Baka-Tsuki - User contributions [en]

Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 16

2015-10-04T16:57:01Z

216.4.56.144: /* Chapter 16: The Conditions of Good Will */

==Chapter 16: The Conditions of Good Will==
[[Image:OnC_v02_0071.png|thumb]]
''I shall chirp

''If I sing well

''Will it reach someone?

After landing on the roof, Brunhild entered the school building with her three-cornered hat and broom in hand. She “unlocked” the rooftop door with her philosopher’s stone and quickly made her way to the art room on the third floor. Her footsteps sounded loudly as she made her way down the stairs with the cat.

She unlocked the art room, entered, and found the same dimness as when she had left.

The clock on the wall read 2:00 AM.

A cardboard box sat atop the work desk next to the window whose curtains had been drawn.

The box was in the same place as when she had left. There was no sign of anyone having touched it.

Brunhild breathed a sigh of relief.

She placed her hat and broom on a nearby desk and peered into the box.

The small bird was inside.

However, it was not sleeping in the center. Its small form was collapsed with its head on the edge of the food dish.

It was not moving.

Brunhild’s knees gave out and she fell to the floor.

Brunhild suddenly realized she was sitting on the floor.

She could not remember why she had sat down.

And before she could find an answer, she felt a cold sensation on her butt and thighs. It was the temperature of the wooden floor.

This brought the same question to mind once more: why was she sitting on the floor?

And then…

“Brunhild!”

The familiar voice of the black cat stabbed into her ears and her shoulder’s jumped.

She came back to her senses. She understood the situation. And then she felt strength fill her body. That feeling in her back, shoulders, arms, waist, and legs brought back her determination.

''What can I do?'' she thought as she shot to her feet.

And then she saw the black cat leaning into the cardboard box.

“What are-…?”

Before she could say “you doing”, the cat stopped her by looking up at her. Its gaze was straightforward and its eyes contained no calm.

“Brunhild.”

Brunhild wanted to stop it from speaking any more, but it opened its mouth regardless.

“It’s still alive.”

“Eh…?”

Brunhild’s vision suddenly started to grow distorted, but she steadied her breathing and asked a question.

“What do you mean?”

“It looks like some of the food got caught in its throat. And I think it’s hungry as well. Get the tweezers.”

Brunhild began to search for the tweezers. She was panicked, so it took her several seconds to remember she had left them next to the cardboard box. When she faced forward with them in hand, the cat was lightly holding the bird in place with its front paws.

The bird’s beak opened and something yellow was visible within.

“You couldn’t swallow it, could you?”

Brunhild used the tweezers to grab the piece of corn stuck in the bird’s throat. She pulled, but failed twice due to using too little force. If she pulled too strongly, she could injure the bird’s throat.

Brunhild dipped the tip of the tweezers in the bird’s water. She then slowly grabbed the food and pulled it out. The piece was smaller than the pieces she had given it that evening.

The cat sighed and said, “It probably is not used to taking food from a dish yet. If the food isn’t fed to it from above, the food can’t get through its throat. …Look, it’s breathing, but weakly. What should we do?”

Brunhild thought on that question.

What should she do? She thought and began speaking what sounded right to her in the order the ideas came to her.

“We need to lightly wrap it in cloth, warm it up, and give it some food…”

“You can’t exactly feed it in this state.”

That comment troubled Brunhild. The cat was exactly right. What could she feed it?

She did not know.

“But at this rate…”

It was no good. That was why Brunhild made up her mind. She placed her hands on the cardboard box.

“I will find someone who knows what they are doing.”

“Is there anyone like that here? You’re almost all alone in the dorm, remember? You’ve also been all alone with your club activities because of spring break.”

“But this is my only option.”

“Well, first you need to change.”

Brunhild looked down and realized she was still wearing the black clothes of a witch.

“It’s all over for us if we draw too much suspicion,” added the cat.

“But,” began Brunhild before gritting her teeth.

She ground her teeth together, but nodded.

“I am from 1st-Gear…”

She walked over to and opened the locker. Requiem Sense greeted her with a dull light, but she said nothing. She grabbed the uniform lying below it and placed it atop the work desk.

She removed the black clothes. She realized clothes perfectly fitted to her body were inconvenient when it came to quickly removing them.

Fifteen seconds. It took that long for Brunhild to strip off the black clothes. She opened the curtain as she grabbed the shirt of her uniform. No light was coming from the school buildings or girls’ dorm visible out the window.

Was no one there or were they sleeping? Would they help her? As she stared into the darkness with those thoughts filling her mind, she thought her knees would give out. She shook her head, looked up, and realized the hand holding her shirt was trembling.

She heard silence. Nothing but silence

Brunhild held the sleeve between her teeth as she passed her hand through it and a muffled voice leaked out.

“What am I supposed to do…?”

Late at night, Sayama passed through the entrance of the second year general school building on his way to the Kinugasa Library.

He had been on his way back from a convenience store just outside the main entrance of the academy. The bag hanging from his hand contained packing tape, two drinks in plastic bottles, and a bit of light food like rice balls.

Shinjou Setsu was currently unpacking his luggage in their room. During the short period in which the floor was unusable, Sayama had gone out with Baku to buy a late-night meal, but he had noticed the Kinugasa Library’s lights were on when he had returned.

“I thought we locked up for the night when Shinjou-kun arrived earlier…”

…''Could it be that someone from 1st-Gear has arrived?

A glance at his watch told him it was 2:01 AM. The atmosphere of the night put Sayama on guard as he walked through the dark central lobby.

Baku glanced around to the left and right as he rode on Sayama’s shoulder. The small creature may have been acting as a lookout. Sayama smiled at the small bit of reassurance that gave him. He then felt tension within his own body and a slight phantom pain from the scars on his left hand.

When he pictured himself objectively, his smile transformed into a bitter one.

“I am walking through the school at night with a convenience store bag in hand while preparing myself for an enemy attack.”

…''What am I doing?

But the world had become a very dangerous place for him.

The source of that danger came from the Leviathan Road and the decision of whether to take part in it or not was drawing near.

''What should I do?'' he wondered as he leaned against the wall. If he turned left at the next corner, he would be in the hallway passing in front of the Kinugasa Library.

He would then know why the lights were on. Sayama nodded and looked forward.

He saw only darkness.

The dark emptiness before his eyes suddenly brought the previous day’s battle to mind.

He recalled the forest, the heavy breathing, the werewolf, and that werewolf’s expression just before the conclusion.

“…”

At that time, he had chosen to defeat his enemy and Shinjou behind him had not.

But that werewolf’s expression made him question whether it had truly been necessary to defeat it.

And it had been the same today. He had chosen to fight and Shinjou had chosen to save.

But had it truly been necessary to defeat that knight and the others?

