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Owari no Chronicle:Volume14 Chapter 25

2026-06-14T03:21:05Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 25: Twist of the World==
[[Image:OnC_v14_0907.png|thumb]]
''The world seen from the hilltop

''The world seen from the city

''The world seen from the depths of the night

''I want to take care of them all

The Leviathan stopped moving in the sky above Shinjuku Station.

The sounds of changing and evolving armor occasionally descended from those cloudy heavens, but the Leviathan was otherwise entirely still.

A pair of eyes looked up at it from the center of the earth seal barrier in front of the station.

“It is showing no sign of moving anytime soon. It only needs to wait for the negative concepts inside to fully activate, so it must see no reason to waste its forces.”

Sayama stood in the center of that earth circle that had opened a meter from the ground.

Several other figures surrounded him in the clearing before the station’s east entrance.

Some were people, some were not, some were machines, and some were dragons.

The nearest of them all, Shinjou, asked him a question.

“What are we going to do, Sayama-kun?”

“Well.” He nodded. “The standard course of action before the final battle is for the boy and girl to sneak off and do indecent things. And all on the pretext of ‘this might be our last chance’. Of course, I think the best possible way to transfer responsibility for such inappropriate acts would be-… What is it, Shinjou-kun? Why are you activating Wanambi with a smile? Are you cold? Oh, we cannot have that! We must warm each other up this very moment!”

“Don’t transfer responsibility to the cold!! Besides, we already did that cliché!”

While Shinjou pulled on Sayama’s tie and shook him, Heo blushed a little and turned toward Harakawa.

“H-Harakawa, u-um, don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s true this might be our last chance…”

Harakawa expressionlessly placed a hand on her head.

“Do you want to eat some pudding?”

“Wh-why are you treating me like a child!?”

“You were giving that pudding a pretty longing look back in the supermarket.”

“I-I w-was n-n-n-not!”

“It was the one with a cow wearing a jersey on the package. Was it called Jersey Milk Cream & Pudding?”

Heo hung her head in defeat.

“If we make it back alive, I want that pun pudding as a reward.”

“If that’s what you want. But eat it all yourself. It’ll probably make you grow. Widthwise.”

“Wh-why can’t you just be honest for once!?” she shouted with her fists clenched. “Just the night before last, you dragged me outside without any clothes on, but you only watched without doing anything! I-it was just too much and I really thought I was going to fall! And then while we got down to business and I was gasping for breath, saying I couldn’t keep going, you told me I could, told me to ‘get set’, and then kept riding me. I didn’t think I could get any higher than that!”

She placed her hands on her cheeks and waved her head left and right.

“Harakawa! You’re the one that’s always going inside me and saying things like ‘is it here?’ or ‘that should do it’!”

“At least explain what you’re talking about first!!”

Harakawa saw the others glaring at him and Odor being held back by Roger and Diana.

“Calm down, Heo Thunderson. Talking about the happy things too much will raise a death flag for you.”

“Wh-what’s wrong with just talking?”

“This isn’t reality. It’s a space filled with insanity. There’s a decent possibility of those flags actually working.”

As soon as he said that, the crowd split to let two people through.

One was a boy and the other was a girl clinging to his neck from behind.

“I’ve got great news, everyone! Sibyl-san still had a copy of Mikage-san’s medical exam results and it looks like she really has become human.”

“Nn. Ryuuji-kun, we were too busy yesterday, but let’s take a bath together when we get back.”

“Of course! Oh, I can’t wait.”

Heo paled at their conversation.

“He’s raising all sorts of dangerous flags, isn’t he?”

“Calm down, Heo. He’s always like that, so he’s built up an immunity to flags. Your standard flag won’t be enough to kill him.”

“Wh-what kind of ominous things are you two talking about!?”

They all took their turn ignoring Hiba.

On the opposite end from him, Kazami and Izumo walked up. They held their weapons and a 4th-Gear creature to remove their exhaustion.

“Oh, things sure are lively over here. How are your preparations going?”

“And do you have anything to eat? I’m kind of starving over here.”

“Starving?” asked one creature. “Going to die?”

“Yeah, it sure feels like it after running so much. I could use some water too.”

The two of them found a rest table and started chowing down on the food laid out there.

The others had been too nervous to touch the food, but those two had no such reservations.

“The rest of you should eat too. Even if we lose, would you rather lose with your stomach full or while you’re starving? The same goes for winning. And our odds of victory seem better if we’ve eaten, don’t they?”

The others exchanged a glance and slowly started eating too.

Kazami and Izumo’s pace was still faster, though.

As Shinjou watched them from behind, she tugged on Sayama’s sleeve.

“They really are carnivorous beasts, aren’t they?”

“You say something, Shinjou?”

“N-no, nothing.”

Shinjou and everyone else averted their gaze.

Wanambi and the Messengers even moved away as they controlled some nearby machines.

“Carnivorous” “Strange” “Empty-headed” “Dilemma”

But Kazami and Izumo were not the only ones being avoided. No one approached the figures in black armored uniforms protected by a mechanical dragon and god of war.

A simple bed had been prepared in the center and the members of the Army had wrapped a girl in a blanket and placed her there.

Mikoku slept at the center of that ring of people. She almost seemed a prisoner of her body’s weariness.

Hajji nodded toward her and then faced forward, where Tatsumi stood.

Looking somewhat pale, Tatsumi placed her trembling hands in her coat pockets.

When she turned around, she found the UCAT members and Sayama.

“We will help you fight. And we have one thing to ask.”

“If it is about Mikoku-kun, then we will honor what I announced before the battle,” replied Sayama. “I believe that letting her live will provide a memorial service for all of the lost worlds. She attempted to revive all that was destroyed and yet she failed. We must let this be a world in which she wants to keep living and to create something. If we punished her and did not allow that, we would be the ones in the wrong.”

“Isn’t that…going too easy on her?”

Sayama shrugged at Tatsumi’s question.

“It is not. After all, her life will not be an easy one.”

For only a brief moment, his eyes turned to the girl in the blanket.

“The world knows nothing of the Concept War or of today. And in that world, she will always remember the lives she herself took. Also…”

He looked across the others.

“She will live in constant fear that someone with a grudge will attack her and that might very well happen. But if she can gain allies and manage to smile and act on her own even a little, then I would call that a victory for us all.”

“I see.”

Tatsumi nodded and then Sayama asked her something.

“What happened to the mechanical dragon and god of war that tried to attack us during the battle on top of the Leviathan?”

“They quickly lost control and fell,” said Alex. “That was most likely due to Noah losing control of the Leviathan.”

“To be honest, it really saved us,” said Tatsumi. “The No. 0 of the Seraph and Lords models are on the same level as Alex or Typhon. But…”

She looked up into the sky.

The Leviathan was there and a white ring had formed around it.

“If the Leviathan desires the greatest possible combat power, all of the gods of war and mechanical dragons stored inside will be installed with Noah’s knowledge. All of the gods of war and mechanical dragons will probably be on Typhon or Alex’s level next time. Wouldn’t it be best to start fighting right away?”

She then looked down to Georgius on Sayama’s hands.

“Besides, one half of Georgius there destroyed Mikoku’s philosopher’s stone, right? Maybe a strike from both hands would be enough to destroy the Leviathan’s negative concepts.”

“You want me to attack something that big with my fists?”

Everyone turned toward him when they heard that.

He raised both Georgiuses with a bitter smile and Shinjou asked him a question with her eyebrows lowered.

“C-can you not do it? Is it too big?”

“Georgius is a striking weapon, Shinjou-kun. Normally, it would simply be impossible.”

“Th-then…” began Shinjou.

“But there is one method that is not exactly normal.”

Shinjou listened to Sayama’s serious words.

“Yes, are you listening, Shinjou-kun? There is one method.”

Everyone waited in silence for him to continue.

But Shinjou’s loud voice shattered that silence.

“W-wait!”

She was blushing and she covered her chest and crotch.

“N-no asking for something in exchange for telling me!”

Dumbfounded, Sayama turned toward her.

He seemed to be asking what she was talking about.

…''Eh?

A few seconds later, he slowly nodded.

“That is a great idea!!”

“Waaah!! Why did I say that!?”

“C-calm down, Shinjou-kun. Um, okay. Sorry, everyone, but Shinjou-kun and I will be leaving for a bit. Yes, yes. You can kill some time eating the food over there.”

“W-wah! W-wait! Don’t pick me up! Don’t!”

“Ha ha ha. You do not want me to hold you? Then how about a backwards piggy back ride? Oh, dear. Now I cannot see.”

Ex-St was nearby, so Shinjou grabbed it and slammed it down on his head.

…''You idiot!

She expected a groan of pain or surprise after the dull impact, but…

“Heh.”

An awkward sound escaped his throat and he collapsed to the side.

Shinjou caught her breath next to him.

“Honestly, you really need to think about the overall situation before doing things like that.”

She then watched for five seconds as Sayama remained entirely motionless.

“Oh, no! Wh-what have I done!?”

The others gave their comments while she frantically tried to shake him awake.

“Harakawa, is it just me or does Shinjou need to think about the overall situation too?”

“That’s because the Sayama virus has infected the morality part of her brain. There’s no saving her now.”

“D-don’t scare me like that!! I need to wake Sayama-kun up!”

“Then wake him.”

That comment came from Kazami who turned around with a spoon in her mouth. She started ripping apart a large shrimp at the table and she pointed toward Sayama with her chin.

Shinjou looked over and realized Sayama had lifted his head a bit while still lying on the ground.

“Sayama-kun, what is that pose supposed to be?”

“You cannot tell? I wish to lie in your lap, Shinjou-kun.”

“Oh?” She nodded. “W-well, it’s a little embarrassing, so no turning around, okay?”

She stuck Ex-St under his head.

Sayama immediately started stroking his hands across Ex-St’s surface.

“Heh heh. Shinjou-kun, you must have been running too much. Your legs are a little hard today.”

“N-not too much touching okay? That’s pretty sensitive.”

“There is no way I could resist, Shinjou-kun. Ohh, such wonderful curves. And here…hm? I-I found some kind of lewd hole!”

“Ah, d-don’t touch that hole! I-it’s going to come out! The hot blast is going to come out!”

“Then is this small protrusion your love button, Shinjou-kun!?”

Everyone ducked.

“Let us see that reaction!”

As soon as Sayama pressed the button, Ex-St fired and everyone along the line of fire fled.

The recoil launched Ex-St backwards and it crashed into Izumo as he ate some sushi.

Kazami calmly moved her plate of gratin out of the way while Izumo was sent flipping over the table. He soon popped back up with a plate on his head.

“Y-you idiot! M-my precious tuna is flying through the sky!”

Shinjou averted her gaze and Sayama spun around on the ground like a break dancer after his pillow launched itself out from under him.

Everyone gave him a worried look and Shinjou waited for the perfect timing.

…''This really is no time to be doing this.

Her casual kick hit his head, causing him to roll forward, but he sat up afterwards.

He swayed unsteadily while sitting crosslegged on the ground, so Shinjou sighed and sat down too.

“Anyway, Sayama-kun, can we get back on topic?”

“Are you going to ignore everything you did to me?”

“That’s right. …Or do you want me to do it more?”

“Ha ha ha. That is the same thing you said last night, Shinjou-kun.”

“Waaaahh!!”

For some reason, the others gave her kind looks, but she waved her hands at them.

“Don’t listen to him! Don’t listen! He’s a crazy person!”

“Um…Shinjou-san?”

She turned toward Hiba, thanking him for the interruption.

“Wh-what is it!? I hope it’s something fun.”

“Well, maybe it’s just me, but I think you’re actively making all of this more complicated than it has to be.”

She thought about that for a moment and finally hung her head.

“I just got a lecture from Ryuuji-kun of all people…”

“That’s the depressing part!?”

Sayama nodded next to her, steadied himself, and looked across the others.

“Calm down, everyone. You people really do not make it easy to hold a conversation in peace.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you!!”

He ignored their shouts and raised his left hand.

“Sibyl-kun.”

“Coming!”

For some reason, it was Ooki who pushed through the crowd.

Shinjou frowned and saw Sayama look at the woman.

“Ha ha ha. That is quite the new look, Sibyl-kun. …Why are you here, defective teacher?”

“That’s just mean! S-Sibyl-san gave me her report.”

Ooki sighed and looked down at said report.

“O-okay… With the Le-Levi-Leviathan? Overhead, the surrounding a-aut-automa-…”

“Someone help this illiterate.”

“Testament.” #8 peered at the report from the side. “With the Leviathan overhead, the surrounding automatons have arranged their conceptual defenses in a ring. As things are, even approaching the Leviathan would be impossible.”

“Wow, #8-san, you’re a really good reader.”

Ooki sounded utterly impressed and #8 gave a shallow nod.

“This is one of a maid’s jobs.”

“Wow, maids sure are amazing.”

Everyone looked down toward the ground until a new voice asked a question. It was Boldman, leader of the standard division unit, and he looked back down at his gun as he did.

“What are we going to do?”

“Are you worried, Boldman-kun? Worry too much and your hair will fall-… Oh, I-I suppose nothing will ever grow on that barren land again. My apologies. …It is cold this time of year, so be careful.”

After Sayama’s comment, Shinjou smiled and lightly tapped him on the shoulder.

“You keep getting off topic!”

“Now that you mention it…”

She hung her head again, but he breathed in and spoke without warning.

“There is a way to stop the negative concepts and a way to get my fists to the Leviathan.”

“…Eh?”

Shinjou quickly looked up and saw his eyes raised in a smile.

He then revealed how they could win.

“We will release the concepts.”

It was 11:23 PM.

With thirty-seven minutes until the negative concepts fully activated, the Leviathan noticed movement down below.

The Leviathan determined this was a futile attempt.

It was protected by a giant defense field made by the angels and the surrounding sealing walls would be broken in another thirty-seven minutes.

The negative concepts would devour everything and the world would be remade as a world with nothing that could be lost.

That was a wonderful thing.

The Leviathan had something that was not quite a mind and it was filled with two missions.

The first was to create a new world and the second was not to lose anything.

It would fulfill those missions. It would fulfill them in the most perfect form.

With that in mind, the Leviathan decided to let the remaining time pass by.

But then something arrived.

It was a cannon blast.

A white line shot straight up from the circular seal directly below.

The light pierced the sky without losing much – if any – energy and it sprayed against the bottom of the defense field.

It could not breach the field, but a few of the automatons maintaining the field were fried.

And as if to double check that effect…

“————”

Another blast arrived. Except this one was not alone. Dozens if not hundreds came with it. They were all deflected, but they produced a great noise and shook the wind.

And it did not stop.

It was a trivial number of the whole, but fried automatons fell from the sky.

''I see,'' thought the Leviathan. ''Such an unpleasant noise.

There was just one sound the Leviathan liked.

It knew that fact, but it did not remember what that sound was.

Some small vestiges of the sound remained inside it and all other sounds were designated “unpleasant”.

And so the Leviathan let its power spill forth.

The dolls, giants, and dragons contained inside it had been modified in a very short period of time.

The remnants of the incomplete positive concepts had been shifted to the negative side by the negative concepts and that power had been linked to this new army. It was a negative army.

That army was black.

The pitch black force passed through the white halo and dropped down, down, down.

But the Leviathan also saw something flying upwards and weaving back and forth to avoid the falling black army.

It was a mist that rose even higher than the Leviathan.

That mist flying alongside the seal in the heavens contained a boy with a flight philosopher’s stone hanging from his neck.

He stood high in the sky with a great dragon of mist protecting him.

The Leviathan wondered what he could hope to accomplish.

The Leviathan also had another question.

Wasn’t the seal in the sky Wanambi’s and the one below Mukiti’s?

That was when more light appeared.

The powerful light came from directly below and the surrounding eight directions.

“Begin releasing the Concept Cores!!”

A voice reverberated from the sky above.

“We will now break down the negative concepts by releasing the positive concepts!!”

Sayama looked down below with Baku on his head.

A giant dragon lived in the sky above Tokyo.

It was the Leviathan.

It was surrounded and protected by a great halo and light surrounded it in eight directions.

Those eight lights came from the release of the Concept Cores.

But their positions had changed.

“Reverse positions!!”

They were all positioned one hundred eighty degrees from their original position.

Region 1: North. Leader is Kazami.

Region 2: Northeast. Leader is Brunhild.

Region 3: East. Leader is Izumo.

Region 4: Southeast. Leader is Abram.

Region 5: South. Leader is Hiba.

Region 6: Southwest. Leader is Kashima.

Region 7: West. Leader is Heo.

Region 8: Northwest. Leader is Chao Yu.

Region 9: Heaven. Leader is Sayama.

Region 10: Earth. Leader is Shinjou.

They had a single reason for these reversed positions.

“The dragons will return to their origins! Therefore, if we release the concepts and make the declaration…”

Sayama swung his arm and willed his voice to reach them all.

“The dragons will race to their origins and destroy the negative concepts contained within the Leviathan at the center! That will release both the positive and negative concepts!!” he shouted. “Our estimates say it will take ten minutes to fully deploy the Concept Cores! Bear with it until then, everyone!! This will be…”

His voice rang through the heavens.

“This will be the Leviathan Road’s final battle!!”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume14 Chapter 24|Chapter 24]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume14 Chapter 26|Chapter 26]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume14 Chapter 19

2026-06-13T04:32:42Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 19: Simulated Tomorrow==
[[Image:OnC_v14_0693.png|thumb]]
''Everyone

''How about we think of tomorrow?

''Of a tomorrow bright with destruction

Evening filled the sky.

Below, the forest sank into darkness.

However, that forest did not maintain its proper form.

The tree-covered earth was split, cracked, and broken.

Ropes and warning lights were set up to block off what little remained of the road.

Night was fast approaching, so most of the trucks and heavy machinery had been pulled back to the base of the mountain.

But even as everyone else was headed down, one figure remained at the top of the slope.

An old man in a lab coat and a yellow hard hat stood on the broken asphalt.

His nametag said Ooshiro and his eyes were pointed downward.

He was looking at the valley filled with dirt.

The dirt piled up at the bottom of the valley was two hundred meters wide and several kilometers long. It also contained fragments of manmade objects.

They were asphalt and metal pieces melted by the heat as well as pieces of white building materials.

Those were the remains of Japanese UCAT.

Ooshiro stared at them in the shadows of the setting sun.

“#8-kun, you’re there, aren’t you?”

He suddenly spoke to someone behind him without turning around.

The air moved slightly and #8 stepped out from between the fallen trees behind him. She too was wearing a yellow hard hat.

<nowiki>#8</nowiki> was wearing jeans and a down jacket instead of her usual maid outfit.

“What are you doing here, Ooshiro-sama? According to our estimations, the positive concepts will react to the activated negative concepts inside the Leviathan and change the world by midnight tomorrow night. To prevent that, the others have gathered at Yokota and Yokosuka and are holding a strategy meeting in Yokosuka’s underground meeting room.”

“And with all that going on, what does it look like I’m doing?”

<nowiki>#8</nowiki> saw Ooshiro looking back toward her with the setting sun behind him and she slowly observed their surroundings.

All she saw were the setting sun and Ooshiro.

…''Is this…?

After confirming the still scenery, she nodded and gave her conclusion.

“I believe you are mentally planning your next 18+ game.”

“A-are you really ignoring the sunset behind me, #8-kun!? Do I really look the same as always!?”

Hearing that, she wondered if she had made a mistake and looked into the sunset again.

“The sun is merely setting for the night. What about it?”

“Wah! This is the problem with you! And when I was really setting the mood, too!?”

“Really?” asked #8 as Ooshiro wiggled in protest. “Testament. Then I will ignore that part. As an emotionless automaton, I cannot hope to guess what is going on.”

She then changed the subject.

“Anyway, everyone is worried about you, so please return to your post as soon as possible.”

“Eh? R-really? I’m the mega hero everyone’s pinning their hopes on?”

“Testament. Everyone in Yokota and Yokosuka was complaining about having no one to shove the unpleasant jobs onto, the construction workers were complaining about an old man getting in the way of everything, and I am complaining because I was called out here when I was supposed to be tuning my spare body. To statistically sum it all up, you need to get back there right away.”

“Th-that’s nothing like what you said before!”

Despite Ooshiro’s complaint, #8 pulled something from her pocket.

“This is the straw doll containing one of Itaru-sama’s hairs. Would this doll be an acceptable substitute for spending your time staring into the sunset?”

Ooshiro looked at the proffered doll.

“This was Sf-kun’s…”

“Testament. Sf-sama followed after Itaru-sama. …Because this doll is not Itaru-sama.”

<nowiki>#8’s</nowiki> tone of voice was firm.

“But you are not the same as Sf-sama. …You are technically human.”

“What do you mean ‘technically’?”

“I went out of the way to leave that unsaid, so why do you insist on nitpicking my wording?”

“I-I’m the one being scolded over this!?”

She ignored him because she had something to say. She had to say this before gaining even more bizarre conversational experience.

“Humans have an imagination. They have the power to imagine someone where nothing remains. So wouldn’t a doll containing something he left behind allow you to imagine him all the more?”

“#8-kun…”

“Yes.” She nodded. “All your pathetic brain can do is imagine things about dolls or an image on a monitor, but that will finally be a useful skill. Now, have a good time imagining.”

“I-I just imagined something really sad about myself!”

Still, he took the straw doll from her hand.

“But #8-kun? It sure would be nice to have something else to cheer me up.”

“Such as?”

“Like having you hug me and console me.”

“How exactly?”

“Calling me Kazuo-chan and hugging me as sweetly and softly as possible! Like the tenderest of simmered meats! Something that would need the sound effect ‘honyo’ or ‘huryo’! L-like this! This! Just like this!”

<nowiki>#8</nowiki> stared at the old man backlit by the sunset as he made his sound effects and bent backwards again and again.

She wondered what to do for about three seconds, but finally said “testament” and nodded at the man. She then pulled her cellphone from her pocket.

“Hello, police? Yes, the pervert that I mentioned earlier is once again blathering on about bizarre nonsensical things while acting extremely suspiciously.”

“Wah, #8-kun! Stop, stop! And what do you mean ‘that I mentioned earlier’!?”

She hung up the phone and glared at Ooshiro.

“Have you made up your mind?”

“About what?”

“Will you be coming or not?”

She further clarified.

“Will you be giving up on or continuing the fight? Which will it be?”

He did not answer her.

He fell silent with the straw doll in hand.

So #8 determined what it was he wanted to say.

She opened her mouth to tell him.

“Testament. Then let’s go, Ooshiro-sama.”

“I-I’m going!? Don’t I get a say?”

“Since you did not answer immediately, I determined you were willing to go either way. And…”

She looked up into the clear sky as she spoke.

“We are in the mountains of Okutama at the end of December. The temperature will fall below zero at night. If you remain here, I have determined the frozen corpse of a pervert will be discovered here by tomorrow.”

“Well, I suppose that’s true.”

“You admit you’re a pervert!?”

“Damn, you’re strict!”

He wrapped his hands around his head and struck a pose, so she turned her back on him.

“You have to leave the mountain no matter what you choose, so your only option is to go. So I have determined there is only one thing to say: let’s go, Ooshiro-sama.”

“Ah, wait, wait!”

Ooshiro took a hesitant step after she began to walk.

“You’re pretty forceful.”

His shoulders drooped, but he followed her.

She looked back toward him.

“Are you coming with me?”

“Everyone wants me to, right?”

He pulled the helmet deep over his eyes.

“They’re hopeless without me, aren’t they?”

“Testament,” replied #8. “I have determined we are about to grow very busy. Prepare yourself.”

“I’ve been ready for ten years now.” His voice fell to the ground. “I thought I had prepared myself for this day back then.”

“You grow tired of things quickly, so I have determined you grew tired of being prepared.”

She suddenly sped up and he had to run to catch up.

“#-#8-kun! Why are you running away from me!?”

“I am not running away. Please stay at least five meters away from me.”

“I doubt I want to know, but why?”

“Testament.” She nodded. “A filthy old man carrying a straw doll approaching you from behind deep in the mountains? Are you trying to become a new urban legend?”

People filled a large space.

The bowl-shaped circular space was the meeting room below Yokosuka.

The room was completely filled with a great mixture of colors.

In addition to the representatives of the international UCATs, the national representatives accompanying them, and the Gear representatives, even volunteers from the normal members of those groups were present.

They all looked to the central space where a 3D image floated above a round table.

The transparent green light drew a 3D map of Tokyo with Shinjuku in the center.

“Tomorrow will be a day for the hidden annals of history.”

A boy in a suit, Sayama, spoke as he walked through the center of the large transparent map.

“This is the Final Concept War that will never be mentioned in the official history books. It will come down to a great urban battle in which a coalition force of UCAT, our various nations, and the Gears split into eight armies to attack the Leviathan.”

The Leviathan sat in midair like a giant island and red lights indicated the positions of the UCAT forces.

“According to our predictions, the positive concepts inside the Leviathan will be complete tomorrow, the 25th, at 10:30 PM. These positive concepts will react to the already activated negative concepts, but they will both fully activate and create the immortality concept at precisely midnight.”

In other words…

“At precisely midnight tomorrow, the world will be changed and the living will all be erased.”

Everyone gulped at Sayama’s words.

He then walked toward the image of the floating Leviathan and the eight red armies deployed in Tokyo moved toward the center.

The ribbon lines of movement had an arrow at the end. They split apart and covered Tokyo while approaching the Leviathan.

Sayama also reached a hand toward the Leviathan.

“If the Leviathan creates and activates the positive concepts, even the existing Concept Core weapons will be useless. After all, we have no idea how to defeat that colossal rampaging dragon,” he explained. “But the Leviathan has left us a decisive opening.”

Everyone looked up and Roger raised his hand in the American UCAT representative seat.

“What is this opening?”

“Until the positive concepts have been created, it must avoid moving as much as possible.”

As he walked, Sayama pointed back toward the curled up Leviathan.

“If it could move, it could have easily destroyed the outside world already. It has not and it has overlooked us as we gather together, so I can only assume it is confident in its own strength and currently cannot move.”

He took a breath.

“I know why. The Leviathan…no, Noah failed in its concept creation before, so it wants to be as careful as possible.”

“In that case, is destroying the Leviathan not our primary goal?”

“Correct. Our goal is to prevent the Leviathan’s positive concepts from reaching completion at 10:30. …I will now show you how.”

Sayama turned toward everyone else. On the three hundred sixty degree transparent map, UCAT’s red ribbons split apart and formed eight foundations.

“A representative bearing a Concept Core weapon will be placed in each of these eight directions. While holding those eight directions, a barrier wall will be created in each spot.”

Eight walls appeared to surround the center of Tokyo.

“Oh?” said the Chinese UCAT representative.

The man in black crossed his arms with an impressed look.

“A Bagua-style omnidirectional barrier? It looks just like the Eight Great Dragon King barrier used when sealing 10th-Gear’s Concept Core, though.”

“Not quite. The sealing walls will be used to keep the Leviathan from escaping and the circle itself acts as a declaration of the Concept Cores’ presence. In other words, we reject the creation of the Leviathan’s positive concepts by ''showing off the real ones''.”

Sayama kept his legs moving.

“But that rejection must not have a way out,” warned the man. “A simple eight-direction seal is not enough.”

“Then…” Sayama came to a stop right below the Leviathan made of transparent light. “We do this.”

He waved a hand and red light appeared.

It appeared directly below and above the Leviathan.

Two red walls were displayed above and below the enemy dragon.

“We add two extra Great Dragon Kings to the Eight to install a seal above and below. The Leviathan will have nowhere left to run and we can lecture it from all directions using the presence of the real positive concepts.”

To put it another way…

“Yes, for simplicity, you could call it the ‘Leviathan, your positive concepts are fakes and are thus banned! Ha ha ha. How do you like that?’ barrier.”

“That’s a little too simple!!” shouted everyone else.

“Simple is best, don’t you think?” replied Sayama. “But if you insist, we can call it the Ten Great World Dragons barrier.”

A short pause followed.

After a few seconds, Roger raised his hand in the American representative seat again.

“Who will be in charge of the two great dragons in the heavens and on the earth?”

“Anyone will do. As long as they are worthy of bearing a Concept Core weapon, that is.”

“Anyone?”

“Yes.” Sayama looked across the approaching red ribbons of their armies. “It may be a rough way of looking at it, but the Concept Cores are worlds themselves. They contain elements of the heavens and earth within them. So if two of the Concept Core weapon bearers traveling in these eight armies – or two others on the same level – bring in the Concept Cores, they only need to set up the seals of heaven and earth once the eight-direction barrier is established. To put it another way…”

He took a breath.

“Those two will be trying to score a touchdown on the Leviathan.”

He raised a hand, said “but”, and looked across his audience.

His expressionless face silently observed them.

“But you are thinking this sounds simple, aren’t you? We can transport the Concept Core weapon bearers in with an aerial force, after all.”

Once he said that, a few numbers appeared in the air. They were formatted like a time and they displayed an estimated length of time.

“Based on the time needed for the barrier in Top-Gear’s Osaka and the barriers used to seal 10th-Gear’s and 2nd-Gear’s Concept Cores, we can estimate it will take this long to establish a barrier large enough to seal the Leviathan.”

The proper numbers appeared and everyone gasped.

“The eight-direction barrier will take sixty-four minutes. Counting from there, the heaven and earth one will take sixteen minutes. That makes a total of eighty minutes that we must face the Leviathan. By counting back from there, we know when our attack must begin.”

Diana gave the answer from the German UCAT representative seat.

She gave the numbers with a serious look in her eyes.

“At the very least, it has to be eighty minutes before 10:30 tomorrow night. To give ourselves some breathing room, we need to attack by nine at night.”

“Exactly. And this is going to be quite troublesome.”

Sayama’s words brought the color blue to the map.

Blue ribbons appeared from the Leviathan.

It almost looked like the color blue had exploded from the dragon.

“The Leviathan contains a massive fighting force. Based on what I saw, its concept space hangars hold approximately two thousand five hundred gods of war of various types, one thousand mechanical dragons of various types, and as for automatons…”

He smiled bitterly.

“Approximately three hundred thousand of various types.”

A few people voiced their disbelief.

That simply seemed impossible.

That was when a sudden voice of rejection reached them. It was a sharp girl’s voice.

“You would not regret it if you showed a little more tolerance.”

The voice came from directly next to Sayama.

No one had seen them arrive, but two figures had joined the transparent map of Tokyo.

One wore a black armored uniform and the other was a twelve-winged maid automaton.

They were Mikoku and Noah.

Everyone in the meeting room began to raise their voices at their appearance.

Some reached into their pockets to pull out weapons, but they never completed that action.

“Please quiet down. Over.”

Noah’s voice seemed to be emitted from her entire body and a weight fell down from above.

It was a great burden.

“…!?”

Those who had started to stand up fell to their knees. Those who had reached into their pockets collapsed forward.

The weight bore down on their entire body.

But the cups and pens on the desks before them did not even budge and their clothes were not pulled down.

Only the people were pressed against the desks or the floor while Mikoku and Noah stood tall.

Noah had lightly raised her right hand.

“I have tripled your body weight. Please calm down, everyone. Over.”

But someone opposed those words and began to move.

Sayama stood in front of them and…

“Go!”

On his shout, two figures moved inside the meeting room.

The girl and boy moving quickly forward in their white armored uniforms were Kazami and Hiba.

Their movement time was shortened and they moved too quickly to see properly.

Kazami spread her wings and forced her way through the extra burden.

“!”

She circled behind Noah and thrust G-Sp2’s tip up from below without warning.

At the same time, Hiba rushed directly in front of Mikoku.

Kazami’s attack hit and the sound of the impact exploded out.

However, it hit Hiba.

“Eh!?”

The sound of everyone else gasping was louder than Kazami’s cry of surprise.

At some point, Noah had appeared behind Kazami with Mikoku in her arms.

“…!”

Kazami turned toward the presence behind her and Noah spoke expressionlessly.

“Please quiet down. Over.”

Hiba flew over their heads after being knocked into the air by G-Sp2.

He normally would have hit the tall ceiling from a blow like that, but the distance and height of his flight were shortened by his tripled body weight.

At this rate, he was going to crash into the third level of the stepped meeting room.

His arms flailed wildly, but there was nothing he could do.

His legs also flailed wildly, but there was still nothing he could do.

Kazami knew what to do at a time like this, so she gave him some advice.

“Hiba! It’s no use!”

“Y-you’re the one that did this to me!! You really are the worst!!”

However, he spotted someone to help him up ahead: Izumo.

Izumo was sitting in the stepped aisle between desks eating a hamburger, so Hiba shouted to him while flailing his limbs.

“I-Izumo-san!”

“Yeah…” Izumo nodded and averted his gaze. “It’s just that you’ve been making a lot of gay jokes lately.”

“Don’t give up like that! Try to have a proper conversation with me!”

Hiba braced for impact.

“Izumo-san! C-catch me! Please catch me! It might mean cracking a few bones, but l-let me plow into you!”

“It might mean cracking a few bones?”

Izumo gave a reluctant nod and went with Hiba’s suggestion.

He pointed at Hiba, held his sides like they were splitting, and spoke to the Kenyan UCAT representative sitting next to him.

“Hey, hey. Did you see that!? That idiot’s flying! Wa ha ha ha ha!”

Hiba crashed into the seat next to Izumo.

The sound of destruction was three times greater than normal.

Izumo spoke to Hiba’s legs and hands which were growing from the remains of the wooden desk and chair.

“Was that good enough? But if you want to ‘crack’ people up with your jokes, you can’t force them.”

Hiba shot to his feet, scattering pieces of the seat, and clenched his fist with blood flowing from his face.

“I-Izumo-san! There are some things you just don’t do!”

“And was this one of them?”

“U-um…”

Hiba hesitated, so Sayama shouted over at him.

“Was it!? Or was it not!? Give us a clear answer!”

Rushed by Sayama, Hiba held his head in his hands.

“I-it was…was not…was…”

He looked up in surprise, turned around, spread his arms, and gave his answer.

“It was not was!”

Noah was standing in front of him and she gave her response to his suggestion.

“Please quiet down. Over.”

“W-wah! Even the enemy’s treating me like this!?”

They all ignored him and Noah placed Mikoku back on the floor.

Mikoku took a breath, fixed her collar, and looked across the group in the room.

“Everyone, I am here to suggest you surrender.”

She expressionlessly looked through the transparent map of Tokyo surrounding her.

She looked at the red ribbons of UCAT and the blue ribbons moving toward them.

“To speed up your decision, I will provide you with some details concerning my weapons.”

Sayama fought the weight as he listened to Mikoku provide her numbers.

These were simply the numbers of her army, but…

“Mechanical dragons: 121 Seraph-type, 406 Cherubim-type, and 640 Galgalim-type. Gods of war: 301 Lords-type, 814 Virtues-type, and 1201 Power-type. Automatons: 98000 Prince-type, 10001 Arc-type, and 189000 Angelus-type. Altogether, it is an army of more than three hundred thousand.”

Those simple numbers moved on the map of Tokyo as the color blue.

As everyone pinned to the desks or floor looked to the map, blue ribbons rose from the ground and began intercepting the red ribbons.

Sayama saw Mikoku instruct Noah to end the extra weight.

“Testament.”

With that word, the weight left them all and they breathed a sigh of relief.

No one around Sayama considered attacking Mikoku.

She must have understood that because Mikoku looked first to him and then the others.

“I have no intention of fighting yet. The Leviathan is always under my control. I can send out it and its troops as easily as you can clench your hand into a fist. Blindly attacking with no preparation will only lead to regret.”

“In other words, it is time for a chat straight out of the long-running TV show ‘Disastrous You’?”

Noah tilted her head, but Mikoku nodded and lowered her gaze a little.

“I doubt it will be a very nice chat.”

Someone chose to question that.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”

It was Ooshiro who had entered the meeting room with #8.

People raised their voices to welcome him.

When he fixed his collar and raised his arms in an entrance pose, everyone smiled and applauded.

“Tch. Why’s he alive?”

“#8-san wasted four hours of her life bringing him back.”

“He bought up three or four of the limited-edition figurine I wanted.”

“I-is it just me or are all of you giving into personal grudges a lot lately!?”

“If you have something to say, get on with it, old man.”

“Very well.” He sat on the steps, pointed at Mikoku, and then pointed at the giant dragon on the map. “How should I put it? You may be able to use the Leviathan, but can you really utilize all of those weapons? It must take a lot to fire even a single cannon. Do you have any proof what you’re saying is-…”

Before he could finish, Mikoku snapped her fingers.

Noah nodded in response.

A moment later, everyone saw a building on the southeast side of the transparent map disappear.

Tokyo Tower had completely vanished.

As soon as the green, transparent tower disappeared, the automaton operating the round table controlling the map spoke quietly.

“The tower within the Leviathan’s concept space has been vaporized.”

“Testament.” Noah nodded. “The Leviathan is linked to me. I exist here as an automaton, but I am aware I am nothing but a weapon for Mikoku-sama. Over.”

“I see.” Sayama nodded and looked to Ooshiro. “Why are you even here, old man? It is your fault Tokyo Tower was destroyed inside the concept space.”

“Eh? I-it’s my fault!?”

“Ha ha ha. Who else could we possibly blame?”

Everyone in the meeting room glared at Ooshiro.

He shrieked, rolled along the floor, collided with the next step up, and rolled back to #8.

“#-#8-kun, are you going to give me the same look all of them do?”

She ignored him entirely, pulled a mop from below her apron, and began cleaning the floor with her back to him.

“#-#8-kun! Won’t you help me after going out of your way to bring me here!?”

“I apologize, but I am incredibly busy with nothing to do and am therefore cleaning.”

“How long will you be cleaning?”

Ooshiro asked while sitting on the floor and #8 answered with her back to him.

“Until the filth is gone.”

“Is that…a metaphor for something?”

“Testament. …Of course not.”

“Which is it!? Which of those answers am I supposed to believe!?”

“Ooshiro-sama.” She continued mopping with her back to him. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

He lay on the floor and pretended to cry, so everyone ignored him. Mikoku glanced over at Ooshiro.

“You are a strange bunch.”

“You’re one to talk!!”

Mikoku flinched back at everyone’s retort, so Noah supported her back and spoke expressionlessly.

“Mikoku-sama, do not let them bother you. What could they possibly be looking at to think we are strange? We are far too low-key for that. Over.”

“R-right. I am living such a low-key life that I had plain soba for lunch.”

“Since you would have been floating in the sky while eating it, that is a most impressive way of being low-key.”

Mikoku cleared her throat after hearing Sayama’s opinion.

She looked over at him and held out a hand to indicate the transparent map.

“Anyway, my army of automatons and gods of war has already been deployed within the concept space. Every last one of them wears pure-white armor. Meanwhile, what kind of fighting force do you have?

Sayama responded.

“You already know, don’t you?” he began. “We have millions upon millions of fighters.”

“Let me be blunt. Are you stupid?”

“Heh heh heh. I can see you are shocked by the overwhelming vagueness of our army.”

Mikoku gave Noah a look of protest, so Noah held out her right hand and bent her fingers twice.

“Based on my predictions, they currently have seventy thousand in all. By nine tomorrow night, they will have two hundred and ten thousand. Over.”

“You need to learn to dream.”

“I have never had a dream. Over.”

“That is unfortunate.” Sayama crossed his arms. “Dreams are wonderful. Shinjou-kun will perform all sorts of acrobatic positions while only putting up a token resistance. Come to think of it, I can do that in reality now.”

“Waaaah!!”

The meeting room’s door burst open and a shouting form rushed in.

“Ah! W-wait! Why are you dragging me out! I have an objection! An objection!! I demand an appeal!!”

The figure was taken back outside.

Sayama glanced over at it.

“Would you look at that. The dream has appeared for real.”

“You need to check yourself into a hospital,” said Mikoku.

She crossed her arms and addressed the comparative numbers of the blue and red ribbons.

“Going by the numbers alone, my force is 1.5 times larger than yours.”

Add in the superior fighting power of the gods of war and mechanical dragons and the Leviathan had an overwhelming advantage. Gathering every god of war and mechanical dragon from every Gear would have trouble reaching even a tenth of the Leviathan’s numbers.

Mikoku must have realized that because she continued.

“Therefore, I suggest you surrender. You can do so simply by doing nothing.”

“Why?”

She answered expressionlessly.

“If you do nothing, you can enjoy Christmas night with your families. You would be happier if you made some nice memories before being erased in the instant of the new world’s creation. And just like me, you will be reborn in the new world in some form. If you do not like the sound of that, then this will be your fate.”

She pointed to the map where UCAT’s red ribbons were being devoured by the blue ones.

They were devoured rapidly and in great numbers.

The erasure of the red left everyone in the room speechless.

Could they stand up to that?

But Sayama was unfazed.

“I see.” He looked Mikoku in the eye. “You certainly are brave to suggest we surrender. A very bold move if you ask me.”

“How is this bold? Are you implying you have some chance of winning?”

“Allow me to ask this: Do you seriously think ''you can defeat me?''”

Everyone gasped and Ooshiro shouted from the floor.

“M-Mikoto-kun! Don’t provoke her! That’s a big no-no!”

“There is nothing to worry about. We are merely chatting. For today, she will suggest we surrender and we will declare war. So let me make one thing very clear: We will stop the creation of the Leviathan’s positive concepts by 10:30 tomorrow night.”

“Can you? Even after seeing the result of the simulation surrounding you?”

The silence from everyone else grew heavier.

The reason for that silence was simple.

All red had vanished from the map of Tokyo in which Sayama stood and it was absolutely filled with blue ribbons instead.

If that simulation was accurate, every last member of UCAT would be devoured by the Leviathan’s army.

And Mikoku stood in the center of that blue battlefield.

“If all you have is pointless bragging, there is nothing left for you.”

But Sayama did not respond.

He said nothing. That was all.

They had already declared war against each other, so Mikoku looked down, closed her eyes, and hung her head.

“So all that remains is the battle. Understood.”

She sighed and raised her head without opening her eyes.

“Let us fight during tomorrow’s holy night. Let us fight with the entire world on the line.”

As soon as she said that, both she and Noah disappeared.

But they had not completely vanished.

“––––?”

They had lost their human forms.

With a sound much like sand, only a pile of something white remained where they had been.

When Kazami saw it, she frowned and spoke from the floor.

“Salt?”

“Yes,” agreed Sayama. “They were likely creating copies of themselves using gravitational control or something else. Such careful preparation and such overacting. I cannot believe they would force salt to cosplay as them. But…”

He moved his legs to enter the transparent map of Tokyo.

He moved below the Leviathan where Mikoku and Noah had been and stepped on the piles of salt.

“Was that supposed to be their declaration of war?”

No one answered him.

They all simply let tension fill their bodies.

So Sayama opened his mouth.

He let his words soak into them and remove their tension.

“That was an amusing little diversion. Now, let us get back on topic. I will give you my idea of how to escape this situation where Tokyo is filled by the blue ribbons.”

Everyone watched as he raised his hand.

In response, a flower bloomed in the blue Tokyo.

A few red forces suddenly welled up there.

There were not that many of them, but they were definitely there.

“I will now show you the battle as I see it. In other words, I will show you a battle of gods, where everyone is the same as me. And, everyone, I have only one thing to say here. There is only one objective to this plan I am calling Operation Leviathan.”

He spoke the words that were essentially a promise to the others.

“We must not allow the Leviathan to reach reality.”

The area around Shinjuku Station was filled with the lights of night.

According to the clock in front of the station, it was 4:22 AM.

There were people there, but not many. Some people in suits were arriving for the first train of the morning and some younger people and women who had spent the night in the area were moving between empty stores to keep out of the cold.

But there were a few people unlike them.

These men all wore work uniforms with matching blue jackets.

Large trucks were pulling up alongside them not just at the center of the taxi-filled roundabout in front of Shinjuku Station, but also in the alleyways by the south, west, and east entrances.

The trucks were loaded with metal pipes and panels.

“Who would have thought we’d be blocking off Shinjuku and building stages on the roads?”

That comment came from Kazami’s mother who stood in a small clearing in front of Nishiguchi Station.

She wore a coat and the man next to her, her husband, passed her a thermos of tea.

“It’s going to be blocked off from nine to midnight tonight. I’m impressed you got permission for this, papa.”

“Well, I’ve been planning this for a long time and I have some connections here since we used the area a lot for a police drama I worked on. You know the one: ‘Detective Fluke: The Activation’ where he always found the criminal on intuition.”

His wife smiled bitterly at that.

“I remember that. Chisato would always watch your shows back then. Like that popular anime.”

“Oh, you mean the sexual harassment food hero ‘Panpanman’? Chisato came up with a lot of the ideas for the pathogen monsters working for Gaikinman, the enemy boss who refused to work in the office. Choleraman and Aidsman were certainly straight to the point.”

“That one got canceled pretty quick, didn’t it?”

A short silence followed his wife’s comment.

Their daughter would normally keep the conversation going with a complaint, but she was not here and the father had to clear his throat.

“Well, ever since then, I’ve wanted to pretend to conquer Tokyo like this.”

“Oh, my. So are you conquering it with music instead of police authority?”

“Ha ha.” He laughed and smiled bitterly at his wife’s words. “I wonder what Chisato would think if she knew her papa was going to be a dictator tonight?”

“She’d probably come to overthrow you and tell you to stop dreaming.”

“Y-you sure are cement-like!!”

“Am I?” she replied.

Suddenly, a large figure approached them.

Kazami’s father stood up when she saw the man wearing a jacket over a white suit.

“Oh, Izumo-san. Why are you here? D-don’t tell me you searched us out with psychic powers!?”

“That’s exactly right! Esper Beam Beeeeeacon!!”

“Old Man Shield!! And Man Beam Birooooon!”

“What!? Shepaaaah!! …Oh, this is a paralyzing beam, okay?’

“Roger that. But… Ha ha ha. That won’t work on me! Meyo meyo meyo meyo meyo!”

The mother removed a shoe and struck the father’s head as he moved his arms in a wavelike motion and made a bizarre sound effect.

“Ow!”

He bent forward and she smiled his way.

“Why are you two posing at each other? I’ll grab your collar and hit you next time?”

“Hmm, are you saying you’re willing to hit just anyone, mama?”

“Anyway, enough of this nonsense only men can understand. Try talking like human beings.”

“Sure, sure, sure.” He straightened up and turned toward Izumo. “What brings you here so early in the morning?”

“I just have business in the area is all. But on the way, I heard something interesting was going on here. I’m really not sure what to say about this.”

Izumo Retsu looked around the nighttime station area and spotted the loaded trucks hidden in the alleyways.

“It looks like you’re up to no good!!”

“Ha ha ha. I see you understand. You sure are young at heart, Izumo-san!”

“I understand all too well. It’s like you’re conquering Tokyo!”

Wondering how he could tell, Kazami’s mother tilted her head and glared at them, but the two men paid her no heed and began discussing the location of the stage and the timing of the lights and sounds.

Suddenly, Izumo’s father crossed his arms and smiled.

“I wish I could have helped out with all this.”

“No, that would feel like we were abusing Chisato’s connections.”

“True enough.”

The two men smiled bitterly.

“So what do you have planned, Kazami-san?”

“Nothing much. Just calling in artists from around the world and having them perform on different stages simultaneously for a ridiculously exciting Christmas. Walking around the streets of Shinjuku will feel like walking all around the world.”

“Will your wife be singing?”

Kazami’s mother gave her husband a quick look, so the man gave a single nod.

“I’m not so sure.”

“Ah, what a shame! I have her LP, you know? The one where she adds that sound effect to the end. ‘I’m. Still. Seventeen. Piyo-piyo’.”

Kazami’s mother shrieked, held her head in her hands, and crouched down.

Seeing the father frantically try to help her, Retsu scratched his head awkwardly.

“You were traumatized by that? My bad. Then what about after you started writing your own songs? Y’know, like ‘No one will even look my way. I’m a sweet pea of a bygone era’?”

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!”

Kazami’s mother shook as violently as someone on the receiving end of an exorcism, but…

“I-Izumo-san, please stop hitting her past with these uppercuts!”

“Sorry about that.”

Retsu gave an honest smile.

“No matter how it might look now, we all had fun at the time, so I don’t see any reason to reject what happened back then.”

“That’s right. That’s right, mama! Did you hear what Izumo-san just said!? ‘No one has had as painful a life as me’ was a really, really good song!”

“Ow, ow, ow, ow! Papa! You wrote that song!!”

The father looked up in surprise.

“That’s right. That’s the musical curse I wrote when I was so mad at my idiot of a boss! I planned to send it to him, but I accidentally put it in your birthday card instead.”

“Yes, and the card saying ‘I want to be with you from morning to night (heart)’ ended up going to your boss. Didn’t he quit almost immediately after that?”

“Ha ha ha! And it was all thanks to you, mama!”

The mother hit his head with the thermos.

The empty thermos made a nice side, but by then, Retsu was already walking toward the station.

“Are you leaving already?”

“Yes.” Retsu waved without turning around. “I’m looking forward to it. We’re having a pretty serious festival too, so I hope we can enjoy the night together.”

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume14 Chapter 18|Chapter 18]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume14 Chapter 20|Chapter 20]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume12 Chapter 19

2026-06-12T02:55:43Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 19: Worn-Out Anticipation==
[[Image:OnC_v12_0539.png|thumb]]
''Do your best

Below the darkening evening sky, two men stood in a rectangular clearing made in a forest.

One was a young man wearing a white coat and holding a white sword.

The other was a boy wearing a black T-shirt and black school uniform pants.

The young man had a cigarette in his mouth and blew out some smoke.

“Hey, Hiba. You sure you don’t want to do any meaningless warming up?”

“Y-yes, Atsuta-san. I’m fine.”

“Is that so?” Atsuta rested the Cowling Sword prototype named Kusanagi on his right shoulder. “Then let’s get to 2nd-Gear’s renegotiation.”

“What are the rules?”

“Do we need any?”

Atsuta sounded like he was spitting out the contents of his heart.

He repeated “c’mon” several times while adjusting Prototype Kusanagi’s position on his shoulder.

A moment later, the air around Hiba suddenly grew clear and a certain phenomenon occurred.

He heard a pulsation.

The earth and the air that made up everything shook a bit around him.

From Hiba’s perspective, a tremor spread from his feet to his knees and shook his entire body.

…''Eh?

As soon as he questioned it, the sensation vanished as if he had only imagined it.

“Wh-what was that strange feeling?”

“Oh, that was a side effect of Prototype Kusanagi’s cutting power.”

Atsuta let a smile show on his face.

“The earth and air are trembling in fear of the blade. …Don’t you get it? This isn’t like your fists there. Being handed something crazy like this is the true pleasure of being a swordfighter. But…”

He erased his smile and held Kusanagi forward in his right hand.

“It’s a prototype and that cuts the fun down some. Listen, kid. I’ll set a rule that’s not really a rule, so I hope you’re thankful.”

“What is that?”

Hiba frowned and Atsuta clicked his tongue toward the sky.

“Y’see, a friend of mine made a prototype Cowling Sword like this once before. It had issues on the durability front, so it broke unexpectedly and got him a wife.”

“I feel like you’re omitting quite a bit there, but I take it a lot happened.”

“I’m not omitting a damn thing! Why can’t you figure it out from what I told you?”

''Why is everyone in UCAT like this?'' wondered Hiba while hiding his misfortune behind a smile.

…''I’m not sure I can put up with how excitable this guy is. He’s a lot like Sayama-san or Izumo-san.

His worry was interrupted by Atsuta’s annoyed voice.

“Three times.”

He held up Prototype Kusanagi.

“After releasing its power three times, this Prototype Kusanagi will break. It’s made that way so it won’t cause any accidents, so…”

He rested the sword back on his right shoulder.

“If I don’t cut you down in the first three attacks, 2nd-Gear loses. But if you can stop me, then it counts as your win. How about that!?”

“My win? But, um…!”

He had thought this was to help him train, but it had suddenly become an issue of life or death.

He gulped, forced strength into his stomach, and opened his tense throat.

“I-if we both fail, it won’t resolve anything!”

“That’s what a fifth-rate failure would say, you idiot!!”

That shout of anger seemed to stab through Hiba as he made excuses.

“In a fight, killing your opponent or stopping them are the only options, little monkey! The only people who start talking about failing are the lukewarm one’s who don’t want to do either. Lukewarm’s only any good when you want to soak some squid for drying!!”

Atsuta used his left hand to press a finger against his own head and moved it in a circle.

“Listen, idiot! Is there anything at all in your head!? Any brains!? Then is there anything in your stomach!? If you don’t have any guts in there, you won’t even make third-rate! And if you can do that, you should at least be able to be cut down by me and lose!”

“Third-rate? Fifth-rate?”

Hiba searched his memories.

He remembered being unable to protect Mikage the night before and he remembered Tatsumi’s laugh.

…''She called me weak.

“Then are you first-rate!?” he asked.

“I’m a sword god, stupid. Why are you trying to measure me by human standards?”

Atsuta’s voice gave Hiba a chill even in the wintery air.

And it came from behind him.

“…!?”

…''The Art of Walking!?

The man had vanished in front of him and the voice had come from behind him. That meant he had used more than just the Art of Walking.

…''He moved really fast.

“C’mon now. Don’t misjudge me, little monkey.”

The shadow on the ground had Kusanagi raised to the upper right.

“Recite a poem, kid. A death poem. I’m always singing, right? Make it something like that.”

“But I can’t do something that, um, tricky on such short notice…”

“Don’t bother praising me, idiot. You don’t have to give it much thought. Just say whatever’s on your mind.”

Hiba thought and spoke the first thing that came to mind.

“Heh heh heh. C’mon, stop. It’s not like I’m a young girl of fifteen.”

Immediately afterwards, a great roar ran through the sky.

The deep sound traveled through the sky.

It reached some newly prepared land one level lower than the source of the sound.

The prepared land was raised slightly above the surrounding forest, a blue tent was set up there, and two men sat on a mat laid out in front of the tent.

One was an elderly man in a navy blue Japanese outfit and the other was a young man in a lab coat.

The young man looked through his glasses to view the source of the sound through the mountain forest.

“Oh, sounds like it’s begun. I asked you for help setting this up, so what do you think of the fight, Hiba-sensei?”

“How does it look to you as a military god, son of Kashima?”

“Well…” Kashima smiled bitterly and realized what Ryuutetsu had said. “Son of Kashima? Do you know my father?”

“We’re field buddies. Especially since last month when our idiots went at it with Chao’s idiots.”

He looked to the tent behind him and the recently leveled earth there.

“My house was blown away pretty spectacularly. I came back from the field and found it gone. Toshi was so confused she tried to hit me with a hoe. …After that, your parents and the others around there shared a lot of food with us. Those squashes were really good when cooked.”

“Th-those were grown by my wife. I imagine they were quite good.”

“Yeah, they had a really nice flavor.”

“Yes, they would have. I remember Natsu-san saying she had given my portion to someone in need. …So it was you that stole a portion of my happy family life! Give back those squashes! Please give them back!”

“Why did you even come over here?”

Kashima hung his head, sighed, and opened the laptop sitting next to him.

“Ahh, ahh. I hope your grandson will be okay.”

“Don’t make that sound so forced. And are you sure that first attack didn’t already kill him?”

“I don’t know. Whatever the case, I hope he can get out of this with no regrets.”

“Fat chance of that. …Ryuuji’s too soft.”

Ryuutetsu lay on his side and Kashima asked him a question.

“That would be a problem for both of us. But are you serious about that?”

Kashima showed the old man his laptop monitor.

The window only showed a gentle pulsation on a horizontal line graph.

“That sound wasn’t from the Prototype Kusanagi.”

He remained expressionless but turned toward the mountain forest.

“Well, I’ll be hoping he puts all of his effort into this.”

Hiba swung his body back and to the right as if twisting it and then stopped moving.

He had made a backwards jab with his right elbow.

He aimed directly below where he had heard the voice. He lowered his hips and twisted his feet to send the strike directly into Atsuta’s solar plexus.

The roar of the attack was the combination of his foot stomping on the ground and his elbow striking.

He had chosen his elbow for attack.

A surface attack would not penetrate the anti-shock ability of Atsuta’s combat coat. The wider the surface, the more the impact would disperse and grow dull.

