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Horizon:Kimitoasamade 1B Chapter 4

2016-01-03T19:50:47Z

128.177.161.142: /* Chapter 4: Hidden Ones at a Place of Passage */

==Chapter 4: Hidden Ones at a Place of Passage==
[[File:Horizon_Kimi1B_029.jpg|thumb]]
''What should you worry about

''Before getting embarrassed?

'''Point Allocation (Habit)

White surrounded everything.

It was morning on the aerial ship named Musashi. A stealth barrier covered not just the ship’s sky, but the area below it as well. All external light was made to pass straight through the entire barrier field, so the entire area around the Musashi seemed to glow with a white light.

The Musashi was illuminated more than one would expect from the brightness of the sky, but…

“This pale morning light is so irritating,” said a voice in the shadows.

A two building academy was located on the rear of Okutama, the Musashi’s second central ship. Its sign said Musashi Ariadust Academy and a land bridge connected the second story main entrance to the schoolyard.

It was early enough in the morning that not even the athletic teams had begun practice, but Mitotsudaira looked to the school building’s clock from the shadows below the bridge.

…''Arriving at 5:30 may have been overdoing it…

The small Cerberus on her shoulder would occasionally lower its three heads to express its sleepiness. Seeing that brought a smile to her face, but she knew she would have to say goodbye eventually.

“Is this a bad habit of someone who’s going to lose something?”

She looked to the clock again.

It was 5:55 AM. She could not help but feel glad, but she also had to be on her guard. After all…

“Is Tomo…really going to confess?”

She had read that below a bridge or below a tree was a common scene for students to confess. Early morning was also important. It supposedly happened more often during graduation season, but she had also heard things were different on the Musashi, where there was no escape.

But why had Tomo asked her to come here?

…''If it is to confess…

To who?

“To me.”

Why?

“Well…”

She did not know.

What had she done to attract Tomo?

The night before, she had guessed that Asama wanted a marriage between girls because she was a shrine maiden that served her god and she could plan her life more easily with the support of a feudal lord like Mitotsudaira.

…''But Tomo’s family runs the Asama Shrine, so she has plenty of income.

The shrine was in charge of Musashi’s Shinto contracts, ether management, divine transmissions, Shinto charms, and spell tools. It had more economic power on Musashi than a large corporation. So…

“Could she be after m-my body…?”

She blushed as she said that, but it was a possibility.

…''She’s tall, her breasts would best be described with an ominous or imposing sound effect, her butt is probably the same given how little space it leaves in the chair when she sits down, and…oh, dear. Why am I hanging my head and punching the bridge’s column?

“I-I need to stop comparing her to myself! For Adele’s sake!”

At any rate, she may have been attracted to Mitotsudaira in the same way that the wealthy are sometimes attracted to the poor.

…''B-but my mother would require the most extreme sound effects imaginable.

But that was not a fair comparison. She had always assumed that was average, so when she had come to Musashi and gone through the school’s physical examination, she had wondered the following:

…''Maybe I’m the one that’s average?

She could almost hear the others saying “no”, so she punched the column.

“Anyway.”

Given who her mother was, she had a chance for the future. Probably. Maybe. She tried not to think about the possibility of taking after her father.

But what was she supposed to do? She had always kind of known Tomo was a little crazy, but it seemed being a trueborn Musashi resident made her the real deal. Mitotsudaira had not expected Tomo to interfere with her own life plans, but it made sense if she thought of it like a natural disaster.

''But,'' she thought.

Marriage between girls could be difficult for a variety of reasons, but she had provisionally inherited the name of Lord Mitsukuni of Mito Matsudaira. She had inherited a man’s name, so it was possible she could marry a girl as part of the history recreation.

She checked the academy clock out of the corner of her eye and found it was 6:10.

''It’s almost time,'' she thought while preparing herself.

Asama’s dreaded visit would come soon.

Mitotsudaira needed to face her directly and confront her properly, so she stepped out from below the bridge and faced the bow.

“Now, then.”

She physically prepared herself and the Cerberus mimicked the motion on her head.

She could feel the morning wind on her skin and hair. The tuning had cleansed the wind as it circled around within the stealth barrier.

She thought it was a nice wind, but…

“Sniff…hm?”

The smells of morning life were beginning to fill that wind. Okutama contained a lot of students and Takao and Oume on either side contained a lot of Far Easterners, so…

…''Is this…?

She smelled cooking fish, the steam of cooking rice, radishes, and vegetables mixed with the saltiness of miso soup. It all swirled up through the tube-like barrier walls.

…''Kh.

Not eating breakfast had been a mistake.

A sticky dampness overflowed from the edge of her lower lip and she briefly swayed on her feet from the pressure of the wind. Meanwhile, the Cerberus on her head pushed itself further and further forward as it sniffed at the smell.

“Oh, whoops…”

To make sure the Cerberus did not fall off her head, she extended her arms to the side to keep her balance. She somehow managed to keep her footing after taking one step forward and two steps back.

And then she heard a sudden voice from behind.

“Mito! Are you okay!?”

On the mental side, Mitotsudaira nearly died when Asama tapped her shoulder.

Asama saw Mitotsudaira literally jump.

…''Oh.

To make sure the Cerberus did not fall off her head, she did not move her head much, so her butt hopped up instead. ''She’s pretty good at adlibbing,'' thought Asama, but she was also a little worried about the girl.

After all, she had been watching Mitotsudaira pace around below the bridge and occasionally punch the column, so she was acting a little odd.

In fact, she had had thought Mitotsudaira was strange before, but this meant it was the real deal. After all, normal people did not grope their own breasts out of the blue, punch a column, sniff at the air, and then start staggering around. That meant she was strange. It was a perfectly logical conclusion.

Mitotsudaira’s jump kept her airborne for a relatively long time, but once she landed, she turned toward Asama.

Her voluminous hair swung around and her face was red.

“T-T-T-T-T-Tomo!?”

“Um, yes. Are you okay?”

“W-well, um, uh…!”

''She is acting weird,'' thought Asama with a mental tilt of her head.

To make her blush and grow this flustered, Asama must have caught her in a strange situation.

What had been going on with Mitotsudaira all this time?

Asama thought back over Mitotsudaira’s previous actions.

…''A half-werewolf hiding under the bridge while sniffing around and growing both embarrassed and flustered.

Asama used those keywords to realize what was going on.

“Mito.”

“Wh-what!?”

Asama looked around to make sure they were alone, pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve, and handed it to Mitotsudaira. She placed her hands on Mitotsudaira’s shoulders and nodded.

“Don’t worry. Marking is a biological phenomenon. I don’t sense anyone else around and I’ll look the other way, so please continue.”

“Why am I being treated like a strange girl!?”

…''Huh? Is that not what this was?

Asama tilted her head in thought and looked to Mitotsudaira from close up. The girl was blushing and had her defenses up.

…''Does she have a cold? She almost certainly has a fever.

Asama pressed her forehead against Mitotsudaira’s.

Mitotsudaira saw two objects deserving of a sound effect in front of her eyes.

…''Wh-what is this!?

They were huge. Asama was taller, so she had bent over to press her forehead against Mitotsudaira’s. Mitotsudaira was not sure why she had done that, but her shoulders were pinned in place and a Far Eastern girls winter uniform was taking on an unreasonable shape right in front of her eyes.

Each one may not have been as big as her face, but they at least covered the distance between each eye’s outer edge. In close quarters combat, they would certainly hide anything at her feet or on her torso.

Plus, the way they jiggled threw off her sense of perspective. But…

…''I understand now! Only an amateur would call these a handicap!

''They pose a risk of weighing you down, but they can also work to your advantage in combat!

''Larger breasts act as an anchor when attacking and increase the strength of the blow. Now I know why my mother is so powerful. If she has the strength to control all that weight, it means she has plenty of fundamental strength. That’s why I can’t beat her. There’s nothing I can do. I can’t beat those giant breasts. No, heh heh, there’s nothing I can do… Wait, why am I crying in my heart?

At any rate, she had solved a mystery. And as she pondered her inadequacy in combat, she considered attaching ingot weights to her chest when training.

“——————”

''No!'' she shouted in her heart.

She was not here to praise giant breasts. She was here so Asama could confess to her, but she was clearly being swallowed up by that opponent.

She was the defensive type. Even if she tended to be on the receiving end, she had never expected for an attack to make it this far.

She wanted to put some distance between them, allowing her to take the initiative, so she acted on reflex.

“W-wait, Tomo!”

She grabbed Asama in order to push her away.

Her hands pushed from below at the obstacles in front of her eyes.

…''Eh?

Her fingers seemed to sink into them.

…''Ehhhhhhhhhhhh!?

She remembered her mother being the same. That woman’s body had felt dense and contained a springiness that pushed back, but Asama did not push back and the obstacles only transformed further the more Mitotsudaira pushed.

The term “shock-absorbing boob armor” came to mind, but she was not sure what to make of that.