Sayama remained silent. He thought of Shinjou, partially closed his eyes, and thought to himself.

…''I was wrong.

Why had he been unable to make any choice but the one he had?

…''If I could make the decision Shinjou-kun made, I would likely be more confident.

But that was something that could never happen. And so he must not think it.

“How can I hold pride in my own decisions?”

That was something his grandfather had not taught him.

And it was necessary. Not just to join the Leviathan Road, but to get serious about anything.

He took a breath. He opened his eyes and immediately began to move.

He made his way down the hallway in front of the Kinugasa Library while keeping his footsteps silent. He checked on the situation. The door was open and he could see inside. The library looked bright and empty.

“…”

He entered, closed the door behind him, and crouched down. The convenience store bag would make noise, so he tightly grabbed it lower than the handles to hold the contents in place.

He faced forward and spotted Siegfried next to the counter at the entrance.

The tall old man was asleep. He was sitting shallowly in his chair, his arms were folded above his stomach, and he looked perfectly peaceful.

A convenience store bag identical to the one Sayama held and an empty bento were placed on the counter.

“…So that is what happened.”

Sayama stood up and sighed. Red flames were visible in the small potbelly stove placed next to the old man. Sayama felt warmth coming from those flames and he waved his arms to relieve the tension from before.

Baku stretched atop his shoulder. He must have been tense as well because he let out a sigh.

“We certainly get along,” muttered Sayama as he stroked Baku’s head.

Immediately afterwards, Sayama’s vision slid away from the scene before his eyes.

Sayama saw a dimly-lit area.

It was not the Kinugasa Library. It was a single wooden room measuring five meters square. A table sat in the center.

The room was filled with a slight crimson light. The light illuminated a high ceiling that left the slope of the roof bare. The walls did not reach the ceiling and the length of the joists suggested there were six rooms total. Sayama was within the largest of the rooms.

And then Sayama looked down at himself.

…''I exist only as my vision once more.

This was the past being shown by Baku. Sayama did not know this place

Just as he began to wonder whose past it was, he noticed two figures across the table from him. The first was a young woman and the other was a man sleeping in a chair next to the table. The man had his back to Sayama.

The woman fixed the position of the blanket covering the man. The woman had long and soft red hair and a slender face. She wore a shirt and stole over a simple pale green dress.

Sayama thought it looked like an outfit from the Middle Ages as he looked over at the woman. From the lack of outward awareness in her actions and the way she walked on her tiptoes, Sayama could guess what sort of social status she belonged to. Suddenly, Sayama smiled. He had noticed a stain on the sleeve of her shirt.

…''Is that paint?

He lowered his head in his mind and walked forward. He moved to the other side of the table where he could see the two.

A fireplace was located on the wall opposite the table. The fireplace had no firewood or fire.

…''What?

A single slab of stone was placed in the fireplace.

The blue, slightly cracked slab was thirty centimeters square and it had a single word written on it. It was a foreign word that Sayama did not recognize. However, Sayama could sense the meaning of the word.

Fire.

The pale crimson light was being produced around the stone slab. It even produced heat and the flickering shimmer of a flame.

This told Sayama a certain truth: he was in 1st-Gear.

Sayama looked toward the two people in front of the fireplace. The woman was adjusting the hem of the sleeping man’s blanket. From Sayama’s new position, he could see the front of the man.

He was a young man. He had broad shoulders and a nicely-shaped nose. His hair was blond and short, and his eyes were closed in sleep. He wore long black clothes over his tall form which looked cramped in the chair.

Sayama recognized the man. And the woman adjusting the hem of the blanket spoke his name.

“Siegfried…”

With her back to Sayama, the woman suddenly tilted her head. She reached a hand past the blanket and underneath the chair. She seemed to have found something.

After a while, she slowly, slowly pushed her hand to the side underneath the chair. Something was hidden by the blanket there and she was pushing it out from under the chair.

What came into view was a birdcage. It was a new birdcage made from wooden branches tied together. A blue bird with a bandage around its right wing stood inside.

The woman sighed. She stood up with the birdcage in her arms and turned in Sayama’s direction.

She looked down while frowning slightly. She sighed again before speaking.

“Nein begged him to do it, I’m sure. And he even made a cage…”

The language was the same one the knight and the others had spoken during the day. He was hearing the meaning rather than the actual words spoken.

The bird in the cage then looked up. It looked up at the woman from its branch and spread its un-bandaged left wing. The wing bent into two at the middle. It gave a quick high-pitched chirp as it showed the woman its wing.

That chirp caused the woman to frantically turn toward Siegfried behind her.

He was asleep, but he turned his head a bit to the side and frowned.

The woman hurriedly placed the birdcage above the fireplace She ignored the bird that tilted its head as it looked at her. She covered the cage with a half-knit brown wool cloth.

She looked back and forth between the sleeping Siegfried and the chirping bird. She whispered toward the birdcage. Sayama smiled when he sensed her words meant “be quiet” and “go to sleep”.

The woman’s words must have gotten through to the bird because it quieted down after chirping a bit longer.

The woman let out a breath and spoke while bringing her arms around the birdcage.

“I suppose we have to keep it…”

“Yes,” replied a quiet voice.

Sayama looked over just as the woman did. Next to the fireplace, an old man was poking his face in below the lintel leading to the passageway.

The old man’s clothes were such a dark green they looked black. He was short and lean, the top of his head lacked any hair, and his face was covered in wrinkles, but his eyes held a powerful light.

The man entered the room and stood before the fireplace. He placed his hands on his lower back.

“Lady Gutrune, he is a soldier from another Gear. We must not let our guard down.”

“But, Doctor Regin, he saved our village. And…” The woman, Gutrune, pointed toward the birdcage covered by the half-knit wool. “Why did he do that? He came to destroy this world, but he stopped the rampage by the mechanical dragon my father, the king, had you make and he also worked to heal that injured bird.”

“…Where is Nein?”

“Sleeping…I think. After finishing dinner, she did nothing but listen to him play music on that instrument.”

Gutrune looked toward the hallway and Sayama followed her gaze.

He could not see anything, but the old man named Regin followed her gaze as well.

“It has been a long time since that six-rowed keyboard has been played. What song did he play?”

“I did not recognize it. He said he had been taught it long ago in his hometown.”

“So the other Gears have cultures much like ours.”

“Yes,” said Gutrune with a nod. She looked over at Siegfried and spoke more quietly. “That instrument had not been played for years, but that was because we had forgotten about it. We have been so busy ever since my father began tightening this Gear’s defenses. …We have had to create the mechanical dragons, extract the concepts to create the Concept Core, and seal off or defend every entrance into 1st-Gear.”

“What do you think of him, princess? Does a softhearted princess like you think he might have saved the village and rescued that bird so we would let our guard down?”