The end of an elbow was sharper and thus more powerful than the surface of a fist.

…''And I won’t turn around, so it can catch Atsuta-san off guard.

It was the very first attack, the enemy was behind him, and he was being treated like a weakling.

All of that increased the odds of success for a rear attack.

And the attack had indeed succeeded.

Hiba felt the blow land perfectly.

However, he heard a voice from above and behind his head.

“The hell was that?”

It was Atsuta’s voice.

The vibration of the voice passed through Atsuta’s stomach and Hiba’s elbow.

Hiba felt that vibration coming from his elbow.

…''It isn’t…stopping?

“Are you even listening?”

Even after the question ended, the vibration coming from Atsuta did not stop. In fact, it grew stronger.

Hiba realized this was not the vibration of a voice or of pain.

…''This is anger.

“Did you really think that puny elbow would work on me?”

Hiba’s elbow felt something other than the vibration. It was a compact sensation much like a weight or pressure.

Atsuta was disappointed in the attack, his body trembled in anger, and he built up pressure in his body.

Hiba reflexively turned around and took a step back to check on the man.

Atsuta’s eyebrows were raised, he was looking straight forward, and he had a smile on his lips.

No, it was not a smile at all. His face twisted as he gathered strength and it simply resembled a smile.

“Just so you know, if that was your full strength, then none of your attacks will work on me.”

So…

“Just let me cut you three times and then scatter in the wind!!”

This time, a true roar shook the air.

The Prototype Kusanagi produced silence.

After swinging the sword, Atsuta initially felt something fire from the blade.

…''The hell was that?

Normally, a Cowling Sword cut using the power of the concept contained within. When swung, it would either emit the power from the blade or have it reside in the blade.

But the Prototype Kusanagi was different.

As a sword god, Atsuta could become one with a sword when he swung it, so he understood.

As the strike descended, it created more than mere concept power.

…''Energy.

But this energy did not surround him like an aura.

Like murderous intent or one’s gaze, it continued on and on into the distance.

…''Shit.

''This thing’s dangerous,'' he realized.

He came to an instinctual understanding of how Kusanagi worked.

It was unlike a normal Cowling Sword.

The difference came in the instant after swinging it.

…''Kashima!! What was that son of a bitch thinking!?

''Not even he could use this Cowling Sword,'' he thought.

…''This Cowling Sword isn’t a sword at all. This Prototype Kusanagi isn’t a sword at all!

It did not produce power from its blade.

…''Swinging it intimidates the surrounding space itself into becoming a sword!!

The ruler’s sword filled the world with fear and then cut through it.

A moment later, Kusanagi activated.

Instead of sending a cutting power along the path of its gaze, it brought its own presence there.

It did not matter what stood in its way, whether it was the air, the earth, or anything else. Not even sound, light, or empty space was an exception.

Kusanagi’s might shot through the area that was filled with its energy.

“————!!”

Atsuta’s arm trembled.

The hand on the hilt shook, his muscles distorted, and his flesh leaped like splashing water.

…''Whoa!

He could become one with a sword, but Kusanagi was too powerful a blade even for him.

The hilt and blade before his eyes was only Kusanagi’s temporary form. The gaze it sent out was where the true Kusanagi would appear.

His right hand trembled violently. It was almost jumping around or undulating.

The idea was simple. Kusanagi’s presence was so great that it was sending recoil back into his arm.

This sword was too great for even a sword god to hold it one-handed.

…''I see.

Atsuta realized why Kashima had given him this sword.

As a military god, he had created a sword that only Atsuta, a sword god, could use properly.

…''Are you trying to turn me into your sword!?

“If that’s how it is…!”

Atsuta placed his left hand on Kusanagi as it raged at the bottom of its swing.

He pressed in from the left to suppress his shaking right hand and a powerful smile reached his lips.

“Then I’ve gotta use this thing right!!”

With that yell, he squeezed Kusanagi in his grip.

“Ahh!”

With a shout of focus, he lowered his hips a little, and worked to restrain the struggling blade. As a sword god, he instantly grabbed the hilt like a man is meant to wield a sword.

“————!”

As soon as Kusanagi stopped trembling, a cutting blast covered an area of several hundred meters ahead of him.

It looked like it was suddenly placed inside the scenery, but the earth was instantly torn up, the air was split apart, and explosions filled it all.

The forest and slope were swept aside and felled with a sound resembling surging waves more than a roar.

It all happened in an instant and Atsuta let out a breath once it was over.

“Now this is interesting!!”

A figure adjusted his two-handed grip on Kusanagi.

He relaxed his entire body, raised Kusanagi without any excess movement, and stepped forward.

He moved toward a boy lying on the ground.

It was Hiba.

The previous attack had been aimed at the boy, but he had only been blown away by the after effects since Atsuta had not known how Kusanagi activated.

He had missed.

A normal Cowling Sword emitted concept power or cut with its blade.

But Kusanagi required a proper intent to cut on the wielder’s part.

Atsuta realized that Kusanagi was not a sword that obeyed a sword god. It was a sword on the same level as a sword god.

So if that sword god wielded it halfheartedly, it would only manifest itself halfheartedly.

That was what had happened just now.

If Kusanagi had truly activated…

…''Everything along the line of its gaze would have transformed into cutting power as I swung Kusanagi.

This Cowling Sword could only be wielded by a sword god and it manifested itself in accordance with that sword god’s will.

…''This isn’t cutting with the power of a concept. It’s more like cutting with your own gaze.

He was now directly connected with a blade that could cut through even a dragon.

Atsuta expressed that feeling as follows:

“This is what I call interesting.”

He sensed movement seven meters ahead.

In the shower of scattering fragments of crust, a boy slowly stood up.

He was gasping for breath, covered in sweat, and trembling.

But Atsuta’s thoughts made a 180 when he saw Hiba.

…''How boring.

His interest was in Kusanagi, not in Hiba.

The best part about this prototype Cowling Sword was its power and the fun of using something so hard to control, but…

…''It does have a weakness, too.

He had to check on that.

However, he still had this match to take care of, so…

“Hey, little monkey.”

He addressed Hiba who somehow managed to get to his feet.

“…”

He was too out of breath to reply, so Atsuta began to move.

He used the Art of Walking to vanish from Hiba’s eyes.

“Hey.”

The very next moment, Atsuta had moved up to Hiba and lifted the boy up by the collar of his T-shirt.

“————!?”

Atsuta saw him shrink back in surprise as he dangled down.

Whether from the previous impact or from fear, there were tears in the corners of the boy’s eyes. They filled Atsuta’s heart with disgust.

…''Pathetic.

“Listen up, you. …Just lose this thing already.”

Hiba’s eyes opened wide and Atsuta wondered what there was to be so surprised about.

“I had decided to take you on, but Kusanagi here’s way more interesting than you. So lose this thing already. I’ll let you off if you bow down to me. …It’s better than dying, isn’t it?”

“I…I can’t do that,” quietly said the boy.

It sounded like an excuse and Atsuta felt his heart cool.

''This ain’t good,'' he thought of himself. ''It’s fine when I’m excited. I try to enjoy things with my opponent then.

…''But…

Things changed when he got oddly calm like this.

Even as he wished he could regain his excitement, he could tell his eyes were narrowing.

…''This is hopeless.

The boy dangling before his eyes was trembling in fear of what he might do.

…''This guy’s hopeless.

“Know your place.”

''Oh, I’m pretty cool when I’m criticizing people. But this still ain’t good. This is where I’m supposed to lecture him. I’m supposed to yell at him, hit him, and give a good punch.

''This really ain’t good. Don’t think like that. It won’t lead anywhere good. It isn’t like the Great Atsuta at all.

''This guy’s nothing. He stood up to me, thinking he’s some kind of big-shot, but one attack later and he’s flinching back. He’s this close to me, but he isn’t doing anything other than watching to see what I’m gonna do. He’s that pathetic.

''Don’t tell yourself you don’t want to fight him. You know that won’t end well.

…''But I don’t want to fight him anymore.

''Didn’t I just say not to tell yourself that?

''Yeah, that’s right.

''Sigh, tilt your head, and look down on him. This is when Ryouko would’ve stopped you in the past.

“Apologize.”

He opened his mouth.

“If you won’t apologize for yourself, I’ll give up on you as the most pathetic of the pathetic who can’t apologize for being weak or even really reach the level of being ‘weak’ in the first place. How about it?”

He paused.

“I’ll give you five seconds. Five.”

Once he said that, something appeared before his eyes.

Realizing it was a fist, he caught it.

He used his forehead to stop the fist Hiba swung at him.

The blow landed, producing a nice reverberating sound, but Atsuta was a sword god at the moment and that alone nullified any human attack. This attack was no different from the elbow from earlier. Plus, an attack thrown while dangling in midair was not going to be very effective.

“Four.”

A leg arrived and that movement seemed to signal the beginning.

“…!”

A fist arrived, then a chop, an elbow, and a knee.

The attacks hit his head, his neck, his shoulder, his side, his gut, his crotch, and his vitals.

But none of it did anything.

“Three.”

As Atsuta counted down, Hiba continued his meaningless attacks like a child.

''That idiot,'' thought Atsuta as a chill filled his mind. ''He’s crying.

…''He really is stupid.

This was no time for sympathy and Atsuta had no intention of showing any. This boy had agreed to fight a sword god.

Despite the difference in strength between a god and a man, he had set foot into this arena where he could easily die.

The boy had misjudged what that meant.

He had completely failed to realize he would be blown away by the very first attack or just how much damage it would do.

Most likely, his body was recalling another incident.

…''His defeat from last night.

He had been knocked away by a god of war and slammed to the ground.

That was much like being hit by a car and his body remembered that damage in the form of fear.

“Two.”

Atsuta could feel the boy trembling, but it was not caused by his present fear. It came from the fear of the damage he had received the night before and from the realization that the one he cared for had been injured.

With his wounds healed, he must have assumed he had forgotten that fear.

…''But his body remembers when he received similar damage.

“Ah!”

Hiba’s strikes and kicks no longer had any proper form.

Tears flowed down his face and his mouth opened as he sobbed.

His movements were nothing more than protests at the fact that his strength was hopelessly insufficient.

''Does it seem unfair?'' wondered Atsuta. ''But you’re the one at fault here.

After all, he had lost the night before and had yet to shake off that fear.

“One.”

Atsuta sank down so he could toss Hiba into the air and immediately swing Kusanagi down at him.

But he still spoke to this pathetic enemy.

“If you’re gonna hate anyone for this, hate yourself. This was your fault for not realizing how weak you are.”

And…

“Zero.”

Just before the final number was given, Hiba stopped moving.

…''Weak…

Tatsumi had called him that the night before and this opponent had done so again.

''Yes,'' he agreed while relaxing his arms and legs.

…''I really am weak.

He also relaxed his clenched jaw and felt tears spill down his cheeks.

What was this? Whatever the result, there was nothing he could do.

…''But I still don’t like it.

He did not like it, but he had to accept it. He had no way of changing it, so that was his only option.

…''But if I had more strength, it wouldn’t have turned out like that!

The words “what if” entered his mind.

But there were no “what ifs” when it came to the past.

He knew that. He knew it, but he still did not like it. And that regret definitely did exist in his heart.

So he thought about what to do to keep himself from feeling that regret again.

…''What if I could get stronger?

Instead of thinking about the past, he turned his “what if” toward the future.

What if? What if he could rid himself of his weakness?

…''No.

His attacks were of no use against the sword god before his eyes. No matter how strong he grew, there were some things he could never overcome.

''I am weak,'' he told himself. ''Even if I grow stronger, I’ll still be weak.

Even with the help of Susamikado and Mikage, he was only borrowing their strength and he had no more strength than any other human living in the real world.

''That’s right,'' he realized. ''Then no matter how hard I work, I’ll still be weak.

But in that case…

…''Isn’t that perfectly normal? Then why?

Why?

…''Why is everyone acting like I’m not allowed to try and fight when I’m still weak!?

If he could be strong when wielding a great power or weapon, wasn’t that enough?

“————”

He did not even hear Atsuta speak the final number.

But he did hear the word in his heart.

…''That isn’t right!

He did not know what was not right or how it was not right, but he knew that it was not.

Once, a white god of war had made a pursuit and fought despite being outmatched.

An American UCAT mechanical dragon unit had fought a large black mechanical dragon. Hiba’s own upperclassman and a girl younger than he was had even fought the dragon.

And another of his upperclassmen would face enemies of any number or any size with nothing but a pair of wings and a spear. Yet another upperclassman would confront his enemies while declaring his righteousness and without carrying a single weapon.

That was why it was not right.

It was not right to remove him from the battle just because he was weak.

One could be removed from the battlefield when…

…''When they let out a scream and run away.

The others did not do that.

And the night before, he had held the person who mattered most in his arms to the very end.

He was afraid. His entire body was still experiencing a refrain of the impact and noises of Typhon’s strike.

…''But I didn’t do that! I didn’t let out a scream!!

That transformed into another sentence inside him.

He fought ''because'' he was weak. And he announced what that meant in his heart.

…''That’s what you call struggling!!

Atsuta finished his countdown and prepared to throw Hiba into the air.

But…

“!?”

Before he could instruct his hand to move, his fingers reflexively let go of the boy’s collar.

…''What?

He felt pain. A stabbing pain filled his left thumb.

He looked down and saw a chunk of flesh bitten out of the thumb’s base.

“Oh!” he said in surprise before realizing what had happened.

Hiba had kicked off his arm and, when he landed in a crouch, he spat something to the side.

…''C’mon, really?

''That’s a part of my body.

''Don’t be tearing that off and throwing it away. Aren’t you going to at least give it back?

But at the same time, Atsuta felt a slight strength pulling up on the corners of his mouth.

…''C’mon, really?

''What do you think you’re doing, me?

“Hey!!”

He held Kusanagi tightly in both hands and raised it overhead.

And he literally jumped toward his prey.

…''Now this is getting interesting!!

Hiba could tell he was trembling.

…''I’m afraid.

He had acted on a sudden impulse much like anger, but fear had taken ahold of his body.

Just a slight graze from that sword’s attack had pummeled his entire body, so a direct hit would end this immediately.

It had been the same the night before. He had only survived because Tatsumi had not really seen him as her opponent. She must have only been after 3rd-Gear’s Concept Core.

He felt she had implied he was not even worth killing.

…''But I need to stop her.

Tatsumi was his Top-Gear counterpart and she claimed to have killed his father.

That made it his duty to stop her and those working with her.

He had to stop her no matter what.

It did not matter if he was afraid, if he was pathetic, if he was tossed through the air, or if he could not move.

He had to stop her regardless.

This was the same. The attack was preparing to drop down before him.

…''What should I do?

He had no power and his attacks could not reach his opponent, but that did not necessarily mean he could not stop the man.

…''So I can’t give up here!

He always had the strength known as Mikage by his side. That gave him access to striking power, piercing power, weight, speed, defense, flight, size, beauty, and coolness.

He did not have any of that now. All he had was…

…''My own way of fighting!

He had been taught not to rely on the god of war as he fought and he had been taught to assume the battle never came to an end.

The sun king and moon princess had taught him to fight to his very limits and the youngest of the four dragon brothers had taught him strength was independent of size.

He refused to believe he had not gained anything from those battles.

He lifted his trembling body, starting from the back, and leaned forward.

He almost toppled forward, but he could form a running stance by moving his knees forward.

“Oh…”

He kicked off the ground behind him.

“Ohhh!!”

He charged toward Atsuta with enough force to leave behind his shaking.

He did have some things: speed, his short frame, and the combat techniques passed down by the Hiba family.

Altogether, those gave him overwhelming mobility.

His low weight and height did not put much force behind his attacks, but he was second to none in speed and quick turns.

His opponent was a sword god. A military god might have been able to keep up with him, but…

“———!”

As he ran, he tilted to the right and jumped.

He shot past Atsuta to the right.

The man had yet to swing Kusanagi.

As Atsuta started to turn around, Hiba twisted his body.

To throw a reverse roundhouse kick, he turned his body by one hundred eighty degrees as he ran.

Kusanagi caused the earth to pulsate below his feet.

The sword’s tremor filled the wind.

A tremor of fear remained in his body. If he let down his guard for even a moment, he would be assaulted by the phantom sound and pain of the blow he had taken the previous night.

He just barely made it. He felt like he was running on the edge between himself and the world.

As soon as he spun around, he leaped right, which was to Atsuta’s left as he turned around.

Atsuta was right-handed, so the raised sword was tilted to the right.

By jumping to his left, Kusanagi’s strike would reach Hiba slightly later.

“————!!”

Hiba lowered down and poured all of his strength into his body. And he used it all to turn around.

But the sword god made his move.

Atsuta used a simple method of swinging Kusanagi more quickly.

While facing straight toward Hiba, he got down on his left knee.

By lowering his body, he sped up Kusanagi’s fall by that much more.

“!?”

Atsuta’s decision surprised Hiba, but it did not matter.

Hiba bent back and to the right before jumping into the air. He swung his arm and leaped as if trying to lean back and pass through the pulsation shaking the air.

Immediately afterwards, Kusanagi’s strike arrived.

Atsuta watched Hiba.

…''He’s a fast one!

Not even a low level military god could move that fast.

Not even a mid level sword god would have been able to keep track of his movements.

But Atsuta worked alongside a top level military god and was a similar level of sword god himself.

He could follow Hiba’s movements and he could predict what the boy was trying to do.

So he went down on one knee and swung his sword while planted solidly on the ground.

Kusanagi’s energy shot out much like a gaze.

It was filled with intent to kill.

Atsuta twisted his arms and fired Kusanagi while feeling the delicious sensation in his entire body.

However…

“!?”

Something unexpected happened.

Kusanagi’s intent to kill was deflected as he swung it down.

“What!?”

The feel of the sword told him Kusanagi’s killer intent had gotten jammed in something that could stop a gaze.

That something was a fist-sized stone.

It had come from Hiba’s hand.

Hiba had run and leaped while turning toward Atsuta, but he had also thrown a stone that had been exposed when Kusanagi tore into the ground earlier.

Hiba’s speed and Atsuta’s focus on Hiba himself had prevented Atsuta from noticing the stone.

Kusanagi’s blade struck the stone.

…''Dammit!! I’m still not used to using this thing!

He lost control and Kusanagi activated early. Its power sliced through the sky.

“———!!”

The scarlet sky was split for several hundred meters into the heavens.

The air rumbled and wind blew in.

Hiba ran through the descending scarlet wind as he circled toward Atsuta’s kneeling back.

Atsuta stood up and took a quick step forward to move away from Hiba.

The movement of the wind told him what Hiba was doing.

…''This is getting interesting.

He heard something a lot like a sharp blade, but it was Hiba picking up another stone.

He could tell Hiba was trying to win by having him activate Kusanagi a third time.

The boy was trying to stop Atsuta by doing that.

“This really is getting interesting!”

Atsuta turned forcefully around to face Hiba.

“If you can stop this blade, I’d like to see it!!”

Hiba spun around and charged in while Atsuta swung Kusanagi down toward him.

The boy was five meters away.

And that distance shrank as Hiba approached.

In an amount of time one could call an instant or a moment, Atsuta saw something.

Hiba had thrown a stone toward Kusanagi’s raised blade.

It was a snap throw from the left hand rotated behind his back.

The throw took a parabolic arc from behind him and over his head.

If Atsuta had only been watching Hiba, he would not have noticed it.

But Atsuta saw it.

And so he switched his stance. He placed his left palm on the bottom of Kusanagi’s hilt and pried the blade into a low position.

He also shifted his body to the left so Hiba would pass by to his right.

When Hiba did so, Atsuta would cut through him from below.

With Hiba’s speed and Kusanagi’s activation, Hiba’s torso would be cleanly sliced in two.

Even if Hiba tried to attack, none of his blows would affect Atsuta.

Dodging was the boy’s only option and the best he could do was take a wide circle around the man.

“This is over!”

Atsuta held Kusanagi like a bat and began to tilt the tip behind him.

At the same time, Hiba made his move.

He neither dodged nor made a meaningless attack.

“———!?”

Atsuta was briefly unable to react to Hiba’s action.

However, his reflexes as a sword god chose the most effective attack.

“Ohhh!”

A moment later, their clash came to an end.

In the forest below, Kashima looked up from in front of the tent set up on a raised area of land.

He was frowning a little.

“Is it…over?”

Next to him, Ryuutetsu stared up into the scarlet sky while still lying on the mat.

“It must be,” said the old man. “I don’t hear anything anymore.”

He sat up and rotated his shoulders to loosen them.

“How about we go check on them? They’ll get cold if we leave them there.”

Atsuta saw Hiba’s face so close that their foreheads were about to hit.

Hiba was smiling a little, his forehead was drenched with sweat, and he was not moving.

“Is he unconscious?” asked Atsuta.

He shook his head, clicked his tongue, and checked on their situation.

They were facing each other.

Atsuta held Kusanagi near his right shoulder with the blade thrust forward.

And Kusanagi had stabbed into its target.

That was Hiba.

Kusanagi’s blade had pierced the left side of the unconscious boy’s chest up to the hilt.

Atsuta had not done that.

“Did he run in and stab it into himself!?”

Atsuta realized what Hiba had done.

…''You idiot.

Before the third attack, Hiba had not dodged or attacked meaninglessly.

He had chosen to accelerate.

He had moved almost too quickly for Atsuta to follow and ran right up to the man.

In that instant, Atsuta’s training, characteristics as a sword god, and emotions had produced a single reaction.

He had counterattacked.

When holding Kusanagi like a bat, what was the quickest way to counterattack?

A thrust.

By dropping Kusanagi’s tip forward, he had been able to attack the boy as he charged in at him.

He had acted on reflex and used the sword like a normal Cowling Sword.

By the time he had realized his mistake, it had been too late.

He had already realized what Kusanagi’s biggest flaw was. He was not used to using it, so he had yet to fully grasp how to release its energy when it began to activate.

He knew how to release the energy for a slash. He had done that twice already.

But what about for a thrust?

…''Dammit.

He had acted without thinking. As a sword god and expert swordsman, he had attacked almost subconsciously, so he had not focused and released the killer intent.

And thus, Kusanagi had not activated.

He had simply stabbed the blade forward like any other Cowling Sword.

Hiba had not hesitated as he charged in.

He had grabbed Kusanagi’s blade with both hands and directed it toward the left side of his chest.

“He stabbed himself.”

…''Is he stupid?

Hiba’s hands were now holding Atsuta’s hands on the hilt.

And Kusanagi’s entire blade had pierced through his body.

“———”

If Atsuta released Kusanagi’s energy to slice through the boy’s left shoulder, he could only cut either upwards or downwards.

That would not be enough to kill Hiba.

“You idiot.”

Atsuta clicked his tongue again and took a step back.

He let go of Kusanagi. It now simply looked like Hiba had grabbed Kusanagi and stabbed himself in the chest.

He had lost consciousness, but he remained standing and the area below his chest was wet.

Seeing that, Atsuta pulled some gum from his pocket.

It was a high-class nicotine gum advertised as “monkfish liver flavor”.

He heard footsteps from the forest behind him and put the gum in his mouth without turning around.

He reached for Kusanagi and grabbed it.

“Make sure to record this.”

He spoke to the person behind him and swung Kusanagi downwards.

It cut through Hiba’s left side and a red spray filled the air.

“———!!”

Lastly, the cut shot several hundred meters behind Hiba.

The attack roared and Hiba’s unconscious form was knocked through the air.

“Atsuta!”

Kashima’s voice reached him from behind, but Atsuta did not care.

He looked down to find Kusanagi broken in his hands.

“Looks like it broke right on schedule.”

“Atsuta! The battle was already over! Why did you have to attack again!?”

Atsuta sat down without bothering to turn around.

He looked to where Hiba lay collapsed on the ground and held up the broken Kusanagi.

“I said I lose if I didn’t kill him after three attacks, remember?”

Atsuta stood back up and tossed the remains of Kusanagi.

He heard them hit Hiba and roll away.

“You stopped Kusanagi, so you win. And I didn’t kill you after three attacks, so I lose. …That clearly settles the wins and losses on both sides.”

He laughed quietly and yelled into the scarlet sky.

“Why is this world so damn boring!?”

The colors of evening filled a city.

The city had a port and an inland sea to the west. This was the city of Sakai which contained the ports of Sakai and Osaka.

The city contained a slope with a residential area at the top.

Two people stood at the bottom of the residential area as the setting sun shined on it.

They were Sayama and Shinjou.

They both held documents or letters and they looked at the houses on the slope.

Shinjou pointed behind the row of houses toward the top of the slope.

“Um? If we follow this road, turn right, take that walking path, turn left, come out on top of the hill, and then take that road a while, we’ll be at our destination.”

“Heh heh heh. Shinjou-kun. thank you for those directions that were even more indirect than I ever imagined. …You are so cute.”

“What you’re saying is too indirect and disconnected to have any idea what you mean!!”

Shinjou sighed and looked back up at Sayama with a look that seemed to say “anyway”.

“Can we get going, Sayama-kun?”

“Yes, we can, Shinjou-kun. …Let us continue to where you discovered your past.”

She gave a small smile and nodded, but quickly hid her smile behind her documents.

“I’ll have to show you everything I found here back when I came before you.”

“Of course. And when you say that, it sounds really dirty.”

“What is wrong with your ears?”

She sighed again and lowered her shoulders next to Sayama who was holding a handheld recorder.

“Honestly, if you like things like that, why not go somewhere that will do it for you?”

He nodded and looked her way.

“Are you sure you want me doing that?”

Shinjou groaned and stopped moving, but she finally answered.

“On second thought, no.”

“I would not want to either. Not if it was anyone other than you. And…”

He pulled on her hand and began walking up the sloped sidewalk.

“Ah.”

She was surprised by the tug on her hand and he turned back toward her.

“Now, it is time we got going. We can continue reading these documents on our way to our destination…on our way to where your mother was.”

“R-right.”

She hesitated but gave a definite nod. As if to say this would be okay, he gave her a refreshing smile and spoke.

“But I am a lucky man. Once we reach our destination, I get to see exactly where it was you ‘came before me’! Make sure to spread your legs!”

With a wordless smile, Shinjou took a running start and kicked the rear of the suit pants in front of her.

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume12 Chapter 18|Chapter 18]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume12 Afterword|Afterword]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume12 Chapter 4

2026-06-11T02:40:16Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 4: Persuasion Through Attack==
[[Image:OnC_v12_0103.png|thumb]]
''Your speed brings the flight meter to its limit

''Your bullets are unpolished but powerful

''Gallant girl, please show up right away

A wide area was filled with voices.

It was a circular underground room with no windows. American UCAT’s flag hung from the high cement ceiling and several rows of chairs filled the space below.

This was an underground meeting room.

A white man in a lab coat sat on the east side of the central round table and voices reached him from all the other seats.

Some were protests, some were questions, and some were soothing words meant to persuade him.

The flood of words reverberated through the room, but the old man said nothing. He seemed to think silence was the way to gain the upper hand here.

But the chain-reaction of countless emotions would not stop.

If someone took a break, someone else would accelerate. If someone suggested bringing it to an end, someone else would begin anew.

They were all speaking about what Hajji had said during the Army’s attack three weeks before.

Top-Gear had existed.

It had been destroyed.

That had been covered up.

How would he take responsibility for the reactions that were sure to come from the other Gears?

It was nothing but criticism and it showed no sign of slowing.

A small voice joined the sea of voices.

It belonged to the red-haired maid standing next to the old man.

Instead of looking at him, she continued facing forward and did not move her lips.

“Ooshiro-sama, I believe it is about time for dinner. …Can you answer me?”

After a pause, Ooshiro replied without moving his lips either.

“You can speak, #8-kun?”

“Testament. Is that ventriloquism, Ooshiro-sama? I have determined that is indeed better than blatantly speaking with me and looking like you are ignoring them. …Even if this is a bit disturbing.”

“If only I could use your shared memory. This would be so much easier.”

She tested the idea with the others and the answer came back in a matter of nanoseconds.

“Ooshiro-sama, fifty-two of us said ‘no’.”

“Oh? Then the other seventy-odd ones said ‘OK’? Is my popularity soaring?”

“Testament. Thirty-one said ‘that sounds disgusting’, twenty said ‘I would rather die’, twelve said ‘I don’t want to think about it’, seven said ‘tell him it’s fine even though we don’t mean it’, and a few said ‘no decision is necessary’ and ‘Ha ha ha. Quit joking and go die’. I have determined your popularity is indeed higher than before.”

“How!? How is that any higher!?”

“Well, probably in the…um…way they expressed it.”

“You shouldn’t have to think that hard to answer it!!”

She obeyed his instructions by no longer thinking about it.

She looked around but was more interested in the sounds than the sights.

She heard angry shouts and voices of protest.

The collection of sound shook the air.

The pressure of the voices gave them no chance to respond.

She saw Diana and Roger silently sitting in the neighboring seats and facing the surrounding people.

Thanks to Siegfried, German UCAT had been close to Japanese UCAT ever since the National Defense Department days.

That was why Diana had been sent as the German UCAT inspector for the Leviathan Road, but the other European powers had been unable to send their own inspectors to hold her in check.

Similarly, the postwar relationship between the United States and Japan had placed American UCAT close to Japanese UCAT. And ever since the battle with 5th-Gear, they had an American UCAT inspector through Heo.

The other powerful nations feared the United States would take control of the Leviathan Road.

But even if they had sent inspectors, Germany and the States had overlooked the past hidden beyond the Leviathan Road.

Diana and Roger had both been involved in the destruction of Top-Gear.

That made this the other countries’ chance to attack. They could remove the German and American UCATs from the negotiating table and seal Japanese UCAT’s power while forcing responsibility onto them.

…''They also intend to intervene with the Gear reservations and make the Leviathan Road their own.

<nowiki>#8</nowiki> thought to herself while having her auditory devices shut out the jeers.

…''They only see the Leviathan Road and what we were doing as something to increase their own power.

The power of concepts could easily change the world.

That was why the Gears had fought.

If the Leviathan Road would release all of those concepts, they likely intended to end the Leviathan Road and “manage” the concepts themselves.

If they became that manager, even a small country could possibly gain the same influence as a powerful country.

So…

“Do they think the best option is to speak out now so they can become that manager?”

“This is a troublesome thing, isn’t it?” commented Ooshiro.

She nodded and said more.

“Is the world simply full of rioters if it isn’t united?”

“Perhaps.”

Ooshiro spun his mechanical pencil with his thumb and #8 turned to the side.

She saw Diana and Roger there, but…

“?”

Despite Diana’s calm look, she was folding paper below the desk. Roger was nodding at what the crowd said, but he had made earplugs out of sand.

Seeing them gave #8 a certain thought.

…''Or is all this the direct result of their lack of unity?

She turned back to Ooshiro.

“Ooshiro-sama, please stop drawing manga while pretending to be taking notes on what they say. Besides, is that really the proper way to use screentone? I have determined you should place it all the way to the edge.”

“Calm down,” he said. “Everyone is being so loud. Why do you think that is?”

“Because of this meeting. Attempting to show we are being fair is fine and all, but this has revealed a weakness in the meeting system. However, having individual meetings with each country would take too much time and any closed-room discussions would result in complaints of unfairness from the other countries.”

“I see,” said Ooshiro. “Then who is the main player out of those who called for this meeting?”

“Well…”

<nowiki>#8</nowiki> thought for a moment.

“I have determined it is Chinese UCAT.”

She looked to a single point in the shouting group.

No one sat in the seat for Chinese UCAT’s representative, but…

“I have determined the only nations large enough to have called for this meeting are China, Russia, and France. But Russia and France unfortunately have no corresponding Gear according to the Divine States-World Interaction Theory. Both 1st and 10th are more closely related to Germany, so Russia would not have much influence.”

And…

“With Chao-sama’s death, China became a normal country with no inspector here. In fact, they can even claim to be a victim for losing their inspector during the Leviathan Road. Thus, China has the chance to take the lead here.”

“Then,” began Ooshiro. “We’re in trouble.”

“So it seems,” agreed #8. “But that is your job. And this is also an opportunity for us.”

“An opportunity?”

“Testament.”

She saw Ooshiro give his manga the title “Short-Tempered Iron Woman #8-kun”, so she took the Kent paper and began tearing it to pieces.

“I have determined this is an opportunity. We can show the foreign UCATs just how futile their shouts are, so let us buy some time.”

The crowd grew a little quieter and looked confused, but #8 continued tearing the paper into pieces no bigger than a few millimeters and scattered it around. She used her gravitational control to send it high into the air so it scattered like snow.

“I have determined it is worth trying. We can show them the strength of the ones currently fighting, regardless of what happened in the past. After all…”

She looked back at all the eyes focused on her.

“No matter how much these people shout that this is nothing but lies, that team’s power will not become a lie.”

The empty city still contained some slight movement.

There was no one on the roads or in the buildings.

All of the cars on the roads were empty, but they coasted along on inertia.

Their speed dropped and they either collided with each other or ran onto the curb.

As everything came to a stop, there was still light and sound.

The bright but empty stores were filled with the roar of machines or the music from CD players. A children’s prize machine near a supermarket made an electronic tone.

Suddenly, a new sound was added.

It came from Itsukaichi Road which cut east to west through Akigawa.

On the eastern end of the road, it traveled around the outer edge of a school and two sounds played in competition as they rushed down that two-lane road.

The two sounds were those of something tearing through the air.

They traveled west below the streetlights.

Both of them took the form of flight.

But that was not all.

The sounds contained the color of destruction.

They were also filled with high speed aerial collisions.

Metal clashed with metal and something loudly broke.

The sounds came from two girls.

One of them swiftly flew at low-altitude while standing on a broom.

The other stood on a long, narrow shield like a skateboard and let her spear’s accelerator pull her along like she was waterskiing.

They were Brunhild and Kazami.

The former wielded a long sword and the latter wielded a spear with a scarf wrapped around the tip and the word “cowling” written on that scarf. They were in the middle of a high-speed pursuit.

Kazami had removed her right glove. The blood flowing from her index finger had written the word on her scarf and the words “slides well” on the shield.

They exchanged attacks and projectiles while racing westward along the road.

Currently, the repeated attacks were flying toward Brunhild.

She evaded Kazami’s shots and pursued as her opponent accelerated away.

“Honestly. …Just lose already!”

Meanwhile, she controlled her broom like a snowboard and swung around the sword that was as tall as she was.

Gram had a single word written on it in magic marker: machinegun.

Brunhild looked at the word she had written.

…''That turned out well.

''The handwriting is nice. Maybe I could have become head of the calligraphy club as well. I could have had the other club members writing day in and day out while teaching them in the 1st-Gear way. That would have been amazing!!

The black cat on the back of her neck spoke up.

“Brunhild, are you having evil thoughts?”

“What are you talking about? I’m thinking about club activities and culture. …And how to use people.”

When she held Gram under her arm and at her waist, Kazami opened her eyes wide.

“Hey, wait! Don’t point a gun at people!!”

“You’ve been aiming a cannon at me this whole time!”

“Oh, c’mon, Brunhild. What are you talking about?”

Kazami held G-Sp2 in her right hand and waved her left hand dismissively.

“This isn’t a cannon. It’s G-Sp2.”

“That’s right,” added G-Sp2.

It was such an awful excuse that Brunhild could not help but fire.

Bullets of light flew from Gram’s tip.

The gunpowder of light produced a repeating staccato.

She slipped between the drifting cars and avoided her enemy’s attacks while firing toward Kazami.

Kazami cried out and accelerated forward.

But Brunhild held Gram in place as it shook from the recoil.

“Honestly. Could this be any more annoying!?”

The repeated sounds of gunfire created the background music for her shout.

“Night after night, people come to my house or Fasolt’s place! We’re not some kind of refuge! And the Requiem Sense isn’t a phone to call the underworld! …Fasolt constantly has to hang from the cliff out back to reflect on what he’s done!”

“It’s not like I know anything about your bizarre customs!”

“Then learn now!”

She added “heavy” in front of “machinegun” to increase the firepower.

What sounded like a signal gun pierced through the sky.

But Kazami soared before Brunhild could swing Gram around.

The girl was fast.

Brunhild’s accelerating broom and attacking sword were separate, but Kazami used G-Sp2’s second form for acceleration and its third form for attack.

For Kazami, firing meant slowing, so her movements tended to be a little slower. On the other hand, she was absurdly fast when focused solely on acceleration.

The bottom of her shield sent sparks flying as she weaved between the drifting cars.

Gram’s pursuing shots of light grazed the ground and tore into the cars.

“!”

A shot to the engine of one car ignited the fuel and blew it up along with several other cars.

Three muffled explosions sounded.

The force blew off the hood and the body instantly sank down.

But a moment later, the reaction to the explosion blew straight down and sent the cars flying into the air.

The cars acted as torches and scattered shimmering heat.

Brunhild ducked down to slip below them.

Kazami was already moving on ahead.

Brunhild tried to target her back, but a new car appeared between them.

“Oh, honestly! Even when I blow everything out of the way, I can’t get a clear shot!!”

“I think your options are a getting little violent there, Brunhild.”

“Yes, I agree. …It pisses me off to have someone point it out, though.”

''I’ll get her back for this,'' she promised herself.

At any rate, speed was what mattered now.

Itsukaichi Road was reaching the intersection in front of the municipal office.

After moving west of the office, a bike lane was added to widen the road.

That made it easier to avoid the cars and expanded the battlefield, so Brunhild increased her broom’s speed to reach that widened battlefield.

“That’s where the real fight begins!!”

Ahead, she saw cars stopped in the intersection.

The empty cars had collided again and again, creating a confused mess.

She did not care. She wrote “acceleration” on the black cat and threw him onto the front of the broom.

He frantically clung to the broom.

“Is this what you call pet abuse!?”

“What are you talking about? You’re not a pet. You’re a family member. …But only for the moment.”

“Th-then this is household bullying!”

As she accelerated, Kazami also picked up more speed and looked back.

“Well, I’m glad to see things are lively back there.”

Kazami raised her eyebrows and smiled bitterly.

“But fine. Let’s settle this!”

The two of them simultaneously stepped strongly down on their respective boards and leaped.

They used the top of the stopped cars as jump platforms to make an even larger leap.

“It’s on!”

The two girls flew.

They looked down on the never-ending expanse of darkness and light that made up the night.

This was a view only someone in flight could see.

“…Ah.”

Both of them gasped at the night scenery of Akigawa.

“…”

They were above the wide two-lane road leading west of the municipal office and to JR Akigawa Station.

The two rows of streetlights continued straight for about three hundred meters where another intersection led to Akigawa Station.

That straightaway was their battlefield, so the two of them exchanged a glance.

“…!”

They took action as soon as their high-speed air ride came to an end.

On her way down, Brunhild collapsed backwards to perform a backflip.

She grabbed the broom between her right toes and left heel and rotated the broom four times to the right as she spun her body around.

As soon as she landed, she fired a burst of acceleration to the west.

On the other hand, Kazami moved up and pushed her feet into the sky.

As she flew, she spun the bottom of her shield ski through the sky and performed a vertical flip.

She was going to land ten meters in front of Brunhild, so Brunhild prepared an attack for that spot.

[[Image:OnC_v12_0119.jpg|thumb]]

Kazami fell from five meters above the ground.

“…!!”

Brunhild raised Gram in her right hand.

Super thick writing on Gram’s surface said “Heavy Rapid-Fire Homing Bullet Circle” and she rested Gram on her right shoulder.

Her body sank down below the weight and Gram opened up.

With a metallic sound, the cowling encasing the blade on either side opened up and emitted light.

A moment later, a circle of light appeared behind Brunhild.

Countless letters appeared in the red circle and even more dots appeared between those letters.

“————!”

Arcs of light shot from the dots and flew out in the hundreds.

Kazami’s eyes opened wide as she looked back.

“That’s just not fair!!”

“Don’t you get it!? Gram is all of 1st-Gear! Even if you don’t write out the mechanism, it can manifest anything you write on it!”

As if to prove her right, the streams of light bound together and pursued Kazami.

Kazami faced forward and accelerated as soon as her shield ski landed.

She slid along the road to evade.

“————!”

G-Sp2 pulled her along as she essentially waterskied along the road. She quickly slalomed back and forth to dodge and a spray of sparks came from the asphalt in her wake.

The group of red lines pursued her like a wave, but the red lights struck the cars she weaved between or crashed into the asphalt she grazed across.

The cars were destroyed by the concentrated fire and the asphalt turned to sand.

One hit would surely turn a human body into a spray.

The light poured down like red rain. It arced after Kazami and approached from every direction to envelop her.

But she repeatedly ducked between the roadside trees to quickly reduce the number of pursuing attacks.

She flapped her wings for a three hundred sixty degree flip to check things behind her and she flew out of the way of the red light.

“…!!”

Only a few dozen shots remained.

She flapped her wings for a great leap. When she passed over the roof of a large RV parked by the trees, she placed her hand on the roof and used her heels to kick the shield ski up and around to the front.

She ducked down as she and the shield ski landed on the road beyond the RV.

At the same time, the remaining light crashed into the back of the RV.

Sounds of destruction rang out.

The glass shattered, the metal broke, and the accumulated force sent the large RV into the air.

She ducked down and resumed sliding along the ground. Meanwhile, the RV’s back end rose up and threatened to fall down on top of her.

However, she did not mind. She raised her right hand and used her blood to write “super light” on the bottom of the vehicle.

She then used her left index finger to lift the RV.

She spun it on her finger like a plate and instantly spun herself around.

She used that momentum to throw the RV back at Brunhild.

Kazami saw that Brunhild had already begun her next attack.

She had moved Gram around so it was resting backwards on her shoulder.

One side of the blade said “catapult” and Kazami saw the black cat standing on top of it.

The word “acceleration” on the cat’s belly had been crossed out and a new term had been written on his back: shell.

“You don’t mean…!”

Kazami’s shout of surprise was followed by a red light racing from Gram’s base and out to the tip.

As if riding on that light, the shell was launched.

It instantly produced an explosion of water vapor.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

And it cried out as it tore through the RV.

Pierced from the front to the back, the vehicle stopped moving in midair and bulged out a bit.

“!!”

It burst to pieces like it was made of paper.

Surrounded by a trail of mist, the shell flew straight toward Kazami.

Kazami spent a moment making up her mind.

If she fired G-Sp2, this shell was no threat.

However, she was hesitant to destroy this shell.

While she disliked shells, she did like cats. Loved them even.

And so she hesitated.

…''What should I do?

She briefly thought about what the report on her death would say.

…''Field Operations Special Division and Team Leviathan member Kazami Chisato was killed in action by a cat.

''Would they write “loved cats” on my grave? That would be an embarrassment to all my descendants. Then again, if I died now, I wouldn’t have any descendants, would I?

The shell was right in front of her.

“!”

She made a split-second decision and wrote on G-Sp2.

Her hint came from Izumo. He had once done something like this.

She wrote “Anti-Shell Metal Bat”.

She held G-Sp2 near the bottom and swung the metal bat.

“Claaaaannnnnng!!”

She gave her own sound effect as she hit the shell and the slight squashing sensation at the moment of impact told her it had been a perfect hit.

With a great sound, the ball was sent right back toward the pitcher.

''Go,'' she thought while clenching her fist and accelerating forward with G-Sp2.

…''Huh?

“Couldn’t I have just dodged instead of hitting it back?”

Brunhild saw the shell flying back toward her.

Their relative speed plus the batting effect made the shell’s speed greater than when she had fired it.

She considered writing “shield” on Gram to stop it, but that would smash the shell to pieces.

…''Which would get Gram and my clothes filthy!

She made a split-second decision and raised a magic marker in her right hand.

She predicted the path of the flying shell and placed the marker in the spot its back would pass through.

“————!!”

When the cat’s back passed below the marker, a negating line was drawn through the word “shell”.

It all came down to an instant of action.

The black cat returned to being a cat, decelerated, and grabbed onto Brunhild’s left shoulder.

“U-u-u-um, Brunhild!! I-I need-I need to have a word with you!!”

“Yes.” Brunhild wrapped her left hand around the cat on her shoulder while soaring along the road with her broom. “I know exactly what you want to say. …Hitting a shell back with a metal bat? Just how absurd is that girl?”

“You’re ignoring the one who did all the work, you know?”

Brunhild did not answer him.

Kazami jumped to put some distance between them and she pointed G-Sp2 toward the ground.

It was clear what she was going to do.

“Fire into the ground!”

Exactly that happened and it produced a solid sound.

And it happened repeatedly.

Those shots had enough power to destroy a dragon, so they utterly destroyed the asphalt. The broken asphalt blasted skyward like geysers, but those areas were several meters in length and they instantly formed walls.

Brunhild had created a single large wall earlier, but Kazami tore into the ground to make walls of smaller fragments.

There was only one good countermeasure.

“Gram!”

Brunhild wrote the word “ocean” on Gram’s side.

“Add in that power!!”

While gliding along, she swung the long sword like a golf club and struck the ground.

The asphalt transformed into an ocean.

The rising walls of broken pavement turned into cresting waves.

She would only be hit by a spray of water, so she continued on.

She could see Kazami through the waves and the girl had begun waterskiing.

“Not bad!”

The girl gave her a confident smile, so Brunhild nodded in agreement.

Brunhild pursued her classmate whose position made her an enemy.

As she pursued, they both crossed a large intersection at almost the same moment.

They were only one hundred meters to Akigawa Station.

A light moved below the streetlights.

It was the light to a mountain bike.

But instead of riding it, someone was pushing it by the handlebars.

That person was Ooki who wore a jacket.

She pushed the bike with her left hand and held a cellphone in her right.

“Oh, Sibyl-san. I’ve collected Kazami-san’s bike, so don’t worry.”

She heard Sibyl’s apologetic voice over the phone.

“Testament. Thank you very much. It seems Chisato-sama was in quite a rush.”

“Immediate decisions are her thing. She changed inside the concept space and I collected that as well.”

“H-her clothes! I-I need to wash them, iron them, and return them!”

“You like to take care of everything, don’t you?”

“Testament. It is my thing.”

Ooki heard her add a “but”, so she looked into the night sky.

“Ooki-sama, how were things inside the concept space?”

“Hmm.”

Ooki thought on the question. After about three seconds, she gathered her eyebrows together.

“Well, it was night, it was cold, and there was no one there.”

“That isn’t what I meant.”

There was a smiling tone to Sibyl’s voice, yet Ooki felt like she was being scolded.

…''Did I say something odd?

She tilted her head, but Sibyl asked another question.

“Could you tell how Chisato-sama’s battle was going?”

''Oh, I get it now,'' thought Ooki as she came to a stop.

There was a field to her left, houses to her right, and stars in the sky, but she stared straight forward.

This road likely ran alongside the larger Itsukaichi Road that Kazami and Brunhild had flown down.

Ooki narrowed her eyes.

“I think they’re full of energy.”

“Eh?”

Ooki smiled at Sibyl’s confusion.

“They’re probably having a great time exchanging blows right now. …Am I wrong?”

The road was made of black tar, but it acted like water.

The road had “30” written on it, so it contained a current flowing at that speed.

Kazami and Brunhild flew along the center line between lanes where the current differed.

Red light shot from Gram which had “rapid fire gun” written on it, so Kazami deflected it with the tip of her spear.

Kazami rotated around and fired G-Sp2, so Brunhild deflected it with “shield” Gram.

The two moved apart and produced a splash of asphalt as they drew an arc along it.

“!”

While gliding along the center of the road, spear clashed with sword.

A metallic sound rang out, sparks flew from their locked blades, and they moved apart just enough for more swordplay.

When Kazami jabbed, Brunhild deflected. When Brunhild swung, Kazami deflected.

But Kazami had the upper hand in close-quarters combat.

By jabbing in and pulling back, G-Sp2 could knock Gram outwards.

The sharp sound of metal shot out and sparks flew.

“————!”

Wind blew in from the front and Brunhild’s hand trembled as it held Gram.

She swung the blade straight toward Kazami, but the other girl seemed to wrap the strike around the spear tip and sent it outwards.

The witch frowned and clenched her teeth a little.

Attacking like this was not her specialty.

When a beginner attacked with a long weapon, they tended to be led around by its length and never put any real force behind their strikes.

With longer weapons, one had to focus on the base of the blade and the bottom of the hilt as they held it. They had to use it lightly while making sure they did not only slightly graze their enemy with the tip, but that was a tall order for a beginner like Brunhild.

Gram was a long sword, so it was bound by those rules even if it was light. And unlike a spear, the grip was short and the blade long, which only made those rules more important.

Once it was deflected, the weight of the blade would reach her hands and it took a while for a beginner to gain control again.

But Kazami did not hold back.

She moved straight in.

“This is over!”

She stared straight at the girl while jabbing her spear just as straight.

She was confident it would hit.

“!?”

But with a clang of steel, G-Sp2 was deflected by Gram.

Kazami’s eyes opened wide.

It may not have been perfect, but she had knocked Gram upwards and attacked the girl’s unguarded chest.

Brunhild did not have enough combat skill to instantly regain control of Gram.

In fact, not even Kazami would have been able to regain control of such a long sword so quickly.

She could only keep up this high speed exchange of attack and defense because she held the long spear close to the top.

…''How did she do that!?

Kazami gasped and saw something written on the side of the sword Brunhild lightly swung around.

“Short sword!?”

“I probably should have done this from the beginning, but then I couldn’t have caught you off guard.”

Now the one left defenseless was Kazami.

She had poured her full strength into that strike, so she had not used a short grip on the spear.

She then saw Brunhild prepare Gram at her right hip.

The action pressed the blade’s tip against Kazami’s stomach.

She also saw words on the side of the sword.

“88 mm gun. You can’t hit it back at this range, can you?”

The blast rang out quickly.

Kazami acted on pure reflex.

She bent over to pull her stomach back and flapped her wings forward.

“…!”

She put as much space between her and Gram as she could.

A moment later, she lifted her right leg.

Brunhild’s eyebrows shot up.

“It’s no use!”

The end of her words was drowned out by the blast of the shot being fired.

At the same time, Kazami kicked something up with her right leg.

“The shield!”

It was G-Sp2’s shield she had been using as a ski.

She pressed her right leg against her chest and the bottom of the foot brought up the shield and placed it between her and the gun.

At the same time, the 88 mm shell of light exploded in the muzzle.

They clashed.

Kazami was blasted into the western sky with the speed of a shooting star and noise washed over Brunhild.

The black three-cornered hat fell from her head, but the witch did not care.

She looked to Kazami through the blowing wind and water vapor smoke.

The girl had crashed into the roof of a pachinko parlor to the west of the train station.

She had flown a long way. That was partially due to the force of the shellfire, but…

…''Did she use G-Sp2’s acceleration to escape the blow!?

It was the same idea as pulling your body back to reduce the damage from a punch.

But if she had done that…

“Is she still conscious!?”

If so, the battle would continue.

She quickly found a way to determine whether the girl was or not.

Over by Kazami, the “pa” of the neon sign saying “pachinko” had gone out due to poor maintenance. Being hit by that in this world of writing would be an embarrassment to every last one of her descendants<ref>Chinko means penis.</ref>, so Brunhild took action.

“Hit her!!”

“Brunhild, Brunhild. You’re a girl too, so try to be a little considerate.”

But Brunhild saw G-Sp2’s cannon blow away the “chi” just before it hit.

That meant Kazami was still conscious.

“…!”

Now that she knew her enemy still intended to fight, Brunhild turned her broom toward the sky and truly flew.

Her destination was the twenty meters above the pachinko parlor with a large hole in the roof.

She instantly arrived in the air and peeled the cat from the broom.

After she wrote “wings” on his butt and had him cling to her back, she could float without the broom.

“B-Brunhild! I have no idea what I am anymore!!”

“Don’t worry. There is only one answer to that.”

“Eh? What is it? A cute pet kitten? Or your beloved black cat?”

“…”

“D-don’t fall silent! Tell me the answer, Brunhild!”

She ignored him, maintained her altitude with the wings, and placed the broom over her left shoulder.

She reinforced the broom with papers saying “magazine”, “chamber”, “loading point”, “barrel”, and “ignition device”. She then placed some paper bullets along the base.

She had created a long cannon out of the broom.

She placed the Gram cannon alongside it.

“Double cannons!”

With that shout, she fired.

Her target was the crumbled roof of the pachinko parlor. Her enemy was below.

“Fire!!”

The flash of shellfire blossomed in the night sky.

The sounds shook the night air as she fired again and again.

The shells of paper and light were surrounded by shockwaves as they smashed the pachinko parlor below.

The shockwaves of impact sent the light materials of modern buildings flying like paper. The roof vanished after a few shots and the shockwaves inside the building blew out the walls from within.

In an instant, only the pillars remained and the explosions sent countless dots of light flying through the air.

They were silver balls.

They burst upwards like spraying water, shook in the noise of the blasts, and fell as they scattered wherever they pleased. Sometimes, the wreckage of a pachinko machine would fly up, but even those were sent scattering by the continuing shockwaves.

Despite all that, Brunhild would not stop.

“…!”

The most frightening thing about shellfire was not the shells themselves. The shockwave created when a physical shell flew and hit caused much more destruction than the simple area struck by the shell itself.

Even ten centimeters of concrete were easily smashed by a metal shell moving at high speed.

Kazami could only intercept one of the shells with G-Sp2. The fallen shockwaves shot back up into the air, but Kazami had no way of defending against it and she would be smashed to pieces.

Even if she tried to stop the shells, Brunhild was firing randomly. Kazami would be unable to determine where they would hit, so she would be struck from an unexpected direction.

So Brunhild continued firing.

…''Disappear!

It would be easier if the girl simply vanished.

“…!!”

The broom ran out of ammunition. Smoke rose from the tip, but Brunhild was not going to let her enemy get away. She peeled off all of the paper and attached a single new paper.

She looked down at the broom while feeling a ringing in her ears from all the noise shaking her eardrums.

The broom now had “barrel addition” written on it.

She let out a breath, closed her eyes, swallowed to clear the ringing in her ears, and attached the barrel addition to Gram.

The cannon resting on her shoulder was now twice as long as she was tall and she added another word to Gram.

“Dragon cannon. …This final shot is a requiem from 1st-Gear.”

Her numb ears could barely hear her own voice.

She realized her hair was plastered to her forehead with sweat and her breathing was heavy.

But she prepared the dragon cannon on her shoulder while dealing with them both.

Her target was the center of the pachinko parlor that still had three steel pillars. She aimed for the center of the rising dust.

She muttered “farewell” as she reached for the trigger.

“————”

The witch saw her enemy and those white wings.

Kazami was crouched on one knee within the dust.

“How did you survive all that?”

The answer was simple and Kazami gave the answer in a trembling voice.

She spoke even as her body shook from the remaining damage.

“Look around me.”

Brunhild did so and looked below the vanishing dust.

The red and white tiles of the floor came into view. The dust covered it like sand, but it was unharmed. And…

“Why are the bases of the pachinko machines still there?”

The tops of the machines had been torn away, but all of the bases remained from the floor to about waist height.

The surrounding light entering the pachinko parlor told Brunhild why.

Kazami’s right arm was raised and it held G-Sp2’s shield. Brunhild saw what the girl had written on it.

“Floor.”

“That’s right. When a shockwave is produced on the ground, it escapes up into the air, so you won’t be harmed if you place yourself lower than the floor. If you can’t escape an explosion, they tell you to hide below the lowest part of the ground and cover yourself with something, right? Also…”

Kazami weakly stood and lifted her left hand.

That hand held a pennant-style poster.

“Can you see what it says? ‘Hit the jackpot’. I quickly scattered just the ‘hit’ portion along the four edges of the ceiling and that guided most of the shell hits.”

The broken parts of G-Sp2’s cowling were slowly regenerating.

Brunhild had heard about this. During the battle with 7th-Gear, G-Sp2 and V-Sw had combined their power to heal themselves and to save Kazami when she was on the verge of death.

That was special even for a Concept Core. She had heard that had not happened again since and Kazami was not rapidly recovering now. The weapon had rescued its master when she had admitted to her own mistake, but the rest was that master’s own responsibility.

…''What a cold concept weapon.

However, that likely meant that the weapon trusted its master.

That turned Brunhild’s thoughts toward Gram on her right shoulder.

