static. This was an abnormality different from anemia or hyperventilation. This went beyond simply winning or losing. He got down on all fours and crawled along the floor that felt rough to the touch in order to reach the area where his childhood friend would have been sitting.

“Marika…”

The rows of chairs were pretty much gone.

He was instead surrounded by transparent crystal statues that distorted the scenery like smoked glass when enough were gathered together.

He hid among those many “corpses” to escape the dinosaur’s notice and he covered his ears to keep out the voices of those fleeing in a panic.

After a few minutes of struggle that felt like an eternity, someone grabbed the sweaty boy’s hand.

“Karuta! You survived!?”

“Marika!!” he shouted without caring what anyone thought.

She had been smart and not armed herself with her Crystal Blossom.

He clung to and embraced that childhood friend to confirm she really was alive. Her scent, her warmth, and the pulse coming from her chest were all real. This curly twintailed girl was not some hallucination his brain had cooked up to escape the reality around him.

“…! Gekiha was…”

“…”

“I’m sorry, I, Gekiha, right in front of me, couldn’t stop it!!”

He was crying.

But this was not over.

They had not woken from the nightmare. The only way out was to survive on their own.

“Let’s follow everyone else,” she said. “We have to reach the exit.”

That was their only option.

He glanced behind him, but the white-haired woman had not moved a step from the stage.

(How strong is she?)

And the two of them held hands even though they were using so many others as shields and so many other students in the same situation were being lost. They somehow managed to leave the gym like they were following a powerful current.

That was when it happened.

They had not woken from the first nightmare, but a second one had already arrived.

“What, you started already? I thought the plan was to wait until we were all there.”

Below the blatantly unnatural night sky of a solar eclipse, an eyepatch woman cackled. She was a Western European with blonde hair and white skin, yet she loosely wore a brightly colored kimono.

She was one of the Problem Solvers.

She was riding a high-speed motorboat for the rich that could reach 150km/h on the open water. It was far too close to the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy. It would normally have received a warning from the surrounding escort ships before getting anywhere near this close and been fired on by autocannons and anti-ship missiles if it did not obey.

But none of that happened.

Only an eerie silence surrounded it.

A voice spoke from the motorboat’s radio.

“You like to play games too much. Try to imagine what it’s like for those on the receiving end. It’s kinder to use more clever methods like this.”

“A kinder way to kill them?” mockingly asked the eyepatch woman while looking straight up into the sky.

A large tiltrotor craft was just passing by during the eclipse, but she may have been looking at something much, much higher.

“I beseech thee, Lugh, Celtic God of Light,” said the voice on the radio.

She was looking past the sky and out into space.

In other words, the network of orbital weapons that surrounded the entire planet in a sphere one size larger.

A blinding beam of light dropped straight down.

The unnatural darkness of the eclipse was blown away by this strange flash of white.

Sinister black smoke rose from all around.

Every last escort ship had lost its ability to continue fighting and was doing its best to even stay afloat. And then more and more thick beams dropped down on each of them in turn like pressing a giant stamp down on them. The gray ships were already melting like sugar sculptures, but now they were torn in two and doomed to sink.

“What part of that terrifying mess is supposed to be kinder?” asked the eyepatch woman.

“At the very least, they are killed instantly and painlessly,” said the voice on the radio. “Surely that is better than the fear of being devoured alive.”

“The ones being killed don’t exactly get an opinion, dumbass. And killing’s killing no matter how you try to pretty it up. Cut the excuses and actually face your sins, you phony nun.”

“Tch. Why do I have to listen to a holier-than-thou lecture from a pirate?”

The eyepatch woman stopped the motorboat’s engine. She lowered the anchor, took the thick, netsuke-like fastener attached to her kimono’s hip, attached it to a nearby railing, and rolled the three dice she pulled from her kimono’s sleeve.

There was no real meaning in it. The result was the same no matter what she rolled.

It was simply a guide. As long as one side of all three dice was accurately facing the night sky, that would determine the desired “direction”.

“I beseech thee, Susanoo, Wakoku God of Violence.”

Once she said that, something happened without any warning at all. Something floated up like shimmering heat. Not even she understood which of the thee dice it was centered on, but at this size, it hardly mattered. The object that rose straight up, towered well above the eyepatch woman, passed by the tiltrotor craft flying overhead, and easily split the clouds in the night sky was an absurdly large sword.

It was in fact more than 100km long.

Depending on the angle at which it was pulled out, it could easily destroy a city around it. Even with nothing but water as far as the eye could see, there was still a risk of it reaching land.

That was why she had to set up a guide for its angle.

“Now, then.”

Before the giant sword could wobble as gravity reclaimed it, the eyepatch woman swung her right hand to the side and easily grabbed its hilt. That part alone was longer than a mop, but it was blatantly out of balance with the rest.

But it did not matter. The kimono woman placed her empty left hand on the bottom of the hilt and there was no hint of effort on her face.

Anyone who saw this might have mistakenly wondered why there were two space elevators now.

After all, 100km was enough to reach the bottom of the thermosphere.

It was such an absurd mass.

And it would produce such an overwhelming slash.

“That should do it.”

Yet she easily swung it down as if drawing out a semicircle.

It grew red hot like a shooting star and the disturbed air trailed after it like a contrail.

It rushed down along the perfect path to bisect the giant ship of the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy!!

The ship was the size of a luxury cruise liner, but it tilted diagonally.

“Kyah!”

“Marika!!”

This had to be more than just some rough water.

Karuta and Marika were thrown into the corridor along with so many other students.

A crack ran through the long corridor in front of them and then the seemingly sturdy corridor broke apart. A gap of several meters was formed in no time, so there was no crossing it.

“Wah, ah, ah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

A few people fell into that gap.

Flight, a barrier, and regeneration.

Those were the preset abilities of Crystal Magicians, so they could generally fly. Even if they had not learned to do that yet, they could definitely race along the ocean surface.

So why did they sink into the surging ocean?

Because they were afraid to fly. They instinctually understood that standing out in front of those Problem Solvers meant death, so the sky was not an option yet they could not find any other solution. So they were swallowed up and drowned by the dead-end of their own thoughts.

The few dozen who had made it to the other side of the gap stared back at them. Karuta and Marika could only watch as that “wreckage” tilted like a seesaw and sank into the sea.

Those people had not chosen this.

They had wanted to live more than anyone, but that was exactly what had dragged them to a watery grave.

“What…?” Still confused, Karuta trembled and stared at the unbelievable scene. “What happened!? Isn’t this ship the mobile fortress meant to combat the Threat!? Isn’t this the temple created from the best of Crystal Magic technology!? How could it be broken in two with a single strike!?”

All that remained before them was the deadly ocean dyed black by the eclipse.

The ocean spread out in panorama and it was filled with blazing fires and billowing black smoke. Those were the escort ships meant to protect this ship. They had not been taken out with artillery or missiles. He did not know what materials those large escort ships were made from, but they had been twisted like melted sugar sculptures.

“Wh-what is that?” asked Marika as the clouds in the artificially dark sky were blown away.

A thick beam of light dropped down to finish off a gray escort ship desperately trying to stay afloat. It was broken in two, sunk into the ocean, and even triggered a steam explosion as it rapidly boiled the seawater around it.

This was different from that violent dinosaur made from gathered scraps.

But it was still the strongest.

It was from a different field, but this was undoubtedly one form of the strongest.

This was a truly unreachable opponent and confronting them should be avoided at all costs.

Even from a distance, the beam of light was so bright he thought it had scorched his eyes.

He grimaced and placed a hand on the wall before making a suggestion.

“Staying here isn’t going to do any good, so let’s get out of here!”

“R-right!!”

Karuta and Marika ran down the other way of the broken corridor and a young woman’s voice spoke mockingly from the speakers installed all over the ship.

“Ding dong ding dong! Is everyone dead yet? That’s all Crystal Magic was ever going to accomplish. Gya ha ha ha ha!!”

“Kh.”

At this point, he doubted this was some weakling.

More of the Problem Solvers were lurking on the boat.

More monsters on the same level as that dinosaur and that light spear.

“Our energy must be efficiently redistributed to combat the great Threat. And you? Well, you’re basically a bunch of rich kids, right? And I think we can all see how useless your Crystal Magic is, so you’re all just wasting a bunch of energy. You’re the bottom rankers, so it can’t hurt to get rid of you, can it? Yes, it’s all for the greater good .”

“Dammit, dammit, dammit!!”

“Heh heh heh. Bwa ha ha ha ha!! God, you’re so stupid! A Crystal Magic Academy? You thought you were some precious little chosen ones? Not a chance!! Get a clue, morons! You’re supposed to use your heads before it turns out like this, you spoiled little brats!! You couldn’t tell you were dragging us all down by wasting so many resources on your meaningless school for meaningless junk magic!? Gya ha ha ha ha!!”

“Karuta, don’t let her get to you. They have no reason to tell the truth here.”

He knew that.

But more than that, he could not stand this atmosphere where the people using so much violence had an absolute advantage and could get away with anything.

He had never even considered winning.

And he did not know how long he could continue hoping to survive.

So how much would he compromise next time? How much would those Problem Solvers take from him? He could feel himself falling into the abyss, but he could not find a solution either. He could only take his childhood friend’s hand and continue running.

It was a pointless act.

It had been checkmate from the beginning.

For a second time, that 100km steel weapon was swung down to directly strike the half-destroyed ship.

The other side did not need to wander the ship in search of the tiny bugs inside. They only had to use an overwhelming mass to break the ship apart until it could no longer remain afloat. That would successfully slaughter everyone.

Some of their own people might be inside that ship.

But one of the strongest could endure an attack by another of the strongest. It did not matter if the ship sank. Only the swarming bugs would pathetically lose their lives.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Karuta and Marika were thrown into the air along with the splintering ship materials. Karuta could find nothing to grab onto as he sank into the filthy sea.

He swallowed lots of seawater as he somehow scrambled to the surface. He grabbed onto a wooden board floating nearby.

“Pant, pant!!”

He managed to catch his breath, but then he paled.

“Marika?”

She was gone.

That twintail girl who always cheered him up was nowhere to be found.

“Marika! Where are you, Marika!?”

Gekiha was dead. He did not know what had happened to his other classmates or his homeroom teacher. Given the situation, there was no chance all of them would make it out alive. In this insanity, death was the default. In this world, “lucky” meant having your emergency recovery crystal statue shattered and having to wait centuries or even millennia before you could wake up again. But Utagai Karuta still could not bring himself to believe that his childhood friend might be “gone”.

“No, dammit, wait, dammit, Marikaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?”

His vision grew dark.

But then…

“Pant, pant. Oh, shut up. I’m still alive.”

“Mari…ka?”

She looked so small he feared he would lose sight of her due to some slight waves on the ocean surface, but she was still there.

His childhood friend was clinging to an empty plastic tank and speaking through pale lips.

“I’m fine. I still have both my legs. …Assuming they don’t take any more damage, that is.”

“Ahh, sob, ahhhhh. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

He could not stop it.

He wept like a child.

That was all. Karuta and Marika had survived, but that was all. They were surrounded by broken panels and the wreckage of furniture like a river immediately following a hurricane. And almost nothing was moving. There would have been other childhood friends like the two of them. There would have been friends who had just so happened to meet today. And there would have been people in closer relationships of the romantic variety.

But none of them were here.

There were no other survivors as far as the eye could see.

A large shadow passed by above their heads as they floated in that ocean of death. It was a military tiltrotor craft. Ropes hung down from it and some young adults were grabbing onto those. These were clearly not students or teachers. The white-haired woman with the dinosaur was among them.

That finally clued him in.

That was a military tiltrotor craft.

Those were the people who possessed the power to battle the Threat which normally put the world at risk and overpowered humanity. Those were the professional God-Worshipping Magic users.

They were the Problem Solvers.

The strongest five.

“You call yourselves representatives of justice?”

Utagai Karuta gnashed his teeth and raised his voice as if roaring toward the heavens.

“You call this justiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!?”

His voice reached no one.

In the spring of Utagai Karuta’s 15th year, his glorious school life at the Crystal Magic Academy was cut short by tears of blood.

And that marked the beginning of a boy and a girl’s journey around the world in pursuit of vengeance.

### Between the Lines 0

“Nothing beats cooking for yourself,” said Amaashi Marika/

This was before Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah had sunk.

She was seated at a cafeteria table, but she had not ordered anything.

She was using chopsticks to nab the contents of a bento box while watching the other boys and girls going through their fierce lunchtime battle at the counter.

“Yes, I can’t help but think of the word bourgeoisie right now. Let them eat cake, indeed.”

“You have some nerve saying that while stealing from Karuta’s bento.”

“Sh-shut up. Don’t act like you didn’t swipe a meatball.”

“Argue all you want, but get away from my bento!”

Utagai Karuta’s complaints fell on deaf ears.

He did not make a bento every day, but he did from time to time. And his friends would find out even if he did not announce it. He could guess the smell gave it away, but there was nothing he could do about that.

“Anyway, did you hear what they revealed about the Catastrophe?”

“We’re in the same class, so it would be weird if I hadn’t,” said Marika. “It can be anything from a natural disaster to a plague or even a war. Basically, they throw us into some dangerous part of the world and tell us to survive, right?”

None of them liked the sound of that.

Karuta spoke up while making sure to eat his bacon-wrapped asparagus before it was stolen.

“Is Crystal Magic really that convenient?”

“Sacri-sama, if you are dissatisfied with my functionality, I recommend immediately supplying me with pure gold to expand said functionality.”

“I’d die of debt before I could use any of that convenient functionality. And why are you hiding below the table!?”

“Oh, it’s Aine-chan!” exclaimed Marika. “Here, I’ll give you an omelet.”

“Marika, feeding her from my bento doesn’t fill my stomach!”

They kept chatting throughout the lunch break.

“But I’m sure we’ll manage,” said Kazamuki Gekiha. He sounded confident. “Our upperclassmen have all overcome it, right? That just shows how much possibility there is in Crystal Magic. So we’ll be fine. We’re on the winning rails here, so we’ll get by as long as we aren’t derailed in some weird way.”

Was that true?

Maybe it was.

Karuta thought about it for a bit and then nodded.

“Yeah.”

In fact.

How could they hope to keep going otherwise?

### 046. Chapter 1

### Part X

Elicia Luxverg is known as one of the Problem Solvers.

That lady is always busy battling the Threat that has shaken so many of our lives, but today she has kindly offered to spare some of that time for us!

“You exaggerate how busy I am, so please relax and enjoy the interview.”

Miss Elicia, you are known to have protected dozens of cities, regions, and countries from the Threat and your many legends include the salvation of New York, the defense of Hong Kong, and the protection of Sydney. You are also well known for not discriminating based on politics, ideology, religion, military level, race, or any other basis when it comes to reaching out a helping hand to a region in need. Of course, the same applies to the rest of the Problem Solvers as well.

“I just so happened to be dispatched to heavy populated areas, that’s all. When we receive information on the Threat, it does not matter if it will happen in a metropolis of a million or at a log cabin deep in the mountains. We must do everything we can and there is nothing more to it.”

All information on the Threat and your battles is kept hidden, but it seems you have earned the nickname of Saurus. Can you tell us why that is?

“Heh. I am unable to answer due to those very information restrictions. Sorry about that.”

Can you tell us anything about your future plans?

“Again, the information restrictions do not let me.”

In addition to the aforementioned battles, you are also heavily involved with the infrastructure for garbage disposal. I do apologize, but I have trouble seeing what a lovely woman such as you has to do with waste disposal.

“Nothing in this world is beautiful or filthy. There is only the cycle of resources and products, so if one side grows stagnant, the other will collapse as well. Everything on this planet is finite. Efficient recycling and the new resources acquired through it are the only way to extend humanity’s lifespan. In a way, that is even more crucial than combating the Threat. …Oh, am I starting to give you a headache?”

How about we end the discussion of your work here.

Now, according to some exclusive information we have received, you are currently single. That seems like such a waste for a woman of your caliber! What kind of guy would be in luck if he hoped to marry up with you?

“I really wish the information restrictions could have covered this as well, but you can’t have everything in life. Also, I do not like the entire concept of ‘marrying up’. If that is why you are interested in me, then don’t bother and save us both some time.”

So are you the type who wants to be supported by a man?

“Surely even I have the right to dream of a Prince Charming.”

Oh, what’s this!?

“Why the surprise? But if you must know, step one for winning my heart is to be stronger than me. Are you listening, all you princes out there? I await your challenge.”

### Part 1

The smiling face on the TV vanished as the screen went black.

No one had hit the remote’s power button. They had instead thrown the remote and broken the LCD screen.

The crystal girl in a clear white dress slowly tilted her head in the cramped room.

“Sacri-sama?”

“I can’t stand it.”

“But the TV did nothing wrong.”

“I’m sorry.”

Karuta obediently bowed toward the silent TV, but it was too little too late.

Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah had been annihilated in a single day. The students and teachers were gone. How could that woman even talk about the Threat when she was destroying the world too?

Karuta had escaped the disaster with relatively minor injuries and Marika had injured both her legs during the escape but did not have to worry about any lasting effects. That was all thanks to the healing provided by Crystal Magic.

This was a tropical island nation relatively close to that equatorial region of sea.

The people on that island of junk spoke a mixture of languages including English, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, and Japanese. A cheap used RV was hidden in a small cave on its coast.

Their academy had possessed a 500m ship of a new era, all the latest Crystal Magic equipment, 700 specialists counting both the students and teachers, and even escort ships, but nothing remained of that former glory.

Karuta heard a squeaking similar to a rusty faucet being turned.

It came from the sexy girl with long black hair inside the same RV as him.

Her name was Omotesandou Kyouka.

She had been a Regulation 3 and the Student Council President, but no matter how many commands she sent from her printed circuit board, her Crystal Blossom would no longer produce armor for her. Nor could she pull out her Flamberge, a flame sword said to be more than twice her height. The bare minimum of communication was the most she could manage. She had been talented enough that it was rumored she could travel not just across the ocean and through the sky but between dimensions as well, but due to a serious wound to her back, she could no longer even get out of that wheelchair on her own.

What had happened during that hell?

As long as the wound was not fatal, if a Crystal Magician’s limbs were chopped off, the damaged portion would crystallize and a rapid healing process would begin. After about 30 seconds, the crystal shell would be destroyed and they would be as good as new. But Karuta had heard the process would not function properly if a piece of shrapnel or something was lodged in the body such that it obstructed the healing.

Marika had been lucky and he had been even luckier.

But the Student Council President did not bemoan her fate.

In fact, she was wise enough to understand she was lucky simply to have escaped that hell alive.

“We were shown just how powerless we are, but we still chose a vehicle as our base. Is that a sign of just how much that school has influenced us?”

She spoke thoughtfully while slowly stroking her fingers along the edge of the fold-up table. A few handmade experimental Crystal Magic tools and printed circuit boards smaller than stamps were lined up on the table, but they were really little more than a child’s summer project. Keeping a Crystal Blossom fresh was no easy task.

The salvaged textbooks and reference books had soaked up so much seawater that the pages stuck together even after being dried, but using the information there, they had manually input the commands necessary to recover a digital user’s manual for the Crystal Blossoms.

(Gekiha.)

One of the books they had found had that friend’s name written on the back in permanent ink.

The textbook was the one the boy used to share with Karuta when he forgot his own book back in his dorm room despite the dorm being on the same ship as the school. The book had a flipbook crudely scrawled along the corner of the pages. It was obvious the boy had put far more effort into drawing mustaches and glasses on the pictures of the scientists who made historic discoveries than he had on highlighting the sections that would be on the test.

It contained such private and even defenseless things inside it.

No one had expected this to happen.

“…”

They had also found some possible weapons: an extendable baton, a stun gun, pepper spray, and a military flashlight. But they had clearly hit rock bottom when Crystal Magicians were trying to gather weapons instead of using their Crystal Blossoms. If all was well, they would have been honing their occult skills instead.

Nevertheless, he had to say it.

Utagai Karuta did so while toying with the longish military flashlight.

“It’s too soon to look back on it all yet. We have to get back at them first.”

He quietly spoke Aine’s name.

The girl had been seated on the sofa bed’s armrest, so she tilted her head in response, causing her silver hair to sway and reflect a rainbow of light. That was her standard “awaiting orders” pose.

That mysterious crystal girl did not appear in any known mythology or religion.

She was the greatest weapon the boy had available to him.

He opened the RV’s door, Aine supported the wheelchair from behind, and they used the barrier-free electric ramp so all three of them could head outside.

The blue cave reflected the sunlight in odd ways and it looked something like the crash site of a passenger plane.

There were so many of them.

Hundreds of clear crystal statues were lined up in the cave. The broken arms and legs had been gathered up, they had been assembled like a puzzle as much as was possible, and their human silhouettes had been reclaimed.

But it was still not enough.

The braided girl he had seen in the infirmary had been whole, but it was still thought the cracks above her navel would take 550 years to heal.

He heard the splash of something parting the water’s surface.

Marika emerged from the warm ocean of that tropical cave while wearing a racing swimsuit and a leisure oxygen tank.

“Don’t bother with the next shift. The rest of the pieces are too small for human hands.”

“…”

Karuta glanced over at one of the crystal statues among those lining the cave.

That was Kazamuki Gekiha, his former classmate.

They had gathered as many of the broken parts as they could, but they estimated it would take 7000 years before the boy came back to life.

They could never speak to the boy again in their lifetime.

But it could have been worse. The people working on the escort ships had been normal people. For them, that ocean really had been a watery grave. They had no second chance.

Marika tossed aside the oxygen tank and Student Council President Kyouka spoke to her.

“Even with the nonhuman girl, there’s only four of us. …Do you really think we can win against those world-class Problem Solvers?”

“More than that, whatever our reasons might be, I get the feeling we’ll be seen as terrorists.”

The girls seemed to be testing the waters with their words.

It was obvious they were not serious about backing out.

“We have to do it.”

“Why?” “Because it wasn’t anything great about us that let us survive that,” honestly admitted Karuta. “If we had actually tried to face them, we would have died. If we had run away like normal, we also would have been killed. The only reason we’re still here is because someone else was killed in our place. We hid in the forest of students and took shelter behind the shields of teachers to escape with our lives. We shut out the voices begging for help or wishing for a quick death and focused only on our own survival!!”

That was a very ugly way of putting it.

In a peaceful country where war was but a distant memory, they might have been criticized for that.

But no one laughed. They had all gone through that hellish rite of passage.

The only glimmer of hope was that those people had been Crystal Magicians.

They were stuck in cold sleep for what felt like an eternity, but they did have a chance at reawakening one day.

But therein lay the problem.

“Once those Problem Solvers notice this, they’ll resume the search. They’ll act like agents of justice to gain allies around the world who will rat us out almost immediately and then this cave will be discovered in what amounts to a witch hunt. Once that happens, there’s no stopping them. If Gekiha and the others are shattered into dust, baked into tiles, and used to pave roads all over the world, it’s over. They’ll never regenerate after that.”

“…”

If they could not be killed, there were other options.

There were ways of leaving someone unable to die but also unable to ever recover.

Just like something was obstructing the Student Council President’s healing.

“So we can’t let that happen. We have until they find this cave. We need to hunt all five of them down to cut off pursuit. The world has gone insane, so we need to fix it. I’m willing to do whatever it takes because this is our duty after surviving that hell!!”

He could feel a flame burning in his heart.

This was no different from self-harm. He was only burning himself with his own fury.

But he could not let those five get away with this.

Gekiha had apologized in his final moments and said he had been stupid.

But that was wrong. What was foolish about getting angry when the adult who supported your worth was killed and when your entire world was ridiculed and destroyed before your eyes? But that decision had led to such a disastrous result. The correct choice had been twisted to the point that it looked stupid. Someone had to make them pay for that. And that someone had to be Karuta’s group here since they had managed to survive.

The Problem Solvers were in the wrong.

They would make sure those five admitted it themselves.

“It’s true that might not be the most popular choice in the world. For the other 5.5 billion people out there, your classmates and the rest of the school’s students are irrelevant. What you are considering might only spread chaos through the world. But you don’t need to face that shame alone.” The Student Council President spoke softly. “Because we too refuse to let those pieces of shit take anything more from us.”

“…”

Karuta wiped away the tears that had welled up from his anger.

It was time to briefly forget about Kazamuki Gekiha and his pleasant days in the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy.

He coldly looked to the future.

“Now, what information do we have on Elicia Luxverg?”

A blatantly artificial light joined the mysterious blue light covering the cave wall.

Crystal Girl Aine had pulled a projector out from the RV.

Once she had regathered her wet hair into curly twintails, Marika leaned against the side of the RV while the Student Council President operated a remote control. Instead of the broken TV, it belonged to the projector Aine had dragged out.

“That was a live broadcast, so we know she is in this city’s broadcast station.”

A general map of the city was the first thing displayed.

The red dot in the center would be the broadcast station.

A large circle was drawn around that dot and it extended well outside the city.

“There is a heliport at the broadcast station and there are plenty of ports and airports within a helicopter’s flight range. If the control towers leave her flights off of the maps like they do with a president’s personal plane, then we will have no way of tracing her. Well, civilian apps have apparently revealed the routes of such planes, but there is another problem.”

Marika guessed at what the Student Council President meant.

“Elicia plays a role in the global infrastructure, right?”

“Yes. The Problem Solvers have a great influence on the world as a whole, but Elicia’s influence is especially strong in Oceania and the surrounding ocean. In other words, this tropical region is her home turf.”

“Her share of the global infrastructure is the garbage disposal and recycling. That monster needs less than half an hour to completely break down a large passenger plane or tanker that would normally take years, right?”

“Yes. She seems to have more than 20 megafloat ‘resource bases’ on the seven seas so she can let that dinosaur of hers run wild. And each of them is larger than Manhattan.”

Elicia’s dinosaur had been small enough to fit inside the gym, so why did she need such large structures for it? The answer was obvious.

Without the buoyancy and stability provided by that size, the dinosaur could easily flip over the entire megafloat once it was unleashed.

“Those resource bases can travel the world’s oceans by letting several boats pull them along and they also function as airports, naval ports, and submarine bases. They will retrieve passenger planes, tankers, submarines, or anything else when it reaches its lifespan. If she arrives by plane and takes a sub to another airport on a nearby continent, tracking her will be nearly impossible.”

“So we have to do it here before she disappears,” said Utagai Karuta.

They were all staring at the red dot on the map: the broadcast station.

When the Student Council President hit a button on the remote, the cave wall was covered by all the data she had been able to gather on the location in question. She had likely gotten most of it from the internet. It included exterior images, the number and locations of entrances and exits, a list of the companies that had designed and constructed it, estimated locations of the cameras and sensors installed around the building, and even photos of the trucks used to ship in materials or cater lunches.

“How did you get all this?” asked Marika while drying off her racing swimsuit with a bath towel.

“Well, it is a TV station. A lot of information had already been gathered by people straddling the line between fan and stalker who want to lie in wait for someone outside or even make their way to a dressing room.”

Omotesandou Kyouka gave a bewitching smile.

She had not managed to acquire the official plans for the building, but she had acquired a set of estimated layouts assembled by “volunteers”. Not only was the layout estimated based on the exterior appearance and the number of columns, but it even included actual studio numbers, so some of the parties involved may have snuck in as part-timers or cleaners.

“Broadcast stations are one of the critical pieces of infrastructure mentioned as possible terrorist targets, right? Should all this info really be out there?”

“Yes, you never know when it could fall into the wrong hands. Like ours.”

Also, the broadcast station in question was an ultra-tall building that stood 200-stories above the ground.

It was surrounded by a jumbled assortment of prefab buildings and barracks, giving that wealthy district the look of a sundial with the broadcast station in the center.

This was the same as the giant ship that had been the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy.

The new materials and technologies created as side effects of Crystal Magic had created a tendency for buildings and vehicles to grow extremely bloated and large.

“The building doubles as the actual broadcast tower, doesn’t it?” Marika softly sighed. “Y’know, Southeast Asia isn’t where I would expect to find the world’s largest entertainment broadcast station.”

“The TV industry is all about fighting over a piece of the pie,” said Karuta. “When a major content creator establishes themselves, they apply pressure on everyone around them. The domination of Hollywood has forced the European film industry out of densely-populated China and India, so they have been wandering the world in search of their El Dorado where they can find hundreds of millions of people. That’s why everyone seems to want fancy broadcast equipment and stations just because ‘that’s what they do in the West’.”

“So just like tea plantations, it’s all about making money,” added the Student Council President. “In that case, the security must be pretty strict. I wouldn’t recommend charging straight in using Crystal Magic.”

“Agreed, Omotesandou-san. Besides, we can’t hope to defeat Elicia that way,” he spat out hatefully.

“Sacri-sama,” cut in Crystal Girl Aine. “If you wish to avoid a direct battle with Elicia Luxverg, couldn’t you wait until she boards a helicopter on the rooftop? They do not possess Crystal Blossoms and thus cannot fly, so shooting down their aircraft seems like the most effective method.”

The answer to that was simple enough.

“That would mean attacking the helicopter pilot as well. And unlike with a car driver, they would never survive.”

“?”

“Basically, we don’t want to get other people involved in this,” said Marika with a bitter smile. “Was that too complicated for you, Aine-chan?”

But just because they had to reject that idea did not mean it was worthless.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka smiled a little.

“But attacking her when she’s off the ground seems like a decent idea, don’t you think?”

“If we do attack her in the broadcast station, how do we avoid harming the other people around?”

“I want to avoid that, of course, but if you recall, that station is a crucial piece of infrastructure,” said Marika. “We can’t allow Elicia to escape, but if we intentionally trip an alarm after capturing her, I would hope everyone else would be evacuated.”

“Then leave that to me while the rest of you focus on the battle,” said Omotesandou Kyouka. “I might be in a wheelchair, but I can still be useful. I want to help protect everyone…and help get back at those five.”

“Um, what exactly will you be doing?” cautiously asked Marika.

“People will let their guard around someone who looks like this, don’t you think?” The Student Council President shrugged. “I can mess with the gas pipes around the station’s grounds to trigger an explosion. I will omit the details, but that is sure to put them on high alert. And if it gets the nearby tourists to escape, that’s all the better, right?”

It was far from a bad idea.

Karuta and Marika exchanged a glance and a nod.

“Trying to break into the main entrance while they’re on high alert would be ill advised.”

“But we are Crystal Magicians. We can sneak in through places normal people would never even consider.”

“Then let’s go with that.”

They had long worked together while training for the Catastrophe and that paid off here. They were thinking more or less the same thing.

“Then it’s time to really get down to business.”

“Elicia ‘Saurus’ Luxverg. How do we send that dinosaur woman to her grave?”

Several reports were displayed on the cave wall.

They had not taken any photos or recorded any data during that horrific tragedy. They had used those loathsome memories to draw out a diagram of the ships and written out what had happened back then in as much details as they could manage.

(Gekiha.)

They would not let any of those deaths go to waste.

They would find a solution here and complete their revenge.

“That monster was made from weapons, shields, and other junk and it was shaped like a 15m carnivorous dinosaur.”

The Problem Solvers were valuable to and influential within international society in a number of ways beyond combatting the Threat.

They used their great power as a foundation of global infrastructure.

“That might not be all she can do. For example, its size may have been scaled down to match the ceiling of the gym.”

Elicia helped with garbage disposal.

She was especially useful when it came to breaking down giant structures such as passenger planes and tankers.

“But even then, I doubt it’s more than 50m.”

That would be easy enough for her. No longer did hundreds of people need to spend six months or a year using blowtorches to dismantle an old rusty tanker. That dinosaur could do it in less than an hour…no, less than half an hour.

“How can you be so sure about its size?” asked Marika.

Karuta shrugged.

“From how deep the ocean is where that huge ship sank. If that dinosaur could grow to 100 or even 1000 meters, she wouldn’t have needed to summon it inside the ship at all. She could have had it stand on the bottom of the ocean and use its great maw to tear through the entire ship.”

In such a one-sided fight, it seemed unlikely she had been holding back or bluffing in case it came in handy later. Assuming she was not extremely cautious, Karuta’s reasoning was sound.

The Student Council President nodded in agreement.

“I wonder if it would count as being an entirely separate power like Aine-san,” said Omotesandou Kyouka.

Being compared to that woman in any way made his skin crawl, but he suppressed the personal feelings.

“But sending my Aine at her would not be enough. Her mass and power are simply too great.”

“Sacri-sama, if you wish to expand my functionality-”

“No relying on uncertain factors. That’s no different from hoping you can draw on some ‘hidden talent’.”

“But that’s the real problem.” Strawberry blonde Marika rubbed her chin. “That dinosaur isn’t stopping time or teleporting through space. Nor is it shooting beams from its eyes or breathing fire. It’s just overwhelming mass. It converts its weight into power and forces its way through. …There’s nothing clever there, yet no one can stop it. If we don’t find a solution to that, we don’t even have a starting point.”

White-haired Elicia must have been quite confident in her power.

Otherwise, she would not have killed the headmaster in front of everyone, stepped up onto the stage where she had almost no cover, and stood in front of nearly 700 people. She had practically been asking them to concentrate fire on her.

Crystal Magicians had the preset abilities of flight, barriers, and regeneration.

God-Worshiping Magic provided none of that, yet that strongest of the strong had instantly sent Karuta and the others to pandemonium despite their cutting-edge presets and skills.

“…”

“Omotesandou-san?”

“No, please continue. Something is bothering me about this. It’s right there on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t quite lay my finger on it.”

He was curious about the way Kyouka held a hand to her cheek, but he decided to focus on brainstorming ideas…or rather, listing off the problems and discussing them.

“Marika, not even your Crystal Blossom would work, right? Even your lasers and masers would have difficulty against a mass that large. It’s like the difference between a vehicle covered in bulletproof armor and a solid hunk of steel.”

“More than that, would destroying it even accomplish anything? It’s like a bunch of nails gathered together by a magnet, so wouldn’t it regenerate each time we damaged it? I mean, that dinosaur seems even less biological than Aine-chan.”

“Which leaves an endless hell as the only option.”

“Can’t we just blow away that old woman herself before the dinosaur even shows up?”

If a surprise attack were to succeed, that would indeed be best.

But there was a problem.

“We can’t plan for that,” said Karuta. “Not when we don’t know how the dinosaur is summoned or how long the summoning takes after the command is sent.”

“Yeah,” said Marika. “Let’s hope it isn’t inside her body and can be summoned in an instant like with Aine-chan.”

“We still need to have a plan for if the dinosaur is there in case the surprise attack fails.”

Pale-skinned Crystal Girl Aine tilted her head.

Her silver hair swayed as she spoke.

“So are you saying the dinosaur is big, it can freely change forms, it can be stored anywhere, it can be summoned in an instant, and it’s impossible to destroy?”

“Whoops!” said Marika. “This sounds pretty bad when you spell it all out like that!!”

“Then why did Elicia Luxverg step up onto the stage back then?”

Everyone turned to look at Aine.

She kept her head tilted as she continued.

“Sacri-sama and I have some similarities with Elicia and the dinosaur. I am a fully separate power made of the strongest armor, while Sacri-sama remains unguarded.”

“What’s your point?”

“In that case, stepping up onto the stage was meaningless.” Aine answered his question bluntly and directly. “The safest and most effective arrangement would have been for Elicia to never even board the ship. She could have released the dinosaur and watched the havoc from a safe distance. But that is not what she did.”

“Then Karuta must be right about the dinosaur’s max size being no greater than 50m. If she summoned it outside the ship, it would sink to the bottom of the ocean.”

“Even that does not explain why Elicia made a direct appearance. It would have been better to send the dinosaur into the gym alone while she sent instructions from some hidden location. And remaining on some separate ship throughout would have been the best option.”

“Um…then was it a matter of pride? Did she feel the need to actually stand on the stage and declare war on us?”

“Wait. Dinosaur woman wasn’t the only Problem Solver there. The ones behind that light spear and that giant sword were there too. Did they really all board the ship?” Utagai Karuta dug down to the crux of the issue. “If not and attacking from outside the ship was an option, then why did Elicia bother boarding? It wasn’t a matter of pride and she wouldn’t bother putting on a show for mere ‘bugs’. I mean, we know the other members weren’t on that stage.”

“So was there some logical reason like an issue of distance?” The Student Council President was muttering under her breath. “Can she not control the dinosaur if she is too far away? But…”

How far Karuta’s instructions could reach Aine was a crucial issue, so it may not have been wrong to assume distance was a restriction.

But besides that…

“Why did she step up onto the stage?”

If distance was the only issue, she could have hidden backstage or in a duct. They thought back to what Elicia had said so confidently back then. More than that, they reviewed every last movement she had made.

Yes.

Why had she stood in the most noticeable and thus must dangerous location?

“Or are we looking at this wrong? …Oh!”

Omotesandou Kyouka seemed to have realized something, but Marika and Aine still looked puzzled.

They could not let the impact of the scene distract them. They had to think back to the original position that woman had so wanted to stand in. Where had that dinosaur come from? What had it broken through? What did it mean for her to stand with her back to that? What position had been important enough to warrant facing 700 students and teachers?

Utagai Karuta directed his thoughts outward once more.

He looked the others in the eye and gave the answer.

“ Why did she want to stand with her back to the wall? ”

### Part 2

What they needed to gather was simple.

They might be hard to come by in Japan, but they were not exactly rare in this country.

Karuta and Marika were walking in the gap between the slums and the wealthy. It was a unique scene where a driver was waiting in a black limo right next to where a man in a worn-out coat was gathering empty cans.

“That should be enough shotgun shells,” said Karuta. “I’d love to buy as much as we can carry, but they might get suspicious if we buy too many in one place. Maybe we should visit a few different stores.”

“What about the traps?” asked Marika.

“Igniting them won’t be very difficult. A single spark will do the trick, so we can create fuses out of a battery and aluminum foil. Of course, we’ll need a different device to switch them on.”

“We’re going to detonate them by radio? But there are bound to be signals on all sorts of frequencies flying around all the way up to the heliport!”

“Not to mention from the bugs set up by obsessive fans. Yeah, it might be best to pretend to be tourists while we walk around the building and check what frequencies are in use. There must be a bandwidth no one is using. More importantly, Marika, you’re our only hope here since you’re the only one who can use a standard Crystal Blossom. Do you really think you can do this?”

“Yesss, III caaaan. I’d really prefer to use lasers or masers, but I guess a non-nuclear photon rocket would be best here.”

“Whatever the case, you should test fire it first. We don’t want to find out too late that the force of impact knocks a connection out of place.”

“Obviously. In that case, I’ll want some rubber adhesive that works on building walls and some cushioning material if we have the budget.”

The two of them were out shopping.

Aine had stayed back in the RV to support the Student Council President just in case. That would not make much difference if one of the Problem Solvers tracked them down, but Aine would be able to fight off any thugs who tried to rob the place.

“I can’t believe former Crystal Magicians like us are buying parts for weapons at a hardware store,” said Marika.

“I’m down with anything if it gives us a chance.”

“Also, Aine-chan really was a lot of help, so how about you buy her a reward?”

“You mean a snack covered in gold leaf or powder? Do you think that would really construct semiconductor circuits in her body?”

“The whole thing is too unprecedented to say. I’ve never even heard of another Crystal Blossom that eats.”

“And she’s stored inside my body, so what happens to me if she builds pure gold circuitry inside her?”

“Wait, I thought gold leaf desserts weren’t digestible.”

They discussed that while pushing a shopping cart through a large store.

The cart’s handle was labelled “Stainless Steel – Fifth Generation Material”.

(You even see it here.)

This was a sign of Elicia Luxverg’s influence. She used her dinosaur to tear apart the passenger planes and tankers gathered from around the world because that efficiently dismantled them into usable resources that could be recycled. That was why first generation resources, the iron or aluminum directly dug up in a mine, were almost never seen anymore.

The news was playing on the phone of a customer who passed by.

“Steel dropped in value by 2 dollars and 50 cents today while aluminum remains stable at 40 dollars and 27 cents. Speculators are saying the influence on first generation resource deals will be…”

Marika whispered while reaching for a product.

“There’s something wrong with human society when the unrefined rocks are more valuable .”

They had a list of what they needed, but like they said before, buying it all at once place would raise suspicions. They did not have much time, but they still walked around town visiting different stores to purchase bits and pieces of their list while also visiting unnecessary shops along the way.

“Ohh, I just remembered alllll my new swimsuits are at the bottom of the ocean with the ship.”

“Really, Marika?”

“Let me buy one. Just one! It’ll help camouflage what we’re doing!!”

“You already bought that racing swimsuit for diving, remember? And you got away with buying a leisure model because the ocean is so warm around here!”

“Listen, Karuta-san. Just like a school bag and a brand-name bag are entirely different things, that swimsuit and this swimsuit are entirely different!!”

And so he was dragged into a sporting goods store.

The look in his childhood friend’s eyes was already scaring him.

“Ohh, I love this dizzying feeling of being surrounded by so many price tags. Heh heh, I can just buy them all, can’t I? I can buy as many as I want, right?”

“Are you insane, you greedy girl!? You’re just using the price on the tags to feel like you’re rich! Plus, we don’t have any real income!!”

“We gathered a bunch of valuable stuff from the sunken ship.”

“But it isn’t unlimited. Besides, we decided to leave 95% of it in the cave for when Gekiha and the others eventually wake up. We only have the bare minimum to work with.”

“Bikinis are nice, but the design is so perfected there isn’t much room to have fun with it.”

“You’re not even listening, are you!?”

“This is a necessary part of the bare minimum. Now, let’s check out the one pieces…ohhh! They’ve got a real tricky one here, boss! This doesn’t cover the navel or back at all! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

He had no idea why that was so funny to her. At the very least, he knew it had nothing to do with good fashion sense. She was the stereotypical shopaholic in that she was bound to cool down half a day after buying it and badly regret her decision.

That meant there was nothing he could do now.

She charged straight into the fitting room with a risqué swimsuit.

“Hm, hmmm. Hm, hm, hm, hmm.”

“Come to think of it, there’s no real reason for me to wait for you here, is there?”

“Are you trying to kill me with loneliness by having me try on clothes all on my lonesome? And check out this stupid swimsuit! It’s hilarious!”

Curly twintailed Marika threw open the partition curtain, but that was when it happened.

She was indeed wearing a swimsuit, but that forceful action caused the shoulder straps to come undone, leaving her very much topless.

“Ah.”

Karuta had to cover his face with his hands.

He was fairly certain he had seen a pair of indescribably bright mounds(?), but it would be best not to pursue the matter.

However…

“See, what did I tell you!? These are really cheap!! They’re poorly made, so you can’t trust them!!”

“~ ~ ~ ~!! W-wait just a second!!”

Marika blushed bright red and quickly ducked back into the fitting room. In the RV, she would sleep naked with only a single sheet covering her, but she was apparently still reluctant to directly show everything off by complete accident. And she seemed well aware that this was in no way Karuta’s fault. Being a clever girl could be difficult sometimes.

Meanwhile, the young woman at the register grinned over at him. He had a bad feeling she was the type of salesperson who left the sample on the verge of breaking and then claimed whoever broke it had to pay for it.

“This was all a setup!?”

“But, sir, you enjoyed the show, didn’t you?”

“…”

It saddened him he could not deny it, so he paid for it to silence the woman. He could only laugh.

“Bwa ha ha ha!”

“Ah ha ha ha!”

This was a world of only love and peace. Utagai Karuta’s laughter was even uglier than when he had felt so cornered by the Problem Solvers.

Once the fitting room curtain opened again, the two of them were complete strangers once more.

“Ugh…what do we do with this broken swimsuit?”

“Even if we do defeat Saurus with it, do not let this part get in the history books.”

He drove the point home with a more decisive look than was strictly necessary.

At any rate, the preparations were complete.

It was time to face one of the world’s strongest.

It was time to attack one of the Problem Solvers.

It was time to exact revenge on Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg.

### Part 3

That absurdly large broadcast station had a range that crossed national borders to cover the entire Southeast Asia region.

After growing to a bloated 200 stories tall, there was one thing it was bound to have: elevators.

They needed quite a few of those to quickly and comfortably transport a large number of personnel and materials such as props.

There were general elevators for tourists and audience members, shipping entrance ones that could carry an entire loaded midsized truck, special ones that let entertainers sneak out the back way, and business ones for the other personnel.

The white-haired woman named Elicia Luxverg was riding a VIP elevator. It was made of glass to give a view of the evening cityscape, so it may have been similar to those at a resort hotel.

Its riders would normally be accompanied by station staff acting as a guide, their secretary, or a bodyguard, but Elicia was different.

She had a simple reason for refusing any of that:

“They would get in the way.”

The giant building had an unusually complicated layout to make sure the entertainers could avoid running into obsessive fans, but Elicia had learned her own way around. She also kept track of her own schedule down to the minute or second and she could intercept any unexpected attacker.

She was the world’s strongest all on her own.

With power on her level, not harming the people around her was the most difficult part of resolving any trouble that occurred. After all, her dinosaur did not allow for finetuned control. She went to the trouble of smiling for the cameras and performing some lip service for the masses, so she wanted to avoid making mincemeat out of an ally. That would waste all the effort put into that hours-long facial workout.

(Although the best form of defense is to keep your location a secret.)

In that sense, being at an obvious landmark and leaving by helicopter was not the best choice. If she was being honest, driving a half-rusted used car through a small road lined with plywood and prefab buildings was more her style.

Currently, she caught scent of something inside that empty elevator.

She pulled out her phone and made a video call to the station chief on the top floor.

“I am scheduled for four interviews, a one-on-one talk, and then dinner with some ‘influential people’, correct?”

“Y-yes. I do apologize for the busy schedule when you must be exhausted, but just think about how much good will come from-”

“Cancel them all.”

“Huh?”

She did not bother responding to his peace-dulled confusion.

She summed it all up as much as possible.

“You need to prepare yourself. You have an intruder.”

Her prediction proved accurate.

A moment later, the elevator’s lights cut out, informing her of a power outage.

She heard an ear-splitting screech similar to sparks scattering as a train’s wheels were caught by the emergency brakes. The elevator came to a rapid stop on its way to the top floor.

“…”

It was evening. The building was so tall these higher levels would somewhat extend the time until sunset, but it was still horrifyingly dark. Did the loss of the artificial lights really make this much of a difference?

Her phone’s screen cast some light into that darkness, but the call had ended.

It said “no signal”, so it must have been using this very broadcast station and tower to make the call. But there was no chaos in the city she could see through the glass, even though a largescale blackout would likely cause accidents at the traffic lights and train crossings. That meant the power was out only for the broadcast station.

(National broadcasts are key to restoring order in emergencies. Counterterrorism measures in place for this crucial infrastructure should have it back up in less than five minutes, but surely they don’t hope to attack during that short time.)

The digital floor display had vanished with the power out, but this was probably near the 190th floor.

The next noise she heard came from the center of the metal elevator door. A katana-like blade made of crystal jabbed out at her chest height. It slid down along the gap between the double doors and sliced through some kind of latch like a hot knife through butter.

The automatic doors were forced open by human hands to reveal who awaited her.

“I recognize that blazer.” The world’s strongest kept her voice low but she smiled despite being trapped in a dangling birdcage. “A survivor of Grimnoah, I take it?”

“No.”

It was a slender boy.

He was accompanied by a pale crystal girl wielding a bladed weapon.

A stagnant light filled his eyes as he introduced himself.

“I am the one who will kill and surpass you.”

### Part 4

How did they reach that point?

That bloated broadcast station was 200 stories tall.

It was bound to have a solid security network of guards, cameras, and sensors, but security was surprisingly lax at one point: the orange-dyed rooftop.

“No one would ever expect someone to enter a 200-story building from the very top,” laughed strawberry blonde Marika with translucent armor covering her body.

There was of course a heliport on the station rooftop, so they would have the bare minimum of control equipment. The entire station could function as a largescale broadcast tower so they did not have to use an external one and they could use the distortion in that signal to detect any approaching aircraft.

But.

What if?

“If you fly straight up along the building’s wall, the radar can’t detect you,” said Karuta after being carried up to the top. “Although a normal plane or helicopter would definitely crash into the building if they tried it.”

At 200 stories, they were more than 1000m up. The oppressive equatorial heat was swept away and replaced by a light chill. The nearby planter even had lovely alpine plants growing in it.

“If you ask me, we won’t be accepting interviews at TV stations.”

He suddenly recalled what his old friend had said.

“Won’t Crystal Magicians like us be more like special forces? Y’know, we’ll be wrapped in a veil of mystery that gathers the public’s attention without having to show off to the media. But we’ll be able to go see the movies based on Crystal Magicians and laugh at how inaccurate they are. Heh heh heh.”

“…”

Come to think of it, hadn’t that flipbook in the corner of his stuck-together textbook been an imagined scene from those movies he dreamed of?

Karuta narrowed his eyes, let out a white breath, and whispered under his breath.

“Power up.”

The back of his purple blazer swelled out unnaturally and pale Crystal Girl Aine appeared from within.

“Aine, prepare your weapon. We’re up against one of the Problem Solvers, so we can’t hold back in the slightest. When I give the signal, you give this your all from the very first move.”

“Understood.”

Aine swung her right hand and what looked like a crystal katana appeared there. The base had a jitte-like fork with a laser gun on the short end.

“You too, Marika.”

“Leave it to me.”

There were sensors on the rooftop exit, but they would mean nothing before long.

They did not even need to cut the sensor when the entire station would be flooded with alerts.

Karuta and Aine pressed against either side of the door while Marika headed to the boxes lined up where they would not get in the way of the heliport. Those were the large exterior air conditioning unit, the water tank, and the gear boxes for the many elevators.

“Now we have to wait for that Student Council President.”

They took their positions and waited for things to begin.

And begin they did.

The bright guide lights for helicopters all went out.

As soon as the TV station building blacked out, Aine’s sword sliced through the door’s hinges like a hot knife through butter and Karuta kicked the door in. Marika jumped into an elevator shaft through a different entrance.

The Student Council President’s voices reached them through the vibration of their Crystal Blossoms.

Omotesandou Kyouka’s job was to use gas line explosions to destroy the normal cables and the transformers outside the broadcast station and then to observe the TV station using binoculars.

“Elicia is using the third VIP elevator from the left. Um, it should be stopped at the 190th floor.”

“Got it.”

“The power should be back up in about five minutes, so make contact before then!”

Karuta and Aine ran down the dark emergency stairs to reach the elevator in question. He would have to use the crystal girl to neutralize anyone they ran into along the way, but fortunately, that was not necessary. That was probably thanks to the highest area being used for the executives, so it was nowhere near the actual production area. There were very few people this high up.

“It’s about to begin.”

Utagai Karuta clenched his teeth as he left the emergency stairway and ran down a hallway.

The fear in his mind was joined by an odd heat.

“It all starts here!! Aine, we’re about to challenge Elicia ‘Saurus’ Luxverg, one of the world’s strongest with the Problem Solvers! You need to be ready too!!”

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

They arrived at the 190th floor’s elevator hall.

Aine’s sword sliced through the metal door and Karuta helped pry it open.

And on the other side…

### Part 5

At long last.

It really did feel like so very long.

Utagai Karuta encountered his sworn enemy.

The woman had long white hair and wore a pantsuit.

The stopped elevator was like a dangling birdcage trapping her.

But there was no fear on Elicia’s face.

She returned her phone to her pocket and did not even pull her hand back out.

“How stupid are you? You could have just played dead, you know? Or are you here to receive the honor of being trampled below the great Elicia Luxverg’s feet?”

“Just you try it.”

Aine kept her sword at the ready and the boy took a step back from the dangling elevator. The avenger boy stepped into the safe zone of the solid elevator hall and he smiled with sweat soaking his body.

“You are standing on very thin ice right now. Safety devices? Emergency brakes? There’s no way those things can support the weight of that huge-ass dinosaur. Summon it here and all that will snap, sending you tumbling nearly 200 stories down to the ground. But if you’re fine with that, then summon your strongest.”

This was their first move.

It was all logically sound. If Elicia summoned her prized dinosaur, the elevator’s wires and emergency brake shoes would snap and she would fall. And if she hesitated, he would send Crystal Girl Aine toward her. Summoning the dinosaur meant falling and not summoning it meant getting sliced and diced. By normal standards, this was checkmate.

Yes.

Assuming the monster known as Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg fell into the categories of “normal” and “standard”.

“Heh.”

She laughed. Her undaunted ferocity sent a chill down Karuta’s spine.

“Aine!!” he immediately shouted. “Cut her down!!”

But the crystal girl did not follow his command.

There was a simple reason for this.

“I beseech thee, Vishnu, Indian God of Change.”

That reason was directly behind him.

It came from the sturdy elevator hall floor, but still within five meters of Elicia.

Tens or even hundreds of thousands of rusty metal pieces gathered together to produce a dinosaur as if it were rising up from a body of water.

“Sacri-sama!!”

Aine’s pure white clothing whipped around as she immediately changed the course of her blade. Instead of attacking the target directly in front of her, she used it as a shield against the dinosaur approaching from behind the boy.

That must have been the correct choice.

But the dinosaur made from a jumble of swords, spears, axes, and bows had much more force behind its charge. It sent Karuta flying horizontally with the crystal girl trapped in the middle. They were thrown through the pried-open door and into the elevator.

“Gah!?”

He did not feel the solid floor.

He was instead surrounded by something oddly warm, soft, and feminine-smelling.

Elicia had spread her arms to catch him and then buried his face in her chest.

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

Sweat poured from his body.

When he looked up from her chest, he saw a grin on the white-haired woman’s lips.

He did not have a second – or even an instant – to spare.

“Aineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

His shout was answered by the crystal girl swinging her clear blade upwards.

The laser beam fired along the curving course of that blade tore through the elevator’s ceiling.

The thick wires, safety devices, and emergency brake latches were all destroyed and the boxy birdcage began to fall.

It happened in the moment just before the charging dinosaur broke through the doorframe.

The dinosaur just missed the dropping elevator, so it seemed to have crashed through the glass wall beyond that and flown out into the evening sky, but Karuta and Aine were too busy to check.

They had entered freefall along with the rectangular box.

Their weight seemed to vanish. Just like a weightlessness experiment using a rapidly descending aircraft or an astronaut training facility using the extra-large freefall inside a broadcast tower, they were able to forget about the concept of weight while still on earth.

This must have been a bit of a surprise for Elicia as well because he was released from her slender arms.

Once freed from her chest, Karuta glared at his sworn enemy.

“Your dinosaur is a gravity attack using its great mass, so can you really make use of it in a weightless world!?”

“A meaningless question. You have failed to trap the crucial dinosaur – my Avatar – in this weightless cage.”

“Don’t be so sure. This prevents you from abandoning the old one and summoning a new one inside the elevator. That makes you powerless. I can have Aine cut you down now or I can wait for you to die from the fall!”

“Again.” Elicia floated in the weightless box while pointing her thumb toward the orange world beyond the glass. “I said it was a meaningless question, didn’t I?”

A reddish-black cascade could be seen out there.

It was a rusty collection of weapons like swords, spears, axes, and bows, of junk like refrigerators and cars, and of components like screws and springs. They had abandoned their dinosaur form to enter freefall along with the elevator. In fact, they were maintaining the exact same speed to remain alongside it.

Then they formed the carnivorous dinosaur’s maw once more.

Within the resultant deluge of horrific sounds, Elicia Luxverg kept her back to the destruction and bathed in the light of sunset so her body’s outlines seemed to be burning.

“Now, ghost, I will be leaving. Incidentally, do you have an effective means of escaping this?”

“Aine.”

“If not, then it is you who will be splattered on the ground.”

“Kill her now, Aineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

The crystal girl responded with the short laser gun on the jitte-like branch of her transparent sword, but something else was faster.

The dinosaur had fully regained its form and the claws of its feet dug into the small concrete wall built along the steel beams running between the glass panels. It used this to slow down while crashing its great maw through the glass.

The tremendous vibration threw off Aine’s aim.

The beam of light scorched the empty air right next to Elicia’s face, but she did not bat an eye.

It was all over if the dinosaur took the entire elevator into its jaws. Elicia could escape by climbing onto the dinosaur, but the other two would be stuck inside as the elevator was tossed out into the evening sky like used gum.

But that was not what happened.

Just before it could, an orange beam of light pierced vertically through the elevator from top to bottom. A twintail girl with sharp crystal armor growing from her body flew into the large hole this created in the ceiling.

“Mari…ka!?”

The girl must have been too focused to respond.

She took Karuta and Aine’s hands while they floated in the artificial weightlessness and she flew down through the hole in the floor.

Sounds of destruction continued from up above.

Most likely, the dinosaur had dug its claws into the TV station’s wall to gradually slow its descent with the elevator in its mouth.

“Marika, this isn’t over! We haven’t rid Elicia of her ‘strongest’ yet!!”

“I know…that!”

Marika turned ninety degrees away from the elevator shaft to break through the thick glass wall and fly outside.

They faced Elicia, who was riding the dinosaur’s shoulder, from a distance of 20 meters.

However, they were standing on the vertical glass wall.

Karuta’s group was supported by Crystal Magic flight and Elicia was using the dinosaur’s claws digging into the wall, but they were both freed from the concepts of gravity and the ground.

They stood on that glass battlefield.

“So you are finally facing me head on, ghost.”

The white-haired woman was delighted.

They had dropped a lot, but their surroundings still looked like a sunset ocean. Their glass footing glittered as it reflected the orange light.

Some artificial light was mixed in with that.

The lights inside were turning back on. The broadcast station was coming back to life as it switched over to emergency power.

They had expected the blackout to last about five minutes, so all this could not have taken any longer than that.

What a dreadfully intense battle this had been. It felt like they had been fighting for days.

“Are you all out of tricks? Then let’s end this with me sending you back to your graves. Your experience on that sunken ship should have taught you that you cannot defeat my Avatar in an exchange of pure violence.”

Marika and Aine.

The boy could not even stand on this wall without those two girls’ support, but he still spat back a response.

“Don’t screw with us.”

“My obvious superiority is not enough to deter you? If this is what you’re like, I can’t imagine how you managed to survive back then. …Do it.”

Crystal Magic and God-Worshiping Magic.

The wielders of those different powers took action simultaneously.

They charged straight ahead on that glass ground to take the shortest route toward a clash.

A single hit from that dinosaur meant death.

The spatial vibration field and auto-regeneration were useless. Not even the 700 people in the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy had been able to defeat this world’s strongest. Just because Karuta’s group had gained a few personal reasons for fighting now did not mean they could overturn everything that happened and defeat this dinosaur.

So.

That had never been their intent.

“Marika! Our footing!!”

“Got it!!”

The guard of her rapier-like weapon moved. It had covered the back of her hand before, but now it turned inside out like a broken umbrella in a gust of wind to form a firing unit. A blinding beam of light surged from there.

Their footing was nothing more than glass.

It shattered and the flat battlefield suddenly vanished, as if the three of them were diving underwater.

“…?”

Elicia briefly looked puzzled while left behind.

“–––––!!”

But then she clenched her teeth.

Something else had begun.

### Part 6

Before making their move on the 200-story broadcast station, Karuta and Marika had gathered materials and made preparations in the jumbled city.

“That should be enough shotgun shells. I’d love to buy as much as we can carry, but they might get suspicious if we buy too many in one place. Maybe we should visit a few different stores.”

Those shells that scattered small metal balls were used for hunting and riot suppression, but they were not hoping to load them in a gun and fire them.

Elicia was known as the world’s strongest, so nothing like that was going to affect her.

“What about the traps?”

So they were using them differently.

They had chosen a method of detonating those shotgun shells without using a gun.

“Igniting them won’t be very difficult. A single spark will do the trick, so we can create fuses out of a battery and aluminum foil. Of course, we’ll need a different device to switch them on.”

They would function as tiny little bombs.

Aiming them at her would almost certainly fail. Even if one of the metal balls grazed her skin by pure luck, the explosive energy would not have been aimed in a single direction by a gun barrel, so it would not have much destructive force.

“We’re going to detonate them by radio? But there are bound to be signals on all sorts of frequencies flying around all the way up to the heliport!”

So it was a bluff.

They only had to make the target think she was being targeted by bullets or explosives.

“Not to mention from the bugs set up by obsessive fans. Yeah, it might be best to pretend to be tourists while we walk around the building and check what frequencies are in use. There must be a bandwidth no one is using. More importantly, Marika, you’re our only hope here since you’re the only one who can use a standard Crystal Blossom. Do you really think you can do this?”

What they had done was simple.

They attached a wireless detonator to the shotgun shells and then coated them with adhesive.

Then they only had to throw them against the TV station wall from a distance.

That would turn that wall into a minefield.

“Yesss, III caaaan. I’d really prefer to use lasers or masers, but I guess a non-nuclear photon rocket would be best here.”

Was that all it took to defeat Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg?

She had stood in front of 700 Crystal Magicians and used her massive dinosaur to block all the attacks sent her way and then crushed them all underfoot, so was this really enough to harm her?

“Whatever the case, you should test fire it first.”

The answer was yes.

“Obviously. In that case, I’ll want some rubber adhesive that works on building walls and some cushioning material if we have the budget.”

Because…

### Part 7

Pop pop! Pop!! Pop pop pop!!

Elicia heard small explosions bursting all around her.

She also heard something whizzing through the evening air, so had they included nails or fishing hooks to make this more lethal? Or were they using shotgun shells?

“!!”

It was the same either way.

Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg was one of the Problem Solvers, but she was only human herself. If she was shot with a bullet, she would die. If she was caught in an explosive blast, she would be torn apart.

(Did they lure me here? No, I should assume they placed explosives all around the station’s walls so they would have traps everywhere!!)

She did not know which it was.

She was the strongest when it came to physical attacks, but she was not clairvoyant or prophetic, so she had no way of knowing the quantity and location of the explosives.

And to reiterate, a single hit would kill her.

One of the world’s strongest would be killed in a trap set by some ghosts she failed to kill.

### Part 8

After they broke through the orange-shining glass wall and entered the broadcast station again, Karuta finally felt a solid floor beneath his feet. He used that to run through the building along with Marika and Aine.

“She doesn’t have a body of steel and she can’t use Crystal Magic, but she always shows up on the front line and leaves herself open to attack. Why?”

They could hear the small explosions – no, gunshots – even from here.

If they did not reach their destination before those ended, they really would have no tricks left up their sleeves.

“The answer is simple: because nowhere is safer than by her dinosaur. That’s why she stood on that stage in front of 700 people in the ship’s gym. That dinosaur is tough enough to deflect any attack, but it can only shield one direction at a time. So her biggest fear was for the 700 people to spread out and attack separately. If she was surrounded, there would be a chance of an attack slipping through the gaps in her dinosaur shield and reaching her. That’s why she took a position where all those gazes were fixed on her from a single direction.”

So…

“She can only summon one of those dinosaurs. She can’t summon a second or third with the same mass and she can’t split the one into two smaller ones. If she could, she could stay in hiding with a bodyguard dinosaur while she sent in an attack dinosaur!”

What was Elicia doing now that she was surrounded by explosions on that building wall?

Was she unsure which direction to use her dinosaur shield?

Or…

“Karuta-kun, be careful. Elicia is acting oddly.” Student Council President Kyouka contacted him via Crystal Blossom vibration while she observed the exterior of the station with binoculars. “It isn’t shaped like a dinosaur anymore. It looks more like a crumbling donut as she forces it to shield her in all directions!”

“That’s fine.” Karuta’s group ran up the emergency stairs. “We were hoping she would panic and not know what to do, but this still keeps her from using the dinosaur.”

They ran down the hallway.

“I just hope she hasn’t considered this possibility!!”

They arrived at the glass wall decorating the floor.

Yes.

From Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg’s perspective, they were approaching from below her feet.

She had broken down the dinosaur and spread the rusty junk out in a donut shape to protect herself in all directions while it still maintained a single form, but those “all directions” were only in two dimensions.

Had Elicia forgotten she was using a glass wall like the floor?

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Karuta’s fist broke through the thick reinforced glass wall.

“Wha-!?”

This was a first.

His sworn enemy cried out in surprise for the first time while he grabbed her ankles and dragged her inside.

He threw her to the floor.

“Khah!”

The blow to her back left her collapsed there.

From there, she must have seen what looked like a demon pulling an extendable baton from his purple blazer’s pocket.

“Aine, Marika.”

The two girls faced the broken window from either side of him. The junk donut was rapidly retaking its shape, but before it could, they used the beams fired from their katana or rapier weapons to blast the half-formed donut and forcibly tear it away from the wall.

Once gravity took hold, the dinosaur fell toward the orange surface.

Elicia reached out a hand from the floor, but there was nothing she could do.

“Ah.”

“Can you instantly eliminate that one and summon a new dinosaur? Of course you can’t. If you could effectively warp it around like that, you wouldn’t need to stick by its side to stay in the one safe zone on the front line. Once it takes form, you’re stuck using that one.”

“Ahhh.”

“This is the 104th floor, so how long do you think it’ll take for it to climb back up the wall?”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

“As long as we kill you before then, we win.”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- bgwahhh !?”

He swung the first horizontal blow toward Miss Strongest lying screaming on the floor.

When he felt the raw sensation reaching his wrist through the weapon, he knew for certain that Elicia really did use God-Worshipping Magic.

She did not have the barrier or regeneration of a Crystal Magician’s presets.

He could do this now.

If he attacked her exposed human body, he could defeat this strongest!!

After delivering a second and third blow with the baton as if slapping her back and forth, it was the baton that broke and bent in a shallow V-shape. It was hollow inside to make it collapsible, but it was also quite cheap.

“This thing’s useless.”

“Pant, pant.”

He tossed it aside and pulled another weapon from his pocket.

These were knuckledusters, aka brass knuckles. He passed the four fingers of his right hand through the holes, clenched it, and prepared to throw a punch toward Elicia Luxverg with those brutal rings on his fingers.

“No, wait.”

He answered her with a solid thud.

But this did not last long either. After sitting on top of her and throwing several punches to her face, he heard an odd sound from the base of his index finger. A portion of the finger crystalized and began the 30-second healing process. He must have damaged the bone. Even though he had the barrier-like spatial vibration field, weakened though his might be.

“Dammit, are you kidding me?”

He tossed aside the useless hunk of metal and pulled out a modified military flashlight.

Elicia guarded her face with her hands. She looked just like some confused girl trying desperately to protect herself from the violence raining down her way without warning.

“How long have you been doing this!? We still haven’t killed a single person! You think this is enough? You expect me to believe you’ve learned your lesson!? You think you’re some helpless victim and it would be wrong to kill you? To hell with that!! You have to take responsibility for what you did! And that means you have to die, you piece of shit!!!!!!”

The flashlight was meant to blind an enemy, not beat them. It had a laser pointer in place of bright LEDs and its special laser pointer lens could spread that light out like a flashlight to fry someone’s eyes. This method was well known for being used by ill-mannered sports spectators and people trying to obstruct aircraft. But with a reinforced stainless steel exterior that lived up to the “military” descriptor, with the weight of the large battery, and with the amplifier attached to the back, it worked well as a baton.

He remained sitting on her and beat her some more.

He must have been screaming something as he did so, but not even he heard what it was.

White-haired Elicia Luxverg had been using her hands to guard her face, but eventually something must have snapped inside her. She went limp and stopped resisting.

Only his heavy breathing continued.

This was the person who had torn Kazamuki Gekiha in two, sunk the entire Ocean Crystal Magic Academy ship, and slaughtered the other 700 people in that school who he had smiled alongside as fellow Crystal Magicians. No, the number of deaths had to be several times that when the escort ships were included.

If the Problem Solvers learned that the crystalized victims were in that coastal cave and that those people would eventually reawaken, they were sure to desperately search the world until they found them. They would smash up those crystals as many times as it took, mix the pieces in with tiles or bricks, spread those around the world, and make absolutely sure those people could never be resurrected.

He knew that.

He knew every bit of that.

And yet.

Despite the heat blazing in his mind, he also felt something terribly bitter building up in the pit of his stomach. As he continued to punch Elicia, he grew irrationally angry at her for not just dying already and for clinging so stubbornly to life.

Killing people was hard.

That should have been obvious, but it really was hard.

So how could they do it so easily?

“…”

The hand holding the bloody modified military flashlight dropped.

There were tears in the eyes of Elicia Luxverg’s misshapen face.

He may have been crying too as he sat atop her.

No matter how unfair those tears were to each other.

“Sacri-sama,” said Crystal Girl Aine with a composed expression. She was not warning him that the woman really would die if he kept this up. “If you are having trouble achieving your goal, wouldn’t it be fastest to use me? I can end it with a single strike of my blade.”

“Pant, pant!!”

His shoulders rose and fell as his mind finally focused on reality once more. The heat of rage did not go away, but he managed to question himself again. Would he kill her or not? Would he kill to give her a tiny taste of her own medicine? Would he stoop to her level here?

A tremor ran through his body.

For a moment – only a moment – Gekiha’s supposedly shattered face appeared in his mind’s eye.

“Dammit!!”

He threw the flashlight weapon to the floor and loudly clicked his tongue. While still sitting on her, he grabbed the collar of that Problem Solver who looked like a squashed red sack.

“I have questions.”

“P-pant, g-gasp.”

“Tell me about the other Problem Solvers! What can they do and what are their weaknesses!! Give me every last piece of even remotely useful information you have! Keep anything to yourself and I’ll kill you. I should really be doing that regardless. Got that!?”

Her face was too swollen to tell her eyes from her nose, but she still nodded repeatedly.

He wanted info on the other Problem Solvers: their hideouts, where they generally lived their lives, the kind of magic they used, and their weaknesses. Elicia’s dinosaur was magic, so it was a technique. It was nothing more than information that anyone could learn. That dinosaur was a fearsome enemy now, but it would help immensely to be able to use it themselves.

He had dealt with this now.

Or so he though. Right up until a beam of light stabbed into one of Elicia Luxverg’s temples and out the other.

A blinding light similar to welding exploded a moment later.

He blinked his eyes for a bit to deal with the burning pain in his eyes and then he realized the person he was holding by the collar had died. Her entire head was gone. There was not much blood because the top of the neck had been burned entirely black.

(Laser…sniping?)

“Marika!?”

“What, we were trying to kill her, weren’t we?”

He raised his head, but he could not turn toward the voice.

He had never heard such an icy voice.

“Let’s say we tied her up and dragged her back with us. Then what? We don’t know what she needs to summon that dinosaur, so we have no guarantee even if we take all her weapons and armor and even strip her naked. That surprise attack wouldn’t have worked again and we’d be helpless if she was ready for us. Killing her makes the most sense.”

“…”

Utagai Karuta shut his eyes just once and then relaxed his hands. The corpse plopped lifelessly to the floor. Nothing remained of her dignity as the strongest. She was meat. Nothing more than a hunk of meat.

“Are you upset?” asked Crystal Girl Aine while slowly tilting her head. Her long silver hair swayed as she gave him a curious look. “If you had just used me, she would not have stolen your kill.”

### Part 9

They returned to the RV they were using as a mobile base.

“Was I useful? I used the gas explosion to make sure everyone was evacuated, I cut standard power to the broadcast station, and I kept watch with my binoculars. That was a lot of work, but I’m pretty sure I kept anyone from being hit by the falling glass.”

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was waiting for them in her wheelchair.

She had blended into the background to provide logistical support, but she must have returned to the RV ahead of them. Also, the RV’s driver’s seat had been customized for her, so the gas and brake pedals could be operated with buttons on the steering wheel.

“Oh? You actually killed her, didn’t you?” was the first thing Kyouka said when they returned.

“…Yes.”

“But you don’t look very happy. Why aren’t you delighted we defeated one of the world’s strongest and took revenge for everyone?”

The boy looked up with his childhood friend and the crystal girl on either side of him.

Was he smiling or crying?

That avenger could no longer say for sure.

“I’m not sure myself.”

And he said more in his heart:

Sorry, Gekiha.

I don’t think we’re the kind of people who could appear in those action movies you dreamed of.

### Between the Lines 1

“Crystal Magic?”

Elicia Luxverg had been perplexed when she first heard that term.

Magic was the term for divine miracles performed by human hands, but this new version apparently did not require going to the gods themselves. A printed circuit board was hooked up to a unit known as a Crystal Blossom, a god’s name was sealed inside, and it was installed with a program based on that god’s legends and myths to “ride the supernatural currents” similar to someone reading the weather map before tilling their field or raising their ship’s sails.

Was that really possible?

And if it was, wasn’t it irreverent?

“It doesn’t bother me,” replied Elicia Luxverg’s shadow.

That was no metaphor. The outline of her shadow on the floor changed to create a shape very different from her own.

That was Vishnu, God of Change.

He was one of the primary Hindu gods alongside Brahma the Creator and Shiva the Destroyer. He was the preserver and one of his jobs was to take the form of ten different Avatars to resolve any problems that would disturb the public order.

Elicia’s dinosaur could be seen as a version of those Avatars created using Vishnu’s power to freely change forms.

“How can it not bother you? They are basically creating papier mache gods and drawing on your power without permission. It isn’t even an issue of good or evil. Can a real god like you really allow that to happen?”

“This isn’t about that.” Her shadow’s shoulders shook in amusement. “You cannot preserve the status quo simply by letting the flow of time take over. Standstills lead to the change known as stagnation. As a preserver god, I believe I understand just how difficult it is to preserve things. To be honest, I suspect the world has grown stagnant by the title of world’s strongest staying with you for so long.”

“…”

“So isn’t this a good opportunity to stir things up? This feels weird since I’m more or less praising the acts of that god of destruction and dance, but this should be a pretty good deal for you. Finding someone who will help you improve yourself is always a good thing.”

“There are already four other people with the title of world’s strongest.”

“You mean that group of five who have their hands tied because of a stalemate akin to nuclear strategy? When was the last time any of you fought each other?”

“What are you getting at here?”

“I am saying you cannot stop the world from changing, so you should position yourself to use that change as a tailwind. You five are so evenly matched you cannot hope for any more experience points there. Not as enemies or as allies.”

“I didn’t think you were the kind of god who gleefully sought out enemies.”

“Who says this new group has to be an enemy?” Her shadow laughed in amusement. “A formidable opponent can also be the kind of friend you can really open up to. That is what it means to find pleasant preservation.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“A friend, huh?”

### 047. Chapter 2

### Part X

A special G21 summit is being held here in London. The signs point toward the topic being countermeasures against the Threat that has shaken so many people’s lives, so there is reason to suspect the Problem Solvers have been summoned here for more than just summit security.

The Problem Solvers are very busy, but we have managed to get Miss Yukino Arakawa to spare some time to speak with us.

“I must apologize, but I cannot provide any of the gossip you are likely hoping for.”

Is there indeed a connection between the G21’s primary topic and the Problem Solver presence here?

“I am simply providing security for the summit, so I have not even been informed what that main topic is. Thus, I cannot answer that question.”

The five of you are like our guardian deities, but you are also a central pillar of global infrastructure. If conditions destabilize, would it hinder those services?

“There is nothing to worry about there. For one thing, I am not sure what you even mean by conditions destabilizing and what do we have to fear anyway? Everyone watching this footage continues to receive power to their homes and what greater symbol is there of a rock-solid system there? Everyone is under our protection. Do not forget how reassuring that is.”

So to be absolutely certain, you are saying the Threat is not approaching this city and there is no need to evacuate?

“That I can answer with a wholehearted yes. The appearance of the Threat can be predicted in advance, so if danger signs are detected, the information will be immediately released and evacuating all of you will take top priority. And even if a full evacuation is not possible, there is nothing to worry about while we are in the area. We will swiftly deal with the Threat and keep the damage to a minimum.”

But no information on your battles with the Threat has been released and some tabloids and online news sites have voiced concerns that your success rate at driving back the Threat is not as high as we are led to believe.

“Are you making intentionally provocative statements to see how we respond? Information on the Threat is not released because we do not want unnecessary fear and chaos to spread to safe regions. Also, our combat methods are meant for use against the Threat, so we do not want knowledge of them to spread and perhaps fall into the wrong hands. I imagine some of the people making a fuss about the information restrictions are more interested in us than in the Threat.”

Also, it has been noted that Miss Elicia is absent this time.

“No comment☆ Mystery is the spice of life. Plus, we are talking about me at the moment, are we not?”

### Part 1

A loud crash echoed through the RV.

Instead of switching off the TV, someone had thrown the remote and broke the LCD screen.

“Omotesandou-san.”

“Oh, dear. How thoughtless of me. Sorry if I made you jump. Hee hee hee.”

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka smiled in a way that showed she was not at all sorry about what she had done.

The weather forecast for the night had been way off.

Or rather, the weather forecast “during the solar eclipse”.

Utagai Karuta and Kyouka were alone in the RV. Amaashi Marika and Aine were out getting some food for them all. He doubted those two would screw anything up and they could probably force their way through any problems even if they did. Before the attack by the Problem Solvers, they had been Crystal Magicians preparing to battle the Threat that was indiscriminately erasing countries, regions, and cities around the world, so even with the bolstered security during the summit, the police would not be enough to restrain those two.

They were in London.

It would have been unbelievable before the introduction of Crystal Magic, but the new materials and technologies that had led to a ship as large as their school had also created passenger planes large enough for an RV to fit in the general cargo bay. Those colossal ferry planes were often compared to winged whales.

Of course, it was that large size that meant it took years to break them down by hand and led to the entire human race relying on Elicia’s dinosaur.

Those five were given free rein because no one wanted to question their comfortable lifestyle.

And Karuta had been the same right up until he had everything taken from him.

“So we’ve been living together for a week now. This is really dragging on, isn’t it?”

“Yes, I suppose.”

He was living with Marika, Kyouka, and Aine. This small space with no real partitions was filled with girls. He was focused on taking revenge on the world’s strongest, hiding the crystallized teachers and students in the tropical cave, and protecting them from the Problem Solvers, but without those exceedingly heavy topics, he would have been overwhelmed in a different way.

The Student Council President laughed quietly.

“Are you starting to see the real me through the cracks in the ideal vision you had of me? I just hope I haven’t disillusioned you.”

“I never really knew anything about you. You were too far beyond my reach.”

“My, my. I don’t like it when people build walls to separate us. I thought I had won the election with my promise to keep things casual and friendly with everyone.”

That might have worked in a normal school, but they had been learning Crystal Magic to fight the Threat which could entirely erase a metropolis of a million people overnight. The top of their hierarchy would be the future world’s strongest, so no one could just walk up and talk to them like it was nothing. Instead of being called a pervert and receiving a slap, the entire earth could be destroyed.

“Boo, boo,” said Kyouka while childishly puffing out her cheeks. “Ahh, ahh. I’d love to be friends with Karuta-kun and talk with him more, but how am I supposed to remove this imaginary wall between us?”

“What are you talking about now?”

“Perhaps we just need to get to know each other more intimately. Oh, I know. We could take a bath together.”

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

She laughed at the indescribable look on his face.

“I’m kidding.”

“I should hope so.”

“But I am feeling sweaty, so I’d like a shower. Karuta-kun, can you help me?”

“Wait, were you kidding or not!?”

That said, he had no choice but to help her here. The RV had been customized in a number of ways, but it was not entirely barrier free.

It was a high-grade vehicle with beds, a sofa, a stove, a fridge, a microwave, a washer, and a dryer, but the bath was not up to the standards a Japanese person was used to. To save space, it only had a shower contained in a stall no larger than a phonebooth. There was no actual tub.

After pushing her wheelchair over to the shower, it was time to get to work. He needed to place his hands on her back and behind her knees and lift her into the shower room. That princess style was not strictly necessary, but when he had lifted her over his shoulder like a sack of rice on the first day, she had refused to speak to him for about half a day. That was apparently also called bandit style.

“Heh heh. I got Karuta-kun to princess carry me.”

“…”

He tried to empty his mind so he did not focus on the softness and warmth in his hands or the scent of her hair while he gently placed her butt down on the small floor of the phonebooth-sized space. She was still wearing her uniform at this point, but he could not help her change. She was not like a certain idiot who was willing to sleep in the nude with only a single sheet covering her.

“Okay, Karuta-kun, bring me a change of clothes.”

“Sure, sure.”

“And if I scream, come rescue me. I will leave the door unlocked.”

“I really don’t think you can drown on the floor here.”

“Just do it.”

She shut the door that folded up to the side to save space. Digging through a girl’s possessions was embarrassing, but she had given him permission and she needed a change of clothes or she would be stuck in there naked.

(This one is her bag, right?)

Given the limited space of the RV, they each only had a single sports bag of personal possessions. Kyouka had a sexy and mature appearance, but her bag had a cute pastel color design.

The neatly underwear neatly folded up within came in a lot of surprisingly colorful varieties.

“…”

Clear your mind, clear your mind!! he told himself.

He moved aside the thick metal detachable disk drives at the top of the bag and reached for the items he needed.

(She wants something to sleep in, so that means a large dress shirt and underwear. Um, this should work. The top and bottom should have matching colors, right?)

“This is to sleep in, so I don’t need a bra.”

He jumped and looked back.

His upperclassman’s teasing voice reached him from the shower room.

“They’re big in a number of ways, so they make it hard to sleep in a number of ways.”

Her words were making him feel things in a number of ways, but the bigger problem was how the foldable door was sitting partially open. A hand stuck out from there and dropped a blazer, a blouse, a pleated skirt, and finally some stripped-off underwear.

“Wait, um, Omotesandou-san!?”

“I am about to take a shower. If I left them in here, they would get soaked.”

She was absolutely right, but she was also absolutely teasing him.

With some laughter a little too mature to call impish, her hand pulled back inside and the door pulled all the way shut. Finally, he heard the gentle sound of running water.

Utagai Karuta focused even harder on clearing his mind.

Ahh, ahh. That sexy Student Council President is in that phonebooth-sized shower room, her beautiful butt must be seated on the floor since she can’t stand up, and is she holding the shower hose in one hand to wash herself off? Is that warm water flowing down her hair and dripping down the contours of her body!? Is it, is it, is it!?

A minor big bang was occurring in his brain.

And then he heard her voice from beyond the foldable door.

“Kyah!”

“?”

“Kyah, Karuta-kuuun!”

“…”

“Hold on. Didn’t you promise to come save me if I screamed?”

“Yeah, but that was way too fake!!”

“Just get over-…hyahn!? (Thud!)”

“Huh? Omotesandou-san? What was that?”

“Bubble, bubble, bubble, gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.”

“Geh, are you for real!?”

She could not have stepped on the soap and slipped since she was seated, so had she sat her big butt on it and slipped that way? Talk about a miracle. He decided he wanted to be reborn as a bar of soap in the next life. However, life-threatening crises were not always some big dramatic thing. People could drown even in a puddle.

That was why he rushed over and reached for the shower room door.

“We’re back! We bought the brands of oil and powder you asked for. Everything’s a real mess with the collapse in the first-generation resource markets for iron and aluminum, though. And man, the food situation in England can only be described as yikes. I just about fainted checking out the supermarket.”

“It turns out London has a Japanese confection store. Their gold powder monaka was the best.”

The two girls returned with the best timing imaginable.

“Hee hee.”

And the wet-haired, mischievous, and laughing girl curled up on the bathroom floor was not helping matters.

The resultant chemical reaction was more explosive than a thermobaric weapon.

The record for the world’s most dangerous mixture was broken on that day.

### Part 2

It was 2PM in London.

However, the mysterious solar eclipse meant it was as dark as midnight.

“Hmph.”

“Now, I would like to get down to business.”

“You need to apologize first! Apologize for everything!!”

“What are you so upset about!? And what am I even apologizing for!? What did I do wrong in that situation!?”

Curly twintails Marika had been collapsed on the sofa bed for a while, but now she threw her hands in the air and shouted back at him.

“Ughh, ahhhh! You need to apologize for having such bad karma!!”

“This is getting awfully dark awfully fast! Besides, that Student Council President set me up!”

This may have been a lot like their noisy days back at the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy. Karuta himself sensed something nostalgic in this storm he was caught in.

But things had changed.

They now had a sexy eye of the storm.

“Oh, how could you, Karuta-kun? After everything we did while they were gone, you’re trying to place all the blame on the girl?”

“Hey, don’t blush and place your hands on your cheeks like that. Was a thermobaric weapon not enough for you?”

Karuta asked this of the Student Council President who was wearing the dress shirt she used as pajamas. Crystal Girl Aine was standing expressionlessly in a corner of the RV, but she was simply awaiting further orders. She must not have understood the danger here because she silently tilted her head.

Karuta got straight to the point as coldly as a bank teller just before closing time.

“Okay, okay, that’s enough of that! Let’s get back on topic!!”

“Hmph!”

“(Oh, dear. Yet she’s the one who sleeps in the nude. How hypocritical of her.)”

However, the Student Council President was mature enough to keep those personal thoughts to herself as she got down to business.

“Our top priority target this time is Yukino Arakawa.”

She used the projector to cover the wall with photos taken from news sites or online articles.

“Unlike Elicia and her dinosaur, this woman did not directly board the ship. That makes it hard to say anything for certain, but she is almost certainly the one who sank the escort ships with the light spears. I saw her giving instructions from the open cargo door of their tiltrotor craft and, while it is unconfirmed, she is well-known for ‘bringing an eclipse’ wherever she goes. So she is likely in London right now. Of course, we do not know what the Threat itself is, so who knows how reliable any of this information is,” added the wet-haired Student Council President. “Every member of the Problem Solvers is a monster, but Yukino’s light spear is one I want to get rid of as early as possible. Both because of how destructive it is and because of its wide range. We should assume she controls everything within the range of that unnatural eclipse. That means there is no real safe zone on the surface of the earth. If she knows where you are, you are dead. The longer this fight drags on, the more information on us will become available, so I want to take care of her before she can narrow things down too far.”

Take care of.

Get rid of.

In other words, they were going to kill her just like they did Elicia.

This was very different from their classes where they had planned to face the Threat but had no concrete image of what that would entail.

Karuta was having trouble deciding if he could call that “growth” or not.

“But what even is that light spear?” he asked as if to distract himself from that issue.

Curly twintails Marika waved a hand dismissively while still puffing out her cheeks.

“Who knows, but it looked like laser beams from the sky.”

“I doubt she is using bombers because the attack came from much higher. I imagine she has something in satellite orbit, but I cannot say much more than that.” The Student Council President placed a finger on her lips. “Still, we do know the Problem Solvers were in charge of defending that space elevator that was thought to be useless junk, so what if there is a connection there?”

“You mean it might be solar power generators or interception satellites?”

“I have heard some rumors,” began Omotesandou Kyouka with a sigh. “It was never completed, but there was something known as the Sunny Side Up Project. It was said to be history’s largest planetary expansion project.”

“A fried egg?” asked strawberry blonde Marika while frowning on the sofa bed.

“Only fried on one side if you want to get technical,” responded Crystal Girl Aine while still tilting her head.

Kyouka sighed softly before continuing.

“The identity of the Threat is unknown, but it is known it does not leave the atmosphere. This plan intended to bring the ordinary citizenry outside the atmosphere and transform the blue planet into nothing more than farmlands and a cage for the Threat. The base of the elevator is supposed to be quite sturdy, so the combat personnel and the maintenance team for the unmanned farms would have been stationed underground there. There were blueprints showing a network of station houses surrounding the planet in a sphere one size bigger, so it was apparently more about expanding the surface of the planet instead of traveling out into space. Hence why it was known as a planetary expansion project.”

“Ugh…”

When looking at a cross-section, was the earth seen as the yolk and the outer shell seen as the white?

If you were going to slice it apart, a boiled egg or Scotch egg seemed more accurate, but whoever named it had probably let their personal egg preference dictate the choice.

“Its primary material was supposed to be a solid foam that is harder and more heat-resistant than steel and can also swell out to fill a large space with only a small amount of the original material. The presentation said the living space and the farming zone would be kept entirely separate so human-made contaminants would not find their way back into nature…but it was a little over the top even for an endeavor meant to support 5.5 billion people. The earth’s rotation differs between latitudes, so it seems like their network would fall apart if they did not find some way to match their relative speeds.”

The earth was already surrounded.

Sunny Side Up played two roles.

First, it allowed environmental adjustments on a global scale. By efficiently increasing the amount of natural land, there would be more food for the human population “temporarily” living in satellite orbit.

“So the light spears use their immense heat to stir up the air and create winds and rainclouds.”

And second, it would eliminate the Threat lurking on the surface.

“And at the same time, they are a weapon meant to literally shoot down the Threat?” asked Karuta.

Kyouka nodded.

He looked awed but also exasperated by the large scale of it all.

“Even if one shot is not enough, they must have thought they could wear the Threat down by continually firing from outside the atmosphere. Or maybe it was only meant to distract the Threat if it got too close to the farmlands. It is unclear how permanently it was meant to ‘eliminate’ the Threat.”

But it was more than enough when used against human beings.

Karuta and the others had learned all too well how powerful it was when it sunk those escort ships one after another.

“Since it has not been demolished, I imagine it is benefiting the world through its production facilities and power generation. Even without a largescale microwave or laser power transmission system, that remnant of an older age may still be in use to transfer the power.”

“The space elevator.”

“If it can carry a payload to the ‘outer shell’ for less than 1% the cost of using a rocket or shuttle, then it could be used to transfer batteries the size of cargo containers back and forth. That could provide just enough of a reason to not demolish that elevator. Yukino’s strength in the global business world is said to be in Eurasia, but everything from Europe to China is a little much, don’t you think? She would need some kind of product that can cover half the planet.”

It was meant to be a warning for the Threat and to save the entire world.

But who was it that had converted it into no more than a rusty old tower?

Did the blame lie with Crystal Magicians like Karuta whose methods turned out to be cheaper?

“The eclipse might not be the result of some massive object appearing overhead. It could be the sky was already covered and the holes of the ‘net’ close up when Yukino prepares for combat.” The Student Council President tapped her wheelchair’s armrest with a finger. “Of course, chemistry and physics are not enough to explain a system like this. Like I said, the earth’s gravity and rotation would tear it apart if they do not match the relative speed of the entire network, but constantly using thrusters to preserve that would drain all the energy they had hoped to generate. That means God-Worshiping Magic must play a role. I believe Yukino’s specialty is the Celtic light god Lugh. He is a war god also known as ‘the god of the long arm’. Yes, that would be perfect for energy production and projectile attacks.”

If the connection between the space elevator and the Problem Solvers was closer than officially recognized, then they might not have been pleased with the Crystal Magicians who rejoiced at the elevator’s failure. (Mostly because Crystal Magic only worked on the surface, so moving onto that “outer shell” would be a problem for them.)

But more than that, the Problem Solvers used the God-Worshipping Magic of the previous era instead of Crystal Magic. Had the rise of Crystal Blossoms looked like a threat to them?

(No, there are too many unanswered questions about them.)

“Anyway, that was very bold of you, Karuta-kun,” began Kyouka with a sigh. “One of the Problem Solvers is gone. The world might not want to accept it, but the other four will know. And then you send them an anonymous message.”

She operated the projector to display the message in question.

Marika spoke up in a mixture of exasperation and awe.

“ ‘One of you is gone now, but I happen to know where you can find someone even stronger than Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg. I would like to meet you for an interview, so what would be a convenient date?’ ” Once the curly twintails girl finished reading it aloud, she put on a mischievous smile. “You could take that as letter of responsibility, you know? You are aware of Elicia’s death despite it being covered up, you say you know where to find someone even stronger, and then you say you want to meet them.”

“But they can’t ignore it, can they?” bluntly asked Karuta. “They know Elicia is dead, but they won’t know who did it. They won’t want someone like that to slip away and disappear. It doesn’t matter to them if the author of the letter is that person or not. They just want to crush anyone it might be. And they just have to keep it up until the problem has stopped.”

Crystal Girl Aine kept her head tilted throughout and she spoke while her silver hair shook.

“So they will rush in despite knowing it is a trap?”

“It may be more accurate to say we’re getting them to set up a trap and wait for us,” spat out Karuta. “The Problem Solvers are international society’s most prized possessions, so they have to be held in reserve. We are pursuing them as much as they are pursuing us. We can’t let them go into hiding. Our top priority is Yukino Arakawa. That is the bare minimum here. We have to take her out first, but then we need to take out as many other Problem Solvers as we can while we’re at it. After all, we know they’ve all been summoned to London for the G21 summit.”

They would take out the Problem Solvers.

He could say it so easily, but only because they had already done it once with Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg. He knew they could be defeated. Proving that did wonders on the psychological front.

And with that in mind, he ran right into the problem he had been trying not to think about.

Yes.

“Okay, then that’s our next target,” said Marika.

“Yukino Arakawa,” said Kyouka. “This sounds like a worthy challenge. I have no complaints about holding a fight to the death against her.”

Karuta could not immediately say the same.

A bitter feeling had been building up in his gut throughout the planning, but Aine spoke to him while standing in a corner of the RV.

“Do not worry, Sacri-sama.”

“About what?”

“No one will steal your kill this time. Let’s make sure we kill her ourselves.”

If she was not shaped like a cute girl, he might have punched her on reflex.

### Part 3

London was flooded with garbage and experiencing an eclipse.

The city managed an odd harmony between the asphalt roads and old-fashioned brick apartments, but piles of trash bags filled the sidewalks and even spilled out into the streets. Those piles were as tall as people. It might look like a boycott or strike by the sanitation workers, but it was not.

This was due to Elicia’s defeat.

While she had been in charge of garbage disposal, she did not actually deal with the household trash for 5.5 billion people. She had primarily dealt with breaking down large passenger planes and tankers, but with that role no longer being fulfilled, someone had to pick up the slack. Just as a small slowdown could lead to a long traffic jam, the pressure gradually spread and finally rose to the surface like this.

But no one was openly complaining about it.

They had bigger issues to worry about.

That city of fog was on high alert.

A curfew had not been put in place, but checkpoints had been set up while police cars and armored vehicles made irregular patrols. Helicopters equipped with floodlights were flying through the false night sky and patrol boats were navigating the rivers. The people who just wanted to grab a pint at their usual pub before staggering back home would sober up quick after being assaulted by a storm of police questioning.

A cheerful voice spoke from the disaster radio on the edge of a flower bed. It may have been left there by a homeless person driven away by the police.

“It seems the rising trend for Coronel Pharmaceutical stock is related to the global delays in garbage disposal.”

“Well, if unsanitary conditions lead to an outbreak of disease, sales of disinfectant and antibiotics are bound to rise. Also, Coronel has recently purchased a promising startup to enter the insecticide field, so they must expect a rise in the anti-fly and anti-roach markets as well.”

“Finding a way to benefit from anything is a human strength, isn’t it? Now, all the investors have already noted these things, so it is unlikely buying any shares at this point will amount to much. So what brand will be rising next? Could it be Gaia Agriculture who are receiving a flood of orders for home compost kits?”

“Stain Breweries might not be a bad guess. I bet a lot of people will want a drink after seeing the garbage flooding their city. Ha ha ha.”

In one such city, Karuta and Marika exchanged some quick words after stepping out of the RV.

“Okay, let’s do this as planned.”

“Got it.”

They set off in different directions. Also, Marika was not flying. She ran along the ground because taking flight and gathering attention would be an excellent way of getting herself shot down by one of those enormous light spears.

London’s streetlights kept things plenty bright despite the eclipse, although things were far from cheerful given the high alert. That was probably thanks to Yukino Arakawa herself. She provided power for the world, which allowed the pre-existing power stations to supply electricity for government supercomputers and particle accelerators that were making good progress on developing new drugs for incurable diseases.

And yet she had killed so many people like they were garbage.

It would make true philanthropists cry.

Karuta avoided those streetlights that felt like symbols of condescending charity and walked down a dark and deserted sidewalk while lightly touching the modified military flashlight in his blazer pocket. He muttered something under his breath while confirming its presence.

“Power up.”

The back of his blazer swelled out and the mysterious crystal girl named Aine emerged. She had silver hair, white clothing, a crystal sword, and a laser gun on the short end of the sword’s jitte-like branch. She gently held the weapon in her hand while quietly awaiting orders.

Karuta focused on the flower petals at his chest that would replenish themselves after scattering.

“You too, Aine. We’re heading different ways from here on.”

“…”

The pale girl’s cheeks puffed out a bit from within.

She may not have liked that idea.

“It’s about efficiency. I explained why this is the most effective plan, didn’t I?”

“Understood. Take care, Sacri-sama.”

“Do you really have to call me that?”

Neither of them sounded particularly happy with what the other said, but they still split up without any further words.

(London, hm?)

British food is bad.

Back at the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy, he had wondered if that commonly-held belief was really true, so he had snuck into the cafeteria kitchen and attempted a cooking experiment with the help of an exchange student from London. The result had been so-so and he had ended up with some indigestion, but since the exchange student himself had tilted his head when eating it, something of Karuta’s Japanese cooking may have wound up in those fish and chips. The truth of the matter remained a mystery to him.

That exchange student was no more.

Everyone there had been transformed into broken crystal statues.

“…”

He threw out his sentimentality and focused on the cold world of vengeance once more.

Their plan this time was simple.

“The Problem Solvers act as a kind of symbol, so they cannot leave their posts during the G21 summit. If they are seen running around, it will be reported as something being terribly wrong.”

A transmission that used no electricity reached his ears.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was speaking to him through the vibrations of his Crystal Blossom that was controlled by a printed circuit board smaller than a stamp.

“Yukino Arakawa is in the Palace of Westminster. That’s the national parliament building that is best known for its clocktower. It is nearly 10km from the RV as the bird flies. Sorry, but there was no getting any closer with all the checkpoints.”

“We’ll manage,” he replied. “Besides, it’s the light spears that worry me.”

“Really, isn’t a hit from that going to vaporize us no matter what?” cut in Marika. “And it moves at the speed of light, so you can’t dodge it after seeing it coming.”

“That is not necessarily true if you reach Regulation 3,” said the Student Council President in a joking way. “I don’t think we need to discuss Yukino’s God-Worshiping Magic. It is not worth thinking about. The average Crystal Blossom cannot stop something like that.”

“Then we just have to make sure she doesn’t fire it.”

“Well done, Karuta-kun. Yes, even if she has satellite weapons that can target any part of the world, how is she aiming them? She only ever fires on a single point. If we don’t let the impact of it all distract us, we might just be able to find a way through it.”

Karuta considered that point while staying in the shadows cast by the piles of trash taller than he was.

Targeting that school in the ocean would have been easy. Even the escort ships had been plenty large. Targeting by eye was simple enough on the empty ocean, but things would not be so simple in a labyrinthine metropolis like this.

Also, the Problem Solvers worked for the government and were seen to represent justice, so they would not have to rely on illegal things like bugs or spy cameras. They could use all of the official security measures to monitor the ordinary people.

“A lot of effort went into London’s counterterrorism infrastructure, so they have more than 5 million stationary security cameras, don’t they?” he asked.

“You can also add phones, intercoms, drive recorders, and countless other devices to the list,” added Kyouka. “The total number of lenses might be greater than 10 million.”

“Are you saying Yukino Arakawa is using that to aim?” asked Marika. “But…”

“That’s right, Marika. The data from that many cameras is far too much to manage with nothing but manpower. We just have to hope we aren’t caught by the program made to automatically detect suspicious people.”

That was why Karuta was intentionally choosing the shadows that were made all the deeper by the brightness of the streetlights.

London was a crime-prevention city with more than 5 million security cameras alone, but the plan felt accelerated and rushed. They must have had to acquire the requested number of cameras in a hurry and within a limited budget because each individual one was of poor quality. And cheap cameras had trouble with light contrast. When they automatically adjusted for the bright areas, the shadows would be entirely blotted out.

People could be identified with facial recognition, color charts, skeletal structure, and walking pattern these days, but none of that mattered when the original data was wiped out.

Also, the piles of trash bags rose up like walls in places not accounted for in the initial crime-prevention plan, so they would physically block the cameras’ view at times.

“But Yukino controls all the stuff in satellite orbit, doesn’t she?” asked Marika. “Can’t she look down at us from there?”

“She can, but satellite photos can’t use facial recognition as long as we don’t look up into the night sky,” said Karuta. “And we can intentionally alter our walking pattern. Night images end up grainy when the brightness is enhanced and thermo images only show the silhouette. That means she can tell someone is there, but not who.”

“?”

“Hee hee hee. Marika-san, London is a city of 8 million,” said Kyouka. “Include the tourists and commuters and that number passes 13 million. They might be on high alert, but there is no curfew in place and a lot of people are going to want to head out just to get videos or social media content. She can’t exactly vaporize someone just because they seem suspicious.”

“After all, London has more than 10 million lenses,” repeated Karuta.

There had been no witnesses other than her targets during the attack on the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy. It had essentially been the most wide-open closed room possible, so she had been allowed to use as much power as she liked.

But things were different here.

The Problem Solvers were the world’s strongest. That system and service that protected and glorified them would bind Yukino Arakawa here.

“But, Sacri-sama.”

Karuta received a transmission from Aine while a dark flame burned in the pit of his stomach.

“These are all assumptions and you do not know anything for certain.”

“…”

It was possible she had some unknown surveillance system that had already revealed their location to her.

Or she might lose her cool and fire her light spears on the city of London.

After thinking for a moment and slowly letting out a breath, Utagai Karuta responded.

“That is why we split up before starting toward the Palace of Westminster.”

If one of them was arrested or reduced to ashes, another could reach Yukino.

Once they were close enough to her, her absurdly powerful attack would hit her as well, so she could no longer use it.

That was their plan.

That was their choice.

The more he thought about it, the dizzier he felt. He made a point of regulating his breathing while he passed a group of walking police officers and some police cars. Since all he had in his pocket was a flashlight, he was not in any danger if they did stop him, but he still did not want any information to reach Yukino at the top.

While he just barely slipped past both the mechanical lenses and the human eyes, a voice informed him that something was not right.

“Hold on a second. This is odd. What’s going on?”

“Omotesandou-san?”

He spoke up in confusion, but he noticed it too before long.

It reached his ears, or maybe his skin.

A strange tension filled him like a weak electric current coursing through the surface of his body. It was like a premonition of a coming explosion. The police must have received word of something via radio because they grew much more active.

“Hey, you there!!”

“Kh. …Yes?”

A deep voice called out to him and one of the police shined a flashlight on him.

He narrowed his eyes and covered his face with a hand to protect his eyes while the middle-aged officer jogged over.

An unpleasant pressure bore down on him and he gradually lost control of his pulse.

But the police officer let out a breath and said something he did not expect.

“Are you a resident? Or are you a traveler? Either way, you should find a building to get inside!”

“Um?”

“It’s starting,” said the police officer with tense sweat on his face. “A riot is starting.”

### Part 4

The Palace of Westminster was the national parliament building symbolized by its giant clocktower. It was blocked off by even more barricades and armored vehicles than the rest of London during the high alert.

An Asian woman with short black hair sat on the rooftop.

She wore a nun’s habit…expect the slits in the skirt were too risqué and she was not wearing a cross anywhere on her person. She was also holding a metal staff taller than she was. She had a tall but slender build and her closed eyes gave her a somehow calm air.

Her name was Yukino Arakawa.

She was the Problem Solver who used the optical bombing known as a light spear.

This job should have been a simple one.

The death of Elicia Luxverg, AKA Saurus, had been a painful blow. They had also learned that the assassin was here in London. But the city was on high alert, so if anyone did anything suspicious, the network of police would immediately restrain them and she could drop a light spear there. They would have no chance to dodge or defend before they were vaporized along with a few police officers.

Yes.

If she received an alert or two, she could have dealt with this so easily!

“We demand all of the governments and the Problem Solvers release what information they have on the Threat!!”

“You have a duty to explain what happened to the missing countries, regions, and cities!!”

“How can we sleep knowing that could be us tomorrow!? I have a kid at home!!”

(Why must they all do this!?)

As that deluge of voices reached her like a distant rumbling, Yukino softly clenched her teeth behind her calm expression.

Her earphones played the voices of requests from police officers who did not properly understand the situation.

They were not asking for help from the power of the Problem Solvers.

“Problem Solvers, do not move from your current positions!”

“We must make sure the G21 summit comes to a close with the best possible security in place, so we lose if you move from your posts.”

“Don’t use tear gas! Bring out the water trucks! Bloody hell, why don’t any of the shops have their shutters down!?”

If her trap was not functioning, she was effectively in the jungle with a ferocious beast.

The safest option would be to leave this place and go into hiding, but the police would not let her. They insisted she stay put and get attacked.

She was seething inside, but then someone else contacted her.

It was a fellow Problem Solver.

“Kah kah kah. Don’t get so upset. And you call yourself one of the great Problem Solvers?”

“…”

“Besides, the police don’t know what’s going on. Not even that Elicia kicked the bucket. Of course they’re going to take a laxer view of things.”

“I am aware of that.”

“The media has a strong presence here and there are also a lot of amateur video obsessives who think they’re part of the media. Keep grimacing and you’ll lose all that pretentious vanity you love so much.”

Yukino thought for a moment.

The Problem Solvers preserved global order. If they were shaken, it would cause unnecessary chaos in countries and cities around the world. That was why their external image was so important, but that was also why they could not afford to be wounded in any noticeable way.

Even if it was only a scratch achieved through some kind of nightmarish beginner’s luck.

After completing the necessary calculations in her head, she slowly stood up from the roof.

“Then there is something I can do about it,” she said to her colleague. “I beseech thee, Lugh, Celtic God of Light.”

“Hold on, you aren’t doing that in London, are you? I know I’m not one to talk, but you can’t exactly ‘hold back’ with your weapon. You should let one of the others deal with this or it’ll just be a slaughter.”

“If necessary, I can have Anastasia take care of it.”

“Are you for real?” The person on the line sounded half shocked and half amused. “You really plan on crushing London, a city of 8 million? And in the middle of a G21 summit at that?”

The nun with large slits in her habit raised her staff as she responded.

She did not hesitate to give this answer.

“If necessary.”

### Part 5

Utagai Karuta was curled up on a corner of the sidewalk with his back to the road.

The police were no longer here. They had probably withdrawn to the barricade. The sidewalk and road were both filled with men and women. It was like a flood of human flesh. They carried makeshift torches made by wrapping bandages or old rags around metal bats and lighting them and they shouted angrily as they smashed the windshields of cars parked on the road and of store windows that did not have their shutters down.

(Elicia managed the world’s garbage disposal facilities, so her defeat has apparently drastically reduced the price of first-generation resources like iron and aluminum that used to be as valuable as gold or platinum. So did they lose their jobs or something?)

That was Karuta’s analysis, but he was wrong.

This is what they were shouting:

“How are we supposed to get over our fear when we don’t know what the Threat even is!?”

“The government is only keeping it a secret to spread fear and confusion so they can increase the defense budget. You’re making a mockery of our tax money!!”

“Release the information! The real information!! We have a right to know!!”

Youths were setting fire to the piles of trash bags and entering the buildings through broken windows. Cash registers were thrown out onto the streets and boxy ATMs were dragged out and pried open with crowbars. Sweat, perfume, smoke, rotting garbage, and what was that? Many different smells mixed together and raw anger blotted out all else.

Karuta contacted Marika and Kyouka in annoyance.

“They claim to want information on the Threat, but I think they’re mostly here for the looting or to blow off some steam. Maybe a tenth of the people here seem to be protesting out of legitimate outrage. I bet a lot of people had their savings go down the drain after Elicia’s defeat. Omotesandou-san, was there no sign of this coming!?”

“In hindsight, there was. The Problem Solvers will never announce that one of them was defeated, not even to the ordinary police officers. Because it would damage their reputation as the strongest. I thought security was oddly strict, but I guess there were some suspicious activities besides our own.”

“There are a ton of people here too,” said Marika. “I’m just thankful they still haven’t reached the point of dragging people out and beating them up.”

“Marika, you’re a girl, so watch yourself among all those rioters.”

“Oh, you’re worried about me? …Kyah!?”

“Marika!”

“Just kidding. Ah ha ha!”

She was laughing innocently, but his heart had skipped a beat. He doubted any of these people would know they were responsible, but if they really had lost their savings due to the collapse in the iron and aluminum markets, then they might want to attack Karuta’s group for causing that. Sweat soaked his brow while his carefree curled twintails childhood friend whispered in a conspiratorial tone.

“But doesn’t this seem like the perfect opportunity? The rioters are taking out all the cameras with their bats and spray paint. With the usual surveillance network not working, we might be able to get close to the Palace of Westminster where that Problem Solver waits.”

“I doubt it will be that simple.”

Karuta was still concerned, so Marika argued her case.

“It would damage the G21’s reputation if they called off their international summit over some simple rioting, so they’ll stay there and so will the Problem Solvers guarding them. Yukino can’t escape right now. See, it’s the perfect opportunity.”

“…”

He too had considered it in a corner of his mind.

Could they take a shortcut while the police and the surveillance network were focused on the rioters? Or could they guide the rioters toward the Palace of Westminster? He was sick of this cheap idea of justice that was more of an excuse than anything. Almost everyone he knew had been crystallized and shattered before his eyes and his body seemed to burn with a desire for vengeance, so he found that kind of justice was more distasteful than wax food samples.

But could they really control it?

And what would happen if they could not?

“We have to do it,” said Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka. “Our feelings about this are too strong to restrain just because we ran into some unexpected trouble, right?”

“Right.”

He slowly exhaled and stood up from his curled-up position. He was unsure if he should follow or fight the flow of rioters, but he decided to take a different route to the Palace of Westminster while the police were focused on those rioters. Of course, he was using them either way.

With that thought, he nonchalantly slipped off of the frenzied major road and into a small alleyway.

That was when it happened.

A light spear fell from the sky.

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

He had no idea what this meant.

It had hit on the next major road over, a mere 20m away from him.

It was more sudden than a lightning strike and brighter than a spotlight.

A cascade of people filled the sidewalks and street there and one section of them was mercilessly vaporized. Human bodies were instantly converted into a spray that splattered over the surrounding road, walls, and survivors, creating a living hell of intense heat and pain as if boiling water had been thrown around.

This attack had been powerful enough to split the school’s escort ships in two.

A diameter of ten meters was torn away and the twenty meters around that was covered in a scorching hell. The unbelievable heat melted the asphalt and the stone walls of the centuries-old buildings glowed red like an oven.

Screams erupted from all around.

The many garbage bags flew through the air like popping popcorn and the heat robbed them of their shape as bags before they hit the ground. Crushed candy boxes and toilet paper tubes burned as they spread out through the air. So many trailing light sources fell on the city like the burning arrows pouring down upon a besieged castle.

No one would have known what happened and would not have known where to run. It devolved into a panicked shoving match that caused a dominos-like chain reaction spreading out from the landing points.

“What…?”

Karuta dizzily pressed his back against the alley wall.

“What in the hell!?” he roared before his confused mind finally remembered how to feel pain.

His entire body was covered by an itching pain as if he were being pricked by thousands upon thousands of needles.

He looked down to see his clothing was unnaturally swelling out from within. He touched his face to find it felt oddly rough. Was that a problem with his cheeks or with his fingertips? Whatever the case, his entire body had been injured and the crystallization was healing him. This had broken right through his weakened preset barrier.

If something else hit him now, it was all over.

If his body parts were torn away along with the healing crystals, he would lose them forever.

He would lose any chance at recovering.

“Pant, pant!!”

He lost control of his breathing at the thought.

And during that hellishly-long 30 seconds, it happened again.

The night was swept away.

The attack lasted ten full seconds, but it was further away this time. He could take a more objective view of how strange that light and heat was. It was like viewing the sun stretched out like a sugar sculpture.

“I saw it too!” said Marika with a fair bit of panic in her voice. “Yukino is using her light spears on London!! All to silence the rioters!!”

“The rioters are bringing down their defenses and preventing her from locating her real targets: us,” said Kyouka. “She must intend to annihilate them along with us if they insist on getting in her way.”

The crystal fragments fell from Karuta’s body with a dry cracking sound.

His limbs and face were fine.

They were all healed up.

“But how…how can she get away with this? This is the site of the G21 summit, so there’s a ton of reporters around! Not to mention the normal people can take videos with their phones and upload them! Is Yukino Arakawa committing social suicide for this!?”

“She may be playing the villain.” He was not sure what the Student Council President meant by that. “And since the Problem Solvers regularly battle the Threat, they can just say London was annihilated in an attack by the Threat. They can claim to have done their best to rescue the people of London but ultimately failed to save everyone.”

“But…but that’s absurd…”

“She can get away with it. Remember that no one knows what the Threat is or any details about the God Worshiping Magic used by the Problem Solvers. People are only aware of the end result: cities and countries erased overnight. So in the worst case, can’t they just lie about who was firing those light spears?”

“…”

He was truly speechless.

What did this mean? Did it not matter at all to Yukino Arakawa if there were witnesses of her committing mass murder? Could she escape all responsibility by calmly saying the Threat did it, she had nothing to do with it, and it was a shame what happened to London? How convenient a world did those strongests live in!?

“Sacri-sama, this could be an opportunity.”

“?”

“Yukino attacking the rioters is proof that she does not know where we are. That means we can safely approach the Palace of Westminster and catch her off guard.”

“But!!”

“Nothing else we do can stop her from firing those light spears. If your goal is to reduce the total number of deaths, then I recommend taking the shortest route to defeating Yukino.”

Even now, the world was intermittently switching between night and day.

The heat would last anywhere from a few seconds to a few dozen seconds, so how many lives were being lost each time?

He clenched his teeth so hard he thought they would break.

But he could not come up with anything cleverer than Aine’s cold answer.

“Dammit!!”

He pressed his back against a wall near the alleyway entrance and scratched at his bangs with a hand. He started to turn away from the main road filled with screams of fear and anger.

But he stopped.

A lot of people had fallen in that pandemonium of light, heat, and shoving, so the survivors were desperately trying to remain in that category by crawling below or climbing over the others.

He saw someone there among the rioters who had been demanding information on the Threat be released.

A small girl was sitting on the ground with a handmade sign. She must have come here with a parent or older sibling.

Utagai Karuta had crossed those piles of shattered crystal statues. While the other students wearing the same uniform had fallen, he had pathetically crawled behind those statues to escape the dinosaur. This was not his first time doing this, so he should have been able to do it again no matter how painful it was.

Except he had seen the messy writing painted on that handmade sign: “Tell us what happened to my big brother and the others at Grimnoah!”

He slammed his forehead against the alleyway wall.

His barrier meant he felt almost no pain, but memories of the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy returned vividly to his mind.

He could taste the fish and chips he had made late at night in the kitchen with some help from an exchange student in order to learn if British food was as bad as they said.

He could not do it.

He had hit his limit.

“Aine. And Marika too. Change of plans.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama. What should I do?”

“You two take the shortest route to defeat Yukino Arakawa. Stop her from firing those light spears as soon as possible to keep the damage to a minimum.”

“I’ll do that, but what about you?” asked Marika.

“I…”

He pulled the modified military flashlight from his blazer pocket and took a deep breath.

“I will draw her attention. Yukino has completely snapped, but if she knows where her target is, she won’t have a reason to indiscriminately attack the rioters. If I keep her focused on me, fewer of the ordinary people will die, so I’ll approach her in as noticeable a way as I can manage!”

“Sacri-…”

“This isn’t a debate, Aine. Just do it!!”

That last command was not just directed at the others.

And there was one other thing he had to do before he got started.

“Hey!”

He shouted from the entrance of the alleyway and the girl’s shoulders jumped. He did not care if he scared her and he did not need her trust, so he simply told her what she needed to do.

“Get inside immediately! Any sturdy building will do!!”

It looked more like she was running from him in fear than heeding his warning. She made sure to take the sign with her as she frantically stood up and ran toward a shop made of stone and metal.

She would be safer there than in the open outdoors.

But their fate still counted on what Karuta himself would do next.

He would not let them be targeted. No matter what.

(Okay.)

He once more turned away from the main road and ran further into the back alley. However, he was not abandoning the people who had come here to protest. Quite the opposite. If he was going to draw the attacks toward himself, he needed to stay away from them. Getting them caught in the attack too would be meaningless.

Gathering Yukino Arakawa’s attention from a distance was easy.

She was using the city’s security network to search for her target’s location.

Which meant…

(I just have to start taking out every camera I come across!!)

He reached into one of the scattered garbage bags and pulled out a half-full drink bottle that’s contents had turned to sludge. Then he only had to splatter that across the lenses peering down at him. While he did that three or four times, he felt a great pressure bearing down on his stomach.

The oddity would be reported immediately and an area with the security down would likely be seen as dangerous.

Focus would shift from that horrific main road to this back alley.

(I’m just getting started!!)

### Part 6

“Oh?”

In her nun’s habit given large slits in the sides, Yukino Arakawa smiled in amusement on the building rooftop.

Her smartphone’s screen displayed a warning.

Cameras in one area were being destroyed one after another. She doubted this was just the rioters doing it on a whim. The spread of the damage was too quick for that, so it felt a lot more like someone was specifically targeting her “eyes”.

So…

(Could you not bear it any longer? In that case, killing some more civilians to rub it in your face might be amusing.)

She considered that detour, but decided to focus on her main target.

She raised the staff in her other hand and sent a command up to satellite orbit.

“Now, let’s brighten this dark screen with a light spear.”

### Part 7

A blinding light spear crashed down from the heavens.

“Gwaaaaaaaaaaahh!?”

Karuta had known there would only be a few seconds of lag between taking out the cameras in an area and Yukino finding it suspicion, so he took off running to put as much space between himself and that location as he could. Nevertheless, something like a blazing wind slammed into his body. He had escaped a direct hit, but the fearsome heat had expanded the air and formed an invisible wall.

The blow to his back shattered his barrier.

He rolled along the filthy alley.

Strange cracking sounds continued on and on as crystals covered most of his body. The thirty second countdown began. Another attack before then and it was all over. The healing process would be stopped, everything would be torn from his body, and he would die. That was plainly obvious to him.

“Pant, pant!!”

He checked behind him from the ground and saw both walls of the alley were orange and melted. The piles of trash had become pillars of fire reminiscent of giant fir trees burning down in a forest fire. The alley surface had melted like a sugar sculpture and it had collapsed down to create a large hole. That may have connected to the sewer or the subway.

“Kh.”

He slowly got to his feet.

He scattered crystal fragments across the ground as the healing completed.

He resumed running.

They had feared Yukino could search for them using thermo images taken by a satellite, but he was starting to think that was not a concern. The heat here was so high that the entire area would be blotted out with white. She could not use that to see if her target had survived.

(I only have to focus on the surface cameras.)

He clenched his teeth while taking out a few more security camera lenses with a drink or a spray can to draw the light spears toward him. He once more felt a sunburn-like pain in his skin.

The slight lag was working out for him, but the more cameras he took out, the more data she would have to predict his route. If her prediction was accurate enough and she fired where she expected him to be, he was done for. He would be vaporized before he could even feel the pain.

“Ha ha.”

He was running around and barely avoiding death, but for some reason, there was a smile on his face.

He had no idea what it was he wanted to do, but he felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders for the first time in a while.

“Ha ha ha ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

He had attended Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah.

He had learned Crystal Magic that used a Crystal Blossom via a printed circuit board smaller than a stamp.

He had trained to combat the Threat that put the world in danger.

In the end, what had he really wanted to do?

He no longer had that right. His days at that school and the future he had envisioned for himself had been stolen by the Problem Solvers and his group had sullied it themselves when they used Crystal Magic against Elicia after she had already surrendered. But the remnants of that dream had remained there somewhere in his heart.

However, that thought was interrupted.

Even if he outsmarted them and protected the civilians, the great evil of the Problem Solvers was still out there. And one part of that evil, the demon named Yukino Arakawa, was making her next move.

The night sky shined bright.

He knew this had to be another light spear, but instead of cowering in fear like an animal, he used his rational mind to send himself running even a step further before it hit.

But something unexpected happened.

“…?”

The light did not gather together.

The brightness in the night sky endlessly expanded instead of taking the form of a spear.

A chill ran down his spine.

It almost looked like a giant suspended ceiling of fiery heat dropping down to crush the city of London!

### Part 8

Blinding light erupted out.

It covered a diameter of more than 10km directed north from the center of London. The light and heat were so great it seemed to swallow up the entire city there.

Yukino Arakawa laughed on the rooftop just outside of its range.

Her short black hair blew in the night wind and she spoke with staff in hand.

“Scattershot mode.”

### Part 9

Night turned to day. No, it was more like a video that turned out entirely white because the exposure was set wrong.

A sunburn-like pain covered Karuta’s entire body. And it did not end there. The pain increased endlessly. He knew he could not stay here, so he slipped below a car parked on the curb.

His fingers were moving oddly.

Pointy crystals stuck out from all over his body like distorted scales.

(What’s happening now!?)

The attack continued for more than thirty seconds before night returned. He clenched his teeth at the pain, waited for the healing to complete, and checked on things outside. After a thirty second interval, white light filled the world once more.

“Kyah!?” screamed Marika.

“We did not see this phenomenon before,” said Aine.

“But we can survive brief exposure to this,” he said. “Can she switch between a focused and wide-angle version? Or…”

The next attack came, but when he took a closer look, he realized the blinding light did not fill the entire space.

It was more like a polka dot pattern or a mesh.

Countless light spears were piercing the city of London at a set interval. There were tens, hundreds, or even thousands of them and the space between that mesh of attacks was roasted by the residual heat. It was like how a grill efficiently heated food.

“Is this a scattershot!? She doesn’t just have the one satellite weapon. How many weapons are staring down at the planet!?”

“Sacri-sama, the light spears appear to be firing on the same coordinates each time. She likely scanned London’s terrain and calculated the optimal layout for evenly cooking everything with the radiant heat.”

“Thousands of attacks she can fire simultaneously with the added bonus of roasting an entire city if she scans the terrain?” said Marika. “I see. I suppose you would need something like that to count as one of the world’s strongest.”

“But, Marika, as convenient as this is, it isn’t immediately effective. She must be waiting for me to screw up, which means she’s lost track of me.”

“Argh, maybe it would be easier to travel along the subway tracks.”

“Sacri-sama, this much damage is within acceptable bounds for me. I can continue as is.”

“Pretend it’s hurting you. You’ll stick out like a sore thumb otherwise.”

He crawled out from below the car in between shots.

He had not expected this at all back then, so it was pure luck that he had told that girl to escape indoors.

And he had learned something. The attacks and the pause between attacks both lasted about thirty seconds. Once he knew that, this scattershot mode was no threat. By running into a boxy smoking area or a building with its windows smashed by the rioters, he could take shelter while making his way toward the Palace of Westminster. When he ran across a rioter writhing on the ground, he did his best to shove them underneath a nearby car.

“I’m not…”

He gasped for breath and felt sweat unpleasantly soaking his body, but there was a thin smile on his face.

“I’m not afraid of you anymore, Yukino Arakawa.”

The hunter ran through the dark city of London which had been transformed into a fiery hell.

He was drawing ever closer to the Palace of Westminster where his prey awaited.

### Part 10

“I think you screwed this one up,” said another one of the Problem Solvers over the phone.

Yukino Arakawa calmly responded from atop the building rooftop.

“What makes you think that?”

“You had to destroy London? Sure, these things happen. But there’s a G21 summit being held here and some of the people in attendance will know about the God-Worshipping Magic we use. They’ll know who did this and you won’t be able to pass this off as the work of the Threat.”

“Hee hee. Don’t you worry.” She laughed and tapped the bottom of her staff against the rooftop below her feet. “Once I am done, I will raze this building as well. I just have to eradicate anyone who knows the truth of the Threat and the Problem Solvers, right?”

“We’re talking about multiple heads of state here.”

“Why would that matter? More importantly, have you managed to contact Anastasia? I cannot blame this all on the Threat without her approval.”

“Well, I’m willing to bet she’ll go along with this. She wouldn’t want the framework of the Problem Solvers to fall apart over something this stupid.”

“Is that so? In that case…”

“But.”

“?”

“It looks like you were a little too slow.”

The voice speaking over her phone sounded disappointed.

Yukino felt a chill down her spine and attempted to analyze why that was, but it was too late.

She turned around to find a boy in a supposedly eradicated purple blazer standing on the same roof as her.

“…”

He said nothing.

His shoulders rose and fell as he caught his breath, he held a military flashlight that looked plenty heavy to use as a blunt weapon, and he slowly – very slowly – walked toward her.

Yukino Arakawa’s cheeks tensed somewhat.

Once he was this close, she could no longer use her light spears. They were so powerful she would destroy herself in the blast too.

This was checkmate.

Even if she did not like the result, the time for games had ended.

So with staff in hand, she spread her hands toward the approaching boy. Almost like she wanted to say they should abandon their plans for a picnic and head home early since it was raining.

She made a suggestion with a truly reluctant smile.

“Okay, I surrender. You win.”

She sounded like someone throwing their cards on the table because they ended up one card short of a winning hand.

She sounded like she was only going to lose a few stacks of chips.

“Let’s end this here. This is a fairly good deal for you too. I am one of the Problem Solvers, so I have a lot of pull with the world’s governments and I can get all of your past crimes wiped from the record. You’ll be pardoned! Yes, pardoned for everything! You can return to ordinary society without worrying about a thing! Wow, isn’t that incredible!? You can get off scot free, you lucky devil☆”

“…”

The boy did not respond.

He had not spoken a single word since arriving.

“And as a special bonus, we will stop pursuing you. I promise and swear it. I mean, you were looking for a way out after starting this and getting in way over your head, weren’t you? You were stuck on the path you had set for yourself. I mean, how long were you going to keep doing this revenge stuff? Did you really think you could keep getting away with it? It’s important to know when to quit while you’re ahead and the last train is about to leave as far as that is concerned. I have your ticket right here. I’m compromising quite a bit here, so you should really be thank- blwehhh !?”

Something exploded in her nose.

By the time she realized he had smashed the soft cartilage with a full swing of the military flashlight, she was already rolling along the rooftop.

The fiery pain caused her to let go of the staff and hold her face with both hands. She felt something sticky and a warm liquid dripped from between her fingers. An iron flavor spread through her mouth.

Her eyes opened as wide as they would go and she crawled on all fours while trying to figure out what was happening while her mind went blank with confusion.

Then scorching rage exploded in her mind.

“Y-y-you!? You hit a woman in the fa- gwelgh !!!!!!”

He did not speak a word.

Not a single one.

Instead, he swung down a second blow. This time to her jaw. Or was it her cheek? All she knew was that she felt a bone in her face breaking, her teeth no longer fit together right in her mouth, and her face’s skin felt unnaturally stretched. Now she really sensed danger. She knew she was in trouble. This boy had shut down all attempt at communication. He was not treating her like a fellow human being. He looked down on her with cold eyes like she was no more than an insect as he determined where to hit her next and then mercilessly swung down that heavy flashlight.

“Wait, no-”

A storm of blows awaited her. She did not even have time to think about standing up. She curled up, protected her head with her hands, and simply endured it the best she could. Her anger at this unreasonable situation was ultimately overwritten by the fear of having her understanding of the world no longer apply. Her body was enveloped by a feeling closer to heat than pain as she incessantly repeated the same word in her heart.

Why?

Why, why, why?

It’s wrong to hit a woman in the face. And it’s definitely wrong to use a blunt weapon to do it.

Yes.

All I did was unilaterally attack a useless school, slaughter all the teachers and students, and use my power as one of the Problem Solvers without bothering to listen to any of their screams or cries for mercy. That was a mere 700 people. Not that I actually counted. The escort ships? What, they count too??? Then that’s even more reason I can’t be blamed for missing one. Why does this have to happen to me just becomes one of them survived!?

“Ah, ahhhh, ahhhhhhhhhh.”

There was one thing here Yukino Arakawa did not realize.

And since she had never once lost – at least to another human being – that was hardly surprising.

The Problem Solvers always won crushing victories in any conflicts between humans. Her opponents had always grown utterly fed up with war, so when she brought up the possibility of a ceasefire or making peace, they would jump at the chance and accept even the worst terms. Yukino saw war as something she could switch off as easily as a lightbulb. She was always the one that decided when it ended.

But not this time.

This was entirely different.

This was a quagmire of a battle that would never end once it had begun. It would continue until one side or the other was dead and there was no room for compromise or negotiation.

She had never experienced this since victory was always assured for her.

And that had led her to push the snowball down the hill without realizing what it would mean.

So…

“…”

Every last part of her mind was trapped in a vortex of pain she had never before experienced and in the fear that she might lose.

She was fundamentally different from this boy whose loss was all but guaranteed but would try to tear out his enemy’s windpipe with his teeth even if his arms and legs had all shattered.

She could keep moving, yet she stopped.

While battered, bruised, and curled up in the fetal position, all she did was tremble. The purple blazer boy grabbed her black hair and mercilessly yanked her head up. He looked her in the eye and crouched down to speak.

“Work with me. Tell me everything you know about the Problem Solvers, about why you attacked our school, and about the Threat!! I have no reason not to kill you, so if you don’t want to die, you’ll have to give me a reason yourself! Got that!?”

It was like a switch had been thrown.

Suddenly – truly suddenly – a lightbulb went off in Yukino Arakawa’s head.

This boy did not want to kill her. He was inspiring so much fear and dispensing so much violence and he had driven her a step away from death, yet he was acting like he had done nothing wrong. She could tell from the look in his eyes that he did not actually want to do this. He did not want to take revenge. He was using the Problem Solvers’ actions as an excuse to fight and playing the victim to take the next step guilt free.

Was she going to lose to this?

Was she going to let him use her to have his happily ever after?

Before she had even taking this fight seriously?

When she still had not just her teeth but her arms and legs too???

Something ignited deep in her gut.

“!!”

She reached out a battered hand and grabbed her giant staff that was lying nearby. The blazer boy immediately tried to grab her wrist, but it was too late. And this was not a tool used to hit people.

“To hell with that. To hell with all of that, you garbage heap!! Don’t act so smug just because you briefly delayed getting fried! If you want to be blasted that badly, then today’s your lucky dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

“Wait, you idiot! You’ll hit yourself too!”

“I don’t give a crap! Blowing myself up with my own attack is a hundred times better than losing to some asshole acting like he’s some blameless victim!!!!!!”

He tried to steal away the staff but gave up on that and collapsed away from her instead.

“I beseech thee, Lugh, Celtic God of Light!!”

While sprawled out on the rooftop, Yukino Arakawa saw a point of glittering light in the night sky.

And a moment later, a light spear capable of slicing through an escort ship vaporized its own wielder.

### Part 11

Pain exploded from his body like he had been sprayed with boiling water.

“Ah, ahhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

He could tell his body was covered with distorted crystals.

His weak barrier was no use at all. He rolled and writhed on the roof. He forced himself to think of the pain as a good thing since it meant he was still alive. This pain was caused by vaporized Yukino Arakawa. He had been burned by the steam that had been her flesh.

More than half his body was covered by pointy crystals.

He was hit by the stench of human flesh being cooked.

Yukino’s last form of resistance clung to him with a feeling like melted cheese. He desperately tried to tear it away, but his dominant hand’s elbow and shoulder would not move. They were completely locked by the crystals.

He could only wait until the preset effect had healed his full-body burns. An intense feeling of disgust caused the core of his body to stir like an active volcano, but forcing himself to move during the healing process would be like opening a chrysalis or cocoon from the outside. If he carelessly ruptured it, he might never return to normal again.

He moved just his left arm as much as he could to wipe off his face and body and rid himself of the source of the pain.

It felt like being bitten by the corpse of the person he thought he had killed.

After thirty seconds, the crystals that provided him new skin fell away.

“Pant, pant, gasp.”

He rolled over, tried to catch his breath, and rubbed his eyes.

It happened again.

They had died again. They had disappeared before his eyes. Yukino had chosen death herself instead of one of his partners dirtying their hands, but the death still stung in his heart.

At any rate, this was two down.

The danger of the light spear was gone too. The people of London no longer had to suffer and the city would not be wiped off the map to cover up the evidence.

“Hey.”

A girl’s voice reached his ears while he thought about all that.

It belonged to Marika, his childhood friend with the curly twintails dyed strawberry blonde. She had activated her Crystal Blossom unit and descended onto the rooftop from the night sky.

“Were you trying to save her like last time?” she continued.

“…”

“Your decision to act as a diversion had nothing to do with revenge either. You were throwing away your own life to ‘go the other way’ and save the rioters who got caught in this mess, weren’t you?”

He gasped and looked up.

There were tears in Marika’s eyes as she bit her lip.

“No fair.”

She threw aside her crystal rapier and gently got down on her knees.

She lay down on top of the boy while he lay collapsed on his back and she pressed her small face against his chest.

“No fair!! We said we were going to fight together to protect everyone, we said we were going to take revenge on the Problem Solvers for that, and we gathered everything we needed to do it! So why do you keep going back and forth on this? We thought for ourselves and figured out a way to hunt down the Problem Solvers, so why do you keep giving yourself an out as insurance? Don’t leave us behind like that… Don’t leave us behind here!!”

“Sorry.”

Still lying face up, he wrapped his arms around her back, held her close, and rubbed her head.

“I’m sorry, Marika.”

“You won’t leave me behind again? You won’t leave me all alone in this dark world?”

“No.”

He slowly inhaled and exhaled before continuing.

“I’ll join you in hell.”

### Part 12

Not everyone was aware what exactly was happening there.

At a point four or five kilometers northeast of the Palace of Westminster, an eyepatch woman stood on a rooftop in the City district, a business region filled with modern buildings. She was a beautiful Western European woman, but she wore a brightly colored kimono.

(I lost the connection. Does that mean she really did get herself killed?)

“I beseech thee, Susanoo, Wakoku God of Violence.”

With that thought, she pulled three dice from her kimono’s sleeve and casually tossed them. The multiple upward-facing surfaces acted as a general guide as an enormous sword suddenly appeared out of thin air. It truly was more than 100km long. When standing upright, that absurd length was enough to reach the bottom of the thermosphere and to be mistaken for a space elevator. That massive weapon was far too much for a human to wield.

“Well, not that it matters.”

Four or five kilometers was just about to the horizon. Sending out some paper balloons equipped with cameras would be enough to expand her field of vision, but she could not rely on tricks like that with the giant sword taking up both her hands.

However, she knew the target had to be somewhere around the Palace of Westminster. And it did not really matter if that was not entirely accurate. If she made a vertical slash with this sword, it would blow away everything in the vicinity. Of course, that would also destroy all the buildings and take all the lives along the line to that point, including the G21 heads of state in the target building, but she did not care.

She had already agreed to do this.

Yukino Arakawa pissed her off, but that woman’s suggestions had always been clever.

So…

“Sayonara, Yukino-chan. I’ll crush them along with your corpse!!” she shouted.

A blazing red trail similar to a shooting star and a contrail of disturbed air accompanied the absurdly long sword as she swung it down in both hands.

But something happened before she could complete its hemispherical course downwards.

A gunshot rang loud in her ears.

There was a gaping, volleyball-sized hole in the center of her chest.

“…Oh…”

The sword was supported by her magic power, so it vanished into thin air.

The eyepatch woman lost sight of when to die and slowly turned around while coughing up blood.

“Ah???”

She heard a metallic squeaking.

A sexy girl with long black hair had arrived on the roof with her at some point. The girl sat in a wheelchair and held…was that a handgun??? But something was clearly out of the ordinary. Instead of the magazine being inserted into the bottom of the grip, it was inserted in front of the grip like with a submachinegun or assault rifle. Also, it was far too big. The magazine was the size of a thick metal detachable disk drive.

“Excuse me, lady, but I assume you are Jessie Marcus who controls South America? Oh, perhaps it was rude of me to skip all the formalities like that. How careless of me. But I do not need to explain why I am killing you, do I?”

Her voice was calm but also contained a hint of charm that seeped into you.

And it was mixed with a toxic intent to kill.

“This uses 12.7mm rounds. Those are generally used for heavy machineguns or anti-materiel rifles. Shrinking this down to a handgun size was not easy, but that lets me carry it wherever I like by hiding it on my lap.”

“…”

“Oh, you look surprised. Did you think a girl in a wheelchair couldn’t fire such a large bullet? It is true it might break my wrist to fire this one-handed. Or maybe it would flip the entire wheelchair over. But surely you must know the answer. Or did you do all that without knowing? I, Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka, have already lost 58% of my body. I am like a dented-in doll that cannot maintain a human silhouette without supplementing my internal structure with my own Crystal Blossom.”

“––––––”

“After all, I had to do my duty as Student Council President after your rampage. I used my Crystal Magic to accelerate the time limit of the sleeping teachers and students by a rate of 10 thousand. All at the cost of a single body: my own. There is actually a good chance they will recover in less than a year.”

Then why had she not told Karuta and Marika that?

The answer was simple.

Whether it would take ten thousand years or a single month, a moment’s carelessness would reveal that cave’s location to the Problem Solvers and take away those teachers and students’ lives all the same.

Those five had to be killed to prevent that. So to preserve the other two’s burning desire for revenge, she had decided it was best not to tell them about the possibility of a more positive and hopeful future.

That was her plan.

Knowing might make them relax and trigger doom for them all, so she could wait until later to reveal that happy surprise.

“Firing such a large caliber gun in a wheelchair was something of a gamble, but I am willing to learn when it means a new way to kill you five. And I was bored stuck in this chair anyway.”

How had this happened?

The woman moved her mouth, but no words came out.

So the Student Council President continued giving the answers.

“The trick when setting up security cameras is to use as few as possible to eliminate all blind spots. The most common method is to place two cameras in opposite corners of the coverage area. When they are staring at each other, they each eliminate the blind spot below the other.”

So the Problem Solvers had done the same.

They placed the light spear in one corner of London and the giant sword in the opposite corner. Together, they could cover the entire district.

“Besides, the two of you are very similar. You both have surefire attacks with an extremely long range. Once you have our location, we are as good as dead. On the other hand, the motion is so large and the lag between attacks is so great that you do not want anyone approaching you. In that sense, it was not hard to realize the two of you would be covering for each other.”

They had held the Problem Solvers in place with that note that essentially claimed responsibility for the previous attack and announced another was coming. They had also decided to take out as many Problem Solvers as they could manage on the site of the G21 summit.

So Kyouka had known this would happen.

Just as they relaxed after defeating their primary target, another nightmarish attack would arrive.

So she had needed to take things a step further to save her partners.

But to put it another way, if the those two were positioned at opposite corners to cover for the other if anything went wrong, this was their biggest chance. They could easily work out where another of the Problem Solvers was hiding in London. And once something happened to Yukino Arakawa, the owner of the giant sword would be entirely focused on Yukino.

“To be honest, I don’t care what your name is, I don’t care what kind of person you are, and I don’t care what that giant sword of yours really is. I imagine it is uses weight-based magic that makes it feel light for you but heavy for your opponent, but, again, I really do not care. Only one thing matters to me: was that magic used to destroy our school?”

And that meant she would neglect to focus on everything except for Yukino.

It would create enough of an opening for a girl in a wheelchair to arrive this close.

“Are you familiar with the disgraceful idea that British cooking is bad?”

The Student Council President once more aimed her customized handgun at the eyepatch woman who still stubbornly refused to collapse.

She did not announce checkmate.

“People say their desserts are nothing but sugar and butter and their dinners are only flavored with salt and oil, but they are enjoying those things wrong. The food here is not made to be eaten on its own. The desserts are meant to be eaten with tea and the dinners are meant to be eaten with whisky or brandy.”

This was not over yet. She could keep going. The further she went, the more she could savor the flavor of revenge. Her entire body trembled at that fact.

“I thought there was no need to insist on revenge if it meant reducing my body to this. I thought I would stop at some point before straying as far as personally taking someone’s life. But really, this is the same as British cooking.”

Yes.

She could preserve her pure desire for revenge even with the more hopeful estimation of when the teachers and students would recover.

That true exacter of revenge made a bold announcement with that extra-large gun in hand.

“It’s strange, really. My heart balks at the thought of killing, but when I eat it with some revenge on the side, it goes down oh so smoothly. Yes, I fear I could get hooked on this☆”

Another resolution was reached.

With no one to interrupt, she indulged in more and more and more revenge until she was practically drowning in it.

### Between the Lines 2

Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah.

Yukino Arakawa had a single thought about that.

“I think that old man has the wrong idea about this.”

All the world’s resources and assets had to be focused on the Problem Solvers if they were to combat the Threat, so they had developed a project to eliminate anything that would interrupt that. Whether it was a physical presence or an online one, once it grew large enough, people would naturally start to gather. So they had to crush those things.

That was the idea anyway, but…

“He wants us to give a speech at the opening ceremony of their Catastrophe event? For real? All he’s done is gather a bunch of needless talent, so their classes are entirely pointless.”

“But he is completely serious about this.”

The shadow cast at her feet changed form and spoke with a refined male voice.

That was Lugh, Celtic God of Light.

“Some people think an elite few geniuses will crack under the pressure of everyone’s lives bearing down on their shoulders and they have a tendency to bring mass-production systems into the military field. Of course, the problem is that his attempt to help you is only taking your position from you.”

“Are you saying that old man is a danger to us?”

“Perhaps. But to be honest, I’m jealous. Fighting on the side that is doomed to fail is a warrior’s honor. I know I shouldn’t say this when I’m the one lending you this power, but always standing on the side of certain victory causes you to fester.”

“We cannot afford to be picky.”

“Fair enough.” Her shadow calmly scratched its head. “But anyway, the idea of a magic academy is pretty nice even if we ignore the whole Crystal Magic thing. Again, I shouldn’t say this when I’m lending you this power, but God-Worshipping Magic is so powerful that you can’t really practice using it. If someone developed a way to efficiently teach it, I might be saved from seeing the unsightly result of people borrowing my power and losing control the very first time they use it.”

“You need not worry about that,” said Yukino in a voice much kinder than the people she knew would imagine from her. But she was not announcing that she would create such a magic education system. “I am the strongest working with you now, so as long as I stay with you, you do not need to think about what will happen with the next one.”

“Yeah, well, you say that, but…”

“But what?”

“Well, um, uh, man, I’m really not sure how to put this.”

“If you have something to say, then just come out and say it. You are a god, aren’t you? Then you do not need to hold back with a mere human.”

Yukino wore something like a nun’s habit with bold slits in the sides, but her religion was not the monotheistic one symbolized by the cross and a holy book.

She only folded her hands in prayer to the god who had taken her to a higher stage.

That was why she felt no hesitation at all when it came to wielding that tremendous power. It was the ultimate performance that showed the world that she was connected to a god who loved her.

Even if that performance meant burning away her own body.

It was the same as exchanging rings and going on a honeymoon.

Sometimes you wanted a physical symbol of it all.

“Wh-what are the others doing?” asked her shadow. “Like Jessie of the giant sword.”

“She is the same as ever. It is hard to tell if their compatibility was devastatingly bad or devastatingly good because she is still developing into a complete berserker with no apparent distinction between her and Susanoo. Of course, that might be one way of bringing yourselves together.”

“So she just wants to fight and doesn’t care why, huh? I’ll admit I see the appeal.”

“Lord Lugh, surely you are not showing an interest in another human woman.”

“Course not.” Her shadow wagged its finger. “Bloodthirsty fights to the death are a warriors’ honor, but that isn’t something you enjoy along with the woman you’ve fallen for. The one thing I couldn’t stand to do is push you toward certain death.”

### 048. Chapter 3

### Part X

Yes, we are here in Rio de Janeiro.

As you can see, the city’s borders are blocked off by barricades and yellow tape so us normal folk are not allowed to see inside. Footage from helicopters or drones is not an option because the area has been declared a no-fly zone and civilian satellites have been forced to mask the data they release in accordance with the International Peaceful Usage of Space Treaty.

The details have not been announced as per the usual information restriction, but rumor has it the Threat did this.

Time and again this month, the Problem Solvers have been less than successful and people suspect this incident could have been entirely prevented if all five of those strongests had been deployed as usual, so public groups appear to be requesting the information be released.

Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg.

Yukino “Punish” Arakawa.

Jessie “Edge” Marcus.

Those three are known as the public face of the Problem Solvers while the other two have not left as much of an impression on us since they are more like secret weapons kept hidden from the public.

Some tabloids and online news sites have been suggesting there are not in fact five Problem Solvers and those three are it, but the truth will likely be difficult to find since not a single government is willing to say anything on the matter.

Meanwhile, the Threat remains an issue.

We can only pray that the Problem Solvers quickly recover from whatever is troubling them.

### Part 1

The LCD TV went silent in the middle of the news.

No one had hit the power button on the remote. Amaashi Marika, a girl with twintails dyed a bright strawberry blonde, had thrown the remote at the screen.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka smiled softly.

“Marika-san.”

“Oh, sorry. That just pissed me off way too much is all.”

Marika pouted her lips, but she did actually bow her head.

They had taken their RV out of England and to the fellow European nation of Germany. They had a simple reason for that: two of the Problem Solvers had been killed during the G21 summit. The country was bound to be locked down while a largescale search began. Britain was an island nation, so it could be locked down more tightly than other nations. Once the circle closed around them, there would be no escape.

But why had it not been locked down immediately? They could guess the higher ups decided not to explain to the normal police what had happened because they feared the chaos and panic if word of what happened got out.

Either way, they had needed to escape while they still could.

Marika glanced over at the dead TV.

“How long are we going to be able to watch TV like this?”

“Yes, defeating Yukino caused the Sunny Side Up network to break apart in earth’s gravity, didn’t it?” said Kyouka. “The system was not 100% reliant on that, but losing a major source puts pressure on everything else.”

“Yeah, I hear the houses that run on solar power are having the solar panels stolen from their roofs now. It might not be long before people start stealing car batteries.”

Yukino’s defeat had destabilized the world’s power supply. The governments that had been using her for general power were scrambling to get their old power stations running at full capacity again, but that would leave the government supercomputers and particle accelerators without power.

Those were used to develop new drugs for incurable diseases.

Or so it was claimed to secure the budget to keep them running.

If they stopped, it was sure to cause various problems.

Utagai Karuta blankly listened to them from the sofa while losing himself in thought. Their revenge had reduced the number of Problem Solvers, which in turn increased the fury of the Threat. Quite a few countries, regions, or cities had entirely disappeared overnight this month alone and many unrelated people had met an unfortunate end.

Everyone talked about it like they were blaming Karuta’s group.

It was almost like the Problem Solvers were intentionally holding back to increase the damage done so they could place the blame on them.

But Karuta also had another thought.

“Does the Threat even exist at all?”

That was a fundamental question.

He had started to wonder back in London. Yukino Arakawa had tried to escape responsibility for mass murder by shoving the blame onto the Threat. What if they had done that over and over in the past? The Threat might exist or it might not, but someone was clearly taking advantage of the situation.

The Threat was beginning to function as a means of manipulating public opinion through fear and confusion and as a veil to cover up inconvenient truths.

That thought painted the previous news report in a different light.

Search out the villains who are attacking the Problem Solvers. The world needs to come together and hunt them down.

If the Problem Solvers had really destroyed several cities just for that, then they had brought their villainy to a whole new level. But at the same time, he could not help but note that the people who had destroyed their giant ship of a school could easily pull it off.

Not only did they have the ability, but they also had the lack of scruples.

“Anyway.” The Student Council President clapped her hands together in front of her large chest. “The dinosaur, the light spear, and the giant sword. We’ve taken out half of the Problem Solvers now, but you could say the real challenge is yet to come. You know why that is, don’t you?”

Crystal Girl Aine shook her rainbow-glowing silver hair, fluttered her transparent white dress, and quietly tilted her head in a corner of the RV.

Karuta sighed and refocused his mind.

“Unlike those three, we have no records of the other two fighting. We’ve defeated all the ones we saw use their God-Worshiping Magic at our school.”

“Yes. Our experience and data allowed us to put together a detailed plan and that made all the difference. The Problem Solvers are the world’s strongest and now we will be forced to go in blind and adlib our way through it.”

“By the way, Sacri-sama, is it possible the Problem Solvers not seen at your school did not actually participate in that battle?”

Aine seemed to be speaking on behalf of Karuta’s reluctance to kill, but it was him who rejected the idea.

“We know the dinosaur was on the ship and the light spear and giant sword most likely attacked from outside, so that means there was at least one more of them there: the woman who laughed over the ship’s speakers. This is only a guess and we can’t rely on it too much, but if four of them were a part of it, it seems unlikely just the one sat it out.”

There was no real cloud on Marika or Kyouka’s faces.

It felt wrong to consider the possibility that one of the Problem Solvers was actually a good person. They could not imagine it even as a hypothetical.

“But to be honest, going in blind is not going to be easy,” spat out his curly twintails childhood friend with a bitter look on her face. “What kind of attack do they use, how powerful is it, what’s its range, how often can they use it, etc. And beyond that, without knowing their name or where they live, we can’t fight them or even approach them. An intuition-based game of concentration using all 5.5 billion people on the planet doesn’t sound very promising.”

“We do have something to go on there,” said the Student Council President as she smiled and pulled something from the chest of her blazer.

It was a card-sized electronic device.

“The light spear woman was obliterated, but the giant sword one remained a little more intact, so I swiped her phone. And I made sure to modify it so not even the owner would be able to track it. …And by ‘modify’, I mean I checked the device’s plans and drove a nail through the transmission chip.”

“Are you saying that might tell us the location of a Problem Solvers base or personal information on the other members?”

“It’s worth looking into, don’t you think?”

### Part 2

Note: the gold leaf is contained in a separate package. Sprinkle it on to enjoy the crunch!

“Is gold leaf actually crunchy?” groaned Utagai Karuta while reading the Japanese confection’s package.

A small plastic bag contained thin flakes that glittered gold. There was only about a pinch or two at the most. Instead of a single folded piece, it was even smaller than pieces of katsuobushi. It may have been more like a powder than a leaf.

They had bought this on the black market.

They had used that kind of sketchy store instead of a legit one because of the influence of the Problem Solvers’ defeat. The light spear had not been the only one to die in London that day.

The giant sword woman had as well.

The Student Council President had defeated the one who apparently controlled the world’s industrial side.

Simply put, that woman had run a giant all-purpose factory that could make anything if you sent her a request via email. For normal corporations, everything leading up to that email had mattered far more than the production infrastructure. In other words, the value of intellectual property like designs and plans had skyrocketed. They had started using analog microfilm as a countermeasure against hackers, that had led to the spread of business-oriented banks that specialized in safe-deposit boxes for that microfilm, and companies called for armored cars as readily as motorcycle couriers.

Then that entire system had collapsed overnight.

Corporations around the world had lost that all-purpose factory, but they could not prepare their own production infrastructure so quickly. They could not supply the products for the orders they were receiving. They all had to build their own factories in a hurry, but they needed money to pay for that. They were forced to sell off all sorts of things: their buildings, the designs of their products, and even human beings in the form of layoffs.

The chaos was unlikely to end soon.

The shelves of retail stores were empty and the foods and everyday items sold on the black market were going for exorbitant prices. It had reached the point where it was said you needed a knife or a handgun to even start haggling.

(But this won’t last forever.)

Karuta observed the situation with a somehow cold look in his eyes.

(Humans always find a way of bringing things back to normal. And I’m used to being hated by this point, so you can’t use them as hostages, Problem Solvers.)

Meanwhile, there was Crystal Girl Aine.

She must not have cared in the slightest about that human interplay of joy and sorrow because she was already leaning forward without considering the hem of her transparently white dress.

“H-hurry! Hurry up and sprinkle that crunchiness on the yokan and then give me permission to eat it! Pant, pant, ahh, woof, woof!!”

“This is looking more and more like some kind of dangerous withdrawal symptoms, so are you sure it’s safe to let you have this!?”

Her eyes were spinning and drool dripped from the corner of her mouth. She looked so frail that she would break if you held her too tightly, but that only made it look all the more inappropriate when she was staring so intently at the powdered contents of a small plastic bag. That mystery crystal girl did not rely on any god’s name to accurately calculate out the collision of the energy from the Original Crystal Embryo at the center of the earth and the supernatural forces pouring down from outer space, but at times like this, she made him look like the bad guy.

It was Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka who smiled gently.

She held a small plate containing a mille-crepe that was not a convenience store product. Karuta did not know the name of the tea she had on the table either and he doubted he would remember it even if she told him.

“My, my. But if you refuse to give it to her now, I am pretty sure she would throw a tantrum that would cause the RV to burst open like a jack-in-the-box.”

“She’s asked for gold powder and gold leaf before, but that doesn’t really change the flavor, does it?” asked curly twintailed Marika.

That girl lay on the sofa bed with a bunch of cheap snacks piled around her. When the time had come for each of them to choose their own snacks, she alone had ignored the luxury items and gone for quantity over quality.

“It is not an issue of flavor and the nutrients required by the human body are irrelevant to me. I need gold, pure gold. By adding wiring thinner than hairs inside my silicon semiconductor body, I can expand to even greater heights!!”

“I don’t really get it, but it’s creeping me out.”

How had this happened?

It was going to take some time to analyze the smartphone they had swiped from the giant sword woman’s corpse, so they had nothing to discuss concerning the other Problem Solvers who never made media appearances. With nothing to do, they had decided to head out and buy some food.

So where had the money for that come from?

That too was simple.

“The Problem Solvers really are loaded, aren’t they?”

“Impressively so. Can you see now why all the powerful nations want to call themselves the guardians of the law despite how annoying that position is?”

Basically, they had stolen more than just the phone from the giant sword woman.

They had taken a life without leaving any room for argument, they had checked over the corpse and stolen everything of value, and they had bought some luxury items with that money to take a nice break. As reluctant as Karuta had been, he could not deny they really were living the lives of avengers at this point.

Slender Crystal Girl Aine was the most lacking in morals (since she was not human) and now she was all fired up. Was he imagining things or was her long silver hair stirring?

“Sacri-sama, how long are you going to tease me? If you don’t give it to me soon, I am going to enter a rebellious phase.”

“I don’t think that’s how you’re supposed to use a rebellious phase.”

“Can anyone really say they used their rebellious phase the way they were ‘supposed to’?” asked Kyouka

“Does that mean even our gentle Student Council President had a rebellious phase?” asked Marika, whose interest here was straying from the point a little.

Meanwhile, Karuta first removed the main yokan from the small wooden box and placed it on a small plate on the side table. Once that was on standby, he only had to open the small plastic bag and sprinkle on the gold leaf.

“Listen, Aine. I will sprinkle the gold leaf on like you want, but this yokan is for the two of us to share. Do not eat the whole thing yourself, okay? And I mean it! No matter what, do not eat the whole thing the instant I sprinkle this on!!”

“Woof, woof, woof!!”

“Not exactly inspiring confidence here!!”

Going without a snack while everyone else had one would be too psychologically taxing. He kept a cautious eye on Aine who was in a very untrustworthy spinny-eye mode while he grabbed the small bag of gold leaf in both hands. Gold leaf or not, this was little different from the packages of soy sauce or Worcester sauce that came with convenience store bentos. He slowly tore off the top edge using the score in the side.

However…

“Oh, crap. I got some on my finger. I should have tapped on it to get it to settle in the bottom first.”

“!?”

He just about wiped his finger off on the thigh of his pants, but a viselike grip grabbed his wrist first.

It was the gold-loving girl Aine.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!! You’ll break it, you’ll break it, you’ll break it, you’ll break it!!!”

“Ahm.”

“And don’t just start sucking my finger like that! Stop it, Aine! I’ll do it right, okay!?”

“I han’t let it go hoo waste.”

His shouting accomplished nothing. He really did use his full strength to try and pull away, but this wrist was trapped more securely than in the base of a guillotine. Meanwhile, the boy’s fingertip was at the mercy of Aine’s surprisingly warm mouth. It felt like she was using her tongue to thoroughly clean off the bottom of the finger, the top of the nail, and even below the nail.

Seeing the enjoyment and love on her face as she consumed the gold leaf filled him with a weird feeling. She looked so much like a human, but this consumption of metal was an undeniable oddity. While it was true humans needed to consume iron and zinc, they would not start chomping on a screw or nail. Aine, on the other hand, probably would eat a pure gold screw or nail if she was given one.

It was unlikely that pale crystal girl would show any sign of rejection such as metal poisoning.

Meanwhile, the oddity of it all was accentuated by how her mannerisms were the same as a cute girl.

Something was shaken in his heart. The scene before him greatly worried him.

“Fwah… I will let you off the hook with just that, but pure gold is a valuable rare metal. If you do not treat it with the proper care, I will never forgive you even if you are my Sacri-sama.”

“You do know that would amount to a gentle form of suicide, don’t you?”

His wrist was finally freed from her viselike grip, but it sounded like he needed to be more careful from here on. In fact, he was a little worried that the Problem Solvers might throw pure gold caltrops on the ground in battle to distract her.

“But this stuff looks pretty tricky to use since its even thinner than katsuobushi. If I just sprinkle it on like normal, some of it would probably end up off of the plate.”

“Starting now, I will hold my breath until you have completed your objective,” announced Aine.

“You don’t have to do that. Besides, I just have to do it away from my face, you don't have to keep staring at me like that!!”

During that discussion, Utagai Karuta moved the small bag as close to the yokan as he could before sprinkling its contents.

However, a demon interrupted him.

“Mh. Oh, I got the rare planaria character! Hey, hey! Look, Karuta! These things can multiply endlessly if you keep cutting them apart! And finding one in your animal snacks is supposed to increase your monetary luck, so…ah…ah…”

He had a bad feeling about this.

And his bad feeling proved accurate.

“Achoo!!!!!!”

A great wind blew in just as he was attempting such delicate work. The glittering gold leaf should have fallen straight onto the yokan, but it was all blasted in the wrong direction.

Specifically, all over the body of the boy who had been so carefully handling the bag.

Karuta began to sparkle all over, but it may have been more like a human disco ball than a scene shown in shoujo manga vision.

Now, a question.

What had happened to his fingertip when he got just a bit of gold leaf on it earlier?

“………………………………………………………………………………Sacri-sama. Drool.”

“Wait! Stop, Aine! This is an ord-…”

“Sacri-samaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

A fairly serious hell of stickiness soon followed.

Just before the collision, Karuta tried to ignore the reality facing him by noting that the Student Council President cleverly grabbed her teacup from the side table and retreated.

### Part 3

Time continued to flow even during that disaster, so it was late at night before long.

Aine loved small spaces, so she had retired to the prototype spaceship shaped like a bamboo leaf (because it was creepy having her arms and legs stick out of Karuta’s body as she tossed and turned in her sleep) and strawberry blonde Marika went to sleep in her usual spot on the sofa bed (with only the one sheet covering her nudity yet again). She ended up tossing and turning a lot herself, so that sheet seemed worryingly inadequate.

The faint light of a laptop screen was the only thing illuminating the RV at the moment. A cable connected the device to a smartphone.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was staring at the computer screen in just a large dress shirt.

“Are you still not going to sleep?” asked Utagai Karuta from behind her.

“I have to look after these babies.”

She apparently meant the computer. That phrasing made him curious how she mentally categorized Crystal Girl Aine.

The screen had a few windows open, but they all had a ton of alphanumeric text scrolling quickly by. He could guess she was trying to break some kind of encryption, but he doubted human eyes were quick enough to follow what was going on. His weren’t, at least.

“C’mon, it won’t take that long to decrypt. Karuta-kun, you can go ahead and get to sleep.”

“If it won’t take that long, then I’ll stay up with you.”

“Oh, dear. Trapped by my own wording.”

She gave a bewitching smile and leaned her head a bit to the left. He did not realize what that meant at first, but when she traced her finger along the shoulder that’s smooth skin was left exposed by the baggy dress shirt, he finally realized what she was inviting him to do.

“I’d be too embarrassed.”

“It’s my thanks for staying up with me.”

He got the feeling she would not move on unless he went along with it. He endured the silence for a bit, but he finally gave in to the awkward elevator mood.

He placed his chin on the shoulder she had “opened” for him. They both viewed the screen as if he were rubbing his cheek against hers while embracing her from behind.

He could sense the heat of her soft cheek and the scent of her hair.

And while giving him all that, she also whispered to him.

“Once we know what is inside the giant sword woman’s phone, we should have a fair amount of information on the other Problem Solvers. Then we can finally get to work.”

“…Right.”

“Karuta-kun, are you hoping the decryption fails?”

Since he was essentially embracing her from behind, she must have felt him jump ever so slightly. She may have also noticed his elevated heartrate.

If not for the need to protect the defenseless students and teachers, they may not have had to bare their fangs like animals.

If not for their revenge, the people in this RV might have been able to smile together in an ordinary classroom or clubroom.

Part of him definitely felt that way, but that part of him had made his childhood friend cry back in London.

She had asked him not to leave her – leave them – behind.

“Don’t worry,” said Omotesandou Kyouka. “I feel something similar.”

“Eh?”

At first, he thought this was some kind of leading question, but then she revealed what she meant.

“Revenge, vengeance, making them pay. It is simple enough to say, but I thought we were bound to fail at some point or another. I thought our desire for revenge would waver at some point and that would allow it to be worn down, transformed, and faded. And that is almost certainly what would have happened if I had been thrown out into the world all on my own with nothing but this wheelchair to work with. In fact, I may not have been able to take the very first step. There is no way I could have attempted anything as impressive as eradicating the Problem Solvers who rule this world.”

“…”

“But it’s strange.” The Student Council President in just a dress shirt seemed to be smiling, but he was too close to see her expression clearly. “People I can call partners gathered around someone as weak as me and coincidence stacked on top of coincidence to allow us to survive this long. My desire for revenge never faded and I really am working toward eradicating the Problem Solvers. ‘In a time of need, we only need to work together.’ Hee hee. When I said that at the school assembly, I never imagined it would come to mean something like this. At the time, we had found a blanket and cooler stuffed into the empty space below the heliport and we were trying to figure out who had gone to the misguided effort of setting up such a perfect slacking-off spot with both shade and a nice breeze.”

So.

Did that mean…

“Sorry,” said Karuta. “If we hadn’t run across you, you might not have been led astray like this.”

“Now you are just being overly self-conscious. Just like I could not have done anything on my own, I doubt the rest of you could have made it this far without me. You would have been defeated at some point or you would have failed to take the first step and stewed in your own hesitation. Don’t you think?”

“Maybe so.”

“Also, I doubt we could have lived a normal life even if we never started down the path of revenge. Like I said, we would have stewed in our own hesitation. Especially me since I have plenty I can use as an excuse. I may have ended up living a life where I blamed these legs any time I failed or gave up on something and where I worked to inspire sympathy in everyone around me.”

Karuta had no right to decide which was the better path for her.

She had to live her own life.

That was all there was to it.

A change occurred on the laptop screen. The scrolling alphanumeric text came to a stop and a new window opened instead. It showed a human-readable list of files.

“And here we have another coincidence to add to the stack,” said the Student Council President in only a dress shirt. She sounded partially excited and partially disappointed. “Now we should find some clues and leads. It seems our path of revenge has not come to an end quite yet.”

### Part 4

The Problem Solvers were the world’s strongest. They were the one clear method of fighting back against the Threat that was shaking international society. That meant great fortune naturally gathered around them along with plenty of assets, property, and real estate.

Finding their hideout or base was not as simple as finding the house in a residential district they had taken out a loan to purchase. They had nearly 2000 properties registered in their names around the world.

Twintails Marika breathed an exasperated sigh in the RV.

“This isn’t going to narrow anything down at all.”

“In fact, it makes them feel like international businessmen who are so constantly moving around the world that they don’t even think of things in terms of having a home or nationality,” said Karuta. “It’s more like they simply borrow some space in a mansion or luxury apartment wherever they happen to be at the time.”

“But can you see any strange activity among all that?” asked Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka while using the projector’s remote to display their list of data distributed as dots across a map. “It seems they have completely given up on guarding the space elevator and are flying around the world with their activities scheduled out to the second. Really, all five of them working together like for the elevator was a rarity and it looks like they generally work alone.”

“But they’re the center of the global infrastructure, right?” asked Marika. “Then can’t we lie in wait at those facilities?”

The Student Council President’s answer was simple.

“How many seats do you think they have in the five continents excluding Antarctica? They might each specialize in one continent, but their influence extends to the entire world. And each of those locations are so heavily guarded that making a careless approach would be enough to wear us down. And I am talking about the large armies of ‘ordinary people’ who gather around profit. Individuals like us who have no real backing can’t hope to stand up to something like that.”

“…”

“Ugh,” groaned Marika.

Kyouka laughed.

“Do not worry. There is a loophole. It looks like they have a tendency of returning to a specific location after completing a few jobs. It is not a stop on the way to their next destination and this is something they have done for a while and continue to do now.”

“Where is it?”

“Finland. The very country we are hiding in now.”

It was an Arctic world outside.

Looking through the frosted windows showed thick snow and a lake covered in ice. It was hard to believe they had been taking classes in a sweaty equatorial region not long ago.

“This is most likely their true hideout or base. Whenever something happens, they gather here and hold a secret discussion amongst themselves. They do not need to worry about the paparazzi, leaks to social media, or laser listening devices here, so this is where they reach a consensus. If they do not want anyone overhearing their conversation, I imagine they will hold it here. This is much more useful than that space elevator they have already abandoned.”

The five Problem Solvers had already been reduced to two. Having more than half of them killed was sure to have shaken even the world’s strongest. Their presence at the usual elevator would stand out too much. They wanted to escape the rush of government officials and media reporters so they could let out the feelings building in their guts and plan a comeback as soon as possible, so there was a good chance they would be here.

“If we happen across them here, we get what we want,” said Karuta. “And if they aren’t here, that’s convenient too. We know they visit here frequently, so we can set up a bomb or sabotage the gas line or something. Then we just have to watch from a distance and wait for someone to show up.”

“Also, I found some personal information on the remaining members. Only the smallest piece, though,” added the Student Council President. “The remaining two are named Susannia Evans and Anastasia Blast.”

“That’s all?” After waiting for more and receiving only silence, Marika voiced her disappointment. “Um, isn’t there something about the God-Worshiping Magic they use or records of their past battles?”

“I said it was only the smallest piece, didn’t I?” Kyouka did not sound any more pleased about it. “I get the feeling they knew the details of each other’s magic so well they did not bother keeping any records on it. Maybe it’s like how you don’t bother typing out your own phone number into your address book.”

“Th-then forget how they fight. What about their field of infrastructure? We might be able to figure something out about their magic from that.”

Marika dug in her heels because she wanted any information she could get, but the Student Council President sighed.

“Susannia controls largescale agriculture. She apparently helps establish food bases and holds back the spreading of the deserts. It is said her presence in the business world is felt strongest in Africa, but she is working to increase the greenery in all five continents save Antarctica. Since there is no guarantee she will be in Africa, it is fortunate that we could narrow things down to Finland. On the other hand, it is unclear what role exactly she plays in the largescale agriculture. Civilian satellites have only shown extremely large mechanized farms. Is she controlling the plants, controlling the machines, or controlling the moisture or weather?”

Karuta had heard of this too.

With uniform largescale farms covering most of the world’s grain-producing regions, individual regional brands were dying out. Specialized farms that produced things like French grapes, American beef, German potatoes, or Japanese rice worked to create the best possible version of their products through selective breeding and genetic modification and, once their flavor and nutrition reached acceptable levels, those genetics were incorporated into the grain-producing region farms that spread to the horizons in order to earn vast fortunes. It was sort of like a buried treasure tour where you were given a vague map of where to dig.

The food Karuta’s group ate every day was soaked with the sweat and tears of their friends’ killer.

And her flesh and blood were baring their fangs.

“Um, then what about Anastasia?” asked Marika.

“The military.”

Marika had been hoping for a more pleasant answer, but this was an even greater bombshell.

“Anastasia Blast is most strongly associated with North America and, unlike the other four, she is directly involved in managing the military infrastructure. But it is unclear what exactly that entails. Is she providing the necessary intelligence and firepower for the troops on the battlefield, is she transporting personnel or materiel, or is she developing or producing new weapons? In fact, what does it even mean to control the military on a global level? If she holds a central position that surpasses the interests of individual nations, then how does the world even function?”

None of this provided any answers.

Even intellectual Omotesandou Kyouka was reduced to questioning her own information.

Karuta summed it up for them.

“So in the end, we’re going in blind.”

“I did find photos of them.”

The Student Council President used the projector remote to display two photos on the wall.

The redheaded woman with a long braid was Susannia Evans.

The blonde woman with wavy hair was Anastasia Blast.

This part alone looked something like the resumes sent in to a modeling agency. Did they have natural good looks, had they spent a lot of money to that end, or was it both? And no matter how beautiful they were, they were undoubtedly two of the world’s strongest five.

These monsters were powerful enough to stand alongside the dinosaur, light spear, and giant sword women.

But it was fortunate to have photos.

At the very least, they would not foolishly attack the wrong person. They did not want to start a direct confrontation if they could help it, so it meant a lot that they could start fighting without having to call out to them and confirm their identity first.

On the other hand, that was all this gave them.

Even with extensive planning beforehand, they had only just barely won out in their previous battles. The tragedy on that sunken ship had hinted at what to do. But things were different now. They had no idea what Susannia and Anastasia could do.

When first seeing that dinosaur, Karuta had not known what to do and ended up crawling among the broken crystal statues. He had been unable to prevent the 700 students and teachers from being trapped in a nearly eternal sleep.

They were up against something on that same level here.

And they had to win the first time.

It would be just like that initial hell.

It would be a repeat of that nightmare.

They were essentially throwing themselves back into that colorful world of trauma they had never wanted to experience again.

“We have to survive this,” said Utagai Karuta.

They were avengers, so this was an odd thing to say. They were supposed to be the ones who snuck up and killed their opponents in their sleep.

But this was how he saw it.

“Aine, Marika, Omotesandou-san. It all comes down to this, so let’s pull through.”

### Part 5

Once he left the RV, the biting cold struck Utagai Karuta’s entire body.

His breaths were white and the snow crunched below his feet.

Instead of in a city, they were on a pure white mountain covered with conifer trees, so the road and the slope were nearly indistinguishable.

“It’s hard to believe that there’s this much snow during April,” said strawberry blonde Marika while breathing into her hands.

They knew where the Problem Solvers’ base was, but they could not exactly drive the RV right up to it. They had to walk from a few kilometers away. Kyouka’s wheelchair could not travel through the deep snow, so she was forced to remain in the RV. If Susannia or Anastasia’s magic was anything like the light spear, flying would be suicide. Drawing attention to themselves would get them shot down.

“But when you get down to it, what is even left?”

“?”

Karuta frowned at that odd phrasing, so his childhood friend explained while walking alongside him.

“They’re all the world’s strongest, so they must stand at the top of different categories, right? For example, a dinosaur inferior to Elicia’s would not have a spot in that group.” She thought for a moment. “The dinosaur, the light spears, and the giant sword. If you rule those out, what kind of ‘strongest’ is left? They were all so insane it’s easy to focus too much on the specific power and lose sight of what genre it belongs to.”

Karuta had not considered looking at it like that.

Those strongest five all had some kind of magic they had all accepted as the strongest in some way. After thinking some himself, he decided to list off whatever random ideas came to mind.

“What about mind control?”

“We definitely haven’t seen that one. Maybe they could choose a target and weaken them?”

“Or travel through time. Like go back to before their target was born and change history.”

“You’re getting pretty out there now. So how about creating parallel worlds?”

“A super-adaptive lifeform that keeps evolving from one second to the next would be pretty scary.”

They had been joking with each other at first, but a weight gradually built in their stomachs and they began talking less. If any of their guesses happened to be right, that was the enemy they would have to face. It was not the most enjoyable topic of discussion.

After walking a while, they spotted what looked like a log cabin next to a frozen lake.

If the information Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka had found was accurate, that would be the Problem Solvers’ hideout. There were no other obvious buildings in the area.

The first three Problem Solvers had provided garbage disposal, power, and production, but they apparently knew how to use low-tech solutions as well. While so much of the global infrastructure was collapsing, this isolated log house seemed to be doing just fine.

It may have beewn similar to Karuta’s group in that RV that was not registered to any city or country.

“…”

Back at Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah, he had brought a blanket, a music player, and a cooler into the space directly below the flat heliport to skip class and goof off. Marika had gotten after him for stuff like that, so it had primarily become a secret base he shared with Gekiha and Aine. He remembered the oddly liberating feeling of being cut off from the flow of time while everyone else was in class like they were supposed to be.

What had this log cabin been for those five?

How comfortable had they found that white villa cut off from the rest of the world?

“There’s a car parked next to it,” he quietly noted while viewing it from afar. “And the snow is piled up on the windshield. At least 3cm thick.”

“I picked up the recent weather data,” said Kyouka from back in the RV. “There have been a lot of on-and-off flurries recently, but not heavy snowfall. I doubt that car has been there for even a full day.”

Karuta and Marika exchanged a glance.

If that car did not belong to a maintenance company that made periodic visits to perform upkeep on the building, then they had already drawn one of the two cards they wanted. Was Susannia Evans or Anastasia Blast visiting? Or were they both here?

To be careful, they checked the license plate and sent that information back to Kyouka, but she did not have much luck with a search.

“No matches. I suppose that’s the Problem Solvers for you. They must have enough influence with the world’s governments to keep their information secret.”

The tension increased because this was clearly no normal car.

They still had no real answers as they were forced to charge blindly into likely death.

“Power up.”

Crystal Girl Aine slipped out from Karuta’s back.

She silently tilted her head with her special crystal sword in hand.

“Sacri-sama, if you wish to acquire information to increase your odds of success, you could always send me in first.”

“No, I can’t. Did you forget that we’re catching the Problem Solvers by surprise? They’re only gathering here because it’s a safe hideout. If we make any kind of attack and they grow more cautious, they’ll never come back. Then they can hide anywhere in the world and we’ll be forced to search them out from among the full 5.5 billion population. That clearly isn’t going to work even if we have 100 years to work with. So…”

So what did that mean?

They had to end it with this first attack. They had to kill whoever it was with their own hands.

Was that what he wanted to say? Proudly and with head held high?

“…”

He felt like his curly twintails childhood friend was giving him an appraising look.

“Anyway, we have to go do this, don’t we?” she said.

“Yeah, we do.”

They cautiously walked toward the lakeside log cabin.

There was no one in the car. They circled the building, but they could not see inside because all the windows had the curtains shut. In addition to the car, they found some firewood and mortar materials haphazardly piled up.

“Look.”

But Marika pointed at one window.

“The window is fogged up and it looks like there’s smoke coming from the chimney. It’s warm inside.”

That would never happen with a deserted log cabin. This was like a more old-fashioned version of determining if anyone lived there by seeing if the power meter was turning.

So someone was there.

At least one member of the Problem Solvers was inside. A great pressure weighed on his stomach. Was that person watching them from the crack in the curtains even now? Was it possible they could slice right through the log wall to attack? Or was his group already caught in some kind of spell? All sorts of speculation swirled through his mind.

“Kh.”

He shook his head.

That was like a toxin of his own creation. He would wear himself down before the fight even began.

“Let’s compare the fog on the windows. That should tell us which part of the cabin is warmest. If someone is here, that’s where they’ll be. Whether they’re using firewood in the fireplace or an air conditioner running on a generator, they won’t want to waste their fuel this deep in the mountains.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama. I can break through any window or door here.”

“That’s nice to know.” He smiled. “But if we’re doing this, let’s try to be cleverer about it. Everyone will be cautious of what they consider to be the possible entrances, so if we break through a wall, we might be able to catch them in a psychological blind spot.”

Marika activated her Crystal Blossom armor and worked with Crystal Girl Aine to blow through the outside wall.

They no longer needed to be careful about footprints and otherwise hide their presence. In fact, it all came down to what they could accomplish in this few seconds of confusion and uncertainty. The three of them stormed inside.

It was a large space that looked like a combined dining room and kitchen. Pieces of the wall and window were scattered across the wooden flooring, but it must have been a pristine space to begin with. A fire danced in the fireplace at the wall, but that was it. The TV and audio system were powered off and silence hung over the place like in a classroom at night. They did not see, hear, smell, or otherwise sense someone there.

“They aren’t here?”

“We just have to keep looking!”

They were up against one of the Problem Solvers. Every second counted, but splitting up here would be the height of folly. They stuck together while cautiously moving through the cabin. They threw open the many doors.

They found a bathroom with a bathtub, a large drying room for clothing wet with snow, and a food storage room piled high with cardboard boxes. There was no staircase and the flat log cabin did not have individual bedrooms. It was less like a villa for the wealthy and more like a nicer version of a mountain climber’s cabin. And despite their tension, there was no one there.

Marika kept her Crystal Blossom armor out and gently spun the rapier in her hand.

She also frowned.

“Did they notice us approaching and run off? There weren’t any footprints in the snow when we circled the cabin, but they might be able to fly like I can.”

“You think one of the Problem Solvers fled without firing a shot? I’ll admit it’s hard to say since we don’t know what kind of world’s strongest they are, but that’s hard to imagine.”

“But, Sacri-sama, there was a car parked out front and there is a fire in the fireplace. Plus, this cabin seems too primitive to be remotely controlled.”

There had clearly been someone here.

Yet it had not simply been a meeting for the Problem Solvers to reach a consensus.

So why was no one here now?

And why would they leave signs of their presence like the car and the fireplace?

“Oh, no.”

“Karuta?”

“Oh, no!!”

He finally looked up and ran toward the closest window while ignoring his confused-looking childhood friend and the crystal girl. He threw open the curtain and checked outside.

There should have been a frozen lake out there.

But when he saw something else filling his vision instead, he reflexively swore.

“Goddammit.”

### Part 6

Thick ice covered a lake with a gentle elliptical shape measuring 300 meters long, but that ice was broken through from below.

What emerged was a giant cannon that looked like a steel tower tilted on its side.

The diameter alone was 10 meters, so the barrel could fit a 20-ton dump truck inside. The length was impressive enough to cover the full length of the lake. It glared at the log house from so close that aerial footage of the scene would look more like a pool cue just before it struck the cue ball than like a projectile weapon aimed at point-blank range.

“Hee hee☆ I beseech thee, Persephone, Greek God of Death.”

A beautiful woman sneered with that cannon connected to her shoulder.

The fearsome shell it then fired could have reached the moon if fired at the correct angle, but it instead erased the log cabin from the face of the earth.

### Part 7

A fearsome tremor spread out in all directions, making it feel more like a tactical weapon that used shockwaves instead of an explosive blast. As that propagated outwards, it triggered avalanches on all the nearby mountains and the conifer trees pointing sharply up toward heaven were knocked to the ground.

The log cabin was truly eliminated in an instant.

The countless splinters blasted away by the explosion functioned as projectiles as they scattered all around while breaking the sound barrier. Even if the cannon’s aim had been somewhat off and even if the target had fled the cabin and dove into the snow, that sandstorm of wooden fangs would have turned them to mincemeat.

There had been no escape anywhere on the face of the earth there.

Which was why they had gone elsewhere.

“Kh!! Wh-what was that? That thing that burst from the lake, I mean!! Is that a military application of one of those mass drivers that use staged detonation acceleration!?”

They had gone up.

Twintailed Marika had blasted the roof with her Crystal Blossom’s laser beam and then escaped into the sky, so now she was shouting questions while soaked with a tense sweat and breathing heavily.

But oddly enough, Karuta’s heart had gone cold.

He worked his mind while clinging to her hips and dangling down.

This opponent had not hesitated to destroy their own secret base to achieve their objective. No matter what memories that cabin held for them, they had blown it away along with the attacking assassins.

There really was no common ground there.

Karuta recalled the secret base he had built below the giant ship’s heliport. The Student Council had found it while he was away, dismantled it, and confiscated the things he had left there. That had not taken his dorm room or classmates from him, but it had still saddened him. So much so that he had felt no desire to build a new one.

Then he opened his mouth.

This opponent’s blatant deadliness rid him of any guilt.

“This must be her genre of world’s strongest.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“This is the world’s strongest mechanized human. She’s a cyborg.”

He thrust the reality of the situation into Marika’s dryly smiling face.

This felt like it would be Anastasia who controlled the world’s militaries, but could he really just assume something like that?

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka had said Susannia was the monster who controlled the global agricultural infrastructure, but it was hard to tell what role she actually played. The civilian satellites only showed giant mechanized farms.

Mechanized.

That meant this could be Susannia too.

“Did she lure us in so she could blow us up and ensure her own safety!?”

Crystal Girl Aine was not with them.

The boy clenched his teeth and looked down where not even the foundation of the cabin remained.

But he did not have time for sentimentality.

He heard a dull rumbling as the giant cannon changed its angle.

“Here it comes!!”

“Wait, really!? Okay, hold on tight!!”

The entire concept of sound vanished.

Their ears only felt some kind of compression.

While dragging around some dead weight, Marika flew in a complex figure eight to desperately avoid the back-to-back cannon blasts. This was not just an issue of weight or air resistance. The rapid changes of altitude brought changes in atmospheric pressure, the rapid movement brought inertia and air friction, they needed oxygen, and their body temperature could not fall too far. She was used to providing those protections for herself, but she had to provide them for Karuta as well this time since his weak barrier was not enough. That placed a greater burden on her.

“She doesn’t have cluster bombs, does she? That would be the worst! We’d have countless smaller explosives filling the air like fireworks!”

“We’ll be lucky if that’s all she has. We’re talking about a Problem Solver – one of the world’s strongest. She might not be entirely reliant on that one giant cannon!”

Just as Karuta gave that warning, they heard a sound like explosives splitting through a steel panel on the surface. A chill ran down their spines when they realized something had been purged, and then something stretched out its silver wings from above the frozen lake. The device installed on that person’s back ignited. They took flight with fearsome speed, almost like they had transformed themselves into a surface-to-air missile.

It was a tall woman with her red hair worn in a long braid.

She wore a skintight special combat outfit that resembled a black diving wetsuit, but various “components” must have torn through from within because her soft skin was showing all over her back and limbs like she was covered in torn stockings.

Karuta recognized her.

He had seen her photograph earlier.

“Susannia Evans!?”

This was different from a Crystal Blossom that was controlled using a printed circuit board smaller than a stamp and cables thinner than hairs. They had to begin a dogfight against a Problem Solver using four steel wings and several jet engines the size of a water bottles.

Crystal Blossoms used magic to ignore inertia and air resistance while flying, so they allowed for a dimension of flight not possible with fighter crafts. Simply put, they could make right angle turns at supersonic speeds with no risk whatsoever.

But this Problem Solver could apparently do the same with her older form of magic. Just how much had that beautiful silhouette been modified? A normal pilot would have blacked out from the blood not reaching their brain. In fact, they might have had all their blood vessels burst from the pressure, but she was flying through the biting chill without an oxygen mask or even goggles to cover her eyes. Any air force official or even UFO researcher who saw this would probably throw in the towel.

And no matter how cutting-edge the technology, the fundamentals were the same.

Unless they hoped to start some close-quarters combat using a sword or spear, head-on charges were rare during dogfights. The standard in aerial battles was to take up a position on your enemy’s tail while keeping them off your tail. Since Marika was the one being chased now, she constantly had to dodge redheaded Susannia Evans’s attacks. She could spin her rapier around and target behind her, but being on your opponent’s tail still gave you a tremendous advantage.

Both Susannia’s arms opened up from within.

The next thing they knew, both her arms were gone, something like the framework of a fan was spreading out, and that framework was revealed to be several cannons of various sizes. The volumes did not seem to match.

“!!!???”

Beams of red light pierced the white sky either as tracer rounds or as a form of intimidation. And not just a few; it was like a shower. Marika somehow managed to dodge them by twisting around and spinning her body like a spring or coil, but that kept her from flying freely through the sky. Just like in a chess problem, every move she took was being gradually guided toward the position where she could be taken out.

“Marika!”

“Shut up, you dead weight! Let me focus!!”

“Then could you manage if you dropped me?”

“~ ~ ~!! What did I say about not leaving me behind here!?”

That kindness may have been one reason she could not make any headway in this battle. Not only was she facing one of the Problem Solvers, someone she could not afford any kind of opening against, but she was attempting it while handicapped with this dead weight clinging to her slender waist. She had no chance like this. The two of them would be shot at some point and it would all be over.

Also, Susannia Evans’s transformation was not over yet. She must have grown impatient because she expanded even more weapons that were stored in her body. Her four wings grew to eight, the number of jet engines increased, and the area around her ribs stirred before several small supporting arms burst out like shrimp legs. Also, each of those arms was holding the grip of a Gatling gun made of several cannons or a laser beam cannon with exposed excitation rods.

Each new component further tore her wetsuit-like special combat outfit, but it no longer looked like a woman exposing her soft skin. This could only be described as a grotesque collection of machines.

“What the hell!?” Marika’s eyes bugged out as she flew around the sky, scattering shockwaves as she went. “Does that really obey the law of conservation of mass!? How do you fold all that up to fit inside that body!?”

Susannia had matched their speed while gradually taking an advantageous position, so they did not have a moment to lose.

After some thought, Karuta spoke up.

“Marika, we know we can’t escape, so do you think you could instead slow down to get us closer to her?”

“We’re 300 to 400 meters away already. That’s ‘right in front of her’ as far as dogfights are concerned. Even if I ‘returned’ the air resistance parameter to normal as a special maneuver for rapidly braking, getting within 50 to 100 meters of her is the best I could manage. And with how she’s been moving, I doubt even catching her by surprise will get her to overshoot us. But!! The closer we get, the harder it will be to dodge her attacks!”

“She’s using laser beams that move at the speed of light, so distance doesn’t really matter.”

“Surely you aren’t planning something suicidal like intentionally taking a hit to damage her with the Crystal Blossom fragments you scatter behind us.”

“This is nothing that heroic, but you’re in the ballpark.”

His casual response left her speechless.

He hesitated like a normal person more than the others did, but his ideas tended to be more out there than the others. And he made a suggestion while holding onto his childhood friend’s hips.

“We only have one shot at this. We can shatter her assumption that she’s safe if she’s on our tail.”

“What do you mean?”

“There is no safety here. Because we’re true avengers who are here to fight to the death.”

### Part 8

In that instant, Susannia Evans was closing in on her target using the many pieces of data and guidelines displayed in her biological vision, but she also wondered something beyond the tactical situation directly in front of her.

What had happened to that crystal girl from the reports?

It was obvious the enemy would prioritize the living over the nonliving. And if that girl had been abandoned when they escaped the log cabin, she would have been shattered along with the building.

But based on the fragments of information they had from the broadcast station and London, that was a Crystal Blossom that functioned entirely separately from its user.

It could be stored inside that user’s body.

So which was it?

Was the crystal girl there or not? And how would that influence this battle?

Just as she wondered that, the twintails girl altered how she flew. She rapidly braked to move in close to Susannia. If this was not some kind of tricky close-quarters combat using a sword or spear, then there was no real merit to getting closer. They may have been foolishly hoping she would overshoot them, but she was not about to fly past them and let them take up the offensive position on her tail.

But then something else happened.

Something burst from the back of the boy clinging to the twintails girl.

It was Aine, that deadly weapon with a delicate and slender body and pale skin.

“Wha-?”

The crystal girl took a very simple action.

She did not use her specially-shaped sword. Nor did she participate in the dogfight.

In that highspeed aerial world of dogfighting, she simply separated from her sacrifice boy. She was unleashed. She did not cling to anything, the fierce headwind pummeled her, and her silver hair spread out while reflecting a rainbow-colored light.

She was forcefully launched.

The slender girl flew backwards. Yes, she was slammed straight toward Susannia Evans who was on their tail.

Susannia frantically tried to dodge, but it was too late.

“You goddamn- agh!?”

She collided with a mass of a few dozen kilograms while moving at the speed of an artillery shell. That would normally have shattered both their bodies, but the crystal girl did not so much as crack. The shrill shattering sound that accompanied the impact was likely from the spatial vibration field of her preset barrier. She grabbed onto Susannia from the front. Her soft but cold arms and legs clung to Susannia like an octopus or squid’s tentacles or like a drowning child trapping the would-be rescuer who had jumped into the ocean or river to save them. And she squeezed with a tremendous viselike grip.

She chose bondage as a form of attack.

Susannia’s flight used magical power, but she could not altogether ignore the laws of physics like the brooms or Santa’s sleigh seen in storybooks. Her spread wings were forcibly folded back up and her bottle-sized jet engines were crushed, so she could no longer keep her body airborne.

“Wait, ah!? Dammit, you!!”

“Do not worry.” The cold girl rested her chin on Susannia’s shoulder and whispered in her ear with her legs still tangled around her. “I am not so fragile that I will shatter after a freefall drop from this height at this speed.”

“Persephone, do something!!”

Susannia’s face tensed as she sent a request inside herself to open all the shock-absorbing structures on the surface of her body. But that request was not answered. Aine’s tight hold on her body prevented the hatches from opening.

From there, they were a lot like a shooting star.

The two of them crashed into the snowy surface with their supersonic speed intact.

### Part 9

The result looked horrific.

A large portion of the white scenery had been torn away to reveal the contrasting dark soil below.

Marika viewed the 20m-radius crater from the sky and then slowly descended toward its center with the boy still clinging to her hips.

Crystal Girl Aine was waving to them from there.

Susannia Evans’s location was unclear. Or rather, she was scattered across everything. More than just torn apart, it looked like she had been reduced to shreds. And the mechanical components with a dull silver shine were scattered over an even wider area that passed beyond the crater. The disastrous scene looked like a passenger plane crash site and Marika gave an annoyed comment while having her Crystal Blossom armor and rapier withdraw.

“It really was like fourth-dimensional storage. This is more than just a multitool. You could probably build a pyramid with all of this stuff. How was it all contained inside the volume of a human body?”

“That was probably the magic she used. Anyway, that is Susannia Evans defeated. But what should we do now, Sacri-sama? If we are lucky, Anastasia Blast will be here too, but if not, we will have to start from scratch in searching for her.”

“Look, this is all iron, aluminum, and stainless steel. It’s all been refined from non-recycled first-generation resources,” pointed out Marika. “Back in their ‘age of peace’ before we started picking them off, that would have been a pile of treasure.”

“I am only interested in pure gold,” insisted Aine.

Karuta belatedly let out a slow breath while listening to their conversation.

He had killed someone. It had happened so quickly it still did not feel real.

He had not had any other options.

“She could fly and probably swim through the ocean too, but does she really travel the world like that?” asked Marika. “She was like their top secret weapon who kept away from the media, so I bet they would want to avoid letting anyone see her using her magic…or using those weapons, I guess.”

“What are you getting at?”

“She would use normal transportation as much as possible. That car next to the log cabin was bait and she blew it up with her first attack, but she might have had another car or a helicopter hidden somewhere further away. If we can find that, we might be able to find some information in there.”

Utagai Karuta thought to himself while listening.

They had defeated a Problem Solver. Susannia Evans had been scattered across the ground.

(But is this really over?)

He had no basis for his doubt. Everything had gone as well as could be hoped. It might as well have scored a perfect 100, but that was why it did not sit right with him. Things had been different with Susannia than with the other Problem Solvers. They had not glimpsed her magic at the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy and they had not had any advance information on how she fought. Careful planning had just barely been enough before, but now they had been forced to go in blind and adlib their way through the battle. It was like being thrown back into that nightmare world in Grimnoah. They had been helpless their first time against that dinosaur and those light spears. They had only managed to stand up to them after seeing that magic, analyzing it from multiple angles, and using a surprise attack.

Yet they had won so easily this time?

This was the world’s strongest who used mechanization God-Worshiping Magic and it was already over? It had not been easy by any means, but was she really weak enough to be fought off using some adlibbed plan like that? Could she really be called the world’s strongest like this?

No.

There was a bigger question.

Was Susannia Evans’s God-Worshiping Magic really and truly about mechanization?

“That composite armor is made from carbon, aramid, and fluorine-treated steel panels. These fiber optic cables were probably used for signal transmission. No, maybe they were for the laser beams’ power transmission. But they use chloride glass? In that case…”

The girls watched in confusion as Karuta stepped out of the dark soil crater and began checking through the scattered junk.

“What’s with you? What’s so interesting about all that wreckage?”

“Are there some rare earths worth a lot of money? Ah!? Could you gather all the semiconductors in these devices and melt them down to obtain a fair amount of pure gold? (Tremble, tremble.)”

“No, something isn’t right,” he cut in. “It is true modern medicine can artificially connect severed muscles and nerves. Even organs can be replaced with mechanical devices to a certain extent. And it’s probably all a lot more lenient when you can use magic to help. But this wreckage scattered around here is still strange.”

“Yeah, anyone could tell this wouldn’t fit in that body.”

“I don’t mean that. I’m talking about the materials used.”

“The materials?”

“Yes. The composite armor and artificial organs are all of the highest quality, but a human body would never accept these. The armor would lead to metal poisoning and the organs would be rejected by the body and necrosis could spread to the surrounding cells as well. There are a lot of medical devices made to be implanted in the body – artificial muscles, pacemakers, implants, etc. – but the materials used are chosen carefully. Yet I see none of that caution here. The things I see here would have been suicide for Susannia, so it doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe for a normal person.” Marika did not quite seem to get what he was trying to say. “But doesn’t that just mean she has some magic to force her way through that?”

“Maybe, but that changes things.”

This was his main point.

“Let’s say Susannia Evans had some God-Worshiping Magic that let her modify her entire body, fill it with dangerous materials, and completely suppress any kind of rejection. That would mean her magic wasn’t about mechanization or becoming a cyborg.”

“Wait, you don’t mean…”

“Her God-Worshiping Magic was one that doesn’t let her die. Or maybe one that causes her body to recover from any and all wounds interior or exterior.”

He breathed in and out before making his final statement.

“What if Susannia Evans’s God-Worshipping Magic was for regeneration!?”

In hindsight, the mechanization idea had never made much sense.

Even if you used largescale agricultural machines to cultivate the desert and desalinate the seawater, that scorching land was not going to become fertile so easily. Even with a supply of freshwater, the soil had to be properly developed or it would not contain the necessary nutrients and minerals. So how had Susannia done that?

The answer was simple: she had sown some form of nutrients across the vast desert.

For example, she could have chopped up her own flesh and blood. And conveniently enough, she had called upon the name of Persephone, a deity who, along with her mother Demeter, was closely related to the spring crop and winter hunger.

What had been used to grow all the world’s produce? What was indirectly contained in the foods they had been eating all this time?

But they did not have time to suppress an urge to vomit.

A clump of snow slowly rose up behind surprised Marika.

“Aine!!” shouted the boy.

The crystal girl shoved the curly twintails childhood friend out of the way just before something swept diagonally through that space. It was a scorching blade similar to a gas burner. Aine could not dodge in time, so her slender left arm was severed at the elbow. The barrier formed by a spatial vibration field was no use. The arm spun through the air and fell to the snow. Either she had no liquid circulating her body or she “tightened” the end of the stump because there was no bleeding.

And.

A redheaded woman emerged from the snow with what was more like strings than scraps of cloth draped over her. Was this the result and power of her regeneration? Her skin was tight and had an almost polished sheen to it and there was no sign of anything like a scar.

(This is after she was torn to pieces.)

Time seemed to have stopped, but Karuta still gulped.

(This is well beyond anything Crystal Magic can do. How far does her regeneration go!?)

“Susannia Evans!?”

“Ha ha.”

After being shoved out of the way, Marika finally managed to send a command to the printed circuit board smaller than a stamp, reequip her Crystal Blossom armor, and grab her rapier. She and one-armed Aine attacked from two directions at once. She slashed with a blade made from lasers or masers created from the vibration and excitation of crystal.

Susannia’s movements were far from perfect, but that must have been why she chose to make herself a mechanized cyborg. And she had used her regeneration to entirely ignore the burden on her physical body.

She had lost her mechanical parts and was nearly stripped bare, so she only had just the one close-range burner sword to work with. That was not enough to fully defend against Marika and Aine who had become incarnations of Crystal Magic. She took a few solid blows from the slashing lines of light, so her neck and torso were sliced right through.

But that was not enough to stop her.

None of it mattered to the Problem Solver who could regenerate.

She immediately recovered and resumed fighting without even collapsing. No matter how much they sliced and diced her, she never stopped. It was enough to give the illusion that they were fighting a liquid rather than a solid.

When her one arm was dangling down only half-severed, she cut it the rest of the way off herself to trigger a regeneration from the base.

She would not stop. Karuta had no idea what they could do to win this. Could the world’s strongest of the Problem Solvers really bend the rules of the world this far?

(Is there some core part like her brain or heart? Is she supported by some other object like a magic circle or some ritual artifact? What are we supposed to destroy? What can we attack to end this!? Does her regeneration have none of the rules that Crystal Magic has to follow !?)

“What should we do!?” asked Marika. “Withdraw for now!?”

“The target currently only possesses a close-range weapon,” said Aine. “If we fly into the sky to bomb her from a distance, we should be able to unilaterally attack her.”

“We don’t know how much of the wreckage scattered around here she can still use! Don’t give her any freedom! We don’t stand a chance if she reconnects to her cyborg weapons. That trick we used in the dogfight won’t work again!!”

Opening up her own gut without anesthesia to stuff filthy machines inside while on the receiving end of a fierce aerial bombing would be entirely insane, but Susannia Evans could pull it off. If she could handle the pain, her regeneration would do the rest. She could survive even the most absurd forms of mechanization.

Karuta hated the fact the he could only watch since he had no special abilities himself.

“She’s almost like a planaria. No, she’s even worse!” said Marika. “We’re lucky the cuts don’t bubble out to create multiple copies of her, but she regenerates way too fast!!”

(Wait, a planaria?)

He was reminded of a cruel experiment shown on a TV science program.

And it was something that only worked with the incredible regenerative ability of a planaria.

“Aine, Marika. I want to try something, so aim for her arms!”

“We’ve chopped those off countless times already!!”

“ Don’t cut them off like that. Slice through them lengthwise !!”

He was no longer talking about the woman like she was a human being, but Crystal Girl Aine mechanically complied.

She swung her crystal sword to slice between the middle and ring finger of braided Susannia Evans’s right arm and straight up to near the elbow. Instead of severing the arm, she opened it up in a floppy V-shape.

Susannia moved her other hand in response.

She intended to slice off her partially-damaged arm with the burner sword. She had done this before.

“Marika!!”

On his cry, Marika’s rapier pierced Susannia’s left hand to pin it in place.

“Kh, damn you!!”

For the first time.

Truly for the first time, the Problem Solver’s face twisted.

And a moment later, the regeneration began with a wet sound.

The split V-shape of her right arm did not reconnect. Instead, two right forearms grew out from her elbow.

“There’s a cruel experiment you can do using a planaria’s regenerative ability,” spat out Karuta. “If you partially damage them instead of fully severing their body, another body will emerge from the sliced portion. And it doesn’t just apply to the main body. Cut through the head, and it will grow two heads, brain included. Although I don’t know if that means your personality – or whatever you would call that mass of thoughts – is copied over or if it would be more like having two brains in the same body.”

The same thing was happening here.

Susannia’s regeneration was so absurdly good that they could take advantage of it.

Defeating her was not possible

Same for killing her.

But there was a way of ending the battle and keeping her from living her life even if they did not actually take her life.

“Marika, Aine.” The exacter of revenge made another cold statement. “Do not sever anything. It can be her arms, legs, torso, neck, or head, but just slice her up while keeping things attached like a kid trying to cut up some ingredients their first time cooking! That will transform her into no more than a hunk of flesh. Throw her soul into a prison of flesh where she can never, ever again move of her own free will!!”

### Part 10

A loud splashing sound echoed from the lake filled with thick broken ice.

Karuta, Marika, and Aine were watching the source of the sound.

Karuta spoke while viewing the spreading ripples.

“How’s your arm, Aine?”

“Fine, Sacri-sama. This is not a problem. I have collected the severed arm, so it will automatically reattach once I return to your body. I will have to look after the Crystal Blossom at your chest during that time, though.”

“Come to think of it, our armor does recover from any damage when we have it withdraw,” said Marika. “Although it does seem like we’re breaking the law of conservation of mass when we do it.”

Then this was not a problem.

Only one Problem Solver remained: Anastasia Blast. But those Problem Solvers were all the strongest of some field. He definitely wanted to be in top form before attempting that final battle.

Also, Aine had lost her arm after shoving Marika out of the way on his orders. He would have felt bad if the damage was permanent.

Then a transmission from Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka arrived via their Crystal Blossoms.

“Karuta-kuuun, Marika-chaaan? All the bangs and booms seem to have stopped, so has everything ended safely?”

“Yes, only Anastasia remains now.”

“Then I hate to ask this of you now, but can you help me out?”

“?”

“The previous avalanche completely buried the RV, so I’m kind of trapped inside. Now, it is large enough to have plenty of oxygen and I have enough of food and water to last a while, but being buried alive is not exactly great from a mental health perspective.”

Karuta and Marika exchanged a glance.

Then they looked around them again. The road and the forest had vanished below the white, so judging distance had become incredibly difficult. It felt like everything had been buried and the entire terrain had changed.

“Where did we park the RV?” he asked.

“I thought you would remember! Was there no landmark or anything!? And how many degrees below zero is it out here? I really don’t want to be stranded outside!!”

One-armed Aine did not seem to feel any pain as she slowly tilted her head.

The three of them turned their back on the lake – on the secret base someone had built – and got to work digging the Student Council President and the RV out of the pure white.

They had no more interest in the lake.

Or in what had sunk into its depths.

Utagai Karuta felt a strange smile rising within him when he found himself more worried about the doll’s missing arm than in the clump of mortar stuffed with what had once been the human being named Susannia Evans.

Was that because this instance of revenge had not required an actual death?

Or was he getting used to it, growing corrupted, and crossing the point of no return?

Not even he knew the answer to that question.

### Between the Lines 3

She wanted to change.

It could be a good person, a bad person, a rich person, a poor person, a popular person, or a hated person for all she cared.

She simply wanted to become someone other than who she was here and now.

That was all.

That was Susannia Evans’s one and only desire.

She had intentionally turned away from the colors she liked and made frequent and wild changes in her hair and fashion choices. She had even tried plastic surgery on several occasions. She had also attended seminars that claimed they would change your personality.

She had changed herself inside and out, but none of it had satisfied her.

There was a hole inside her she wanted to erase, but it had remained with her to the very end.

“I am sorry.”

Her shadow changed shape.

The tearful and gloomy woman it formed did nothing but apologized without end.

“I am sorry, I am so very sorry. And all because I needed your help.”

She was Persephone, Greek God of Death.

She had technically been the goddess of spring, but she had gained that new attribute after Hades, Ruler of the Underworld, had taken her away. After spending too long in the underworld while also possessing the breath of spring, she had gained the ultimate regeneration that surpassed even Crystal Magic.

It was the worst possible curse for Susannia who wanted nothing more than to change or be changed.

If she received plastic surgery or even burned or sliced up her face, it would always return to normal, so she could never ever escape being “herself”. No matter how hard she tried to distance herself from it, she would be dragged right back to it like she was wearing a collar with a rubber band attached.

She had felt resentment.

She had half cursed it.

But none of it had been directed at her constantly crying shadow. Persephone was a deity who had always been toyed with by fate, so Susannia’s anger was directed at the fate that continued to torment her so.

“Don’t worry. It doesn’t really matter.”

“…? What do you mean???”

“There is still hope. I actually have high hopes for that Crystal Magic and Grimnoah.”

“You mustn’t interact with the enemy. Building any kind of emotional attachment will only lead to suffering down the road.”

“I don’t mean it like that.” Susannia smiled a little. “It isn’t on my level, but Crystal Magic has an excellent healing and regeneration power, right? And there are hundreds of them. …The error rate might be higher for them, so they might happen across some environment or circumstances where the healing or regeneration doesn’t work. Wouldn’t that be some must-have data? Then I can be freed from this rubber band of regeneration and finally escape being ‘me’. Nee hee hee.”

“I am so sorry. What I most want is for you to stop hurting yourself. I am so sorry. And I am supposed to be the one supporting you.”

“Hey, it’s fine,” said the woman without even a pause. But instead of being dismissive, it sounded like this was something so obvious to her it did not require any time to think. “This difference in opinion only happened because you’re still worried for me after so long, and that does make me happy, you know? No matter what end result it might lead to.”

Susannia and Persephone observed the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy from the outside until they finally arrived at a certain conclusion.

With an excellent regenerative ability, removing foreign objects from the body became difficult.

Especially toxins.

Something as simple as preventing bleeding did not allow the toxins out of the body. The system meant to repair their body would run in vain until their stomach and blood vessels were properly cleaned out, so they would end up in a repeating loop of needless crystallizations across their body.

For Crystal Magicians, it was hard to tell how much of a substance would be helpful versus harmful, so they apparently had to be very careful when taking medicines.

But what if you took that in the opposite direction?

Susannia only had to drive a wedge into her own body. If she could fill her body with artificial objects, machines, and components to intentionally trigger metal poisoning and rejection, her loathsome regeneration would be unable to keep up. She would make it spin its wheels so much it could not handle larger changes such as plastic surgery.

Susannia smiled and bowed in prayer toward her shadow that was still sobbing.

“Thank you.”

And she addressed her nemeses who had also reminded her what it meant to be alive.

“Thank you so much, Grimnoah.”

### 049. Chapter 4

### Part X

The public relations and state-run broadcasting networks of the world’s governments all remain silent, so the reporting from commercial broadcasters such as ourselves has become all the more crucial in bringing all of you the latest information.

We hope we can provide you with as much information as possible to eliminate your anxieties and fears while helping you view the world as it truly is.

First of all, there is still no news concerning the disappearance of the Problem Solvers. We have received no information or word related to them. We have decided that in itself is an important message of some kind.

Your memories of the chaos in London are probably still fresh, but the bits and pieces we have received from the local EMTs and medical examiners shows evidence that the chaos was part of an intentional attack on the Problem Solvers. The host nation of England and the rest of the G21 nations have not officially confirmed this, but it certainly sounds plausible. For example, couldn’t the silence of so many governments actually be loosening the restrictions on information and allowing previously unheard witness accounts to be heard on social media and elsewhere?

This also raises concerning questions about Miss Elicia Luxverg who has made no media appearances since her live interview broadcast across Southeast Asia.

Have they been injured in the fight against the Threat?

Are they being targeted by something other than the Threat?

Or is it both?

And if it is fellow humans attacking the Problem Solvers, what is their motive? The Problem Solvers can be seen as the foundation of the modern world. You could even call them the five pillars that support all of our lives. Why would someone want to take those away or destroy them?

In the past, we saw the occasional attempt to assist in the Threat’s destruction after linking it to religious motifs or passages from books of prophecy, but those were all one-off or short-term events and they never led to anything significant. After all, the Problem Solvers are the world’s strongest, so they have the strength to break through any plans built against them.

But perhaps that is not always the case.

We find this unidentified Individual X to be more frightening than the Threat. Whoever this is may be even stronger than the Problem Solvers. In other words, they are a truly uncontrollable monster. Perhaps one that surpasses even the Threat. As individuals, we would like to focus our attention on this Individual X. We will do our best to accurately grasp the danger at hand so that we do not trap you with needless confusion and speculation. Stay true to your usual self and do not be led astray by baseless rumors and fake news. That is the only way to deal real damage to Individual X.

### Part 1

The flat-screen TV fell silent once more.

Crystal Girl Aine had thrown the remote at it to see how her reattached arm was doing.

“Hey! Aine!!”

“If it is broken, you do not mind if I dismantle it and extract the gold from the circuit boards, do you? That would be a much more efficient use for it.”

Aine showed no sign of guilt and instead made a strange suggestion while on the verge of drooling.

They had driven the RV from Northern Europe’s Finland to a rural Russian city to hide out. The news was more or less the same wherever they went. The only difference was the language being used.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka sighed.

“It feels like we are finally at home with being the villains.”

“They keep telling everyone to remain calm, but the scripts they read are clearly trying to get everyone worked up. In fact, they’re treating us like some kind of cryptid. Not that being seen as a terrorist would be much better,” said strawberry blonde Amaashi Marika while pouting her lips.

The Threat did not matter here.

Whether it existed or not, the governments had definitely used information concerning it to stir up anxiety and confusion among the people and manipulate public opinion to their liking.

No one trusted Anastasia, the final Problem Solver any longer.

It was doubtful she would simply return to guarding the space elevator.

The heads of state had to be at a complete loss now that they could not contact her. They wanted to make a comment through the Problem Solvers. They could not stir up anxiety and confusion and they had lost their means of controlling public opinion. Now that the ordinary people had regained their calm, they had to be erupting with the appropriate emotions toward those heads of state who had sat around having the Problem Solvers handle everything. At this rate, a few governments might even collapse. If the timing matched well enough to appear simultaneous, coordination within international society could be lost.

Right now, the enemy before their eyes mattered more than the Threat that they had no information on.

But this was still chaos and some might lament that needless chaos. Entire cities or nations might oppose it.

Nevertheless, Utagai Karuta’s group could not stop now. With even one Problem Solver remaining, the tropical cave containing the 700 Crystal Magicians could be found and they could all be left unable to regenerate which seemed like a fate worse than death. Even if they could never speak with those 700 again and even if there was a seemingly infinite expanse of time separating them, they could not let any further danger reach Kazamuki Gekiha and the others. They had defeated four Problem Solvers, but they would still lose everything if they gave up now. They could not save anyone’s life if they did not see this revenge through to the end. Not even a single life.

“So what do we know about the last one?” asked Karuta while looking up from the sofa.

“Discussing Anastasia Blast requires discussing what we recovered from Susannia Evans.”

“Huh?” Curly twintails Marika tilted her head while playing rock-paper-scissors with Aine. “I don’t remember finding her car or snowmobile or something.”

“Oh, dear. Did you forget?” The Student Council President gave a bewitching smile while turning toward the girl helping the crystal girl test out her arm. “We managed to collect something very important indeed: the cyborg parts stuffed inside her gut. They were scattered all around that crater, weren’t they?”

“Oh.”

“With products that specialized, neither the hardware nor the software will be found for sale on the general market and only a select few places will be able to produce them from a technological standpoint. So they can lead us to a hideout that the Problem Solvers fully trusted. And investigating the data on the control circuit boards was enough to see some rather distinctive signs.”

Kyouka shut off the room’s lights and operated the projector’s remote.

A red mark appeared at one point on the world map she displayed on the wall.

In other words…

“Silicon Valley in the United States of America. After they reorganized to handle everything from social media to drone factories, the city’s scenery has changed to become something like a strange precision industry district. One good example is the precision electronic weapons plant owned by Smart Arms, one of the world’s largest international arms companies. That is the most suspicious place. The supply of power and now food has been destabilized, but that money drain continues to run with a staff of around ten thousand and without using the giant sword woman’s factory☆”

Karuta just about asked how she could act so unconcerned when they were the ones that caused it, but perhaps he was too soft since he had yet to actually kill anyone.

“I wonder if arms production was one thing the all-purpose factory would not do.”

“But, Omotesandou-san, that’s the place that supplied Susannia with her parts, so why would we find Anastasia there?” cautiously asked Karuta.

“There is no guarantee, of course,” agreed Kyouka in the darkness. “But what if the online flow of money proves the factory has maintained an unnatural level of security even after Susannia went missing? This is the downside of relying entirely on an outside PMC to avoid military oversight as much as possible. We know someone other than the original owner is hiding out there, and who is the most likely suspect?”

“I suppose another Problem Solver would have an easy time slipping right in there. Plus, Anastasia is in charge of the military infrastructure and her share of the global business is in North America. This would have been the perfect fit for her.”

“Yes, very well done, Karuta-kun. You get a gold star from me.”

Of course, this could always be a trap.

The flow of data could have been faked to draw out Karuta’s group. Just like how the log cabin in Finland had been used.

Marika frowned.

“Arms corporations do business with entire countries, right? If Anastasia is hiding out there, wouldn’t the head of the company report it? Y’know, to the US President or someone.”

“Someone may be weighing their options. After all, this is the last remaining Problem Solver and no fighting force is rarer. The company might want that last member to be indebted to them or the White House may secretly want Anastasia all to themselves.”

This talk of the US President and the White House had no real basis to it, of course. Karuta spoke up while making sure not to let cowardly speculation bind their actions.

“Also, Anastasia is in charge of the global military infrastructure. I don’t know what exactly she does, but her presence is key to the jigsaw puzzle made from the national borders on the world map. Any country would want to control her if they could.”

“There is no way to know where word of her presence is being stopped, but this factory is still fishy. Of course, that means it is also extremely dangerous.”

That said.

Even so.

“Nothing will change if we don’t go there, huh?”

“Even if it is bait or a diversion, we might find another hint based on who gave the order and through what channels.”

The Student Council President pressed a button on the projector remote to display a photo of Anastasia Blast.

She was a sexy woman with long, wavy blonde hair.

They of course wanted as much information on her as they could get before fighting her, but there was unfortunately nothing else to display here.

“Just like with Susannia, she does not make public appearances. We took out Elicia in a surprise attack while she was out on her own, but they were waiting as a group at the London summit and Susannia had set a trap in Finland to kill us. …And yet Anastasia did not make an appearance at either of those.”

“So she’s either very cautious or a coward.”

That was an odd thing to say about a Problem Solver, but some people were both cowardly and powerful. Those people would go nuts and use everything at their disposal to crush even a small honeybee approaching them. That panic could create an opening, but they also never let their guard down or compromised. If someone like that had the power of the world’s strongest, they could be even more dangerous than someone who calmly worked out the optimal solution to their problems.

And what if that person directly controlled the world’s military infrastructure?

“We’re going in blind against the strongest again,” bitterly stated Marika while playing with Aine.

They had initially thought Susannia Evans’s God-Worshiping Magic was about mechanization when it was really about regeneration. If a misreading like that led them to make a misstep here, they could be wiped out. It was only natural to want to avoid returning to such a nerve-racking situation.

“But we can’t come to a stop, can we?”

“No,” agreed Karuta with a shake of his head. “We have to end this here.”

### Part 2

Silicon Valley, USA.

After hearing this was the world’s largest arms plant and that it had been kept separate from the giant sword woman’s all-purpose factory, Utagai Karuta had pictured an area covered in steel and concrete, toxic-colored smoke obscuring the sky, and the clanging of metal sounding around the clock, but the reality was much different.

The blue sky was refreshingly clear, green grass covered the ground, and a small bridge crossed a clear stream that glittered beautifully in the sunlight.

“A city of semiconductor factories needs clean water and air,” said Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka while looking out the RV’s window. “Hundreds of thousands of people live in San Jose, but other parts of Silicon Valley only have around ten thousand people. I hear the areas along the highways connecting the cities tend to look like this.”

“I’ve also heard the deserts are shrinking even in America,” said Marika. “They’re all starting to fill in with green thanks to the desert agricultural plants connected to Susannia’s mechanization…or regeneration, I guess. And thanks to the insects and small animals, I imagine they won’t need a certain someone’s flesh anymore once things reach a certain point. This greenery restoration work has its downsides, doesn’t it? If those areas take in too much weed DNA, not even off-road cars would be able to get through.”

People were not going to starve for the time being.

The quality of the food might drop, but once the farmers stopped focusing solely on the profit gained by the perfect selectively bred or genetically altered crop, the food would reach an acceptable level once more.

On the other hand, there was nothing here except for giant boxy factories and truck stops. There were no commercial locations outside of gas stations, diners, and pay showers, so acquiring food did not look easy. It was so bad they had needed to stock up at a supermarket in a town on the way. Even that had been difficult since Susannia’s loss had left the supermarket shelves nearly empty. (Stock would not run out that quickly, so that was probably due to other people stocking up so they could hole up in their personal shelters.) Tourists would visit en route to other places, but no one would stay there for long. Their RV would stand out if it stuck around for too long. Silicon Valley was known for its precision machinery plants, but in the places with nothing, there really was nothing .

Strawberry blonde Marika gave a skeptical look toward the “excuse” that was applying new pressure to the already limited space in the RV.

“Will this camera and telescope really work as insurance?”

“Stargazing is the #1 reason why someone would visit a place with no famous tourist destinations and where finding as much as a gas station is difficult, right?” said Kyouka. “And if we need clean air and as few artificial lights as possible, our presence here sounds all the more plausible. If we call ourselves meteor hunters, then we even have an excuse for being in some remote area or private property.”

“Meteor hunters?”

“Hobbyists who collect fallen meteorites and sell them for cash.”

They had taken a few astronomical photos and stored them on flash memory in case someone questioned them further. Surprisingly, it was the Student Council President herself who got the most into it. She had seemed endlessly calm and composed to Karuta, but she may have had a more girly side to her that loved astrology and horoscopes.

How visible had the stars been back on the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy?

He found he could not really remember.

The sky had to have been full of stars in that tropical ocean so far away from human civilization, but the giant ship itself may have emitted too much light.

Could the Student Council President have spent every night back then peering into a telescope and sighing at the unsatisfactory results?

At any rate.

The odds were good Anastasia Blast was hiding inside that plant.

And if they were going to attack, they were going to do it by the book. The focus on security would be lowest just before dawn. Waiting until then had been agonizing because they could not move, but they had also been so nervous it was hard to sleep. They had also needed to adjust their own biorhythms to match the timing of the attack. They had finished dinner before sunset and gotten what sleep they could in the early evening to late night.

“Hey,” said Marika while lying on the sofa bed like usual. “What do we do once we’ve finished our revenge?”

“I doubt we can return to a normal life. Even if we were justified, we still traveled around the world killing people. That said, guarding the crystal statues in that cave would only draw attention to them. Once we’ve dealt with the Problem Solvers who will actively search it out, it would be best for Gekiha and the others to leave it be.”

Crystal Girl Aine responded without giving it much thought while standing in the corner of the RV like usual.

“I am your Crystal Blossom, so I assumed I would stay with you after this.”

“Yeah, and I’m your childhood friend, so staying with you might be for the best.”

They seemed to be settling on a conclusion without letting him voice his opinion.

And the Student Council President naturally joined in.

“Once this is all done, I suppose I will step down as Student Council President.” She gave a somewhat sad-looking smile. “And are you going to kick me out after all we have been through? Doesn’t that seem a little cold?”

“So we’ll all stay together, huh?” said Utagai Karuta.

One of Marika’s eyebrows shot up.

“What, you got a problem with that?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“?”

These four(?) had been the only ones to escape that giant ship with their lives. Those survivors had decided to use every ounce of strength they had to take revenge against the seemingly unbeatable Problem Solvers. That was all it had been in the beginning So while it might sound cold, they were only together by chance. If it had been someone else who had survived, the group holding this discussion now would have been different. That was all that held them together.

Yet the next thing they knew, they had developed much stronger bonds.

Karuta had not realized it until now, but it felt weird to think of them saying bye and going their separate ways once this was over.

“Where should we go once it’s over?” he asked.

Marika and Kyouka gave separate answers while arguing with each other.

“I’m sick of the garbage-filled cities. I’d like to take it easy on a tropical island.”

“Ehh? Don’t the Alps sound nice? There’s no better retreat! And it makes you sound fancy.”

“I’m gonna say no thanks to anything that requires dressing warmly. Besides, I like the beach better than the mountains.”

“Ugh, I take it you’re not shy about being seen in a swimsuit, huh?”

“I love swimsuits. Bring on the micro bikinis and slingshots, if you ask me. Nothing helps keep your body looking nice like showing it off.”

Marika began some bewitching laughter and the Student Council President glanced over at Karuta for some reason.

Meanwhile, Aine stated what she wanted.

“I do not mind where we go as long as I am with my Sacri-sama.”

“I mean, you don’t really have a choice but to be with me, do you?”

“I will be happy as long as I have enough pure gold to bathe in.”

“What, are we supposed to search out El Dorado? Your request has got to be the most difficult one.”

Their discussion had a laid-back atmosphere, but a part of Karuta’s mind thought it sounded like some far-off future.

It did not feel like something that could happen in less than a day’s time.

Speaking their dreams out loud did not make them feel any more real. It was not that he did not want these things to come true. Part of him really did think they sounded nice. But he could not shake the feeling that there was some thin transparent film separating him from them. Something told him things would not play out quite so conveniently.

In fact.

The options laid before him felt so weightless, flimsy, and unsatisfying that he had to watch himself lest he speak a truly impossible wish such as “I want to go back to our school”.

This was their final battle.

The battle against Anastasia Blast had been saved for last.

She was a Problem Solver, one of the world’s strongest.

They could not plan ahead or construct a detailed strategy and they were forced to go in blind, making this extremely dangerous.

Whether this was their first opponent or their last, it was all over if they died. They would lose everything.

No one knew how this would turn out.

But there was one thing he could say for certain: we don’t live in a kind enough world to give us that ideal ending.

“Once this is over, I just want to take some time to relax.”

“We can do that. We’ve just been way too busy lately.”

### Part 3

The promised time had arrived.

It was better called early morning than late night. Karuta and Marika left the RV at 4:10 AM, which was just barely before dawn. They were in a truck stop for long-distance drivers. Those places were usually busy even late at night, but this early morning period was apparently an exception. Everyone had their seat reclined while they slept below a blanket with an empty stomach.

The sky was changing from dark blue to purple.

Just like in his memories of the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy, he found it difficult to imagine the arrangement of the stars as the darkness faded away.

Curly twintails Marika looked up and trembled a bit in the chilly air before speaking up in annoyance.

“I can tell why we chose this time. Of course, we’re headed to the weapon production plant of the world’s largest arms company that didn’t even get help from the giant sword woman, so I doubt the place is this quiet.”

“If we only knew Anastasia was there, we wouldn’t have to sneak around like this. This is going to be the final battle, so we might as well break in and end it quickly.”

Of course, that assumed this opponent was someone they could defeat that way.

As they walked out of the truck stop and toward the semiconductor plant, they received a transmission from Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka who was waiting back at the RV.

“Karuta-kun. This is the world’s most secure factory, but do you remember how to get in?”

“It’s not really all that complicated.”

To keep out industrial spies and terrorists, the factory would have cameras and sensors set up inside and out. There were sure to be a thousand or even ten thousand in all.

But there was a way around that.

Simply put…

“Sensors are meaningless if they can’t sound the alarm after detecting an intruder,” he said.

“Yes, we only have to set things up so the alarm will sound around the clock and refuse to turn off,” said Kyouka. “Security will probably work hard to search the area at first, but they will gradually give up on that. Once they realize the sensors are malfunctioning, it will not take long for them to start yelling at the alarm to stop.”

“And no will notice us sneaking in when all the sensors are already sounding the alarm? Wow, that’s like the polar opposite of ninja action,” joked Marika while walking alongside him.

It might seem ridiculous, but there was no chance of sneaking in and covertly achieving their goal when they wanted to fight one of those Problem Solvers. Chaos would arrive sooner or later, so it all came down to deciding when that was.

The factory grounds were a 3km square and they included employee dorms since it existed in such an empty area, so it looked something like a small village. It was all locked down by a fence and gate, though. There were also a few large, boxy factory buildings and warehouses for temporary storage of products and materials.

On the way there, they spotted an unmanned transformer substation surrounded by a tall fence. Backup power would likely kick in if they destroyed that and it would require some very technical skills to bypass the switchover and cut power to the sensors.

But if they only wanted to cause a commotion, things were much easier.

“Marika, blast that thing,” said Karuta.

“Oh, so we’re finally getting started.”

After she said “Tezcatlipoca, power up”, the Crystal Blossom worn at her chest shattered and covered her arms and legs with translucent armor and wings. She swung her rapier to fire a laser beam from the unit inside the reversed guard that resembled a broken umbrella on a windy day. She sliced right through the fence and the boxy concrete building of the transformer substation.

Alarms began blaring from the sleeping factory and lights switched on with the brightness of a baseball night game.

Karuta gave a snort of laughter.

He had already experienced this while traveling through London while the city was on high alert. Bright lights seemed like they would help locate suspicious people, but the extreme contrast actually created blind spots in the shadows. It looked like they had little to worry about.

“Okay, we have to play the rest by ear.”

“This is getting exciting!”

Marika again used her laser beam to slice through the chain link fence to gain access to the factory grounds.

But something seemed off once they stepped inside.

“What?”

“Is something wrong?” asked the Student Council President.

“Um, we set off the alarms as planned, but there’s no one inside,” answered Marika. “There’s no sign of the security PMC or any workers who should be checking around after this extra-loud alarm clock woke them up.”

“…”

The alarms and bright lights most likely reacted automatically when the sensors detected something. They were overcome by an eerie feeling similar to arriving at school like normal but finding yourself alone there even as the bell rang to signal the start of class.

Then all the alarms went dead.

They had chosen a method that would make the alarms hard to shut off, yet everything went silent.

A young woman’s voice spoke from the emergency broadcast speakers set up around the area.

“No need to be so shy. The doors are unlocked and the PMC has been called off. Hurry on in. I really wanted to speak with you.”

“…”

“Whether you want to speak or not, you do need to meet with me, don’t you? You must be dying to kill me since I’m the last survivor. So hurry it up. I am waiting in the general reception lobby of Building A Floor 1.”

“(Hey, Karuta.)”

“(Yeah. We know there’s someone suspicious here, but there’s no guarantee they’ll be waiting there.)”

They stood back to back to keep an eye on their surroundings as they slowly made their way toward Building A.

Meanwhile, the young woman continued chatting from the speakers.

“Hey, Utagai Karuta. What are your thoughts on the Threat?”

“…”

“Oh, did I put you on your guard? It was not easy gathering information on you. I mean, checking the bodies wasn’t really an option when they all sank with the ship, so it was extremely difficult figuring out who we failed to kill. The report cards held by various governments and that fully separate Crystal Blossom you call Aine ended up being the keys there. A rare weapon can have its downsides in practice.”

This was more than just a unilateral broadcast.

She knew where they were and could see his wordless reaction.

“I don’t care what the Threat is at this point. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn you made it all up.”

“Ha ha. But that wouldn’t make any sense at all.”

It was her response that did not seem to make sense.

But he doubted she was lying at this point. She was not begging for her life, so she felt no need to worry how they felt about her. If she was going to silence them through death, she would not need to protect her image with them.

So what did that mean?

“The Threat does exist,” said the scratchy voice coming from the speaker. “It is hopelessly powerful, it is brutal with no room for negotiation, and not even the five of us working together could defeat it. It is known as a Metal-Derived Autonomous-Origin Higher Lifeform Combat Weapon, but who knows what that means. Whatever it is, it causes real damage and the world’s governments must not have been satisfied with how we were just barely restraining it. That is why they decided to develop and introduce new technologies such as your Crystal Blossoms.”

“Then why did you crush our school underfoot? Couldn’t we have all just gotten along?”

“Wasn’t fighting us enough to tell that we use entirely different formats?”

Her words seemed to decisively cast something aside.

“Your power is useful. It has in fact driven us to this point. But suddenly bringing a new weapon to the battlefield is certain to introduce confusion into the maintenance and utilization of all the weapons. We would trip each other up and fail to live up to our potential and that would cause the barely-contained equilibrium to collapse. We had restricted the damage to the occasional region or city, but from that moment on, the future of the 5.5 billion population would only grow darker and darker.”

“…”

“More power is not always a good thing. We suggested a future where the five of us continued to be updated until we could one day defeat the Threat. Everything beyond that would only hinder that future.”

“Are you kidding me? You slaughtered so many people just because they followed a different standard, yet you expect us to repent?”

“No.”

Did she resent Karuta’s group just like they did the Problem Solvers after their friends were killed?

“There is a punishment for every crime. Either I will kill you or you will kill me. But even if you defeat me, you will not escape this hell. Once you become the world’s strongest, the reality of the Threat will be thrust before you. No matter what happens, you will not find rest.”

Marika’s eyes wandered as she asked a question.

“Damn her. Is she really this insane? You killed so many people and you aren’t even talking in terms of good and evil? To hell with that! Do you not even realize what you did was wrong!?”

“We merely held different positions. And do you remember what we were tasked with protecting? You should have been able to see it from that giant ship.”

It was like a decorative piece of junk.

It was a skinny silhouette rising vertically from the horizon.

Karuta recalled what Kazamuki Gekiha had said while laughing.

“The space…elevator? What about it?”

“The world is reshaped by the victors. There was an age of mythology, there was an age of natural science, there was an age of majority rule, there was an age of God-Worshiping Magic, and now an age of Crystal Magic is arriving.”

“And you didn’t want that?”

“It all comes back to the different positions we held. We brought our magic to the table because we sensed that ordinary scientific technology would not be enough to construct a fortress against the Threat. The planetary expansion of Sunny Side Up was one option. But there were plenty of others. Elicia wanted to build a submarine city that perfectly recycled all of its waste, Yukino wanted the aforementioned planetary expansion, Jessie wanted to use largescale cold sleep to pseudo time travel tens of thousands of years into the future when the world’s environment would have recovered, and Susannia wanted to use special suits based on biological structures to endure the harsh environment. I too brought an option to the table like that. Although mine was rather bizarre. But more than that, it came down to whether or not we could construct a means of combating the Threat under own power. You could even say that was the requirement to join the Problem Solvers. Not all of it was necessary. As long as just one of us bore fruit, we would have a chance of defeating the Threat.”

“You don’t mean…”

“Yes, as you Crystal Magicians rose to prominence, you got in the way of those things. Your side effects – that is, the absurdly tall buildings and ridiculously large ships and aircraft – sucked the resources dry in the blink of an eye. No matter how bizarre a fortress civilization the five of us tried to create, your new technologies would get in the way. The planet would dry up and humanity would be wiped out before the Threat could do it. Nothing developed from Crystal Magic can defeat the Threat.”

How much of what she was saying could they believe? Karuta could not tell how much was true, but he knew something in there was not right. But as he focused on that camouflage story, he could not deny one thing. Whatever the specifics were, the birth of Crystal Magic was threatening to thoughtlessly destroy everything God-Worshiping Magic had built up.

It was not an issue of each individual power.

The rise of that new power was like an invisible hand attempting to drag God-Worshiping Magic from its throne.

Was that what the Problem Solvers had been fighting?

“For one thing, we never considered you Crystal Magicians yourselves to be good or evil,” continued the voice over the speaker. “The real issue was the Original Crystal Embryo. That gave humanity something we did not need. We could have continued combating the Threat with decent results, but that was getting in our way. Its thoughts and lifespan are unknown, but Crystal Magicians can only be found within humanity. Perhaps it hopes to wipe out the entire species and let a new green ecosystem spring forth over the course of tens of thousands of years. Perhaps it wishes to reorganize the pyramid so humans are no longer at the top.”

“…”

“Have you started to question it yourself now? Not even I know what will become of humanity if we abandon any new path and stick with what we have. Perhaps the resources and food will quickly run out and we will all die, or perhaps Crystal Magicians will find a new solution that not even the Original Crystal Embryo considered. But I do not like having the choice taken from us. Humanity must decide whether we do something or not. We do not need to cling to the skirt of that Original Crystal Embryo.”

They had nearly arrived at Building A.

Karuta and Marika gulped while the speaker continued.

“And this is not an issue of good or evil. It is about different positions. There was an age of mythology, an age of natural science, and an age of God-Worshiping Magic, and then Crystal Magicians were rising to the forefront. This is nothing complicated. The world is reshaped by the strongest. The strongest get to decide how the world works. In our attempt to work together and combat the Threat, we once got in someone’s way and led to the deaths of our predecessors and now others are similarly getting in our way. We remain the strongest until we are eliminated. When we are defeated is when the title of strongest is passed on. That is all it means to be strongest. It is a flimsy thing that leaves you so readily.”

“You…”

He shuddered.

He finally understood why she did not work with the other Problem Solvers. She wanted to combat the threat in every way she could and she wanted to use her full strength to achieve victory, but she did not think she would survive in the end. If other people’s lives were necessary to achieve victory, she would crush them and she would not hesitate even if her own name was on that list. She made no attempt to avoid the inevitable fall awaiting her. She would wait for it to reach her and she would crush it head-on once it did. She had survived this long that way. And she truly stood at the peak if she had managed to hold the title of the strongest with so little planning behind it.

“Simple, isn’t it? It might happen today or it might not. That is how we have lived our lives.”

They never arrived at the general reception lobby of Building A.

Something happened before they could.

The entire giant boxy factory was slashed diagonally from within.

Everything collapsed and so much dust filled the scene.

But that screen was sliced through and swept away so nothing remained.

Below the purple sky, a woman grinned at Karuta and Marika. She had long, wavy blonde hair and she wore a tight skirt military uniform with a yellow and black coloration that signified danger.

“I beseech thee, Anubis, Egyptian God of Judgment.”

This was Anastasia Blast.

She was the final Problem Solver and the undeniable world’s strongest.

She defined today’s justice, but she might not define tomorrow’s.

“So let us begin yet another day in our apocalyptic lives. There is no good or evil here. This is no more than a waking dream until I destroy someone or they destroy me. The shape of the world supported by the ‘strongest’ is no more than an illusion drifting in the gap between dreams.”

### Part 4

There was no need to hold back at this point.

Utagai Karuta summoned Crystal Girl Aine from his back and shouted to Marika who had already equipped her Crystal Blossom armor and rapier.

“Aine, you move out ahead! Marika, you take flight!!”

He gave instructions using his physical voice instead of the Crystal Blossom vibrations and, while Anastasia was focused on them, he moved straight toward her.

He pulled his modified military flashlight from his blazer’s pocket, activated a blinding beam of light made by combining a laser pointer with the special lens used for printers, and silently shined it toward Anastasia’s face.

But.

“Do you know what magic is?”

She vanished.

He heard a distortion in the black-uniformed woman’s voice and suddenly she was standing right next to where the laser was shining.

“That term refers to all attempts to understand the world around you that are based on worshiping the divine or believing in a religion. Can an arrangement of cards explain the Tree of Life? Can a special calendar reveal the day of the world’s destruction? Can a certain series of dance steps summon the rain at any time? The specifics go by many different names, but the root principle is the same.”

“Kh!”

Karuta continued to aim his blinding laser from the ground while twintails Marika switched her rapier’s guard to its reversed firing mode and launched truly deadly lasers from the sky, but none of them hit. They were not allowed to hit. Even with the speed of light on their side, Anastasia kept “disappearing” and they could not get in a proper hit.

(What? Is she teleporting or something? Or is she reading our thoughts as we aim!?)

“It is a simple matter.” Anastasia remained standing still. I said magic is all attempts to understand the world around you, didn’t I? That means it also applies to any attempts to understand the Newtonian physics that allows you to tangibly experience invisible quantum physics.”

“What?”

“Simply put, I can dodge attacks made of light if I move faster than the speed of light. And light is constantly hitting my body. If I add my own strength to the light that is already pushing my body, it establishes the following equation: (The speed of light) + (My athletic ability) = (My current speed). If I can add just a little bit on top of the standard value for light, then of course I can surpass it.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

That explanation was so absurd he suspected it was solely meant to confuse him.

It was such childish logic. No, even small children understood nothing could exceed the speed of light. Anastasia was producing such extreme results, yet the foundation of it was contradictory to an extreme. That creeped Karuta out to no end.

“And this is not limited to the speed of light. You saw the other Problem Solvers, did you not? Horoscopes and calendars? Your Crystal Magic may simply read the flow of power between heaven and earth, but did you really think that was enough to manage the world’s strongest power?”

“…”

The dinosaur, the light spear, the giant sword, and regeneration.

It was true those each felt like the strongest because they were from such different categories.

Any attempt to understand them had been abandoned by categorizing it all as God-Worshiping Magic.

He could not hope to understand them, yet there they were. That may have been what made them so frightening.

“There was an age of dinosaurs, an age of stone tools, an age of staffs and crystal balls, an age of guns and steam, and many others. I suppose the previous age was of electricity and petroleum. But we wiped it out. It was our ability to do that which established the age of God-Worshiping Magic and earned us the title of world’s strongest.” Anastasia laughed. “God-Worshiping Magic users are not brilliant geniuses or wise sages. In a way, we are the dumb ones. The power pouring down from space, the energy rising from the center of the earth, and the invisible mountains and valleys created by those things colliding are all irrelevant. While you stare at those occult weather maps, we create our own bomb cyclones. Because we can. …And once you reach that point, you reach a world where the speed of light is such a flimsy restriction.”

Her power felt like some kind of joke.

This was the definition of magic itself.

She was an incomprehensible monster in human form. Karuta felt his skin crawl while facing her, but then he realized a fundamental fact.

This was not over yet.

She could move faster than light. It felt like there was no hitting an enemy like that, but that was not true. That was simply how most people would view it since they thought of the speed of light as an absolute boundary.

After all…

(Anastasia’s childish form of evil does not think of…no, does not believe that light is the world’s fastest. She believes that plenty of things move faster than light.)

He gulped.

(So she knows how to conquer light, but she does not believe that is enough to bend the world to her will. It could be vibrations, or electrons, or wind, or fire. She believes that plenty of other ordinary things have the possibility of surpassing light. So, so, so…)

“Aine! Hit her directly!!”

(This only lets her dodge laser attacks since they use light, so another form of attack has a chance of hitting her!!)

A roar of wind came from a katana made from a translucent, crystal-like material. It had a jitte-like branch on the back of the blade and a special laser gun unit was attached there. Crystal Girl Aine’s clear white dress fluttered around her as she raced forward with weapon in hand.

There was less than 20m between them.

Her nonhuman legs could clear that distance in a single second.

But Anastasia laughed and took a step back.

That was all it took to kill Aine’s speed. She stopped. For some reason, she was running and running but could not reach the woman in a yellow and black uniform.

“I move back every time you move forward, thus you can never reach me.”

“Now you’re dragging out old Greek nonsense!?” shouted Marika from the sky while she charged in like a meteor with rapier in hand.

Anastasia could not use that method for an attack from above since she could not sink down into the ground. She could not bind the attack with the magic that let her ignore distance and speed, so Marika should have been able to reach her. However…

“The moon is pulling me toward it, so I can fly.”

“!!!???”

Anastasia disappeared.

Marika quickly pulled back her rapier, but then the weapon and her right arm’s armor were blown away. Even though she was using a barrier that (unlike Karuta’s) could deflect machinegun fire. The roar came a moment later. The twintail girl just barely avoided crashing and instead made an unsteady emergency landing.

Anastasia had passed through at a speed too fast to follow with the naked eye and her own right fist had been destroyed and her arm bones were sticking out at her elbow.

She stopped in midair, laughed, and kissed the back of her destroyed hand.

“I can kiss it and make it better.”

What happened next goes without saying.

There were no time limits or detailed rules like there were for Crystal Magic.

Sweat poured from Karuta’s body while he looked up from the ground thanks to the ordinary bonds of gravity.

Instead of tension or a fear of the unknown, seeing the true nature of magic filled him with disgust.

It was not that Anastasia did not know how things really worked.

She had said she could fly because “the moon is pulling me toward it”. That basis required knowledge of universal gravitation, but she still prioritized her own thoughts and believed in them without a shred of doubt. Because that was the age and the world they lived in. Was this her pride in claiming the title of strongest and remaking the world as she saw fit? Even if all the possibilities of every other parallel world would not allow this ridiculous conclusion, this world was different.

This was magic that distorted a world its user had truly never seen. It was a lot like drawing a map of the ends of the earth based on your imagination instead of actually going there.

(What do we do? What do we do!? This mixed up feeling from her is different from that dinosaur or light spear! It’s way worse! Is it even possible to come up with and follow a plan for someone like this? Can we really outdo the bomb cyclone itself simply by reading the weather map and following what it says? That just doesn’t sound realistic. She takes it so far I can’t see any way to outdo her!!)

“Sacri-sama.”

Aine jumped back toward him with her special katana in hand.

Marika waved from where she had landed a short distance away. She had taken a hit from Anastasia, but she could apparently keep fighting.

“Give me your instructions,” said Aine. “What should I do next?”

“Good question.”

That response came not from Karuta but from Anastasia in the sky overhead.

The yellow and black uniform woman smiled with the purple sky behind her.

“This is a taste of our apocalyptic everyday life. We are always destroying someone and we will be destroyed by someone someday. You started this, so let us end it. Are you out of options? What happened to your trump cards? Is it over already? Then it would seem today is not the day I die. I will hold onto the title of world’s strongest till at least tomorrow.”

Was this how it worked?

He did not know how many secrets and mysteries the world held. He had no way of checking to see which ones would blossom and cover the world if they were supported in the normal way. But their light faded so easily when up against something as baffling as this God-Worshiping Magic that was so mixed up and seemed entirely impervious to their every effort.

“All I did was recite a simple hex, focus my own actions on defense, and respond with the appropriate reactions to your attacks.”

They watched as floating Anastasia pulled something from the chest of her tight skirt military uniform.

The thick card set looked a lot like it could be for poker, but that was unlikely.

Or perhaps this was the original form of a card set.

“So now I will go on the offensive. Didn’t I say that magic refers to all attempts to understand the world around you? And that one of the prime examples is trying to explain the Tree of Life with tarot cards?”

The cards flew.

They followed some sort of rules to spread out like a shield in front of her.

“Technically, this is not how they are meant to be used, but I do promise you it will be entertaining.”

And.

“Enjoy my strongest.”

The ground broke apart and a giant form rose up behind Anastasia in the sky.

### Part 5

Size-wise, it was like a giant mountain more than 100m tall.

Shape-wise, it had a bizarre silhouette resembling a bipedal dinosaur crossed with a grotesque deep sea fish.

It felt like a great symbol of ruin with how it repeatedly crumbled and re-solidified at its outlines and how it gave off a strangely sweet rotting smell.

Paralyzed.

Completely paralyzed.

Karuta and Marika were too overwhelmed by the yellow and black to move. Crystal Girl Aine silently tilted her head, but she would not act unless she was given instructions.

“There are many different forms of tarot divination. Reading the future is the most well-known, but they can also be used to determine your compatibility with another person, to organize your own feelings…or to seek out something in the past that has already been lost.” Anastasia spoke with the giant form behind her. That monster seemed to accept that thing as perfectly normal. “This was originally an attempt to recreate a lost lifestyle by using the 22 cards of the Major Arcana and the 56 cards of the Minor Arcana. In other words, to revive a ruined civilization. But strangely, when I dropped the fishing line into the depths, I ended up catching more than just the one I was after. The line must have been a little too strong because it appears I have fished up every last thing known as a lost civilization. ”

“What…are you talking about?”

“Yes, yes! This one caught even me by surprise, but now I can believe it. I had not acquired just the one specific lifestyle. Oh, no. I had fished up all of the civilizations that have vanished since the dawn of history. Altogether, that is a series of 1056 dooms and apocalypses.”

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

What the hell was that?

How were they supposed to defeat something as absurd as that?

The category of civilizations could not be measured with something as simple as countries or populations. Thanks to the spread of globalization in modern society, it was impossible to say how many civilizations there were. If this woman had over a thousand methods of destroying an entire civilization – be they a meteor, a flood, a virus, a war, or quieter options like depopulation or isolation – she might be able to destroy the entire world with just a small fraction of them.

“…”

Karuta was overwhelmed.

He was truly speechless.

Someone had said Anastasia Blast was in charge of the world’s military infrastructure.

Was this what that meant?

She could protect her allies and kill her enemies. She could alter the power balance. The military was nothing more than the means of using lives to control the rising and falling of civilizations.

She viewed the world before her on the level of civilizations, so she did not focus too much on each individual life. If she appeared before a hero or dictator powerful enough to single-handedly destroy an entire civilization, they would realize for the first time they were nothing more than a side character. Even the Demon Lord with the power to destroy humanity would be killed instantly by a flick of her fingers.

All civilizations would fall one day.

Even if globalization progressed to the point that the entire planet could be considered a single civilization, it would still fall apart eventually if viewed in the long, long term.

That explained why she rose above the interests of individual nations.

If she could do all this but was still considered an ace on active duty – in other words, she could not fully destroy the Threat and retire – it made sense why the entire world so feared the Threat.

(What do we do?)

Utagai Karuta’s eyes rolled in his head and sweat soaked his body as he searched for some kind of salvation. Marika tried to catch her breath while down on her knees and Crystal Girl Aine awaited orders at his side. Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was also waiting back at the RV. Who could he order to do what in order to overturn this ridiculous situation!?

(Gathering all the current civilizations won’t be enough to match the total number that have been destroyed in the past. So what about Aine? She’s made from a Crystal Blossom from head to toe, so she doesn’t count as part of humanity and she might be able to deal damage from outside this conflict between human civilizations. No, that wouldn’t work. I still form the foundation as the Crystal Magician, so she’s only a portion of my civilization. Not to mention that Crystal Magic as a whole was created by human hands. So it can’t defeat that collection of our predecessors’ knowledge!)

“Hold on. Is that an ‘oh, no’ I see on your face?” There was clear amusement in Anastasia’s voice. “But I hold every civilization that has been destroyed since the dawn of history, avenger. And that would include that lost time that was stolen before your eyes and that you desire above all else. I do not know where in here the 700 from your Ocean Crystal Magic Academy can be found, but since their small Crystal Blossom civilization was destroyed, it must be found here.”

“Kh.”

(Gekiha!!)

That boy was not dead.

It would take a long, long time, but he would recover eventually.

But what if he was trapped in that large framework of a destroyed civilization?

“Ha ha ha! But instead of hoping for a reunion, your thoughts jumped straight to ‘oh, no’. That is who you truly are. You say you are fighting to protect the dead? You claim this revenge is to prevent us from taking everything from you? If that were truly your priority, you would have seen this as an opportunity, just like those nobles who indulge in seances to meet their departed loved ones again.”

This was the last remaining world’s strongest.

This was the temptation of Anastasia who controlled the world’s military infrastructure…no, who controlled the entire field of doom.

“This is the true essence of my magic.”

She moved her right hand like she was holding an invisible brandy glass and the frighteningly large form began to swirl around.

By the time a deafening roar reached his ears, the collection of doom had compressed to the size of a softball and dropped into her hand. Then it crawled out to surround her entire body. Some of it covered her limbs and some spread across her spine to cover her with yellow and black armor.

It almost looked like an incomplete Crystal Blossom.

That giant monster of more than 1000 meters had been made from all the civilizations that had met their doom in the past, yet even it was only a material to be used.

The world’s strongest reigned supreme as an individual. She was not like Karuta who let the entirely separate crystal girl do the fighting.

“Now, it is time for the final act,” she said while giving off an even more intensely menacing aura.

Even an ordinary person could tell this was the most efficient way to use that. They could tell this would bring about the ferocious destruction of the world’s strongest far more than letting that 1000m monster run amok.

“All who cannot overcome the doom of a civilization shall be crushed by my wall of doom.”

A yellow and black explosion followed.

As soon as he realized that was Anastasia Blast charging forward, the decisive moment had already arrived.

### Part 6

In that final moment, Utagai Karuta imagined a horribly faded vision of the past for some reason.

Marika was smiling by his side like usual and Student Council President Kyouka was there even though she had actually been a distant person who he had rarely ever met.

And.

He saw the classmate who had been lost and should not have been lost.

He saw Kazamuki Gekiha.

### Part 7

It all came down to this.

Anastasia had become a yellow and black spear intent on piercing the earth, but then a puzzled look appeared on her face. The time did arrive, but it was far different from what she had expected.

There was someone in front of her.

“Aine.”

An ear-splitting clang rang out. The preset barrier meant nothing. The noise sounded like crystal colliding with crystal, but that meant it was a sound of collision and not destruction.

In other words, her attack had been stopped.

Crystal Girl Aine had moved in front of Karuta with her pure white outfit fluttering around her. She held her translucent modified katana in both hands. Instead of breaking or shattering, it had stopped yellow and black Anastasia Blast’s max speed charge from the sky.

“What!?”

“We came all this way carrying the weight of Grimnoah’s 700 people on our backs.”

An unpleasant straining sound could still be heard, but this was not over. She did not collapse. The target before Anastasia’s eyes would not die. Karuta gave a roar while the crystal girl protected him.

“You have every civilization that has ever been destroyed? You have 1056 kinds of doom? Who cares!? We can overcome that without even trying!! So what if you have an ice age, floods, eruptions, and even manmade atrocities and wars? That might have been too much in an age before those things had happened, but those rules no longer apply.”

They glared directly at each other.

As long as he realized something so simple, he could stand on the same level as that world’s strongest who held every kind of doom.

“Don’t underestimate Crystal Magic. Maybe no one else has ever been able to overcome that wall, but we’re different!!”

“Have you forgotten? Those destroyed civilizations include that school that taught Crystal Magic.”

“So you think you could crush us if you sent all five Problem Solvers after us? Even though we’ve already taken out four of you!?”

People grew stronger when they persistently worked toward a goal.

They could gain the power to overcome the kind of disaster that once would have been unavoidable doom for them.

“So we will overcome this! The doom of all past civilizations is no more than an obstacle we must surpass here!! We have to show you we’ve changed, that those older eras are a thing of the past, and that we’ve conquered those things so you can rest easy!!”

This had nothing to do with the occult high and low pressure systems.

It was not the same as using brute force to grapple with a monster who could create as many bomb cyclones as she liked.

They had to search out a way to control this magic user named Anastasia Blast who could be seen as the world’s strongest form of doom. It did not matter if these were cumulonimbus clouds or a bomb cyclone. People had used horoscope charts and calendars to learn the rules needed to bring disasters onto their side. They had learned to store water, farm the land, sail the seas, and so much more. They could not stop just because they did not understand something. They had to conquer it.

They had to attack Anastasia Blast and bind her with the rules governing her that not even she was aware of!!

“ Humans are not the dinosaurs who met their doom and were no more. We won’t just tremble in fear! No matter how pathetic, ugly, or lame it might be, we know how to learn from our mistakes and overcome them!! So we won’t let it end with our defeat. What you brought to that boat was undoubtedly doom, but that’s exactly why we have to keep going so it doesn’t end there!! ”

“Kh.”

They finally pushed back.

That childishly evil voice finally gasped.

“ We can learn from tragedy. The pain drives us to claim something even greater in return! The greater the doom you place before us, the stronger we will grow. From the moment you failed to kill us with your very first attack at that school, the small snowball had started rolling down the hill. You can try to stop it now, but we’ve already grown well past your expectations!! So much so that this isn’t going to end with the simple revenge we initially planned it as !!!!!!”

A cracking sound rang out, but not from Crystal Girl Aine. It came from Anastasia who was supposedly still charging forward.

“Yes, that’s right. I wanted to save everyone, even though I knew it wasn’t possible!” roared the boy. He roared straight at that absolute enemy known as a Problem Solver and one of the world’s strongest. “And not just Gekiha and the other crystallized students and teachers. I wanted to save Marika who was so excited by any glimmer of hope and by the thought of revenge. I wanted to protect the Student Council President’s smile!”

He had known revenge was the right thing to do, but something about it had not sat right with him.

He had felt oddly satisfied when he practically threw his life away to save the ordinary people participating in the protest in London.

If that was who he really was, then surely it had to be the driving force that had brought him so far against the Problem Solvers!!

“I wanted to tell them to stop dirtying their hands with revenge!! I wanted to tell them not to forget who they were back in that happy school!! So I took on as much of the burden as I could to prevent them from crossing the point of no return! That might sound like a ridiculous joke to those of you we were killing, but I risked my life for that!!!!!!”

The next thing he knew, sweat was soaking her face.

There was a smile plastered to her face as she spoke her mind.

“That may be true.”

But the world’s strongest was the world’s strongest to the end.

“ But that equation only applies to you; it does not apply to the entirely separate Crystal Blossom that has no civilization of its own .”

“!!!???”

The cracks rapidly shifted toward Aine’s translucent katana. They spread through her pale hands and arms like the propagation of pressure.

If she shattered, Karuta would be defenseless.

Then he could not avoid Anastasia’s attack, but he doubted Aine could push Anastasia back even if he gave the order now.

He breathed in and out.

What did he need to end this revenge?

He thought about it, arrived at a conclusion, and raised his voice.

“Return to me, Aine!!”

Both Anastasia and Aine looked taken aback.

Then Aine fell back. She slipped inside the boy’s stomach.

It was obvious what would happen once that wall, dam, and plug was removed.

The max speed charge was completed.

Anastasia’s arm, the yellow and black armor surrounding it, and the long claw-like thing extending from there pierced the boy’s side. The single attack was enough to break right through the spatial vibration field of his weak barrier. He doubled over and coughed up blood.

“Bh.”

And then Anastasia realized something.

The tactile feedback of the blow sent a strange tremor up her spine that her brain finally managed to verbalize.

(I missed…his vitals?)

Those were the words that came to mind, but her knowledge rejected it. She had attacked his vitals. She had followed the muscle memory that let her pull that off with her eyes closed. And yet Utagai Karuta had not died. There was still life in his eyes.

She heard a cracking sound.

She thought it might be crystals enveloping him to heal the wound she had just made…but it was not.

(No, did he intentionally harm himself to produce crystals in his body that lifted up his organs!? He forcibly rearranged his own insides!?)

“Gh, bh.”

Either Anastasia’s attack or the intense burden he put on himself caused him to cough up a large hunk of blood.

But he smiled.

The boy smiled fiercely.

He gathered his strength.

He grabbed onto Anastasia’s outstretched right arm with both hands and gave a command along with more blood.

“Come out, Aine!!!!!!”

Yes, as long as the Crystal Blossom was not active, the translucent armor would not take damage. As long as he was prepared to take the blow himself, he could preserve his trump card in a place of absolute safety.

So he had hidden his ultimate weapon inside his body.

He had hidden it and pulled it back out.

All so he could take Anastasia Blast’s head off in this moment.

“!!!???”

The world’s strongest’s eyes opened wide.

For probably the first time in her life, she looked like her throat had gone dry.

It was the same look the Problem Solvers had carved on the faces of everyone in that Ocean Crystal Magic Academy.

In other words, a look of fear and terror.

And.

In the few seconds of motionless forced upon her by punching through her target’s gut, the doubled-over boy’s back stirred.

His purple blazer pulled up.

The top half of a slender grim reaper with pale, pale skin popped out. She wielded a katana made of a cold, crystal-like substance and a short laser gun that branched off like a jitte. With her target within killing range, the crystal girl in white moved as accurately as a clockwork device.

There was no sound.

But the slash entered at the woman’s shoulder and cut diagonally down from there.

### Part 8

Utagai Karuta felt woozy.

Not even he knew how he was still standing right now. An unbelievable amount of blood flowed from his side where the long claw slipped out. He should have been the one to die after losing so much blood.

But for some reason, the first to collapse was the woman in a yellow and black military uniform. He felt like he had no choice but to look down on her.

That was his duty as the victor.

“Karuta!!”

His childhood friend Marika frantically ran over. She and Crystal Girl Aine supported his unsteady body and he finally managed to let out a rusty-smelling breath. The wound must have been deep because the sound of spreading crystal had yet to stop.

A beautiful blonde woman was collapsed at his feet.

He could more or less tell that there was no saving her. Nor did she beg for her life.

Her yellow and black armor melted away.

He asked her a question as she lay collapsed on her back and slowly stopped moving with her face on its side.

“You could have twisted your wrist to widen the wound before pulling your hand out. That would have shattered the healing crystals and kept me from ever recovering. In other words, you could have killed me. Why didn’t you?”

Marika belatedly looked over at him in shock. If he had made a single mistake – no, if things had gone normally – he would not have made it. She seemed to finally realize the tightrope walk he had made.

On the other hand, Anastasia did not look his way.

She may have already gone blind.

“Didn’t I tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“This is my apocalyptic everyday life. I am always destroying someone and I will be destroyed by someone someday. If that day is today, then I must give up the title of world’s strongest. I have no interest in taking you with me. I have become an ordinary woman and you have become the world’s strongest.”

“…”

“But be careful.” She continued with a thin smile directed at who knows where. “You will now find yourselves trapped in a life where you must combat the Threat as the world’s strongest. On the path of the strongest, fellow humans will constantly get in your way as they try to help or have decided they are your rival and you will find no allies outside of your immediate group. If you ever wish to bow out, then let your guard down for even a moment. You will be devoured in no time at all. Either by the Threat or by your fellow humans.”

Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka.

Those four would reign in place of the previous five.

They would be the four rulers of a new era.

Was that what this woman was saying?

“I’m not interested in being the strongest.”

“But there is no escaping it.”

“…”

“You will not be able to escape being the world’s strongest any more than we could.”

“What…”

The boy could not say if the Crystal Blossom’s healing would be enough or if this would count as a fatal blow and his entire body would be solidified. He desperately kept himself conscious in order to ask this question.

He wanted to know the answer.

“What were you Problem Solvers? Where did you start from?”

“Before being bound by the title of strongest, we were no more than an ordinary girl and her friends.”

Her words sounded like some kind of curse.

“And now I have relinquished the title. The world’s strongest form of violence is considered justified simply because it is the world’s strongest. So now that I have fallen, nothing will work to defend what I do or say. So let me say this one thing to you, the new strongest who so foolishly reached this point.”

Anastasia Blast gathered the last ounces of strength from the fading flame of her life to speak these final words.

“I am sorry about what happened at Grimnoah. We were scared.”

The last of the world’s strongest was gone.

After hearing her out, the tension inside Karuta finally snapped and his mind fell into darkness.

He thought he heard someone shouting in his ear, but he could no longer respond.

His revenge, the driving force supporting his soul, had reached its conclusion on that day – in that moment.

### Between the Lines 4

“Crystal Blossoms?” the world’s strongest magician had once asked. “You think that could defeat us and become the next strongest?”

“Of course,” replied the old man who had been her sworn friend. “And once there are enough of them, the world’s distortion needs not be focused on individuals any longer. Crystal Magic will protect you five, so you can finally step down from the stage, Anastasia.”

### 050. Aine SS

"I think Aine should have her own room."

The childhood friend who recklessly barged into the room of Karuta Utagai, Marika Amaashi, said such words, her hands on her thin waist.

The crystal girl Aine, who was at the center of the conversation, did not seem to understand the meaning of those words.

"Aine is Sacri-sama's equipment, I think we should be together."

"Panties! Your panties are showing! Why did she have to burrow into the bed like that! Her butt is sticking out!"

"It's easier to stay calm if you stay in a small space."

Although most forms of Crystal Magic result in translucent armor on the body giving rise to many effects, Karuta was different. A slender girl would emerge from within Karuta instead.

"Karuta, do something about this wiggling! I don't need to tell you exactly what's wiggling!!"

"Alright. Aine, come out from the bed. It's not like you've done something that'll get you in trouble with your mom or anything."

"Okay, Sacri-sama."

Once Karuta said that, her stubbornness from just now disappeared, like it was an act. Her butt returned to normal.

"Aine doesn't have that kind of secret, similar to something like using the tablet device won in a raffle in some stall as a dedicated porn device."

"Karuta."

"Eh? Where did you learn such a strange expression? Uh, um, Marika! Even if you try searching, there's nothing to find! Nothing! Ah, uhhhhh!?"

The sound of a LCD screen shattering along with a man's tears resonated together.

And Aine sat on her butt, looking up at their faces.

It seemed like she was waiting for instructions.

Marika, with a difficult expression, pressed her temples with her fingers.

"It really is a matter of the balance of the heart..."

Since it was the same type of magic as crystal armor, she would obey the orders of Karuta. Rather, if she were able to think on her own, that would be the strange thing.

"Though, on paper, it'll look like I'll have two rooms all by myself. The school won't approve of it."

"Then think of another method using the interior of this room."

Marika whispered quickly, as Aine, sitting crossed-legged, turned back.

"There's the bathroom and the kitchen, if you want to draw a boundary with Sacri-sama's room."

"You don't want to live there either, do you?"

"If that's what Sacri-sama wants me to do. Whether it's bathing in the bathroom, or preparing afternoon tea in the kitchen. Or, on the other hand, there's the option of Aine using the bedroom--"

"Why would you take a bath and lie on the bed while Karuta is using it!? Really, you've got some issues!!"

### 051. Marika SS

She puffed her cheeks out in exasperation.

They were puffed to the extent of explosion, those cheeks of the childhood friend, Marika Amaashi, with the strawberry blonde curly twintails.

The reason for this was her clothes.

"... I can't accept this."

"Marika, what's your problem with the facilities of the ocean-top Crystal Magic Academy Grimoire? It has a whole gymnasium inside the ship?! You're gonna get struck by lightning if you keep complaining."

"I'm upset about those things that you boys are staring at! What the hell are these clothes! What decade are we living in!? Why do we still have to wear those gym shorts-!!"

Marika's cheeks turned red, as she shyly covered her thighs up. Rather than her dress, it was

Grimoire taught crystal magic, the techniques that allowed one to fight the Threat that plunged the world into crisis, so obviously, there were a lot of situations where you had to move your body.

Kamazuki Gekiha stood beside Karuta Utagai, putting on a serious expression.

"Of course, this principal... He not only discovered crystal magic, he systemized it, and even had the foresight to create this school. It's truly no wonder that he had a bronze statue of himself built."

"He wouldn't create this school just to instigate the revival of short gym shorts, would he?"

Seemingly annoyed with the boys who were watching from a safe distance talking nonsense, Marika's curly twintails swayed back and forth, much like a wave.

"Arghh, screw this, I'm going straight to the principal and negotiating! So what if I wear hot pants!!"

"Stop it, you idiot! Don't destroy the final paradise for mankind because of your personal opinions!!"

Later, even being surrounded by noisy students, the silver-haired gentleman remained as still as a mountain.

He then said this, with a misty-eyed look in his eyes:

"Well, you can change into hot pants if you want."

"Great!"

"Wait, Marika, there's something wrong."

And just as Karuta had warned.

You could never let your guard down. After all, this was no normal school. This was Crystal Magic Academy on the Sea, Grimoire, where anything could happen and it would not be out of place!!

"Although the visual impact of hot pants are a bit weaker than of gym shorts, since hot pants absorb sweat, it'll cling onto the curves of the body. If one squats in that state, the rounded curve of the butt will become clearly visible. Because this situation is so rare, one'll feel like something incredibly lucky has happened to them. And if it's hot pants, if it's fitted on loosely... You boys following me? I'm referring to a situation where the panties stretch upwards. Squatting in hot pants, it allows one to see the upper bit of the panties stick out of the outer pants. The probability of that kind of miracle..."

Marika's "Hey, uhh" was drowned out by the incessant speech.

However, she was not defeated by this.

After a few days of recovered, she clenched her fists, shouting:

"If both gym shorts and hot pants are out of the question, I'll just wear safety shorts!!"

"...Why do I feel like you're getting led around by the principal again."

### 052. Afterword

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

Hooray, it’s Volume 2!! Thank you for letting this become a series!! To celebrate this second volume, I wanted to do some worldbuilding by first establishing their school life in the new Grimnoah and then doing a major school event. That’s why I had gym clothes, school swimsuits, and such appearing so early on. For the field trip, I wanted a nice place that could be both midsummer and midwinter, so I invented that artificial beach that is something like eating ice cream in a kotatsu.

The opening Grimnoah part might seem unrelated to the rest at first glance, but I made sure to include some important setup there, such as the nonlethal mode and the flying in through windows.

The overall theme of the series is revenge, but I switched things up a bit this time and had Karuta’s group caught up in someone else’s revenge instead. I think that showed things from a different angle than in Volume 1.

I also focused more on showing the twisted side of revenge instead of the glorified version commonly depicted in fiction.

Karuta’s group might have ended up that way too.

In a way, they were lucky in their revenge since they could focus only on killing their targets. Each chapter of Volume 1 started with a comedy part (as part of the repetitive structure I included to mimic samurai stories) and those parts were necessary for them to keep fighting against the Problem Solvers. This volume should have shown you what would have happened without that.

Revenge requires trust, friendship, and unwavering feelings.

As you can see from Karuta’s shock, I think that is a fairly ironic concept. But I think it also shows how characters can head down the path of evil when they might have been heroes had they made the right choice. People cannot always apply their strength toward the correct goal. And the biggest reason those three lost was their inability to trust in the path they had chosen for themselves, even if it took them in the wrong direction. But depending on your way of thinking, I bet some of you will think it is better to stick with it to the end like Karuta’s group and some of you will think it is better to give up partway through like those three.

I pictured Natalena Blast not so much as someone who was not yet ready for revenge, but someone who would never be the vengeful type yet was forced on that path.

And by introducing such a good girl as part of Anastasia’s family, I thought it could hint at a different side of the former world’s strongest. Anastasia was driven to the edge all alone, but she never chose to rely on her family. Why didn’t she? No, why couldn’t she? I hope you could guess at the answer from the way Natalena continued to adore her sister even after being pushed away and not allowed to play a role in what happened.

I think Natalena’s presence shows that Karuta’s group had a few rules they refused to break in their revenge, even though they could be so merciless when they chose to do something.

Yes, they did not track down the family of their revenge targets and take them hostage.

I felt that was a necessity in order to make their revenge feel more righteous. They also rejected an effective plan for their attack on Elicia because it would have affected a helicopter pilot who was not part of their revenge. I thought I could show how oddly clean they wanted to keep things by having them take on extra risk with little detours like that.

I ended Natalena’s revenge by having Karuta confess his sin to Anubis, but how did you like that bit of extra flavoring? That was not strictly speaking a magical ceremony, but I thought it still had some meaning in the sense of borrowing a god’s name to perform magic. You can be the judge of that.

With the Threat, it might help to imagine how the Problem Solvers survived fighting against them. They used a dinosaur, a spear of light, a giant sword, regeneration, and magic, so you might be able to see what kind of battle was expected of those strongests.

If something attacked humanity in some way that rendered our existing militaries powerless, I just know some people would rejoice as they used it as an inspiration to develop new weapons. And since I had already established that cyborg tech on Susannia’s level exists in this world, I knew I had to go for it.

The final boss of the volume was her , but in a battle between Crystal Magicians, you end up with the dilemma you saw: the Preset regeneration prevents it from ever ending until one side or the other receives a fatal wound.

I focused on breaking people’s spirits this time, but it will probably also give you some ideas about how to deal with rule violations within a giant community like Grimnoah.

By the way, which of the Four Living Gods – Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka – did you think was the most twisted? I think Aine is mostly just cute, including her complaint about Karuta at the end of Chapter 4. I think the truly frightening one is Kyouka who still hasn’t aggressively yelled at her enemies or the clueless people around her despite everything she was involved in during these two volumes. Which is what makes her my favorite.

A lot of you will probably think Marika’s friendship(?) is too overbearing, but she is a childhood friend, which means her powerful bond to Karuta came from nothing more than geographical proximity at a young age. That relationship remained as they left home and moved to Grimnoah, which I think had to be the result of her powerful attachment, not just a natural turn of events. She did not want them to drift apart after they moved away from their childhood homes.

She was willing to make a lot of enemies to protect her small little world.

She was willing to bloody her hands to avoid losing something she cared about.

I think that too is a type of righteousness and a type of strongest. If that sends a chill down your spine, it is because the world of this series allows for more than the pure sort of righteousness. Even the Problem Solvers could be seen as the samurai in a samurai story when viewed from the right angle. Not that that’s any comfort to the people they cut down because “that’s the way of things” without even trying to talk it out first.

Since Utagai Karuta wants to stop all conflict around him even if it means killing himself, his path of the strongest is a little different from normal. His Crystal Magic is abnormal, but special doesn’t necessarily mean better. I hope you will continue to watch over the battles of a boy who carries both fragility and possibility within him.

I give my thanks to my illustrator Mika Pikazo-san and to my editors Miki-san, Anan-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. This one must have been a lot of work with all the costume changes. Not to mention the hellish concept of an “army” that only takes a single word in writing. That must have been a lot of trouble with both the humans and the Threat. Thank you very much.

And I give my thanks to the readers. I had the entire student body face a major incident this time to symbolize the theme of “you aren’t fighting alone!”, but how did you like it? Anyone who has seen the crowds at a Shinto shrine on New Years or at a train station during rush hour might be wondering if 1000 people can really move around that quickly, but keep in mind that Grimnoah provides high-level combat training with a focus on group battles. Thank you so much for reading this far!

And I will end this here.

Did they become the strongest because they were unusual, or did they become unusual because they were the strongest?

-Kamachi Kazuma

## ?

The blizzard was raging.

At 15 degrees below zero, that white hell would have sapped the life out of any ordinary human standing within it, but this girl did not feel the slightest discomfort.

She was pale-skinned and made of crystal.

Aine was viewing something all on her own. It was a black mass – the remnants of one of the fake Threats that had been so thoroughly destroyed by the wielders of cutting-edge magic.

“Yes.”

Aine ran her hand across the armor that felt gritty due to the snow blown onto it by the wind. The heat of her hand could have melted the snow and gotten her skin stuck to the metal when the snow refroze into ice, but the crystal girl did not seem to care.

She kept her hand there and spoke quietly.

“ I can’t wait to do this to the real ones .”

### 053. Epilogue

And thus their icy survival field trip came to an end.

But there were a few problems needing solving before they returned.

Once the pressing danger was gone, people apparently became irresponsibly kind. The other Crystal Beach domes opened their gates despite having locked out the Grimnoah students and teachers before.

The middle and high school kids were none too pleased with those people after being locked out and forced to battle the decoy Threats in the frigid outdoors, but they could not resist the pleasure of a space kept at a comfortable temperature and humidity as well as plenty of food to go around. Perhaps the return to normalcy had returned them to being humans instead of weapons.

Two of them were currently inside a rented-out conference room in a large hotel built in that artificial summer.

However, it was rarely if ever used for meetings. It would be more well-known for hosting press conferences.

“Um.”

“What is it?”

The 12-year-old blonde girl named Natalena Blast shrank down nervously.

She could not look the Student Council President in the eye.

“Why haven’t you handcuffed me? I was trying to kill you.”

“Hmm, but what did you actually do? Even ordinary kids will shout ‘die’ or ‘I’ll kill you’, so are you suggesting we arrest them all on charges of attempted murder or criminal conspiracy?”

“M-more than 30 people died and you’re still going to forgive me?”

“Do you…?” Even now, the older girl drew out her words smoothly. “Do you really think I don’t feel anything from this? When I suddenly have an unnatural opening on the Student Council?”

“…”

“But I know blaming you will accomplish nothing, so don’t worry about it.” Omotesandou Kyouka laughed and revealed a cruel truth. “The shadowy figures pulling all the strings never expected you to accomplish anything. ”

“…”

“They knew you would lose and they were hoping the question of how to deal with Anastasia’s sister would tear us apart. So doesn’t it seem wrong to define you as an avenger? The people who sent you here never really saw you that way.”

“But.”

Why was the girl so reluctant to give in on this point?

If Kyouka reversed her opinion on a whim, Natalena really would end up behind bars.

Given the social effects if it had succeeded, an attempted assassination of the world’s strongest would likely receive a greater punishment than a normal crime. And it would be too late to change her mind once it happened.

If she still could not stand this treatment, then she really had been a bad fit.

She was critically lacking in talent for evil deeds.

Omotesandou Kyouka let a true smile appear on her lips concerning that.

That honest girl could not match the kind of wicked genius found in this girl who had seen it through to the end . Kyouka’s group had just about corrupted this person who would be much more at home in the sunlight.

That was what Utagai Karuta had been trying to prevent.

The world’s strongest could get away with those things.

They might cause the occasional tragedy or trample on people’s happiness, but it all fell within the acceptable bounds.

But if they let the world work that way again, they would have lost.

That would have led straight to the cold crossroads that Anastasia and the other Problem Solvers had found. The only options remaining to them would lead to death, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

“You aren’t going to give up your Crystal Magic, are you?”

“…”

“Or is it Anubis you want to hold onto? To remember your sister by.”

Natalena did not seem to have an answer.

None of this would be easy for her to accept, but since she had never been the type for revenge, forcing that engine to keep running would have been even more difficult for her. For better or for worse, she had spent too much time with the target of her revenge. She should have attacked without even thinking about his situation or circumstances, but then she had seen his agony, tears, pride, and anger.

So she could not do it.

She could not load the engine with what little fuel she had left.

“If you are still trapped in revenge – or would like to be – I recommend joining us here. As a Grimnoah student, I mean.” She spoke like she was inviting the girl to join her for tea. “We are the ones who directly killed Anastasia Blast, but it was someone else who gave her the push that placed her on that battlefield. Someone else who wanted to pit those two magics against each other and profit from it while they safely remained elsewhere. So. Do you have any desire to get to the bottom of that with us?”

That had been Kyouka’s stance from the beginning.

She simply had not cared if it was accomplished by building trust or by dragging it out of the girl with torture.

Young Natalena could not have learned so much about Anastasia’s God Worshiping Magic on her own and she could not have faked her identity to sneak into the Second Grimnoah. Someone else was pulling the strings and Kyouka wanted to get as much out of the girl as possible.

“Um.”

Utagai Karuta had evidently kept his promise.

Now she would not have to play that more unpleasant card.

The counterattack could begin.

The key to it all, Natalena Blast, hesitantly began to speak.

“When I learned that Anastasia was dead, um, I was contacted by…”

Karuta was in the B World dome’s medical office.

Altogether, the several domes were about the same as a normal city, so the medical office was the size of a small general hospital. They would heal most wounds in 30 seconds, but his lost blood and body heat would not come back. It had helped a lot to get him in a warm bed with a blood pack.

“Got anything to say for yourself?”

“I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

Amaashi Marika was fully apologetic for once.

That was precisely when the President entered his room.

“Karuta-kun and Marika-chan, are you all packed up? We need to return to Grimnoah ASAP. Is Aine-chan inside you, Karuta-kun?”

“No, I gave her some free time, so she’s probably wandering around somewhere around here. What’s the rush?”

“I have some new info.”

That changed Karuta and Marika’s expressions.

They knew what Omotesandou Kyouka had been investigating. And with Natalena on their side, she might have given them some valuable information on the string pullers working behind the scenes.

Except those expectations were shattered by the true cruelty of the world.

“The Threat has appeared now of all times. And this time, they’re probably real.”

“…”

This was entirely different.

And it was not something they could ignore. How deep did the string pullers’ influence go? Did they fear the Threat, or were they manipulating the Threat as well? That was still a mystery, but an attack now suggested the Threat was being used in some way.

Marika spoke up in a cautious way.

“Come to think of it, we never did find out where the real Threat is or what they’ve been doing since we defeated the Problem Solvers.”

“So where are they?” asked Karuta. “Does the real Threat have enough intelligence to locate critical targets in their fight against us humans? Like a petroleum storage base or a nuclear power plant?”