“Why would he need to do that for such a small world? With his power, I think he could have easily destroyed everything without doing that. Yet he has not done so and is now working to learn our language.”

“He said he came from a country with a similar language structure, similar terms, and similar written characters.”

“Yes. And today, he taught us the meaning of the lyrics of that song he sang while playing the keyboard.” Sayama saw Gutrune narrow her eyes as she watched Siegfried. “It was a holy song. It was not a song of demons as those suspicious of him say it is.”

“Are you referring to me?”

“No, Doctor Regin. I would not say you are suspicious of him. You are merely skeptical of everything.”

Gutrune then stroked Regin’s bald head.

Regin stopped her with both hands and, unsure what to do with her arms, she crossed them.

“It seems men do not like it when you stroke their head.”

“…Did you do the same to him?”

“Yes. When I taught him some words and he managed to get his meaning across. For some reason, he did not like it. Yet he always seems so happy when Nein does it.” Gutrune sighed but quickly composed herself and looked back toward Siegfried. “But is everyone in his Gear like him? Do they all end up saving people despite intending to fight?”

“You could perhaps say that he fights despite intending to save people.”

“I suppose so. …But I see possibility in that. It may be dangerous with how vague an idea it is, but if there are a lot of people like him, perhaps they could actually save people in their attempts to destroy.”

“Princess, your excellent upbringing leads you to think about things in such wonderful ways.”

“But how about this? Could someone like him use the holy sword Gram you created? Would that holy sword with a will of its own choose a simple human to be its master?”

Suddenly, Gutrune turned in the direction of Sayama’s vision.

“Hello,” she said with her eyes curved like a bow. Her gaze directly met his own.

Soon thereafter, Sayama realized what had happened. She was speaking to the corner of the room behind him.

Sayama turned around and found a short figure in the darkness of the corner where the light from the fireplace did not reach.

It was a girl. She was short and slender. She had gray hair and purple eyes. She stood behind Sayama while looking up at Gutrune. She was trying to reach up to the birdcage on top of the fireplace.

Behind her, Gutrune spoke with a smile in her voice.

“Were you hiding it all this time? Do not worry. I will not take it away any more. If it is important enough to you that you need to hide it and watch over it this late at night, you can take it with you to your room.”

Those words put a smile on the girl’s face. Gutrune let out a sigh that held no hint of disagreeableness.

“You need to thank him. Okay, Nein?”

That was the girl’s name.

As soon as Sayama heard that short name, he awoke from the past as if waking from a dream.

Once he awoke from the past, Sayama found himself in the Kinugasa Library as before.

However, one thing had changed: Siegfried was now awake. He stood up from his chair and spoke.

“Did Baku show you the past?”

“You can tell?”

“We used to use the same method. You can see a considerable amount in only a few seconds.”

Sayama checked the clock to find it was 2:03 AM. As Siegfried had said, only a small amount of time had passed.

Siegfried pulled a bottle of instant coffee out of the small refrigerator installed below the counter. He pulled two paper cups out from below the counter as well.

Sayama watched Siegfried grab the kettle from the potbelly stove.

“I thought Germans were picky about their coffee.”

“One can be picky about quality and one can be picky about quantity. And I am not so unmannered that I insist on the highest quality in a place intended for books.” He then pointed at a few hardcover books and documents sitting on the counter. “I am glad you are here. I found these while organizing the supply room. Look at that on top.”

“?”

Sayama walked up to the counter while the smell of coffee permeated his nose.

After placing his convenience store bag on the counter, he noticed a photograph on top of the pile of documents and books.

It was a large black-and-white photograph in a wooden frame. It was old, stained, and the corner was wrinkled due to expansion. The left half must have sat in the light too much because it looked like it was covered by white fog.

“It is too faded to see very much…”

“It seems it was already in this state when my predecessor found it.”

“So it was already too late. …Is this a commemorative photograph taken at some mountain?”

The location was a mountain somewhere. The background showed the sky as well as a forest and prairie down below.

On the surviving half of the photo, about 10 people were visible. Some wore military-looking uniforms, some wore the samue of Buddhist monks, and some wore mountain climbing gear. Some of the people were women.

Siegfried placed a cup on the counter for Sayama.

“This is from the days of the National Defense Department. After taking the photo, we discussed who looked most like a criminal. It was later used for decoration here because it was too dreary a place otherwise, but I never thought it would still be here.”

“So who was ultimately decided to look most like a criminal?’

“I am forbidden to reveal that information under the conditions of the Leviathan Road.”

“So you do not want to tell me,” said Sayama with a sigh.

However, he felt a sudden palpitation in the left side of his chest. He brought his right hand to his chest and thought about the cause.

He quickly realized why. If this was a commemorative photograph of the National Defense Department…

“…Where is my grandfather?”

“He is next to me. Can you not see him?”

Sayama searched for the Siegfried he had seen in the past a moment before, but unfortunately, the very center was too stained to see well. Once he realized that, the pressure in his chest left like a receding wave.

He let out a breath.

And suddenly his eyes froze in place. He recognized the clothes of one figure in that black-and-white image of the past.

In the center of the back row, someone had their back to the camera. Sayama recognized the person looking up into the sky as the discoverer of Babel he had seen in his dream. It was a one-armed old man.

Siegfried noticed his gaze and said, “That is Tenkyou-sensei. …He founded this school. He said he lost his arm during the Russo-Japanese War.”

“Every time I hear that name I cannot help but think that Tenkyou is a bit of strange name.”

“I have heard theories that the name should actually be read as Amayoshi or Amayasu, but I never heard him use either of those. Those closest to him always called him Tenkyou.”

“Reverence for heaven, hm?”<ref>This is the literal meaning of the kanji for the name that can be read as Tenkyou, Amayoshi, or Amayasu.</ref>

“It seems it was such an over-the-top name that it embarrassed him. That is why we also suspected his family name of Kinugasa was also a fake. If I had to choose a word to describe him, it would be ‘eccentric’.”

“An excellent choice.”

Sayama picked up the paper cup from the counter.

He drank the coffee which was of course bitter. He looked at the photograph and tasted the bitterness while listening to Siegfried.

“At any rate, he enjoyed teasing people. Everyone fell victim to that at some point or another.”

“Hearing you say that so seriously is enough to convince me.”

Sayama placed the photograph back on the counter and began walking though the library. He was headed for the shelf with the books written by Kinugasa. It was not far away. He arrived almost immediately. The books he had looked at that morning were on the third row from the bottom.

He opened the first volume which discussed Norse legends. The text was written horizontally and from left to right.

“Wait…”

Sayama placed the book on a nearby table. With his left-arm unusable, Sayama realized something about the horizontally-written book.