“…”

She shook her head and gave a self-deprecating smile as she looked down.

Kazami was standing on trembling legs and trying to raise G-Sp2.

She was still enough of an enemy, so Brunhild did not hold back.

She pulled the trigger and bared her teeth in a smile.

“You’re pretty cool, Kazami. But I saw what happened when you flew in here before.”

She gave a shout while firing.

“You ‘nko’ girl!!”

Light from the surface intercepted the light from the sky.

They collided and exploded with a sound like shattering glass.

An explosion of light covered the ground for several hundred meters in every direction.

The entire station area was instantly turned to scorched earth.

A great force of air spread out beyond the explosion and transformed into a powerful wind.

The staticky sound of the air resembled crashing waves.

The witch in black was blasted into the heavens and she flew through the sky with the acceleration of the broom in her right hand.

“…!!”

She trembled from the great sound of the dragon cannon and dragon spear clashing below.

But something broke through that tremor.

Spear-wielding wings ascended through the dragon’s roar.

“Kazami!?”

G-Sp2 used all of its thrust to stab up from below, so Brunhild released her broom behind her.

The cat on her back grabbed onto the broom while inside her collar. Brunhild felt like she was being tugged on the back of the neck as the cat and the broom pulled her straight up into the heavens.

She wrote “shield” on Gram, grasped it by the blade and hilt, and held it forward to protect her.

But G-Sp2 crashed into it.

“!?”

She was instantly pushed into the heavens.

“Wha-!?”

This new thrust far outdid that of her broom. She doubled over as Gram pressed against her stomach and pushed her into the sky.

“…!!”

She tried in vain to protest, but her body was quickly taken away.

She was looking down on Tokyo now.

She passed through some white clouds and cried out as she felt the chill of their high altitude.

“Kazami! What are you-…”

She did not finish her question.

She had noticed that Kazami’s eyes were squeezed shut.

…''It can’t be.

“Did that explosion blind and deafen you?”

Her senses were numbed.

Even in this attack, she would only know that she had hit.

But even after hitting, she continued to rise and never stopped accelerating.

…''All to defeat me.

They had ascended to the stratosphere, but that was apparently not enough.

“You’re willing to go this far to defeat me!?”

Brunhild clenched her teeth.

…''It wasn’t enough.

What had that barrage of shells mattered? Or the dragon cannon?

Around her, she saw the heavenly dome of the night, the vast nightscape, and the darkness between the mountains.

The distant horizon was slightly curved.

…''Is this the height of her primary battlefield?

Had Brunhild made any attack on this level?

“You stupid girl,” she muttered.

She bent forward until she was close enough to kiss the girl and found her eyes were ever-so-slightly open.

Despite her limp expression, her unfocused eyes looked to the sky and the surface.

“Can you see it? This area is where we live.”

Kazami looked around at the distant lights of the cities.

“I can hear it.”

“Hear what?”

Kazami did not answer. She simply closed her eyes.

“Let’s go.”

With those words, the sensation pressing up against Brunhild vanished.

Kazami had released her and she knew what that meant.

…''I’ll fall to the ground from here.

''Ah,'' she thought just as she flipped around and began to fall face-up.

She dove from the heavens with her back pointed down.

“Ahhhhhh!” shouted the cat on her back. “Don’t have me looking down!”

But she ignored the cat’s protests. An attack came from the heavens above.

It was G-Sp2.

Kazami closed her wings and accelerated straight down for another collision.

As the reverse of before, she was hitting Brunhild from above.

She caught the blow with Gram again, but…

“…!!”

The thrust far outdid the speed of her fall and there was nothing she could do to fight it.

“Kazami!”

She released her cracking voice into the sky.

“Are you really planning to crash into the surface from this height!?”

Kazami smiled and answered.

“Is there any point in answering that?”

The sound of an electronic motor filled the air.

It was the low, muffled sound of a spinning fan.

It came from a powerful vacuum cleaner.

The sound filled a room made up of two connected rooms. The detached room had a ten square meter space with wood flooring and an equally large space with tatami mats.

With her uniform’s coat removed, Shinjou ran the vacuum cleaner along the wooden flooring.

She wore a borrowed pink apron and she glanced to the sofa set in the center of the wood-floored room. She also looked to the large window left open to air out the room.

She finally looked to the TV placed next to the window and then switched off the vacuum cleaner.

“Sayama-kun, the TVs at your home sure are fancy. They have buttons to change the channel instead of knobs.”

“Shinjou-kun, what did you think our dorm room’s TV was? It is fully controlled by the remote.”

“Oh, c’mon. Quit lying. That isn’t a TV. It’s a type of monitor. You can’t have a TV without something to change the channel.”

She checked behind the TV to make sure she had vacuumed behind it.

She straightened the bottom of the apron and glanced over to Sayama in the tatami mat room.

A butt was sticking out of the dark closet at the far end of that room.

It was Sayama’s butt.

Whenever his butt or legs moved to keep his balance, she heard a sound of avalanching metal and other objects from the closet.

She had handled the general cleaning of the room while he dealt with the important things and anything best not messed with. His primary job had been checking through the drawers, closets, and other such spaces. He was the only one who could check to see if his parents had left any kind of records behind.

Shinjou could not help but be worried about one thing.

…''Are his chest pains okay?

He was probably feeling it this entire time, but she had decided not to do anything unless he collapsed, stopped moving, or asked for help. She had also decided to ignore him if he said anything strange.

While worrying about that, she cleaned the wooden flooring with a dry mop.

She had used the room’s intercom to ask Ryouko for the cleaning supplies. For some reason, she would hear sounds of movement from below the corridor’s floor and above its ceiling and the supplies would appear in front of the room.

…''I think I’ll avoid asking why they don’t show themselves.

At that point, Sayama stopped moving as he rummaged through the closet behind her.

Fearing the worst, she froze too.

She turned around and found his balancing butt and legs had stopped.

“Sayama-kun, are you okay?”

“Ha ha ha. What are you talking about, Shinjou-kun? There has never been a single thing wrong with me.”

“Really? Then I guess you are okay.”

“Your note of understanding and your comment seem a bit disconnected to me.”

Ignoring that, she tilted her head and asked the question in her heart.

“Did you find something?”

“Yes, and I suppose it will see the light of day for the first time in nine years.”

“Eh?”

She frowned and he answered her question.

“Yes. I found one of IAI’s orphan anime roach traps ‘Roach Hutch’. It’s a pun on the character named Hutch from a popular anime at the time.”

Shinjou decided to remain silent, but he let out a warm sigh.

“But after nine years, the number of residents has grown quite a bit. Now Hutch will never be lonely.”

“You don’t have to give the details. And you don’t have to bring it out to show me. You don’t, okay!?”

“But Shinjou-kun, I want you to understand the value of what I hold in my hands.”

“You can throw that value out in the trash!”

She threw the mop handle at his butt and he reacted by bending back and falling inside the closet.

She panicked when she heard him crash into the wooden closet wall and felt the room shake.

“Ah! S-Sayama-kun, I’m sorry! I acted on impulse!”

“Ha ha ha. Shinjou-kun, everything is fine. I managed to hold onto Hutch.”

“Stoooooppppp!!”

The previous shaking must have knocked something loose because a ceiling board near the closet shifted aside and a white cardboard box fell out of the ceiling.

She cried out and saw the box land inside the room’s light.

It landed perfectly with a dull sound and the light washed over it.

“S-Sayama-kun. A box just fell from the ceiling. What was that? Hitting the wall to make something fall sounds like a hidden item from a recent video game. Ooh, I bet it has a 1-up inside.”

“Shinjou-kun, I have a feeling you lose a life if the hidden item crushes you. Especially given my current situation.”

Sayama could speak despite being crushed, so no lives had been lost and that meant everything was okay.

Shinjou breathed a sigh of relief and looked to the cardboard box that had crushed the butt sticking out from the closet.

The top of the box was sealed with a charm and she read what it said.

“ ‘Serves you right. –Sayama Kaoru’ ”

What was this and what was going on?

She held her breath at those questions but then looked to Sayama as he lay below the box.

“Like grandfather, like grandson.”

<noinclude>

===Notes===
<references/>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume12 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume12 Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume9 Chapter 31

2026-06-10T03:00:33Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 31: The Human Dragon’s Will==
[[Image:OnC_v09_0331.png|thumb]]
''Say goodbye

''Split apart

''And understand

Harakawa heard someone crying.

It was the quiet sound of someone sobbing while desperately trying to stay quiet.

As that voice reached his mind, Harakawa wondered why he was hearing it.

His thoughts asked to playback his memories and that brought his other senses rushing back.

He had apparently passed out.

…''Twice in one day. That’s pretty sad.

He opened his eyes, but he was surrounded by the color black and wondered if he had gone blind.

From what he remembered, he and Heo had been riding an invisible dragon which had instinctually faced the enemy while saying it did not understand anything.

…''And it was shot down.

He thought they had only avoided the black dragon’s final attack because Heo had woken. When she had given her cry of rejection, their dragon had hesitated.

And that hesitation had avoided a direct hit. Still, they had been knocked away and their excess flight speed had taken them eastward.

“And we fell in the ocean. So is this the ocean floor?”

He then felt something move on his chest. It was Heo and she was clinging to his T-shirt.

“Hey, Heo Thunderson. Please don’t drool on my clothes.”

“I-I didn’t do that.”

She tried to sound defiant, but her voice shook. She apparently tried to get up, but she also apparently did not have it in her to leave his arms.

He was definitely sitting in something. The seat had him almost lying down and it felt like the one’s he had seen in the base’s F-16s. When he stretched out his legs, he could feel them reach the bottom of something like a table.

He turned his head to either side. His vision was still filled with darkness, but his eyes seemed to have adjusted because he could sense a bit of light.

“…?”

He removed his right arm from Heo and reached toward the light source. He found a soft cloth material.

“Ah, w-wait, Harakawa! Just because it’s dark d-d-d-d-doesn’t mean-…!”

“Stop getting worked up over misunderstandings, Heo Thunderson. Now, about your necklace…”

The faint light was enough to see Heo raise her head in confusion.

The stone necklace she wore was wrapped in light. Blue light.

“This thing isn’t radioactive, is it?”

“I-It can’t be. My mom wouldn’t leave me something dangerous.”

“It is a philosopher’s stone,” said a voice.

Harakawa recognized it as the dragon’s voice and he looked around.

“A philosopher’s stone? …No, that doesn’t matter. Where are you?”

“I am here, but I am not with you. That is all I know.”

With that, the voice fell silent as if this was not its place.

Even after the span of a few breaths, the voice did not continue. Whether relieved or worried by that, Heo tilted her head.

“U-um, what was that voice?”

“Your savior apparently. It has no name, but it’s a dragon. Crazy, isn’t it?”

It was too dark to see each other’s expressions, but he still wondered what look was on his face.

“This invisible dragon saved you when those guys in blue attacked this afternoon and when you fell from the transport plane just now.”

“Um,” began Heo while further tilting her head. “Harakawa, did you hit your head?”

“Can you really say that after all the nonsense you asked me to believe, Heo Thunderson?”

“B-but it was only a demon that was with me. There wasn’t an attacking dragon and a saving dragon. Why did we start talking about an invisible dragon? And does that mean the darkness around us is the bottom of the ocean we can see through the dragon’s body?”

“That’s the only explanation I can think of. You remember falling, don’t you? Well, look around you. We’re most likely in the cockpit of a completely invisible dragon. Right now, we’re at the bottom of the ocean just like you said. Or if we’re unlucky, this might be Tokyo Bay’s famous toxic sludge.”

“Th-then if this really is a dragon…and it really is with me to save me…”

He could feel the movement of her chest as she gulped a bit.

“Was it this dragon that killed my mom?”

''It couldn’t have been,'' thought Harakawa.

Thinking back on its two appearances today, the dragon had always appeared to save Heo. And in the sky, it had thanked him for protecting her twice. That had likely been because he had protected her before the dragon could.

But the dragon gave a different answer to her question.

“It was.”

As the voice quietly filled the cockpit, Harakawa froze in place and Heo shrank down.

She took a new breath and prepared to say something, but Harakawa asked a question before she could.

“Is that really true?”

“It is.”

His question and the dragon’s response stopped Heo. The strength gathered in her body grew to a tremor.

“…”

Something was about to burst from her, but just before it did, the dragon spoke.

“I contain reproduced 5th-Gear concepts. He was evolving and repairing himself, but he sensed that faint signal and pursued it. That was when I first awoke, but…”

There was a slight pause.

“I did not make it in time. By the time I appeared and drove away Black Sun who did not know what he was, Heo’s mother had already passed away. …That is the same as killing her. She was attacked by an enemy pursuing me and I did not save her in time.”

“But…”

Harakawa could tell Heo had lowered her head.

He decided to let her speak because he thought this at least was necessary.

“But…that can’t be. You mean…without you, my mom wouldn’t have died?”

There was no need to ask. It was true. That was why the dragon was apologizing and making no attempt to excuse it.

She then pressed her forehead against his chest.

“No…”

Her trembling body breathed in again and opened its mouth.

“Please leave. You don’t have to come save me, so please leave! You’re a machine, aren’t you? Then throw a switch and leave! Besides, how can you even save me!? You couldn’t stand up to that black dragon just now! That’s why my mom died, so…so…!”

She let out a shout.

“Give it back…”

Her voice fell apart. It lacked the strength and volume from before and it was filled with uncertain trembling.

“Please give it back. You don’t have to save me, so please give it back.”

''I definitely don’t have to ask what “it” is,'' sighed Harakawa.

The answer was “everything”.

And then the dragon replied.

“I am sorry. …I do not know.”

“You don’t know what?” slowly asked Heo. She raised her head as if speaking to Harakawa. “What are you saying you don’t know, you machine that lets people be killed?”

“My role. I exist and have functions, but I need a name to recognize my existence and to give me an objective. Without that, I cannot use my functions toward that objective.”

Harakawa spoke to the voice and tapped Heo’s back to give himself time to speak.

“You didn’t have a name when you were made?”

“I have records indicating I once had one, but I cannot speak that name. That name belonged to what I once was, but I have remade my former self.”

“So all you can use are functions brought by the slight remnants of memory from when you remade yourself?”

…''Is that why he says he knows but does not know?

All of his memories were classified as someone else’s. His appearance to save Heo must have been a sort of instinct that had permeated his being while being remade.

Harakawa prepared to ask if he truly intended to protect Heo, but someone else spoke before he had a chance.

It was Heo.

“Of course you have a name.”

She forcefully sat up by removing Harakawa’s arms and raising her upper body.

“It’s ‘demon’, isn’t it?”

''I’m glad it’s so dark,'' thought Harakawa when he heard that. ''This way I don’t have to see the look on her face.

“So my name is Demon?”

“Yes. I…I am giving you that name, so please leave and never show yourself to me again! If the demon is gone-…”

“Heo.”

She stopped when he called her name. In the pale blue light on her chest, her silhouette curved up like a cat and Harakawa spoke while looking at that shadow.

“Are you listening, Heo Thunderson?”

“Y-yes…”

Her voice fell and some of its energy vanished. Relieved by that, Harakawa tried to keep as much emotion out of his voice as possible.

“Unfortunately, this is not the demon.”

“B-but…!”

“The demon that killed your mother is something else. This one only showed up a little late.”

He heard a gasp and felt a tremble of shock from the butt that sat on his stomach.

“Listen,” he said. “Unfortunately, Heo Thunderson, his objective is to protect you. Not to protect your mother. And another thing, Heo Thunderson. Your mother tried to save you, but failed and died. That is why he appeared. The demon was attacking you, so he had to make sure it did not kill you.”

“Th-then…”

“Enough of that. Think ahead before you speak, Heo. Now listen. You are blaming this dragon for your mother’s death, but what if you turn that idea around? Your mother died because she tried to protect you. If she had left it to this dragon…no, because he did not make it in time…”

He hesitated, but he said it.

“If your mother had left you to be killed by the demon, she would not have been killed.”

He continued to speak and felt he was almost telling himself this.

“Heo, what would you do even if he did give everything back? After all, once your mother died, you were the one that chose to be demon possessed. You did not try to deny it and you only chose to run away. Wouldn’t something similar have happened even if your mother was with you? While that was the beginning of your unhappiness, you are the one that chose to continue on in that unhappiness without rejecting it. Am I wrong, Heo Thunderson?”

After he said that, all motion vanished.

After a while, he heard a breath, but he was unsure if it was his own or Heo’s. That was just how focused he was on the faint silhouette in front of him.

The few seconds that passed felt much more dense and slow than usual.

“Why?”

“The answer is simple. I do not know, Heo Thunderson.”

He brought oxygen to his lungs while focusing.

“Isn’t it the same for you? You don’t know either, do you, Heo?”

“That’s not true. I finally heard the truth. I know why my mom died, I have someone to let my resentment out on, and I never want to see them again.”

“And do you think they’re completely in the wrong?”

“Of course I do.”

Harakawa said nothing. He simply sat up without making a noise and took another gentle action.

“Ah.”

He hugged Heo and his arms around her body told him a certain fact.

“Don’t lie, Heo Thunderson.”

“…”

Silence filled the cockpit until he heard sobbing from his chest.

“But…”

He heard her speak, but he silenced her by holding her even tighter.

…''You vaguely realize it, don’t you?

Even if she did not know about this dragon or the demon, she knew what path she was choosing.

She had chosen to reject it, but that very action of choosing had made her worried about the one-sided protection of the organization named UCAT.

''What a selfish girl,'' he thought. ''She doesn’t realize it herself and makes everyone around her deal with it.

Just as he realized she was like a cat, he smiled bitterly in his heart and tapped her back.

“Hey, can you tell me one thing? Why do you protect Heo? If it was your choice, then how did you meet her?” he asked. “If someone left you to her, that person is the one behind all this. Heo, do you remember anything? Was there some kind of ritual a long time ago?”

“Eh?”

Heo moved a bit. With her face pressed to his chest, she turned to the side and looked up at him.

He saw tears reflecting the blue light. As inexpressible thoughts filled him, he heard her quiet sobbing voice.

“There was nothing like that. Nothing more than my parents giving me the name Heo. …I can’t speak for when I was a baby, though.”

“Heo is correct,” said the dragon. “I have no memory of such a ritual. But…that is why I will open my memories. The memories of a me I do not know. I will show you those memories using the circuit allowing you to hear this voice.”

The dragon said one last thing.

“To use a word I know, this is a memory of a ‘promise’.”

Shinjou thought the pasts Baku showed her were a lot like dreams.

She felt like she had dozed off, but her eyes soon focused, she sensed light, and color filled her world.

Blue slowly filled her vision.

It was the sky.

It was a vast blue expanse filled with clouds, but there was one odd thing about it.

“There’s no land.”

She looked around in all three hundred sixty degrees, but everything was blue as far as the eye could see. The only land she saw was…

…''Floating islands?

Some objects floated here and there in the sky.

They literally were floating islands. Broken pieces of crust drifted through the sky like the wreckage of a larger piece of land.

Most of them were clumps of rock and it was difficult to tell their size with nothing else in the sky to compare them to.

She moved her vision closer and found one was a narrow slab of dark stone that measured a kilometer long. Clumps of plants with triangular leaves were attached to the top of the slab.

…''This is 5th-Gear, isn’t it?

Shinjou suddenly found a manmade object.

…''A building?

Gray and green land floated in the sky about a hundred meters below her.

It was around a hundred meters across, the gray was artificial pavement, and a similarly colored square building was located on top of it. The area behind the building was filled with bluish-green plants with long, narrow leaves.

Among them, she saw a certain shape and colors.

The shape was a dragon and the colors were blue and white.

“Xolotl 3.”

She saw someone pushing through the dense foliage in front of the mechanical dragon.

The person wore something like a scuba tank on his back and a half-face helmet on his head.

“That’s Thunderson-san, isn’t it?”

His breath was visibly white around him and the speed at which the breaths scattered suggested a strong wind. However, the scattering breaths spun around as if hitting a wall a meter away from him.

Gravitational control or something similar must have been protecting him from the air pressure and wind.

After some hesitation, Shinjou waited until the proper timing and had her vision jump down.

Her mind fell for only an instant and she landed on the lower surface with no sound or sensation of impact.

It was a gray and smooth paved road. It had a curb and the edges had a slightly raised area much like a sidewalk.

''This must have been a world that thought about people’s safety,'' she thought.

She moved her vision forward and found what looked like a house.

It was a short, square building. It was about twenty meters across on each side, three meters tall, and windowless. However, it had round fist-sized lenses on a few spots on the walls.

The entrance was located a level lower. There was a slope at the front of the building that led to a rectangular seam on the wall at what was likely the basement.

…''It’s like a shelter.

After that thought, she heard someone breathing. Someone was catching their breath to her right and on the other side of the building.

It was Thunderson, the man wearing the tank.

“Xolotl 3, I’ve made it to the front.”

Xolotl 3’s voice came from near the man’s shoulder.

“I am sorry, Thunderson. If I went, I would likely destroy it.”

“It’s fine. This is part of the investigation process. …And you’re curious about this building, right?”

“Yes, in your manner of speaking, I am ‘curious’. In my manner of speaking, I feel it is worth investigating. There might be a weapon or something else there which is sending out a faint signal. Ever since I was born in these skies, I have been ‘curious’ about it, but I am too large to enter.”

“That’s a dangerous kind of curiosity. But Xolotl 3, are you sure I should be going in here?”

“You have my spare sensory device attached to your shoulder, so I will see whatever you see and hear whatever you hear. …So please enter. I am curious. I was born as a machine, so why am I curious about the ground and why have I always come to rest here between battles for thousands of years?”

“I see,” said Thunderson before hesitating.

But he soon grabbed the meter hanging from the tank on his back.

“I’m going in. But our translation concept is weak, so tell me if anything is labeled as dangerous.”

His look of resolve was turned straight forward and he made his way down the slope to the basement entrance.

His footing was confident and the sound of his military boots soon arrived at the entrance.

The door was two meters tall and three meters wide.

“I see our standards are the same. I’m opening it.”

The door opened by dropping down.

''Huh?'' thought Shinjou as he looked at the upper edge of the door. A space opened along the width of the fallen door, but the bottom of a new type of door panel soon replaced it from the other side. She could tell the metal was somewhat flexible, but she did not know how it worked.

Wind blew in front of her. The difference in air pressure at such a high altitude caused the air inside to burst out.

Most of it was dust. Dirty brown smoke mixed in with the wind and danced about and a torn paper-like fiber followed.

“That isn’t good. This could destroy the whole thing.”

Thunderson rushed into the door and Shinjou did so as well.

She heard the door close behind her as she followed the man inside the building.

The entranceway was a three square meter space.

The walls themselves emitted pale beige light. The hallway floor was black, but the spots the man stepped on glowed bluish-white and that glow spread in ripples shaped like his footprints.

The hallway continued both right and left, but Thunderson checked right first.

“Can you see this, Xolotl 3? The right side has been destroyed.”

The right half of the hallway had melted. No, it had technically not melted.

“It looks like the metal lost control. It must have broken at an early stage of the destruction and just melted into a clump.”

The metal forming the hallway’s walls was crushed as if someone had slammed a bar into it from the left wall.

The gaps in the collapsed walls gave a glimpse of the piles of objects from the rooms bordering the hallway. Some of the objects appeared to be made of wood, but whatever had covered their surface had crumbled like sand.

It had all been worn away by the passage of time.

“There is nothing to see there. Go left, Thunderson.”

“Sure,” replied the man.

The left end of the hallway had also collapsed, but he headed for the one intact door.

Shinjou realized something from the softness of the lighting coming from the walls.

…''This was a home. There weren’t any weapons here.

She then noticed Thunderson had vanished.

The door down the hallway was open, so he had entered that final room and left her alone.

She was belatedly hesitant to enter someone’s private room. She was unsure it was appropriate for someone who had only ever lived at UCAT and a student dorm.

But that thought was blown away by the beige light shining from beyond the door.

She relied on the illusion that the light was warming her nonexistent body and she set foot in the room.

“Ah…”

The room was almost ten square meters. Thunderson stood in the center and the gray dust on the floor was up to his ankles. The room was unfurnished, but the dusty walls had lines on it as if objects could be pulled out from them.

The room looked empty, but it did contain something.

The gray dust on the floor revealed a shape there.

…''A cushion?

There was a shallow rectangular bulge on the floor. It rose further on one end as if to lay one’s head on and there were dividing lines on the wall at the end. The lines were in the perfect place to look at while lying on the floor.

…''Was something like a TV kept in the wall there?

Shinjou thought about whoever had lived here.

A book or a device with similar functionality had likely been within arm’s reach. This was near the kitchen, so they would have been able to keep snacks and drinks around.

She saw a few other bulges in the dust covering the room.

Thousands of years had passed in 5th-Gear since Black Sun had destroyed the land and the people had been destroyed. This house seemed to have retained some atmosphere, but the resident or residents would have been long dead.

However, Shinjou suddenly remembered what Sayama had said just before she had been shown the past.

…''There are still questions about the fall of the 5th-Gear’s people?

She wondered what those could be, but the scene around her gave no answers.

The dust looked like gray snow and it only revealed the past through the weathered wreckage hidden below.

She then saw Thunderson pick something up from the dust.

It looked like a B5-size glass panel.

But it was actually a piece of paper encased in a clear sheet that resembled glass.

The paper contained color. The colors were those of reality. Or rather, the colors of a photograph depicting reality.

“…”

The photograph showed a girl, a man, and a woman.

They looked human. Their skin was very nearly white and their slenderness seemed to be their primary characteristic. Overall, they resembled the long-lived race.

Shinjou thought the girl standing in front looked fourteen or fifteen. The identical blonde hair on all three suggested the girl was the daughter of the man and woman behind her. Blue eyes with a hint of green smiled in the center of the photograph.

Thunderson moved his fingers to brush the dust from the photograph.

“Xolotl 3. Do you know who these people are?”

“No, I do not.”

“Then do you know why you are so curious about this place?”

“No, I do not. But,” said Xolotl 3. “To use your manner of speaking, this is a ‘calming’ place.”

That comment was followed by a sudden noise.

It came from the wall. The dividing lines Shinjou had seen before extended outward and lit up.

It became a screen.

…''Is this…?

The screen displayed the same man standing in the photograph. What looked like a factory was visible behind him. It was a large factory that seemed to extend forever and countless machines were moving about. Mechanical arms were carrying drive wheels and metal frames that looked like pieces of a giant skeleton. Other machines were welding them together.

With that in the background, the man used his blue clothes to wipe a black liquid from his hands.

“Sorry that————the periodic letter. It’s just been———————.”

The sound and video would skip. Instead of filling with static, the video partially blacked out and then the scene changed. It was still in the same factory, but the background was different. A transportation pallet was now visible and Shinjou recognized what it carried.

…''Xolotl 3?

“This is the experimental——————the separation isn’t going well. In addition to the pilot, someone else must combine with it, but their body and memories—————and can’t be recovered. The other units are similarly————————, but once this is complete, —————help Black Sun that you love so much. Once he and White Creation are protecting our world together, we can rest—————”

The video skipped again, but the location did not change. The man and his fellow workers stood in front of a mechanical dragon that looked a lot like Xolotl 3, but was not quite the same. All of them looked exhausted, none of them had shaved recently, and their clothes were filthy, but they were all smiling. Some were even waving at the camera.

But the image suddenly changed and Shinjou’s confused mind was shown something else.

The factory was being destroyed. As the ceiling collapsed and sparks flew everywhere, the same glasses-wearing man stared into the screen with a tense look on his face.

“Can you————? We were hit by a chemical———————. It was a concept bomb————————by 9th. —————headed to your planet too.”

Before Shinjou could wonder what was going on, an alarm sounded in the footage and the man closed his eyes.

“I’m sorry. Black Sun is undergoing maintenance, but——————asked him to take care of everything. If all of you are suffering, and it doesn’t look like we’re going to make it in time———————the planet. —————sure it will trouble Black Sun, so————”

The man opened his eyes and looked directly into the screen.

“Do what you can until the last moment. —————and tell Black Sun to find happiness.”

That was all. The video ended and the screen went dark.

And as black filled the screen, Shinjou took a dazed breath.

That had given the truth behind Black Sun’s destruction of 5th-Gear.

…''Does that mean…!?

“Could Black Sun not stand seeing the people suffer and die from another Gear’s chemical weapon, so he went out of control and destroyed them himself!? All to keep them from suffering!? And did he come up with his own reason for doing it because he didn’t want responsibility to lie with the people who asked him to do it!?”

But…

“Did a few people combine with the incomplete mechanical dragons to survive the chemical weapon?”

When they did, they lost their memories and began to battle the rampaging Black Sun.

And it was all because they had cared for each other and yet lost everything.

Shinjou then saw Thunderson look away from the black screen and open his mouth.

“Hey.”

“What is it?”

“Do you remember when you were born?”

“No,” replied Xolotl 3. “But I do remember it was very ‘sad’. I opened my communications and heard what my fellow mechanical dragons had to say and they were the same. It was a reaction to losing some kind of support and losing any objective.”

“Then, Xolotl 3… Who are you?”

“I am Xolotl 3.”

“Then tell me this, Xolotl 3. How is this read?”

He looked down at the photograph in the glass panel he held.

Something was written on it. Shinjou could read the meaning of the characters written in something like bluish-black pen, but she did not know what sound the writing represented.

But she heard Xolotl 3’s answer.

“It is a name. The first word means “to” and the following word is the name of the girl in the photograph.”

“And that name is?”

“In the sounds of your world it would be ‘Heo’,” explained Xolotl 3. “It means ‘happiness’.”

As Shinjou’s nonexistent body stiffened, Xolotl 3’s voice continued.

“Why are you crying, Thunderson of the family of thunder.”

“Because I understand now,” he said. “You are human, Xolotl 3. Even if you do not understand, this girl and I do. This girl who was meant to have happiness understands and so do I. And about Black Sun…was he your friend?”

“Then…let us decide.”

Thunderson frowned.

“Decide what?”

“We will continue on and settle things with Black Sun. He will likely flee to your world as usual, but repeating that process will only wear us down.”

So…

“We will pursue Black Sun and then our entire army, White Creation included, will settle this in your world.”

Thunderson’s shoulders shook and he spoke to the camera-shaped sensory device on his right shoulder.

“With the Concept Core gone, 5th-Gear will be destroyed while you do that!”

He placed the photograph on the floor, gave a quick nod toward the three people in the photograph, and left the room. And he did so at a run.

He reached the entranceway, opened the door, and left the house.

The blue sky was now visible beyond the slope up from the basement.

A swarm of dragons had appeared. Shinjou saw mechanical dragons filling that blue sky. A white one measuring over three hundred meters long was in the center with hundreds of miscellaneously colored dragons flying around it.

Wind blew with a refreshing sound.

She then heard a voice from the giant six-winged white dragon overhead.

“One with the name of the family of thunder, will you fight with us?”

“Why… Why are you asking me that?”

“We are made to fear and prevent the destruction of 5th-Gear, so we cannot pursue Black Sun when he leaves 5th-Gear. That is why we wish for orders. As machines, we wish for a human to control us.”

The white dragon was likely White Creation. He slowly lowered his head and the dragons floating around him did the same.

“I am a machine, but you referred to my fellow dragons as human. You called them humans who have chosen to forget that they are human. …And you are a human that has not forgotten that he is a human.”

“…”

“I want to give you full authority over 5th-Gear and I want your help in defeating Black Sun.”

“Why?”

“I believe I have already stated why I chose you.”

“No,” said Thunderson before his visibly white breathing stopped.

After a moment, he took a step up the slope to widen his vision.

“Why are you fighting? This will destroy your Gear.”

“I was given a single command from my original creator,” said White Creation while the dragons lowered their heads as if nodding. “I am to guide the people to happiness. What we cannot stand more than losing our own peace is to see people’s happiness destroyed, no matter where those people might be. That is why we will destroy Black Sun. We will destroy our foolish and yet kind brother who destroyed our people and our world because he could not stand seeing them suffer.”

“That’s quite a pushy sort of happiness,” said Thunderson while slowly looking across the heavens and the earth that floated in the sky. “And you’re asking me to become a villain for that? I have to be the villain who ordered the destruction of this world?”

He took a breath, closed his eyes, and gave one last resigned comment.

“So the time for my resolve has come.”

After hearing that, Shinjou felt a sudden floating sensation.

She was waking from the past and slowly returning to the present and to reality.

Heo was curled up in the arms that supported her in the darkness.

Her senses shifted from the past she had seen like a dream and back to reality.

She felt the pulse, breathing, and heat of Harakawa who she was pressed up against.

“Is that what my name means?”

“I do not know,” replied the dragon. “But my previous self fought along with the one he chose as his pilot and scored a fatal wound on the enemy, but I too was destroyed and unable to fully defeat that enemy. The enemy fled to the ocean to prepare for a future rematch and it seems we wished to combine with a single weapon along with White Creation. That being the Vesper Cannon that I once possessed.”

Showing those memories may have established some connections within him because he continued to speak.

“And at that time, White Creation chose me as the bearer of the weapon they became. I was to completely remake my destroyed body and rest until I was needed.”

Hearing that, Heo opened her mouth and wondered how loud her voice would sound in this dark stillness.

“And why did you help me?”

“I believe it was a promise. When falling into my personal concept space, my former self made a promise with my pilot. If a child needing protection was born to the family of thunder, that child was to be given full authority over 5th-Gear and the name of happiness.”

She listened to the voice.

“As the protector of 5th-Gear’s happiness, I promised to protect that child as thanks to the one who cried for our people.”

She was left speechless, but strength gathered in Harakawa’s arms around her shoulders and back and she sank into that strength.

…''How can I find a way to reject this thing that caused what I called a demon?

But…

“I was given my name by my parents.”

She did not know why, but her parents had hoped she would be happy and that she would be protected.

…''Why did they make sure only I was protected when they were the ones that fought?

And it was hard to believe that Black Sun, that demon, had cared about people.

There was so much she wanted to say that she had difficulty sorting through it all.

And just as she tried to figure out what to do, she heard a new sound. An electronic tone rang loudly in the silent and dark space.

“A cellphone. That’s the one the treasurer gave me, isn’t it?”

Harakawa spoke, removed a hand from her back, and stuck it in his own pocket. From the movement of the air, she could tell he had placed a cellphone against his ear.

“Treasurer?”

“It is I. It seems Kanda has finally opened the communications line, so feel free to send your praise…to me.”

After a quiet electronic tone, the sound vanished. Harakawa had hung up and put the phone in his pocket.

“Looks like the bad dream isn’t over yet. I’m going back to sleep for a bit.”

“U-um, Harakawa. Was that the voice of that crazy person who came by yesterday?

As she asked that, the phone began to ring again and Harakawa gave an annoyed sigh.

“What is it, idiot?”

“Heh heh heh. Did you hear that, Shinjou-kun? Harakawa does not know his place.”

“Stop making things more confusing than they have to be, Sayama, you idiot! Now what do you want?”

Heo strained her ears in the darkness and listened to the voice coming from the cellphone.

“Sorry, Harakawa, but I do not actually need you for anything. See, that is what you get. …However, I would like to speak with Heo Thunderson-kun who is with you.”

Heo looked up and felt like Harakawa was looking at her, so she tilted her head in confusion.

“Listen, Sayama,” said Harakawa from beyond the phone. “Heo said she has nothing to say to you and that you need to just go die.”

“I-I did not say that!”

“Oh, I am glad to see you are doing well. …Now listen, Heo Thunderson-kun.”

Heo listened to the boy named Sayama.

“We belong to the Japanese UCAT that functions separately from the American UCAT that is protecting you. And currently, I have demonstrated my greatness by gaining America’s approval to rescind that protection as compensation for my victory.”

She did not know what he meant by rescinding her protection.

“Eh?”

She gave voice to her confusion, but that did not stop the boy.

“Listen,” he began. “That means you will no longer be protected by America or anyone else if you do not wish for it. So live as you wish here in Japan, using the money and connections you possess. If you wish to return, either pay for the plane ticket yourself or flee to the embassy. Understand?”

“W-wait a minute.”

“Waiting will change nothing, but if you have something to say, I will listen. …What is it?”

Heo thought.

She tried to approach the phone to better make herself heard, but her forehead hit something hard. Harakawa had been thinking the same thing and held the phone out toward her.

“Ow, ow,” she said while holding her head, but she took the phone and gathered her thoughts. “U-um, well…”

She thought and pressed the cellphone against her ear.

“So my words will actually get through to you?”

“If they would not get through to me, they would not get through to anyone else in the world.”

“I detect a structural flaw in that logic,” commented the dragon.

Heo felt the dragon was exactly right, but she spoke regardless.

“Then why?”

“Let me ask you this instead. Why do you ask that?”

“Well…” she began.

“We are about to go fight what is likely the enemy that has pursued your past. …But it has nothing to do with you.”

“Wh-what? How can you say that?”

“Then why did you accept their protection that would take you to a place wholly unrelated to this fight?”

He did not stop there.

“This is a negotiation. To be honest, I would like your help. If you have already had the basics explained to you, you understand what I mean by that, right?”

[[Image:OnC_v09_0363.png|thumb]]

“Yes,” she answered with a nod.

She understood from the dream the man named Roger had given her. The world would be destroyed soon and her great-grandfather had been left with full authority of the world known as 5th-Gear.

But it seemed there was more to the story of that authority.

“You have inherited 5th-Gear’s authority from your great-grandfather. That includes the right to owning the Concept Core. As proof of that, your name is a 5th-Gear word, your dragon is a 5th-Gear human, that dragon is there for you, and the weapon made for that dragon contains the Concept Core. In other words, your great-grandfather and parents have given you the ability needed to act as 5th-Gear’s representative.”

“Th-then you’re telling me to use that power to help you?”

“I never said that,” replied Sayama. “To be completely honest, your help would be appreciated. After all, the destruction of the world would rob me of a land to rule over and that would be quite a problem for Shinjou-kun.”

“Th-that would not be a problem for me at all.”

“Ha ha ha. No need to be shy, Shinjou-kun. …Anyway, are you listening, Heo-kun? There is a lot going on and I would like your help, but everyone around me has chosen to gather here of their own free will. I could use a variety of threats or enticements to call you to me, but that is not our way of doing things.”

“B-but if the world would be destroyed without my help…”

“Then let it be destroyed. A world that cannot move a single girl’s heart deserves nothing less.”

And…

“But we will do whatever we can to fight it and we are more than willing to do so. We have a lot of spare time on our hands and we will not give up no matter what. That is all.”

“Then…”

“That is what we offer in this negotiation. We will not protect you and we will not let any other organization protect you. We will not provide you with order or peace of mind. We stand in a place where we look at the unadorned facts that the world is headed for destruction and Black Sun, who went mad for the sake of the people, flies through our skies.”

He took a breath.

“You have power, but power is nothing if it is never used. I would like your help, but there is no point if you yourself will not use your power. So if you ever want to break through the goal tape yourself, just say so. That delinquent boy will show you the way. But do not cheerfully trust us, Heo Thunderson. We may be comrades with the same goal, but we are not some clichéd group of friends. We are simply a group of people facing in the same direction. If you are fine with that, then come visit us.”

That was all.

With an electronic tone, the call ended. The complete lack of parting words left Heo speechless.

Sayama looked around his surroundings with the lights washing over him.

The blue armored uniforms and the blue mechanical dragons stood on the broad runway and the white uniforms stood by the white building.

They were all staring intently at him, so Sayama first raised his left arm forcefully enough to produce a sound from the fabric of his suit’s elbow.

“What are you doing!? Black Sun’s army is on its way! As that phone call proved, Kanda has given us free use of our communication devices! Report!!”

“Testament,” said a female voice from the white building.

Sibyl had stepped out of the entrance with a bandage around her right arm.

“Six minutes ago, the American UCAT forces remaining in Chofu engaged Black Sun’s advance unit. Communications suddenly cut out two minutes ago. Currently, a group led by American UCAT’s inspector has left Yokota to intercept them near Kunitachi.”

“If that interception fails, when will Black Sun’s advance unit arrive here?”

“Most likely, around 22:00. That is approximately twenty-five minutes from now.”

That immediate declaration produced noise from everyone there. But instead of gasping, it was the noise of weapons being prepared.

Sayama was satisfied by those overlapping sounds of steel and the fact that those in blue were also preparing. He then looked across the table and at Roger who was fixing his suit collar.

“I am impressed by American UCAT’s response to an estimation based on the assumption that your inspector will be defeated. I would like to continue this as equals.”

“Testament,” replied Roger while narrowing his eyes and turning toward his fellow American UCAT members.

But he stopped and instead reached a hand toward the table and to the philosopher’s stone on Baku’s neck.

“This is a defense concept. …You really got me there.”

“You yourself did quite well to read the letter at the end.”

“Testament. When did you realize the truth?”

Sayama replied without hesitating to lose himself in the curious look in Shinjou’s eyes.

“That is a simple matter. When you read the document during our chat last night, I wondered why he never once mentioned his precious great-granddaughter. And today when I heard Heo Thunderson had been saved by something invisible, I made a guess that she had inherited something,” he explained. “I decided Richard Thunderson must have already known his great-granddaughter would be fine on her own. …And that knowledge had most likely come when she had lost her mother.”

Sayama pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. It was the article about the death of Heo’s mother that he had received via Moira 1st.

“When asked why her mother had such a peaceful expression in death, some speculated a family member had been the culprit. However, that expression was proof that the Thunderson family had chosen the proper happiness.”

He felt a sudden pain in the left side of his chest.

He knew why. His own mother had attempted a double suicide with him.

…''What expression did she have?

As he thought that and held his right hand to his chest, something supported that arm.

The slender arm and slight strength were Shinjou’s, so he nodded toward her and relaxed.

“5th’s destruction and Black Sun were a simple matter as well. …A truly excellent machine will obey its people.”

He looked forward once more and saw Roger pushing his glasses up his nose.

“I see. It would seem I had grown a little too close-minded.”

This time, he really did turn around to prepare for the interception of Black Sun.

However, Sayama saw a new document that had appeared on the table.

“What is this?”

“Something I was asked to hold on to and bring here. Asked by your grandfather.”

Sayama frowned and felt his pulse quicken as he looked at the first page of the document. He read the title aloud.

“Georgius Development Plan.”

And the author.

“Sayama Asagi!?”

The pain arrived. His body cramped around the left of his chest and felt like it was breaking.

“Sayama-kun!”

Once he heard Shinjou’s cry, he gathered strength in his back and stood back up. He bore with the instant of pain threatening to bind his body.

“So you did hold an important position during UCAT’s blank period!”

“No, I was nothing more than a soldier. Among them, anyway. And once it was all over, I was given this as someone who was close to him. This is the development plan for the left and right Georgius, which are needed to end the Leviathan Road.”

“Left and right?”

“Yes. We were unable to use them. Most likely, the only ones who can are those with the surname Sayama and those with the surname Shinjou.”

Not only did Sayama stiffen upon hearing that, but Shinjou did as well.

She took a step forward and asked a question.

“But… Why my surname too!?”

“That is as much as I can tell you. I do not have the authority for anything more.” He waved his hand with his back still turned. “It may be that this negotiation had already been decided long ago. Your grandfather said the Leviathan Road cannot be ended without Georgius. If that is true, only Japanese UCAT can stop the destruction of the world.”

Roger began to walk and his footsteps on the asphalt grew more distant. As if pursuing that sound, Sibyl looked up with a cellphone to her ear.

“Everyone!”

She was frowning and her voice rang loudly.

“We have lost contact with the interception unit in Kunitachi.”

Harakawa heard a pulse and breathing in the darkness.

The quiet sounds came from the girl curled up on top of his chest.

She was not moving and the dragon carrying them said nothing.

How much time had passed?

He did not bother counting the breaths that functioned as an hourglass, but finally he heard a quiet voice.

“That’s horrible.”

It was Heo and she seemed to be testing the volume of her voice.

“How can he tell me to do whatever I want when the world will be destroyed without my help?”

Harakawa was not sure if he should say anything, but he decided to correct her.

“That idiot really means it. He and everyone around him are crazy. They all think they can do something, but if they can’t, they think that’s fine too. So even if you don’t help them, they’ll stupidly and optimistically assume they can get by somehow or other on their own.”

“Really?”

“That idiot said he ''wanted'' your help, right? If he really ''needed'' it, he would have said so. They can say that kind of thing because they all have the power to do something.”

“But Harakawa, you aren’t telling me to help you or that you need me.”

“Why would I? I’m not trying to do anything as crazy as them.”

“But…you still came for me.”

“…”

After he fell silent, a familiar question reached his ears.

“Why?”

She asked it again.

“Why did my parents, my great-grandfather, those strange people, and you do what you did?”

“How should I know? I might have a guess, but how should I know?” he said. “And let me tell you something, Heo Thunderson. There are definitely things it isn’t nice not knowing, but there are also things you can be perfectly happy not knowing.”

He recalled that the protective charm from his mother had taken the attack by the dragon’s claws for them. And he recalled when he had taken a certain girl into his room.

“There are things like that, aren’t there?”

The girl in his arms did not move and she held her breath for a moment.

However, he noticed her pulse had risen a little.

“There is happiness inside you that you don’t understand, but will you refuse to trust it just because you don’t understand it?”

“Well…”

“Answer me, Heo. Heo Thunderson. You said you do not know why everyone made the decisions they did, but there are things you can trust even if you don’t understand them. Whether you understand it or not, the fact remains that many people have protected you all this time. …And the same goes for you.”

He took a breath while noticing how everything he had to tell this girl needed to be said to him as well.

“Do not lie about the happiness inside you, Heo Thunderson.”

“Why?” She looked up. “Why do you do have to say that?”

“Because that is my happiness.”

He knew she would probably protest. She would probably ask him what exactly he meant which was not a question he wanted to answer.

And so he sealed those words inside her. And he used his own lips to do so.

“…”

Her body stiffened a bit.

“…”

But after a few seconds, the two parted and let out a breath. A moment later, Heo spoke.

“U-um, uh. Th-that was my first time…just now.”

“Calm down. I’m sure one of your parents beat me to it.”

“D-don’t ruin a girl’s dream like that…”

Her words fell apart toward the end, but in place of the tears and shaking from before, she gave a bitter laugh.

Her shoulders shook and she gave a ticklish laugh.

“That’s right,” she said while slowly sitting up.

“What is?”

“Trusting. It isn’t easy, but there is some truth there.” She gave another small laugh. “Like the fact that you pursued me and kissed me even after I pushed you away like that.”

“Wait.”

He had an oddly bad feeling, so he reached out and grabbed her again.

He then realized her body was trembling again even as she tried to sound confident.

…''So she was just faking it.

He heard her voice again.

“Please support me if anything happens.”

“If I feel like it.”

“Sure,” she said with a laugh. “Um, dragon?”

“What?” replied the voice.

She took in a large breath, exhaled, and spoke.

“I think I will pursue Black Sun.”

“But I…”

“You don’t know your name, right? And you need a name for your functionality. To be honest, I still don’t understand you very well and I don’t really think we can become friends,” she said. “But we have the same objective, don’t we? So…”

She said it.

“Thunder Fellow. You are a companion of the family of thunder, so how about that for a name?”

The voice said nothing in response.

Instead, a light appeared.

“Ah.”

The cockpit’s ceiling, sides, and front lit up.

A table stuck out below the pointed windshield in the front and a console window covered the table. Similar consoles appeared on the sides.

The cockpit had no control column or steering wheel, but a pair of roll bars could be seen on either side as if to support someone leaning in the seat.

As the light from the cockpit left through the windshield, color could be seen appearing on the dragon’s body. Or rather, the armor had stopped hiding its form.

The dragon half buried in sludge had a pointed form with blue and white armor.

Harakawa looked around and saw a second seat further back that looked like a bed.

“Lie there, child of happiness. When you are taken in and combine with me, the output limiters will be put in your control.”

“Wait, wait. Are you sure that’s a good idea? What if she loses her memory or there’s some other side effe-…”

“That was already fixed based on my previous self’s experiences. …I will protect her. I promise.”

Harakawa saw Heo nod in his arms.

“Let’s go so we can stop that lonely dragon named Black Sun.”

Her eyes were red from crying, but her expression showed she had accepted her power.

And so he sighed, lowered his shoulders, and let go.

“You really have gotten motivated. Just do whatever it is you want.”

“There is something for you to do as well, Harakawa,” said the dragon.

“What?”

Harakawa frowned and Thunder Fellow continued.

“After seeing you protect her twice before I could, I took the liberty of linking your nervous system to my control system when taking you onboard earlier.”

“Wait, wait, wait a second. What do you mean linked?”

He then realized something about when the giant black dragon’s main weapon had hit them.

…''Everything seemed to happen really slowly.

“I will concentrate on the neurotransmission of my own body, you will pilot my body, and Heo will both support you and use her mind to release the limiters of my body. When I evolved, I gained a number of functions I have yet to use, but…”

This powerful voice was the dragon’s true will.

“If we do this, we can draw out my full power.”

At 9:37 PM, Black Sun and its army clashed with the American UCAT mechanical dragons deployed at Kunitachi.

They had smashed most of those to pieces and continued westward after shaking free of the few remaining ones.

Yokota Air Base was west of western Tachikawa and the Showa Memorial Park, but it had no equipment left and all of its remaining forces had evacuated underground.

Black Sun sent some leading child craft along the surface to destroy anything that could attack, but they were all sent on even further ahead by the time Black Sun himself reached the base.

There were no more enemies left.

All that remained was the familiar scent that was growing stronger. It was a powerful concept reading to the west and it smelled of the weapon that had once defeated him.

Black Sun pointed that direction and slowly accelerated.

However, he detected a new scent.

In the sky even further east of the defeated enemies was some other familiar scent.

“…”

Black Sun had eliminated his negligence, so he sent some child craft into the sky behind him. He sent enough to defeat all of the enemy forces that had appeared thus far.

And at the same time, an automaton in control of the concept space creation device terminal near Tokyo Bay saw something strange.

Something slowly rose from Tokyo Bay which was supposedly empty.

It resembled a sword.

It was a thirty meter metal structure colored blue and white.

The automaton’s sight saw the water gently split above its tip as it hovered into the air.

It was a mechanical dragon.

The automaton determined this was an unidentified mechanical dragon that was different from the black ones. It was approximately five kilometers away and her scan via ultra-long distance vision showed its form was similar to the high-speed cruising form of the full transformation models. However…

“Its frame is not made to transform?”

That meant it was a non-transformation model.

“I have determined it is limited to high-speed mobility.”

A red light ran between the blue and white armor like a pulse.

That acted as a signal.

The dragon bent its body and rolled around as if dancing in the air above the water.

“!”

It suddenly shot up into the sky.

It happened instantly. All it left behind was wind, a spray of water, and a white line of water vapor that revealed its path.

The automaton’s gaze followed the white line that cut westward through the night sky.

She moved her sight devices, turned her head, and spun her body around to follow it.

“…!?”

But she was not quick enough. All she saw was the white line.

By the time she completely turned around, that line had already vanished into the western sky.

That left only the sound.

The windy roar of supersonic speed shook her body as it arrived from behind and passed by overhead.

She had no idea what had just happened, but one thing was clear.

“It is in pursuit. The blue and white mechanical dragon is pursuing Black Sun. And…”

She spoke the estimation based on her probabilistic decisions.

“It will most likely catch up.”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume9 Chapter 30|Chapter 30]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume9 Chapter 32|Chapter 32]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume7 Chapter 37

2026-06-09T02:55:31Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 37: The King’s City==
[[Image:OnC_v07_0361.png|thumb]]
''I have arrived, everyone

When Team Leviathan entered the concept space, they had left their main unit in a hospital parking lot.

A single white tent was set up there.

It was their medical tent, but as it was not on the front lines, its primary role was to store medical supplies. Only two people were visible in the cramped area left by all those supplies.

Mikage lay on a cot placed behind the piles of boxes and Sibyl sat next to her.

Mikage sat up on the cot and looked up toward the white cloth of the tent.

Occasional scraping sounds would pass by on the other side of that cloth.

“Those are stray bullets. They are a bit large, so I assume a god of war or something has arrived. We are being protected by gods of war of our own, so we should be fine.”

However, Mikage expressionlessly shook her head to say there was no guarantee of that.

She had found herself here when she had woken up and she assumed it was on Hiba’s instructions, but…

…''Why here?

Hiba had often said he would protect her, but now bullets were flying through the air and he was not here.

What did that mean? Before she had passed out, she had found her solution concerning Hiba. She had decided he should live with the others.

In truth, she had felt quite lonely the day before.

…''Or is this normal?

Hiba’s mother was alone since his father had died.

Realizing there were others like her made her think being alone was normal.

In that case, she would bear with it.

…''Ryuuji-kun needs to live a normal life without calling on my power.

She would bear with it for now and, once he returned, she would ask him to no longer take her to the battlefield. If she no longer went to the battlefield, he could live a much more normal life without worrying about anything.

She felt that was the right decision, but the thought of it still brought a pain deep in her chest.

That pain caused her to lower her head a little.

Sibyl then gave a smile with the ends of her eyebrows lowered.

“Hiba-sama is protecting you. He is doing so even more than before.”

Still feeling that pain, Mikage turned around and faced Sibyl with a frown.

“…”

She shook her head, but Sibyl did the same.

“Mikage-sama, do you know why Hiba-sama is with the others?”

“Ee-uhs ih’s orahl.”

''Because it’s normal.

She mouthed the words, pointed at herself, and shook her head.

…''Being with people other than me is normal.

“Perhaps. It is indeed not normal to be so obsessed with you and some might call him a perverted stalker boy. That phrase sums up the current situation fairly well.”

Mikage tilted her head at the term she did not understand, but Sibyl merely nodded.

“But I think being with someone is not the only way to show you care about them.”

Sibyl suddenly grabbed her hand which was already wrapped in bandages.

“You can also leave someone or push them away because you care about them. Much like you are doing now.”

“…”

“He is doing the same. Although you could call it cute how he brought you here to make sure he did more than just distance himself from you.”

“Uht?”

“Yes, cute.” Sibyl’s smile grew and she ignored the stray bullets flying over the tent. “Both of you are. Right now, he has chosen the battlefield and I am sure he can face the battlefield without you now.”

“Hy? Hy uhs ee ite?”

“Why does he fight? Because he knows it will protect you. Before, he let you monopolize him, but now he is working for everyone. However, he is only doing that because he realized he could not protect you by protecting ''only'' you.”

Sibyl’s smile lessened and her voice grew quieter.

“To put it in a bit of an over-the-top way, he is protecting the place in which you live.”

“Uh ays ih ihch I ihv?”

“Yes. Do you know the origin of your name?”

She had been told that before.

It was back when she would go to the Hiba Dojo after she had woken up but before she had learned to speak. Her vision had been imperfect and she had only been able to see things vaguely.

One morning, when the moon still remained in the sky, Hiba had pushed her wheelchair to visit his grandfather and the old man had brought them further beyond the open air dojo.

A cracked clearing and a small cabin in the woods had been there.

The cabin had appeared inhabited. They had passed over a narrow dirt floor and reached a small area of tatami mats. Hiba and his grandfather had worked together to sit her there.

“I ememer.”

''I remember.

Her dim vision had seen a light rising above the mountain ridge that had been visible as shadow.

The subsequent contrast between light and darkness had shown the natural things such as trees, mountains, and rivers as well as the unnatural such as cities.

She remembered being told that was where she had been named Mikage.

She had looked at the young Hiba’s face, seen a smile there, and formed the same expression on her own face.

…''I wanted to evolve.

She remembered thinking that.

She wrinkled her brow and looked to Sibyl. Sibyl was looking at her slightly lowered head.

“Hiba-sama is in a place where his power is needed.”

And…

“He will not ask for your help because that could end up hurting you, but that is because he cares about you the most.”

Hearing that, Mikage opened her mouth.

“Uht.”

''But.

Upon saying that, she suddenly realized something.

…''But what do I want to do?

She wanted to know. Rather than simply thinking she did not know, she wanted to know the answer to that question.

“Ih-ul.”

…''Why do you know the origin of my name?

Only a few of those closest to her knew that.

As soon as she thought that, she heard cries of surprise from outside.

She wondered what had happened and Sibyl held her in her arms.