Kyouka shook her head.

Hadn’t she said they needed to return to Grimnoah ASAP?

In other words…

“Osaka Bay. Specifically, on the ocean floor near the Port of Kobe.”

“You don’t mean…?”

Karuta was speechless.

If that was true, this was no time to be pursuing the world’s mysteries. They were being held up as the world’s strongest, but how many steps behind were they!?

“It can’t be!!”

Omotesandou Kyouka did not deny his worst fears here.

Yes.

They had been there all along.

How could they call that ship a symbol of humanity’s resistance? They were the only ones who had not noticed the truth.

“They have silently gathered directly below Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Second Grimnoah. An army of the true Threat managed to amass so stealthily the bay’s sonobuoys failed to notice.”

### 054. Part 1

“She registered as Jane Ignition, but her real name is Natalena Blast. Age: 12. Sex: Female. Nationality: American. As her family name suggests, she is Anastasia Blast’s younger sister. Even if there is a large gap between their ages.”

They had gathered in the Student Council Room of the giant ship’s high school.

There was no better place for Karuta and the rest of the world’s strongest to speak in private.

Omotesandou Kyouka was operating a computer while seated in her wheelchair. The computer and the room looked downgraded from before, but the devices here had top administrative access to all the data in the ship’s server. They had higher priority than the machines in the headmaster’s office which was mostly just for show (even though Karuta’s group had not wanted it that way). Karuta and Marika’s arrival meant the actual Student Council members had to leave, so they gave the two intruders quite a glare.

Natalena was asleep in the ship’s infirmary.

Sleeping with her limbs and torso strapped down with thick belts could not be comfortable, but she would not notice. Until they made a decision, they had confiscated her Crystal Blossom and put her on a light anesthetic to keep her asleep. Anesthetics were convenient, but they were also medical goods. A drug like that did have a lethal dose, side effects, lasting effects, and allergies to worry about and, just like any other medicine, there was no guarantee it would work.

But that was about the only way to restrain someone who could use magic.

“Why didn’t we notice this until now?”

“So many people claimed to be Anastasia’s relatives, friends, or acquaintances that it probably hid the presence of this sister. The social networks for socialites were especially bad. Makes me glad I wasn’t one of the Problem Solvers.”

Anastasia may have been fine with it since it hid her actual family which functioned as her Achilles heel. It was like creating an artificial forest to hide a single real tree.

The identity of the suspect had been found by comparing her facial and skeletal data to video records from around the world. Since that was enough to blow her cover, Natalena may have been planning to end it quick. She had not prepared herself a way out in her nearly suicidal pursuit of revenge.

Karuta frowned.

“Does that mean Anastasia was an American citizen too? We did hear she had a lot of influence in North America.”

They had hated that woman enough that they were willing to destroy the world if it meant defeating her. But thinking back, they had not even known what part of the world she was from. This peek at her ordinary life now came as a slight shock to Karuta.

He could not hide this.

That was the honest answer he found for himself. And if he tried and failed to hide it, it would only make matters worse. He had to be honest here and then make the following suggestion: This girl may be here for revenge, but her inexperienced blade failed to take anyone’s life. This is over now, so we shouldn’t kill her.

He wanted their trust, so hiding things would work against him.

Was this really the right thing to do? He was of course worried about that, but now that he had chosen to do this, he had to stick with it as best he could. He could not stop once he started.

“…”

Amaashi Marika gave him a dangerous look while leaning against the wall with arms crossed. What he had seen during the previous incident told him all he needed to know about her stance. She made a strict division between enemy and ally. She would do anything to protect the people she had decided were on her side. That was obvious enough from the laser sniper shot she had used to kill Elicia after the defenseless woman had surrendered and maybe even could have been brought to their side.

If taking in a new ally would disturb the perfected harmony they already had, she was not interested in taking them in.

That was Marika’s stance.

She was reliable as a childhood friend. Karuta had known her for so long that he was unconditionally placed on the allies list. But this was different. If he could not convince her here, she would kill Natalena without mercy. Even while the girl was unconscious and unable to defend herself.

And if he just let it happen, it would happen again.

The world’s strongest could get away with killing anyone who opposed them.

Even a 12-year-old girl.

He could not let that become the standard. That would only lead them past the point of no return on the same path Anastasia’s group had taken. If they were not the strongest, they would be found guilty and thrown in prison, so they would have no choice but to cling to the title of strongest no matter what. The concept of strongest would bind them.

“Omotesandou-san.”

“Yes?”

“Does Natalena have any kind of combat experience?”

“Based on the records I have found, she has almost none, including training. She seems to have attended a local karate school for a while, but she quit after about 6 months. That sort of conflict may not have been her thing.”

“Then how did she manage to fake her name and identity?”

Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah was a crucial organization for combating the Threat which put the world in danger. Even with 1000 new personnel brought in, their backgrounds would all have been thoroughly checked.

There were a few options for slipping past that – rewriting the trackable electronic data, corrupting an examiner with a bribe or honey trap, and purchasing or stealing someone else’s personal information – but a 12-year-old girl who lived an ordinary life could not pull off those spy movie tricks on her own. For that matter, when had she learned about her Crystal Magic aptitude that gave her a chance at this revenge? That was not something she would have been tested for at middle school. And where had she learned about Anubis? If Anastasia had been hiding her true identity from her family, she never would have told them anything about her God Worshiping Magic.

None of it made sense.

Utagai Karuta spoke a frank conclusion.

“Someone else is pulling the strings. Probably from some safe place away from this ship.”

“I see.”

“They gave the necessary information to someone connected to Anastasia to remake them into an assassin. But did they really think an amateur like Natalena could kill the four of us? What if they were betting we would turn on each other over how to deal with Natalena after we defeated her? ”

He had no evidence for any of this.

In fact, he did not particularly care if he was wrong.

He was only interested in redirecting their focus (especially that of hyper-aggressive Marika) toward someone other than Natalena. A nameless and faceless string-puller was perfect for that. While they tried to pursue that shadowy figure who might not even exist, they would not think about attacking someone within arm’s reach.

“In that case, we should not kill Natalena. We need whatever information we can get on this string-puller. If we let them get away with this, we might find Elicia’s parents or Yukino’s worshipers attacking us next. Also, we don’t know for sure that Natalena was working alone here. If she has a team hidden on Grimnoah, we need to locate them and get rid of them. Right?”

“You have a point,” readily admitted Omotesandou Kyouka. However. “In that case, wouldn’t it be in our best interest to keep Natalena Blast tied up while we torture her or use a truth serum on her? Would she really tell us the truth if we played at police and interrogated her? We are combat experts, not investigative experts.”

“Kh.”

There were no positive or negative emotions in her voice. She sounded entirely dry and efficient.

First, he had to worry about them killing her.

Now he also had to worry about torture and truth serum.

This was insane, but even with more than 1000 students on Grimnoah and even with enough adult teachers to manage and teach them, no one was likely to oppose Marika or Kyouka if they made a decision. Not even that muscular gym(?) teacher named Kiyosawa Hadome.

Once the scales tilted in that direction, there would be no stopping it.

That was how powerful they were as individuals.

In fact, this second ship had been built for them .

“I certainly take issue with how Marika-san jumps right to ‘kill her’, but I take issue with your stance as well, Karuta-kun. Why are you so intent on siding with Natalena Blast? Where did this empathy come from? Thinking back, you might find it was artificially injected into you by Natalena herself.”

She had a point.

Now that she mentioned it, he could see it.

He knew nothing about Natalena, but the way she had cowered down like a small animal and used lots of ums and uhs when speaking had clearly been a way of putting him off his guard. Deciding to protect her based on that would indeed be the height of folly. Or did he feel guilty because he had killed Anastasia? If so, why? They had been in the right to seek vengeance and they had been given no other choice. Protecting her sister as a form of atonement would deny the very foundation of what they had done.

He thought about it.

And he gave his honest response.

“I can’t do that again.”

“Do what?”

“Kill someone. We have no reason this time and killing people is supposed to be wrong by default! Last time, we had to kill them because the world was broken and that was the only way to fix it. But not this time!! Like it or not, we’re the strongest, so we should be able to use that position to show leniency and settle this without killing her. Instead of killing her because we have no reason not to, why can’t we not kill her because we have no reason to!? Isn’t that how the world is supposed to work!?”

“Then you do that, Karuta.”

Marika finally spoke.

As expected, she viewed things in very simple terms when it came to combat.

“ But I will kill her. That way you don’t have to dirty your hands. ”

“Th-that’s not-!!”

That was not what he meant. He wanted to protect everyone, including Marika and Kyouka, but if Marika refused, that was that. Her life was hers to live. Her thought process was simple and violent, but she was facing the crux of the issue.

If they did not all agree here, they would only do Natalena harm individually.

That was meaningless.

People only had one life, so if any of them played the “kill her” card on a whim, Natalena was dead. And that single mistake would drag all of them down. Just like it had with Anastasia’s group!!

“Ah ha ha. Looks like she outplayed you there, Karuta-kun.” Kyouka laughed innocently and winked. “Now, I think what you’re saying is right, but being right does not mean everyone will accept what you’re saying. If you fail to negotiate and you use simple emotion to force your view through, all you’ve done is reject our own feelings.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“Well, we could draw lots to make sure it’s fair. Could you grab that notepad and red pen from the desk there?”

Omotesandou Kyouka tore off a blank sheet of paper, tore that into four quarters, and drew a red dot at the center of one piece. She tossed the four pieces into an empty box with a round hole on the top. The new Student Council probably used that when allotting jobs.

There was no way of calculating the right answer here. This suggestion looked hopeless at first glance, but then the boy realized what the Student Council President had done. She really was the adult in the room.

How many pieces of paper had she thrown in that box?

With enough for every member of the new world’s strongest, he had another option.

“Power up! Come on out, Aine!!”

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

The pale-skinned crystal girl slipped out from Karuta’s stomach.

She awaited orders with a tilt of her expressionless head and her presence changed everything.

“We don’t both need to win. You take my side here!”

“If you say so.”

That response made it hard to believe someone’s life was on the line. She made it sound like he had decided they would be eating gyudon for lunch at the school cafeteria.

Marika was unsure how, but she guessed things were changing for her.

“Wait! You think you have better odds if you have Aine-chan drawing for you too, but there are no absolutes in matters of luck!”

“Then what are you so worried about? C’mon, everyone, let’s stick our hands in there. Ready, go!”

Yes, Karuta was guaranteed a win with this method.

“Ah!”

“…”

Marika gave a shout and Kyouka smiled in a conspiratorial way, but it was already over.

Karuta pulled his hand from the box first.

“There’s the red dot. I win. We will protect Natalena. Marika, no complaining, okay!?”

“~ ~ ~!!”

Red in the face, Marika spun fiercely toward Kyouka, but the Student Council President only shrugged.

“It sucks, but we can’t blame Karuta-kun in a game of chance, can we? We can only curse or own rotten luck.”

“You planned this from the start.”

“What ever are you talking about?”

That was the end of it. The door slammed open and shut with a sound like a bombing. Marika was so disgusted with them she had stormed out. But since she had agreed to the terms, she would not go and kill Natalena without telling them. If she did, Grimnoah would fall apart, starting from the four figures at its center – Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka. Since Marika’s focus was on protecting those on her side above all else, doing that would be counterproductive.

Karuta sighed while watching the door through which Marika had left.

“I’m amazed you came up with that on the spot.”

“Oh? I’m amazed you saw through it so quickly, Karuta-kun.”

All four of them had stuck their hands in the box at once.

But Karuta would win as long as either he or Aine drew the winning paper. So as long as Aine pushed Marika and Kyouka’s hands to the edge of the box, he could take his time feeling for the correct paper.

Kyouka had torn up a single piece of notebook paper and then drew a big red dot on it with pen. Only one of them had that, so he could recognize it by touch.

“Thank you so much, Omotesandou-san. I honestly couldn’t have done it without you.”

“To be clear, I wasn’t trying to be kind. Unlike Marika-san. I’m only helping you for the time being because we can’t get any information out of Natalena if we kill her now. As long as she remains alive, she can be tortured at any time. So if we can’t get enough information your way, I will suggest we make another choice. Between protecting her and torturing her.”

“…”

“And I will not help you like that next time. The rules are entirely different when you’re on your own. So, Karuta-kun, do you really think you can outdo me in a pure debate?”

“We both know I can’t.”

Kyouka was the master of trickery. If he had holed up in a room and thought for hours on end, he might have managed the same result, but she had won it in a split-second decision. Her idea had been excellent and she had proposed it at the best possible time, so Karuta and Marika both had let it happen without realizing anything had changed. If that cunning and that speed were turned against him, he would be cornered and torn to shreds before he could even think through his own position.

The schemer in the wheelchair laughed.

“Then give this everything you’ve got. I only care about getting results; the method used is irrelevant. If you can earn her trust and get the information out of her your way, then it is sure to provide a much brighter future for Natalena Blast.”

Of course, this did not mean Omotesandou Kyouka was fully and unconditionally taking his side.

“But if you fail, things will be different. Professional torture is not a pretty sight. The physical scars can be healed with magic, but the psychological ones are a different story.”

### 055. Part 1

There was no direct flight.

First, they took a flight from Osaka’s floating airport to Germany’s Frankfurt airport. From there, they flew to Northern Europe’s Reykjavik airport. That city might not sound familiar, but it was the capital of an entire country.

Namely, Iceland.

“I-I’m so tired.”

“Don’t collapse yet, Alice. We haven’t even reached the hotel.”

Utagai Karuta got after the girl (while nervous on the inside) and dragged his own luggage along.

Since the high school and middle school had been mixed together on the airplane, he had been forced into card game hell with Riho and Sanae the entire time, but he was not going to stick with them on the buses.

Someone else freaked out at that suggestion.

“Why waste such a golden opportunity, Utagai-kun!? Maybe you don’t realize how rare a treat that is since you have free access to the middle school, but you need to forget about us and accept this gift! Go to that 13-year-old paradise!!”

“Shut up, Hirosuke. Is that what you’re into? Hey, Yamanen, talk some sense into this-”

“Eh heh heh. Nothing quite like a female teacher. They’re so hot. Especially the innocent adulthood of a new teacher who’s just hatched from being a student teacher.”

“Is anyone around here normal?”

“Sacri-sama, waiting for orders is exhausting. Please give me some kind of command. I do not care what.”

“Karuta, you’re the weirdest one here.”

The nervous, flaxen-haired teacher named Sophia Firenze was very unsure of herself, but Karuta was a high school student. He was pretty sure his adolescent heart would not survive being the only one in a bus full of middle schoolers.

“You did the right thing.”

“?”

For some reason, he received rare praise from Kiyosawa Hadome who wore his track suit even overseas. The man crossed his arms and stood there, not saying a word more, so Karuta was unsure how to respond.

He tilted his head while boarding one of the high school buses which drove them along a long, long bridge traveling north over the frozen ocean. Eventually, the resort they would be staying at came into view.

“I’m so glad my new swimsuit arrived in time,” said Marika with a smile while leaning forward from the seat behind him. “Sometimes it won’t arrive by the predicted date even when the site says it’s in stock.”

“…”

“Heh heh heh. Is that some red I see in your cheeks, Karuta-kun? I hope you’re ready to see just how much your childhood friend has grown.”

They were in the Arctic. The ice below this kilometers-long bridge was thick enough for polar bears to walk across it, but Marika was not being at all ironic.

Aine pressed her hands against the window after apparently spotting something outside. Karuta had taken the window seat, so she was leaning out over his lap.

“Sacri-sama, what is that?”

“A beach. And could you show some restraint? Your butt is wiggling in front of my face!!”

She entirely ignored the favor she was doing him because she was too interested in viewing something like bubbles outside.

Several translucent domes existed across the frozen ocean. The smaller ones had a radius of a few hundred meters and the larger ones had a radius of 2 or 3 kilometers. They were connected by countless clear tubes similar to an aquarium’s underwater tunnel.

Marika tilted her head while leaning against his headrest from behind.

“Which dome is ours again?”

“C World.”

“World?”

“That’s what they call them. They say each dome is like a unique artificial world. Ours is the third biggest one.”

It was below freezing outside, but not so inside. The buses parked in front of the especially large C World dome before one by one passing through the double layer of gates into another world altogether.

Inside, they found a pleasant summer beach with a temperature of 28 degrees and humidity below 50%.

The girls who tended to hang out with Marika let out a cheer.

“Ohh!”

“Wow, that really is a pretty beach. It scores high enough that I might just grant it the privilege of lying out on that sand.”

“It’s like an extreme version of eating ice cream in a kotatsu,” whispered Marika while viewing the palm trees swaying in the artificial warm breeze.

“Wouldn’t making a hotpot with the air conditioning on full blast be a better analogy?”

Was Aine right about that? Either way, this definitely won the world record for the biggest waste of energy in the world. Karuta was pretty sure some book or another had made that official.

“I heard the bath is a hot spring,” he said. “Iceland is apparently a volcanic country.”

“Sigh. I want to go crawl in a small space,” said Aine.

“They apparently have a bath full of colloidal gold. Just like a radium hot spring, the weak radiation is supposed to be good for your health.”

“What!? Can I drink it by the tubful!?”

“You would only get a few sesame seeds’ worth if you drained the entire hot spring, weirdo.”

This was the world’s largest artificial beach.

It was known as the Crystal Beach.

The Arctic ice was rapidly melting thanks to global warming, so the Icelandic government had needed some sort of countermeasure. It had all begun when they took a lesson from snow crystals and worked to make the seawater freeze easier by constructing intentional impurities – aka, a certain type of artificial island – here and there in the icy ocean. Some had said it would be a waste to pour so much money into it without making use of the land, so they had started developing a largescale resort centered on a casino. It had since grown to include a luxury hotel, a shopping center, and more, with a giant translucent dome to surround the entire artificial beach.

It was hard for much of anything to survive in this extreme land, but development could continue without end as long as the cycle of money and greed got started.

The city had gotten started in much the same way as Las Vegas.

The buses pulled up in front of a 50-story luxury hotel (which fit inside the dome). When Karuta stepped out, he found piercing artificial sunlight awaiting him. That probably came from special infrared lights, which meant he was essentially having his skin lightly roasted by a giant oven. Although it was unclear if a day of sunbathing here would really give him a nice tan.

The new and nervous female teacher was already approaching him.

“U-um, uh, Utagai-sensei.”

“No! I am a student and I want to enjoy this trip!!”

“But I can’t possibly handle all of those powerful children, so will you please help me!?”

Hearing that, Marika smiled bitterly and waved him away. She dragged her suitcase over toward her girl’s group that included Matsuda Imi and Hashizaki Tayori to keep her distance from all that trouble. Aine simply tilted her head. She was waiting for orders, so she would not do anything on her own.

Was he really the only option?

After traveling overseas, he had to put on a school performance all on his own?

He was starting to tremble at this point, but he had always been the kind of person to do what was asked of him. Or you could say he lacked the courage to say no. He sighed and walked toward the middle school students. It took a lot out of him to maintain that public mode that lived up to people’s image of the strongest, an upperclassman, a veteran warrior, and a successful avenger, but he had no other choice right now.

He clapped his hands to gather the excited underclassmen’s attention. It almost felt like a ritual he used to switch modes.

“The teachers will get us all checked in, so once you receive your card key, carry your luggage to your room, and gather back in the 1st floor lobby. This Crystal Beach is the world’s largest airtight living space, so it is full of facilities that should be extremely useful when constructing a fortress city to defend against the Threat. This is all civilian tech, but there is still much we can learn from it, so keep your eyes open and take in as much as you can.”

“Ehh!? There’s a sparkling tropical beach right over there and you expect us to sit through another class in our uniforms, Senpai!? Don’t you want to see all us teenage girls in our swimsuits!?”

Tanned and silver-haired Riho immediately snapped back at him, but he could only shrug in response.

He was scared.

To be frank, if he was booed by all these girls here, he might end up reliving the moment in his nightmares, but he could not let it show that this bothered him at all.

He forced the feeling away and kept going.

“I don’t believe I mentioned what you should be wearing. But if you forgot to bring a swimsuit, then yes, you will probably have to head to the lobby in your uniform.”

Riho stared blankly at him, but Sanae clapped her hands together with a bright look on her face.

“He’s saying we can use that observation of the facilities here as an excuse to play around in our swimsuits.”

“You probably shouldn’t call it an excuse out loud. But hurry! There are a thousand of us in all, so the elevators are gonna be packed soon!!”

When Alice added that, Riho’s thoughts finally seemed to catch up. She frantically pushed her suitcase toward the elevators with both hands.

That settled things for now.

Once they all disappeared into the elevator hall, Karuta finally let out a long, long sigh. None of them meant any harm, but being exposed to all of their eyes at once was a living hell. That was just the one class, yet Student Council President Kyouka would address the entire student body. How could she do that with a smile? Was she just made of different stuff than him???

Sophia Firenze must have been delighted that she had avoided a breakdown of her class immediately after arriving because she bowed over and over with her semi-long flaxen hair swaying. Although that too was awkward for the boy who only wanted to be a student here.

“…”

A short distance away, he noticed Natalena Blast standing there silently without following the others.

He was curious about how she was standing there in her uniform and with her beret on her head.

And he had wanted some kind of reason to approach her anyway.

When he did, he grabbed the handle of her suitcase.

“I’ll carry that for you.”

“Y-you don’t have to do that.”

“Sacri-sama. Lonely kids do not know how to process kindness, so trying to help can actually hurt them and make them resent you. You must be on the lookout for hidden pride.”

“I am not lonely!! And I am not some child who does not understand kindness, so I will gladly accept your offer!!”

Natalena blushed and snapped back at Aine with tears in her eyes, but the crystal girl did not react. She was not even human, after all. Shouting at an ATM because you did not understand how it worked would change nothing about its politely-worded messages.

They had gotten a late start, so there was a long line waiting for the elevators.

When Karuta’s group joined the end of the line, his phone vibrated.

“Hirosuke> Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who’s that blonde cutie!? Aine-chan wasn’t enough for you!?”

“Yamanen> Wait, where’d that delectable teacher go!? How could you let her get away!?”

He immediately blocked them. Unaware of that interaction on his phone, Natalena looked up at him and pouted her lips.

“Have you…?”

“?”

“Have you ever seen the Threat? I mean, um, you did just give a speech about what would be useful in a fortress city.”

“I haven’t,” he readily admitted. Inside, he was surprised to find how dry his voice could sound. “But Anastasia said they do exist.”

“…”

“At that point…or rather, she was dedicated to the path of the strongest and gave no thought to the future, so I can’t imagine she was lying out of self-preservation or to trick us. We still don’t know what the Threat is, but cities, states, and countries are still disappearing. Even with the Problem Solvers gone. That means it was not all being faked by Anastasia and the other four.”

The Problem Solvers had been the worst, but if they had functioned as humanity’s defense against the Threat, then it was Karuta’s group that had destroyed that thick barrier and left nothing to replace it.

So now it was their turn.

Not even the God Worshiping Magic of the previous world’s strongest had managed to fully eliminate the Threat, so it was obvious that task would require significant power.

So.

They had to thoroughly train these children before that clash occurred. They had to be able to protect their own lives with the strongest power.

Karuta’s group had failed to do that when they were new students on the first ship, but they had to make sure it happened this time.

“Of course,” said Natalena under her breath while looking away from him. Almost like she was squeezing a broken protective charm in her hand. “My sister wouldn’t lie. She was one of the Problem Solvers who risked their lives to protect everyone right up to the very end.”

### 056. Part 1

(Stay calm. You need to think.)

Utagai Karuta shut his eyes and breathed deep. A middle school girl was dead, the dome had broken, creating an icy hell, and the Threat covered every inch of things beyond the blizzard. The damage was definitely spreading, but…

(This isn’t a bunch of unrelated trouble rushing in from all directions. Don’t let it overwhelm you. Keep an open mind. This is all one connected problem!!)

He opened his eyes again and viewed the reality out the 6th-floor window.

They were in the C World dome, a sealed space with a radius of 2km. The west side had been broken through and something like a fierce white steam was pushing in from there. It was similar to the white breaths leaving people’s mouths in the midwinter. The difference in temperature between inside and out was rapidly freezing the moisture in the air.

Eyes were visible beyond that expanding white curtain.

They glowed red and there was more than just the one pair.

In fact, they did not always come as mere pairs. The sizes, shapes, numbers, and relative heights all differed. They eyes staring back at them were so numerous they looked like sinister stars in the sky. At such long range, it was hard to judge the scale of this swarm, but their “legs” crushed the large tour busses on the side of the road like tissue boxes.

That meant the creatures were larger than that. Harder and heavier, too.

With a great roar, an 8-story parking garage was torn from its foundation and knocked over.

Being on the 6th floor was no reason to feel safe. If one of those charged at the building, they would be crushed immediately. There were sounds of straining metal and scattering sparks, but were those due to the legs and hard carapaces rubbing together within the white fog? This was what it meant to have no ground to stand on. With all this going on, they had no idea where to even begin, Crystal Magic or not.

The banquet hall they were using for their buffet had large windows on the wall, giving a perfect view of the approaching hell. The asphalt road was torn up, the palm trees were snapped, and straining noises could be heard before the identity of this enemy could be seen. The exterior of the window froze over and the white frost obscured their view.

“Uh,” someone groaned.

It was not Karuta. One of the male students viewing the scene out the window – if you could call it that when nothing was reaching his mind – screamed and ran for the exit.

It was a familiar face: his classmate Yamane Deiri.

“W-w-waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

“You idiot! Sensei, please stop him!!”

Karuta shouted over, but the female teacher was still seated on the floor. Her mind had yet to start moving again after running across Riho’s death, but she did not seem to realize this left her defenseless.

Kiyosawa Hadome started to get up, but then he stopped. He had not noticed, but Sophia Firenze was clutching at his shirt like a small child.

Due to the chaos, the childish action was terribly strong.

Her fingers were clenched so tight they had grown white and they refused to budge. Kiyosawa looked Karuta in the eye and then shook his head with a tongue click. Not even an adult could free himself from that grip so easily.

(Argh.)

“Aine! Don’t let this start a trend!!”

“You have not removed my nonlethal mode for Grimnoah residents. May I cut the target’s Achilles tendons?”

He ignored that question and instead grabbed a salt shaker from a table which he then tossed to Aine. She tilted her head before reversing her blade and swinging it like a baseball bat.

A clang rang out with the perfect speed and angle.

The shaker did not break, but it did tear through the air, crack fleeing Yamane Deiri in the back of the head, and cause him to trip forward. Karuta used that moment to drive his point home to everyone there, middle and high school alike.

(I’m sorry, Yamanen!! I’ll buy you a drink later!!)

“There are over 1000 people here, so trying to use the elevators and stairs like normal would clog everything up and we’d be stuck! Do you want to helplessly wait for death here!?”

The students who had started to get up from their seats froze in place when they heard that. Not many people would immediately agree to fight now that the Threat had shown up. But no one would stick with their escape plan if they knew it would mean being stuck here until they died a pointless death.

They had at most a few minutes and at worst half a minute until the clash began. If they did not come up with a plan by then, they would be attacked with nothing to show for it and the casualties would only grow.

Marika slipped away from Imi and Tayori to approach him and whisper in his ear.

“What exactly are we going to do? Hole up in here?”

Her breath was already visible in the cold.

The hotel’s central heating was still on and none of the windows had broken, but the indoor heating system was insufficient. Since the exterior of the windows had frosted over in a matter of moments, things had to be 10 or even 15 below freezing outside.

“That isn’t possible,” cut in the track suit teacher supporting Sophia. The cold may have been affecting him far more than the students in their uniforms. “We can’t stay here in this cold. And I don’t just mean the room temperature. The water pipes will freeze and the power circuits might malfunction depending on the type. If the switchboard goes out, the building’s power goes along with it!”

If they stayed here, they could not survive the cold. The necessary infrastructure would not last.

Besides, a fortress was not a defensive line. The defensive line had to be held in front of the fortress. There was no time for the preparations needed to hold off a large army, like setting up gun emplacements and laying a minefield.

So Karuta did not hesitate.

“We have to abandon the C World dome. The Crystal Beach has other domes, like A and B, so we can escape there and regroup. As long as we can keep the people safe, we can let the Threat rampage through the C World dome to analyze how they attack.”

“But how?”

He heard something heavy scraping along the floor.

Still sitting on the floor, Alice was looking up at him with Sanae supporting her shoulders. And she had her arms around the clear crystal that symbolized her dead friend.

That was what happened if they died.

No visual could have more vividly shown that.

“You said yourself there are 1000 of us. If we try to escape now, we’ll clog up the escape route and be stuck here!!”

“Normal people would, yes.”

Karuta had immediately stopped a male student from running across the floor to reach the elevators and stairs outside the banquet hall. If that set in as their best bet, it would create a meaningless struggle between the Crystal Magicians.

In other words…

“One of the Crystal Magic Presets is flight. As long as we coordinate things, you can all escape through all the windows on the walls.”

“Oh.”

“With more ways out than just the stairs and elevators, there won’t be any congestion. Flight is technically only taught to Regulation 2s, but you’ve all been practicing it in secret, haven’t you? We had been at your level. Who here can’t fly!? That’s nothing to be embarrassed of, so just ask someone nearby for help and grab on tight!!”

That set them all in motion.

The windows in the banquet hall did not open, so a flood of people rushed toward the hallway. The tickets for survival had just gone on sale and they were all taking it very seriously. All in all, the high school students were generally grabbing the hands of a middle school student to help them fly. But both age groups were new at this. Given their ages, the middle schoolers may have had more room for growth, but the high schoolers had more guts.

In truth, Karuta did not know what the right answer was here. He was only in high school too. But he knew how important it was to provide options for fighting, hiding, and escape and he knew that he could never say out loud that he did not know what he was doing. If the world’s strongest had thrown in the towel, everyone would panic.

“Alice! Take Riho with you!!”

“…”

“We can’t leave her here. She was lucky to only have her throat slit, so you can see her again in a few decades. But not if she’s caught in all this and shattered!”

“I’m…aware of that!!”

The blonde girl clenched her teeth, wiped away the tears, and picked up the heavy crystal statue.

She likely wanted to argue with his definition of “lucky”, but she still flew out the window along with Sanae. Giving her an objective, whatever it might be, had given her the strength she needed to survive in the face of this crisis. For Karuta, his ugly revenge had played that role.

“Sacri-sama.”

“I can’t fly. Neither can Omotesandou-san.”

“Then what shall I do?”

“You work with Marika, Aine. Yes, if you can, fly the waiters and cooks out of here. Omotesandou-san!!”

The President kept her confident smile even now.

Or had she decided now was not the time to let it slip?

“Oh? I could have escaped on my own.”

“When you have trouble getting out of your wheelchair on your own and need Aine’s help washing your back? C’mon, let’s go!!”

“Hee hee. I really wish the Student Council kids could show this kind of initiative. I had them escape ahead of me, so this can be our little secret. Otherwise, they would get all jealous of you again.”

“Is this really the time?”

“It is exactly the time. The normalcy of the standard rules is needed most after a casualty.”

Kyouka too called it a casualty.

Had she concluded that the military rules were the best format for rationally bringing order to human lives? Or she may have been more concerned than she let on that her heart was influenced by the shock of what happened. Just like motion sickness, there was no way to stop it once it started.

Karuta circled behind her, grabbed the wheelchair’s handles, and began running. He should not have been moving that quickly with someone in the wheelchair, but they had no time. Kyouka seemed to enjoy it like someone riding a makeshift thrill ride.

She grabbed the armrests tight and spoke up with enjoyment in her voice.

“This is the 6th floor, so is the elevator our next stop?”

“Do you want to get trapped inside? We’re using the stairs!!”

He snapped back at how she seemed to be testing him with that question.

He could already see his breath. The coldest he could imagine was 0 degrees Celsius, where puddles would freeze over, so it terrified him for the temperature to be dropping well below that. Even though this was not a snowy mountain in the winter. They were inside a well-maintained tourist hotel, even if all the hallway windows had been thrown open for their escape.

It looked like the dome had been broken through in more than one spot.

“They’re coming from this direction too?”

“You already knew we couldn’t stay here and defend ourselves, right? We have to abandon the C World dome.”

They had only been able to see out the one direction from the banquet hall, but the opened windows in the hallway showed another white curtain with many eyes lurking beyond it. The C World dome had been attacked at multiple points simultaneously, opening more and more holes.

Kyouka waved something toward him while he pushed her wheelchair toward the stairs.

It was a phone.

“The phones no longer have a signal.”

“You mean they destroyed the antenna tower or the undersea cable connecting back to the mainland?”

“Hard to say if they have that kind of intelligence, but this means calling for rescue is not an immediate option.”

The transmissions they could send with their Crystal Blossoms did not have infinite range, so they could not contact anyone on the other side of the planet.

On the other hand, this was Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah’s field trip, so if they were still gone after the scheduled return date, the world would quickly take note. The world’s strongest would make for valuable allies, so nations around the world would send out their armies to get in their good graces.

However…

“This trip was scheduled for all of Golden Week. We still have 5 days until our scheduled return date and I seriously doubt we can last that long out here.”

“Not to mention that I’m not sure what an army could really do about this even if they did notice we had not returned,” added Kyouka. “If this is the real Threat, then only the world’s strongest should be able to do anything about them.”

These were the source of the unnatural disappearances of cities, states, and countries in a single night.

The Threat.

They had finally shown themselves, but they would never have remained such a problem for so long if they could simply be bombed into oblivion by drones.

That was when a dull rumbling shook the entire hotel.

At first, Karuta cautiously glanced out the window, assuming the owners of those many eyes behind the white curtain had arrived at the hotel, but then the Crystal Blossom at his chest vibrated to produce a human voice.

This was apparently being broadcast to everyone and not sent to him in particular.

The speaker may have wanted to find some peace of mind in someone approving of his actions.

“This is Yamane. My Kagutsuchi bombing is working! Ha ha. Crystal Magic really is the world’s strongest. Ha ha ha ha ha!! I ain’t afraid of the Threat!”

“You dumbass!!”

But Karuta had to shout back at him.

They still had no idea what this opponent could do. The first time you saw an enemy, you had to escape to safety and let them reveal their hand. They could not predict what this enemy would do and they could not fly well inside the dome. Plus, Crystal Magic was not all-powerful against an unpredictable attack.

A moment later, Karuta’s retinas were fried by a lightning-like flash of light.

This was not just a laser beam.

As soon as something was launched from the ground, explosions scattered in every direction from a certain point in the air. The translucent dome had only been broken in a few defined points before, but now it was completely blown away. Shards rained down on the rapidly-freezing tourist city.

One space elevator method was to use a laser.

A powerful laser would be fired on the bottom of a container connected to a wire and the heat would cause a rapid expansion of the air that launched the container upwards.

This was a variation on that.

First, a small pellet made of some sort of heavy metal was launched into the air and then a powerful laser or electron beam was fired into that. And instead of directing the force in a single direction, the barrier of air was formed in all directions equally. The result was a spherical explosion. Enough energy to launch something into space was fully converted into lethal force. The destructive power had to be equal or greater to a thermobaric weapon.

The destruction was massive.

Karuta could not tell which flyer in the frigid sky was Yamane Deiri, but the several people there suddenly stalled and dropped like poorly-designed paper airplanes.

Their crystal armor shattered and arms and legs were torn from their bodies.

“!!!???”

“They might not be dead yet.”

Karuta clenched his teeth hard, but the President calmly observed the scene outside the open window.

“If they make sure to make an emergency landing on a building rooftop instead of falling all the way to the road, they can survive this.”

That was exactly what happened.

A different voice arrived over their Crystal Blossoms.

“Th-the person called Yamane-senpai was hit! Um, it will take 30 seconds for his wounds to heal, so we need to buy him time to withdraw. Someone fly in formation with me!!”

“Be careful. Was that a glass laser?”

“This opened up the space overhead. I don’t know about the laser, but the pellet looked like a normal metal bullet, so won’t we be safe if we keep away from that!?”

(Is that Sanae and Alice? This can’t be an easy time for them. I’m impressed how well they’re holding together!!)

This was not over yet. Yes, as long as the wound was not fatal, a Crystal Magician would heal in 30 seconds. Losing an arm or a leg was not enough to give up on their survival. That did not count as a casualty.

And their enemy here finally broke through the white curtain hiding them.

They were finally revealed.

What even were they?

Black metal.

Solid eyes glowing red.

They were different in size and shape to the pill bug that had killed Riho in a surprise attack.

Enough so that it was unclear why they even bothered with the element of surprise.

They were like scorpions larger than dump trucks. Except instead of the pincers used to protect the head(?), they had something like 5-fingered human hands opening and closing. The grooves running along the palms flashed with a disconcertingly wet yellow light. They were brimming with massive energy.

The thick tail was shaped like an airbrush, so did that launch the pellets?

And did the palms fire the lasers that hit the pellets to cause the explosive expansion of air?

Except that was just one of the designs.

Carnivorous plants the size of cars were crawling at the scorpions’ feet, opening and closing coffins as mouths. The entire swarm of creatures was entirely covered by giant ants with revolvers instead of their six legs. Some were like giant squids with their head, belly, or whatever you called the main part covered with gaping mouths lined with teeth like dentures. Did they directly bite things, did they send out ultrasonic waves that created some kind of omnidirectional barrier, or did they snipe things with pressurized water? Karuta could not even hazard a guess.

They had never seen any of these monsters before.

Just like with the Problem Solvers, ignorance was a terrifying thing.

A dark mass was rippling in from beyond the broken dome. Instead of a single giant unit, this had to be a different swarm crawling over the Threat that had already arrived. The total number was impossible to guess.

To save their allies who had stayed in the buildings to avoid being swallowed by the swarm, the students continued making bombing runs from the air. Some were shot down by the omnidirectional explosions caused by the scorpions, but others made accurate strikes from 10m above their targets to slam an explosive blast and clear glass shards toward them.

Some of the Threat were broken by this and others were not.

When one of them was broken, the rest of the swarm would walk right over the unmoving mass of black metal, crush it, and devour it. The surviving cannons and armor would be cannibalized while the swarm marched onward with no drop in speed.

Yes. This was not about defeating them or not.

The Threat remained a threat even after they were defeated.

“What the hell?”

Utagai Karuta had done his best to remain calm and act the veteran in front of the middle school girls, but he was really a freshman who had only arrived at Grimnoah at the start of April and this was his first time seeing the Threat. With no one watching, the mask quickly slipped.

“What the hell is going on!?”

“They look more mechanical than biological to me. They also seem to be strong advocates of recycling. Humanity could stand to learn a thing or two from them.”

Only that unfathomable President could remain calm at a time like this.

The Threat could not be entirely destroyed unless the entire swarm was destroyed.

Even if they walked across a minefield and marched straight into a hail of machinegun fire, only the units out front would be destroyed and the rest would customize themselves based on the surviving parts of the fallen. A desperate resistance would only create more powerful monsters that would easily trample on humanity’s military bases.

(This is worse than I imagined.)

There was a full swarm of them and they cannibalized their dead.

He had not known how frightening an enemy could be when they had no sense of self-preservation.

This was entirely different from the Problem Solvers who they had only needed to kill even if it meant mutual destruction. The more these monsters were defeated, the more powerful they would grow. This would explain why the insane firepower of Anastasia’s group had not been enough to fully eliminate this.

There were hundreds, thousands…no, maybe more.

(We can’t push them back with strength! Their attack types and parameters are up to us. If we go at this wrong, we could end up creating the ultimate monster that no one can hope to defeat!)

“But if we don’t fight, we’ll just be killed. …Okay, you need to get out of there once you finish regenerating! Some of them might be able to fly for all we-!!”

Karuta’s throat grew bone dry when he heard what sounded like an electric shaver but much larger.

Some looked like giant octopuses with red and green lights attached to their round bodies and with their sucker-attached arms spinning in alternating directions. Some looked like flying fish with razor-sharp pectoral fins and a metallic sheen. They borrowed their shapes from actual plants and animals, but they used their parts in entirely different ways. Countless shapes left the swarm and invaded the sky with movements reminiscent of coaxial rotors or surface-to-air missiles.

(Already!? They customize themselves and evolve to match their needs way too fast!!)

“Ksshh. Y-you make it sound like we are recklessly trying to prove ourselves.”

Someone else’s voice cut in.

He recognized it.

“Natalena!?”

“Everyone is trying to buy enough time for the ordinary people to escape. Um, uh, we think we might be able to distract the Threat from the ground by fighting back from up in the sky!”

Utagai Karuta fell silent for a moment.

Meanwhile, another transmission reached him.

“Listen, that blast might cover a massive area, but it’s only a shockwave. You can reduce the damage by hiding behind a building!”

“Wh-when hiding, make sure to look out for any of them that have fallen to the ground. You can stay out of view from the surface using the walls or ceilings at the top of a tall building.”

“The flying ones aren’t the most maneuverable things, so they can’t keep up with dogfighting alongside the buildings and end up crashing into the wall. I’ll show you what I mean, so you need to learn how to do this!!”

That was the teachers, Kiyosawa Hadome and Sophia Firenze. Their focus on theory left them without any combat experience, but they must have been hiding the trembling of their legs and putting on a courageous face to keep the students from panicking.

It was still possible to save them.

They could survive this and get back on their feet. They all believed it.

The Student Council President quietly clicked her tongue.

“They beat us to the punch. I know you, Karuta-kun, so I bet you were planning to leave the others and sabotage the boiler in the basement or something. That way the big explosion and subsequent fire would draw the Threat’s attention long enough for everyone to escape. No matter what you do, you refuse to get other people involved.”

The boy had no answer to that.

He only smiled and spoke under his breath.

“We’re all such idiots, aren’t we?”

But he liked what he was seeing. He enjoyed this recklessness. This seemed a far better use of Crystal Magic than flying around the world in secret to have revenge.

“Natalena, do the ordinary people have an evacuation route?”

“Um, yes.”

She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then she began her report. Had she decided now was not the time for revenge? Ironically, she may have been a lot like him. Neither one of them would get other people involved to accomplish their goal.

“According to a hotel worker I picked up along the way, the dome has a central heating facility used to keep the entire thing warm. Um, so in addition to the heaters in the individual buildings, there is another one for the dome as a whole. The central heating facilities for each dome are connected underground, so, um, well, that is apparently to ensure the dome can receive heat from another dome if its heater malfunctions.”

That was evidently insufficient when the entire dome had been blown away, though.

Still, they could make use of that.

“Once the heat supply extracted from the lava is cut off, it’s only a large tunnel. Um, if the workers, guests, and other ordinary people who can’t fly are guided through there to the adjacent B World dome, they should be safe from this army of the Threat!”

It was a decent idea. Far better than using any surface path. Marika, Natalena, and the rest may have been fighting primarily in the air to prevent the Threat from evolving into something that dug through the ground.

This of course required caution since it all went out the window if the Threat learned of the heat tunnels, but it was still better than flying around with ordinary people in their arms when they could be shot down at any time by the explosion produced from the heavy metal pellets and lasers. Unlike Crystal Magicians, normal people would die of blood loss if an arm or leg was blown off.

“Is there anything I can do?” asked Karuta.

“Do not head outside on the surface. And…”

Another explosive boom shook the entire 50-story hotel. Several beams of light shot down from the sky to pierce into the main road, primarily taking out the scorpion-like Threats that functioned as wide-range antiaircraft weapons using lasers and bullets. The person responsible zigzagged through the air to slice through some flying octopuses and flying fish with her rapier. She was handling the dogfighting in her spare time.

“Is that Amaashi Marika-senpai? She’s so powerful it’s probably best to just leave her be. What is with her? Um, she isn’t using the buildings as cover while approaching, so she’s staying exposed to their fire yet dodging those huge anti-air explosions while bombing them. I appreciate it though, since this is gradually bringing us closer to holding air superiority.”

“Oh, dear,” said Kyouka. “It looks like Marika-san’s berserker tendencies have been fully unleashed. Does she see herself as the adorable knight protecting you and Aine-chan?”

This was not entirely a good thing. Defeating the Threat here would only power up the next wave that would cannibalize their parts. That meant Threats other than the scorpions would have those pellets and lasers equipped. And those evolved versions would be even more powerful and precise.

The same could be said of the flying ones. The Threat had begun with coaxial rotors and missiles, but they would probably find that to be insufficient and soon begin devouring their crushed allies to evolve. That repeated optimization would continue on and on until they finally had the top speed and mobility needed to surpass Crystal Magic.

“Marika-san’s biggest flaw is how she gets so caught up in protecting things now that she forgets to consider what happens next.”

Either way, they needed a fundamental countermeasure here. For example, they could destroy the enemy so utterly no usable parts remained, or they could do something to prevent the scraps from being recovered. But what exactly that would be and whether it would actually be usable on the front line were entirely unknown.

“Anyway, um, if you can’t fly, you aren’t any help here,” said Natalena. “You need to take the President into the central heating tunnel!”

“Don’t push yourself too hard. You only have to buy us time, so we’ll prepare the evacuation route for you!”

When he ended the transmission, he found the President laughing for some reason.

“She’s such a good girl,” she said.

“…”

“We are the people who killed her sister, remember? If she really was prioritizing revenge above all else, she could have given us false information to isolate us so she could attack us in the confusion.”

Natalena was not that kind of person.

She was forcing the gears of revenge to turn right now, but they would stop once she found something more important along the way. She would set it aside and focus on what ever had to be done right now.

She could do that.

The title of good person definitely belonged with Natalena Blast. Karuta’s group had failed to do that. They had prioritized their revenge no matter what it would have meant for the rest of the world.

They had lacked the courage to come to a stop.

Because they had known they could not start up again once they did stop.

For the stairs, he spun the wheelchair around 180 degrees so he walked backwards to descend the stairs ahead of it. He could have run down the stairs while princess carrying her, but there was no guarantee they would find a spare wheelchair at the bottom. There were no windows in here. He did not want to see those things for a moment longer than necessary, but the lack of information still clutched at his heart.

This hotel was the tallest building in the C World dome, so it contained a large casino within it. It could even be called the center of the dome.

That meant the central heating facility was located below it.

After descending three floors underground, they found bare concrete walls very different from the luxurious interior of the hotel. The thick metal door was already open. Inside, they found machines like a large cargo ship’s engine crammed in tight and leaking white steam.

“It’s still a little warm in here.”

“That won’t last long. And watch out for the steam, Karuta-kun.”

“?”

“Head out into the -15-degree air while somewhat damp and you might have an entire ear fall off.”

He fell silent and went pale, so she laughed and said more.

“Don’t worry. Even if you ignore my kind advice, you still have your regeneration, right? Fourth degree frostbite is nothing to be afraid of☆”

Further in, they found another metal door.

That led to the heat tunnel.

They peeked inside and saw darkness gaping as wide as a highway tunnel. But instead of concrete, the floor, walls, and ceiling here were made of stainless steel.

They saw light in the distance, but not from stationary fluorescent lights. These light sources were moving around. Karuta tensed up, thinking they might be strange “eyes”, but they were not. A large group of people was using the backlights of their phones and other devices to light their way through the tunnel. The walls and ceiling were apparently reflecting the artificial lights.

“We caught up.”

“Given the state of things up above, this is more or less a miracle.”

He guessed they were about 400m away from the tourists and workers. They easily closed that distance even with him pushing the wheelchair, so the other group must have been slowed by their numbers. After all, that was everyone from the C World dome. As seen at Shinto shrines during New Year’s and in the city during Halloween, a large gathering of people took a long time to move.

Once Karuta and Kyouka arrived at the tail end of the group, a waitress, tour guide, supermarket worker, and convenience store worker still in their uniforms noticed them and kindly shined their flashlights over to light their way. The group had not collapsed to the point that they were willing to shove aside a schoolgirl in a wheelchair to get through faster.

(But what do we do now?)

“Karuta-kun.”

(We’re up against overwhelming numbers here, so protecting one specific dome for 24 hours straight is honestly unrealistic. It’s all over as soon as they break a single hole in the dome, so the attackers have the clear advantage there. Also, where did the Threat even come from? Do they have a mothership or command tower? Either way, we need some way to go on the attack if we’re going to end this.)

“Karuta-kun, something isn’t right.”

Hearing that, he noticed a deep sound. It was not the tremors from the aerial battle fought by Marika, Natalena, and the others. This was more mechanical, like heavy gears moving. It was hard to tell in the crowd, but he could detect some angry yelling and shouting further up from here.

That sound had to be the door to the B World dome shutting.

“Wait!” he shouted. “We aren’t all inside yet!!”

“You’re from Grimnoah, aren’t you?”

A different sort of voice shouted back from beyond the crowd.

The male voice was full of the superiority rather than relief of someone who had already ensured their own safety.

“I’ve seen you on those online news sites. You’re Utagai Karuta and Omotesandou Kyouka. The representatives of justice who defeated the Problem Solvers to become the new world’s strongest!”

Karuta was taken aback when this complete stranger identified him.

And this stranger’s voice carried an emotion Karuta was not responsible for.

“Then this is none of our business. You just have to go do your jobs! Go save us! Go fight the Threat out there!!”

“…!!”

(This isn’t the time!)

Karuta clenched his teeth, but someone else had something to say as well.

“We’re normal people, so the Threat would have no reason to attack us.”

This place was ruled by the ominous elation of having outdone the world’s strongest. No, of having shoved them down to stand above them.

During disasters, it was said the EMTs and volunteers supposedly there to help would sometimes be intentionally stingy with their rescue supplies so they could laugh as they watched the victims suffer. The line between the rescuers and the rescued could turn the weak-willed into frightening tyrants.

“So this must be your fault. If you Crystal Magicians hadn’t shown up, the Threat never would have attacked the peaceful Crystal Beach!!”

Utagai Karuta thought his heart would stop.

That argument was of course nonsense.

It was unknown if the Threat was even intelligent enough to prioritize who they attacked and areas around the globe were attacked whether or not Karuta and the other Crystal Magicians were there. There was no causal relationship between the attack on Iceland’s Crystal Beach and Karuta’s school’s presence.

But.

The correct answer was not what mattered here.

The atmosphere seemed to strain.

The tail end of the group had been cut off along with them like the lizard’s tail, so they turned dead eyes toward Karuta and Kyouka. The waitress, tour guide, supermarket worker, and convenience store worker who had kindly lighted their way before had changed their tune entirely. There was no way to know which was the real them since they would be isolated if they did not side with the group here. That much was obvious enough to see.

“What does that have to do with us?” Finally, one of the tourists got things started. “ I’m not with these monsters!! Help me! I can’t use Crystal Magic! I’m not like them! I’m human like you !”

Karuta understood it was an emergency.

He understood you had to make some extreme decisions to survive.

But.

Those words seemed to strip away all the kind feelings found in human beings. And that one woman was not alone. Voices of agreement spread like wildfire until the tunnel was inundated with criticism and jeers. If they were told they would be let in if they beat up Karuta and Kyouka, they would have mercilessly ganged up even on the girl in a wheelchair. They would have done it with dark smiles on their faces all while telling themselves they had done nothing wrong.

“I’m getting the feeling this won’t work,” said Omotesandou Kyouka with a tone of disinterest. But she was not talking about whether or not he and she would be let into the B World dome. The answer there was obvious enough already.

The heavy rumbling sound did not stop, despite the other normal people still out here.

“Wait, no! Why!?”

“Weren’t you listening!? We’re human too! You only need to shut them out!!”

“Wait, wait! I have a small child with me! Are you going to abandon a child!? Can’t you at least let me in!?”

Those on the other side did not care.

Only the C World people were assuming any kind of camaraderie while they forced ugly smiles on their faces and tried to be accepted. The B World people held those lives in their hands, but they only wanted to ensure their own safety by closing that door as quickly as possible.

The survivors who had made it through the door in time were already on the other side – they were B World people now. They showed no sign of attempting to stop the door from closing or even begging the door operator to stop. Because if they rocked the boat before that door was fully closed, they could always be thrown out of that safe zone. They had to be smiling thinly as they watched the suspension bridge cut away immediately after they safely made it across. Because they were safe, unlike the poor “others” stuck on the other side.

Utagai Karuta did not bother with this any longer.

He had something more important to do.

“Get away from the door.”

“What!? You dare order us around when it’s your fault we’re stuck here in the first place!?”

“That door has to way tons, so do you really want to be caught in it when it closes!? Hurry!!”

His words fell on deaf ears.

Were they going to continue trusting in the good will of humanity and let that thick metal door crush them?

The President must have already given up on them because she spoke without a moment’s hesitation.

“Okay, let’s head back. There’s nothing we can do here.”

“But if we leave them here-”

“How are we supposed to deal with the few dozen stuck on this side? I can’t use Crystal Magic and you left Aine-chan back there. If a group this large insists on being smashed into mincemeat, there’s nothing we can do to stop them. I’m sure they will continue trusting in the good will of humanity as they are crushed like bugs. Or do you want to rush in there and get crushed along with them?”

“Shut the hell up!” he shouted back without thinking. “Natalena left them in my care. She told me to get these people to safety while she fights the Threat!”

“Oh? I don’t recall her saying quite that much.”

“Maybe not in so many words, but you have to read between the lines! If she didn’t trust me, she wouldn’t have left these powerless people with me. Listen, I stole her sister from her. Yes, the Problem Solvers had to go, but Natalena doesn’t have to agree!! And now you want me to betray her good will too? I can’t keep doing this. How much more do we have to keep taking from that little girl!? Are you kidding me!!!???”

Omotesandou Kyouka only shrugged.

And she spoke.

“Then give it a try, but the door will be closed in 30 seconds.”

“!!”

“Show me how cool you can be, Karuta-kun.”

Grabbing them by the shoulders and dragging them away one by one would be too slow. He looked around the tunnel and noticed a small but thick fire-resistant door on the wall. He opened it to find an AED bag. He pulled out the device and found a lithium ion battery far larger than the ones found in phones or handheld game systems. It was the size of an energy drink can. He used the unnecessary plastic casing to create a trumpet-like shape, used the metal clip on the inside to intentionally cause a short, and tossed the battery inside.

He could blow off his hand doing this, but he had the Crystal Magic regeneration.

“Cover your ears, Omotesandou-san!!”

He than aimed it toward the remaining people.

But aimed a bit upwards instead of straight on at them.

The sexy girl in the wheelchair covered her ears with her lithe hands just before the high-capacity battery burst with a deafening noise. The explosion’s shockwave was directed in a single direction, making it an acoustic weapon. But sound being what it was, it could be absorbed or reflected.

For example, the sound that flew above the crowd’s head could hit the wall with the door beyond them and make a U-turn right back to hit them head on.

“…!!”

Hit by the blast of sound, Karuta himself toppled backwards. As did the crowd trying to push their way toward the door. The solid group was knocked back toward him.

That settled things.

One group had made it to the other side of the door, and the other had not. A dull metal boom finally sounded. If he had been just 3 seconds later to act, the dozen or so nearest the door would have been crushed.

The President said something to him, but his ears were ringing too badly to hear it. As large a space as this was, using an acoustic weapon in an enclosed tunnel was tantamount to suicide.

Eventually, he could make out some of what Kyouka was saying with a smile.

Her words seemed designed to act like a knife to the heart.

“This isn’t going to be the happy ending you want.”

She was quickly proven right.

A young man slowly got to his feet after being knocked away in the nick of time. But his brow was wrinkled in a way Karuta had never seen before. Karuta was actually amazed that human facial muscles could do that and then the man began yelling.

“What the hell is wrong with you? I was almost there…I was so close to getting through!! Unlike you monsters, I was chosen! I was supposed to get through there!!”

He had not given up.

Even with that hope forever lost, he had not awoken from the dream.

It was like seeing an old man so obsessed with the horse races that he ended up glaring at the horse track’s ATM in the hopes that would somehow make it give him money that was no longer in his account and, when that did not happen, go running to a loan shark. The yelling and shouting actually inspired pity rather than anger.

“Leave immediately,” said a voice over a speaker installed in the tunnel.

That was probably meant to provide warnings to the inspection and maintenance crews.

There was no tremor in the voice.

Did that person think this was the C World dome group’s fault since the machine had closed the door automatically and they had been given plenty of warning? It was not that simple and they were sure to be overcome with regret down the road. They would forever have to live with the fact that they had left people to die. Especially when those people had been begging for help.

“Half an hour should be enough for you to return the way you came. You have that much time before we switch on the heater. To be clear, the dome’s central heating system produces a massive amount of heat. So turn back now unless you want to stick your head in a giant oven powered by the heat of lava!!”

Several people began to cry.

But eventually, someone realized something. And that realization quickly spread through them all.

Since the B World dome had abandoned them, these people stuck in the tunnel had to find someone else to rely on. And the only option was the Grimnoah Crystal Magicians they had been treating like garbage until now.

A uniformed waitress looked Karuta in the eye with a disturbing smile.

She apparently wanted him to forget everything that had happened a moment before.

The look on her face said she would do whatever it took to make that happen.

Her smile looked like an extremely detailed rubber mask that had been forcibly stretched to fit on her face. And she was not alone. They were all like that, even the young man who had been yelling at them.

In a way, the ability to lick at someone’s boots and become their slaves if that was the only way to survive may have been another form of human strength. But that was something Karuta’s group could never imagine doing since they had fought back against the Problem Solvers to the end, despite knowing those five were the world’s strongest.

“Karuta-kun, are you done here? Then let’s head back.”

Omotesandou Kyouka did not sound bothered at all.

When you truly gave up on someone, perhaps you did not even feel anger or hatred toward them.

“There’s nothing for us here. Not even human resources . If we are to band together and survive, we need to secure the necessities. We can work up a new plan centered on that.”

“…”

The boy squeezed the wheelchair’s handles tight.

He felt ashamed.

Did this qualify as living up to Natalena Blast’s trust in him?

Did it really?

He had saved their lives.

But that was all he had done.

The waitress, tour guide, and others would surely have nightmares about this day for the rest of their lives.

Nothing was more absurd and horrifying than when life bared its fangs against your idea of justice and pride.

He did not want to change who he was. He wanted to remain someone who could look Gekiha and the other crystallized people in the eye. It was that selfish desire that had led Karuta’s group to fight back against the former world’s strongests and annihilate them.

### 057. Part 1

It took longer than a day, but they had defeated every last one of the Threat.

They had gone around destroying more and more and more and more of the Threat flooding the ground and sky.

Even though that enemy was not even strictly alive.

This was not the first night they had seen during the fighting. It was the second one.

The fighting had been fierce, but Utagai Karuta was one of the survivors.

And if the category of survivors existed, another category also had to exist.

“34.”

A dray cracking sound reached Karuta’s ears.

It was the sound the small crystal shards scattering after his arm completed its regeneration.

This Threat had been artificial weapons created by Smart Arms, so the blinding laser emitted by his modified military flashlight could cause a malfunction in their sensors.

He could also use the Preset regeneration.

A human could derail a speeding train if they did not care what happened to their own body. They simply had to lie down and place their arm across the track. By jamming his hand into the joints of the mechanical legs, he could briefly stop them from moving. By having his own arm crushed to cushion the impact, he could prevent a fatal blow to his organs. He had avoided instant death and considered the cost-performance of each action to destroy his own body at maximum efficiency. Meanwhile, he had used Aine to slice through the center of the Threat and overcome the difference in numbers. It actually helped that the Threat was so large and packed together as a swarm. He could slip below one to escape the legs of the others, giving him a momentary shelter. At least until its stomach dropped to squash him.

He had to have destroyed more of them than even Marika who had used her superhuman flying instincts to bomb the Threat with frightening precision. His “poisoning” plan had worked well. The fake Threats could no longer evolve once they could not take in the parts of their fallen.

The weapon he used, his own destruction, and the strategy itself all came back to his own abilities.

Even so, the voices were still ringing in his ears.

“Help me!” “I don’t want to die!” “Aren’t you the world’s strongest!? The Four Living Gods!?”

He was haunted by the cries of the students who had trusted him right up until the very end when reality set it and they felt betrayed.

He could not live up to all their expectations.

The crystal scattered at his feet was not all the result of his own regeneration. Small hands, slender legs, and a cute face were lying there. They were translucent and not recovering.

Hadn’t she been the Student Council Treasurer?

He honestly did not even know her name. He remembered how coldly she treated him whenever he showed up to speak with Kyouka, but he also remembered how she had kept the other students away for him when Sanae died. She was not just some title. She was a human being who could pick up on people’s feelings and show them kindness. The fact that he only knew her by that title was a failing on his part, not hers.

And now she was gone.

Just gone.

“Altogether, that’s an entire class worth of kids dead!! Is this…is this what you wanted, Alice!!!???”

He knew his question would go unanswered.

That girl had been laser sniped by Marika and smashed to pieces by a Threat’s giant jaws. Not to mention the battlefield had moved around a lot during the fighting. Not even he remembered where exactly he had spoken with Alice Majority.

Despite everything, one group remained whole.

Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka.

The Four Living Gods were the ones that trio had actually wanted to kill, yet not one of them had died. Karuta knew from his own experience that plans had a way of going wrong, but still.

Their attempt had been an utter failure.

“Gh.”

With the extreme fighting over, the supply of adrenaline may have stopped.

For whatever reason, he suddenly hit his limit.

He collapsed onto his side and felt like he could never move again. He simply pulled in the object in front of him. It was the crystallized head of the Treasurer with a bob cut.

The killers and the killed were gone, having accomplished nothing. That thought triggered an explosion of negative emotion within him. He had done this. The world he had created had driven them to this.

Even though he had believed defeating the Problem Solvers would change the world so these cruel sacrifices were no longer necessary.

“Ahhhhhhh!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

“S-Senpai.”

He heard a weak and unreliable voice from beyond the blizzard.

It was Natalena Blast, another person trapped in revenge.

“That’s enough! Please stop fighting like that! You’re scaring everyone! Is that the ultimate form of Crystal Magic!? Destroying your own body to protect a non-regenerating flashlight!? Are we all going to end up like that eventually!? You’re the world’s strongest, so if you don’t pull yourself together, Grimnoah really will fall apart!!”

Now was the time to clean up the mess.

They had to check for any surviving Threats either in hiding or playing dead among the scraps, so everyone was combing the snowy terrain. With nonhuman opponents, they could not demand a surrender and the concept of war crimes did not apply. If they ran across a Threat, they would immediately destroy it.

“…”

But Karuta remained motionless on the ground, moving just his eyes to look over at the speaker.

It was indeed Natalena.

Only then did he slowly climb to his feet. Even if he had to force it.

She really was strong. There had been no guarantees out here, but she had found a survival strategy all on her own. Yes. Even when the Threat appeared in such numbers and could endlessly grow by devouring their own fallen, her ability to grab and swing around anything was just about the only thing that could defeat them head on.

Her Crystal Magic borrowed Anubis’s power. Before, she had attacked by using the thin wires and small grab buckets to grab at matter and swing it around as a blunt weapon. She had grabbed both solids and liquids from the area around her. Karuta had shown how to defeat that back on the beach that night. Her strength would probably rise if she grabbed something like explosives, magma, or powerful acid, but she did not use that sort of trickery here.

Instead, she chose a completely different fighting style.

She had grown yet again.

(She wasn’t using just solids and liquids. She was grabbing gasses and even plasma, which is known as the fourth state of matter.)

More than just grabbing containers or boulders, she could swing around water or the air to create her own cataclysms, like a flashflood or a powerful windstorm. She had even grabbed and twisted around explosions and blowtorch blades.

Just like her sister Anastasia, her destruction seemed more like magic than a weapon.

He had somewhat predicted this and even Omotesandou Kyouka had said the girl was powerful.

But still.

(She picked it up so fast. Scary fast.)

That young girl could transform a crisis into personal growth. At this rate, she might even surpass Karuta or Marika one day.

He had no proof of it, but he wondered if she would eventually be able to grab the dimension itself.

He could not begin to predict what would happen if she did that. As a Regulation 3, Omotesandou Kyouka had once been able to leap beyond this dimension, so perhaps she would be able to find the answer.

But all of that was Natalena Blast’s personal situation.

He doubted he would ever forget the names of those 34. He had known her name was not on the list, but he did not know who all she was friends with.

He gently placed the Student Council Treasurer’s severed head on the snow and asked a question with haunted eyes.

“Are your friends okay, Natalena?’

“Y-yes.”

“Good.”

The world’s strongest piece of shit had failed to protect everyone coming to him for help.

The extreme exhaustion and cold had taken their toll, but the psychological damage was even greater. He was about ready to mistake the snow for a down blanket and fall asleep right there.

But young Natalena gave him a frightened look. It was the look of someone seeing a horrific wound. Yet that boy had killed her sister and she had vowed to have her revenge, so seeing him in such a haggard state should have delighted her to no end.

“Natalena.”

“Yes?”

“What will you do now?”

That was the fundamental question.

He did not have it in him to keep going right now.

“Are you going to keep at it? Even after seeing that?”

She bit her lip.

And…

“What if I do say I will have my revenge?”

“…”

Toudou Riho had her throat slit for suggesting they stop. Moriyama Sanae had her belly devoured while fearing she had made a mistake. Alice Majority had lit the fuse of doom after losing everything.

What kind of answer would an avenger accept?

After thinking, Utagai Karuta opened his mouth again.

He was worn down and injured, but he could not stop here.

“I will stop you.”

“That’s selfish.”

“I will stop your revenge no matter what. Before you end up like this too.”

“How can you say that after killing my sister?”

Fair point, he thought.

It was a self-serving argument and it would sound shallow and idealistic no matter who it came from. When someone was boiling in the flames of vengeance, it did not matter how dangerous that vengeance would be. They could not rest until they succeeded.

But.

Even so.

“Fail in your revenge and you die. But even if you succeed, what you see before you is all it gets you.”

He spat out that truth. It was such a wasteful answer given all the lives cruelly taken. And now that he had learned the truth, he could not turn away from it.

He knew full well he could not recommend this path to anyone else.

“So I will stop you. No matter what it takes and no matter what anyone says! Natalena, I can’t let you face this dilemma!!”

Someone should have said this sooner.

At the very beginning.

Someone should have said it to Karuta’s group too.

And to Alice’s trio.

Someone should have prevented them from glorifying revenge as a noble goal. Someone should have stopped them before they had killed their first person and before it was too late. Someone should have dragged them away from the shadows and back out into the sun.

They had not had someone to stop them like that. Not that they would have listened while in the midst of their revenge. They would have gone mad with rage, decided that person was “one of them”, and added them to the list of targets. But even so, they had lacked someone who would silence those fools with their fists, show them an overwhelming power, and then rub their head, smile, and tell them everything would be okay.

Succeed or fail, revenge led to a dead end.

All who attempted it were doomed to sink into the depths of hell.

So he had to stop this young girl.

She could resent him, she could curse him, and she could spit on him.

But he would save her. He would give her enough of a future to eventually look back on it all and realize he had done the right thing. He knew where revenge led, so he would not back down here!!

“I took a loved one from you and words of apology will never bring them back.”

“…”

“So I don’t want to take anything more from you. Not a single thing. My hands are already stained with blood, so I won’t act like I’m in any position to give you anything, but I will put a stop to this to ensure you don’t lose anything more. I will end the chain of loss and violence here. And I’ll stoop to any level to do that!!!!!!”

Young Natalena pursed her lips.

As if to hold in what threatened to burst from her chest.

Then she whispered two simple words with a hand reaching for the Crystal Blossom on her flat chest.

“Power up.”

“Kh.”

He had failed to reach her.

Crystal armor appeared out of thin air and translucent units resembling long skis attached to her feet. Those weapons resembled spider legs or cranes, but they were the god of judgment’s scales. The wires and grab buckets allowed her to grab up to 16 things and swing them around as blunt weapons. Anubis, the Egyptian god of judgment, was the exact same god that Anastasia had once worshiped and relied on.

“Sacri-sama.”

Aine started to raise her sword while standing alongside him, but he held his right arm out horizontally to stop her.

“Don’t, Aine,” he said without turning toward her.

“But.”

“If you don’t like my orders, then cut me down with that sword. Right this instant.”

The look on Natalena’s face could not quite be described as smiling or weeping.

“No fair.”

“…”

“If you’re trying to apologize, stop trying to look so cool!! You can start by crawling pitifully on the ground to make me feel better about this! I mean, this isn’t right. You’re a murderer! You have no moral high ground here, so you can’t talk down to me like this! I have the right to feel good about my revenge !! So…so why are you making me suffer like this!? Why are you making me feel like I’m doing something wrong!!!???”

Those words were like an epiphany to him.

He knew now why she had chosen Anubis, even if she may not have realized it herself.

“Oh…”

“Wait, what did you just figure out? No, you can’t do this.”

“Anubis is a god of judgment. He assesses human souls and weighs them on his scales.”

“Stop.”

Utagai Karuta’s legs gave out below him.

No, he took a knee and bowed his head in the presence of a god.

He looked through the trembling girl to the god of judgment within her.

“Anubis, I’m sorry.”

“Stop!!”

She had told him not to look cool and to crawl pitifully on the ground.

She was exactly right.

“I killed your partner. But the punishment for that belongs to me. So please don’t have this girl bloody her hands over it.”

She immediately kicked up a leg and had the crane unit grab a large mass of air using the grab bucket at the end of one of its wires, but that was all that happened.

It was not swung around.

She did not produce a weapon of wind.

She gently lowered her small leg.

Had Natalena Blast stopped herself? Nothing else should have been possible. Crystal Magic only sealed the god’s name in a small circuit board and did not call on the actual god the way God Worshiping Magic did.

But even so.

Something about this made Karuta feel like this was the direct result of him beseeching that deity.

“No fair.”

Her voice was barely audible. Nothing remained of the intense emotion she had been forcibly maintaining before.

She could no longer keep it up. Even her translucent armor crumbled around her.

She bit her lip.

But the loss was still too much to bear, so tears filled the corners of her eyes and she spoke.

Almost like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

“No fair passing the right of judgment onto someone else.”

Yes.

Revenge was justified by converting your thoughts for the deceased into violence. It would lose its driving force if the deceased said to stop, but the dead could not speak. When seeking revenge for the dead, that absolute brake did not exist.

But Anastasia’s situation was different.

One of the pair remained.

Anubis, Egyptian god of judgment, had fought alongside Anastasia as part of the world’s strongest.

That was why Anastasia’s sister had chosen him.

But did he really see violence as the answer here?

This was the only way to stop her revenge. No blow could have been more powerful than the forgiveness of her sister’s partner.

It had been the same for Karuta’s group.

If Karuta had managed to speak with Kazamuki Gekiha once more and he had told him to stop that foolish quest for revenge, his spirit would have broken. He had been ready to betray the world and take on the strongest, but that attack was one that he could never have avoided.

He had said he would do whatever it took, so he had taken the girl’s right to justified revenge and handed it to Anubis instead.

“Don’t worry.”

“You idiot.”

“If you don’t go berserk here – if you can stop yourself from doing something unjust now that justified revenge has been taken from you, then you aren’t like Alice. It means you can still go back into the light of the sun.”

“You saw it through to the ugly end yourself!! You know revenge can work out in the end if you stick with it. Um, uh, but are you really saying I am worth rejecting everything you did to reach this point!?”

He smiled a little.

He felt like he had finally found a place for himself.

He was fine simply viewing that bright world from the shadows.

As long as he could provide a push back into the light when he found someone who had not crossed the point of no return.

Still, he carried the weight of the world’s strongest.

He would have to wear that crown without letting it crush him.

“Sacri-sama.” Aine seemed to have found something. She was looking in a different direction altogether. “Won’t this conclusion make her an enemy?”

“…”

That was enough to tell him who he would find in that direction.

She was the most reliable friend but she could also lose control in the worst possible way. Without her, his revenge would have failed very quickly, but without her, he would not have fallen this far either.

“Marika.”

She had already activated her Crystal Magic armor.

Needless to say, she was not concerned about any of the fake Threats having survived. She was viewing a much more obvious target. That was the thing about her. She never considered the formless and unknown enemies.

Her own life was of secondary importance.

But when people she cared about would come to harm, Amaashi Marika would not hesitate to dirty her hands.

“Her revenge is over,” said Karuta in a weary voice.

“What proof of that do you have?”

He made an immediate decision.

Asking the other students or teachers for help here would be the height of folly. Not even Sophia Firenze or Kiyosawa Hadome could stop this fight. This was a clash between strongests. Marika did not care who else showed up. If they got in her way, she would mercilessly remove them from the equation.

That was the way the world worked.

And it worked that way because Karuta’s group had killed the Problem Solvers.

The twintails girl pointed at his face with her rapier-like unit.

“The mind is a fickle thing, so it’s easily swayed . She might not feel like taking revenge now, but the desire for vengeance might come back when she wakes up from her shallow sleep in the middle of the night. You’ve already seen what happens when an avenger goes off the rails, haven’t you? It doesn’t stop them. She’ll keep going and make you suffer in some way or another. Anyone after you for revenge must be eliminated, no matter how insignificant. And they must be eliminated in a way that leaves no room for swaying .”

This was a battle between friends.

It was the same ugly result reached by Riho, Sanae, and Alice.

Karuta was being drawn into the exact thing he had wanted to avoid.

But he could not stop it. And he knew why.

“Aine.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

“Natalena is our top priority. Protect her even if it kills me.”

“…”

Aine’s mouth formed a small triangle as she kept her sword at the ready.

A clear change came over the look in Marika’s eyes, but he spoke all the same.

“Marika, you said people are easily swayed.”

“I did.”

“Then tell me. How can you trust me so much? You saw how cheap, persistent, and hopeless I am back when we fought the Problem Solvers.”

She did not even have to think about her answer.

“Because I know I can laugh and accept you no matter how much you might deceive me. That’s what it means to truly care about someone.”

Her words were accompanied by a slight smile.

It was true that she at least would not be swayed. She stuck with someone to the end. And it apparently had to be someone she felt that strongly about. He was touched, but it also explained why the list of people she would protect was so very short. She might even sink the new Grimnoah if it would protect Karuta or Kyouka. All while she claimed that was not the place for them.

At the same time, he found nothing to work with there.

He could beg her to trust Natalena because he did, but it would not reach her. She trusted him, not Natalena, so if he trusted Natalena and was betrayed, she would only see it as a “told you so” moment. She would only feel hatred for the deceiver and cut her down. The younger girl’s circumstances were irrelevant to her.

Worse, she was saying she would kill the girl before that could happen.

Because she did not want to even imagine seeing that boy soaked in blood and tears.

So…

(It’s no good. There’s no way to stop this!)

This would not end like it had for Natalena Blast. Amaashi Marika had already successfully completed her revenge. She was tougher and surer of herself, so there was no opening there.

She was too much to handle.

And others might say the same about Utagai Karuta himself.

“Are you quite done?”

She spun her rapier around to shift the tip away from Karuta.

She directed it toward Natalena Blast, the 12-year-old girl who had lost her sister and her chance at revenge.

She did not hesitate.

“Then move out of the way. Be warned, try to protect her here and it will only mean more pain for you.”

“Sacri-sama, you may have forgotten, but my nonlethal mode for Grimnoah people is still in effect. This would be extremely challenging and is not recommended. Shall we continue nonetheless?”

“Of course we will!!”

It was time to steel himself. He stuck a hand in his blazer uniform and pulled out the modified military flashlight before stepping up beside Aine.

That positioned himself in front of the defanged and now harmless young girl.

He had sworn he would not take anything more from her. Not a single thing.

So.

He had to live up to that.

“Aine, we need to work together to defeat Amaashi Marika, one of the world’s strongest! But don’t kill her, no matter what might happen!! I will never let you do that!!!!!!!”

### 058. Part 10

The seeds of that silly discussion blossomed into toxic flowers the following morning.

It began at breakfast.

1000 people would not fit in a normal restaurant, so they had rented out an entire one-floor banquet hall.

The middle and high school naturally separated out into two distinct groups, but Karuta and the rest of the world’s strongest were also forced to sit at a table all their own. The Student Council Treasurer with the black bob cut and Secretary with her red hair worn in buns sat at a nearby table while giving Karuta a withering look of hatred, but Kyouka only smiled and stayed with his group.

The middle and high school students only mixed together when getting their food. Marika’s friend Imi used a finger and her eyes to send Karuta a warning as he passed by, so he looked over that way and saw…

“C’mon, all of you. You need to eat some vegetables.”

“Ehh? But this is a buffet where we can choose what we want to eat, Sensei.”

“And they have chicken strips! I’m gonna eat chicken strips until I pop!!”

Sanae, the black-haired bespectacled member of the usual trio of middle school girls, could not turn down the muscular track suit teacher’s high-pressure request and had her plate thoroughly customized. She had apparently been caught at the drink section while making her special drink by adding a pinch of salt to some water. She must have had trouble telling him no when she knew he meant well.

Karuta also overheard a conversation the food workers were holding. The ordinary guests who were not from Grimnoah were apparently all talking about catching glimpses of something outside the translucent dome.

And that something was looking in at them from the white blizzard outside.

“But no one can say what exactly it is,” said Marika with her strawberry blonde twintails swaying.

Karuta felt the large hotel’s buffet had a way of revealing people’s true nature. With a plate full of sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, and corn cooked in butter, Marika was going for a very powerful meal. And she ate it all with white rice.

“And isn’t it -15 degrees out there? What ever happened to that talk of global warming thinning the ice? I bet a polar bear could hibernate out here just fine.”

“Marika-san, um, where are your vegetables?”

“Eh? Corn’s a vegetable.”

Marika sounded legitimately puzzled as she shot down Omotesandou Kyouka’s gentle change of subject. Kyouka’s plate was only vegetables and fish, so no carbs to be found. This was an all-you-can-eat buffet and she was only eating a single small plate’s worth of food for breakfast. The two of them had excellent figures, but they had apparently developed their breasts in very different ways.

Aine was only interested in pure gold, so she had nothing at all on her plate. In fact, she seemed more focused on the golden shine of the knives and forks, but she stopped gnawing on them when she realized they were brass and not gold-plated.

“Sacri-sama, they were saying it is something inhuman wandering around outside, weren’t they?”

“We can rule humans out pretty easily anyway. A stray dog has a better chance out there than we do. Dogs use their fur to keep out the cold when pulling those sleds.”

It did not seem to be a wild animal, but it was not humans who had forgotten the wild either.

That had led to speculation from those laypeople.

“But do you really think it could be that?” Marika frowned. “Do you really think the Threat could be what’s watching us from the blizzard?”

They all fell silent.

It would be simple enough to deny it, but no one knew what the real Threat was.

Karuta wanted to ask Sophia Firenze who had created a possible model of them, but unfortunately, he did not see her nearby at the moment. That was not too surprising when over 1000 students and teachers were filling this single large space. It was an even larger scale than the average party.

“I don’t know.” Omotesandou Kyouka sighed while poking at her seaweed salad with a fork. “But true or not, those rumors could lead to unnecessary panic. And they may only be linking those strange gazes with the Threat because they’re seeing the Crystal Magicians who are meant to combat the Threat.”

Needless to say, a riot inside could cause a fire or destroy the C World dome’s walls just as much as an attack from the outside could. If there were signs of it, they had to put a stop to it.

“Umm.”

A girl hesitantly approached them.

It was Alice, the well-developed blonde ponytail girl from that trio.

“Have you seen Riho-chan? She was with us during the roll call before breakfast.”

She had probably intended to ask Karuta for help, but she was speaking a little more politely than usual. Marika and Kyouka must have seemed like more distant figures for a middle school girl.

“What, has she gone missing?” asked the boy with a frown.

“It’s a buffet, so I assumed she had gone to get some more food, but it’s been a while and she hasn’t come back.”

He could imagine that girl skipping class, but not a meal. This was a breakfast buffet at a luxury hotel, so it was unlikely she would try to sneak out in search of better food. Any of them could slip out if they tried, but she had no reason to. This did sound unusual.

He set down his knife and fork and stood from his chair.

He took a deep breath to secretly switch modes. He needed to be in public mode now.

“Where have you searched so far?”

“Nowhere really. Wait, are you saying this could be bad?”

“Aine,” he said to the pale-skinned crystal girl. They asked the receptionist at the banquet hall exit leading to the elevator hall since they would have the most information, but they only shook their head. They said they would have noticed any students walking out.

“Just to be safe, what special abilities does your Crystal Magic have? Could she have turned invisible or altered someone’s memory?”

“Riho-chan’s is Verdandi from Norse Mythology, so no, she can’t.”

“There are three of you and one of them uses Verdandi?”

“Ah ha ha. Bingo. I use Skuld and Sanae-chan uses Urd.”

The Crystal Blossom at Alice’s chest suddenly shattered and expanded into her armor. There was a lot of fabric fluttering in a risqué way. The translucent crystal formed armor and a miniskirt with feather-like decorations in places. It did make her look a lot like a Norse goddess. She did not seem to have a weapon, but the pointed parts of the skirt and feather decorations were apparently all sheathed short swords.

Karuta sighed.

“Watch out behind you.”

“Oh, whoops. Sorry, did I hit you?”

She apologized to a middle school boy while storing the armor once more.

The name of the god sealed inside the Crystal Blossom’s small circuit board could not be changed, but apparently even that could lead to friendships. That did explain why they seemed downright inseparable.

Anyway, if the receptionist was to be believed, Riho had not left the buffet hall.

Which meant…

Before Karuta could turn his head, a shrill scream exploded.

By the time he turned around, Kiyosawa Hadome was already running alongside him.

They ran over to find Sophia Firenze fallen to a sitting position. The track suit teacher grabbed her shoulders to support her and she seemed entirely unaware of all the students focused on them. Her flaxen hair was plastered to her cheeks while she held her hands over her mouth and stared at something with her eyes as wide as could be.

Her gaze was fixated on the bathroom door.

Kiyosawa started to move in that direction, but then he seemed to notice Sophia’s weight. He had said she was the niece of a professor who helped him earn tuition money. He was clearly having trouble deciding whether he should leave her there and go check or stay here with her.

Karuta hesitated for a moment too, so he went with another option.

“Aine.”

“Understood. Although I imagine you will be checking for yourself soon enough.”

With crystal sword in hand, Aine poked her head into the women’s bathroom and took a look around like she was peeking inside a shop she frequented. Then she turned back and emotionlessly beckoned him over.

“Well?”

“She is dead.”

She stated it so plainly he thought he had misheard her at first. The nervous teacher’s head slumped back at an unnatural angle, so Kiyosawa Hadome quickly propped up her body weight.

Meanwhile, Aine continued speaking in a mechanical way.

“Casualty report: One corpse was found with entire body crystallized. Based on the physical traits-”

“No…wait. What are you saying? That can’t be true!!”

Alice cut off the crystal girl with a shout. Sanae rushed over after hearing her friend’s voice, but Alice did not seem to notice.

She may have been afraid that letting someone put it to words would make it actually real.

But Aine did not even tilt her head.

“Based on the physical traits, this is almost certainly the individual we are searching for. The damage took the form of a large horizontal gash to the throat, but…”

She would not stop.

The way Aine spoke of it like an unexpected casualty during a mission may have helped reduce the shock, but it also did not treat a human life with the appropriate weight.

Alice grabbed Aine’s slender shoulders and shoved her out of the way of the bathroom door. She took a look inside and fell back onto her butt.

Just like she had run full speed into an invisible wall.

She had been rejected by that forbidden space and gained nothing from it. Despite her explosion of energy just now, her entire body went limp and her hands wandered slowly through the air. She more or less clung to Aine’s left thigh, but the crystal girl ignored her while continuing her mechanical report.

“But it does not appear to have been done with a simple horizontal cut. It looks like something applied force from both sides of her throat, like a pair of scissors. Also, I discovered this on the scene, so it is likely related.”

Aine held the tip of her sword out toward Karuta.

No, she held out the thing impaled there.

He asked about it without thinking. He had to ask.

“What is that?”

“Unknown.”

He heard a grinding or squealing noise.

Or was it a voice?

The thing looked something like a slipper-sized pill bug. Except this metal bug shined dully in the light and had large steel mandibles that were sharper than scissors. The tanned and silver-haired girl named Riho had crystallized, but her blood remained on the weapon. Those mandible blades shined a horrifically vivid red.

Weapon?

Was this a weapon?

Something flashed through Karuta’s mind.

What was it Anastasia Blast had called the Threat?

Yes.

A Metal-Derived Autonomous-Origin Higher Lifeform Combat Weapon.

“Aine, kill that thing.”

“?”

“Kill it now!! Hurry!!”

She only tilted her head.

And it was too late.

The windows in this large space gave a view of an artificial summer beach.

But all that was rejected by a deafening sound of destruction.

Someone had broken through the outer perimeter of the C World dome and the blue ocean froze over in an instant.

Since this one was small enough to slip through ducts and water pipes, it had likely been a scout meant to perform reconnaissance and sabotage. It was exactly the same as how human special forces would send in a small camera to check on the interior of a building before entering it themselves. Had Riho stumbled upon it by chance, so it had silenced her?

The main unit was waiting somewhere else.

What was it they had heard talk of this morning?

Something was looking into the dome from the fierce blizzard outside.

And people wondered if it could be the Threat.

Whatever it was had finally arrived. By destroying the foundation of this temporarily livable environment, they had taken the best possible action toward eradicating all life here.

Most likely, this was something inhuman working to destroy all that was human.

### Between the Lines 2

Toudou Riho.

Age at Death: 13 (Born April 13). Sex: Female.

Height: 145 cm. Weight: 38kg. Measurements…is that really necessary?

The first casualty of Second Grimnoah. On Sacri-sama’s orders, I scanned the women’s bathroom attached to the 6th floor banquet hall. The above individual was found collapsed face down by the sinks near the bathroom entrance. She died of blood loss or suffocation after her throat was slit by a sharp blade. Some uncertainty remains concerning the cause and time of death because her entire body crystallized, preventing standard forensic medicine techniques. Based on observations of the wounded area, it appears her throat was forcibly slashed from both sides at once by a set of two blades, such as scissors or a bolt cutter. Based on the severity of the wound, it will likely take 56 years for her to recover.

To reiterate, the time of death can only be estimated. Security camera footage of the bathroom entrance will likely be useful there. There will be no footage of the attack itself since cameras are not installed inside for privacy reasons.

The Sub Category Regulation 1 students noticed Toudou Riho’s absence at around 8:20 AM. Their homeroom teacher discovered her and screamed at around 8:30 AM. Assuming no trickery involving body doubles and assuming the entire group is not lying, we can assume she was killed in the women’s bathroom during that time.

Toudou Riho was not collapsed with her head pointed toward the exit. There was also no sign of her trying to crawl away and escape. Thus, I expect she was killed nearly instantly.

There were also some cosmetic products scattered across the floor.

The only other notable observation was the lack of any apparent damage other than the actual fatal injury. There were no injuries on her arms suggesting she tried to defend herself. The same applies to the women’s bathroom. There were no signs of a struggle on the floor or walls. The sink mirror and the frosted glass window were undamaged.

A unit we are tentatively calling a Mini-Scout Threat was found on the floor as well. The blood on it makes it almost certain its metal mandibles were used to tear open Toudou Riho’s throat.

Based on the circumstances, she likely had her throat slit in a single attack, giving her no time to resist. She must have lost all strength and died before she could activate her Crystal Magic or even scream. It is unknown how the Mini-Scout Threat got in, but as it is the size of a slipper, it had many avenues of entrance, including the toilet pipes and the air duct in the ceiling.

### 059. Part 10

“I will now explain the details of the mission.”

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka had sent a Crystal Blossom transmission to them all.

They would have to abandon their settlement the instant the Threat noticed it, but they also wanted to avoid having to move if possible. So instead of gathering the 1000 students in one place and holding a strategy meeting with a megaphone in hand, they more safely spoke into their Crystal Blossoms inside their individual igloos.

“Based on the material evidence Karuta-kun discovered and the theory he developed based on it, we will be ‘poisoning’ the Threat. Since the Threat tears off the usable parts of their own fallen to cannibalize them, they will only customize themselves more the more we defeat them. Instead, we will hide bombs or viruses in the wreckage to do damage from within once those parts are cannibalized.”

Someone would have to be entirely oblivious to the spreading rumors to have not heard that someone else had died. They had another casualty.

Nevertheless, Yamane Deiri, Nekoumi Hirosuke, Matsuda Imi, Hashizaki Tayori, and the Student Council’s black bob cut girl were fully focused on fighting the Threat, so they may have wanted to forget about that fear. Just like a giant meteor descending toward your city would make even a brutal robbery pale in comparison. They may have been standing up to the Threat as a way of averting their gaze.

It was important to remember these were all middle and high school students, even if they had been given Crystal Magic, the world’s strongest power.

“To act on this plan, we need the remains left by the Threat, so we will be splitting into three teams. The first is the Firepower Team that will work to destroy as many Threats as they can. Then the Delaying Team will hit the surviving Threats with a powerful bombardment to buy us even a few minutes. Lastly, we have the Engineering Team that will use that time to insert the poison in the defeated Threats. It does not actually matter if the Threat notices what we are doing. We only care about ending the negative spiral where they grow stronger the more we defeat them, so making them hesitant to cannibalize counts as a success even if the poison does no direct damage.”

They were heading to the deadly battlefield to fight.

Once in that special mental state, all their everyday troubles seemed to vanish.

Even though there was still violence on warships and theft and murder on the battlefield.

“In addition to those three primary teams, there will also be smaller sub-teams for transmission, transportation, healing, and backup circling the battlefield like satellites, so keep that in mind. The team divisions will prioritize teamwork, so it will be done by class. No hard feelings no matter what team you end up on, okay? We are all Grimnoah. We are all on the same side.”

Things were finally underway.

Rushing footsteps sounded all around them.

“Buck up, Karuta.”

“W-we just need to look at it as a chance to show off to the middle schoolers!!”

Karuta’s two classmates slapped him on shoulders or back as they passed by.

With Crystal Magic, they did not have to prepare their weapons and ammo before entering battle. They generally only had to shatter their Crystal Blossoms to activate their armor, but it was not that easy this time. After all, they were moving as a group of 1000. Simply splitting into teams and performing a roll call was on a larger scale than the average school’s athletics festival.

“Marika.”

“I’ll be borrowing the entire Firepower Team. I wouldn’t dare send them to the front line otherwise.”

“You’re sounding more like a god of war all the time.”

“Isn’t that what it means to be the world’s strongest? I’ve gotta be waving the flag out front.”

“Then you handle that,” he said with a smile. “Anyway, about yesterday.”

“I already told you everything I know about that. I wasn’t hiding anything. See you.”

She waved and flew up into the air. The class of a few dozen that formed the Firepower Team followed after her.

Karuta let out a visible sigh and spoke to someone else.

“Omotesandou-san.”

“Is this really when you want to borrow my wisdom?” she began with a laugh. “To be blunt, I doubt any investigating we do will turn up anything about the circumstances of Sanae-san’s death. Visibility was so poor with the late-night blizzard that no one would have noticed if someone was sneaking around and the igloos don’t even have doors, meaning anyone could walk right in. If that was all we had to work with, it would have been the perfect crime.”

“But it wasn’t.”

“Correct. That death instead gave us the answer we needed, so it’s time to do your job. This entire poisoning mission is a bluff .”

Karuta was a Grimnoah student too.

He was one of the Four Living Gods, but that did not mean he could just sit idly by and watch things play out.

“Um,” someone hesitantly called out.

He looked back to find a 12-year-old girl standing there nervously. It was Natalena Blast.

“What are you going to do now? Um, because you don’t seem able to fly with Crystal Magic.”

“Worried about me?”

“…”

“Just kidding. I’m part of the Transmission Team providing logistical support. Crystal Blossom transmissions have a limited range, but they can cover much longer ranges if we leave someone in between to relay the signal.”

“I see.”

“You’re part of the Work Team, right? That detailed work on the front line is critical, so don’t screw it up.”

“It’s, um, weird having you worried about me.”

“But that’s how I really feel.”

An ominous atmosphere emanated from a short distance away. That girl was in turmoil as well. Her middle school classmates must have been hesitant to speak to her after what happened. And that let her lose control more and more.

“They are so dead.”

She was filled with resentment.

But not quite like Karuta’s group had been.

Blonde Alice would have been crushed by the sorrow if she did not have someone to hate, so she was adding fuel to the fire within her. Although her hatred of the Threat probably was real.

Her frenzy when he had broken the crystal statue had not seemed like an act.

“They are deader than dead. I’ll show them what a real threat is. I’ll make a pile of their corpses to prove who’s the strongest once and for all!!”

She had been placed on the Delaying Team that would keep the surviving Threats away to buy time for the sabotage of the defeated ones. It was a fruitless job but Karuta thought she might be perfect for it.

“Sensei.”

“Y-yes!?”

Flaxen-haired Sophia Firenze was holding a first-aid kit.

Crystal Magic could heal any non-fatal wounds in 30 seconds, but that did not mean they had no need for medical equipment. Sometimes stopping the bleeding would turn an otherwise fatal wound into a non-fatal one. So using both methods was more effective than one or the other. He guessed she was part of the Healing Team providing logistical support.

“Your focus was on theory, right?”

“Yes, entirely so. What am I even doing on the front line like this? I was supposed to create theories, try to reproduce them in the lab, and correct the theories based on the results.”

“Reproduce them?”

“I won’t go so far as to say reality is an awful place, but there are people who will accept something more readily when they can hold it in their hands. Especially among the elderly. So in addition to simulations, I would make models and pet robots. It was really a waste of time, but they wouldn’t fund us without those things.”

Karuta heard someone click their tongue.

Not even the imminent battle changed that muscular teacher named Kiyosawa Hadome.

But an unwavering spirit could be a reassuring thing.

“I really don’t like you,” he said to Karuta.

“Is that so?”

“But I’ll admit this isn’t a job for us. So go do what we theory-based teachers can’t.”

Karuta smiled a little. How much strength had it taken for that man to leave things in his hands here? He knew just how much that teacher cared for the students, after all.

Their preparations were nearly complete.

After leaving the teachers, he gave a quiet order.

“Aine.”

The crystal girl poked her had out from within his uniform.

“It’s time. We need to get moving.”

“Understood.”

Unlike the other teams, the Communication Team would not be gathered in a single spot. They had to spread out over as wide an area as possible to relay transmissions.

That was the perfect job if you wanted to hide and work on something else in secret.

He glanced over at the destroyed C World dome and saw the Threat must have noticed something was afoot. Snow blasted up into the air and countless red eyes glowed from beyond it. The visible range on the surface was less than 5km, so they had to be within striking range for some of their weapons. Karuta’s job was to relay transmissions, so he could easily tell where the Grimnoah students were located on the battlefield.

He slowly took a deep breath.

President Omotesandou Kyouka had called this poisoning mission a bluff.

That was exactly right. He flicked the Crystal Blossom on his chest.

“Marika.”

“I’m ready when you are.”

“Get ready, Aine.”

“Understood, Sacri-sama.”

That settled it.

The giant Threats stepped over their brethren to continue past the ones blocking the way. And while those surface-based ones struggled to move out ahead, countless flying ones filled the air like a sandstorm. Meanwhile, the Grimnoah students were putting a fair amount of distance between themselves to have enough room to fly freely.

After confirming everyone’s positions, Utagai Karuta pulled the final trigger.

Of his own free will.

“ Okay, you two, shoot down Alice Majority. ”

It must have been too sudden for her to react in time.

Laser sniping was hard enough to dodge at the best of times and she was simultaneously targeted from two different points, one on the ground and one in the air.

The lasers struck a flying angel with feather decorations adorning her armor and miniskirt made of translucent crystal.

“!?”

The blonde ponytail girl had just enough time to notice something was wrong and twist around, but her barrier was still shattered and her translucent armor hit. She lost balance in midair and entered a tailspin.

She fell straight down.

Toward the ground.

Where the Threat had created a realm of death.

“Let’s go, Aine. We need to end this here.”

Karuta was on the Transmission Team.

He could sense the amount of Crystal Blossom transmissions spike all of a sudden. The other students were sending angry and frightened complaints to ask what had just happened, but the boy did not let it get to him. He simply walked to the crash site, accompanied by Crystal Girl Aine who obeyed his orders.

There, he found a new sight.

He saw black armor. He saw scorpions that had human-like hands and airbrush-like tails they used to cause massive midair explosions to bring down all flying objects. He saw giant squids with plenty of cheap denture-like mouths. He saw carnivorous plants with coffin jaws clacking shut. He saw abnormally large ants with handgun legs. All those bizarre creatures were gathered together and tearing at each other’s armor. These were all the Threat that killed humans and destroyed their civilization.

However.

They had come to a stop.

It was like time had frozen so the crashed girl would not be caught in the middle of it all. The countless flying Threats – the giant octopuses that rotated their sucker-covered legs in alternate directions like coaxial rotors and the flying fish that were as pointy as a blade – had fallen to the ground when they stopped moving.

Just like a bizarre weather phenomenon where frogs or small fish fell from the sky. That was increasing the height of the black masses. There was no gap in the swarm of Threats, so approaching meant Karuta had to climb across the many legs like it was a jungle gym.

“Is that phone the controller, Alice?”

“…!!”

It was also possible she was using special sensors to monitor the Threat while using Crystal Magic for the actual interference with them, but even if the details were unclear, one thing here clearly stood out.

“That isn’t just a phone.”

The object in Alice’s hand was not her phone.

When he thought back to their swimsuits, he recalled that being the model used by Toudou Riho who had carried two phones with her.

“You’ve swapped out the circuit board within, making that one unique. Tell me. What is it for?”

### 060. Part 11

Karuta had needed help for this one, so he had discussed it with the others before getting started.

He had spoken with Amaashi Marika and Omotesandou Kyouka.

“Alice Majority?”

Marika sighed.

That was the last of that trio of girls. The blonde ponytail one.

“Yes.” Karuta nodded. “There’s no point in investigating Casualty B, Moriyama Sanae. Any one of our 1000 people could have pulled that one off. I’d be the top suspect since I was out patrolling throughout the night and Aine’s testimony won’t help me since she agrees with anything I say. But this still gives us the answer when combined with Casualty A, Toudou Riho.”

“Continue.”

The President smiled in apparent enjoyment.

He could not say if that smile was from the heart or not, though.

“Riho’s throat was slit from head on. A slipper-sized pill bug of a Threat was found on the floor, but that doesn’t add up. How did that thing slit her throat? There was more than a meter from the floor to her throat, so are we supposed to believe it hopped straight up like some kind of spring-loaded contraption? It’s nonsense.”

“Sacri-sama, couldn’t it have fallen from the duct in the ceiling?”

“There were no wounds on her arms. However it happened, anyone would try to protect their face from an attack they could see. Even rookies and people without any combat training whatsoever would do that.”

“Then did it sneak up behind her?”

“You already know the answer to that, don’t you? That pill bug only had its jaws. It had no arms. To circle around from behind and slit her throat, it would have to have used its many legs to crawl along her back or shoulder. There’s no way Riho wouldn’t notice that. So,” he said while pretending he was holding and pushing forward an electric shaver or something. “ Someone must have held that pill bug and pressed it against Riho’s throat. That’s the only possible answer. There never was any other answer. And the lack of wounds to her hands means it was someone she trusted. She never imagined for a second she was going to be attacked.”

“Hm,” said Kyouka. “But what proof is there that person was Alice Majority? She was the one who came to us. If she did that, wouldn’t she have wanted to delay discovery of the body? And we could easily have asked the kids seated near the bathroom who had been in there.”

“She used the window,” replied Karuta. Normal people would never even consider that, but they were different. “That was only the 6th floor. Any Crystal Magician can fly, so it wouldn’t have been difficult for her to climb out through the hallway window, circle around the entire hotel, and arrive at the window to the girl’s bathroom. I’m the only exception there, what with Aine and all.”

“But if they chose a course that doesn’t show up on the cameras, couldn’t anyone have done that? It didn’t have to be Sanae-san or Alice-san.”

“Of course.” He shrugged. “But it couldn’t have been anyone else and I know you already know why. Riho was caught by surprise in an attack from dead ahead. Someone has to trust you an awful lot for you to slit their throat from dead ahead without giving them any time to try to stop you with their hands.”

“I see.”

“That was the girl’s bathroom, she would have immediately put her guard up around a boy or one of the adult teachers who are practically all-powerful in her school life. I was hesitant to go in there even when I knew it was an emergency. And Riho would have been suspicious of pretty much anyone – even another girl – if they climbed in through the 6th-floor window. There’s only one or two people she would let her guard down around in that situation.”

Utagai Karuta had seen it before. Back on the Grimnoah ship, he had seen Alice take a shortcut to the shower room window. That meant climbing in through windows was a habitual thing for that trio. It would not inspire any surprise. Yet if Karuta, Aine, Marika, or Kyouka had done it, it would have led to a flurry of screams. None of the other students – or teachers for that matter – could have done it.

It was not about the actual actions taken.

Only the other members of that trio had been close enough to Riho.

At the time, that logic had left them with two options, but then Alice had killed Sanae. Most likely, she had used a similar tactic: grabbing those small Threats in her hand and shoving them into the girl’s gut.

That death had left just one option.

The sole survivor was their answer. Marika sighed in a disinterested way.

“I had deduced that either Sanae or Alice must have killed Toudou Riho, so I put them through a little test. I have to admit, I didn’t expect to find they were both guilty. ”

A little test.

Needless to say, she was referring to having those two investigate the damage to the other domes the day before.

“Oh, had you already checked over all the domes yourself?”

“Yes, and then I had them check over them again. There were plenty of oddities to report, but those girls both said they found nothing. A nice way to dodge the issue, really. If I had pointed out the oddities later on, they could always claim they had simply not noticed. A nice way, but still plenty suspicious.”

Marika had mentioned a teacher joining that inspection at the last second – Kiyosawa Hadome. She had suspected he had gone along to keep an eye on the other two and make sure they did not say anything foolish, but it turned out he had no ulterior motive at all.

He had honestly reported what he saw and even tried to help the other girls with their report.

If Marika had not held out a hand to stop him, he would likely have mentioned what they had “overlooked”. That would have allowed the girls to realize how unnatural their report sounded, giving them a chance to course correct.

“So what exactly did they fail to report?”

“There were Threat-like footprints and claw marks visible around the surviving domes and there was a lot of fruit hidden in the snow. The former is unnatural because it means the Threat was picking and choosing who and what to attack despite supposedly being indiscriminate. The latter was evidence of a secret supply base. They had plenty of food for themselves prepared in advance in case we made a mistake and ended up stuck in the blizzard without food. Fruit stays good when frozen and they could cook it with magic fire to eat it.”

The discoveries themselves had been less important than questioning why those girls would hide it.

They had not wanted the others to know the Threat could be controlled or that a supply base had been prepared in advance.

The day before, Marika had said there was no way of narrowing it down at that point and the answer would become clear after a few more casualties.

“We had two possibilities and one died, so that settles it.”

They could have tried to separate Sanae and Alice, but they had not known how those two were controlling the Threat. If they captured those two and had a large army called in on them, they would have been wiped out.

Marika’s solution was to defeat both of them, but if they both had a controller, then one could summon the Threat while the other was being killed.

Thus, she had been waiting for an opportunity to kill them both at the same time.

Yet that opportunity had never arrived.

“You can’t solve every problem with a sniper shot, Marika-san.” Kyouka laughed. Had she gone to Marika’s igloo last night to drive that point home? Although that did lead them to overlook the late-night murder.

“Marika, when did you first start to suspect them?” asked Karuta.

“The instant we found Toudou Riho’s corpse. I mean, their grief was way too by the book. If your closest friend dies, it would tear your heart to pieces. I would have expected them to grab the corpse and fly off with it never to return, or to start calling everyone a spy and bombing the hell out of them with their Crystal Magic.”

That opinion seemed heavily influenced by Marika’s unique values.

She was also implying that was how she would react if Karuta or Aine died.

She had mostly jumped to a conclusion and gotten lucky, but she had still reached the right answer far sooner than Karuta. He was astonished by this, but anyway.

“Do you agree with Karuta on how she did it?” asked Omotesandou Kyouka.

“I do.”

“It would be technically possible, but it seems unnecessarily complicated. Flying around the outer wall to reach the bathroom window is a lot of effort. Why did Alice Majority want to contact Toudou Riho in secret so badly? And how did the Threat become a part of all this?”

Those questions were side issues.

If they wanted to find out why she had killed her friends, they only had to bring her down and take their time getting it out of her in a dark room somewhere. So there was a bigger issue here.

“Even if the Threat here is only a decoy, we have to take out whatever method she is using to control them. And I would really prefer not to consider the possibility that the method can be spread to others.”

### 061. Part 12

The battlefield had changed.

The frozen Threat swarm surrounded Karuta and Alice. A lot of them were as large as a bus or a small building, so there was plenty of cover. It was like a deep rocky area made of black metal.

Alice Majority could not talk her way out of this now that she had used her safety device. She would have a hard time arguing that someone else had stopped them at that very moment to frame her.

Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld.

Alice used Skuld, who was one of the goddesses of fate and also a Valkyrie who gathered the souls of the dead in preparation for the final battle.

Those three goddesses were said to water the world tree of Yggdrasill on a daily basis so it would not rot, but that meant it was in their power to let the world tree rot and trigger Ragnarok, which would bring destruction to all. So was this mechanical army controlled by a goddess supposed to be the dead soldiers known as the Einherjar?

“So what was that phone, anyway?”

Karuta was the first to speak.

His words set things in motion by placing the initiative in his hands.

“Was it really worth killing to get your hands on?”

“The false Threats don’t use encrypted communications.” Blonde Alice shook the phone in her hand. “I imagine it was to make them more like the real thing, but they’re like honeybees. They signal each other with visible movements of their legs or roots. But that can be interfered with. A powerful crosswind can mess with the movement of their raised leg and a whiteout prevents their red eyes from scanning the scene properly.”

“Meaning you can stop the Threat and guide them where you want?”

It would take Crystal Magic to pull that off as an individual. He knew Natalena and Sophia could manipulate the wind with their power. This power must cover a horrifyingly wide area and they had pulled it off even when enclosed in the C World dome.

But if that was the explanation, they would have no need for the (device disguised as a) phone.

“This is a satellite access communicator. When we built the circuit board based on the plans, it wouldn’t connect properly and we only got it to function after working together to attach and detach different components. So we could never make a second one even if we tried.”

Karuta was reminded of what Aine used for a bed – a prototype civilian spaceship resembling a bamboo leaf.

“Even students can build a small satellite. It isn’t that unusual. And to control the Threat with wind and light, we needed to track the weather, the distribution of the swarm, and the signals they were making with their bodies and legs.”

“So the communication interference wasn’t due to the blizzard, was it?”

“I doubt a commercial service without a specialized observation device could have accomplished much, but better safe than sorry. We had to cut off access to the various weather forecast services available through your phones.”

The many Threats surrounding them remained motionless. And not because something was interfering with the signals they made like a honeybee or fiddler crab. They viewed things with their red eyes and signaled to their own kind with their legs or roots. But when thick fog or a whiteout cut off all visual information, were they programmed to stop and think instead of moving blindly to send out signals?

But Karuta still had a more fundamental question here.

“You could do all that and all you did with it was kill?”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“What made you go to all that effort to kill Riho and Sanae?”

“You killed her!!!!!!”

He thought she meant Moriyama Sanae.

Because he had broken her crystal statue beyond recognition to get the small Threats out.

But Alice went on to speak an entirely different name.

“ You killed Anastasia Blast !! I don’t care why you did it. Whatever she might have been doing behind the scene, she was our hero. She fought to keep the world safe!!”

That name again? thought Karuta.

Was killing the world’s strongest not enough to be entirely rid of them?

He did not know the exact situation Alice – no, those three – had found themselves in. Maybe they simply had heard of Anastasia’s exploits on TV or over the internet. Maybe they had been rescued from the real Threat in one of those cities on the verge of annihilation.

(Come to think of it.)

His thoughts turned toward that special drink Moriyama Sanae had always been drinking. A pinch of salt in water would not have any real flavor, so maybe it had some connection to her past. Did it help her relax? Or to put it another way, could she not relax without it? She may have found an action that reminded her of some past event. The other two may have had been hiding some unseen scar below their clothing or in their heart in a similar fashion.

Anastasia probably had not remembered them if she had ever known them at all, but her noble lifestyle had inspired some people to change and start working again.

Relatives were not the only ones who would grieve someone’s death.

Anastasia Blast’s death had carried great weight. Enough so to lead these girls to search the underside of the world for a weakness in Karuta’s group and ultimately happen across the decoy Threats there.

“So I don’t care what the strongests were doing in secret!! I only care that I can use this power to exact revenge on Grimnoah! Yes, that’s right. I killed them… We were all in it together!! To give you a taste of the defeat you so deserved after usurping the throne of the world’s strongest!!”

“But why?”

The taste of defeat?

Did this girl really think they had never tasted that before?

“I get why you’re out to get us four, but why did Riho and Sanae have to die?”

“They tried to back out.”

That short response told the whole story in abbreviated form.

“The plan was to ‘accidentally’ shoot you during the chaos of the attack, but Riho-chan didn’t trigger that attack when the time came. I snuck around back and asked her what was up, and she confessed she was scared. She said it was wrong to get so many other people caught in the attack, so she had gone into the bathroom to hide with the satellite access communicator! We needed that detailed data to control the Threat with our magic!”

Riho and Alice could not have allowed anyone else to get a look at that device’s screen. Was that why Alice had felt the need to cover her tracks by flying in through the window for a simple discussion?

“So what choice did I have? Riho-chan could chicken out if she wanted, but if she turned herself in and got us caught too, there goes the whole plan!!”

He could guess from this that those three girls could only access their small satellite with that one device.

It may have seemed like enough for them at the time, but that had caused problems down the road.

“Then what about Casualty B – Sanae?”

“She screwed up.”

Alice kept it short.

Maybe she had gotten used to it by the second time.

Or maybe after taking out Riho, she herself had gone off the rails without noticing it.

“ She said she fell for a trick, so she was trembling in fear. I have no clue what she was talking about, but it was all over for both of us if she was caught. So again, I had no other choice.”

“…”

Marika had actually been monitoring Sanae and Alice both, but Alice must not have even noticed the trap she fell for.

“Still, I could have seen her in a few decades.”

Finally, she ground her teeth together.

He could see pure regret in her.

“But you shattered that hope along with her statue. What is it now? Centuries? Millennia? I can’t even apologize to her now!!”

Despite all this, they would not have come together for revenge like that unless they had already been bound by friendship.

But once they got started, it ended up like this. None of their hated foes were gone and those good friends had ended up killing each other. Alice had clearly attacked the wrong targets here.

“How could this have happened?”

He could not help but ask.

He felt blessed himself. After all, what if Marika had said she was scared and backed out when they had decided to kill the Problem Solvers? Or what if Kyouka’s identity had been discovered and the investigation would have reached them before long? What if he had ended up in a deadly battle against Aine who was practically one with him???

Weapons, money, and intelligence were not the most important things when seeking vengeance.

You needed trust.

Friendship.

Unwavering feelings.

It seemed ironic since those words seemed far removed from the bloody action of revenge, but it was the truth. Karuta had been fairly unsure if he could actually continue with his revenge back then. If Marika and Kyouka had not pulled him back in, he would probably have ended up like this as well.

So…

And yet…

“You were willing to rely on each other to accomplish something even if the rest of the world was against you, right? Weren’t you good enough friends to reveal those immoral feelings to each other!? Then!! Couldn’t you have figured something out!? Something other than what happened!!!???”

His desperate cry only put a dry smile on Alice Majority’s face.

It was already over.

The rift between the successful and the failure was too great. Kind words from the successful were only salt in the wound to the failure.

He knew that.

He had not wanted to be caught up in those girls’ revenge. If he had learned Marika or Kyouka’s lives were at risk, he would have stopped them no matter what it took. Even if the rest of the world thought him a coward and even if he could not forgive himself for what he had done. That much he knew for certain.

He knew that, but this still seemed like too much.

How could he tell that trio that they had failed in their revenge and lost everything because their friendship wasn’t strong enough? What hope was there? Was there nothing at all they had left!?

“This is revenge too, don’t you think?”

Alice looked like an empty shell of a person, but she still raised that phone. No, that original device made to look like one. That card of ruin received the weather and location data needed to control the Threat with magic. She could use her magic to interrupt the honeybee or fiddler crab style of signal and that would either stop or guide the Threat. For example, she could make them stumble by sending in a powerful crosswind when they lifted a leg.

There were a number of theories where the name Skuld came from. For example, “tax”, “future”, “debt”, or “obligation”.

This girl had hoped for success in the future no matter what it took, that had placed too great an obligation on the friends who had walked that path with her, she had violently taken a bloody debt from them, and here she stood now.

For the future.

But Alice Majority should have looked back to the past.

She should have looked deeper, instead of focusing on shallow vengeance. She should have reminded herself why she was friends with Riho and Sanae. She should have recalled what bonds had brought them so close together in the first place!!

“I failed to kill you. In fact, killing you would accomplish nothing. But you will lose everything again if I unleash the Threat here.”

“That’s meaningless.”

“I was never looking for meaning in my revenge. Because if you decide it isn’t worth it, that’s when the fear creeps in.”

“You can utterly destroy the Crystal Beach, but I won’t bat an eye and I tell you it all had nothing to do with Grimnoah and I’ve lost nothing!! So don’t waste your time, Alice!! That doesn’t even qualify as revenge!!”

“Yeah, you would have to feign indifference, wouldn’t you? You can’t let me see the target means something to you.”

In that final moment, Alice Majority was definitely smiling.

Her face was a mess and it had to have been easier on her to have cried.

Her enemy had even robbed her of any hope that she could apologize some decades from now.

“But that won’t change what I do. Goodbye, Senpai.”

“You idiot!!!!!”

The instant she placed her finger on the touchscreen and her translucent armor spread out like wings, the magic was dispelled and time began to move once more. The girl had triggered Ragnarok. She had reactivated the Threat while surrounded by them herself. Marika’s laser sniper shot blew her brains out, but it was an instant too slow. A massive maw snapped shut on her crystallizing body, shattering it.

She was killed instantly.

The crystal statue was smashed to tiny pieces that glittered as they scattered around.

Something grazed Karuta’s cheek, leaving a sharp wound there. It must have been a piece of the broken device’s circuit board or LCD screen. He heard a cracking sound as crystal covered the surface of the wound.

All blood and tears vanished within that solid sound.

He clenched his teeth until he thought they would break and Aine moved out front with sword at the ready.

With a flash of that blade, a giant ant’s leg was severed with a diagonal cut before it could crush him and the ant itself toppled over. He had survived that, but the Threat was clearly locked onto him. These were now enemies rather than simple obstacles.

The ground and sky were filled once more by the fake but still loathsome Threat.

“Sacri-sama, please adapt. The situation has already changed.”

He could not afford to die here, so he shouted into his Crystal Blossom.

“I failed to persuade her! Omotesandou-san, let’s go with Plan B. The device was destroyed and we wouldn’t know how to use it anyway!”

“You mean we’re going with the ‘poisoning’ plan that started out as an act? Understood.”

The Threat could continue marching at them forever.

Even though they were fakes, a direct hit from them would still be deadly.

Utagai Karuta had been dragged into that endless battle, but he felt no fear.

He was not afraid of these attacks from emotionless machines.

He refused to let this be as painful as a clash between two people.

### Between the Lines 3

Length of Battle: 44 Hours, 28 Minutes, 31 Seconds.

Dead: 34 (including Alice Majority). Injured: 705.

Total Number of Defeated Enemies: All 9989 of them.

We have successfully eliminated the decoy Threats created by Smart Arms.

Sacri-sama’s “poisoning” plan was effective.

As these are merely decoys, it is unknown how well this would work against the real ones, but it should be worth remembering as a possibility.

It is unknown where these practice Threats came from or how their number is replenished, but it seems likely they used the thick Arctic ice.

Crystal Beach built its heating infrastructure using the heat of submarine volcanoes, but they apparently perform periodic checks to ensure the sulfur dissolved in the seawater is not affecting how the ice freezes. We do not actually know what kind of probes they use, but these decoy Threats were almost certainly clinging to the underside of the thick ice here. I can guess they were leased to the Crystal Beach because their use as training tools was not enough to recoup the R&D costs. Alice used wind to mess with the signals they made with their legs or roots, but they may have been sending vibrations down to the other side of the thick ice.

With Alice’s defeat, the communication disruption vanished.

From a strategic perspective, the fight for Crystal Beach was a success.

The differing sizes of different Threat models make it hard to be exact, but the general loss ratio was 1-to-8 and I earned something of a high score myself. I would say this has proven the effectiveness of Crystal Magic. Hooray.

How was that, Sacri-sama?

I even learned my lesson after that time in the gym, so I have a handkerchief you can borrow.

Were any of my calculations incorrect?

### 062. Part 2

“I really, really don’t like you. Try as I might, I just can’t bring myself to like you barbaric practical types.”

“I’m really not sure what to say other than sorry, Kiyosawa-sensei. And that I really do appreciate you taking this girl’s side.”

“The fact that you bother to bow your head despite being one of the world-renowned strongests pisses me off most of all!! Anyway, we have confirmed the inaccuracies in her personal information too. We have yet to decide how to deal with this, but I will commend you for not killing her.”

Utagai Karuta was inside Grimnoah’s infirmary.

A lot of movement could be heard in the distance since it was a break between classes. Based on the bits and pieces of voices he could hear, some boys were making paper airplane test flights in the long hallway.

“Nh.”

A quiet groan left Natalena Blast’s lovely lips.

She tried to rub her eyes and realized her dominant hand would not budge below the blanket.

And it was worse than that. She was strapped down by thick belts on both her arms, both her legs, her undeveloped chest, and her waist, which had yet to develop its curves. That kept her from even rolling over from her back.

Karuta was casually peering down at her small face.

“Good morning, Natalena. Medical technology is an incredible thing. You woke up right on time.”

“What…ah!? What are you- ghh!!”

“Moving will only make it tighter. And I can’t blame you for not noticing the belts until now; we were keeping you on some light anesthetic. Using a plastic mask over your face.”

“H-how do you know my name?”

“How do you think, Natalena Blast?”

She must have felt like she had been placed on the chopping block while still alive. So many beads of sweat appeared on her skin that he wondered if it was some kind of side effect from the anesthetic. And the fact remained that he could have done anything to her if he wanted to. Even things her young mind could never imagine.

However, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He was glad she seemed to be doing well. It felt weird worrying about an assassin trying to take his life, but he would not let anyone he knew dirty their hands with unnecessary killing or torture.

Murder was wrong.

Whether or not they could create a world based on that rule was dependent on what happened here.

In a way, the standard assumptions of the world as a whole were being shaken up by Grimnoah. Including whether people would feel sorry for Natalena for having her sister killed and failing to take revenge against that sister’s killer. If Karuta failed by letting her be killed or tortured, people would see it as her just deserts. The entire world would take that stance against a sobbing 12-year-old girl. Then his group would take the same path as the Problem Solvers. The supposed world’s strongest would be headed toward a literal dead end.

He had to earn Natalena Blast’s trust in the given time period.

And he had to use that trust to get information on the string-puller who had assisted her.

They were just like the police detective and suspect in the interrogation room.

They might start out as enemies, but they could build trust between themselves.

“Here.”

“What? Um, uh, what is this?”

She twisted her body to try to dodge what he tossed toward her flat chest, but then she stopped.

He had returned her translucent Crystal Blossom, the source of her Crystal Magic’s power.

Then he pulled the blanket from her and began undoing the thick belts strapping her to the bed.

On the inside, he was scared. There was no right answer here.

But he had to look confident right now. This girl’s life was in his hands, so he had to see it through. He could not let his attitude regarding her change from moment to moment. He had to tell himself that while once more releasing that small predator.

“Those things are important, so don’t lose it again. Also, you’ll probably feel woozy for a bit thanks to the anesthetic, so be careful not to trip. The Preset barrier might not even work in your current state.”

“What, um, wh-what, uh, what are you doing?” she asked while getting up.

Her ums and uhs were apparently a natural thing and not some high-level disguise. Even after all her planning, surprisingly little had been an act, which he found very likable. She must not have been cut out for doing bad things. It was Karuta’s group that dragged her into this. It did not matter whether or not her revenge was justified; there was no need for her to sully herself that way.

Karuta looked to the side in a somewhat performative way.

“You also shouldn’t wear those gym clothes forever. The uniform designs were all just carried over from the first ship, but the bloomers are honestly a little much. Especially around the, um, crotch.”

“Oh, eh, kyah!?”

She blushed and frantically tried to hide herself with the blanket and Karuta could not help but laugh a little. She was far from a perfect avenger. She had not frozen over to the extent his group had. She could still return to her former life, so it was his job to make her want to do that.

“I’ll leave your uniform here, so shut the partition curtain and change into it. Then head back to class. You need to make up for what you missed while you were out.”

“A-are you sure you should, um, well, uh, l-let me go free? I could attack you in your sleep and learning Crystal Magic in class will only give me more tools for my revenge.”

She looked up at him in a nervous way. She looked like someone worried the food they were offered was poisoned. Or maybe she felt like she needed to act tough if she was to accept any kindness from her enemy. Karuta knew he would have been unsure how to respond if Anastasia had started giving him personal magic lessons to help make him stronger.

But he also had an obligation to keep the others safe. He was not her only target of revenge. If she was only interested in attacking him, he would have gone along with the farce, but things changed if she might attack Marika or Kyouka. It was even possible she would sneak into the engine room and blow up the entire ship to kill just him. That meant he had to take a harsher stance here.

So…

“I will be taking measures against that. And you might just scream when I tell you what that means.”

“?”

When he faced her with a cheerful smile, she jumped and shrank down more like a small animal afraid of a loud noise than someone preparing for a fight.

“Aine,” he said.

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

A pale figure slipped out from his body. That was the actual “weapon” that had defeated Natalena, but the young girl looked confused. Her defeat may have been so quick and unexpected that she had no actual memory of it.

And Utagai Karuta made his announcement.

“Unless you encounter some sort of special circumstances, stay with Natalena Blast 24/7 from now on. And make sure she does not cause any more trouble. Physically make sure, I mean.”

“Wha-?”

The girl’s mind went blank.

But a further attack filled that blank with a form of utter despair for her sensitive early adolescent mind.

“Understood. I will not leave her side even when she is bathing or changing. Miss Natalena, we can share a bed tonight. You might have trouble sleeping at first, but I will solidly latch my arms and legs around you so you cannot slip out at night.”

“Wh-wh-wh-wh-whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?”

She screamed, just as he had prophesied.

Aine expressionlessly tilted her head and provided some entirely unhelpful advice.

“Do not worry. You will have plenty of time to get used to it.”

### 063. Part 2

They changed in their hotel rooms instead of a dedicated dressing room.

“Don’t we need to go, Sacri-sama? Hurry up. Why are you hiding in the bathroom?”

“I’d love to hurry, so would you please put some clothes on, Aine!! That’s an order!!”

Aine normally closed herself up in a civilian spaceship shaped like a board or bamboo leaf, so she had claimed below the bed as her space here. But that must not have been enough room to change. Karuta had changed into his swimsuit (while pressing his full weight against the bathroom door to desperately fight back against her) and they eventually managed to head out into the hotel hallway and onto an elevator with their beach sandals slapping on the floor. This was a tropical oceanside resort, so it was not considered bad manners to walk around in a swimsuit.

The air-conditioned elevator was made of glass, but Karuta’s eyes were on his partner’s outfit, not on the scenery visible through the glass.

“Aine, why are you wearing a school swimsuit on an overseas trip? And that white one at that.”

“I will again reiterate that wearing nothing at all would be most functional, but since you insisted I wear one, I went with this as it was Miss Marika’s recommendation.”

“You’re weird.”

“Nhh.”

His blunt comment led the crystal girl to bow her head before ramming into him.

Those things on her head stabbed into him.

“Ow!? Wait, what are those two things on your head!? Are they hardened hair, or legit horns!?”

“Lady Kyouka also approved of this choice. Human tastes are a mystery to me, but she said it was the best possible choice. With a raised thumb.”

Karuta had to hold his head in his hands while driven into a corner of the elevator. Kyouka was definitely treating Aine like a toy.

“Well, as long as you don’t walk around naked.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s embarrassing.”

“…”

When they arrived in the 1st floor lobby, Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke ran away at full speed for some reason. Just as he wondered if he was finally experiencing the true loneliness of being the strongest, he heard someone speak to him in Japanese.

“Hey.”

It was muscular Kiyosawa Hadome.

That was apparently who had scared off the other boys. He really had issues with that.

“The class you are looking after is supposed to belong to Firenze-sensei. I know she came to you, but try not to steal her job as teacher.”

…

He fell silent and Aine tilted her head in confusion.

“Um, Sacri-sama. Is school a place of romance for the teachers as well? I do suppose their opportunities for meeting potential partners are about as limited as on a desert island.”

“Not so loud, Aine. Shh!!”

“Silence, both of you. She is the niece of a professor who helped me earn the tuition money I needed, so I need to help her however I can.”

That made sense to Karuta.

He now understood why this teacher was so concerned about that nervous female teacher. While kids like him threw everything into the two boxes of friendship and love, the adult world was more complex.

“You might think you are helping her, but if she stops trying to improve, she will have trouble running a classroom. So please do not rob Firenze-sensei of her opportunity to learn.”

“Understood, Sensei. I will be more careful.”

Even a child like him knew he had to give an immediate and direct response to this.

Kiyosawa quietly clicked his tongue and looked away.

“Also, this is an important trip for you too. You shouldn’t have to waste your time because of an issue with the teachers.”

“If you’re this considerate, how in the world don’t you have a girlfriend?”

“What makes you so certain I’m single!?”

The man was really mad now, so Karuta had to make a run for it.

He and Aine split up and ran toward the midsummer beach.

### 064. Part 2

The Threat filled every part of that icy world, both the land and the sky, and they showed no sign of being driven back on either field.

(How far have they evolved?)

Karuta grimaced when he returned to the surface and viewed the battlefield, but he at least saw no obvious changes in the flying ones. The Crystal Magicians had the upper hand there. For now, anyway.

But Marika and the others appeared to have intentionally gathered on a single point while defending a location that did not actually matter to them. They were intentionally losing those battles and withdrawing bit by bit. The Threat must have had some level of intelligence because they would go to the effort of digging through the defended location after Marika and the others left. As if wondering what the Crystal Magicians were so intent on defending.

In truth, those were only the unmanned devices that produced the artificial waves of the now frozen beach.

“That’s clever.”

“Yes, looks like this has evolved beyond a silly battle where both sides are simply comparing their specs.”

While the gradual withdrawal paid off, Karuta used his Crystal Blossom to contact Marika and the others. He made sure to use the hotel, theatre, and other tall buildings to stay out of view from the Threat as he regrouped with the others. He felt out of breath simply traveling along the asphalt.

This was already the Arctic.

It was so cold the palm trees and hibiscuses had frozen instead of withering. He did not want to think what happened to the colorful animals.

And amid it all…

“What happened?”

Natalena Blast forgot all about the visible breaths escaping her mouth as she viewed not Karuta but the 20-ish people following after him. She had seen the hopeless looks in their eyes.

Her anger flared up.

Or maybe this was a pure emotion that could actually worry about others.

“What did you do to those people!? I thought you said you would get them to safety while we risked our lives fighting out here? How could you do this!?”

He could only weakly shake his head.

He had no answer for her.

That 12-year-old girl must not have realized that digging back up that issue was like a rusty knife to a festering wound for those ordinary people who had felt so powerless they had abandoned their goodness.

They must have felt blinded by the bright light of Natalena Blast’s eyes as she faced the Threat head-on out of no more than a desire to help others. They must have been crushed under the weight of the fact that they had chosen selfishness, that had backfired, and they had even failed to die.

“Kill me,” groaned a vanishingly quiet voice. It was the young man who had stubbornly yelled at Karuta earlier. “Use me as bait to fight the Threat or whatever. I can’t stand to go on like this.”

Karuta ignored that outright. They might not be happy, but he was not going to let them die now that he had saved them. Besides, people who jumped to suicidal that easily tended to be the type to change their tune quickly once their life was in immediate danger. And that was not Karuta judging someone he disliked; these people really had abandoned the Grimnoah students to win the B World dome’s favor and then been abandoned themselves. Someone who was willing to risk their life for something from the beginning would not have done that. Karuta really wished they would learn a lesson from this. His patience had been stretched dangerously thin.

Marika must have figured out what happened when she saw the boy’s exhausted face and saw the President whistling nonchalantly while inspecting her nails. She knew they had encountered some kind of malice, so the twintails girl put a hand on her hip and made a suggestion.

“We can carry those 20 with us. There are 1000 of us, after all. It isn’t efficient, but that’s what you want, isn’t it?”

“Thanks.”

“Sacri-sama.”

Aine emotionlessly approached.

She still held her drawn sword in one hand, so he would prefer she not move too close, though.

“What exactly will we do now? The delaying tactics using decoy defensive locations will stop working before long. We need another objective.”

He had put off making a decision here. Kiyosawa Hadome and Sophia Firenze were watching him from a distance, but the adults apparently had no intention of butting in. For better or for worse, the lives of Grimnoah’s 1000 were in the hands of the world’s strongest. That included his classmates, the middle school underclassmen, the Student Council, and the teachers. The number was even greater when including all the ordinary people in all the other domes.

This was different from risking just their own lives to seek revenge.

The weight was bearing down on him, so he took a deep breath before speaking.

“Could we gather them all in one place and bomb them with all our firepower?”

“We’re already exhausted.”

Marika did not explain what she meant, but he caught the implication that an explanation would only bring despair. They might be able to destroy the small Threats individually, but they could not be entirely wiped out. And if even one survived, it would cannibalize the defeated ones to become an even more horrific Threat. After defeating the occasional Threat and finding it only inspired unwanted growth in their foe, Marika and Aine had thrown in the towel. That was why they had resorted to deceptive delaying tactics using decoy defensive positions.

They never would have used delaying tactics if they could win in a direct fight.

Those were the tactics of the losing side.

“First of all, we can’t stay here in this broken dome.”

C World dome was already an icy hell of -15 degrees.

Holing up in a surviving building and cranking up the heat would not be enough. All concrete structures were not made equal; some had better insulating structures than others. The ones inside the dome had been designed for a tropical environment, so they could not keep out the cold.

Not to mention the many Threats lurking in this space. Even if they managed to hide for the time begin, it would not last. They would be found and the battle would begin anew.

Needless to say, the Threat was powerful.

If they were going to fight, they had to go on the offensive.

They could not allow themselves to be caught by surprise while asleep or eating.

“But it also doesn’t look like the other domes will let us in. They expect us to fight the Threat for them. In fact, they even think the Threat is here for us, so it’s our responsibility.”

“Then what? We go outside?” asked Marika. “That’s a -15-degree blizzard, just like in here. Crystal Magic does give some protection against the cold since we have to fly around at high altitudes at Mach speeds, but we won’t last out there forever. I imagine we’ll reach our limit after a full day – 24 hours.”

Aine glanced over at the armed students hanging around a short distance away.

“Just so you know, some of them have suggested we attack another dome and occupy it. Since the B World dome abandoned us, that seems like the best candidate. There have been non-fatal casualties in the high school, such as Yamane Deiri and Matsuda Imi.”

“Stop them from doing that. It wouldn’t solve anything.”

Karuta immediately rejected that idea.

That plan was likely fueled by a desire to protect the middle school, not to run wild out of pent-up frustrations. Karuta understood the desire to look like a proper upperclassman, even if only to keep your own will from breaking.

But.

“Whether you break in through the double-layer front gate or the dome’s exterior, an armed attack will only break the seal and create another -15-degree space. And even if you did manage to take control, that ends once the frustrated ordinary people riot. They do not need magic to blow a hole in the dome wall using a propane tank found behind a restaurant. They would choose to throw out hope themselves.”

“Wh-why would we have to go that far?” Natalena hesitantly spoke up. Her feelings must have been complicated, but she must have decided she could not stay stubbornly silent when everyone’s lives were on the line. “We can fly using Crystal Magic, right? So instead of staying here, um, why not fly across the ocean to escape to the Icelandic mainland?”

“We don’t know how many of the Threat are out there. In fact, it’s recklessly optimistic to assume what we see in here is all of them.” Marika winked with a hand on her hip. “What if they have those anti-air pellet cannon scorpions out in the ocean waiting? If they have the entire Crystal Beach surrounded, flying out there would only get us shot down.”

She had once fought a true dogfight with Susannia of the Problem Solvers, so her superhuman flying skills might be enough to find a spot to slip through the gaps of those wide-range explosions, but they could not force the middle and high school freshmen to do the same thing.

“What will it even accomplish for us to run away?” asked the crystal girl with a tilt of the head that sent her long silver hair swaying. “If humanity has no means of defeating the Threat better than Crystal Magic, then they will continue to pursue us even if we run, destroying any armies that try to stop them. If we escape to Iceland, wouldn’t it only turn Iceland into the next battlefield?”

Natalena was shocked into silence. That must have been a difficult fact to face.

That pure girl had yet to exact her revenge, so she could not let herself bring disaster to innocent people. If she did that, she would lose the right to feel righteous hatred toward her target of revenge.

And sending Marika alone into the storm of explosions to seek rescue would also be fairly meaningless. Any government she went to would demand that the Crystal Magicians do the fighting here.

“Hm.”

“Sacri-sama?”

But how had it worked in the past? They knew the Threat had eliminated cities, states, and countries around the world, but they did not know how that had eventually ended. Only that cities would suddenly disappear. They had never heard of the Threat staying somewhere and setting up a country for themselves, or them gradually expanding their territory of death. It was generally considered to be a series of random attacks where they suddenly appeared and just as suddenly disappeared, like a game of whack-a-mole.

If they stayed here to the end without a plan, they might figure that out firsthand.

Although they would join the dead, unable to pass that information on to anyone else.

The Threat would not spare them on a whim. The Threat’s past actions made it clear they would destroy everything when they made an appearance. Grimnoah’s students were already caught in the center of that unpleasant legend. If they did nothing, they would be killed just like those past examples.

So Karuta decided resistance was the only option.

“We still need to figure out how, but we’ll have to defeat the Threat here. What other choice do we have when running away won’t ensure our safety?”

“B-but we don’t stand a chance, do we?” asked Natalena.

“We know they can be defeated.”

Young Natalena may have found his confidence strange, but he had a reason for it.

“The Problem Solvers fought them off. They couldn’t fully eradicate them, but they still succeeded in saving individual cities.”

“…”

“They were as human as we are, so we should be able to do the same thing. At the very least, we proved we’re stronger than God Worshiping Magic on that day.”

Those five had been the worst of the worst and lowest of the low, but Anastasia would have felt no need to lie when she was willing to accept her death whenever it might come. When they had fought the Problem Solvers, they had doubted whether the Threat even existed, but they had to accept it now that they had seen it for themselves.

Those five had been the lowest of scum, but they had still fought to protect the world.

“We know there is a way, so we just have to find it. What we need is time to think, so we need to find that no matter what.”

### 065. Part 2

Being known as the world’s strongest was fine and all, but what kind of world’s strongest did you want to be? That had to be where Utagai Karuta and Amaashi Marika’s opinions differed.

When someone was about to face tragedy, one of them wanted to reach out a helping hand before they fell.

When someone near and dear to them was in danger, one of them was willing to destroy everything else in the world to protect them.

They were both strong and just, but they were both selfish and willful.

That was what made them the strongest.

And they had a power great enough to push all else aside and stay true to their personal beliefs.

“Ohhhhhh!!!!!!”

The two high schoolers roared at almost the same time.

That was enough for Natalena Blast to stare, forgetting that her own life was at risk here.

This was on an entirely different level.

She used her own Crystal Magic correctly since she had absorbed everything the teacher’s told her, even if only as a way of making sure no one suspected her true motives. But correct was all it was. She only had the skills necessary to score well on the tests, which was something else entirely from what was needed to overwhelm an opponent in actual combat.

Karuta and Marika’s battle was from another world altogether.

Their powers had been honed for the sole purpose of killing, so as inappropriate as it might be, their clash was more beautiful than anything. Just as newly-developed weapons were given an aesthetic beauty in addition to simple functionality and durability, since they had to represent the nation that used them.

That was what it meant to be the strongest.

Just like the largest warship and the fastest stealth fighter gave off an aura all their own, people gained various accolades as they rose to those heights.

Or perhaps being the strongest gave you the power to distort the world around you to accept what you were as beautiful. That was the greatest attraction found only in the world’s strongest. It was a devilish charm that could only be obtained by being #1. They both used Crystal Magic, but there was something fundamentally different between Natalena and Karuta.

That crown was once worn by Anastasia Blast, but it had been stolen by Utagai Karuta.

And.

“…!!”

There were two things that Karuta had to stop.

The first was Amaashi Marika’s flight. He could not fly, so he wanted to avoid being unilaterally bombed from above. The second was the powerful laser sniping with her rapier-like unit. It attacked at the speed of light, so it was nearly impossible for Aine’s sword to block it. Marika’s target was Natalena, so she would not be aiming that at Karuta or Aine. If a laser slipped between the two of them and put a hole between Natalena’s eyes, Karuta would lose.

So…

“I rush her!!”

He swallowed his fear and clenched his teeth while forcing himself toward the girl.

He was willing to use his Preset regeneration. He would move in and lock weapons with her even if it meant a severed arm. That was his only way of keeping her from acting freely.

Marika smiled while readying her rapier.

It was a belligerent smile.

They had known each other a long time and had overcome deadly battles together, so they knew each other’s smallest tendencies.

“Heh.”

“Hm? Sacri-sama!!”

Aine’s voice sounded distorted even though she was right next to him.

Of course it did.

It felt like an explosion, but it was not.

He had attacked with his modified military flashlight and Aine with her sword, but Marika caught those things on her rapier and mercilessly activated the translucent armor that enhanced her strength. That led to a great eruption. Aine flipped sideways in a tailspin to let the vector safely escape her, but Karuta could not do the same and he was launched straight upwards. The pain was so great he thought his arms were going to pull out of his shoulders as he flew 100m up. His ears throbbed painfully from the rapid pressure change.

“!!!???”

“Y’know.”

A voice whispered in his ear. After launching him, Amaashi Marika had used the full strength of her armor to easily leap up higher even than him.

“You’re really weak for a Crystal Magician.”

“Mari-!!”

He shouted her name on reflex yet still adjusted his grip on the flashlight, but he immediately realized that was a mistake. Only he cared about settling things with her. His childhood friend’s top priority target was not him.

In other words, she was going to bomb Natalena Blast who stood in a daze back on the ground.

He immediately revised his plan and shouted into the Crystal Blossom on his chest.

His own safety was of secondary importance.

“Aine!! Watch out for a laser bombing!! Us the snow below your feet!!”

Light flashed.

The lag was less than a second, but Aine was faster. She used the jitte-like laser bayonet on the back of her sword to perform a horizontal sweep across the artificial land. The point was to evaporate the thick layer of snow on top.

White steam erupted upwards and that makeshift smokescreen hid Aine and Natalena from view.

Marika’s rapier fired a powerful laser beam down, but…

“The bombing has been diverted. Shall we play dead?”

“Don’t ask that when she’s close enough to overhear, you moron!!”

Yes, a laser was incredibly hard to dodge since it flew at the speed of light, but it did have its weaknesses. It would be weakened by any impurities in the air, like sand or moisture, and it could be bent or diverted by the temperature differences and other factors that caused mirages.

But if Marika continued to fire, she would eventually score a clean hit.

She was in the sky and that was the first thing that had to be changed.

“I’m stronger than you, so did you really think you could win? When you have no wings or engine to use?”

“Kh!! Aine, take care of this!!”

With an explosive sound, Marika began a roundhouse kick motion, but Karuta was hit from below. The ocean of white steam was instantly blown away, revealing countless destroyed Threats on the surface. Aine had stuck her hand in the destroyed armor of a black scorpion one and launched the anti-air explosion created from the combination of a pellet and laser.

She had reduced the power a lot, but the blast still hit him hard, causing him to bounce unnaturally up in defiance of gravity.

The upward movement let him dodge the girl’s roundhouse kick and he also spun his body around like a figure skater. He of course still held the flashlight in his hand.

He had no wings or engine.

But he still accurately targeted that aerial queen’s temple with the blunt weapon in his hand.

“You’re mine!!”

“ Should I have given you a free hit ?”

Her voice was already distorting.

He had no idea what had happened. All of a sudden, defenseless Marika’s body dissolved into flowing lines and a heavy blow stabbed into his spine from an impossible blind spot.

That was probably the rapier’s pommel.

“Even if you had hit, the Barrier’s spatial vibration field would have kept any damage from reaching me.”

“Kh, ahh!?”

Crystal Magic flight was not reliant on lift. How was he supposed to keep up with that? His breath was knocked from his lungs and his mind flashed in and out, preventing him from keeping his balance. He entered a wild tailspin high up in the sky.

“O-one…more!!”

He worked his oxygen-deprived lungs to let out a shout like he was coughing up blood.

Another explosion erupted on the surface.

He fell from a height of 100m, but he bounced in midair like an invisible cushion had caught him. That converted the potential energy to the equivalent of falling about 20m.

Still, 20m was the same as falling from the 5th or 6th floor of a building. After his unnatural bounce, he flew along a curving path Marika had not expected before plummeting down toward the ground.

The white ground spread out before his eyes.

But this was ice, not snow. He was above the frozen sea.

(I just have to avoid hitting with my head!!)

He had no control over his flight, but he swung his left arm just before impact to intentionally unbalance himself. Instead of falling on his head, he crashed into the ice with his shoulder.

He broke through the 80cm layer of ice and into the ocean below.

He thought his entire body was going to break apart.

His shoulder was entirely crushed and he could tell the thick bone had ended up deep inside his torso.

The pain was so great he actually could not pass out.

A fall from 20m created enough force to break right through ice thick enough for a 300kg polar bear to walk around on. A normal person would have died if they were submerged with a wound that bad.

But Utagai Karuta was not normal.

No matter how gruesome the wound, Crystal Magic would regenerate it in 30 seconds as long as it was not fatal.

Marika must have realized that.

Several lines of light broke through the ice above to attack.

“…!!”

He held his breath to continue hiding below the thick ice. The laser sniping had poor aim, most likely due to the oceanwater between them. It was the same as experiments run by passing light through a tank of water, and this water had waves.

He was submerged in the frigid ocean with his clothes still on. And even if he was righthanded, nearly his entire left half was covered in distorted crystal. It was much like the lesson he had given the kids back at Grimnoah. He had to focus on balancing himself to avoid spinning in the water.

Also, escaping to the surface would not help with an 80cm roof overhead. Crystal Magic regeneration could heal most any wound, but it could not provide him with oxygen.

He needed to figure something out himself.

Fortunately, this was not enough to interfere with the transmission from his Crystal Blossom.

He heard a cracking sound as the crystal covering half his body broke away, meaning he could move his arm again. That was convenient, but it also meant he had spent 30s in this frigid water. He barely had any air left in his mouth.

(I’ve been stuck relying on Aine this whole time!)

Marika wore her translucent armor, so he did not need to feel bad for making use of his own equipment, but he still clenched his teeth. He needed to open his mouth to speak, so he could not afford to fail here. He took action by releasing his remaining oxygen into the sea.

“Aine! Begin anti-air fire on Marika. Use metal shells this time!! 20-30mm autocannon class ones. You need quantity, not detailed calculations!!”

“That will have no effect on her.”

“I don’t want it to. Your nonlethal mode is still in effect. Now fire!!”

He heard muffled explosions through the water.

An ordinary assault rifle would be stopped by the spatial vibration field, but this had to be more than that. When Marika deflected them with her rapier or something, they would crash down into the thick ice, cracking and breaking it.

Shells poured down on the ocean.

(With just the one hole, she could aim there and fire once I surfaced, but with cracks everywhere, she won’t know where to expect me!!)

“Bwah!!”

His head burst above the water and he took in a lungful of oxygen.

But he did not feel much in the way of relief.

The moment he touched the open air, his hair and eyelashes rapidly froze. It could be easy to forget while underwater, but this was an icy hell of -15 degrees.

“…!!!???”

Was it Student Council President Kyouka who had said he could lose an ear?

He would not last long.

This needed to be a short battle. He moved his trembling fingers to grab at the jagged edge of the white ice floating in the ocean. It was only 50-60cm up from the ocean surface, but if the different pieces of ice happened to pinch together while they rocked in the waves, he would be crushed.

It was a risky climb.

And once he crawled back up onto the icy land, he found his childhood friend smiling and crouched on the edge.

“Checkmate☆”

“Goddammit!”

One of her icy hands grabbed at his throat and she stood up, as if stretching out her folded-up legs. He was dangling from her grip like a bluefin tuna on the fishing rod. He clutched at the hand on his neck and kicked at her thighs to knock her off balance, but she would not budge.

“Like I said: you’re weak.”

He had no way of arguing with that. She did not even need to strangle him or apply just a bit of force to snap his neck. If she kept things like this, he would freeze to death in the icy wind after just a few minutes.

“If you could send Aine-chan in on her own, you would be stronger than anyone. But since your command range is limited and you have to be on the battlefield with her, you have no defense if the enemy focuses on you. Especially when Aine-chan can only do what she’s ordered to do. It scares me to think what she would be like if she had those specs and could act autonomously with a mind like the President’s.”

“Kh, ah!!”

“You’re unique as a Crystal Magician, but special doesn’t necessarily mean better. Straying from the standard path is an inherently risky choice.”

He heard something like cracking plastic.

His purple blazer uniform was freezing, starting from the outermost edges. At this rate, it would freeze to his skin and he would develop severe frostbite.

But then…

“Please.”

He heard another voice.

His vision darkened with despair.

The person standing there should not have been there. Natalena Blast was trembling and had tears in her eyes. Where had Aine gone? What could Natalena do against Marika with just her crystal armor and Anubis’s scales of judgment to work with?

“Please stop this!!”

The air roared as it was torn apart, but this was not Natalena’s doing.

Well before her ski-like scales could split apart into crane arms and thin wires, Marika’s rapier accurately pierced her crystal weapon. The scream of shattering glass may have been the sound of the special vibration field breaking. Cracks also ran through her cold armor and it began to shatter, but Marika did not wait around. She broke and shattered every last one of the translucent weapons resembling spider legs.

She seemed to be doing it as an afterthought.

Natalena could grab solids, liquids, gasses, and plasma, but not even she could reach Marika’s level.

It seemed to demonstrate the divide between a strongest and just another part of the group.

Marika did not even glance in Natalena’s direction. She still held Karuta’s neck in her hand while she spun her rapier around in the other hand and made short work of Natalena’s weapons.

“Don’t worry.” She spoke coldly to this person who was not her childhood friend. “And make no mistake. I held your life in my hands from the beginning. Nothing you do here can influence whether or not you survive this.”

“Gggh, ahhhhhh!!”

She was desperate now.

Young Natalena was not stopped by her shattered armor. She charged right at Marika. She was struck by the rapier’s guard, pummeled by the bottom of the grip, and knocked to the snow over and over. The point was aimed her way and she was stabbed in the shoulder or side, but she still kept at it. Seeing it was enough to squeeze at Karuta’s heart.

Natalena Blast was battered and beaten, but she would not stop.

She clenched her teeth, suppressed the fear, and kept getting back to her feet. He felt certain she would have done the same even without the Crystal Magic regeneration.

But she was not doing any of it to protect herself.

“Let go!! Let go of Utagai Karuta! If you want to kill me, then just do it! He was already forgiven! My sister’s Anubis forgave him! We clenched our teeth and stopped the chain of violence. So what are you doing!? Call yourself the strongest or whatever else, but there’s no more reason to make anyone suffer! So why!?”

She had forgiven her enemy and given up on revenge.

In fact, she was even risking her life and shedding tears for the person she had so hated.

That was something Karuta’s group had never managed to do.

“Are you…”

She held his throat tight enough for him to suffocate or even to snap his neck, but when he got out a groaning voice, his focus was not on himself.

“Are you still going to kill Natalena? She isn’t like us. She has far more humanity left. What right do we have to judge her when we couldn’t stop ourselves from reaching the end!!”

“I will if necessary.”

That was all Marika said.

She did not waver in the slightest.

He could not allow her to veer off course like this. If she killed Natalena based on her own personal rules, it truly was over for her. It might be hypocritical after what they had done, but he had to teach her that no one here had the right to judge someone like that, no matter how much they had suffered.

(I…have to end this.)

Marika had descended from the air and he assumed that was to avoid any more largescale anti-air attacks using the remains of the decoy Threats.

But this was the last chance to fight back against her.

Because…

(If she takes flight again and buys time up there, I’m done for. There will be nothing I can do to protect Natalena, so I have to end it here!!)

“I can imagine you want to end this here, but how exactly do you plan to do that?” The girl who knew him better than anyone said something horrifying. “There is no end in a battle between Crystal Magicians. Blow off some limbs or tear into their side and they’ll just regenerate it all in less than 30 seconds. So the only way to end this is to provide a fatal blow. It’s the only way.”

“…”

“I win as long as I kill Natalena Blast, but what about you? I won’t stop no matter what you do, so are you willing to deliver a fatal blow to stop me?”

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

He had been fundamentally mistaken here.

He knew this was psychological warfare meant to break his spirit, but he could not just ignore what she said.

Marika had a concrete win condition, but he did not.

He could not possibly kill his childhood friend, which was why he had ordered Aine to remain in nonlethal mode. He wanted to save Natalena, but he could not offer up someone else’s life instead. And Marika was endlessly coldhearted about this. She was willing to earn his hatred as long as she could protect him. She would even take herself hostage.

He was trapped.

He never had had a path to victory here.

“Let’s end this silly game,” spat out his childhood friend with a look colder than ice. She was no longer even looking at Natalena while the girl cried and grabbed at her. As if she did not even consider the girl a fellow human being. “Karuta, I kind of like how open to change you are, but that’s exactly why someone has to protect you or you could never survive in this world. We didn’t ask for this, but now that we’re at the top, we have to live here.”

He had to think.

He desperately worked his oxygen-deprived mind while she held him up by the neck.

He had to correct things from here. How could he turn this into a win? This battle would never end unless one or the other of them had received a fatal wound. How could he save both Marika and Natalena under those rules?

Revenge was a fruitless act.

For the avenger, for the target, and for everyone else.

What condition did he need to bring an end to that chain of violence!?

“Natalena Blast isn’t the world’s strongest, but anyone who isn’t has the right to challenge and defeat us,” said Marika. “So I will show no mercy here. No matter how powerless the challenger, I will destroy any and all who try to tear apart our world.”

How was that any different from what the Problem Solvers had done when they decided Crystal Magic was unnecessary and decided to nip it in the bud.

No matter what anyone said, Marika was his childhood friend.

He could not allow her to go down that path. And the strongest who was always with him had already told him how he could turn this around and win. His eyes were squarely on Amaashi Marika who sent a cold look back at him.

Why had she started talking at all?

If executing Natalena Blast was her top priority, she should have ignored him as he crawled half-dead from the ocean and she should have used that time to slice the 12-year-old girl to pieces. Even now, Natalena was thoughtlessly clinging to her in an explosion of emotion, so a single jab of her rapier would skewer the girl and give Marika what she wanted. So why?

The answer was obvious.

He just had to think back on what she had said. Something was missing there.

“Ai…ne.”

“Why drag this out when you know you won’t kill me? Delay too long out in this cold and you’ll freeze to death.”

Yes.

That was why Marika was doing this.

Nothing she had said was a lie. But she had avoided mentioning her own Achilles’ heel. Killing Natalena was her win condition, but what was her lose condition? Failing to kill Natalena was not the answer.

To break Karuta’s spirit, she could not allow him to figure this out.

So he only had to shout at the crystal girl who could operate separate from him.

“Aine, cut right through my neck to cut off Marika’s arm!!”

There was a distorted breath, like someone’s throat had convulsed.

Bu it did not come from Karuta, who had given the order, or Aine, who had received it.

It did not even come from astonished Natalena who was desperately trying to stop the twintails girl.

There was only one person left.

Marika had the upper hand while lifting the boy up by his throat, but she had the look of someone who had just been run through with a sharp blade.

“You wouldn’t!!”

“I would, Marika. This was never about you hating Natalena Blast,” he roared with a grin.

Yes, she had used herself as a hostage and he had learned just how effective a tactic that could be.

“You want to eliminate anything that threatens those you care about . That is what drives you! So without me, you lose any reason to kill Natalena. Marika, you’re smart, but trying to hide that lose condition only accentuated the fear behind it!!”

“You can’t do it.”

She was nearly laughing.

No, she had tried to laugh and failed. She could not suppress the emotion she wanted to hide behind the laughter. She had even forgotten about Natalena grabbing at her hips.

Yes, because this issue was far more important than her target.

“You can’t possibly do it!! Is this textbook righteousness? Or do you feel guilty about what you did to Anastasia? You only met Natalena a few days ago! It’s wrong to throw away your life for someone you barely know!!”

That childhood friend valued the length of a relationship above all else, so this had to be truly unbelievable for her.

However…

“If you really believe that, then why did you hide your lose condition?”

“Kh.”

“ You knew that old softy Utagai Karuta might do it . That subconscious fear led you to hide that worst possibility. So that’s exactly what I’ll do. Listen, Marika. It isn’t just Natalena Blast I’m trying to protect. I want to protect you from this blood on your hands!! We hated the Problem Solvers so much we went around killing every last one of them, so we can’t afford to be led astray!! We have to bring happiness to the world we created. We stand at the top, so we have to get along with Natalena and the others who couldn’t stand at the top!! If we force people to go without happiness or trample on people’s happiness, then we aren’t any better than the Problem Solvers!!!!!!”

For that, he was willing to offer up his life. He did not care what happened to him.

He gathered his last ounce of strength to put on a smile with his neck still in her grasp. Marika’s smile had grown twisted as she tried to hide her fear, but his was a pure and kind smile.

“No, Senpai.”

Natalena was trembling and clinging to Marika’s hips for a different reason than before. She seemed to be staring at something that would pay them a silent visit in the near future.

“You can’t do that!! Amaashi-senpai, um, isn’t there anything you can do!?”

Something was indeed approaching from behind Marika.

His weapon approached with a crystal sword in hand.

“I win,” he said.

“No…”

“Cry and wail all you like, but don’t expect human emotion or standards to reach Aine. You yourself said all she can do is follow my orders and only I can call her off. So, Marika, the only way to cancel Aine’s execution command is to kill me. ”

“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!???”

The crystal armor, the Preset regeneration, and the rest of Marika’s magic would generally only protect her. Even the barrier was not perfect. If Aine attacked with all her might, Marika might be able to defeat her. But Karuta would die if the crystal girl got even one attack in before then.

He thought of her as a kind girl.

She could say and do some extreme things, but she generally only ever thought about others. He would protect her no matter what. She only looked so frightening because her blade was directed at him. She provided the greatest sense of comfort when she was using that to protect him.

This parched world could use a hero like that.

But if she was going to stay true to herself, he would not hesitate to do the same.

Just as she was the strongest in her own way, he could be the strongest in his own way.

His idea of the strongest was not to slaughter all else and stand tall in a giant pool of blood.

It was to stop all hopeless conflict no matter what toll it took on him.

“Marika.”

Would she do nothing and watch as Aine killed the boy, or would she kill Karuta to remove that execution command? Both options ended the same way. That ultimate sadist brought tears to the eyes of the kind girl who had been by his side as far back as he could remember. And that absolute scum said one last thing with a smile on his face.

“This is goodbye.”

There was nothing she could do.

Aine’s sword swung down at max speed and severed Marika’s arm at the wrist, translucent armor and all.

Yes.

The deadly blade mercilessly and silently passed right through Utagai Karuta’s neck.

### 066. Part 3

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka sighed back in their semi-secret base that was the Student Council Room.

“What’s wrong, Omotesandou-san?”

“Oh, nothing.”

She shook her head at the inquiry from the earnest-looking Treasurer with a black bob cut.

The Treasurer, Secretary, and all other members of the Student Council except for the President herself were Regulation 1. That pained Kyouka a bit as the only Regulation 3 remaining.

(Hm, maybe I should go have Karuta-kun or Marika-san comfort me later.)

No, she could not do that. While she saw them as equal accomplices who had shared good and bad times with her, those two would still see her as a distant upperclassman.

(This is such a lonely position.)

But maybe she had no right to complain.

There was something she had not told even Karuta and Marika who had helped her eliminate the Problem Solvers.

“…”

The students and teachers who had been killed and reduced to crystal during the First Out Incident were not in as desperate a situation as it seemed. At the cost of her own body, Kyouka had accelerated their regeneration speed ten-thousand-fold, so they would likely return to normal in a year or so at the most.

There were two important things to note here.

First, if the students and teachers assisted by Kyouka’s trick were cracked or shattered again from some external attack, they would lose that ten-thousand-times acceleration. Second, no one could be added to the list. So if someone from the Second Grimnoah were to receive a mortal wound, that was that. Kyouka’s trick would not apply to them, so it would take centuries or millennia for them to recover.

That had been a desperate measure that came at the cost of her life as a Crystal Magician, so it could only be done the once and there were no do-overs.

She had a simple reason for not informing her accomplices of this hope.

(I thought we could live happily ever after once we completed our revenge against the Problem Solvers.)

It saddened her, but she had resigned herself to holding this position. She had never been the type to smile bright and spread her arms below the shining sun.

Even if she did wish she could be that type.

(But it looks like there is more to this.)

The unknown Threat was attempting to drive the entire human race to extinction.

The human string-pullers made sure they benefited even from the battle between the world’s strongest and the Threat.

And now there was Anastasia’s sister.

That far too immature avenger seemed to be giving them a taste of their own medicine.

That looked like several distinct threads, but she had no idea what they might link back too. They might indeed be entirely separate, or they might all join together. She was concerned this might be a diversion meant to hide something, but it was also possible the answer had been right in front of her all this time.

(I can’t tell anyone about this.)

She quietly narrowed her eyes while viewing the black bob cut Treasurer and redheaded buns Secretary who adored her like two puppies. Parts of society were now supported by the assumption that Crystal Magic was the strongest and its practitioners would protect humanity from the Threat. There could be no doubts introduced about that future.

She would have to review each thing in turn.

So she began wondering where to place herself on the game board.

“Well, a coward only has one place here. I should focus on the messy human conspiracies, I suppose.”

“?”

The innocent and adorable Treasurer’s questioning gaze did nothing to stop the President’s thoughts.

(We know there are problems remaining, so if we let our guard down before grasping the big picture, we’re done for. I feel bad doing this to Karuta-kun and Marika-san, but revealing this secret will have to come later.)

### 067. Part 3

“Well, that doesn’t sound like fun. But are you sure you should be here, Karuta-kun? Marika-san spent a very long time choosing her swimsuit, so she might not be happy if you ignore her.”

That comment and a laugh came from sexy Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka.

Karuta was all sweaty. Splitting up with Aine had not been a smart move. The man had immediately locked onto him and attacked, so losing that mass of muscles had taken a lot of work. He realized now that sending Aine after the man to slow him down would have been the smart play.

“Ah, pant, gasp. So what are you doing there?”

“Artificial though this beach is, I would have trouble swimming with these legs. Still, I wanted to get into the beach spirit, you know?”

The upperclassman girl wore a black bikini and kicked her long legs like a child. The beach and palm trees below the powerful mechanically-created sunlight were pretty and all, but they two of them were not even close to the crashing waves. She was lying in a plastic kiddie pool with her legs sticking out since they did not fit. With her curvy figure, the kiddie pool and childish feet kicking created a guilty sort of imbalance.

But Karuta had not been asking about that.

“You didn’t answer my question. What are you doing there?”

“Not. Telling.”

She gave a different sort of smile with her index finger pressed against her lips.

The previous childish smile was now a bewitching smile with a maturity beyond her years.

“I’m intentionally doing this in secret, so why would I give the answer out loud? If you assume they will always appear in sunglasses and a black suit, you are sorely mistaken.”

So this was about that.

He could see why she had sent the other Student Council members away.

He knew she could not get them involved, but he secretly had trouble with the waves of jealousy the rest of the Student Council was sending his way.

Regardless, this topic meant he could change his mode as well.

Instead of the squeaky-clean public mode or the usual high school mode, he put on his mask of the true avenger who played dirty.

“ You mean they’re here ?”

“They’re like cockroaches. If you found a place in the world they aren’t , I would want to move there right away.”

That was enough to convince him. She had always been good with computers. He had wondered why she had a phone, a mobile router, and some other devices at the bottom of the water in her kiddie pool, but she was apparently busy gathering information. If they were everywhere, then she could steal their information no matter where she was. By placing that device there, she could use a quicksand app she had written to gather up the invisible signals flying through the air, decode them, and convert them into actual text and images.

Karuta’s group was facing a few different issues.

The most pressing was the chain of revenge being continued by Natalena Blast (almost certainly with the help of some sort of accomplice).

They also had to worry about the Threat and the global string-pullers who worked to profit even from the clash between the world’s strongest and the Threat.

Karuta was dealing with Anastasia’s sister, Natalena Blast.

But Kyouka apparently planned to do battle with a different part of the world.

He grabbed a carbonated drink in a can (which had become rare in Japan with the exception of energy drinks) from the pool water and took a sip while pretending to glance over at the seabirds flying through this enclosed sky.

“That’s in your hands, then.”

“Of course it is. So you go complete your job.” Omotesandou Kyouka placed a hand over her mouth and laughed. She turned in a different direction than him. “Young-looking Aine probably makes it easier for you, but it means a lot that you can infiltrate the middle school since even a single school year can feel like an impassable barrier. For now, try to keep their attention. Earning that girl’s trust would help everyone out.”

He glanced in the direction she was looking and then sighed.

That trio of girls was waving over at him in their swimsuits. The tanned and silver-haired girl hopping up and down in the center and waving with both hands was Riho.

He waved back and whispered too quietly for those three to hear.

“This isn’t easy, you know?”

“I imagine not.”

“I’m only a new student who arrived back in April. I can’t admit it to anyone else, but I only survived by pure luck. Who can say what happens if the Threat shows up here and now? But those girls innocently believe that I can protect them no matter what happens. Because I’m one of the world’s strongest Crystal Magicians.”

“Stop thinking of it as deceiving them. It’s a lot easier if you think of it as giving them hope.”

### 068. Part 3

They must have had a few different options at that point.

They could have remained in the destroyed living spaces of the C World dome, they could have left the dome altogether, or they could have attacked one of the surviving domes to steal their supplies and necessities.

But those were only options in the most abstract sense.

“Uhh.”

The nervous female teacher hunkered down and shivered as Karuta and the rest looked her way. She could apparently use Crystal Magic, but her focus was on theory. She could not bear the pressure of choice in actual combat.

Kiyosawa Hadome shook his head. He might be able to make the decision itself, but he was not confident that the 1000 students would obey since he inspired so much fear and unease in them. He had not been reincarnated in another world, so the people around him would not just unquestioningly accept everything he said as long as it was correct. Everyone had to bet their own life on their choices here and they would lose everything if they died.

That made this a job for their only Regulation 3 and their Student Council President: Omotesandou Kyouka.

“Don’t you dare say this is because I’m the closest to being old☆”

“No one was even considering that, so why bring it up at all? Putting your foot in your mouth?”

“Karuta-kun.”

He looked away from the President with the gentle yet scary voice.

He hoped that would make her forget he said anything.

“Anyway, look at this.”

She readily spoke up as if grabbing an invisible card between her fingers and pulling it from the deck.

Her decision here could lead to a great many deaths among the Grimnoah students and the ordinary people. For that matter, it was entirely possible an absolute victory was not even an option here and sacrifices would be unavoidable no matter what they did. Yet she showed no hesitation. Their elected President chose a path for them all.

That was the usual way of things, which might sound simple enough, but it was like performing a tightrope walk between skyscrapers. You only had to stand on the edge of a deadly precipice to realize just how difficult it was.

“Surviving in the great outdoors seems like the best bet we have here.”

Karuta and the others crossed the shattered transparent exterior wall to exit the dome.

The actual temperature could not have changed much, but a chill crawled up from their feet.

They could tell they were now outside, where they were not guaranteed to survive.

Also, the Crystal Beach itself existed on a few artificial islands floating in the ocean. That artificial land had been constructed as an impurity to induce freezing and stop the thawing of the Arctic ice due to global warming. But that alone had been considered a waste of resources, so they had grown into a largescale resort centered around casinos and hotels.

The translucent domes and aquarium-like tunnels were not the entirety of the space.

If they could endure the -15-degree environment, there was plenty of white land there.

And once outside…

“…”

Utagai Karuta was digging through the snow. After everything that had happened, they were forced to labor in the cold.

The hellish President had put it this way:

“The frigid environment is effectively identical outside and inside the C World dome, but the limited space of the dome is overrun with the Threat and we only risk an all-out attack if we remain here and are discovered. If the temperature is 15 below freezing either way, it would be safest to put some distance between us and the dome.”

She had made it sound so simple, but she had put some thought into it.

“We also cannot attack the other domes. As Karuta-kun said, damaging the outer walls would let the -15-degree air inside, ruining the survivability of the domes. We have no choice but to fight the cold out here. But to put it another way, our options expand significantly as long as we can clear that -15-degree barrier. We would be able to focus on the fight and we would be able to go on the offensive next time.”

“Pant, pant, gasp. Goddammit.”

“Sacri-sama, you have stopped working. Swearing will not accomplish anything here.”

“Why do we have to make two of them, one for me and one for Aine? And I can’t boost my physical abilities with Crystal Magic armor like the others can!”

They had to deal with the cold somehow, but there was nothing but white snow out here.

Their only option was to make use of that snow.

“I never though my life would depend on playing in the snow like a child.”

“Have you never heard of igloos?” asked Kyouka. “These are homes built from snow bricks by the Inuit who live in Alaska.”

Her wheelchair was nearly useless with the snow jamming up the wheels, so Aine was busy building her igloo. The beautiful girl took the time to watch over the high school boys who had started a snowball fight despite the dire situation and the black bob cut girl from the Student Council who was chasing after them trying to get them to stop.

“The snow bricks have air packed within, giving the igloos the same insulative properties as a down jacket. A house made of solid bricks won’t do much good against the Threat anyway. No matter how much time we spend fortifying our defenses, they’ll be knocked down as easy as a house of straw, so isn’t it the perfect time for quick shelters that are easily built and easily abandoned? Igloos are apparently built as temporary winter homes.”

Their magic gave them a limit of 24 hours out in the cold, but they could reset that by getting rest somewhere warm. Similarly, when fighting the Problem Solvers, they had first acquired a cheap used RV instead of weapons or armor. If you were going to fight, you needed a safe home where you could take your time and think.

But.

“Pant, easily built, gasp, my ass. If you’re, gasp, going to say that, how about you try it? Ugh.”

“How am I supposed to do that in this wheelchair? And why in the world do you think you’re building one for Aine too? She’ll obviously be sharing yours.”

“Wait, is that yours Aine is working on!!!???”

“Done!” said an innocent voice.

Karuta was sticky with sweat despite the blizzard and he looked back to see twintailed Marika already standing next to a completed single room home (making full use of her Crystal Magic armor). She had had enough time left over to find two large palm leaves carried here by the wind and place them on top so the igloo looked something like a snow rabbit.

“Is that good enough? I hope this will get me through the night.”

“The shape of the entrance is special. Adjust it to keep out the cold and it apparently gets fairly warm inside.”

Real igloos were apparently lined with fur to keep the heat in, but these used waterproof tarps instead. Acquiring enough of those for 1000 people might sound difficult, but this was not a natural part of the Arctic. They had apparently come across some kind of construction area, so they could dig through the thick snow to find all kinds of artificial objects.

Thus spoke the reliable President:

“There was an awful lot of empty space outside the dome for an artificial island, so it was simple enough to guess more was either under construction or had been abandoned mid-construction.”

Marika’s snow rabbit became a trendsetter. When the middle schoolers saw it, they began adding personal touches to their own igloos – giving them cat ears of snow or sticking in branches meant to be reindeer antlers. That was also helpful in a practical sense, because it helped them recognize their own igloo out of the otherwise indistinguishable dumpling-like lumps of snow. Although some got carried away, added too much snow, and crushed their own igloo.

The high schoolers had finally ended their snowball fight. Exercise was a good way of staying healthy and dealing with stress, but it was enough to horrify Karuta who had not even finished his own igloo.

“Man, where’d they get all that energy? You would think we were building snow sculptures for a winter festival or something.”

“How is this any different from ordinary homes? The color of the roof has no bearing on your life inside it, but that doesn’t stop people from being particular about those things,” said Marika. “And what’s with you? Have you still not finished your basic igloo?”

“I can’t keep this up. Please, Marika, can I spend the night at your place?”

“My home has no place for unromantic, self-serving guys. Get lost.”

Karuta caught himself before retorting that she had no problem slipping into his dorm room because her room was too full of online shopping packages.

Aine did not seem at all bothered by the cold of the blizzard.

“I have completed the igloo. What should I do now?”

“Well,” said Kyouka. “It’s a little plain as is, so I’d like something to make it stand out as much as Marika-san’s. Could you make two snowmen at the entrance? Something delightful, like the komainu at a shrine.”

“If you’re done, then help me! Actually, don’t steal control of Aine from me in the first place!!”

That President was full of unpleasant surprises. She had a way with words, like she was blessed with a natural ability to manipulate people. Since Aine only tilted her head in silence, she may have belatedly started questioning why she was performing this physical labor for someone other than her supposed master. He guessed that President would find a way to take advantage of the Three Laws of Robotics in approximately a microsecond.

At any rate, Karuta and Aine would be stuck out in the blizzard until his igloo was complete. Since the crystal girl would not do anything until ordered to, he grabbed at her.

Specifically, at those unidentified things on her head.

“Aine, why you were helping her doesn’t matter. Just help me now, okay?”

“Bwagh!? N-no bedroom activities where people can see us!!!!!!”

Her reaction was unbelievably weird.

“U-um, Aine?”

“That…was a mistake. Oh, no.”

Aine would not bat an eye when she killed someone or had her arm sliced off, yet she just blushed red and shouted something on reflex. Karuta could only stare, but for some reason, the crystal girl only fidgeted uncomfortably and would not explain. Was it possible even she did not understand what that was about?

Then the President held a hand to her grinning mouth.

That was a bad sign. That elite girl was about to unleash some extremely unwelcome mischief.

“How could you do that, Karuta-kun? You do know an animal’s horns are a symbol of its reproductive capability, don’t you?”

“Bhkghd!!!??? Don’t drop bombshells like that with a smile on your face!!”

“I was only stating a simple fact. Now, wait until the two of you are alone to tend to those two things, okay?”

Come to think of it, hadn’t Aine started rubbing those against him when they were alone in the elevator? That was when he had called her weird for wearing that white school swimsuit. What had she meant by that???

“Once your phone has a signal again, I recommend looking up why moose antlers are so big.”

“Does that mean Aine is a quiet but really, uh, ‘horny’ girl!?” asked Marika. “And that’s why she has those two impressive things!?”

“Yes. And you wouldn’t want someone begging you for it in broad daylight, even if you were down for it, would you?”

“Can the both of you please stop making up definitions for who I really am...?”

Anyway, evening had arrived by the time Karuta and Aine finished digging out the snow to make their igloo. They had been attacked by the Threat in the morning and been on the run since, so they had spent almost an entire day out in the icy cold. Plus, they only had this temporary shelter that they would have to abandon immediately if the Threat attacked again.

“It all feels so fruitless.”

And it was not over yet. It could be hard to tell in the Arctic, but it was evening. They had not eaten anything since the hotel’s breakfast buffet that morning, so they were presented with an obvious problem.

“We need to find some food. Water we can get by melting snow with magic.”

“Dammit, can’t we solve all of this with Crystal Magic? There are plenty of harvest goddesses, right? Like Sif from Norse mythology, Kisshoten from Buddhism, or Demeter from Greek mythology. Let’s worship those powerful ladies to get some bread and rice popping out of thin air.”

“Hmm, all of that magic is used to boost your power by eating divine food, so overusing it would probably destroy your body from within. Karuta-kun, don’t come crying to me if you turn immortal and find you can’t cut your eternally-growing hair and nails.”

The President’s comment shut Karuta up. It sounded like they would have to figure something out on their own. Weren’t there any gods that would provide help but not too much help, like the Kasa Jizou? But in that case…

“We can’t go to the other domes for help and we can’t go fishing even with the ocean all around us.”

He sat down in front of his igloo and brought a hand to his forehead. He was in no mood to join Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke in their snowball fight. He wanted to get some rest. And what did he most want to eat in his freezing and exhausted state?

“I guess our only option is to sneak back into the C World dome and nab some food there.”

“Isn’t the Threat there?”

Marika was exactly right.

So…

“We can’t send all 1000 of us in. We’ll need to focus on stealth instead of power. Omotesandou-san, can I select some people to go with me?”

“If you can look after them.”

That was the natural thing for a Student Council President to ask, but it was also the most difficult task. His twintailed childhood friend only shrugged. She must have known that was not the job for her. Karuta only knew he would be bringing Aine with him. Also, they needed to go a step further to solidify their position here.

“Hey.”

“…”

He called out to someone, making them jump, but it was not a middle school or high school student.

It was one of the ordinary people he had brought here – probably a waitress.

“Wh-what do you want? Are you kicking us out to have fewer mouths to feed?”

Her tone had changed so much from earlier. How much did she fear him?

(Well, she did turn on the world’s strongest, so that isn’t too surprising.)

He only had to think back on Elicia, Yukino, and how many people had been lost in the First Out Incident. Plus, this woman was ignorant of magic.

She was dressed in extra layers since she did not have magic to protect her and Karuta let out a white sigh.

“Don’t give up hope that quickly. We’re risking our lives out here too, so if you won’t work to help us, we won’t help you.”

“But we treated you so badly, we had to get you to build our igloos, and we can’t do anything for you.”

“Then how about you pay us back to make up for that?” He made a casual suggestion. “Give me some information I don’t already have. If that can help everyone, then we’re even.”

“…”

He had her explain the structure of the artificial island and they walked the perimeter of the igloo area to check it out.

And afterwards…

“Natalena, if you’re free, then help me out some. We need to get some food.”

“Why me?”

“You too, Firenze-sensei. I want your help too. You use Vayu, right? Then let’s take a quick trip out to the front line that’s crawling with the Threat.”

“What!? But why? I only do theory! I never even considered the idea of fighting myself!!”

The nervous teacher’s shouts ridded Natalena of her complaints. She still pouted her lips, but she followed his instructions. Yes, seeing someone panicking more than you had a calming effect on people. It made them want to correct their own behavior.

Muscular Kiyosawa Hadome put his hands on his hips.

“What about me?”

“What god do you use again?”

“Horus. But a modified version that intentionally conflates Horus the Elder with Horus the Younger.”

“So Egyptian mythology’s sun god? And we also have that nuisance of a Kagutsuchi user named Yamane Deiri, so you two work together to provide heat for everyone. The high insulation of the igloos should be enough from a theoretical perspective, but it should still put everyone at ease to see some actual fire.”

The man quietly clicked his tongue, but he did not seem to mean anything by it and must have accepted that as a practical use of his abilities.

He could not drag his classmates into this – not Yamane Deiri, not Nekoumi Hirosuke, not Matsuda Imi, and not Hashizaki Tayori. They had been fighting as a group before, but things would be very different one-on-one. Just like listening as part of the student body was much less nerve-wracking than speaking to them alone. They might panic once they were face-to-face with the true Threat.

Kyouka held a hand to her mouth and laughed.

“Are you sure this is good enough?”

“I doubt I could look after any more than this.”

“We’re talking about food for 1000. Even a chocolate bar each will mean 10 attaché cases.”

“We’ll figure something out. Okay, members of the Student Council, I hate to ask this of you, but please take care of Omotesandou-san while we’re gone.”

“This is where she belongs in the first place.”

The black bob cut girl and redheaded girl with buns frowned at him and refused to let go of the wheelchair’s handles. It looked like they would start fighting over her between themselves before long.

Karuta’s group left their secret base with the beautiful Student Council President seeing them off.

Instead of taking a straight shot toward the C World dome, they took an intentional detour. They had no idea what might give away their presence and they definitely could not use Crystal Magic to fly.

The female teacher grew tearful as she trudged through the snow.

“Ugh, are we really stuck with a 4-person party?” she asked. “Modern RPGs let you swap out party members at will, you know?”

“Eh? You look into that kind of thing for your theoretical work? Um, uh, is that because of the influence from Greek and Norse mythology?”

“Not really. I just like the feeling of gradual growth in those games. I prefer the slow and steady method.”

Natalena seemed surprised by that and the teacher bent over a bit. She may have been shrinking down out of embarrassment. Also, the girl had her Crystal Magic armor open. As long as she did not open up those scales of hers, she could apparently use them to silently slide along the ground.

(So she has to switch between modes for mobility and attacking? It’s a convenient power, but it has its flaws.)

Mentioning that would probably have started an argument and the Threat could notice that, so Karuta held his tongue.

Even from a distance, they could tell the C World dome had collapsed.

(I don’t see any of those flying ones in the air. Do they use more energy flying than staying on the ground?)

Of course, it was unclear if the concepts of exhaustion and waste even existed for the Threat.

The translucent dome had protected the interior from the elements, but it had almost entirely crumbled away, leaving the artificial beach and tourist town seemingly frozen in time by ice. There were still so many questions about what the Threat was doing. They were attached to the frozen asphalt and building walls, but they did not seem to be destroying anything or resupplying. They left a fair amount of space between themselves, but they were still gathered together. When patrolling their territory and scouting outside their territory, did they only use those slipper-sized bugs? They were not piled on top of each other or pushing past each other. They apparently did not step over their own kind when not in a hurry.

Natalena must have really not wanted to be spotted by the Threat because she crouched down despite already being hidden by a large boulder.

“What are they doing?”

“I dunno. They don’t seem to be searching out heat or consuming oil or electricity like you would expect of a machine.”

That said, snails could tear away the surface of a rock to eat that. The Threat’s biology was a mystery, so he doubted they would find an answer right away.

There were a lot of them, but they were all gathered around the main street. It looked like the dome had collapsed because they had wanted more ways in and did not care about defense. Karuta’s group sought out a position where the tall buildings alongside the main road blocked them from view and then they crossed the border formed by the broken dome.

It was the same inside as outside. Their feet still crunched through snow and large icicles hung from the frozen palm trees. The decorative fountains had frozen solid. The fountains’ underground water pipes may have ruptured.

“Sacri-sama. You said we are here for food, but where exactly are we supposed to find that?”

“The shopping center.”

They had to go for some place with enough stock for 1000 people.

With the various sizes of the Threat gathered on the main road, Karuta’s group used a smaller road running parallel to that. However, they could not let their guard down since they knew those slipper-sized scout and reconnaissance units also existed. Even if those could not fight, a single alarm sent out using firefly-like phosphorescence or pheromones would begin an all-out war.

The flying ones appeared to be stopped on the ground, but that did not mean all of them were. They made sure to stay below roofs as much as possible.

They made their way past a collapsed parking garage (presumably destroyed by the Threat) and approached a shopping facility larger than a school building. The Threat had destroyed the town at breakfast time, so it had been abandoned before opening for the day. The security shutter was still down over the entrance, but Aine’s sword sliced it away like a hot knife through butter.

“Coming in.”

The lights were off inside, so it would be dark at any time of day or night. The row of registers had signs written in multiple languages. This must have functioned as a duty-free shop for foreign tourists, not a neighborhood supermarket for locals.

“Bingo. We should find industrial cases full of food in here.”

“Sacri-sama, what exactly should we get?”

“Freeze-dried foods.”

And just to make him feel better, something not from Susannia’s farms.

“Keep in mind that we can get as much water as we want by melting snow. A thousand people’s worth is a lot, so we want as much nutritional value for the weight as we can get. That rules out canned, bagged, and frozen foods. They already have their moisture, which adds a lot of weight.”

“C-can you really survive just eating freeze-dried stuff? But, um, uh, I guess our houses really are just a roof and walls to keep out the cold, so they don’t have kitchens. But still.”

“Then you take a look at the shelves yourself, Natalena.”

Karuta pointed at the perishable food section and she was dumbfounded by what she saw.

The drinks bottles had all burst from within and then frozen solid. The vegetables and fish were either covered in white frost or their surface had grown toxically discolored.

“You may have forgotten with your magic protecting you, but this is a frozen hell of -15 degrees. Have you never been told not to store drink bottles in the freezer?”

“…”

“With boxed, bagged, or canned foods, either the container will burst or the contents will go bad. The only edible things here would be the freeze-dried foods, the chocolate, and anything else that doesn’t need moisture.”

“Wh-what about the frozen foods? They’re already frozen.”

Sophia Firenze had a point.

But they ran into a different problem there.

“Sensei, chocolate bars are the gold standard for emergency food, but a bar each for 1000 people still comes out to 10 attaché cases. With freeze-dried blocks of miso soup, a meal is less than 10 grams, but you have to multiply that by 1000. We’re talking about 10 kg.”

She could get greedy if she liked, but they might not be able to escape safely if they were lugging a giant container with them. They would be helpless if the Threat spotted them mid-transit. Those flying ones could be going on irregular patrols for all they knew. If they were spotted, they would have to abandon the food they had worked so hard to gather.

And the danger did not end there.

Their residential district of igloos was hard to see from a distance since it blended into the white scenery. The layered snow had an insulating effect, so their body heat might be difficult to detect as well. But that was not a guarantee. If they were found, they would have to abandon all that and retreat. Having a bunch of food they had to lug around with them would not be ideal. And the more they would have to abandon, the more reluctant they would be to leave. If that made them slow to make a decision, they were much more likely to die.

They continued further into the dark shopping center while on the lookout for those small scout and reconnaissance Threats and they filled shopping carts with cardboard boxes of soup and risotto. A surprising amount was imported from Japan. The packaging had been remade in English, but a lot was the exact same products seen in Japanese convenience stores and supermarkets. It did not look like Susannia’s products either.

The 12-year-old blonde girl noticed the things they were taking from the shelves.

“Hm? Risotto? And curry rice too. I’m surprised how many vegetables you can get with this.”

“Well, rice is the standard grain to be rehydrated for eating. I’m surprised you didn’t know that, Natalena. Does that mean you actually cook for yourself a lot? As young as you are, I’m impressed.”

“Th-that is not impressive and what does age have to do with it!? That just means you’re lazy!!”

Karuta took offense at that since he would make his own lunches from time to time. He would prefer that label be applied to Marika, the combat-obsessed girl who would swipe things from his lunch when he let his guard down.

“Heh heh. I risked my life coming out here, so I deserve a special treat☆”

The flaxen-hair teacher grabbed an item not on their list. It too was a Japanese product, but this was a cup of instant noodles with a fairly high price tag due to a famous restaurant’s brand name on the package. If that was a treat she considered worth her life, he had to wonder about her usual diet.

Also, milk was too heavy as a liquid, but cereal like corn flakes had a good weight to nutrition ratio. They would have to eat them dry like cookies or crackers, but it was better than nothing. He could guess it would be spiritually taxing if freeze-dried foods were all they had.

“In that sense, instant coffee or tea might not be a bad choice.”

“But those have no nutritional value. If you need caffeine, there are plenty of more convenient products like gum and tablets.”

“It’s not about the caffeine.”

It was to maintain their mental health. And these only required adding hot water, just like the freeze-dried foods. Meanwhile, Aine tilted her head and asked a question while pushing a shopping cart with both hands.

“How are we going to return? If we are to safely escape the C World dome while it is crawling with the Threat, we should probably split into a transport team and a defense team.”

Natalena’s shoulders jumped. Yes, the more they brought back with them, the more it would restrict their movement. Greed would only increase their odds of death.

But Karuta smiled as he responded.

“No, there’s an easier way.”

“?”

He led them all to the back of the shopping center. That area normally held the processing space for meat and fish as well as the staff breakroom, but he could guess they would find something else here too.

After locating what he was looking for, he placed a hand on the floor and pulled up on the handle there.

That revealed a cylindrical pipe about as thick as a washing machine drum.

“Wh-what is that?”

“A water pipe, Sensei. The C World dome is an icy wasteland now, but it was an artificial tropical beach before. The flowers and trees couldn’t last unless they were constantly running sprinklers of desalinated seawater. The dome covered everything above, so they couldn’t hope for any rain.”

The non-Grimnoah people had informed him that each dome desalinated its own water and large water pipes were laid out between the domes so they could share that water if another dome’s water facility malfunctioned. It worked much like the central heating in that sense. That meant this pipe led outside of the broken C World dome. Their igloo zone was located between domes, so it was perfect for them.

Natalena frowned, perhaps because she had imagined the water pipe as something like an aquarium’s underwater tunnel.

“Are you, um, saying we are going to return through here?”

“It’s an interesting idea, but that thing is kilometers long. I’m pretty sure Sensei and I would hurt our backs trying that.”

“I-it’s too small for me too! How small do you think I am!?”

He called out to Aine and the emotionless girl brought a hot water dispenser out of an office. It was unclear if the place still had power, but the dispenser was built like a thermos and it still retained some heat. The fact that the container had not burst from within meant it still had liquid water inside.

Karuta opened the lid to check. There was no actual steam, but it had been a while since he saw actual water like that.

“Sensei, your Crystal Blossom contains the name of Vayu, right?”

“Eh? Yes.”

“Western magic cabals use that name to refer to the element of wind or air and they symbolize it with a blue circle. But follow that back to its source, and it refers to a god of nature among the Hindu Devas – a wind god to be exact. He is said to be the guardian deity of the northwest direction and the father of Hanuman.”

While confirming all that with her, he poured the precious water into the pipe.

Then he let her take over.

“Okay, send some wind into the pipe, if you don’t mind. Make the strength about…yes, about 30m/s. At this temperature, that should be enough to freeze over the entire inside of the kilometers-long pipe.”

“Oh.” Natalena placed a hand over her mouth in slight surprise. “Senpai, is that what you’re doing?”

“Yes, an air conveyor. They’re normally meant to send light objects like letters or documents, though.”

In her tight skirt suit, Sophia Firenze held her hands out in front.

Karuta wondered when the translucent armor was going to appear, but then she started muttering something like a monotone prayer.

“An approximate intersection of 15 and 75. By the solar calendar, it is 05021630, but convert that into Samvatsara. I summon thee from the south and exorcise thee to the north-northwest. The word of power is ddefz. The string of letters has no meaning and is only a one-time pillar to support this contract.”

Karuta’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Um? What are you doing???”

“Constructing the proper syntax given our current coordinates, the current time and date, and from which direction the power will be coming. The sharing of secrets strengthens the contract and, um… the planetary arrangement most likely to have an effect? That’s going to be tricky. We’re in the Arctic, so the apparent rotation might not be what we expect.”

“…”

“D-don’t give me that look!! This is how Crystal Magic was originally performed. You just aren’t aware of it because you skip past it all by using those small circuit boards!!”

If they had wasted their time on such a lengthy ceremony in front of the Problem Solvers, they would have been dealt with in some cruel way while still alive. Or maybe those five would have held their sides and erupted in laughter while letting them complete their transformation sequence.

“Umm, Sensei? If you don’t hurry it up, all the water is going to freeze.”

“I know that!! List out the locations of the wandering stars based on the location of the sun and the moon. Use human wisdom to visualize the unseen lines of power created from the conflict between the energy raining down from space and the energy rising from the Original Crystal Embryo at the earth’s core! We are the managers of the arcane who borrow the power of the gods and predict every last cataclysm!!”

She waved her hands around as translucent armor decorated her. It had a different look when paired with that tight skirt suit instead of the blazer uniforms Karuta was used to seeing. And what was that weapon supposed to be? She carried a large circle on her back with small circular saws arranged at even intervals like it was a clockface. It looked something like the drums of the Japanese Raijin. Did she use it while on her back, or did she grab it and swing it around? At any rate, this was Vayu – a wind god in the East and a blue circle in the West.

“You look like an overgrown magical girl,” said Aine with a tilt of her head.

“Utagai-kun, what kind of cruel deep learning have you been giving that girl?”

“I’m sorry, but I honestly have no idea where that came from. Aine! There’s such a thing as being too honest.”

“Utagai-kun.”

He found an unexpected landmine here. The topic of her age was apparently off limits.

Anyway, the nervous teacher removed the circle from her back, held it out in both hands, and activated some cutting-edge magic.

“Hyah!!”

“All that precise and traditional setup and you end it like that!?”

Natalena trembled for some reason, but the gust of wind was sent racing down the pipe. The limited amount of drinking water froze evenly across every bit of the kilometers-long pipe, creating a layer of ice a few millimeters thick.

With their preparations complete, Karuta flicked the Crystal Blossom at his chest.

Those things could be used for more than creating unknown armor and transforming a teacher into a magical girl.

“Omotesandou-san, we’re all ready here. Are things ready on the receiving end?”

“They are. You froze the interior to reduce friction, right? We checked inside just to be sure and there were no slipper-sized Threats inside on this end, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. The pipe is clean.”

They packed the freeze-dried emergency food inside plastic containers they found behind the shopping center and dropped those into the pipe.

Sophia was nervous despite being the key to all this.

“A-are you sure this will work? Won’t the containers make a lot of noise sliding through there even with the interior of the pipe frozen?”

“That’s an industrial pipe meant to carry literal tons of water every minute. Water makes a lot of noise in pipes when it has enough air inside, but the place hasn’t received any noise complaints. I bet we could do karaoke in there and no one outside would hear a peep.”

Karuta did not actually have any data to back that up, but his seal of approval was apparently enough to put her at ease. She looked somehow relieved as she held her hands out.

It was like an artillery shell.

Or maybe a model linear motor train.

With a sound of scraping ice, the plastic container vanished into the pipe in the blink of an eye. From there, they repeated the process. Every time Omotesandou Kyouka called them at the other end to say they had retrieved the container, they would send the next one.

“C-couldn’t we have managed some heavier things with this method? Like the frozen foods?”

The teacher apparently still had some regrets.

She may have found a foreign version of some product she loved to eat back in Japan.

But Karuta could only shrug.

“Freeze-dried miso soup is the size of an eraser, but frozen foods are the size of a plate. That size and weight means we would need to send several containers through to secure 1000 servings.”

“Ugh.”

“And if we didn’t send back enough for everyone, people would feel cheated. It has to be 0 or 1000. Do you want to split Grimnoah in two before we even fight the Threat again?”

They were interested in nutritional value not because they wanted to live a healthy life but because they wanted to be in their top form when fighting the Threat. Tearing their group apart with unnecessary luxuries would defeat the purpose of all of this.

“So hand over those fancy instant noodles, Sensei. I’m confiscating them.”

“Y-you’re mean, Utagai-kun!!”

With her personal interest removed, she ended up sending the plastic containers through entirely mechanically. Once they reached a certain amount, they were done. Now they had to safely escape the C World dome themselves. And safely here meant for themselves and for the secret base. They could not lead the Threat back there.

“Karuta-kun, you scored a perfect 100 there. Good work,” said Kyouka over his Crystal Blossom.

“Thanks.”

“If you want to treat yourselves to anything, eat it there. Bringing it back here will only make everyone else feel cheated.”

He could not agree more, but he doubted any of them would want to eat hot food (and all the steam and smells that entailed) in this -15-degree hell where the Threat could spot them at any time. Doing so would be like asking the Threat to surround them and kill them at their leisure. Hunger was viewed as the representative biological urge, but it was influenced a surprising amount by one’s mental state.

“Um, Utagai-kun? About those instant noodles. Um.”

Well, one of them was a hopeless incarnation of hunger, but it would probably be best to have her break free of that. Natalena supposedly loathed Karuta, but not even she took the teacher’s side against him.

“Let’s head back.”

“Senpai, I thought you would be more mistrusting than this.”

The 12-year-old blonde girl provided a strange assessment of him.

He looked puzzled, so the self-proclaimed avenger pouted her lips.

“I mean, how long has the Threat occupied this place now? Who knows how intelligent they are, but wouldn’t they have had time to poison the food at random?”

The Threat.

A Metal-Derived Autonomous-Origin Higher Lifeform Combat Weapon.

Now that he had seen them for himself, they did not seem like a lifeform at all. If they ran on electricity, gas, or petroleum, they would not even need a livable environment. They would be able to keep on marching even if they were engulfed in poison gas or napalm. That was only an assumption, but it was true they had not hesitated to tear down the dome and destroy the summer environment when they attacked.

“Poison.”

However.

His thoughts turned in a different direction.

“That’s it. Why didn’t I think of that!?”

“?”

### 069. Part 3

“Hmm, I see.”

Elsewhere, Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka muttered to herself in a knowing sort of way.

She was toying with a phone.

Needless to say, this was not a commercial device. It was an indiscriminate signal interceptor that connected to multiple mobile routers, gathered the many EM signals flying around, and decrypted them.

(She was given Anastasia Blast’s secrets and sent to the Second Grimnoah with a new identity. I had thought Natalena was fairly ineffectual for how much information and support the string pullers provided.)

If they were powerful enough to rewrite someone’s identity at will, they also could have disguised a military elite or an intelligence agent as a student or teacher and sent them to Grimnoah. There was no need to rely on Crystal Magic if they were only interested in killing. The assassination would be much easier using invisible germs, gas, or radiation.

This was Anastasia’s sister.

Kyouka had thought the string pullers might be using that avenger and her obvious motive as a symbol to inspire more people to fight back. But their communications had been cut off early on and the string pullers had made no attempt to restore them. If that was their goal, they should have been spreading word of it far and wide, but there was no sign of that happening.

So…

“They never expected anything from her.”

Kyouka smiled bitterly at how dry her voice sounded.

She had realized there was no going back for her.

(They were trying to tear us apart over how we would deal with Natalena once we defeated her. Come to think of it, we even considered that possibility early on. I thought that threat had passed once Karuta-kun smoothed things over for us, but I guess that’s still the crux of the issue.)

She tapped her wheelchair’s armrest with the corner of the phone.

(Maybe I dug too deep here. They seem to be rather short-tempered for how thick a veil they used to hide their true face. How childish.)

She had always been considering the human string pullers more than the Threat or the avenger who used Crystal Magic. She had created this signal interceptor out of a phone and mobile routers in order to steal away the digital information of the pursuer who never seemed to leave them alone .

And that had angered them .

She did not know exactly who they were, but…

(If they felt the need to act, I must be getting close.)

She smiled.

She actually saw this situation as an opportunity, but that may have been why she worked so well as the Student Council President at the top of Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah.

(If you’re afraid of someone digging deeper, the best thing to do is show no reaction at all and let it pass. They may have thought they won this round, but they’ve only dug their own graves. Now I have a destination , so I only have to follow the path displayed to me.)

Whatever the case, now was the time to act.

She had only just arrived on the correct path, but if she ran out of strength now, she could never hope to reach that destination. She did not know how the battle between Karuta and Marika would turn out, but if they could not overcome this, there was no chance of victory left.

“Will the conflict bring us closer in the end, or will it tear us apart? That alone will change the fate of the world.”

### 070. Part 4

Natalena Blast returned to her classes that afternoon.

She had to go by Jane Ignition there, which could be confusing.

“Geh. Cooking class immediately after lunch? Who thought that was a good idea?”

“Right, right? Whey not put it before lunch!?”

“Or they could at least make it something that has to sit, so we can eat it for dinner or a late-night snack.”

In the cooking classroom, the other 1st-year middle school girls were pouting their lips and booing while wearing bandannas on their heads and aprons over their uniforms. At that age, they were growing girls and their diet was directly linked to the figure they would develop as they grew up, but they put more effort into reducing their stomach value than into the possibility of increasing their chest value.

If Karuta’s memory served him, the woman with semi-long flaxen hair and a cheap tight skirt suit was Sophia Firenze. That nervous, theory-focused teacher stood in front of the large cooking surface that doubled as a teacher’s desk, but she must have known she would not be able to handle this because she had called Karuta in as a Temporary Substitute Teacher’s Assistant(?). Because he had experience and he was known as the world’s strongest.

He was not a teacher himself, so he should have been sitting in a corner like he was merely observing the class, but everyone was focused on him.

That was hard on his heart even over in the corner.

He had never wanted to be a Class Rep.

But right now, he had to hide the part of him that was worrying about screwing up and embarrassing himself.

He shined a laser pointer on the text already written on the blackboard.

“Okay, regeneration is one of Crystal Magic’s Presets, but it isn’t all-powerful. Alice, Riho, Sanae, everyone else, please pay attention. To the blackboard, not me.”

That track suit teacher must have happened by in the hallway because he sent a bitter look inside the classroom before walking off. For some bizarre reason, someone without a teaching license was teaching in their own personal style. Who could say what kind of false information and personal bad habits he would transfer to the listeners? Karuta could not agree more. He was as puzzled as anyone why he was doing this, but his concerns did not seem to reach the nervous female teacher.

The boy respected that teacher out in the hall, so he surreptitiously nodded back while sending the laser pointer along the blackboard text. That act was a lot like using a highlighter in a textbook. It helped deepen the students’ understanding, but he could not have explained anything without Sophia-sensei there to provide the accurate information in the first place.

“The regeneration is powerful enough to put any doctor to shame by healing any wound or illness in thirty seconds. It is fantastically effective on wounds received from an external source, but it has trouble with anything you are already missing. For example, oxygen, nutrients, or water. The regeneration can only heal non-lethal wounds. So if you starve to death, the healing process is skipped and you are immediately crystallized.”

That explanation was enough to eliminate the scattered discussions among the students and draw all their focus on the blackboard and him in the corner. His combat experience meant a lot here. Although he did wish the nervous female teacher would not look up to him like that, since she was the one with the accurate information.

He sighed.

Those noisy middle school girls required as delicate a touch as if he were working in an ammo dump full of static electricity, but if he thought back to when he was analyzing the Problem Solvers, he managed to calm himself some. After all, failing here would not mean losing his own or someone else’s life.

(Well, all this took was a bit of observation. It’s obvious those three are the center of the class, so I was right to single them out at the start. I think I deserve a bonus for this. By which I mean a dessert.)

Natalena was clearly uncomfortable here.

He could hardly blame her when she was being taught about the powers that took her sister’s life.

He could not tailor this class to everyone here, unfortunately. This was all very bad for his heart, but he managed to keep going without finding himself at a loss for words. He was over in a corner and the text on the blackboard had been written by a real teacher, so he figured he could not go wrong here. He had to remind himself he was not standing up on the gallows.

He could do this. He had kept his mind from going blank so far.

He knew what he had to say. And what order to say it in.

“In that sense, knowing how to acquire ingredients and how to cook them into an edible form are no laughing matter. You will be fighting against the Threat eventually and you never know what will happen on the battlefield. Do not assume you will always be supported by a strong supply line and transportation of goods like the textbooks so often assume. When isolated on the battlefield, you need the survival skills to get by on your own. If you have trouble in a kitchen with gas and electricity, you can never hope to cook outdoors.”

“Heh heh hehh.”

One of the main trio of girls laughed in a nasty way.

This signaled one of her unpleasant adlibs was coming, so he had to be on his guard.

Thus spoke the 13-year-old girl with tanned skin and silver hair who liked to stand out (and was quickly growing into a delinquent).

“Then I take it you’re confident in your own skills, Senpai?”

“Of course I am, Riho.”

He winked.

He was of course terrified of the expectant way this younger girl was testing him, but he could not let that show.

“Whichever group gets me is lucky. I have a habit of making my own lunches for a change of pace.”

“Wow! Well, I hope you’re not all talk. We can be picky when it comes to food, after all.”

That impressed-sounding comment came from Alice, a girl with a blonde ponytail. But when she looked that surprised, it made him feel like she was actually mocking him.

They were not being assigned a specific dish to fix. Instead, they were given a list of numbers indicating the calories and necessary nutrients. Grimnoah’s cooking classes had you provide those numbers in 5 dishes or less. There were many different types of cooking. If you wanted to make it as simple as possible, you would have to check out the online recipes and nutritional science books yourself.

“Okay.”

“?”

He noticed something odd about Sanae, a nervous-looking girl with glasses and with her black hair tied back into two tails. The tails began at the bottom of her head, so they apparently did not qualify as twintails. Anyway, she was dissolving a teaspoon of salt into a bottle of water, but that did not seem related to their cooking in any way.

Riho, from her team, smiled bitterly.

“Sanae, I’m pretty sure we’re fine since it’s the middle of class.”

“Ha, ah ha ha. But Utagai-senpai is here today, so I’m nervous enough to want my good luck charm.”

He could not figure out what they would be “fine” from or what kind of good luck charm that was. After some thought…

“Did you register your Crystal Magic with Bastet?”

“That isn’t one of those water bottles used to keep cats away. And if that was her god, why would she want to keep it away?”

When Riho refuted his thought that quickly, there was nothing he could do. Unfortunately, he did not know of any jinxes that used water bottles.

Meanwhile.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Do not mind me. Now, let’s make some delicious food together.”

Natalena was being extra cautious and Crystal Girl Aine responded to the girl’s concern with her usual lack of expression. Surprisingly, Aine was wearing an apron. She was gathering confused attention since she was not part of the class, but being one of the world’s strongest may have been enough for them to accept this oddity without question.

Yes, Aine was also one of the Four Living Gods. When the person who barged in unannounced was a well-known athlete or actor, it apparently made for a pleasant surprise.

Natalena must have had some cooking experience because she began by disinfecting her knife and cutting board instead of getting right to chopping the vegetables and meat. But she was still focused on that crystal girl visible out of the corner of her eye.

“Wow, Senpai-san! You actually know how to remove the eyes of the potato!?”

“Are your compliments set to super easy mode, Sanae!? Were you a slave elf in some other world during your past life or something!?”

Utagai Karuta prepared the vegetables while chatting with the trio of girls at the center of the class. Natalena had been set free for now, but she could still have her revenge if she killed him. She had a knife, blunt objects, fire, and heated objects here. The kitchen was a cornucopia of weapons.

(Maybe he’ll let his guard down.)

If she was willing to accept mutual destruction – if she did not care what happened to herself – she could make an attack at close range here. He was not the only world’s strongest and this method would make things more difficult with the others, but she could at least take down one of them. She tightly gripped the knife in her small hand so no one else would notice.

(I just have to send him to hell before he can use his real power!!)

“Miss Natalena, that is not how you do that.”

“Mgyuh!?”

She was hit by a sudden “attack” from behind.

Crystal Girl Aine placed her arms around the girl from behind and grabbed both her wrists.

“It seems to me a peeler would be faster with something as small as a carrot, but if you do want to use a knife, you do it like this. Be very careful you do not cut your fingers.”

“Ghghghgh?”

It may have looked like a very hands-on lesson, but this was far more than that. Natalena was pushing so hard it made her red in the face, but Aine’s arms would not budge. It was like being made into a puppet or having your powered suit hijacked from the outside. She was powerless to stop it as Aine moved the girl’s arms to peel an incredibly thin layer of the carrot’s skin. Natalena’s resistance did not even cause her to cut her finger.

It was more like being held by a vise than handcuffs. It was so strong she feared that fighting too hard would smash her wrist bones.

“Oh? What’s this? Looks like those two are really good friends.”

“Um, Riho-chan? Are you sure they’re just friends? I think that biting of the earlobe is crossing the line into something else.”

“Jane-san’s blushing, so I think she’s into it.”

Natalena shook her head to deny it, but it did not look like that misunderstanding was going away.

Aine whispered in her ear so no one else could hear.

“Now for the finishing touch: a maid café’s secret ingredient. Let’s do it together, okay? Delicious Spell: Love Love Kaboom.”

“Stop, stop, stop, stoooop!! Um, uh, I’ll do it right, I swear!!”

### 071. Part 4

“They say Costa Rica alone has millions of different insects and other animals.”

“What are you talking about?”

Utagai Karuta frowned while the girls tugged on his hand and forcibly added him to their team, so tanned and silver-haired Riho laughed loud. She did not have any tan lines from a school swimsuit, so she must have had a full-body tan.

All this attention from a large group scared him.

But they were all ordinary people and he could remain relaxed here.

Or as relaxed as was possible while on a foreign beach with girls in their swimsuits. He saw only soft, healthy skin everywhere he looked. His soul would have been eaten away if he were not in his public mode. It was still plenty bad for his heart, though.

“Noah’s ark supposedly carried two of every animal, right? But how many would that be with just insects? That boat would’ve been crawling with bugs.”

“…”

That was not a pleasant mental image, but the swimsuit girl had a reason for saying this. A blue butterfly fluttered by in front of them and it landed on the hibiscus decorating Riho’s pink-colored drink. There were also hummingbirds coming to a stop in midair and quetzals with beautiful green feathers flying in the enclosed blue sky.

Needless to say, those animals were not native to the Arctic. The domes of the Crystal Beach could maintain this pleasant 28 degrees and less than 50% humidity even if nuclear war covered the entire world in a new ice age. Riho stepped back while opening her mouth wide and looking overhead.

“It’s just so incredible! Hot!?”

She gave a sudden hop, jiggling her small chest, because she had pressed her back against a large metal box. It was taller than she was, but it was not a vending machine. It contained one of the smoke exhaust buttons that were placed all around this enclosed dome.

Karuta sounded exasperated.

“This is supposed to be a tropical beach, so the sand and metal are going to be hot.”

“Why did they have to recreate that part of the experience!?”

Riho complained while Sanae pressed something against her back. It appeared to be a drink, but it was colorless. Was it that personal one she had made in cooking class where she only added a bit of salt to ordinary water?

Sanae tilted her head in a gentle way.

“If this system becomes more common, will they be able to create any environment anywhere in the world? Um, like underground, deep underwater, or at the top of Mt. Everest?”

“And outer space too.”

Alice apparently had more of an imagination than Sanae, but Karuta made sure to anchor them to reality as soon as possible.

“The tech isn’t that all-powerful. First of all, it uses a massive amount of energy. Supply that with ordinary petroleum and supplies will dry up in no time.”

“Wait, then how do these ones exist???”

“An obvious but good question, Riho.”

Her Crystal Blossom’s communication must not have been enough for her because Riho had two phones strapped to her thighs, so maybe he should have complimented her for facing the question herself instead of immediately searching for the answer.

“Iceland is one of the world’s most volcanic countries. It’s a treasure trove of hot springs and the heat of the endless magma bubbling up from underground spins the turbines.”

Karuta pointed toward the ground.

This was an artificial island, so he was actually pointing much further down than that.

“If you wanted to build a similar-sized facility underground or on the ocean floor, it would need to be at a location with plenty of geothermal energy to absorb. But at the same time, it would have to be in a safe zone that would not be caught in earthquakes or in volcanic blasts. Access to the energy doesn’t help you much if a large eruption wipes your city off the map like Pompeii or Saint-Pierre. Meeting both conditions is easier said than done. And outer space would be even harder.”

“Ehh? Yeah, there’s no magma up there, but wouldn’t sunlight provide endless energy?”

“The solar panels wear out, Alice. The sunlight in outer space is very powerful since it is not weakened by the atmosphere and various types of debris will wear down the surface of the panels like a sandstorm. A solar furnace that uses a bunch of mirrors to focus light on a single point, raising the temperature to around 3000 degrees, would be more realistic, but I doubt even that would work. And in a spaceship, you would have to worry about other resources than energy, like air, water, and food.”

“Hmm?” Alice placed a finger on her slender chin and stared up into the artificial blue sky. “Then wouldn’t the moon or Mars be good?”

Her imagination was harder to deter than he thought. There would be other bottlenecks for developing these facilities on other celestial bodies, but discussing that would be straying too far off topic.

“This is off the record, but you will probably be asked to submit a report on the final day of the trip. If you’re afraid you’ll get too caught up in playing on the beach to remember everything you’ve learned by then, I recommend using your phone to record everything that catches your attention. Take short videos instead of photos, record your own voice, and keep the location data for where you filmed it. That will make it a lot easier to bring it all together later on.”

“For real!? Those thoughtless teachers are going to force us to finish off our trip with schoolwork!?”

He nearly said “well, it is a school field trip”. This had given them an excuse to have lots of fun out here, so he felt like they should thank those theory-focused teachers.

“Um,” whispered Sanae while shrinking down. “Should you really have told us that?”

“I don’t see why not. It’s traditional for upperclassmen to teach their underclassmen what will be on the test . You might not interact with other years much in class, but clubs and committees are a different story, right?”

Of course, Karuta and Marika had been hit by the First Out Incident before they could experience any of that themselves. He honestly did want to experience that school life he never thought he would return to.

Riho put on a mischievous smile.

“Hehh heh heh.”

“?”

“I notice you made sure to tell just us in secret. I see what’s going on here, Senpai. We’re your favorites, huh?”

“I never said I was only telling you. I know if I let a few of you in on the secret, word will get out in no time.”

“Not happening. We’re keeping this to ourselves to make all this easier for us!”

She was like a selfish princess, but he could not help but laugh. He was actually fond of that way of thinking. You learned how the rules worked and then took advantage of them. That was exactly how he had managed to take on those monsters he never should have been able to defeat.

“Then how will you stop me from telling some of the others?”

“We just have to pin you here.”

Riho grinned and left her hibiscus-decorated drink with a nearby salesperson.

Then she grabbed a plastic ball she had bought cashless.

“Sanae, Alice! Surround him! We just have to play with him so much he’s too exhausted to say a thing!!”

### 072. Part 4

“(Ehh? Do we really have to mess with this???)”

“(Be quiet, Sensei. In fact, you should be using your Crystal Blossom to speak.)”

“(But we already did our job. I’m sick of all this danger, so let’s get home already!)”

Sophia Firenze made a comment very much like a civil servant, but had she forgotten there was no rest for them until they had eradicated the Threat here? Karuta really wished she would take a lesson from her muscular colleague.

They were peeking out from behind a building to view the main road. That pure white hell was covered in the bizarrely-shaped Threat protected by their inorganic black armor.

Some resembled sea creatures like octopuses and crabs, some resembled insects like ants or mantises, and some resembled carnivorous plants or hunks of mold. There was a lot of variety, but they all seemed to have been based off of existing plants and animals. They also had inorganic elements like a coffin mouth or revolver legs, but none of them appeared to have a base structure modeled after a tank or fighter craft.

Karuta pulled his head back behind cover.

“I was right. They cannibalize their own, but they do have some sense of camaraderie. At the very least, they don’t seem to eat their own until one has been damaged beyond repair.”

“Ugh. Um, uh, well, what does that matter?” asked young Natalena.

“I want to get a look at the broken remains,” he responded. “Specifically, I want to note what parts they make sure to cannibalize. If we know that, we can ‘poison’ those parts. Which could mean a bomb or a computer virus.”

“Oh.”

The blonde girl let her voice out without thinking and quickly slapped her hands over her mouth.

He mimicked forming a fist.

“The Threat’s individual power is a problem, but it’s the way they cannibalize their own to customize themselves that makes them truly frightening. The more you defeat, the more they evolve. But what if we used that against them? Calling it ‘negative growth’ might be confusing, but if we feed them ‘poison’, we can stop that infinite customization.”

“Meaning?”

“We can eradicate the Threat. And the first step is investigating their remains. Did you see any already-eaten ones around?”

“Sacri-sama,” called Aine while pointing with the tip of her see-through sword. There was a lump of snow there. It was hard to tell at a distance, but it was probably taller than they were.

“Wouldn’t a Threat be buried below the snow there?” pointed out the crystal girl.

“!?”

He thought his heart would stop. He and Natalena ended up in each other’s arms without meaning to and it took her a few seconds before she finally noticed and threw a small slap.

His throbbing cheek hurt, but the heat reminded him he was alive.

They carefully approached the lump of snow, Aine stabbed her sword tip in just a bit on his orders, and a white mass crumbled down to the ground.

Their eyes met a red glassy eyeball.

This must have been one of the scorpions that used pellets and lasers. It had been badly scorched, so it must have been caught in one of Marika’s laser bombings.

They were all rendered speechless.

Utagai Karuta could not guess what would allow him to define this clump of cold, hard armor as “alive”. At the very least, you could not check it for breath or a pulse. If it was only feigning death, they would be wiped out here.

They waited a while, but nothing happened.

But even that did not mean it had not sent out some wireless signal to call in the swarm.

“Sacri-sama.” Aine’s head remained tilted. “Standing here will not improve matters. It appears to have ceased functioning, so shouldn’t you begin your investigation?”

“How can you be so sure it’s ceased functioning?”

“The joints are frozen solid. Whether biological or mechanical, it will be unable to move.”

Sure enough, weapons could freeze too. In the wars of an older age, invading tanks had been stopped by the harsh winter cold and pilots of high-altitude spy planes had apparently feared stalling due to freezing. If this were functioning properly as a machine, it made sense to assume it would have acted to prevent this before it happened.

After brushing away the thick snow, they found it was even more badly damaged than they thought.

Marika’s aerial bombing was not enough to explain this. The thorax? Or abdomen? Whatever you called the scorpion-like collection of curved armor had burst from within like a balloon, its insides had spilled out, and more than half the legs and the hands it had in place of pincers had been torn off at the base. Same for the tail that made it look most scorpion-like. That would be due to the cannibalization. As mechanical as it was, this was still not a pleasant sight.

Natalena looked around nervously.

“Wh-what are we even looking for?”

“Anything that’s missing or incomplete. Like the weapons, the power system, the processor, and maybe the anti-shock system and armor too? We just need to know what they cannibalize first.”

Only after speaking did he realize he was looking at it as a machine rather than a living creature.

Did he simply not want to think of it as anything like him, or did he not like digging through the burst guts of a living creature, even if it was an enemy? That he could not say.

Anyway, the scorpion was larger than a dump truck. Even in its collapsed state, they had to look up at it. They ignored the surviving legs, grabbed at the parts that were jutting out like a burst can, and found they had to gradually climb up it to check inside.

And.

While doing that, Karuta finally peeked into the torn wound.

That sounded simple, but how many humans had ever done it? The Problem Solvers had apparently sporadically fought and repelled the Threat, but had they ever looked inside one? Sophia had created a model based on information they sent her, but had that reproduced the inside as well?

And…

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………What the hell?”

“Sacri-sama?”

He froze in place, so Aine tilted her head with sword in hand.

However, he did not think he could answer right away.

His breathing was heavy, his heart felt tight, and static was encroaching on the corners of his vision.

What is that doing here?

That was the only thought on his mind. He wanted to deny it, but he had to accept it when it was right there in front of him. The idea that seeing is believing was not a welcome one at the moment.

Finally, the new world’s strongest managed to speak.

“Aine.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

“Does the name Smart Arms ring a bell?”

Sophia and Natalena both frowned. Not recognizing it was the normal reaction, but the pale-skinned crystal girl answered without hesitation.

“That is a giant weapons company based in America’s Silicon Valley. They own the weapons plant that manufactured the special-order cyborg parts that created Susannia Evans, one of the Problem Solvers, and that was where Anastasia Blast went into hiding in the end.”

“!?”

The gasp of course came from Natalena. Susannia was the main topic at hand, but she must have reacted to Anastasia’s name.

“W-wait. Um, why are you bringing up that weapons plant now!?”

“Because of what I see here.” Karuta responded with a look that said he did not want to accept this any more than she did. “The manufacturer’s name isn’t actually printed on the parts, but I saw the parts that Susannia scattered in that Northern European crater. These are identical . These must be unmanned weapons created by that company!!”

### 073. Part 4

The flump of something hitting the ground was shockingly soft.

White snow had accumulated on the icy land and someone had fallen limply into it.

Aine had mechanically obeyed her instructions. After the follow-through of her sword swing, she kicked at the deep snow to maintain her stance.

“Ah.”

Amaashi Marika was not staring at her severed hand.

That did not matter.

But not because it would regenerate. She had never even been placing her own life on the scales.

“Ahhh.”

Small crystal shards were scattered everywhere.

The boy had collapsed into the thick snow. The snow was so deep she could not see the wound, but there was no questioning what happened. She had been holding his neck and Aine had severed that hand from behind him. Slicing off her hand like that would require the sword to pass through his neck.

His head had been severed.

Even if it could be hard tell given the lack of blood caused by the distorted crystal covering everything.

The Preset regeneration would heal any non-mortal wound in 30 seconds.

But that did not apply to the mortal ones.

With his head removed from his body, there was no saving him.

Would it be centuries? Millennia?

At the very least, she could never speak to him again in her lifetime.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

She screamed.

The girl screamed and her legs crumpled beneath her.

Natalena was still clinging to her, so she was pulled down too and unintentionally ended up with her arms around Marika’s head. But she was not really that strong in the face of such horror, so once she began to wobble, she lost her balance and they both collapsed fully into the snow.

“Sen…pai.”

Her voice was weak.

But Marika did not care about Natalena Blast who had tried to protect Karuta no matter what or Aine who was tilting her head and awaiting further orders. She had to protect that boy at all costs. If violence would not bring him back, then she no longer had any reason to wield it.

But the boy must not have considered whether or not his childhood friend would be able to find a new reason to drive her actions once he took away her old one.

He had broken her.

She was broken.

One of the world’s strongest had their very core bent and mercilessly shattered. She could feel it so clearly inside herself. She screamed and screamed, but it never even occurred to her to turn her rapier toward her own throat. Even suicide required some kind of driving force behind it. With all her hope lost, she could not even seek revenge. She would simply stop moving at all and wait for the end to come.

“Do…”

At first, she thought it was a trick of the wind.

“ Do you get it now, Marika? ”

But it was not.

She clearly heard that voice. She hesitantly turned toward it with tears covering her face.

“U-um.” Natalena hesitantly spoke up as well.” Amaashi-senpai, um! Something isn’t right. Isn’t that girl his Crystal Magic!?”

Yes. Crystal Girl Aine was tilting her head like normal while holding the sword that had killed the boy. She was awaiting further orders. She looked so different, but she was still Crystal Magic. Marika had never heard of a Crystal Magician’s armor remaining after their death.

What did that mean?

“Wait.”

In a panicked frenzy, she threw aside her rapier-like device and crawled over to dig up the snow.

“Wait!! Are you kidding me!?”

She pulled out Utagai Karuta’s head.

But it was not alone. She did not know how, but it was still connected to the rest of him.

She simply had not noticed before because he had collapsed into the deep snow and then Aine had kicked the snow to cover up his head. The crystal shards scattered by her own severed hand had made it look all the more like he had been decapitated.

The half-frozen boy smiled weakly as he spoke.

“This will always be a card in my deck. Every single time you begin a rampage, I’ll throw that sucker right down on the table. I didn’t go through with it this time, but I really will shatter your hope next time.”

“But…how?” She still found it hard to believe and she looked like she was trapped in a bad dream. “Aine-chan’s sword must have passed through your neck to cut off my hand! There’s no other way she could have done it from that position!”

“I do not have a core or main body. ‘Aine’ refers to everything from my heart to the tip of my sword,” answered Aine with her head still tilted. “I am generally stored within Sacri-sama’s body, only emerging when needed. So everything from my heart to the tip of my sword can be contained within his body .”

A silly-sounding gasp escaped Marika’s mouth.

“I stored the sword in the back of his neck and pulled it back out from the front.” Aine was as emotionless as a machine, making it sound like she had simply passed the blade through the water’s surface. “That allowed me to accurately sever your arm without harming his neck.”

He had not had time for such a complex command.

He had only told her to “cut right through my neck to cut off Marika’s arm”.

But that was with another factor already in place.

“ He had left me in nonlethal mode for everyone from Grimnoah. ”

“Wait, you mean…?” said Natalena.

That command went back to when he had first met and defeated her.

And that command naturally included Utagai Karuta himself.

So Aine had needed to obey his verbal command without violating that older command. He had used those multiple conditions to accurately control her.

The pale girl moved her eyebrows in a troubled way.

The human concepts of good and evil really did not apply to that crystal girl.

“It would have been much easier without that in place. To be blunt, I really wish someone would convince him that unnecessary restrictions to my combat are a pain to deal with because I have had no luck trying to explain it to him myself.”

“…”

That was why he had survived.

He still had his life.

But something had happened here. Even if his childhood friend was not physically harmed, his faked death must have psychologically scarred her.

And he had told her he would play that card whenever she tried something like this.

He said he really would break her next time.

“Do you want to keep going?”

He was half frozen and held in the arms of that sobbing girl, but he did not hold back.

Just like he could never kill her, he had stopped her by completely breaking her spirit.

“Aine, cancel nonlethal mode. You can go for the kill next time. ”

“Understood, Sacri-sama.”

Aine replied coldly.

The silly practice round was over, so it would be real next time.

“With that unnecessary burden lifted from my shoulders, nothing can stop me next time.”

That loophole was gone now. If he told Aine to kill him, she would do so. Marika’s actions here could lead to the severing of a bond a decade and a half old. So Karuta was asking her if she was still going to insist on this silly battle between two strongests.

He saw the fresh trauma there and tore into that still-bleeding wound.

He was asking her if she would make that fear real this time.

“No.”

This was no longer the world’s strongest.

The person holding half-frozen Karuta was no more than a weeping girl who had nearly been forever separated from someone she cared about more than anyone in the world.

“No, no, please noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!”

“Yeah,” groaned Utagai Karuta.

He had won. He had successfully stopped Amaashi Marika.

But when had he become someone who would feel victorious after bringing his childhood friend to tears? That was like slapping a small child on the cheek or kicking an old man in his bent back. It was a taboo one must never commit.

Something had changed in him.

Someone had changed him without him even noticing. He could only reach one conclusion based on everything he had seen while hunting down the Problem Solvers and everything he had glimpsed behind the scenes afterwards.

This was something he doubted any of Anastasia’s group had said out loud but that all of them must have felt deep down.

“Being the world’s strongest is a curse .”

### 074. Part 5

Utagai Karuta sighed. The relief and exhaustion he felt when he left the room containing Natalena, his would-be assassin, told him just how nervous he had been. Plus, that cooking classroom had been full of younger kids. He really was out of his element when it came to public speaking.

During the short break in between classes, he glanced down at his phone and grimaced.

“Riho> Oh, no! Help me, Karuta-senpai! Today’s homework is too hard! What are the components of the fast-acting medicine used to heal eye strain which directly affects targeting performance? That’s practically alchemy, so why is it part of our home ec homework!?”

“Alice> Just so you know, she’s posting this with her phone while in the middle of changing in the locker room. Hopefully that exciting mental image will make you respond sooner.”

School wasn’t even out yet and they were already stooping to that level on social media. Regardless, he could not just give them the answer to their homework, so he would have to only tell them how they could solve it. He generally just copied the writing on the blackboard into his notes, so he only realized now how hard teaching was. You had to make it simple and easy to understand, but also make sure it stuck in people’s memories. If he could do that with ease, he felt like he could become a social media influencer or a top blogger.

That said, he had his own business to attend to.

He walked to the middle school faculty room on an invitation from that female teacher.

This was a strange place for him. He should have had no business in the middle school at all and the faculty room was a tense place for a student like him.

All the more so when all of the teachers were the theory-focused types brought in to replace the old teachers.

He was a practical type, so he used Crystal Magic entirely differently from them.

“Oh, Utagai-kun. Over here, over here.”

The teacher who had taken to him like a puppy energetically beckoned him over.

That was Sophia Firenze.

“Kiyosawa-sensei would let me have it if he saw this, so you came at the perfect time. Nicely done, Utagai-kun.”

“…”

She received that kind of treatment in the faculty room too? Karuta had to rub his fingers against his temples.

“So what did you need?”

“Not much. First order of business is this ginger pork meal.”

“Gh!?”

“Ah ha ha. I got carried away and made too much. But we can’t waste food, so let’s eat it together.”

He had already eaten too much with that cooking class immediately following lunch, yet now he had to share an oversized meal. That meant eating three lunches back to back, making for way too much. Was this teacher trying to give him a pimply face?

He accepted the chopsticks like he was looking up at a steep mountain he had to climb.

“Um, Utagai-kun, you have been helping out with my classes lately.”

“Yes.”

“So, well, I was thinking you might be having trouble keeping up with your own classes. The more you help me, the less time you have for your own studies, after all.”

He was honestly surprised by this.

His eyes even widened.

“Sensei, you actually sound like a teacher right now.”

“You really shouldn’t make fun of someone when they’re trying to be nice!”

She was exactly right, so he had to apologize.

Afterwards, he noticed something curious on her desk.

It almost looked like a kid’s meal toy, but it was too weird for that.

“Sensei, what is that?”

“That is a model. Although it’s only based on secondhand information.”

Sophia Firenze gave it a loving look while her flaxen hair swayed. It was made of a light blue material that did not appear to be plastic. It was probably clay or something similar, but he doubted it had been molded by hand. It looked more like a machine had sliced pieces away to create the extremely intricate palm-sized model sitting on her desk.

He was not sure how to describe it.

It looked like a monster with a rhino beetle’s head and thorax and lots of octopus-like tentacles below that. It looked biological but also like a bizarre missile.

Sophia Firenze readily explained what it was.

With a smile on her face.

“That is what we predict the Threat looks like.”

“…”

They really existed?

He thought his breathing had stopped, but she quickly waved her hands in front of her face.

“Oh, but we don’t actually know if this is accurate.”

“What?”

“Our focus is on theory, so we’ve don’t do any fighting ourselves. We never accompanied the Problem Solvers when they fought the Threat. Um…the headmaster of the first ship had a good relationship with those five, so information tended to spread from them to the headmaster and from him to us. Information only ever went in the one direction, though, so I don’t think the Problem Solvers knew we even existed. I hate to admit it, but we really didn’t have any information worth giving them.”

That was to be expected.

If that five had known of them, they would have been eliminated before even Grimnoah. Crystal Magicians who could not fight would have been the perfect targets for the people who wanted to obliterate that type of magic.

Sophia, who had survived without fighting, gave a weak smile toward Karuta, who had survived by fighting.

“S-so all the data this is based on came from the Problem Solvers and it’s hard to say how reliable that actually is. I mean, they were on such good terms with the old headmaster, but they still caused the First Out Incident. There is actually a really good chance everything they gave us was either entirely false or modified in some way.”

“…”

He wondered about that.

It was hard to say either way.

The odds of any malice there seemed to depend a lot on which specific member of the Problem Solvers was supplying the data. With Elicia or Yukino, he could imagine them maliciously altering the data just for kicks. But what if it was Anastasia? That hopelessly powerful strongest had been focused on preserving her position at the top by defeating any and all challengers, so he doubted she would use any trickery like that.

And he did remember one thing Anastasia had said.

“They do exist.”

“What?”

“Whatever they look like, the Threat does exist. That woman said so even though we didn’t ask.”

### 075. Part 5

The sunset had to be artificial.

Sunsets and sunrises worked different from normal in the Artic. At around June, they would experience the midnight sun where the sun never set throughout the night, but the beginnings of that effect should have been showing themselves now.

Also, all of the Crystal Beach’s facilities were covered by domes of varying size. They looked clear at first glance, but even the earth’s atmosphere bent the sunlight to create the blue of the midday sky and the orange of sunset. If the sunlight could be adjusted using electronic polarization technology, the sky of morning, noon, and twilight could all be reproduced. You could even program astronomical events that did not exist in nature.

Amaashi Marika’s strawberry blonde hair swayed as she killed time at a beachside open-air restaurant. It was a lot like a larger version of a gazebo since it had no walls on any sides to allow the wind through. She wore what looked like a racing swimsuit, except it had a large hole in the stomach area. Some might have thought it looked a lot like she was wearing only black belts.

Couples were common here, so not even Karuta wanted to approach her without Aine with him.

“Sorry. I got held up.”

“I could tell. I’ve been waiting here forever.”

Karuta apologized while sitting down at the next counter seat and she responded while boredly sipping at the straw in her bright green mixed juice made from melon, kiwi, and more.

And…

“Uhh.”

“Hm? What’s wrong, Aine-chan? Not that you talk much normally.”

Aine was refusing to look Marika in the eye. The childhood friend tried to peer up at the crystal girl’s face from below, but she hid behind Karuta. Finally, she spoke up in a vanishingly quiet voice.

“Miss Marika, why are you showing off so much skin? Is it for venting heat or cutaneous respiration?”

“You’re wearing a swimsuit too, Aine-chan. Wait, why won’t you look at me either, Karuta?”

“Well, um, that…doesn’t leave much to the imagination when viewed from the side.”

“Of course it doesn’t. This is an overseas trip, so we’ve got to make the most of it. Oh? What’s this? Feeling a little overexcited about your childhood friend’s unexpected growth, Karuta-kun? Wah hah hah!”

Meanwhile, the crystal girl thought for a bit and asked a question.

“Are you saying I too am wearing something embarrassing?”

Karuta and Marika exchanged a glance.

This was odd. Aine of all people was feeling embarrassed ? Karuta recalled that he himself had said being naked was embarrassing back on the elevator.

Was she learning?

That inhuman dummy had never shown any sign of doing that before, but was that an option now!?

A bright light pierced vertically through Utagai Karuta’s body. He could guide her down a path different from that overly open Marika and different from Kyouka who was willing to show some skin in order to tease the boy in front of her.

He grabbed Aine’s small hands and held them between his own.

“You don’t have to be like that nudist childhood friend or that mature devil of a Student Council President!! You can be an honest, modest, and above all sensible girl! Aine!!”

The shameless curly twintails girl smiled and whispered her own message to the crystal girl.

“Aine-chan, Aine-chan. Don’t let him trick you. Try sleeping in the nude once and I promise you you’ll never go back.”

“No, don’t you drag her into your world!! I have a responsibility to raise her right! She needs to be a proper lady with a sense of shame!!”

During the childhood friends’ strange discussion, Aine circled behind Karuta to use him as a shield against the overly exposed girl. Then she “stored” herself inside his back without a word.

“Oh, she ran away.”

“That’s far better than you giving her some weird habit of stripping. Anyway, let’s get down to business.”

Karuta ordered a soda and some fries.

“So how’d it go?” he asked.

“Did you expect anything to happen? Even the ocean is enclosed in this artificial beach, so it’s not like Hawaii or Guam where man-eating sharks can be lurking around.”

His childhood friend pointed at a small figure with her chin: Natalena Blast.

She rested her head in her hand.

“Are you sure you should have left her alone? She seemed pretty reliant on you. All she’s been doing all day is collecting shells and kicking at the waves. You could have at least sent Aine-chan in to tease her or something.”

“This was necessary.”

“You’re not very nice.”

That was not a very nice thing for her to say. When pushing didn’t work, wasn’t it the Japanese tradition to try pulling, based on the legend of Amaterasu?

“To make things very clear, I do not want that girl to die. No matter what. I don’t care if she can resent me as long as she’s alive.”

“…”

“But I also know that you and Omotesandou-san can only accept so much. I mean, she’s said herself she wants revenge against us, so it’s natural to not want that threat around. So I want to get her to open up as quickly as possible. I said no matter what, right? So I’ll do whatever it takes. Playing dirty is my specialty.”

“I am aware of that.” Marika re-crossed her legs in an irritated way. “Since staying by her side didn’t change anything, you’re trying to make her feel lonely so she’ll realize she needs you, right? And once that balloon is full to bursting, you’ll approach her again. Once a slight prod of a sharp needle can make it pop, you can keep the costs to a minimum.”

She made him sound like a con artist, but they had no real requirement to bring Natalena to their side.

If it was too much trouble, there was always Marika’s murder plan and Kyouka’s torture plan.

That might not tell them anything about the accomplice who had given the young girl information on Anastasia’s death and arranged a false identity she could use to take revenge, but they would at least eliminate the immediate assassin.

But he would not let that happen.

Maybe it was cheap and maybe it was a dirty job, but he was struggling to make a connection with Natalena.

He had said himself that she could resent him as long as she remained alive.

“You’re too soft.”

“Sorry.”

“No need to apologize. I’ve accepted that you’re just the kind of person who won’t kill for no reason. I mean, even back then you weren’t willing to harm anyone unrelated to our revenge and you even showed signs of trying to save the Problem Solvers.”

“I…”

“Again, this isn’t criticism. I’m just confirming what I already know.” She took a sip through her straw and she asked what sounded like a pure question. “So tell me this: is it really possible to take the weapon away from someone intent on revenge? I mean, it sure as hell wasn’t possible when it was me . Same for Aine-chan and the President. Once we got started, you were the only one who was shaken at all.”

That may have been why she was asking.

She peered into his eyes as if hoping he could provide the answer since she could not figure it out herself. It was actually a very pure look.

“Well? You would be hard pressed to find more obvious villains than those five, but if they had used some kind of idealistic argument to get you to stop your inconvenient revenge, would you have agreed even though you had a legitimate reason for revenge?”

If he said no, it raised questions about the effectiveness of his efforts here and now.

But if he said yes, it raised questions about how they had seen their revenge through to the end and killed those five. If they could have given up, then none of it had needed to happen.

“That’s a tricky question.”

“I’ll give that answer 50 points.” Marika was blunt but smiling. “But that’s not a failing score. I would’ve punched you if you gave an immediate yes or no.”

### 076. Part 5

“Don’t you think we could make a bath like this?”

“Don’t get greedy. The igloo would collapse on top of you.”

Matsuda Imi and Hashizaki Tayori held a secret discussion while melting the snow with their magic. Girls like them saw a bath as a necessity on the same level as food and shelter, but it was looking like the most they could manage was wiping themselves down with a towel soaked in hot water. At any rate, Karuta’s group had left to find some food, so Amaashi Marika had some work to do while they were gone.

“I will be borrowing a few of them.”

“Of course. But make sure you keep an eye on them,” insisted the Student Council President in a way that hinted at more behind her smile.

Imi and Tayori noticed Marika then.

“Oh? What’s this? Headed out on an errand? Can we help?”

“You two continue researching ways to make a bath. That’s a life-or-death issue.”

“Then could you go find us something sturdier than an igloo made of snow? With a metal container or something, I bet we could make a girl’s bath for ourselves.”

Marika assumed they were mostly joking.

And.

“Wait.” A gym(?) teacher interrupted her with arms crossed. She thought his name Kiyosawa Hadome. “Bring me with you. I can’t have you heading out without a teacher.”

“You let Karuta go.”

“He had Firenze-sensei with him. You never know what will happen, so having an adult with you gives you someone to take responsibility after a mistake.”

Marika sighed so no one would notice.

(Well, this isn’t part of the plan , but more people should help, I guess.)

“Bye, Senpai.”

“Good luck out there.”

The twintail girl left the igloo zone with a makeshift unit. Unlike Karuta, they were using Crystal Magic to fly at an extreme low altitude of less than a meter. If they could avoid crashing into the ground, this would eliminate any footprints.

“Ah!”

“Um, Senpai, why are we the only ones with an extra job to do? Did we draw the short straw?”

Marika was accompanied by Sanae and Alice of the Sub Category’s Regulation 1. Karuta had focused a lot on them since that made it easier to manage the entire class.

(Although I bet the kids saw through that right away.)

She could not even sigh about it anymore.

She answered their question while flying to their destination.

“It was a random choice. We just needed some people. And it had to be people who can remain calm.”

“?”

They were out here as scouts, but their target was not the Threat that had attacked the Crystal Beach.

“We want to know how much damage was done to the Crystal Beach as a whole. Can you two split up and check the outside of the domes? Obviously, you can’t let the Threat spot you, but you also can’t cause any trouble with the ordinary people evacuated into those domes. We’re only here to gather information, so focus on stealth. Make sure none of the people in those domes can sneak a peek up your skirt while you fly by overhead, okay?”

“Sure thing,” they said lazily before splitting up and flying away.

“…”

Kiyosawa Hadome seemed unsure whether to focus on the middle schoolers or Marika, who he was now left alone with, but he ended up doing his own thing. He seemed to be checking the domes and clear tunnels he had been assigned while also searching out points that gave him as wide a view as possible. Marika immediately picked up on what he was doing since she was a skilled sniper.

He could not leave this in the hands of the students since they were angry with the ordinary people who had kicked them out of safety and they might want to destroy the domes to take those people down with them. His was a normal enough way of thinking, but this -15-degree weather tended to keep people from thinking in the normal way.

(Now, then.)

Marika checked over her assigned area. But as far as she could see, this area was peaceful, unlike the C World dome. There was not a scratch on the translucent domes and the artificial summer environment within remained intact. The rows of palm trees blowing in the wind and the colorful birds and butterflies were all very much alive. The supply of power and gas did not appear to have stopped.

Once the agreed-upon time arrived, Marika regrouped with Sanae, Alice, and the teacher.

“Nothing to report about the G World dome.”

“Same with L World.”

Kiyosawa Hadome started to say something, but Marika held out a hand to stop him.

The twintails girl put her other hand on her hip while floating in midair.

“Nothing caught your attention other than the dome?”

“No, not really.”

“I didn’t find anything either. The Threat wasn’t there and the lucky people inside didn’t seem to be rioting or anything.”

“Hm,” Marika nodded and then added something else too quiet to be heard. “ I see. ”

### 077. Part 6

After home ec, they had gym class.

Instead of Crystal Magic combat, it was a swimming lesson.

“Hm, at least they’re sensible enough to give us some exercise to work off the food.”

“Urp. Ugh.”

“Hm? Senpai, what’s with you? Feeling seasick?”

Alice, whose blonde ponytail made it hard to believe she could be anything but a cheerleader, gave him a puzzled look. She did not seem to consider the fact that he had eaten four meals already today with breakfast, lunch, cooking class, and the teacher’s ginger pork.

She was wearing a school swimsuit. And while Grimnoah was a giant ship floating in the ocean, they were using an indoor racing pool that reeked of chlorine.

For some reason, tanned and silver-haired Riho put her hands on her hips and laughed loudly.

“Wah hah hah! All these healthy girls in swimsuits got you excited, Karuta-senpai!?”

“Um, he’s having trouble answering, so should we take that as a yes?”

“Eh? He’s not an adult, so isn’t he in the clear for feeling that way? Now, any man saying that deserves a summary execution.”

Things were sounding dangerous already. It was unclear where the line between child and adult lay for them and it would likely change based on their mood. Was it Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka who had said they had to constantly worry about cameras? He decided it would be best to come up with his own line he would not cross instead of leaving that up to the girls.

Alice seemed confident in her swimsuit, but Sanae was the opposite. That glasses girl was blushing and hiding behind the blonde ponytail girl. When Riho moved in from the side, that trio of friends was complete.

“Help us with our warmup exercises, Senpai. Make sure you get all up close and personal with lots of body contact.”

“Okay, I’m definitely defining that as over the line.”

“?”

It turned out Kiyosawa Hadome, the teacher who used his muscles as a weapon, was indeed a gym teacher.

Karuta was here helping him.

However, the girls did not seem to have much respect for that muscular teacher.

“If Senpai can teach us, why do we need anyone else?”

“This is no laughing matter,” cautioned the man. “This is a pool, so what if there is an accident?”

“Oh, how scary. By the way, what’s with all the muscles? Doesn’t Crystal Magic armor buff your physical abilities?”

(Now that he had managed to settle his stomach some,) Karuta scratched at his head with a hand.

The students seemed to look down on the man, but they were sorely mistaken. Just as Marika had made a point of jogging in the gym, the translucent armor’s boost to your specs did not mean your base stamina was meaningless. You had to use the magic yourself, so you needed a strong body to use it to its fullest.

But they lost sight of that with the Utagai Karuta standing next to the man.

One was the world’s strongest and the other was not. Anyone would pale in comparison to that. Even though his specs were actually quite good when viewed on their own.

Karuta had not wanted to become the strongest and Kiyosawa Hadome had not wanted to not become the strongest. The only difference was whether or not they had been on the first ship and whether or not they had survived. That was all. The boy himself had fled the ship while abandoning so many friends seeking help.

(Who do they think Utagai Karuta is? This is all so silly.)

To correct their mistake, the boy called over to the students with a bitter look on his face.

It was bad for his heart, but he had to force a tough voice here.

“Listen up.”

“Yes, Senpai!? Pay attention, everyone!!”

The swimsuit girls and boys immediately stopped talking.

The male teacher blatantly clicked his tongue at how they formed a perfect line on the poolside and straightened their backs. He had wanted a line, but this one was not centered on him. Karuta had been trying to take the man’s side, but it had not worked out that way.

He felt intensely awkward, so he felt a need to whisper in the man’s ear.

“(I really am sorry about all the trouble, Sensei.)”

“(I already knew there was nothing I could do. Listen, I will speak up if you tell them anything wrong and I will step in if any of the students are in danger. This is your kingdom and you can rule as you please, but those are the two things I refuse to back down on.)”

He made sure to look Karuta in the eye as he said it, which actually put the boy at ease. This was how a teacher was meant to be. He was stubborn, but it was not about preserving his own pride.

Karuta took a deep breath to focus himself.

He forced himself into his public mode and began speaking.

“Think back to what you learned in cooking class because this is the same. Crystal Magic’s regeneration has trouble with damage coming from something you are missing, so it won’t help you if you drown. And your flight won’t always work the way you want it to. You at least need to learn how to float in the ocean or a river if you’re shot down.”

The tanned silver-haired girl gave a snort of laughter, but it was hard to look tough in a school swimsuit, especially one with her name written on the chest nametag in big black writing.

“That’s child’s play.”

“I said this is if you’re shot down. Are you sure you can manage it with an arm or a leg broken or with a broken rib impaling your lung?”

“…”

“We won’t actually do that to you for class of course, but take this.”

He tossed rolls of waterproof duct tape toward the group of middle school swimsuit students. On the inside, he was afraid none of them would actually reach out to catch them.

After trying it a few times, he found that people preferred to preserve the beauty of a situation.

“Fold up your dominant arm and wrap the tape around your torso to bind it there. For this first lesson, you only have to float on your back. You can buy this tape for cheap at any hardware store, but it will show you how difficult a slight change to your abilities can be.”

In fact, during the First Out Incident that sunk the first Grimnoah, quite a few of the students and teachers had helplessly fallen into the ocean when the giant ship had been sliced apart. They had dressed themselves in next-generation magic while being told they could do anything, but it had turned out they could do nothing at all while they suffered and died. Of course, he was not about to share that with these current students who were filled with hope for their future.

He continued while making sure to keep the emotion out of his voice.

“Form groups of three and have one of you try it while the other two help them if they sink. Swap out who floats every so often.”

Hesitantly, or maybe skeptically, the middle school students entered the pool with their dominant arms taped to them as instructed.

“Whoa, what’s going on!? I’m spinning and spinning and- gurgle gurgle!!”

“Riho, Alice. Help Sanae!”

Before Karuta had even finished shouting from the poolside, the muscular teacher had jumped in. The two girls apparently had trouble rescuing the third from the water, but Kiyosawa Hadome circled behind the glasses girl, supported her back, and lifted her from the water.

“I hope you learned something from this, boy!!”

“I’m sorry, Sensei! Thanks so much!!”

He had no choice but to bow down at a 45-degree angle.

Reality was so uncooperative. Since two other students had trouble rescuing the one, it looked like he needed to give them a float like a swim ring or kickboard next time. He decided he was a failure of a teacher from the moment he had told the students to use this method before he tested it out himself.

Nevertheless, Kiyosawa Hadome did not demand an end to the lesson as a whole.

He took into account who the students were wiling to listen to and who they wanted help from. Even if the boy was inexperienced and did things his own way. The man was such a good teacher he almost seemed dangerous. Karuta really wished he could stop teaching since it was so bad for his heart, but he had no choice but to keep going in his nice and clean public mode.

“If you think of the human body as a large float, then folding up an arm like that will mess with its balance. Which leads to what you saw there. Your usual habits get in the way and the assumption that you can float by going limp no longer applies. You try to float on your back, but you end up tensing one side and flipping over.”

“Ugh.”

“Do you finally get it now, Riho? If she had been alone among the large waves of the real ocean, she would have died. So think about how you can fix that and try it again.”

“Y-you aren’t going to tell us what to do?”

The glasses girl had grown even more timid than usual, probably because she had nearly drowned just now, but Karuta winked at her as he responded. His heart was still pounding, but he had to keep a smile.

“Don’t expect things to be easy on Grimnoah.”

The groups of three began their attempts.

This time, the rescuers were holding kickboards to give to their friend if that friend flipped over and started drowning. Their usual balance was off, so they would flip over if they tried to stay on their back in the usual way. But when they tried to shift their center of gravity in the opposite direction, they would tense up weirdly and they would start to sink. The idea sounded simple enough, but it was much easier said than done. Kiyosawa Hadome (a worrier who cared deeply about his students) jumped in to rescue one of them on occasion, but he had little to do once the boys and girls in swimsuits got the hang of it.

(Now, then.)

“Sacri-sama.”

Aine, whose school swimsuit was inexplicably white, called out to him from the chlorine-smelling water.

“Lonely Natalena cannot find a third partner. Will you help us?”

“I am not lonely!! Um, uh, well, you’re scaring away everyone else by hanging around me! And why are you wearing that weird swimsuit!?”

“If you do not like it, I would be willing to remove it. Shall I?”

“Absolutely not!!” shouted Natalena with a blush.

She must have been surprisingly concerned about how the others saw her. This was a good sign since it meant she was capable of focusing on other things in the middle of her revenge. If she was not stubbornly fixated on it, she could be persuaded.

A different sort of tension snuck into Karuta through his fingertips.

He made sure not to let it show on his face as he made a suggestion.

“Okay, Jane-san. ‘Break’ your dominant hand. Place it over your chest like you’re grabbing your opposite shoulder.”

“Kh.”

He had called her Jane instead of Natalena. Unlike Aine who did not care about such things (since she was not human), Karuta was showing a willingness to go along with her farce.

“Wh-why me? Anyone in our team could do it.”

“We already know the answer, so testing us is meaningless. There is a way of floating like this.”

After grabbing the roll of waterproof duct tape, Karuta whispered in the girl’s ear.

“(Also, binding my dominant hand in the pool might seem like the perfect chance to drown me, but it won’t be that easy. I won’t take your revenge from you right away, so keep at it until you’ve had enough.)”

This time, her small shoulders visibly jumped.

Karuta’s group had worried over how to maintain their desire for vengeance. As Natalena met setbacks, she would wither and be neutralized if she failed to overcome that issue herself. That was not his main plan with her, but he did hope it would happen.

He checked in the corner of his vision and noticed Kiyomasa Hadome (who knew of the “situation” with that girl) giving him a restless look. He really was a good teacher. His lack of popularity with the students had to be some kind of mistake. Karuta wanted to fix that, but his help would probably only hurt the adult’s pride. Human relationships were tricky.

Natalena did not notice any of that as she slowly opened her mouth.

“O-okay. Um, I’ll do it.”

(Is she sticking to her student role here? No, I suppose not. Is she trying to put me at ease so she can try and drown me while my guard is down?)

He pulled off some duct tape with a painfully-loud riiiiip sound.

“Aine, hold her in place to make this easier.”

“Eh? Wait, you’re the one tying me up!? Um, but.”

He was wrapping the duct tape around her dominant arm and torso, so he could not help but apply pressure to her soft skin through her swimsuit. Too much pressure to her chest would obstruct her breathing, so he had to use a delicate touch.

“Nh, kh!”

Still, being tied up by an older member of the opposite sex had to be a rare experience for her.

In a swimsuit at that.

Not to mention in front of all her friends at school.

And by the very person who had killed her sister.

“That should do it. Try taking three deep breaths and tell me if you have any trouble.”

“Sacri-sama, isn’t that an inefficient bondage method? Why did you divide it into an upper and lower band of tape? Wouldn’t it have been simpler to place it all directly over her chest. Nice and tightly of course.”

“Shut up, Aine.”

At any rate, her dominant hand had been tied in place while folded up and pressed against her torso. Now it was time for her to test things out in the pool. After moving hip deep into the water, she glared up at him.

“O-okay, um, here I go.”

“I’ll rescue you if anything happens.”

“I do not want your help!!”

She shouted at him and he nearly yelled back on reflex, but then her entire body flipped around. It was a lot like someone slipping on a bar of soap in the bath and falling backwards. At the same time, a dull impact ran through his legs. But not because she had kicked him.

(She grabbed ahold of me?)

True enough, this was about the only real method of assassinating him in the public eye like this.

Their battle was playing out below the water.

She was grabbing at her would-be rescuer while she pretended to drown.

She had one arm bound, but she would still be able to immobilize him using her legs and her left arm. Plus, no specialized skills were needed here. In ocean rescue manuals, rescuers were told not to approach a drowning person from the front, even if they were a child.

Even a drowning amateur had enough strength to kill a professional rescuer. And if she succeeded, she could drown him while making it look like she had merely been a poor victim all along.

However…

“Sacri-sama.”

“Hm?”

“Natalena has locked her legs around your hips, yet her upper body is not floating back up to the surface. Are you sure this gurgling avenger is not simply drowning?”

“Jane-san!?”

### 078. Part 6

“Youch!! Th-that stings!”

“Hmm, you might have a sunburn. I thought these were bright IR lights, but they must have UV in them too.”

“Whew. I never thought I’d get to soak in a hot spring after traveling all the way to Europe.”

That trio of girls could be heard beyond the wall. Karuta had heard the hotel had a large bath, but he had not expected it to be open air. Hot springs were found the world over, but this place may have imported the Japanese style.

It was night and Karuta was of course not in the women’s bath. He was on the ordinary walking path on the other side of the tall wall around it. Tomorrow, they would spend the morning on their field trip activities and the afternoon would be free time, so he was helping the nervous female teacher preview those field trip activities.

“Why me?”

“Eh, eh heh heh. This is so much easier with you around, Utagai-san.”

“I get that what you call me changes when you get anxious, but I really don’t want a teacher being that formal with me. It makes me feel like I’ve become some permanent fixture in the school after being held back year after year.”

“S-sorry!!”

She bowed at 90 degrees and apologized, but that was exactly the kind of thing he wished she would stop doing. Wished a lot.

He recalled what that muscular track suit teacher had said. She was asking him for help, but if she stopped trying to improve, she would have trouble running a classroom. That was exactly right.

But anyway.

“It would probably be best to create a simple quiz and have them visit different facilities themselves, similar to a scavenger hunt. Turning the lesson into a game is the best way to hold their interest.”

“Th-thanks so much.”

“You would need to word the questions in a way that forces them to see the things for themselves to answer them and you need to warn them not to search on their phones. At our age, we’ll put a lot of effort into not having to put in much effort.”

“S-so should I have everyone shut off their phones?”

“You can tell if they turn them on by monitoring the GPS location transmitted by the phone, but…hm, they can shut off the GPS in the settings or for a specific app. For this, you should probably gather up everyone’s phones for the duration of the lesson, like they do in gym class. You would also need to send teachers to keep an eye on the sample phones at the stores and the rental ones at the hotel.”

“At the hotel?”

“Renting them out is a convenient service since they can translate, provide maps, call a taxi, make reservations at restaurants, provide walking times to tourist destinations and religious institutions, and even stream adult content. No one uses the pay-per-view on the room’s TV these days.”

“Bfff!!!???”

Sophia Firenze blushed bright and did a spit take before he had finished his explanation.

That theory-focused teacher who spent all her time at a desk had quite a few weaknesses.

But had he always been this kind of person? He had surprised himself with that joke. Was it the age difference that let him act more openly? He knew he never could have said that with Marika or Kyouka. In fact, he was generally the one being teased by the girls his own age.

After parting ways with the teacher, he bought some plain soda water at a vending machine near the hotel. It was so hot he had a hard time believing this was an Arctic night, but that heat had left him thirsty. He had stuck to sweet drinks during the day, but he was starting to think he needed to watch his sugar intake.

He opened the bottle and took a sip before seeing a familiar face.

It was Natalena Blast.

She was not wearing her swimsuit anymore. However, she must not have been careless enough to wander outside in her pajamas, even if this was a relatively safe tourist location. She was wearing her purple blazer uniform, just like he was. But why was she walking toward him? He soon realized what must have led to this.

He could still hear those noisy middle school girls from beyond the wall.

If he could hear them, they may have been able to hear him.

“Senpai.”

“Buying something?”

She shook her head.

“Come over here anyway. If that muscular teacher on patrol sees you here, it won’t end well.”

“…”

She was drawn toward the light of the vending machine like a butterfly to a bright light. She stood next to him while he drank his soda water and she leaned against the vending machine. Since she had just left the bath, a sweet scent wafted from her nape.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said.

“About what?”

“I don’t think you’re a bad person.”

She sounded certain.

He just about smiled hearing it.

“I still count as a good person after killing 5 people?”

“A good person can be in a situation that requires killing 5 people. Isn’t that the story?”

It was.

But he had felt like he could not push that interpretation onto her.

She was Anastasia Blast’s sister.

She had a legitimate reason to seek revenge.

“I know you aren’t the kind of person who would give up on someone’s life if you didn’t have to. So if you did kill someone, you must have had a reason strong enough to warrant it.”

Both her small hands clutched tightly at her skirt as she forced out the words.

She seemed like such an awkward girl to him. This would be so much easier for her if she did not even consider his circumstances. She could have gone through with her revenge just fine if she just killed him because she had a reason to do so.

Just like his group had.

She really was not the type to do bad things. That put her in a lot of danger, but he was also honestly jealous.

“But…but I just can’t reconcile that with the sister I knew. It doesn’t fit! The Anastasia Blast I knew fought to protect everyone from the Threat! She was a strong person who dedicated her entire life to that!! She wasn’t the cruel mass murderer people are making her out to be in the news!!”

“…”

“So please tell me.”

Her lips formed the words “power up”.

He stepped away from the vending machine upon hearing a series of bending sounds.

She had activated her Crystal Magic armor while leaning back against the vending machine, so the sharp armor jutting back from her small body had torn the metal vending machine apart.

This was Anubis, God of Judgment.

The same god once used by a certain strongest.

“ Show me who you were when you faced Anastasia Blast. Show me your anger, your fear, your joy, and your justice!! If I can see the look in your eyes then, I know I can understand. Because I’ll see my sister’s true face reflected in the crystal ball of your eyes!!”

He let out a soft sigh and tossed the half-empty bottle of soda water in the trashcan next to the vending machine.

With both hands free, the latest form of the world’s strongest whispered his answer.

“If you insist.”

He had a belligerent smile on his face.

It was the same smile he had hated more than anything when seeing it on someone else’s face.

### 079. Part 6

From a technical perspective, it may have been possible.

The bodies were made of metal. They were based on known plants and animals but with manmade objects like coffins and revolvers added in. No one could tell Susannia Evans was a cyborg at first glance, so human technology had reached a point where it could mimic biological creatures.

But was this really possible?

“The Threat was manmade?” asked a trembling Natalena Blast.

She had started using Crystal Magic for her revenge, but she must have felt guilty deceiving her classmates while taking her lessons. She clearly looked like she had touched on a horrific taboo.

“Then what was the point of any of this!? Not just me! My sister and the rest of the Problem Solvers worked so hard to protect the world!!”

“…”

For a moment, Utagai Karuta’s thoughts turned to the string pullers operating from the shadows of the world. If they could manipulate each successive generation of world’s strongest, wasn’t it possible they had set everything up themselves by inventing a convenient villain?

He thought for a while, but finally reached a conclusion.

“It just doesn’t fit. If all they cared about was starting wars for profit, they could have just made a human villain. They wouldn’t have needed anything on as large a scale as the Threat.”

“S-Senpai?”

“For now, let’s assume the Threat is real.”

He took a deep breath and then worked at bringing themselves back on course here.

Yes. He had seen a speculative clay model of the Threat in Grimnoah’s faculty room, so he should have considered this possibility earlier.

“But what we’re fighting here isn’t the real one . Someone other than us has investigated the Threat, so what if they created a decoy version that they could train against to more efficiently combat the Threat?”

In other words, these were not based on existing plants and animals.

They were made as a stand in for the real Threat.

“Smart Arms would have been a likely choice. Susannia and Anastasia trusted that company to the very end. It makes sense they would have sent remains and data back to Smart Arms whenever they defeated a Threat.”

But even if that were the case, it did not solve the immediate problem.

In other words…

### 080. Part 7

“Are you trying to test my patience!?”

“N-now, now, Kiyosawa-sensei. Isn’t that enough?”

“Do not spoil the boy, Firenze-sensei!! Besides, a mistake of this magnitude would not have occurred if you were not using a student as an unlicensed assistant when you are supposed to be leading the class yourself! Then there wouldn’t have been a victim and no one would have been at fault either!”

“W-wah, wah!! I-I will hold him back, so you run away, Utagai-kun!!”

Achievement Unlocked: A girl who loves her beauty sleep so much she gets taken to the infirmary twice in one day!

Achievement Unlocked: A super thirsty girl who latched onto her Senpai’s hips with her swimsuit crotch and refused to let go!

“I want to die.”

Natalena Blast brought a hand to her forehead after getting up from the infirmary bed in her damp school swimsuit. Her face was deeply colored by gloom. That was not what you wanted to be saying first thing after waking up. What nickname would she have once she returned to the classroom? What would things be like on their class’s social media group? Those thoughts may have been spinning endlessly through her mind.

Utagai Karuta quietly watched the girl from the folding chair next to the bed.

A lot had happened.

That muscular teacher was almost too good a person since his anger was over Natalena being made a victim and Karuta being placed at fault by the situation. He began thinking about asking Omotesandou Kyouka to make a statue of the man. His deeds needed to be commemorated on the front bow. Although doing so might enrage him.

But Karuta hid all of that inside and smiled toward the girl.

“Are you awake?”

“Kh.”

“First you fall asleep in your gym clothes and now in your swimsuit. The school doctor actually laughed when I brought you in.”

“You did both of those to me.”

“I will admit that lesson could use some retooling. And I apologize for that. But I thought it would have been inappropriate for a guy like me to change you out of your swimsuit while you slept. Or would you have preferred I did?”

“~ ~ ~!!!???”

She belatedly realized her situation and blushed so bright he thought her face would burst into flames.

“Y-you.”

“Yeah?”

“What are you trying to do here? Thinking back, you were weird from the beginning. If you had left me there, I would have died and this would have been over. But you went out of your way to save me. You have no reason to let me go free like this.”

He had no answer for her.

In a way, she may have been right.

There were several obvious missing pieces in Natalena Blast’s revenge story. A 12-year-old girl would have trouble faking her identity on her own and it was a mystery how she had learned that Anastasia used Anubis. There was probably a string-puller out there who had supplied her with that information. But did they have to keep Natalena alive to locate that person? They might be able to track them down without her, or they might be able to use her death to rattle them.

So what was he really doing here?

His explanations were just an excuse and his real reason came down to emotion. Then what exactly were those emotions?

He bluntly confessed the answer.

“I don’t want anyone to die.”

“What?”

“Not again. I don’t want to be the killer or the killed. I can tell you that both options suck. You see on TV and online that people can grow endlessly cruel when they’re winning the war and that people can do any ugly thing if they’re backed into a corner, but that’s not true. Some people are cut out for it and others aren’t. With a certain kind of person, they can pull out all the stops and truly enjoy it to the end as long as they can justify their actions .”

He spat out the words, but who was he referring to there?

The 5 mass murderers who had used God Worshiping Magic? Or the Crystal Magic avengers who had gone around the world pursuing those 5?

Small hands gripped tightly at the edge of the blanket, small teeth bit at a lovely lower lip, and words too immature to call a curse left those lips.

“You won’t get what you want.”

“Probably not.”

“You don’t want anyone to die? You ! You killed my sister!! My…my one and only and irreplaceable sister!! You took her from me!”

He said nothing.

It was not that he could not say anything.

He stood in a position where he could chop off the powerless girl’s head at any moment if he did not like what she said, but he chose not to. He was one of the world’s strongest and he used that authority to preserve the life of this girl who would normally have died by now.

He imagined how he would have felt in a similar position.

What if Anastasia had saved his life on a whim and said she would spare his life as long as he stayed in her castle?

(I would have dealt with it.)

He had once been an immature avenger too. For better or for worse, he had been blessed with others who shared his goal, their carefully-thought-out plans had worked out thanks to some coincidental luck, and they had managed to complete their vengeance.

So.

(I would have managed even if I was kept like a bird in a cage and even if I was placed in a position where I would starve to death without her kindness.)

He did not need any special profiling skills or polygraph equipment to know.

Not here.

The answer seemed to slip smoothly into his mind.

He had been down that path himself, so the killer intent directed his way allowed him to accurately predict something here. And obvious killer intent was only seen as praiseworthy among delinquents. With an avenger and someone hoping to stop them, such an obvious sign only made you easy to read.

(She’ll never back down on this, even if she can only survive on the crumbs her enemy drops below the table. This is the one thing she will stick to no matter what.)

“I, Natalena Blast, will tear your life to shreds. You killed my sister yet have the nerve to act like a mere observer, so I will kill you in your sleep!!”

“Is that so?”

She probably meant every word, but he sighed before responding.

“ Don’t push yourself too hard, okay? ”

“Stop making fun of me!!!!!!”

### 081. Part 7

Marika clicked her tongue while leaning against the other side of a palm tree about 400m away.

“If you insist? What is that idiot thinking?”

Voices would only reach around 150m outdoors, but that did not apply to Crystal Magicians. She had used a method similar to how sailors used to raise their collars to make sure they could hear their crewmates during a storm. And crystal armor allowed for a much higher level of audio collection.

However, her phone received a call with perfect timing.

She clicked her tongue before even covering the backlight with her hand and checking the screen.

“Marika-san☆”

“Now it’s you!? God, does everyone know exactly what I’m thinking!?”

“Bringing a mobile device along when you plan to kill someone is a no-no. So what’s this? Are you so starved for information your Crystal Blossom alone didn’t feel like enough?” The Student Council President laughed. “Also, don’t get all bent out of shape over this. Your actions are trivial to predict because you care about those on your side so much. Anyway, no sniping here, okay? Do that and Karuta-kun will cry.”

“…”

“See, that’s enough to stop you. That’s all I need to tell just how much you care about us.”

“Shut up.” Marika pouted her lips. “Noticed anything else?”

“You mean like that muscular teacher who’s still busy patrolling around outside, or those three middle school girls spying on this from the gazebo? I wonder what those three were doing out here. Were they going to invite Karuta-kun to do some fireworks but Natalena beat them to the punch?”

Marika looked up instead of toward any of the mentioned people. Only so many locations would give you a view of Karuta, Marika, the patrolling teacher, and those three girls. And sure enough, she saw someone using a hand mirror to peek out from an unnatural gap in the curtains.

“Room 2801. A corner room, huh? Based on the lighting, is that a bathroom?”

“Oh, you noticed?”

The President could not use much in the way of Crystal Magic and she used a wheelchair. If she really was up on the 28th floor, it seemed like she would have no way of stopping Marika from taking a sniper shot, but Marika decided it was best not to underestimate that girl. After all, she had taken out one of the Problem Solvers all on her own.

Marika sighed.

“But he’s at a disadvantage in a one-on-one fight. He doesn’t have any armor to wear since Aine fully separates from him. She only has to concentrate her fire on the soft flesh visible in front of her.”

“Yeah, about that.”

“?”

It was unusual for that black-hearted President to hesitate to speak.

But that was not what this was. Marika belatedly realized the girl was pausing for effect to further enjoy this.

“I really doubt he’s going to use Aine-chan here,” said Omotesandou Kyouka.

“What?”

“Yes, Madam Guest. Miss Kyouka and I are taking turns washing each other’s backs.”

“Bfff!?” spat Marika.

Why had she just heard Aine’s emotionless voice over the phone? She had seemed embarrassed of her swimsuit during the day, but bathing with another girl must not have been an issue. However, that was not the real problem here.

“Wait!! You mean Karuta really is on his own!?”

“Yes, he is empty. Aine-chan is not within him, so he should have no way of fighting.”

### 082. Part 7

A late sunset arrived.

They only had freeze-dried food and chocolate to eat, but having something to eat made all the difference. The students lined up to get some food and breathed a sigh of relief at having that “peace of mind” in hand.

The most popular item was the tea. They must have been more interested in comfort than nutrition.

“E-excuse me, but there is a reason why we use a porcelain pot.”

The waitress became very popular after revealing a trick to making it taste better. She was still awkward, but she gradually managed to smile. Karuta doubted she would talk about owing them anything anymore.

“Good work today, Natalena.”

“Please stop speaking to me, Senpai. Um, I will be heading back after drinking this rooibos tea, so- hot, hot, hot.”

She apparently had trouble with hot drinks. She held the cup between her hands and repeatedly tested it by sticking out her small tongue. But she also wanted to warm herself up, so she could not cool the cup in the snow.

“You do everything in the cutest way possible, don’t you?”

“Do you enjoy stabbing people in the back with a smile on your face? Hot.”

She apparently wanted to drive her point home and leave like a grownup avenger, but the cup’s heat made that impossible. She could not leave yet, so she ended up shrinking down and slowly sipping at the tea next to him.

Meanwhile, the high school girls seemed more interested in the plastic containers than the food those had carried. Imi and Tayori were whispering to each other.

“Will these work?”

“They totally will. You can fit in one if you keep your knees up, right? And I’ve heard of some true madwomen who used metal basins and stainless steel sinks as baths.”

Sanae was again drinking her special drink made by adding a pinch of salt to plain water. Karuta doubted it had any real flavor, but she seemed satisfied.

Meanwhile, he asked the Student Council President about something.

“If that is true, this is not going to be easy.”

Omotesandou Kyouka readily raised the white flag.

He had hoped for some help here, so that was a problem.

“Then we’re supposed to just sit around and wait!?”

“Grimnoah alone has 1000 possible targets. And Domes A and B have many times that many so-called civilians. Actually, is the person commanding the weapons even here at the Crystal Beach? Couldn’t they be safe and sound typing on a keyboard on the other side of the planet?”

“…”

“I won’t suggest anything as silly as the weapons gaining a mind of their own and deciding to wipe out the human race, but what if they were infected with a virus that altered their priority settings? Self-driving cars can be converted into deadly weapons by changing the gas and brake values linked to someone’s facial recognition data. Think of it like a land-based guided missile on tires.”

If they were only talking about possibilities, the wings of imagination could take them anywhere.

But they needed to figure out who was behind this and fast.

“Any ideas, Marika?”

“No. There’s no way of narrowing it down at this point.”

She responded as if to say that was not her job.

But something she said caught his attention.

“At this point?”

“I’m just saying the answer should become clear after a few more casualties. But you don’t want that, right?”

It was out of the question. But the President apparently had something to say about that.

“If someone is operating them, why didn’t they immediately attack this secret base? Did they simply lose sight of us? Or is it an inside job and they’re afraid of being caught in the Threat’s surprise attack?”

Either way, discussing this further did not sound like it would lead to any productive ideas.

Karuta sighed and started to leave, but…

“No warning everyone, okay?” said Kyouka from behind him. “Since you haven’t suggested it yet, I assume you already know the risk, but if you even hint we might have a spy among us, what little order we’ve managed here will collapse. Either Grimnoah will split apart or they’ll start to discuss attacking one of the surviving domes. Simply put, it will trigger a witch hunt.”

“I know that.”

This time, he did leave.

He heard footsteps crunching through the snow and turned to find Aine.

“What should I do?” she asked.

“I would like you to stand guard. At least for tonight.”

Grimnoah was a school, but its students were being trained to fight. They naturally had a rotation of guards set up already, but they were only looking for the large Threats that might attack from the outside. They were not considering a danger that might approach as a smiling and waving human. Karuta watched the students laughing together while eating their meager dinners. He hated being unable to warn them of the danger they were in.

What if the villain came from one of the other domes disguised as an evacuee?

What if the villain was secretly holding the controller among the Grimnoah students and teachers?

“I suggest you get some sleep to recover, Sacri-sama.”

“We all need to do that. And it isn’t all bad news. I think I’m right about being able to defeat the Threat – or whatever they are – by ‘poisoning’ them to stop their endless evolution. We are making progress. And someone other than me should be able to set up that ‘poisoning’.”

He was simply sick of it all.

The first Grimnoah had sunk, he had lost so many friends and acquaintances like Kazamuki Gekiha, and his life had been thrown off the rails. He never would have become the world’s strongest without that, but he would have been able to live an ordinary school life.

It had taken building a second ship, but he had regained that lost school life.

It was distorted some by his position as the world’s strongest and he had ended up in a position above even the adult teachers, but he had regained something he had thought was forever lost.

He could not abandon that so easily.

That included Yamane Deiri, Nekoumi Hirosuke, Matsuda Imi, Hashizaki Tayori, the underclassman like Sanae and Alice, and the Student Council Treasurer and Secretary. All the boys and girls gathered at Grimnoah were the people who Karuta’s shattered dream had resonated with. They had brought back his school life from the bottom of the ocean. They may not have been aware of it, but the boring classes and laughter of the Second Grimnoah had undoubtedly healed his damaged soul. Each one of them had grabbed one of the shattered pieces and brought it back together.

One of the igloos in the middle school section had no owner. Sanae and Alice had created it to contain Toudou Riho’s crystal statue. Those friends had held that statue tight and never let go during that fierce fighting. They had never given up to the end.

He could not let anything take that from them.

“I want to repay them. I’m not going to let anything take our world from us again.”

He did not return to his igloo even after he had finished eating.

Vision was poor with the darkness and the blowing snow.

“Miss Marika has received a visitor at her igloo. It appears to be Miss Kyouka.”

“Are they spending the night together? That’s what my yuri-loving heart likes to hear. But is she going to sleep in the nude like usual?”

The camp was pitch black at night since any lights would have given its position away.

But the boy still walked around the igloos.

All throughout the night.

He was fueled by the completely ordinary desire to not see anyone else die.

But the following morning, a corpse was discovered in one of the igloos.

An unseen attack had occurred in the night and they were left with a new casualty.

### 083. Part 8

“…”

Someone watched the girl throw a pillow in anger.

But that someone was watching from the high school building located opposite the middle school on the combined deck of the ship’s three-hull structure. Some parts of the school building were full of people and others were deserted. The next floor down was noisy, but this hallway was entirely silent.

“Imi> Ugh, this is awful. You can’t count on online shopping at all. This swimsuit isn’t the right size. Marika, tell me how to deal with the cooling off period.”

“Marika> Don’t blame the store. It’s not their fault your body is growing so fast.”

“Imi> You say that, but what’s your cup size nowadays!?”

She was chatting with her classmates on social media while she watched.

The twintails girl sighed and coolly activated her Crystal Blossom. The translucent armor covered her body and she flipped around the rapier-like device’s guard to reveal a laser beam unit. Marika used Tezcatlipoca, who was linked to an obsidian mirror, so she could make attacks using light. Her accuracy was perfect. At this range, she could provide dental work if someone opened their mouth. As long as they were fine with having the surface burned away without any anesthetic.

“Tayori> Does the sale on the new summer colors begin in May? The world’s fashions are getting so vivid. I hate all those bright fluorescent colors. Do you know any more mature online stores that have better taste?”

“Imi> Why do you love wearing those skimpy things, Tayori? Is it about the airflow???”

“Tayori> Shut it, thick cotton girl. I’m talking about mascara right now. And are you trying to make tofu with those striped panties?”

“Imi> These are polyester, not cotton!!”

“Marika> Um, why are you including me in these shockingly embarrassing messages? Are you both digital exhibitionists or something???”

That gave her some time to think.

About Utagai Karuta, not Natalena Blast.

Things were not going well for him. He said he would persuade the girl and wait for her to have a change of heart. That seemed so uncertain and careless to her. Why did he fail to realize that he would be killed if Natalena chose the “betrayal” card just once out of the hundreds of decisions she would be making from now on?

She hated this. He was stupidly pure, but that was exactly why she refused to let anyone trample on his feelings. What that girl did now was not the issue. She was bound to do it eventually . That was a foregone conclusion at this point.

So Marika would kill the girl. That was the only way to keep them safe.

The way Karuta and Kyouka saw it, Marika could not do that now that she had lost based on the rules they had all agreed to. Because if she did, they would break apart and she would lose the person she was trying to protect. But those two were too naïve.

She did not care if she lost her own position here.

As long as she could protect the people she saw as “on her side” – namely, Karuta, Aine, and Kyouka – nothing else mattered to her. Her top priority was protecting those people she cared for and there was no real reason why her own name had to be on that list.

If they arrested her, so be it.

If she was kicked out of Grimnoah, she could deal with it.

If Utagai Karuta killed her after she saved him…well, she might actually enjoy that.

Whatever the case, Amaashi Marika was not going to stop here. She intentionally narrowed her focus. She made sure to view only this one point. She made sure she was aware of every last breath that target took.

And then…

“Miss Marika.”

She loudly clicked her tongue.

The voice came from behind her. The almost mechanical-sounding voice of course belonged to Crystal Girl Aine. She could tell without even looking back that the girl’s cold katana would be held out toward her back.

“So he saw through it all, huh?”

“Sacri-sama does not wish to fight you. He hopes you will keep that in mind.”

Karuta had lured her into this sniping point so Aine could sneak up behind her, but that was not what irritated her so much.

She was irritated that Aine was here at all.

“I can’t believe that moron. Does this mean he’s smiling and speaking with her while really and truly defenseless? When she’s honestly trying to kill him?”

Her voice was tinged with exasperation.

Did he feel he could only really speak with the girl when he set his weapon aside? That was a lovely enough sentiment to place in a textbook, but this was an assassin who had put together a plot to kill him and even acted on that plot. Once she knew he could not use Aine, she was certain to bare her fangs and activate her Crystal Blossom armor. And there was nothing Karuta could do once that happened.

Amaashi Marika did not think she was normal. A normal girl could not protect the people she cared about, so she had intentionally destroyed her own brakes and forced herself to make the cruel decisions. She knew that about herself.

But that childhood friend was different.

He remained unchanged and smiling as he wished for peace and disliked conflict.

Yet the most broken one among them was not Amaashi Marika or Omotesandou Kyouka; it was Utagai Karuta.

“Aine-chan.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t you think we should kill Natalena Blast? Before she can actually harm someone?”

“Yes. But Sacri-sama has banned that and I will obey his inefficient command.”

He may have been even more broken than Aine who was not even human.