“This is made so the pages can be easily turned with the right hand…”

“He really was a selfish person. He announced that he came from the Imperial Court, but I later learned that was a lie.”

“This school was not made by a proper adult, was it?”

“He liked to brag and was very broad-minded. When he was involved with creating the National Defense Department, he was already researching the different mythologies of the world even before we learned of the Concept War. …He knew that the different Gears were fighting, but he waited until we realized it as well,” said Siegfried. “He was the founder of this school and he was an authority in the fields of folklore and mythology. He is also the one who designed this library. During the National Defense Department days, he would often come here when he needed research material. I hear he concentrated mostly on mythology after discovering Babel, but he dealt more with technology when working with the Izumo Company. He was the one who constructed our earliest concept weapons.”

Sayama looked at the other rows on the bookshelf and saw both books related to mythology and books related to engineering.

The mythology books were often about the ten mythologies of the different worlds, but there were also a lot related to the Bible.

“In other words… You could say our place here was created by the Concept War?”

“A lot happened back then.”

Sayama nodded, returned the book to the shelf, and walked back to the counter.

Siegfried picked up the photograph on the counter.

“The National Defense Department became UCAT after World War Two. Until then, these were the primary members. Thinking back, we were truly devoted back then.”

“Why did it become UCAT after the war?”

“Oh, UCAT was originally an American and European organization. They learned of our existence when Germany lost and they discovered some documents I had sent there. And after that, Japan was crushed by America.”

“So Germany merely ‘lost’ while Japan was ‘crushed’?”

“Germany only had its capital occupied. It never gave in.”

“Isn’t it a bit late to be that right-wing?”

“Do not worry about it,” said Siegfried as he passed the photograph over the counter to Sayama. “At any rate, America and England arrived and discovered us. Each country had suffered losses to strange monsters that had appeared in the war. They created UCAT as a countermeasure. However, the National Defense Department’s research and technology was superior to theirs.”

“Well, of course it was. Thanks to the stimulation of the ley lines using the Divine States-World Interaction, Japan had more contact with the Concept War than any other country.”

“Yes. They were at the stage of investigating what had happened while we had made our way to the actual battles. But for the sake of America’s pride, the National Defense Department became Japanese UCAT and we agreed to cooperate with America. However, only those on the scene were sent in, so most of those that arrived from the victorious nations were crowded out. After quite a bit of conflict, we ultimately destroyed the other Gears.”

Siegfried fell silent for several seconds before suddenly placing his cup on the counter.

The cup produced a solid noise as it struck the counter. By that time, the old man was already moving.

“?”

Sayama watched his long strides.

The tall man covered the distance from the counter to the door in only five seconds.

Before Sayama could ask what was the matter, Siegfried placed a hand on the doorknob and pulled it to the side.

Sayama thought he heard a voice at that time.

He did not know if Siegfried had muttered it or if it was a remnant of the past he had seen in the library, but the voice spoke a name Sayama remembered.

“Nein.”

With that quiet voice, the door slid open to reveal the cold hallway beyond.

Brunhild stood before the Kinugasa Library. The indoor shoes she wore were covered in outside dirt.

Her shoulders and the legs supporting her body were trembling slightly and she could not stop it.

The small bird in the cardboard box she held was lying on its side and breathing shallowly.

Brunhild’s lips moved. No voice came out, but the movement of her lips formed the words she needed to say.

Please.

She had to say that one word.

She had gone to the cafeteria, the girls’ dorm, and the faculty building, but she had not found anyone to speak that word to. This was the only place left. The Kinugasa Library was her only option. She had hurried here once she had realized that.

But now that she was here…

“…”

The trembling of her legs refused to stop, the ends of her eyebrows lowered, and her head hung down. She felt as if something heavy were sitting inside her stomach.

“Why?” she muttered in a trembling voice. “Why is it him again?”

But her lowered vision showed her the small bird.

Its breathing was shallow. When she saw the slight up and down movement of its body, Brunhild made up her mind.

With her body still trembling, she took a step toward the door.

Her footstep was quiet.

However, the response it received was forceful and loud.

The door slid open in front of her eyes.

The object before her eyes was removed and she saw light.

A tall shadow stood in the center of that light.

Siegfried Zonburg. That was the shadow’s name.

His blue eyes looked straight at her and his expression was not even remotely harsh.

His beard-covered mouth moved as he asked a question. The voice sounded so very nostalgic to her.

“What is it?”

He then spoke her name.

“Brunhild Schild-kun.”

He used her current name. As if in response to that, Brunhild’s vision grew blurry.

“Ah…”

A breath escaped and it turned into a small cough. She had tried to speak the words she had prepared.

Please. Help this small bird.

She had to speak those words. She had to speak them firmly so her intention would be conveyed. And she had to ensure he did not learn of her identity.

She spoke. Or rather, she tried to.

“…”

Her lips trembled without moving, another breath escaped, and she audibly sucked it back in.

As her shoulders trembled and she began breathing heavily, she realized something was trailing down her cheek. It felt warmer than her body temperature.

What was it?

She did not know.

What she did know was what words she had to say. She looked forward. In her blurry vision, the figure standing before her of course looked blurred. Brunhild spoke to that man who seemed to have an indefinite form.

Please.

“Help…”

Help this small bird.

“Help…!”

As she spoke, a breath seemed to catch in her throat.

At that moment, something passed by at her feet. It was the sensation of a black cat. She looked down and the blurriness in her vision spilled down her cheek. As her vision grew a bit clearer, she saw the black cat rubbing its head against the man’s shin. And she heard a voice from above.

“Understood. …I will help you.”

Brunhild looked up. That movement caused something larger to fall from her eyes and her vision grew perfectly clear.

In her raised vision, she saw Siegfried. He was looking down at her. His angular face held no smile, anger, or sorrow. He was merely staring back at her.

Brunhild raised her still trembling voice in a question.

“Really?”

“It is true there are occasionally conflicts between us.” He nodded and took a step to the side while inviting her in with one hand. “However, you have come to me after admitting there is something you cannot do yourself. You formed words and tried to open this door. And it was all for someone other than yourself.” He took a breath. “That action takes courage. I have no reason to refuse you. And you have no reason to cry. After all, I will save this bird and the bird will thank you for making the right decision. …Come in, young girl. This was your decision.”

Once it became clear Siegfried was going to remain in the library all night, Sayama left and returned to his dorm.

Before he had left, Sayama had put new water in the kettle and bought three corn soups from a vending machine next to the school building.

…''I really have become kind.

With that thought, he made his way to the second floor of the dorm building. He stepped out into the hallway and noted there was no luggage in front of the room anymore.

“Oh?”

He looked in and found the room’s lights were off.

''Did Shinjou-kun go to sleep ahead of me?'' he wondered as he walked through the door.