A moment later, she heard an explosion and the tent was blown away.

Two exchanges were being made in the moonlit sky.

One of beams of light and the other of speed.

On one side was a giant form with four metal wings and several cannons. On the other was a small body with wings of light and a spear.

They were Cottus and Kazami.

Kazami repeatedly flapped her wings while keeping her distance from Cottus.

Cottus could cover a large distance with a single action and his mid-stage acceleration was the most powerful.

On the other hand, Kazami had the greater initial speed and could make tighter turns.

However, the difference in distance covered per action was simply too great. Even when she flapped her wings repeatedly, a single movement of his wings would separate them.

They were currently to the northwest of Kurashiki Station. There was light down below, but it did not come from houses. It came from a large area filled with mansions, towers, the decorative lights on arcades.

“The amusement park. Or is it a theme park?”

Spreading out from the northern entrance of Kurashiki Station was Kurashiki Tivoli Gardens which used a Hans Christian Andersen theme.

Kazami descended toward the illuminated European-style temple in the center.

The clock on the dimly-lit arcade was approaching 9:00 PM, but it would be past 11:00 PM outside the concept space.

…''Is that the lag between the creation of the concept space and the power being set up?

She looked to the Ferris wheel to the right as an attack came from the sky.

She flew into the theme park and she glided through the illumination of the central arcade covering the tree-lined path to the entrance.

She moved quickly and the illumination hid her wings of light more than the trees did.

She used her wings and kicked off the brick path to slalom between the trees while looking back and repeatedly firing G-Sp2’s cannon. She clicked her tongue when Cottus turned around and evaded from a hundred meters up. She avoided the return fire with a flying step while gliding over the brick path.

She slipped between the trees.

The flat white roof before her was the theme park’s exit. She smiled when she noticed the empty mobile organs and European style popcorn stands on either side.

An instant later, she passed between the exit gate and the roof while drawing the pursuing bullets of light.

She flew out front where a wide road extended to the left and right. Beyond the road was the large white building of Kurashiki Station and a parking garage.

The wind was different from in the theme park, she had a wider area to move in, and the theme park’s lights felt hot behind her.

It was summer and she noticed the lights of a beer garden on the roof of the station building.

…''Come to think of it, Kaku said we needed to go to one of those once I turned twenty. He was talking about one in Tachikawa, though.

There was no real reason to wait, but he could be overly-serious about the strangest things.

Light flew down from the sky.

The bombardment tore into the roof of the theme park’s entrance and smashed the asphalt.

Kazami flapped her wings and moved right as a feint. Her opponent had a machine’s decision-making ability, memory, and predictive ability. If she moved in a straight line, he would easily predict her movements, so she intentionally flew along the stone-paved path in front of the theme park instead of the wider road.

She disturbed her normal motions with a skip, moved her wings, and then quickly launched herself toward the train station.

She soared.

A white terrace was located between the theme park and the station. It had a radius of about fifty meters, the center was left open, and it had European style decorations. A three-story clock tower stood in the central courtyard.

Kazami flew up and over the terrace so she could see the green-roofed clock tower.

She then heard a low sound far to the south and saw smoke in the southern sky.

“Did a god of war or something explode back at the headquarters?”

She wanted to believe the medical tent that Sibyl and Mikage were in was unharmed, but she still frowned.

“They’re fine.”

She told herself she would go back later and she faced forward.

She flew on top of the terrace, nodded while still frowning, and heard a sudden sound. She heard a bell and classical music began playing from the speakers set up in the terrace’s central courtyard.

The bell indicated nine o’clock in the concept space.

At the same time, the clock tower began to move. The clock portion at the top split open and something came out.

“A puppet show?”

A show modeled after Andersen’s fairy tales was set up within the clock tower. The puppets were set up in all four directions and each side represented a different story.

The four stories slowly rotated to music.

“Ah.”

Kazami realized it was distracting her, so she quickly looked up.

However…

“Viewing allowed.”

Cottus stopped firing and came to a stop in the sky overhead.

Kazami smiled bitterly. She heard the sounds of attacks beyond the station and saw black smoke rising in the southern sky.

“It’s fine. I don’t think this is the end for me, so someday I’ll come back to see it with the person most important to me. I’ll watch this wonderfully enjoyable mechanical kingdom and its puppet show with the sounds of a bell in the background.”

“Understood.”

Cottus moved through the sky above the theme park. He turned backwards and aimed the cannons toward her.

Meanwhile, she moved slowly into the sky without moving away from him.

They both slowly rotated with Kazami below and Cottus above.

Cottus nodded as the music behind them ended and the clock tower closed.

The end of the sound acted as their cue.

“…!”

Kazami took action.

Kazami raced through the air.

She ascended while moving in a shallow arc to reach Cottus’s right side.

However, Cottus predicted it.

He first held her off by firing his many cannons toward her and then turned to the right. His turn kept her in range as she ascended and evaded rightward into the sky.

As he rotated his heavy body to the right, he tried to fire a second volley along her upward path, but she took her own action in that moment.

“That isn’t gonna cut it!”

Her new action exceeded Cottus’s predictions.

She suddenly changed her course to ascend directly toward him instead of to his right. This brought her directly into the hail of cannon fire flying her way.

She was directly below him and she could see him turned to the right on the other side of the barrage of light.

His weight prevented him from moving right away, so she used this chance and oriented herself vertically toward the light pouring from the heavens.

“…!”

She kicked off empty air and flew.

Her flapping wings sent her in a straight line directly up. The barrage resembled arrows of light, but she had a rudder to navigate through them.

“G-Sp2!”

The tip of the spear closed and became a blade once more. She used the flow of the wind it sliced through to adjust her trajectory.

And she flew.

She moved her wings to accelerate, accelerate, and accelerate even more. After three consecutive bursts of acceleration, she added on another.

She charged into the center of the barrage in an instant.

Cottus’s cannons were positioned symmetrically on either side. By placing herself in the center, she could evade simply by altering her trajectory up and down, so that was precisely what she did.

She pressed herself down on the spear to avoid the first thick beam of light and slipped just above the second without lowering her upwards speed in the slightest.

She expected the third shot to target her face, but it instead targeted the shoulder. It was fortunate she preferred to dress light and therefore had not worn shoulder armor.

…''If I’d been wearing it, it would’ve caught on that blast and I would’ve been killed.

She accepted that thought positively and continued slipping through the light.

“This feels great!”

She had just about made it out, but one final blast was still on its way.

Cottus was facing to the side, but he had fired with a right-side secondary cannon to finish her off.

Sensing it would hit, Kazami did not hesitate.

She flapped her wings to send her straight forward and she jammed G-Sp2 into the light.

It all happened in an instant. The light shattered with a great noise of destruction and she felt intense recoil, but…

“Go!”

The intensity of her wings won out. Light scattered as if she had broken through a wall of water and she continued on into the sky.

“I made it through!”

Her shout was met by the sensation of cool air.

…''Ah.

The battle was not over, but her vision still turned to the night sky when she broke through the barrage.

The moon and the stars floated in that sky and she thought to herself while looking to the constellations.

…''The images of the gods are watching over the people with the moon in the center.

She had reached the empty sky, but she realized one fact.

“Cottus is gone!?”

An instant later, she acted on reflex. She aimed G-Sp2 toward her feet and did not hesitate.

“G-Sp2! Stage Two!”

G-Sp2 made the indicated transformation and she fired the cannon as if stabbing it into the air beneath her.

With a scorching sound, the white light flew forcefully downwards.

“That’s where you are, isn’t it!?”

Cottus was indeed down below where she had sent the light and her shout.

…''He used the barrage to hide his movements as he turned toward me and dropped into my blind spot.

Such a heavy god of war was defenseless after firing or while moving, so after firing the final shot at her before, he had chosen to move as quickly as he could to evade. While continuing to rotate to the right, he had used gravity to drop down below.

If she had let the surprise of his disappearance take over, he would undoubtedly have finished rotating and fired from below. There was only one reason she had not let that happen.

…''Experience!

That thought was accompanied by the clear sound of the white strike hitting the center of Cottus’s chest.

The blue chest armor was destroyed and the spreading pressure also destroyed the surrounding armor and main cannons. It looked like a meteor had hit him.

He fell to the ground as if he had been thrown down and that brought him toward a certain structure.

“The Ferris wheel!”

Kazami shouted and flapped her wings to secure a second shot.

Cottus was going to collide with the Ferris wheel that was much larger than him.

However, an odd sensation came over Kazami a moment later.

Everything in her vision rotated while Cottus remained in the very center.

She had been looking at the ground and the Ferris wheel, but for some reason she was now looking toward the sky and the moon.

“Eh?”

Something struck her back and it felt like a cold pillar.

She turned around and found a wheel made from giant white pillars.

It was the Ferris wheel.

“Eh!?”

The answer to her confusion brought a new question.

…''Why did Cottus and I switch places?

“Did you use your gravitational control to rotate space!?”

Cottus’s gravitational control was powerful enough to keep a god of war as massive as him in flight, so he had used it to rotate the space they occupied by one hundred eighty degrees. His gravitational control was not precise enough to grab an individual, but he did not need to.

“Spatial rotation possible.”

She looked up toward the voice and saw Cottus in the sky. All of his armor was spread out and the shimmering of heat rose from within.

“Gravitational control at maximum power required.”

But in exchange…

“Final attack. Single volley.”

That announcement of an all-or-nothing shootout caused Kazami to panic. She was currently an excellent target for a volley, so she needed to right herself and kick off the Ferris wheel pillar.

But before she could, Cottus held out his hand. He had secondary cannons in his hands, stomach, and shoulders.

Light gathered in them and they shot power straight down toward her.

“Victory assured!”

The sound of a bell filled the city.

The clock tower’s nine o’clock reverberation shook the uninhabited city.

That sound was joined by gunfire and explosions in various places.

“Last one!”

Mechanical noises and the clashing of weapons came from Susahito Custom.

The noises came from the Achi Shrine side of the road leading from the train station. The last of the green enemy gods of war had just had its torso sliced in two. One of Hiba’s two swords had already broken and this was his first strike with the second sword he had switched to.

However, he instinctually looked to the sky after defeating that enemy.

…''Is something coming?

He heard an odd, deep sound. It was the sound of the wind created by the movement of some giant object.

He moved to take the rifle from his back and fix it to the hard point on his right arm, but the object suddenly landed before he could.

“…!”

It flew to the ground about two hundred meters south on the same road.

A white god of war landed with such force that it seemed to collide with the ground.

It was Typhon.

In the center of Hiba’s vision, Typhon was ejecting shimmering heat from the armor on its shoulders and waist.

He also saw a god of war move toward Typhon from the right.

It was a UCAT god of war with black and white armor and it had likely walked this far once the 3rd-Gear gods of war had been dealt with.

The god of war fired its submachine gun and charged forward with its thrusters fully open.

“———!”

But it was soon proven that the charge was meaningless.

Sparks scattered at only a few dozen centimeters in front of the white god of war. The flying bullets had been deflected with pressure-resistant barriers made with pinpoint targeted gravitational control.

The white god of war did not even take a defensive stance.

The UCAT god of war must have realized the gun was useless because it threw away the weapon and drew its sword.

It clashed with Typhon with the sword prepared at its waist.

“—————”

In the instant Hiba expected them to collide, Typhon raised its right hand.

The palm struck the black and white god of war’s sword head-on.

“!”

And it broke.

The sword could be heard shattering as it seemed to be sucked in and compressed by the white metal palm.

Typhon then thrust that same right hand forward. Despite the UCAT god of war’s momentum, Typhon’s single hand caught it by the armor of its neck.

“…!”

And the black and white god of war was casually thrown overhead.

That was all it took to send it flying through the air.

It flew, rotated, and disappeared beyond the shopping district behind them.

Finally, the spectacular sound of a destroyed building came from beyond that shopping district.

Typhon did not even look back toward its enemy.

In the center of Hiba’s vision, Typhon stared into the city. Smoke was rising here and there, explosions rang through the air, and the sounds of gunfire and clashing weapons filled the city of Kurashiki.

A silver blade was exposed below the night air and moonlight, but Typhon stabbed it into the asphalt. It placed both hands on the upturned bottom of the hilt and suddenly let out a shout.

“My family of 3rd-Gear!”

The male voice carried throughout the Kurashiki sky that still contained the reverberation of the bell.

“3rd-Gear’s king is watching you. Fight to your heart’s content!”

Moira 1st prepared to fire a plate at Izumo and Ooshiro, but she stopped when she heard a sudden voice.

She frantically turned her head toward the Achi Shrine to listen.

“Can you hear me, Low-Gear and those supporting them!? And can you hear me, those who hold a grudge against us!?”

Moira 1st looked down the road, but the voice’s owner was around a corner and out of sight.

However, she could still hear the voice.

“I have prepared all of 3rd-Gear’s forces here.”

“Eh?” said one of the maids when she heard that. “But we did this without Lord Apollo’s permission.”

…''Silence.

Moira 1st sent out a shared memory and continued listening.

“Here are the maids created to look after humans, the guardians created to protect 3rd-Gear, and the massive weapons created to crush our more pitiful enemies and to match the dragons. They stand on this battlefield along with the will to use their might to dominate over all others!”

The maids listened to Apollo’s words.

“I find this battlefield to be comfortable. No matter what the automatons might say, it does not come from their own wills. This is what my will once desired. I present to you the chance to cleanse it all! Now, cleanse that which cannot be left in this world and cleanse my own life!”

They heard his voice.

“The bell indicating 3rd-Gear’s ending has rung! If you will use this battle to invite us in as a new family, then try it, weakest Gear!! If you can show us the happiness of making a family out of the people and weapons we have created, I will accept that you have surpassed us! We are an army of machines that do not seek understanding and know not of retreat! Do not think an iron will and steel flesh can be so easily controlled and brought to submission!”

And…

“I, King Apollo of 3rd-Gear, will accept the result of this battle as the result of the Leviathan Road!!”

Moira 1st closed her eyes when she heard that.

She finally nodded and faced forward.

In the distance, a boy and an old man who was not moving his back stood on the road.

The boy rested a giant white Cowling Sword on his shoulder and nodded once.

“You’ve got a great king. …From what I’d heard, I was imagining someone a lot more pathetic.”

“Yes, he has become truly great. Until now, he pretended to not give this any thought and seemed to hate his father and 3rd-Gear.”

She smiled.

“According to the records I have access to, no one would make a more fitting king for 3rd-Gear.”

“I see.” The boy nodded again and smiled. “If your king’s watching, we’ve got no choice. Let’s both show what we can do.”

“Of course.”

Moira 1st nodded, brought two plates together, and held them up.

She realized this would be her final shot as she forcefully swung her arm and shouted out.

“Loading the bullet!”

Apollo turned to the right of the road.

He pulled the sword from the ground and held up his right hand.

He saw his opponent among the orange streetlights.

It was a black god of war.

He had not seen this god of war for a long time. It had actually been sixty years, but to him, it had been only five.

“Hey,” said Apollo. “How about a rematch? I never actually lost to that Susahito god of war.”

“Yes, I know. My grandfather used Susamikado to kill you.”

“He arrived to take back Rhea’s daughter and hid at Cronus’s place. Rhea’s daughter had been turned into an automaton and your grandfather made his appearance when she had been handed over to my father’s duplicate.”

He remembered that time quite well. Whenever he had tried to remember it before, Artemis had taken over, but he could do it now. His mind felt clear now that he had combined with the machine.

…''Miyako.

It was thanks to her that he was able to remain himself for this long, so he was thankful.

“I was the one that crushed that god of war in front of my father. That is what I mean when I refer to a rematch.”

The black god of war nodded and held its sword to the right.

…''That is the same stance as back then. No, this one is situated a little lower.

“How nostalgic. Although the noisy crying of Rhea’s daughter is missing now.”

Hearing that, the black god of war froze in place. After a moment, it spoke.

“Do you know the name of…Rhea’s daughter?

“No, my father forbade it. He said it was a name filled with the weakness of Low-Gear. I also never asked because I was afraid of growing even slightly attached to her.” A tone of self-deprecation came from the mechanical mouth. “I assume it’s a good name.”

“It is.”

“Ha ha. From what I hear, she’s become important to you. …In that case, I’ll make you a promise. If I have a child, I’ll give it a good name as well.”

''Miyako will choose well there,'' he thought as he walked forward.

He moved toward the black god of war and slowly raised his sword.

“Now, it is time we fought.”

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume7 Chapter 36|Chapter 36]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume7 Chapter 38|Chapter 38]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume7 Chapter 26

2026-06-08T02:46:38Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 26: Jab of Guidance==
[[Image:OnC_v07_0039.png|thumb]]
''Indicate the direction to travel

''Here there is nothing but different battlefields

''Look to your feet and you will find iron

A narrow strip of beach bordered the ocean.

A forest lay behind the beach and a rocky area separated them.

A woman stood on the rocks after coming from the forest.

It was Ooki who wore a white coat and gray shorts.

After walking from the nearby medical tent, she stretched atop the rocks.

“Nn. This is such a nice place.”

…''I don’t like all the salt water out there, though.

The salty wind was oddly stimulating. It was bad for her health and she needed to wash it away with spring water later, but it seemed to tense up her body.

“Will it help me lose weight?”

“Oh? You don’t look like someone who needs to worry about that,” said a female voice.

The voice came from below, so Ooki stopped walking and stretching.

Down below, a woman with long gray hair lay on a beach mat. She wore a black and gold swimsuit.

“Oh, Diana-san.”

Ooki jumped down from the rocky area. The difference in height was approximately a meter, but she was landing on the beach. The sand should have absorbed the shock, but for some reason, her feet slipped and she fell forward.

She ended up lying next to Diana in the same position.

“Ow…”

''Don’t cry. Don’t cry,'' she told herself. The woman lying next to her was the inspector from German UCAT. Those children were working so hard, so she would feel bad if Germany was told Japanese UCAT’s people cried at the slightest provocation.

She sat up, wiped at the corners of her eyes, and brushed the sand from her clothes and hair. ''It’s a little salty,'' she thought while turning to Diana who lay with her bikini top undone.

Diana lowered her sunglasses and knitted her brow a little.

“Are you okay?”

“Oh, y-yes. I am.”

Ooki straightened up and then bowed, hoping the woman would report that Japanese UCAT’s people were polite.

She then looked back at Diana as she lay on the beach mat.

“Are you tanning?”

“Yes. This kind of sun is rare in Germany, so it’s for my health as well.”

“I see.”

Ooki wondered what to do. She was usually the one giving the tests, so it made her nervous to be inspected like this. She had heard it was best to make a good impression in an interview and the fastest way of making a good impression was to compliment the person.

…''This situation showed up in the drama I saw the other day. How did that compliment go again?

“Heh heh heh. Girly, you’ve sure got some nice skin.”

“That’s Pervsuke’s catch phrase from the Sunday 8:00 drama ‘Return of Mito Kimon’, isn’t it?”

“So you recognized it. Those people always use the back gate for assassinations. And when they’re found, they say ‘Ugh, what a pain. Suke-san, Kaku-san, get them!’ I think there’s something a little off about that.”

“Yes. Now, for a sudden change of subject, is the Hiba boy okay?”

“Oh, yes. That is sudden, but he is. Izumo-kun made sure not to hurt him too badly. He’s currently being treated by Doctor Chao in the medical tent and he should be fully recovered by tonight. He was given a sedative, so he’s sleeping now.”

“Gut. Then what about the Izumo boy?”

Ooki thought for a moment and wondered if she should really say this.

“He’s actually sleeping in the tent for Kazami-san and the other girls. He’ll apparently recover on his own by tonight.”

“Oh? He seemed fine during the fight just now.”

“Apparently, he was putting on a strong front.” Ooki smiled while sensing the ends of her eyebrows lowering. “He said Hiba-kun would be too full of his own power otherwise.”

“And what about Mikage?”

“Oh, right. Since letting her know Izumo-kun’s condition would make it all meaningless, Sibyl-san is showing her around the island. There’s an orchard over there and Sibyl-san said she could learn a lot there.” She thought for a moment. “It seems like it was quite a shock for her that Hiba-kun lost.”

“I didn’t notice much of a difference.”

“From what I can tell, she may provide some unexpected surprises, but she may normally be even more expressionless than Sayama-kun. As your teacher, I-… Oh, I’m sorry, Diana-san. I’m not your teacher. That’s a bad habit of mine.”

She scratched her head and Diana’s shoulders shook in laughter.

“Could you please continue, teacher?”

“Oh, yes, yes.”

Ooki stretched her knees forward and wondered if tanning would be good for her health as well.

“I’ve been thinking about what kind of place this is in Mikage-san’s mind. Hiba-kun was forced to come here because his house was ruined and because his mother insisted, but for Mikage-san…”

“She just wants to be with the Hiba boy, right?”

“Yes, but what if Hiba-kun tries to go somewhere Mikage-san doesn’t want to go?”

“Such as?”

[[Image:OnC_v07_0045.png|thumb]]

“Well…” Ooki thought. “Such as a place where he’d be fine even without her.”

She nodded and wondered if she was using Japanese properly before continuing.

“It would be somewhere that did not include her if Hiba-kun lost. It would be somewhere in which he had the power to fight without Susamikado and everyone else welcomed him in her place.”

She stared out to sea before finishing her thought.

“For example, here.”

“What an odd thing to think about.”

“Is it really?”

“If he were to go to a place she does not want, it would mean losing his power to fight. And if that happened, why would everyone welcome him?”

Diana reached for the glass holder next to her beach mat. The glass in the styrofoam holder produced a light sound that indicated some ice remained inside.

As if that sound were a signal, Diana spoke.

“Or were they able to welcome him when he lost because they were certain in their victory? The loser must obey the victor even if they do not want to. Is that it? However, the Hiba boy’s objective and current position are different from yours.”

“Of course they’re different.”

“Eh?”

Diana tilted her head, so Ooki explained.

“They couldn’t be the same. After all…um…how should I put it? Um…uh…”

She crossed her arms. She did not quite understand what she wanted to say, but what Diana had said was not it. She was almost certain of that, so she carefully thought without rushing.

“Ah.”

She looked out to sea. Diana did so too and finally tilted her head again.

“There’s nothing there.”

“No, um, what I mean is… You still saw the same scenery, right?”

Ooki gave an internal cry of joy.

“Even if we have different objectives and stand in different positions, we can still see the same scenery if we try.”

“…”

“Winning and losing isn’t the only important thing. If you don’t understand that, you’ll only think about making your opponent lose. But my teacher’s instincts think Hiba-kun is looking to the same place as us.”

She emphasized being a teacher again, but she no longer cared.

“But at some point, he may have started looking down at his own feet and I don’t think he’s let Mikage-san know. But he’s a good kid. They all are: Izumo-kun, Kazami-san, Sayama-kun, Shinjou-san, Hiba-kun, and Mikage-san.”

“Oh, my. I get the feeling you would call even your enemy a good kid.”

“They probably are. Enemy or not, everyone should be looking to the same place. For example, they probably really, really want to get some sleep and they probably want to laze around.”

“It looks like this entire conversation was on a much lower level than I thought it was.”

“D-don’t be rude.”

Ooki turned toward Diana and found the woman smiling.

“Anyway, you say they are different types of good kids?”

“Yes, they are all good kids. Even if their levels of perversion, violence, and sophistry vary.”

“Those are some small yet oddly meaningful variations.”

“I-I don’t have any other good examples.”

As soon as Ooki said that, she heard footsteps from the rocky area behind her.

She turned to find Kazami peering at them from above the rocks.

“Ooki-sensei… And Diana-san too?”

“Oh? Is there something you don’t want to say around me?”

Diana held a hand over her chest and turned toward the rocky area.

With the woman looking at her, Kazami was unsure what to say. She would normally have Izumo by her side and he would give her some kind of guidance, but that was not the case now.

“Um…”

She hesitated until Ooki gave a guess.

“Did Sayama-kun do something?”

He had not been seen since announcing he would buy some necessary items in Kurashiki.

Ooki suspected he was up to something, but she did not know what. Nevertheless, if Kazami wanted something now, it likely had to do with him.

Diana then asked another question with a smile.

“He has been searching for 3rd-Gear, hasn’t he? The adults are unable to act thanks to the other UCATs and the inspectors like me, so you children are doing something instead.” She nodded. “Fine then. I will take a break from my job and pretend I don’t hear any of this.”

“How are we supposed to trust you about that?”

“Oh? Germans rival the British in how seriously we take our breaks.”

“And does taking a break here mean you’re also taking a break from those German customs?”

“Herrlich. I see you’re good at logic games. I suppose that qualifies as a passing grade.”

Diana lay back down, put on her swimsuit, sat up, and retied the swimsuit.

“In that case, I will do my job. For example, by missing out on this information, I will gain something later. …How about that? Can you make beneficial use of this information I am going to miss out on? Such as…Oh, I know. Successfully completing the Leviathan Road with 3rd-Gear.”

“We can do that,” immediately replied Ooki rather than Kazami.

Diana turned toward her, but she did not care.

“This will turn out well, won’t it, Kazami-san?”

“Eh? Oh…yes. Of course it will.”

Diana gave a bitter laugh at that and she brought a hand to her mouth to suppress it.

“Now, please give this information I will miss out on. What does that Sayama boy have to say?”

“About that… Ooki-sensei, is Sibyl around?”

“Huh? She went off with Mikage-san earlier. What do you need?”

“Well…” Kazami held up the object in her right hand so they could see. “I got a call from Sayama. He says he knows where 3rd-Gear’s base is located.”

“Oh, my,” said Diana while looking up. “But not even Japanese UCAT’s Okayama branch and Shimane’s western headquarters know that.”

“Yes, but he says he’ll tell us after impressing Shinjou by telling her. That makes me want to throw him to the ground, but I thought I should gather together Team Leviathan (minus the two sleeping idiots) beforehand. I want Sibyl because she can use her transmitter to contact everyone’s cell phones.”

“Oh, I get it now,” said Ooki. “Yeah, her beepy thing would help. Here, I’ll do it for her.”

“Stop! You’ll break it!! And what do you mean ‘beepy thing’?”

“It makes weird sounds when you press the buttons. By the way, the one for the TV is called the clicky thing. Right?”

She turned to Diana for support, but the other woman frantically shook her head.

“I just call it a clicker.”

“Oh, so that’s what they call it in Germany.”

While looking down at them from the rocks, Kazami rested her cheek on her hand.

“I thought it was just my parents, but it looks like everyone’s like this.”

The grounds of the Achi Shrine were vast.

At the top of the stairs was a large area of gravel. The main building was directly ahead and the other buildings were arranged in a wide circle around that main building.

To the west of the shrine grounds was a wooden viewing platform. It had a roof and it stuck out from the sharply-sloped ground like a balcony. It was supported by several thick wooden pillars below.

Shinjou was currently looking out from the edge.

“Sayama-kun, it feels like we were thrown out into the trees of the forest.”

“Yes. This is like a small mountain with a surprisingly steep slope.”

Sayama sat on a wooden protrusion from the wall and he placed his cell phone in his pocket.

Shinjou sat down to his left and reached for Baku on his shoulder.

“So… Where is 3rd-Gear’s base?”

“Heh heh heh. Do you want to know?”

“U-um… Please stop teasing me and just tell me.”

“I am not teasing you. I simply enjoy seeing you growing so impatient.”

“That’s called teasing me.”

Sayama thought as he watched her frown in impatience.

…''How enjoyable.

But the world functioned on the principle of give and take. The world required he pay 1 unit of Sayama difficulty for this 1 unit of Sayama pleasure.

“Then I have a simple question for you: where do you think 3rd-Gear’s base is?”

“Here,” she immediately replied. “If 3rd-Gear’s base is in Kurashiki, it has to be here. We got a good look at Kurashiki earlier, remember? It’s an old city and it hasn’t changed in the past sixty years. In which case…”

“Holding the high ground would help in case enemies attacked from all four directions?”

“Yes. That’s why I think this would be the best place. And it may be weird, but…this is a shrine. If the people of 3rd-Gear are superstitious, I think they would choose here.”

“I see.”

Sayama nodded and felt that was a convincing argument.

“But Shinjou-kun, do you realize there is a flaw in your reasoning?”

“Yes. It’s that-…”

“That 3rd-Gear moved after their clash with 1st-Gear, right?”

Shinjou nodded and leaned over in front of him.

…''Does she want to rest her head on my lap?

He spread his arms to welcome her, but she instead opened the bag on his opposite side.

“Let’s see… Where’s the map? …Sayama-kun, what’s with that deep breathing pose?”

“Heh heh heh. Shinjou-kun, you are a wonderful person who far exceeds my expectations.”

“I’m not sure what just happened in your brain, but thanks. Anyway, look.”

She spread out the large sightseeing map of Kurashiki so he could see.

“We mentioned it while climbing the stairs, but Kurashiki has another mountain. Mukouyama is about four hundred meters southeast of here and it’s actually larger than this one.”

“But if they were there, UCAT would notice. And 3rd-Gear must have realized they are being monitored.”

Sayama grabbed the cloth wrapper hanging from the backpack. He pulled Gyes’s sword from within. The thin metal blade measured around a meter, and yet…

“It is light. It feels like holding an aluminum ruler.”

“D-don’t move it around too much. It might have some kind of trap.”

“There is no danger of that. 3rd-Gear’s automatons are rational. They would know doing that gives us an excuse to attack.” He took a breath. “One of those automatons told us to find them and that statement came from her belief that UCAT had yet to find 3rd-Gear’s fortress.”

“Oh, you’re right.” Shinjou then seemed to realize something. “So that’s it. Was it five years ago that they clashed with 1st-Gear? Ooshiro-san said they vanished and haven’t been seen since, right?”

“Exactly right.”

“Then where is their base on this map?”

Shinjou looked to the map and saw a few candidate locations. She figured a wide flat area would be best for a large facility and she tilted her head.

“It could be at the amusement park north of the train station…and the roundabout south of the station would be good too. The station behind them would form a barricade against attacks from airplanes. But…”

“But?”

“Those places have already been investigated, haven’t they?”

“Are you trying to say that 3rd-Gear might not be in Kurashiki at all?”

“Yeah…”

“I see.” Sayama had muttered those same words a few times already. “Slipping into a blind spot is indeed the same as not being there at all. This is much like 2nd-Gear’s Art of Walking.”

“You mean they really are in Kurashiki?”

“Yes,” he answered with a nod.

He looked to the map and realized the sword in his hand was in the way.

He tossed the sword over the edge of the viewing platform.

He heard something falling into the leaves covering the slope behind him and then Shinjou closed the map and frantically stood up to his left.

“S-Sayama-kun! You can’t just throw it away!”

“But we no longer need it, Shinjou-kun. More importantly, let me see the map.”

“Eh?”

He folded his arms and spoke to her.

“Shinjou-kun, open the map once more.”

“O-okay…”

She did so and he thanked her before running his finger along the map.

“3rd-Gear changed location. UCAT investigated once they detected the string vibration disturbance and 1st-Gear checked at the same time, but neither one found anything. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes. That’s why they checked elsewhere too, but they never found 3rd-Gear.”

“However, they overlooked two important factors.”

“Eh?”

“The automatons we saw yesterday could move through Low-Gear and they were certain UCAT had not located their fortress. Why was that?”

“Because they have UCAT information?”

“Exactly,” said Sayama. “Now, where did they receive that information? They either have a spy or a skillful information broker has been giving them some small pieces of information. I would like to argue the latter.”

“Why? Do you have a reason for that?”

“3rd-Gear was not present when 1st-Gear reinvestigated the area. When their comrades were killed, 1st-Gear would have immediately sent out a recon team. A recon team on a mission of vengeance. To move before that, 3rd-Gear would have to be cowardly or have someone giving them 1st-Gear’s information. When you combine that with their knowledge of Low-Gear’s actions, it is easier to assume the existence of a common information broker than two different spies,” said Sayama. “Now, if 3rd-Gear had all our information, where would they hide?”

“Eh?”

Shinjou gave a voice of confusion, but her eyebrows soon rose.

“You don’t mean…”

“I do, Shinjou-kun. We no longer need the sword. 3rd-Gear moved from here, but once 1st-Gear and Low-Gear had finished investigating…they only had to move back.” He gave a bitter smile. “The stupider the organization, the more restricted the lower levels are. Do you really think the UCAT members on the scene would have suggested the following to their superiors? ‘I’m sorry, but could we go back and check the areas you already used so much manpower to investigate?’ Of course, this will be my loss if they had a superior who would agree to that. But…”

“But?”

“The old man said UCAT’s Okayama branch checked everywhere, but a check is done once and it does not vanish. They rolled across everything and concluded it was not here.”

He stood up.

“I win.”

He held out his hand and Shinjou frantically folded up the map and took his hand.

“You certainly are confident. …This will be a big deal if you’re wrong.”

“It will be an even bigger deal if I am right, Shinjou-kun. Now, prepare yourself.”

He pulled on her hand to help her up and bring her next to him.

“We will now settle this conflict with the gods.”

A white train station had a green mountain in the background.

The sign on the building said Okutama Station and the midday sun washed over it.

Okutama was the terminal station of Tokyo’s Oume line. With the exception of tourists, it was rarely busy outside of the morning and night. Currently, only two people exited the station and entered the midday sun.

They both wore black and they both had white hair, but one was a middle-aged man in sunglasses and the other was his maid.

The middle-aged man looked up into the sky.

“Sf, bring around the car.”

“Tes. Itaru-sama, please wait a moment. I will be right back.”

The maid, Sf, ran down the road in front of the station. The area in front of the station gradually sloped down to the east and she ran past restaurants and signs to guide tourists.

She finally arrived at an intersection down the slope.

“Was there a parking lot that way?” wondered Itaru.

Sf continued on and entered the police box in front of the intersection.

A middle-aged policeman and Sf soon exited and Sf raised her right hand. The policeman bowed and Sf moved behind the police box.

Soon, a car drove out and the policeman saluted.

The light vehicle was black and contained the IAIM mark of an IAI affiliate company. Sf sat in the driver’s seat and the vehicle smoothly stopped next to Itaru and sounded its six-tone horn.

“Are you stupid? Why are you making us stand out so much?”

“Tes,” replied Sf after manually lowering the window. “I thought you might not notice.”

“I’m glad I did notice. By the way, why did you change to this car a few days ago? I seem to recall a stupid automaton saying German cars were the sturdiest in the world.”

“The times change, Itaru-sama. Until two days ago, you were riding a wonderful German UCAT car that copied the sturdiness of a BMW, Porsche, Benz, and AMG. It was known as the BPornzMG Ultimate, but I traded it in.”

“I was asking why. That thing was so sturdy that you didn’t even notice when you hit something.”

Sf nodded in the driver’s seat while still facing forward.

“Tes. It was indeed a wonderfully sturdy car. It was so wonderful that, when on our way to see the autumn leaves, it took seventy-two seconds to realize I had hit Kazuo-sama’s car and knocked it off a cliff.”

“And you only noticed because of the odd explosion behind us, right?”

“Tes. When I backed up, I got a solid hit on Kazuo-sama as he was calling for help. Hitting him with the backfire earned an extra 300 Sf points. However, I was a bit late to notice that as well, so I stepped on him. I have determined it was a sturdy vehicle. …Kazuo-sama is also sturdy for escaping that with only some scrapes.”

“Stop reminding me of unpleasant things. Again, what is this?”

“Tes. It is a light vehicle created by the excessive free time and wasted effort that Japanese UCAT’s development department has in abundance. It is known as the Refresher. For a comparison commercial, German UCAT staged a full speed collision while driving backwards on the autobahn, but it seems the Refresher managed to refreshingly pierce right through the BPornzMG. German UCAT offered a more heavily-equipped version of the BPornzMG, but I chose this one because the taxes are cheaper.”

“I see, I see. That was a little drawn-out, but I get it now. …Whose money did you buy it with!?”

“Tes.” Sf nodded. “I used my savings. Are you saying you are unaware of my savings, Itaru-sama?”

“I am. Now tell me what you mean by that.”

“Tes. That is my term for the ATM card inside the wallet I have been left with.”

“That. Belongs. To me. You used my money without asking, didn’t you!?”

“No, I asked for and received your permission. The other day, I asked if I could use a little money.”

“Wait,” said Itaru. “That was when I asked you to buy some ultrapure water.”

“Tes. You seem to have overlooked the catalogue I was holding behind my back. Has this solved the mystery?”

“I can’t believe this. Also, why did you borrow the parking spot at that police box?”

He pointed at the police box and glared at Sf, but she did not mind.

“Earlier, when I asked you how to secure a parking spot near here, you told me to try seduction.”

“And did you?”

“Tes. I activated my seduction functionality at the police box and lifted my skirt by an entire centimeter. At that point, the partially-assembled Gatling gun inside my skirt fell to the floor.”

“That’s not seduction! It’s a threat!”

Itaru swore, opened the 4-door vehicle’s back door, threw his cane in the narrow back seat, and then got in himself.

“Just bring me home. Everything around me ends up dyed in the worst colors.”

As he closed the door and spoke, the Refresher performed a one hundred eighty degree turn as if spinning, but he was already used to it. He slid the joint sofa forward to eliminate the foot space and sat sideways. He stuck his unmoving leg toward the opposite door and fixed himself in place.

Finally, he reached into his pocket and pulled something out.

“That is the envelope containing the documents the Hiba woman gave you, isn’t it?”

“Do you want to know what’s inside?”

“No, I am busy driving.”

“Then I will tell you.”

As he spoke, he grabbed the envelope.

“…”

And he ripped it apart. There were around a dozen pages inside, but they could all be heard tearing apart.

“This is the information on the Hiba Miki who was left with Hiba-sensei. She wanted me to use this to search for her.”

He grabbed the torn documents and ripped them each apart again. He tore them again and again until they were nothing but small pieces.

“This is apparently all the information she’s gathered after searching for so long.”

“Why are you throwing it away?”

“Because it’s meaningless. That girl is searching for the place she is meant to be.”

He tossed the shredded paper into the trunk area and it came apart to scatter like snow. As he continued to scatter that snow in the trunk, he looked in the rearview mirror.

In the mirror, he saw Sf continue to face forward.

“It’s a difficult issue. Do you know when Hiba Miki was left with Hiba-sensei?”

“No, not at all.”

“It was long before you came here. On the night of the Great Kansai Earthquake, Hiba Ryuuichi left an automaton named Mikage at his house and then lost his life in the secondary damage of the earthquake. The positive concept activity caused by the activation of the negative concepts made Mikage wake up that night.” He took a breath. “And afterwards, a girl named Miki was left with Hiba-sensei. She had a note in Hiba Ryuuichi’s handwriting that said, ‘I picked her up at a 9th-Gear base. Treat her like a member of the Hiba family.’ ”

Just as he was about to throw the last of the paper shreds, he realized the paper was not coming apart.

He looked and saw a black clip holding the pieces of the documents together. He removed the clip and scattered the last of the paper in the trunk.

“Clean up the trunk later.”

“Tes. Is it all burnable trash?”

“Yes,” said Itaru as he put the clip in his pocket.

“What kind of person was Hiba Ryuuichi?” asked Sf.

“He wasn’t originally from UCAT. He was a swordsman and his job was to destroy the remnants of the various Gears that were known in Low-Gear as monsters. Especially the ones who killed indiscriminately. He stood out due to his red eyes.” Itaru gave a bitter laugh. “Here’s an embarrassing story. We had a few clashes with him, but at one point, a certain man and I went and bowed down to him. We begged him to help us as an independent member of UCAT’s special division.”

“Were you successful?”

“I wasn’t able to accomplish anything, but the man I was with told me he would handle it and then spoke alone with Hiba Ryuuichi in his study. The two of them left after only three minutes and Hiba Ryuuichi signed an agreement to help as an independent member, but only when he felt like it.”

“I have never heard of an independent member.”

“It’s just for show. The actual position still exists, but only people who can singlehandedly take on a god of war or mechanical dragon are given it. We don’t have anyone like that now. …In the history of every UCAT, only a few people have ever qualified. A few of the National Defense Department’s Eight Great Dragon Kings qualified and then a few of the Five Great Peaks qualified.” He narrowed his eyes. “Hiba Ryuuichi was one of the Five Great Peaks along with Diana. All of the Five Great Peaks were authorized as independent members save the man who persuaded Hiba Ryuuichi.”

“Tes.” Sf nodded. “According to that story, I have determined you are useless.”

“Yes. You’re exactly right about that. Machines are quite perceptive. Especially the ones without emotions.”

He pulled the clip from his pocket, glanced toward the paper scraps in the trunk, and tossed the clip into it.

However, he soon reached out, calmly picked up the clip, and once again placed it in his pocket.

“But that’s fine. You say some good things every once in a while. You exactly pinpointed my value.”

“Tes. I have determined that is also related to why you do not have me do any unnecessary work. If you are delighted, please email your enthusiastic words of encouragement to the Sf support team in German UCAT. If you do…”

She paused.

“I am sure they will send some even more wonderful features.”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume7 Chapter 25|Chapter 25]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume7 Chapter 27|Chapter 27]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 24

2026-06-07T05:34:30Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 24: Signs of an Approaching Enemy==
[[Image:OnC_v06_0371.png|thumb]]
''The footsteps of the past are quiet

''The footsteps of the future are loud

''Both of them pierce into something

It was an old district.

A canal was surrounded by willow trees and the dirt roads on either side were lined with white walls and wooden buildings.

The canal started from the west and made a right turn to the south partway through. Both stretches of the canal were approximately two hundred meters long.

“This is the Bikan district, isn’t it?”

Shinjou’s voice filled the area in front of a teahouse on the southern end of the district.

She wore a white straw hat and Sayama wore a vest and suit pants as they sat on a bamboo bench covered in a red cloth. They both held piles of copy paper, but Shinjou’s focus was constantly stolen by Sayama next to her and the unusual scenery around her.

She knew she had to take this more seriously, so she lowered her gaze to the documents while continuing to glance around.

The documents were the ones from UCAT’s central server that Kashima had sent them. They supposedly primarily held information on the National Defense Department, but they could not read most of it. They could tell the text was Japanese and that there were diagrams, but they simply could not comprehend the contents.

“This is an information hiding concept,” explained Sayama. “It must affect any copies of the information as well.”

“What do you mean?”

“You have heard the urban legends of information that curses you simply from hearing it, haven’t you? This is the same. A concept has been applied to the central server data that leaves some power with the information even as it is spread.” He smiled bitterly. “It is as if they expected we would do this.”

Kashima had apparently been unable to read most of it either, but he had selected what unreadable information seemed most important based on what he could read.

What Kashima could not read had a checkmark at the top of the page, but they had found they could read a bit of what he could not. Currently, Sayama was reading through Tsukuyomi’s Georgius report rather than the other documents.

Shinjou watched him reading the report and spoke.

“Director Tsukuyomi really is kind.”

“Kashima mentioned a reason for that. She is apparently searching for a Cowling Sword.”

“A Cowling Sword?”

He nodded and showed her a diagram below the Georgius report.

It was a design diagram for a Cowling Sword. It looked like a Japanese sword with almost no curve, but the hilt was oddly long. The hilt on the diagram was likely made of some hard substance and it was almost half as long as the blade.

“Why is she searching for this?”

“It seems her husband created it during UCAT’s blank period. This is the reason she agreed to join UCAT after the great Kansai earthquake ten years ago. She found this diagram in the back of a drawer of the desk she inherited upon taking over the development department and it is currently all she has found about it.”

The copy of the design diagram was signed by a Tsukuyomi Aruhito.

Sayama placed Georgius’s report aside and reached for the same documents Shinjou was reading.

“What did it say about Georgius?”

“There seem to be a lot of unknowns, but Director Tsukuyomi and Kashima both think that gauntlet may be alive and that it is merely sleeping while possessing a will of its own.”

“Then was it made by 3rd-Gear? Living metal is a 3rd concept.”

“When I first put it on, it spoke in Japanese rather than some strange Gear’s language.” He took a breath. “The report speculates it acts as a concept pressurizer, but it is unknown why it only reacts to Concept Cores or why only I can wear it.”

Shinjou almost commented how they seemed to know nothing, but she swallowed her words. Sayama already knew that and there was nothing they could do about it.

She then realized that his right hand had been placed on the left side of his chest for a while.

When she knew he was feeling that pain, she could do nothing but place her hand on his back. However, her thoughts seemed to get through to him because he finally spoke while arranging the bottom of the Georgius report on his lap.

“It was said that my mother obtained it and left it for me. In that case, it would be best to assume it was made by UCAT using inferior copies of concepts from 3rd-Gear and other Gears. It seems Director Tsukuyomi and the others intend to look more deeply into this data, so let us hope they find something. …More importantly, what about your documents?”

“Eh?’

“Do not tell me you have not actually been reading them.”

He was exactly right.

“Um, well. Uh… Oh, hasn’t it been about an hour and a half? Your handheld recorder is going to run out of material, isn’t it? C-c’mon, let’s head back and read this stuff with the others.”

As she tried to smooth things over, Sayama removed the bag containing the recorder and bugs. He removed the recorder from the bag, pulled another recorder from his pocket, and placed it in the bag.

“Sayama-kun, wh-what was that?”

“No need to worry. That was the second scenario. The previous one was the indoor version and this is the outdoor version. I also have the adventure version, happy version, demon king version, and more. How about listening to one to give you some ideas for your novel plot?”

“No thanks. That would probably make me want to rethink a lot of things.”

“I see. That is somewhat disappointing. At any rate, it is time for the outdoor version. Do your best, recorder.”

“W-wait! Outdoors!? I’m not into that kind of thing!”

“What are you talking about? Interests are not automatically present. They must be developed, Shinjou-kun.”

“That may be true, but don’t emphasize that here!”

“Anyway, keep in mind that you sabotaged our inspection of these documents when I ask for compensation later.”

She groaned, but she did feel bad about it.

“Why were you negligent about something so important?” he asked with a tilt of the head.

“Um, well… It’s the first time I’ve been somewhere like this with you.”

She was not sure what to say, but she made up her mind as she lightly embraced her own body. She shrank down and wondered if he would forgive her if she explained.

“I don’t have much experience going to strange places like this, but you can sit here drinking tea and reading documents like it’s nothing. …It made me realize how mysterious a person you are.”

“I see. Is that why you were staring at your surroundings and at me? Especially as I was lost in work?”

“Well…”

“Sigh… I may always gather the public eye, but even I will feel embarrassed if you do that, Shinjou-kun.”

“U-um? Please don’t tease me like that. B-but…” She felt herself blush and lowered her head. “It is true I was staring at you.”

“I see. Then I will forgive you, but only if you will let me stare at you in fascination sometime.”

“Okay, that would be fine… Wait, no! You never said what part of me, when it would be, or how you would do it!”

Despite her protests, Sayama pulled a memo pad from his pocket, wrote an entry titled “Promise” and wrote “All of her – Anytime – While unwrapped” below it.

“You are not ‘unwrapping’ me!”

He nodded and added “Discussion needed”.

“Ahh…”

Shinjou hung her head limply. A discussion was out of the question. A Sayama discussion was especially out of the question. She had no chance of winning. The word “discussion” took on a completely different meaning and he would force his view onto her.

…''Is there any way to oppose him on this?

As she thought about it, she felt heat gather in her face, but she told herself it was due to the weather.

Meanwhile, Sayama slowly closed the memo pad next to her.

When she looked up and turned toward him, he used the pile of documents as a fan to create a breeze in her direction.

“At any rate, I have only glanced through these documents, but it seems to contain a few fascinating pieces of information. Let us go for a stroll. There are some things I wish to investigate, including the location of 3rd-Gear’s base.”

As soon as he spoke, an electronic tone sounded from his pocket.

It was his cell phone, so he removed Baku from the pocket, placed the creature on his head, and removed the phone.

“————”

“It is Kazami,” he informed Shinjou.

After exchanging a few words, he hung up.

He took a breath, looked down at her, and spoke expressionlessly.

“It seems the Hiba boy and Izumo will be having a sparring match. Ridiculously enough, they have bet the Hiba boy’s cooperation on the match.”

“Y-you mean…?”

“Yes. That is a bit much to decide on their own, but they have now received my permission.”

“You’re okay with it?”

“If Izumo wins, all is well. If the Hiba boy wins, I can be his next opponent as the true star. If the Hiba boy complains, I can claim Izumo has no human rights or make some other excuse.”

“Will an excuse like that actually work? …No, I’m sure you’ll make it work with sophistry.”

“Sophistry? How rude, Shinjou-kun. Refer to it as a creative argument. At any rate, we cannot arrive in time, so we must leave this to them.”

He looked inside the teashop and spoke to the female worker inside.

“Excuse me, I would like the bill and six sticks of dango wrapped so we can eat as we walk.”

Two people stood on the beach.

They both wore T-shirts and shorts and they both held wooden swords in their right hands.

They had different builds.

The roar of the sea washed over the two, one of whom was short and the other of whom was larger and a head taller.

Spectators gathered in front of the rocky area across from the sea. At the head of the crowd was a girl in a T-shirt and swimsuit who held a whistle.

“Okay, Team Leviathan Representative Izumo Kaku vs.…um…”

“Kazami-san, how about Nice Guy Representative Hiba Ryuuji?”

Without agreeing, Kazami gave a half-hearted blow of the whistle.

“Okay, okay. Now start.”

“Ah, that’s even worse than being ignored!!” shouted Hiba.

However, his expression changed once he looked toward the girl sitting next to Kazami.

His loose expression became a smile.

His smile was directed at a girl with long, blonde hair who showed no sign of sweating despite wearing a long black shirt and a white dress. She simply looked back at him with no discernible expression.

“Don’t worry. I’ll do something about this, Mikage-san.”

After a short pause, Mikage nodded.

She held her cane close and nodded again.

Around a dozen seconds had passed since the whistle had been blown, but both Hiba and Izumo remained motionless on the beach near the crashing waves.

Hiba stared forward where Izumo stood approximately five meters away.

He stood on the flat beach with the ocean to his right and the rocky area to his left.

They both held wooden swords as weapons. Hiba specialized in unarmed combat, but he was well-versed in using a sword thanks to his grandfather.

…''And I often use a sword when fighting gods of war.

3rd-Gear did have projectile weapons, but one’s vision and predictive calculation speed were assisted by the machine while joined with it. One’s desires acted as a switch to zoom in on an opponent’s movements, view them in slow motion, or even anticipate them.

It was possible to view the path of a bullet and most concept-powered optical weapons were too weak to pierce his armor, so he could predictively evade or ignore projectiles.

However, doing that repeatedly could put a strain on the machine.

He primarily focused on strength and speed more than evasion.

What he needed was an iai strike or a barrage at too close a range to give them time to react.

And with his short body, Hiba had trained in attack methods that included quick rotation.

That was an effective method against large opponents and he could end everything with a quick series of attacks if he got in close.

His current opponent, Izumo, was plenty large for that to work.

Hiba was approximately one hundred sixty centimeters while Izumo was one hundred ninety centimeters.

Hiba could target the gut just by crouching while Izumo could only attack from overhead.

…''Did he suggest wooden swords to give himself the reach he needs to hit me?

Even if his hands would not reach, he could use the sword to strike from below.

…''If that’s what he’s thinking, I can’t let my guard down.

Hiba rotated his wooden sword with a light snap of the wrist and faced forward.

“Now, let’s get started.”

“Sure.”

At some point, Izumo had balanced his sword on top of his head, so he grabbed it with his right hand once more.

The surrounding crowd stopped moving and a tense atmosphere spread throughout them. Amid that silence, Izumo spoke.

“I’m a little reluctant to do this, but come on.”

Hiba frowned at that.

“What? You were the one that suggested this, so why are you reluctant?”

“Win or lose, this is going to bring about some unpleasant thoughts.”

“I thought you enjoyed fighting.”

“Oh, the fighting will be enjoyable. For me, at least,” he said. “But what about you? As your upperclassman, it’s difficult to get into the mood.”

Izumo then took a casual step forward.

The distance between them closed and the battlefield grew smaller.

While still facing forward, Hiba checked the left and right of the battlefield out of the corners of his eyes.

He saw ocean to the right, rocks to the left, and Mikage and Kazami in front of the rocks.

Next to Kazami, the German UCAT inspector named Diana was sipping juice in a chair below a beach parasol, but he felt that black and gold swimsuit of hers was downright criminal.

…''Mikage-san looks worried, but that look is cute too. Ahh, I just want to rub her head.

As he thought that, Izumo stopped in front of him.

They were five meters apart, so either one could attack after taking a few steps.

Hiba saw Izumo looking at him while checking on Kazami out of the corner of his eye.

Hiba suspected he was thinking something similar or possibly something even more amazing.

Hiba felt a sudden affinity with his opponent in this sparring battlefield.

“…”

But Izumo adjusted his grip on the wooden sword in his right hand.

He was indeed going for an attack from below. In fact, he held the bottom of the sword in his palm as if to strike a staff straight down.

…''Is he going for a one-handed strike?

Using both hands gave strength to a slashing attack, but it led to a slower initial speed. A single-handed swing using a snap of the wrist and raised elbow gave speed.

Izumo’s stance showed he was wary of Hiba’s speed.

His expression looked a bit sleepy and thus was difficult to read, but Hiba thought he saw some thought there.

Izumo brought his left leg forward and out a bit. That allowed him to immediately move his body if Hiba moved to the right.

If Hiba instead moved to the left, he only needed to swing the sword in his right hand.

…''In that case…

Charging straight forward would be safest.

If he did that, the wooden sword in Izumo’s right hand would be the greatest threat. A snap of the wrist could send the sword tip shooting up from the ground and it would be below Hiba’s range of vision as he approached.

It was possible he would receive a sudden blow to the jaw or side.

Hiba’s own attack would have reached by then, but their different body sizes would create a difference in damage absorption and the speed of Hiba’s advance would add to the strength of the counter against him.

His opponent might be able to withstand the blow, but he might not be able to.

And what would he do after he avoided the first attack?

Izumo was larger than him and he would not go down from any normal attack. He was perfectly fine after Kazami’s attacks, so it would require a fair bit of damage to defeat him.

Nevertheless, Hiba knew he could do it.

He wanted to defeat Izumo even if it was not a complete victory.

He had a single reason for this.

…''I can’t let them get any more involved.

He wanted to protect his exclusive right to battle 3rd-Gear. He had realized that once more when Mikage had clung to him earlier. He and she would be the ones to fight 3rd-Gear.

He did not want to rely on their strength and – as rude as it was to his upperclassmen – he would make it very clear who was stronger by defeating Izumo here.

He briefly thought about Sayama’s presence, but he doubted that boy outdid Izumo when it came to combat ability.

In that case, defeating Izumo held real meaning.

…''What should I do?

He answered that question in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, he realized what actions he should take.

This was nothing special. His long years of combat experience put together the actions he should take and simulated the flow of events leading to victory.

“…”

All that remained was the start signal. He waited for his moment to act which would be when his opponent showed an opening.

And that moment arrived.

It took the form of Kazami’s voice from the spectator group.

“Kaku! Try to keep your expression more serious.”

Hiba interpreted that as a form of cheering, just not one he would ever receive.

In response, Izumo frowned and turned toward Kazami.

“Y’know…”

Hiba used that instant to move toward him by kicking deep into the sand and leaning forward.

“!”

He traveled half the distance with his first step.

He was on his way to end the sparring match.

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 23|Chapter 23]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Afterword|Afterword]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 14

2026-06-06T04:21:20Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 14: Choices from a Cry of Suffering==
[[Image:OnC_v06_0061.png|thumb]]
''Will you give a bitter cry?

''Or will you cry out in suffering?

''What is the difference between anger and weakness?

The metal and water fell to the ground in an instant.

A simple thing had occurred.

Eighteen metal water tanks had fallen inside the giant round cage created from water pipes.

As the final tank and the metal net remaining in the air fell, water burst through the gaps in the pipes making up the cage. The high pressure water included gravel and metal fragments.

It scraped at the walls of nearby buildings, broke through the windows, and produced a mist.

A single figure stood within the motion and sounds of the mist.

The large man wore a greengrocer’s apron and held metal pipes in his spread arms.

He was Aigaion.

The sound of water spraying from the cage surrounded him.

And he faced forward through the mist.