Yes, Aine had intended to kill Natalena from the beginning. Then Marika had suggested they kill her. Kyouka had gone on to suggest they torture her to get information from her, but she would not have cared much about whether the girl survived or not. She would not be a comedic dominatrix from a comedian’s skit. A true whip would have knots and metal hooks that tore into the skin and muscle. A torturer would strike people like that without batting an eye.

Natalena had attacked them, so they had no reason to show any leniency. Even the laws of their country allowed for self-defense.

Karuta might seem like the reasonable one, but he was in fact the odd man out.

Of course people would take a cold view of a someone trying to kill them or the people they cared about. Especially if they had been set free to do as they wished. You could not hope for morality, ethics, and universal humanity at a time like that.

And.

And yet.

How could he forgive her? How could he smile and trust the person holding that blade?

“Miss Marika.”

“Yes, I know. I have to give up this time.”

“Ideally, you would give up indefinitely and not just this one time. Stopping you every single time sounds like a lot of work.”

Aine made it sound like she could in fact do that, so it may have been a matter of pride for her.

Marika had lost this once, so she was not going to argue the point until she had redeemed herself.

“I just hope there are plenty more opportunities.”

“Agreed.”

“He could be killed in his sleep by someone he could have easily defeated if he tried. But I guess that does sound like an appropriate way for one of the world’s strongest to die , doesn’t it? That’s the path we’re on right now. A stereotypical one-way road to doom that someone else laid out for us. And, Aine-chan, don’t forget that you share Karuta’s fate if he dies.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

As various foreboding gears came together, school life at Grimnoah continued.

It would be May soon.

They would spend all of Golden Week on a field trip.

### Between the Lines 1

The biggest difference between a tall tourist hotel and a long luxury cruise ship was the infrastructure requiring wiring and plumbing, like power, gas, and water. A ship would of course need to contain it all inside and supply itself with what it needed. Even when moored at port, it would need to keep its massive diesel engine running, using up a lot of fuel. But Grimnoah had a specialized connection joist on the side, allowing it to borrow from the land infrastructure when moored.

“Yeah, this is the life☆”

Tanned Riho brought her hands to her silver hair while a rain-like sound washed over her body.

She was in the shower room.

With over a thousand students and teachers and with a focus on combat education, the ship was well supplied with showers. Each room had its own bathroom and there were dedicated shower rooms distributed around. That would never happen on a warship or a tanker.

The room was lazily divided into booths, but those booths were not as cramped as a phonebooth. The partitions were only simple boards, so it would not be difficult to peek over the top or crawl below them.

Another girl had climbed up onto the partition to peek over at her from the adjacent booth. She had undone her hair and removed her glasses while showering, but the black-haired girl was Sanae.

“Hey, Riho-chan. Are we going to have water restrictions once we’re out at sea?”

“Not a chance. This is the great Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah, home of the world’s strongest.” The tanned and silver-haired girl laughed loud. “This ain’t #2 or #3. We’re talking about the #1 fortress in the world, so it’s gonna be luxury at all times. The normal rules of ships won’t apply here.”

“The great?”

“Yeah, the great.”

The frosted glass window in front of Riho suddenly opened.

Even starting from the deck, this was three floors up, but that was irrelevant when Crystal Magic allowed for flight. The blonde ponytail girl named Alice leaned exhausted against the window frame while surrounded by translucent crystals and with jagged armor jutting out.

“What are you talking about here??? I wanna join in.”

“Wait, you idiot! Don’t open the window! Remove that frosted glass and everyone can see me from the high school building over there!!”

“There are over a thousand windows on this wall, so no one will notice.”

“Liar! Karuta-senpai just looked right at me from the hallway over there! And he blushed before quickly looking away!”

The slender girl’s silhouette was extended quite a bit with that Crystal Magic armor active, so it was nearly impossible for the blonde ponytail girl to climb inside even with the window fully open.

“I’ll fall if I remove the armor, so pull me in.”

“God, really!?”

Riho grabbed that incarnation of self-indulgence by the hands to make sure she would not fall without her flight. Only then did Alice deactivate her armor. She was then pulled into the shower booth like the rope in a game of tug-of-war.

“Abwabwah. What? Why would you leave the shower on!? Ha ha☆ My uniform’s soaked.”

“You only have yourself to blame there.”

Alice did not seem to mind much. She actually laughed as she reached for her blazer uniform’s buttons. She did not have a change of clothes here, so she must not have given any thought to what she would do after stripping off her uniform and taking a shower. While watching Alice have trouble removing her blouse since it was wet and clinging to her skin, Sanae spoke up from the adjacent booth.

“Come on, you need to follow the rules, you two. We’re about to leave on a field trip.”

“Europe!! This isn’t even like a class trip or anything. I can’t believe a simple field trip is on such a huge scale. Grimnoah can just throw money around, can’t it!?”

Alice (who had grown the most of the three) laughed while exposing her body to the shower after removing her underwear, but Riho said nothing about having her shower booth hijacked. She did frown, though.

“Are you sure it’s going to be all fun and games? Just look at our normal lessons. The teachers all have a habit of betraying our expectations, right?”

“W-well, doing things by the book probably isn’t enough to fight the Threat.”

“Since it would take months to send Grimnoah to the other side of the planet, I heard we’re taking a normal airplane for this overseas trip, but it all sounds too contrived to me. Like they’re intentionally removing the normal defenses.”

The students would be a perfect target for anyone hoping to attack them.

Or for anyone who wanted to test their strength.

The nude blonde girl reached behind her head to undo her ponytail while she asked a question.

“Hm? What are you getting at, Riho-chan?”

“Alice, you’ve heard the rumors, haven’t you?”

Riho waved a hand dismissively.

This new generation did not understand the risk, so none of it felt real to her.

“They say this field trip is actually a cover for that deadly school festival they call the Catastrophe.”

### 084. Part 8

After several heavy metallic sounds, two translucent ski-like units appeared out of thin air and attached to Natalena’s feet. They were not actually skis of course. Since she had chosen Anubis as her god for Crystal Magic, this had to be some related symbol.

That god was symbolized as a dog or jackal and his stories did indeed involve a long, rod-like tool.

(Scales?)

Karuta could guess that was what these were, but he could not tell how they would be used to attack. Were they like the catapults used to fling large rocks that would bring down medieval castle walls?

(Anubis judged the souls of the dead and the result of that judgment was shown by the tilting of the scales.)

“Please, Anubis.”

Was this how she began the process? She went out of her way to speak to the god whose name was sealed inside the small circuit board. Just like the former world’s strongest who had beseeched their gods to bring about miracles.

“You were the one and only god my sister relied on! So please give me the power needed to save her soul!!”

The calendar based on Anubis provided an understanding of the occult atmospheric pressure. The two skis suddenly opened up like fans on the front and back. This created a total of 16 crane arms or spider legs. Thin wires were rapidly ejected from the ends of those legs. At the ends of those wires were objects not quite like metal jaws and not quite like metal flowers. Due to seeing the arms like crane arms, Karuta saw them like grab buckets that used 8 movable parts to grab grains or coal from a cargo ship.

(They grab, lift up, and swing around.)

“I get it!!”

Just as the boy groaned that, the wires thrown in completely different directions began to move like they had a mind of their own. The grab buckets bit at and grabbed a giant rock, an electric cart for the walking path, and the crushed vending machine.

The grab buckets were only the size of golf balls, but they spread out to the size of a small dog’s jaws and bit into the surface of their target.

They grabbed everything that would function as a blunt weapon and swung them around.

Some were swung vertically like a meteor falling from the heavens.

Some were swung horizontally like an axe felling a large tree.

She seemed to have forgotten about her short skirt as she sometimes made a large roundhouse kick, sometimes kicked up high or dropped her heel back down, and sometimes placed her hands on the ground to smoothly cartwheel to the side. Each time, all that mass created a raging storm of motion.

It was too elegant to call martial arts, but too savage to call ballet.

“I’m not done yet!!” she roared as something odd happened.

She grabbed more things, but these clearly followed a different set of rules. A single grab bucket pulled out a cube of sand more perfectly formed than a shipping container and another lifted up all the water in a nearby fountain. The size of the buckets was irrelevant.

He had forgotten that this was magic.

(Yeah, this is what I should’ve expected from Anastasia’s sister!!)

This covered solids and liquids. He did not know how much more Natalena could do, but this was plenty on its own. Most likely, she could grab all of the moisture from the air to create 0% humidity that would sap his strength, or she could pull up a building at its foundation to topple the entire massive structure.

It did not matter if any individual attack was intercepted. Her strength was found in the near limitless supply of weapons she had. The only way to cut her off from her ammo was to throw her out into the vacuum of space.

Anubis was a god of judgment.

No matter how many of the dead were lined up before him, they were humans and he was a god. He would never compromise in his judgments due to their numbers. A single god could overpower countless numbers of the dead and force them to obey his rules. That was how it was meant to be.

However…

“You still have a long way to go.”

“?”

“This is efficient, I’ll give you that, but maxing out efficiency isn’t how the strongest does things . The real world’s strongest is more wasteful and pours in resources on an absurd scale without even thinking about how much they’re using. They use such an insane amount that you don’t even know how to process what you’re seeing!!”

Karuta smiled and stuck a hand into his blazer uniform. He pulled out a thoroughly modified military flashlight. It was strong enough to use as a club, but that was not what mattered here.

The light had been replaced with a powerful laser emitter. With the amp on the back and the kind of diffusion lens used in laser printers, it could be made to send out a wedge of truly blinding light.

Pain in the eyes was a unique thing. It was not something you could suppress or ignore.

“Gah!?”

“Your scales are admittedly powerful.”

Having one of her eyes taken out temporarily must have thrown off the girl’s depth perception.

Karuta rolled to the side to dodge the boulder she dropped from above and the electric cart sweeping in horizontally was deflected upwards when it crashed into the boulder embedded in the sandy beach. The masses of sand and of water were similar. He just had to make sure his vision was not obscured by what remained after they burst like balloons.

“But whether you’re using a solid or a liquid, morning stars work by gathering up strength as you swing them around , so it takes some time before they actually hit. Giving me time to see them and think about them is a critical flaw. At the very least, Elicia, Yukino, and Anastasia had eliminated any such openings. Even if it meant burning through earth’s resources all on their own!!”

A quiet cracking sound followed.

Crystal Magic would heal any non-fatal wound in 30 seconds.

But that also meant it took 30 seconds for even the smallest injury. If they were attacked again in that time and the crystallized part was shattered, it would never recover.

So she could not use one of her eyes for 30 seconds now that the laser had injured it, causing it to crystallize. Not many people could shake free of the fear of permanently losing an eye in order to take immediate action.

“Ahhhh!! Senpai!!”

The scales that resembled crane arms or spider legs began to squirm.

Natalena swung in several more flails while she performed flips and cartwheels. She grabbed a great mass of sand to create a landslide and she grabbed some water to swing around a highly pressurized liquid, but Karuta kept his cool. Natalena Blast lacked the curse-like intimidation that her sister Anastasia had demonstrated.

If you were only strong enough to cause external damage, you could not bind anyone.

In other words…

“You’ve lost your depth perception without that eye. Your attacks might be powerful, but they’re entirely meaningless when you can’t aim properly.”

“!?”

Was that enough for it to all crumble away? Was non-strongest magic really that fragile?

“And Crystal Magic isn’t all powerful. I know that all too well since we so thoroughly lost to God Worshiping Magic that one time. Our magic is a flawed thing that can be defeated any number of ways if you know what you’re doing!!”

He did not hesitate to walk forward through the horizontal and vertical storm of blunt weapons. Her depth perception was shot, but that did not mean she could not see him. A single hit would crush him or bisect him, yet he showed no sign of fear.

“Then…”

How frightening did that make him to the small girl who only had this ?

“Then!!”

“Are you going to fly? Yeah, I suppose that would be your safest bet.”

By the time he spat out the words, she had already spread out her armor and flown straight up. Invisible sails caught the occult high and low pressure fronts. He could not use the flight Preset, so vertical distance was much safer for her than horizontal distance. And once she was up there, she could obliterate him with a unilateral aerial bombing.

She had much more freedom of motion in midair. She could rotate her body vertically or horizontally and build up plenty of centrifugal force in the blunt weapons.

But it was her and not Karuta who grimaced.

“You thought you could fly without depth perception?”

“Oh, no.”

“And in this domed Crystal Beach no less. Crystal Magic flight has acceleration surpassing that of a fighter plane, so you’ll crash into the ceiling in less than a second at max speed.”

Crystal Magic had to be used very differently indoors and outdoors.

With the tall palm trees, taller buildings, and the C World dome itself, this Crystal Beach was full of obstacles. This was not the open sky where she could fly around as she pleased.

While she immediately applied the brakes and tried to come to a stop in midair, Karuta took just three steps to the side while looking up at her. A metal box the size of a vending machine stood unnaturally up from the sandy beach.

Those devices were unique to this place. They were only needed in this enclosed environment.

The label called it a “fire prevention emergency smoke exhaust device”.

He only had to slam down the added amp on the back of his flashlight.

The reinforced glass of the safety cover broke and he pressed the large button within. Immediately, a portion of the translucent ceiling opened and the pressure difference set the air in motion. Just like water drawn into a drain, an artificial blast of wind blew toward the ceiling.

Natalena spun around.

She had already been unstable while stopping so rapidly, so she was completely swept away by this unexpected gust.

“Here’s some advice for free.” Karuta was calm enough to tap the flashlight on his shoulder. “Your greatest attack is that makeshift morning star made using the wires and grab buckets, but you can still get tangled in those wires yourself.”

“Ah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

She fell.

But she did not slam into the ground, crystallizing her entire body.

The many thin wires caught in the branches of the palm trees that decorated the sandy beach and her small body ended up suspended and swaying side to side like a bagworm. A normal human would have been squeezed to the point of tearing their body apart, but she had the blessings of Crystal Magic. She was protected by the translucent armor and the barrier-like spatial vibration field and any parts the wires did dig into were quickly crystallized for the regeneration process.

These wounds would heal.

Because she could use the latest form of magic.

“Now, then.”

“Kh.”

Her shoulders shook while she swayed upside down in the air.

He had not been her superior in Crystal Magic. He had surpassed her on the more fundamental level of thoughts. And he still had the fighting power known as Aine on top of this.

He put his hands on his hips and looked up at the palm tree.

“So. How did you like our first sparring match ?”

Yes.

If no one died in a battle, it was not true combat. Just like mahjong and poker transformed into entirely different games when money was bet on them.

“Why?”

If he had lost, she might have killed him.

But there were tears of humiliation in Natalena’s eyes after being spared.

“Why didn’t you show me what you saw in my sister!?”

“Because this is what I saw,” he responded with a faint smile. “Anastasia was constantly fighting anyone who might become the next strongest. Day after day, she killed those challengers to keep her title as strongest, until that one day when she lost. Maybe the other four were different, but that was who she was.”

So to put it another way…

“That monster named Anastasia Blast wasn’t interested in anything other than being the strongest. She wasn’t even interested in fighting someone unless they might be the next strongest.”

“Are you saying she recognized your skill? Which is why she went all out and fought you!? Showing you a side of her I never saw!?”

“I have no way of proving it since I didn’t record it all or anything, but unlike Elicia and Yukino, I doubt she ever attacked anyone who did not qualify under her rules. No matter what. At the very least, she wasn’t a pathetic enough person to feel satisfied attacking the weak and defenseless.”

Of course, that was only the one-sided assessment of the person doing the attacking.

For Karuta’s group, who had everything taken from them out of the blue, the attack had seemed entirely random.

“Just like us, she only killed when it was necessary. And it isn’t necessary with you, Natalena. Not for me and not for her. So this is what I think she would have done if she was fighting you as you are now .”

“…”

The small girl bit her lip. Tears spilled from her eyes, but these were not fueled by humiliation.

Someone’s younger sister spoke quietly.

“This is…who my sister was? If people weren’t good enough for her, she made them feel this pathetic?”

“Yes.”

“She was my family. Are you saying I knew nothing about my own sister?”

“That I can’t tell you.”

That was a non-answer, but it was the truth.

He awkwardly looked aside as he said more.

“But learning the truth won’t necessary make you feel better. That’s what it means to be human.”

### 085. Part 8

“…”

It was such a contrast.

The white igloo looked so adorable from outside. After Marika’s snow rabbit started a trend, the middle school students had decorated theirs as well. This one had two plastic buckets embedded above the entrance to make it look like a face with a gaping mouth.

But.

Inside…

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

Utagai Karuta was frozen in place.

It took a long while before he could move again.

The middle and high school students were watching from a short distance. Word must have already spread that something happened.

“Utagai.”

For once, the track suit teacher did not seem to know what to say.

He was having trouble looking Karuta in the eye.

“This is, um, not your fault. It was probably unavoidable.”

A metallic straining reached his ears.

A girl sat with her back pressed against the wall inside the adorable igloo. She looked like she was desperately trying to stay as far away from the entrance as possible. And she was frozen in place there. But not due to ice. She had received a mortal wound and crystallized.

The sound came from there.

Even though she was already dead and could not move a finger.

It technically came from her stomach. That was the worst part to look at. Since she was crystallized and thus translucent, he could see through that glittering armor. Three skinny bivalves as thick as two fingers were clearly visible embedded in her there. Unlike the actual creatures, these had jagged edges much like a beartrap and those continued to bite into the crystal. They were gnawing and gnawing.

Yes.

The cause of death had been caught in the crystallization process and remained trapped in her body.

“Sacri-sama.” Aine was as blunt as always. “Mr. Kiyosawa Hadome is correct. I obeyed your orders last night, but I doubt my patrols meant much. We had no light in order to avoid detection and there was a blizzard, so the visibility was 10m at best. Meanwhile, there are more than 1000 igloos. And if Threats of this size were crawling through the snow, it would have been extremely difficult to detect them with the naked eye.”

“I know that,” he said weakly.

They had been unable to find a solution yesterday, so this had happened. He had known this could happen, but they were clearly a step behind their unseen opponent.

He slowly breathed in and out.

He had to accept this death, so he whispered a name as if part of a ritual.

“ Moriyama Sanae. ”

It was the shy glasses girl with her hair tied back in two tails.

She may not have been the best when it came to Crystal Magic combat.

But had that really been a flaw deserving of this sort of death?

“Aine.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

“We can’t leave her like this. We have to at provide the bare minimum of care before sending her to the Second Grimnoah. Will you help me?”

“If you order it.”

Kiyosawa Hadome was listening in and he started to say something but could not get out the words. He pulled back his half-outstretched arm, clenched his teeth, and looked away.

Karuta was not talking about placing a blanket over the crystallized girl or placing her in a special case.

He had asked for help from Aine, his greatest weapon .

“Wait, what are you going to do?”

Blonde Alice had been slumped down on the ground with her head in her hands, but she seemed to realize something here.

Her ponytail swayed as her tearstained face looked up at him.

He did not look back at her. He forced himself not to.

“She was your friend, so I recommend not watching this.”

“Sacri-sama. She is already fairly cracked there, so I expect it would be most efficient to send my blade in through her right side. Then I should be able to break Miss Sanae’s torso in two.”

Alice’s throat tensed.

Her friend was dead and she would never see her again, but that was not the end of it.

“Wait!! Please wait!!”

“The Threat is still trapped inside her.”

A bitter feeling filled the boy’s chest.

The girl tearfully grabbed at him, but he could not bear to look her in the eye now.

“We have to remove them before sending her to our ship. I’m sorry, but there is no other option here.”

“But…but Sanae-chan is still alive.”

She was not being delusional.

She was using the rules of Crystal Magic.

“It might take decades, but she’s still regenerating! But it isn’t perfect, so the bigger the wound, the longer it will take!! So…so if you break her in two, I don’t even want to think how long it will take!!!”

She never would see her friend again.

She could never laugh and speak with her again in her own lifetime.

And the finishing blow would come from a fellow human, not the Threat. In military terms, it would be a human-caused casualty. And it would be mercilessly carried out by the world’s strongest they were all relying on.

(Yeah.)

Utagai Karuta felt like the back of his mind was numbing over.

He felt like he had finally come to understand the meaning and the weight of the phrase “world’s strongest”.

(That’s what it means when the strongest gives up. If I throw in the towel, it means no one else can do it either. Or so they assume . Because that’s what the world has decided.)

“Kiyosawa-sensei.”

Karuta weakly turned around and looked to the track suit teacher who had been listening to all this.

“Please keep Alice away from here. So she can’t interfere until the work is done.”

“What!? No, let go of me! Don’t you dare touch Sanae-chan! Stop!!!!!”

Was she half in a frenzy?

Karuta could not bear to watch, so he started to enter the igloo. Someone tossed him a hammer. He caught it in his dominant hand and looked over to see Marika sighing with a hand on her hip.

“You can leave this dirty work to me, you know?”

“No, I’ll do it.”

The Student Council’s bob cut girl normally hated him, but she drove all the other students away now. Had she decided now was not the time for jealousy, or had she felt pity after seeing the look on his face?

He shook his head while looking half a cadaver himself.

“This was my fault. There must have been more I could have done last night.”

“…”

He held out his other hand and the girl silently handed him a large flathead screwdriver. It was apparently meant as a chisel.

He faced the crystal statue once more.

That was Moriyama Sanae.

She was not a part of him like Aine. She was not a childhood friend like Marika. She had not fought alongside him in their quest for revenge like Kyouka.

But.

Even so.

“I’m sorry.”

Those words sounded so inadequate to him.

He was shocked by how little weight they seemed to hold.

“I really am sorry, Sanae. There’s nothing more I can do for you.”

One trembling hand placed the end of the flathead screwdriver against the crack running through the crystal statue’s hip and his other hand squeezed the hammer’s grip.

He bit his lip, yet did not move for a while.

He had killed the Problem Solvers who had been known as the world’s strongest.

But this girl was different.

She was not a target of revenge. She had done nothing deserving this violence.

But someone had to do it.

“Sacri-sama, please give me a command.”

“No.”

He gulped and faced his own weakness. If he did not overcome this, he could never catch up to the enemy. He would remain in the palm of that unseen slaughterer and he would lose the kind world he had finally found.

It would happen again and again.

He had to stop that chain of events with his own hand.

So.

“No!!!!!!”

He raised the hammer.

A splitting sound soon followed. No matter how much he hurt the crystallized girl, she would not shed a single drop of blood. Yet, he still tasted iron.

It came from his own lip.

Still biting his lip hard, he swung down the hammer. Since he was not using a proper chisel, the first blow bounced off. But he tried again and slammed the hammer against the back of the screwdriver. The second blow dug in, but he missed with the third and hit his own hand with the hammer. That actually relieved him. But he could not stop. He had to keep going. He hammered again and again, spreading the cracks further and further.

His vision blurred and he belatedly realized it was due to tears.

He was killing her.

It was the Threat that had actually ended Moriyama Sanae’s life, but he was killing her in a different way.

Then the damage passed a certain point.

With a horribly inorganic cracking sound, her top half and lower half finally broke apart. With nothing to support it, the upper half toppled over like the mascot at an abandoned amusement park.

He hit his own limit there.

He turned the other way, curled up, and vomited. He had just destroyed someone’s body.

The metallic noise finally ended. The predators may have been rejoicing at regaining their freedom. Were they actually thanking the foolish boy?

“Kill them,” he groaned. That hatred he thought he would never again feel came rushing back. “Kill every last one of those bastards, Aineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!”

“Already on it.”

The piercing sounds were like music to his ears.

She used the tip of her sword to skewer all three Threats with bivalve-like armor and she did not remove them. The three remained there on the blade, unable to move, while she rested the sword on her shoulder again.

“What shall we do now, Sacri-sama?”

“What do you mean?”

“You have your answer, do you not?”

He felt like he was speaking with his own hesitant heart. He wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand as she asked that second question.

### 086. Part 9

He was in a lot of trouble.

Utagai Karuta was forced to take a seat on the hotel hallway floor of all places while being lectured.

“Now, now, Karuta-kun. You should know better than activating the fire alarm when there isn’t a fire. You’re supposed to outgrow that in elementary school☆”

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka’s calm knew no bounds, but he could not look her in the eye. That attractive adult girl(?) was wearing a short skirt while seated in a wheelchair while he was seated on the floor, so the hem was at exactly his eye level. It was such a dangerous situation he did not have it in him to chat. She had the impeccable etiquette of a perfect adult, yet she seemed to have the unreadable compound eyes of an insect. Also, he found she wore a cute yellow color. That was a surprise, but it also made an odd amount of sense to him. What exactly was yellow had to remain a secret. Throw any more fuel on the fire and she really would kill him.

He was actually appreciative of muscular Kiyosawa Hadome here. The fact that this had been left with the President instead of the teachers like him showed a calculating side of that capable teacher.

“Wow, I hear Senpai pressed that button! We all wish we could press it, but he just goes and does it. Is he a spirit of adventure made flesh!?”

“We’re in a foreign country and we don’t know the local laws, so wasn’t he afraid?”

“There’s a fine line between brave and dumb, and I’m not sure which side of it he’s on.”

Kyouka glanced back over her shoulder and all the cracked-open doors in the hallway slammed shut. But Karuta could guess information was still spreading like wildfire via Crystal Blossoms and social media.

The President sighed.

“So how did it go? You had Aine-chan end it instantly the first time and you did it without Aine-chan this time, so does this mean Natalena Blast isn’t much of a threat?”

If he said she was not, would Marika and Kyouka be less insistent about how to deal with her?

He considered that, but abandoned the idea. If they found out he was lying, the pendulum would swing back in the opposite direction hard.

“No. She hasn’t realized how to use it yet, but that is incredibly powerful. ”

“Really?”

“At the very least, none of the Problem Solvers were this type of fighter. I doubt I, Aine, Marika, or you have anything like this either. It’s all so ill-defined, making it seem a lot like magic. That’s where its strength lies.”

“I see. I will keep that in mind.”

That was when he heard a creaking sound. And looked up at the ceiling.

“Was that the base isolation system? I guess they would have earthquake countermeasures in such a volcanic area.”

“Karuta-kun, don’t you dare use this an excuse to get up. There is a blizzard of -15 degrees outside, you know? Visibility is less than 10m and the maximum instantaneous wind speed is more than 40m/s. That’s at hurricane levels, so it isn’t too surprising to find some malfunctions in the C World dome structure.”

That was a scary thing to imagine. If a single crack formed in the translucent dome for some reason, the pleasant summer air would vanish and they would find themselves in a giant freezer. That would wipe out all the living things inside, including the humans.

Omotesandou Kyouka brushed back her hair in an exasperated way.

“What, did you think you didn’t play a role in that? You are the one who needlessly opened the smoke exhaust, which poses the largest latent risk. What was your plan if the automatic door froze open and refused to close again? Were we supposed to ball you up and shove you in the duct to keep the cold air out?”

“I’m sorry, Omotesandou-san!!”

### 087. Prologue

Top News!! Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah Releases 2nd Ship

Grimnoah has only recently gone public with the First Out Incident in which Anastasia Blast and her illegal armed group known as the Problem Solvers allegedly sunk the first ship, but with remarkable speed, a second academy ship, known as Second Grimnoah, has just held its launching ceremony at the Port of Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture.

Construction of a three-hull ship with a displacement of 140,000 tons would normally take between 3 and 5 years, but they say the secret behind this lightning-fast release was purchasing a luxury cruise ship with a completed frame and outfitting it in accordance with Grimnoah’s needs. The purchase seems to have gone smoothly and the seller, Yokokawa Mitsuaki, President and CEO of Nanakai Steamers, had the following to say: “I cannot reveal the actual amount, but I can say it was more than three times what I had expected. I could hardly turn them down after they made such a kind offer, and this is a chance for one of our ships to make its mark in human history. I hope the ship is cared for and loved for many years to come.”

Choosing a passenger ship rather than a warship was a necessity to secure the living and educational space needed for 1180 students and faculty. Also, military commentators have speculated that ordinary armor would not be worth the high maintenance costs since it is a poor defense against the nonchemical/nonphysical attacks known as magic.

Crystal Magic is expected to combat the Threat which has placed the entire world in danger, so its wielders must be made combat ready and mass-produced as soon as possible.

During the upcoming test cruise in the Pacific, data will be taken on the ship’s weight distribution and wave making resistance while its range of movement is gradually expanded. Surprisingly, 38 countries or regions have declared this day a new holiday to celebrate the maiden voyage of humanity’s new fortress. (From Weekly Observations Editorial Department – Electronic Edition)

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The reinforced windows rattled from a sonic boom.

Needless to say, some Crystal Magicians had passed above the giant ship in a flight formation. They wore translucent armor and used Crystal Magic to draw out their full magic power with zero energy loss – a feat traditional wands and crystal balls could not match. That made flight an easy enough action for most any student, although it was only taught in the second year, known as Regulation 2, so this was unofficial practice on their parts.

“Pant, pant.”

At the same time, a girl could be heard breathing heavily.

She was on the outer edge of a large gym with its wooden flooring polished using a special wax.

It was a sunny day in the late April to early May time of year, but the seasonal temperature was irrelevant in the fully air-conditioned gym. There was another reason she was scattering beads of sweat in that temperate space.

Amaashi Marika had changed into short-sleeved gym clothes and she was currently jogging laps around the gym. Her heavy breathing was the result of intentionally pushing her body to its limits. The curly twintails swaying at the sides of her head were dyed a strawberry blonde. Not much needed to be said about her above-average chest or the healthy legs (+kneesocks) extending from her red bloomers. Only that all the movement was making it hard not to stare. Perhaps teenage girls had a perpetual motion machine installed in their bodies.

Translucent armor covered her arms and legs and she held a rapier-style weapon in one hand.

However, those things only served to weigh her down with the muscle assistance switched off. She might as well have been running around wearing an extensive suit of armor.

Running under her own power might seem inefficient when she could use Crystal Magic to soar through the sky at Mach 2 or faster, but Crystal Magic presented a threat in indoor spaces not seen in the open sea or sky. For example, anyone could build a machine that flew at Mach 2, but they could not create a machine that could fly around a convenience store at that speed without bumping into any shelves. Crystal Magic required perfecting both of those things. And when no one knew the identity of the Threat driving humanity to extinction, simply moving fast was not good enough.

However. Someone else was maintaining an even greater pace while seemingly unbothered by it all: the crystal girl named Aine.

She currently wore the same sort of gym clothes as Marika, but she was not even human. She had been summoned in place of the translucent armor because a certain boy had accidentally activated his Crystal Blossom before sealing a god’s name within the printed circuit board smaller than a stamp. She was something shaped like a pale-skinned girl.

“Hey, wait up, Aine-chan! Pant, pant. Stop already!!”

“You cannot catch up even if I stopped here. I have already lapped you twice.”

“Pant, gasp. Wh-why aren’t you out of breath?”

“Probably because I am anatomically different from a human.”

“And why are you wearing gym clothes!?”

“No matter how much I reasonably explained that wearing nothing at all is the best way to reduce the weight and air resistance, Sacri-sama refused to give me permission for some unfathomable reason.”

Once she reached the end of her last lap, Utagai Karuta hit the button on a stopwatch while seated on the edge of the theatre stage. Unlike the girls, he was wearing his purple blazer uniform.

“Aine.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

She had no trouble responding after running at length while keeping a pace the average human could not match during a sprint. Unlike Karuta’s childhood friend Marika, she was not out of breath, she was not sweating, and her face was not flushed. Her high specs were obvious at a glance, but Karuta did not look happy.

“No change, huh?”

“Would you have preferred it if I sweated some? Wipe wipe.”

Aine grabbed the chest of her gym shirt and mimicked wiping sweat from her face with it. That tugged the shirt up, revealing her adorable navel in the gap between the short-sleeved shirt and the red bloomers. She had not been born from a mother’s womb, so it was honestly a mystery why she even had a navel.

Karuta sighed.

“If you don’t get tired, you won’t grow. You gain strength by pushing your muscles and then letting them rest. This makes it sound like you’re stuck at this level of strength forever. That might be fine for now, but what about later?”

“Need I again remind you that I am a collection of silicon semiconductors? If my specs are not to your satisfaction, you need only feed me pure gold to provide me with new circuits thinner than hairs.”

He had always brushed that off as a joke during the previous incident, but it was sounding less and less silly as time passed. Did she need gold bars in lieu of protein or something? That would give her a truly pay to win leveling up system.

“Also, if your level of exhaustion isn’t apparent to us, it’ll be like attempting a boss battle without knowing your ally’s HP level. We need to find a way to grasp your limits from the outside.”

Would a modified pedometer or mobile watch work there? That girl was going to empty out his wallet fast.

“Pant, gasp, pant.”

Marika leaned against the gym wall while looking ready to pass out. Even her curly twintails were drooping. She could gain the blessing of Crystal Magic if she simply activated it, but it only weighed her down with the muscle assistance switched off. And even with that assistance, it did not hurt to build up your own strength. Magic was like a type of technology, so a malfunction or failure was always an option.

Karuta did not have to think about any of this since his Crystal Magic acted independently of his body.

Then again, he had to protect himself while Aine was fighting, so it would not hurt for him to build up enough strength to run away .

“Now, Miss Marika clearly has enough sweat to be need wiping. If only I could fulfill Sacri-sama’s sweat fetish so perfectly.”

“Pant.”

“Here: wipe, wipe.”

“Wait, Aine-chan! That’s your gym shir- mgbbfbhfh!?”

Aine grabbed the chest of her short-sleeved gym shirt and began wiping off Marika’s face. Aine did not sweat and thus the shirt was as clean as a handkerchief, but it still felt wrong. Also, Marika was taller than Aine, so this pulled the shirt up a dangerous extent. Her navel was the least of Karuta’s worries now that the bumps of her ribs were coming into view.

“Aine, hey, Aine! That’s indecent!! And why aren’t you wearing a bra!?”

Karuta cut in since he knew she would not stop until he did, but the crystal girl tilted her head.

“Are we only allowed to use specialized towels for this task? That seems unnecessary, but if that is the way of things.”

“Hey, Aine, what are you- gwahh!?”

Karuta let out a deep yell because Aine bent over and shoved her head toward him.

The slender girl’s arms and head embedded themselves in his stomach. She looked a lot like someone fishing through a secret treasure chest, or like someone ducking below the curtain hanging at the entrance of an izakaya. When she pulled back out again, she held a washed sports towel that smelled of fabric softener.

“Phew. This will be more acceptable, I hope?”

“A-Aine, you, but.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

“How much stuff have you shoved inside my body!?”

Aine was “stored” inside him, so she could freely move in and out, but did this mean anything she was holding would pass through him as well? This new revelation about this own body brought a crawling to his fingertips. This was more than just seeing a mass on the X-ray. He was afraid he was full of crumbs from chips and sweet rice crackers.

Meanwhile, Marika wiped off her cheeks and forehead with the proper sports towel.

“Karuta, why aren’t you exercising?”

“I’ve got that thing after this, remember? I don’t want to go there with wet hair, but there isn’t enough time to blow dry it.”

“Oh, right,” said Marika.

Yes. He was attending a meeting that seemed wholly out of place for someone who had recently been sneaking around the world while obsessed with committing murder in the name of revenge.

He shrugged lightly in a way that showed he knew he would not fit in there.

“They call it an interview, but it’s really just an initial greeting for that movie they’re making about us.”

“Karuta> Looks like I can’t make 1st period. I’ll need to copy your notes later.”

“Yamanen> It’s just a class, Karuta-chan. But you’d better buy us lunch for this.”

“Hirosuke> How about I just film the whole boring lecture? Should put you to sleep in a hurry.”

The corridor looked like a polished hallway in a newly-constructed school. That was not entirely wrong, but it seemed excessive on a ship where weight was directly tied to fuel consumption.

Karuta could tell Grimnoah was designed more as a school than a ship as he walked down the hallway while chatting with his classmates on his phone. Class was starting, but he was not on his way to the classroom.

He stuck his phone in his pocket and politely knocked on a door.

“Excuse me.”

“Hello, thank you for coming.”

As a high schooler, he was not confident he managed to keep his face from tensing when he stepped inside a reception room lined with leather sofas. Those dark and shiny sofas were meant for more dignified sitters, like a principal or board chairman. A normal student should not have been hopping into one of them.

A project plan and a simple pamphlet sat on the glass table.

As well as multiple voice recorders.

“As you know, we at Bernard have recently acquired your film rights.”

The people leaning toward him from the opposite sofa were apparently Hollywood producers. The speaker did not start by handing him a business card like a Japanese businessman would do, but he did casually exchange social media contact information.

“Central and Bunny & Berry would not leave well enough alone, so we ended up paying 10 billion of your Japanese yen to land the deal. But we are guaranteed to make back four times that much. We wish to present your story as realistically as possible; no unnecessary embellishments. We want to know all about how you sought revenge by dealing with all 5 of the world’s former strongest.”

Karuta sighed without letting them notice.

Nothing was more embarrassing than hearing someone sing your praises. They had committed a raw criminal act, so it was not something to be glorified. He would have rejected the offer if not for his friend who had been so cruelly shattered during that initial attack.

Kazamuki Gekiha.

That boy had always laughed about how they would one day inspire a movie about their heroic battle against the Threat. Karuta had been unable to turn down an offer so similar to what that friend had always wanted.

“Now, let’s start with a general overview of events. Grimnoah was…excuse me, the first ship was attacked during mid-April in what has become known as the First Out Incident. That was in the oceans of Southeast Asia, correct?”

“Yes.”

He just about burst out laughing as he replied.

The First Out Incident? No one involved had called it that. Not on Karuta’s side and not on Anastasia’s side. That was only the name that a PR company had spread after the fact.

And that was only as bait to get people talking and stir up interest in the coming film.

“The first to attack was Elicia ‘Saurus’ Luxverg. She used the old-style of God Worshiping Magic to have Vishnu slaughter all 700 faculty and students on the ship.”

“No, I think her Avatar – that is, the dinosaur – only killed about 2/3 of them. Some of us escaped the gym, myself included.”

“And then Yukino ‘Punish’ Arakawa and Jessie ‘Edge’ Marcus attacked?”

“I know Susannia was onboard too since she messed with the broadcast equipment. I can’t say for sure about Anastasia, who used Anubis, though. Maybe she was onboard, maybe not.”

“Regardless, Elicia, Yukino, Jessie, Susannia, and Anastasia – the five known as the Problem Solvers – made themselves targets of your vengeance.”

From there, Karuta explained everything himself instead of the producer asking questions. He explained how they fished the broken crystal statues from the ocean and hid them in a cave in Southeast Asia, how they knew the Problem Solvers would try to silence those students and teachers who would recover after enough time, how they bought a cheap used RV to use as a mobile base, and how they had needed to track down and kill the Problem Solvers before the secret cave was discovered.

He should not have been discussing any of this in such a nice sofa.

These words were meant to be uttered in a police interrogation room or from the defendant’s seat in court.

But the producers were visibly excited and they clapped their glove-like hands together. Especially when he described Anastasia’s ridiculous magic and how his group had defeated her. They all had the looks of someone enjoying undiluted entertainment before anyone else had the chance.

“And now that you have defeated those strongest 5, you have become the strongest of a new era: the Four Living Gods!! Truly incredible! Someone has finally overthrown this garbage era where AI is used to score each individual’s possibilities!”

“Yes, I suppose.”

Utagai Karuta formed a flat smile.

These people only wanted to know what happened with the Problem Solvers, so there was no need to tell them about the man in black he had spoken with afterwards.

The world’s strongest were not just some strong people.

There were people propping them up and profiting off of them and those people would swap them out like a burnt-out lightbulb if need be. Even Anastasia’s group had been driven into a corner eventually.

Oblivious to all of that, the producers moved to conclude their meeting while breathing heavily with excitement.

“Magic really is special. And you can’t keep up just by increasing the scale with CG manpower. The real deal is so different on a more fundamental level! We could never have imagined what a real fight to the death is like!!”

“…”

“This will be a hit. We’re all going to be filthy rich!! When I feel the pores opening on the back of my neck like this, I can tell I have a hit on my hands. That sense has never failed me yet, so don’t you worry about a thing. We will put your heroic actions up on the silver screen. Your struggle will become a legend told for ages to come!!”

Utagai Karuta was still smiling, but only because it had frozen on his face.

He was trying to decide whether or not to punch that producer.

And no one else there was aware how dangerously far his mental scales had tilted in that direction.

That initial meeting had been mentally exhausting, but it was over.

Karuta wanted to see how things were going before heading back to his high school classroom, so he pulled out his phone.

“Hirosuke> Class is about to end, so why not just skip the whole thing?”

“Yamanen> That’s definitely the better deal.”

(With Crystal Magic, everything is up to you. You don’t want to discover you neglected your studies once you’re facing some true monster in real combat.)

What did they even think the point of the Second Grimnoah was?

He sighed and started back toward his classroom, but someone called out to him.

“What are you doing here!? Shouldn’t you be in class!?”

His shoulders jumped in the middle of the hallway.

But when he hesitantly looked back, he saw a male teacher giving him an awkward look.

“Tch. Oh, it’s you. The great hero.”

“S-sorry. I do have the school’s permission for this.”

The man with short black hair and a muscular build contained in a running shirt and track pants was the type to stand out in a crowd, so Karuta recognized him as a middle school teacher. A high school student like Karuta would not normally be around the middle school teachers, but he often went around to different classes giving advice since he was one of the few people with any combat experience. That had given him frequent opportunities to visit the middle school.

And aside from that, the man was bound to recognize him since, for better or for worse, he was one of the world’s strongest known as the Four Living Gods. Also, the Second Grimnoah had been completed so quickly because Crystal Magic stood at the top of world, not just in second or third place.

In other words, Grimnoah was a largescale aircraft carrier loaded with Crystal Magic defense ships meant to make efficient use of Karuta’s group of 4. Nothing the others did meant much of anything without the Four Living Gods there.

In that sense, the teachers were more like engineers than anything.

It was necessary, but they ended up as something very different from a hero or fierce commander.

Another reason the teachers seemed to hold a weaker position than a student like Karuta was the barrier between theory and practice. The theory types only ever dealt with equations on a desk while the practice types had the actual experience of the hellish battles leading from the First Out Incident to the defeat of the Problem Solvers and their God Worshiping Magic. It was plain as day which type the world at large would give more focus.

Elicia, Yukino, Jessie, Susannia, and Anastasia.

The Problem Solvers had overlooked those theory types because they had not been on the first ship. They had survived because the killers had been unaware they existed. Otherwise, they would have been hunted down before Karuta’s group had completed their revenge.

Of course, no matter how it had happened, Karuta’s group was delighted to find survivors who could assist them.

The male teacher waved a hand as if shooing the boy off like a dog.

“I get it, I get it. If you’re done, then head back to your classroom. Don’t set a bad example for the other students.”

“Karuta-kun.”

A clear voice cut in.

The male teacher grimaced even further.

The person who rolled up in a wheelchair was Omotesandou Hyouka.

She was Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah’s Student Council President and the only Regulation 3. Because all the others had died. They had brought in new students from all over the world after the incident with the Problem Solvers and before the second ship was completed, but that had not done anything about the number of upperclassmen. Even if they did let in 2nd and 3rd year high schoolers, those students would be unable to learn Crystal Magic in such a short time. Giving them false hope and then throwing them out into the real world would be cruel to an extreme. So whether the new students were admitted into the middle school or high school, they had to be first years who started from the absolute basics. The four survivors had discussed the matter and come up with that absolute rule.

She was a mature girl with long black hair and a curvy figure. After all, she was a third year in high school. Under Japanese law, 18 was no longer a minor. But the first thing anyone would notice was of course the wheelchair she sat in. She had not been born with a disability. That was one of the scars the previous fighting had left on her.

That also made her a thorn in the theory-based teachers’ sides.

She represented the students and she had survived the fight with those five even though it had left permanent damage.

She was technically only Student Council President for the high school, but she effectively ran Grimnoah as a whole. That prevented even those theory-based teachers from telling her to leave.

She softly tilted her head.

“Is something the matter?”

The male teacher openly clicked his tongue and then walked past Karuta.

“Sure, go tattle to her and create a nice comfy world for yourself, you damn brat.”

He whispered so only the boy could hear and then he left.

(You didn’t have to back down here, you know?)

Karuta honestly liked that sort of teacher. The man had been in the right and he did not change his stance even when the tide turned against him. It was right to get after a student out in the hall during class and he was absolutely correct that Karuta had to make sure he did not set a bad example for the other students. The teacher’s anger was misplaced since the interview with the film producers was an official offer, but he could not be blamed for it since he had no way of knowing that. Karuta was afraid of losing sight of his own basic morality if everyone started letting him do whatever he wanted just because he was “the world’s strongest”. In that sense, he was extremely grateful to have teachers like that one.

“Was that Kiyosawa Hadome-sensei?”

“You know all the middle school teachers’ names too?”

Karuta looked surprised, but the Student Council President did not react. Perhaps she did not consider that a noteworthy achievement.

“He’s a good person, isn’t he?” she said with a laugh.

“Yes, he definitely is.”

However, being a good person was not enough to survive. Not in this nonsensical world.

But why was the President here?

She had to be far busier than him.

“Sorry about today. I know it isn’t easy speaking with people from outside the school.”

“Yeah, but don’t worry about it, Omotesandou-san.”

“We’re getting a movie about us, are we? Ah ha ha. I really should be handling the interactions with the outside world, but I have so much else on my plate too.”

“I don’t mind. I’m one of the celebrated strongest too, so I need to figure out how to act like a representative of Grimnoah, no matter how tough it is for me. Not that all that support changes what we can actually do.”

Karuta had class, but he also did not feel right abandoning the President here. He also figured hearing Kyouka’s unfiltered opinion would be more useful than catching the last bit of class.

“Yamanen> Oh, that’s a million percent the right answer. Three cheers for having a hot president.”

He used his phone to apologize for the change of plans and got a baffling sort of praise for it.

He circled behind the wheelchair and grabbed the handles. Kyouka could do most anything on her own, but they had developed a habit of him providing a bit of support whenever they were together.

“Where to today?”

“I don’t have a destination in mind. I am inspecting the new ship to make sure it really is barrier free. I’ve mostly finished the high school, but I still have this half left.”

Life with a wheelchair did not sound like fun. This ship was 600m long and its three-hull design used a single deck to connect the port, starboard, and center sections. Simply visiting it all in a wheelchair was a lot of work.

“I need to check over what I can now. I don’t want to find out once we’re out at sea that an inconveniently placed bump keeps me from using the shower room.”

“…”

“Oh? Boy, are you so pure that was enough to get your imagination running wild?”

She had been in a habit of saying stuff like that during the previous incident as well. He always felt at a loss around her, but looking back, he could tell that had helped prevent him from being crushed under all the psychological pressure.

It was an enormous ship, but to reduce resistance in the waves, the left and right hulls grew narrower as they approached the water’s surface. The overall bow narrowed down to a point and the bow ends of the two parallel schools were angled much like a diagonally-cut piece of bamboo, so the ship actually looked slim. He spoke with Kyouka while they traveled down the interior corridors and visited the café, training room, and more.

“Speaking of interacting with the outside world, how are things going on social media?” he asked.

“Have you not opened up a public page because you don’t want to deal with anything more than direct messages with classmates? We have more friends than the president of a certain country I could mention. Of course, that doesn’t mean they’re all on our side.”

“I had a feeling.”

“Tabloids these days will gather content online and publish it without any real checking. And the online news industry is even worse. They might call us the world’s strongest, but we’re officially still only high school students. More than half our online ‘friends’ are probably just waiting for us to get a big head from our one success and say the wrong thing.”

Her legs could not support her weight, but she could apparently still move them. She let him control the wheelchair while she kicked her legs like a small child.

“The celebratory mood hasn’t worn off yet, so we haven’t gotten anyone prominently attacking us. They know doing that will only get them swarmed by all our new fans. But once the heat dies down a bit, it’ll happen. Someone will ask us controversial questions related to race or religion and they’ll jump down our throats for our answer, even if we opt to say nothing. And when I say someone, I mean a lot of someones.”

“Omotesandou-san.”

“I will handle the aggro management, so don’t respond to anyone based on a gut reflex. Marika-san lets the blood rush to her head easily too, so keep an eye on her.”

“Her too ? What are you implying?”

“Oh, dear. Did you not realize you were a hotblooded boy? You just don’t let it show most of the time.”

Kyouka laughed and then continued like she had just remembered something.

“Also, a lot more people will be trying to get at your login password, so be careful there too. Please tell me you didn’t use fingerprint or iris authentication.”

“Hm? I thought biometric authentication was safer.”

“With the attention we’re getting, who knows how many photos we’ve had taken. With modern resolutions, that’s a scary thought, so if you do use biometrics, make sure it’s something that can’t be seen externally. Like having an earphone measure the echo within your ear.”

This was sounding annoying already. She went on to describe exactly who to set up that strange new form of biometric authentication as well as the two-factor authentication. But at this complexity, he was afraid he would forget how to even reach the proper authentication screen. Yet when he started setting up the security questions just in case, the beautiful President really did get mad at him. So was so mad she really was calling him a pig and asking him if he wanted to die.

“If you really do fill that in with your favorite color and soccer team, then anyone can get in and change your password. Don’t forget that we live in an age where any old online store can use the accumulated data on you to display an ad customized to show a product you would want.”

“Sigh. Then should the backup just be a randomized alphanumeric password?”

“When quantum computers have proven themselves so good at performing random number calculations? Karuta-kun, you pig. Do you want to die?”

That was twice in one day.

An anger trigger was a sign of having found a weakness, so he felt like he had gotten to know that mysterious President a little more. The happiness that brought had to remain a secret though. He wanted to avoid an oversimplified interpretation where she assumed he loved having good looking girls berate him.

“Oh, no,” she said. “Now I’m worried about Marika-san.”

“She’s not like me. She’s a girl, even if she doesn’t always act like it.”

“That doesn’t solve anything,” said Kyouka in increasing exasperation.

They passed by a few students on their way. When those students moved to the edge of the hallway, it was not just out of politeness toward the girl in a wheelchair. The younger girls gave them looks of both respect and awe. They would never imagine he was currently being castigated over how he used his phone.

Yes, that trio of girls was even younger than a Regulation 1 like Karuta.

“Was it really a good idea to just go ahead and build a middle school too? The Sub Category, I mean. Keep forgetting to call it that.”

“The first ship only had the Main Category, but that didn’t work out very well, did it? Elicia’s dinosaur was enough to slaughter all 700 students and teachers. Sure, not all of them were directly killed by her, but we all had our spirits broken and we fled. We need to provide a more solid education at an earlier stage if they are to survive the harshness of combat.”

Nevertheless, they had still accepted a few hundred high school aged students to start at Regulation 1 in the Main Category.

“Seniority systems have long been decried as nonsense, but the barrier between school years is still a big deal for students. The Main Category students will be desperate to prove themselves when they have Sub Category students three years their junior nipping at their heels. Students with a goal in mind will improve. And unbelievably quickly. After all, pride is a more valuable currency than the yen or dollar for teenagers like us.”

Was the point to create a healthy competition that encouraged both sides to grow? Second Grimnoah was a three-hull ship with the three hulls connected by one deck, but the middle and high school buildings were separated out between the port and starboard sides. Physically separating the territory helped more vividly create an “us vs. them” mentality.

Karuta and Kyouka had been saying hello to so many younger boys and girls because they were inspecting the middle school side right now. Those students were either moving between classrooms or studying in the other classrooms. All of the teachers were the theory-focused types who could not manage actual combat since all the practice-focused teachers had been slaughtered. Gathering those theory-focused people had been a last-ditch method and it was causing issues here.

Yes. Karuta and Kyouka were skipping class to walk around the ship, but no teachers tried to stop them.

But Karuta did not feel like basking in that sense of privilege.

It felt more like people saw him as a monster and were keeping their distance.

“So now we’re the students with more experience than the teachers,” he said.

“They really don’t need to hold back with us. There’s still so much we need to learn. I sure don’t want to be undereducated when I’m thrown out there.”

The teachers had been overlooked during the previous incident since they were noncombatants, while Karuta’s group had actually fought with and defeated the Problem Solvers. Whatever their official titles were, the teachers felt guilty that those monstrous students had completed the task they should have completed.

So they were unsure how to approach Karuta’s group.

Instead of students, they were more often placed in the position of combat instructors.

“Do they think we can learn from teaching?”

The President smiled faintly. Karuta also felt more weight on his shoulders every time one of the new students asked him about something or relied on him for something. He could guess it was the same for Marika. It was like he was being pushed toward a mountain climbing trip without any time to prepare first. He was still in a T-shirt and shorts when deadly Mt. Everest awaited him. He could not escape the vague fear that he would be stuck up on that mountain the second something did not work out quite right.

And.

Maybe the Problem Solvers had felt the same way when they were the world’s strongest.

Elicia Luxverg, Yukino Arakawa, Jessie Marcus, Susannia Evans, and Anastasia Blast.

Karuta’s group had killed all of them and taken their position as the strongest, so they were never allowed to claim any sympathy with those five.

“This is the last place,” said Omotesandou Kyouka.

They were at the very bottom of the central hull. The port and starboard hulls grew narrower as they approached the water, so only this central one truly functioned as the bottom of the ship. However, Karuta saw more to this place than that. It was not part of the middle or high school.

After opening a hatch as thick as a bank vault door, they found a vast space within. It may have been larger and taller than the gym where Aine and Marika had been jogging.

However, it felt as cramped as a train at rush hour. Steel racks were stacked up to the ceiling and they were packed as full as a library’s bookcases. Each one was covered with square doors. The upper levels were out of reach, so a mobile lift was needed for them. Although it might be faster for a proper Crystal Magician to fly up there themselves.

“Well, this is certainly a problem on the barrier free front.”

Still in her wheelchair, Kyouka unlocked a nearby door on the lowest level and slid out the rectangular slab of metal within.

A human made of transparent crystal lay on it.

That boy had been killed by the Problem Solvers and was waiting the centuries or even millennia needed to recover.

“Gekiha.”

Karuta softly spoke his former classmate’s name.

That boy was not the only one. All of the doors in this vast space contained one of those cold victims. There were more than 700 of them. Their deaths, regrets, and tragedies were all carefully managed by alphanumeric codes. This was an archive dedicated to the foolish acts of the former world’s strongest.

“We need to live a life they would have been proud of.”

“Yes.”

Karuta’s hands squeezed the wheelchair’s handles.

He would not let that happen again, not by the world’s strongest and not by the mysterious Threat.

He would create the strongest fortress that could withstand any bombardment so everyone could rest easy.

That was the conviction in Utagai Karuta’s heart.

After accompanying Omotesandou Kyouka to the recreation center, Karuta parted ways with the Student Council President. On his way to some vending machines instead of a proper café or cafeteria, he ran into two of his classmates: Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke.

“In that case, whoever loses a game of rock-paper-scissors buys the others a drink.”

“In what case, Yamanen?”

“Oh, shut up, Karuta. Rock, paper, scissors…ahh!? Even your luck is better than mine!?”

“Hey, you should have known Mr. Strongest was the king of luck. We’re talking about the guy whose Crystal Magic randomly gave him a little girl.”

“Don’t try to gloss over that you won too, Hirosuke!!”

The loser complained but still bought Karuta a can of corn potage.

“You choose your drinks like an old man.”

“Oh, right. Yamanen, let me copy your notes later.”

“I’m doing you a favor and I bought you a drink? Where did I go wrong?”

After discovering firsthand how unfair life could be, those awful friends left.

On his own again, Karuta reached for the pull tab. He found nothing was as cost effective as corn potage when it came to forcibly calming himself. Of course, it was essentially carbs cooked with a bunch of added sugar, so he knew Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka despised the stuff.

He enjoyed his classes these days.

But he was afraid that warmth was overwriting something else for him.

Namely, his old, shattered friends like Kazamuki Gekiha.

But instead of a special concern for the world’s strongest, that may have been more the feeling of a child after transferring schools.

“Phew.”

This was the Second Grimnoah.

It held more than a 1000 people when the middle school and high school were both counted. It may have been even more lively than the first one and the talent gathered there was rare and useful, but he was still plagued by anxiety.

The ship was like a crab shortly after molting.

There were a few people with a solid core, like that male teacher named Kiyosawa Hadome, but as talented as the people were, would the next disaster really wait long enough for them to learn to use those talents? Would they have time for their soft shell and claws to harden?

He wondered where the next disaster would come from. Would it be users of another form of magic jealously trying to claim the title of strongest? Would it be the mysterious Threat that would supposedly bring death to the entire human race? Or would it be the people lurking in the shadows of the world who had set up all those confrontations so they could profit from them?

He did not know who it would be, but he knew for certain that there would be a next time.

Whatever form it took, it was coming.

“U-um, uh, Senpai?”

“Hm?”

After drinking the corn potage a bit, he realized he had forgotten to shake it before opening the pull tab, but he heard a voice that was even more attractive than the corn that must have built up at the bottom of the can.

He saw a short girl with wavy shoulder-length blonde hair.

She looked about the same age as Aine, or maybe even younger. Then again, it was hard to judge her age in those standard gym clothes. She was definitely far younger than him, so she was probably in the middle school. The three year gap between them really was a lot for children. She looked so young that he had to wonder if he looked that much younger to Kyouka when she looked at him.

The girl’s shoulders were tensed and she had drawn her loosely-clenched fists in toward her flat (or rather, nonexistent) chest. He had not done anything yet, but she was flustered as she started talking to him.

“You’re a boy and one of the world’s strongest, so that means you’re Utagai Karuta-senpai, right!? I, um, this is my first time with Crystal Magic, so, um, I’m not sure I have it set up right, and, um.”

“Relax. You can take it slow, so let’s do this one step at a time.”

“O-okay!”

Karuta was technically a new student who had only arrived at Grimnoah this spring. He did not feel like he was in any position to be teaching other people, but ever since defeating the Problem Solvers he had learned to put people’s minds at ease using meaningless poses.

And wait. What was that disturbing logic she had used? He was a boy and one of the world’s strongest, so he had to be Karuta?

Did that make him the world’s strongest boy?

But he had only run around with a flashlight, since Aine counted as a separate member of the four!

(Stay calm, stay calm!! Ghghghgghhgghgghghg!? Keep your public face on!)

“F-first, names are important for this, okay?”

“Um, yes, uh, I am Jane Ignition.”

“Ha ha. I guess your name is important too, but I meant the name of your god.”

With Crystal Magic, the name of a god was sealed within a printed circuit board smaller than a stamp. You chose one that felt right to you, whether that meant Zeus, Odin, Svarog, or Shiva. Your magic was built on a foundation of equations based on the occult calendars or horoscope charts of their mythology or religion. The occult power pouring down from outer space would collide with the energy radiating from the Original Crystal Embryo at the center of the earth. That created something similar to high and low pressure fronts that could be used as a tailwind when accurately predicted using your equations, thus creating the magic of a new age.

“Listen, Jane. First of all, you need to know that whatever god you decide on can’t be reset or changed later on. The system just isn’t set up for it.”

“Ehh?”

“But you don’t have to worry. If you viewed the list of gods from around the world and selected one without succumbing to any unnecessary preconceptions, you should have chosen the best possible option for yourself. That’s why choosing your god is the very first thing you do after arriving. You ran around that labyrinthine library to search one out, right? That’s because getting any help from someone else will only lead you in the wrong direction .”

There were cases of people failing because they were not free to choose based on their first impression. For example, Karuta here had not sealed any god’s name within his due to a “mistake”. He viewed himself as a good example of what not to do.

“Once you choose a god’s name, you’ll have to get along with them. You might be worried now, but once you learn more about that god, you might discover how brave, strong, friendly, or human they are, giving you a chance to get closer to them. Polytheistic gods in particular have a lot to discover since they aren’t bound by a requirement to always be right. They can be unfaithful, they can be a coward, they can get mad and go lock themselves up in a room, or they can lie.”

“O-oh. Is that how it works?”

“Now, Jane, what god’s name did you seal in yours?” he asked with a smile.

The girl in a short-sleeved gym shirt and red bloomers fidgeted, rubbing her risqué bare legs together, and averted her gaze before parting her lips as if to gently reveal a complex of hers.

“ Anubis . The Egyptian god of judgment.”

“?”

Something about that bothered him. A lot.

He recognized that name. But not in the context of Crystal Magic. Hadn’t one of the strongests beseeched Anubis to wield his great power using God Worshiping Magic?

Basing anything on that alone would have been silly. With how well known the pyramids and the sphinx were, Egyptian mythology was used a lot in the occult. It was unsurprising for a student to choose Anubis out of all the many gods in the world.

But when he took a closer look, he noticed this girl’s white skin and wavy blonde hair were awfully similar to a certain woman. And this was not a case of mimicking the clothing and hairstyle of someone based on newspaper and internet articles. Didn’t there need to be an awful lot of genetic similarity for two faces to look so alike!?

(Could it be?)

“Oh, looks like that rang a bell for you.”

His heart leaped.

It pounded.

It ran wild within his ribcage and behind his sternum.

(Is she related to the strongest of the strongest!? To Anastasia Blast !?)

“Then you should know why I have come to Grimnoah. Yes, you are the one who killed my sister and stole the position of world’s strongest from her in the name of revenge!! So you have no right to complain if the same happens to you!!”

The girl reached a small hand toward the beautiful flower pinned to the chest of her gym shirt.

She signaled the beginning of a battle.

This was something he had not anticipated during the previous incident: a clash between two Crystal Magicians!!

“Power up, Anubis! You’re the god of judgment who fought alongside my sister!! So take the life of this loathsome sinn-”

“No, Aine!! Don’t kill her !!!!!!”

The young girl’s mouth fell open and she did not last even a full second.

The Crystal Blossom on her undeveloped chest did shatter, but it was not given time to take its form as translucent armor. Aine slipped out from Utagai Karuta’s stomach and had time to even faithfully flip her sword around to strike with the back of the blade.

With a dull thud, a horizontal sweep of the sword caught the girl in the nerves on the side of her neck and she flipped to the side. She just about ended up like someone who had failed a cartwheel and slammed back first into the floor, so he quickly reached out his hands to catch her. Which required ducking below the path of Aine’s sword as it continued on. He ended up with her supported solidly in his arms, princess carry style. Her arms and legs were sprawled out limply as she was now unconscious. Even with the barrier and regeneration of Crystal Magic, that was no way to treat a young girl, but if Aine had used the sharp side of the blade, the girl’s head would have been chopped clean off and rolled along the floor.

It was unclear what kind of attack it was for, but translucent units shaped something like long skis had started to float up in midair. However, they vanished again before they could attach themselves to her feet.

Aine kept a cautious but expressionless eye on the unconscious girl while ready to use the laser gun unit attached at the base of her sword like a jitte.

“Sacri-sama.”

“Yes?”

“Could you explain to my why you have instructed me to only use nonlethal methods against all Grimnoah residents, no matter who they might be? To be blunt, unnecessary restrictions in combat are a pain.”

He shook his head without actually answering her.

This had been his mistake. They had needed to bolster Grimnoah’s forces in a hurry, but that meant inviting 1000 people to the ship all at once. He should have considered the possibility of someone sneaking in for other reasons. And while the Problem Solvers had been a target of revenge for his group, it was true that they had been loved by people all around the world. Most of those people had changed their tune and decided to support the new strongests instead, but not everyone would be willing to accept that.

Someone had killed this girl’s beloved family member and stolen the title of strongest from her sister.

It must have been impossible for the grieving girl to grin and bear it when the rest of the world was celebrating.

“…”

Of course, Utagai Karuta was no saint. He was not so above worldly matters that he could offer up his life if someone said they were going to take it. He would never give up no matter what kind of monster appeared before him. And if that monster’s fangs would also reach Marika, Kyouka, or anyone else he knew, he would use whatever underhanded methods were necessary to eliminate the risk. He was prepared to do what it took.

But. On other hand.

“Then you should know why I have come to Grimnoah. Yes, you are the one who killed my sister and stole the position of world’s strongest from her in the name of revenge!!”

The small girl had tears in the corners of her eyes while she lay unconscious in her hated enemy’s arms.

She was doing this for her sister.

She had said so.

Had she known what Anastasia was really like? Or had even Anastasia found herself unable to speak of such things in the warm household she had been born into?

She had provided this young girl a safe upbringing by keeping her separated from the cold battlefield, but now the girl was going under a fake name and identity while wielding a blade in the name of vengeance.

Even if it meant relying on the same weapon used to kill her sister.

And she had engraved that flower on her chest with the name of Anubis, the god who her beloved sister had relied on to the very end.

As if praying to that fearsome god of judgment.

“So you have no right to complain if the same happens to you!!”

Her justice was too pure.

Enough so for Karuta to realize just how far into the sticky darkness he had sunk without noticing.

He still thought he had done the right thing. That revenge had been necessary. But his group had still derailed this girl’s life. If they had not done what they did, this girl would still be living in the warmth of her family.

Jane Ignition, or the girl using that name at the moment, had followed the same path Karuta’s group had. The person who had taken an irreplaceable family member from her was being praised on TV as the world’s strongest, no one at all would say they had done anything wrong, and she could not bring herself to let that continue. So would he kill her? Just because it put him in danger? That did not feel like her just deserts or karmic retribution. Wasn’t that the same logic the Problem Solvers had used to justify their destruction of the first Grimnoah!?

He refused to take the same path as them.

By saving this girl, he would prove that they were not slaves to the position of world’s strongest.

“Sacri-sama.”

Aine presented him with an extremely grounded question.

With that cold blade still at the ready.

“What shall we do? I will do whatever you decide for me, but based on past combat data, I highly doubt Miss Marika or Miss Kyouka will allow an enemy like this to survive. In all likelihood, sticking to nonlethal methods is only delaying the inevitable.”

What would he do?

It was time for Utagai Karuta to make a decision about the avenger in his arms who seemed far too young at only 12 years old.

### 088. Chapter 1

### Part 1

“She registered as Jane Ignition, but her real name is Natalena Blast. Age: 12. Sex: Female. Nationality: American. As her family name suggests, she is Anastasia Blast’s younger sister. Even if there is a large gap between their ages.”

They had gathered in the Student Council Room of the giant ship’s high school.

There was no better place for Karuta and the rest of the world’s strongest to speak in private.

Omotesandou Kyouka was operating a computer while seated in her wheelchair. The computer and the room looked downgraded from before, but the devices here had top administrative access to all the data in the ship’s server. They had higher priority than the machines in the headmaster’s office which was mostly just for show (even though Karuta’s group had not wanted it that way). Karuta and Marika’s arrival meant the actual Student Council members had to leave, so they gave the two intruders quite a glare.

Natalena was asleep in the ship’s infirmary.

Sleeping with her limbs and torso strapped down with thick belts could not be comfortable, but she would not notice. Until they made a decision, they had confiscated her Crystal Blossom and put her on a light anesthetic to keep her asleep. Anesthetics were convenient, but they were also medical goods. A drug like that did have a lethal dose, side effects, lasting effects, and allergies to worry about and, just like any other medicine, there was no guarantee it would work.

But that was about the only way to restrain someone who could use magic.

“Why didn’t we notice this until now?”

“So many people claimed to be Anastasia’s relatives, friends, or acquaintances that it probably hid the presence of this sister. The social networks for socialites were especially bad. Makes me glad I wasn’t one of the Problem Solvers.”

Anastasia may have been fine with it since it hid her actual family which functioned as her Achilles heel. It was like creating an artificial forest to hide a single real tree.

The identity of the suspect had been found by comparing her facial and skeletal data to video records from around the world. Since that was enough to blow her cover, Natalena may have been planning to end it quick. She had not prepared herself a way out in her nearly suicidal pursuit of revenge.

Karuta frowned.

“Does that mean Anastasia was an American citizen too? We did hear she had a lot of influence in North America.”

They had hated that woman enough that they were willing to destroy the world if it meant defeating her. But thinking back, they had not even known what part of the world she was from. This peek at her ordinary life now came as a slight shock to Karuta.

He could not hide this.

That was the honest answer he found for himself. And if he tried and failed to hide it, it would only make matters worse. He had to be honest here and then make the following suggestion: This girl may be here for revenge, but her inexperienced blade failed to take anyone’s life. This is over now, so we shouldn’t kill her.

He wanted their trust, so hiding things would work against him.

Was this really the right thing to do? He was of course worried about that, but now that he had chosen to do this, he had to stick with it as best he could. He could not stop once he started.

“…”

Amaashi Marika gave him a dangerous look while leaning against the wall with arms crossed. What he had seen during the previous incident told him all he needed to know about her stance. She made a strict division between enemy and ally. She would do anything to protect the people she had decided were on her side. That was obvious enough from the laser sniper shot she had used to kill Elicia after the defenseless woman had surrendered and maybe even could have been brought to their side.

If taking in a new ally would disturb the perfected harmony they already had, she was not interested in taking them in.

That was Marika’s stance.

She was reliable as a childhood friend. Karuta had known her for so long that he was unconditionally placed on the allies list. But this was different. If he could not convince her here, she would kill Natalena without mercy. Even while the girl was unconscious and unable to defend herself.

And if he just let it happen, it would happen again.

The world’s strongest could get away with killing anyone who opposed them.

Even a 12-year-old girl.

He could not let that become the standard. That would only lead them past the point of no return on the same path Anastasia’s group had taken. If they were not the strongest, they would be found guilty and thrown in prison, so they would have no choice but to cling to the title of strongest no matter what. The concept of strongest would bind them.

“Omotesandou-san.”

“Yes?”

“Does Natalena have any kind of combat experience?”

“Based on the records I have found, she has almost none, including training. She seems to have attended a local karate school for a while, but she quit after about 6 months. That sort of conflict may not have been her thing.”

“Then how did she manage to fake her name and identity?”

Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah was a crucial organization for combating the Threat which put the world in danger. Even with 1000 new personnel brought in, their backgrounds would all have been thoroughly checked.

There were a few options for slipping past that – rewriting the trackable electronic data, corrupting an examiner with a bribe or honey trap, and purchasing or stealing someone else’s personal information – but a 12-year-old girl who lived an ordinary life could not pull off those spy movie tricks on her own. For that matter, when had she learned about her Crystal Magic aptitude that gave her a chance at this revenge? That was not something she would have been tested for at middle school. And where had she learned about Anubis? If Anastasia had been hiding her true identity from her family, she never would have told them anything about her God Worshiping Magic.

None of it made sense.

Utagai Karuta spoke a frank conclusion.

“Someone else is pulling the strings. Probably from some safe place away from this ship.”

“I see.”

“They gave the necessary information to someone connected to Anastasia to remake them into an assassin. But did they really think an amateur like Natalena could kill the four of us? What if they were betting we would turn on each other over how to deal with Natalena after we defeated her? ”

He had no evidence for any of this.

In fact, he did not particularly care if he was wrong.

He was only interested in redirecting their focus (especially that of hyper-aggressive Marika) toward someone other than Natalena. A nameless and faceless string-puller was perfect for that. While they tried to pursue that shadowy figure who might not even exist, they would not think about attacking someone within arm’s reach.

“In that case, we should not kill Natalena. We need whatever information we can get on this string-puller. If we let them get away with this, we might find Elicia’s parents or Yukino’s worshipers attacking us next. Also, we don’t know for sure that Natalena was working alone here. If she has a team hidden on Grimnoah, we need to locate them and get rid of them. Right?”

“You have a point,” readily admitted Omotesandou Kyouka. However. “In that case, wouldn’t it be in our best interest to keep Natalena Blast tied up while we torture her or use a truth serum on her? Would she really tell us the truth if we played at police and interrogated her? We are combat experts, not investigative experts.”

“Kh.”

There were no positive or negative emotions in her voice. She sounded entirely dry and efficient.

First, he had to worry about them killing her.

Now he also had to worry about torture and truth serum.

This was insane, but even with more than 1000 students on Grimnoah and even with enough adult teachers to manage and teach them, no one was likely to oppose Marika or Kyouka if they made a decision. Not even that muscular gym(?) teacher named Kiyosawa Hadome.

Once the scales tilted in that direction, there would be no stopping it.

That was how powerful they were as individuals.

In fact, this second ship had been built for them .

“I certainly take issue with how Marika-san jumps right to ‘kill her’, but I take issue with your stance as well, Karuta-kun. Why are you so intent on siding with Natalena Blast? Where did this empathy come from? Thinking back, you might find it was artificially injected into you by Natalena herself.”

She had a point.

Now that she mentioned it, he could see it.

He knew nothing about Natalena, but the way she had cowered down like a small animal and used lots of ums and uhs when speaking had clearly been a way of putting him off his guard. Deciding to protect her based on that would indeed be the height of folly. Or did he feel guilty because he had killed Anastasia? If so, why? They had been in the right to seek vengeance and they had been given no other choice. Protecting her sister as a form of atonement would deny the very foundation of what they had done.

He thought about it.

And he gave his honest response.

“I can’t do that again.”

“Do what?”

“Kill someone. We have no reason this time and killing people is supposed to be wrong by default! Last time, we had to kill them because the world was broken and that was the only way to fix it. But not this time!! Like it or not, we’re the strongest, so we should be able to use that position to show leniency and settle this without killing her. Instead of killing her because we have no reason not to, why can’t we not kill her because we have no reason to!? Isn’t that how the world is supposed to work!?”

“Then you do that, Karuta.”

Marika finally spoke.

As expected, she viewed things in very simple terms when it came to combat.

“ But I will kill her. That way you don’t have to dirty your hands. ”

“Th-that’s not-!!”

That was not what he meant. He wanted to protect everyone, including Marika and Kyouka, but if Marika refused, that was that. Her life was hers to live. Her thought process was simple and violent, but she was facing the crux of the issue.

If they did not all agree here, they would only do Natalena harm individually.

That was meaningless.

People only had one life, so if any of them played the “kill her” card on a whim, Natalena was dead. And that single mistake would drag all of them down. Just like it had with Anastasia’s group!!

“Ah ha ha. Looks like she outplayed you there, Karuta-kun.” Kyouka laughed innocently and winked. “Now, I think what you’re saying is right, but being right does not mean everyone will accept what you’re saying. If you fail to negotiate and you use simple emotion to force your view through, all you’ve done is reject our own feelings.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“Well, we could draw lots to make sure it’s fair. Could you grab that notepad and red pen from the desk there?”

Omotesandou Kyouka tore off a blank sheet of paper, tore that into four quarters, and drew a red dot at the center of one piece. She tossed the four pieces into an empty box with a round hole on the top. The new Student Council probably used that when allotting jobs.

There was no way of calculating the right answer here. This suggestion looked hopeless at first glance, but then the boy realized what the Student Council President had done. She really was the adult in the room.

How many pieces of paper had she thrown in that box?

With enough for every member of the new world’s strongest, he had another option.

“Power up! Come on out, Aine!!”

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

The pale-skinned crystal girl slipped out from Karuta’s stomach.

She awaited orders with a tilt of her expressionless head and her presence changed everything.

“We don’t both need to win. You take my side here!”

“If you say so.”

That response made it hard to believe someone’s life was on the line. She made it sound like he had decided they would be eating gyudon for lunch at the school cafeteria.

Marika was unsure how, but she guessed things were changing for her.

“Wait! You think you have better odds if you have Aine-chan drawing for you too, but there are no absolutes in matters of luck!”

“Then what are you so worried about? C’mon, everyone, let’s stick our hands in there. Ready, go!”

Yes, Karuta was guaranteed a win with this method.

“Ah!”

“…”

Marika gave a shout and Kyouka smiled in a conspiratorial way, but it was already over.

Karuta pulled his hand from the box first.

“There’s the red dot. I win. We will protect Natalena. Marika, no complaining, okay!?”

“~ ~ ~!!”

Red in the face, Marika spun fiercely toward Kyouka, but the Student Council President only shrugged.

“It sucks, but we can’t blame Karuta-kun in a game of chance, can we? We can only curse or own rotten luck.”

“You planned this from the start.”

“What ever are you talking about?”

That was the end of it. The door slammed open and shut with a sound like a bombing. Marika was so disgusted with them she had stormed out. But since she had agreed to the terms, she would not go and kill Natalena without telling them. If she did, Grimnoah would fall apart, starting from the four figures at its center – Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka. Since Marika’s focus was on protecting those on her side above all else, doing that would be counterproductive.

Karuta sighed while watching the door through which Marika had left.

“I’m amazed you came up with that on the spot.”

“Oh? I’m amazed you saw through it so quickly, Karuta-kun.”

All four of them had stuck their hands in the box at once.

But Karuta would win as long as either he or Aine drew the winning paper. So as long as Aine pushed Marika and Kyouka’s hands to the edge of the box, he could take his time feeling for the correct paper.

Kyouka had torn up a single piece of notebook paper and then drew a big red dot on it with pen. Only one of them had that, so he could recognize it by touch.

“Thank you so much, Omotesandou-san. I honestly couldn’t have done it without you.”

“To be clear, I wasn’t trying to be kind. Unlike Marika-san. I’m only helping you for the time being because we can’t get any information out of Natalena if we kill her now. As long as she remains alive, she can be tortured at any time. So if we can’t get enough information your way, I will suggest we make another choice. Between protecting her and torturing her.”

“…”

“And I will not help you like that next time. The rules are entirely different when you’re on your own. So, Karuta-kun, do you really think you can outdo me in a pure debate?”

“We both know I can’t.”

Kyouka was the master of trickery. If he had holed up in a room and thought for hours on end, he might have managed the same result, but she had won it in a split-second decision. Her idea had been excellent and she had proposed it at the best possible time, so Karuta and Marika both had let it happen without realizing anything had changed. If that cunning and that speed were turned against him, he would be cornered and torn to shreds before he could even think through his own position.

The schemer in the wheelchair laughed.

“Then give this everything you’ve got. I only care about getting results; the method used is irrelevant. If you can earn her trust and get the information out of her your way, then it is sure to provide a much brighter future for Natalena Blast.”

Of course, this did not mean Omotesandou Kyouka was fully and unconditionally taking his side.

“But if you fail, things will be different. Professional torture is not a pretty sight. The physical scars can be healed with magic, but the psychological ones are a different story.”

### Part 2

“I really, really don’t like you. Try as I might, I just can’t bring myself to like you barbaric practical types.”

“I’m really not sure what to say other than sorry, Kiyosawa-sensei. And that I really do appreciate you taking this girl’s side.”

“The fact that you bother to bow your head despite being one of the world-renowned strongests pisses me off most of all!! Anyway, we have confirmed the inaccuracies in her personal information too. We have yet to decide how to deal with this, but I will commend you for not killing her.”

Utagai Karuta was inside Grimnoah’s infirmary.

A lot of movement could be heard in the distance since it was a break between classes. Based on the bits and pieces of voices he could hear, some boys were making paper airplane test flights in the long hallway.

“Nh.”

A quiet groan left Natalena Blast’s lovely lips.

She tried to rub her eyes and realized her dominant hand would not budge below the blanket.

And it was worse than that. She was strapped down by thick belts on both her arms, both her legs, her undeveloped chest, and her waist, which had yet to develop its curves. That kept her from even rolling over from her back.

Karuta was casually peering down at her small face.

“Good morning, Natalena. Medical technology is an incredible thing. You woke up right on time.”

“What…ah!? What are you- ghh!!”

“Moving will only make it tighter. And I can’t blame you for not noticing the belts until now; we were keeping you on some light anesthetic. Using a plastic mask over your face.”

“H-how do you know my name?”

“How do you think, Natalena Blast?”

She must have felt like she had been placed on the chopping block while still alive. So many beads of sweat appeared on her skin that he wondered if it was some kind of side effect from the anesthetic. And the fact remained that he could have done anything to her if he wanted to. Even things her young mind could never imagine.

However, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He was glad she seemed to be doing well. It felt weird worrying about an assassin trying to take his life, but he would not let anyone he knew dirty their hands with unnecessary killing or torture.

Murder was wrong.

Whether or not they could create a world based on that rule was dependent on what happened here.

In a way, the standard assumptions of the world as a whole were being shaken up by Grimnoah. Including whether people would feel sorry for Natalena for having her sister killed and failing to take revenge against that sister’s killer. If Karuta failed by letting her be killed or tortured, people would see it as her just deserts. The entire world would take that stance against a sobbing 12-year-old girl. Then his group would take the same path as the Problem Solvers. The supposed world’s strongest would be headed toward a literal dead end.

He had to earn Natalena Blast’s trust in the given time period.

And he had to use that trust to get information on the string-puller who had assisted her.

They were just like the police detective and suspect in the interrogation room.

They might start out as enemies, but they could build trust between themselves.

“Here.”

“What? Um, uh, what is this?”

She twisted her body to try to dodge what he tossed toward her flat chest, but then she stopped.

He had returned her translucent Crystal Blossom, the source of her Crystal Magic’s power.

Then he pulled the blanket from her and began undoing the thick belts strapping her to the bed.

On the inside, he was scared. There was no right answer here.

But he had to look confident right now. This girl’s life was in his hands, so he had to see it through. He could not let his attitude regarding her change from moment to moment. He had to tell himself that while once more releasing that small predator.

“Those things are important, so don’t lose it again. Also, you’ll probably feel woozy for a bit thanks to the anesthetic, so be careful not to trip. The Preset barrier might not even work in your current state.”

“What, um, wh-what, uh, what are you doing?” she asked while getting up.

Her ums and uhs were apparently a natural thing and not some high-level disguise. Even after all her planning, surprisingly little had been an act, which he found very likable. She must not have been cut out for doing bad things. It was Karuta’s group that dragged her into this. It did not matter whether or not her revenge was justified; there was no need for her to sully herself that way.

Karuta looked to the side in a somewhat performative way.

“You also shouldn’t wear those gym clothes forever. The uniform designs were all just carried over from the first ship, but the bloomers are honestly a little much. Especially around the, um, crotch.”

“Oh, eh, kyah!?”

She blushed and frantically tried to hide herself with the blanket and Karuta could not help but laugh a little. She was far from a perfect avenger. She had not frozen over to the extent his group had. She could still return to her former life, so it was his job to make her want to do that.

“I’ll leave your uniform here, so shut the partition curtain and change into it. Then head back to class. You need to make up for what you missed while you were out.”

“A-are you sure you should, um, well, uh, l-let me go free? I could attack you in your sleep and learning Crystal Magic in class will only give me more tools for my revenge.”

She looked up at him in a nervous way. She looked like someone worried the food they were offered was poisoned. Or maybe she felt like she needed to act tough if she was to accept any kindness from her enemy. Karuta knew he would have been unsure how to respond if Anastasia had started giving him personal magic lessons to help make him stronger.

But he also had an obligation to keep the others safe. He was not her only target of revenge. If she was only interested in attacking him, he would have gone along with the farce, but things changed if she might attack Marika or Kyouka. It was even possible she would sneak into the engine room and blow up the entire ship to kill just him. That meant he had to take a harsher stance here.

So…

“I will be taking measures against that. And you might just scream when I tell you what that means.”

“?”

When he faced her with a cheerful smile, she jumped and shrank down more like a small animal afraid of a loud noise than someone preparing for a fight.

“Aine,” he said.

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

A pale figure slipped out from his body. That was the actual “weapon” that had defeated Natalena, but the young girl looked confused. Her defeat may have been so quick and unexpected that she had no actual memory of it.

And Utagai Karuta made his announcement.

“Unless you encounter some sort of special circumstances, stay with Natalena Blast 24/7 from now on. And make sure she does not cause any more trouble. Physically make sure, I mean.”

“Wha-?”

The girl’s mind went blank.

But a further attack filled that blank with a form of utter despair for her sensitive early adolescent mind.

“Understood. I will not leave her side even when she is bathing or changing. Miss Natalena, we can share a bed tonight. You might have trouble sleeping at first, but I will solidly latch my arms and legs around you so you cannot slip out at night.”

“Wh-wh-wh-wh-whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?”

She screamed, just as he had prophesied.

Aine expressionlessly tilted her head and provided some entirely unhelpful advice.

“Do not worry. You will have plenty of time to get used to it.”

### Part 3

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka sighed back in their semi-secret base that was the Student Council Room.

“What’s wrong, Omotesandou-san?”

“Oh, nothing.”

She shook her head at the inquiry from the earnest-looking Treasurer with a black bob cut.

The Treasurer, Secretary, and all other members of the Student Council except for the President herself were Regulation 1. That pained Kyouka a bit as the only Regulation 3 remaining.

(Hm, maybe I should go have Karuta-kun or Marika-san comfort me later.)

No, she could not do that. While she saw them as equal accomplices who had shared good and bad times with her, those two would still see her as a distant upperclassman.

(This is such a lonely position.)

But maybe she had no right to complain.

There was something she had not told even Karuta and Marika who had helped her eliminate the Problem Solvers.

“…”

The students and teachers who had been killed and reduced to crystal during the First Out Incident were not in as desperate a situation as it seemed. At the cost of her own body, Kyouka had accelerated their regeneration speed ten-thousand-fold, so they would likely return to normal in a year or so at the most.

There were two important things to note here.

First, if the students and teachers assisted by Kyouka’s trick were cracked or shattered again from some external attack, they would lose that ten-thousand-times acceleration. Second, no one could be added to the list. So if someone from the Second Grimnoah were to receive a mortal wound, that was that. Kyouka’s trick would not apply to them, so it would take centuries or millennia for them to recover.

That had been a desperate measure that came at the cost of her life as a Crystal Magician, so it could only be done the once and there were no do-overs.

She had a simple reason for not informing her accomplices of this hope.

(I thought we could live happily ever after once we completed our revenge against the Problem Solvers.)

It saddened her, but she had resigned herself to holding this position. She had never been the type to smile bright and spread her arms below the shining sun.

Even if she did wish she could be that type.

(But it looks like there is more to this.)

The unknown Threat was attempting to drive the entire human race to extinction.

The human string-pullers made sure they benefited even from the battle between the world’s strongest and the Threat.

And now there was Anastasia’s sister.

That far too immature avenger seemed to be giving them a taste of their own medicine.

That looked like several distinct threads, but she had no idea what they might link back too. They might indeed be entirely separate, or they might all join together. She was concerned this might be a diversion meant to hide something, but it was also possible the answer had been right in front of her all this time.

(I can’t tell anyone about this.)

She quietly narrowed her eyes while viewing the black bob cut Treasurer and redheaded buns Secretary who adored her like two puppies. Parts of society were now supported by the assumption that Crystal Magic was the strongest and its practitioners would protect humanity from the Threat. There could be no doubts introduced about that future.

She would have to review each thing in turn.

So she began wondering where to place herself on the game board.

“Well, a coward only has one place here. I should focus on the messy human conspiracies, I suppose.”

“?”

The innocent and adorable Treasurer’s questioning gaze did nothing to stop the President’s thoughts.

(We know there are problems remaining, so if we let our guard down before grasping the big picture, we’re done for. I feel bad doing this to Karuta-kun and Marika-san, but revealing this secret will have to come later.)

### Part 4

Natalena Blast returned to her classes that afternoon.

She had to go by Jane Ignition there, which could be confusing.

“Geh. Cooking class immediately after lunch? Who thought that was a good idea?”

“Right, right? Whey not put it before lunch!?”

“Or they could at least make it something that has to sit, so we can eat it for dinner or a late-night snack.”

In the cooking classroom, the other 1st-year middle school girls were pouting their lips and booing while wearing bandannas on their heads and aprons over their uniforms. At that age, they were growing girls and their diet was directly linked to the figure they would develop as they grew up, but they put more effort into reducing their stomach value than into the possibility of increasing their chest value.

If Karuta’s memory served him, the woman with semi-long flaxen hair and a cheap tight skirt suit was Sophia Firenze. That nervous, theory-focused teacher stood in front of the large cooking surface that doubled as a teacher’s desk, but she must have known she would not be able to handle this because she had called Karuta in as a Temporary Substitute Teacher’s Assistant(?). Because he had experience and he was known as the world’s strongest.

He was not a teacher himself, so he should have been sitting in a corner like he was merely observing the class, but everyone was focused on him.

That was hard on his heart even over in the corner.

He had never wanted to be a Class Rep.

But right now, he had to hide the part of him that was worrying about screwing up and embarrassing himself.

He shined a laser pointer on the text already written on the blackboard.

“Okay, regeneration is one of Crystal Magic’s Presets, but it isn’t all-powerful. Alice, Riho, Sanae, everyone else, please pay attention. To the blackboard, not me.”

That track suit teacher must have happened by in the hallway because he sent a bitter look inside the classroom before walking off. For some bizarre reason, someone without a teaching license was teaching in their own personal style. Who could say what kind of false information and personal bad habits he would transfer to the listeners? Karuta could not agree more. He was as puzzled as anyone why he was doing this, but his concerns did not seem to reach the nervous female teacher.

The boy respected that teacher out in the hall, so he surreptitiously nodded back while sending the laser pointer along the blackboard text. That act was a lot like using a highlighter in a textbook. It helped deepen the students’ understanding, but he could not have explained anything without Sophia-sensei there to provide the accurate information in the first place.

“The regeneration is powerful enough to put any doctor to shame by healing any wound or illness in thirty seconds. It is fantastically effective on wounds received from an external source, but it has trouble with anything you are already missing. For example, oxygen, nutrients, or water. The regeneration can only heal non-lethal wounds. So if you starve to death, the healing process is skipped and you are immediately crystallized.”

That explanation was enough to eliminate the scattered discussions among the students and draw all their focus on the blackboard and him in the corner. His combat experience meant a lot here. Although he did wish the nervous female teacher would not look up to him like that, since she was the one with the accurate information.

He sighed.

Those noisy middle school girls required as delicate a touch as if he were working in an ammo dump full of static electricity, but if he thought back to when he was analyzing the Problem Solvers, he managed to calm himself some. After all, failing here would not mean losing his own or someone else’s life.

(Well, all this took was a bit of observation. It’s obvious those three are the center of the class, so I was right to single them out at the start. I think I deserve a bonus for this. By which I mean a dessert.)

Natalena was clearly uncomfortable here.

He could hardly blame her when she was being taught about the powers that took her sister’s life.

He could not tailor this class to everyone here, unfortunately. This was all very bad for his heart, but he managed to keep going without finding himself at a loss for words. He was over in a corner and the text on the blackboard had been written by a real teacher, so he figured he could not go wrong here. He had to remind himself he was not standing up on the gallows.

He could do this. He had kept his mind from going blank so far.

He knew what he had to say. And what order to say it in.

“In that sense, knowing how to acquire ingredients and how to cook them into an edible form are no laughing matter. You will be fighting against the Threat eventually and you never know what will happen on the battlefield. Do not assume you will always be supported by a strong supply line and transportation of goods like the textbooks so often assume. When isolated on the battlefield, you need the survival skills to get by on your own. If you have trouble in a kitchen with gas and electricity, you can never hope to cook outdoors.”

“Heh heh hehh.”

One of the main trio of girls laughed in a nasty way.

This signaled one of her unpleasant adlibs was coming, so he had to be on his guard.

Thus spoke the 13-year-old girl with tanned skin and silver hair who liked to stand out (and was quickly growing into a delinquent).

“Then I take it you’re confident in your own skills, Senpai?”

“Of course I am, Riho.”

He winked.

He was of course terrified of the expectant way this younger girl was testing him, but he could not let that show.

“Whichever group gets me is lucky. I have a habit of making my own lunches for a change of pace.”

“Wow! Well, I hope you’re not all talk. We can be picky when it comes to food, after all.”

That impressed-sounding comment came from Alice, a girl with a blonde ponytail. But when she looked that surprised, it made him feel like she was actually mocking him.

They were not being assigned a specific dish to fix. Instead, they were given a list of numbers indicating the calories and necessary nutrients. Grimnoah’s cooking classes had you provide those numbers in 5 dishes or less. There were many different types of cooking. If you wanted to make it as simple as possible, you would have to check out the online recipes and nutritional science books yourself.

“Okay.”

“?”

He noticed something odd about Sanae, a nervous-looking girl with glasses and with her black hair tied back into two tails. The tails began at the bottom of her head, so they apparently did not qualify as twintails. Anyway, she was dissolving a teaspoon of salt into a bottle of water, but that did not seem related to their cooking in any way.

Riho, from her team, smiled bitterly.

“Sanae, I’m pretty sure we’re fine since it’s the middle of class.”

“Ha, ah ha ha. But Utagai-senpai is here today, so I’m nervous enough to want my good luck charm.”

He could not figure out what they would be “fine” from or what kind of good luck charm that was. After some thought…

“Did you register your Crystal Magic with Bastet?”

“That isn’t one of those water bottles used to keep cats away. And if that was her god, why would she want to keep it away?”

When Riho refuted his thought that quickly, there was nothing he could do. Unfortunately, he did not know of any jinxes that used water bottles.

Meanwhile.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Do not mind me. Now, let’s make some delicious food together.”

Natalena was being extra cautious and Crystal Girl Aine responded to the girl’s concern with her usual lack of expression. Surprisingly, Aine was wearing an apron. She was gathering confused attention since she was not part of the class, but being one of the world’s strongest may have been enough for them to accept this oddity without question.

Yes, Aine was also one of the Four Living Gods. When the person who barged in unannounced was a well-known athlete or actor, it apparently made for a pleasant surprise.

Natalena must have had some cooking experience because she began by disinfecting her knife and cutting board instead of getting right to chopping the vegetables and meat. But she was still focused on that crystal girl visible out of the corner of her eye.

“Wow, Senpai-san! You actually know how to remove the eyes of the potato!?”

“Are your compliments set to super easy mode, Sanae!? Were you a slave elf in some other world during your past life or something!?”

Utagai Karuta prepared the vegetables while chatting with the trio of girls at the center of the class. Natalena had been set free for now, but she could still have her revenge if she killed him. She had a knife, blunt objects, fire, and heated objects here. The kitchen was a cornucopia of weapons.

(Maybe he’ll let his guard down.)

If she was willing to accept mutual destruction – if she did not care what happened to herself – she could make an attack at close range here. He was not the only world’s strongest and this method would make things more difficult with the others, but she could at least take down one of them. She tightly gripped the knife in her small hand so no one else would notice.

(I just have to send him to hell before he can use his real power!!)

“Miss Natalena, that is not how you do that.”

“Mgyuh!?”

She was hit by a sudden “attack” from behind.

Crystal Girl Aine placed her arms around the girl from behind and grabbed both her wrists.

“It seems to me a peeler would be faster with something as small as a carrot, but if you do want to use a knife, you do it like this. Be very careful you do not cut your fingers.”

“Ghghghgh?”

It may have looked like a very hands-on lesson, but this was far more than that. Natalena was pushing so hard it made her red in the face, but Aine’s arms would not budge. It was like being made into a puppet or having your powered suit hijacked from the outside. She was powerless to stop it as Aine moved the girl’s arms to peel an incredibly thin layer of the carrot’s skin. Natalena’s resistance did not even cause her to cut her finger.

It was more like being held by a vise than handcuffs. It was so strong she feared that fighting too hard would smash her wrist bones.

“Oh? What’s this? Looks like those two are really good friends.”

“Um, Riho-chan? Are you sure they’re just friends? I think that biting of the earlobe is crossing the line into something else.”

“Jane-san’s blushing, so I think she’s into it.”

Natalena shook her head to deny it, but it did not look like that misunderstanding was going away.

Aine whispered in her ear so no one else could hear.

“Now for the finishing touch: a maid café’s secret ingredient. Let’s do it together, okay? Delicious Spell: Love Love Kaboom.”

“Stop, stop, stop, stoooop!! Um, uh, I’ll do it right, I swear!!”

### Part 5

Utagai Karuta sighed. The relief and exhaustion he felt when he left the room containing Natalena, his would-be assassin, told him just how nervous he had been. Plus, that cooking classroom had been full of younger kids. He really was out of his element when it came to public speaking.

During the short break in between classes, he glanced down at his phone and grimaced.

“Riho> Oh, no! Help me, Karuta-senpai! Today’s homework is too hard! What are the components of the fast-acting medicine used to heal eye strain which directly affects targeting performance? That’s practically alchemy, so why is it part of our home ec homework!?”

“Alice> Just so you know, she’s posting this with her phone while in the middle of changing in the locker room. Hopefully that exciting mental image will make you respond sooner.”

School wasn’t even out yet and they were already stooping to that level on social media. Regardless, he could not just give them the answer to their homework, so he would have to only tell them how they could solve it. He generally just copied the writing on the blackboard into his notes, so he only realized now how hard teaching was. You had to make it simple and easy to understand, but also make sure it stuck in people’s memories. If he could do that with ease, he felt like he could become a social media influencer or a top blogger.

That said, he had his own business to attend to.

He walked to the middle school faculty room on an invitation from that female teacher.

This was a strange place for him. He should have had no business in the middle school at all and the faculty room was a tense place for a student like him.

All the more so when all of the teachers were the theory-focused types brought in to replace the old teachers.

He was a practical type, so he used Crystal Magic entirely differently from them.

“Oh, Utagai-kun. Over here, over here.”

The teacher who had taken to him like a puppy energetically beckoned him over.

That was Sophia Firenze.

“Kiyosawa-sensei would let me have it if he saw this, so you came at the perfect time. Nicely done, Utagai-kun.”

“…”

She received that kind of treatment in the faculty room too? Karuta had to rub his fingers against his temples.

“So what did you need?”

“Not much. First order of business is this ginger pork meal.”

“Gh!?”

“Ah ha ha. I got carried away and made too much. But we can’t waste food, so let’s eat it together.”

He had already eaten too much with that cooking class immediately following lunch, yet now he had to share an oversized meal. That meant eating three lunches back to back, making for way too much. Was this teacher trying to give him a pimply face?

He accepted the chopsticks like he was looking up at a steep mountain he had to climb.

“Um, Utagai-kun, you have been helping out with my classes lately.”

“Yes.”

“So, well, I was thinking you might be having trouble keeping up with your own classes. The more you help me, the less time you have for your own studies, after all.”

He was honestly surprised by this.

His eyes even widened.

“Sensei, you actually sound like a teacher right now.”

“You really shouldn’t make fun of someone when they’re trying to be nice!”

She was exactly right, so he had to apologize.

Afterwards, he noticed something curious on her desk.

It almost looked like a kid’s meal toy, but it was too weird for that.

“Sensei, what is that?”

“That is a model. Although it’s only based on secondhand information.”

Sophia Firenze gave it a loving look while her flaxen hair swayed. It was made of a light blue material that did not appear to be plastic. It was probably clay or something similar, but he doubted it had been molded by hand. It looked more like a machine had sliced pieces away to create the extremely intricate palm-sized model sitting on her desk.

He was not sure how to describe it.

It looked like a monster with a rhino beetle’s head and thorax and lots of octopus-like tentacles below that. It looked biological but also like a bizarre missile.

Sophia Firenze readily explained what it was.

With a smile on her face.

“That is what we predict the Threat looks like.”

“…”

They really existed?

He thought his breathing had stopped, but she quickly waved her hands in front of her face.

“Oh, but we don’t actually know if this is accurate.”

“What?”

“Our focus is on theory, so we’ve don’t do any fighting ourselves. We never accompanied the Problem Solvers when they fought the Threat. Um…the headmaster of the first ship had a good relationship with those five, so information tended to spread from them to the headmaster and from him to us. Information only ever went in the one direction, though, so I don’t think the Problem Solvers knew we even existed. I hate to admit it, but we really didn’t have any information worth giving them.”

That was to be expected.

If that five had known of them, they would have been eliminated before even Grimnoah. Crystal Magicians who could not fight would have been the perfect targets for the people who wanted to obliterate that type of magic.

Sophia, who had survived without fighting, gave a weak smile toward Karuta, who had survived by fighting.

“S-so all the data this is based on came from the Problem Solvers and it’s hard to say how reliable that actually is. I mean, they were on such good terms with the old headmaster, but they still caused the First Out Incident. There is actually a really good chance everything they gave us was either entirely false or modified in some way.”

“…”

He wondered about that.

It was hard to say either way.

The odds of any malice there seemed to depend a lot on which specific member of the Problem Solvers was supplying the data. With Elicia or Yukino, he could imagine them maliciously altering the data just for kicks. But what if it was Anastasia? That hopelessly powerful strongest had been focused on preserving her position at the top by defeating any and all challengers, so he doubted she would use any trickery like that.

And he did remember one thing Anastasia had said.

“They do exist.”

“What?”

“Whatever they look like, the Threat does exist. That woman said so even though we didn’t ask.”

### Part 6

After home ec, they had gym class.

Instead of Crystal Magic combat, it was a swimming lesson.

“Hm, at least they’re sensible enough to give us some exercise to work off the food.”

“Urp. Ugh.”

“Hm? Senpai, what’s with you? Feeling seasick?”

Alice, whose blonde ponytail made it hard to believe she could be anything but a cheerleader, gave him a puzzled look. She did not seem to consider the fact that he had eaten four meals already today with breakfast, lunch, cooking class, and the teacher’s ginger pork.

She was wearing a school swimsuit. And while Grimnoah was a giant ship floating in the ocean, they were using an indoor racing pool that reeked of chlorine.

For some reason, tanned and silver-haired Riho put her hands on her hips and laughed loudly.

“Wah hah hah! All these healthy girls in swimsuits got you excited, Karuta-senpai!?”

“Um, he’s having trouble answering, so should we take that as a yes?”

“Eh? He’s not an adult, so isn’t he in the clear for feeling that way? Now, any man saying that deserves a summary execution.”

Things were sounding dangerous already. It was unclear where the line between child and adult lay for them and it would likely change based on their mood. Was it Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka who had said they had to constantly worry about cameras? He decided it would be best to come up with his own line he would not cross instead of leaving that up to the girls.

Alice seemed confident in her swimsuit, but Sanae was the opposite. That glasses girl was blushing and hiding behind the blonde ponytail girl. When Riho moved in from the side, that trio of friends was complete.

“Help us with our warmup exercises, Senpai. Make sure you get all up close and personal with lots of body contact.”

“Okay, I’m definitely defining that as over the line.”

“?”

It turned out Kiyosawa Hadome, the teacher who used his muscles as a weapon, was indeed a gym teacher.

Karuta was here helping him.

However, the girls did not seem to have much respect for that muscular teacher.

“If Senpai can teach us, why do we need anyone else?”

“This is no laughing matter,” cautioned the man. “This is a pool, so what if there is an accident?”

“Oh, how scary. By the way, what’s with all the muscles? Doesn’t Crystal Magic armor buff your physical abilities?”

(Now that he had managed to settle his stomach some,) Karuta scratched at his head with a hand.

The students seemed to look down on the man, but they were sorely mistaken. Just as Marika had made a point of jogging in the gym, the translucent armor’s boost to your specs did not mean your base stamina was meaningless. You had to use the magic yourself, so you needed a strong body to use it to its fullest.

But they lost sight of that with the Utagai Karuta standing next to the man.

One was the world’s strongest and the other was not. Anyone would pale in comparison to that. Even though his specs were actually quite good when viewed on their own.

Karuta had not wanted to become the strongest and Kiyosawa Hadome had not wanted to not become the strongest. The only difference was whether or not they had been on the first ship and whether or not they had survived. That was all. The boy himself had fled the ship while abandoning so many friends seeking help.

(Who do they think Utagai Karuta is? This is all so silly.)

To correct their mistake, the boy called over to the students with a bitter look on his face.

It was bad for his heart, but he had to force a tough voice here.

“Listen up.”

“Yes, Senpai!? Pay attention, everyone!!”

The swimsuit girls and boys immediately stopped talking.

The male teacher blatantly clicked his tongue at how they formed a perfect line on the poolside and straightened their backs. He had wanted a line, but this one was not centered on him. Karuta had been trying to take the man’s side, but it had not worked out that way.

He felt intensely awkward, so he felt a need to whisper in the man’s ear.

“(I really am sorry about all the trouble, Sensei.)”

“(I already knew there was nothing I could do. Listen, I will speak up if you tell them anything wrong and I will step in if any of the students are in danger. This is your kingdom and you can rule as you please, but those are the two things I refuse to back down on.)”

He made sure to look Karuta in the eye as he said it, which actually put the boy at ease. This was how a teacher was meant to be. He was stubborn, but it was not about preserving his own pride.

Karuta took a deep breath to focus himself.

He forced himself into his public mode and began speaking.

“Think back to what you learned in cooking class because this is the same. Crystal Magic’s regeneration has trouble with damage coming from something you are missing, so it won’t help you if you drown. And your flight won’t always work the way you want it to. You at least need to learn how to float in the ocean or a river if you’re shot down.”

The tanned silver-haired girl gave a snort of laughter, but it was hard to look tough in a school swimsuit, especially one with her name written on the chest nametag in big black writing.

“That’s child’s play.”

“I said this is if you’re shot down. Are you sure you can manage it with an arm or a leg broken or with a broken rib impaling your lung?”

“…”

“We won’t actually do that to you for class of course, but take this.”

He tossed rolls of waterproof duct tape toward the group of middle school swimsuit students. On the inside, he was afraid none of them would actually reach out to catch them.

After trying it a few times, he found that people preferred to preserve the beauty of a situation.

“Fold up your dominant arm and wrap the tape around your torso to bind it there. For this first lesson, you only have to float on your back. You can buy this tape for cheap at any hardware store, but it will show you how difficult a slight change to your abilities can be.”

In fact, during the First Out Incident that sunk the first Grimnoah, quite a few of the students and teachers had helplessly fallen into the ocean when the giant ship had been sliced apart. They had dressed themselves in next-generation magic while being told they could do anything, but it had turned out they could do nothing at all while they suffered and died. Of course, he was not about to share that with these current students who were filled with hope for their future.

He continued while making sure to keep the emotion out of his voice.

“Form groups of three and have one of you try it while the other two help them if they sink. Swap out who floats every so often.”

Hesitantly, or maybe skeptically, the middle school students entered the pool with their dominant arms taped to them as instructed.

“Whoa, what’s going on!? I’m spinning and spinning and- gurgle gurgle!!”

“Riho, Alice. Help Sanae!”

Before Karuta had even finished shouting from the poolside, the muscular teacher had jumped in. The two girls apparently had trouble rescuing the third from the water, but Kiyosawa Hadome circled behind the glasses girl, supported her back, and lifted her from the water.

“I hope you learned something from this, boy!!”

“I’m sorry, Sensei! Thanks so much!!”

He had no choice but to bow down at a 45-degree angle.

Reality was so uncooperative. Since two other students had trouble rescuing the one, it looked like he needed to give them a float like a swim ring or kickboard next time. He decided he was a failure of a teacher from the moment he had told the students to use this method before he tested it out himself.

Nevertheless, Kiyosawa Hadome did not demand an end to the lesson as a whole.

He took into account who the students were wiling to listen to and who they wanted help from. Even if the boy was inexperienced and did things his own way. The man was such a good teacher he almost seemed dangerous. Karuta really wished he could stop teaching since it was so bad for his heart, but he had no choice but to keep going in his nice and clean public mode.

“If you think of the human body as a large float, then folding up an arm like that will mess with its balance. Which leads to what you saw there. Your usual habits get in the way and the assumption that you can float by going limp no longer applies. You try to float on your back, but you end up tensing one side and flipping over.”

“Ugh.”

“Do you finally get it now, Riho? If she had been alone among the large waves of the real ocean, she would have died. So think about how you can fix that and try it again.”

“Y-you aren’t going to tell us what to do?”

The glasses girl had grown even more timid than usual, probably because she had nearly drowned just now, but Karuta winked at her as he responded. His heart was still pounding, but he had to keep a smile.

“Don’t expect things to be easy on Grimnoah.”

The groups of three began their attempts.

This time, the rescuers were holding kickboards to give to their friend if that friend flipped over and started drowning. Their usual balance was off, so they would flip over if they tried to stay on their back in the usual way. But when they tried to shift their center of gravity in the opposite direction, they would tense up weirdly and they would start to sink. The idea sounded simple enough, but it was much easier said than done. Kiyosawa Hadome (a worrier who cared deeply about his students) jumped in to rescue one of them on occasion, but he had little to do once the boys and girls in swimsuits got the hang of it.

(Now, then.)

“Sacri-sama.”

Aine, whose school swimsuit was inexplicably white, called out to him from the chlorine-smelling water.

“Lonely Natalena cannot find a third partner. Will you help us?”

“I am not lonely!! Um, uh, well, you’re scaring away everyone else by hanging around me! And why are you wearing that weird swimsuit!?”

“If you do not like it, I would be willing to remove it. Shall I?”

“Absolutely not!!” shouted Natalena with a blush.

She must have been surprisingly concerned about how the others saw her. This was a good sign since it meant she was capable of focusing on other things in the middle of her revenge. If she was not stubbornly fixated on it, she could be persuaded.

A different sort of tension snuck into Karuta through his fingertips.

He made sure not to let it show on his face as he made a suggestion.

“Okay, Jane-san. ‘Break’ your dominant hand. Place it over your chest like you’re grabbing your opposite shoulder.”

“Kh.”

He had called her Jane instead of Natalena. Unlike Aine who did not care about such things (since she was not human), Karuta was showing a willingness to go along with her farce.

“Wh-why me? Anyone in our team could do it.”

“We already know the answer, so testing us is meaningless. There is a way of floating like this.”

After grabbing the roll of waterproof duct tape, Karuta whispered in the girl’s ear.

“(Also, binding my dominant hand in the pool might seem like the perfect chance to drown me, but it won’t be that easy. I won’t take your revenge from you right away, so keep at it until you’ve had enough.)”

This time, her small shoulders visibly jumped.

Karuta’s group had worried over how to maintain their desire for vengeance. As Natalena met setbacks, she would wither and be neutralized if she failed to overcome that issue herself. That was not his main plan with her, but he did hope it would happen.

He checked in the corner of his vision and noticed Kiyomasa Hadome (who knew of the “situation” with that girl) giving him a restless look. He really was a good teacher. His lack of popularity with the students had to be some kind of mistake. Karuta wanted to fix that, but his help would probably only hurt the adult’s pride. Human relationships were tricky.

Natalena did not notice any of that as she slowly opened her mouth.

“O-okay. Um, I’ll do it.”

(Is she sticking to her student role here? No, I suppose not. Is she trying to put me at ease so she can try and drown me while my guard is down?)

He pulled off some duct tape with a painfully-loud riiiiip sound.

“Aine, hold her in place to make this easier.”

“Eh? Wait, you’re the one tying me up!? Um, but.”

He was wrapping the duct tape around her dominant arm and torso, so he could not help but apply pressure to her soft skin through her swimsuit. Too much pressure to her chest would obstruct her breathing, so he had to use a delicate touch.

“Nh, kh!”

Still, being tied up by an older member of the opposite sex had to be a rare experience for her.

In a swimsuit at that.

Not to mention in front of all her friends at school.

And by the very person who had killed her sister.

“That should do it. Try taking three deep breaths and tell me if you have any trouble.”

“Sacri-sama, isn’t that an inefficient bondage method? Why did you divide it into an upper and lower band of tape? Wouldn’t it have been simpler to place it all directly over her chest. Nice and tightly of course.”

“Shut up, Aine.”

At any rate, her dominant hand had been tied in place while folded up and pressed against her torso. Now it was time for her to test things out in the pool. After moving hip deep into the water, she glared up at him.

“O-okay, um, here I go.”

“I’ll rescue you if anything happens.”

“I do not want your help!!”

She shouted at him and he nearly yelled back on reflex, but then her entire body flipped around. It was a lot like someone slipping on a bar of soap in the bath and falling backwards. At the same time, a dull impact ran through his legs. But not because she had kicked him.

(She grabbed ahold of me?)

True enough, this was about the only real method of assassinating him in the public eye like this.

Their battle was playing out below the water.

She was grabbing at her would-be rescuer while she pretended to drown.

She had one arm bound, but she would still be able to immobilize him using her legs and her left arm. Plus, no specialized skills were needed here. In ocean rescue manuals, rescuers were told not to approach a drowning person from the front, even if they were a child.

Even a drowning amateur had enough strength to kill a professional rescuer. And if she succeeded, she could drown him while making it look like she had merely been a poor victim all along.

However…

“Sacri-sama.”

“Hm?”

“Natalena has locked her legs around your hips, yet her upper body is not floating back up to the surface. Are you sure this gurgling avenger is not simply drowning?”

“Jane-san!?”

### Part 7

“Are you trying to test my patience!?”

“N-now, now, Kiyosawa-sensei. Isn’t that enough?”

“Do not spoil the boy, Firenze-sensei!! Besides, a mistake of this magnitude would not have occurred if you were not using a student as an unlicensed assistant when you are supposed to be leading the class yourself! Then there wouldn’t have been a victim and no one would have been at fault either!”

“W-wah, wah!! I-I will hold him back, so you run away, Utagai-kun!!”

Achievement Unlocked: A girl who loves her beauty sleep so much she gets taken to the infirmary twice in one day!

Achievement Unlocked: A super thirsty girl who latched onto her Senpai’s hips with her swimsuit crotch and refused to let go!

“I want to die.”

Natalena Blast brought a hand to her forehead after getting up from the infirmary bed in her damp school swimsuit. Her face was deeply colored by gloom. That was not what you wanted to be saying first thing after waking up. What nickname would she have once she returned to the classroom? What would things be like on their class’s social media group? Those thoughts may have been spinning endlessly through her mind.

Utagai Karuta quietly watched the girl from the folding chair next to the bed.

A lot had happened.

That muscular teacher was almost too good a person since his anger was over Natalena being made a victim and Karuta being placed at fault by the situation. He began thinking about asking Omotesandou Kyouka to make a statue of the man. His deeds needed to be commemorated on the front bow. Although doing so might enrage him.

But Karuta hid all of that inside and smiled toward the girl.

“Are you awake?”

“Kh.”

“First you fall asleep in your gym clothes and now in your swimsuit. The school doctor actually laughed when I brought you in.”

“You did both of those to me.”

“I will admit that lesson could use some retooling. And I apologize for that. But I thought it would have been inappropriate for a guy like me to change you out of your swimsuit while you slept. Or would you have preferred I did?”

“~ ~ ~!!!???”

She belatedly realized her situation and blushed so bright he thought her face would burst into flames.

“Y-you.”

“Yeah?”

“What are you trying to do here? Thinking back, you were weird from the beginning. If you had left me there, I would have died and this would have been over. But you went out of your way to save me. You have no reason to let me go free like this.”

He had no answer for her.

In a way, she may have been right.

There were several obvious missing pieces in Natalena Blast’s revenge story. A 12-year-old girl would have trouble faking her identity on her own and it was a mystery how she had learned that Anastasia used Anubis. There was probably a string-puller out there who had supplied her with that information. But did they have to keep Natalena alive to locate that person? They might be able to track them down without her, or they might be able to use her death to rattle them.

So what was he really doing here?

His explanations were just an excuse and his real reason came down to emotion. Then what exactly were those emotions?

He bluntly confessed the answer.

“I don’t want anyone to die.”

“What?”

“Not again. I don’t want to be the killer or the killed. I can tell you that both options suck. You see on TV and online that people can grow endlessly cruel when they’re winning the war and that people can do any ugly thing if they’re backed into a corner, but that’s not true. Some people are cut out for it and others aren’t. With a certain kind of person, they can pull out all the stops and truly enjoy it to the end as long as they can justify their actions .”

He spat out the words, but who was he referring to there?

The 5 mass murderers who had used God Worshiping Magic? Or the Crystal Magic avengers who had gone around the world pursuing those 5?

Small hands gripped tightly at the edge of the blanket, small teeth bit at a lovely lower lip, and words too immature to call a curse left those lips.

“You won’t get what you want.”

“Probably not.”

“You don’t want anyone to die? You ! You killed my sister!! My…my one and only and irreplaceable sister!! You took her from me!”

He said nothing.

It was not that he could not say anything.

He stood in a position where he could chop off the powerless girl’s head at any moment if he did not like what she said, but he chose not to. He was one of the world’s strongest and he used that authority to preserve the life of this girl who would normally have died by now.

He imagined how he would have felt in a similar position.

What if Anastasia had saved his life on a whim and said she would spare his life as long as he stayed in her castle?

(I would have dealt with it.)

He had once been an immature avenger too. For better or for worse, he had been blessed with others who shared his goal, their carefully-thought-out plans had worked out thanks to some coincidental luck, and they had managed to complete their vengeance.

So.

(I would have managed even if I was kept like a bird in a cage and even if I was placed in a position where I would starve to death without her kindness.)

He did not need any special profiling skills or polygraph equipment to know.

Not here.

The answer seemed to slip smoothly into his mind.

He had been down that path himself, so the killer intent directed his way allowed him to accurately predict something here. And obvious killer intent was only seen as praiseworthy among delinquents. With an avenger and someone hoping to stop them, such an obvious sign only made you easy to read.

(She’ll never back down on this, even if she can only survive on the crumbs her enemy drops below the table. This is the one thing she will stick to no matter what.)

“I, Natalena Blast, will tear your life to shreds. You killed my sister yet have the nerve to act like a mere observer, so I will kill you in your sleep!!”

“Is that so?”

She probably meant every word, but he sighed before responding.

“ Don’t push yourself too hard, okay? ”

“Stop making fun of me!!!!!!”

### Part 8

“…”

Someone watched the girl throw a pillow in anger.

But that someone was watching from the high school building located opposite the middle school on the combined deck of the ship’s three-hull structure. Some parts of the school building were full of people and others were deserted. The next floor down was noisy, but this hallway was entirely silent.

“Imi> Ugh, this is awful. You can’t count on online shopping at all. This swimsuit isn’t the right size. Marika, tell me how to deal with the cooling off period.”

“Marika> Don’t blame the store. It’s not their fault your body is growing so fast.”

“Imi> You say that, but what’s your cup size nowadays!?”

She was chatting with her classmates on social media while she watched.

The twintails girl sighed and coolly activated her Crystal Blossom. The translucent armor covered her body and she flipped around the rapier-like device’s guard to reveal a laser beam unit. Marika used Tezcatlipoca, who was linked to an obsidian mirror, so she could make attacks using light. Her accuracy was perfect. At this range, she could provide dental work if someone opened their mouth. As long as they were fine with having the surface burned away without any anesthetic.

“Tayori> Does the sale on the new summer colors begin in May? The world’s fashions are getting so vivid. I hate all those bright fluorescent colors. Do you know any more mature online stores that have better taste?”

“Imi> Why do you love wearing those skimpy things, Tayori? Is it about the airflow???”

“Tayori> Shut it, thick cotton girl. I’m talking about mascara right now. And are you trying to make tofu with those striped panties?”

“Imi> These are polyester, not cotton!!”

“Marika> Um, why are you including me in these shockingly embarrassing messages? Are you both digital exhibitionists or something???”

That gave her some time to think.

About Utagai Karuta, not Natalena Blast.

Things were not going well for him. He said he would persuade the girl and wait for her to have a change of heart. That seemed so uncertain and careless to her. Why did he fail to realize that he would be killed if Natalena chose the “betrayal” card just once out of the hundreds of decisions she would be making from now on?

She hated this. He was stupidly pure, but that was exactly why she refused to let anyone trample on his feelings. What that girl did now was not the issue. She was bound to do it eventually . That was a foregone conclusion at this point.

So Marika would kill the girl. That was the only way to keep them safe.

The way Karuta and Kyouka saw it, Marika could not do that now that she had lost based on the rules they had all agreed to. Because if she did, they would break apart and she would lose the person she was trying to protect. But those two were too naïve.

She did not care if she lost her own position here.

As long as she could protect the people she saw as “on her side” – namely, Karuta, Aine, and Kyouka – nothing else mattered to her. Her top priority was protecting those people she cared for and there was no real reason why her own name had to be on that list.

If they arrested her, so be it.

If she was kicked out of Grimnoah, she could deal with it.

If Utagai Karuta killed her after she saved him…well, she might actually enjoy that.

Whatever the case, Amaashi Marika was not going to stop here. She intentionally narrowed her focus. She made sure to view only this one point. She made sure she was aware of every last breath that target took.

And then…

“Miss Marika.”

She loudly clicked her tongue.

The voice came from behind her. The almost mechanical-sounding voice of course belonged to Crystal Girl Aine. She could tell without even looking back that the girl’s cold katana would be held out toward her back.

“So he saw through it all, huh?”

“Sacri-sama does not wish to fight you. He hopes you will keep that in mind.”

Karuta had lured her into this sniping point so Aine could sneak up behind her, but that was not what irritated her so much.

She was irritated that Aine was here at all.

“I can’t believe that moron. Does this mean he’s smiling and speaking with her while really and truly defenseless? When she’s honestly trying to kill him?”

Her voice was tinged with exasperation.

Did he feel he could only really speak with the girl when he set his weapon aside? That was a lovely enough sentiment to place in a textbook, but this was an assassin who had put together a plot to kill him and even acted on that plot. Once she knew he could not use Aine, she was certain to bare her fangs and activate her Crystal Blossom armor. And there was nothing Karuta could do once that happened.

Amaashi Marika did not think she was normal. A normal girl could not protect the people she cared about, so she had intentionally destroyed her own brakes and forced herself to make the cruel decisions. She knew that about herself.

But that childhood friend was different.

He remained unchanged and smiling as he wished for peace and disliked conflict.

Yet the most broken one among them was not Amaashi Marika or Omotesandou Kyouka; it was Utagai Karuta.

“Aine-chan.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t you think we should kill Natalena Blast? Before she can actually harm someone?”

“Yes. But Sacri-sama has banned that and I will obey his inefficient command.”

He may have been even more broken than Aine who was not even human.

Yes, Aine had intended to kill Natalena from the beginning. Then Marika had suggested they kill her. Kyouka had gone on to suggest they torture her to get information from her, but she would not have cared much about whether the girl survived or not. She would not be a comedic dominatrix from a comedian’s skit. A true whip would have knots and metal hooks that tore into the skin and muscle. A torturer would strike people like that without batting an eye.

Natalena had attacked them, so they had no reason to show any leniency. Even the laws of their country allowed for self-defense.

Karuta might seem like the reasonable one, but he was in fact the odd man out.

Of course people would take a cold view of a someone trying to kill them or the people they cared about. Especially if they had been set free to do as they wished. You could not hope for morality, ethics, and universal humanity at a time like that.

And.

And yet.

How could he forgive her? How could he smile and trust the person holding that blade?

“Miss Marika.”

“Yes, I know. I have to give up this time.”

“Ideally, you would give up indefinitely and not just this one time. Stopping you every single time sounds like a lot of work.”

Aine made it sound like she could in fact do that, so it may have been a matter of pride for her.

Marika had lost this once, so she was not going to argue the point until she had redeemed herself.

“I just hope there are plenty more opportunities.”

“Agreed.”

“He could be killed in his sleep by someone he could have easily defeated if he tried. But I guess that does sound like an appropriate way for one of the world’s strongest to die , doesn’t it? That’s the path we’re on right now. A stereotypical one-way road to doom that someone else laid out for us. And, Aine-chan, don’t forget that you share Karuta’s fate if he dies.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

As various foreboding gears came together, school life at Grimnoah continued.

It would be May soon.

They would spend all of Golden Week on a field trip.

### Between the Lines 1

The biggest difference between a tall tourist hotel and a long luxury cruise ship was the infrastructure requiring wiring and plumbing, like power, gas, and water. A ship would of course need to contain it all inside and supply itself with what it needed. Even when moored at port, it would need to keep its massive diesel engine running, using up a lot of fuel. But Grimnoah had a specialized connection joist on the side, allowing it to borrow from the land infrastructure when moored.

“Yeah, this is the life☆”

Tanned Riho brought her hands to her silver hair while a rain-like sound washed over her body.

She was in the shower room.

With over a thousand students and teachers and with a focus on combat education, the ship was well supplied with showers. Each room had its own bathroom and there were dedicated shower rooms distributed around. That would never happen on a warship or a tanker.

The room was lazily divided into booths, but those booths were not as cramped as a phonebooth. The partitions were only simple boards, so it would not be difficult to peek over the top or crawl below them.

Another girl had climbed up onto the partition to peek over at her from the adjacent booth. She had undone her hair and removed her glasses while showering, but the black-haired girl was Sanae.

“Hey, Riho-chan. Are we going to have water restrictions once we’re out at sea?”

“Not a chance. This is the great Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah, home of the world’s strongest.” The tanned and silver-haired girl laughed loud. “This ain’t #2 or #3. We’re talking about the #1 fortress in the world, so it’s gonna be luxury at all times. The normal rules of ships won’t apply here.”

“The great?”

“Yeah, the great.”

The frosted glass window in front of Riho suddenly opened.

Even starting from the deck, this was three floors up, but that was irrelevant when Crystal Magic allowed for flight. The blonde ponytail girl named Alice leaned exhausted against the window frame while surrounded by translucent crystals and with jagged armor jutting out.

“What are you talking about here??? I wanna join in.”

“Wait, you idiot! Don’t open the window! Remove that frosted glass and everyone can see me from the high school building over there!!”

“There are over a thousand windows on this wall, so no one will notice.”

“Liar! Karuta-senpai just looked right at me from the hallway over there! And he blushed before quickly looking away!”

The slender girl’s silhouette was extended quite a bit with that Crystal Magic armor active, so it was nearly impossible for the blonde ponytail girl to climb inside even with the window fully open.

“I’ll fall if I remove the armor, so pull me in.”

“God, really!?”

Riho grabbed that incarnation of self-indulgence by the hands to make sure she would not fall without her flight. Only then did Alice deactivate her armor. She was then pulled into the shower booth like the rope in a game of tug-of-war.

“Abwabwah. What? Why would you leave the shower on!? Ha ha☆ My uniform’s soaked.”

“You only have yourself to blame there.”

Alice did not seem to mind much. She actually laughed as she reached for her blazer uniform’s buttons. She did not have a change of clothes here, so she must not have given any thought to what she would do after stripping off her uniform and taking a shower. While watching Alice have trouble removing her blouse since it was wet and clinging to her skin, Sanae spoke up from the adjacent booth.

“Come on, you need to follow the rules, you two. We’re about to leave on a field trip.”

“Europe!! This isn’t even like a class trip or anything. I can’t believe a simple field trip is on such a huge scale. Grimnoah can just throw money around, can’t it!?”

Alice (who had grown the most of the three) laughed while exposing her body to the shower after removing her underwear, but Riho said nothing about having her shower booth hijacked. She did frown, though.

“Are you sure it’s going to be all fun and games? Just look at our normal lessons. The teachers all have a habit of betraying our expectations, right?”

“W-well, doing things by the book probably isn’t enough to fight the Threat.”

“Since it would take months to send Grimnoah to the other side of the planet, I heard we’re taking a normal airplane for this overseas trip, but it all sounds too contrived to me. Like they’re intentionally removing the normal defenses.”

The students would be a perfect target for anyone hoping to attack them.

Or for anyone who wanted to test their strength.

The nude blonde girl reached behind her head to undo her ponytail while she asked a question.

“Hm? What are you getting at, Riho-chan?”

“Alice, you’ve heard the rumors, haven’t you?”

Riho waved a hand dismissively.

This new generation did not understand the risk, so none of it felt real to her.

“They say this field trip is actually a cover for that deadly school festival they call the Catastrophe.”

### 089. Chapter 2

### Part 1

There was no direct flight.

First, they took a flight from Osaka’s floating airport to Germany’s Frankfurt airport. From there, they flew to Northern Europe’s Reykjavik airport. That city might not sound familiar, but it was the capital of an entire country.

Namely, Iceland.

“I-I’m so tired.”

“Don’t collapse yet, Alice. We haven’t even reached the hotel.”

Utagai Karuta got after the girl (while nervous on the inside) and dragged his own luggage along.

Since the high school and middle school had been mixed together on the airplane, he had been forced into card game hell with Riho and Sanae the entire time, but he was not going to stick with them on the buses.

Someone else freaked out at that suggestion.

“Why waste such a golden opportunity, Utagai-kun!? Maybe you don’t realize how rare a treat that is since you have free access to the middle school, but you need to forget about us and accept this gift! Go to that 13-year-old paradise!!”

“Shut up, Hirosuke. Is that what you’re into? Hey, Yamanen, talk some sense into this-”

“Eh heh heh. Nothing quite like a female teacher. They’re so hot. Especially the innocent adulthood of a new teacher who’s just hatched from being a student teacher.”

“Is anyone around here normal?”

“Sacri-sama, waiting for orders is exhausting. Please give me some kind of command. I do not care what.”

“Karuta, you’re the weirdest one here.”

The nervous, flaxen-haired teacher named Sophia Firenze was very unsure of herself, but Karuta was a high school student. He was pretty sure his adolescent heart would not survive being the only one in a bus full of middle schoolers.

“You did the right thing.”

“?”

For some reason, he received rare praise from Kiyosawa Hadome who wore his track suit even overseas. The man crossed his arms and stood there, not saying a word more, so Karuta was unsure how to respond.

He tilted his head while boarding one of the high school buses which drove them along a long, long bridge traveling north over the frozen ocean. Eventually, the resort they would be staying at came into view.

“I’m so glad my new swimsuit arrived in time,” said Marika with a smile while leaning forward from the seat behind him. “Sometimes it won’t arrive by the predicted date even when the site says it’s in stock.”

“…”

“Heh heh heh. Is that some red I see in your cheeks, Karuta-kun? I hope you’re ready to see just how much your childhood friend has grown.”

They were in the Arctic. The ice below this kilometers-long bridge was thick enough for polar bears to walk across it, but Marika was not being at all ironic.

Aine pressed her hands against the window after apparently spotting something outside. Karuta had taken the window seat, so she was leaning out over his lap.

“Sacri-sama, what is that?”

“A beach. And could you show some restraint? Your butt is wiggling in front of my face!!”

She entirely ignored the favor she was doing him because she was too interested in viewing something like bubbles outside.

Several translucent domes existed across the frozen ocean. The smaller ones had a radius of a few hundred meters and the larger ones had a radius of 2 or 3 kilometers. They were connected by countless clear tubes similar to an aquarium’s underwater tunnel.

Marika tilted her head while leaning against his headrest from behind.

“Which dome is ours again?”

“C World.”

“World?”

“That’s what they call them. They say each dome is like a unique artificial world. Ours is the third biggest one.”

It was below freezing outside, but not so inside. The buses parked in front of the especially large C World dome before one by one passing through the double layer of gates into another world altogether.

Inside, they found a pleasant summer beach with a temperature of 28 degrees and humidity below 50%.

The girls who tended to hang out with Marika let out a cheer.

“Ohh!”

“Wow, that really is a pretty beach. It scores high enough that I might just grant it the privilege of lying out on that sand.”

“It’s like an extreme version of eating ice cream in a kotatsu,” whispered Marika while viewing the palm trees swaying in the artificial warm breeze.

“Wouldn’t making a hotpot with the air conditioning on full blast be a better analogy?”

Was Aine right about that? Either way, this definitely won the world record for the biggest waste of energy in the world. Karuta was pretty sure some book or another had made that official.

“I heard the bath is a hot spring,” he said. “Iceland is apparently a volcanic country.”

“Sigh. I want to go crawl in a small space,” said Aine.

“They apparently have a bath full of colloidal gold. Just like a radium hot spring, the weak radiation is supposed to be good for your health.”

“What!? Can I drink it by the tubful!?”

“You would only get a few sesame seeds’ worth if you drained the entire hot spring, weirdo.”

This was the world’s largest artificial beach.

It was known as the Crystal Beach.

The Arctic ice was rapidly melting thanks to global warming, so the Icelandic government had needed some sort of countermeasure. It had all begun when they took a lesson from snow crystals and worked to make the seawater freeze easier by constructing intentional impurities – aka, a certain type of artificial island – here and there in the icy ocean. Some had said it would be a waste to pour so much money into it without making use of the land, so they had started developing a largescale resort centered on a casino. It had since grown to include a luxury hotel, a shopping center, and more, with a giant translucent dome to surround the entire artificial beach.

It was hard for much of anything to survive in this extreme land, but development could continue without end as long as the cycle of money and greed got started.

The city had gotten started in much the same way as Las Vegas.

The buses pulled up in front of a 50-story luxury hotel (which fit inside the dome). When Karuta stepped out, he found piercing artificial sunlight awaiting him. That probably came from special infrared lights, which meant he was essentially having his skin lightly roasted by a giant oven. Although it was unclear if a day of sunbathing here would really give him a nice tan.

The new and nervous female teacher was already approaching him.

“U-um, uh, Utagai-sensei.”

“No! I am a student and I want to enjoy this trip!!”

“But I can’t possibly handle all of those powerful children, so will you please help me!?”

Hearing that, Marika smiled bitterly and waved him away. She dragged her suitcase over toward her girl’s group that included Matsuda Imi and Hashizaki Tayori to keep her distance from all that trouble. Aine simply tilted her head. She was waiting for orders, so she would not do anything on her own.

Was he really the only option?

After traveling overseas, he had to put on a school performance all on his own?

He was starting to tremble at this point, but he had always been the kind of person to do what was asked of him. Or you could say he lacked the courage to say no. He sighed and walked toward the middle school students. It took a lot out of him to maintain that public mode that lived up to people’s image of the strongest, an upperclassman, a veteran warrior, and a successful avenger, but he had no other choice right now.

He clapped his hands to gather the excited underclassmen’s attention. It almost felt like a ritual he used to switch modes.

“The teachers will get us all checked in, so once you receive your card key, carry your luggage to your room, and gather back in the 1st floor lobby. This Crystal Beach is the world’s largest airtight living space, so it is full of facilities that should be extremely useful when constructing a fortress city to defend against the Threat. This is all civilian tech, but there is still much we can learn from it, so keep your eyes open and take in as much as you can.”

“Ehh!? There’s a sparkling tropical beach right over there and you expect us to sit through another class in our uniforms, Senpai!? Don’t you want to see all us teenage girls in our swimsuits!?”

Tanned and silver-haired Riho immediately snapped back at him, but he could only shrug in response.

He was scared.

To be frank, if he was booed by all these girls here, he might end up reliving the moment in his nightmares, but he could not let it show that this bothered him at all.

He forced the feeling away and kept going.

“I don’t believe I mentioned what you should be wearing. But if you forgot to bring a swimsuit, then yes, you will probably have to head to the lobby in your uniform.”

Riho stared blankly at him, but Sanae clapped her hands together with a bright look on her face.

“He’s saying we can use that observation of the facilities here as an excuse to play around in our swimsuits.”

“You probably shouldn’t call it an excuse out loud. But hurry! There are a thousand of us in all, so the elevators are gonna be packed soon!!”

When Alice added that, Riho’s thoughts finally seemed to catch up. She frantically pushed her suitcase toward the elevators with both hands.

That settled things for now.

Once they all disappeared into the elevator hall, Karuta finally let out a long, long sigh. None of them meant any harm, but being exposed to all of their eyes at once was a living hell. That was just the one class, yet Student Council President Kyouka would address the entire student body. How could she do that with a smile? Was she just made of different stuff than him???

Sophia Firenze must have been delighted that she had avoided a breakdown of her class immediately after arriving because she bowed over and over with her semi-long flaxen hair swaying. Although that too was awkward for the boy who only wanted to be a student here.

“…”

A short distance away, he noticed Natalena Blast standing there silently without following the others.

He was curious about how she was standing there in her uniform and with her beret on her head.

And he had wanted some kind of reason to approach her anyway.

When he did, he grabbed the handle of her suitcase.

“I’ll carry that for you.”

“Y-you don’t have to do that.”

“Sacri-sama. Lonely kids do not know how to process kindness, so trying to help can actually hurt them and make them resent you. You must be on the lookout for hidden pride.”

“I am not lonely!! And I am not some child who does not understand kindness, so I will gladly accept your offer!!”

Natalena blushed and snapped back at Aine with tears in her eyes, but the crystal girl did not react. She was not even human, after all. Shouting at an ATM because you did not understand how it worked would change nothing about its politely-worded messages.

They had gotten a late start, so there was a long line waiting for the elevators.

When Karuta’s group joined the end of the line, his phone vibrated.

“Hirosuke> Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who’s that blonde cutie!? Aine-chan wasn’t enough for you!?”

“Yamanen> Wait, where’d that delectable teacher go!? How could you let her get away!?”

He immediately blocked them. Unaware of that interaction on his phone, Natalena looked up at him and pouted her lips.

“Have you…?”

“?”

“Have you ever seen the Threat? I mean, um, you did just give a speech about what would be useful in a fortress city.”

“I haven’t,” he readily admitted. Inside, he was surprised to find how dry his voice could sound. “But Anastasia said they do exist.”

“…”

“At that point…or rather, she was dedicated to the path of the strongest and gave no thought to the future, so I can’t imagine she was lying out of self-preservation or to trick us. We still don’t know what the Threat is, but cities, states, and countries are still disappearing. Even with the Problem Solvers gone. That means it was not all being faked by Anastasia and the other four.”

The Problem Solvers had been the worst, but if they had functioned as humanity’s defense against the Threat, then it was Karuta’s group that had destroyed that thick barrier and left nothing to replace it.

So now it was their turn.

Not even the God Worshiping Magic of the previous world’s strongest had managed to fully eliminate the Threat, so it was obvious that task would require significant power.

So.

They had to thoroughly train these children before that clash occurred. They had to be able to protect their own lives with the strongest power.

Karuta’s group had failed to do that when they were new students on the first ship, but they had to make sure it happened this time.

“Of course,” said Natalena under her breath while looking away from him. Almost like she was squeezing a broken protective charm in her hand. “My sister wouldn’t lie. She was one of the Problem Solvers who risked their lives to protect everyone right up to the very end.”

### Part 2

They changed in their hotel rooms instead of a dedicated dressing room.

“Don’t we need to go, Sacri-sama? Hurry up. Why are you hiding in the bathroom?”

“I’d love to hurry, so would you please put some clothes on, Aine!! That’s an order!!”

Aine normally closed herself up in a civilian spaceship shaped like a board or bamboo leaf, so she had claimed below the bed as her space here. But that must not have been enough room to change. Karuta had changed into his swimsuit (while pressing his full weight against the bathroom door to desperately fight back against her) and they eventually managed to head out into the hotel hallway and onto an elevator with their beach sandals slapping on the floor. This was a tropical oceanside resort, so it was not considered bad manners to walk around in a swimsuit.

The air-conditioned elevator was made of glass, but Karuta’s eyes were on his partner’s outfit, not on the scenery visible through the glass.

“Aine, why are you wearing a school swimsuit on an overseas trip? And that white one at that.”

“I will again reiterate that wearing nothing at all would be most functional, but since you insisted I wear one, I went with this as it was Miss Marika’s recommendation.”

“You’re weird.”

“Nhh.”

His blunt comment led the crystal girl to bow her head before ramming into him.

Those things on her head stabbed into him.

“Ow!? Wait, what are those two things on your head!? Are they hardened hair, or legit horns!?”

“Lady Kyouka also approved of this choice. Human tastes are a mystery to me, but she said it was the best possible choice. With a raised thumb.”

Karuta had to hold his head in his hands while driven into a corner of the elevator. Kyouka was definitely treating Aine like a toy.

“Well, as long as you don’t walk around naked.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s embarrassing.”

“…”

When they arrived in the 1st floor lobby, Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke ran away at full speed for some reason. Just as he wondered if he was finally experiencing the true loneliness of being the strongest, he heard someone speak to him in Japanese.

“Hey.”

It was muscular Kiyosawa Hadome.

That was apparently who had scared off the other boys. He really had issues with that.

“The class you are looking after is supposed to belong to Firenze-sensei. I know she came to you, but try not to steal her job as teacher.”

…

He fell silent and Aine tilted her head in confusion.

“Um, Sacri-sama. Is school a place of romance for the teachers as well? I do suppose their opportunities for meeting potential partners are about as limited as on a desert island.”

“Not so loud, Aine. Shh!!”

“Silence, both of you. She is the niece of a professor who helped me earn the tuition money I needed, so I need to help her however I can.”

That made sense to Karuta.

He now understood why this teacher was so concerned about that nervous female teacher. While kids like him threw everything into the two boxes of friendship and love, the adult world was more complex.

“You might think you are helping her, but if she stops trying to improve, she will have trouble running a classroom. So please do not rob Firenze-sensei of her opportunity to learn.”

“Understood, Sensei. I will be more careful.”

Even a child like him knew he had to give an immediate and direct response to this.

Kiyosawa quietly clicked his tongue and looked away.

“Also, this is an important trip for you too. You shouldn’t have to waste your time because of an issue with the teachers.”

“If you’re this considerate, how in the world don’t you have a girlfriend?”

“What makes you so certain I’m single!?”

The man was really mad now, so Karuta had to make a run for it.

He and Aine split up and ran toward the midsummer beach.

### Part 3

“Well, that doesn’t sound like fun. But are you sure you should be here, Karuta-kun? Marika-san spent a very long time choosing her swimsuit, so she might not be happy if you ignore her.”

That comment and a laugh came from sexy Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka.

Karuta was all sweaty. Splitting up with Aine had not been a smart move. The man had immediately locked onto him and attacked, so losing that mass of muscles had taken a lot of work. He realized now that sending Aine after the man to slow him down would have been the smart play.

“Ah, pant, gasp. So what are you doing there?”

“Artificial though this beach is, I would have trouble swimming with these legs. Still, I wanted to get into the beach spirit, you know?”

The upperclassman girl wore a black bikini and kicked her long legs like a child. The beach and palm trees below the powerful mechanically-created sunlight were pretty and all, but they two of them were not even close to the crashing waves. She was lying in a plastic kiddie pool with her legs sticking out since they did not fit. With her curvy figure, the kiddie pool and childish feet kicking created a guilty sort of imbalance.

But Karuta had not been asking about that.

“You didn’t answer my question. What are you doing there?”

“Not. Telling.”

She gave a different sort of smile with her index finger pressed against her lips.

The previous childish smile was now a bewitching smile with a maturity beyond her years.

“I’m intentionally doing this in secret, so why would I give the answer out loud? If you assume they will always appear in sunglasses and a black suit, you are sorely mistaken.”

So this was about that.

He could see why she had sent the other Student Council members away.

He knew she could not get them involved, but he secretly had trouble with the waves of jealousy the rest of the Student Council was sending his way.

Regardless, this topic meant he could change his mode as well.

Instead of the squeaky-clean public mode or the usual high school mode, he put on his mask of the true avenger who played dirty.

“ You mean they’re here ?”

“They’re like cockroaches. If you found a place in the world they aren’t , I would want to move there right away.”

That was enough to convince him. She had always been good with computers. He had wondered why she had a phone, a mobile router, and some other devices at the bottom of the water in her kiddie pool, but she was apparently busy gathering information. If they were everywhere, then she could steal their information no matter where she was. By placing that device there, she could use a quicksand app she had written to gather up the invisible signals flying through the air, decode them, and convert them into actual text and images.

Karuta’s group was facing a few different issues.

The most pressing was the chain of revenge being continued by Natalena Blast (almost certainly with the help of some sort of accomplice).

They also had to worry about the Threat and the global string-pullers who worked to profit even from the clash between the world’s strongest and the Threat.

Karuta was dealing with Anastasia’s sister, Natalena Blast.

But Kyouka apparently planned to do battle with a different part of the world.

He grabbed a carbonated drink in a can (which had become rare in Japan with the exception of energy drinks) from the pool water and took a sip while pretending to glance over at the seabirds flying through this enclosed sky.

“That’s in your hands, then.”

“Of course it is. So you go complete your job.” Omotesandou Kyouka placed a hand over her mouth and laughed. She turned in a different direction than him. “Young-looking Aine probably makes it easier for you, but it means a lot that you can infiltrate the middle school since even a single school year can feel like an impassable barrier. For now, try to keep their attention. Earning that girl’s trust would help everyone out.”

He glanced in the direction she was looking and then sighed.

That trio of girls was waving over at him in their swimsuits. The tanned and silver-haired girl hopping up and down in the center and waving with both hands was Riho.

He waved back and whispered too quietly for those three to hear.

“This isn’t easy, you know?”

“I imagine not.”

“I’m only a new student who arrived back in April. I can’t admit it to anyone else, but I only survived by pure luck. Who can say what happens if the Threat shows up here and now? But those girls innocently believe that I can protect them no matter what happens. Because I’m one of the world’s strongest Crystal Magicians.”

“Stop thinking of it as deceiving them. It’s a lot easier if you think of it as giving them hope.”

### Part 4

“They say Costa Rica alone has millions of different insects and other animals.”

“What are you talking about?”

Utagai Karuta frowned while the girls tugged on his hand and forcibly added him to their team, so tanned and silver-haired Riho laughed loud. She did not have any tan lines from a school swimsuit, so she must have had a full-body tan.

All this attention from a large group scared him.

But they were all ordinary people and he could remain relaxed here.

Or as relaxed as was possible while on a foreign beach with girls in their swimsuits. He saw only soft, healthy skin everywhere he looked. His soul would have been eaten away if he were not in his public mode. It was still plenty bad for his heart, though.

“Noah’s ark supposedly carried two of every animal, right? But how many would that be with just insects? That boat would’ve been crawling with bugs.”

“…”

That was not a pleasant mental image, but the swimsuit girl had a reason for saying this. A blue butterfly fluttered by in front of them and it landed on the hibiscus decorating Riho’s pink-colored drink. There were also hummingbirds coming to a stop in midair and quetzals with beautiful green feathers flying in the enclosed blue sky.

Needless to say, those animals were not native to the Arctic. The domes of the Crystal Beach could maintain this pleasant 28 degrees and less than 50% humidity even if nuclear war covered the entire world in a new ice age. Riho stepped back while opening her mouth wide and looking overhead.

“It’s just so incredible! Hot!?”

She gave a sudden hop, jiggling her small chest, because she had pressed her back against a large metal box. It was taller than she was, but it was not a vending machine. It contained one of the smoke exhaust buttons that were placed all around this enclosed dome.

Karuta sounded exasperated.

“This is supposed to be a tropical beach, so the sand and metal are going to be hot.”

“Why did they have to recreate that part of the experience!?”

Riho complained while Sanae pressed something against her back. It appeared to be a drink, but it was colorless. Was it that personal one she had made in cooking class where she only added a bit of salt to ordinary water?

Sanae tilted her head in a gentle way.

“If this system becomes more common, will they be able to create any environment anywhere in the world? Um, like underground, deep underwater, or at the top of Mt. Everest?”

“And outer space too.”

Alice apparently had more of an imagination than Sanae, but Karuta made sure to anchor them to reality as soon as possible.

“The tech isn’t that all-powerful. First of all, it uses a massive amount of energy. Supply that with ordinary petroleum and supplies will dry up in no time.”

“Wait, then how do these ones exist???”

“An obvious but good question, Riho.”

Her Crystal Blossom’s communication must not have been enough for her because Riho had two phones strapped to her thighs, so maybe he should have complimented her for facing the question herself instead of immediately searching for the answer.

“Iceland is one of the world’s most volcanic countries. It’s a treasure trove of hot springs and the heat of the endless magma bubbling up from underground spins the turbines.”

Karuta pointed toward the ground.

This was an artificial island, so he was actually pointing much further down than that.

“If you wanted to build a similar-sized facility underground or on the ocean floor, it would need to be at a location with plenty of geothermal energy to absorb. But at the same time, it would have to be in a safe zone that would not be caught in earthquakes or in volcanic blasts. Access to the energy doesn’t help you much if a large eruption wipes your city off the map like Pompeii or Saint-Pierre. Meeting both conditions is easier said than done. And outer space would be even harder.”

“Ehh? Yeah, there’s no magma up there, but wouldn’t sunlight provide endless energy?”

“The solar panels wear out, Alice. The sunlight in outer space is very powerful since it is not weakened by the atmosphere and various types of debris will wear down the surface of the panels like a sandstorm. A solar furnace that uses a bunch of mirrors to focus light on a single point, raising the temperature to around 3000 degrees, would be more realistic, but I doubt even that would work. And in a spaceship, you would have to worry about other resources than energy, like air, water, and food.”

“Hmm?” Alice placed a finger on her slender chin and stared up into the artificial blue sky. “Then wouldn’t the moon or Mars be good?”

Her imagination was harder to deter than he thought. There would be other bottlenecks for developing these facilities on other celestial bodies, but discussing that would be straying too far off topic.

“This is off the record, but you will probably be asked to submit a report on the final day of the trip. If you’re afraid you’ll get too caught up in playing on the beach to remember everything you’ve learned by then, I recommend using your phone to record everything that catches your attention. Take short videos instead of photos, record your own voice, and keep the location data for where you filmed it. That will make it a lot easier to bring it all together later on.”

“For real!? Those thoughtless teachers are going to force us to finish off our trip with schoolwork!?”

He nearly said “well, it is a school field trip”. This had given them an excuse to have lots of fun out here, so he felt like they should thank those theory-focused teachers.

“Um,” whispered Sanae while shrinking down. “Should you really have told us that?”

“I don’t see why not. It’s traditional for upperclassmen to teach their underclassmen what will be on the test . You might not interact with other years much in class, but clubs and committees are a different story, right?”

Of course, Karuta and Marika had been hit by the First Out Incident before they could experience any of that themselves. He honestly did want to experience that school life he never thought he would return to.

Riho put on a mischievous smile.

“Hehh heh heh.”

“?”

“I notice you made sure to tell just us in secret. I see what’s going on here, Senpai. We’re your favorites, huh?”

“I never said I was only telling you. I know if I let a few of you in on the secret, word will get out in no time.”

“Not happening. We’re keeping this to ourselves to make all this easier for us!”

She was like a selfish princess, but he could not help but laugh. He was actually fond of that way of thinking. You learned how the rules worked and then took advantage of them. That was exactly how he had managed to take on those monsters he never should have been able to defeat.

“Then how will you stop me from telling some of the others?”

“We just have to pin you here.”

Riho grinned and left her hibiscus-decorated drink with a nearby salesperson.

Then she grabbed a plastic ball she had bought cashless.

“Sanae, Alice! Surround him! We just have to play with him so much he’s too exhausted to say a thing!!”

### Part 5

The sunset had to be artificial.

Sunsets and sunrises worked different from normal in the Artic. At around June, they would experience the midnight sun where the sun never set throughout the night, but the beginnings of that effect should have been showing themselves now.

Also, all of the Crystal Beach’s facilities were covered by domes of varying size. They looked clear at first glance, but even the earth’s atmosphere bent the sunlight to create the blue of the midday sky and the orange of sunset. If the sunlight could be adjusted using electronic polarization technology, the sky of morning, noon, and twilight could all be reproduced. You could even program astronomical events that did not exist in nature.

Amaashi Marika’s strawberry blonde hair swayed as she killed time at a beachside open-air restaurant. It was a lot like a larger version of a gazebo since it had no walls on any sides to allow the wind through. She wore what looked like a racing swimsuit, except it had a large hole in the stomach area. Some might have thought it looked a lot like she was wearing only black belts.

Couples were common here, so not even Karuta wanted to approach her without Aine with him.

“Sorry. I got held up.”

“I could tell. I’ve been waiting here forever.”

Karuta apologized while sitting down at the next counter seat and she responded while boredly sipping at the straw in her bright green mixed juice made from melon, kiwi, and more.

And…

“Uhh.”

“Hm? What’s wrong, Aine-chan? Not that you talk much normally.”

Aine was refusing to look Marika in the eye. The childhood friend tried to peer up at the crystal girl’s face from below, but she hid behind Karuta. Finally, she spoke up in a vanishingly quiet voice.

“Miss Marika, why are you showing off so much skin? Is it for venting heat or cutaneous respiration?”

“You’re wearing a swimsuit too, Aine-chan. Wait, why won’t you look at me either, Karuta?”

“Well, um, that…doesn’t leave much to the imagination when viewed from the side.”

“Of course it doesn’t. This is an overseas trip, so we’ve got to make the most of it. Oh? What’s this? Feeling a little overexcited about your childhood friend’s unexpected growth, Karuta-kun? Wah hah hah!”

Meanwhile, the crystal girl thought for a bit and asked a question.

“Are you saying I too am wearing something embarrassing?”

Karuta and Marika exchanged a glance.

This was odd. Aine of all people was feeling embarrassed ? Karuta recalled that he himself had said being naked was embarrassing back on the elevator.

Was she learning?

That inhuman dummy had never shown any sign of doing that before, but was that an option now!?

A bright light pierced vertically through Utagai Karuta’s body. He could guide her down a path different from that overly open Marika and different from Kyouka who was willing to show some skin in order to tease the boy in front of her.

He grabbed Aine’s small hands and held them between his own.

“You don’t have to be like that nudist childhood friend or that mature devil of a Student Council President!! You can be an honest, modest, and above all sensible girl! Aine!!”

The shameless curly twintails girl smiled and whispered her own message to the crystal girl.

“Aine-chan, Aine-chan. Don’t let him trick you. Try sleeping in the nude once and I promise you you’ll never go back.”

“No, don’t you drag her into your world!! I have a responsibility to raise her right! She needs to be a proper lady with a sense of shame!!”

During the childhood friends’ strange discussion, Aine circled behind Karuta to use him as a shield against the overly exposed girl. Then she “stored” herself inside his back without a word.

“Oh, she ran away.”

“That’s far better than you giving her some weird habit of stripping. Anyway, let’s get down to business.”

Karuta ordered a soda and some fries.

“So how’d it go?” he asked.

“Did you expect anything to happen? Even the ocean is enclosed in this artificial beach, so it’s not like Hawaii or Guam where man-eating sharks can be lurking around.”

His childhood friend pointed at a small figure with her chin: Natalena Blast.

She rested her head in her hand.

“Are you sure you should have left her alone? She seemed pretty reliant on you. All she’s been doing all day is collecting shells and kicking at the waves. You could have at least sent Aine-chan in to tease her or something.”

“This was necessary.”

“You’re not very nice.”

That was not a very nice thing for her to say. When pushing didn’t work, wasn’t it the Japanese tradition to try pulling, based on the legend of Amaterasu?

“To make things very clear, I do not want that girl to die. No matter what. I don’t care if she can resent me as long as she’s alive.”

“…”

“But I also know that you and Omotesandou-san can only accept so much. I mean, she’s said herself she wants revenge against us, so it’s natural to not want that threat around. So I want to get her to open up as quickly as possible. I said no matter what, right? So I’ll do whatever it takes. Playing dirty is my specialty.”

“I am aware of that.” Marika re-crossed her legs in an irritated way. “Since staying by her side didn’t change anything, you’re trying to make her feel lonely so she’ll realize she needs you, right? And once that balloon is full to bursting, you’ll approach her again. Once a slight prod of a sharp needle can make it pop, you can keep the costs to a minimum.”

She made him sound like a con artist, but they had no real requirement to bring Natalena to their side.

If it was too much trouble, there was always Marika’s murder plan and Kyouka’s torture plan.

That might not tell them anything about the accomplice who had given the young girl information on Anastasia’s death and arranged a false identity she could use to take revenge, but they would at least eliminate the immediate assassin.

But he would not let that happen.

Maybe it was cheap and maybe it was a dirty job, but he was struggling to make a connection with Natalena.

He had said himself that she could resent him as long as she remained alive.

“You’re too soft.”

“Sorry.”

“No need to apologize. I’ve accepted that you’re just the kind of person who won’t kill for no reason. I mean, even back then you weren’t willing to harm anyone unrelated to our revenge and you even showed signs of trying to save the Problem Solvers.”

“I…”

“Again, this isn’t criticism. I’m just confirming what I already know.” She took a sip through her straw and she asked what sounded like a pure question. “So tell me this: is it really possible to take the weapon away from someone intent on revenge? I mean, it sure as hell wasn’t possible when it was me . Same for Aine-chan and the President. Once we got started, you were the only one who was shaken at all.”

That may have been why she was asking.

She peered into his eyes as if hoping he could provide the answer since she could not figure it out herself. It was actually a very pure look.

“Well? You would be hard pressed to find more obvious villains than those five, but if they had used some kind of idealistic argument to get you to stop your inconvenient revenge, would you have agreed even though you had a legitimate reason for revenge?”

If he said no, it raised questions about the effectiveness of his efforts here and now.

But if he said yes, it raised questions about how they had seen their revenge through to the end and killed those five. If they could have given up, then none of it had needed to happen.

“That’s a tricky question.”

“I’ll give that answer 50 points.” Marika was blunt but smiling. “But that’s not a failing score. I would’ve punched you if you gave an immediate yes or no.”

### Part 6

“Youch!! Th-that stings!”

“Hmm, you might have a sunburn. I thought these were bright IR lights, but they must have UV in them too.”

“Whew. I never thought I’d get to soak in a hot spring after traveling all the way to Europe.”

That trio of girls could be heard beyond the wall. Karuta had heard the hotel had a large bath, but he had not expected it to be open air. Hot springs were found the world over, but this place may have imported the Japanese style.

It was night and Karuta was of course not in the women’s bath. He was on the ordinary walking path on the other side of the tall wall around it. Tomorrow, they would spend the morning on their field trip activities and the afternoon would be free time, so he was helping the nervous female teacher preview those field trip activities.

“Why me?”

“Eh, eh heh heh. This is so much easier with you around, Utagai-san.”

“I get that what you call me changes when you get anxious, but I really don’t want a teacher being that formal with me. It makes me feel like I’ve become some permanent fixture in the school after being held back year after year.”

“S-sorry!!”

She bowed at 90 degrees and apologized, but that was exactly the kind of thing he wished she would stop doing. Wished a lot.

He recalled what that muscular track suit teacher had said. She was asking him for help, but if she stopped trying to improve, she would have trouble running a classroom. That was exactly right.

But anyway.

“It would probably be best to create a simple quiz and have them visit different facilities themselves, similar to a scavenger hunt. Turning the lesson into a game is the best way to hold their interest.”

“Th-thanks so much.”

“You would need to word the questions in a way that forces them to see the things for themselves to answer them and you need to warn them not to search on their phones. At our age, we’ll put a lot of effort into not having to put in much effort.”

“S-so should I have everyone shut off their phones?”

“You can tell if they turn them on by monitoring the GPS location transmitted by the phone, but…hm, they can shut off the GPS in the settings or for a specific app. For this, you should probably gather up everyone’s phones for the duration of the lesson, like they do in gym class. You would also need to send teachers to keep an eye on the sample phones at the stores and the rental ones at the hotel.”

“At the hotel?”

“Renting them out is a convenient service since they can translate, provide maps, call a taxi, make reservations at restaurants, provide walking times to tourist destinations and religious institutions, and even stream adult content. No one uses the pay-per-view on the room’s TV these days.”

“Bfff!!!???”

Sophia Firenze blushed bright and did a spit take before he had finished his explanation.

That theory-focused teacher who spent all her time at a desk had quite a few weaknesses.

But had he always been this kind of person? He had surprised himself with that joke. Was it the age difference that let him act more openly? He knew he never could have said that with Marika or Kyouka. In fact, he was generally the one being teased by the girls his own age.

After parting ways with the teacher, he bought some plain soda water at a vending machine near the hotel. It was so hot he had a hard time believing this was an Arctic night, but that heat had left him thirsty. He had stuck to sweet drinks during the day, but he was starting to think he needed to watch his sugar intake.

He opened the bottle and took a sip before seeing a familiar face.

It was Natalena Blast.

She was not wearing her swimsuit anymore. However, she must not have been careless enough to wander outside in her pajamas, even if this was a relatively safe tourist location. She was wearing her purple blazer uniform, just like he was. But why was she walking toward him? He soon realized what must have led to this.

He could still hear those noisy middle school girls from beyond the wall.

If he could hear them, they may have been able to hear him.

“Senpai.”

“Buying something?”

She shook her head.

“Come over here anyway. If that muscular teacher on patrol sees you here, it won’t end well.”

“…”

She was drawn toward the light of the vending machine like a butterfly to a bright light. She stood next to him while he drank his soda water and she leaned against the vending machine. Since she had just left the bath, a sweet scent wafted from her nape.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said.

“About what?”

“I don’t think you’re a bad person.”

She sounded certain.

He just about smiled hearing it.

“I still count as a good person after killing 5 people?”

“A good person can be in a situation that requires killing 5 people. Isn’t that the story?”

It was.

But he had felt like he could not push that interpretation onto her.

She was Anastasia Blast’s sister.

She had a legitimate reason to seek revenge.

“I know you aren’t the kind of person who would give up on someone’s life if you didn’t have to. So if you did kill someone, you must have had a reason strong enough to warrant it.”

Both her small hands clutched tightly at her skirt as she forced out the words.

She seemed like such an awkward girl to him. This would be so much easier for her if she did not even consider his circumstances. She could have gone through with her revenge just fine if she just killed him because she had a reason to do so.

Just like his group had.

She really was not the type to do bad things. That put her in a lot of danger, but he was also honestly jealous.

“But…but I just can’t reconcile that with the sister I knew. It doesn’t fit! The Anastasia Blast I knew fought to protect everyone from the Threat! She was a strong person who dedicated her entire life to that!! She wasn’t the cruel mass murderer people are making her out to be in the news!!”

“…”

“So please tell me.”

Her lips formed the words “power up”.

He stepped away from the vending machine upon hearing a series of bending sounds.

She had activated her Crystal Magic armor while leaning back against the vending machine, so the sharp armor jutting back from her small body had torn the metal vending machine apart.

This was Anubis, God of Judgment.

The same god once used by a certain strongest.

“ Show me who you were when you faced Anastasia Blast. Show me your anger, your fear, your joy, and your justice!! If I can see the look in your eyes then, I know I can understand. Because I’ll see my sister’s true face reflected in the crystal ball of your eyes!!”

He let out a soft sigh and tossed the half-empty bottle of soda water in the trashcan next to the vending machine.

With both hands free, the latest form of the world’s strongest whispered his answer.

“If you insist.”

He had a belligerent smile on his face.

It was the same smile he had hated more than anything when seeing it on someone else’s face.

### Part 7

Marika clicked her tongue while leaning against the other side of a palm tree about 400m away.

“If you insist? What is that idiot thinking?”

Voices would only reach around 150m outdoors, but that did not apply to Crystal Magicians. She had used a method similar to how sailors used to raise their collars to make sure they could hear their crewmates during a storm. And crystal armor allowed for a much higher level of audio collection.

However, her phone received a call with perfect timing.

She clicked her tongue before even covering the backlight with her hand and checking the screen.

“Marika-san☆”

“Now it’s you!? God, does everyone know exactly what I’m thinking!?”

“Bringing a mobile device along when you plan to kill someone is a no-no. So what’s this? Are you so starved for information your Crystal Blossom alone didn’t feel like enough?” The Student Council President laughed. “Also, don’t get all bent out of shape over this. Your actions are trivial to predict because you care about those on your side so much. Anyway, no sniping here, okay? Do that and Karuta-kun will cry.”

“…”

“See, that’s enough to stop you. That’s all I need to tell just how much you care about us.”

“Shut up.” Marika pouted her lips. “Noticed anything else?”

“You mean like that muscular teacher who’s still busy patrolling around outside, or those three middle school girls spying on this from the gazebo? I wonder what those three were doing out here. Were they going to invite Karuta-kun to do some fireworks but Natalena beat them to the punch?”

Marika looked up instead of toward any of the mentioned people. Only so many locations would give you a view of Karuta, Marika, the patrolling teacher, and those three girls. And sure enough, she saw someone using a hand mirror to peek out from an unnatural gap in the curtains.

“Room 2801. A corner room, huh? Based on the lighting, is that a bathroom?”

“Oh, you noticed?”

The President could not use much in the way of Crystal Magic and she used a wheelchair. If she really was up on the 28th floor, it seemed like she would have no way of stopping Marika from taking a sniper shot, but Marika decided it was best not to underestimate that girl. After all, she had taken out one of the Problem Solvers all on her own.

Marika sighed.

“But he’s at a disadvantage in a one-on-one fight. He doesn’t have any armor to wear since Aine fully separates from him. She only has to concentrate her fire on the soft flesh visible in front of her.”

“Yeah, about that.”

“?”

It was unusual for that black-hearted President to hesitate to speak.

But that was not what this was. Marika belatedly realized the girl was pausing for effect to further enjoy this.

“I really doubt he’s going to use Aine-chan here,” said Omotesandou Kyouka.

“What?”

“Yes, Madam Guest. Miss Kyouka and I are taking turns washing each other’s backs.”

“Bfff!?” spat Marika.

Why had she just heard Aine’s emotionless voice over the phone? She had seemed embarrassed of her swimsuit during the day, but bathing with another girl must not have been an issue. However, that was not the real problem here.

“Wait!! You mean Karuta really is on his own!?”

“Yes, he is empty. Aine-chan is not within him, so he should have no way of fighting.”

### Part 8

After several heavy metallic sounds, two translucent ski-like units appeared out of thin air and attached to Natalena’s feet. They were not actually skis of course. Since she had chosen Anubis as her god for Crystal Magic, this had to be some related symbol.

That god was symbolized as a dog or jackal and his stories did indeed involve a long, rod-like tool.

(Scales?)

Karuta could guess that was what these were, but he could not tell how they would be used to attack. Were they like the catapults used to fling large rocks that would bring down medieval castle walls?

(Anubis judged the souls of the dead and the result of that judgment was shown by the tilting of the scales.)

“Please, Anubis.”

Was this how she began the process? She went out of her way to speak to the god whose name was sealed inside the small circuit board. Just like the former world’s strongest who had beseeched their gods to bring about miracles.

“You were the one and only god my sister relied on! So please give me the power needed to save her soul!!”

The calendar based on Anubis provided an understanding of the occult atmospheric pressure. The two skis suddenly opened up like fans on the front and back. This created a total of 16 crane arms or spider legs. Thin wires were rapidly ejected from the ends of those legs. At the ends of those wires were objects not quite like metal jaws and not quite like metal flowers. Due to seeing the arms like crane arms, Karuta saw them like grab buckets that used 8 movable parts to grab grains or coal from a cargo ship.

(They grab, lift up, and swing around.)

“I get it!!”

Just as the boy groaned that, the wires thrown in completely different directions began to move like they had a mind of their own. The grab buckets bit at and grabbed a giant rock, an electric cart for the walking path, and the crushed vending machine.

The grab buckets were only the size of golf balls, but they spread out to the size of a small dog’s jaws and bit into the surface of their target.

They grabbed everything that would function as a blunt weapon and swung them around.

Some were swung vertically like a meteor falling from the heavens.

Some were swung horizontally like an axe felling a large tree.

She seemed to have forgotten about her short skirt as she sometimes made a large roundhouse kick, sometimes kicked up high or dropped her heel back down, and sometimes placed her hands on the ground to smoothly cartwheel to the side. Each time, all that mass created a raging storm of motion.

It was too elegant to call martial arts, but too savage to call ballet.

“I’m not done yet!!” she roared as something odd happened.

She grabbed more things, but these clearly followed a different set of rules. A single grab bucket pulled out a cube of sand more perfectly formed than a shipping container and another lifted up all the water in a nearby fountain. The size of the buckets was irrelevant.

He had forgotten that this was magic.

(Yeah, this is what I should’ve expected from Anastasia’s sister!!)

This covered solids and liquids. He did not know how much more Natalena could do, but this was plenty on its own. Most likely, she could grab all of the moisture from the air to create 0% humidity that would sap his strength, or she could pull up a building at its foundation to topple the entire massive structure.

It did not matter if any individual attack was intercepted. Her strength was found in the near limitless supply of weapons she had. The only way to cut her off from her ammo was to throw her out into the vacuum of space.

Anubis was a god of judgment.

No matter how many of the dead were lined up before him, they were humans and he was a god. He would never compromise in his judgments due to their numbers. A single god could overpower countless numbers of the dead and force them to obey his rules. That was how it was meant to be.

However…

“You still have a long way to go.”

“?”

“This is efficient, I’ll give you that, but maxing out efficiency isn’t how the strongest does things . The real world’s strongest is more wasteful and pours in resources on an absurd scale without even thinking about how much they’re using. They use such an insane amount that you don’t even know how to process what you’re seeing!!”

Karuta smiled and stuck a hand into his blazer uniform. He pulled out a thoroughly modified military flashlight. It was strong enough to use as a club, but that was not what mattered here.

The light had been replaced with a powerful laser emitter. With the amp on the back and the kind of diffusion lens used in laser printers, it could be made to send out a wedge of truly blinding light.

Pain in the eyes was a unique thing. It was not something you could suppress or ignore.

“Gah!?”

“Your scales are admittedly powerful.”

Having one of her eyes taken out temporarily must have thrown off the girl’s depth perception.

Karuta rolled to the side to dodge the boulder she dropped from above and the electric cart sweeping in horizontally was deflected upwards when it crashed into the boulder embedded in the sandy beach. The masses of sand and of water were similar. He just had to make sure his vision was not obscured by what remained after they burst like balloons.

“But whether you’re using a solid or a liquid, morning stars work by gathering up strength as you swing them around , so it takes some time before they actually hit. Giving me time to see them and think about them is a critical flaw. At the very least, Elicia, Yukino, and Anastasia had eliminated any such openings. Even if it meant burning through earth’s resources all on their own!!”

A quiet cracking sound followed.

Crystal Magic would heal any non-fatal wound in 30 seconds.

But that also meant it took 30 seconds for even the smallest injury. If they were attacked again in that time and the crystallized part was shattered, it would never recover.

So she could not use one of her eyes for 30 seconds now that the laser had injured it, causing it to crystallize. Not many people could shake free of the fear of permanently losing an eye in order to take immediate action.

“Ahhhh!! Senpai!!”

The scales that resembled crane arms or spider legs began to squirm.

Natalena swung in several more flails while she performed flips and cartwheels. She grabbed a great mass of sand to create a landslide and she grabbed some water to swing around a highly pressurized liquid, but Karuta kept his cool. Natalena Blast lacked the curse-like intimidation that her sister Anastasia had demonstrated.

If you were only strong enough to cause external damage, you could not bind anyone.

In other words…

“You’ve lost your depth perception without that eye. Your attacks might be powerful, but they’re entirely meaningless when you can’t aim properly.”

“!?”

Was that enough for it to all crumble away? Was non-strongest magic really that fragile?

“And Crystal Magic isn’t all powerful. I know that all too well since we so thoroughly lost to God Worshiping Magic that one time. Our magic is a flawed thing that can be defeated any number of ways if you know what you’re doing!!”

He did not hesitate to walk forward through the horizontal and vertical storm of blunt weapons. Her depth perception was shot, but that did not mean she could not see him. A single hit would crush him or bisect him, yet he showed no sign of fear.

“Then…”

How frightening did that make him to the small girl who only had this ?

“Then!!”

“Are you going to fly? Yeah, I suppose that would be your safest bet.”

By the time he spat out the words, she had already spread out her armor and flown straight up. Invisible sails caught the occult high and low pressure fronts. He could not use the flight Preset, so vertical distance was much safer for her than horizontal distance. And once she was up there, she could obliterate him with a unilateral aerial bombing.

She had much more freedom of motion in midair. She could rotate her body vertically or horizontally and build up plenty of centrifugal force in the blunt weapons.

But it was her and not Karuta who grimaced.

“You thought you could fly without depth perception?”

“Oh, no.”

“And in this domed Crystal Beach no less. Crystal Magic flight has acceleration surpassing that of a fighter plane, so you’ll crash into the ceiling in less than a second at max speed.”

Crystal Magic had to be used very differently indoors and outdoors.

With the tall palm trees, taller buildings, and the C World dome itself, this Crystal Beach was full of obstacles. This was not the open sky where she could fly around as she pleased.

While she immediately applied the brakes and tried to come to a stop in midair, Karuta took just three steps to the side while looking up at her. A metal box the size of a vending machine stood unnaturally up from the sandy beach.

Those devices were unique to this place. They were only needed in this enclosed environment.

The label called it a “fire prevention emergency smoke exhaust device”.

He only had to slam down the added amp on the back of his flashlight.

The reinforced glass of the safety cover broke and he pressed the large button within. Immediately, a portion of the translucent ceiling opened and the pressure difference set the air in motion. Just like water drawn into a drain, an artificial blast of wind blew toward the ceiling.

Natalena spun around.

She had already been unstable while stopping so rapidly, so she was completely swept away by this unexpected gust.

“Here’s some advice for free.” Karuta was calm enough to tap the flashlight on his shoulder. “Your greatest attack is that makeshift morning star made using the wires and grab buckets, but you can still get tangled in those wires yourself.”

“Ah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

She fell.

But she did not slam into the ground, crystallizing her entire body.

The many thin wires caught in the branches of the palm trees that decorated the sandy beach and her small body ended up suspended and swaying side to side like a bagworm. A normal human would have been squeezed to the point of tearing their body apart, but she had the blessings of Crystal Magic. She was protected by the translucent armor and the barrier-like spatial vibration field and any parts the wires did dig into were quickly crystallized for the regeneration process.

These wounds would heal.

Because she could use the latest form of magic.

“Now, then.”

“Kh.”

Her shoulders shook while she swayed upside down in the air.

He had not been her superior in Crystal Magic. He had surpassed her on the more fundamental level of thoughts. And he still had the fighting power known as Aine on top of this.

He put his hands on his hips and looked up at the palm tree.

“So. How did you like our first sparring match ?”

Yes.

If no one died in a battle, it was not true combat. Just like mahjong and poker transformed into entirely different games when money was bet on them.

“Why?”

If he had lost, she might have killed him.

But there were tears of humiliation in Natalena’s eyes after being spared.

“Why didn’t you show me what you saw in my sister!?”

“Because this is what I saw,” he responded with a faint smile. “Anastasia was constantly fighting anyone who might become the next strongest. Day after day, she killed those challengers to keep her title as strongest, until that one day when she lost. Maybe the other four were different, but that was who she was.”

So to put it another way…

“That monster named Anastasia Blast wasn’t interested in anything other than being the strongest. She wasn’t even interested in fighting someone unless they might be the next strongest.”

“Are you saying she recognized your skill? Which is why she went all out and fought you!? Showing you a side of her I never saw!?”

“I have no way of proving it since I didn’t record it all or anything, but unlike Elicia and Yukino, I doubt she ever attacked anyone who did not qualify under her rules. No matter what. At the very least, she wasn’t a pathetic enough person to feel satisfied attacking the weak and defenseless.”

Of course, that was only the one-sided assessment of the person doing the attacking.

For Karuta’s group, who had everything taken from them out of the blue, the attack had seemed entirely random.

“Just like us, she only killed when it was necessary. And it isn’t necessary with you, Natalena. Not for me and not for her. So this is what I think she would have done if she was fighting you as you are now .”

“…”

The small girl bit her lip. Tears spilled from her eyes, but these were not fueled by humiliation.

Someone’s younger sister spoke quietly.

“This is…who my sister was? If people weren’t good enough for her, she made them feel this pathetic?”

“Yes.”

“She was my family. Are you saying I knew nothing about my own sister?”

“That I can’t tell you.”

That was a non-answer, but it was the truth.

He awkwardly looked aside as he said more.

“But learning the truth won’t necessary make you feel better. That’s what it means to be human.”

### Part 9

He was in a lot of trouble.

Utagai Karuta was forced to take a seat on the hotel hallway floor of all places while being lectured.

“Now, now, Karuta-kun. You should know better than activating the fire alarm when there isn’t a fire. You’re supposed to outgrow that in elementary school☆”

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka’s calm knew no bounds, but he could not look her in the eye. That attractive adult girl(?) was wearing a short skirt while seated in a wheelchair while he was seated on the floor, so the hem was at exactly his eye level. It was such a dangerous situation he did not have it in him to chat. She had the impeccable etiquette of a perfect adult, yet she seemed to have the unreadable compound eyes of an insect. Also, he found she wore a cute yellow color. That was a surprise, but it also made an odd amount of sense to him. What exactly was yellow had to remain a secret. Throw any more fuel on the fire and she really would kill him.

He was actually appreciative of muscular Kiyosawa Hadome here. The fact that this had been left with the President instead of the teachers like him showed a calculating side of that capable teacher.

“Wow, I hear Senpai pressed that button! We all wish we could press it, but he just goes and does it. Is he a spirit of adventure made flesh!?”

“We’re in a foreign country and we don’t know the local laws, so wasn’t he afraid?”

“There’s a fine line between brave and dumb, and I’m not sure which side of it he’s on.”

Kyouka glanced back over her shoulder and all the cracked-open doors in the hallway slammed shut. But Karuta could guess information was still spreading like wildfire via Crystal Blossoms and social media.

The President sighed.

“So how did it go? You had Aine-chan end it instantly the first time and you did it without Aine-chan this time, so does this mean Natalena Blast isn’t much of a threat?”

If he said she was not, would Marika and Kyouka be less insistent about how to deal with her?

He considered that, but abandoned the idea. If they found out he was lying, the pendulum would swing back in the opposite direction hard.

“No. She hasn’t realized how to use it yet, but that is incredibly powerful. ”

“Really?”

“At the very least, none of the Problem Solvers were this type of fighter. I doubt I, Aine, Marika, or you have anything like this either. It’s all so ill-defined, making it seem a lot like magic. That’s where its strength lies.”

“I see. I will keep that in mind.”

That was when he heard a creaking sound. And looked up at the ceiling.

“Was that the base isolation system? I guess they would have earthquake countermeasures in such a volcanic area.”

“Karuta-kun, don’t you dare use this an excuse to get up. There is a blizzard of -15 degrees outside, you know? Visibility is less than 10m and the maximum instantaneous wind speed is more than 40m/s. That’s at hurricane levels, so it isn’t too surprising to find some malfunctions in the C World dome structure.”

That was a scary thing to imagine. If a single crack formed in the translucent dome for some reason, the pleasant summer air would vanish and they would find themselves in a giant freezer. That would wipe out all the living things inside, including the humans.

Omotesandou Kyouka brushed back her hair in an exasperated way.

“What, did you think you didn’t play a role in that? You are the one who needlessly opened the smoke exhaust, which poses the largest latent risk. What was your plan if the automatic door froze open and refused to close again? Were we supposed to ball you up and shove you in the duct to keep the cold air out?”

“I’m sorry, Omotesandou-san!!”

### Part 10

The seeds of that silly discussion blossomed into toxic flowers the following morning.

It began at breakfast.

1000 people would not fit in a normal restaurant, so they had rented out an entire one-floor banquet hall.

The middle and high school naturally separated out into two distinct groups, but Karuta and the rest of the world’s strongest were also forced to sit at a table all their own. The Student Council Treasurer with the black bob cut and Secretary with her red hair worn in buns sat at a nearby table while giving Karuta a withering look of hatred, but Kyouka only smiled and stayed with his group.

The middle and high school students only mixed together when getting their food. Marika’s friend Imi used a finger and her eyes to send Karuta a warning as he passed by, so he looked over that way and saw…

“C’mon, all of you. You need to eat some vegetables.”

“Ehh? But this is a buffet where we can choose what we want to eat, Sensei.”

“And they have chicken strips! I’m gonna eat chicken strips until I pop!!”

Sanae, the black-haired bespectacled member of the usual trio of middle school girls, could not turn down the muscular track suit teacher’s high-pressure request and had her plate thoroughly customized. She had apparently been caught at the drink section while making her special drink by adding a pinch of salt to some water. She must have had trouble telling him no when she knew he meant well.

Karuta also overheard a conversation the food workers were holding. The ordinary guests who were not from Grimnoah were apparently all talking about catching glimpses of something outside the translucent dome.

And that something was looking in at them from the white blizzard outside.

“But no one can say what exactly it is,” said Marika with her strawberry blonde twintails swaying.

Karuta felt the large hotel’s buffet had a way of revealing people’s true nature. With a plate full of sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, and corn cooked in butter, Marika was going for a very powerful meal. And she ate it all with white rice.

“And isn’t it -15 degrees out there? What ever happened to that talk of global warming thinning the ice? I bet a polar bear could hibernate out here just fine.”

“Marika-san, um, where are your vegetables?”

“Eh? Corn’s a vegetable.”

Marika sounded legitimately puzzled as she shot down Omotesandou Kyouka’s gentle change of subject. Kyouka’s plate was only vegetables and fish, so no carbs to be found. This was an all-you-can-eat buffet and she was only eating a single small plate’s worth of food for breakfast. The two of them had excellent figures, but they had apparently developed their breasts in very different ways.

Aine was only interested in pure gold, so she had nothing at all on her plate. In fact, she seemed more focused on the golden shine of the knives and forks, but she stopped gnawing on them when she realized they were brass and not gold-plated.

“Sacri-sama, they were saying it is something inhuman wandering around outside, weren’t they?”

“We can rule humans out pretty easily anyway. A stray dog has a better chance out there than we do. Dogs use their fur to keep out the cold when pulling those sleds.”

It did not seem to be a wild animal, but it was not humans who had forgotten the wild either.

That had led to speculation from those laypeople.

“But do you really think it could be that?” Marika frowned. “Do you really think the Threat could be what’s watching us from the blizzard?”

They all fell silent.

It would be simple enough to deny it, but no one knew what the real Threat was.

Karuta wanted to ask Sophia Firenze who had created a possible model of them, but unfortunately, he did not see her nearby at the moment. That was not too surprising when over 1000 students and teachers were filling this single large space. It was an even larger scale than the average party.

“I don’t know.” Omotesandou Kyouka sighed while poking at her seaweed salad with a fork. “But true or not, those rumors could lead to unnecessary panic. And they may only be linking those strange gazes with the Threat because they’re seeing the Crystal Magicians who are meant to combat the Threat.”

Needless to say, a riot inside could cause a fire or destroy the C World dome’s walls just as much as an attack from the outside could. If there were signs of it, they had to put a stop to it.

“Umm.”

A girl hesitantly approached them.

It was Alice, the well-developed blonde ponytail girl from that trio.

“Have you seen Riho-chan? She was with us during the roll call before breakfast.”

She had probably intended to ask Karuta for help, but she was speaking a little more politely than usual. Marika and Kyouka must have seemed like more distant figures for a middle school girl.

“What, has she gone missing?” asked the boy with a frown.

“It’s a buffet, so I assumed she had gone to get some more food, but it’s been a while and she hasn’t come back.”

He could imagine that girl skipping class, but not a meal. This was a breakfast buffet at a luxury hotel, so it was unlikely she would try to sneak out in search of better food. Any of them could slip out if they tried, but she had no reason to. This did sound unusual.

He set down his knife and fork and stood from his chair.

He took a deep breath to secretly switch modes. He needed to be in public mode now.

“Where have you searched so far?”

“Nowhere really. Wait, are you saying this could be bad?”

“Aine,” he said to the pale-skinned crystal girl. They asked the receptionist at the banquet hall exit leading to the elevator hall since they would have the most information, but they only shook their head. They said they would have noticed any students walking out.

“Just to be safe, what special abilities does your Crystal Magic have? Could she have turned invisible or altered someone’s memory?”

“Riho-chan’s is Verdandi from Norse Mythology, so no, she can’t.”

“There are three of you and one of them uses Verdandi?”

“Ah ha ha. Bingo. I use Skuld and Sanae-chan uses Urd.”

The Crystal Blossom at Alice’s chest suddenly shattered and expanded into her armor. There was a lot of fabric fluttering in a risqué way. The translucent crystal formed armor and a miniskirt with feather-like decorations in places. It did make her look a lot like a Norse goddess. She did not seem to have a weapon, but the pointed parts of the skirt and feather decorations were apparently all sheathed short swords.

Karuta sighed.

“Watch out behind you.”

“Oh, whoops. Sorry, did I hit you?”

She apologized to a middle school boy while storing the armor once more.

The name of the god sealed inside the Crystal Blossom’s small circuit board could not be changed, but apparently even that could lead to friendships. That did explain why they seemed downright inseparable.

Anyway, if the receptionist was to be believed, Riho had not left the buffet hall.

Which meant…

Before Karuta could turn his head, a shrill scream exploded.

By the time he turned around, Kiyosawa Hadome was already running alongside him.

They ran over to find Sophia Firenze fallen to a sitting position. The track suit teacher grabbed her shoulders to support her and she seemed entirely unaware of all the students focused on them. Her flaxen hair was plastered to her cheeks while she held her hands over her mouth and stared at something with her eyes as wide as could be.

Her gaze was fixated on the bathroom door.

Kiyosawa started to move in that direction, but then he seemed to notice Sophia’s weight. He had said she was the niece of a professor who helped him earn tuition money. He was clearly having trouble deciding whether he should leave her there and go check or stay here with her.

Karuta hesitated for a moment too, so he went with another option.

“Aine.”

“Understood. Although I imagine you will be checking for yourself soon enough.”

With crystal sword in hand, Aine poked her head into the women’s bathroom and took a look around like she was peeking inside a shop she frequented. Then she turned back and emotionlessly beckoned him over.

“Well?”

“She is dead.”

She stated it so plainly he thought he had misheard her at first. The nervous teacher’s head slumped back at an unnatural angle, so Kiyosawa Hadome quickly propped up her body weight.

Meanwhile, Aine continued speaking in a mechanical way.

“Casualty report: One corpse was found with entire body crystallized. Based on the physical traits-”

“No…wait. What are you saying? That can’t be true!!”

Alice cut off the crystal girl with a shout. Sanae rushed over after hearing her friend’s voice, but Alice did not seem to notice.

She may have been afraid that letting someone put it to words would make it actually real.

But Aine did not even tilt her head.

“Based on the physical traits, this is almost certainly the individual we are searching for. The damage took the form of a large horizontal gash to the throat, but…”

She would not stop.

The way Aine spoke of it like an unexpected casualty during a mission may have helped reduce the shock, but it also did not treat a human life with the appropriate weight.

Alice grabbed Aine’s slender shoulders and shoved her out of the way of the bathroom door. She took a look inside and fell back onto her butt.

Just like she had run full speed into an invisible wall.

She had been rejected by that forbidden space and gained nothing from it. Despite her explosion of energy just now, her entire body went limp and her hands wandered slowly through the air. She more or less clung to Aine’s left thigh, but the crystal girl ignored her while continuing her mechanical report.

“But it does not appear to have been done with a simple horizontal cut. It looks like something applied force from both sides of her throat, like a pair of scissors. Also, I discovered this on the scene, so it is likely related.”

Aine held the tip of her sword out toward Karuta.

No, she held out the thing impaled there.

He asked about it without thinking. He had to ask.

“What is that?”

“Unknown.”

He heard a grinding or squealing noise.

Or was it a voice?

The thing looked something like a slipper-sized pill bug. Except this metal bug shined dully in the light and had large steel mandibles that were sharper than scissors. The tanned and silver-haired girl named Riho had crystallized, but her blood remained on the weapon. Those mandible blades shined a horrifically vivid red.

Weapon?

Was this a weapon?

Something flashed through Karuta’s mind.

What was it Anastasia Blast had called the Threat?

Yes.

A Metal-Derived Autonomous-Origin Higher Lifeform Combat Weapon.

“Aine, kill that thing.”

“?”

“Kill it now!! Hurry!!”

She only tilted her head.

And it was too late.

The windows in this large space gave a view of an artificial summer beach.

But all that was rejected by a deafening sound of destruction.

Someone had broken through the outer perimeter of the C World dome and the blue ocean froze over in an instant.

Since this one was small enough to slip through ducts and water pipes, it had likely been a scout meant to perform reconnaissance and sabotage. It was exactly the same as how human special forces would send in a small camera to check on the interior of a building before entering it themselves. Had Riho stumbled upon it by chance, so it had silenced her?

The main unit was waiting somewhere else.

What was it they had heard talk of this morning?

Something was looking into the dome from the fierce blizzard outside.

And people wondered if it could be the Threat.

Whatever it was had finally arrived. By destroying the foundation of this temporarily livable environment, they had taken the best possible action toward eradicating all life here.

Most likely, this was something inhuman working to destroy all that was human.

### Between the Lines 2

Toudou Riho.

Age at Death: 13 (Born April 13). Sex: Female.

Height: 145 cm. Weight: 38kg. Measurements…is that really necessary?

The first casualty of Second Grimnoah. On Sacri-sama’s orders, I scanned the women’s bathroom attached to the 6th floor banquet hall. The above individual was found collapsed face down by the sinks near the bathroom entrance. She died of blood loss or suffocation after her throat was slit by a sharp blade. Some uncertainty remains concerning the cause and time of death because her entire body crystallized, preventing standard forensic medicine techniques. Based on observations of the wounded area, it appears her throat was forcibly slashed from both sides at once by a set of two blades, such as scissors or a bolt cutter. Based on the severity of the wound, it will likely take 56 years for her to recover.

To reiterate, the time of death can only be estimated. Security camera footage of the bathroom entrance will likely be useful there. There will be no footage of the attack itself since cameras are not installed inside for privacy reasons.

The Sub Category Regulation 1 students noticed Toudou Riho’s absence at around 8:20 AM. Their homeroom teacher discovered her and screamed at around 8:30 AM. Assuming no trickery involving body doubles and assuming the entire group is not lying, we can assume she was killed in the women’s bathroom during that time.

Toudou Riho was not collapsed with her head pointed toward the exit. There was also no sign of her trying to crawl away and escape. Thus, I expect she was killed nearly instantly.

There were also some cosmetic products scattered across the floor.

The only other notable observation was the lack of any apparent damage other than the actual fatal injury. There were no injuries on her arms suggesting she tried to defend herself. The same applies to the women’s bathroom. There were no signs of a struggle on the floor or walls. The sink mirror and the frosted glass window were undamaged.

A unit we are tentatively calling a Mini-Scout Threat was found on the floor as well. The blood on it makes it almost certain its metal mandibles were used to tear open Toudou Riho’s throat.

Based on the circumstances, she likely had her throat slit in a single attack, giving her no time to resist. She must have lost all strength and died before she could activate her Crystal Magic or even scream. It is unknown how the Mini-Scout Threat got in, but as it is the size of a slipper, it had many avenues of entrance, including the toilet pipes and the air duct in the ceiling.

### 090. Chapter 3

### Part 1

(Stay calm. You need to think.)

Utagai Karuta shut his eyes and breathed deep. A middle school girl was dead, the dome had broken, creating an icy hell, and the Threat covered every inch of things beyond the blizzard. The damage was definitely spreading, but…

(This isn’t a bunch of unrelated trouble rushing in from all directions. Don’t let it overwhelm you. Keep an open mind. This is all one connected problem!!)

He opened his eyes again and viewed the reality out the 6th-floor window.

They were in the C World dome, a sealed space with a radius of 2km. The west side had been broken through and something like a fierce white steam was pushing in from there. It was similar to the white breaths leaving people’s mouths in the midwinter. The difference in temperature between inside and out was rapidly freezing the moisture in the air.

Eyes were visible beyond that expanding white curtain.

They glowed red and there was more than just the one pair.

In fact, they did not always come as mere pairs. The sizes, shapes, numbers, and relative heights all differed. They eyes staring back at them were so numerous they looked like sinister stars in the sky. At such long range, it was hard to judge the scale of this swarm, but their “legs” crushed the large tour busses on the side of the road like tissue boxes.

That meant the creatures were larger than that. Harder and heavier, too.

With a great roar, an 8-story parking garage was torn from its foundation and knocked over.

Being on the 6th floor was no reason to feel safe. If one of those charged at the building, they would be crushed immediately. There were sounds of straining metal and scattering sparks, but were those due to the legs and hard carapaces rubbing together within the white fog? This was what it meant to have no ground to stand on. With all this going on, they had no idea where to even begin, Crystal Magic or not.

The banquet hall they were using for their buffet had large windows on the wall, giving a perfect view of the approaching hell. The asphalt road was torn up, the palm trees were snapped, and straining noises could be heard before the identity of this enemy could be seen. The exterior of the window froze over and the white frost obscured their view.

“Uh,” someone groaned.

It was not Karuta. One of the male students viewing the scene out the window – if you could call it that when nothing was reaching his mind – screamed and ran for the exit.

It was a familiar face: his classmate Yamane Deiri.

“W-w-waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

“You idiot! Sensei, please stop him!!”

Karuta shouted over, but the female teacher was still seated on the floor. Her mind had yet to start moving again after running across Riho’s death, but she did not seem to realize this left her defenseless.

Kiyosawa Hadome started to get up, but then he stopped. He had not noticed, but Sophia Firenze was clutching at his shirt like a small child.

Due to the chaos, the childish action was terribly strong.

Her fingers were clenched so tight they had grown white and they refused to budge. Kiyosawa looked Karuta in the eye and then shook his head with a tongue click. Not even an adult could free himself from that grip so easily.

(Argh.)

“Aine! Don’t let this start a trend!!”

“You have not removed my nonlethal mode for Grimnoah residents. May I cut the target’s Achilles tendons?”

He ignored that question and instead grabbed a salt shaker from a table which he then tossed to Aine. She tilted her head before reversing her blade and swinging it like a baseball bat.

A clang rang out with the perfect speed and angle.

The shaker did not break, but it did tear through the air, crack fleeing Yamane Deiri in the back of the head, and cause him to trip forward. Karuta used that moment to drive his point home to everyone there, middle and high school alike.

(I’m sorry, Yamanen!! I’ll buy you a drink later!!)

“There are over 1000 people here, so trying to use the elevators and stairs like normal would clog everything up and we’d be stuck! Do you want to helplessly wait for death here!?”

The students who had started to get up from their seats froze in place when they heard that. Not many people would immediately agree to fight now that the Threat had shown up. But no one would stick with their escape plan if they knew it would mean being stuck here until they died a pointless death.

They had at most a few minutes and at worst half a minute until the clash began. If they did not come up with a plan by then, they would be attacked with nothing to show for it and the casualties would only grow.

Marika slipped away from Imi and Tayori to approach him and whisper in his ear.

“What exactly are we going to do? Hole up in here?”

Her breath was already visible in the cold.

The hotel’s central heating was still on and none of the windows had broken, but the indoor heating system was insufficient. Since the exterior of the windows had frosted over in a matter of moments, things had to be 10 or even 15 below freezing outside.

“That isn’t possible,” cut in the track suit teacher supporting Sophia. The cold may have been affecting him far more than the students in their uniforms. “We can’t stay here in this cold. And I don’t just mean the room temperature. The water pipes will freeze and the power circuits might malfunction depending on the type. If the switchboard goes out, the building’s power goes along with it!”

If they stayed here, they could not survive the cold. The necessary infrastructure would not last.

Besides, a fortress was not a defensive line. The defensive line had to be held in front of the fortress. There was no time for the preparations needed to hold off a large army, like setting up gun emplacements and laying a minefield.

So Karuta did not hesitate.

“We have to abandon the C World dome. The Crystal Beach has other domes, like A and B, so we can escape there and regroup. As long as we can keep the people safe, we can let the Threat rampage through the C World dome to analyze how they attack.”

“But how?”

He heard something heavy scraping along the floor.

Still sitting on the floor, Alice was looking up at him with Sanae supporting her shoulders. And she had her arms around the clear crystal that symbolized her dead friend.

That was what happened if they died.

No visual could have more vividly shown that.

“You said yourself there are 1000 of us. If we try to escape now, we’ll clog up the escape route and be stuck here!!”

“Normal people would, yes.”

Karuta had immediately stopped a male student from running across the floor to reach the elevators and stairs outside the banquet hall. If that set in as their best bet, it would create a meaningless struggle between the Crystal Magicians.

In other words…

“One of the Crystal Magic Presets is flight. As long as we coordinate things, you can all escape through all the windows on the walls.”

“Oh.”

“With more ways out than just the stairs and elevators, there won’t be any congestion. Flight is technically only taught to Regulation 2s, but you’ve all been practicing it in secret, haven’t you? We had been at your level. Who here can’t fly!? That’s nothing to be embarrassed of, so just ask someone nearby for help and grab on tight!!”

That set them all in motion.

The windows in the banquet hall did not open, so a flood of people rushed toward the hallway. The tickets for survival had just gone on sale and they were all taking it very seriously. All in all, the high school students were generally grabbing the hands of a middle school student to help them fly. But both age groups were new at this. Given their ages, the middle schoolers may have had more room for growth, but the high schoolers had more guts.

In truth, Karuta did not know what the right answer was here. He was only in high school too. But he knew how important it was to provide options for fighting, hiding, and escape and he knew that he could never say out loud that he did not know what he was doing. If the world’s strongest had thrown in the towel, everyone would panic.

“Alice! Take Riho with you!!”

“…”

“We can’t leave her here. She was lucky to only have her throat slit, so you can see her again in a few decades. But not if she’s caught in all this and shattered!”

“I’m…aware of that!!”

The blonde girl clenched her teeth, wiped away the tears, and picked up the heavy crystal statue.

She likely wanted to argue with his definition of “lucky”, but she still flew out the window along with Sanae. Giving her an objective, whatever it might be, had given her the strength she needed to survive in the face of this crisis. For Karuta, his ugly revenge had played that role.

“Sacri-sama.”

“I can’t fly. Neither can Omotesandou-san.”

“Then what shall I do?”

“You work with Marika, Aine. Yes, if you can, fly the waiters and cooks out of here. Omotesandou-san!!”

The President kept her confident smile even now.

Or had she decided now was not the time to let it slip?

“Oh? I could have escaped on my own.”

“When you have trouble getting out of your wheelchair on your own and need Aine’s help washing your back? C’mon, let’s go!!”

“Hee hee. I really wish the Student Council kids could show this kind of initiative. I had them escape ahead of me, so this can be our little secret. Otherwise, they would get all jealous of you again.”

“Is this really the time?”

“It is exactly the time. The normalcy of the standard rules is needed most after a casualty.”

Kyouka too called it a casualty.

Had she concluded that the military rules were the best format for rationally bringing order to human lives? Or she may have been more concerned than she let on that her heart was influenced by the shock of what happened. Just like motion sickness, there was no way to stop it once it started.

Karuta circled behind her, grabbed the wheelchair’s handles, and began running. He should not have been moving that quickly with someone in the wheelchair, but they had no time. Kyouka seemed to enjoy it like someone riding a makeshift thrill ride.

She grabbed the armrests tight and spoke up with enjoyment in her voice.

“This is the 6th floor, so is the elevator our next stop?”

“Do you want to get trapped inside? We’re using the stairs!!”

He snapped back at how she seemed to be testing him with that question.

He could already see his breath. The coldest he could imagine was 0 degrees Celsius, where puddles would freeze over, so it terrified him for the temperature to be dropping well below that. Even though this was not a snowy mountain in the winter. They were inside a well-maintained tourist hotel, even if all the hallway windows had been thrown open for their escape.

It looked like the dome had been broken through in more than one spot.

“They’re coming from this direction too?”

“You already knew we couldn’t stay here and defend ourselves, right? We have to abandon the C World dome.”

They had only been able to see out the one direction from the banquet hall, but the opened windows in the hallway showed another white curtain with many eyes lurking beyond it. The C World dome had been attacked at multiple points simultaneously, opening more and more holes.

Kyouka waved something toward him while he pushed her wheelchair toward the stairs.

It was a phone.

“The phones no longer have a signal.”

“You mean they destroyed the antenna tower or the undersea cable connecting back to the mainland?”

“Hard to say if they have that kind of intelligence, but this means calling for rescue is not an immediate option.”

The transmissions they could send with their Crystal Blossoms did not have infinite range, so they could not contact anyone on the other side of the planet.

On the other hand, this was Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah’s field trip, so if they were still gone after the scheduled return date, the world would quickly take note. The world’s strongest would make for valuable allies, so nations around the world would send out their armies to get in their good graces.

However…

“This trip was scheduled for all of Golden Week. We still have 5 days until our scheduled return date and I seriously doubt we can last that long out here.”

“Not to mention that I’m not sure what an army could really do about this even if they did notice we had not returned,” added Kyouka. “If this is the real Threat, then only the world’s strongest should be able to do anything about them.”

These were the source of the unnatural disappearances of cities, states, and countries in a single night.

The Threat.

They had finally shown themselves, but they would never have remained such a problem for so long if they could simply be bombed into oblivion by drones.

That was when a dull rumbling shook the entire hotel.

At first, Karuta cautiously glanced out the window, assuming the owners of those many eyes behind the white curtain had arrived at the hotel, but then the Crystal Blossom at his chest vibrated to produce a human voice.

This was apparently being broadcast to everyone and not sent to him in particular.

The speaker may have wanted to find some peace of mind in someone approving of his actions.

“This is Yamane. My Kagutsuchi bombing is working! Ha ha. Crystal Magic really is the world’s strongest. Ha ha ha ha ha!! I ain’t afraid of the Threat!”

“You dumbass!!”

But Karuta had to shout back at him.

They still had no idea what this opponent could do. The first time you saw an enemy, you had to escape to safety and let them reveal their hand. They could not predict what this enemy would do and they could not fly well inside the dome. Plus, Crystal Magic was not all-powerful against an unpredictable attack.

A moment later, Karuta’s retinas were fried by a lightning-like flash of light.

This was not just a laser beam.

As soon as something was launched from the ground, explosions scattered in every direction from a certain point in the air. The translucent dome had only been broken in a few defined points before, but now it was completely blown away. Shards rained down on the rapidly-freezing tourist city.

One space elevator method was to use a laser.

A powerful laser would be fired on the bottom of a container connected to a wire and the heat would cause a rapid expansion of the air that launched the container upwards.

This was a variation on that.

First, a small pellet made of some sort of heavy metal was launched into the air and then a powerful laser or electron beam was fired into that. And instead of directing the force in a single direction, the barrier of air was formed in all directions equally. The result was a spherical explosion. Enough energy to launch something into space was fully converted into lethal force. The destructive power had to be equal or greater to a thermobaric weapon.

The destruction was massive.

Karuta could not tell which flyer in the frigid sky was Yamane Deiri, but the several people there suddenly stalled and dropped like poorly-designed paper airplanes.

Their crystal armor shattered and arms and legs were torn from their bodies.

“!!!???”

“They might not be dead yet.”

Karuta clenched his teeth hard, but the President calmly observed the scene outside the open window.

“If they make sure to make an emergency landing on a building rooftop instead of falling all the way to the road, they can survive this.”

That was exactly what happened.

A different voice arrived over their Crystal Blossoms.

“Th-the person called Yamane-senpai was hit! Um, it will take 30 seconds for his wounds to heal, so we need to buy him time to withdraw. Someone fly in formation with me!!”

“Be careful. Was that a glass laser?”

“This opened up the space overhead. I don’t know about the laser, but the pellet looked like a normal metal bullet, so won’t we be safe if we keep away from that!?”

(Is that Sanae and Alice? This can’t be an easy time for them. I’m impressed how well they’re holding together!!)

This was not over yet. Yes, as long as the wound was not fatal, a Crystal Magician would heal in 30 seconds. Losing an arm or a leg was not enough to give up on their survival. That did not count as a casualty.

And their enemy here finally broke through the white curtain hiding them.

They were finally revealed.

What even were they?

Black metal.

Solid eyes glowing red.

They were different in size and shape to the pill bug that had killed Riho in a surprise attack.

Enough so that it was unclear why they even bothered with the element of surprise.

They were like scorpions larger than dump trucks. Except instead of the pincers used to protect the head(?), they had something like 5-fingered human hands opening and closing. The grooves running along the palms flashed with a disconcertingly wet yellow light. They were brimming with massive energy.

The thick tail was shaped like an airbrush, so did that launch the pellets?

And did the palms fire the lasers that hit the pellets to cause the explosive expansion of air?

Except that was just one of the designs.

Carnivorous plants the size of cars were crawling at the scorpions’ feet, opening and closing coffins as mouths. The entire swarm of creatures was entirely covered by giant ants with revolvers instead of their six legs. Some were like giant squids with their head, belly, or whatever you called the main part covered with gaping mouths lined with teeth like dentures. Did they directly bite things, did they send out ultrasonic waves that created some kind of omnidirectional barrier, or did they snipe things with pressurized water? Karuta could not even hazard a guess.

They had never seen any of these monsters before.

Just like with the Problem Solvers, ignorance was a terrifying thing.

A dark mass was rippling in from beyond the broken dome. Instead of a single giant unit, this had to be a different swarm crawling over the Threat that had already arrived. The total number was impossible to guess.

To save their allies who had stayed in the buildings to avoid being swallowed by the swarm, the students continued making bombing runs from the air. Some were shot down by the omnidirectional explosions caused by the scorpions, but others made accurate strikes from 10m above their targets to slam an explosive blast and clear glass shards toward them.

Some of the Threat were broken by this and others were not.

When one of them was broken, the rest of the swarm would walk right over the unmoving mass of black metal, crush it, and devour it. The surviving cannons and armor would be cannibalized while the swarm marched onward with no drop in speed.

Yes. This was not about defeating them or not.

The Threat remained a threat even after they were defeated.

“What the hell?”

Utagai Karuta had done his best to remain calm and act the veteran in front of the middle school girls, but he was really a freshman who had only arrived at Grimnoah at the start of April and this was his first time seeing the Threat. With no one watching, the mask quickly slipped.

“What the hell is going on!?”

“They look more mechanical than biological to me. They also seem to be strong advocates of recycling. Humanity could stand to learn a thing or two from them.”

Only that unfathomable President could remain calm at a time like this.

The Threat could not be entirely destroyed unless the entire swarm was destroyed.

Even if they walked across a minefield and marched straight into a hail of machinegun fire, only the units out front would be destroyed and the rest would customize themselves based on the surviving parts of the fallen. A desperate resistance would only create more powerful monsters that would easily trample on humanity’s military bases.

(This is worse than I imagined.)

There was a full swarm of them and they cannibalized their dead.

He had not known how frightening an enemy could be when they had no sense of self-preservation.

This was entirely different from the Problem Solvers who they had only needed to kill even if it meant mutual destruction. The more these monsters were defeated, the more powerful they would grow. This would explain why the insane firepower of Anastasia’s group had not been enough to fully eliminate this.

There were hundreds, thousands…no, maybe more.

(We can’t push them back with strength! Their attack types and parameters are up to us. If we go at this wrong, we could end up creating the ultimate monster that no one can hope to defeat!)

“But if we don’t fight, we’ll just be killed. …Okay, you need to get out of there once you finish regenerating! Some of them might be able to fly for all we-!!”

Karuta’s throat grew bone dry when he heard what sounded like an electric shaver but much larger.

Some looked like giant octopuses with red and green lights attached to their round bodies and with their sucker-attached arms spinning in alternating directions. Some looked like flying fish with razor-sharp pectoral fins and a metallic sheen. They borrowed their shapes from actual plants and animals, but they used their parts in entirely different ways. Countless shapes left the swarm and invaded the sky with movements reminiscent of coaxial rotors or surface-to-air missiles.

(Already!? They customize themselves and evolve to match their needs way too fast!!)

“Ksshh. Y-you make it sound like we are recklessly trying to prove ourselves.”

Someone else’s voice cut in.

He recognized it.

“Natalena!?”

“Everyone is trying to buy enough time for the ordinary people to escape. Um, uh, we think we might be able to distract the Threat from the ground by fighting back from up in the sky!”

Utagai Karuta fell silent for a moment.

Meanwhile, another transmission reached him.

“Listen, that blast might cover a massive area, but it’s only a shockwave. You can reduce the damage by hiding behind a building!”

“Wh-when hiding, make sure to look out for any of them that have fallen to the ground. You can stay out of view from the surface using the walls or ceilings at the top of a tall building.”

“The flying ones aren’t the most maneuverable things, so they can’t keep up with dogfighting alongside the buildings and end up crashing into the wall. I’ll show you what I mean, so you need to learn how to do this!!”

That was the teachers, Kiyosawa Hadome and Sophia Firenze. Their focus on theory left them without any combat experience, but they must have been hiding the trembling of their legs and putting on a courageous face to keep the students from panicking.

It was still possible to save them.

They could survive this and get back on their feet. They all believed it.

The Student Council President quietly clicked her tongue.

“They beat us to the punch. I know you, Karuta-kun, so I bet you were planning to leave the others and sabotage the boiler in the basement or something. That way the big explosion and subsequent fire would draw the Threat’s attention long enough for everyone to escape. No matter what you do, you refuse to get other people involved.”

The boy had no answer to that.

He only smiled and spoke under his breath.

“We’re all such idiots, aren’t we?”

But he liked what he was seeing. He enjoyed this recklessness. This seemed a far better use of Crystal Magic than flying around the world in secret to have revenge.

“Natalena, do the ordinary people have an evacuation route?”

“Um, yes.”

She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then she began her report. Had she decided now was not the time for revenge? Ironically, she may have been a lot like him. Neither one of them would get other people involved to accomplish their goal.

“According to a hotel worker I picked up along the way, the dome has a central heating facility used to keep the entire thing warm. Um, so in addition to the heaters in the individual buildings, there is another one for the dome as a whole. The central heating facilities for each dome are connected underground, so, um, well, that is apparently to ensure the dome can receive heat from another dome if its heater malfunctions.”

That was evidently insufficient when the entire dome had been blown away, though.

Still, they could make use of that.

“Once the heat supply extracted from the lava is cut off, it’s only a large tunnel. Um, if the workers, guests, and other ordinary people who can’t fly are guided through there to the adjacent B World dome, they should be safe from this army of the Threat!”

It was a decent idea. Far better than using any surface path. Marika, Natalena, and the rest may have been fighting primarily in the air to prevent the Threat from evolving into something that dug through the ground.

This of course required caution since it all went out the window if the Threat learned of the heat tunnels, but it was still better than flying around with ordinary people in their arms when they could be shot down at any time by the explosion produced from the heavy metal pellets and lasers. Unlike Crystal Magicians, normal people would die of blood loss if an arm or leg was blown off.

“Is there anything I can do?” asked Karuta.

“Do not head outside on the surface. And…”

Another explosive boom shook the entire 50-story hotel. Several beams of light shot down from the sky to pierce into the main road, primarily taking out the scorpion-like Threats that functioned as wide-range antiaircraft weapons using lasers and bullets. The person responsible zigzagged through the air to slice through some flying octopuses and flying fish with her rapier. She was handling the dogfighting in her spare time.

“Is that Amaashi Marika-senpai? She’s so powerful it’s probably best to just leave her be. What is with her? Um, she isn’t using the buildings as cover while approaching, so she’s staying exposed to their fire yet dodging those huge anti-air explosions while bombing them. I appreciate it though, since this is gradually bringing us closer to holding air superiority.”

“Oh, dear,” said Kyouka. “It looks like Marika-san’s berserker tendencies have been fully unleashed. Does she see herself as the adorable knight protecting you and Aine-chan?”

This was not entirely a good thing. Defeating the Threat here would only power up the next wave that would cannibalize their parts. That meant Threats other than the scorpions would have those pellets and lasers equipped. And those evolved versions would be even more powerful and precise.

The same could be said of the flying ones. The Threat had begun with coaxial rotors and missiles, but they would probably find that to be insufficient and soon begin devouring their crushed allies to evolve. That repeated optimization would continue on and on until they finally had the top speed and mobility needed to surpass Crystal Magic.

“Marika-san’s biggest flaw is how she gets so caught up in protecting things now that she forgets to consider what happens next.”

Either way, they needed a fundamental countermeasure here. For example, they could destroy the enemy so utterly no usable parts remained, or they could do something to prevent the scraps from being recovered. But what exactly that would be and whether it would actually be usable on the front line were entirely unknown.

“Anyway, um, if you can’t fly, you aren’t any help here,” said Natalena. “You need to take the President into the central heating tunnel!”

“Don’t push yourself too hard. You only have to buy us time, so we’ll prepare the evacuation route for you!”

When he ended the transmission, he found the President laughing for some reason.

“She’s such a good girl,” she said.

“…”

“We are the people who killed her sister, remember? If she really was prioritizing revenge above all else, she could have given us false information to isolate us so she could attack us in the confusion.”

Natalena was not that kind of person.

She was forcing the gears of revenge to turn right now, but they would stop once she found something more important along the way. She would set it aside and focus on what ever had to be done right now.

She could do that.

The title of good person definitely belonged with Natalena Blast. Karuta’s group had failed to do that. They had prioritized their revenge no matter what it would have meant for the rest of the world.

They had lacked the courage to come to a stop.

Because they had known they could not start up again once they did stop.

For the stairs, he spun the wheelchair around 180 degrees so he walked backwards to descend the stairs ahead of it. He could have run down the stairs while princess carrying her, but there was no guarantee they would find a spare wheelchair at the bottom. There were no windows in here. He did not want to see those things for a moment longer than necessary, but the lack of information still clutched at his heart.

This hotel was the tallest building in the C World dome, so it contained a large casino within it. It could even be called the center of the dome.

That meant the central heating facility was located below it.

After descending three floors underground, they found bare concrete walls very different from the luxurious interior of the hotel. The thick metal door was already open. Inside, they found machines like a large cargo ship’s engine crammed in tight and leaking white steam.

“It’s still a little warm in here.”

“That won’t last long. And watch out for the steam, Karuta-kun.”

“?”

“Head out into the -15-degree air while somewhat damp and you might have an entire ear fall off.”

He fell silent and went pale, so she laughed and said more.

“Don’t worry. Even if you ignore my kind advice, you still have your regeneration, right? Fourth degree frostbite is nothing to be afraid of☆”

Further in, they found another metal door.

That led to the heat tunnel.

They peeked inside and saw darkness gaping as wide as a highway tunnel. But instead of concrete, the floor, walls, and ceiling here were made of stainless steel.

They saw light in the distance, but not from stationary fluorescent lights. These light sources were moving around. Karuta tensed up, thinking they might be strange “eyes”, but they were not. A large group of people was using the backlights of their phones and other devices to light their way through the tunnel. The walls and ceiling were apparently reflecting the artificial lights.

“We caught up.”

“Given the state of things up above, this is more or less a miracle.”

He guessed they were about 400m away from the tourists and workers. They easily closed that distance even with him pushing the wheelchair, so the other group must have been slowed by their numbers. After all, that was everyone from the C World dome. As seen at Shinto shrines during New Year’s and in the city during Halloween, a large gathering of people took a long time to move.

Once Karuta and Kyouka arrived at the tail end of the group, a waitress, tour guide, supermarket worker, and convenience store worker still in their uniforms noticed them and kindly shined their flashlights over to light their way. The group had not collapsed to the point that they were willing to shove aside a schoolgirl in a wheelchair to get through faster.

(But what do we do now?)

“Karuta-kun.”

(We’re up against overwhelming numbers here, so protecting one specific dome for 24 hours straight is honestly unrealistic. It’s all over as soon as they break a single hole in the dome, so the attackers have the clear advantage there. Also, where did the Threat even come from? Do they have a mothership or command tower? Either way, we need some way to go on the attack if we’re going to end this.)

“Karuta-kun, something isn’t right.”

Hearing that, he noticed a deep sound. It was not the tremors from the aerial battle fought by Marika, Natalena, and the others. This was more mechanical, like heavy gears moving. It was hard to tell in the crowd, but he could detect some angry yelling and shouting further up from here.

That sound had to be the door to the B World dome shutting.

“Wait!” he shouted. “We aren’t all inside yet!!”

“You’re from Grimnoah, aren’t you?”

A different sort of voice shouted back from beyond the crowd.

The male voice was full of the superiority rather than relief of someone who had already ensured their own safety.

“I’ve seen you on those online news sites. You’re Utagai Karuta and Omotesandou Kyouka. The representatives of justice who defeated the Problem Solvers to become the new world’s strongest!”

Karuta was taken aback when this complete stranger identified him.

And this stranger’s voice carried an emotion Karuta was not responsible for.

“Then this is none of our business. You just have to go do your jobs! Go save us! Go fight the Threat out there!!”

“…!!”

(This isn’t the time!)

Karuta clenched his teeth, but someone else had something to say as well.

“We’re normal people, so the Threat would have no reason to attack us.”

This place was ruled by the ominous elation of having outdone the world’s strongest. No, of having shoved them down to stand above them.

During disasters, it was said the EMTs and volunteers supposedly there to help would sometimes be intentionally stingy with their rescue supplies so they could laugh as they watched the victims suffer. The line between the rescuers and the rescued could turn the weak-willed into frightening tyrants.

“So this must be your fault. If you Crystal Magicians hadn’t shown up, the Threat never would have attacked the peaceful Crystal Beach!!”

Utagai Karuta thought his heart would stop.

That argument was of course nonsense.

It was unknown if the Threat was even intelligent enough to prioritize who they attacked and areas around the globe were attacked whether or not Karuta and the other Crystal Magicians were there. There was no causal relationship between the attack on Iceland’s Crystal Beach and Karuta’s school’s presence.

But.

The correct answer was not what mattered here.

The atmosphere seemed to strain.

The tail end of the group had been cut off along with them like the lizard’s tail, so they turned dead eyes toward Karuta and Kyouka. The waitress, tour guide, supermarket worker, and convenience store worker who had kindly lighted their way before had changed their tune entirely. There was no way to know which was the real them since they would be isolated if they did not side with the group here. That much was obvious enough to see.

“What does that have to do with us?” Finally, one of the tourists got things started. “ I’m not with these monsters!! Help me! I can’t use Crystal Magic! I’m not like them! I’m human like you !”

Karuta understood it was an emergency.

He understood you had to make some extreme decisions to survive.

But.

Those words seemed to strip away all the kind feelings found in human beings. And that one woman was not alone. Voices of agreement spread like wildfire until the tunnel was inundated with criticism and jeers. If they were told they would be let in if they beat up Karuta and Kyouka, they would have mercilessly ganged up even on the girl in a wheelchair. They would have done it with dark smiles on their faces all while telling themselves they had done nothing wrong.

“I’m getting the feeling this won’t work,” said Omotesandou Kyouka with a tone of disinterest. But she was not talking about whether or not he and she would be let into the B World dome. The answer there was obvious enough already.

The heavy rumbling sound did not stop, despite the other normal people still out here.

“Wait, no! Why!?”

“Weren’t you listening!? We’re human too! You only need to shut them out!!”

“Wait, wait! I have a small child with me! Are you going to abandon a child!? Can’t you at least let me in!?”

Those on the other side did not care.

Only the C World people were assuming any kind of camaraderie while they forced ugly smiles on their faces and tried to be accepted. The B World people held those lives in their hands, but they only wanted to ensure their own safety by closing that door as quickly as possible.

The survivors who had made it through the door in time were already on the other side – they were B World people now. They showed no sign of attempting to stop the door from closing or even begging the door operator to stop. Because if they rocked the boat before that door was fully closed, they could always be thrown out of that safe zone. They had to be smiling thinly as they watched the suspension bridge cut away immediately after they safely made it across. Because they were safe, unlike the poor “others” stuck on the other side.

Utagai Karuta did not bother with this any longer.

He had something more important to do.

“Get away from the door.”

“What!? You dare order us around when it’s your fault we’re stuck here in the first place!?”

“That door has to way tons, so do you really want to be caught in it when it closes!? Hurry!!”

His words fell on deaf ears.

Were they going to continue trusting in the good will of humanity and let that thick metal door crush them?

The President must have already given up on them because she spoke without a moment’s hesitation.

“Okay, let’s head back. There’s nothing we can do here.”

“But if we leave them here-”

“How are we supposed to deal with the few dozen stuck on this side? I can’t use Crystal Magic and you left Aine-chan back there. If a group this large insists on being smashed into mincemeat, there’s nothing we can do to stop them. I’m sure they will continue trusting in the good will of humanity as they are crushed like bugs. Or do you want to rush in there and get crushed along with them?”

“Shut the hell up!” he shouted back without thinking. “Natalena left them in my care. She told me to get these people to safety while she fights the Threat!”

“Oh? I don’t recall her saying quite that much.”

“Maybe not in so many words, but you have to read between the lines! If she didn’t trust me, she wouldn’t have left these powerless people with me. Listen, I stole her sister from her. Yes, the Problem Solvers had to go, but Natalena doesn’t have to agree!! And now you want me to betray her good will too? I can’t keep doing this. How much more do we have to keep taking from that little girl!? Are you kidding me!!!???”

Omotesandou Kyouka only shrugged.

And she spoke.

“Then give it a try, but the door will be closed in 30 seconds.”

“!!”

“Show me how cool you can be, Karuta-kun.”

Grabbing them by the shoulders and dragging them away one by one would be too slow. He looked around the tunnel and noticed a small but thick fire-resistant door on the wall. He opened it to find an AED bag. He pulled out the device and found a lithium ion battery far larger than the ones found in phones or handheld game systems. It was the size of an energy drink can. He used the unnecessary plastic casing to create a trumpet-like shape, used the metal clip on the inside to intentionally cause a short, and tossed the battery inside.

He could blow off his hand doing this, but he had the Crystal Magic regeneration.

“Cover your ears, Omotesandou-san!!”

He than aimed it toward the remaining people.

But aimed a bit upwards instead of straight on at them.

The sexy girl in the wheelchair covered her ears with her lithe hands just before the high-capacity battery burst with a deafening noise. The explosion’s shockwave was directed in a single direction, making it an acoustic weapon. But sound being what it was, it could be absorbed or reflected.

For example, the sound that flew above the crowd’s head could hit the wall with the door beyond them and make a U-turn right back to hit them head on.

“…!!”

Hit by the blast of sound, Karuta himself toppled backwards. As did the crowd trying to push their way toward the door. The solid group was knocked back toward him.

That settled things.

One group had made it to the other side of the door, and the other had not. A dull metal boom finally sounded. If he had been just 3 seconds later to act, the dozen or so nearest the door would have been crushed.

The President said something to him, but his ears were ringing too badly to hear it. As large a space as this was, using an acoustic weapon in an enclosed tunnel was tantamount to suicide.

Eventually, he could make out some of what Kyouka was saying with a smile.

Her words seemed designed to act like a knife to the heart.

“This isn’t going to be the happy ending you want.”

She was quickly proven right.

A young man slowly got to his feet after being knocked away in the nick of time. But his brow was wrinkled in a way Karuta had never seen before. Karuta was actually amazed that human facial muscles could do that and then the man began yelling.

“What the hell is wrong with you? I was almost there…I was so close to getting through!! Unlike you monsters, I was chosen! I was supposed to get through there!!”

He had not given up.

Even with that hope forever lost, he had not awoken from the dream.

It was like seeing an old man so obsessed with the horse races that he ended up glaring at the horse track’s ATM in the hopes that would somehow make it give him money that was no longer in his account and, when that did not happen, go running to a loan shark. The yelling and shouting actually inspired pity rather than anger.

“Leave immediately,” said a voice over a speaker installed in the tunnel.

That was probably meant to provide warnings to the inspection and maintenance crews.

There was no tremor in the voice.

Did that person think this was the C World dome group’s fault since the machine had closed the door automatically and they had been given plenty of warning? It was not that simple and they were sure to be overcome with regret down the road. They would forever have to live with the fact that they had left people to die. Especially when those people had been begging for help.

“Half an hour should be enough for you to return the way you came. You have that much time before we switch on the heater. To be clear, the dome’s central heating system produces a massive amount of heat. So turn back now unless you want to stick your head in a giant oven powered by the heat of lava!!”

Several people began to cry.

But eventually, someone realized something. And that realization quickly spread through them all.

Since the B World dome had abandoned them, these people stuck in the tunnel had to find someone else to rely on. And the only option was the Grimnoah Crystal Magicians they had been treating like garbage until now.

A uniformed waitress looked Karuta in the eye with a disturbing smile.

She apparently wanted him to forget everything that had happened a moment before.

The look on her face said she would do whatever it took to make that happen.

Her smile looked like an extremely detailed rubber mask that had been forcibly stretched to fit on her face. And she was not alone. They were all like that, even the young man who had been yelling at them.

In a way, the ability to lick at someone’s boots and become their slaves if that was the only way to survive may have been another form of human strength. But that was something Karuta’s group could never imagine doing since they had fought back against the Problem Solvers to the end, despite knowing those five were the world’s strongest.

“Karuta-kun, are you done here? Then let’s head back.”

Omotesandou Kyouka did not sound bothered at all.

When you truly gave up on someone, perhaps you did not even feel anger or hatred toward them.

“There’s nothing for us here. Not even human resources . If we are to band together and survive, we need to secure the necessities. We can work up a new plan centered on that.”

“…”

The boy squeezed the wheelchair’s handles tight.

He felt ashamed.

Did this qualify as living up to Natalena Blast’s trust in him?

Did it really?

He had saved their lives.

But that was all he had done.

The waitress, tour guide, and others would surely have nightmares about this day for the rest of their lives.

Nothing was more absurd and horrifying than when life bared its fangs against your idea of justice and pride.

He did not want to change who he was. He wanted to remain someone who could look Gekiha and the other crystallized people in the eye. It was that selfish desire that had led Karuta’s group to fight back against the former world’s strongests and annihilate them.

### Part 2

The Threat filled every part of that icy world, both the land and the sky, and they showed no sign of being driven back on either field.

(How far have they evolved?)

Karuta grimaced when he returned to the surface and viewed the battlefield, but he at least saw no obvious changes in the flying ones. The Crystal Magicians had the upper hand there. For now, anyway.

But Marika and the others appeared to have intentionally gathered on a single point while defending a location that did not actually matter to them. They were intentionally losing those battles and withdrawing bit by bit. The Threat must have had some level of intelligence because they would go to the effort of digging through the defended location after Marika and the others left. As if wondering what the Crystal Magicians were so intent on defending.

In truth, those were only the unmanned devices that produced the artificial waves of the now frozen beach.

“That’s clever.”

“Yes, looks like this has evolved beyond a silly battle where both sides are simply comparing their specs.”

While the gradual withdrawal paid off, Karuta used his Crystal Blossom to contact Marika and the others. He made sure to use the hotel, theatre, and other tall buildings to stay out of view from the Threat as he regrouped with the others. He felt out of breath simply traveling along the asphalt.

This was already the Arctic.

It was so cold the palm trees and hibiscuses had frozen instead of withering. He did not want to think what happened to the colorful animals.

And amid it all…

“What happened?”

Natalena Blast forgot all about the visible breaths escaping her mouth as she viewed not Karuta but the 20-ish people following after him. She had seen the hopeless looks in their eyes.

Her anger flared up.

Or maybe this was a pure emotion that could actually worry about others.

“What did you do to those people!? I thought you said you would get them to safety while we risked our lives fighting out here? How could you do this!?”

He could only weakly shake his head.

He had no answer for her.

That 12-year-old girl must not have realized that digging back up that issue was like a rusty knife to a festering wound for those ordinary people who had felt so powerless they had abandoned their goodness.

They must have felt blinded by the bright light of Natalena Blast’s eyes as she faced the Threat head-on out of no more than a desire to help others. They must have been crushed under the weight of the fact that they had chosen selfishness, that had backfired, and they had even failed to die.

“Kill me,” groaned a vanishingly quiet voice. It was the young man who had stubbornly yelled at Karuta earlier. “Use me as bait to fight the Threat or whatever. I can’t stand to go on like this.”

Karuta ignored that outright. They might not be happy, but he was not going to let them die now that he had saved them. Besides, people who jumped to suicidal that easily tended to be the type to change their tune quickly once their life was in immediate danger. And that was not Karuta judging someone he disliked; these people really had abandoned the Grimnoah students to win the B World dome’s favor and then been abandoned themselves. Someone who was willing to risk their life for something from the beginning would not have done that. Karuta really wished they would learn a lesson from this. His patience had been stretched dangerously thin.

Marika must have figured out what happened when she saw the boy’s exhausted face and saw the President whistling nonchalantly while inspecting her nails. She knew they had encountered some kind of malice, so the twintails girl put a hand on her hip and made a suggestion.

“We can carry those 20 with us. There are 1000 of us, after all. It isn’t efficient, but that’s what you want, isn’t it?”

“Thanks.”

“Sacri-sama.”

Aine emotionlessly approached.

She still held her drawn sword in one hand, so he would prefer she not move too close, though.

“What exactly will we do now? The delaying tactics using decoy defensive locations will stop working before long. We need another objective.”

He had put off making a decision here. Kiyosawa Hadome and Sophia Firenze were watching him from a distance, but the adults apparently had no intention of butting in. For better or for worse, the lives of Grimnoah’s 1000 were in the hands of the world’s strongest. That included his classmates, the middle school underclassmen, the Student Council, and the teachers. The number was even greater when including all the ordinary people in all the other domes.

This was different from risking just their own lives to seek revenge.

The weight was bearing down on him, so he took a deep breath before speaking.

“Could we gather them all in one place and bomb them with all our firepower?”

“We’re already exhausted.”

Marika did not explain what she meant, but he caught the implication that an explanation would only bring despair. They might be able to destroy the small Threats individually, but they could not be entirely wiped out. And if even one survived, it would cannibalize the defeated ones to become an even more horrific Threat. After defeating the occasional Threat and finding it only inspired unwanted growth in their foe, Marika and Aine had thrown in the towel. That was why they had resorted to deceptive delaying tactics using decoy defensive positions.

They never would have used delaying tactics if they could win in a direct fight.

Those were the tactics of the losing side.

“First of all, we can’t stay here in this broken dome.”

C World dome was already an icy hell of -15 degrees.

Holing up in a surviving building and cranking up the heat would not be enough. All concrete structures were not made equal; some had better insulating structures than others. The ones inside the dome had been designed for a tropical environment, so they could not keep out the cold.

Not to mention the many Threats lurking in this space. Even if they managed to hide for the time begin, it would not last. They would be found and the battle would begin anew.

Needless to say, the Threat was powerful.

If they were going to fight, they had to go on the offensive.

They could not allow themselves to be caught by surprise while asleep or eating.

“But it also doesn’t look like the other domes will let us in. They expect us to fight the Threat for them. In fact, they even think the Threat is here for us, so it’s our responsibility.”

“Then what? We go outside?” asked Marika. “That’s a -15-degree blizzard, just like in here. Crystal Magic does give some protection against the cold since we have to fly around at high altitudes at Mach speeds, but we won’t last out there forever. I imagine we’ll reach our limit after a full day – 24 hours.”

Aine glanced over at the armed students hanging around a short distance away.

“Just so you know, some of them have suggested we attack another dome and occupy it. Since the B World dome abandoned us, that seems like the best candidate. There have been non-fatal casualties in the high school, such as Yamane Deiri and Matsuda Imi.”

“Stop them from doing that. It wouldn’t solve anything.”

Karuta immediately rejected that idea.

That plan was likely fueled by a desire to protect the middle school, not to run wild out of pent-up frustrations. Karuta understood the desire to look like a proper upperclassman, even if only to keep your own will from breaking.

But.

“Whether you break in through the double-layer front gate or the dome’s exterior, an armed attack will only break the seal and create another -15-degree space. And even if you did manage to take control, that ends once the frustrated ordinary people riot. They do not need magic to blow a hole in the dome wall using a propane tank found behind a restaurant. They would choose to throw out hope themselves.”

“Wh-why would we have to go that far?” Natalena hesitantly spoke up. Her feelings must have been complicated, but she must have decided she could not stay stubbornly silent when everyone’s lives were on the line. “We can fly using Crystal Magic, right? So instead of staying here, um, why not fly across the ocean to escape to the Icelandic mainland?”

“We don’t know how many of the Threat are out there. In fact, it’s recklessly optimistic to assume what we see in here is all of them.” Marika winked with a hand on her hip. “What if they have those anti-air pellet cannon scorpions out in the ocean waiting? If they have the entire Crystal Beach surrounded, flying out there would only get us shot down.”

She had once fought a true dogfight with Susannia of the Problem Solvers, so her superhuman flying skills might be enough to find a spot to slip through the gaps of those wide-range explosions, but they could not force the middle and high school freshmen to do the same thing.

“What will it even accomplish for us to run away?” asked the crystal girl with a tilt of the head that sent her long silver hair swaying. “If humanity has no means of defeating the Threat better than Crystal Magic, then they will continue to pursue us even if we run, destroying any armies that try to stop them. If we escape to Iceland, wouldn’t it only turn Iceland into the next battlefield?”

Natalena was shocked into silence. That must have been a difficult fact to face.

That pure girl had yet to exact her revenge, so she could not let herself bring disaster to innocent people. If she did that, she would lose the right to feel righteous hatred toward her target of revenge.

And sending Marika alone into the storm of explosions to seek rescue would also be fairly meaningless. Any government she went to would demand that the Crystal Magicians do the fighting here.

“Hm.”

“Sacri-sama?”

But how had it worked in the past? They knew the Threat had eliminated cities, states, and countries around the world, but they did not know how that had eventually ended. Only that cities would suddenly disappear. They had never heard of the Threat staying somewhere and setting up a country for themselves, or them gradually expanding their territory of death. It was generally considered to be a series of random attacks where they suddenly appeared and just as suddenly disappeared, like a game of whack-a-mole.

If they stayed here to the end without a plan, they might figure that out firsthand.

Although they would join the dead, unable to pass that information on to anyone else.

The Threat would not spare them on a whim. The Threat’s past actions made it clear they would destroy everything when they made an appearance. Grimnoah’s students were already caught in the center of that unpleasant legend. If they did nothing, they would be killed just like those past examples.

So Karuta decided resistance was the only option.

“We still need to figure out how, but we’ll have to defeat the Threat here. What other choice do we have when running away won’t ensure our safety?”

“B-but we don’t stand a chance, do we?” asked Natalena.

“We know they can be defeated.”

Young Natalena may have found his confidence strange, but he had a reason for it.

“The Problem Solvers fought them off. They couldn’t fully eradicate them, but they still succeeded in saving individual cities.”

“…”

“They were as human as we are, so we should be able to do the same thing. At the very least, we proved we’re stronger than God Worshiping Magic on that day.”

Those five had been the worst of the worst and lowest of the low, but Anastasia would have felt no need to lie when she was willing to accept her death whenever it might come. When they had fought the Problem Solvers, they had doubted whether the Threat even existed, but they had to accept it now that they had seen it for themselves.

Those five had been the lowest of scum, but they had still fought to protect the world.

“We know there is a way, so we just have to find it. What we need is time to think, so we need to find that no matter what.”

### Part 3

They must have had a few different options at that point.

They could have remained in the destroyed living spaces of the C World dome, they could have left the dome altogether, or they could have attacked one of the surviving domes to steal their supplies and necessities.

But those were only options in the most abstract sense.

“Uhh.”

The nervous female teacher hunkered down and shivered as Karuta and the rest looked her way. She could apparently use Crystal Magic, but her focus was on theory. She could not bear the pressure of choice in actual combat.

Kiyosawa Hadome shook his head. He might be able to make the decision itself, but he was not confident that the 1000 students would obey since he inspired so much fear and unease in them. He had not been reincarnated in another world, so the people around him would not just unquestioningly accept everything he said as long as it was correct. Everyone had to bet their own life on their choices here and they would lose everything if they died.

That made this a job for their only Regulation 3 and their Student Council President: Omotesandou Kyouka.

“Don’t you dare say this is because I’m the closest to being old☆”

“No one was even considering that, so why bring it up at all? Putting your foot in your mouth?”

“Karuta-kun.”

He looked away from the President with the gentle yet scary voice.

He hoped that would make her forget he said anything.

“Anyway, look at this.”

She readily spoke up as if grabbing an invisible card between her fingers and pulling it from the deck.

Her decision here could lead to a great many deaths among the Grimnoah students and the ordinary people. For that matter, it was entirely possible an absolute victory was not even an option here and sacrifices would be unavoidable no matter what they did. Yet she showed no hesitation. Their elected President chose a path for them all.

That was the usual way of things, which might sound simple enough, but it was like performing a tightrope walk between skyscrapers. You only had to stand on the edge of a deadly precipice to realize just how difficult it was.

“Surviving in the great outdoors seems like the best bet we have here.”

Karuta and the others crossed the shattered transparent exterior wall to exit the dome.

The actual temperature could not have changed much, but a chill crawled up from their feet.

They could tell they were now outside, where they were not guaranteed to survive.

Also, the Crystal Beach itself existed on a few artificial islands floating in the ocean. That artificial land had been constructed as an impurity to induce freezing and stop the thawing of the Arctic ice due to global warming. But that alone had been considered a waste of resources, so they had grown into a largescale resort centered around casinos and hotels.

The translucent domes and aquarium-like tunnels were not the entirety of the space.

If they could endure the -15-degree environment, there was plenty of white land there.

And once outside…

“…”

Utagai Karuta was digging through the snow. After everything that had happened, they were forced to labor in the cold.

The hellish President had put it this way:

“The frigid environment is effectively identical outside and inside the C World dome, but the limited space of the dome is overrun with the Threat and we only risk an all-out attack if we remain here and are discovered. If the temperature is 15 below freezing either way, it would be safest to put some distance between us and the dome.”

She had made it sound so simple, but she had put some thought into it.

“We also cannot attack the other domes. As Karuta-kun said, damaging the outer walls would let the -15-degree air inside, ruining the survivability of the domes. We have no choice but to fight the cold out here. But to put it another way, our options expand significantly as long as we can clear that -15-degree barrier. We would be able to focus on the fight and we would be able to go on the offensive next time.”

“Pant, pant, gasp. Goddammit.”

“Sacri-sama, you have stopped working. Swearing will not accomplish anything here.”

“Why do we have to make two of them, one for me and one for Aine? And I can’t boost my physical abilities with Crystal Magic armor like the others can!”

They had to deal with the cold somehow, but there was nothing but white snow out here.

Their only option was to make use of that snow.

“I never though my life would depend on playing in the snow like a child.”

“Have you never heard of igloos?” asked Kyouka. “These are homes built from snow bricks by the Inuit who live in Alaska.”

Her wheelchair was nearly useless with the snow jamming up the wheels, so Aine was busy building her igloo. The beautiful girl took the time to watch over the high school boys who had started a snowball fight despite the dire situation and the black bob cut girl from the Student Council who was chasing after them trying to get them to stop.

“The snow bricks have air packed within, giving the igloos the same insulative properties as a down jacket. A house made of solid bricks won’t do much good against the Threat anyway. No matter how much time we spend fortifying our defenses, they’ll be knocked down as easy as a house of straw, so isn’t it the perfect time for quick shelters that are easily built and easily abandoned? Igloos are apparently built as temporary winter homes.”

Their magic gave them a limit of 24 hours out in the cold, but they could reset that by getting rest somewhere warm. Similarly, when fighting the Problem Solvers, they had first acquired a cheap used RV instead of weapons or armor. If you were going to fight, you needed a safe home where you could take your time and think.

But.

“Pant, easily built, gasp, my ass. If you’re, gasp, going to say that, how about you try it? Ugh.”

“How am I supposed to do that in this wheelchair? And why in the world do you think you’re building one for Aine too? She’ll obviously be sharing yours.”

“Wait, is that yours Aine is working on!!!???”

“Done!” said an innocent voice.

Karuta was sticky with sweat despite the blizzard and he looked back to see twintailed Marika already standing next to a completed single room home (making full use of her Crystal Magic armor). She had had enough time left over to find two large palm leaves carried here by the wind and place them on top so the igloo looked something like a snow rabbit.

“Is that good enough? I hope this will get me through the night.”

“The shape of the entrance is special. Adjust it to keep out the cold and it apparently gets fairly warm inside.”

Real igloos were apparently lined with fur to keep the heat in, but these used waterproof tarps instead. Acquiring enough of those for 1000 people might sound difficult, but this was not a natural part of the Arctic. They had apparently come across some kind of construction area, so they could dig through the thick snow to find all kinds of artificial objects.

Thus spoke the reliable President:

“There was an awful lot of empty space outside the dome for an artificial island, so it was simple enough to guess more was either under construction or had been abandoned mid-construction.”

Marika’s snow rabbit became a trendsetter. When the middle schoolers saw it, they began adding personal touches to their own igloos – giving them cat ears of snow or sticking in branches meant to be reindeer antlers. That was also helpful in a practical sense, because it helped them recognize their own igloo out of the otherwise indistinguishable dumpling-like lumps of snow. Although some got carried away, added too much snow, and crushed their own igloo.

The high schoolers had finally ended their snowball fight. Exercise was a good way of staying healthy and dealing with stress, but it was enough to horrify Karuta who had not even finished his own igloo.

“Man, where’d they get all that energy? You would think we were building snow sculptures for a winter festival or something.”

“How is this any different from ordinary homes? The color of the roof has no bearing on your life inside it, but that doesn’t stop people from being particular about those things,” said Marika. “And what’s with you? Have you still not finished your basic igloo?”

“I can’t keep this up. Please, Marika, can I spend the night at your place?”

“My home has no place for unromantic, self-serving guys. Get lost.”

Karuta caught himself before retorting that she had no problem slipping into his dorm room because her room was too full of online shopping packages.

Aine did not seem at all bothered by the cold of the blizzard.

“I have completed the igloo. What should I do now?”

“Well,” said Kyouka. “It’s a little plain as is, so I’d like something to make it stand out as much as Marika-san’s. Could you make two snowmen at the entrance? Something delightful, like the komainu at a shrine.”

“If you’re done, then help me! Actually, don’t steal control of Aine from me in the first place!!”

That President was full of unpleasant surprises. She had a way with words, like she was blessed with a natural ability to manipulate people. Since Aine only tilted her head in silence, she may have belatedly started questioning why she was performing this physical labor for someone other than her supposed master. He guessed that President would find a way to take advantage of the Three Laws of Robotics in approximately a microsecond.

At any rate, Karuta and Aine would be stuck out in the blizzard until his igloo was complete. Since the crystal girl would not do anything until ordered to, he grabbed at her.

Specifically, at those unidentified things on her head.

“Aine, why you were helping her doesn’t matter. Just help me now, okay?”

“Bwagh!? N-no bedroom activities where people can see us!!!!!!”

Her reaction was unbelievably weird.

“U-um, Aine?”

“That…was a mistake. Oh, no.”

Aine would not bat an eye when she killed someone or had her arm sliced off, yet she just blushed red and shouted something on reflex. Karuta could only stare, but for some reason, the crystal girl only fidgeted uncomfortably and would not explain. Was it possible even she did not understand what that was about?

Then the President held a hand to her grinning mouth.

That was a bad sign. That elite girl was about to unleash some extremely unwelcome mischief.

“How could you do that, Karuta-kun? You do know an animal’s horns are a symbol of its reproductive capability, don’t you?”

“Bhkghd!!!??? Don’t drop bombshells like that with a smile on your face!!”

“I was only stating a simple fact. Now, wait until the two of you are alone to tend to those two things, okay?”

Come to think of it, hadn’t Aine started rubbing those against him when they were alone in the elevator? That was when he had called her weird for wearing that white school swimsuit. What had she meant by that???

“Once your phone has a signal again, I recommend looking up why moose antlers are so big.”

“Does that mean Aine is a quiet but really, uh, ‘horny’ girl!?” asked Marika. “And that’s why she has those two impressive things!?”

“Yes. And you wouldn’t want someone begging you for it in broad daylight, even if you were down for it, would you?”

“Can the both of you please stop making up definitions for who I really am...?”

Anyway, evening had arrived by the time Karuta and Aine finished digging out the snow to make their igloo. They had been attacked by the Threat in the morning and been on the run since, so they had spent almost an entire day out in the icy cold. Plus, they only had this temporary shelter that they would have to abandon immediately if the Threat attacked again.

“It all feels so fruitless.”

And it was not over yet. It could be hard to tell in the Arctic, but it was evening. They had not eaten anything since the hotel’s breakfast buffet that morning, so they were presented with an obvious problem.

“We need to find some food. Water we can get by melting snow with magic.”

“Dammit, can’t we solve all of this with Crystal Magic? There are plenty of harvest goddesses, right? Like Sif from Norse mythology, Kisshoten from Buddhism, or Demeter from Greek mythology. Let’s worship those powerful ladies to get some bread and rice popping out of thin air.”

“Hmm, all of that magic is used to boost your power by eating divine food, so overusing it would probably destroy your body from within. Karuta-kun, don’t come crying to me if you turn immortal and find you can’t cut your eternally-growing hair and nails.”

The President’s comment shut Karuta up. It sounded like they would have to figure something out on their own. Weren’t there any gods that would provide help but not too much help, like the Kasa Jizou? But in that case…

“We can’t go to the other domes for help and we can’t go fishing even with the ocean all around us.”

He sat down in front of his igloo and brought a hand to his forehead. He was in no mood to join Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke in their snowball fight. He wanted to get some rest. And what did he most want to eat in his freezing and exhausted state?

“I guess our only option is to sneak back into the C World dome and nab some food there.”

“Isn’t the Threat there?”

Marika was exactly right.

So…

“We can’t send all 1000 of us in. We’ll need to focus on stealth instead of power. Omotesandou-san, can I select some people to go with me?”

“If you can look after them.”

That was the natural thing for a Student Council President to ask, but it was also the most difficult task. His twintailed childhood friend only shrugged. She must have known that was not the job for her. Karuta only knew he would be bringing Aine with him. Also, they needed to go a step further to solidify their position here.

“Hey.”

“…”

He called out to someone, making them jump, but it was not a middle school or high school student.

It was one of the ordinary people he had brought here – probably a waitress.

“Wh-what do you want? Are you kicking us out to have fewer mouths to feed?”

Her tone had changed so much from earlier. How much did she fear him?

(Well, she did turn on the world’s strongest, so that isn’t too surprising.)

He only had to think back on Elicia, Yukino, and how many people had been lost in the First Out Incident. Plus, this woman was ignorant of magic.

She was dressed in extra layers since she did not have magic to protect her and Karuta let out a white sigh.

“Don’t give up hope that quickly. We’re risking our lives out here too, so if you won’t work to help us, we won’t help you.”

“But we treated you so badly, we had to get you to build our igloos, and we can’t do anything for you.”

“Then how about you pay us back to make up for that?” He made a casual suggestion. “Give me some information I don’t already have. If that can help everyone, then we’re even.”

“…”

He had her explain the structure of the artificial island and they walked the perimeter of the igloo area to check it out.

And afterwards…

“Natalena, if you’re free, then help me out some. We need to get some food.”

“Why me?”

“You too, Firenze-sensei. I want your help too. You use Vayu, right? Then let’s take a quick trip out to the front line that’s crawling with the Threat.”

“What!? But why? I only do theory! I never even considered the idea of fighting myself!!”

The nervous teacher’s shouts ridded Natalena of her complaints. She still pouted her lips, but she followed his instructions. Yes, seeing someone panicking more than you had a calming effect on people. It made them want to correct their own behavior.

Muscular Kiyosawa Hadome put his hands on his hips.

“What about me?”

“What god do you use again?”

“Horus. But a modified version that intentionally conflates Horus the Elder with Horus the Younger.”

“So Egyptian mythology’s sun god? And we also have that nuisance of a Kagutsuchi user named Yamane Deiri, so you two work together to provide heat for everyone. The high insulation of the igloos should be enough from a theoretical perspective, but it should still put everyone at ease to see some actual fire.”

The man quietly clicked his tongue, but he did not seem to mean anything by it and must have accepted that as a practical use of his abilities.

He could not drag his classmates into this – not Yamane Deiri, not Nekoumi Hirosuke, not Matsuda Imi, and not Hashizaki Tayori. They had been fighting as a group before, but things would be very different one-on-one. Just like listening as part of the student body was much less nerve-wracking than speaking to them alone. They might panic once they were face-to-face with the true Threat.

Kyouka held a hand to her mouth and laughed.

“Are you sure this is good enough?”

“I doubt I could look after any more than this.”

“We’re talking about food for 1000. Even a chocolate bar each will mean 10 attaché cases.”

“We’ll figure something out. Okay, members of the Student Council, I hate to ask this of you, but please take care of Omotesandou-san while we’re gone.”

“This is where she belongs in the first place.”

The black bob cut girl and redheaded girl with buns frowned at him and refused to let go of the wheelchair’s handles. It looked like they would start fighting over her between themselves before long.

Karuta’s group left their secret base with the beautiful Student Council President seeing them off.

Instead of taking a straight shot toward the C World dome, they took an intentional detour. They had no idea what might give away their presence and they definitely could not use Crystal Magic to fly.

The female teacher grew tearful as she trudged through the snow.

“Ugh, are we really stuck with a 4-person party?” she asked. “Modern RPGs let you swap out party members at will, you know?”

“Eh? You look into that kind of thing for your theoretical work? Um, uh, is that because of the influence from Greek and Norse mythology?”

“Not really. I just like the feeling of gradual growth in those games. I prefer the slow and steady method.”

Natalena seemed surprised by that and the teacher bent over a bit. She may have been shrinking down out of embarrassment. Also, the girl had her Crystal Magic armor open. As long as she did not open up those scales of hers, she could apparently use them to silently slide along the ground.

(So she has to switch between modes for mobility and attacking? It’s a convenient power, but it has its flaws.)

Mentioning that would probably have started an argument and the Threat could notice that, so Karuta held his tongue.

Even from a distance, they could tell the C World dome had collapsed.

(I don’t see any of those flying ones in the air. Do they use more energy flying than staying on the ground?)

Of course, it was unclear if the concepts of exhaustion and waste even existed for the Threat.

The translucent dome had protected the interior from the elements, but it had almost entirely crumbled away, leaving the artificial beach and tourist town seemingly frozen in time by ice. There were still so many questions about what the Threat was doing. They were attached to the frozen asphalt and building walls, but they did not seem to be destroying anything or resupplying. They left a fair amount of space between themselves, but they were still gathered together. When patrolling their territory and scouting outside their territory, did they only use those slipper-sized bugs? They were not piled on top of each other or pushing past each other. They apparently did not step over their own kind when not in a hurry.

Natalena must have really not wanted to be spotted by the Threat because she crouched down despite already being hidden by a large boulder.

“What are they doing?”

“I dunno. They don’t seem to be searching out heat or consuming oil or electricity like you would expect of a machine.”

That said, snails could tear away the surface of a rock to eat that. The Threat’s biology was a mystery, so he doubted they would find an answer right away.

There were a lot of them, but they were all gathered around the main street. It looked like the dome had collapsed because they had wanted more ways in and did not care about defense. Karuta’s group sought out a position where the tall buildings alongside the main road blocked them from view and then they crossed the border formed by the broken dome.

It was the same inside as outside. Their feet still crunched through snow and large icicles hung from the frozen palm trees. The decorative fountains had frozen solid. The fountains’ underground water pipes may have ruptured.

“Sacri-sama. You said we are here for food, but where exactly are we supposed to find that?”

“The shopping center.”

They had to go for some place with enough stock for 1000 people.

With the various sizes of the Threat gathered on the main road, Karuta’s group used a smaller road running parallel to that. However, they could not let their guard down since they knew those slipper-sized scout and reconnaissance units also existed. Even if those could not fight, a single alarm sent out using firefly-like phosphorescence or pheromones would begin an all-out war.

The flying ones appeared to be stopped on the ground, but that did not mean all of them were. They made sure to stay below roofs as much as possible.

They made their way past a collapsed parking garage (presumably destroyed by the Threat) and approached a shopping facility larger than a school building. The Threat had destroyed the town at breakfast time, so it had been abandoned before opening for the day. The security shutter was still down over the entrance, but Aine’s sword sliced it away like a hot knife through butter.

“Coming in.”

The lights were off inside, so it would be dark at any time of day or night. The row of registers had signs written in multiple languages. This must have functioned as a duty-free shop for foreign tourists, not a neighborhood supermarket for locals.

“Bingo. We should find industrial cases full of food in here.”

“Sacri-sama, what exactly should we get?”

“Freeze-dried foods.”

And just to make him feel better, something not from Susannia’s farms.

“Keep in mind that we can get as much water as we want by melting snow. A thousand people’s worth is a lot, so we want as much nutritional value for the weight as we can get. That rules out canned, bagged, and frozen foods. They already have their moisture, which adds a lot of weight.”

“C-can you really survive just eating freeze-dried stuff? But, um, uh, I guess our houses really are just a roof and walls to keep out the cold, so they don’t have kitchens. But still.”

“Then you take a look at the shelves yourself, Natalena.”

Karuta pointed at the perishable food section and she was dumbfounded by what she saw.

The drinks bottles had all burst from within and then frozen solid. The vegetables and fish were either covered in white frost or their surface had grown toxically discolored.

“You may have forgotten with your magic protecting you, but this is a frozen hell of -15 degrees. Have you never been told not to store drink bottles in the freezer?”

“…”

“With boxed, bagged, or canned foods, either the container will burst or the contents will go bad. The only edible things here would be the freeze-dried foods, the chocolate, and anything else that doesn’t need moisture.”

“Wh-what about the frozen foods? They’re already frozen.”

Sophia Firenze had a point.

But they ran into a different problem there.

“Sensei, chocolate bars are the gold standard for emergency food, but a bar each for 1000 people still comes out to 10 attaché cases. With freeze-dried blocks of miso soup, a meal is less than 10 grams, but you have to multiply that by 1000. We’re talking about 10 kg.”

She could get greedy if she liked, but they might not be able to escape safely if they were lugging a giant container with them. They would be helpless if the Threat spotted them mid-transit. Those flying ones could be going on irregular patrols for all they knew. If they were spotted, they would have to abandon the food they had worked so hard to gather.

And the danger did not end there.

Their residential district of igloos was hard to see from a distance since it blended into the white scenery. The layered snow had an insulating effect, so their body heat might be difficult to detect as well. But that was not a guarantee. If they were found, they would have to abandon all that and retreat. Having a bunch of food they had to lug around with them would not be ideal. And the more they would have to abandon, the more reluctant they would be to leave. If that made them slow to make a decision, they were much more likely to die.

They continued further into the dark shopping center while on the lookout for those small scout and reconnaissance Threats and they filled shopping carts with cardboard boxes of soup and risotto. A surprising amount was imported from Japan. The packaging had been remade in English, but a lot was the exact same products seen in Japanese convenience stores and supermarkets. It did not look like Susannia’s products either.

The 12-year-old blonde girl noticed the things they were taking from the shelves.

“Hm? Risotto? And curry rice too. I’m surprised how many vegetables you can get with this.”

“Well, rice is the standard grain to be rehydrated for eating. I’m surprised you didn’t know that, Natalena. Does that mean you actually cook for yourself a lot? As young as you are, I’m impressed.”

“Th-that is not impressive and what does age have to do with it!? That just means you’re lazy!!”

Karuta took offense at that since he would make his own lunches from time to time. He would prefer that label be applied to Marika, the combat-obsessed girl who would swipe things from his lunch when he let his guard down.

“Heh heh. I risked my life coming out here, so I deserve a special treat☆”

The flaxen-hair teacher grabbed an item not on their list. It too was a Japanese product, but this was a cup of instant noodles with a fairly high price tag due to a famous restaurant’s brand name on the package. If that was a treat she considered worth her life, he had to wonder about her usual diet.

Also, milk was too heavy as a liquid, but cereal like corn flakes had a good weight to nutrition ratio. They would have to eat them dry like cookies or crackers, but it was better than nothing. He could guess it would be spiritually taxing if freeze-dried foods were all they had.

“In that sense, instant coffee or tea might not be a bad choice.”

“But those have no nutritional value. If you need caffeine, there are plenty of more convenient products like gum and tablets.”

“It’s not about the caffeine.”

It was to maintain their mental health. And these only required adding hot water, just like the freeze-dried foods. Meanwhile, Aine tilted her head and asked a question while pushing a shopping cart with both hands.

“How are we going to return? If we are to safely escape the C World dome while it is crawling with the Threat, we should probably split into a transport team and a defense team.”

Natalena’s shoulders jumped. Yes, the more they brought back with them, the more it would restrict their movement. Greed would only increase their odds of death.

But Karuta smiled as he responded.

“No, there’s an easier way.”

“?”

He led them all to the back of the shopping center. That area normally held the processing space for meat and fish as well as the staff breakroom, but he could guess they would find something else here too.

After locating what he was looking for, he placed a hand on the floor and pulled up on the handle there.

That revealed a cylindrical pipe about as thick as a washing machine drum.

“Wh-what is that?”

“A water pipe, Sensei. The C World dome is an icy wasteland now, but it was an artificial tropical beach before. The flowers and trees couldn’t last unless they were constantly running sprinklers of desalinated seawater. The dome covered everything above, so they couldn’t hope for any rain.”

The non-Grimnoah people had informed him that each dome desalinated its own water and large water pipes were laid out between the domes so they could share that water if another dome’s water facility malfunctioned. It worked much like the central heating in that sense. That meant this pipe led outside of the broken C World dome. Their igloo zone was located between domes, so it was perfect for them.

Natalena frowned, perhaps because she had imagined the water pipe as something like an aquarium’s underwater tunnel.

“Are you, um, saying we are going to return through here?”

“It’s an interesting idea, but that thing is kilometers long. I’m pretty sure Sensei and I would hurt our backs trying that.”

“I-it’s too small for me too! How small do you think I am!?”

He called out to Aine and the emotionless girl brought a hot water dispenser out of an office. It was unclear if the place still had power, but the dispenser was built like a thermos and it still retained some heat. The fact that the container had not burst from within meant it still had liquid water inside.

Karuta opened the lid to check. There was no actual steam, but it had been a while since he saw actual water like that.

“Sensei, your Crystal Blossom contains the name of Vayu, right?”

“Eh? Yes.”

“Western magic cabals use that name to refer to the element of wind or air and they symbolize it with a blue circle. But follow that back to its source, and it refers to a god of nature among the Hindu Devas – a wind god to be exact. He is said to be the guardian deity of the northwest direction and the father of Hanuman.”

While confirming all that with her, he poured the precious water into the pipe.

Then he let her take over.

“Okay, send some wind into the pipe, if you don’t mind. Make the strength about…yes, about 30m/s. At this temperature, that should be enough to freeze over the entire inside of the kilometers-long pipe.”

“Oh.” Natalena placed a hand over her mouth in slight surprise. “Senpai, is that what you’re doing?”

“Yes, an air conveyor. They’re normally meant to send light objects like letters or documents, though.”

In her tight skirt suit, Sophia Firenze held her hands out in front.

Karuta wondered when the translucent armor was going to appear, but then she started muttering something like a monotone prayer.

“An approximate intersection of 15 and 75. By the solar calendar, it is 05021630, but convert that into Samvatsara. I summon thee from the south and exorcise thee to the north-northwest. The word of power is ddefz. The string of letters has no meaning and is only a one-time pillar to support this contract.”

Karuta’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Um? What are you doing???”

“Constructing the proper syntax given our current coordinates, the current time and date, and from which direction the power will be coming. The sharing of secrets strengthens the contract and, um… the planetary arrangement most likely to have an effect? That’s going to be tricky. We’re in the Arctic, so the apparent rotation might not be what we expect.”

“…”

“D-don’t give me that look!! This is how Crystal Magic was originally performed. You just aren’t aware of it because you skip past it all by using those small circuit boards!!”

If they had wasted their time on such a lengthy ceremony in front of the Problem Solvers, they would have been dealt with in some cruel way while still alive. Or maybe those five would have held their sides and erupted in laughter while letting them complete their transformation sequence.

“Umm, Sensei? If you don’t hurry it up, all the water is going to freeze.”

“I know that!! List out the locations of the wandering stars based on the location of the sun and the moon. Use human wisdom to visualize the unseen lines of power created from the conflict between the energy raining down from space and the energy rising from the Original Crystal Embryo at the earth’s core! We are the managers of the arcane who borrow the power of the gods and predict every last cataclysm!!”

She waved her hands around as translucent armor decorated her. It had a different look when paired with that tight skirt suit instead of the blazer uniforms Karuta was used to seeing. And what was that weapon supposed to be? She carried a large circle on her back with small circular saws arranged at even intervals like it was a clockface. It looked something like the drums of the Japanese Raijin. Did she use it while on her back, or did she grab it and swing it around? At any rate, this was Vayu – a wind god in the East and a blue circle in the West.

“You look like an overgrown magical girl,” said Aine with a tilt of her head.

“Utagai-kun, what kind of cruel deep learning have you been giving that girl?”

“I’m sorry, but I honestly have no idea where that came from. Aine! There’s such a thing as being too honest.”

“Utagai-kun.”

He found an unexpected landmine here. The topic of her age was apparently off limits.

Anyway, the nervous teacher removed the circle from her back, held it out in both hands, and activated some cutting-edge magic.

“Hyah!!”

“All that precise and traditional setup and you end it like that!?”

Natalena trembled for some reason, but the gust of wind was sent racing down the pipe. The limited amount of drinking water froze evenly across every bit of the kilometers-long pipe, creating a layer of ice a few millimeters thick.

With their preparations complete, Karuta flicked the Crystal Blossom at his chest.

Those things could be used for more than creating unknown armor and transforming a teacher into a magical girl.

“Omotesandou-san, we’re all ready here. Are things ready on the receiving end?”

“They are. You froze the interior to reduce friction, right? We checked inside just to be sure and there were no slipper-sized Threats inside on this end, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. The pipe is clean.”

They packed the freeze-dried emergency food inside plastic containers they found behind the shopping center and dropped those into the pipe.

Sophia was nervous despite being the key to all this.

“A-are you sure this will work? Won’t the containers make a lot of noise sliding through there even with the interior of the pipe frozen?”

“That’s an industrial pipe meant to carry literal tons of water every minute. Water makes a lot of noise in pipes when it has enough air inside, but the place hasn’t received any noise complaints. I bet we could do karaoke in there and no one outside would hear a peep.”

Karuta did not actually have any data to back that up, but his seal of approval was apparently enough to put her at ease. She looked somehow relieved as she held her hands out.

It was like an artillery shell.

Or maybe a model linear motor train.

With a sound of scraping ice, the plastic container vanished into the pipe in the blink of an eye. From there, they repeated the process. Every time Omotesandou Kyouka called them at the other end to say they had retrieved the container, they would send the next one.

“C-couldn’t we have managed some heavier things with this method? Like the frozen foods?”

The teacher apparently still had some regrets.

She may have found a foreign version of some product she loved to eat back in Japan.

But Karuta could only shrug.

“Freeze-dried miso soup is the size of an eraser, but frozen foods are the size of a plate. That size and weight means we would need to send several containers through to secure 1000 servings.”

“Ugh.”

“And if we didn’t send back enough for everyone, people would feel cheated. It has to be 0 or 1000. Do you want to split Grimnoah in two before we even fight the Threat again?”

They were interested in nutritional value not because they wanted to live a healthy life but because they wanted to be in their top form when fighting the Threat. Tearing their group apart with unnecessary luxuries would defeat the purpose of all of this.

“So hand over those fancy instant noodles, Sensei. I’m confiscating them.”

“Y-you’re mean, Utagai-kun!!”

With her personal interest removed, she ended up sending the plastic containers through entirely mechanically. Once they reached a certain amount, they were done. Now they had to safely escape the C World dome themselves. And safely here meant for themselves and for the secret base. They could not lead the Threat back there.

“Karuta-kun, you scored a perfect 100 there. Good work,” said Kyouka over his Crystal Blossom.

“Thanks.”

“If you want to treat yourselves to anything, eat it there. Bringing it back here will only make everyone else feel cheated.”

He could not agree more, but he doubted any of them would want to eat hot food (and all the steam and smells that entailed) in this -15-degree hell where the Threat could spot them at any time. Doing so would be like asking the Threat to surround them and kill them at their leisure. Hunger was viewed as the representative biological urge, but it was influenced a surprising amount by one’s mental state.

“Um, Utagai-kun? About those instant noodles. Um.”

Well, one of them was a hopeless incarnation of hunger, but it would probably be best to have her break free of that. Natalena supposedly loathed Karuta, but not even she took the teacher’s side against him.

“Let’s head back.”

“Senpai, I thought you would be more mistrusting than this.”

The 12-year-old blonde girl provided a strange assessment of him.

He looked puzzled, so the self-proclaimed avenger pouted her lips.

“I mean, how long has the Threat occupied this place now? Who knows how intelligent they are, but wouldn’t they have had time to poison the food at random?”

The Threat.

A Metal-Derived Autonomous-Origin Higher Lifeform Combat Weapon.

Now that he had seen them for himself, they did not seem like a lifeform at all. If they ran on electricity, gas, or petroleum, they would not even need a livable environment. They would be able to keep on marching even if they were engulfed in poison gas or napalm. That was only an assumption, but it was true they had not hesitated to tear down the dome and destroy the summer environment when they attacked.

“Poison.”

However.

His thoughts turned in a different direction.

“That’s it. Why didn’t I think of that!?”

“?”

### Part 4

“(Ehh? Do we really have to mess with this???)”

“(Be quiet, Sensei. In fact, you should be using your Crystal Blossom to speak.)”

“(But we already did our job. I’m sick of all this danger, so let’s get home already!)”

Sophia Firenze made a comment very much like a civil servant, but had she forgotten there was no rest for them until they had eradicated the Threat here? Karuta really wished she would take a lesson from her muscular colleague.

They were peeking out from behind a building to view the main road. That pure white hell was covered in the bizarrely-shaped Threat protected by their inorganic black armor.

Some resembled sea creatures like octopuses and crabs, some resembled insects like ants or mantises, and some resembled carnivorous plants or hunks of mold. There was a lot of variety, but they all seemed to have been based off of existing plants and animals. They also had inorganic elements like a coffin mouth or revolver legs, but none of them appeared to have a base structure modeled after a tank or fighter craft.

Karuta pulled his head back behind cover.

“I was right. They cannibalize their own, but they do have some sense of camaraderie. At the very least, they don’t seem to eat their own until one has been damaged beyond repair.”

“Ugh. Um, uh, well, what does that matter?” asked young Natalena.

“I want to get a look at the broken remains,” he responded. “Specifically, I want to note what parts they make sure to cannibalize. If we know that, we can ‘poison’ those parts. Which could mean a bomb or a computer virus.”

“Oh.”

The blonde girl let her voice out without thinking and quickly slapped her hands over her mouth.

He mimicked forming a fist.

“The Threat’s individual power is a problem, but it’s the way they cannibalize their own to customize themselves that makes them truly frightening. The more you defeat, the more they evolve. But what if we used that against them? Calling it ‘negative growth’ might be confusing, but if we feed them ‘poison’, we can stop that infinite customization.”

“Meaning?”

“We can eradicate the Threat. And the first step is investigating their remains. Did you see any already-eaten ones around?”

“Sacri-sama,” called Aine while pointing with the tip of her see-through sword. There was a lump of snow there. It was hard to tell at a distance, but it was probably taller than they were.

“Wouldn’t a Threat be buried below the snow there?” pointed out the crystal girl.

“!?”

He thought his heart would stop. He and Natalena ended up in each other’s arms without meaning to and it took her a few seconds before she finally noticed and threw a small slap.

His throbbing cheek hurt, but the heat reminded him he was alive.

They carefully approached the lump of snow, Aine stabbed her sword tip in just a bit on his orders, and a white mass crumbled down to the ground.

Their eyes met a red glassy eyeball.

This must have been one of the scorpions that used pellets and lasers. It had been badly scorched, so it must have been caught in one of Marika’s laser bombings.

They were all rendered speechless.

Utagai Karuta could not guess what would allow him to define this clump of cold, hard armor as “alive”. At the very least, you could not check it for breath or a pulse. If it was only feigning death, they would be wiped out here.

They waited a while, but nothing happened.

But even that did not mean it had not sent out some wireless signal to call in the swarm.

“Sacri-sama.” Aine’s head remained tilted. “Standing here will not improve matters. It appears to have ceased functioning, so shouldn’t you begin your investigation?”

“How can you be so sure it’s ceased functioning?”

“The joints are frozen solid. Whether biological or mechanical, it will be unable to move.”

Sure enough, weapons could freeze too. In the wars of an older age, invading tanks had been stopped by the harsh winter cold and pilots of high-altitude spy planes had apparently feared stalling due to freezing. If this were functioning properly as a machine, it made sense to assume it would have acted to prevent this before it happened.

After brushing away the thick snow, they found it was even more badly damaged than they thought.

Marika’s aerial bombing was not enough to explain this. The thorax? Or abdomen? Whatever you called the scorpion-like collection of curved armor had burst from within like a balloon, its insides had spilled out, and more than half the legs and the hands it had in place of pincers had been torn off at the base. Same for the tail that made it look most scorpion-like. That would be due to the cannibalization. As mechanical as it was, this was still not a pleasant sight.

Natalena looked around nervously.

“Wh-what are we even looking for?”

“Anything that’s missing or incomplete. Like the weapons, the power system, the processor, and maybe the anti-shock system and armor too? We just need to know what they cannibalize first.”

Only after speaking did he realize he was looking at it as a machine rather than a living creature.

Did he simply not want to think of it as anything like him, or did he not like digging through the burst guts of a living creature, even if it was an enemy? That he could not say.

Anyway, the scorpion was larger than a dump truck. Even in its collapsed state, they had to look up at it. They ignored the surviving legs, grabbed at the parts that were jutting out like a burst can, and found they had to gradually climb up it to check inside.

And.

While doing that, Karuta finally peeked into the torn wound.

That sounded simple, but how many humans had ever done it? The Problem Solvers had apparently sporadically fought and repelled the Threat, but had they ever looked inside one? Sophia had created a model based on information they sent her, but had that reproduced the inside as well?

And…

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………What the hell?”

“Sacri-sama?”

He froze in place, so Aine tilted her head with sword in hand.

However, he did not think he could answer right away.

His breathing was heavy, his heart felt tight, and static was encroaching on the corners of his vision.

What is that doing here?

That was the only thought on his mind. He wanted to deny it, but he had to accept it when it was right there in front of him. The idea that seeing is believing was not a welcome one at the moment.

Finally, the new world’s strongest managed to speak.

“Aine.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

“Does the name Smart Arms ring a bell?”

Sophia and Natalena both frowned. Not recognizing it was the normal reaction, but the pale-skinned crystal girl answered without hesitation.

“That is a giant weapons company based in America’s Silicon Valley. They own the weapons plant that manufactured the special-order cyborg parts that created Susannia Evans, one of the Problem Solvers, and that was where Anastasia Blast went into hiding in the end.”

“!?”

The gasp of course came from Natalena. Susannia was the main topic at hand, but she must have reacted to Anastasia’s name.

“W-wait. Um, why are you bringing up that weapons plant now!?”

“Because of what I see here.” Karuta responded with a look that said he did not want to accept this any more than she did. “The manufacturer’s name isn’t actually printed on the parts, but I saw the parts that Susannia scattered in that Northern European crater. These are identical . These must be unmanned weapons created by that company!!”

### Part 5

“Don’t you think we could make a bath like this?”

“Don’t get greedy. The igloo would collapse on top of you.”

Matsuda Imi and Hashizaki Tayori held a secret discussion while melting the snow with their magic. Girls like them saw a bath as a necessity on the same level as food and shelter, but it was looking like the most they could manage was wiping themselves down with a towel soaked in hot water. At any rate, Karuta’s group had left to find some food, so Amaashi Marika had some work to do while they were gone.

“I will be borrowing a few of them.”

“Of course. But make sure you keep an eye on them,” insisted the Student Council President in a way that hinted at more behind her smile.

Imi and Tayori noticed Marika then.

“Oh? What’s this? Headed out on an errand? Can we help?”

“You two continue researching ways to make a bath. That’s a life-or-death issue.”

“Then could you go find us something sturdier than an igloo made of snow? With a metal container or something, I bet we could make a girl’s bath for ourselves.”

Marika assumed they were mostly joking.

And.

“Wait.” A gym(?) teacher interrupted her with arms crossed. She thought his name Kiyosawa Hadome. “Bring me with you. I can’t have you heading out without a teacher.”

“You let Karuta go.”

“He had Firenze-sensei with him. You never know what will happen, so having an adult with you gives you someone to take responsibility after a mistake.”

Marika sighed so no one would notice.

(Well, this isn’t part of the plan , but more people should help, I guess.)

“Bye, Senpai.”

“Good luck out there.”

The twintail girl left the igloo zone with a makeshift unit. Unlike Karuta, they were using Crystal Magic to fly at an extreme low altitude of less than a meter. If they could avoid crashing into the ground, this would eliminate any footprints.

“Ah!”

“Um, Senpai, why are we the only ones with an extra job to do? Did we draw the short straw?”

Marika was accompanied by Sanae and Alice of the Sub Category’s Regulation 1. Karuta had focused a lot on them since that made it easier to manage the entire class.

(Although I bet the kids saw through that right away.)

She could not even sigh about it anymore.

She answered their question while flying to their destination.

“It was a random choice. We just needed some people. And it had to be people who can remain calm.”

“?”

They were out here as scouts, but their target was not the Threat that had attacked the Crystal Beach.

“We want to know how much damage was done to the Crystal Beach as a whole. Can you two split up and check the outside of the domes? Obviously, you can’t let the Threat spot you, but you also can’t cause any trouble with the ordinary people evacuated into those domes. We’re only here to gather information, so focus on stealth. Make sure none of the people in those domes can sneak a peek up your skirt while you fly by overhead, okay?”

“Sure thing,” they said lazily before splitting up and flying away.

“…”

Kiyosawa Hadome seemed unsure whether to focus on the middle schoolers or Marika, who he was now left alone with, but he ended up doing his own thing. He seemed to be checking the domes and clear tunnels he had been assigned while also searching out points that gave him as wide a view as possible. Marika immediately picked up on what he was doing since she was a skilled sniper.

He could not leave this in the hands of the students since they were angry with the ordinary people who had kicked them out of safety and they might want to destroy the domes to take those people down with them. His was a normal enough way of thinking, but this -15-degree weather tended to keep people from thinking in the normal way.

(Now, then.)

Marika checked over her assigned area. But as far as she could see, this area was peaceful, unlike the C World dome. There was not a scratch on the translucent domes and the artificial summer environment within remained intact. The rows of palm trees blowing in the wind and the colorful birds and butterflies were all very much alive. The supply of power and gas did not appear to have stopped.

Once the agreed-upon time arrived, Marika regrouped with Sanae, Alice, and the teacher.

“Nothing to report about the G World dome.”

“Same with L World.”

Kiyosawa Hadome started to say something, but Marika held out a hand to stop him.

The twintails girl put her other hand on her hip while floating in midair.

“Nothing caught your attention other than the dome?”

“No, not really.”

“I didn’t find anything either. The Threat wasn’t there and the lucky people inside didn’t seem to be rioting or anything.”

“Hm,” Marika nodded and then added something else too quiet to be heard. “ I see. ”

### Part 6

From a technical perspective, it may have been possible.

The bodies were made of metal. They were based on known plants and animals but with manmade objects like coffins and revolvers added in. No one could tell Susannia Evans was a cyborg at first glance, so human technology had reached a point where it could mimic biological creatures.