The room was illuminated by the pale moonlight and it had been cleaned up. A few of the boxes remained on the floor, but…

“Is this the luggage for the shared spaces?”

There was no sign Shinjou had touched the shelves to the side of the bed, the trunk next to the wall, or any of the other storage areas he shared with Sayama. Unopened boxes were sitting in front of them waiting to be unloaded.

''I suppose I should have returned earlier,'' thought Sayama as he placed the convenience store bag on top of his desk.

He found a note on the desk. It was written on a piece of loose leaf paper. In the center, it said, “I am feeling tired, so I will go to sleep ahead of you. Sorry.”

After reading the note, Sayama looked over at the bottom bunk. He saw Shinjou’s silhouette lying atop the mattress.

…''So this is what it is like to have a roommate.

When he nodded and placed the note back on the desk, Baku suddenly jumped down from his shoulder and onto the desk. Baku ran over and jumped to the desk that would be Shinjou’s.

The writing equipment Shinjou had brought had been placed on the desk.

There was a red cloth pencil case, binders of loose leaf paper, and a notebook-style computer. There were two different types of loose leaf paper. One was lined and the other was Japanese-style manuscript paper.

Baku climbed onto one of the loose leaf paper binders and quickly went to sleep.

…''Is that important to Shinjou-kun?

Baku did not respond or even turn toward Sayama. He was already curled up and fast asleep.

Sayama gave a small smile.

He looked forward toward his own desk and saw the study equipment he had used since the first year.

He reached out toward the corner of the desk. A single picture frame was placed there.

He grabbed the small wooden frame with his bandaged left hand and brought it into the moonlight.

The picture showed a large gym. It was brightly lit and a white winners’ platform was placed at the bottom. The winner’s platform was divided into three levels. Boys wearing karate uniforms stood at 1st place and 3rd place.

Sayama was not in the picture.

He silently returned the picture frame to its original spot. The scars on his left hand glowed white in the moonlight.

“…”

He heard a sudden noise. It was the sound of rustling cloth.

Realizing what it was, he turned toward the source of the sound.

The sound had been caused by Shinjou turning in his sleep on the bottom bunk.

Shinjou’s hair was unbound and spread out across the bed’s mattress. His body was bent in a shallow V-shape and a thin blanket covered him. He was wearing a white shirt.

The blanket had come off slightly, so his feet and white thighs were visible.

“Nn…”

A slight voice escaped his lips and his expression changed slightly.

With a short breath, he adjusted his position. His weak movements had deepened the V-shape of his body.

The blanket slid to the side and the white underwear covering his butt could be seen peeking out from under his shirt. Sayama visually followed the lines of his thighs, one of which was slightly forward of the other. The lines continued in long curves that curved in all the right places.

Sayama looked at the white underwear covered butt and tilted his head.

“Is that really not Sadame-kun?”

He brought a hand to his chin and thought. He realized he would know once and for all if he removed the underwear before his eyes.

And he continued to think.

He thought on the situation, the suddenness of it, what would happen afterwards, and how he could handle the aftermath. And he finally decided on a plan.

“If I explain the situation, he will understand.”

He gave a deep nod and felt those words held great persuasive power.

His doubts were gone. He now began to take action. He leaned over the bed as if covering Shinjou with his own body.

He then began to reach toward the cloth displaying the round shape of Shinjou’s butt.

But then a quiet voice escaped Shinjou’s lips. He spoke in a trembling, broken voice.

“…Sorry.”

Sayama raised his head and looked toward Shinjou’s face.

Shinjou was frowning and casting down his closed eyes. His mouth opened slightly as he spoke.

“I am always wrong…”

His partially disturbed breathing sucked in the words. He could no longer speak, but his expression remained unchanged.

Sayama recalled the words Shinjou had spoken and shook his head.

For the past few days, he had been trying to give meaning to what people said in their sleep.

…''Am I that vague a person?

Sayama looked at Shinjou’s face, but he spoke as if as a warning to himself.

“That is not the case. …I guarantee it.”

As he spoke, Sayama used his outstretched hand to grab the blanket. He placed it back over Shinjou’s body.

He then lightly tapped Shinjou’s back. He did so slowly as if lulling a child to sleep.

“Nn…”

Shinjou’s breathing gradually grew steadier. However, the stern expression did not leave his face.

''This is my limit for now,'' realized Sayama.

Sayama nodded in understanding and got up from the bed. He looked out the window and saw the white moon in the sky. Sayama opened his mouth to speak as he looked at the moon sending out moonlight that could be called cold.

“I am acting unlike myself, but this may be my only chance to do so. Will I continue to be hated until my body is destroyed or will I give up on everything? …I must choose one or the other before long.”

He reached his left hand out toward the moon. The pain in his bandaged left arm ran up through his shoulder and into his head.

However, Sayama spread his scarred left hand and then clenched it into a fist as if grasping the moon.

He let out a breath and some words.

“What are the conditions for being a villain?”

<noinclude>
===Notes===
<references/>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume2_Chapter_15|Chapter 15]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume2_Chapter_17|Chapter 17]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 15

2015-10-04T16:55:36Z

216.4.56.144:

==Chapter 15: Multiple Sounds of Wind==
[[Image:OnC_v02_0049.png|thumb]]
''Faster than the blowing wind

''One’s will rushes through and the truth passes by

''The most definite things might be the passing voices

Brunhild held her broom in both hands as she stood in the schoolyard of an abandoned school surrounded by forest.

She stood on a shadow created from the moonlight as she faced the gym. The cat was not at her feet.

“Is he doing a decent job of telling Venerable Hagen and Fafner what happened today?” she muttered.

The only response came from the blowing wind.

The wind blew in from the east. This movement in the air was gentle yet a certain grandness could be felt in it.

Brunhild held down her hair as she withstood the thick easterly wind.

“The wind is not too-…”

Her voice trailed off before she could say “bad”. The forest around her had begun rustling.

This rustling did not come from the leaves brushing together. As the wind gently pushed against the trees, they bent and the forest itself shook. This wind had a different sort of weight than a quick gust of wind.

Brunhild heard the high-pitched cries of birds within the forest.

As she looked around, a flock of birds burst from the moonlit forest.

“No wind created by the earth and wind spirits of 1st-Gear would drive out the birds.”

With the forest still bent, the pressure of the easterly wind produced a loud noise. It sounded like the crashing of waves. The cries of wakened birds and beasts filled the wind to provide a high-pitched coloration.

It felt as if the entire forest was walking from east to west. As Brunhild stood in that schoolyard surrounded by the forest, she felt as if the entire commotion was circling around her.

However, that commotion did not approach her any further.

The sound slowly settled down like a receding wave. The wind, the creaking of the forest, and the cries of the birds and beasts all slowly disappeared.