About five meters away, a single white line was visible stabbing vertically into the ground.

It was a spear over two meters long.

“That is the spear that destroyed the building earlier,” he muttered. “It must contain a Concept Core.”

He walked forward in order to take the weapon as a victory prize, but then he looked toward the metal cage where his enemies would be submerged.

…''That was almost too easy.

According to his visual records, the two of them had been together in the center of the cage just before all the metal fell.

The boy had been holding the girl from behind, but the additional concept Gyes had added meant it was actually the girl holding the boy.

Aigaion did not understand something about that fact.

“In Low-Gear, it is normally the male who attempts to protect the female.”

In all the Low-Gear stories he had seen on television and the like, that had almost always been how it had worked. The greengrocer’s owner’s youngest daughter had recently been watching the children’s tokusatsu show “Übermensch Liberator – Gewalt” which was a standard reverse political purge story on the surface, but it still followed that common theme at the core.

The owner would feed him dinner on Sundays every week and the youngest daughter always made him play the monster role.

…''Why did those two leave the standard pattern?

He quickly reached an answer. Based on their previous actions, he was able to make his decision almost immediately.

“Their brains must have malfunctioned.”

Humans were difficult to understand. While thinking he needed more data, Aigaion came to a stop.

A single spear was stabbing into the ground as water washed over the gravel.

He had no data on this weapon. He needed to acquire it and the large sword the girl had wielded in order to investigate them.

He stretched out his right arm to pull the spear out with his gravitational control, but then he heard a noise.

This sound was out of place amidst the quickly spraying and flowing water.

It was a footstep.

He heard a loud footstep of someone landing at some high place.

“…”

That single footstep was enough for him to determine the location and traits of the one who produced it.

They were about fifteen meters to his front, about eight meters high, around fifty kilograms, and a bit exhausted. He then used his sight to confirm the answer his hearing led him to.

…''Someone is standing on top of the broken water tanks?

There they were.

Beyond the mist, a figure stood atop the metal wreckage.

It was a girl.

Her white dress shirt and gray skirt whipped in the wind. She held a giant white sword that looked out of place in her slender arms.

Her shoulders rose and fell as she caught her breath and faced him.

She was completely unscathed.

Her eyebrows were raised and the intent to attack was plainly written there.

Aigaion withdrew the hand held toward the spear, prepared both hands for a fight, and asked a question.

“You weren’t crushed in the cage just now?”

His question was not answered verbally.

The girl silently answered with her actions.

“…”

She used her right hand to point her sword at him.

He noticed the white sword had changed form.

The blade’s cowling remained closed, but the rear thruster was open and the air shimmered above it.

She lightly raised the sword and spoke.

“That’s right.”

She looked over her shoulder at a student dormitory.

The window leading into the third floor hallway was missing its reinforced glass.

Seeing that, Aigaion understood what had happened.

“Did you use the sword’s thruster to fly to that window?”

In that case, he understood why the boy had grabbed her just before the attack arrived.

“Yeah. She used my body to soften the blow when we broke through the glass.”

His body had not made an appearance.

“It was enough of an impact to knock my body unconscious, so it must have hit Chisato’s mind pretty hard.” He smiled. “So I need to return the favor…using her body.”

She raised the sword and leaped toward Aigaion.

From the sound of her jump, he could tell she planned to charge forward.

“You’re heading straight toward me!?”

“Of course. This is round three!”

As soon as he landed, Izumo ran.

He had wet gravel below his feet, a single enemy, and Kazami’s G-Sp2 between them.

There were a lot of elements to the battle, but the basic composition was simple. He only had to charge forward and smash the enemy with his sword.

He ran.

He found Kazami’s body to be light.

And he also found it moved immediately just as he had thought it would.

He had thought that from the moment he had first met her.

But back then, he had not known the language well and had only been able to be by her side.

She had often complained even though he could not understand what she said.

He had not understood the language, but he had understood that some kind of problem had occurred and she had been partially forced to quit something. When he had apologized for making her complain so much, she had said the following:

“I was trying to apologize first, but all I did was complain. That really wasn’t fair, was it?”

He had memorized the sounds and learned what it meant after he started living here.

He had also learned the meaning of the smile she had given then.

Even later, he had learned that she had been a part of some kind of athletic club, but there had been an accident leading to someone else getting injured and she had quit the club.

By the time he understood that, she had stopped complaining.

…''Did she stop complaining once I learned Japanese?

Or had she no longer had time to complain now that he was with her?

He did not know and he did not want to know. He may have gained her body, but he still did not understand her mind.

…''But I’ll never forget her expression or tone of voice when complaining back then!

Two years had passed since.

After her training at UCAT, she could move a lot more than back then. Even so, her ability to make light, detailed movements put a greater burden on her step reach and top speed.

…''I’m impressed she can keep up with a stamina-rich idiot like me.

He ran and swung his weapon using the body that normally ran alongside him. He found her breasts to be a bit in the way of his arms.

But their size was just right and everything else about her body was exactly the way he liked it too.

…''She’s such a wonderful girl. I should take her to a movie sometime soon.

As he ran, he did not feel the weight of the weapon. That proved V-Sw recognized him as its master. Since it could tell even with a different body, it meant V-Sw obeyed his mind.

…''I’ve learned a lot. This concept isn’t all that bad.

He moved forward and Aigaion approached.

Izumo attacked.

He chose a horizontal slash from the right shoulder.

As he held up the sword, a smile appeared on Aigaion’s face.

“Comparing your expression to my memories of the past, I have determined you are dangerous!”

With that comment, the automaton fell back, but Izumo continued after him.

“I won’t let you get away, greengrocer!”

With the press of a button on the grip, V-Sw’s thruster ignited.

It produced a roar and accelerated him forward.

After that powerful step, he launched a strike.

Aigaion’s back stepping could not overcome Izumo’s speed.

He was sure to hit, but Aigaion calmly reached an arm behind him.

“I do not need a thruster for additional acceleration! And if I evade once, it is over!”

His body was suddenly knocked backwards.

He had used his gravitational control.

Instead of drawing something else to him, he had drawn himself to a point behind him.

And in doing so, he evaded Izumo’s attack.

The centrifugal force of the missed swing caused him to rotate around.

“…!”

Meanwhile, Aigaion smiled and swung his right fist as he moved back.

At seven meters, his fist could not reach, but a fifty centimeter ball of shimmering appeared in front of his fist.

It was a mass of gathered gravity.

That bullet could bend light and it would contract anything it came into contact and tear it away.

The automaton bent his body in preparation to throw it and he shouted.

“Now what will you do!?”

Aigaion asked his question.

…''What will he do!?

If he threw the gathered gravity, his opponent could not avoid it while swinging around his sword, so he would die.

Killing was one job of a combat automaton.

…''But that would be boring.

He did not have many opportunities to fight.

If he was to savor this opportunity, he could not go all out and immediately kill his opponent.

But he had no intention of holding back.

''This is difficult,'' he thought. He wanted to help out his enemy so he could enjoy this longer, but he could not do that and so he had to rely on his enemy.

''Give it your best shot,'' he thought. ''Give it your best shot, enemy.

With that thought, he threw the gathered gravity with all his strength.

“!”

His large right arm launched an overhand throw.

It was a powerful fastball.

The instant after he swung his right arm, he saw the sword-wielding girl suddenly begin an attack.

“…”

She suddenly reversed the direction of her rotation.

…''How did she reverse the direction of such a heavy sword?

He soon saw his answer.

The sword’s back thruster had closed and the front blade had opened.

A light that outdid even the previous thruster came from the blade.

That light created acceleration and the girl reversed her direction.

“That light… That really is a Concept Core weapon!”

“Shut up and take my attack!!”

This second acceleration was wholly unexpected, but it did not hit Aigaion.

The back of the sword struck the gathered gravity between them.

A sound like shattering glass filled the air and the cowling on the back of the sword broke. In exchange, the shimmering of the gravity broke and scattered.

The impact knocked the sword’s grip from the girl’s hand.

With a metallic noise, the weapon flew through the air.

Aigaion smiled as he heard that noise. First Hiba and now these two.

…''These enemies know how to put up a fight!!

And so he chose not to hold back.

They had both lost their weapons, but they moved forward at the exact same moment.

Izumo ran.

He held nothing in his hands, but he had a weapon. He spread his left hand as he ran.

“G-Sp2!”

That spear stood between him and Aigaion.

The automaton caught on as well, so he raised his hand and tried to take G-Sp2 for himself. Izumo initially thought he would grab it with his gravity technique.

…''But he can’t use that so soon after using it for that gathered gravity attack!

Trusting in that assumption, Izumo did not hesitate to move forward.

…''I can make it!

“Chisato would make it!”

With those words, he did indeed clear the distance.

He made it.

“!”

But he was still in his running stance. Just because he had G-Sp2 in his grasp did not mean he could use it against Aigaion in time, so he took a certain action.

“Don’t falter!”

He kicked the base of G-Sp2’s blade which was stabbed into the ground.

He succeeded in kicking the spear up.

“I will endure,” said the spear.

As G-Sp2 rotated upwards, he ran below it.

He caught the rotating shaft on his shoulder and grabbed the butt end as it rotated upwards. Once he secured the shaft on his shoulder, he only needed to swing it forwards.

He pulled the shaft down as if beating it down and he launched an attack.

With his shoulder as the fulcrum, the blade flew down from above.

And it arrived above Aigaion’s head as he approached from the front.

But Aigaion raised his hands and smiled.

“Protect me!”

Izumo saw two attacks. Two objects leaped up from the mist-covered ground.

They were water pipes.

“!”

The twin metal serpents intercepted G-Sp2 from below.

The spear knew Izumo, but it would not let him control it as he was not its master. Without the power of the Concept Core, it was nothing but a giant blade.

The pipes were knocked away, but they managed to deflect G-Sp2 into the air.

Kazami’s slender arms were knocked upwards by the impact.

He had lost his weapon again.

Meanwhile, Aigaion came to a forceful stop and let out a laugh.

But Izumo spoke in response to that laugh.

“Not so fast, automaton.”

He held up his hands and something fell into them.

It was a sword. After being knocked away earlier, V-Sw’s hilt fell into his hand.

“I’m back.”

Aigaion stopped moving and all expression vanished from his face.

“It can’t be…”

“I can’t put too much of a burden on Chisato’s slender fingers. I only momentarily let go of my weapon earlier!”

He held V-Sw tightly and swung it diagonally to the left.

Aigaion abandoned the water pipes and leaped backwards.

“…!”

He flew.

He launched himself with his gravitational control and instantly left V-Sw’s range.

He was approximately ten meters away while Izumo did not bother stopping the momentum of V-Sw’s slash and made a full rotation to the left like a top.

As he rotated, he saw Aigaion raise his fist. That fist was quickly wrapped in shimmering.

The automaton planned to end this with a projectile from ten meters away.

…''What a predictable guy.

Izumo smiled bitterly and spoke.

“I only just introduced myself to Hiba!”

He would introduce himself here too.

“I’m Izumo Kaku, heir of the Izumo family! My current height, weight, and other measurements are just the way I like them! I’m currently repeating my time as a student and my current hobby is…”

He spun. The moment he faced forward again, he hit the switch on V-Sw as he swung it.

“…winning prizes at the batting center!”

He targeted what fell right in front of him: G-Sp2.

After being knocked into the air, the long spear was falling and rotating, so he targeted the bottom end.

As he swung, he kept the blade’s cowling closed and fully opened the rear thruster.

As soon as G-Sp2 was parallel to the ground, he struck the bottom.

“Clang!”

A metallic sound much like Izumo’s spoken sound effect filled the air as G-Sp2 was launched in a straight line.

Aigaion tried to use the gravity around his fist to defend.

“…!”

But he did not make it in time.

The spear that contained a dragon struck him in the chest.

“Out of the park with you!”

Izumo slowly rotated and looked back over his shoulder. He saw the large automaton knocked backwards and the gathered gravity scatter from around his hand.

An explosion filled with mist and dirt created a great noise.

And then the white spear flew up into the air once more.

Izumo raised his right hand, grabbed the falling spear, fell to his knees, and let out a heavy sigh.

A troubled smile covered his face.

“How does Chisato get by with this body?”

Several sounds traveled south to north along the deserted road crossing in front of the school.

The sounds were those of clashing swords and they were produced by a giant red god of war and a giant silver god of war.

They were being controlled by the two female figures who almost seemed to be dancing at their respective machine’s feet.

The red god of war’s controller wore red and the silver one’s controller wore white.

The one in red, Gyes, controlled six swords with her fingers as she moved forward and attacked.

Many different gusts of wind raged about her and metallic noises burst out again and again. Each time, she moved a bit further forward, but her mind urged her on.

…''Hurry.

She had three reasons.

One of those was the operation time of her god of war.

…''This god of war is a part of me.

It was meant to be sealed in a concept space. If she grew too exhausted or her artificial consciousness fell into disarray, the opened concept space would grow unstable and the god of war would disappear.

She had to keep this quick. Her experience told her a few more minutes was her limit.

Her second reason to hurry was Mikage who floated in the air behind her. Gyes could sense her gradually coming to and it would be troublesome if she awoke.

…''We must obtain her.

She was Rhea’s daughter and one of the two 3rd-Gear humans who remained. No matter what Apollo thought as the other survivor, Mikage was absolutely necessary to preserve 3rd-Gear’s bloodline.

And the final reason to hurry stood before her.

That silver god of war had once belonged to Rhea. She had not seen it since Rhea had escaped to Low-Gear sixty years before, but it now wielded swords before her.

Some parts of it were different from her memories. Most notably, the torso had been completely replaced.

…''Lord Zeus said he had sliced it in two.

Rhea was not inside it.

“But that is why I cannot allow this!”

Gyes thrust her right palm forward.

The three right arms of the red god of war simultaneously attacked the silver god of war. One arm swung down from above, one thrust in at middle height, and one performed a diagonal slash from below.

Sibyl leaped backwards, rotated around, and swung her right hand down.

The silver god of war moved in response. It turned to the side to avoid the attack from above, used the tip of a sword to deflect the central thrust outwards, and knocked away the diagonal slash from below by swinging down the guard of the other sword.

The sets of metallic noises and sparks scattered and they all vanished into empty air.

Sibyl tried to land, but Gyes used that moment to move forward.

Before the girl could reach the ground, Gyes used her gravitational control to throw herself right in front of her.

“…!”

Gyes could not eliminate the inertial pressure, but she could cut out certain functionality to ignore it.

And she did exactly that.

She linked the movements of her legs, hips, and arms and swung her hands from behind her.

She used her gravitational control to launch the six swords in her suit toward Sibyl’s landing position.

She thrust one each to the ankle, thigh, waist, gut, and chest and she swept one horizontally toward the neck.

It was an instantaneous attack, but it was blocked by something unexpected: a wall.

“!?”

[[Image:OnC_v06_0081.png|thumb]]

It took her a moment to realize the white wall between her and Sibyl was the white sword of the other god of war.

The giant sword stood up from the ground, but Gyes continued with all her attacks unchanged.

Metallic noises rang out and her swords broke, one after another.

The first, second, and third simply broke, but the fourth put a crack in the wall. She instantly altered the speed of the fifth and sixth and sent the decapitating horizontal slash on ahead.

Ultimately, the god of war’s sword broke.

Gyes launched her final attack while surrounded by the high-pitched sound of shattering metal.

The strike was meant to skewer Sibyl’s chest and it would reach her past the shattered wall.

“Go!”

The tip of the blade overcame the wind and pierced through while knocking away fragments of the large sword.

Gyes felt the feedback of a hit, but she saw Sibyl leaping further back through the airborne metal fragments.

…''What?

An instant later, she understood. Sibyl had kicked the belly of the blade Gyes stabbed forward.

“Are you planning to use the god of war’s sword as footing!?”

Nevertheless, Gyes’s blade reached Sibyl’s chest. It stabbed into the chest of her armor and her own movement tore the cloth.

This revealed the skin from her neck down to her chest.

“So you’re human.”

Sibyl had known about 3rd-Gear and was fighting them, so Gyes had thought she might be an automaton.

…''But this is all the more reason for you to die!

Gyes pulled back her sword and moved forward. Her opponent’s god of war had only one sword, so this was the time to attack.

As soon as she moved forward, her target took a certain action.

She turned to the side and pointed at Gyes with her right hand.

Gyes wondered what this was about as she watched the silver god of war take the same action. But the god of war threw the sword in its right hand.

Gyes instantly decided to have her god of war deflect the flying blade outwards.

This created an opening.

The silver god of war took advantage of that opening, but not with a sword attack.

It performed a tackle.

“!”

Gyes was unsure how to react to this unexpected attack, but she started by hurriedly pulling the red god of war back.

“Such a crude method of fighting! This will damage yours as well!”

The answer was accompanied by a troubled smile.

“Testament. I am in charge of maintenance, so I can only think of methods that will provide me a reason to work.”

As if to give its agreement, the silver god of war unhesitatingly stepped forward to collide with the red one.

They grappled.

For an instant, the silver god of war bounced in midair.

As it had leaned forward as if preparing to leap, a powerful horizontal impact had reached it.

“…”

It was suddenly slammed into the ground.

The fall was accompanied by the sounds of heavy metal being destroyed and it was caused by a large hole piercing from the god of war’s back to the ground.

Wind burst in every direction from the hole. It was a hot wind with a scorched odor.

…''Was this…?

As soon as she realized it was a sniper shot, Gyes looked up into the sky.

“You made it, Cottus!”

Sibyl looked up toward the heavens.

A large form was visible in the center of the blue sky.

It resembled a god of war, it was blue, and it was overall modeled after the human body. It had several rectangular objects on its back and waist that were likely cannons.

The silver god of war had been torn into by this blue giant.

Sibyl weakly lowered her shoulders and lowered her vision toward her enemy.

Past the wind, Gyes and the red god of war were falling back.

They were moving toward the point where that giant machine was descending. It was the Hecatoncheir named Cottus.

“A giant god of war…”

“Yes. He is an automaton that uses a god of war frame. Unlike a person, he can fight without being bound by time or physiological actions. However, Cottus is the only model that Lord Cronus completed.”

“Introduction unnecessary,” said the rapidly descending figure. “Requesting rapid retrieval. Hoping for immediate withdrawal.”

“Right,” said Gyes with a nod.

She gave a light wave of the hand and the red god of war seemed to fold in on itself. First the arms were swallowed up by thin air. The legs, torso, and head did the same.

Sibyl bit her lip and looked to Mikage floating behind Gyes.

“Wait!”

“You have lost, defiler of Lady Rhea’s possession.”

Gyes returned her last remaining sword to her suit and raised her other hand.

Mikage was drawn toward that hand.

“I suppose I should say farewell,” said Gyes.

Just as Cottus was about to land, he looked up with the green lights in his face that resembled eyes.

“Danger detected.”

“Danger? What could possibly…?”

Gyes’s question was cut off by someone.

It was Hiba.

His motorcycle cut right next to her.

By the time Sibyl gave a quick “ah”, he had already completed his action.

He raised his left arm and tore Mikage from the air.

“Cottus!”

Before Gyes even finished her shout, a light came from the west.

The horizontal beam of white light struck Cottus as he tried to swing a fist down at Hiba. A shallow piece of facial armor was torn off and he shook.

Two figures stood to the west at the end of the side road leading to the city street.

One was Shinjou in her summer uniform and the other was Sayama who held a long cannon on his shoulder.

“I am glad we made it in time!” shouted Shinjou. “Go, Hiba boy!”

While holding Mikage atop the stopped motorcycle, Hiba nodded.

With her in his arms, he let out a cry.

“Mikage-san!”

Sibyl saw Mikage’s eyes open in response to his voice and nod when she saw his red eyes.

Sibyl then heard Hiba speak because she could not.

“Susamikado!”

Sibyl gulped as she watched a metal torso frame appear behind the two of them as they got off the motorcycle. The moving parts and organ devices were summoned and the summoned arms, head, legs, and four wings were bolted into place.

While the metallic noises of the bolts filled the air, Mikage was enveloped by the black torso and Hiba was swallowed up as the stomach armor was attached.

A four-winged black god of war came together.

“Susamikado is complete!”

Hiba felt there was a pleasure and pain to gaining the god of war’s body.

His vision moved higher and he gained an awareness of the sides and back that he could not usually see.

He rose up toward Cottus who was the greatest threat.

His tall vision moved as he began moving at high speed. Each step covered just under four meters and Susamikado smashed the asphalt as it ran.

He went all out from the very first step.

“…!”

The movement felt wonderful. His widened vision and the warmth that enveloped him felt especially good.

His body had already combined with the god of war. He did not know the exact process by which he was broken down inside the metal, but he knew one thing.

…''The same thing happens to Mikage-san.

His own body was not actually there, but he did feel something warm wrapped around him.

He thought it felt like having Mikage embracing him from behind.

While enveloped by that sensation, he made full use of his new body.

His feet dug into the asphalt and his vision was trained directly on Cottus.

A moment later, Cottus fired on him.

Bullets flew toward him.

They were bullets of light. Those masses of great heat and pressure were thirty centimeters across and four of them approached while trailing a comet-like tail.

His reflexes were not enough to evade.

However, he heard Mikage’s voice emitted by his own body, by the god of war’s voice device.

“Ryuuji-kun.”

She could only produce that quiet voice when she had become Susamikado. She had not yet evolved the ability to speak and Hiba believed she had gained this voice specifically for combat.

But it was the only time he could hear her natural voice.

“You can dodge this,” she continued.

A sensation arrived alongside the voice.

The machine’s perception speed matched with his own mental speed.

This provided him with ultra-fast perception backed by the predictive speed of the machine.

“…”

It rushed in at him.

In an instant, a massive amount of information struck his body like music.

He loudly heard the warmth of the sunlight. The earth received and reflected it, the wind produced long breath-like music, and the trees and other plants sang the pulse-like noise of their various lives.

There were people there. The girl controlling the silver god of war was nearby, Sayama and Shinjou were more distant, and Izumo and Kazami were there as well. All of their music was slightly sped up and the tone color contained a pale heat. It was the tone color of expectation.

On the other hand, the automatons played a calmer and cooler tone. The female one named Gyes was nearby, Aigaion was approaching and his tone was in disarray due to injury, and Cottus was directly ahead.

…''The bullets…

Hiba perceived even those as music.

A powerful tone resembling a whistle approached from the front. This tone was slightly out of sync with the whole. It was the tone of destruction.

…''That’s an unpleasant tone color!

He could see their ballistic paths.

A moment later, his heightened perception left. His information processing ability had been overwhelmed and the limiter had kicked in before he drowned in it all.

But he was already moving forward.

“!”

Susamikado’s foot smashed the asphalt and its entire body flew forward as if pursuing the tone color seen before.

Hiba moved toward the center of the attack.

As he charged forward, a song escaped his lips.

“Jesus, Lord, with your birth.”

As if chasing the song, Susamikado slipped past the flying light.

It ducked low and moved forward.

It stepped, spun, tilted its body forward, scraped across the asphalt, and ran.

One bullet grazed its shoulder, but that had been expected. If Susamikado had not avoided that one, the next one would have hit it in the gut.

…''And the rest won’t hit!

Hiba stepped forward to prove his words right. He stretched out his knees and practically threw himself forward.

He made it through.

“Shows the grace of His holy might.”

The blue machine lay before him, so he prepared his right fist.

Cottus raised one of the cannons on his waist and fired at close range, but Hiba instantly slipped below it and threw a right uppercut as he stood back up.

The strike dug deep into Cottus’s stomach armor.

“!!”

The heavy sound of metal filled the air and Cottus’s heavy body floated up a bit.

But Hiba did not let up.

He went on to send his left fist into Cottus’s side to bring up his chest armor.

“!”

He then rotated to bring his right leg up and into Cottus’s chest.

The three-strike combo bent and broke Cottus’s chest armor and knocked him backwards.

Hiba began to continue forward. He knew this was his chance, so he felt something similar to impatience. He wanted to defeat one of the Hecatoncheires and to bring an end to as much of this painful fight as possible.

…''I have to act now!

But something stopped Susamikado’s movements.

It was another sound, but this one was a voice and a distinctly human one at that.

“…Kh.”

Mikage used his mouth to let out a groan of pain.

Hiba reacted to Mikage’s groan of pain.

He distinctly felt his currently nonexistent heart skip a beat and he stopped his advance. His foot smashed the ground below and he took a defensive position.

“Mikage-san!?”

“It hurts…”

It took a breath before he understood what she meant.

He recalled the damage to the chest armor and wing from the other night’s battle.

And he recalled that Mikage had taken on all those injuries in his place.

He did not even feel any pain because she took it all on herself. But if he moved now, it would hurt her. It was only natural.

“…”

''Now I’ve done it,'' he thought. ''Why didn’t I realize?

He was so close to her now and they shared the same body.

…''So why was I thinking about nothing but fighting?

He stopped moving altogether.

He saw Cottus take a defensive stance after falling back.

Aigaion had caught up, so he and Gyes stood on Cottus’s shoulders.

All three of them were exhausted or damaged in some way.

Now was the perfect time to pursue.

“Ryuuji-kun…”

The pain-filled voice coming from his mouth kept Hiba from acting.

Another voice spoke up as if reprimanding him.

It was Shinjou’s voice.

“What is it, Hiba boy!? You are the one stopping our negotiations, so why are you choosing not to fight!?”

Sayama and Shinjou came running up along the side road and Shinjou was shouting toward him from behind Cottus.

But Hiba could not move. He could only determine Mikage’s state from her voice, but it was enough to bind him.

He felt like he was directly touching her wounds.

He simply could not move.

…''Wasn’t I supposed to be protecting her?

“I’m sorry.”

As if speaking the words in his heart for him, Mikage’s voice escaped his mouth.

He clenched his fists and faced Cottus and the two automatons.

“…”

He remained silent.

There was nothing he could say. If he did anything more, it would only increase her pain.

He could no longer choose to attack. That was his choice now.

He motionlessly looked toward those who controlled the battlefield now. Shinjou ran from the western road to the city road and Sayama followed while carrying a long white cannon.

Gyes brushed up her hair on Cottus’s shoulder and she spoke.

“I assume you are from Team Leviathan. What do you plan to do now?”

“Well,” said Shinjou. “We wish to mediate for you.”

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 13|Chapter 13]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 15|Chapter 15]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 13

2026-06-05T02:46:09Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 13: Round Dance of Expectation==
[[Image:OnC_v06_0027.png|thumb]]
''Think and dance, human and one with human form

''With any luck, this will raise the Coppélia reproduction rate''

Hiba drove his motorcycle from the morning courtyard and into the five-story boys’ dormitory.

…''Hurry.

In that deserted concept space, the morning sun dimly lit the inside of the building. The difference was enough to feel like complete darkness at first, but that helped eliminate any hesitation left in his thoughts.

He twisted the accelerator without hesitation.

“!”

Supported by the large engine displacement, the tires dug into the plastic floor.

Their grip created speed and the motorcycle raced along the corridor.

Surrounded by his speed and the reverberating noises of the engine, he caught sight of his target up ahead.

…''There he is!

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw Aigaion two meters ahead.

He held Mikage over his shoulder as he ran and he turned around to look at Hiba in midair.

He was smiling.

“Allow me to introduce myself again, descendant of Hiba!”

He leaped calmly through the air and leaped again as soon as he landed.

“I am Aigaion, one of the Hecatoncheires. My height is two meters thirty-one centimeters, my weight is one hundred fifty kilos, I work at a greengrocer, and my hobby is pachinko! What about you!?”

“I’m not the type to introduce myself to guys!”

Aigaion reacted to Hiba’s answer with a laugh.

“Ha ha,” he laughed loudly as he landed. “How boring!”

With another laugh, he ran backwards and swung his left arm toward the concrete wall to his side.

His large hand smashed the manmade wall. With a splashing sound, his hand sank into the wall up to the wrist and he did not stop there.

As he ran, he tore a wrist-sized line in the wall.

Sounds of destruction and concrete fragments scattered everywhere as he ran and destroyed the wall.

“Dolls are not human, and so there is something they need. They need a selling point as an artificial product. Just as the mass-produced automatons can control gravity and the Moirai manage humans, we have our own selling points.”

“And what is that?”

Aigaion’s eyebrows stood up, but his smile deepened.

“In my case, I have extremely precise and flashy gravitational control.”

He twisted up the wrist jammed into the wall as if grabbing something and tearing it out.

His giant hand held something as he pulled it from the wall.

It was a thick and round piece of steel. More specifically, it was the primary portion of the reinforced concrete used to construct the building.

“It is time you fell, metal structure that stands in rebellion to the earth!”

As soon his voice rang out, Hiba heard the sound of something gigantic collapsing.

By the time he realized it was the earth trembling, the sudden shaking threw his motorcycle into the air.

He remained in the air for over a second.

“…!”

The tires bounced off the plastic floor and then settled down. After spinning through the air, they dug into the floor once more.

At the same time, the ceiling and walls collapsed like a closing book.

Aigaion’s gravitational control spread through the rebar frame and easily bent the entire thing.

The boys’ dorm was imploding.

“What!?”

The destruction showed itself through smashing concrete and wood.

The chain of breaking materials passed by over Hiba’s head and swallowed up the ceiling, columns, walls, and rooms lining the corridor.

Once the walls split apart, the ceiling fell and carried four floor’s worth of volume with it.

Hiba decided to do two things: escape the destruction and retrieve Mikage.

There was only one way to accomplish both.

“Either way, I have to chase after you!!”

He pushed the accelerator to its limit and the motorcycle shot forward.

The sound of the engine pierced through the sounds of breaking concrete, the sounds of bending and shattering reinforced glass, and the sounds of everything creaking. But Aigaion did not stop laughing.

“Keep at it, keep at it. But it’s over, descendant of Hiba!”

“You…”

Hiba lowered down and gathered even more strength in his hand on the accelerator.

“You don’t get to decide that it’s over!”

“I do when I’m the one ending it!”

And…

“I will make you even more boring than you already are!”

With that said, Aigaion raised Mikage above his head.

…''That’s dangerous!

Hiba almost shouted that thought aloud, but then Mikage’s body crumbled.

“…!?”

He then saw the truth. What he had assumed was Mikage was just a clump of metal rubble. The clothes were just a gathering of white sand-like components.

“Ha ha ha! This is a doll of trash and rubble I put together with my gravitational control! How do you like that? It’s a doll made by a doll. Gyes took the real one and went on ahead!”

“What…?”

Hiba gulped.

…''I was in such a hurry, I fell for a fake!

His resentment led to anger.

“You damn con artist!!”

“Quiet. It’s your fault for letting me trick you!!”

''He’s right,'' thought Hiba as he clenched his teeth.

The accelerator was already at its limit, so he focused on switching gears while ignoring the downpour of rubble.

He thought about the concept space. If metal was alive…

“Please,” he said to the motorcycle. “Please let me catch up!”

The mass of metal answered his call. After trembling for an instant, its engine let out a cry, and the accelerator itself seemed to begin racing.

“…!”

The motorcycle lowered its center of gravity. It lowered its suspension almost to the limit, bit into the shaking floor, and eliminated all wasted tire rotation.

Forward.

The motorcycle whipped up the wind and raced between the falling ceiling and collapsing walls.

But…

“Am I not going to make it?”

Aigaion leaped outside of the western entrance twenty meters ahead, but the overhead collapse was already settled. The boys’ dormitory would be completely destroyed before Hiba made it out.

''Shit,'' he thought without letting up on the accelerator.

At the same time, he heard a voice and an approaching motorcycle outside.

“Hiba!”

It was Kazami’s female voice, so it was Izumo speaking.

Before he could wonder what he wanted, the female voice spoke again.

“Keep low! We’ll blow it all away!”

A moment later, the boys’ dorm was completely destroyed.

Kazami and Izumo’s motorcycle charged toward the southern side of the crumbling boys’ dorm.

After locking the back wheel and drifting the side, the two of them raised their right hands and shouted in unison.

“Come!”

An instant later, two white lines flew from the northern sky and struck near the back of the building’s third floor.

The shock of that impact stopped the collapse.

This created a short blank period.

All the smoke and shaking from the collapse was knocked into the air in a slight moment of relative calm.

“!”

And then silent and invisible explosions occurred at the two points of impact.

This was similar to the shockwave created when a massive shell struck at high speed.

This shockwave went beyond the realm of sound and raced across the northern side of the dormitory. It tore away the rubble, glass, and surface materials in an instant and an explosion of steam burst from both points of impact.

Two loud noises and two impacts followed.

Aigaion had created a downward collapse, but these two attacks had changed that to explosions scattering in every direction. The five-story building bent, twisted, and broke as if it had been struck by two uppercuts.

A great rumbling raced out and it did not end there.

Amid the destruction that sounded like a beast’s roar, light appeared on the northern side of the building.

It was the light of dragons. The light formed two dragons creating a giant helix.

The dragon light swallowed up the destroyed fragments, formed a circle, and absorbed it all.

The boys’ dormitory was annihilated.

All that remained was the first floor which had escaped the destruction.

“I owe you one!”

As well as Hiba’s motorcycle which charged out the western side.

He spoke to the two in front of the building who each held their respective weapon.

They had already started driving their motorcycle once more.

The large sword held by the girl had its thrusters fully open and some text appeared on its console.

“Let’s have some fun.”

“Yeah.” A strong smile appeared on the girl’s lips. “It’s time for round two!”

A large Japanese-style house was located a bit west of Taka-Akita Academy’s campus.

It was surrounded by a green fence and two people were currently rushing alongside that fence to reach the front gate.

They were Shinjou and Sayama. They both wore their summer uniforms and Shinjou turned to the right to face Sayama as her long hair shook.

“Will Ryuuji-kun’s place be okay?”

“UCAT’s disguised police officers and disguised firemen arrived, so it should be fine. They just have to wait for the disguised contractors, disguised architects, disguised builders, and disguised craftsmen to arrive and rebuild the house.”

“That doesn’t sound fine at all.”

“We can look forward to seeing what they come up with. But for now, we must do our job.”

“Right.”

Shinjou nodded and recalled what their job was.

It seemed simple yet was rather difficult.

“Emergency food supply… It somehow doesn’t surprise me that Ooki-sensei asked for that.”

“All of the disguised workers and Sibyl-kun’s group are heading out without breakfast. Also, we have to pass by the Tamiya house on our way to the rendezvous point with Sibyl-kun’s group anyway. It may seem we are simply running an errand, but someone has to do it.”

And…

“If it is necessary, I will not find fault with the job and I can easily arrange this. I told Kouji there was a fire at an acquaintance’s house, and that should be enough to settle it.”

Shinjou hung her head a bit when Sayama said “acquaintance” rather than “friend”.

…''We still don’t know the full situation.

Another student at their school was fighting using concepts independently of UCAT.

At the moment, there was something they could do to help with that fight.

“We’ll just be saying hello and handing it over to the disguised volunteers once they arrive, right?”

“Yes. And those disguised volunteers will be lowering Sibyl-kun’s group from their helicopter. Once we meet up with them, we can follow Sibyl-kun into the concept space.”

“Right,” she said with a nod.

Having a clear objective cheered her up a little, so she began moving her legs more quickly.

The wooden gate to the house lay before them. In front of the gate were a black vehicle and a woman wearing a red kimono. Shinjou recognized the woman.

“Ryouko-san.”

Hearing her name, Ryouko turned toward Shinjou. She had been checking on the contents of her handbag which sat on the hood of the car, but she stopped and smiled.

“Young master and Setsu-chan. What is it? Were you kicked out of school? I’m so happy!”

She took a few steps toward them, her wooden shoes clacking on the ground as she did.

Shinjou gave a cry of surprise as Ryouko suddenly embraced her.

“Nn, it’s been so long. How are you doing, Setsu-chan?”

“Eh? Oh, fine. …And we saw each other only three days ago.”

Nevertheless, Ryouko rubbed her chin against Shinjou’s head with a satisfied expression. She let out a sigh, embraced her again, and finally moved away.

“Why do I keep thinking you’re a girl? You aren’t, are you?”

“Eh? No, of course not…”

Only those in UCAT knew the truth about her, so Ryouko knew nothing. The woman tilted her head with her hands on Shinjou’s shoulders and suspicion in her gaze.

“But you really smell like a girl. Are you getting any weird injections?”

“Sorry, Ryouko, but I have not introduced Shinjou-kun to any of that.”

“I see. Then it must be natural… Setsu-chan, how about you go to Morocco for a bit? I think it will help you get a lot better, so how about just signing the paperwork for now?”

“No thanks. I like my uninteresting life.”

Shinjou frantically shook her head. She was faced with two people whose brains were from a different world. If she let them get carried away, she could find herself under general anesthesia and on an operating table in three hours’ time.

…''I need to change the subject.

“A-are you going somewhere, Ryouko-san?”

“Yes. We have some visitors from a company that some of our people help out at.”

Ryouko turned toward the car. At first glance, it looked like a normal light vehicle, but it was a glossy black, the glass had a smoke shield preventing anyone from seeing in, and it said Tamiya Security on the side in gold paint. A closer examination showed several small doors that could open to let something out.

“Sayama-kun, can I comment on this car?”

“Is there anything odd about it? Oh, have you never seen a ‘Danger. Run away.’ sticker before? That is used for any car Ryouko drives.”

“Kouji thinks I’m a dangerous driver even though I only run into things some of the time.”

Ryouko gave an exasperated sigh, approached the hood, and began fishing through her handbag again.

“What is it?” asked Shinjou.

“I lost my self-defense pistol. I lost my previous one too, so this is the second time. Kouji’s so horrible when he finds out about this kind of thing, so I’m trying to find it.”

“To sum up everything in a single word: how?”

“Well, after parking last night, the dogs were playing around. It was cute, but guard dogs shouldn’t be doing that, y’know? Anyway, I fired into the ground a few times to quiet them down.”

“Is that the handgun in question?”

Sayama pointed toward a black revolver on the light vehicle’s roof.

“Oh, what a careless mistake on my part. But that makes people want to protect me, right? So it all works out in the end, right?”

“This bothers me on multiple levels…” commented Shinjou.

“No one found out, so that means I win,” said Ryouko as she picked up the handgun and delightedly waved it around in both hands.

An instant later, Sayama tugged Shinjou backwards by the collar.

“Eh? What?”

She then heard a gunshot and something flew by in the space her face had been in a moment before.

Ryouko looked puzzled and glass could be heard shattering in the house behind them.

A moment later, someone ran out of the gate to their side.

It was Kouji who was wearing a suit and holding a bag of rice crackers.

“Young master, Shinjou-kun, good morning. Excuse me, but I must go apologize.”

“Y-you sure have it tough, Kouji-san.”

“Ha ha. I’m used to it.”

His last sentence was spoken after averting his gaze and then he loudly ran toward the opposite house.

After watching her brother run off, Ryouko sighed, tilted her head, and looked at the gun in her hand.

“Kouji really does have it tough. Anyway, was the trigger’s second stage always that light?”

“Don’t stare down the barrel!”

“Don’t worry. I’m not stupid enough to shoot myself.”

Ryouko put the handgun in her pocket. Shinjou did not like the idea of her storing it there, but she remained silent as that seemed to be where she usually stored it.

…''I don’t want to say something and cause secondary damage.

It was about time to get to the issue at hand, so she glared at Sayama and he nodded.

“Ryouko, about what I contacted Kouji about…”

“Oh, right. Kouji is finishing up in the kitchen, so just have your volunteers take it with them when they get here. The different rice ball flavors are dried plum, katsuobushi, seaweed, and pudding. The pudding ones are a secret flavor I made without Kouji knowing, so try to pick those ones if you can.”

“Ah…ah ha ha. Ryouko-san, I would love it if you would tell us which ones those are.”

“Hm. But it goes against my principles to give you two an unfair advantage.”

“P-please?”

Shinjou gave an insistent smile and Ryouko placed a hand on her mouth and thought.

“Hm,” she said again. “I think the young master would know.”

“Eh? Really?”

She turned toward Sayama who remained expressionless.

“Shinjou-kun, I will try them first and you can finish any that are safe.”

“Kyah! The two of you are having an indirect kiss via rice balls? I want in too!”

As Ryouko rejoiced flirtatiously, Shinjou blushed.

…''She’s right, but my life is too important to let it bother me.

Sayama nodded with a serious expression and she could not turn down his kindness.

“Be careful, you two. The scene of a fire can be dangerous. Especially you, Setsu-chan. You need to look after your hands. You don’t want to lower your commercial value.”

Shinjou was not sure what that meant, but she was afraid to ask.

Instead, she smiled and watched as Ryouko picked up her handbag and opened the vehicle’s door. The inside had a roll cage installed, the console had buttons with “turbo boost” and “oil” written in large text, and a metal cylinder with a trigger attached hung down from the ceiling in front.

…''This might be low-key for a car in the Sayama world.

She watched as Ryouko petted a small stuffed cat hanging from the cylinder on the ceiling.

“Do your best, you two. After he’s done apologizing, Kouji should help carry the food out to the volunteers. It’s so boring how all of his food is delicious. He needs some delightful surprises inside.”

Shinjou was fairly certain Ryouko’s surprises would be fatal, but she had another thought as she remembered the woman’s smile and watched her back as she sat in the seat.

…''When you get down to it, we’re tricking Ryouko-san and Kouji-san.

And they were tricking a lot of other people too.

Ryouko’s behavior could be very strange, but that was unavoidable when taking the Sayama Zone into account. Shinjou frantically spoke up when she realized she was forcing a smile.

“Ah, Ryouko-san!”

“Hm? What is it?”

[[Image:OnC_v06_0045.png|thumb]]

Shinjou breathed a sigh of relief at the smiling face that turned toward her.

''Does this make us hypocrites?'' she wondered, but she spoke aloud to the woman rather than herself.

“Thank you for your help so early in the morning. And be careful.”

Ryouko gave a satisfied nod, reached out a hand, and rubbed Shinjou’s head.

“Well done, Setsu-chan. What about you, young master?”

“I have nothing to say.”

“Young master?”

“…Take care,” he said with a sigh.

Ryouko’s eyes bent in a smile, she nodded, and she removed her hand from Shinjou’s head.

“Good, good. I’m glad to see the two of you together. I’ll be going then.”

She turned to Shinjou again and gave a bitter smile.

“Setsu-chan, don’t give me that look, okay? Don’t worry. This is a job and I am the company president.”

As she closed the door with a smile, she continued speaking.

“All I have to do is physically persuade about thirty people. You do your best too, okay?”

Inside the concept space, Kazami and Izumo let Hiba go on ahead alongside the row of boys’ dormitories, but Aigaion was causing them trouble.

He had handed Mikage over to Gyes and they could not afford to spend any time dealing with him, but he had chosen a simple yet horribly effective method to stop them.

“He isn’t hurrying…”

He was withdrawing ahead of them, but he was not rushing and he was slowly launching attacks.

Any attack they sent back would be deflected by earth or rubble pulled up with his gravitational abilities.

They had gotten off the motorcycle in front of the boys’ dormitory that they had destroyed and they were both attacking and defending, but they had been unable to leave the boys’ dormitory area.

…''This is never going to end.

While looking like Izumo, Kazami swung G-Sp2 around and faced her opponent.

Aigaion was withdrawing at a jogging pace and his arms were extended to either side to use his gravity techniques.

“There is a lot buried in this world.”

A water pipe burst up from the ground and into his right hand. The gravel-covered earth was peeled up and a metal pipe thirty centimeters across rose up like a snake raising its head.

“Take this.”

Just as about thirty meters of pipe was exposed, it bent like a whip.

It swung in horizontally from the right as if trying to wrap around them.

The tip of the swinging pipe sliced through the air quite quickly.

“Wah!”

Kazami back stepped away from Aigaion, but the lack of X-Wi on her back was a fatal flaw. Izumo’s body did not provide the distance and speed she wanted.

As the metal pipe flew in horizontally, she had only one way of avoiding it: moving down.

“…!”

She embraced G-Sp2 and collapsed onto her back just as the metal flew past her face and to the left.

While listening to it cut through the wind, she stabbed G-Sp2 into the ground to push herself back to her feet. She then saw the metal pipe returning for a second strike.

This reversal was surprisingly fast.

“You sure are persistent!”

She moved backwards and realized her only choice was to charge forward after the pipe passed by this time.

She stepped to the back. Izumo’s body gave her a long reach with its arms and legs, but it was heavy.

More muscular strength did not directly link to more acceleration.

When she took a step with this body, she first felt a weight bearing down on her shoulders. Next, she managed a long leap as if breaking through that weight.

This was different from normal.

The length of her steps, her center of gravity, and everything else were different. It felt like fighting in someone else’s clothes and shoes.

In her body, she would jump backwards the more she pressed down with her foot. His body may have provided greater speed in the end, but it was terrible for tight turns and initial speed.

…''Yet he’s always keeping up with me in this body.

She wondered if it was a burden on his knees and back to keep up with her as she ran everywhere.

She had new concerns about him, but that did not help her evade.

The metal pipe drew close.

She saw it easily fell the trees along its path. With fibrous snapping sounds, a few of the trees in the yard were snapped apart and knocked flying.

But the metal did not slow down.

…''It’s catching up!

Her fears were warranted. Her back stepping was simply not fast enough.

The metal pipe arrived so quickly it seemed to be biting at her.

A chill ran down her spine and an odd calm filled her mind.

…''So Kaku’s body can tremble like this too.

The instant she had that thought, she heard her real voice calling from behind her.

“Hey, Chisato! Look over here!”

She looked behind her and saw herself about three meters away, just outside the range of the metal pipe.

With a perfectly serious expression, her body grabbed the bottom of her skirt with both hands and lifted it up to her stomach.

“Look at this, Chisato!”

“What the hell are you doing!?”

Anger moved her body. She easily jumped the remaining three meters and got in a solid savate blow.

The sound of impact rang out and her own body flew toward the nearest boys’ dormitory, but that body quickly stood back up.

“Y-you idiot! What was that for!?”

“That’s my line! Why would you suddenly lift up my skirt like that!? …Ah! I just hurt myself again.”

“Don’t worry about it. You dodged the attack, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t dodge the attack! I jumped in for an attack of my own on a new target!”

The two of them ducked down as the metal pipe flew by overhead after approaching a bit.

The roar blew their hair about and Kazami saw her own body stand up in front of her.

“You seemed to be giving up and I knew seeing that would give my body some motivation.”

“And?”

“Oh, um…” Her own body tilted its head and finally confidently puffed out its chest. “It all turned out okay!!”

She wanted to punch Izumo, but it would make things awkward after returning to her body.

But that awkwardness reminded her of a certain fact.

…''We’ll be returning to normal later. Right now, we just have our minds swapped out.

With that in mind, she took a step forward and pointed at her chest.

The metal pipe had smashed the ground behind her and returned, but she had to correct something first.

“These bodies move as we want them to, but our minds don’t conform to the bodies. Isn’t that right?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

She saw a smile on her body’s lips.

It seemed Izumo had realized the same thing as her, so she gave a similar smile.

“In other words, there’s a way to resolve this situation: we go all out.”

Kazami went ahead and gave the conclusion, nodded, and exchanged a glance with Izumo.

“I was trying to control your body properly, so I had to worry about all sorts of small adjustments. But if I go all out and draw out all of the body’s strength, I can leave everything up to the body. We stop thinking about our pace or reach, we don’t stop to catch our breath, we work the muscles until they ache, and we slam our entire bodies against the enemy. If we go on full throttle, we don’t have to worry about any adjustments.”

“Sounds nice and stupid. It all comes down to this one try, so no regrets, okay?”

“Of course. What about you? If we mess this up, we could die.”

“I’ve been ready.”

“Really?” she asked doubtfully.

Her body nodded, held the giant sword under one arm, exaggeratedly brought a hand to its mouth, and blushed.

“I have no regrets.”

“W-wait a second! What were you doing while I was fighting!?”

“Well… I’m not sure how to put it. Important research?”

“I see.”

Kazami nodded, suddenly clenched her right fist, and threw several blows toward her current body’s crotch.

“It’s all this thing’s fault! It’s all because this horrible thing exists!! Oh, ow ow ow ow ow! That really gets to you.”

“That’s an important experience that no woman has had before. …And stop that, Chisato. Now I’m not looking forward to going back.”

Despite their yelling, they both simultaneously took a step away from each other.

The metal pipe slammed down between them from above. The whip-like blow caused the gravel to scatter, but the pipe was not drawn back.

Wondering what was happening, Kazami looked toward the other end of the pipe. Aigaion was standing there as before, but he was now looking at them with a tilt of the head.

“Are you two fighting each other now?”

“Heh heh heh. An amateur would never understand. Look, Chisato. He’s jealous of our relationship.”

“Kaku?” she said with a smile. “Do you want me to hit you again?”

She raised her spear, but Aigaion shook his head and lowered his eyebrows a bit.

“Sorry, but my victory is already assured.”

“What do you mean?”

The automaton raised both hands. Before, he had only held a water pipe in his right hand, but he now held one in both hands.

“Come on out.”

As he spoke with a smile in his voice, the two metal pipes showed themselves on the surface.

The dirt was torn up, the gravel flew, and the concrete split as the water pipes appeared. And this time, they were not just a few dozen meters long.

“…!”

Kazami saw shadows appear not just on the ground around them. The shadows covered the entire surface like blood vessels and they surrounded the school buildings, the dormitories, the neighboring gym, the indoor pool, and the other buildings.

She heard structures and the earth bursting apart as those metal blood vessels rose up over a wide area.

The series of water pipes connecting the dozen or so nearby buildings all jumped up.

All of the metal pipes did the same thing. While rising into the air like snake heads, they held up the objects they were connected to.

“The water tanks.”

“Yes. Some of them hold several dozen tons of water.”

Shadows appeared a hundred meters in the air. The metal pipes formed a mesh shape which supported the metal cubes filled with water. The cubes were of different sizes, but Kazami could see eighteen of them in all.

As she looked up, she saw what could be called the prelude to an attack.

Some of the water pipes formed a giant spiral and lowered toward her and Izumo.

They fell.

“!?”

The falling spiral caused a great number of metallic noises.

After it was complete, a wall of water pipes surrounded them with a radius of twenty meters.

The water pipe cage surrounded the courtyard between boys’ dormitories.

The wall was about three meters high. There were gaps between pipes, but they were too small to slip through.

…''Is this…

“A cage!?”

“Yes. This is a large crushing zone. You will be crushed to death by over one hundred tons of water and metal.”

She could hear the automaton speaking.

“Fall.”

An instant later, the water tanks crashed into the ground.

As the metal blood vessels stretched across the sky, a single figure ran along the road.

The woman in a red suit was Gyes. She held Mikage over her shoulder as she headed quickly to the west.

She was currently on the edge of the facility known as a school. The road changed from gravel to pavement and she ran toward the larger road to the west.

She could see the metal floating in the sky.

…''Aigaion is making a show of it.

He would draw in the enemy while she escaped.

…''I need to leave this facility and meet up with Cottus.

She could see the side gate to the facility up ahead. The sliding gate was made from two metal walls four meters wide and two meters tall, but it was sitting open.

She was about three hundred meters away, but she saw something in the open gate.

“Who are you!?”

She frowned and shouted toward the girl and wall in the gate.

The wall was a giant white transport pallet. The empty truck next to it suggested the girl had carried the pallet here after entering the concept space.

The girl impeccably wore a white and black armored uniform. Her long, soft-looking blonde hair flowed in the slight wind and her blue eyes faced directly forward.

As Gyes ran up, the girl spoke with no expression on her face.

“Our representative is busy preparing, so I arrived to face you first. I ask that you be more prudent in your actions, 3rd-Gear automaton.”

“Name yourself before asking me anything!”

“Testament,” spoke the girl. “I am Sibyl of Team Leviathan.”

Gyes recognized that unit name. Hajji had mentioned it a few times.

…''That’s the UCAT unit that won over 1st-Gear and 2nd-Gear!

She had heard they were after Typhon’s Concept Core independently of the black god of war. And in that case…

“I won’t listen to anything you ask!”

Just as she determined this girl was an enemy, she heard a noise from behind her.

It was a great metallic noise that shook the earth and atmosphere.

The roar seemed to pierce through the air and her body.

Sibyl looked into the sky and frowned a little.

“What was that noise?”

“You don’t know? That was a great mass of water and metal falling to the ground!”

Gyes did not even need to think about the result of that, so she laughed as she ran.

“Ha ha,” she began. “While you were speaking with me, your comrades have been smashed beyond repair! Will you head down the same path, girl!?”

As she approached, Gyes saw something.

Her opponent was smiling. It was a perfectly natural smile.

“It would appear 3rd-Gear has grown soft. …Would you die from that attack?”

“What!?”

Sibyl lowered her arms, spread them a bit, and held the palms out toward Gyes.

“If that was enough to kill them, Chisato-sama and Izumo-sama would have died hundreds of times by now.”

“Then this will be the time they finally die!!”

Gyes decided Sibyl was preparing an attack and the pallet behind her was worrisome.

While running, she tossed Mikage into the air, imagined her gravitational control as the middle finger of her left hand, and kept Mikage floating out of Sibyl’s reach.

She then raised her hands to either side while still running.

“Come, my power!”

The answer to her cry came from the sky.

It was a red god of war. That machine could be seen as a part of her body and it was stored in the excess given to her child string vibration. It now split open the sky and appeared from there.

Its red body was over eight meters tall.

It had a slender face, body, and legs, but it was missing something crucial.

Namely, shoulders.

Instead, everything past the elbows floated in the air to either side. Also, it had three on either side, for a total of six.

As it whipped up the wind, Gyes swung her arms down below. She controlled it remotely via gravitational control and the movements of her fingers were linked to the six arms behind her.

The god of war’s six arms grabbed at the air and moved forward.

Despite grabbing at empty air, the six arms pulled something out.

They were blades.

The broad rectangular blades were drawn from a concept space and into this world.

“Be destroyed, mankind!”

With Mikage floating behind her, Gyes ran forward and swung her arms. She looked like she was embracing her own waist as she looked above.

She saw the red god of war step forward and overtake her.

It let loose six strikes.

The six blades flew toward the giant pallet sitting in the gate and they would slice it and Sibyl into six pieces.

“!?”

But as Gyes listened to the sounds of the high-speed actions, she saw something unexpected.

Sibyl raised both her arms and the pallet behind her burst open.

A clear sound rang out as pieces of the pallet’s lock scattered in every direction.

Gyes’s six attacks struck the rising cover to the pallet.

As pieces of the pallet scattered about, Gyes stared forward while swinging the blades further.

…''What!?

She watched as the pallet fragments burst out and something stood up from within.

And that something was a giant armored warrior.

“A god of war!?”

A silver god of war stood forcefully up from the pallet and matched Sibyl’s upraised arms.

While swinging up its arms, it grabbed something from the collapsing back end of the pallet.

It grabbed two swords which had been attached on the inner side of the pallet.

After grasping the hilts, the collapsing pallet wall automatically removed the scabbards.

The two drawn swords rose to intercept Gyes’s six swords.

The eight trajectories clashed at high speed and deflected each other.

Gyes moved back with the red god of war.

Sibyl moved back with the silver god of war.

Gyes took a fighting stance, but she did not immediately move forward.

She held up her arms in an X-shape and faced Sibyl and the silver god of war behind her.

“That god of war!”

“You recognize it, don’t you?”

Gyes did not even have to nod.

“That is Lady Rhea’s god of war!”

“Yes. This is the god of war that Lord Zeus destroyed sixty years ago. It was repaired and modified to be controlled remotely.”

“That is beyond low, Low-Gear! First you destroy our Gear and now you are making dolls from our rulers’ belongings!?”

“And what will you do about it?”

Gyes’s reply and action were in agreement.

“Destroying you is the duty of a servant!” shouted Gyes as she moved forward once more.

The six blades of the red god of war collided with the two lines swung up by the silver god of war.

With multiple metallic noises, the two gods of war exchanged attacks.

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 12|Chapter 12]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 14|Chapter 14]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume5 Chapter 2

2026-06-04T04:24:15Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 2: Meeting of Steel==
[[Image:OnC_v05_0103.png|thumb]]
''Stare, stare

''First, face each other

''Then, either hit each other or pass each other by

A white hallway had no windows, but it did have writing on the wall.