But was this really possible?

“The Threat was manmade?” asked a trembling Natalena Blast.

She had started using Crystal Magic for her revenge, but she must have felt guilty deceiving her classmates while taking her lessons. She clearly looked like she had touched on a horrific taboo.

“Then what was the point of any of this!? Not just me! My sister and the rest of the Problem Solvers worked so hard to protect the world!!”

“…”

For a moment, Utagai Karuta’s thoughts turned to the string pullers operating from the shadows of the world. If they could manipulate each successive generation of world’s strongest, wasn’t it possible they had set everything up themselves by inventing a convenient villain?

He thought for a while, but finally reached a conclusion.

“It just doesn’t fit. If all they cared about was starting wars for profit, they could have just made a human villain. They wouldn’t have needed anything on as large a scale as the Threat.”

“S-Senpai?”

“For now, let’s assume the Threat is real.”

He took a deep breath and then worked at bringing themselves back on course here.

Yes. He had seen a speculative clay model of the Threat in Grimnoah’s faculty room, so he should have considered this possibility earlier.

“But what we’re fighting here isn’t the real one . Someone other than us has investigated the Threat, so what if they created a decoy version that they could train against to more efficiently combat the Threat?”

In other words, these were not based on existing plants and animals.

They were made as a stand in for the real Threat.

“Smart Arms would have been a likely choice. Susannia and Anastasia trusted that company to the very end. It makes sense they would have sent remains and data back to Smart Arms whenever they defeated a Threat.”

But even if that were the case, it did not solve the immediate problem.

In other words…

### Part 7

A late sunset arrived.

They only had freeze-dried food and chocolate to eat, but having something to eat made all the difference. The students lined up to get some food and breathed a sigh of relief at having that “peace of mind” in hand.

The most popular item was the tea. They must have been more interested in comfort than nutrition.

“E-excuse me, but there is a reason why we use a porcelain pot.”

The waitress became very popular after revealing a trick to making it taste better. She was still awkward, but she gradually managed to smile. Karuta doubted she would talk about owing them anything anymore.

“Good work today, Natalena.”

“Please stop speaking to me, Senpai. Um, I will be heading back after drinking this rooibos tea, so- hot, hot, hot.”

She apparently had trouble with hot drinks. She held the cup between her hands and repeatedly tested it by sticking out her small tongue. But she also wanted to warm herself up, so she could not cool the cup in the snow.

“You do everything in the cutest way possible, don’t you?”

“Do you enjoy stabbing people in the back with a smile on your face? Hot.”

She apparently wanted to drive her point home and leave like a grownup avenger, but the cup’s heat made that impossible. She could not leave yet, so she ended up shrinking down and slowly sipping at the tea next to him.

Meanwhile, the high school girls seemed more interested in the plastic containers than the food those had carried. Imi and Tayori were whispering to each other.

“Will these work?”

“They totally will. You can fit in one if you keep your knees up, right? And I’ve heard of some true madwomen who used metal basins and stainless steel sinks as baths.”

Sanae was again drinking her special drink made by adding a pinch of salt to plain water. Karuta doubted it had any real flavor, but she seemed satisfied.

Meanwhile, he asked the Student Council President about something.

“If that is true, this is not going to be easy.”

Omotesandou Kyouka readily raised the white flag.

He had hoped for some help here, so that was a problem.

“Then we’re supposed to just sit around and wait!?”

“Grimnoah alone has 1000 possible targets. And Domes A and B have many times that many so-called civilians. Actually, is the person commanding the weapons even here at the Crystal Beach? Couldn’t they be safe and sound typing on a keyboard on the other side of the planet?”

“…”

“I won’t suggest anything as silly as the weapons gaining a mind of their own and deciding to wipe out the human race, but what if they were infected with a virus that altered their priority settings? Self-driving cars can be converted into deadly weapons by changing the gas and brake values linked to someone’s facial recognition data. Think of it like a land-based guided missile on tires.”

If they were only talking about possibilities, the wings of imagination could take them anywhere.

But they needed to figure out who was behind this and fast.

“Any ideas, Marika?”

“No. There’s no way of narrowing it down at this point.”

She responded as if to say that was not her job.

But something she said caught his attention.

“At this point?”

“I’m just saying the answer should become clear after a few more casualties. But you don’t want that, right?”

It was out of the question. But the President apparently had something to say about that.

“If someone is operating them, why didn’t they immediately attack this secret base? Did they simply lose sight of us? Or is it an inside job and they’re afraid of being caught in the Threat’s surprise attack?”

Either way, discussing this further did not sound like it would lead to any productive ideas.

Karuta sighed and started to leave, but…

“No warning everyone, okay?” said Kyouka from behind him. “Since you haven’t suggested it yet, I assume you already know the risk, but if you even hint we might have a spy among us, what little order we’ve managed here will collapse. Either Grimnoah will split apart or they’ll start to discuss attacking one of the surviving domes. Simply put, it will trigger a witch hunt.”

“I know that.”

This time, he did leave.

He heard footsteps crunching through the snow and turned to find Aine.

“What should I do?” she asked.

“I would like you to stand guard. At least for tonight.”

Grimnoah was a school, but its students were being trained to fight. They naturally had a rotation of guards set up already, but they were only looking for the large Threats that might attack from the outside. They were not considering a danger that might approach as a smiling and waving human. Karuta watched the students laughing together while eating their meager dinners. He hated being unable to warn them of the danger they were in.

What if the villain came from one of the other domes disguised as an evacuee?

What if the villain was secretly holding the controller among the Grimnoah students and teachers?

“I suggest you get some sleep to recover, Sacri-sama.”

“We all need to do that. And it isn’t all bad news. I think I’m right about being able to defeat the Threat – or whatever they are – by ‘poisoning’ them to stop their endless evolution. We are making progress. And someone other than me should be able to set up that ‘poisoning’.”

He was simply sick of it all.

The first Grimnoah had sunk, he had lost so many friends and acquaintances like Kazamuki Gekiha, and his life had been thrown off the rails. He never would have become the world’s strongest without that, but he would have been able to live an ordinary school life.

It had taken building a second ship, but he had regained that lost school life.

It was distorted some by his position as the world’s strongest and he had ended up in a position above even the adult teachers, but he had regained something he had thought was forever lost.

He could not abandon that so easily.

That included Yamane Deiri, Nekoumi Hirosuke, Matsuda Imi, Hashizaki Tayori, the underclassman like Sanae and Alice, and the Student Council Treasurer and Secretary. All the boys and girls gathered at Grimnoah were the people who Karuta’s shattered dream had resonated with. They had brought back his school life from the bottom of the ocean. They may not have been aware of it, but the boring classes and laughter of the Second Grimnoah had undoubtedly healed his damaged soul. Each one of them had grabbed one of the shattered pieces and brought it back together.

One of the igloos in the middle school section had no owner. Sanae and Alice had created it to contain Toudou Riho’s crystal statue. Those friends had held that statue tight and never let go during that fierce fighting. They had never given up to the end.

He could not let anything take that from them.

“I want to repay them. I’m not going to let anything take our world from us again.”

He did not return to his igloo even after he had finished eating.

Vision was poor with the darkness and the blowing snow.

“Miss Marika has received a visitor at her igloo. It appears to be Miss Kyouka.”

“Are they spending the night together? That’s what my yuri-loving heart likes to hear. But is she going to sleep in the nude like usual?”

The camp was pitch black at night since any lights would have given its position away.

But the boy still walked around the igloos.

All throughout the night.

He was fueled by the completely ordinary desire to not see anyone else die.

But the following morning, a corpse was discovered in one of the igloos.

An unseen attack had occurred in the night and they were left with a new casualty.

### Part 8

“…”

It was such a contrast.

The white igloo looked so adorable from outside. After Marika’s snow rabbit started a trend, the middle school students had decorated theirs as well. This one had two plastic buckets embedded above the entrance to make it look like a face with a gaping mouth.

But.

Inside…

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

Utagai Karuta was frozen in place.

It took a long while before he could move again.

The middle and high school students were watching from a short distance. Word must have already spread that something happened.

“Utagai.”

For once, the track suit teacher did not seem to know what to say.

He was having trouble looking Karuta in the eye.

“This is, um, not your fault. It was probably unavoidable.”

A metallic straining reached his ears.

A girl sat with her back pressed against the wall inside the adorable igloo. She looked like she was desperately trying to stay as far away from the entrance as possible. And she was frozen in place there. But not due to ice. She had received a mortal wound and crystallized.

The sound came from there.

Even though she was already dead and could not move a finger.

It technically came from her stomach. That was the worst part to look at. Since she was crystallized and thus translucent, he could see through that glittering armor. Three skinny bivalves as thick as two fingers were clearly visible embedded in her there. Unlike the actual creatures, these had jagged edges much like a beartrap and those continued to bite into the crystal. They were gnawing and gnawing.

Yes.

The cause of death had been caught in the crystallization process and remained trapped in her body.

“Sacri-sama.” Aine was as blunt as always. “Mr. Kiyosawa Hadome is correct. I obeyed your orders last night, but I doubt my patrols meant much. We had no light in order to avoid detection and there was a blizzard, so the visibility was 10m at best. Meanwhile, there are more than 1000 igloos. And if Threats of this size were crawling through the snow, it would have been extremely difficult to detect them with the naked eye.”

“I know that,” he said weakly.

They had been unable to find a solution yesterday, so this had happened. He had known this could happen, but they were clearly a step behind their unseen opponent.

He slowly breathed in and out.

He had to accept this death, so he whispered a name as if part of a ritual.

“ Moriyama Sanae. ”

It was the shy glasses girl with her hair tied back in two tails.

She may not have been the best when it came to Crystal Magic combat.

But had that really been a flaw deserving of this sort of death?

“Aine.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

“We can’t leave her like this. We have to at provide the bare minimum of care before sending her to the Second Grimnoah. Will you help me?”

“If you order it.”

Kiyosawa Hadome was listening in and he started to say something but could not get out the words. He pulled back his half-outstretched arm, clenched his teeth, and looked away.

Karuta was not talking about placing a blanket over the crystallized girl or placing her in a special case.

He had asked for help from Aine, his greatest weapon .

“Wait, what are you going to do?”

Blonde Alice had been slumped down on the ground with her head in her hands, but she seemed to realize something here.

Her ponytail swayed as her tearstained face looked up at him.

He did not look back at her. He forced himself not to.

“She was your friend, so I recommend not watching this.”

“Sacri-sama. She is already fairly cracked there, so I expect it would be most efficient to send my blade in through her right side. Then I should be able to break Miss Sanae’s torso in two.”

Alice’s throat tensed.

Her friend was dead and she would never see her again, but that was not the end of it.

“Wait!! Please wait!!”

“The Threat is still trapped inside her.”

A bitter feeling filled the boy’s chest.

The girl tearfully grabbed at him, but he could not bear to look her in the eye now.

“We have to remove them before sending her to our ship. I’m sorry, but there is no other option here.”

“But…but Sanae-chan is still alive.”

She was not being delusional.

She was using the rules of Crystal Magic.

“It might take decades, but she’s still regenerating! But it isn’t perfect, so the bigger the wound, the longer it will take!! So…so if you break her in two, I don’t even want to think how long it will take!!!”

She never would see her friend again.

She could never laugh and speak with her again in her own lifetime.

And the finishing blow would come from a fellow human, not the Threat. In military terms, it would be a human-caused casualty. And it would be mercilessly carried out by the world’s strongest they were all relying on.

(Yeah.)

Utagai Karuta felt like the back of his mind was numbing over.

He felt like he had finally come to understand the meaning and the weight of the phrase “world’s strongest”.

(That’s what it means when the strongest gives up. If I throw in the towel, it means no one else can do it either. Or so they assume . Because that’s what the world has decided.)

“Kiyosawa-sensei.”

Karuta weakly turned around and looked to the track suit teacher who had been listening to all this.

“Please keep Alice away from here. So she can’t interfere until the work is done.”

“What!? No, let go of me! Don’t you dare touch Sanae-chan! Stop!!!!!”

Was she half in a frenzy?

Karuta could not bear to watch, so he started to enter the igloo. Someone tossed him a hammer. He caught it in his dominant hand and looked over to see Marika sighing with a hand on her hip.

“You can leave this dirty work to me, you know?”

“No, I’ll do it.”

The Student Council’s bob cut girl normally hated him, but she drove all the other students away now. Had she decided now was not the time for jealousy, or had she felt pity after seeing the look on his face?

He shook his head while looking half a cadaver himself.

“This was my fault. There must have been more I could have done last night.”

“…”

He held out his other hand and the girl silently handed him a large flathead screwdriver. It was apparently meant as a chisel.

He faced the crystal statue once more.

That was Moriyama Sanae.

She was not a part of him like Aine. She was not a childhood friend like Marika. She had not fought alongside him in their quest for revenge like Kyouka.

But.

Even so.

“I’m sorry.”

Those words sounded so inadequate to him.

He was shocked by how little weight they seemed to hold.

“I really am sorry, Sanae. There’s nothing more I can do for you.”

One trembling hand placed the end of the flathead screwdriver against the crack running through the crystal statue’s hip and his other hand squeezed the hammer’s grip.

He bit his lip, yet did not move for a while.

He had killed the Problem Solvers who had been known as the world’s strongest.

But this girl was different.

She was not a target of revenge. She had done nothing deserving this violence.

But someone had to do it.

“Sacri-sama, please give me a command.”

“No.”

He gulped and faced his own weakness. If he did not overcome this, he could never catch up to the enemy. He would remain in the palm of that unseen slaughterer and he would lose the kind world he had finally found.

It would happen again and again.

He had to stop that chain of events with his own hand.

So.

“No!!!!!!”

He raised the hammer.

A splitting sound soon followed. No matter how much he hurt the crystallized girl, she would not shed a single drop of blood. Yet, he still tasted iron.

It came from his own lip.

Still biting his lip hard, he swung down the hammer. Since he was not using a proper chisel, the first blow bounced off. But he tried again and slammed the hammer against the back of the screwdriver. The second blow dug in, but he missed with the third and hit his own hand with the hammer. That actually relieved him. But he could not stop. He had to keep going. He hammered again and again, spreading the cracks further and further.

His vision blurred and he belatedly realized it was due to tears.

He was killing her.

It was the Threat that had actually ended Moriyama Sanae’s life, but he was killing her in a different way.

Then the damage passed a certain point.

With a horribly inorganic cracking sound, her top half and lower half finally broke apart. With nothing to support it, the upper half toppled over like the mascot at an abandoned amusement park.

He hit his own limit there.

He turned the other way, curled up, and vomited. He had just destroyed someone’s body.

The metallic noise finally ended. The predators may have been rejoicing at regaining their freedom. Were they actually thanking the foolish boy?

“Kill them,” he groaned. That hatred he thought he would never again feel came rushing back. “Kill every last one of those bastards, Aineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!”

“Already on it.”

The piercing sounds were like music to his ears.

She used the tip of her sword to skewer all three Threats with bivalve-like armor and she did not remove them. The three remained there on the blade, unable to move, while she rested the sword on her shoulder again.

“What shall we do now, Sacri-sama?”

“What do you mean?”

“You have your answer, do you not?”

He felt like he was speaking with his own hesitant heart. He wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand as she asked that second question.

### Part 9

Yes.

With that girl’s death, they had their answer.

### Part 10

“I will now explain the details of the mission.”

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka had sent a Crystal Blossom transmission to them all.

They would have to abandon their settlement the instant the Threat noticed it, but they also wanted to avoid having to move if possible. So instead of gathering the 1000 students in one place and holding a strategy meeting with a megaphone in hand, they more safely spoke into their Crystal Blossoms inside their individual igloos.

“Based on the material evidence Karuta-kun discovered and the theory he developed based on it, we will be ‘poisoning’ the Threat. Since the Threat tears off the usable parts of their own fallen to cannibalize them, they will only customize themselves more the more we defeat them. Instead, we will hide bombs or viruses in the wreckage to do damage from within once those parts are cannibalized.”

Someone would have to be entirely oblivious to the spreading rumors to have not heard that someone else had died. They had another casualty.

Nevertheless, Yamane Deiri, Nekoumi Hirosuke, Matsuda Imi, Hashizaki Tayori, and the Student Council’s black bob cut girl were fully focused on fighting the Threat, so they may have wanted to forget about that fear. Just like a giant meteor descending toward your city would make even a brutal robbery pale in comparison. They may have been standing up to the Threat as a way of averting their gaze.

It was important to remember these were all middle and high school students, even if they had been given Crystal Magic, the world’s strongest power.

“To act on this plan, we need the remains left by the Threat, so we will be splitting into three teams. The first is the Firepower Team that will work to destroy as many Threats as they can. Then the Delaying Team will hit the surviving Threats with a powerful bombardment to buy us even a few minutes. Lastly, we have the Engineering Team that will use that time to insert the poison in the defeated Threats. It does not actually matter if the Threat notices what we are doing. We only care about ending the negative spiral where they grow stronger the more we defeat them, so making them hesitant to cannibalize counts as a success even if the poison does no direct damage.”

They were heading to the deadly battlefield to fight.

Once in that special mental state, all their everyday troubles seemed to vanish.

Even though there was still violence on warships and theft and murder on the battlefield.

“In addition to those three primary teams, there will also be smaller sub-teams for transmission, transportation, healing, and backup circling the battlefield like satellites, so keep that in mind. The team divisions will prioritize teamwork, so it will be done by class. No hard feelings no matter what team you end up on, okay? We are all Grimnoah. We are all on the same side.”

Things were finally underway.

Rushing footsteps sounded all around them.

“Buck up, Karuta.”

“W-we just need to look at it as a chance to show off to the middle schoolers!!”

Karuta’s two classmates slapped him on shoulders or back as they passed by.

With Crystal Magic, they did not have to prepare their weapons and ammo before entering battle. They generally only had to shatter their Crystal Blossoms to activate their armor, but it was not that easy this time. After all, they were moving as a group of 1000. Simply splitting into teams and performing a roll call was on a larger scale than the average school’s athletics festival.

“Marika.”

“I’ll be borrowing the entire Firepower Team. I wouldn’t dare send them to the front line otherwise.”

“You’re sounding more like a god of war all the time.”

“Isn’t that what it means to be the world’s strongest? I’ve gotta be waving the flag out front.”

“Then you handle that,” he said with a smile. “Anyway, about yesterday.”

“I already told you everything I know about that. I wasn’t hiding anything. See you.”

She waved and flew up into the air. The class of a few dozen that formed the Firepower Team followed after her.

Karuta let out a visible sigh and spoke to someone else.

“Omotesandou-san.”

“Is this really when you want to borrow my wisdom?” she began with a laugh. “To be blunt, I doubt any investigating we do will turn up anything about the circumstances of Sanae-san’s death. Visibility was so poor with the late-night blizzard that no one would have noticed if someone was sneaking around and the igloos don’t even have doors, meaning anyone could walk right in. If that was all we had to work with, it would have been the perfect crime.”

“But it wasn’t.”

“Correct. That death instead gave us the answer we needed, so it’s time to do your job. This entire poisoning mission is a bluff .”

Karuta was a Grimnoah student too.

He was one of the Four Living Gods, but that did not mean he could just sit idly by and watch things play out.

“Um,” someone hesitantly called out.

He looked back to find a 12-year-old girl standing there nervously. It was Natalena Blast.

“What are you going to do now? Um, because you don’t seem able to fly with Crystal Magic.”

“Worried about me?”

“…”

“Just kidding. I’m part of the Transmission Team providing logistical support. Crystal Blossom transmissions have a limited range, but they can cover much longer ranges if we leave someone in between to relay the signal.”

“I see.”

“You’re part of the Work Team, right? That detailed work on the front line is critical, so don’t screw it up.”

“It’s, um, weird having you worried about me.”

“But that’s how I really feel.”

An ominous atmosphere emanated from a short distance away. That girl was in turmoil as well. Her middle school classmates must have been hesitant to speak to her after what happened. And that let her lose control more and more.

“They are so dead.”

She was filled with resentment.

But not quite like Karuta’s group had been.

Blonde Alice would have been crushed by the sorrow if she did not have someone to hate, so she was adding fuel to the fire within her. Although her hatred of the Threat probably was real.

Her frenzy when he had broken the crystal statue had not seemed like an act.

“They are deader than dead. I’ll show them what a real threat is. I’ll make a pile of their corpses to prove who’s the strongest once and for all!!”

She had been placed on the Delaying Team that would keep the surviving Threats away to buy time for the sabotage of the defeated ones. It was a fruitless job but Karuta thought she might be perfect for it.

“Sensei.”

“Y-yes!?”

Flaxen-haired Sophia Firenze was holding a first-aid kit.

Crystal Magic could heal any non-fatal wounds in 30 seconds, but that did not mean they had no need for medical equipment. Sometimes stopping the bleeding would turn an otherwise fatal wound into a non-fatal one. So using both methods was more effective than one or the other. He guessed she was part of the Healing Team providing logistical support.

“Your focus was on theory, right?”

“Yes, entirely so. What am I even doing on the front line like this? I was supposed to create theories, try to reproduce them in the lab, and correct the theories based on the results.”

“Reproduce them?”

“I won’t go so far as to say reality is an awful place, but there are people who will accept something more readily when they can hold it in their hands. Especially among the elderly. So in addition to simulations, I would make models and pet robots. It was really a waste of time, but they wouldn’t fund us without those things.”

Karuta heard someone click their tongue.

Not even the imminent battle changed that muscular teacher named Kiyosawa Hadome.

But an unwavering spirit could be a reassuring thing.

“I really don’t like you,” he said to Karuta.

“Is that so?”

“But I’ll admit this isn’t a job for us. So go do what we theory-based teachers can’t.”

Karuta smiled a little. How much strength had it taken for that man to leave things in his hands here? He knew just how much that teacher cared for the students, after all.

Their preparations were nearly complete.

After leaving the teachers, he gave a quiet order.

“Aine.”

The crystal girl poked her had out from within his uniform.

“It’s time. We need to get moving.”

“Understood.”

Unlike the other teams, the Communication Team would not be gathered in a single spot. They had to spread out over as wide an area as possible to relay transmissions.

That was the perfect job if you wanted to hide and work on something else in secret.

He glanced over at the destroyed C World dome and saw the Threat must have noticed something was afoot. Snow blasted up into the air and countless red eyes glowed from beyond it. The visible range on the surface was less than 5km, so they had to be within striking range for some of their weapons. Karuta’s job was to relay transmissions, so he could easily tell where the Grimnoah students were located on the battlefield.

He slowly took a deep breath.

President Omotesandou Kyouka had called this poisoning mission a bluff.

That was exactly right. He flicked the Crystal Blossom on his chest.

“Marika.”

“I’m ready when you are.”

“Get ready, Aine.”

“Understood, Sacri-sama.”

That settled it.

The giant Threats stepped over their brethren to continue past the ones blocking the way. And while those surface-based ones struggled to move out ahead, countless flying ones filled the air like a sandstorm. Meanwhile, the Grimnoah students were putting a fair amount of distance between themselves to have enough room to fly freely.

After confirming everyone’s positions, Utagai Karuta pulled the final trigger.

Of his own free will.

“ Okay, you two, shoot down Alice Majority. ”

It must have been too sudden for her to react in time.

Laser sniping was hard enough to dodge at the best of times and she was simultaneously targeted from two different points, one on the ground and one in the air.

The lasers struck a flying angel with feather decorations adorning her armor and miniskirt made of translucent crystal.

“!?”

The blonde ponytail girl had just enough time to notice something was wrong and twist around, but her barrier was still shattered and her translucent armor hit. She lost balance in midair and entered a tailspin.

She fell straight down.

Toward the ground.

Where the Threat had created a realm of death.

“Let’s go, Aine. We need to end this here.”

Karuta was on the Transmission Team.

He could sense the amount of Crystal Blossom transmissions spike all of a sudden. The other students were sending angry and frightened complaints to ask what had just happened, but the boy did not let it get to him. He simply walked to the crash site, accompanied by Crystal Girl Aine who obeyed his orders.

There, he found a new sight.

He saw black armor. He saw scorpions that had human-like hands and airbrush-like tails they used to cause massive midair explosions to bring down all flying objects. He saw giant squids with plenty of cheap denture-like mouths. He saw carnivorous plants with coffin jaws clacking shut. He saw abnormally large ants with handgun legs. All those bizarre creatures were gathered together and tearing at each other’s armor. These were all the Threat that killed humans and destroyed their civilization.

However.

They had come to a stop.

It was like time had frozen so the crashed girl would not be caught in the middle of it all. The countless flying Threats – the giant octopuses that rotated their sucker-covered legs in alternate directions like coaxial rotors and the flying fish that were as pointy as a blade – had fallen to the ground when they stopped moving.

Just like a bizarre weather phenomenon where frogs or small fish fell from the sky. That was increasing the height of the black masses. There was no gap in the swarm of Threats, so approaching meant Karuta had to climb across the many legs like it was a jungle gym.

“Is that phone the controller, Alice?”

“…!!”

It was also possible she was using special sensors to monitor the Threat while using Crystal Magic for the actual interference with them, but even if the details were unclear, one thing here clearly stood out.

“That isn’t just a phone.”

The object in Alice’s hand was not her phone.

When he thought back to their swimsuits, he recalled that being the model used by Toudou Riho who had carried two phones with her.

“You’ve swapped out the circuit board within, making that one unique. Tell me. What is it for?”

### Part 11

Karuta had needed help for this one, so he had discussed it with the others before getting started.

He had spoken with Amaashi Marika and Omotesandou Kyouka.

“Alice Majority?”

Marika sighed.

That was the last of that trio of girls. The blonde ponytail one.

“Yes.” Karuta nodded. “There’s no point in investigating Casualty B, Moriyama Sanae. Any one of our 1000 people could have pulled that one off. I’d be the top suspect since I was out patrolling throughout the night and Aine’s testimony won’t help me since she agrees with anything I say. But this still gives us the answer when combined with Casualty A, Toudou Riho.”

“Continue.”

The President smiled in apparent enjoyment.

He could not say if that smile was from the heart or not, though.

“Riho’s throat was slit from head on. A slipper-sized pill bug of a Threat was found on the floor, but that doesn’t add up. How did that thing slit her throat? There was more than a meter from the floor to her throat, so are we supposed to believe it hopped straight up like some kind of spring-loaded contraption? It’s nonsense.”

“Sacri-sama, couldn’t it have fallen from the duct in the ceiling?”

“There were no wounds on her arms. However it happened, anyone would try to protect their face from an attack they could see. Even rookies and people without any combat training whatsoever would do that.”

“Then did it sneak up behind her?”

“You already know the answer to that, don’t you? That pill bug only had its jaws. It had no arms. To circle around from behind and slit her throat, it would have to have used its many legs to crawl along her back or shoulder. There’s no way Riho wouldn’t notice that. So,” he said while pretending he was holding and pushing forward an electric shaver or something. “ Someone must have held that pill bug and pressed it against Riho’s throat. That’s the only possible answer. There never was any other answer. And the lack of wounds to her hands means it was someone she trusted. She never imagined for a second she was going to be attacked.”

“Hm,” said Kyouka. “But what proof is there that person was Alice Majority? She was the one who came to us. If she did that, wouldn’t she have wanted to delay discovery of the body? And we could easily have asked the kids seated near the bathroom who had been in there.”

“She used the window,” replied Karuta. Normal people would never even consider that, but they were different. “That was only the 6th floor. Any Crystal Magician can fly, so it wouldn’t have been difficult for her to climb out through the hallway window, circle around the entire hotel, and arrive at the window to the girl’s bathroom. I’m the only exception there, what with Aine and all.”

“But if they chose a course that doesn’t show up on the cameras, couldn’t anyone have done that? It didn’t have to be Sanae-san or Alice-san.”

“Of course.” He shrugged. “But it couldn’t have been anyone else and I know you already know why. Riho was caught by surprise in an attack from dead ahead. Someone has to trust you an awful lot for you to slit their throat from dead ahead without giving them any time to try to stop you with their hands.”

“I see.”

“That was the girl’s bathroom, she would have immediately put her guard up around a boy or one of the adult teachers who are practically all-powerful in her school life. I was hesitant to go in there even when I knew it was an emergency. And Riho would have been suspicious of pretty much anyone – even another girl – if they climbed in through the 6th-floor window. There’s only one or two people she would let her guard down around in that situation.”

Utagai Karuta had seen it before. Back on the Grimnoah ship, he had seen Alice take a shortcut to the shower room window. That meant climbing in through windows was a habitual thing for that trio. It would not inspire any surprise. Yet if Karuta, Aine, Marika, or Kyouka had done it, it would have led to a flurry of screams. None of the other students – or teachers for that matter – could have done it.

It was not about the actual actions taken.

Only the other members of that trio had been close enough to Riho.

At the time, that logic had left them with two options, but then Alice had killed Sanae. Most likely, she had used a similar tactic: grabbing those small Threats in her hand and shoving them into the girl’s gut.

That death had left just one option.

The sole survivor was their answer. Marika sighed in a disinterested way.

“I had deduced that either Sanae or Alice must have killed Toudou Riho, so I put them through a little test. I have to admit, I didn’t expect to find they were both guilty. ”

A little test.

Needless to say, she was referring to having those two investigate the damage to the other domes the day before.

“Oh, had you already checked over all the domes yourself?”

“Yes, and then I had them check over them again. There were plenty of oddities to report, but those girls both said they found nothing. A nice way to dodge the issue, really. If I had pointed out the oddities later on, they could always claim they had simply not noticed. A nice way, but still plenty suspicious.”

Marika had mentioned a teacher joining that inspection at the last second – Kiyosawa Hadome. She had suspected he had gone along to keep an eye on the other two and make sure they did not say anything foolish, but it turned out he had no ulterior motive at all.

He had honestly reported what he saw and even tried to help the other girls with their report.

If Marika had not held out a hand to stop him, he would likely have mentioned what they had “overlooked”. That would have allowed the girls to realize how unnatural their report sounded, giving them a chance to course correct.

“So what exactly did they fail to report?”

“There were Threat-like footprints and claw marks visible around the surviving domes and there was a lot of fruit hidden in the snow. The former is unnatural because it means the Threat was picking and choosing who and what to attack despite supposedly being indiscriminate. The latter was evidence of a secret supply base. They had plenty of food for themselves prepared in advance in case we made a mistake and ended up stuck in the blizzard without food. Fruit stays good when frozen and they could cook it with magic fire to eat it.”

The discoveries themselves had been less important than questioning why those girls would hide it.

They had not wanted the others to know the Threat could be controlled or that a supply base had been prepared in advance.

The day before, Marika had said there was no way of narrowing it down at that point and the answer would become clear after a few more casualties.

“We had two possibilities and one died, so that settles it.”

They could have tried to separate Sanae and Alice, but they had not known how those two were controlling the Threat. If they captured those two and had a large army called in on them, they would have been wiped out.

Marika’s solution was to defeat both of them, but if they both had a controller, then one could summon the Threat while the other was being killed.

Thus, she had been waiting for an opportunity to kill them both at the same time.

Yet that opportunity had never arrived.

“You can’t solve every problem with a sniper shot, Marika-san.” Kyouka laughed. Had she gone to Marika’s igloo last night to drive that point home? Although that did lead them to overlook the late-night murder.

“Marika, when did you first start to suspect them?” asked Karuta.

“The instant we found Toudou Riho’s corpse. I mean, their grief was way too by the book. If your closest friend dies, it would tear your heart to pieces. I would have expected them to grab the corpse and fly off with it never to return, or to start calling everyone a spy and bombing the hell out of them with their Crystal Magic.”

That opinion seemed heavily influenced by Marika’s unique values.

She was also implying that was how she would react if Karuta or Aine died.

She had mostly jumped to a conclusion and gotten lucky, but she had still reached the right answer far sooner than Karuta. He was astonished by this, but anyway.

“Do you agree with Karuta on how she did it?” asked Omotesandou Kyouka.

“I do.”

“It would be technically possible, but it seems unnecessarily complicated. Flying around the outer wall to reach the bathroom window is a lot of effort. Why did Alice Majority want to contact Toudou Riho in secret so badly? And how did the Threat become a part of all this?”

Those questions were side issues.

If they wanted to find out why she had killed her friends, they only had to bring her down and take their time getting it out of her in a dark room somewhere. So there was a bigger issue here.

“Even if the Threat here is only a decoy, we have to take out whatever method she is using to control them. And I would really prefer not to consider the possibility that the method can be spread to others.”

### Part 12

The battlefield had changed.

The frozen Threat swarm surrounded Karuta and Alice. A lot of them were as large as a bus or a small building, so there was plenty of cover. It was like a deep rocky area made of black metal.

Alice Majority could not talk her way out of this now that she had used her safety device. She would have a hard time arguing that someone else had stopped them at that very moment to frame her.

Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld.

Alice used Skuld, who was one of the goddesses of fate and also a Valkyrie who gathered the souls of the dead in preparation for the final battle.

Those three goddesses were said to water the world tree of Yggdrasill on a daily basis so it would not rot, but that meant it was in their power to let the world tree rot and trigger Ragnarok, which would bring destruction to all. So was this mechanical army controlled by a goddess supposed to be the dead soldiers known as the Einherjar?

“So what was that phone, anyway?”

Karuta was the first to speak.

His words set things in motion by placing the initiative in his hands.

“Was it really worth killing to get your hands on?”

“The false Threats don’t use encrypted communications.” Blonde Alice shook the phone in her hand. “I imagine it was to make them more like the real thing, but they’re like honeybees. They signal each other with visible movements of their legs or roots. But that can be interfered with. A powerful crosswind can mess with the movement of their raised leg and a whiteout prevents their red eyes from scanning the scene properly.”

“Meaning you can stop the Threat and guide them where you want?”

It would take Crystal Magic to pull that off as an individual. He knew Natalena and Sophia could manipulate the wind with their power. This power must cover a horrifyingly wide area and they had pulled it off even when enclosed in the C World dome.

But if that was the explanation, they would have no need for the (device disguised as a) phone.

“This is a satellite access communicator. When we built the circuit board based on the plans, it wouldn’t connect properly and we only got it to function after working together to attach and detach different components. So we could never make a second one even if we tried.”

Karuta was reminded of what Aine used for a bed – a prototype civilian spaceship resembling a bamboo leaf.

“Even students can build a small satellite. It isn’t that unusual. And to control the Threat with wind and light, we needed to track the weather, the distribution of the swarm, and the signals they were making with their bodies and legs.”

“So the communication interference wasn’t due to the blizzard, was it?”

“I doubt a commercial service without a specialized observation device could have accomplished much, but better safe than sorry. We had to cut off access to the various weather forecast services available through your phones.”

The many Threats surrounding them remained motionless. And not because something was interfering with the signals they made like a honeybee or fiddler crab. They viewed things with their red eyes and signaled to their own kind with their legs or roots. But when thick fog or a whiteout cut off all visual information, were they programmed to stop and think instead of moving blindly to send out signals?

But Karuta still had a more fundamental question here.

“You could do all that and all you did with it was kill?”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“What made you go to all that effort to kill Riho and Sanae?”

“You killed her!!!!!!”

He thought she meant Moriyama Sanae.

Because he had broken her crystal statue beyond recognition to get the small Threats out.

But Alice went on to speak an entirely different name.

“ You killed Anastasia Blast !! I don’t care why you did it. Whatever she might have been doing behind the scene, she was our hero. She fought to keep the world safe!!”

That name again? thought Karuta.

Was killing the world’s strongest not enough to be entirely rid of them?

He did not know the exact situation Alice – no, those three – had found themselves in. Maybe they simply had heard of Anastasia’s exploits on TV or over the internet. Maybe they had been rescued from the real Threat in one of those cities on the verge of annihilation.

(Come to think of it.)

His thoughts turned toward that special drink Moriyama Sanae had always been drinking. A pinch of salt in water would not have any real flavor, so maybe it had some connection to her past. Did it help her relax? Or to put it another way, could she not relax without it? She may have found an action that reminded her of some past event. The other two may have had been hiding some unseen scar below their clothing or in their heart in a similar fashion.

Anastasia probably had not remembered them if she had ever known them at all, but her noble lifestyle had inspired some people to change and start working again.

Relatives were not the only ones who would grieve someone’s death.

Anastasia Blast’s death had carried great weight. Enough so to lead these girls to search the underside of the world for a weakness in Karuta’s group and ultimately happen across the decoy Threats there.

“So I don’t care what the strongests were doing in secret!! I only care that I can use this power to exact revenge on Grimnoah! Yes, that’s right. I killed them… We were all in it together!! To give you a taste of the defeat you so deserved after usurping the throne of the world’s strongest!!”

“But why?”

The taste of defeat?

Did this girl really think they had never tasted that before?

“I get why you’re out to get us four, but why did Riho and Sanae have to die?”

“They tried to back out.”

That short response told the whole story in abbreviated form.

“The plan was to ‘accidentally’ shoot you during the chaos of the attack, but Riho-chan didn’t trigger that attack when the time came. I snuck around back and asked her what was up, and she confessed she was scared. She said it was wrong to get so many other people caught in the attack, so she had gone into the bathroom to hide with the satellite access communicator! We needed that detailed data to control the Threat with our magic!”

Riho and Alice could not have allowed anyone else to get a look at that device’s screen. Was that why Alice had felt the need to cover her tracks by flying in through the window for a simple discussion?

“So what choice did I have? Riho-chan could chicken out if she wanted, but if she turned herself in and got us caught too, there goes the whole plan!!”

He could guess from this that those three girls could only access their small satellite with that one device.

It may have seemed like enough for them at the time, but that had caused problems down the road.

“Then what about Casualty B – Sanae?”

“She screwed up.”

Alice kept it short.

Maybe she had gotten used to it by the second time.

Or maybe after taking out Riho, she herself had gone off the rails without noticing it.

“ She said she fell for a trick, so she was trembling in fear. I have no clue what she was talking about, but it was all over for both of us if she was caught. So again, I had no other choice.”

“…”

Marika had actually been monitoring Sanae and Alice both, but Alice must not have even noticed the trap she fell for.

“Still, I could have seen her in a few decades.”

Finally, she ground her teeth together.

He could see pure regret in her.

“But you shattered that hope along with her statue. What is it now? Centuries? Millennia? I can’t even apologize to her now!!”

Despite all this, they would not have come together for revenge like that unless they had already been bound by friendship.

But once they got started, it ended up like this. None of their hated foes were gone and those good friends had ended up killing each other. Alice had clearly attacked the wrong targets here.

“How could this have happened?”

He could not help but ask.

He felt blessed himself. After all, what if Marika had said she was scared and backed out when they had decided to kill the Problem Solvers? Or what if Kyouka’s identity had been discovered and the investigation would have reached them before long? What if he had ended up in a deadly battle against Aine who was practically one with him???

Weapons, money, and intelligence were not the most important things when seeking vengeance.

You needed trust.

Friendship.

Unwavering feelings.

It seemed ironic since those words seemed far removed from the bloody action of revenge, but it was the truth. Karuta had been fairly unsure if he could actually continue with his revenge back then. If Marika and Kyouka had not pulled him back in, he would probably have ended up like this as well.

So…

And yet…

“You were willing to rely on each other to accomplish something even if the rest of the world was against you, right? Weren’t you good enough friends to reveal those immoral feelings to each other!? Then!! Couldn’t you have figured something out!? Something other than what happened!!!???”

His desperate cry only put a dry smile on Alice Majority’s face.

It was already over.

The rift between the successful and the failure was too great. Kind words from the successful were only salt in the wound to the failure.

He knew that.

He had not wanted to be caught up in those girls’ revenge. If he had learned Marika or Kyouka’s lives were at risk, he would have stopped them no matter what it took. Even if the rest of the world thought him a coward and even if he could not forgive himself for what he had done. That much he knew for certain.

He knew that, but this still seemed like too much.

How could he tell that trio that they had failed in their revenge and lost everything because their friendship wasn’t strong enough? What hope was there? Was there nothing at all they had left!?

“This is revenge too, don’t you think?”

Alice looked like an empty shell of a person, but she still raised that phone. No, that original device made to look like one. That card of ruin received the weather and location data needed to control the Threat with magic. She could use her magic to interrupt the honeybee or fiddler crab style of signal and that would either stop or guide the Threat. For example, she could make them stumble by sending in a powerful crosswind when they lifted a leg.

There were a number of theories where the name Skuld came from. For example, “tax”, “future”, “debt”, or “obligation”.

This girl had hoped for success in the future no matter what it took, that had placed too great an obligation on the friends who had walked that path with her, she had violently taken a bloody debt from them, and here she stood now.

For the future.

But Alice Majority should have looked back to the past.

She should have looked deeper, instead of focusing on shallow vengeance. She should have reminded herself why she was friends with Riho and Sanae. She should have recalled what bonds had brought them so close together in the first place!!

“I failed to kill you. In fact, killing you would accomplish nothing. But you will lose everything again if I unleash the Threat here.”

“That’s meaningless.”

“I was never looking for meaning in my revenge. Because if you decide it isn’t worth it, that’s when the fear creeps in.”

“You can utterly destroy the Crystal Beach, but I won’t bat an eye and I tell you it all had nothing to do with Grimnoah and I’ve lost nothing!! So don’t waste your time, Alice!! That doesn’t even qualify as revenge!!”

“Yeah, you would have to feign indifference, wouldn’t you? You can’t let me see the target means something to you.”

In that final moment, Alice Majority was definitely smiling.

Her face was a mess and it had to have been easier on her to have cried.

Her enemy had even robbed her of any hope that she could apologize some decades from now.

“But that won’t change what I do. Goodbye, Senpai.”

“You idiot!!!!!”

The instant she placed her finger on the touchscreen and her translucent armor spread out like wings, the magic was dispelled and time began to move once more. The girl had triggered Ragnarok. She had reactivated the Threat while surrounded by them herself. Marika’s laser sniper shot blew her brains out, but it was an instant too slow. A massive maw snapped shut on her crystallizing body, shattering it.

She was killed instantly.

The crystal statue was smashed to tiny pieces that glittered as they scattered around.

Something grazed Karuta’s cheek, leaving a sharp wound there. It must have been a piece of the broken device’s circuit board or LCD screen. He heard a cracking sound as crystal covered the surface of the wound.

All blood and tears vanished within that solid sound.

He clenched his teeth until he thought they would break and Aine moved out front with sword at the ready.

With a flash of that blade, a giant ant’s leg was severed with a diagonal cut before it could crush him and the ant itself toppled over. He had survived that, but the Threat was clearly locked onto him. These were now enemies rather than simple obstacles.

The ground and sky were filled once more by the fake but still loathsome Threat.

“Sacri-sama, please adapt. The situation has already changed.”

He could not afford to die here, so he shouted into his Crystal Blossom.

“I failed to persuade her! Omotesandou-san, let’s go with Plan B. The device was destroyed and we wouldn’t know how to use it anyway!”

“You mean we’re going with the ‘poisoning’ plan that started out as an act? Understood.”

The Threat could continue marching at them forever.

Even though they were fakes, a direct hit from them would still be deadly.

Utagai Karuta had been dragged into that endless battle, but he felt no fear.

He was not afraid of these attacks from emotionless machines.

He refused to let this be as painful as a clash between two people.

### Between the Lines 3

Length of Battle: 44 Hours, 28 Minutes, 31 Seconds.

Dead: 34 (including Alice Majority). Injured: 705.

Total Number of Defeated Enemies: All 9989 of them.

We have successfully eliminated the decoy Threats created by Smart Arms.

Sacri-sama’s “poisoning” plan was effective.

As these are merely decoys, it is unknown how well this would work against the real ones, but it should be worth remembering as a possibility.

It is unknown where these practice Threats came from or how their number is replenished, but it seems likely they used the thick Arctic ice.

Crystal Beach built its heating infrastructure using the heat of submarine volcanoes, but they apparently perform periodic checks to ensure the sulfur dissolved in the seawater is not affecting how the ice freezes. We do not actually know what kind of probes they use, but these decoy Threats were almost certainly clinging to the underside of the thick ice here. I can guess they were leased to the Crystal Beach because their use as training tools was not enough to recoup the R&D costs. Alice used wind to mess with the signals they made with their legs or roots, but they may have been sending vibrations down to the other side of the thick ice.

With Alice’s defeat, the communication disruption vanished.

From a strategic perspective, the fight for Crystal Beach was a success.

The differing sizes of different Threat models make it hard to be exact, but the general loss ratio was 1-to-8 and I earned something of a high score myself. I would say this has proven the effectiveness of Crystal Magic. Hooray.

How was that, Sacri-sama?

I even learned my lesson after that time in the gym, so I have a handkerchief you can borrow.

Were any of my calculations incorrect?

### 091. Chapter 4

### Part 1

It took longer than a day, but they had defeated every last one of the Threat.

They had gone around destroying more and more and more and more of the Threat flooding the ground and sky.

Even though that enemy was not even strictly alive.

This was not the first night they had seen during the fighting. It was the second one.

The fighting had been fierce, but Utagai Karuta was one of the survivors.

And if the category of survivors existed, another category also had to exist.

“34.”

A dray cracking sound reached Karuta’s ears.

It was the sound the small crystal shards scattering after his arm completed its regeneration.

This Threat had been artificial weapons created by Smart Arms, so the blinding laser emitted by his modified military flashlight could cause a malfunction in their sensors.

He could also use the Preset regeneration.

A human could derail a speeding train if they did not care what happened to their own body. They simply had to lie down and place their arm across the track. By jamming his hand into the joints of the mechanical legs, he could briefly stop them from moving. By having his own arm crushed to cushion the impact, he could prevent a fatal blow to his organs. He had avoided instant death and considered the cost-performance of each action to destroy his own body at maximum efficiency. Meanwhile, he had used Aine to slice through the center of the Threat and overcome the difference in numbers. It actually helped that the Threat was so large and packed together as a swarm. He could slip below one to escape the legs of the others, giving him a momentary shelter. At least until its stomach dropped to squash him.

He had to have destroyed more of them than even Marika who had used her superhuman flying instincts to bomb the Threat with frightening precision. His “poisoning” plan had worked well. The fake Threats could no longer evolve once they could not take in the parts of their fallen.

The weapon he used, his own destruction, and the strategy itself all came back to his own abilities.

Even so, the voices were still ringing in his ears.

“Help me!” “I don’t want to die!” “Aren’t you the world’s strongest!? The Four Living Gods!?”

He was haunted by the cries of the students who had trusted him right up until the very end when reality set it and they felt betrayed.

He could not live up to all their expectations.

The crystal scattered at his feet was not all the result of his own regeneration. Small hands, slender legs, and a cute face were lying there. They were translucent and not recovering.

Hadn’t she been the Student Council Treasurer?

He honestly did not even know her name. He remembered how coldly she treated him whenever he showed up to speak with Kyouka, but he also remembered how she had kept the other students away for him when Sanae died. She was not just some title. She was a human being who could pick up on people’s feelings and show them kindness. The fact that he only knew her by that title was a failing on his part, not hers.

And now she was gone.

Just gone.

“Altogether, that’s an entire class worth of kids dead!! Is this…is this what you wanted, Alice!!!???”

He knew his question would go unanswered.

That girl had been laser sniped by Marika and smashed to pieces by a Threat’s giant jaws. Not to mention the battlefield had moved around a lot during the fighting. Not even he remembered where exactly he had spoken with Alice Majority.

Despite everything, one group remained whole.

Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka.

The Four Living Gods were the ones that trio had actually wanted to kill, yet not one of them had died. Karuta knew from his own experience that plans had a way of going wrong, but still.

Their attempt had been an utter failure.

“Gh.”

With the extreme fighting over, the supply of adrenaline may have stopped.

For whatever reason, he suddenly hit his limit.

He collapsed onto his side and felt like he could never move again. He simply pulled in the object in front of him. It was the crystallized head of the Treasurer with a bob cut.

The killers and the killed were gone, having accomplished nothing. That thought triggered an explosion of negative emotion within him. He had done this. The world he had created had driven them to this.

Even though he had believed defeating the Problem Solvers would change the world so these cruel sacrifices were no longer necessary.

“Ahhhhhhh!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

“S-Senpai.”

He heard a weak and unreliable voice from beyond the blizzard.

It was Natalena Blast, another person trapped in revenge.

“That’s enough! Please stop fighting like that! You’re scaring everyone! Is that the ultimate form of Crystal Magic!? Destroying your own body to protect a non-regenerating flashlight!? Are we all going to end up like that eventually!? You’re the world’s strongest, so if you don’t pull yourself together, Grimnoah really will fall apart!!”

Now was the time to clean up the mess.

They had to check for any surviving Threats either in hiding or playing dead among the scraps, so everyone was combing the snowy terrain. With nonhuman opponents, they could not demand a surrender and the concept of war crimes did not apply. If they ran across a Threat, they would immediately destroy it.

“…”

But Karuta remained motionless on the ground, moving just his eyes to look over at the speaker.

It was indeed Natalena.

Only then did he slowly climb to his feet. Even if he had to force it.

She really was strong. There had been no guarantees out here, but she had found a survival strategy all on her own. Yes. Even when the Threat appeared in such numbers and could endlessly grow by devouring their own fallen, her ability to grab and swing around anything was just about the only thing that could defeat them head on.

Her Crystal Magic borrowed Anubis’s power. Before, she had attacked by using the thin wires and small grab buckets to grab at matter and swing it around as a blunt weapon. She had grabbed both solids and liquids from the area around her. Karuta had shown how to defeat that back on the beach that night. Her strength would probably rise if she grabbed something like explosives, magma, or powerful acid, but she did not use that sort of trickery here.

Instead, she chose a completely different fighting style.

She had grown yet again.

(She wasn’t using just solids and liquids. She was grabbing gasses and even plasma, which is known as the fourth state of matter.)

More than just grabbing containers or boulders, she could swing around water or the air to create her own cataclysms, like a flashflood or a powerful windstorm. She had even grabbed and twisted around explosions and blowtorch blades.

Just like her sister Anastasia, her destruction seemed more like magic than a weapon.

He had somewhat predicted this and even Omotesandou Kyouka had said the girl was powerful.

But still.

(She picked it up so fast. Scary fast.)

That young girl could transform a crisis into personal growth. At this rate, she might even surpass Karuta or Marika one day.

He had no proof of it, but he wondered if she would eventually be able to grab the dimension itself.

He could not begin to predict what would happen if she did that. As a Regulation 3, Omotesandou Kyouka had once been able to leap beyond this dimension, so perhaps she would be able to find the answer.

But all of that was Natalena Blast’s personal situation.

He doubted he would ever forget the names of those 34. He had known her name was not on the list, but he did not know who all she was friends with.

He gently placed the Student Council Treasurer’s severed head on the snow and asked a question with haunted eyes.

“Are your friends okay, Natalena?’

“Y-yes.”

“Good.”

The world’s strongest piece of shit had failed to protect everyone coming to him for help.

The extreme exhaustion and cold had taken their toll, but the psychological damage was even greater. He was about ready to mistake the snow for a down blanket and fall asleep right there.

But young Natalena gave him a frightened look. It was the look of someone seeing a horrific wound. Yet that boy had killed her sister and she had vowed to have her revenge, so seeing him in such a haggard state should have delighted her to no end.

“Natalena.”

“Yes?”

“What will you do now?”

That was the fundamental question.

He did not have it in him to keep going right now.

“Are you going to keep at it? Even after seeing that?”

She bit her lip.

And…

“What if I do say I will have my revenge?”

“…”

Toudou Riho had her throat slit for suggesting they stop. Moriyama Sanae had her belly devoured while fearing she had made a mistake. Alice Majority had lit the fuse of doom after losing everything.

What kind of answer would an avenger accept?

After thinking, Utagai Karuta opened his mouth again.

He was worn down and injured, but he could not stop here.

“I will stop you.”

“That’s selfish.”

“I will stop your revenge no matter what. Before you end up like this too.”

“How can you say that after killing my sister?”

Fair point, he thought.

It was a self-serving argument and it would sound shallow and idealistic no matter who it came from. When someone was boiling in the flames of vengeance, it did not matter how dangerous that vengeance would be. They could not rest until they succeeded.

But.

Even so.

“Fail in your revenge and you die. But even if you succeed, what you see before you is all it gets you.”

He spat out that truth. It was such a wasteful answer given all the lives cruelly taken. And now that he had learned the truth, he could not turn away from it.

He knew full well he could not recommend this path to anyone else.

“So I will stop you. No matter what it takes and no matter what anyone says! Natalena, I can’t let you face this dilemma!!”

Someone should have said this sooner.

At the very beginning.

Someone should have said it to Karuta’s group too.

And to Alice’s trio.

Someone should have prevented them from glorifying revenge as a noble goal. Someone should have stopped them before they had killed their first person and before it was too late. Someone should have dragged them away from the shadows and back out into the sun.

They had not had someone to stop them like that. Not that they would have listened while in the midst of their revenge. They would have gone mad with rage, decided that person was “one of them”, and added them to the list of targets. But even so, they had lacked someone who would silence those fools with their fists, show them an overwhelming power, and then rub their head, smile, and tell them everything would be okay.

Succeed or fail, revenge led to a dead end.

All who attempted it were doomed to sink into the depths of hell.

So he had to stop this young girl.

She could resent him, she could curse him, and she could spit on him.

But he would save her. He would give her enough of a future to eventually look back on it all and realize he had done the right thing. He knew where revenge led, so he would not back down here!!

“I took a loved one from you and words of apology will never bring them back.”

“…”

“So I don’t want to take anything more from you. Not a single thing. My hands are already stained with blood, so I won’t act like I’m in any position to give you anything, but I will put a stop to this to ensure you don’t lose anything more. I will end the chain of loss and violence here. And I’ll stoop to any level to do that!!!!!!”

Young Natalena pursed her lips.

As if to hold in what threatened to burst from her chest.

Then she whispered two simple words with a hand reaching for the Crystal Blossom on her flat chest.

“Power up.”

“Kh.”

He had failed to reach her.

Crystal armor appeared out of thin air and translucent units resembling long skis attached to her feet. Those weapons resembled spider legs or cranes, but they were the god of judgment’s scales. The wires and grab buckets allowed her to grab up to 16 things and swing them around as blunt weapons. Anubis, the Egyptian god of judgment, was the exact same god that Anastasia had once worshiped and relied on.

“Sacri-sama.”

Aine started to raise her sword while standing alongside him, but he held his right arm out horizontally to stop her.

“Don’t, Aine,” he said without turning toward her.

“But.”

“If you don’t like my orders, then cut me down with that sword. Right this instant.”

The look on Natalena’s face could not quite be described as smiling or weeping.

“No fair.”

“…”

“If you’re trying to apologize, stop trying to look so cool!! You can start by crawling pitifully on the ground to make me feel better about this! I mean, this isn’t right. You’re a murderer! You have no moral high ground here, so you can’t talk down to me like this! I have the right to feel good about my revenge !! So…so why are you making me suffer like this!? Why are you making me feel like I’m doing something wrong!!!???”

Those words were like an epiphany to him.

He knew now why she had chosen Anubis, even if she may not have realized it herself.

“Oh…”

“Wait, what did you just figure out? No, you can’t do this.”

“Anubis is a god of judgment. He assesses human souls and weighs them on his scales.”

“Stop.”

Utagai Karuta’s legs gave out below him.

No, he took a knee and bowed his head in the presence of a god.

He looked through the trembling girl to the god of judgment within her.

“Anubis, I’m sorry.”

“Stop!!”

She had told him not to look cool and to crawl pitifully on the ground.

She was exactly right.

“I killed your partner. But the punishment for that belongs to me. So please don’t have this girl bloody her hands over it.”

She immediately kicked up a leg and had the crane unit grab a large mass of air using the grab bucket at the end of one of its wires, but that was all that happened.

It was not swung around.

She did not produce a weapon of wind.

She gently lowered her small leg.

Had Natalena Blast stopped herself? Nothing else should have been possible. Crystal Magic only sealed the god’s name in a small circuit board and did not call on the actual god the way God Worshiping Magic did.

But even so.

Something about this made Karuta feel like this was the direct result of him beseeching that deity.

“No fair.”

Her voice was barely audible. Nothing remained of the intense emotion she had been forcibly maintaining before.

She could no longer keep it up. Even her translucent armor crumbled around her.

She bit her lip.

But the loss was still too much to bear, so tears filled the corners of her eyes and she spoke.

Almost like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

“No fair passing the right of judgment onto someone else.”

Yes.

Revenge was justified by converting your thoughts for the deceased into violence. It would lose its driving force if the deceased said to stop, but the dead could not speak. When seeking revenge for the dead, that absolute brake did not exist.

But Anastasia’s situation was different.

One of the pair remained.

Anubis, Egyptian god of judgment, had fought alongside Anastasia as part of the world’s strongest.

That was why Anastasia’s sister had chosen him.

But did he really see violence as the answer here?

This was the only way to stop her revenge. No blow could have been more powerful than the forgiveness of her sister’s partner.

It had been the same for Karuta’s group.

If Karuta had managed to speak with Kazamuki Gekiha once more and he had told him to stop that foolish quest for revenge, his spirit would have broken. He had been ready to betray the world and take on the strongest, but that attack was one that he could never have avoided.

He had said he would do whatever it took, so he had taken the girl’s right to justified revenge and handed it to Anubis instead.

“Don’t worry.”

“You idiot.”

“If you don’t go berserk here – if you can stop yourself from doing something unjust now that justified revenge has been taken from you, then you aren’t like Alice. It means you can still go back into the light of the sun.”

“You saw it through to the ugly end yourself!! You know revenge can work out in the end if you stick with it. Um, uh, but are you really saying I am worth rejecting everything you did to reach this point!?”

He smiled a little.

He felt like he had finally found a place for himself.

He was fine simply viewing that bright world from the shadows.

As long as he could provide a push back into the light when he found someone who had not crossed the point of no return.

Still, he carried the weight of the world’s strongest.

He would have to wear that crown without letting it crush him.

“Sacri-sama.” Aine seemed to have found something. She was looking in a different direction altogether. “Won’t this conclusion make her an enemy?”

“…”

That was enough to tell him who he would find in that direction.

She was the most reliable friend but she could also lose control in the worst possible way. Without her, his revenge would have failed very quickly, but without her, he would not have fallen this far either.

“Marika.”

She had already activated her Crystal Magic armor.

Needless to say, she was not concerned about any of the fake Threats having survived. She was viewing a much more obvious target. That was the thing about her. She never considered the formless and unknown enemies.

Her own life was of secondary importance.

But when people she cared about would come to harm, Amaashi Marika would not hesitate to dirty her hands.

“Her revenge is over,” said Karuta in a weary voice.

“What proof of that do you have?”

He made an immediate decision.

Asking the other students or teachers for help here would be the height of folly. Not even Sophia Firenze or Kiyosawa Hadome could stop this fight. This was a clash between strongests. Marika did not care who else showed up. If they got in her way, she would mercilessly remove them from the equation.

That was the way the world worked.

And it worked that way because Karuta’s group had killed the Problem Solvers.

The twintails girl pointed at his face with her rapier-like unit.

“The mind is a fickle thing, so it’s easily swayed . She might not feel like taking revenge now, but the desire for vengeance might come back when she wakes up from her shallow sleep in the middle of the night. You’ve already seen what happens when an avenger goes off the rails, haven’t you? It doesn’t stop them. She’ll keep going and make you suffer in some way or another. Anyone after you for revenge must be eliminated, no matter how insignificant. And they must be eliminated in a way that leaves no room for swaying .”

This was a battle between friends.

It was the same ugly result reached by Riho, Sanae, and Alice.

Karuta was being drawn into the exact thing he had wanted to avoid.

But he could not stop it. And he knew why.

“Aine.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

“Natalena is our top priority. Protect her even if it kills me.”

“…”

Aine’s mouth formed a small triangle as she kept her sword at the ready.

A clear change came over the look in Marika’s eyes, but he spoke all the same.

“Marika, you said people are easily swayed.”

“I did.”

“Then tell me. How can you trust me so much? You saw how cheap, persistent, and hopeless I am back when we fought the Problem Solvers.”

She did not even have to think about her answer.

“Because I know I can laugh and accept you no matter how much you might deceive me. That’s what it means to truly care about someone.”

Her words were accompanied by a slight smile.

It was true that she at least would not be swayed. She stuck with someone to the end. And it apparently had to be someone she felt that strongly about. He was touched, but it also explained why the list of people she would protect was so very short. She might even sink the new Grimnoah if it would protect Karuta or Kyouka. All while she claimed that was not the place for them.

At the same time, he found nothing to work with there.

He could beg her to trust Natalena because he did, but it would not reach her. She trusted him, not Natalena, so if he trusted Natalena and was betrayed, she would only see it as a “told you so” moment. She would only feel hatred for the deceiver and cut her down. The younger girl’s circumstances were irrelevant to her.

Worse, she was saying she would kill the girl before that could happen.

Because she did not want to even imagine seeing that boy soaked in blood and tears.

So…

(It’s no good. There’s no way to stop this!)

This would not end like it had for Natalena Blast. Amaashi Marika had already successfully completed her revenge. She was tougher and surer of herself, so there was no opening there.

She was too much to handle.

And others might say the same about Utagai Karuta himself.

“Are you quite done?”

She spun her rapier around to shift the tip away from Karuta.

She directed it toward Natalena Blast, the 12-year-old girl who had lost her sister and her chance at revenge.

She did not hesitate.

“Then move out of the way. Be warned, try to protect her here and it will only mean more pain for you.”

“Sacri-sama, you may have forgotten, but my nonlethal mode for Grimnoah people is still in effect. This would be extremely challenging and is not recommended. Shall we continue nonetheless?”

“Of course we will!!”

It was time to steel himself. He stuck a hand in his blazer uniform and pulled out the modified military flashlight before stepping up beside Aine.

That positioned himself in front of the defanged and now harmless young girl.

He had sworn he would not take anything more from her. Not a single thing.

So.

He had to live up to that.

“Aine, we need to work together to defeat Amaashi Marika, one of the world’s strongest! But don’t kill her, no matter what might happen!! I will never let you do that!!!!!!!”

### Part 2

Being known as the world’s strongest was fine and all, but what kind of world’s strongest did you want to be? That had to be where Utagai Karuta and Amaashi Marika’s opinions differed.

When someone was about to face tragedy, one of them wanted to reach out a helping hand before they fell.

When someone near and dear to them was in danger, one of them was willing to destroy everything else in the world to protect them.

They were both strong and just, but they were both selfish and willful.

That was what made them the strongest.

And they had a power great enough to push all else aside and stay true to their personal beliefs.

“Ohhhhhh!!!!!!”

The two high schoolers roared at almost the same time.

That was enough for Natalena Blast to stare, forgetting that her own life was at risk here.

This was on an entirely different level.

She used her own Crystal Magic correctly since she had absorbed everything the teacher’s told her, even if only as a way of making sure no one suspected her true motives. But correct was all it was. She only had the skills necessary to score well on the tests, which was something else entirely from what was needed to overwhelm an opponent in actual combat.

Karuta and Marika’s battle was from another world altogether.

Their powers had been honed for the sole purpose of killing, so as inappropriate as it might be, their clash was more beautiful than anything. Just as newly-developed weapons were given an aesthetic beauty in addition to simple functionality and durability, since they had to represent the nation that used them.

That was what it meant to be the strongest.

Just like the largest warship and the fastest stealth fighter gave off an aura all their own, people gained various accolades as they rose to those heights.

Or perhaps being the strongest gave you the power to distort the world around you to accept what you were as beautiful. That was the greatest attraction found only in the world’s strongest. It was a devilish charm that could only be obtained by being #1. They both used Crystal Magic, but there was something fundamentally different between Natalena and Karuta.

That crown was once worn by Anastasia Blast, but it had been stolen by Utagai Karuta.

And.

“…!!”

There were two things that Karuta had to stop.

The first was Amaashi Marika’s flight. He could not fly, so he wanted to avoid being unilaterally bombed from above. The second was the powerful laser sniping with her rapier-like unit. It attacked at the speed of light, so it was nearly impossible for Aine’s sword to block it. Marika’s target was Natalena, so she would not be aiming that at Karuta or Aine. If a laser slipped between the two of them and put a hole between Natalena’s eyes, Karuta would lose.

So…

“I rush her!!”

He swallowed his fear and clenched his teeth while forcing himself toward the girl.

He was willing to use his Preset regeneration. He would move in and lock weapons with her even if it meant a severed arm. That was his only way of keeping her from acting freely.

Marika smiled while readying her rapier.

It was a belligerent smile.

They had known each other a long time and had overcome deadly battles together, so they knew each other’s smallest tendencies.

“Heh.”

“Hm? Sacri-sama!!”

Aine’s voice sounded distorted even though she was right next to him.

Of course it did.

It felt like an explosion, but it was not.

He had attacked with his modified military flashlight and Aine with her sword, but Marika caught those things on her rapier and mercilessly activated the translucent armor that enhanced her strength. That led to a great eruption. Aine flipped sideways in a tailspin to let the vector safely escape her, but Karuta could not do the same and he was launched straight upwards. The pain was so great he thought his arms were going to pull out of his shoulders as he flew 100m up. His ears throbbed painfully from the rapid pressure change.

“!!!???”

“Y’know.”

A voice whispered in his ear. After launching him, Amaashi Marika had used the full strength of her armor to easily leap up higher even than him.

“You’re really weak for a Crystal Magician.”

“Mari-!!”

He shouted her name on reflex yet still adjusted his grip on the flashlight, but he immediately realized that was a mistake. Only he cared about settling things with her. His childhood friend’s top priority target was not him.

In other words, she was going to bomb Natalena Blast who stood in a daze back on the ground.

He immediately revised his plan and shouted into the Crystal Blossom on his chest.

His own safety was of secondary importance.

“Aine!! Watch out for a laser bombing!! Us the snow below your feet!!”

Light flashed.

The lag was less than a second, but Aine was faster. She used the jitte-like laser bayonet on the back of her sword to perform a horizontal sweep across the artificial land. The point was to evaporate the thick layer of snow on top.

White steam erupted upwards and that makeshift smokescreen hid Aine and Natalena from view.

Marika’s rapier fired a powerful laser beam down, but…

“The bombing has been diverted. Shall we play dead?”

“Don’t ask that when she’s close enough to overhear, you moron!!”

Yes, a laser was incredibly hard to dodge since it flew at the speed of light, but it did have its weaknesses. It would be weakened by any impurities in the air, like sand or moisture, and it could be bent or diverted by the temperature differences and other factors that caused mirages.

But if Marika continued to fire, she would eventually score a clean hit.

She was in the sky and that was the first thing that had to be changed.

“I’m stronger than you, so did you really think you could win? When you have no wings or engine to use?”

“Kh!! Aine, take care of this!!”

With an explosive sound, Marika began a roundhouse kick motion, but Karuta was hit from below. The ocean of white steam was instantly blown away, revealing countless destroyed Threats on the surface. Aine had stuck her hand in the destroyed armor of a black scorpion one and launched the anti-air explosion created from the combination of a pellet and laser.

She had reduced the power a lot, but the blast still hit him hard, causing him to bounce unnaturally up in defiance of gravity.

The upward movement let him dodge the girl’s roundhouse kick and he also spun his body around like a figure skater. He of course still held the flashlight in his hand.

He had no wings or engine.

But he still accurately targeted that aerial queen’s temple with the blunt weapon in his hand.

“You’re mine!!”

“ Should I have given you a free hit ?”

Her voice was already distorting.

He had no idea what had happened. All of a sudden, defenseless Marika’s body dissolved into flowing lines and a heavy blow stabbed into his spine from an impossible blind spot.

That was probably the rapier’s pommel.

“Even if you had hit, the Barrier’s spatial vibration field would have kept any damage from reaching me.”

“Kh, ahh!?”

Crystal Magic flight was not reliant on lift. How was he supposed to keep up with that? His breath was knocked from his lungs and his mind flashed in and out, preventing him from keeping his balance. He entered a wild tailspin high up in the sky.

“O-one…more!!”

He worked his oxygen-deprived lungs to let out a shout like he was coughing up blood.

Another explosion erupted on the surface.

He fell from a height of 100m, but he bounced in midair like an invisible cushion had caught him. That converted the potential energy to the equivalent of falling about 20m.

Still, 20m was the same as falling from the 5th or 6th floor of a building. After his unnatural bounce, he flew along a curving path Marika had not expected before plummeting down toward the ground.

The white ground spread out before his eyes.

But this was ice, not snow. He was above the frozen sea.

(I just have to avoid hitting with my head!!)

He had no control over his flight, but he swung his left arm just before impact to intentionally unbalance himself. Instead of falling on his head, he crashed into the ice with his shoulder.

He broke through the 80cm layer of ice and into the ocean below.

He thought his entire body was going to break apart.

His shoulder was entirely crushed and he could tell the thick bone had ended up deep inside his torso.

The pain was so great he actually could not pass out.

A fall from 20m created enough force to break right through ice thick enough for a 300kg polar bear to walk around on. A normal person would have died if they were submerged with a wound that bad.

But Utagai Karuta was not normal.

No matter how gruesome the wound, Crystal Magic would regenerate it in 30 seconds as long as it was not fatal.

Marika must have realized that.

Several lines of light broke through the ice above to attack.

“…!!”

He held his breath to continue hiding below the thick ice. The laser sniping had poor aim, most likely due to the oceanwater between them. It was the same as experiments run by passing light through a tank of water, and this water had waves.

He was submerged in the frigid ocean with his clothes still on. And even if he was righthanded, nearly his entire left half was covered in distorted crystal. It was much like the lesson he had given the kids back at Grimnoah. He had to focus on balancing himself to avoid spinning in the water.

Also, escaping to the surface would not help with an 80cm roof overhead. Crystal Magic regeneration could heal most any wound, but it could not provide him with oxygen.

He needed to figure something out himself.

Fortunately, this was not enough to interfere with the transmission from his Crystal Blossom.

He heard a cracking sound as the crystal covering half his body broke away, meaning he could move his arm again. That was convenient, but it also meant he had spent 30s in this frigid water. He barely had any air left in his mouth.

(I’ve been stuck relying on Aine this whole time!)

Marika wore her translucent armor, so he did not need to feel bad for making use of his own equipment, but he still clenched his teeth. He needed to open his mouth to speak, so he could not afford to fail here. He took action by releasing his remaining oxygen into the sea.

“Aine! Begin anti-air fire on Marika. Use metal shells this time!! 20-30mm autocannon class ones. You need quantity, not detailed calculations!!”

“That will have no effect on her.”

“I don’t want it to. Your nonlethal mode is still in effect. Now fire!!”

He heard muffled explosions through the water.

An ordinary assault rifle would be stopped by the spatial vibration field, but this had to be more than that. When Marika deflected them with her rapier or something, they would crash down into the thick ice, cracking and breaking it.

Shells poured down on the ocean.

(With just the one hole, she could aim there and fire once I surfaced, but with cracks everywhere, she won’t know where to expect me!!)

“Bwah!!”

His head burst above the water and he took in a lungful of oxygen.

But he did not feel much in the way of relief.

The moment he touched the open air, his hair and eyelashes rapidly froze. It could be easy to forget while underwater, but this was an icy hell of -15 degrees.

“…!!!???”

Was it Student Council President Kyouka who had said he could lose an ear?

He would not last long.

This needed to be a short battle. He moved his trembling fingers to grab at the jagged edge of the white ice floating in the ocean. It was only 50-60cm up from the ocean surface, but if the different pieces of ice happened to pinch together while they rocked in the waves, he would be crushed.

It was a risky climb.

And once he crawled back up onto the icy land, he found his childhood friend smiling and crouched on the edge.

“Checkmate☆”

“Goddammit!”

One of her icy hands grabbed at his throat and she stood up, as if stretching out her folded-up legs. He was dangling from her grip like a bluefin tuna on the fishing rod. He clutched at the hand on his neck and kicked at her thighs to knock her off balance, but she would not budge.

“Like I said: you’re weak.”

He had no way of arguing with that. She did not even need to strangle him or apply just a bit of force to snap his neck. If she kept things like this, he would freeze to death in the icy wind after just a few minutes.

“If you could send Aine-chan in on her own, you would be stronger than anyone. But since your command range is limited and you have to be on the battlefield with her, you have no defense if the enemy focuses on you. Especially when Aine-chan can only do what she’s ordered to do. It scares me to think what she would be like if she had those specs and could act autonomously with a mind like the President’s.”

“Kh, ah!!”

“You’re unique as a Crystal Magician, but special doesn’t necessarily mean better. Straying from the standard path is an inherently risky choice.”

He heard something like cracking plastic.

His purple blazer uniform was freezing, starting from the outermost edges. At this rate, it would freeze to his skin and he would develop severe frostbite.

But then…

“Please.”

He heard another voice.

His vision darkened with despair.

The person standing there should not have been there. Natalena Blast was trembling and had tears in her eyes. Where had Aine gone? What could Natalena do against Marika with just her crystal armor and Anubis’s scales of judgment to work with?

“Please stop this!!”

The air roared as it was torn apart, but this was not Natalena’s doing.

Well before her ski-like scales could split apart into crane arms and thin wires, Marika’s rapier accurately pierced her crystal weapon. The scream of shattering glass may have been the sound of the special vibration field breaking. Cracks also ran through her cold armor and it began to shatter, but Marika did not wait around. She broke and shattered every last one of the translucent weapons resembling spider legs.

She seemed to be doing it as an afterthought.

Natalena could grab solids, liquids, gasses, and plasma, but not even she could reach Marika’s level.

It seemed to demonstrate the divide between a strongest and just another part of the group.

Marika did not even glance in Natalena’s direction. She still held Karuta’s neck in her hand while she spun her rapier around in the other hand and made short work of Natalena’s weapons.

“Don’t worry.” She spoke coldly to this person who was not her childhood friend. “And make no mistake. I held your life in my hands from the beginning. Nothing you do here can influence whether or not you survive this.”

“Gggh, ahhhhhh!!”

She was desperate now.

Young Natalena was not stopped by her shattered armor. She charged right at Marika. She was struck by the rapier’s guard, pummeled by the bottom of the grip, and knocked to the snow over and over. The point was aimed her way and she was stabbed in the shoulder or side, but she still kept at it. Seeing it was enough to squeeze at Karuta’s heart.

Natalena Blast was battered and beaten, but she would not stop.

She clenched her teeth, suppressed the fear, and kept getting back to her feet. He felt certain she would have done the same even without the Crystal Magic regeneration.

But she was not doing any of it to protect herself.

“Let go!! Let go of Utagai Karuta! If you want to kill me, then just do it! He was already forgiven! My sister’s Anubis forgave him! We clenched our teeth and stopped the chain of violence. So what are you doing!? Call yourself the strongest or whatever else, but there’s no more reason to make anyone suffer! So why!?”

She had forgiven her enemy and given up on revenge.

In fact, she was even risking her life and shedding tears for the person she had so hated.

That was something Karuta’s group had never managed to do.

“Are you…”

She held his throat tight enough for him to suffocate or even to snap his neck, but when he got out a groaning voice, his focus was not on himself.

“Are you still going to kill Natalena? She isn’t like us. She has far more humanity left. What right do we have to judge her when we couldn’t stop ourselves from reaching the end!!”

“I will if necessary.”

That was all Marika said.

She did not waver in the slightest.

He could not allow her to veer off course like this. If she killed Natalena based on her own personal rules, it truly was over for her. It might be hypocritical after what they had done, but he had to teach her that no one here had the right to judge someone like that, no matter how much they had suffered.

(I…have to end this.)

Marika had descended from the air and he assumed that was to avoid any more largescale anti-air attacks using the remains of the decoy Threats.

But this was the last chance to fight back against her.

Because…

(If she takes flight again and buys time up there, I’m done for. There will be nothing I can do to protect Natalena, so I have to end it here!!)

“I can imagine you want to end this here, but how exactly do you plan to do that?” The girl who knew him better than anyone said something horrifying. “There is no end in a battle between Crystal Magicians. Blow off some limbs or tear into their side and they’ll just regenerate it all in less than 30 seconds. So the only way to end this is to provide a fatal blow. It’s the only way.”

“…”

“I win as long as I kill Natalena Blast, but what about you? I won’t stop no matter what you do, so are you willing to deliver a fatal blow to stop me?”

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

He had been fundamentally mistaken here.

He knew this was psychological warfare meant to break his spirit, but he could not just ignore what she said.

Marika had a concrete win condition, but he did not.

He could not possibly kill his childhood friend, which was why he had ordered Aine to remain in nonlethal mode. He wanted to save Natalena, but he could not offer up someone else’s life instead. And Marika was endlessly coldhearted about this. She was willing to earn his hatred as long as she could protect him. She would even take herself hostage.

He was trapped.

He never had had a path to victory here.

“Let’s end this silly game,” spat out his childhood friend with a look colder than ice. She was no longer even looking at Natalena while the girl cried and grabbed at her. As if she did not even consider the girl a fellow human being. “Karuta, I kind of like how open to change you are, but that’s exactly why someone has to protect you or you could never survive in this world. We didn’t ask for this, but now that we’re at the top, we have to live here.”

He had to think.

He desperately worked his oxygen-deprived mind while she held him up by the neck.

He had to correct things from here. How could he turn this into a win? This battle would never end unless one or the other of them had received a fatal wound. How could he save both Marika and Natalena under those rules?

Revenge was a fruitless act.

For the avenger, for the target, and for everyone else.

What condition did he need to bring an end to that chain of violence!?

“Natalena Blast isn’t the world’s strongest, but anyone who isn’t has the right to challenge and defeat us,” said Marika. “So I will show no mercy here. No matter how powerless the challenger, I will destroy any and all who try to tear apart our world.”

How was that any different from what the Problem Solvers had done when they decided Crystal Magic was unnecessary and decided to nip it in the bud.

No matter what anyone said, Marika was his childhood friend.

He could not allow her to go down that path. And the strongest who was always with him had already told him how he could turn this around and win. His eyes were squarely on Amaashi Marika who sent a cold look back at him.

Why had she started talking at all?

If executing Natalena Blast was her top priority, she should have ignored him as he crawled half-dead from the ocean and she should have used that time to slice the 12-year-old girl to pieces. Even now, Natalena was thoughtlessly clinging to her in an explosion of emotion, so a single jab of her rapier would skewer the girl and give Marika what she wanted. So why?

The answer was obvious.

He just had to think back on what she had said. Something was missing there.

“Ai…ne.”

“Why drag this out when you know you won’t kill me? Delay too long out in this cold and you’ll freeze to death.”

Yes.

That was why Marika was doing this.

Nothing she had said was a lie. But she had avoided mentioning her own Achilles’ heel. Killing Natalena was her win condition, but what was her lose condition? Failing to kill Natalena was not the answer.

To break Karuta’s spirit, she could not allow him to figure this out.

So he only had to shout at the crystal girl who could operate separate from him.

“Aine, cut right through my neck to cut off Marika’s arm!!”

There was a distorted breath, like someone’s throat had convulsed.

Bu it did not come from Karuta, who had given the order, or Aine, who had received it.

It did not even come from astonished Natalena who was desperately trying to stop the twintails girl.

There was only one person left.

Marika had the upper hand while lifting the boy up by his throat, but she had the look of someone who had just been run through with a sharp blade.

“You wouldn’t!!”

“I would, Marika. This was never about you hating Natalena Blast,” he roared with a grin.

Yes, she had used herself as a hostage and he had learned just how effective a tactic that could be.

“You want to eliminate anything that threatens those you care about . That is what drives you! So without me, you lose any reason to kill Natalena. Marika, you’re smart, but trying to hide that lose condition only accentuated the fear behind it!!”

“You can’t do it.”

She was nearly laughing.

No, she had tried to laugh and failed. She could not suppress the emotion she wanted to hide behind the laughter. She had even forgotten about Natalena grabbing at her hips.

Yes, because this issue was far more important than her target.

“You can’t possibly do it!! Is this textbook righteousness? Or do you feel guilty about what you did to Anastasia? You only met Natalena a few days ago! It’s wrong to throw away your life for someone you barely know!!”

That childhood friend valued the length of a relationship above all else, so this had to be truly unbelievable for her.

However…

“If you really believe that, then why did you hide your lose condition?”

“Kh.”

“ You knew that old softy Utagai Karuta might do it . That subconscious fear led you to hide that worst possibility. So that’s exactly what I’ll do. Listen, Marika. It isn’t just Natalena Blast I’m trying to protect. I want to protect you from this blood on your hands!! We hated the Problem Solvers so much we went around killing every last one of them, so we can’t afford to be led astray!! We have to bring happiness to the world we created. We stand at the top, so we have to get along with Natalena and the others who couldn’t stand at the top!! If we force people to go without happiness or trample on people’s happiness, then we aren’t any better than the Problem Solvers!!!!!!”

For that, he was willing to offer up his life. He did not care what happened to him.

He gathered his last ounce of strength to put on a smile with his neck still in her grasp. Marika’s smile had grown twisted as she tried to hide her fear, but his was a pure and kind smile.

“No, Senpai.”

Natalena was trembling and clinging to Marika’s hips for a different reason than before. She seemed to be staring at something that would pay them a silent visit in the near future.

“You can’t do that!! Amaashi-senpai, um, isn’t there anything you can do!?”

Something was indeed approaching from behind Marika.

His weapon approached with a crystal sword in hand.

“I win,” he said.

“No…”

“Cry and wail all you like, but don’t expect human emotion or standards to reach Aine. You yourself said all she can do is follow my orders and only I can call her off. So, Marika, the only way to cancel Aine’s execution command is to kill me. ”

“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!???”

The crystal armor, the Preset regeneration, and the rest of Marika’s magic would generally only protect her. Even the barrier was not perfect. If Aine attacked with all her might, Marika might be able to defeat her. But Karuta would die if the crystal girl got even one attack in before then.

He thought of her as a kind girl.

She could say and do some extreme things, but she generally only ever thought about others. He would protect her no matter what. She only looked so frightening because her blade was directed at him. She provided the greatest sense of comfort when she was using that to protect him.

This parched world could use a hero like that.

But if she was going to stay true to herself, he would not hesitate to do the same.

Just as she was the strongest in her own way, he could be the strongest in his own way.

His idea of the strongest was not to slaughter all else and stand tall in a giant pool of blood.

It was to stop all hopeless conflict no matter what toll it took on him.

“Marika.”

Would she do nothing and watch as Aine killed the boy, or would she kill Karuta to remove that execution command? Both options ended the same way. That ultimate sadist brought tears to the eyes of the kind girl who had been by his side as far back as he could remember. And that absolute scum said one last thing with a smile on his face.

“This is goodbye.”

There was nothing she could do.

Aine’s sword swung down at max speed and severed Marika’s arm at the wrist, translucent armor and all.

Yes.

The deadly blade mercilessly and silently passed right through Utagai Karuta’s neck.

### Part 3

“Hmm, I see.”

Elsewhere, Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka muttered to herself in a knowing sort of way.

She was toying with a phone.

Needless to say, this was not a commercial device. It was an indiscriminate signal interceptor that connected to multiple mobile routers, gathered the many EM signals flying around, and decrypted them.

(She was given Anastasia Blast’s secrets and sent to the Second Grimnoah with a new identity. I had thought Natalena was fairly ineffectual for how much information and support the string pullers provided.)

If they were powerful enough to rewrite someone’s identity at will, they also could have disguised a military elite or an intelligence agent as a student or teacher and sent them to Grimnoah. There was no need to rely on Crystal Magic if they were only interested in killing. The assassination would be much easier using invisible germs, gas, or radiation.

This was Anastasia’s sister.

Kyouka had thought the string pullers might be using that avenger and her obvious motive as a symbol to inspire more people to fight back. But their communications had been cut off early on and the string pullers had made no attempt to restore them. If that was their goal, they should have been spreading word of it far and wide, but there was no sign of that happening.

So…

“They never expected anything from her.”

Kyouka smiled bitterly at how dry her voice sounded.

She had realized there was no going back for her.

(They were trying to tear us apart over how we would deal with Natalena once we defeated her. Come to think of it, we even considered that possibility early on. I thought that threat had passed once Karuta-kun smoothed things over for us, but I guess that’s still the crux of the issue.)

She tapped her wheelchair’s armrest with the corner of the phone.

(Maybe I dug too deep here. They seem to be rather short-tempered for how thick a veil they used to hide their true face. How childish.)

She had always been considering the human string pullers more than the Threat or the avenger who used Crystal Magic. She had created this signal interceptor out of a phone and mobile routers in order to steal away the digital information of the pursuer who never seemed to leave them alone .

And that had angered them .

She did not know exactly who they were, but…

(If they felt the need to act, I must be getting close.)

She smiled.

She actually saw this situation as an opportunity, but that may have been why she worked so well as the Student Council President at the top of Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah.

(If you’re afraid of someone digging deeper, the best thing to do is show no reaction at all and let it pass. They may have thought they won this round, but they’ve only dug their own graves. Now I have a destination , so I only have to follow the path displayed to me.)

Whatever the case, now was the time to act.

She had only just arrived on the correct path, but if she ran out of strength now, she could never hope to reach that destination. She did not know how the battle between Karuta and Marika would turn out, but if they could not overcome this, there was no chance of victory left.

“Will the conflict bring us closer in the end, or will it tear us apart? That alone will change the fate of the world.”

### Part 4

The flump of something hitting the ground was shockingly soft.

White snow had accumulated on the icy land and someone had fallen limply into it.

Aine had mechanically obeyed her instructions. After the follow-through of her sword swing, she kicked at the deep snow to maintain her stance.

“Ah.”

Amaashi Marika was not staring at her severed hand.

That did not matter.

But not because it would regenerate. She had never even been placing her own life on the scales.

“Ahhh.”

Small crystal shards were scattered everywhere.

The boy had collapsed into the thick snow. The snow was so deep she could not see the wound, but there was no questioning what happened. She had been holding his neck and Aine had severed that hand from behind him. Slicing off her hand like that would require the sword to pass through his neck.

His head had been severed.

Even if it could be hard tell given the lack of blood caused by the distorted crystal covering everything.

The Preset regeneration would heal any non-mortal wound in 30 seconds.

But that did not apply to the mortal ones.

With his head removed from his body, there was no saving him.

Would it be centuries? Millennia?

At the very least, she could never speak to him again in her lifetime.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

She screamed.

The girl screamed and her legs crumpled beneath her.

Natalena was still clinging to her, so she was pulled down too and unintentionally ended up with her arms around Marika’s head. But she was not really that strong in the face of such horror, so once she began to wobble, she lost her balance and they both collapsed fully into the snow.

“Sen…pai.”

Her voice was weak.

But Marika did not care about Natalena Blast who had tried to protect Karuta no matter what or Aine who was tilting her head and awaiting further orders. She had to protect that boy at all costs. If violence would not bring him back, then she no longer had any reason to wield it.

But the boy must not have considered whether or not his childhood friend would be able to find a new reason to drive her actions once he took away her old one.

He had broken her.

She was broken.

One of the world’s strongest had their very core bent and mercilessly shattered. She could feel it so clearly inside herself. She screamed and screamed, but it never even occurred to her to turn her rapier toward her own throat. Even suicide required some kind of driving force behind it. With all her hope lost, she could not even seek revenge. She would simply stop moving at all and wait for the end to come.

“Do…”

At first, she thought it was a trick of the wind.

“ Do you get it now, Marika? ”

But it was not.

She clearly heard that voice. She hesitantly turned toward it with tears covering her face.

“U-um.” Natalena hesitantly spoke up as well.” Amaashi-senpai, um! Something isn’t right. Isn’t that girl his Crystal Magic!?”

Yes. Crystal Girl Aine was tilting her head like normal while holding the sword that had killed the boy. She was awaiting further orders. She looked so different, but she was still Crystal Magic. Marika had never heard of a Crystal Magician’s armor remaining after their death.

What did that mean?

“Wait.”

In a panicked frenzy, she threw aside her rapier-like device and crawled over to dig up the snow.

“Wait!! Are you kidding me!?”

She pulled out Utagai Karuta’s head.

But it was not alone. She did not know how, but it was still connected to the rest of him.

She simply had not noticed before because he had collapsed into the deep snow and then Aine had kicked the snow to cover up his head. The crystal shards scattered by her own severed hand had made it look all the more like he had been decapitated.

The half-frozen boy smiled weakly as he spoke.

“This will always be a card in my deck. Every single time you begin a rampage, I’ll throw that sucker right down on the table. I didn’t go through with it this time, but I really will shatter your hope next time.”

“But…how?” She still found it hard to believe and she looked like she was trapped in a bad dream. “Aine-chan’s sword must have passed through your neck to cut off my hand! There’s no other way she could have done it from that position!”

“I do not have a core or main body. ‘Aine’ refers to everything from my heart to the tip of my sword,” answered Aine with her head still tilted. “I am generally stored within Sacri-sama’s body, only emerging when needed. So everything from my heart to the tip of my sword can be contained within his body .”

A silly-sounding gasp escaped Marika’s mouth.

“I stored the sword in the back of his neck and pulled it back out from the front.” Aine was as emotionless as a machine, making it sound like she had simply passed the blade through the water’s surface. “That allowed me to accurately sever your arm without harming his neck.”

He had not had time for such a complex command.

He had only told her to “cut right through my neck to cut off Marika’s arm”.

But that was with another factor already in place.

“ He had left me in nonlethal mode for everyone from Grimnoah. ”

“Wait, you mean…?” said Natalena.

That command went back to when he had first met and defeated her.

And that command naturally included Utagai Karuta himself.

So Aine had needed to obey his verbal command without violating that older command. He had used those multiple conditions to accurately control her.

The pale girl moved her eyebrows in a troubled way.

The human concepts of good and evil really did not apply to that crystal girl.

“It would have been much easier without that in place. To be blunt, I really wish someone would convince him that unnecessary restrictions to my combat are a pain to deal with because I have had no luck trying to explain it to him myself.”

“…”

That was why he had survived.

He still had his life.

But something had happened here. Even if his childhood friend was not physically harmed, his faked death must have psychologically scarred her.

And he had told her he would play that card whenever she tried something like this.

He said he really would break her next time.

“Do you want to keep going?”

He was half frozen and held in the arms of that sobbing girl, but he did not hold back.

Just like he could never kill her, he had stopped her by completely breaking her spirit.

“Aine, cancel nonlethal mode. You can go for the kill next time. ”

“Understood, Sacri-sama.”

Aine replied coldly.

The silly practice round was over, so it would be real next time.

“With that unnecessary burden lifted from my shoulders, nothing can stop me next time.”

That loophole was gone now. If he told Aine to kill him, she would do so. Marika’s actions here could lead to the severing of a bond a decade and a half old. So Karuta was asking her if she was still going to insist on this silly battle between two strongests.

He saw the fresh trauma there and tore into that still-bleeding wound.

He was asking her if she would make that fear real this time.

“No.”

This was no longer the world’s strongest.

The person holding half-frozen Karuta was no more than a weeping girl who had nearly been forever separated from someone she cared about more than anyone in the world.

“No, no, please noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!”

“Yeah,” groaned Utagai Karuta.

He had won. He had successfully stopped Amaashi Marika.

But when had he become someone who would feel victorious after bringing his childhood friend to tears? That was like slapping a small child on the cheek or kicking an old man in his bent back. It was a taboo one must never commit.

Something had changed in him.

Someone had changed him without him even noticing. He could only reach one conclusion based on everything he had seen while hunting down the Problem Solvers and everything he had glimpsed behind the scenes afterwards.

This was something he doubted any of Anastasia’s group had said out loud but that all of them must have felt deep down.

“Being the world’s strongest is a curse .”

### 092. Afterword

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

Hooray, it’s Volume 2!! Thank you for letting this become a series!! To celebrate this second volume, I wanted to do some worldbuilding by first establishing their school life in the new Grimnoah and then doing a major school event. That’s why I had gym clothes, school swimsuits, and such appearing so early on. For the field trip, I wanted a nice place that could be both midsummer and midwinter, so I invented that artificial beach that is something like eating ice cream in a kotatsu.

The opening Grimnoah part might seem unrelated to the rest at first glance, but I made sure to include some important setup there, such as the nonlethal mode and the flying in through windows.

The overall theme of the series is revenge, but I switched things up a bit this time and had Karuta’s group caught up in someone else’s revenge instead. I think that showed things from a different angle than in Volume 1.

I also focused more on showing the twisted side of revenge instead of the glorified version commonly depicted in fiction.

Karuta’s group might have ended up that way too.

In a way, they were lucky in their revenge since they could focus only on killing their targets. Each chapter of Volume 1 started with a comedy part (as part of the repetitive structure I included to mimic samurai stories) and those parts were necessary for them to keep fighting against the Problem Solvers. This volume should have shown you what would have happened without that.

Revenge requires trust, friendship, and unwavering feelings.

As you can see from Karuta’s shock, I think that is a fairly ironic concept. But I think it also shows how characters can head down the path of evil when they might have been heroes had they made the right choice. People cannot always apply their strength toward the correct goal. And the biggest reason those three lost was their inability to trust in the path they had chosen for themselves, even if it took them in the wrong direction. But depending on your way of thinking, I bet some of you will think it is better to stick with it to the end like Karuta’s group and some of you will think it is better to give up partway through like those three.

I pictured Natalena Blast not so much as someone who was not yet ready for revenge, but someone who would never be the vengeful type yet was forced on that path.

And by introducing such a good girl as part of Anastasia’s family, I thought it could hint at a different side of the former world’s strongest. Anastasia was driven to the edge all alone, but she never chose to rely on her family. Why didn’t she? No, why couldn’t she? I hope you could guess at the answer from the way Natalena continued to adore her sister even after being pushed away and not allowed to play a role in what happened.

I think Natalena’s presence shows that Karuta’s group had a few rules they refused to break in their revenge, even though they could be so merciless when they chose to do something.

Yes, they did not track down the family of their revenge targets and take them hostage.

I felt that was a necessity in order to make their revenge feel more righteous. They also rejected an effective plan for their attack on Elicia because it would have affected a helicopter pilot who was not part of their revenge. I thought I could show how oddly clean they wanted to keep things by having them take on extra risk with little detours like that.

I ended Natalena’s revenge by having Karuta confess his sin to Anubis, but how did you like that bit of extra flavoring? That was not strictly speaking a magical ceremony, but I thought it still had some meaning in the sense of borrowing a god’s name to perform magic. You can be the judge of that.

With the Threat, it might help to imagine how the Problem Solvers survived fighting against them. They used a dinosaur, a spear of light, a giant sword, regeneration, and magic, so you might be able to see what kind of battle was expected of those strongests.

If something attacked humanity in some way that rendered our existing militaries powerless, I just know some people would rejoice as they used it as an inspiration to develop new weapons. And since I had already established that cyborg tech on Susannia’s level exists in this world, I knew I had to go for it.

The final boss of the volume was her , but in a battle between Crystal Magicians, you end up with the dilemma you saw: the Preset regeneration prevents it from ever ending until one side or the other receives a fatal wound.

I focused on breaking people’s spirits this time, but it will probably also give you some ideas about how to deal with rule violations within a giant community like Grimnoah.

By the way, which of the Four Living Gods – Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka – did you think was the most twisted? I think Aine is mostly just cute, including her complaint about Karuta at the end of Chapter 4. I think the truly frightening one is Kyouka who still hasn’t aggressively yelled at her enemies or the clueless people around her despite everything she was involved in during these two volumes. Which is what makes her my favorite.

A lot of you will probably think Marika’s friendship(?) is too overbearing, but she is a childhood friend, which means her powerful bond to Karuta came from nothing more than geographical proximity at a young age. That relationship remained as they left home and moved to Grimnoah, which I think had to be the result of her powerful attachment, not just a natural turn of events. She did not want them to drift apart after they moved away from their childhood homes.

She was willing to make a lot of enemies to protect her small little world.

She was willing to bloody her hands to avoid losing something she cared about.

I think that too is a type of righteousness and a type of strongest. If that sends a chill down your spine, it is because the world of this series allows for more than the pure sort of righteousness. Even the Problem Solvers could be seen as the samurai in a samurai story when viewed from the right angle. Not that that’s any comfort to the people they cut down because “that’s the way of things” without even trying to talk it out first.

Since Utagai Karuta wants to stop all conflict around him even if it means killing himself, his path of the strongest is a little different from normal. His Crystal Magic is abnormal, but special doesn’t necessarily mean better. I hope you will continue to watch over the battles of a boy who carries both fragility and possibility within him.

I give my thanks to my illustrator Mika Pikazo-san and to my editors Miki-san, Anan-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. This one must have been a lot of work with all the costume changes. Not to mention the hellish concept of an “army” that only takes a single word in writing. That must have been a lot of trouble with both the humans and the Threat. Thank you very much.

And I give my thanks to the readers. I had the entire student body face a major incident this time to symbolize the theme of “you aren’t fighting alone!”, but how did you like it? Anyone who has seen the crowds at a Shinto shrine on New Years or at a train station during rush hour might be wondering if 1000 people can really move around that quickly, but keep in mind that Grimnoah provides high-level combat training with a focus on group battles. Thank you so much for reading this far!

And I will end this here.

Did they become the strongest because they were unusual, or did they become unusual because they were the strongest?

-Kamachi Kazuma

### 093. ?

The blizzard was raging.

At 15 degrees below zero, that white hell would have sapped the life out of any ordinary human standing within it, but this girl did not feel the slightest discomfort.

She was pale-skinned and made of crystal.

Aine was viewing something all on her own. It was a black mass – the remnants of one of the fake Threats that had been so thoroughly destroyed by the wielders of cutting-edge magic.

“Yes.”

Aine ran her hand across the armor that felt gritty due to the snow blown onto it by the wind. The heat of her hand could have melted the snow and gotten her skin stuck to the metal when the snow refroze into ice, but the crystal girl did not seem to care.

She kept her hand there and spoke quietly.

“ I can’t wait to do this to the real ones .”

### 094. Afterword

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

Apocalypse Witch has reached its third volume. The real Threat finally appears this time. What is the most frightening being for Karuta and the others? That was always my focus while coming up with ideas and you saw what I ended up with. Volume 2 had an awful lot of bugs, so I wanted to include a bit more variation for Volume 3. Dammit, if I don’t watch myself, I end up drifting toward grasshoppers and mantises. I do quite like aquatic creatures too, though.

Now you’ve seen what kind of world this is.

Destiny is cruel, hopes are never answered, and none of your ideals will come through for you.

Utagai Karuta started to grow cynical after the less-than-perfect endings of Volumes 1 and 2, so Volume 3 was one response he had to face. As long as you have the resolve, you can stay true to yourself even in this world. That is why he could not remain righteous and had the title of justice taken from him after he immediately gave up on doing things fair and square. He and the others ended up being the world’s strongest magicians against their will, so I thought this might be the most frightening thing for them. Karuta just barely avoided a total collapse on his part because the Problem Solvers did that to other humans while he had the barrier between human and Threat to cushion the blow. Yet ironically, he is now starting to question that barrier itself.

Letnahe was the unexpected unfaithful(?) wife heroine. I like how giving her the ring and watch on the same hand created a sense of guilt around perfectly ordinary items. I also realized this is something I couldn’t do in an ordinary series. The one thing keeping her from real infidelity is that her feelings for her husband have not cooled and this is not some casual fling. By the way, she never actually dated Hadome in her school days. I think the fact that they were separated without her ever telling him how she felt has led to a lot of “what ifs” in her head which are what prevent her from forgetting about him.

Karuta and the other protagonists started their story with an unspeakable desire for revenge. They have turned their backs on justice and bared their fangs toward their own goodness, but they will still risk their lives for what truly matters to them. I think this series is less about good prevailing over evil and more about the strength (or terror) of raw feelings. I hope you felt a shiver from President Omotesandou Kyouka who took things a step further and has settled down into her spot as a wicked girl. Isn’t she great!? The wicked upperclassman who’s hot and sexy but still has some childish mannerisms!!

It’s strange how Anastasia’s words grow more important with each new novel. They do say that truly great people will continue speaking even after their death. Anastasia was not a good person and she was an extremely irresponsible and self-centered person who reigned as the strongest until someone came along who could kill her (she did not care at all what the world would be like after her death), but maybe it’s easier to look fondly on people who stayed true to themselves even in death. You wouldn’t want an actual leader to have a death wish like that, though.

Since this volume was about taking back their school, I couldn’t use the school itself, so it was difficult finding a way to still give it a schooly feel. When I get too focused on the battles, I end up with no one going to school in a series that's supposed to have a school setting. Index is probably the most obvious example of that, like how they were fighting in England for so long recently.

Compared to my other series, Apocalypse Witch has a lot more group battles and shared living spaces, so it focuses more on the location than the individual people. I thought maybe I could keep the schooly feel if I always focused on that even during the battles. I want to create an attractive place where you feel like you’d want to go to school there even as the battles escalate and more unexpected things happen. That was my wish as I wrote the manuscript, but what did all of you think?

The first and second ships are both important parts of Grimnoah to Karuta, but will Natlena and the other newcomers accept that “infidelity”? That was the question facing him in Volume 3. He eventually managed to shake free of Kyouka’s temptation, but giving in and succumbing to her may have been another option for him. There were multiple paths he could have taken in this one volume, so I hope I made you think about those “what ifs”.

I give my thanks to my illustrator Mika Pikazo-san and to my editors Anan-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. Volume 3 was all about how your usual school seems so scary at night! That different atmosphere could not have been easy for the illustrations. Thank you so much yet again!!

And I give my thanks to the readers. What do all of you see as symbols of justice and heroes? With katanas, large handguns, special attacks, transformation, and giant robots, it probably differs from person to person, but what did you think of the form shown here? I challenge you to a duel. I hope you could smile and accept Apocalypse Witch as a series where that challenge comes from the side trying to kill the protagonists instead of the protagonists themselves. Thank you so much yet again!!

And I will end this here.

Oh, no. Yamane Deiri is looking a lot more like an upperclassman now, Karuta-kun.

-Kamachi Kazuma

### 095. Epilogue

Report from Letnahe Kurent.

The Second Grimnoah academy ship has been reclaimed by its students.

After the so-called Warrior Doll’s defeat, the many sea anemone Threats located on the ocean floor were destroyed in an apparent chain reaction. In addition to playing a direct combat role using their mimicry, they seemed to play the role of a gas station that supplied the other Threats with power. A massive amount of energy was confirmed during the battle with the Warrior Doll, so the original lion-like Sparkle (the anti-air laser unit) could likely store just as much energy as the sea anemones, if not more. It is thought its defeat caused a phenomenon similar to a powerful microwave or electromagnetic pulse that caused the spreading chain reaction of destruction.

Without their power sources, the many other Threats are being hunted down until they cease to function.

However, we still do not know how the Threat works.

We do not know if they can gather energy from petroleum, electricity, or other methods, or if they can produce energy within themselves by eating or breathing. Even though they have stopped moving, they may only be sleeping or playing dead. I recommend quickly destroying them so they cannot split apart and cannibalize each other.

P.S.

Do something about the Indian Space Force.

With the Threat destroyed, forcing through a nuclear strike would look unnatural. If it were carried out, it would only increase the risk of further harm to all of you.

“Phew.”

The silver-haired brown-skinned soldier tapped the tablet’s screen to send her report.

She was in the floating general airport’s control tower.

This made her a traitor. If it was discovered she had intentionally included falsehoods in her report, a “grim reaper” would be immediately sent for her.

The Student Council President laughed.

“Oh, dear. Do you actually feel guilt for your misdeeds?”

“Most people do.” Letnahe massaged her shoulders that felt so much heavier now. “I hadn’t mentioned it because it isn’t really something to say on the job, but I am a mother of two. And my husband has no idea what I do for my job.”

“Or about Kiyosawa-sensei, right?”

“…”

She cleared her throat in response.

The wicked woman with both a ring and wristwatch on her left hand fell silent. Which was an eloquent enough answer.

“My point is I would rather not take unnecessary risks,” said the bespectacled wife. “Unlike you, I have something to lose.”

“But you can’t escape it anymore, can you?”

She did not protest the President’s statement.

Acting on emotion and making that emergency call had been her mistake. The wireless data had been intercepted and stolen. She had failed during the “grim reaper” phase meant to make up for that mistake, so now she was captured by an invisible chain.

However.

That was not why she was trembling.

It was true.

The documents she had been casually given showed that the information from Kyouka had not just been a bluff meant to protect them. There was a Threat that carried a massive amount of energy and a nuclear strike would not be as decisive a blow as the military liked to believe. Thus, they really did need to work with these magicians whose powers did not fit inside the existing branches of the military.

(But that isn’t the scariest part of all.)

She was smiling on the outside, but she silently gulped while thinking about her own lifeline here.

(If my betrayal is discovered, a grim reaper will be coming for me. A truly untouchable one with skill several levels above my own. But if that grim reaper manages to destroy “us”, humanity will be throwing out its one and only trump card: Second Grimnoah. Crystal Magic is the only trump card capable of fighting the real Threat.)

Letnahe Kurent was a grim reaper as well.

Her job was to prevent the creation of a tyrant. She was supposed to ensure that Crystal Magic could eventually be dragged down from its throne so that another strongest could take its place.

But at the same time, she had only been willing to offer her life as a grim reaper because there were people she wanted to protect by doing so: her husband who she had sworn her love to with a ring, the children she had had with her husband, and the first love represented by the watch she still could not bring herself to throw out. If she made the wrong move, they could die along with the rest of the 5.5 billion people out there.

“We’ve crossed the point of no return, so we’re in this together. I have people I must protect, so I can’t act as recklessly as you.”

“Oh? That’s an awful thing to say to a girl just because she hasn’t married yet.”

“Anything you might have is wasted without someone to share it with. Now, I don’t care how lonely a life you want to lead, but I do recommend doing everything you can to avoid being dragged down as tangled a path as mine. Besides…”

Smiling, Kyouka hit the console’s switch for the building-wide loudspeakers.

“Hadome-sensei, Hadome-sensei, please come to the guidance counselor’s office to discuss this naughty wife’s behavior.”

The soldier frantically covered the demon girl’s mouth with both her hands.

Kyouka grinned after removing her finger from the switch.

“You’re willing to go so far to protect him, but you still aren’t willing to speak with him face to face. What a pure little thing you are.”

“Pant, pant! I-I know you’re just teasing me,” insisted Letnahe with a tremor in her voice.

The world’s strongest was selfish. No one could hope to control them.

But it would be the height of folly to insist on controlling them to the point of throwing out the only card capable of fighting the Threat. That would be like someone stranded on a desert island throwing out perfectly good preserved food just because they were afraid of mold. They would be looking away from the fundamental problem.

At the very least, Utagai Karuta had proven that Crystal Magic could defeat the Threat. And he still had room to grow since he was not yet at Regulation 3.

Letnahe had fallen down the path of evil so she could protect people.

But offering herself up to the string-pullers would be entirely meaningless if she lost her family and first love that way.

Which was all the more reason for her decision.

(I can’t get rid of them when they’ve proven successful!!)

And once someone began to fall, they picked up speed quick. Her problems were like cords so thoroughly tangled she could not untangle them on her own.

This required absolute obedience.

The words of this President had to come before those of the man she had sworn her love to with a ring. If she wanted that happy family life to last, anyway.

The silver-haired brown-skinned traitor sighed.

“So we’re villains, are we?”

“Yes.” Kyouka admitted to it. “ And you are not my friend. You will serve me. ”

She drew a clear line between them.

She must have known that would actually make it easier for Letnahe.

“Then how about a piece of trivia to show you I am serious. To be clear, this is classified information that would get us both executed if it got out.”

“Oh? I hope it’s good news.”

“Have you ever wondered where the real Threat comes from? They attack different parts of the earth at random, but where do they come from?”

Letnahe Kurent pointed upwards.

“From space.”

“…”

“I’m not joking. Why do you think the sea anemone ones blossomed on the ocean floor in order to supply power for the others? The energy pouring down from space dissolves into the ocean and spreads evenly throughout it. The receivers have an easier time of concentrating it down when using the oceans that cover 70% of the planet’s surface. The solid fuel they use is not coal or a rocket propellant. You could call it the margin of error of energy that they fail to gather up.”

It was a simple answer, but that simplicity made it hard to find room to reject it.

“Crystal Magic also talks of energy pouring down from space, doesn’t it? The occult high and low pressure fronts you use are created by the conflict between that energy and the energy coming from the Original Crystal Embryo at the center of the earth. The energy source is already accounted for in your diagram.”

“Hold on. If that’s true…”

“Yes.”

“This is a fight between the inside and outside of the earth?”

According to Karuta’s report, Anastasia Blast of the Problem Solvers had said the following before their battle:

The real issue was the Original Crystal Embryo.

That gave humanity something we did not need.

This changed how she looked at the world.

Why had the Problem Solvers protected that outdated space elevator? Was it because they knew where the true battlefield was located?

Why had Yukino Arakawa managed a space facility that covered the entire planet? What if it was not to aim down from orbit and was actually a breakwater against the Threat arriving from beyond?

“You were granted your powers because you were deemed compatible.”

A note of pity entered Letnahe Kurent’s voice.

She shook her head with the look of someone viewing the monstrous result of a terribly misguided body modification experiment.

“You were made the vanguard of the Original Crystal Embryo that sleeps so deeply at the center of the earth. I cannot say if you are meant to be disposal or not, though.”

A girl stared blankly into the distance.

She was Matsuda Imi, a 1st year in high school. They had escaped Second Grimnoah and returned to the floating general airport for the time being.

“What are you going to do, Imi?” asked gyaru-ish Hashizaki Tayori.

Imi was so worn out her eyes seemed unfocused, but she could apparently hear when people spoke to her.

“Are you going to give up? I don’t think anyone will stop you after everything that happened.”

“…”

Imi remained silent for a while.

But eventually…

“What about Marika?”

“What about her?”

“What will she do?”

“I doubt her plans are changing. She’ll protect what she wants to protect and that means remaining on the front line. I don’t think anything you choose can change that.”

Imi fell silent again.

“Will I change anything if I run away?”

“That depends.”

“Will I never see Marika again if I run away?”

“You can make other friends.”

“But there’s only one Marika.”

Imi turned around.

She turned away from the exit that would let her run away to safety at any time.

And she waved toward her friend who was walking this way.

“I’ll stand up to it.”

Her movements were still awkward, but she was getting back on her feet.

“I won’t run away gain. No matter what.”

Marika scared her.

That had not changed. No matter what she thought in her head, her pain still rejected that girl. As long as she had a goal and knew she was doing the right thing, that girl could pin down her struggling friend and magically cauterize her wound without a second thought. Imi’s breathing grew heavy just remembering it.

But the time she had spent laughing with that girl on Second Grimnoah were also a reality. Marika laughed a lot, noticed even the small things, and made any day exciting just by being around.

She had known from the beginning that Marika had a twisted side.

And without that twisted side, Imi would have been fully crystalized back there.

So…

“I won’t let the ‘world’s strongest’ title win.”

She would take Marika’s hand once more.

Maybe the Threat was not the core of the problem.

“Marika is my friend. I won’t let our ordinary lives be consumed by war.”

Are you afraid of the world you live in?

Then you must stand up to that fear and overcome it yourself.

The dawn arrived.

The artificial rain had stopped. The oil fire out at sea had died down and the cleanup of the leaked oil was beginning.

Utagai Karuta scooped up dirt with a shovel and poured it into a hole at his feet.

“Those trucks are from museums,” said Yamane Deiri with bags under his eyes. “They apparently use them to carry dinosaur fossils. Basically, everyone’s afraid of leaving food behind for the Threat, so all the Threat wreckage is being dredged up from the bottom of the ocean. I dunno where it’s all being taken, but I hear it’s being put away somewhere no one will ever see it again.”

“…”

“Are you sure you don’t need to report that ?”

Karuta did not respond.

The Port of Kobe was a modern port covered in asphalt and concrete, but it was a wide enough area that spots of unpaved dirt or gravel-covered dirt were common enough. Karuta had just finished levelling out one of those dirt patches after burying the armored warrior’s head. The shovel sticking into the ground almost looked like a grave marker. He understood this sentimentality was meaningless, of course.

Deiri referred to the remains of the unspeaking Threat as “wreckage”, so he apparently saw them as machines, just like drones.

Karuta was not so sure.

The Threat could act without a goal in mind and find meaning in pointless things.

The Warrior Doll’s eyes had seemed so much more straightforward than his own. It had fought fair and square from beginning to end and it had seemed to wordlessly praise its adversary even after its vengeance failed.

Had Karuta’s revenge been so praiseworthy?

Had he been open to accepting other ways of life?

Call it revenge if you like, but all he had done was play dirty and deceive his opponent. He had thought avengers could only be bloody criminals, but what if that assumption was wrong? What if his ugliness had not been the result of seeking revenge? What if the fundamental problem had been the part of him that led him to choose those methods for revenge?

The Warrior Doll had not tried to bring the ship, Gekiha, and the other crystallized people down with it.

Karuta had won the physical bottle but lost the moral one.

He had never imagined the Threat would make him feel that way.

“Sacri-sama.”

Aine pulled up his shirt and dove out from his stomach.

She had taken a lot of damage in the fight against the reddish-purple armored warrior, so she had been healing her wounds inside him. Just like Marika, Natlena, and the others would let their crystal armor “sleep” inside them to repair it.

“Are you ready to go now?” she asked with a tilt of the head.

“Yeah. Unlike you, I didn’t do much.”

“Didn’t do much? But I am part of your Crystal Magic.”

“All I really did was shine my flashlight around to blind them. You’re in control of all the real magic stuff.”

“…”

“And I wouldn’t it to turn out that way regardless.”

The crystal girl did not look happy with his answer, but he did not correct himself.

He tapped his finger on the handle of the shovel sticking into the ground.

“Unlike him , I don’t want to wield a sword so I can reach an emotional death. Maybe it’s too much for me, but I’ll accept this result if it’ll protect the people I care for. I will follow my path, even if it’s the path of the devil.”

He could see the ocean past the wharf.

Various work ships were moving all around to clean up the oil, but he also saw another ship slowly approaching. That was the Second Grimnoah academy ship – the home ground they had risked their lives to reclaim.

The crystal girl glanced over at the shovel he had stuck into the ground.

And she asked a question in her usual way.

“If I die, will you bury me like that?”

“I’ll learn any magic and clench my teeth in battle to make sure I don’t have to.”

### 096. Part 1

The boomerang-shaped passenger plane, Flight JSL-710, landed at a floating general airport built off the coast of Osaka as an entrance to Kansai.

The usual passenger planes, businessmen waiting to board, and tourist groups were nowhere to be seen. From the moment the Four Living Gods disembarked, this changed from being a civilian international airport to a frontline marine base rented out to the world’s strongest fighting force.

“This is Osaka. This floating airport is about 30km by sea from the Port of Kobe.”

Amaashi Marika, a girl with her twintails hair dyed strawberry blonde, looked down at her waterproof map while descending to the runway with the many other students. That was more dangerous than walking around looking down at your phone.

“We’re lucky to have approached even this far unharmed. Hey, Karuta! You split them up into teams cause I’m no good at that. Ugh, I just want to get moving ASAP!”

“30km? Um, i-isn’t that too close? Can’t those lasers reach us here?”

That nervous comment came from Natlena Blast, a girl with short and wavy blonde hair. She had been the young avenger attempting to get back at them for her sister’s death, but now she was on their side.

She had never been the type to do anything wrong, but now that she had stopped forcing herself to be bad, she could no longer hide her adorable side. She was too pure to look at for Karuta, a truly bad person who had killed five people and received nothing but praise from the world at large.

He absentmindedly spoke to that underclassman who descended to the runway a step below him.

“You really are the puppy type, Natlena.”

“Mh, what is that supposed to mean? Um, there are other animals you could compare me to.”

“Huh? Why are you mad? I meant it as a compliment.”

“How stupid are you, Senpai? Only weirdos like being called a dog!”

He was pretty sure she was indeed the puppy type since she would bite at any rubber ball waved it in front of her small face, but there was no use arguing the point.

That aside, it might seem odd for a 12-year-old girl who could not drive a car or motorcycle to think of 30km as “close”, but Crystal Magic flight was superior to a fighter craft. With nothing in the way, 30km would take them less than a minute.

“We don’t have to worry about the Threat’s projectiles while on the surface because the horizon acts as a range limit. We haven’t heard anything about their lasers curving or bending in midair.”

Karuta was holding the handles of a wheelchair as he descended the stairs behind Natlena. He was turned backwards so he descended first to make sure Omotesandou Kyouka did not accidentally fall down the stairs. Out on the runway, they were already in their public mode.

They were outside. From now on, they had to assume that their every action would influence the 5.5 billion nervous people out there.

“Also, the grownups are really eager to do something , so they’re helping out. And unlike that reckless bombardment, their help will actually be useful this time.”

3, 2, 1, counted down Karuta.

Then an unnatural downpour fell down from the evening sky like a shower had been turned on.

Natlena held down her beret with both hands.

“Wah!! Wh-what is going on!?”

“Artificial rain. I believe it uses silver iodide. The weather was looking iffy already, but it’s safer when we can switch it on and off ourselves. This should weaken those lasers and also divert the course of the light much like a prism or filled fish tank. Of course, that’s all assuming the beams fired by the Threat really are physical light. ”

Karuta, Marika, and the others used magic powered by occult high and low pressure fronts, so they knew supernatural powers did exist in the world and could be systemized into a form of technology. They still knew nothing about the real Threat, so it would be naïve to assume their enemy could not do something they themselves could do.

“And Marika, try to keep that map folded up. The airport itself is locked down, but modern devices can still see us from a rooftop or other elevated location past the bridge here. Not to mention how high quality satellite cameras are. The world might be in danger, but there will still be people who see that as an opportunity. ”

“Oh, is that so? Since when are you so duty-focused, Karuta? And if that’s true, you should probably try to dress nicer for the cameras. Oh ho ho. Your appearance is a disgrace to the name of the Four Living Gods who are meant to put the people’s minds at ease.”

“?”

He gave her a look that said “but we’re all wearing the same uniforms”.

Natlena, their mascot of a middle school girl, looked up at him while fidgeting her small fingers.

“Um, Senpai, your tie is a bit crooked, so if you don’t mind, I could fix it for-”

“Stand back, flirting brat! You’re interrupting childhood friend quiz time! Why would you just give him the answer like that!? This is the problem with you newcomers that don’t know how the game is played!”

The two girls just about got into a fight in front of Karuta, but then Hashizaki Tayori, one of the girls in his class, reached over with an exasperated sigh. She quickly untied and retied his crooked tie with just the one hand.

“C’mon, try to look sharp, world’s strongest. You yourself said there are cameras watching us, right? Those paparazzi love nothing more than scandals of the romantic variety, so stop giving them fuel for the fire yourself.”

“R-right. Thanks?”

The cutting-edge magicians screamed “She stole my job!” and “Senpai!”, but no one was paying any attention to them anymore.

That gyaru-type was one of Marika’s friends, but Karuta himself had rarely interacted with her. A friend of a friend was just another term for a stranger, but Tayori winked at the confused boy.

“What, curious why I know how to handle guy’s ties? That conversation might be a little too grownup for you.”

Not only did she know how to tie one around someone else’s neck, but Karuta could not tie his own with just one hand. However, it seemed almost second nature to her. The capable girl waved as she walked off into the orange sun shower.

Matsuda Imi, the other girl always hanging out with Marika, held a hand to her mouth as she grinned.

“Did that inspire some indecent fantasies? Like a romance with an older man?”

“Bff!?”

“Ah hah hah! Don’t worry! Tayori’s just used to looking after her brothers. She has the gyaru look down, but she’s the caretaker type on the inside. She’s a veteran of the bargain hunting wars and she can sew and mend clothing with both speed and quality. But maybe that just makes her more of a catch? Oh, and Marika?”

“What?”

“We can see through your blouse. Wow, that is a really plain bra. Did you grow careless?”

Marika screamed while soaked with the artificial rain and hid her large chest with her hands. Karuta blushed and looked away like normal, but the girls apparently did not see this as sexy. It was an unforgivable crime.

Matsuda Imi sighed as she continued.

“That’s about what I would wear while lazing around in the kotatsu shortly after New Year’s, but you’re not in your dorm room right now. At least tell me the top and bottom are matching colors.”

“But, um, Imi-sensei! I have a good reason for this. I didn’t have anything to wear after losing my suitcase in the confusion caused by those decoy Threats, so I was forced to tearfully buy something at the duty-free shop in the airport at Iceland!!”

“Wow, that is just sad. I’d want to crawl in a hole and die if I were you. You do realize that’s just as bad as being so busy you forgot to do laundry, running out of clean clothes, and rushing out to a 24-hour discount store to buy some underwear? Without any underwear on at the time? Peh heh heh☆”

“Well, what did you do, Imi? That duty-free shop had to be the only real opportunity for any of us. If you didn’t buy any underwear there, are you saying you’re a sweaty girl who hasn’t changed her underwear?”

“Huh? You never know what’s going to happen on an overseas trip, so you’re supposed to carry around a separate bag with spare underwear, menstrual products, deodorant, and a small bath and toothbrushing set. Oh, what’s this? Why are you hanging your head and trembling, Marika-chan? What, did this never occur to you? Bwa ha ha! You really need to up your girl power!!”

Trembling, Marika looked over in search of help, but for some reason both Kyouka and Natlena would not look her in the eye. The looks on their faces said they had overcome that feminine crisis with their own forms of ingenuity, so they could not assist her here. On that note, where had Kyouka gotten that swimsuit?

Also, Karuta could not at all keep up with this crazy girl’s talk. Anyone who said they wanted to spy on girls’ secrets was living in a fantasy world. Karuta was not confident he could maintain his own fantasies after learning the truth. Those fantasies were shattering before his eyes. Really, he just wanted them to stop openly talking about sweat and menstruation in front of him like this. Talk of lazing around in the kotatsu was too real! It was going to make the boys cry!!

Meanwhile, small Natlena was covering her small chest with one arm, hanging her head, and pouting her lips after being caught in the crossfire due to the misfortune of choosing the same color as Marika.

“Wh-what’s wrong with white?”

“Oh, it’s still perfectly fine for you. It suits you. In fact, I’m impressed you have a real wire bra instead of a sports bra. That’s pretty mature for an AA. Wa ha ha ha!!”

“Mine are an A!! Not an AA!!”

That unnecessary correction made Karuta blush all the more and Kyouka (whose size spoke for itself) smiled bitterly with her head resting in her hand.

If you were proud enough of what you were wearing, you apparently felt no need to hide it. Matsuda Imi (who had been looking down on her friend while wearing a kiddy striped bra herself) spread her arms at her sides to enter airplane mode as she chased after her gyaru friend who was on her way to the terminal.

“…”

It was hard to believe they were about to begin a major battle.

It felt more like a scene out of a peaceful school.

They were about to give their all toward reclaiming Second Grimnoah, but even that was only viewed as taking back what was rightfully theirs.

If the Crystal Magicians known as the world’s strongest were to fail here and lose their base, all human hope would crumble. In the worst case, the 5.5 billion could be gradually worn down into extinction without ever finding their next strongest.

And Karuta’s group had no guarantee they would return from this alive.

This was the real deal. Their opponent’s specs were unknown, but the coming battle could easily be even worse than the one against the decoys at the Crystal Beach.

The general assumption that you would survive did not apply in real battles. It was Karuta’s group’s job to put together a realistic plan of action that would make that assumption a reality. They could not rely on the adults either. If they did not do this themselves, their plan would fall apart and they would all be slaughtered. And yet…

(I know it’s better than being traumatized, but is our previous success making them overconfident ?) “It’s better this way,” whispered Omotesandou Kyouka (who was wearing a surprisingly cute pastel color).

She was trying to encourage her fellow outcast.

“If they were feeling the real fear of battle, they would break before the fighting even began.”

### 097. Part 1

“Okay.”

The sun had already set and the artificial rain was still pouring down.

Yamane Deiri muttered to himself while activating his pointed and translucent crystal armor.

He was at an altitude of about 100m.

He was not moving and standing perfectly upright, but anyone who had read an aircraft manual would know how difficult it was to come to a complete stop in midair. Airplanes, airships, hot-air balloons, gliders, helicopters, and even VTOL craft could not come to a “complete” stop.

This was truly magic.

Natlena Blast shouted up a warning from about half that height.

“Um, it’s dangerous up there. You need to descend some. Do you want to be shot down by the Sparkle!?”

“Hey, no fair!” cut in a voice over the radio. “If flying that high gets a middle school girl to worry over you, I’m going up there too!!”

“What is wrong with you!? And, um, didn’t we receive a report that using long-range communications would increase the frequency of anti-air lasers!?”

Natlena was not sure what to do about these boys. Water droplets were scattering from her blonde hair while she realized just how much Utagai Karuta must have worked to create a positive image of an older upperclassman when she was trying to take revenge on him.

“You say that,” said Yamane Deiri. “But I wouldn’t be much of a diversion if I wasn’t up here.”

“That’s true, but still.”

“Oh, crap! Here it comes!!”

With a flash of light similar to lightning striking nearby, a green beam capable of breaking through their Crystal Magic barriers shot up from the deadly black and orange horizon at a shallow angle.

That was an anti-air laser beam from the true Threat occupying Second Grimnoah.

It of course moved too quickly to do anything about once you saw it. By the time the girl blinked at the flash of light brighter than a welding torch, a straight-line afterimage had been burned into space itself.

It had apparently been aimed at Yamane Deiri who was flying up above the others, but he had rapidly flown downwards just beforehand. That drop had dodged the brutal laser flying at a diagonal angle.

“I knew it.”

Yamane grinned wildly while once more coming to a complete stop at the same altitude as before.

He only used his physical voice here. Either because Natlena was close enough to hear him or because he wanted to avoid drawing the Sparkle’s anti-air lasers toward his middle school underclassman.

(Do all grownups try to show off all the time? Like Karuta-senpai and Onee-chan.)

“Ah ha ha! It really does provide cover!!”

“Um?”

“Because the earth is round. Well, it’s technically not perfectly spherical since the gravitational differences distort it, but that isn’t what matters. Laser beams are made of light, right? Light travels in a straight line, so it can’t circle around the curve of the earth to attack. So I only have to move up and down a little to use the ground itself as cover. Just like peeping on the women’s bath from over the fence! Ha ha!”

He was using the earth itself as a shield. The distance to the horizon depended on the height from which you were looking. It was about 5km from the surface, but you could see a few dozen kilometers away from a broadcast tower’s viewing deck.

Yamane Deiri’s analogy could not have been worse, but his survival meant that method was effective.

But Natlena’s question was not about that.

“H-how did you predict when it would fire just now? It moves at the speed of light, so you can’t start dodging after you see it coming. And we can’t see over the horizon either, so you can’t base it on the Threat’s actions.”

“I felt a tingle.”

Natlena thought he must have been using a special fortunetelling effect of his Japanese god named Kagutsuchi, but apparently not. That rough upperclassman placed his index finger against his temple.

“You know how pressure changes can give you a headache? Like when you ride an elevator? I don’t think that laser is just a laser. Maybe it’s when it boosts the energy level and maybe it’s to protect against radiation, but it does something that gives me an invisible sign the laser is about to be fired.”

“Oh, no. If you’re only relying on wild instincts, it doesn’t do me any good!!”

While the normal person cried out in despair, Yamane shook the lawnmower-like weapon he held at his hip. That embodiment of fire acted as a rotating blade at close range, a flamethrower at mid range, and a launched flammable tank at long range.

“Crystal Magic is similar though, right? We use our magic by reading the invisible occult high and low pressure fronts, setting up our sails, and letting the wind carry us. So we know it exists. The question is how to perceive it. Maybe it gives you a headache, maybe an old wound aches, maybe you aren’t very hungry today, or maybe you feel really horny and turn into the carnivorous sort of girl. It’s different for everyone, so just accept the change, no matter how embarrassing it might be.”

“Wh-wh-why are you assuming my sensor would be something embarrassing!?”

Their role was not to directly attack Second Grimnoah about 30km away.

They were the decoys meant to draw the anti-air laser lion’s attention to keep Karuta and his team safe while they actually made their way to the ship.

“Hey, word of warning: your clothes are getting pretty see-through in this rain.”

“I’m bothered by the pitying look you’re giving me, but, um, I changed into some thick sports innerwear before heading out. It’s the same as a yoga tank top. Heh heh.”

“Oh, well, that’s no fun.”

“(Also, I made sure to put on bandaids below that. I actually thought this through.)”

“M-more details please!!” cut in the second boy over their communications, but she ignored him.

“Anyway, I’m glad,” said Yamane.

“Um, about what?”

“It was Karuta’s analysis saying the Sparkle’s laser didn’t bend, right? I was worried it might use the ionosphere or a mirage or something, so I’m glad he was right. Now we can act as decoys all we want without the city behind us getting blown away.”

“…”

“This is called an inland sea since it’s surrounded by Osaka, Hyogo, and Awaji Island. On a flat map, any position we could take would send the lasers toward land. So in that sense, we’re lucky that the lasers can escape into the night sky.”

She had thought he was being careless, but he had actually given this some thought.

It could be hard to tell since the initial trigger tended to be instinct rather than reason, but Yamane Deiri ultimately acted on (his own brand of) logic.

“Now Karuta-chan won’t have to worry so much.”

“I guess.”

“I’ve always thought that idiot overthinks everything. The real Threat is right there, so we can’t let anything distract us for a second if we want to survive. Being the world’s strongest doesn’t mean you have to take the brunt of the damage yourself to ensure everyone else comes back alive. He’s really starting to piss me off. Leaving us in reserve just because he’s the world’s strongest is pathetic. He should really take better care of himself!!”

### 098. Part 1

The low thrum of motors filled one section of Second Grimnoah.

But not because some bizarre new weapon had been powered up. Large washing machines were lined up within a laundry room. They were pay models that could be operated by holding your phone up to them.

The academy ship had become a deadly labyrinth crawling with the Threat, but it was also Karuta, Marika, and the others’ home. Their classrooms and dorms were here. So were their cafeterias and shower rooms.

They could use any part of the school infrastructure they wanted.

That only seemed so twisted because the Threat had taken over.

“Ugh, this is just awful,” said Amaashi Marika.

Karuta and Aine were standing watch outside. Only the three girls remained inside, but she, Matsuda Imi, and Hashizaki Tayori had stripped off all of their clothes. All of the machines were open for use, so they separated their underwear, blouses, blazers, skirts, etc. and put them in separate machines on different settings for the true luxury experience.

Gyaru-ish Tayori looked up at the ceiling (while naked).

“Those are making a lot of noise. Won’t the Threat notice?”

“It’s a pretty big ship and there are mechanical noises coming from all over the place.”

Why were they doing this anyway?

“I have detected a chemical very similar to diallyl disulfide within the Threat liquid found all over Miss Marika’s group. It is not on Sacri-sama or myself, so it may be used to assist them when they attack.” Aine explained from the other side of the thin door. “That is normally used in crow repellants, but it can also be used as a marker to track down a target when combined with a hound or another animal with an excellent nose. It is colorless and, when watered down, it does not have a strong enough odor for humans to detect. The best solution would be to remove all of your clothing and shave off all of your body hair, but if you are opposed to continuing the mission in the nude, I would recommend thoroughly washing your clothing with a chemical detergent. Immediately.”

Tayori tilted her head.

“Why can she detect smells that humans can’t?”

“Aine-chan’s senses are the same as a human’s, but she apparently stores things in her mind differently. If she licks salt, she doesn’t sense it as ‘salty’ – she senses which of the six tastes it stimulated. So she would probably overlook something if the magnitude was too low, but I guess she can still classify things if they’re simply mixed with other smells.”

That crystal girl was not shy about letting people know pure gold was her favorite food, so she had a very different idea about what was mouthwatering.

At any rate, they were forced to strip off even their underwear and throw it all in the washing machines despite the danger. They had avoided any laundry rooms with windows covered in Threats, but all the noise was still unnerving.

The girls also had to dump detergent over their heads no matter how bad for their skin it was. Gyaru-ish Tayori must have been confident in her looks compared to Marika because she made no attempt to cover up as she let down her wet hair and dried it off with a towel.

“He cut that thing down, didn’t he?” she said.

“Yes…” replied Marika with a thoughtful look.

What had created the difference between her group and him when they were trapped by the Gestalt’s illusion?

Marika tried to find an answer as Tayori’s calm voice reached her ears.

“We had seen jellyfish ones and the tadpole ones could count as frogs, so it was possible there would be a Threat that used color or camouflage. …It makes sense in hindsight, but Utagai Karuta predicted it in advance. It’s like he has a more active imagination, or like he’s extra cautious. Then again, that really saved our butts.”

That boy prepared himself based on the assumption that he would step right into any trap awaiting him, his opponent would always be trying to deceive him, and there would be an opening somewhere he could use.

Marika sighed at Tayori’s comments.

“Yes, but there is a downside. His way of thinking can easily lead to paranoia if he isn’t careful. And that’s all well and good for him if he can keep things in balance, but how can we ever tell if he’s doing that when his only explanation is ‘he has a feeling’?”

Everything felt unpredictable, but they did know the Threat could be defeated. That was some hope at least.

Tayori glanced over at the washing machines.

“Also, you didn’t put any fabric softener in with our uniforms, did you? Based on the tag, that’ll cause them to fade like crazy. Although it might be like how lab coats are made to stain easily so you’ll notice anything toxic you got on there.”

“Oh? You’re surprisingly knowledgeable about this stuff.”

“Was that ‘surprisingly’ really necessary?”

And….

“Eek, eek, eek, eek.”

An odd breathing sound came from one point in the room.

Marika and Tayori looked over to see Matsuda Imi curled up in a corner of the laundry room. There were benches available, but she still had her bare butt directly on the tile floor wet with puddles of seawater. She had her back against the wall and her hands on her head.

She was acting strange.

She had not stopped trembling ever since they defeated the giant Gestalt sea anemone. She had always been an innocent and active girl. She would often teasingly hug you while changing for gym, but now she was trying to reject everything about the world and run away.

Her bright and extroverted personality may have left her unequipped to retreat inward at times like this.

She had not even removed her clothes herself. Marika had watched as Tayori was forced to help her out of them like a parent would do to a small child. After what happened, her age may indeed have regressed.

They did not know what the Gestalt’s camouflage had shown her, but she may have grown attached to it.

Karuta’s voice reached them through the door.

“Hey.”

“No, it isn’t about that.”

Tayori casually rejected that idea while grabbing the dryer.

Yes, Marika also knew why this had happened to her friend. Now was not the time to retreat to ridiculous ideas like her growing attached to the camouflage.

Imi’s fearful eyes were not directed at the thin door that Karuta and Aine stood on the other side of. No, those eyes were directed squarely at Amaashi Marika. At the friend she had gotten along with and had always hung around with.

“No…”

Her voice was quiet, but the intonation was unnatural.

It contained the tension of someone who had discovered unexploded ordnance that could go off at any moment.

“No. I’m going back to the others.”

“What is…”

Karuta started to ask something through the door, but Marika only quietly shook her head. And after realizing he could not see that, she spoke aloud.

Still naked, she pressed her back against the door.

“Leave her be.”

Marika’s group had experienced their own drama. A different sort of drama that Karuta and Aine could not hope to imagine. The three girls had not survived “just because”. If you did not create your own reason for survival, anyone would die in this world.

The next one to speak was Tayori in her mature gyaru-ish way.

Once her hair was dry, she held her hair tie in her mouth and reached back to do up her long hair in a complex fashion.

“Hey, Utagai-kun. Did you see a leg somewhere on your way here?”

“Y-yes.”

“That was Imi’s.”

They heard an obvious gasp from beyond the door.

Soft and honest Karuta may have assumed the fear and pain had broken Imi and he may have felt that was the proper reaction for a normal person. Being functionally able to fight was not the same thing as being emotionally able to fight. The regeneration preset did not eliminate the fear. To continue fighting was to face that fear and pain head on. So allies who always pushed you onward could become an indirect source of fear.

But he had the wrong idea.

After using the hair tie to keep her hair in place, Tayori confessed the real answer.

“The attack tore right through the barrier and took her leg off at the base of the thigh. Just like the blood vessels in your wrist, the femoral artery is pretty thick, so bandaging it up wouldn’t be enough to stop the blood normally. That would be fatal.”

“Eh?”

There was more confusion than pain in Karuta’s muffled voice because Matsuda Imi was in fact alive right now. A fatal wound should have crystallized her entire body along with her clothing instead of healing her after just 30 seconds.

“ So. ” Marika slowly explained the proper action she had taken. “ I used my laser to cauterize the wound, buying her enough time for the regeneration to complete. That was the only way to save her. ”

“Eek. Eeeeek!!!???”

Imi trembled even harder while curled up in a corner of the laundry room. That classmate had always had a bright smile on her face, but now she was holding her head while her legs (one newly regenerated) squirmed awkwardly below her. Even with only other girls here, she would normally have done a little more to cover up.

Tayori moved up next to her and gave her a hug while she wept.

“I can’t take it anymore! I just want to crawl in bed forever!! This isn’t right. I thought it was the Threat that did these awful things to people, so why are other people doing that now!?”

Karuta’s mental anguish seemed to seep through the door.

Marika breathed a heavy sigh.

She had saved her dying friend’s life. That was an undeniable fact.

But pursuing a mystery and learning the truth did not always solve everything. They had sensed this ugly feeling during their revenge against the Problem Solvers and while fighting the decoy Threat at the Crystal Beach. Karuta had to be experiencing it again here.

And.

Aine’s emotionless voice spoke from beyond the door.

“Sacri-sama, does Miss Imi wish she had died instead?”

“Aine.”

“Based on that report, I do not see any other way she could have survived, so it is unfair to view Miss Marika negatively over it.”

Marika shook her head in response, scattering some water droplets from her hair, but then she clicked her tongue at that habit.

She had to speak aloud right now. She had stripped bare, but that did not mean they could read her thoughts.

“Stop. Please.”

People did not always like what was right and dislike what was wrong.

Everyone felt differently about things.

Most children knew intellectually that vaccinations and dental fillings were necessary, but could they use that knowledge to erase the fear they felt rising from deep in their body when they saw the syringe or heard the motor grinding at their tooth? Could they remain smiling throughout?

Tayori had crouched down and hugged her friend while gently stroking her trembling back like she was soothing a small child.

“Imi can’t go on,” she said.

“…”

“But no matter how much she wants to leave, flying out of the ship will only get her swarmed with and devoured by the Threat. I doubt even changing back into the silent diving suit hidden at the bottom levels and diving into the ocean would work anymore.”

“Probably not,” agreed Karuta through the door.

Plenty of the jellyfish Threats had burst from the ocean when he had flown in just off the ocean surface in Aine’s arms.

He had already explained that to the others.

And inside the ship, they had defeated the sea anemone one that Marika’s group had named the Gestalt. After disturbing the Threat inside and outside the ship, the Threat was bound to have changed their formation. They had to assume what had worked a moment before might no longer work.

After a while, Karuta managed to say more.

“We have to continue on and kill the lion on the roof to make the sky safe for flight. Then we can call in everyone from Grimnoah. Restarting Second Grimnoah doesn’t require any of us as individuals. We’ll have achieved our goal as long as we defeat the Sparkle. Anyone who wants to leave can withdraw back to the airport during all the confusion.”

“That probably is best. Imi will only be a burden now that she’s lost the will to fight, but let’s carry her with us for a while longer.”

“Sure.”

He was saying that was fine with him.

They had already seen the lion and the sea anemone, so they knew there was more to the Threat than being tough and violent. Second Grimnoah was crawling with types they had never seen before, so there was no safe zone here. Marika was more exasperated than impressed that he could state that with such confidence. He could not leave behind that classmate who could not face the fear on her own. There was no benefit to that, but he still could not bear to leave her here.

But Tayori looked puzzled even though she had made the suggestion.

“I’m surprised.”

“Why?”

“Three of the four world’s strongest are here, so I didn’t expect you to accept someone else ’s opinion so readily. I thought the bar would have been raised and I would be shut out for not making the cut.”

Karuta fell silent on the other side of the door for a bit.

Marika knew what that meant. He was smiling bitterly.

That would have been how it worked with the Problem Solvers. Which was the entire point.

Marika knew exactly how that soft childhood friend would respond and she was proven right soon thereafter.

“I’m working to not be that kind of strongest. So is Marika.”

Tayori shrugged a little. The short silence must have told Karuta that she was not panicking like Imi, so he asked another question.

“What about you? Do you want to quit?”

“I’ll follow whoever’s right,” dryly said Hashizaki Tayori. Her voice was different again from Aine who did not understand human emotion. “I don’t choose based on what I like or don’t like the way this girl does. But don’t let that put you at ease. If you ever stop doing the right thing, I’ll be disappointed in you and drop out, so keep that in mind.”

“…”

It took him 0.5 seconds before he said he understood.

That’s pretty harsh, thought Marika in the nude.

Marika understood that Karuta was thinking about the survivors of the first ship. He did not need to explain it to her. He was putting the still living students and teachers of the second ship in danger to save his dead friends from the first ship. He was clearly weighing their lives differently and he had to have noticed the contradiction there.

Even though it would be easier if he just went and did it.

Marika would use her full power as the world’s strongest to protect those she cared about, but Karuta lived a much more awkward life. If he used the watering can to water the flower pot, the flower would blossom, but he instead tried to water the entire desert with it.

(So…)

They heard a beeping as the large washing machines stopped spinning. They had finished the draining and drying phase.

(So I need to protect him. No matter what it takes.)

She let out a soft breath and reached for the drum’s lid.

She had not gotten there in time for Imi.

But she had managed to save that girl’s life. And life gave her the right to hate Marika for it.

That was thousands of times better than whitewashing death and letting her friend die.

That was her decision, no matter how harsh it was. And this was not just a whimpered excuse she made to herself – she could actually do it. That may have been what made her who she was.

“Now, all our preparations are complete,” cheerfully said the active girl. “So let’s take another peek into the depths of hell.”

### 099. Part 1

“Oh, what’s this?”

Yamane Deiri expressed his surprise while waiting in midair.

The Sparkle lion’s anti-air lasers had stopped. He stayed on his guard while counting to 10, but still nothing.

Had something happened over there, or was this a trap meant to mess with his timing? He could not let his guard down for a moment since these were lasers. Once you saw the flash of light, it was too late to move out of the way.

“Hirosuke.”

“Oh, looks like the roof collapsed.”

Even at their height, they could not see 30km away with the naked eye at night, but Nekoumi Hirosuke did not hesitate to respond with his crystal armor active.

“That lion isn’t there anymore. M-maybe it fell in a hole?”

“Is this our chance?”

“I doubt it. The Sparkle’s lasers can easily pierce the ship’s walls, so it’s still just as powerful. If anything, this is more dangerous since we can’t use visual information to predict where it’s aiming.”

Omotesandou Kyouka had taught them all to remain pessimistic when there was any uncertainty. The anti-air lasers had stopped, but that was not enough for them to charge in toward the ship.

And…

“Y-Yamane-senpai! And Nekoumi-senpai!! Why didn’t you wake me when it was time to head back out!?”

“And here’s the little kitten in heat.”

“I am not a kitten!!”

Natlena’s face grew red with anger as she flew up to the same height as the high schoolers. Changing the subject had failed to distract her, so the two boys secretly exchanged a glance.

They knew exactly what to do. It was time for the trial in absentia plan – aka shifting the blame to someone who was not present.

Deiri shrugged in the pouring rain.

“What choice did we have? If we let you suffer a single scratch, Karuta would kill us! And your Crystal Magic regeneration doesn’t matter as far as that’s concerned!!”

“Eh?”

Her thoughts froze for a second.

The red on her face was no longer from anger.

“Y-you can’t weasel out of this by bringing up Karuta-senpai!! I can fight and it doesn’t matter what he thinks!!”

### 100. Part 10

“Sigh, so he rejected me, did he?”

President Omotesandou Kyouka smiled sadly in the control tower.

Was it Amaashi Marika who had identified that smile as the one she used when trying to get something from someone?

(This is for the best. Karuta-kun has a hotblooded streak that can get out of hand, so I can control everything better and get better results when he’s out there doing his thing than when we’re licking each other’s wounds as fellow villains.)

“Assuming I don’t die of loneliness first,” complained the President.

But how much of this had been an intentional attack? It almost felt like the Threat had gone after Second Grimnoah in order to tear apart the students of the first and second ship, if not tear apart the Four Living Gods as well.

Were they really that intelligent?

And even if they were, how had they gathered that much information on Grimnoah’s situation? Had they gotten it from Second Grimnoah’s computers and documents? Or…

While she was gloomily resting her upper body down on a control tower console and losing herself in thought (to distract herself with her work), the redheaded buns Secretary poked her head into the room.

“President Omotesandou.”

“What is it?”

Kyouka straightened up and immediately put on a perfect smile, so the Secretary would not have noticed anything was amiss.

“I hate to interrupt you now, but you have a visitor from outside. I could kick them out since they don’t have an appointment. Shall I?”

The redheaded buns girl suggested they kick this person out before even mentioning who it was, but Kyouka could make a pretty good guess. She could only think of one option for a visitor right now.

“ What country are they from ?”

“ She claims to be a representative of the coalition force, but she is actually a special envoy from the Indian military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. She herself is from their navy. ”

(I was right. The human grownups have arrived.)

No official announcement had been made concerning Amaashi Marika’s disappearance, but 24-hour surveillance of the students leaving and arriving would be enough to have a general idea of who had and had not returned to the floating general airport. One of the world’s strongest had left and not returned, so word of the oddity would travel quickly.

Now was not the time to be worrying about what happened with Karuta.

The President silently refocused her mind.

She could be the villain here. She would fulfill her role as the President who protected everyone from Grimnoah.

(I kind of hate that I really can refocus my mind so easily. If only I was only fooling myself about that.)

“I’m curious. Let her through.”

“Understood.”

The person the redheaded buns girl eventually showed in was a young woman with glasses. She had brown skin, long silver hair, and a look equal parts intelligent and attractive. If not for the white military uniform with a tight skirt, she would have been turning heads as she walked down the street.

She knew her looks were a weapon and she had intentionally honed them.

She was accustomed to having her appearance praised. She fully understood how every little movement of her fingers would make those around her feel and she made full use of that. The ring glittering on her left hand’s ring finger was probably a calculated act. But not to show off that she was married and thus should not be invited out to drink past 8 at night. Quite the opposite. The guilty feelings that ring would instill in people had been worked into her calculations.

Sensing a villain much like herself, Kyouka grinned and got the conversation started.

“A pleasure to meet you.”

“We already met at a party in New Delhi two years ago. You were still only a freshman in the first ship, but I recall the lack of freshmen-like naivete you displayed.”

Kyouka cleared her throat to distract from that initial misstep.

This woman was clearly the type to point out and correct people’s mistakes, not to kindly let them slide. She seemed to assume that she held the superior position and the other person would adapt to her way of doing things.

The brown woman smiled thinly in front of the girl with the title of world’s strongest.

“I am Letnahe Kurent. It is a pleasure to meet you again.”

“The pleasure is all mine.”

( Um. )

The President smoothly continued with the conversation.

Her “initial misstep” had of course been a boring little bluff on her part. She generally never forgot someone she had glimpsed even once. But she had also heard the name Letnahe from a different source.

That conversation played out in the back of her mind now.

She remembered what Natlena Blast, sister of the former strongest, had said at the end of the Crystal Beach incident.

( The person who came to me after I, um, learned that my sister had died was… )

“I hope we can get to know each other a little better than last time.”

### 101. Part 10

Utagai Karuta came back to his senses.

He blinked once and his childhood friend’s head was no longer in his hands. Everything around him had lost color and had transformed into piles of black metal. The Threat was generally made of metal, but this destruction was horribly soft and disgusting. He did not know how it had achieved that flexibility. Maybe thin wires were woven into a net and maybe it had been filled with small pieces like a beanbag cushion.

He held a hand to the side of his head and grimaced.

(Were the colors being used to alter my state of mind? No, this was even harder to fight than that. Did they follow a chemical formula to create a human attractant?)

“Aine, I don’t want the other Threats to eat this, so can you destroy it more thoroughly?”

“I can, but it would produce a lot of light, sound, and heat. All of the Threats in the region would likely notice and rush in here.”

“Then we’ll have to go with the poisoning tactic. If we could find a bomb or some powerful acid…”

“K-Karuta?”

He heard a quiet voice from very close by.

He tensed up a bit, but Aine was still letting her sword dangle at her side.

“That is the real Miss Marika,” said the crystal girl. “Shall I attack her?”

Karuta sighed.

Marika still seemed to find the result of this battle hard to believe. She held her rapier device in her hand, her eyes were wide as could be, and she was trembling.

“How…how did you just kill the Gestalt?”

“Well, if either Aine or I was acting weird, I ordered her to let the unaffected one make the decisions. I made the command because I thought a human like me and a nonhuman like her might be seeing things differently here, but it didn’t do much good in that sense. And this isn’t perfect. If Aine suddenly wanted to take control, she could send out high-voltage electricity or knock-out gas and use my command to justify her ‘rebellion’.”

Gestalt was probably a tentative name for the blue-haired girl…no, for the sea anemone Threat. That was a reference to the term Gestaltzerfall, but it was not quite accurate to use just the first half like that. This may have been similar to how the spread of the term “domestic violence” had given the word “domestic” negative connotations for a lot of people.

“It can only manipulate human perceptions,” said Karuta. “So it can’t affect Aine. Or maybe the Threat only ever expected to have human enemies.”

### 102. Part 11

Letnahe Kurent was dumbfounded.

The bespectacled silver-haired, brown-skinned soldier forgot to even breath as she viewed the data displayed in the floating general airport’s control tower.

Her tea had gone cold.

“The Threat…”

She squeezed her trembling right hand in her left.

But she was not the type to look away from the reality before her eyes.

She located the most crucial piece of information and read it aloud.

“The Threat might have units capable of surviving a nuke?”

“We haven’t tested it, so we can’t say for sure.” The Student Council President looked entirely calm. “But with that sea urchin and lion, there are far more varieties here than we saw in the decoys at the Crystal Beach. They have more distinct roles. For example, there was a hippo-like Threat that is so specialized for defense it shrugged off a direct hit from the Sparkle’s laser at the Port of Kobe. Not to mention the lion-like Sparkle itself. Wielding that much energy means it must have some means of containing that much energy inside it. And I can only imagine there are tons more Threats we have yet to see.”

“B-but with the destructive power of the Pinaka III…!!”

“It won’t work. The Sparkle’s lasers have an instantaneous temperature that appears to exceed that of a nuclear reaction. Since we haven’t heard of any of them being properly destroyed, we can assume they do not just charge in with overwhelming numbers like the decoys did. They understand their individual roles and they monitor the situation so they can cover for each other’s weaknesses when need be. So they will likely do the same with a nuke.”

Kyouka spoke bluntly and clearly to ensure the soldier could understand even after her thoughts partially ground to a halt.

“And have you forgotten that the Threat will devour their own destroyed allies to endlessly customize themselves? That has been confirmed among the real ones with the water strider and jellyfish types seen earlier. Nukes are powerful, but they would leave behind a mixture of defeated Threats and surviving Threats. The amount of damage will differ depending on their individual strength, how close to the center of the blast they are, whether they are alone or gathered together, the terrain, and what kind of battle formation they take. The Threat is not a giant kaiju – it is a great army. If there is any discrepancy in the scope of the damage and even one survives, the hellish customization will begin. I would rather not imagine what would be born from that pile of rubble. What about you?”

“…”

“We can take advantage of their customization with the poisoning tactic that inserts a bomb or virus in the destroyed remains, but a nuke would leave so many remains behind that we would have a hard time ‘poisoning’ them all. The best way to do that is to make a pinpoint attack and prevent the remains from being taken back to the others. That requires swift movement and high firepower, but it also requires a check to make sure they really were destroyed and the nimbleness to ‘poison’ them at the same time. That means those of us wearing crystal armor are best suited for it. A nuke or any other wide-scale attack that spreads its power unevenly would only give them the chance to grow.”

“Y-you must be joking.”

Letnahe’s voice was trembling.

What emotion was burning in her heart: anger, impatience, or fear?

Whatever the case, she exploded once the tremor reached a certain point.

“You have to be joking!! You expect me to believe Crystal Magic is some convenient cure-all here? When you haven’t managed to defeat even one of them? If those kids fighting out there can’t do it, who are you saying can destroy them!?”

“I am a Main Category Regulation 3,” smoothly replied the President. “I doubt the dimensional leap ability would be enough on its own. Anyone who reaches their third year in our high school learns that technique, after all. No, it needs to be someone who assumes anything can happen in combat and prepares for the worst even after reaching that level. That may be something that no one can learn from a textbook, but the opportunity is there for everyone. The Four Living Gods are not the only ones to have seen hell, after all.”

“You can’t expect someone like that to just conveniently exist.”

“But they do. I’ve already found one.” Omotesandou Kyouka could see a single ray of hope. “There were VR goggles on the fancy plane we took on the way here.”

“?”

“That was convenient enough, so I played a sparring match against Karuta-kun. Using my parameters from when I was in my prime.”

Letnahe gasped. She was the one and only Regulation 3 in the world. In her prime, she had been a completed form of the strongest that was nowhere to be found anymore. But the true shock was yet to come.

“How do you think that turned out? Karuta-kun defeated me. Without using Aine-chan. ”

“How!?”

“He took advantage of a bug. He baited me into using my dimensional leap, causing my VR avatar to freeze. As soon as he noticed he could not summon Aine-chan in the VR, he realized there were things the simulator could not reproduce and put together a plan built around that. And then I couldn’t move.”

Silence followed.

The President grinned at the brown-skinned soldier whose mouth flapped wordlessly.

“Ah ha ha. That wouldn’t even occur to you normally, would it? You would look at Crystal Magic’s real abilities and try to plan a way to defeat me at the peak of my abilities. But not him. He viewed the conditions of the battle on a higher level. …When fighting the Threat, you can’t let your assumptions get the better of you. You can’t win using the standard processes. If you can’t look at things from a different angle, all your efforts are nothing more than running down a path leading straight to destruction. Just like your nuclear attack would only help the Threat grow.”

“…”

“It was the same with the Problem Solvers and with the decoy Threat. He has the ability to defeat powerful opponents he should not be able to defeat. And he is pulling it off again here.”

The only report of a destroyed Threat was the two that destroyed each other on the ocean. It had happened so quickly that he did not seem to realize how great a feat he had accomplished, but the President could see the hope presented there.

“Karuta-kun was the first to pull it off, but the possibility exists for everyone. Our students panicked when the decoy Threat attacked, but not so against the real ones here. What changed? I think it is because they can see their home here. When focused on a positive goal, people can think, put together a plan, and reach for it. Unlike the Threat that focuses on their negative deficiencies and tries to make up for those to grow stronger.”

She seemed to be criticizing the adults for using the nuclear Pinaka III as a joker meant to make up for their own deficiencies, but she also seemed to be expressing some sorrow about herself.

She stuck out her tongue as she added one more thing.

“But I’m their wicked big sister, so I doubt I can believe in the same dream they do.”

That boy was the only person with fully separate Crystal Magic.

He was a true abnormality who had succeeded in controlling a Crystal Blossom without relying on an existing god’s name. That extraordinary boy was struggling every day and worried if he could ever improve, yet he already stood in a position that Omotesandou Kyouka had failed to reach even after mastering “proper” Crystal Magic.

She never wanted to betray him.

Even as she hid that weaker side like a girl pining for the prince in a picture book.

What was she hoping to gain with this smile?

“If he has the true talent required to break free of Grimnoah’s ranking system and become a Category Error, then I know he can find an opening here.”

### Between the Lines 1

This had to be some kind of joke.

Letnahe Kurent softly bit her lip.

She had left the control tower to help calm herself, but being alone only let the impatience grow. She seemed to be losing track of time more by the second, like she was trapped inside a room with no clock, but noticing the effect was not enough to stop it.

She was in a small smoking area to the side of the staff entrance. She was not a smoker, but she wanted to make that walled space into her territory. She could never calm her nerves otherwise.

“Phew.”

After reflexively letting out a heavy breath, she noticed how disturbed she really was.

The mobile watch synced with her phone was covered in red.

There was a nearby chair for taking breaks, but she ignored it. She sat directly on the floor in her tight skirt and followed a set process to slowly move her body.

She breathed in and out.

That was all, but breathing was the key to everything.

By consciously taking control of her muscles, blood flow, and organs one after another, she forcibly calmed her mind as well. At her level, it was as simple as turning an invisible knob.

She did not even need to look down at the mobile watch around her left wrist.

Her breathing, heartrate, blood pressure, and brainwaves had all returned to normal levels.

Then she began to think.

(There is a lot I don’t know. I especially need to rethink the effectiveness of a nuclear attack. Although this delay is alarming when we are supposed to be the ones managing the world by supporting the strongest.)

When attempting to manipulate several threads at once, you wanted as much information as possible. But that craving could also lead you astray.

At times like this, it was best to cut away all the outside noise and look inward. By looking to your center, you would not lose sight of what you most needed to accomplish.

Yes.

( But that isn’t what really matters to me. )

“******-kun,” she muttered while focused on her left hand.

She had uttered the one thing she never should have said on the frontline where both sides hunted each other’s lives.

Then she looked up all of a sudden. As if a small bug had just flown by in front of her.

This was a deadly scent only an expert could pick up on.

The floating general airport had been rented out as a frontline base, so only Grimnoah people should have been here. That meant the scent was directed toward the students and teachers.

If things were allowed to continue, death would reach them.

An error displayed on her mobile watch. The mechanical calculations could not keep up with the changes occurring within her. Her breathing, heartrate, blood pressure, and brainwaves had moved beyond those of an ordinary human. They had all grown placid, like a chilly subterranean lake.

A moment later, she swung an axe to the side to mercilessly slice at the empty air.

No, it was not empty air sliced by that axe that was less than 50cm including the handle.

Gray static ran through the emptiness and something appeared there. It was a 2-ton powered suit covered in so much composite armor and various sensors that it must have been difficult to fold down into a humanoid shape. It was a PS Sudarshana used by the Indian Navy Port Security Unit during shipboard searches. The thing surrounding its entire right arm looked a lot like the mandibles of a giant centipede or something similar. That was a piece from one of the decoy Threats in the reports.

The powered suits could not ordinally blend into their surroundings like that. And as examples like the chameleon and tree frog make clear, it was not surprising for the decoy Threat to have a camouflage ability since they incorporated biological structures into their mechanical forms. However, the navy did not use that kind of thing.

“The Indian Space Force.”

That safe weapon could make it look like the Threat’s doing if any important figure were to meet an unnatural demise.

She whispered while spinning her axe around after it was deflected by the thick armor.

“Was the idea to trip Grimnoah up so you could force the nuclear attack? You have guts going over the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who command every branch of the Indian military. Do you think you have special privileges for not belonging to the traditional three branches?”

“Have you grown confused, Lieutenant Colonel Kurent!?”

The voice came from the powered suit that had appeared from thin air. It had already stepped back after the initial attack.

“That parashu is only meant for revenge. You had the ability to pursue your true target and this silly camouflage would not have been enough to deceive you, so no one will believe you if you say mistook me for an enemy.”

“I could say the same thing. Our enemy is the Threat, not Grimnoah. It would be one thing if they were ‘accidentally’ caught in the nuclear attack we were regrettably forced to launch, but taking their lives in a direct attack sounds like the start of an international incident to me.”

“…”

“That is why I was sent in as a special envoy to peaceably acquire an outline of Grimnoah’s plan and time schedule. …It wasn’t the Indian Navy that decided to make an assault instead, was it?”

The Pinaka III was a special nuclear torpedo launched from a submarine.

But at the same time, the nuclear weapons were managed by the space force, not the army, navy, or air force. Needless to say, nuclear weapons were not operated independently. They relied on a global radar network.

That created a tug-of-war between the navy and space force.

Letnahe considered those two organizations as she spoke.

If she let herself sigh here, it would disturb her breathing, but she was not going to let something like this faze her.

“Did the Indian Space Force want to launch their Pinaka III so badly, they sent in an assassin squad…pardon me, a special forces unit? Or were you sent here by the intelligence division that’s been on edge ever since they realized the control tower was intercepting their transmissions? Either way, your equipment tells me you intended to blow up the control tower to destroy the equipment – and me I might add – in what looks like an accident. The control tower is full of largescale electronics with its radar and its server system. Mess with the wiring a little and you will have much more than an electrical fire on your hands. The machinery would burst and create arc discharges.”

No one answered her.

But not because they were upset with what she was saying. They were probably just not allowed to reveal classified information. Which made for an implicit confirmation.

“Lieutenant Colonel Kurent, we were told to avoid any unnecessary victims.”

“I imagine so.”

“So come with us. I cannot guarantee you an acquittal, but if you leave the scene, you will at least not be caught in the unfortunate accident . Unlike the Grimnoah students and teachers.”

Letnahe raised both hands with the axe still in one of them.

“They are necessary.”

“That is not for us to decide. Aren’t you no more than a messenger?”

She had already demonstrated her power, but the powered suit unit wearing cutting-edge PS Sudarshanas still seemed to think they were in control here. She only held an outdoor axe less than 50cm long while they had firearms as well as the decoy Threat weapons, so they would attack her from more than 10 directions before she could even ready her first attack. And each of their attacks could tear through the latest armored trucks like tissue paper. Or so they believed.

“I warned you,” she said.

“?”

Letnahe spun something around in her hands like a baton.

She had reached into her sleeve and pulled out a military flashlight just as thick as the axe’s handle. She connected the two with a twisting motion, extending the length of the axe’s handle.

“The parashu is an axe of vengeance given to us by Shiva, God of Destruction. It is a well-known item, but its size and shape differ between the different texts. That can be used to pull off magic such as this.”

“Lieutenant Colonel, it is true the length of the handle provides more centrifugal force, but I seriously doubt that is enough to break our armor.”

She did not bother responding to that.

With a casual horizontal swing of her arm, the powered suit’s head was mercilessly severed.

It froze up.

It must not have understood what had happened.

The powered suit stood motionless for a bit, but finally collapsed backwards with a loud crash.

The other powered suits rushed in toward the silver-haired, brown-skinned woman. Those monsters had decoy Threats equipped on their arms, yet they did not manage to spill a single drop of blood.

Their attacks were all blocked and deflected by a single puny axe.

The dark gray storm left a blurred afterimage behind. This was no normal movement. This was more than just Letnahe having superior athletic abilities. There was something seriously wrong with the axe’s path. While she swung it around in both hands, its path would bend unnaturally like it had been kicked by an invisible horse.

“This is thunder,” she explained while twirling the axe like a baton. “The parashu is an axe given to us by Shiva, god of destructive winds and lightning. Although I will admit using the roar of thunder to vibrate a piece of metal is an unorthodox application of that power.”

The attackers finally realized what was going on.

She was using magic. That was of course not the actual weapon given by the Indian god of destruction. The axe was only an axe and the flashlight was only a flashlight. Her form of magic was a technical system that produced supernatural phenomena by gathering certain symbols in a single magical tool so a supernatural power would flow through it.

“Then again, I am not using the vibration or shockwave to cut. The vibration is uneven, so I can create intentional deviations to unnaturally strike the entire axe from within.”

She was someone who had failed to reach the level of God Worshiping Magic or Crystal Magic.

She could not interfere with the occult pressure fronts. She could only produce a small change, similar to scooping up water in a ladle and sprinkling it around to cool things down.

That incomplete magician winked behind her glasses and stopped the thick blade meant to attack her.

“That allows me to move the axe’s blade as I like. If you don’t believe me, feel free to bring in a Gatling gun. I will knock down every last bullet from head on.”

“…”

“And by striking on the back of the blade to accelerate it, I can produce destructive power far greater than my arms ever could. Of course, taking it too far could always damage my shoulders.”

She did not give them time to ask any further questions.

She slayed the cutting-edge powered suits one after another with a combination of power, speed, and precision nimbler than a large knife and more powerful than a cannon. She deflected bullets fired from silenced weapons, accurately dismantled the fuses of explosives on the verge of detonation, and severed the centipede arms. If her attacks had not all been in the form of “cutting”, the entire airport might have exploded from within.

“But even this is not enough to make me the strongest. That is how the world of magic works. I heard the great God Worshiping Magic sword used by one of the former strongest was more convenient than this.”

She did not bat an eye.

“And I doubt I would be any match for the Crystal Magic students who can easily break the sound barrier. But while it isn’t #1, it still has its uses. And if you know something is useful, there is no need to try to make it the very best. War is a boring thing, isn’t it?”

She could not become the world’s strongest and she could not keep up in a battle against the Threat, but she was second to none when it came to tripping up fellow humans. Letnahe Kurent was a magician who had made a place for herself using that.

She was the grim reaper of a certain force.

She was the secret silencer that was sent in to correct a global plan when the people raised to the position of strongest took things too far and started to grow tyrannical.

She was the woman who wielded Shiva’s axe.

She was a monster who could use that weapon on the level of an army.

“…”

The last surviving powered suit looked down at himself instead of at Letnahe.

He was already covered in gouging lacerations.

“Why?”

“Because Grimnoah seems more useful than a perfectly ordinary assassination squad that does not officially exist within the Indian military. For now, anyway.”

“We might want different things, but we’re from the same military…yet you cut us down without a second thought.”

“What?”

She stared like a puzzled child at first. She really did tilt her head with the axe still in both hands.

“Oh, that.”

It took her a few seconds to realize what he meant, but then she gripped the axe tight once more.

“Did you not wonder why I kept specifying the Indian military? I wouldn’t talk about my own home as the Kurent home, would I? So why would I bother making the distinction here?”

“?”

“It’s simple,” she said. “I do not work for the nuclear state of India. I work for someone even higher than that.”

After one final desperate spray of gunfire, the final powered suit was bisected.

The secret unit had been eliminated without anyone ever knowing they existed.

The battle would not have made much noise, but she could not let her guard down. She wanted a janitorial cart to transport the multiple corpses and special detergent for the blood stains. Her axe and magic could turn them into mincemeat easily enough, but the mass media’s long-range lenses were watching outside. She calmly worked out what she needed to do as someone who worked behind the scenes.

No one could prove those soldiers existed, so she could never be charged with their deaths.

But after cutting down and eliminating that hostile force without allowing them a single scream, Letnahe Kurent pictured a certain girl in her mind: Omotesandou Kyouka.

(I have a secret, but I am in no position to reveal it to you.)

She looked down at her left hand and focused on a warm feeling other than her duty as a cold soldier.

“You owe me one.”

### 103. Part 2

The real Threat’s strength was unknown, but they did know one thing for sure at this stage.

They were about 30km away, but flying in and attacking the Port of Kobe from the air was not an option.

Thanks to the Sparkle’s lasers, they would all be shot down before arriving.

That was why they were using large tour buses to travel from Osaka to Hyogo, traveling north along a curving highway. A convoy of camouflaged military trucks would be too conspicuous, so it could gather the attention of the Threat and even the bored media.

Natlena Blast fidgeted nervously in the next seat over.

“A-are you sure this is a good idea, Senpai? It’s true the Threat might not notice us like this, but aren’t we using the city buildings as a shield!?”

“An evacuation order was put out quite a while ago and I doubt anyone will choose to ignore that with the Threat here. Word will be spreading that the city will be destroyed overnight.”

“Evacuate to where? Um, don’t the prefectures bordering Osaka Bay contain more than 10 million people?”

The blonde girl knew an awful lot about Japan for a US citizen. And things like this went more smoothly when following an existing process than when attempting something new and unprecedented. For example, Fukui had the highest concentration of nuclear power plants in Japan and Nara was a mountainous region famous for its hot springs, meaning it was also an active volcano. With several possible causes for concern, a largescale disaster response manual had been developed to cover the entire Kansai region.

In another seat, his classmates Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke were looking out the window.

“Noo! How did we visit Osaka without getting any of the local specialties!? I at least wanted to try some akashiyaki!”

“Farewell, Osaka, and hello, Kobe. What other part of Kansai is known for its beauty at night? Sapporo?”

“Senpai,” said Puppy Girl Natlena while dying to correct those two, but Karuta placed a hand on her shoulder from the next seat over to restrain her. She had to learn to not chase after every single ball that flew past her.

Karuta was getting a mild headache from his high school classmates who were exposing their idiocy a little too freely in front of the middle schooler, but he had to focus.

They did not drive down from the interchange to the ordinary roads. The Port of Kobe was right in front of them – he could already see its tall gantry cranes. The tour buses parked in a row at a nearby service station and Karuta stepped out into the sun shower. He detected the salty sea breeze mixed in with the rain. He flicked the Crystal Blossom on his chest and sent out a transmission to let everyone know what was happening.

He of course switched over to his public mode for this.

“We will continue as planned, but I cannot guarantee you that following your training will be enough to overcome this. We have all already experienced the cruelty of real combat. So let us protect Second Grimnoah, protect the Port of Kobe, and protect the world to show the bored media the pride of true veterans. Begin!!”

Several high-pitched sounds followed.

Around 100 middle and high school students had been gathered here. The boys and girls all shattered the Crystal Blossoms on their chests to cover themselves in translucent armor. They could not fly high in the sky thanks to those anti-air lasers, but they could still ignore the paths of the roads as they jumped straight down from the service area to the ordinary road below.

Natlena had already donned her armor, so she checked on the ski-like parts on her feet before looking back toward Karuta.

He alone could not wear amor like the other students. Nor could he fly.

“Um, uh, what about you?”

“Power up. Come on out, Aine.”

His Crystal Blossom shattered, his shirt pulled up, and a pale-skinned crystal girl crawled out from his stomach.

This was the irregularity he alone possessed.

Aine tilted her head while awaiting orders.

“What shall I do?”

“Well, first you can- wah!?”

“?”

Aine was puzzled by his shout.

The crystal girl had no center or core. Everything from the tip of her sword to her heart was an equal part of her and she had been wearing that white garment the first time she emerged.

But at the moment, it was raining.

In that downpour, well, the dress grew see-through. It clung to her fine skin, revealing the shape of her relatively uncurvy body. It was the white fabric’s fault!!

Aine herself did not bat an eye.

“Is something wrong, Sacri-sama?”

“Okay, I guess I have to make this an order. Listen, Aine, please hide your body. Immediately! It’s just that, um, are you unfamiliar with the concept of a bra!?”

The crystal girl silently lowered her gaze to check on her own disastrous state.

“But keeping my clothing constantly dry in this continuing rain is unrealistic and it would be highly inefficient to cover my body with my hands while I- byah!”

“You’re squeezing your eyes shut, blushing, trembling, and you even bit your tongue just now! I can tell you’re embarrassed too, so please stop pretending otherwise! There must be some solution to this!!”

Their field trip to the Icelandic Crystal Beach had not been a fun experience, but it had not been a total failure. For example, he had gotten Aine to feel embarrassment about her own nudity.

Another of his few victories there had been Natlena Blast, but she was now giving him a cold look.

“Senpai, um, why did you react so differently to her than to me?”

She was imagining things.

In fact, he also felt awkward looking at Natlena when she was so thoroughly soaked in the rain.

“Countermeasure: unknown. This particular problem must be put on hold.”

“Okay, fine. Then let’s get to work, Aine!”

After giving that command half in desperation, a pleasant slapping sound reached his ears.

Aine had swept him off his feet, flipped him around in midair, and grabbed him in a princess carry.

Then the crystal girl notices something.

“Oh, my hair covers it pretty well.”

“Don’t get careless, Aine. A hair bra is not generally accepted as covering up. That still counts as defenseless.”

Her movements remained precise as they discussed it. She did not hesitate to jump gently down to the hard asphalt 15m below the elevated service area with him in her arms.

It could be hard to tell with how easily she did it, but that was as tall as a school’s roof. It was a deadly height that was dangerous to jump from with or without a parachute. Natlena ended up watching it in a daze, but then she frantically activated her flight.

“W-wait, Senpai!”

“Never fly for more than 5 seconds, Natlena. We’re already within lethal range of the Sparkle’s lasers, so it’s over the instant it notices you.” After that quick rebuke, Karuta left Aine’s arms and planted his feet on the rain-wet road. “And we’re less than 500m from the Port of Kobe. If you count the adjacent airport, the Port of Kobe covers 10km of the coast, but we have to start here. Let’s go, Natlena. Real or decoys, we need to take the Second Grimnoah back from the Threat.”

“R-right. Um, to take back humanity’s mobile base!”

“…”

(Gekiha.)

He tried to keep it off his face.

But he was not at all confident he had succeeded.

He made all these valiant statements, but his real motives were much more personal. He was only interested in the dead dream of those lethally-wounded crystal statues, but working to rescue them had to be nothing but a nuisance to the rest of humanity. He doubted anyone would understand if he was honest about his motives. Not just the outsiders who knew nothing of Crystal Magic, but the other Grimnoah students and teachers too. If they knew, they would all tell him to get lost and they would abandon the fight. They would say the first ship’s problems were meaningless to their second ship. And they were right about that.

Was that his reason for not telling them ? Was that really a valid justification?

But…

Even so…

(I don’t care if it’s wrong. I will save my friends even if it makes me a lying sack of shit!!)

Aine used her sword to slice through the tall fence and Karuta silently stepped into the Port of Kobe’s grounds.

It was finally beginning.

The world’s strongest magicians were about to contact the true and legitimate Threat.

### 104. Part 2

Utagai Karuta stood on the edge of the floating general airport’s artificial land. The dark ocean was only a step away. He was soaked from the artificial rain and he heard most of the diversion team’s transmissions coming from the Crystal Blossom at his chest.

“Ha ha! C’mon, don’t chicken out just cause your barriers don’t work!! We’re nowhere near the end here – we’ve gotta keep these anti-air lasers occupied for several more hours. If you don’t learn how to do it right early, you’ll burn through your stamina and have trouble keeping it up later!”

“Tch, we really are too far away for sniping. Maybe the oil fire is causing weird updrafts and messing with the heat distribution. A-anyway, let’s play a game of chicken. Whoever draws the laser in closest before dodging wins. Let’s show off our skills to the middle schoolers!”

“Wait, can you please take this seriously, you stupid upperclassmen!? Um, um, uh, what is that energy drink you’re chugging!? Isn’t that one triple concentrated!? Oh, god, why couldn’t you be more like Karuta-senpai!?”

“What? Since when do you use his given name, little kitten?”

“Bfff!? I-It doesn’t mean anything! You’re imagining things! Um, um, uh, stop asking questions and let it slide!!”

“…”

“Sacri-sama,” said a voice from behind Karuta.

“They’re still numb to the fear,” he said without turning around. “Our success taught them the wrong lesson.”

Sending out Crystal Blossom transmissions while flying through the night sky was risky in and of itself. Not even stealth fighters could avoid those green lasers and a single hit would vaporize Yamane or Natlena. And yet.

“Although they do appear to have calmed down some since they are no longer insisting on charging at Second Grimnoah with us.”

The boy shook his head while looking up into the rainy sky where the green beams of anti-air lasers kept flashing like lightning.

Karuta had tried to go save Marika, Gekiha, and the others even if it meant abandoning his post. He had nothing but thanks for Natlena for chasing after him and for his many other friends who had supported her. He was so happy it brought tears to his eyes, so he doubted he would ever forget it.

They had taught this filthy avenger that it could be meaningful to make a direct attack at times.

These emotions were delightful.

These emotions were wonderful.

These emotions felt really good.

“But we can’t let the emotion take control, Aine. That would be taking it too far.”

“If you say so.”

He could tell without looking back that the inhuman crystal girl was tilting her head with a blank expression.

She would not understand justice.

A single mistake would cost any one of his friends their life, so allowing emotion to cloud his judgment would only lead to endless regret.

He could not forget.

No matter how valiant and reliable a Crystal Magician Yamane Deiri might look like now, he had panicked and tried to flee the hotel when they first encountered the decoy Threats at the Crystal Beach. And when they had fought the decoy Threats in the C World dome, he had been so desperate to prove that Crystal Magic worked on the Threat that he had gotten himself nearly deadly injured.

Pretty words meant nothing to the force tasked with defending the world. The way Deiri had acted before was much more correct for a high schooler. Karuta could not misjudge the others’ limits. They were human beings, so they would feel fear and they had a limit. If he pushed them too far, they would fail.

(I’m forcing them to carry an endless burden here. I need to figure out how to ensure they don’t do anything reckless.)

The boy wielding artificial magic stood on the artificial float in the artificial rain and turned back toward Aine.

How could he repay his new friends? The answer was obvious: achieve his goal as quickly as possible to shorten how long they had to play the dangerous decoy role. That was the best way of keeping them alive.

He had to defeat the Sparkle and rescue Marika’s group.

“Time to go, Aine.”

“Yes.” The rain was pouring down on Aine too, but she stood tall without even brushing aside the wet hair plastered to her cheek. “How shall we do it this time? Shall I carry you on my back or in my arms?”

“Whichever way is easier for you.”

He answered half in exasperation, but then she gently nestled up against his chest.

Their faint warmth mixed together, but then her slender hand pushed on the center of his chest and he fell from the float and toward the dark ocean.

However, the loud splash never came.

Since contact with Marika’s group had been lost, they knew there was some kind of trap along the route those three had taken. So instead, Aine grabbed his body while falling with him and flew rapidly just above the dark sea.

She used the Crystal Magic preset of flight.

“This is the most stable method. What was it called again? Oh, right. A princess carry.”

“Oh, I see…”

The raindrops hurt as they hit his cheek. It felt like having pebbles thrown at him. That may have been a unique risk for him since his barrier was imperfect.

(It would be a pain if this triggered a regeneration.)

The regeneration would usually be enough to recover from a single instance of a powerful force as long it did not hit his vitals. It was a thinly-spread and lengthy barrage that presented problems. The regeneration would heal any wound in 30 seconds, but that also meant even the slightest scratch required 30 seconds away from harm because another hit would shatter the healing crystal and tear the wound open wider. And that would never return to normal. If they were slammed with something like a sandstorm, there would be no avoiding it and it could easily tear him apart.

“I have no means of attacking with you in my arms, so I would like for you to handle fighting back against the enemy. Is that acceptable, Sacri-sama?”

“Thanks for leaving me a chance to look cool, Aine!!”

Crystal Magicians ruled the sky with speed and mobility greater than a fighter craft, so 30km was nothing. They did not need a gyro or compass to determine the direction since they only had to fly toward the light.

The dark sky and sea were defiled in one direction by an orange glow that almost looked like a sunset. That was due to the oil fire where the crude oil had leaked out into the ocean. Second Grimnoah awaited them on that burning night sea.

The Threat took action before the giant ship even came into view.

Shapes similar to water striders the size of cars appeared to be sliding across the ocean surface made rough by the artificial rainstorm. The water striders clustered together to block Aine and Karuta’s path, so Karuta pulled a modified military flashlight from his uniform. It was as hard and heavy as a police baton, but he doubted he could smash through the real Threat with no more than a blunt weapon.

He switched it on and sent out a shower-like conical laser.

When the powerful IR hit its glass eyes(?), one of the water striders lost control. It failed to judge the distance from its neighbor and collided with it, producing a sound of bending metal.

There was no fear on Aine’s face.

She continued flying about 50cm above the water to weave in the gap between enemies.

They did not have time to celebrate their survival.

The ocean directly below glowed faintly green and that glow was catching up with them as they flew at supersonic speed.

“Aine, watch out!!”

“Did you think I was not already observing my surroundings?”

With the puny mass of carbon in her arms, the crystal girl swerved in an S-shape as a deterrent.

That was when a mass of green light burst through the ocean surface as it flew straight up. It was not alone. More and more colored pillars of water rose into the air like an inverted sweep of machinegun fire pursuing Aine and Karuta.

“A jellyfish!?” Karuta’s eyes widened. “What kind of tactics did that weapon evolve for!?”

“I have heard of landmines that are launched into the air, but that is unusual for a sea mine.”

They must have been attached to the ocean floor until now because something like broken chains trailed after them.

It was close – paper thin even – but Karuta and Aine’s reaction speed was slightly faster. The sea mines reacted by leaping into the air one after another, but those two were never hit from below.

However, they could not rejoice.

They heard a sound like an aluminum can being crushed below a car’s tire. One of the water striders trying to pursue from behind was hit from below by one of their own jellyfish mines, launching it into the air. The jellyfish must have been the more destructive of the two because the water strider’s legs were torn off and its black armor shattered and flew away while the whole thing twirled through the air.

“ Oh, no. ”

Karuta vision grew scattered.

He felt like he was going to hyperventilate and pass out if he did not consciously regulate his breathing.

He had only seen the decoy Threats from the Crystal Beach do it, but those training weapons would have been modeled after the real Threat’s structure and abilities.

That led to a single conclusion.

He did not want to admit it. He really, really did not want to, but if he refused to admit when things were taking a turn for the worse, he could not recover from that. He had to avoid sitting idly by and allowing the rolling snowball to grow out of control.

He bit his lip and forced his mind toward the view up ahead.

He focused on it.

The Threat grew by devouring their fallen brethren.

“ Oh, no !!”

There was no turning back the hands of the clock. Jellyfish tentacles thinner than hairs tangled around the wreckage in midair and the dome-like jellyfish moved up onto the water strider’s back. The countless tentacles tangled together to form thick legs to replace the ones that had been torn away.

The massive sea mine could now move freely across the surface of the water, so it began to pursue Karuta and Aine from behind. Aine expressionlessly swerved side to side at supersonic speed, but she could not escape the guided weapon. It gradually closed in on them.

“Sacri-sama.”

“It’s no use!! Is the jellyfish in control now? The IR isn’t affecting it, so it must not be using optical lenses! The jellyfish must locate its prey with ultrasound or microwaves!!”

“We will suffer critical damage if it catches up. Requesting an effective countermeasure.”

“I’m trying!!”

He twisted around in her princess carry to change targets.

The IR blinding worked fine on the unaltered water striders.

Aine used one of their thin legs as a landmark to perform a hairpin turn at more than four times the speed of a sports aircraft. Karuta focused on his modified military flashlight while she did so. On the way past the water strider, he shined the powerful IR on its lenses to trigger a malfunction.

The ordinary(?) water strider crashed into the approaching guided weapon, causing a large explosion. Instead of orange flames from normal powder or fuel, it was a bluish-white electric explosion similar to welding or lightning.

“What custom version are they making now!?”

“None, it would seem. Those two appear to have been utterly obliterated.”

And they could not afford to be preoccupied with an enemy they had already defeated. Aine was still flying faster than a fighter craft less than a meter above the ocean’s surface. And to reiterate, 30km was nothing to a Crystal Magician.

The ocean was no longer pitch black.

At some point, their surroundings had grown orange. They were out at sea, yet a crimson fire was burning all around them. That sticky light came from the oil fire started when the crude oil on the ocean’s surface had ignited. There were no stars to be seen. The view above reflected the orange light, so the black up there was smoke, not the dark night sky.

Aine would have charged straight on in if it was only her, but because she was carrying Karuta in her arms, she crossed the burning ocean by weaving through the gaps that had ended up with less crude oil.

She spoke with a voice even more coldly inhuman than a car navigation system.

“Visual confirmation of the Second Grimnoah academy ship.”

“Kh.”

“If we can see it, then we are in the optical weapon’s line of fire. Watch out for the anti-air lasers.”

He could see a faint glow up above the giant ship’s roof.

That green light was the capacitors extending back on either side of the lion that ruled the skies. Light was gathering within those parts that resembled a flying fish’s pectoral fins and the lion opened its jaws. The green light glared down at them from deep within its throat.

The fearsome attack tore through the air, but Aine did not flip around to try to escape it. She only shifted about 70cm to the right to avoid the brutal green laser with as little movement as possible before crashing through one of the ship’s more than a thousand windows.

The countless Threats of various sizes crawling along the ship’s exterior like armor were thrown away from where she hit.

### 105. Part 2

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

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

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

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

Meanwhile, the redheaded buns Secretary whispered in her ear.

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

“Why? My feet are not swollen yet.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I imagine so.”

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

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

“But why?”

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

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

Kyouka sighed before answering.

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

“Eh?”

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

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

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

“…”

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

“Well…”

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

Letnahe looked up with a gasp.

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

“Your left hand”

Her tone was innocent and thus precise.

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

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

Kyouka had mentioned earlier that it was an old model.

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

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

Yet she had made it all work.

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

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

There had been some hints scattered around.

For example, her age.

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

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

Not to mention how she placed such emphasis on breathing.

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

The President could deduce some things from all that.

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

“Stop.”

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

“Please stop!!”

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

The demon stated her conclusion to the other demon.

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

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

“You wanted to stop it from the beginning.”

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

Only Kyouka’s words filled the room.

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

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

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

The President sighed softly.

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

“…”

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

“How…”

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

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

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

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

She fell silent.

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

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

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

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

Kyouka placed a hand on her cheek.

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

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

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

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

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

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

She grabbed the headset from some control equipment.

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

The hands lowered from her face.

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

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

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

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

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

But Kyouka shook her head.

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

“Why not!?”

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

The soldier squeezed her eyes shut behind her glasses.

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

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

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

A quiet jangling sound came from her neck.

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

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

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

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

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

The two wicked women shook hands.

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

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

### 106. Part 2

The roof had broken and artificial rain poured down on the trashed gym. The waxed flooring was probably permanently ruined. Bent steel beams from the ceiling and the flipped-over and unmoving tadpole bodies littered the floor. Those gruesome corpses all belonged to students who had been lazily taking a class and finding their own ways to pass the time.

This was a hellish scene for the humans and the Threat.

The boy bit his lip.

He had failed to claim the side of justice, but the deadly battle was not over yet. If he did not fight and win, he would lose something he valued more than his own life.

He was not going to give up again. He knew he was wrong and he knew no outcome here would lead to a bright future, but Utagai Karuta faced and pointed at the 3m armored warrior that shined a reddish purple.

His battered face looked pale in the chilly rain.

He almost felt like he was following the same path as the Problem Solvers who had come to the Crystal Magicians and gotten killed for it.

“Aine.”

But if it would protect Crystal Girl Aine by his side, he was willing to become a devil here.

“We will win this. Even if it’s wrong.”

The wind roared as the Warrior Doll charged toward him.

There was an absolute gap between them. The Threat instantly closed the distance between them with artillery-like speed and attacked with its sword’s fearsome edge. Karuta could not stop that with his flashlight and having Aine stop it with her sword would only let the “wall of explosive wind” from the plasma jet hit her.

They could not afford to touch it.

But this opponent made that easier said than done.

The Warrior Doll’s sword had a white plasma jet running along its blade, so it could probably slice through a pillar of depleted uranium alloy as thick around as Karuta’s torso like it was made of gelatin or margarine.

A human would die instantly whether they defended or not.

When that armored warrior could use bursts of green light to pull off ultra-high-speed combat, falling back to keep your distance and predicting the path of the blade to avoid it were both unrealistic. Aine’s endurance was an unknown factor, so she could easily shatter from the very next explosion for all he knew.

The reddish-purple armored warrior roared and immediately swung down its long katana at full strength. That weapon incorporated a police baton and handcuffs as symbols of justice and it roasted the surrounding air to produce a terrifyingly sharp edge.

It was over.

And yet…

“Come to me, Aine!!”

For some reason, the blast of wind as powerful as a speeding subway train passed by a mere meter to Karuta’s side. If he had not pulled the crystal girl close with his empty hand, she would have been sliced through.

“Karuta!?” shouted Marika from somewhere.

He and Aine had dodged to the side, but that did not seem like it should have been enough to survive.

The deadly armor could not break the sound barrier if they did not give it enough distance for a “running start”, but it could still silently tear through the wind at subsonic speeds, putting it at the same level as an assassin’s bullet.

Even the greatest expert should have been helplessly pulverized.

Yet the boy had survived.

He held a modified military flashlight. It was hard and heavy enough to use as a police baton, but that was all it could do. And yet it had made the difference between life and death.

“You’re a Threat with red glowing eyes.”

He was not expecting an answer. In fact, he doubted his words even got through to this adversary.

Still, he smiled and waved the flashlight to show it off.

This was not a street fight between delinquents, so why bother glaring at each other from close range? Karuta had faced the Warrior Doll’s red eyes from head on so he could check on this.

He knew that his ability to spit out things like this meant he had fully abandoned justice. He swallowed the bitterness and spoke with the look of a minor villain driven into a corner.

“That means you rely on sight just like the tadpoles and wharf roaches. So this infrared interference will work on you!!”

There was a crackling as if from a bug zapper.

The Threat did not pull back the sword it had swung down.

The excessive amount of energy could work against it at times. The floating rubble provided advance warning of a major attack.

“Aine!!”

This time, the crystal girl pulled the boy toward her. They spun around together to dive behind the remains of a devoured tadpole.

The small rubble around them continued to float and a pure white explosion erupted from the sword longer than the Warrior Doll was tall. Even behind cover, Karuta felt a slight pain running through him like he had a sunburn. A direct hit from that firepower would have burned all of his skin and fused his melted uniform to it with just the emitted heat.

He put on the fierce but pathetic smile of the routed soldier focused only on survival.

That was two attacks survived. He should have died the instant the blade began to move. With first the blade and then the shockwave, he was in fact surviving the 3m giant’s supposedly surefire attacks.

It felt a lot like bullfighting.

He had less speed, power, and weight, but he could still survive by accurately obstructing his opponent and causing it to miss. He would be killed instantly if he screwed up and let that opponent charge him, but his side still had a chance to stick it with their sword in the instant they crossed paths.

The puny human had a chance to challenge a much more powerful monster. The Threat could customize themselves through cannibalism, but if the original lion and the absorbed tadpole had both relied on sight, it gained nothing new. That would not give it new senses that used microwaves or ultrasound.

“You were messing with the Threat’s eyes using your laser unit, right?”

“You only just now noticed? But I cannot switch modes quickly enough for the Warrior Doll. It will approach and cut me down while I am aiming the laser.”

That meant they could not attempt a feint where they occasionally swapped roles. Similarly, he did not have time to bring Aine back into his body to heal her wounds.

They would have to do this as is.

“Aine, leave the assistance to me. Just go at it with everything you’ve got!”

“I am not sure what to say when you are praising your own specs.”

She spun around and rushed out from behind cover to slice at the reddish-purple armored warrior with the intensity of a tornado. The Warrior Doll swung its long sword diagonally. The two swords clashed and Karuta felt a squeezing at his heart while clutching his flashlight behind cover.

The plasma jet did not explode and the armored warrior immediately raised its sword in a defensive pose. Only after a second strike from the crystal sword hit it from the right did the light began to expand again.

(Did it intentionally alter its previous timing!?)

“Hide, Aine!!” shouted Karuta while sending out IR with his flashlight.

Aine rolled back. There was an explosion, but she had managed to find cover behind a severed tadpole leg lying on the floor. Karuta nearly had his lungs scorched because he had been leaning out from behind cover.

(One at a time, huh?)

“Marika, help us out!”

He was answered by a sharp light attacking the Warrior Doll from the side. Marika cut through the air with her rapier device in hand, dropped down just barely inside the massive sword’s range, planted her feet on the wet floor, and sharply shoved her body in even closer.

The extreme maneuver bringing her from long to close range was a lot like a horizontal lightning strike.

But the dull sound that followed came from Marika. The tonfa-like protrusion of the armored warrior’s sword guard crashed into her crystal armor and slammed her down to the wet floor.

“Gah!!”

Tayori and Imi apparently considered joining the fight after seeing their classmate rolling along the floor, but they came to a stop after seeing the rubble around the armored warrior unnaturally float up. That ionocraft effect showed a fearsome amount of energy was gathering within the Threat. Tayori had her hands full simply restraining terrified Imi.

“S-sorry, Karuta.”

“That’s fine.”

That was not just a polite response. As he moved toward the armored warrior from the side, he said one thing more without moving his lips or looking toward collapsed Marika.

“ That was all according to plan .”

“…?”

It had all been for the dry crinkling sound he heard now. Any communications using their Crystal Blossoms or phones could be intercepted by the slate pencil urchin and holding a secret conversation right in front of the armored warrior would be the height of folly.

The girl behind him had unfolded a small piece of paper and would now have read the short message it contained:

“Burn their surfaces to weld them together, or continually scorch the air to create suction from the pressure difference.”

Yes, there were plenty more Threats inside and outside Second Grimnoah. After making this much of a commotion, they would have to deal with them as well.

Marika’s Crystal Magic would be able to pull off one or the other methods written on that memo.

Also, none of the Threats except the Warrior Doll had broken through the ship’s walls or doors. Not even the Gestalt. If she fired her powerful sniping laser on the Threats packed into the hallway, she would scorch the air in the small gaps between them and cause a suction effect. That would not stop them forever, but it would help.

The armored warrior’s red eyes followed Marika as she nodded and moved behind a tadpole, but Karuta moved in between. He put on a filthy smile and forced out his voice.

“Do you really have time for distractions, Warrior Doll? Is your anger so weak you can set it aside for other things?”

He held his modified military flashlight and Aine wielded her crystal sword by his side.

He was essentially an amateur mimicking the pros and he was facing an opponent ten thousand times more frightening than a pro bullfighter ever had, but he had still claimed the right to challenge the Warrior Doll.

He took a deep breath.

He gathered his resolve and stepped out from behind the tadpole.

His opponent did not understand his words and no signal was needed.

This time, they were on equal footing.

They glared at each other and then charged straight toward each other.

The strongest human and the strongest Threat bet everything on this.

### 107. Part 3

Osaka’s floating general airport was located 30km to the south and Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was humming as she operated the equipment in the control tower there. The number of buttons and dials there reached the quadruple digits and even licensed professionals had trouble dealing with it all, but Kyouka managed it more casually than searching for videos on a phone or tablet.

“Will that actually tell you anything?” asked Marika in exasperation.

“A number of things. For example, that the stubborn coalition force is preparing a nuclear launch.”

Marika did a shocked double take, but Kyouka did not look back her way. She only waved a headset in one hand.

“Care to take a listen? They’re talking about filling a landing ship with armored trucks and spacesuits for those shut-ins, about their remaining supply of iodine chemical, and about how a big old missile would be too noticeable and get shot down by a laser so they want to drag a field gun near the city and fire a nuclear warhead into the Port of Kobe from close range. What ever happened to the three non-nuclear principles, I wonder? Besides, thinking nukes will solve all the world’s problems is such an old way of thinking. Maybe those military officials are still upset they never got to fire a single one during the Cold War, so they’re hoping to finally do so before they retire.”

“Wh-wh-what coalition force?”

“All the usual suspects – America, China, Russia, France, and the UK – but India and Australia have decided to join in the fun this time. That’s strange, though. Since when does Australia have nukes? Sigh, I suppose this means the Southern Hemisphere has finally entered the age of nuclear weapons.”

Marika’s mouth flapped wordlessly because Karuta and the others would be entering the Port of Kobe right about now.

The President laughed without even looking back.

“I am making some adjustments to ensure they don’t interfere, so there is nothing to worry about. You focus on your job, Marika-san.”

“Um, Miss President? I assume you’re aware of this, but…”

“Yes?”

“That’s the smile of someone powerful hoping to receive something in return. But I don’t know what has you worried or what you’re hoping to get me to say. Not without you telling me first.”

Kyouka chose to remain silent.

She gave no answer and did not look back.

Eventually the President once more spoke without showing her honest side even to that fellow avenger.

“Don’t worry.”

“…”

“I won’t let the grownups have their way. The first ship may have been built for their purposes, but not the second one. We reclaimed that Crystal Magic academy for our own selfish reasons, so it will be us who settle things here. I will not allow the grownups to barge in and interfere when they don’t really care about any of this – it’s all just a job for them.”

“Fine, whatever works,” was all Marika said.

It was already known that the scope of what Marika would protect was extremely narrow. If something would help her protect what she cared about, she would go along with it no matter how dangerous it might be. Her stance was exceedingly simple in such things.

The curly twintails girl sighed too quietly for the President to hear.

(I almost wish she wasn’t someone I wanted to protect.)

Also, she did not have time to stand around in the airport control tower all day.

Karuta had gone to the front line and Kyouka had found something to do. And as always, Aine would put the boy’s orders first.

In the same way, Amaashi Marika had her own job to do.

She stretched out the equipment that had been supplied to her and gave it an extremely skeptical look.

“Can I really put this tight thing on by myself?”

“I have heard that the banned shark skin racing swimsuits required the help of someone else to put on. Eh heh heh. Marika, would you like some help getting changed?”

### 108. Part 3

“Please compile all of your data related to this operation. And organize it so even I can understand it. Try to avoid hiding the truth below a deluge of data, will you?”

As soon as she was done with her greeting to Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka, the silver-haired brown-skinned soldier named Letnahe Kurent made that rude demand.

And with that said, the messenger from the coalition force surrounding them out at sea promptly left the control tower.

Water poured down in a shower.

But this was not the artificial rain pounding on the reinforced glass from the outside. It came from the shower room installed in the airport’s personnel standby area.

“Japan has such terrible air and it’s so humid,” Letnahe had said. “So please let me do something about my sticky hair and skin before I have to use my head.”

That was her rationale.

(She forces her claims onto you without creating any chance for a conversation, she lets her own feelings dictate the schedule, and she even disses your country. …I imagine this is a stereotypical test to see if Grimnoah will obey the grownups’ rules or if we will give into anger and do our own thing.)

This special envoy had been sent by the coalition force.

She was from the Indian military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. Specifically, from the navy.

But no matter how much her titles complicated matters, Omotesandou Kyouka was never going to forget what Natlena Blast had said.

When the Problem Solvers had been destroyed and her sister Anastasia had died, someone had approached that 12-year-old girl and given her information she should not have had to set her up as an avenger.

And the name Natlena had given was…

(How far does it go?)

The President thought to herself while her long black hair fluttered behind her.

(Is the Indian military behind it? Is the coalition force behind it? Or is there some even higher organization that’s bossing the coalition force around? My first task is to determine the scale of the problem.)

“Now, then.”

Her wheelchair’s wheels creaked as she moved to the dressing and laundry room next to the shower room. The faintly sweet aroma may have been from the shampoo or conditioner being used in the shower room. The shower room must have been poorly sealed because it felt humid in the adjacent room. The President was of course not doing some laundry in this downtime. She was interested in the white uniform that Letnahe had removed and folded up.

The uniform and rank insignia were valuable sources of information. She could learn something from the stitching or fabric alone.

(Hm, this does appear to be a legitimate Indian Navy uniform. And her salute was accurate too. I doubt this is a costume meant to place the blame on the Indian military.)

It was a lot like a crossword puzzle. Each new piece of information acquired provided a hint to the next piece. But if you started on false assumptions, you would stray further and further from the truth.

The President continued her analysis like she was performing an autopsy or crime scene investigation.

(Her underwear is a New York brand…but not necessarily because she travels the world a lot. She may have just ordered it online. But this is still a surprise. The only bulletproofing she uses is thin special fibers – no plates at all. Was she more worried about looking good for the cameras than about getting shot while on the front line of a clash between the real Threat and the world’s strongest magicians? Or did she assume wearing a bulletproof jacket would not actually save her?)

Kyouka unfolded and searched through every item in the basket, but she could not find any ID, any firearms, or any communication devices such as a phone or tablet.

(Hm? But I thought she had something on her left wrist.)

“You aren’t going to find anything in there,” said the sensual silhouette in the frosted glass.

The President sighed.

“You’re the type to pack any valuables in a plastic bag to take them in the bath with you, are you?”

“A standard precaution.”

The ring she had been wearing was also nowhere to be found. That suggested she valued her privacy instead of just being a workaholic.

Kyouka gave up on this tactic, refolded the clothing, and returned it to the basket.

“You brought an axe with you?” she asked.

“Oh? You can tell without actually seeing it?”

“The shape of the leather case is fairly unique. The handle is too close to the end to be a collapsible shovel.”

“Carrying a weapon is convenient and I personally find this more useful than a survival knife. I left behind my gun out of respect for this country’s rules.”

Axes and knives also violated the country’s rules, but there was no point in telling that to a professional soldier. This and the shower were probably part of the test to see how far she could push the girl until she responded with anger.

Kyouka sighed.

“What message does the coalition have for us?”

The frosted glass door slid open.

The sweet-smelling steam grew thicker.

Letnahe stepped into the dressing room with a towel lazily wrapped around her. Her small plastic bag of valuables was held in her mouth by a string while she used both hands to quickly do up her wet hair.

Her brown left wrist wore a mobile watch that synced with a phone.

But it was too soon to assume she was righthanded. That kind of assumption could lead to a critical mistake at some crucial moment later on.

She was wearing her glasses, so she may have cautiously wanted to keep all her senses sharp even in the shower.

Once her wet hair was out of the way, the messenger grabbed the plastic bag in her hand to free up her mouth. Then she dropped a bombshell.

“Our coalition force has no intention of interfering in your mission here.”

“I highly doubt you came here just to tell us that.”

“But if we determine you are unable to continue your mission, we will take over. I assume you will understand the general situation if I tell you we are preparing a Pinaka III for use.”

“…”

That was an endless cruising nuclear torpedo deployed by the Indian Space Force that had been separated from the other three branches of their military.

Once it was launched into the ocean by a ship or submarine, the undetectable weapon would circle the earth as many times as needed. It was powered by the 30 low-orbit power generation satellites surrounding the earth, so it would surface just long enough to receive microwave power, allowing it to continue operating indefinitely. Of course, all 30 of the satellites surrounding the entire world would send down a charge every single time, so it was nearly impossible to search out the torpedo’s location based on the area of sea receiving the microwaves.

As long as it remained deep below the ocean surface, there was no fear of it being intercepted with anti-air lasers.

And after preparing a weapon as bizarre as that, no one was going to waste it by filling its warhead full of ordinary explosives. While messing with the radio in the control tower, Kyouka had learned that a landing craft out at sea was full of hazmat suits and chemical protection vehicles.

“The Pinaka III’s payload is extraordinarily large for a torpedo,” said Kyouka. “If I am not mistaken, filling it with as large a hydrogen bomb as would fit would reach 140 megatons. I recall the Indian Space Force putting together this ridiculous plan just so they could break the record set by the former Soviet Union. And the test detonation was done deep below the Pokhran desert.”

“You are a knowledgeable girl. But if a bomb that large were actually detonated on the surface, it would trigger a new ice age. To avoid that, it will only scatter 20 smaller nuclear warheads once arriving in the target area of sea. Each one will only be around 400 kilotons to ensure a minimal effect on the environment.”

“You’re sending in a strategic nuclear weapon that’s direct heat rays and blast would cover a radius of 14km and that’s radioactive contamination would cover the entirety of Japan and also thinly spread out across the entire planet’s stratosphere?”

“I said minimal, not zero.”

A Crystal Magician could recover from a powerful nuclear attack as long as they did not suffer an immediately lethal wound. Even if their skin blistered, their flesh tore from their bones, and their bones broke, they would return to normal in 30 seconds. So not even the direct shockwave and heat would necessarily mean immediate death.

But the real danger was the radioactive material known as fallout. Internal exposure was especially difficult to remove and it might repeatedly trigger the regeneration, preventing the Crystal Magician from moving. Crystal Magicians had to be careful with both poisons and medicines and radioactive materials were like an extreme version of that.

Letnahe brushed up her silver bangs that were dripping with water.

“Thus, we would like a copy of Grimnoah’s plan. That way we can monitor the situation and know exactly when your plan has failed so we can launch a weapon that is guaranteed to hit.”

(Karuta-kun began this counterattack on his own, so I have no way of knowing the details myself.)

“And if I refuse?”

“Then we will have to make our own determination.”

The President asked a daring question without revealing her ignorance of their plan, but Letnahe Kurent was not daunted. She might as well have been following a conversational flowchart she had set up in advance.

“We might end up launching the Pinaka III when you still have a chance of succeeding, but if that is what you would prefer.”

“I see.”

“This is in your best interest.”

Kyouka’s wheelchair creaked quietly, but not because she had backed away. The woman in only a towel had leaned forward and placed her hands on the armrests.

She leaned over the girl in order to take the initiative here.

“Preventing a misinformed decision on our part would eliminate some excess risk from your already risky mission. So I would like to know your general schedule along with an outline of your plan. Refusing puts your students, the Kansai region, and perhaps the entire Japanese Archipelago at risk of nuclear contamination.”

Omotesandou Kyouka gave a snort of laughter.

“What happened to respecting Japan’s rules?”

“I would prefer not to break this country’s three non-nuclear principles, so please help me avoid that by cooperating.”

“Don’t act like you aren’t itching to launch that thing.”

(Basically, she wants to take control of the world back from the children while also stealing our Crystal Magic tech that has become the world’s new image of the strongest. Our plan will of course use Crystal Magic, so you need to understand how it works to determine whether or not it would work.)

Humans played as dirty as ever even with the Threat preparing to attack them. Someone always stepped forward to use the situation to their advantage.

And if Kyouka went with the easy answer of “I will not give in to threats”, Letnahe and the coalition probably would launch the nuclear weapon. Their method of defeating the Threat was certainly a heroic thing and they probably felt like they could expose Crystal Magicians to any amount of violence because they were the world’s strongest. Just like a small child busy pretending to be a superhero would feel no guilt about hitting their father who was playing the villain.

To stand at the peak was to be an oddity.

No one would worry about whoever had been designated strongest. Just like no one had ever questioned how the Problem Solvers were made to fight the Threat back when they had been the strongest. And if someone did jump the gun and launch that nuclear torpedo early, the only ones injured in the blast would be Karuta and the others fighting on the front line.

Kyouka decided to correct the fundamental mistake here.

“You can take command if you want, but are you prepared to take responsibility as well?”

“We will have the legal basis for it soon enough. Our coalition is the will of the world itself.”

“Not what I meant,” whispered Kyouka in a voice that knew how to derive a sadistic pleasure from tormenting others with her words. “Your decision – or the coalition’s decision – is based on the assumption that you can defeat the real Threat with that nuclear weapon. But what if you use that nuke and spread radiation everywhere, but the Threat shrugs it off? You’d be in a real bind then, wouldn’t you?”

“…”

“Nuclear explosions are flashy, so you can’t exactly pretend it didn’t happen once it fails.”

Everyone knew Grimnoah did not have nuclear weapons and there was zero chance of some unrelated nuclear war starting right now.

The coalition force would be unable to pin responsibility for the nuclear explosion on anyone else.

“And if that happens, we will become more than just the world’s strongest. We would become victims as well, wouldn’t we? We could have defeated the Threat if we had been allowed to fight, but the grownups intervened and screwed it all up. Try telling people their city will be the next one to go because of that and I feel like you will have a hard time convincing the world to do much of anything you want. There would be riots around the world and you could never again leave your dark and musty shelters.”

In other words, the coalition’s attack had to be successful.

Nukes were the ultimate bargaining chip. They could force through most any demand. But if they fired one and it failed to defeat the Threat, they would lose everything. They would lose face, lose trust, and lose influence. Later historians would question their sanity.

“It’s all or nothing,” said Kyouka with a pause between each word. She smiled in a poisonous yet alluring way. “Do your higher ups really want to make such a risky gamble? You really think the top brass with more wealth and political power than they know what to do with would want that? Gambles are made by those who have no future if they lose. We aren’t talking about rich shoplifters who do it for the thrill – those grownups have their every desire fulfilled to the point of boredom, so I seriously doubt they would choose to take on such a risk now.”

“Well…”

The towel fell away.

Almost like Kyouka’s clever logic had stripped her bare.

But even with all her brown skin exposed, Letnahe did not remove her hands from the wheelchair’s armrests.

This was not enough for her to back down.

She carried an even greater weight as messenger. If she focused on her personal feelings and flinched here, people would doubt the power of the coalition’s will.

“All of that is based on the assumption that the nuclear attack would fail to defeat the Threat. We are merely exchanging empty arguments based on optimistic and pessimistic assumptions. Buying time like that will not cause the coalition to change its mind. I guarantee you that.”

“…”

“The Pinaka III will be launched if you do nothing. So put away those baseless fantasies and make a decision based on real data.”

“What if I told you I have real and very specific data backing up my claim?”

That smooth response caused Letnahe to gasp momentarily.

The talk of a nuclear attack had come as a surprise, so Kyouka would not have had time to put together a flowchart and practice this argument with a fellow student. So how had she managed to get the better of Letnahe Kurent’s perfect preparations?

The girl was like a spider tangling its prey in invisible threads.

“Needless to say, Crystal Magic is the world’s strongest combat technology. That is the age we live in, after all. Those strongest magicians are working together as they fight on the front line, yet we have not received a single report of anyone destroying a Threat. As far as I know, the only success was Karuta-kun causing two of them to destroy each other out at sea.”

“…”

“The real Threat is very different from the decoys. …If I am correct, this Threat would survive a nuclear attack. They are made to. How else could they be a true threat to humanity?”

### 109. Part 3

“Keep going, keep going! This way!”

The silver iodide artificial rain had soaked up the oil fire’s smoke, creating a truly filthy downpour that plastered Sophia Firenze’s flaxen hair to her cheek. She was looking up into the night sky and waving her hands around. Even as an adult, she had a look of puppy-like energy on her face.

It was unclear how much it would draw the enemy fire away from the city, but Natlena Blast and the other students were accurately landing at the floating general airport. They took an almost vertical descent more like a helicopter or VTOL craft than a passenger plane that traveled down a long runway.

The woman in a soaked suit grinned (while entirely unaware that her unexpectedly boldly-colored underwear was showing through her white blouse).

“Good work, everyone. You can get a bath or change of clothes in the staff lobby. We also have a hot meal ready for you. Heh heh! If you want some food, please visit the café lounge.”

Natlena sighed at the mention of fresh clothes. She would be heading back out and getting soaked all over again after a short break, but dry clothes would still make her feel better.

She heard Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke chatting as they landed on the artificial float after her.

“Tch. What was Karuta talking about when he called her a puppy!? All she does is lecture you at length no matter what you do. If anything, she’s a grumpy cat. The kind that claws up your walls and furniture!”

“M-maybe it means she only opens up with Utagai-kun. Damn, I’m jealous.”

“Senpais?” said Natlena while slowly turning around, causing the high school boys to jump and scatter. They were the perfect example of disappointing boys. Natlena sighed at how her ideal view of older boys was crumbling before her eyes.

(Karuta-senpai must have really been working hard to look like a responsible adult.)

At any rate, she entered the hidden space through a small staff-only entrance and accepted a spare uniform and underwear. She was sorely tempted when she saw the sign on the wall for the shower room, but she shook her head. She was going to head out again soon anyway, so she wanted to avoid warming up too much before heading back out into the chilly rain. She instead used the locker room to strip off her clothes and dry her hair and body with a towel.

She spread out the provided underwear between her two hands.

“Ugh, this is a bolder color than I expected.”

Whose taste was this? She would have preferred a more subdued color since she was going to get soaked in the rain and they had not provided another thick sports innerwear. Not that she would have wanted some beige granny panties either.

The inability to intuitively choose something in between those two extremes suggested these had been chosen by Sophia (who was wearing something surprisingly bold). Natlena quickly got dressed in the new clothes, placed her wet clothes in a small plastic container, attached a sticker with her class and name written on it, and handed that to the student on laundry duty.

(Well, I didn’t choose this underwear, so it won’t be my secret showing if it shows through. And I have my perfect band-aid defense just in case.)

Oblivious to her own unusual views on the subject, she walked to the café lounge where she was met with the smell of spices. She tilted her damp-haired head and realized she had forgotten to use a dryer.

“I wonder what they’re feeding everyone. Curry rice???”

“Oh, Jane -san! Over here!!”

The female teacher hopped up and down and ran over with some rice balls and sandwiches without Natlena asking for anything at all. Jane Ignition was the false name she had been given back when she infiltrated Second Grimnoah for revenge, but she did not have much of an attachment to it now. She simply had not had a chance to tell the teacher what her real name was, so she was a little unsure what to do now.

Sophia Firenze smiled in a perfectly puppyish way.

“Here, have some food. You should start with something light, but if you want something more, we have seafood curry, cabbage rolls, and chukadon.”

That menu was awfully international, or a jumbled mess really. Natlena wondered how they had settled on that, but then she realized they were borrowing the ingredients available at the airport’s cafes and restaurants. The unnecessarily fancy and international selection meant there was probably a buffet somewhere in the airport.

“I recommend the tonkotsu ramen! They had a lot of souvenir packages in stock and the one I tried was just like the real deal! How exciting!!”

Hadn’t this teacher been fixated on some expensive cup noodles from a famous Japanese restaurant when they were at the Crystal Beach? Not getting any there must have caused her desire gauge to fill up even more here.

“Um, why would a Japanese souvenir shop sell tonkotsu ramen which is the same in every part of the country? Not to mention those mysterious shortbread cookies.”

“I don’t know.”

The grownup seemed legitimately puzzled. Then again, Sophia was not Japanese, so why would she know so much about Japan? Natlena was better off asking someone like Utagai Karuta about this mystery similar to how Tokyo’s train station bentos sold better than those at any other station around the country.

Natlena took a packaged sandwich and then sat in one of the one-person sofas lined up alongside the reinforced glass windows. “Sophia-sensei!” called some girls in the distance, so the tight skirt teacher rushed over to them. She was apparently fairly popular.

Natlena looked down at the clear box sitting in her lap.

She had expected ham or egg since Sophia had called it “light”, but she found it to be quite thick when she picked it up. It was a club sandwich, but it had an excessive amount of chicken. It was so greasy she could barely taste the spices.

(Does she think girls need to eat a lot to grow up?)

Natlena felt like Sophia Firenze and Amaashi Marika would get along. Meanwhile, she grabbed one triangular sandwich slice in both hands, took a small bite from a corner, and swallowed it. She realized she had forgotten to get a drink, but she did not feel like waiting in line now.

She finished off the three sandwich slices even though it grew difficult toward the end.

“Don’t let your body cool down! Focus on your breathing while resting to make sure your body is idling on the inside. Mobile watches are great for objectively measuring your metabolism, but don’t let the numbers control you!!”

She could hear overbearing and muscular Kiyosawa Hadome’s voice.

He was causing a scene a short distance away. The massage chairs and energy drinks were apparently growing popular, but Natlena had no desire to join the crowds of people. She knew she had a habit of seeking out peace and quiet at times like this.

Just like her sister Anastasia had.

“…”

But then…

“Here.”

Someone spoke to her from the side and tossed her something. She caught it in a hand to find it was a U-shaped pillow.

Yamane Deiri waved at her.

“We’re heading out again after a short break. We’ve got a long way to go, so get some sleep while you can.”

“Um, is that really best?”

“This is a marathon, not a sprint. And if you let your guard down at any point, the anti-air lasers will get you, so don’t do anything that will hurt your focus later. Even 10 or 15 minutes of sleep can make a lot of difference. I know that from experience, so listen to your upperclassman here.”

“O-okay.”

“Because napping in class gives you all the energy you need to make the most of your lunch break! Ah ha ha!!”

Deiri left while laughing.

She felt so stupid for thinking highly of that older boy for even a moment. But it was true she had nothing to do now that she was done changing and eating. Crystal Magic did not require refueling or resupplying and no maintenance or inspections were necessary.

(10 or 15 minutes, hm?)

The green beams of light continued to occasionally tear through the darkness of the sky visible through the reinforced glass with rain pounding against it. Other students were drawing the anti-air laser fire. They were operating in shifts, but she still felt bad relaxing while they were out there doing that. Same with Marika’s group who had gone silent after leaving for Second Grimnoah and with Karuta and Aine who had gone to save those three. They were all fighting with their lives on the line, yet here she was.

On the other hand, getting some rest was part of her job.

And fretting here would accomplish nothing. She told herself that sleeping would be better than staying awake doing nothing, so she placed the U-shaped pillow behind her neck, folded her hands in front of her stomach, and then leaned back in the sofa.

She shut her eyes.

Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke looked quietly down at 12-year-old Natlena Blast as she slept soundly in her large seat.

“Uhh, Karuta-senpai…zzz…”

The two boys smiled bitterly and placed a blanket over her.

They were heading back out soon, but they decided to leave her be.

“She’s been working way too hard for a little brat,” said Deiri as he turned around.

“H-high schoolers like us are supposed to protect the middle schoolers. Especially the girls.”

“And we’ve definitely gotta ask Karuta about that dream of hers when he gets back.”

“He’d better tell us his trick to winning middle school hearts!!”

They were the decoys who could never deliver a finishing blow themselves but were also constantly at risk. Some might see that as drawing the short straw, but they looked perfectly satisfied.

Deiri spun one arm around and cracked his neck with a wild smile on his lips.

“Okay, let’s get Round 2 started to protect our pal out there.”

“R-right. We’ve gotta show off how cool high schoolers are and let those middle schoolers know there’s a single upperclassman out there waiting for them.”

### 110. Part 3

“The Indian Space Force can only input the nuclear launch codes after reaching an ‘independent determination’ that Grimnoah has lost to the Threat. Once that happens, everyone dies. Including my family and the first love you never could forget.” Omotesandou Kyouka reviewed the situation in the floating general airport’s control tower. “They want to launch that nuke no matter what, but they still need it to make some minimal level of sense. So if they lose their ability to gather information, they will be unable to reach a determination and their plan grinds to a halt.”

“How exactly do we do that?” asked the redheaded buns Secretary.

Kyouka softly sighed.

“We can disguise it as military satellite trouble. Figure out how many satellites are passing by directly overhead and jam them. Oh, but make sure it looks like the Threat did it. We saw some sea urchins covered in antennas, remember? You can’t let anyone know the jamming signal is coming from this control tower.”

Letnahe Kurent sighed when she heard that.

They had hit their limit.

She glanced down at her left hand. The ring and watch there were both important to her and she could not betray either one.

(I doubt the official list of satellites is all of them. There will be countless unregistered ones. Even the 30 generator satellites used to power the Pinaka III are officially registered as civilian communication satellites.)

She doubted getting Grimnoah’s plan from Omotesandou Kyouka and correcting its mistakes would be enough to stop the nuclear attack.

The silver-haired and brown-skinned soldier slipped out of the control tower, descended the crude stairs, and pulled out her phone. It was a military model not available in the general marketplace, but she attached another device she pulled from the hem of her tight skirt. She attached it to a completely separate radio with a cable.

Needless to say, she was a member of the Indian Navy.

But allowing something that would benefit the Indian military was meaningless if it also brought great chaos to international society as a whole. Yes, making a nuclear attack on the Threat was acceptable, but she could not let them set a precedent that it was acceptable to make a nuclear attack on other humans just because it accomplished some other goal. Do that and India would be unable to criticize others for aiming nuclear weapons at them.

Someone who killed a person that someone else cared deeply for would earn hatred and mistrust from all the other people who did not want to lose their loved ones. She could not allow death to become an accepted outcome.

So.

(Hadome-kun. Honey!!)

Since two faces came to mind in this crisis, she could not deny her infidelity, but this was the only way she knew how to live. She clicked her tongue and opened the metal door. She pressed her back against the concrete wall while the artificial rain poured down. She manually dialed a memorized number into the phone that was unnaturally connected to a radio.

At this point, she donned a different mask. There was no way to stop the nuclear attack from within the Indian military’s chain of command, so she would have to restrain them with an even greater power.

“…”

She held the electronic device to her ear and waited as it rang five times. She knew the process that would play out. She would be connected to a small online shopping company no one had ever heard of, but by ignoring the voice instructions and entering a secret code, she would reach the true rulers of the world.

However.

The automated female voice did not stop even after she entered the number with her brown finger.

She was not connected to them.

“Your selection could not be found. Please try again from the beginning.”

There was no trying it again.

That had been a secret message from a list she had been given in advance. It meant the following:

This call is being intercepted. Immediately destroy this device and go undercover. We will send you a new method of contacting us wherever you might be.

She heard a slight metallic creaking, so she slowly turned around and then grimaced.

“How?”

“Using the elevator. And yes, I know that isn’t what you meant.”

Omotesandou Kyouka was grinning up at her. She was toying with a mobile router in her empty hand. No, that was an illicit device known as a Quicksand that gathered and analyzed all forms of wireless signal.

The girl had used that to intercept Letnahe’s line to the deepest parts of the world.

(Quicksand.)

It was true that Letnahe’s group had great power. She knew other powers both large and small were trying to discover its identity. She knew that, but…

(That thing can pick up even the frequencies not detectable with the control tower equipment. And if it’s set up to automatically analyze all forms of encryption, then she must not have even needed my help. Was that entire request a bluff meant to draw me in, create a sense of camaraderie, and bring down my guard!?)

“Why now? Whoever I might work for, I assisted you!! I was trying to use their power to stop the Indian Space Force’s nuclear strike so I could save this country!” She was trembling. Not even a child lost at an amusement park would have looked so distraught. “If this fails, you lose everything. This is not the time to be working against each other!! I revealed my secret about Hadome-kun and you talked about your family. You had accepted a woman like me… Whoever we might work for in the end, we both knew we needed to work together right now. So why do this!?”

“ Why? ” The President was smiling and did not stop smiling. “ The greatest threat to us has always been your group since you can take everything from us at any time. What has the Threat actually done to us? Even the Indian military hasn’t done anything to us yet . But who was it that permanently scarred our lives while stifling a yawn and then tried to avoid responsibility for that? This could not be simpler. It is a matter of revenge. ”

“…”

Pure nothingness.

Letnahe’s mind went entirely blank. At the same time, tears welled up in her eyes and her mobile watch was beeping warnings related to her breathing and heartrate.

“Then all that about your family still being in Kyoto wasn’t even true?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” The President coolly brushed her long hair from her shoulder. “You propped up the world’s strongest magicians so you could control them and you used a 12-year-old girl’s grief for her sister to set up her as a convenient avenger, so do you really think I would let you know anything you could use against me? Why would I tell you anything other than a mix of truth and lies you can never untangle?”

There was not even hatred on her face.

“Thinking back, your stance was always full of unknowns.” Kyouka produced a metallic sound as she spoke, but it did not come from her wheelchair. “Letnahe Kurent, do you work for the Indian military, for the coalition force, or for the string-pullers toying with all those nations? You acted like you were willing to let a nuclear blast hit Grimnoah, but you were secretly working to fix our plans so the Indian Space Force could not act. You were constantly switching between the professional and the private, but why was that?”

It was a bow and arrow. A very mechanical Western type.

It was not quite enough to call a weapon, but wielding it as a weapon here made it very clear that Second Grimnoah’s Student Council President had no intention of making friends.

And who or what was she aiming it at?

“You made it look like we had gotten to know each other while you shared that embarrassing love story and you made it look like some camaraderie had formed after we recognized each other’s skill, but we both know that was never going to happen . From the moment I heard your name from Natlena Blast, I knew you were one of the utter trash who leaked secrets to a 12-year-old girl to set her up as an avenger and who hoped to drive the four world’s strongests to self-destruction by using that inexperienced avenger as a wedge between us. But Natlena-san failed as a Trojan horse and then you were sent in. That means you had made a second move. Before all that with Kiyomasa Hadome. So what exactly was it?”

Her desire to save Kiyosawa Hadome was convincing at first glance, but the string-pullers as a whole had to have a plan here as well. Letnahe had been trying to save Hadome without defying them. She had not cared what happened to Grimnoah or the Crystal Magicians.

“Your methods have remained the same from the beginning.”

Letnahe clenched her teeth, but the President continued nonetheless.

“You did not expect Natlena-san to succeed when you sent her in. You had hoped the four strongests would fight amongst ourselves over how to deal with her. So this nuclear strike is the same. Is it acceptable to use nukes against the Threat? You wanted to use that issue to create a rift between us that would reduce our power, didn’t you?”

“…”

“It’s easy enough to imagine Grimnoah coming to a temporary stop if you show off that nuclear card you might just play. Did you think we would prioritize a nuclear weapon above the Threat? If that worked, you would be able to place Crystal Magic within the framework of the military and let the adults control the fight against the Threat. …But that is not what happened. We continued to focus on the Threat and you found yourself unable to stop the nuclear strike that was meant to only be a show of force for the adults. Isn’t that right?”

The silver-haired brown-skinned soldier had stopped responding. Everything the girl said worked to tear down her stronghold. She needed to move one step ahead and prepare for the next move instead of figuring out how to recover from the last move. Like taking a shortcut to the side instead of chasing after a fleeing opponent from behind. The bespectacled soldier toyed with the switches in her mind. Her breathing, heartrate, blood pressure, brainwaves, and other values monitored by her mobile watch grew as placid as a subterranean lake.

She switched over to her killing mode.

“In other words, the entire scenario of Letnahe Kurent stopping the nuclear attack out of concern for Kiyosawa Hadome was in accordance with your organization’s wishes.”

Kyouka briefly fell silent there.

She slowly took a breath.

And then she continued.

“Your entire deal is manipulating the current era’s strongest to reap the benefits, so you can’t have all of the strongests wiped out by some silly mistake, can you? So you needed to stop the nuclear strike you had begun. Am I wrong?”

It was a decisive statement.

Letnahe focused even stronger on the switch inside herself.

“You and your organization prioritized your own safety over retaking Second Grimnoah or the Kobe region from the Threat.” The President’s accusation was calm but biting. “You wouldn’t die if we lost here. And you were more afraid that I would gain the clue I needed. So you let it happen. You were willing to accept a loss here.”

Just as all expression vanished from Letnahe Kurent’s face, a thin smile appeared on Omotesandou Kyouka’s.

It could all be summed up as despicable. The group that had taken command of everything to fight by their own rules had never intended on protecting anyone.

“So you were sent in to get close to us by making a show of understanding Japan’s climate and how Crystal Magic works and then intentionally showing off that watch to give a hint of your school days.”

That smile had to be a show of her resolve.

“You thought revealing that untold secret of yours would convince me you had no further secrets. All so you could get us to trip each other up instead of fighting the Threat. That way you could weaken the strongest just enough to tame us.”

That had been the plan from the beginning. Letnahe Kurent had wanted to grab the reins of the Crystal Magicians who were a thorn in her organization’s side because they were so hard to control. Even if people’s lives hung in the balance, she had been willing to make every effort to accomplish that.

“Come to think of it, you talked an awful lot about your illicit love, but I never saw you actually speak with Kiyosawa-sensei. Even though you ostensibly came here to rescue him from the Threat and the nuclear strike.” Kyouka smiled as she pointed this out. “And you expect me to believe you’re placing your private life above your professional duties?”

“…”

“Well, from the moment you realized you could use that old connection, you have proven yourself to be as wicked as me.”

The girl designated as Letnahe’s top priority target smiled.

She bared her counterattacking fangs to get something out of the woman.

“ Hello, human string-pullers. It’s a pleasure to meet you. ”

Several strange metallic sounds came from Letnahe’s hand.

Her weapon was a parashu.

It used the legend of the axe given by God of Destruction Shiva, but the magic only used the name and was not actually the legendary axe. In her case, it used the rumble of Shiva’s thunder to destabilize the vibration, strike it from within, and either alter the axe’s path or provide extreme acceleration or deceleration.

A head-on attack from a Gatling gun was no threat to her. And once her target was within the axe’s range, she could use its rapid acceleration to slice through even a bank vault’s door.

Or so she thought.

And yet…

“Gah!?”

It was she who ended up groaning.

This made no sense. Kyouka was smiling in front of her, but a long metal arrow had flown in from the side to hit her in the back of her right hand. There were no hidden attackers around, so it did not add up.

The military flashlight attached to the bottom of the axe’s handle had shattered and the axe itself had fallen to the floor. Needless to say, this opponent was not foolish enough to give her time to crouch down and pick it up.

Then she figured it out.

“Oh, so that’s it.”

“The trick is simple enough, but preconceptions are a difficult thing to shake.”

This voice came from the side as well. She held her injured right hand and moved just her eyes to glare in that direction.

The illusion in front of her had already vanished without a sound.

The President was seated in her wheelchair calmly aiming her bow.

She had chosen not to aim for the left hand wearing the ring and mobile watch, but not for any strategic reasons.

“As you can plainly see, I am in a wheelchair. I can only wield a mere 1% of the power I once had, but even a weak dimensional leap allows me to slow the arrival time of light and sound.”

“The only Regulation 3…”

It was the same as the stars in the night sky. The light you saw twinkling there now had actually been emitted many years in the past. But that was not something the people living on the face of the earth could ever truly experience. They might intellectually understand the concept of a light year, but the light they saw would still feel like the present to them.

Just like people still had a general fear of a school at night in the modern age.

“I can pull off a number of tricks without actually sending my own body through.”

“You distorted the world itself for an illusion lasting only a few seconds? There had to have been other ways of doing that!!”

“Oh? I hear Anastasia did far worse with her God Worshiping Magic.”

There was a hint of sadness in Kyouka’s voice. This was only the dregs of the power she had once been able to use. She had altered the arrival time of light with her mind, but that was only the dregs.

(The reports say she wielded an undulating flamberge back in her prime, but I guess this genius can also master the use of a bow or whatever else she needs!!)

“So what will it be? Spill the beans on the string-pullers and this can be over much sooner.”

“Kh.”

Kyouka smiled in an even more toxic way than before.

“ Or would you prefer I tied you to a chair and called Hadome-sensei in to interrogate you ?”

“Gaahhh!!”

Natlena roared to upset the timing of the enemy in front of her.

Her brown face was colored more by embarrassment than pain or fear.

She used that moment to kick up the axe lying at her feet and grabbed at it with her left hand. But she was not given time to grasp the shortened grip or pull out a spare flashlight. A second arrow struck the parashu’s thick blade, knocking it from her hand.

“So you would rather die than have that happen? You’re such a wonderful person.”

The President smiled.

She understood how Letnahe felt, which was why she would not let it happen.

Ending this nonlethally showed the absolute skill gap between them.

Letnahe knew the details of the Problem Solver battles fought in secret. There was unconfirmed data saying this girl had used a special handgun in one of those. This genius would not stop just because she had been broken once. She was more than just multitalented or a jack of all trades. Her talent let her add anything to her skillset whenever she sensed she was lacking something. Nothing was quite as frightening as a genius who did not fear failure, did not let their pride get in the way, and would put in endless effort when they deemed it necessary.

“What are you asking me to do?” Letnahe squeezed out her voice while holding her skewered right hand and doubled over in pain. “Criticize me all you like, but you’re not doing anything about the Threat or the preparations for the nuclear strike! You haven’t told anyone about this and you haven’t even let any confusion set in. What gives you the right to put the world at risk at your own discretion like that!?”

“ Yes, I am even more wicked than you. And what I am asking you to do is quite simple: tell me everything about the world’s string-pullers you belong to. You want to protect your family and your first love, don’t you? Then you should know which of your loyalties to turn your back on.”

“But…”

“Besides, you don’t even know why I can’t use Crystal Magic anymore, do you? Or rather, why I am still placing a limiter on my abilities. That would mean you’re a low-level member. The agent who visited Karuta-kun before seemed to have some idea about my secret.”

“?”

Letnahe truly looked puzzled by that and she did not even realize that her confusion signaled something to Kyouka.

“Now, then.”

Kyouka crossed her outstretched legs.

Her ankle swayed like a pendulum and Letnahe should have already learned what that sign meant.

“Are you saying I can protect everything I care about even if I betray them here?”

“I am not a good person,” said the demon in the wheelchair. “ Which is why I can assure you that I will not take away those precious treasures of yours. For someone as wicked as me, they make the perfect guarantee you will do what I ask, don’t they?”

Letnahe bit her lip.

She realized there was no way to turn this around or even to escape. Which left only one option. She put off treating her injured right hand and slowly took a different action.

She kneeled in front of the President to change her socks.

That was the moment of submission.

The girl who had tamed a wicked woman whispered sweetly with an even larger smile on her face.

“At this point, the two of us are nothing but villains.”

### 111. Part 4

The Port of Kobe in Hyogo had received an evacuation order.

But some workers had remained because the fuel pipelines running through the port continued to transport 20 tons of flammable material every minute. The pipelines could not be shut down so quickly and the flammable materials had to be removed from the pipes or else damage to the pipes could trigger a largescale oil fire. The many safety checks built into the usual auto-controlled system were not going to finish in time, so workers in jumpsuits were relying on the old-fashioned methods. Their only option was to run all over the port and forcibly turn the giant metal wheels to complete the emergency shutdown.

“Pant, pant.”

One large man gasped for breath while pressing his back against a metal wheel taller than he was at the foot of a gantry crane.

(The oil refinery section’s sea berth was shut down. That just leaves the LNG storage section’s pipe that cuts through here.)

He stared at a notebook-sized tablet and operated it with trembling fingers.

A flat four-wheel drive vehicle began to move a short distance away. It was as long and wide as a large bus, but it was only about a meter tall. It was an automatic transport vehicle meant to carry containers around the port. Designate a location and it would carry a container there with a margin of error of only 2cm, so it could be used as a decoy or a shield.

However.

He heard several deep metallic crashing sounds in a row.

A nearby stack of containers had collapsed. Worse, a young worker was caught below one of the rolling metal containers.

The large man stuck his head out from behind the metal wheel taller than an adult and his face immediately stiffened. He pressed his back against the wheel, squeezed his eyes shut, and clicked his tongue.

He felt a powerful pressure from directly above. From above the roof of the simple prefab three-story office/breakroom. Something was up there and staring down at the ground. It was like a thick and invisible wall that left less room for escape than the falling ceiling in some ancient ruins. It was not actually staring at the large man, though. If it had spotted him, he would be dead already. That thing was staring at the young man pinned below the container.

It was a monster.

A monster simply known as the Threat. He had never seen the Threat before and no one had told him that was indeed what this was, but the large man had known at a glance. What else could you call that thing?

“…”

The shape alone was something like a tadpole with legs.

But it was not.

Tadpoles were not so large they could easily step over a 20-ton truck.

Tadpoles could not knock over a pyramid of metal containers by tackling it.

Tadpoles would not form a group to block off all escape for the humans.

And tadpoles did not split apart their round body made of black metal to reveal a horrific array of crocodile-like teeth. Nor did they have plasma jets more terrifying than a welding torch crackling in their mouths.

It did not have an obviously fearsome appearance like a tiger or T-rex. Slaughter by an almost humorous-looking creature was a brand new sort of fear.

There was no dignity in death here.

Dying to that would feel as pathetic as being drugged and placed on the ground so you could not resist as pigs devoured you, starting from the extremities.

The large man felt entirely helpless.

The automatic transport vehicle he had hoped to use as a decoy or shield had been flipped over as a mere side effect of the collapsing containers.

During his brief glimpse earlier, the younger man had been shaking his head while crushed below the metal container. The younger man’s face had been pale with terror, but he had desperately pleaded the large man not to come out and try to rescue him.

(Dammit.)

He heard a noise.

That sound of strength gathering in metal somewhat reminded him of straining muscles. After an ominous silence similar to a bowstring being drawn, a heavy crash destroyed the prefab roof.

The legged tadpole had leaped from the roof toward its prey.

“Dammit!!”

A dull sound soon followed.

Yes.

The automatic transport vehicle had flown in from the side and knocked the airborne tadpole away.

Meanwhile, something was heard whizzing through the air. It was Natlena Blast’s legs. Her ski-like armor had fanned out and ultra-thin wires emerged from each piece.

Those were the scales of Anubis, Egyptian god of judgment.

With every roundhouse kick, side flip, and breakdance-like rotation of her body, the metal flowers at the end of the wires opened up and those grab buckets “grabbed” various obstacles. They grabbed them and swung them around. The 12-year-old girl wielded a storm of metal to make an additional fierce attack against the legged tadpole.

“Aine,” said a boy’s voice.

A much cleaner sound of destruction followed. It came from a sword. Several lines ran through the metal container pinning the younger man down so solidly, orange sparks flew, and the container fell apart. It happened so cleanly the rescued younger man was taken aback.

The boy who had commanded the pale-skinned crystal girl walked calmly up from a short distance away.

He walked toward the large man hiding behind the gantry crane’s metal wheel.

“You need to evacuate. More Grimnoah students are at the northern gate, so they will guide you out.”

“I…”

The large man shrank down like a scolded child even as the rain hit him.

But not because of fear.

“I was in charge of keeping him safe. And yet…”

Utagai Karuta sighed.

Karuta too had failed to save people when the first ship met its doom. His pride had been left in tatters and he had felt like his entire being had been denied, but he had still clenched his teeth in the depths of incompetence and figured out how to crawl back up again.

But this man could redo things without needing to rely on revenge.

Revenge had been the only option for the boy, so he crouched down to match the seated man’s eye level.

“I just saved one life. There is no denying that.”

“…”

He peeled back the mask of his public mode. Or he made it look like he had.

“So you only have to save three lives over the rest of your life. You can easily outdo the world’s strongest that way. But to do that, you can’t let yourself die here. So get out of here. Hurry!!”

He slapped the man on the back to urge him on and the large man ran from the collapsed container yard while lending a shoulder to the injured younger man. He looked back several times to lower his head in thanks as he did so.

Aine approached with sword in hand and whispered too quietly for the men to hear.

“That math does not add up.”

“It doesn’t have to.”

A pyramid scheme did not have to be a bad thing. If someone saved three people, those three people saved three more each, and so on like that, it was bound to improve this shitty world more than all the efforts of a single world’s strongest.

Karuta brushed up his wet bangs in an irritated way and turned around.

He and Aine faced the battlefield. Visibility was poor with several of the container piles collapsed, but the scent of the sea was strong. They were not far from the Second Grimnoah academy ship now.

He flicked the Crystal Blossom on his chest and gave an order using its communication function.

“Send a few people to make sure the LNG pipeline is shut down!”

He heard several heavy clanging sounds.

Clear drops of water scattered from the short skirt of Natlena’s uniform while she used the wires on her legs to “grab” and swing around containers, trucks, water, and even the air itself. Rapid-fire attacks sounded good, but they also meant a single hit was not enough to finish off your enemy.

This was the real Threat.

As expected, they would not die so easily.

And if they could do the same thing the decoys at the Crystal Beach had done, then any that did die would only have their remains taken in by the others to create even more formidable monsters. Karuta was beyond being surprised by things not going as planned. After surviving two intense battles, he had learned that god was not going to grant you divine salvation no matter how much you pleaded for it. That was a lesson he would much rather not have learned.

He breathed in and out while gathering his resolve.

“We can’t leave this to Natlena alone. I’ll need your help here, Aine.”

“All that leadup is unnecessary. Simply give me my orders.”

### 112. Part 4

Karuta heard a sound like a clog being cleared from a pipe and then he realized it had come from his own throat. His vision was blurry and his head dizzy. It took him some time to recall why his entire body was wrapped in pain.

They had broken through the side of Second Grimnoah. He did not remember what had happened after they broke through the window and continued on at a shallow angle.

They appeared to be in the middle school building.

Since it had taken him some time to recover, his eyes had already adjusted to the dark.

This was not just a classroom. His nose detected the odd scent of chlorine and he heard the sound of water sloshing back and forth.

This was the indoor pool.

“Sacri-sama,” whispered the calm crystal girl while lifting up the boy who was lying limply on the poolside. She might as well have been speaking to a beach ball held against her flat chest. She was still drenched and he could feel her body heat through her soaked clothing. “We need to get moving. The Threat will notice soon.”

“Soon? What did you do???”

Why did they have any time at all? Those black lustrous things had been covering all of the exterior walls. He had assumed that was why it was so dark in the ship despite the oil fire, but…

“What is that? A wall?”

“Clinging to thin glass with their large metal forms would only break the glass. They must have learned from their mistakes.”

The glass wall was meant to let in plenty of sunlight, but it was now covered with metal panels, parasols, beach chairs, and more. It was all held in place with the ship’s repair parts and the adhesive for the deck equipment. The hole he and Aine had made on the way in was no longer visible.

Aine had used their speed and weight to force her way through the countless things crawling all over the outside of the ship. Some had looked like wharf roaches and others like tadpoles, but Karuta would have expected them to rush after them into the ship like a swarm of fire ants.

Aine lightly swung her crystal sword to scatter some clear drops of water from it.

“I have a laser sniping unit. We have no evidence it can do critical damage to the Threat, but it should work as effectively as your flashlight if used to blind them.”

He could faintly see his surroundings, so there had to be some light getting in through small cracks.

“So you just charged in without thinking it through, huh?” he sighed half in exasperation. “That wouldn’t have worked if they used ultrasound or microwave like that jellyfish from before. Then we would have been killed.”

“With so little data on the real Threat, every action we take must be based on some amount of speculation. And as an aside, I directed us toward a window covered in units with red glass-like lenses .”

That did not mean much. Those could easily have been nonfunctioning camouflage like the eye patterns on a moth’s wings.

But Karuta was more surprised by something else.

“An aside, huh? I didn’t expect to hear you defend your actions after being criticized for them.”

“…Uhh.”

“I get it. You saved my life, Aine, so quit scowling. I don’t want a sulking partner.”

“A logical analysis would suggest you are trying to provoke me, Sacri-sama.”

The crystal girl puffed out the cheeks on her expressionless face. Her hair and clothes were still soaked, so water continued to drip from her hair and the hem of her dress. She must have crashed into the pool to help slow down after bursting into the ship because her hair smelled of chlorine. She had learned to feel embarrassment when her skin was visible, but the way she would just set that problem aside when there was “no effective countermeasure available” was still pretty inhuman. It felt like a simple computer algorithm where she would follow the yes and no arrows to see if the current situation applied.

A healthy boy like Karuta had to sigh.

He walked along the poolside, checked inside the locker room, and borrowed a dry towel from one of the lockers. This was Second Grimnoah, so it had most everything a normal school would.

“Here, Aine. You need to be dried off. Whatever we do next, we can’t leave wet footprints behind, right?”

“Good point.”

“…Why are you raising your hands overhead like that?”

“I thought you said you wanted to do it.”

He could not believe her overly straightforward answer.

He had said “you need to be dried off”, but by who? He had not specified, and this was apparently how she had interpreted it.

And there was a more fundamental problem.

(Being seen is embarrassing, but being touched isn’t!?)

Her strange learned behavior had him confused, but there was no point in getting hung up on this. He started by drying her wet hair like she was a small child and then he squeezed his eyes shut and moved to her body while doing his best not to think about it. …Although he had a feeling the shut eyes only made the sensation on his fingers all the more vivid.

Then something occurred to him.

“Oh, right. If you stick a thick towel under your dress, no one can see through it no matter how wet-”

“…”

“Sorry, Aine. I don’t know why that upset you so much, but please don’t glare at me like that.”

He was truly beyond saving if the inhuman crystal girl thought he needed to be more tactful.

At any rate, Karuta could not waste time here playing with the crystal girl. Aine’s laser had dazzled the Threat’s sensory organs like a stun grenade, but she had not worked out an actual way of killing them. It was possible she could not kill the Threat even in this state . If the Threat recovered, they would be surrounded and killed.

(The real ones are incredible. They don’t just customize themselves endlessly when they get killed – they don’t even let it reach that point. You can’t even take them out in the first place.)

He had dreamed of getting back to Second Grimnoah.

Right now, it was a deadly labyrinth where Gekiha and his other friends from the first ship slept crystallized on the bottom level and where Marika’s group had gone missing. The familiar school was filled with the same powerful sense of death as a hospital late at night. Without Aine by his side, the dense darkness may have been enough to repel him.

He focused on the Crystal Blossom on his chest. It functioned as a communicator, but carelessly using it would put himself and Marika at risk. Those antenna-covered sea urchins or whatever were the biggest nuisance he had ever seen.

If they were found, they were dead.

He slowly poked his head out into the hallway from the locker room.

“We need to get moving, Aine. We shook their pursuit once, so I want to avoid letting them find us again.”

“Yes.”

“And we need to locate Marika’s group. Where did they get in, how were they pursued, and where did they escape to? I know it’s dark in here, but look for any sign of them. Use profiling techniques – read their mental state from the slightest scratches or stains. This ship is 600m long, but we should be able to find them if we gather enough actual data.”

“Well excuse me for having nothing but worthless speculation.”

“You really are sulking, aren’t you?”

He breathed an exasperated sigh as he and the crystal girl walked through the ship.

Now that he was paying attention, he could not help but notice how wrong this place felt. It was like thinking you were resting in an infirmary bed only to later realize it was an autopsy table equipped with belts to strap you down.

At night, a school became something else entirely.

The familiar artificial structure filled you with a dread different from a natural forest or cave.

A ghost would never appear on a truly desert island. With no one there, no one would die there, so no ghosts would end up there. Schools, hospitals, train stations, and other public facilities were more common settings for ghost stories than homes or sheds. That may have been because, when people found a normally crowded place to be entirely deserted, they would put their mind at ease by inventing a fictional being to fill the space left by the people that were normally there. The stories created that way could be creepy, but that was just how it was.

This, however, Karuta refused to let be “just how it was”. He would defeat the Threat and take back their usual school.

To do that, he needed cover to hide behind more than distance from the enemy. What wavelength they used was unknown, but since Aine’s laser had dazzled them, the Threats gathered on the outside of the ship had to use their vision to search out their prey.

Hide-and-seek would also work to prevent that.

When Karuta sensed a crawling in the air down the hall, he grabbed Aine’s slender shoulders and moved behind a rectangular pillar jutting out from the wall. Only Aine’s wet crystal sword was sticking out. She had apparently adjusted the angle for his use because he could use the refection on the blade like a mirror. That showed him a large form cutting across the end of the hallway. A round Threat resembling a slate pencil urchin was rolling along. Its many long spines resembled TV antennas, so that was probably the type Kyouka had mentioned that specialized in gathering data.

“Assuming Miss Marika is still alive, she must not have made a meaningless charge on the Threat or fled from the ship in fear,” whispered expressionless Aine while he still held her shoulders. “Drawing attention to herself while surrounded would only increase the risk of death. If she did not reach that conclusion on her own, she would be dead already.”

This was not about Aine knowing what Marika would do.

It was about that being the only option that did not lead to instant death.

And Aine’s harsh analysis continued.

“If holing up in here was Miss Marika’s only option for survival, then what remaining hope would she have? We do not even know if the real Threat eats food or consumes fuel. Too little is known to attempt to wait them out. So what else is there?”

“If she couldn’t do anything herself, would she hope for help to arrive?”

“Yes. And if she was desperate to survive, she would do everything she could to ensure that help found her. Thus, there is a good possibility she would have left intentional signs behind. Something that we would understand but the Threat would not.”

“I see,” said Karuta while flipping around the military flashlight in his hand.

Assuming Marika had made the right choice and was still alive, she would have gone through the following thought process.

First, attempting long-range communications – either via her Crystal Blossom or her phone – would be suicide while aboard the ship. It would only call the Threat to her.

If someone was to come rescue her, it would be one of the Four Living Gods, but it was unlikely to be Omotesandou Kyouka since she used a wheelchair and could not use magic.

That meant either Karuta or Aine, who would obey any of his orders. So Marika would have to think up a sign that only those two would recognize. After some thought, the boy switched on the flashlight. He had installed it with infrared to blind the enemy, so it did not produce an obvious beam of light.

Nevertheless, it did produce a change. A faint handprint appeared on the empty hallway wall as if in glow-in-the-dark paint. It was not alone. More of them formed a trail along the wall.

“Bingo. She slid her hand a bit when making them, so maybe that’s to tell us which way the trail leads.”

“Did she smash some used regeneration crystals into a powder and mix them with something? I have heard that synthetic emeralds will produce a red light when exposed to ultraviolet.”

They could ask Marika for the exact recipe once they caught up with her. As soon as a Threat left after peering down the hallway in search of anyone there, Karuta and Aine rushed out from behind the pillar.

“That was careless of Marika’s group. The Threat uses lasers too. Or at least that lion one on the roof does.”

“We do not know if the Sparkle really is modeled after a lion or that it is using an infrared wavelength laser. Try not to let such baseless assumptions lead you astray, Sacri-sama.”

“Tell me what I can do to fix this bad mood of yours, Aine. Do I need to give you a baby bottle or a rattle?”

“I am no more than a piece of Crystal Magic equipment, so do not expect a level of intelligence and sensitivity equal to a human like you. But for now, I would recommend shutting your mouth.”

They carefully walked down the hallway and climbed the stairs as they followed the handprints glowing in the light of his infrared laser. Karuta was scared. He was always focused on the available cover so he could hide the instant the Threat approached.

They turned around on the landing and climbed the next flight of stairs.

It was still dark, but something other than the handprints glittered as it reflected the light of his modified military flashlight’s infrared. That reflection of visible light should not have happened. The source was lying in the middle of the hallway. It was a little longer than a loaf of French bread.

“…”

Utagai Karuta said nothing.

He said nothing as he stared at it.

It was a right leg.

A girl’s slender right leg lay translucently crystalized after being torn off at the base of the thigh.

### 113. Part 4

Aine produced a soft sound by hugging Marika from the front. She buried her face in the girl’s large chest and sniffed.

“Hm, acceptable.”

“Th-thanks?”

“Now we need not worry about the Threat tracking us using your scent. Sniiiiiff.”

“W-wait, um, Aine-chan, th-th-th-that’s embarrassing!”

Was more people a good thing or a bad thing?

It probably depended on the situation. In a traditional battle where both sides rushed at each other to fight, greater numbers provided an absolute advantage. But for a sniping or infiltration mission where you could not afford to be noticed, more people only increased the risk of detection.

But Karuta came to understand something now that he experienced it for himself.

Greater numbers did at least help reduce the psychological burden. Just like the grammatical terms of first person, second person, and third person, gathering three or more people may have helped provide more objectivity. He was able to keep his cool while observing and understanding his surroundings a lot better than when he had been nearly crushed by the paranoia-like pressure before. (Although part of that was because he could not share the burden with Aine since she was not even human.) The increased objectivity gave them an urge to actively share the thoughts in their heads.

In other words, it made them talkative. Dangerously so.

“Come to think of it, why did the real Threat come here at all?” asked Karuta.

He was currently crouching below the hallway windows and moving slowly along the wall. The Threat had covered these windows with metal panels and other materials just like elsewhere, but they were still concerning.

The scratching of claws on the outside had not changed, so they must not have been noticed. The Threat on the other side of the metal panels could not hear the noises from the hallway. And if those were the wharf roach and tadpole ones, they may not have been anatomically structured to “look down” even if the metal panels had not been in the way.

This seemed to confirm it.

“This means I was right about the wharf roach and tadpole ones using their red lenses to visually locate targets. Heh heh,” said Aine.

“Yes, yes. I’ll buy you a pacifier and some baby formula later, so just be quiet.”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………Stare.”

“D-don’t silently stare at me like that, Aine. It’s scary.”

“Criticizing me for obeying your orders is unfair.”

She puffed out her cheeks while only 10cm away from him, so he was unsure what to do about her.

For now, he glanced toward a window.

“Anyway, why are they still clinging to the outside like that? They should be able to break through the glass easily enough and they even reinforced the windows with those metal panels and other junk.”

“It certainly doesn’t seem like they want to get in but can’t,” agreed Marika.

The slate pencil urchin and the Gestalt sea anemone were confirmation enough that the Threat was already active within Second Grimnoah. They had no problem getting inside, yet there was clearly one group that did so and one group that did not.

The curly twintails childhood friend crouched below the windows as she snuck down the hallway.

“So do they have some kind of division of roles? Hmm, like maybe the ones covering the outside are meant to hide what’s going on inside the ship.”

“You’re assuming the inside is more important and the outside is just armor, but that’s a human way of thinking. They might just want to eat the paint and barnacles attached to the ship. We don’t know anything about the Threat’s biology or how they think.”

“We’re not just talking about the ones on the outside of the ship,” sighed gyaru-ish Hashizaki Tayori. “We saw an alert network of jellyfish and sea anemone ones surrounding the ship on the ocean floor. They were spread out so far it’s hard to think those are what really matter. I think Second Grimnoah really is their central point.”

If the ones spread across the ocean were the most important, then the academy ship would be an intruder and it would be odd for the all-destroying Threat to not eliminate it. In that case…

“Does the Threat have some reason for occupying Second Grimnoah instead of sinking it? It doesn’t look like they just want to destroy our mobile base.”

“But, Karuta, Second Grimnoah is just a floating school, right? Did we have any special materials onboard?”

The ship itself had been made by buying and fully remodeling a cruise ship. It may have been unusual when compared to an ordinary life, but cruise ships could be found all over the world. There was no real reason to target Second Grimnoah specifically.

“What are you talking about?” Pale-faced Matsuda Imi’s lips moved. She let out a depressing groan of a voice while her teeth chattered even though it was not cold. “Of course there’s something special on this ship. It’s the only place in the world where you can find dead and crystallized magicians .”

“…”

“She has a point, Sacri-sama. If they are preparing to fight Crystal Magicians, they would most want to test the limits of your preset regeneration. How far must they go to defeat one? How much of a risk is there of a defeated one returning to the fight? It is reasonable to assume the Threat would want to investigate such things.”

Crystal Magicians were not immortal like Susannia Evans of the Problem Solvers, but someone who did not know how their regeneration worked might see them as zombies who kept getting back up no matter what.

Killing them was not enough to relax.

So the Threat would want to know how far they had to take it before they could relax.

(It does make sense!!)

Karuta himself had checked through the corpse(?) of a decoy Threat at the Crystal Beach to figure out how they worked, so if he were in the Threat’s position, that was exactly what he would do.

On the other hand, it would be wrong to suggest they go check on Gekiha and the others.

They were kept at the very bottom level of the three-hull ship’s central hull. But to defeat the Sparkle lion so their Grimnoah allies could fly here, they had to climb to the roof of the middle school building. Those were opposite directions and illogically making a U-turn now might destroy any trust Imi and Tayori had in him.

He wanted to avoid creating a rift between them here.

This had nothing to do with who was stronger than who. Traveling through Second Grimnoah was a risky thing. If Imi finally hit her limit and screamed, broke through a nearby window, or called for help using her Crystal Blossom, the Threat would notice. And then none of them would survive.

(And either way…)

He came to a stop and shut his eyes.

He clenched his teeth and dragged up the despicable part found deep inside him.

He forced himself to think it.

(Either way, the Threat has been occupying Second Grimnoah for a while now. If they really are here to investigate those crystal statues, Gekiha and the others won’t have escaped unharmed. With this much time, I have to assume the Threat has already done something with them!!)

“Aine…the rest of you too. We’re headed to the roof.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

“We need to slaughter these pieces of shit no matter what and step one is neutralizing the lion’s anti-air lasers on the roof. So…”

Just as he squeezed those words out, he and Aine jumped behind a pillar sticking out from the wall, Marika got down and slipped into the narrow space below a water fountain, and Tayori dragged Imi into an empty classroom to hide.

Something large had come down from the stairs.

It was a slate pencil urchin, suggesting there were more than one of them in the ship. But it must not have noticed them while moving around because it wandered for a bit near the entrance to the stairs and then rolled back through that entrance. They could not tell if it had gone up or down, but it was probably moving between each floor every so often.

It was on a patrol.

“Looks like we can’t use the stairs,” whispered Marika from below the water fountain. “Should we find another route? There are probably small elevators for the kitchen carts.”

Since they could fly, they did not need to follow the ordinary routes. Marika had suggested an elevator, but that did not require them to press the button and move the car like normal. They could just fly up the shaft like it was a chimney.

(But where can we actually find a usable shortcut?)

If they spent too long in the hallway, another Threat might just find them, so they moved to a nearby sliding door, slid it open a crack, checked to make sure the windows were covered by metal panels and other materials, and then hid inside.

The room was two or three times the size of an ordinary classroom. In the darkness, their eyes were drawn to the electric jigsaws, drills, and the vises attached to the thick work tables. Karuta did not have the middle schools’ layout memorized (despite helping out with some of their classes), but he could guess this was the shop classroom.

Imi had to be the most sensitive to fear because she clung to her gyaru-ish friend and spoke with legs trembling.

“Wh-what do we do now? We’re done for if we can’t get up to the roof.”

“Sacri-sama.” Aine pointed her crystal sword up toward a rectangular grated cover on the wall near the ceiling. “If necessary, we could use that.”

“The air duct?” asked Marika while looking up.

Karuta felt just as skeptical.

“Can we really fit through such a narrow space?”

“We are in no position to eliminate possibilities based on speculation. We cannot know for sure without checking first.”

“Fine, then.”

It was true none of them had any better ideas. The duct was on the shop classroom’s rear wall, so they could reach it by standing on the hip-high tables lined up there.

For some reason, Childhood Friend Marika put her hands on her hips and puffed her cheeks out.

“Why is it you’ll do almost anything if Aine-chan asks you?”

“Because she doesn’t ask for pointless things like you do.”

But…

“Oof…damn, I can only barely reach it while on my tiptoes. Getting inside would be difficult.”

“Sacri-sama, lift me on your shoulders.”

He just about agreed on reflex, but then he stopped.

“You’re a girl in a skirt.”

“Yes, and?”

She only tilted her head while standing on the same table as him with her bright thighs exposed.

The crystal girl really did have no issue with being touched despite not liking having her skin seen. She still had some learning to do.

Her white dress had a large slit on both sides, presumably so it did not hinder her movements. That made it more revealing than a China dress but less revealing than a kunoichi outfit.

It bothered him.

It bothered him so much, but then she placed her small hands on his shoulders and pushed down. She was convinced he had to be on the bottom.

“Hold on, hey, this is embarrassing! Do I really have to stick my head into this tunnel!?”

“Sacri-sama, struggle too much on the desk and you will fall off.”

“Ah, ahhh…I’m inside it…”

He looked like he had just caught a glimpse of a new world, but he had to focus on his knees and hips as he felt something warm and soft squeezing against his cheeks. He slowly stood up on the unsteady table and then Aine began to squirm on top of him. She was apparently removing the duct cover with both hands.

“Hmm, I got the cover off, but I am still not quite high enough. I cannot see inside.”

He tried to look up, but the inside of her skirt covered his entire face. It gave off a faint warmth and a sweet scent.

“Pwah, A-Aine, what are you doing up-”

“I can gain a little more height if I use my flight.”

Her thighs lifted upwards while still squeezing at his head.

The thigh heaven quickly became a hanging. Karuta flailed his legs that could no longer reach the table below.

“Agwgggghhhh!?”

“What is this?”

“I’m dying!? M-my head’s gonna pop off! Bgweh, Aine, I’m sorry! I’m sorry there was a part of me that thought I was lucky to do this!! Bweh!!”

“Ah ha ha. This is what we call karma, Karuta.”

For some reason, Marika triumphantly put her hands on her hips.

It could not have lasted more than 10 seconds, but it was a terrifying 10 seconds due more to the pain of his neck bone feeling it was going to pop out than due to suffocation. Pain you were not used to feeling could be a very different experience, like skinning your knee or cutting your finger with a knife.

“W-wait, if you could just use your flight, why get on my shoulders at all?”

Aine slowly descended and freed the boy’s head, but she was still seated on his shoulders as she tilted her head.

“Traveling through here would be difficult.”

“Is it too small?” asked Tayori from below.

“No.” Aine shook her head. “It is filled with something similar to spiderwebs.”

“Spiderwebs?”

“Something similar to. There may be a spiderlike Threat variety. These are probably simple metal wires with a current running through them. I estimate them to be weaker than paper, so if you carelessly touch one, it will break and they will immediately detect your presence. Given the density, traveling through here without being detected would be effectively impossible.”

“There wasn’t anything like that in the smoke vent.”

If the Threat had something like that, why was it not laid out all through the hallways and classrooms? Karuta had his questions, but Aine did not have all the answers. Maybe the Threat only had so many materials to work with, or maybe they decided it would be inefficient in the ordinary passageways where other Threats were traveling.

Karuta crouched down on the table to lower the thigh girl.

“We might be able to use that.”

“Are you going to ignore my warning and use that route anyway?” asked Aine.

“No, so don’t get upset. If we can’t find any other route, we can break the threads with some kind of timed device to draw the Threat’s attention. If that slate pencil urchin leaves the stairs, we can use them ourselves, right?”

That would be a last resort, of course. The risk of running across the Threat was higher if they were off their usual patrol route. If you absolutely had to approach a hornet’s nest, you would prefer to tiptoe around. Very few people would want to throw a stone and rile up the hornets before sneaking in.

(How are things over there?)

Karuta crouched in front of the classroom door and slid it open a crack to peek outside.

The stairs were silent.

Just as he started to lean out more, he quickly pulled his head back inside. He stuck a plastic ruler out as a mirror and confirmed that the slate pencil urchin was indeed there.

It made regular patrols, leaving no openings for them.

Marika leaned over him to peek out into the hallway herself. She may have thought she was only placing her head on top of his like two dango on a skewer, but she was actually placing something else on top of his head. What was it? A pair of weights. And she seemed entirely unaware how perfectly they were resting on his head.

“Yeah, there’s no getting through there. We could probably run down the hallway while it’s away, but we would run right into it if we tried to climb the stairs to the roof.”

“Y-yes. That’s probably more or less it. Maybe.”

“Why are you being so noncommittal???”

He was too distracted to give a clear answer, but then something occurred to him.

“Hold on.”

“?”

Marika could not initially tell what he was focused on.

“I hear something,” said the boy. “It’s coming from down this hallway. I think that’s where the gym is. We could pass through there, couldn’t we?”

“That might work if we just want a way to the roof to attack the Sparkle.” Tayori slid open the empty classroom’s door a bit and nodded. “The gym uses space from multiple floors to give it more height, so we could fly right up to the roof from there. And unlike a cramped and restrictive elevator shaft, we might be able to escape if the Threat has laid an ambush for us.”

They all nodded.

After the Threat patrolling the stairs appeared again and moved back up the stairs, they made their move. The route took them near the stairway in question, but they ignored it. The Threat was gone for now, but they could not blindly rush up the stairs when they could run across it at any point.

Instead, they made their way to the double doors at the far end of the hallway. Those led to the gym.

After approaching and pressing against the door, Karuta groaned. He was focused on the crack between the double doors.

“(I can see light through the door. They have the lights on in there.)”

“(That doesn’t sound good.)”

Marika sounded cautious, but she was actually raring to go. This was different from anything they had seen before, so she may have thought they would find some crucial hint about the Threat inside.

“(The Threat has some level of intelligence.)” Aine was more pessimistic. “(Based on the tentatively-named Gestalt, they are at least intelligent enough to deceive humans for an easy victory. Nowhere else has had the lights on, but it could easily be a trap, similar to a military tablet being ‘abandoned’ on top of a landmine on the battlefield.)”

They both had a point.

Karuta crouched down, pressed his hands against the double doors, and shut his eyes.

He clenched his teeth, reopened his eyes, and spoke.

He had made his decision.

“Let’s go. We have business with that lion on the rooftop regardless.”

“We must have been cursed…”

Imi’s gaze wandered diagonally up through empty space while Tayori held her close. It was unclear who she was trying to talk to.

Karuta gathered strength in his hands and pushed. The door slowly and silently opened.

The light pierced his eyes.

It felt as bright as a car’s headlights. Had the gym’s lights always been so bright?

Eventually, his senses returned to him.

They had entered on the second floor of the gym instead of the large flat area used to play basketball or volleyball. Specifically, they were in the far back.

He raised his head while still crouched down to see an orderly arrangement of steel beams and halogen lights. The roof where the lion awaited was just above those.

However…

“(I knew something wasn’t right.)”

He was focused more on the floor below than their destination above.

This rear second floor space was meant for spectators, but since it had a railing-like wall set up to prevent people from falling, they could hide from anything below by crouching. The wall was only about hip height, but they had no way of seeing what was happening while hidden there.

Yes.

“(Something’s happening in here. But what is this sound???)”

Still crouched, he approached the railing-like wall. Taking a detour from their objective would only needlessly delay the mission and put everyone’s lives at greater risk. And in this case, “everyone” was more than just him, Marika, and the others here. It also included Natlena and that group. He knew that, but he could not resist the urge.

It took him more than two minutes to reach the wall.

Curled up behind the hip-height wall, he focused his ears on the disconcerting noise he could hear.

(What is this?)

He was no longer speaking with anyone.

The confusion only grew in his mind as he slowly gathered strength in his knees. He hesitantly rose up from his crouch to peer over the low wall.

And.

He saw it.

### 114. Part 4

Sword crossed with sword.

The crystal sword branched off at the base like a jitte and the metal sword had a protrusion resembling a tonfa or handcuffs.

The wet rubble floated unnaturally from the floor, light flashed out, and a shockwave and deafening boom shook the entire gym.

Karuta and Aine should not have been able to deal with that using just the one sword, but Karuta just barely dodged the sword that the 3m Warrior Doll swung down heavier than a guillotine and faster than an airplane. Aine instead moved in to hit it with her crystal blade.

It was a lot like bullfighting.

The infrared from the modified military flashlight was just as important as the crystal sword.

This was not part of the basic tactics taught in Second Grimnoah’s textbooks. Imi and Tayori were overwhelmed and could not join the fight.

“Don’t relax just because we’re pulling off this tightrope walk, Aine. Its excess energy might make the rubble float up, but we can’t trust that signal too much.”

“I am already aware of that. If it can pull off a feint with that, the mistake would cost us our lives.”

After determining when it would attack, they would work to confuse it first before making their own attack. That Threat could achieve rapid movement with its green thrusters and it could break the sound barrier if it was allowed a running start. That was well past what a human could hope to match, so Karuta would be killed instantly if he could not reduce its movements.

But even that was far from delivering a critical blow.

After he sent in another IR blast to blind the Warrior Doll, Aine slipped past its right-side defenses and sent her blade toward its arm, leg, and torso, but the wounds were shallow. In fact, the sword was deflected with a high-pitched clang, barely leaving a mark on the reddish-purple armor.

It was fruitless.

But they kept at it regardless.

“Pant, pant!!”

Because Karuta knew his life was not the only one riding on this.

This was for Kazamuki Gekiha and the other old friends from the first ship, it was for his classmates from the second ship like Amaashi Marika and Yamane Deiri, and it was for all the people living the wide world outside of Grimnoah. If the world’s strongest fell here, all of that would be lost.

And then there was Aine who shared his fate.

It was all of those thoughts that prevented him from being cut down. Nor would he be crushed by the shockwave or roasted by the heat of the plasma jet. In fact, he moved out ahead of Aine and threw off the timing of a slash he should never have been able to dodge.

He used his flashlight’s infrared to fry the Threat’s eyes and throw off its timing. If possible, he would hide behind one of the tadpoles to avoid the explosions. If not possible, he would spread out a thin sheet of metal foil (which was probably a piece of a Threat) to at least deflect the great heat.

He doubled over and heard some popping sounds inside his body.

But the shockwave that hit him was not the end of it.

“Aine…”

“…”

“Don’t think about buying time for you to move out front. We’ll both go down if we break our rhythm.”

The Warrior Doll would not stop. If they did not head out to face it, it would likely circle behind the tadpoles itself. And if it made the attack, it would be in control.

“What you did was wrong.”

But even with all that going on, he had something important to say. He once more adjusted his grip on his flashlight while hearing the sounds of crystal fragments breaking away.

“But that was my fault too. Listen, Aine. Once this is over, let’s relearn everything from the ground up. We can return to our dorm room, sleep like a log, get some food, and get through those boring classes. But to do that, you need to do everything you can to learn how to survive.”

Crystal Magic regeneration would heal any nonlethal wound in 30 seconds. If it was discovered that shattering the healing crystals with another attack would prevent it from ever healing, then the enemy could make a series of rapid-fire attacks, but the Threat had only begun to learn the details of Crystal Magic in the gym here. If they had not learned everything and the knowledge had been erased before it could spread, then he could trick the enemy. He focused on that while wiping away the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

Then he had to laugh.

(Nonlethal injuries don’t matter, huh? I’ve really gotten accustomed to staying just outside the line of an injury that would bring my life to an end.)

It almost felt quaint that Imi found herself unable to trust anyone after having her severed leg cauterized. Karuta would just say thanks. Imi’s response was of course the correct one. The more power he gained during his fight against the Threat, the less human he felt.

Those tadpoles who had enjoyed their pointless actions while gaining knowledge had also responded in the correct way. Of course they had screamed and gone wild when they were being sliced to pieces.

“Even if we do defeat this thing, I might only be proving how frightening humans can be.”

“If you say so.”

He had a vague premonition about that while he followed after Aine as she made an attack. The Threat did not seem able to close up its wounds like they could, but its reddish-purple armor was too tough to make a dent in. Aine had sliced right through the tadpoles, but that same sword could not cut the armored warrior.

Neither side could make any real progress.

Karuta and the armored warrior glared at each other while wearing each other down with small wounds.

The armored warrior said nothing, but he could sense confusion coming off of it.

It had gathered every form of justice it could think of to create the greatest attack, yet that was not enough.

The Warrior Doll was radiating irritation with itself for its inability to deliver a finishing blow.

Karuta snorted with laughter. That was awfully haughty for a monster. That anger was a sign of worry and panic over its inability to kill someone it should have been able to kill. Elicia and Yukino of the Problem Solvers had begun to panic near the end and started criticizing the rules of the world for not doing what they wanted.

“Did you…”

His side had a crystal sword and a flashlight.

He staggered up alongside the crystal girl and faced the reddish-purple armored warrior.

“Did you think every action has a purpose behind it? Humans are full of inefficiencies. How we master those inefficiencies is what shapes our lives. Perfect efficiency would make for the most boring kind of strongest imaginable. That would only lead to a dystopia.”

There was no response.

That thing may not have even had a complex enough tongue or throat to speak human language. Even those things were a type of inefficiency.

“But you really should know that.” The boy who got by on trickery grinned and held out his flashlight. “I mean, you’re standing there on two feet, wearing armor, and holding your weapon with needlessly complex hands.”

Again, the Threat probably did not understand human language.

But for whatever reason, its red eyes glowed brighter here.

Like they were burning.

Wreckage larger than the average car defied gravity to float into the air one after another.

“ You’re pouring all your strength into the fruitless and meaningless act of revenge. You’re learned everything there is to know about how we humans enjoy our inefficiencies. ”

The armored warrior gave a roar and swung its sword down with all its might.

### 115. Part 5

Crystal Magic was known as the world’s strongest.

That remained true even when it took the form of a small girl.

First, Aine rushed in with her clear sword at the ready. Natlena’s lengthy battle against the legged tadpole was like playing round after round of Russian roulette, but she failed to realize her odds of death rose with each move she made.

Her survival one moment was no guarantee of her survival the next. Aine’s long silver hair scattered water droplets as she bought some slight time, so Karuta spoke into his Crystal Blossom while behind cover.

“If it bites you, you’ll be burned through. You need to fall back behind cover, Natlena!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Senpai! I can still-!!”

“That tadpole isn’t the only one!! You’ll be surrounded!!”

He shouted back at her and pulled a modified military flashlight from his uniform. Blinding an enemy with its extra amps and powerful IR was effective against biological eyes and mechanical sensors.

(The problem is I’m not sure where those tadpoles’ “eyes” even are. Should I assume it’s the same as in a kid’s animal encyclopedia? Can I really entrust my life to a mere assumption ?)

Another transmission cut in.

It came from his classmates Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke.

“Hey, Karuta, can we save her!? She’s moved out too far on her own. I’m not into skinny little bodies like that, but it’s scaring me seeing her do this!!”

“Hee hee hee. Now’s my chance to show off to a s-sexy middle school girl!”

Yamane was at the base of a container pile and Nekoumi was searching for a sniping point at the top.

The Crystal Magicians all had their own traits and specs and the tadpoles were gathering after hearing the commotion. Karuta rationally analyzed their fighting force in his head. Taking too optimistic a view could lead to things unraveling and people dying.

He could only ask them to do what they could actually do.

“Understood, Yamanen. You can tackle Nat- Jane Ignition-san if you need to, but get her away from the front line! Plea-”

His breath caught in his throat.

An unnatural green beam of light had blasted through the container yard after being fired toward the ground at a very shallow angle. It pierced through the foundation of a metal pyramid and melted the asphalt ground into an orange liquid.

Yamane Deiri had been using that pyramid as a shield, so his right arm was torn off at the shoulder.

Which was more frightening: the fact that the blast was powerful enough to break right through the Crystal Magic barrier, or the hippo-like Threat that was in the line of fire but shrugged off the blast?

“Yamanen!!”

(A laser!? Did it come from Second Grimnoah!?)

They were about 500m away.

The special three-hull cruise ship was visible from here and something stood on the roof of the middle school building located on one of the decks.

It was larger even than the metal containers.

It was a pitch black lion with a mane and with several long cylindrical containers swept backwards from either side of its neck. Those containers may have been vacuum tubes or capacitors. Impossibly, they also looked like a flying fish’s pectoral fins.

That was the Sparkle.

Those pectoral fins were spread out like wings, their tips glowed green, and a mysterious energy gradually gathered toward its throat. With its four legs planted firmly on the artificial footing, the lion opened its great maw.

Light the color of a neon sign filled the back of its throat.

It stared straight at Utagai Karuta.

“Shit!!”

He frantically spun around and dove toward the rain-slick road just as the stack of metal containers he had been using as a shield was pierced through. The few drops of scorching orange spray that hit him caused enough pain that he thought he might pass out. Was that what it felt like to be hit by a bullet? If that high-power laser had directly hit him, he would have been vaporized and killed instantly with no chance for regeneration.

The burned skin of his arm was rapidly covered by pointed crystals. The regeneration process had begun, but if even the slightest attack caused the wound to shatter, it would never heal again.

(The artificial rain isn’t working at all!! If we don’t shut that thing down soon, it’ll just keep firing on us. We need to think up a safe way of approaching Second Grimnoah!!)

That was when he heard something odd.

“Ah ha ha.”

Laughter.

It came from the classmate whose arm had been burned off, but this was not an attempt to look tough or the result of confusion. It was the perfectly ordinary laughter you might hear in the classroom.

He casually swung around his right arm covered in pointed crystal while the rain poured down on him.

“The thing tore my damn arm off!! Not bad, Threat. Wa ha ha ha ha! How bout I attach an electric drill or pile bunker!?”

Karuta felt an unpleasant sensation crawling up his spine.