“…”

Brunhild sighed after hearing the final chirp of a bird.

She suddenly realized she was tightly gripping the handle of her broom.

''Was I afraid?'' she asked in self-derision.

It was at that time that she sensed movement in the atmosphere behind her.

She turned around, thinking it was the black cat, but something much bigger filled her vision.

A giant white form had grown from the gym. It was Fafnir Custom.

Fafnir Custom had partially left the concept space enveloping the gym. The inside of the concept space could not be seen from outside. That meant Fafnir Custom had to have moved his face slightly out of the gym to access the outside world.

His giant, long, and slender face was already outside.

He must have taken a single step from within the concept space. The area from his face down to the base of his neck and his front right leg seemed to be pushed out. His metal claws were digging into the schoolyard and giving off several metallic noises. Next, his front left leg, his body, his back right leg, his back left leg, and finally his tail followed.

The dragon’s movements were heavy and certain. A heavy metallic noise caused the earth to tremble.

As Brunhild watched on, the dragon’s entire form appeared below the moonlight.

That great white and green dragon was over thirty meters long and over seven meters tall at the shoulder. Other than the red light of the primary vision devices on his face, nothing on him seemed to try to assert his own existence to the outside world.

His entire body only glowed palely in the moonlight.

Fafnir Custom turned to face Brunhild.

He had only walked three steps out of the gym and had stopped at precisely three meters away from Brunhild. He gently lowered his body which caused wind to wash over the schoolyard.

As she watched that wind rip dried leaves from the ground and toss them into the air, Brunhild asked the dragon a question.

“Has it been a while since you came outside, Venerable Hagen?”

Fafnir Custom answered the question in Hagen’s voice and tone.

“We have had a lot of meetings lately… And as the concept space will disappear after a few hours if I am gone, it has been harder and harder to find the time. I only came out now to see you off.”

Brunhild was relieved to hear a smile in his voice when he spoke that final comment.

A voice then spoke from above Fafnir Custom’s head.

“Brunhild,” said the black cat.

She looked up to see the black shadow had already climbed down to Fafnir Custom’s nose. The black cat tried to stop there, but…

“Ah…no…wah!”

The cat’s feet slipped and it slid right off the dragon’s head. As the cat shot diagonally toward the ground, Brunhild took a step forward to catch it.

“Watch out,” she cried.

The cat performed a counter on the knee she had moved forward.

The impact caused an unassuming noise. In response, the cat let out a controlled breath rather than a scream.

“N-nice effort,” it said before sliding down Brunhild’s shin.

Brunhild picked the cat’s small body up in her left arm and looked back toward Fafnir Custom with the broom still in her right hand. As a weapon, Fafnir Custom could not produce facial expressions. However, Brunhild sighed.

“I know this looks odd, but just know that I do not do this because I want to.”

“No, I think it is perfectly fine. I can see much better than I used to and I am glad to see you can remain cheerful.”

“I simply do not have much time to be serious. Venerable Hagen, is it tough having to be so serious all the time?”

“Good question…” replied Fafnir Custom with an answer that was neither an affirmation nor a denial. He then lowered his body slightly and asked, “Brunhild, do you see yourself as about to leave or about to return home?”

“Eh…?” Brunhild gasped. “V-Venerable Hagen… Do you think I have forgotten 1st-Gear?”

“No, I do not think that. However, your opinion of the current state of the headquarters does not seem to be a favorable one.”

“…I do not like that kind of arguing. I think this might be the nature of the long-lived race.”

“Yes. But listen, Brunhild. Even if you are not exactly fond of the others, you must not grow to hate them. Keeping your distance and hating are two different things.”

“I-I don’t…”

“If only you had someone as long-lived as you who could remain with you always. In your eyes, everyone, myself included, must seem rushed and intent on heading down a selfish path.”

The black cat raised its head in her arm. It looked toward Fafnir Custom and spoke.

“You sound like an old man, Venerable Hagen.”

“Stop that!” scolded Brunhild.

Fafnir Custom spoke in a smiling voice toward both the scolder and the scolded.

“Ha ha. That is because I am one. My body will not last much longer. I am sure everyone has realized it. And I do not mean my lifespan as a machine. My real lifespan is running out.”

“Venerable Hagen…”

Hearing that name, Fafnir Custom turned his primary vision devices accurately toward Brunhild.

“It is because of this body that I was able to last these sixty years. I hear UCAT has means of longevity involving remodeling the human body and using techniques they call magic. I wonder if they will obtain the same loneliness you have…” Fafnir Custom gave a bitter laugh. His body shook slightly. “The reason Fafner and the others are in such a hurry is likely because they are thinking about me. They want to resolve this while I still live.”

“Fafner just wants to use you.”

“No, he wants me to take action. How nostalgic. Do you remember when Fafner was first brought here?”

“He was raised to be the next leader of the reservation, but he ran off here with one of our guides when he learned of our history. He was inexperienced and arrived half dead after making his way through the thin concepts of Low-Gear. …And now he is the leader of the second generation group.” Brunhild nodded at her own words, but then continued. “I do understand why everyone is in such a hurry. UCAT has been very active since the death of Sayama Kaoru, a member of the former National Defense Department along with Siegfried and the others. What could they be doing?”

“They are doing something to prevent this world from falling to the negative concepts. Of course, that is just a front for something else.”

“What do they want to do?”

“I do not know. Not even Fasolt and the others working with UCAT know everything. UCAT is hiding something. I can only think they have been doing something in the sixty years since they destroyed our Gear. But as we have left the front lines of the fight to rebuild ourselves, there is no way we could know what that is.”

“Did the late Sayama know about it? Does Siegfried?”

“I would assume so. Also…” Hagen trailed off. When Brunhild tilted her head, Fafnir Custom asked, “Don’t you need to get back? When you arrived, you seemed to be in a hurry.”

The black cat reacted to those words before Brunhild. It tapped its soft front paw against her chest.

“The bird. Just because you have such a flat chest is no reason to forget about-… Ahh! Being strangled is new!!”

After squeezing the cat’s neck, Brunhild bowed toward Fafnir Custom. She then placed the cat on her shoulder.

As she frantically held up her broom, Fafnir Custom spoke up.

“The bird…?”

“Yes. She never learns. She took in a small bird that fell out of its nest.”

“Oh, I see. That is good to hear. Brunhild…no, perhaps I should call you Nein.”

“I…gave up that name long ago.”

“But that is who you are to me. You are the small girl who was taken in by my niece Gutrune and lived in the laboratory of my younger brother Regin. I may have forced a difficult decision on you. For Gutrune and Regin as well, Siegfried was…”

“Please stop. Hearing the names of people we both knew is worse than speaking to myself.”