At any rate, she focused on pushing Asama away and gathered her strength. When she did, a tremor ran through Asama’s body.

“Ahn.”

Asama reflexively pulled her thighs and hips back.

Before Mitotsudaira could even feel surprised, Asama’s forehead pressed down on her own.

The other girl’s gently arched body was leaning forward, making it hard to push her back, but Mitotsudaira started worrying about the fact that it looked like she was fondling Asama’s breasts.

''Wait. Did I just unlock the path to being a breast sommelier?'' wondered Mitotsudaira, but then she remembered her original objective.

…''W-wasn’t I supposed to be rejecting Tomo’s confession!?

[[File:Horizon_Kimi1B_041.jpg|thumb]]

The age was clearly heading in the opposite direction here. Asama arched her back even further in order to escape, but due to gravity, the weights hung down from her body and Mitotsudaira found herself supporting the falling breasts in her hands.

…''Oh, I think some ancient view of the universe says the gods support mother earth’s weight from below. Maybe this is what that meant…

But what was she to do?

If Asama confessed now, the situation would prevent her from refusing.

This was likely one of the deepest gropings Asama had ever received and it was a rare experience for Mitotsudaira too. To use a technical term, this is what they called raising a major flag. Also…

“M-Mito…please don’t move your hands…”

…''I’m not!

Asama was moving her own body which was transforming her shape inside Mitotsudaira’s motionless hands.

Most likely, Asama was trying to move away, but shaking her hips to pull back accomplished nothing because her balance was shifted too far forward. So in her mind…

…''Sh-she thinks I’m actively groping her!?

If Mitotsudaira rejected the confession, Asama would have been groped for nothing. Mitotsudaira decided she needed to be prepared for the Asama Shrine to sue her for damages. But…

“Ah.”

Just as Asama let out a heated breath…

“Oh? I decided to stop by after finishing our match, but what are you two doing so early in the morning?”

Some black wings descended from the sky on their right.

Asama saw Naruze land in the schoolyard.

She was already looking their way, and…

“Good morning.”

As soon as she landed, blood erupted from her nose.

When they saw the non-fallen angel fall to her knees and collapse forward on the schoolyard, Asama and Mitotsudaira stopped moving.

A pool of blood was growing in the schoolyard, but when they saw Naruze’s trembling hand drawing out a storyboard in midair, they were unsure whether to help her or ignore her.

At any rate, the situation seemed dangerous to Asama. Not only had Naruze seen them, but Naruze herself was turning this into a crime scene.

Also…

“T-Tomo.”

Mitotsudaira was practically holding Asama, but she moved back as if slipping out from under Asama’s body.

Asama responded by lifting her pulled-back hips and pulling back her torso.

“Mito.”

Mitotsudaira looked up at her while blushing.

She then placed a hand in front of her chest and spoke.

“I-I feel bad saying this after what I just did, but…I cannot accept your request.”

She rejected Asama.

Asama felt a sinking feeling inside her heart.

She was not quite sure what the first half of the rejection had meant, but it was unfortunate all the same.

…''I should have known she couldn’t.

Mitotsudaira was provisionally the second in line to ruling the Far East, a Rank 1 Musashi Knight, and the owner of a company. As the daughter of the Asama Shrine, Asama understood how one’s position affected their decisions.

With that in mind, Mitotsudaira was taking her position seriously and Asama may have been taking hers too lightly.

''Hmm,'' she thought while feeling like the heat from the night before was cooling. But…

“Ah.”

She realized Naruze was no longer moving.

“A-are you okay, Naruze!?”

She ran over, flipped the girl onto her back, and found the non-fallen angel covered in her own blood with a happy, open-eyed smile on her face. ''Wow…'' thought Asama as she nearly flipped her back over, but ended up leaving the girl on her side so she could breathe. Wings could be quite heavy, so trying to carry her could damage the wings.

“So leaving her would be best.”

“No, how about we call Naito? She’s the expert.”

Asama sent a divine transmission message to Naito.

“Um, Naito? It’s Asama. Naruze flew down, landed, got an explosive nose bleed, and finished herself off. Is this some kind of disease? What should we do?”

“Ohhh. After last night, she wanted to get all fired up, so she ate a bunch of chicken hearts and livers at the grilled chicken place. That probably came back to bite her.”

Asama wondered if that was similar to cannibalism, but that may have been what had caused this. However, the barely conscious Naruze began weakly singing a lyrical song with the same expression as before.

“I think she’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure her life isn’t flashing before her eyes?” asked Mitotsudaira.

“Oh, I’ll grab a spare uniform and be right there,” said Naito. “Just a minute, okay?”

“Sure, sure,” replied Asama while placing a small tamagushi near Naruze to protect her. A small torii-style sign frame appeared from the top, so she set it to tune the area and protect the indicated individual’s health before twisting the sign frame to turn it on.

Something like a thin mist covered a three meter area around Naruze. That indicated the ether tuning was underway.

She wondered whether she should just leave the girl there, but…

“Um.”

She had forgotten why she was here in the first place.

She faced Mitotsudaira again and looked the silver wolf in her somewhat wavering golden eyes.

“Mito, sorry about all this.”

“Don’t be. That last part was pretty incredible, but I don’t mind. I have my own position, but I do think under different circumstances I might have accepted your request.”

Asama was thankful for the girl’s kindness, but she doubted Mitotsudaira would accept even if she asked again.

…''I guess I can do it with Kimi or even alone…

She eliminated that thought from her mind.

She was facing Mitotsudaira right now, so her own issues could wait.

She gave a deep bow.

“I am truly sorry. I got all worked up without thinking about what you would want.”

“No, um,” began Mitotsudaira. “I really do think I would have agreed if I had a more comfortable position.”

Asama was glad to hear it, but she also knew that meant there was no chance. Reality was cruel and that was all there was to it, so Asama raised her head with a smile.

“I really am sorry. …I guess it was a little sudden to ask you to form a band with me.”

…''That’s the first I’ve heard of that!!!

Mitotsudaira mentally leaned back so far she nearly fell over.

…''What’s this about a band!?

Wasn’t this a confession scene?

Wasn’t that why she had groped…no, supported her breasts and why the two of them had been surrounded by such a strange atmosphere?

But now that she thought about it, Asama had never actually told her why they were meeting up this morning.

…''Oh, maybe I’m just an idiot.

She had jumped to the wrong conclusion.

But what was this about forming a band?

She understood what that meant, but she was puzzled that the idea had come from Asama and that she was being invited.

It was not that she had no interest in music. In fact, she had an understanding of and skill at music. Her father had enjoyed strings music, he had taught her to play, and she had danced with her mother.

Due to her mother’s divine protection as a werewolf, the woman’s energy had infected her and her father as well. And her mother had likely enjoyed the feedback from the other two. Her mother had sometimes spoken in Mitotsudaira’s juvenile speech patterns and Mitotsudaira had sometimes heard her mother using baby talk in her parents’ room at night.

“Heh heh. How do you wike dat~? Do you want it wike dis~? Or maybe wike dis~? Since you’re giving it a real effort, I might just stop if you can hold it in for ten more times~. Oh, dear. You need to be more honest with yourself~. One~, two~. …Heh heh. Don’t worry~. Even if you can’t hold it in, I’ll help you get nice and big again~. Now, let’s keep going wike dis~. Three~, three-point-one~.”

She had also heard long, shrill cries and sobs from her father, but now that she thought about it, that was something else entirely.

She belatedly discovered a new truth there.

…''That really was the worst home for a proper upbringing.

At any rate, what was going on?

Asama had only ever shown an interest in Gagaku and even then only with a highly Shinto focus, so she had completely ignored pop music and Western music.

Mitotsudaira did not know why she had suddenly thought to form a band, but setting the reason aside…

…''With Tomo, that might not be so bad.

Mitotsudaira was a Rank 1 Musashi Knight, so she had her own position in society.

While she did not know what had led Asama to try to form a band, she did understand why the girl would be hesitant to do so on her own.

Asama may have been worried that it clashed with her shtick.

They were in the second year of high school and were effectively mid-level members of the Far East’s students. They had to take things seriously, but they also had a lot more options now.

''In that case,'' thought Mitotsudaira.

“Um.”

She wanted to take back what she said. Even if she was not going to explain that she had mistakenly thought Asama was confessing to her, she wanted to join that band.

Part of it was wanting a hobby, but she also wanted to be able to work with her friends toward something she could not do on her own.

So she spoke to Asama who was beginning to turn her back.

“Tomo…”

Just as she was going to tell the girl to wait, she heard a bark from the hair behind her.

The Cerberus must have fallen from her head when Asama’s forehead had pressed down on Mitotsudaira’s, so the three-headed wolf was caught between the two backmost rolls of hair. But…

“…!”

That bark of warning was followed by a sudden figure appearing beyond Asama who had turned her back.

…''Naito!?

No.

What she had thought was Naito’s wings was actually hair. It was someone else who had nimbly jumped down from the bridge.