Before the battle began, he had wondered if their previous success was making them overconfident .

(This isn’t right. This isn’t right at all, Yamanen!!)

He thought he could not feel any more fear than he already was, but while he clenched his teeth behind cover, Aine approached, tilted her head, and provided an even more horrifying opinion without bothering to fix the hair plastered to her cheek.

“They might be copying you.”

“Huh?”

Karuta did not even notice as the 30 seconds passed, the crystal shattered, and his skin was as good as new.

“It was you at the Crystal Beach that showed them the optimized fighting style where you ignored all pain and fear and incorporated the destruction of your own body into your tactics. You proved those tactics to be effective while eliminating the decoy Threat, so is it really surprising that the other students who saw you fight that way would want to incorporate the world’s strongest’s tactics into their own tactical flowchart?”

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

He was truly speechless this time.

(I…I made Yamanen and the others like this???)

Still soaking wet, Aine glanced over at him before continuing.

“They taught themselves to do this from their own observations. You seem displeased with the result, but I do not see why the structure of their tactical flowcharts should bother you so much.”

“Of course it bothers me.”

He also realized that the world’s strongest Four Living Gods could not simply fight and win. How they won would set history in motion. What if they saved the world from a great crisis with a suicide attack? They might be perfectly satisfied as they died, but the people who survived would learn from that action. It would teach them that sacrificing their own lives was effective. They might have plenty of other options, but their admiration of those four would give them tunnel vision and they would continue making suicide attacks. It would lead to an age where everyone gave up on trying to win without sacrificing their own lives.

The invisible pressure of being the world’s strongest weighed down on him.

He shook his head before speaking.

“Getting Natlena to fall back comes first right now. Once she’s safe, we can search for a route to approach Second Grimnoah. Aine, any ideas?”

“Yes, about Miss Natlena.”

Aine pointed her crystal-like sword toward Natlena from a distance.

Technically, she was pointing it toward one of the metal containers Natlena was swinging around.

The crystal girl’s sword had a jitte-like branch where a short laser gun unit was attached. She used that projectile to burn through one of the grab bucket wires.

When Natlena suddenly lost her balance, her small body was pulled by the weight of the remaining containers and unmanned transportation vehicles, tossing her through the air. She looked a lot like a fish being pulled from the water by a fishing rod.

“Wah!?”

Her feet were lifted from the wet ground and she flew like a long throw in baseball. Karuta quickly spread his arms to catch the 12-year-old in a princess carry, but her momentum was too great and both of them flew backwards. They ended up rolling along in a tangle, but they ended up behind a large truck. That was their next cover.

“Sacri-sama.” Aine slipped below the truck to join them and gave an expressionless report. “The lion Threat tentatively known as the Sparkle remains on Second Grimnoah’s roof. We require a fundamental countermeasure for its anti-air lasers. If you have no plan at the moment, our only options are to temporarily withdraw or to force our way to the ship, losing lives all the while.”

“…”

“But since that Threat accurately intercepted more than 100 missiles at once, I am skeptical the latter option would even work. Plus, the Sparkle is not the only Threat, so the death rate would rise even further if those tadpole ones slowed us down. Shall we attempt it?”

They could already see it.

It was only 500m away. With the flight of the ordinary Crystal Magic that Natlena, Yamane Deiri, and the others could use, that distance would take less than a second at full speed.

But.

That would mean demanding the students of the second ship sacrifice their lives for the dead first ship.

He squeezed Natlena in his arms to feel the body heat within her soaked uniform.

There was a definite life there.

They had already taken damage. Yamane Deiri’s right arm had been blown clean off by the Sparkle’s anti-air laser and he had only survived because the heat of the laser had instantly cauterized the wound, preventing any bleeding. In other words, it was only dumb luck. With a railgun or coilgun, he would have hemorrhaged blood and his full body would have crystallized.

Would it be the treasure ship that seemed within arm’s reach, or would it be the lives of his fellow students?

He had to choose.

(Dammit!!)

He had to think back.

What kind of strongest had he wanted to be when he first arrived at Grimnoah that spring and his life had still been peaceful? If he lost sight of that, he would end up no different from Anastasia Blast and the rest of the Problem Solvers.

He heard the ominous sound of fire consuming oxygen.

It was far from here, but an attack must have hit a giant tank of crude oil or liquefied natural gas. The workers had been in a rush to shut down the giant pipeline to prevent a largescale conflagration, but that did not help when the actual tanks themselves were destroyed. He could see the orange flames and black smoke. The fire was not spreading inland. It was spreading out toward the ocean which should not have been able to burn.

“That is fortunate.”

He could not believe what Aine had just said, but she apparently did have a logical reason for it.

“If the fuel burns away, there is no risk of it vaporizing and blowing in toward the city. Extinguishing it before the point of leakage is fully shut off could actually lead to the city’s destruction, so be careful.”

The city was safe, but the flames and smoke were spreading into the deserted port and would likely arrive here before long.

There was no time, so Karuta shut his eyes and took a deep breath.

One of the Four Living Gods made up his mind.

He grabbed his underclassman’s shoulders and crouched to her eye level in the rain.

“Listen, Natlena. We’re going to reorganize our forces.”

The fight would not end just because the humans wanted it to. The Threat did not understand their circumstances.

So…

“ We will temporarily withdraw from the Port of Kobe and bring our data and firsthand experiences back to Omotesandou-san and the others. We can work out a countermeasure for the Sparkle’s anti-air lasers then. Allowing everyone to withdraw safely requires forming a rear guard unit, so will you fight with us?”

“B-but if the fire spreads across the ocean, um, it will reach our ship!”

“It isn’t a wooden sailing ship, so a fire on the ocean surface won’t get through its cutting-edge hull. Ship fires are mostly caused by internal equipment. It rarely ever happens from an external source.”

“But…”

Natlena Blast forgot all about how soaked with rain she was as she opened her eyes wide, but he was not budging on this. The Threat’s anti-air lasers had greater specs than they had thought. They could not board Second Grimnoah by forcing their way through the storm of lasers.

(And the others like Yamanen are acting weird. I can only stand here and watch right now, but the way they’re acting, they’ll get themselves killed when they could have won!)

Or they would magically bomb the Threat without thinking of the consequences and end up sinking the academy ship. Light and flames could not be shot down with lasers, but it was unknown if plunging the Threat into the ocean would be enough to kill them. Plus, that would almost certainly shatter Gekiha and the rest of the crystallized people.

(Who do you care about more? Natlena’s group or Gekiha’s group?)

Utagai Karuta hated himself for even briefly weighing those two on the scales.

He could not get greedy.

He could not get fixated on winning. Survival was their top priority.

“Is that okay with you, Aine?”

“I do not mind, so do what you want to do. But while you can possibly fool the media on the ground, the military satellites are another story. Have you considered how the world’s strongest turning tail and running will influence society?”

“Yes. I was the one that got their hopes up, so they can place all the blame on me.”

“Senpai,” said Natlena in an accusatory way, but his mind was made up. Every move he made would influence the entire world. He had already seen that in his classmate Yamane Deiri.

He had to show them the sort of strongest he wanted to be.

Was Utagai Karuta’s idea of the strongest someone who would be broken by one measly loss?

“The real disaster would be if I got so afraid of some imagined accident that I got myself killed. If the strongest can’t lose, then their life has to be treated with the utmost care. We can just ignore all the international criticism on the TV news.”

“Understood,” said Aine. “If this is a rational choice made after serious thought, then I shall obey.”

On the roof 500m away, green light once more glowed from the capacitors spread out from the black lion’s neck like a flying fish’s pectoral fins. The energy gathered on a single point and filled its throat.

But the straight line of destruction unleashed by the Sparkle was not aimed at Karuta and the other Crystal Magicians. In the slight gap between the concrete wharf and the ship itself, the mooring ropes and anchor chain holding Second Grimnoah in place were severed.

Was even the Threat bothered by environmental pollution?

Second Grimnoah was now loose in the waves, so it slowly drifted away from the port.

Utagai Karuta clenched his teeth and forced out a command.

Was it thanks to his initial defeat against the wielders of God Worshiping Magic that he now had the strength to admit defeat as the world’s strongest?

“Withdraw.”

### 116. Part 5

“Heave ho, heave ho.”

Sophia Firenze, a teacher with long flaxen hair kept her voice low as she carried a large pot in both hands. She was wearing a tight skirt suit, but it had the fresh-on-the-job look of someone’s cheap first suit. She was like a puppy on two legs. She gave off an aura that inspired worry in everyone who saw her.

She was apparently preparing food for everyone.

They had the entire international airport to themselves, but she was dragging the cooking equipment out of one of the restaurants. By combining that restaurant equipment with the shelter’s outdoor equipment, she was remaking one corner of the airport into a campground cooking area. After all, there were more than 1000 students between the middle and high school. Using a whole restaurant kitchen might not be enough to cook for that many at once.

Kiyosawa Hadome, a muscular gym teacher in track pants and a tank top, called out to her.

“Firenze-sensei.”

“Oh, Kiyosawa-sensei!”

Sophia’s face lit up while still carrying the large pot.

During the battle at Crystal Beach the other day, they had been fighting against the lack of infrastructure for food and shelter. Sophia had learned a lot from that clash with the decoy Threats in an Arctic blizzard where tomorrow’s food was never guaranteed. For one, she had learned that wielding a weapon was not the only way to fight.

“At times like this, it’s best to cook a large quantity in a biiiig pot! The standard would be curry rice, right? Or would a hearty beef stew be better? Oh, but we could also skip the pot and grill the meat.”

“Each child’s condition is unique and the stress will affect them all differently too. You should probably have vegetable smoothies ready for the students with upset stomachs.”

“Oh, you’re right. That would fill them up and be decently nutritious! What a great idea!!”

Kiyosawa was generally feared by the students, but he always grew more polite when around Sophia. He knew it was a bad habit of his, but he could not stop himself.

He glanced over at the President moving by on her wheelchair a short distance away before providing more advice.

“It would also be helpful if you took down notes of the ingredients and cooking methods used when making something to feed a large group of students. You don’t want to find out later that you can’t remember what secret ingredient you added.”

After all, Grimnoah gathered people with rare talent from all around the world. It was not uncommon for students to have dietary restrictions due to allergies, religious reasons, or being a vegetarian.

Sophia seemed motivated, so he left the cooking to her. Maybe this outdated way of thinking made him an old-fashioned sort of gym teacher, but if those overly energetic brats could have the home cooking of a muscular male gym teacher or a young female teacher, he could guess which one they would choose.”

“Darjeeling, hm?”

Kiyosawa Hadome himself checked some of the tea leaves found among the cooking equipment and ingredients scattered about. Those tea leaves were so well-known and ubiquitous that it was hard to judge their quality, but as an international airport, the leaves inside the rectangular canister looked fairly high quality to him.

Tea was wonderful. You could drink it as is or you could use it to flavor a dessert. It was an elegant thing but also contained caffeine, so it could help boost morale a little on the battlefield. He found it more useful than coffee.

“Wow.” Sophia tilted her head. “You do that quick, Kiyosawa-sensei. Is this a specialty of yours?”

“I do live on my own. Although I will admit I gained these skills from a former classmate of mine who tended to boss everyone around when it came to cooking.” The muscular teacher sighed. “Also, if any students say they aren’t hungry, try recommending some stretches before giving them any digestive medicine. Hunger is a biological signal, so if you get your organs back on the proper cycle, you will feel it soon enough.”

“Eh? Even though everyone’s exhausted after fighting on the front line?”

“The muscles used for track, swimming, and martial arts are all different. You only focus on your lungs when exercising, so it is fairly common to forget all about your other organs while working so hard to move your arms and legs. Something as simple as changing the way you breathe can stimulate muscles you rarely use, so a single 10-minute yoga session can get your organs in order and really change how you feel.”

“I thought you would be a lot stricter about food.”

“If you aren’t on an extreme diet or trying to lose weight before a match, you can eat most anything in moderation.”

A tremor ran through the air.

Some boys and girls in crystal armor had gathered in the air just outside the airport’s large window as they prepared to head out to the front line. The students were quickly taking charge during this fight. Kiyosawa Hadome hated that, but there was nothing he could do to change that on his own. The local people had evacuated, but they still needed to protect the city from the Threat.

“This is all we can do for the students as they fly to a deadly battlefield without a single complaint,” he muttered to himself with the tea canister in hand. The look on his face was one he would never let the students see. “Don’t you die, brats.”

### 117. Part 5

The floating general airport’s control tower had enough communications equipment to intercept transmissions on any frequency, but now Omotesandou Kyouka had the random number table needed to decrypt the Indian military’s transmissions.

A vast amount of clear voices and data were revealed to her.

But even with it all visible and audible, it used a lot of technical terms and codewords meant to hide those terms, so a normal person would have had a hard time comprehending what was being said. But she was different.

“I see.”

“Wh-what is it?” hesitantly asked Letnahe Kurent.

She would not escape this untouched now that she had handed over the flash memory containing the random number table. She had shaken free of her hesitation, but she would still want something useful to come of it.

She had cast out her spirit of justice for this.

Even after marrying and exchanging rings, she had never been able to throw out her first love. She would protect Kiyosawa Hadome from this crisis. She would not back down on that no matter what.

Kyouka removed her headset.

“The Indian Space Force wants to launch their nuclear strike no matter what. Since they refuse to recalculate their schedule even as the conditions change and new information comes in, they are most likely planning for their attack on the Threat to fail. I explained that much before, didn’t I?”

“But why!? If they launch a nuclear strike but it doesn’t show results, the international backlash will be fierce. Does the Indian military want to commit diplomatic suicide!?”

“What if they could bring another country down with them?”

Kyouka laughed and Letnahe stared in shocked silence.

“On who will responsibility fall if the nuclear strike fails? This mission is not being run by the Indian military alone; it is run by the larger coalition force. I don’t know if the US or China are in charge, but whatever superpower is at the top will take the blame more than any of the individual countries making up the coalition. All those smaller countries will refuse to take the blame, insisting that the superpower pressured them into it.”

“So you’re saying,” the silver-haired, brown-skinned soldier gulped while touching the side of her glasses. “Everyone would take damage, but not the same amount? And if another country took more damage than their own, then the Indian military would benefit? That’s their game!?”

“Everyone signs nuclear reduction treaties, but nuclear weapons never seem to go away, do they? Why is that? If the treaty says each country must reduce their nuclear weapons by 30%, then the burden is vastly different for a country with 100 versus a country with 10,000. Which is why they never succeed. Well, they might do it so they can dispose of the excess they don’t want to bother keeping around any longer, but a compromise to bring peace? That’s only an excuse used once they have carefully thought through everything and they know the burden on the other nation will be greater. It’s a strategic move, similar to something from shogi or chess.”

With a normal nuclear reduction treaty, the damage would not be all that great.

They only agreed to a target to aim for and there were no actual penalties in place if they failed to achieve that target. The country could weasel out of it with their usual equivocation.

But things would be different this time. They would have made a nuclear strike that failed to defeat the Threat. They would have caused many unnecessary deaths. And it would be unclear whether responsibility lay with the Indian military or the entire coalition force.

Would that be allowed to stand?

The furious people of the world would undoubtedly demand a forced reduction treaty with actual penalties for noncompliance. The actual reduction amount might be 50% or 80%, but whatever it was, the countries with more nukes would have to pay more to dispose of them.

India was officially recognized as a nuclear power, but they had far fewer than America or Russia. If they could keep the damage to themselves low, they could effectively rob their opponents of national power.

“What is my homeland doing?” asked Letnahe like it was a curse.

She cared about the family represented by her ring, but she also could not throw out the memories of her first love contained in her watch.

While trapped between those two, she had to be aware that everyone in the world had people they cared about in the same way. And they had met other people they found irreplaceable. But all of that would be brought crashing down as simply as performing a sum or subtraction.

But Kyouka shrugged.

“I can’t really blame them.”

“?”

“All of humanity must join together to fight the Threat. That one excuse is all anyone needs to endlessly expand their military these days. But the fight against the Threat will end someday. And what will everyone do with their stockpiled weapons then? Do you really think they will dispose of them after spending so much money on them? Do you honestly think the top brass will throw out all their privileges and make themselves unemployed?”

“But…”

“The fight against the Threat might end, but they will still find a way to make those weapons necessary. How about they fight against natural disasters? They could use powerful missiles to drive the greenhouse gasses out of their country and they could use underground nuclear experiments to create artificial earthquakes that provide a safe release for the power of the plates. Really, it could be anything, even missile farming or drone mining. They will all find some reason or another to protect their way of life. …We will continue to live in an age where every country wants as many weapons as it can get. So is it that strange for someone to decide now that they should take weapons away from the other nations?”

Letnahe gasped this time.

She could not believe how far this conspiracy went. Each individual piece might seem reasonable enough in isolation, but the end result had put Omotesandou Kyouka’s home of Japan in the crosshairs. Not only had she been born and raised there, but her trusted companions were fighting on the front line just before this meaningless nuclear strike that was never meant to succeed.

Yet she “couldn’t really blame them”?

She actually sympathized with India’s plans and what they hoped to gain?

“What is going on in that head of yours?” Letnahe was dumbfounded, but she could not keep her questions inside. The words came out on their own. “Do you know how many civilians with no connection to the fight against the Threat will die!? And not just from the direct blast and heat! The wind will carry the fallout across this entire archipelago!! This isn’t just some number calculated out on a document. The lives being snuffed out here are all people who someone cares about more than anyone else in the world. That someone cares about so much they would be willing to violate all their principles and morals to protect them!”

“Yes.” Even now, Kyouka responded as promptly as ever. “I’m sure you already know since you must have done a thorough investigation on me, but my family lives in Kyoto. My parents, my grandmother, and my little brother. Oh, and the servants and drivers who have worked for my family long enough that they’re basically family to me. Their only real source of information is TV and the newspaper. That and anything they hear people talking about in the neighborhood, I suppose. They’re as normal as they come and a little too accustomed to peace, so I have my doubts if they would even evacuate after hearing the siren blaring. Even so, they are fairly well known in the local area.”

“…”

“I care about them more than my own life. In the event of a nuclear explosion, they will receive a large dose of radiation. And if Crystal Magic fails and the Threat is free to attack, they might just wipe out all of Kansai.”

Yet she was unmoved.

She remained her usual self and took only the optimal actions.

She had lifted her mind to a place that Letnahe had never managed since she kept her ring on even while wearing that white military uniform.

“But why should I weep and wail? What would that change?” Anyone who saw the President here would realize that even smiles came in multiple varieties. This one looked like her face had been sliced open in a crescent moon shape. “The first ship taught me all too well that death does not discriminate. Pray all you want, no god is going to answer. God is not a vending machine that dispenses miracles for anyone who wants one. Do these not sound like the words of the strongest? Writing up a formal complaint about life being unfair would be a waste of time. We need to focus on the good fortune we have to find ourselves here and with a few different options available to us. We can still change how this plays out. So what is it we can do? And what should we do?”

“Are you saying…you know the answer to that?”

“Whether it is an ‘unfortunate misunderstanding’ or a ‘communications failure’, the Indian Space Force wants an excuse to launch their nuke. They want something that shows Grimnoah has lost and the adult military must take over.”

“Are you saying you can keep them from doing that by taking away their excuse? Like…having Grimnoah defeat the Threat right away? No, we wouldn’t be in this mess if you could-”

“Wrooong,” cut in the President. Then she presented her conclusion. “We can’t defeat the Threat right away, but don’t you think we could obscure the result, ensuring no one can tell if we won or lost?”

### 118. Part 5

How many times had they done this now?

Crystal Girl Aine’s sword sliced through the air. It slipped past the Warrior Doll’s defenses on the right to strike its torso. But that only produced a high-pitched clang. It scraped the surface somewhat but was nowhere close to a critical wound.

She was not made to turn a blind eye to her deficiencies, so she directly faced the fact that this was insufficient.

That boy had been with her since the first ship was still around, so he had to know what she needed to boost her specs.

Everyone had seen it from the beginning.

They had seen it but overlooked it.

Crystal Girl Aine glanced over at one of the tadpoles lying motionless on its back. She had two decorations protruding from her head that might have been horns and might have been hair. Most likely, not even Utagai Karuta knew for sure what they were.

But right now, they squirmed on their own like the mandibles of a stag beetle or ant.

Everyone had to know by now that the girl grew by eating the pure gold needed to construct circuits. And what was the Threat?

A Metal-Derived Autonomous-Origin Higher Lifeform Combat Weapon.

The reaction spread past the two horns and Aine’s entire head produced a straining sound like something was preparing to open wide.

There was a way to grow stronger.

She had frequently mentioned it ever since the First Out Incident that sank the first ship.

The humans had sensed a deficiency in her specs and sought greater strength.

That was the only way she could protect Utagai Karuta.

So…

“What you did was wrong.”

“…”

“But that was my fault too. Listen, Aine. Once this is over, let’s relearn everything from the ground up. We can return to our dorm room, sleep like a log, get some food, and get through those boring classes. But to do that, you need to do everything you can to learn how to survive.”

The disturbance inside her stopped.

Instead of the two horns, it was her two lovely eyes that seemed to be watching a nightmare repeat itself.

Karuta had just swung his flashlight. He could blind the Warrior Doll so it would miss, but his weapon could not actually stop that sword colored by a plasma jet. If he did not dodge it, he would be sliced in two. Yet he showed no hesitation.

He trusted Aine.

He was looking to something inside her.

She had already seen the simplest answer, but she had a feeling that was not the answer he was hoping for as he wore his own life down.

The crystal girl’s thoughts surpassed the logical.

She once more considered the boy’s words.

What was it he wanted from her here?

### 119. Part 6

“Nh, kh,” groaned a voice back on the floating general airport about 30km south of the frontline.

More specifically, it was inside a flight attendant locker room.

Amaashi Marika tried to suppress her voice, but she could still feel it escaping through her nose. She made one final effort while feeling her entire body squeezed tight from the outside.

“Nhhhhh!!!!!!”

“Yes, yes. There aren’t any teenage boys around to excite, so you can stop making all that noise. Look, all done.”

She had cleared the final barrier with the help of her more mature classmate Hashizaki Tayori. A special synthetic material less than a millimeter thick now covered her all the way up to her shoulders.

She blushed when she saw herself in the large mirror.

The skintight, waterproof, and heat insulating material covered her arms, legs, and torso equally, leaving only her head exposed. It was apparently a cutting-edge silent diving suit, but the shape of her breasts, butt, collarbones, and even navel showed through.

She twisted around to get a look at her back in the mirror.

“Yikes. I knew this would show off my figure, but not this much.”

“You always sleep in the nude, so why does this bother you so much? Anyway, if you’re done, then help me out.”

“Sure thing, Imi.”

Cutting-edge or not, Marika thought there was something wrong with a suit so tight you could not get it on by yourself. Matsuda Imi had managed to get it on her legs by herself, so Marika and Tayori stood on either side of her and worked together to tug the thin material up over the girl’s shoulders. It felt a lot like struggling with a thick rubber panel stuck to the ground.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!!”

“Bear with it.”

“I…I think it’s kinda caught on my boobs! Ow! I-it’s rubbing!”

“You’re imagining it. It’s perfectly smooth on the inside.”

With a solid snap, Imi was dressed.

“So now the oxygen tanks and our luggage?” asked Tayori who had gotten into hers first.

“Ugh, will this thing really work? I feel like the crotch is going to rip as soon as I spread my legs a little.”

“If you’re worried, then why not test it out? Do some gymnastic stretches, Marika.”

That was a good point, so Marika cautiously moved her body while Tayori supported her. She knew it was designed to allow this kind of movement, but she was still scared since she found that hard to believe.

“First, lower your hips like normal.”

“Okay.”

Tayori placed her hands on Marika’s shoulders while standing in front of her. The two of them bent their knees to lower their hips.

“Once your butt is on the floor, keep your knees bent and slowly spread your legs to the sides.”

“Nh, like this?”

“And with your legs still spread, I just have to flip you over and lift your butt up high. Tah dah! Now you’ve mastered that embarrassing pose they do in porn all the time!”

“Bffhhh!!!??? What is wrong with you, Tayori!?”

“It didn’t tear, did it?”

Marika blushed and struggled (while flipped upside down) and Tayori laughed while still holding the girl’s legs in place.

Meanwhile, Matsuda Imi was restlessly rubbing her thighs together.

“Um, uh.”

“What, is it tighter than you expected and you’ve taken a liking to it? Y’know, like a bike seat?”

“It’s not that…ahh, I can’t take it. I’m so nervous it’s about to leak out on its own. Marika, Tayori, help me get this thing off! I need to use the restroom.”

“What a pain. We just got it on you!!”

Marika complained while stripping the teenage girl bare. Once she was naked again, Imi left the room, but this was actually a problem that fighter pilots and astronauts had yet to fully solve. The best solution was to avoid drinking very much fluids while on standby, just like a small child afraid of wetting the bed.

(It’s going to be cold in the water, so we need to look after our health on this mission.)

The other two sensitive teenage girls kept that thought on their minds as they awaited their friend’s return.

Yes.

Marika grabbed some thick goggles and used her other hand to flick the Crystal Blossom on the chest of her suit.

“Okay, Omotesandou-san. We’re about to leave.”

“Understood. Once you’re in the ocean, avoid any communications other than short-range ones with your team. Long-distance communications are off limits both with your Crystal Blossom and your phone.”

“Do you really think the Threat can intercept those? Not even research lab quantum computers have been able to analyze how Crystal Blossom communications work. And the Threat might not even understand the concepts of encryption and transmissions.”

“The trick to survival is to always assume the worst when you aren’t confident about something. And do you remember the observation reports of a sea urchin Threat covered in moving rods that looked an awful lot like TV antennas? Plus…”

“Plus?”

“This is more of a jinx than anything with real data to back it up, but they swear the manned high-altitude spy planes that don’t send out any signals last longer than the unmanned spy drones that are constantly sending signals back to their base. The Sparkle’s anti-air lasers supposedly fire more often with the latter. Of course, the altitude, speed, material, size, and shape are all different, so it’s hard to say if the signals are really what’s causing it.”

Last longer.

That meant the manned and unmanned ones were both shot down in the end. Even the professional soldiers had thrown in the towel without finding a workable strategy. The apocalypse had arrived at the Port of Kobe – most people were just not aware of it yet.

Kyouka continued like they were only having a casual chat.

“By the way, Karuta-kun and the others seem to be having a harder time than expected as they make their attack on the surface. He says they’re going to withdraw and bring back their raw data and experiences.”

“What is he doing?”

“We had a feeling this might happen, didn’t we? Which is why you need to do your part down there in the ocean. That is our real attack, after all. ”

Imi returned naked and with a bashful smile, so it was time to get that annoyance of a skintight suit back on her.

“I bet that President says the same thing to everyone,” commented gyaru-ish Tayori while they worked at Imi’s suit.

“Really? She seems surprisingly naïve deep down to me.”

Tayori and Marika were of split opinions on this, but that was not a problem.

The three girls grabbed some metal tanks that felt heavy out of the water and placed them over their backs. They grabbed some waterproof bags before moving outside. Even with the special suits on, the rain still felt unpleasant. They walked across the flat megafloat to the straight-line edge.

Imi put on some large goggles and looked down toward the water.

“Wow, I didn’t realize we were so high up. Is that about three meters?”

“Less talking, more jumping.”

“Hey, don’t push on my butt, Tayori…gyaaahhh!?”

Imi was shoved off into the ocean by a hand on her butt (that had avoided the tank on her back) and then Marika and Tayori jumped into the water dyed orange by the light.

With their cutting-edge silent diving suits, they could ignore the water temperature and pressure and the slight bumps on the surface reduced the noise of their movement through the water as much as possible. Supposedly anyway. They had no way of knowing if any of that was really happening.

“Ugh, I hear a lot of bubbling when I breath out. Are you sure this thing’s working?”

“Quite complaining, Imi. We need to follow the fiber optic cable on the ocean floor to reach the Port of Kobe.”

“If only things were still going as planned. I really wish Karuta had actually done his job as a diversion and drawn their attention more.”

The girls spoke using the short-range communications of their Crystal Blossoms while they began to move just off the ocean floor. Since they could swim straight there and ignore the land route, it was about 30km north from the floating general airport to the Port of Kobe. That would eat away their stamina more than a full marathon if they swam like normal, so they would be too exhausted to fight once they arrived. That was why they needed to surround themselves in crystal armor and take advantage of the flight that provided.

Yes, they could use Crystal Magic underwater.

This was a nonstandard usage, though, so there were a few things they had to watch out for.

“Power up. …Imi, Tayori, don’t move too quickly. The water creates a lot of resistance, so you would only crush yourself with your own speed.”

“And with the goggles and mouthpiece on. I’m afraid of hurting my teeth by flying with this thing in my mouth.”

“The tank is dangerous too, but we still need it. If the wall of water causes our preset barrier to activate, all our luggage will be deflected away from us.”

However, the points of the crystal armor rendered the silent diving suits mostly useless as far as water resistance was concerned.

And of course, this required some level of caution. They were approaching the Metal-Derived Autonomous-Origin Higher Lifeform Combat Weapons commonly known as the Threat. No one knew if they were biological or mechanical. If they did not need oxygen or had gills, they would be able to move through the water just fine.

And in fact…

“Be careful,” said Marika while they advanced through the ocean.

There was a large mass up ahead. A hemispherical umbrella of black metal was floating in the seawater. Perhaps it was meant to look like a jellyfish. The 2m object was attached to the ocean floor with a thick chain and had long tentacles thinner than hairs flowing freely in the current. It looked more like a sea mine meant to obstruct travel through the ocean than it did a predator with a mind of its own.

That jellyfish Threat slowly wobbled side to side in the orange ocean, but it was not alone. When looking off into the distance, red lights could be seen slowly flashing like the lights on top of skyscrapers at night.

“Mines? They have red lights, but they don’t seem to have eyes.”

“How can you tell, Tayori?”

“If they could locate us with lenses, they would have surrounded us by now. Hey, Imi, can you think of any reason for the Threat to spare a human? And these real ones attacked Second Grimnoah for some reason. That suggests they know the value of Crystal Magic.”

The girls made sure to avoid touching the long tentacles as they swam past the black jellyfish along the ocean floor. Luckily, none of them suddenly opened a large mouth or exploded as they passed by.

“What do we call those?” asked Imi while looking back a few times. “Does the discoverer get to name them???”

“Don’t use your long-range communications to ask the President. The Threat would notice and surround us immediately.”

But Marika was not ready to celebrate having successfully avoided them.

“It isn’t just the Port of Kobe. The Threat has spread over a much wider area of ocean. How far has their contamination spread?”

“We can only pray they don’t already have the entire Japanese Archipelago surrounded.”

The fact that no one could laugh at Tayori’s melancholic statement showed just how bad the situation was.

For one thing, the Threat had supposedly come from the bottom of the ocean when they attacked Second Grimnoah, so the girls could not let their guard down.

They kept their speed low so as not to be crushed between their own speed and the water resistance as they followed the underwater fiber optic cable to the Port of Kobe. Even with the water resistance reducing their speed, it only took them 45 minutes to cover the 30km.

They saw a few oddities other than the jellyfish at the bottom of the bay.

Giant red flowers were blossoming on the ocean floor.

“What are those?” asked Imi. “Sea urchins? No, these look softer.”

“They might be sea anemones,” said Tayori.

The smaller ones had a diameter of 10m and the larger ones had a diameter of more than 100m. Countless tentacles were spread out in a circle, almost like a sunflower. The tentacles looked too soft to be made of metal as they expanded and contracted to envelop their fellow Threats that dropped down from the ocean.

(Why are they so jiggly? Are they a liquid despite being made of hard metal? No, maybe they’re a collection of small hard pieces, like a beanbag cushion.)

Most of the sea anemones were glowing red, but some were emitting a green light instead. Those ones were spreading their tentacle flowers wide and sending out the tadpole Threats contained within them. And those tadpoles were the size of a large truck.

Imi’s eyes widened behind her thick goggles.

“Their tentacles are stabbing into the other ones.”

The red light would then turn green.

That reminded Marika of something. Even if it was not accurate.

“Are they charging the others up???”

“They do seem to be throbbing in places. But that’s making an awful lot of noise for transporting a liquid. It may be some kind of solid, like a jelly or blocks of something. Whether you would call it fuel or food would depend on the exact mechanism they use, but I bet they are securing some kind of power source.”

Destroying those underwater gas stations may have dealt a blow to the Threat, but Marika stopped that line of thinking. The jellyfish and sea anemone Threats may not have had eyes and ears, but the ones on the surface would. Vision in the seawater was not great, but they would still be noticed if they moved too close. Plus, they had no data on how many of these gas stations existed in the ocean. If they were everywhere, then destroying just what they could see here would not be enough to stop the Threat as a whole.

They would be needlessly revealing their presence with no guarantee of any real effect.

In that case, it was not worth changing their plan for.

Marika shook her head to shake off the temptation.

“Let’s go, Imi, Tayori. That isn’t our target.”

“Understood.”

They knew those red and green glowing sea anemone gas stations were carrying other Threats, so they made sure they did not run into any other Threats moving to and from the ocean’s surface as they swam upwards.

Their heads silently emerged from the orange surface of the ocean.

“Pwah.”

Imi lifted her goggles to her forehead and removed the oxygen tank’s mouthpiece from her mouth while salty-smelling water dripped from her bangs.

“We’re back, Second Grimnoah. My phone contract is still in my dorm room, so I can’t have you kicking me out. I’ve already forgotten the PIN I was given in case I had any trouble.”

A giant wall towered up before them.

The wall of laminated material had an angle of more than 90 degrees, so it was leaning out toward them. Needless to say, that was the hull of the Second Grimnoah academy ship’s special three hull structure.

Tayori stared into the distance instead of at their objective. There was some obvious black smoke there.

“The ship has drifted away from shore. The port is all the way over there.”

“There’s an oil fire on the ocean near the port, so we’re actually lucky it’s drifted away.”

Marika looked up from the water. They could not fly up on top of the ship since it had to be crawling with Threats of all shapes and sizes, but that was not what she was interested in.

“Where’s that laser one?”

“The Sparkle was up on the flat roof, so it shouldn’t be able to see us unless it intentionally looks out over the edge. And as an anti-air weapon, it’s probably more interested in what’s at a distance than at its own feet.”

The Threat would find them if they carelessly flew into the sky, so Marika put her mouthpiece back in and gestured downwards.

She added more with her Crystal Blossom’s short-range communications.

“We can move freely in the water, so let’s dive back down. They’ll have a harder time finding us there.”

“Eh? Is there even an entrance below the water level? Wouldn’t the ship sink with a hole there???”

“Imi, a ship of this size doesn’t move around with just the rudder and propeller on the back. It’s bound to have side thrusters.”

Side thrusters were propellers that pushed seawater out of holes on the sides of the ship. They were used when leaving port or to spin the ship like a turntable by sending water out of the front right side and the rear left side or vice versa.

The motionless propeller was twice as tall as Marika.

After using their oxygen tanks to swim into the tunnel, they entered the ship through a maintenance airlock that used a pressurized pump. It felt a lot like opening a manhole cover and crawling out onto the street.

“Pwah! That was…the worst!!”

Marika spat out her mouthpiece, pulled up her goggles, and shook her head.

The weight of the thick tank weighed down on her again now that the water’s support was gone.

She was also worried about her hair. It was even more soaked with salty seawater than she had expected.

She saw metal pipes, stairs, and strange machinery. There were of course no windows. The place looked more like a workshop than a school. Second Grimnoah looked very different belowdecks than abovedeck.

This was her school and the dorm where she lived, but she did not at all feel the relief of coming home. The pressure squeezing at her heart may have been even greater than in the blizzard at the Crystal Beach. This was an extreme battlefield crawling with the true Threat. They could not be spoken to and the war treaties did not apply. If they were cornered in a dead end and raised their hands to surrender, they would only be swarmed and slaughtered. The tension was on a much greater level.

Now, why had the girls taken such a great risk to sneak into enemy territory with just the three of them?

They had already mentioned the answer.

Marika brushed up her wet bangs and looked to the heavy ceiling.

“That anti-air laser one is on the roof, right? I just hope it hasn’t moved from there.”

“The Sparkle can’t see us in here.”

“Just to be sure, let’s climb up from within the school building. If we can just take out the Sparkle in a surprise attack, the others can fight their way here. We’ll have our school back in no time.”

Of course, this plan fell apart if the Threat found them before that surprise attack succeeded. They understood the power and accuracy of that green laser all too well. They wanted to approach from a blind spot and finish it off in a single attack, not allowing it any attacks of its own.

The middle school building was directly above them.

Gyaru-ish Tayori put a hand on her hip.

“Do we take the stairs like normal?”

“I’m betting they’re watching all the ordinary routes.”

They still did not know why the Threat had attacked Second Grimnoah and occupied it instead of sinking it, but they knew there were some Threats inside here.

Something large and round was slowly rolling near a distant bulkhead.

“Shh!”

Imi immediately reached for her Crystal Blossom, so Marika quickly grabbed at her slender wrist and dragged her behind cover. Tayori slipped behind a different piece of machinery.

Marika held her friend in her arms while silently checking on whatever that was. It had a nearly spherical body with something like TV antennas sticking out in every direction. Each of those wriggled independently from the rest to push its body forward. It was maybe 2m tall if you counted out to the ends of the spines.

Was it…a slate pencil urchin?

Those lived among the tropical fish and coral reefs of the tropical seas, so Marika had often seen them on the first ship.

Of course, this only resembled one and behaved nothing like them.

The power of this Threat was unknown. Would it crush them with its giant body, would it shoot those spines like spears, or would it roast them with invisible EM waves? And even if they could defeat it, how many more Threats would rush in afterwards? They would gain nothing from trying to fight here.

“Gah. Marika, your boobs are too big.”

“How is that my fault?”

“What is that thing, anyway? One of the sea urchins they were talking about at the airport???” Imi tilted her head while not looking all that upset about drowning in her friend’s chest. “It’s pretty small compared to the tadpoles and that lion. And isn’t this the engine room – well, sub engine room. We’re right in the heart of their fortress.”

“Maybe the bigger ones simply can’t move around in the ship very well,” suggested Tayori.

Marika listened to those two while silently expanding her pointed crystal armor again.

But not to fight.

She could fly using Crystal Magic. She floated up from the floor using a thick pipe as a shield and slipped inside an emergency smoke vent near the ceiling. They did not need to follow the map or blueprint of the ship. And they did not have to worry about being shot down by the Sparkle’s high-power lasers while inside the ship.

“Wait, Marika, how did you fit inside there? My armor’s catching on the entrance.”

“Put your armor away. I know it’s a pain to power it up every time you need it, but just do it.”

This smoke vent was for emergencies, so it was rarely if ever used and thus nice and clean inside. Using this, they could easily reach the school building or dorm up above the deck.

Except…

“Argh, this suit is clinging to my skin. And the tank and goggles are in the way!”

Marika clicked her tongue at herself for only noticing that now, but she could not change inside the cramped smoke vent. After arriving in an area above the deck, she removed the metal grate on the ceiling and looked down into the hallway.

She gasped.

They were already in the middle school building. A tingling fear crawled up from her fingers now instead of when they had entered the ship. It was like being forced to stick your hand into a drain that was not just covered in sticky goop but coated with small unidentified bugs.

The school was awfully dark.

But not just because tons of Threats were covering the windows. Something like metal panels had been pasted onto the outside with some kind of adhesive. Those had apparently been taken from Second Grimnoah’s repair materials and deck-top equipment. The girls could hear claws scratching at the other side.

“Are they making nests? Do they have a bagworm type?”

(How lived-in this place looks makes it so much worse.)

That thought came to Marika’s mind as she hung upside down from the ceiling. Finding yourself in a strange forest at night would be a disaster, but finding yourself in a familiar hospital or amusement park at night would become a test of courage. This was the same.

The school looked entirely different now.

Marika gulped, but the fear remained below her throat.

Unlike a famous suicide spot, the darkness here could be swept away. She forced herself to focus on that fact. If they only got rid of the Threat, the usual Second Grimnoah would be back. She knew what was causing the problem, so she knew where to go. She would at least not be wasting her time.

Which meant…

(Hm.)

The classroom windows were covered with scrap material too, so they were full of scratching noises from outside. Was the metal over the windows meant to give the Threats footholds, not to provide armor?

“Now’s our chance to get changed.”

“In there? In what world, Marika? Could you sleep soundly in a mortuary freezer just because it’s about the same size as a sleeping bag?”

Imi’s eyes widened in shock, but this was enemy territory – there was no such thing as a safe zone here. With that metal covering the windows and thus blocking the inside of the room from view, this was as close to safe as they were going to get. In fact, building a sturdy but conspicuous shelter would only draw attention and get them surrounded.

First, Marika dropped down from the ceiling into the hallway and then she supported Imi from below while the girl’s legs flailed.

Once inside the empty classroom, Marika silently lowered the oxygen tank from her back and pulled her usual school uniform from the waterproof bag she had been carrying. The silent diving suit was useful in the water, but it would only get in the way while trying to fight on the ship. And if the Threat was intelligent enough to notice unnatural drops of water on the floor and investigate, the wet diving suits would get them tracked. The three girls balled up their used suits and stuffed them in their bags before sticking the bags, oxygen tanks, and goggles in the cleaning supply lockers lined up by the wall.

They lacked the guts to use a loud dryer, but wiping down their wet hair with a towel helped a lot. Marika tied her uniform’s tie with practiced hand.

“Note where this empty classroom is. If we screw up and have to withdraw, we’ll need to retrieve our equipment.”

“I’d rather not think about that possibility.”

They were keeping their tone light to avoid being swallowed up by fear, but one of the girls remained silent.

Marika and Tayori looked over in confusion.

“Imi?”

“…”

The girl did not respond even as they called her name.

She had not even finished changing. The salty water was dripping from her bangs and her short skirt remained haphazardly caught on her hips because she had not zipped it up as she stared at something. Whatever it was, it was not in the classroom. Her eyes were on the glimpse of the hallway visible through the not-quite-closed sliding door.

There was something there.

A slender hand beckoned at them through that gap in the door.

It eerily drew the attention of whoever that looked at it.

“Wait, Imi!?”

Imi started to stagger toward the classroom door with her underwear and soft skin still not fully covered. This was strange. Something was not right. Marika and Tayori grabbed at her shoulders to stop her, but they were dragged out of the classroom too.

Immediately, their eyes met those of a naked girl.

The younger girl’s long blue hair fluttered behind her despite the lack of wind. Her skin was so bright it was almost painful to look at, but something really was not right about this. The Threat had occupied this ship and Marika’s group should have been the only three who had snuck onboard.

Then whatever this was, it should not be categorized as human.

It may have been a lure like an anglerfish’s luminescent organ. In fact, the blue-haired girl lacked feet, just like a ghost. Instead of ankles, her legs extended down and attached to the hallway floor.

The thing that looked like a blue-haired girl never stopped smiling.

They did not have time to regret it.

(Oh, no.)

The camouflage was removed from the walls, floor, and ceiling and sea anemone tentacles blossomed out in all directions. The many tentacles rushed in toward the prey that had been lured into the center of its territory.

### 120. Part 6

Karuta groaned.

His throat moved against his will. The back of his mind was full of noise and he could not stop the scream that was threatening to explode in his chest.

His trembling hand was already moving, but not to cover his mouth.

It was moving toward his Crystal Blossom. His mind was focused on its communication function even though using it would mean death here.

“Sacri-sama.”

“Gh!?”

Aine kicked him in the back of the knees, his vision dropped straight down, and she pulled his head toward her flat chest while shoving him into a nearby classroom.

The heavy and damp sound coming from the hallway had to be one of the Threats. Aine pressed against the wall while sealing his mouth by holding his head to her flat chest while she also held the sword tight in her other hand.

It was all over if they were found.

But Aine’s pulse through her thin wet dress was as accurate as a grandfather clock’s pendulum. Her heartrate apparently did not rise due to tension. The sound out in the hallway was awfully sticky for black metal and it slowly moved toward them from the far end of the hallway.

Would they be safe in this empty classroom?

Of course not. The other side of the windows covered with metal panels were crawling with Threats shaped like wharf roaches and legged tadpoles. Those things produced a disturbing number of scratching sounds.

A crystalized girl’s leg had been on the floor in the hall.

There was no safe zone here. The normal assumptions had long since stopped applying.

They were isolated. Not only were none of their allies around, but they were about as surrounded by predators as it was possible to be. This was not a lonely isolation. It was the isolation of being behind enemy lines. Merely existing like this was enough to wear down the heart.

“I suggested they are not reliant on visual information, remember? As long as we keep the curtains closed, the windows will not be a problem. But we do not know how sturdy those metal panels are or if there are any gaps between them, so we must be on the lookout for any open space.”

However, Aine was worried about the hallway.

“We have less information on the hallway, so we cannot say how many methods they have to search us out or move around,” whispered the crystal girl. “The risk there is greater. The Threat may be scattering lubricant across the floor to assist their movement.”

“…”

“But leeches and slugs coat themselves in slime to prevent themselves from drying out in the air, so they generally actually want more friction with the ground in order to provide a more solid grip. …Sacri-sama?”

Karuta did not respond.

He could not stop trembling. Aine’s steady body heat did nothing to calm him. He was breathing heavily and a cold sweat poured from his body.

The crystal girl continued speaking with the boy’s head held to her flat chest.

“It appears the Threat in the hallway has gone elsewhere. There is no more danger as long as we do not provoke the ones outside the windows. Do not worry. None of them appear to have noticed us.”

No, that was not the source of his fear. His own life did not matter.

Something else was filling his mind.

He moved his trembling lips as he clung to the crystal girl’s chest.

“That was a girl’s leg.” He wanted to reject that fact, but he could find no way of doing so. “But whose? That’s obvious. There aren’t all that many Crystal Magicians on Second Grimnoah now that the Threat has taken over. So…so that had to be…”

“Sacri-sama.”

“ There’s not some rule that says Marika will always make it out okay. When people die, they really do just die. That’s the kind of shitty world we live in.”

“Sacri-sama.”

She repeated herself more strongly as if to cut him off.

“That was a human right leg. Based on the shape, it likely belonged to a girl.”

“Kh.”

“But on the other hand, we only found the leg there.”

“So?”

He looked up while still pathetically clinging to her.

Their lips were only a few centimeters apart as he squeezed out a desperate voice like a baby bird asking for food.

“The rest of the body might have been smashed to pieces by the jaws of a Threat the size of construction machinery.”

“That is not my point.”

Aine stroked the back of his head while holding him to her flat chest. She was a head shorter than him, but she looked like a mother soothing a small child.

“There was no sock, shoe, skirt, or underwear crystallized along with the leg, was there?”

“Oh.”

She was a part of him, but she had pointed out something he had failed to realize himself.

He had never known how much it could help to talk something out with someone else.

“Crystal Magic regeneration is generally made to heal wounds, but when the magician receives a fatal wound and their full body crystallizes, their clothing and other possessions are solidified along with them.”

“So…so that means Marika isn’t dead yet? That wasn’t the leg of a corpse – it was the regeneration working on a living person? Please, Aine, tell me I’m right about this!”

“It means whoever it was still lived when their leg was cut off. They could always have received a separate fatal wound afterwards.”

“…”

“Since her group has been attacked by the Threat, we should assume Miss Marika’s attempt to remain hidden has failed. We should assume they remain in an extremely dangerous position.”

Aine was as blunt as ever.

Maybe because she was not influenced by emotion and maybe because she had been born only for combat.

Karuta removed his face from her flat chest and looked up at the empty classroom’s ceiling.

“Pwah. You said they had been found by the Threat, but I don’t hear any fighting.”

“The situation is unknown, but the Threat may have a reason to capture them without killing them. Or the Threat disseminated a knockout gas to hinder their movements, but Miss Marika’s group escaped before it took effect and passed out in a blind spot of theirs.”

“We have no proof of that.”

“Of course not. The above two possibilities were biased toward your own hopes. Since there is no sign of combat, the most reasonable assumption is that the battle is already over. ”

That did not change what Karuta and Aine had to do. They could only search for his childhood friend using the handprints that glowed when exposed to a laser.

That was a signal from the past, not one arriving in real time. No matter how much hope they placed in it, it was always possible the person who had left it was already dead.

“…”

“Sacri-sama?”

Just then, Karuta came to a stop in the middle of the hallway. He stood completely still and stared at a single point even when Aine spoke to him.

The hallway was dark, but he could see a slender and faintly glowing hand sticking out from around the corner. When it noticed his gaze, it waved a few times as if beckoning him over and then pulled back around the corner.

“Sacri-sama.”

The boy swayed weakly side to side.

It was like a moth trap that used a moth’s tendency to gather around light, like a lure that convinced a fish to take a nibble, or like an attractant that led an ant to eat deadly food. A third party might never understand, but for the target, it was like being externally controlled by the pull of a lever.

The slender girl’s hand did not lure him in just the once.

When he turned the corner, he saw it around the next one. Or on the stairs. The hand sometimes extended from an unnatural location. On the stairs, it stuck straight down from the ceiling.

Even Karuta was vaguely aware that this was not a normal human.

But what did that change? He had to check and see what this wanted to show him.

It did not lead him to some special room.

It was an ordinary hallway in the middle school building. Just a long stretch of cold floor. He heard a quiet breath of laughter from the center of it.

A naked girl stood casually in the center of the hallway. She looked to be about 13 or 14. The Threat covered the ship’s exterior and the windows were covered by metal panels, so no one could tell what color this region of death had originally been. This girl seemed terribly out of place here, yet here she was. Her undeveloped and skinny body was faintly glowing and showed no sign of any sort of injury.

There was no wind, but her blue hair was fluttering as she beckoned to him.

She was smiling ever so gently.

At her feet…or where her feet would have been, her legs combined like a mermaid’s and tapered down to a single thin thread that attached to the floor. Something was scattered across the cold floor directly below her.

Utagai Karuta slowly lowered his gaze.

And he realized what this was trying to show him.

There were arms and there were legs.

They were connected to what looked like a torso.

But none of it had any color.

Because it was all made of translucent crystal.

There was no hint of a rusty smell at this sharp and cold scene of carnage that only looked like a piece of glassware had been smashed against the floor.

But when he looked to the smashed chest, ankles, and everything else…

He could see they were clothed.

It had all been crystalized at once. Which happened when a Crystal Magician died.

He could not tell at a glance how many bodies’ worth that was.

But it was clearly more than just one.

However, he did recognize one thing among the scattered remains.

Something round was lying there. It could perhaps be described as “small” at about the size of a melon. But when his everyday values gave meaning to that simple image and the unasked-for reality of the situation came rushing in at him, he felt sparks bursting in the back of his mind.

Utagai Karuta crumpled to the floor, picked up the translucent object, and screamed.

It was the head of a girl with one of the curly twintails broken off.

It was Amaashi Marika.

### 121. Part 6

When Karuta looked down from the second-floor of the gym, he saw the real Threat there. These were the legged tadpole ones, but there were a lot of them. Each one rivalled a large semi truck in size, but more than 100 of them were lined up here.

Yes, lined up.

This was odd. What were they doing? Instead of causing mayhem or crawling around, they all remained entirely motionless while staring in the same direction. A few possibilities came to mind – waiting, sleeping, resupplying – but none of them seemed quite right.

A home theater projector that could be used with the lights on was projecting some kind of footage onto the stage.

Aine had speculated the tadpoles used their vision to locate targets.

If that was true, then they were watching something here.

It included audio:

“Crystal Magic produces supernatural phenomena from the unseen occult pressure differences similar to high and low pressure fronts that are created by the collision of the powers pouring down from space and the power emanating from the Original Crystal Embryo in the center of the earth. Just like the priests and priestesses of an older age gained enough power to gather the people’s support and rule entire countries or the world by reading the wind to predict the weather for use by sailing ships or farmers.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

His breathing stopped.

He could not believe what he was seeing here.

What…what were they doing??? His mind could not keep up, but the cheerful female voice from the reference video did not stop.

“That is why Crystal Magic uses a god’s name to gain the ability to ‘read’ the occult calendars and horoscope charts found in different mythologies and religions. Crystal Magic cannot create the wind out of nothing and cause miracles that way, but it can cause phenomena impossible for an ordinary person by riding the existing wind and using the great power found there. Just like a windmill grinds wheat or a glider soars through the sky.”

“The Threat…the real Threat is taking a class in school ?” groaned Marika like she too could not believe what she was seeing.

Why had the Threat occupied Second Grimnoah without sinking it? Why had they attacked the academy ship in the first place?

This was the answer.

“This is bad,” said gyaru-ish Hashizaki Tayori. Instead of retreating to surreal sarcasm, she laid out the actual risks. “The Threat is powerful enough already, but are they analyzing our Crystal Magic now? That’s the human trump card. If they learn to do the same thing, their tougher bodies will let them win.”

(Is that really it?)

Karuta had his doubts.

If those Threats (that had somehow gotten their enormous bodies through the entrance) were hooked up to a computer with a cable and were mechanically installing the data, he might have feared the same thing.

But this was different.

The gym’s atmosphere was relaxed. Even if the purpose of this was to learn, he sensed something else in the atmosphere hanging over the tadpoles.

Yes.

When Karuta and his classmates had learned about Crystal Magic as a means of fighting the Threat on the first ship, they had not had a clear vision of how it would be used. They had been more focused on whether they would go to the cafeteria or the school store for lunch.

Some of the Threats here were secretly napping. Some were swaying in time with some kind of rhythm. Some were scratching at the floor with their feet. They were drawing out orderly doodles. If these tadpoles were given thick paper textbooks, they would probably draw out a flip book on the edge of the pages.

But that would mean…

(Do they not have a goal ? These tadpoles are just aimlessly passing the time? Almost like they’re dying for this class to end. But could mere machines do that??? An AI that gathers data from past weather forecasts is only doing that because it was given that specific goal. Machines can’t take a break unless it’s set as a necessary task for achieving their optimum goal, like if they need to cool down or limit energy consumption. There’s no such thing as a program that can just “kill time” if you tell it to. Then are they not machines? Are they just like us?)

“Wait, wait!! Could they be harmle-”

Karuta was cut off by a dull bang.

It came from Imi who was still held in Tayori’s arms.

Her eyes were wandering while she held out her right hand. She held a bizarre weapon that had medical equipment like a scalpel and forceps spread out like a multitool in place of a bayonet.

She had already fired.

There was a hole in the head(?) of one of the legged tadpoles on the floor below.

They had been so tough, yet this one had gone down so easily.

This was the first time someone other than Karuta and Aine had defeated one.

But he could not rejoice over this because something felt off.

“No. I can’t take it anymorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre!!!!!!”

She had been pushed to the very limit and her scream echoed across the gym.

“Sacri-sama.” Aine calmly announced their coming execution while adjusting her grip on her crystal-like katana. “We have hit the limit.”

All forms of killer intent stabbed in at Karuta’s group.

Those tadpoles had been aimlessly attending the class, but that did not mean they were powerless. Karuta and Marika had attended their classes on the first ship in much the same way, but they had possessed enough power to crush the Problem Solvers, hadn’t they?

“Tch! Tezcatlipoca, power up!!”

Marika stood up immediately. She must have decided there was no point in hiding any longer. Pointy crystal armor jutted out from her body while she drew a rapier-like device out of empty air. But that was not only a close-range weapon. By turning the round guard around, she could use it as a laser sniping unit.

Several laser beams shot down like lightning strikes.

The gym floor shattered.

The doodles drawn in the middle of class were destroyed.

Karuta clenched his teeth as he turned toward Aine and gestured over the wall with his chin.

“Always have an escape route in mind and cause them some trouble without getting yourself killed!!”

“Understood.”

Aine did not hesitate at times like this.

Marika tended to solve everything through combat and even she was forced to only snipe down from the upper floor, but Aine immediately jumped down from the railing to fight on the front line below.

Meanwhile, Karuta turned toward Imi and Tayori.

“What gods’ names did you input into your Crystal Blossom circuit boards?”

“I used the Norse monster Fenrir and Imi used the Egyptian medical goddess Neith.”

Tayori activated her crystal armor with a sound like a thick spring being released. Thick claw-like weapons attached to the back of her hands. She was apparently limited to infighting and had no projectiles.

Fenrir.

A weapon named after the wolf that devoured the top Norse god might possess great power in every single blow.

“Power up complete. What do you want us to do?”

“We won’t last long like this. I want to destroy the Sparkle on the roof ASAP if possible.”

“That would be difficult. But if I went unnoticed…”

“?”

“I’m a close-range specialist, so I could climb onto the roof and bite that lion. Getting close to it would be the hard part, but if I could do that…”

Karuta nodded.

But then he heard an unusual sound from the floor below. That was not the sound of heavy and solid metal clashing. It was a high-pitched and piercing sound similar to glass.

Glass.

Crystal.

“Aine!?”

Driven by a very bad feeling, Karuta leaned over the hip-height wall and looked down despite the danger. That was when he saw it.

The legged tadpoles were shaking their truck-sized bodies. But even with the laser sniping from above and Aine going wild with her katana, they did not fight back. Was this part of their division of roles? Instead of trying to fight, they were trying to escape to safety so their accumulated knowledge could be passed on to the rest. Or to put it another way, Aine was chasing down the unresisting tadpoles and mercilessly cutting them down from behind. If his side stopped trying to fight, this hellish scene would go away on its own, yet the hell before his eyes never ended.

This almost made it look like his side had started it.

All they had wanted to do was take back their school.

When one tadpole’s leg was cut off, it rolled over, exposing its belly.

Aine used her flight to jump straight up in preparation to deliver the finishing blow.

Just then, the tadpole did something strange. It forcibly bent its humorous elliptical body to bring the long tail-like part in front of its belly to defend itself. Almost like it was terrified of the coming pain.

“Wai-!!”

Not even Karuta himself knew what he had wanted to shout there. And Aine’s sword completed its merciless attack before he could get the command out. Instead of aiming for the obvious belly, she bisected the upside-down tadpole’s head starting with its giant jaw.

The giant black thing screamed, the slicing of its mouth distorting the cry.

Karuta watched on in shock as Marika fired more lasers down. She could not finish them off with that, but she could cause the other scattered tadpoles to flinch. And when that brought them to a brief stop, Aine would attack. All without batting an eye.

He had thought he understood her.

At least a little.

She had learned to feel embarrassment when her skin was seen, but she had failed to learn to feel the same when her skin was touched. She would stand by his side with sword at the ready no matter how hopeless the situation and she had accepted the bitesize chocolate reward while complaining that it was inefficient. When he had shown off his ugly side, she had held him to her flat chest and pointed out his faults like a mother.

But her sword showed no hesitation whatsoever.

The reaping had begun.

(What…?)

He could not breathe.

The next thing he knew, he was holding his head and screaming. But he was not giving any clear command. Aine would continue with her current actions until he gave her an additional command. And wasn’t he the one who had told her to “always have an escape route in mind and cause them some trouble without getting yourself killed”?

He had caused this.

He had destroyed a school and taken lives.

How was he any different from the Problem Solvers who had destroyed the first ship and taken his peaceful school from him and his fellow students?

In fact, this may have been worse. This was like unchaining a ferocious dog and releasing it in a peaceful park on the weekend.

Unlike Aine, Marika seemed focused on simply holding the Threat back. To make sure they did not customize themselves using the tadpoles that had been cut down. But was that effort even necessary in the first place? The Threat was under attack here, but they were focused on running away and did nothing to counterattack.

(What is this? What are we doing???)

“This started with Imi lashing out, but it’s still the right thing to do,” insisted Tayori. She would follow them as long as they did the right thing. Her stance there had not changed. “They don’t seem to have anything like high-speed wireless internet, but if they can carry out the knowledge stored inside them and spread it to the rest like an ant sends pheromone signals, we won’t stand a chance. What do you do if you need to stop the roaches from breeding before the majority of them develop a resistance to your bug spray? You find the ones that survive the bug spray and you squish them. That’s the best plan.”

The best plan.

If she really thought that, she could have kept quiet. Since she had gone out of her way to say it out loud and seek his agreement, this must have left a bad taste in her mouth on some level. And an excuse disguised as a justification was not going to reach Karuta.

The gym ceiling was torn through and the orderly arrangement of steel beams rained down. The anti-air laser lion dropped down along with the artificial cover it had destroyed.

That was the Sparkle.

That was their key strategic figure. The Threat should have wanted to protect it more than anything, yet it had chosen to drop down itself.

“This is our chance!!” shouted Marika as she aimed her rapier-like device at this new target.

Karuta could not understand why this made her so happy.

A straining sound filled the gym. Glowing rain poured down while rage ruled this place. Its lion-like form had changed. To reiterate, the Threat could customize itself into a more powerful form by devouring the corpses(?) of the fallen ones.

It consumed the tadpoles.

Its companions had been defenselessly cut down and it devoured the remains of those it had most wanted to protect and absorbed their parts to change its own form. The lion was not functionally capable of shedding tears, but that did not mean it felt nothing.

The twisted chrysalis created from the slaughter was torn open.

“Crystal Magic is a top candidate for the next world’s strongest, so it must be used for the public good without letting national or racial boundaries get in the way.”

The cheerful female voice sounded so out of place now as that silly reference video continued to play up on the stage.

The lion stopped walking on four legs while it emitted a burning pressure from its entire body. That 3m mass of metal now planted just two legs on the floor just like a human to display a body far more powerful than a human’s.

Something it had absorbed caused its color to change.

It looked a lot like an armored warrior creating a fusion of Eastern and Western by wearing a suit of armor glowing a reddish-purple with black belts holding it tight in places. The capacitors remained as wings on its back, but the obvious lion’s head and mane were gone. It had abandoned its identity to fulfill its objective. That stance seemed to ooze from its armor. A pair of red eyes glowed like burning flames within its newly-acquired helmet.

It held a single sword in its hand.

The sword was longer than its reddish-purple armor was tall and it looked far too heavy for a human to wield. But there was something odd about that sword. The guard extended far out to the front, but it barely existed on the back of the blade. Instead, there was a metal loop on the front. It initially reminded Karuta of an oscilloscope, but he soon realized he was mistaken.

That was a tonfa and handcuffs.

That may have been meant as a response to the jitte-like part of Aine’s sword. But unlike that laser gun unit, this did not appear to have any practical use. Does it want to steal the title of justice that badly? thought Karuta while clenching his teeth.

Its metal fingers grasped the sword’s hilt unexpectedly smoothly. That might look like armor, but it was clearly structured differently. If it was hollow, it could not move those slender fingertips that much. That was a body, not armor.

The blade of the long sword emitted a light as bright as a welding torch. At the Port of Kobe, the tadpoles’ teeth had crackled with electricity, but this was even more intense. White light surged out like the hamon was leaving the surface of the blade, so plasma emitted from the tip may have ran along the blade before being absorbed and stabilized within the guard. Or in other words, the sword was being exposed to a massive amount of heat with no effect.

Simply releasing its power seemed to cause physics to break down. All the rain-wet wreckage from the roof began to defy gravity by floating up like helium balloons.

(An electric…ionocraft?)

An unnatural humming sound shook the entire space.

It was like the amplified buzzing of an insect or like a bug zapper or transformer that used high-voltage currents.

If the excess energy escaping from it was enough to affect its surroundings like this, the power stored inside it had to be enormous. Carelessly touching the inside of that thing would turn a human to charcoal.

All of that energy was created within the armor, spread through its entire body, and then shaped into a weapon. It went out of its way to create the complex shape of a hand and then created a separate sword for that hand to hold. Why not have the weapon combined with the arm? Why even prepare an arm at all? Efficiency and logic could not explain any of this. The decisions were based on some other standard.

A sword and light. Big and strong. And a metal culture. It was like a symbol of justice – the leader of a war for good.

This was no longer the lion-shaped Sparkle.

This was a different Threat.

This armored warrior could be called…

“ The Warrior Doll ,” said Karuta.

He spoke loudly enough for anyone to hear him even as he felt like he was wandering through a muddy nightmare.

“You have all passed the Crystal Blossom selection process,” continued the video. “But that is not why you should feel proud. Be proud that you can use this chosen power to protect the weak. Keep that in mind as you aim to be a strong and noble magician. Keep your ears open to the cries of those in need and rush to their aid faster than anyone else. Become the people’s hope. The world became a brighter place from the moment you chose to learn Crystal Magic!!”

Its bipedal form was less stable, its center of gravity was located high up, and it had created a complex hand to hold its weapon.

If this form was only meant to fight, then its evolution could not have been based on practicality. This may have been the aesthetic sense it had learned from Second Grimnoah.

It had watched them from the sea below, boarded the ship once they left, and then learned of justice.

It had learned the meaning of wearing armor and wielding a sword.

With the baton and handcuffs, this Threat had tried to dye itself in every form of justice it could find, so it may have respected humans in a way. Not the power of Crystal Magic itself, but the way of life that had led them to wield that power. Even though the current world’s strongest were the kind of garbage people who would not hesitate to cut down unresisting lives.

“Ha.”

Utagai Karuta started laughing.

What else could he do?

This was a good reminder of his position in life. Yes, it was absurd for him to be on the side of justice. He was only a persistent stalker who had completed his filthy quest for revenge. None of the praise heaped on him by the rest of humanity could change what he was deep down.

Whenever he stood up, justice would stand up to oppose him.

It had been that way with the Problem Solvers, it had been that way with the three middle school girls controlling the decoy Threat at the Crystal Beach, and now it was happening a third time. At this point, it could not be a mere coincidence.

You’re saving the world? You’re rescuing your friends?

No, all you ever do is kill the righteous.

Admit it.

“Ha ha. Ah ha ha ha ha, hah hah hah hah hah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hee hee ha ha ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!”

He laughed.

He laughed and laughed and laughed.

So of course his vision grew blurry. Laughing so hard was bound to bring tears to his eyes.

Those tears did not fall to the floor.

They were pinned in midair and began to float upwards.

Then he made his move. Shocked Marika tried to stop him, but he ignored her, climbed over the hip-height wall, and dropped down from the second floor. There was no logic to his action. As long as he was close enough to command Aine, he would be safer while hidden.

But he no longer cared what happened to him.

His body slammed loudly against the floor and excruciating pain raced through his spine rather than his skin. Why aren’t you dead? he cursed himself as he slowly stood up.

So much had happened here.

This Warrior Doll had lost everything.

Yet it stood perfectly still with the long sword held in both hands. It made no surprise attacks. It would attack fair and square and from head on. This was different from the Gestalt’s mimicry. Karuta could sense a definite will in this reddish-purple armored warrior.

Simply gathering strength inside itself pinned the falling raindrops in the air and caused the wet rubble to float up in defiance of gravity.

It was a 3m mass heavier than steel.

It did not matter whether or not the armored warrior Threat knew the actual words

The shared concept stabbed into Karuta’s heart all the same.

I am allowed the pursuit of righteous vengeance.

I challenge you to a duel, human.

Karuta actually felt jealous.

He felt jealous of this twisted and horrific monster that had cannibalized its own to grow stronger.

All of that was allowed if it was done out of righteous anger. That armored warrior could remain on the side of justice, so it looked so bright to Karuta.

He clenched his teeth and trembled at how puny he was himself. He hated himself for being unable to die. Humanity had truly lost if the other side was the just one. He had failed in his duty as strongest. He had not protected their justice and simply handed it over to the other side. This was about more than himself. He had brought down all 5.5 billion humans.

The white light traveling along the curve of the sword was probably a plasma jet. That weapon decorated with a temperature hotter than the sun’s surface was thrust straight out. As if to prove its own righteousness.

The distance between them did not matter.

The overlapping armor at the back of the knees, behind the helmet, and elsewhere opened up and a green explosion burst from those gaps. By the time Karuta noticed that, it was already right on top of him.

That was some form of booster.

The 3m giant brought a shockwave as it approached, so its body alone would have been as deadly as an artillery shell.

Karuta could only stand there in a daze.

So what happened next was not his doing.

“ Sacri-sama !!”

He could not understand it.

A dull sound rang out.

A small white figure had moved in between them at the last second. His Crystal Magic looked outmatched against that 3m armored giant, but her cold blade had caught The Warrior Doll’s hot one.

The Warrior Doll had more than just leg strength. It could accelerate its heavyweight armor using the eruption of green light behind it.

That explosive propulsive force gave the reddish-purple armor mobility surpassing that of a fighter craft. Even without its sword, it could break a warship in two with a simple tackle. How powerful would its sword strikes be if it had optimized the techniques needed to kill? The edge of a sword was determined by how much speed could be placed behind its weight.

A high-pitched sound rang out.

It had broken the sound barrier.

It was a testament to Aine’s skills that she had managed force her slender form in between the boy and the Warrior Doll and stop the latter with her crystal-like sword.

But then came the second explosion.

The white welding light ignited along the armored warrior’s blade burst outward to slam into the crystal girl trying to lock blades with it.

Karuta had researched swords since Aine wielded one. In the world of samurai, there had been attacks aimed for the face of an opponent locking swords with you. For example, spitting needles that sent a large number of needles toward the enemy’s face.

Even if that attack lowered the Warrior Doll’s strength a little, Aine had no way of blocking the heat and shockwave.

“!!”

Nevertheless, she forcibly clenched her teeth. Even Karuta could hear the straining sound. He also detected a scorched smell, like the hair drier had been blowing on something for too long. Aine adjusted her grip on her crystal sword to protect the boy and she ignored her own damage as she once more attacked the Warrior Doll in front of her.

There was a franticness to her action that was not like her. Her blade of course did not reach the armored warrior. Each time it caught her sword on its own, it caused a massive explosion to wear down her small body.

What?

What was happening?

Karuta could not believe what he was seeing. He knew for a fact he had never ordered her to do this. He had told her to always have an escape route in mind and to cause them some trouble, but this was the complete opposite.

“Oh.”

He realized something while watching that small back.

He realized why she kept going and kept getting back up from the wet floor even though she could not have any strength left.

Was it because his spirit had broken?

Was she trying to make up for what he had lost?

“Ai…ne.”

Her small back seemed to be working hard to prove something.

To prove that it was not wrong to try and take back the second ship.

To prove that it was not wrong to try and save Gekiha and the others from the first ship.

To prove it had never been wrong to fight in Kyouka’s place since she could not do it herself and to come all this way searching for Marika’s group.

It was just that the crystal girl could only express herself through combat.

“Aine.”

There was an obstinance to her actions.

And she did not seem to understand what it was she had done.

But.

She looked so small. He could not see her face with her back turned. He knew she would not be hanging her head or biting her lip, but he could still sense something from her. Even as she continued the intense battle, was hit by the wall of wind, and was gradually worn down. The sense he got from her was not of a heroic fighter or a horrific murderer. He sensed something sad, like he was looking at a lost child.

Was Aine really the one in the wrong?

Who was it that had boarded Second Grimnoah to fight the Threat?

The battle in the gym had been started by Imi’s outburst.

Aine had not started any of it, but right now that small girl had been left all alone with only her sharp sword to work with.

“That’s enough, Aine!!!!!!”

He gathered what little strength he had to approach her small back.

He hugged her from behind.

Her crystal sword came to a brief stop as he placed his hand over her smaller one.

“I’m sorry, Warrior Doll.” He tried to catch his breath while facing the armored warrior again. “Your anger is probably justified. I was clearly using her wrong.”

That should not have mattered to the Threat.

Yet it did not attack. It waited for him to speak with the tip of its plasma jet sword aimed his way.

Even though it probably did not understand human language.

“This was entirely my fault. We could have turned back as soon as we found Marika’s group safe. And even if we couldn’t find a way back, this wouldn’t have happened if we just hadn’t approached the gym. This wasn’t somewhere we had to go. I just thought it would make for a good shortcut.”

Karuta staggered to the side.

No, he moved to stand next to battered Aine. And he pulled out the puny modified military flashlight he used as a weapon.

“We’re one and the same, so Aine will have to fight too.”

He was at fault for all of it. Even if they were one and the same, he would not back down on this.

“But please. Please don’t hold this against her. Your vengeance should be targeted at me. Give me this one thing, please.”

He suddenly found himself bowing.

He could not escape this vengeance, but the Warrior Doll had to understand that challenging him directly like this introduced the possibility of being killed in the attempt. Even though that was not necessary. Karuta’s group had secretly gathered information on the Problem Solvers and then made cheap surprise attacks in every way they could. But the Warrior Doll had left a chance for its own defeat.

That was why Karuta wanted to apologize to Aine and tell her to survive.

To do that…

To do that, he was willing to lift his head!!

“I challenge you to a duel, Warrior Doll!!!!!!”

After tumbling down to the position of the despicable challenger once more, Utagai Karuta looked up at the peak from down in the mud.

### Between the Lines 2

He had agonized over it.

He had worried, screamed, and wailed.

Utagai Karuta had roared from deep in his throat as he considered the pain of something inhuman and sympathized with the suffering of something inhuman.

That should have been painful to watch.

Anyone would have wanted to put a stop to it as soon as possible.

But one girl was different: Crystal Girl Aine.

The boy had hugged her from behind. He had stepped up next to her to stop something. She glanced over at him with her sword still at the ready and a thought entered her mind.

(If…)

The thought was like staticky noise.

It was a distraction from the task at hand.

Yet there it was.

(If Sacri-sama can treat inhuman things that way…if he lets himself do that…)

The thought trailed off there.

But she hesitantly moved it along as if slowly reaching out her small hand.

(Could it be?)

That Crystal Magic – that girl who belonged to the world’s strongest as a Crystal Blossom – completed the thought.

(Does he see me…that way too?)

### 122. Part 6

Utagai Karuta knew the current equilibrium would not last forever.

But this was not how he had expected it to end. It happened after dodging a few more slashes, while he was readying his flashlight in time with Aine’s attack.

The pair of red lights vanished within the Warrior Doll’s helmet. The sword given tonfa and handcuff signals had always moved accurately, but now it grew even more mercilessly so.

( Don’t tell me. )

Karuta had a bad feeling about this. Like he felt nothing in his net as the enemy slipped right through it. The pressure weighing on his gut was the one felt in the moment your supposedly perfect plan fell apart. He was once more hit by the sensation he had felt back when he clashed with Elicia and Susannia of the Problem Solvers.

In other words…

( Did it shut its eyes!? Is it attacking based on intuition instead of its senses!? )

“Aine, watch out!!”

Their bullfighting tactics did not work if he could not blind their opponent with infrared. A direct hit meant death and a blocked hit would get her crushed below the explosive blast.

Since the flashlight would lead it astray, it chose not to look at all.

It chose to trust in its itself while taking a step forward and relying purely on intuition.

It was a simple but reasonable conclusion. For a human who often functioned on an illogical basis, anyway. But even if the machinery was malfunctioning, would an unmanned drone ever switch off the video feed and radar while soaring through the sky? Could simple circuitry rely on baseless and illogical “intuition” to shoot down a bomb or missile in the empty darkness?

This was different from the decoy Threat that had attacked the Crystal Beach. This armored warrior had a solid core it could believe in. Was the Warrior Doll more a living being than a weapon!?

This time, the reddish-purple armored warrior attacked with its max speed.

Time stopped.

The raindrops looked like round jewels scattered around as time seemed to stop for Karuta. There was nothing he could do this time. He had viewed this as bullfighting. He used his infrared to parry a monster much stronger than him, used that opening to accurately dodge the attack, and coordinated with Aine to strike back. But if the wild bull shut its eyes and charged straight in, waving the large cloth around would do nothing to lead it astray. The bullfighter would have no way of evading it. And it was all over if he was hit here. He would take far more damage than from a charging bull. An unbelievably heavy and hard blade would attack from the optimal angle with supersonic speed provided by the plasma jet. The gruesome results of that destructive power would be worse than a head on collision with a fighter craft.

(Damn.)

This time.

There really was no avoiding it.

(Damn this guy. He’s looking so cool .)

He had to admit it. And as soon as he clenched his teeth, time sped back up.

“!!”

All he could do was collide with Aine’s shoulder as she swung her sword in from the side.

He tackled her out of the way.

He had to laugh since that was not at all the action of a cheap coward. Maybe he had let the Warrior Doll influence him.

With a dull sound, the downwards slash sent his flashlight spinning through the air.

It had cut away something more important than his arm.

He had lost his disturbance weapon. Without the infrared to throw off the enemy’s timing, Aine would be unilaterally worn down by the plasma jet slashes and explosions.

But the armored warrior must have been confused when it reopened its red eyes.

Karuta was worn down and battered, but he had a fierce smile on his face.

(I don’t want to be a swordsman or a military commander. If I tried to be as cool as you, I’d screw it up and leave behind a pathetic corpse. I know I’m not cut out for that, no matter how much I wish I was and how much I regret being who I am.)

“Your attacks are too powerful.”

The reddish-purple armored warrior must have noticed its careless mistake.

“So on a subconscious level, you assumed the only two options were a hit or a miss and that I was a goner if you hit!!”

It must have noticed how careless it had been to assume this was over after cutting away Karuta’s weapon with an attack.

(But that isn’t my job.)

It had not been meaningless.

He might have let go of his temporary safety, but that was still meaningful if it created a crucial opening.

(Ordinary attacks do nothing to that armor, but you only ever tried to blow Aine away with your plasma jet explosion when she was swinging her blade horizontally in toward your right side. Are your sword’s defenses so unnecessarily tough because you’re actually scared, Warrior Doll?)

And what was it Karuta had said?

“What you did was wrong.”

In that most dangerous moment when he had abandoned his own safety, he turned toward Aine in the midst of the fierce fighting.

“But that was my fault too. Listen, Aine. Once this is over, let’s relearn everything from the ground up. We can return to our dorm room, sleep like a log, get some food, and get through those boring classes. But to do that, you need to do everything you can to learn how to survive.”

“Isn’t that right, Aine !!!!!?”

They swapped places.

Crystal Girl Aine slipped past his side and rushed sharply in toward her target with her crystal sword at the ready.

He had ordered her to learn how to survive, so she would have poured all her focus into that.

Unless something else distracted her along the way.

The Warrior Doll immediately tried to pull its massive sword back, but it had just swung it down. Its attacks carried deadly speed, but that created an opening while it pulled its blade back.

The explosive blast was likely meant to cover for that.

So what happened if it could not use that defense in time?

Crystal Girl Aine twisted around directly in front of it. She forcibly slid herself toward its right side. And she placed her full momentum on her blade for a sweeping horizontal attack.

She was in a blind spot created by having eyes tucked back inside a helmet.

She targeted an obvious seam created when patching together multiple devoured Threats in the customization process.

The crystal sword had been deflected so many times before, but it sank in deep now.

Deep into the armored warrior’s neck.

Yes, Aine’s sword had easily sliced through the tadpoles and this Threat had absorbed components from them.

With a sharp slicing sound, time came to a stop.

The armored warrior’s head slid to the side.

And that helmet-like head tumbled from its shoulders.

Karuta could not cushion his fall as he crashed down into the gym floor. That did further damage when he was already exhausted to the core. He though he heard something breaking in the center of his aching body, but he was not dead yet. And as long as he did not die, the regeneration would kick in. He still could not say if that was a good thing or not, but it did mean he would continue down the path of the devil for a while yet.

Meanwhile, he thought he saw a red light flickering inside the helmet even after it was beheaded during their final clash. Was that another human-like inefficiency it had learned? Perhaps the Threat had learned how to express emotion in that final moment.

Yes, it was watching that boy who had stayed true to his path to the very end, without letting himself be influenced by the armored warrior’s insistence on fighting fair and square.

The path of the devil was still a path.

And he had stayed true to that path which the Warrior Doll would never choose for itself.

It burned that way of life into its eyes.

And to Karuta, it looked an awful lot like the slain monster was giving the victorious human a smile of approval.

### 123. Part 7

Karuta had known they would have multiple plans for the one problem.

If he had not had an inkling that they had some form of insurance, he would not have been able to order a withdrawal so reluctantly but readily.

However…

“You’ve lost contact?”

He was in the deserted airport control tower.

It had apparently been turned into the temporary Student Council Room, but with everyone else sent away, only President Omotesandou Kyouka was there.

This was a conversation between only the strongests.

Karuta had completed the withdrawal after confirming that the Threat was not attacking Kobe and was instead returning to the ocean where Second Grimnoah was drifting away.

It was already transitioning from evening to night.

Nevertheless, the ocean refused to take on an ominous black color. The floating general airport was about 30km from the Port of Kobe, but an orange light was still visible from beyond the horizon. That unnatural light came from the crude oil fire spreading out across the ocean.

President Omotesandou Kyouka responded to his question with a soft sigh.

And a confirmation.

“Since we saw those weird sea urchins covered in what look like TV antennas, I told them not to use their radios so the Threat couldn’t detect them, but the satellite still hasn’t detected the IR signal they were supposed to send into the night sky at set times. It is possible the black smoke from the fire is blocking their signal, but…”

Kyouka’s rule was to assume the worst when you did not know for certain.

Because that way you could survive.

“We have no idea if Marika-san and the two volunteers are still alive and we should not be optimistic about their chances.”

“That was our real plan, wasn’t it?”

“It was.”

“The point was for my diversion to reduce the risk for them, right!? I…I said we needed to look after the people we asked to cooperate with us, yet you…!!”

“Sacri-sama.”

He had not ordered her to, but Aine interrupted while standing at his side.

Her expression remained blank.

“Criticizing Miss Kyouka will not improve the current situation. She is stuck providing logistical support, so she has no way of directly controlling what happens on the front line. On paper at least, her plan was a reasonable one. What actually happened on the battlefield is the responsibility of those fighting on the battlefield.”

“Kh.”

That would mean Marika’s group on the underwater route since they had accepted that plan while fully aware of the risks and it meant Karuta’s group on the surface route since they had failed in their diversion and been forced to withdraw early.

Kyouka smiled thinly.

“You can be angrier with me if you like.”

“No, I’m sorry. My own weakness is partly to blame. It was wrong of me to shove all the blame onto you.”

When he clenched his teeth and lowered his head, Kyouka’s usual confident smile was replaced by a much more unusual look.

It was the troubled look of a lost child who had been left behind.

“Karuta-kun. One of your few faults is how overly polite you are.”

“…?”

“It would be a lot easier on you if you chewed me out at times like this. Then you could make me the one and only villain who betrayed everyone’s expectations.”

Silence fell.

The atmosphere between them had never been this heavy when they were pursuing the Problem Solvers or when they had been struggling to survive in the blizzard.

One of the four was missing. This was the first time that had happened.

“Miss Kyouka.”

“Yes?”

The silence was broken by Aine. At times like this, they could always count on the crystal girl who could not read the room (because she was not actually human).

“Tell me what I should do next. My Sacri-sama has become entirely useless, so I feel like obeying him right now would only serve to shorten his life.”

“True,” sighed the President.

She seemed somber, but her instructions were precise. Although that did make it look like she was using her work to distract herself from emotions she was unsure how to process.

“Let’s put together a rescue operation for Marika-san’s group. Have we confirmed the Sparkle is shaped like a lion? Regardless, you’ll have to force your way past those anti-air lasers with it still around, but we can’t just ignore this.”

“…”

“This plan will lead to a lot of losses and it provides no guarantee of success. After all, it gives us nothing at all if Marika-san is already dead. So I suppose we’ll need a solid justification for it. Instead of keeping anyone from questioning it, we’ll want something that will keep them from backing out.”

### 124. Part 7

South of Japan in the Pacific, 1000km from the Port of Kobe, gray shapes were floating on the blue. That was the coalition force’s joint fleet gathered to fight the Threat. The fleet was mostly composed of nuclear aircraft carriers with some cruisers and destroyers mixed in for good measure. There were of course plenty of submarines waiting below the water as well.

It was all technology designed to kill other people.

They had been left behind by the times as focus was placed on combating the Threat, so now all that precision machinery had nothing to do.

A male marshaller with swarthy skin and clear-cut facial features sat on the edge of an aircraft carrier flight deck larger than a schoolyard. He spoke up in annoyance while swinging a fishing rod.

“It’s ironic, really.”

“That we’re working alongside the US and China here?”

This many ships could gather anywhere in the world if they needed to.

He just about said as much, but the middle-aged marshaller held his tongue because there was no point in telling that to the female mechanic younger than his own kids. A mobile fleet sounded nice and all, but they could only travel so far in a single day without resupplying. A cruise circumnavigating the globe while stopping at plenty of ports to resupply would take around 70 to 80 days to complete its trip around the world.

Yet all these warships had gathered here so quickly.

The Threat had been noticed gathering on Second Grimnoah toward the end of Japan’s Golden Week holiday and all these ships were floating here at sea not too long afterwards. A fleet sent out from Chennai or San Francisco would not have arrived so quickly.

“Good grief.”

They were to work together as they fought the Threat. And they were to give what help they could to the cutting-edge magicians. It all sounded admirable enough, but this had clearly been secretly prepared in advance. The people could not trust each other.

(We were a little too well prepared for this.)

The middle-aged marshaller kept these thoughts to himself.

(Almost like they knew in advance where the damn Threat would attack .)

“No, that’s crazy talk.”

“What is, sir?”

The marshaller did not answer the STEM girl’s question.

“Get ready. The main dish is the Pinaka III to be launched from a nuclear sub, but that doesn’t mean our carrier has nothing to do. This will be our F/A Vajra stealth fighter’s first use in actual combat. If the Pinaka III fails to hit its target, one of those will approach while skimming just off the ocean surface and loaded with a small nuke. And all the radiation it’s giving off is guaranteed to cause malfunctions in its instruments. Even the smallest scratch while taking off could be deadly.”

“Do you think they really will choose to use nukes?”

“Don’t ask me. That’s for the higher ups to decide.”

“Hm? You don’t look happy about this.”

“The Pinaka III is a torpedo, but it’s classified as a Space Force weapon cause they control the generator satellites up above. We’re talking about some eggheads who sit in an air-conditioned office typing away at a keyboard all day. They’ve never seen a lick of combat and we’re supposed to trust them?”

“All of our nukes are being consolidated under the elites of the Space Force, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, those trump cards are in the hands of some scrawny guys who can’t even do ten pushups.”

The “higher ups” he mentioned was not a reference to the Grimnoah students fighting on the front line. He meant the higher ups who commanded the aircraft carrier. And if they said to do it, he and the others like him would have to input the nuclear launch codes.

(The economic center has moved to the Asian continent, so no one gives a crap about Japan anymore. What an age we live in.)

Japan had spent unthinkable amounts of funding in order to protect this American sea lane, but now the coalition fleet gathered there was going to launch a nuke at them. It really was ironic. The Japanese government was surely sending a flood of complaints, but those would never reach the higher ups here. The pieces on the board were not moved after a one-on-one discussion. Some low-level government official would be blocking all those complaints while stifling a yawn.

The young female mechanic held a hand over her eyes and stared at the horizon as if that would help her see past it.

“Is Letnahe okay?”

“Call her Lieutenant Colonel Kurent.”

“I really hope Let is okay. She might know the Japanese language and school system after studying abroad there, but isn’t she completely isolated while surrounded by the world’s strongest magicians? The negotiations can’t be easy and what if she can’t escape in time?”

“You don’t need to worry about that.” The dark-skinned marshaller sighed softly. “Lieutenant Colonel Kurent is top class when it comes to skill in the deadly arts. Even in a world with magicians in it. You called it negotiations, but it’s really a countdown until she gets pissed at Grimnoah.”

He felt a tug at his fishing rod.

He reeled it in to find a dark and glistening object nothing like any aquatic lifeform found in the natural world. No one could say how far the Threat had spread below the water. His young subordinate fell over in surprise and clung to him, but he checked to find it was only a boot.

The secrets of the world were not found that easily.

“Grimnoah just has to make one mistake and we’re launching that thing. And as a mechanic, you must know that completing a mission without even the slightest mistake is simply not possible.”

### 125. Part 8

We will now begin an underwater operation based on data received from Karuta-kun and Marika-san.

The dual attacks from the surface and underwater have revealed that the underwater route is the more difficult one. Marika-san’s group will have successfully arrived within Second Grimnoah by now.

The biggest problem we must overcome before recovering Second Grimnoah are the anti-air lasers from the lion-shaped Sparkle on the middle school’s roof.

That is why we are gathering volunteers to make a largescale attack along the underwater route. The team will be made up of the first 200 to volunteer. All other students will provide a diversion along the surface route.

We only had wishful thinking before, but now we have actual experience to tell us the anti-air lasers are not fired into the ocean. So you will actually be safer approaching the enemy along the underwater route than providing a diversion on the surface where you will be constantly targeted by the lasers until the operation is complete.

Once we have our 200 volunteers, the underwater operation will begin.

Think carefully about whether you want to fight on the surface route or the underwater route.

That is all.

Once the briefing held via their Crystal Blossom communications was complete, the entire airport was bustling with energy.

Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke were chatting in the large lobby.

“Hey, which one are you choosing?”

“Underwater, I think. I don’t like the idea of constantly dodging lasers with no end in sight.”

“Right? Underwater might be more dangerous, but it’s better to have some say over how it ends.”

“B-but they’re only taking 200 for that team. If we don’t hurry up, we’ll miss our chance.”

“Heh. And the missing students are girls from our class, so let show off by swooping in and saving them.”

The 12-year-old blonde girl named Natlena Blast looked up at Karuta while listening to that conversation and sipping at a can of hot milk she had bought from a vending machine.

“Wh-what will you do, Senpai? Hot – are you going to choose the underwater route, um, because you’re worried about Amaashi-senpai? Hot, hot.”

“…”

“Y-yeah, I guess you would. She is another one of the Four Living Gods, so of course you’re worried about her! I-I will volunteer too. It would be a problem for me too if you were defeated here. We still haven’t dealt with those string pullers who pushed my sister to do what she-”

She was cut off by a loud bang echoing through the lobby.

Utagai Karuta had slammed his fist against the nearby wall, so all the boys and girls walking through the lobby looked over to see what this was about.

“What is wrong with all of you?”

That was enough to surprise or even frighten them.

So why did none of them realize how strange the things they were saying were?

“Why aren’t any of you saying you don’t want to do this!? Listen, we’re talking about the real Threat here. This isn’t just the decoys from Iceland. After all that fighting, we still haven’t heard a single report of one being destroyed. They’re on another level entirely!! And even if we do defeat them, the others might devour the remains and grow into larger customized models. Doesn’t this scare you? This isn’t about duty. It isn’t about whether the surface route or underwater route is better. Aren’t you afraid to be fighting the real Threat !!!???”

This was Omotesandou Kyouka’s trickery.

She had only provided them with two options: the surface route and the underwater route. And then she had pointed out that the underwater route was safe from the lion’s anti-air lasers. By creating a limited number of spots for the underwater route and making it first come, first serve for volunteering, she had tricked them all into joining the attack on the Threats occupying Second Grimnoah.

She had told them the truth.

But she had not told them the whole truth.

What guarantee did they have that the lion-like Sparkle was the most frightening one out there? With that many Threats all over the ship, there might very well be an even stronger and less manageable Threat there. In fact, they had lost contact with Marika, Imi, and Tayori. They needed to assume those three had been attacked by some kind of predator, but Kyouka had not touched on that at all.

But he did not see the President as the only villain here.

He had feared this possibility before, but now he was certain of it.

The students of the second ship had grown numb to the fear. They were still drunk on their success at the Crystal Beach, so they were assuming that things would work out somehow this time too. So they did not question it. They did not bother reading between the lines and noticing the gaps in the information presented to them.

“Hey, Yamanen, what did you see at the Crystal Beach?”

“You have to ask? Sure, they were only decoys, but we kicked the Threat’s ass!”

“ 34 of us died in that one battle!! That was a miserable defeat for us !!!!!!”’

Karuta shouted louder than an alarm clock.

Had that woken them up?

But this was how they should have been viewing it all along. It was normally a huge deal when just one student at your school died. The school would try to keep the media away, send counselors running around, and deal with all sorts of problems ranging from protecting the students’ privacy to dealing with students who stopped coming to school.

So how could they take this in stride?

34 of them had died. More if Riho and Sanae were included. An entire class’s worth of students were dead due to command mistakes by Karuta and the rest of the Four Living Gods. If they could calmly analyze that and accept it as the unfortunate result of an unpredictable situation, then the entire school’s senses had clearly numbed over. To a devastating degree.

They should have been criticizing him, blaming him, and rejecting his humanity.

They were all handling it too well. It was creepy. How could they accept it just because there was a reasonable explanation?

“Even if we’re the strongest and even if we have the regeneration and barrier, we still die when the time comes. We’re only human.”

He repeated that obvious definition once more.

He criticized those boys and girls who only had the one life to live.

“So think this through!! There aren’t just two options in this world – there are options surrounding you in all 360 degrees! You don’t have to stick with the Four Living Gods no matter what. If you’re scared, then say so! No one’s going to blame you if you want to run away and hide!! Why are you acting like simple cogs in the machine, doing whatever you’re told!!!???”

Silence fell.

He felt a powerful pressure that told him he was at odds with everyone else in the large lobby.

The world’s strongest’s public mode had collapsed.

“Just consider your options again before making a decision.”

Had his words gotten through to them?

He clenched his teeth before saying one last thing.

“Because this is your life.”

### 126. Part 8

(Ah.)

She held her breath.

She was curled up in the darkness holding her injured friend and soaked with sweat and with the slime or machine oil from that sea anemone thing.

The slightest movement would get them noticed and subsequently eaten. Which was why Amaashi Marika held her breath.

(Ah, ahhhh. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???)

He was here.

Utagai Karuta of all people was here.

She could tell because she was peeking out from an empty classroom’s sliding door. That blue-haired girl was actually a sea anemone Threat that used high-level mimicry to perfectly blend in with its surroundings. This time, it was her childhood friend who had fallen for its trap.

The blue-haired girl was only a lure.

When it targeted you, you could not resist it, just like how an angler fish would cause a part of its body to glow to lure prey into its mouth. Your willpower was meaningless because that girl-shaped lure trapped humans on a mechanical or structural level.

Its effects were as absolute as those of a narcotic. The boy was kneeling in the empty hallway and pantomiming holding something in his arms. An inhuman Threat was right there in front of him, but he showed no sign of caution.

All because of that blue-haired girl.

(The Gestalt.)

That was the name Marika’s group had come up with for that Threat that showed its target hints of what they longed for. But this was not the primary thing they hoped for while influenced by optimism or their memories. No, this showed them their secondary hope after they compromised and prepared themselves for what could be. It told them not to hope for too much. It showed them a harsh “reality”. It read the unvarnished thoughts within its prey and displayed them for that prey.

For Marika’s group, it had targeted Matsuda Imi and she had indeed had her right leg bitten off at the base of the thigh. The thighbone was said to be the thickest and sturdiest bone in the human body, yet it had bitten through there in a single attack.

The attack had seemingly used electricity to tear right through her barrier and sever her leg.

When faced with that (image of a) naked girl with fluttering blue hair, you would forget all about your current situation and just stand there until you were swallowed whole by the giant sea anemone that made up all your surroundings in every direction. Marika and Tayori had worked hard to tear the tens of thousands of tentacles away from Imi, but that was not a fundamental solution.

Firepower was not enough to defeat it.

When it was camouflaged, it was indistinguishable from their surroundings and one of the three would be drawn in once the blue-haired girl appeared. Strength or weakness did not even come into it – they could not even begin an actual battle.

So they had waited and hoped for help to arrive.

They had their phones and Crystal Blossoms, but they had remained silent and desperately fought the icy loneliness that threatened to slowly crush them like the water pressure in the deep sea.

Better equipment could maybe change things. They could build a bomb with the tools aboard the ship and they could maybe redefine the entire battle by rigging that up with a sensor or remote detonator. They could maybe escape and prepare for a real battle. They could maybe find a way to do damage while never actually standing directly before it.

Yet the Gestalt had chosen Utagai Karuta as its next target after he arrived to help them. He had followed the invisible handprints that glowed when exposed to a laser. It had perfectly mimicked the very signs that Amaashi Marika had left for him in order to guide him along a complex path leading directly to the most dangerous point.

Marika’s stance was a simple one: she would protect what she wanted to protect. She was willing to sacrifice her own life for that and she did not care if she had to destroy the world in the process.

“Tayori.”

“No, Marika.”

“Take care of Imi. I have to save Karuta.”

“You can’t. Didn’t we decide it’s all over if we draw the Gestalt’s attention?”

The hallway was already growing red and distorted.

It looked a lot like a carnivorous plant covering a radius of several meters. The giant sea anemone had become something like a man-eating sunflower, but Karuta was so overwhelmed by emptiness and despair that he remained collapsed on his knees at the center of it. He could no longer avoid it from there.

The countless tentacles wriggled around him and a glowing light filled them from base to tip. Their bright blood-red coloration became a green even more vivid than a plant’s leaves.

They heard a sound like a mass of air bursting.

They had seen this underwater. The sea anemones changed color once they were charged with energy. And they could wield that offensively instead of just passing it to the other Threats as fuel.

There was not some rule that said Marika would always make it out okay.

But in the exact same way, there was not some rule that said Karuta would always make it out okay either.

If the path needed to survive was cut short by even a millimeter, anyone would have nowhere left to go and would die. That was true of the good, of the evil, of a great scientist who had made the discovery of the century, and of a sickly little sister. The value people had decided someone had did nothing at all to influence whether they lived or died.

That was now a mass of electrical energy.

If the tens of thousands of tentacles surrounded him, he would not just have a limb severed – he and his weaker barrier would be entirely obliterated. Just like the filament burning out in an old light bulb. There would be no room for a tear-jerking miracle.

(I need to give a reason.)

The back of her mind had numbed over, but the girl still clenched her teeth hard.

(I need to create a reason why Karuta can survive!!)

With the words “power up”, she drew a rapier-like device out of thin air.

And at the same time…

“Aine.”

Still motionless, still holding something imaginary, and still defenselessly exposed to the Threat that had destroyed cities, states, and countries, the boy whispered with his eyes not focused on reality.

Yes.

He spoke to Aine, the inhuman girl who had therefore not reacted to the lure meant to lead humans astray.

“Do what you think is best. Don’t wait for my permission.”

The crystal girl and the lure girl tilted their heads in unison.

A moment later, Aine’s katana sliced through the air and mercilessly severed (what looked like) the lure girl’s head.

### 127. Part 9

Utagai Karuta slowly let out a breath.

“Sacri-sama.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that, Aine.”

The boy looked over with weary eyes as he sat on the floor.

He was at an airport boarding gate.

If his words had gotten through to the students, they would worry for their own lives. And even if they had not gotten through, his popularity would plummet because he failed to understand them. No more students would be willing to risk their lives on his instructions.

Believe him or not, the operation had already failed. He had ruined everything in the preparation phase, so Kyouka had to be extremely disappointed in him.

Which was exactly what he had wanted.

He had been sick of getting other people involved in his own issues.

He did not care if his feelings failed to get through to them and he did not care what happened to his social standing. Their own lives had to take top priority.

The word “strongest” could mean a number of things and he had chosen the card he wanted from that deck. So now he had to continue down this path. He could look back after he had accomplished something.

“…”

He would be alone from now on. He should have been alone from the beginning. His desire to take back Gekiha and the others from the first ship was his own personal thing.

(It’s the same for Marika.)

Everything tasted bitter in his mouth.

It was too late to feel regret now.

(I shouldn’t have assumed she would participate just because she’s one of the world’s strongest too. Stepping down should have been an option for her, but I took it from her!!)

He would save Amaashi Marika, so he would fight the real Threat.

But he could not drag the second ship’s students along with him for that.

“I threw out every advantage I had.” Self-deprecation filled his voice. “I lost their trust and cooperation, so this battle isn’t going to be easy.”

“That is fine.”

“Sorry. Our link means there’s no way you can back out of my selfish fight here.”

“If you desire something, then I will fight for- hm?”

The ever-calm Aine’s eyes widened a little.

He had shoved a perfectly ordinary piece of chocolate into her lovely lips and she munched on it.

“What is this?”

“My thanks.”

Securing basic necessities like food and shelter had been a challenge in the frigid cold of the Crystal Beach artificial resort, so he had started carrying around emergency food like that.

“This seems inefficient to me,” said Aine. “If you wish to expand my abilities, I strongly recommend giving me pure gold to ingest. Strongly recommend.”

“This isn’t about that.”

He smiled a little.

It was a genuine smile.

He tried to imagine the look on her face if he strongly ordered her to remain here. He then imagined the possibility of leaving her where it was safe so he could continue down the path of his selfish fight all on his own.

(That’s a meaningless fantasy.)

“Sacri-sama?”

He shook his head.

That crystal girl tilting her head curiously there was an alternate form of Crystal Magic armor, so she was supported by the Crystal Magician, which meant Karuta. Even if they were separated, she would no longer function if he died.

(I will win this.)

Hence why they were linked.

Plus, there was only so much he could do on his own.

(I need to think about what I can do under the conditions I’ve decided on. The strongest will stumble if I let myself get distracted, so I need to keep running forward no matter how bad it gets.)

“We should get going soon. Aine, are you ready to go?”

“Yes. What is our primary objective?”

“?”

“Is it defeating the Threat, rescuing Miss Marika and the others from the second ship, or retrieving Sir Gekiha and the others from the first ship?”

“All of the above. That’s what it means to protect the world.”

He did not hesitate to answer as he got up from the cold floor. Night had fully fallen in the world visible outside the glass wall, but the oil fire was still burning ominously beyond the horizon.

He was on his way there.

How many of the real Threat were on that ship? Thousands? Even more? And he could not just slaughter them. Rescuing Marika, Gekiha, and the others increased the difficulty dozens of times over.

An ordinary attack would never work.

(So it’s time to become that real pain-in-the-ass who researches everything in detail to find a weak point.)

That thought put a smile on his face, but then…

“Senpai.”

He heard a voice.

A voice he had never expected to hear reached him from behind, causing his thoughts to briefly grind to a halt.

He slowly turned around to find Natlena Blast standing there. She must have been looking all over for him because she was out of breath and red in the face.

“Thank goodness you’re still in the airport. You seem logical at first, but, um, when it comes down to it, you’re really hard to predict.”

“Natlena?”

“Please let me help you.”

She was very upfront about what she wanted.

She looked like her breath was catching in her throat, but not because he had yelled at her earlier

One look in her eyes was enough to tell.

“I’ll be honest, I’m really scared. But because I’m scared, I want the help of the world’s strongest – of the Four Living Gods. So please don’t abandon us now. This might be simpler and easier for you if you leave us behind, but please think about how we’ll feel.”

“You can’t, Natlena! You’d just be letting us manipulate you!”

“But,” cut in the 12-year-old girl with the slight smile of someone trying to calm a frightened child. “I said I’m being honest, didn’t I? So let me lay it all out there. If Omotesandou Kyouka told me to fight for her, I wouldn’t be able to trust her. What she says is accurate, but accurate is all it is. There isn’t a person I can trust behind those words. …But it’s different with you. We wouldn’t follow just anyone with the title of world’s strongest. You’re the one that told us to consider our options again before making a decision. Because this is our life. So we’ve decided for ourselves who it is we want to follow. Are we just throwing all our problems on the world’s strongest so we don’t have to deal with them ourselves? Maybe. But we were the ones who considered our options and decided which of the Four Living Gods we felt we could trust the most. ”

“…”

“I won’t regret this no matter how it ends, so please take me with you, Senpai. We finally ended the chain of revenge between the two of us, so you can’t just leave me now.”

The boy forced his lips together for quite a while before finally squeezing out some words.

“And if I say no?”

“Then I’ll follow you anyway. Because I couldn’t just let you be torn to pieces by the Threat after you so stubbornly insisted on worrying about us more than yourself.”

He actually laughed a bit at that one.

He felt like his cunning image was crumbling away and though he would start sobbing if he let his guard down, but he managed to avoid that.

“You can’t,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Because one extra person wouldn’t change anything. I can’t just bring you to your death.”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about, Senpai. I said ‘we’ earlier, didn’t I?” She smiled. “Because I thought up this argument with the help of Yamane-senpai, Nekoumi-senpai, and, um, a lot of the others too.”

This time, Utagai Karuta stopped breathing altogether.

He had thought he had to protect her. He had thought the Four Living Gods were done for if he let her be killed for no reason. But Natlena Blast had surpassed him at some point.

“I’m not worthy to fight alongside the rest of you.”

That was not something to say in front of an underclassman.

He knew that, but the words spilled out all the same.

He bit his lip.

“I lied to you all so I could save my friends. We really should have abandoned Second Grimnoah to the Threat and built a Third Grimnoah, but I insisted on retaking the second one because of my friends from the first one crystalized on the lowest level. Even though they’re nothing but strangers you never even met. Dead strangers.”

“Why would that be a problem?”

She did not even hesitate to respond and she smiled at the shocked look on his face.

“All that tells us is that you never abandon your friends no matter what, right? And that you truly believed you could save your friends with our help. It meant you trusted us enough to leave them in our care. Why would we have a problem with that?”

“…”

“I’m glad the world’s strongest is someone with so much kindness in his heart. So I don’t want this age to end and I don’t want someone else to take over the title of strongest. Do you get what I’m saying now, Senpai?”

How much strength had it taken for her to say that? Even if they had reached an understanding, he would forever be the person who had killed Anastasia Blast, her sister and the former strongest. But she had still said she would accept it and that she was happy with this era.

“Those people mean so much to me.”

“I can tell.”

“But I don’t want to lose anyone else to rescue them. I don’t want to see that happen again.”

“I know that too, Senpai.”

He was asking for so much, but the small girl slapped her own small chest to accept the job.

“So let’s make it happen together. There is no first ship and second ship – we’re all Grimnoah together.”

### 128. Part 9

The fragrance of tea filled the airport control tower.

It had been made strong in the military fashion meant to keep you awake.

The kettle, ceramic pot, strainer, and hourglass might have looked like the tools for an ancient alchemy experiment to someone unfamiliar with tea, but Letnahe Kurent used them all with ease.

“Honey, has she gone to sleep yet? Eh? You made her pancakes before bed? That’s fine, but you need to be careful or you’ll make our son jealous. You know how he always gets upset when his big sister gets a treat and he doesn’t.”

The way she did it all while also speaking on her phone made her look like an expert.

Once the call was over, President Omotesandou Kyouka made a somewhat impressed comment.

“You know a lot about tea.”

“This tea is from my country. When it was grown on a plantation that’s practically in your own backyard, why wouldn’t you want to enjoy it more than anyone else?”

Letnahe poured a cup of hot tea and handed it to Kyouka.

Almost like she was testing the girl.

The silver-haired brown-skinned soldier seemed to smile a little after seeing Kyouka wait to drink any until after Letnahe drank out of a cup poured from the same pot.

Light glistened off of the ring and the face of the mobile watch on her left hand and wrist.

The President was interested in the watch.

“That’s an old model.”

“I happen to like this model.” Letnahe closed her eyes behind her glasses. “We can get back to our discussion once we’ve had time to rest. I need to calmly consider the information you have presented to me.”

“Yes.”

Kyouka bit off a small piece of a baked good she must have borrowed from one of the airport’s luxury shops. After detecting the scent of some artificial additives, she casually set it aside.

“About a nuclear attack on the Threat having the opposite effect, you mean?”

### 129. Prologue

Unidentified readings have contacted the Second Grimnoah academy ship in the Port of Kobe. Total number unknown, but estimated to be more than 50,000 and the measurements only continue to grow.

Features similar to the Threat training decoys seen at Iceland’s Crystal Beach have been detected.

America’s Smart Arms, the primary manufacturer of said decoys, has denied all involvement. Their statements are not to be trusted, but our long-range observations suggest the materials and technology on display here differ from the units seen in the supplied intelligence on the Crystal Beach battle (including videos taken by Grimnoah students). They do have a metallic sheen, but there are aspects that make it difficult to confidently classify them as biological or mechanical. That alone is a major discrepancy from the weapons produced by Smart Arms.

These are almost certainly the real Threat.

Second Grimnoah was busy with a largescale field trip, so there were close to zero Crystal Magicians on the ship at the time. The surrounding guard ships were quickly ordered to withdraw to prevent needless casualties. (This order was approved by Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka.)

We must assume the deserted Second Grimnoah has been occupied by them.

Sinking the ship does not appear to be the Threat’s objective, but conditions inside are unknown. The Threat has gathered with too great a density to allow x-rays or terahertz radiation to see inside.

All our intelligence comes from estimates based on long-distance observations, but they appear to move more quickly than the decoys in the reports on the Crystal Beach battle. These seem more biological.

We will soon seek volunteers to secure higher-quality intelligence from a greater variety of angles.

We know that we are incapable of defeating the humanity-destroying Threat, but that does not mean there is nothing we can do. Second Grimnoah is the mobile base needed to fight back against the Threat. We cannot allow it to be lost here.

My only hope is that the intelligence we gather can be of some use to those next-generation magicians.

That is all.

-Report from Central Region 3rd Division 36th Infantry Regiment to Army Central Intelligence Team.

Once this report is complete, we will abandon our base and voluntarily go into hiding. We will focus on unofficial defenses against the Threat, so assume all lines of communication will be cut off.

“Ahh, ahh…nhhh☆”

“What in the world are you doing? Why are all sticky?”

Utagai Karuta’s exasperated comment was understandable.

Black-haired Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was lying face down on a special table. She had stripped off her purple blazer uniform and only wore a bikini bottom over her very noticeable butt. She could not be said to be “wearing” the top since the straps were untied. Her excessively large breasts were squished between the rest of her body and the table.

The floor was covered in red carpet and the walls were made of wood.

But that classic and antique interior design was at odds with the various exercise machines and massage tables.

The space was like a fusion of a café lounge and a gym for the rich, so what would you even call it?

A luxury hotel suite was probably the closest thing.

The President’s long black hair was pulled up and small hands touched her exposed back. As those hands moved up along the line of her spine, a translucent gel spread out across her. Alluring breaths left her lips and irregular jerks of movement ran through her body every time the hands moved.

The hands belonged to Crystal Girl Aine.

She looked like a small girl of about 13 with long silver hair, two horns(?) growing from the top of her head, and a white dress, but she was actually a piece of Crystal Magic that belonged to Utagai Karuta.

Her hands were covered in gel, but her expression remained unchanged. That made her look cold, inhuman, and mechanical, but that was not too surprising since she was in fact not human .

“Is this good enough?”

“Yes, yes. Don’t try to scrub hard. Start by letting the gel soak into my skin. Once it takes effect, the filth will rise to the surface on its own.”

“Why is Aine doing this?”

“It’s a beauty salon☆ We’ve got the place to ourselves, so we can use all the first-class amenities we like. This doesn’t cost us anything extra, so why would you go stuff yourself into an economy seat packed in as tight as a pack of drink bottles?”

Soft music was playing and gentle heat filled the room.

There were no rows of seats to be seen in here, so it felt more like the bar lounge in a large hotel. Drink bottles sitting on ice and an assortment of fruit had been prepared on the glass table. They had to wonder why the airline had made this selection, but they were all carbonated drinks with an alcohol content of more than 14% and none of the students had dared touch them. Nature footage was playing on the home theater that covered the entire interior wall separating this room from the next and there were also a few VR goggles lying around. The VR areas were divided off with ropes for safety and you could play simulated golf, jogging, hunting, and other games there.

This was a passenger plane.

It was hard to believe this was really all happening at an altitude of ten thousand meters. Not to mention that Japan was still in a crisis situation. Karuta had just been left speechless after reading through the sorrowful report. He wanted to make sure those soldiers did not get carried away and get themselves wiped out. Yet when he walked in here, he found that demonic body. No, demonic did not cut it. She had the body of a demon queen.

“It wouldn’t be fair to criticize just me for this. Marika-san was using this place earlier.”

“Eh? Marika was using a beauty salon???”

“No, the VR boxing game. She says exercise is the best way to improve your body. Although she decided it was too boring when you couldn’t feel the punches land, so she stormed off in a huff.”

Yeah, that sounds like her, sighed Karuta.

Amaashi Marika, his twintailed childhood friend, was the kind of girl who would innocently pull you against her curvy body to test out some new wrestling move she had thought up. She would end up pressing her glorious chest or thighs against him, which he certainly enjoyed, but the wrestling part was more on the painful end of things, making it hard to know what to think about it.

Karuta and the others had boarded a boomerang-shaped passenger plane that was taking them from Iceland to Japan via Germany. Flight was one of a Crystal Magician’s presets, but it did not let them fly halfway around the globe nonstop.

Before the technological revolution, passenger planes were designed to carry 800 people at once, but that number had reached the quadruple digits thanks to the civilian uses of the secondary technologies developed from Crystal Magic.

“There’s no use getting impatient.”

Still lying face down, Kyouka used her arms as a pillow and kicked her legs like a small child. But instead of a light motion, the kicking produced a solid metallic sound. Around her ankles, on the back of her knees, on the outside of her thighs, and around her hips, she wore a medical powered suit made from a stainless steel frame thinner than a ruler. She was testing it out as a replacement for her wheelchair.

She was smiling thinly, but not out of enjoyment.

She could smile from more than just her own emotions. He had seen hints of this before too.

“If we get impatient, fear will quickly spread through the others. And if Grimnoah panics, what happens to the people watching us? All 5.5 billion of them watching on their various screens? The fight for humanity has begun before we even reach the Threat.”

“So I’m supposed to remain calm?”

“There are only four of us Living Gods, so we need to maintain our unprecedented and legendary appearances.”

Kyouka laughed and Utagai Karuta hung his head a little.

If people knew a famine was coming, they would buy up and steal food, but they could be put at ease by eating a large feast in front of the cameras. He got that. He really did, but it still felt wrong to him. What if there was not enough water, not enough money, not enough petroleum…or not enough lives? As the ideal shown on the screen to put people at ease grew further and further removed from the reality of the people’s lives, wouldn’t the Four Living Gods end up looking just like the Problem Solvers who had always smiled so creepily on TV?

The events at the Crystal Beach had been awful.

Being the world’s strongest did not make you all-powerful. That title granted them by other people was only an illusion. At that Icelandic resort, they had had so much trouble with only the decoy Threat created by a weapons manufacturer.

And this time it was the real deal.

Worse, their home ground of Second Grimnoah was the target.

“…”

But that was exactly why he could not let it overwhelm him.

Could they really throw out their morals just because it was an emergency and they needed to survive? The Plank of Carneades was bullshit. How could you trust the morals of the ancient Greeks or Romans or whoever that had laughed as they watched slaves fight to the death? He had to remind himself that an emergency was not an indulgence that unconditionally forgave any and all misdeeds.

If the strongest forgot how to regulate themselves, the world was doomed.

“What do you think the Threat – the real Threat – is trying to accomplish?” he asked.

“Who knows,” replied Kyouka. “And worrying about a question you can’t answer is bad for your health. Hee hee. Yes, that’s the spot, Aine-chan. Get that detox process working☆”

A soft electronic tone sounded.

Then a female announcer spoke over the speaker installed in the wall.

“We will soon enter Japanese airspace from the south. The local weather is stormy, so please be ready for turbulence from sudden pressure changes.”

It happened just as the announcement was finishing up.

Something passed right by the thick two-layer window.

They were ten thousand meters up, putting them higher than Everest’s peak, but something like a long white cloud or pillar of smoke tore through the subzero, low-oxygen air from behind the plane. Based on the direction of the setting sun, it was traveling south to north. If it had the same destination as them, it would be headed toward Kansai.

“A cruise missile? Who fired that!?”

“Someone must have jumped the gun.”

Omotesandou Kyouka casually sat up with her top’s straps still undone. If not for her hair falling down, her chest would have been fully visible, but she did not seem to care.

She let Aine wipe the gel from her back with a towel while she stretched her arms up like she had just woken up.

“That was a CM-05C Francisca. The C designation means it’s a small ship-loaded model, not a surface-to surface model. It’s based on an American missile, but the fins have been improved upon. I think Japan has a license to produce them. Hee hee. And you know the only complaint that got? It violates noise pollution regulations when flying at low altitude. Perhaps that’s why it’s up at this altitude.”

“Are you saying the soldiers meant to protect our country fired a missile into our borders from out at sea?”

“Yawwwn. At this scale, I doubt they can pass it off as an experiment. Those things are officially designated for ‘disaster prevention’. Such as sinking tankers that are burning out at sea.”

She must have been a little sleepy because she held a hand to her mouth and yawned while seated on the massage table.

That first spear of smoke was not alone.

Karuta managed to count more than 50 of them and he could guess there were more than three times that many he could not see from that window. The same model of missile continued to fly out ahead of their plane, like the smoke was threads being woven up in the sky. They were all headed toward a ship floating in the inland sea surrounded by Shikoku and Kansai.

But…

“ And I doubt this will accomplish anything either way. ”

At the same time, several beams of light brighter than lightning flashed out, producing just as many explosive booms. The disturbance of the air violently shook the boomerang-shaped passenger plane that could carry more than a thousand passengers.

But not because the many missiles had fallen on a well-populated area.

He could tell just by pressing against the window.

Every single one was shot down long before it reached the surface. The evening sky was scorched by the afterimages of beams colored the unnatural green of a neon sign. That solid defense had proven it would not allow drones or stealth fighters through and it had just proven that a saturation attack of cruise missiles did not work either.

“Anti-air lasers.”

“That’s what it looks like, at least. We don’t actually know what those are, so they might not actually be beams of light created through optical pumping.”

They could shoot down everything regardless of quantity or quality.

“Sparkle, the optical Threat. The name is extremely tentative of course.”

And whether that Threat was a machine or a creature, it was not alone. Second Grimnoah was crawling with them to the point that they did not have an accurate count.

Kyouka childishly puffed out her cheeks (with only her bikini bottom and hair to cover her soft skin).

“God, what are those grownups thinking? Why make it so the Threat’s presence saved the city? I get that they lost their temper after their attempts with drones failed, but still.”

“At least they were using normal warheads.”

“It doesn’t really matter.”

Fuel-air explosive bombs, thermobaric bombs, and nuclear bombs.

There were a few different weapons that could blow away a wide area, but none of it mattered if they could not reach their target. If an ordinary warhead could not reach, then neither could a nuclear one. Those overeager elites in camouflage had just implicitly proven that it was impossible for traditional military technology to eliminate the Threat.

That meant it was time for the Crystal Magicians who surpassed such ordinary things.

“…”

The next battlefield would be at the source of those lasers.

A Threat that could fire beams of light was attached to the roof of the Second Grimnoah academy ship.

“Karuta-kun.”

“Yes?”

“Be honest with me: you were glad that failed, weren’t you?”

“I mean, even an ordinary warhead creates a blast and shockwave across dozens or even hundreds of meters. And while they were targeting a ship out at sea, one of the missiles could still end up falling on a city.”

“That isn’t what I meant and you know it.”

He heard a metallic sound and sensed someone approaching from behind.

With the mechanical joints supporting her weight in place of a wheelchair, Omotesandou Kyouka pressed up against his back in nothing but a bikini bottom.

These were the actions of a girl who knew how to play the game.

The sweet demon whispered to him as if blowing a heated breath in his ear.

“I’m saying it would be a problem for you if those had hit and damaged Second Grimnoah. They called it deserted, but the students of the first ship remain crystallized on the lowest level.”

“…”

“Don’t worry. I feel the same. I am even willing to thank the Threat this one time. Hee hee. There are times when your honest thoughts must remain hidden because they would receive a flood of criticism if you ever spoke them aloud.”

Aine tilted her head while wiping her hands off with the towel a short distance away.

The first ship had been obliterated by the former world’s strongest known as the Problem Solvers. Karuta and Kyouka’s classmates and upperclassmen had been slaughtered and those fatal injuries had caused them to fully crystallize. All because of other humans, not the unidentified Threat.

It would take them long enough to recover as it was, but if their crystallized forms were shattered, that penalty would grow dizzyingly long.

Kazamuki Gekiha.

Karuta recalled the face of the friend he had once laughed with and clenched his teeth without turning toward the President whose body heat he could feel on his back. He wanted to save them, no matter what it took. He would not let the Threat do anything to them and those Japanese soldiers were a problem too. Then there was the coalition force champing at the bit in the distant ocean. He did not want to let them begin a general attack or allow any “noble sacrifices” if this developed into an all-out war.

Those were his classmates, his friends, and living human beings.

He was not going to give up on them and have their names carved into some pretty memorial.

“But…”

“Yesss? Hyah!”

A cute cry reached his ears.

All strength left Omotesandou Kyouka’s knees and she wrapped her arms around his neck to support herself. Just like a small child jumping onto her father’s back while throwing a tantrum.

She laughed bitterly.

“Ah ha ha. I guess untested prototypes only work like a charm in fiction. Was this the battery, or does it have a loose connection? I suppose I will be stuck on logistical support again this time. I thought I might be able to join the fight if I could run freely around the battlefield, but one malfunction like this on the front line would mean death.”

This time, it was not calculated out or a performative action similar to a speech made up on a large stage. Her large chest pressed against his back even more solely due to this unexpected trouble.

The sensation of her flesh was too powerful a stimulus for the teenage boy, but he did not bat an eye at her sighs, that sensation, or the unusual glimpse at her honest thoughts.

He only looked bitter as he stared out the window.

And he spoke like a lost child at an amusement park.

“This has nothing to do with Yamanen or Natlena who only arrived for the second ship. No one is going to agree to risking their lives to take back Second Grimnoah just because it would save some people who most people think of as already dead.”

“True, but I can give you an official reason for it. You can leave all the tricks and conspiracies to your black-hearted President.”

The strongest could only reveal their weakness to another strongest.

That was why Omotesandou Kyouka’s childlike behavior was quickly replaced by an all-accepting, motherly smile.

“I will give them an emotional and idealistic but also beneficial and logical justification. I will set up the conditions just right so they have no escape and could not back out even if they wanted to. ”

“…”

The ordinary people could only guess at how the great heroes and warriors felt.

There were battles from which you could not run.

And after coming this far, there was a clear division within Grimnoah.

Only the survivors of the first ship had any attachment to that first ship, so only the Four Living Gods shared that attachment. This was not like the Crystal Beach where everyone had banded together to survive. Those four would be getting the rest of the students involved for their own personal reasons.

This would be a guilty battle built on secrets.

So…

“Karuta-kun.”

A giggling breath reached his ear.

She may have been afraid too. That may have been why she made sure to maintain her confident demeanor. She had several different faces, but which one was she using to laugh here? Utagai Karuta was having a harder and harder time of reading her. Even though they had relied on each other to survive so many deadly battles.

“At this point, the two of us are nothing but villains,” whispered the alluring demon.

### 130. Chapter 1

### Part 1

The boomerang-shaped passenger plane, Flight JSL-710, landed at a floating general airport built off the coast of Osaka as an entrance to Kansai.

The usual passenger planes, businessmen waiting to board, and tourist groups were nowhere to be seen. From the moment the Four Living Gods disembarked, this changed from being a civilian international airport to a frontline marine base rented out to the world’s strongest fighting force.

“This is Osaka. This floating airport is about 30km by sea from the Port of Kobe.”

Amaashi Marika, a girl with her twintails hair dyed strawberry blonde, looked down at her waterproof map while descending to the runway with the many other students. That was more dangerous than walking around looking down at your phone.

“We’re lucky to have approached even this far unharmed. Hey, Karuta! You split them up into teams cause I’m no good at that. Ugh, I just want to get moving ASAP!”

“30km? Um, i-isn’t that too close? Can’t those lasers reach us here?”

That nervous comment came from Natlena Blast, a girl with short and wavy blonde hair. She had been the young avenger attempting to get back at them for her sister’s death, but now she was on their side.

She had never been the type to do anything wrong, but now that she had stopped forcing herself to be bad, she could no longer hide her adorable side. She was too pure to look at for Karuta, a truly bad person who had killed five people and received nothing but praise from the world at large.

He absentmindedly spoke to that underclassman who descended to the runway a step below him.

“You really are the puppy type, Natlena.”

“Mh, what is that supposed to mean? Um, there are other animals you could compare me to.”

“Huh? Why are you mad? I meant it as a compliment.”

“How stupid are you, Senpai? Only weirdos like being called a dog!”

He was pretty sure she was indeed the puppy type since she would bite at any rubber ball waved it in front of her small face, but there was no use arguing the point.

That aside, it might seem odd for a 12-year-old girl who could not drive a car or motorcycle to think of 30km as “close”, but Crystal Magic flight was superior to a fighter craft. With nothing in the way, 30km would take them less than a minute.

“We don’t have to worry about the Threat’s projectiles while on the surface because the horizon acts as a range limit. We haven’t heard anything about their lasers curving or bending in midair.”

Karuta was holding the handles of a wheelchair as he descended the stairs behind Natlena. He was turned backwards so he descended first to make sure Omotesandou Kyouka did not accidentally fall down the stairs. Out on the runway, they were already in their public mode.

They were outside. From now on, they had to assume that their every action would influence the 5.5 billion nervous people out there.

“Also, the grownups are really eager to do something , so they’re helping out. And unlike that reckless bombardment, their help will actually be useful this time.”

3, 2, 1, counted down Karuta.

Then an unnatural downpour fell down from the evening sky like a shower had been turned on.

Natlena held down her beret with both hands.

“Wah!! Wh-what is going on!?”

“Artificial rain. I believe it uses silver iodide. The weather was looking iffy already, but it’s safer when we can switch it on and off ourselves. This should weaken those lasers and also divert the course of the light much like a prism or filled fish tank. Of course, that’s all assuming the beams fired by the Threat really are physical light. ”

Karuta, Marika, and the others used magic powered by occult high and low pressure fronts, so they knew supernatural powers did exist in the world and could be systemized into a form of technology. They still knew nothing about the real Threat, so it would be naïve to assume their enemy could not do something they themselves could do.

“And Marika, try to keep that map folded up. The airport itself is locked down, but modern devices can still see us from a rooftop or other elevated location past the bridge here. Not to mention how high quality satellite cameras are. The world might be in danger, but there will still be people who see that as an opportunity. ”

“Oh, is that so? Since when are you so duty-focused, Karuta? And if that’s true, you should probably try to dress nicer for the cameras. Oh ho ho. Your appearance is a disgrace to the name of the Four Living Gods who are meant to put the people’s minds at ease.”

“?”

He gave her a look that said “but we’re all wearing the same uniforms”.

Natlena, their mascot of a middle school girl, looked up at him while fidgeting her small fingers.

“Um, Senpai, your tie is a bit crooked, so if you don’t mind, I could fix it for-”

“Stand back, flirting brat! You’re interrupting childhood friend quiz time! Why would you just give him the answer like that!? This is the problem with you newcomers that don’t know how the game is played!”

The two girls just about got into a fight in front of Karuta, but then Hashizaki Tayori, one of the girls in his class, reached over with an exasperated sigh. She quickly untied and retied his crooked tie with just the one hand.

“C’mon, try to look sharp, world’s strongest. You yourself said there are cameras watching us, right? Those paparazzi love nothing more than scandals of the romantic variety, so stop giving them fuel for the fire yourself.”

“R-right. Thanks?”

The cutting-edge magicians screamed “She stole my job!” and “Senpai!”, but no one was paying any attention to them anymore.

That gyaru-type was one of Marika’s friends, but Karuta himself had rarely interacted with her. A friend of a friend was just another term for a stranger, but Tayori winked at the confused boy.

“What, curious why I know how to handle guy’s ties? That conversation might be a little too grownup for you.”

Not only did she know how to tie one around someone else’s neck, but Karuta could not tie his own with just one hand. However, it seemed almost second nature to her. The capable girl waved as she walked off into the orange sun shower.

Matsuda Imi, the other girl always hanging out with Marika, held a hand to her mouth as she grinned.

“Did that inspire some indecent fantasies? Like a romance with an older man?”

“Bff!?”

“Ah hah hah! Don’t worry! Tayori’s just used to looking after her brothers. She has the gyaru look down, but she’s the caretaker type on the inside. She’s a veteran of the bargain hunting wars and she can sew and mend clothing with both speed and quality. But maybe that just makes her more of a catch? Oh, and Marika?”

“What?”

“We can see through your blouse. Wow, that is a really plain bra. Did you grow careless?”

Marika screamed while soaked with the artificial rain and hid her large chest with her hands. Karuta blushed and looked away like normal, but the girls apparently did not see this as sexy. It was an unforgivable crime.

Matsuda Imi sighed as she continued.

“That’s about what I would wear while lazing around in the kotatsu shortly after New Year’s, but you’re not in your dorm room right now. At least tell me the top and bottom are matching colors.”

“But, um, Imi-sensei! I have a good reason for this. I didn’t have anything to wear after losing my suitcase in the confusion caused by those decoy Threats, so I was forced to tearfully buy something at the duty-free shop in the airport at Iceland!!”

“Wow, that is just sad. I’d want to crawl in a hole and die if I were you. You do realize that’s just as bad as being so busy you forgot to do laundry, running out of clean clothes, and rushing out to a 24-hour discount store to buy some underwear? Without any underwear on at the time? Peh heh heh☆”

“Well, what did you do, Imi? That duty-free shop had to be the only real opportunity for any of us. If you didn’t buy any underwear there, are you saying you’re a sweaty girl who hasn’t changed her underwear?”

“Huh? You never know what’s going to happen on an overseas trip, so you’re supposed to carry around a separate bag with spare underwear, menstrual products, deodorant, and a small bath and toothbrushing set. Oh, what’s this? Why are you hanging your head and trembling, Marika-chan? What, did this never occur to you? Bwa ha ha! You really need to up your girl power!!”

Trembling, Marika looked over in search of help, but for some reason both Kyouka and Natlena would not look her in the eye. The looks on their faces said they had overcome that feminine crisis with their own forms of ingenuity, so they could not assist her here. On that note, where had Kyouka gotten that swimsuit?

Also, Karuta could not at all keep up with this crazy girl’s talk. Anyone who said they wanted to spy on girls’ secrets was living in a fantasy world. Karuta was not confident he could maintain his own fantasies after learning the truth. Those fantasies were shattering before his eyes. Really, he just wanted them to stop openly talking about sweat and menstruation in front of him like this. Talk of lazing around in the kotatsu was too real! It was going to make the boys cry!!

Meanwhile, small Natlena was covering her small chest with one arm, hanging her head, and pouting her lips after being caught in the crossfire due to the misfortune of choosing the same color as Marika.

“Wh-what’s wrong with white?”

“Oh, it’s still perfectly fine for you. It suits you. In fact, I’m impressed you have a real wire bra instead of a sports bra. That’s pretty mature for an AA. Wa ha ha ha!!”

“Mine are an A!! Not an AA!!”

That unnecessary correction made Karuta blush all the more and Kyouka (whose size spoke for itself) smiled bitterly with her head resting in her hand.

If you were proud enough of what you were wearing, you apparently felt no need to hide it. Matsuda Imi (who had been looking down on her friend while wearing a kiddy striped bra herself) spread her arms at her sides to enter airplane mode as she chased after her gyaru friend who was on her way to the terminal.

“…”

It was hard to believe they were about to begin a major battle.

It felt more like a scene out of a peaceful school.

They were about to give their all toward reclaiming Second Grimnoah, but even that was only viewed as taking back what was rightfully theirs.

If the Crystal Magicians known as the world’s strongest were to fail here and lose their base, all human hope would crumble. In the worst case, the 5.5 billion could be gradually worn down into extinction without ever finding their next strongest.

And Karuta’s group had no guarantee they would return from this alive.

This was the real deal. Their opponent’s specs were unknown, but the coming battle could easily be even worse than the one against the decoys at the Crystal Beach.

The general assumption that you would survive did not apply in real battles. It was Karuta’s group’s job to put together a realistic plan of action that would make that assumption a reality. They could not rely on the adults either. If they did not do this themselves, their plan would fall apart and they would all be slaughtered. And yet…

(I know it’s better than being traumatized, but is our previous success making them overconfident ?) “It’s better this way,” whispered Omotesandou Kyouka (who was wearing a surprisingly cute pastel color).

She was trying to encourage her fellow outcast.

“If they were feeling the real fear of battle, they would break before the fighting even began.”

### Part 2

The real Threat’s strength was unknown, but they did know one thing for sure at this stage.

They were about 30km away, but flying in and attacking the Port of Kobe from the air was not an option.

Thanks to the Sparkle’s lasers, they would all be shot down before arriving.

That was why they were using large tour buses to travel from Osaka to Hyogo, traveling north along a curving highway. A convoy of camouflaged military trucks would be too conspicuous, so it could gather the attention of the Threat and even the bored media.

Natlena Blast fidgeted nervously in the next seat over.

“A-are you sure this is a good idea, Senpai? It’s true the Threat might not notice us like this, but aren’t we using the city buildings as a shield!?”

“An evacuation order was put out quite a while ago and I doubt anyone will choose to ignore that with the Threat here. Word will be spreading that the city will be destroyed overnight.”

“Evacuate to where? Um, don’t the prefectures bordering Osaka Bay contain more than 10 million people?”

The blonde girl knew an awful lot about Japan for a US citizen. And things like this went more smoothly when following an existing process than when attempting something new and unprecedented. For example, Fukui had the highest concentration of nuclear power plants in Japan and Nara was a mountainous region famous for its hot springs, meaning it was also an active volcano. With several possible causes for concern, a largescale disaster response manual had been developed to cover the entire Kansai region.

In another seat, his classmates Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke were looking out the window.

“Noo! How did we visit Osaka without getting any of the local specialties!? I at least wanted to try some akashiyaki!”

“Farewell, Osaka, and hello, Kobe. What other part of Kansai is known for its beauty at night? Sapporo?”

“Senpai,” said Puppy Girl Natlena while dying to correct those two, but Karuta placed a hand on her shoulder from the next seat over to restrain her. She had to learn to not chase after every single ball that flew past her.

Karuta was getting a mild headache from his high school classmates who were exposing their idiocy a little too freely in front of the middle schooler, but he had to focus.

They did not drive down from the interchange to the ordinary roads. The Port of Kobe was right in front of them – he could already see its tall gantry cranes. The tour buses parked in a row at a nearby service station and Karuta stepped out into the sun shower. He detected the salty sea breeze mixed in with the rain. He flicked the Crystal Blossom on his chest and sent out a transmission to let everyone know what was happening.

He of course switched over to his public mode for this.

“We will continue as planned, but I cannot guarantee you that following your training will be enough to overcome this. We have all already experienced the cruelty of real combat. So let us protect Second Grimnoah, protect the Port of Kobe, and protect the world to show the bored media the pride of true veterans. Begin!!”

Several high-pitched sounds followed.

Around 100 middle and high school students had been gathered here. The boys and girls all shattered the Crystal Blossoms on their chests to cover themselves in translucent armor. They could not fly high in the sky thanks to those anti-air lasers, but they could still ignore the paths of the roads as they jumped straight down from the service area to the ordinary road below.

Natlena had already donned her armor, so she checked on the ski-like parts on her feet before looking back toward Karuta.

He alone could not wear amor like the other students. Nor could he fly.

“Um, uh, what about you?”

“Power up. Come on out, Aine.”

His Crystal Blossom shattered, his shirt pulled up, and a pale-skinned crystal girl crawled out from his stomach.

This was the irregularity he alone possessed.

Aine tilted her head while awaiting orders.

“What shall I do?”

“Well, first you can- wah!?”

“?”

Aine was puzzled by his shout.

The crystal girl had no center or core. Everything from the tip of her sword to her heart was an equal part of her and she had been wearing that white garment the first time she emerged.

But at the moment, it was raining.

In that downpour, well, the dress grew see-through. It clung to her fine skin, revealing the shape of her relatively uncurvy body. It was the white fabric’s fault!!

Aine herself did not bat an eye.

“Is something wrong, Sacri-sama?”

“Okay, I guess I have to make this an order. Listen, Aine, please hide your body. Immediately! It’s just that, um, are you unfamiliar with the concept of a bra!?”

The crystal girl silently lowered her gaze to check on her own disastrous state.

“But keeping my clothing constantly dry in this continuing rain is unrealistic and it would be highly inefficient to cover my body with my hands while I- byah!”

“You’re squeezing your eyes shut, blushing, trembling, and you even bit your tongue just now! I can tell you’re embarrassed too, so please stop pretending otherwise! There must be some solution to this!!”

Their field trip to the Icelandic Crystal Beach had not been a fun experience, but it had not been a total failure. For example, he had gotten Aine to feel embarrassment about her own nudity.

Another of his few victories there had been Natlena Blast, but she was now giving him a cold look.

“Senpai, um, why did you react so differently to her than to me?”

She was imagining things.

In fact, he also felt awkward looking at Natlena when she was so thoroughly soaked in the rain.

“Countermeasure: unknown. This particular problem must be put on hold.”

“Okay, fine. Then let’s get to work, Aine!”

After giving that command half in desperation, a pleasant slapping sound reached his ears.

Aine had swept him off his feet, flipped him around in midair, and grabbed him in a princess carry.

Then the crystal girl notices something.

“Oh, my hair covers it pretty well.”

“Don’t get careless, Aine. A hair bra is not generally accepted as covering up. That still counts as defenseless.”

Her movements remained precise as they discussed it. She did not hesitate to jump gently down to the hard asphalt 15m below the elevated service area with him in her arms.

It could be hard to tell with how easily she did it, but that was as tall as a school’s roof. It was a deadly height that was dangerous to jump from with or without a parachute. Natlena ended up watching it in a daze, but then she frantically activated her flight.

“W-wait, Senpai!”

“Never fly for more than 5 seconds, Natlena. We’re already within lethal range of the Sparkle’s lasers, so it’s over the instant it notices you.” After that quick rebuke, Karuta left Aine’s arms and planted his feet on the rain-wet road. “And we’re less than 500m from the Port of Kobe. If you count the adjacent airport, the Port of Kobe covers 10km of the coast, but we have to start here. Let’s go, Natlena. Real or decoys, we need to take the Second Grimnoah back from the Threat.”

“R-right. Um, to take back humanity’s mobile base!”

“…”

(Gekiha.)

He tried to keep it off his face.

But he was not at all confident he had succeeded.

He made all these valiant statements, but his real motives were much more personal. He was only interested in the dead dream of those lethally-wounded crystal statues, but working to rescue them had to be nothing but a nuisance to the rest of humanity. He doubted anyone would understand if he was honest about his motives. Not just the outsiders who knew nothing of Crystal Magic, but the other Grimnoah students and teachers too. If they knew, they would all tell him to get lost and they would abandon the fight. They would say the first ship’s problems were meaningless to their second ship. And they were right about that.

Was that his reason for not telling them ? Was that really a valid justification?

But…

Even so…

(I don’t care if it’s wrong. I will save my friends even if it makes me a lying sack of shit!!)

Aine used her sword to slice through the tall fence and Karuta silently stepped into the Port of Kobe’s grounds.

It was finally beginning.

The world’s strongest magicians were about to contact the true and legitimate Threat.

### Part 3

Osaka’s floating general airport was located 30km to the south and Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was humming as she operated the equipment in the control tower there. The number of buttons and dials there reached the quadruple digits and even licensed professionals had trouble dealing with it all, but Kyouka managed it more casually than searching for videos on a phone or tablet.

“Will that actually tell you anything?” asked Marika in exasperation.

“A number of things. For example, that the stubborn coalition force is preparing a nuclear launch.”

Marika did a shocked double take, but Kyouka did not look back her way. She only waved a headset in one hand.

“Care to take a listen? They’re talking about filling a landing ship with armored trucks and spacesuits for those shut-ins, about their remaining supply of iodine chemical, and about how a big old missile would be too noticeable and get shot down by a laser so they want to drag a field gun near the city and fire a nuclear warhead into the Port of Kobe from close range. What ever happened to the three non-nuclear principles, I wonder? Besides, thinking nukes will solve all the world’s problems is such an old way of thinking. Maybe those military officials are still upset they never got to fire a single one during the Cold War, so they’re hoping to finally do so before they retire.”

“Wh-wh-what coalition force?”

“All the usual suspects – America, China, Russia, France, and the UK – but India and Australia have decided to join in the fun this time. That’s strange, though. Since when does Australia have nukes? Sigh, I suppose this means the Southern Hemisphere has finally entered the age of nuclear weapons.”

Marika’s mouth flapped wordlessly because Karuta and the others would be entering the Port of Kobe right about now.

The President laughed without even looking back.

“I am making some adjustments to ensure they don’t interfere, so there is nothing to worry about. You focus on your job, Marika-san.”

“Um, Miss President? I assume you’re aware of this, but…”

“Yes?”

“That’s the smile of someone powerful hoping to receive something in return. But I don’t know what has you worried or what you’re hoping to get me to say. Not without you telling me first.”

Kyouka chose to remain silent.

She gave no answer and did not look back.

Eventually the President once more spoke without showing her honest side even to that fellow avenger.

“Don’t worry.”

“…”

“I won’t let the grownups have their way. The first ship may have been built for their purposes, but not the second one. We reclaimed that Crystal Magic academy for our own selfish reasons, so it will be us who settle things here. I will not allow the grownups to barge in and interfere when they don’t really care about any of this – it’s all just a job for them.”

“Fine, whatever works,” was all Marika said.

It was already known that the scope of what Marika would protect was extremely narrow. If something would help her protect what she cared about, she would go along with it no matter how dangerous it might be. Her stance was exceedingly simple in such things.

The curly twintails girl sighed too quietly for the President to hear.

(I almost wish she wasn’t someone I wanted to protect.)

Also, she did not have time to stand around in the airport control tower all day.

Karuta had gone to the front line and Kyouka had found something to do. And as always, Aine would put the boy’s orders first.

In the same way, Amaashi Marika had her own job to do.

She stretched out the equipment that had been supplied to her and gave it an extremely skeptical look.

“Can I really put this tight thing on by myself?”

“I have heard that the banned shark skin racing swimsuits required the help of someone else to put on. Eh heh heh. Marika, would you like some help getting changed?”

### Part 4

The Port of Kobe in Hyogo had received an evacuation order.

But some workers had remained because the fuel pipelines running through the port continued to transport 20 tons of flammable material every minute. The pipelines could not be shut down so quickly and the flammable materials had to be removed from the pipes or else damage to the pipes could trigger a largescale oil fire. The many safety checks built into the usual auto-controlled system were not going to finish in time, so workers in jumpsuits were relying on the old-fashioned methods. Their only option was to run all over the port and forcibly turn the giant metal wheels to complete the emergency shutdown.

“Pant, pant.”

One large man gasped for breath while pressing his back against a metal wheel taller than he was at the foot of a gantry crane.

(The oil refinery section’s sea berth was shut down. That just leaves the LNG storage section’s pipe that cuts through here.)

He stared at a notebook-sized tablet and operated it with trembling fingers.

A flat four-wheel drive vehicle began to move a short distance away. It was as long and wide as a large bus, but it was only about a meter tall. It was an automatic transport vehicle meant to carry containers around the port. Designate a location and it would carry a container there with a margin of error of only 2cm, so it could be used as a decoy or a shield.

However.

He heard several deep metallic crashing sounds in a row.

A nearby stack of containers had collapsed. Worse, a young worker was caught below one of the rolling metal containers.

The large man stuck his head out from behind the metal wheel taller than an adult and his face immediately stiffened. He pressed his back against the wheel, squeezed his eyes shut, and clicked his tongue.

He felt a powerful pressure from directly above. From above the roof of the simple prefab three-story office/breakroom. Something was up there and staring down at the ground. It was like a thick and invisible wall that left less room for escape than the falling ceiling in some ancient ruins. It was not actually staring at the large man, though. If it had spotted him, he would be dead already. That thing was staring at the young man pinned below the container.

It was a monster.

A monster simply known as the Threat. He had never seen the Threat before and no one had told him that was indeed what this was, but the large man had known at a glance. What else could you call that thing?

“…”

The shape alone was something like a tadpole with legs.

But it was not.

Tadpoles were not so large they could easily step over a 20-ton truck.

Tadpoles could not knock over a pyramid of metal containers by tackling it.

Tadpoles would not form a group to block off all escape for the humans.

And tadpoles did not split apart their round body made of black metal to reveal a horrific array of crocodile-like teeth. Nor did they have plasma jets more terrifying than a welding torch crackling in their mouths.

It did not have an obviously fearsome appearance like a tiger or T-rex. Slaughter by an almost humorous-looking creature was a brand new sort of fear.

There was no dignity in death here.

Dying to that would feel as pathetic as being drugged and placed on the ground so you could not resist as pigs devoured you, starting from the extremities.

The large man felt entirely helpless.

The automatic transport vehicle he had hoped to use as a decoy or shield had been flipped over as a mere side effect of the collapsing containers.

During his brief glimpse earlier, the younger man had been shaking his head while crushed below the metal container. The younger man’s face had been pale with terror, but he had desperately pleaded the large man not to come out and try to rescue him.

(Dammit.)

He heard a noise.

That sound of strength gathering in metal somewhat reminded him of straining muscles. After an ominous silence similar to a bowstring being drawn, a heavy crash destroyed the prefab roof.

The legged tadpole had leaped from the roof toward its prey.

“Dammit!!”

A dull sound soon followed.

Yes.

The automatic transport vehicle had flown in from the side and knocked the airborne tadpole away.

Meanwhile, something was heard whizzing through the air. It was Natlena Blast’s legs. Her ski-like armor had fanned out and ultra-thin wires emerged from each piece.

Those were the scales of Anubis, Egyptian god of judgment.

With every roundhouse kick, side flip, and breakdance-like rotation of her body, the metal flowers at the end of the wires opened up and those grab buckets “grabbed” various obstacles. They grabbed them and swung them around. The 12-year-old girl wielded a storm of metal to make an additional fierce attack against the legged tadpole.

“Aine,” said a boy’s voice.

A much cleaner sound of destruction followed. It came from a sword. Several lines ran through the metal container pinning the younger man down so solidly, orange sparks flew, and the container fell apart. It happened so cleanly the rescued younger man was taken aback.

The boy who had commanded the pale-skinned crystal girl walked calmly up from a short distance away.

He walked toward the large man hiding behind the gantry crane’s metal wheel.

“You need to evacuate. More Grimnoah students are at the northern gate, so they will guide you out.”

“I…”

The large man shrank down like a scolded child even as the rain hit him.

But not because of fear.

“I was in charge of keeping him safe. And yet…”

Utagai Karuta sighed.

Karuta too had failed to save people when the first ship met its doom. His pride had been left in tatters and he had felt like his entire being had been denied, but he had still clenched his teeth in the depths of incompetence and figured out how to crawl back up again.

But this man could redo things without needing to rely on revenge.

Revenge had been the only option for the boy, so he crouched down to match the seated man’s eye level.

“I just saved one life. There is no denying that.”

“…”

He peeled back the mask of his public mode. Or he made it look like he had.

“So you only have to save three lives over the rest of your life. You can easily outdo the world’s strongest that way. But to do that, you can’t let yourself die here. So get out of here. Hurry!!”

He slapped the man on the back to urge him on and the large man ran from the collapsed container yard while lending a shoulder to the injured younger man. He looked back several times to lower his head in thanks as he did so.

Aine approached with sword in hand and whispered too quietly for the men to hear.

“That math does not add up.”

“It doesn’t have to.”

A pyramid scheme did not have to be a bad thing. If someone saved three people, those three people saved three more each, and so on like that, it was bound to improve this shitty world more than all the efforts of a single world’s strongest.

Karuta brushed up his wet bangs in an irritated way and turned around.

He and Aine faced the battlefield. Visibility was poor with several of the container piles collapsed, but the scent of the sea was strong. They were not far from the Second Grimnoah academy ship now.

He flicked the Crystal Blossom on his chest and gave an order using its communication function.

“Send a few people to make sure the LNG pipeline is shut down!”

He heard several heavy clanging sounds.

Clear drops of water scattered from the short skirt of Natlena’s uniform while she used the wires on her legs to “grab” and swing around containers, trucks, water, and even the air itself. Rapid-fire attacks sounded good, but they also meant a single hit was not enough to finish off your enemy.

This was the real Threat.

As expected, they would not die so easily.

And if they could do the same thing the decoys at the Crystal Beach had done, then any that did die would only have their remains taken in by the others to create even more formidable monsters. Karuta was beyond being surprised by things not going as planned. After surviving two intense battles, he had learned that god was not going to grant you divine salvation no matter how much you pleaded for it. That was a lesson he would much rather not have learned.

He breathed in and out while gathering his resolve.

“We can’t leave this to Natlena alone. I’ll need your help here, Aine.”

“All that leadup is unnecessary. Simply give me my orders.”

### Part 5

Crystal Magic was known as the world’s strongest.

That remained true even when it took the form of a small girl.

First, Aine rushed in with her clear sword at the ready. Natlena’s lengthy battle against the legged tadpole was like playing round after round of Russian roulette, but she failed to realize her odds of death rose with each move she made.

Her survival one moment was no guarantee of her survival the next. Aine’s long silver hair scattered water droplets as she bought some slight time, so Karuta spoke into his Crystal Blossom while behind cover.

“If it bites you, you’ll be burned through. You need to fall back behind cover, Natlena!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Senpai! I can still-!!”

“That tadpole isn’t the only one!! You’ll be surrounded!!”

He shouted back at her and pulled a modified military flashlight from his uniform. Blinding an enemy with its extra amps and powerful IR was effective against biological eyes and mechanical sensors.

(The problem is I’m not sure where those tadpoles’ “eyes” even are. Should I assume it’s the same as in a kid’s animal encyclopedia? Can I really entrust my life to a mere assumption ?)

Another transmission cut in.

It came from his classmates Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke.

“Hey, Karuta, can we save her!? She’s moved out too far on her own. I’m not into skinny little bodies like that, but it’s scaring me seeing her do this!!”

“Hee hee hee. Now’s my chance to show off to a s-sexy middle school girl!”

Yamane was at the base of a container pile and Nekoumi was searching for a sniping point at the top.

The Crystal Magicians all had their own traits and specs and the tadpoles were gathering after hearing the commotion. Karuta rationally analyzed their fighting force in his head. Taking too optimistic a view could lead to things unraveling and people dying.

He could only ask them to do what they could actually do.

“Understood, Yamanen. You can tackle Nat- Jane Ignition-san if you need to, but get her away from the front line! Plea-”

His breath caught in his throat.

An unnatural green beam of light had blasted through the container yard after being fired toward the ground at a very shallow angle. It pierced through the foundation of a metal pyramid and melted the asphalt ground into an orange liquid.

Yamane Deiri had been using that pyramid as a shield, so his right arm was torn off at the shoulder.

Which was more frightening: the fact that the blast was powerful enough to break right through the Crystal Magic barrier, or the hippo-like Threat that was in the line of fire but shrugged off the blast?

“Yamanen!!”

(A laser!? Did it come from Second Grimnoah!?)

They were about 500m away.

The special three-hull cruise ship was visible from here and something stood on the roof of the middle school building located on one of the decks.

It was larger even than the metal containers.

It was a pitch black lion with a mane and with several long cylindrical containers swept backwards from either side of its neck. Those containers may have been vacuum tubes or capacitors. Impossibly, they also looked like a flying fish’s pectoral fins.

That was the Sparkle.

Those pectoral fins were spread out like wings, their tips glowed green, and a mysterious energy gradually gathered toward its throat. With its four legs planted firmly on the artificial footing, the lion opened its great maw.

Light the color of a neon sign filled the back of its throat.

It stared straight at Utagai Karuta.

“Shit!!”

He frantically spun around and dove toward the rain-slick road just as the stack of metal containers he had been using as a shield was pierced through. The few drops of scorching orange spray that hit him caused enough pain that he thought he might pass out. Was that what it felt like to be hit by a bullet? If that high-power laser had directly hit him, he would have been vaporized and killed instantly with no chance for regeneration.

The burned skin of his arm was rapidly covered by pointed crystals. The regeneration process had begun, but if even the slightest attack caused the wound to shatter, it would never heal again.

(The artificial rain isn’t working at all!! If we don’t shut that thing down soon, it’ll just keep firing on us. We need to think up a safe way of approaching Second Grimnoah!!)

That was when he heard something odd.

“Ah ha ha.”

Laughter.

It came from the classmate whose arm had been burned off, but this was not an attempt to look tough or the result of confusion. It was the perfectly ordinary laughter you might hear in the classroom.

He casually swung around his right arm covered in pointed crystal while the rain poured down on him.

“The thing tore my damn arm off!! Not bad, Threat. Wa ha ha ha ha! How bout I attach an electric drill or pile bunker!?”

Karuta felt an unpleasant sensation crawling up his spine.

Before the battle began, he had wondered if their previous success was making them overconfident .

(This isn’t right. This isn’t right at all, Yamanen!!)

He thought he could not feel any more fear than he already was, but while he clenched his teeth behind cover, Aine approached, tilted her head, and provided an even more horrifying opinion without bothering to fix the hair plastered to her cheek.

“They might be copying you.”

“Huh?”

Karuta did not even notice as the 30 seconds passed, the crystal shattered, and his skin was as good as new.

“It was you at the Crystal Beach that showed them the optimized fighting style where you ignored all pain and fear and incorporated the destruction of your own body into your tactics. You proved those tactics to be effective while eliminating the decoy Threat, so is it really surprising that the other students who saw you fight that way would want to incorporate the world’s strongest’s tactics into their own tactical flowchart?”

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

He was truly speechless this time.

(I…I made Yamanen and the others like this???)

Still soaking wet, Aine glanced over at him before continuing.

“They taught themselves to do this from their own observations. You seem displeased with the result, but I do not see why the structure of their tactical flowcharts should bother you so much.”

“Of course it bothers me.”

He also realized that the world’s strongest Four Living Gods could not simply fight and win. How they won would set history in motion. What if they saved the world from a great crisis with a suicide attack? They might be perfectly satisfied as they died, but the people who survived would learn from that action. It would teach them that sacrificing their own lives was effective. They might have plenty of other options, but their admiration of those four would give them tunnel vision and they would continue making suicide attacks. It would lead to an age where everyone gave up on trying to win without sacrificing their own lives.

The invisible pressure of being the world’s strongest weighed down on him.

He shook his head before speaking.

“Getting Natlena to fall back comes first right now. Once she’s safe, we can search for a route to approach Second Grimnoah. Aine, any ideas?”

“Yes, about Miss Natlena.”

Aine pointed her crystal-like sword toward Natlena from a distance.

Technically, she was pointing it toward one of the metal containers Natlena was swinging around.

The crystal girl’s sword had a jitte-like branch where a short laser gun unit was attached. She used that projectile to burn through one of the grab bucket wires.

When Natlena suddenly lost her balance, her small body was pulled by the weight of the remaining containers and unmanned transportation vehicles, tossing her through the air. She looked a lot like a fish being pulled from the water by a fishing rod.

“Wah!?”

Her feet were lifted from the wet ground and she flew like a long throw in baseball. Karuta quickly spread his arms to catch the 12-year-old in a princess carry, but her momentum was too great and both of them flew backwards. They ended up rolling along in a tangle, but they ended up behind a large truck. That was their next cover.

“Sacri-sama.” Aine slipped below the truck to join them and gave an expressionless report. “The lion Threat tentatively known as the Sparkle remains on Second Grimnoah’s roof. We require a fundamental countermeasure for its anti-air lasers. If you have no plan at the moment, our only options are to temporarily withdraw or to force our way to the ship, losing lives all the while.”

“…”

“But since that Threat accurately intercepted more than 100 missiles at once, I am skeptical the latter option would even work. Plus, the Sparkle is not the only Threat, so the death rate would rise even further if those tadpole ones slowed us down. Shall we attempt it?”

They could already see it.

It was only 500m away. With the flight of the ordinary Crystal Magic that Natlena, Yamane Deiri, and the others could use, that distance would take less than a second at full speed.

But.

That would mean demanding the students of the second ship sacrifice their lives for the dead first ship.

He squeezed Natlena in his arms to feel the body heat within her soaked uniform.

There was a definite life there.

They had already taken damage. Yamane Deiri’s right arm had been blown clean off by the Sparkle’s anti-air laser and he had only survived because the heat of the laser had instantly cauterized the wound, preventing any bleeding. In other words, it was only dumb luck. With a railgun or coilgun, he would have hemorrhaged blood and his full body would have crystallized.

Would it be the treasure ship that seemed within arm’s reach, or would it be the lives of his fellow students?

He had to choose.

(Dammit!!)

He had to think back.

What kind of strongest had he wanted to be when he first arrived at Grimnoah that spring and his life had still been peaceful? If he lost sight of that, he would end up no different from Anastasia Blast and the rest of the Problem Solvers.

He heard the ominous sound of fire consuming oxygen.

It was far from here, but an attack must have hit a giant tank of crude oil or liquefied natural gas. The workers had been in a rush to shut down the giant pipeline to prevent a largescale conflagration, but that did not help when the actual tanks themselves were destroyed. He could see the orange flames and black smoke. The fire was not spreading inland. It was spreading out toward the ocean which should not have been able to burn.

“That is fortunate.”

He could not believe what Aine had just said, but she apparently did have a logical reason for it.

“If the fuel burns away, there is no risk of it vaporizing and blowing in toward the city. Extinguishing it before the point of leakage is fully shut off could actually lead to the city’s destruction, so be careful.”

The city was safe, but the flames and smoke were spreading into the deserted port and would likely arrive here before long.

There was no time, so Karuta shut his eyes and took a deep breath.

One of the Four Living Gods made up his mind.

He grabbed his underclassman’s shoulders and crouched to her eye level in the rain.

“Listen, Natlena. We’re going to reorganize our forces.”

The fight would not end just because the humans wanted it to. The Threat did not understand their circumstances.

So…

“ We will temporarily withdraw from the Port of Kobe and bring our data and firsthand experiences back to Omotesandou-san and the others. We can work out a countermeasure for the Sparkle’s anti-air lasers then. Allowing everyone to withdraw safely requires forming a rear guard unit, so will you fight with us?”

“B-but if the fire spreads across the ocean, um, it will reach our ship!”

“It isn’t a wooden sailing ship, so a fire on the ocean surface won’t get through its cutting-edge hull. Ship fires are mostly caused by internal equipment. It rarely ever happens from an external source.”

“But…”

Natlena Blast forgot all about how soaked with rain she was as she opened her eyes wide, but he was not budging on this. The Threat’s anti-air lasers had greater specs than they had thought. They could not board Second Grimnoah by forcing their way through the storm of lasers.

(And the others like Yamanen are acting weird. I can only stand here and watch right now, but the way they’re acting, they’ll get themselves killed when they could have won!)

Or they would magically bomb the Threat without thinking of the consequences and end up sinking the academy ship. Light and flames could not be shot down with lasers, but it was unknown if plunging the Threat into the ocean would be enough to kill them. Plus, that would almost certainly shatter Gekiha and the rest of the crystallized people.

(Who do you care about more? Natlena’s group or Gekiha’s group?)

Utagai Karuta hated himself for even briefly weighing those two on the scales.

He could not get greedy.

He could not get fixated on winning. Survival was their top priority.

“Is that okay with you, Aine?”

“I do not mind, so do what you want to do. But while you can possibly fool the media on the ground, the military satellites are another story. Have you considered how the world’s strongest turning tail and running will influence society?”

“Yes. I was the one that got their hopes up, so they can place all the blame on me.”

“Senpai,” said Natlena in an accusatory way, but his mind was made up. Every move he made would influence the entire world. He had already seen that in his classmate Yamane Deiri.

He had to show them the sort of strongest he wanted to be.

Was Utagai Karuta’s idea of the strongest someone who would be broken by one measly loss?

“The real disaster would be if I got so afraid of some imagined accident that I got myself killed. If the strongest can’t lose, then their life has to be treated with the utmost care. We can just ignore all the international criticism on the TV news.”

“Understood,” said Aine. “If this is a rational choice made after serious thought, then I shall obey.”

On the roof 500m away, green light once more glowed from the capacitors spread out from the black lion’s neck like a flying fish’s pectoral fins. The energy gathered on a single point and filled its throat.

But the straight line of destruction unleashed by the Sparkle was not aimed at Karuta and the other Crystal Magicians. In the slight gap between the concrete wharf and the ship itself, the mooring ropes and anchor chain holding Second Grimnoah in place were severed.

Was even the Threat bothered by environmental pollution?

Second Grimnoah was now loose in the waves, so it slowly drifted away from the port.

Utagai Karuta clenched his teeth and forced out a command.

Was it thanks to his initial defeat against the wielders of God Worshiping Magic that he now had the strength to admit defeat as the world’s strongest?

“Withdraw.”

### Part 6

“Nh, kh,” groaned a voice back on the floating general airport about 30km south of the frontline.

More specifically, it was inside a flight attendant locker room.

Amaashi Marika tried to suppress her voice, but she could still feel it escaping through her nose. She made one final effort while feeling her entire body squeezed tight from the outside.

“Nhhhhh!!!!!!”

“Yes, yes. There aren’t any teenage boys around to excite, so you can stop making all that noise. Look, all done.”

She had cleared the final barrier with the help of her more mature classmate Hashizaki Tayori. A special synthetic material less than a millimeter thick now covered her all the way up to her shoulders.

She blushed when she saw herself in the large mirror.

The skintight, waterproof, and heat insulating material covered her arms, legs, and torso equally, leaving only her head exposed. It was apparently a cutting-edge silent diving suit, but the shape of her breasts, butt, collarbones, and even navel showed through.

She twisted around to get a look at her back in the mirror.

“Yikes. I knew this would show off my figure, but not this much.”

“You always sleep in the nude, so why does this bother you so much? Anyway, if you’re done, then help me out.”

“Sure thing, Imi.”

Cutting-edge or not, Marika thought there was something wrong with a suit so tight you could not get it on by yourself. Matsuda Imi had managed to get it on her legs by herself, so Marika and Tayori stood on either side of her and worked together to tug the thin material up over the girl’s shoulders. It felt a lot like struggling with a thick rubber panel stuck to the ground.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!!”

“Bear with it.”

“I…I think it’s kinda caught on my boobs! Ow! I-it’s rubbing!”

“You’re imagining it. It’s perfectly smooth on the inside.”

With a solid snap, Imi was dressed.

“So now the oxygen tanks and our luggage?” asked Tayori who had gotten into hers first.

“Ugh, will this thing really work? I feel like the crotch is going to rip as soon as I spread my legs a little.”

“If you’re worried, then why not test it out? Do some gymnastic stretches, Marika.”

That was a good point, so Marika cautiously moved her body while Tayori supported her. She knew it was designed to allow this kind of movement, but she was still scared since she found that hard to believe.

“First, lower your hips like normal.”

“Okay.”

Tayori placed her hands on Marika’s shoulders while standing in front of her. The two of them bent their knees to lower their hips.

“Once your butt is on the floor, keep your knees bent and slowly spread your legs to the sides.”

“Nh, like this?”

“And with your legs still spread, I just have to flip you over and lift your butt up high. Tah dah! Now you’ve mastered that embarrassing pose they do in porn all the time!”

“Bffhhh!!!??? What is wrong with you, Tayori!?”

“It didn’t tear, did it?”

Marika blushed and struggled (while flipped upside down) and Tayori laughed while still holding the girl’s legs in place.

Meanwhile, Matsuda Imi was restlessly rubbing her thighs together.

“Um, uh.”

“What, is it tighter than you expected and you’ve taken a liking to it? Y’know, like a bike seat?”

“It’s not that…ahh, I can’t take it. I’m so nervous it’s about to leak out on its own. Marika, Tayori, help me get this thing off! I need to use the restroom.”

“What a pain. We just got it on you!!”

Marika complained while stripping the teenage girl bare. Once she was naked again, Imi left the room, but this was actually a problem that fighter pilots and astronauts had yet to fully solve. The best solution was to avoid drinking very much fluids while on standby, just like a small child afraid of wetting the bed.

(It’s going to be cold in the water, so we need to look after our health on this mission.)

The other two sensitive teenage girls kept that thought on their minds as they awaited their friend’s return.

Yes.

Marika grabbed some thick goggles and used her other hand to flick the Crystal Blossom on the chest of her suit.

“Okay, Omotesandou-san. We’re about to leave.”

“Understood. Once you’re in the ocean, avoid any communications other than short-range ones with your team. Long-distance communications are off limits both with your Crystal Blossom and your phone.”

“Do you really think the Threat can intercept those? Not even research lab quantum computers have been able to analyze how Crystal Blossom communications work. And the Threat might not even understand the concepts of encryption and transmissions.”

“The trick to survival is to always assume the worst when you aren’t confident about something. And do you remember the observation reports of a sea urchin Threat covered in moving rods that looked an awful lot like TV antennas? Plus…”

“Plus?”

“This is more of a jinx than anything with real data to back it up, but they swear the manned high-altitude spy planes that don’t send out any signals last longer than the unmanned spy drones that are constantly sending signals back to their base. The Sparkle’s anti-air lasers supposedly fire more often with the latter. Of course, the altitude, speed, material, size, and shape are all different, so it’s hard to say if the signals are really what’s causing it.”

Last longer.

That meant the manned and unmanned ones were both shot down in the end. Even the professional soldiers had thrown in the towel without finding a workable strategy. The apocalypse had arrived at the Port of Kobe – most people were just not aware of it yet.

Kyouka continued like they were only having a casual chat.

“By the way, Karuta-kun and the others seem to be having a harder time than expected as they make their attack on the surface. He says they’re going to withdraw and bring back their raw data and experiences.”

“What is he doing?”

“We had a feeling this might happen, didn’t we? Which is why you need to do your part down there in the ocean. That is our real attack, after all. ”

Imi returned naked and with a bashful smile, so it was time to get that annoyance of a skintight suit back on her.

“I bet that President says the same thing to everyone,” commented gyaru-ish Tayori while they worked at Imi’s suit.

“Really? She seems surprisingly naïve deep down to me.”

Tayori and Marika were of split opinions on this, but that was not a problem.

The three girls grabbed some metal tanks that felt heavy out of the water and placed them over their backs. They grabbed some waterproof bags before moving outside. Even with the special suits on, the rain still felt unpleasant. They walked across the flat megafloat to the straight-line edge.

Imi put on some large goggles and looked down toward the water.

“Wow, I didn’t realize we were so high up. Is that about three meters?”

“Less talking, more jumping.”

“Hey, don’t push on my butt, Tayori…gyaaahhh!?”

Imi was shoved off into the ocean by a hand on her butt (that had avoided the tank on her back) and then Marika and Tayori jumped into the water dyed orange by the light.

With their cutting-edge silent diving suits, they could ignore the water temperature and pressure and the slight bumps on the surface reduced the noise of their movement through the water as much as possible. Supposedly anyway. They had no way of knowing if any of that was really happening.

“Ugh, I hear a lot of bubbling when I breath out. Are you sure this thing’s working?”

“Quite complaining, Imi. We need to follow the fiber optic cable on the ocean floor to reach the Port of Kobe.”

“If only things were still going as planned. I really wish Karuta had actually done his job as a diversion and drawn their attention more.”

The girls spoke using the short-range communications of their Crystal Blossoms while they began to move just off the ocean floor. Since they could swim straight there and ignore the land route, it was about 30km north from the floating general airport to the Port of Kobe. That would eat away their stamina more than a full marathon if they swam like normal, so they would be too exhausted to fight once they arrived. That was why they needed to surround themselves in crystal armor and take advantage of the flight that provided.

Yes, they could use Crystal Magic underwater.

This was a nonstandard usage, though, so there were a few things they had to watch out for.

“Power up. …Imi, Tayori, don’t move too quickly. The water creates a lot of resistance, so you would only crush yourself with your own speed.”

“And with the goggles and mouthpiece on. I’m afraid of hurting my teeth by flying with this thing in my mouth.”

“The tank is dangerous too, but we still need it. If the wall of water causes our preset barrier to activate, all our luggage will be deflected away from us.”

However, the points of the crystal armor rendered the silent diving suits mostly useless as far as water resistance was concerned.

And of course, this required some level of caution. They were approaching the Metal-Derived Autonomous-Origin Higher Lifeform Combat Weapons commonly known as the Threat. No one knew if they were biological or mechanical. If they did not need oxygen or had gills, they would be able to move through the water just fine.

And in fact…

“Be careful,” said Marika while they advanced through the ocean.

There was a large mass up ahead. A hemispherical umbrella of black metal was floating in the seawater. Perhaps it was meant to look like a jellyfish. The 2m object was attached to the ocean floor with a thick chain and had long tentacles thinner than hairs flowing freely in the current. It looked more like a sea mine meant to obstruct travel through the ocean than it did a predator with a mind of its own.

That jellyfish Threat slowly wobbled side to side in the orange ocean, but it was not alone. When looking off into the distance, red lights could be seen slowly flashing like the lights on top of skyscrapers at night.

“Mines? They have red lights, but they don’t seem to have eyes.”

“How can you tell, Tayori?”

“If they could locate us with lenses, they would have surrounded us by now. Hey, Imi, can you think of any reason for the Threat to spare a human? And these real ones attacked Second Grimnoah for some reason. That suggests they know the value of Crystal Magic.”

The girls made sure to avoid touching the long tentacles as they swam past the black jellyfish along the ocean floor. Luckily, none of them suddenly opened a large mouth or exploded as they passed by.

“What do we call those?” asked Imi while looking back a few times. “Does the discoverer get to name them???”

“Don’t use your long-range communications to ask the President. The Threat would notice and surround us immediately.”

But Marika was not ready to celebrate having successfully avoided them.

“It isn’t just the Port of Kobe. The Threat has spread over a much wider area of ocean. How far has their contamination spread?”

“We can only pray they don’t already have the entire Japanese Archipelago surrounded.”

The fact that no one could laugh at Tayori’s melancholic statement showed just how bad the situation was.

For one thing, the Threat had supposedly come from the bottom of the ocean when they attacked Second Grimnoah, so the girls could not let their guard down.

They kept their speed low so as not to be crushed between their own speed and the water resistance as they followed the underwater fiber optic cable to the Port of Kobe. Even with the water resistance reducing their speed, it only took them 45 minutes to cover the 30km.

They saw a few oddities other than the jellyfish at the bottom of the bay.

Giant red flowers were blossoming on the ocean floor.

“What are those?” asked Imi. “Sea urchins? No, these look softer.”

“They might be sea anemones,” said Tayori.

The smaller ones had a diameter of 10m and the larger ones had a diameter of more than 100m. Countless tentacles were spread out in a circle, almost like a sunflower. The tentacles looked too soft to be made of metal as they expanded and contracted to envelop their fellow Threats that dropped down from the ocean.

(Why are they so jiggly? Are they a liquid despite being made of hard metal? No, maybe they’re a collection of small hard pieces, like a beanbag cushion.)

Most of the sea anemones were glowing red, but some were emitting a green light instead. Those ones were spreading their tentacle flowers wide and sending out the tadpole Threats contained within them. And those tadpoles were the size of a large truck.

Imi’s eyes widened behind her thick goggles.

“Their tentacles are stabbing into the other ones.”

The red light would then turn green.

That reminded Marika of something. Even if it was not accurate.

“Are they charging the others up???”

“They do seem to be throbbing in places. But that’s making an awful lot of noise for transporting a liquid. It may be some kind of solid, like a jelly or blocks of something. Whether you would call it fuel or food would depend on the exact mechanism they use, but I bet they are securing some kind of power source.”

Destroying those underwater gas stations may have dealt a blow to the Threat, but Marika stopped that line of thinking. The jellyfish and sea anemone Threats may not have had eyes and ears, but the ones on the surface would. Vision in the seawater was not great, but they would still be noticed if they moved too close. Plus, they had no data on how many of these gas stations existed in the ocean. If they were everywhere, then destroying just what they could see here would not be enough to stop the Threat as a whole.

They would be needlessly revealing their presence with no guarantee of any real effect.

In that case, it was not worth changing their plan for.

Marika shook her head to shake off the temptation.

“Let’s go, Imi, Tayori. That isn’t our target.”

“Understood.”

They knew those red and green glowing sea anemone gas stations were carrying other Threats, so they made sure they did not run into any other Threats moving to and from the ocean’s surface as they swam upwards.

Their heads silently emerged from the orange surface of the ocean.

“Pwah.”

Imi lifted her goggles to her forehead and removed the oxygen tank’s mouthpiece from her mouth while salty-smelling water dripped from her bangs.

“We’re back, Second Grimnoah. My phone contract is still in my dorm room, so I can’t have you kicking me out. I’ve already forgotten the PIN I was given in case I had any trouble.”

A giant wall towered up before them.

The wall of laminated material had an angle of more than 90 degrees, so it was leaning out toward them. Needless to say, that was the hull of the Second Grimnoah academy ship’s special three hull structure.

Tayori stared into the distance instead of at their objective. There was some obvious black smoke there.

“The ship has drifted away from shore. The port is all the way over there.”

“There’s an oil fire on the ocean near the port, so we’re actually lucky it’s drifted away.”

Marika looked up from the water. They could not fly up on top of the ship since it had to be crawling with Threats of all shapes and sizes, but that was not what she was interested in.

“Where’s that laser one?”

“The Sparkle was up on the flat roof, so it shouldn’t be able to see us unless it intentionally looks out over the edge. And as an anti-air weapon, it’s probably more interested in what’s at a distance than at its own feet.”

The Threat would find them if they carelessly flew into the sky, so Marika put her mouthpiece back in and gestured downwards.

She added more with her Crystal Blossom’s short-range communications.

“We can move freely in the water, so let’s dive back down. They’ll have a harder time finding us there.”

“Eh? Is there even an entrance below the water level? Wouldn’t the ship sink with a hole there???”

“Imi, a ship of this size doesn’t move around with just the rudder and propeller on the back. It’s bound to have side thrusters.”

Side thrusters were propellers that pushed seawater out of holes on the sides of the ship. They were used when leaving port or to spin the ship like a turntable by sending water out of the front right side and the rear left side or vice versa.

The motionless propeller was twice as tall as Marika.

After using their oxygen tanks to swim into the tunnel, they entered the ship through a maintenance airlock that used a pressurized pump. It felt a lot like opening a manhole cover and crawling out onto the street.

“Pwah! That was…the worst!!”

Marika spat out her mouthpiece, pulled up her goggles, and shook her head.

The weight of the thick tank weighed down on her again now that the water’s support was gone.

She was also worried about her hair. It was even more soaked with salty seawater than she had expected.

She saw metal pipes, stairs, and strange machinery. There were of course no windows. The place looked more like a workshop than a school. Second Grimnoah looked very different belowdecks than abovedeck.

This was her school and the dorm where she lived, but she did not at all feel the relief of coming home. The pressure squeezing at her heart may have been even greater than in the blizzard at the Crystal Beach. This was an extreme battlefield crawling with the true Threat. They could not be spoken to and the war treaties did not apply. If they were cornered in a dead end and raised their hands to surrender, they would only be swarmed and slaughtered. The tension was on a much greater level.

Now, why had the girls taken such a great risk to sneak into enemy territory with just the three of them?

They had already mentioned the answer.

Marika brushed up her wet bangs and looked to the heavy ceiling.

“That anti-air laser one is on the roof, right? I just hope it hasn’t moved from there.”

“The Sparkle can’t see us in here.”

“Just to be sure, let’s climb up from within the school building. If we can just take out the Sparkle in a surprise attack, the others can fight their way here. We’ll have our school back in no time.”

Of course, this plan fell apart if the Threat found them before that surprise attack succeeded. They understood the power and accuracy of that green laser all too well. They wanted to approach from a blind spot and finish it off in a single attack, not allowing it any attacks of its own.

The middle school building was directly above them.

Gyaru-ish Tayori put a hand on her hip.

“Do we take the stairs like normal?”

“I’m betting they’re watching all the ordinary routes.”

They still did not know why the Threat had attacked Second Grimnoah and occupied it instead of sinking it, but they knew there were some Threats inside here.

Something large and round was slowly rolling near a distant bulkhead.

“Shh!”

Imi immediately reached for her Crystal Blossom, so Marika quickly grabbed at her slender wrist and dragged her behind cover. Tayori slipped behind a different piece of machinery.

Marika held her friend in her arms while silently checking on whatever that was. It had a nearly spherical body with something like TV antennas sticking out in every direction. Each of those wriggled independently from the rest to push its body forward. It was maybe 2m tall if you counted out to the ends of the spines.

Was it…a slate pencil urchin?

Those lived among the tropical fish and coral reefs of the tropical seas, so Marika had often seen them on the first ship.

Of course, this only resembled one and behaved nothing like them.

The power of this Threat was unknown. Would it crush them with its giant body, would it shoot those spines like spears, or would it roast them with invisible EM waves? And even if they could defeat it, how many more Threats would rush in afterwards? They would gain nothing from trying to fight here.

“Gah. Marika, your boobs are too big.”

“How is that my fault?”

“What is that thing, anyway? One of the sea urchins they were talking about at the airport???” Imi tilted her head while not looking all that upset about drowning in her friend’s chest. “It’s pretty small compared to the tadpoles and that lion. And isn’t this the engine room – well, sub engine room. We’re right in the heart of their fortress.”

“Maybe the bigger ones simply can’t move around in the ship very well,” suggested Tayori.

Marika listened to those two while silently expanding her pointed crystal armor again.

But not to fight.

She could fly using Crystal Magic. She floated up from the floor using a thick pipe as a shield and slipped inside an emergency smoke vent near the ceiling. They did not need to follow the map or blueprint of the ship. And they did not have to worry about being shot down by the Sparkle’s high-power lasers while inside the ship.

“Wait, Marika, how did you fit inside there? My armor’s catching on the entrance.”

“Put your armor away. I know it’s a pain to power it up every time you need it, but just do it.”

This smoke vent was for emergencies, so it was rarely if ever used and thus nice and clean inside. Using this, they could easily reach the school building or dorm up above the deck.

Except…

“Argh, this suit is clinging to my skin. And the tank and goggles are in the way!”

Marika clicked her tongue at herself for only noticing that now, but she could not change inside the cramped smoke vent. After arriving in an area above the deck, she removed the metal grate on the ceiling and looked down into the hallway.

She gasped.

They were already in the middle school building. A tingling fear crawled up from her fingers now instead of when they had entered the ship. It was like being forced to stick your hand into a drain that was not just covered in sticky goop but coated with small unidentified bugs.

The school was awfully dark.

But not just because tons of Threats were covering the windows. Something like metal panels had been pasted onto the outside with some kind of adhesive. Those had apparently been taken from Second Grimnoah’s repair materials and deck-top equipment. The girls could hear claws scratching at the other side.

“Are they making nests? Do they have a bagworm type?”

(How lived-in this place looks makes it so much worse.)

That thought came to Marika’s mind as she hung upside down from the ceiling. Finding yourself in a strange forest at night would be a disaster, but finding yourself in a familiar hospital or amusement park at night would become a test of courage. This was the same.

The school looked entirely different now.

Marika gulped, but the fear remained below her throat.

Unlike a famous suicide spot, the darkness here could be swept away. She forced herself to focus on that fact. If they only got rid of the Threat, the usual Second Grimnoah would be back. She knew what was causing the problem, so she knew where to go. She would at least not be wasting her time.

Which meant…

(Hm.)

The classroom windows were covered with scrap material too, so they were full of scratching noises from outside. Was the metal over the windows meant to give the Threats footholds, not to provide armor?

“Now’s our chance to get changed.”

“In there? In what world, Marika? Could you sleep soundly in a mortuary freezer just because it’s about the same size as a sleeping bag?”

Imi’s eyes widened in shock, but this was enemy territory – there was no such thing as a safe zone here. With that metal covering the windows and thus blocking the inside of the room from view, this was as close to safe as they were going to get. In fact, building a sturdy but conspicuous shelter would only draw attention and get them surrounded.

First, Marika dropped down from the ceiling into the hallway and then she supported Imi from below while the girl’s legs flailed.

Once inside the empty classroom, Marika silently lowered the oxygen tank from her back and pulled her usual school uniform from the waterproof bag she had been carrying. The silent diving suit was useful in the water, but it would only get in the way while trying to fight on the ship. And if the Threat was intelligent enough to notice unnatural drops of water on the floor and investigate, the wet diving suits would get them tracked. The three girls balled up their used suits and stuffed them in their bags before sticking the bags, oxygen tanks, and goggles in the cleaning supply lockers lined up by the wall.

They lacked the guts to use a loud dryer, but wiping down their wet hair with a towel helped a lot. Marika tied her uniform’s tie with practiced hand.

“Note where this empty classroom is. If we screw up and have to withdraw, we’ll need to retrieve our equipment.”

“I’d rather not think about that possibility.”

They were keeping their tone light to avoid being swallowed up by fear, but one of the girls remained silent.

Marika and Tayori looked over in confusion.

“Imi?”

“…”

The girl did not respond even as they called her name.

She had not even finished changing. The salty water was dripping from her bangs and her short skirt remained haphazardly caught on her hips because she had not zipped it up as she stared at something. Whatever it was, it was not in the classroom. Her eyes were on the glimpse of the hallway visible through the not-quite-closed sliding door.

There was something there.

A slender hand beckoned at them through that gap in the door.

It eerily drew the attention of whoever that looked at it.

“Wait, Imi!?”

Imi started to stagger toward the classroom door with her underwear and soft skin still not fully covered. This was strange. Something was not right. Marika and Tayori grabbed at her shoulders to stop her, but they were dragged out of the classroom too.

Immediately, their eyes met those of a naked girl.

The younger girl’s long blue hair fluttered behind her despite the lack of wind. Her skin was so bright it was almost painful to look at, but something really was not right about this. The Threat had occupied this ship and Marika’s group should have been the only three who had snuck onboard.

Then whatever this was, it should not be categorized as human.

It may have been a lure like an anglerfish’s luminescent organ. In fact, the blue-haired girl lacked feet, just like a ghost. Instead of ankles, her legs extended down and attached to the hallway floor.

The thing that looked like a blue-haired girl never stopped smiling.

They did not have time to regret it.

(Oh, no.)

The camouflage was removed from the walls, floor, and ceiling and sea anemone tentacles blossomed out in all directions. The many tentacles rushed in toward the prey that had been lured into the center of its territory.

### Part 7

Karuta had known they would have multiple plans for the one problem.

If he had not had an inkling that they had some form of insurance, he would not have been able to order a withdrawal so reluctantly but readily.

However…

“You’ve lost contact?”

He was in the deserted airport control tower.

It had apparently been turned into the temporary Student Council Room, but with everyone else sent away, only President Omotesandou Kyouka was there.

This was a conversation between only the strongests.

Karuta had completed the withdrawal after confirming that the Threat was not attacking Kobe and was instead returning to the ocean where Second Grimnoah was drifting away.

It was already transitioning from evening to night.

Nevertheless, the ocean refused to take on an ominous black color. The floating general airport was about 30km from the Port of Kobe, but an orange light was still visible from beyond the horizon. That unnatural light came from the crude oil fire spreading out across the ocean.

President Omotesandou Kyouka responded to his question with a soft sigh.

And a confirmation.

“Since we saw those weird sea urchins covered in what look like TV antennas, I told them not to use their radios so the Threat couldn’t detect them, but the satellite still hasn’t detected the IR signal they were supposed to send into the night sky at set times. It is possible the black smoke from the fire is blocking their signal, but…”

Kyouka’s rule was to assume the worst when you did not know for certain.

Because that way you could survive.

“We have no idea if Marika-san and the two volunteers are still alive and we should not be optimistic about their chances.”

“That was our real plan, wasn’t it?”

“It was.”

“The point was for my diversion to reduce the risk for them, right!? I…I said we needed to look after the people we asked to cooperate with us, yet you…!!”

“Sacri-sama.”

He had not ordered her to, but Aine interrupted while standing at his side.

Her expression remained blank.

“Criticizing Miss Kyouka will not improve the current situation. She is stuck providing logistical support, so she has no way of directly controlling what happens on the front line. On paper at least, her plan was a reasonable one. What actually happened on the battlefield is the responsibility of those fighting on the battlefield.”

“Kh.”

That would mean Marika’s group on the underwater route since they had accepted that plan while fully aware of the risks and it meant Karuta’s group on the surface route since they had failed in their diversion and been forced to withdraw early.

Kyouka smiled thinly.

“You can be angrier with me if you like.”

“No, I’m sorry. My own weakness is partly to blame. It was wrong of me to shove all the blame onto you.”

When he clenched his teeth and lowered his head, Kyouka’s usual confident smile was replaced by a much more unusual look.

It was the troubled look of a lost child who had been left behind.

“Karuta-kun. One of your few faults is how overly polite you are.”

“…?”

“It would be a lot easier on you if you chewed me out at times like this. Then you could make me the one and only villain who betrayed everyone’s expectations.”

Silence fell.

The atmosphere between them had never been this heavy when they were pursuing the Problem Solvers or when they had been struggling to survive in the blizzard.

One of the four was missing. This was the first time that had happened.

“Miss Kyouka.”

“Yes?”

The silence was broken by Aine. At times like this, they could always count on the crystal girl who could not read the room (because she was not actually human).

“Tell me what I should do next. My Sacri-sama has become entirely useless, so I feel like obeying him right now would only serve to shorten his life.”

“True,” sighed the President.

She seemed somber, but her instructions were precise. Although that did make it look like she was using her work to distract herself from emotions she was unsure how to process.

“Let’s put together a rescue operation for Marika-san’s group. Have we confirmed the Sparkle is shaped like a lion? Regardless, you’ll have to force your way past those anti-air lasers with it still around, but we can’t just ignore this.”

“…”

“This plan will lead to a lot of losses and it provides no guarantee of success. After all, it gives us nothing at all if Marika-san is already dead. So I suppose we’ll need a solid justification for it. Instead of keeping anyone from questioning it, we’ll want something that will keep them from backing out.”

### Part 8

We will now begin an underwater operation based on data received from Karuta-kun and Marika-san.

The dual attacks from the surface and underwater have revealed that the underwater route is the more difficult one. Marika-san’s group will have successfully arrived within Second Grimnoah by now.

The biggest problem we must overcome before recovering Second Grimnoah are the anti-air lasers from the lion-shaped Sparkle on the middle school’s roof.

That is why we are gathering volunteers to make a largescale attack along the underwater route. The team will be made up of the first 200 to volunteer. All other students will provide a diversion along the surface route.

We only had wishful thinking before, but now we have actual experience to tell us the anti-air lasers are not fired into the ocean. So you will actually be safer approaching the enemy along the underwater route than providing a diversion on the surface where you will be constantly targeted by the lasers until the operation is complete.

Once we have our 200 volunteers, the underwater operation will begin.

Think carefully about whether you want to fight on the surface route or the underwater route.

That is all.

Once the briefing held via their Crystal Blossom communications was complete, the entire airport was bustling with energy.

Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke were chatting in the large lobby.

“Hey, which one are you choosing?”

“Underwater, I think. I don’t like the idea of constantly dodging lasers with no end in sight.”

“Right? Underwater might be more dangerous, but it’s better to have some say over how it ends.”

“B-but they’re only taking 200 for that team. If we don’t hurry up, we’ll miss our chance.”

“Heh. And the missing students are girls from our class, so let show off by swooping in and saving them.”

The 12-year-old blonde girl named Natlena Blast looked up at Karuta while listening to that conversation and sipping at a can of hot milk she had bought from a vending machine.

“Wh-what will you do, Senpai? Hot – are you going to choose the underwater route, um, because you’re worried about Amaashi-senpai? Hot, hot.”

“…”

“Y-yeah, I guess you would. She is another one of the Four Living Gods, so of course you’re worried about her! I-I will volunteer too. It would be a problem for me too if you were defeated here. We still haven’t dealt with those string pullers who pushed my sister to do what she-”

She was cut off by a loud bang echoing through the lobby.

Utagai Karuta had slammed his fist against the nearby wall, so all the boys and girls walking through the lobby looked over to see what this was about.

“What is wrong with all of you?”

That was enough to surprise or even frighten them.

So why did none of them realize how strange the things they were saying were?

“Why aren’t any of you saying you don’t want to do this!? Listen, we’re talking about the real Threat here. This isn’t just the decoys from Iceland. After all that fighting, we still haven’t heard a single report of one being destroyed. They’re on another level entirely!! And even if we do defeat them, the others might devour the remains and grow into larger customized models. Doesn’t this scare you? This isn’t about duty. It isn’t about whether the surface route or underwater route is better. Aren’t you afraid to be fighting the real Threat !!!???”

This was Omotesandou Kyouka’s trickery.

She had only provided them with two options: the surface route and the underwater route. And then she had pointed out that the underwater route was safe from the lion’s anti-air lasers. By creating a limited number of spots for the underwater route and making it first come, first serve for volunteering, she had tricked them all into joining the attack on the Threats occupying Second Grimnoah.

She had told them the truth.

But she had not told them the whole truth.

What guarantee did they have that the lion-like Sparkle was the most frightening one out there? With that many Threats all over the ship, there might very well be an even stronger and less manageable Threat there. In fact, they had lost contact with Marika, Imi, and Tayori. They needed to assume those three had been attacked by some kind of predator, but Kyouka had not touched on that at all.

But he did not see the President as the only villain here.

He had feared this possibility before, but now he was certain of it.

The students of the second ship had grown numb to the fear. They were still drunk on their success at the Crystal Beach, so they were assuming that things would work out somehow this time too. So they did not question it. They did not bother reading between the lines and noticing the gaps in the information presented to them.

“Hey, Yamanen, what did you see at the Crystal Beach?”

“You have to ask? Sure, they were only decoys, but we kicked the Threat’s ass!”

“ 34 of us died in that one battle!! That was a miserable defeat for us !!!!!!”’

Karuta shouted louder than an alarm clock.

Had that woken them up?

But this was how they should have been viewing it all along. It was normally a huge deal when just one student at your school died. The school would try to keep the media away, send counselors running around, and deal with all sorts of problems ranging from protecting the students’ privacy to dealing with students who stopped coming to school.

So how could they take this in stride?

34 of them had died. More if Riho and Sanae were included. An entire class’s worth of students were dead due to command mistakes by Karuta and the rest of the Four Living Gods. If they could calmly analyze that and accept it as the unfortunate result of an unpredictable situation, then the entire school’s senses had clearly numbed over. To a devastating degree.

They should have been criticizing him, blaming him, and rejecting his humanity.

They were all handling it too well. It was creepy. How could they accept it just because there was a reasonable explanation?

“Even if we’re the strongest and even if we have the regeneration and barrier, we still die when the time comes. We’re only human.”

He repeated that obvious definition once more.

He criticized those boys and girls who only had the one life to live.

“So think this through!! There aren’t just two options in this world – there are options surrounding you in all 360 degrees! You don’t have to stick with the Four Living Gods no matter what. If you’re scared, then say so! No one’s going to blame you if you want to run away and hide!! Why are you acting like simple cogs in the machine, doing whatever you’re told!!!???”

Silence fell.

He felt a powerful pressure that told him he was at odds with everyone else in the large lobby.

The world’s strongest’s public mode had collapsed.

“Just consider your options again before making a decision.”

Had his words gotten through to them?

He clenched his teeth before saying one last thing.

“Because this is your life.”

### Part 9

Utagai Karuta slowly let out a breath.

“Sacri-sama.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that, Aine.”

The boy looked over with weary eyes as he sat on the floor.

He was at an airport boarding gate.

If his words had gotten through to the students, they would worry for their own lives. And even if they had not gotten through, his popularity would plummet because he failed to understand them. No more students would be willing to risk their lives on his instructions.

Believe him or not, the operation had already failed. He had ruined everything in the preparation phase, so Kyouka had to be extremely disappointed in him.

Which was exactly what he had wanted.

He had been sick of getting other people involved in his own issues.

He did not care if his feelings failed to get through to them and he did not care what happened to his social standing. Their own lives had to take top priority.

The word “strongest” could mean a number of things and he had chosen the card he wanted from that deck. So now he had to continue down this path. He could look back after he had accomplished something.

“…”

He would be alone from now on. He should have been alone from the beginning. His desire to take back Gekiha and the others from the first ship was his own personal thing.

(It’s the same for Marika.)

Everything tasted bitter in his mouth.

It was too late to feel regret now.

(I shouldn’t have assumed she would participate just because she’s one of the world’s strongest too. Stepping down should have been an option for her, but I took it from her!!)

He would save Amaashi Marika, so he would fight the real Threat.

But he could not drag the second ship’s students along with him for that.

“I threw out every advantage I had.” Self-deprecation filled his voice. “I lost their trust and cooperation, so this battle isn’t going to be easy.”

“That is fine.”

“Sorry. Our link means there’s no way you can back out of my selfish fight here.”

“If you desire something, then I will fight for- hm?”

The ever-calm Aine’s eyes widened a little.

He had shoved a perfectly ordinary piece of chocolate into her lovely lips and she munched on it.

“What is this?”

“My thanks.”

Securing basic necessities like food and shelter had been a challenge in the frigid cold of the Crystal Beach artificial resort, so he had started carrying around emergency food like that.

“This seems inefficient to me,” said Aine. “If you wish to expand my abilities, I strongly recommend giving me pure gold to ingest. Strongly recommend.”

“This isn’t about that.”

He smiled a little.

It was a genuine smile.

He tried to imagine the look on her face if he strongly ordered her to remain here. He then imagined the possibility of leaving her where it was safe so he could continue down the path of his selfish fight all on his own.

(That’s a meaningless fantasy.)

“Sacri-sama?”

He shook his head.

That crystal girl tilting her head curiously there was an alternate form of Crystal Magic armor, so she was supported by the Crystal Magician, which meant Karuta. Even if they were separated, she would no longer function if he died.

(I will win this.)

Hence why they were linked.

Plus, there was only so much he could do on his own.

(I need to think about what I can do under the conditions I’ve decided on. The strongest will stumble if I let myself get distracted, so I need to keep running forward no matter how bad it gets.)

“We should get going soon. Aine, are you ready to go?”

“Yes. What is our primary objective?”

“?”

“Is it defeating the Threat, rescuing Miss Marika and the others from the second ship, or retrieving Sir Gekiha and the others from the first ship?”

“All of the above. That’s what it means to protect the world.”

He did not hesitate to answer as he got up from the cold floor. Night had fully fallen in the world visible outside the glass wall, but the oil fire was still burning ominously beyond the horizon.

He was on his way there.

How many of the real Threat were on that ship? Thousands? Even more? And he could not just slaughter them. Rescuing Marika, Gekiha, and the others increased the difficulty dozens of times over.

An ordinary attack would never work.

(So it’s time to become that real pain-in-the-ass who researches everything in detail to find a weak point.)

That thought put a smile on his face, but then…

“Senpai.”

He heard a voice.

A voice he had never expected to hear reached him from behind, causing his thoughts to briefly grind to a halt.

He slowly turned around to find Natlena Blast standing there. She must have been looking all over for him because she was out of breath and red in the face.

“Thank goodness you’re still in the airport. You seem logical at first, but, um, when it comes down to it, you’re really hard to predict.”

“Natlena?”

“Please let me help you.”

She was very upfront about what she wanted.

She looked like her breath was catching in her throat, but not because he had yelled at her earlier

One look in her eyes was enough to tell.

“I’ll be honest, I’m really scared. But because I’m scared, I want the help of the world’s strongest – of the Four Living Gods. So please don’t abandon us now. This might be simpler and easier for you if you leave us behind, but please think about how we’ll feel.”

“You can’t, Natlena! You’d just be letting us manipulate you!”

“But,” cut in the 12-year-old girl with the slight smile of someone trying to calm a frightened child. “I said I’m being honest, didn’t I? So let me lay it all out there. If Omotesandou Kyouka told me to fight for her, I wouldn’t be able to trust her. What she says is accurate, but accurate is all it is. There isn’t a person I can trust behind those words. …But it’s different with you. We wouldn’t follow just anyone with the title of world’s strongest. You’re the one that told us to consider our options again before making a decision. Because this is our life. So we’ve decided for ourselves who it is we want to follow. Are we just throwing all our problems on the world’s strongest so we don’t have to deal with them ourselves? Maybe. But we were the ones who considered our options and decided which of the Four Living Gods we felt we could trust the most. ”

“…”

“I won’t regret this no matter how it ends, so please take me with you, Senpai. We finally ended the chain of revenge between the two of us, so you can’t just leave me now.”

The boy forced his lips together for quite a while before finally squeezing out some words.

“And if I say no?”

“Then I’ll follow you anyway. Because I couldn’t just let you be torn to pieces by the Threat after you so stubbornly insisted on worrying about us more than yourself.”

He actually laughed a bit at that one.

He felt like his cunning image was crumbling away and though he would start sobbing if he let his guard down, but he managed to avoid that.

“You can’t,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Because one extra person wouldn’t change anything. I can’t just bring you to your death.”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about, Senpai. I said ‘we’ earlier, didn’t I?” She smiled. “Because I thought up this argument with the help of Yamane-senpai, Nekoumi-senpai, and, um, a lot of the others too.”

This time, Utagai Karuta stopped breathing altogether.

He had thought he had to protect her. He had thought the Four Living Gods were done for if he let her be killed for no reason. But Natlena Blast had surpassed him at some point.

“I’m not worthy to fight alongside the rest of you.”

That was not something to say in front of an underclassman.

He knew that, but the words spilled out all the same.

He bit his lip.

“I lied to you all so I could save my friends. We really should have abandoned Second Grimnoah to the Threat and built a Third Grimnoah, but I insisted on retaking the second one because of my friends from the first one crystalized on the lowest level. Even though they’re nothing but strangers you never even met. Dead strangers.”

“Why would that be a problem?”

She did not even hesitate to respond and she smiled at the shocked look on his face.

“All that tells us is that you never abandon your friends no matter what, right? And that you truly believed you could save your friends with our help. It meant you trusted us enough to leave them in our care. Why would we have a problem with that?”

“…”

“I’m glad the world’s strongest is someone with so much kindness in his heart. So I don’t want this age to end and I don’t want someone else to take over the title of strongest. Do you get what I’m saying now, Senpai?”

How much strength had it taken for her to say that? Even if they had reached an understanding, he would forever be the person who had killed Anastasia Blast, her sister and the former strongest. But she had still said she would accept it and that she was happy with this era.

“Those people mean so much to me.”

“I can tell.”

“But I don’t want to lose anyone else to rescue them. I don’t want to see that happen again.”

“I know that too, Senpai.”

He was asking for so much, but the small girl slapped her own small chest to accept the job.

“So let’s make it happen together. There is no first ship and second ship – we’re all Grimnoah together.”

### Part 10

“Sigh, so he rejected me, did he?”

President Omotesandou Kyouka smiled sadly in the control tower.

Was it Amaashi Marika who had identified that smile as the one she used when trying to get something from someone?

(This is for the best. Karuta-kun has a hotblooded streak that can get out of hand, so I can control everything better and get better results when he’s out there doing his thing than when we’re licking each other’s wounds as fellow villains.)

“Assuming I don’t die of loneliness first,” complained the President.

But how much of this had been an intentional attack? It almost felt like the Threat had gone after Second Grimnoah in order to tear apart the students of the first and second ship, if not tear apart the Four Living Gods as well.

Were they really that intelligent?

And even if they were, how had they gathered that much information on Grimnoah’s situation? Had they gotten it from Second Grimnoah’s computers and documents? Or…

While she was gloomily resting her upper body down on a control tower console and losing herself in thought (to distract herself with her work), the redheaded buns Secretary poked her head into the room.

“President Omotesandou.”

“What is it?”

Kyouka straightened up and immediately put on a perfect smile, so the Secretary would not have noticed anything was amiss.

“I hate to interrupt you now, but you have a visitor from outside. I could kick them out since they don’t have an appointment. Shall I?”

The redheaded buns girl suggested they kick this person out before even mentioning who it was, but Kyouka could make a pretty good guess. She could only think of one option for a visitor right now.

“ What country are they from ?”

“ She claims to be a representative of the coalition force, but she is actually a special envoy from the Indian military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. She herself is from their navy. ”

(I was right. The human grownups have arrived.)

No official announcement had been made concerning Amaashi Marika’s disappearance, but 24-hour surveillance of the students leaving and arriving would be enough to have a general idea of who had and had not returned to the floating general airport. One of the world’s strongest had left and not returned, so word of the oddity would travel quickly.

Now was not the time to be worrying about what happened with Karuta.

The President silently refocused her mind.

She could be the villain here. She would fulfill her role as the President who protected everyone from Grimnoah.

(I kind of hate that I really can refocus my mind so easily. If only I was only fooling myself about that.)

“I’m curious. Let her through.”

“Understood.”

The person the redheaded buns girl eventually showed in was a young woman with glasses. She had brown skin, long silver hair, and a look equal parts intelligent and attractive. If not for the white military uniform with a tight skirt, she would have been turning heads as she walked down the street.

She knew her looks were a weapon and she had intentionally honed them.

She was accustomed to having her appearance praised. She fully understood how every little movement of her fingers would make those around her feel and she made full use of that. The ring glittering on her left hand’s ring finger was probably a calculated act. But not to show off that she was married and thus should not be invited out to drink past 8 at night. Quite the opposite. The guilty feelings that ring would instill in people had been worked into her calculations.

Sensing a villain much like herself, Kyouka grinned and got the conversation started.

“A pleasure to meet you.”

“We already met at a party in New Delhi two years ago. You were still only a freshman in the first ship, but I recall the lack of freshmen-like naivete you displayed.”

Kyouka cleared her throat to distract from that initial misstep.

This woman was clearly the type to point out and correct people’s mistakes, not to kindly let them slide. She seemed to assume that she held the superior position and the other person would adapt to her way of doing things.

The brown woman smiled thinly in front of the girl with the title of world’s strongest.

“I am Letnahe Kurent. It is a pleasure to meet you again.”

“The pleasure is all mine.”

( Um. )

The President smoothly continued with the conversation.

Her “initial misstep” had of course been a boring little bluff on her part. She generally never forgot someone she had glimpsed even once. But she had also heard the name Letnahe from a different source.

That conversation played out in the back of her mind now.

She remembered what Natlena Blast, sister of the former strongest, had said at the end of the Crystal Beach incident.

( The person who came to me after I, um, learned that my sister had died was… )

“I hope we can get to know each other a little better than last time.”

### 131. Chapter 2

### Part 1

“Okay.”

The sun had already set and the artificial rain was still pouring down.

Yamane Deiri muttered to himself while activating his pointed and translucent crystal armor.

He was at an altitude of about 100m.

He was not moving and standing perfectly upright, but anyone who had read an aircraft manual would know how difficult it was to come to a complete stop in midair. Airplanes, airships, hot-air balloons, gliders, helicopters, and even VTOL craft could not come to a “complete” stop.

This was truly magic.

Natlena Blast shouted up a warning from about half that height.

“Um, it’s dangerous up there. You need to descend some. Do you want to be shot down by the Sparkle!?”

“Hey, no fair!” cut in a voice over the radio. “If flying that high gets a middle school girl to worry over you, I’m going up there too!!”

“What is wrong with you!? And, um, didn’t we receive a report that using long-range communications would increase the frequency of anti-air lasers!?”

Natlena was not sure what to do about these boys. Water droplets were scattering from her blonde hair while she realized just how much Utagai Karuta must have worked to create a positive image of an older upperclassman when she was trying to take revenge on him.

“You say that,” said Yamane Deiri. “But I wouldn’t be much of a diversion if I wasn’t up here.”

“That’s true, but still.”

“Oh, crap! Here it comes!!”

With a flash of light similar to lightning striking nearby, a green beam capable of breaking through their Crystal Magic barriers shot up from the deadly black and orange horizon at a shallow angle.

That was an anti-air laser beam from the true Threat occupying Second Grimnoah.

It of course moved too quickly to do anything about once you saw it. By the time the girl blinked at the flash of light brighter than a welding torch, a straight-line afterimage had been burned into space itself.

It had apparently been aimed at Yamane Deiri who was flying up above the others, but he had rapidly flown downwards just beforehand. That drop had dodged the brutal laser flying at a diagonal angle.

“I knew it.”

Yamane grinned wildly while once more coming to a complete stop at the same altitude as before.

He only used his physical voice here. Either because Natlena was close enough to hear him or because he wanted to avoid drawing the Sparkle’s anti-air lasers toward his middle school underclassman.

(Do all grownups try to show off all the time? Like Karuta-senpai and Onee-chan.)

“Ah ha ha! It really does provide cover!!”

“Um?”

“Because the earth is round. Well, it’s technically not perfectly spherical since the gravitational differences distort it, but that isn’t what matters. Laser beams are made of light, right? Light travels in a straight line, so it can’t circle around the curve of the earth to attack. So I only have to move up and down a little to use the ground itself as cover. Just like peeping on the women’s bath from over the fence! Ha ha!”

He was using the earth itself as a shield. The distance to the horizon depended on the height from which you were looking. It was about 5km from the surface, but you could see a few dozen kilometers away from a broadcast tower’s viewing deck.

Yamane Deiri’s analogy could not have been worse, but his survival meant that method was effective.

But Natlena’s question was not about that.

“H-how did you predict when it would fire just now? It moves at the speed of light, so you can’t start dodging after you see it coming. And we can’t see over the horizon either, so you can’t base it on the Threat’s actions.”

“I felt a tingle.”

Natlena thought he must have been using a special fortunetelling effect of his Japanese god named Kagutsuchi, but apparently not. That rough upperclassman placed his index finger against his temple.

“You know how pressure changes can give you a headache? Like when you ride an elevator? I don’t think that laser is just a laser. Maybe it’s when it boosts the energy level and maybe it’s to protect against radiation, but it does something that gives me an invisible sign the laser is about to be fired.”

“Oh, no. If you’re only relying on wild instincts, it doesn’t do me any good!!”

While the normal person cried out in despair, Yamane shook the lawnmower-like weapon he held at his hip. That embodiment of fire acted as a rotating blade at close range, a flamethrower at mid range, and a launched flammable tank at long range.

“Crystal Magic is similar though, right? We use our magic by reading the invisible occult high and low pressure fronts, setting up our sails, and letting the wind carry us. So we know it exists. The question is how to perceive it. Maybe it gives you a headache, maybe an old wound aches, maybe you aren’t very hungry today, or maybe you feel really horny and turn into the carnivorous sort of girl. It’s different for everyone, so just accept the change, no matter how embarrassing it might be.”

“Wh-wh-why are you assuming my sensor would be something embarrassing!?”

Their role was not to directly attack Second Grimnoah about 30km away.

They were the decoys meant to draw the anti-air laser lion’s attention to keep Karuta and his team safe while they actually made their way to the ship.

“Hey, word of warning: your clothes are getting pretty see-through in this rain.”

“I’m bothered by the pitying look you’re giving me, but, um, I changed into some thick sports innerwear before heading out. It’s the same as a yoga tank top. Heh heh.”

“Oh, well, that’s no fun.”

“(Also, I made sure to put on bandaids below that. I actually thought this through.)”

“M-more details please!!” cut in the second boy over their communications, but she ignored him.

“Anyway, I’m glad,” said Yamane.

“Um, about what?”

“It was Karuta’s analysis saying the Sparkle’s laser didn’t bend, right? I was worried it might use the ionosphere or a mirage or something, so I’m glad he was right. Now we can act as decoys all we want without the city behind us getting blown away.”

“…”

“This is called an inland sea since it’s surrounded by Osaka, Hyogo, and Awaji Island. On a flat map, any position we could take would send the lasers toward land. So in that sense, we’re lucky that the lasers can escape into the night sky.”

She had thought he was being careless, but he had actually given this some thought.

It could be hard to tell since the initial trigger tended to be instinct rather than reason, but Yamane Deiri ultimately acted on (his own brand of) logic.

“Now Karuta-chan won’t have to worry so much.”

“I guess.”

“I’ve always thought that idiot overthinks everything. The real Threat is right there, so we can’t let anything distract us for a second if we want to survive. Being the world’s strongest doesn’t mean you have to take the brunt of the damage yourself to ensure everyone else comes back alive. He’s really starting to piss me off. Leaving us in reserve just because he’s the world’s strongest is pathetic. He should really take better care of himself!!”

### Part 2

Utagai Karuta stood on the edge of the floating general airport’s artificial land. The dark ocean was only a step away. He was soaked from the artificial rain and he heard most of the diversion team’s transmissions coming from the Crystal Blossom at his chest.

“Ha ha! C’mon, don’t chicken out just cause your barriers don’t work!! We’re nowhere near the end here – we’ve gotta keep these anti-air lasers occupied for several more hours. If you don’t learn how to do it right early, you’ll burn through your stamina and have trouble keeping it up later!”

“Tch, we really are too far away for sniping. Maybe the oil fire is causing weird updrafts and messing with the heat distribution. A-anyway, let’s play a game of chicken. Whoever draws the laser in closest before dodging wins. Let’s show off our skills to the middle schoolers!”

“Wait, can you please take this seriously, you stupid upperclassmen!? Um, um, uh, what is that energy drink you’re chugging!? Isn’t that one triple concentrated!? Oh, god, why couldn’t you be more like Karuta-senpai!?”

“What? Since when do you use his given name, little kitten?”

“Bfff!? I-It doesn’t mean anything! You’re imagining things! Um, um, uh, stop asking questions and let it slide!!”

“…”

“Sacri-sama,” said a voice from behind Karuta.

“They’re still numb to the fear,” he said without turning around. “Our success taught them the wrong lesson.”

Sending out Crystal Blossom transmissions while flying through the night sky was risky in and of itself. Not even stealth fighters could avoid those green lasers and a single hit would vaporize Yamane or Natlena. And yet.

“Although they do appear to have calmed down some since they are no longer insisting on charging at Second Grimnoah with us.”

The boy shook his head while looking up into the rainy sky where the green beams of anti-air lasers kept flashing like lightning.

Karuta had tried to go save Marika, Gekiha, and the others even if it meant abandoning his post. He had nothing but thanks for Natlena for chasing after him and for his many other friends who had supported her. He was so happy it brought tears to his eyes, so he doubted he would ever forget it.

They had taught this filthy avenger that it could be meaningful to make a direct attack at times.

These emotions were delightful.

These emotions were wonderful.

These emotions felt really good.

“But we can’t let the emotion take control, Aine. That would be taking it too far.”

“If you say so.”

He could tell without looking back that the inhuman crystal girl was tilting her head with a blank expression.

She would not understand justice.

A single mistake would cost any one of his friends their life, so allowing emotion to cloud his judgment would only lead to endless regret.

He could not forget.

No matter how valiant and reliable a Crystal Magician Yamane Deiri might look like now, he had panicked and tried to flee the hotel when they first encountered the decoy Threats at the Crystal Beach. And when they had fought the decoy Threats in the C World dome, he had been so desperate to prove that Crystal Magic worked on the Threat that he had gotten himself nearly deadly injured.

Pretty words meant nothing to the force tasked with defending the world. The way Deiri had acted before was much more correct for a high schooler. Karuta could not misjudge the others’ limits. They were human beings, so they would feel fear and they had a limit. If he pushed them too far, they would fail.

(I’m forcing them to carry an endless burden here. I need to figure out how to ensure they don’t do anything reckless.)

The boy wielding artificial magic stood on the artificial float in the artificial rain and turned back toward Aine.

How could he repay his new friends? The answer was obvious: achieve his goal as quickly as possible to shorten how long they had to play the dangerous decoy role. That was the best way of keeping them alive.

He had to defeat the Sparkle and rescue Marika’s group.

“Time to go, Aine.”

“Yes.” The rain was pouring down on Aine too, but she stood tall without even brushing aside the wet hair plastered to her cheek. “How shall we do it this time? Shall I carry you on my back or in my arms?”

“Whichever way is easier for you.”

He answered half in exasperation, but then she gently nestled up against his chest.

Their faint warmth mixed together, but then her slender hand pushed on the center of his chest and he fell from the float and toward the dark ocean.

However, the loud splash never came.

Since contact with Marika’s group had been lost, they knew there was some kind of trap along the route those three had taken. So instead, Aine grabbed his body while falling with him and flew rapidly just above the dark sea.

She used the Crystal Magic preset of flight.

“This is the most stable method. What was it called again? Oh, right. A princess carry.”

“Oh, I see…”

The raindrops hurt as they hit his cheek. It felt like having pebbles thrown at him. That may have been a unique risk for him since his barrier was imperfect.

(It would be a pain if this triggered a regeneration.)

The regeneration would usually be enough to recover from a single instance of a powerful force as long it did not hit his vitals. It was a thinly-spread and lengthy barrage that presented problems. The regeneration would heal any wound in 30 seconds, but that also meant even the slightest scratch required 30 seconds away from harm because another hit would shatter the healing crystal and tear the wound open wider. And that would never return to normal. If they were slammed with something like a sandstorm, there would be no avoiding it and it could easily tear him apart.

“I have no means of attacking with you in my arms, so I would like for you to handle fighting back against the enemy. Is that acceptable, Sacri-sama?”

“Thanks for leaving me a chance to look cool, Aine!!”

Crystal Magicians ruled the sky with speed and mobility greater than a fighter craft, so 30km was nothing. They did not need a gyro or compass to determine the direction since they only had to fly toward the light.

The dark sky and sea were defiled in one direction by an orange glow that almost looked like a sunset. That was due to the oil fire where the crude oil had leaked out into the ocean. Second Grimnoah awaited them on that burning night sea.

The Threat took action before the giant ship even came into view.

Shapes similar to water striders the size of cars appeared to be sliding across the ocean surface made rough by the artificial rainstorm. The water striders clustered together to block Aine and Karuta’s path, so Karuta pulled a modified military flashlight from his uniform. It was as hard and heavy as a police baton, but he doubted he could smash through the real Threat with no more than a blunt weapon.

He switched it on and sent out a shower-like conical laser.

When the powerful IR hit its glass eyes(?), one of the water striders lost control. It failed to judge the distance from its neighbor and collided with it, producing a sound of bending metal.

There was no fear on Aine’s face.

She continued flying about 50cm above the water to weave in the gap between enemies.

They did not have time to celebrate their survival.

The ocean directly below glowed faintly green and that glow was catching up with them as they flew at supersonic speed.

“Aine, watch out!!”

“Did you think I was not already observing my surroundings?”

With the puny mass of carbon in her arms, the crystal girl swerved in an S-shape as a deterrent.

That was when a mass of green light burst through the ocean surface as it flew straight up. It was not alone. More and more colored pillars of water rose into the air like an inverted sweep of machinegun fire pursuing Aine and Karuta.

“A jellyfish!?” Karuta’s eyes widened. “What kind of tactics did that weapon evolve for!?”

“I have heard of landmines that are launched into the air, but that is unusual for a sea mine.”

They must have been attached to the ocean floor until now because something like broken chains trailed after them.

It was close – paper thin even – but Karuta and Aine’s reaction speed was slightly faster. The sea mines reacted by leaping into the air one after another, but those two were never hit from below.

However, they could not rejoice.

They heard a sound like an aluminum can being crushed below a car’s tire. One of the water striders trying to pursue from behind was hit from below by one of their own jellyfish mines, launching it into the air. The jellyfish must have been the more destructive of the two because the water strider’s legs were torn off and its black armor shattered and flew away while the whole thing twirled through the air.

“ Oh, no. ”

Karuta vision grew scattered.

He felt like he was going to hyperventilate and pass out if he did not consciously regulate his breathing.

He had only seen the decoy Threats from the Crystal Beach do it, but those training weapons would have been modeled after the real Threat’s structure and abilities.

That led to a single conclusion.

He did not want to admit it. He really, really did not want to, but if he refused to admit when things were taking a turn for the worse, he could not recover from that. He had to avoid sitting idly by and allowing the rolling snowball to grow out of control.

He bit his lip and forced his mind toward the view up ahead.

He focused on it.

The Threat grew by devouring their fallen brethren.

“ Oh, no !!”

There was no turning back the hands of the clock. Jellyfish tentacles thinner than hairs tangled around the wreckage in midair and the dome-like jellyfish moved up onto the water strider’s back. The countless tentacles tangled together to form thick legs to replace the ones that had been torn away.

The massive sea mine could now move freely across the surface of the water, so it began to pursue Karuta and Aine from behind. Aine expressionlessly swerved side to side at supersonic speed, but she could not escape the guided weapon. It gradually closed in on them.

“Sacri-sama.”

“It’s no use!! Is the jellyfish in control now? The IR isn’t affecting it, so it must not be using optical lenses! The jellyfish must locate its prey with ultrasound or microwaves!!”

“We will suffer critical damage if it catches up. Requesting an effective countermeasure.”

“I’m trying!!”

He twisted around in her princess carry to change targets.

The IR blinding worked fine on the unaltered water striders.

Aine used one of their thin legs as a landmark to perform a hairpin turn at more than four times the speed of a sports aircraft. Karuta focused on his modified military flashlight while she did so. On the way past the water strider, he shined the powerful IR on its lenses to trigger a malfunction.

The ordinary(?) water strider crashed into the approaching guided weapon, causing a large explosion. Instead of orange flames from normal powder or fuel, it was a bluish-white electric explosion similar to welding or lightning.

“What custom version are they making now!?”

“None, it would seem. Those two appear to have been utterly obliterated.”

And they could not afford to be preoccupied with an enemy they had already defeated. Aine was still flying faster than a fighter craft less than a meter above the ocean’s surface. And to reiterate, 30km was nothing to a Crystal Magician.

The ocean was no longer pitch black.

At some point, their surroundings had grown orange. They were out at sea, yet a crimson fire was burning all around them. That sticky light came from the oil fire started when the crude oil on the ocean’s surface had ignited. There were no stars to be seen. The view above reflected the orange light, so the black up there was smoke, not the dark night sky.

Aine would have charged straight on in if it was only her, but because she was carrying Karuta in her arms, she crossed the burning ocean by weaving through the gaps that had ended up with less crude oil.

She spoke with a voice even more coldly inhuman than a car navigation system.

“Visual confirmation of the Second Grimnoah academy ship.”

“Kh.”

“If we can see it, then we are in the optical weapon’s line of fire. Watch out for the anti-air lasers.”

He could see a faint glow up above the giant ship’s roof.

That green light was the capacitors extending back on either side of the lion that ruled the skies. Light was gathering within those parts that resembled a flying fish’s pectoral fins and the lion opened its jaws. The green light glared down at them from deep within its throat.

The fearsome attack tore through the air, but Aine did not flip around to try to escape it. She only shifted about 70cm to the right to avoid the brutal green laser with as little movement as possible before crashing through one of the ship’s more than a thousand windows.

The countless Threats of various sizes crawling along the ship’s exterior like armor were thrown away from where she hit.

### Part 3

“Please compile all of your data related to this operation. And organize it so even I can understand it. Try to avoid hiding the truth below a deluge of data, will you?”

As soon as she was done with her greeting to Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka, the silver-haired brown-skinned soldier named Letnahe Kurent made that rude demand.

And with that said, the messenger from the coalition force surrounding them out at sea promptly left the control tower.

Water poured down in a shower.

But this was not the artificial rain pounding on the reinforced glass from the outside. It came from the shower room installed in the airport’s personnel standby area.

“Japan has such terrible air and it’s so humid,” Letnahe had said. “So please let me do something about my sticky hair and skin before I have to use my head.”

That was her rationale.

(She forces her claims onto you without creating any chance for a conversation, she lets her own feelings dictate the schedule, and she even disses your country. …I imagine this is a stereotypical test to see if Grimnoah will obey the grownups’ rules or if we will give into anger and do our own thing.)

This special envoy had been sent by the coalition force.

She was from the Indian military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. Specifically, from the navy.

But no matter how much her titles complicated matters, Omotesandou Kyouka was never going to forget what Natlena Blast had said.

When the Problem Solvers had been destroyed and her sister Anastasia had died, someone had approached that 12-year-old girl and given her information she should not have had to set her up as an avenger.

And the name Natlena had given was…

(How far does it go?)

The President thought to herself while her long black hair fluttered behind her.

(Is the Indian military behind it? Is the coalition force behind it? Or is there some even higher organization that’s bossing the coalition force around? My first task is to determine the scale of the problem.)

“Now, then.”

Her wheelchair’s wheels creaked as she moved to the dressing and laundry room next to the shower room. The faintly sweet aroma may have been from the shampoo or conditioner being used in the shower room. The shower room must have been poorly sealed because it felt humid in the adjacent room. The President was of course not doing some laundry in this downtime. She was interested in the white uniform that Letnahe had removed and folded up.

The uniform and rank insignia were valuable sources of information. She could learn something from the stitching or fabric alone.

(Hm, this does appear to be a legitimate Indian Navy uniform. And her salute was accurate too. I doubt this is a costume meant to place the blame on the Indian military.)

It was a lot like a crossword puzzle. Each new piece of information acquired provided a hint to the next piece. But if you started on false assumptions, you would stray further and further from the truth.

The President continued her analysis like she was performing an autopsy or crime scene investigation.

(Her underwear is a New York brand…but not necessarily because she travels the world a lot. She may have just ordered it online. But this is still a surprise. The only bulletproofing she uses is thin special fibers – no plates at all. Was she more worried about looking good for the cameras than about getting shot while on the front line of a clash between the real Threat and the world’s strongest magicians? Or did she assume wearing a bulletproof jacket would not actually save her?)

Kyouka unfolded and searched through every item in the basket, but she could not find any ID, any firearms, or any communication devices such as a phone or tablet.

(Hm? But I thought she had something on her left wrist.)

“You aren’t going to find anything in there,” said the sensual silhouette in the frosted glass.

The President sighed.

“You’re the type to pack any valuables in a plastic bag to take them in the bath with you, are you?”

“A standard precaution.”

The ring she had been wearing was also nowhere to be found. That suggested she valued her privacy instead of just being a workaholic.

Kyouka gave up on this tactic, refolded the clothing, and returned it to the basket.

“You brought an axe with you?” she asked.

“Oh? You can tell without actually seeing it?”

“The shape of the leather case is fairly unique. The handle is too close to the end to be a collapsible shovel.”

“Carrying a weapon is convenient and I personally find this more useful than a survival knife. I left behind my gun out of respect for this country’s rules.”

Axes and knives also violated the country’s rules, but there was no point in telling that to a professional soldier. This and the shower were probably part of the test to see how far she could push the girl until she responded with anger.

Kyouka sighed.

“What message does the coalition have for us?”

The frosted glass door slid open.

The sweet-smelling steam grew thicker.

Letnahe stepped into the dressing room with a towel lazily wrapped around her. Her small plastic bag of valuables was held in her mouth by a string while she used both hands to quickly do up her wet hair.

Her brown left wrist wore a mobile watch that synced with a phone.

But it was too soon to assume she was righthanded. That kind of assumption could lead to a critical mistake at some crucial moment later on.

She was wearing her glasses, so she may have cautiously wanted to keep all her senses sharp even in the shower.

Once her wet hair was out of the way, the messenger grabbed the plastic bag in her hand to free up her mouth. Then she dropped a bombshell.

“Our coalition force has no intention of interfering in your mission here.”

“I highly doubt you came here just to tell us that.”

“But if we determine you are unable to continue your mission, we will take over. I assume you will understand the general situation if I tell you we are preparing a Pinaka III for use.”

“…”

That was an endless cruising nuclear torpedo deployed by the Indian Space Force that had been separated from the other three branches of their military.

Once it was launched into the ocean by a ship or submarine, the undetectable weapon would circle the earth as many times as needed. It was powered by the 30 low-orbit power generation satellites surrounding the earth, so it would surface just long enough to receive microwave power, allowing it to continue operating indefinitely. Of course, all 30 of the satellites surrounding the entire world would send down a charge every single time, so it was nearly impossible to search out the torpedo’s location based on the area of sea receiving the microwaves.

As long as it remained deep below the ocean surface, there was no fear of it being intercepted with anti-air lasers.

And after preparing a weapon as bizarre as that, no one was going to waste it by filling its warhead full of ordinary explosives. While messing with the radio in the control tower, Kyouka had learned that a landing craft out at sea was full of hazmat suits and chemical protection vehicles.

“The Pinaka III’s payload is extraordinarily large for a torpedo,” said Kyouka. “If I am not mistaken, filling it with as large a hydrogen bomb as would fit would reach 140 megatons. I recall the Indian Space Force putting together this ridiculous plan just so they could break the record set by the former Soviet Union. And the test detonation was done deep below the Pokhran desert.”

“You are a knowledgeable girl. But if a bomb that large were actually detonated on the surface, it would trigger a new ice age. To avoid that, it will only scatter 20 smaller nuclear warheads once arriving in the target area of sea. Each one will only be around 400 kilotons to ensure a minimal effect on the environment.”

“You’re sending in a strategic nuclear weapon that’s direct heat rays and blast would cover a radius of 14km and that’s radioactive contamination would cover the entirety of Japan and also thinly spread out across the entire planet’s stratosphere?”

“I said minimal, not zero.”

A Crystal Magician could recover from a powerful nuclear attack as long as they did not suffer an immediately lethal wound. Even if their skin blistered, their flesh tore from their bones, and their bones broke, they would return to normal in 30 seconds. So not even the direct shockwave and heat would necessarily mean immediate death.

But the real danger was the radioactive material known as fallout. Internal exposure was especially difficult to remove and it might repeatedly trigger the regeneration, preventing the Crystal Magician from moving. Crystal Magicians had to be careful with both poisons and medicines and radioactive materials were like an extreme version of that.

Letnahe brushed up her silver bangs that were dripping with water.

“Thus, we would like a copy of Grimnoah’s plan. That way we can monitor the situation and know exactly when your plan has failed so we can launch a weapon that is guaranteed to hit.”

(Karuta-kun began this counterattack on his own, so I have no way of knowing the details myself.)

“And if I refuse?”

“Then we will have to make our own determination.”

The President asked a daring question without revealing her ignorance of their plan, but Letnahe Kurent was not daunted. She might as well have been following a conversational flowchart she had set up in advance.

“We might end up launching the Pinaka III when you still have a chance of succeeding, but if that is what you would prefer.”

“I see.”

“This is in your best interest.”

Kyouka’s wheelchair creaked quietly, but not because she had backed away. The woman in only a towel had leaned forward and placed her hands on the armrests.

She leaned over the girl in order to take the initiative here.

“Preventing a misinformed decision on our part would eliminate some excess risk from your already risky mission. So I would like to know your general schedule along with an outline of your plan. Refusing puts your students, the Kansai region, and perhaps the entire Japanese Archipelago at risk of nuclear contamination.”

Omotesandou Kyouka gave a snort of laughter.

“What happened to respecting Japan’s rules?”

“I would prefer not to break this country’s three non-nuclear principles, so please help me avoid that by cooperating.”

“Don’t act like you aren’t itching to launch that thing.”

(Basically, she wants to take control of the world back from the children while also stealing our Crystal Magic tech that has become the world’s new image of the strongest. Our plan will of course use Crystal Magic, so you need to understand how it works to determine whether or not it would work.)

Humans played as dirty as ever even with the Threat preparing to attack them. Someone always stepped forward to use the situation to their advantage.

And if Kyouka went with the easy answer of “I will not give in to threats”, Letnahe and the coalition probably would launch the nuclear weapon. Their method of defeating the Threat was certainly a heroic thing and they probably felt like they could expose Crystal Magicians to any amount of violence because they were the world’s strongest. Just like a small child busy pretending to be a superhero would feel no guilt about hitting their father who was playing the villain.

To stand at the peak was to be an oddity.

No one would worry about whoever had been designated strongest. Just like no one had ever questioned how the Problem Solvers were made to fight the Threat back when they had been the strongest. And if someone did jump the gun and launch that nuclear torpedo early, the only ones injured in the blast would be Karuta and the others fighting on the front line.

Kyouka decided to correct the fundamental mistake here.

“You can take command if you want, but are you prepared to take responsibility as well?”

“We will have the legal basis for it soon enough. Our coalition is the will of the world itself.”

“Not what I meant,” whispered Kyouka in a voice that knew how to derive a sadistic pleasure from tormenting others with her words. “Your decision – or the coalition’s decision – is based on the assumption that you can defeat the real Threat with that nuclear weapon. But what if you use that nuke and spread radiation everywhere, but the Threat shrugs it off? You’d be in a real bind then, wouldn’t you?”

“…”

“Nuclear explosions are flashy, so you can’t exactly pretend it didn’t happen once it fails.”

Everyone knew Grimnoah did not have nuclear weapons and there was zero chance of some unrelated nuclear war starting right now.

The coalition force would be unable to pin responsibility for the nuclear explosion on anyone else.

“And if that happens, we will become more than just the world’s strongest. We would become victims as well, wouldn’t we? We could have defeated the Threat if we had been allowed to fight, but the grownups intervened and screwed it all up. Try telling people their city will be the next one to go because of that and I feel like you will have a hard time convincing the world to do much of anything you want. There would be riots around the world and you could never again leave your dark and musty shelters.”

In other words, the coalition’s attack had to be successful.

Nukes were the ultimate bargaining chip. They could force through most any demand. But if they fired one and it failed to defeat the Threat, they would lose everything. They would lose face, lose trust, and lose influence. Later historians would question their sanity.

“It’s all or nothing,” said Kyouka with a pause between each word. She smiled in a poisonous yet alluring way. “Do your higher ups really want to make such a risky gamble? You really think the top brass with more wealth and political power than they know what to do with would want that? Gambles are made by those who have no future if they lose. We aren’t talking about rich shoplifters who do it for the thrill – those grownups have their every desire fulfilled to the point of boredom, so I seriously doubt they would choose to take on such a risk now.”

“Well…”

The towel fell away.

Almost like Kyouka’s clever logic had stripped her bare.

But even with all her brown skin exposed, Letnahe did not remove her hands from the wheelchair’s armrests.

This was not enough for her to back down.

She carried an even greater weight as messenger. If she focused on her personal feelings and flinched here, people would doubt the power of the coalition’s will.

“All of that is based on the assumption that the nuclear attack would fail to defeat the Threat. We are merely exchanging empty arguments based on optimistic and pessimistic assumptions. Buying time like that will not cause the coalition to change its mind. I guarantee you that.”

“…”

“The Pinaka III will be launched if you do nothing. So put away those baseless fantasies and make a decision based on real data.”

“What if I told you I have real and very specific data backing up my claim?”

That smooth response caused Letnahe to gasp momentarily.

The talk of a nuclear attack had come as a surprise, so Kyouka would not have had time to put together a flowchart and practice this argument with a fellow student. So how had she managed to get the better of Letnahe Kurent’s perfect preparations?

The girl was like a spider tangling its prey in invisible threads.

“Needless to say, Crystal Magic is the world’s strongest combat technology. That is the age we live in, after all. Those strongest magicians are working together as they fight on the front line, yet we have not received a single report of anyone destroying a Threat. As far as I know, the only success was Karuta-kun causing two of them to destroy each other out at sea.”

“…”

“The real Threat is very different from the decoys. …If I am correct, this Threat would survive a nuclear attack. They are made to. How else could they be a true threat to humanity?”

### Part 4

Karuta heard a sound like a clog being cleared from a pipe and then he realized it had come from his own throat. His vision was blurry and his head dizzy. It took him some time to recall why his entire body was wrapped in pain.

They had broken through the side of Second Grimnoah. He did not remember what had happened after they broke through the window and continued on at a shallow angle.

They appeared to be in the middle school building.

Since it had taken him some time to recover, his eyes had already adjusted to the dark.

This was not just a classroom. His nose detected the odd scent of chlorine and he heard the sound of water sloshing back and forth.

This was the indoor pool.

“Sacri-sama,” whispered the calm crystal girl while lifting up the boy who was lying limply on the poolside. She might as well have been speaking to a beach ball held against her flat chest. She was still drenched and he could feel her body heat through her soaked clothing. “We need to get moving. The Threat will notice soon.”

“Soon? What did you do???”

Why did they have any time at all? Those black lustrous things had been covering all of the exterior walls. He had assumed that was why it was so dark in the ship despite the oil fire, but…

“What is that? A wall?”

“Clinging to thin glass with their large metal forms would only break the glass. They must have learned from their mistakes.”

The glass wall was meant to let in plenty of sunlight, but it was now covered with metal panels, parasols, beach chairs, and more. It was all held in place with the ship’s repair parts and the adhesive for the deck equipment. The hole he and Aine had made on the way in was no longer visible.

Aine had used their speed and weight to force her way through the countless things crawling all over the outside of the ship. Some had looked like wharf roaches and others like tadpoles, but Karuta would have expected them to rush after them into the ship like a swarm of fire ants.

Aine lightly swung her crystal sword to scatter some clear drops of water from it.

“I have a laser sniping unit. We have no evidence it can do critical damage to the Threat, but it should work as effectively as your flashlight if used to blind them.”

He could faintly see his surroundings, so there had to be some light getting in through small cracks.

“So you just charged in without thinking it through, huh?” he sighed half in exasperation. “That wouldn’t have worked if they used ultrasound or microwave like that jellyfish from before. Then we would have been killed.”

“With so little data on the real Threat, every action we take must be based on some amount of speculation. And as an aside, I directed us toward a window covered in units with red glass-like lenses .”

That did not mean much. Those could easily have been nonfunctioning camouflage like the eye patterns on a moth’s wings.

But Karuta was more surprised by something else.

“An aside, huh? I didn’t expect to hear you defend your actions after being criticized for them.”

“…Uhh.”

“I get it. You saved my life, Aine, so quit scowling. I don’t want a sulking partner.”

“A logical analysis would suggest you are trying to provoke me, Sacri-sama.”

The crystal girl puffed out the cheeks on her expressionless face. Her hair and clothes were still soaked, so water continued to drip from her hair and the hem of her dress. She must have crashed into the pool to help slow down after bursting into the ship because her hair smelled of chlorine. She had learned to feel embarrassment when her skin was visible, but the way she would just set that problem aside when there was “no effective countermeasure available” was still pretty inhuman. It felt like a simple computer algorithm where she would follow the yes and no arrows to see if the current situation applied.

A healthy boy like Karuta had to sigh.

He walked along the poolside, checked inside the locker room, and borrowed a dry towel from one of the lockers. This was Second Grimnoah, so it had most everything a normal school would.

“Here, Aine. You need to be dried off. Whatever we do next, we can’t leave wet footprints behind, right?”

“Good point.”

“…Why are you raising your hands overhead like that?”

“I thought you said you wanted to do it.”

He could not believe her overly straightforward answer.

He had said “you need to be dried off”, but by who? He had not specified, and this was apparently how she had interpreted it.

And there was a more fundamental problem.

(Being seen is embarrassing, but being touched isn’t!?)

Her strange learned behavior had him confused, but there was no point in getting hung up on this. He started by drying her wet hair like she was a small child and then he squeezed his eyes shut and moved to her body while doing his best not to think about it. …Although he had a feeling the shut eyes only made the sensation on his fingers all the more vivid.

Then something occurred to him.

“Oh, right. If you stick a thick towel under your dress, no one can see through it no matter how wet-”

“…”

“Sorry, Aine. I don’t know why that upset you so much, but please don’t glare at me like that.”

He was truly beyond saving if the inhuman crystal girl thought he needed to be more tactful.

At any rate, Karuta could not waste time here playing with the crystal girl. Aine’s laser had dazzled the Threat’s sensory organs like a stun grenade, but she had not worked out an actual way of killing them. It was possible she could not kill the Threat even in this state . If the Threat recovered, they would be surrounded and killed.

(The real ones are incredible. They don’t just customize themselves endlessly when they get killed – they don’t even let it reach that point. You can’t even take them out in the first place.)

He had dreamed of getting back to Second Grimnoah.

Right now, it was a deadly labyrinth where Gekiha and his other friends from the first ship slept crystallized on the bottom level and where Marika’s group had gone missing. The familiar school was filled with the same powerful sense of death as a hospital late at night. Without Aine by his side, the dense darkness may have been enough to repel him.

He focused on the Crystal Blossom on his chest. It functioned as a communicator, but carelessly using it would put himself and Marika at risk. Those antenna-covered sea urchins or whatever were the biggest nuisance he had ever seen.

If they were found, they were dead.

He slowly poked his head out into the hallway from the locker room.

“We need to get moving, Aine. We shook their pursuit once, so I want to avoid letting them find us again.”

“Yes.”

“And we need to locate Marika’s group. Where did they get in, how were they pursued, and where did they escape to? I know it’s dark in here, but look for any sign of them. Use profiling techniques – read their mental state from the slightest scratches or stains. This ship is 600m long, but we should be able to find them if we gather enough actual data.”

“Well excuse me for having nothing but worthless speculation.”

“You really are sulking, aren’t you?”

He breathed an exasperated sigh as he and the crystal girl walked through the ship.

Now that he was paying attention, he could not help but notice how wrong this place felt. It was like thinking you were resting in an infirmary bed only to later realize it was an autopsy table equipped with belts to strap you down.

At night, a school became something else entirely.

The familiar artificial structure filled you with a dread different from a natural forest or cave.

A ghost would never appear on a truly desert island. With no one there, no one would die there, so no ghosts would end up there. Schools, hospitals, train stations, and other public facilities were more common settings for ghost stories than homes or sheds. That may have been because, when people found a normally crowded place to be entirely deserted, they would put their mind at ease by inventing a fictional being to fill the space left by the people that were normally there. The stories created that way could be creepy, but that was just how it was.

This, however, Karuta refused to let be “just how it was”. He would defeat the Threat and take back their usual school.

To do that, he needed cover to hide behind more than distance from the enemy. What wavelength they used was unknown, but since Aine’s laser had dazzled them, the Threats gathered on the outside of the ship had to use their vision to search out their prey.

Hide-and-seek would also work to prevent that.

When Karuta sensed a crawling in the air down the hall, he grabbed Aine’s slender shoulders and moved behind a rectangular pillar jutting out from the wall. Only Aine’s wet crystal sword was sticking out. She had apparently adjusted the angle for his use because he could use the refection on the blade like a mirror. That showed him a large form cutting across the end of the hallway. A round Threat resembling a slate pencil urchin was rolling along. Its many long spines resembled TV antennas, so that was probably the type Kyouka had mentioned that specialized in gathering data.

“Assuming Miss Marika is still alive, she must not have made a meaningless charge on the Threat or fled from the ship in fear,” whispered expressionless Aine while he still held her shoulders. “Drawing attention to herself while surrounded would only increase the risk of death. If she did not reach that conclusion on her own, she would be dead already.”

This was not about Aine knowing what Marika would do.

It was about that being the only option that did not lead to instant death.

And Aine’s harsh analysis continued.

“If holing up in here was Miss Marika’s only option for survival, then what remaining hope would she have? We do not even know if the real Threat eats food or consumes fuel. Too little is known to attempt to wait them out. So what else is there?”

“If she couldn’t do anything herself, would she hope for help to arrive?”

“Yes. And if she was desperate to survive, she would do everything she could to ensure that help found her. Thus, there is a good possibility she would have left intentional signs behind. Something that we would understand but the Threat would not.”

“I see,” said Karuta while flipping around the military flashlight in his hand.

Assuming Marika had made the right choice and was still alive, she would have gone through the following thought process.

First, attempting long-range communications – either via her Crystal Blossom or her phone – would be suicide while aboard the ship. It would only call the Threat to her.

If someone was to come rescue her, it would be one of the Four Living Gods, but it was unlikely to be Omotesandou Kyouka since she used a wheelchair and could not use magic.

That meant either Karuta or Aine, who would obey any of his orders. So Marika would have to think up a sign that only those two would recognize. After some thought, the boy switched on the flashlight. He had installed it with infrared to blind the enemy, so it did not produce an obvious beam of light.

Nevertheless, it did produce a change. A faint handprint appeared on the empty hallway wall as if in glow-in-the-dark paint. It was not alone. More of them formed a trail along the wall.

“Bingo. She slid her hand a bit when making them, so maybe that’s to tell us which way the trail leads.”

“Did she smash some used regeneration crystals into a powder and mix them with something? I have heard that synthetic emeralds will produce a red light when exposed to ultraviolet.”

They could ask Marika for the exact recipe once they caught up with her. As soon as a Threat left after peering down the hallway in search of anyone there, Karuta and Aine rushed out from behind the pillar.

“That was careless of Marika’s group. The Threat uses lasers too. Or at least that lion one on the roof does.”

“We do not know if the Sparkle really is modeled after a lion or that it is using an infrared wavelength laser. Try not to let such baseless assumptions lead you astray, Sacri-sama.”

“Tell me what I can do to fix this bad mood of yours, Aine. Do I need to give you a baby bottle or a rattle?”

“I am no more than a piece of Crystal Magic equipment, so do not expect a level of intelligence and sensitivity equal to a human like you. But for now, I would recommend shutting your mouth.”

They carefully walked down the hallway and climbed the stairs as they followed the handprints glowing in the light of his infrared laser. Karuta was scared. He was always focused on the available cover so he could hide the instant the Threat approached.

They turned around on the landing and climbed the next flight of stairs.

It was still dark, but something other than the handprints glittered as it reflected the light of his modified military flashlight’s infrared. That reflection of visible light should not have happened. The source was lying in the middle of the hallway. It was a little longer than a loaf of French bread.

“…”

Utagai Karuta said nothing.

He said nothing as he stared at it.

It was a right leg.

A girl’s slender right leg lay translucently crystalized after being torn off at the base of the thigh.

### Part 5

“Heave ho, heave ho.”

Sophia Firenze, a teacher with long flaxen hair kept her voice low as she carried a large pot in both hands. She was wearing a tight skirt suit, but it had the fresh-on-the-job look of someone’s cheap first suit. She was like a puppy on two legs. She gave off an aura that inspired worry in everyone who saw her.

She was apparently preparing food for everyone.

They had the entire international airport to themselves, but she was dragging the cooking equipment out of one of the restaurants. By combining that restaurant equipment with the shelter’s outdoor equipment, she was remaking one corner of the airport into a campground cooking area. After all, there were more than 1000 students between the middle and high school. Using a whole restaurant kitchen might not be enough to cook for that many at once.

Kiyosawa Hadome, a muscular gym teacher in track pants and a tank top, called out to her.

“Firenze-sensei.”

“Oh, Kiyosawa-sensei!”

Sophia’s face lit up while still carrying the large pot.

During the battle at Crystal Beach the other day, they had been fighting against the lack of infrastructure for food and shelter. Sophia had learned a lot from that clash with the decoy Threats in an Arctic blizzard where tomorrow’s food was never guaranteed. For one, she had learned that wielding a weapon was not the only way to fight.

“At times like this, it’s best to cook a large quantity in a biiiig pot! The standard would be curry rice, right? Or would a hearty beef stew be better? Oh, but we could also skip the pot and grill the meat.”

“Each child’s condition is unique and the stress will affect them all differently too. You should probably have vegetable smoothies ready for the students with upset stomachs.”

“Oh, you’re right. That would fill them up and be decently nutritious! What a great idea!!”

Kiyosawa was generally feared by the students, but he always grew more polite when around Sophia. He knew it was a bad habit of his, but he could not stop himself.

He glanced over at the President moving by on her wheelchair a short distance away before providing more advice.

“It would also be helpful if you took down notes of the ingredients and cooking methods used when making something to feed a large group of students. You don’t want to find out later that you can’t remember what secret ingredient you added.”

After all, Grimnoah gathered people with rare talent from all around the world. It was not uncommon for students to have dietary restrictions due to allergies, religious reasons, or being a vegetarian.

Sophia seemed motivated, so he left the cooking to her. Maybe this outdated way of thinking made him an old-fashioned sort of gym teacher, but if those overly energetic brats could have the home cooking of a muscular male gym teacher or a young female teacher, he could guess which one they would choose.”

“Darjeeling, hm?”

Kiyosawa Hadome himself checked some of the tea leaves found among the cooking equipment and ingredients scattered about. Those tea leaves were so well-known and ubiquitous that it was hard to judge their quality, but as an international airport, the leaves inside the rectangular canister looked fairly high quality to him.

Tea was wonderful. You could drink it as is or you could use it to flavor a dessert. It was an elegant thing but also contained caffeine, so it could help boost morale a little on the battlefield. He found it more useful than coffee.

“Wow.” Sophia tilted her head. “You do that quick, Kiyosawa-sensei. Is this a specialty of yours?”

“I do live on my own. Although I will admit I gained these skills from a former classmate of mine who tended to boss everyone around when it came to cooking.” The muscular teacher sighed. “Also, if any students say they aren’t hungry, try recommending some stretches before giving them any digestive medicine. Hunger is a biological signal, so if you get your organs back on the proper cycle, you will feel it soon enough.”

“Eh? Even though everyone’s exhausted after fighting on the front line?”

“The muscles used for track, swimming, and martial arts are all different. You only focus on your lungs when exercising, so it is fairly common to forget all about your other organs while working so hard to move your arms and legs. Something as simple as changing the way you breathe can stimulate muscles you rarely use, so a single 10-minute yoga session can get your organs in order and really change how you feel.”

“I thought you would be a lot stricter about food.”

“If you aren’t on an extreme diet or trying to lose weight before a match, you can eat most anything in moderation.”

A tremor ran through the air.

Some boys and girls in crystal armor had gathered in the air just outside the airport’s large window as they prepared to head out to the front line. The students were quickly taking charge during this fight. Kiyosawa Hadome hated that, but there was nothing he could do to change that on his own. The local people had evacuated, but they still needed to protect the city from the Threat.

“This is all we can do for the students as they fly to a deadly battlefield without a single complaint,” he muttered to himself with the tea canister in hand. The look on his face was one he would never let the students see. “Don’t you die, brats.”

### Part 6

Karuta groaned.

His throat moved against his will. The back of his mind was full of noise and he could not stop the scream that was threatening to explode in his chest.

His trembling hand was already moving, but not to cover his mouth.

It was moving toward his Crystal Blossom. His mind was focused on its communication function even though using it would mean death here.

“Sacri-sama.”

“Gh!?”

Aine kicked him in the back of the knees, his vision dropped straight down, and she pulled his head toward her flat chest while shoving him into a nearby classroom.

The heavy and damp sound coming from the hallway had to be one of the Threats. Aine pressed against the wall while sealing his mouth by holding his head to her flat chest while she also held the sword tight in her other hand.

It was all over if they were found.

But Aine’s pulse through her thin wet dress was as accurate as a grandfather clock’s pendulum. Her heartrate apparently did not rise due to tension. The sound out in the hallway was awfully sticky for black metal and it slowly moved toward them from the far end of the hallway.

Would they be safe in this empty classroom?

Of course not. The other side of the windows covered with metal panels were crawling with Threats shaped like wharf roaches and legged tadpoles. Those things produced a disturbing number of scratching sounds.

A crystalized girl’s leg had been on the floor in the hall.

There was no safe zone here. The normal assumptions had long since stopped applying.

They were isolated. Not only were none of their allies around, but they were about as surrounded by predators as it was possible to be. This was not a lonely isolation. It was the isolation of being behind enemy lines. Merely existing like this was enough to wear down the heart.

“I suggested they are not reliant on visual information, remember? As long as we keep the curtains closed, the windows will not be a problem. But we do not know how sturdy those metal panels are or if there are any gaps between them, so we must be on the lookout for any open space.”

However, Aine was worried about the hallway.

“We have less information on the hallway, so we cannot say how many methods they have to search us out or move around,” whispered the crystal girl. “The risk there is greater. The Threat may be scattering lubricant across the floor to assist their movement.”

“…”

“But leeches and slugs coat themselves in slime to prevent themselves from drying out in the air, so they generally actually want more friction with the ground in order to provide a more solid grip. …Sacri-sama?”

Karuta did not respond.

He could not stop trembling. Aine’s steady body heat did nothing to calm him. He was breathing heavily and a cold sweat poured from his body.

The crystal girl continued speaking with the boy’s head held to her flat chest.

“It appears the Threat in the hallway has gone elsewhere. There is no more danger as long as we do not provoke the ones outside the windows. Do not worry. None of them appear to have noticed us.”

No, that was not the source of his fear. His own life did not matter.

Something else was filling his mind.

He moved his trembling lips as he clung to the crystal girl’s chest.

“That was a girl’s leg.” He wanted to reject that fact, but he could find no way of doing so. “But whose? That’s obvious. There aren’t all that many Crystal Magicians on Second Grimnoah now that the Threat has taken over. So…so that had to be…”

“Sacri-sama.”

“ There’s not some rule that says Marika will always make it out okay. When people die, they really do just die. That’s the kind of shitty world we live in.”

“Sacri-sama.”

She repeated herself more strongly as if to cut him off.

“That was a human right leg. Based on the shape, it likely belonged to a girl.”

“Kh.”

“But on the other hand, we only found the leg there.”

“So?”

He looked up while still pathetically clinging to her.

Their lips were only a few centimeters apart as he squeezed out a desperate voice like a baby bird asking for food.

“The rest of the body might have been smashed to pieces by the jaws of a Threat the size of construction machinery.”

“That is not my point.”

Aine stroked the back of his head while holding him to her flat chest. She was a head shorter than him, but she looked like a mother soothing a small child.

“There was no sock, shoe, skirt, or underwear crystallized along with the leg, was there?”

“Oh.”

She was a part of him, but she had pointed out something he had failed to realize himself.

He had never known how much it could help to talk something out with someone else.

“Crystal Magic regeneration is generally made to heal wounds, but when the magician receives a fatal wound and their full body crystallizes, their clothing and other possessions are solidified along with them.”

“So…so that means Marika isn’t dead yet? That wasn’t the leg of a corpse – it was the regeneration working on a living person? Please, Aine, tell me I’m right about this!”

“It means whoever it was still lived when their leg was cut off. They could always have received a separate fatal wound afterwards.”

“…”

“Since her group has been attacked by the Threat, we should assume Miss Marika’s attempt to remain hidden has failed. We should assume they remain in an extremely dangerous position.”

Aine was as blunt as ever.

Maybe because she was not influenced by emotion and maybe because she had been born only for combat.

Karuta removed his face from her flat chest and looked up at the empty classroom’s ceiling.

“Pwah. You said they had been found by the Threat, but I don’t hear any fighting.”

“The situation is unknown, but the Threat may have a reason to capture them without killing them. Or the Threat disseminated a knockout gas to hinder their movements, but Miss Marika’s group escaped before it took effect and passed out in a blind spot of theirs.”

“We have no proof of that.”

“Of course not. The above two possibilities were biased toward your own hopes. Since there is no sign of combat, the most reasonable assumption is that the battle is already over. ”

That did not change what Karuta and Aine had to do. They could only search for his childhood friend using the handprints that glowed when exposed to a laser.

That was a signal from the past, not one arriving in real time. No matter how much hope they placed in it, it was always possible the person who had left it was already dead.

“…”

“Sacri-sama?”

Just then, Karuta came to a stop in the middle of the hallway. He stood completely still and stared at a single point even when Aine spoke to him.

The hallway was dark, but he could see a slender and faintly glowing hand sticking out from around the corner. When it noticed his gaze, it waved a few times as if beckoning him over and then pulled back around the corner.

“Sacri-sama.”

The boy swayed weakly side to side.

It was like a moth trap that used a moth’s tendency to gather around light, like a lure that convinced a fish to take a nibble, or like an attractant that led an ant to eat deadly food. A third party might never understand, but for the target, it was like being externally controlled by the pull of a lever.

The slender girl’s hand did not lure him in just the once.

When he turned the corner, he saw it around the next one. Or on the stairs. The hand sometimes extended from an unnatural location. On the stairs, it stuck straight down from the ceiling.

Even Karuta was vaguely aware that this was not a normal human.

But what did that change? He had to check and see what this wanted to show him.

It did not lead him to some special room.

It was an ordinary hallway in the middle school building. Just a long stretch of cold floor. He heard a quiet breath of laughter from the center of it.

A naked girl stood casually in the center of the hallway. She looked to be about 13 or 14. The Threat covered the ship’s exterior and the windows were covered by metal panels, so no one could tell what color this region of death had originally been. This girl seemed terribly out of place here, yet here she was. Her undeveloped and skinny body was faintly glowing and showed no sign of any sort of injury.

There was no wind, but her blue hair was fluttering as she beckoned to him.

She was smiling ever so gently.

At her feet…or where her feet would have been, her legs combined like a mermaid’s and tapered down to a single thin thread that attached to the floor. Something was scattered across the cold floor directly below her.

Utagai Karuta slowly lowered his gaze.

And he realized what this was trying to show him.

There were arms and there were legs.

They were connected to what looked like a torso.

But none of it had any color.

Because it was all made of translucent crystal.

There was no hint of a rusty smell at this sharp and cold scene of carnage that only looked like a piece of glassware had been smashed against the floor.

But when he looked to the smashed chest, ankles, and everything else…

He could see they were clothed.

It had all been crystalized at once. Which happened when a Crystal Magician died.

He could not tell at a glance how many bodies’ worth that was.

But it was clearly more than just one.

However, he did recognize one thing among the scattered remains.

Something round was lying there. It could perhaps be described as “small” at about the size of a melon. But when his everyday values gave meaning to that simple image and the unasked-for reality of the situation came rushing in at him, he felt sparks bursting in the back of his mind.

Utagai Karuta crumpled to the floor, picked up the translucent object, and screamed.

It was the head of a girl with one of the curly twintails broken off.

It was Amaashi Marika.

### Part 7

South of Japan in the Pacific, 1000km from the Port of Kobe, gray shapes were floating on the blue. That was the coalition force’s joint fleet gathered to fight the Threat. The fleet was mostly composed of nuclear aircraft carriers with some cruisers and destroyers mixed in for good measure. There were of course plenty of submarines waiting below the water as well.

It was all technology designed to kill other people.

They had been left behind by the times as focus was placed on combating the Threat, so now all that precision machinery had nothing to do.

A male marshaller with swarthy skin and clear-cut facial features sat on the edge of an aircraft carrier flight deck larger than a schoolyard. He spoke up in annoyance while swinging a fishing rod.

“It’s ironic, really.”

“That we’re working alongside the US and China here?”

This many ships could gather anywhere in the world if they needed to.

He just about said as much, but the middle-aged marshaller held his tongue because there was no point in telling that to the female mechanic younger than his own kids. A mobile fleet sounded nice and all, but they could only travel so far in a single day without resupplying. A cruise circumnavigating the globe while stopping at plenty of ports to resupply would take around 70 to 80 days to complete its trip around the world.

Yet all these warships had gathered here so quickly.

The Threat had been noticed gathering on Second Grimnoah toward the end of Japan’s Golden Week holiday and all these ships were floating here at sea not too long afterwards. A fleet sent out from Chennai or San Francisco would not have arrived so quickly.

“Good grief.”

They were to work together as they fought the Threat. And they were to give what help they could to the cutting-edge magicians. It all sounded admirable enough, but this had clearly been secretly prepared in advance. The people could not trust each other.

(We were a little too well prepared for this.)

The middle-aged marshaller kept these thoughts to himself.

(Almost like they knew in advance where the damn Threat would attack .)

“No, that’s crazy talk.”

“What is, sir?”

The marshaller did not answer the STEM girl’s question.

“Get ready. The main dish is the Pinaka III to be launched from a nuclear sub, but that doesn’t mean our carrier has nothing to do. This will be our F/A Vajra stealth fighter’s first use in actual combat. If the Pinaka III fails to hit its target, one of those will approach while skimming just off the ocean surface and loaded with a small nuke. And all the radiation it’s giving off is guaranteed to cause malfunctions in its instruments. Even the smallest scratch while taking off could be deadly.”

“Do you think they really will choose to use nukes?”

“Don’t ask me. That’s for the higher ups to decide.”

“Hm? You don’t look happy about this.”

“The Pinaka III is a torpedo, but it’s classified as a Space Force weapon cause they control the generator satellites up above. We’re talking about some eggheads who sit in an air-conditioned office typing away at a keyboard all day. They’ve never seen a lick of combat and we’re supposed to trust them?”

“All of our nukes are being consolidated under the elites of the Space Force, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, those trump cards are in the hands of some scrawny guys who can’t even do ten pushups.”

The “higher ups” he mentioned was not a reference to the Grimnoah students fighting on the front line. He meant the higher ups who commanded the aircraft carrier. And if they said to do it, he and the others like him would have to input the nuclear launch codes.

(The economic center has moved to the Asian continent, so no one gives a crap about Japan anymore. What an age we live in.)

Japan had spent unthinkable amounts of funding in order to protect this American sea lane, but now the coalition fleet gathered there was going to launch a nuke at them. It really was ironic. The Japanese government was surely sending a flood of complaints, but those would never reach the higher ups here. The pieces on the board were not moved after a one-on-one discussion. Some low-level government official would be blocking all those complaints while stifling a yawn.

The young female mechanic held a hand over her eyes and stared at the horizon as if that would help her see past it.

“Is Letnahe okay?”

“Call her Lieutenant Colonel Kurent.”

“I really hope Let is okay. She might know the Japanese language and school system after studying abroad there, but isn’t she completely isolated while surrounded by the world’s strongest magicians? The negotiations can’t be easy and what if she can’t escape in time?”

“You don’t need to worry about that.” The dark-skinned marshaller sighed softly. “Lieutenant Colonel Kurent is top class when it comes to skill in the deadly arts. Even in a world with magicians in it. You called it negotiations, but it’s really a countdown until she gets pissed at Grimnoah.”

He felt a tug at his fishing rod.

He reeled it in to find a dark and glistening object nothing like any aquatic lifeform found in the natural world. No one could say how far the Threat had spread below the water. His young subordinate fell over in surprise and clung to him, but he checked to find it was only a boot.

The secrets of the world were not found that easily.

“Grimnoah just has to make one mistake and we’re launching that thing. And as a mechanic, you must know that completing a mission without even the slightest mistake is simply not possible.”

### Part 8

(Ah.)

She held her breath.

She was curled up in the darkness holding her injured friend and soaked with sweat and with the slime or machine oil from that sea anemone thing.

The slightest movement would get them noticed and subsequently eaten. Which was why Amaashi Marika held her breath.

(Ah, ahhhh. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???)

He was here.

Utagai Karuta of all people was here.

She could tell because she was peeking out from an empty classroom’s sliding door. That blue-haired girl was actually a sea anemone Threat that used high-level mimicry to perfectly blend in with its surroundings. This time, it was her childhood friend who had fallen for its trap.

The blue-haired girl was only a lure.

When it targeted you, you could not resist it, just like how an angler fish would cause a part of its body to glow to lure prey into its mouth. Your willpower was meaningless because that girl-shaped lure trapped humans on a mechanical or structural level.

Its effects were as absolute as those of a narcotic. The boy was kneeling in the empty hallway and pantomiming holding something in his arms. An inhuman Threat was right there in front of him, but he showed no sign of caution.

All because of that blue-haired girl.

(The Gestalt.)

That was the name Marika’s group had come up with for that Threat that showed its target hints of what they longed for. But this was not the primary thing they hoped for while influenced by optimism or their memories. No, this showed them their secondary hope after they compromised and prepared themselves for what could be. It told them not to hope for too much. It showed them a harsh “reality”. It read the unvarnished thoughts within its prey and displayed them for that prey.

For Marika’s group, it had targeted Matsuda Imi and she had indeed had her right leg bitten off at the base of the thigh. The thighbone was said to be the thickest and sturdiest bone in the human body, yet it had bitten through there in a single attack.

The attack had seemingly used electricity to tear right through her barrier and sever her leg.

When faced with that (image of a) naked girl with fluttering blue hair, you would forget all about your current situation and just stand there until you were swallowed whole by the giant sea anemone that made up all your surroundings in every direction. Marika and Tayori had worked hard to tear the tens of thousands of tentacles away from Imi, but that was not a fundamental solution.

Firepower was not enough to defeat it.

When it was camouflaged, it was indistinguishable from their surroundings and one of the three would be drawn in once the blue-haired girl appeared. Strength or weakness did not even come into it – they could not even begin an actual battle.

So they had waited and hoped for help to arrive.

They had their phones and Crystal Blossoms, but they had remained silent and desperately fought the icy loneliness that threatened to slowly crush them like the water pressure in the deep sea.

Better equipment could maybe change things. They could build a bomb with the tools aboard the ship and they could maybe redefine the entire battle by rigging that up with a sensor or remote detonator. They could maybe escape and prepare for a real battle. They could maybe find a way to do damage while never actually standing directly before it.

Yet the Gestalt had chosen Utagai Karuta as its next target after he arrived to help them. He had followed the invisible handprints that glowed when exposed to a laser. It had perfectly mimicked the very signs that Amaashi Marika had left for him in order to guide him along a complex path leading directly to the most dangerous point.

Marika’s stance was a simple one: she would protect what she wanted to protect. She was willing to sacrifice her own life for that and she did not care if she had to destroy the world in the process.

“Tayori.”

“No, Marika.”

“Take care of Imi. I have to save Karuta.”

“You can’t. Didn’t we decide it’s all over if we draw the Gestalt’s attention?”

The hallway was already growing red and distorted.

It looked a lot like a carnivorous plant covering a radius of several meters. The giant sea anemone had become something like a man-eating sunflower, but Karuta was so overwhelmed by emptiness and despair that he remained collapsed on his knees at the center of it. He could no longer avoid it from there.

The countless tentacles wriggled around him and a glowing light filled them from base to tip. Their bright blood-red coloration became a green even more vivid than a plant’s leaves.

They heard a sound like a mass of air bursting.

They had seen this underwater. The sea anemones changed color once they were charged with energy. And they could wield that offensively instead of just passing it to the other Threats as fuel.

There was not some rule that said Marika would always make it out okay.

But in the exact same way, there was not some rule that said Karuta would always make it out okay either.

If the path needed to survive was cut short by even a millimeter, anyone would have nowhere left to go and would die. That was true of the good, of the evil, of a great scientist who had made the discovery of the century, and of a sickly little sister. The value people had decided someone had did nothing at all to influence whether they lived or died.

That was now a mass of electrical energy.

If the tens of thousands of tentacles surrounded him, he would not just have a limb severed – he and his weaker barrier would be entirely obliterated. Just like the filament burning out in an old light bulb. There would be no room for a tear-jerking miracle.

(I need to give a reason.)

The back of her mind had numbed over, but the girl still clenched her teeth hard.

(I need to create a reason why Karuta can survive!!)

With the words “power up”, she drew a rapier-like device out of thin air.

And at the same time…

“Aine.”

Still motionless, still holding something imaginary, and still defenselessly exposed to the Threat that had destroyed cities, states, and countries, the boy whispered with his eyes not focused on reality.

Yes.

He spoke to Aine, the inhuman girl who had therefore not reacted to the lure meant to lead humans astray.

“Do what you think is best. Don’t wait for my permission.”

The crystal girl and the lure girl tilted their heads in unison.

A moment later, Aine’s katana sliced through the air and mercilessly severed (what looked like) the lure girl’s head.

### Part 9

The fragrance of tea filled the airport control tower.

It had been made strong in the military fashion meant to keep you awake.

The kettle, ceramic pot, strainer, and hourglass might have looked like the tools for an ancient alchemy experiment to someone unfamiliar with tea, but Letnahe Kurent used them all with ease.

“Honey, has she gone to sleep yet? Eh? You made her pancakes before bed? That’s fine, but you need to be careful or you’ll make our son jealous. You know how he always gets upset when his big sister gets a treat and he doesn’t.”

The way she did it all while also speaking on her phone made her look like an expert.

Once the call was over, President Omotesandou Kyouka made a somewhat impressed comment.

“You know a lot about tea.”

“This tea is from my country. When it was grown on a plantation that’s practically in your own backyard, why wouldn’t you want to enjoy it more than anyone else?”

Letnahe poured a cup of hot tea and handed it to Kyouka.

Almost like she was testing the girl.

The silver-haired brown-skinned soldier seemed to smile a little after seeing Kyouka wait to drink any until after Letnahe drank out of a cup poured from the same pot.

Light glistened off of the ring and the face of the mobile watch on her left hand and wrist.

The President was interested in the watch.

“That’s an old model.”

“I happen to like this model.” Letnahe closed her eyes behind her glasses. “We can get back to our discussion once we’ve had time to rest. I need to calmly consider the information you have presented to me.”

“Yes.”

Kyouka bit off a small piece of a baked good she must have borrowed from one of the airport’s luxury shops. After detecting the scent of some artificial additives, she casually set it aside.

“About a nuclear attack on the Threat having the opposite effect, you mean?”

### Part 10

Utagai Karuta came back to his senses.

He blinked once and his childhood friend’s head was no longer in his hands. Everything around him had lost color and had transformed into piles of black metal. The Threat was generally made of metal, but this destruction was horribly soft and disgusting. He did not know how it had achieved that flexibility. Maybe thin wires were woven into a net and maybe it had been filled with small pieces like a beanbag cushion.

He held a hand to the side of his head and grimaced.

(Were the colors being used to alter my state of mind? No, this was even harder to fight than that. Did they follow a chemical formula to create a human attractant?)

“Aine, I don’t want the other Threats to eat this, so can you destroy it more thoroughly?”

“I can, but it would produce a lot of light, sound, and heat. All of the Threats in the region would likely notice and rush in here.”

“Then we’ll have to go with the poisoning tactic. If we could find a bomb or some powerful acid…”

“K-Karuta?”

He heard a quiet voice from very close by.

He tensed up a bit, but Aine was still letting her sword dangle at her side.

“That is the real Miss Marika,” said the crystal girl. “Shall I attack her?”

Karuta sighed.

Marika still seemed to find the result of this battle hard to believe. She held her rapier device in her hand, her eyes were wide as could be, and she was trembling.

“How…how did you just kill the Gestalt?”

“Well, if either Aine or I was acting weird, I ordered her to let the unaffected one make the decisions. I made the command because I thought a human like me and a nonhuman like her might be seeing things differently here, but it didn’t do much good in that sense. And this isn’t perfect. If Aine suddenly wanted to take control, she could send out high-voltage electricity or knock-out gas and use my command to justify her ‘rebellion’.”

Gestalt was probably a tentative name for the blue-haired girl…no, for the sea anemone Threat. That was a reference to the term Gestaltzerfall, but it was not quite accurate to use just the first half like that. This may have been similar to how the spread of the term “domestic violence” had given the word “domestic” negative connotations for a lot of people.

“It can only manipulate human perceptions,” said Karuta. “So it can’t affect Aine. Or maybe the Threat only ever expected to have human enemies.”

### Part 11

Letnahe Kurent was dumbfounded.

The bespectacled silver-haired, brown-skinned soldier forgot to even breath as she viewed the data displayed in the floating general airport’s control tower.

Her tea had gone cold.

“The Threat…”

She squeezed her trembling right hand in her left.

But she was not the type to look away from the reality before her eyes.

She located the most crucial piece of information and read it aloud.

“The Threat might have units capable of surviving a nuke?”

“We haven’t tested it, so we can’t say for sure.” The Student Council President looked entirely calm. “But with that sea urchin and lion, there are far more varieties here than we saw in the decoys at the Crystal Beach. They have more distinct roles. For example, there was a hippo-like Threat that is so specialized for defense it shrugged off a direct hit from the Sparkle’s laser at the Port of Kobe. Not to mention the lion-like Sparkle itself. Wielding that much energy means it must have some means of containing that much energy inside it. And I can only imagine there are tons more Threats we have yet to see.”

“B-but with the destructive power of the Pinaka III…!!”

“It won’t work. The Sparkle’s lasers have an instantaneous temperature that appears to exceed that of a nuclear reaction. Since we haven’t heard of any of them being properly destroyed, we can assume they do not just charge in with overwhelming numbers like the decoys did. They understand their individual roles and they monitor the situation so they can cover for each other’s weaknesses when need be. So they will likely do the same with a nuke.”

Kyouka spoke bluntly and clearly to ensure the soldier could understand even after her thoughts partially ground to a halt.

“And have you forgotten that the Threat will devour their own destroyed allies to endlessly customize themselves? That has been confirmed among the real ones with the water strider and jellyfish types seen earlier. Nukes are powerful, but they would leave behind a mixture of defeated Threats and surviving Threats. The amount of damage will differ depending on their individual strength, how close to the center of the blast they are, whether they are alone or gathered together, the terrain, and what kind of battle formation they take. The Threat is not a giant kaiju – it is a great army. If there is any discrepancy in the scope of the damage and even one survives, the hellish customization will begin. I would rather not imagine what would be born from that pile of rubble. What about you?”

“…”

“We can take advantage of their customization with the poisoning tactic that inserts a bomb or virus in the destroyed remains, but a nuke would leave so many remains behind that we would have a hard time ‘poisoning’ them all. The best way to do that is to make a pinpoint attack and prevent the remains from being taken back to the others. That requires swift movement and high firepower, but it also requires a check to make sure they really were destroyed and the nimbleness to ‘poison’ them at the same time. That means those of us wearing crystal armor are best suited for it. A nuke or any other wide-scale attack that spreads its power unevenly would only give them the chance to grow.”

“Y-you must be joking.”

Letnahe’s voice was trembling.

What emotion was burning in her heart: anger, impatience, or fear?

Whatever the case, she exploded once the tremor reached a certain point.

“You have to be joking!! You expect me to believe Crystal Magic is some convenient cure-all here? When you haven’t managed to defeat even one of them? If those kids fighting out there can’t do it, who are you saying can destroy them!?”

“I am a Main Category Regulation 3,” smoothly replied the President. “I doubt the dimensional leap ability would be enough on its own. Anyone who reaches their third year in our high school learns that technique, after all. No, it needs to be someone who assumes anything can happen in combat and prepares for the worst even after reaching that level. That may be something that no one can learn from a textbook, but the opportunity is there for everyone. The Four Living Gods are not the only ones to have seen hell, after all.”

“You can’t expect someone like that to just conveniently exist.”

“But they do. I’ve already found one.” Omotesandou Kyouka could see a single ray of hope. “There were VR goggles on the fancy plane we took on the way here.”

“?”

“That was convenient enough, so I played a sparring match against Karuta-kun. Using my parameters from when I was in my prime.”

Letnahe gasped. She was the one and only Regulation 3 in the world. In her prime, she had been a completed form of the strongest that was nowhere to be found anymore. But the true shock was yet to come.

“How do you think that turned out? Karuta-kun defeated me. Without using Aine-chan. ”

“How!?”

“He took advantage of a bug. He baited me into using my dimensional leap, causing my VR avatar to freeze. As soon as he noticed he could not summon Aine-chan in the VR, he realized there were things the simulator could not reproduce and put together a plan built around that. And then I couldn’t move.”

Silence followed.

The President grinned at the brown-skinned soldier whose mouth flapped wordlessly.

“Ah ha ha. That wouldn’t even occur to you normally, would it? You would look at Crystal Magic’s real abilities and try to plan a way to defeat me at the peak of my abilities. But not him. He viewed the conditions of the battle on a higher level. …When fighting the Threat, you can’t let your assumptions get the better of you. You can’t win using the standard processes. If you can’t look at things from a different angle, all your efforts are nothing more than running down a path leading straight to destruction. Just like your nuclear attack would only help the Threat grow.”

“…”

“It was the same with the Problem Solvers and with the decoy Threat. He has the ability to defeat powerful opponents he should not be able to defeat. And he is pulling it off again here.”

The only report of a destroyed Threat was the two that destroyed each other on the ocean. It had happened so quickly that he did not seem to realize how great a feat he had accomplished, but the President could see the hope presented there.

“Karuta-kun was the first to pull it off, but the possibility exists for everyone. Our students panicked when the decoy Threat attacked, but not so against the real ones here. What changed? I think it is because they can see their home here. When focused on a positive goal, people can think, put together a plan, and reach for it. Unlike the Threat that focuses on their negative deficiencies and tries to make up for those to grow stronger.”

She seemed to be criticizing the adults for using the nuclear Pinaka III as a joker meant to make up for their own deficiencies, but she also seemed to be expressing some sorrow about herself.

She stuck out her tongue as she added one more thing.

“But I’m their wicked big sister, so I doubt I can believe in the same dream they do.”

That boy was the only person with fully separate Crystal Magic.

He was a true abnormality who had succeeded in controlling a Crystal Blossom without relying on an existing god’s name. That extraordinary boy was struggling every day and worried if he could ever improve, yet he already stood in a position that Omotesandou Kyouka had failed to reach even after mastering “proper” Crystal Magic.

She never wanted to betray him.

Even as she hid that weaker side like a girl pining for the prince in a picture book.

What was she hoping to gain with this smile?

“If he has the true talent required to break free of Grimnoah’s ranking system and become a Category Error, then I know he can find an opening here.”

### Between the Lines 1

This had to be some kind of joke.

Letnahe Kurent softly bit her lip.

She had left the control tower to help calm herself, but being alone only let the impatience grow. She seemed to be losing track of time more by the second, like she was trapped inside a room with no clock, but noticing the effect was not enough to stop it.

She was in a small smoking area to the side of the staff entrance. She was not a smoker, but she wanted to make that walled space into her territory. She could never calm her nerves otherwise.

“Phew.”

After reflexively letting out a heavy breath, she noticed how disturbed she really was.

The mobile watch synced with her phone was covered in red.

There was a nearby chair for taking breaks, but she ignored it. She sat directly on the floor in her tight skirt and followed a set process to slowly move her body.

She breathed in and out.

That was all, but breathing was the key to everything.

By consciously taking control of her muscles, blood flow, and organs one after another, she forcibly calmed her mind as well. At her level, it was as simple as turning an invisible knob.

She did not even need to look down at the mobile watch around her left wrist.

Her breathing, heartrate, blood pressure, and brainwaves had all returned to normal levels.

Then she began to think.

(There is a lot I don’t know. I especially need to rethink the effectiveness of a nuclear attack. Although this delay is alarming when we are supposed to be the ones managing the world by supporting the strongest.)

When attempting to manipulate several threads at once, you wanted as much information as possible. But that craving could also lead you astray.

At times like this, it was best to cut away all the outside noise and look inward. By looking to your center, you would not lose sight of what you most needed to accomplish.

Yes.

( But that isn’t what really matters to me. )

“******-kun,” she muttered while focused on her left hand.

She had uttered the one thing she never should have said on the frontline where both sides hunted each other’s lives.

Then she looked up all of a sudden. As if a small bug had just flown by in front of her.

This was a deadly scent only an expert could pick up on.

The floating general airport had been rented out as a frontline base, so only Grimnoah people should have been here. That meant the scent was directed toward the students and teachers.

If things were allowed to continue, death would reach them.