As she spoke, Brunhild tried to give a slight smile.

However, she could not keep the ends of her eyebrows from drooping and the expression held no strength.

She hung her head down and looked at her broom. She wordlessly pulled a blue stone with a chain from her vest pocket and wrapped it around the broom handle. She held the stone and chain in her right hand.

A blue light appeared from the broom’s brush and it tried to float up from the ground. Brunhild held it down with both hands.

“It is time we left.”

Only then was she finally able to smile.

But it only lasted an instant.

She poured strength into her right hand. As her grip on the stone increased, the pale blue light coming from the brush increased. No one was around to see her here.

“I will be flying up all at once, so please stand back.”

“A dragon such as myself will not be damaged by the wind produced by a cute witch.”

“No, you would be able to see my underwear.”

“My apologies.”

Fafnir Custom took a step back and Brunhild gave a bow along with the black cat.

At the same time, she slid her left hand down along the broom handle. She tightly squeezed her right hand while in a pose that made it seem she was playing tug of war against the sky.

The pale blue light coming from the broom’s brush rapidly lost its color. In its place, wind began filling the school yard around the broom.

The powerful wind radiated out from the broom as it swept across the school yard.

A high-pitched noise reverberated through the wind. And once that noise reached a certain level…

“I will be going.”

With that comment, Brunhild relaxed her entire body save her arms.

It all happened in an instant. She clung to the broom handle as if throwing her body forward. With the resistance holding it in place lessened, the broom shot up into the sky as if it had been forcefully kicked upwards.

It flew in a slight arc up into the sky.

“…!”

Brunhild looked down as the wind pressed down from above.

The shape of the forest was no longer visible and the abandoned school was no larger than a few centimeters across and still growing smaller.

However, a single pale figure was visible in the moonlight covering the clearing of the abandoned school.

“…”

Brunhild cast her eyes down as she continued to cling to the ascending broom handle.

She was headed east. As that direction entered her mind, she muttered in a voice the wind drowned out.

“The direction of the wind that moves the forest…”

Fafnir Custom stared up into the sky in which the moon was visible.

A line of pale clouds could be seen in the sky above as Brunhild flew to the east.

Fafnir Custom continued watching until that line of clouds disappeared in the wind.

“Now then,” he muttered before turning to the western edge of the schoolyard.

This was the opposite direction from the gym. A gym storage shed that’s roof had rotted away stood next to the school building. The moonlight filled that area with shadows of the night.

Fafnir Custom turned his crimson primary vision devices in that direction.

“I think it is time to speak with you. …You over there.”

As that mechanical voice rang out, three shadows appeared from the darkness filling the western end of the schoolyard.

They belonged to people.

Standing at the front was a tall elderly man wearing a sand-yellow summer coat.

Below a bandanna wrapped like a turban was a deeply tanned face with the Arab features of a hooked nose and sunken eye sockets. However, only the right eye socket had a black eye looking out from it.

[[Image:OnC_v02_0061.png|thumb]]

Below the coat that was slightly opened by the wind, he wore vest and suit pants. He was walking toward Fafnir Custom with long strides.

Two girls walked behind him to the left and right.

On the right was a tall girl with her black hair bound at the back of her head. Below her black summer coat, she wore the same outfit as the man, but a silk wrapping containing some sort of rod hung to the left of her waist.

On the left was a girl with long hair fluttering in the wind. She wore a black stole over her shoulders, but she wore a white shirt and a black dress below it.

The tall girl on the right was older. She held a sharp look in her eyes and mouth as she glared over at Fafnir Custom. The short girl on the left had the ends of her eyebrows lowered slightly.

Those two contrasting girls flanked the man as the three of them approached. As Fafnir Custom watched that, he suddenly heard a musical tune.

The girl on the left had opened her lips slightly and was singing in the moonlight.

“Silent night, Holy night

All’s asleep, one sole light,

Just the faithful and holy pair,

Lovely boy-child with curly hair,

Sleep in heavenly peace

Sleep in heavenly peace.”

Fafnir Custom knew that song.

“Brunhild would often sing that after our escape. It is a Low-Gear song. I believe the title is Silent Night.”

As the girl cast her eyes down and sang, she suddenly raised her right hand a bit.

When she did, several small shadows descended from the night sky.

They were birds.

These birds whose wings were shaded blue and black by the moonlight were the birds that had been driven from the forest by the blowing wind. That flock that had lost their spot now gathered on the girl’s outstretched arm.

The sound of flapping wings filled the wind of the night.

The birds elicited a smile from the girl’s narrowed eyes and faintly raised eyebrows.

“Ha ha,” she breathed out. “I have no food for you. So go.” The girl pointed toward the forest behind Fafnir Custom. “Go back home.”

As soon as the girl spoke, the birds flew up and become silhouettes in the moonlight.

Those black wings created shadows in the dark blue sky. The scattered sound of flapping wings passed by Fafnir Custom in an instant and disappeared into the forest behind him.

Fafnir Custom used all of his auditory devices to listen to the sound of the birds’ chirping disappear within the forest.

Finally, it faded away and silence fell.

The man and the two girls had stopped walking. Approximately twenty meters remained between those three and Fafnir Custom.

Even that large mechanical dragon would need to take a few steps to cross that distance.

The three people and Fafnir Custom stared at each other from that distance.

Fafnir Custom made the first move. He spread his four legs and raised his back end.

He was preparing to charge. And in that pose, Fafnir Custom spoke.

“So you have come unannounced once again, information broker. Or should I call you Hajji of the so-called ‘Army’.”

The man referred to as Hajji smiled at that. His white moustache and his stubble-covered chin bent upwards.

“It has been a dozen or so years now, but that is the first time I have been called that. I am shocked, Hagen.”

“You have no right to speak my name… I do not even know what Gear you are from. Even so, you are an information broker who can gather weapons and accurate information. I want to keep any familiarity between us purely professional,” said Fafnir Custom. “Also, who are those two insane girls with you?”

Still smiling, Hajji looked at the girls to his left and right. He lightly spread his arms and spoke.

“You could say they are my daughters. The tall one here is Mikoku. The short one is Shino. I thought it was time they learned how to perform this job. Cute, aren’t they? Hm?”

As they were introduced, Mikoku nodded and Shino bowed.

Hajji went on to say, “They may not look it, but they are both great warrior djinn. And…”

His smile suddenly disappeared.

But he quickly covered his face with his large right hand. The span of three breaths passed before he lowered his hand once more. Once he did, the smile had returned.

“That does not matter. For tonight, I have some more information for you.”

“And are you going to ask once more that I put my forces under your command?”

“I never said anything about putting them under my command. I would never think of such a thing. But we are both trying to stop Low-Gear’s Leviathan Road. I believe we want the same thing. Am I wrong? Hm?”