“…Kimi!?”

Kimi saw herself as a diligent girl.

She always set her goals for the day first thing in the morning and made sure to follow that plan. And today…

…''I must reject anything and everything!

The night before, she had learned that her brother was interested in a certain girl. She had contacted that girl and had settled things inside herself, but she still wanted to enjoy and indulge in the expected role of an elder sister.

She would probably start thinking about all of this again if her brother took more serious action in this regard, but she would not be thinking about herself as much as she would be thinking about watching over, supporting, and if it came to it, being a place of solace for that nearby individual who she could almost call another version of herself.

To do that, she had decided this morning to do everything she could now.

She knew what she needed to do. She had to play the “selfish sister” when faced with this sudden turn of events. And she was going to play that role here.

“Stop! You mustn’t confess!”

She grabbed Asama’s hands and pressed them firmly against her own chest.

“Ahhhn. St-stop it, Asama! If you come at me that strongly, I won’t be able to resist!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but is your brain even working!? Oh, it isn’t, is it!? Is it!? That’s the answer, isn’t it!?”

Asama blushed and pulled her hands away. When the girl stepped away, Kimi grabbed Mitotsudaira’s hand and pressed it against her chest too.

“Ah, ahhh! You too, Mitotsudaira!? Did you fall for my charm!? You did, didn’t you!? That’s why you tried to confess to me, isn’t it!? But you can’t! I’m the type that practices self love through cell division!”

“That’s the first I’ve heard of this, even if this misunderstanding sounds rather familiar!”

The Cerberus barked in agreement, so it seemed to know who its master was.

“Now, then.” Kimi let go of Mitotsudaira’s hand, faced Asama, crossed her arms, and tapped her right heel against the ground. “So? Why did you call me here this early in the morning, Asama?”

“Well, it’s a bit of a complicated issue…”

Asama raised her eyebrows a little, but her shoulders soon relaxed and she waved her right hand with an understanding smile on her lips.

“Um, you don’t need to think about it too seriously. When I asked Mito, she immediately rejected me. So no pressure.”

''This is getting heavy,'' thought Kimi with a silent sigh. When Asama forced a smile like this, it was always something quite heavy and always something related to her herself. So…

“What is it?”

“Well,” said Asama with an empty smile. “Do you want to form a band?”

“With who?”

“Just you and me.”

“U-um,” said Mitotsudaira behind Asama, but Kimi ignored her.

Kimi was focused on a certain fact.

…''I see.

It was true of her brother and while it may not have been true of everyone…

…''People really do change.

Mitotsudaira heard Kimi speak with her back turned.

“No…”

It was a rejection.

She was refusing Asama’s request.

“…”

Asama’s smile briefly lost all strength, but…

“I had a feeling…”

Still smiling, Asama gave a skillful sigh and shook her hands a little.

“Oh, um, then forget what I just said. Don’t pretend you didn’t hear me. Pretend I didn’t say it in the first place.”

“A-are you sure?”

Asama turned her smile toward Mitotsudaira’s question.

“Well,” she began while thinking. “I guess I don’t want to start something like that when I’m so out of my element.”

Mitotsudaira knew what she meant, but then she heard a new sigh.

It came from Kimi. She put her hands on her hips and gave a disappointed sigh.

“Don’t be silly. …Your obvious disappointment shows just how much you wanted to do this, Asama. If it weren’t for that, I would be telling you to do it on your own,” she said. “But today, I have no right to attack you for that.”

“Eh? What do you mean, Kimi?”

“Judge. It’s simple. …I too need to do things on my own if I want to do this right.”

In other words…

“I was making a quick test to see if I could live on my own, but here I am about to rely on my friends. Of course, I have no idea if pushing you away would be the right thing or the self indulgent thing to do.”

“On your own?”

Asama tilted her head and voiced the doubt in her mind.

“But don’t you have Toori-kun?”

“Judge.” Kimi nodded, shook her hair, placed a hand on her cheek, and crumbled to the ground. “My foolish brother is trying to win over another girl!”

…''A girl!?

Asama did not know how to react to Kimi’s words.

She had known Toori for a long time, but he had apparently found a girl he was interested in. This was the idiot who enjoyed porn games, did not hesitate to stare at a girl’s butt or breasts, and would head to the health examination in the nude if it was being administered by a female doctor. He and his idiot sister were like family to her, but…

…''Sigh…

''I guess “is that so?” is all I can say for now. It makes me wonder why he’s being so distant with me, but maybe that means I don’t understand the situation.

To sum up…

“I have difficulty imagining that.”

How did he act when he went to meet and speak with this girl?

It was less that she could not imagine it at all, but it only raised further questions when she imagined him using his perverted arts to stare at her butt and breasts.

But how was she supposed to respond?

For one thing, she did not know if Kimi’s mood was a sign of her unease or just her usual craziness.

“Um, Kimi?”

“What!? What is it, Asama!? Now, leap into this sister’s chest which is about to burst with a ‘snap!’ or ‘pop!’ sound effect due to all the pain of being abandoned by her brother!”

“I really have no idea what you’re talking about, but…”

Just as she was going to ask who the girl was, she sensed a sound.

It was a rumbling.

A solid strength was fired down from directly above, shaking both the schoolyard and the bridge.

…''Oh.

Just as she realized things had spread in a dangerous direction, Asama looked to the person standing beyond Kimi.

That person had stomped the schoolyard in displeasure.

“Mito, do you have something to say?”

“No! …Nothing!”

Mitotsudaira realized her eyes had narrowed sharply.

''I’m getting pretty worked up,'' she objectively noted, but she was also unable to stop what she had been holding inside.

This was a fairly dangerous situation.

She felt bad when the Cerberus restlessly looked up at her face, but…

…''Kh.

Part of her was on the verge of tears.

“My king…”

During a certain incident in middle school, she and him had promised to be knight and king. Afterwards (and with some urging from her family back in Hexagone Française), she had started showing up at meetings for the Musashi’s Knights League and had become a Rank 1 Knight as a student.

She was one of Musashi’s knights, but if she was to say ''whose'' knight she was, he was the only answer.

And if she ignored Kimi because she was his sister and Asama because she was “like family” and in charge of his spell contract, she thought of herself as having the closest defined relationship with him.

While Kimi and Asama outdid her in their official positions, she thought of herself as the first to enter into a relationship with him outside of the necessary things like family or contracts.

It was not an issue of likes and dislikes or of love and hate. It was the trust between master and servant that she viewed as surpassing such things. No matter what happened, they would walk together toward the same goal. That was the trust between master and servant.

However…

…''A girl!?

Needless to say, a romantic relationship was different from the trust between master and servant. There was nothing wrong with both types of relationships coexisting.

But that was only from a logical perspective and she did not know if he would begin mixing those things.

And if he was distracted by romance…

…''Will he forget about our promise?

He had already been ignoring her a lot since they had entered high school.

“Maybe,'' she thought. ''This is what it is like to be a knight serving a king who is infatuated with his queen.

But…

“Are you certain, Kimi?”

She wanted to avoid any unilateral doubts. She nearly shifted into serious mode, but Kimi…

“Judge. I am! If I was a dog, I’d spin around thrice!! Now, spin and bark! You want to bark for attention, don’t you? Don’t you? Hey, hey. Don’t you, Mitotsduairaaaan?”

“Now I think I’m getting serious in a different way!”

Then Mitotsudaira and Asama asked the same question.

“What is going on?”

And as if to finish the question…

“What do you mean?”

Kimi’s eyes raced toward the school building to check on the time.

It was still shortly after six. The athletic teams would begin their morning practice soon, but she and the other girls would not be in their way quite yet. Naruze was lying in a pile of blood on the schoolyard while occasionally convulsing, but it was Naruze. She had probably found a new way to have fun. Kimi would only address that when she wanted to have some fun as well.

But at the moment, she stood between Mitotsudaira and Asama.

…''Asama’s case is much more serious.

Mitotsudaira had her king and knight relationship with Kimi’s brother, so she would use that to interpret the boy’s new life.

But Asama had nothing like that. Or rather, she had a lot like that, but she was not aware of it. The girl was currently tilting her head in thought.

“Hm. When did Toori-kun end up like this?”

Her comments were naturally rubbing Mitotsudaira the wrong way, but Asama did not understand any of it.

She did not understand what was happening, so she was trying to view Kimi’s brother as someone incomprehensible. She was trying to escape this safely instead of trying to understand it.

…''What a troublesome girl.

If she wanted to look smart, she could always look at it as something other than emotion.

Kimi was also confused, so she wondered if she was only viewing it so calmly because her own symptoms were not as strong.

''I see,'' she thought while looking to Asama and then Mitotsudaira.

“There is a way of healing all of our illnesses someday.”

“Eh?”

Answering their question here would be meaningless. That “treatment” would only be possible if a lot of unlikely events occurred and a lot of people other than her did all the right things. And…

“That would mean picking a fight with the entire world and making the impossible possible.”

“What?”