An error displayed on her mobile watch. The mechanical calculations could not keep up with the changes occurring within her. Her breathing, heartrate, blood pressure, and brainwaves had moved beyond those of an ordinary human. They had all grown placid, like a chilly subterranean lake.

A moment later, she swung an axe to the side to mercilessly slice at the empty air.

No, it was not empty air sliced by that axe that was less than 50cm including the handle.

Gray static ran through the emptiness and something appeared there. It was a 2-ton powered suit covered in so much composite armor and various sensors that it must have been difficult to fold down into a humanoid shape. It was a PS Sudarshana used by the Indian Navy Port Security Unit during shipboard searches. The thing surrounding its entire right arm looked a lot like the mandibles of a giant centipede or something similar. That was a piece from one of the decoy Threats in the reports.

The powered suits could not ordinally blend into their surroundings like that. And as examples like the chameleon and tree frog make clear, it was not surprising for the decoy Threat to have a camouflage ability since they incorporated biological structures into their mechanical forms. However, the navy did not use that kind of thing.

“The Indian Space Force.”

That safe weapon could make it look like the Threat’s doing if any important figure were to meet an unnatural demise.

She whispered while spinning her axe around after it was deflected by the thick armor.

“Was the idea to trip Grimnoah up so you could force the nuclear attack? You have guts going over the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who command every branch of the Indian military. Do you think you have special privileges for not belonging to the traditional three branches?”

“Have you grown confused, Lieutenant Colonel Kurent!?”

The voice came from the powered suit that had appeared from thin air. It had already stepped back after the initial attack.

“That parashu is only meant for revenge. You had the ability to pursue your true target and this silly camouflage would not have been enough to deceive you, so no one will believe you if you say mistook me for an enemy.”

“I could say the same thing. Our enemy is the Threat, not Grimnoah. It would be one thing if they were ‘accidentally’ caught in the nuclear attack we were regrettably forced to launch, but taking their lives in a direct attack sounds like the start of an international incident to me.”

“…”

“That is why I was sent in as a special envoy to peaceably acquire an outline of Grimnoah’s plan and time schedule. …It wasn’t the Indian Navy that decided to make an assault instead, was it?”

The Pinaka III was a special nuclear torpedo launched from a submarine.

But at the same time, the nuclear weapons were managed by the space force, not the army, navy, or air force. Needless to say, nuclear weapons were not operated independently. They relied on a global radar network.

That created a tug-of-war between the navy and space force.

Letnahe considered those two organizations as she spoke.

If she let herself sigh here, it would disturb her breathing, but she was not going to let something like this faze her.

“Did the Indian Space Force want to launch their Pinaka III so badly, they sent in an assassin squad…pardon me, a special forces unit? Or were you sent here by the intelligence division that’s been on edge ever since they realized the control tower was intercepting their transmissions? Either way, your equipment tells me you intended to blow up the control tower to destroy the equipment – and me I might add – in what looks like an accident. The control tower is full of largescale electronics with its radar and its server system. Mess with the wiring a little and you will have much more than an electrical fire on your hands. The machinery would burst and create arc discharges.”

No one answered her.

But not because they were upset with what she was saying. They were probably just not allowed to reveal classified information. Which made for an implicit confirmation.

“Lieutenant Colonel Kurent, we were told to avoid any unnecessary victims.”

“I imagine so.”

“So come with us. I cannot guarantee you an acquittal, but if you leave the scene, you will at least not be caught in the unfortunate accident . Unlike the Grimnoah students and teachers.”

Letnahe raised both hands with the axe still in one of them.

“They are necessary.”

“That is not for us to decide. Aren’t you no more than a messenger?”

She had already demonstrated her power, but the powered suit unit wearing cutting-edge PS Sudarshanas still seemed to think they were in control here. She only held an outdoor axe less than 50cm long while they had firearms as well as the decoy Threat weapons, so they would attack her from more than 10 directions before she could even ready her first attack. And each of their attacks could tear through the latest armored trucks like tissue paper. Or so they believed.

“I warned you,” she said.

“?”

Letnahe spun something around in her hands like a baton.

She had reached into her sleeve and pulled out a military flashlight just as thick as the axe’s handle. She connected the two with a twisting motion, extending the length of the axe’s handle.

“The parashu is an axe of vengeance given to us by Shiva, God of Destruction. It is a well-known item, but its size and shape differ between the different texts. That can be used to pull off magic such as this.”

“Lieutenant Colonel, it is true the length of the handle provides more centrifugal force, but I seriously doubt that is enough to break our armor.”

She did not bother responding to that.

With a casual horizontal swing of her arm, the powered suit’s head was mercilessly severed.

It froze up.

It must not have understood what had happened.

The powered suit stood motionless for a bit, but finally collapsed backwards with a loud crash.

The other powered suits rushed in toward the silver-haired, brown-skinned woman. Those monsters had decoy Threats equipped on their arms, yet they did not manage to spill a single drop of blood.

Their attacks were all blocked and deflected by a single puny axe.

The dark gray storm left a blurred afterimage behind. This was no normal movement. This was more than just Letnahe having superior athletic abilities. There was something seriously wrong with the axe’s path. While she swung it around in both hands, its path would bend unnaturally like it had been kicked by an invisible horse.

“This is thunder,” she explained while twirling the axe like a baton. “The parashu is an axe given to us by Shiva, god of destructive winds and lightning. Although I will admit using the roar of thunder to vibrate a piece of metal is an unorthodox application of that power.”

The attackers finally realized what was going on.

She was using magic. That was of course not the actual weapon given by the Indian god of destruction. The axe was only an axe and the flashlight was only a flashlight. Her form of magic was a technical system that produced supernatural phenomena by gathering certain symbols in a single magical tool so a supernatural power would flow through it.

“Then again, I am not using the vibration or shockwave to cut. The vibration is uneven, so I can create intentional deviations to unnaturally strike the entire axe from within.”

She was someone who had failed to reach the level of God Worshiping Magic or Crystal Magic.

She could not interfere with the occult pressure fronts. She could only produce a small change, similar to scooping up water in a ladle and sprinkling it around to cool things down.

That incomplete magician winked behind her glasses and stopped the thick blade meant to attack her.

“That allows me to move the axe’s blade as I like. If you don’t believe me, feel free to bring in a Gatling gun. I will knock down every last bullet from head on.”

“…”

“And by striking on the back of the blade to accelerate it, I can produce destructive power far greater than my arms ever could. Of course, taking it too far could always damage my shoulders.”

She did not give them time to ask any further questions.

She slayed the cutting-edge powered suits one after another with a combination of power, speed, and precision nimbler than a large knife and more powerful than a cannon. She deflected bullets fired from silenced weapons, accurately dismantled the fuses of explosives on the verge of detonation, and severed the centipede arms. If her attacks had not all been in the form of “cutting”, the entire airport might have exploded from within.

“But even this is not enough to make me the strongest. That is how the world of magic works. I heard the great God Worshiping Magic sword used by one of the former strongest was more convenient than this.”

She did not bat an eye.

“And I doubt I would be any match for the Crystal Magic students who can easily break the sound barrier. But while it isn’t #1, it still has its uses. And if you know something is useful, there is no need to try to make it the very best. War is a boring thing, isn’t it?”

She could not become the world’s strongest and she could not keep up in a battle against the Threat, but she was second to none when it came to tripping up fellow humans. Letnahe Kurent was a magician who had made a place for herself using that.

She was the grim reaper of a certain force.

She was the secret silencer that was sent in to correct a global plan when the people raised to the position of strongest took things too far and started to grow tyrannical.

She was the woman who wielded Shiva’s axe.

She was a monster who could use that weapon on the level of an army.

“…”

The last surviving powered suit looked down at himself instead of at Letnahe.

He was already covered in gouging lacerations.

“Why?”

“Because Grimnoah seems more useful than a perfectly ordinary assassination squad that does not officially exist within the Indian military. For now, anyway.”

“We might want different things, but we’re from the same military…yet you cut us down without a second thought.”

“What?”

She stared like a puzzled child at first. She really did tilt her head with the axe still in both hands.

“Oh, that.”

It took her a few seconds to realize what he meant, but then she gripped the axe tight once more.

“Did you not wonder why I kept specifying the Indian military? I wouldn’t talk about my own home as the Kurent home, would I? So why would I bother making the distinction here?”

“?”

“It’s simple,” she said. “I do not work for the nuclear state of India. I work for someone even higher than that.”

After one final desperate spray of gunfire, the final powered suit was bisected.

The secret unit had been eliminated without anyone ever knowing they existed.

The battle would not have made much noise, but she could not let her guard down. She wanted a janitorial cart to transport the multiple corpses and special detergent for the blood stains. Her axe and magic could turn them into mincemeat easily enough, but the mass media’s long-range lenses were watching outside. She calmly worked out what she needed to do as someone who worked behind the scenes.

No one could prove those soldiers existed, so she could never be charged with their deaths.

But after cutting down and eliminating that hostile force without allowing them a single scream, Letnahe Kurent pictured a certain girl in her mind: Omotesandou Kyouka.

(I have a secret, but I am in no position to reveal it to you.)

She looked down at her left hand and focused on a warm feeling other than her duty as a cold soldier.

“You owe me one.”

### 132. Chapter 3

### Part 1

The low thrum of motors filled one section of Second Grimnoah.

But not because some bizarre new weapon had been powered up. Large washing machines were lined up within a laundry room. They were pay models that could be operated by holding your phone up to them.

The academy ship had become a deadly labyrinth crawling with the Threat, but it was also Karuta, Marika, and the others’ home. Their classrooms and dorms were here. So were their cafeterias and shower rooms.

They could use any part of the school infrastructure they wanted.

That only seemed so twisted because the Threat had taken over.

“Ugh, this is just awful,” said Amaashi Marika.

Karuta and Aine were standing watch outside. Only the three girls remained inside, but she, Matsuda Imi, and Hashizaki Tayori had stripped off all of their clothes. All of the machines were open for use, so they separated their underwear, blouses, blazers, skirts, etc. and put them in separate machines on different settings for the true luxury experience.

Gyaru-ish Tayori looked up at the ceiling (while naked).

“Those are making a lot of noise. Won’t the Threat notice?”

“It’s a pretty big ship and there are mechanical noises coming from all over the place.”

Why were they doing this anyway?

“I have detected a chemical very similar to diallyl disulfide within the Threat liquid found all over Miss Marika’s group. It is not on Sacri-sama or myself, so it may be used to assist them when they attack.” Aine explained from the other side of the thin door. “That is normally used in crow repellants, but it can also be used as a marker to track down a target when combined with a hound or another animal with an excellent nose. It is colorless and, when watered down, it does not have a strong enough odor for humans to detect. The best solution would be to remove all of your clothing and shave off all of your body hair, but if you are opposed to continuing the mission in the nude, I would recommend thoroughly washing your clothing with a chemical detergent. Immediately.”

Tayori tilted her head.

“Why can she detect smells that humans can’t?”

“Aine-chan’s senses are the same as a human’s, but she apparently stores things in her mind differently. If she licks salt, she doesn’t sense it as ‘salty’ – she senses which of the six tastes it stimulated. So she would probably overlook something if the magnitude was too low, but I guess she can still classify things if they’re simply mixed with other smells.”

That crystal girl was not shy about letting people know pure gold was her favorite food, so she had a very different idea about what was mouthwatering.

At any rate, they were forced to strip off even their underwear and throw it all in the washing machines despite the danger. They had avoided any laundry rooms with windows covered in Threats, but all the noise was still unnerving.

The girls also had to dump detergent over their heads no matter how bad for their skin it was. Gyaru-ish Tayori must have been confident in her looks compared to Marika because she made no attempt to cover up as she let down her wet hair and dried it off with a towel.

“He cut that thing down, didn’t he?” she said.

“Yes…” replied Marika with a thoughtful look.

What had created the difference between her group and him when they were trapped by the Gestalt’s illusion?

Marika tried to find an answer as Tayori’s calm voice reached her ears.

“We had seen jellyfish ones and the tadpole ones could count as frogs, so it was possible there would be a Threat that used color or camouflage. …It makes sense in hindsight, but Utagai Karuta predicted it in advance. It’s like he has a more active imagination, or like he’s extra cautious. Then again, that really saved our butts.”

That boy prepared himself based on the assumption that he would step right into any trap awaiting him, his opponent would always be trying to deceive him, and there would be an opening somewhere he could use.

Marika sighed at Tayori’s comments.

“Yes, but there is a downside. His way of thinking can easily lead to paranoia if he isn’t careful. And that’s all well and good for him if he can keep things in balance, but how can we ever tell if he’s doing that when his only explanation is ‘he has a feeling’?”

Everything felt unpredictable, but they did know the Threat could be defeated. That was some hope at least.

Tayori glanced over at the washing machines.

“Also, you didn’t put any fabric softener in with our uniforms, did you? Based on the tag, that’ll cause them to fade like crazy. Although it might be like how lab coats are made to stain easily so you’ll notice anything toxic you got on there.”

“Oh? You’re surprisingly knowledgeable about this stuff.”

“Was that ‘surprisingly’ really necessary?”

And….

“Eek, eek, eek, eek.”

An odd breathing sound came from one point in the room.

Marika and Tayori looked over to see Matsuda Imi curled up in a corner of the laundry room. There were benches available, but she still had her bare butt directly on the tile floor wet with puddles of seawater. She had her back against the wall and her hands on her head.

She was acting strange.

She had not stopped trembling ever since they defeated the giant Gestalt sea anemone. She had always been an innocent and active girl. She would often teasingly hug you while changing for gym, but now she was trying to reject everything about the world and run away.

Her bright and extroverted personality may have left her unequipped to retreat inward at times like this.

She had not even removed her clothes herself. Marika had watched as Tayori was forced to help her out of them like a parent would do to a small child. After what happened, her age may indeed have regressed.

They did not know what the Gestalt’s camouflage had shown her, but she may have grown attached to it.

Karuta’s voice reached them through the door.

“Hey.”

“No, it isn’t about that.”

Tayori casually rejected that idea while grabbing the dryer.

Yes, Marika also knew why this had happened to her friend. Now was not the time to retreat to ridiculous ideas like her growing attached to the camouflage.

Imi’s fearful eyes were not directed at the thin door that Karuta and Aine stood on the other side of. No, those eyes were directed squarely at Amaashi Marika. At the friend she had gotten along with and had always hung around with.

“No…”

Her voice was quiet, but the intonation was unnatural.

It contained the tension of someone who had discovered unexploded ordnance that could go off at any moment.

“No. I’m going back to the others.”

“What is…”

Karuta started to ask something through the door, but Marika only quietly shook her head. And after realizing he could not see that, she spoke aloud.

Still naked, she pressed her back against the door.

“Leave her be.”

Marika’s group had experienced their own drama. A different sort of drama that Karuta and Aine could not hope to imagine. The three girls had not survived “just because”. If you did not create your own reason for survival, anyone would die in this world.

The next one to speak was Tayori in her mature gyaru-ish way.

Once her hair was dry, she held her hair tie in her mouth and reached back to do up her long hair in a complex fashion.

“Hey, Utagai-kun. Did you see a leg somewhere on your way here?”

“Y-yes.”

“That was Imi’s.”

They heard an obvious gasp from beyond the door.

Soft and honest Karuta may have assumed the fear and pain had broken Imi and he may have felt that was the proper reaction for a normal person. Being functionally able to fight was not the same thing as being emotionally able to fight. The regeneration preset did not eliminate the fear. To continue fighting was to face that fear and pain head on. So allies who always pushed you onward could become an indirect source of fear.

But he had the wrong idea.

After using the hair tie to keep her hair in place, Tayori confessed the real answer.

“The attack tore right through the barrier and took her leg off at the base of the thigh. Just like the blood vessels in your wrist, the femoral artery is pretty thick, so bandaging it up wouldn’t be enough to stop the blood normally. That would be fatal.”

“Eh?”

There was more confusion than pain in Karuta’s muffled voice because Matsuda Imi was in fact alive right now. A fatal wound should have crystallized her entire body along with her clothing instead of healing her after just 30 seconds.

“ So. ” Marika slowly explained the proper action she had taken. “ I used my laser to cauterize the wound, buying her enough time for the regeneration to complete. That was the only way to save her. ”

“Eek. Eeeeek!!!???”

Imi trembled even harder while curled up in a corner of the laundry room. That classmate had always had a bright smile on her face, but now she was holding her head while her legs (one newly regenerated) squirmed awkwardly below her. Even with only other girls here, she would normally have done a little more to cover up.

Tayori moved up next to her and gave her a hug while she wept.

“I can’t take it anymore! I just want to crawl in bed forever!! This isn’t right. I thought it was the Threat that did these awful things to people, so why are other people doing that now!?”

Karuta’s mental anguish seemed to seep through the door.

Marika breathed a heavy sigh.

She had saved her dying friend’s life. That was an undeniable fact.

But pursuing a mystery and learning the truth did not always solve everything. They had sensed this ugly feeling during their revenge against the Problem Solvers and while fighting the decoy Threat at the Crystal Beach. Karuta had to be experiencing it again here.

And.

Aine’s emotionless voice spoke from beyond the door.

“Sacri-sama, does Miss Imi wish she had died instead?”

“Aine.”

“Based on that report, I do not see any other way she could have survived, so it is unfair to view Miss Marika negatively over it.”

Marika shook her head in response, scattering some water droplets from her hair, but then she clicked her tongue at that habit.

She had to speak aloud right now. She had stripped bare, but that did not mean they could read her thoughts.

“Stop. Please.”

People did not always like what was right and dislike what was wrong.

Everyone felt differently about things.

Most children knew intellectually that vaccinations and dental fillings were necessary, but could they use that knowledge to erase the fear they felt rising from deep in their body when they saw the syringe or heard the motor grinding at their tooth? Could they remain smiling throughout?

Tayori had crouched down and hugged her friend while gently stroking her trembling back like she was soothing a small child.

“Imi can’t go on,” she said.

“…”

“But no matter how much she wants to leave, flying out of the ship will only get her swarmed with and devoured by the Threat. I doubt even changing back into the silent diving suit hidden at the bottom levels and diving into the ocean would work anymore.”

“Probably not,” agreed Karuta through the door.

Plenty of the jellyfish Threats had burst from the ocean when he had flown in just off the ocean surface in Aine’s arms.

He had already explained that to the others.

And inside the ship, they had defeated the sea anemone one that Marika’s group had named the Gestalt. After disturbing the Threat inside and outside the ship, the Threat was bound to have changed their formation. They had to assume what had worked a moment before might no longer work.

After a while, Karuta managed to say more.

“We have to continue on and kill the lion on the roof to make the sky safe for flight. Then we can call in everyone from Grimnoah. Restarting Second Grimnoah doesn’t require any of us as individuals. We’ll have achieved our goal as long as we defeat the Sparkle. Anyone who wants to leave can withdraw back to the airport during all the confusion.”

“That probably is best. Imi will only be a burden now that she’s lost the will to fight, but let’s carry her with us for a while longer.”

“Sure.”

He was saying that was fine with him.

They had already seen the lion and the sea anemone, so they knew there was more to the Threat than being tough and violent. Second Grimnoah was crawling with types they had never seen before, so there was no safe zone here. Marika was more exasperated than impressed that he could state that with such confidence. He could not leave behind that classmate who could not face the fear on her own. There was no benefit to that, but he still could not bear to leave her here.

But Tayori looked puzzled even though she had made the suggestion.

“I’m surprised.”

“Why?”

“Three of the four world’s strongest are here, so I didn’t expect you to accept someone else ’s opinion so readily. I thought the bar would have been raised and I would be shut out for not making the cut.”

Karuta fell silent on the other side of the door for a bit.

Marika knew what that meant. He was smiling bitterly.

That would have been how it worked with the Problem Solvers. Which was the entire point.

Marika knew exactly how that soft childhood friend would respond and she was proven right soon thereafter.

“I’m working to not be that kind of strongest. So is Marika.”

Tayori shrugged a little. The short silence must have told Karuta that she was not panicking like Imi, so he asked another question.

“What about you? Do you want to quit?”

“I’ll follow whoever’s right,” dryly said Hashizaki Tayori. Her voice was different again from Aine who did not understand human emotion. “I don’t choose based on what I like or don’t like the way this girl does. But don’t let that put you at ease. If you ever stop doing the right thing, I’ll be disappointed in you and drop out, so keep that in mind.”

“…”

It took him 0.5 seconds before he said he understood.

That’s pretty harsh, thought Marika in the nude.

Marika understood that Karuta was thinking about the survivors of the first ship. He did not need to explain it to her. He was putting the still living students and teachers of the second ship in danger to save his dead friends from the first ship. He was clearly weighing their lives differently and he had to have noticed the contradiction there.

Even though it would be easier if he just went and did it.

Marika would use her full power as the world’s strongest to protect those she cared about, but Karuta lived a much more awkward life. If he used the watering can to water the flower pot, the flower would blossom, but he instead tried to water the entire desert with it.

(So…)

They heard a beeping as the large washing machines stopped spinning. They had finished the draining and drying phase.

(So I need to protect him. No matter what it takes.)

She let out a soft breath and reached for the drum’s lid.

She had not gotten there in time for Imi.

But she had managed to save that girl’s life. And life gave her the right to hate Marika for it.

That was thousands of times better than whitewashing death and letting her friend die.

That was her decision, no matter how harsh it was. And this was not just a whimpered excuse she made to herself – she could actually do it. That may have been what made her who she was.

“Now, all our preparations are complete,” cheerfully said the active girl. “So let’s take another peek into the depths of hell.”

### Part 2

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

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

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

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

Meanwhile, the redheaded buns Secretary whispered in her ear.

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

“Why? My feet are not swollen yet.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I imagine so.”

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

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

“But why?”

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

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

Kyouka sighed before answering.

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

“Eh?”

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

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

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

“…”

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

“Well…”

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

Letnahe looked up with a gasp.

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

“Your left hand”

Her tone was innocent and thus precise.

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

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

Kyouka had mentioned earlier that it was an old model.

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

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

Yet she had made it all work.

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

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

There had been some hints scattered around.

For example, her age.

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

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

Not to mention how she placed such emphasis on breathing.

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

The President could deduce some things from all that.

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

“Stop.”

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

“Please stop!!”

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

The demon stated her conclusion to the other demon.

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

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

“You wanted to stop it from the beginning.”

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

Only Kyouka’s words filled the room.

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

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

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

The President sighed softly.

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

“…”

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

“How…”

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

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

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

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

She fell silent.

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

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

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

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

Kyouka placed a hand on her cheek.

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

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

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

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

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

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

She grabbed the headset from some control equipment.

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

The hands lowered from her face.

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

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

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

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

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

But Kyouka shook her head.

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

“Why not!?”

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

The soldier squeezed her eyes shut behind her glasses.

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

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

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

A quiet jangling sound came from her neck.

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

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

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

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

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

The two wicked women shook hands.

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

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

### Part 3

“Keep going, keep going! This way!”

The silver iodide artificial rain had soaked up the oil fire’s smoke, creating a truly filthy downpour that plastered Sophia Firenze’s flaxen hair to her cheek. She was looking up into the night sky and waving her hands around. Even as an adult, she had a look of puppy-like energy on her face.

It was unclear how much it would draw the enemy fire away from the city, but Natlena Blast and the other students were accurately landing at the floating general airport. They took an almost vertical descent more like a helicopter or VTOL craft than a passenger plane that traveled down a long runway.

The woman in a soaked suit grinned (while entirely unaware that her unexpectedly boldly-colored underwear was showing through her white blouse).

“Good work, everyone. You can get a bath or change of clothes in the staff lobby. We also have a hot meal ready for you. Heh heh! If you want some food, please visit the café lounge.”

Natlena sighed at the mention of fresh clothes. She would be heading back out and getting soaked all over again after a short break, but dry clothes would still make her feel better.

She heard Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke chatting as they landed on the artificial float after her.

“Tch. What was Karuta talking about when he called her a puppy!? All she does is lecture you at length no matter what you do. If anything, she’s a grumpy cat. The kind that claws up your walls and furniture!”

“M-maybe it means she only opens up with Utagai-kun. Damn, I’m jealous.”

“Senpais?” said Natlena while slowly turning around, causing the high school boys to jump and scatter. They were the perfect example of disappointing boys. Natlena sighed at how her ideal view of older boys was crumbling before her eyes.

(Karuta-senpai must have really been working hard to look like a responsible adult.)

At any rate, she entered the hidden space through a small staff-only entrance and accepted a spare uniform and underwear. She was sorely tempted when she saw the sign on the wall for the shower room, but she shook her head. She was going to head out again soon anyway, so she wanted to avoid warming up too much before heading back out into the chilly rain. She instead used the locker room to strip off her clothes and dry her hair and body with a towel.

She spread out the provided underwear between her two hands.

“Ugh, this is a bolder color than I expected.”

Whose taste was this? She would have preferred a more subdued color since she was going to get soaked in the rain and they had not provided another thick sports innerwear. Not that she would have wanted some beige granny panties either.

The inability to intuitively choose something in between those two extremes suggested these had been chosen by Sophia (who was wearing something surprisingly bold). Natlena quickly got dressed in the new clothes, placed her wet clothes in a small plastic container, attached a sticker with her class and name written on it, and handed that to the student on laundry duty.

(Well, I didn’t choose this underwear, so it won’t be my secret showing if it shows through. And I have my perfect band-aid defense just in case.)

Oblivious to her own unusual views on the subject, she walked to the café lounge where she was met with the smell of spices. She tilted her damp-haired head and realized she had forgotten to use a dryer.

“I wonder what they’re feeding everyone. Curry rice???”

“Oh, Jane -san! Over here!!”

The female teacher hopped up and down and ran over with some rice balls and sandwiches without Natlena asking for anything at all. Jane Ignition was the false name she had been given back when she infiltrated Second Grimnoah for revenge, but she did not have much of an attachment to it now. She simply had not had a chance to tell the teacher what her real name was, so she was a little unsure what to do now.

Sophia Firenze smiled in a perfectly puppyish way.

“Here, have some food. You should start with something light, but if you want something more, we have seafood curry, cabbage rolls, and chukadon.”

That menu was awfully international, or a jumbled mess really. Natlena wondered how they had settled on that, but then she realized they were borrowing the ingredients available at the airport’s cafes and restaurants. The unnecessarily fancy and international selection meant there was probably a buffet somewhere in the airport.

“I recommend the tonkotsu ramen! They had a lot of souvenir packages in stock and the one I tried was just like the real deal! How exciting!!”

Hadn’t this teacher been fixated on some expensive cup noodles from a famous Japanese restaurant when they were at the Crystal Beach? Not getting any there must have caused her desire gauge to fill up even more here.

“Um, why would a Japanese souvenir shop sell tonkotsu ramen which is the same in every part of the country? Not to mention those mysterious shortbread cookies.”

“I don’t know.”

The grownup seemed legitimately puzzled. Then again, Sophia was not Japanese, so why would she know so much about Japan? Natlena was better off asking someone like Utagai Karuta about this mystery similar to how Tokyo’s train station bentos sold better than those at any other station around the country.

Natlena took a packaged sandwich and then sat in one of the one-person sofas lined up alongside the reinforced glass windows. “Sophia-sensei!” called some girls in the distance, so the tight skirt teacher rushed over to them. She was apparently fairly popular.

Natlena looked down at the clear box sitting in her lap.

She had expected ham or egg since Sophia had called it “light”, but she found it to be quite thick when she picked it up. It was a club sandwich, but it had an excessive amount of chicken. It was so greasy she could barely taste the spices.

(Does she think girls need to eat a lot to grow up?)

Natlena felt like Sophia Firenze and Amaashi Marika would get along. Meanwhile, she grabbed one triangular sandwich slice in both hands, took a small bite from a corner, and swallowed it. She realized she had forgotten to get a drink, but she did not feel like waiting in line now.

She finished off the three sandwich slices even though it grew difficult toward the end.

“Don’t let your body cool down! Focus on your breathing while resting to make sure your body is idling on the inside. Mobile watches are great for objectively measuring your metabolism, but don’t let the numbers control you!!”

She could hear overbearing and muscular Kiyosawa Hadome’s voice.

He was causing a scene a short distance away. The massage chairs and energy drinks were apparently growing popular, but Natlena had no desire to join the crowds of people. She knew she had a habit of seeking out peace and quiet at times like this.

Just like her sister Anastasia had.

“…”

But then…

“Here.”

Someone spoke to her from the side and tossed her something. She caught it in a hand to find it was a U-shaped pillow.

Yamane Deiri waved at her.

“We’re heading out again after a short break. We’ve got a long way to go, so get some sleep while you can.”

“Um, is that really best?”

“This is a marathon, not a sprint. And if you let your guard down at any point, the anti-air lasers will get you, so don’t do anything that will hurt your focus later. Even 10 or 15 minutes of sleep can make a lot of difference. I know that from experience, so listen to your upperclassman here.”

“O-okay.”

“Because napping in class gives you all the energy you need to make the most of your lunch break! Ah ha ha!!”

Deiri left while laughing.

She felt so stupid for thinking highly of that older boy for even a moment. But it was true she had nothing to do now that she was done changing and eating. Crystal Magic did not require refueling or resupplying and no maintenance or inspections were necessary.

(10 or 15 minutes, hm?)

The green beams of light continued to occasionally tear through the darkness of the sky visible through the reinforced glass with rain pounding against it. Other students were drawing the anti-air laser fire. They were operating in shifts, but she still felt bad relaxing while they were out there doing that. Same with Marika’s group who had gone silent after leaving for Second Grimnoah and with Karuta and Aine who had gone to save those three. They were all fighting with their lives on the line, yet here she was.

On the other hand, getting some rest was part of her job.

And fretting here would accomplish nothing. She told herself that sleeping would be better than staying awake doing nothing, so she placed the U-shaped pillow behind her neck, folded her hands in front of her stomach, and then leaned back in the sofa.

She shut her eyes.

Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke looked quietly down at 12-year-old Natlena Blast as she slept soundly in her large seat.

“Uhh, Karuta-senpai…zzz…”

The two boys smiled bitterly and placed a blanket over her.

They were heading back out soon, but they decided to leave her be.

“She’s been working way too hard for a little brat,” said Deiri as he turned around.

“H-high schoolers like us are supposed to protect the middle schoolers. Especially the girls.”

“And we’ve definitely gotta ask Karuta about that dream of hers when he gets back.”

“He’d better tell us his trick to winning middle school hearts!!”

They were the decoys who could never deliver a finishing blow themselves but were also constantly at risk. Some might see that as drawing the short straw, but they looked perfectly satisfied.

Deiri spun one arm around and cracked his neck with a wild smile on his lips.

“Okay, let’s get Round 2 started to protect our pal out there.”

“R-right. We’ve gotta show off how cool high schoolers are and let those middle schoolers know there’s a single upperclassman out there waiting for them.”

### Part 4

Aine produced a soft sound by hugging Marika from the front. She buried her face in the girl’s large chest and sniffed.

“Hm, acceptable.”

“Th-thanks?”

“Now we need not worry about the Threat tracking us using your scent. Sniiiiiff.”

“W-wait, um, Aine-chan, th-th-th-that’s embarrassing!”

Was more people a good thing or a bad thing?

It probably depended on the situation. In a traditional battle where both sides rushed at each other to fight, greater numbers provided an absolute advantage. But for a sniping or infiltration mission where you could not afford to be noticed, more people only increased the risk of detection.

But Karuta came to understand something now that he experienced it for himself.

Greater numbers did at least help reduce the psychological burden. Just like the grammatical terms of first person, second person, and third person, gathering three or more people may have helped provide more objectivity. He was able to keep his cool while observing and understanding his surroundings a lot better than when he had been nearly crushed by the paranoia-like pressure before. (Although part of that was because he could not share the burden with Aine since she was not even human.) The increased objectivity gave them an urge to actively share the thoughts in their heads.

In other words, it made them talkative. Dangerously so.

“Come to think of it, why did the real Threat come here at all?” asked Karuta.

He was currently crouching below the hallway windows and moving slowly along the wall. The Threat had covered these windows with metal panels and other materials just like elsewhere, but they were still concerning.

The scratching of claws on the outside had not changed, so they must not have been noticed. The Threat on the other side of the metal panels could not hear the noises from the hallway. And if those were the wharf roach and tadpole ones, they may not have been anatomically structured to “look down” even if the metal panels had not been in the way.

This seemed to confirm it.

“This means I was right about the wharf roach and tadpole ones using their red lenses to visually locate targets. Heh heh,” said Aine.

“Yes, yes. I’ll buy you a pacifier and some baby formula later, so just be quiet.”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………Stare.”

“D-don’t silently stare at me like that, Aine. It’s scary.”

“Criticizing me for obeying your orders is unfair.”

She puffed out her cheeks while only 10cm away from him, so he was unsure what to do about her.

For now, he glanced toward a window.

“Anyway, why are they still clinging to the outside like that? They should be able to break through the glass easily enough and they even reinforced the windows with those metal panels and other junk.”

“It certainly doesn’t seem like they want to get in but can’t,” agreed Marika.

The slate pencil urchin and the Gestalt sea anemone were confirmation enough that the Threat was already active within Second Grimnoah. They had no problem getting inside, yet there was clearly one group that did so and one group that did not.

The curly twintails childhood friend crouched below the windows as she snuck down the hallway.

“So do they have some kind of division of roles? Hmm, like maybe the ones covering the outside are meant to hide what’s going on inside the ship.”

“You’re assuming the inside is more important and the outside is just armor, but that’s a human way of thinking. They might just want to eat the paint and barnacles attached to the ship. We don’t know anything about the Threat’s biology or how they think.”

“We’re not just talking about the ones on the outside of the ship,” sighed gyaru-ish Hashizaki Tayori. “We saw an alert network of jellyfish and sea anemone ones surrounding the ship on the ocean floor. They were spread out so far it’s hard to think those are what really matter. I think Second Grimnoah really is their central point.”

If the ones spread across the ocean were the most important, then the academy ship would be an intruder and it would be odd for the all-destroying Threat to not eliminate it. In that case…

“Does the Threat have some reason for occupying Second Grimnoah instead of sinking it? It doesn’t look like they just want to destroy our mobile base.”

“But, Karuta, Second Grimnoah is just a floating school, right? Did we have any special materials onboard?”

The ship itself had been made by buying and fully remodeling a cruise ship. It may have been unusual when compared to an ordinary life, but cruise ships could be found all over the world. There was no real reason to target Second Grimnoah specifically.

“What are you talking about?” Pale-faced Matsuda Imi’s lips moved. She let out a depressing groan of a voice while her teeth chattered even though it was not cold. “Of course there’s something special on this ship. It’s the only place in the world where you can find dead and crystallized magicians .”

“…”

“She has a point, Sacri-sama. If they are preparing to fight Crystal Magicians, they would most want to test the limits of your preset regeneration. How far must they go to defeat one? How much of a risk is there of a defeated one returning to the fight? It is reasonable to assume the Threat would want to investigate such things.”

Crystal Magicians were not immortal like Susannia Evans of the Problem Solvers, but someone who did not know how their regeneration worked might see them as zombies who kept getting back up no matter what.

Killing them was not enough to relax.

So the Threat would want to know how far they had to take it before they could relax.

(It does make sense!!)

Karuta himself had checked through the corpse(?) of a decoy Threat at the Crystal Beach to figure out how they worked, so if he were in the Threat’s position, that was exactly what he would do.

On the other hand, it would be wrong to suggest they go check on Gekiha and the others.

They were kept at the very bottom level of the three-hull ship’s central hull. But to defeat the Sparkle lion so their Grimnoah allies could fly here, they had to climb to the roof of the middle school building. Those were opposite directions and illogically making a U-turn now might destroy any trust Imi and Tayori had in him.

He wanted to avoid creating a rift between them here.

This had nothing to do with who was stronger than who. Traveling through Second Grimnoah was a risky thing. If Imi finally hit her limit and screamed, broke through a nearby window, or called for help using her Crystal Blossom, the Threat would notice. And then none of them would survive.

(And either way…)

He came to a stop and shut his eyes.

He clenched his teeth and dragged up the despicable part found deep inside him.

He forced himself to think it.

(Either way, the Threat has been occupying Second Grimnoah for a while now. If they really are here to investigate those crystal statues, Gekiha and the others won’t have escaped unharmed. With this much time, I have to assume the Threat has already done something with them!!)

“Aine…the rest of you too. We’re headed to the roof.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

“We need to slaughter these pieces of shit no matter what and step one is neutralizing the lion’s anti-air lasers on the roof. So…”

Just as he squeezed those words out, he and Aine jumped behind a pillar sticking out from the wall, Marika got down and slipped into the narrow space below a water fountain, and Tayori dragged Imi into an empty classroom to hide.

Something large had come down from the stairs.

It was a slate pencil urchin, suggesting there were more than one of them in the ship. But it must not have noticed them while moving around because it wandered for a bit near the entrance to the stairs and then rolled back through that entrance. They could not tell if it had gone up or down, but it was probably moving between each floor every so often.

It was on a patrol.

“Looks like we can’t use the stairs,” whispered Marika from below the water fountain. “Should we find another route? There are probably small elevators for the kitchen carts.”

Since they could fly, they did not need to follow the ordinary routes. Marika had suggested an elevator, but that did not require them to press the button and move the car like normal. They could just fly up the shaft like it was a chimney.

(But where can we actually find a usable shortcut?)

If they spent too long in the hallway, another Threat might just find them, so they moved to a nearby sliding door, slid it open a crack, checked to make sure the windows were covered by metal panels and other materials, and then hid inside.

The room was two or three times the size of an ordinary classroom. In the darkness, their eyes were drawn to the electric jigsaws, drills, and the vises attached to the thick work tables. Karuta did not have the middle schools’ layout memorized (despite helping out with some of their classes), but he could guess this was the shop classroom.

Imi had to be the most sensitive to fear because she clung to her gyaru-ish friend and spoke with legs trembling.

“Wh-what do we do now? We’re done for if we can’t get up to the roof.”

“Sacri-sama.” Aine pointed her crystal sword up toward a rectangular grated cover on the wall near the ceiling. “If necessary, we could use that.”

“The air duct?” asked Marika while looking up.

Karuta felt just as skeptical.

“Can we really fit through such a narrow space?”

“We are in no position to eliminate possibilities based on speculation. We cannot know for sure without checking first.”

“Fine, then.”

It was true none of them had any better ideas. The duct was on the shop classroom’s rear wall, so they could reach it by standing on the hip-high tables lined up there.

For some reason, Childhood Friend Marika put her hands on her hips and puffed her cheeks out.

“Why is it you’ll do almost anything if Aine-chan asks you?”

“Because she doesn’t ask for pointless things like you do.”

But…

“Oof…damn, I can only barely reach it while on my tiptoes. Getting inside would be difficult.”

“Sacri-sama, lift me on your shoulders.”

He just about agreed on reflex, but then he stopped.

“You’re a girl in a skirt.”

“Yes, and?”

She only tilted her head while standing on the same table as him with her bright thighs exposed.

The crystal girl really did have no issue with being touched despite not liking having her skin seen. She still had some learning to do.

Her white dress had a large slit on both sides, presumably so it did not hinder her movements. That made it more revealing than a China dress but less revealing than a kunoichi outfit.

It bothered him.

It bothered him so much, but then she placed her small hands on his shoulders and pushed down. She was convinced he had to be on the bottom.

“Hold on, hey, this is embarrassing! Do I really have to stick my head into this tunnel!?”

“Sacri-sama, struggle too much on the desk and you will fall off.”

“Ah, ahhh…I’m inside it…”

He looked like he had just caught a glimpse of a new world, but he had to focus on his knees and hips as he felt something warm and soft squeezing against his cheeks. He slowly stood up on the unsteady table and then Aine began to squirm on top of him. She was apparently removing the duct cover with both hands.

“Hmm, I got the cover off, but I am still not quite high enough. I cannot see inside.”

He tried to look up, but the inside of her skirt covered his entire face. It gave off a faint warmth and a sweet scent.

“Pwah, A-Aine, what are you doing up-”

“I can gain a little more height if I use my flight.”

Her thighs lifted upwards while still squeezing at his head.

The thigh heaven quickly became a hanging. Karuta flailed his legs that could no longer reach the table below.

“Agwgggghhhh!?”

“What is this?”

“I’m dying!? M-my head’s gonna pop off! Bgweh, Aine, I’m sorry! I’m sorry there was a part of me that thought I was lucky to do this!! Bweh!!”

“Ah ha ha. This is what we call karma, Karuta.”

For some reason, Marika triumphantly put her hands on her hips.

It could not have lasted more than 10 seconds, but it was a terrifying 10 seconds due more to the pain of his neck bone feeling it was going to pop out than due to suffocation. Pain you were not used to feeling could be a very different experience, like skinning your knee or cutting your finger with a knife.

“W-wait, if you could just use your flight, why get on my shoulders at all?”

Aine slowly descended and freed the boy’s head, but she was still seated on his shoulders as she tilted her head.

“Traveling through here would be difficult.”

“Is it too small?” asked Tayori from below.

“No.” Aine shook her head. “It is filled with something similar to spiderwebs.”

“Spiderwebs?”

“Something similar to. There may be a spiderlike Threat variety. These are probably simple metal wires with a current running through them. I estimate them to be weaker than paper, so if you carelessly touch one, it will break and they will immediately detect your presence. Given the density, traveling through here without being detected would be effectively impossible.”

“There wasn’t anything like that in the smoke vent.”

If the Threat had something like that, why was it not laid out all through the hallways and classrooms? Karuta had his questions, but Aine did not have all the answers. Maybe the Threat only had so many materials to work with, or maybe they decided it would be inefficient in the ordinary passageways where other Threats were traveling.

Karuta crouched down on the table to lower the thigh girl.

“We might be able to use that.”

“Are you going to ignore my warning and use that route anyway?” asked Aine.

“No, so don’t get upset. If we can’t find any other route, we can break the threads with some kind of timed device to draw the Threat’s attention. If that slate pencil urchin leaves the stairs, we can use them ourselves, right?”

That would be a last resort, of course. The risk of running across the Threat was higher if they were off their usual patrol route. If you absolutely had to approach a hornet’s nest, you would prefer to tiptoe around. Very few people would want to throw a stone and rile up the hornets before sneaking in.

(How are things over there?)

Karuta crouched in front of the classroom door and slid it open a crack to peek outside.

The stairs were silent.

Just as he started to lean out more, he quickly pulled his head back inside. He stuck a plastic ruler out as a mirror and confirmed that the slate pencil urchin was indeed there.

It made regular patrols, leaving no openings for them.

Marika leaned over him to peek out into the hallway herself. She may have thought she was only placing her head on top of his like two dango on a skewer, but she was actually placing something else on top of his head. What was it? A pair of weights. And she seemed entirely unaware how perfectly they were resting on his head.

“Yeah, there’s no getting through there. We could probably run down the hallway while it’s away, but we would run right into it if we tried to climb the stairs to the roof.”

“Y-yes. That’s probably more or less it. Maybe.”

“Why are you being so noncommittal???”

He was too distracted to give a clear answer, but then something occurred to him.

“Hold on.”

“?”

Marika could not initially tell what he was focused on.

“I hear something,” said the boy. “It’s coming from down this hallway. I think that’s where the gym is. We could pass through there, couldn’t we?”

“That might work if we just want a way to the roof to attack the Sparkle.” Tayori slid open the empty classroom’s door a bit and nodded. “The gym uses space from multiple floors to give it more height, so we could fly right up to the roof from there. And unlike a cramped and restrictive elevator shaft, we might be able to escape if the Threat has laid an ambush for us.”

They all nodded.

After the Threat patrolling the stairs appeared again and moved back up the stairs, they made their move. The route took them near the stairway in question, but they ignored it. The Threat was gone for now, but they could not blindly rush up the stairs when they could run across it at any point.

Instead, they made their way to the double doors at the far end of the hallway. Those led to the gym.

After approaching and pressing against the door, Karuta groaned. He was focused on the crack between the double doors.

“(I can see light through the door. They have the lights on in there.)”

“(That doesn’t sound good.)”

Marika sounded cautious, but she was actually raring to go. This was different from anything they had seen before, so she may have thought they would find some crucial hint about the Threat inside.

“(The Threat has some level of intelligence.)” Aine was more pessimistic. “(Based on the tentatively-named Gestalt, they are at least intelligent enough to deceive humans for an easy victory. Nowhere else has had the lights on, but it could easily be a trap, similar to a military tablet being ‘abandoned’ on top of a landmine on the battlefield.)”

They both had a point.

Karuta crouched down, pressed his hands against the double doors, and shut his eyes.

He clenched his teeth, reopened his eyes, and spoke.

He had made his decision.

“Let’s go. We have business with that lion on the rooftop regardless.”

“We must have been cursed…”

Imi’s gaze wandered diagonally up through empty space while Tayori held her close. It was unclear who she was trying to talk to.

Karuta gathered strength in his hands and pushed. The door slowly and silently opened.

The light pierced his eyes.

It felt as bright as a car’s headlights. Had the gym’s lights always been so bright?

Eventually, his senses returned to him.

They had entered on the second floor of the gym instead of the large flat area used to play basketball or volleyball. Specifically, they were in the far back.

He raised his head while still crouched down to see an orderly arrangement of steel beams and halogen lights. The roof where the lion awaited was just above those.

However…

“(I knew something wasn’t right.)”

He was focused more on the floor below than their destination above.

This rear second floor space was meant for spectators, but since it had a railing-like wall set up to prevent people from falling, they could hide from anything below by crouching. The wall was only about hip height, but they had no way of seeing what was happening while hidden there.

Yes.

“(Something’s happening in here. But what is this sound???)”

Still crouched, he approached the railing-like wall. Taking a detour from their objective would only needlessly delay the mission and put everyone’s lives at greater risk. And in this case, “everyone” was more than just him, Marika, and the others here. It also included Natlena and that group. He knew that, but he could not resist the urge.

It took him more than two minutes to reach the wall.

Curled up behind the hip-height wall, he focused his ears on the disconcerting noise he could hear.

(What is this?)

He was no longer speaking with anyone.

The confusion only grew in his mind as he slowly gathered strength in his knees. He hesitantly rose up from his crouch to peer over the low wall.

And.

He saw it.

### Part 5

The floating general airport’s control tower had enough communications equipment to intercept transmissions on any frequency, but now Omotesandou Kyouka had the random number table needed to decrypt the Indian military’s transmissions.

A vast amount of clear voices and data were revealed to her.

But even with it all visible and audible, it used a lot of technical terms and codewords meant to hide those terms, so a normal person would have had a hard time comprehending what was being said. But she was different.

“I see.”

“Wh-what is it?” hesitantly asked Letnahe Kurent.

She would not escape this untouched now that she had handed over the flash memory containing the random number table. She had shaken free of her hesitation, but she would still want something useful to come of it.

She had cast out her spirit of justice for this.

Even after marrying and exchanging rings, she had never been able to throw out her first love. She would protect Kiyosawa Hadome from this crisis. She would not back down on that no matter what.

Kyouka removed her headset.

“The Indian Space Force wants to launch their nuclear strike no matter what. Since they refuse to recalculate their schedule even as the conditions change and new information comes in, they are most likely planning for their attack on the Threat to fail. I explained that much before, didn’t I?”

“But why!? If they launch a nuclear strike but it doesn’t show results, the international backlash will be fierce. Does the Indian military want to commit diplomatic suicide!?”

“What if they could bring another country down with them?”

Kyouka laughed and Letnahe stared in shocked silence.

“On who will responsibility fall if the nuclear strike fails? This mission is not being run by the Indian military alone; it is run by the larger coalition force. I don’t know if the US or China are in charge, but whatever superpower is at the top will take the blame more than any of the individual countries making up the coalition. All those smaller countries will refuse to take the blame, insisting that the superpower pressured them into it.”

“So you’re saying,” the silver-haired, brown-skinned soldier gulped while touching the side of her glasses. “Everyone would take damage, but not the same amount? And if another country took more damage than their own, then the Indian military would benefit? That’s their game!?”

“Everyone signs nuclear reduction treaties, but nuclear weapons never seem to go away, do they? Why is that? If the treaty says each country must reduce their nuclear weapons by 30%, then the burden is vastly different for a country with 100 versus a country with 10,000. Which is why they never succeed. Well, they might do it so they can dispose of the excess they don’t want to bother keeping around any longer, but a compromise to bring peace? That’s only an excuse used once they have carefully thought through everything and they know the burden on the other nation will be greater. It’s a strategic move, similar to something from shogi or chess.”

With a normal nuclear reduction treaty, the damage would not be all that great.

They only agreed to a target to aim for and there were no actual penalties in place if they failed to achieve that target. The country could weasel out of it with their usual equivocation.

But things would be different this time. They would have made a nuclear strike that failed to defeat the Threat. They would have caused many unnecessary deaths. And it would be unclear whether responsibility lay with the Indian military or the entire coalition force.

Would that be allowed to stand?

The furious people of the world would undoubtedly demand a forced reduction treaty with actual penalties for noncompliance. The actual reduction amount might be 50% or 80%, but whatever it was, the countries with more nukes would have to pay more to dispose of them.

India was officially recognized as a nuclear power, but they had far fewer than America or Russia. If they could keep the damage to themselves low, they could effectively rob their opponents of national power.

“What is my homeland doing?” asked Letnahe like it was a curse.

She cared about the family represented by her ring, but she also could not throw out the memories of her first love contained in her watch.

While trapped between those two, she had to be aware that everyone in the world had people they cared about in the same way. And they had met other people they found irreplaceable. But all of that would be brought crashing down as simply as performing a sum or subtraction.

But Kyouka shrugged.

“I can’t really blame them.”

“?”

“All of humanity must join together to fight the Threat. That one excuse is all anyone needs to endlessly expand their military these days. But the fight against the Threat will end someday. And what will everyone do with their stockpiled weapons then? Do you really think they will dispose of them after spending so much money on them? Do you honestly think the top brass will throw out all their privileges and make themselves unemployed?”

“But…”

“The fight against the Threat might end, but they will still find a way to make those weapons necessary. How about they fight against natural disasters? They could use powerful missiles to drive the greenhouse gasses out of their country and they could use underground nuclear experiments to create artificial earthquakes that provide a safe release for the power of the plates. Really, it could be anything, even missile farming or drone mining. They will all find some reason or another to protect their way of life. …We will continue to live in an age where every country wants as many weapons as it can get. So is it that strange for someone to decide now that they should take weapons away from the other nations?”

Letnahe gasped this time.

She could not believe how far this conspiracy went. Each individual piece might seem reasonable enough in isolation, but the end result had put Omotesandou Kyouka’s home of Japan in the crosshairs. Not only had she been born and raised there, but her trusted companions were fighting on the front line just before this meaningless nuclear strike that was never meant to succeed.

Yet she “couldn’t really blame them”?

She actually sympathized with India’s plans and what they hoped to gain?

“What is going on in that head of yours?” Letnahe was dumbfounded, but she could not keep her questions inside. The words came out on their own. “Do you know how many civilians with no connection to the fight against the Threat will die!? And not just from the direct blast and heat! The wind will carry the fallout across this entire archipelago!! This isn’t just some number calculated out on a document. The lives being snuffed out here are all people who someone cares about more than anyone else in the world. That someone cares about so much they would be willing to violate all their principles and morals to protect them!”

“Yes.” Even now, Kyouka responded as promptly as ever. “I’m sure you already know since you must have done a thorough investigation on me, but my family lives in Kyoto. My parents, my grandmother, and my little brother. Oh, and the servants and drivers who have worked for my family long enough that they’re basically family to me. Their only real source of information is TV and the newspaper. That and anything they hear people talking about in the neighborhood, I suppose. They’re as normal as they come and a little too accustomed to peace, so I have my doubts if they would even evacuate after hearing the siren blaring. Even so, they are fairly well known in the local area.”

“…”

“I care about them more than my own life. In the event of a nuclear explosion, they will receive a large dose of radiation. And if Crystal Magic fails and the Threat is free to attack, they might just wipe out all of Kansai.”

Yet she was unmoved.

She remained her usual self and took only the optimal actions.

She had lifted her mind to a place that Letnahe had never managed since she kept her ring on even while wearing that white military uniform.

“But why should I weep and wail? What would that change?” Anyone who saw the President here would realize that even smiles came in multiple varieties. This one looked like her face had been sliced open in a crescent moon shape. “The first ship taught me all too well that death does not discriminate. Pray all you want, no god is going to answer. God is not a vending machine that dispenses miracles for anyone who wants one. Do these not sound like the words of the strongest? Writing up a formal complaint about life being unfair would be a waste of time. We need to focus on the good fortune we have to find ourselves here and with a few different options available to us. We can still change how this plays out. So what is it we can do? And what should we do?”

“Are you saying…you know the answer to that?”

“Whether it is an ‘unfortunate misunderstanding’ or a ‘communications failure’, the Indian Space Force wants an excuse to launch their nuke. They want something that shows Grimnoah has lost and the adult military must take over.”

“Are you saying you can keep them from doing that by taking away their excuse? Like…having Grimnoah defeat the Threat right away? No, we wouldn’t be in this mess if you could-”

“Wrooong,” cut in the President. Then she presented her conclusion. “We can’t defeat the Threat right away, but don’t you think we could obscure the result, ensuring no one can tell if we won or lost?”

### Part 6

When Karuta looked down from the second-floor of the gym, he saw the real Threat there. These were the legged tadpole ones, but there were a lot of them. Each one rivalled a large semi truck in size, but more than 100 of them were lined up here.

Yes, lined up.

This was odd. What were they doing? Instead of causing mayhem or crawling around, they all remained entirely motionless while staring in the same direction. A few possibilities came to mind – waiting, sleeping, resupplying – but none of them seemed quite right.

A home theater projector that could be used with the lights on was projecting some kind of footage onto the stage.

Aine had speculated the tadpoles used their vision to locate targets.

If that was true, then they were watching something here.

It included audio:

“Crystal Magic produces supernatural phenomena from the unseen occult pressure differences similar to high and low pressure fronts that are created by the collision of the powers pouring down from space and the power emanating from the Original Crystal Embryo in the center of the earth. Just like the priests and priestesses of an older age gained enough power to gather the people’s support and rule entire countries or the world by reading the wind to predict the weather for use by sailing ships or farmers.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

His breathing stopped.

He could not believe what he was seeing here.

What…what were they doing??? His mind could not keep up, but the cheerful female voice from the reference video did not stop.

“That is why Crystal Magic uses a god’s name to gain the ability to ‘read’ the occult calendars and horoscope charts found in different mythologies and religions. Crystal Magic cannot create the wind out of nothing and cause miracles that way, but it can cause phenomena impossible for an ordinary person by riding the existing wind and using the great power found there. Just like a windmill grinds wheat or a glider soars through the sky.”

“The Threat…the real Threat is taking a class in school ?” groaned Marika like she too could not believe what she was seeing.

Why had the Threat occupied Second Grimnoah without sinking it? Why had they attacked the academy ship in the first place?

This was the answer.

“This is bad,” said gyaru-ish Hashizaki Tayori. Instead of retreating to surreal sarcasm, she laid out the actual risks. “The Threat is powerful enough already, but are they analyzing our Crystal Magic now? That’s the human trump card. If they learn to do the same thing, their tougher bodies will let them win.”

(Is that really it?)

Karuta had his doubts.

If those Threats (that had somehow gotten their enormous bodies through the entrance) were hooked up to a computer with a cable and were mechanically installing the data, he might have feared the same thing.

But this was different.

The gym’s atmosphere was relaxed. Even if the purpose of this was to learn, he sensed something else in the atmosphere hanging over the tadpoles.

Yes.

When Karuta and his classmates had learned about Crystal Magic as a means of fighting the Threat on the first ship, they had not had a clear vision of how it would be used. They had been more focused on whether they would go to the cafeteria or the school store for lunch.

Some of the Threats here were secretly napping. Some were swaying in time with some kind of rhythm. Some were scratching at the floor with their feet. They were drawing out orderly doodles. If these tadpoles were given thick paper textbooks, they would probably draw out a flip book on the edge of the pages.

But that would mean…

(Do they not have a goal ? These tadpoles are just aimlessly passing the time? Almost like they’re dying for this class to end. But could mere machines do that??? An AI that gathers data from past weather forecasts is only doing that because it was given that specific goal. Machines can’t take a break unless it’s set as a necessary task for achieving their optimum goal, like if they need to cool down or limit energy consumption. There’s no such thing as a program that can just “kill time” if you tell it to. Then are they not machines? Are they just like us?)

“Wait, wait!! Could they be harmle-”

Karuta was cut off by a dull bang.

It came from Imi who was still held in Tayori’s arms.

Her eyes were wandering while she held out her right hand. She held a bizarre weapon that had medical equipment like a scalpel and forceps spread out like a multitool in place of a bayonet.

She had already fired.

There was a hole in the head(?) of one of the legged tadpoles on the floor below.

They had been so tough, yet this one had gone down so easily.

This was the first time someone other than Karuta and Aine had defeated one.

But he could not rejoice over this because something felt off.

“No. I can’t take it anymorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre!!!!!!”

She had been pushed to the very limit and her scream echoed across the gym.

“Sacri-sama.” Aine calmly announced their coming execution while adjusting her grip on her crystal-like katana. “We have hit the limit.”

All forms of killer intent stabbed in at Karuta’s group.

Those tadpoles had been aimlessly attending the class, but that did not mean they were powerless. Karuta and Marika had attended their classes on the first ship in much the same way, but they had possessed enough power to crush the Problem Solvers, hadn’t they?

“Tch! Tezcatlipoca, power up!!”

Marika stood up immediately. She must have decided there was no point in hiding any longer. Pointy crystal armor jutted out from her body while she drew a rapier-like device out of empty air. But that was not only a close-range weapon. By turning the round guard around, she could use it as a laser sniping unit.

Several laser beams shot down like lightning strikes.

The gym floor shattered.

The doodles drawn in the middle of class were destroyed.

Karuta clenched his teeth as he turned toward Aine and gestured over the wall with his chin.

“Always have an escape route in mind and cause them some trouble without getting yourself killed!!”

“Understood.”

Aine did not hesitate at times like this.

Marika tended to solve everything through combat and even she was forced to only snipe down from the upper floor, but Aine immediately jumped down from the railing to fight on the front line below.

Meanwhile, Karuta turned toward Imi and Tayori.

“What gods’ names did you input into your Crystal Blossom circuit boards?”

“I used the Norse monster Fenrir and Imi used the Egyptian medical goddess Neith.”

Tayori activated her crystal armor with a sound like a thick spring being released. Thick claw-like weapons attached to the back of her hands. She was apparently limited to infighting and had no projectiles.

Fenrir.

A weapon named after the wolf that devoured the top Norse god might possess great power in every single blow.

“Power up complete. What do you want us to do?”

“We won’t last long like this. I want to destroy the Sparkle on the roof ASAP if possible.”

“That would be difficult. But if I went unnoticed…”

“?”

“I’m a close-range specialist, so I could climb onto the roof and bite that lion. Getting close to it would be the hard part, but if I could do that…”

Karuta nodded.

But then he heard an unusual sound from the floor below. That was not the sound of heavy and solid metal clashing. It was a high-pitched and piercing sound similar to glass.

Glass.

Crystal.

“Aine!?”

Driven by a very bad feeling, Karuta leaned over the hip-height wall and looked down despite the danger. That was when he saw it.

The legged tadpoles were shaking their truck-sized bodies. But even with the laser sniping from above and Aine going wild with her katana, they did not fight back. Was this part of their division of roles? Instead of trying to fight, they were trying to escape to safety so their accumulated knowledge could be passed on to the rest. Or to put it another way, Aine was chasing down the unresisting tadpoles and mercilessly cutting them down from behind. If his side stopped trying to fight, this hellish scene would go away on its own, yet the hell before his eyes never ended.

This almost made it look like his side had started it.

All they had wanted to do was take back their school.

When one tadpole’s leg was cut off, it rolled over, exposing its belly.

Aine used her flight to jump straight up in preparation to deliver the finishing blow.

Just then, the tadpole did something strange. It forcibly bent its humorous elliptical body to bring the long tail-like part in front of its belly to defend itself. Almost like it was terrified of the coming pain.

“Wai-!!”

Not even Karuta himself knew what he had wanted to shout there. And Aine’s sword completed its merciless attack before he could get the command out. Instead of aiming for the obvious belly, she bisected the upside-down tadpole’s head starting with its giant jaw.

The giant black thing screamed, the slicing of its mouth distorting the cry.

Karuta watched on in shock as Marika fired more lasers down. She could not finish them off with that, but she could cause the other scattered tadpoles to flinch. And when that brought them to a brief stop, Aine would attack. All without batting an eye.

He had thought he understood her.

At least a little.

She had learned to feel embarrassment when her skin was seen, but she had failed to learn to feel the same when her skin was touched. She would stand by his side with sword at the ready no matter how hopeless the situation and she had accepted the bitesize chocolate reward while complaining that it was inefficient. When he had shown off his ugly side, she had held him to her flat chest and pointed out his faults like a mother.

But her sword showed no hesitation whatsoever.

The reaping had begun.

(What…?)

He could not breathe.

The next thing he knew, he was holding his head and screaming. But he was not giving any clear command. Aine would continue with her current actions until he gave her an additional command. And wasn’t he the one who had told her to “always have an escape route in mind and cause them some trouble without getting yourself killed”?

He had caused this.

He had destroyed a school and taken lives.

How was he any different from the Problem Solvers who had destroyed the first ship and taken his peaceful school from him and his fellow students?

In fact, this may have been worse. This was like unchaining a ferocious dog and releasing it in a peaceful park on the weekend.

Unlike Aine, Marika seemed focused on simply holding the Threat back. To make sure they did not customize themselves using the tadpoles that had been cut down. But was that effort even necessary in the first place? The Threat was under attack here, but they were focused on running away and did nothing to counterattack.

(What is this? What are we doing???)

“This started with Imi lashing out, but it’s still the right thing to do,” insisted Tayori. She would follow them as long as they did the right thing. Her stance there had not changed. “They don’t seem to have anything like high-speed wireless internet, but if they can carry out the knowledge stored inside them and spread it to the rest like an ant sends pheromone signals, we won’t stand a chance. What do you do if you need to stop the roaches from breeding before the majority of them develop a resistance to your bug spray? You find the ones that survive the bug spray and you squish them. That’s the best plan.”

The best plan.

If she really thought that, she could have kept quiet. Since she had gone out of her way to say it out loud and seek his agreement, this must have left a bad taste in her mouth on some level. And an excuse disguised as a justification was not going to reach Karuta.

The gym ceiling was torn through and the orderly arrangement of steel beams rained down. The anti-air laser lion dropped down along with the artificial cover it had destroyed.

That was the Sparkle.

That was their key strategic figure. The Threat should have wanted to protect it more than anything, yet it had chosen to drop down itself.

“This is our chance!!” shouted Marika as she aimed her rapier-like device at this new target.

Karuta could not understand why this made her so happy.

A straining sound filled the gym. Glowing rain poured down while rage ruled this place. Its lion-like form had changed. To reiterate, the Threat could customize itself into a more powerful form by devouring the corpses(?) of the fallen ones.

It consumed the tadpoles.

Its companions had been defenselessly cut down and it devoured the remains of those it had most wanted to protect and absorbed their parts to change its own form. The lion was not functionally capable of shedding tears, but that did not mean it felt nothing.

The twisted chrysalis created from the slaughter was torn open.

“Crystal Magic is a top candidate for the next world’s strongest, so it must be used for the public good without letting national or racial boundaries get in the way.”

The cheerful female voice sounded so out of place now as that silly reference video continued to play up on the stage.

The lion stopped walking on four legs while it emitted a burning pressure from its entire body. That 3m mass of metal now planted just two legs on the floor just like a human to display a body far more powerful than a human’s.

Something it had absorbed caused its color to change.

It looked a lot like an armored warrior creating a fusion of Eastern and Western by wearing a suit of armor glowing a reddish-purple with black belts holding it tight in places. The capacitors remained as wings on its back, but the obvious lion’s head and mane were gone. It had abandoned its identity to fulfill its objective. That stance seemed to ooze from its armor. A pair of red eyes glowed like burning flames within its newly-acquired helmet.

It held a single sword in its hand.

The sword was longer than its reddish-purple armor was tall and it looked far too heavy for a human to wield. But there was something odd about that sword. The guard extended far out to the front, but it barely existed on the back of the blade. Instead, there was a metal loop on the front. It initially reminded Karuta of an oscilloscope, but he soon realized he was mistaken.

That was a tonfa and handcuffs.

That may have been meant as a response to the jitte-like part of Aine’s sword. But unlike that laser gun unit, this did not appear to have any practical use. Does it want to steal the title of justice that badly? thought Karuta while clenching his teeth.

Its metal fingers grasped the sword’s hilt unexpectedly smoothly. That might look like armor, but it was clearly structured differently. If it was hollow, it could not move those slender fingertips that much. That was a body, not armor.

The blade of the long sword emitted a light as bright as a welding torch. At the Port of Kobe, the tadpoles’ teeth had crackled with electricity, but this was even more intense. White light surged out like the hamon was leaving the surface of the blade, so plasma emitted from the tip may have ran along the blade before being absorbed and stabilized within the guard. Or in other words, the sword was being exposed to a massive amount of heat with no effect.

Simply releasing its power seemed to cause physics to break down. All the rain-wet wreckage from the roof began to defy gravity by floating up like helium balloons.

(An electric…ionocraft?)

An unnatural humming sound shook the entire space.

It was like the amplified buzzing of an insect or like a bug zapper or transformer that used high-voltage currents.

If the excess energy escaping from it was enough to affect its surroundings like this, the power stored inside it had to be enormous. Carelessly touching the inside of that thing would turn a human to charcoal.

All of that energy was created within the armor, spread through its entire body, and then shaped into a weapon. It went out of its way to create the complex shape of a hand and then created a separate sword for that hand to hold. Why not have the weapon combined with the arm? Why even prepare an arm at all? Efficiency and logic could not explain any of this. The decisions were based on some other standard.

A sword and light. Big and strong. And a metal culture. It was like a symbol of justice – the leader of a war for good.

This was no longer the lion-shaped Sparkle.

This was a different Threat.

This armored warrior could be called…

“ The Warrior Doll ,” said Karuta.

He spoke loudly enough for anyone to hear him even as he felt like he was wandering through a muddy nightmare.

“You have all passed the Crystal Blossom selection process,” continued the video. “But that is not why you should feel proud. Be proud that you can use this chosen power to protect the weak. Keep that in mind as you aim to be a strong and noble magician. Keep your ears open to the cries of those in need and rush to their aid faster than anyone else. Become the people’s hope. The world became a brighter place from the moment you chose to learn Crystal Magic!!”

Its bipedal form was less stable, its center of gravity was located high up, and it had created a complex hand to hold its weapon.

If this form was only meant to fight, then its evolution could not have been based on practicality. This may have been the aesthetic sense it had learned from Second Grimnoah.

It had watched them from the sea below, boarded the ship once they left, and then learned of justice.

It had learned the meaning of wearing armor and wielding a sword.

With the baton and handcuffs, this Threat had tried to dye itself in every form of justice it could find, so it may have respected humans in a way. Not the power of Crystal Magic itself, but the way of life that had led them to wield that power. Even though the current world’s strongest were the kind of garbage people who would not hesitate to cut down unresisting lives.

“Ha.”

Utagai Karuta started laughing.

What else could he do?

This was a good reminder of his position in life. Yes, it was absurd for him to be on the side of justice. He was only a persistent stalker who had completed his filthy quest for revenge. None of the praise heaped on him by the rest of humanity could change what he was deep down.

Whenever he stood up, justice would stand up to oppose him.

It had been that way with the Problem Solvers, it had been that way with the three middle school girls controlling the decoy Threat at the Crystal Beach, and now it was happening a third time. At this point, it could not be a mere coincidence.

You’re saving the world? You’re rescuing your friends?

No, all you ever do is kill the righteous.

Admit it.

“Ha ha. Ah ha ha ha ha, hah hah hah hah hah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hee hee ha ha ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!”

He laughed.

He laughed and laughed and laughed.

So of course his vision grew blurry. Laughing so hard was bound to bring tears to his eyes.

Those tears did not fall to the floor.

They were pinned in midair and began to float upwards.

Then he made his move. Shocked Marika tried to stop him, but he ignored her, climbed over the hip-height wall, and dropped down from the second floor. There was no logic to his action. As long as he was close enough to command Aine, he would be safer while hidden.

But he no longer cared what happened to him.

His body slammed loudly against the floor and excruciating pain raced through his spine rather than his skin. Why aren’t you dead? he cursed himself as he slowly stood up.

So much had happened here.

This Warrior Doll had lost everything.

Yet it stood perfectly still with the long sword held in both hands. It made no surprise attacks. It would attack fair and square and from head on. This was different from the Gestalt’s mimicry. Karuta could sense a definite will in this reddish-purple armored warrior.

Simply gathering strength inside itself pinned the falling raindrops in the air and caused the wet rubble to float up in defiance of gravity.

It was a 3m mass heavier than steel.

It did not matter whether or not the armored warrior Threat knew the actual words

The shared concept stabbed into Karuta’s heart all the same.

I am allowed the pursuit of righteous vengeance.

I challenge you to a duel, human.

Karuta actually felt jealous.

He felt jealous of this twisted and horrific monster that had cannibalized its own to grow stronger.

All of that was allowed if it was done out of righteous anger. That armored warrior could remain on the side of justice, so it looked so bright to Karuta.

He clenched his teeth and trembled at how puny he was himself. He hated himself for being unable to die. Humanity had truly lost if the other side was the just one. He had failed in his duty as strongest. He had not protected their justice and simply handed it over to the other side. This was about more than himself. He had brought down all 5.5 billion humans.

The white light traveling along the curve of the sword was probably a plasma jet. That weapon decorated with a temperature hotter than the sun’s surface was thrust straight out. As if to prove its own righteousness.

The distance between them did not matter.

The overlapping armor at the back of the knees, behind the helmet, and elsewhere opened up and a green explosion burst from those gaps. By the time Karuta noticed that, it was already right on top of him.

That was some form of booster.

The 3m giant brought a shockwave as it approached, so its body alone would have been as deadly as an artillery shell.

Karuta could only stand there in a daze.

So what happened next was not his doing.

“ Sacri-sama !!”

He could not understand it.

A dull sound rang out.

A small white figure had moved in between them at the last second. His Crystal Magic looked outmatched against that 3m armored giant, but her cold blade had caught The Warrior Doll’s hot one.

The Warrior Doll had more than just leg strength. It could accelerate its heavyweight armor using the eruption of green light behind it.

That explosive propulsive force gave the reddish-purple armor mobility surpassing that of a fighter craft. Even without its sword, it could break a warship in two with a simple tackle. How powerful would its sword strikes be if it had optimized the techniques needed to kill? The edge of a sword was determined by how much speed could be placed behind its weight.

A high-pitched sound rang out.

It had broken the sound barrier.

It was a testament to Aine’s skills that she had managed force her slender form in between the boy and the Warrior Doll and stop the latter with her crystal-like sword.

But then came the second explosion.

The white welding light ignited along the armored warrior’s blade burst outward to slam into the crystal girl trying to lock blades with it.

Karuta had researched swords since Aine wielded one. In the world of samurai, there had been attacks aimed for the face of an opponent locking swords with you. For example, spitting needles that sent a large number of needles toward the enemy’s face.

Even if that attack lowered the Warrior Doll’s strength a little, Aine had no way of blocking the heat and shockwave.

“!!”

Nevertheless, she forcibly clenched her teeth. Even Karuta could hear the straining sound. He also detected a scorched smell, like the hair drier had been blowing on something for too long. Aine adjusted her grip on her crystal sword to protect the boy and she ignored her own damage as she once more attacked the Warrior Doll in front of her.

There was a franticness to her action that was not like her. Her blade of course did not reach the armored warrior. Each time it caught her sword on its own, it caused a massive explosion to wear down her small body.

What?

What was happening?

Karuta could not believe what he was seeing. He knew for a fact he had never ordered her to do this. He had told her to always have an escape route in mind and to cause them some trouble, but this was the complete opposite.

“Oh.”

He realized something while watching that small back.

He realized why she kept going and kept getting back up from the wet floor even though she could not have any strength left.

Was it because his spirit had broken?

Was she trying to make up for what he had lost?

“Ai…ne.”

Her small back seemed to be working hard to prove something.

To prove that it was not wrong to try and take back the second ship.

To prove that it was not wrong to try and save Gekiha and the others from the first ship.

To prove it had never been wrong to fight in Kyouka’s place since she could not do it herself and to come all this way searching for Marika’s group.

It was just that the crystal girl could only express herself through combat.

“Aine.”

There was an obstinance to her actions.

And she did not seem to understand what it was she had done.

But.

She looked so small. He could not see her face with her back turned. He knew she would not be hanging her head or biting her lip, but he could still sense something from her. Even as she continued the intense battle, was hit by the wall of wind, and was gradually worn down. The sense he got from her was not of a heroic fighter or a horrific murderer. He sensed something sad, like he was looking at a lost child.

Was Aine really the one in the wrong?

Who was it that had boarded Second Grimnoah to fight the Threat?

The battle in the gym had been started by Imi’s outburst.

Aine had not started any of it, but right now that small girl had been left all alone with only her sharp sword to work with.

“That’s enough, Aine!!!!!!”

He gathered what little strength he had to approach her small back.

He hugged her from behind.

Her crystal sword came to a brief stop as he placed his hand over her smaller one.

“I’m sorry, Warrior Doll.” He tried to catch his breath while facing the armored warrior again. “Your anger is probably justified. I was clearly using her wrong.”

That should not have mattered to the Threat.

Yet it did not attack. It waited for him to speak with the tip of its plasma jet sword aimed his way.

Even though it probably did not understand human language.

“This was entirely my fault. We could have turned back as soon as we found Marika’s group safe. And even if we couldn’t find a way back, this wouldn’t have happened if we just hadn’t approached the gym. This wasn’t somewhere we had to go. I just thought it would make for a good shortcut.”

Karuta staggered to the side.

No, he moved to stand next to battered Aine. And he pulled out the puny modified military flashlight he used as a weapon.

“We’re one and the same, so Aine will have to fight too.”

He was at fault for all of it. Even if they were one and the same, he would not back down on this.

“But please. Please don’t hold this against her. Your vengeance should be targeted at me. Give me this one thing, please.”

He suddenly found himself bowing.

He could not escape this vengeance, but the Warrior Doll had to understand that challenging him directly like this introduced the possibility of being killed in the attempt. Even though that was not necessary. Karuta’s group had secretly gathered information on the Problem Solvers and then made cheap surprise attacks in every way they could. But the Warrior Doll had left a chance for its own defeat.

That was why Karuta wanted to apologize to Aine and tell her to survive.

To do that…

To do that, he was willing to lift his head!!

“I challenge you to a duel, Warrior Doll!!!!!!”

After tumbling down to the position of the despicable challenger once more, Utagai Karuta looked up at the peak from down in the mud.

### Between the Lines 2

He had agonized over it.

He had worried, screamed, and wailed.

Utagai Karuta had roared from deep in his throat as he considered the pain of something inhuman and sympathized with the suffering of something inhuman.

That should have been painful to watch.

Anyone would have wanted to put a stop to it as soon as possible.

But one girl was different: Crystal Girl Aine.

The boy had hugged her from behind. He had stepped up next to her to stop something. She glanced over at him with her sword still at the ready and a thought entered her mind.

(If…)

The thought was like staticky noise.

It was a distraction from the task at hand.

Yet there it was.

(If Sacri-sama can treat inhuman things that way…if he lets himself do that…)

The thought trailed off there.

But she hesitantly moved it along as if slowly reaching out her small hand.

(Could it be?)

That Crystal Magic – that girl who belonged to the world’s strongest as a Crystal Blossom – completed the thought.

(Does he see me…that way too?)

### 133. Chapter 4

### Part 1

“Oh, what’s this?”

Yamane Deiri expressed his surprise while waiting in midair.

The Sparkle lion’s anti-air lasers had stopped. He stayed on his guard while counting to 10, but still nothing.

Had something happened over there, or was this a trap meant to mess with his timing? He could not let his guard down for a moment since these were lasers. Once you saw the flash of light, it was too late to move out of the way.

“Hirosuke.”

“Oh, looks like the roof collapsed.”

Even at their height, they could not see 30km away with the naked eye at night, but Nekoumi Hirosuke did not hesitate to respond with his crystal armor active.

“That lion isn’t there anymore. M-maybe it fell in a hole?”

“Is this our chance?”

“I doubt it. The Sparkle’s lasers can easily pierce the ship’s walls, so it’s still just as powerful. If anything, this is more dangerous since we can’t use visual information to predict where it’s aiming.”

Omotesandou Kyouka had taught them all to remain pessimistic when there was any uncertainty. The anti-air lasers had stopped, but that was not enough for them to charge in toward the ship.

And…

“Y-Yamane-senpai! And Nekoumi-senpai!! Why didn’t you wake me when it was time to head back out!?”

“And here’s the little kitten in heat.”

“I am not a kitten!!”

Natlena’s face grew red with anger as she flew up to the same height as the high schoolers. Changing the subject had failed to distract her, so the two boys secretly exchanged a glance.

They knew exactly what to do. It was time for the trial in absentia plan – aka shifting the blame to someone who was not present.

Deiri shrugged in the pouring rain.

“What choice did we have? If we let you suffer a single scratch, Karuta would kill us! And your Crystal Magic regeneration doesn’t matter as far as that’s concerned!!”

“Eh?”

Her thoughts froze for a second.

The red on her face was no longer from anger.

“Y-you can’t weasel out of this by bringing up Karuta-senpai!! I can fight and it doesn’t matter what he thinks!!”

### Part 2

The roof had broken and artificial rain poured down on the trashed gym. The waxed flooring was probably permanently ruined. Bent steel beams from the ceiling and the flipped-over and unmoving tadpole bodies littered the floor. Those gruesome corpses all belonged to students who had been lazily taking a class and finding their own ways to pass the time.

This was a hellish scene for the humans and the Threat.

The boy bit his lip.

He had failed to claim the side of justice, but the deadly battle was not over yet. If he did not fight and win, he would lose something he valued more than his own life.

He was not going to give up again. He knew he was wrong and he knew no outcome here would lead to a bright future, but Utagai Karuta faced and pointed at the 3m armored warrior that shined a reddish purple.

His battered face looked pale in the chilly rain.

He almost felt like he was following the same path as the Problem Solvers who had come to the Crystal Magicians and gotten killed for it.

“Aine.”

But if it would protect Crystal Girl Aine by his side, he was willing to become a devil here.

“We will win this. Even if it’s wrong.”

The wind roared as the Warrior Doll charged toward him.

There was an absolute gap between them. The Threat instantly closed the distance between them with artillery-like speed and attacked with its sword’s fearsome edge. Karuta could not stop that with his flashlight and having Aine stop it with her sword would only let the “wall of explosive wind” from the plasma jet hit her.

They could not afford to touch it.

But this opponent made that easier said than done.

The Warrior Doll’s sword had a white plasma jet running along its blade, so it could probably slice through a pillar of depleted uranium alloy as thick around as Karuta’s torso like it was made of gelatin or margarine.

A human would die instantly whether they defended or not.

When that armored warrior could use bursts of green light to pull off ultra-high-speed combat, falling back to keep your distance and predicting the path of the blade to avoid it were both unrealistic. Aine’s endurance was an unknown factor, so she could easily shatter from the very next explosion for all he knew.

The reddish-purple armored warrior roared and immediately swung down its long katana at full strength. That weapon incorporated a police baton and handcuffs as symbols of justice and it roasted the surrounding air to produce a terrifyingly sharp edge.

It was over.

And yet…

“Come to me, Aine!!”

For some reason, the blast of wind as powerful as a speeding subway train passed by a mere meter to Karuta’s side. If he had not pulled the crystal girl close with his empty hand, she would have been sliced through.

“Karuta!?” shouted Marika from somewhere.

He and Aine had dodged to the side, but that did not seem like it should have been enough to survive.

The deadly armor could not break the sound barrier if they did not give it enough distance for a “running start”, but it could still silently tear through the wind at subsonic speeds, putting it at the same level as an assassin’s bullet.

Even the greatest expert should have been helplessly pulverized.

Yet the boy had survived.

He held a modified military flashlight. It was hard and heavy enough to use as a police baton, but that was all it could do. And yet it had made the difference between life and death.

“You’re a Threat with red glowing eyes.”

He was not expecting an answer. In fact, he doubted his words even got through to this adversary.

Still, he smiled and waved the flashlight to show it off.

This was not a street fight between delinquents, so why bother glaring at each other from close range? Karuta had faced the Warrior Doll’s red eyes from head on so he could check on this.

He knew that his ability to spit out things like this meant he had fully abandoned justice. He swallowed the bitterness and spoke with the look of a minor villain driven into a corner.

“That means you rely on sight just like the tadpoles and wharf roaches. So this infrared interference will work on you!!”

There was a crackling as if from a bug zapper.

The Threat did not pull back the sword it had swung down.

The excessive amount of energy could work against it at times. The floating rubble provided advance warning of a major attack.

“Aine!!”

This time, the crystal girl pulled the boy toward her. They spun around together to dive behind the remains of a devoured tadpole.

The small rubble around them continued to float and a pure white explosion erupted from the sword longer than the Warrior Doll was tall. Even behind cover, Karuta felt a slight pain running through him like he had a sunburn. A direct hit from that firepower would have burned all of his skin and fused his melted uniform to it with just the emitted heat.

He put on the fierce but pathetic smile of the routed soldier focused only on survival.

That was two attacks survived. He should have died the instant the blade began to move. With first the blade and then the shockwave, he was in fact surviving the 3m giant’s supposedly surefire attacks.

It felt a lot like bullfighting.

He had less speed, power, and weight, but he could still survive by accurately obstructing his opponent and causing it to miss. He would be killed instantly if he screwed up and let that opponent charge him, but his side still had a chance to stick it with their sword in the instant they crossed paths.

The puny human had a chance to challenge a much more powerful monster. The Threat could customize themselves through cannibalism, but if the original lion and the absorbed tadpole had both relied on sight, it gained nothing new. That would not give it new senses that used microwaves or ultrasound.

“You were messing with the Threat’s eyes using your laser unit, right?”

“You only just now noticed? But I cannot switch modes quickly enough for the Warrior Doll. It will approach and cut me down while I am aiming the laser.”

That meant they could not attempt a feint where they occasionally swapped roles. Similarly, he did not have time to bring Aine back into his body to heal her wounds.

They would have to do this as is.

“Aine, leave the assistance to me. Just go at it with everything you’ve got!”

“I am not sure what to say when you are praising your own specs.”

She spun around and rushed out from behind cover to slice at the reddish-purple armored warrior with the intensity of a tornado. The Warrior Doll swung its long sword diagonally. The two swords clashed and Karuta felt a squeezing at his heart while clutching his flashlight behind cover.

The plasma jet did not explode and the armored warrior immediately raised its sword in a defensive pose. Only after a second strike from the crystal sword hit it from the right did the light began to expand again.

(Did it intentionally alter its previous timing!?)

“Hide, Aine!!” shouted Karuta while sending out IR with his flashlight.

Aine rolled back. There was an explosion, but she had managed to find cover behind a severed tadpole leg lying on the floor. Karuta nearly had his lungs scorched because he had been leaning out from behind cover.

(One at a time, huh?)

“Marika, help us out!”

He was answered by a sharp light attacking the Warrior Doll from the side. Marika cut through the air with her rapier device in hand, dropped down just barely inside the massive sword’s range, planted her feet on the wet floor, and sharply shoved her body in even closer.

The extreme maneuver bringing her from long to close range was a lot like a horizontal lightning strike.

But the dull sound that followed came from Marika. The tonfa-like protrusion of the armored warrior’s sword guard crashed into her crystal armor and slammed her down to the wet floor.

“Gah!!”

Tayori and Imi apparently considered joining the fight after seeing their classmate rolling along the floor, but they came to a stop after seeing the rubble around the armored warrior unnaturally float up. That ionocraft effect showed a fearsome amount of energy was gathering within the Threat. Tayori had her hands full simply restraining terrified Imi.

“S-sorry, Karuta.”

“That’s fine.”

That was not just a polite response. As he moved toward the armored warrior from the side, he said one thing more without moving his lips or looking toward collapsed Marika.

“ That was all according to plan .”

“…?”

It had all been for the dry crinkling sound he heard now. Any communications using their Crystal Blossoms or phones could be intercepted by the slate pencil urchin and holding a secret conversation right in front of the armored warrior would be the height of folly.

The girl behind him had unfolded a small piece of paper and would now have read the short message it contained:

“Burn their surfaces to weld them together, or continually scorch the air to create suction from the pressure difference.”

Yes, there were plenty more Threats inside and outside Second Grimnoah. After making this much of a commotion, they would have to deal with them as well.

Marika’s Crystal Magic would be able to pull off one or the other methods written on that memo.

Also, none of the Threats except the Warrior Doll had broken through the ship’s walls or doors. Not even the Gestalt. If she fired her powerful sniping laser on the Threats packed into the hallway, she would scorch the air in the small gaps between them and cause a suction effect. That would not stop them forever, but it would help.

The armored warrior’s red eyes followed Marika as she nodded and moved behind a tadpole, but Karuta moved in between. He put on a filthy smile and forced out his voice.

“Do you really have time for distractions, Warrior Doll? Is your anger so weak you can set it aside for other things?”

He held his modified military flashlight and Aine wielded her crystal sword by his side.

He was essentially an amateur mimicking the pros and he was facing an opponent ten thousand times more frightening than a pro bullfighter ever had, but he had still claimed the right to challenge the Warrior Doll.

He took a deep breath.

He gathered his resolve and stepped out from behind the tadpole.

His opponent did not understand his words and no signal was needed.

This time, they were on equal footing.

They glared at each other and then charged straight toward each other.

The strongest human and the strongest Threat bet everything on this.

### Part 3

“The Indian Space Force can only input the nuclear launch codes after reaching an ‘independent determination’ that Grimnoah has lost to the Threat. Once that happens, everyone dies. Including my family and the first love you never could forget.” Omotesandou Kyouka reviewed the situation in the floating general airport’s control tower. “They want to launch that nuke no matter what, but they still need it to make some minimal level of sense. So if they lose their ability to gather information, they will be unable to reach a determination and their plan grinds to a halt.”

“How exactly do we do that?” asked the redheaded buns Secretary.

Kyouka softly sighed.

“We can disguise it as military satellite trouble. Figure out how many satellites are passing by directly overhead and jam them. Oh, but make sure it looks like the Threat did it. We saw some sea urchins covered in antennas, remember? You can’t let anyone know the jamming signal is coming from this control tower.”

Letnahe Kurent sighed when she heard that.

They had hit their limit.

She glanced down at her left hand. The ring and watch there were both important to her and she could not betray either one.

(I doubt the official list of satellites is all of them. There will be countless unregistered ones. Even the 30 generator satellites used to power the Pinaka III are officially registered as civilian communication satellites.)

She doubted getting Grimnoah’s plan from Omotesandou Kyouka and correcting its mistakes would be enough to stop the nuclear attack.

The silver-haired and brown-skinned soldier slipped out of the control tower, descended the crude stairs, and pulled out her phone. It was a military model not available in the general marketplace, but she attached another device she pulled from the hem of her tight skirt. She attached it to a completely separate radio with a cable.

Needless to say, she was a member of the Indian Navy.

But allowing something that would benefit the Indian military was meaningless if it also brought great chaos to international society as a whole. Yes, making a nuclear attack on the Threat was acceptable, but she could not let them set a precedent that it was acceptable to make a nuclear attack on other humans just because it accomplished some other goal. Do that and India would be unable to criticize others for aiming nuclear weapons at them.

Someone who killed a person that someone else cared deeply for would earn hatred and mistrust from all the other people who did not want to lose their loved ones. She could not allow death to become an accepted outcome.

So.

(Hadome-kun. Honey!!)

Since two faces came to mind in this crisis, she could not deny her infidelity, but this was the only way she knew how to live. She clicked her tongue and opened the metal door. She pressed her back against the concrete wall while the artificial rain poured down. She manually dialed a memorized number into the phone that was unnaturally connected to a radio.

At this point, she donned a different mask. There was no way to stop the nuclear attack from within the Indian military’s chain of command, so she would have to restrain them with an even greater power.

“…”

She held the electronic device to her ear and waited as it rang five times. She knew the process that would play out. She would be connected to a small online shopping company no one had ever heard of, but by ignoring the voice instructions and entering a secret code, she would reach the true rulers of the world.

However.

The automated female voice did not stop even after she entered the number with her brown finger.

She was not connected to them.

“Your selection could not be found. Please try again from the beginning.”

There was no trying it again.

That had been a secret message from a list she had been given in advance. It meant the following:

This call is being intercepted. Immediately destroy this device and go undercover. We will send you a new method of contacting us wherever you might be.

She heard a slight metallic creaking, so she slowly turned around and then grimaced.

“How?”

“Using the elevator. And yes, I know that isn’t what you meant.”

Omotesandou Kyouka was grinning up at her. She was toying with a mobile router in her empty hand. No, that was an illicit device known as a Quicksand that gathered and analyzed all forms of wireless signal.

The girl had used that to intercept Letnahe’s line to the deepest parts of the world.

(Quicksand.)

It was true that Letnahe’s group had great power. She knew other powers both large and small were trying to discover its identity. She knew that, but…

(That thing can pick up even the frequencies not detectable with the control tower equipment. And if it’s set up to automatically analyze all forms of encryption, then she must not have even needed my help. Was that entire request a bluff meant to draw me in, create a sense of camaraderie, and bring down my guard!?)

“Why now? Whoever I might work for, I assisted you!! I was trying to use their power to stop the Indian Space Force’s nuclear strike so I could save this country!” She was trembling. Not even a child lost at an amusement park would have looked so distraught. “If this fails, you lose everything. This is not the time to be working against each other!! I revealed my secret about Hadome-kun and you talked about your family. You had accepted a woman like me… Whoever we might work for in the end, we both knew we needed to work together right now. So why do this!?”

“ Why? ” The President was smiling and did not stop smiling. “ The greatest threat to us has always been your group since you can take everything from us at any time. What has the Threat actually done to us? Even the Indian military hasn’t done anything to us yet . But who was it that permanently scarred our lives while stifling a yawn and then tried to avoid responsibility for that? This could not be simpler. It is a matter of revenge. ”

“…”

Pure nothingness.

Letnahe’s mind went entirely blank. At the same time, tears welled up in her eyes and her mobile watch was beeping warnings related to her breathing and heartrate.

“Then all that about your family still being in Kyoto wasn’t even true?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” The President coolly brushed her long hair from her shoulder. “You propped up the world’s strongest magicians so you could control them and you used a 12-year-old girl’s grief for her sister to set up her as a convenient avenger, so do you really think I would let you know anything you could use against me? Why would I tell you anything other than a mix of truth and lies you can never untangle?”

There was not even hatred on her face.

“Thinking back, your stance was always full of unknowns.” Kyouka produced a metallic sound as she spoke, but it did not come from her wheelchair. “Letnahe Kurent, do you work for the Indian military, for the coalition force, or for the string-pullers toying with all those nations? You acted like you were willing to let a nuclear blast hit Grimnoah, but you were secretly working to fix our plans so the Indian Space Force could not act. You were constantly switching between the professional and the private, but why was that?”

It was a bow and arrow. A very mechanical Western type.

It was not quite enough to call a weapon, but wielding it as a weapon here made it very clear that Second Grimnoah’s Student Council President had no intention of making friends.

And who or what was she aiming it at?

“You made it look like we had gotten to know each other while you shared that embarrassing love story and you made it look like some camaraderie had formed after we recognized each other’s skill, but we both know that was never going to happen . From the moment I heard your name from Natlena Blast, I knew you were one of the utter trash who leaked secrets to a 12-year-old girl to set her up as an avenger and who hoped to drive the four world’s strongests to self-destruction by using that inexperienced avenger as a wedge between us. But Natlena-san failed as a Trojan horse and then you were sent in. That means you had made a second move. Before all that with Kiyomasa Hadome. So what exactly was it?”

Her desire to save Kiyosawa Hadome was convincing at first glance, but the string-pullers as a whole had to have a plan here as well. Letnahe had been trying to save Hadome without defying them. She had not cared what happened to Grimnoah or the Crystal Magicians.

“Your methods have remained the same from the beginning.”

Letnahe clenched her teeth, but the President continued nonetheless.

“You did not expect Natlena-san to succeed when you sent her in. You had hoped the four strongests would fight amongst ourselves over how to deal with her. So this nuclear strike is the same. Is it acceptable to use nukes against the Threat? You wanted to use that issue to create a rift between us that would reduce our power, didn’t you?”

“…”

“It’s easy enough to imagine Grimnoah coming to a temporary stop if you show off that nuclear card you might just play. Did you think we would prioritize a nuclear weapon above the Threat? If that worked, you would be able to place Crystal Magic within the framework of the military and let the adults control the fight against the Threat. …But that is not what happened. We continued to focus on the Threat and you found yourself unable to stop the nuclear strike that was meant to only be a show of force for the adults. Isn’t that right?”

The silver-haired brown-skinned soldier had stopped responding. Everything the girl said worked to tear down her stronghold. She needed to move one step ahead and prepare for the next move instead of figuring out how to recover from the last move. Like taking a shortcut to the side instead of chasing after a fleeing opponent from behind. The bespectacled soldier toyed with the switches in her mind. Her breathing, heartrate, blood pressure, brainwaves, and other values monitored by her mobile watch grew as placid as a subterranean lake.

She switched over to her killing mode.

“In other words, the entire scenario of Letnahe Kurent stopping the nuclear attack out of concern for Kiyosawa Hadome was in accordance with your organization’s wishes.”

Kyouka briefly fell silent there.

She slowly took a breath.

And then she continued.

“Your entire deal is manipulating the current era’s strongest to reap the benefits, so you can’t have all of the strongests wiped out by some silly mistake, can you? So you needed to stop the nuclear strike you had begun. Am I wrong?”

It was a decisive statement.

Letnahe focused even stronger on the switch inside herself.

“You and your organization prioritized your own safety over retaking Second Grimnoah or the Kobe region from the Threat.” The President’s accusation was calm but biting. “You wouldn’t die if we lost here. And you were more afraid that I would gain the clue I needed. So you let it happen. You were willing to accept a loss here.”

Just as all expression vanished from Letnahe Kurent’s face, a thin smile appeared on Omotesandou Kyouka’s.

It could all be summed up as despicable. The group that had taken command of everything to fight by their own rules had never intended on protecting anyone.

“So you were sent in to get close to us by making a show of understanding Japan’s climate and how Crystal Magic works and then intentionally showing off that watch to give a hint of your school days.”

That smile had to be a show of her resolve.

“You thought revealing that untold secret of yours would convince me you had no further secrets. All so you could get us to trip each other up instead of fighting the Threat. That way you could weaken the strongest just enough to tame us.”

That had been the plan from the beginning. Letnahe Kurent had wanted to grab the reins of the Crystal Magicians who were a thorn in her organization’s side because they were so hard to control. Even if people’s lives hung in the balance, she had been willing to make every effort to accomplish that.

“Come to think of it, you talked an awful lot about your illicit love, but I never saw you actually speak with Kiyosawa-sensei. Even though you ostensibly came here to rescue him from the Threat and the nuclear strike.” Kyouka smiled as she pointed this out. “And you expect me to believe you’re placing your private life above your professional duties?”

“…”

“Well, from the moment you realized you could use that old connection, you have proven yourself to be as wicked as me.”

The girl designated as Letnahe’s top priority target smiled.

She bared her counterattacking fangs to get something out of the woman.

“ Hello, human string-pullers. It’s a pleasure to meet you. ”

Several strange metallic sounds came from Letnahe’s hand.

Her weapon was a parashu.

It used the legend of the axe given by God of Destruction Shiva, but the magic only used the name and was not actually the legendary axe. In her case, it used the rumble of Shiva’s thunder to destabilize the vibration, strike it from within, and either alter the axe’s path or provide extreme acceleration or deceleration.

A head-on attack from a Gatling gun was no threat to her. And once her target was within the axe’s range, she could use its rapid acceleration to slice through even a bank vault’s door.

Or so she thought.

And yet…

“Gah!?”

It was she who ended up groaning.

This made no sense. Kyouka was smiling in front of her, but a long metal arrow had flown in from the side to hit her in the back of her right hand. There were no hidden attackers around, so it did not add up.

The military flashlight attached to the bottom of the axe’s handle had shattered and the axe itself had fallen to the floor. Needless to say, this opponent was not foolish enough to give her time to crouch down and pick it up.

Then she figured it out.

“Oh, so that’s it.”

“The trick is simple enough, but preconceptions are a difficult thing to shake.”

This voice came from the side as well. She held her injured right hand and moved just her eyes to glare in that direction.

The illusion in front of her had already vanished without a sound.

The President was seated in her wheelchair calmly aiming her bow.

She had chosen not to aim for the left hand wearing the ring and mobile watch, but not for any strategic reasons.

“As you can plainly see, I am in a wheelchair. I can only wield a mere 1% of the power I once had, but even a weak dimensional leap allows me to slow the arrival time of light and sound.”

“The only Regulation 3…”

It was the same as the stars in the night sky. The light you saw twinkling there now had actually been emitted many years in the past. But that was not something the people living on the face of the earth could ever truly experience. They might intellectually understand the concept of a light year, but the light they saw would still feel like the present to them.

Just like people still had a general fear of a school at night in the modern age.

“I can pull off a number of tricks without actually sending my own body through.”

“You distorted the world itself for an illusion lasting only a few seconds? There had to have been other ways of doing that!!”

“Oh? I hear Anastasia did far worse with her God Worshiping Magic.”

There was a hint of sadness in Kyouka’s voice. This was only the dregs of the power she had once been able to use. She had altered the arrival time of light with her mind, but that was only the dregs.

(The reports say she wielded an undulating flamberge back in her prime, but I guess this genius can also master the use of a bow or whatever else she needs!!)

“So what will it be? Spill the beans on the string-pullers and this can be over much sooner.”

“Kh.”

Kyouka smiled in an even more toxic way than before.

“ Or would you prefer I tied you to a chair and called Hadome-sensei in to interrogate you ?”

“Gaahhh!!”

Natlena roared to upset the timing of the enemy in front of her.

Her brown face was colored more by embarrassment than pain or fear.

She used that moment to kick up the axe lying at her feet and grabbed at it with her left hand. But she was not given time to grasp the shortened grip or pull out a spare flashlight. A second arrow struck the parashu’s thick blade, knocking it from her hand.

“So you would rather die than have that happen? You’re such a wonderful person.”

The President smiled.

She understood how Letnahe felt, which was why she would not let it happen.

Ending this nonlethally showed the absolute skill gap between them.

Letnahe knew the details of the Problem Solver battles fought in secret. There was unconfirmed data saying this girl had used a special handgun in one of those. This genius would not stop just because she had been broken once. She was more than just multitalented or a jack of all trades. Her talent let her add anything to her skillset whenever she sensed she was lacking something. Nothing was quite as frightening as a genius who did not fear failure, did not let their pride get in the way, and would put in endless effort when they deemed it necessary.

“What are you asking me to do?” Letnahe squeezed out her voice while holding her skewered right hand and doubled over in pain. “Criticize me all you like, but you’re not doing anything about the Threat or the preparations for the nuclear strike! You haven’t told anyone about this and you haven’t even let any confusion set in. What gives you the right to put the world at risk at your own discretion like that!?”

“ Yes, I am even more wicked than you. And what I am asking you to do is quite simple: tell me everything about the world’s string-pullers you belong to. You want to protect your family and your first love, don’t you? Then you should know which of your loyalties to turn your back on.”

“But…”

“Besides, you don’t even know why I can’t use Crystal Magic anymore, do you? Or rather, why I am still placing a limiter on my abilities. That would mean you’re a low-level member. The agent who visited Karuta-kun before seemed to have some idea about my secret.”

“?”

Letnahe truly looked puzzled by that and she did not even realize that her confusion signaled something to Kyouka.

“Now, then.”

Kyouka crossed her outstretched legs.

Her ankle swayed like a pendulum and Letnahe should have already learned what that sign meant.

“Are you saying I can protect everything I care about even if I betray them here?”

“I am not a good person,” said the demon in the wheelchair. “ Which is why I can assure you that I will not take away those precious treasures of yours. For someone as wicked as me, they make the perfect guarantee you will do what I ask, don’t they?”

Letnahe bit her lip.

She realized there was no way to turn this around or even to escape. Which left only one option. She put off treating her injured right hand and slowly took a different action.

She kneeled in front of the President to change her socks.

That was the moment of submission.

The girl who had tamed a wicked woman whispered sweetly with an even larger smile on her face.

“At this point, the two of us are nothing but villains.”

### Part 4

Sword crossed with sword.

The crystal sword branched off at the base like a jitte and the metal sword had a protrusion resembling a tonfa or handcuffs.

The wet rubble floated unnaturally from the floor, light flashed out, and a shockwave and deafening boom shook the entire gym.

Karuta and Aine should not have been able to deal with that using just the one sword, but Karuta just barely dodged the sword that the 3m Warrior Doll swung down heavier than a guillotine and faster than an airplane. Aine instead moved in to hit it with her crystal blade.

It was a lot like bullfighting.

The infrared from the modified military flashlight was just as important as the crystal sword.

This was not part of the basic tactics taught in Second Grimnoah’s textbooks. Imi and Tayori were overwhelmed and could not join the fight.

“Don’t relax just because we’re pulling off this tightrope walk, Aine. Its excess energy might make the rubble float up, but we can’t trust that signal too much.”

“I am already aware of that. If it can pull off a feint with that, the mistake would cost us our lives.”

After determining when it would attack, they would work to confuse it first before making their own attack. That Threat could achieve rapid movement with its green thrusters and it could break the sound barrier if it was allowed a running start. That was well past what a human could hope to match, so Karuta would be killed instantly if he could not reduce its movements.

But even that was far from delivering a critical blow.

After he sent in another IR blast to blind the Warrior Doll, Aine slipped past its right-side defenses and sent her blade toward its arm, leg, and torso, but the wounds were shallow. In fact, the sword was deflected with a high-pitched clang, barely leaving a mark on the reddish-purple armor.

It was fruitless.

But they kept at it regardless.

“Pant, pant!!”

Because Karuta knew his life was not the only one riding on this.

This was for Kazamuki Gekiha and the other old friends from the first ship, it was for his classmates from the second ship like Amaashi Marika and Yamane Deiri, and it was for all the people living the wide world outside of Grimnoah. If the world’s strongest fell here, all of that would be lost.

And then there was Aine who shared his fate.

It was all of those thoughts that prevented him from being cut down. Nor would he be crushed by the shockwave or roasted by the heat of the plasma jet. In fact, he moved out ahead of Aine and threw off the timing of a slash he should never have been able to dodge.

He used his flashlight’s infrared to fry the Threat’s eyes and throw off its timing. If possible, he would hide behind one of the tadpoles to avoid the explosions. If not possible, he would spread out a thin sheet of metal foil (which was probably a piece of a Threat) to at least deflect the great heat.

He doubled over and heard some popping sounds inside his body.

But the shockwave that hit him was not the end of it.

“Aine…”

“…”

“Don’t think about buying time for you to move out front. We’ll both go down if we break our rhythm.”

The Warrior Doll would not stop. If they did not head out to face it, it would likely circle behind the tadpoles itself. And if it made the attack, it would be in control.

“What you did was wrong.”

But even with all that going on, he had something important to say. He once more adjusted his grip on his flashlight while hearing the sounds of crystal fragments breaking away.

“But that was my fault too. Listen, Aine. Once this is over, let’s relearn everything from the ground up. We can return to our dorm room, sleep like a log, get some food, and get through those boring classes. But to do that, you need to do everything you can to learn how to survive.”

Crystal Magic regeneration would heal any nonlethal wound in 30 seconds. If it was discovered that shattering the healing crystals with another attack would prevent it from ever healing, then the enemy could make a series of rapid-fire attacks, but the Threat had only begun to learn the details of Crystal Magic in the gym here. If they had not learned everything and the knowledge had been erased before it could spread, then he could trick the enemy. He focused on that while wiping away the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

Then he had to laugh.

(Nonlethal injuries don’t matter, huh? I’ve really gotten accustomed to staying just outside the line of an injury that would bring my life to an end.)

It almost felt quaint that Imi found herself unable to trust anyone after having her severed leg cauterized. Karuta would just say thanks. Imi’s response was of course the correct one. The more power he gained during his fight against the Threat, the less human he felt.

Those tadpoles who had enjoyed their pointless actions while gaining knowledge had also responded in the correct way. Of course they had screamed and gone wild when they were being sliced to pieces.

“Even if we do defeat this thing, I might only be proving how frightening humans can be.”

“If you say so.”

He had a vague premonition about that while he followed after Aine as she made an attack. The Threat did not seem able to close up its wounds like they could, but its reddish-purple armor was too tough to make a dent in. Aine had sliced right through the tadpoles, but that same sword could not cut the armored warrior.

Neither side could make any real progress.

Karuta and the armored warrior glared at each other while wearing each other down with small wounds.

The armored warrior said nothing, but he could sense confusion coming off of it.

It had gathered every form of justice it could think of to create the greatest attack, yet that was not enough.

The Warrior Doll was radiating irritation with itself for its inability to deliver a finishing blow.

Karuta snorted with laughter. That was awfully haughty for a monster. That anger was a sign of worry and panic over its inability to kill someone it should have been able to kill. Elicia and Yukino of the Problem Solvers had begun to panic near the end and started criticizing the rules of the world for not doing what they wanted.

“Did you…”

His side had a crystal sword and a flashlight.

He staggered up alongside the crystal girl and faced the reddish-purple armored warrior.

“Did you think every action has a purpose behind it? Humans are full of inefficiencies. How we master those inefficiencies is what shapes our lives. Perfect efficiency would make for the most boring kind of strongest imaginable. That would only lead to a dystopia.”

There was no response.

That thing may not have even had a complex enough tongue or throat to speak human language. Even those things were a type of inefficiency.

“But you really should know that.” The boy who got by on trickery grinned and held out his flashlight. “I mean, you’re standing there on two feet, wearing armor, and holding your weapon with needlessly complex hands.”

Again, the Threat probably did not understand human language.

But for whatever reason, its red eyes glowed brighter here.

Like they were burning.

Wreckage larger than the average car defied gravity to float into the air one after another.

“ You’re pouring all your strength into the fruitless and meaningless act of revenge. You’re learned everything there is to know about how we humans enjoy our inefficiencies. ”

The armored warrior gave a roar and swung its sword down with all its might.

### Part 5

How many times had they done this now?

Crystal Girl Aine’s sword sliced through the air. It slipped past the Warrior Doll’s defenses on the right to strike its torso. But that only produced a high-pitched clang. It scraped the surface somewhat but was nowhere close to a critical wound.

She was not made to turn a blind eye to her deficiencies, so she directly faced the fact that this was insufficient.

That boy had been with her since the first ship was still around, so he had to know what she needed to boost her specs.

Everyone had seen it from the beginning.

They had seen it but overlooked it.

Crystal Girl Aine glanced over at one of the tadpoles lying motionless on its back. She had two decorations protruding from her head that might have been horns and might have been hair. Most likely, not even Utagai Karuta knew for sure what they were.

But right now, they squirmed on their own like the mandibles of a stag beetle or ant.

Everyone had to know by now that the girl grew by eating the pure gold needed to construct circuits. And what was the Threat?

A Metal-Derived Autonomous-Origin Higher Lifeform Combat Weapon.

The reaction spread past the two horns and Aine’s entire head produced a straining sound like something was preparing to open wide.

There was a way to grow stronger.

She had frequently mentioned it ever since the First Out Incident that sank the first ship.

The humans had sensed a deficiency in her specs and sought greater strength.

That was the only way she could protect Utagai Karuta.

So…

“What you did was wrong.”

“…”

“But that was my fault too. Listen, Aine. Once this is over, let’s relearn everything from the ground up. We can return to our dorm room, sleep like a log, get some food, and get through those boring classes. But to do that, you need to do everything you can to learn how to survive.”

The disturbance inside her stopped.

Instead of the two horns, it was her two lovely eyes that seemed to be watching a nightmare repeat itself.

Karuta had just swung his flashlight. He could blind the Warrior Doll so it would miss, but his weapon could not actually stop that sword colored by a plasma jet. If he did not dodge it, he would be sliced in two. Yet he showed no hesitation.

He trusted Aine.

He was looking to something inside her.

She had already seen the simplest answer, but she had a feeling that was not the answer he was hoping for as he wore his own life down.

The crystal girl’s thoughts surpassed the logical.

She once more considered the boy’s words.

What was it he wanted from her here?

### Part 6

Utagai Karuta knew the current equilibrium would not last forever.

But this was not how he had expected it to end. It happened after dodging a few more slashes, while he was readying his flashlight in time with Aine’s attack.

The pair of red lights vanished within the Warrior Doll’s helmet. The sword given tonfa and handcuff signals had always moved accurately, but now it grew even more mercilessly so.

( Don’t tell me. )

Karuta had a bad feeling about this. Like he felt nothing in his net as the enemy slipped right through it. The pressure weighing on his gut was the one felt in the moment your supposedly perfect plan fell apart. He was once more hit by the sensation he had felt back when he clashed with Elicia and Susannia of the Problem Solvers.

In other words…

( Did it shut its eyes!? Is it attacking based on intuition instead of its senses!? )

“Aine, watch out!!”

Their bullfighting tactics did not work if he could not blind their opponent with infrared. A direct hit meant death and a blocked hit would get her crushed below the explosive blast.

Since the flashlight would lead it astray, it chose not to look at all.

It chose to trust in its itself while taking a step forward and relying purely on intuition.

It was a simple but reasonable conclusion. For a human who often functioned on an illogical basis, anyway. But even if the machinery was malfunctioning, would an unmanned drone ever switch off the video feed and radar while soaring through the sky? Could simple circuitry rely on baseless and illogical “intuition” to shoot down a bomb or missile in the empty darkness?

This was different from the decoy Threat that had attacked the Crystal Beach. This armored warrior had a solid core it could believe in. Was the Warrior Doll more a living being than a weapon!?

This time, the reddish-purple armored warrior attacked with its max speed.

Time stopped.

The raindrops looked like round jewels scattered around as time seemed to stop for Karuta. There was nothing he could do this time. He had viewed this as bullfighting. He used his infrared to parry a monster much stronger than him, used that opening to accurately dodge the attack, and coordinated with Aine to strike back. But if the wild bull shut its eyes and charged straight in, waving the large cloth around would do nothing to lead it astray. The bullfighter would have no way of evading it. And it was all over if he was hit here. He would take far more damage than from a charging bull. An unbelievably heavy and hard blade would attack from the optimal angle with supersonic speed provided by the plasma jet. The gruesome results of that destructive power would be worse than a head on collision with a fighter craft.

(Damn.)

This time.

There really was no avoiding it.

(Damn this guy. He’s looking so cool .)

He had to admit it. And as soon as he clenched his teeth, time sped back up.

“!!”

All he could do was collide with Aine’s shoulder as she swung her sword in from the side.

He tackled her out of the way.

He had to laugh since that was not at all the action of a cheap coward. Maybe he had let the Warrior Doll influence him.

With a dull sound, the downwards slash sent his flashlight spinning through the air.

It had cut away something more important than his arm.

He had lost his disturbance weapon. Without the infrared to throw off the enemy’s timing, Aine would be unilaterally worn down by the plasma jet slashes and explosions.

But the armored warrior must have been confused when it reopened its red eyes.

Karuta was worn down and battered, but he had a fierce smile on his face.

(I don’t want to be a swordsman or a military commander. If I tried to be as cool as you, I’d screw it up and leave behind a pathetic corpse. I know I’m not cut out for that, no matter how much I wish I was and how much I regret being who I am.)

“Your attacks are too powerful.”

The reddish-purple armored warrior must have noticed its careless mistake.

“So on a subconscious level, you assumed the only two options were a hit or a miss and that I was a goner if you hit!!”

It must have noticed how careless it had been to assume this was over after cutting away Karuta’s weapon with an attack.

(But that isn’t my job.)

It had not been meaningless.

He might have let go of his temporary safety, but that was still meaningful if it created a crucial opening.

(Ordinary attacks do nothing to that armor, but you only ever tried to blow Aine away with your plasma jet explosion when she was swinging her blade horizontally in toward your right side. Are your sword’s defenses so unnecessarily tough because you’re actually scared, Warrior Doll?)

And what was it Karuta had said?

“What you did was wrong.”

In that most dangerous moment when he had abandoned his own safety, he turned toward Aine in the midst of the fierce fighting.

“But that was my fault too. Listen, Aine. Once this is over, let’s relearn everything from the ground up. We can return to our dorm room, sleep like a log, get some food, and get through those boring classes. But to do that, you need to do everything you can to learn how to survive.”

“Isn’t that right, Aine !!!!!?”

They swapped places.

Crystal Girl Aine slipped past his side and rushed sharply in toward her target with her crystal sword at the ready.

He had ordered her to learn how to survive, so she would have poured all her focus into that.

Unless something else distracted her along the way.

The Warrior Doll immediately tried to pull its massive sword back, but it had just swung it down. Its attacks carried deadly speed, but that created an opening while it pulled its blade back.

The explosive blast was likely meant to cover for that.

So what happened if it could not use that defense in time?

Crystal Girl Aine twisted around directly in front of it. She forcibly slid herself toward its right side. And she placed her full momentum on her blade for a sweeping horizontal attack.

She was in a blind spot created by having eyes tucked back inside a helmet.

She targeted an obvious seam created when patching together multiple devoured Threats in the customization process.

The crystal sword had been deflected so many times before, but it sank in deep now.

Deep into the armored warrior’s neck.

Yes, Aine’s sword had easily sliced through the tadpoles and this Threat had absorbed components from them.

With a sharp slicing sound, time came to a stop.

The armored warrior’s head slid to the side.

And that helmet-like head tumbled from its shoulders.

Karuta could not cushion his fall as he crashed down into the gym floor. That did further damage when he was already exhausted to the core. He though he heard something breaking in the center of his aching body, but he was not dead yet. And as long as he did not die, the regeneration would kick in. He still could not say if that was a good thing or not, but it did mean he would continue down the path of the devil for a while yet.

Meanwhile, he thought he saw a red light flickering inside the helmet even after it was beheaded during their final clash. Was that another human-like inefficiency it had learned? Perhaps the Threat had learned how to express emotion in that final moment.

Yes, it was watching that boy who had stayed true to his path to the very end, without letting himself be influenced by the armored warrior’s insistence on fighting fair and square.

The path of the devil was still a path.

And he had stayed true to that path which the Warrior Doll would never choose for itself.

It burned that way of life into its eyes.

And to Karuta, it looked an awful lot like the slain monster was giving the victorious human a smile of approval.

### 134. Afterword

Apocalypse Witch has reached its 4th volume!

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

This time, we focus on the Catastrophe that was mentioned as far back as Volume 1! Volumes 2 and 3 focused on the battle against the Threat, so I went back to the series’ roots and made it all human-based battles. And I also kept Karuta from getting any help from Aine, since she’s his strongest fighter. So can Karuta protect his position as world’s strongest after being dragged out into the public eye? And what truth will he find after achieving victory? I hope you enjoyed this battle tournament full of magic.

After facing the armored warrior in Volume 3, Karuta is no longer confident that the Threat are really just villains. Aine has also started to change after that major battle. I was trying to focus on those things here.

I also shined the spotlight on regular characters beyond the Four Living Gods, such as Natalena and Letnahe, but I think the real star there was Matsuda Imi. And Yamane Deiri is still being a bro. He’s grown into such a reliable guy you have to wonder if he’s really part of Karuta’s class. And what was with his nervous behavior in Volume 2 anyway? That’s also why he chose to play the villain when it came to Aine this time. I also like how Nekoumi Hirosuke hasn’t changed at all from the battles he’s fought and wouldn’t hesitate to charge into enemy fire if it was for a trapped little girl.

For the tournament, I made the first round a standard magic battle, increased the level of technology involved further with the second and third rounds, and then went back to a purely magical battle for the fourth round. The idea was to show the threat posed by technology but then show that the occult really is the scariest thing of all. I hope it made for an engaging series of battles that felt like riding a roller coaster.

Also, we had so much dismemberment going on this time it almost seems adorable how much Matsuda Imi was freaking out over losing her leg in Volume 3. Not that this is the first time Karuta has fought a powerful enemy by destroying his body. He is an unusual protagonist for me since he can’t do much fighting without causing himself serious bodily harm.

I pictured Pendet Denpasar as a walking disaster. With the way she used the headphones to withdraw into her own world, showed no real hostility, and destroyed her opponent without really paying attention to them, I wanted her to provide a type of fear I haven’t really done before. Kind of like how a kaiju doesn’t pay attention to the tiny ants fleeing from it down on the ground.

Speaking of things I hadn’t done before, there’s Karuta’s mental change. He found an inappropriate sort of amusement in being able to simply fight without being motivated by resentment. And that is a valid answer since martial arts are recognized as a sport. This was his first battle freed from the pursuit of vengeance. Without the destruction of the first ship, he would probably have enjoyed his magical school life by fighting in tournaments like that.

I give my thanks to my illustrator Mika Pikazo-san and to my editors Anan-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. This was a major event that combined a cultural festival, an athletic festival, and a death match and that involved a lot of costume changes, so it had to be a lot of work. Thank you so much yet again.

And I give my thanks to the readers. How did you like seeing an actual supernatural combat tournament after the fake out in New Testament Index 4…however many years ago that was? These battles were actually also about Karuta facing the righteousness he felt was stolen away by the armored warrior in Volume 3. I would love it if you enjoyed seeing Karuta gradually break free from the bonds of vengeance and begin fighting to protect something.

And I will end this here.

…If they don’t get tangled up in revenge, these kids can do all the ordinary high school stuff, can’t they?

-Kamachi Kazuma

## ?

“Professor Firenze.”

“How many times have you run the calculations now?”

They were floating out on the ocean.

An air-conditioned lab was contained in a marine research ship larger than a tanker. But the men in lab coats were not even checking the flatscreen monitors at this point.

They had grown sick of the coffee and energy drinks used to keep them awake.

They were so tired of holding this same discussion over and over.

“We have run 49 actual experiments and run the simulation more than a billion times.”

“Then it’s safe to say we have the answer.”

“But a lot of people aren’t going to like this answer,” cautiously mentioned a young man with the rare talent to control eccentrics.

The old man in a lab coat failed to realize he was doing that.

“There is nothing in the earth’s core. Checking the flow of geomagnetism is enough to tell that. Do we need further proof from the plate movement, the rotation speed, and the Coriolis force?”

“No.”

“The Original Crystal Embryo disappeared long ago. But where did it go!?”

They had no answer for that.

After all…

“We have never actually managed to reach the earth’s core. We have only theorized its existence based on a variety of geological data.”

“That’s true. So it’s always possible it has legs and could just walk away on its own. For all we know, it looks just like a human and is hiding among us.”

You could call that absurd, but then you would have to say the same about the very existence of crystal magic.

Humanity had thrown out their own common sense from the moment they chose to rely on magic. They had leaped at the tantalizing convenience dangled in front of them and sold their soul to the devil.

“But isn’t that embryo the Threat’s target as they arrive from outside the atmosphere?”

“Then has it given up on us?”

When his question was answered with a question, the young man fell silent.

And Chrisbart Firenze raised his voice like a child’s temper tantrum.

“Humanity cannot win. So the Original Crystal Embryo has given up on us. Is that the only conclusion we can reach here? But if so, who has it chosen to support now!?”

### 135. Epilogue

The magical combat tournament that served as this year’s Catastrophe had finally ended.

Karuta’s victory meant the collected jackpot of lost bets went straight to Second Grimnoah. None of that would end up in Karuta’s pocket, but he just hoped it would be used for the benefit of the world. He was afraid being given that kind of money out of nowhere would ruin his life.

He had just barely squeaked by with a victory, but he didn’t have it in him to go along with a grand award ceremony.

His torn-up body could regenerate in 30 seconds, but his battered mind was a different matter.

“A future where evil defeats good and the world ends?” was all he could say.

What was that supposed to mean?

That girl’s divination had managed to reveal the presence of the human string pullers without even trying to look for them, so he felt certain there was some meaning hidden there.

He heard some creaking metal.

It came from a wheelchair’s wheels.

“Karuta-kun.”

“Did you find anything?”

Karuta and Marika’s parents and Kyouka’s brother had been manipulated into tormenting the Four Living Gods, but interrogating them wouldn’t reveal any real information.

This, however, was a different matter.

Some snipers or assassins presumably sent by the human string pullers had been hiding within the crowd. Although they had been partially turned to mincemeat by Pendet Denpasar when they tried to interrupt the dance she was offering to her god.

They had likely been there to eliminate Karuta if things strayed from their scenario.

Kyouka had hoped to find something by checking through those bodies and their equipment.

“Let’s talk in the student council room. Where’s Aine-chan?”

“In me.”

“I already spoke with Marika-san. She should be in the student council room already.”

They could not discuss this over the phone.

She was not letting it show, but that fact showed how nervous Omotesandou Kyouka really was.

She had found something unpleasant.

Her tension reminded Karuta of Pendet Denpasar when she had discovered the outlines of something at the end of her dance.

Once Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka were in the student council room, the president got down to business.

“First, I found a few different contact points. They used satellite phones that linked directly to an unregistered communications satellite. That was probably meant to hide from random AI searches, but using a secret line was their undoing. I just had to follow that direct line to find the human string pullers at the other end.”

“And what did you find?”

“Chrisbart.”

“?”

Karuta was not the only one to frown. Marika had fought on the side deck too, so she also looked puzzled. What did any of this have to do with that electric battleship the Greek group had hijacked?

But that was not what Kyouka meant.

“ Chrisbart Firenze, ” she clarified. “One of the most prominent figures in crystal magic theory and also a rather unusual civilian weapons researcher who used an Italian luxury car maker as a stepping stone to get involved in the joint EU munitions and heavy industry businesses. Did you forget that modern warships are named after famous historical scientists now? Especially ones who research magic.”

There was that.

But Karuta also recognized the last name of Firenze. Sophia Firenze was a Sub Category teacher. And wasn’t that also the name of Kiyosawa Hadome’s former teacher?

“Once we start focusing on Chrisbart Firenze, the human string pullers’ identity comes into focus. Basically, they are a secret network connecting the world’s munitions companies behind the scenes. It began with a collection of amateur inventors from a time before anyone used the name World War One. That was an age where tanks, airplanes, barbed wire, and any other ideas people came up with ended up causing far more damage than they ever could have imagined. Seeing so many countries and governments going berserk, those reclusive engineers began exchanging letters in an attempt to control the spread of war from a civilian standpoint.” Kyouka sighed. “By intentionally adjusting the development speed of magic and weapons, that unseen organization could control the power balance between nations without anyone noticing. They are merchants of death who used hierarchies, discord, and antagonism to build up vast fortunes. And they were of course involved in the militarization of magic, so I’m sure they had a hand in the creation of Second Grimnoah and its escort fleet.”

“But wouldn’t they be charged with serious crimes if word got out? Aren’t they dealing with national secrets and stuff?” asked Marika.

Kyouka nodded.

“I imagine that is what led to their abnormal obsession with secrecy. And at the same time, their vast fortunes have been spread among so many industries that they have become ‘too big to fail’ so to speak. Large corporations never seem to go bankrupt even when they’re billions in the red, right? People fear those corporations’ collapse would bring down the entire country, so public funding is poured in to help prop them up. …So their position might have been precarious at first, but things have changed. I doubt it would help if we leaked this information onto the internet. The human string pullers have already evolved into an immortal monster.”

A heavy atmosphere bore down on them.

If none of the usual methods would solve this, they would have to rely on some unusual methods.

The first time Karuta’s group had been faced with that, they had played the violence card.

But since they knew Sophia Firenze personally, would they have the courage to make that choice this time?

And would doing so really qualify as “courageous”?

“Next, look at this. This is even worse. It’s the human string pullers’ plan.”

The president tossed a multipage printout of some kind of data onto the table. It was full of technical terms and Karuta didn’t understand a lot of it, but he very clearly understood one passage:

“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.”

“So…” Karuta placed a hand on his chin. “They wanted Pendet to win, not me? They wanted to shoot me during the match if they could, but they didn’t dare for fear of hitting Pendet on accident?”

“That’s not it at all.” Kyouka breathed a heavy sigh and used a red pen to circle something on the document. “Look here. These are their observation records during the third round. Specifically, when the electric battleship was firing on us. They mostly just passively observed it all, but as soon as a certain facility was going to be hit by a stray shot, they were ordered to interfere with the ship’s line of fire while disguising it as an accident. In the worst case, they were to use themselves as a decoy.”

“I get the feeling this wasn’t some noble story of self-sacrifice to protect Second Grimnoah or the cruise ships full of visitors.”

“It’s an important facility out here on the equatorial ocean.” Kyouka turned to look out the window. “The space elevator.”

“…?”

What did that have to do with any of this?

It was a relic of an older age with no connection to the tournament.

“This means there is a connection,” said Kyouka. “Forget the Decoy Threat at the Crystal Beach and focus on the real Threat that attacked Second Grimnoah. They were curious about crystal magic. They never attacked the first ship like that. It was only once we had become the new world’s strongest that they showed an interest in us.”

“But what does that have to do with the tourna- no, wait a second.”

“The Threat is said to come from outer space and their target is the Original Crystal Embryo found at the earth’s core. They appear to be attracted to the strongest beings on this planet. I don’t know if it’s to eliminate their greatest obstacle or to capture us and have us build a path to the core, but think about it. What if the Problem Solvers didn’t just go running to fight the Threat whenever they attacked? What if the Threat was actually pursuing them?”

“B-but, wait! Do you have any evidence of that!?”

“The Southern Cross Meteor Shower. Apparently all of those shooting stars are actually the Threat.”

“…”

“Do you remember the details about that meteor shower? The first wave alone is measured in the tens of thousands and there are supposed to be nearly 300 million in all. They aren’t pouring down on this region of sea by random chance. They clearly chose this location because Second Grimnoah is here.”

300 million.

Million.

That was too many. Karuta couldn’t even imagine it. How many had occupied Second Grimnoah near the Port of Kobe? And how many times more was this!?

Of course. He had seen the tadpoles and the armored warrior. Not all of the Threat were necessarily bad. But could he apply that logic to ever last one of those 300 million? If they were the same as humans, then wouldn’t that group include a mixture of the good and the bad?

If even 10% of that number wanted to slaughter humanity, it would be more than earth could handle.

And now that some of the good Threats had been killed, some of the other good ones might decide to join the fight.

The president’s red pen raced across the papers, visualizing the information buried in the sea of technical terminology.

This was something he would much rather not have seen.

“ Humanity cannot defeat the Threat. ”

“…”

It was so decisive.

Karuta himself had brooded over how he had been no match for the armored warrior he had fought on Second Grimnoah and felt like the righteous position had been stolen from humanity.

But hearing it from someone else – and someone much smarter than him – was something else entirely.

“But the Threat can be redirected away from this planet by taking the world’s strongest and using the space elevator to chuck them off the planet as bait.” Kyouka made it sound like a disturbing lullaby. “But first, they wanted to secure the world’s next strongest. They wanted to know who would be the strongest once the current strongest had been disposed of. The Threat arriving from space cannot ignore the strongest out there in space even if the possibility of attack is low. Just repeat that process and the planet can be protected. The string pullers just have to keep using up each new generation of strongest.”

Chrisbart Firenze was apparently a leading crystal magic researcher, but he did not seem interested in the title of world’s strongest. Why would he be when that title was ultimately meaningless and the real power was held by the hidden global network that determined the world’s military balance? He would view the position of strongest as nothing but a troublesome duty that had to be filled again every few years.

And he never gave any thought to how much the people who held that position worried over it all and tried to hold onto it.

“So when the Problem Solvers were working so hard to keep their position at the top…?” groaned Marika.

“They had to prove that they were still useful in that position and it wasn’t time to replace them yet.” Kyouka brushed her long hair from her shoulder. “If they didn’t do that, then it would be time to dispose of them. I imagine they were terrified of us, the up-and-coming world’s strongest that threatened their position at the top. It probably also has to do with the Threat wanting to do something about the Original Crystal Embryo. It can’t be moved from the earth’s core and they couldn’t even draw their power from it like we do, so they must have loathed it.”

“So they went around killing all the next strongests in order to temporarily delay the cycle of replacement? So after all their grand speeches, they only attacked the first ship to keep themselves alive a little longer!?” Karuta slammed both hands against the fancy desk as if to stop the conversation there. “That’s…that’s no reason to go along with it!! We’re already starting to break free of the string pullers’ control on us. We even know who they are. So now we can bring the fight to them!!”

“Yes, that’s true,” agreed the president. “But defeating the infuriating string pullers like that doesn’t solve the more fundamental problem, does it? We would be left with no way to protect the planet from the approaching Threat. We would have created an age where the 5.5 billion people on this planet are slaughtered.”

“…”

This world was trash.

It was a world where their own families had betrayed them with a smile.

But Karuta wouldn’t let anyone say there was no good in it. There was Yamane Deiri, Matsuda Imi, Natalena, Letnahe, and all the others who had fought alongside them.

Not to mention Kazamuki Gekiha and the others from the first ship who were waiting to recover at the bottom of the ship.

If he was willing to just give up on them, he never would have risked his life to challenge the old strongests.

“What do we do?”

He was afraid to die.

That was a normal way to feel, but he couldn’t just run away from this.

He squeezed his eyes shut, clenched his teeth, and shouted at the top of his lungs.

“It’s us or the planet, so what the hell are we supposed to do!?”

### 136. Part 1

So, what exactly was going on at Second Grimnoah as it floated in the equatorial ocean on June 13? Take a look back in time and that will become clear enough.

“A martial arts tournament with magic allowed, huh?”

Amaashi Marika, the childhood friend with her curly twintails dyed a bright strawberry blonde, sounded skeptical. She was wearing a brand-new short-sleeved blouse of a summer uniform. She was the generally cheerful and extroverted gyaru type (while actually being extremely dangerous, obsessive, and vengeful), but unlike Karuta, she actually tied her tie.

“We never got a chance to do this on the first ship.”

“So it’s this year’s Catastrophe? It sounds a lot more friendly than the rumors I heard on the first ship.”

Kazamuki Gekiha and the other 700 students and teachers of the first ship were preserved as unspeaking crystal statues at the bottom of this ship, but Karuta did not see anything inappropriate about this conversation. They were talking about a dream those students never had a chance to live out.

They were inside the air-conditioned gym early in the morning, but it still felt hot and stuffy with all the Sub Category and Main Category students gathered there. The waxed floor and the stage at one end perfectly reproduced the look of a school gymnasium and it was large enough to play two volleyball games at once or to play a regulation basketball game. With that size, it was easy to forget this was all on a ship. But this gathering looked too fancy to be a simple student assembly. Countless cameras were filming everything from the stands on the second floor. Traditional TV cameras were carried on cameramen’s shoulders and swiveling webcams were affixed to the metal railings. All in all, there had to be more than 10 thousand lenses.

This assembly doubled as an audienceless opening ceremony.

Wheelchair spokes creaked up on the stage.

When she remained silent, no one would suspect Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was anything more than a busty black-haired beauty, but she was in fact the Four Living Gods’ black-hearted strategist. She barely seemed to notice all the eyes on her as she spoke. She did have a transparent prompter in front of her, providing her with the text of her speech, but Karuta suspected she didn’t really need it.

“We at Second Grimnoah have had the good fortune to claim the position of world’s strongest with our cutting-edge crystal magic. But growth is not possible if we fail to look outwards. So to establish an effective exchange of knowledge, we ask for assistance from other types of magicians. We hope that you will participate in order to assist our fight against the mysterious Threat and to help bring peace to our world.”

Colorful images danced on the screen covering the wall behind her. This used a special projector that arranged its scan lines so the image would remain crisp and clear even through the mechanical lenses. It was clearly designed to be world-class entertainment. The artificial depth given to the video was so well done it was hard to tell whether the images seen in front of the screen or behind it were the fake ones.

The Four Living Gods referred specifically to Utagai Karuta, Aine, Amaashi Marika, and Omotesandou Kyouka, but Karuta and Marika had not been given seats of honor as members of the world’s strongest. They sat with the other students in their class, which gave them a chance to whisper to each other.

Karuta spoke to Marika while keeping his eyes on Kyouka shining up on the stage.

“The Four Living Gods must remain the strongest no matter what happens.”

“And?”

“ Frankly, we keep getting our asses handed to us. At the Port of Kobe and here on Second Grimnoah, ordinary people saw us fighting the Threat. We managed to cover up most of the information about what happened at the Crystal Beach, but we couldn’t stop people online from speculating that we were caught up in some kind tragedy there. Which is true, but we can’t let people know that. We aren’t allowed to lose or even draw like ordinary humans.”

“Because if we aren’t perfect, people will be worried we can’t defeat the Threat?”

“You should know with all the online news alerts that get automatically pushed to that phone in your hand. There are protests verging on riots in several cities out there.”

“Justice and fear and frustration, huh?”

“The usual recipe for a witch hunt. Looting doesn’t happen because people see a chance to steal – it happens because people are afraid they won’t be able to defend themselves if they don’t. It’s the same impulse as bulk-buying during a disaster, so the people doing it don’t even think they’re doing anything wrong. Humans can steal and kill as long as they can give themselves a benevolent justification for doing it, like feeding their family or protecting the weak. That’s just how we work.”

Karuta’s tone of voice tended to drop when he was discussing matters of morality.

He had thrown out such lies after his “baptism” aboard the first ship.

“The fear market has people making a bundle remodeling people’s bathrooms into panic rooms or selling family shelters buried in the backyard. Not to mention self-sufficiency products like rooftop solar panels or herb planters that can be installed on a balcony. There are even services to manage your possessions or to fully erase your search history or hard disk after your death. Hell, we’re even seeing apocalyptic cults and cold sleep services. This event is needed to put an end to those things .”

Simply put, crystal magic had to be powerful. And that did not necessarily mean they needed some secret training regimen to actually increase its power. In fact, that sort of power boost was too subtle a flavor, so it would mostly go over the public’s heads.

Instead, they needed some strongly-flavored junk food that everyone could appreciate.

The Catastrophe was the perfect candidate there.

“Just like we used our crystal magic to battle against the god-worshiping magic, there are plenty more forms of magic out there. According to Omotesandou-san, Letnahe Kurent of the human string-pullers used Indian mythology magic.”

“So we just have to kick all their asses on camera? Sounds pretty immature.”

“The point is to prevent any riots by showing the world that crystal magic really is the strongest in the world. We don’t actually need to get any stronger to do that. As long as we defeat the competition in the Catastrophe tournament, the world will see that we’re a step above everyone else.”

Besides, if wanting to get stronger was enough to do so, they would already be as strong as they needed to be. As pathetic as it might sound, they had already hit their upper limit. Their power wasn’t going to suddenly level up just because they had run into a new problem.

Instead, they would con the world.

Solving these social problems was where Omotesandou Kyouka’s cunning mind came into play. Her idea had been to invite different magic systems from around the world to participate in a martial arts tournament. This wasn’t a subtle secret ingredient requiring in-depth culinary knowledge to identify; it was omurice smothered in ketchup.

“Marika.”

“Yes?”

“Given the point of tournament, all four of us should be automatically entered. I’m sure you get this already, but this event is only using the Catastrophe name. I’ll say this as many times as it takes for it to stick, but the entire point of the tournament is to bring peace of mind to the nervous people around the world. So don’t take things too far. Or to spell it out for you: don’t kill anyone. Please, Marika, I’m begging you.”

“Is that any way to talk to your cute and heroic childhood friend?”

Unfortunately, that was exactly how he had to talk to God of Destruction Marika. What would happen if she carried out a gruesome execution on a global livestream? This entire event was meaningless if people walked away thinking crystal magic was an even greater monster than the Threat.

Then Karuta felt small fingers tugging on his short-sleeve dress shirt.

The white figure seated on the other side of him from Marika was the only person not wearing a Second Grimnoah summer uniform. That pure white dress with large slits for ease of movement stood out like a sore thumb in the sea of purple uniforms.

She was Crystal Girl Aine.

She seemed upset that Karuta was only speaking with Marika, so she started whispering to him to draw his attention.

“Sacri-sama, Sacri-sama.”

“Huh? I mean that’s cute and all, but since when does Aine-chan get so blatantly jealous over Karuta?”

“Sacri-tama.”

“Again, since when is this a thing!? She hasn’t been infected with – I don’t know – crystal malware or something, has she!?”

Karuta himself slapped a hand against his forehead.

A lot had happened while they were retaking Second Grimnoah near the Port of Kobe. How had the crystal girl interpreted things when he fought for her against the armored warrior Threat in this very gym? That was something only she could know. And once the battle was over, he had sensed a subtle change in how Aine acted around him. It was a weird sensation, like one side of his headphones was intermittently going out, and Karuta himself was unsure how to process it.

“Anyway, Aine, I’m counting on you. There’s nowhere to hide in the limited field of a tournament ring, so my usual trickery isn’t going to work. I imagine most of my fights are going to come down to sending you in as the vanguard the instant the battle begins.”

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

“Playful answers like that only make me more worried, you know?”

Their exchange made it clear Karuta was not really all that worried. The entire event was meaningless if the crystal magic users didn’t win. In a way, it was a major gamble with no redos, but he couldn’t imagine how Aine or Marika could possibly lose to an ordinary magician. He didn’t mean to insult all the participants who had gathered from around the world, but he did not sense the same skin-crawling pressure he had felt from simply being near the Problem Solvers or the Threat. Karuta himself could not use any real magic and might only get in the way, but Aine could easily defeat any challenger even with him weighing her down. In fact, he was more worried that she wouldn’t be able to make nonlethal strikes with her crystal sword.

“Aine. If anyone other than us wins, they earn the title of world’s strongest plus a large sum of prize money. That money comes from all the money people lose betting on the tournament – in other words, the jackpot. Omotesandou-san says that should reach more than 2 billion. You can’t take human greed lightly. It’s a powerful motivator different again from the vengeance that drove us. It’s best not to underestimate something just because you don’t have it yourself.”

However.

A subtle change happened then.

So subtle only Karuta and Marika could notice it thanks to the time they had spent with the sexy Student Council President after the destruction of the first ship.

Images of the four world’s strongests were displayed on the wall behind her.

And then the photos of Aine, Amaashi Marika, and Omotesandou Kyouka were removed one by one.

“The primary objective of this year’s Catastrophe Magic Combat Tournament is the exchange of valuable magic, so we can’t have people skipping it because they assume the world’s strongest are guaranteed to win. That is why we will be accepting a few handicaps.”

Omotesandou Kyouka’s eyes blinked at an odd moment. It was the look she made when something caught her by surprise but she was working hard to not let it show.

“We are the current world’s strongest, but we could not learn anything new if the four of us all took part and immediately crushed the competition. These handicaps were our own idea to make this a more valuable experience, so do not feel like you are being given an unfair advantage. If your opponent has a weakness, do not hesitate to attack it. As the four who must always defeat the Threat, we know that greedy ambition very well.”

“What the hell?” muttered Karuta.

They had shifted to another set of rails . What in the world was being displayed on the transparent prompter in front of Kyouka?

“You didn’t hear anything about this either, did you, Karuta?”

Kyouka herself looked uncertain whether or not she should go along with it.

But the footage was already being played on the screen behind her. Any discrepancy between that footage and her explanation would prove to everyone that something was wrong. The entire event was meant to prevent the people from worrying, so Kyouka must have decided she could not allow any hint of trouble to enter the global livestream of this opening ceremony.

They were in the middle of a fear market where even half a second of unnatural silence could cause a stock price to crash and start riots. To avoid any unnecessary damage to the entire world’s crowd psychology, she ended up saying exactly what she was told. The screen behind her displayed each item as she said it.

“1. Utagai Karuta shall be Second Grimnoah’s only contestant.

“2. The Four Living Gods are considered a group of four, so Aine is considered her own independent person despite being his crystal magic. Thus, Utagai Karuta is forbidden from ‘using’ her during the tournament.

“3. If Utagai Karuta is killed in an accident during the tournament, his opponent will not be charged with a crime regardless of how it happens. And to fill the gap his death would create, any contestant who kills him and wins the tournament shall become a new member of the Four Living Gods.”

This is really bad, realized Karuta.

He hadn’t heard anything about this. Weren’t they motivating people to participate by awarding them the betting jackpot as prize money?

Something was happening here. They had switched over to the most dangerous set of rails for the Four Living Gods. He did not have many good memories of Grimnoah’s gym – on the first or second ship.

“Or to put it another way, if you can kill Utagai Karuta – good luck, by the way – then feel free. If you are willing to risk your life and pride on it, then this is your chance to steal the title of strongest for yourself. Now, everyone, do you think you can kill Utagai Karuta? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so do not expect it to come again. Drag out the musty-old magic of a bygone era and join the fight. If what I just said pissed you off, then maybe you have the fighting spirit needed to join us in the fight against the Threat.”

### 137. Part 1

Tanba Musubi was a magician with a mastery of Onmyodo.

Magician was the correct term here. The Onmyoji had once been a central part of the country’s government, but their very presence had been erased from the public consciousness, leaving them with no official shrines or temples and no respect of any kind. The lucky directions known as Ehou were originally an Onmyodo concept, but who gave a single thought to that when they saw Ehoumaki sushi at the convenience store?

So no matter how much influence an Onmyoji might retain, they could never be a saint. And if they could not be a saint, there were no religious or moral restrictions requiring them to clear their mind of all worldly desires and only use their abilities for the public good.

(I will bring us back to the center .)

What was wrong with using the world for her own sake?

The world had already used her people and thrown them out.

(The Taira city of Kyou remains the rightful capital. And if I can prove to everyone that we are the center of the world – heh heh – then I am more than willing to chew up Second Grimnoah and spit them out.)

They had once been known as saints.

And now this lonely heart longed for the public to once more recognize the miracles they controlled.

Onmyodo came in many forms, but she specialized in Katatagae. That technique allowed you to accurately determine each day’s new unlucky directions. By avoiding those directions, you could eliminate any danger on the way to your destination. For example, if south was to be avoided, you could zigzag southeast and southwest to avoid ever moving directly south.

And.

Refine that process enough and you could waltz through a minefield just by knowing your unlucky directions.

When you got down to it, Tanba Musubi did not actually view her opponent in battle. By understanding the currents of the world around her, she could avoid any battles before they began and peacefully resolve any problems that did crop up. But she had intentionally thrown all of that out to come here today.

She sought battle.

She felt bad doing this to her opponent. This was a tragedy she could have avoided if she had put in the effort. But she had let it happen.

And once the battle began, she would take all the right steps to reach her destination.

Anyone who stood in her way would be automatically destroyed by the path she chose.

To repeat, Tanba Musubi did not even view her opponent in battle.

(I’ve completed the Ehou reading. I cast a spell to the northeast and south, where Taihakujin and Tenichijin are located, I have cut off all evil omens from reaching me. Now I need to lure my prey into the slight opening I left to the west-southwest to plunge them into deadly misfortune. I know all the unlucky directions for this date and the labyrinth has been formed. By avoiding those directions and walking accurately across the board, I can win as easily as following a guide to a tsume shogi problem.)

“Heh heh. I may have overdone it.”

“Ouch, that has gotta hurt!! The horned shrine maiden Onmyoji, Tanba Musubi, was brought down to the mat by the very first blow, but Alchemist Tribikos Yorkshire is not letting up. Do those kanji-filled directional calculations not work right with all those shooting stars and down this far south where the Big Dipper isn’t in the center of the sky? And wow, this is why you don’t want to get on the wrong side of a woman!! To be clear, this is being livestreamed around the world. Hey, sexy blondie, did you not notice the first blow already had her convulsing on the mat!? You aren’t changing the odds by continuing to hit her in the face. Don’t mount your opponent and beat her until her blood splatters back on you!! Keep that kind of thing in the bathroom or break room where no one can see you!!!!!”

### 138. 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.”

### 139. 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!?”

### 140. Part 10

Somehow, he had made it through the first round of the deadly Catastrophe.

Night had fallen and he wanted to get away from anywhere as public as the arena. But he wanted to get some advice for his future plans before he climbed into bed and slept like a log. After using his phone to say as much, Kyouka gave him a location to meet up at. It was near the gym.

“They say that is the Southern Cross Meteor Shower.” The student council president was looking out the window. “It should continue for a while. The first wave alone has more than ten thousand and the total amount is supposed to be over 300 million. Most of them will burn up in the thermosphere, though.”

“Where has all that stardust been floating?”

“Maybe further out than Pluto but closer than the Oort cloud. And since it will continue for a while, this should be the top night event since there aren’t any matches to watch. Well, it technically continues through the day, but we can’t see it thanks to the sunlight. Ha ha. Woof, woof.”

“?”

Omotesandou Kyouka was acting weird.

Come to think of it, wasn’t she the one who had been the most excited about the decoy astronomical observations they used to sneak into the outskirts of Silicon Valley for their battle against Anastasia?

However, the ship itself had no light restrictions, so this did not make for a proper astronomy event. The deck had to be covered with couples waving around penlights meant for concerts. Karuta’s only thought on the matter was “Oh, so that’s why those timelapse apps are trending in the app store.” Ordinary videos didn’t get good images of the starry sky.

“Your life could really use more romance, Karuta-kun.”

“Hey, don’t diss my entire life just because I’m not into your hobby. …Anyway, what did you want to talk about?”

“They lost it,” said Omotesandou Kyouka in her wheelchair.

His wounds had all been regenerated, but he still felt like something was straining inside his body. He clenched and unclenched his fist and rolled his shoulder around.

“Who lost what?”

“Her family lost Pharaoh Khufu’s mummy after removing it from his pyramid long ago. They apparently hid it a little too well and its location never made it to the current generation. That’s why she wanted the authority of the world’s strongest to perform a largescale search in secret.”

“…”

Hetepheres had called him powerless and a fraud.

Maybe that was a reflection of how she felt about herself. Maybe she had been relieved to find someone so much like herself.

She had been willing to sacrifice her life in her struggle to acquire the title of world’s strongest. Every single contestant had their own reason for that and Karuta had to crush those hopes and dreams if he was to survive.

He scratched his head which felt much heavier than usual.

“I want to take a shower and get to bed. At least the regeneration means I can relax without fearing any muscle pain or lasting effects from my injuries.”

“Oh? But you still have several jobs left as one of the world’s strongest.”

He put on a “what now?” look as someone approached him.

It was the toxic little girl named Cinderella Queen (which was obviously only a stage name). She looked even less developed than Natalena. A high schooler like him was bad at judging the ages of kids more than a few years younger than him, but he guessed she was around 10.

She moved with the air of someone accustomed to making herself look nice. First, she bowed with the meteor shower out the window acting as a backdrop.

“Hee hee hee. Nice to meet you, Mr. Strongest. Congratulations on clearing the first round. And you have my personal thanks for that as well. I know what I said during the match, but if you lost in the first round, we’d have trouble keeping people interested for the rest of the tournament.”

“You’re welcome, I guess.”

“Still, it would be pretty boring if you went on to win the whole thing. It’d be a lot more dramatic if the jackpot built up from the 5.5 billion people betting against you all of a sudden paid out, so I’d appreciate it if you could cough up some blood and lose in a shocking upset.”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” cut in a new voice.

A beautiful woman maybe a little older than Kyouka approached, but this young woman in glasses had a puppyish vibe to her.

“She doesn’t mean any harm when she says these things. She’s still just a child, so I would greatly appreciate it if you would forgive her.”

“Hold it, assistant!! This is the crucial scene where I overpower this talentless fighter with my powerful entertainment aura, so don’t ruin the whole thing by interrupting. My fans will be discussing this moment for years to come and I’d just feel bad for them if they had to see your sad face every single time they revisit it!”

“Is that any way to speak to your own sister? You’re the one whose constant problematic statements, unplanned adlibs during live broadcasts, and attacks on the program sponsors got you fired by your entertainment agency, forcing you to work as a free net idol. And you could never keep this up without me working as your manager, so I would appreciate some thanks.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m thankful or whatever.” Cinderella Queen grinned in a way that looked much too mean for such a small child and then she turned back toward Karuta. “Now, you, Karuta, you I really am thankful for. You see, I pushed the envelope in ways the bigshots in the TV industry weren’t comfortable with and they canceled me for it, forcing me onto the internet instead. But now that you murdered the old strongests, I’m actually making a comeback in the TV industry. Remember how you destroyed that giant TV station when you killed Elicia in Southeast Asia? The losers who thought they could keep me down got the boot after that☆”

“…”

Karuta’s group had been very careful to avoid any civilian deaths during that dinosaur battle, but it sounded like some important people had lost their jobs over it. …And at least one person had made a comeback.

People’s interests tended to gather around the world’s strongest.

Still, he couldn’t believe such a small child was caught up in all that.

This Cinderella wasn’t just a storybook princess who found happiness. If necessary, she was willing to throw her Prince Charming under the bus to get ahead. Cinderella Queen winked and grabbed her black and yellow leather skirt to perform a perfect curtsy, but when she spoke, her tone was too provocative to just call it mischievous.

“I’m counting on you in the second round as well, Karuta. I need you to win it and give me unprecedented stream viewership numbers.”

“Is that all you wanted to say?”

“Oh, and this is more than just a magic combat tournament. Well, the students are including some aspects of a sports festival and cultural festival, but that isn’t my point.”

“?”

“My point is the tournament is only during the day, so we’re holding a dance party tonight and that girl over there got all dressed up for it. Heh heh heh. Yeah, you want to look your best if you’re going to step out into the spotlight☆”

He looked over to see the crystal girl not looking her usual self.

This was not her usual combat outfit, which was technically a dress but eliminated any sleeves or collars that an opponent could grab onto, was formfitting, and had bold slits in the skirt for easier movement. Her one-night-only party dress had the long skirt of a fairy tale princess. She also wore her hair up, which showed off the nape of her neck and made her look quite a bit different.

“Sacri-sama,” whispered Aine.

He wasn’t sure what nuance that “Sacri-sama” was meant to carry, but she did seem to be waiting for a response.

If Cinderella Queen had set this up to take the initiative against him, then she was cleverer than he had given her credit for. She made things difficult in a way different from the Problem Solvers.

Aine held out her small hand, so he saw no choice but to take it.

Cinderella Queen laughed and sent them off into the gym.

“Hmm, I know this was a surprise and you didn’t have time to change, but it doesn’t look right for the guy to still be in his school uniform. Or does a school uniform count as all-purpose formal wear? Well, either way, have fuuuun☆”

They stepped through the door to find dazzling lights.

It was well done for something thrown together so quickly. The floor was covered with low pile carpet and heavy chandeliers hung from the ceiling, giving the place a very different look. The main dance floor was in the center and tables of food were lined up along the walls. The concert band that had been playing during the match was up on the stage.

This was not a mandatory event, but there were still a lot of people in attendance. It helped that there was no strict dress code and people could use the free food as an excuse if they were too embarrassed to actually ask anyone to dance. Some middle school girls were shrieking in delight and pointing at Karuta and Aine, so he had to hope they weren’t the type to spread rumors to the entire school overnight.

The two of them began dancing to the soft classical music like a needle placed on a record.

“I didn’t know you knew how to ballroom dance,” he said to Aine.

“When it comes to coordinated movement, the two of us are second to none. Also, I just have to follow your lead.”

“Sorry. I’ll apologize in advance for when we inevitably fall down together. I swear I was born with two left feet. I will do my best not to step on your skirt, but I doubt I can do much more than that.”

“Activating relaxation mode: <Hee hee hee. Now, boy, you need to relax your shoulders more. I’m not going anywhere, so just take your time while I give you some hands-on lessons.>”

“Hey, the monotone voice kind of ruins that, you know? You really have been acting weird all day. But in this case, I get the feeling you were basing that dialogue on something.”

“I prefer to crawl into small spaces when I sleep, so three days ago on June 10 12:34 local time, I crawled under your bed and discovered-”

“Huhhhhhh!? N-no, that’s not possible. There couldn’t have been anything there! I tend to use the internet for that these days, so unless that’s been there for a while, I don’t see how…ah!?”

“…”

He realized how badly he had put his foot in his mouth when Aine glared at him with her cold, emotionless eyes. But that had also eliminated the pressure of having to ballroom dance. But instead of removing a weight from his shoulders, it was more like he had cut out a hunk of flesh with a knife to get rid of the pain from a simple scrape.

Two of the world’s strongests held each other close as they continued their private whispered discussion.

“Do not worry. I have studied up on human biological functions, so I am aware humans have an abnormal fixation on viewing the surface area of the opposite sex.”

“I’ll admit we like it when they take off their clothes so we can see everything, but it’s not the surface area that matters. I mean, I’m not about to start skinning girls and creating a collection of their flayed skin. Oh, crap, thinking up that idea only makes me sound worse, doesn’t it!?”

“?”

Come to think of it, hadn’t Aine started showing embarrassment about being seen undressed or in a swimsuit ever since the Crystal Beach incident? But he still felt like there was something off about what she was learning.

Karuta was famous(?) for moving like a cursed doll in dance class, but trying to match the rhythm of classical music was unusual for him since he normally listened to rock or techno on his phone. But if he focused too much on keeping the rhythm, he felt like he would bump into one of the other dancing couples.

While he was struggling with that, Aine whispered to him with no emotion on her face or in her voice.

“Today was full of surprises.”

“Yeah, we were focused on that one match all day long. Who set this up? If we don’t find them soon, they’re going to end up strangling us somewhere down the line.”

“…I was worried.”

“?”

He just about came to a stop with confusion on his face.

Aine, the girl who would sever his arm without a moment’s hesitation if he ordered it, had been worried?

“I could not let my guard down for a moment all day because I never knew when Miss Marika would go on a rampage. If you had lost or died, we might have seen a deadly early summer laser light show.”

“Aine, excellent work keeping her under control. You can never predict what Marika will do when she’s about to snap, so restraining her with nothing but your words might just be the most superhuman thing you’ve ever done.”

“Well, I am not human in the first place,” she replied. “You will be fighting alone again tomorrow, won’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Next time…”

Just as he pulled her crystal hips toward him, she pressed her forehead against his chest. Those horns(?) kind of hurt.

“Next time, I will make myself useful. Even if I cannot be by your side.”

“…I see.”

He smiled a little.

Evidently, she wasn’t aware that she had already accomplished that goal.

Karuta would again be the only one risking his life in the ring tomorrow, but he knew he wouldn’t be alone.

### Between the Lines 1

“Would this be the best option for today?” muttered Amaashi Marika.

She wore a short red dress glittering with sequins and high heels. She also wore a transparently thin silk shawl around her shoulders and back. She of course had plenty of accessories around her neck and wrists as well. While Aine appeared to have stepped out of an old picture book, Marika wore a modern dress that would look perfect with a small brand-name bag. But she had let the crystal girl have Karuta for tonight , so she would not get to be the star of the dance hall.

Instead of the dance floor, she was interested in the buffet lined up along the wall. Specifically, the cakes. They let you place takeout orders, so she had a few cake slices that caught her interest boxed up for her.

After leaving the dance hall, she made her way to her true destination. She walked down a hallway decorated with chains of streamers and viewed a starry sky different from Japan’s outside a window covered in cellophane cut into stars and hearts. There was also a meteor shower tonight. She glanced restlessly down at her phone to see excitement on the sports livestream channel of an online TV station.

“This is Cinderella Queen with the night’s final news report straight from Second Grimnoah, the hottest place in the world right now☆ Now…just to spice things up for this stream, I’ve actually stripped off all my clothes under that table you see on your screens right now. Tah dah!!”

“Ehh? You didn’t mention anything about that to me!?”

“Shut up, assistant! No interrupting! Now, being timely is everything for the live news, so if I fail to get through my script before I run out of time, then my cameraman will be shoving his massive camera right into my hiding place under the table. Are you ready, everyone? Make sure you have a nice, firm grip on your, uh, stopwatch and don’t you dare blink while I give you the latest news!!”

Marika walked down the school hallway and smiled bitterly at the terrible ways that show was trying to get views. She was honestly not all that worried. She had lived with Karuta ever since they had started their revenge against the Problem Solvers, but she may have seen him more like family than a friend.

If she was thinking about a friend she could completely open up around, this was who came to mind first.

“Imi, are you there?”

She knocked gently and announced her presence before opening the infirmary door.

The person seated in the stool was not who she was looking for.

“Oh?”

The silver-haired, brown-skinned magician was wearing the white officer’s uniform of the Indian navy.

It was Letnahe Kurent.

“This is a surprise. I didn’t think you were capable of this sort of kindness.”

“Oh, shut up. And aren’t you a gym teacher?”

“Technically, yes. But those skills can be used for medicine as well. I’m a specialist in the human body. The question is whether I am attempting to destroy it or heal it.”

So was she like a judo therapist? It made sense that a professional soldier would have studied the workings of the human body. But Marika was not here to chat with the new teacher.

“Where’s Imi?”

“In the back. But I don’t know if you’re going to like what you find. Oh, and if you will excuse me, I have to get started on my nighttime rounds. Tonight that means checking on Miss Hetepheres who is recovering in her room.”

With that, Letnahe stood from the stool, patted Marika on the shoulder, and left the infirmary. She may have been giving Marika privacy for what was about to happen.

“…”

Left alone, Marika walked toward the curtain. She knew there were a few beds past that partition.

“Imi,” she whispered while grabbing the curtain.

She found a large lump in one of the bed’s blankets. But she could not see the pillow. The blanket was pulled up over the occupant’s head, closing them in like a turtle shell.

She had heard this girl refused to leave the infirmary while at school, but she had not heard it was this bad. Marika’s visit must have reopened her unseen wounds. Just because Imi had made some kind of decision on the inside didn’t mean she would be making any major progress right away.

Yes, Marika had done this to her. It had been necessary to save her friend from bleeding out, but Matsuda Imi had ended up this way after Marika used her laser beam to cauterize the wound from a Threat severing her leg.

“…”

“I don’t think she’s ready yet.”

That gentle comment came from Hashizaki Tayori who was seated in a folding chair near the bed. She had been watching over her friend the entire time Karuta and the others were out there fighting for their lives.

Those three had once been the center of their class.

And Marika refused to accept that was a thing of the past.

She placed the box of cakes on the bedside table.

“I’ll be back later.”

“Please do. Keep this up and she should get used to it, little by little. She’s fighting too. Remember that and can you stay strong too, right?”

### 141. 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!!”

### 142. 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!!!!!!”

### 143. 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☆”

### 144. 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.”

### 145. 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!?”

### 146. 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.”

### 147. Part 2

The hallway was abuzz with chatter. The students in identical summer uniforms were staring down at their phones, perhaps waiting for the tournament’s official gambling service to go online. Even if it was officially sanctioned, they were oddly excited about being able to access the world of gambling through the convenience of their phones.

And the instant the opening ceremony was over, Utagai Karuta rushed to the student council room.

He was already soaked with sweat.

“What is this!? What did they do!?”

“I’m not sure either.”

The words had come from Omotesandou Kyouka’s mouth, but she shrugged like this had nothing to do with her. The gym had overpowered air conditioning to keep such a large place cool, so the weaker cooling of the student council room felt like something had malfunctioned in comparison. The president’s summer uniform blouse had sweaty see-through patches.

“I had the entire speech memorized, but I had to match what was being shown behind me, right?”

“~ ~ ~”

“Sacri-sama, that is just the kind of person Miss Kyouka is.”

He was curious about Aine’s response, but there was no point asking something like that at such a pressing time. Still, he wanted to know what kind of person the crystal girl thought the president was.

The upperclassman elegantly placed a hand on her cheek.

“It did not look like they were swapping out the video and text in real time, so was the data for the screen and prompter replaced in advance? If so, it must have been someone with direct access to the original event planning sheet stored on Second Grimnoah’s central computer.”

“Hm? Is that hard to get at?”

“Hard to say. The machine was set up by the teachers, not me. I’ve never been a fan of biometric authentication myself.”

Come to think of it, Karuta recalled Kyouka being shocked by the carelessness of the security on his phone. She looked like the old-fashioned and traditional type, but she was actually the kind of person who insisted on building her own computer. Karuta viewed her pickiness about graphics cards and memory as the computer version of the rich young wife who would only feed her child food she personally prepares using organic produce grown by a farmer she could meet herself.

But why did she bring up biometric authentication here?

“If you look at it, it must have been either me, you, or Marika-san. The lock uses our DNA and we couldn’t extract any from Aine-chan, so she can’t get past the lock screen herself.”

That last part was frightening, but it was not the point at the moment.

Did she say the only suspects were the three human members of the Four Living Gods?

“Are you suggesting I would go to the trouble of creating a ruleset that gets me slaughtered on a global livestream? I’m barely different from a normal high school boy without Aine!”

“I wouldn’t either. I assume you know me well enough to know I wouldn’t send you to your death like this.”

“Should I list the multiple past events that would lead him to think you would do just that?” asked Aine.

Kyouka shrugged that one off without protest.

She brushed her hair off her shoulder and continue speaking.

“Needless to say, none of us would benefit from doing this. That means someone found a vulnerability in our security and broke in. I don’t know how difficult that would be since I didn’t build this system myself. I intend to look into the hardware and software side of this, but I can’t guarantee you I will find the culprit and put a stop to this anytime soon.”

“Sacri-sama. If Miss Kyouka cannot do this, shouldn’t we assume no one can track them down?”

Some artificial means had set things in motion to make the Four Living Gods suffer. A strange weight bore down on Karuta’s shoulders.

“Could this be the human string-pullers?” he asked carefully.

“It’s too soon to say. It could be some country’s military cyber team or it could be a group of anonymous hackers. We’ve made ourselves such a conspicuous target that there are as many suspects across the world as there are stars in the sky. They could be motivated by a grudge, hoping to profit in some way, or just think it’s funny. For all we know, their reasons for targeting us aren’t even true. I just hope I can work out some personal characteristics while analyzing the method used for this prank .”

“Also, who ever said the Threat can’t use human tools, Karuta? Aine-chan isn’t human either and she could play the piano or use a phone if you taught her how. Of course, you would need to know how to teach first,” cheerfully added Amaashi Marika.

But the two girls were only listing off possibilities and they were both focusing on the same thing Karuta was. They all knew the most likely suspect here.

The human string-pullers.

Letnahe Kurent had been sent to Second Grimnoah as their vanguard, but Kyouka had somehow managed to get her cooperation as a double agent. Thanks to that, Kyouka was supposed to have all the spoilers in advance, yet she had still been caught by surprise. Someone had slipped past their defenses even though they had a double agent in place. It was unlikely they could find the identity of this person by questioning Letnahe. This was a dangerous submarine of a person who could lurk under the surface until the time came to strike.

“Hello, hello, hello! Delane here with another announcement as the super cute Cinderella Queen.”

Someone was making a lot of noise on the video site displayed on the student council room’s computer monitor.

Cinderella Queen was a girl of about 10 with sky silver hair, but she called herself a free net idol. She wore a dress with a wide skirt just like a storybook princess, but the dangerous black and yellow colors and the bulky leather belts strapped all over it clashed with the fairy tale look. Her young age made the wide open back and plunging neckline seem a lot harsher than they would on a fully-grown idol still trying to act all pretty and pure. For that matter, the fishnet stockings just looked wrong on a 10-year-old. And at that age, heels that high weren’t so much sexy as they made you worry about the development of her bones.

Delane winked toward the camera before continuing.

“In this magic combat tournament, 15 magicians who passed the grueling preliminaries around the world will battle each other plus Utagai Karuta of the Four Living Gods, rumored to be the world’s strongest! A real magic show is just the thing to snap you out of the boredom of real life☆ Now, will someone drag the champion from his throne and claim the title of strongest for themselves, or will the world’s strongest mercilessly slaughter all of these insolent challengers? Only one way to find out!!”

The first round would include 8 one-on-one battles.

And the tournament bracket would narrow down like a house for cards from there.

But that crucial bracket remained entirely blank. No names or photos were displayed. Everyone knew Utagai Karuta was one of them and the staff had let him know he would be fighting in the first round’s seventh match, but he knew nothing at all about who his opponent would be.

He couldn’t imagine how he could win.

Plus, this tournament was officially allowing people to gamble. Not revealing who was fighting who until the very last second was bound to affect the online placing of bets, so why do this?

“Omotesandou-san, do you think this is one of the ‘accidents’ we heard always happen during the Catastrophe?”

“It’s probably a showbusiness thing. They know they’ll make the most money from your battles since you’re the current world’s strongest. So if word got out you would be fighting in Round 1 Match 1, most people wouldn’t bother buying viewership tickets for the other matches. So by hiding that information, anyone who wants to make sure they see your match is forced to buy tickets for all eight matches. I bet that’s their official reason, anyway.”

“You mean there’s a possibility of an ulterior motive there?”

“If you don’t need any evidence to back it up, then almost anything is a possibility . Maybe the string-pullers are actually aliens wearing human skin and maybe Cinderella Queen is actually your long lost little sister.”

If they started blaming everything that didn’t go their way on the human string-pullers, all they had was a conspiracy theory. Karuta told himself to maintain the proper balance in his head. Because he knew about three sad and inexperienced avengers who had once destroyed themselves in a snowy hell by suspecting the people they should have trusted most.

He clapped his hands together.

“New topic. It looks like the only path forward is for me to fight and win this on my own. If I find an excuse to forfeit or we make a last-minute change from me to Marika, it would only breed unnecessary anxiety and speculation. Any doubts at all are dangerous right now. I don’t know who did this, but the most effective way to overcome their malice is to win this fair and square. …Cowards like us should understand that all too well, right?”

“What do you want?” asked Kyouka.

Karuta quickly formed a list in his mind.

The mysterious Threat were not the only foe they had fought. After taking on the Problem Solvers, they knew what dirty battles between humans were like.

After taking a deep breath to refocus his mind, he relayed the list to Kyouka.

“First, I want data on my opponent in the first round. The more the better. After all, I don’t even know their name or what they look like.”

That was the most basic and crucial of things. He had learned in the battles against Elicia and Yukino that information was the most powerful weapon. He had no chance at survival if he was thrown into the ring without knowing the first thing about his opponent.

Was digging up information in advance unfair? Karuta scoffed at the lingering speck of goodness inside himself.

He couldn’t forget that he was the famous world’s strongest. His opponent would have all the information they could want on him. Crystal magic might be enshrouded in mystery, but it had been captured on many a camera during the largescale battle near the Port of Kobe the other day. Humans were not so kind. If his opponent had strategic data on the Four Living Gods, it would be unfair if Karuta had to go in blind.

Plus…

“If I have to fight alone in a ring that makes trickery difficult, we need to boost my own skills. What can we do there? I want to know the specific rules…and use those to search for loopholes. For example, it sounds like you can bring in a magic wand or broom for these magic battles, but if you can bring your own weapons, what about a gun or bomb?”

“Only if that weapon is necessary for the activation of your magic,” smoothly explained Kyouka.

That answer scared him because it meant he might find himself up against just such an opponent. The most he could do was repair nonlethal wounds with crystal and there was no cover in the ring. A single bullet to the head would kill him just as much as an ordinary person.

“But you would have a hard time of claiming that yourself. This tournament is meant to put people at ease by demonstrating that the Four Living Gods really do possess the strongest power. Do you think the people watching in their living rooms will be put at ease if you just pull out a hidden handgun and fire a bullet into your opponent’s chest?”

“I’m not sure I can survive this at all and you want me to think about the effect on the viewer at home?”

This was a demand entirely separate from the battle itself.

When you discovered that professional wrestling was an independent system born in 19th century circuses, it gave you an idea of how difficult an act it was. Professional wrestlers put their lives at risk to entertain an audience, just like the trapeze artists and lion tamers. The wrestlers who had dedicated their lives to that field could not just go on a chaotic rampage; they had to demonstrate the beauty of combat for the audience. That was not something a high schooler could learn to do overnight.

Working to win beautifully was the opposite of an ugly struggle to survive. This was quite possibly the worst handicap for him.

But Kyouka did not sound remotely worried.

“If all you’re interested in doing is surviving, then you could call in a fake bomb threat and get the tournament canceled. But you won’t do that. You understand the danger of the social unrest running rampant across the world. You know the Threat aren’t the only ones that can kill humans.”

He had no rebuttal for that one.

He had already accepted that he had to win this despite being placed at a severe disadvantage. If he didn’t make that result convincing, it would only lead to unnecessary bloodshed.

Justice and fear were powerful explosives. And frustration was like oil dumped onto that small fire. The looting and riots rooted in the same anxieties as bulk-buying were a bad sign.

“Okay, you can be in charge of the electronic paperwork, Omotesandou-san. If they need to meet certain conditions to bring a weapon with them, then they must submit a request explaining that weapon and the magic that requires it, right?”

“ Yes, but that data could always have been altered. Still, it’s worth checking – just don’t place too much trust in it. It’s only a rough estimate.”

“Then Aine and Marika can scout out my opponent to make that information more reliable. Check with your own two eyes to see if anything contradicts the paperwork.”

“Understood, Sacri-sama.”

“…”

“Now, Marika? I’m only asking you to scout them out. Do not – I repeat, do not – put on a mask and attack them in their dressing room to injure them and force them to drop out of the fight. I’m serious here. I’m not winking and I’m not nodding, okay!?”

“I get it, childhood friend. Sheesh, you don’t trust me at all, do you? And are you sure you should put all three of us on intel duty? Don’t you need someone to train you?”

Aine and Marika had such absurd mobility that secret training from them would be entirely meaningless, but he wasn’t about to say that out loud. His physical abilities were the same as an ordinary high schooler. He couldn’t fly and he couldn’t boost himself with what amounted to a powered suit of crystal armor. He couldn’t accomplish anything if his expectations were unrealistic, so he had to focus on what an indoorsy high schooler could manage on short notice.

His would be the 7th and penultimate match of the day, but that still gave him less than 6 hours to work with. Anything that wouldn’t bear fruit in that timespan was wasted effort. He readily admitted he was weak, so he would instead ask for a secret technique that even a powerless human could use.

“I guess I should either ask Natalena or Letnahe for help. That woman is from the military, isn’t she? She’s like a global online store where you can buy deadly techniques for ordinary people at the click of a button.”

### 148. Part 2

The bed creaked and shook a little.

Then something felt wrong near his eyelids.

“Sacri-sama.”

A familiar voice reached Karuta’s ear, but his mind could not figure out what was going on.

“Sacri-sama, it is morning. You need to wake up.”

“Nh, huh?”

He tried to shake his oddly heavy head.

When he finally opened his eyes, he found Aine’s face unusually close by. Her silver hair was hanging down and tickling his cheeks. She appeared to have crawled up onto his bed like a puppy begging to play on a weekend morning.

Her breath was sweet. Despite her favorite food being pure gold.

“Good morning, Sacri-sama.”

“I had the second-to-last match yesterday, so if they follow the tournament bracket, my match today should be in the latter half – so in the afternoon. I still have time, so just let me get some more sleep.”

“Sleep would be useful, but that thing is buzzing. It refuses to stop.”

Crawling Aine pointed to where his phone was charging on the bedside table.

“That can’t be good.”

“Agreed. But doesn’t it mean things are already underway?”

He sighed and grabbed his phone without getting up.

He had received a short message.

“Stardust (for tournament staff only): The match order has been changed. Mr. Utagai, please report to the contestant waiting room. Your match will begin soon.”

After a moment, he clicked his tongue, left the messaging app, and made an actual phone call.

But not to the tournament staff.

“Hello, hello, hello! This is Cinderella Queen’s work phone. What do you need?”

“You have a private and a work phone, Delane? Anyway, what is going on? I was sure my match would be in the afternoon. Have all the other matches ended almost immediately or something?”

“Oh, that. No, this is purely a show business thing.”

Cinderella Queen’s light tone made him wonder if she was really aware his life was on the line here.

“As I’m sure you are aware, Karuta, the majority of the focus on the tournament is centered on you. Some want to see you win and others want to see you suffer a humiliating defeat. So we can’t let people think your matches will always be in the afternoon. Then no one would bother watching the morning ones, right?”

“…”

“So who fights who is still following the original bracket, but we’ve shuffled around when your matches will be. That way the audience can’t let their guard down for a second. Now, this is a gamble for us too. We’re using up your valuable match in the morning. But if we didn’t do that, it would only spread the impression that we’re going through the boring matches in the morning. We need to make this risky move to keep everyone on their toes☆”

This was more bad news for Karuta.

Without much time before his match, he wouldn’t be able to gather much information on his opponent.

(Damn. How much were the string pullers involved in this decision? The problem is this could be exactly what Delane says it is – no conspiracy required.)

“Anyway, give us another good fight today. Whether you survive or die on the mat, make sure you put on a real show to give me lots and lots of viewers.”

“Which match is mine?”

“Round 2 Match 2.”

“Oh, hell. That’s the very next one!!”

He hung up and got out of bed. He would only have time to shower and change, not even to eat breakfast.

“What should I do?” asked Aine.

“For now, give me whatever information you have on my opponent and then continue gathering more! This isn’t like before! All of the contestants fought in Round 1, so that analysis should be a lot easier!!”

He spoke quickly while grabbing a notepad from the bedside table and jotting down a quick list with a ballpoint pen.

- Basic data, such as opponent’s name, sex, age, height, and weight

- Background information, such as education level, religion, occupation, and combat experience

- Any martial arts, magic, etc. they specialize in

- What kind of equipment they will have with them and what kind of magic it uses

“Listen, Aine. We don’t have time for you to investigate everything, so focus on getting me just these things for now.”

“Understood. But I cannot guarantee I can find all of this on such short notice.”

“?”

That was unusually vague for cold and mechanical Aine.

Unlike the first round, they would have match footage for everyone this time. This was an international tournament being viewed the world over. Just by pausing that and viewing it in slow motion, they would be able to gather so much more information so much faster than before. (Of course, Karuta’s opponent could analyze him in the same way.)

“We have no footage to use.”

He wasn’t sure what she could mean by that.

He grabbed his phone again.

“Hold on. But this year’s Catastrophe is being streamed worldwide! And there are more than a million spectator drones flying around!! How in the world could there be no footage to analyze!?”

Aine did not tilt her head.

That told him this was not even a mystery to her.

“According to Miss Kyouka, that global livestreaming is in fact the problem. The broadcaster that spent so much money for the broadcast rights cannot have phone and drone footage spreading freely across the internet, so special protections have been added to the remote audience’s viewing data. They can watch it real-time, but they cannot save or upload the footage, meaning none of it can be found on ordinary video sites.”

“But what about the broadcaster’s site? We can just use the officially released-!!”

“They have been having server trouble since last night,” answered Aine before he was even done with his question.

Refusing to believe this, he tapped at his phone several times, but it was true. He could open the official site’s top page, but he would either get an error message or nothing at all when he tried to go any deeper. Searching for and playing those high-quality videos was completely out of the question.

“They claim to have underestimated the traffic they would receive as the only global source, but the truth of the matter is unknown. Miss Kyouka said it might be a DDoS attack disguised as no more than heavy traffic.”

Karuta held a hand to his forehead.

Another bad coincidence. But it wasn’t enough to prove the human string pullers were behind this or to track them down. He wanted to suspect every new thing that happened, but if he took that too far, he would succumb to paranoia. Which was exactly what the string pullers wanted.

Some of his classmates might have seen the previous day’s matches, but he had no time. If he couldn’t directly ask his friends, any information would be at least thirdhand: Classmate -> Aine -> Karuta. Could he really get accurate information through that game of telephone? Thinking he knew the answer could only end badly. In a deadly battle where mere moments could be the difference between life and death, an inaccurate idea could lead directly to his death.

With information of dubious accuracy, he would have no idea what was useful and what was a landmine. That would only get him killed.

Even if his classmates were legitimately trying to help.

(So malice isn’t all I have to watch out for. What a pain.)

He sighed.

“Then we’ll just have to deal with it. Aine, go out and directly gather whatever information you can find for that list I gave you. Knowing what exactly it is we don’t know is a useful strategy too. If I only have one or two blanks left, I can focus on getting those things out of them during the match.”

“That I can do,” said Aine. “Athabaskan Rio Grande. Age: 27. Sex: male. According to Miss Kyouka’s official paperwork, he is registered as a Native American shaman.”

“So the people famous for their tomahawks and gunstock war clubs? I can’t really picture what kind of martial arts someone like that would use. But if they have their own unique weapons, they must have their own ways of using them.”

“Correct. Although your conception appears to be drawn from all across North America. But you need to focus on the occult, not the martial arts. That means his native magic. He apparently uses totem curses, but the details are unknown. I will focus on that in my continued investigation.”

“Got it. Then I’ll just have to fill in the rest of the blanks in the ring.”

Kyouka had the paperwork, but he was short on time. He couldn’t read through a stack of papers thicker than the phonebook at this point.

Once he met this man in the ring, he would be able to see his basic physical attributes and what equipment he had. And Aine had announced she would look into the magical details. It scared Karuta to not know how big or muscular this man was, but he really needed to focus on any secret martial arts.

“I don’t have time for breakfast, but I should still take a shower since I’ll be on camera. …Wait, where’s my towel?”

“In here.”

“Wait, Aine- gwah! Wh-why are you crawling inside me!?”

He shouted, but the crystal girl had already bent over at the hips and stuck her head into him near the navel. After some rummaging around, she pulled out a large towel. Karuta and Aine were linked. Technically speaking, she was the crystal armor that emerged from within a crystal magician’s body, but she had lately started using the space inside him as a second room for herself.

Trying to explain why this bothered him was meaningless since she wasn’t human, so he sighed, accepted the towel, and walked to the bathroom.

He didn’t have time to fill the tub, so he took a hot shower instead. And then it occurred to him.

“Wait. Aine, why did you have my towel? Isn’t that space inside me where you go for privacy?”

He heard an odd crashing sound beyond the door.

This was unusual. Had Miss Unbeatable Swordswoman tripped and fallen?

“Um, Aine?”

“Nothing is wrong. I am not flustered. Everything is perfectly normal.”

She stopped him from asking anything, so he responded while massaging his shampoo-covered head with his palms.

“Well, as long as you weren’t sleeping with it wrapped around you or something. Not that you would do that. You’re not a kitten that can’t sleep without curling up inside some clothing covered in its master’s scent.”

He heard an even louder crash from beyond the door.

“???”

He went to the effort of using conditioner, quickly dried his hair with the hairdryer, and donned his sports shirt and short-sleeved dress shirt.

He left the bathroom to find Aine inexplicably down on all fours with her small butt sticking out toward him and her head looking back at him over her shoulder.

If he didn’t know better, he would have thought she was trembling with tears in the corners of her eyes and a flush in her cheeks.

“Sacri-sama,” said the crystal girl in her mechanical way. “I have heard human culture includes a process known as confession.”

“Sorry, but I don’t have time for that. And I’m not a priest, so I don’t know how it’s done.”

Karuta checked the remaining battery and the heft of his modified military flashlight before sticking it in his pocket to finish his preparations. Aine slowly stood up, straightened her back, and lowered her head in an impeccable bow.

“Take care.”

“I will. But don’t forget one thing,” he replied while they left his dorm room. “ Someone out there is using this tournament to get at us. They must have set things up to get me killed in the ring, so don’t assume you’re safe just because you aren’t in the ring too. In fact, those behind-the-scenes areas are their hunting ground. Same as us.”

He parted ways with the crystal girl.

They each had their own battles to fight.

They were not alone by any means, but they could not immediately come to the other’s rescue if anything happened.

If he hoped to survive the day, he had to fight for himself.

(Now, back to that cell of a waiting room.)

“Ah!”

He heard a quiet shriek when he turned a corner after avoiding the school’s rock band carrying their instruments.

He had nearly run into someone coming the other way.

“S-s-s-sorry! Huh!? Are you Utagai Karuta!!!???”

“ Hello. You do know visitors aren’t allowed in this area, don’t you? ”

He reflexively switched over to his public mode.

He did not recognize this small girl. She wore her black hair in a bob cut and she was dressed in a light green – maybe even a yellowish-green – kimono. She was even shorter than Aine and he wasn’t sure if she always wore a kimono or if she was dressed up for a special occasion. Either way, that had to be hot in this equatorial region where most girls had their tanned midriffs showing. The hat on her head was the only thing she had to fight the sun.

She had some tears in her eyes as she explained why she was here.

“Um, I was looking for my sister, but I’ve never been on such a confusing ship before. You said I’m not allowed here, but where is here exactly?”

“I see. Then follow me. But next time you get lost, just ask a tournament staff or a teacher for help. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Letnahe soon arrived after hearing the commotion, so he left the girl with her (since she was technically a teacher).

And the gym teacher whispered to him so the kimono girl couldn’t hear.

“(Are you sure you can do this? You don’t look very prepared.)”

“(I’ll make it work. Because I’m dead if I don’t.)”

That was all he said before continuing on to the contestant waiting room.

With the sunlight pouring down on the broad deck, the whole place looked inappropriately bright. A metal container sat there. That was the temporary room that would carry him to the cage of death. He opened the double doors, stepped inside, and locked it from the inside, blocking his view of anything outside.

He sat in the chair bolted to the floor.

The order of the matches had been shuffled around, so he had not had any time for investigation. He had to go into his fight against Athabaskan Rio Grande, a specialist in Native American curses, very nearly blind.

(I can do this.)

He felt his balance shift.

The tiltrotor must have lifted the container with a thick wire.

(Remember how cheap and underhanded you can be. Reinstall your identity as the boy who will swallow mud if it gets him what he wants. After going through hell to reach this point, I’m not going to let anything else defeat me now.)

He felt a low tremor below his feet. He had arrived. A cold announcement came over the speaker installed on the wall.

“Your match will begin shortly. Mr. Utagai, please step out into the ring.”

“…”

He stood up from the chair and walked to the double doors.

His second deadly match was about to begin.

He opened the door to see the blue sky, cumulonimbus clouds, and the scorching sunshine.

Cheerleaders and drink sellers in swimsuits were located here and there in the stands.

This morning match felt wrong in a different way from the yesterday’s afternoon one. Karuta grimaced at the deluge of light and sound that hit him, but then an even louder boom came from the gondola supported by a crane.

“Once again, I, Cinderella Queen, will be providing the commentary☆ I’m showing off my super-cute nurse costume today, so if you get a limb blown off, I’ll make sure to kiss it and make it better! And without further ado, I’ll introduce you to Round 2 Match 2’s contestants.”

The child commentator with bluish-silver hair was being her usual edgy self.

She directed the crowd’s attention toward Karuta first.

“First up, we have one of the Four Living Gods – the guy willing to play dirty to cling to his position as the world’s strongest! Now, which is louder – the voices calling for him to win, or the ones calling for him to go down? He’s one of the world’s cutting edge crystal magicians – it’s Utagaaai Kaarutaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

Cinderella Queen must have been responding to popular demand based on an analysis of the many comments posted on the official streaming site (perhaps from people who had lost their bets in the first round) because she was being a lot harsher than yesterday.

But none of it actually got through to Karuta. Because he had something much more horrifying in front of him. Even he could tell his pupils were narrowing down.

(Oh, damn.)

“Next, we have the man who conquered his first deadly battle by becoming the ultimate weapon. This Native American crossed the deserts of North America to make it here today and his totem curses can bend nature’s power to his will, but is that really enough to defeat the highly artificial crystal magic?”

( Really? That’s what we’re doing here!? )

“This charming modern mercenary is rocking a thick bulletproof vest and a mobility-boosting leg powered suit with a 12-gauge shotgun accessory that really brings the ensemble together. It’s Athabaskaaaaaan Rio Grandeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!”

Karuta heard the unique metallic sound of a firearm.

He had to play the role of the strongest to avoid a global explosion of social unrest, so he could not escape this ring. He gulped as silently as possible and lifted the detonating cord ropes to climb into the ring. Then the poles in the corners glowed red to announce the explosives were switched on. The deadly cage had been shut behind him.

Athabaskan Rio Grande.

The muscular black-haired man had to be at least 180cm tall. He looked like a mass of muscles roughly carved from heavy stone.

Plus, that body was protected by a cutting-edge black bulletproof vest with plenty of belts and pouches holding spare ammo and grenades. He even wore machines on his legs to mechanically boost their abilities.

He was a Native American.

He used totem curses.

Karuta had been misled by that information. Whoever his opponents were and whatever magic they might use, they were still residents of the modern world. That meant they could use everything human civilization had developed.

That pitch black shotgun made of a special alloy and plastic looked far too sinister in a ring of only 20m. And if Cinderella Queen hadn’t just made it up to make things sound more exciting, then it was a 12 gauge. That was the ultimate weapon found in zombie movies. A direct hit from that at close range would tear his torso in two without even giving him a chance to regenerate.

“Oh, hey,” continued Cinderella Queen. “What’s this it says the shotgun is loaded with? Triple aught f- oh, that’s a ‘b’. Boring.”

“Triple aught buck refers to the size of the shot used,” explained Kyouka. “This is the largest, not counting slugs, so Utagai needs to be careful if he wants to avoid being filled with holes.”

Karuta’s only weapon was the flashlight he could use as a club. With some exceptions like Aine or Marika, seeing and then blocking a bullet flying at supersonic speeds would require a miracle (in the sense that it would require dumb luck). With a shotgun that sent out a shower of deadly pellets, it was wholly impossible. He could not hope to defend himself.

Plus, that was not just a shotgun.

It was the trigger to activate some more powerful magic, just like a witch’s wand or crystal ball.

The man’s goggles had a feather decoration drawn on the side and his leg powered suit had a distinctive tattoo pattern drawn on it. Those things felt out of place to Karuta, but Athabaskan had managed to perfectly bring together tradition and technology.

Karuta tried his best to keep the tremor out of his voice.

“Well, I can’t exactly complain about this. We protect ourselves with crystal armor and use that to fly. Weapons and enhancements are nothing new.”

“…”

(Are you kidding me? He isn’t just holding his tongue – he isn’t blinking and his breathing is perfectly steady. This is bad. Really bad! This guy’s a real pro . Provoking him isn’t going to get anything out of him!!)

Karuta worked to keep his panic from showing.

The president spoke from the commentator’s booth with Delane.

“Anyone who analyzed the first round will know that attacking ahead of the bell isn’t enough to take down Utagai Karuta, so I’m curious to see what Athabaskan Rio Grande has planned. And of course, dealing with that shotgun will be Utagai’s first order of business. But if he focuses too much on that, the magic will do him in.”

“I see. So both contestants have a problem to solve here. And simple problems like this are the best because the audience can follow what’s happening! Now, let’s ring that bell. Oh, and Karuta? No attacking ahead of the bell. This is my time to shine, so I don’t want some filthy guy getting in the way!!”

They stood in the center of the ring.

They were only 5m apart.

That was basically right in front of each other with a pump-action shotgun. A shotgun fired several shots in a trumpet-like spread, so it was much more powerful at close range. This close, he would probably be torn apart even if he had specialized bulletproof gear.

“Now, let’s get Round 2 Match 2 started. All together now!! Three, two, oooone!!”

Unbeknownst to the audience, Karuta’s heart was hammering in his chest.

If he was being honest, he had not at all anticipated a shotgun. He had no plan at all!!

“Fight!!”

Did the metal gong sound even reach Karuta’s ears?

His opponent did not immediately fire his shotgun. Instead, he threw a metal can larger than a shotgun shell. More the size of an energy drink can.

(A grenade!?)

Karuta’s throat went dry.

His only chance was to knock the thing outside the ring with his flashlight.

He readied himself, but the grenade bounced off the mat weirdly.

A metal can was not a perfectly round ball.

“Geh!”

White smoke burst from it.

Tobacco played an important role in Native American rituals. They excelled in using all sorts of herbs.

“A smoke grenade!?” protested Delane. “But now we can’t see!! Do you have any idea how valuable these broadcast rights are, Athabaskan!!!???”

There was no way this would end with only a smokescreen.

The Native American warrior worked as a mercenary and he was holding a powerful shotgun. He was bound to aim for Karuta through the smoke. His own smoke kept him from aiming accurately, but if he fired in the general direction of the vague silhouette he could see, he could still fatally wound Karuta.

Karuta felt the terror of being unable to see while a gunshot could come at any moment.

He started to get down on the mat, but then a voice inside him whispered in his mind.

Can you really risk your own life and the fate of the world you saved on something as unreliable as common sense?

“!?”

He broke free of his instincts and stopped himself from dropping to the mat on reflex.

An explosion immediately followed, but he felt no pain.

He had jumped to the side, but that hadn’t really mattered.

Athabaskan had aimed down at the mat and fired. That had prevented the shot from spreading and gouged a large hole in the soft mat.

If Karuta had followed his common sense – the least trustworthy thing in this garbage world – and gotten down on the mat, that would have blasted his head off or torn through his chest.

Doing things the sensible way would get him killed. The “comment sense” result of this matchup was his death, so he had to try something else if he hoped to survive.

His heart was running wild in his chest.

Athabaskan Rio Grande broke through his own white smokescreen to charge toward his opponent.

Karuta could follow the man’s movements with his eyes, but a high schooler’s reflexes were not enough for his arms and legs to keep up.

He had experienced this same thing while sparring against a professional solider like Letnahe Kurent. The man attempted to press the black glistening pump-action shotgun’s muzzle against the bottom of Karuta’s chin. Smoothly knocking the barrel aside with his flashlight and shining the powerful laser in the man’s eyes was beyond Karuta’s abilities. His body could not keep up with moves straight out of an action movie!!

He was supposed to focus on his opponent’s defenses instead of his own attacks, making sure he always had two options at any one moment. That was how a professional ensured they could hit and silence their opponent. He understood all that intellectually, but there was only so much his body could do while he felt frozen in time like this.

So he only had one option left.

“Ohhh!!”

Without hesitation, he placed his palm over the shotgun’s muzzle and grasped it tight.

An explosion followed.

Athabaskan had pulled the trigger and the shotgun had shattered Karuta’s thin barrier and blasted his left hand into smithereens. Each of his fingers flew through the air, disturbingly intact while they crystallized.

But.

With his hand in the way, the shot had failed to destroy his skull. Tearing through his flesh and bouncing off his bone had shifted the distribution of the shot just enough. He clenched his teeth at the burning pain while his woozy mind confirmed that he had in fact survived.

The crowd screamed at the grotesque scene, but he did not.

His wound was already crystallizing.

(30 seconds!! Then I’ll have my hand back!!)

Shotguns had a lot of recoil. Not even the professional mercenary could suppress the impact sent back into his shoulder, so there was a lag of less than a second before he could slide the forend below the barrel and load the next round.

Karuta did not have time to sit around and think through it all.

He slammed his forehead into his opponent’s nose.

He poured all of his strength into the attack. Or he thought he had. But Athabaskan did not even lose his balance, much less go down.

This man was trained in a way Karuta simply wasn’t.

(He held his ground?)

But that long shotgun was not suited for such close quarters, so the mercenary swept Karuta’s legs out from under him to knock him down. Karuta could not land properly when he was missing one hand and held a flashlight in the other.

Athabaskan pinned Karuta down with a foot on his gut, pulled back the forend to expel the empty cartridge from the side, and aimed the shotgun straight down at the boy’s face. The professional stayed true to his tactics.

“!!”

Karuta shined his blinding laser up along the shotgun’s sight and twisted his body with all his might. When the man shook his head to get the powerful IR beam out of his eyes, his weight shifted enough to release some of the force on Karuta’s stomach.

Karuta rolled to the side at the exact moment the shotgun went off.

The point-blank blast was powerful, but that also meant the shot hit the floor and stopped before it could spread out. Karuta should have escaped outside the deadly blast’s range by then.

But he felt burning pain across his entire right half.

The floor had exploded at the center of the shotgun blast. This was not just a secondary effect like the mat material being sent outwards by the shotgun’s destructive force. The explosion came with bluish-white flames. It was clearly some form of attack.

Karuta kept rolling and protected his left hand. His regeneration could heal any wound, but if the crystal was shattered before then, that part would never heal. He was a step away from disaster here.

“Gahhh!?”

“Oh, was that some kind of magic?” asked Delane. “Or was it a modern weapon?”

“I believe it was magic. Since it is activated by a gunshot, it must be single use. He uses a totem for his curses, which in Japanese terms is something like your clan’s ancestors or your clan’s guardian spirit.”

“Hey, uh, I’m not Japanese, you know? But do you mean totem as in a totem pole?”

“Yes. They tend to depict wild animals like wolves, bears, buffalos, or eagles, but some native groups use totems depicting phenomena or objects, such as a stomachache or flowers. That means a totem that causes explosions is perfectly plausible. Maybe it represents a volcanic eruption?”

His entire right side felt stiff.

Protecting his left hand was the least of his worries now. His body was covered in crystals.

He managed to put some distance between them and stood up on unsteady legs, but then he noticed a flashing light out of the corner of his eye. That was a signal from Aine or Marika in the stands.

He converted the flashing light into Japanese.

(Progress report: Athabaskan uses his shotgun shells as totem poles to construct his magic.)

Unlike a normal handgun or assault rifle, Karuta had heard shotgun ammo was lined up inside a tube below the barrel. And lined up like that, they would indeed create something like a pole.

(He draws on the magical power of the symbols carved into the side of the shells, allowing him to-)

“50m SSW. Floor 3 Zone B3.”

“!?”

Without warning, the Native American mercenary’s lips moved while he slowly readied his pump-action shotgun.

“And 45m NE. Floor 3 Zone C8. I can see your hidden troops. And for a professional warfighter, a handgun has a range of 180m. This qualifies as close range.”

(Aine is pretty obvious, but Marika is the laser sniping specialist who shot Elicia in the head. But I only know that because I’m her childhood friend. How did he see through her at first sight like that!?)

The shotgun barrel rose up a few meters away.

The promised 30 seconds arrived at the same time.

Once his left hand was back to normal, he swung his arm horizontally. The unneeded crystal shards flew out in an expanding cloud to blind Athabaskan.

He still pulled the trigger, but needing to turn his head to protect his eyes threw off his aim. While the storm of hot metal tore through the air, Karuta clenched his teeth, ducked low, and charged toward the man.

Athabaskan pulled the forend back. For some reason, he did it twice, ejecting an unused shotgun shell to the floor.

The mercenary’s solid footwork was exactly what Karuta had hoped for. He spread his left hand and jabbed it against the man’s thigh. Specifically, into the joint of the powered suit that enhanced his leg strength.

With a horrific grinding and cracking sound, Karuta’s fingers were crushed like they were caught in the hinge of a heavy metal door.

He only had to bear with the pain and he could drive a wedge into the machine’s joint.

With the crystallized fingers keeping the one leg from moving, Athabaskan placed his weight on his other leg. That was when Karuta slammed his flashlight against it with his right hand. The horizontal blow to the ankle sent the mercenary’s leg sliding out from under him.

Another shot.

The shotgun went off, but an accidental shot while falling was not going to hit Karuta.

They both collapsed to the mat and began grappling.

Athabaskan’s shotgun was shocking, but since his totem pole was created from the totem shells contained within the gun, he could not freely mix and match the symbols on the fly. If he misread the situation, he had to slide the forend to eject the unneeded shell and move on to the next arrangement.

Karuta’s objective was to remove the shotgun from the battle. Whatever was in the tube, the man couldn’t use his magic if he lost the gun itself.

Karuta’s rational side swiftly reached that conclusion, but the rest of him noticed something else. He saw the glint of something other than a grenade on the equipment belt strapped across Athabaskan’s chest.

It was pink and shaped like a small egg.

(A child’s…emergency buzzer?)

That had no business being on a professional mercenary whose life depended on his camouflage.

A moment later, a totem explosion caught Karuta by surprise.

And this one did not even come from the shotgun.

### 149. 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!!”

### 150. 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.

### 151. Part 3

With that, we arrive back at the present.

Utagai Karuta hesitantly looked up at the bottom of the giant heliport being used as the tournament stage.

The people couldn’t be allowed to see the world’s strongest working so hard, but no one would expect to find anything hidden so close to the action. Tightly locking up the gym and training there would have roused much more suspicion. According to the president, the best hiding places were also the easiest to guess, which was why everyone always checked below the bed or in the attic. He really wished she wouldn’t grin and ask him if he knew what she meant, though.

The beam that had blasted a desert island and an ocean wind power plant was burned into his retinas as an afterimage. Was the audience safe? If something like that hit Karuta head on, he would be vaporized before the regeneration could even begin.

“Whoa, now who saw that coming?” said the commentator.

But it wasn’t the great power of the magic that scared him.

It was how everyone accepted it as normal.

“Eikele Tir-na-Nog was not in fact vaporized! She used her magic to blend into the background while the bright beam hid her from view and she just got a solid hit in on the back of the Valkyrie’s head when her guard was dowwwwwwwwn!!!!!!!”

The crowd cheered, shaking the entire 600m triple hull ship.

No one seemed bothered by the bloodshed.

They were simply boiling over with this new form of excitement.

“Yikes. What is this, Ancient Greece? The fighters and the audience aren’t remotely bothered by the killing, are they?”

“Magical battle already don’t feel real to most people, they’re officially allowed to bet on the matches, and this is a big festival separated from their everyday lives. It isn’t uncommon for bloodshed and property damage to be accepted on special days, like Spain’s running of the bulls or Japan’s cart-pulling festival,” explained Letnahe with a composed expression.

“Is that how it works?”

“I know Japan dives into the frigid midwinter ocean or rolls down a hill on giant logs, but India has its fair share of bizarre festivals too.”

She grabbed the chest of her baggy t-shirt to wipe the sweat from her face, but she also kept her arms and legs gently moving during her break so her breathing rhythm never left combat mode. She was probably also intentionally controlling the movements of her internal organs, but Karuta couldn’t see that part. The watch synced with her phone was beeping to alert her of an error.

“You must face them with almost no magic and then win the entire Catastrophe. Once in the ring, no one can help you. Fortunately, your round one match is #7, which puts it near the end of the afternoon matches, so you still have time. Repeat this training and prove just how much someone can accomplish if they truly want to win. The more you know, the more you can respond to.”

“Um, Letnahe-san? Are you enjoying this by any chance?”

“I can’t deny I have some pent-up frustrations and humiliation regarding crystal magic. Mostly thanks to a certain Student Council President I could mention.”

She really did beat him up.

He sparred with her for about two hours until lunchtime, but she was a professional soldier. He had never stood a chance in a direct one-on-one fight. It ended without him ever getting a real counterattack in. All he had learned was that his paper-thin barrier was entirely useless.

He had received the very un-teacherly comment that the regeneration was useful “because I can punch you in the face over and over and never leave any blood or bruises.” But since he was going to be livestreamed around the world as the world’s strongest it probably was best that he didn’t show up with a split lip and a black eye.

And Letnahe had not given him a break at lunchtime because she was hungry.

“Senpai.”

A small girl approached him while he was sprawled out on his back.

Her name was Natalena Blast.

The 12-year-old middle school girl had fluffy blonde hair cut at shoulder length. The arrival of the underclassman girl here meant the rhythm of the outside world was changing, for better or for worse. The four morning matches must have ended, so most of the audience had left their seats to grab some lunch.

The ship had the energy of a disturbed hornet’s nest. The random flow of people made them harder to predict. Letnahe had given him a break because the crowds could not be allowed to see the world’s strongest working so hard because he was terrified of death and defeat. So once the afternoon matches began, the frustrated wife would once more be beating up with her military skill.

“Natalena,” Karuta groaned from the floor.

“Um, what is it, Senpai?”

“Why are you dressed up as a maid?”

“Let me ask you this: um, do you think I wanted to dress this way? Our class chose to run a maid café. And by ‘chose’, I mean the boys formed a strong pro-maid voting bloc.”

Approaching a high school boy sprawled out on his back while she wore a short maid uniform gave him a very good look at her cute panties, but she didn’t seem to have thought through the viewing angles that well. And once she did notice, he was pretty sure she would deliver a finishing blow to the center of his face with the heel of her enamel shoe, so he forced his aching body to sit up sooner than he would have liked.

“Also, there’s something wrong with Japan’s laws if they can force middle schoolers to work as long as they call it a ‘school event’.”

“Oh? Natalena, what makes you think this ship is bound by Japanese law now that we’re out in international waters?”

“Why did I ever trust this Panama-registered ship!!”

He was pretty sure the ship was not actually registered in Panama and he doubted middle schoolers were allowed to work in Panama either.

For Karuta, this crazy tournament had him one step away from death at any moment, but the rest of the students, who didn’t have to fight in it, were rejoicing at having all their classes canceled throughout. Nothing excited a student more than a weekday without classes. At times, that excitement could win out over the fear of a typhoon or blizzard. And with the large crowd out and about, there was a large demand for food. They would also want to take a look around Second Grimnoah, since they wouldn’t normally be allowed onboard. Since the students didn’t have classes, it was unsurprising they had decided to earn some extra money by having each class open restaurants and such like this was a cultural festival.

Karuta’s 12-year-old underclassman sat directly on the floor and placed a small basket on her lap. She would have been very mad and argued with him if he said so out loud, but she was a natural at this maid thing.

“Here, I brought you some lunch. Um, it’s only a simple sandwich and a drink, though.”

“Thanks.”

When Karuta neatly grabbed the sandwich with a paper napkin, Natalena held a hand to her mouth and laughed. That may not have looked like the action of the arrogant and condescending world’s strongest.

Was this off the maid café’s menu? The sandwich was of unexpectedly high quality. Not only did it have some excellent honey chicken inside, but it was given an extra kick with some whole grain mustard and it contained stir-fried vegetables chopped up finely enough to not be noticeable. It provided an excellent balance of meat, vegetable, and grain in something that was pleasant to eat. You didn’t often see a product with such care in its design even in the professional food service industry.

On the other hand…

“Munch, munch. But if you give people everything they need in one simple package, you’re basically killing any chance at further sales, aren’t you? A maid café isn’t about getting customers in and out as quickly as possible like a stand-up soba stall, so don’t you make your money by having people stay a while and continue to order more food? Like a cake that’s so sweet they need to order a drink, or omurice that’s so greasy they start craving a salad. The key to success is for each item on the menu to be somewhat imperfect.”

“Ugh. I-I don’t care. Um, uh, the maid café was the result of a stupid conspiracy by the dumb boys. We girls wanted nothing to do with it. Anyway, Senpai, can I ask you something that just occurred to me?”

“Sure.”

“Does this mean the Utagai Karuta – world’s strongest, bane of the Threat, and guardian of the world – has visited maid cafes? And based on how opinionated you are on the topic, I get the feeling it wasn’t just once or twice.”

“Bff!?”

He just about spat out the sandwich.

That was a perfectly legitimate part of the service industry and the employees there took pride in their work. Karuta had done nothing wrong by going there, but for some reason he found himself unable to look the 12-year-old in the eye.

“…”

He withered under the pressure of her gaze.

It didn’t look like this was something he could escape by shrouding himself in the veil of manly mystery. The underclassman’s silent gaze was quickly turning into the look she would give an insect.

“Um, Senpai? Is this why your crystal magic takes the form of a girl who obeys your every command?”

“Natalena, let’s not get carried away with groundless speculation here! And I take issue with comparing her to a maid. She goes and hides somewhere cramped if you get after her about anything, she carries around a sword, and she eats pure gold! I would be offended if someone pointed at her and called her – her – the ideal maid!!”

“Oh, god. You really are opinionated about this, aren’t you? I barely said anything and you went on a long rant about it.”

What could he do but look away and clear his throat?

Utagai Karuta needed more training if he would fall for a 12-year-old’s feint.

“Sigh…is every single boy an idiot?”

“Probably, but did you bring me lunch just so you could ask me that?”

“Um, be honest with me. How does it look?” The small maid sighed and refocused her mind. “ Can you survive this? ”

She did not ask if he could win.

Natalena Blast knew the real Utagai Karuta, not just his title. He slowly shrugged.

“Well, it can’t be as bad as fighting the real Threat.”

“That’s not what I asked.” She bluntly rejected his answer. “I’ve seen a wicker man and I’ve seen Futhark runes, but none of the people here seem like they could defeat my sister and the rest of the Problem Solvers. But that’s not the real issue. Karuta-senpai, you became the world’s strongest after defeating Anastasia Blast and her Anubis, but, um, you didn’t defeat her in a one-on-one battle, did you?”

“…”

This girl was watching him carefully.

Which wasn’t too surprising when she had started out hunting him down to avenge her sister.

“You only defeated those much-more-powerful opponents by observing them, making careful preparations, and using trickery and the element of surprise. And it’s not like that always worked. But with the Problem Solvers and the Threat, your starting point and basic stance has always been assassination. In other words, you never let them use their real power against you . …So, um, are you really going to be okay? You can’t run or hide in the ring, so your usual tricks won’t work. Both sides will be going full throttle as soon as the bell rings, so you can’t defeat them before they can attack. The spotlight removes all the shadows and the many cameras will see everything that happens. You can’t hide your true abilities in this fight, Senpai.”

The rules had been reset.

Other than his ability to rapidly heal any nonlethal wound, he was more or less an ordinary high school boy, but he had to defeat magicians gathered from around the world without surprise attacks as an option. If he lost and died or if he won in an ugly way, the world would be disappointed in him and the social unrest leading to riots and looting would spread.

That expectation weighed heavily on him. Even if that was a fairly ordinary concern to have.

The boy who had been made into the world’s strongest exhaled and spoke.

“I’ll win.”

“…”

“We’re the ones that made the world this way. This only happened because we followed our desire for revenge and killed your sister without even considering what it would do to the world. So we’re responsible for what happens now. None of this will have been worth it if we can’t at least make the world a happier place than it was under the Problem Solvers. We didn’t like how the world was run and now unrest is running rampant and there’s a real threat of riots and looting. So we need to create a better world ourselves.”

There had been no morality in that battle.

It was true Anastasia and the other four had sunk the first ship and slaughtered most of the students and teachers, but that was no justification for Karuta’s group to hunt them down for revenge without ever considering the possibility of letting the police and the courts resolve the issue.

Two wrongs did not make a right, so now everything had sunken into a thick bog. But the sun still rose in the mornings and set in the evenings as it had before.

The strongests’ battles were nothing but a great farce full of hypocrisy and deception, but he did know that most of the people living in this same world had done nothing wrong. So he couldn’t just give up because the world had gone wrong. If he did that, he wouldn’t just be crushed below the contradictions of morality – he would have fallen to the level of pure evil.

“So my basic policy remains the same: I’ll do whatever I can. It’s just that ‘whatever I can’ is going to look different this time.”

“Senpai…”

“And, Natalena, you know how greedily stubborn I can get when I have my mind set on something, don’t you? So I’ll be fine. If I say I’ll win, then I swear to you I’ll win. No matter what it takes. Maybe I’m not the best fit for this job, but that just means I have to make myself fit.”

### 152. Part 3

Karuta’s vision blinked in and out.

He could just barely grasp that a large chunk had been taken out of his back.

But this blast had not had anything to do with the movements of Athabaskan’s shotgun. His barrier didn’t matter in the slightest here. The explosion had been on the level of carelessly rolling onto a landmine while grappling with the man.

(Oh…I get it.)

Athabaskan’s magic was determined by the symbol or pattern carved into the side of his shotgun shells.

“You never needed to fire them. The unused rounds lying on the floor were still live. You weren’t pulling the forend to get rid of shells because you had misread the situation. You were scattering them around to create a minefield.”

“So what if I was?”

“But getting that shotgun from you is still my top priority!!” shouted Karuta.

Still curled up, he threw his heavy flashlight.

The powered suit would still be malfunctioning thanks to the translucent fingers jammed in one of the thigh joints. He normally would have avoided an amateur’s throw, but it managed to hit this time.

The shotgun thudded to the floor.

The blood rushed to Karuta’s head.

It was now a race for that weapon.

He could not use the totem magic even if he did grab it, but it would still mean a lot to steal that powerful weapon away from his opponent.

He crouched low and kicked off the floor, but something felt wrong. Yes, Athabaskan Rio Grande was not joining in. He ignored the pump-action shotgun on the floor and instead stepped back away from Karuta as the boy dove onto the mat.

The totem magic did not require firing the shotgun shells, but the shells on the floor were all visible. Without the fear of the shotgun to keep Karuta moving, he would never step on one of those mines. So why?

“I was waiting for this positioning,” said the man.

Machinegun fire poured from the sky.

A weaving trail of destruction passed over Karuta’s leg while he lay face down with the shotgun in his grasp.

He was twisted around and thrown through the air. His right leg was severed at the thigh like it had been lying on the track when the train came through and it bounced several times.

The loud cheers shaking the tournament site must have been those who had bet on Athabaskan like this was a horse race.

Those were not ordinary bullets. They clearly had some kind of magical effect because they continued to glow orange and emit black smoke even after embedding themselves deep in the mat.

(Oww!? I’m all right. Think of it as saving you the trouble of stopping the bleeding!!)

He rolled onto his back, leaving the crystallized leg behind, and looked into the sky, but there was nothing there. But he knew something had to be flying by too high up to be visible with the naked eye.

“Wha-?”

Even Cinderella Queen was at a loss for words.

What had happened? The answer was right there; he had just failed to notice it.

But he should have expected this. He was up against a professional mercenary decked out with the latest tech. And the man had located Aine and Marika with the naked eye.

“ A ground attack drone !?” shouted Delane. “Is this how a professional soldier fights, Athabaskan Rio Grande!?”

“If it’s supposed to be a Native eagle symbol, is it meant to be a sort of flint shirt? But any device used for a contestant’s magic, like a witch’s broom or cauldron, is allowed by the rules. He mentioned a positioning earlier. Was he talking about Second Grimnoah moving outside the western alliance’s air-defense region – in other words, into international waters? Still, that thing is dangerous indeed when combined with stealth magic like this. Our defense ships didn’t even notice it.”

Perspective was a problem here. When anti-terrorism bomber drones gained enough altitude, they became invisible to the naked eye on the surface.

But they could still target you down on the ground.

Would this drone fire its machinegun again or would it blow Karuta away with an even more dangerous air-to-surface missile?

Karuta had gained the pump-action shotgun at the cost of his leg, but he could not shoot down the drone with it. He could emit a powerful IR laser with his flashlight, but he would need the exact specs to know if the air-to-surface missile was guided exclusively by IR. If it also used UV, microwave, ultrasound, or image processing, his flashlight would fail to interfere with its guidance and he was a goner.

He saw a light flashing in the corner of his eye.

The crystal girl was contacting him because she still trusted he could win.

He clenched his teeth and pulled back the forend below the shotgun’s barrel, ejecting the loaded shell. What could he do with it now?

“Real wars are determined before the boots are even on the ground. That is an Air RQ43-A Man Eagle. This model is loaded with a GPS ASM 55 Resin Arrowhead precision-guided air-to-surface missile designed for assassination missions. I will use everything at my disposal and I will accept no complaints. If you were unaware I had this, blame your own intel gathering failure.”

The Native American man reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone in a military bulletproof case.

He could rain down death with a tap of his finger.

“You came unprepared and so you lose, Utagai Karuta.”

### 153. 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.”

### 154. 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.”

### 155. Part 4

After returning from wherever she had gone, Mama Letnahe Kurent beat Karuta up even more for a post-lunch workout. His arms and legs could not keep up , but he did manage to follow her punches and kicks with his eyes. However, the difficulty of predicting her actions shot up when she added grappling to the mix. His instincts told him to protect his face and gut…but that manifested itself as his reflexes curling him up in a ball out of fear. It was also strange how the hem and collar of his short-sleeved dress shirt or the belt of his slacks counted as weak points now. Since he had to engage his brain to remember why it was dangerous to let her reach those parts, his reactions were unavoidably slower.

How much harder would it be to respond when one-shot-kill weapons and magic came into play?

If he froze up because he had never seen something before, he would lose his life immediately.

“We’re running out of time. Have you learned anything at all from this?”

“Ugh, this has at least gotten me accustomed to pain before the real fight,” replied Karuta, standing up on unsteady legs.

Yes. He now had it in him to get up under his own power instead of lying sprawled out on the floor.

“Also, those two ideas show some promise.”

“Glad to hear it. This would have been awkward if it only served to let me blow off some steam.”

But he could not just relax this afternoon. This was not like a soccer or basketball game with a set starting time. Just now, the fifth match came to an end and the crowd erupted into an earth-rattling cheer.

After going through some fairly kinky training where he was unilaterally beaten by a lovely mother of two, Karuta chose to meet up with Marika and Kyouka in the student council room. Due to the unexplained security breach with their electronics, they were reluctant to exchange detailed information over their phones.

“Karuta.”

Just as he passed by a manga club girl carrying several booklets at her chest, someone called out to him and he turned back to find Marika approaching. Aine was waiting by her side.

Marika did not look directly at them, but she glanced over at the reflection of a newspaper club member in the window.

“We can talk in the student council room. That way you only have to explain it once and this open space isn’t great for a private conversation anyway.”

“Sacri-sama, why are you in such a good mood?”

“I feel like I made some real progress. I-I assure you it isn’t that I like getting beat up by women.”

The three of them walked along the side deck together.

Marika placed a hand on the side of her head to hold her hair down against the sea breeze while she glanced past the side deck railing.

“Looks like they’ve added some more new ships. I hear their composite armor makes them surprisingly light for their size. These two are a drone carrier and an electric warship, right?”

“The Radioquartz and the Chrisbart.”

“Oh, do you know a lot about that stuff, Karuta? You really are a boy, huh?”

“Hey, don’t assume the world’s strongest don’t have to take their final exams. Those are both names you’ll find in our history textbook.”

Modern warships tended to be named after historical scientists. And due to the modern age, the names of a magician and a crystal magic researcher could be found right alongside Galileo and Einstein.

“Who knows, we might eventually see a Karuta aircraft carrier or a Marika-class submarine.”

“Please no!” protested Marika. “I can’t imagine having a warship named after me. It has to be even more embarrassing than a statue of yourself in the schoolyard.”

The ordinary visitors could not spend the night on Second Grimnoah. Because there were too many of them. So separate cruise ships had been brought along for lodging. Add in the escort ships (which had been heavily reinforced after what happened near the Port of Kobe), and there had to be at least a hundred thousand people here. It was like an entire city’s population traveling across the sea.

“I just hope Second Grimnoah doesn’t tip over from all the weight,” said Karuta.

“But it’s a 600m triple hull ship. Eh? You’re not serious are you? Surely a bunch of people isn’t enough to sink it.”

He could not let his guard down even while holding this silly conversation with Marika.

Sure, he still had the 6th match to go, but that could always end in a one-hit KO immediately after the bell, so he could not predict how much time he actually had. So he needed to complete his preparations for the 7th match.

Those three met up with Kyouka in the student council room. The Four Living Gods were all together.

Training himself as much as he could was not enough.

He wanted information on the opponent he would be facing.

But the ordinary people could not be allowed to see the world’s strongest working so hard to avoid defeat. Asking for help on social media would only make him a laughing stock for all the anonymous people out there.

The redheaded buns secretary was standing guard in front of the student council room. She reluctantly moved out of the way when she saw Karuta and the others. Then she moved to stop the newspaper club member who tried to sneak in after them.

“I need results!” shouted Karuta as soon as he was inside their other hangout.

“Your opponent in the 7th match is Hetepheres Men-Nefer. Age: 15. Sex: Female. As you can probably guess from her name, she uses Egyptian mythology magic. She is supposedly a descendent of a sinful tomb keeper family that, fearing European invaders would discover it, stole the mummy of Pharaoh Khufu from the world’s largest pyramid and hid it where no one would ever find it.”

Omotesandou Kyouka listed out the basic data. It meant a lot to have the help of the student council president who could view all of the documents submitted to Second Grimnoah.

“Egypt…”

He didn’t know all that much about it, but that mythology kept turning up around him. Or maybe the Blast Sisters and Anubis had just left a strong impression on him.

Kyouka continued in front of her large desk.

“Egyptian mythology is polytheistic, just like Japanese mythology. You can assume that everything in the world, from the flowing of water to the growing of crops in the field, has a god assigned to it. But you can largely divide the gods into two groups, one led by Ra, god of the sun, and the other led by Osiris, god of death and resurrection. Keep that in mind first and foremost.”

Marika threw herself into the leather sofa and Aine took up her usual motionless position standing in the corner. Those two had approached Hetepheres herself and observed her directly.

“Our observations didn’t show any taboos related to food or drink and, even if she is a priestess or whatever, she doesn’t seem to be a vegetarian. I was surprised at what I saw, but apparently they ate a lot of bread in ancient Egypt. She wears a loose-fitting white garment with tons of pure gold accessories. Gold is soft, but it has a high relative density, making it heavy. Those things could do some real damage if she swung them around. I don’t know what kind of mythological meaning any of it has, but you could probably use all the frilly parts of her outfit to grab her.”

“To add to that, if she is a priestess with a solid sense of purpose, she would not attempt to borrow the power of a god or monster that goes against her faith. For example, Set is the enemy of both Ra and Osiris, so you can rule him out as a possibility right away.”

It could be confusing, but it was not as simple as Ra, god of heaven, being good and Osiris, god of the underworld, being evil. Even in Asia, Yama, king of the underworld, was the one who judged the dead, so he was not actually evil himself.

In Egyptian mythology, it was generally the righteous gods who ruled heaven and earth. The ones considered to be evil were not allowed in either camp.

After hearing everything they had to say, Karuta slowly inhaled on his feet.

And…

“ That’s all? ”

That was his response.

“Hold on. That’s all just general information on Egyptian mythology and their priests! None of it’s specific to Hetepheres at all! Elicia of the Problem Solvers used the power of Vishnu from Indian mythology, but that alone isn’t enough to know she attacked using a dinosaur. This leaves so many unknowns I can’t even put together a plan. Didn’t you find any more personal traits or idiosyncrasies!?”

Magic was not the only thing to fear here.

Ancient Egypt was a large and highly developed culture. They would have needed to take up weapons as a group and defend themselves against the surrounding civilizations, so they had to have their own military strategies and martial arts. Karuta honestly couldn’t picture it at all. Greek gods wielded double-edged swords and tridents and Buddhist ogres wielded metal clubs. He had a general idea of what kind of weapons those cultures used, but with the Egyptian gods, he could only think of musical instruments and scales – neither of which were weapons. If he didn’t even know that, he could be defeated by ordinary brute force before she even got to her magic.

He also didn’t know if Hetepheres would insist on using some mysterious ancient Egyptian martial art. It was always possible she could surprise him by suddenly using jujutsu or systema.

Simply put, he didn’t know anything solid.

But he couldn’t blame Marika, Kyouka, and Aine for that. They had only had 6 hours. How much could he have accomplished in their position? None of them had expected the magical tournament to be altered in this way.

When they were up against Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg of the Problem Solvers, they had spent days taking turns watching her every move. They had been so nervous they had even investigated her favorite brand of lip balm. He should have known there was only so much data they could gather when adlibbing on such a short time schedule.

The entire 600m ship shook.

Something big must have happened in the current match. He got the feeling that energy blast was not something someone would get back up from. And he himself would be thrown out in that same ring with nothing to defend himself.

His phone received a message before they could check the student council room’s TV.

He took a deep breath to calm his irritation and opened the message app.

“Stardust (for tournament staff only): Afternoon Message 2 – Round 1 Match 6 has ended sooner than expected. We intend to keep the audience busy with the cheerleaders and the commentator, but Match 7 could still begin ahead of schedule. Mr. Utagai, please report to the contestant waiting room so you may begin at any time.”

“…”

There was no escape now.

His chance to prepare had come to an end.

He pulled the modified military flashlight from the belt on the side of his pants. It had the perfect weight and length to work as a club and it contained an IR laser emitter that could dazzle an opponent’s eyes.

“One last thing, Omotesandou-san. I know I can’t use Aine, but what about this thing?”

“That won’t be a problem. If your opponent can’t defeat you with your Threat-fighting equipment, they can’t exactly say they defeated one of the world’s strongest, can they?”

With a dull sound, Aine pulled a crystal katana out of thin air and held it out toward him, but Kyouka shook her head.

“I’m sorry, but that won’t be allowed. It counts as part of you, Aine-chan.”

“But isn’t everything from her sword to her heart part of my crystal magic?”

“Yes, but good luck convincing the other 5.5 billion people out there that’s true when she has to lend it to you.”

He was really wishing he normally armed himself with an assault rifle and grenades while wearing a full-body blast-resistant suit. He got the feeling the entire world was out to get him, but he had never imagined his everyday clothing choices would come back to bite him so badly.

He was horribly underprepared. He was more or less defenseless once Aine, his greatest trump card, was taken from him. Being called the world’s strongest on paper did nothing at all to protect him. The mysterious rule change had dragged him down nearly to the same level as an ordinary person.

“No Aine this time. I have to do it all on my own.”

“Hmph.”

The crystal girl did not like this any more than he did and she puffed out her cheeks from within, but no one was going to listen to her complaints either.

One of the basic crystal magic presets was a protective barrier, but Karuta’s was as flimsy as paper and he doubted it could block a real sword or bullet. Similarly, he couldn’t use the flight preset at all. The only preset he did have was the regeneration, but that only rapidly healed nonlethal wounds. It wouldn’t do a thing to keep him from being killed instantly. If he took a bullet between the eyes, his entire body would become a crystal statue before he could even begin to heal.

And when he barely knew anything about his opponent, that was almost certainly what was going to happen against Egyptian tomb keeper Hetepheres Men-Nefer.

Aine silently tilted her head and whispered in a cold voice from where she stood in the corner like a potted plant.

“What will you do?”

“I’ll make it work. No matter what it takes .”

### 156. Part 4

He waited.

He waited and eventually gulped.

But the person unable to bear the silence and stillness was not Utagai Karuta.

“Wh-what’s happening here?” Cinderella Queen sounded rattled in her crane-supported gondola. She kept looking back and forth between the ring and the sky overhead. “Wasn’t he bombing Utagai into tiny little pieces? Is he having technical difficulties?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

Athabaskan Rio Grande clenched his teeth.

He could supposedly obliterate Karuta with a tap of his finger, but he did not do so.

No, he couldn’t do so.

“Damn you.”

“You use totemism.” Utagai Karuta spoke clearly without letting go of the outdated shotgun. Of course, all of this information came from Aine’s flashing light, not anything he had investigated himself. “That magic uses your clan’s ancestors or guardian spirit, but the effect is influenced by the animal, plant, natural phenomenon, or situation you depict. Simply put, worship a crocodile and you get a crocodile’s power. In that sense, you’re a really powerful magician if you can freely rearrange your totem on the fly. But,” whispered Karuta, to overturn all of that. “That is why your magic has so many restrictions. You’re required to treat your totem with care. For example, if a tribe adopts the crocodile as their totem animal, then they aren’t allowed to kill crocodiles .”

That was the basic rule and true essence of totemism. Basically, it was a magical barter system where they placed restrictions on themselves in exchange for great power. Thus, changing your totem mid-battle also let you swap out your weakness.

“You use the plants and animals carved into the shotgun shells to activate your magic. And you can even use natural phenomena and situations like a tornado or volcanic eruption. By storing those shells in the shotgun, they become your totem pole.”

That gave Karuta an opening.

He was a hair’s breadth away from death, but he had the shotgun, the still usable shells were scattered around as traps, and the crystal shards from his own healed injuries were enough to carve something into their metal surface.

“It didn’t have to be an artistic masterpiece. I only had to overwrite the original symbol with a quick stick figure.”

Because…

“ Humans are an animal too. That shell now bears a symbol representing Utagai Karuta and you can’t harm your own totem. No matter what.”

A high-pitched cracking indicated enough time had passed for Karuta’s right side and leg to be fully healed.

That meant Athabaskan Rio Grande had failed to do anything during that time. He had to have a vast repertoire of methods that could kill an amateur high schooler, but all he could do was wait.

Utagai Karuta raised his voice with the shotgun in hand.

“Delane.”

“Um, yes!? What do you need, Karuta?”

“I have a rules question. Can contestants forfeit their match?”

“Nope. The match continues until one or the other loses consciousness.”

“You heard the little lady.”

Karuta smiled dryly.

And he slowly approached Athabaskan.

The mercenary was helpless. He could not do anything that would kill his totem animal. So from this point on, it was a one-sided game for Utagai Karuta.

The world’s strongest held the pump-action shotgun – a blunt weapon heavier than the average shovel – and raised it in both hands while focusing on the solid stock.

“Sorry, but you did try to blow me away in a drone strike.”

He swung the shotgun down with all his might.

Right into the man’s nose.

### 157. 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. ”

### 158. 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.

### 159. Part 5

It was time to think.

The first day of the Catastrophe covered the 8 matches of the first round. That meant the tournament had 16 contestants in all. In a straightforward tournament with no seeding, the winner had to fight in four matches. Trying to win them all fair and square was exactly what the unseen string-pullers wanted. Because they had set things up so Karuta would die in the attempt.

But he didn’t need to do things their way. As long as he demonstrated that the Four Living Gods were in fact the world’s strongest, they could eliminate the social unrest around the world. For example, if something even more powerful than the tournament opponents – like the Decoy Threat that turned out to be simple machines – were to attack Second Grimnoah and those four protected the other contestants and the audience in front of all the cameras.

“No, that wouldn’t work.”

A chair bolted to the floor creaked.

A trick like that could turn into a long-lasting Achilles heel. The instant the truth came out, the social unrest would be back with a vengeance, so it wasn’t a real solution.

He had to win this.

Karuta smiled in self-deprecation after reaching that conclusion all alone in the contestant waiting room.

And the person on his mind now… was not one of the people he held dear.

(Warrior Doll.)

That armored warrior had towered over Karuta and fought with a plasma jet sword. That Threat had sought human goodness more than anyone and occupied Second Grimnoah to learn about crystal magic. His many companions had been mercilessly slaughtered while trying to learn, but he had still sought a fair duel, so what would he think if he saw Karuta still trying to come up with some kind of trick here?

(Sorry. I can’t resign myself to my fate like you. I’m an ugly person deep down, so I can’t help but cling to life. And that’s what makes me want to protect the people I hold dear and the world as a whole.)

So.

No matter how much he was spat on or how many stones were thrown at him, Utagai Karuta would still seek victory.

A female voice left the speaker in the tiny space.

“Round 1 Match 7 will begin shortly. Mr. Utagai Karuta, please step out into the ring.”

He sighed and pulled the modified military flashlight from the side of his purple slacks. He slowly rose from the bolted-down chair and walked to the metal double doors.

He pushed them open.

A thick wall of cheering voices slammed into his face.

Evening had fallen.

The powerful film lights were more for the TV broadcasts than for the contestants, so they were already hurting his eyes, forcing him to squint.

The next thing happened before he could hold his hand up and let his eyes adjust.

“Hello, hello, hello! I’m Cinderella Queen Delane, the shining new child star with an edge, and I will be providing commentary for this match. But I will be sharing that duty with a special guest! If you want to know about crystal magic, look no further than Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka!! …I get the feeling we’ll need an expert’s commentary to even hope to follow along here.”

“Thank you for having me. I will remind you that I am still a student, though.”

The concert band’s music and the deluge of cheers were like a booming explosion, but the large concert speakers played the commentary at an even greater volume.

The vortex of noise gave Karuta a pounding headache as he noticed a gondola supported from above by a crane. Was that the commentator’s booth? Kyouka had been invited in as a guest, but she wouldn’t be able to help him while in the public mode she used when addressing the world. She couldn’t help him even if she wanted to. If anyone thought they were cheating, the public wouldn’t accept their display of superiority and definitive cracks would form in the people’s already-shaken faith in the world’s strongest. Then the social unrest would spread like wildfire.

He had to protect this world, so he had to fight.

(They’re somewhere out there.)

So many eyes were focused on him.

The tension of standing up on stage clutched at his heart.

(Some of the eyes out there carry malice. Someone forced these new conditions on us in order to have me killed while the world watches on.)

The tiered stands surrounded him in all 360 degrees, but only so many people could fit. The horizontal safety bars in front of the seats on each level were covered with webcams and aerial drones buzzed around overhead. They were like a flock of starlings blotting out the sky. They were generally manually controlled, but they used invisible IR sensors to measure the distance between each other and automatically adjusted their positions accordingly. Still, he could hardly believe they managed to avoid colliding while packed together so tightly.

(They sold more than a million viewing tickets, right? And those aren’t just to watch the livestream on the official site. That only covers the people who wanted to control their own swiveling camera to enjoy the live event as much as possible. Thanks to that, this empty area of ocean has an EM density as high as New York.)

Remote viewers would buy the usage rights for a swiveling webcam and watch the matches that way.

Those who wanted to watch in person were required to sign a document waiving the tournament’s liability if they were killed by a stray shot of magic or something. Surprisingly, they had still received tens of thousands of times as many applicants as they had available seats. All ten thousand seats split across three levels were full. Were people just that eager to witness a legend? They had the full surface of the 600m ship to work with, but they had gathered all ten thousand people on the heliport.

Karuta heard a dull metallic thud behind him.

The waiting room he had been in was actually an oblong metal container. It was dangling from a cutting-edge tiltrotor by thick wires and it was swiftly removed from the heliport.

He had nowhere to run or hide now.

An excited little girl’s voice echoed through this hellish evening where murder was allowed.

“Our first contestant in Round 1 Match 7 needs no introduction! He’s the current world’s strongest and the eye of the storm who absorbs all the envy and grudges of the world’s 5.5 billion people!! His victory is assured, so how the hell are we supposed to make any money off your bets this time!? This boy can use cutting-edge crystal magic and he’s protected the world from the Threat. He’s here to represent the whole Four Living Gods – it’s Utagaiii Karutaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!”

On the other side of the 20m square ring, an identical oblong metal container was dangling down for his opponent.

Cheers erupted from all around. The thick wall of noise slammed into him and threatened to crush him.

He was trapped in a deadly cage with the entire world watching.

“And then there’s our challenger hoping for a shortcut to the good life!! If you need a new title, why not just steal it!? She refuses to believe anyone’s stronger than her! And she promises to charm us with a show put on with Egyptian mythology – a mythology so important we’ve all heard of it☆ This priestess is hoping to tear crystal magic down from its throne – it’s Hetepheres Men-Neferrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!”

After shouting her lungs out, the small girl named Delane turned to ask the guest commentator her opinion.

“So what’s your opinion of this matchup, Miss Expert? Who has the upper hand here?”

“Hard to say. But the priests and priestesses of Egyptian mythology are important enough to get quite a few mentions in our crystal magic classes. They are the representative example of someone who could read the occult high and low pressure fronts and determine their effect on crops and sailing in order to support a large populace.”

“I see, I see.”

“You could say this is a showdown between the classic original and the latest update. We should see the oldest form of magic clashing with the newest.”

“Hm, so you’re saying it’s hard to say which way this will go!? That’s a relief. This event won’t be very exciting if Mr. Karuta doesn’t die!!”

He had expected this even if he didn’t like it.

Omotesandou Kyouka was not going to take his side while in public mode. Still, her long explanation was not only directed at the crowd.

Yes, she was giving Karuta information as well.

(She’s as crafty as ever.)

His opponent had long black hair and brown skin.

She appeared to be around his age and she wore an ethnic white priestess outfit with golden decorations all over her body.

“Utagai Karuta.”

Their gazes collided while the girl lifted the four thick and highly elastic ropes and climbed into the ring situated a level above everything else.

She spoke in Japanese, so she clearly wanted him to understand her.

“ I know you are powerless. ”

“…”

She probably wanted to apply pressure before the match began to throw him off his game.

She hoped to prevent him from fighting at his best so she could crush him with ease. Karuta was impressed because that idea hadn’t occurred to him. It was an unimaginable tactic with the Problem Solvers or the Threat who would kill you if you tried it.

So he did not bat an eye and whispered back so only she could hear him.

“Would you prefer this ends with you unconscious or dead?”

“You can’t trick me. You can’t do anything without that crystal girl of yours.”

No hesitation from her.

Was that a sign of confidence or of nerves? He had never met her before, so he had no way of making that judgment.

Cinderella Queen began an explanation of the rules, probably a formality required for the TV broadcast.

“The match has no time limit, but both contestants will be disqualified if it is determined they are working together to intentionally extend the match. The match continues until one or the other of them loses consciousness. Oh, and dead counts there! That also means the match keeps going no matter how badly they’re hurt as long as they’re still conscious, so they’ll need to keep that in mind☆”

Karuta sighed without letting it show on his face.

Crystal magic provided a regeneration power. Any nonlethal injury would be healed in thirty seconds. That made it incredibly difficult to knock him unconscious with a physical blow. In fact, it was very nearly impossible without using a chokehold like Letnahe had done, a special witch potion, or causing a lightning strike with a weather manipulation power.

In other words…

(They’ve set up the rules so it’s easier to kill me. Who is this asshole who secretly changed the rules Omotesandou-san worked so hard to put together?)

With a deep thrum, the poles in the four corners of the ring glowed red.

“Also, they need to watch out for the ring’s ropes. They’re what we call detonating cords, which means they’re packed full of explosives. Touching one of them will cause more damage than a jammed gun blowing up your hand, if you’re curious. They detonate the instant either contestant touches the ropes and a composite explosive made with everything from smokeless powder to penthrite will blast the offender to smithereens with a burning velocity of 5km/s, so they’re gonna want to be verrrrry careful out there.”

The red glow of the poles signaled that the ropes had been activated. This was worse than an electric deathmatch. Karuta glanced up at Kyouka, but she only winked down at him.

This was just like the introduction in the gym.

She looked calm, but something she didn’t understand was at work here. She must have only been called in as a guest commentator for the match with Crystal Magician Karuta, so she had not seen the other matches. And that was coming back to bite them now.

The unseen person who had changed the rules had altered everything with obvious malicious intent.

“Simply put, if they touch the rope, they’ll have their body torn apart for their trouble!! …Ugh, explaining the same damn thing 7 times in one day is a real pain. You’d better have the basic rules down pat by the next round cause I’m not doing this again tomorrow☆”

Karuta and Hetepheres faced each other in the center of the ring with about 5m between them.

Standing in front of an enemy was always terrifying.

He had nothing to shield him here and he could not escape outside the ring. If she “accidentally” jumped the gun and shot some powerful magic at him, he would have no way to avoid being reduced to ashes.

That was the world he lived in now.

In fact, someone who would actually wait for the bell seemed like an oddity to him.

An accident would be good enough.

Hetepheres might be disqualified for jumping the gun, but she would still hold the title of the person who won a flawless victory over one of the world’s strongests. She didn’t need Second Grimnoah’s help after that. As long as she had that title, she could milk it for all it was worth, like a martial artist known for killing a bear with his bare hands, and live however she liked in the world of magic. Really, she had no reason not to do it. The loss by technicality would be a temporary blot on her record and a small price to pay for the fame it would bring her. All of the contestants were risking their lives in a major gamble, so why actually wait for the starting bell?

Something worked its way into his ear along with the growing cheers.

He heard some whispered non-Japanese words. This was something Hetepheres would prefer did not reach him. But Egyptian hieroglyphs were a fully decoded language. Karuta had learned the basics in his magic classes. Translated into Japanese, this is what he heard.

“…ction – Ho…s – 1/1…4…”

Or was he overthinking this?

Utagai Karuta had gotten his start in bloody revenge, so maybe he had a bad habit of viewing everything in as noncharitable a light as possible. It was possible that Hetepheres Men-Nefer had come here carrying the pride of the many generations that had passed down her Egyptian magic and thought this only counted if she fought fair and square. This all came down to what was in her mind. That was not something that could be measured with logic or numbers. Karuta had no way of seeing what was going on inside Hetepheres’s head.

In this tournament, they had to fight one-on-one in accordance with the rules until one side or the other emerged victorious.

If she had agreed to those rules, then she may have viewed the world in a more favorable light than Karuta did.

She grinned and extended her right hand. Almost like she was asking for a handshake.

“I hope my trash talk didn’t offend you.” She switched back to Japanese for his benefit. “Let’s enjoy this, okay? Let’s do this fair and square so we can both accept the result, whatever it might be.”

Karuta smiled a little too. Or he thought he did.

Her gentle expression made him glad he had fought to protect this world. He felt ashamed of himself for assuming an ulterior motive and tensing up instead of shaking her proffered hand. He and the others had gotten rid of that sort of malicious world when they had defeated the Problem Solvers. They had created a pure and just world. He was so glad he had clenched his teeth and fought for this!! This girl here proved to him that he had done the right thing.

He wanted to make this an enjoyable match.

If at all possible.

Cinderella Queen raised her voice with her finger on the button for the bell.

“Now, let’s get this match started! Join me in the countdown, everyone! Threeee, twoooo, o-”

“You’re dead meat, Utagai Karuta.”

Some Ancient Egyptian words proved he had been right the first time.

Humans were trash after all.

### 160. Part 5

One hit.

The large mercenary’s head wobbled backwards.

His consciousness faded.

He worked as a mercenary, so he had been prepared for his life to meet a sudden end at some point. He had known that all too well, so Athabaskan Rio Grande had not been bound by a fear of death.

A second hit.

But.

For some reason, he would not pass out.

Something other than his death made him reluctant to give up.

He heard a sound in the back of his mind, like a ringing in his ear.

It was a voice.

A girl’s voice.

“You can’t do it.”

The last of the Problem Solvers had apparently been defeated in America.

And the Four Living Gods were all Japanese. This new era unavoidably reduced America’s presence in the world. And he had wanted to preserve the value of his country.

So he had wanted to defeat a world’s strongest. Just one would do.

Anyone could use a phone or computer. The world of guns and tanks had been one of entrenched power, but the field of robotics still had room for newcomers. So he had started from there. The flying drone weapon and the powered suit to boost leg strength were both technologies that could be used to enrich people’s lives, but he had redefined them as a means to fight.

He had used them to bring himself victory.

And yet.

“You can never be the strongest.”

The third hit produced a different sound.

Utagai Karuta’s aim had unintentionally drifted.

The shotgun stock meant for the man’s face had instead swung down toward his chest. It was going to break the emergency buzzer he had been given.

Athabaskan Rio Grande refused to relinquish his consciousness and instead bit firmly at the shotgun swung down toward his face.

He could not die.

Not when he had yet to accomplish anything.

He could not give up before truly challenging his foe. He could not even consider going down in a blaze of glory. He had to grasp at victory, no matter how ugly it was. He had to reclaim the glory of the world’s strongest.

Because he knew that was enough to save some people.

Like the person who had given him this because she was worried about a mere mercenary who had sold his own life as a commercial tool.

So.

To accomplish that…

(Not…yet.)

The unpleasant grinding and cracking sounds would not stop.

It meant sacrificing his own teeth and filling his mouth with blood, but that Native American mercenary managed to bite and destroy the shotgun made of plastic and special alloy.

(My arms and legs can still move. I might be bound by my magic, but I still have my life. So I can still fight!!!!!!)

The shotgun shells spilled from the tube.

If the shells contained in the shotgun functioned as his totem, then he could break that bond by destroying the shotgun!!

### 161. 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…

### 162. 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.

### 163. Part 6

The tournament stadium shook violently.

Something had clearly exploded.

No one had time to protest that someone had jumped the gun. The audience was having trouble deciding what to make of this, so they raised their voices in shouts that weren’t quite cheers and weren’t quite screams. Sword-wielding tournament staff was positioned around the stands to erect barriers to protect against stray shots, so they activated their pointy and translucent crystal armor, floated up into the air with their magic, and adjusted their viewing angle to try and see inside the cloud of dust.

“What happened to Karuta!?” shouted Amaashi Marika on the second-level aisle after pushing past the cheerleading squad that had reflexively stopped their dancing.

The match had already begun, but that did not mean she had no way at all of passing information on to Karuta. Transmissions made through their crystal blossoms were likely being monitored, but there were still plenty of ways of sending him data on Hetepheres, like a flashing light or rhythmic clapping.

But she couldn’t even do that now.

After all, there had been an explosion in the ring. There was nowhere to hide there and Karuta couldn’t use the preset barrier very well, so he would have been hit by the brunt of the blast.

“…”

Was it possible?

Could it be over already?

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

Marika felt a weight in the pit of her stomach.

It had all happened so fast her feelings couldn’t keep up.

No, she was already in denial. Her mind was full of unreasonably optimistic ideas like “the world’s strongest wouldn’t die that easily” or “ the Utagai Karuta couldn’t be killed like that”.

In a tear-jerking success story, he would have made it well into the tournament. He might not actually win, but he would at least meet a shocking loss or die in some dramatic way in the final round.

But reality didn’t work that way.

She knew all too well how cruelly unpredictable reality could be.

The strongest would be safe?

Who made that a rule? Who was it that had looked up from the bottom, thrown the established rules into chaos, and ultimately killed all five of the previous strongests?

They had known the surprise rule change had been implemented maliciously, so why had they just gone along with it? Why had they just assumed that he would get through at least the first round safely!?

“Miss Marika.”

“Hm? What do you want?”

“Miss Marika, we need to complete the task Sacri-sama left with us. You cannot obtain any valuable information on Hetepheres Men-Nefer by standing here. Weren’t we planning to sneak into her waiting room container? There is no one there now.”

“And what good is that information if Karuta is gone!? He was right in front of her when she blasted him with magic ahead of the bell!”

“Perhaps so.” The inhuman crystal girl tilted her head in confusion and smoothly provided an explanation. “ Yet I am still functioning as normal. ”

“…Wait.”

Yes. That was right.

Aine looked like a skinny girl, but she was not an independent being. She was a variation on the crystal armor used by crystal magicians, so she could not exist if her magician were gone.

Which meant…

### 164. Part 6

Utagai Karuta was faced with something that defied all common sense.

(This thing is made of special alloy and plastic.)

The shotgun’s broken pieces and ammo spilled out and fell to the floor. The unsteady mercenary kicked the shells to the side, triggering them along with the detonating cord rope. He used brute force to destroy the absolute protection Utagai Karuta had gained from the system that prevented him from killing the totem animal from which he drew his power.

(He bit through that with human teeth to break free of the totem pole? He’s not even using some native tobacco or herbs. This is pure willpower and strength. Has he entered the zone, letting him ignore his sense of pain!?)

Karuta was unaware that there were exceptions where a totem animal could be killed during special festivals and rituals.

Karuta had been taught to always have two methods of attack at any given time to ensure that he always had a valid option. But what if that wasn’t enough to stop his opponent? Athabaskan did not live in the world of street fights; he was a professional mercenary.

Letnahe had told him he would immediately be put on the defensive in a situation like this.

“Gahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

Karuta wondered if Athabaskan was using the power of the eagle, the wolf, the crocodile, or the serpent in that moment, but none of those was right.

This was the power of the human.

The mercenary’s eyes carried the glint of rational thought.

Karuta had no idea what even happened. He tried to send his own fist out while the large man’s fist flew toward him, but the next thing he knew, he was spinning around and his right arm was behind his back in a joint lock. A bent knee pressed against the center of his back. If the man put his full weight there, Karuta would be smashed face-first into the hard floor. His thin barrier would do nothing to protect him. With both their body weights behind it, he wouldn’t just be knocked out – his skull would split open and he would die.

This was what happened when a high schooler tried to take on a professional mercenary.

There was an insurmountable wall between them.

A professional attack filled the target with the fear of knowing there was no escape.

But Utagai Karuta did have one trick up his sleeve: crystal magic.

(I can heal any nonlethal wound in 30 seconds!!)

He actually twisted his body to apply even more pressure to the joints, destroying his right shoulder and elbow simultaneously. The pain was 100 times worse than having his back teeth grinded down with a metal file, but he could move again.

“!!!???”

He turned around with his joints bending wrong and found Athabaskan’s defenseless face in front of him.

And his jaw.

Karuta gathered the rest of his strength and swung his left fist into it.

“I…”

But the Native American mercenary was not shaken.

He remained on his feet and spoke clearly.

“I only wanted magic…that could do things crystal magic couldn’t do…that no one else could do…”

The boy sensed that the man had refused to lose until he got that message across to someone.

“Yeah.”

Utagai Karuta wanted to prevent chaos from spreading across the globe.

But that did not mean he was allowed to trample someone’s heart.

“I assure you as the world’s strongest that you accomplished something I can’t do.”

And like a thread had snapped, Athabaskan Rio Grande slowly collapsed backwards.

### 165. 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.

### 166. 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!!”

“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!!”

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.

### 167. Part 7

Hetepheres Men-Nefer felt a burning sensation in her temples.

The ring had exploded.

She had attacked the world’s strongest before the bell rang.

But.

“ That wasn’t me. ” Her right hand was still held out, palm forward. “ That initial explosion wasn’t me !! That threw off my magic’s aim!”

“You should probably shut up and make your next move,” whispered Utagai Karuta, already making his next move.

One of his leather shoes was missing. He had swiftly removed and chucked it backwards with a snap of his wrist. Right into the detonating cord ropes that were set to explode if anything touched them.

That had caused an explosion just before Hetepheres’s Egyptian magic had activated. It hadn’t been enough to be lethal, but it had shaken her physically and mentally, throwing off her aim just enough.

And so he had survived.

Utagai Karuta rushed straight toward her holding the modified military flashlight he could use as a club.

He didn’t know what her specialty was, but he had no choice but to get close. His killing range was the range of that club.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on there!! I haven’t rung the bell yet, you two!!”

“Are you volunteering to pull them apart and start this over from the beginning? When the crowd is going wild like this? Why would you want to be such a wet blanket, Delane?”

His strike was rejected with a dull clang.

His flashlight was forcibly held back by an empty patch of air. He grimaced at the pain in his wrist bones and forced himself to make careful observations.

“Jackal – Connection – Anubis – 1/96.”

A bluish-white light spread from her outstretched palm like an opening umbrella and that blocked his blunt weapon.

“The judgment of the dead is permanent and there is no false second judgment for the sinful souls. Your judgment has been made. If you cannot accept it, then leave this place!!”

“I’ve torn your mask away now.”

“You aren’t surprised?”

“Sorry, but I’m not naïve enough to be surprised by a simple supernatural barrier. That’s one of the standards for crystal magic!!”

(But am I really up against Anubis again !?)

If she could cover her entire body with that barrier at all times, she would have done so from the beginning. She had only tried to cheat and kill him with her first attack because she was worried about something.

There was a downside.

And not just that it didn’t last long.

The smoke and dust from the detonating cord blast had gotten in her black hair. That meant the barrier didn’t provide 360-degree protection.

It was a shield, not armor. So if he didn’t attack from head on, he could hit her!

“Ibis – Connection – Thoth – 1/96.”

Her right palm turned to face him, her shoulder moving in a way the joint shouldn’t have allowed.

He dodged out of the way and made a feint, but his flashlight was still deflected by the shield of bluish-white light. He tried a second and third time, but he could not slip past that swiveling shield.

(Is she predicting my moves!? But if she could always do this, that first attack wouldn’t have caught her by surprise.)

“Bull – Connection – Apis – 1/8.”

The shield swelled out.

No, she took a forceful step toward him with the glowing shield still held out in front. It was like a dump truck’s bumper crashing into a human.

Shields were generally considered defensive tools, but there were techniques that struck with the edge or tackled with the full front surface. Based on this, he guessed Ancient Egypt had some kind of specialized shield techniques.

His own thin barrier was breached immediately and he fell backwards. If he had tried to stand his ground, she would have snatched his only weapon from his hand.

“Gah!?”

“Utagai Karuta, you are powerless.”

He heard a high-pitched clink as a thumb-sized clear vial dropped to Hetepheres’s feet. The action was reminiscent of an empty cartridge, but it wasn’t empty.

Karuta watched as dry brown sand crumbled away, but he had seen the true identity of the vial’s contents first.

(A…mummy?)

“And a powerless boy can never defeat me.”

But this mummy was not the preserved remains of a pharaoh. It looked like an animal. That stout livestock was a cow, but it didn’t look like a fetus. Somehow, it had been dried down to the point that it could fit in a vial no larger than a size-D battery.

(But more than that…)

Where had it come from?

He did not know what it was, but if it was necessary for her magic, he could stop her from using her magic by preventing her from pulling those things out.

He had been distracted.

He had not seen the moment when she pulled it out. Her loose-fitting Egyptian priestess outfit looked perfect for hiding small objects, but she had not actually reached into a pocket or something. And she wasn’t wearing long sleeves, so it couldn’t be hidden at her wrists. So when had she pulled it out and from where!?

“Falcon – Connection – Horus – 1/144.”

He had seen this one before.

The bluish-white shield vanished and a compressed ball of fire appeared in her hand instead. This was the bomb she had attempted to throw at him before the bell.

He also saw another vial in her hand. But he had again missed precisely when she pulled it out.

“Now it is my turn to tear your mask away. Die like the powerless fool you are!!”

### 168. Part 7

“Delane here! Your beloved Cinderella Queen is about to give you the afternoon forecast during our lunch break. But doing that the normal way would be pretty boring, right? Come here, assistant! You never have any luck, so how about I shine the spotlight on you today? …Let’s see. (Whisper) If the forecast is wrong, my busty sister will bite her lip and hang her head while she strips in front of the camera for you all!”

“Gyahhh! I never agreed to that!! Wait, I’m not ready for that kind of attention. And isn’t the equator’s weather super hard to predict since squalls will start pouring rain without any warning!?”

“A round of applause for our plain but lewd weather girl who’s second to none when it comes to letting her big boobs go to waste!! And I swear I’m not just jealous. Now, let’s get to the weather. This here is the pressure map. Yeah, this is the equator all right. There’s a huge front approaching.”

“Sacri-sama,” said Aine, running down the hall toward Karuta.

“I’m fine,” was all he said.

There were no physical scars since all his injuries healed after 30 seconds, but the psychological toll was a different matter. He wanted to think he was fine since he was used to pain by now, but if it developed into a phobia, he could end up limiting his options even when his body really was fine. The placebo effect could be a scary thing.

It had been a mess, but he had survived the second round.

It actually helped a lot that he had already had his match done during the morning. He only had one match per day, so now he had the free time to get some rest, spar with Letnahe, and work out a strategy with the others. And his top priority was researching the magician he would be fighting in the third round tomorrow.

However, that turned out to be a problem.

After he left the ring utterly exhausted, Aine had a disheartening message for him.

“Your next opponent has yet to be determined. That match is in the afternoon.”

“So now I have too much time.”

It wouldn’t hurt to watch that match himself, but he had nothing to do until then. He considered sparring with Letnahe, but the bespectacled teacher shot down that idea.

“Get the bare minimum of nutrition first. One look at your face is enough to know you didn’t eat breakfast. That is foolish and sad enough as it is, but were you planning to skip lunch too? You will never make any progress if you don’t place sufficient importance on food. Sparring with you would be meaningless.”

He recalled hearing that Indians were especially strict about treating food with respect. Karuta had always been inconsistent in when he ate and he didn’t mind skipping meals, but if she wouldn’t spar with him, the decision was out of his hands. He had the free time, but he couldn’t ignore the people he needed to help him.

Aine eagerly clenched her fists in front of her face.

“Sacri-sama, this is our next Catastrophe mission. Let’s go eat.”

“What, did the world’s strongests wander into an easygoing tutorial level? That’s the kind of mission I would expect on an educational program for little kids, Aine.”

But he didn’t have the energy to drag his aching body into his dorm room’s kitchen, so it would be faster to visit one of the restaurants the students were running like this was a festival. Those very restaurants meant the usual cafeteria was closed.

Aine looked out the window to view a machine producing a whirring sound.

“That drone is made of gold and rare earths. I wonder how much I would have if I gathered up all of them. Drool.”

“Don’t eat the tournament cameras. Please. The world doesn’t need a crystal girl’s endoscope footage.”

(If I want to know the food is good, I should probably go there.)

“Um, listen up, everyone. This crystal blossom plays a key role in crystal magic. A god’s name is sealed inside a circuit board smaller than a stamp, and…”

The puppyish Sub Category teacher Sophia Firenze was surrounded by small children in an unused classroom. She appeared to be giving visitors a lecture on crystal magic. She received so many more questions than she did in ordinary classes, so she looked overwhelmed but delighted.

Soon thereafter, Karuta encountered another commotion.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was speaking with someone in a corner of the hallway.

“Oh, Kyouka! I was looking for you! If my phone has a signal on this ship, yours must too, so why did you have your phone off!?”

“Sigh. Shouka, I was providing commentary for a live broadcast, so I couldn’t have my phone ringing during the match. …Oh, Karuta-kun.”

She looked like she wished he hadn’t seen this, an unusual reaction for that mysterious dark-hearted president. Karuta approached with Aine at his side.

Also…

“Oh, you’re that kid from before.”

“Why, if it isn’t Utagai! Thank you for before!!”

It was the small girl with a bob cut and a light green (maybe yellowish green?) kimono. Her face lit up when she saw him.

Now it was Kyouka’s turn to look curious and Aine tilted her head too. Come to think of it, wasn’t Aine off doing something else when he met this girl?

“What, did you two get to know each other behind my back?” asked Kyouka.

“Utagai helped me when I was lost earlier. Leave it to the world-famous Second Grimnoah to be so large you can forget it’s even a ship. Oh, but I wouldn’t have gotten lost if my sister here hadn’t turned off her phone! Hmph!!”

“Sister?”

The girl’s retelling of that chance meeting made Karuta tilt his head.

Kyouka rubbed her temples and moved her lips like she wanted to say something, but she finally gave up and sighed. When she did speak, it sounded like a confession.

“This is Omotesandou Shouka, my brother.”

“Brother!!!???”

“Oh, did you think he was a girl? But the hat and haori are boy’s clothing. Still, people often make that mistake. Maybe it’s his babyface and maybe it’s his slight build.”

Kyouka was finally back to her usual mischievous self.

Karuta was shocked by this revelation, but Shouka failed to notice and laughed it off.

“Ah ha ha. Don’t be ridiculous, Kyouka. Just look at this muscular beauty. Maybe things were different when I was a kid, but now that I’ve been training my body daily, no one would ever make that mistake!! Right?”

He pulled back his kimono’s short sleeve and bent his arm like he was flexing his bicep, but Karuta could not look him in the eye.

The crystal girl had a question for Karuta.

“Sahri-hama? Hy are you hulling on my heek?”

“Oh, just resetting my senses. Yes, this is what a girl’s skin feels like.”

The upper arm emerging from the kimono was unbelievably bright. Shouka himself probably wasn’t aware, but the way he tilted his head and asked “right?” was more powerful than a hydrogen bomb. Karuta felt certain Yamane Deiri or Nekoumi Hirosuke would fall for him in a heartbeat. Also, Shouka only looked 10 or 12, so how exactly did he define when he was “a kid”?

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

Kyouka was not the only one unable to bear the boy’s sparkling eyes.

A filthy avenger like Karuta had to work hard not to avert his gaze.

“The Four Living Gods are so popular. Hard to believe the things they say are about us.”

“Yes, they’re even selling photo books. Photos of Aine-chan and Marika-san soaring through the sky are especially popular.”

“Is that allowed? What about that whatever-it’s-called…likeness rights?”

“It counts as ‘journalism’, so it’s hard to get after them about it. You know how military journalists take photos of cutting-edge warships and fighter planes? It’s like that.”

The president could laugh about it because she did not directly participate in combat and was not viewed as a military weapon like the others. To be fair, she made up for that by getting up on the stage as their spokesperson.

“Marika-san seems to like the attention. And, Karuta-kun, you’re fairly popular yourself.”

“?”

“Look, Utagai! This sketch card is based on your second round match! Ah ha ha. I spent my allowance to buy a whole bunch of these from the art club. That manly look of determination in profile is so cool☆”

Karuta could only scream.

It wasn’t a photo or a video, but the drawing was still embarrassing since it had the realistic look of a courtroom sketch. Kyouka herself sighed while brushing her hair back from her shoulder.

“I really wish they would stop this since it could allow the contestants to analyze each other, but it’s hard to track these analog methods. So just be careful, Karuta-kun.”

Petty bourgeois Karuta was still not used to all this attention, so his eyes widened and his soul tried to escape through his mouth. The world’s strongest would inevitably be viewed similarly to a hero in full-body tights. He was well on his way to wishing he was a masked wrestler instead.

“Anyway, I notice Shouka-kun chose a kimono to dress up nice. I had my suspicions already, but are you two from a pretty well-to-do family?”

“Karuta-kun, I have a prophecy for you: you will regret this once your family shows up. Because I am going to be ruthless.”

He had only meant it as a casual change of topic, but that was apparently a delicate issue for her.

But it was Shouka who unwittingly dropped the real bombshell.

“You somehow managed to evade me yesterday, but I am getting these things to you today, Kyouka. Pajamas, socks, a coat for chilly nights, and underwear!! Mother and the servants asked me to bring you these clothes, so I need you to take them!!”

“Gyahhh!? D-don’t show those off in the hallway with a boy right here, Shouka! And why oh why does the underwear have a kitten on it!?”

The president actually screamed for once when she saw the colorful (and surprisingly cute) piece of cloth. She was apparently fine with showing such things off and setting things up so they would be seen, but she did not want it to happen when she wasn’t in control. …And she only seemed to have a problem with Karuta seeing it. In her panic, had she too forgotten that Shouka was a boy?

(Wait a second…)

“O-oh, no. Does this mean my parents might be on this ship too? Families of contestants got priority tickets, didn’t they?”

“That is correct, but why is it a problem?”

The nonhuman crystal girl had never had a rebellious phase and tilted her head at his panic. She was still a long way from understanding the awkward feeling of having your friends meet your family.

“We were on our way to grab some lunch, so do you want to join us, Kyouka-san?”

He decided to ask, but the president, whose soul was escaping from her lolling head, shooed him away with her hand. She was apparently too mentally overwhelmed for that.

“Oh, Utagai! Please give me your autograph later! You can do it right here!”

“I am not scrawling my name on that expensive-looking kimono, so please don’t even ask!!”

He made sure to stay in public mode even though he was Kyouka’s family. After leaving those siblings, he and Aine were finally off on their quest for food. Unlike the gym’s formal redecoration or the heliport’s showbusiness transformation, the school hallways were decorated with chains of streamers and cellophane stars, giving them the same feel as a school’s cultural festival.

They found a hell of students trying to attract customers.

“We have ice cream, café au lait, cookies, custard, and cake! Come try the tea club’s authentic matcha café!!”

“The world’s cuisine reborn! Come see how tasty the chemistry club can make a simple fried egg! Why not try our unbelievable pure science style of cooking!!”

“How about some light exercise after your meal? Class 2-5 is running a target practice game outside. Hit us just once while we fly around and everyone currently playing the game wins a fabulous prize! The more players, the better your chances!”

“Craving a familiar flavor after such a long journey? The food research club is taking home cooking requests from 130 different countries and regions.”

A handmade gate forming an upside-down U had lots of balloons attached. All the rooms on this hallway had apparently worked together to create a “gathering spot” similar to a food court. It would serve its purpose as long as people thought of it as a good place to kill some time or meet up with someone.

“Now, where should I get some food. I’m not really in the mood for anything adventurous. Eating something awful would really get me down right now.”

“But won’t you have a hard time finding something good when these are all run by students doing it mostly just for fun? Hm, I get the feeling we will not find a wide variety of restaurants that use pure gold as an ingredient.”

Aine’s criteria for a good restaurant were too unique, so he could ignore her.

But he did know one good place.

“If I don’t want to be disappointed…hm, the maid café run by Natalena’s class should work.”

“…”

“Hey, Aine? This isn’t about the maids. It’s about the quality of the food they serve.”

He poked his head inside and received the ugliest look from his high-quality underclassman (in a handmade miniskirt costume). She had the same look as a student at a strictly hierarchical workplace when her friends showed up just for fun.

“Um, do you have something against me, Senpai? What did I do to deserve this kind of harassment!?”

“I couldn’t forget how good that food was.”

“A good upperclassman doesn’t punish his underclassman for being nice!!”

She had said the boys in her class had all voted for the maid café and the girls had not been thrilled with the idea.

The maid café took up two classrooms – one as the customer seating area and the other as the kitchen filled with portable stoves. That was probably standard for the all the student-run restaurants here.

Their repeated battles had caused Karuta’s title as the world’s strongest to lose some of its luster with the Second Grimnoah students, but some middle school girls in maid costumes were talking excitedly and pointing his way. They even teasingly shouted over “C’mon, Jane-san . You need to smile.”

The naughty girl who used a fake name at school put on a smile as stiff as a doll in bad need of oiling. She was technically smiling, but the silver tray held to her flat chest was straining in her grip.

“W-welcome back, master. I will guide you to your seat, so come this way.”

“Oh, you can skip the formalities with me, Natalena. I’m only here for some food.”

“Try that again and I’m starting a maid uprising to overthrow our cruel master. Please don’t drag me back to reality after I get into the part. It’s so embarrassing!!”

Was that how it worked?

Karuta pondered the challenge of mastering the maid arts as he was shown to his seat. In addition to the streamers and cellophane decorations, they had made tables by pushing four desks together and placing a tablecloth over the top. The chairs were just the ordinary classroom ones, so they looked weirdly out of place.

“Natalena.”

“Please call me Jane Ignition here. …Now, what is it, Senpai? Um, were you hoping I would make a heart with my hands and fill your omurice with love?”

“No, I noticed the menu says I can get a selfie with my table’s maid. But to fit in the frame, wouldn’t you have to practically press your cheek against mine?”

“I apologize for anything I might have done to you, Karuta-senpai, but I can only conclude you’re trying to kill me with stress at this point! Everyone has been too shy to order anything from the joke menu the stupid boys made, so please don’t make yourself the first!”

“I won’t. But I do have something I want to ask of you. ”

He looked back at the homemade menu created by gluing small photos to cardboard and then attaching clear plastic on top of that and he found they had a surprisingly diverse lineup. In addition to the honey chicken sandwich he had eaten the day before, they had all the basics like omurice, hamburger steak, seafood pasta, pilaf, and shrimp gratin. They also had several options for dessert and drinks. It was all completely different, not just different variations of what could be made in a single large pot. The boys in the kitchen had to be very busy indeed. This may have been the girls’ way of taking revenge after being forced out here by the boys’ superior numbers.

“Wait, does this mean the sandwich I had yesterday was made by a boy? …Wait, wait, wait. Does this mean the very structure of a maid café means you’re never actually eating food made by one of the maids?”

“Why would that matter, Sacri-sama?”

Karuta had stumbled upon a sad quirk of the world, but the crystal girl only tilted her head. He frowned and toyed with the menu.

“I don’t even care anymore. I thought I was in the mood for bread, but now I want some omurice all of a sudden. Aine, what about you?”

“I do not require food to function.”

“But you deserve a treat.” He smiled. “You kept your promise about making yourself useful this time.”

“…”

“I doubt I could have figured out how to turn the tables against Athabaskan without you. His inability to kill his totem animal was a clue you found, right? So I wanted to thank you.”

“Some dessert is all I need. …Yes, this chocolate cake looks very good. The one with the chocolate plate bearing a message in gold leaf. We are most pleased.”

Why did she start talking like a queen lovingly tormenting her prey?

Once they had given their order (to trembling Natalena-chan), Karuta breathed an exasperated sigh.

“I guess it actually works in our favor that the battles are all one-on-one. We don’t have to worry about hidden attackers or suspect our own people.”

Those ideas came to mind so readily thanks to their previous battles. The battle against the Problem Solvers had been one surprise after another, some Sub Category girls had betrayed them at the Crystal Beach, and they had been shaken by the true identity of the Threat at Second Grimnoah.

In a one-on-one tournament, neither side could touch the other until they were in the ring.

These battles were fair, ideal, and absurdly unrealistic.

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

“Oh, really? I seem to recall you calmly slicing right through my body.”

“You mean the ruse used to break Miss Marika’s spirit when she lost control at the Crystal Beach? You ordered me to do that.”

He had only meant to tease her a little, but her reaction surprised him.

The crystal girl puffed out her cheeks from within.

It was such a rare image he immediately snapped a photo with his phone, which made her puff them out further. That was a bad sign, so he decided it was probably best if he didn’t doodle on her photo.

“Sacri-sama, you are moving your finger an awful lot for only taking a photo. Are you doodling on my face?”

“Of course not. I would never. Heh heh. Yeah, cat ears suit you so much better than dog ears.”

“I rule it 100% confirmed.”

(Uh, oh. I may have pushed my luck too far this time.)

He had only wanted to change the subject to distract her from her anger, but the crystal girl was not that simple to control.

But when he did resume talking, he looked somehow amused with this small change in her behavior.

“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.”

“What is that, Sacri-sama?”

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

Aine kept her head tilted.

After a moment, she reached out her pinky to mimic him.

They gently linked fingers.

“Sorry about the wait, master. Please enjoy.”

“Whoa!?”

The superb maid spoke more stiffly than a robot and thudded down a large plate of omurice.

The omurice served to him by Natalena had a topping he had not requested. She had used the omurice and the entire plate around it as a canvas to fashionably and cutely write out a message in red ketchup or demi-glace that succinctly expressed her feelings for him.

Die.

“…”

“Humans are such baffling creatures. Is that bloody message meant to be a decoration?”

### 169. 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!?”

### 170. 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!!!!!!”

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.”

### 171. Part 8

Hetepheres Men-Nefer was an efficient person.

Karuta wasn’t about to call her a good person, but he had to admit that much. So if she thought a method was effective, she would repeat it as many times as it took.

Her initial attack had only missed because of Karuta’s trick.

And the fact that he had used a trick essentially told her that he would have been in trouble had he not used it. So if she had the chance, she was sure to try that explosion again.

Also, Karuta only understood that part of her so well because he was the same kind of person.

So when he saw that explosion, he knew exactly what to do.

He removed his remaining shoe and threw it.

But this time, he threw it toward her fireball instead of the exploding ropes behind him.

“Ah.”

Once she threw that fireball, it would explode.

So instead of waiting for her to throw it, he could trigger it himself.

Now, that explosion was designed to be thrown first – which meant she needed to move it away from herself before it detonated – so would she escape unscathed if it detonated in her hand?

“Gahhhhh!!!???” she screamed, swallowed up by her own explosion.

Karuta did not let his guard down while he gripped his flashlight and stood back up. He wanted to rush in and ensure she stayed down, but the blows from his blunt weapon would be blocked by her bluish-white barrier shield.

That swiveling defense blocked his attacks automatically.

He gathered strength in his arms and sent his eyes racing around.

(What could I use to make that malfunction ?)

“Fuck off, you powerless frauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuud!!!!!”

She interrupted his thoughts.

She shouted at him while the explosive flames burst like a balloon. And a white tornado emerged from within.

No, that wasn’t accurate.

He heard the rustling of cloth because these were long bandage-like strips of fabric. And not even her expertise in Egyptian magic allowed her to create something from nothing.

Her loose-fitting white priestess outfit was coming apart into those bandage-like strips.

The strips were curled up like an old phone cord and each loop contained a small vial.

“Papyrus,” said Utagai Karuta with a grin.

She had been pushed far enough to let her clothing fall apart and reveal the majority of her brown skin so she could access those vials more quickly. She trembled and blushed in the humiliation of having her methods revealed, but the boy continued the verbal assault.

Words could be used as a weapon to throw people off their game and keep them from fighting to their full potential.

She had taught him that herself.

“Most people think of papyrus as the water plant used to make Ancient Egyptian paper, but it was actually an all-purpose material with so many more applications, wasn’t it? It was used for carpets, tableware, boats, and buildings. The pith could even be eaten. But most importantly, it was used to make clothing . You didn’t just have a secret pocket or two. You could open slits anywhere you wanted to pull out your weapon.”

“Don’t…don’t think you have me all figured out.”

“But.”

“You don’t know ANythIng aBOUt mE!!!!!!!”

“Now that I know where you get those vials from, I can throw off your timing. I can stop your magic.”

A small light flashed at the edge of Karuta’s vision.

That had to be Aine or Marika. Did they assume contacting him with their crystal blossom transmissions would count as assisting him with their magic? They were using a pen light to send him a signal from the stands. He mentally converted the message to Japanese.

(Hetepheres is a priestess of the Osiris line of Egyptian mythology. She specializes in mummification. Egyptian mythology has divine beasts that correspond to the gods and mummified birds or cattle worshiped as divine incarnations have been discovered in the ruins much like the mummies of the human pharaohs.)

“…”

(She uses this by indirectly drawing on a god’s power through a mummified version of an animal corresponding to that god, such as a falcon or jackal. They are so small because, after the life-size mummy is made, each part is boiled down and concentrated into something like a soup stock, making them portable.)

The information was valuable, but not enough to give him an actual plan.

Since those were real mummies, he felt like they would have a weakness to moisture, but that wasn’t much help when they were sealed inside airtight vials.

“Why do you assign different ratios to each power?”

“?”

“Is it because reworking the power back to life size takes too long, so you’ve found shortcuts that make that method viable in combat? So the greater the denominator, the more shortcuts you use. That would also explain why you can use some of the powers simultaneously and not others. Our crystal magic seals the name of a god in our crystal blossom, so we aren’t using the god directly. Of course your way would be trickier to use.”

She did not respond.

But tensing her face to avoid letting anything show in her expression was as good as a confirmation.

Hetepheres Men-Nefer looked furious as she held a vial containing a miniature mummy. Karuta squeezed his modified military flashlight in return.

He could not defeat this Egyptian priestess with a head-on strike.

But that was not his only weapon. He had replaced the ordinary light with a powerful IR laser emitter.

“Wha-?”

Only after reflexively moving to cover her eyes did the doubt enter her mind.

He had aimed his flashlight straight up instead of at her.

Then his malice bared its fangs.

A hammer dropped down from heaven to earth.

But this hammer was made of an aluminum frame, plastic, and silicon chips and it dropped because the IR scrambled its image-processing-based attitude control sensors.

“A drone!!!???”

It was only a toy, but it still weighed two or three kilograms. That was about the same as a small plant pot filled with soil. Dropped from a height, that was plenty deadly.

Hetepheres moved to protect herself, but then she noticed the invisible web she was trapped in.

Yes, something wasn’t right.

She had nothing to fear from a head-on blow by a blunt weapon heavier than a bat and she had plenty of mummy vials left. She only had to calmly draw on Anubis’s power and knock Karuta away with her bluish-white shield to solve this problem.

Yet she couldn’t do it.

The signals from her mind to her body seemed awfully slow, like her body’s gears were jammed.

“ Your reflexes kick in for weak points your instincts know about. ”

That was a solid rule.

Nothing was more reliable than information that came from painful experiences.

“ But when you need your mind to recognize the threat posed by an attack, your reactions slow. ”

Bringing down drones through malfunctioning sensors wasn’t actually going to hit her when they had no targeting or homing function.

Instead, he threw his heavy flashlight straight at her.

She gasped and moved, like her bonds had been broken.

She immediately held a brown palm out in front of her, activating the bluish-white shield to deflect the attack aimed at her face.

But had she noticed that this was exactly the reaction Karuta had wanted? The falling drones had needed her mind to recognize the threat, but her instincts were enough with the projectile toward her face.

Her defenses were a shield she held out in front of her, not enveloping armor.

As soon as she activated that shield to deflect the flashlight, Karuta stepped diagonally outwards and then sharply back in to move behind her. Then he wrapped his entire arm around her neck. He held her from behind and then let himself fall backwards.

Both of them landed face up.

“Gah!?”

On top, Hetepheres’s back was arched like she was performing a bridge, except her feet were lifted from the floor. Karuta raised one knee to lift her hips from behind. She tried to swing her elbow back into him, but it only found air. The more her back was arched, the less she could move her elbow like that. While nearly in the bridge position, it was next to impossible for her to attack behind herself.

“Oh, has he got her in a chokehold!?” shouted Delane. “Damn, chokeholds and joint locks are basically a win since they’re nearly impossible to break free from. Where’s the drama we all crave!!”

“Not only does this keep Miss Hetepheres from reaching the tool she uses for her magic, but the pressure to her carotid artery will keep her from thinking at all. That is two ways this prevents her magic,” explained Kyouka.

Karuta knew just how agonizing this was after Letnahe did it to him.

It took several minutes to pass out if you simply couldn’t breathe, but constricting the carotid artery changed that. A human would pass out in less than 30 seconds.

With so little time to work with, he had not managed to learn much from Letnahe Kurent and she mostly just beat him up, but this was one of the few things he had learned. From all the innumerable forms of violence out there, Karuta’s interest had been piqued by how this was nearly impossible to escape while also preventing any resistance or even screaming once it was in place. But that wasn’t the only reason.

He had also wondered if he could have avoided bloodying his hands if he had learned some nonlethal methods of knocking people unconscious at an earlier stage.

(No, it’s not worth thinking about that.)

“Also, Hetepheres, since you tried to elbow me instead of using magic, can I assume you have nothing else left?”

“!?”

“In real street fighting, there is no escaping chokeholds and joint locks. The fight is as good as over once one is in place. It’s time you lost. You don’t have to lose everything in this fight against the world’s strongest!!”

“Who, gh, gives you the right, ugh, to talk down to me, ah, like that!?”

She had foam leaking from the corners of her mouth, but she managed to free her trembling fingers form their meaningless instinctive movements.

A hand reaching for her throat instead stretched slowly to the side.

She reached for something that shouldn’t have been there.

It was one of the ropes meant to surround the ring. The initial explosion triggered by Karuta had left an unignited detonating cord lying out on the floor.

Black powder had spilled from where it had broken away. That was apparently a mixture of smokeless powder, penthrite, and other explosives to get the speed and power just right.

The rope had not been ignited yet, so it would explode if touched!

“This…this isn’t over yet. Agh, as long as I can reach this…”

“Hetepheres!”