“Sorry, but my answer is the same as before. We will solve our problem in our own way. I have no intention of fighting alongside someone whose identity I do not know.”

“If you agree to join us, I will tell you our identity and our objective.”

“I might have considered it if that smile were real. …But I said no and I mean no.”

When he heard Fafnir Custom’s words, Hajji once more covered his mouth with his right hand.

No hint of a smile could be seen in his eyes as a voice leaked through the hand covering his mouth.

“I see…”

And before those two words had faded away, Fafnir Custom fired.

He targeted Mikoku, the girl on the right.

“…!!”

The tall girl was blown backwards as if she had been hit by a car. She floated up higher than her own height and flew several times that distance backwards.

Fafnir Custom had used the right side of his body. A meter long anti-personnel machinegun had been internally installed in that most stable location. It broke through the seal and shot out into the night air. The attack had consumed three pages of the book bullets loaded in it. Three bullets of light with a diameter of two centimeters were fired almost simultaneously.

It had all occurred much too quickly for a human’s reaction speed. And all three shots hit.

Mikoku’s clothing was torn to pieces both on her chest and on her back where the bullets of light exited.

Many things scattered into the air and her body fell to the ground headfirst.

She struck the ground.

With an unpleasant noise, her neck bent in the correct direction. It bent in the direction it should be bent to ensure there was no saving her.

Her body then rolled two or three times. When she finally came to a stop, her neck must have bent back into place because the air in her lungs passed through her throat and exited her mouth. This created a short coughing sound.

Fafnir Custom used all of his forward-facing vision devices to look at her.

“You taught her well, Hajji. When you lost your smile, she secretly opened that silk wrapping.”

He watched her. Even after being blasted away, Mikoku had her right hand next to her left waist. That hand held the grip of something sticking out of that wrapping.

She was not moving. After confirming that, Fafnir Custom fixed his vision devices on Hajji.

Hajji still had his right hand at his mouth, but he finally raised it along with his left.

Fafnir Custom asked, “That girl you called a djinn has fallen. Why did you bring these children with you? And what do you know? We know nothing beyond the destruction of 1st-Gear. But you that call yourselves the Army…” Fafnir Custom looked back and forth between Hajji and the girl on the left. “You are an army made up of a few different Gears, aren’t you? From what I can tell, Hajji, you appear to be from 9th-Gear. And those two girls appear to either be from 2nd-Gear or Low-Gear.”

“You are surprisingly nosy, aren’t you, Hagen?”

“I am saying you possess something that great. You understand, don’t you, Hajji?”

Just as Fafnir Custom ended its preparation for a charge and prepared to take a normal step forward, the vision devices on his right side picked up a single small light.

“!”

Fafnir Custom cast aside the heavy movements from before and leapt to the left. A change came over the joints of his legs. The output bands and wood pipes that provided the legs’ driving force rearranged in an instant to shift from normal mode to short-range movement mode.

He leapt about 10 meters to the left with a cat-like movement.

He leapt such that his face remained pointed toward the light but his back end rotated around.

His back legs landed and dug an arcing curve into the schoolyard.

Fafnir Custom lowered his body with the sound of breaking wood and he saw two changes occur in the spot he had just been standing in.

The first was that a five meter deep sphere of destruction had appeared on the ground there.

The second…

“Why…is the girl I killed there?”

It was Mikoku. While wearing clothes that had been torn to rags, Mikoku stood before the hole of destruction created in the schoolyard. Hanging from her right arm was…

“That is a concept weapon with a philospher’s stone inside. Is it a Cowling Sword?”

“Yes. Not many can use them, but we have an excellent instructor in the Army. This girl can travel that far and cause that much destruction in an instant.”

Mikoku remained silent. The left hand that did not hold the Cowling Sword held the remains of her torn clothes over her chest.

Fafnir Custom saw her look toward him just once.

Her face held no expression. However, she was not suppressing her emotions like Brunhild.

“She seems to be saying she has no interest in this.”

“It is an excellent expression, don’t you think? She’s guaranteed to be a cool beauty when she grows up, isn’t she? Hm?” said Hajji with a smile. “I will provide you with a special service today. I will tell you what we are after before getting to the real topic at hand. How about that?”

“I see,” said Fafnir Custom while remaining on guard. “Are you creating an organized rebel army out of the remnants of each Gear in order to stop the Leviathan Road?”

Hajji cast his eyes down and shook his head.

“Too bad. That’s not it. What we want,” he took a breath, opened his eyes wide, and bowed with a smile on his face, “is the annihilation of each Gear’s concepts.”

“What…!?”

“I see no need for clarification. I mean exactly what I said, Hagen. We of the Army wish for the disappearance of every concept save the ones that preserve us. That is our goal.”

“…Why!? Are you abandoning your own Gears!?”

“We see a reason, meaning, and value in doing so. I assure you we do,” said Hajji. The smile vanished from his face as if all enthusiasm was leaving him. “The holy sword Gram stored in UCAT at IAI Headquarters in Shimane will be transported to UCAT in the Tokyo branch office tomorrow night. The airplane should pass right above here.”

“Why are you telling us this? We will retrieve the concepts of 1st-Gear, but we do not wish to eliminate them as you do. …We will become your enemy.”

“I know that. This is another special service. I am going all out with the special services today.” He lowered his gaze with no smile on his face. “Well, for now, we do not mind what you do here. At the very least, we want to avoid having the concepts remain with UCAT. If you do retrieve Gram, we can begin negotiations.”

“Negotiations about what?”

“For starters, we will tell you and demand of you the truth without giving any thought to Low-Gear. We must make Low-Gear into what is truly true.”

“What is truly true?”

“Yes,” said Hajji as he raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.

Mikoku moved back. She took large steps backwards so as to return to her position to the right of Hajji while never taking her eyes off of Fafnir Custom.

At the same time, Hajji and Shino moved back as well. They moved toward the darkness behind them.

“Farewell, Hagen. Our positions will likely have changed by the time we meet again.”

“Wait! Answer me, Hajji! What do you mean by what is true!?”

Hajji replied to that reverberating question with a smile.

Mikoku caught up to him and they sank into to darkness behind them.

Just before his sand-yellow summer coat sank into the darkness, Hajji’s voice rang out.

“It is a simple matter. In the truest sense of the term, we will pass everything onto the one who will take over after us!”

His answer grew to a shout that contained a hint of a smile.

Fafnir Custom heard that answer.

The three figures had disappeared from his vision.

At some point, an easterly wind had begun to blow around him.

Fafnir Custom quietly muttered to himself in that wind.

“So Gram will be transported tomorrow…”

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume2_Chapter_14|Chapter 14]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume2_Chapter_16|Chapter 16]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>