That writing said BF2.

This was Japanese UCAT’s second basement floor and the hallway passed in front of the development department. The center of the hallway had a rest area with a sofa and a few vending machines.

A woman stared at the floor in front of the coffee vending machine.

Her long gray hair hung down over the chest of her lab coat which contained a nametag reading Tsukuyomi Chizuru.

She took a sip of the cold coffee in the paper cup she held.

“What is going on?”

“What is it?” asked a sudden female voice.

Tsukuyomi frantically tuned around and saw who was walking down the hallway.

“Diana Zonburg.”

“Is something the matter?” Diana wore a black suit and held a brown paper bag. “I heard you were traveling to Kanda this afternoon to retrieve an examination device for Georgius.”

“Eh? Oh, so talk of that has reached the higher levels, has it? UCAT Director Ooshiro was opposed to the idea, but our younger members offered to help him make a perverted game in exchange.”

“So a mysterious concept weapon is worth the same as an 18+ game?”

“Only when using the Ooshiro currency. …More importantly, what are you doing here?”

Tsukuyomi gulped down her coffee while Diana squeezed the paper bag in her arms.

“I just bought a swimsuit at the store up above and I was taking a stroll through UCAT on my way back.”

“A swimsuit? How luxurious.”

“No, this is part of my job as inspector. Team Leviathan is apparently having a training camp at the Seto Inland Sea the day after tomorrow, so I will be going with them. …This is a job. Let me spell it out for you: this is a j-o-b.”

“Well, it’s quite a luxurious j-o-b.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“The float sticking out of that bag makes it hard to.”

“Th-this isn’t a float. It is a beach mat to lie on while sipping on a drink.”

“How luxurious a time are you planning!?” shouted Tsukuyomi before sighing and facing Diana who was adjusting the contents of the bag. “If I was only five years younger, I would have gone with you.”

“U-um, did I mishear that? I thought I heard a number about ten times too small.”

“You’re supposed to laugh. But when I see you and Doctor Chao, it makes the longevity and anti-aging techniques look pretty good. I was already on the way to being an old lady by the time I joined UCAT, though.”

“Heh heh. But you decided to stay with Low-Gear, right?”

After a pause, Tsukuyomi nodded and narrowed her eyes.

“Yes. I have a daughter, so I can’t undergo the anti-aging techniques,” she said. “Have you heard? My daughter was abducted. And the rumor is that Typhon, that white 3rd-Gear god of war, did it. But they must be a terrible judge of character to abduct her.”

Diana remained silent, but her expression did loosen a bit.

The ends of her eyebrows lowered and she nodded once.

“I have no children, so I don’t really understand.”

“That’s fine. I’m sure there’s a part of it that any woman would understand.” Tsukuyomi gave a bitter smile in return. “Her bag and coat were found at the site the flying object fell last night. She was probably accidentally taken inside the concept space, but…”

“…”

“Don’t give me that look. It’s fine. That girl won’t die so easily. After all that idiot has done to disobey me and do what she wants, she’ll manage on her own.”

“I see she is worrying you.”

“Let’s just leave it at that.”

Tsukuyomi’s bitter smile deepened and Diana nodded.

At that point, a new female voice reached them.

“I am not sure you two should be speaking about 3rd-Gear so openly.”

Diana recognized the voice.

“Sf?”

She tilted her head, looked around, and spotted Sf.

She was standing sideways in the small gap between vending machines.

“U-um, Sf? Did you gain some strange habits when formatted for the Japanese language? Why are you crammed in that small space?”

“Tes. Monitoring Itaru-sama at all times is one of my duties, but he moved out of range of my senses. I have determined he is viewing the sky from a corner of the roof.”

“And that spot is just barely within range?”

“Tes. I have determined it was a dangerous situation. I was on my way back from disposing of some trash at the underground incinerator, and I would have lost him for the first time if I had been just a little slower.”

Tsukuyomi looked back and forth between Sf in between the vending machines and Diana next to her.

“So this is what they call German quality.”

“Th-this is because of the local formatting.”

Diana waved her hands in denial and glanced over at Sf.

“Should I go and tell Itaru to move from the roof?”

“Tes. However, that will not be necessary. Statistically, he never continues any one task for long, so I have determined he will return to his office soon. I will remain on standby here until then. His irregular action here is most likely due to him thinking about the coming Leviathan Road.”

“It is true he used to always go outside while thinking.”

Diana’s comment caused Sf to tilt her head between the vending machines.

“That information is worth adding to my records.”

“You didn’t know that? When we had all reached various dead ends, I was often dragged outside. Both by him and someone else I know quite well.”

“Who is that?” asked Tsukuyomi, but Diana only smiled weakly back.

“If you always choose to continue on, you will eventually arrive somewhere. You remember that too, Sf. And do not leave Itaru alone again.”

“Tes. I will make sure to never again leave him while he is thinking.”

Sf bowed from between the vending machines.

“My ability to wait is infinite, but I will never allow myself to leave him.”

The sun rose high into the sky.

Several large buildings were lined up below the sunlight.

The buildings all belonged to a school. The sunlight covered a large campus and students in summer uniforms walked between the buildings.

Most of the students were headed to the dormitories or their club activities. Some held graded tests in their hands.

Among them all, a few people sat in front of a school building in the center of the campus.

Four students sat on the lawn in front of the library protruding from the school building. Three wore male uniforms and one wore a female uniform.

They were Sayama, Shinjou, Izumo, and Kazami.

A large multi-layer bento box and a small multi-layer bento box sat between them.

With a black binder sitting next to her, Shinjou reached for the small box. She used chopsticks to grab a croquette and held it out toward Sayama to her right.

“Here, Sayama-kun. I even made the filling this time.”

Once it was put in his mouth, Sayama thoroughly chewed the croquette and swallowed it.

Shinjou looked a bit worried, so he thought for a moment and then spoke.

“Yes. A supreme flavor, Shinjou-kun.”

“Wow, I’m glad. I can almost feel the horrible rumor from this morning disappearing within me.”

She smiled and grabbed a new croquette.

“I used the cafeteria kitchen to cook these and this one contains some strange leaves that Old Lady Tome said make a good secret ingredient. She said they only grow on her balcony.”

“Hm. I think I see why that cafeteria has so many regular customers. I would prefer not to know any more details, though.”

Sayama smiled pleasantly in the sun and Shinjou’s cheeks reddened slightly.

Across from them, Kazami and Izumo stared at them with half-lidded eyes.

“Even though I know the truth, it feels weird to see them flirting in male uniforms.”

“I can’t believe they’re doing this when that rumor started only this morning.”

The two tilted their heads, but Shinjou continued feeding Sayama.

As students passed by, a few girls lowered their heads toward Kazami.

“Hello, Kazami-san.”

When she looked up and nodded back, they would bow again and leave.

Izumo looked impressed as she nodded in self-satisfaction.

“You sure are popular.”

“Heh heh. That’s because I’m the only one who can stop you and Sayama.”

That was when more people greeted her. A few boys with disheveled uniforms were passing by.

“Ah… K-Kazami-san. Good morning!”

They immediately covered their faces with their crushed bags and quickly ran away.

They left only the wind behind.

After a pause, Izumo nodded expressionlessly.

“Chisato, I’ll stick with you no matter what, so tell me what happened. And be honest.”

“What do you mean by that? I didn’t do anything ''too'' horrible.”

“Eh?” said Shinjou. She held her nose and made a gesture of something falling from it. “Drip drip?”

“Shinjou-kun, not even cute onomatopoeia can soften this, so do not even try. Now, Kazami, about last night.”

Kazami froze in place when she heard the term “last night”.

After a short pause, she looked around and nodded.

“You mean about Hiba Ryuuji? Don’t worry. I summoned him via his homeroom teacher, so he’ll be here soon. More importantly, I assume Sibyl contacted you this morning.”

She took a breath.

“You heard that Director Tsukuyomi’s daughter was abducted, right?”

Shinjou looked up as she listened to Kazami.

“It happened in the battle that Hiba guy was fighting, didn’t it?”

“Yes. The items left inside the concept space last night show that Director Tsukuyomi’s daughter was there. And Hiba Ryuuji probably knows the truth of the matter. He was taken into UCAT custody, so he probably told them about it.”

She gave a bitter smile.

“Based on Ooki-sensei’s opinion and the fragment of white armor left at the scene, both Hiba Ryuuji’s craft and his opponent have power on the level of a Concept Core. We can’t say anything about Hiba’s, but his opponent was likely Typhon. That proves that some remnants of 3rd-Gear remain. …And Sibyl also mentioned that she discussed another matter with you two.”

“Yes. Sayama-kun received an additional call.”

As Baku mimicked him on his head, Sayama nodded.

“Director Tsukuyomi is headed to the UCAT Kanda laboratory to receive a device needed to examine Georgius and another important item. Shinjou-kun and I will be accompanying her as witnesses of the event.”

“Georgius is going to be examined? But why does Shinjou have to go too if you are only retrieving equipment?”

“Most likely to distract me from my interest in 3rd. Even if I refuse to act as witness for some reason, Shinjou-kun cannot refuse. …And thus I will go too.”

“Uuh… I-it’s true I can’t turn down jobs people ask me to do.”

“Oh, so Shinjou is the lure to get you to go.”

“Kaku, don’t say it like that. The term you want is ‘bait’. That sounds much more normal.”

“Y-you don’t have to make it normal!”

Hearing that, Sayama shook his head solemnly.

“Shinjou-kun, normal is best for humans. If you ever need a model, just watch me.”

“You’re right. Watching you is a good way of realizing normal is best.”

It was unclear if her meaning had reached him because he nodded deeply and crossed his arms.

“At any rate, 3rd-Gear’s Leviathan Road has yet to start and we are already meeting a boy who is personally fighting 3rd-Gear and 3rd has abducted someone. If Japanese UCAT does not wish to provide the other UCATs with any misunderstandings or excuses to interfere…”

“…then they wouldn’t want Team Leviathan to deal with anything problematic? …And then there’s that impurity that Hiba mentioned last night. He said he wanted some time.”

“Yes, but UCAT might be expecting us to do something. We have summoned the Hiba boy to meet us, but no one has interfered. And only Shinjou-kun and I are going to Kanda. Izumo, Kazami, that means the two of you can do as you wish.”

For once, clear irritation could be heard in Sayama’s voice. A hint of harshness had entered his expression as well.

Seeing that, Shinjou smiled in her heart.

…''He wants to take the initiative and gather information himself.

And so she wrapped her ring-wearing right hand around his left elbow.

“Let’s eat lunch.”

“…Yes.”

He nodded, closed his eyes for a moment, and returned to his usual expressionless look. Shinjou was worried she was forcing him to do this, but he looked her in the eye.

“Come to think of it, Kazami, don’t you have something to give Shinjou-kun?”

“Eh? Kazami-san has something for me?”

''What could that be?'' she wondered.

After a moment, she shook her hands in denial as Kazami’s shoulders rose in realization.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that! As thanks for helping me shop the other day, I bought her a raw milk gyuudon at the UCAT cafeteria, but you don’t have to pay me back for that.”

“Chisato, is that why you’ve been worried about your waistline recently?”

“N-no. I ran around the school buildings after I got back that night.”

As she pled her case to Izumo, Kazami pulled an envelope from her pocket and handed it to Shinjou.

“Can I open it?” asked Shinjou as she hesitantly took it.

“What would be the point if you could not, Shinjou-kun? It is for you.”

After a moment of hesitation, she opened it.

She read through the document inside and then spoke.

“I’m being appointed as secretary of the student council?”

Surprise filled her face and a bit of heat followed.

…''Wait. Is this…?

“Did I get this position through connections while ignoring the election? Hooray.”

“Shinjou-kun, choose either suspicion or excitement. Kazami, explain it to her.”

“While this is ignoring the election, the student council has the authority to appoint new members. All the lower positions starting with secretary were open this year because a lot of people pulled out of the running during the election.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Last year, a certain female student performed a flying kick on a dumb yet large candidate during a speech. That led to candidates dropping out like the receding tide.”

“Oh, I-I see.”

“And what exactly do you mean by that?” asked Kazami with a smile.

Shinjou shrank back, but Kazami continued speaking.

“So will you accept the position? If you don’t like secretary, there are plenty of other positions: general affairs director, manager, animal official, and loser. You can also decline the offer altogether.”

Her question had a persuasive tone to it.

[[Image:OnC_v05_0117.png|thumb]]

Shinjou hesitated for a moment and looked over at the black binder next to her.

…''Is it worth having less time to work on this?

“Um, well… What exactly does the secretary do?”

“Well, you take notes on the proceedings of meetings. I’ll interpret for Kaku, so don’t worry about that.”

“I get the feeling you just casually insulted my humanity,” said Izumo. “In fact, I know you did.”

“Ha ha ha. Before you complain about that, try writing so that a modern human can understand it, you foolish primitive,” said Sayama.

“Ha ha ha. It must be nice having no humanity whatsoever and your mindset in the distant future.”

“Oh, and I will handle training these inhuman people, so don’t worry about that either,” added Kazami. She continued as the two boys glared coldly at her. “And once you join, we can talk about the Leviathan Road while claiming it is a student council meeting. We’ll be able to reserve the library and call Ooki-sensei to join us. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?”

She smiled bitterly.

“This school will be our base.”

“Ah…”

With that voice of realization, Shinjou found her answer.

…''It will give me ideas for my novel and help the Leviathan Road.

She felt that was looking at it too simply, but she still nodded.

“Th-then I will be the secretary.”

“Are you sure, Shinjou-kun? If you join the same group as our crazy president and violent treasurer, it will start some unwanted rumors.”

“Sayama-kun, I think you forgot to mention someone.”

“Ha ha. Of course I did. It is not right to praise oneself needlessly.”

Kazami glared at him but then ignored him and looked down at her watch.

“Isn’t it about time for you two to leave? Get lost, Sayama. We’ll talk with Hiba and then go shopping. We need to make preparations for the training camp the day after tomorrow.”

“I see.”

Sayama stood up and Shinjou stood up next to him.

As she did, she suddenly saw an odd color. It was a red that resembled a flower or fresh blood.

She focused on that color that was not often seen in an outdoor lawn.

“Eyes?”

She turned around and saw a motorcycle parked on the road running alongside the yard. It had a sidecar attached and a boy sat on the motorcycle itself.

He had short hair, he wore a white bandana around his head, and he was looking their way with his red eyes.

He was Hiba Ryuuji and he had a troubled look on his face.

“Here I am. Just as you asked.”

As soon as he said that, Shinjou saw Baku stir on Sayama’s head.

And then the past arrived.

“…”

Shinjou found herself standing on a road surrounded on either side by green trees.

She had become nothing more than sight and hearing.

…''This is the past.

She was on a mountain and the road running downhill was made of dirt. The light brown dirt was covered in tire tracks and weeds were growing up here and there.

…''Where is this?

She looked around and saw manmade objects to the left and right.

They were pillars. A wooden pillar hardened with turpentine stood on either side of the road.

The fronts of the pillars were split vertically and lacquer had been poured into carved words on the smooth surface.

“Izumo Aviation Laboratory – Tokyo Branch.”

That meant…

“This is the entrance to the National Defense Department!”

As she cried out with her mind, her pulse quickened.

If the National Defense Department lay ahead, there was one fact that drew her interest the greatest.

…''There should be someone with my family name here.

The person had been Professor Kinugasa’s assistant during the National Defense Department days, but all records of them were gone by the time UCAT came about. This person had her family name and a connection to Sayama Kaoru, Sayama’s grandfather.

…''And they might have some connection to my relatives.

With that thought, she tried to move her mind forward. She did not know how far the recreation of the past went, but that person might be in the National Defense Department up ahead.

“I want to see them.”

That comment made her realize her thoughts.

…''I am yearning.

But she had no clear answer what exactly it was for which she yearned. She could only think up immature words, but she never thought about casting aside the desire.

And so she took a step forward.

“…?”

But she stopped when she heard a noise.

Something was approaching from below the mountain behind her. She could tell it was a number of vehicles. She could hear the metallic noises of a dozen or so wheels and chassis.

…''What kind of vehicles?

She turned around and saw the approaching convoy.

It was a line of green jeeps and trucks.

The flat hood of the jeep in the lead had a star mark on a white background.

This was the American military.

But Shinjou found something odd. A number of men rode that jeep, but something was off about their military uniforms. She could not quite place what was wrong with them, but she found the answer once the convoy grew closer and she could see them more clearly.

“…Ah.”

It was the crest on the shoulder of their jackets.

It had a blue shield and a collection of lines surrounded by white wings.

They were UCAT.

A closer look showed that the men in the jeep and those in the trucks behind them were made up of a number of different races.

“American UCAT is leading the different UCATs of the Allies.”

The convoy was approaching while acting as part of the occupying army.

…''What is going on?

Shinjou knew about the origin of UCAT, but she knew nothing more than that the National Defense Department became Japanese UCAT.

She did not know the details of how it happened.

Meanwhile, the convoy approached the two pillars that formed an entrance.

She could hear their engines as they approached.

And just as it felt like they were going to run her vision over, something fell from the sky right in front of her.

It was silver-colored and shaped like a long blade.

It was a Japanese sword.

The curved blade stabbed forcefully down in front of her eyes and audibly tore at the dirt.

“!”

The elderly soldier sitting in the jeep’s passenger seat raised a hand.

In response, the convoy came to a stop. All the vehicles’ brakes screeched, their chassis shook, and they tore up the dirt road surface.

The sounds of the dozen or so vehicles shook the leaves of the forest.

Shinjou heard the wind blow as a sudden wind arrived from behind her.

She turned around and saw motion.

It was a large green military motorcycle.

“Ha ha!”

With a laugh, the motorcycle turned sideways and slid toward Shinjou.

A short young man drove it and his short hair waved in the wind.

“So you’ve decided to show up, have you!? Are you here to steal our position? We work in the same field, don’t we!?”

As he spoke, he forcefully planted his foot in front of the sliding motorcycle.

“There we go!”

And he used that foot to rotate the motorcycle around in front of Shinjou.

The high-speed spin stopped perfectly at one hundred eighty degrees.

The young man was directly in front of the Japanese sword that had landed earlier. He now faced the convoy with the blade between them.

He supported the motorcycle with both legs and observed the convoy with his black eyes.

“You want a fight?”

He narrowed his eyes and got down from the motorcycle.

His military boots made his footsteps ring loudly from the dirt.

At the same time, everything began to move.

The people in the leading jeep and the backs of the trucks stood up. Shinjou saw a fair number of women among them.

…''And those weapons.

In addition to guns, they wielded plenty of swords, spears, and shields. And unlike normal blades, they had been modified with exposed cords, components, and tanks.

The technology was still undeveloped, but those weapons had been modified with cowlings.

The elderly soldier then stepped out of the jeep’s passenger seat. He held a spear.

“I ask that you surrender.”

She heard the Japanese meaning of his words over the English he was actually speaking. His tone was polite yet forceful.

However, the young man’s smile remained.

“I don’t have a damn clue what you’re saying, you old foreign bastard.”

The elderly soldier’s spear moved slightly.

And it produced a noise very near the handlebars of the young man’s motorcycle. The single rearview mirror on the right side flew into the sky.

“I am Sail Northwind, representative of American UCAT. My north wind can pierce even steel.”

“Oh, that’s a neat trick.” The young man’s smile did not waver. “I think I’ve figured out what you’re trying to say. This is what you’re saying.” He pointed at the elderly soldier’s face. “ ‘Oh, that was a hell of an entrance! You’re pretty cool!’ ”

As soon as he spoke, all of those standing in the vehicles jumped down. At least a hundred armed people covered the road and forest and prepared to fight.

Countless footsteps and the metallic noises of the weapons filled the air.

But something even more impressive arrived from further down the road.

A giant form suddenly fell behind the young man and his motorcycle.

“…!!”

The form was accompanied by the sound of something extremely heavy striking the ground. The ground split and Shinjou finally saw what it was.

…''A god of war.

She heard everyone gasp as a silver-colored humanoid machine stood behind the young man and his motorcycle. It was approximately eight meters tall, it resembled a female armored warrior, and it had two pairs of wings on its back.

The god of war already held a long, narrow sword in its hands.

With a mechanical noise, the wings on its back moved. They folded up to allow easier motion on the ground.

Meanwhile, the opposing soldiers could not move. They clenched their teeth and stared at the god of war behind the young man.

The spear-wielding elderly soldier’s expression was the one exception. A smile remained on the corner of his mouth and he continued to look at the young man. The young man was looking back at him with an identical expression.

Time seemed to drag on, but it suddenly came to an end.

First, the silver god of war crouched down.

Next, a slender figure appeared from its back and climbed up onto its right shoulder.

It was a woman. The young woman’s blonde hair flowed across her back. As Shinjou looked at her thick eyebrows and strong-willed face, she noticed a certain color.

…''Her eyes.

They were red. That deep scarlet below her inconspicuous eyebrows looked down at the young man.

She opened her narrow mouth as the wind whipped at her white shirt and flare skirt.

“Do not play around, Hiba.”

Both her awkwardly-spoken Japanese and the name she mentioned shook Shinjou’s mind.

…''Hiba? As in, Hiba-sensei?

But something was off. Hiba Ryuutetsu’s left eye had been colored a deep scarlet, the same as the eyes of the woman on the god of war’s shoulder.

…''What does that mean?

With no answer to her question, the woman continued speaking.

“Do any of you match me in power? If so, I will battle you. If not, Hiba will handle it.”

“Who are you?” asked the old man who had given the name Northwind.

The young man grinned when he heard the old man’s perfect Japanese.

“Oh, so you know Japanese after all.”

The woman smiled bitterly.

“I am Rhea, a refugee from 3rd-Gear. And I have decided to seek refuge in Japan’s National Defense Department. If you attempt to take this place from me, I will battle you whether you match me in power or not.”

“…!”

The elderly soldier’s smile strengthened when he heard Rhea’s words.

At the same time, a black figure appeared next to Hiba. Shinjou recognized the tall man wearing a black cloak.

…''Siegfried-san!

The young Siegfried calmly appeared next to Hiba as if he had grown out of the shadows of the trees. He wore black gloves and already held several pieces of paper.

When the elderly soldier saw him and the paper in his hand, he asked a smiling question.

“Siegfried Zonburg!?”

“It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Lord Northwind. Did you perhaps read the reports I sent my nation? …However, you are being too hasty here.”

“It seems so, but I have learned one thing. This is the place that desires the world,” said Northwind.

Hiba folded his arms and nodded.

“You’ve got that right. But think carefully, Old Man Northwind. The Izumo Aviation Institute’s National Defense Department is working for important people right now, but if it is let loose, it will work for something else.”

“And what is that exactly?”

Hiba did not answer. Instead, the woman named Rhea spoke in a dignified voice.

“That would of course be this world itself. This world has nothing and sits at the lowest level, but that is precisely why it has everything!”

Shinjou looked up just as the others were. The red-eyed woman was smiling. Instead of looking down at the people, she faced them and looked across all of them.

“I fled to this world. I abandoned my own concept to the Tartaros and came here as an individual. However, I was treated as a guest rather than a prisoner of war. There were misunderstandings and conflicts, but I now stand here as a soldier because that is my wish! I wish to fight for this world. And…”

She looked across the surrounding area. She looked at the blue sky, the trees, the earth, and the rustling wind. She left a smile in the wind and gently brought her right hand to her stomach. Only then did she look back down toward the others.

“And so that I can be with this child here. We have already begun preparing for battle. If you wish to be with us, then let us speak. But if you obstruct us in the slightest, we will be your enemy!”

“Rhea, you’re sounding a lot more self-important than the rest of us. It might’ve been a mistake to let Kaoru prepare your Japanese lessons.”

“Ha ha. You men are always so slow. When preparing to be a mother, a woman wants immediate decisions. If you do not like it, then bring me something sour to eat. …Soldiers, give your answer.”

There was a clear smile in her voice.

“Do any of you wish to be the ally of my child!?”

That booming question signaled the end of the past.

As her sight and hearing rapidly fell into darkness, Shinjou thought about Rhea’s words.

…''Her…child?

That had been sixty years before, so where was that child now if it had been born?

Shinjou had been in UCAT the longest of the group, but she had never heard about a descendant of 3rd-Gear. She had only ever heard that 3rd-Gear was the Gear of gods of war and automatons.

“Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve heard it mentioned that there were people there.”

She wondered if Sayama was right and the Gear had few people, but she had no way of knowing. She assumed that would be one thing she would learn later. If she stayed with Sayama and the others, she would learn that along with how they were destroyed.

''But,'' she thought. ''What if a descendant of hers is still alive?''

Just like Shinjou, they would have no other members of their race and not know their parents.

“I wonder if they feel lost too…”

Shinjou awoke from the past.

“…”

She took a breath and focused on the scene before her eyes.

Standing on the yard around her were Izumo, Kazami, Sayama, and Hiba.

Further away, a lot of students were returning from school and only a few seconds of time had passed.

She let out a breath and looked around. The scenery was the same. Kazami and Izumo were exchanging a dazed look, but Sayama had experienced the past several times before.

“So that is one connection between Hiba-sensei and 3rd-Gear.”

He placed a hand on his chest, took a breath, and faced Hiba.

“I see there was a refugee from 3rd-Gear.”

“Yes. That was the first time I’ve seen something like that, though.”

Hiba’s face was pale as he sat on his motorcycle. He nodded weakly and stepped to the ground. He approached but stopped with a step still separating them.

“What was that?”

Sayama grabbed Baku from his shoulder and held the creature up.

Baku looked to the left and right but suddenly hung its head and began to sleep when it noticed everyone focusing on it.

Sayama nodded deeply.

“I am sure you understand now.”

“I don’t understand at all!”

“Then let me put it simply. Listen and be amazed. Are you ready? Baku here can show people the past.”

“Oh, I see. …I-I mean, wow! That is amazing! I’m shocked!”

''You could make it less obvious,'' thought Shinjou as she stared at him, but Sayama nodded in satisfaction.

“Hiba-sensei was quite young, but he looked somehow like you, Hiba boy.”

“Are you implying I’ll look like him when I grow old?”

Shinjou nodded and tapped on Sayama’s shoulder.

“You should give up now. The more I hear about Sayama-kun’s grandfather, the more they sound alike.”

“Shinjou-kun! That is an incredibly rude assertion. How am I anything like that self-centered old man who did nothing but eloquently mock others?”

Everyone fell silent at that.

Amid the silence, Sayama nodded, smiled toward Shinjou, and slowly spread his arms.

“Just look. Everyone is using their silence to show their agreement.”

“I’ll just jump to the conclusion: you need to go to the hospital.”

Before Sayama could reply, she turned to Hiba and he seemed to pick up on her intent.

“U-um, anyway.”

He frantically looked across the group.

Shinjou observed his expression. He looked frantic and his eyebrows were slightly lowered, so it seemed he was unsure whether he should say something or not.

She tilted her head toward that expression that she herself had often made until recently. She also lowered the ends of her eyebrows.

“There’s something you want to say, isn’t there?”

“Eh? Oh, yes. I hear you all are doing something called the Leviathan Road.”

“What about it? Do you wish to ask us to stop the Leviathan Road with 3rd-Gear?”

“Yes. This is a request from the one whose grandfather destroyed 3rd-Gear.”

His immediate response came with the relief of having said it.

Shinjou and the others judged his meaning and remained silent for a moment.

But then…

“W-wait a minute. Isn’t a bit sudden to just say your grandfather destroyed 3rd-Gear?”

Shinjou understood why Kazami was so hurriedly stopping him. They wanted to know what he had meant the night before.

…''So we need to take this slowly.

Shinjou sat up a bit and spoke.

“Ryuuji-kun… Yeah, I’ll call you that to differentiate you from Hiba-sensei. Anyway, you’re from this Gear, right? So why are you stopping us from negotiating with 3rd-Gear?”

Sayama nodded and added to her question.

“We can discuss Hiba-sensei’s countless wrongdoings at a later date, but your mention of an impurity suggests a larger reason. Based on the situation from last night, you have an automaton, your grandfather belonged to the National Defense Department, and yet you are fighting Typhon without the help of UCAT.”

Hiba’s expression changed at the mention of the name Typhon.

He frowned a bit, so Sayama expressionlessly continued.

“And UCAT has officially told us not to get involved with you. In other words, getting involved in your fight would be a negative for us. Have you come here to tell us why that is, Hiba boy?”

“Y-yes. It is a long story and I am not sure what conclusion you all will reach, but this is what I know for sure,” said Hiba. “If you carry out the Leviathan Road with 3rd-Gear and bring them to your side, it will sully the name of the Leviathan Road.”

“Sully?” asked Kazami.

Hiba nodded.

“There are actually two impurities we must purify. I came here to tell you about one of them.”

“This all sounds very pretentious.”

“I know what you mean. But…even though I intend to bear these impurities, I do not know what will happen once I truly face them.”

“In other words, you’re testing us, aren’t you? You’re going to tell us about a lighter impurity to see if we are prepared to face the true impurity.” Kazami smiled bitterly. “You’re underestimating us.”

But Hiba only smiled bitterly in return.

Seeing his smile, Kazami thought.

…''A bitter smile, hm?

The smile he gave could only be made by one who had thought the same thing countless times. It was the smile of someone who had no other choice.

She wanted to hear him out and speak with him, but some of them had other things to do.

“Hey,” she said and showed her watch to Sayama.

He nodded.

“Hiba boy, I apologize, but I must ask that you give your test to Kazami and Izumo. Shinjou-kun and I already have plans.”

“And those plans are more important than speaking with me?”

“Is speaking with me more important than speaking with Izumo and Kazami? That extreme violence couple has been involved with the Leviathan Road longer than me.”

“Oh, I-I see. Sorry.”

Hiba frantically bowed.

Kazami smiled bitterly and Izumo solemnly folded his arms and nodded.

“Look, Sayama. Underclassmen these days are so polite.”

“Hiba boy, courtesy is an expendable good. Choose wisely who you use it on. For example, you could use it all on me.”

“Oh…”

Hiba did not seem to know what to say, so Shinjou turned a forced smile toward him.

“D-don’t worry too much about what they say. They’re all very strange.”

“Oh, I-I see…”

His gaze stopped on Shinjou’s arm.

Kazami then realized that Shinjou had her arm wrapped around Sayama’s.

“Oh, how passionate.”

“Eh? Ah! Wah! Th-this is just…”

“Ha ha ha. Shinjou-kun, why are you blushing? The opinions of those who do not know the truth about us are irrelevant.”

“Stop saying things that will only confuse this further!!”

Hiba tried to back away from them as he stared at them with half-lidded eyes.

…''What is he doing?

Kazami stood up and tapped him on the shoulder. With an exasperated smile, she spread her arms.

“Do you understand now who the most wholesome and normal of us is?”

“…Using the process of elimination?”

“What was that?”

“Nothing, nothing.”

He shook his head just as someone else cut in.

“Wait a minute, Hiba.”

Izumo suddenly stood up and Kazami saw him look Hiba in the eye.

“How about we continue our talk in the Kinugasa Library? You want to test us, right?”

“Yes, sorry.”

“No need to apologize. I’ll be testing you, too. I want to see what kind of person you are.”

“Eh?”

Hiba tilted his head and took a light defensive stance.

With his arms crossed, Izumo stepped forward. Izumo was approximately one hundred ninety centimeters while Hiba looked about one hundred sixty. Kazami thought Izumo was going to use that difference in height in some way, but he instead opened his mouth to speak.

“The test is simple, Hiba. I have one question about the past we were just shown. …Did you see it?”

Izumo glanced to the side a bit as he spoke and the look on Hiba’s face changed. A sharpness filled his eyes.

But he finally frantically shook his head.

“I-I didn’t see anything. …What is the point of this sudden test?”

Hiba’s arms were spread as if it had started raining.

…''He definitely saw something.

Izumo continued speaking as if he understood what Kazami was thinking. He patted Hiba’s shoulder and looked him in the eye again.

“You saw the same thing in the past as I did, didn’t you?”

“N-no. I didn’t see anything.”

“No, you had to have seen them from below. At least a glimpse. They were blue, weren’t they!?”

“No, they were white! I happened to get a good look!”

Hiba’s reflexive response caused everyone to freeze in place.

Wind blew through the silence that lasted a few seconds.

“…Ah.”

As Hiba realized his mistake, Izumo nodded several times in understanding.

He folded his arms and spoke in a serious tone of voice.

“You have a promising future. I hope you can diligently-…”

Kazami swung her right leg and Izumo vanished.

After a short pause, she heard the sound of a human-sized object hitting the wall to the left, but she paid it no heed. She was used to this.

“Now then.”

She looked at the others who turned toward her after looking to the left.

She saw Baku staring rigidly at her from Sayama’s shoulder.

…''This is the first time he has looked me in the eye.

That made her happy, but she had something to say.

“Next time you want to show us a past with a girl or woman in it, do it when Kaku isn’t around, okay?”

The smile on her face made Baku frantically nod repeatedly.

“Good boy.”

When she reached out to pet the creature, it fluffed up its fur and let her.

Shinjou gave a stiff smile from next to Sayama.

“C-come to think of it, this is the first time you’ve petted Baku, Kazami-san. Isn’t that nice?”

“Heh heh. I guess it’s true that animals can sense people’s emotions. I’m very calm right now. So calm I feel a strong urge to do this.”

Sayama seemed to have chosen not to comment, so she took Baku from his shoulder and held the creature to her chest.

Shinjou frantically took Sayama’s arm and looked back and forth between Hiba and Kazami.

“Um…what do we do now? Th-that leaves Kazami-san to handle Ryuuji-kun.”

“Eh? Ehh? Sh-she’ll break me!”

“Heh heh heh. Don’t be so shy, freshman. Don’t worry. It doesn’t hurt that much.”

With the same smile as before, Kazami cracked the knuckles of her right hand and faced Sayama.

“You two can leave now. I will handle this interrogation…I mean forced information extraction…no, that isn’t it either. Um… How should I put it?” She nodded once toward Hiba. “I’ll have you tell me everything about this test, the impurity, and everything else. How about that?”

With all the hair on his body standing on end, Hiba nodded repeatedly.

Sunlight filled a hallway.

A tall maid walked through the hallway. She was Moira 1st who had spoken with Tsukuyomi Miyako.

She was pushing an ornamented metal stretcher. The table-like surface contained silver plates with semispherical lids.

Outside of the hallway’s windows were a forest, a slope, and a city. The city was packed with small buildings and houses. She glanced over at them and narrowed her eyes.

“The princess will not remember us once she returns there.”

“That isn’t necessarily true,” immediately replied a fairly low female voice.

Moira 1st slowly turned around and saw two people standing by the wall behind her. One was a tall woman in a red suit and the other was a large man wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and a blue apron. Moira 1st looked at the two of them.

“Mistress Gyes and Master Aigaion. Are you working, Master Aigaion?”

The large man named Aigaion brushed up his short-cropped blond hair and looked down at his clothes. The thick material of his blue apron said “Dragon Grocer” in white.

“I have no other choice. I simply dropped by while out on delivery because I heard the princess had woken up.”

“I told you to stay away because your huge body only gets in the way.”

Gyes, the woman with short black hair, shook her head.

“But Cottus is bragging about being the first to see this princess,” said Aigaion. “After all, his position down there let him see her first when Typhon brought her back.”

“Moira 1st, why did Typhon abduct that woman?”

Moira 1st tilted her head.

“According to the maintenance maids, there was an intense scorch mark on Typhon’s back. It apparently came from Keravnos.”

“So it ran across that black god of war. Does that mean it took a hostage in the shock of the initial strike?”

“Most likely,” said Moira 1st.

Suddenly, a new male voice cut in.

“Are you three Hecatoncheires interested in her?”

The voice came from the wall even further down the hallway. A young man leaned weakly against it.

He wore white clothes and had long, blond hair. Moira 1st faced him and raised her eyebrows.

“Lord Apollo, should you really be up?”

“With all the noise out here, it sounded more interesting than the bed or garden.”

He got up from the wall and moved his yellow eyes.

He turned a weak smile toward the plates Moira 1st was transporting.

“Has she woken up?”

“She is quite energetic, Lord Apollo.”

Gyes twisted her head at Moira 1st’s informative tone.

“It might be feigned. All the others who wandered here were like that.”

As soon as she finished speaking, her expression changed.

The harshness left her face and she let out a regretful sigh.

“Sorry. I know this is a rare pleasure for you.”

“There is no need to apologize. What you said is true. But…” Moira 1st tilted her head as she chose her words. “To put it bluntly, she broke through the memory manipulation that Moira 3rd so delightedly applied.”

“It is not that unlikely a turn of events. If the memories you sealed or the story Moira 3rd told included something important to her, she would naturally reject them. Then the seal and the story would vanish, correct?”

“Yes, but the seal is still in place. The new princess believes those memories are missing. Perhaps we should have given more thought to Moira 3rd’s story.”

“What story did Moira 3rd tell? The princess was taken here from the eastern side of this country. No normal artificial memory would form a proper connection.”

“Yes.” Moira 1st nodded with a serious expression. “It was simple. The train the princess was riding from a station called Shinjuku was abducted by a flying saucer and all the people aboard were given physical examinations by aliens. After having her sitting height erroneously measured too high, the princess angrily punched the little greys until she had taken control of the bridge. She then shouted ‘take me to Hawaii!’, but the flying saucer underwent a Dutch roll and crashed in Okayama! The title is ‘The Naked Princess in Space: To Terra’.”

“Sounds exciting, but there’s no heroine.”

“In this case, the protagonist of the princess doubles as a powerful heroine. A meaningless shower scene partway through where she only washes her shoulders is a must. I have studied this with the limited resources available to me.”

“I see.”

Aigaion and Apollo folded their arms and nodded, but Gyes frowned doubtfully.

“At any rate, the fruit of your studies was rejected. …Are you going to try a second story?”

Moira 1st lowered her head but finally answered.

“I think it would be difficult. Moira 3rd’s stories are meant to be placed over the memories I seal, but there should be a half-erased blank there now. If we forcibly attempt to change the story…”

“It could apply pressure to her memories until they break, destroying her personality. …Humans are difficult to deal with.” Having said that, Gyes frantically turned toward Apollo. “My apologies. I was not trying to say that you are difficult to deal with.”

“But I am. I don’t do anything and I’m no use whatsoever.”

Gyes fell silent and Aigaion elbowed her in the side.

Moira 1st smiled bitterly as she looked at the two and then at Apollo.

“In other words, you are sensitive.”

“Yes, exactly. Well said, Moira 1st. Now, Lord Apollo, Moira 2nd says you have been in good health recently, so will you go outside today?”

“Are the dolls worried for their master? …But I do think I will wander around outside for a bit.”

Apollo smiled bitterly just as a maid arrived from down the hallway. Moira 1st saw her jog toward them.

“Do not run in the hallway, 43rd. Now, what is it?”

The maid named 43rd nodded and got down on one knee in front of Moira 1st.

“I apologize. But…the princess has escaped!”

“Escaped?” asked Gyes rather than Moira 1st.

The maid nodded and pulled a piece of cloth from her chest. It was a pillowcase with thick letters written using something brown.

“This was written with the chocolate Moira 3rd gave her.”

Moira 1st read it, let out a laugh, and then turned to Gyes.

“It says ‘Thanks for your hospitality’.”

“You sound happy, Moira 1st. Did you know this would happen?”

“No.” Moira 1st tilted her head and spoke to Gyes, who looked suspicious, and the two men, who looked a bit surprised. “But if you recall, I did say she was energetic.”

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| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume5 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 30

2026-06-03T04:55:43Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 30: Place of Yearning==
[[Image:OnC_v04_0419.png|thumb]]
''The past is heard and seen.

''The present is felt.

''Then can nothing be done about the future?

On the grassy field that had been the first battlefield, Team Leviathan and 2nd-Gear ended their battle which had developed into individual versus individual.

At the center of them all, Sibyl stopped singing and looked up.

She wiped sweat from her forehead.

“A noise?”

She frowned and tilted her head as she looked past the forest to the north.

There she saw the five hundred meter giant named Susaou.

A loud noise had just come from there.

It had been a metallic noise.

The deep noise had reverberated in her stomach and it repeated again and again.

The noise showed no sign of stopping.

In front of the lake from which the metallic noises came, two new people stood in the clearing Sayama and the others had previously fought in.

They were Izumo and Kazami.

Kazami held V-Sw and G-Sp2 in her arms and Tsukuyomi’s Heavenly Moon Bow over her shoulder.

G-Sp2’s console displayed a few words.

“Very strong.”

“You shouldn’t say that to a girl.”

With that annoyed comment, she looked to the right where Izumo carried someone on his back.

It was Tsukuyomi. As she rested her chin on his head, Kazami spoke to her.

“Director Tsukuyomi, hurting your back is pretty lame.”

“I have a slim waist. I’m not like you modern athletic girls. And more importantly…”

Tsukuyomi looked toward the pier built out over the lake.

A man sat cross-legged on the weeds while facing a laptop.

It was Atsuta. He was tilting his head.

“What is with this card game? It’s gotta be cheating. I can’t win.”

“Atsuta, stop bragging about your stupidity and tell us what happened. Where are Kashima and the other two? What are these noises?”

“Just look. There’s no place for me there.”

He raised his hand and pointed the thumb behind him.

Toward Susaou.

Tsukuyomi frowned at the giant form standing in the darkness below the moon.

“Are you saying these metallic noises are what I think they are?”

“That’s right. They’re literally having a final battle at the peak.”

Atsuta twisted his head around to look behind him.

At the same time, something like white mist burst out from the stomach portion of Susaou.

Kazami knew what it was.

“That’s the steam explosion from an object moving at high speed.”

It was followed by a metallic noise. It reverberated in their guts and sounded like something breaking.

And the battle continued.

As Kashima continued the clash of metal, he moved further and further up the giant mass of metal.

He climbed Susaou.

A zigzagging staircase was built into the side of the giant parts making up its five hundred meter form.

The metal staircase was about a meter wide. The corrosion from the past made his footing unreliable.

“But that is a meaningless obstacle for a military god and the one fighting him.”

As he spoke, he looked down the stairs at the boy pursuing him.

In his pursuit, the boy ran, kicked off the ground, and even dashed across the railing. All the while, he battled using the sword in his hand.

Kashima felt he was an excellent opponent.

Kashima himself knew almost nothing about wielding a sword, but the sword taught him everything he needed to know.

As a military god, a sword was something like a servant. It would teach its bearer how to use its power. It provided him knowledge, experience, and technique.

He could fight.

As he stepped, he felt the metal below his feet.

His own body fought his enemy amid the wind.

Everything rang out like music and moved like dance.

As he ran further and further up, his vision grew higher and higher.

They had already arrived at Susaou’s chest.

Another hundred meters and they would be at the bridge in the head.

They were close.

And the closer he came, the faster his pulse grew.

The feeling that had once made him tremble now felt wonderful.

…''I yearn to reach that place!

He swung Futsuno.

He swung the blade into the air to catch a strike from above.

The two blades clashed and a metallic noise rang out.

Sparks flew and a pleasantly hard impact reached his hand.

A roar filled his ears for an instant and white smoke exploded from the path his blade had taken.

How fast were they moving? He did not know and he did not care to know.

He merely continued upwards.

[[Image:OnC_v04_0425.png|thumb]]

The next thing he knew, his vision was even higher.

From his position approximately four hundred meters up, he could see the moon, the bluish-black sky, and the landscape spread out below.

“So this is Tokyo at night.”

The gathering of lights to the east was the city center.

Those lights had once been lost during World War Two.

Bu he did not know much about that.

He only knew the stories about the Concept War that his grandfather had told him.

He smiled bitterly.

Still smiling, he moved his gaze westward.

He saw more lights in the night.

The lights of Tokyo drew a line from Nakano, Mitaka, Kokubunji, and to Tachikawa where he was.

The lights continued to shrink in number as they went further west.

The city lights continued to Haijima, Oume, and then to the mountains of Okutama.

Natsu and his family were in Okutama beyond the mountains.

Kashima wondered what they were doing.

They would never imagine he was fighting in a place like this.

…''I will always lie to them like this.

He was sure he would never tell them the truth.

He would continue lying by never telling them about today’s battle, the things which had come before, and the things that would come after, but he gained something from it.

“Isn’t that right?”

With that unintentional question to his enemy, he swung Futsuno.

The enemy caught the metallic reverberation and Kashima felt the impact in his hand.

The vibration reached his head as he thought.

…''What ending do I want?

He was no longer 2nd-Gear or Low-Gear. He was in an uncertain state.

Could he receive an answer while lying in an attempt to gain both?

…''What if I don’t get an answer?

He asked himself the question he could not ask.

But he threw the question at himself and muttered his newest answer.

“That would be fine too.”

A certain woman and a certain baby appeared in his heart.

He could not believe his thoughts were on them in the middle of this crucial battle.

…''I want to see you.

He thought.

…''I want to see you, Natsu-san, Harumi. My family.

“Yes.”

He nodded while looking to the western lights where that family was.

He would return.

Once this battle was over, he would return.

…''But not to 2nd-Gear or Low-Gear or anything like that.

He would return to where they were.

When he returned the next morning, he was sure to be starving.

He wondered if Natsu would cook him breakfast at his parents’ house.

She could make freshly cooked rice and miso soup, but his parents would not have any fish. In that case, she could cook eggs and vegetables. The boiled bamboo shoots wrapped in cured ham from before had been quite good.

…''Ahh, that sounds wonderful.

When he returned home, that would be waiting for him.

As the swords clashed and sent out metallic noises, Kashima thought.

…''Natsu-san, Harumi. I will make sure to return to you. And then we can eat a meal together.

But there was something he had to say first. That phrase would act as the proof that he had returned to his proper place.

It was a simple phrase rather than a name and he needed to say it.

He needed to say “I’m home”.

“Yes.”

…''I will return so I can say that phrase, so wait for me. Wait for your lying husband, my lying wife and our child. I will not return to any group or any Gear. I will return to you.

“I will make sure of it!”

As the guest, Natsu felt closing the porch storm shutters was her duty.

There were eight of them and they were hard to close. By the time she had finished closing them all, she had worked up a slight sweat.

After closing the last one, she stuck the wooden key in the eaves and glanced at her left hand.

That hand was missing the little and ring fingers. She always lacked some strength when closing the storm shutters.

She sighed just as Kashima’s mother called out to her from behind.

“Thank you, Natsu-san. I kind of wish you could stay here forever.”

“I would like that too, but Akio-san would never agree.”

“He’s an idiot, but he does have his pride.” She smiled bitterly. “But tell him we’ll hire him if he’s fired. The farm is shorthanded and short an heir.”

She prepared three floor cushions in the living room bordering the porch. Three cups of tea had already been prepared.

After Natsu thanked her and sat, Kashima’s mother sat on one of the other two cushions.

Kashima’s father then appeared from the hallway wearing a yukata.

“Is Haru-chan asleep?” she asked him.

“Yeah, she is, she is. I’ve always been an expert at getting kids to go to sleep. With Aki, I’d always squeeze this part of his neck and…”

“Quiet down, old man. Just sit down.”

He obediently followed his wife’s instructions.

He lowered his shoulders and trembled as he sat politely next to her.

“Do you know why I called you here?’

“B-because you were lonely?”

“No.”

Natsu realized Kashima’s mother was looking at her.

The old couple then sighed in unison and corrected their posture.

“Once again, we must ask you to please take care of Kashima Akio.”

They placed their hands in front of them in a sitting bow.

Natsu frantically reached out her hand.

“U-um, please stop that. I, uh, would also like to…”

She placed her own hands forward and lowered her head as if starting a competition over who could bow lower.

After ten seconds like that, all three of them sat up.

The edges of Natsu’s eyebrows were lowered.

“What is this about?”

“We can do this as many times as we have to. Aki said he was going to take his work seriously, so he will probably end up neglecting you a bit,” said his mother. “Also, he will probably lie to you about a lot, so we would like you to…”

“You don’t need to ask me to forgive him for that,” said Natsu. Her expression had calmed and she brought a hand to her chest. “I lie to him about a lot too.”

“Like your cooking?”

“Not just that, father. Girls have plenty of lies boys don’t know about.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

He laughed and Natsu nodded.

“And I have been telling him one very major lie.”

“Eh?”

“One rainy night while riding a bus on a road down below here, I was caught in a landslide, remember?”

Kashima’s parents exchanged a glance.

“Th-that’s true,” said his father with a troubled look. “You were on your way to investigate some ruins up above, right?”

“Yes, that. …Well, the lie I mentioned is old enough now that I can tell you. On the night of that accident eight years ago…”

She lowered her head a bit and looked away from them.

“I was not actually on my way to the ruins.”

“…”

She looked up to meet their silent gazes.

“I told my parents I was going to the ruins, but I actually intended to come here. Since graduating, I had exchanged letters with Akio-san, but I still wondered how he was doing… I planned to visit him at night, have him see me home, and…”

As she spoke, she could tell her cheeks were growing redder and redder.

“Thinking back, it was incredibly improper.”

“No, um…”

“And after the accident, I was shocked when the person who saved me was the person I wanted to see most of all.” She nodded and spoke quietly. “Everyone thought I was in an accident on the way to the ruins and he ended up helping me with my rehabilitation. And then he asked me to marry him.”

She lowered her head again.

“So I was scared.”

“…”

“I was on my way here with such improper plans and the accident felt like punishment for that, but he stayed with me without knowing or asking about the truth.” She took a breath. “I am not the type of woman he thinks I am. I know nothing of the world, I am always pretending to know what I am doing, and I have indecent thoughts. And yet he married me.”

She wrapped the fingers of her left hand in her right hand.

“And for some reason, I became afraid to ask him why he married me.”

She took a breath and found Kashima’s parents were looking directly at her.

“Ah.” She frantically separated her hands and waved them back and forth. “U-um, that is no longer the case. I can only talk about it because I’ve gotten over it.”

“Have you? But…”

“Yes, I am fine now. I got over it as soon as Haru-chan was formed inside me. It may be unfair, but having a child made me feel like there was something other than pity and responsibility between us.”

She gave a bitter smile.

“And if you didn’t care for someone, you wouldn’t video tape the child you had with her and you wouldn’t make sure to come home every day, would you? And I realized something. Every time he comes home, he makes sure to tell me ‘I’m home’, and when we eat, he makes sure to thank me for the meal. He had always done this, but I had never been watching closely enough.”

“I guess even Aki can come in handy sometimes.”

“Oh, but I refused to talk to him for three days when he bought the video camera without asking.”

Her smile lost its bitterness and she stretched her back.

“In the beginning, it may have been a lie and it may have been real, but now Akio-san, Haru-chan, and I are a real family.”

“Yes,” said Kashima’s mother with a nod and a slight smile. “You put a lot of effort into this, didn’t you?”

“No.” Natsu shook her head. “It was Akio-san who put in all the effort. So I need to return all the effort he put towards us. It may be lonely when he isn’t around, but Haru-chan will be our support from now on. We will be okay.”

As she spoke, Natsu held the three fingers of her left hand with her right hand.

And she slowly placed her hands in front of her and bowed deeply.

But when she spoke, it was with a solid tone.

“As Takagi Natsu and now Kashima Natsu, I ask that you take care of Akio-san, Harumi-san, and myself.”

The battle reached the top of Susaou.

The remains of the bridge formed a clearing of scorched metal.

The fifteen square meter space dimly reflected the moonlight.

A silhouette stood in the center like a gravestone.

It was a large sword made by intertwining many thin panels of metal.

It was at least two meters long and stabbed into the metal floor such that it stood up vertically toward the sky.

Two figures rushed into the remains of the bridge and another arrived after a short delay.

The first two were Sayama and Kashima. The following one was Shinjou.

Kashima leaped to the center of the bridge and in front of Totsuka.

But he did not reach for the sword that would mean his victory.

That was no longer his condition for victory, so he continued to hold up Futsuno.

“Come, one who will control the dragon!”

“Gladly,” replied Sayama.

He ran forward and threw his body to the right as a feint.

The wind wrapped around him as he dashed and leaped. His movements were those of someone who had been freed from what bound him.

He was fast.

But Kashima could see something else.

To use his full strength on Futsuno, he had twisted his body backwards.

In the next instant, Kashima swung Futsuno’s blade to the position he predicted Sayama would be.

“Ohhh!”

The military god descendant poured all his focus into slicing.

And in that instant, Sayama demonstrated a certain technique as he looked Kashima directly in the eye: the Art of Walking.

“…!?”

Kashima saw Sayama suddenly vanish.

…''He learned how to do it!?

After exchanging sword blows and synchronizing their breathing through their actions, looking him in the eye was enough to achieve some level of overall synchronization.

And his enemy had done exactly that in the very, very end.

“So Low-Gear will use a 2nd-Gear technique to win!?”

This was interesting. Kashima felt joy.

''Yes,'' he thought. ''This is nice.

He understood just how intent Sayama was on winning. The boy was even willing to use 2nd-Gear’s techniques.

When it came to winning, the distinction between Low-Gear and 2nd-Gear did not matter.

And so Kashima could not stop the sword he swung down.

Sayama was no longer in the path of the blade. Outside of Kashima’s perception, he had likely come to a quick stop and would attack from a different position in the next instant.

Kashima needed to see through this Art of Walking.

And to do that, he had to force himself out of sync.

Before, Sayama had done so by recalling his own past even further.

In that case, what could Kashima do?

“I…”

His vision brought him the answer.

Beyond the night sky, the mountains of Okutama were visible to the west.

…''That’s right. There are people waiting for me.

He had somewhere to return to.

As he realized that, he stopped yearning for that place. He instead accepted it.

He was not fighting in order to win, to kill, or to lose something.

“I am fighting to return there!”

Immediately afterwards, he felt a weight in his hand.

He felt the weight of metal, the weight of a blade, and the weight of the slicing wind.

It was only for an instant, but his thoughts for that which was important to him made him something other than a military god.

It truly did only last an instant, but that instant was enough.

Freed from the bonds of a military god, he left Sayama’s synchronization.

And thus he broke through the boy’s Art of Walking.

Sayama was only a step to the left.

He held his sword down by his waist in order to launch the final attack toward Kashima.

He was likely planning to attack the instant Kashima slammed Futsuno’s blade into the floor.

That was when it should have ended.

But Kashima made an instant decision.

As he swung the blade down, he removed his right hand from the hilt.

And…

“Ohh!”

He poured all his strength into his right fist and struck the right side of Futsuno.

His fist broke in an instant and a dull impact passed through the back of his neck and to his brain.

But he did not care.

He had successfully altered the path of the giant blade.

Futsuno was now headed toward Sayama.

It would enter through the top of his head and leave through his left waist.

“…!”

And Sayama reacted.

He swung the sword at his waist and struck the great mass swinging down from above.

But it was no use. Kashima’s strike had been different from before. It had the initial velocity of a military god and it had been made with proper footing. It was not a blow meant to be supported with only his left arm.

It demonstrated its strength in an instant.

Before the strike reached Sayama’s blade, the hair wrapped around the blade and his arm was destroyed. The princess’s protection which had been protecting him bent for an instant and ultimately broke.

As the hair scattered through the air, the two blades clashed.

“Sayama-kun!”

Kashima heard the girl’s scream, but it changed nothing.

Sayama’s blade suddenly broke.

It produced a great metallic noise.

Futsuno’s slicing speed did not drop, but Sayama had no means of defending.

And Kashima had no way of stopping it either.

“Is this…!” he shouted. “Is this your answer!?”

As he heard his own voice fill the air, Kashima saw something.

He saw the answer.

First, he heard a new metallic noise.

“Futsuno…”

It broke.

“!”

The massive piece of cutting metal broke. That blade had made him question everything eight years before, but now it shattered as if it were made of sand.

It cracked and then could not withstand its downward motion.

The cutting blade broke and scattered as if embracing the air.

“What…!?”

Before Kashima could ask further questions, he saw it.

Sayama held something up in his right hand.

It was a single black floppy disk.

“This is the collection of names belonging to the countless gods of 2nd-Gear that can be said to be 2nd-Gear itself. Futsuno was created as a symbol of 2nd-Gear, so it cannot cut it!”

As he clenched the remaining hilt of Futsuno, Kashima listened to the boy speak.