Asama and Mitotsudaira’s question brought a thought to Kimi’s mind.

…''Interesting.

She did not know her own destiny and she of course did not know her friends’ destinies either. But…

“Don’t you think it would be interesting if our reality suddenly changed one day?” she asked. “What if something you thought was impossible, or that you never realized might actually be possible, suddenly happened and all our dreams came true? Do you think that could happen?”

“Of course not. That’s impossible…”

After saying that, Mitotsudaira realized something and Asama put it to words.

“Making the impossible possible… Kimi, can you see a future that holds a method we haven’t even thought of?”

“No, I can’t. But I think it could happen. It isn’t a situation; it’s a development. It isn’t a board set up for us; it’s a place we only arrive after working together to overturn that board. But…”

But…

“It isn’t like me to work hard toward something like that. Still, whether you want it or not, when you approach that place, you will find a dancer pulling you forward. You can think of it like that.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Well, when have we ever understood what Kimi’s talking about?”

“That’s fine,” said Kimi as she patted their shoulders.

…''What should I do?

Should she hope for ''that''?

She thought it would be interesting if ''that happened.

But her goal for today was to reject everything, so…

“You’ll have to convince me to do it.”

Mitotsudaira would not be a problem. She had settled on who she wanted to be and was almost scarily easy to tease.

…''So I can get her involved without a problem.

“Asama, Mitostudaira.”

“Wh-what?”

“What is it?”

While wondering why they were already on guard, Kimi took a step back.

She crossed her arms and puffed out her chest.

“To set everything up and to convince me…you will be going on a date with me today. Got that!?”

The first thing Mitotsudaira did after hearing Kimi was to pick up the Cerberus.

She could not accept this crazy person’s words at face value.

''Yes, that might have been a direct hit, but I am a knight, second in line to the Far East, and Extra Special Duty Officer of the Chancellor’s Officers, so…

…''A date?

That was normally what a boy and a girl in a romantic relationship would do. It was generally done during the day. They would shop around town, see a play, get something to eat, and in some cases share the bedroom afterwards.

In other words, a date was meant to establish or strengthen a relationship. And a romantic one at that.

“…Eh?”

''Could it be?'' she wondered with three possibilities in mind.

First, since her brother was trying to establish a romantic relationship with someone else, Kimi had gone crazy like usual and wanted to acquire the same thing here to compete with him.

Two, Kimi was treating them as targets of romance in order to give them someone onto whom they could release their anger over her brother’s actions.

And third…

…''She’s simply gone insane.

That last one seemed the most likely, but if so, she could not let herself get involved.

She had already slipped away from common sense with Asama and made an unnecessary misunderstanding. The band invitation had somehow become a confession between girls. And…

“Um, Mito?”

“Wh-what?”

“You look like you’re trying to hold back from some marking, but are you okay?”

“I am doing nothing of the sort!!”

That misunderstanding had not been cleared up, but the idiot sister was quick to latch onto it.

“That’s perfect! Let’s go on a date, Mitotsudaira!”

“I really don’t see the connection.”

“Who cares!? Asama has been growing and floating things in the spring lately, so we’ll have plenty of equipment for marking! If possible, do it where I can see you!”

“Stop shouting utter lies so loudly!”

The idiot sister danced out of the way. She then spun back into place and pointed at Asama with both hands.

“That settles it!”

“We haven’t settled anything!” shouted Mitotsudaira.

However, someone had a different opinion: Asama. She clasped her hands and blushed.

“I-if I satisfy you, you’ll form a band with me, Kimi!?”

“Of course. But that’s a tall hurdle.”

The dancing crazy person readily agreed to those terms.

Mitotsudaira was confused and felt left out in a number of ways.

…''What am I supposed to do about the band issue?

She wanted to take part, but she had ended up refusing already. She could always say it was a misunderstanding, but she would be unable to answer if she was asked what misunderstanding she had made. But…

“Heh heh. Mitotsudaira, you can join us too.”

“I-I do not need your help!”

Mitotsudaira was frightened by her own stubbornness. ''Sometimes pride only makes things worse,'' she thought. ''But I guess this is over now…

Asama turned her blushing face Mitotsudaira’s way.

“Mito, I just have to satisfy you too, don’t I!?”

Naito flew down from the sky holding a Magie Figur with “Recording” written on it. Mitotsudaira had a feeling some incredible danger awaited her in the future, but…

“Th-that is fine with me!”

She did not want to let this last chance slip from her fingers and she tried to make sure Naito could not hear as she avoided mentioning the band directly.

“You had better satisfy us both today! For the sake of our future!”

“Torii-chan, are you satisfied with that? You’re probably on your way back from morning practice, so you can eat more. It’ll make me more money too.”

A woman’s voice filled a wooden space. It was the Blue Thunder café/bakery.

At the counter in front of the table, someone sat in the seat by the window while typing at a sign frame with one hand and munching on a rice ball with the other.

“Torii Motonaga. That’s an inherited name, so you can live a more exciting life, you know?”

The manager placed a cup of tea in front of Torii and the girl raised a hand in appreciation.

“Thanks. But the name is really only something I got for being the Chancellor and Student Council President, so I try not to think much about that kind of thing.”

“But you’re the second generation of your family with the Torii name, right?”

“Well, I thought that would make it easier to inherit,” she said. “More importantly, where’s Toori?”

“Oh, he came by last night and bought a bunch of bread to hand out to people, so he won’t be here this morning.”

The manager looked back over her shoulder where a silver-haired automaton stood at the counter.

Torii fixed the chest of her uniform that she had modified into a bustier.

“How are you doing, P-01s?”

“Judge, I am functioning well. I excreted quite a bit this morning.”

“You have no problem saying those things, but they’re really hard to reply to, you know?”

“Calm down.” The automaton held out a hand to stop her. “Where are Suga-sama, Nabe-sama, and Oo-sama?”

“Took me a second to realize that last one was Ookubo.”

Torii drank some tea and looked down at a yellow mass. It was an omelet, but…

“This looks fully cooked, but I see it has something mixed in.”

“You’ll notice once you eat it, but the contents are distributed evenly throughout,” said the manager.

“I see,” said Torii.

She grabbed the salt and pepper from the seasonings and held both between the fingers of her right hand. She roughly shook the two bottles with quick snaps of her wrist.

“Ookubo is probably out for some morning training with the Chancellor’s Officers. Suga is probably asleep and Nabe will either be gathering information or giving a report at the provisional council building. That’s generally how it is on Wednesdays.”

“Generally?”

“Do you not like things to be inexact, P-01s?”

“I have difficulty grasping the extent of the terms. Rather than ‘not liking’ them, I have determined I am unskilled at them.”

“Judge. You should tell Toori that.”

“Toori?”

Torii looked over at the manager, but the woman only smiled bitterly.

Torii sighed and looked up at the tall ceiling.

“It’s fine being unskilled at it, P-01s.”

“Is it?”

“That means you aren’t the best at it, but you don’t dislike it.”

“…Deep. That is deep, Torii-sama.”

“Well you’re the one that said it. But maybe it is.”

When Torii saw the automaton crossing her arms and nodding, she brought her fork to the omelet. She stuck the fork inside without hesitation and observed what it was like inside.

Just as the manager had said, the cooked egg split apart and revealed steaming vegetables.

Torii smiled a little and spoke.

“P-01s.”

“What is it?”

“Is this an omelet?”

When P-01s replied “judge”, Torii groaned in thought.

“Hmm. If anything, I’d say it’s more like a Tres Españan tortilla.”

“Unfortunately, a tortilla would have more oil and be harder.”

“How much harder?”

“Wait just a moment,” said P-01s with a hand held out.

She approached the counter and held out her hands as if she were holding a board.

“Hnn!”

She mimed breaking the board over her raised knee and continued until her hands clapped together.

“That hard.”

“That was helpful for me, but I’m not sure the people who are going to eat it would like that.”

Torii smiled bitterly and took a bite of the soft, warm mass on her fork. She breathed just once to ventilate her cheeks, and…

“Amazing. How can you make it so even throughout?”

“That is strange, isn’t it?”

“You don’t know?”

“I suppose I actually do.”

“In what way?”

“If I might fail otherwise, then I might as well do it like this.”

“I see.” Torii nodded, looked to the manager, and finally continued. “There’s a lot I’d like to say, but I think I’ll leave that to the others.”

“The others?”

“Judge. Those who don’t decide what the flavor is in advance.”

In other words…

“Those who won’t judge you solely on your appearance and will actually approach you, unskilled automaton.”

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Kimitoasamade 1B Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]
| [[Horizon:Kimitoasamade 1B Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 4A Chapter 13

2015-12-05T15:39:18Z

128.177.161.142: Small corrections

==Chapter 13: Converser After the Festival==
[[Image:Horizon4A_0291.jpg|thumb]]
''It’s after you meet them

''That truly matters

'''Point Allocation (Lifestyle)

Fuwa was running with Toshiie.