“It’ll detonate when I touch it, but I just have to make sure the blast reaches you. Maybe my elbow can’t reach, but I can swing this soft rope around to hit you.”

It would never be that easy. That thing had a burning velocity of 5km/s, so it would almost certainly blow her hand off before she could swing it.

But almost certainly wasn’t certainly.

There was a chance she could swing the rope around before it exploded, or her blown-off fingers or bones could stab deep into his head through his eyes. There were no 100% guarantees in combat. Karuta had learned the hard way how terrifying malicious coincidences could be.

(What do I do?)

He could not stop her slowly-moving arm with his knee up and his arm around her neck. And chokeholds took time to knock people out no matter how much force you used. Squeeze any harder and he would only break her neck.

He would have to wait until later to feel good about the inefficient decision to reject that idea outright.

Because as things were, that decision wouldn’t even matter. He only needed the one arm to hold her neck in his elbow like a finger caught in a door’s hinge, so what could he accomplish with his other arm?

(What do I do!?)

### 172. Part 8

Amaashi Marika was worried her internal groaning was going to escape as something audible.

The unruly(?) strongest girl was at a complete loss here.

“Ha ha ha. Marika-chan has grown up so much since I last saw her. Karuta is such a lucky boy. And I don’t have to worry about him when I know she’ll be by his side!” (Utagai Dad)

“I know, right? Marika, do you remember how you used to talk on and on about how you would marry Karuta when you grew up? And you would get so mad when I teasingly said I would take him for myself☆” (Amaashi Mom)

She was being attacked from all sides.

Having your parents visit school was bad enough for a teenage girl, but the neighbor boy’s parents were here too. The hellish crossfire was more than she could bear. She was tense as could be with an unnaturally stiff smile on her face while she silently cursed someone who wasn’t here.

(K-K-K-Karuta… You’re supposed to look after your own parents, so why am I stuck with them!?)

Perhaps there was still some hope in the world. Marika had traveled the world and hunted down the Problem Solvers for revenge and she was willing to assassinate an underclassman if they would harm one of her friends, but there was still something out there she couldn’t stand.

That aside, what did the peaceful members of the Amaashi and Utagai families think this magic tournament even was? The Utagai family in particular had been watching as their only son was bloodied and nearly killed while the crowd went wild.

“Hey, I had a question.”

After stepping aside to let a clown balanced on a ball and a bunny girl past (what club were they from?), Utagai Dad tilted his head in the decorated hallway.

“ When is your match going to be, Marika-chan? It doesn’t seem fair to give our Karuta all the attention. ”

“ I know. Or is it a team battle? Either way, this is your big chance. I just hope Karuta isn’t stealing the limelight from you. ”

“…”

They didn’t even know the basic rules.

They had to have some kind of understanding, but they were just so carefree. She had to wonder if they could even keep track of which fighter was their son when Karuta and his opponent rushed at each other at close range, constantly switching positions.

(In fact…)

Would they even understand her if she explained Karuta’s plight to them?

She felt like they would pepper her with whys and never actually come to terms with what she was saying.

They refused to actually think through the information presented to them.

They believed they could get by without understanding all the details. They believed they could get what they wanted if they just clicked the first option on the list and chose “agree” on ever TOS they came across. They truly believed the world was so kind.

Even though they lived in an age where the Threat had reduced the earth’s population to 5.5 billion.

They were still convinced that everything would work out in the end.

There was not actually a safe path through this world of malice and violence. Life was a sequence of crises where you had to make your own observations, think for yourself, and take action or you would be killed instantly.

“What are your plans for today, Marika-chan?”

“Eh? Oh, there’s a match I’m interested in, so I was thinking of watching that.”

“ Is it Karuta’s match? ”

They weren’t even aware that Karuta had already fought his match for the day. The question had so little basis in reality that Marika froze up for a second and smiled stiffly when she did answer.

“Nooo, it’s not his. It’s between a Greek mythology astrologist and an occult kunoichi.”

The world’s strongest gyaru tried her best to be polite to the neighbor boy’s parents.

That match would determine Karuta’s opponent in the third round. She didn’t know which one would win, but it couldn’t hurt to use the match for research.

But she received an unexpected response.

It came from her own parents who were so accustomed to a peaceful life they could not keep up with what was really happening here.

“Oh, then that’s too bad, Marika.”

“Eh? Why’s that, mama?”

“You didn’t see the emergency news on the screen over there earlier? Round 2 Match 3 ended in a win by default .”

“…”

Something was happening.

Something decidedly different from all the past matches.

It was nothing concrete and she couldn’t find an appropriate word for it, but if she had to describe it she would say it was the density and concentration of malice rapidly increasing.

This oppressive feeling was the same thing she had felt when up against the Problem Solvers or the Threat.

“One of the contestants was in an accident , so they couldn’t participate. They were injured pretty badly, so the tournament was the least of their worries,” said Marika’s mother, with a hand on her cheek. She sounded as carefree as if she were talking about vegetable prices going up again. “The poor girl. I don’t know the details, but how can the other contestants feel comfortable walking around when they won’t tell anyone what happened? Marika, will you be okay? Accidents like these are so scary.”

The battle was not restricted to the ring.

This opponent was not going to wait that long.

There was something different about this one.

### Between the Lines 2

“Sorry about the wait. Let’s get started.”

That night, Letnahe Kurent visited an important section of Second Grimnoah. She completely ignored the meteor shower event going on outside and her outline was swollen by the thick positive pressure protective suit she wore. This place was not controlled by the Sub Category or Main Category students. The adult teachers were in charge here.

Sophia Firenze and Kiyosawa Hadome were already there.

The latter Letnahe had never intended to see again after she sealed away the memories of her first love. He did not know she was one of the string pullers.

The bulky protective suit came in handy there. The thick shields kept them from seeing each other’s faces clearly and they were fully separated despite standing in the same space.

(Hadome-kun.)

“Make sure to record your work in three different formats. This one is in good shape compared to the thoroughly-destroyed samples collected during the days of the previous strongests. An opportunity like this might not come again, so we need to avoid any possibility of losing these records due to a silly mistake.”

She kept her feelings hidden inside and maintained a businesslike demeanor as she looked to the “sample” lying on the work table. It was a reddish-purple hunk of metal nearly 3m long.

It was a Threat.

Specifically, it was the one known as the Warrior Doll. It had been the most powerful Threat occupying Second Grimnoah. The part analogous to a head was missing, but this was still a crucial sample toward learning more about the Threat.

They were known as Metal-Derived Autonomous-Origin Higher Lifeform Combat Weapons.

They were a threat to humanity of extraterrestrial origin that rained endlessly down on the earth.

They fiercely fought against the Original Crystal Embryo that slept at the earth’s core and was the source of crystal magic.

The Threat had caused great damage during their occupation of the Port of Kobe and Second Grimnoah. That the battle had allowed the details of crystal magic to reach ordinary people’s phone lenses was especially damaging.

But some good had come of that battle.

A great many Threats had ceased to function within the massive closed room that was Second Grimnoah. If they were only going to meticulously deliver a finishing blow to each one anyway, they could easily fudge the official numbers of Threats discovered and secretly capture some.

That meant they could keep this fact from the human string pullers who Letnahe knew so well.

This was one of those.

Since Letnahe had taken such a risk on this, she was hoping for a discovery bigger than anything her higher ups had told her.

“Now, should we call this a dissection or a dismantling?” groaned Kiyosawa Hadome, standing around the same work table.

This was not a human. They all knew that. But the metal armor clearly had more joints than were necessary for pure efficiency. They may have been unsure how exactly to classify their actions here.

But they got to work regardless.

“The weapon is…wow, it’s the same material as the Threat’s body.”

There was no plasma jet anymore, but Sophia Firenze was very careful not to touch the blade as she examined the weapon. She may have started with a weapon instead of the Threat itself because the consequences of a mistake were far less.

The sword was designed to emit a plasma jet and it had fine, branching wiring on the inside. Letnahe initially likened it to a plant’s roots, but then she realized what it really was.

“Blood vessels and nerves…or a mimicry of them.”

“We do not even know if the Threat transports oxygen or carbon dioxide. Amaashi Marika saw Threats operating underwater.”

Hearing Hadome’s voice from unexpectedly close by made Letnahe’s heart leap a bit.

And he was right.

They had heard that the real Threat could not be defeated by ordinary means, so Sophia and Hadome were ready to activate their crystal magic if need be. But that did not prove necessary. Their surgical saws and drills – designed for use on human bones – worked just fine.

“I-is their armor only solid while they’re alive? Or do they activate a thin magical barrier around themselves?” nervously suggested Sophia.

They were recording all of this, so it was best to vocalize any idea that came to mind. Letnahe agreed with that stance anyway.

“When Utagai Karuta fought this armored warrior in the gym, he said he avoided an attack by using one of the tadpole corpses as a shield. Maybe the armored warrior is special and maybe micro-damage spreads through them at an accelerated rate as time passes after their death. We just don’t know enough to say.”

They could not focus on the weapon and exterior forever.

They finally shifted their focus to the armored warrior itself lying there on the table.

According to Utagai Karuta’s battle report, the armored warrior had not taken this form to begin with. It had initially been a lion-shaped Threat they had dubbed Sparkle. It had taken this humanoid form only after devouring several of the tadpole ones. Yet when they removed the armor piece by piece, none of it felt out of place. A closer inspection showed some notches that looked like a single unified pattern when viewed together.

“It’s beautiful.”

Kiyosawa Hadome’s assessment felt out of place here, but Letnahe had to agree with him. The gray artificial muscles were so perfectly laid out she would have sworn it was based on a wiring chart.

Once they split the Threat open, that was what they found.

Letnahe felt no biological disgust – only the artificiality of a wax food sample. Maybe that was due to her not viewing the armored warrior as a living creature like them, but she did not bat an eye even when viewing the burned-out capacitors arranged like wings.

“This is its heart?”

Letnahe went through a few different processes to open up the chest and gently extracted the object protected by rib-like metal pillars.

The unit was a little bigger than a clenched fist. It was constructed from a few gears and a U-shaped tuning fork .

It reminded her of something, so she stated it aloud through her protective suit.

“Is this a tuning fork clock?”

A tuning fork would ring at a set frequency, so a clock could track time using the tuning fork’s constant amplitude. The Threat supposedly received solid fuel from the sea anemone ones, but Letnahe had not known that fuel was used to run something like this. It was fascinating to find they had this in place of a heart. What meaning did the Threat find in their own pulse?

And the idea of a clock increased the nagging sense she had that something was wrong here.

Yes.

That’s right.

“Crystal magic,” whispered Letnahe.

She could not use crystal magic herself, but its presence rapidly grew in her mind.

She recalled whose lair she was inside.

Crystals could also be used to produce a fixed vibration. And there were clocks that accurately measured time using that trait.

They were the one thing that could defeat the Threat which had tuning fork clocks inside them. They were the one thing the Problem Solvers had chosen to dirty their hands in order to eradicate. They were the vanguards chosen by the Original Crystal Embryo.

They could deflect any external interference with a barrier, they could defy gravity and fly through the sky, and they could regenerate any injury in 30 seconds. And if they died, they were not even allowed to rot. They would instead transform into solid crystal statues.

What if?

What if they too had a clock embedded in them? What if that was the true identity of their crystal blossom? And if they were ruled by a clock just like the Threat, then could they still be called human? If you looked past their ribs and sternum, would you even find the crucial component known as a heart?

This was a battle between two different types of clock – tuning fork and crystal.

Did that mean anything? Simplifying it down like that had actually left Letnahe more confused.

“What is it?” said Kiyosawa Hadome. He asked the fundamental question – a question that’s answer continued to elude scientists the world over. “What even is crystal magic?”

Humanity was beginning to rely on it.

They were reaching a point where they could not protect the earth without it.

### 173. 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 !!!???”

### 174. Part 9

Efficient people would reuse a method any number of times once they knew it was effective.

He already had his answer.

What had he done to defend against an explosion from her Egyptian magic earlier?

He had triggered his own explosion first.

In other words, he only had to reach out his hand and grab the rope snaking across the floor.

With a muffled explosion, the effect was immediately evident.

He doubted she would have had time to swing it around after grabbing it. The instant the detonating cord received the pressure of his grip, it provided an electric shock to ignite the explosives. The flammable gas’s volume instantly expanded several hundredfold, blowing away the boy’s clenched hand from within. His paper-thin barrier was meaningless here. Instead of expanding in a sphere from a single point, this was more like a line of destruction used to burn through a thick metal door. The hunks of flesh blasted across the mat rapidly crystallized.

“Kah…”

With her last-ditch counterattack – her final hope – snuffed out, she finally hit her limit.

“Huh?”

Hetepheres’s hand dropped to the floor. This time, she really did appear to have passed out.

But Karuta could not just sit around.

His felt woozy and the lack of pain actually scared him.

Even a child knew that slitting your wrist was enough to kill you. His crystal magic would help him regenerate, but only with nonlethal injuries. He helped himself to one of the bandage-like strips of cloth wrapped around Hetepheres and used his right hand and mouth to tie it tight just below his mutilated hand. That didn’t fully stop the bleeding, but it didn’t have to. It only had to get the wound deemed nonlethal.

He heard several high-pitched cracking sounds.

Sharp pieces of crystal were covering his incomplete hand.

He raised that hand overhead.

With an especially loud noise, the crystal shattered away, revealing his clenched fist to be as good as new. Glittering crystal dust reflected the bright film lights, illuminating him in his raised-fist pose.

“Oh!” shouted Cinderella Queen. “Ohhhhhhh!! I-I don’t believe it! Did he protect her? He didn’t just defeat her Egyptian magic! Utagai Karuta grabbed the detonating cord rope himself to protect Hetepheres against her own last-ditch suicide attack!!!!!!”

After a short pause, the crowd erupted into cheers.

“The guy’s a legit monster! Was I the only one that thought his life was ever at risk here?”

“Damn, I guess the strongest really does look at the world differently.”

“Why didn’t he kill her!? Cause she’s a girl?”

The deluge of voices pushed in at him from all sides. Karuta’s victory meant all the money bet against the world’s strongest went right into Second Grimnoah’s pockets, but no one sounded angry.

But Karuta felt any icy chill himself.

The odds had been low, but there had been a chance she could have turned that detonating cord into a win. To prevent that small but very real possibility, he had rationally sacrificed his hand to save his life. His biggest fear had been her fingers or bones stabbing into his brain through his eyes, so he had prevented Hetepheres’s unpredictable action, chosen where he would take his damage, and turned his face away from the blast to protect his eyes from the pieces of his own hand.

That was the real reason for his decision.

But the people in the audience had chosen to dramatize the action.

“I only did it for myself,” he said just the once.

His confession was picked up by a distant shotgun microphone, but it only led to more cheers. They only saw this as the modesty of a saint.

Eat shit, silently spat the ordinary boy.

He was afraid how they would interpret that one if he said it out loud.

### 175. 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!!”

### 176. Prologue

(Author: Robert Ring. Filename: Manuscript Data 6/13/20XX 1-Page Article)

What is the true power of the world’s strongest crystal magicians known as the Four Living Gods?

Several pieces of new information were discovered during their battle against the Threat in the ocean near Japan’s Port of Kobe.

We now know more about the power of the world’s strongest magicians.

They must not have been able to spare the energy to cover up that information like they did during their unconfirmed operation at the Crystal Beach. Several witness accounts and videos of the battle in the city have turned up and official records remain for the damage caused by the leaked crude oil and the naval petroleum fire.

Is crystal magic really all that useful in the fight against the Threat? And just how powerful are the Four Living Gods really?

They would not try to hide this information if they did not benefit from doing so, so I believe there is great value in the fragments of information that slipped through this time.

Whatever their official specs are listed as on paper, the reality before our eyes is what truly matters.

The Four Living Gods failed to prevent damage to the city and they struggled to retake their own mobile base of Second Grimnoah. In your great wisdom, I ask that you determine for yourselves whether or not they truly have the power they are rumored to.

I repeat: just how powerful are the Four Living Gods really?

Remember, these are just a collection of minor students. They were forced to sacrifice others to take back their home, so can we really expect them to take back this world of 5.5 billion unharmed?

(* Hidden Note: We do live in a better world now, though. If I had written an article like this back in the Problem Solver days, I would have been demoted, fired, or even blacklisted from the entire industry.)

The ocean seemed to stretch on forever, but beyond the horizon, a long wire stretched ever upward like some kind of mistake. That was the space elevator constructed on the equator. The wire was surrounded by crackling light even with the sky as blue as could be. That was due to the energy being sent from the facility into the thunderclouds to intentionally release their lightning into the surrounding ocean where the high voltage would not harm the elevator wire.

It was June. Specifically, it was 10:09 AM of the 13th.

The equator in Southeast Asia was apparently one of the least rainy areas in the world. But if it rained even 140mm in a month, it would rival Tokyo’s rainy season. The problem was how the area had some of the world’s highest temperatures. It was better than the stagnant jungles, but it still felt like being inside a plastic greenhouse with water spraying on the plants inside.

Directly below the Second Grimnoah’s heliport, Utagai Karuta bowed his head and spoke.

“Thanks for helping me with this.”

“It’s no problem. That President’s clever plan has me working as an emergency lecturer on Second Grimnoah anyway.”

Letnahe Kurent had one foot held above her head like she was about to perform an axe kick, except that heel was pressed against the nearby metal wall to stretch her hip joint. She was a beautiful woman in her late 20s with distinctive long silver hair and brown skin. She currently wore a baggy t-shirt and ankle-length skintight pink leggings. Indian yoga had modernized itself a lot as time passed, so colorful synthetic garments were now a common sight when it was practiced. She wore a ring on her ring finger and a mobile watch around her wrist. She had a sports band attached to her glasses to keep them in place while she moved.

Karuta, on the other hand, wore a short-sleeved dress shirt over a sports brand shirt and purple slacks. That was actually an official summer uniform of Second Grimnoah – the combat variation he had used when fighting the Problem Solvers and the Threat.

(Not that these are made to provide any real defense. And this situation doesn’t really allow me to go into hiding and get in a sneak attack. If only the world’s strongest was allowed to hide weapons in their clothing. )

He tapped his fingers against the modified military flashlight he wore in his belt at the side of his hip.

The woman continued her stretches and spoke (while breathing an oddly alluring sigh).

“You are officially known as the world’s strongest, so you can’t let people see you working so hard. That actually makes the lockable gym a bad choice. The more strictly you lock something up, the more people will want to see inside. A blind spot like this, that no one even thinks about as being hidden from view, though? Now that makes the perfect secret base.”

The fact that below the heliport had been Karuta’s first thought when asked to find a secret base may have been a remnant of the sunk first ship living on within him.

(God, how long are you going to keep saving my ass, Gekiha ?)

While applying gentle pressure to her lithe body with her stretches, the Main Category dance teacher (and special envoy from the Indian military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, and member of the human string-pullers) casually began the lesson.

“There are a wide variety of ancient martial arts, but I personally see four major categories defined by whether or not they use the legs and whether or not they allow grappling. Weapons? They all use that. Even karate uses the tonfa and boxing protects the fists. Human fists break far too easily when punching people barehanded.”

“Wait, but I recognize that stance.”

Karuta sounded puzzled.

He was not all that knowledgeable of martial arts, but he had seen similar movements used by karate fighters to judge the distance from their opponent.

The new teacher(?) smiled a little.

“India is an old country with a population of 1 billion even with the losses brought by the Threat. You can find more than 2000 martial arts styles there that can be classified as ‘ancient’.”

“Then why not use those?”

“If we combined those to create some kind of ultimate combination, we would get complaints about whose styles we used and whose we didn’t. So we avoid all that trouble by using foreign karate or jujutsu instead. You have to remember, the Indian military includes people from regions all across the country, so it’s safest to eliminate any source of friction rooted in love for one’s home region. The last thing you want is fights breaking out among your own troops.”

What a bitter reason.

And he had been hoping to see a scimitar like Kali’s or a trident like Shiva’s.

“Then again, Kenpo had its origins in ancient India before it arrived in China,” she added. “Now, if you just want as much destructive power as fast as you can get it, then Muay Thai with its punching, kicking, and grappling would be your best bet. But that is designed for close-quarters combat and is poorly suited for dodging weapons like knives and tasers. In the world of killing, you want to be an outfighter who keeps their distance from their opponent while making sure it remains a one-sided fight. But explaining it all verbally makes for poor training. You can figure out the logic behind it all while trying it out yourself.”

Karuta glanced awkwardly down at the object in his right hand.

The military flashlight that doubled as a striking weapon was about 60cm long and thicker than a relay baton. He had made use of that weapon on several occasions in this cruel world. He had also swapped out the light for a powerful IR laser that could dazzle eyes and jam sensors.

It was only a makeshift handmade device, but it was the most familiar weapon for him.

Letnahe coolly gestured him toward her with her fingertips in the sweltering equatorial heat.

“I don’t mind. Before they were developed into sports, ancient martial arts were designed with weapons in mind. Anyone who fights emptyhanded is making a choice to do so. There is no need to hold back.”

This wasn’t going to start until Karuta made his move. He slowly exhaled, flipped around the blunt weapon that had been aimed at her face, and aimed for her right shin instead.

Anyone would move to protect their face on reflex. Blows to the shin were an easy source of great pain and applying too much force had less risk of causing a lasting injury than with the knee. It was a “safe weak point” with almost no chance of killing someone if you attacked there.

But.

“Un.”

Letnahe easily pulled back her right leg to avoid the swing of his modified military flashlight.

“Deux.”

With a dull sound, stars scattered in Karuta’s vision. He had naturally lowered his head in order to attack her leg, so she had jabbed her elbow straight into his face. His flimsy barrier was easily breached, he lost control of his weight, and he could not stop himself from toppling back onto his ass. Meanwhile, Letnahe kept moving.

“Trois.”

He felt something soft on the back of his head.

Letnahe had cut sharply behind him and placed an arm around his neck. She used the inside of her elbow much like someone cracking a walnut with a door hinge. He had fallen onto his butt and his legs were pinned because she wrapped her legs around his hips from behind in a kani basami. She had essentially sat down and tangled her entire body around his, so he had no way of shaking her off after falling down. It was a lot like being strangled by the shoulder strap of the backpack you were wearing.

She did it with such overwhelming speed that the gemlike beads of sweat that flew from her brown skin only fell to the floor after the fact.

(If that’s her chin against the top of my head, then this softness against the back of my head must be her brea- gweh!?)

“Chokeholds are nearly impossible to break out of once they’re in place, but I also could have used an axe kick. The distance from the heel to the head increases the force of the blow, so it can shatter the skull of an opponent that has fallen to the ground.”

He felt the warmth of a grown women across his back and the heat of her breaths on his ear, but he could not afford to tense up. If she bent her elbow just a little further, she would fully constrict his carotid artery. Then he would have less than 30 seconds before he passed out.

Instead, she released him and stood up, brushing back her long hair with a hand, leaning over, and holding her other hand out toward the dazed boy.

“You cannot learn from a single loss. You need to continue losing until you understand why you lost. We don’t have much time, so you have to stay focused on that trial-and-error process.”

“…”

He took her hand.

No, just before he did, he flipped his entire body around to sweep her feet out from under her.

“Nice try.”

The teacher looked somewhat amused.

She stomped on his sweeping foot, but he could not just grimace at the explosion of primitive pain in his ankle bone. She had already pinned him in place.

With his one leg held to the ground, she spread her legs in her leggings and sat down on his belly. She made the temporary restraint much more permanent. She had to be lighter than him, but he couldn’t force her off of him with his center of gravity so accurately pinned.

“But not good enough.”

She held his hands down, swung her head back, and then slammed her forehead against his without even removing her glasses. He tasted rust while his vision blurred.

“Of course, I could have tightened your collar with my hands to knock you out instead.”

The kind teacher’s lecture continued with forehead against forehead like she was checking his temperature.

They were close enough for him to notice a cool minty scent in her sweet breath. It may have been her toothpaste.

“Do you see now that you can’t just attack at random? There are rules you must follow. Any attack you can think up on the fly can be just as easily blocked. You need to have at least two options at any single moment – preferably three. Do that and you can either win or draw – you will never lose.”

“Jab, strike, kick. Grab, choke, throw. Not to mention weapons and magic… Combat can happen in any context and with any kind of attack, so is it really that simple?”

“It is true there are as many methods of attack as stars in the sky.”

“Sh!!”

He threw a punch toward her side while she was talking and his vision darkened.

It took him three whole seconds to realize the teacher seated atop him had apparently tensed her side to block and thrown her own fist as a counterattack. Yes, seconds. In his battles against the Problem Solvers and the Threat, he would have been killed several times over in that time.

Letnahe maintained a composed expression as she continued speaking.

“But there aren’t all that many different forms of defense. Blocking, dodging, breaking free, parrying – well, there are four or five more if you include counterattacks that combine offense and defense. And your options there don’t change all that much whether you have a weapon or not. Plus, people can only perform one form of defense at a time. You cannot lower your hips to brace yourself against an incoming attack while also deftly dodging out of the way.”

“Gah…ow.”

“I will teach you several ways to efficiently destroy your opponent , so once you have a decent repertoire of attacks, you need to learn which forms of defense they can defeat. For example, a sway used to move the body out of the way of punch can be crushed by a kick or a tackle. A method of breaking free of an attempted grapple is powerless against all forms of striking attacks. Again, people can only perform one form of defense at a time, so if you always have at least two attack options at the ready, you can switch between them at a moment’s notice to render their defenses meaningless.”

“Ugh, cough.”

“ In this case, you don’t need to worry about being caught in a brawl against multiple opponents, but that rule is still worth keeping in mind.”

Their lips were less than 2cm apart, so Karuta didn’t dare move his head aside when he coughed. He was afraid any movement at all would make their lips touch. This must have delighted some weirdly sadistic side of Letnahe because she rubbed her forehead against his in obvious amusement.

“You need to be an outfighter with excellent dodging skills, but your attacks also need real weight behind them. In that sense, Japanese karate isn’t bad. And you should avoid using leg techniques for a quick power boost since they will also reduce your mobility. Fancy taekwondo is best left to the experts.”

“But won’t my attacks be too weak like that? Even I can tell a kick is more powerful than a punch. Won’t this increase the risk of the battle dragging on?”

“Of course it will. The ideal result is to defeat your opponent within 4 seconds. Otherwise, you lose the element of surprise and the bullets and screams will start flying. And in real combat, either one is deadly. In your case, you will immediately be put on the defensive once that happens.”

She was so close he couldn’t get his eyes to focus on her face and he felt her breath of laughter on his lips.

But then she pulled back and got off of him.

“But there is no need to insist on using just one form of martial arts in combat. Just like the Japanese police have combined karate, judo, and kendo to create their own arresting techniques, you can take parts of different martial arts to make up for what one might lack. I assume you are more familiar with Japanese martial arts, so…yes, take this for example.”

Letnahe planted her feet at shoulder width and lowered her hips.

While partially crouched, she pressed her palms against her knees and lifted her right leg up high. Then she slammed the foot down against the hard floor.

In other words, she performed a sumo stomp.

“In sumo, greater body weight obviously provides an advantage, but you can still pose a threat with an average weight as long as you know how to throw that weight around. You can rattle your opponent’s vision and mind with a swift sumo slap and use that opening to tackle them. As long as you learn the effective patterns, you can nearly guarantee a win that way. There is a brief risk as you move in close to slam your weight against them, but you still have a greater chance of dodging an unexpected attack than if you raised your leg for a kick.”

“…”

Karuta greatly appreciated her valuable advice, but he was having trouble looking her in the eye.

She gave him a confused look through her glasses, but then realization filled her eyes. She must have heard the straining of the synthetic material. Yes, she shouldn’t have spread her legs so wide and placed such a large burden on the pink leggings already stretched tight over her skin. …The shape of her crotch was showing through a little too clearly. Mrs. Camel was showing off her toes.

Letnahe held herself in her arms and rapidly backed away, glaring at him like he was a bug on the bathroom floor.

“What kind of animal has time to lust after a married women wearing a wedding ring when his life is on the line?”

“How is it my fault you decided to do this combat training in yoga pants? An ordinary long-sleeved track suit would’ve worked fine!!”

Just then, a bright white beam of light shot from the heliport above and shook the entire world around them.

This was not like an ordinary explosion spreading out in every direction like a dome.

Had it been given even more brutal destructive power by focusing it all in a single direction? One of the cruisers patrolling nearby nearly had its bow torn off and a desert island on the horizon and an ocean wind power plant were erased from the world.

This was magic.

However, it was not the crystal magic Utagai Karuta and his friends were so familiar with.

“Aaaaand there it is!! Soufflehilde S. Gerbline’s Valkyrie rune magic just landed a solid hit!! Fortunately, the stands only had a piece of their base torn away, but do remember it’s up to you to dodge any foul balls that fly your way. Now, what has become of Eikele and her Celtic wicker man? Was she blasted outside the ring, or was she vaporized on the spot? The satellite and drone footage is being rewound for a careful analysis as we speak, so please wait until we have a ruling!!”

The amplified and cracking voice coming from the speakers was the excited yelling of a little girl much too young to be commentating a deadly event like this. The cheering crowd soon followed. The cheers were so loud they shook the 600m ship that was Second Grimnoah.

That was all happening atop the heliport directly above Karuta and Letnahe’s heads.

For all that to fit up there, it was obviously much larger than the average rooftop heliport.

Emotions were contagious, so excitement could spread from a single person just as well as panic could. Maybe the edgy little girl’s shouts were meant to excite the crowd that way, or maybe she was just stalling until the result of the match was confirmed.

“But you can’t hope to face the real star of this tournament if you don’t pack at least that much of a punch. Now, everyone, use this new information to inform your next bets. Wouldn’t it be boring if the world’s strongest just won it all!? That kind of fuck up isn’t gonna make anyone rich!! So grip those tickets in your hands and raise a greedy prayer for whoever you’ve got your money riding on! Who do you think will kill Utagai Karuta and claim the title of world’s strongest for themselves !!!???”

No one questioned it.

The cheers only grew louder and filled their surroundings with the strange energy of a festival.

“You don’t have time to zone out.”

Was it Letnahe Kurent who said he could not let other people see him right now? She checked her blood pressure and other vital signs on the mobile watch synced with her phone while she performed some stretches more to stimulate her internal organs through yoga than to loosen her muscles.

“Remember, you don’t have the luxury of Aine fighting by your side this time.”

### 177. Chapter 1

### Part 1

So, what exactly was going on at Second Grimnoah as it floated in the equatorial ocean on June 13? Take a look back in time and that will become clear enough.

“A martial arts tournament with magic allowed, huh?”

Amaashi Marika, the childhood friend with her curly twintails dyed a bright strawberry blonde, sounded skeptical. She was wearing a brand-new short-sleeved blouse of a summer uniform. She was the generally cheerful and extroverted gyaru type (while actually being extremely dangerous, obsessive, and vengeful), but unlike Karuta, she actually tied her tie.

“We never got a chance to do this on the first ship.”

“So it’s this year’s Catastrophe? It sounds a lot more friendly than the rumors I heard on the first ship.”

Kazamuki Gekiha and the other 700 students and teachers of the first ship were preserved as unspeaking crystal statues at the bottom of this ship, but Karuta did not see anything inappropriate about this conversation. They were talking about a dream those students never had a chance to live out.

They were inside the air-conditioned gym early in the morning, but it still felt hot and stuffy with all the Sub Category and Main Category students gathered there. The waxed floor and the stage at one end perfectly reproduced the look of a school gymnasium and it was large enough to play two volleyball games at once or to play a regulation basketball game. With that size, it was easy to forget this was all on a ship. But this gathering looked too fancy to be a simple student assembly. Countless cameras were filming everything from the stands on the second floor. Traditional TV cameras were carried on cameramen’s shoulders and swiveling webcams were affixed to the metal railings. All in all, there had to be more than 10 thousand lenses.

This assembly doubled as an audienceless opening ceremony.

Wheelchair spokes creaked up on the stage.

When she remained silent, no one would suspect Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was anything more than a busty black-haired beauty, but she was in fact the Four Living Gods’ black-hearted strategist. She barely seemed to notice all the eyes on her as she spoke. She did have a transparent prompter in front of her, providing her with the text of her speech, but Karuta suspected she didn’t really need it.

“We at Second Grimnoah have had the good fortune to claim the position of world’s strongest with our cutting-edge crystal magic. But growth is not possible if we fail to look outwards. So to establish an effective exchange of knowledge, we ask for assistance from other types of magicians. We hope that you will participate in order to assist our fight against the mysterious Threat and to help bring peace to our world.”

Colorful images danced on the screen covering the wall behind her. This used a special projector that arranged its scan lines so the image would remain crisp and clear even through the mechanical lenses. It was clearly designed to be world-class entertainment. The artificial depth given to the video was so well done it was hard to tell whether the images seen in front of the screen or behind it were the fake ones.

The Four Living Gods referred specifically to Utagai Karuta, Aine, Amaashi Marika, and Omotesandou Kyouka, but Karuta and Marika had not been given seats of honor as members of the world’s strongest. They sat with the other students in their class, which gave them a chance to whisper to each other.

Karuta spoke to Marika while keeping his eyes on Kyouka shining up on the stage.

“The Four Living Gods must remain the strongest no matter what happens.”

“And?”

“ Frankly, we keep getting our asses handed to us. At the Port of Kobe and here on Second Grimnoah, ordinary people saw us fighting the Threat. We managed to cover up most of the information about what happened at the Crystal Beach, but we couldn’t stop people online from speculating that we were caught up in some kind tragedy there. Which is true, but we can’t let people know that. We aren’t allowed to lose or even draw like ordinary humans.”

“Because if we aren’t perfect, people will be worried we can’t defeat the Threat?”

“You should know with all the online news alerts that get automatically pushed to that phone in your hand. There are protests verging on riots in several cities out there.”

“Justice and fear and frustration, huh?”

“The usual recipe for a witch hunt. Looting doesn’t happen because people see a chance to steal – it happens because people are afraid they won’t be able to defend themselves if they don’t. It’s the same impulse as bulk-buying during a disaster, so the people doing it don’t even think they’re doing anything wrong. Humans can steal and kill as long as they can give themselves a benevolent justification for doing it, like feeding their family or protecting the weak. That’s just how we work.”

Karuta’s tone of voice tended to drop when he was discussing matters of morality.

He had thrown out such lies after his “baptism” aboard the first ship.

“The fear market has people making a bundle remodeling people’s bathrooms into panic rooms or selling family shelters buried in the backyard. Not to mention self-sufficiency products like rooftop solar panels or herb planters that can be installed on a balcony. There are even services to manage your possessions or to fully erase your search history or hard disk after your death. Hell, we’re even seeing apocalyptic cults and cold sleep services. This event is needed to put an end to those things .”

Simply put, crystal magic had to be powerful. And that did not necessarily mean they needed some secret training regimen to actually increase its power. In fact, that sort of power boost was too subtle a flavor, so it would mostly go over the public’s heads.

Instead, they needed some strongly-flavored junk food that everyone could appreciate.

The Catastrophe was the perfect candidate there.

“Just like we used our crystal magic to battle against the god-worshiping magic, there are plenty more forms of magic out there. According to Omotesandou-san, Letnahe Kurent of the human string-pullers used Indian mythology magic.”

“So we just have to kick all their asses on camera? Sounds pretty immature.”

“The point is to prevent any riots by showing the world that crystal magic really is the strongest in the world. We don’t actually need to get any stronger to do that. As long as we defeat the competition in the Catastrophe tournament, the world will see that we’re a step above everyone else.”

Besides, if wanting to get stronger was enough to do so, they would already be as strong as they needed to be. As pathetic as it might sound, they had already hit their upper limit. Their power wasn’t going to suddenly level up just because they had run into a new problem.

Instead, they would con the world.

Solving these social problems was where Omotesandou Kyouka’s cunning mind came into play. Her idea had been to invite different magic systems from around the world to participate in a martial arts tournament. This wasn’t a subtle secret ingredient requiring in-depth culinary knowledge to identify; it was omurice smothered in ketchup.

“Marika.”

“Yes?”

“Given the point of tournament, all four of us should be automatically entered. I’m sure you get this already, but this event is only using the Catastrophe name. I’ll say this as many times as it takes for it to stick, but the entire point of the tournament is to bring peace of mind to the nervous people around the world. So don’t take things too far. Or to spell it out for you: don’t kill anyone. Please, Marika, I’m begging you.”

“Is that any way to talk to your cute and heroic childhood friend?”

Unfortunately, that was exactly how he had to talk to God of Destruction Marika. What would happen if she carried out a gruesome execution on a global livestream? This entire event was meaningless if people walked away thinking crystal magic was an even greater monster than the Threat.

Then Karuta felt small fingers tugging on his short-sleeve dress shirt.

The white figure seated on the other side of him from Marika was the only person not wearing a Second Grimnoah summer uniform. That pure white dress with large slits for ease of movement stood out like a sore thumb in the sea of purple uniforms.

She was Crystal Girl Aine.

She seemed upset that Karuta was only speaking with Marika, so she started whispering to him to draw his attention.

“Sacri-sama, Sacri-sama.”

“Huh? I mean that’s cute and all, but since when does Aine-chan get so blatantly jealous over Karuta?”

“Sacri-tama.”

“Again, since when is this a thing!? She hasn’t been infected with – I don’t know – crystal malware or something, has she!?”

Karuta himself slapped a hand against his forehead.

A lot had happened while they were retaking Second Grimnoah near the Port of Kobe. How had the crystal girl interpreted things when he fought for her against the armored warrior Threat in this very gym? That was something only she could know. And once the battle was over, he had sensed a subtle change in how Aine acted around him. It was a weird sensation, like one side of his headphones was intermittently going out, and Karuta himself was unsure how to process it.

“Anyway, Aine, I’m counting on you. There’s nowhere to hide in the limited field of a tournament ring, so my usual trickery isn’t going to work. I imagine most of my fights are going to come down to sending you in as the vanguard the instant the battle begins.”

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

“Playful answers like that only make me more worried, you know?”

Their exchange made it clear Karuta was not really all that worried. The entire event was meaningless if the crystal magic users didn’t win. In a way, it was a major gamble with no redos, but he couldn’t imagine how Aine or Marika could possibly lose to an ordinary magician. He didn’t mean to insult all the participants who had gathered from around the world, but he did not sense the same skin-crawling pressure he had felt from simply being near the Problem Solvers or the Threat. Karuta himself could not use any real magic and might only get in the way, but Aine could easily defeat any challenger even with him weighing her down. In fact, he was more worried that she wouldn’t be able to make nonlethal strikes with her crystal sword.

“Aine. If anyone other than us wins, they earn the title of world’s strongest plus a large sum of prize money. That money comes from all the money people lose betting on the tournament – in other words, the jackpot. Omotesandou-san says that should reach more than 2 billion. You can’t take human greed lightly. It’s a powerful motivator different again from the vengeance that drove us. It’s best not to underestimate something just because you don’t have it yourself.”

However.

A subtle change happened then.

So subtle only Karuta and Marika could notice it thanks to the time they had spent with the sexy Student Council President after the destruction of the first ship.

Images of the four world’s strongests were displayed on the wall behind her.

And then the photos of Aine, Amaashi Marika, and Omotesandou Kyouka were removed one by one.

“The primary objective of this year’s Catastrophe Magic Combat Tournament is the exchange of valuable magic, so we can’t have people skipping it because they assume the world’s strongest are guaranteed to win. That is why we will be accepting a few handicaps.”

Omotesandou Kyouka’s eyes blinked at an odd moment. It was the look she made when something caught her by surprise but she was working hard to not let it show.

“We are the current world’s strongest, but we could not learn anything new if the four of us all took part and immediately crushed the competition. These handicaps were our own idea to make this a more valuable experience, so do not feel like you are being given an unfair advantage. If your opponent has a weakness, do not hesitate to attack it. As the four who must always defeat the Threat, we know that greedy ambition very well.”

“What the hell?” muttered Karuta.

They had shifted to another set of rails . What in the world was being displayed on the transparent prompter in front of Kyouka?

“You didn’t hear anything about this either, did you, Karuta?”

Kyouka herself looked uncertain whether or not she should go along with it.

But the footage was already being played on the screen behind her. Any discrepancy between that footage and her explanation would prove to everyone that something was wrong. The entire event was meant to prevent the people from worrying, so Kyouka must have decided she could not allow any hint of trouble to enter the global livestream of this opening ceremony.

They were in the middle of a fear market where even half a second of unnatural silence could cause a stock price to crash and start riots. To avoid any unnecessary damage to the entire world’s crowd psychology, she ended up saying exactly what she was told. The screen behind her displayed each item as she said it.

“1. Utagai Karuta shall be Second Grimnoah’s only contestant.

“2. The Four Living Gods are considered a group of four, so Aine is considered her own independent person despite being his crystal magic. Thus, Utagai Karuta is forbidden from ‘using’ her during the tournament.

“3. If Utagai Karuta is killed in an accident during the tournament, his opponent will not be charged with a crime regardless of how it happens. And to fill the gap his death would create, any contestant who kills him and wins the tournament shall become a new member of the Four Living Gods.”

This is really bad, realized Karuta.

He hadn’t heard anything about this. Weren’t they motivating people to participate by awarding them the betting jackpot as prize money?

Something was happening here. They had switched over to the most dangerous set of rails for the Four Living Gods. He did not have many good memories of Grimnoah’s gym – on the first or second ship.

“Or to put it another way, if you can kill Utagai Karuta – good luck, by the way – then feel free. If you are willing to risk your life and pride on it, then this is your chance to steal the title of strongest for yourself. Now, everyone, do you think you can kill Utagai Karuta? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so do not expect it to come again. Drag out the musty-old magic of a bygone era and join the fight. If what I just said pissed you off, then maybe you have the fighting spirit needed to join us in the fight against the Threat.”

### Part 2

The hallway was abuzz with chatter. The students in identical summer uniforms were staring down at their phones, perhaps waiting for the tournament’s official gambling service to go online. Even if it was officially sanctioned, they were oddly excited about being able to access the world of gambling through the convenience of their phones.

And the instant the opening ceremony was over, Utagai Karuta rushed to the student council room.

He was already soaked with sweat.

“What is this!? What did they do!?”

“I’m not sure either.”

The words had come from Omotesandou Kyouka’s mouth, but she shrugged like this had nothing to do with her. The gym had overpowered air conditioning to keep such a large place cool, so the weaker cooling of the student council room felt like something had malfunctioned in comparison. The president’s summer uniform blouse had sweaty see-through patches.

“I had the entire speech memorized, but I had to match what was being shown behind me, right?”

“~ ~ ~”

“Sacri-sama, that is just the kind of person Miss Kyouka is.”

He was curious about Aine’s response, but there was no point asking something like that at such a pressing time. Still, he wanted to know what kind of person the crystal girl thought the president was.

The upperclassman elegantly placed a hand on her cheek.

“It did not look like they were swapping out the video and text in real time, so was the data for the screen and prompter replaced in advance? If so, it must have been someone with direct access to the original event planning sheet stored on Second Grimnoah’s central computer.”

“Hm? Is that hard to get at?”

“Hard to say. The machine was set up by the teachers, not me. I’ve never been a fan of biometric authentication myself.”

Come to think of it, Karuta recalled Kyouka being shocked by the carelessness of the security on his phone. She looked like the old-fashioned and traditional type, but she was actually the kind of person who insisted on building her own computer. Karuta viewed her pickiness about graphics cards and memory as the computer version of the rich young wife who would only feed her child food she personally prepares using organic produce grown by a farmer she could meet herself.

But why did she bring up biometric authentication here?

“If you look at it, it must have been either me, you, or Marika-san. The lock uses our DNA and we couldn’t extract any from Aine-chan, so she can’t get past the lock screen herself.”

That last part was frightening, but it was not the point at the moment.

Did she say the only suspects were the three human members of the Four Living Gods?

“Are you suggesting I would go to the trouble of creating a ruleset that gets me slaughtered on a global livestream? I’m barely different from a normal high school boy without Aine!”

“I wouldn’t either. I assume you know me well enough to know I wouldn’t send you to your death like this.”

“Should I list the multiple past events that would lead him to think you would do just that?” asked Aine.

Kyouka shrugged that one off without protest.

She brushed her hair off her shoulder and continue speaking.

“Needless to say, none of us would benefit from doing this. That means someone found a vulnerability in our security and broke in. I don’t know how difficult that would be since I didn’t build this system myself. I intend to look into the hardware and software side of this, but I can’t guarantee you I will find the culprit and put a stop to this anytime soon.”

“Sacri-sama. If Miss Kyouka cannot do this, shouldn’t we assume no one can track them down?”

Some artificial means had set things in motion to make the Four Living Gods suffer. A strange weight bore down on Karuta’s shoulders.

“Could this be the human string-pullers?” he asked carefully.

“It’s too soon to say. It could be some country’s military cyber team or it could be a group of anonymous hackers. We’ve made ourselves such a conspicuous target that there are as many suspects across the world as there are stars in the sky. They could be motivated by a grudge, hoping to profit in some way, or just think it’s funny. For all we know, their reasons for targeting us aren’t even true. I just hope I can work out some personal characteristics while analyzing the method used for this prank .”

“Also, who ever said the Threat can’t use human tools, Karuta? Aine-chan isn’t human either and she could play the piano or use a phone if you taught her how. Of course, you would need to know how to teach first,” cheerfully added Amaashi Marika.

But the two girls were only listing off possibilities and they were both focusing on the same thing Karuta was. They all knew the most likely suspect here.

The human string-pullers.

Letnahe Kurent had been sent to Second Grimnoah as their vanguard, but Kyouka had somehow managed to get her cooperation as a double agent. Thanks to that, Kyouka was supposed to have all the spoilers in advance, yet she had still been caught by surprise. Someone had slipped past their defenses even though they had a double agent in place. It was unlikely they could find the identity of this person by questioning Letnahe. This was a dangerous submarine of a person who could lurk under the surface until the time came to strike.

“Hello, hello, hello! Delane here with another announcement as the super cute Cinderella Queen.”

Someone was making a lot of noise on the video site displayed on the student council room’s computer monitor.

Cinderella Queen was a girl of about 10 with sky silver hair, but she called herself a free net idol. She wore a dress with a wide skirt just like a storybook princess, but the dangerous black and yellow colors and the bulky leather belts strapped all over it clashed with the fairy tale look. Her young age made the wide open back and plunging neckline seem a lot harsher than they would on a fully-grown idol still trying to act all pretty and pure. For that matter, the fishnet stockings just looked wrong on a 10-year-old. And at that age, heels that high weren’t so much sexy as they made you worry about the development of her bones.

Delane winked toward the camera before continuing.

“In this magic combat tournament, 15 magicians who passed the grueling preliminaries around the world will battle each other plus Utagai Karuta of the Four Living Gods, rumored to be the world’s strongest! A real magic show is just the thing to snap you out of the boredom of real life☆ Now, will someone drag the champion from his throne and claim the title of strongest for themselves, or will the world’s strongest mercilessly slaughter all of these insolent challengers? Only one way to find out!!”

The first round would include 8 one-on-one battles.

And the tournament bracket would narrow down like a house for cards from there.

But that crucial bracket remained entirely blank. No names or photos were displayed. Everyone knew Utagai Karuta was one of them and the staff had let him know he would be fighting in the first round’s seventh match, but he knew nothing at all about who his opponent would be.

He couldn’t imagine how he could win.

Plus, this tournament was officially allowing people to gamble. Not revealing who was fighting who until the very last second was bound to affect the online placing of bets, so why do this?

“Omotesandou-san, do you think this is one of the ‘accidents’ we heard always happen during the Catastrophe?”

“It’s probably a showbusiness thing. They know they’ll make the most money from your battles since you’re the current world’s strongest. So if word got out you would be fighting in Round 1 Match 1, most people wouldn’t bother buying viewership tickets for the other matches. So by hiding that information, anyone who wants to make sure they see your match is forced to buy tickets for all eight matches. I bet that’s their official reason, anyway.”

“You mean there’s a possibility of an ulterior motive there?”

“If you don’t need any evidence to back it up, then almost anything is a possibility . Maybe the string-pullers are actually aliens wearing human skin and maybe Cinderella Queen is actually your long lost little sister.”

If they started blaming everything that didn’t go their way on the human string-pullers, all they had was a conspiracy theory. Karuta told himself to maintain the proper balance in his head. Because he knew about three sad and inexperienced avengers who had once destroyed themselves in a snowy hell by suspecting the people they should have trusted most.

He clapped his hands together.

“New topic. It looks like the only path forward is for me to fight and win this on my own. If I find an excuse to forfeit or we make a last-minute change from me to Marika, it would only breed unnecessary anxiety and speculation. Any doubts at all are dangerous right now. I don’t know who did this, but the most effective way to overcome their malice is to win this fair and square. …Cowards like us should understand that all too well, right?”

“What do you want?” asked Kyouka.

Karuta quickly formed a list in his mind.

The mysterious Threat were not the only foe they had fought. After taking on the Problem Solvers, they knew what dirty battles between humans were like.

After taking a deep breath to refocus his mind, he relayed the list to Kyouka.

“First, I want data on my opponent in the first round. The more the better. After all, I don’t even know their name or what they look like.”

That was the most basic and crucial of things. He had learned in the battles against Elicia and Yukino that information was the most powerful weapon. He had no chance at survival if he was thrown into the ring without knowing the first thing about his opponent.

Was digging up information in advance unfair? Karuta scoffed at the lingering speck of goodness inside himself.

He couldn’t forget that he was the famous world’s strongest. His opponent would have all the information they could want on him. Crystal magic might be enshrouded in mystery, but it had been captured on many a camera during the largescale battle near the Port of Kobe the other day. Humans were not so kind. If his opponent had strategic data on the Four Living Gods, it would be unfair if Karuta had to go in blind.

Plus…

“If I have to fight alone in a ring that makes trickery difficult, we need to boost my own skills. What can we do there? I want to know the specific rules…and use those to search for loopholes. For example, it sounds like you can bring in a magic wand or broom for these magic battles, but if you can bring your own weapons, what about a gun or bomb?”

“Only if that weapon is necessary for the activation of your magic,” smoothly explained Kyouka.

That answer scared him because it meant he might find himself up against just such an opponent. The most he could do was repair nonlethal wounds with crystal and there was no cover in the ring. A single bullet to the head would kill him just as much as an ordinary person.

“But you would have a hard time of claiming that yourself. This tournament is meant to put people at ease by demonstrating that the Four Living Gods really do possess the strongest power. Do you think the people watching in their living rooms will be put at ease if you just pull out a hidden handgun and fire a bullet into your opponent’s chest?”

“I’m not sure I can survive this at all and you want me to think about the effect on the viewer at home?”

This was a demand entirely separate from the battle itself.

When you discovered that professional wrestling was an independent system born in 19th century circuses, it gave you an idea of how difficult an act it was. Professional wrestlers put their lives at risk to entertain an audience, just like the trapeze artists and lion tamers. The wrestlers who had dedicated their lives to that field could not just go on a chaotic rampage; they had to demonstrate the beauty of combat for the audience. That was not something a high schooler could learn to do overnight.

Working to win beautifully was the opposite of an ugly struggle to survive. This was quite possibly the worst handicap for him.

But Kyouka did not sound remotely worried.

“If all you’re interested in doing is surviving, then you could call in a fake bomb threat and get the tournament canceled. But you won’t do that. You understand the danger of the social unrest running rampant across the world. You know the Threat aren’t the only ones that can kill humans.”

He had no rebuttal for that one.

He had already accepted that he had to win this despite being placed at a severe disadvantage. If he didn’t make that result convincing, it would only lead to unnecessary bloodshed.

Justice and fear were powerful explosives. And frustration was like oil dumped onto that small fire. The looting and riots rooted in the same anxieties as bulk-buying were a bad sign.

“Okay, you can be in charge of the electronic paperwork, Omotesandou-san. If they need to meet certain conditions to bring a weapon with them, then they must submit a request explaining that weapon and the magic that requires it, right?”

“ Yes, but that data could always have been altered. Still, it’s worth checking – just don’t place too much trust in it. It’s only a rough estimate.”

“Then Aine and Marika can scout out my opponent to make that information more reliable. Check with your own two eyes to see if anything contradicts the paperwork.”

“Understood, Sacri-sama.”

“…”

“Now, Marika? I’m only asking you to scout them out. Do not – I repeat, do not – put on a mask and attack them in their dressing room to injure them and force them to drop out of the fight. I’m serious here. I’m not winking and I’m not nodding, okay!?”

“I get it, childhood friend. Sheesh, you don’t trust me at all, do you? And are you sure you should put all three of us on intel duty? Don’t you need someone to train you?”

Aine and Marika had such absurd mobility that secret training from them would be entirely meaningless, but he wasn’t about to say that out loud. His physical abilities were the same as an ordinary high schooler. He couldn’t fly and he couldn’t boost himself with what amounted to a powered suit of crystal armor. He couldn’t accomplish anything if his expectations were unrealistic, so he had to focus on what an indoorsy high schooler could manage on short notice.

His would be the 7th and penultimate match of the day, but that still gave him less than 6 hours to work with. Anything that wouldn’t bear fruit in that timespan was wasted effort. He readily admitted he was weak, so he would instead ask for a secret technique that even a powerless human could use.

“I guess I should either ask Natalena or Letnahe for help. That woman is from the military, isn’t she? She’s like a global online store where you can buy deadly techniques for ordinary people at the click of a button.”

### Part 3

With that, we arrive back at the present.

Utagai Karuta hesitantly looked up at the bottom of the giant heliport being used as the tournament stage.

The people couldn’t be allowed to see the world’s strongest working so hard, but no one would expect to find anything hidden so close to the action. Tightly locking up the gym and training there would have roused much more suspicion. According to the president, the best hiding places were also the easiest to guess, which was why everyone always checked below the bed or in the attic. He really wished she wouldn’t grin and ask him if he knew what she meant, though.

The beam that had blasted a desert island and an ocean wind power plant was burned into his retinas as an afterimage. Was the audience safe? If something like that hit Karuta head on, he would be vaporized before the regeneration could even begin.

“Whoa, now who saw that coming?” said the commentator.

But it wasn’t the great power of the magic that scared him.

It was how everyone accepted it as normal.

“Eikele Tir-na-Nog was not in fact vaporized! She used her magic to blend into the background while the bright beam hid her from view and she just got a solid hit in on the back of the Valkyrie’s head when her guard was dowwwwwwwwn!!!!!!!”

The crowd cheered, shaking the entire 600m triple hull ship.

No one seemed bothered by the bloodshed.

They were simply boiling over with this new form of excitement.

“Yikes. What is this, Ancient Greece? The fighters and the audience aren’t remotely bothered by the killing, are they?”

“Magical battle already don’t feel real to most people, they’re officially allowed to bet on the matches, and this is a big festival separated from their everyday lives. It isn’t uncommon for bloodshed and property damage to be accepted on special days, like Spain’s running of the bulls or Japan’s cart-pulling festival,” explained Letnahe with a composed expression.

“Is that how it works?”

“I know Japan dives into the frigid midwinter ocean or rolls down a hill on giant logs, but India has its fair share of bizarre festivals too.”

She grabbed the chest of her baggy t-shirt to wipe the sweat from her face, but she also kept her arms and legs gently moving during her break so her breathing rhythm never left combat mode. She was probably also intentionally controlling the movements of her internal organs, but Karuta couldn’t see that part. The watch synced with her phone was beeping to alert her of an error.

“You must face them with almost no magic and then win the entire Catastrophe. Once in the ring, no one can help you. Fortunately, your round one match is #7, which puts it near the end of the afternoon matches, so you still have time. Repeat this training and prove just how much someone can accomplish if they truly want to win. The more you know, the more you can respond to.”

“Um, Letnahe-san? Are you enjoying this by any chance?”

“I can’t deny I have some pent-up frustrations and humiliation regarding crystal magic. Mostly thanks to a certain Student Council President I could mention.”

She really did beat him up.

He sparred with her for about two hours until lunchtime, but she was a professional soldier. He had never stood a chance in a direct one-on-one fight. It ended without him ever getting a real counterattack in. All he had learned was that his paper-thin barrier was entirely useless.

He had received the very un-teacherly comment that the regeneration was useful “because I can punch you in the face over and over and never leave any blood or bruises.” But since he was going to be livestreamed around the world as the world’s strongest it probably was best that he didn’t show up with a split lip and a black eye.

And Letnahe had not given him a break at lunchtime because she was hungry.

“Senpai.”

A small girl approached him while he was sprawled out on his back.

Her name was Natalena Blast.

The 12-year-old middle school girl had fluffy blonde hair cut at shoulder length. The arrival of the underclassman girl here meant the rhythm of the outside world was changing, for better or for worse. The four morning matches must have ended, so most of the audience had left their seats to grab some lunch.

The ship had the energy of a disturbed hornet’s nest. The random flow of people made them harder to predict. Letnahe had given him a break because the crowds could not be allowed to see the world’s strongest working so hard because he was terrified of death and defeat. So once the afternoon matches began, the frustrated wife would once more be beating up with her military skill.

“Natalena,” Karuta groaned from the floor.

“Um, what is it, Senpai?”

“Why are you dressed up as a maid?”

“Let me ask you this: um, do you think I wanted to dress this way? Our class chose to run a maid café. And by ‘chose’, I mean the boys formed a strong pro-maid voting bloc.”

Approaching a high school boy sprawled out on his back while she wore a short maid uniform gave him a very good look at her cute panties, but she didn’t seem to have thought through the viewing angles that well. And once she did notice, he was pretty sure she would deliver a finishing blow to the center of his face with the heel of her enamel shoe, so he forced his aching body to sit up sooner than he would have liked.

“Also, there’s something wrong with Japan’s laws if they can force middle schoolers to work as long as they call it a ‘school event’.”

“Oh? Natalena, what makes you think this ship is bound by Japanese law now that we’re out in international waters?”

“Why did I ever trust this Panama-registered ship!!”

He was pretty sure the ship was not actually registered in Panama and he doubted middle schoolers were allowed to work in Panama either.

For Karuta, this crazy tournament had him one step away from death at any moment, but the rest of the students, who didn’t have to fight in it, were rejoicing at having all their classes canceled throughout. Nothing excited a student more than a weekday without classes. At times, that excitement could win out over the fear of a typhoon or blizzard. And with the large crowd out and about, there was a large demand for food. They would also want to take a look around Second Grimnoah, since they wouldn’t normally be allowed onboard. Since the students didn’t have classes, it was unsurprising they had decided to earn some extra money by having each class open restaurants and such like this was a cultural festival.

Karuta’s 12-year-old underclassman sat directly on the floor and placed a small basket on her lap. She would have been very mad and argued with him if he said so out loud, but she was a natural at this maid thing.

“Here, I brought you some lunch. Um, it’s only a simple sandwich and a drink, though.”

“Thanks.”

When Karuta neatly grabbed the sandwich with a paper napkin, Natalena held a hand to her mouth and laughed. That may not have looked like the action of the arrogant and condescending world’s strongest.

Was this off the maid café’s menu? The sandwich was of unexpectedly high quality. Not only did it have some excellent honey chicken inside, but it was given an extra kick with some whole grain mustard and it contained stir-fried vegetables chopped up finely enough to not be noticeable. It provided an excellent balance of meat, vegetable, and grain in something that was pleasant to eat. You didn’t often see a product with such care in its design even in the professional food service industry.

On the other hand…

“Munch, munch. But if you give people everything they need in one simple package, you’re basically killing any chance at further sales, aren’t you? A maid café isn’t about getting customers in and out as quickly as possible like a stand-up soba stall, so don’t you make your money by having people stay a while and continue to order more food? Like a cake that’s so sweet they need to order a drink, or omurice that’s so greasy they start craving a salad. The key to success is for each item on the menu to be somewhat imperfect.”

“Ugh. I-I don’t care. Um, uh, the maid café was the result of a stupid conspiracy by the dumb boys. We girls wanted nothing to do with it. Anyway, Senpai, can I ask you something that just occurred to me?”

“Sure.”

“Does this mean the Utagai Karuta – world’s strongest, bane of the Threat, and guardian of the world – has visited maid cafes? And based on how opinionated you are on the topic, I get the feeling it wasn’t just once or twice.”

“Bff!?”

He just about spat out the sandwich.

That was a perfectly legitimate part of the service industry and the employees there took pride in their work. Karuta had done nothing wrong by going there, but for some reason he found himself unable to look the 12-year-old in the eye.

“…”

He withered under the pressure of her gaze.

It didn’t look like this was something he could escape by shrouding himself in the veil of manly mystery. The underclassman’s silent gaze was quickly turning into the look she would give an insect.

“Um, Senpai? Is this why your crystal magic takes the form of a girl who obeys your every command?”

“Natalena, let’s not get carried away with groundless speculation here! And I take issue with comparing her to a maid. She goes and hides somewhere cramped if you get after her about anything, she carries around a sword, and she eats pure gold! I would be offended if someone pointed at her and called her – her – the ideal maid!!”

“Oh, god. You really are opinionated about this, aren’t you? I barely said anything and you went on a long rant about it.”

What could he do but look away and clear his throat?

Utagai Karuta needed more training if he would fall for a 12-year-old’s feint.

“Sigh…is every single boy an idiot?”

“Probably, but did you bring me lunch just so you could ask me that?”

“Um, be honest with me. How does it look?” The small maid sighed and refocused her mind. “ Can you survive this? ”

She did not ask if he could win.

Natalena Blast knew the real Utagai Karuta, not just his title. He slowly shrugged.

“Well, it can’t be as bad as fighting the real Threat.”

“That’s not what I asked.” She bluntly rejected his answer. “I’ve seen a wicker man and I’ve seen Futhark runes, but none of the people here seem like they could defeat my sister and the rest of the Problem Solvers. But that’s not the real issue. Karuta-senpai, you became the world’s strongest after defeating Anastasia Blast and her Anubis, but, um, you didn’t defeat her in a one-on-one battle, did you?”

“…”

This girl was watching him carefully.

Which wasn’t too surprising when she had started out hunting him down to avenge her sister.

“You only defeated those much-more-powerful opponents by observing them, making careful preparations, and using trickery and the element of surprise. And it’s not like that always worked. But with the Problem Solvers and the Threat, your starting point and basic stance has always been assassination. In other words, you never let them use their real power against you . …So, um, are you really going to be okay? You can’t run or hide in the ring, so your usual tricks won’t work. Both sides will be going full throttle as soon as the bell rings, so you can’t defeat them before they can attack. The spotlight removes all the shadows and the many cameras will see everything that happens. You can’t hide your true abilities in this fight, Senpai.”

The rules had been reset.

Other than his ability to rapidly heal any nonlethal wound, he was more or less an ordinary high school boy, but he had to defeat magicians gathered from around the world without surprise attacks as an option. If he lost and died or if he won in an ugly way, the world would be disappointed in him and the social unrest leading to riots and looting would spread.

That expectation weighed heavily on him. Even if that was a fairly ordinary concern to have.

The boy who had been made into the world’s strongest exhaled and spoke.

“I’ll win.”

“…”

“We’re the ones that made the world this way. This only happened because we followed our desire for revenge and killed your sister without even considering what it would do to the world. So we’re responsible for what happens now. None of this will have been worth it if we can’t at least make the world a happier place than it was under the Problem Solvers. We didn’t like how the world was run and now unrest is running rampant and there’s a real threat of riots and looting. So we need to create a better world ourselves.”

There had been no morality in that battle.

It was true Anastasia and the other four had sunk the first ship and slaughtered most of the students and teachers, but that was no justification for Karuta’s group to hunt them down for revenge without ever considering the possibility of letting the police and the courts resolve the issue.

Two wrongs did not make a right, so now everything had sunken into a thick bog. But the sun still rose in the mornings and set in the evenings as it had before.

The strongests’ battles were nothing but a great farce full of hypocrisy and deception, but he did know that most of the people living in this same world had done nothing wrong. So he couldn’t just give up because the world had gone wrong. If he did that, he wouldn’t just be crushed below the contradictions of morality – he would have fallen to the level of pure evil.

“So my basic policy remains the same: I’ll do whatever I can. It’s just that ‘whatever I can’ is going to look different this time.”

“Senpai…”

“And, Natalena, you know how greedily stubborn I can get when I have my mind set on something, don’t you? So I’ll be fine. If I say I’ll win, then I swear to you I’ll win. No matter what it takes. Maybe I’m not the best fit for this job, but that just means I have to make myself fit.”

### Part 4

After returning from wherever she had gone, Mama Letnahe Kurent beat Karuta up even more for a post-lunch workout. His arms and legs could not keep up , but he did manage to follow her punches and kicks with his eyes. However, the difficulty of predicting her actions shot up when she added grappling to the mix. His instincts told him to protect his face and gut…but that manifested itself as his reflexes curling him up in a ball out of fear. It was also strange how the hem and collar of his short-sleeved dress shirt or the belt of his slacks counted as weak points now. Since he had to engage his brain to remember why it was dangerous to let her reach those parts, his reactions were unavoidably slower.

How much harder would it be to respond when one-shot-kill weapons and magic came into play?

If he froze up because he had never seen something before, he would lose his life immediately.

“We’re running out of time. Have you learned anything at all from this?”

“Ugh, this has at least gotten me accustomed to pain before the real fight,” replied Karuta, standing up on unsteady legs.

Yes. He now had it in him to get up under his own power instead of lying sprawled out on the floor.

“Also, those two ideas show some promise.”

“Glad to hear it. This would have been awkward if it only served to let me blow off some steam.”

But he could not just relax this afternoon. This was not like a soccer or basketball game with a set starting time. Just now, the fifth match came to an end and the crowd erupted into an earth-rattling cheer.

After going through some fairly kinky training where he was unilaterally beaten by a lovely mother of two, Karuta chose to meet up with Marika and Kyouka in the student council room. Due to the unexplained security breach with their electronics, they were reluctant to exchange detailed information over their phones.

“Karuta.”

Just as he passed by a manga club girl carrying several booklets at her chest, someone called out to him and he turned back to find Marika approaching. Aine was waiting by her side.

Marika did not look directly at them, but she glanced over at the reflection of a newspaper club member in the window.

“We can talk in the student council room. That way you only have to explain it once and this open space isn’t great for a private conversation anyway.”

“Sacri-sama, why are you in such a good mood?”

“I feel like I made some real progress. I-I assure you it isn’t that I like getting beat up by women.”

The three of them walked along the side deck together.

Marika placed a hand on the side of her head to hold her hair down against the sea breeze while she glanced past the side deck railing.

“Looks like they’ve added some more new ships. I hear their composite armor makes them surprisingly light for their size. These two are a drone carrier and an electric warship, right?”

“The Radioquartz and the Chrisbart.”

“Oh, do you know a lot about that stuff, Karuta? You really are a boy, huh?”

“Hey, don’t assume the world’s strongest don’t have to take their final exams. Those are both names you’ll find in our history textbook.”

Modern warships tended to be named after historical scientists. And due to the modern age, the names of a magician and a crystal magic researcher could be found right alongside Galileo and Einstein.

“Who knows, we might eventually see a Karuta aircraft carrier or a Marika-class submarine.”

“Please no!” protested Marika. “I can’t imagine having a warship named after me. It has to be even more embarrassing than a statue of yourself in the schoolyard.”

The ordinary visitors could not spend the night on Second Grimnoah. Because there were too many of them. So separate cruise ships had been brought along for lodging. Add in the escort ships (which had been heavily reinforced after what happened near the Port of Kobe), and there had to be at least a hundred thousand people here. It was like an entire city’s population traveling across the sea.

“I just hope Second Grimnoah doesn’t tip over from all the weight,” said Karuta.

“But it’s a 600m triple hull ship. Eh? You’re not serious are you? Surely a bunch of people isn’t enough to sink it.”

He could not let his guard down even while holding this silly conversation with Marika.

Sure, he still had the 6th match to go, but that could always end in a one-hit KO immediately after the bell, so he could not predict how much time he actually had. So he needed to complete his preparations for the 7th match.

Those three met up with Kyouka in the student council room. The Four Living Gods were all together.

Training himself as much as he could was not enough.

He wanted information on the opponent he would be facing.

But the ordinary people could not be allowed to see the world’s strongest working so hard to avoid defeat. Asking for help on social media would only make him a laughing stock for all the anonymous people out there.

The redheaded buns secretary was standing guard in front of the student council room. She reluctantly moved out of the way when she saw Karuta and the others. Then she moved to stop the newspaper club member who tried to sneak in after them.

“I need results!” shouted Karuta as soon as he was inside their other hangout.

“Your opponent in the 7th match is Hetepheres Men-Nefer. Age: 15. Sex: Female. As you can probably guess from her name, she uses Egyptian mythology magic. She is supposedly a descendent of a sinful tomb keeper family that, fearing European invaders would discover it, stole the mummy of Pharaoh Khufu from the world’s largest pyramid and hid it where no one would ever find it.”

Omotesandou Kyouka listed out the basic data. It meant a lot to have the help of the student council president who could view all of the documents submitted to Second Grimnoah.

“Egypt…”

He didn’t know all that much about it, but that mythology kept turning up around him. Or maybe the Blast Sisters and Anubis had just left a strong impression on him.

Kyouka continued in front of her large desk.

“Egyptian mythology is polytheistic, just like Japanese mythology. You can assume that everything in the world, from the flowing of water to the growing of crops in the field, has a god assigned to it. But you can largely divide the gods into two groups, one led by Ra, god of the sun, and the other led by Osiris, god of death and resurrection. Keep that in mind first and foremost.”

Marika threw herself into the leather sofa and Aine took up her usual motionless position standing in the corner. Those two had approached Hetepheres herself and observed her directly.

“Our observations didn’t show any taboos related to food or drink and, even if she is a priestess or whatever, she doesn’t seem to be a vegetarian. I was surprised at what I saw, but apparently they ate a lot of bread in ancient Egypt. She wears a loose-fitting white garment with tons of pure gold accessories. Gold is soft, but it has a high relative density, making it heavy. Those things could do some real damage if she swung them around. I don’t know what kind of mythological meaning any of it has, but you could probably use all the frilly parts of her outfit to grab her.”

“To add to that, if she is a priestess with a solid sense of purpose, she would not attempt to borrow the power of a god or monster that goes against her faith. For example, Set is the enemy of both Ra and Osiris, so you can rule him out as a possibility right away.”

It could be confusing, but it was not as simple as Ra, god of heaven, being good and Osiris, god of the underworld, being evil. Even in Asia, Yama, king of the underworld, was the one who judged the dead, so he was not actually evil himself.

In Egyptian mythology, it was generally the righteous gods who ruled heaven and earth. The ones considered to be evil were not allowed in either camp.

After hearing everything they had to say, Karuta slowly inhaled on his feet.

And…

“ That’s all? ”

That was his response.

“Hold on. That’s all just general information on Egyptian mythology and their priests! None of it’s specific to Hetepheres at all! Elicia of the Problem Solvers used the power of Vishnu from Indian mythology, but that alone isn’t enough to know she attacked using a dinosaur. This leaves so many unknowns I can’t even put together a plan. Didn’t you find any more personal traits or idiosyncrasies!?”

Magic was not the only thing to fear here.

Ancient Egypt was a large and highly developed culture. They would have needed to take up weapons as a group and defend themselves against the surrounding civilizations, so they had to have their own military strategies and martial arts. Karuta honestly couldn’t picture it at all. Greek gods wielded double-edged swords and tridents and Buddhist ogres wielded metal clubs. He had a general idea of what kind of weapons those cultures used, but with the Egyptian gods, he could only think of musical instruments and scales – neither of which were weapons. If he didn’t even know that, he could be defeated by ordinary brute force before she even got to her magic.

He also didn’t know if Hetepheres would insist on using some mysterious ancient Egyptian martial art. It was always possible she could surprise him by suddenly using jujutsu or systema.

Simply put, he didn’t know anything solid.

But he couldn’t blame Marika, Kyouka, and Aine for that. They had only had 6 hours. How much could he have accomplished in their position? None of them had expected the magical tournament to be altered in this way.

When they were up against Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg of the Problem Solvers, they had spent days taking turns watching her every move. They had been so nervous they had even investigated her favorite brand of lip balm. He should have known there was only so much data they could gather when adlibbing on such a short time schedule.

The entire 600m ship shook.

Something big must have happened in the current match. He got the feeling that energy blast was not something someone would get back up from. And he himself would be thrown out in that same ring with nothing to defend himself.

His phone received a message before they could check the student council room’s TV.

He took a deep breath to calm his irritation and opened the message app.

“Stardust (for tournament staff only): Afternoon Message 2 – Round 1 Match 6 has ended sooner than expected. We intend to keep the audience busy with the cheerleaders and the commentator, but Match 7 could still begin ahead of schedule. Mr. Utagai, please report to the contestant waiting room so you may begin at any time.”

“…”

There was no escape now.

His chance to prepare had come to an end.

He pulled the modified military flashlight from the belt on the side of his pants. It had the perfect weight and length to work as a club and it contained an IR laser emitter that could dazzle an opponent’s eyes.

“One last thing, Omotesandou-san. I know I can’t use Aine, but what about this thing?”

“That won’t be a problem. If your opponent can’t defeat you with your Threat-fighting equipment, they can’t exactly say they defeated one of the world’s strongest, can they?”

With a dull sound, Aine pulled a crystal katana out of thin air and held it out toward him, but Kyouka shook her head.

“I’m sorry, but that won’t be allowed. It counts as part of you, Aine-chan.”

“But isn’t everything from her sword to her heart part of my crystal magic?”

“Yes, but good luck convincing the other 5.5 billion people out there that’s true when she has to lend it to you.”

He was really wishing he normally armed himself with an assault rifle and grenades while wearing a full-body blast-resistant suit. He got the feeling the entire world was out to get him, but he had never imagined his everyday clothing choices would come back to bite him so badly.

He was horribly underprepared. He was more or less defenseless once Aine, his greatest trump card, was taken from him. Being called the world’s strongest on paper did nothing at all to protect him. The mysterious rule change had dragged him down nearly to the same level as an ordinary person.

“No Aine this time. I have to do it all on my own.”

“Hmph.”

The crystal girl did not like this any more than he did and she puffed out her cheeks from within, but no one was going to listen to her complaints either.

One of the basic crystal magic presets was a protective barrier, but Karuta’s was as flimsy as paper and he doubted it could block a real sword or bullet. Similarly, he couldn’t use the flight preset at all. The only preset he did have was the regeneration, but that only rapidly healed nonlethal wounds. It wouldn’t do a thing to keep him from being killed instantly. If he took a bullet between the eyes, his entire body would become a crystal statue before he could even begin to heal.

And when he barely knew anything about his opponent, that was almost certainly what was going to happen against Egyptian tomb keeper Hetepheres Men-Nefer.

Aine silently tilted her head and whispered in a cold voice from where she stood in the corner like a potted plant.

“What will you do?”

“I’ll make it work. No matter what it takes .”

### Part 5

It was time to think.

The first day of the Catastrophe covered the 8 matches of the first round. That meant the tournament had 16 contestants in all. In a straightforward tournament with no seeding, the winner had to fight in four matches. Trying to win them all fair and square was exactly what the unseen string-pullers wanted. Because they had set things up so Karuta would die in the attempt.

But he didn’t need to do things their way. As long as he demonstrated that the Four Living Gods were in fact the world’s strongest, they could eliminate the social unrest around the world. For example, if something even more powerful than the tournament opponents – like the Decoy Threat that turned out to be simple machines – were to attack Second Grimnoah and those four protected the other contestants and the audience in front of all the cameras.

“No, that wouldn’t work.”

A chair bolted to the floor creaked.

A trick like that could turn into a long-lasting Achilles heel. The instant the truth came out, the social unrest would be back with a vengeance, so it wasn’t a real solution.

He had to win this.

Karuta smiled in self-deprecation after reaching that conclusion all alone in the contestant waiting room.

And the person on his mind now… was not one of the people he held dear.

(Warrior Doll.)

That armored warrior had towered over Karuta and fought with a plasma jet sword. That Threat had sought human goodness more than anyone and occupied Second Grimnoah to learn about crystal magic. His many companions had been mercilessly slaughtered while trying to learn, but he had still sought a fair duel, so what would he think if he saw Karuta still trying to come up with some kind of trick here?

(Sorry. I can’t resign myself to my fate like you. I’m an ugly person deep down, so I can’t help but cling to life. And that’s what makes me want to protect the people I hold dear and the world as a whole.)

So.

No matter how much he was spat on or how many stones were thrown at him, Utagai Karuta would still seek victory.

A female voice left the speaker in the tiny space.

“Round 1 Match 7 will begin shortly. Mr. Utagai Karuta, please step out into the ring.”

He sighed and pulled the modified military flashlight from the side of his purple slacks. He slowly rose from the bolted-down chair and walked to the metal double doors.

He pushed them open.

A thick wall of cheering voices slammed into his face.

Evening had fallen.

The powerful film lights were more for the TV broadcasts than for the contestants, so they were already hurting his eyes, forcing him to squint.

The next thing happened before he could hold his hand up and let his eyes adjust.

“Hello, hello, hello! I’m Cinderella Queen Delane, the shining new child star with an edge, and I will be providing commentary for this match. But I will be sharing that duty with a special guest! If you want to know about crystal magic, look no further than Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka!! …I get the feeling we’ll need an expert’s commentary to even hope to follow along here.”

“Thank you for having me. I will remind you that I am still a student, though.”

The concert band’s music and the deluge of cheers were like a booming explosion, but the large concert speakers played the commentary at an even greater volume.

The vortex of noise gave Karuta a pounding headache as he noticed a gondola supported from above by a crane. Was that the commentator’s booth? Kyouka had been invited in as a guest, but she wouldn’t be able to help him while in the public mode she used when addressing the world. She couldn’t help him even if she wanted to. If anyone thought they were cheating, the public wouldn’t accept their display of superiority and definitive cracks would form in the people’s already-shaken faith in the world’s strongest. Then the social unrest would spread like wildfire.

He had to protect this world, so he had to fight.

(They’re somewhere out there.)

So many eyes were focused on him.

The tension of standing up on stage clutched at his heart.

(Some of the eyes out there carry malice. Someone forced these new conditions on us in order to have me killed while the world watches on.)

The tiered stands surrounded him in all 360 degrees, but only so many people could fit. The horizontal safety bars in front of the seats on each level were covered with webcams and aerial drones buzzed around overhead. They were like a flock of starlings blotting out the sky. They were generally manually controlled, but they used invisible IR sensors to measure the distance between each other and automatically adjusted their positions accordingly. Still, he could hardly believe they managed to avoid colliding while packed together so tightly.

(They sold more than a million viewing tickets, right? And those aren’t just to watch the livestream on the official site. That only covers the people who wanted to control their own swiveling camera to enjoy the live event as much as possible. Thanks to that, this empty area of ocean has an EM density as high as New York.)

Remote viewers would buy the usage rights for a swiveling webcam and watch the matches that way.

Those who wanted to watch in person were required to sign a document waiving the tournament’s liability if they were killed by a stray shot of magic or something. Surprisingly, they had still received tens of thousands of times as many applicants as they had available seats. All ten thousand seats split across three levels were full. Were people just that eager to witness a legend? They had the full surface of the 600m ship to work with, but they had gathered all ten thousand people on the heliport.

Karuta heard a dull metallic thud behind him.

The waiting room he had been in was actually an oblong metal container. It was dangling from a cutting-edge tiltrotor by thick wires and it was swiftly removed from the heliport.

He had nowhere to run or hide now.

An excited little girl’s voice echoed through this hellish evening where murder was allowed.

“Our first contestant in Round 1 Match 7 needs no introduction! He’s the current world’s strongest and the eye of the storm who absorbs all the envy and grudges of the world’s 5.5 billion people!! His victory is assured, so how the hell are we supposed to make any money off your bets this time!? This boy can use cutting-edge crystal magic and he’s protected the world from the Threat. He’s here to represent the whole Four Living Gods – it’s Utagaiii Karutaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!”

On the other side of the 20m square ring, an identical oblong metal container was dangling down for his opponent.

Cheers erupted from all around. The thick wall of noise slammed into him and threatened to crush him.

He was trapped in a deadly cage with the entire world watching.

“And then there’s our challenger hoping for a shortcut to the good life!! If you need a new title, why not just steal it!? She refuses to believe anyone’s stronger than her! And she promises to charm us with a show put on with Egyptian mythology – a mythology so important we’ve all heard of it☆ This priestess is hoping to tear crystal magic down from its throne – it’s Hetepheres Men-Neferrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!”

After shouting her lungs out, the small girl named Delane turned to ask the guest commentator her opinion.

“So what’s your opinion of this matchup, Miss Expert? Who has the upper hand here?”

“Hard to say. But the priests and priestesses of Egyptian mythology are important enough to get quite a few mentions in our crystal magic classes. They are the representative example of someone who could read the occult high and low pressure fronts and determine their effect on crops and sailing in order to support a large populace.”

“I see, I see.”

“You could say this is a showdown between the classic original and the latest update. We should see the oldest form of magic clashing with the newest.”

“Hm, so you’re saying it’s hard to say which way this will go!? That’s a relief. This event won’t be very exciting if Mr. Karuta doesn’t die!!”

He had expected this even if he didn’t like it.

Omotesandou Kyouka was not going to take his side while in public mode. Still, her long explanation was not only directed at the crowd.

Yes, she was giving Karuta information as well.

(She’s as crafty as ever.)

His opponent had long black hair and brown skin.

She appeared to be around his age and she wore an ethnic white priestess outfit with golden decorations all over her body.

“Utagai Karuta.”

Their gazes collided while the girl lifted the four thick and highly elastic ropes and climbed into the ring situated a level above everything else.

She spoke in Japanese, so she clearly wanted him to understand her.

“ I know you are powerless. ”

“…”

She probably wanted to apply pressure before the match began to throw him off his game.

She hoped to prevent him from fighting at his best so she could crush him with ease. Karuta was impressed because that idea hadn’t occurred to him. It was an unimaginable tactic with the Problem Solvers or the Threat who would kill you if you tried it.

So he did not bat an eye and whispered back so only she could hear him.

“Would you prefer this ends with you unconscious or dead?”

“You can’t trick me. You can’t do anything without that crystal girl of yours.”

No hesitation from her.

Was that a sign of confidence or of nerves? He had never met her before, so he had no way of making that judgment.

Cinderella Queen began an explanation of the rules, probably a formality required for the TV broadcast.

“The match has no time limit, but both contestants will be disqualified if it is determined they are working together to intentionally extend the match. The match continues until one or the other of them loses consciousness. Oh, and dead counts there! That also means the match keeps going no matter how badly they’re hurt as long as they’re still conscious, so they’ll need to keep that in mind☆”

Karuta sighed without letting it show on his face.

Crystal magic provided a regeneration power. Any nonlethal injury would be healed in thirty seconds. That made it incredibly difficult to knock him unconscious with a physical blow. In fact, it was very nearly impossible without using a chokehold like Letnahe had done, a special witch potion, or causing a lightning strike with a weather manipulation power.

In other words…

(They’ve set up the rules so it’s easier to kill me. Who is this asshole who secretly changed the rules Omotesandou-san worked so hard to put together?)

With a deep thrum, the poles in the four corners of the ring glowed red.

“Also, they need to watch out for the ring’s ropes. They’re what we call detonating cords, which means they’re packed full of explosives. Touching one of them will cause more damage than a jammed gun blowing up your hand, if you’re curious. They detonate the instant either contestant touches the ropes and a composite explosive made with everything from smokeless powder to penthrite will blast the offender to smithereens with a burning velocity of 5km/s, so they’re gonna want to be verrrrry careful out there.”

The red glow of the poles signaled that the ropes had been activated. This was worse than an electric deathmatch. Karuta glanced up at Kyouka, but she only winked down at him.

This was just like the introduction in the gym.

She looked calm, but something she didn’t understand was at work here. She must have only been called in as a guest commentator for the match with Crystal Magician Karuta, so she had not seen the other matches. And that was coming back to bite them now.

The unseen person who had changed the rules had altered everything with obvious malicious intent.

“Simply put, if they touch the rope, they’ll have their body torn apart for their trouble!! …Ugh, explaining the same damn thing 7 times in one day is a real pain. You’d better have the basic rules down pat by the next round cause I’m not doing this again tomorrow☆”

Karuta and Hetepheres faced each other in the center of the ring with about 5m between them.

Standing in front of an enemy was always terrifying.

He had nothing to shield him here and he could not escape outside the ring. If she “accidentally” jumped the gun and shot some powerful magic at him, he would have no way to avoid being reduced to ashes.

That was the world he lived in now.

In fact, someone who would actually wait for the bell seemed like an oddity to him.

An accident would be good enough.

Hetepheres might be disqualified for jumping the gun, but she would still hold the title of the person who won a flawless victory over one of the world’s strongests. She didn’t need Second Grimnoah’s help after that. As long as she had that title, she could milk it for all it was worth, like a martial artist known for killing a bear with his bare hands, and live however she liked in the world of magic. Really, she had no reason not to do it. The loss by technicality would be a temporary blot on her record and a small price to pay for the fame it would bring her. All of the contestants were risking their lives in a major gamble, so why actually wait for the starting bell?

Something worked its way into his ear along with the growing cheers.

He heard some whispered non-Japanese words. This was something Hetepheres would prefer did not reach him. But Egyptian hieroglyphs were a fully decoded language. Karuta had learned the basics in his magic classes. Translated into Japanese, this is what he heard.

“…ction – Ho…s – 1/1…4…”

Or was he overthinking this?

Utagai Karuta had gotten his start in bloody revenge, so maybe he had a bad habit of viewing everything in as noncharitable a light as possible. It was possible that Hetepheres Men-Nefer had come here carrying the pride of the many generations that had passed down her Egyptian magic and thought this only counted if she fought fair and square. This all came down to what was in her mind. That was not something that could be measured with logic or numbers. Karuta had no way of seeing what was going on inside Hetepheres’s head.

In this tournament, they had to fight one-on-one in accordance with the rules until one side or the other emerged victorious.

If she had agreed to those rules, then she may have viewed the world in a more favorable light than Karuta did.

She grinned and extended her right hand. Almost like she was asking for a handshake.

“I hope my trash talk didn’t offend you.” She switched back to Japanese for his benefit. “Let’s enjoy this, okay? Let’s do this fair and square so we can both accept the result, whatever it might be.”

Karuta smiled a little too. Or he thought he did.

Her gentle expression made him glad he had fought to protect this world. He felt ashamed of himself for assuming an ulterior motive and tensing up instead of shaking her proffered hand. He and the others had gotten rid of that sort of malicious world when they had defeated the Problem Solvers. They had created a pure and just world. He was so glad he had clenched his teeth and fought for this!! This girl here proved to him that he had done the right thing.

He wanted to make this an enjoyable match.

If at all possible.

Cinderella Queen raised her voice with her finger on the button for the bell.

“Now, let’s get this match started! Join me in the countdown, everyone! Threeee, twoooo, o-”

“You’re dead meat, Utagai Karuta.”

Some Ancient Egyptian words proved he had been right the first time.

Humans were trash after all.

### Part 6

The tournament stadium shook violently.

Something had clearly exploded.

No one had time to protest that someone had jumped the gun. The audience was having trouble deciding what to make of this, so they raised their voices in shouts that weren’t quite cheers and weren’t quite screams. Sword-wielding tournament staff was positioned around the stands to erect barriers to protect against stray shots, so they activated their pointy and translucent crystal armor, floated up into the air with their magic, and adjusted their viewing angle to try and see inside the cloud of dust.

“What happened to Karuta!?” shouted Amaashi Marika on the second-level aisle after pushing past the cheerleading squad that had reflexively stopped their dancing.

The match had already begun, but that did not mean she had no way at all of passing information on to Karuta. Transmissions made through their crystal blossoms were likely being monitored, but there were still plenty of ways of sending him data on Hetepheres, like a flashing light or rhythmic clapping.

But she couldn’t even do that now.

After all, there had been an explosion in the ring. There was nowhere to hide there and Karuta couldn’t use the preset barrier very well, so he would have been hit by the brunt of the blast.

“…”

Was it possible?

Could it be over already?

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

Marika felt a weight in the pit of her stomach.

It had all happened so fast her feelings couldn’t keep up.

No, she was already in denial. Her mind was full of unreasonably optimistic ideas like “the world’s strongest wouldn’t die that easily” or “ the Utagai Karuta couldn’t be killed like that”.

In a tear-jerking success story, he would have made it well into the tournament. He might not actually win, but he would at least meet a shocking loss or die in some dramatic way in the final round.

But reality didn’t work that way.

She knew all too well how cruelly unpredictable reality could be.

The strongest would be safe?

Who made that a rule? Who was it that had looked up from the bottom, thrown the established rules into chaos, and ultimately killed all five of the previous strongests?

They had known the surprise rule change had been implemented maliciously, so why had they just gone along with it? Why had they just assumed that he would get through at least the first round safely!?

“Miss Marika.”

“Hm? What do you want?”

“Miss Marika, we need to complete the task Sacri-sama left with us. You cannot obtain any valuable information on Hetepheres Men-Nefer by standing here. Weren’t we planning to sneak into her waiting room container? There is no one there now.”

“And what good is that information if Karuta is gone!? He was right in front of her when she blasted him with magic ahead of the bell!”

“Perhaps so.” The inhuman crystal girl tilted her head in confusion and smoothly provided an explanation. “ Yet I am still functioning as normal. ”

“…Wait.”

Yes. That was right.

Aine looked like a skinny girl, but she was not an independent being. She was a variation on the crystal armor used by crystal magicians, so she could not exist if her magician were gone.

Which meant…

### Part 7

Hetepheres Men-Nefer felt a burning sensation in her temples.

The ring had exploded.

She had attacked the world’s strongest before the bell rang.

But.

“ That wasn’t me. ” Her right hand was still held out, palm forward. “ That initial explosion wasn’t me !! That threw off my magic’s aim!”

“You should probably shut up and make your next move,” whispered Utagai Karuta, already making his next move.

One of his leather shoes was missing. He had swiftly removed and chucked it backwards with a snap of his wrist. Right into the detonating cord ropes that were set to explode if anything touched them.

That had caused an explosion just before Hetepheres’s Egyptian magic had activated. It hadn’t been enough to be lethal, but it had shaken her physically and mentally, throwing off her aim just enough.

And so he had survived.

Utagai Karuta rushed straight toward her holding the modified military flashlight he could use as a club.

He didn’t know what her specialty was, but he had no choice but to get close. His killing range was the range of that club.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on there!! I haven’t rung the bell yet, you two!!”

“Are you volunteering to pull them apart and start this over from the beginning? When the crowd is going wild like this? Why would you want to be such a wet blanket, Delane?”

His strike was rejected with a dull clang.

His flashlight was forcibly held back by an empty patch of air. He grimaced at the pain in his wrist bones and forced himself to make careful observations.

“Jackal – Connection – Anubis – 1/96.”

A bluish-white light spread from her outstretched palm like an opening umbrella and that blocked his blunt weapon.

“The judgment of the dead is permanent and there is no false second judgment for the sinful souls. Your judgment has been made. If you cannot accept it, then leave this place!!”

“I’ve torn your mask away now.”

“You aren’t surprised?”

“Sorry, but I’m not naïve enough to be surprised by a simple supernatural barrier. That’s one of the standards for crystal magic!!”

(But am I really up against Anubis again !?)

If she could cover her entire body with that barrier at all times, she would have done so from the beginning. She had only tried to cheat and kill him with her first attack because she was worried about something.

There was a downside.

And not just that it didn’t last long.

The smoke and dust from the detonating cord blast had gotten in her black hair. That meant the barrier didn’t provide 360-degree protection.

It was a shield, not armor. So if he didn’t attack from head on, he could hit her!

“Ibis – Connection – Thoth – 1/96.”

Her right palm turned to face him, her shoulder moving in a way the joint shouldn’t have allowed.

He dodged out of the way and made a feint, but his flashlight was still deflected by the shield of bluish-white light. He tried a second and third time, but he could not slip past that swiveling shield.

(Is she predicting my moves!? But if she could always do this, that first attack wouldn’t have caught her by surprise.)

“Bull – Connection – Apis – 1/8.”

The shield swelled out.

No, she took a forceful step toward him with the glowing shield still held out in front. It was like a dump truck’s bumper crashing into a human.

Shields were generally considered defensive tools, but there were techniques that struck with the edge or tackled with the full front surface. Based on this, he guessed Ancient Egypt had some kind of specialized shield techniques.

His own thin barrier was breached immediately and he fell backwards. If he had tried to stand his ground, she would have snatched his only weapon from his hand.

“Gah!?”

“Utagai Karuta, you are powerless.”

He heard a high-pitched clink as a thumb-sized clear vial dropped to Hetepheres’s feet. The action was reminiscent of an empty cartridge, but it wasn’t empty.

Karuta watched as dry brown sand crumbled away, but he had seen the true identity of the vial’s contents first.

(A…mummy?)

“And a powerless boy can never defeat me.”

But this mummy was not the preserved remains of a pharaoh. It looked like an animal. That stout livestock was a cow, but it didn’t look like a fetus. Somehow, it had been dried down to the point that it could fit in a vial no larger than a size-D battery.

(But more than that…)

Where had it come from?

He did not know what it was, but if it was necessary for her magic, he could stop her from using her magic by preventing her from pulling those things out.

He had been distracted.

He had not seen the moment when she pulled it out. Her loose-fitting Egyptian priestess outfit looked perfect for hiding small objects, but she had not actually reached into a pocket or something. And she wasn’t wearing long sleeves, so it couldn’t be hidden at her wrists. So when had she pulled it out and from where!?

“Falcon – Connection – Horus – 1/144.”

He had seen this one before.

The bluish-white shield vanished and a compressed ball of fire appeared in her hand instead. This was the bomb she had attempted to throw at him before the bell.

He also saw another vial in her hand. But he had again missed precisely when she pulled it out.

“Now it is my turn to tear your mask away. Die like the powerless fool you are!!”

### Part 8

Hetepheres Men-Nefer was an efficient person.

Karuta wasn’t about to call her a good person, but he had to admit that much. So if she thought a method was effective, she would repeat it as many times as it took.

Her initial attack had only missed because of Karuta’s trick.

And the fact that he had used a trick essentially told her that he would have been in trouble had he not used it. So if she had the chance, she was sure to try that explosion again.

Also, Karuta only understood that part of her so well because he was the same kind of person.

So when he saw that explosion, he knew exactly what to do.

He removed his remaining shoe and threw it.

But this time, he threw it toward her fireball instead of the exploding ropes behind him.

“Ah.”

Once she threw that fireball, it would explode.

So instead of waiting for her to throw it, he could trigger it himself.

Now, that explosion was designed to be thrown first – which meant she needed to move it away from herself before it detonated – so would she escape unscathed if it detonated in her hand?

“Gahhhhh!!!???” she screamed, swallowed up by her own explosion.

Karuta did not let his guard down while he gripped his flashlight and stood back up. He wanted to rush in and ensure she stayed down, but the blows from his blunt weapon would be blocked by her bluish-white barrier shield.

That swiveling defense blocked his attacks automatically.

He gathered strength in his arms and sent his eyes racing around.

(What could I use to make that malfunction ?)

“Fuck off, you powerless frauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuud!!!!!”

She interrupted his thoughts.

She shouted at him while the explosive flames burst like a balloon. And a white tornado emerged from within.

No, that wasn’t accurate.

He heard the rustling of cloth because these were long bandage-like strips of fabric. And not even her expertise in Egyptian magic allowed her to create something from nothing.

Her loose-fitting white priestess outfit was coming apart into those bandage-like strips.

The strips were curled up like an old phone cord and each loop contained a small vial.

“Papyrus,” said Utagai Karuta with a grin.

She had been pushed far enough to let her clothing fall apart and reveal the majority of her brown skin so she could access those vials more quickly. She trembled and blushed in the humiliation of having her methods revealed, but the boy continued the verbal assault.

Words could be used as a weapon to throw people off their game and keep them from fighting to their full potential.

She had taught him that herself.

“Most people think of papyrus as the water plant used to make Ancient Egyptian paper, but it was actually an all-purpose material with so many more applications, wasn’t it? It was used for carpets, tableware, boats, and buildings. The pith could even be eaten. But most importantly, it was used to make clothing . You didn’t just have a secret pocket or two. You could open slits anywhere you wanted to pull out your weapon.”

“Don’t…don’t think you have me all figured out.”

“But.”

“You don’t know ANythIng aBOUt mE!!!!!!!”

“Now that I know where you get those vials from, I can throw off your timing. I can stop your magic.”

A small light flashed at the edge of Karuta’s vision.

That had to be Aine or Marika. Did they assume contacting him with their crystal blossom transmissions would count as assisting him with their magic? They were using a pen light to send him a signal from the stands. He mentally converted the message to Japanese.

(Hetepheres is a priestess of the Osiris line of Egyptian mythology. She specializes in mummification. Egyptian mythology has divine beasts that correspond to the gods and mummified birds or cattle worshiped as divine incarnations have been discovered in the ruins much like the mummies of the human pharaohs.)

“…”

(She uses this by indirectly drawing on a god’s power through a mummified version of an animal corresponding to that god, such as a falcon or jackal. They are so small because, after the life-size mummy is made, each part is boiled down and concentrated into something like a soup stock, making them portable.)

The information was valuable, but not enough to give him an actual plan.

Since those were real mummies, he felt like they would have a weakness to moisture, but that wasn’t much help when they were sealed inside airtight vials.

“Why do you assign different ratios to each power?”

“?”

“Is it because reworking the power back to life size takes too long, so you’ve found shortcuts that make that method viable in combat? So the greater the denominator, the more shortcuts you use. That would also explain why you can use some of the powers simultaneously and not others. Our crystal magic seals the name of a god in our crystal blossom, so we aren’t using the god directly. Of course your way would be trickier to use.”

She did not respond.

But tensing her face to avoid letting anything show in her expression was as good as a confirmation.

Hetepheres Men-Nefer looked furious as she held a vial containing a miniature mummy. Karuta squeezed his modified military flashlight in return.

He could not defeat this Egyptian priestess with a head-on strike.

But that was not his only weapon. He had replaced the ordinary light with a powerful IR laser emitter.

“Wha-?”

Only after reflexively moving to cover her eyes did the doubt enter her mind.

He had aimed his flashlight straight up instead of at her.

Then his malice bared its fangs.

A hammer dropped down from heaven to earth.

But this hammer was made of an aluminum frame, plastic, and silicon chips and it dropped because the IR scrambled its image-processing-based attitude control sensors.

“A drone!!!???”

It was only a toy, but it still weighed two or three kilograms. That was about the same as a small plant pot filled with soil. Dropped from a height, that was plenty deadly.

Hetepheres moved to protect herself, but then she noticed the invisible web she was trapped in.

Yes, something wasn’t right.

She had nothing to fear from a head-on blow by a blunt weapon heavier than a bat and she had plenty of mummy vials left. She only had to calmly draw on Anubis’s power and knock Karuta away with her bluish-white shield to solve this problem.

Yet she couldn’t do it.

The signals from her mind to her body seemed awfully slow, like her body’s gears were jammed.

“ Your reflexes kick in for weak points your instincts know about. ”

That was a solid rule.

Nothing was more reliable than information that came from painful experiences.

“ But when you need your mind to recognize the threat posed by an attack, your reactions slow. ”

Bringing down drones through malfunctioning sensors wasn’t actually going to hit her when they had no targeting or homing function.

Instead, he threw his heavy flashlight straight at her.

She gasped and moved, like her bonds had been broken.

She immediately held a brown palm out in front of her, activating the bluish-white shield to deflect the attack aimed at her face.

But had she noticed that this was exactly the reaction Karuta had wanted? The falling drones had needed her mind to recognize the threat, but her instincts were enough with the projectile toward her face.

Her defenses were a shield she held out in front of her, not enveloping armor.

As soon as she activated that shield to deflect the flashlight, Karuta stepped diagonally outwards and then sharply back in to move behind her. Then he wrapped his entire arm around her neck. He held her from behind and then let himself fall backwards.

Both of them landed face up.

“Gah!?”

On top, Hetepheres’s back was arched like she was performing a bridge, except her feet were lifted from the floor. Karuta raised one knee to lift her hips from behind. She tried to swing her elbow back into him, but it only found air. The more her back was arched, the less she could move her elbow like that. While nearly in the bridge position, it was next to impossible for her to attack behind herself.

“Oh, has he got her in a chokehold!?” shouted Delane. “Damn, chokeholds and joint locks are basically a win since they’re nearly impossible to break free from. Where’s the drama we all crave!!”

“Not only does this keep Miss Hetepheres from reaching the tool she uses for her magic, but the pressure to her carotid artery will keep her from thinking at all. That is two ways this prevents her magic,” explained Kyouka.

Karuta knew just how agonizing this was after Letnahe did it to him.

It took several minutes to pass out if you simply couldn’t breathe, but constricting the carotid artery changed that. A human would pass out in less than 30 seconds.

With so little time to work with, he had not managed to learn much from Letnahe Kurent and she mostly just beat him up, but this was one of the few things he had learned. From all the innumerable forms of violence out there, Karuta’s interest had been piqued by how this was nearly impossible to escape while also preventing any resistance or even screaming once it was in place. But that wasn’t the only reason.

He had also wondered if he could have avoided bloodying his hands if he had learned some nonlethal methods of knocking people unconscious at an earlier stage.

(No, it’s not worth thinking about that.)

“Also, Hetepheres, since you tried to elbow me instead of using magic, can I assume you have nothing else left?”

“!?”

“In real street fighting, there is no escaping chokeholds and joint locks. The fight is as good as over once one is in place. It’s time you lost. You don’t have to lose everything in this fight against the world’s strongest!!”

“Who, gh, gives you the right, ugh, to talk down to me, ah, like that!?”

She had foam leaking from the corners of her mouth, but she managed to free her trembling fingers form their meaningless instinctive movements.

A hand reaching for her throat instead stretched slowly to the side.

She reached for something that shouldn’t have been there.

It was one of the ropes meant to surround the ring. The initial explosion triggered by Karuta had left an unignited detonating cord lying out on the floor.

Black powder had spilled from where it had broken away. That was apparently a mixture of smokeless powder, penthrite, and other explosives to get the speed and power just right.

The rope had not been ignited yet, so it would explode if touched!

“This…this isn’t over yet. Agh, as long as I can reach this…”

“Hetepheres!”

“It’ll detonate when I touch it, but I just have to make sure the blast reaches you. Maybe my elbow can’t reach, but I can swing this soft rope around to hit you.”

It would never be that easy. That thing had a burning velocity of 5km/s, so it would almost certainly blow her hand off before she could swing it.

But almost certainly wasn’t certainly.

There was a chance she could swing the rope around before it exploded, or her blown-off fingers or bones could stab deep into his head through his eyes. There were no 100% guarantees in combat. Karuta had learned the hard way how terrifying malicious coincidences could be.

(What do I do?)

He could not stop her slowly-moving arm with his knee up and his arm around her neck. And chokeholds took time to knock people out no matter how much force you used. Squeeze any harder and he would only break her neck.

He would have to wait until later to feel good about the inefficient decision to reject that idea outright.

Because as things were, that decision wouldn’t even matter. He only needed the one arm to hold her neck in his elbow like a finger caught in a door’s hinge, so what could he accomplish with his other arm?

(What do I do!?)

### Part 9

Efficient people would reuse a method any number of times once they knew it was effective.

He already had his answer.

What had he done to defend against an explosion from her Egyptian magic earlier?

He had triggered his own explosion first.

In other words, he only had to reach out his hand and grab the rope snaking across the floor.

With a muffled explosion, the effect was immediately evident.

He doubted she would have had time to swing it around after grabbing it. The instant the detonating cord received the pressure of his grip, it provided an electric shock to ignite the explosives. The flammable gas’s volume instantly expanded several hundredfold, blowing away the boy’s clenched hand from within. His paper-thin barrier was meaningless here. Instead of expanding in a sphere from a single point, this was more like a line of destruction used to burn through a thick metal door. The hunks of flesh blasted across the mat rapidly crystallized.

“Kah…”

With her last-ditch counterattack – her final hope – snuffed out, she finally hit her limit.

“Huh?”

Hetepheres’s hand dropped to the floor. This time, she really did appear to have passed out.

But Karuta could not just sit around.

His felt woozy and the lack of pain actually scared him.

Even a child knew that slitting your wrist was enough to kill you. His crystal magic would help him regenerate, but only with nonlethal injuries. He helped himself to one of the bandage-like strips of cloth wrapped around Hetepheres and used his right hand and mouth to tie it tight just below his mutilated hand. That didn’t fully stop the bleeding, but it didn’t have to. It only had to get the wound deemed nonlethal.

He heard several high-pitched cracking sounds.

Sharp pieces of crystal were covering his incomplete hand.

He raised that hand overhead.

With an especially loud noise, the crystal shattered away, revealing his clenched fist to be as good as new. Glittering crystal dust reflected the bright film lights, illuminating him in his raised-fist pose.

“Oh!” shouted Cinderella Queen. “Ohhhhhhh!! I-I don’t believe it! Did he protect her? He didn’t just defeat her Egyptian magic! Utagai Karuta grabbed the detonating cord rope himself to protect Hetepheres against her own last-ditch suicide attack!!!!!!”

After a short pause, the crowd erupted into cheers.

“The guy’s a legit monster! Was I the only one that thought his life was ever at risk here?”

“Damn, I guess the strongest really does look at the world differently.”

“Why didn’t he kill her!? Cause she’s a girl?”

The deluge of voices pushed in at him from all sides. Karuta’s victory meant all the money bet against the world’s strongest went right into Second Grimnoah’s pockets, but no one sounded angry.

But Karuta felt any icy chill himself.

The odds had been low, but there had been a chance she could have turned that detonating cord into a win. To prevent that small but very real possibility, he had rationally sacrificed his hand to save his life. His biggest fear had been her fingers or bones stabbing into his brain through his eyes, so he had prevented Hetepheres’s unpredictable action, chosen where he would take his damage, and turned his face away from the blast to protect his eyes from the pieces of his own hand.

That was the real reason for his decision.

But the people in the audience had chosen to dramatize the action.

“I only did it for myself,” he said just the once.

His confession was picked up by a distant shotgun microphone, but it only led to more cheers. They only saw this as the modesty of a saint.

Eat shit, silently spat the ordinary boy.

He was afraid how they would interpret that one if he said it out loud.

### Part 10

Somehow, he had made it through the first round of the deadly Catastrophe.

Night had fallen and he wanted to get away from anywhere as public as the arena. But he wanted to get some advice for his future plans before he climbed into bed and slept like a log. After using his phone to say as much, Kyouka gave him a location to meet up at. It was near the gym.

“They say that is the Southern Cross Meteor Shower.” The student council president was looking out the window. “It should continue for a while. The first wave alone has more than ten thousand and the total amount is supposed to be over 300 million. Most of them will burn up in the thermosphere, though.”

“Where has all that stardust been floating?”

“Maybe further out than Pluto but closer than the Oort cloud. And since it will continue for a while, this should be the top night event since there aren’t any matches to watch. Well, it technically continues through the day, but we can’t see it thanks to the sunlight. Ha ha. Woof, woof.”

“?”

Omotesandou Kyouka was acting weird.

Come to think of it, wasn’t she the one who had been the most excited about the decoy astronomical observations they used to sneak into the outskirts of Silicon Valley for their battle against Anastasia?

However, the ship itself had no light restrictions, so this did not make for a proper astronomy event. The deck had to be covered with couples waving around penlights meant for concerts. Karuta’s only thought on the matter was “Oh, so that’s why those timelapse apps are trending in the app store.” Ordinary videos didn’t get good images of the starry sky.

“Your life could really use more romance, Karuta-kun.”

“Hey, don’t diss my entire life just because I’m not into your hobby. …Anyway, what did you want to talk about?”

“They lost it,” said Omotesandou Kyouka in her wheelchair.

His wounds had all been regenerated, but he still felt like something was straining inside his body. He clenched and unclenched his fist and rolled his shoulder around.

“Who lost what?”

“Her family lost Pharaoh Khufu’s mummy after removing it from his pyramid long ago. They apparently hid it a little too well and its location never made it to the current generation. That’s why she wanted the authority of the world’s strongest to perform a largescale search in secret.”

“…”

Hetepheres had called him powerless and a fraud.

Maybe that was a reflection of how she felt about herself. Maybe she had been relieved to find someone so much like herself.

She had been willing to sacrifice her life in her struggle to acquire the title of world’s strongest. Every single contestant had their own reason for that and Karuta had to crush those hopes and dreams if he was to survive.

He scratched his head which felt much heavier than usual.

“I want to take a shower and get to bed. At least the regeneration means I can relax without fearing any muscle pain or lasting effects from my injuries.”

“Oh? But you still have several jobs left as one of the world’s strongest.”

He put on a “what now?” look as someone approached him.

It was the toxic little girl named Cinderella Queen (which was obviously only a stage name). She looked even less developed than Natalena. A high schooler like him was bad at judging the ages of kids more than a few years younger than him, but he guessed she was around 10.

She moved with the air of someone accustomed to making herself look nice. First, she bowed with the meteor shower out the window acting as a backdrop.

“Hee hee hee. Nice to meet you, Mr. Strongest. Congratulations on clearing the first round. And you have my personal thanks for that as well. I know what I said during the match, but if you lost in the first round, we’d have trouble keeping people interested for the rest of the tournament.”

“You’re welcome, I guess.”

“Still, it would be pretty boring if you went on to win the whole thing. It’d be a lot more dramatic if the jackpot built up from the 5.5 billion people betting against you all of a sudden paid out, so I’d appreciate it if you could cough up some blood and lose in a shocking upset.”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” cut in a new voice.

A beautiful woman maybe a little older than Kyouka approached, but this young woman in glasses had a puppyish vibe to her.

“She doesn’t mean any harm when she says these things. She’s still just a child, so I would greatly appreciate it if you would forgive her.”

“Hold it, assistant!! This is the crucial scene where I overpower this talentless fighter with my powerful entertainment aura, so don’t ruin the whole thing by interrupting. My fans will be discussing this moment for years to come and I’d just feel bad for them if they had to see your sad face every single time they revisit it!”

“Is that any way to speak to your own sister? You’re the one whose constant problematic statements, unplanned adlibs during live broadcasts, and attacks on the program sponsors got you fired by your entertainment agency, forcing you to work as a free net idol. And you could never keep this up without me working as your manager, so I would appreciate some thanks.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m thankful or whatever.” Cinderella Queen grinned in a way that looked much too mean for such a small child and then she turned back toward Karuta. “Now, you, Karuta, you I really am thankful for. You see, I pushed the envelope in ways the bigshots in the TV industry weren’t comfortable with and they canceled me for it, forcing me onto the internet instead. But now that you murdered the old strongests, I’m actually making a comeback in the TV industry. Remember how you destroyed that giant TV station when you killed Elicia in Southeast Asia? The losers who thought they could keep me down got the boot after that☆”

“…”

Karuta’s group had been very careful to avoid any civilian deaths during that dinosaur battle, but it sounded like some important people had lost their jobs over it. …And at least one person had made a comeback.

People’s interests tended to gather around the world’s strongest.

Still, he couldn’t believe such a small child was caught up in all that.

This Cinderella wasn’t just a storybook princess who found happiness. If necessary, she was willing to throw her Prince Charming under the bus to get ahead. Cinderella Queen winked and grabbed her black and yellow leather skirt to perform a perfect curtsy, but when she spoke, her tone was too provocative to just call it mischievous.

“I’m counting on you in the second round as well, Karuta. I need you to win it and give me unprecedented stream viewership numbers.”

“Is that all you wanted to say?”

“Oh, and this is more than just a magic combat tournament. Well, the students are including some aspects of a sports festival and cultural festival, but that isn’t my point.”

“?”

“My point is the tournament is only during the day, so we’re holding a dance party tonight and that girl over there got all dressed up for it. Heh heh heh. Yeah, you want to look your best if you’re going to step out into the spotlight☆”

He looked over to see the crystal girl not looking her usual self.

This was not her usual combat outfit, which was technically a dress but eliminated any sleeves or collars that an opponent could grab onto, was formfitting, and had bold slits in the skirt for easier movement. Her one-night-only party dress had the long skirt of a fairy tale princess. She also wore her hair up, which showed off the nape of her neck and made her look quite a bit different.

“Sacri-sama,” whispered Aine.

He wasn’t sure what nuance that “Sacri-sama” was meant to carry, but she did seem to be waiting for a response.

If Cinderella Queen had set this up to take the initiative against him, then she was cleverer than he had given her credit for. She made things difficult in a way different from the Problem Solvers.

Aine held out her small hand, so he saw no choice but to take it.

Cinderella Queen laughed and sent them off into the gym.

“Hmm, I know this was a surprise and you didn’t have time to change, but it doesn’t look right for the guy to still be in his school uniform. Or does a school uniform count as all-purpose formal wear? Well, either way, have fuuuun☆”

They stepped through the door to find dazzling lights.

It was well done for something thrown together so quickly. The floor was covered with low pile carpet and heavy chandeliers hung from the ceiling, giving the place a very different look. The main dance floor was in the center and tables of food were lined up along the walls. The concert band that had been playing during the match was up on the stage.

This was not a mandatory event, but there were still a lot of people in attendance. It helped that there was no strict dress code and people could use the free food as an excuse if they were too embarrassed to actually ask anyone to dance. Some middle school girls were shrieking in delight and pointing at Karuta and Aine, so he had to hope they weren’t the type to spread rumors to the entire school overnight.

The two of them began dancing to the soft classical music like a needle placed on a record.

“I didn’t know you knew how to ballroom dance,” he said to Aine.

“When it comes to coordinated movement, the two of us are second to none. Also, I just have to follow your lead.”

“Sorry. I’ll apologize in advance for when we inevitably fall down together. I swear I was born with two left feet. I will do my best not to step on your skirt, but I doubt I can do much more than that.”

“Activating relaxation mode: <Hee hee hee. Now, boy, you need to relax your shoulders more. I’m not going anywhere, so just take your time while I give you some hands-on lessons.>”

“Hey, the monotone voice kind of ruins that, you know? You really have been acting weird all day. But in this case, I get the feeling you were basing that dialogue on something.”

“I prefer to crawl into small spaces when I sleep, so three days ago on June 10 12:34 local time, I crawled under your bed and discovered-”

“Huhhhhhh!? N-no, that’s not possible. There couldn’t have been anything there! I tend to use the internet for that these days, so unless that’s been there for a while, I don’t see how…ah!?”

“…”

He realized how badly he had put his foot in his mouth when Aine glared at him with her cold, emotionless eyes. But that had also eliminated the pressure of having to ballroom dance. But instead of removing a weight from his shoulders, it was more like he had cut out a hunk of flesh with a knife to get rid of the pain from a simple scrape.

Two of the world’s strongests held each other close as they continued their private whispered discussion.

“Do not worry. I have studied up on human biological functions, so I am aware humans have an abnormal fixation on viewing the surface area of the opposite sex.”

“I’ll admit we like it when they take off their clothes so we can see everything, but it’s not the surface area that matters. I mean, I’m not about to start skinning girls and creating a collection of their flayed skin. Oh, crap, thinking up that idea only makes me sound worse, doesn’t it!?”

“?”

Come to think of it, hadn’t Aine started showing embarrassment about being seen undressed or in a swimsuit ever since the Crystal Beach incident? But he still felt like there was something off about what she was learning.

Karuta was famous(?) for moving like a cursed doll in dance class, but trying to match the rhythm of classical music was unusual for him since he normally listened to rock or techno on his phone. But if he focused too much on keeping the rhythm, he felt like he would bump into one of the other dancing couples.

While he was struggling with that, Aine whispered to him with no emotion on her face or in her voice.

“Today was full of surprises.”

“Yeah, we were focused on that one match all day long. Who set this up? If we don’t find them soon, they’re going to end up strangling us somewhere down the line.”

“…I was worried.”

“?”

He just about came to a stop with confusion on his face.

Aine, the girl who would sever his arm without a moment’s hesitation if he ordered it, had been worried?

“I could not let my guard down for a moment all day because I never knew when Miss Marika would go on a rampage. If you had lost or died, we might have seen a deadly early summer laser light show.”

“Aine, excellent work keeping her under control. You can never predict what Marika will do when she’s about to snap, so restraining her with nothing but your words might just be the most superhuman thing you’ve ever done.”

“Well, I am not human in the first place,” she replied. “You will be fighting alone again tomorrow, won’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Next time…”

Just as he pulled her crystal hips toward him, she pressed her forehead against his chest. Those horns(?) kind of hurt.

“Next time, I will make myself useful. Even if I cannot be by your side.”

“…I see.”

He smiled a little.

Evidently, she wasn’t aware that she had already accomplished that goal.

Karuta would again be the only one risking his life in the ring tomorrow, but he knew he wouldn’t be alone.

### Between the Lines 1

“Would this be the best option for today?” muttered Amaashi Marika.

She wore a short red dress glittering with sequins and high heels. She also wore a transparently thin silk shawl around her shoulders and back. She of course had plenty of accessories around her neck and wrists as well. While Aine appeared to have stepped out of an old picture book, Marika wore a modern dress that would look perfect with a small brand-name bag. But she had let the crystal girl have Karuta for tonight , so she would not get to be the star of the dance hall.

Instead of the dance floor, she was interested in the buffet lined up along the wall. Specifically, the cakes. They let you place takeout orders, so she had a few cake slices that caught her interest boxed up for her.

After leaving the dance hall, she made her way to her true destination. She walked down a hallway decorated with chains of streamers and viewed a starry sky different from Japan’s outside a window covered in cellophane cut into stars and hearts. There was also a meteor shower tonight. She glanced restlessly down at her phone to see excitement on the sports livestream channel of an online TV station.

“This is Cinderella Queen with the night’s final news report straight from Second Grimnoah, the hottest place in the world right now☆ Now…just to spice things up for this stream, I’ve actually stripped off all my clothes under that table you see on your screens right now. Tah dah!!”

“Ehh? You didn’t mention anything about that to me!?”

“Shut up, assistant! No interrupting! Now, being timely is everything for the live news, so if I fail to get through my script before I run out of time, then my cameraman will be shoving his massive camera right into my hiding place under the table. Are you ready, everyone? Make sure you have a nice, firm grip on your, uh, stopwatch and don’t you dare blink while I give you the latest news!!”

Marika walked down the school hallway and smiled bitterly at the terrible ways that show was trying to get views. She was honestly not all that worried. She had lived with Karuta ever since they had started their revenge against the Problem Solvers, but she may have seen him more like family than a friend.

If she was thinking about a friend she could completely open up around, this was who came to mind first.

“Imi, are you there?”

She knocked gently and announced her presence before opening the infirmary door.

The person seated in the stool was not who she was looking for.

“Oh?”

The silver-haired, brown-skinned magician was wearing the white officer’s uniform of the Indian navy.

It was Letnahe Kurent.

“This is a surprise. I didn’t think you were capable of this sort of kindness.”

“Oh, shut up. And aren’t you a gym teacher?”

“Technically, yes. But those skills can be used for medicine as well. I’m a specialist in the human body. The question is whether I am attempting to destroy it or heal it.”

So was she like a judo therapist? It made sense that a professional soldier would have studied the workings of the human body. But Marika was not here to chat with the new teacher.

“Where’s Imi?”

“In the back. But I don’t know if you’re going to like what you find. Oh, and if you will excuse me, I have to get started on my nighttime rounds. Tonight that means checking on Miss Hetepheres who is recovering in her room.”

With that, Letnahe stood from the stool, patted Marika on the shoulder, and left the infirmary. She may have been giving Marika privacy for what was about to happen.

“…”

Left alone, Marika walked toward the curtain. She knew there were a few beds past that partition.

“Imi,” she whispered while grabbing the curtain.

She found a large lump in one of the bed’s blankets. But she could not see the pillow. The blanket was pulled up over the occupant’s head, closing them in like a turtle shell.

She had heard this girl refused to leave the infirmary while at school, but she had not heard it was this bad. Marika’s visit must have reopened her unseen wounds. Just because Imi had made some kind of decision on the inside didn’t mean she would be making any major progress right away.

Yes, Marika had done this to her. It had been necessary to save her friend from bleeding out, but Matsuda Imi had ended up this way after Marika used her laser beam to cauterize the wound from a Threat severing her leg.

“…”

“I don’t think she’s ready yet.”

That gentle comment came from Hashizaki Tayori who was seated in a folding chair near the bed. She had been watching over her friend the entire time Karuta and the others were out there fighting for their lives.

Those three had once been the center of their class.

And Marika refused to accept that was a thing of the past.

She placed the box of cakes on the bedside table.

“I’ll be back later.”

“Please do. Keep this up and she should get used to it, little by little. She’s fighting too. Remember that and can you stay strong too, right?”

### 178. 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.”

### 179. 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!!”

“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!!”

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!!!!!!”

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.”

### 180. Afterword

Apocalypse Witch has reached its 4th volume!

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

This time, we focus on the Catastrophe that was mentioned as far back as Volume 1! Volumes 2 and 3 focused on the battle against the Threat, so I went back to the series’ roots and made it all human-based battles. And I also kept Karuta from getting any help from Aine, since she’s his strongest fighter. So can Karuta protect his position as world’s strongest after being dragged out into the public eye? And what truth will he find after achieving victory? I hope you enjoyed this battle tournament full of magic.

After facing the armored warrior in Volume 3, Karuta is no longer confident that the Threat are really just villains. Aine has also started to change after that major battle. I was trying to focus on those things here.

I also shined the spotlight on regular characters beyond the Four Living Gods, such as Natalena and Letnahe, but I think the real star there was Matsuda Imi. And Yamane Deiri is still being a bro. He’s grown into such a reliable guy you have to wonder if he’s really part of Karuta’s class. And what was with his nervous behavior in Volume 2 anyway? That’s also why he chose to play the villain when it came to Aine this time. I also like how Nekoumi Hirosuke hasn’t changed at all from the battles he’s fought and wouldn’t hesitate to charge into enemy fire if it was for a trapped little girl.

For the tournament, I made the first round a standard magic battle, increased the level of technology involved further with the second and third rounds, and then went back to a purely magical battle for the fourth round. The idea was to show the threat posed by technology but then show that the occult really is the scariest thing of all. I hope it made for an engaging series of battles that felt like riding a roller coaster.

Also, we had so much dismemberment going on this time it almost seems adorable how much Matsuda Imi was freaking out over losing her leg in Volume 3. Not that this is the first time Karuta has fought a powerful enemy by destroying his body. He is an unusual protagonist for me since he can’t do much fighting without causing himself serious bodily harm.

I pictured Pendet Denpasar as a walking disaster. With the way she used the headphones to withdraw into her own world, showed no real hostility, and destroyed her opponent without really paying attention to them, I wanted her to provide a type of fear I haven’t really done before. Kind of like how a kaiju doesn’t pay attention to the tiny ants fleeing from it down on the ground.

Speaking of things I hadn’t done before, there’s Karuta’s mental change. He found an inappropriate sort of amusement in being able to simply fight without being motivated by resentment. And that is a valid answer since martial arts are recognized as a sport. This was his first battle freed from the pursuit of vengeance. Without the destruction of the first ship, he would probably have enjoyed his magical school life by fighting in tournaments like that.

I give my thanks to my illustrator Mika Pikazo-san and to my editors Anan-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. This was a major event that combined a cultural festival, an athletic festival, and a death match and that involved a lot of costume changes, so it had to be a lot of work. Thank you so much yet again.

And I give my thanks to the readers. How did you like seeing an actual supernatural combat tournament after the fake out in New Testament Index 4…however many years ago that was? These battles were actually also about Karuta facing the righteousness he felt was stolen away by the armored warrior in Volume 3. I would love it if you enjoyed seeing Karuta gradually break free from the bonds of vengeance and begin fighting to protect something.

And I will end this here.

…If they don’t get tangled up in revenge, these kids can do all the ordinary high school stuff, can’t they?

-Kamachi Kazuma

### 181. ?

“Professor Firenze.”

“How many times have you run the calculations now?”

They were floating out on the ocean.

An air-conditioned lab was contained in a marine research ship larger than a tanker. But the men in lab coats were not even checking the flatscreen monitors at this point.

They had grown sick of the coffee and energy drinks used to keep them awake.

They were so tired of holding this same discussion over and over.

“We have run 49 actual experiments and run the simulation more than a billion times.”

“Then it’s safe to say we have the answer.”

“But a lot of people aren’t going to like this answer,” cautiously mentioned a young man with the rare talent to control eccentrics.

The old man in a lab coat failed to realize he was doing that.

“There is nothing in the earth’s core. Checking the flow of geomagnetism is enough to tell that. Do we need further proof from the plate movement, the rotation speed, and the Coriolis force?”

“No.”

“The Original Crystal Embryo disappeared long ago. But where did it go!?”

They had no answer for that.

After all…

“We have never actually managed to reach the earth’s core. We have only theorized its existence based on a variety of geological data.”

“That’s true. So it’s always possible it has legs and could just walk away on its own. For all we know, it looks just like a human and is hiding among us.”

You could call that absurd, but then you would have to say the same about the very existence of crystal magic.

Humanity had thrown out their own common sense from the moment they chose to rely on magic. They had leaped at the tantalizing convenience dangled in front of them and sold their soul to the devil.

“But isn’t that embryo the Threat’s target as they arrive from outside the atmosphere?”

“Then has it given up on us?”

When his question was answered with a question, the young man fell silent.

And Chrisbart Firenze raised his voice like a child’s temper tantrum.

“Humanity cannot win. So the Original Crystal Embryo has given up on us. Is that the only conclusion we can reach here? But if so, who has it chosen to support now!?”

### 182. Afterword

Apocalypse Witch has reached its 5th volume.

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

This ends the story of Utagai Karuta and the others who started out on a quest for revenge and accidentally ended up the world’s strongest. I hope you enjoyed their final battle as well.

With this series, I tasked myself with creating a new magic system, which is different from Blood Sign where I was creating a new mythology. What did you think of Crystal Magic that uses the conflict between two invisible energies, similar to reading a weather map. With supernatural powers, I think the trick is making something people would want to use themselves with enough room for expansion that they can consider how they would use the power differently if it were them. I hope you felt that here.

I made the final boss a character who manages the energy pouring down from space. The Threat’s supply system was touched on in Volume 3, but I’ve always been fascinated with energy supply networks – including the generation, transfer, transformation, and distribution of power – so I included that idea in the systems used by both Crystal Magic and the Threat. I quite like Transline’s absurd strength that makes her accidentally release deadly energy whenever she laughs. I also think one of the scariest things for people is someone who can’t be reasoned with because the more they like you, the more they want to kill you, but what did you think?

I think Transline’s defeat came from the fact that she didn’t see it as a fight. If she had understood how her opponents viewed her actions, the battle might have ended differently.

Also, I ended this with the protagonist team each going their separate ways toward the future. I think that might be a first for the series I’ve worked on. One defining trait of this series is how Karuta, Marika, and Kyouka each have their own separate world they live in, which I think gave things a unique tension. Because they had somewhere else they could go, you never knew when the strongest team might break apart. You might be able to use that in a death game or gambling series where the characters are placed in the same location but they each have their own unique goals to bet their survival on.

Their growth can really be seen if you compare the extreme tension of Volume 1 to Volume 5. At the very least, they’ve reached a point where they can crack jokes while fighting. That seems like a positive change at first, but take that far enough, and they could end up including inappropriate “games” in their battles like the Problem Solvers did.

Through all his fighting, Karuta settled on the idea that they were only the world’s strongest when all four of them were together. That is why their group never broke apart due to arguments during their battles and why they chose to go their separate ways when they needed to eliminate the strongest from the now peaceful world. I think that ability to freely switch their strongest status on and off is their biggest difference from the Problem Solvers and the Threat. That term “strongest” had been plaguing them like a curse, so they separated themselves from it and found a way to control it. I hope that acts as one possible answer to the series-wide question of what it means to be the world’s strongest.

I give my thanks to my illustrator Mika Pikazo-san and to my editors Anan-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. I can never thank you enough for giving such visual color and beauty to such a harsh story. I hope we have a chance to work together again in the future.

And I give my thanks to the readers. This series was meant to dig into the idea of the world’s strongest magicians from the negative side of humanity and I am truly grateful you stuck with it to the end. The series demonstrated the strongest from a number of angles: those taking revenge, those being targeted for revenge, those trying to protect the world, and those trying to destroy the world. What did you think of all that? I hope they will continue to live on your hearts forevermore.

And I will end this here.

…I actually kind of like the fantasy ending too (ha ha).

-Kamachi Kazuma

## ?

His bangs fluttered in a gentle breeze.

The salty scent suggested this came from an open window, not the air conditioning. It also contained a hint of disinfectant, so this may have been a hospital.

“Ugh,” he groaned, belatedly realizing this meant he could actually say things.

And his bangs could now flutter in a breeze.

He was no longer frozen as a crystal statue. But how was that possible? Hadn’t he, the teachers, and the others students been helplessly slaughtered by those five strongests?

“Hi.”

He heard a voice.

Someone was looking down at him where he lay in a bed.

He recognized the boy.

Except the boy’s face looked a bit older than when he had last seen it.

He couldn’t get up from the bed, so he only stared up in confusion as the boy in a summer school uniform spoke to him.

“Morning, Gekiha. Took you long enough to wake back up, you old bastard.”

### 183. Epilogue

For the above reasons, the organized usage of Crystal Magic has become unfeasible.

Thus, Second Grimnoah has no further reason to exist. The school shall be closed on the personal decision of the Four Living Gods.

“Nhhh.”

Amaashi Marika raised both arms and stretched her back.

She was wearing a casual T-shirt and shorts.

No longer would she wear a school uniform.

Second Grimnoah was gone, but she had grown accustomed to living overseas and had no interest in returning to Japan. She had traveled through a few different countries since. She might never find anywhere she wanted to settle down. Maybe she was really searching for the school life she had enjoyed on that ship.

But that was not coming back.

Building a Third Grimnoah now would be meaningless. It just wouldn’t be the same without them all there.

“America’s West Coast and East Coast feel so different. I wonder if I would like it more in Hollywood or New York?”

She was still indecisive, but she had ultimately chosen New York. Maybe a big city on the West Coast would have reminded her too much of fighting Anastasia Blast in Silicon Valley.

“Marika?” called her friend Matsuda Imi.

Gyaru-ish Hashizaki Tayori was with her and the three of them remained an inseparable trio.

“You put sunscreen on, I hope? The cameraman won’t be happy if you soak up too much UV.”

“I get it with a video, but this is a photoshoot. I don’t see why it matters if my tan is a little different between shots.”

“I think it’s related to the concept of the photoshoot or something? I don’t really know.”

“I bet it doesn’t matter at all and this is just another way of the adults showing off that they’re in charge.”

While Marika was complaining, Tayori was on her phone communicating with her large family. At least she was doing well.

Yes, a phone.

Marika was all too aware of the solid object in her shorts pocket. She was social media friends with Karuta and her friends, so she could still contact them while they were apart.

“Wait, what is your problem, Sophia-sensei? Why do you look more nervous than Japanese people like us!? This is New York! Everyone here speaks English!”

Marika was answered by a quiet groan.

The woman in a suit looked like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on her.

“Umm, why exactly am I being dragged around the world and visiting New York? Crystal Magic teacher isn’t even a job anymore.”

“Yeah, but the paperwork and coordination is such a pain, so I wanted a manager or assistant who could handle that for me.”

“Ah!!”

“And like you said, you don’t have a job anymore. This is a pretty nice job to have handed to you, so you need to enjoy it!!”

Matsuda Imi and Hashizaki Tayori had their own conversation while watching Marika and Sophia from a short distance away.

“(Why can’t Marika just come out and say she wants to help her out since she feels responsible for the death of that old man related to her.)”

“(She probably thinks saying it out loud would ruin it. Still, drowning her in work might help distract her from her sorrow.)”

“Imi? Tayori?”

“Yes, yes,” said the two girls, rejoining Marika.

“They’re selling some donuts in wild colors on the side of the road there. Pink, sky blue, and…one, two, three, four, five- wow, seven colors! They have a whole rainbow!!”

“Scarf all of those down and the adults carrying those notebooks around will cry, Marika. You’re going to be filming several days in a row.”

“Don’t worry, Imi. Unlike you, my body sends everything I eat straight to my chest.”

“I will literally kill you, Marika.”

“The cameraman won’t like it if your boobs suddenly grow either. People will assume you got implants.”

So what exactly were these three girls doing nowadays?

First of all, the casual T-shirt and shorts Marika wore apparently cost well over 10 thousand dollars. And it was part of an advertisement deal with the luxury brand, so not only did she get to wear it for free, she got paid for it.

Marika wanted to call herself a world-famous supermodel, but it wasn’t clear what exactly was needed to earn the “super” qualifier. It would be most accurate to say she worked getting advertisement deals with famous companies, taking photos and videos, and setting worldwide fashion trends. At the very least, those three were earning looks of jealousy and envy from supermodels the world over.

Amaashi Marika smiled in the bright sun.

“Being the world’s strongest isn’t enough for me. I want a life that constantly makes me smile☆”

Omotesandou Kyouka had returned to Japan.

She was in the deep part of Kyoto that felt entirely cut off from the flow of time. Her home was so full of Japanese tradition people might mistake it for part of a samurai movie set.

But what kind of place was the Omotesandou family home?

They officially ran shogi and go classes, which allowed them to hold gatherings and get-togethers with the upper classes, but it was most accurate to say they used their connections to build up their assets.

They got people to unwittingly reveal the worries they couldn’t let anyone know about and then swiftly and discreetly resolved them. No one gave a thought to the methods they used. The entrance and exit were clear and everyone was willing to put on a blindfold and walk through the dark tunnel as long as they knew safety and security awaited them on the other side. That was the opportunity they provided for the powerful.

They were an ancient advisor family that had been following the motto of “there is no such thing as a free lunch” possibly as far back as the Heian period. There may have been a time when they were known as onmyoji or exorcists. As long as that performance could preserve their influence and repel their enemies, they would have gladly donned the costume and played their tricks.

Had the Omotesandou family ever actually come in contact with real magic?

Perhaps they had, but it didn’t matter in the end.

They were only interested in the end result. There was no need to shine a light in the dark, narrow tunnel.

“Phew.”

She no longer needed her wheelchair.

The kimono girl calmly sat on the floor.

All the Machiavellian scheming in the student council room had been harmless by comparison. Same for the black-haired bob cut girl and red-haired bun girl who had worshiped her like puppies or Letnahe Kurent who had been sent by the human string pullers. They had at least used real magic. Once you won the magical conflict with them, you could breathe a sigh of relief and relax.

(I wonder what that teacher is doing now. She never could choose between her family and her first love.)

Secretly friending Kiyosawa Hadome on social media would be the standard play, but she wouldn’t be foolish enough to screw up and let her husband see that name on her phone screen, causing her happy family to collapse around her. Unless she actually wanted to live out her own foreign-style melodrama with relationship issues as complicated as the Greek gods. But simply saying goodbye to the man was even more impossible for her. With the human string pullers gone, she had returned to her day job (so she could earn enough money to support her family), so hopefully she wasn’t secretly using the Indian navy’s military satellites to stalk him.

Kimono-wearing Kyouka calmly viewed the wind chimes hanging from the eaves.

Her much-younger brother sat awkwardly across from her.

The wordless pressure radiating from her was too much for Shouka and he couldn’t look her in the eye. The lack of a cushion below him seemed to illustrate the tension between them. Kyouka had stolen it away to giver herself the VIP two-cushion treatment.

“Um, sister?”

“Yes?”

“Did I do something wrong? You’ve been acting like this ever since you returned home.”

“Oh, dear. How strange. Hee hee. If you really do not understand, then how do you know I am so angry? Are you a mind reader now?”

Even if he had been manipulated by the human string pullers, he had still betrayed his sister. She needed to settle the score there.

Shouka shrank down even further.

“Sister.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“I can’t stand this any longer. Could you just get it over with and climb on top of me and slap me a few times?”

“No, I am not going to reward you like that. Why must I defile my soul with violence when I am the victim here? I refuse to grow violent and make myself the attacker here. All I will do is view you with pity, so you can rest easy there.”

“Then what’s going to happen?”

“Nothing at all. I will simply never forget.”

“Ugh.”

“And when I say never, I mean I am taking this one to the grave. Listen, Shouka. I will not do anything other than remember this forever.”

“That’s what I can’t bear! I’m willing to say goodbye to my front teeth, so just give me a good punch! I don’t care if you increase your punching power by holding your phone in your hand!! So let’s put this behind us, okay!?”

“Not happening.”

“Eek! Sisterrrrr!!!”

She looked away from her adorable brother who tearfully clung to her and she stuck out her tongue where he couldn’t see her.

(Curious that smartphone culture has made it here as well.)

But it made sense given how useful those devices were for their purposes.

The upper classes had their unique problems. She had returned to a family tied up with lots of old traditions, so her life would be bound by a number of restrictions from now on. But it meant a lot that she would have all the data necessary to blow off some steam if things ever got too bad.

She was connected to Karuta, Marika, and her former student council through social media, but she still wanted someone who shared this space with her.

“Well, I was the one that refused to turn away from this, no matter how messed up it can be.”

Utagai Karuta had remained in a corner of Southeast Asia.

Once it was shut down, Second Grimnoah had been moored at a giant shipyard. The ship had been based on a luxury cruise ship, but no one was willing to buy it because its excessive size would mean sky-high fuel costs and a difficult time filling all the rooms with customers. So it would probably be demolished eventually.

He sat in the summer sun on a concrete embankment, looking up into the sky.

This was the same dead end where he had once stood with Aine.

The Threat swarms that had covered the sky and Transline who had managed them all were no more. The facility she had called a factory was apparently still around, but it was probably too far away to reach in a human lifetime.

So this was the end of an age.

The Age of Crystal Magic was over.

No one in the world needed it anymore.

That was why Second Grimnoah was no longer a school and Karuta sat all alone on the embankment staring at the retired ship day in and day out.

But he couldn’t keep doing this forever.

Everyone else was starting down their own paths.

He was the only one who still hadn’t moved on.

But he had decided to change that.

He wouldn’t be fighting anymore. He didn’t need to hang onto that modified military flashlight.

He needed some way of signaling a change.

“Aine,” he muttered.

And…

“Yes, Sacri-sama? Did you need something?”

She emerged from his body.

The expressionless crystal girl looked the same as always.

He scratched his cheek in the sea breeze.

“It’s been so long and I can still use Crystal Magic. Does this confirm my theory?”

“Perhaps.”

Transline had been a powerful being who controlled 300 million Threats. The noise produced by her explosion had been intense enough to kill all of the Threats on Earth and keep Crystal Magic from working. The presets of flight and regeneration had failed and Crystal Girl Aine’s very existence had grown unstable and nearly vanished.

But the factory and their power source were still somewhere out in space.

Transline had said she was the one who transmitted the power, which suggested something else out there was generating the power. Maybe a red-hot planet and maybe some kind of artificial facility.

Crystal Magic was a new form of magic that used the conflict between the energy pouring down from space and the energy of the Original Crystal Embryo.

So the defeat of the power transmitter had not been enough to keep Crystal Magic from working altogether. Once the invisible wall of noise faded with time, Crystal Magic had stabilized again.

Aine sat next to Karuta and looked to the shipyard.

If they were going to get a new start, it had to happen here.

If they turned away from the ocean dead end and walked back along the embankment, they would find the whole world waiting for them.

He could walk with the crystal girl again like normal.

“Was there any need to shut down Second Grimnoah when Crystal Magic still functions?”

“You’re looking at it backwards.” Karuta sighed. “Why leave behind a facility that mass-produces world’s strongests when we don’t have anyone to fight any more? Do that and some overpowered Crystal Magician would turn into a criminal intent on destroying the world. I never want to fight to the death with another Crystal Magician. And if that happens, everyone will see us as the new Threat.”

“If you say so.”

“On the other hand, it’s hard to let go of the power and status you already have. In the end, someone had to play the villain and create an opportunity for that to happen. And no one could do that other than the Four Living Gods.”

The human string pullers had been destroyed by the Threat.

And they were unlikely to ever see the Threat again either.

Simplifying the state of the world had its pros and its cons. Without anyone else to fight, the world would likely start to notice how frightening it was for people to wield anything as powerful as Crystal Magic.

For example, Aine’s sword was the most reliable weapon Karuta could think of, but it went without saying what would happen if she started swinging it around for no reason in the middle of a peaceful city.

“Come to think of it.”

“?”

“I have been unstable for a time thanks to the noise produced by Transline’s defeat. That has kept us from completing the task we began back then.”

Aine gently shut her eyes.

Karuta was still searching his memory when she moved straight toward him.

Their lips touched.

His mind went blank.

Come to think of it, she had requested that, hadn’t she?

He was so caught off guard that more than three seconds passed before he managed to react.

“Wait, Aine!!?”

“?”

She quizzically tilted her head.

Her emotions were as much of a mystery as ever. Although she at least seemed to find it embarrassing to be seen naked.

“Sacri-sama, your deepest desire was for days like this, not to continue fighting the Threat as the world’s strongest or to depart on journey into the unknown with the four of us, wasn’t it?”

“…Yeah.”

He wasn’t childish enough to try and deny it.

Besides, Aine was a part of him, so she knew all of the weak and ugly parts of him.

She slowly traced her finger along her own lips.

“This was not a one-time thing.”

“Um, it wasn’t?”

"We must keep at it. Now that I have seen the ultra aggressive desires found in your fantasy, I know I have my work cut out for me if I hope to fulfill all of those desires on my own.”

“Please stop bringing that up! And fantasies are only fantasies!! You don’t have to make them come true!!”

Karuta quickly moved to stop her.

Apparently it was a problem to have someone know you too well.

“So what will you do now, Sacri-sama?”

“I’m not sure.”

The phrase “world’s strongest” had lost its value and he had abandoned the Living God title himself. What could he do now that he was only Utagai Karuta?

How big was this world that he had briefly considered giving up on and leaving behind?

“But first, we have one last problem to deal with.”

“?”

“Remember Omotesandou-san’s final secret? About how the people killed on the first ship don’t actually need more than 7000 years to recover? We need to deal with that.”

“Oh, that.”

Aine stared off into the distance.

Someone was running toward them along the long embankment while hopping and waving her hand. That was Natalena.

“So that is why you remained so close to Second Grimnoah.”

Karuta stood up and made a suggestion while viewing that ship.

He smiled.

It was the smile of an ordinary boy – something he had never shown while he was merely the world’s strongest.

“It’s about time for Gekiha and the others to wake up. Aine, let’s go greet them. We can join the new era after that.”

### 184. Part 1

“Senpai, you have a really low life experiences score, don’t you?”

Utagai Karuta was being attacked by a 12-year-old first thing in the morning.

The attacker was Natalena Blast, a Sub Category Regulation 1 with wavy blonde hair cut to shoulder length. Her white short-sleeve blouse didn’t look so crisp because she made sure to wash and iron it with care; this was simply her first time wearing it. This was Karuta’s first time wearing the summer uniform too since the first ship had been sunk so soon, but it was different for her. Her entire summer uniform gave off an aura of innocence. She, however, thought she was all grown up now that she was wearing a summer uniform for the first time, so mentioning that aura was sure to have her puffing out her cheeks even more.

She was more than a head shorter than Karuta and she was currently grabbing bite-sized pieces of French toast from a square plastic container and tossing them into her mouth.

“Munch, munch. I mean, you’re supposed to be this incredible upperclassman who’s been with Grimnoah since the first ship, but, well, you barely know any of the school’s tricks. If you want people to look up to you as an upperclassman, you need to enjoy your school life more. And you need to teach me more tricks for getting by at school.”

“I never asked you to call me ‘senpai’ all the time. And what’s with this rule breaking first thing in the morning, Natalena? If you’re going to eat snacks, don’t do it in the middle of the hallway where the teachers are bound to catch you.”

“Call me Jane Ignition here. And anything you cook yourself in the dorm kitchen and bring with you doesn’t count as a snack. Besides, French toast made from the bread crusts I cut off my sandwiches is a valuable source of carbs.”

Come to think of it, Second Grimnoah ensured the students were free to buy lunch at the cafeteria, buy it at the school store, or bring their own. So if it was handmade, even a donut, biscuit, or bagel might just barely dodge the label of “snack”. And as long as you didn’t do it during class, there was no actual restriction on when you could eat your lunch.

Natalena licked off her honey and sugar covered fingers.

“Yum. The fact that I have to explain to you how to abuse these kinds of loopholes is why you aren’t much of an upperclassman.”

“Well, sorry. So what are you doing here anyway? The Subcategory building is over there.”

“I’m visiting the Main Category library to, um, get some reference material.”

“….”

“Um, Senpai? The fact that self-study isn’t bound by the school year framework is another of those loopholes I was talking about. And I know you’re excited since today is a Port Day, but, uh, you’re the one who can’t afford the blow to your reputation if you get a bad score on the upcoming exams.”

This capable underclassman was on another level entirely from Utagai Karuta.

“(Hm, I see. From now on, I’ll call her Self Conscious Girl.)”

“I can hear you, Not Nearly Self Conscious Enough Senpai.”

With that parting comment, she walked off.

Unlike that perfect Subcategory Regulation 1 who never stopped studying even when she didn’t have class or homework, undisciplined Karuta held his sleepy head and walked straight to his classroom. He found a room so steady it was hard to believe it was on a ship.

The classroom was a mixture of information before morning homeroom. The boys and girls had gathered into a few different groups where they chatted freely. Several were instead focused on their phones or tablets. The paper weekly manga magazines didn’t always show up on the school store’s shelves on the usual release day, so the students had a tendency to buy the digital version they could read on their phones.

“Sup, Karuta. Hirosuke went ahead and bought the digital version even though it’s a Port Day, so watch out for spoilers.”

“This week’s Red Pan is so good. I-it’s the kind of once-in-a-lifetime chapter where anything I could tell you would spoil it for you.”

If Utagai Karuta was going to join a group, it was usually with his awful friends Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke. Seeing the disaster that was those two honestly helped soothe the wounds inflicted by Self Conscious Girl that morning.

The Port Day people kept mentioning referred to a day when Second Grimnoah, a modified triple hull cruise ship, stopped at a port to resupply or receive maintenance. The ship contained more than enough facilities for anything they might want to do, but leaving the ship still brought a sense of freedom.

The Japanese might have trouble picturing what the Southeast Asian equatorial region looks like, but there were plenty of cities rivaling Tokyo or Osaka in size. A chance to visit those cities was exciting.

“(Don’t you two sneak out every night for some low-altitude flying so the ship’s radar won’t notice you?)”

“(It’s not the same thing, Karuta-chan.)”

His childhood friend and fellow worlds strongest Amaashi Marika was also in his class, but similar circumstances did not mean they were always together.

In fact…

“Hey, hey. Welcome to Marika-san’s spot the difference game. So can either of you tell what’s different about me from yesterday? Well, Imi? How about it, Tayori? Heh heh. Ha ha ha. C’mon, c’mon, make a guess!”

“Are you kidding me, Marika!? I’d have to be blind to miss those super long shoujo manga eyelashes! What are you, the Fuji TV logo? Argh, I’m so jealous!!”

“Oh? You got the latest Serene Silent product, didn’t you? All the girls were glued to their screens yesterday trying for that jelly mascara, but of course it was you won the purchase lottery. You have all the luck.”

Those youthful people, whose skin seemed covered in a water-resistant coating, excitedly made plans to all try it out together later. The popular girls were also busy making their own plans for the Port Day.

Their conversations had a different feel to them.

It was like they existed in a bright and sunny zone.

Unlike Karuta’s type who were constantly fighting over who got to be in the secluded corners of the large classroom, the girl’s group formed by the triangle of Marika, Imi, and Tayori were like the yolk of a fried egg. They were the school protagonists. More than just being popular girls, they were the central figures, where it wouldn’t even seem like an egg dish anymore if they were removed. Those were Amaashi Marika’s original specs. Girls who could look cute doing the things she did were so rare Karuta doubted there were even 5 of them in all of Japan.

“Anyway, my friends, wasn’t yesterday’s homework a nightmare? Quantity-wise, I mean.”

“Yeah, so gross!”

“Marika, you’re only agreeing out of habit, aren’t you? I bet you were actually glued to your tablet all day yesterday.”

The summer uniform’s short-sleeved blouse was thin enough that it was pretty bad for Karuta’s heart when curvy Marika stretched her arms and pushed out her chest. He didn’t have any kind of clairvoyance, but he still had a tunnel view right up his childhood friend’s short sleeve to her armpit.

Hashizaki Tayori, who looked like the gyaru type but acted more like the big sister type, seemed bothered by it, but Matsuda Imi was completely unguarded. She had even chosen a bright colored bra, so its striped pattern showed right through her blouse on this pleasant morning. That was probably the top half of a matching set.

Marika seemed to notice Karuta watching from a short distance away while she sat on a desk instead of in a chair.

The girl with her twintails dyed strawberry blonde winked at him and jokingly blew him a kiss.

“I’d say Amaashi scores pretty high,” said Yamane Deiri. “Getting her as a childhood friend is like getting seeded in the tournament of life, Karuta-chan. How the hell are you stuck in the pill bug zone in the corner of the class with us? Port Day’s are the perfect time for a date. Have you completely given up on enjoying your youth?”

“Karuta-kun can never make it in the sunlight! Because he used up his entire life’s allotment of luck getting seeded with such a cute girl as a neighbor. Don’t worry. He’s the kind of guy who gets chosen as a starting member of the team but then gets booed for getting last place in the tournament.”

He was really unsure how to even begin responding to his depressing friends’ discussion, but he found it curious they considered that being seeded. They were so bitter it was unusual for them to compliment Marika who was such an obvious winner at life.

Then again…

“(Of course, she’s 5 years too young to be in my strike zone. Look, I won’t insist on her becoming a schoolteacher, so can she at least grow into a college girl while still being basically the same?)”

“(It’s a shame, really. She has a lot going for her, but no one taller than 145cm is on my menu. She’s bamboo, not the delicious bamboo shoots. Forcing myself to eat that would only make me sick.)”

Or could they only make such a rational assessment because they weren’t interested in her? Karuta updated his opinion of them. By downgrading them to “utterly hopeless”, of course.

Then he felt something on his cheek.

He found Crystal Girl Aine was crawling out from his side. She had grabbed at his cheek with her small fingers and pulled in the process.

“Less than 145cm! A masterpiece of god’s creation!!” shouted Nekoumi Hirosuke with arms spread wide, but Aine ignored that and puffed out her cheeks while grumbling something.

She appeared to be upset.

“Mhh.”

“What is it, Aine? Can you explain it to me?”

“Sacri-sama, have you failed to grasp the situation from Miss Marika’s extremely unnatural eye contact and lip movements? She is asking to see your homework because she forgot to do hers.”

Aine’s warning proved accurate.

Marika must have checked the wall clock and concluded their homeroom teacher would arrive soon. This would be her last chance to copy his homework before morning homeroom. The curly twintails girl, who was willing to throw kisses in an exaggerated and theatrical fashion, approached him. Imi and Tayori sighed and watched her go. Karuta really wished they would prove their friendship by stopping her.

It turned out Marika didn’t care whose seat she sat in.

She dragged over a nearby chair and sat down. She gave off a sweet scent that wasn’t quite shampoo or deodorant. It may have been that makeup her group was talking about.

She leaned forward and grinned, moving her face in real close like a snake eyeing its prey.

“Hey, hey, Karuta. My good buddy, Karuta-kuuuun☆”

“Yeah, yeah. Here’s yesterday’s homework.”

“Eh? You’re being awfully dry today, my withered childhood friend. Don’t hand it over before I’ve even asked for it. Can you read minds now?”

“Why do you look so upset when I gave you what you wanted?”

“The process is important with these things. I mean…”

She childishly pouted her lips and placed one hand at the center of her chest. She wasn’t quite holding her chest. Her slender fingers were toying with the buttons of her thin short-sleeved blouse.

A nice snapping sound came from her fingers.

She winked up at him and pulled the blouse down over her shoulder.

And she whispered in his ear.

“(I was even thinking I could negotiate by giving my thirsty childhood friend the opportunity of a lifetime if he let me copy his homework.)”

The boy’s heart leaped in his chest.

He could feel the tension racing below his skin like electricity.

She had him completely outclassed when it came to things like this.

“Pff.”

The popular girl held her sides.

She nearly started rolling on the floor in laughter and tears formed in her eyes.

“Ah ha ha!! By which I mean I was going to let you give me a shoulder massage. Now, what did you think I meant? …Huh?”

Had she really not noticed until now?

Unbuttoning her blouse to show off her shoulder had also shown off quite a bit of her cleavage. Not to mention he could see her colorful bra strap.

The gloomy bastards who preferred the corners of the classroom hung their heads.

“(G-getting to massage a girl that clueless about what she’s showing off sounds like one hell of a reward to me. Do you think Amaashi-san has a bratty little sister who’s basically that but smaller?)”

“(Why couldn’t she be just a few years older? Her sexiness is wasted on a classmate. Could you maybe introduce me to her mom!?)”

The conversation was taking a turn Marika had not at all expected, so she crossed her arms and held her own body. She covered her exposed shoulder and hid her cleavage. And she pouted her lips and looked up at Karuta.

When she spoke, she made it sound like a joke, but there was also a slight flush in her cheeks.

“Karuta, you perv. Stop staring at my bra.”

“How is it fair to get mad at me for looking at something you showed me? Is this a new kind of scam, Marika?”

She always slept in the nude, but having her decorative bra strap seen when she didn’t expect it got to her. He honestly couldn’t figure out where her threshold for embarrassment was located.

Then he felt something on his cheek again.

The small crystal girl was as expressionless as ever.

“Mhh.”

“Again, what is this about?”

### 185. Part 1

Natalena Blast couldn’t breathe.

A blank area in her mind expanded to eat away every thought there.

The world looked blurry around her, but was that due to the tears in her eyes?

She shook her head with her back still against the wall. She could tell she would faint if she wasn’t careful. And if that happened, there was no way she could save Karuta’s group.

What was that about?

What did they mean a journey into death!?

“Dang.”

Natalena slapped her small hands against her cheeks to force her mind to face the reality before her eyes. She focused on what she needed to do.

Did she need to directly confront Karuta’s group? Of course not.

They were the Four Living Gods, the world’s strongest. Meanwhile, she was just another Crystal Magician. Remember when they fought at the Crystal Beach. It had been hopeless when it was 1-on-1, so what chance did she stand against all four of them? And who would save them if they forcibly stopped her before heading to their own dooms!?

(Let’s see, the time is…7 at night!)

Natalena checked her phone and clenched her teeth.

Karuta’s group had called this their final day. They had said they were contacting the human string pullers soon. She needed to assume they were dead if no alternative was found before midnight.

That only left 5 hours.

But it also meant there was still a chance to change their destiny!!

Natalena doubted it would be that easy. Karuta’s group wasn’t stupid and they weren’t saints. The world’s strongests had thought through every possibility they could come up with and still chosen self-sacrifice. The answer wouldn’t be simple enough for a Subcategory Regulation 1 to come up with it on her own.

Which meant…

(I can’t keep this to myself. I need to gather as many people as I can so we can all put our heads together!)

They each might not be a match for those four, but there would be so many more of them.

Second Grimnoah was a school. Why wouldn’t they rely on the power of numbers when they needed more?

But who could she get to help her here?

“First the teachers! With the grownups’ approval, the students will be a lot more willing to help out!!”

There was no time to waste, so she took off running.

The view past the side deck and across the dark ocean felt so very wrong.

A line there stuck straight up toward heaven.

That was the space elevator’s silhouette.

“Kh.”

(No.)

It felt like an ominous symbol of death now. The human string pullers were waiting there for the Four Living Gods. In order to sacrifice those four by ejecting them into space to draw the Threat’s attention.

(I won’t let that happen!! I don’t care if it’s selfish and, um, I’m willing to set aside the future of the Earth!! I couldn’t protect my sister…I could only watch helplessly as the worst came to pass. I refuse to let that happen again!!)

“Sophia-sensei!!”

“?”

Young Natalena slammed on the brakes when she spotted that nervous Subcategory teacher. The ship was resupplied on the Port Days, but the teachers must have returned to the ship. Natalena initially thought that was lucky, but she stopped herself. That word didn’t apply as long as the Four Living Gods were marching toward their doom.

She didn’t know how influential Sophia Firenze, who was carrying a lot of brand-name boxes, was in the faculty room. Actually, she could guess it wasn’t much. But the woman was still a teacher. She had to be far more useful than one powerless student. And Natalena had planned to talk to anyone she came across anyway.

As many as possible.

She needed everyone’s help.

“Please help me! Um, Karuta-senpai and the others, well, they said they’re going to contact the human string pullers!!”

Why was she so hesitant to come right out and mention the self-sacrifice and ejection into space?

Perhaps she still hadn’t gotten over the shock of learning of it herself.

(No, don’t do that. You need to face the ugly truth!! We can’t come up with a solution if you don’t mention the most important factor! Um, that’s how Karuta-senpai always does things!!)

And Sophia was far from calm herself.

She had gone pale before being filled in on the details.

“Oh…oh, no.”

“Sensei?”

“Um, Jane-san . I am, uh, in no position to fight the human string pullers.”

“Do you know something? Like, um, how to save Karuta-senpai and the others!?”

The teacher used Natalena’s usual pseudonym and Natalena nearly grabbed at her shoulders and shouted back at her, but then it hit her.

The woman was shaking. It was an unnatural tremor, like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her head.

Sophia Firenze.

Wasn’t a weapons researcher named Chrisbart Firenze one of the human string pullers? This was a big deal for her in a different way than it was for Natalena.

“Argh!! That’s not a good reason! If a family member is doing something wrong, shouldn’t you do everything you can to stop them? Um, I will explain everything, but there really is no time. We can’t afford to be delayed because you’re too afraid to act!!”

“B-but…”

The teacher squeezed her eyes shut and spoke in a vanishingly quiet voice, but she threw out all the niceties of being a teacher.

She exposed her feelings to Natalena, no matter how ugly, pathetic, dark, and filthy they were.

“You all might think of the human string pullers as detestable villains, but no matter what the other 5.5 billion people out there might say, all I see is that kind uncle who gave me so many wonderful memories growing up.”

“!!”

Finding out a family member or a friend was a bad person was not fun. Having your suspicions confirmed was unbearable.

All that shopping during today’s Port Day may have been a way of distracting herself from her worries and nerves.

Anyone would feel that way, adult or child. That was why young Natalena did not scorn or insult the much older woman. Anyone who had seen the past battles would know that every person out there was doing everything they could to keep on living. That desire couldn’t be pretty or ugly.

“I don’t want to fight my uncle. In fact, I can only see this going badly whether I do or not. I’ll do anything else, even offer up my own life, so please let me sit this one out. I don’t want anything to do with this!!”

But that wasn’t an option.

That choice wouldn’t save anyone.

Natalena Blast understood better than anyone what failure here felt like. She wasn’t working based on assumptions here. She knew this from firsthand experience.

“I…”

The young girl clenched her teeth hard.

She gathered up what had been stewing inside her for so long – an empty dream that could never come true – and threw it right in the hesitant adult teacher’s face.

In other words…

“I wish I could punch my sister right in the face and stop her from making that mistake!! But Anastasia Blast, world’s strongest, isn’t here anymore, so that isn’t an option anymore and it never will be! But it’s not too late for you! Um, you can still stop Chrisbart Firenze. You can still stop your family member from making a terrible mistake!!!”

The teacher still didn’t know what it felt like to cross that line, but the young girl had crossed it and there was no going back.

Natalena knew how foolish and meaningless it was to try to find peace by turning away from the unbearably cruel reality standing in your way.

“You can still walk that painful path,” said Natalena, sounding thoughtful. Her small hands squeezed hard at the woman’s upper arm. “Nothing I can do can save my sister now, but, um, you’ve been given a free chance to achieve a goal that’s even more unreachable than immortality for me! Look into my eyes! Do you see the darkness there!? This will be you too if you screw this up!! Don’t you want to protect your irreplaceable family member!?”

She didn’t receive a response.

The teacher with the same name as one of the string pullers fell to her knees, clung to the girl, and burst into tears.

“I, sob, I!!”

“Yes.”

“I can really say I want to save him? Even though he’s, sob, one of the human string pullers manipulating the 5.5 billion other people!?”

“You can. I would do the same if my sister was still alive. Even if what she was doing is wrong. And you still have that chance. It’s not too late for you.”

Natalena didn’t think this adult was weak for letting her feelings out like that.

In fact, she felt people only walked to their own doom because they lacked the courage to let out their feelings.

Like Anastasia Blast of the Problem Solvers or Utagai Karuta of the Four Living Gods.

What if they had been able to say they were scared, in pain, and fed up with it all?

What if they had said they didn’t want to die?

What if they had asked for help?

Would things have gone differently for them?

Why couldn’t they do that when they were just as human as everyone else?

“Sensei,” said Natalena Blast, holding Sophia in her arms. She was young, but she was one of the people challenging a great unfairness. “I want to save Karuta-senpai from being thrown into space to draw the Threat’s attention. And, um, this has nothing to do with him being a Living God or the fate of the world. So will you help me?”

### 186. Part 1

What did she say?

What did that even mean?

Utagai Karuta’s mouth flapped wordlessly for a while. He had completely missed the moment when he should have drawn that puny weapon, his modified military flashlight, from his hip.

Marika and Kyouka were in a similar situation.

And if they didn’t say anything, it remained her turn.

The woman calling herself Transline smiled and continued.

“I am Transline. The central being of what you call the Threat.”

“That we call?”

It was true the humans had come up with that name on their own.

So did they have another, more official name?

“Why would we call ourselves the Threat? In your language, the closest term for us would be Metal-Based Naturally-Occurring Lifeform.”

Metal.

That was clearly different from humans, but some metals were still necessary components of the human body.

“From our perspective, you would be Carbon-Based Naturally-Occurring Lifeforms. Oh, and because you are the world’s strongest, I could add the ‘superior’ qualifier to that.”

Omotesandou Kyouka pressed a hand to her chest and took a slow, deep breath.

After refocusing her mind that way, she made a cautious attempt at making contact.

“Why go out of your way to add ‘naturally-occurring’? Are there other kinds of lifeforms?”

“Yes, there are. Such as most of the ‘Threats’ you have seen so far. Although the difference between natural and mass-produced is a trivial one to us,” replied the dark woman, tilting her head curiously.

The look on her face said she wasn’t sure why they felt the need to ask about that. It was like she had been forced to explain that most fishing line was synthetic these days and you rarely saw natural lines anymore.

“We have put together a factory for such things. And even your Earth has taken the first steps in that direction. You know, cloning and stem cells. Your efforts have stalled, but it is unclear to me if that is because you lack the necessary technology or you have stopped researching it because you find it distasteful.”

What path of evolution had these beings taken?

It was unclear if they had even achieved diversity through reproduction the way humans did.

The Threat did not gather up humans or any of Earth’s resources, but they did strengthen their own power by cannibalizing their fallen and taking their parts. The decoy and real ones had both done that. They might fluidly adapt to changes in their environment by repeatedly tearing away the necessary parts and customizing themselves rather than using the Darwinian theory of evolution.

“Why are you called Transline? In our language, that makes you sound like a power line or a wire or something.”

“That is not inaccurate. I act as a transmitter and a pipeline, so I combined the words in your language.”

She didn’t bother to hide the answer and even smiled as she responded.

Marika had reported that the Threat operating on the ocean during the Port of Kobe battle had periodically received supplies. And Kyouka had convinced Letnahe to tell them the sea anemone ones made fuel by gathering and concentrating the energy that poured down from space and dissolved into the ocean.

In other words…

“You alone provide the power to keep 300 million Threats running?”

“ Hee hee !!”

A strange zapping sound made the humans flinch.

It came from the space station wall.

The wall had burst from within and the remnants of a thick cable jutted out.

The dark woman probably hadn’t meant that as an attack. She elegantly placed a hand over her mouth.

“Oh, dear. I apologize. I got a little overexcited there. Hee hee hee. Sigh. I am trying to restrain myself, I promise. Hee hee hee. ”

“…” Karuta felt another prickly sensation.

It wasn’t visible, but there was some kind of energy roiling within Transline. She said this was while she worked to restrain it, so if she were to let it go free, would it be enough to fry them until not even the double helixes within their cells remained?

“There. I’ve calmed down☆”

Transline placed a hand on her large chest and took a deep breath. A breath. It was unclear if she needed to do that to live, but she was apparently working to calm herself.

That was how she saw it.

She didn’t even see this as a battle.

She was only making sure she didn’t accidentally kill Karuta and the others.

“I am no more than a power transmitter, so I do not create anything myself.”

Wasn’t Crystal Magic defined as techniques that read the waves similar to high and low pressure fronts which were created by the clash between the energy pouring down from space and the energy of the Original Crystal Embryo found at the center of the earth?

In that case…

“Were we borrowing your power to use magic?” asked Karuta.

“I can’t blame you for failing to notice. We have had very few chances for direct contact since we slowly follow a ‘loop’ separate from your galaxy. But since we were in the neighborhood, we might as well take you in, don’t you think?”

She had the look of someone in the comfortable, open ocean watching a small fish try desperately to survive in a small puddle leftover on the rocks. And from her point of view, that was probably accurate.

Her legitimate sympathy only made it more disturbing.

That thought led Karuta to realize something important: disturbing? He sensed a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. He felt a doubt that made him hesitant to even ask this being standing before him.

Marika asked a different question.

And being Marika, she asked an even more dangerous question than the one Karuta was hesitant to ask.

“Who is this ‘we’ you keep mentioning?”

“The unlimited numbers we can produce in our factory. But I couldn’t look after them properly if there were too many, so I’ve limited them to just 3 cargos.”

Karuta felt faint.

The difference between humans and the Threat was too great. They had no upper limit and all the Threats they had fought were a reduced number to make things easier on Transline?

If that was 3 cargos out there, then a cargo likely meant 100 million. And she made it sound like 3 of those units was keeping the numbers low.

They had never stood a chance. From the very beginning.

Meanwhile, Transline didn’t even seem to consider the possibilities of winning or losing. Even after reducing Earth’s population to 5.5 billion, she didn’t even see it as a battle.

In other words…

“We have come here to take you in. To protect you.”

There it was.

They hadn’t misheard that incomprehensible part after all.

“Some might be happy with constantly keeping our numbers up using the factory and rejoicing in our prosperity as metal lifeforms, but I don’t see it that way. That might bring stability, but it will not lead to evolution. No matter how far we expand the status quo, repeating the same stimuli on and on forever will only lead to gradual decay. Biologically and culturally. Thus, I am constantly seeking out new lifeforms. They don’t need to share our origin. They can be nitrogen, silicon, or carbon-based. I just want to find as many of them as possible and collect the greatest units of each species.”

Carbon-based.

Utagai Karuta kept a cautious eye on Transline while looking to something else. He looked to the back of the crystal girl’s head while she stood protectively in front of him in zero-g.

Crystal Girl Aine.

Did she fall under the silicon-based category?

“So you’re saying you have no reason to fight us?”

“Yes.”

“And we don’t have to worry about dying?”

“Yes, yes! Hee hee. But of course!! I will accept you and the sword-wielding one as a set.”

Transline smiled and promised them their safety. At the same time, several of the artificial lights on the ceiling nearby burst from within.

And still smiling…

“ So let’s just clean up the rest, shall we? ”

Something about her peaceful face felt wrong.

No, there was some fundamental disconnect here.

Yes, that was it.

If Transline was commanding all of the Threats and she had never intended to fight, then what had all of those Threats been doing? Had they gone berserk while down on Earth? Of course not. The Threat had clearly been acting as a group toward some kind of goal.

“It was not easy searching out the strongest lifeforms among so many. And while flipping over those cards to check, the population of nearly 8 billion dropped to only 5.5 billion.”

“So all of those battles were a test to identify us!?”

Marika shouted without thinking, but Transline’s demeanor did not change.

She continued smiling.

“And whenever I did narrow it down to one or more strongests, they just kept refusing my offer. Some challenged me to a meaningless battle, some inexplicably killed themselves right here, and others panicked and fled right out into the vacuum of space. But that just proved none of them were who I was looking for. And now I have found you and it didn’t even require flipping over half of the cards first, which just goes to show how clever I am☆ So now I will take you in. Do not worry. There is really, truly nothing to worry about.”

The human string pullers down on the surface had only been able to check whether or not the shuttle had launched and the Threat’s invasion speed.

What if the previous strongests had all fought self-destructive battles against Transline after launching the empty shuttle into distant space so no one would feel a need to visit the space station and find out what had happened? And even if there were any doubts, the human string pullers would have to believe it worked when the Threat actually did stop.

Karuta’s throat was trembling.

He tried to speak, but it didn’t work the first few times. He eventually did get the words out.

“Just to be certain. You say you’re taking us in. You mean you’re rescuing us?”

“Yes.”

“So you’re interested in humans and you want to acquire the four of us if you can?”

“Yes! Oh, yes!!”

She had a beaming smile so full of adoration that Karuta was afraid she was going hug him to her chest. Given the energy she contained, that would probably be enough to vaporize him.

And with that established…

“So why target Earth? We’re already here, so you have no reason to attack the surface anymore!!”

“Yes. Because I do not need them anymore.”

Transline did not even tilt her head.

The crackling around her died down. This was apparently a calmer topic for her.

She had no interest in ruling the planet or wiping out humanity. She really did see securing these four as more important.

And with that in mind…

“I am not attacking them because I want anything from them. I am simply cleaning them up so you have no lingering regrets here. We are only interested in the strongest ones. Well, with a species split between male and female, I would like to have a pair of them. But since I already have that with only the strongests here, the rest are not necessary.”

She wasn’t destroying them out of hatred or disgust.

But she would do it anyway.

She was so different. This leader of the metal-based lifeforms known as the Threat could verbally communicate with them, but the foundation of her thoughts was just so different.

She had said the previous world’s strongests had acted suicidally after learning the truth. Which was why she had not yet acquired the world’s strongest humans.

Why had they done that?

Maybe there was no reason and they had simply been unable to handle the truth.

But Karuta thought he knew the answer.

If Transline took someone in and was satisfied, she would then slaughter the rest of humanity. But she would let humanity live until she had accomplished her goal. So had those people chosen to die in order to delay that moment of utter destruction?

They had been exiled from Earth and thrown out into space. They had been pushed out of their ordinary lives and forced to choose death. But they had still wanted to be strong people.

Karuta’s dizzy spell was not going away.

How many layers of hell did this world have waiting for them?

“Karuta-kun,” cautioned Omotesandou Kyouka, floating nearby.

She was looking to the thick double-pane window.

Something was squirming there. The giant spider crabs, water bears, blue-ringed octopuses, and other Threats were moving away from the window. The view opened up. The blue ceiling visible there was in fact their home planet.

A red fireball was soaring toward it.

No, not just one.

There were so many. And each and every one was probably a ball of thousands or tens of thousands of Threats clumped together.

“Wait! Please wait!!”

“Sigh.”

“Why do you have to do this!? You said yourself the rest of humanity doesn’t matter to you! You’ve already accomplished your goal!!”

“ Hee hee. The perfect strongest response. You have been through so much, but you still wish to protect the fellow humans who created that hell for you. Oh, how wonderful!”

Something somewhere overloaded and burst.

Even belligerent Marika took a step back when she felt the tingling on her skin. Some small translucent crystals had formed on her cheek. That was the Crystal Magic preset of regeneration. Something similar to a serious sunburn had been identified as an injury. Karuta would probably see something similar if he looked in a mirror.

How long would this giant space station last?

Transline continued with a beaming smile.

“ Ah ha ha ! Yes, yes! I figured it out this time. Hee hee. You aren’t just mindless violence!! The world’s strongest I want must also have a love for their fellow humans!!!”

### 187. Part 1

Utagai Karuta opened his eyes.

He briefly felt separated from gravity and that wasn’t just his groggy head failing to fully wake up. For one, the bed was too fancy for him.

He felt something soft next to him.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was curled up in the same silk bedsheets as him. Her head was turned to the side and she was giggling.

“Good morning, Karuta-kun.”

“Were you watching me sleep? Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Hee hee. I didn’t plan on it, but I found it to be amusing.”

How was that amusing?

She saw the same thing every day.

“Ugh.”

He sensed motion from the other side of the bed. That had to be his childhood friend Marika. Rather than waking up, she appeared to be caught in a light doze and tempted to fully return to sleep. She suddenly grabbed him from behind, bringing a smooth, soft warmth to his back. She held him like a small child with a big stuffed animal, but it was probably a subconscious thing. He heard her breathing settle back into sleep again.

Crystal Girl Aine was staring down at him from above.

His head was resting in her lap.

“Sacri-sama, it is time to wake up.”

“Yawwwn. Aine-chan, do we really need a time to take up?”

“You are the one who said we must follow a schedule and maintain a daily routine or we will grow undisciplined.”

She was right about that.

He extracted himself from Marika’s grasp, rubbed his sleepy eyes, and slowly got up.

He felt a dry wind.

The sea breeze carried a faintly salty scent to his nose.

“Phew.”

He set his feet on the floor.

The wind led him from the bed to the balcony and Crystal Girl Aine followed without a word. She may have wanted attention too.

They were in a seaside cottage that would have fit right in at a tropical resort. There were no walls, giving them direct access to the ocean. The building itself was built over the ocean instead of on the beach. A narrow wooden bridge provided a route back to land.

And the sea was dark.

It was absorbing the colors of the starry sky visible through the reinforced glass dome overhead, so the colors of space were mixed with the bright morning sun.

There was no blue planet here.

They were on an artificial planet in a different planetary system. The 50km enclosed space had been given to them as their world. From the outside, it may have looked a lot like a bunch of grapes. Each transparent dome was a few kilometers across, they each contained a different environment such as a snowy mountain or a jungle, and they could choose whichever kind of resort they wanted. The concepts of up and down existed within and the seawater did not just float up into the air. They had been told that was because the giant star the artificial planet orbited had its gravity intentionally amplified. The gravitons that created gravity still could not be mechanically produced, but increasing the activity of the naturally-produced ones could alter the apparent values. Karuta imagined it as something like how a microwave oven heated food by causing the moisture inside to rapidly vibrate, but he couldn’t say anything for sure when this was all done by the Threat’s mysterious technology.

That said, none of it felt as cold and mechanical as a spaceship. On the white sandy beach, palm trees and hibiscus flowers swayed in the artificial breeze, colorful butterflies and beetles lived there, and plenty of fish and birds ate them.

Remember the silk bedsheets?

All the necessary lifeforms were here, including the silkworms needed to make those sheets. The cycle and pyramid were complete.

Transline had not given them a spaceship or an artificial planet. Even if it was mechanically created, she had given them a proper “world”.

The entire ecosystem humans needed to live was present in this enclosed space.

Something else flowed by outside the dome.

Their orbits were all independent, but it felt like the artificial planets had been clustering together a lot lately. That showed just how many lifeforms Transline was collecting from here and there. All those pure nurseries were positioned around and constantly revolving around the shining star providing the center of their artificial planetary system. There was one each for every category: carbon, sulfur, oxygen, metal, plant, animal, etc.

They still hadn’t interacted, but Karuta’s group had discovered an airlock for docking hidden among the grass and flowers at the very edge of their artificial planet.

This might be an unnatural nursery, but it was also a perfect world with no chance of conflict.

Humanity’s ugly conflicts were nowhere to be found here. Nor the merciless slaughter at the hands of the Threat. Karuta and the others didn’t need to worry about being deceived, lied to, used, or abandoned by anyone.

They didn’t even need to be the Four Living Gods anymore.

They could finally relax and stop forcing themselves to be the world’s strongest.

They may have finally returned to being human.

“Karuta-kun.”

He heard a voice from behind.

He looked back to see Omotesandou Kyouka casually holding a bedsheet up to her chest while walking toward him on her own two legs. But if she had taken the sheet, what would he see if he looked to the bed where Marika had gone back to sleep? He already knew the answer. That childhood friend had a bad habit of stripping naked and crawling into bed when she felt sleepy.

He heard the faint sound of a machine operating.

The older girl’s legs were supported by black metal. That was what they had once called the Threat.

Kyouka had tried and failed to walk using a powered suit while on Earth, but it worked better with their help.

The Threat accurately reproduced her elegant movements.

“Karuta-kun. I’m glad you decided to get up, but what about some breakfast?”

“If someone will make some…”

“Oh, c’mon. Don’t be shy. Just come out and ask me to fix you something.”

“Your cooking is always so sweet it takes real courage to eat it first thing in the morning.”

They could use the phone on the wall to have any food they wanted brought to the seaside cottage. Made by black metal hands, of course. And that wasn’t all. The cottage remained so clean because Threats a bit larger than a backpack were constantly cleaning it for them.

Perhaps it was wrong to continue calling them the Threat.

Not after being taken in and cared for by them.

### 188. Part 10

Chrisbart Firenze sighed after seeing those teenagers off to their deaths.

They had only been given three days’ worth of food.

There were no supplies on the space station in orbit. They truly had been given a one-way ticket. After leaving, they would not have enough water, food, or air to stay in the station or even to return to Earth.

But those four had not seemed disturbed.

They may have been drawing on every last ounce of strength to suppress their feelings, but they had managed it.

Just like all the previous world’s strongests he had seen.

(I act like I’m not the one that paved their path to hell and keeps the cycle of death running smoothly.)

The old man in the lab coat shook his head and threw out his sentimentality.

Something else was bothering him.

“That girl.”

Was her name Aine?

Chrisbart Firenze knew that the Original Crystal Embryo was no longer at the center of the Earth. Since Crystal Magic continued to function regardless, the only possible conclusion was that the Embryo had gained the ability to move on its own, had left the center of the Earth, and had moved somewhere near Second Grimnoah.

What if she was it ?

Of course, this was only a fantasy with no evidence to back it up.

(Does she call him “Sacri-sama” because he is a “sacrifice” she is using as a stepping stone? Is that title a combination of his function and her respect for how he gave her freedom by summoning her from the center of the Earth, even if it meant becoming one with him?)

Chrisbart was a weapons researcher at heart.

And that included research on Crystal Magic.

(Does Crystal Magic only function on Earth because the Embryo was located at the center of the planet? If so and if it really has broken free of that restriction, then it is possible those four could use Crystal Magic in space.)

He doubted that would allow them to defeat the 300 million Threats.

The difference in numbers was simply too great.

But what if they made full use of Crystal Magic to construct a habitable environment for themselves? They wouldn’t even need to search out a habitable planet if they had the power to create an environment with water, air, and everything else they would need.

Would it be possible for those four to live free even after being launched into space?

“No.”

Chrisbart concluded he was being too optimistic.

Really, that was no more than wishful thinking.

He was surprised to find even he still had the capacity for guilt inside him.

At the very least, Crystal Girl Aine had not told the others what she was.

So no matter what she was, she had no intention of taking things in that direction.

### 189. Part 11

They heard a deep rumbling and felt a slight floating sensation.

But while Karuta and Aine looked out the thick, double-pane window, they could tell just how fast they were moving. It had taken them less than a minute to arrive above the clouds.

The transparent outer layer that resembled a smokestack only covered the first 30 thousand meters.

The first.

Yet that was already more than three times the height of Everest.

Since there was very little dust, dirt, or even air past that point, the elevator car was left directly exposed to the atmosphere. They continued on and on, guided by the carbon nanotube wire.

The higher they went, the farther until the horizon and the more they could see. They saw the lights of the city on the coast and a cluster of lights on the ocean with some other smaller clusters gathered around it.

Those were Second Grimnoah and its guard ships.

“…”

Was the debate about how to save them still ongoing on that ship? Or had the others noticed their escape and begun pursuit? But it was too late. Once they were in outer space, Crystal Magic could not catch up to them.

Natalena and the others could not reach them now.

“Ooh, they were generous. The fridge is packed. Is this dry-cured ham? Ah ha ha. There’s even caviar!”

Meanwhile, Marika was more interested in the contents of the elevator car, so she was exploring the kitchen area. She had focused on the ingredients rather than the microwave and oven bolted to shelves, so she was bent over with her butt sticking out his way while searching the fridge.

“Dry-cured ham? Caviar? Isn’t that all space food made to be eaten in zero-g?”

“Don’t ask me. It’s all packed in thick plastic. It looks like you cut open the mouth of the bag, stick that in your mouth, and squeeze the contents out with her hand.”

That explanation only made it sound like a jelly drink made by throwing the ingredients in a juicer and creating a cold goop, but that was just how Marika talked since she was halfway to being a gyaru. The food was probably fine. Space food these days was supposed to be good enough to sell at souvenir shops.

Unlike in a rocket, they weren’t strapped into their seats with sturdy belts. They didn’t need puffy spacesuits or helmets either. The president was still wearing her uniform and she moved around in her wheelchair to grab a magazine. However, the car was tall and you were meant to reach the different levels with a ladder. She would need some help when she needed to reach the shower or bed.

“I’ll be fine,” said Kyouka, flipping through the magazine. Apparently that capable upperclassman girl was still interested in the summer fashions even though she would never return to the surface again. “The gravity will be gone soon and the concepts of up and down will lose all meaning. I should be able to swim through the air by propelling myself with my hands on the walls.”

Karuta was mildly impressed she had thought it through this far.

He decided he needed to give those issues more thought himself. He didn’t want to carelessly remove a drink lid in zero-g and have the liquid floating all around. How did the shower, bathroom, and laundry work? It might seem silly with the bigger issue facing them but he was worried about all of the plumbing.

Their three-day journey would take them to the geosynchronous satellite at an altitude of 36 thousand kilometers. That meant their first day would bring them more than 10 thousand kilometers up. The international space station was about 400km up, so they would be in a complete vacuum by then.

The fact that the first day included so many changes may have been a blessing.

The psychological pressure would be much greater during the 2nd and 3rd days when they traveled through nothingness the entire time.

“How long ago was that ‘the Earth is blue’ quote again?”

Marika joined Karuta by the window.

That modern high school girl loved to snap photos of everything from today’s meal to beautiful scenery, but she didn’t have her phone with her now. Probably because she didn’t want to see the message alerts. And it was unclear how long it would still receive a signal anyway. Would it lose a connection quickly, or would they keep a connection the whole time thanks to a satellite signal or the elevator’s wire itself acting as a communication cable?

“It’s night right now, so the ocean and sky are both black. But will it look blue once we get high enough?”

“No, it will remain black as long as it isn’t facing the sun.”

“You mean we won’t get to see the blue Earth? After launching ourselves into space?”

“The trip takes 3 days, so the Earth’s rotation is going to take us into the sun eventually, won’t it?”

But that meant the 100km space elevator was constantly rotating around with the Earth. That was a strange thought when they were currently traveling up that line. Would the centrifugal force not cause it to snap?

Marika pressed her hands against the thick double-pane window made to block radiation.

“The temperature in space varies a lot based on the presence of sunlight, right? Are carbon nanotubes resistant to heat? I mean, it’s 100 thousand kilometers long in all. And they say the metal rails on railroad tracks change length between summer and winter.”

“Don’t ask me. Maybe they wind it up with a reel to keep it tight.”

There were some specks of light on the otherwise dark surface of the Earth. They gathered to form cities, thick highways connected those cities, and lots of lots were traveling between them. Some trends were noticeable from this distance. People really did settle along the oceans instead of in the treacherous inland mountains and then they connected their settlements with thick roads. The lines of lights located more inland were probably large rivers. It was incredible to think how each one of those lights – whether they belonged to a house or a vehicle – had a person inside.

There were also some red lights. Those were not neon signs. Maybe they were slash-and-burn farming in the Southeast Asian forests, or maybe there was some other reason, but they had to be manmade fires.

“Marika, can you still use Crystal Magic?”

“What, fallen head-over-heels for your mature childhood friend’s cute battle mode?”

Marika casually shattered the Crystal Blossom on her chest to power it up and pulled a rapier Device out of thin air.

Then Karuta turned toward the crystal girl who was always standing by his side.

“?”

Aine tilted her head in response.

If it was true that Crystal Magic only functioned on Earth, he had expected Aine to withdraw into him at some point, but that hadn’t happened. Had that theory been mistaken, or was there something in this space that was allowing Crystal Magic to function? If this would only lengthen Aine’s fear and suffering, he felt kind of bad about doing this to her.

“We should see some shooting stars soon,” said Kyouka.

Come to think of it, didn’t that president girl have an interest in astronomy?

“Tens of thousands of small debris and meteor pieces enter the thermosphere, the top layer of the atmosphere, every single day. The lights are too small to see from the ground, but we are close enough to see them now. A meteor shower pales in comparison to the spectacle we should get to see.”

“Really? So like pouring rain? Or like overturning a bucket?”

“In a way, they kind of are pouring down from space.”

“Karuta-kun? Aine-chan? You two should really learn how to not make it sound so banal.”

Would seeing this make the trip to space worthwhile?

Would it be enough to believe they really did want to keep the Threat away from that planet full of so many beautiful people and things?

“Marika…”

“What do you want?”

Karuta spoke to the childhood friend looking out the same double-pane window.

He said the words none of them had been able to bring themselves to say.

“No one’s watching anymore, so you can cry if you want.”

Those words felt forbidden.

There were no further words. He couldn’t remember what Marika had said while clinging to his chest. He had a vague memory of her unfairly hitting him a few times while she cried. He didn’t remember what he had done either. He knew he must have shouted something. Her tears were contagious, so he knew he must have cried too. They had all cried. None of them tried to stop it. Even Omotesandou Kyouka had transparent tears in the corners of her eyes and yelled something that hadn’t made sense.

They were too far away.

Their voices couldn’t reach anyone.

It would have been the same for the past world’s strongests.

Anastasia’s group had feared this more than anything.

Crystal Girl Aine was the sole exception, only tilting her head with no apparent expression.

The skirt of her white combat dress silently floated up in an unnatural way.

“Hey, Aine? Fix your-”

“Hmph!!”

Marika jabbed her fist into his side with a definite anger that hadn’t been there before. But it was still a light blow for the world’s strongest. Unnaturally so. In fact, Marika was propelled slowly backwards after the hit.

Gravity was gone.

They had moved too far away from the gravity’s source: Earth.

Marika grew red in the face and shouted while holding down her short skirt with both hands and slowly spinning in the air.

“You just had to interrupt that emotional scene by focusing on the little girl panties created from yourself, didn’t you!? Give me back my pure, youthful tears!!!”

“I-I don’t see how this is my fault.”

“My, my,” said Kyouka. “I wonder what the past world’s strongests did here. Is this a trial all of the strongests have passed in secret?”

“And you need to do a much better job of covering up those surprisingly cute ones!!”

“Sacri-sama, you have not given me an oral command. What am I supposed to do?”

“Stop tilting your head and start covering up your underwear!! Aine, you don’t have to be completely naked for human shame to kick in!!!”

### 190. Part 12

The zero-g proved to be a bigger problem than expected.

Marika tried to change from her skirt into track pants, but she gave up on that plan when it earned her glares from Kyouka, the fashionable upperclassman, and even from inhuman Aine. She ended up continuing with the “hold down the floaty skirt when necessary” plan, but that was far from perfect. Each time there was a careless mistake, Karuta would get punished for it, which meant a lot of getting hit by the girls.

Omotesandou Kyouka smiled and made a suggestion.

“Hitting doesn’t have the same oomph in zero-g, so I say we switch to electrical punishments. You know, like zapping him with the hair dryer.”

He really wished they would do better at holding their skirts down instead of improving the punishments. In fact, this would only do more damage, which didn’t solve anything for anyone.

And zero-g had other effects as well.

“Ugh.”

“What’s wrong, Aine-chan?”

“Miss Kyouka, your boobs have unfairly increased in size.”

“Have they? No, I don’t think this is their size. It’s probably that gravity is no longer holding them back. That means less strain on my shoulders, so I’m all for it☆”

Being trapped in the same room as a bunch of girls was a problem. Karuta had to do his best to look anywhere but there. That devilish president was sharp (which she seemed to use to tease him as much as possible!!) and she giggled when she noticed how he was acting, but how else was he supposed to react to this!?

In his attempt to look away from Kyouka, he saw Marika sleepily approaching.

“Play with me, Karuta.”

“Oh, no! Another minefield!!”

All his shouting was making him thirsty.

In zero-g, straws were valuable. Except they got sick of using them and were now having fun squeezing out the contents of the drink packs and eating pieces off of each other’s floating globules of colorful liquid. Even a lab water flea could think of that game when out in space, but it was actually quite dangerous since you weren’t guaranteed to get all the small droplets and those could cause mechanical trouble while out in space.

Karuta was stuck catching a few juice globules in his mouth on Aine’s expressionless request and his thoughts shifted a bit toward the belt-covered sports equipment in the next room.

“Come to think of it, you wouldn’t have to worry about your skirts if you had just changed into those bulky spacesuits, would you?”

“For three days in a properly-heated compartment? Don’t underestimate the female body, Karuta-kun. That would lead to a hell of delicate parts getting much too sweaty,” remarked Kyouka.

She normally had to remain seated in her wheelchair at all times, but the tires were useless without any gravity to press them against the floor. She had abandoned the wheelchair and now floated in the air. She had made up some aphorism about space bringing people freedom and stretched.

“The waterless shower is pretty interesting, but space is really inconvenient for sleeping.”

“Yeah, I don’t like having to strap myself down so I don’t float out of bed.”

For once, they were in agreement with Aine who preferred cramped places. She looked uncomfortable floating out in the open. The idea of sleep freeing you from the worries of the day did not exist in space.

Their shared life here would not last forever.

This was the third and final day.

The sunrise and sunset did not exist out here, so the food disappearing from the fridge was the biggest reminder of time’s passage.

“What…is that?” muttered Marika, looking out the window.

Karuta focused that way too and saw something new there. A bunch of artificial objects formed something like a net overhead.

“That would be the Sunny Side Up Project, a network of space stations made from a solid foam material. You know, the one run by Yukino Arakawa of the old strongests.”

Kyouka’s explanation brought it all back to him.

That network covered the entire Earth, didn’t it? The centrifugal force would differ at different points, but that would have all been forcibly dealt with using God-Worshiping Magic. The last he had heard, control had been lost and it was breaking apart with its master gone, but that didn’t mean the entire network would be cleared away immediately.

It looked like there was a gaping hole in the network around the space elevator.

That proved the elevator had been considered a greater priority than Yukino’s secret weapon.

However…

“No, not that.”

“?”

When Marika’s further comment made Karuta take a second look, he saw an object glistening darkly in the powerful sunlight.

That was the Threat.

Specifically, a bunch of giant spider crab ones all tangled together.

That meant the Threat had animal forms even out in space. Did that mean similar lifeforms existed on another planet? Or would they change form further after descending to the surface and cannibalizing their own?

Given the distance, that clearly wasn’t just one of them. A whole lot of them had to be forming a big ball in space like bugs gathering together to survive the winter. That one ball had to contain hundreds, thousands, or even more.

The group that had occupied Second Grimnoah off the Port of Kobe had been in the tens of thousands.

That group alone would be too much for the four of them to defeat.

And there were more than 300 million in all. How big was the enemy force?

“…”

Karuta fell silent, but then another change came over the elevator car. The floating sensation grew. Most likely, it was tugging them in the other direction as it slowly decelerated. Inertia still existed in zero-g.

They were approaching their destination.

“Karuta-kun.” Kyouka brushed her long hair to the sides in zero-g. “We need to get ready soon. Although I doubt we even need to put on those spacesuits.”

“What happens when we reach the space station?”

“We board a separate launch shuttle. The station is 36 thousand kilometers from the surface and the station itself is 10 thousand kilometers to strike a balance with Earth’s gravity. That exceptionally long space elevator is constantly rotating in accordance with Earth’s rotation and revolution. A shuttle’s rocket engine can fly us to the tip in less than an hour.” Kyouka calmly explained. “After that, we don’t even need explosives or fuel. We can use the massive centrifugal force or the force of the wire’s own swaying to launch ourselves with enough speed to leave the solar system once we cut ourselves free of the station.”

However, this was a journey into death with no actual destination. They would divert the 300 million Threats’ attention away from Earth and give the people there even a few years of peace. This was an empty coffin used to preserve that state of peace by using up each new world’s strongest.

Marika looked confused.

“Wait, I thought everything was weightless in space. Won’t the slightest push send you forever in the same direction?”

“There are a lot of things that will decelerate you, like the gravitational pull of other astronomical bodies and solar winds which are clumps of ions. A true vacuum is only a theoretical concept. Even space is a treasure trove of dust and garbage.”

Was that how it worked? It was probably best to trust the beautiful astronomy lover on this one. Given the actual risk to their lives, they probably shouldn’t have been discussing this, but they were likely only distracting themselves like someone starting to clean their room on the day before an exam. Besides, no amount of thinking would reveal a solution to their problem.

They had already made up their minds.

Their deaths were assured whether they remained on Earth or went into space. If they let their resolve falter, it would only mean more people dead.

They were scared, of course.

But more than that, they had had seen how the world’s strongest could abuse their power.

What kind of strongest did they want to be?

At the very least, they did not want be the kind that would put 5.5 billion people at risk just because they feared death. They had defeated the Problem Solvers for that, so they would not take that path themselves.

Their view of the starry scenery vanished.

The elevator car had arrived in the space station’s interior hall.

After one final shake and a metallic thunk, it came to a stop.

Out of habit, Karuta checked the modified military flashlight at his hip. That showed just how nervous he was, but he felt silly as soon as he did it. What was he going to fight at this point? But as ridiculous as it was, he couldn’t even crack a smile. No amount of struggling or fighting would be enough to escape death.

The series of compressed air sounds was likely the two airlocks joining together.

The red lights on the wall all turned green.

That likely meant they could open the airlock.

“…”

This really was the end.

He was briefly tempted to punch Marika and Kyouka in the gut to knock them out. He wanted to leave them here. But that was meaningless. The Living Gods would be the first ones killed by the 300 million Threats even if they did remain on Earth. He was growing uncharacteristically charitable as a way to avoid focusing on his fear of being ejected into the endless expanse of space, but he couldn’t forget the entire reason they were doing this.

Things from here on wouldn’t be like the space elevator. The shuttle ride would be a one-way trip without even a temporary goal.

This really was the end.

He would die.

Without even being to protect these three girls.

He silently cursed the human string pullers for not filling the elevator car with an invisible gas that knocked them all unconscious for some automatic process to load them into the deadly shuttle. Couldn’t those villains be kind enough to rid them of the need to see their doom slowly approaching?

He felt like they were performing sokushinbutsu.

They had chosen to bury themselves alive where they waited for death to finally arrive. And they were wishing for world peace the entire time.

“Let’s get going,” he said, but no one expressed agreement.

All four of them may have had someone they had wanted to protect. Even if it meant leaving that someone here. But none of them did so. Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka approached the airlock, looking less than pleased about it. The president looked back toward her wheelchair in an uncharacteristically worried way, but she must have decided it was meaningless. She left the device behind and floated toward the exit.

They were scared.

Of course they were, so they wished they could numb their hearts as they continued on.

Because as things were, they would break before they reached death.

Even though this was the right thing to do.

They lowered the large levers on the outside of the door and opened it.

Through the airlock, they found a space larger than a train station concourse. If there had been gravity, the size would have been enough to forget they were in space.

And there was something there.

It came without warning.

“We have been waiting for you, superior terrestrial carbon structures. AKA, the world’s strongest humans.”

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

Utagai Karuta froze.

He didn’t understand.

Why was he hearing someone speaking?

Someone was waiting on the supposedly unmanned space station?

The human string pullers hadn’t mentioned this. Hadn’t Chrisbart Firenze said the space elevator was managed entirely from the surface and there was no one on the station!? Then who was this that had so easily obliterated the seemingly all-knowing human string pullers’ plans and calculations!?

“You’re…kidding.”

But.

Perhaps it wasn’t surprising this had slipped past the human string pullers.

Because the person in front of them was not human.

The black carapace and slimy green light were not any different from the giant spider crab variety.

But this one was clearly different from any that Karuta and the others had ever seen. They had come in many forms, such as a tadpole or a lion. There had even been the Armored Warrior who changed their appearance based on their hatred toward humanity after feeling betrayed.

But this was something else entirely.

“Sacri-sama.”

Something audibly sliced through the artificial air.

Even as she floated in the zero-g space, Crystal Girl Aine moved in front of Karuta and drew her transparent katana out of empty air.

“ That is not human, thus it is likely outside the human string pullers’ control. Things are not going according to plan.”

“…”

So Aine saw it that way too?

She agreed this being wasn’t human?

If the human string pullers could control something like this, they never would have gotten their own hands dirty.

Karuta had completely tensed up. He couldn’t even pull the modified military flashlight from his hip.

This was an utter monster.

This was something on another level entirely.

She had transparently white skin, shining eyes, and glossy black hair. A sticky green light crawled along her pitch black metallic clothing that could have been armor or a dress. Without the black “armor” that fused with her soft skin, she might not have seemed so monstrous. If she had walked by in Second Grimnoah wearing a school uniform, he would have just assumed she was another student. That was how human she looked.

She looked to be 20 or maybe older.

Her allure was even stronger than Regulation 3 Kyouka’s.

But this was only based on human assumptions.

No one could actually say how old she was. In fact, a lifeform that didn’t live on a rotating and revolving planet might not even have a compatible concept of “age”. They might even measure their “service life” by distance traveled or number of accesses. She was just that far removed from humanity – and biological life altogether.

“Karuta-kun,” cautioned Omotesandou Kyouka.

She was looking at the wall.

No, she was looking at what should have been a window. The entire wall should have been transparent, like at an airport, but something covered the outside. Enough darkly glistening somethings packed in so tight that there wasn’t a gap left open.

They were shaped like giant spider crabs, water bears, and blue-ringed octopuses.

Needless to say, these were the Threat.

As crazy as it sounded, this space station had functioned as the final trump card protecting 5.5 billion people, but it had been taken over so easily!? How could this happen? Karuta’s group were willing to sacrifice their lives to redirect the Threat’s attention, but they had ended up diving right into a giant creepy cocoon made of thousands or tens of thousands of Threats gathered together.

They couldn’t act as decoys or redirect attention like this.

The human string pullers couldn’t hope to control things anymore. The plan was meaningless if the world’s strongests were captured before leading the 300 million Threats away from Earth! They were really and truly going to die for nothing!!!

“Congratulations.”

And.

They heard one of the last words they had expected.

It was not that this being was failing to communicate. It was more like the mind or feelings behind the word were twisted beyond recognition.

The countless Threats surrounding the station produced creaking noises while the woman with a pitch black sheen spoke.

She smiled as gently as a divine mother and spread her arms wide.

“Congratulations, world’s strongests! You are safe now. You need not fear death now that I, Transline, have collected you!!”

### 191. Part 2

Second Grimnoah was a crystal magic academy.

However, that did mean the students there fought magical battles year round. In fact, extreme kinds of action had to be built atop a strong foundation, so more general education could be the difference between life and death.

Just like someone who could not perform a back hip circle on the metal bar at a park wouldn’t be able to perform a giant swing at the gymnastics world championship.

So…

“Pant, pant, gasp. The bell. Kurent-sensei, the bell just rang!!”

“Tch. So you were saved by the bell, Utagai Karuta.”

The silver-haired, brown-skinned gym teacher who didn’t even bother hiding her tongue click was Letnahe Kurent. She wore a tank top and bright-colored leggings. She notably also had a ring and a mobile watch on her left hand.

“Why do your right arm and right leg start working in unison when you dance? It isn’t often I come across a student who can pull off such a cursed dance.”

“Do you realize that’s as cruel a question as asking someone who can’t swim why they sink in the water?”

“It takes talent to be that bad.”

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

The modern standards for teaching were to point out your student’s failings but to avoid giving them a complex about it, but this strict teacher must not have gotten the memo. She hit him with the competitive culture of “If you don’t want me to make fun of you, then get good.”

It didn’t help that he couldn’t look straight at her when she demonstrated the dance moves. That was due to how the yoga tank top and formfitting leggings showed off her curvy figure even more than a dancer in a fantasy world. Her navel was always exposed and any more intense jumps caused the rare sight that was underboob to greet him from below her tank top. But he knew saying so would only be adding fuel to the fire.

The Indian wife and teacher had worked up a healthy sweat, so she sipped at a bottle of some kind of protein drink.

“This exercise should help keep your weight down, so don’t ruin that by eating a bunch of sweet things during the Port Day.”

“Okay…”

The bell had already rung. If he got changed now, he would be too late for the lunchtime rush, so he chose to begin his quest for lunch while in his track suit.

Aine appeared at his side at some point.

“Sacri-sama, I did not observe you making a lunch today.”

“Because I’m going to the cafeteria today.”

He had shoved his wallet, phone, and other valuables in the locker along with his clothes, but he had made sure to keep a 1000 yen note in his track suit’s pocket. If you didn’t have a plan in place when you had gym for 4th period, you could never survive the high school lunchtime where so many people went hungry and thirsty.

“Aine, why are you keeping your distance all of a sudden?”

“I do not plan to eat anything myself, but I have no desire to be anywhere near someone thoughtless enough to choose curry or a meat sauce dish.”

The expressionless girl was apparently at the age where she worried about her white clothes. She must have been afraid of stray splashes. That said, Karuta had chosen katsu curry which was eaten with a spoon, so there wouldn’t be any hellish shotgun blasts like with curry udon.

“But now that you mention it, I kind of what to share it with you. Should I grab another spoon?”

“Sacri-sama.”

However, an unexpected problem presented itself.

He successfully acquired his katsu curry, but he had been too focused on that specific task. All the seats in the busy cafeteria were filled. He stood there, holding his tray and feeling at a loss. This was another challenge he had failed to consider. And for whatever reason, the cafeteria didn’t allow people to take the food out of the room to eat it.

“Sacri-sama, I see some people giving up and sitting on the floor to eat. See, with their back against the wall.”

“Because they got the set meal that’s divided into a few small plates. It’s not so easy with one big plate of curry. I need both hands just to hold the heavy plate.”

“How is that a problem?”

Karuta tilted his head and Aine made a scooping gesture.

“You can hold the plate in your hand and then I will spoon the curry into your mouth. I believe that solves the problem.”

“Karuta-kun.”

A soft voice interrupted.

He looked over to find Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was in the cafeteria too. She had a Japanese sashimi set spread out on the table in front of her and there was a small gap in the crowd around her. Probably because she needed a bit more space than an ordinary chair to maneuver her wheelchair.

The upperclassman with glossy black hair beckoned him over.

“Don’t even think about rudely sitting on the floor with Aine-chan. The spot next to me is open, so pull up a chair.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Omotesandou-san. …What is it, Aine? Why are you poking my cheek?”

“Mhh.”

The crystal girl somehow managed to look displeased and expressionless at the same time, but she was as obedient as ever.

Once Karuta had set his katsu curry on the table to secure his spot, he lugged over a spare chair.

“I’m kind of surprised to find you eat lunch in the cafeteria, Omotesandou-san.”

“Why? Did you think I spent hours leisurely dining on luxury dishes special made by a personal chef?”

That was more or less what he had imagined, so he declined to answer. But this did remind him that she had made (unusually sweet) curry rice when it was her turn to cook during their shared life in an RV while pursuing the Problem Solvers.

“I’m also surprised to see you alone. I thought you were always surrounded by people.”

“Even I want to be alone sometimes.”

“If you say so.”

“And sometimes I want a younger boy to just take care of everything for me.”

“Yeah, right.”

Upper class people apparently knew how to look graceful even with ordinary disposable chopsticks. The beautiful president even folded the long napkin into an origami puppy chopstick rest.

She stared intently at Karuta’s katsu curry.

“That does seem like the kind of thing a growing boy would be eating.”

“I can’t believe you can get through the afternoon eating so little. Even the biggest options here are free, so why would you order such a small lunch? Are you a living embodiment of SDGs?”

“Didn’t your gym teacher tell you not to eat too much?”

“Uh…”

Spartan Letnahe-sensei had told him not to eat a bunch of sweet things.

So a rice dish like this would be fine…probably.

But the black-haired teacher’s pet must have wanted an exciting new experience today because she pointed at the katsu curry she had just criticized.

“Give me a bite.”

“Sure, sure.”

Her “bite” ended up taking one of only seven strips of chicken cutlet he had. When she challenged herself to do something, she would see it through. But she also squeezed her eyes shut, gulped, and stuck out the tip of her tongue like a child.

“Ugh. It’s super spicy.”

“The curry rice you make is far below average spiciness. Most people don’t dump milk in the pot.”

“That was skim milk and maple syrup mixed in hot water.”

There was syrup in there too?

Omotesandou Kyouka trembled with tears in her eyes.

She could seem even more mature than the teachers in the faculty room at times, so the mismatch created by childishly sticking out her tongue with tears in her eyes felt wrong somehow. He knew now she could not be allowed to wear a plain school swimsuit.

“Hoo, hoo. Karuta-kun, how can you eat this challenging dish so easily? Because boy’s bodies are built differently?”

“I really don’t think this has anything to do with gender.”

If anything, he thought of a preference for super-spicy foods as a girl thing since it was commonly thought eating them would make you sweat and that would help detox your body and improve your beauty. It was Marika’s friend group he could imagine attempting some Korean, Thai, or Vietnamese food.

Kyouka was still sticking out the tip of her tongue as she pointed at something else.

She poked her slender finger against a glass full of a white liquid.

“What is this? It doesn’t look like cold water.”

“They were selling a drinkable yogurt. Simply cooling your tongue after eating something spicy only provides temporary relief. It’s more like pain than anything. Kurent-sensei said dairy products are the best palate cleanser for spiciness.”

“Ugh, so it is lassi or something like that?”

The president was so desperate for relief, she took a sip of his drink without asking permission first. Once she was freed from the tension of spiciness, she appeared to enter a light chill-out mode. For a while afterwards, she stared into the distance with the glass still in her hand. The unpredictable lowering of her guard left Karuta restless. It was like watching a beautiful girl sleeping.

Then she noticed the glass in her hand.

“Oh? Doesn’t this count as an indirect kiss?”

“Bff! Do you have to reclaim the upper hand like that, you gremlin!!”

Also, they had already reached the level of indirect kiss when she ate the curry from his spoon.

His yelling only made her place a hand on her cheek and smile. She liked messing with people. Meanwhile, he had a feeling Aine was glaring at him from where she stood next to him.

In fact, she was kind of scaring him.

“A-Aine-san? Why haven’t you said a word this entire time?”

“If you wish me to speak, you need only order me to do so.”

A blunt rejection.

Or maybe his jumpiness only made him interpret it that way and she was as emotionless as ever.

Then Omotesandou Kyouka spoke up like she hadn’t noticed any of that.

“Hmm. Taking food and drink from you for nothing in return would hurt my reputation as president, so I need to give you something as well. Karuta-kun, is there any part of my lunch you want?”

“Then how about the piece of sashimi you’re clearly saving for the very last? By which I mean, the shiny, red, super-rare medium-fat tun-”

“Karuta-kun☆”

She interrupted with a smile, so he decided to choose something else.

The world’s strongest boy turned his thoughts to his own status screen. What could he do to increase his courage stat?

“Then I’ll boldly go for the 2nd best option: that small plate of tatsuta-age.”

“Oh? That I just didn’t want to eat. First your katsu curry and now the tatsuta-age? Bboys really like friend foods, don’t they?”

He couldn’t deny it would be a surprise to receive fried chicken when you were in the mood for fish, but that wasn’t the tatsuta-age’s fault.

It was often said the heart of a gourmet program and an action movie came from the reactions of the opponents, not the actions of the lead, and sure enough, Kyouka made the cafeteria’s 540-yen daily special really shine. She even looked graceful as she lifted the tatsuta-age from the plate with her chopsticks. With movements like that, she could be a hand model. Although with her looks, she would shine even more modeling the rest of her too.

“Okay, let’s complete the trade☆ Hee hee. This feels like we’re real friends.”

“What are you talking about?”

She tilted her head and started blowing on the tatsuta-age held by her chopsticks. She even held her other hand beneath in a super graceful big sister move.

“This was a surprisingly insightful choice, Karuta-kun. They do say to try the chicken rather than the fish if you want to quickly determine the quality of a restaurant.”

That hadn’t been his intention, but his policy was to never correct people when they favorably read too deeply into your actions. Although that was a lesson he had learned while clashing with the Problem Solvers, so he didn’t want to rely on it if he didn’t have to.

“Hoo, hoo. Okay, say ‘ah’…oh?”

In a rare display of clumsiness, she dropped the thing held between her chopsticks. But the small piece of tatsuta-age did not hit he floor. Nor the table. Then where did it end up?

“Oh, dear.”

She sounded troubled.

It was perfectly balanced. In a strange miracle, the tatsuta-age had made a soft landing atop her large chest.

But it took more than this to fluster Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka.

She giggled with the chicken still sitting there.

“Want to eat it straight from here?”

And…

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Mhh.”

“Hold that thought and take a look here, Omotesandou-san! Aine is pouting her lips and drawing her sword, so could you not make jokes like that!? Wait, why are you grinning!? You aren’t plotting to cause even more trouble, are you, you overgrown gremlin!?”

### 192. Part 2

Subcategory gym teacher Kiyosawa Hadome sighed.

He hadn’t needed to try to overhear those two’s conversation. It may have even been audible off the ship and in the port where the resupplying was still underway.

And he didn’t need to think very hard about this one.

Chrisbart Firenze.

Sophia’s uncle had paid for Kiyosawa Hadome’s tuition. Not everything had to be about the fate of the world or exacting justice. Your reasons could be a lot more personal. And what if someone you cared deeply about was making a terrible mistake? There was only one answer: stop that plan even if it meant marching up to the man and decking him.

Also.

He could never accept a choice that meant trapping those four children with grand reasons like “the future of the Earth” and “protecting humankind” and then throwing them out into space.

That only meant physically keeping so many lives from being lost, but that was not the same thing as saving the world.

Kiyosawa Hadome scratched his head with a big hand and muttered to himself.

There was only ever one path for him here.

“Stop being so stupid, you little brats.”

Letnahe Kurent, the silver-haired, brown-skinned teacher in a white military uniform, used her thumb to operate a special mobile device for operating with military secrets. Anyone with the proper knowledge would have known her uniform said she was a commander in the navy.

She was an Indian naval officer, a temporary teacher at Second Grimnoah, and part of the human string pullers.

She was also a sinful woman who was a mother of two and had yet to get over the pain of her first love.

(Now, then.)

She looked up from the small screen and turned her eyes to the many city lights shining in the night.

(Today is a Port Day. Most of the students will be on the island and will fail to notice what is happening. How can I make this announcement? Natalena-san and Sophia-sensei may think they can gather enough people by running around and shouting, but that won’t be nearly enough.)

The best option was to use the internet.

Second Grimnoah was full of secrets regarding Crystal Magic, but they could not keep people from talking. Letnahe was aware the students had a few unofficial communities set up online. By spreading information on a few of those groups, it would spread to the students in the city.

“And that sounds like a job for me. Leaving it unclear who is betraying who is just how I do things.”

She was a sinful woman who would do anything to achieve her goal, so she had a habit of reminding herself of the core reasons behind her actions. She knew better than anyone that without that core, she would become no more than a disaster shaped like a woman.

Kiyosawa Hadome had decided to do this, so she would support him in secret.

For that, she was willing to betray the human string pullers.

Yamane Deiri nervously peeked down a narrow street filled with toxic neon lights (while carelessly still in his uniform), but he realized something just before deciding to take the next step toward adulthood. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

“Yo, Hirosuke.”

“Wh-what? I’m trying to check out all the must-see sights. Like that beach there was the model for the swimsuit episode of Cluster Wars. Yeah, that was the legendary episode where, not only did it give you little girls frolicking on the beach in their swimsuits, but it also put a lot of care into the discrepancy between their swimsuits and their tan lines.”

“What I find impressive is how they can stick a swimsuit episode into a robot anime where they’re always battling out across the solar system and it somehow doesn’t feel out of place. Anyway, Hirosuke, what did you think this Port Day was all about?”

“Eh? A morale boost before the final battle with the Threat? ”

“ Right? ”

Yamane Deiri waved his phone in a skeptical fashion and let his awful friend see the small screen.

“But check this out. That bastard Karuta has decided to do something stupid even though we’re all ready to fight alongside them.”

“You mean he’s fighting to save the world singlehandedly so he can become the idol of every little girl not just on the planet but in the entire solar system? He’s just like that dense Cluster Wars protagonist and his victory harem. K-Karuta, I’m not letting you hog all the little girls to yourself!!”

The Four Living Gods had apparently been searching for an option other than being ejected into space. Deiri and Hirosuke exchanged a nod and turned back toward the port. They saw two other people in school uniforms running in the same direction.

Those two were Matsuda Imi and Hashizaki Tayori, the popular girls from their class.

“Oh, you too?”

“You bet!! I’ll protect you, little girls!!!”

“Take back that ‘you bet’ until you’ve learned how to actually communicate. …So, Yamane, Nekoumi’s complete inability to hold a human conversation has me worried, but, um, the two of us still live in the same spacetime or dimension or whatever, don’t we? We’re not from completely different worlds that just so happen to exist in the same location?”

“Matsuda, where did you pull that fantasy worldbuilding from? You have nothing to worry about. The only hearts I’ll be winning are those of every young woman in the world.”

“Ugh,” groaned Matsuda Imi, giving up.

Gyaru-ish (but motherly) Tayori gave her staggering friend some support and took over the conversation.

“We can’t let Marika go through with this. And this isn’t even about the Four Living Gods. The three of us only just mended our friendship, so it isn’t fair for Marika to leave us again so soon.”

“What she said. …Damn, Tayori stole all the good lines from me.”

Imi sounded like she was teasing her gyaru-ish friend, but she was probably serious.

People generally assumed everything would work out. Since everything had been fine yesterday, they assumed the same would apply to tomorrow. But their past battles had told these students that wasn’t true at all.

But that also meant that, if you took action and put together some kind of plan for dealing with the problem, you could change things.

“God, the problem with those world’s strongests is they’re so strong it makes them fragile .”

“Oh? That’s awfully insightful for you, Yamane-kun.”

“Don’t worry. I’m ready to deal with this. I-it’s time to save Karuta-kun and win the adoration of all the little girls that fawn over him. Like Aine-chan and Jane Ignition -san.”

“Is that all you ever think about, Nekoumi?”

But they had established an important definition here.

The Four Living Gods were a single group of four.

If they were going to save that group and pour all their efforts into that attempt, they needed to count Crystal Girl Aine as part of that group and do everything they could to save her too.

Yamane Deiri, Nekoumi Hirosuke, Matsuda Imi, and Hashizaki Tayori exchanged a silent nod.

She wasn’t just a type of Crystal Magic.

They didn’t even need to get Karuta’s opinion on the matter. Aine herself might define herself that way, but the students who had shared a classroom with her knew better.

Then the student council’s redheaded bob cut girl spoke to them.

“You four.”

She too had to have someone she wanted to protect. Like that student council president who always seemed so perfect because she never let anyone see her vulnerabilities.

It didn’t have to be someone who had shared a classroom with them.

There was an entire world of interconnected people out there.

“It doesn’t really matter, but do you think everyone returning to Second Grimnoah right now is thinking the same thing? I suspect the entire student body agrees with us. I don’t know where whoever started this intends to hold their strategy meeting, but don’t you think that place will end up overcrowded?”

“Are you kidding? So the final battle is going to require a lottery or numbered tickets? Hurry, hurry! We’re already running late!! We can’t give that bastard Karuta any more reason to abandon us than he already has!!!”

The Subcategory and Main Category reacted exactly the same.

Even the teachers joined them for the same reason.

They walked at first, then some of them began running impatiently, and finally some began flying from the city with their Crystal Magic presets, forcing the public morals committee and teachers to blow their warning whistles.

Everyone was already gathering together.

Gathering together and approaching Second Grimnoah.

### 193. Part 2

One fell on a weapons factory in India hidden from satellites by disguising it as a rundown city.

The fireball shined bright while it rapidly rotated like a curveball.

It launched countless laser beams in all directions, like a planetarium’s star projector.

Straight lines of green light streaked out.

And it was rotating.

The deadly storm sliced through what had looked like a fake city built for a movie. The production zone had been built underground to protect it from an exchange of ballistic missiles in an all-out war and there was a nuclear shelter for the leaders built even deeper, but neither was spared. The ground itself was sliced apart. Orange lava erupted out like the earth was hemorrhaging blood from a wound.

The attack was merciless.

The weapons production base was wiped off the face of the earth before the fireball even collided with the ground.

Another fell on a giant artificial float factory found 50km off the coast from Aichi, Japan’s general port for the Chubu region. It claimed to manufacture defensive weapons and intentionally avoided the word “military”, but the Threat must not have cared.

The downpour of laser beams sliced through it all and the giant black mass crashed into the center.

The mass partially submerged itself to sink the entire float, but then the mass broke apart and made its next move. The outer units had been distorted by the heat and impact, but those deeper inside tore away the usable parts and made them their own. They had never expected a safe landing, so emerging from a mountain of their own kind’s corpses was part of the plan.

Yes.

The mass was formed from thousands or tens of thousands of Threats.

The Smart Arms weapons manufacturing plant in North America’s Silicon Valley was no exception.

Susannia Evans of the Problem Solvers had once used the place to look after her cyborg body and Anastasia Blast had ultimately used it as her secret base.

But it only took an instant to destroy.

“…”

Chrisbart Firenze sighed softly as the many reports came in.

The Threat had made their move.

It might look like an indiscriminate attack all across the world, but anyone privy to certain special information would recognize what was happening here. The Threat had excellent aim as they bombed more and more of the human string pullers’ hideouts that had deceived everyone until now.

Or maybe the humans had only thought the deception held. This result suggested it never had fooled the Threat.

Which led to one inevitable conclusion.

(Here too.)

The operators were practically screaming as they gave their reports. Some were ignoring their orders and attempting to run away, but if they did not listen when ordered to stop, they would be shot by security. Or maybe they wanted to be killed by human hands.

The old man in a lab coat looked upwards.

He could only see the sterile ceiling lined with artificial lights.

But he stared into the distance like he could see right through it.

“Perhaps these are our just deserts.”

A moment later, the base of the space elevator was vaporized the carbon nanotube wires lined up like violin strings all snapped.

### 194. Part 2

They could have chosen that future.

They only needed to nod their heads in response to Transline’s suggestion.

They would have been given a happy life where they wanted for nothing.

But.

If they could do anything that irresponsible, they never would have avenged their friends and become known as the Four Living Gods.

Karuta swatted aside the outstretched hand.

Transline remained frozen in place with a puzzled look on her face.

He shouted at the top of his lungs before she could think anything at all.

He had made his choice.

He grabbed the modified military flashlight from his hip, gripped it tight, and held it at the ready.

“Back to the fight, Aineeeeeeeee!!!”

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

The crystal girl produced a high-pitched sound as she readied her sword.

Maybe this would drag a lot more people into the fight.

Everyone might resent the world’s strongest for failing to do their job.

Nevertheless.

He could never choose to let 5.5 billion people die, their complaints silenced forever, while only the four of them survived!!!

Marika and Kyouka smiled a little.

They were implicitly saying this was the only real option they had.

“Oh, dear.”

Finally.

Transline spoke after an obvious delay. But this delay was brimming with a confidence that she would never lose to mere humans even if they got the jump on her.

She had been rejected.

But her face displayed neither displeasure nor anger.

She was smiling.

“Yes, you are the superior humans known as the Four Living Gods. You must have more fight in you than you know what to do with. But perhaps that is what makes you what you are. Hee hee !!”

That was all it took for something invisible to pierce every single one of Utagai Karuta’s cells at superluminal speed.

“Gah?”

He couldn’t breathe.

He floated in the zero-g space, unable to even hold a hand to his chest. His mind was only able to comprehend that he had been hit by something devastating. But even after being hit, he had no idea how to see it coming or how to dodge it.

With a violent zapping sound, sparks erupted from the floor and wall behind him. Something had harmed him and damaged the space station’s delicate equipment just by being emitted. It apparently didn’t matter that this was a large orbital facility designed to defend against the high levels of radiation found in solar winds and cosmic rays.

Even a specialized spacesuit or environmental suit wouldn’t have helped.

(What about my flashlight?)

Still having trouble breathing, he flipped the switch on and off with his thumb.

It was a miracle the device still worked.

Transline.

That monster would slaughter any lifeform or machine that opposed her, except now she was doubled over trying to endure something. But that something was likely a pleasurable or joyful urge rather than anything related to fighting.

Simply put, it was the desire to show off.

Or maybe she simply wanted them to admire her.

“ Hee hee. Ee hee hee. Sorry, that was inappropriate of me. It only slipped out, I promise. Hee hee. Oh, dear. I can’t seem to restrain myself. You intend to fight? Against me? Why would you go out of your way to choose something so suicidal? Huff, puff. Oh, no. Not even taking deep breaths is enough!! This is just so amusing I can’t stop laughing. Pff, hee hee. Hee hee hee ha ha gya ha ha ha ha ha!!! ”

“Karuta!!”

Amaashi Marika swung her rapier device.

But not at Transline herself. She sliced through a nearby wall, tearing it away. It stuck out to cover Karuta, Aine, and the rest like an umbrella.

Countless sparks burst out like pouring rain.

The wall was made to block radiation, but Karuta still felt the tingling pain in his skin growing at an accelerated rate. They weren’t going to last long.

Then the woman’s ticklish voice arrived from beyond the umbrella.

“Oh, how fun. Pff, hee hee. I would love to join in this game☆”

Several metallic sounds followed.

Karuta had a very bad feeling about this, so he peeked around the edge of the shield to find something unusual. Glass tubes thicker than relay batons were shooting from all over Transline while she remained doubled over in laughter. They were probably some kind of vacuum tube, but it wasn’t clear what they were used for. Karuta had thought of vacuum tubes as outdated tech, but he was pretty sure they were still used to produce microwaves in things like microwave ovens. So were these used to create and send out that kind of energy? Whatever the case, he could tell this indicated some kind of mode change. She had some reason to not keep them out in the open all the time, so she had kept them inside her body until now.

Two transparent horns grew atop her head and she raised that head.

A pair of glass or crystal objects grew from the metal lifeform.

(Are those like Aine’s horns?)

He doubted she would explain it for him right now.

Her cold and beautiful face was distorted by laughter.

“ Hee hee hee. Ah ha ha !! Let me join the fun!!!”

Most likely, that was her only reason.

She was not motivated by a vast conspiracy or a nasty grudge.

He heard something slice through the artificial air. Transline’s slender arm did not carry a sword or a spear. To Karuta, it looked like a long, glowing whip.

“Ma-”

That weapon concentrated down all of the energy used to move 300 million Threats.

“Marika!? You need to dodge this!!!”

“?”

Pausing out of confusion was a definite mistake.

The childhood friend’s silhouette suddenly collapsed. Specifically, her empty hand was lopped off at the shoulder. She had been sliced through along with the wall she was using as a shield.

No, Transline hadn’t even done that intentionally.

Let me join the fun.

She was like a small child. She had only innocently wanted to do the same thing the four of them had done a moment before. She was only trying to attack the wall and peel it away.

Immediately afterwards, the space station’s wall was roughly sliced to pieces.

Rather than cut a hole in the wall, it was more like she sliced the entire station in two. There was nothing Karuta and the others could do while floating in the zero-g space. The artificial air flowed out with a sound like air leaving a balloon and they were blown toward the newly created exit.

Karuta felt dizzy.

This wasn’t a perfect vacuum, but the rapid change in pressure was too much for his body to deal with.

“Sacri-sama.”

“Stopping Marika’s bleeding takes top priority!! Apply pressure, tie it up, and do whatever it takes for her to last 30 seconds. The bleeding is going to be weird in zero-g and we can’t let her die before the regeneration is complete!!”

“I will obey, but she is coming.”

“!!”

He heard the air being sliced through.

There wasn’t just one anymore. She wasn’t just wielding them in her hands either. Several glowing whips extended from her lower back. They glowed like lava, so he got the feeling they would blind him if he viewed them for too long. A single hit from one of those had been too much for the giant space station. If she swung them all around at once, they would probably turn the entire location into space debris.

If Karuta hadn’t reflexively aimed his modified military flashlight and activated its dazzling infrared laser, they might have all been sliced through.

“ Hee hee hee hee. If you’re willing to boast like that, you must have the strength to back it up, right? I’m happy, happy, so happy!!! I have finally found the superior units I have been looking for – the world’s strongest I have dreamed of!!”

With Marika’s makeshift shield gone, the invisible attack battered all of Karuta’s cells again. The piercing pain was less like a burn and more like a laceration that tore his skin like a stocking. He felt a rough sensation followed by the exposed part of his skin crystallizing.

No matter how beautiful Transline might be, she was still a Threat made of metal, so she did not care at all if she was thrown into the vacuum of space.

“Excellent. Truly excellent!! Now, entertain me more, more, more!! Kee kee ee hee hee . Okay, world’s strongests!?”

She laughed while swinging her glowing whips and filling the air with energy.

The attack…was coming!!!

“Karuta-kun!!” shouted Omotesandou Kyouka.

Karuta still had his injured childhood friend in his arms, so he gave up trying to resist and let the blowing wind carry him. He heard a deafening sound of scattering sparks as the many whips filled the space and forcibly tore through the ceiling and floor.

He would have been burned through too had he stayed where he was.

But simply following the course of the wind would get them thrown out into space.

“Let it…happen,” said Marika, holding her shoulder wound with her remaining hand. She moved her pale lips to speak. “Our barrier preset can forcibly stop an assault rifle bullet. Maybe we can’t handle it alone, but that should change if we gather together and combine our barriers.”

Yes. During their aerial battle against Susannia of the Problem Solvers, Karuta had received the blessing of Marika’s magic while holding onto her hips.

“But we’re in outer space. Will it really work the way we want?”

“Aine-chan can’t use the barrier and yours is really weak, but mine and the 3rd year’s should be enough. Remember, Crystal Magicians can fly through the ordinary atmosphere at Mach 2 or 3. We know the barrier is airtight, so this should…work!!!”

They flew from the station together.

Well, Karuta couldn’t bring himself to commit to that and grabbed onto a metal railing to slow down, but Marika cut it away with a laser.

Transline’s attacks poured in a moment later. The chaotic dance of light filled every part of the sliced space station. They burned through walls and burst outside of the station. They could no longer hear it, but the unrealistic visual of the kilometers long station being sliced apart was overwhelming enough.

Transline placed a hand on the wall and looked out through an opening in the collapsing station to watch them float away.

Her mouth was moving, but her voice didn’t reach them and they weren’t sure what she was saying or laughing about.

Aine must have read her lips, so she relayed it to them.

“She is saying, ‘oh, how wonderful. You are so adorable. I love you so much.’ ”

“I shouldn’t have asked.”

“That’s a haiku. Except no seasonal word.”

She was just messing with them at this point. Except she probably hadn’t done that on purpose.

Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka were gathered together. If they let go now, they would probably be separated forever.

And even with their barrier active, their air wouldn’t last forever.

There was only one possible destination for them.

The giant blue orb in front of them. The red lights they saw were due to the conflagrations larger than any slash-and-burn farming or forest fire.

“Do we really have to head down there? Do you have any idea how many thousands of degrees the thermosphere is!?”

The barrier alone wasn’t enough to protect them from that. If it was, they never would have needed to fear the light spears that Yukino Arakawa of the Problem Solvers had sent down from orbit.

“Sacri-sama.”

Karuta heard a sharp stabbing sound as Aine jabbed her sword into something black. It was a water bear larger than a car. That was one of the Threats that had been clinging to the outside of the space station. It must have been floating nearby after Transline sliced away its footing.

Aine did not hesitate before moving her sword to peel away its black armor.

“You can see their shells are not all that tough. Given the strength of their armor, I doubt the Threat bunches broke through the thermosphere by force. Even if they were willing to accept some losses, they likely also have an energy field similar to our barriers to protect them.”

“So if we use this?”

“We should have greater odds of surviving reentry than if we attempted it without.”

A few pieces of information immediately appeared in Karuta’s head.

At Iceland’s Crystal Beach, Aine had messed with the decoy Threat’s wiring to make them fire.

The Armored Warrior occupying Second Grimnoah had not originally taken that form. The lion-shaped Sparkle had devoured the corpses of the tadpole ones, taking in the other Threats’ powers and devices to transform.

“We can do this.”

It had all been hell.

But they couldn’t look away. They could make use of all those past experiences.

“We can do this!! We just have to build on what we’ve already seen!!”

“Aine-chan,” said Kyouka. “Karuta-kun may be super excited, but if you really can tear off and reuse Threat parts, try and grab us some rocket and booster parts.”

“If you say so.”

“Remember, this geosynchronous orbit is 36 thousand kilometers from the surface. Crystal Magic flight can only carry us at Mach 2 or 3, so it would take us more than 10 hours to get back. I doubt what little oxygen we have in here would last that long.”

“Yikes,” said Marika. “I get the feeling we would either dry up in space or pop like balloons. And I’m not sure Imi, Tayori, and the others down there could last nearly half a day.”

“So we need something to accelerate us,” continued Kyouka. “Mach 25 to 30 would be best.”

Super excited Karuta felt a chill in his stomach. He quickly asked Aine to do what Kyouka said.

The Four Living Gods held hands and formed a ring like a skydiving team.

Yes, Marika’s arm had already regenerated.

That meant they had been exposed to the vacuum of space for more than 30 seconds and still lived. They weren’t about to trust Transline, but it was very strongest of them. Their hardiness was reaching the level of germs and mold that rode a rocket or shuttle into space.

Could they even be called human anymore?

That thought gave Karuta a self-deprecating smile, but then the crystal girl spoke softly to him.

“Sacri-sama.”

“?”

“Your previous fantasy mode was transmitted into my mind through the Crystal Blossom. Do you really want to be a tropical king living out an explosively adolescent dream without even a swimsuit to be found?”

“I resisted the temptation all on my own, so can we not do this!?”

His childhood friend wasn’t going to overlook this, so she gave him a skeptical look.

“Explain yourself, Karuta.”

“Miss Marika sleeping in the nude is true to life, but Miss Kyouka doing the same and accentuating her chest size with the bed sheet does not seem to match her psychological profile. Were you ignoring everything about her except her chest size so you could use her as an easy source of boobs for your fantasy? Was this at all influenced by seeing them jiggle around when they were freed from gravity onboard the elevator car?”

“Karuta-kun☆”

“Please nooooooo!!!”

The station was in geosynchronous orbit at an altitude of 36 thousand kilometers.

But they had the flight preset plus the rockets and boosters stolen from the Threat. If Aine and Marika went all out, they could set a course in zero-g and travel at high speed.

Their destination was the giant blue planet spread out below them.

### 195. Part 3

All students looked forward to school being let out.

It felt like freedom.

But that feeling was especially strong on Port Days like today. The excitement may have been similar to a field trip.

“No leaving the ship until the approach and mooring process are complete and the gangway has been lowered. That means no flying off the ship with your flight preset, you stupid kids!! Do you want to be ordered to stay in your room after coming all this way!?”

“Um, we will be in the city too. We will catch you if you get too rowdy, so do be careful!!”

It was unclear how much good Subcategory teachers Kiyosawa Hadome and Sophia Firenze’s warnings would do.

Karuta and Aine were gathered on the orange-dyed deck along with everyone else.

“Sacri-sama, what will we do today?”

“We can figure that out after disembarking. We can carefully plan everything out when that’s necessary. There’s no real need to put that much effort into our everyday life.”

From here, they could see several anchors being lowered and mooring ropes being thrown from the ship. The long, skinny gangway was slowly lowered from the side deck, but that wasn’t enough to handle the nearly 1000 people disembarking Second Grimnoah. In the end, most of the students would jump down from the railing using their flight. That might sound simple enough, but there was a drop of more than 9m from the side deck to the concrete bank below. Without Crystal Magic, that was enough to break a bone if you were lucky and die if you weren’t Aine expressionlessly spread her arms a little by his side.

Then she clenched and unclenched her fists.

“Sacri-sama.”

“Isn’t there any other way you can carry me? I’m serious.”

His complaints fell on deaf ears.

Aine swiftly swept his feet out from under him with her skinny leg and caught him in a princess carry. He could not use flight, so she had to carry him at times like this.

They landed so softly it was like gravity didn’t affect them.

“I do not see any problem with carrying you like this forevermore.”

“Please just put me down now.”

Southeast Asian port cities could look very different from each other, but this island had a lot of signs in English and Chinese. Karuta couldn’t read all of them, but he saw some familiar logos on the ads for phones and cars. He even saw a familiar face on one of the big billboards. It depicted Omotesandou Kyouka playing with the latest in aerial photography drones. Being the world’s strongest was a lot of work. It kind of depressed him thinking there were probably billboards with him on them somewhere out in the world. He just had to pray the kids of that region weren’t drawing a third eye on his forehead.

He noticed the redheaded bob cut girl from the student council staring lovingly at the billboard.

“We’ll get dinner out here tonight. Anything you want to eat, Aine?”

“Pure-”

“No gold. Hey, stop drooling in front of that duty-free store’s window. The clerk inside is terrified.”

“Then I will let you choose.”

“Let me choose and you’ll be stuck eating Manmaru udon. They have restaurants overseas too, after all.”

“I see. I have heard that some countries and regions put ketchup on lukewarm udon, so ordering some because you are homesick for some Japanese food while overseas can lead to a very unpleasant surprise.”

They chatted as they left the port and arrived downtown. The tourist port was directly connected to the city, so there were a lot of duty-free stores with their “tax free” signs in the window. Was that Sophia Firenze running around with a bunch of brand-name boxes in her arms?

“I need one of these, and one of these, ooh, I need to buy these pumps while I have the chance!!”

“Wasn’t she supposed to be out monitoring the students’ behavior?”

She seemed dazzled by the words “tax free” and he was honestly worried. Wasn’t her financial situation so dire that a somewhat expensive cup noodle option was a luxury?

Karuta honestly had no real objective.

He only wanted to leave the ship for a change of pace. And Aine never really thought about anything other than following him around.

In that sense, he had to smile bitterly at sharing the evening coastline view together.

“This isn’t that much different from being on the ship. Not too surprising when everyone’s wearing the same uniforms.”

“Based on my observations, a lot of people have paired off into couples, not counting the teachers on patrol.”

Maybe so.

But did the crystal girl walking next to him understand the implications of that? There were some people putting an arm around their partner’s shoulder and – wow – some were even kissing out in public.

The title of world’s strongest could be a nuisance at times. Since this was a tourist area, there would have been a lot of people out trying to get customers regardless, but it felt like Karuta and Aine gathered more attention than most. They had no objective, but they were invited into a wide variety of shops just walking around aimlessly.

“Eh, why not.”

“Sacri-sama. Shouldn’t we be more careful?”

“Whatever the truth of the matter, we’re officially considered to be half of the Four Living Gods. If someone tried to scam us here, I would honestly praise their audacity.”

The title was like a curse, but when it came in handy, he would make use of it. He didn’t have to worry about any direct harm from extortionists except for the ones who attacked so they could pretend to be helpless victims when you retaliated.

The afterschool evening had only just begun.

It was still too early for dinner, so he decided to visit some kind of store.

“Hm, a clothing store.”

“It appears to be a legitimate boutique and not a counterfeit seller.”

Aine expressionlessly tilted her head while taking a look around the store.

“But based on the lineup, this appears to exclusively sell women’s clothing. I was not aware you had developed an interest in dressing that way.”

“Why would we be here for me? I just have to dress you up in the clothes.”

His exasperated response increased the angle of her head tilt.

“Clothes for me?” asked the still-head-tilting crystal girl.

“That’s probably what the clerk is hoping for too.”

They were both the world’s strongest, but advertising that Karuta shopped there and that Aine shopped there would have very different meanings. Of course, the store just wanted to advertise that one of the Four Living Gods shopped there, so the clerk might just insist the two of them take some souvenirs without asking for any payment.

Aine looked down at her white clothing.

“This is light, sturdy, formfitting enough to prevent an enemy from grabbing it, and contains slits to preserve my range of motion. I have no functional complaints with my current clothing.”

“Probably not. But now that I think about it, you wear those white clothes year-round. How do you wash them? I don’t remember ever washing your underwear.”

“––––”

“Aine, your growth is astounding. You never could have given me that ‘have you no tact?’ look back when we first met.”

Karuta couldn’t stand the pressure of her glare and that small triangle of a mouth, so he looked away and gave that simple comment.

Everything from the tip of her sword to her heart was a part of her, but she must have been taking care of her own laundry. She appeared to have some knowledge there since she had recognized the smell of fabric softener from his sports towel once. If she only had that one pair, it was possible she spent every night naked until the washing and drying process was complete, which kind of scared him. But if she had multiple pairs, it was possible the others were strewn about inside him (which was becoming something of a second home for her), a possibility which disturbed him even more. He could only pray that his stomach hadn’t become the crystal girl’s messy room.

Anyway.

The two of them entered the women’s boutique, but they couldn’t exactly stand blankly in a corner the whole time. The fitting room was free to use, so he could have Aine use that.

(The money I’ve made with the unwanted world’s strongest title does come in handy sometimes.)

“Trying things on is free, Aine, so point out anything you like.”

“I have no requests. You choose something you like.”

“I hope they have things in your size.”

“I can recognize when I am being mocked for no good reason.”

She really had grown, he realized. She could express a wider range of feelings than in the Crystal Beach hotel when she had stripped naked in the room with him to change into her swimsuit.

At some point, she had turned into an ordinary girl.

Maybe Karuta was the only one who hadn’t grown.

“Ooh, how about this?”

“I see. This one casual selection helps bring into focus what it is you want from me.”

He really wished she wouldn’t lay on the pressure after he had already chosen.

He had selected a white sundress and a large hat. He had thought it was a safe choice since it fit his image of her choosing to wear a white dress (even if that one was for combat).

However…

“Ouch.”

“?”

He heard an odd voice from beyond the fitting room’s curtain.

“Ow, ow, ow. An unexpected problem has arisen.”

“Hey, Aine, what’s going on in there?”

That dress was so thin you would be able to see her silhouette through it with any light shining behind her, so he was unsure what she could be doing with it to cause pain. Was her skin extremely sensitive so she couldn’t wear any kind of synthetic material?

Eventually, the curtain parted and Aine poked just her head out.

Karuta realized the problem right away.

The wide-brimmed hat was sitting at an odd angle. In fact, the hat was floating up above her head. He knew why that would be.

“Can’t you do something about those mysterious horns?”

“What are you expecting me to do? If you ask me, the solution should come from the boutique. Like putting a pair of slits at the top of the hat so my horns could stick through.”

“Let’s not get hasty, okay!? You’re only trying it on, so we haven’t bought it yet!!”

The expressionless girl pulled her sword out of thin air, so Karuta had to frantically grab her through the curtain to stop her.

“So do your horns really hurt when something touches them? And that was only a hat.”

“(I wouldn’t really say they hurt, but they react very sensitively to unexpected touching.)”

“?”

Aine lowered her head and muttered something under her breath, but Karuta just accepted that hats, hoods, and anything else that covered the head were off limits when coordinating her outfit. She hadn’t said a word when Susannia of the Problem Solvers cut her arm, so this had to be pretty bad.

In that case…

“Let’s go in the other direction this time. What about something boyish? Even if you don’t seem like the type to choose sportswear.”

“I save your life on a regular basis and you have the nerve to label me unathletic?”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

He pushed a colorful tank top and bike shorts made of synthetic materials into her arms. This was more like something dance and rhythm lovers like Letnahe and Pendet would wear. Aine tilted her head, but pulled back behind the fitting room curtain.

It was hard to judge her preferences when she was always so expressionless, so Karuta’s plan was to try several different extreme options to work out the extent of what she was willing to wear. From there, he could narrow things down toward something she would really like.

(First a classy dress and now sportswear. What should I use to narrow things down further? I could check her reaction to something more feminine like a knit dress.)

He saw this like the game where you took turns trying to guess each other’s number.

“All done.”

Aine opened the curtain.

She was like a snow fairy and looked so fragile she would break if you held her too tight, so the summery, midriff-baring sportwear didn’t suit her. But that mismatch did make for an interesting combination. It was surprising just to look at.

However.

“Um, Aine.”

“Yes?”

“Why am I seeing that ?”

“?”

Her head tilt meant she hadn’t noticed. He was honestly afraid to spell it out for her. Which was why he had kept it vague using “that”.

He could see two little bumps.

A pair of protrusions other than her horns were pushing out the formfitting tank top that stretched tightly across her skin like rubber.

(Wh-wh-where’s her bra? E-even 12-year-old Natalena wears one, so why isn’t she!?)

Thinking back, when that pure white outfit was soaked by the rain, he recalled seeing various things showing through. She had been embarrassed, but she must not have actually enacted any kind of solution.

“A-anyway, let’s get you back in your original clothes, Aine. Hurry!”

“Why are you acting like I am causing you problems? You were the one who chose this outfit.”

“Can you not express your anger by putting your hands on your hips and pushing out your chest!?”

“???”

Aine showed an obvious question mark on her expressionless face as he shoved her back into the fitting room.

He asked a question through the curtain while hearing her move around inside.

“You’ve tried on a few things now, but have you seen anything that stands out to you? I can’t choose everything for you.”

“You want me to choose something?”

“Give me any feedback you have, like what you don’t like or what you want to see more of. The smallest thing can help show me what you want.”

“In that case,” she said while the curtain shook.

She poked her head out, so she must not have been done changing. Her bare shoulders stuck out with her head and she expressionlessly pointed at Karuta.

“That is the only thing I am interested in wearing.”

“?”

“Second Grimnoah’s uniform. I would be lying if I said I have never wanted to wear one.”

### 196. Part 3

Such a large number of people would never fit in an ordinary classroom. Sophia Firenze, Kiyosawa Hadome, or some other teacher had granted permission to use the gym, but ordinarily, the Subcategory and Main Category students used different gyms.

They were packed in tight and those who couldn’t fit had to use their Crystal Blossom transmissions or watch webcam footage on their phones or tablets.

So many people were willing to go to those lengths so they could help come up with an idea.

(Good.)

Natalena Blast was not the world’s strongest. She had always been a timid girl without the guts to hold a microphone in front of a large crowd.

But things had changed.

She couldn’t let her nerves hold her back. If they didn’t come up with an idea now, Karuta’s group would die in a moving act of self-sacrifice.

So she did not hesitate to stand on the stage at the center of attention.

“Um, to start with, I wanted to ask about something.”

The student council’s redheaded bob cut girl was familiar with the school equipment, so she had handed Natalena a microphone that Natalena now used to gather everyone’s attention.

“Is the Threat situation really that bad? Um, the Four Living Gods aren’t the only ones who can fight. What if we sent out every Crystal Magician here at Second Grimnoah?”

They had in fact fought the Threat, both real and fake, in a group battle before. That meant the Threat could in fact be defeated by human hands.

However…

“That would be difficult.”

This new speaker had to be in the gym, but Natalena couldn’t locate her within the large crowd. Based on the voice, this was Letnahe Kurent holding a microphone somewhere in here. She was the new dance teacher who inexplicably chose to wear a navy uniform.

“You did battle the real Threat to retake Second Grimnoah near the Port of Kobe. The number of Threats there, including the smallest units, was likely somewhere between 10 and 30 thousand.”

A deep mechanical noise sounded.

Someone from the drama club must have finally located Letnahe because a large spotlight affixed to the second-floor railing shined down on her. It wasn’t that dark in the gym, but showing everyone who was talking helped the conversation run more smoothly.

Everyone was here because they wanted to protect someone.

Natalena gave the drama club member operating the spotlight a wave of thanks.

“Th-that’s right. 1000 Crystal Magicians can defeat tens of thousands of the Threat. So, um, i-if we all work together…”

“Meanwhile, the number of Threats gathering outside the atmosphere is more than 300 million.”

“…”

“And that is only that we know of. It may be even more. At that point, it doesn’t even matter how strong each of you are individually. Your numbers are too few to defeat the Threat.”

Plus, there was no rule requiring those 300 million Threats to attack a single place at once.

What if they orbited the Earth while descending upon the entire northern and southern hemispheres at once? The battlefront would be so large that a group of only 1000 could never hope to engage them all.

If they only had to defend Second Grimnoah floating in the ocean, they might be able to hold out for a while.

But that was not the same thing as protecting the world.

Second Grimnoah itself ran on a giant diesel engine The fuel for that and the food, water, and other supplies for the occupants had to be acquired from land. They could not drift endlessly on the ocean without resupplying, so their defeat was only a matter of time if the ordinary world were destroyed.

The situation could hardly be worse.

But they had already known that.

“Um, then let’s get started.”

Natalena Blast gripped the microphone in her small hands.

She calmed her racing heart and raised her voice to protest the world’s unfairness.

“I’m not asking for something guaranteed to work!! Um, just give us any theory you can think of!! We can think about how realistic the ideas are later!! We can’t let the Four Living Gods get away with this. The way they’re throwing away their lives is a mockery of human life including our own ! So we need to correct that mistake even if it means attacking our fellow students!! So give me your help!! Give me Second Grimnoah’s help!!!”

### 197. Part 3

A deep rumbling shook the entire space station.

They were 36 thousand kilometers from the surface, but it didn’t matter. How quickly was that vibration moving up the wire?

It had begun.

That was simple enough to say, but what was actually happening down on Earth?

“Leave those trivialities to me. Now, tell me. What kind of life would you like next?”

Transline smiled.

There was no sign of malice there. She seemed to think she was doing them a favor by taking revenge on humanity for tormenting the four of them for so long.

But had anyone asked her to do that?

“Dammit!! Aine!!”

“What shall I do?”

Karuta called her on reflex, but then he froze.

Right.

5.5 billion people were being slaughtered for no real reason, but what exactly could they do about it? The Four Living Gods already knew they could not defeat the 300 million Threats. If they descended to Earth now, they would only find an uncontrollable hell. They couldn’t protect anyone by returning there and fighting to the death.

Aine tilted her head, awaiting his orders.

The four of them could not survive whether they remained on Earth or were launched into space.

That choice had been heartbreaking, but even that was falling apart. Meanwhile, Transline looked as happy as someone about to open a present wrapped with a ribbon. Her joy was genuine, but she did not look at them like she accepted them as her equals. The idea of going with her scared Karuta. But they could survive a while longer if they obeyed her for now. Unfortunately, that miraculous opportunity meant nothing if they slapped her hand away and refused.

Transline probably would do it.

This was not an agreement between equals for her. The Threat was granting lesser beings mercy. So as soon as she knew she could not have them like she wanted, she would lose interest and kill them. Then she would stick her hand back into human society and make a mess of things in order to search out a strongest she preferred. And if at any time during the process, she lost interest, she would kill every last human, and ride whatever “loop” the Threat followed to reach another planet.

“Karuta.”

The next thing he knew, Marika had a different color scattered across her summer uniform. She had already activated her crystal armor and pulled her rapier Device from thin air.

“I’ll let you choose. What do we do now? I didn’t really follow what she was talking about, but if this Transline is something like their core, we have an extremely rare opportunity while this close to her. Whether we choose to shake her hand or give her one hell of a punch, this is probably our last chance.”

“Since she contacted us directly, she must have taken the possibility of a surprise attack into consideration,” said Omotesandou Kyouka, brushing her black hair off her shoulder. “This Transline is a special Threat unit. We have zero information on her. Don’t forget the lesson we learned all too well when dealing with the Problem Solvers. We know nothing about her power and have nothing prepared. What chance do we actually have of winning if we attack her head on now?”

Aine continued to tilt her head with sword in hand.

She didn’t need to say out loud that she would support whatever decision Karuta made.

The boy focused on the modified military flashlight at his hip. Would he wield it as a weapon, or would he throw it out into the zero-g space? That would make his choice clear to everyone watching.

What would he do?

If they stayed here, they might just barely cling to life. But if they thoughtlessly refused Transline, even that small chance was gone.

Utagai Karuta asked himself the crucial question.

What would they do now!?

### 198. Part 3

Natalena Blast clearly saw the moment of impact.

The blue sky grew distorted.

The first thing to hit Second Grimnoah was a massive shockwave. But not because a mass of Threats had struck the surface. The space elevator’s wires were tens of thousands of kilometers long. If they suddenly snapped, they would respond like a stretched rubber band cut by scissors. The two halves would fly up and down. When they tore through Earth’s atmosphere, just how much friction and how great a shockwave would they produce?

The 600m ship sank down a few meters and all of its more than 1000 windows shattered.

“Gahh!?”

Natalena was slammed back first not into the floor or wall but into the ceiling.

But she didn’t have time to groan in pain. She was actually thankful she had been thrown away from the window, sparing her a body full of glass shards. By the time she had activated her crystal armor and used the flight to balance herself and avoid colliding with the floor, the next phase had begun.

The horizon was blurring.

No, that wasn’t it. Something black was wriggling there. But they weren’t approaching the ship. It was more accurate to say they were spreading out from their landing point. It just so happened that a portion of them were heading toward Second Grimnoah.

But even that meant thousands.

The giant spider crab, water bear, and blue-ringed octopus Threats could not be allowed to reach the ordinary people who couldn’t even fight back.

“All Subcategory and Main Category students capable of aerial combat, please gather on the side decks. Do not get too close to the Threat. Maintain a safe altitude and bomb them from above. Their numbers alone will overwhelm us, so the loss of any of our fighters would be too much of a burden for Second Grimnoah to survive.”

Was that Letnahe Kurent’s voice speaking over the ship’s speakers?

The Four Living Gods were gone.

Everyone’s efforts had failed to reach them. The world’s strongest Crystal Magicians had made up their own minds. The Threat pouring down from the sky regardless felt like a mockery of those four’s self-sacrifice.

Sacrifice.

That word was lodged in the back of Natalena’s mind. Her soul refused to let its meaning sink in.

She did her best to ignore the fact that they pushed those four to that decision just as much as anyone else.

She couldn’t muster the strength to fight without letting the anger course through her body.

She flew from the broken window onto the side deck wearing a combination of her summer uniform and crystal armor. A lot of students were already there and she shouted a question after spotting some familiar faces.

“Um! Wh-where do we start!?”

“How should I know!? Everywhere, I guess!?”

They were as confused as she was. Yamane Deiri’s response seemed incoherent at first, but it was the most accurate possible answer. It didn’t matter if the Threat were good or evil. The simple fact was humanity would never have peace unless they exterminated every last Threat.

Normally, Karuta and the others would have instructed everyone here.

Natalena flew from the side deck.

The space elevator’s wire was no longer there in the sky. It had snapped near the bottom, so it had launched skyward like a stretched rubber band cut by scissors. It had flown with such speed it had formed a vertical contrail in its wake.

“Um, is that safe? How many tens of thousands of kilometers was it? And how many tons? Um, what if it falls back to the surface from way up high?”

“I-it’s probably fine. Carbon nanotube wires are thinner than paper, so they should catch the air and float slowly down.”

“Phew. That’s a relief, Nekoumi-”

“Now the smokestack part meant to protect it from the elements is a different story. That was only 30 thousand meters long, but it had to weigh tens of thousands of tons.”

“-senpaiiiiiiiiiii!!?”

Natalena twisted around in midair and dodged falling pieces of rubble, each larger than a school building. She was glad there was only ocean below them.

Yes, ocean.

The open ocean provided no cover for them to take shelter behind. Since they had previously launched so many beams of light it had looked like a planetarium’s star projector, the Threat had to have deadly weapons similar to anti-air lasers.

A Crystal Blossom transmission from Matsuda Imi reached everyone indiscriminately.

“Found them! They’re at the base of the space elevator. The artificial float looks like it’s sinking, but that’s the epicenter of the Threat swarm!!”

“The closest population center is the island we’re stopped at for the Port Day. That’s about 10km away, which might as well be nothing.” Hashizaki Tayori’s voice remained calm even now. “But the Threat might be even more trouble if they dive into the ocean than if they attack an island or city. Our aerial observations and bombings can’t reach the bottom of the ocean and we’ve seen the Threat operate underwater before. If we lose track of them here, we won’t know where they’ll attack and we won’t be able to touch them until they make that attack.”

Natalena heard explosions up ahead.

Imi and Tayori had left ahead of the others and had already started their bombing. Natalena also wanted to concentrate their firepower on any Threats with lasers or other anti-air capabilities.

However…

“Wait a second. The Threat swarm landed at the base of the space elevator, right?”

“The bombing takes priority. We can’t let them escape into the ocean.”

“B-but we need to check for survivors! I know the float is already sinking, but someone might still be alive!!”

“We’ll be taken out if we don’t eliminate the laser beam ones right away!! Besides, anyone there was part of the human string pullers! They’re the ones who sent Karuta and the others into the vacuum of space to die!! Why should we care what happens to monsters like that!?”

Yamane Deiri shook off Natalena’s request and flew even higher. He was preparing to join the bombing. And the divine name sealed inside his Crystal Blossom’s tiny printed circuit was Kagutsuchi. He specialized in flamethrowers and napalm.

The ground or the sky?

Natalena was briefly unsure which to attack.

But she ended up letting it happen. A large quantity of flammable and explosive materials flew right past her on their way down to the surface.

Flames blossomed on the badly damaged artificial float, enveloping the many Threats there. The fiery blossoms covered a strip of the artificial island following Yamane Deiri’s course through the sky.

“Ah, ahh. Ahhhhhhhhhh.”

A wordless voice carrying flat resentment arrived over a Crystal Blossom transmission.

Natalena grimaced.

Was that Sophia Firenze’s voice? The man she had wanted to protect even if it meant making an enemy of the entire world had to be in that burning world below Natalena now.

But she didn’t have time for sentiment. She felt a pull on her hand from the side just before green light streaked through the spot she had just been flying through.

Nekoumi Hirosuke shouted in the young girl’s ear.

“Th-this isn’t over yet!! The Threat’s attacks can reach us at this altitude!! We’re screwed if we don’t take them all out!!”

“Tayori here. I’m going to make an additional bombing run from west to east at an altitude of 3000. On the count of 20, I want everyone who can join in to take a different line!”

Were those the student council members assisting the gyaru? Several Crystal Magicians drew out a large cross and even more explosions blasted the surface, even tearing through the black smoke there. Something must have bent because a last-ditch laser beam flew off in the wrong direction and sliced off the peak of a mountain on a different island.

The Threat’s numbers were falling.

But how many human lives had Second Grimnoah’s bombing taken?

They had done the right thing. But what did that matter?

The Four Living Gods had been holding back the ugliness produced by humankind, but with them gone, it now struck Natalena’s young heart directly.

How had it been for her sister Anastasia?

Had this pressure finally broken her? Or had she found a way to enjoy it?

“…”

Was there any real meaning to this?

If other Threat swarms were falling all across the planet – Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere – then the 1000 Crystal Magicians from Second Grimnoah could never protect all 5.5 billion people no matter how hard they fought. And even if they managed to protect this corner of Southeast Asia where they just so happened to be, the rest of the Threat would approach from every other direction after slaughtering 99.9% of humanity. When hundreds of millions of Threats flooded them, they would eventually find they couldn’t keep up.

“W-we might be lucky we can still focus solely on the Threat.”

“Why’s that, Nekoumi-kun? Afraid someone might launch a nuke?”

The 5.5 billion population was at risk, so it was unusual no nuclear weapons had been used yet.

They doubted they had human good will or good sense to thank for that.

With so many Threats pushing in all at once, the military and governmental chains of command may have collapsed in a panic. Launching a nuclear weapon required an intricate process. The leader of some country out there might be screaming that suicidal command, but the launch process would never complete if the command never reached the nuclear technicians operating the actual machinery. The long fiber optic cables would have already been torn to shreds.

“Nukes, huh? So would you rather be killed by other humans or the Threat?”

“Yamane!! Enough pessimism. If you think your Big Sis Imi enjoys helping you out with stupid problems, you are sorely mistaken!!”

That said, they couldn’t stop either.

Only Crystal Magicians could fight the Threat. Even without a feasible long-term plan, the ordinary people within reach would be slaughtered if they didn’t help them.

For better or for worse, they were not that strong. They would be losing resources and narrowing down their chances, but they couldn’t bear to abandon people they could see needed help.

“Yamane-senpai, and everyone else too!! Look 5km southeast of the float! There’s a fishing boat!”

“Are you kidding me!? The area around the elevator is supposed to be off limits! I bet they’re part of the human string pullers’ defense force disguised as a fishing boat!!”

“No…” muttered Natalena after spotting something.

A different part of the horizon was squirming now. Whether they were the giant spider crab type or the blue-ringed octopus type, another clump of Threats had fallen to the surface and begun to expand in every direction.

In other words…

“Another swarm has fallen in that direction!! And there isn’t just one fishing boat, so I bet they were driven off of the land and tried to escape out at sea!!”

The bombing stopped as if in shock.

That may have been a mistake.

A green laser beam sliced through the sky. It came not from the elevator base below them but from the middle of the residential zone of a different island. A flight group in identical summer uniforms had arms and legs covered by crystal armor blown away and they fell from the sky.

They could have struck back from this distance, but the Threat was in a city this time. This time they wouldn’t be putting the human string pullers at risk. They had no idea how many perfectly ordinary people were in that city.

Matsuda Imi gave some advice.

“Drop to lower altitude!! They’ll keep sniping us if we don’t use the horizon as a shield!!”

Natalena obeyed. They needed to help their shot-down schoolmates regardless.

But descending brought them to the partially-sunk artificial float that had formed the base of the space elevator. It was crawling with all sorts of Threats.

There were a few broken crystal statues there.

Those were the students who had been shot down earlier. Even with an arm or a leg vaporized, they should have been able to avoid death using their regeneration, yet that hadn’t happened.

Natalena grimace when she set foot on the burnt ground to avoid the deadly laser beams.

“Are they playing dead!?”

Some nearby rubble rose up.

The giant shape responsible was a Threat with long legs much like a giant spider crab. The interior edge of their pincers glowed an unnatural orange.

Giving up on the long term and fighting from moment to moment left Natalena and the others with no chance of winning. Their odds would have been 50/50 with just one swarm of tens of thousands. With another swarm in the same aera, the pure numbers were enough to overwhelm them.

Nevertheless.

Natalena Blast had known death was coming eventually, but it had suddenly arrived right in front of her.

(Ah.)

She froze up.

The flow of time seemed to slow. Everything that had happened raced through her mind. It may have been more about recalling her regrets than trying to find a way out of her predicament.

What had she done to Utagai Karuta?

She had shouted about revenge and vengeance, sent violence his way, and vowed to kill him without even trying to learn what a harrowing path he had taken to reach that point.

She hadn’t done any better when they were retaking Second Grimnoah from the real Threat. He had taken the most dangerous path, taken on the dirty work, and emerged both battered and victorious, but she hadn’t managed to carry any of that weight for him.

She had been fully left out of the Catastrophe, so she hadn’t been able to stop that martial arts tournament that might as well have been a public execution.

She had been so selfish and thoughtless.

She had been so narrow-minded and short-tempered and she hadn’t even apologized.

She was always causing him problems.

Even in the very end, she hadn’t been able to save that upperclassman being crushed below such a great weight.

(Maybe I deserve to die.)

That was when the world’s strongest shot down from the heavens and pierced through the giant spider crab more sharply than a lightning strike.

That enormous thing suddenly sank straight down. Its black metal shell shattered and threw off sparks while its long legs sprawled out. The orange light slowly vanished from its motionless pincers.

Natalena doubted her eyes.

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing play out in front of her.

Then the flow of time returned for the small girl.

Everything felt so normal again that she couldn’t help but cry.

“Damn, are you sure you had those calculations right!? The landing obliterated my right leg!!”

“I very kindly decelerated you with my flight preset, so you have no right to complain. That was a freefall from the upper atmosphere, remember? Besides, Karuta, you can regenerate, so tie up the wound and wait 30 seconds. You’ll be fine.”

“Also, Omotesandou-san is kind of heav-”

“I will find a wheelchair somewhere now that we are in gravity’s grasp once more, but any careless comments out of you, Karuta-kun, and I will never forgive you.”

“Mhh.”

“Don’t you get upset too, Aine!! I haven’t caused you any trouble, so can you please act like it!?”

The ugly, oppressive atmosphere from a moment earlier was nowhere to be found.

The Four Living Gods’ presence seemed to give new color to the world.

“Sen…pai?”

She was afraid the slightest move would cause this to break apart.

But she couldn’t just let it pass her by either.

That would be no different from before.

She needed to touch him, push him, hit him, and confirm his presence.

Otherwise she couldn’t believe his warmth was really there.

She could not lean on him without placing a burden on him.

Tears fell from her eyes.

“Karuta-senpai!!!”

The boy slumped atop the squashed Threat looked her way and smiled.

Just like always.

Utagai Karuta had been like this from the very beginning. His stance hadn’t changed since he first fought Natalena aboard Second Grimnoah.

Don’t kill her.

He had stayed true all this time to the thing he had shouted when they first met.

“Ahh.”

“A lot has happened, but don’t you worry. This will all be over once we defeat the Threat. That hasn’t changed.”

“Wahhhh!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!! AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!?”

How?

Not only were they spreading across the entire planet, but it wasn’t clear they could even defeat the Threats in this area.

Could she accept him ignoring those basic facts because he was the world’s strongest? She knew the limits of Crystal Magic, but even she felt like she could rely on him unconditionally.

His words carried that much weight.

Meanwhile, he looked up into the sky and said something more.

Even checking that his broken leg had recovered was secondary to him.

“More importantly, don’t let your guard down, Natalena.”

“?”

“We’ve come to help, but that isn’t the end of it. We’re the world’s strongest Crystal Magicians, so we need to keep fighting until the end!!”

The giant spider crab roared.

Aine’s colder-than-ice sword gave a flash to silence it before it could do anything and the laser attack from a blue-ringed octopus in the distance missed its mark.

Powerful but invisible infrared shined from a modified military flashlight and dazzled the blue-ringed octopus’s vision before it could fire.

Natalena heard a cracking sound.

Aine had stabbed her sword into a water bear’s thick metal armor, peeled it away, and stuck her skinny arm within. She pulled out a giant coiled something. It may have been some kind of linear cannon that magnetically launched shells because she rested it on her shoulder even though it was thicker around than her own torso.

The explosive blast became an invisible wall.

And with the roar of firing, the distant blue-ringed octopus was blown away by a metal shell.

More than that, a horizontal line was torn into the float’s ground between them.

Almost like it was creating an embankment to keep the Threat swarm away.

“Karuta!!”

The Crystal Blossom at his chest vibrated.

He was receiving a Crystal Blossom transmission from Amaashi Marika, also of the Four Living Gods.

“I’m flying above you right now. There are so many Threats they’re blotting out everything else, but what are our priority targets!?”

Karuta looked around, searching for something out of place within the black swarm. The pitch black wave looked like overwhelming numbers pushing in without fear, but keeping your cool and observing them calmly showed the group frequently contacting some specific units.

It helped having some advance information on this.

(Transline is a central figure to them because her job is to transmit power to them as a pipeline. That means they highly value energy and nourishment. They aren’t equipped with perpetual motion machines.)

“Marika, look 3000m to one o’clock from me!! The sea anemone ones serve a supply role where they exchange energy. If you see any more like that from the sky, blast them all with your laser beams!!!”

Several beams shot straight down from the sky. Marika was soaring through the sky faster than Mach 3 and shot the specified unit when she passed above it.

Destruction blossomed 3000m away.

Nevertheless, Karuta felt something hot on his right cheek. The blast must have thrown a sharp Threat shard all the way here.

And this did not end with the destruction of just the one Threat.

As soon as the sea anemone one exploded with a giant flash of light, the swarm around it began to convulse. Aine used her lasers to snipe the giant spider crab and water bear ones when their movements slowed. Some of the convulsing ones stopped moving altogether.

“Ksh!! Destruction confirmed. Ksshh -ooks like you were right! Ksshh!!”

Powerful noise ran through the Crystal Blossom transmission that was supposed to be immune to jamming or interception.

They had already experienced this when fighting the real Threat near the Port of Kobe. After defeating the Armored Warrior, who contained a massive amount of energy, something invisible had been radiated in every direction. That had shorted out the Threats spread out across the ocean nearby and rendered them inoperative like a powerful microwave or EMP attack.

Transline was the same.

Except she seemed to accidentally let it out when she laughed.

In other words…

“We don’t have to fight them all?” said Natalena Blast in a daze.

This was real hope.

With 1000 against 300 million, everyone could tell there was no chance of winning, but this changed all that. The mere presence of the Four Living Gods changed the world around them.

“So if we concentrate our attacks on the units that supply energy and that triggers a chain reaction from supply unit to supply unit, we can eliminate an entire Threat swarm with invisibly-linked destruction, Senpai!?”

Who knows where she found it, but the student council’s bob cut girl brought over a wheelchair.

“You go to so much trouble for me.”

“It is no trouble.”

“You can criticize me, you know?”

“That is not my job.”

Once she was elegantly seated once more, the president asked the girl a question in her usual calm fashion.

“If we send out every member of Second Grimnoah, we will not get a second chance. If we want a chance to recover after a failure, we need to have unnecessary personnel fall back and set up a rotation of fighters. Can you do that?”

“Of course.”

The president brushed the hair from her shoulder and cut right to the chase.

“We need to assume any plan that looks safe has a landmine just waiting for us to step on it. Remember, there are 300 million of them. We cannot win if this stretches out into a long-term battle.”

Those four’s presence had changed the world.

Everything literally looked brighter and more colorful and the previous weight was nowhere to be found.

Second Grimnoah really had been built for them.

Letnahe could not use a Crystal Blossom, so she called them on the phone.

“I have picked up a new reading on sonar. A new Threat group is headed your way. This group is probably distinct from the island and peninsula groups we have already seen. I have reports of a major Threat migration from the coast guard in northern Australia!!”

They already had their hands full. If another Threat army joined in, they wouldn’t just be forced onto the defensive – they would collapse altogether.

But Natalena Blast saw a thin smile on Karuta’s face as that merciless report came in.

Like a war god.

Like a fighter god.

It wasn’t even about the divine name sealed in the Crystal Blossom’s small printed circuit. He may not have felt the need to rely on that anymore.

“Glad to hear it.”

A pointy crystal broke off of his cheek.

Fresh skin appeared below and his smile grew much more aggressive.

“Second Grimnoah only has 1000 Crystal Magicians, but the Threat is sending 300 million down across the entire planet. You seem to think that means we can’t fight this war, but that’s where you’re wrong.”

“Um, Senpai?”

“If one area shows significant success against the Threat, the surrounding Threats have to head there as reinforcements. Which means fewer Threats in the areas we can’t reach. ”

“Oh,” gasped Natalena.

He viewed the world differently.

He wasn’t just fighting the enemy in front of him. He wasn’t wasting the small fighting force they had left because he couldn’t bear to sit idly by and watch people be killed. Nor was he trapped by a self-destructive desire to accept death as long as he got a good fight in first.

He was looking at the entire world.

He was looking to the ordinary people who weren’t strongest, weren’t special, and couldn’t fight.

“We just have to avoid losing and remain the world’s strongest! That’s all it takes!! The ripple spreading from this one drop can go on to save the entire planet!!!”

Some might say it wasn’t possible.

Just like the Threat highly valued energy and nourishment, Karuta’s group could only keep fighting for so long. They might be fine now, but if the battle stretched on, the exhaustion would get the better of them and they would fail to push back the 300 million Threats.

“Not necessarily.”

“?”

“The more densely packed the Threat, the easier it is to start a chain reaction. And if we want to defeat all 300 million at once, we just have to focus on the unit managing all of their energy and nourishment. The more we do that, the wider and deeper the damage from that invisible radiation. I’ve already given the answer, Natalena.”

The boy looked up into the blue sky and gave a shout.

“Get down here, Transline! You’re the strongest Threat, so if we defeat you, this all ends!!!”

### 199. Part 4

After leaving the boutique, Karuta and Aine walked back the way they had come to reach Second Grimnoah, the three-hull ship measuring more than 600m long was currently moored at the port.

Since most of the students were out in the city for the Port Day, the giant ship was completely silent. It was the same somewhat guilt-inspiring stillness found when sneaking into school on the weekend.

This was a sort of sanctuary.

But that was why you felt a faint thrill from tiptoeing in when you weren’t supposed to.

“They might have some spare uniforms in the infirmary.”

“They would have them there, Sacri-sama?”

“Only for emergencies, so they won’t be perfectly fitted or anything. It’s probably going to be baggy, but bear with it.”

“On what basis are you predicting that an improperly fitted uniform would be baggy on me rather than too tight?”

The girl, who stood a full head shorter than him even when counting the horns, was expressionlessly puffing out her cheeks. He was mildly surprised by the inner change that led her to worry about things like that.

“Don’t worry. Marika and Omotesandou-san’s size is far from normal. Those are the outliers who have trouble finding bras in a style they like, so you don’t need to compare yourself to them.”

“Why do you not understand that the problem is how you are starting with the assumption that I will lose, you jerk?”

They made their way to the infirmary.

Fortunately, there were no patients (with heatstroke or seasickness) in any of the beds lined up by the wall. This wasn’t a place people came for fun, so they weren’t going to bother anyone. He could humor Aine for a bit.

“Here we go. I found a girl’s uniform, Aine.”

“Come to think of it, why are you so knowledgeable about girl’s uniforms?”

Aine had even learned how to verbally stab people in the flank.

The reason for his knowledge came from having to help the president change or assisting Natalena after her clothes got wet.

But anyway.

He had found a spare uniform, but they were no longer in the boutique and thus there was no fitting room. They had no choice but to have Aine use one of the bed spaces with a curtain drawn around it.

While the crystal girl changed inside one, Karuta tilted his head a bit.

He felt kind of uneasy.

(H-huh? What’s this? With the curtain drawn, this shouldn’t be any different from the boutique’s fitting room, so why is my heart pounding in my ears?)

He blinked a few times and peered into the darkness within him before finally identifying the cause.

He could see through the curtain.

The fitting room curtain had been thick and made to block light, but the curtain used as a divider between infirmary beds was not and he could faintly make out Aine’s silhouette while she changed within!?

Apparently the unguarded girl had switched on the excessively bright LED lamp on the bedside table just because it was somewhat dark while surrounded by curtains.

“Sacri-sama?”

“It’s nothing! Nothing at all!!”

“???”

He hated that he could tell she was tilting her head in confusion.

He honestly couldn’t help but hold his breath until she pulled the curtain open herself.

“This is how it looks. What do you think, Sacri-sama?”

She was wearing a uniform.

A Second Grimnoah summer uniform.

She stood tall and fidgeted her fingers together while dressed in the exact same thing so many girls did every day when attending classes at Second Grimnoah, but it looked entirely different on Aine.

This could have been a possible future.

The powerfully innocent image of her in that uniform brought that sentimental thought to mind. Since the crystal girl was already somewhat transparent, she could take on a subtly different appearance depending on the color of the light around her. The orange of the sunset may have helped make her look like an empty dream at the moment.

Karuta didn’t feel any desire to start discussing where things had gone wrong.

He accepted everything before giving his honest opinion.

“It looks good on you, Aine.”

“I know I requested this, but I am not sure how to process any positive or negative feedback related to it.”

“That’s made for Second Grimnoah, so the stitching is designed to hold up in combat. Couldn’t you wear this all the time?”

“Updating personality profile. I now see that you have a schoolgirl fetish, Sacri-sama.”

She may have meant that as an attack, but it was a meaningless accusation against a schoolboy. Aine might not quite fit the profile since she was always walking around in her casual(?) clothes, but when most every girl around you was a schoolgirl, it was the default, not a fetish.

“Want to go for a walk dressed like that, Aine?”

“So you prefer to show off your ‘prize’ rather than make sure no one else gets to see it?”

She must have sensed her first attack failed, so she went for a follow up attack. But since almost every student would be on land for the Port Day, Second Grimnoah was nearly deserted. He doubted they would run across anyone to be surprised by Aine’s unusual (for her) outfit.

“I see. So you enjoy the thrill of being out in the open but avoiding detection. Does the thought of being in an empty school after hours excite you?”

“Can you stop slinging attacks until one of them lands, Aine?”

He smiled bitterly while stepping out of the infirmary.

Just then, he heard a quiet, soft vibration.

He realized he had bumped into something in the hallway.

And this wasn’t a stranger.

The color of the light was mixing.

Distorting.

Cracks were forming in those colors.

“Marika?”

“I know.”

His childhood friend did not look up when he called her name.

She fell silent again.

She demonstrated a painful amount of vulnerability.

She clutched at the short sleeve of his shirt, pressed her forehead against his chest, and clenched her teeth.

“ I know it’s Aine-chan’s turn right now. ”

Those words carried an important meaning.

They were a curse powerful enough to tear down the unnaturally cheerful mood that had covered this entire today.

“But this really is our last day.”

When she did look up, her face was a mess.

A lost child may have been the closest comparison.

The usual confident and cheerful girl was nowhere to be found.

“I know we decided to enjoy our school life to the fullest since the human string pullers want their answer soon. I know we’re supposed to cut all ties with out lives so we can face the final battle with no regrets!! I know that!! But I can’t do it. I just can’t do everything the way I’m supposed to when I know this is the end! …Because I love you, Karuta. I didn’t go to Grimnoah or switch to Second Grimnoah after the first one was destroyed because I wanted to master the use of cutting-edge magic!! I only did it because I couldn’t let you go alone! That really was my only reason!!”

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Karuta had chosen to go to a school that specialized in Crystal Magic, but he had not had any clear vision of his future either. They had been overwhelmed with things they had to do once they were propped up as the strongest, but he wasn’t willing to say that was the future he had envisioned when he was suffering through the entrance exam. He felt like his starting point had been even more empty than Marika’s desire to be with the person she loved.