“This is the proof that you truly created something of 2nd-Gear!”

Sayama moved.

He spun around, showing his back, jumped, and performed a reverse roundhouse kick on his way up.

It struck.

“…!”

A dull sound filled Kashima’s chest and he was knocked backwards.

But…

“This isn’t over yet!”

“Agreed!” shouted Sayama.

The two of them smiled at the same moment.

Kashima spread his arms, brushed away the shards of Futsuno scattered throughout the air, and stepped strongly on the metal floor.

He let out a breath, ignored the pain in his chest, and continued forward.

“Bearer of the dragon! The descendant of those who could not subdue the dragon has a question for you!”

Totsuka lay before his eyes.

That 2nd-Gear sword had been made by his grandfather. He still did not know what answer should come from it.

He reached out his broken right hand and grabbed Totsuka.

And in that instant, he saw an animal poke its head out from the breast pocket of Sayama’s armored uniform.

It was Baku.

Sayama saw the past.

He was inside a metal room covered with a low ceiling. It resembled the bridge of a ship.

In the center was a platform that looked like it was meant to contain a humanoid object.

But it was currently empty and there were only two people on that bridge.

A scarlet light from the window illuminated the two of them.

Massive flames were visible immediately outside the window.

The flames burst upwards, flickered back and forth, and boiled upwards once more. However, those flames were not formless.

They took the form of a giant dragon. An eight-headed dragon.

Giant arms could be seen extending out from either side of the bridge and they were wrapped around the flames.

The two people inside the bridge were speaking. The tall one in a work uniform held a large sword in his right arm.

The other was short and wore white Japanese-style work clothes. He had been continually shouting.

They were Ooshiro Hiromasa and the grandfather of the current Kashima.

This Kashima was urging the other man to evacuate.

As he spoke, the scarlet light outside grew stronger. In response, the blue stones hanging from their necks began to emit light. As that blue light gradually grew stronger, it illuminated the two of them.

Hiromasa smiled toward Kashima amid that light.

“I can’t. Now that Mikage has been removed, someone has to manually operate Susaou. And we need someone to give the answer to seal Yamata in Totsuka.”

“But…!”

Hiromasa shook his head.

He removed his glasses and threw them to the floor.

Before even hitting the floor, the glasses suddenly melted.

“Now, go. It’s getting so hot I’m not sure the philosopher’s stone protection will be enough. You might not be able to escape safely, Kashima.”

He looked directly at the short elderly man named Kashima.

Kashima gulped when he saw his eyes.

Hiromasa’s eyes were not focusing and they held no light.

“Can you tell? I was blinded by the destruction of your Gear and that firebombing.”

“…”

“Go gather all the others. That’s what you promised, isn’t it? To gather together Low-Gear and 2nd-Gear, you acted as the representative of 2nd-Gear and initially harshly rejected us. But you said you would convince the opposition to surrender to Low-Gear once Yamata is sealed. You said you would lead everyone in my place.”

“You’re a fool.”

“Perhaps, but I’ve made my decision. I made it when I failed to save your Gear and you shouted at me in protest upon setting foot in Low-Gear.”

He smiled.

“That was effective. I needed to be told I had no real intention of facing 2nd-Gear’s destruction.”

“I-I’m the one that needed to be told that.”

“We’re the same, Kashima. We’re both engineers.”

Hiromasa nodded and turned his unseeing eyes toward the window.

The eight simultaneous roars of the flame dragon stabbed into the night sky and shook the bridge.

They were cries of protest and an attempt to take vengeance against everything, but they were also suppressed and struggling cries.

However, Hiromasa could not see the dragon. His unfocused eyes looked beyond the dragon and beyond the walls of the concept space. They looked toward the small nightscape visible in the distance.

“Can you see it, Kashima? Tokyo has not even begun to recover, but you can see some lights that still live on, can’t you?”

After his question, he opened his mouth again.

“…”

But he stopped. He took a breath to calm himself before speaking again.

“Susaou isn’t enough to control Yamata. I will use your Totsuka to answer Yamata’s question.”

“Y-you idiot!! Do you know what the answer is!?”

“Yes.” Hiromasa nodded and held up the large sword in his right hand. “As I am now, there’s no way I don’t.”

Kashima tried to say something in response.

He opened his mouth, twisted his face, and tried to draw up the words from deep in his gut.

“I… I don’t actually…!”

But Hiromasa cut him off.

“Go, Kashima. This is my first command to you, military god and swordsmith.”

Susaou shook as if in response to those words.

The dragon raged and tried to escape its bonds.

The bridge tilted, the metal creaked, and Kashima toppled over.

The tilting threw him into the air and he slammed into the door.

“!?”

The door suddenly opened, swallowed him whole, and closed once more.

Hiromasa had controlled the door from where he was pressed against the front of the bridge.

But he had heard Kashima as he disappeared beyond the door. His crying face had been turned toward Hiromasa.

“————!”

The man’s shout had been a question. He was relaying the dragon’s will. He was asking the question that only he could ask.

As he left, Kashima had left everything with Hiromasa.

The bridge reverted to its normal position and Yamata roared in response to Kashima’s voice.

But Hiromasa’s hands suddenly stopped on the console.

He firmly grasped the edge of the box attached to the front of the console.

After a moment, he tilted his head slightly and opened the box.

And he pulled out a single sheet of Japanese paper.

The paper had been made heat-resistant and it had large letters written in ink.

Hiromasa could not see, but he let Yamata’s scarlet light illuminate the paper as he traced his fingers across it. He must have been able to feel the ink on the paper because he smiled as he touched it.

As he felt the writing, he spoke the sloppily-written katakana aloud.

“O-o-shi-ro…”

His smile deepened, he folded up the paper, and he placed it in his work uniform’s breast pocket.

He then faced forward and cast his unseeing gaze toward Yamata.

“Your handwriting is terrible,” he muttered just as scarlet light filled the bridge.

And just Hiromasa opened his mouth to speak the answer, the past came to an end.

The UCAT members deployed by the lakeside saw light overhead.

The light came from names quickly spreading out like a diagram of the celestial sphere.

The names were formed by tiny strings of writing which flowed from the bridge to the night sky while trailing white and blue light.

The names extended in straight lines, drew arcs through the sky in parallel lines like sheet music, surrounded the sky, and rotated around in countless layers.

They moved quickly into the distance and spread out. Differences in speed caused the white and blue names to form multiple layers. Some flew in elliptical orbit while some flew in perfect circles. Ultimately, a giant celestial sphere formed a cage in the sky.

Those names were Totsuka’s true form and they were meant to seal Yamata.

Everyone heard small metallic noises amid the rapidly expanding names.

An old man from 2nd-Gear muttered to himself when he heard them.

“The metal shards forming Totsuka are expanding the names carved into them…”

The light raced on as if agreeing.

And once the celestial sphere reached the limits of the concept space, something else arrived.

First, the color crimson appeared in the empty space below the moon.

As if spilling into the air, the crimson color expanded and formed flames.

The flames flowed. They moved like water, like a serpent, like a dragon.

The fire finally truly became a dragon.

“Here it comes!” shouted someone just as it took form.

With a roar, an eight-headed, eight-tailed flame dragon appeared.

In an instant, it grew over a kilometer in length and further expanded in the very top of the concept space.

A giant red flower bloomed in the sky.

As the crimson dragon blossomed, it produced a cry. Its cry of protest shook the air and the ground.

“————!”

Its roar rang out, its scorching noise filled the air, and the celestial sphere of names…

“It’s creaking!?”

Yamata’s motion caused the countless names of the seal to cry out.

“Hurry,” muttered someone as they heard what sounded like the strained creaking of a ship.

“Please hurry! If Yamata is freed, this concept space might not be able to contain it!”

That shout came from the development department managers who had joined Tsukuyomi. They were the ones who had the most knowledge of Yamata’s seal.

But the flame dragon in the night sky ignored them.

It raised its eight heads.

“————!”

Eight bestial voices reverberated toward the moon.

And then Yamata moved.

It dropped down toward the iron giant on the lake approximately one thousand five hundred meters below. It descended toward that giant that spread its arms as if in an embrace.

With its opened maws in the lead, the flame dragon came to devour the blade that had once sealed it.

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 29|Chapter 29]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 31|Chapter 31]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume3 Chapter 9

2026-06-02T04:30:12Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 9: Blocked Perception==
[[Image:OnC_v03_0235.png|thumb]]
''It is your heart that orders you to notice

''And so you stand up

''And so what should you do?

UCAT’s first basement contained a large cafeteria near the aboveground equipment exit.

The cafeteria was one hundred meters square and almost full. The eight-person tables were filled with people and the walls were lined with vending machines and air conditioners disguised as decorative plants.

The clocks attached to the ceiling at a set interval all read 6:15 PM. Night was falling.

Surrounded by a mixture of voices and footsteps, Sayama and the others sat at a table almost in the very center of the room.

“S-sorry. Changing took more time than I thought,” said Shinjou in her casual clothes.

She wore a white shirt and an orange skirt and she carried a bowl containing the cafeteria’s doria meal.

The seat next to Sayama was open, so she sat there and once more looked across the people around the table.

In addition to herself, Izumo and Kazami sat together and Sayama had Baku on his shoulder. Sibyl was the same as ever. They all had a meal in front of them and held the document copies Kazami and the others had brought.

Sayama passed her a copy and she looked over it.

“The giant humanoid machine and the Cowling Sword that sealed Yamata?”

“Both of them used 2nd-Gear technology. Also…”

“Also?”

“The project to construct Susaou began on March 12, 1945.”

Sayama seemed to contemplate the date he had spoken.

“Did something occur to you, Sayama-kun?”

“No, something caught my attention is all. I will mention it if I receive some kind of confirmation.”

Shinjou nodded and began flipping through the pages to store the knowledge in her head.

She suddenly realized Sayama was watching her from the side.

“What is it? Is there something on my face?”

“Yes. Eyes, a nose, a mouth, and hair.”

“That is an old joke, but that last part was a bit new. …Anyway, what is it?”

Sayama fell silent as he thought for a moment.

Surprisingly, he seemed to have difficulty saying something.

“It is nothing. I realized something while speaking with the old man earlier, but I have yet to decide what to do about it.”

“I see,” said Shinjou without pursuing the matter.

She did feel her pulse quicken a bit, though.

There was something she was thinking about as well.

It was something she had discussed with Ooshiro the night before.

…''My lie.

She was currently bothered by that word.

…''Is that what Sayama-kun started to say?

She had never mentioned the lie to him, but he was clever.

What would she do if he suddenly asked her about the truth she was hiding?

“…”

As she thought, Shinjou quickly shook her head.

This was no time to be thinking about herself.

“Anyway,” began Shinjou as she turned back to the document.

She had always been the type to read. Even on documents, writing had a way of stealing her attention.

A lot of the information was new to her.

She was surprised to see someone who was likely Ooshiro’s father listed as Susaou’s captain.

The great size of Susaou also surprised her.

Drawn in by those surprises, she read through the entire document without worrying about her food growing cold.

As she did, Sayama gave them the details of his meeting with Director Tsukuyomi of the development department.

After around fifteen minutes, she had finished reading it all.

She took a breath, arranged the papers into a proper stack, and checked everyone else’s progress.

Sibyl was rereading it through from the beginning again and again to memorize it, Kazami was flipping back and forth between pages, and Izumo…

“Wh-why is he sleeping with his eyes open, Kazami-san?”

“He thinks it’s funny. But look, Kaku, your beer is getting warm. Look.”

Even when she tapped his cheek, Izumo did not react.

He was fast asleep, so Kazami gave an exhausted sigh.

“Hey, Kaku. Wake up. C’mon, c’mon. Wake up. C’mon… Wake up!”

“Gah! …Ah, wh-what? Did something just explode next to my face?”

“What are you talking about? Here’s your beer.”

“O-oh. Thanks, Chisato. But I’m still a bit confused…”

''Wow,'' thought Shinjou as she finished arranging her papers.

“So UCAT has a blank period in their data,” muttered Sayama as he arranged his own papers next to her. “Shinjou-kun, could you pass me the Worcestershire sauce?”

“Oh, sure. You put Worcestershire sauce on tempura?”

“The Tamiya family put soy sauce on everything, so I have been in a bit of a reactionary period ever since I moved to the dorm.”

“I see,” said Shinjou with a nod.

She had a white doria with soup and salad. Across from her, Sibyl had bread and white stew. Next to Sibyl, Kazami and Izumo both had the yakiniku meal with a beer for Izumo.

Izumo must have noticed her gaze, because he held up the frothy glass.

“Just to be clear, I’m over twenty.”

Kazami began eating her meat without saying anything and Sibyl gave a small nod.

“How did the two of you meet?” asked Shinjou out of curiosity.

“You should not ask that, Shinjou-kun. I am sure the two of them have a reason for their violence.”

“I appreciate your consideration, Sayama, but what are you trying to say?”

As Kazami smiled and cracked her knuckles, Sayama quickly looked away.

“But why do you ask, Shinjou?”

“Well, I’m a bit curious how you ended up in this relationship,” explained Shinjou while thinking about the word “lie” and about Sayama.

Izumo responded by putting down his empty glass and sighing.

“I suppose we can tell you. Right, Chisato?”

“Hmm. Well, if you’re okay with it.”

“Th-then you’ll tell me?”

“Yeah. I’ll never forget that day. It was…um…a snowy day…in summer.”

“Kazami, ignore that idiot who forgot and tell us,” prompted Sayama.

“Okay then…”

As she thought, Sayama gave Baku some of his food.

Kazami gave a small snort and opened her mouth.

“To put it simply, Kaku is the child of a 10th-Gear princess and the president of the Izumo company. The peaceful faction of 10th-Gear was given a reservation in the Kinki region. On his way back there, he was attacked by a group from 6th-Gear who had a grudge against the Izumo family.”

“I was injured in the attack and Chisato took me in. She was amazing back then.”

“Oh, c’mon, Kaku. I wasn’t that amazing.”

“You were. You took me to the girls’ dorm because I didn’t have anywhere to stay.”

“Eh? Y-you brought him to your room after just meeting him?”

“No, she threw me in a wax storage room and forgot about me for half a day.”

“Wait. Stop that, Kaku!”

“It was the middle of summer, so I almost went insane due to the pain of my injuries, the dehydration, and the closed space filled with vaporized wax. W-wait, Chisato. I’m not lying. It isn’t right to raise your fist now. You’re trying to suppress the truth!”

Kazami clicked her tongue and Shinjou’s mouth hung open.

“Kazami-san…”

“How about we talk about what happened after that?” said Kazami with a smile.

Shinjou quickly nodded.

A glance around the room showed some of the people in the large cafeteria listening in to Izumo and Kazami’s story.

Kazami looked around and sat up in her seat a bit.

“It happened two years ago. I was pretty much in the same situation as you, Sayama. Kaku was taken in by UCAT and I tried to bring him something he left behind, but I was caught in a battle with 6th-Gear.”

“Boldman was the leader of the 6th-Gear group and they were trying to steal G-Sp and the prototype X-Wi that UCAT was transporting.”

“When I fell into the concept space, they were both right in front of me. The truck had rolled on its side.”

“Afterwards, 6th-Gear’s Concept Core was transferred to UCAT and contained within V-Sw because it was on hand. A lot happened after that, but the Leviathan Road was finished for both 6th and 10th back then.”

Shinjou watched the gazes of the three people in front of her and the other UCAT workers surrounding them.

The looks on their faces were perfectly serious and they would nod when she met their gaze.

Next to her, Sayama grabbed some of his food and spoke.

“You look more mature discussing this than you do drinking beer.”

“Yeah. You don’t usually look that way. I have to rethink my opinion of you. I should probably start calling you Izumo-san,” added Shinjou.

“Kaku, they’re casually denying your entire personality.”

“Are they? I don’t really get the details, but feel free to look up to me, Shinjou.”

Unsure how to respond, Shinjou turned to Sayama.

“Just speak the words that fill your heart,” he told her.

“I-I can’t do that. Kazami-san would do something horrible to me.”

“Shinjou-sama?” replied Sibyl with a perfectly serious expression. “If I may interrupt, Chisato-sama will make sure you survive.”

“I am curious what you were trying to say there,” commented Sayama. “Anyway… Kazami, do you ever feel as though you have made a horrible mistake?”

“Yes, but only when I’m with Kaku… Also, I will be returning to my parent’s home tonight, so I can go back to a normal life for a short time.”

“Oh?” said Sayama.

“Really?” said Shinjou.

“I usually go back on Sundays,” she replied. “But it looks like we’re going to be busy from now on. After going back today, I can return tomorrow and stay in the dorm for the entire weekend. We’re going to the Showa Memorial Park tomorrow, right?”

“I intend to, yes. I have a lot to think about regarding the preliminary negotiations.”

“Hm. But is there really a five hundred meter humanoid machine in that park? I ran through it a lot for club marathons in middle school.”

Kazami’s answer did not come from Sayama or the others.

The gently moving air carried in a male voice from behind Sayama.

“It’s there,” began the voice. “If you go there tomorrow, you will see the truth of Tokyo.”

“Eh?” said Shinjou as she turned around.

She turned to the left.

Kazami and the others turned defensively toward the speaker and Izumo could be heard gulping down another beer.

At some point, a man had appeared on the left side of the table.

He was a young man with glasses who wore a lab coat over a work uniform.

He held a laptop under his right arm and a bento box under his left arm.

He turned agreeable black eyes toward them.

“I am Kashima Akio of 2nd-Gear. I am the representative you must negotiate with for the release of 2nd-Gear’s concepts.”

All of them gulped.

That was the name of the military god Tsukuyomi had told Sayama.

And the document they had just read gave Kashima as the surname of the second in command for the giant humanoid machine.

…''It can’t be…

But it most likely was. She could sense Sayama growing tense to her right.

…''The next Leviathan Road has already begun.

“Now then,” said the man named Kashima with a nod. “How shall we carry out this Leviathan Road thing?”

His question was so carefree he seemed to be talking about a game.

Sayama was the one to answer him.

He began with a question.

“You mention the Leviathan Road, but do you have your Concept Core ready?”

“Yes, we know exactly where it is. 2nd-Gear’s Concept Core transformed into the flame dragon Yamata which is currently sealed within the divine sword Totsuka. And Totsuka is stabbed into Susaou’s bridge. But I think you already knew that,” he said while glancing at their documents. “It all comes down to how our negotiations go and whether Yamata will accept you or not.” He took a breath. “That is the biggest issue.”

The nighttime city contained a forest.

The forest spread out as far as the eye could see.

However, a large parking lot bordered a train station to the south of the forest.

The sign in front of the parking lot contained the three words “Showa Memorial Park”.

It was a state-run nature park.

The large clock standing in the parking lot indicated the time was 7:30 PM.

The park had already closed.

The darkness of the night contained only the trees of the forest and a narrow asphalt road.

In the distance of that vast space, a large pool and a rest area could be seen sinking into the darkness.

The sounds of a train suddenly came from the south.

A train was passing through the JR Nishi-Tachikawa Station.

The sound gently filled the artificial forest.

No one should have heard that sound, but someone was listening to it now.

Inside the closed park, two girls stood on the path used during the day as a cycling course.

One was a tall girl. In the darkness, she could be seen standing tall with her black hair tied behind her head and wearing a black shirt and white vest.

She simply stood in the darkness.

Another girl walked quickly up behind her.

This girl was short. She had long black hair and she wore a white blouse and black vest.

Her black eyes looked up at the girl standing before her.

“You walk too fast, Mikoku. I can’t keep up.”

“This is why I told you not to come, Shino. We still have a long way to go.”

Shino sighed at what the tall girl, Mikoku, said.

“But I thought we could go hiking for the first time since visiting 1st-Gear’s hideout,” said Shino disappointedly.

“I do not think hiking means what you think it means.”

“Then what does it mean?”

“Running around the countryside on a sunny Sunday while singing songs and eating the homemade lunch you brought with you. Very sophisticated, isn’t it? You can spend a lazy weekend day traversing the mountains singing war songs with nothing but salted rice balls to eat.”

“I think your definition is wrong too. By any chance, do you not actually know what it means either?”

“D-do not be ridiculous. It is called ‘high-king’ because you act like the king of the heights.”

“Really?”

“Do not give me that doubting look.”

“I wasn’t giving you a-… Ow ow! Don’t pull on my cheeks!”

Mikoku let go of Shino’s cheeks and sighed.

“At any rate, tonight’s walk is about sentiment. This time, we will not be contacting 2nd-Gear.”

“Is 2nd-Gear really that close to UCAT?”

“Yes. According to Hajji, contacting them holds too great a risk of having our information passed on to UCAT.” Mikoku turned around in the direction they were headed. “He also said the people of 2nd-Gear have already become residents of Low-Gear, so they will not join us even if we contact them.”

“That’s too bad. It was Japanese UCAT’s development department that created Team Leviathan’s V-Sw and modified G-Sp into G-Sp2.”

“That is not all. Totsuka, the Cowling Sword here that sealed Yamata, is also from 2nd-Gear.”

Mikoku began walking and heard footsteps following her after a few steps.

“B-but why don’t we steal Totsuka? If it’s in the concept space here, can’t we just sneak in and take it? You could do it, right?”

“This place is under UCAT’s control. If I entered the concept space, they might detect the change in string vibration. It would be difficult for me to steal it on my own,” explained Mikoku. “Also, the method of releasing Yamata and the method of sealing it are apparently only known by a small number of people in 2nd-Gear. Even if we had Totsuka, we could not do anything with it.”

“What is this method of releasing and sealing?”

“I hear it is a word. However, it requires someone with connections to 2nd-Gear’s emperor and someone who can give the proper response. But the Army has no influential 2nd-Gear members or anyone who knows that response. …There is nothing we can do.”

“I see,” said a disappointed voice behind her.

Mikoku smiled bitterly and looked into the sky as she walked.

Stars were visible beyond the tree branches.

“At any rate, we can take it easy tonight. This is just a walk.”

“Okay. But what is up ahead?”

“Something sentimental: Susaou and Totsuka, the pinnacle of 2nd-Gear technology.”

The man named Kashima brought a chair to the corridor-side edge of the table and sat down. From Sayama’s point of view, he sat on the opposite side of Shinjou.

He opened his bento box which contained a homemade Western-style meal.

When Sayama saw the apples peeled to look like rabbits, he concluded this was made by a member of his family.

As he ate, Kashima supplemented what they had learned in their investigation.

He gave a general outline, swallowed a korokke, and finished speaking.

“And as you said, Yamata is still sealed in Totsuka within that concept space.”

“It was daring of them to seal it inside Tokyo.”

“I heard your grandfather constructed the theory behind that seal,” said Kashima.

That sudden revelation about his grandfather’s past brought a hand to the left side of Sayama’s chest.

And as if responding to his action, his chest began to hurt.

“Kh…”

His groan caused Kashima’s eyebrows to move.

He looked toward Sayama and stopped moving his plastic chopsticks.

“What’s the matter? Are you ill?” he asked frantically.

Shinjou’s shoulders trembled and she turned toward Sayama. With the ends of her eyebrows lowered she smiled bitterly while feeling his pain.

He leaned his weight on her outstretched hand and felt some relief.

He could not breathe properly, so he mouthed the words.

Shinjou read his lips and turned toward Kashima.

“He says not to worry about it.”

Sayama nodded, felt better, and took a deep breath.

And he straightened up.

Seeing that, Kazami, Izumo, and Sibyl all straightened a bit too.

The fact that all of them had been worried about him made him feel even better.

“When I hear about my relatives’ past, I get chest pains,” he explained to Kashima.

“That must be tough. …Your relatives’ past, hm?”

Kashima’s eyes narrowed as he gave a sigh of relief.

…''Does he have some thoughts about his relatives or his own past?

And Sayama had a further thought.

…''I suppose everyone has some kind of issue.

“Now, can you tell us what you meant? Earlier, you said 2nd-Gear’s Concept Core, aka Yamata, is located in the sword stabbed into the bridge in the head of Susaou. And you said the remaining issues are how we will negotiate and if Yamata will accept us.”

But…

“What do you mean by ‘accept us’?”

Kashima brushed up his hair with a troubled expression.

“I’ll be blunt. 2nd-Gear’s Concept Core became Yamata when it lost control in its synchronization with the control system. So if you want to obtain the Concept Core…”

“Yes?”

“You need to obtain Yamata’s permission. You must answer Yamata’s question and gain its understanding.”

“You mean I must negotiate with Yamata?”

“No. You need an intermediary because Yamata does not understand human language. I will ask in your place. As a question, I will speak the word that can control Yamata.”

“As a question?” asked Kazami.

“Yamata seeks the answer to a certain question,” said Kashima as he turned toward her. “Someone once answered that question, but he was burned to death when Yamata was sealed. In other words, the seal was achieved, but the person who knew the answer died.”

“So what is wanted from me is to release Yamata, answer Yamata’s question to earn its allegiance, and to not die.”

Kashima nodded and Sayama glanced at Baku on his own shoulder.

“I heard Yamata’s question in an image of the past.”

“What kind of question was it?”

Sayama recalled what he had seen in that dream.

He had heard that ocean of flames beyond the closing gate.

“It was a roar. It sounded like…like the dragon was trying to convey some meaning.”

“Did you see the answer?”

“No. As soon as the dragon asked, the ‘gate’ in the dream closed.”

“That’s good,” said Kashima with a slight smile. “Yamata’s question and answer were only known to 2nd-Gear’s emperor and chief engineer. …The Kashima family line which created the Cowling Sword Totsuka fell under the latter category. That is why I know.”

He grabbed another korokke from his bento and swallowed it.

“So what will you do? If you are going to carry out the Leviathan Road with 2nd-Gear, what do you plan to give us in exchange for going along with it?”

Everyone at the table froze in place.

Silence fell.

''This is where the real issue lies,'' thought Sayama amid the silence.

Baku must have sensed the change in the atmosphere because he turned toward Shinjou, Kazami, and the others and tilted his head.

Kashima placed his elbows on the table and rested his head in his hands.

“Listen. 2nd-Gear has already become naturalized. We can live in this world without issue. We’re perfectly satisfied with the current situation and we don’t want to make any waves. In that case, I could ignore your grandfather’s will, not bother with the Leviathan Road, and-…”

“It would be easier for you if you unconditionally told me Yamata’s question and answer, wouldn’t it?”

After a moment, Kashima finally nodded to Sayama’s leading words.

“Yes. That would be easier, wouldn’t it?”

Mikoku and Shino spoke as they walked through the forest.

“Are we still not at Susaou?”

“Just a bit further. Is this your first time here, Shino?”

“You only just realized?”

Shino sighed and gathered her collar against the growing chill in the air.

“This is my first time coming here. I’ve seen this place from the train plenty of times, though.”

“I see. Well, it is only my second time. Tatsumi dragged me here one night. At the end of March, the park is open until nine for evening flower viewing.”

“Hey, I didn’t know about that. No fair.”

“Do not say that. It happened around seven years ago. You were still young, so I think you were already asleep. Hajji said Tatsumi and I should see another side of this world.”

That last sentence caused the ends of Shino’s eyebrows to droop a bit.

“Tatsumi-san had some lingering attachment for Low-Gear, didn’t she?”

“It was a bit different for her.”

“I suppose so,” said Shino as she raised her head. “But why are we here today?”

“Didn’t I say it was a sentimental walk?”

“Sentimental for what?”

Mikoku wrinkled her brow a bit and looked annoyed. “Susaou is in the concept space here, but we cannot enter that space for fear of being detected.”

“Yes?”

“But I think it is important to think on it even if we cannot actually see it.” She took a breath. “A battle occurred here. And what happened after that? We must not speak of the past without giving thought to that.”

Shino walked up alongside Mikoku and her expression relaxed.

“That’s right.”

“If you agree, then listen carefully, Shino. With your power, you should clearly understand what happened to this world.”

“Yes,” said Shino as she walked along and looked among the trees in the darkness.

“…”

After a short silence, she smiled bitterly.

“What is it, Shino?”

“Everyone is asleep: the trees, the flowers, the birds, and the beasts.”

“You can tell? Maybe we should have come during the day.”

“No. I would rather come during the morning than during the brightness of the day. Everyone would be more energetic then.”

“I see.” Mikoku quietly looked around. “I wonder if they are aware their homes are under human control.” She turned her calm gaze toward the sky. “If not, then it is evidence of Low-Gear’s excellent control.”

“Isn’t being under someone’s control a bad thing?”

“Good control is better than bad freedom. But if it had not been for the fighting, this place would never have been created. It would simply be part of nature.”

Mikoku saw a small light moving through the night sky. It was an airplane taking off from Yokota Air Base.

“Apparently, Showa Memorial Park was originally an airfield belonging to the old Japanese army.”

“You mean Tachikawa Airfield? That was back when propeller planes making loop-the-loops was as advanced as it got.”

“Yes. It was taken by the American military after the war and UCAT created a large concept space here. And in 1946, UCAT succeeded in sealing Yamata in that concept space. In ’69, the stability of Yamata’s seal was confirmed and the American military stopped using it as an airfield.” She took a breath. “In ’75, the higher ups of Japan made a certain decision while celebrating the fiftieth year of Emperor Showa’s reign. For the sake of the surviving Low-Gear and the destroyed Gear, they decided to create a park to preserve the concept space in which Yamata was sealed.”

“And that park…?”

“Yes. In ’77, the American military made great progress in their investigation and development toward returning Tachikawa Airfield. By ’83, the airfield had become a large nature park that even had hills. It had water, it had greenery, it was carefully maintained, and it had become a place for the survivors to enjoy their life without realizing the truth. This is essentially a giant memorial for the dead.”

The forest opened up and a lake could be seen. The lake had an area for boarding boats and sleeping ducks could be seen floating on the water.

Mikoku stopped.

“This is the place,” she said and took a breath. “Susaou is here.”

“What will you do?” asked Kashima as a small sound rang out.

Everyone saw Izumo place his empty glass on the table.

The sounds of muttering voices and moving chairs filled the cafeteria.

However, Sayama and the others at the table created the silence of thought and stillness.

“What will you do?” asked Kashima again.

…''If I asked for Yamata’s question and answer here, would he tell me?

Sayama decided this was a test.

He would be given his answer, but if he did that…

…''This Kashima would give up on me.

He was unlikely to gain the man’s trust that way.

Sayama looked toward Kashima’s work uniform and laptop and he nodded internally.

Engineers took pride in their work.

He could not just ask him.

But he could not simply negotiate for the answer. 2nd-Gear was satisfied with their situation.

…''To think about this, do I have to face 2nd-Gear?

Sayama folded his arms as he thought.

And he suddenly sensed a presence next to him.

“…!”

He turned and saw a man sitting in the empty chair next to him. The man had short hair dyed blond, wore a white combat coat over a thin frame, and had already finished half a bowl of soba.

He did not look toward Sayama. He used a Chinese spoon to carry an egg to his mouth, slowly brought the bowl to his mouth, and slurped at the broth.

That was when Kazami noticed him.

“Wha-…?”

Izumo, Shinjou, and Sibyl all noticed him in turn and quickly faced him.

However, the man loudly slurping the broth did not look at them.

As they stared at him, Kashima spoke up.

“Stop using the Art of Walking, Atsuta.”

The man named Atsuta finished slurping about half of the broth and raised his head from the bowl.

He looked directly at Sayama, bent his black eyes, and turned to Kashima.

“Hey, Kashima.” His breath smelled of tuna. “No matter what anyone else may say, you can’t let this end with nothing more than words.”

Sayama frowned.

He was half-surprised and half-annoyed that there were people like this in 2nd-Gear.

“That is not for you to decide,” he said.

“Ah,” said Kazami an instant later.

''What is it?'' he wondered, but he had his answer almost immediately.

The chopsticks in Atsuta’s hand held a familiar object.

It was Baku.

While still looking at Sayama, Atsuta brought Baku over to the bowl.

“Splash.”

He dropped the creature. He held the chopsticks in his fist and stirred the broth to form a whirlpool.

“What are you gonna do, kid? Are you just gonna let me do this to your pet?”

As Atsuta spoke, Baku spun quickly around in the bowl. But once he arrived at the center of the whirlpool, he raised his front legs and began to rotate like a ballerina.

Sayama tilted his head.

“Is there something wrong with what you are doing?”

Atsuta frowned and looked down at Baku.

“Dammit, he looks like he’s having fun…”

“He always lives in the moment, so everything is enjoyable for him. He is an excitable masochist.”

That was when Shinjou began to tremble.

“Wh-why are you trying to smooth this over, Sayama-kun!? He’s being mean to him, so you have to take him back!”

The panic in her voice told Sayama that she had only just noticed Baku.

He also realized another fact.

…''Is this the same technique Director Tsukuyomi and Diana showed me?

The instant that thought came to him, he took action.

He stuck his right hand into Atsuta’s bowl.

“…”

It was a sudden motion. He had no other choice.

He used a surprise attack before the man could take action outside of his perception.

His hand knocked away the Chinese spoon in the bowl, grabbed Baku, and sent the soba broth splashing into the air.

An instant later, Atsuta showed off his teeth in a smile.

“Interesting.”

At the same moment, the bowl Sayama’s hand was supposedly inside of was lying discarded on the floor.

Baku had supposedly been in his right hand, but the creature was gone.

He looked up and saw Baku held between Atsuta’s chopsticks.

Atsuta smiled and held Baku up in the air.

“Well?”

Sayama looked down at his right hand. The sleeve of his suit was stained brown and had steam rising from it.

“I see. You can remove something from my perception for just an instant.”

“You sure are calm.”

“Of course I am. My calm rivals the heavens in size,” said Sayama with a smile. “And in my calm, I have something to kindly tell you: look at the bowl you discarded.”

“What?”

With Baku still in his chopsticks, Atsuta looked down.

The bowl lay on the tiled floor with its broth spilled around it. However, one thing was missing.

“You don’t mean…” muttered Atsuta.

The missing object fell from above.

It was the Chinese spoon.

“I did not stick my hand in the bowl so strongly for no reason.”

The Chinese spoon had been knocked away by Sayama’s hand earlier and now it fell and struck the chopsticks Atsuta held.

The slight impact on the chopsticks caused the man to look down.

This created an opening.

In the next instant, Sayama knocked Baku from the chopsticks with his right hand.

He knocked the creature behind him and he took a step toward Atsuta to keep the man from pursuing the creature.

Atsuta glanced toward Baku and smiled bitterly.

“Where are you knocking him? The poor thing’s gonna fall on the table.”

“No need to worry. I have outdone you in every way.”

As Sayama spoke, he heard someone catch Baku behind him.

Sayama turned around and checked who had caught the creature.

“Whoops.”

As he thought, it was Kashima. He held Baku with an exasperated look.

“Sorry about the trouble my friend is causing. Let me clean up for you. I can wash your suit too,” he said with a sigh. He then turned to Atsuta. “Okay, why are you here?”

“I came to see how much it took for these kids to get mad.”

Hearing that, Sayama suddenly turned toward Kashima.

He knew what this kind of provocation meant.

“2nd-Gear is having difficulty deciding how to negotiate with us, isn’t it?”

“Sadly, yes.” Kashima wiped Baku off with the sleeve of his lab coat, placed him on the table, and shrugged. “My name, Kashima, is the name of 2nd-Gear’s strongest military god and the name of a swordsmith family. But I don’t look it, do I? …That’s the situation. Most of 2nd-Gear can no longer tell if they really are from 2nd-Gear.”

Someone raised their voice at that.

“That isn’t true!”

It was Atsuta.

Kashima’s words and Atsuta’s shout caused Shinjou to gulp.

“It may be the case for most of 2nd-Gear, but you’re just hiding your pow-…”

He only made it that far.

Atsuta swallowed his words and gathered his strength as if resisting something.

Shinjou thought about Kashima based on what Atsuta had said.

…''He’s hiding his power? Why?

She could find no answer to that internal question.

But she did know one thing.

…''This Atsuta person sees Kashima-san as more powerful than him.

Atsuta had just shown them his skill.

He had used his Art of Walking to leave their perception.

When Diana had used it in the training room, it had been limited to one person, but that was not the case with Atsuta.

It was possible he could leave the perceptions of every single person in the cafeteria.

Kazami and Izumo were placed on the vanguard of the Leviathan Road, but they had not been able to perceive him. Neither had Sayama.

Someone that powerful viewed Kashima as higher than him.

…''But Kashima-san said he can’t tell if he’s from 2nd-Gear.

Why?

Why was he unable to recognize the power he had?

She asked the question to herself.

And she found an answer.

…''Because of a lie.

The words she had spoken to Ooshiro filled her chest.

And she spoke different words now.

“Kashima-san… Are you telling some kind of lie?”

Her voice filled the cafeteria.

But she did not hesitate.

She looked at both Atsuta and Kashima and asked the question as if she were asking it to herself.

“And because of that lie, you can’t think of yourself as a person of 2nd-Gear?”

Her words received two things in reply.

The first was silence.

“Don’t act like you know what you’re talking about!!”

The second was Atsuta’s shout.

As he took an offensive stance, someone else moved in response.

It was Izumo.

Mikoku looked at the stars reflected in the water’s surface.

The night wind crossed the artificial lake and cut past her. It continued on to the forest behind her and caused the leaves to rustle.

She suddenly heard something other than the sounds of nature.

It was a song. Specifically, the hymn Silent Night.

“Silent night, holy night.”

She turned toward the clear voice which did not destroy the stillness surrounding her and saw Shino with her head lowered and her small mouth opened.

She was really only singing to herself as she distinctly stated the words.

The warm wind of that spring night carried her voice into the sky.

“Promised to spare all mankind.

Promised to spare all mankind.”

The song came to an end and Shino raised her head.

Mikoku saw Shino’s black eyes look at the water surface.

Her slender hand reached toward Mikoku.

She grabbed Mikoku’s left sleeve from behind. The weak tug caused Mikoku to gasp slightly.

“Can you tell?”

“Yes, I can. Susaou is definitely here.”

Mikoku nodded and turned back to the still water. The water was the same color as the night sky above and not a single ripple could be seen.

“This lake was placed in the same location as Susaou to reinforce the meaning of restraining the flame dragon Yamata. I have heard a lake was also placed around Susaou inside the concept space.”

Shino looked around the area.

They were surrounded by the artificial forest and lake.

“I’ve heard 2nd-Gear was a biosphere. This place is the same, isn’t it?”

“This is a location Low-Gear obtained with many sacrifices. It is a peaceful place, but ironically they cannot view something as peaceful without creating it artificially.”

“…”

“We can only go this far, but remember how this peaceful atmosphere made you feel. No matter what may have happened here, this is a nice place to be in the present.”

“Yes, it is,” agreed Shino and Mikoku answered with a nod.

“But it is disappointing that we cannot bring the residents of 2nd-Gear into our Army.”

“Interpersonal relationships are hard. The people of 1st-Gear wouldn’t get along with us either.”

“Well, Hajji likes to show off a little too much. I think part of him enjoys making people wary of him. We need to make sure he restrains himself.”

The grip on her sleeve strengthened.

“I thought you had died.”

It took Mikoku a few seconds to answer.

“Oh, you mean when Fafnir Custom shot me. Why are you bringing that up now?”

“I thought you had died,” she repeated in the exact same tone of voice.

“I will not die, so do not worry, Shino.”

Mikoku raised the hand Shino was grabbing onto.

Her left fingers had the slight firmness of a swordsman and she placed that hand on Shino’s head.

She gave a bitter laugh when Shino did not let go of her sleeve.

“Wh-what’s so funny?”

“It looks like you grabbed my hand and made me rub your head.”

Shino opened her eyes a bit, blushed, and let go.

Mikoku ran her hand through Shino’s hair and stroked her head. Strength left her eyebrows.

“How about you grow up a little?”

“That isn’t something you can do just because you want to.”

Shino brought a hand up from her chest to her neck and reached under her collar.

She had a metal chain around her neck. She grabbed the chain with her fingernail and lifted up the decoration attached to it.

It was a small blue stone. She sighed as she looked at the faint light coming from it.

“I should get mine embedded inside my body like yours.”

“Shino.”

That word stopped Shino from continuing.

“The time will eventually come when you will cast something aside. You will not have it taken. You will cast it aside.”

“…”

“After all, we are carrying too many things for the sake of every world,” said Mikoku. “But the more one casts aside, the happier it shows they were. And they will gain just as much happiness later. So do not try to make everything yours.”

“But that’s so vague…”

“That may be, but it is clear you possess many things. At the very least, you have more than I do.”

Mikoku lightly struck Shino’s head with her palm two or three times. The ends of her eyebrows lowered as she smiled.

“Well, spending all your time thinking about these philosophical questions will only make you dumber. …How about doing an adult job for once?”

“Eh?” said Shino as she raised her head. She was blushing and she intertwined her fingers and rubbed them together. “U-um, when you say an adult job…um… Do you mean something i-indecent?”

“No. You should stop reading the newspapers the people who maintain Alex read.”

“Eh? But I thought all division and department chiefs are perverted people and the victim is always the woman sub-chief below them.”

“That only happens in certain types of novels. By the way, the real prize is the handsome man who works as their subordinate.”

“See, you read them too.”

“Crap,” muttered Mikoku before lightly striking Shino’s head with her palm a few times.

“Ah…ow… S-stop trying to avoid the issue.”

“Listen, Shino. 2nd-Gear will not join us, but there is still something we must do.”

Shino stopped the hand she had been using to guard her head.

“Something we must do? Um, you mean we have a job that requires something…indecent?”

“Stop thinking about perverted old men. Do you really think any guy is interested in a child like you?”

“The newspaper said there are a lot of guys like that lately.”

“Then do you want to try doing a job with them?”

Shino frantically shook her head and Mikoku nodded.

“Good. I am well aware you have romantic shoujo manga hidden under your bed, you know? Also, you should really stop secretly setting up the TV to record yakuza movies just because Hajji and I do not know how. …Hm? What is it? Why are you blushing so much?”

“Th-that’s a violation of privacy! And don’t act like you don’t secretly read magazines like Monthly How to Hit the Vitals. If there’s nothing wrong with that, then why do you hide it?”

“That is my kindness as an older sister. If you saw this month’s article on hitting the sweet spot below the nose, you would faint.”

“Uuh…” groaned Shino as she flinched back just from hearing the title.

Mikoku folded her arms and sighed.

“At any rate, there is something we must do. I will suggest it to Hajji tomorrow.”

Shino looked surprised to hear that.

“Wh-what is it? Is it really that important?”

“Yes,” began Mikoku. “We will take some time off.”

“Now then,” said Izumo as he stood up.

Atsuta turned to look at him.

“Hah. What is it, rich boy? Are you gonna use your influence and money to have a servant knock me away so you can get back to drinking beer with your mistress? You must have it nice. Well? Are you gonna do it?”

“I don’t know,” was all Izumo said before turning to Sayama. “Sayama, take Shinjou and move back. I’ll handle this. Also…”

He held his hand to the side at head height and spoke casually.

“Just for fun, I’m gonna call in my weapon.”

“Oh?”

Atsuta nodded and stuck a hand in his right pocket.

Sayama grabbed Baku from the table, wrapped an arm around Shinjou’s shoulders, and took a step back.

At the same time, Kashima spoke up. His eyebrows were raised slightly.

“Atsuta.”

“Give me a few seconds. This should make for some light recreation.” He bared his teeth in a smile. “6th-Gear’s V-Sw, hm? I always wanted to try my hand against it. Are you gonna use the power of the Concept Core to charge at me and create a crater? Sounds like fun.” He suddenly turned toward someone next to Izumo. “Don’t sneak around, mistress! If you want to call in your weapon too, do it! One kid wouldn’t be enough to handle me anyway!”

Atsuta saw Kazami tightly close her mouth and stand. At some point, armbands had appeared on her arms. She walked up to Izumo.

“Kaku.”

She placed a hand on his chin and pulled his head down.

“…”

Their lips met.

After three seconds, they parted and she raised her hand just like his.

“I’m not his mistress. Are you completely blind? I’ll make you sorry you ever said that.”

The crowd that had formed let out a cheer and Izumo nodded.

“And if you still can’t tell she isn’t my mistress, we’ll do something even more-…gwoh!”

“Oh, sorry. My elbow slipped. I hit your solar plexus? Sorry, Kaku.”

The crowd let out a low groan.

Atsuta on the other hand was grinning the same as before.

He seemed to be enjoying the prospect of fighting two people who owned a concept weapon powered by a Concept Core.

And he spoke in a tone that matched his expression.

“Hah. Let me tell you one thing. I use the combat Art of Walking passed down by 2nd-Gear. Most major members of 2nd-Gear or powerful members of UCAT can use it.”

And…

“See it and go to hell.”

With those words, everyone in the cafeteria lost sight of Atsuta.

Izumo and Kazami’s eyes narrowed because they could not see him either.

“!”

They opened their mouths to call the names of their weapons.

Everything was about to move.

But someone brought it all to a stop.

“Let’s leave it at that,” said Kashima with a troubled expression.

Izumo, Kazami, and Atsuta faced each other in the cafeteria.

And Kashima had appeared between them at some point.

Plus, his right hand held Atsuta’s face.

“You overcame the Art of Walking and grabbed his head,” muttered Kazami blankly.

Everyone who understood what that meant gasped.

However, Kashima did not nod. His shoulders drooped and he removed his hand from Atsuta’s face.

“Sorry, Atsuta. I know you’re just trying to help me in your own way.”

He turned toward Kazami and Izumo and then turned toward Sayama and Shinjou.

“Sorry. We didn’t really settle anything here.”

“I am just glad to see the two of you get along so well. But…what should we do about the Leviathan Road?”

“Well…” Kashima appeared troubled. “I’d appreciate it if you gave me some time. And once I seriously make up my mind about something, I want you to give me your answer. Is that enough for now?”

Sayama narrowed his eyes and spoke in a cautious voice.

“Do I only have to wait?”

“Good question.” Kashima glanced at Shinjou and seemed to choose his words carefully. “I would like it if you thought some on what she said about a ‘lie’. Whatever I decide, I am sure it will come from there. I do not want to lose what is important to me.”

That last statement caused Atsuta to clench his teeth.

“It sounds to me like you’ve already made up your mind.”

Kashima did not respond.

And so Sayama nodded.

“Testament, I suppose I should say. To be honest, I do not think I could stand simply waiting either. I want to give various issues some thought so I can properly face 2nd-Gear.”

“Properly face 2nd-Gear?” asked Kashima.

“Yes,” replied Sayama with a nod. He spoke slowly as if driving the words into himself. “Right now, I see the Leviathan Road with 2nd-Gear as something I need in order to face the other Gears and everything else I must face.”

Those words brought a slight look of surprise to Kashima’s face.

But he quickly brought back a calm expression and gave his thoughts.

“You are…a brave person.”

“No, I only just now decided this.”

Kashima smiled bitterly.

Sayama smiled back, swung up his left forearm, and looked across everyone there.

“Then Team Leviathan will once more look into 2nd-Gear’s history and the sealing of Yamata. That is the first step to seeing you properly. If possible, I hope tomorrow’s preliminary negotiations will allow us to face each other from a good position.”

“Yes. It may not be me in that good position you mentioned, but I will say testament for now,” said Kashima with a smile.

But then…

“Oh, my? Have things been settled? Or…”

They heard a sudden female voice.

They all turned toward the cafeteria entrance. An elderly woman leaned against the large open door.

It was Tsukuyomi.

With a lab coat over her slender body, she brushed her semi-long graying hair into place with a hand and walked forward.

Atsuta took a step back and she sighed.

The eyebrows above her narrow eyes did not rise.

“The negotiations have yet to begin, so let’s leave it at that, you naughty children.” She turned toward Sayama. “I apologize that we have so many fools with us. I will give him a pay cut, so please forgive him. That will suffice, won’t it?”

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| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume3 Chapter 10|Chapter 10]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume12 Chapter 2

2026-06-01T02:22:03Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 2: First Greeting==
[[Image:OnC_v12_0055.png|thumb]]
''A close relationship

''That feels out of reach

''Is one that’s distance you have misjudged

The setting sun shined on a road.

The single lane road cut east to west through a residential area. Barely any cars drove down it, the sunlight was already growing purple, and the streetlights were coming on.

The sounds of the giant school to the east reached the road. The sounds were of hammers and metal.

With those sounds in the distance, two people walked below the spots of light from the streetlights.

A boy in a suit and a boy in a school uniform were walking west toward the vanishing purple light.

The boy in the suit and the small animal on his head turned to the boy in a uniform.

“It has been a while since we visited the Tamiya house, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, it has, Sayama-kun. After the Army’s attack before the school festival, we’ve just been too busy, haven’t we? We’ve spoken with them on the phone or passed them by on the street, though.”

Shinjou’s lips moved as if counting the days.

“I haven’t gotten a talk from Ryouko-san in about a month and a half.”

“I do not think that is her giving you a talk. That is simply who she is.”

“Oh? You know a lot about her, Sayama-kun.”

She gave a teasing glare, but he ignored it and gave a deep nod.

“I know more about you than her now, Shinjou-kun.”

“Yes, yes.”

Shinjou agreed to avoid any trouble, but her eyebrows suddenly lowered.

“But are you okay? We’re going to be searching for a lot of different documents at the Tamiya house, aren’t we?”

“Yes. There should be some things from the past in the unopened room I used to live in with my mother. I want to look through this to prepare for the meeting in the Kinugasa Library before we leave for Kansai tonight.”

His expression was a bit stiff as he talked about his mother.

Once she realized he was not going to say anything more, Shinjou moved in closer to him.

“Let’s do our best.”

''Is it my duty to push those words onto him?'' she wondered.

He nodded and looked down at the black binder she held.

She gave him a questioning look and he crossed his arms.

“Shinjou-kun, can I do anything to help with the novel you are writing?”

He was diverting the conversation away from the past.

She knew that, so she hesitated before shaking her head.

“No, you don’t have to help. It’s going really well.”

She smiled and held the binder closer to her chest. She thought about helping to shift the conversation from the past, but ended up speaking her mind.

“It may be inappropriate when we’re all so busy, but I really am putting a lot of work into this. I can’t help but want to write more. Um, I just type away at the laptop I borrowed. Also, um…”

Unsure how to express the excitement in her heart, she tapped her fingers together.

“Even during class and when preparing for the festival, I end up thinking about the best way to write the next part of the story.”

“I see. So things like killing off a character and immediately bringing them back, taking a trip to a hot spring, or starting with the weakest of the enemies?”

“Th-that’s all kind of cheap.”

[[Image:OnC_v12_0059.jpg|thumb]]

“Then none of the characters die, they never go to a hot spring, and the weakest enemy never shows up?”

“And that’s kind of unexciting.”

She thought for a while but looked up when she heard hammering.

Those distant sounds were coming from the school behind them. The other students were finishing the final preparations for the year end festival, but Sayama and Shinjou were not helping.

Shinjou looked to Sayama, but he was as expressionless as ever.

…''In other words, we should focus on what we need to do.

''I suppose that’s how it’s always been,'' she added.

So she lightly adjusted her grip on the binder.

“Anyway.” She looked up at Sayama with a hint of tension in her face. “About the message from Izumo-san when we left the school.”

“Yes.” Sayama nodded. “It seems a bald man showed up, acted on his misplaced bald anger, and baldly lost. …I wonder if the others know.”

Gentle music washed over the shelves of products.

The soft lights on the low ceiling illuminated the green, red, and blue lined up on the shelves.

The shelves contained quite a few publications, but the girls and others reaching for those barely made their way to one area.

The shelves there contained cleaning products.

A single girl stood in that nearly deserted area while comparing products with a serious look on her face.

She had short blonde hair and wore a track suit bearing the name “Heo T”. She soon reached out toward the shelves.

“I want a toilet cleaner you can just stick in the tank, but should I get the potage kind or the new chili sauce kind?”

She checked the price, but they were both 197 yen including tax.

She turned her serious expression back and forth between them while crouching down in her bike shorts.

“I bet Harakawa will be surprised when he flushes and all the water turns yellow or red.”

When she had bought the glow-in-the-dark version, Harakawa had forced her out of bed once he got home from work that night. He had dragged her to the bathroom and asked her to flush the toilet without turning on the lights.

…''I never thought it would be that bright.

She had only seen it during the day, so it had really surprised her.

She had heard it was meant to help you see where to aim at night, but that version was no longer on the shelves.

She checked the shelf and saw a “Mapo Tofu” and “Return to Your Innocent Days with Milk” versions, so she wondered what kind of water they would make.

With anticipation warming her heart, she saw legs standing next to her. She looked up at the black leather pants.

“Oh, Harakawa. Did you come to get me?”

“I came to stop you from buying anything weird, Heo Thunderson. …Show me what you’re holding there.”

She groaned, returned the potage and chili sauce ones to the shelf, and placed a harmless melon soda version in the basket.

She stood up, held the basket out to him, and picked up her school sports bag from the floor. She placed the strap over her shoulder and wore it vertically along her back.

“Like you said this morning, we get 500 yen for dinner tonight. How about a napa cabbage pot with tofu?”

“Napa cabbage has gotten expensive. I’ll have something a little more-…”

“You said you weren’t going to do that.”

Heo smiled bitterly.

“Besides, you’re putting all the money you make from UCAT towards my high school, but I’m planning to go to a public school.”

“Listen, Heo. It’s better to keep your options open. If you do end up going to a public school, you can return the money to me then. And if I don’t treat you right, there are a lot of people who will harass me about it.”

“Really? But if I ''can'' go to a private school…”

''Could I go to your school?'' she thought but did not say.

If she did say it, he might reject the idea, so she left it unsaid.

He also said nothing.

And after a while…

“———”

With the basket in hand, Harakawa wordlessly turned his back and walked toward the food.

Heo frantically followed him. She almost felt like he was leaving her behind instead of rejecting her, so she rushed after him.

She reached to take the basket from him.

“…”

But she stopped.

She closed her eyes and swallowed the words she almost uttered.

A moment later, she opened her eyes without saying anything and focused on the music coming from the speakers on the ceiling. The music played through a phrase and she walked alongside Harakawa. As it played another phrase, she reached for the opposite handle of the basket.

“We can still spend another 200 yen. Should we check the meat?”

With that, she grabbed the handle.

He turned his sunglasses toward her and nodded.

Holding the basket together, they made their way to the meat section but found it was crowded because a sale had started.

Heo was unsure what to do, but she heard a sudden sound from her back.

It was her cellphone. She had put it in her bag, but she was unable to immediately remove the bag from her back and she tried to reach the zipper without removing it.

“U-um…huh? Nn, ah. Um!”

“Why are you shaking your butt and dancing around, Heo Thunderson? Are you sick? You are, aren’t you? Understood. Stay away from me.”

“Th-that’s just mean! And more importantly, Harakawa! My phone… U-um, it’s in my bag.”

He casually reached out and lowered the bag’s front zipper.

He reached inside but frowned after about two seconds.

“Squish?”

“…Squish?”

Heo frowned back and saw that he truly was frowning with his hand inside her bag.

“Heo Thunderson, did you have something indescribable in your bag?”

“Eh? No, the only thing in there is the annin tofu from cooking class today. …Wait, how did it spill out!?”

“What kind of idiot tilts this kind of bag on its side to put it on her back?”

After thinking for about five seconds, she hung her head and raised a hand.

She heard a sigh from above and wondered if he was going to hit her.

“You can have 300 yen. Make some more.”

Something hard pressed against her forehead.

She looked and saw the cellphone in front of her eyes.

She took it and looked up at Harakawa. He had removed his bandanna to wipe off his hand and he looked exasperated.

“I can use 300 yen? Are you sure we’ll still be able to afford breakfast tomorrow?”

“Easily. And the people around us are giving me cold stares, so don’t give such specific comments on the finances we need to live.”

“Oh, okay.” She nodded and then pressed the phone to her ear. “Hello. This is Heo Thunderso- Why are you throwing your bandanna into my bag after wiping your hands on it? Oh, sorry. Um, who is it?”

“Oh… Are you having some trouble? This is Kazami, by the way.”

“Hm? What is it? Isn’t it still too early for the meeting tonight?”

“Um, yes,” she said hesitantly. After a while, she continued. “It seems Kaku won his battle with Boldman. I’m about to stop by UCAT’s hospital, so you two head back to school on your own. …And be careful.”