Even if they were moving away from Oichi, she was not so sure running toward the enemy was such a good idea. But when she looked back, she saw a black whirlwind of motion approaching them.

“Eh? Wh-what is that?”

The enemy was packed in tight around them. They were gathering along the central line from the left and right.

For the lowered-head motion that was stealing their weapons, running, and slicing through them, that central line was where the most weapons were gathered.

And just as Fuwa had predicted, Oichi was approaching.

The white enemies scattered to the left and right along a rapid and meandering path and the lowered-head blackness continued accelerating and wailing.

…''Wow.

The Sviet Rus demon warriors on both sides and to the front cowered back and put up their guard.

“Here they come!”

But it was not an order that urged those warriors to resume their charge.

The dead warriors of Novgorod made their own expressionless charge.

They were Living Dead, but they had some slight memories in the catalyst holding their bodies together.

They raised their voices as they faced that almost explosively accelerating destruction.

“Славу…Марфа.”

“Славу…Марфа!!”

Glory to Marfa.

They raised their weapons, cried Marfa’s name, and faced their foe.

They used their modified bodies as if offering themselves up as sacrifices.

“…!!”

With a cry, they added in their own destruction.

They collided and were destroyed.

They were scattered, broken, split, and sliced, but they acted as if this was the proper course of action for the dead. They never stopped and the ones that could still move acted like it was amusing. All the while, they gathered around Oichi and returned to their state of death.

The demon warriors followed. Their pride as warriors did not allow them to fall behind, so they now faced Oichi instead of Fuwa and Toshiie.

They ran right past those other two on their way to Oichi, but…

“Ee…ah…ahhhh!!”

After that cry, the entire group exploded in white flames.

Oichi had activated the Sviet Rus flame spells on the weapons she was using.

She did so with each weapon she swung and abandoned in the air.

“…Kh!?”

As if counting out the number, the weapons stabbed into the ground in an arc.

A moment later, a chain of explosions linked that arc and the explosions traveled through the gathering warriors.

“…Ah!”

But it did not end there. Fuwa saw the black form jump.

…''Up!?

Oichi held two large swords.

She had used the explosion to make a great leap and rapid rotation. She had been mainly attacking horizontally before, but now she used a vertical rotation to make her sword strikes.

And the attack was directed toward Fuwa and Toshiie.

Fuwa saw Oichi rotating toward her.

She was coming this way.

The lowered head and hair were using the explosive flames of a spell to power her jump.

“Ee…ah!!”

She was rapidly approaching.

Fuwa was running away, but she would not make it in time. Oichi’s rotation was going to accurately bring her right behind her.

…''Here she is!!!

She landed but did not stop moving. She made a single roll forward to try to negate the momentum of her fall.

Fuwa could tell her body was in the middle of the circular path Oichi’s two swords would take.

With the size of those swords, she would be sliced in two.

Those swords were already being swung by her rotating body.

Fuwa knew she was not going to make it in time and she would be hit.

“Ohhhhh!”

But a voice and a wind cut in.

“Sassa!”

That was exactly who it was. He had caught up to Oichi and was about to pass her, but he gave Fuwa a sharp look.

“Guard!!”

“R-right!”

Just as she turned toward him and placed her arms in an X-shape, a strike hit the center of the X.

“Lily Flower!”

Fuwa was knocked backwards.

It was a light blow from Lily Flower, but it was enough for her bones to creak and to feel her right shoulder shifting backwards. ''It’s dislocated,'' she realized as she flew back.

She seemed to float in midair as her acceleration left her and that was when she saw it.

Oichi was charging in behind Sassa. She had finished her first flip and was preparing for the next which would slice through Sassa. So…

“Sassa, behind you!”

She was trying to get him to dodge, but the timing was poor. His Israfil emblems would not reactivate in time.

As she flew through the air, Fuwa tried to make sure she would fall butt-first to the snow and tried to gather strength in her legs.

…''I have to do something!

But just as she thought that…

“I appreciate how you charged on in here fully intending to rely on me, Na-chan.”

Three actions followed those words.

First, Maeda stepped up to Fuwa’s right in his red M.H.R.R. uniform.

Second, countless skeleton arms grew from the ground to support her as she fell.

And finally…

“Na-chan, I just have to buy some time, right?”

White bones rose between Sassa and Oichi.

There were three in all, but they were immediately smashed by Oichi’s blades.

However, they wrapped their arms around those blades, briefly delaying them.

“Lily Flower!!”

The three skeletons scattered, Sassa’s emblems reactivated, and he leaped over Fuwa’s head all at the same time.

She looked up in surprise from the supporting bones as he flipped through the air, but he bared his teeth toward her in a look of joy.

“You idiot! Get running!!”

“Don’t be so mean,” she said before realizing what he had meant.

Oichi was already accelerating toward them again.

Fuwa screamed and quickly tried to get her feet back on the ground, but Toshiie called over to her as he ran behind her.

“Oh, Michi, you’re slow, so don’t bother moving.”

“Eh?”

Her question was answered by voices from the ground.

They were ghosts.

These ghosts had been created from the ether of the burned bones and rows of them rose in waves. They lifted Fuwa up by the hips and back.

“——————!!”

They passed her from row to row to carry her backwards.

She was transported by the rising dead much faster than running or jumping could take her. She widened her eyes and bowed her head while the ghosts carried her.

“Th-thanks…”

The ghosts began to shatter, starting from the back, but to Oichi, they were another barricade in addition to the gathering demon warriors.

Of course, neither the demons nor the ghosts could stop the fluttering black hair of that lowered head.

However the ghosts carrying Fuwa did respond to her bow by raising their bony thumbs. As they shattered, she bowed again and waved.

She recovered her balance as they carried her and she looked again to the raging wind behind her.

The black series of slashes and wails was still sweeping across the battlefield.

The crying never stopped.

Fuwa did not know why since she did not know Oichi very well.

“What is going on? I’d heard rumors, but why is Lady Oichi doing this?”

“Oh, yeah. You stayed at Saitou’s academy for a while after us, so you wouldn’t know.”

She tilted her head at Toshiie’s comment and some movement arrived on the right.

It was Sassa.

He slowed his pace to stay alongside them.

“I transferred in later, so I’ve only seen it once and Shibata won’t give me a proper explanation. I’ve got a general idea, but what exactly is it, Toshi?”

“Shaja.”

Toshiie shrugged at the cries and collisions heard behind them as his vanishing feet ran along the snowy plain. He stared straight forward as he opened his mouth.

“The truth is, that is Lady Oichi’s true form.”

“What?” asked Narimasa from in between Toshiie and Fuwa who was being carried by the ghosts. “Her true form?”

“Shaja. It’s exactly what it sounds like. …Lady Oichi was originally trying to inherit a name within P.A. Oda, but she modified her physical abilities to do so.”

Another wail echoed behind them.

“She must have been a kind person. Once she desired strength above a certain point, she realized she would need to cast aside that kindness or she could not use that strength. And that is why she can ‘switch’ to another personality like that.”

''And when she switches, she turns into that?'' wondered Narimasa as the source of the screams crushed the enemy several dozen meters behind.

The Oichi that Narimasa knew was always smiling and enjoyed cooking and gardening.

He could remember several times when she had brought some food for everyone at the training grounds without telling Shibata.

“But,” said Toshiie. “An even better candidate showed up and Lady Oichi lost her goal. She was probably also exhausted from switching to the version of herself with such deadly combat skills. So…”

So…

“She withdrew from the name inheritance, but she was so skilled in everything except combat that she inherited the name of Oichi instead. Do you know what happens to Oichi?”

“Nope,” said Sassa.

But Fuwa did, so she answered “shaja”. When Sassa gave her a look of meaningless anger, she feigned ignorance and turned toward Toshiie. He had some thoughts about her attitude, but…

…''Well, it doesn’t matter.

They were acting just like always despite being on the battlefield with a wailing and raging wind approaching from behind. He figured it was a testament to their strength that an idiot unaccustomed to the battlefield could be so carefree.

“Out with it, Fuwa. What happens to Lady Oichi?”

“Shaja. Lady Oichi was Nobunaga’s younger sister. To form an alliance that would strengthen the Oda clan’s defenses, she was married to Asai Nagamasa, head of the Asai clan. Nagamasa treated her well, but the Asai clan betrayed Oda and Nagamasa was killed in an attack by Oda forces. Lady Oichi tried to die with him, but she was admonished and returned to the Oda clan.”

Narimasa knew what happened after that because he had been part of the group that attacked Asai.

“Afterwards, Oichi married Shibata who also treated her well, but…”

He felt he was hopeless if this was enough to make him hesitate.

“After our master’s death, Shibata opposes Hashiba. In the end, he sets his own castle on fire and commits suicide along with Oichi. That is Shibata and Oichi’s history recreation.”

“That’s right.”

Narimasa heard Toshiie speak quietly.

His voice seemed too soft for the destruction occurring behind them.