And this conversation had included several very meaningful words.

Including one statement that may have been more important than the fate of the planet for this girl.

But…

“I know,” interrupted the sobbing girl before he could say anything. The premium jelly mascara she had been so proud of was running due to her tears. “I know you’ll choose Aine-chan in the end . Because she’ll be all alone if you don’t. The president and I have our own lives outside of you, but she really does only have you. Sever that tie and she has nothing left, so I know you’ll choose her!!”

“…”

“Why is this the only kind of love I get to have?”

She had already experienced more of the world’s cruelties than any one person should, but she still raised her voice.

“I don’t care about the world’s strongest, the Threat, or the human string pullers!! If I didn’t have all this special stuff, I could have been normal and happy. Maybe even this here could have turned out differently without these complications!”

Maybe it was the way her words flowed, but Karuta sensed something off in what Amaashi Marika was saying in his arms. He had found something that told him he could never roll down this slope no matter what might happen.

Without these complications.

Did that include Aine who was linked to him through Crystal Magic?

He grabbed his childhood friend’s trembling shoulders and pushed her away from his chest.

He kept his distance.

“No, Marika.”

“I know.”

“I doubt I can ever understand how you’re feeling, but I’m still going to insist you take that back. If you don’t, I never want to see you again, Marika!!”

“I said I know!!!”

A high-pitched noise echoed through Second Grimnoah.

Marika looked ready to shed tears of blood and her right hand held…a rapier Device.

“Today – our final 24 hours – are all about ensuring we have no regrets left, right? Well, no one ever said it all had to end happily.”

Karuta also made a decision when he saw that.

Amaashi Marika was probably the fastest person on the planet to make up her mind at times like this. He had to respond immediately or he really would be in trouble.

He shouted the last thing Marika wanted to hear out of his mouth.

“Aine!!”

He pulled his modified military flashlight from his hip.

He shined the powerful IR laser in Marika’s face to dazzle her eyes.

But not so he could fight.

He just needed time to make his move.

He and Aine turned tail and he heard a series of cracking sounds coming from behind them. How many seconds did it take Living God Amaashi Marika to decorate her body with crystal armor? Once that process was complete, she wouldn’t hesitate to wield a level of violence that let her pick a fight with a fighter craft or slice a tank in two.

“What is your plan, Sacri-sama?”

“For now, we go this way!!”

Marika’s Crystal Blossom contained the name of Tezcatlipoca, Aztec god of death, and her Crystal Magic let her use light as a weapon, converting it into any kind of deadly power. Her rapier Device could simply cut down an enemy, but it could also be used for high-precision laser sniping.

(If we want to prevent her from using her top speed that rivals a fighter craft, we have to stay away from spaces with long straightaways. A mazelike space is best, since it also keeps her from using that laser sniping of hers. Aine’s sword might be able to stop a metal shell or a missile, but it can’t deflect laser light or a beam!!)

In that sense, the school was a bad location. Both the standard school building and the special facilities like the gym or cafeteria were given simple, orderly designs so no one would get lost. Which meant…

“Focus on the ship side of things, not the school, Aine. Marika’s speed and long-range attacks don’t help her in the bottom-level engine room full of thick pipes and diesel engines larger than an apartment room!!”

“I have my doubts Miss Marika of all people will have her options restricted so easily.”

“No overestimating her abilities, Aine. If you think of her like a magic bullet that can do anything, then you can’t even begin to put together a plan.”

“She is already furious, so if she starts shooting lasers all over the bottom level of the ship and the ship starts to flood, I might survive, but you would be in a predicament since you need a constant supply of oxygen. Your odds of survival fall even further if she ignites the diesel fuel.”

“I said not to do that, Aine!! It is scary how plausible that sounds with this childhood friend from hell, though!!”

Just then, a door opened and someone emerged into the orange-dyed hallway. Karuta immediately recognized them. Only one person on Second Grimnoah used a wheelchair since the preset of regeneration could heal all non-lethal wounds in 30 seconds.

His face lit up.

He kept running away from overheated Marika and waved his hands to gather Kyouka’s attention.

“Thank goodness you’re here, Omotesandou- !?”

“I can’t…”

He heard a creaking sound, but this wasn’t the wheelchair’s axle or tires.

His body demanded oxygen after running full speed, but the ghastly sense coming from this girl still made him stop breathing. What was that she held in both hands behind her wheelchair? A bow and arrow? One with a sight and stabilizer!?

“I can’t always be the big sister you rely on. That’s no different from deciding I can never be anything other than ‘the hero’ who’s separated from everyone else. Why am I the only one you treat this way? Did you think I did all of this to save my own skin and for the money that comes with being the world’s strongest!?”

This was bad.

But what about it was bad? He could tell she was angry enough to kill, but there was too little context surrounding her statements for him to figure out what exactly she was upset about !!

(If something was bothering her, she could have told me earlier!)

“Come to think of it, this is the first time I have seen Miss Kyouka giving into her anger and shouting at someone. She seems to no longer care about keeping up appearances.”

He realized Aine was right.

But what had led to this?

“Perhaps she feels left out. She is separated from everyone else by being the only Regulation 3 at present. The ordinary students and even the other Living Gods are at most Regulation 1s.”

“…”

“Also, it sounded like you didn’t even know how she normally eats lunch. That means you did not spend your lunch breaks with her. And when she mentioned she wanted to have a younger boy take care of everything for her, didn’t you brush it off with a dismissive ‘yeah, right’?”

“Meaning?”

“You only have yourself to blame, you jerk.”

Karuta grabbed Aine’s hand and changed directions as they ran. He turned a corner. He had to use the terrain if he was going to avoid being killed by Kyouka’s bow and arrow.

“You sure have grown!!”

“Have I? You, on the other hand, have not grown at all.”

Kyouka was a new threat to worry about, but that didn’t decrease the threat presented by Marika one iota. They couldn’t come to a stop no matter what might happen.

Aine ran expressionlessly alongside him with her school uniform skirt fluttering dangerously high, but he thought he saw a hint of a smile on her lips.

She dropped her empty gaze to her hand which was firmly held by Karuta’s hand.

“My, my. Miss Marika and Miss Kyouka are going all out today. They really are trying to kill us. Hee hee.’

“Wh-why – ugh, cough – do you sound like you’re enjoying yourself!?”

“Because I appear to hold the princess position here.”

They didn’t want to leave anything undone.

He understood that, but how much pressure had been building up inside those two? What kind of concerns had they been bottling up all this time?

He wanted to avoid being caught between Marika and Kyouka. There was no chance of survival then. Which meant…

“Let’s pull away from Omotesandou-san, Aine. No matter how dangerous she is, she’s in a wheelchair, so we can keep her from following us by taking the stairs. There are only so many elevators, so she’ll need to take a wide detour to catch up. That won’t do anything to lose Marika since she can use the flight preset, but it lets us keep the odds at 2-against-1.”

“Do you think it would be easier to fight Miss Marika who is always a little bit angry than to fight Miss Kyouka who is showing a rare level of anger?”

“Let’s not think of this as choosing the lesser of two evils, Aine! Imagining either option terrifies me!!!”

A cruise ship might seem longer and shorter than a high-rise tourist hotel, but it was still divided into quite a few floors, starting from the engine room and hold at the bottom and going all the way up to the heliport at the very top. That meant it had some long stairways they could use.

(Now where can I go that will keep Marika from using her high-speed flight and laser sni-)

Karuta’s thought was cut off by a thick guillotine falling to block the path ahead.

It was a fireproof shutter that doubled as flood prevention. He doubted this was a freak malfunction. Not wanting him to escape, the president must have abused her authority to take over Second Grimnoah’s networked devices.

This was now a T-junction. Heading right would take them to the stairs, but he felt like they were being guided that way. There was more to this. Why would Kyouka want to lead him to the stairs she couldn’t use with her wheelchair?

But whatever the reason…

(If I want to betray Omotesandou-san’s expectations, I have to keep heading straight even if it means destroying that shutter!!)

He was somewhat used to fist fighting after the strange martial arts tournament the Catastrophe had been turned into, but he could not break through a composite shutter with his fists.

“Damn. Aine!!”

When the girl swung her right arm down, a cold crystal katana appeared in her hand with a swishing sound.

But she did not obey Karuta’s instructions.

She suddenly swung the blade horizontally and orange sparks flew. Karuta clicked his tongue. She had knocked an aluminum alloy arrow from the air, which now slid to the end of the hallway.

He heard the creaking of wheels.

At the other end of the orange-lit hallway, a black-haired beauty wielded a distinctively-shaped bow in her wheelchair.

And she was not alone.

The sound of rubber soles scraping against the floor came from the other end of the hallway. He didn’t even have to turn around to know, but when he did, he found Amaashi Marika coming from the stairs with crystal armor covering her body and a rapier Device in her dominant hand.

His tension had grown well past the limit, so it felt electric at this point.

He doubted either of them was willing to talk, but he still moved his lips.

“Wai-”

The first to move wasn’t Marika but Kyouka. She must have decided that one half-word meant he had abandoned her. She had the bow and arrow, but she still moved her wheelchair to rush toward him.

Amaashi Marika followed after her. As her ally? No, to kill him herself before Kyouka could take him from her. That was clear from the glint of a hunter’s spirit in her eyes.

Amaashi Marika approached him from the front with her rapier device squeezed tight in her hand and Omotesandou Kyouka approached him from the rear with her bow and arrow aimed and ready. Their eyes were shining bright and he could tell at a glance they wouldn’t respond to conversation.

He didn’t stand a chance.

“Sacri-sama!!”

He heard a shout. Aine had apparently moved to defend him with her sword in both hands, but two different world’s strongests were approaching from two different directions. Aine was reliant on that sharp sword, so she could only defend against one of them. Utagai Karuta could not avoid fighting the other girl.

He readied his modified military flashlight, but how much good would that toy do him?

Aine was his main defense.

His weapon was like the sidearm worn by a fighter pilot. It was better to have it than not, but if you had to rely on it, it meant you had already crashed deep behind enemy lines.

There was no scream.

A loud impact erupted within Second Grimnoah.

Karuta couldn’t even tell who had crashed into who.

He couldn’t stop the momentum transferred to him, so he crashed into Aine while she tried to protect him and all four of them rolled along the floor in a big heap. Heavy metallic sounds rang loud because Omotesandou Kyouka’s wheelchair had toppled over too.

Then silence.

And…

“Ah ha ha!!”

They were still lying there, tangled together.

One of the people in that pile of bodies started laughing loudly. It may have been Karuta himself. That laughter was contagious. Marika and Kyouka were both laughing. The bloody atmosphere from before had vanished without a trace.

Not even Aine was immune.

She was mostly expressionless, but there was the smallest hint of a smile on her lips.

“Heh heh. What was that, Marika-san? Were you really swinging a blade around over a broken heart? You might have the looks of a cutting-edge Gyaru 2.0 or even 3.0, but deep down, you still have the soul of a reserved Edo period girl. Ah ha ha!”

“Oh, shut up. You’re the one that pulled out a bow and arrow. A projectile weapon is cheating. I bet you’re the kind of person who takes a game of tag way too seriously and starts chasing people down on a bike.”

Someone sighed.

Karuta wasn’t sure who with everyone tangled up together, but someone was holding his head between her arms. Like she was holding a beachball to her chest.

Eventually, the president asked a question.

“So is everyone satisfied?”

“Yes,” replied Karuta and neither Aine nor Marika disagreed. It was past the point for that.

“No one has anything left undone?”

“I’m good.”

“If you say you want to run off with Aine-chan, I don’t think either of us would stop you.”

Kyouka may have been hoping for a digression like that, but neither Karuta nor Aine went for it.

Why do all this today?

Why forget their troubles and enjoy their school life?

That was obvious.

To convince them they were making the right choice.

“I have no regrets.”

“I see.”

“This world is shit. We never stood a chance against the Threat, the human string pullers already controlled everything, and even our families will betray us like it’s no big deal. That’s just the world we live in.”

So would they abandon the world?

That may have been a valid option for them.

“But we still love this world and think it’s worth protecting. If we feel we’ve proven that to ourselves, then we need to do this. We didn’t choose to be the world’s strongest, but it was our actions that gave us that title. It wouldn’t be right to run away now.”

Kyouka nodded in agreement and took the conversation further.

“In that case, Karuta-kun. And the rest of you too. I am going to contact the human string pullers. Once I do that, there is no stopping the gears from turning.”

“That’s fine.”

Utagai Karuta breathed in and out.

And he summed it all up for them.

“Then let’s get to the space elevator for our journey into death. If we sacrifice ourselves by ejecting ourselves into space, we can drive away 300 million Threats. We knew this was coming.”

### 200. Part 4

Thinking back, the world had been an awful place as far back as the Problem Solvers.

The five previous world’s strongests and their God-Worshiping Magic had been overwhelmingly power, so Karuta and the others had been helpless as their ship was destroyed out at sea. It had all begun with that experience. The few students who remained had never even considered making it a fair fight. They had hidden, deceived, and used every trick in the book to kill. That was how they had arrived at the top, so perhaps that was what had created such a depressing world afterwards.

The world had been a terrible place to begin with, but Karuta and the others had clearly made the wrong decision when choosing how to fight back against it.

They had failed to escape the ugly side of humanity on Second Grimnoah.

All hell had broken loose on their school trip to Iceland’s Crystal Beach. In a frigid resort where they could not ask for help, they had been surrounded by what they thought was the Threat and forced to fight with the ordinary tourists over the few livable spaces remaining. They had ultimately discovered the supposed Threat was a military decoy created by humans and they were being controlled by a group who had infiltrated Second Grimnoah in order to seek vengeance.

Near the Port of Kobe, they had been shocked to discover how pure the real Threat was.

Unlike before, the tens of thousands of Threats there had been the real deal. Karuta and the others had worked to retake Second Grimnoah from them, but the Armored Warrior and the other Threats there had only been interested in the schools humans attended and had never intended to fight. It was Karuta’s side that had gotten the wrong idea and slaughtered them.

The human string pullers had taken away everything they had worked so hard for by using the Catastrophe meant to reunite the fracturing human race.

Their own parents and siblings had been working behind the scenes of the martial arts tournament. Of course, they were not trained professionals. The human string pullers hid in the shadows and manipulated information to have the 5.5 billion ordinary people unwittingly do their dirty work. They were so good at what they did that they could have people betray their own family with a smile and truly believe it was in their family’s best interests because “someone important” or “everyone” says so.

The boy asked himself again.

There was no salvation to be found on Earth as it was.

Was that world and the people living there really worth protecting? The current situation was undoubtedly wrong. But could he really find a reason worth returning to that hell when it meant abandoning the only chance at survival he still had?

Say you had the winning lottery ticket.

And then you find out multiple of the same number were printed by mistake and you hadn’t actually been testing your luck at all. Would you really ask for a redo that was completely fair? You didn’t have to. Maybe it was dirty and maybe it was ugly, but if you just held your tongue, you would be set for life.

He thought about it.

He considered it.

Agonized over it.

### 201. Part 4

Transline didn’t even need to descend to the surface.

She had easily torn through the kilometers-long space station at the top of the space elevator. The only habitable area was now a pile of debris floating in space, but that didn’t matter to her.

“ Hee hee. ”

She was laughing the same as always while staring down at the blue planet.

That was enough for invisible energy to leak out of her, which made a nearby Threat spark and cease to function.

There was no air here, so her voice did not reach anyone beyond herself.

“I asked you to let me join the fun, world’s strongests. You didn’t think a mere 36 thousand kilometers was enough to invalidate our promise, did you?”

She reached out her lithe hand.

She was the core of the entire system. She was not designed for direct combat, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t fight.

Her role was to transmit power. So how could she convert that energy into a deadly force?

Crystal Magic was not the only strongest power.

She had one too.

(I could use a laser beam, a linear gun, or a high-frequency guillotine missile. Using a microwave cannon to cook them like they are inside a giant microwave oven could be fun.)

“Well, when you want to know your opponent’s abilities, it is always best to go with the standard choice that comes to mind first.”

Destroying the world was no more than an ordinary benchmark test to her. That was in fact why she had sent all the previous Threats to Earth.

The vacuum tubes across her body filled with heat and glowed with a pale light.

A green glowing orb swirled past her outstretched palm.

A Threat incapacitated earlier (that was shaped like a whip spider, which are so creepy you probably shouldn’t search for an image of them) had its armor glow red from heat before the entire unit began to melt like a piece of hard candy in a flame.

“If something this basic annihilates them, then that’s all they were worth. I can search out another world’s strongest afterwards.”’

Countless vacuum tubes grew from her elbows, knees, back, and head as her smile deepened.

“ Hee hee. Ah ha ha!! So prove your worth, Four Living Gods!!!”

Green destruction pierced straight down from heaven to earth.

The attack was designed to reach the planet’s core. If the Original Crystal Embryo had chosen to interfere with her hobby and way of life, she would have eliminated it with this.

It shouldn’t have been possible to dodge.

And their barriers were meaningless against a direct hit from this. The attack would pierce right through the target, the crust, the magma below, and finally reach the center of the planet.

And yet…

“…”

Her smile vanished.

Transline froze in place with arm still outstretched.

Something wasn’t right.

“What is this?”

### 202. Part 5

However, not everyone would be happy with that result.

For example, what if someone other than the Four Living Gods were to hear about it for the first time?

“Eh?”

Young Natalena Blast forgot to breathe as she pressed her back against the wall. It took everything she had to avoid dropping the library books she held. They were right around the corner, but she could not join them there.

“Eh?”

The decision she made here would determine everything. If she thoughtlessly rushed out and tried to argue with them, she would be defeated 4-against-1. In fact, they didn’t even need to argue. They could forcibly restrain her and head to the space elevator.

For what?

To protect the 5.5 billion non-strongests, including Natalena herself, from the Threat.

How would they do this?

By ejecting themselves into space to divert the Threat’s attention.

“Eh?”

But what did that mean really?

What was going to happen to Utagai Karuta and the other three!?

### 203. Part 5

The 7000 Years Theory

“Okay, our top batter is me: everyone’s idol, Imi-san! Let’s start by discussing the Crystal Magic presets we can all use.”

A popular Main Category girl took the microphone in the crowd. Was that Matsuda Imi, who was friend with Karuta’s group?

“More specifically, you know how we won’t die even if we do take a lethal injury? The regeneration preset lets us heal any nonlethal injury in only 30 seconds, but even something that would have killed us only turns us into a crystal statue. And we’ll recover from that after a long period of time.”

“Hold on. You’d better not be saying you’re okay with letting Karuta and the others go off and die because of that. That recovery takes centuries if not millennia. If any of us is lethally injured, none of us will ever see them again.”

The mocking rebuttal came from the delinquent boy named Yamane Deiri.

And Sophia Firenze delivered a further attack.

“W-we also don’t know if the regeneration will work if they have been thrown out into space. They might end up stuck in an endless loop of coming back to life and then immediately dying again because they’re out in the vacuum of space.”

“Yeah, I know☆” Matsuda Imi didn’t seem bothered by their remarks. “But don’t you see a loophole there?”

“Um?”

Natalena gripped the microphone up on the stage, but couldn’t come up with an actual answer.

They didn’t have much time and she wanted as many ideas as they could get, so she wanted to shorten the time spent judging the crowd’s reaction. Imi appeared to understand that because she winked and continued.

“Listen. Sure it might be millennia for the living people waiting for them to recover, but it’s instantaneous for the person who died. It would feel the same as going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning. So what if we had every student and teacher killed with the exact same severity of lethal wound? Whether that takes centuries or millennia to recover from, it would feel like only an instant before we all woke back up together.”

Who was it that gasped in realization?

Matsuda Imi shrugged with the spotlight pointing out her location in the crowd.

“Marika and Karuta-kun seemed pretty attached to the students from the first ship, so if we calculated out what kind of wound would match our recovery time to theirs, we could kill two birds with one stone. For example, that Kazamuki Gekiha guy isn’t supposed to recover for 7000 years, but if we match our timing to that, we could instantly travel to that point 7000 years in the future and everyone from both Grimnoahs could meet each other with no more injuries. How’s that for a happy ending!?”

“I-I think that could actually work,” said Nekoumi Hirosuke.

“Not quite,” interrupted Letnahe Kurent. “What happens to the Threat in that scenario? That is meaningless if all of you Crystal Magicians wake up to find the 300 million Threats swarming the Earth. You would be right back where you started. Worse, really, since all civilization would have been destroyed by that point.”

That problem still remained.

However…

“Then let me ask you this: what do those 300 million Threats use for food or fuel?” asked Imi.

“…I see.”

“ With that many of them, keeping them fed or fueled can’t be easy. In our fight against them near the Port of Kobe, we saw signs of them passing supplies on the ocean floor, but they don’t seem to eat or drink the resources already on the Earth. That means they can’t become self-sufficient on this planet. 300 million of them is a devastating force and they will quickly conquer the Earth if nothing is done to stop them. But I get the feeling that wouldn’t last long. Granted, my mind can’t perfectly simulate what the world will be like 7000 years from now, but I doubt the Threat will still be walking around.”

There was actual applause.

Not thunderous, but not scattered either.

However…

“Yes, that is a fair point.”

There was a loud scraping sound as someone roughly scratched his head with a large hand.

The interruption came from Kiyosawa Hadome, the gym teacher who made a point of playing the bad guy when it really mattered.

“So let me tear it down with a dose of reality. Your plan may give the Crystal Magicians of Second Grimnoah a path to survival, but what about the other 5.5 billion people out there .”

No one had a response.

They even swallowed their gasps of realization.

“So we instantly wake up 7000 years in the future and the 300 million Threats can’t survive long term, so we can all live happily ever after in the distant future? That’s an awfully self-centered idea that pretends the intervening time just doesn’t exist. So what happens to the powerless 5.5 billion who we’ve abandoned to their fate? You predict the Threat will die off on their own, but are they really the only group that would go extinct on the planet during those 7000 years? I seriously doubt it.”

“Sensei, I won’t deny it’s self-centered, but I do have a rebuttal.”

“What, that we don’t need to care what happens to the kind of people who let themselves be manipulated by the human string pullers?”

Kiyosawa Hadome shut down the rebuttal by giving it in advance, so Matsuda Imi shrugged.

Those who agreed with that argument would be fine with the idea.

But there would be some who didn’t agree.

“Fine, fine. I withdraw my idea!” Matsuda Imi didn’t seem to mind all that much as she raised the white flag. “I’d be fine with that if it was just me, but Tayori’s got a big family with lots of siblings and there’s no way I could convince that homemaker gyaru to abandon them. Besides, Kurent-sensei, who teaches dance for our Main Category, isn’t even a Crystal Magician, so it would be narrowing ‘us’ down to only ‘the Crystal Magicians’. That means we couldn’t save everyone that way and Second Grimnoah would be missing someone afterwards. And Crystal Magic requires an aptitude, so not everyone in the world can use it. I understood all that already, to be honest.”

The silver-haired, brown-skinned teacher cleared her throat.

That may have been a way of warning the drama club member to not shine the spotlight on her.

“Assuming the Threat cannot teleport or warp, they must have spent a long time traveling through space. That means they can last a very long time without resupplying.”

After listening to Kiyosawa Hadome’s last point, Matsuda Imi winked at him with the mic in hand.

“But it was nice, powerful idea to start us out on, wasn’t it? Feel free to make the next theory even more out there. Now, then! We have to save Marika and the others before they can go off and kill themselves when no one asked them to! Stop worrying if it’s realistic and grab the mic!! You shot down my idea, so show me you’ve got a better one yourself. It doesn’t have to be perfect cause we might be able to combine several rejected ideas to reach a viable one!!!”

### 204. Part 5

It was true Utagai Karuta could not have defeated Transline.

She could supply enough energy to power a total of 300 million Threats, so her power was immense. No human technique could ever hope to defend against that. Even a combination of all the barriers belonging to every last one of Second Grimnoah’s Crystal Magicians would have been pierced through to slice Utagai Karuta apart.

Fighting the normal way would never work.

But he was the world’s strongest. It was wrong to assume he would only fight the normal way.

“Sacri-sama.”

“I…know!”

There had been hints of this already.

Before atmospheric reentry, Crystal Girl Aine had stolen Threat parts to steal their abilities. She had concluded her barrier wasn’t enough and improvised.

She had done it again once on the surface. She had stolen a water bear’s weapon and used the linear cannon to blast a blue-ringed octopus from a distance.

Aine could steal Threat parts and make them her own. She could expand her own functionality.

But was that all she could do?

What if no such restriction existed?

What if she could steal powers and abilities that didn’t come from the Threat?

Then couldn’t she do this too?

“Omotesandou-san!!”

“Yes, leave it to me. I have the knowledge and techniques of a Regulation 3!!”

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was the only Main Category Regulation 3 still alive. But for some reason, she had lost her ability to use that power after the fall of the first ship.

But that was fine.

Karuta too was a student of the Crystal Magic school.

The older girl smiled thinly.

“We’re both Second Grimnoah Crystal Magicians. I was simply further along in the process, but knowing your skill, I know you would have reached Regulation 3 eventually, Karuta-kun. So what if that happens a little sooner than intended?”

If something could absorb Kyouka’s knowledge and techniques and link them with Karuta’s healthy body, they could reproduce the godlike abilities of a Regulation 3.

They just needed a host to bring together the Four Living Gods.

They just needed to link themselves through Crystal Girl Aine.

“Kh!!”

Karuta felt a hot pain at his chest.

It came from his Crystal Blossom.

He wouldn’t necessarily fully understand just because someone who understood it gave him a quick explanation. To make matters worse, his Crystal Blossom’s original setup had been full of errors. For example, he couldn’t activate any crystal armor and he was forced to share the presets of flight, barrier, and regeneration with Aine. If the way he used his power or the route and strength of that power were well off of average, then what Kyouka taught him might not work.

He grimaced, but another girl stepped up alongside him.

“Don’t worry.”

It was his curly twintails childhood friend – Amaashi Marika.

She lent him the powerful directionality that could send chaotically raging power along a single path.

That was her very nature due to her singlemindedness that could seem downright violent at times.

“I’m the standard version of the strongest, don’t you think? I can help boost your strength, so don’t worry about a thing.”

The pain in his chest vanished.

The power stabilized.

Karuta and Aine stood side by side and shared the same sword like a newlywed couple facing their wedding cake.

They held the sword up toward the heavens.

“Sacri-sama.”

“Right.”

Of course, Aine’s katana was not meant to be used primarily as a laser sniper rifle. The close-range sword was the main weapon and jitte-like branch was only a support device.

They couldn’t expect to hit a target 36 thousand kilometers away in geosynchronous orbit.

But that didn’t matter.

“This is… our …”

Karuta and Aine activated magic so powerful it threatened to shatter the crystal sword from the inside.

It took the reverse route of the blast Transline had launched earlier.

They were the Four Living Gods, so the four of them joined their voices as one.

“…world’s strongesttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!”

Let’s review some definitions.

Regulation 1 could glide over the ground or sea, Regulation 2 could fly high in the sky, and Regulation 3 had the power to manipulate dimensions themselves.

So with the power of a Regulation 3, they could slice through the dimensions to cut down any Threat!!

### 205. Part 6

The Live Among the Threat Theory

“I’ll go this time. Now that Imi’s gotten the ball rolling, I’ll go with something really out there, just like she wanted.”

The next to take the mic was the gyaru-ish girl named Hashizaki Tayori.

“As I’m sure you all know after fighting the Threat yourselves, they tend to be pretty big. And they’re made of metal. The teachers would probably know more since they actually dismantled and looked inside that one called the Armored Warrior, but the point is their corpses don’t rot.”

She did not receive any kind of response.

She didn’t know what the teachers had seen, but it may not have been something they were keen to remember.

“They kill humans on sight. We still don’t know why that is, but we know it’s true. But they seem to have some level of camaraderie among themselves. Well, there are some ants that will resort to cannibalism when they’re mad, so we can’t fully trust in that.”

“You aren’t suggesting what I think you are, are you?” asked Yamada Deiri, but Tayori ignored him.

“We’ve defeated quite a lot of Threats at this point and we would have recovered their corpses too. So we just have to wear those. At the very least, that should reduce the frequency of attacks a lot more than as undisguised humans.”

They would hand Earth over to the Threat.

On the condition that the Threat did not attack them.

Kiyosawa Hadome led the rebuttal.

“There aren’t enough of them for everyone. And like I said, I can’t accept a plan that abandons the other 5.5 billion to die.”

“That’s true, Sensei, but a lot of the Threats are big. What if we look at it more like public transportation, such as buses or trains, instead of anything personal? That introduces the question of where us humans would live most of the time, but as long as we had a largescale hideout, it would work.”

The idea was based on a lot of assumptions, but it did make sense. And even if they couldn’t agree to it immediately, some part of it could be combined with aspects of the other theories proposed later on.

So far, anyway.

“B-but in that case.”

“What is it, Nekoumi-kun?”

“We have no real guarantee that would fool the real Threat. We might look a lot like the Threat with the defeated shells around us, but that’s only from our point of view , isn’t it? I’ve heard that a flower that has evolved to have bugs carry its pollen will show completely different patterns under a blacklight. To know how good a disguise this would be, we would need to know exactly how the Threat views the world.”

“How is that a problem if we’re using real Threat parts?”

“They might change after death like a flower’s colors fading when it withers after being cut from its roots. When humans die, we rot and become something else entirely. Really, it would be unusual if they didn’t change.”

This was not limited to the ordinary five senses.

For one, the Threat wasn’t human. They might have further sensory organs. They could have a sensor that detected radiation or a sixth sense that detected neutrinos. If they had X-rays or terahertz radiation that let them see through objects, they might be able to see right into the giant shells being worn as disguises.

“The Threat strengthens themselves by tearing away the usable parts from the unmoving corpses we create. We saw that with the decoys and the real ones inside Second Grimnoah. Th-that means they have some way of distinguishing between a living Threat and a dead Threat. Wearing a stolen shell sounds really dangerous to me because they’re sure to notice all sorts of things we wouldn’t. From their viewpoint, wouldn’t we look like a monster walking around wearing human skin?”

To avoid that, they would need to know how to distinguish between a living Threat and a dead one. And from a Threat perspective, not a human one.

“Not to mention that the Threat might not be more accepting as we approach the right answer. I mean, we humans think stylized anime figures are cute, but we find hyper realistic mannequins to be creepy.”

“I don’t like you applying that first part to all of humanity, but is that really how it works?”

“I can sleep like a baby and have the sweetest of dreams when I have my favorite body pillow with me, but I would be terrified if I found a strange mannequin in bed with me. I wouldn’t get a wink of sleep.”

“???”

With 300 million Threats pouring down all across the planet, they wouldn’t have time to figure out how the Threat worked.

Especially not to a point that they would know what the Threat liked and what the Threat found to be creepy.

“At the Port of Kobe, we saw the Threat flashing lights on their bodies in a regular pattern, right? What if we set up LED lights to flash in that same way?”

“A-again, we only know what that looked like from a human perspective. What if they actually communicate using chemical scents synthesized using those lights? Our scentless Christmas lights would stand out and get us attacked even faster.”

### 206. Part 6

Something flashed from the blue planet.

The battle was probably over from the moment Transline saw it.

“ Ha ha. ”

As usual, there was a smile on her face at that moment.

She heard a sparking sound.

She looked down to see a hole larger than a fist in the center of her chest. In the vacuum of space, she wouldn’t hadn’t heard a thing even if it happened a centimeter away. The only sounds she could hear were the vibrations traveling through her own body.

That meant the sparking had come from her.

The barrier in between and her own armor hadn’t mattered in the slightest. A Regulation 3 was someone who had mastered Crystal Magic and they could tear through anything, along with the dimension it resided in, and toss it out into an unknown dimension.

“I was right after all.”

She was tearing apart.

The hole in her chest was widening.

The vastness of her power meant it didn’t take long for her to break apart once something got that ball rolling. Not even she could stop it.

“ Hee hee. No matter how much you celebrate your own prosperity, there is a limit a single species can never pass. Just like a natural crystal is surprisingly fragile to external impacts!! Ah ha ha ! In that sense, I was right! I wasn’t wrong!! It was the combination of the carbon-based humans and the silicon-based… whatever that was . They had to intentionally accept that impurity into their group to achieve this flexibility as a lifeform! In moderation, even a burden or impact can trigger growth. You can’t just focus on perfect cleanliness in your precise factory!! Hee hee hee, gya ha !! This is the form the future must take!!!”

That was as far as she got.

The bright light escaping her began an explosive expansion.

Her beautiful feminine silhouette vanished in the light that soon enveloped everything.

### 207. Part 7

The Dimensional Leap Theory

Letnahe Kurent sighed while watching the students and teachers grabbing for the mic and then debating their various theories.

There was more to it.

That teacher in glasses and a white military uniform clenched her teeth.

(That one idea was based on the assumption that Kazamuki Gekiha and the others from the first ship will wake up in 7000 years, but that isn’t even true.)

That was only the official story.

It was a solid enough story that even Utagai Karuta and Amaashi Marika of the world’s strongests believed it, but it was in fact only a false story released to the public. And the key to survival in this thoroughly rotten world was to always question the major assumptions everyone believed to be true.

Letnahe had discovered the truth after doing some digging from the human string pullers side.

(Omotesandou Kyouka is lying to them. I had my suspicions before. She doesn’t use that wheelchair because of her old wounds; she uses it because she gave up her own recovery to boost the recovery speed of the first ship’s victims.)

Their recovery time of over 7000 years had been reduced to less than a year.

And not just one of them like Kazamuki Gekiha – this was every teacher and student on that ship, which meant hundreds of people.

The fact that the president could accomplish that was frightening, but that opened up a loophole.

What if Omotesandou Kyouka regained her full power?

(She is currently the only Regulation 3 in the world.)

Much of the rest was guesswork on Letnahe’s part.

As part of the human string pullers, she had the special privilege of extracting all sorts of hidden information from around the world, but that also meant she was an outsider when it came to Crystal Magic.

(Supposedly, her full power would let her pass through the dimensional barrier. Assuming that isn’t a bizarre bluff, it shouldn’t matter if she is thrown into space. I am not talking about long-distance movement by breaking the lightspeed barrier. They could instantly leap to another habitable planet and survive there. )

Letnahe did not buy for a second that girl was powerless.

She had seen the girl use a strategy that required slowing the arrival of light and sound while remaining seated in the wheelchair.

Of course, that idea shouldn’t have been feasible either.

Even if they could leave the solar system, how far was it to the nearest star? If they traveled there, would they find a miraculous planet with enough water and air for people to survive? If you had enough resources to travel centuries at the speed of light, it would be a lot easier to build a fully artificial planet rather than search out a habitable one.

But the president could skip past all those problems.

She was the strongest Crystal Magician and she could teleport or warp without any kind of tool. If she had a large radio telescope with parabolic antennae lined up in the desert or a space telescope and she used them to search out a few planets with sufficient water and air, she could ignore the distance between them and arrive in an instant. The Threat might pursue, but that would take a considerable amount of time if they could not break the lightspeed barrier. Karuta’s group might die of old age before the Threat caught up and they could always leap to another planet if necessary.

That meant the Four Living Gods would not die after being ejected into space and the Threat would be redirected from Earth, saving the other 5.5 billion people.

It sounded an awful lot like a happy ending.

“Unfortunately, it isn’t an option.”

A nearby student gave her a puzzled look, so Letnahe cleared her throat. She organized her thoughts in her head from there on.

(That plan requires giving up on the hundreds of teachers and students killed on the first ship. That girl abandoned her power and accepted the inconvenience of life in a wheelchair, so I doubt she would compromise on that. The kind of woman who is willing to do anything will never back down when it comes to the core of her conviction. I know because I am the same.)

Letnahe concluded her idea wouldn’t work.

If the Four Living Gods were willing to let others die as long as it saved them, they would have had plenty of alternative options. For example, the 7000 Years Theory that Matsuda Imi had started with and everyone had concluded wasn’t an option. It would be a problem for Hashizaki Tayori because she had a big family and for Letnahe who wanted to save her husband and children more than herself, but the Four Living Gods could have emotionlessly abandoned everyone if they wanted.

They could be cold.

They could list out each problem they were facing.

They would not get complacent because they were powerful.

The four of them alone had defeated the Problem Solvers.

And that had given them the position of world’s strongest.

With that cunning and talent for finding loopholes, the idea had to have occurred to them. The 7000 Years Theory, the Live Among the Threat Theory, and everything else being debated here would have already been discussed by those four. Letnahe was curious how much that wicked schemer Omotesandou Kyouka had revealed to the others at the end, but she would have at least considered and rejected the Dimensional Leap Theory in her own head. Letnahe would have been surprised if they hadn’t come up with and rejected 100 or even 1000 theories she hadn’t even considered.

The first ship’s victims would die when Omotesandou Kyouka did, but she was apparently still unwilling to pull the trigger herself. That suggested she operated on more than pure logic.

If all four of them hadn’t been working in vain to find an alternative this whole time, they never would have all arrived at a conclusion as ridiculous as self-sacrifice.

A greedy desire for survival was not necessarily a beautiful thing. It always meant forcing death onto others, so that went without saying.

But after so much fighting and being hoisted into the position of strongest, those four had to know better than anyone that this was a cruel world where you could never find victory if you didn’t throw out all your nice-sounding ideals and where you would be devoured the instant you let up on the reins.

(They aren’t focused on their own survival. They aren’t placing that as their top priority.)

Letnahe watched the heated debate with icy eyes.

She already knew what the end result would be.

With an optimistic outlook, there would be options left to explore.

But those four would never choose those options. Not because of their strength and not because of their virtue. They had simply been backed into a corner where that wasn’t on the table.

The human string pullers had set everything up to manipulate the world’s strongests in that manner.

(That would explain why you are stumbling so badly when you normally always win, Four Living Gods.)

### 208. Part 7

Something fell from the sky.

It was a collection of junk. The dragonfly, ladybug, and other winged Threats that had attempted aerial combat had lost power and started dropping.

That wasn’t all.

All the wriggling movement around Karuta’s group ceased like a switch had been thrown. Had they simply lost power, or had they lost all purpose without anyone left to give them orders?

Young Natalena took a nervous look around. The look on her face said the silence scared her more than all the noise had.

“The Threat…has stopped?”

To learn what had happened over a wider area, the blonde girl diverted a portion of her attention to the Crystal Blossom transmissions and then frowned.

She heard only static.

A massive explosion had occurred outside of the atmosphere. The radiated microwave and EMP energy may indeed have been negatively affecting various forms of communication. It would be surprising if Transline’s defeat didn’t cause some sort of problems.

But this had to be more than that.

Karuta glared overhead.

“So Crystal Blossom communications aren’t working either.”

“Senpai? Um…”

“Natalena, use any other method – flashing lights, semaphore, or whatever else you know – and tell everyone flying up there to land immediately. If they don’t, they’ll fall from the sky once they lose their power. I have my doubts even their regeneration will work.”

Meanwhile, Natalena noticed a further change.

It started as a quiet, cracking sound. Marika was the only other one nearby with crystal armor out and Natalena watched as her rapier device blurred, shattered, and disappeared into thin air. But that wasn’t all. The crystal armor itself slowly peeled away from her body and vanished.

The same happened to Natalena. This had never happened before. Not even the broken shards remained.

Something unusual was underway, so she widened her eyes.

“W-wait a minute. What’s happening here!?”

“Crystal Magic comes from the conflict between the power pouring down from space and the power of the Original Crystal Embryo. So what happens when one of those powers goes away?”

Natalena Blast could not answer.

Because she saw the answer before she could give it.

Crystal Girl Aine.

Yes, that was right.

Amaashi Marika’s rapier device, all the students’ crystal armor, and everything else that came from Crystal Magic had disappeared. It didn’t just leave their skin and it didn’t just shatter. They couldn’t use their flight or even communicate with their Crystal Blossoms.

So what would happen to Aine?

No one could answer that.

Natalena Blast had been shouting in alarm before, but now her breath caught in her throat. Saying the words felt like they would turn her suspicions into a horrific truth. Maybe everyone here was imagining it all? They had never seen this phenomenon before, but she still gasped at the conclusion she reached without real proof.

And finally…

It was of course Utagai Karuta who spoke.

“Aine.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

“Let’s go for a walk.”

There was no response.

But that was just coincidence. Aine was still there.

For now.

But for how long?

The cracking sound coming from within the crystal girl was quiet, but it was not stopping. Something was happening inside her. Fear weighed on Karuta’s chest with definite color, shape, and weight. There was no turning back time. Marika, Kyouka, Natalena, Deiri, Hirosuke, Imi, Tayori, and everyone else didn’t stop the two of them.

They had saved the world, but it ended here.

There was nothing beyond this point.

### 209. Part 8

“Hello, hello! Welcome to the global broadcast!! This is Delane!! It’s time for Gold Medalist, the super popular show where I have intense interviews with all those winners in life! Man, wouldn’t it be great if it was me, Cinderella Queen, being interviewed on this show one day!? Anyway, this here is today’s guest. Say it with me everyone: Peeendet Denpasarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!”

Things on TV were as lively as ever.

Two familiar faces were currently displayed on screen. One was Cinderella Queen, the edgy(?) child star who had done commentary for the Catastrophe. The other was a girl of 16 or 17 seated on the one-person sofa across from the younger girl. She had gorgeous blonde ringlets that clashed with her outfit of a tank top and baggy dance pants. She wore thick basketball shoes on her feet. That was Pendet Denpasar, Karuta’s opponent in the final match of the Catastrophe tournament.

That made her the current #2 in the world.

In other words, she was the next bullet to be loaded as the world’s strongest.

Curly twintailed Marika actually laughed bitterly while lying on the student council room sofa.

“An interview, huh? I bet she’s confused. Ah ha ha. Look at those tears in her eyes. She’s like a scared little mouse. She couldn’t look more uncomfortable on that little sofa☆ God, she’d have looked a lot cuter heading out to the tournament looking like that.”

“She can’t help it. She has no idea why she’s suddenly getting all this attention. She’s probably realized someone has set this up, but as disturbing as it is, she doesn’t know how to fix it. Just like it was for us,” said Karuta, restlessly spinning the modified military flashlight in his hand.

The human string pullers were serious.

They were setting up the next world’s strongest before these four had even chosen death. This TV show was meant to build up Pendet’s image.

Omotesandou Kyouka, the master of this student council room, sighed softly.

Karuta didn’t even need to move behind her large desk and check the computer screen. The adults were clearly delaying their responses to the emails she had sent out. They never would have done that with a world’s strongest before. Everything from Karuta’s group was probably being drowned out by all the requests and reports sent by the many adults.

The center of the world was already shifting.

Karuta’s group was the soon-to-be-abandoned kings, just like the Problem Solvers had been.

Anastasia’s group had seen the writing on the wall, fought against it, and become monsters.

Not even the human string pullers had been able to control that, which was why the human population had fallen to 5.5 billion.

“Thinking back, the Problem Solvers managed to hold onto their position as world’s strongest for nearly a decade.”

“That’s a record. And by a lot,” said Omotesandou Kyouka. She must have seen the actual records and numbers. “Before them, a strongest would last an average of 3 years before being replaced. No strongest was ever meant to last longer than that.”

“And then there’s us.”

“The Problem Solvers died before they could fulfill their role, so we’re being used up right away to pay back their debt.”

The Problem Solvers had attacked the first ship because they had thought they wouldn’t be disposed of if there was no next candidate. Stooping that low to cling to life may have shown a sort of talent. At the very least, Karuta knew he couldn’t do it.

The next strongest would be Pendet Denpasar. How could he kill her and wipe out the magic system at the source of her power for no reason but that?”

“Sacri-sama.”

“Yeah…”

Aine was standing in the corner like a potted plant and she was likely reminding him of the time. Chrisbart Firenze of the human string pullers had demanded a response at precisely midnight.

They only had three hours left.

“Marika. Omotesandou-san too. I’m stepping out for a bit.”

“ Feel free to just not come back, ” said Marika, lying on the sofa and watching TV.

Her tone was light, but it didn’t sound like a joke.

She didn’t even look his way as she continued.

“ That might be one way of saving yourself, right? We know the 300 million Threats are interested in the world’s strongest humans, so they’ll chase after us if we’re ejected into space. That much is certain. But it may not have to be all four of us. Karuta and Aine-chan could make a romantic getaway.”

Karuta waved a hand dismissively as he stepped out into the dark hallway.

On the inside, he was mildly surprised to find that was Amaashi Marika’s theory.

The crystal girl silently followed him like always. Even on this final night.

“Sacri-sama, I will obey whatever decision you make.”

“Yeah.”

“With that in mind, couldn’t you give that option to Miss Marika or Miss Kyouka?”

Karuta laughed quietly at that.

Aine expressionlessly tilted her head while matching his speed to walk alongside him.

“What was so funny?”

“Nothing really. I was just noticing how much we’ve grown.”

If this had happened a few months ago, he felt like they might have fought each other to determine who got to live. But here they were trying to push survival onto each other. Even Crystal Girl Aine, the least human of them, was doing it.

Karuta considered that kind result.

“ We can’t do that. ”

“Why not?”

“300 million Threats are after the Four Living Gods. If even one of us remains on Earth, the Threat swarm might ignore the group in space and crash down to the surface. That invalidates the choices both groups made.”

Marika probably wasn’t seriously suggesting it.

In fact, if that out-of-control childhood friend was seriously considering something, she wouldn’t suggest it out loud like that. She would increase the odds of success as much as possible by saying nothing, forcibly restraining Karuta and Aine, and preventing them from doing anything else. This was the girl who would burn away her childhood friend’s limb and cover the wound with molten metal to prevent the regeneration.

Karuta’s mild surprise wasn’t with Marika’s idea itself. He was surprised that extremely emotional but harshly realistic girl would indulge in an empty fantasy she knew wasn’t a real possibility.

Death was frightening.

Maybe you couldn’t avoid it, but you still wanted something to save you psychologically.

It wasn’t a surprising turn of events. But he felt like he was getting a glimpse of the vulnerability she had always worked so hard to keep hidden.

What about Omotesandou Kyouka?

Her behavior didn’t seem as obviously out of the ordinary as Marika’s.

“Then again, continuing to check her work emails at this point is unusual.”

“Sacri-sama?”

Tomorrow would never arrive for them, so there was no point in checking on her work.

Supposedly, anyway.

At this point, they should have been writing their wills and purifying their bodies. Or if they were going to die anyway, they could try drinking or smoking just once before the end. But Kyouka’s behavior seemed too ordinary . She may have been preserving her usual routine because she wanted to believe it wasn’t too late.

Anyone would be scared given the circumstances.

And an extreme fear of death was like a giant mirror reflecting your true nature back at you. Utagai Karuta walking through the halls like this was part of that too. He was descending to the bottom level of the central hull that linked Second Grimnoah’s three hull shape together.

The crystal statues that had once been the teachers and students of the first ship were gathered here.

He checked the numbers to locate the correct door and opened it. he slowly pulled out the sliding bed within.

No change.

If it was only going to end like this, maybe it would have been easier to die sooner.

“Hi, Gekiha,” said Utagai Karuta.

No one was listening and there was no response. The greeting was entirely meaningless, but Aine didn’t say anything while standing alongside him. She did not even tilt her expressionless head.

“It turns out humanity can’t defeat the Threat. It’s not about trying harder or anything like that. It was set up that way from the start. Ha ha. Makes me wonder why we even bothered taking revenge on the Problem Solvers. It was going to happen sooner or later. Even if no one had stopped us and we had all graduated from the first ship, we would have been killed as the new world’s strongests anyway. Funny, right?”

He was surrounded by silence.

He looked down at his former friend and spoke all on his own.

“But we’re still going to protect the world.”

Protect.

Perhaps it was arrogant to use that word here.

He already knew that not all the Threat were bad. They had already slaughtered the Armored Warrior and the tadpole Threats who had only wanted to try out studying at a human school. Was he trying to imply the Threat had no reason to kill them?

But he was still afraid to die, so if someone was threatening his life, he would view them as evil no matter the circumstances.

They had done the same thing themselves. They had so strongly denounced the Problem Solvers when they were only acting out of fear as well, so he had set up a double standard for himself.

Was that the ugly and vivid truth of human nature?

After a self-deprecating smile, he went ahead and said it anyway.

“You’re supposed to wake up after about 7000 years, right? I’ll make sure there isn’t a Threat to be seen when you open your eyes. I hope you can accept that as a compromise, Gekiha.”

That ugly nature was something the world had acquired after they had taken revenge and become the Four Living Gods.

Kazamuki Gekiha had died before all that, so he hoped he would be purer than that.

“Sacri-sama.”

“…I know.”

Karuta gave a small nod when Aine called out to him.

They still had some time until midnight.

But…

“We need to act soon to avoid any further trouble. If we wait until midnight, we might run into Deiri, Natalena, and the others. ”

Second Grimnoah was a fortress built to make efficient use of the Four Living Gods. Of course they would be aware of everything going on there. They knew all about the meeting Natalena, Letnahe, and so many others were holding in the gym.

And not even the Four Living Gods were confident they could win in a group battle against more than 1000 teachers and students who could use Crystal Magic.

He appreciated the thought.

But he couldn’t have them interfering at this point.

More than 300 million Threats could start pouring down on Earth at any moment. The human string pullers had given a concrete time limit. A single day of hesitation could mean the beginning of an unstoppable invasion of the entire planet and the 5.5 billion people who lived there. And there was no turning back time. Once that happened, it was too late for Karuta’s group to feel regrets.

The Four Living Gods could not survive whether they remained on Earth or were launched into space. That much was certain.

So which was the better choice?

The answer couldn’t have been more obvious.

If they succumbed to that pleasant kindness, they wouldn’t just lose their lives – they would lose everything.

“…”

Utagai Karuta returned his friend to the storage container, shut the door, and walked to the exit. He looked back from the door and quietly bowed. After spending more than 10 seconds like that, he raised his head and slowly walked up the stairs. Aine silently followed him.

“Aine.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

“Sorry for getting you involved in a fight we never could win.”

“I am not sure what you mean.”

They climbed step after step after step.

Once out on the side deck, they found the childhood friend and president waiting.

Those two smiled bitterly.

“I thought I told you to run away.”

“You could’ve run away too, Marika.”

Everyone else would still be fiercely debating what to do in the gym. They were taking this very seriously in order to save the four gathered here. That made Karuta so happy he was afraid he might start crying, but he knew he could not rely on that.

“Karuta-kun, did you not write a will?”

“I decided not to. I’d be embarrassed if I left something behind and people started deifying me.”

“You could have at least written something for your family.”

“You’ve seen how many old authors and Bakumatsu period samurai have their private letters – even love letters – shown off in museums. Besides, anything I wrote would end up being nothing but complaining. I don’t want everyone seeing that.”

“Kee hee hee. But did you use a special tool to wipe your secret hard drive? What about your online storage and browser history? Deleting it the normal way isn’t good enough.”

“Bff!?”

His childhood friend’s teasing laughter made him do a spit take.

Was that really something for a girl to bring up?

The president elegantly placed a hand on her cheek.

“My, my, Karuta-kun. Hee hee. You should have come to your intellectual upperclassman who knows all about computers. Don’t worry. I will permanently delete it all without peeking☆”

“I know better than to trust that smile, you schemer. Plus, that’s more embarrassing than asking for a baby bottle, so no one would ever take you up on that offer!”

The crystal girl didn’t seem to understand (which Karuta’s idealistic view of girls told him was how it should be), so she expressionlessly tilted her head.

“Sacri-sama?”

“It’s nothing. I can handle this myself, so you don’t need to worry about it!”

Marika cackled and held her sides. It was possible those two had planned this to break through the gloomy mood.

But the time had come regardless. They were reluctant to leave, but they also didn’t want to wait too long and have their friends gather around.

“So are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Two of them could not use the flight preset, so Aine picked up Karuta and Marika picked up Kyouka, wheelchair and all. Then the Four Living Gods jumped over the railing.

They flew toward the dark silhouette of the space elevator stretching up toward heaven.

This was the first step on their journey into death.

### 210. Part 8

Utagai Karuta and Crystal Girl Aine walked side by side.

Anywhere would have worked, so they slowly walked toward the nearby concrete embankment running alongside the ocean.

They said nothing.

That may have been normal for Aine. She generally never said a word unless he spoke to her first.

She stuck to that even now.

Her outlines wavered and blurred as a cracking sound came form her. Someone whose existence relied on Crystal Magic was vanishing as she broke apart from the inside.

“Aine,” called Karuta.

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

She could still respond. Just like always. That should have made him happy, but he couldn’t help but see it as a final resistance on her part.

“Sorry about all this,” he continued.

“You have done nothing requiring an apology.”

The embankment was not a road.

It would end eventually. It didn’t lead anywhere, so they would eventually reach a dead end. From there, they would only find the sea, which felt like a symbol of death.

There was nowhere to go.

They couldn’t get around this one.

Utagai Karuta bit his lip. He was trembling. Aine’s outlines began to fade, but she tilted her head like she always did.

“Ahhh.”

He couldn’t take it anymore.

Maybe it helped that no one else could see him. All the emotion rushed into his chest at once.

Why did everyone call him the world’s strongest?

He was entirely powerless here.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!! Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

He clung to her.

He fell to his knees and clung to her flat chest to confirm she hadn’t shattered into nothingness.

But the most desolate sound he had ever heard had not stopped.

“No. How is this fair!?”

“Sacri-sama.”

“We fought the 300 million Threats and defeated Transline even after she offered us a path to an unacceptable peace!! We worked so hard to keep everyone alive, so…so why does it have to end like this!? Why does eliminating the Threat have to take you from us!? The world won’t let us have anything, will it!!?”

The Problem Solvers had trampled everyone in their path as the lonely elites at the top.

Riho, Sanae, and Alice had burned with rage when someone they cared deeply about was taken from them.

The Armored Warrior had its dreams and ideals about humanity shattered.

Even the human string pullers had stooped to such depths because there was something they wanted to protect.

But.

Who said Utagai Karuta’s pain and anger were in any way inferior to theirs?

“Sacri-sama.”

The crystal girl called to him just as briefly but more strongly than before.

“Crystal Magic is a half-baked phenomenon created from the conflict between the energy pouring down from space and the energy of the Original Crystal Embryo. It is like the sparks produced when two electrodes collide. You knew that from the beginning.”

“…”

She was the partner who had stayed by his side this whole time, accepted his weaknesses, and never gave up on him.

Why couldn’t he save her?

Why couldn’t he think up some way?

“I knew this was coming because the Original Crystal Embryo at the center is also supported by magic. But I could not abandon the 5.5 billion remaining on Earth. Wasn’t that our choice as the Four Living Gods? So I fought until the very end. I thought you felt the same.”

Yes, he had.

He had thrown out the fantasy of seeking happiness for just the four of them!!

And he had held some fundamental doubts about their Crystal Magic from the moment they decided to settle things with the Threat!! But still!!

“I thought a miracle would happen.”

“A miracle?”

“No, I had no reason to think one would. No, I didn’t have anything prepared. But. But you worked so hard. There are 5.5 billion people alive now because of your power! So can’t the universe throw us a bone just this once!?”

“All of our battles should have taught you that hoping that things will turn out all right ‘just because’ never solves anything.”

Miracles did not happen.

For better or for worse, if you wanted to win, you needed to find a path to victory yourself.

Nothing remained to support Crystal Girl Aine.

She had been summoned as an error when the Crystal Blossom was activated before a god’s name was sealed inside. Utagai Karuta knew more about her than anyone, but not even he could find a way to support her here.

“Is there anything I can do?”

He raised his mess of a face.

She was as expressionless as ever even as cracking sounds continued to come from her. She remained faithful even now.

He wanted to pull something out of her. Maybe he could only extract her mind, but he wanted to permanently preserve it somewhere.

So.

“No one can deny that you saved this world. 5.5 billion people owe you their lives. So you can ask anything and I mean anything. Is there anything at all I can do for you?”

“Then I do have one meaningless and selfish request before I leave.”

She placed her small hands on his shoulders and whispered something in his ear. He looked surprised at first, but he finally nodded.

He shut his eyes.

She stood up on her toes and stretched upwards just enough to cover the space between their lips.

That was all.

He felt nothing on his lips as her outlines fully vanished from the world.

The Crystal Blossom at his chest shattered and the wind carried it away.

### 211. Part 9

They crossed the dark sea.

Their destination was more than 5km away – which meant it was beyond the horizon – but since it was an elevator that rose vertically into space, they could see it clearly even at this distance.

The space elevator was located on a naval float attached to a small island in the south sea. According to Kyouka, the float would move within certain limits to cancel out the irregular shaking of the wire caused by the wind and other factors.

A light was flashing from there.

Aine and Maika used their flight presets to make a gentle landing on the artificial float that measured more than a kilometer on each side.

Someone stood there.

An old man in a lab coat.

“I was waiting for you.”

“Are you Chrisbart Firenze?” asked Karuta as soon as Aine lowered him from his princess carry position, but the man did not bother confirming it.

Karuta was still suspicious, but he didn’t see any bodyguards or any other fighting force around. The man really was completely alone. The human string pullers seemed awfully defenseless for such a powerful group working from the shadows. It was only natural to suspect the possibility this was a body double or agent.

After all, the man was dealing with the world’s strongests who were doomed to die. And the human string pullers were the ones who had set that up. For one of the bastards who intended to go on living, being attacked in a last-ditch attempt to survive had to be the greatest risk.

But the old man snorted in laughter at Karuta’s doubts.

“The greatest tool of self-defense is information, not power. Bodyguards or a body double would have the opposite effect. People are strongest when alone.”

“…”

“I take it you do not agree. But you should know all too well what fate awaits you four who acquired the world’s strongest power .”

Karuta stepped behind Omotesandou Kyouka and grabbed her wheelchair’s grips.

Aine’s sword and Marika’s rapier Device were more powerful than his modified military flashlight. He wanted to keep their hands free if possible.

The old man turned around and simply said “follow me”.

The lightweight aluminum alloy ground was paved with asphalt and was perfectly sturdy. It did not look all that different from an old-fashioned airport or rocket launch site. Except the massive “smokestack” in the very center made it all look very strange indeed.

Perhaps to prevent aircraft collisions, there was an evenly-spaced vertical line of red lights stretching skyward. Those were slowly flashing. The line of lights stopped tens of thousands of meters high because that that was as high as it was possible for aircraft to fly. However, there was likely an air defense system that would activate if an airplane or helicopter flew too close without permission.

The space elevator looked like an obsolete relic. But on closer inspection, not a single bolt was rusted. It was perfectly maintained. This was the final lifeline for the 5.5 billion people on Earth, so they could not have it lost in an accident or terrorist attack.

Chrisbart spoke without looking back.

“I will not ask if you are ready. The fact that you arrived on time shows you each possess the necessary resolve.”

“Second Grimnoah is less than 10km away. And Crystal Magic flight can exceed Mach 2 if you try. If Natalena and the others have realized what’s happening, they might attack the elevator to prevent us from departing.”

Karuta was pushing the president’s wheelchair while asking about that because the large artificial island did not have any kind of electric cart like you might find at an airport or golf course. Walking the full distance was a real pain.

“I appreciate giving us some more time right at the end, but neither of us can let anything jeopardize this final chance. You yourself said we had the necessary resolve. If you have a shortcut, feel free to use it.”

But the lab coat man did not seem to mind.

He shrugged without looking back.

“We are the human string pullers, remember?”

“…”

“We control everything by providing just the right stimulation to all of those called humans. By providing the right information and the right situation, we can ensure those students’ good will never leads to action. Or we can convince them to swallow their tears and see you off because that is what you wish.”

That was their power.

That was the true malice that not even the Four Living Gods had been able to defeat.

And it did not matter to Chrisbart that one of the teachers he was targeting shared his last name.

Karuta had a harder time understanding those terrifying monsters than he did the Problem Solvers or the real Threat.

“By the way,” said Chrisbart Firenze on the way to the base of the elevator.

“What?”

“Is that it ?”

“?”

Karuta was not sure what he meant.

The old man did not look back, but Karuta finally sensed what he must have meant. Chrisbart was focused on Karuta, but not directly. His interest was in Crystal Girl Aine who he had summoned and who obeyed him.

“…”

Aine did not respond in any way. Was she not interested or was she intentionally ignoring the man? It was hard to tell when she was always so expressionless.

They arrived at the base of the space elevator.

It looked a lot like a landmark broadcast tower. Some of the same technology may have been used to construct it. The base was shaped like a giant C that enveloped the space in front of it and was split into a few different floors. Karuta thought that shape looked familiar and realized it was used for malls that surrounded a plaza or park. It may have been intended as a special international airport or tourist attraction before it went out of business and was taken over by the human string pullers.

The restaurants and shops appeared to still be functioning. At the very least, it wasn’t full of empty shops and the mannequins weren’t covered in dust. Perhaps it was the same idea as having shops for soldiers on a military base.

“How many people does it take to run the elevator?” asked Marika, looking up at the giant “smokestack”.

“Around 1000 if you include the air defense operators. The operation is fully handled on the surface, so the space section is empty. But even with that many, most of the work is handled by computers.”

Were all of those thousand part of the human string pullers? Or was a minority sending out falsified orders to manipulate some other larger organization who had no idea what was going on here? It was impossible to tell from here and it honestly didn’t matter either way.

As a relic of when this was either an international airport or a tourist destination, the entrance area contained a row of ticket gates that reacted to either a paper ticket or an annual pass card. Their power appeared to be shut down, so Chrisbart walked right through one gate.

The elevator was past there.

The elevator car was like a train car tilted up on its end. Karuta guessed that was to obscure how many people and materials were being carried up each time, but apparently that was not the case.

Chrisbart explained.

“Your destination is in geosynchronous orbit 36 thousand kilometers from here. The Earth’s gravity, air resistance, the wire’s shaking, and other factors will reduce the elevator’s speed, so even at maximum power, it will take you three days to arrive. The elevator is more cost effective and safer than a rocket, but much, much slower.”

“Three days?”

“That was accounted for when calculating out your time limit, so you need not worry about running out of time.”

Having it happen all at once was a terrifying thought, but could they really spend three full days slowly committing suicide? And once they started, there was no turning back.

Traveling more than 10 thousand kilometers each day was extraordinarily fast. If a truck driver drove at 100km/h all day long without even stopping to sleep, how far could they travel in one day? And traveling vertically was a lot more difficult than traveling horizontally.

“You lived together in an RV when hunting down the Problem Solvers, didn’t you? There is a shower, bathroom, and kitchen stocked with everything you will need for your short stay there. Although they are designed for use in zero-g, so they cannot be used like normal. You have come this far, so we don’t want you to starve to death inside the elevator.”

That explained the size of the elevator car. Taking a plane to the other side of the planet took around half a day, so three days for travel was a major restriction. That may have been the real reason it had never caught on, not the international and technological issues. Ordinary people wouldn’t have anything to do even if they did spend all the money necessary for the long trip into space.

Space was not the only unexplored area. For example, people could spend a mountain of cash to take a deep sea probe thousands of meters underwater. That was enough to see or experience something brand new. But most people didn’t do that. They weren’t interested in a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Why was that? It was like taking an overseas trip where you couldn’t even leave the hotel. Once something became a real possibility, did the realistic inconvenience come into view and cause a journey into a world of dreams to lose its luster?

The Four Living Gods were being abandoned here. They were being crammed into a cramped corner of death that everyone had already lost interest in.

And the process would take days.

They approached the elevator car, Karuta pushing the wheelchair.

“When do we leave? The sooner the better, if you ask me.”

“How rational of you.”

The boy smiled a little at that assessment.

The human string pullers knew how to manipulate humans, but they sure didn’t understand humans. He only wanted to get this over with before the uncertainty inside him could take over.

### 212. Prologue

They are no different from humans.

Some people may find hope in this statement, but I say those people must have never once looked in a mirror.

The Threat is just as plentiful as humans.

Which means they could multiply to more than 5.5 billion units under the right conditions and environment.

The Threat can enjoy things just as humans do.

Which means they would not hesitate take away people’s territory and survival zone if they took a liking to them.

The Threat can learn just as humans do.

Which means they could invent more efficient methods and tools for killing.

The Threat can think just as humans do.

Which means they could see a different lifeform and hate that lifeform.

The Threat kills just as humans do.

Which means they do not need any real reason to do so.

Now, does anyone out there still see any possibility of friendship with the Threat after hearing all that? Do not pretend. Finding them disturbing is the normal reaction. It is human nature to reject them and keep as far away from them as possible.

But the Threat is the same us humans.

That means they will want to exterminate us just like we want to exterminate them. Neither side is good or evil. Both sides must accept our nature and put together a countermeasure.

And it goes without saying that we humans are the ones about to be destroyed.

You think there might be some way to get the Threat to end their violence?

Do you think anything could stop us from killing if the situations were reversed?

That is your answer right there.

Needless to say, humanity is an ugly species.

And so are they.

-Chrisbart Firenze, just another weapons researcher

This story is set on Second Grimnoah, a crystal magic academy floating in the sea near the equator.

More specifically, in a dorm room on board.

A black-haired boy wore a summer uniform composed of a short-sleeved button-up shirt, a sports T-shirt, and thin purple slacks. Utagai Karuta sat on his bed with his hands covering his face. The wall across from him was covered with clippings from printed-out reports and online news articles with colorful strings connecting them all together.

This was meant to do more than just visualize the situation.

All of the connections were roughly thrown together, making it look a lot like he was trying his best not to accept something.

The path he had taken to reach this point was laid out on the wall.

The Problem Solvers of the old strongest – Elicia, Yukino, Jessie, Susannia, and Anastasia – had been powerful users of God-Worshiping Magic.

They had destroyed the old Grimnoah using next-gen Crystal Magic and the four survivors – Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka – had taken revenge.

At first, they had doubted the Threat even existed, but the Threat was later revealed to be very real indeed.

A Second Grimnoah was created, centered on Karuta’s group – the Four Living Gods – who were the new world’s strongest.

On a golden week school trip to Iceland’s Crystal Beach, they had encountered and fought an enemy force they thought to be the Threat.

However, that force turned out to be a decoy Threat created by a human weapons manufacturer and hijacked by Riho, Sanae, and Alice who had infiltrated Second Grimnoah.

Anastasia’s sister Natalena had also infiltrated the school and Karuta and Marika fought over what to do about her.

When Second Grimnoah arrived near the Port of Kobe, it was attacked and occupied by the real Threat, so Karuta and the others worked to take it back.

They assumed the real Threat was attempting to learn how to use Crystal Magic and evolve past anything they could hope to handle. But in truth, they simply admired humans and had wanted to experience a school life. Due to Matsuda Imi and Aine’s actions, Karuta was forced to battle a Threat known as the Warrior Doll.

At the same time, Letnahe from the Indian military fought with Omotesandou Kyouka. Kyouka learned the woman was a scout sent by the human string pullers and successfully converted her into a double agent to extract some information from the string pullers.

Second Grimnoah was reclaimed, but doubt had been cast on the power of the Four Living Gods. As a performance to avoid social unrest on a global scale, the preexisting Catastrophe system was used to hold a martial arts tournament.

Some trickery on the human string pullers’ part forced Karuta to compete on his own, but he defeated a formidable foe named Pendet and emerged victorious. At the same time, they managed to approach the identity of the global community of weapons researchers (including magic weapons) which they had known as the human string pullers. They acquired Chrisbart Firenze as a specific name there.

Meanwhile, 300 million Threats were arriving from space.

When it had looked like the past strongests were going to lose their battle against the Threat, they had been launched into space using a space elevator. The Threat would gather around the abandoned strongests, distracting them long enough to just barely protect humanity for a while longer.

Karuta’s group was up next.

The fact that they were the next living sacrifices – that is, the world’s strongest – had already been proven to the entire world through the media.

“…”

He couldn’t find an answer.

All the information he had was taped up on the wall and a veritable cobweb of colorful strings attached even the most tenuous link he could think up. Yet he still couldn’t find any loophole or way out of this situation.

300 million.

Before, they had hit their limit with fewer than 10 thousand of the real Threat. This was several orders of magnitude greater. The Four Living Gods didn’t stand a chance fighting that many in one place and, if they descended on every part of the Earth at once, not even sending out every single Second Grimnoah teacher and student would be enough to protect everyone. And that was before even considering whether or not they could all win a direct fight with the Threat.

“Sacri-sama,” said a girl in a beautiful bell-like voice.

She had hip-length silver hair and skin that was more pale than white.

That was the crystal girl named Aine.

“It is time. If you intend to meet up with Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka, you need to get ready and head to the student council room.”

“I don’t want to go. I haven’t found an answer for her yet.”

The bed creaked right next to him.

Aine had been standing up all this time, but now she sat next to him. She peered up at his lowered head covered by his hands and spoke with no emotion in her voice.

“Sacri-sama, I will always prioritize your decisions and assist in carrying them out.”

He was afraid to look her in the eye, so he pulled on the small hand propping up her body.

He felt a soft weight.

Aine was now resting her head on this lap and using that lap pillow to stare up at his face from directly below.

And she spoke her mechanical words.

“If you wish to avoid a discussion with Miss Kyouka and Miss Marika, I will obey. I will respect your decisions and assist you in hiding away or holing up in this room. Is that what you want?”

What would it accomplish if he did that?

Refusing to attend a meeting meant to ensure the Four Living Gods were on the same page would not change the underlying situation.

The Threat was approaching Earth.

Based on the observations, their number was estimated to be more than 300 million. If they arrived all across the Earth, not even Crystal Magic would be able to stop them.

Humanity could not defeat the Threat.

The limited time remaining to them was slipping away, but he couldn’t find anything but complaints.

He placed his hand on Aine’s head for no real reason.

“Why am I the world’s strongest? It never made any sense. There must be something wrong with the very structure of the human race to place me at the top.”

Aine rested her head on his lap and accepted the hand patting her head as she presented the necessary problem to him.

“But the Threat swarm gathering in orbit is already dense enough to influence satellite communications, so you cannot just stand idly by and- nhh.”

“Aine?”

Her slender shoulders clearly shook.

He stopped his hand when she made a weird noise. He had been patting her head since it was in such a convenient location, but he must have hit one of her horns with his finger.

The crystal girl rolled onto her side like she was tossing in her sleep and removed her eyes from him, but she could not fully hide the subtle tremor in her body.

“Y-you aren’t supposed to touch that before marriage, Sacri-sama.”

“?”

Come to think of it, she had said something like that before.

He gave her a puzzled look and dumped out the relevant drawer in his memories.

“But didn’t you start rubbing those horn-like things against me before? Um, yeah, like on the elevator at the Crystal Beach hotel.”

“…”

“It looked like a subconscious reaction back then. You started doing it after I called you weird when you were wearing that white school swimsuit. …Wait. Were you hoping I would compliment your swimsuit then?”

When her body stiffened this time, it was anything but subtle.

“It…”

“?”

“It does not seem fair to dig back up such an old incident, Sacri-sama.”

She was trembling from embarrassment more than he had ever seen.

This was so different from when he had first summoned her with his Crystal Blossom (mostly as a malfunction). She must have learned a lot from her time spent with him.

And on that note…

(Can I really do this?)

She was still letting him rub her head with that head in his lap. She was trembling and unable to look him in the eye from such close range and she moved awkwardly to try and hide the flush of her skin. A bitter thought occurred to him as he silently observed her.

(She’s learned to show such human emotion, so can I really ask her to die with us? Yes, this decision is meant to protect the 5.5 billion other humans out there, but Aine isn’t human. She’s a crystal girl.)

Just then, a low buzzing sound came from a part of the room not far away.

That was his phone.

Aine called out to him from his lap.

“Sacri-sama.”

“I don’t want to answer it.”

“But it is still vibrating. That is unusual, so I doubt this is a classmate asking you to hang out. This is about the Four Living Gods.”

Also, anyone from Second Grimnoah would use their Crystal Blossoms since they could be used to communicate safely, without any chance of the signal being intercepted. Even if both options did the same thing, humans naturally chose the one that was less of a hassle. Unless they were attaching an image or video file, the students almost never used their phones to contact each other.

That meant this wasn’t even Marika or Kyouka.

Karuta breathed a heavy sigh and slowly stood from the bed. With her pillow gone, Aine reverted to her default state, but she did seem to be puffing out her cheeks in displeasure. Why had she convinced him to answer the phone if she was going to react like that?

His phone was making a lot of noise vibrating atop his study desk. He grabbed it to find an unfamiliar number on the screen.

He answered without checking further.

If this was only a telemarketer, at least it would give him something to laugh about.

“You took longer to answer than I had predicted, Living God. Is that a sign of how much reluctance you are feeling?”

“…Who are you?”

“Chrisbart Firenze.”

Karuta gasped.

He knew that name. And he knew what role the man played in the current world.

“The human string pullers is not a centralized group, but since you know my name, you can think of me as a contact point. At any rate, I ordinarily would not play any role on the center stage.”

He had the husky male voice of an elderly man.

That first impression couldn’t be fully trusted since it was happening through a machine…but Karuta smiled at himself for starting to get so paranoid.

What was there to be paranoid about?

The truth was right there laid out on the wall. He had proven there was no escape and no amount of thinking was going to reveal a path to survival.

And Chrisbart (or someone using the name) was not going to wait for Karuta to respond. He continued in a mechanical, businesslike fashion.

“Are you prepared to fulfill your role, world’s strongest?”

“You…”

“We have already searched out the world’s #2 hidden among the 5.5 billion and are preparing her to be the next generation of strongest. Once our stock of Living Gods has run out, Pendet Denpasar will be promoted to world’s strongest. And once she has bought enough time for us to find the next #2, she too will be launched into space when the time comes. Just like you will be soon.”

He didn’t show any of the hostility or malice the Problem Solvers had.

He wasn’t self-destructive like Riho, Sanae, and Alice had been.

He showed no sign of the hatred born from betrayal the armored warrior had shown.

He didn’t have the lust and joy for victory that Pendet Denpasar had.

It was all matter-of-fact.

His lack of emotion hinted at how many times he had done this in the past. Perhaps they had done it with old fashioned rockets before the space elevator was built.

“What will you do?”

Chrisbart Firenze’s voice was as dull as could be.

There was a teacher onboard Second Grimnoah with the Firenze name, but Karuta doubted he could use that as a bargaining chip. If this man learned they needed to sacrifice that puppy-like teacher to save humanity, he would do so without hesitation. He viewed everything through a lens of pure logic and efficiency.

“If you obey, you four will die and the 5.5 billion will survive. But if you refuse, you four will die and the 5.5 billion will die along with you. Neither option allows you to survive, so it seems to me it would leave a better taste in your mouth if you did it in a way the people would appreciate, even if no official records of it will remain.”

“…”

“Or if you are forced to die, would you prefer to take as many people with you as you can? That is one side of human nature, I won’t deny it. If you resist, we are prepared to use every last part of human society to hunt you down, but…if you are unwilling to cooperate, every part of this will be more challenging. That effectively makes this your decision as the Four Living Gods. Your decision will determine how it all ends.”

There was no answer here.

The minimum number of deaths was set at 4 and no choice would save any of those 4.

Those 4 were Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka.

There wasn’t even a shred of pity in Chrisbart Firenze’s voice.

The protector of humanity spoke more coldly than any machine.

“I give you one day. If you are still unwilling to offer up your lives, then the 5.5 billion are doomed.”

### 213. Chapter 1

### Part 1

“Senpai, you have a really low life experiences score, don’t you?”

Utagai Karuta was being attacked by a 12-year-old first thing in the morning.

The attacker was Natalena Blast, a Sub Category Regulation 1 with wavy blonde hair cut to shoulder length. Her white short-sleeve blouse didn’t look so crisp because she made sure to wash and iron it with care; this was simply her first time wearing it. This was Karuta’s first time wearing the summer uniform too since the first ship had been sunk so soon, but it was different for her. Her entire summer uniform gave off an aura of innocence. She, however, thought she was all grown up now that she was wearing a summer uniform for the first time, so mentioning that aura was sure to have her puffing out her cheeks even more.

She was more than a head shorter than Karuta and she was currently grabbing bite-sized pieces of French toast from a square plastic container and tossing them into her mouth.

“Munch, munch. I mean, you’re supposed to be this incredible upperclassman who’s been with Grimnoah since the first ship, but, well, you barely know any of the school’s tricks. If you want people to look up to you as an upperclassman, you need to enjoy your school life more. And you need to teach me more tricks for getting by at school.”

“I never asked you to call me ‘senpai’ all the time. And what’s with this rule breaking first thing in the morning, Natalena? If you’re going to eat snacks, don’t do it in the middle of the hallway where the teachers are bound to catch you.”

“Call me Jane Ignition here. And anything you cook yourself in the dorm kitchen and bring with you doesn’t count as a snack. Besides, French toast made from the bread crusts I cut off my sandwiches is a valuable source of carbs.”

Come to think of it, Second Grimnoah ensured the students were free to buy lunch at the cafeteria, buy it at the school store, or bring their own. So if it was handmade, even a donut, biscuit, or bagel might just barely dodge the label of “snack”. And as long as you didn’t do it during class, there was no actual restriction on when you could eat your lunch.

Natalena licked off her honey and sugar covered fingers.

“Yum. The fact that I have to explain to you how to abuse these kinds of loopholes is why you aren’t much of an upperclassman.”

“Well, sorry. So what are you doing here anyway? The Subcategory building is over there.”

“I’m visiting the Main Category library to, um, get some reference material.”

“….”

“Um, Senpai? The fact that self-study isn’t bound by the school year framework is another of those loopholes I was talking about. And I know you’re excited since today is a Port Day, but, uh, you’re the one who can’t afford the blow to your reputation if you get a bad score on the upcoming exams.”

This capable underclassman was on another level entirely from Utagai Karuta.

“(Hm, I see. From now on, I’ll call her Self Conscious Girl.)”

“I can hear you, Not Nearly Self Conscious Enough Senpai.”

With that parting comment, she walked off.

Unlike that perfect Subcategory Regulation 1 who never stopped studying even when she didn’t have class or homework, undisciplined Karuta held his sleepy head and walked straight to his classroom. He found a room so steady it was hard to believe it was on a ship.

The classroom was a mixture of information before morning homeroom. The boys and girls had gathered into a few different groups where they chatted freely. Several were instead focused on their phones or tablets. The paper weekly manga magazines didn’t always show up on the school store’s shelves on the usual release day, so the students had a tendency to buy the digital version they could read on their phones.

“Sup, Karuta. Hirosuke went ahead and bought the digital version even though it’s a Port Day, so watch out for spoilers.”

“This week’s Red Pan is so good. I-it’s the kind of once-in-a-lifetime chapter where anything I could tell you would spoil it for you.”

If Utagai Karuta was going to join a group, it was usually with his awful friends Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke. Seeing the disaster that was those two honestly helped soothe the wounds inflicted by Self Conscious Girl that morning.

The Port Day people kept mentioning referred to a day when Second Grimnoah, a modified triple hull cruise ship, stopped at a port to resupply or receive maintenance. The ship contained more than enough facilities for anything they might want to do, but leaving the ship still brought a sense of freedom.

The Japanese might have trouble picturing what the Southeast Asian equatorial region looks like, but there were plenty of cities rivaling Tokyo or Osaka in size. A chance to visit those cities was exciting.

“(Don’t you two sneak out every night for some low-altitude flying so the ship’s radar won’t notice you?)”

“(It’s not the same thing, Karuta-chan.)”

His childhood friend and fellow worlds strongest Amaashi Marika was also in his class, but similar circumstances did not mean they were always together.

In fact…

“Hey, hey. Welcome to Marika-san’s spot the difference game. So can either of you tell what’s different about me from yesterday? Well, Imi? How about it, Tayori? Heh heh. Ha ha ha. C’mon, c’mon, make a guess!”

“Are you kidding me, Marika!? I’d have to be blind to miss those super long shoujo manga eyelashes! What are you, the Fuji TV logo? Argh, I’m so jealous!!”

“Oh? You got the latest Serene Silent product, didn’t you? All the girls were glued to their screens yesterday trying for that jelly mascara, but of course it was you won the purchase lottery. You have all the luck.”

Those youthful people, whose skin seemed covered in a water-resistant coating, excitedly made plans to all try it out together later. The popular girls were also busy making their own plans for the Port Day.

Their conversations had a different feel to them.

It was like they existed in a bright and sunny zone.

Unlike Karuta’s type who were constantly fighting over who got to be in the secluded corners of the large classroom, the girl’s group formed by the triangle of Marika, Imi, and Tayori were like the yolk of a fried egg. They were the school protagonists. More than just being popular girls, they were the central figures, where it wouldn’t even seem like an egg dish anymore if they were removed. Those were Amaashi Marika’s original specs. Girls who could look cute doing the things she did were so rare Karuta doubted there were even 5 of them in all of Japan.

“Anyway, my friends, wasn’t yesterday’s homework a nightmare? Quantity-wise, I mean.”

“Yeah, so gross!”

“Marika, you’re only agreeing out of habit, aren’t you? I bet you were actually glued to your tablet all day yesterday.”

The summer uniform’s short-sleeved blouse was thin enough that it was pretty bad for Karuta’s heart when curvy Marika stretched her arms and pushed out her chest. He didn’t have any kind of clairvoyance, but he still had a tunnel view right up his childhood friend’s short sleeve to her armpit.

Hashizaki Tayori, who looked like the gyaru type but acted more like the big sister type, seemed bothered by it, but Matsuda Imi was completely unguarded. She had even chosen a bright colored bra, so its striped pattern showed right through her blouse on this pleasant morning. That was probably the top half of a matching set.

Marika seemed to notice Karuta watching from a short distance away while she sat on a desk instead of in a chair.

The girl with her twintails dyed strawberry blonde winked at him and jokingly blew him a kiss.

“I’d say Amaashi scores pretty high,” said Yamane Deiri. “Getting her as a childhood friend is like getting seeded in the tournament of life, Karuta-chan. How the hell are you stuck in the pill bug zone in the corner of the class with us? Port Day’s are the perfect time for a date. Have you completely given up on enjoying your youth?”

“Karuta-kun can never make it in the sunlight! Because he used up his entire life’s allotment of luck getting seeded with such a cute girl as a neighbor. Don’t worry. He’s the kind of guy who gets chosen as a starting member of the team but then gets booed for getting last place in the tournament.”

He was really unsure how to even begin responding to his depressing friends’ discussion, but he found it curious they considered that being seeded. They were so bitter it was unusual for them to compliment Marika who was such an obvious winner at life.

Then again…

“(Of course, she’s 5 years too young to be in my strike zone. Look, I won’t insist on her becoming a schoolteacher, so can she at least grow into a college girl while still being basically the same?)”

“(It’s a shame, really. She has a lot going for her, but no one taller than 145cm is on my menu. She’s bamboo, not the delicious bamboo shoots. Forcing myself to eat that would only make me sick.)”

Or could they only make such a rational assessment because they weren’t interested in her? Karuta updated his opinion of them. By downgrading them to “utterly hopeless”, of course.

Then he felt something on his cheek.

He found Crystal Girl Aine was crawling out from his side. She had grabbed at his cheek with her small fingers and pulled in the process.

“Less than 145cm! A masterpiece of god’s creation!!” shouted Nekoumi Hirosuke with arms spread wide, but Aine ignored that and puffed out her cheeks while grumbling something.

She appeared to be upset.

“Mhh.”

“What is it, Aine? Can you explain it to me?”

“Sacri-sama, have you failed to grasp the situation from Miss Marika’s extremely unnatural eye contact and lip movements? She is asking to see your homework because she forgot to do hers.”

Aine’s warning proved accurate.

Marika must have checked the wall clock and concluded their homeroom teacher would arrive soon. This would be her last chance to copy his homework before morning homeroom. The curly twintails girl, who was willing to throw kisses in an exaggerated and theatrical fashion, approached him. Imi and Tayori sighed and watched her go. Karuta really wished they would prove their friendship by stopping her.

It turned out Marika didn’t care whose seat she sat in.

She dragged over a nearby chair and sat down. She gave off a sweet scent that wasn’t quite shampoo or deodorant. It may have been that makeup her group was talking about.

She leaned forward and grinned, moving her face in real close like a snake eyeing its prey.

“Hey, hey, Karuta. My good buddy, Karuta-kuuuun☆”

“Yeah, yeah. Here’s yesterday’s homework.”

“Eh? You’re being awfully dry today, my withered childhood friend. Don’t hand it over before I’ve even asked for it. Can you read minds now?”

“Why do you look so upset when I gave you what you wanted?”

“The process is important with these things. I mean…”

She childishly pouted her lips and placed one hand at the center of her chest. She wasn’t quite holding her chest. Her slender fingers were toying with the buttons of her thin short-sleeved blouse.

A nice snapping sound came from her fingers.

She winked up at him and pulled the blouse down over her shoulder.

And she whispered in his ear.

“(I was even thinking I could negotiate by giving my thirsty childhood friend the opportunity of a lifetime if he let me copy his homework.)”

The boy’s heart leaped in his chest.

He could feel the tension racing below his skin like electricity.

She had him completely outclassed when it came to things like this.

“Pff.”

The popular girl held her sides.

She nearly started rolling on the floor in laughter and tears formed in her eyes.

“Ah ha ha!! By which I mean I was going to let you give me a shoulder massage. Now, what did you think I meant? …Huh?”

Had she really not noticed until now?

Unbuttoning her blouse to show off her shoulder had also shown off quite a bit of her cleavage. Not to mention he could see her colorful bra strap.

The gloomy bastards who preferred the corners of the classroom hung their heads.

“(G-getting to massage a girl that clueless about what she’s showing off sounds like one hell of a reward to me. Do you think Amaashi-san has a bratty little sister who’s basically that but smaller?)”

“(Why couldn’t she be just a few years older? Her sexiness is wasted on a classmate. Could you maybe introduce me to her mom!?)”

The conversation was taking a turn Marika had not at all expected, so she crossed her arms and held her own body. She covered her exposed shoulder and hid her cleavage. And she pouted her lips and looked up at Karuta.

When she spoke, she made it sound like a joke, but there was also a slight flush in her cheeks.

“Karuta, you perv. Stop staring at my bra.”

“How is it fair to get mad at me for looking at something you showed me? Is this a new kind of scam, Marika?”

She always slept in the nude, but having her decorative bra strap seen when she didn’t expect it got to her. He honestly couldn’t figure out where her threshold for embarrassment was located.

Then he felt something on his cheek again.

The small crystal girl was as expressionless as ever.

“Mhh.”

“Again, what is this about?”

### Part 2

Second Grimnoah was a crystal magic academy.

However, that did mean the students there fought magical battles year round. In fact, extreme kinds of action had to be built atop a strong foundation, so more general education could be the difference between life and death.

Just like someone who could not perform a back hip circle on the metal bar at a park wouldn’t be able to perform a giant swing at the gymnastics world championship.

So…

“Pant, pant, gasp. The bell. Kurent-sensei, the bell just rang!!”

“Tch. So you were saved by the bell, Utagai Karuta.”

The silver-haired, brown-skinned gym teacher who didn’t even bother hiding her tongue click was Letnahe Kurent. She wore a tank top and bright-colored leggings. She notably also had a ring and a mobile watch on her left hand.

“Why do your right arm and right leg start working in unison when you dance? It isn’t often I come across a student who can pull off such a cursed dance.”

“Do you realize that’s as cruel a question as asking someone who can’t swim why they sink in the water?”

“It takes talent to be that bad.”

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

The modern standards for teaching were to point out your student’s failings but to avoid giving them a complex about it, but this strict teacher must not have gotten the memo. She hit him with the competitive culture of “If you don’t want me to make fun of you, then get good.”

It didn’t help that he couldn’t look straight at her when she demonstrated the dance moves. That was due to how the yoga tank top and formfitting leggings showed off her curvy figure even more than a dancer in a fantasy world. Her navel was always exposed and any more intense jumps caused the rare sight that was underboob to greet him from below her tank top. But he knew saying so would only be adding fuel to the fire.

The Indian wife and teacher had worked up a healthy sweat, so she sipped at a bottle of some kind of protein drink.

“This exercise should help keep your weight down, so don’t ruin that by eating a bunch of sweet things during the Port Day.”

“Okay…”

The bell had already rung. If he got changed now, he would be too late for the lunchtime rush, so he chose to begin his quest for lunch while in his track suit.

Aine appeared at his side at some point.

“Sacri-sama, I did not observe you making a lunch today.”

“Because I’m going to the cafeteria today.”

He had shoved his wallet, phone, and other valuables in the locker along with his clothes, but he had made sure to keep a 1000 yen note in his track suit’s pocket. If you didn’t have a plan in place when you had gym for 4th period, you could never survive the high school lunchtime where so many people went hungry and thirsty.

“Aine, why are you keeping your distance all of a sudden?”

“I do not plan to eat anything myself, but I have no desire to be anywhere near someone thoughtless enough to choose curry or a meat sauce dish.”

The expressionless girl was apparently at the age where she worried about her white clothes. She must have been afraid of stray splashes. That said, Karuta had chosen katsu curry which was eaten with a spoon, so there wouldn’t be any hellish shotgun blasts like with curry udon.

“But now that you mention it, I kind of what to share it with you. Should I grab another spoon?”

“Sacri-sama.”

However, an unexpected problem presented itself.

He successfully acquired his katsu curry, but he had been too focused on that specific task. All the seats in the busy cafeteria were filled. He stood there, holding his tray and feeling at a loss. This was another challenge he had failed to consider. And for whatever reason, the cafeteria didn’t allow people to take the food out of the room to eat it.

“Sacri-sama, I see some people giving up and sitting on the floor to eat. See, with their back against the wall.”

“Because they got the set meal that’s divided into a few small plates. It’s not so easy with one big plate of curry. I need both hands just to hold the heavy plate.”

“How is that a problem?”

Karuta tilted his head and Aine made a scooping gesture.

“You can hold the plate in your hand and then I will spoon the curry into your mouth. I believe that solves the problem.”

“Karuta-kun.”

A soft voice interrupted.

He looked over to find Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was in the cafeteria too. She had a Japanese sashimi set spread out on the table in front of her and there was a small gap in the crowd around her. Probably because she needed a bit more space than an ordinary chair to maneuver her wheelchair.

The upperclassman with glossy black hair beckoned him over.

“Don’t even think about rudely sitting on the floor with Aine-chan. The spot next to me is open, so pull up a chair.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Omotesandou-san. …What is it, Aine? Why are you poking my cheek?”

“Mhh.”

The crystal girl somehow managed to look displeased and expressionless at the same time, but she was as obedient as ever.

Once Karuta had set his katsu curry on the table to secure his spot, he lugged over a spare chair.

“I’m kind of surprised to find you eat lunch in the cafeteria, Omotesandou-san.”

“Why? Did you think I spent hours leisurely dining on luxury dishes special made by a personal chef?”

That was more or less what he had imagined, so he declined to answer. But this did remind him that she had made (unusually sweet) curry rice when it was her turn to cook during their shared life in an RV while pursuing the Problem Solvers.

“I’m also surprised to see you alone. I thought you were always surrounded by people.”

“Even I want to be alone sometimes.”

“If you say so.”

“And sometimes I want a younger boy to just take care of everything for me.”

“Yeah, right.”

Upper class people apparently knew how to look graceful even with ordinary disposable chopsticks. The beautiful president even folded the long napkin into an origami puppy chopstick rest.

She stared intently at Karuta’s katsu curry.

“That does seem like the kind of thing a growing boy would be eating.”

“I can’t believe you can get through the afternoon eating so little. Even the biggest options here are free, so why would you order such a small lunch? Are you a living embodiment of SDGs?”

“Didn’t your gym teacher tell you not to eat too much?”

“Uh…”

Spartan Letnahe-sensei had told him not to eat a bunch of sweet things.

So a rice dish like this would be fine…probably.

But the black-haired teacher’s pet must have wanted an exciting new experience today because she pointed at the katsu curry she had just criticized.

“Give me a bite.”

“Sure, sure.”

Her “bite” ended up taking one of only seven strips of chicken cutlet he had. When she challenged herself to do something, she would see it through. But she also squeezed her eyes shut, gulped, and stuck out the tip of her tongue like a child.

“Ugh. It’s super spicy.”

“The curry rice you make is far below average spiciness. Most people don’t dump milk in the pot.”

“That was skim milk and maple syrup mixed in hot water.”

There was syrup in there too?

Omotesandou Kyouka trembled with tears in her eyes.

She could seem even more mature than the teachers in the faculty room at times, so the mismatch created by childishly sticking out her tongue with tears in her eyes felt wrong somehow. He knew now she could not be allowed to wear a plain school swimsuit.

“Hoo, hoo. Karuta-kun, how can you eat this challenging dish so easily? Because boy’s bodies are built differently?”

“I really don’t think this has anything to do with gender.”

If anything, he thought of a preference for super-spicy foods as a girl thing since it was commonly thought eating them would make you sweat and that would help detox your body and improve your beauty. It was Marika’s friend group he could imagine attempting some Korean, Thai, or Vietnamese food.

Kyouka was still sticking out the tip of her tongue as she pointed at something else.

She poked her slender finger against a glass full of a white liquid.

“What is this? It doesn’t look like cold water.”

“They were selling a drinkable yogurt. Simply cooling your tongue after eating something spicy only provides temporary relief. It’s more like pain than anything. Kurent-sensei said dairy products are the best palate cleanser for spiciness.”

“Ugh, so it is lassi or something like that?”

The president was so desperate for relief, she took a sip of his drink without asking permission first. Once she was freed from the tension of spiciness, she appeared to enter a light chill-out mode. For a while afterwards, she stared into the distance with the glass still in her hand. The unpredictable lowering of her guard left Karuta restless. It was like watching a beautiful girl sleeping.

Then she noticed the glass in her hand.

“Oh? Doesn’t this count as an indirect kiss?”

“Bff! Do you have to reclaim the upper hand like that, you gremlin!!”

Also, they had already reached the level of indirect kiss when she ate the curry from his spoon.

His yelling only made her place a hand on her cheek and smile. She liked messing with people. Meanwhile, he had a feeling Aine was glaring at him from where she stood next to him.

In fact, she was kind of scaring him.

“A-Aine-san? Why haven’t you said a word this entire time?”

“If you wish me to speak, you need only order me to do so.”

A blunt rejection.

Or maybe his jumpiness only made him interpret it that way and she was as emotionless as ever.

Then Omotesandou Kyouka spoke up like she hadn’t noticed any of that.

“Hmm. Taking food and drink from you for nothing in return would hurt my reputation as president, so I need to give you something as well. Karuta-kun, is there any part of my lunch you want?”

“Then how about the piece of sashimi you’re clearly saving for the very last? By which I mean, the shiny, red, super-rare medium-fat tun-”

“Karuta-kun☆”

She interrupted with a smile, so he decided to choose something else.

The world’s strongest boy turned his thoughts to his own status screen. What could he do to increase his courage stat?

“Then I’ll boldly go for the 2nd best option: that small plate of tatsuta-age.”

“Oh? That I just didn’t want to eat. First your katsu curry and now the tatsuta-age? Bboys really like friend foods, don’t they?”

He couldn’t deny it would be a surprise to receive fried chicken when you were in the mood for fish, but that wasn’t the tatsuta-age’s fault.

It was often said the heart of a gourmet program and an action movie came from the reactions of the opponents, not the actions of the lead, and sure enough, Kyouka made the cafeteria’s 540-yen daily special really shine. She even looked graceful as she lifted the tatsuta-age from the plate with her chopsticks. With movements like that, she could be a hand model. Although with her looks, she would shine even more modeling the rest of her too.

“Okay, let’s complete the trade☆ Hee hee. This feels like we’re real friends.”

“What are you talking about?”

She tilted her head and started blowing on the tatsuta-age held by her chopsticks. She even held her other hand beneath in a super graceful big sister move.

“This was a surprisingly insightful choice, Karuta-kun. They do say to try the chicken rather than the fish if you want to quickly determine the quality of a restaurant.”

That hadn’t been his intention, but his policy was to never correct people when they favorably read too deeply into your actions. Although that was a lesson he had learned while clashing with the Problem Solvers, so he didn’t want to rely on it if he didn’t have to.

“Hoo, hoo. Okay, say ‘ah’…oh?”

In a rare display of clumsiness, she dropped the thing held between her chopsticks. But the small piece of tatsuta-age did not hit he floor. Nor the table. Then where did it end up?

“Oh, dear.”

She sounded troubled.

It was perfectly balanced. In a strange miracle, the tatsuta-age had made a soft landing atop her large chest.

But it took more than this to fluster Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka.

She giggled with the chicken still sitting there.

“Want to eat it straight from here?”

And…

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Mhh.”

“Hold that thought and take a look here, Omotesandou-san! Aine is pouting her lips and drawing her sword, so could you not make jokes like that!? Wait, why are you grinning!? You aren’t plotting to cause even more trouble, are you, you overgrown gremlin!?”

### Part 3

All students looked forward to school being let out.

It felt like freedom.

But that feeling was especially strong on Port Days like today. The excitement may have been similar to a field trip.

“No leaving the ship until the approach and mooring process are complete and the gangway has been lowered. That means no flying off the ship with your flight preset, you stupid kids!! Do you want to be ordered to stay in your room after coming all this way!?”

“Um, we will be in the city too. We will catch you if you get too rowdy, so do be careful!!”

It was unclear how much good Subcategory teachers Kiyosawa Hadome and Sophia Firenze’s warnings would do.

Karuta and Aine were gathered on the orange-dyed deck along with everyone else.

“Sacri-sama, what will we do today?”

“We can figure that out after disembarking. We can carefully plan everything out when that’s necessary. There’s no real need to put that much effort into our everyday life.”

From here, they could see several anchors being lowered and mooring ropes being thrown from the ship. The long, skinny gangway was slowly lowered from the side deck, but that wasn’t enough to handle the nearly 1000 people disembarking Second Grimnoah. In the end, most of the students would jump down from the railing using their flight. That might sound simple enough, but there was a drop of more than 9m from the side deck to the concrete bank below. Without Crystal Magic, that was enough to break a bone if you were lucky and die if you weren’t Aine expressionlessly spread her arms a little by his side.

Then she clenched and unclenched her fists.

“Sacri-sama.”

“Isn’t there any other way you can carry me? I’m serious.”

His complaints fell on deaf ears.

Aine swiftly swept his feet out from under him with her skinny leg and caught him in a princess carry. He could not use flight, so she had to carry him at times like this.

They landed so softly it was like gravity didn’t affect them.

“I do not see any problem with carrying you like this forevermore.”

“Please just put me down now.”

Southeast Asian port cities could look very different from each other, but this island had a lot of signs in English and Chinese. Karuta couldn’t read all of them, but he saw some familiar logos on the ads for phones and cars. He even saw a familiar face on one of the big billboards. It depicted Omotesandou Kyouka playing with the latest in aerial photography drones. Being the world’s strongest was a lot of work. It kind of depressed him thinking there were probably billboards with him on them somewhere out in the world. He just had to pray the kids of that region weren’t drawing a third eye on his forehead.

He noticed the redheaded bob cut girl from the student council staring lovingly at the billboard.

“We’ll get dinner out here tonight. Anything you want to eat, Aine?”

“Pure-”

“No gold. Hey, stop drooling in front of that duty-free store’s window. The clerk inside is terrified.”

“Then I will let you choose.”

“Let me choose and you’ll be stuck eating Manmaru udon. They have restaurants overseas too, after all.”

“I see. I have heard that some countries and regions put ketchup on lukewarm udon, so ordering some because you are homesick for some Japanese food while overseas can lead to a very unpleasant surprise.”

They chatted as they left the port and arrived downtown. The tourist port was directly connected to the city, so there were a lot of duty-free stores with their “tax free” signs in the window. Was that Sophia Firenze running around with a bunch of brand-name boxes in her arms?

“I need one of these, and one of these, ooh, I need to buy these pumps while I have the chance!!”

“Wasn’t she supposed to be out monitoring the students’ behavior?”

She seemed dazzled by the words “tax free” and he was honestly worried. Wasn’t her financial situation so dire that a somewhat expensive cup noodle option was a luxury?

Karuta honestly had no real objective.

He only wanted to leave the ship for a change of pace. And Aine never really thought about anything other than following him around.

In that sense, he had to smile bitterly at sharing the evening coastline view together.

“This isn’t that much different from being on the ship. Not too surprising when everyone’s wearing the same uniforms.”

“Based on my observations, a lot of people have paired off into couples, not counting the teachers on patrol.”

Maybe so.

But did the crystal girl walking next to him understand the implications of that? There were some people putting an arm around their partner’s shoulder and – wow – some were even kissing out in public.

The title of world’s strongest could be a nuisance at times. Since this was a tourist area, there would have been a lot of people out trying to get customers regardless, but it felt like Karuta and Aine gathered more attention than most. They had no objective, but they were invited into a wide variety of shops just walking around aimlessly.

“Eh, why not.”

“Sacri-sama. Shouldn’t we be more careful?”

“Whatever the truth of the matter, we’re officially considered to be half of the Four Living Gods. If someone tried to scam us here, I would honestly praise their audacity.”

The title was like a curse, but when it came in handy, he would make use of it. He didn’t have to worry about any direct harm from extortionists except for the ones who attacked so they could pretend to be helpless victims when you retaliated.

The afterschool evening had only just begun.

It was still too early for dinner, so he decided to visit some kind of store.

“Hm, a clothing store.”

“It appears to be a legitimate boutique and not a counterfeit seller.”

Aine expressionlessly tilted her head while taking a look around the store.

“But based on the lineup, this appears to exclusively sell women’s clothing. I was not aware you had developed an interest in dressing that way.”

“Why would we be here for me? I just have to dress you up in the clothes.”

His exasperated response increased the angle of her head tilt.

“Clothes for me?” asked the still-head-tilting crystal girl.

“That’s probably what the clerk is hoping for too.”

They were both the world’s strongest, but advertising that Karuta shopped there and that Aine shopped there would have very different meanings. Of course, the store just wanted to advertise that one of the Four Living Gods shopped there, so the clerk might just insist the two of them take some souvenirs without asking for any payment.

Aine looked down at her white clothing.

“This is light, sturdy, formfitting enough to prevent an enemy from grabbing it, and contains slits to preserve my range of motion. I have no functional complaints with my current clothing.”

“Probably not. But now that I think about it, you wear those white clothes year-round. How do you wash them? I don’t remember ever washing your underwear.”

“––––”

“Aine, your growth is astounding. You never could have given me that ‘have you no tact?’ look back when we first met.”

Karuta couldn’t stand the pressure of her glare and that small triangle of a mouth, so he looked away and gave that simple comment.

Everything from the tip of her sword to her heart was a part of her, but she must have been taking care of her own laundry. She appeared to have some knowledge there since she had recognized the smell of fabric softener from his sports towel once. If she only had that one pair, it was possible she spent every night naked until the washing and drying process was complete, which kind of scared him. But if she had multiple pairs, it was possible the others were strewn about inside him (which was becoming something of a second home for her), a possibility which disturbed him even more. He could only pray that his stomach hadn’t become the crystal girl’s messy room.

Anyway.

The two of them entered the women’s boutique, but they couldn’t exactly stand blankly in a corner the whole time. The fitting room was free to use, so he could have Aine use that.

(The money I’ve made with the unwanted world’s strongest title does come in handy sometimes.)

“Trying things on is free, Aine, so point out anything you like.”

“I have no requests. You choose something you like.”

“I hope they have things in your size.”

“I can recognize when I am being mocked for no good reason.”

She really had grown, he realized. She could express a wider range of feelings than in the Crystal Beach hotel when she had stripped naked in the room with him to change into her swimsuit.

At some point, she had turned into an ordinary girl.

Maybe Karuta was the only one who hadn’t grown.

“Ooh, how about this?”

“I see. This one casual selection helps bring into focus what it is you want from me.”

He really wished she wouldn’t lay on the pressure after he had already chosen.

He had selected a white sundress and a large hat. He had thought it was a safe choice since it fit his image of her choosing to wear a white dress (even if that one was for combat).

However…

“Ouch.”

“?”

He heard an odd voice from beyond the fitting room’s curtain.

“Ow, ow, ow. An unexpected problem has arisen.”

“Hey, Aine, what’s going on in there?”

That dress was so thin you would be able to see her silhouette through it with any light shining behind her, so he was unsure what she could be doing with it to cause pain. Was her skin extremely sensitive so she couldn’t wear any kind of synthetic material?

Eventually, the curtain parted and Aine poked just her head out.

Karuta realized the problem right away.

The wide-brimmed hat was sitting at an odd angle. In fact, the hat was floating up above her head. He knew why that would be.

“Can’t you do something about those mysterious horns?”

“What are you expecting me to do? If you ask me, the solution should come from the boutique. Like putting a pair of slits at the top of the hat so my horns could stick through.”

“Let’s not get hasty, okay!? You’re only trying it on, so we haven’t bought it yet!!”

The expressionless girl pulled her sword out of thin air, so Karuta had to frantically grab her through the curtain to stop her.

“So do your horns really hurt when something touches them? And that was only a hat.”

“(I wouldn’t really say they hurt, but they react very sensitively to unexpected touching.)”

“?”

Aine lowered her head and muttered something under her breath, but Karuta just accepted that hats, hoods, and anything else that covered the head were off limits when coordinating her outfit. She hadn’t said a word when Susannia of the Problem Solvers cut her arm, so this had to be pretty bad.

In that case…

“Let’s go in the other direction this time. What about something boyish? Even if you don’t seem like the type to choose sportswear.”

“I save your life on a regular basis and you have the nerve to label me unathletic?”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

He pushed a colorful tank top and bike shorts made of synthetic materials into her arms. This was more like something dance and rhythm lovers like Letnahe and Pendet would wear. Aine tilted her head, but pulled back behind the fitting room curtain.

It was hard to judge her preferences when she was always so expressionless, so Karuta’s plan was to try several different extreme options to work out the extent of what she was willing to wear. From there, he could narrow things down toward something she would really like.

(First a classy dress and now sportswear. What should I use to narrow things down further? I could check her reaction to something more feminine like a knit dress.)

He saw this like the game where you took turns trying to guess each other’s number.

“All done.”

Aine opened the curtain.

She was like a snow fairy and looked so fragile she would break if you held her too tight, so the summery, midriff-baring sportwear didn’t suit her. But that mismatch did make for an interesting combination. It was surprising just to look at.

However.

“Um, Aine.”

“Yes?”

“Why am I seeing that ?”

“?”

Her head tilt meant she hadn’t noticed. He was honestly afraid to spell it out for her. Which was why he had kept it vague using “that”.

He could see two little bumps.

A pair of protrusions other than her horns were pushing out the formfitting tank top that stretched tightly across her skin like rubber.

(Wh-wh-where’s her bra? E-even 12-year-old Natalena wears one, so why isn’t she!?)

Thinking back, when that pure white outfit was soaked by the rain, he recalled seeing various things showing through. She had been embarrassed, but she must not have actually enacted any kind of solution.

“A-anyway, let’s get you back in your original clothes, Aine. Hurry!”

“Why are you acting like I am causing you problems? You were the one who chose this outfit.”

“Can you not express your anger by putting your hands on your hips and pushing out your chest!?”

“???”

Aine showed an obvious question mark on her expressionless face as he shoved her back into the fitting room.

He asked a question through the curtain while hearing her move around inside.

“You’ve tried on a few things now, but have you seen anything that stands out to you? I can’t choose everything for you.”

“You want me to choose something?”

“Give me any feedback you have, like what you don’t like or what you want to see more of. The smallest thing can help show me what you want.”

“In that case,” she said while the curtain shook.

She poked her head out, so she must not have been done changing. Her bare shoulders stuck out with her head and she expressionlessly pointed at Karuta.

“That is the only thing I am interested in wearing.”

“?”

“Second Grimnoah’s uniform. I would be lying if I said I have never wanted to wear one.”

### Part 4

After leaving the boutique, Karuta and Aine walked back the way they had come to reach Second Grimnoah, the three-hull ship measuring more than 600m long was currently moored at the port.

Since most of the students were out in the city for the Port Day, the giant ship was completely silent. It was the same somewhat guilt-inspiring stillness found when sneaking into school on the weekend.

This was a sort of sanctuary.

But that was why you felt a faint thrill from tiptoeing in when you weren’t supposed to.

“They might have some spare uniforms in the infirmary.”

“They would have them there, Sacri-sama?”

“Only for emergencies, so they won’t be perfectly fitted or anything. It’s probably going to be baggy, but bear with it.”

“On what basis are you predicting that an improperly fitted uniform would be baggy on me rather than too tight?”

The girl, who stood a full head shorter than him even when counting the horns, was expressionlessly puffing out her cheeks. He was mildly surprised by the inner change that led her to worry about things like that.

“Don’t worry. Marika and Omotesandou-san’s size is far from normal. Those are the outliers who have trouble finding bras in a style they like, so you don’t need to compare yourself to them.”

“Why do you not understand that the problem is how you are starting with the assumption that I will lose, you jerk?”

They made their way to the infirmary.

Fortunately, there were no patients (with heatstroke or seasickness) in any of the beds lined up by the wall. This wasn’t a place people came for fun, so they weren’t going to bother anyone. He could humor Aine for a bit.

“Here we go. I found a girl’s uniform, Aine.”

“Come to think of it, why are you so knowledgeable about girl’s uniforms?”

Aine had even learned how to verbally stab people in the flank.

The reason for his knowledge came from having to help the president change or assisting Natalena after her clothes got wet.

But anyway.

He had found a spare uniform, but they were no longer in the boutique and thus there was no fitting room. They had no choice but to have Aine use one of the bed spaces with a curtain drawn around it.

While the crystal girl changed inside one, Karuta tilted his head a bit.

He felt kind of uneasy.

(H-huh? What’s this? With the curtain drawn, this shouldn’t be any different from the boutique’s fitting room, so why is my heart pounding in my ears?)

He blinked a few times and peered into the darkness within him before finally identifying the cause.

He could see through the curtain.

The fitting room curtain had been thick and made to block light, but the curtain used as a divider between infirmary beds was not and he could faintly make out Aine’s silhouette while she changed within!?

Apparently the unguarded girl had switched on the excessively bright LED lamp on the bedside table just because it was somewhat dark while surrounded by curtains.

“Sacri-sama?”

“It’s nothing! Nothing at all!!”

“???”

He hated that he could tell she was tilting her head in confusion.

He honestly couldn’t help but hold his breath until she pulled the curtain open herself.

“This is how it looks. What do you think, Sacri-sama?”

She was wearing a uniform.

A Second Grimnoah summer uniform.

She stood tall and fidgeted her fingers together while dressed in the exact same thing so many girls did every day when attending classes at Second Grimnoah, but it looked entirely different on Aine.

This could have been a possible future.

The powerfully innocent image of her in that uniform brought that sentimental thought to mind. Since the crystal girl was already somewhat transparent, she could take on a subtly different appearance depending on the color of the light around her. The orange of the sunset may have helped make her look like an empty dream at the moment.

Karuta didn’t feel any desire to start discussing where things had gone wrong.

He accepted everything before giving his honest opinion.

“It looks good on you, Aine.”

“I know I requested this, but I am not sure how to process any positive or negative feedback related to it.”

“That’s made for Second Grimnoah, so the stitching is designed to hold up in combat. Couldn’t you wear this all the time?”

“Updating personality profile. I now see that you have a schoolgirl fetish, Sacri-sama.”

She may have meant that as an attack, but it was a meaningless accusation against a schoolboy. Aine might not quite fit the profile since she was always walking around in her casual(?) clothes, but when most every girl around you was a schoolgirl, it was the default, not a fetish.

“Want to go for a walk dressed like that, Aine?”

“So you prefer to show off your ‘prize’ rather than make sure no one else gets to see it?”

She must have sensed her first attack failed, so she went for a follow up attack. But since almost every student would be on land for the Port Day, Second Grimnoah was nearly deserted. He doubted they would run across anyone to be surprised by Aine’s unusual (for her) outfit.

“I see. So you enjoy the thrill of being out in the open but avoiding detection. Does the thought of being in an empty school after hours excite you?”

“Can you stop slinging attacks until one of them lands, Aine?”

He smiled bitterly while stepping out of the infirmary.

Just then, he heard a quiet, soft vibration.

He realized he had bumped into something in the hallway.

And this wasn’t a stranger.

The color of the light was mixing.

Distorting.

Cracks were forming in those colors.

“Marika?”

“I know.”

His childhood friend did not look up when he called her name.

She fell silent again.

She demonstrated a painful amount of vulnerability.

She clutched at the short sleeve of his shirt, pressed her forehead against his chest, and clenched her teeth.

“ I know it’s Aine-chan’s turn right now. ”

Those words carried an important meaning.

They were a curse powerful enough to tear down the unnaturally cheerful mood that had covered this entire today.

“But this really is our last day.”

When she did look up, her face was a mess.

A lost child may have been the closest comparison.

The usual confident and cheerful girl was nowhere to be found.

“I know we decided to enjoy our school life to the fullest since the human string pullers want their answer soon. I know we’re supposed to cut all ties with out lives so we can face the final battle with no regrets!! I know that!! But I can’t do it. I just can’t do everything the way I’m supposed to when I know this is the end! …Because I love you, Karuta. I didn’t go to Grimnoah or switch to Second Grimnoah after the first one was destroyed because I wanted to master the use of cutting-edge magic!! I only did it because I couldn’t let you go alone! That really was my only reason!!”

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Karuta had chosen to go to a school that specialized in Crystal Magic, but he had not had any clear vision of his future either. They had been overwhelmed with things they had to do once they were propped up as the strongest, but he wasn’t willing to say that was the future he had envisioned when he was suffering through the entrance exam. He felt like his starting point had been even more empty than Marika’s desire to be with the person she loved.

And this conversation had included several very meaningful words.

Including one statement that may have been more important than the fate of the planet for this girl.

But…

“I know,” interrupted the sobbing girl before he could say anything. The premium jelly mascara she had been so proud of was running due to her tears. “I know you’ll choose Aine-chan in the end . Because she’ll be all alone if you don’t. The president and I have our own lives outside of you, but she really does only have you. Sever that tie and she has nothing left, so I know you’ll choose her!!”

“…”

“Why is this the only kind of love I get to have?”

She had already experienced more of the world’s cruelties than any one person should, but she still raised her voice.

“I don’t care about the world’s strongest, the Threat, or the human string pullers!! If I didn’t have all this special stuff, I could have been normal and happy. Maybe even this here could have turned out differently without these complications!”

Maybe it was the way her words flowed, but Karuta sensed something off in what Amaashi Marika was saying in his arms. He had found something that told him he could never roll down this slope no matter what might happen.

Without these complications.

Did that include Aine who was linked to him through Crystal Magic?

He grabbed his childhood friend’s trembling shoulders and pushed her away from his chest.

He kept his distance.

“No, Marika.”

“I know.”

“I doubt I can ever understand how you’re feeling, but I’m still going to insist you take that back. If you don’t, I never want to see you again, Marika!!”

“I said I know!!!”

A high-pitched noise echoed through Second Grimnoah.

Marika looked ready to shed tears of blood and her right hand held…a rapier Device.

“Today – our final 24 hours – are all about ensuring we have no regrets left, right? Well, no one ever said it all had to end happily.”

Karuta also made a decision when he saw that.

Amaashi Marika was probably the fastest person on the planet to make up her mind at times like this. He had to respond immediately or he really would be in trouble.

He shouted the last thing Marika wanted to hear out of his mouth.

“Aine!!”

He pulled his modified military flashlight from his hip.

He shined the powerful IR laser in Marika’s face to dazzle her eyes.

But not so he could fight.

He just needed time to make his move.

He and Aine turned tail and he heard a series of cracking sounds coming from behind them. How many seconds did it take Living God Amaashi Marika to decorate her body with crystal armor? Once that process was complete, she wouldn’t hesitate to wield a level of violence that let her pick a fight with a fighter craft or slice a tank in two.

“What is your plan, Sacri-sama?”

“For now, we go this way!!”

Marika’s Crystal Blossom contained the name of Tezcatlipoca, Aztec god of death, and her Crystal Magic let her use light as a weapon, converting it into any kind of deadly power. Her rapier Device could simply cut down an enemy, but it could also be used for high-precision laser sniping.

(If we want to prevent her from using her top speed that rivals a fighter craft, we have to stay away from spaces with long straightaways. A mazelike space is best, since it also keeps her from using that laser sniping of hers. Aine’s sword might be able to stop a metal shell or a missile, but it can’t deflect laser light or a beam!!)

In that sense, the school was a bad location. Both the standard school building and the special facilities like the gym or cafeteria were given simple, orderly designs so no one would get lost. Which meant…

“Focus on the ship side of things, not the school, Aine. Marika’s speed and long-range attacks don’t help her in the bottom-level engine room full of thick pipes and diesel engines larger than an apartment room!!”

“I have my doubts Miss Marika of all people will have her options restricted so easily.”

“No overestimating her abilities, Aine. If you think of her like a magic bullet that can do anything, then you can’t even begin to put together a plan.”

“She is already furious, so if she starts shooting lasers all over the bottom level of the ship and the ship starts to flood, I might survive, but you would be in a predicament since you need a constant supply of oxygen. Your odds of survival fall even further if she ignites the diesel fuel.”

“I said not to do that, Aine!! It is scary how plausible that sounds with this childhood friend from hell, though!!”

Just then, a door opened and someone emerged into the orange-dyed hallway. Karuta immediately recognized them. Only one person on Second Grimnoah used a wheelchair since the preset of regeneration could heal all non-lethal wounds in 30 seconds.

His face lit up.

He kept running away from overheated Marika and waved his hands to gather Kyouka’s attention.

“Thank goodness you’re here, Omotesandou- !?”

“I can’t…”

He heard a creaking sound, but this wasn’t the wheelchair’s axle or tires.

His body demanded oxygen after running full speed, but the ghastly sense coming from this girl still made him stop breathing. What was that she held in both hands behind her wheelchair? A bow and arrow? One with a sight and stabilizer!?

“I can’t always be the big sister you rely on. That’s no different from deciding I can never be anything other than ‘the hero’ who’s separated from everyone else. Why am I the only one you treat this way? Did you think I did all of this to save my own skin and for the money that comes with being the world’s strongest!?”

This was bad.

But what about it was bad? He could tell she was angry enough to kill, but there was too little context surrounding her statements for him to figure out what exactly she was upset about !!

(If something was bothering her, she could have told me earlier!)

“Come to think of it, this is the first time I have seen Miss Kyouka giving into her anger and shouting at someone. She seems to no longer care about keeping up appearances.”

He realized Aine was right.

But what had led to this?

“Perhaps she feels left out. She is separated from everyone else by being the only Regulation 3 at present. The ordinary students and even the other Living Gods are at most Regulation 1s.”

“…”

“Also, it sounded like you didn’t even know how she normally eats lunch. That means you did not spend your lunch breaks with her. And when she mentioned she wanted to have a younger boy take care of everything for her, didn’t you brush it off with a dismissive ‘yeah, right’?”

“Meaning?”

“You only have yourself to blame, you jerk.”

Karuta grabbed Aine’s hand and changed directions as they ran. He turned a corner. He had to use the terrain if he was going to avoid being killed by Kyouka’s bow and arrow.

“You sure have grown!!”

“Have I? You, on the other hand, have not grown at all.”

Kyouka was a new threat to worry about, but that didn’t decrease the threat presented by Marika one iota. They couldn’t come to a stop no matter what might happen.

Aine ran expressionlessly alongside him with her school uniform skirt fluttering dangerously high, but he thought he saw a hint of a smile on her lips.

She dropped her empty gaze to her hand which was firmly held by Karuta’s hand.

“My, my. Miss Marika and Miss Kyouka are going all out today. They really are trying to kill us. Hee hee.’

“Wh-why – ugh, cough – do you sound like you’re enjoying yourself!?”

“Because I appear to hold the princess position here.”

They didn’t want to leave anything undone.

He understood that, but how much pressure had been building up inside those two? What kind of concerns had they been bottling up all this time?

He wanted to avoid being caught between Marika and Kyouka. There was no chance of survival then. Which meant…

“Let’s pull away from Omotesandou-san, Aine. No matter how dangerous she is, she’s in a wheelchair, so we can keep her from following us by taking the stairs. There are only so many elevators, so she’ll need to take a wide detour to catch up. That won’t do anything to lose Marika since she can use the flight preset, but it lets us keep the odds at 2-against-1.”

“Do you think it would be easier to fight Miss Marika who is always a little bit angry than to fight Miss Kyouka who is showing a rare level of anger?”

“Let’s not think of this as choosing the lesser of two evils, Aine! Imagining either option terrifies me!!!”

A cruise ship might seem longer and shorter than a high-rise tourist hotel, but it was still divided into quite a few floors, starting from the engine room and hold at the bottom and going all the way up to the heliport at the very top. That meant it had some long stairways they could use.

(Now where can I go that will keep Marika from using her high-speed flight and laser sni-)

Karuta’s thought was cut off by a thick guillotine falling to block the path ahead.

It was a fireproof shutter that doubled as flood prevention. He doubted this was a freak malfunction. Not wanting him to escape, the president must have abused her authority to take over Second Grimnoah’s networked devices.

This was now a T-junction. Heading right would take them to the stairs, but he felt like they were being guided that way. There was more to this. Why would Kyouka want to lead him to the stairs she couldn’t use with her wheelchair?

But whatever the reason…

(If I want to betray Omotesandou-san’s expectations, I have to keep heading straight even if it means destroying that shutter!!)

He was somewhat used to fist fighting after the strange martial arts tournament the Catastrophe had been turned into, but he could not break through a composite shutter with his fists.

“Damn. Aine!!”

When the girl swung her right arm down, a cold crystal katana appeared in her hand with a swishing sound.

But she did not obey Karuta’s instructions.

She suddenly swung the blade horizontally and orange sparks flew. Karuta clicked his tongue. She had knocked an aluminum alloy arrow from the air, which now slid to the end of the hallway.

He heard the creaking of wheels.

At the other end of the orange-lit hallway, a black-haired beauty wielded a distinctively-shaped bow in her wheelchair.

And she was not alone.

The sound of rubber soles scraping against the floor came from the other end of the hallway. He didn’t even have to turn around to know, but when he did, he found Amaashi Marika coming from the stairs with crystal armor covering her body and a rapier Device in her dominant hand.

His tension had grown well past the limit, so it felt electric at this point.

He doubted either of them was willing to talk, but he still moved his lips.

“Wai-”

The first to move wasn’t Marika but Kyouka. She must have decided that one half-word meant he had abandoned her. She had the bow and arrow, but she still moved her wheelchair to rush toward him.

Amaashi Marika followed after her. As her ally? No, to kill him herself before Kyouka could take him from her. That was clear from the glint of a hunter’s spirit in her eyes.

Amaashi Marika approached him from the front with her rapier device squeezed tight in her hand and Omotesandou Kyouka approached him from the rear with her bow and arrow aimed and ready. Their eyes were shining bright and he could tell at a glance they wouldn’t respond to conversation.

He didn’t stand a chance.

“Sacri-sama!!”

He heard a shout. Aine had apparently moved to defend him with her sword in both hands, but two different world’s strongests were approaching from two different directions. Aine was reliant on that sharp sword, so she could only defend against one of them. Utagai Karuta could not avoid fighting the other girl.

He readied his modified military flashlight, but how much good would that toy do him?

Aine was his main defense.

His weapon was like the sidearm worn by a fighter pilot. It was better to have it than not, but if you had to rely on it, it meant you had already crashed deep behind enemy lines.

There was no scream.

A loud impact erupted within Second Grimnoah.

Karuta couldn’t even tell who had crashed into who.

He couldn’t stop the momentum transferred to him, so he crashed into Aine while she tried to protect him and all four of them rolled along the floor in a big heap. Heavy metallic sounds rang loud because Omotesandou Kyouka’s wheelchair had toppled over too.

Then silence.

And…

“Ah ha ha!!”

They were still lying there, tangled together.

One of the people in that pile of bodies started laughing loudly. It may have been Karuta himself. That laughter was contagious. Marika and Kyouka were both laughing. The bloody atmosphere from before had vanished without a trace.

Not even Aine was immune.

She was mostly expressionless, but there was the smallest hint of a smile on her lips.

“Heh heh. What was that, Marika-san? Were you really swinging a blade around over a broken heart? You might have the looks of a cutting-edge Gyaru 2.0 or even 3.0, but deep down, you still have the soul of a reserved Edo period girl. Ah ha ha!”

“Oh, shut up. You’re the one that pulled out a bow and arrow. A projectile weapon is cheating. I bet you’re the kind of person who takes a game of tag way too seriously and starts chasing people down on a bike.”

Someone sighed.

Karuta wasn’t sure who with everyone tangled up together, but someone was holding his head between her arms. Like she was holding a beachball to her chest.

Eventually, the president asked a question.

“So is everyone satisfied?”

“Yes,” replied Karuta and neither Aine nor Marika disagreed. It was past the point for that.

“No one has anything left undone?”

“I’m good.”

“If you say you want to run off with Aine-chan, I don’t think either of us would stop you.”

Kyouka may have been hoping for a digression like that, but neither Karuta nor Aine went for it.

Why do all this today?

Why forget their troubles and enjoy their school life?

That was obvious.

To convince them they were making the right choice.

“I have no regrets.”

“I see.”

“This world is shit. We never stood a chance against the Threat, the human string pullers already controlled everything, and even our families will betray us like it’s no big deal. That’s just the world we live in.”

So would they abandon the world?

That may have been a valid option for them.

“But we still love this world and think it’s worth protecting. If we feel we’ve proven that to ourselves, then we need to do this. We didn’t choose to be the world’s strongest, but it was our actions that gave us that title. It wouldn’t be right to run away now.”

Kyouka nodded in agreement and took the conversation further.

“In that case, Karuta-kun. And the rest of you too. I am going to contact the human string pullers. Once I do that, there is no stopping the gears from turning.”

“That’s fine.”

Utagai Karuta breathed in and out.

And he summed it all up for them.

“Then let’s get to the space elevator for our journey into death. If we sacrifice ourselves by ejecting ourselves into space, we can drive away 300 million Threats. We knew this was coming.”

### Part 5

However, not everyone would be happy with that result.

For example, what if someone other than the Four Living Gods were to hear about it for the first time?

“Eh?”

Young Natalena Blast forgot to breathe as she pressed her back against the wall. It took everything she had to avoid dropping the library books she held. They were right around the corner, but she could not join them there.

“Eh?”

The decision she made here would determine everything. If she thoughtlessly rushed out and tried to argue with them, she would be defeated 4-against-1. In fact, they didn’t even need to argue. They could forcibly restrain her and head to the space elevator.

For what?

To protect the 5.5 billion non-strongests, including Natalena herself, from the Threat.

How would they do this?

By ejecting themselves into space to divert the Threat’s attention.

“Eh?”

But what did that mean really?

What was going to happen to Utagai Karuta and the other three!?

### 214. Chapter 2

### Part 1

Natalena Blast couldn’t breathe.

A blank area in her mind expanded to eat away every thought there.

The world looked blurry around her, but was that due to the tears in her eyes?

She shook her head with her back still against the wall. She could tell she would faint if she wasn’t careful. And if that happened, there was no way she could save Karuta’s group.

What was that about?

What did they mean a journey into death!?

“Dang.”

Natalena slapped her small hands against her cheeks to force her mind to face the reality before her eyes. She focused on what she needed to do.

Did she need to directly confront Karuta’s group? Of course not.

They were the Four Living Gods, the world’s strongest. Meanwhile, she was just another Crystal Magician. Remember when they fought at the Crystal Beach. It had been hopeless when it was 1-on-1, so what chance did she stand against all four of them? And who would save them if they forcibly stopped her before heading to their own dooms!?

(Let’s see, the time is…7 at night!)

Natalena checked her phone and clenched her teeth.

Karuta’s group had called this their final day. They had said they were contacting the human string pullers soon. She needed to assume they were dead if no alternative was found before midnight.

That only left 5 hours.

But it also meant there was still a chance to change their destiny!!

Natalena doubted it would be that easy. Karuta’s group wasn’t stupid and they weren’t saints. The world’s strongests had thought through every possibility they could come up with and still chosen self-sacrifice. The answer wouldn’t be simple enough for a Subcategory Regulation 1 to come up with it on her own.

Which meant…

(I can’t keep this to myself. I need to gather as many people as I can so we can all put our heads together!)

They each might not be a match for those four, but there would be so many more of them.

Second Grimnoah was a school. Why wouldn’t they rely on the power of numbers when they needed more?

But who could she get to help her here?

“First the teachers! With the grownups’ approval, the students will be a lot more willing to help out!!”

There was no time to waste, so she took off running.

The view past the side deck and across the dark ocean felt so very wrong.

A line there stuck straight up toward heaven.

That was the space elevator’s silhouette.

“Kh.”

(No.)

It felt like an ominous symbol of death now. The human string pullers were waiting there for the Four Living Gods. In order to sacrifice those four by ejecting them into space to draw the Threat’s attention.

(I won’t let that happen!! I don’t care if it’s selfish and, um, I’m willing to set aside the future of the Earth!! I couldn’t protect my sister…I could only watch helplessly as the worst came to pass. I refuse to let that happen again!!)

“Sophia-sensei!!”

“?”

Young Natalena slammed on the brakes when she spotted that nervous Subcategory teacher. The ship was resupplied on the Port Days, but the teachers must have returned to the ship. Natalena initially thought that was lucky, but she stopped herself. That word didn’t apply as long as the Four Living Gods were marching toward their doom.

She didn’t know how influential Sophia Firenze, who was carrying a lot of brand-name boxes, was in the faculty room. Actually, she could guess it wasn’t much. But the woman was still a teacher. She had to be far more useful than one powerless student. And Natalena had planned to talk to anyone she came across anyway.

As many as possible.

She needed everyone’s help.

“Please help me! Um, Karuta-senpai and the others, well, they said they’re going to contact the human string pullers!!”

Why was she so hesitant to come right out and mention the self-sacrifice and ejection into space?

Perhaps she still hadn’t gotten over the shock of learning of it herself.

(No, don’t do that. You need to face the ugly truth!! We can’t come up with a solution if you don’t mention the most important factor! Um, that’s how Karuta-senpai always does things!!)

And Sophia was far from calm herself.

She had gone pale before being filled in on the details.

“Oh…oh, no.”

“Sensei?”

“Um, Jane-san . I am, uh, in no position to fight the human string pullers.”

“Do you know something? Like, um, how to save Karuta-senpai and the others!?”

The teacher used Natalena’s usual pseudonym and Natalena nearly grabbed at her shoulders and shouted back at her, but then it hit her.

The woman was shaking. It was an unnatural tremor, like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her head.

Sophia Firenze.

Wasn’t a weapons researcher named Chrisbart Firenze one of the human string pullers? This was a big deal for her in a different way than it was for Natalena.

“Argh!! That’s not a good reason! If a family member is doing something wrong, shouldn’t you do everything you can to stop them? Um, I will explain everything, but there really is no time. We can’t afford to be delayed because you’re too afraid to act!!”

“B-but…”

The teacher squeezed her eyes shut and spoke in a vanishingly quiet voice, but she threw out all the niceties of being a teacher.

She exposed her feelings to Natalena, no matter how ugly, pathetic, dark, and filthy they were.

“You all might think of the human string pullers as detestable villains, but no matter what the other 5.5 billion people out there might say, all I see is that kind uncle who gave me so many wonderful memories growing up.”

“!!”

Finding out a family member or a friend was a bad person was not fun. Having your suspicions confirmed was unbearable.

All that shopping during today’s Port Day may have been a way of distracting herself from her worries and nerves.

Anyone would feel that way, adult or child. That was why young Natalena did not scorn or insult the much older woman. Anyone who had seen the past battles would know that every person out there was doing everything they could to keep on living. That desire couldn’t be pretty or ugly.

“I don’t want to fight my uncle. In fact, I can only see this going badly whether I do or not. I’ll do anything else, even offer up my own life, so please let me sit this one out. I don’t want anything to do with this!!”

But that wasn’t an option.

That choice wouldn’t save anyone.

Natalena Blast understood better than anyone what failure here felt like. She wasn’t working based on assumptions here. She knew this from firsthand experience.

“I…”

The young girl clenched her teeth hard.

She gathered up what had been stewing inside her for so long – an empty dream that could never come true – and threw it right in the hesitant adult teacher’s face.

In other words…

“I wish I could punch my sister right in the face and stop her from making that mistake!! But Anastasia Blast, world’s strongest, isn’t here anymore, so that isn’t an option anymore and it never will be! But it’s not too late for you! Um, you can still stop Chrisbart Firenze. You can still stop your family member from making a terrible mistake!!!”

The teacher still didn’t know what it felt like to cross that line, but the young girl had crossed it and there was no going back.

Natalena knew how foolish and meaningless it was to try to find peace by turning away from the unbearably cruel reality standing in your way.

“You can still walk that painful path,” said Natalena, sounding thoughtful. Her small hands squeezed hard at the woman’s upper arm. “Nothing I can do can save my sister now, but, um, you’ve been given a free chance to achieve a goal that’s even more unreachable than immortality for me! Look into my eyes! Do you see the darkness there!? This will be you too if you screw this up!! Don’t you want to protect your irreplaceable family member!?”

She didn’t receive a response.

The teacher with the same name as one of the string pullers fell to her knees, clung to the girl, and burst into tears.

“I, sob, I!!”

“Yes.”

“I can really say I want to save him? Even though he’s, sob, one of the human string pullers manipulating the 5.5 billion other people!?”

“You can. I would do the same if my sister was still alive. Even if what she was doing is wrong. And you still have that chance. It’s not too late for you.”

Natalena didn’t think this adult was weak for letting her feelings out like that.

In fact, she felt people only walked to their own doom because they lacked the courage to let out their feelings.

Like Anastasia Blast of the Problem Solvers or Utagai Karuta of the Four Living Gods.

What if they had been able to say they were scared, in pain, and fed up with it all?

What if they had said they didn’t want to die?

What if they had asked for help?

Would things have gone differently for them?

Why couldn’t they do that when they were just as human as everyone else?

“Sensei,” said Natalena Blast, holding Sophia in her arms. She was young, but she was one of the people challenging a great unfairness. “I want to save Karuta-senpai from being thrown into space to draw the Threat’s attention. And, um, this has nothing to do with him being a Living God or the fate of the world. So will you help me?”

### Part 2

Subcategory gym teacher Kiyosawa Hadome sighed.

He hadn’t needed to try to overhear those two’s conversation. It may have even been audible off the ship and in the port where the resupplying was still underway.

And he didn’t need to think very hard about this one.

Chrisbart Firenze.

Sophia’s uncle had paid for Kiyosawa Hadome’s tuition. Not everything had to be about the fate of the world or exacting justice. Your reasons could be a lot more personal. And what if someone you cared deeply about was making a terrible mistake? There was only one answer: stop that plan even if it meant marching up to the man and decking him.

Also.

He could never accept a choice that meant trapping those four children with grand reasons like “the future of the Earth” and “protecting humankind” and then throwing them out into space.

That only meant physically keeping so many lives from being lost, but that was not the same thing as saving the world.

Kiyosawa Hadome scratched his head with a big hand and muttered to himself.

There was only ever one path for him here.

“Stop being so stupid, you little brats.”

Letnahe Kurent, the silver-haired, brown-skinned teacher in a white military uniform, used her thumb to operate a special mobile device for operating with military secrets. Anyone with the proper knowledge would have known her uniform said she was a commander in the navy.

She was an Indian naval officer, a temporary teacher at Second Grimnoah, and part of the human string pullers.

She was also a sinful woman who was a mother of two and had yet to get over the pain of her first love.

(Now, then.)

She looked up from the small screen and turned her eyes to the many city lights shining in the night.

(Today is a Port Day. Most of the students will be on the island and will fail to notice what is happening. How can I make this announcement? Natalena-san and Sophia-sensei may think they can gather enough people by running around and shouting, but that won’t be nearly enough.)

The best option was to use the internet.

Second Grimnoah was full of secrets regarding Crystal Magic, but they could not keep people from talking. Letnahe was aware the students had a few unofficial communities set up online. By spreading information on a few of those groups, it would spread to the students in the city.

“And that sounds like a job for me. Leaving it unclear who is betraying who is just how I do things.”

She was a sinful woman who would do anything to achieve her goal, so she had a habit of reminding herself of the core reasons behind her actions. She knew better than anyone that without that core, she would become no more than a disaster shaped like a woman.

Kiyosawa Hadome had decided to do this, so she would support him in secret.

For that, she was willing to betray the human string pullers.

Yamane Deiri nervously peeked down a narrow street filled with toxic neon lights (while carelessly still in his uniform), but he realized something just before deciding to take the next step toward adulthood. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

“Yo, Hirosuke.”

“Wh-what? I’m trying to check out all the must-see sights. Like that beach there was the model for the swimsuit episode of Cluster Wars. Yeah, that was the legendary episode where, not only did it give you little girls frolicking on the beach in their swimsuits, but it also put a lot of care into the discrepancy between their swimsuits and their tan lines.”

“What I find impressive is how they can stick a swimsuit episode into a robot anime where they’re always battling out across the solar system and it somehow doesn’t feel out of place. Anyway, Hirosuke, what did you think this Port Day was all about?”

“Eh? A morale boost before the final battle with the Threat? ”

“ Right? ”

Yamane Deiri waved his phone in a skeptical fashion and let his awful friend see the small screen.

“But check this out. That bastard Karuta has decided to do something stupid even though we’re all ready to fight alongside them.”

“You mean he’s fighting to save the world singlehandedly so he can become the idol of every little girl not just on the planet but in the entire solar system? He’s just like that dense Cluster Wars protagonist and his victory harem. K-Karuta, I’m not letting you hog all the little girls to yourself!!”

The Four Living Gods had apparently been searching for an option other than being ejected into space. Deiri and Hirosuke exchanged a nod and turned back toward the port. They saw two other people in school uniforms running in the same direction.

Those two were Matsuda Imi and Hashizaki Tayori, the popular girls from their class.

“Oh, you too?”

“You bet!! I’ll protect you, little girls!!!”

“Take back that ‘you bet’ until you’ve learned how to actually communicate. …So, Yamane, Nekoumi’s complete inability to hold a human conversation has me worried, but, um, the two of us still live in the same spacetime or dimension or whatever, don’t we? We’re not from completely different worlds that just so happen to exist in the same location?”

“Matsuda, where did you pull that fantasy worldbuilding from? You have nothing to worry about. The only hearts I’ll be winning are those of every young woman in the world.”

“Ugh,” groaned Matsuda Imi, giving up.

Gyaru-ish (but motherly) Tayori gave her staggering friend some support and took over the conversation.

“We can’t let Marika go through with this. And this isn’t even about the Four Living Gods. The three of us only just mended our friendship, so it isn’t fair for Marika to leave us again so soon.”

“What she said. …Damn, Tayori stole all the good lines from me.”

Imi sounded like she was teasing her gyaru-ish friend, but she was probably serious.

People generally assumed everything would work out. Since everything had been fine yesterday, they assumed the same would apply to tomorrow. But their past battles had told these students that wasn’t true at all.

But that also meant that, if you took action and put together some kind of plan for dealing with the problem, you could change things.

“God, the problem with those world’s strongests is they’re so strong it makes them fragile .”

“Oh? That’s awfully insightful for you, Yamane-kun.”

“Don’t worry. I’m ready to deal with this. I-it’s time to save Karuta-kun and win the adoration of all the little girls that fawn over him. Like Aine-chan and Jane Ignition -san.”

“Is that all you ever think about, Nekoumi?”

But they had established an important definition here.

The Four Living Gods were a single group of four.

If they were going to save that group and pour all their efforts into that attempt, they needed to count Crystal Girl Aine as part of that group and do everything they could to save her too.

Yamane Deiri, Nekoumi Hirosuke, Matsuda Imi, and Hashizaki Tayori exchanged a silent nod.

She wasn’t just a type of Crystal Magic.

They didn’t even need to get Karuta’s opinion on the matter. Aine herself might define herself that way, but the students who had shared a classroom with her knew better.

Then the student council’s redheaded bob cut girl spoke to them.

“You four.”

She too had to have someone she wanted to protect. Like that student council president who always seemed so perfect because she never let anyone see her vulnerabilities.

It didn’t have to be someone who had shared a classroom with them.

There was an entire world of interconnected people out there.

“It doesn’t really matter, but do you think everyone returning to Second Grimnoah right now is thinking the same thing? I suspect the entire student body agrees with us. I don’t know where whoever started this intends to hold their strategy meeting, but don’t you think that place will end up overcrowded?”

“Are you kidding? So the final battle is going to require a lottery or numbered tickets? Hurry, hurry! We’re already running late!! We can’t give that bastard Karuta any more reason to abandon us than he already has!!!”

The Subcategory and Main Category reacted exactly the same.

Even the teachers joined them for the same reason.

They walked at first, then some of them began running impatiently, and finally some began flying from the city with their Crystal Magic presets, forcing the public morals committee and teachers to blow their warning whistles.

Everyone was already gathering together.

Gathering together and approaching Second Grimnoah.

### Part 3

Such a large number of people would never fit in an ordinary classroom. Sophia Firenze, Kiyosawa Hadome, or some other teacher had granted permission to use the gym, but ordinarily, the Subcategory and Main Category students used different gyms.

They were packed in tight and those who couldn’t fit had to use their Crystal Blossom transmissions or watch webcam footage on their phones or tablets.

So many people were willing to go to those lengths so they could help come up with an idea.

(Good.)

Natalena Blast was not the world’s strongest. She had always been a timid girl without the guts to hold a microphone in front of a large crowd.

But things had changed.

She couldn’t let her nerves hold her back. If they didn’t come up with an idea now, Karuta’s group would die in a moving act of self-sacrifice.

So she did not hesitate to stand on the stage at the center of attention.

“Um, to start with, I wanted to ask about something.”

The student council’s redheaded bob cut girl was familiar with the school equipment, so she had handed Natalena a microphone that Natalena now used to gather everyone’s attention.

“Is the Threat situation really that bad? Um, the Four Living Gods aren’t the only ones who can fight. What if we sent out every Crystal Magician here at Second Grimnoah?”

They had in fact fought the Threat, both real and fake, in a group battle before. That meant the Threat could in fact be defeated by human hands.

However…

“That would be difficult.”

This new speaker had to be in the gym, but Natalena couldn’t locate her within the large crowd. Based on the voice, this was Letnahe Kurent holding a microphone somewhere in here. She was the new dance teacher who inexplicably chose to wear a navy uniform.

“You did battle the real Threat to retake Second Grimnoah near the Port of Kobe. The number of Threats there, including the smallest units, was likely somewhere between 10 and 30 thousand.”

A deep mechanical noise sounded.

Someone from the drama club must have finally located Letnahe because a large spotlight affixed to the second-floor railing shined down on her. It wasn’t that dark in the gym, but showing everyone who was talking helped the conversation run more smoothly.

Everyone was here because they wanted to protect someone.

Natalena gave the drama club member operating the spotlight a wave of thanks.

“Th-that’s right. 1000 Crystal Magicians can defeat tens of thousands of the Threat. So, um, i-if we all work together…”

“Meanwhile, the number of Threats gathering outside the atmosphere is more than 300 million.”

“…”

“And that is only that we know of. It may be even more. At that point, it doesn’t even matter how strong each of you are individually. Your numbers are too few to defeat the Threat.”

Plus, there was no rule requiring those 300 million Threats to attack a single place at once.

What if they orbited the Earth while descending upon the entire northern and southern hemispheres at once? The battlefront would be so large that a group of only 1000 could never hope to engage them all.

If they only had to defend Second Grimnoah floating in the ocean, they might be able to hold out for a while.

But that was not the same thing as protecting the world.

Second Grimnoah itself ran on a giant diesel engine The fuel for that and the food, water, and other supplies for the occupants had to be acquired from land. They could not drift endlessly on the ocean without resupplying, so their defeat was only a matter of time if the ordinary world were destroyed.

The situation could hardly be worse.

But they had already known that.

“Um, then let’s get started.”

Natalena Blast gripped the microphone in her small hands.

She calmed her racing heart and raised her voice to protest the world’s unfairness.

“I’m not asking for something guaranteed to work!! Um, just give us any theory you can think of!! We can think about how realistic the ideas are later!! We can’t let the Four Living Gods get away with this. The way they’re throwing away their lives is a mockery of human life including our own ! So we need to correct that mistake even if it means attacking our fellow students!! So give me your help!! Give me Second Grimnoah’s help!!!”

### Part 4

First and foremost: no one could defeat the 300 million Threats arriving from space.

So what methods remained to save the Four Living Gods?

### Part 5

The 7000 Years Theory

“Okay, our top batter is me: everyone’s idol, Imi-san! Let’s start by discussing the Crystal Magic presets we can all use.”

A popular Main Category girl took the microphone in the crowd. Was that Matsuda Imi, who was friend with Karuta’s group?

“More specifically, you know how we won’t die even if we do take a lethal injury? The regeneration preset lets us heal any nonlethal injury in only 30 seconds, but even something that would have killed us only turns us into a crystal statue. And we’ll recover from that after a long period of time.”

“Hold on. You’d better not be saying you’re okay with letting Karuta and the others go off and die because of that. That recovery takes centuries if not millennia. If any of us is lethally injured, none of us will ever see them again.”

The mocking rebuttal came from the delinquent boy named Yamane Deiri.

And Sophia Firenze delivered a further attack.

“W-we also don’t know if the regeneration will work if they have been thrown out into space. They might end up stuck in an endless loop of coming back to life and then immediately dying again because they’re out in the vacuum of space.”

“Yeah, I know☆” Matsuda Imi didn’t seem bothered by their remarks. “But don’t you see a loophole there?”

“Um?”

Natalena gripped the microphone up on the stage, but couldn’t come up with an actual answer.

They didn’t have much time and she wanted as many ideas as they could get, so she wanted to shorten the time spent judging the crowd’s reaction. Imi appeared to understand that because she winked and continued.

“Listen. Sure it might be millennia for the living people waiting for them to recover, but it’s instantaneous for the person who died. It would feel the same as going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning. So what if we had every student and teacher killed with the exact same severity of lethal wound? Whether that takes centuries or millennia to recover from, it would feel like only an instant before we all woke back up together.”

Who was it that gasped in realization?

Matsuda Imi shrugged with the spotlight pointing out her location in the crowd.

“Marika and Karuta-kun seemed pretty attached to the students from the first ship, so if we calculated out what kind of wound would match our recovery time to theirs, we could kill two birds with one stone. For example, that Kazamuki Gekiha guy isn’t supposed to recover for 7000 years, but if we match our timing to that, we could instantly travel to that point 7000 years in the future and everyone from both Grimnoahs could meet each other with no more injuries. How’s that for a happy ending!?”

“I-I think that could actually work,” said Nekoumi Hirosuke.

“Not quite,” interrupted Letnahe Kurent. “What happens to the Threat in that scenario? That is meaningless if all of you Crystal Magicians wake up to find the 300 million Threats swarming the Earth. You would be right back where you started. Worse, really, since all civilization would have been destroyed by that point.”

That problem still remained.

However…

“Then let me ask you this: what do those 300 million Threats use for food or fuel?” asked Imi.

“…I see.”

“ With that many of them, keeping them fed or fueled can’t be easy. In our fight against them near the Port of Kobe, we saw signs of them passing supplies on the ocean floor, but they don’t seem to eat or drink the resources already on the Earth. That means they can’t become self-sufficient on this planet. 300 million of them is a devastating force and they will quickly conquer the Earth if nothing is done to stop them. But I get the feeling that wouldn’t last long. Granted, my mind can’t perfectly simulate what the world will be like 7000 years from now, but I doubt the Threat will still be walking around.”

There was actual applause.

Not thunderous, but not scattered either.

However…

“Yes, that is a fair point.”

There was a loud scraping sound as someone roughly scratched his head with a large hand.

The interruption came from Kiyosawa Hadome, the gym teacher who made a point of playing the bad guy when it really mattered.

“So let me tear it down with a dose of reality. Your plan may give the Crystal Magicians of Second Grimnoah a path to survival, but what about the other 5.5 billion people out there .”

No one had a response.

They even swallowed their gasps of realization.

“So we instantly wake up 7000 years in the future and the 300 million Threats can’t survive long term, so we can all live happily ever after in the distant future? That’s an awfully self-centered idea that pretends the intervening time just doesn’t exist. So what happens to the powerless 5.5 billion who we’ve abandoned to their fate? You predict the Threat will die off on their own, but are they really the only group that would go extinct on the planet during those 7000 years? I seriously doubt it.”

“Sensei, I won’t deny it’s self-centered, but I do have a rebuttal.”

“What, that we don’t need to care what happens to the kind of people who let themselves be manipulated by the human string pullers?”

Kiyosawa Hadome shut down the rebuttal by giving it in advance, so Matsuda Imi shrugged.

Those who agreed with that argument would be fine with the idea.

But there would be some who didn’t agree.

“Fine, fine. I withdraw my idea!” Matsuda Imi didn’t seem to mind all that much as she raised the white flag. “I’d be fine with that if it was just me, but Tayori’s got a big family with lots of siblings and there’s no way I could convince that homemaker gyaru to abandon them. Besides, Kurent-sensei, who teaches dance for our Main Category, isn’t even a Crystal Magician, so it would be narrowing ‘us’ down to only ‘the Crystal Magicians’. That means we couldn’t save everyone that way and Second Grimnoah would be missing someone afterwards. And Crystal Magic requires an aptitude, so not everyone in the world can use it. I understood all that already, to be honest.”

The silver-haired, brown-skinned teacher cleared her throat.

That may have been a way of warning the drama club member to not shine the spotlight on her.

“Assuming the Threat cannot teleport or warp, they must have spent a long time traveling through space. That means they can last a very long time without resupplying.”

After listening to Kiyosawa Hadome’s last point, Matsuda Imi winked at him with the mic in hand.

“But it was nice, powerful idea to start us out on, wasn’t it? Feel free to make the next theory even more out there. Now, then! We have to save Marika and the others before they can go off and kill themselves when no one asked them to! Stop worrying if it’s realistic and grab the mic!! You shot down my idea, so show me you’ve got a better one yourself. It doesn’t have to be perfect cause we might be able to combine several rejected ideas to reach a viable one!!!”

### Part 6

The Live Among the Threat Theory

“I’ll go this time. Now that Imi’s gotten the ball rolling, I’ll go with something really out there, just like she wanted.”

The next to take the mic was the gyaru-ish girl named Hashizaki Tayori.

“As I’m sure you all know after fighting the Threat yourselves, they tend to be pretty big. And they’re made of metal. The teachers would probably know more since they actually dismantled and looked inside that one called the Armored Warrior, but the point is their corpses don’t rot.”

She did not receive any kind of response.

She didn’t know what the teachers had seen, but it may not have been something they were keen to remember.

“They kill humans on sight. We still don’t know why that is, but we know it’s true. But they seem to have some level of camaraderie among themselves. Well, there are some ants that will resort to cannibalism when they’re mad, so we can’t fully trust in that.”

“You aren’t suggesting what I think you are, are you?” asked Yamada Deiri, but Tayori ignored him.

“We’ve defeated quite a lot of Threats at this point and we would have recovered their corpses too. So we just have to wear those. At the very least, that should reduce the frequency of attacks a lot more than as undisguised humans.”

They would hand Earth over to the Threat.

On the condition that the Threat did not attack them.

Kiyosawa Hadome led the rebuttal.

“There aren’t enough of them for everyone. And like I said, I can’t accept a plan that abandons the other 5.5 billion to die.”

“That’s true, Sensei, but a lot of the Threats are big. What if we look at it more like public transportation, such as buses or trains, instead of anything personal? That introduces the question of where us humans would live most of the time, but as long as we had a largescale hideout, it would work.”

The idea was based on a lot of assumptions, but it did make sense. And even if they couldn’t agree to it immediately, some part of it could be combined with aspects of the other theories proposed later on.

So far, anyway.

“B-but in that case.”

“What is it, Nekoumi-kun?”

“We have no real guarantee that would fool the real Threat. We might look a lot like the Threat with the defeated shells around us, but that’s only from our point of view , isn’t it? I’ve heard that a flower that has evolved to have bugs carry its pollen will show completely different patterns under a blacklight. To know how good a disguise this would be, we would need to know exactly how the Threat views the world.”

“How is that a problem if we’re using real Threat parts?”

“They might change after death like a flower’s colors fading when it withers after being cut from its roots. When humans die, we rot and become something else entirely. Really, it would be unusual if they didn’t change.”

This was not limited to the ordinary five senses.

For one, the Threat wasn’t human. They might have further sensory organs. They could have a sensor that detected radiation or a sixth sense that detected neutrinos. If they had X-rays or terahertz radiation that let them see through objects, they might be able to see right into the giant shells being worn as disguises.

“The Threat strengthens themselves by tearing away the usable parts from the unmoving corpses we create. We saw that with the decoys and the real ones inside Second Grimnoah. Th-that means they have some way of distinguishing between a living Threat and a dead Threat. Wearing a stolen shell sounds really dangerous to me because they’re sure to notice all sorts of things we wouldn’t. From their viewpoint, wouldn’t we look like a monster walking around wearing human skin?”

To avoid that, they would need to know how to distinguish between a living Threat and a dead one. And from a Threat perspective, not a human one.

“Not to mention that the Threat might not be more accepting as we approach the right answer. I mean, we humans think stylized anime figures are cute, but we find hyper realistic mannequins to be creepy.”

“I don’t like you applying that first part to all of humanity, but is that really how it works?”

“I can sleep like a baby and have the sweetest of dreams when I have my favorite body pillow with me, but I would be terrified if I found a strange mannequin in bed with me. I wouldn’t get a wink of sleep.”

“???”

With 300 million Threats pouring down all across the planet, they wouldn’t have time to figure out how the Threat worked.

Especially not to a point that they would know what the Threat liked and what the Threat found to be creepy.

“At the Port of Kobe, we saw the Threat flashing lights on their bodies in a regular pattern, right? What if we set up LED lights to flash in that same way?”

“A-again, we only know what that looked like from a human perspective. What if they actually communicate using chemical scents synthesized using those lights? Our scentless Christmas lights would stand out and get us attacked even faster.”

### Part 7

The Dimensional Leap Theory

Letnahe Kurent sighed while watching the students and teachers grabbing for the mic and then debating their various theories.

There was more to it.

That teacher in glasses and a white military uniform clenched her teeth.

(That one idea was based on the assumption that Kazamuki Gekiha and the others from the first ship will wake up in 7000 years, but that isn’t even true.)

That was only the official story.

It was a solid enough story that even Utagai Karuta and Amaashi Marika of the world’s strongests believed it, but it was in fact only a false story released to the public. And the key to survival in this thoroughly rotten world was to always question the major assumptions everyone believed to be true.

Letnahe had discovered the truth after doing some digging from the human string pullers side.

(Omotesandou Kyouka is lying to them. I had my suspicions before. She doesn’t use that wheelchair because of her old wounds; she uses it because she gave up her own recovery to boost the recovery speed of the first ship’s victims.)

Their recovery time of over 7000 years had been reduced to less than a year.

And not just one of them like Kazamuki Gekiha – this was every teacher and student on that ship, which meant hundreds of people.

The fact that the president could accomplish that was frightening, but that opened up a loophole.

What if Omotesandou Kyouka regained her full power?

(She is currently the only Regulation 3 in the world.)

Much of the rest was guesswork on Letnahe’s part.

As part of the human string pullers, she had the special privilege of extracting all sorts of hidden information from around the world, but that also meant she was an outsider when it came to Crystal Magic.

(Supposedly, her full power would let her pass through the dimensional barrier. Assuming that isn’t a bizarre bluff, it shouldn’t matter if she is thrown into space. I am not talking about long-distance movement by breaking the lightspeed barrier. They could instantly leap to another habitable planet and survive there. )

Letnahe did not buy for a second that girl was powerless.

She had seen the girl use a strategy that required slowing the arrival of light and sound while remaining seated in the wheelchair.

Of course, that idea shouldn’t have been feasible either.

Even if they could leave the solar system, how far was it to the nearest star? If they traveled there, would they find a miraculous planet with enough water and air for people to survive? If you had enough resources to travel centuries at the speed of light, it would be a lot easier to build a fully artificial planet rather than search out a habitable one.

But the president could skip past all those problems.

She was the strongest Crystal Magician and she could teleport or warp without any kind of tool. If she had a large radio telescope with parabolic antennae lined up in the desert or a space telescope and she used them to search out a few planets with sufficient water and air, she could ignore the distance between them and arrive in an instant. The Threat might pursue, but that would take a considerable amount of time if they could not break the lightspeed barrier. Karuta’s group might die of old age before the Threat caught up and they could always leap to another planet if necessary.

That meant the Four Living Gods would not die after being ejected into space and the Threat would be redirected from Earth, saving the other 5.5 billion people.

It sounded an awful lot like a happy ending.

“Unfortunately, it isn’t an option.”

A nearby student gave her a puzzled look, so Letnahe cleared her throat. She organized her thoughts in her head from there on.

(That plan requires giving up on the hundreds of teachers and students killed on the first ship. That girl abandoned her power and accepted the inconvenience of life in a wheelchair, so I doubt she would compromise on that. The kind of woman who is willing to do anything will never back down when it comes to the core of her conviction. I know because I am the same.)

Letnahe concluded her idea wouldn’t work.

If the Four Living Gods were willing to let others die as long as it saved them, they would have had plenty of alternative options. For example, the 7000 Years Theory that Matsuda Imi had started with and everyone had concluded wasn’t an option. It would be a problem for Hashizaki Tayori because she had a big family and for Letnahe who wanted to save her husband and children more than herself, but the Four Living Gods could have emotionlessly abandoned everyone if they wanted.

They could be cold.

They could list out each problem they were facing.

They would not get complacent because they were powerful.

The four of them alone had defeated the Problem Solvers.

And that had given them the position of world’s strongest.

With that cunning and talent for finding loopholes, the idea had to have occurred to them. The 7000 Years Theory, the Live Among the Threat Theory, and everything else being debated here would have already been discussed by those four. Letnahe was curious how much that wicked schemer Omotesandou Kyouka had revealed to the others at the end, but she would have at least considered and rejected the Dimensional Leap Theory in her own head. Letnahe would have been surprised if they hadn’t come up with and rejected 100 or even 1000 theories she hadn’t even considered.

The first ship’s victims would die when Omotesandou Kyouka did, but she was apparently still unwilling to pull the trigger herself. That suggested she operated on more than pure logic.

If all four of them hadn’t been working in vain to find an alternative this whole time, they never would have all arrived at a conclusion as ridiculous as self-sacrifice.

A greedy desire for survival was not necessarily a beautiful thing. It always meant forcing death onto others, so that went without saying.

But after so much fighting and being hoisted into the position of strongest, those four had to know better than anyone that this was a cruel world where you could never find victory if you didn’t throw out all your nice-sounding ideals and where you would be devoured the instant you let up on the reins.

(They aren’t focused on their own survival. They aren’t placing that as their top priority.)

Letnahe watched the heated debate with icy eyes.

She already knew what the end result would be.

With an optimistic outlook, there would be options left to explore.

But those four would never choose those options. Not because of their strength and not because of their virtue. They had simply been backed into a corner where that wasn’t on the table.

The human string pullers had set everything up to manipulate the world’s strongests in that manner.

(That would explain why you are stumbling so badly when you normally always win, Four Living Gods.)

### Part 8

“Hello, hello! Welcome to the global broadcast!! This is Delane!! It’s time for Gold Medalist, the super popular show where I have intense interviews with all those winners in life! Man, wouldn’t it be great if it was me, Cinderella Queen, being interviewed on this show one day!? Anyway, this here is today’s guest. Say it with me everyone: Peeendet Denpasarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!”

Things on TV were as lively as ever.

Two familiar faces were currently displayed on screen. One was Cinderella Queen, the edgy(?) child star who had done commentary for the Catastrophe. The other was a girl of 16 or 17 seated on the one-person sofa across from the younger girl. She had gorgeous blonde ringlets that clashed with her outfit of a tank top and baggy dance pants. She wore thick basketball shoes on her feet. That was Pendet Denpasar, Karuta’s opponent in the final match of the Catastrophe tournament.

That made her the current #2 in the world.

In other words, she was the next bullet to be loaded as the world’s strongest.

Curly twintailed Marika actually laughed bitterly while lying on the student council room sofa.

“An interview, huh? I bet she’s confused. Ah ha ha. Look at those tears in her eyes. She’s like a scared little mouse. She couldn’t look more uncomfortable on that little sofa☆ God, she’d have looked a lot cuter heading out to the tournament looking like that.”

“She can’t help it. She has no idea why she’s suddenly getting all this attention. She’s probably realized someone has set this up, but as disturbing as it is, she doesn’t know how to fix it. Just like it was for us,” said Karuta, restlessly spinning the modified military flashlight in his hand.

The human string pullers were serious.

They were setting up the next world’s strongest before these four had even chosen death. This TV show was meant to build up Pendet’s image.

Omotesandou Kyouka, the master of this student council room, sighed softly.

Karuta didn’t even need to move behind her large desk and check the computer screen. The adults were clearly delaying their responses to the emails she had sent out. They never would have done that with a world’s strongest before. Everything from Karuta’s group was probably being drowned out by all the requests and reports sent by the many adults.

The center of the world was already shifting.

Karuta’s group was the soon-to-be-abandoned kings, just like the Problem Solvers had been.

Anastasia’s group had seen the writing on the wall, fought against it, and become monsters.

Not even the human string pullers had been able to control that, which was why the human population had fallen to 5.5 billion.

“Thinking back, the Problem Solvers managed to hold onto their position as world’s strongest for nearly a decade.”

“That’s a record. And by a lot,” said Omotesandou Kyouka. She must have seen the actual records and numbers. “Before them, a strongest would last an average of 3 years before being replaced. No strongest was ever meant to last longer than that.”

“And then there’s us.”

“The Problem Solvers died before they could fulfill their role, so we’re being used up right away to pay back their debt.”

The Problem Solvers had attacked the first ship because they had thought they wouldn’t be disposed of if there was no next candidate. Stooping that low to cling to life may have shown a sort of talent. At the very least, Karuta knew he couldn’t do it.

The next strongest would be Pendet Denpasar. How could he kill her and wipe out the magic system at the source of her power for no reason but that?”

“Sacri-sama.”

“Yeah…”

Aine was standing in the corner like a potted plant and she was likely reminding him of the time. Chrisbart Firenze of the human string pullers had demanded a response at precisely midnight.

They only had three hours left.

“Marika. Omotesandou-san too. I’m stepping out for a bit.”

“ Feel free to just not come back, ” said Marika, lying on the sofa and watching TV.

Her tone was light, but it didn’t sound like a joke.

She didn’t even look his way as she continued.

“ That might be one way of saving yourself, right? We know the 300 million Threats are interested in the world’s strongest humans, so they’ll chase after us if we’re ejected into space. That much is certain. But it may not have to be all four of us. Karuta and Aine-chan could make a romantic getaway.”

Karuta waved a hand dismissively as he stepped out into the dark hallway.

On the inside, he was mildly surprised to find that was Amaashi Marika’s theory.

The crystal girl silently followed him like always. Even on this final night.

“Sacri-sama, I will obey whatever decision you make.”

“Yeah.”

“With that in mind, couldn’t you give that option to Miss Marika or Miss Kyouka?”

Karuta laughed quietly at that.

Aine expressionlessly tilted her head while matching his speed to walk alongside him.

“What was so funny?”

“Nothing really. I was just noticing how much we’ve grown.”

If this had happened a few months ago, he felt like they might have fought each other to determine who got to live. But here they were trying to push survival onto each other. Even Crystal Girl Aine, the least human of them, was doing it.

Karuta considered that kind result.

“ We can’t do that. ”

“Why not?”

“300 million Threats are after the Four Living Gods. If even one of us remains on Earth, the Threat swarm might ignore the group in space and crash down to the surface. That invalidates the choices both groups made.”

Marika probably wasn’t seriously suggesting it.

In fact, if that out-of-control childhood friend was seriously considering something, she wouldn’t suggest it out loud like that. She would increase the odds of success as much as possible by saying nothing, forcibly restraining Karuta and Aine, and preventing them from doing anything else. This was the girl who would burn away her childhood friend’s limb and cover the wound with molten metal to prevent the regeneration.

Karuta’s mild surprise wasn’t with Marika’s idea itself. He was surprised that extremely emotional but harshly realistic girl would indulge in an empty fantasy she knew wasn’t a real possibility.

Death was frightening.

Maybe you couldn’t avoid it, but you still wanted something to save you psychologically.

It wasn’t a surprising turn of events. But he felt like he was getting a glimpse of the vulnerability she had always worked so hard to keep hidden.

What about Omotesandou Kyouka?

Her behavior didn’t seem as obviously out of the ordinary as Marika’s.

“Then again, continuing to check her work emails at this point is unusual.”

“Sacri-sama?”

Tomorrow would never arrive for them, so there was no point in checking on her work.

Supposedly, anyway.

At this point, they should have been writing their wills and purifying their bodies. Or if they were going to die anyway, they could try drinking or smoking just once before the end. But Kyouka’s behavior seemed too ordinary . She may have been preserving her usual routine because she wanted to believe it wasn’t too late.

Anyone would be scared given the circumstances.

And an extreme fear of death was like a giant mirror reflecting your true nature back at you. Utagai Karuta walking through the halls like this was part of that too. He was descending to the bottom level of the central hull that linked Second Grimnoah’s three hull shape together.

The crystal statues that had once been the teachers and students of the first ship were gathered here.

He checked the numbers to locate the correct door and opened it. he slowly pulled out the sliding bed within.

No change.

If it was only going to end like this, maybe it would have been easier to die sooner.

“Hi, Gekiha,” said Utagai Karuta.

No one was listening and there was no response. The greeting was entirely meaningless, but Aine didn’t say anything while standing alongside him. She did not even tilt her expressionless head.

“It turns out humanity can’t defeat the Threat. It’s not about trying harder or anything like that. It was set up that way from the start. Ha ha. Makes me wonder why we even bothered taking revenge on the Problem Solvers. It was going to happen sooner or later. Even if no one had stopped us and we had all graduated from the first ship, we would have been killed as the new world’s strongests anyway. Funny, right?”

He was surrounded by silence.

He looked down at his former friend and spoke all on his own.

“But we’re still going to protect the world.”

Protect.

Perhaps it was arrogant to use that word here.

He already knew that not all the Threat were bad. They had already slaughtered the Armored Warrior and the tadpole Threats who had only wanted to try out studying at a human school. Was he trying to imply the Threat had no reason to kill them?

But he was still afraid to die, so if someone was threatening his life, he would view them as evil no matter the circumstances.

They had done the same thing themselves. They had so strongly denounced the Problem Solvers when they were only acting out of fear as well, so he had set up a double standard for himself.

Was that the ugly and vivid truth of human nature?

After a self-deprecating smile, he went ahead and said it anyway.

“You’re supposed to wake up after about 7000 years, right? I’ll make sure there isn’t a Threat to be seen when you open your eyes. I hope you can accept that as a compromise, Gekiha.”

That ugly nature was something the world had acquired after they had taken revenge and become the Four Living Gods.

Kazamuki Gekiha had died before all that, so he hoped he would be purer than that.

“Sacri-sama.”

“…I know.”

Karuta gave a small nod when Aine called out to him.

They still had some time until midnight.

But…

“We need to act soon to avoid any further trouble. If we wait until midnight, we might run into Deiri, Natalena, and the others. ”

Second Grimnoah was a fortress built to make efficient use of the Four Living Gods. Of course they would be aware of everything going on there. They knew all about the meeting Natalena, Letnahe, and so many others were holding in the gym.

And not even the Four Living Gods were confident they could win in a group battle against more than 1000 teachers and students who could use Crystal Magic.

He appreciated the thought.

But he couldn’t have them interfering at this point.

More than 300 million Threats could start pouring down on Earth at any moment. The human string pullers had given a concrete time limit. A single day of hesitation could mean the beginning of an unstoppable invasion of the entire planet and the 5.5 billion people who lived there. And there was no turning back time. Once that happened, it was too late for Karuta’s group to feel regrets.

The Four Living Gods could not survive whether they remained on Earth or were launched into space. That much was certain.

So which was the better choice?

The answer couldn’t have been more obvious.

If they succumbed to that pleasant kindness, they wouldn’t just lose their lives – they would lose everything.

“…”

Utagai Karuta returned his friend to the storage container, shut the door, and walked to the exit. He looked back from the door and quietly bowed. After spending more than 10 seconds like that, he raised his head and slowly walked up the stairs. Aine silently followed him.

“Aine.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

“Sorry for getting you involved in a fight we never could win.”

“I am not sure what you mean.”

They climbed step after step after step.

Once out on the side deck, they found the childhood friend and president waiting.

Those two smiled bitterly.

“I thought I told you to run away.”

“You could’ve run away too, Marika.”

Everyone else would still be fiercely debating what to do in the gym. They were taking this very seriously in order to save the four gathered here. That made Karuta so happy he was afraid he might start crying, but he knew he could not rely on that.

“Karuta-kun, did you not write a will?”

“I decided not to. I’d be embarrassed if I left something behind and people started deifying me.”

“You could have at least written something for your family.”

“You’ve seen how many old authors and Bakumatsu period samurai have their private letters – even love letters – shown off in museums. Besides, anything I wrote would end up being nothing but complaining. I don’t want everyone seeing that.”

“Kee hee hee. But did you use a special tool to wipe your secret hard drive? What about your online storage and browser history? Deleting it the normal way isn’t good enough.”

“Bff!?”

His childhood friend’s teasing laughter made him do a spit take.

Was that really something for a girl to bring up?

The president elegantly placed a hand on her cheek.

“My, my, Karuta-kun. Hee hee. You should have come to your intellectual upperclassman who knows all about computers. Don’t worry. I will permanently delete it all without peeking☆”

“I know better than to trust that smile, you schemer. Plus, that’s more embarrassing than asking for a baby bottle, so no one would ever take you up on that offer!”

The crystal girl didn’t seem to understand (which Karuta’s idealistic view of girls told him was how it should be), so she expressionlessly tilted her head.

“Sacri-sama?”

“It’s nothing. I can handle this myself, so you don’t need to worry about it!”

Marika cackled and held her sides. It was possible those two had planned this to break through the gloomy mood.

But the time had come regardless. They were reluctant to leave, but they also didn’t want to wait too long and have their friends gather around.

“So are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Two of them could not use the flight preset, so Aine picked up Karuta and Marika picked up Kyouka, wheelchair and all. Then the Four Living Gods jumped over the railing.

They flew toward the dark silhouette of the space elevator stretching up toward heaven.

This was the first step on their journey into death.

### Part 9

They crossed the dark sea.

Their destination was more than 5km away – which meant it was beyond the horizon – but since it was an elevator that rose vertically into space, they could see it clearly even at this distance.

The space elevator was located on a naval float attached to a small island in the south sea. According to Kyouka, the float would move within certain limits to cancel out the irregular shaking of the wire caused by the wind and other factors.

A light was flashing from there.

Aine and Maika used their flight presets to make a gentle landing on the artificial float that measured more than a kilometer on each side.

Someone stood there.

An old man in a lab coat.

“I was waiting for you.”

“Are you Chrisbart Firenze?” asked Karuta as soon as Aine lowered him from his princess carry position, but the man did not bother confirming it.

Karuta was still suspicious, but he didn’t see any bodyguards or any other fighting force around. The man really was completely alone. The human string pullers seemed awfully defenseless for such a powerful group working from the shadows. It was only natural to suspect the possibility this was a body double or agent.

After all, the man was dealing with the world’s strongests who were doomed to die. And the human string pullers were the ones who had set that up. For one of the bastards who intended to go on living, being attacked in a last-ditch attempt to survive had to be the greatest risk.

But the old man snorted in laughter at Karuta’s doubts.

“The greatest tool of self-defense is information, not power. Bodyguards or a body double would have the opposite effect. People are strongest when alone.”

“…”

“I take it you do not agree. But you should know all too well what fate awaits you four who acquired the world’s strongest power .”

Karuta stepped behind Omotesandou Kyouka and grabbed her wheelchair’s grips.

Aine’s sword and Marika’s rapier Device were more powerful than his modified military flashlight. He wanted to keep their hands free if possible.

The old man turned around and simply said “follow me”.

The lightweight aluminum alloy ground was paved with asphalt and was perfectly sturdy. It did not look all that different from an old-fashioned airport or rocket launch site. Except the massive “smokestack” in the very center made it all look very strange indeed.

Perhaps to prevent aircraft collisions, there was an evenly-spaced vertical line of red lights stretching skyward. Those were slowly flashing. The line of lights stopped tens of thousands of meters high because that that was as high as it was possible for aircraft to fly. However, there was likely an air defense system that would activate if an airplane or helicopter flew too close without permission.

The space elevator looked like an obsolete relic. But on closer inspection, not a single bolt was rusted. It was perfectly maintained. This was the final lifeline for the 5.5 billion people on Earth, so they could not have it lost in an accident or terrorist attack.

Chrisbart spoke without looking back.

“I will not ask if you are ready. The fact that you arrived on time shows you each possess the necessary resolve.”

“Second Grimnoah is less than 10km away. And Crystal Magic flight can exceed Mach 2 if you try. If Natalena and the others have realized what’s happening, they might attack the elevator to prevent us from departing.”

Karuta was pushing the president’s wheelchair while asking about that because the large artificial island did not have any kind of electric cart like you might find at an airport or golf course. Walking the full distance was a real pain.

“I appreciate giving us some more time right at the end, but neither of us can let anything jeopardize this final chance. You yourself said we had the necessary resolve. If you have a shortcut, feel free to use it.”

But the lab coat man did not seem to mind.

He shrugged without looking back.

“We are the human string pullers, remember?”

“…”

“We control everything by providing just the right stimulation to all of those called humans. By providing the right information and the right situation, we can ensure those students’ good will never leads to action. Or we can convince them to swallow their tears and see you off because that is what you wish.”

That was their power.

That was the true malice that not even the Four Living Gods had been able to defeat.

And it did not matter to Chrisbart that one of the teachers he was targeting shared his last name.

Karuta had a harder time understanding those terrifying monsters than he did the Problem Solvers or the real Threat.

“By the way,” said Chrisbart Firenze on the way to the base of the elevator.

“What?”

“Is that it ?”

“?”

Karuta was not sure what he meant.

The old man did not look back, but Karuta finally sensed what he must have meant. Chrisbart was focused on Karuta, but not directly. His interest was in Crystal Girl Aine who he had summoned and who obeyed him.

“…”

Aine did not respond in any way. Was she not interested or was she intentionally ignoring the man? It was hard to tell when she was always so expressionless.

They arrived at the base of the space elevator.

It looked a lot like a landmark broadcast tower. Some of the same technology may have been used to construct it. The base was shaped like a giant C that enveloped the space in front of it and was split into a few different floors. Karuta thought that shape looked familiar and realized it was used for malls that surrounded a plaza or park. It may have been intended as a special international airport or tourist attraction before it went out of business and was taken over by the human string pullers.

The restaurants and shops appeared to still be functioning. At the very least, it wasn’t full of empty shops and the mannequins weren’t covered in dust. Perhaps it was the same idea as having shops for soldiers on a military base.

“How many people does it take to run the elevator?” asked Marika, looking up at the giant “smokestack”.

“Around 1000 if you include the air defense operators. The operation is fully handled on the surface, so the space section is empty. But even with that many, most of the work is handled by computers.”

Were all of those thousand part of the human string pullers? Or was a minority sending out falsified orders to manipulate some other larger organization who had no idea what was going on here? It was impossible to tell from here and it honestly didn’t matter either way.

As a relic of when this was either an international airport or a tourist destination, the entrance area contained a row of ticket gates that reacted to either a paper ticket or an annual pass card. Their power appeared to be shut down, so Chrisbart walked right through one gate.

The elevator was past there.

The elevator car was like a train car tilted up on its end. Karuta guessed that was to obscure how many people and materials were being carried up each time, but apparently that was not the case.

Chrisbart explained.

“Your destination is in geosynchronous orbit 36 thousand kilometers from here. The Earth’s gravity, air resistance, the wire’s shaking, and other factors will reduce the elevator’s speed, so even at maximum power, it will take you three days to arrive. The elevator is more cost effective and safer than a rocket, but much, much slower.”

“Three days?”

“That was accounted for when calculating out your time limit, so you need not worry about running out of time.”

Having it happen all at once was a terrifying thought, but could they really spend three full days slowly committing suicide? And once they started, there was no turning back.

Traveling more than 10 thousand kilometers each day was extraordinarily fast. If a truck driver drove at 100km/h all day long without even stopping to sleep, how far could they travel in one day? And traveling vertically was a lot more difficult than traveling horizontally.

“You lived together in an RV when hunting down the Problem Solvers, didn’t you? There is a shower, bathroom, and kitchen stocked with everything you will need for your short stay there. Although they are designed for use in zero-g, so they cannot be used like normal. You have come this far, so we don’t want you to starve to death inside the elevator.”

That explained the size of the elevator car. Taking a plane to the other side of the planet took around half a day, so three days for travel was a major restriction. That may have been the real reason it had never caught on, not the international and technological issues. Ordinary people wouldn’t have anything to do even if they did spend all the money necessary for the long trip into space.

Space was not the only unexplored area. For example, people could spend a mountain of cash to take a deep sea probe thousands of meters underwater. That was enough to see or experience something brand new. But most people didn’t do that. They weren’t interested in a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Why was that? It was like taking an overseas trip where you couldn’t even leave the hotel. Once something became a real possibility, did the realistic inconvenience come into view and cause a journey into a world of dreams to lose its luster?

The Four Living Gods were being abandoned here. They were being crammed into a cramped corner of death that everyone had already lost interest in.

And the process would take days.

They approached the elevator car, Karuta pushing the wheelchair.

“When do we leave? The sooner the better, if you ask me.”

“How rational of you.”

The boy smiled a little at that assessment.

The human string pullers knew how to manipulate humans, but they sure didn’t understand humans. He only wanted to get this over with before the uncertainty inside him could take over.

### Part 10

Chrisbart Firenze sighed after seeing those teenagers off to their deaths.

They had only been given three days’ worth of food.

There were no supplies on the space station in orbit. They truly had been given a one-way ticket. After leaving, they would not have enough water, food, or air to stay in the station or even to return to Earth.

But those four had not seemed disturbed.

They may have been drawing on every last ounce of strength to suppress their feelings, but they had managed it.

Just like all the previous world’s strongests he had seen.

(I act like I’m not the one that paved their path to hell and keeps the cycle of death running smoothly.)

The old man in the lab coat shook his head and threw out his sentimentality.

Something else was bothering him.

“That girl.”

Was her name Aine?

Chrisbart Firenze knew that the Original Crystal Embryo was no longer at the center of the Earth. Since Crystal Magic continued to function regardless, the only possible conclusion was that the Embryo had gained the ability to move on its own, had left the center of the Earth, and had moved somewhere near Second Grimnoah.

What if she was it ?

Of course, this was only a fantasy with no evidence to back it up.

(Does she call him “Sacri-sama” because he is a “sacrifice” she is using as a stepping stone? Is that title a combination of his function and her respect for how he gave her freedom by summoning her from the center of the Earth, even if it meant becoming one with him?)

Chrisbart was a weapons researcher at heart.

And that included research on Crystal Magic.

(Does Crystal Magic only function on Earth because the Embryo was located at the center of the planet? If so and if it really has broken free of that restriction, then it is possible those four could use Crystal Magic in space.)

He doubted that would allow them to defeat the 300 million Threats.

The difference in numbers was simply too great.

But what if they made full use of Crystal Magic to construct a habitable environment for themselves? They wouldn’t even need to search out a habitable planet if they had the power to create an environment with water, air, and everything else they would need.

Would it be possible for those four to live free even after being launched into space?

“No.”

Chrisbart concluded he was being too optimistic.

Really, that was no more than wishful thinking.

He was surprised to find even he still had the capacity for guilt inside him.

At the very least, Crystal Girl Aine had not told the others what she was.

So no matter what she was, she had no intention of taking things in that direction.

### Part 11

They heard a deep rumbling and felt a slight floating sensation.

But while Karuta and Aine looked out the thick, double-pane window, they could tell just how fast they were moving. It had taken them less than a minute to arrive above the clouds.

The transparent outer layer that resembled a smokestack only covered the first 30 thousand meters.

The first.

Yet that was already more than three times the height of Everest.

Since there was very little dust, dirt, or even air past that point, the elevator car was left directly exposed to the atmosphere. They continued on and on, guided by the carbon nanotube wire.

The higher they went, the farther until the horizon and the more they could see. They saw the lights of the city on the coast and a cluster of lights on the ocean with some other smaller clusters gathered around it.

Those were Second Grimnoah and its guard ships.

“…”

Was the debate about how to save them still ongoing on that ship? Or had the others noticed their escape and begun pursuit? But it was too late. Once they were in outer space, Crystal Magic could not catch up to them.

Natalena and the others could not reach them now.

“Ooh, they were generous. The fridge is packed. Is this dry-cured ham? Ah ha ha. There’s even caviar!”

Meanwhile, Marika was more interested in the contents of the elevator car, so she was exploring the kitchen area. She had focused on the ingredients rather than the microwave and oven bolted to shelves, so she was bent over with her butt sticking out his way while searching the fridge.

“Dry-cured ham? Caviar? Isn’t that all space food made to be eaten in zero-g?”

“Don’t ask me. It’s all packed in thick plastic. It looks like you cut open the mouth of the bag, stick that in your mouth, and squeeze the contents out with her hand.”

That explanation only made it sound like a jelly drink made by throwing the ingredients in a juicer and creating a cold goop, but that was just how Marika talked since she was halfway to being a gyaru. The food was probably fine. Space food these days was supposed to be good enough to sell at souvenir shops.

Unlike in a rocket, they weren’t strapped into their seats with sturdy belts. They didn’t need puffy spacesuits or helmets either. The president was still wearing her uniform and she moved around in her wheelchair to grab a magazine. However, the car was tall and you were meant to reach the different levels with a ladder. She would need some help when she needed to reach the shower or bed.

“I’ll be fine,” said Kyouka, flipping through the magazine. Apparently that capable upperclassman girl was still interested in the summer fashions even though she would never return to the surface again. “The gravity will be gone soon and the concepts of up and down will lose all meaning. I should be able to swim through the air by propelling myself with my hands on the walls.”

Karuta was mildly impressed she had thought it through this far.

He decided he needed to give those issues more thought himself. He didn’t want to carelessly remove a drink lid in zero-g and have the liquid floating all around. How did the shower, bathroom, and laundry work? It might seem silly with the bigger issue facing them but he was worried about all of the plumbing.

Their three-day journey would take them to the geosynchronous satellite at an altitude of 36 thousand kilometers. That meant their first day would bring them more than 10 thousand kilometers up. The international space station was about 400km up, so they would be in a complete vacuum by then.

The fact that the first day included so many changes may have been a blessing.

The psychological pressure would be much greater during the 2nd and 3rd days when they traveled through nothingness the entire time.

“How long ago was that ‘the Earth is blue’ quote again?”

Marika joined Karuta by the window.

That modern high school girl loved to snap photos of everything from today’s meal to beautiful scenery, but she didn’t have her phone with her now. Probably because she didn’t want to see the message alerts. And it was unclear how long it would still receive a signal anyway. Would it lose a connection quickly, or would they keep a connection the whole time thanks to a satellite signal or the elevator’s wire itself acting as a communication cable?

“It’s night right now, so the ocean and sky are both black. But will it look blue once we get high enough?”

“No, it will remain black as long as it isn’t facing the sun.”

“You mean we won’t get to see the blue Earth? After launching ourselves into space?”

“The trip takes 3 days, so the Earth’s rotation is going to take us into the sun eventually, won’t it?”

But that meant the 100km space elevator was constantly rotating around with the Earth. That was a strange thought when they were currently traveling up that line. Would the centrifugal force not cause it to snap?

Marika pressed her hands against the thick double-pane window made to block radiation.

“The temperature in space varies a lot based on the presence of sunlight, right? Are carbon nanotubes resistant to heat? I mean, it’s 100 thousand kilometers long in all. And they say the metal rails on railroad tracks change length between summer and winter.”

“Don’t ask me. Maybe they wind it up with a reel to keep it tight.”

There were some specks of light on the otherwise dark surface of the Earth. They gathered to form cities, thick highways connected those cities, and lots of lots were traveling between them. Some trends were noticeable from this distance. People really did settle along the oceans instead of in the treacherous inland mountains and then they connected their settlements with thick roads. The lines of lights located more inland were probably large rivers. It was incredible to think how each one of those lights – whether they belonged to a house or a vehicle – had a person inside.

There were also some red lights. Those were not neon signs. Maybe they were slash-and-burn farming in the Southeast Asian forests, or maybe there was some other reason, but they had to be manmade fires.

“Marika, can you still use Crystal Magic?”

“What, fallen head-over-heels for your mature childhood friend’s cute battle mode?”

Marika casually shattered the Crystal Blossom on her chest to power it up and pulled a rapier Device out of thin air.

Then Karuta turned toward the crystal girl who was always standing by his side.

“?”

Aine tilted her head in response.

If it was true that Crystal Magic only functioned on Earth, he had expected Aine to withdraw into him at some point, but that hadn’t happened. Had that theory been mistaken, or was there something in this space that was allowing Crystal Magic to function? If this would only lengthen Aine’s fear and suffering, he felt kind of bad about doing this to her.

“We should see some shooting stars soon,” said Kyouka.

Come to think of it, didn’t that president girl have an interest in astronomy?

“Tens of thousands of small debris and meteor pieces enter the thermosphere, the top layer of the atmosphere, every single day. The lights are too small to see from the ground, but we are close enough to see them now. A meteor shower pales in comparison to the spectacle we should get to see.”

“Really? So like pouring rain? Or like overturning a bucket?”

“In a way, they kind of are pouring down from space.”

“Karuta-kun? Aine-chan? You two should really learn how to not make it sound so banal.”

Would seeing this make the trip to space worthwhile?

Would it be enough to believe they really did want to keep the Threat away from that planet full of so many beautiful people and things?

“Marika…”

“What do you want?”

Karuta spoke to the childhood friend looking out the same double-pane window.

He said the words none of them had been able to bring themselves to say.

“No one’s watching anymore, so you can cry if you want.”

Those words felt forbidden.

There were no further words. He couldn’t remember what Marika had said while clinging to his chest. He had a vague memory of her unfairly hitting him a few times while she cried. He didn’t remember what he had done either. He knew he must have shouted something. Her tears were contagious, so he knew he must have cried too. They had all cried. None of them tried to stop it. Even Omotesandou Kyouka had transparent tears in the corners of her eyes and yelled something that hadn’t made sense.

They were too far away.

Their voices couldn’t reach anyone.

It would have been the same for the past world’s strongests.

Anastasia’s group had feared this more than anything.

Crystal Girl Aine was the sole exception, only tilting her head with no apparent expression.

The skirt of her white combat dress silently floated up in an unnatural way.

“Hey, Aine? Fix your-”

“Hmph!!”

Marika jabbed her fist into his side with a definite anger that hadn’t been there before. But it was still a light blow for the world’s strongest. Unnaturally so. In fact, Marika was propelled slowly backwards after the hit.

Gravity was gone.

They had moved too far away from the gravity’s source: Earth.

Marika grew red in the face and shouted while holding down her short skirt with both hands and slowly spinning in the air.

“You just had to interrupt that emotional scene by focusing on the little girl panties created from yourself, didn’t you!? Give me back my pure, youthful tears!!!”

“I-I don’t see how this is my fault.”

“My, my,” said Kyouka. “I wonder what the past world’s strongests did here. Is this a trial all of the strongests have passed in secret?”

“And you need to do a much better job of covering up those surprisingly cute ones!!”

“Sacri-sama, you have not given me an oral command. What am I supposed to do?”

“Stop tilting your head and start covering up your underwear!! Aine, you don’t have to be completely naked for human shame to kick in!!!”

### Part 12

The zero-g proved to be a bigger problem than expected.

Marika tried to change from her skirt into track pants, but she gave up on that plan when it earned her glares from Kyouka, the fashionable upperclassman, and even from inhuman Aine. She ended up continuing with the “hold down the floaty skirt when necessary” plan, but that was far from perfect. Each time there was a careless mistake, Karuta would get punished for it, which meant a lot of getting hit by the girls.

Omotesandou Kyouka smiled and made a suggestion.

“Hitting doesn’t have the same oomph in zero-g, so I say we switch to electrical punishments. You know, like zapping him with the hair dryer.”

He really wished they would do better at holding their skirts down instead of improving the punishments. In fact, this would only do more damage, which didn’t solve anything for anyone.

And zero-g had other effects as well.

“Ugh.”

“What’s wrong, Aine-chan?”

“Miss Kyouka, your boobs have unfairly increased in size.”

“Have they? No, I don’t think this is their size. It’s probably that gravity is no longer holding them back. That means less strain on my shoulders, so I’m all for it☆”

Being trapped in the same room as a bunch of girls was a problem. Karuta had to do his best to look anywhere but there. That devilish president was sharp (which she seemed to use to tease him as much as possible!!) and she giggled when she noticed how he was acting, but how else was he supposed to react to this!?

In his attempt to look away from Kyouka, he saw Marika sleepily approaching.

“Play with me, Karuta.”

“Oh, no! Another minefield!!”

All his shouting was making him thirsty.

In zero-g, straws were valuable. Except they got sick of using them and were now having fun squeezing out the contents of the drink packs and eating pieces off of each other’s floating globules of colorful liquid. Even a lab water flea could think of that game when out in space, but it was actually quite dangerous since you weren’t guaranteed to get all the small droplets and those could cause mechanical trouble while out in space.

Karuta was stuck catching a few juice globules in his mouth on Aine’s expressionless request and his thoughts shifted a bit toward the belt-covered sports equipment in the next room.

“Come to think of it, you wouldn’t have to worry about your skirts if you had just changed into those bulky spacesuits, would you?”

“For three days in a properly-heated compartment? Don’t underestimate the female body, Karuta-kun. That would lead to a hell of delicate parts getting much too sweaty,” remarked Kyouka.

She normally had to remain seated in her wheelchair at all times, but the tires were useless without any gravity to press them against the floor. She had abandoned the wheelchair and now floated in the air. She had made up some aphorism about space bringing people freedom and stretched.

“The waterless shower is pretty interesting, but space is really inconvenient for sleeping.”

“Yeah, I don’t like having to strap myself down so I don’t float out of bed.”

For once, they were in agreement with Aine who preferred cramped places. She looked uncomfortable floating out in the open. The idea of sleep freeing you from the worries of the day did not exist in space.

Their shared life here would not last forever.

This was the third and final day.

The sunrise and sunset did not exist out here, so the food disappearing from the fridge was the biggest reminder of time’s passage.

“What…is that?” muttered Marika, looking out the window.

Karuta focused that way too and saw something new there. A bunch of artificial objects formed something like a net overhead.

“That would be the Sunny Side Up Project, a network of space stations made from a solid foam material. You know, the one run by Yukino Arakawa of the old strongests.”

Kyouka’s explanation brought it all back to him.

That network covered the entire Earth, didn’t it? The centrifugal force would differ at different points, but that would have all been forcibly dealt with using God-Worshiping Magic. The last he had heard, control had been lost and it was breaking apart with its master gone, but that didn’t mean the entire network would be cleared away immediately.

It looked like there was a gaping hole in the network around the space elevator.

That proved the elevator had been considered a greater priority than Yukino’s secret weapon.

However…

“No, not that.”

“?”

When Marika’s further comment made Karuta take a second look, he saw an object glistening darkly in the powerful sunlight.

That was the Threat.

Specifically, a bunch of giant spider crab ones all tangled together.

That meant the Threat had animal forms even out in space. Did that mean similar lifeforms existed on another planet? Or would they change form further after descending to the surface and cannibalizing their own?

Given the distance, that clearly wasn’t just one of them. A whole lot of them had to be forming a big ball in space like bugs gathering together to survive the winter. That one ball had to contain hundreds, thousands, or even more.

The group that had occupied Second Grimnoah off the Port of Kobe had been in the tens of thousands.

That group alone would be too much for the four of them to defeat.

And there were more than 300 million in all. How big was the enemy force?

“…”

Karuta fell silent, but then another change came over the elevator car. The floating sensation grew. Most likely, it was tugging them in the other direction as it slowly decelerated. Inertia still existed in zero-g.

They were approaching their destination.

“Karuta-kun.” Kyouka brushed her long hair to the sides in zero-g. “We need to get ready soon. Although I doubt we even need to put on those spacesuits.”

“What happens when we reach the space station?”

“We board a separate launch shuttle. The station is 36 thousand kilometers from the surface and the station itself is 10 thousand kilometers to strike a balance with Earth’s gravity. That exceptionally long space elevator is constantly rotating in accordance with Earth’s rotation and revolution. A shuttle’s rocket engine can fly us to the tip in less than an hour.” Kyouka calmly explained. “After that, we don’t even need explosives or fuel. We can use the massive centrifugal force or the force of the wire’s own swaying to launch ourselves with enough speed to leave the solar system once we cut ourselves free of the station.”

However, this was a journey into death with no actual destination. They would divert the 300 million Threats’ attention away from Earth and give the people there even a few years of peace. This was an empty coffin used to preserve that state of peace by using up each new world’s strongest.

Marika looked confused.

“Wait, I thought everything was weightless in space. Won’t the slightest push send you forever in the same direction?”

“There are a lot of things that will decelerate you, like the gravitational pull of other astronomical bodies and solar winds which are clumps of ions. A true vacuum is only a theoretical concept. Even space is a treasure trove of dust and garbage.”

Was that how it worked? It was probably best to trust the beautiful astronomy lover on this one. Given the actual risk to their lives, they probably shouldn’t have been discussing this, but they were likely only distracting themselves like someone starting to clean their room on the day before an exam. Besides, no amount of thinking would reveal a solution to their problem.

They had already made up their minds.

Their deaths were assured whether they remained on Earth or went into space. If they let their resolve falter, it would only mean more people dead.

They were scared, of course.

But more than that, they had had seen how the world’s strongest could abuse their power.

What kind of strongest did they want to be?

At the very least, they did not want be the kind that would put 5.5 billion people at risk just because they feared death. They had defeated the Problem Solvers for that, so they would not take that path themselves.

Their view of the starry scenery vanished.

The elevator car had arrived in the space station’s interior hall.

After one final shake and a metallic thunk, it came to a stop.

Out of habit, Karuta checked the modified military flashlight at his hip. That showed just how nervous he was, but he felt silly as soon as he did it. What was he going to fight at this point? But as ridiculous as it was, he couldn’t even crack a smile. No amount of struggling or fighting would be enough to escape death.

The series of compressed air sounds was likely the two airlocks joining together.

The red lights on the wall all turned green.

That likely meant they could open the airlock.

“…”

This really was the end.

He was briefly tempted to punch Marika and Kyouka in the gut to knock them out. He wanted to leave them here. But that was meaningless. The Living Gods would be the first ones killed by the 300 million Threats even if they did remain on Earth. He was growing uncharacteristically charitable as a way to avoid focusing on his fear of being ejected into the endless expanse of space, but he couldn’t forget the entire reason they were doing this.

Things from here on wouldn’t be like the space elevator. The shuttle ride would be a one-way trip without even a temporary goal.

This really was the end.

He would die.

Without even being to protect these three girls.

He silently cursed the human string pullers for not filling the elevator car with an invisible gas that knocked them all unconscious for some automatic process to load them into the deadly shuttle. Couldn’t those villains be kind enough to rid them of the need to see their doom slowly approaching?

He felt like they were performing sokushinbutsu.

They had chosen to bury themselves alive where they waited for death to finally arrive. And they were wishing for world peace the entire time.

“Let’s get going,” he said, but no one expressed agreement.

All four of them may have had someone they had wanted to protect. Even if it meant leaving that someone here. But none of them did so. Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka approached the airlock, looking less than pleased about it. The president looked back toward her wheelchair in an uncharacteristically worried way, but she must have decided it was meaningless. She left the device behind and floated toward the exit.

They were scared.

Of course they were, so they wished they could numb their hearts as they continued on.

Because as things were, they would break before they reached death.

Even though this was the right thing to do.

They lowered the large levers on the outside of the door and opened it.

Through the airlock, they found a space larger than a train station concourse. If there had been gravity, the size would have been enough to forget they were in space.

And there was something there.

It came without warning.

“We have been waiting for you, superior terrestrial carbon structures. AKA, the world’s strongest humans.”

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

Utagai Karuta froze.

He didn’t understand.

Why was he hearing someone speaking?

Someone was waiting on the supposedly unmanned space station?

The human string pullers hadn’t mentioned this. Hadn’t Chrisbart Firenze said the space elevator was managed entirely from the surface and there was no one on the station!? Then who was this that had so easily obliterated the seemingly all-knowing human string pullers’ plans and calculations!?

“You’re…kidding.”

But.

Perhaps it wasn’t surprising this had slipped past the human string pullers.

Because the person in front of them was not human.

The black carapace and slimy green light were not any different from the giant spider crab variety.

But this one was clearly different from any that Karuta and the others had ever seen. They had come in many forms, such as a tadpole or a lion. There had even been the Armored Warrior who changed their appearance based on their hatred toward humanity after feeling betrayed.

But this was something else entirely.

“Sacri-sama.”

Something audibly sliced through the artificial air.

Even as she floated in the zero-g space, Crystal Girl Aine moved in front of Karuta and drew her transparent katana out of empty air.

“ That is not human, thus it is likely outside the human string pullers’ control. Things are not going according to plan.”

“…”

So Aine saw it that way too?

She agreed this being wasn’t human?

If the human string pullers could control something like this, they never would have gotten their own hands dirty.

Karuta had completely tensed up. He couldn’t even pull the modified military flashlight from his hip.

This was an utter monster.

This was something on another level entirely.

She had transparently white skin, shining eyes, and glossy black hair. A sticky green light crawled along her pitch black metallic clothing that could have been armor or a dress. Without the black “armor” that fused with her soft skin, she might not have seemed so monstrous. If she had walked by in Second Grimnoah wearing a school uniform, he would have just assumed she was another student. That was how human she looked.

She looked to be 20 or maybe older.

Her allure was even stronger than Regulation 3 Kyouka’s.

But this was only based on human assumptions.

No one could actually say how old she was. In fact, a lifeform that didn’t live on a rotating and revolving planet might not even have a compatible concept of “age”. They might even measure their “service life” by distance traveled or number of accesses. She was just that far removed from humanity – and biological life altogether.

“Karuta-kun,” cautioned Omotesandou Kyouka.

She was looking at the wall.

No, she was looking at what should have been a window. The entire wall should have been transparent, like at an airport, but something covered the outside. Enough darkly glistening somethings packed in so tight that there wasn’t a gap left open.

They were shaped like giant spider crabs, water bears, and blue-ringed octopuses.

Needless to say, these were the Threat.

As crazy as it sounded, this space station had functioned as the final trump card protecting 5.5 billion people, but it had been taken over so easily!? How could this happen? Karuta’s group were willing to sacrifice their lives to redirect the Threat’s attention, but they had ended up diving right into a giant creepy cocoon made of thousands or tens of thousands of Threats gathered together.

They couldn’t act as decoys or redirect attention like this.

The human string pullers couldn’t hope to control things anymore. The plan was meaningless if the world’s strongests were captured before leading the 300 million Threats away from Earth! They were really and truly going to die for nothing!!!

“Congratulations.”

And.

They heard one of the last words they had expected.

It was not that this being was failing to communicate. It was more like the mind or feelings behind the word were twisted beyond recognition.

The countless Threats surrounding the station produced creaking noises while the woman with a pitch black sheen spoke.

She smiled as gently as a divine mother and spread her arms wide.

“Congratulations, world’s strongests! You are safe now. You need not fear death now that I, Transline, have collected you!!”

### 215. Chapter 3

### Part 1

What did she say?

What did that even mean?

Utagai Karuta’s mouth flapped wordlessly for a while. He had completely missed the moment when he should have drawn that puny weapon, his modified military flashlight, from his hip.

Marika and Kyouka were in a similar situation.

And if they didn’t say anything, it remained her turn.

The woman calling herself Transline smiled and continued.

“I am Transline. The central being of what you call the Threat.”

“That we call?”

It was true the humans had come up with that name on their own.

So did they have another, more official name?

“Why would we call ourselves the Threat? In your language, the closest term for us would be Metal-Based Naturally-Occurring Lifeform.”

Metal.

That was clearly different from humans, but some metals were still necessary components of the human body.

“From our perspective, you would be Carbon-Based Naturally-Occurring Lifeforms. Oh, and because you are the world’s strongest, I could add the ‘superior’ qualifier to that.”

Omotesandou Kyouka pressed a hand to her chest and took a slow, deep breath.

After refocusing her mind that way, she made a cautious attempt at making contact.

“Why go out of your way to add ‘naturally-occurring’? Are there other kinds of lifeforms?”

“Yes, there are. Such as most of the ‘Threats’ you have seen so far. Although the difference between natural and mass-produced is a trivial one to us,” replied the dark woman, tilting her head curiously.

The look on her face said she wasn’t sure why they felt the need to ask about that. It was like she had been forced to explain that most fishing line was synthetic these days and you rarely saw natural lines anymore.

“We have put together a factory for such things. And even your Earth has taken the first steps in that direction. You know, cloning and stem cells. Your efforts have stalled, but it is unclear to me if that is because you lack the necessary technology or you have stopped researching it because you find it distasteful.”

What path of evolution had these beings taken?

It was unclear if they had even achieved diversity through reproduction the way humans did.

The Threat did not gather up humans or any of Earth’s resources, but they did strengthen their own power by cannibalizing their fallen and taking their parts. The decoy and real ones had both done that. They might fluidly adapt to changes in their environment by repeatedly tearing away the necessary parts and customizing themselves rather than using the Darwinian theory of evolution.

“Why are you called Transline? In our language, that makes you sound like a power line or a wire or something.”

“That is not inaccurate. I act as a transmitter and a pipeline, so I combined the words in your language.”

She didn’t bother to hide the answer and even smiled as she responded.

Marika had reported that the Threat operating on the ocean during the Port of Kobe battle had periodically received supplies. And Kyouka had convinced Letnahe to tell them the sea anemone ones made fuel by gathering and concentrating the energy that poured down from space and dissolved into the ocean.

In other words…

“You alone provide the power to keep 300 million Threats running?”

“ Hee hee !!”

A strange zapping sound made the humans flinch.

It came from the space station wall.

The wall had burst from within and the remnants of a thick cable jutted out.

The dark woman probably hadn’t meant that as an attack. She elegantly placed a hand over her mouth.

“Oh, dear. I apologize. I got a little overexcited there. Hee hee hee. Sigh. I am trying to restrain myself, I promise. Hee hee hee. ”

“…” Karuta felt another prickly sensation.

It wasn’t visible, but there was some kind of energy roiling within Transline. She said this was while she worked to restrain it, so if she were to let it go free, would it be enough to fry them until not even the double helixes within their cells remained?

“There. I’ve calmed down☆”

Transline placed a hand on her large chest and took a deep breath. A breath. It was unclear if she needed to do that to live, but she was apparently working to calm herself.

That was how she saw it.

She didn’t even see this as a battle.

She was only making sure she didn’t accidentally kill Karuta and the others.

“I am no more than a power transmitter, so I do not create anything myself.”

Wasn’t Crystal Magic defined as techniques that read the waves similar to high and low pressure fronts which were created by the clash between the energy pouring down from space and the energy of the Original Crystal Embryo found at the center of the earth?

In that case…

“Were we borrowing your power to use magic?” asked Karuta.

“I can’t blame you for failing to notice. We have had very few chances for direct contact since we slowly follow a ‘loop’ separate from your galaxy. But since we were in the neighborhood, we might as well take you in, don’t you think?”

She had the look of someone in the comfortable, open ocean watching a small fish try desperately to survive in a small puddle leftover on the rocks. And from her point of view, that was probably accurate.

Her legitimate sympathy only made it more disturbing.

That thought led Karuta to realize something important: disturbing? He sensed a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. He felt a doubt that made him hesitant to even ask this being standing before him.

Marika asked a different question.

And being Marika, she asked an even more dangerous question than the one Karuta was hesitant to ask.

“Who is this ‘we’ you keep mentioning?”

“The unlimited numbers we can produce in our factory. But I couldn’t look after them properly if there were too many, so I’ve limited them to just 3 cargos.”

Karuta felt faint.

The difference between humans and the Threat was too great. They had no upper limit and all the Threats they had fought were a reduced number to make things easier on Transline?

If that was 3 cargos out there, then a cargo likely meant 100 million. And she made it sound like 3 of those units was keeping the numbers low.

They had never stood a chance. From the very beginning.

Meanwhile, Transline didn’t even seem to consider the possibilities of winning or losing. Even after reducing Earth’s population to 5.5 billion, she didn’t even see it as a battle.

In other words…

“We have come here to take you in. To protect you.”

There it was.

They hadn’t misheard that incomprehensible part after all.

“Some might be happy with constantly keeping our numbers up using the factory and rejoicing in our prosperity as metal lifeforms, but I don’t see it that way. That might bring stability, but it will not lead to evolution. No matter how far we expand the status quo, repeating the same stimuli on and on forever will only lead to gradual decay. Biologically and culturally. Thus, I am constantly seeking out new lifeforms. They don’t need to share our origin. They can be nitrogen, silicon, or carbon-based. I just want to find as many of them as possible and collect the greatest units of each species.”

Carbon-based.

Utagai Karuta kept a cautious eye on Transline while looking to something else. He looked to the back of the crystal girl’s head while she stood protectively in front of him in zero-g.

Crystal Girl Aine.

Did she fall under the silicon-based category?

“So you’re saying you have no reason to fight us?”

“Yes.”

“And we don’t have to worry about dying?”

“Yes, yes! Hee hee. But of course!! I will accept you and the sword-wielding one as a set.”

Transline smiled and promised them their safety. At the same time, several of the artificial lights on the ceiling nearby burst from within.

And still smiling…

“ So let’s just clean up the rest, shall we? ”

Something about her peaceful face felt wrong.

No, there was some fundamental disconnect here.

Yes, that was it.

If Transline was commanding all of the Threats and she had never intended to fight, then what had all of those Threats been doing? Had they gone berserk while down on Earth? Of course not. The Threat had clearly been acting as a group toward some kind of goal.

“It was not easy searching out the strongest lifeforms among so many. And while flipping over those cards to check, the population of nearly 8 billion dropped to only 5.5 billion.”

“So all of those battles were a test to identify us!?”

Marika shouted without thinking, but Transline’s demeanor did not change.

She continued smiling.

“And whenever I did narrow it down to one or more strongests, they just kept refusing my offer. Some challenged me to a meaningless battle, some inexplicably killed themselves right here, and others panicked and fled right out into the vacuum of space. But that just proved none of them were who I was looking for. And now I have found you and it didn’t even require flipping over half of the cards first, which just goes to show how clever I am☆ So now I will take you in. Do not worry. There is really, truly nothing to worry about.”

The human string pullers down on the surface had only been able to check whether or not the shuttle had launched and the Threat’s invasion speed.

What if the previous strongests had all fought self-destructive battles against Transline after launching the empty shuttle into distant space so no one would feel a need to visit the space station and find out what had happened? And even if there were any doubts, the human string pullers would have to believe it worked when the Threat actually did stop.

Karuta’s throat was trembling.

He tried to speak, but it didn’t work the first few times. He eventually did get the words out.

“Just to be certain. You say you’re taking us in. You mean you’re rescuing us?”

“Yes.”

“So you’re interested in humans and you want to acquire the four of us if you can?”

“Yes! Oh, yes!!”

She had a beaming smile so full of adoration that Karuta was afraid she was going hug him to her chest. Given the energy she contained, that would probably be enough to vaporize him.

And with that established…

“So why target Earth? We’re already here, so you have no reason to attack the surface anymore!!”

“Yes. Because I do not need them anymore.”

Transline did not even tilt her head.

The crackling around her died down. This was apparently a calmer topic for her.

She had no interest in ruling the planet or wiping out humanity. She really did see securing these four as more important.

And with that in mind…

“I am not attacking them because I want anything from them. I am simply cleaning them up so you have no lingering regrets here. We are only interested in the strongest ones. Well, with a species split between male and female, I would like to have a pair of them. But since I already have that with only the strongests here, the rest are not necessary.”

She wasn’t destroying them out of hatred or disgust.

But she would do it anyway.

She was so different. This leader of the metal-based lifeforms known as the Threat could verbally communicate with them, but the foundation of her thoughts was just so different.

She had said the previous world’s strongests had acted suicidally after learning the truth. Which was why she had not yet acquired the world’s strongest humans.

Why had they done that?

Maybe there was no reason and they had simply been unable to handle the truth.

But Karuta thought he knew the answer.

If Transline took someone in and was satisfied, she would then slaughter the rest of humanity. But she would let humanity live until she had accomplished her goal. So had those people chosen to die in order to delay that moment of utter destruction?

They had been exiled from Earth and thrown out into space. They had been pushed out of their ordinary lives and forced to choose death. But they had still wanted to be strong people.

Karuta’s dizzy spell was not going away.

How many layers of hell did this world have waiting for them?

“Karuta-kun,” cautioned Omotesandou Kyouka, floating nearby.

She was looking to the thick double-pane window.

Something was squirming there. The giant spider crabs, water bears, blue-ringed octopuses, and other Threats were moving away from the window. The view opened up. The blue ceiling visible there was in fact their home planet.

A red fireball was soaring toward it.

No, not just one.

There were so many. And each and every one was probably a ball of thousands or tens of thousands of Threats clumped together.

“Wait! Please wait!!”

“Sigh.”

“Why do you have to do this!? You said yourself the rest of humanity doesn’t matter to you! You’ve already accomplished your goal!!”

“ Hee hee. The perfect strongest response. You have been through so much, but you still wish to protect the fellow humans who created that hell for you. Oh, how wonderful!”

Something somewhere overloaded and burst.

Even belligerent Marika took a step back when she felt the tingling on her skin. Some small translucent crystals had formed on her cheek. That was the Crystal Magic preset of regeneration. Something similar to a serious sunburn had been identified as an injury. Karuta would probably see something similar if he looked in a mirror.

How long would this giant space station last?

Transline continued with a beaming smile.

“ Ah ha ha ! Yes, yes! I figured it out this time. Hee hee. You aren’t just mindless violence!! The world’s strongest I want must also have a love for their fellow humans!!!”

### Part 2

One fell on a weapons factory in India hidden from satellites by disguising it as a rundown city.

The fireball shined bright while it rapidly rotated like a curveball.

It launched countless laser beams in all directions, like a planetarium’s star projector.

Straight lines of green light streaked out.

And it was rotating.

The deadly storm sliced through what had looked like a fake city built for a movie. The production zone had been built underground to protect it from an exchange of ballistic missiles in an all-out war and there was a nuclear shelter for the leaders built even deeper, but neither was spared. The ground itself was sliced apart. Orange lava erupted out like the earth was hemorrhaging blood from a wound.

The attack was merciless.

The weapons production base was wiped off the face of the earth before the fireball even collided with the ground.

Another fell on a giant artificial float factory found 50km off the coast from Aichi, Japan’s general port for the Chubu region. It claimed to manufacture defensive weapons and intentionally avoided the word “military”, but the Threat must not have cared.

The downpour of laser beams sliced through it all and the giant black mass crashed into the center.

The mass partially submerged itself to sink the entire float, but then the mass broke apart and made its next move. The outer units had been distorted by the heat and impact, but those deeper inside tore away the usable parts and made them their own. They had never expected a safe landing, so emerging from a mountain of their own kind’s corpses was part of the plan.

Yes.

The mass was formed from thousands or tens of thousands of Threats.

The Smart Arms weapons manufacturing plant in North America’s Silicon Valley was no exception.

Susannia Evans of the Problem Solvers had once used the place to look after her cyborg body and Anastasia Blast had ultimately used it as her secret base.

But it only took an instant to destroy.

“…”

Chrisbart Firenze sighed softly as the many reports came in.

The Threat had made their move.

It might look like an indiscriminate attack all across the world, but anyone privy to certain special information would recognize what was happening here. The Threat had excellent aim as they bombed more and more of the human string pullers’ hideouts that had deceived everyone until now.

Or maybe the humans had only thought the deception held. This result suggested it never had fooled the Threat.

Which led to one inevitable conclusion.

(Here too.)

The operators were practically screaming as they gave their reports. Some were ignoring their orders and attempting to run away, but if they did not listen when ordered to stop, they would be shot by security. Or maybe they wanted to be killed by human hands.

The old man in a lab coat looked upwards.

He could only see the sterile ceiling lined with artificial lights.

But he stared into the distance like he could see right through it.

“Perhaps these are our just deserts.”

A moment later, the base of the space elevator was vaporized the carbon nanotube wires lined up like violin strings all snapped.

### Part 3

A deep rumbling shook the entire space station.

They were 36 thousand kilometers from the surface, but it didn’t matter. How quickly was that vibration moving up the wire?

It had begun.

That was simple enough to say, but what was actually happening down on Earth?

“Leave those trivialities to me. Now, tell me. What kind of life would you like next?”

Transline smiled.

There was no sign of malice there. She seemed to think she was doing them a favor by taking revenge on humanity for tormenting the four of them for so long.

But had anyone asked her to do that?

“Dammit!! Aine!!”

“What shall I do?”

Karuta called her on reflex, but then he froze.

Right.

5.5 billion people were being slaughtered for no real reason, but what exactly could they do about it? The Four Living Gods already knew they could not defeat the 300 million Threats. If they descended to Earth now, they would only find an uncontrollable hell. They couldn’t protect anyone by returning there and fighting to the death.

Aine tilted her head, awaiting his orders.

The four of them could not survive whether they remained on Earth or were launched into space.

That choice had been heartbreaking, but even that was falling apart. Meanwhile, Transline looked as happy as someone about to open a present wrapped with a ribbon. Her joy was genuine, but she did not look at them like she accepted them as her equals. The idea of going with her scared Karuta. But they could survive a while longer if they obeyed her for now. Unfortunately, that miraculous opportunity meant nothing if they slapped her hand away and refused.

Transline probably would do it.

This was not an agreement between equals for her. The Threat was granting lesser beings mercy. So as soon as she knew she could not have them like she wanted, she would lose interest and kill them. Then she would stick her hand back into human society and make a mess of things in order to search out a strongest she preferred. And if at any time during the process, she lost interest, she would kill every last human, and ride whatever “loop” the Threat followed to reach another planet.

“Karuta.”

The next thing he knew, Marika had a different color scattered across her summer uniform. She had already activated her crystal armor and pulled her rapier Device from thin air.

“I’ll let you choose. What do we do now? I didn’t really follow what she was talking about, but if this Transline is something like their core, we have an extremely rare opportunity while this close to her. Whether we choose to shake her hand or give her one hell of a punch, this is probably our last chance.”

“Since she contacted us directly, she must have taken the possibility of a surprise attack into consideration,” said Omotesandou Kyouka, brushing her black hair off her shoulder. “This Transline is a special Threat unit. We have zero information on her. Don’t forget the lesson we learned all too well when dealing with the Problem Solvers. We know nothing about her power and have nothing prepared. What chance do we actually have of winning if we attack her head on now?”

Aine continued to tilt her head with sword in hand.

She didn’t need to say out loud that she would support whatever decision Karuta made.

The boy focused on the modified military flashlight at his hip. Would he wield it as a weapon, or would he throw it out into the zero-g space? That would make his choice clear to everyone watching.

What would he do?

If they stayed here, they might just barely cling to life. But if they thoughtlessly refused Transline, even that small chance was gone.

Utagai Karuta asked himself the crucial question.

What would they do now!?

### Part 4

Thinking back, the world had been an awful place as far back as the Problem Solvers.

The five previous world’s strongests and their God-Worshiping Magic had been overwhelmingly power, so Karuta and the others had been helpless as their ship was destroyed out at sea. It had all begun with that experience. The few students who remained had never even considered making it a fair fight. They had hidden, deceived, and used every trick in the book to kill. That was how they had arrived at the top, so perhaps that was what had created such a depressing world afterwards.

The world had been a terrible place to begin with, but Karuta and the others had clearly made the wrong decision when choosing how to fight back against it.

They had failed to escape the ugly side of humanity on Second Grimnoah.

All hell had broken loose on their school trip to Iceland’s Crystal Beach. In a frigid resort where they could not ask for help, they had been surrounded by what they thought was the Threat and forced to fight with the ordinary tourists over the few livable spaces remaining. They had ultimately discovered the supposed Threat was a military decoy created by humans and they were being controlled by a group who had infiltrated Second Grimnoah in order to seek vengeance.

Near the Port of Kobe, they had been shocked to discover how pure the real Threat was.

Unlike before, the tens of thousands of Threats there had been the real deal. Karuta and the others had worked to retake Second Grimnoah from them, but the Armored Warrior and the other Threats there had only been interested in the schools humans attended and had never intended to fight. It was Karuta’s side that had gotten the wrong idea and slaughtered them.

The human string pullers had taken away everything they had worked so hard for by using the Catastrophe meant to reunite the fracturing human race.

Their own parents and siblings had been working behind the scenes of the martial arts tournament. Of course, they were not trained professionals. The human string pullers hid in the shadows and manipulated information to have the 5.5 billion ordinary people unwittingly do their dirty work. They were so good at what they did that they could have people betray their own family with a smile and truly believe it was in their family’s best interests because “someone important” or “everyone” says so.

The boy asked himself again.

There was no salvation to be found on Earth as it was.

Was that world and the people living there really worth protecting? The current situation was undoubtedly wrong. But could he really find a reason worth returning to that hell when it meant abandoning the only chance at survival he still had?

Say you had the winning lottery ticket.

And then you find out multiple of the same number were printed by mistake and you hadn’t actually been testing your luck at all. Would you really ask for a redo that was completely fair? You didn’t have to. Maybe it was dirty and maybe it was ugly, but if you just held your tongue, you would be set for life.

He thought about it.

He considered it.

Agonized over it.

### Part 5

Utagai Karuta made his decision.

### 216. Chapter 4

### Part 1

Utagai Karuta opened his eyes.

He briefly felt separated from gravity and that wasn’t just his groggy head failing to fully wake up. For one, the bed was too fancy for him.

He felt something soft next to him.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was curled up in the same silk bedsheets as him. Her head was turned to the side and she was giggling.

“Good morning, Karuta-kun.”

“Were you watching me sleep? Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Hee hee. I didn’t plan on it, but I found it to be amusing.”

How was that amusing?

She saw the same thing every day.

“Ugh.”

He sensed motion from the other side of the bed. That had to be his childhood friend Marika. Rather than waking up, she appeared to be caught in a light doze and tempted to fully return to sleep. She suddenly grabbed him from behind, bringing a smooth, soft warmth to his back. She held him like a small child with a big stuffed animal, but it was probably a subconscious thing. He heard her breathing settle back into sleep again.

Crystal Girl Aine was staring down at him from above.

His head was resting in her lap.

“Sacri-sama, it is time to wake up.”

“Yawwwn. Aine-chan, do we really need a time to take up?”

“You are the one who said we must follow a schedule and maintain a daily routine or we will grow undisciplined.”

She was right about that.

He extracted himself from Marika’s grasp, rubbed his sleepy eyes, and slowly got up.

He felt a dry wind.

The sea breeze carried a faintly salty scent to his nose.

“Phew.”

He set his feet on the floor.

The wind led him from the bed to the balcony and Crystal Girl Aine followed without a word. She may have wanted attention too.

They were in a seaside cottage that would have fit right in at a tropical resort. There were no walls, giving them direct access to the ocean. The building itself was built over the ocean instead of on the beach. A narrow wooden bridge provided a route back to land.

And the sea was dark.

It was absorbing the colors of the starry sky visible through the reinforced glass dome overhead, so the colors of space were mixed with the bright morning sun.

There was no blue planet here.

They were on an artificial planet in a different planetary system. The 50km enclosed space had been given to them as their world. From the outside, it may have looked a lot like a bunch of grapes. Each transparent dome was a few kilometers across, they each contained a different environment such as a snowy mountain or a jungle, and they could choose whichever kind of resort they wanted. The concepts of up and down existed within and the seawater did not just float up into the air. They had been told that was because the giant star the artificial planet orbited had its gravity intentionally amplified. The gravitons that created gravity still could not be mechanically produced, but increasing the activity of the naturally-produced ones could alter the apparent values. Karuta imagined it as something like how a microwave oven heated food by causing the moisture inside to rapidly vibrate, but he couldn’t say anything for sure when this was all done by the Threat’s mysterious technology.

That said, none of it felt as cold and mechanical as a spaceship. On the white sandy beach, palm trees and hibiscus flowers swayed in the artificial breeze, colorful butterflies and beetles lived there, and plenty of fish and birds ate them.

Remember the silk bedsheets?

All the necessary lifeforms were here, including the silkworms needed to make those sheets. The cycle and pyramid were complete.

Transline had not given them a spaceship or an artificial planet. Even if it was mechanically created, she had given them a proper “world”.

The entire ecosystem humans needed to live was present in this enclosed space.

Something else flowed by outside the dome.

Their orbits were all independent, but it felt like the artificial planets had been clustering together a lot lately. That showed just how many lifeforms Transline was collecting from here and there. All those pure nurseries were positioned around and constantly revolving around the shining star providing the center of their artificial planetary system. There was one each for every category: carbon, sulfur, oxygen, metal, plant, animal, etc.

They still hadn’t interacted, but Karuta’s group had discovered an airlock for docking hidden among the grass and flowers at the very edge of their artificial planet.

This might be an unnatural nursery, but it was also a perfect world with no chance of conflict.

Humanity’s ugly conflicts were nowhere to be found here. Nor the merciless slaughter at the hands of the Threat. Karuta and the others didn’t need to worry about being deceived, lied to, used, or abandoned by anyone.

They didn’t even need to be the Four Living Gods anymore.

They could finally relax and stop forcing themselves to be the world’s strongest.

They may have finally returned to being human.

“Karuta-kun.”

He heard a voice from behind.

He looked back to see Omotesandou Kyouka casually holding a bedsheet up to her chest while walking toward him on her own two legs. But if she had taken the sheet, what would he see if he looked to the bed where Marika had gone back to sleep? He already knew the answer. That childhood friend had a bad habit of stripping naked and crawling into bed when she felt sleepy.

He heard the faint sound of a machine operating.

The older girl’s legs were supported by black metal. That was what they had once called the Threat.

Kyouka had tried and failed to walk using a powered suit while on Earth, but it worked better with their help.

The Threat accurately reproduced her elegant movements.

“Karuta-kun. I’m glad you decided to get up, but what about some breakfast?”

“If someone will make some…”

“Oh, c’mon. Don’t be shy. Just come out and ask me to fix you something.”

“Your cooking is always so sweet it takes real courage to eat it first thing in the morning.”

They could use the phone on the wall to have any food they wanted brought to the seaside cottage. Made by black metal hands, of course. And that wasn’t all. The cottage remained so clean because Threats a bit larger than a backpack were constantly cleaning it for them.

Perhaps it was wrong to continue calling them the Threat.

Not after being taken in and cared for by them.

### Part 2

They could have chosen that future.

They only needed to nod their heads in response to Transline’s suggestion.

They would have been given a happy life where they wanted for nothing.

But.

If they could do anything that irresponsible, they never would have avenged their friends and become known as the Four Living Gods.

Karuta swatted aside the outstretched hand.

Transline remained frozen in place with a puzzled look on her face.

He shouted at the top of his lungs before she could think anything at all.

He had made his choice.

He grabbed the modified military flashlight from his hip, gripped it tight, and held it at the ready.

“Back to the fight, Aineeeeeeeee!!!”

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

The crystal girl produced a high-pitched sound as she readied her sword.

Maybe this would drag a lot more people into the fight.

Everyone might resent the world’s strongest for failing to do their job.

Nevertheless.

He could never choose to let 5.5 billion people die, their complaints silenced forever, while only the four of them survived!!!

Marika and Kyouka smiled a little.

They were implicitly saying this was the only real option they had.

“Oh, dear.”

Finally.

Transline spoke after an obvious delay. But this delay was brimming with a confidence that she would never lose to mere humans even if they got the jump on her.

She had been rejected.

But her face displayed neither displeasure nor anger.

She was smiling.

“Yes, you are the superior humans known as the Four Living Gods. You must have more fight in you than you know what to do with. But perhaps that is what makes you what you are. Hee hee !!”

That was all it took for something invisible to pierce every single one of Utagai Karuta’s cells at superluminal speed.

“Gah?”

He couldn’t breathe.

He floated in the zero-g space, unable to even hold a hand to his chest. His mind was only able to comprehend that he had been hit by something devastating. But even after being hit, he had no idea how to see it coming or how to dodge it.

With a violent zapping sound, sparks erupted from the floor and wall behind him. Something had harmed him and damaged the space station’s delicate equipment just by being emitted. It apparently didn’t matter that this was a large orbital facility designed to defend against the high levels of radiation found in solar winds and cosmic rays.

Even a specialized spacesuit or environmental suit wouldn’t have helped.

(What about my flashlight?)

Still having trouble breathing, he flipped the switch on and off with his thumb.

It was a miracle the device still worked.

Transline.

That monster would slaughter any lifeform or machine that opposed her, except now she was doubled over trying to endure something. But that something was likely a pleasurable or joyful urge rather than anything related to fighting.

Simply put, it was the desire to show off.

Or maybe she simply wanted them to admire her.

“ Hee hee. Ee hee hee. Sorry, that was inappropriate of me. It only slipped out, I promise. Hee hee. Oh, dear. I can’t seem to restrain myself. You intend to fight? Against me? Why would you go out of your way to choose something so suicidal? Huff, puff. Oh, no. Not even taking deep breaths is enough!! This is just so amusing I can’t stop laughing. Pff, hee hee. Hee hee hee ha ha gya ha ha ha ha ha!!! ”

“Karuta!!”

Amaashi Marika swung her rapier device.

But not at Transline herself. She sliced through a nearby wall, tearing it away. It stuck out to cover Karuta, Aine, and the rest like an umbrella.

Countless sparks burst out like pouring rain.

The wall was made to block radiation, but Karuta still felt the tingling pain in his skin growing at an accelerated rate. They weren’t going to last long.

Then the woman’s ticklish voice arrived from beyond the umbrella.

“Oh, how fun. Pff, hee hee. I would love to join in this game☆”

Several metallic sounds followed.

Karuta had a very bad feeling about this, so he peeked around the edge of the shield to find something unusual. Glass tubes thicker than relay batons were shooting from all over Transline while she remained doubled over in laughter. They were probably some kind of vacuum tube, but it wasn’t clear what they were used for. Karuta had thought of vacuum tubes as outdated tech, but he was pretty sure they were still used to produce microwaves in things like microwave ovens. So were these used to create and send out that kind of energy? Whatever the case, he could tell this indicated some kind of mode change. She had some reason to not keep them out in the open all the time, so she had kept them inside her body until now.

Two transparent horns grew atop her head and she raised that head.

A pair of glass or crystal objects grew from the metal lifeform.

(Are those like Aine’s horns?)

He doubted she would explain it for him right now.

Her cold and beautiful face was distorted by laughter.

“ Hee hee hee. Ah ha ha !! Let me join the fun!!!”

Most likely, that was her only reason.

She was not motivated by a vast conspiracy or a nasty grudge.

He heard something slice through the artificial air. Transline’s slender arm did not carry a sword or a spear. To Karuta, it looked like a long, glowing whip.

“Ma-”

That weapon concentrated down all of the energy used to move 300 million Threats.

“Marika!? You need to dodge this!!!”

“?”

Pausing out of confusion was a definite mistake.

The childhood friend’s silhouette suddenly collapsed. Specifically, her empty hand was lopped off at the shoulder. She had been sliced through along with the wall she was using as a shield.

No, Transline hadn’t even done that intentionally.

Let me join the fun.

She was like a small child. She had only innocently wanted to do the same thing the four of them had done a moment before. She was only trying to attack the wall and peel it away.

Immediately afterwards, the space station’s wall was roughly sliced to pieces.

Rather than cut a hole in the wall, it was more like she sliced the entire station in two. There was nothing Karuta and the others could do while floating in the zero-g space. The artificial air flowed out with a sound like air leaving a balloon and they were blown toward the newly created exit.

Karuta felt dizzy.

This wasn’t a perfect vacuum, but the rapid change in pressure was too much for his body to deal with.

“Sacri-sama.”

“Stopping Marika’s bleeding takes top priority!! Apply pressure, tie it up, and do whatever it takes for her to last 30 seconds. The bleeding is going to be weird in zero-g and we can’t let her die before the regeneration is complete!!”

“I will obey, but she is coming.”

“!!”

He heard the air being sliced through.

There wasn’t just one anymore. She wasn’t just wielding them in her hands either. Several glowing whips extended from her lower back. They glowed like lava, so he got the feeling they would blind him if he viewed them for too long. A single hit from one of those had been too much for the giant space station. If she swung them all around at once, they would probably turn the entire location into space debris.

If Karuta hadn’t reflexively aimed his modified military flashlight and activated its dazzling infrared laser, they might have all been sliced through.

“ Hee hee hee hee. If you’re willing to boast like that, you must have the strength to back it up, right? I’m happy, happy, so happy!!! I have finally found the superior units I have been looking for – the world’s strongest I have dreamed of!!”

With Marika’s makeshift shield gone, the invisible attack battered all of Karuta’s cells again. The piercing pain was less like a burn and more like a laceration that tore his skin like a stocking. He felt a rough sensation followed by the exposed part of his skin crystallizing.

No matter how beautiful Transline might be, she was still a Threat made of metal, so she did not care at all if she was thrown into the vacuum of space.

“Excellent. Truly excellent!! Now, entertain me more, more, more!! Kee kee ee hee hee . Okay, world’s strongests!?”

She laughed while swinging her glowing whips and filling the air with energy.

The attack…was coming!!!

“Karuta-kun!!” shouted Omotesandou Kyouka.

Karuta still had his injured childhood friend in his arms, so he gave up trying to resist and let the blowing wind carry him. He heard a deafening sound of scattering sparks as the many whips filled the space and forcibly tore through the ceiling and floor.

He would have been burned through too had he stayed where he was.

But simply following the course of the wind would get them thrown out into space.

“Let it…happen,” said Marika, holding her shoulder wound with her remaining hand. She moved her pale lips to speak. “Our barrier preset can forcibly stop an assault rifle bullet. Maybe we can’t handle it alone, but that should change if we gather together and combine our barriers.”

Yes. During their aerial battle against Susannia of the Problem Solvers, Karuta had received the blessing of Marika’s magic while holding onto her hips.

“But we’re in outer space. Will it really work the way we want?”

“Aine-chan can’t use the barrier and yours is really weak, but mine and the 3rd year’s should be enough. Remember, Crystal Magicians can fly through the ordinary atmosphere at Mach 2 or 3. We know the barrier is airtight, so this should…work!!!”

They flew from the station together.

Well, Karuta couldn’t bring himself to commit to that and grabbed onto a metal railing to slow down, but Marika cut it away with a laser.

Transline’s attacks poured in a moment later. The chaotic dance of light filled every part of the sliced space station. They burned through walls and burst outside of the station. They could no longer hear it, but the unrealistic visual of the kilometers long station being sliced apart was overwhelming enough.

Transline placed a hand on the wall and looked out through an opening in the collapsing station to watch them float away.

Her mouth was moving, but her voice didn’t reach them and they weren’t sure what she was saying or laughing about.

Aine must have read her lips, so she relayed it to them.

“She is saying, ‘oh, how wonderful. You are so adorable. I love you so much.’ ”

“I shouldn’t have asked.”

“That’s a haiku. Except no seasonal word.”

She was just messing with them at this point. Except she probably hadn’t done that on purpose.

Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka were gathered together. If they let go now, they would probably be separated forever.

And even with their barrier active, their air wouldn’t last forever.

There was only one possible destination for them.

The giant blue orb in front of them. The red lights they saw were due to the conflagrations larger than any slash-and-burn farming or forest fire.

“Do we really have to head down there? Do you have any idea how many thousands of degrees the thermosphere is!?”

The barrier alone wasn’t enough to protect them from that. If it was, they never would have needed to fear the light spears that Yukino Arakawa of the Problem Solvers had sent down from orbit.

“Sacri-sama.”

Karuta heard a sharp stabbing sound as Aine jabbed her sword into something black. It was a water bear larger than a car. That was one of the Threats that had been clinging to the outside of the space station. It must have been floating nearby after Transline sliced away its footing.

Aine did not hesitate before moving her sword to peel away its black armor.

“You can see their shells are not all that tough. Given the strength of their armor, I doubt the Threat bunches broke through the thermosphere by force. Even if they were willing to accept some losses, they likely also have an energy field similar to our barriers to protect them.”

“So if we use this?”

“We should have greater odds of surviving reentry than if we attempted it without.”

A few pieces of information immediately appeared in Karuta’s head.

At Iceland’s Crystal Beach, Aine had messed with the decoy Threat’s wiring to make them fire.

The Armored Warrior occupying Second Grimnoah had not originally taken that form. The lion-shaped Sparkle had devoured the corpses of the tadpole ones, taking in the other Threats’ powers and devices to transform.

“We can do this.”

It had all been hell.

But they couldn’t look away. They could make use of all those past experiences.

“We can do this!! We just have to build on what we’ve already seen!!”

“Aine-chan,” said Kyouka. “Karuta-kun may be super excited, but if you really can tear off and reuse Threat parts, try and grab us some rocket and booster parts.”

“If you say so.”

“Remember, this geosynchronous orbit is 36 thousand kilometers from the surface. Crystal Magic flight can only carry us at Mach 2 or 3, so it would take us more than 10 hours to get back. I doubt what little oxygen we have in here would last that long.”

“Yikes,” said Marika. “I get the feeling we would either dry up in space or pop like balloons. And I’m not sure Imi, Tayori, and the others down there could last nearly half a day.”

“So we need something to accelerate us,” continued Kyouka. “Mach 25 to 30 would be best.”

Super excited Karuta felt a chill in his stomach. He quickly asked Aine to do what Kyouka said.

The Four Living Gods held hands and formed a ring like a skydiving team.

Yes, Marika’s arm had already regenerated.

That meant they had been exposed to the vacuum of space for more than 30 seconds and still lived. They weren’t about to trust Transline, but it was very strongest of them. Their hardiness was reaching the level of germs and mold that rode a rocket or shuttle into space.

Could they even be called human anymore?

That thought gave Karuta a self-deprecating smile, but then the crystal girl spoke softly to him.

“Sacri-sama.”

“?”

“Your previous fantasy mode was transmitted into my mind through the Crystal Blossom. Do you really want to be a tropical king living out an explosively adolescent dream without even a swimsuit to be found?”

“I resisted the temptation all on my own, so can we not do this!?”

His childhood friend wasn’t going to overlook this, so she gave him a skeptical look.

“Explain yourself, Karuta.”

“Miss Marika sleeping in the nude is true to life, but Miss Kyouka doing the same and accentuating her chest size with the bed sheet does not seem to match her psychological profile. Were you ignoring everything about her except her chest size so you could use her as an easy source of boobs for your fantasy? Was this at all influenced by seeing them jiggle around when they were freed from gravity onboard the elevator car?”

“Karuta-kun☆”

“Please nooooooo!!!”

The station was in geosynchronous orbit at an altitude of 36 thousand kilometers.

But they had the flight preset plus the rockets and boosters stolen from the Threat. If Aine and Marika went all out, they could set a course in zero-g and travel at high speed.

Their destination was the giant blue planet spread out below them.

### Part 3

Natalena Blast clearly saw the moment of impact.

The blue sky grew distorted.

The first thing to hit Second Grimnoah was a massive shockwave. But not because a mass of Threats had struck the surface. The space elevator’s wires were tens of thousands of kilometers long. If they suddenly snapped, they would respond like a stretched rubber band cut by scissors. The two halves would fly up and down. When they tore through Earth’s atmosphere, just how much friction and how great a shockwave would they produce?

The 600m ship sank down a few meters and all of its more than 1000 windows shattered.

“Gahh!?”

Natalena was slammed back first not into the floor or wall but into the ceiling.

But she didn’t have time to groan in pain. She was actually thankful she had been thrown away from the window, sparing her a body full of glass shards. By the time she had activated her crystal armor and used the flight to balance herself and avoid colliding with the floor, the next phase had begun.

The horizon was blurring.

No, that wasn’t it. Something black was wriggling there. But they weren’t approaching the ship. It was more accurate to say they were spreading out from their landing point. It just so happened that a portion of them were heading toward Second Grimnoah.

But even that meant thousands.

The giant spider crab, water bear, and blue-ringed octopus Threats could not be allowed to reach the ordinary people who couldn’t even fight back.

“All Subcategory and Main Category students capable of aerial combat, please gather on the side decks. Do not get too close to the Threat. Maintain a safe altitude and bomb them from above. Their numbers alone will overwhelm us, so the loss of any of our fighters would be too much of a burden for Second Grimnoah to survive.”

Was that Letnahe Kurent’s voice speaking over the ship’s speakers?

The Four Living Gods were gone.

Everyone’s efforts had failed to reach them. The world’s strongest Crystal Magicians had made up their own minds. The Threat pouring down from the sky regardless felt like a mockery of those four’s self-sacrifice.

Sacrifice.

That word was lodged in the back of Natalena’s mind. Her soul refused to let its meaning sink in.

She did her best to ignore the fact that they pushed those four to that decision just as much as anyone else.

She couldn’t muster the strength to fight without letting the anger course through her body.

She flew from the broken window onto the side deck wearing a combination of her summer uniform and crystal armor. A lot of students were already there and she shouted a question after spotting some familiar faces.

“Um! Wh-where do we start!?”

“How should I know!? Everywhere, I guess!?”

They were as confused as she was. Yamane Deiri’s response seemed incoherent at first, but it was the most accurate possible answer. It didn’t matter if the Threat were good or evil. The simple fact was humanity would never have peace unless they exterminated every last Threat.

Normally, Karuta and the others would have instructed everyone here.

Natalena flew from the side deck.

The space elevator’s wire was no longer there in the sky. It had snapped near the bottom, so it had launched skyward like a stretched rubber band cut by scissors. It had flown with such speed it had formed a vertical contrail in its wake.

“Um, is that safe? How many tens of thousands of kilometers was it? And how many tons? Um, what if it falls back to the surface from way up high?”

“I-it’s probably fine. Carbon nanotube wires are thinner than paper, so they should catch the air and float slowly down.”

“Phew. That’s a relief, Nekoumi-”

“Now the smokestack part meant to protect it from the elements is a different story. That was only 30 thousand meters long, but it had to weigh tens of thousands of tons.”

“-senpaiiiiiiiiiii!!?”

Natalena twisted around in midair and dodged falling pieces of rubble, each larger than a school building. She was glad there was only ocean below them.

Yes, ocean.

The open ocean provided no cover for them to take shelter behind. Since they had previously launched so many beams of light it had looked like a planetarium’s star projector, the Threat had to have deadly weapons similar to anti-air lasers.

A Crystal Blossom transmission from Matsuda Imi reached everyone indiscriminately.

“Found them! They’re at the base of the space elevator. The artificial float looks like it’s sinking, but that’s the epicenter of the Threat swarm!!”

“The closest population center is the island we’re stopped at for the Port Day. That’s about 10km away, which might as well be nothing.” Hashizaki Tayori’s voice remained calm even now. “But the Threat might be even more trouble if they dive into the ocean than if they attack an island or city. Our aerial observations and bombings can’t reach the bottom of the ocean and we’ve seen the Threat operate underwater before. If we lose track of them here, we won’t know where they’ll attack and we won’t be able to touch them until they make that attack.”

Natalena heard explosions up ahead.

Imi and Tayori had left ahead of the others and had already started their bombing. Natalena also wanted to concentrate their firepower on any Threats with lasers or other anti-air capabilities.

However…

“Wait a second. The Threat swarm landed at the base of the space elevator, right?”

“The bombing takes priority. We can’t let them escape into the ocean.”

“B-but we need to check for survivors! I know the float is already sinking, but someone might still be alive!!”

“We’ll be taken out if we don’t eliminate the laser beam ones right away!! Besides, anyone there was part of the human string pullers! They’re the ones who sent Karuta and the others into the vacuum of space to die!! Why should we care what happens to monsters like that!?”

Yamane Deiri shook off Natalena’s request and flew even higher. He was preparing to join the bombing. And the divine name sealed inside his Crystal Blossom’s tiny printed circuit was Kagutsuchi. He specialized in flamethrowers and napalm.

The ground or the sky?

Natalena was briefly unsure which to attack.

But she ended up letting it happen. A large quantity of flammable and explosive materials flew right past her on their way down to the surface.

Flames blossomed on the badly damaged artificial float, enveloping the many Threats there. The fiery blossoms covered a strip of the artificial island following Yamane Deiri’s course through the sky.

“Ah, ahh. Ahhhhhhhhhh.”

A wordless voice carrying flat resentment arrived over a Crystal Blossom transmission.

Natalena grimaced.

Was that Sophia Firenze’s voice? The man she had wanted to protect even if it meant making an enemy of the entire world had to be in that burning world below Natalena now.

But she didn’t have time for sentiment. She felt a pull on her hand from the side just before green light streaked through the spot she had just been flying through.

Nekoumi Hirosuke shouted in the young girl’s ear.

“Th-this isn’t over yet!! The Threat’s attacks can reach us at this altitude!! We’re screwed if we don’t take them all out!!”

“Tayori here. I’m going to make an additional bombing run from west to east at an altitude of 3000. On the count of 20, I want everyone who can join in to take a different line!”

Were those the student council members assisting the gyaru? Several Crystal Magicians drew out a large cross and even more explosions blasted the surface, even tearing through the black smoke there. Something must have bent because a last-ditch laser beam flew off in the wrong direction and sliced off the peak of a mountain on a different island.

The Threat’s numbers were falling.

But how many human lives had Second Grimnoah’s bombing taken?

They had done the right thing. But what did that matter?

The Four Living Gods had been holding back the ugliness produced by humankind, but with them gone, it now struck Natalena’s young heart directly.

How had it been for her sister Anastasia?

Had this pressure finally broken her? Or had she found a way to enjoy it?

“…”

Was there any real meaning to this?

If other Threat swarms were falling all across the planet – Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere – then the 1000 Crystal Magicians from Second Grimnoah could never protect all 5.5 billion people no matter how hard they fought. And even if they managed to protect this corner of Southeast Asia where they just so happened to be, the rest of the Threat would approach from every other direction after slaughtering 99.9% of humanity. When hundreds of millions of Threats flooded them, they would eventually find they couldn’t keep up.

“W-we might be lucky we can still focus solely on the Threat.”

“Why’s that, Nekoumi-kun? Afraid someone might launch a nuke?”

The 5.5 billion population was at risk, so it was unusual no nuclear weapons had been used yet.

They doubted they had human good will or good sense to thank for that.

With so many Threats pushing in all at once, the military and governmental chains of command may have collapsed in a panic. Launching a nuclear weapon required an intricate process. The leader of some country out there might be screaming that suicidal command, but the launch process would never complete if the command never reached the nuclear technicians operating the actual machinery. The long fiber optic cables would have already been torn to shreds.

“Nukes, huh? So would you rather be killed by other humans or the Threat?”

“Yamane!! Enough pessimism. If you think your Big Sis Imi enjoys helping you out with stupid problems, you are sorely mistaken!!”

That said, they couldn’t stop either.

Only Crystal Magicians could fight the Threat. Even without a feasible long-term plan, the ordinary people within reach would be slaughtered if they didn’t help them.

For better or for worse, they were not that strong. They would be losing resources and narrowing down their chances, but they couldn’t bear to abandon people they could see needed help.

“Yamane-senpai, and everyone else too!! Look 5km southeast of the float! There’s a fishing boat!”

“Are you kidding me!? The area around the elevator is supposed to be off limits! I bet they’re part of the human string pullers’ defense force disguised as a fishing boat!!”

“No…” muttered Natalena after spotting something.

A different part of the horizon was squirming now. Whether they were the giant spider crab type or the blue-ringed octopus type, another clump of Threats had fallen to the surface and begun to expand in every direction.

In other words…

“Another swarm has fallen in that direction!! And there isn’t just one fishing boat, so I bet they were driven off of the land and tried to escape out at sea!!”

The bombing stopped as if in shock.

That may have been a mistake.

A green laser beam sliced through the sky. It came not from the elevator base below them but from the middle of the residential zone of a different island. A flight group in identical summer uniforms had arms and legs covered by crystal armor blown away and they fell from the sky.

They could have struck back from this distance, but the Threat was in a city this time. This time they wouldn’t be putting the human string pullers at risk. They had no idea how many perfectly ordinary people were in that city.

Matsuda Imi gave some advice.

“Drop to lower altitude!! They’ll keep sniping us if we don’t use the horizon as a shield!!”

Natalena obeyed. They needed to help their shot-down schoolmates regardless.

But descending brought them to the partially-sunk artificial float that had formed the base of the space elevator. It was crawling with all sorts of Threats.

There were a few broken crystal statues there.

Those were the students who had been shot down earlier. Even with an arm or a leg vaporized, they should have been able to avoid death using their regeneration, yet that hadn’t happened.

Natalena grimace when she set foot on the burnt ground to avoid the deadly laser beams.

“Are they playing dead!?”

Some nearby rubble rose up.

The giant shape responsible was a Threat with long legs much like a giant spider crab. The interior edge of their pincers glowed an unnatural orange.

Giving up on the long term and fighting from moment to moment left Natalena and the others with no chance of winning. Their odds would have been 50/50 with just one swarm of tens of thousands. With another swarm in the same aera, the pure numbers were enough to overwhelm them.

Nevertheless.

Natalena Blast had known death was coming eventually, but it had suddenly arrived right in front of her.

(Ah.)

She froze up.

The flow of time seemed to slow. Everything that had happened raced through her mind. It may have been more about recalling her regrets than trying to find a way out of her predicament.

What had she done to Utagai Karuta?

She had shouted about revenge and vengeance, sent violence his way, and vowed to kill him without even trying to learn what a harrowing path he had taken to reach that point.

She hadn’t done any better when they were retaking Second Grimnoah from the real Threat. He had taken the most dangerous path, taken on the dirty work, and emerged both battered and victorious, but she hadn’t managed to carry any of that weight for him.

She had been fully left out of the Catastrophe, so she hadn’t been able to stop that martial arts tournament that might as well have been a public execution.

She had been so selfish and thoughtless.

She had been so narrow-minded and short-tempered and she hadn’t even apologized.

She was always causing him problems.

Even in the very end, she hadn’t been able to save that upperclassman being crushed below such a great weight.

(Maybe I deserve to die.)

That was when the world’s strongest shot down from the heavens and pierced through the giant spider crab more sharply than a lightning strike.

That enormous thing suddenly sank straight down. Its black metal shell shattered and threw off sparks while its long legs sprawled out. The orange light slowly vanished from its motionless pincers.

Natalena doubted her eyes.

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing play out in front of her.

Then the flow of time returned for the small girl.

Everything felt so normal again that she couldn’t help but cry.

“Damn, are you sure you had those calculations right!? The landing obliterated my right leg!!”

“I very kindly decelerated you with my flight preset, so you have no right to complain. That was a freefall from the upper atmosphere, remember? Besides, Karuta, you can regenerate, so tie up the wound and wait 30 seconds. You’ll be fine.”

“Also, Omotesandou-san is kind of heav-”

“I will find a wheelchair somewhere now that we are in gravity’s grasp once more, but any careless comments out of you, Karuta-kun, and I will never forgive you.”

“Mhh.”

“Don’t you get upset too, Aine!! I haven’t caused you any trouble, so can you please act like it!?”

The ugly, oppressive atmosphere from a moment earlier was nowhere to be found.

The Four Living Gods’ presence seemed to give new color to the world.

“Sen…pai?”

She was afraid the slightest move would cause this to break apart.

But she couldn’t just let it pass her by either.

That would be no different from before.

She needed to touch him, push him, hit him, and confirm his presence.

Otherwise she couldn’t believe his warmth was really there.

She could not lean on him without placing a burden on him.

Tears fell from her eyes.

“Karuta-senpai!!!”

The boy slumped atop the squashed Threat looked her way and smiled.

Just like always.

Utagai Karuta had been like this from the very beginning. His stance hadn’t changed since he first fought Natalena aboard Second Grimnoah.

Don’t kill her.

He had stayed true all this time to the thing he had shouted when they first met.

“Ahh.”

“A lot has happened, but don’t you worry. This will all be over once we defeat the Threat. That hasn’t changed.”

“Wahhhh!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!! AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!?”

How?

Not only were they spreading across the entire planet, but it wasn’t clear they could even defeat the Threats in this area.

Could she accept him ignoring those basic facts because he was the world’s strongest? She knew the limits of Crystal Magic, but even she felt like she could rely on him unconditionally.

His words carried that much weight.

Meanwhile, he looked up into the sky and said something more.

Even checking that his broken leg had recovered was secondary to him.

“More importantly, don’t let your guard down, Natalena.”

“?”

“We’ve come to help, but that isn’t the end of it. We’re the world’s strongest Crystal Magicians, so we need to keep fighting until the end!!”

The giant spider crab roared.

Aine’s colder-than-ice sword gave a flash to silence it before it could do anything and the laser attack from a blue-ringed octopus in the distance missed its mark.

Powerful but invisible infrared shined from a modified military flashlight and dazzled the blue-ringed octopus’s vision before it could fire.

Natalena heard a cracking sound.

Aine had stabbed her sword into a water bear’s thick metal armor, peeled it away, and stuck her skinny arm within. She pulled out a giant coiled something. It may have been some kind of linear cannon that magnetically launched shells because she rested it on her shoulder even though it was thicker around than her own torso.

The explosive blast became an invisible wall.

And with the roar of firing, the distant blue-ringed octopus was blown away by a metal shell.

More than that, a horizontal line was torn into the float’s ground between them.

Almost like it was creating an embankment to keep the Threat swarm away.

“Karuta!!”

The Crystal Blossom at his chest vibrated.

He was receiving a Crystal Blossom transmission from Amaashi Marika, also of the Four Living Gods.

“I’m flying above you right now. There are so many Threats they’re blotting out everything else, but what are our priority targets!?”

Karuta looked around, searching for something out of place within the black swarm. The pitch black wave looked like overwhelming numbers pushing in without fear, but keeping your cool and observing them calmly showed the group frequently contacting some specific units.

It helped having some advance information on this.

(Transline is a central figure to them because her job is to transmit power to them as a pipeline. That means they highly value energy and nourishment. They aren’t equipped with perpetual motion machines.)

“Marika, look 3000m to one o’clock from me!! The sea anemone ones serve a supply role where they exchange energy. If you see any more like that from the sky, blast them all with your laser beams!!!”

Several beams shot straight down from the sky. Marika was soaring through the sky faster than Mach 3 and shot the specified unit when she passed above it.

Destruction blossomed 3000m away.

Nevertheless, Karuta felt something hot on his right cheek. The blast must have thrown a sharp Threat shard all the way here.

And this did not end with the destruction of just the one Threat.

As soon as the sea anemone one exploded with a giant flash of light, the swarm around it began to convulse. Aine used her lasers to snipe the giant spider crab and water bear ones when their movements slowed. Some of the convulsing ones stopped moving altogether.

“Ksh!! Destruction confirmed. Ksshh -ooks like you were right! Ksshh!!”

Powerful noise ran through the Crystal Blossom transmission that was supposed to be immune to jamming or interception.

They had already experienced this when fighting the real Threat near the Port of Kobe. After defeating the Armored Warrior, who contained a massive amount of energy, something invisible had been radiated in every direction. That had shorted out the Threats spread out across the ocean nearby and rendered them inoperative like a powerful microwave or EMP attack.

Transline was the same.

Except she seemed to accidentally let it out when she laughed.

In other words…

“We don’t have to fight them all?” said Natalena Blast in a daze.

This was real hope.

With 1000 against 300 million, everyone could tell there was no chance of winning, but this changed all that. The mere presence of the Four Living Gods changed the world around them.

“So if we concentrate our attacks on the units that supply energy and that triggers a chain reaction from supply unit to supply unit, we can eliminate an entire Threat swarm with invisibly-linked destruction, Senpai!?”

Who knows where she found it, but the student council’s bob cut girl brought over a wheelchair.

“You go to so much trouble for me.”

“It is no trouble.”

“You can criticize me, you know?”

“That is not my job.”

Once she was elegantly seated once more, the president asked the girl a question in her usual calm fashion.

“If we send out every member of Second Grimnoah, we will not get a second chance. If we want a chance to recover after a failure, we need to have unnecessary personnel fall back and set up a rotation of fighters. Can you do that?”

“Of course.”

The president brushed the hair from her shoulder and cut right to the chase.

“We need to assume any plan that looks safe has a landmine just waiting for us to step on it. Remember, there are 300 million of them. We cannot win if this stretches out into a long-term battle.”

Those four’s presence had changed the world.

Everything literally looked brighter and more colorful and the previous weight was nowhere to be found.

Second Grimnoah really had been built for them.

Letnahe could not use a Crystal Blossom, so she called them on the phone.

“I have picked up a new reading on sonar. A new Threat group is headed your way. This group is probably distinct from the island and peninsula groups we have already seen. I have reports of a major Threat migration from the coast guard in northern Australia!!”

They already had their hands full. If another Threat army joined in, they wouldn’t just be forced onto the defensive – they would collapse altogether.

But Natalena Blast saw a thin smile on Karuta’s face as that merciless report came in.

Like a war god.

Like a fighter god.

It wasn’t even about the divine name sealed in the Crystal Blossom’s small printed circuit. He may not have felt the need to rely on that anymore.

“Glad to hear it.”

A pointy crystal broke off of his cheek.

Fresh skin appeared below and his smile grew much more aggressive.

“Second Grimnoah only has 1000 Crystal Magicians, but the Threat is sending 300 million down across the entire planet. You seem to think that means we can’t fight this war, but that’s where you’re wrong.”

“Um, Senpai?”

“If one area shows significant success against the Threat, the surrounding Threats have to head there as reinforcements. Which means fewer Threats in the areas we can’t reach. ”

“Oh,” gasped Natalena.

He viewed the world differently.

He wasn’t just fighting the enemy in front of him. He wasn’t wasting the small fighting force they had left because he couldn’t bear to sit idly by and watch people be killed. Nor was he trapped by a self-destructive desire to accept death as long as he got a good fight in first.

He was looking at the entire world.

He was looking to the ordinary people who weren’t strongest, weren’t special, and couldn’t fight.

“We just have to avoid losing and remain the world’s strongest! That’s all it takes!! The ripple spreading from this one drop can go on to save the entire planet!!!”

Some might say it wasn’t possible.

Just like the Threat highly valued energy and nourishment, Karuta’s group could only keep fighting for so long. They might be fine now, but if the battle stretched on, the exhaustion would get the better of them and they would fail to push back the 300 million Threats.

“Not necessarily.”

“?”

“The more densely packed the Threat, the easier it is to start a chain reaction. And if we want to defeat all 300 million at once, we just have to focus on the unit managing all of their energy and nourishment. The more we do that, the wider and deeper the damage from that invisible radiation. I’ve already given the answer, Natalena.”

The boy looked up into the blue sky and gave a shout.

“Get down here, Transline! You’re the strongest Threat, so if we defeat you, this all ends!!!”

### Part 4

Transline didn’t even need to descend to the surface.

She had easily torn through the kilometers-long space station at the top of the space elevator. The only habitable area was now a pile of debris floating in space, but that didn’t matter to her.

“ Hee hee. ”

She was laughing the same as always while staring down at the blue planet.

That was enough for invisible energy to leak out of her, which made a nearby Threat spark and cease to function.

There was no air here, so her voice did not reach anyone beyond herself.

“I asked you to let me join the fun, world’s strongests. You didn’t think a mere 36 thousand kilometers was enough to invalidate our promise, did you?”

She reached out her lithe hand.

She was the core of the entire system. She was not designed for direct combat, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t fight.

Her role was to transmit power. So how could she convert that energy into a deadly force?

Crystal Magic was not the only strongest power.

She had one too.

(I could use a laser beam, a linear gun, or a high-frequency guillotine missile. Using a microwave cannon to cook them like they are inside a giant microwave oven could be fun.)

“Well, when you want to know your opponent’s abilities, it is always best to go with the standard choice that comes to mind first.”

Destroying the world was no more than an ordinary benchmark test to her. That was in fact why she had sent all the previous Threats to Earth.

The vacuum tubes across her body filled with heat and glowed with a pale light.

A green glowing orb swirled past her outstretched palm.

A Threat incapacitated earlier (that was shaped like a whip spider, which are so creepy you probably shouldn’t search for an image of them) had its armor glow red from heat before the entire unit began to melt like a piece of hard candy in a flame.

“If something this basic annihilates them, then that’s all they were worth. I can search out another world’s strongest afterwards.”’

Countless vacuum tubes grew from her elbows, knees, back, and head as her smile deepened.

“ Hee hee. Ah ha ha!! So prove your worth, Four Living Gods!!!”

Green destruction pierced straight down from heaven to earth.

The attack was designed to reach the planet’s core. If the Original Crystal Embryo had chosen to interfere with her hobby and way of life, she would have eliminated it with this.

It shouldn’t have been possible to dodge.

And their barriers were meaningless against a direct hit from this. The attack would pierce right through the target, the crust, the magma below, and finally reach the center of the planet.

And yet…

“…”

Her smile vanished.

Transline froze in place with arm still outstretched.

Something wasn’t right.

“What is this?”

### Part 5

It was true Utagai Karuta could not have defeated Transline.

She could supply enough energy to power a total of 300 million Threats, so her power was immense. No human technique could ever hope to defend against that. Even a combination of all the barriers belonging to every last one of Second Grimnoah’s Crystal Magicians would have been pierced through to slice Utagai Karuta apart.

Fighting the normal way would never work.

But he was the world’s strongest. It was wrong to assume he would only fight the normal way.

“Sacri-sama.”

“I…know!”

There had been hints of this already.

Before atmospheric reentry, Crystal Girl Aine had stolen Threat parts to steal their abilities. She had concluded her barrier wasn’t enough and improvised.

She had done it again once on the surface. She had stolen a water bear’s weapon and used the linear cannon to blast a blue-ringed octopus from a distance.

Aine could steal Threat parts and make them her own. She could expand her own functionality.

But was that all she could do?

What if no such restriction existed?

What if she could steal powers and abilities that didn’t come from the Threat?

Then couldn’t she do this too?

“Omotesandou-san!!”

“Yes, leave it to me. I have the knowledge and techniques of a Regulation 3!!”

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka was the only Main Category Regulation 3 still alive. But for some reason, she had lost her ability to use that power after the fall of the first ship.

But that was fine.

Karuta too was a student of the Crystal Magic school.

The older girl smiled thinly.

“We’re both Second Grimnoah Crystal Magicians. I was simply further along in the process, but knowing your skill, I know you would have reached Regulation 3 eventually, Karuta-kun. So what if that happens a little sooner than intended?”

If something could absorb Kyouka’s knowledge and techniques and link them with Karuta’s healthy body, they could reproduce the godlike abilities of a Regulation 3.

They just needed a host to bring together the Four Living Gods.

They just needed to link themselves through Crystal Girl Aine.

“Kh!!”

Karuta felt a hot pain at his chest.

It came from his Crystal Blossom.

He wouldn’t necessarily fully understand just because someone who understood it gave him a quick explanation. To make matters worse, his Crystal Blossom’s original setup had been full of errors. For example, he couldn’t activate any crystal armor and he was forced to share the presets of flight, barrier, and regeneration with Aine. If the way he used his power or the route and strength of that power were well off of average, then what Kyouka taught him might not work.

He grimaced, but another girl stepped up alongside him.

“Don’t worry.”

It was his curly twintails childhood friend – Amaashi Marika.

She lent him the powerful directionality that could send chaotically raging power along a single path.

That was her very nature due to her singlemindedness that could seem downright violent at times.

“I’m the standard version of the strongest, don’t you think? I can help boost your strength, so don’t worry about a thing.”

The pain in his chest vanished.

The power stabilized.

Karuta and Aine stood side by side and shared the same sword like a newlywed couple facing their wedding cake.

They held the sword up toward the heavens.

“Sacri-sama.”

“Right.”

Of course, Aine’s katana was not meant to be used primarily as a laser sniper rifle. The close-range sword was the main weapon and jitte-like branch was only a support device.

They couldn’t expect to hit a target 36 thousand kilometers away in geosynchronous orbit.

But that didn’t matter.

“This is… our …”

Karuta and Aine activated magic so powerful it threatened to shatter the crystal sword from the inside.

It took the reverse route of the blast Transline had launched earlier.

They were the Four Living Gods, so the four of them joined their voices as one.

“…world’s strongesttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!”

Let’s review some definitions.

Regulation 1 could glide over the ground or sea, Regulation 2 could fly high in the sky, and Regulation 3 had the power to manipulate dimensions themselves.

So with the power of a Regulation 3, they could slice through the dimensions to cut down any Threat!!

### Part 6

Something flashed from the blue planet.

The battle was probably over from the moment Transline saw it.

“ Ha ha. ”

As usual, there was a smile on her face at that moment.

She heard a sparking sound.

She looked down to see a hole larger than a fist in the center of her chest. In the vacuum of space, she wouldn’t hadn’t heard a thing even if it happened a centimeter away. The only sounds she could hear were the vibrations traveling through her own body.

That meant the sparking had come from her.

The barrier in between and her own armor hadn’t mattered in the slightest. A Regulation 3 was someone who had mastered Crystal Magic and they could tear through anything, along with the dimension it resided in, and toss it out into an unknown dimension.

“I was right after all.”

She was tearing apart.

The hole in her chest was widening.

The vastness of her power meant it didn’t take long for her to break apart once something got that ball rolling. Not even she could stop it.

“ Hee hee. No matter how much you celebrate your own prosperity, there is a limit a single species can never pass. Just like a natural crystal is surprisingly fragile to external impacts!! Ah ha ha ! In that sense, I was right! I wasn’t wrong!! It was the combination of the carbon-based humans and the silicon-based… whatever that was . They had to intentionally accept that impurity into their group to achieve this flexibility as a lifeform! In moderation, even a burden or impact can trigger growth. You can’t just focus on perfect cleanliness in your precise factory!! Hee hee hee, gya ha !! This is the form the future must take!!!”

That was as far as she got.

The bright light escaping her began an explosive expansion.

Her beautiful feminine silhouette vanished in the light that soon enveloped everything.

### Part 7

Something fell from the sky.

It was a collection of junk. The dragonfly, ladybug, and other winged Threats that had attempted aerial combat had lost power and started dropping.

That wasn’t all.

All the wriggling movement around Karuta’s group ceased like a switch had been thrown. Had they simply lost power, or had they lost all purpose without anyone left to give them orders?

Young Natalena took a nervous look around. The look on her face said the silence scared her more than all the noise had.

“The Threat…has stopped?”

To learn what had happened over a wider area, the blonde girl diverted a portion of her attention to the Crystal Blossom transmissions and then frowned.

She heard only static.

A massive explosion had occurred outside of the atmosphere. The radiated microwave and EMP energy may indeed have been negatively affecting various forms of communication. It would be surprising if Transline’s defeat didn’t cause some sort of problems.

But this had to be more than that.

Karuta glared overhead.

“So Crystal Blossom communications aren’t working either.”

“Senpai? Um…”

“Natalena, use any other method – flashing lights, semaphore, or whatever else you know – and tell everyone flying up there to land immediately. If they don’t, they’ll fall from the sky once they lose their power. I have my doubts even their regeneration will work.”

Meanwhile, Natalena noticed a further change.

It started as a quiet, cracking sound. Marika was the only other one nearby with crystal armor out and Natalena watched as her rapier device blurred, shattered, and disappeared into thin air. But that wasn’t all. The crystal armor itself slowly peeled away from her body and vanished.

The same happened to Natalena. This had never happened before. Not even the broken shards remained.

Something unusual was underway, so she widened her eyes.

“W-wait a minute. What’s happening here!?”

“Crystal Magic comes from the conflict between the power pouring down from space and the power of the Original Crystal Embryo. So what happens when one of those powers goes away?”

Natalena Blast could not answer.

Because she saw the answer before she could give it.

Crystal Girl Aine.

Yes, that was right.

Amaashi Marika’s rapier device, all the students’ crystal armor, and everything else that came from Crystal Magic had disappeared. It didn’t just leave their skin and it didn’t just shatter. They couldn’t use their flight or even communicate with their Crystal Blossoms.

So what would happen to Aine?

No one could answer that.

Natalena Blast had been shouting in alarm before, but now her breath caught in her throat. Saying the words felt like they would turn her suspicions into a horrific truth. Maybe everyone here was imagining it all? They had never seen this phenomenon before, but she still gasped at the conclusion she reached without real proof.

And finally…

It was of course Utagai Karuta who spoke.

“Aine.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

“Let’s go for a walk.”

There was no response.

But that was just coincidence. Aine was still there.

For now.

But for how long?

The cracking sound coming from within the crystal girl was quiet, but it was not stopping. Something was happening inside her. Fear weighed on Karuta’s chest with definite color, shape, and weight. There was no turning back time. Marika, Kyouka, Natalena, Deiri, Hirosuke, Imi, Tayori, and everyone else didn’t stop the two of them.

They had saved the world, but it ended here.

There was nothing beyond this point.

### Part 8

Utagai Karuta and Crystal Girl Aine walked side by side.

Anywhere would have worked, so they slowly walked toward the nearby concrete embankment running alongside the ocean.

They said nothing.

That may have been normal for Aine. She generally never said a word unless he spoke to her first.

She stuck to that even now.

Her outlines wavered and blurred as a cracking sound came form her. Someone whose existence relied on Crystal Magic was vanishing as she broke apart from the inside.

“Aine,” called Karuta.

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

She could still respond. Just like always. That should have made him happy, but he couldn’t help but see it as a final resistance on her part.

“Sorry about all this,” he continued.

“You have done nothing requiring an apology.”

The embankment was not a road.

It would end eventually. It didn’t lead anywhere, so they would eventually reach a dead end. From there, they would only find the sea, which felt like a symbol of death.

There was nowhere to go.

They couldn’t get around this one.

Utagai Karuta bit his lip. He was trembling. Aine’s outlines began to fade, but she tilted her head like she always did.

“Ahhh.”

He couldn’t take it anymore.

Maybe it helped that no one else could see him. All the emotion rushed into his chest at once.

Why did everyone call him the world’s strongest?

He was entirely powerless here.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!! Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

He clung to her.

He fell to his knees and clung to her flat chest to confirm she hadn’t shattered into nothingness.

But the most desolate sound he had ever heard had not stopped.

“No. How is this fair!?”

“Sacri-sama.”

“We fought the 300 million Threats and defeated Transline even after she offered us a path to an unacceptable peace!! We worked so hard to keep everyone alive, so…so why does it have to end like this!? Why does eliminating the Threat have to take you from us!? The world won’t let us have anything, will it!!?”

The Problem Solvers had trampled everyone in their path as the lonely elites at the top.

Riho, Sanae, and Alice had burned with rage when someone they cared deeply about was taken from them.

The Armored Warrior had its dreams and ideals about humanity shattered.

Even the human string pullers had stooped to such depths because there was something they wanted to protect.

But.

Who said Utagai Karuta’s pain and anger were in any way inferior to theirs?

“Sacri-sama.”

The crystal girl called to him just as briefly but more strongly than before.

“Crystal Magic is a half-baked phenomenon created from the conflict between the energy pouring down from space and the energy of the Original Crystal Embryo. It is like the sparks produced when two electrodes collide. You knew that from the beginning.”

“…”

She was the partner who had stayed by his side this whole time, accepted his weaknesses, and never gave up on him.

Why couldn’t he save her?

Why couldn’t he think up some way?

“I knew this was coming because the Original Crystal Embryo at the center is also supported by magic. But I could not abandon the 5.5 billion remaining on Earth. Wasn’t that our choice as the Four Living Gods? So I fought until the very end. I thought you felt the same.”

Yes, he had.

He had thrown out the fantasy of seeking happiness for just the four of them!!

And he had held some fundamental doubts about their Crystal Magic from the moment they decided to settle things with the Threat!! But still!!

“I thought a miracle would happen.”

“A miracle?”

“No, I had no reason to think one would. No, I didn’t have anything prepared. But. But you worked so hard. There are 5.5 billion people alive now because of your power! So can’t the universe throw us a bone just this once!?”

“All of our battles should have taught you that hoping that things will turn out all right ‘just because’ never solves anything.”

Miracles did not happen.

For better or for worse, if you wanted to win, you needed to find a path to victory yourself.

Nothing remained to support Crystal Girl Aine.

She had been summoned as an error when the Crystal Blossom was activated before a god’s name was sealed inside. Utagai Karuta knew more about her than anyone, but not even he could find a way to support her here.

“Is there anything I can do?”

He raised his mess of a face.

She was as expressionless as ever even as cracking sounds continued to come from her. She remained faithful even now.

He wanted to pull something out of her. Maybe he could only extract her mind, but he wanted to permanently preserve it somewhere.

So.

“No one can deny that you saved this world. 5.5 billion people owe you their lives. So you can ask anything and I mean anything. Is there anything at all I can do for you?”

“Then I do have one meaningless and selfish request before I leave.”

She placed her small hands on his shoulders and whispered something in his ear. He looked surprised at first, but he finally nodded.

He shut his eyes.

She stood up on her toes and stretched upwards just enough to cover the space between their lips.

That was all.

He felt nothing on his lips as her outlines fully vanished from the world.

The Crystal Blossom at his chest shattered and the wind carried it away.

### 217. Afterword

Apocalypse Witch has reached its 5th volume.

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

This ends the story of Utagai Karuta and the others who started out on a quest for revenge and accidentally ended up the world’s strongest. I hope you enjoyed their final battle as well.

With this series, I tasked myself with creating a new magic system, which is different from Blood Sign where I was creating a new mythology. What did you think of Crystal Magic that uses the conflict between two invisible energies, similar to reading a weather map. With supernatural powers, I think the trick is making something people would want to use themselves with enough room for expansion that they can consider how they would use the power differently if it were them. I hope you felt that here.

I made the final boss a character who manages the energy pouring down from space. The Threat’s supply system was touched on in Volume 3, but I’ve always been fascinated with energy supply networks – including the generation, transfer, transformation, and distribution of power – so I included that idea in the systems used by both Crystal Magic and the Threat. I quite like Transline’s absurd strength that makes her accidentally release deadly energy whenever she laughs. I also think one of the scariest things for people is someone who can’t be reasoned with because the more they like you, the more they want to kill you, but what did you think?

I think Transline’s defeat came from the fact that she didn’t see it as a fight. If she had understood how her opponents viewed her actions, the battle might have ended differently.

Also, I ended this with the protagonist team each going their separate ways toward the future. I think that might be a first for the series I’ve worked on. One defining trait of this series is how Karuta, Marika, and Kyouka each have their own separate world they live in, which I think gave things a unique tension. Because they had somewhere else they could go, you never knew when the strongest team might break apart. You might be able to use that in a death game or gambling series where the characters are placed in the same location but they each have their own unique goals to bet their survival on.

Their growth can really be seen if you compare the extreme tension of Volume 1 to Volume 5. At the very least, they’ve reached a point where they can crack jokes while fighting. That seems like a positive change at first, but take that far enough, and they could end up including inappropriate “games” in their battles like the Problem Solvers did.

Through all his fighting, Karuta settled on the idea that they were only the world’s strongest when all four of them were together. That is why their group never broke apart due to arguments during their battles and why they chose to go their separate ways when they needed to eliminate the strongest from the now peaceful world. I think that ability to freely switch their strongest status on and off is their biggest difference from the Problem Solvers and the Threat. That term “strongest” had been plaguing them like a curse, so they separated themselves from it and found a way to control it. I hope that acts as one possible answer to the series-wide question of what it means to be the world’s strongest.

I give my thanks to my illustrator Mika Pikazo-san and to my editors Anan-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. I can never thank you enough for giving such visual color and beauty to such a harsh story. I hope we have a chance to work together again in the future.

And I give my thanks to the readers. This series was meant to dig into the idea of the world’s strongest magicians from the negative side of humanity and I am truly grateful you stuck with it to the end. The series demonstrated the strongest from a number of angles: those taking revenge, those being targeted for revenge, those trying to protect the world, and those trying to destroy the world. What did you think of all that? I hope they will continue to live on your hearts forevermore.

And I will end this here.

…I actually kind of like the fantasy ending too (ha ha).

-Kamachi Kazuma

### 218. ?

His bangs fluttered in a gentle breeze.

The salty scent suggested this came from an open window, not the air conditioning. It also contained a hint of disinfectant, so this may have been a hospital.

“Ugh,” he groaned, belatedly realizing this meant he could actually say things.

And his bangs could now flutter in a breeze.

He was no longer frozen as a crystal statue. But how was that possible? Hadn’t he, the teachers, and the others students been helplessly slaughtered by those five strongests?

“Hi.”

He heard a voice.

Someone was looking down at him where he lay in a bed.

He recognized the boy.

Except the boy’s face looked a bit older than when he had last seen it.

He couldn’t get up from the bed, so he only stared up in confusion as the boy in a summer school uniform spoke to him.

“Morning, Gekiha. Took you long enough to wake back up, you old bastard.”