“Lady Oichi apparently chose to inherit her current name because Oichi moves from place to place but is always treated well until the end.”

“Then what was that we saw during the attack on Asai?”

Narimasa recalled Asai Academy deep in the forest. They had been left with no choice but to destroy it when it rebelled against P.A. Oda for the history recreation and for current reasons.

Their final enemy had awaited them on the roof of the burning fortress-style academy.

“Oichi was there wailing with her head hanging and Nagamasa’s head in her right hand. We only fought the warriors at the entrance. There were supposed to be three thousand warriors inside the burning academy, but they had all been taken out.”

And…

“As she wailed, Oichi made short work of your ghost warriors.”

“Don’t remind me how pathetic I was there, Na-chan.”

Toshiie smiled bitterly and faced forward as he ran.

“Na-chan, you handle this.”

Narimasa also looked forward. They were already in the center of the snowy plain. The enemy warriors seemed to be on their way to face Oichi, but they were showing more than enough hostility as they ran by.

Narimasa moved ahead and collided with the enemy, but he was not the only one confronting them.

He heard a loud sound from the camp behind them. It was the wave-like rumbling of a charge.

“So Shibata’s finally come out!”

The enemy formation had crumbled thanks to Oichi’s charge, so the P.A. Oda warriors were hunting down the rest.

''In that case,'' thought Narimasa as he continued forward, swung his arm, and pumped his body full of acceleration.

“Lily Flower!”

A strike starting from his right fingertips blew away the center of the enemy’s front line.

Their front line bent and swelled out. Finally, several of the large demons were blasted into the sky. But…

“Na-chan!”

Toshiie’s voice coincided with a second explosion of light behind them.

The wind seemed whipped up by that light and it seemed to fly through the night sky to land in front of them.

“Oichi!?”

Narimasa saw bending and fluttering black hair pass by overhead.

The flow of black dropped in front of him with the movements of a snake swimming down a river.

The fall was clearly faster than simple gravitational acceleration, but that disturbed momentum brought it right into the enemy formation up ahead. And it did so in a path traveling over those Narimasa had blasted into the air.

“…Ah.”

In an instant, Oichi sliced through all of the giant forms he had sent flying and blades grew from their bodies. Before they could fall to the ground, Oichi jumped further toward the center.

“Ahhh!”

She moved.

She rotated her entire body, rotated her arms, and sent hidden swords flying in almost every direction around her.

These were more than just swords. They had charm cylinders on the pommel which Oichi touched and activated with yet another rotation.

“Aaeeeee!!”

Flames exploded in every direction at the very center of the enemy unit.

Tearing sounds rang out as the demon and corpse warriors were smashed, burned, or blown away. Following the roasting sound of the flames, scorching heat filled the atmosphere and shimmering heat turned the victims to charcoal.

Even then, it was not over.

As Oichi rotated, the enemies who had slipped through the three hundred sixty degrees of flames rushed toward her.

They used their positions, numbers, momentum, and willpower for this final charge. Oichi was unarmed after unleashing all of her weapons, but a certain thought came to Narimasa’s mind as he too approached Oichi.

…''Oh, no!!

His premonition proved accurate.

Several weapons reached Oichi’s hand as she rotated at the center of the attacking demons. They were all of the swords that had roasted the enemy in midair. She had launched them outward, but the recoil of the explosive blast had sent them back to her before the enemy warriors could reach her.

“Hyaaaaah!”

The term “counterattack” did not seem adequate to describe the precision of the swords launched in every direction.

Oichi was moving.

She spun around and raised her arms higher than her hanging head.

“…!”

And she sliced through her enemy.

This was not a mere wide-range attack. She thoroughly cut and chopped at each individual enemy. She did not hold back in the slightest as one attack led into another.

Blades flew, thrust, rotated horizontally or vertically, sliced, smashed, stabbed, and were pulled out.

For each weapon, an enemy fell.

They were directed in every direction and toward every location and the collapsing battlefield seemed to blossom like a flower around Oichi. The sounds filling the air were the breaking of bone and flesh plus the waves of objects collapsing to the snowy ground.

Enemies were blown away, torn into, and burned before falling limply to the snow.

All the while, the rotating hair and body never stopped.

She released weapons, threw them high into the air, and never stopped even with no one taller than her remaining in the vicinity.

“Ee.”

Her toes, shoulders, bent back, and turning hips all looked in a certain direction: the south.

P.A. Oda’s camp was there, as were Narimasa, Fuwa, and Toshiie.

As she turned her lowered head and body that way, she spread the claws of her fingers without hesitation.

“…Ah!!”

She was about to move. She would race forward as she wailed and tear into enemy and ally alike. But…

“Oichi!”

Someone kicked the snow into the air as they charged straight toward her.

It was Narimasa as he tilted his entire body forward to dash.

“I’ll stop you!”

Narimasa did not hesitate.

…''I’ll stop her!

The fact that she was Katsuie’s wife did not matter here. If nothing was done, she would destroy the camp behind him.

So he raced straight at Oichi who was running their way.

After one, two, three steps, the distance between them vanished.

The approaching enemy was currently unarmed, but that did not mean he could relax. After all, Oichi had been unarmed at the start of this mess.

He did not have a weapon either, so it would come down to close-quarters combat. So to accelerate…

“Lily Flower!”

He opened the white lily emblems on his feet, knees, hips, shoulders, and back.

“Orahhh!!”

His accelerating step smashed the frozen ground below him.

He showed no sign of holding back because he had once heard that, if not for this indiscriminate way of attacking…

…''Oichi would rival the Five Great Peaks and Six Heavenly Demon Army.

What he had seen at Asai Academy was enough to not feel insulted by that comparison. As was what he had seen here.

…''She’s a monster.

As a human, she could “switch off” the fact that she was human and enter an inhuman realm. And after she became a “monster”, she did not try to control herself as a human would. She abandoned herself to all of the strength built up inside her and she ruled the battlefield while making no distinction between enemy, ally, good, or evil.

“Dammit…”

''If I could do that,'' thought Narimasa, ''things would be so much easier.

If he had a barrier inside him, he felt it had to be that. Breaking through that wall would eventually give him even greater strength and bring his history recreation to its end.

“…!!”

He continued on.

Narimasa used his entire body to attack Oichi.

In an instant, black flowed through his vision.

While running, Oichi had swung her entire body to the side and launched her sweeping hair toward him.

A sheen darker than the night sky swept by before his eyes.

It did not hit him. The hair simply swung by in front of him. It was almost like a warning or a sensor. It seemed to say that death would come to whoever touched that.

But Narimasa did not hesitate.

He chose to move forward, but then a color other than black appeared in his field of vision from below.

It was the white of the snow hiding the ground.

Behind her sweeping hair, Oichi had kicked the snow up toward his face.

“…!”

His sight was stolen by that rising snow.

''Is she completely insane?'' he wondered.

She had directed his attention the side with the horizontal movement of her black hair and then kicked up the contrasting snow in a vertical movement. Also…

…''So that’s what you’re after!!

Oichi was trying to acquire a weapon, and there was only one she could acquire while empty-handed here.

“The ice!”

Thanks to the weight of the snow on top and the moisture that had seeped down and refrozen, an icy layer had formed below. It would normally not have broken and would only have thawed come spring.

…''But I stomped on it!

Israfil borrowed the power of the earth and built it into his spells or movements. When used to accelerate or attack, he would shake the earth with a powerful stomp or leap.

Oichi had seen and understood that Israfil had destroyed the ground.

…''Is she actually perfectly sane!?

She had rushed in unarmed to get him to attack.

She was not simply on a rampage. She would wail and react to the battlefield with split-second decisions, but for the most important points, she would predict things out a few steps ahead.

Her weapon now was a fragment of ice she had kicked up from the ground.

It was over a meter long and formed a sharp spear that would function as a piercing weapon.

Beyond her rotating and fluttering hair, her right hand grabbed the airborne ice spear.

She thrust it straight out toward his face and Narimasa opened his mouth at the accurate attack.

“Oh…”

But he was not wailing.

“Ohhh!!”

With an almost angry roar, he took action.

He swung his entire body and stabbed his raised right lower leg toward the snowy ground.

“Lily Flower!!”

He launched an all-out attack toward Oichi.

Narimasa stomped his right heel forward and turned his entire body a bit to the right.

He lowered his hips, stuck his right hand forward, and slowly thrust his raised fist straight forward.

This was not a mere fist blow. His arm was still half-bent at the elbow and it was more like a tackle with his hand held a little forward.

But enduring the speed allowed the strength of his full body to rush forward.

He perfectly matched the timing of the stomp with the moment of impact, so the attack placed all of his kinetic energy on the front of his body. Lowering his hips placed his support closer to the ground, gave the force nowhere to escape, and stopped his movement, but…

…''I just have to touch her to send the full force of the blow into her!

This technique allowed him to use his full strength over short distances.

The lowered hips left him with almost no reach, but he had immediately decided this opponent left him with no other option. She moved erratically, so he had made the split-second decision that a counterattack that supplied a powerful blow from a touch would be better than a normal punch.

He built up his strength and released it.

He left his footprint in the ground below and the rest of that frozen ground shattered.

For two hundred meters around him, the ground bounced up from the stomp and the snow became a white mist. And in the center…

“I don’t care if you have a weapon!!”

He knew what to do now that she had abandoned unarmed combat and prepared a weapon.

“!”

The ice spear burst and vanished when his pushing fist struck it.

From the tip to her hand, it instantly turned to dust, as if being devoured, and then his strike continued on toward her hand.

…''Hit her!

A simple touch would supply the same amount of force that had bounced up the ground for two hundred meters. The stomp prevented him from moving. Even if he shifted his stiff stance forward to extend his reach, it would only give him a few centimeters.

This attack only worked as a counterattack.

Meanwhile, Oichi did not have anything like an acceleration spell. He had instantly switched his attack and she could not dodge, so it would hit. But…

“Ee…!”

Narimasa saw the black wail vanish from before his right fist.

“…!?”

He immediately saw something else in front of him.

A vertical white line had fallen from directly above.

…''A sword!?

It was one of the swords used by the Sviet Rus warriors.

It was one of those Oichi had stolen, wielded, and thrown away.

She had thrown it high into the sky, having predicted Narimasa’s charge.

It was falling directly along the path of his charge, so if he had continued with his plan after having his vision stolen and being lured into attack, it would have sliced straight through his body.

But he had made a split-second change of plans.

That kept it from slicing through him and it instead fell right in front of his eyes.

Oichi had missed, but so had Narimasa.

“Kh!”

His fist was going to strike the sword stabbed into the ground in front of him.

But before it could, Oichi took action. She placed her foot on the hilt of the sword and launched herself high into the heavens above.

“Ah…!!”

She jumped over Narimasa.

“…You’re kidding.”

From about twenty meters behind Narimasa, Fuwa watched Oichi’s movements. The woman made a large leap and avoided Sassa’s attack.

“You mean she’s after me!?”

The answer to her question was about to land right in front of her.

It was Oichi.

She must have barely pulled off the leap because her vertical spin was lighter than usual, but her feet were already positioned diagonally. The instant she landed, she intended to rotate and stand up.

She was also dropping accurately toward a certain object: a demon who had earlier been hit by a sword and collapsed.

He was breathing but not moving and the sword Oichi had stabbed him with was still in his back.

Oichi’s landing point would allow her to grab that sword’s hilt.

…''The jump wasn’t shallow because she had trouble getting higher.

She had adjusted the jump perfectly even while moving like that.

“…Kh.”

''This isn’t good,'' Fuwa thought.

Up ahead, Sassa had yet to eliminate the momentum of his attack, so he could not even turn around yet.

As for Maeda to her left…

“Michi! Over here! Hurry!”

Fuwa looked over to find Maeda a full twenty meters to her left for some reason. She thought about why he would be there and found an answer.

“You ran away, leaving the girl in danger!?”

“Anyone would run away from that!! Na-chan’s just weird!”

''He makes a good point,'' she thought while Oichi prepared to land in front of her.

“——————”

She determined what she needed to do, so she took a step toward Oichi.

…''I-I need to be prepared!

With that thought, Fuwa stepped forward.

''This might not work. No, it probably won’t,'' she also thought.

But she was a P.A. Oda girl, so there was one thing she had to do. If she tried to run, Oichi would only catch up, so she had to move a little forward, and…

…''Take that sword!

If she could get rid of the weapon, she could stop Oichi from attacking. At the very least, if she erased the possibility of instant death from a blade, more possibilities would open up.

But was that really the best option here?

She did not know. But as far as the best option for Local Treasurer Fuwa Mitsuharu was concerned…

“This is all I can think of!”

She could feel tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

“…!”

Still, she leaned forward and took her step.

She was determined to do this, but then…

“Oh, now that’s the spirit. You could learn a thing or two from Fuwa, Toshiie.”

A wall moved in front of her.

…''Eh?

It was Katsuie.

It all ended with a simple movement.

The black fluttering was falling down toward the weapon.

“I love how passionate you are, Lady Oichi. …That’s the ultimate lifestyle!”

With those words, Katsuie snatched her from the air with his demonic body and right arm.

He then breathed in and let out a cry that reverberated through the sky.

“This battle is over!! …Because we’ve won!!”

Narimasa heard Shibata announce their victory behind him.

Narimasa did not stop himself from looking back.

…''Dammit.

As he got up, he looked across the battlefield.

“She really did a number on them.”

Katsuie was exactly right about the battle being over.

Oichi’s charge and destruction had broken through the center of the demon warriors and left most of the rest in chaos.

About a fifth of them had been destroyed, but those enemy warriors had made up for their lack of speed and technique with numbers. Now, they were forced to rely exclusively on those numbers, and…

…''That’s meaningless when their central command group was crushed.

The ground unit sent out from the P.A. Oda camp was working on mopping up the warriors who had lost their upper chain of command.

They would likely continue their resistance. With no ships to leave on, an end of resistance meant death or imprisonment by the enemy, but…

“They don’t stand a chance against us with their chain of command in disarray.”

Narimasa took a breath and looked forward where Katsuie was lowering Oichi to the snow.

He was worried about that, but her stance had returned to normal.

She had her forehead pressed to Katsuie’s chest and she slowly raised her head and spoke.

“Katsuie?”

She smiled with her eyebrows a little lowered.

“Can my happiness continue for a little while longer?”

“It can.” Katsuie nodded. “It can continue for lots, lots longer. After all, we’re newlyweds, aren’t we? If you look at the time period.”

“Are we? Ha ha. I think maybe too much has happened for that to count anymore. Like our visit to those historic M.H.R.R. sites.”

“Yeah, your lunches were so good…”

“Then I’ll make more for you. …If you ever get tired of them, please tell me. And if you ever get tired of being with me…”

Then…

“My happiness will be over, so please kill me.”

“I will. I definitely will. After all, you aren’t going to find anyone in the world but me that can kill you. …That’s what I swore back at Asai!”

“Ha ha. You could have killed me back then, but you were nice and you could still move even after being skewered thirty times. You caught me off guard when you hit me with that counterattack…”

Oichi sighed and loosened her scarf.

This revealed the scar from having her neck cut about halfway through. She gently stroked the mark from a nearly fatal wound and she narrowed her eyes.

“…How lovely.”

After all…

“You marked me with the proof that you can kill me. It’s so lovely.”

“Ohhhh! Lady Oichi just praised me. How about that, small fries!? Jealous!?”

“Not likely, idiot.”

Narimasa spat on the snowy ground, brushed up his hair, and walked past the two of them.

Oichi suddenly looked at him and narrowed her eyes.

“Sassa, thank you for not dying. You can’t let yourself die, okay?”

“Shaaajaaa. I’ll work hard on that one.”

Besides…

“I’ve got the higher position, so you don’t need to worry about that kind of thing.”

He turned back and bowed as he walked.

“Try not to underestimate me, Oichi.”

“Oh, oh? Naru Naruuuu? Why aren’t you looking her in the eye? Embarrassed?”

“You bastard!

Narimasa bared his teeth, but his shoulders drooped when Oichi told him to calm down.

He breathed in.

“Well…whatever.”

He raised his head with his usual expression back and he started toward the camp again.

He showed no sign of helping mop up the enemy. This was no longer his battlefield.

Narimasa started walking despite his wrinkled brow.

However, he suddenly came to a stop.

“You got a problem?”

He was facing a demon warrior collapsed in the snow to his left. The warrior wore a Sviet Rus uniform, but he had the dried skin of the desert type.

His stomach had been pierced diagonally by a sword, but he was still breathing.

“Aruj?”

“It’s Sassa Narimasa.”

“I see,” said the demon. “You took that name on Lord Suleiman’s instructions, didn’t you? And the great king’s sister also left for the Far East…”

“Suleiman was the one that betrayed us.”

“It would have been the Testament Union that ordered his sister’s death. …I would say that makes two of you, but I suppose it was different for you.”

“Of course it was,” said Narimasa. “Surely it could have been stopped. But who was it that didn’t do that, left me behind, and let it all trigger revolt?”

He clenched his fist until it grew white and slowly took a breath.

“I will walk my own path of history now …That’s what I swore to the lily flower.”

He took another breath and looked back behind him.

“Hey! Fuwa, you idiot! Let’s get back. This is Toshi’s place now. …Why are you sitting on the ground?”

Narimasa saw Fuwa look up at him with a bitter smile from about a dozen meters away.

“Eh?”

She frantically began stirring up the snow around her.

“I-I’ll head back later! You go on ahead! Yeah, you do that!”

“Don’t tell me you pissed yourself…”

“Why would you actually say it!? You’re awful!”

“Fine, then.”

He approached her with his shoulders drooping again.

He then grabbed her back collar and dragged her behind him.

“Ah, wait! What are you doing!?”

“You should be glad I’m not kicking you back like a soccer ball. Honestly.”

He sighed and walked across the remains of the snowy battlefield.

“You handle the rest, Toshi. Go meet with that old hag calling herself Novgorod’s mayor.”

“Yes, I know, Na-chan.”

Toshiie summoned some more dead spirit warriors to help mop up the enemy while he smiled toward Narimasa who was dragging Fuwa with him.

Now he only had to negotiate with Novgorod, but…

…''Well, I pretty much know how this is going to go.

He glanced over at Katsuie who was sitting with Oichi on a waterproof mat they had laid out at some point.

“Look! Look! Lady Oichi! That unit was completely blown away! Upupu. That’s what happens when you don’t put your hips into it! When you all get back, you’re doing five sets of a hundred whirlwind foot stomps!!”

“Katsuie? Say ‘ah’.”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

''When people go soft, they go all the way soft, don’t they?'' thought Toshiie.

“Now, then.”

He looked up at the floating city of Novgorod that floated overhead as a black shadow in the sky.

Someone sat comfortably on the edge of the southern pier with their legs dangling down.

“Mayor Marfa, P.A. Oda has created just the situation you wanted.”

“Oh? What an odd thing to say.”

A ''sankt okno'' opened to display Marfa’s face as she smiled with her eyebrows raised.

“All of the dead warriors I sent out were defeated. And the demon warriors of Sviet Rus’s Ikkou-Ikki and border guard were wiped out. I am simply stricken with grief.”

She looked to the eastern land.

Black smoke was still rising from the transport ships she had shot down at the beginning of the battle.

“Help from Sviet Rus is not going to arrive in time and I have lost my excellent warriors and comrades.”

She maintained her raised eyebrows and smile.

“You could say we have been isolated here.”

“Then what will you do?”

“Testament. It’s simple.”

She stood up on the pier and looked down at him. Her direct but smiling gaze poured kindly down.

“Testament,” she said again. “If we’re isolated, then we have no choice. To preserve Novgorod’s benefit for Sviet Rus, we will agree to assist P.A. Oda if you agree not to invade us.”

Marfa used a ''sankt okno'' to view the P.A. Oda treasurer far below.

She spoke to someone else when she noticed that treasurer looking back up at her without fear.

“Toby, can you tell me his name now?”

“Of course,” replied the elderly man standing behind her.

He was short and skinny, but he silently walked up behind her and looked down.

“That is P.A. Oda Treasurer Maeda Toshiie.”

“Heh. He’s modified the spell my ancestors completed and he uses it on ghosts… Makes things nice and lively for him too. What about you?”

“I do not have many descendants. …From what I have heard, some of them have come to Kantou, so I am more interested in that.”

“I see,” said Marfa with a nod and a breath.

Her breath did not appear white in the sky. That was a trait of the Living Dead races and she used that cold breath to speak to Maeda.

“You understand what I mean by ‘assisting’ you, right?”

“Testament. You will lend us your military strength and you will battle Sviet Rus, but we are not allowed inside, correct? Thank you very much.”

“Testament,” she said with another nod.

She glanced back at the city of Living Dead simply carrying goods back and forth. The city was poorly maintained and beginning to rot, but her gaze fell on the stone city hall at the center.

“This city has long been a symbol of resistance. Each mayor has sworn along with the residents to protect this place. …Now, has P.A. Oda forgotten about that? Or is it kept secret?”

“I know about it. Secondhand at least.”

“Oh?” Marfa raised her eyebrows. “If you know, then keep quiet. You’ll get in the way of my love.”

“…Your love?”

“Current Sviet Rus Chancellor and Student Council President Ivan the Terrible aka Uesugi Kagekatsu is my classmate. We parted ways, but he asked me to do some troublesome things like that purge or inheriting the name of a rebel. I don’t mind dying, but he hasn’t been visiting lately. Now…”

Marfa laughed.

“I’d like some social status. Maeda, the Testament Union belongs to all of you now, doesn’t it? If Novgorod agrees not to confront you, will you give me an inherited name?”

“You have inherited the names of Novgorod Mayor Marfa and Nagao Kagetora, so I would think you could inherit most any name you wanted. What name would you like?”

“Testament. Well… In order to harass Mr. Terrible, how about I take Shibata Shigeie, the commander who betrayed Uesugi for Oda? And…”

Her smile deepened.

“How about giving Novogorod the name of Nanao Castle?”

Fuwa gasped as Sassa dragged her.

…''Nanao Castle!?

“You can’t, Maeda! The retreat of the Shibata forces that leads to Nobunaga’s assassination began with the Battle of Tedorigawa caused by Nanao Castle joining Oda! If Novgorod is treated as Nanao Castle while it assists P.A. Oda, it will lead to Nobunaga’s assassination!”

“I was thinking the same thing, but it also means something else.”

Namely…

“As the Shibata forces, we would be able to attack Sviet Rus’s forces without holding back. With the Testament Union on our side, we can make our own interpretation of our ‘retreating battle’ and the ‘counterattack that eventually ends up as a retreat’. We could even burn Sviet Rus to the ground before leaving if we wanted to.”

Toshiie addressed Marfa again.

“Mayor Marfa, are you asking for the Nanao Castle name in order to protect Novgorod from both P.A. Oda and Sviet Rus?”

“Oh? You’re pretty sharp,” said Marfa. “You’re exactly right. If we become Nanao Castle which defects to Oda, then if P.A. Oda ever tries to attack us, we can ask Sviet Rus for help in the name of stopping your violation of the Testament descriptions. But if Sviet Rus tries to invade, we can ask P.A. Oda for help. …The enemy of our enemy is our enemy. That’s our way of thinking.”

“I see,” replied Maeda. “This is a complicated issue, so I would like to let another representative think it over. Of course, I think we should have a quick answer for the other issues. That is, your neutrality and Shibata Shigeie’s name. It is possible we will ask you to come out and fight to prove you are serious, so please do so if it comes to that.”

Got that?

“Surely you can do that much, Former Sviet Rus Vice Chancellor.”

Marfa smiled bitterly at Maeda’s words.

“I see. …Does he know what I was given earlier as if as a parting gift? P.A. Oda is rather interesting.”

She smiled and spoke to Maeda as he bowed inside the ''sankt okno''.

“Now, Novgorod will announce its neutrality and leave this region until you have news for us. …Go forth, P.A. Oda. The people of Novgorod will watch you continue safely on.”

She laughed bitterly, gave the ground below a sweeping glance, and stood from the pier.

“Farewell. I must greet a guest soon and I can’t have them catching wind of these spells. …I will be waiting for good news.”

“Novgorod…fell back?”

Inside the Main Blue Thunder, Masazumi frowned at the information from Mitotsudaira’s mother.

“This is getting dangerous. P.A. Oda is entering Sviet Rus from the southwest.”

'''Still Got It:''' “Testament. The situation is unknown, but Novgorod has fallen back based on some form of agreement. Most likely, P.A. Oda has promised not to attack them. And now P.A. Oda is moving their front line further in.”

The likely source of the information was either Tomoe Gozen or Suleiman. News of Novgorod’s action would be based on visual information, so the news was reliable even if the reason was unknown.

Mitotsudaira tilted her head.

“Could their western line of defense really have betrayed them at a time like this?”

Gin tilted her head and responded.

“It is possible based on the Testament descriptions. This may be the history recreation of the Shibata clan’s rebellion. The Shibata clan defended western Jouetsu, but they reached an agreement with the Oda clan regarding a compensation issue, which spread the flames of war for quite some time afterwards.”

“Novgorod Mayor Marfa probably inherited a name from the Shibata clan as insurance against Oda. She’s trying to take a neutral position between P.A. Oda and Sviet Rus.”

'''Still Got It:''' “That’s right. I think it makes the most sense to think Novgorod wished to reclaim the independence it had in the past. But that doesn’t seem like enough. …Now, Nate, I don’t think I’ve had enough either, so I’m going to go invade your father. From the southwest today!”

Masazumi thought to herself while Mitotsudaira erased all of the sign frames that popped up in quick succession.

…''Hashiba’s restraints, Oushuu’s reaction, the Date clan cutting all ties with us, Novgorod betraying Sviet Rus, and P.A. Oda’s invasion…

She felt like something big was happening.

It all felt connected, but she also felt like at least one piece was still missing.

As she wondered what it could be, Crossunite tapped on her shoulder.

“Hm? What is it, Crossunite?”

“Judge. I just received word concerning Neshinbara-dono’s absence.”

He placed a hand on his chin and slowly continued.

“It would seem his tracks end at the collapsed supplies on Musashino’s stern.”

“You mean…?”

Everyone frowned and focused on the 1st Special Duty Officer ninja.

“Just in case, I will be heading out ahead to examine the area. If you have time, it might be good for you to stop by too, Masazumi-dono. He is a fellow member of the Student Council.”

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| [[Horizon:Volume 4A Chapter 14|Chapter 14]]
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