On an evening road, Kazami was riding her mountain bike for the first time in a long while.

This had been her primary means of transportation before meeting Izumo. She had felt a little bad when she discovered the dust coating it.

She had originally met him because she was riding around on it at night to distract herself from her daily troubles.

As she recalled that, she controlled the bike with one hand and spoke into her cellphone.

“Kaku only pulled a muscle, so he’s fine. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know the situation here.”

There was a field to the right of the road and houses to the left. Continuing straight led to an intersection, after which houses filled the right side as well.

She heard Harakawa’s voice over the phone.

“So the other Gears fell for the Army’s attempts to shake them.”

''He’s a sharp one,'' thought Kazami. She decided she did not have to go beyond the main point.

“More like Boldman might show up, so be careful.”

There was a short pause that she guessed was him thinking.

“Ooki-sensei’s the same as always, though.”

“She is.” Kazami nodded. “That’s because she sees herself as a part of UCAT. Sibyl does too and I’m thankful for it.”

“Yeah, but there’s a lot to think about here. We need to be on the lookout for other forces.”

She was curious about what he meant by ‘there’s a lot to think about’, but she did not get to ask because Heo spoke.

“Um, will Sayama and Shinjou be okay?”

“Those two are never ‘okay’, so don’t worry.”

With that, Kazami looked around at the night scenery filled with chilly winter air.

The sky above the field to her right was covered in stars.

Her gaze stopped on one point of that sky and she frowned.

“Either way, all of us and anyone near Team Leviathan and the Concept Cores are in a dangerous position. And the easiest of us to target would probably be Sayama and Shinjou.”

She took a breath.

“I wonder what those two are doing now. Also…”

“Also?”

“Yes.” Kazami nodded, stopped her mountain bike, and looked into the night sky to her right. “I may have been imagining things, but I could have sworn I saw something odd pass by in the sky. It was a white origami crane.”

A certain dark hallway was only wide enough for two people to pass each other.

The walls were plaster and it had no windows. The only light was on the ceiling at the corner far down the corridor.

The wooden floor creaked whenever someone stepped even gently on it.

The light showed three people producing those wooden footsteps.

The one walking softly in the lead was a woman in a kimono.

“This was really a surprise, young master. Not only do you suddenly show up, but you want to open that old room. And with Setsu-chan, too.”

She turned around with smiling eyes behind her glasses and she looked to a boy in a suit and someone in a school uniform a half step behind.

The boy in the suit, Sayama, spoke as he followed the woman.

“I just thought it was about time to see it, Ryouko. And one of the reasons I am able to set foot inside is my life with Shinjou-kun.”

“Is that so?”

Shinjou saw Ryouko face forward again.

The woman’s voice reached her from beyond the kimono.

The words arrived from the darkness and the back ahead.

“Setsu-chan, you found your mother, didn’t you?

The sudden question sent a tremor through Shinjou’s back, but she managed to gulp and answer.

“Yes. …Her name was Shinjou Yukio.”

“Is that so?” Ryouko’s back gave a small nod. “Yeah… I had a feeling it was.”

The woman’s tone of voice prevented Shinjou from saying a word.

“Are you listening, Setsu-chan?”

“Wh-what?”

Shinjou trembled at the sudden question and Ryouko continued on.

“On the west side of Taka-Akita Academy’s schoolyard, there are a bunch of hand sculptures left by some graduates. …Yukio-san’s hand is in there too. Did you know that?”

“N-no, I…didn’t.”

“Is that so?”

Shinjou detected a hint of joy in Ryouko’s voice, so…

“Thank you, Ryouko-san.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m just making up for the past. Like, for example, why I know about that when I’m not even a graduate of Taka-Akita. And…”

She took a breath.

“I want to help you out outside of all that.”

She turned around and sent a smile to the other two.

“Let’s go further in. I’ll lead the way. …I happen to know at least a little bit about this.”

As if to show off her smile, Sayama moved to the side of the hallway.

That allowed Shinjou to fully look Ryouko in the eye.

Ryouko stopped walking and lowered her eyebrows a little.

“Listen, Setsu-chan. A long time ago, I was a terrible girl. I got mad that someone was ignoring me, didn’t try to better myself, and didn’t even pursue the person because my pride and embarrassment wouldn’t let me. And as I hid from the others and resented them…”

She paused.

“I lost all of those people.”

Her tone seemed to thrust this confession of the past onto Shinjou.

Shinjou frantically spoke up.

“Th-that wasn’t your fault! It was the Great Kansai Earthquake that-…”

“But I regret it. I regret not showing them the best version of me I could. But even that thought came after the resentment.”

She smiled bitterly.

“I couldn’t help but wonder if Asagi-san, Yume-san, and I could have continued our family-like relationship if Yukio-san had never shown up.”

Shinjou felt a certain meaning in the words Ryouko kept throwing out at her.

The relationships seen in those words indicated a certain fact.

“Um…”

She hesitated and glanced over at Sayama’s back.

“What kind of relationship did my mother have with Sayama-kun’s father and the others?”

She chose her words carefully and tried not to settle on an answer for herself.

Ryouko answered, but not with a bitter smile. It was a true smile with her eyebrows lowered.

“Yukio-san and Asagi-san’s hand sculptures are lined up right next to each other. …While Yume-san’s is one separated from theirs.”

Shinjou saw Sayama move slightly. He brought his right hand to the left side of his chest.

But she also saw Ryouko close her eyes to ignore the action.

Ryouko then raised her eyebrows a little.

“Young master, have some confidence.”

She opened her eyes and turned her powerful gaze first to Sayama and then to Shinjou.

“Asagi-san chose Yume-san in the end. That was only after Yukio-san left and sent back word of her own marriage, but you know what? I don’t think Asagi-san was the kind of person to choose someone because they were all that was left.”

So…

“If I can think that, then you can think it even more, can’t you?”

Shinjou did not nod in agreement. This was between Ryouko and Sayama.

She simply watched the smile that softened Ryouko’s expression.

Meanwhile, Ryouko shrugged with her eyes closed.

“Don’t worry, Setsu-chan. I won’t be the Yukio-san between you and the young master. I tried to when he was only a child, but I realized it wouldn’t work.”

She laughed quietly.

“After all, taking responsibility would be way too much work.”

She seemed to be talking to herself, but someone answered.

Shinjou heard Sayama’s voice from the wall to her left.

“Ryouko, we are causing you all sorts of trouble, aren’t we?”

He moved from the wall and stood in front of Shinjou.

Shinjou saw his right hand hanging by his side.

That was the hand he had been holding to his chest.

She wrapped her hands around the trembling hand. She held it tight to give it strength.

She then faced forward and the two of them looked to Ryouko’s slight smile.

“Um, Ryouko-san?”

“Hm? What is it, Setsu-chan? …If you want to know where you can get the surgery to be with the young master, I can get you a reservation right away. Or do you want some anesthetic in the crotch so we can do it here?”

Ryouko began fishing through her pocket, so Shinjou frantically waved her hands back and forth.

“W-we’ve already dealt with that. I’m fine!”

“Eh?”

Ryouko frowned and Shinjou realized she had misspoken.

It was true that her body as Sadame was functioning ever since her previous trip to Sakai, but…

…''Ryouko-san doesn’t know my body changes like that.

She hurriedly tried to find something to say, but Ryouko seemed to have found her own meaning in the words. She was even more flustered than Shinjou.

“Eh? Oh, Setsu-chan! How bold! Is that true, young master!? Did Setsu-chan make up his mind on his own!? And with physical proof!?”

“No, Ryouko. Shinjou-kun is trying to say that no surgery is necessary and that bodily modifications are as inelegant as you can get.”

“Eh!? So Setsu-chan made a number of impossibilities possible while still being Setsu-chan!?”

Ryouko was shocked at her own words, but strength quickly filled her expression and she pointed at Shinjou with both hands.

“That’s it!!”

“No, that is not it, Ryouko-san! And Sayama-kun! Don’t say things that will only cause misunderstandings!”

“D-don’t worry, Setsu-chan! This changed my way of thinking by about 1800 degrees!”

“Isn’t that rotating around five times and ending up where you started?”

Ryouko frowned and looked up at the dark ceiling. She counted under her breath for a while.

“I-It doesn’t matter. I’m just bad at math is all!! My best subject was PE!”

…''Well, for one, that’s more arithmetic than math. And for another, that’s more than just being “bad” at it.

Shinjou kept her comments to herself and spoke only the proper comment aloud.

“You were good at PE?”

“Yes. I was great at ‘line up’, ‘be careful’, and ‘take a break’. And I always wear a kimono, so my posture is excellent.”

Shinjou felt any response she gave would be halfhearted, so she simply tugged on Sayama’s hand.

He seemed to understand the situation.

“Ryouko, show us to the room.”

“Oh, sorry, sorry. I forgot to control myself after getting into a serious discussion.”

Ryouko quickly faced forward and began walking.

She looked somehow light as she turned the corner and Shinjou breathed a sigh of relief.

The woman’s voice then filled the narrow corridor.

“It must be the season for that kind of thing because Kouji’s started taking an interest in the opposite sex.”

“Kouji has?”

Sayama sounded surprised and Shinjou agreed with him.

When Ryouko answered, there was a carefree note to her voice.

“He has. Lately, he took in this girl with a hurt leg. He’s keeping her here because he says he doesn’t know how to contact her family…but that’s a crime.”

“Ry-Ryouko-san, you shouldn’t treat your family like criminals.”

“But she’s fourteen years younger than him. I think that’s wrong.”

Meanwhile, they arrived at the far end of the hallway.

They stood in front of a room on the far edge of the house.

The wooden sliding door filled the entire end of the hallway and Ryouko pulled out a ring of keys.

She faced Sayama with her smile gone.

“Do you realllllllllly want to see past this door, young master and Setsu-chan?”

“What answer will make you show us?”

Ryouko smiled without answering.

She did not move and that filled Shinjou with anxious doubt.

…''Is she not going to let us see?

She looked up at Sayama, but he was looking at Ryouko who remained motionless.

Suddenly, he closed his eyes and opened his lips.

“Shinjou-kun.”

She trembled a bit at hearing her name so suddenly.

Before she could ask what he wanted, he continued.

“Listen. This is a job for you.”

“Eh?”

She answered him with a question and slowly looked at Ryouko.

…''Why is this a job for me?

Ryouko’s only answer was to turn her smile toward Shinjou.

''Why?'' wondered Shinjou. ''Why is this my job?

She quickly found her answer.

…''I don’t know.

That was obvious. This was her first time back here.

But that truth led her to the answer.

“It can’t be.”

She looked up in surprise and looked directly at Ryouko’s smile.

“Open the door and show us, Ryouko-san. I have already had Sayama-kun give his permission.”

“You had him give it? …Setsu-chan, you make it sound like you’re above him…like you’re the master of this house.”

Ryouko gave an exaggerated look of surprise and Shinjou nodded.

“I don’t like saying things like this and I will only do so because I believe you’re testing me, Ryouko-san.”

Her words and her strong tone changed Ryouko’s expression.

The woman smiled. And unlike before, this was a relieved smile.

And so Shinjou spoke further with their implicit understanding.

“The one who inherits the name Shinjou has arrived. …Yes, this may be why you backed off when it came to my mother. After all, the Tamiya family would not exist without Shinjou Kaname.”

She took a breath.

“Open the door, Ryouko-san. The head of the Tamiya family sealed away this part of the past out of consideration, but the head of the Sayama household wishes to see it despite the pain and the head of the Shinjou family wants it released.”

Shinjou smiled.

“Thank you for showing such care to the name Shinjou for so long.”

Ryouko’s smile grew with satisfaction.

“We have only done what anyone would do.”

With those words, Ryouko closed her eyes.

She swept the sleeves of her kimono to either side, gently shaking the air in the process. She then crouched down and sat with her legs below her.

She corrected her posture in front of the door.

“The previous generation of the Shinjou family did not know the Tamiya family’s history. Although Master Sayama apparently told her later, after she had gone somewhere else. Therefore…”

She placed her hands on the ground and gave a deep bow.

“I am the first of the Tamiya family to officially face a member of the Shinjou family since the previous generation and the one before that.”

She let out a breath and raised her head.

She turned her powerful gaze toward Shinjou.

But Shinjou looked back as if to push her gaze away and as if to respond to Ryouko’s attitude.

Ryouko nodded just once as if to say that was good enough.

She then corrected the collar of her kimono and spoke.

“Please ask of me whatever you would like, head of the Shinjou family.”

She then turned to Sayama.

“Young master, your mother worked for IAI, but she never told me her exact position there. However…she was always quick to return home and she did tell me one thing.”

“What was that?”

“There was apparently a place known as a ‘study’ at her workplace.”

Shinjou saw Sayama frown at the word “study”.

A month and a half ago, he had visited the Kinugasa residence and seen the man’s underground study.

…''Is there something like that somewhere else?

However, the answer was not going to present itself here, so she simply nodded and looked to Ryouko.

Ryouko nodded back and smiled.

“Now, then. That is more or less my side of things. I hope we can continue to get along in the future.”

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume12 Chapter 1|Chapter 1]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume12 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume11 Chapter 27

2026-05-31T02:23:01Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 27: Waking Light==
[[Image:OnC_v11_0191.png|thumb]]
''In that moment when I awaken

''I just hope it is not too late

Something stirred in the darkness.

It was a stir of awakening.

A bed sat in the center of a room dyed in the colors of night and a girl next to the bed lifted her head from the blanket.

She wore a half coat with the name Kazami stitched inside the collar.

She sat up while still wearing the clothes she had come here in.

Her half-opened eyes turned to the clock on the bedside table.

“It’s only eight?” she muttered. “I hate not being able to sleep at night.”

She stretched her back in the darkness.

She looked to the head of the bed and saw Izumo’s face.

His eyes were still closed in sleep and she smiled a bit at the peaceful look there.

But…

“…”

Her eyebrows lowered when she saw the wrecked weapons leaning against the bed and Izumo’s left arm.

She hung her head and brought a hand to her eyes.

“I’m not even crying anymore.”

She unsteadily rose to her feet. She had to make a request for each night she spent in the hospital room and she had to call her parents.

Talking in the room would disturb his sleep, so she stood up.

“Ah.”

No strength reached her knees and she almost fell.

She grabbed the railing on the foot end of the bed to support herself and she sighed.

Wondering if something had happened, she looked across the room, but her behavior had not changed it at all.

She slowly gathered her strength again and left the hospital room.

She opened the door to the hallway.

“That’s bright.”

She had been in the dark for so long that even the hallway’s small fluorescent lights seemed too strong.

It took several seconds for her eyes to adjust.

After waiting that long, she saw a hallway with hints of the dim night remaining in the corners.

The fluorescent lights on the second floor hallway’s ceiling were kept low enough to not disturb the people’s sleep.

Kazami looked left and right.

To her right were several more hospital rooms and an emergency exit with a maglite available.

To her left were a single hospital room and a lobby. Beyond the passageway to the southern building, she saw the nurse station counter and the hospital ward beyond that.

She would head to the nurse station to make her request for spending the night and then call home in the lobby because cellphones were forbidden in the hospital. She tried to remember if she had a 10 yen coin to use in the lobby’s red phone.

Once she started thinking, the thoughts kept coming.

There was a bath toward the front of the hospital. She had declined to use it the day before, but…

…''I really should use it today.

''No, no,'' she corrected herself while shaking her head. ''Try to remember why you’re here.

Another thought suddenly came to her.

…''What on earth am I doing?

She wanted to stay by Izumo’s side, but what would that accomplish?

She thought about it, but…

“No.”

She was not sure what that word of rejection was directed at, but she had made up her mind.

She faced left and started toward the nurse station.

“?”

She noticed something sitting next to the room’s entrance.

It was a large green bag. It was larger than a shopping bag and looked more like a travel bag. She checked inside.

…''A change of clothes.

It also had a box of rice balls and other food.

She crouched down, dug through it, and found a few letters.

The topmost one was from Sibyl.

“Chisato-sama, I have brought you a change of clothes and a set of towels.”

…''Why does she know my size?

The next one was from Mikage.

“Heo made dinner, so I brought you some. It’s fried chicken and rice balls.”

…''Are those two getting along?

She looked to the next letter which was from the development department.

“This may be presumptuous, but here is a high resolution DVD of Harumi to cheer you up.”

…''I don’t have anything to play it with.

She then read a letter attached to a box.

“If you are bored in the hospital room, play with this. It’s the full action figure ‘Ooshiro in Action’. It comes with a secondary pained expression and a posing stand that sticks into the crotch, so it’s a great deal!”

…''I should probably throw that in the incinerator.

She found a letter and a giant case at the bottom.

“…”

After picking it up and checking what it was, her movements, expression, and breathing all ground to a halt.

“Anti-7th Combat Instructions by Brunhild.”

The white case below the letter took up most of the bag.

…''That’s X-Wi’s transportation case.

She gasped at the presence of those two things.

She stiffened and took deep breaths to slowly relax her body.

“Sorry.”

She closed the top of the bag, gently tapped the hard cloth a few times, and closed her eyes.

“Sorry.”

She stood and turned her back on the bag.

She walked down the corridor to the nurse station, raised her head, straightened her back, and opened her eyes.

When she realized how loud her footsteps were, she finally let out a breath.

…''I can’t.

Seeing that bag seemed to tell her what everyone wanted.

…''On the surface, they talk about letting me rest or cheering me up, but deep down, they’re preparing me to fight.

''That was too well put together,'' she sighed.

She shook her head and brushed a hand through her pretty dry hair.

“I can’t.”

''I’ll probably never be able to do it,'' she told herself.

All she felt was guilt toward G-Sp2 and remorse toward Izumo.

Even if G-Sp2 was repaired and Izumo was healed…

…''I can never return to the way I was.

Her guilt would cause her to step back from it all.

''Ahh, ahh.'' She forced an exasperated sigh in her heart. ''I haven’t changed at all.

She had once gotten someone hurt in an athletic club.

Her opponent had been the type to do everything by the book while she had been the type to treat it like a real battle. At one point, one or the other of them was about to be made a first year regular and that was when it happened.

She had tried to lose on purpose to give the regular spot to the other girl.

…''And that ended up injuring her.

It was not that the other girl had not managed to avoid her attack. Instead, the girl had mistakenly charged in. That girl always did everything by the book, but for some reason, she had strayed from the standard at that moment.

The girl had told her not to worry about it and all the others had said it was just a part of the match.

However, Kazami had withdrawn. Instead of simply handing over the regular spot, she had left that place altogether.

If she had not met Izumo, she had a feeling she would have continued withdrawing from everything.

''And now the exact same thing is happening again,'' she mentally sighed.

…''This must be the kind of person I am.

She left that self-analysis in her mind and raised her head in front of the nurse station.

“Um…”

She called out, but there was no one behind the counter.

Just as she started wondering why…

“Oh, over here, over here,” called a female voice.

She turned to the right, saw a door open in the back of the nurse station, and saw the head nurse step out.

The woman had a connection to UCAT and she had not left her post. Kazami tilted her head and looked at the door the woman had left.

It had a placard saying Nursery.

That was the room where all the newborn babies were kept.

Hospitals were usually a place of illness and injury, but that was the one place filled with life.

That fact relieved Kazami, but she soon recalled why she was here.

“Um, I would like to make a request for spending the night.”

“Okay, wait just a second. I need to settle things over here.”

…''Over here?

Kazami tilted her head and the head nurse shrugged.

The woman beckoned her over and gestured for her to stay quiet.

Kazami both wondered what this was about and wanted to get the request over with, but she prioritized the former and walked past the nurse station.

The hospital nursery was located next to the nurse station and on the eastern end of the building. Dark glass covered the hallway wall from waist height to the ceiling, so Kazami could see inside.

She saw an oblong room with infant beds lined up along the hallway side.

The white beds resembled cradles and a small child slept in each one.

There was a door labeled Nursing Room on the back of the room and a woman stepped out of it.

She wore white pajamas and held a baby.

She smiled and nodded toward Kazami for some reason.

Kazami did not know the woman, but she nodded back because she had a feeling she knew why the woman had nodded.

The woman laid the child in a nearby bed and moved out into the hallway.

She walked up next to Kazami but did not look at the girl. She kept her eyes on her own child and the other children sleeping beyond the window.

“They’re so cute, aren’t they?”

“Oh, yes.”

As she answered, Kazami realized her thoughts were not the same as this woman’s.

The sleeping children brought the words “defenseless” and “innocent” to mind, but beyond that…

“I can’t seem to put my thoughts in words.”

“Is one of them yours?”

“Ah, no. I’m here for someone else.”

She frantically corrected the woman and started wondering what she looked like to her.

The woman faced her and smiled.

She said nothing and the smile felt genuine, so Kazami said nothing either.

“…”

Feeling uncomfortable, Kazami faced forward to look away from the woman’s smile.

The woman nodded, bowed toward the head nurse, and walked past Kazami.

Her footsteps echoed through the hallway and the head nurse entered the nurse station.

While thinking she should go make her request, Kazami looked into the nursery.

…''Even I was like this once.

And…

“Will I be able to have something like this?”

But she suddenly came to her senses and shook her head.

…''Don’t do that.

This was no time to think those happy thoughts. Izumo would have to go through rehabilitation for his left arm after this and they would only start discussing that after all of that was over.

She had a feeling she would back out when it came down to it, but she had another thought as well.

…''I don’t even have the will to fight anymore.

As she muttered that in her heart, she peeled herself away from the nursery window.

She turned left in order to reach the nurse station counter, but then she heard a voice.

—'''Attack power is at its maximum.

A voice resembling her own rang in her ears and all light vanished around her.

“!?”

Kazami knew what had happened.

A concept space had opened around the hospital and that had cut off the external power.

However, the hospital’s own emergency power allowed the emergency lights to activate.

Faint light illuminated the hospital.

The people were gone. The nurse station and the hallway were both empty.

However, Kazami could hear someone’s presence.

She heard footsteps.

Someone was climbing the staircase past the nurse station.

The dimly lit staircase circled around on its way up and she saw someone turn that corner. It was Ikkou wielding an Azure Dragon Sword.

“…!”

Kazami began to run on reflex.

She moved west because Izumo was sleeping in the hospital room to the east.

She ran toward the eastern building to draw Ikkou after her once he reached the hallway.

She had to try to run since she had lost to him once and she was unarmed. She would lure him toward her, run away, escape the concept space, and call for help. No one might come to save her, but UCAT could not ignore it if Izumo was in danger.

…''That’s what I’ll do.

As she turned toward the far end of the western ward, the nursery briefly came into view.

In that moment, she caught sight of something beyond the glass.

It was a child.

The previous child was sleeping in front of her.

It had accidentally entered the concept space.

…''Why!?

Suddenly, the child opened its eyes, looked into the empty space for a moment, and noticed the darkness surrounding it.

“————”

It began to cry.

Kazami hesitated and closed her eyes to ignore the baby’s cries. She prepared to start running.

“Oh? A child ended up in here? What an interesting accident.”

The voice from the staircase settled everything for her.

“…!!”

She turned the other way and charged into the empty nurse station.

She turned around and ran through the half-open door to the nursery.

“Honestly.”

Frowning, Kazami threw her body around to rush toward the voice she heard.

“I can’t believe this!”

Once she entered the dimly-lit oblong room, she quickly found the source of the crying.

She ran over to the bed and hesitated, but…

“Fine.”

She shook her head once and picked up the baby and the cloth it was wrapped in.

…''This is a special kind of cloth used for babies, isn’t it?

While panicking and thinking that at the same time, she inhaled and made a beeline for the exit.

She pushed the door open with her shoulder.

“I feel like I’m stealing the baby.”

She frowned, cut across the nurse station, and ran toward the counter’s eastern exit.

But she heard a voice from the staircase leading down to the first floor.

“Kazami-sama, why are you taking away the child I was just about to place under my protection?”

It was Ikkou’s voice.

The voice allowed her to judge his location and he seemed almost done climbing the stairs.

…''That means I can’t escape easily.

She shouted back at the man to erase the unease in her heart.

“You want to know why I’m taking the baby with me? Because I can’t trust your protection, Ikkou-san.”

She was ashamed of the tremor in her voice. She had not been like this in the past.

She ran between the work desks and searched for a weapon with her empty hand.

…''How am I going to escape?

She could not move east because Izumo’s room was that way.

But going west would require circling around the counter and running into Ikkou as he climbed the stairs.

…''There’s a passageway to the southern building between the nurse station and lobby, isn’t there?

''Is that where I should go?'' she wondered.

However, a voice and form cut off her thoughts as they appeared in the stairway entrance in front of the nurse station.

It was an elderly man wearing a white armored uniform.

His hair swayed where it was tied back and he held an Azure Dragon Sword.

“Are you on your way back to Izumo-sama’s room?”

His words brought a tremor to her spine.

But the tremor was not because he was implying Izumo was a target.

He was saying something else.

…''If I don’t want him to kill Kaku, I have to fight!?

She gulped and faced the counter’s exit.

She ran.

She chose not to look at Ikkou anymore. The sight of her enemy was nothing more than unnecessary pressure for her now.

But the senses she had gained after fighting so many battles told her some things without looking directly at him.

“An attack!?”

She did not turn around, but she knew an attack was coming. After all…

…''I can’t hear anything.

No matter what kind of attack, he would build up his strength in order to release it.

That moment of focus created a unique silence. It was a clear but stagnant silence.

As soon as she felt that tense stillness in her skin, she leaped forward.

Still holding the child, she jumped toward the counter itself instead of the exit.

“I can jump over it!”

At the same time, exactly what she had predicted raced toward her from behind.

She heard a slicing of air that resembled a flute and heard something ricochet off the surface of the wall.

After a quick moment, she landed and ran eastward.

“…!!”

Something exploded behind her.

Kazami heard the air burst.

She heard desk drawers and frames bending and breaking, the fluttering of scattered documents, and concrete in the ceiling and elsewhere splitting apart.

“The passageway to the southern building!”

The passageway had been utterly destroyed when the side wall of the neighboring nurse station was smashed through.

She could not reach the southern building now.

As she listened to the sounds of breaking rubble, she ran through a three-way junction and the lobby.

Once she reached the eastern hallway, she realized the lights on the ceiling had gone out.

…''Did the power fail?

As if to answer her, only the battery-powered emergency lights on the walls were functioning.

Only the floor was lit now.

Her pace threatened to slow as darkness fell over her, but something supported her.

“————”

The small form in her arms moved.

Her heart raced a little at the touch from a power she could not control.

…''That’s right.

She nodded.

“That’s right.”

After using both her heart and body to agree, she continued to run while holding that life in her arms.

Ikkou’s voice approached from behind.

“Kazami-sama, how is Izumo-sama doing?”

The voice was only a few steps behind her, but she told herself it was okay. She did not sense that pre-attack silence.

She continued to run toward Izumo’s hospital room and a single thought filled her panicking heart.

…''I have to do something.

She felt that thought was going to vanish, so she repeated it even more strongly so it could not escape.

…''I have to do something!!

Her body was frightened, her mind was backing down, and her experience told her she would lose.

But she had those words in her heart.

''I have to do something,'' she said again.

Suddenly, she heard a silence behind her.

…''!!

She moved in an instant.

She turned around. To distract her from her fear, she gathered more strength than necessary and practically threw her body around.

Five meters behind her, Ikkou was raising his Azure Dragon Sword in his right hand.

His attack would arrive an instant later. It would likely be wrapped in a shockwave and could easily slice the building in two.

Kazami responded by throwing what she held in her right hand.

It was a utility knife she had grabbed from a desk in the nurse station.

The blade was drawn out as far as it would go and she threw it by grabbing the back end between her fingers and almost pushing it forward.

She did not have time to take aim, so she used all her strength to chuck it toward the center of Ikkou’s torso.

Immediately afterwards, she saw the knife produce an explosion of water vapor.

…''Eh?

''Have I always been that strong?'' she wondered as the knife broke the sound barrier.

The reason for this was simple. Ikkou’s concept had set the attack power to its maximum.

However, the knife could not endure its own shockwave and it shattered.

It destroyed itself.

Fortunately, that proved effective. The small shockwave that spread from the explosion of white water vapor forced Ikkou to defend.

“…!”

As the vibration of the air washed over Ikkou, Kazami arrived at Izumo’s room.

However, she did not stop there. She ran past it and pulled a silver case from the bag sitting in front of the room. She opened it with one hand and tossed the case away while holding onto its contents.

“X-Wi!”

She had the baby in her left arm, so she could not wear it over both shoulders. Even so, she placed the strap over her right shoulder and activated X-Wi.

—'''Light possesses power.

The concept voice accompanied a wing growing from only the right side of her back.

A moment later, silence came from Ikkou as if to stop the expansion of that light.

After that brief silence, she heard a single footstep. He was rushing toward her.

…''He’s close!

While running toward the emergency exit at the end of the corridor, she flapped the wing on the right side of her back.

The wing of light produced wind.

“…!”

She used X-Wi to make a great leap forward.

It was a low jump that sent her skimming just below the ceiling.

As she flew, she twisted her body around and performed a half rotation.

She stood on the ceiling and faced backwards.

The wing flapped as if scratching at the air and she took a large step back.

She faced forward while doing so and saw Ikkou running along the floor overhead.

He was almost directly below her and he was swinging the Azure Dragon Sword up toward her.

“That was fast!”

“This is the average speed among my brothers.”

With those words, his sword flashed by.

Ikkou swung the blade toward the one-winged girl flying overhead.

She was moving back in a straight line and did not have time to evade.

She had no weapons and the shockwave would reach her even if the sword itself did not.

He regretted hitting the child with the attack as well.

…''It would have been better if I had used it as a hostage.

It was a sad turn of events.

…''And yet another boring outcome. Not even defeating Izumo-sama will change that as he is still asleep.

Even as he swung the sword, he felt this was an awful outcome.

The tip of the sword raced through the air, gained a burst of speed, and began to produce its shockwave.

“…!?”

But the Azure Dragon Sword’s blade suddenly shattered.

It had not destroyed itself. The blade had struck something before it had produced the shockwave.

It had struck something Kazami held.

With the sound of shattering glass, metal fragments scattered as specks of light.

''How?'' he silently asked. ''She was unarmed, so how did she break my weapon?

He looked up and saw Kazami past the scattering shards of his blade.

She quickly moved back along the ceiling and did indeed hold a weapon in her hand.

That was the weapon his blade had hit.

“A fluorescent light!?”

“That’s right. Thanks to X-Wi, light is power.”

She answered while gliding backwards along the ceiling and she threw the broken fluorescent light toward him.

“Didn’t you do that experiment in science class? Fluorescent lights glow white for a while even after turning off.”

“I never received a compulsory education.”

“That’s too bad. You wouldn’t understand how hard it was to learn the times table then.”

“The same goes…for Izumo-sama!”

Ikkou approached. He hit a switch on the Azure Dragon Sword’s base and a new blade was created.

Kazami looked at it as she backed away.

“A second blade!?”

“Unfortunately, there is still more I must shave away!”

He ran and took a powerful step to approach her.

To match her flight, he raced along the floor. To match her retreat, he advanced. To match her interception, he attacked.

The pursuer and the pursued clashed.

Their movement came from their speed and they both released attack power.

Ikkou swung his Azure Dragon sword and it broke. Kazami fell back, removed a fluorescent light from the ceiling, and slammed it into his sword.

Their weapons crossed paths at high speed and destroyed each other again and again.

The swordfight raced down the hallway.

The sounds decorating the fight sounded like sudden bursts of brass instruments.

The roaring wind blew away all of the fragments.

Ikkou smiled and shouted out as he ran along the floor.

“Not bad, Kazami-sama! I would rate this at about fifteen points!”

He saw her expression past the bursting light. Her eyebrows were raised and her teeth were clenched, but he revealed a smile regardless.

“Aren’t you having fun, Kazami-sama!?”

“Not in the slightest!!”

''I see,'' he thought as he ran.

However, he was certain this was about to become much more fun. After all…

“Then please look behind you.”

She looked back in surprise and saw what was there.

“The emergency exit. This means there are no more fluorescent lights. How will you handle this ending?”

With those words, he broke Kazami’s final fluorescent light.

The Azure Dragon Sword’s blade also shattered into fragments of light, but he swung the sword up regardless.

Once the new blade grew from it, this would become a surefire attack.

An instant later, he saw the wing of light flap and bring the girl down to the floor.

She had turned her back on him.

He also saw her hand reaching for the emergency exit door.

“Do you really think you can escape!?”

“Do you really think you can win!?”

With that question, Kazami turned around.

She thrust forward her right hand as she did so, but it was not holding light.

However, it was holding something.

“Buildings like these keep maglites in the emergency exits. Didn’t you learn that in disaster training at school?”

Kazami switched on the maglite.

Light raced down the dark hallway.

The directional light was supposedly powerful enough to be seen from five kilometers away.

It instantly shot down the hallway and struck Ikkou’s body.

He caught the light on the Azure Dragon Sword, but it knocked him into the air and sent him flying.

The light pursued him as he flew through the air and it accelerated him down the hallway.

The light instantly passed by the nurse station, the nursery, and the corridor to the other building.

“!”

The Azure Dragon Sword broke.

The wall of light continued on and struck his entire body.

“Ohhh!!”

And that was not all. The dust created from the shattered fluorescent lights and steel blades were pushed by the light and acted as reflectors.

What began as a mist of light fragments quickly grew in a chain-reaction explosion.

Countless explosive sounds could be heard racing down the hospital’s second floor from east to west.

The front end of the light explosions destroyed the western emergency exit and made their way outside.

All that remained was the vanishing light, shimmering heat, wind, and…

“I doubt that’s enough to defeat him.”

Kazami turned off the maglite and lowered her shoulders in front of the eastern emergency exit.

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume11 Chapter 26|Chapter 26]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume11 Chapter 28|Chapter 28]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume9 Chapter 18

2026-05-30T03:33:05Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 18: Place of Continuation==
[[Image:OnC_v09_0011.png|thumb]]
''The movement continues

''In order to continue moving

''As if to trouble them

Heo looked across a cluster of rectangular stones.

She found Japanese gravestones strange.

…''In the US, they’re a slate to engrave the person’s name on or a symbol like a cross.

These only had the family name engraved in them and they were rectangular blocks with no religious symbolism.

She tilted her head while trying to figure out what meaning their shape had.

She looked around and saw quite a few of the gravestones. Beyond them were mountains, the sky, the sun peeking through the clouds, and the wind. It looked like there was no one else there.

“Ah.”

But for an instant the gravestones in the afternoon light looked almost like statues.

She then realized that, even if the gravestones were not shaped like people, there truly were people sleeping below them.

…''Is their vague shape supposed to help you imagine that?

She looked forward while thinking and found Harakawa had moved on ahead with a bucket in hand. She jogged to catch up while doing her best not to shake the flowers in her hands.

“Harakawa, is your family’s grave here too?”

“Yes, but it’s technically not ''my'' family’s grave. But what matters now is finding your family’s one.”

“Right.”

She looked around and quickly spotted a certain conspicuous grave.

“Harakawa, what’s with this bronze statue of a smiling man with his arms spread toward the heavens?”

“Oh, that. I don’t know the details, but it’s a famous gravestone here. All I know is that it says ‘Ooshiro’ at the bottom and there’s a slot for 10 yen coins on the back of the head. From what I’ve heard, it plays Swan Lake or Tokyo Ondo when you put in a coin.”

“I see.” She nodded and noticed something odd about the large gravestone next to that one. “U-um, there’s a dirty magazine across from that one.”

“Yeah. I don’t know the details on that one either, but apparently that’s the grave for the family of IAI’s president. The employees and executives supposedly bring offerings every so often. I wonder if that moron of a student council president will end up like that.”

“That moron of a student council president?”

“Remember when those four morons showed up yesterday and I had to throw you in the closet? He’s one of them. Do you know what a student council president is, Heo Thunderson?”

“Yes. …It must be hard going to that school.”

“That’s for sure,” sighed Harakawa.

He faced forward again and began walking, but he did not forget to check the gravestones on either side as he did. Heo let out a warm breath while watching his back.

She checked the wristwatch her great-grandfather had given her and its analog display was past 2:00 PM.

…''If great-grandfather is here, I’ll have to say goodbye to Harakawa.

He had to know that as well, but he was searching for her father’s resting place instead of worrying about it. While she watched him walk on ahead, she suddenly spoke.

“Um.”

He stopped, turned around, and tilted his head.

“What is it, Heo Thunderson?”

She felt relieved that he called her name, but she realized she had not thought of anything to actually say.

She had simply spoken up in order to receive some kind of response, so she frantically continued.

“U-um, well, Harakawa.”

She knew she had to say something, but something else happened just as she was about to come up with the words.

Something flew up from between the rows of gravestones to the left. The form she saw brought words to her mind and they spilled from her mouth as a voice.

“Th-there’s a weird angel over there!”

“What?”

As Harakawa looked forward again, Heo saw it.

A girl with white wings of light on her back had flown up from between the rows of gravestones.

She did not know what was happening, but the winged girl flew by overhead and flipped around in the air.

Heo turned around just in time to see her forcefully land on top of the Izumo family gravestone. A sound of impact came from her right heel as it kicked against the top of the gravestone.

“Oh, whoops.”

She spoke in surprise as the base of the gravestone was partially ripped from the ground.

The large gray rectangle tilted as if raising a leg and it looked about to fall over.

But someone supported it from below: a well-built boy who ran out from the rows of gravestones.

“The student council president!?”

Heo looked more closely at the boy when she heard Harakawa shout from behind her. The large boy wore a school uniform and he supported the falling gravestone by using his left hand to swing the giant white sword against its stone side.

“All right! Nicely done! That was badass, V-Sw!”

The excess force smashed it to pieces.

With a deafening clear sound, the gravestone burst into a spray of stone fragments like it had been made of sand.

“Ah.”

The boy froze in surprise, looked down at his hands, and then back at the smashed gravestone.

“O-oh, crap! Now, I’ve-… Oh, wait. This was my family’s stone, so no harm do-… Oh, hey. A porn ma-… Are you okay, Chisato!?”

He went through four stages of processing his thoughts.

His final words had been directed at the winged girl who had lost her balance in midair.

The destruction of the gravestone she had landed on caused her feet to slip and she was about to fall onto her butt.

She let out a cry of surprise and frantically flailed her arms through the air.

The tip of the spear in her right hand circled around and cleanly decapitated the nearby bronze statue.

Heo saw the smiling head flying through the cloudy blue sky.

It flew in an arc and she did indeed see the coin slot on the back when it reached the zenith of that arc.

She then reached a conclusion, so she turned back toward Harakawa and swung her fists along with the flowers they held.

“H-Harakawa! I don’t understand what’s going on!”

“That means you’re normal, Heo Thunderson.”

The name he spoke brought a sound behind them.

The wings of light gave several powerful flaps to stabilize the girl and then the girl spoke.

“So she is Thunderson!?”

Heo sensed surprise and desire for confirmation in the girl’s voice, but then the sound of roasted beans popping came from the row of gravestones to the left. And the same sound repeated endlessly.

It was the student council president who reacted first.

“They’re seriously shooting!?”

Heo understood what that sound was, but the thought was refusing to enter her mind.

However, the next thing she heard was a great many footsteps and voices from the row of gravestones that was to her right now that she had turned around.

“Eliminate them! Eliminate them!!”

“Testament!!”

As she turned around, she saw men in blue outfits racing toward them.

They all held black metallic objects in their hands.

…''What are those?

The answer would not come to her, but a shouted voice brought her to her senses.

“Harakawa! Take that girl and run away!! They’re after her!”

It came from the winged girl.

She immediately understood who “that girl” was, but…

…''What does she mean they’re “after” me!?

She was reminded of the other night.

She and her great-grandfather had been pursued by something. Something that only her great-grandfather knew the identity of.

''I can’t be,'' she thought just as she realized someone’s arm had wrapped around her left elbow and stomach.

It was Harakawa.

As he pulled her toward him, his head turned toward the boy and girl.

“This is all completely ridiculous, but I can trust the two of you, right!?”

“You idiot! Harakawa, someone who’s honest about their perversion isn’t gonna lie!”

“Um, Kaku? He said ‘the two of you’.”

The student council president smiled toward the winged girl next to him, turned back toward Harakawa, and cleared his throat.

“A-anyway, we’ll explain the details later, but I’ll tell you one thing now.”

He looked to the men in blue running toward them from the right.

“They seem to be fighting for freedom and justice, but they’re going to force those things on that girl! If you don’t want that, then hurry away from here! And to help you do that…”

He took in a breath and held up his sword. A metallic sound filled the air as it opened up and transformed.

“I’ll show you a little of what I’m made of!!”

At the same time, the white wings flew toward battle with spear in hand.

The battlefield spread out in an instant.

Kazami moved about among the gravestones.

Harakawa and Heo were escaping to the west while she and Izumo stopped American UCAT from pursuing them.

The enemy was numerous and they were divided between several of the long east to west rows of gravestones.

Kazami fought along those long, narrow paths.

Despite the gravestones dividers, she could switch between paths by flipping to the side with a flap of one wing. If they fired on her, she would escape to the neighboring path and fly down that one if she found defenseless enemies there.

Because they were lined up, she could sweep a path clean with a single blast of her weapon.

She repeatedly ran, tore into them, blew them away, and either evaded or leaped.

She was prioritizing Harakawa and Heo’s escape over avoiding the enemy attacks.

That meant she was accepting some level of injury as long as she could push the enemy back.

And while repeatedly firing, she thought to herself.

…''Why do we have to do this between allies!?

A bullet ricocheted off G-Sp2’s cowling and grazed her cheek. If she had not been holding G-Sp2 so close, it would have directly hit her above the nose.

However, that had happened several times already. The most painful one was the shot through the side of her summer uniform’s cardigan. Knit materials had to be thrown out if they got a hole and she felt a warm, tickling sensation underneath it.

She was bleeding and it was enough to begin accumulating at the bottom of her shirt that was tucked into her skirt. The defensive philosopher’s stone Tsukuyomi had given her was emitting light nonstop and she would likely have been more badly injured without it.

[[Image:OnC_v09_0021.png|thumb]]

A man in a blue armored uniform charged out from behind a gravestone to the left, so she knocked him away by rotating up the tip of the spear from down and to the left. The sound of impact filled the air and she endured the recoil with the leg braced on the ground.

The spear uppercut sent the man three meters into the air.

But another armored uniform was already in front of her.

This new man was aiming a machinegun at her and her focused gaze saw the muzzle closing in on her in slow motion.

“Oh, what a pain!!”

She used all her strength to swing back down the raised spear tip.

It caught on the enemy soldier it had sent into the air and slammed him down onto the machinegun man before her.

They collided and it sounded more like shattering glass than a normal collision.

After using the recoil of the blow to leap backwards, she let out a breath, shook the sweat from her brow, and flapped her wings forward.

…''Where did Izumo get off to? I think he went after Roger, but he isn’t making out in a dream again, is he?

''He’ll be fine,'' she told herself as she landed.

She looked around and saw a man in a suit calmly step out from behind a gravestone on the right.

This was the man known as Colonel Odor.

When visiting those evacuated underground the day before, she had heard all about him. He was the one who had fought the mechanical dragon on top of that airplane two nights before, he was the one to attack Japanese UCAT the day before, he went by the name Odor, and he was America’s inspector.

…''This is the guy who uses some kind of gravity technique.

She sensed how dangerous he was from the atmosphere around him and ignored the pain in her side.

Odor faced the girl before him while breathing heavily among the rows of stone.

“Are you…are you keeping me from going any further?”

“Looks like you understand the situation.”

She replied in English.

''I see,'' he thought. ''So the language of our homeland is understood even in this uncivilized land. Who was the evangelist that taught her? Long live the homeland.

The girl raised her spear and he saw a red stain on the right side of her clothes.

At a glance, he identified it as blood.

The more time they spent facing each other like this, the greater her disadvantage due to blood loss.

The loss of blood would lower her strength and the blood trailing down her skin would bring fear and loss of concentration.

That meant his enemy would be destroyed if he merely waited.

Nevertheless, he moved forward.

“You aren’t going to wait it out like a coward?

“And give… And give my opponent an excuse? You could say you had lost too much blood to move, that it destroyed your concentration, or that it filled you with fear. And you could blame it all on me for waiting.”

He exposed his teeth in a smile.

“I will not… I will not give you such excuses. I will show you mercy without giving you a single excuse. I will have you give up by crushing you beyond question and rendering you unable to fight or even dead. …That is the kind of mercy I will show you.”

“Are America’s freedom and justice created with violence and fear?”

“Yes, yes they are. At least in my opinion, freedom and justice are no exceptions to the conservation of energy. If the people are to consume freedom and justice, someone must earn it through the use of violence and fear.”

“Then how will you fill the world with justice and freedom?”

“That is simple,” replied Odor. “That is a simple matter. Before the people have fully consumed the accumulated freedom and justice, we will destroy the suppliers who are also the bearers of violence and fear. That way, the violence and fear will vanish and the people will protect and honor the remaining freedom and justice rather than consuming it!”

“Is that so?” The girl sank down as she spoke. “An idiot I know would probably have this to say about that: If you wish to fill the world with justice and freedom, tell the people to come defeat me.”

She was eight meters away.

She had wings and was too close for someone wielding a spear that doubled as a cannon.

He thought about why she would choose that distance.

“A surefire attack. You are making a surefire attack from close range, aren’t you?”

Odor raised his right hand toward the area above her head and snapped his fingers.

At the same time, wind exploded from her back.

“…!”

She flapped her wings, kicked off the ground with her left foot, and stayed low as she charged forward.

However, Odor’s power arrived in time.

A metallic sound reverberated through the air and the power attempted to drop down from above her head.

The metallic sound struck.

“!”

But Odor saw that his power had not hit the girl.

It had struck the ground in front of her and he saw the reason why.

Beyond the scattering sand, she had put a stop to her intense acceleration.

“Feints are easy to fall for, aren’t they?”

Her extreme acceleration had been stopped by a change in her stance.

With both her hands just above her chest, she held the spear to the left and right like the horizontal bar in gymnastics.

The white spear extending horizontally from her hands had hit the sides of the gravestones on either side of her.

“The stones. Did you stop yourself with the stones?”

“They’re not just stones. They’re gravestones. And they belong to people I can at least say wouldn’t take your side.”

The gravestones may have stopped her forward momentum, but they could not fully stop her inertia. With what sounded like a breath, the gravestones lifted up from their bases and slowly tilted.

“Oops.”

The girl rotated the spear around and pulled the tilted gravestones back from the other direction.

As soon as they landed back in place, she moved toward Odor as if collapsing forward.

The wings on her back were already raised in preparation to flap, so Odor reflexively snapped his right fingers.

“Break! Break and scatter in the wind!”

“That’s not gonna cut it!”

While running, she turned the tip of her spear toward the ground directly below herself.

She flew into the sky using her wings and the recoil of the blast that tore into the ground.

She jumped overhead with the same force as her forward run at almost the same moment that Odor’s metallic noise struck the ground.

She flipped around in midair and used her wings to flip upside-down while five meters above him.

“Let me tell you something. I saw you fight that black mechanical dragon, and the automaton you hit with a dragon cannon yesterday used her shared memory to tell us all how your technique works.”

Without moving, she held the spear tip down and toward him.

“When the mechanical dragon tried to circle above you the other night, you hit the airplane to shift its position. And when you had the dragon cannon fire on #8 yesterday, you tore into the blast by hitting the spatial ‘head’, didn’t you? For some reason, your attacks can only chop at your opponent’s head. To put it another way, you can only hit your opponent from directly above.”

The girl took aim toward his head, but…

“I won’t fire. That way I won’t give you any excuses. You could say you didn’t defeat me because I was out of reach, that you can’t be expected to defeat someone who can fly or against someone with a Concept Core, or that this was just a bad matchup. …Instead of those excuses, you’ll just have to accept that you lost to a girl and a doll.”

She descended. Her wings trembled and provided a powerful burst of energy as she charged downward.

Odor saw the spear tip before his eyes. As announced, it was closed and formed a blade rather than a cannon.

He raised his eyebrows, bared his teeth, and let out a laugh.

“Yes, yes. This is how you make things interesting!!”

In a split-second decision, he raised his right hand to shoulder height.

“!”

He snapped his fingers, but he did not strike the girl or the ground.

“The air. My odor can also tear into the air!”

The air to his right was crushed by the metallic-sounding strike. It was instantly compressed and slammed into the ground. The surrounding air flowed into the newly-created area of vacuum.

“…!”

He avoided the overhead attack by giving himself into that wind.

Due to her wings, the girl was also swept by that wind.

However…

“Now you can’t use your right arm.”

The girl forcefully stabbed her spear into the ground and stood up.

When he heard her, Odor looked at his right arm.

The rough wind washed across the right arm of his suit which was split open from cuff to elbow. The shirt below was similarly split and the bandage below that was ripped open.

Blood flowed down from between the arm and the bandage and he shook the arm to get rid of the blood.

He removed the bandage and released it to dance in the wind.

What was revealed below that thin cloth changed the girl’s expression. Her eyes opened wide, but she frowned.

“Those scars.”

His entire arm was covered in countless overlapping scars and swellings. It looked like someone had taken a chisel to his arm at random and the newly-made skin had grown to unparalleled thickness.

Odor looked down on the girl while blood flowed from the bulges and indentations of the scars.

“Interesting? Do you find this interesting? I was given these in childhood. There was oppression, pressure, and pain. There was also the sense of being unnecessary and being erased. Everyone referred to me as Odor rather than by my name. I was something no one wanted around. Something to be avoided. Something that should crawl along the ground. And the feelings that gave me are what led that same type of power to choose me.”

He took a breath and revealed a blue philosopher’s stone anklet attached near his elbow.

“This is an odor. This is the odor of hostility. My odor carries hatred, disgust, and malice to reveal any hostility and crush it from above with my own hostility given physical form. It forces them down and prostrates them before me.”

He then pulled his left hand from his pocket and spoke to the girl who had a look of disbelief.

“This is… This is my off hand, so I can’t hold back.”

He raised his left arm and the girl readied her spear.

With the sound of steel, the spear expanded. But the action pressed the spear’s shaft against her side and a line of red trailed down her right leg.

Still, she continued facing him. With sweat on her pale face, she raised her eyebrows and smiled.

“If we’re going to do this seriously, we don’t need that insurance against excuses.”

“Excellent. What an excellent spirit. On the same level as my wife.”

She gave a quick laugh at that and immediately raised her wings.

But…

“…!?”

She stopped and so did Odor.

They ignored the fact that they were facing each other at lethally close range and they looked to the west.

That was the direction Heo Thunderson and that boy had escaped earlier, but a shimmering as if of heat was now visible in the sky there.

“…!?”

Heo ran.

She did not know where she was going, why she was running, or what to do.

She was in a strange land, caught in a battle between strangers, and someone said she was being targeted for some strange reason.

''Why!?'' she thought. ''Wasn’t the only thing after me the demon that killed my mother?

She did not understand anything. The only thing she was certain of was that absolutely everything around her was uncertain. Her panic and everything else made her feel dizzy.

She did belatedly realize that she had relied on that demon a surprising amount. The fact that it was targeting her was supposed to be the one thing she knew for sure.

…''So why are these people after me too?

She ran and breathed, but inhaling was all she could manage. So much tension filled her heart that she could not release any kind of strength.

She could only let out small, withering breaths and her body grew heavy.

Realizing that only tensed her heart further.

''This isn’t right,'' she told herself. ''I can normally run just fine.

But that thought only invited more panic.

And just as she found herself unable to breathe, she heard more sounds of popping beans.

She finally realized what they were.

…''Gunshots.

When that word appeared in her mind, her body shrank down even further.

She was trying to run, but her unmoving legs tangled together and she began to fall forward.

“!?”

Someone suddenly wrapped an arm around from the left side of her back to her right side.

Her lungs moved in shock more than as an attempt to breathe and she released a breath that sounded like a quick shriek.

“H-Harakawa!”

“Don’t slow down, Heo Thunderson. Get your feet on the ground.”

Only then did she realize he truly was lifting her in his arm. Her toes were barely scraping the ground, so she frantically placed the bottoms of her feet back down.

She felt unsteady for a moment, but she supported herself with his arm as she gathered her strength.

As she stood up, a breath leaked out and panicked sweat poured from her skin.

“I-I’m sorry, Harakawa.”

He did not respond. He merely removed his arm from her.

“…”

And he pushed on her back.

Ahead of her, the cemetery’s main path sloped down to the west.

Finally, she heard his voice.

“Run, Heo Thunderson.”

Hearing him speak while catching his breath, Heo took the first step forward.

But her feet slowed and the thought that was stopping her entered her mind.

…''If I run here…

Wouldn’t the person she left behind disappear?

That thought made her turn around, but the thought did not prove accurate.

Harakawa’s back was right before her eyes.

His stood directly behind her in his school uniform.

She felt relieved by his presence.

But in that instant, his back suddenly collapsed toward her.

And beyond him, she saw the color blue.

It was one of the armored uniforms of the many people pursuing them. One of those people had run up and swung his rifle upwards.

Heo saw strength leave Harakawa’s knees, but…

“!”

He forcibly swung his body around and slammed into the side of the man swinging the gun.

“…!”

The counterattack knocked the man to the right where he rolled along the ground. Harakawa stood up on unsteady legs.

“…”

And he turned toward Heo.

Their eyes met and his gaze forced hers back with almost audible strength.

“Hey.”

He bared his teeth and closed his eyes.

“I said run!!”

That shout was the most he could manage.

His knees gave out and his hips dropped as if from exhaustion.

That was when Heo realized she could move again.

And her first action was to open her mouth and use all the air in her lungs to carry out the contents of her heart that did not even amount to words.

It was a shout of rejection.

“…!!”

The girl’s crying voice rose into the sky.

A narrow west wind that almost seemed to be crying slowly blew down from the sky.

Inside that wind, Izumo simply kneaded empty air.

His large white sword was fallen next to him and he was asleep on his feet with a look of happiness on his face.

Roger faced him five meters away while frowning through his glasses.

“You certainly fell for that easily.”

They kneaded or stood on a cemetery path lit by the afternoon sun.

An afternoon wind from the west blew into the mountain peak cemetery and Roger stood upwind. That was perfect for his use of sand.

“You did not learn much of anything from last time.”

Roger relaxed his stance and raised his arms.

Both of his sleeves contained small cylindrical cases.

They were both empty and sand blew west to east along the cemetery path.

He looked ahead to the boy still kneading empty air.

“I must apologize, but I had already scattered the sand before you arrived. You likely fell asleep right when you were about to begin the fight.” He gave a bitter smile. “But I suppose you cannot hear me.”

…''The dream sand’s effects last at least thirty minutes.

It was completely harmless, so it made a better means of stopping someone than a weapon that could actually do real harm.

Satisfied with his handiwork, Roger pushed up his glasses and looked at Izumo.

The boy was speaking in his sleep.

“C-c’mon, Chisato. We can’t do that here. Not officially anyway. This place is too blatant. We need to find somewhere that looks like we’re trying to hide but doesn’t actually hide us! …Hey, stop! Not that I’m complaining!”

Roger ignored his aggressively contradictory words, turned his back, and pushed his glasses up his nose.

“While that is a problem, it is not a problem to the objective at hand. The situation here is complete.”

He then shifted his thoughts to pursuing Heo Thunderson.

He was also interested in the boy who was with her.

…''Is he from Japanese UCAT?

It was possible he was a civilian, so the men had been ordered not to fire.

But in the case he was more than that, it would be best not to leave this to the normal soldiers.

He took a step forward.

“I must-…”

He stopped before he could say “hurry”.

This was because he had noticed something reach his right shoulder.

It was a boy’s hand.

“…”

Roger turned his head toward the owner of that hand.

“Izumo Kaku.”

“I don’t care if guys know my name.”

Izumo tapped his own shoulder with the back of his giant white sword and the sword’s console displayed a comment.

“Your shoulders are stiff.”

“Well, this kind of battle is pretty boring.”

He yawned and Roger asked him a question.

“How did you leave the dream sand’s sleep so quickly?”

The effects of the philosopher’s stone sand extended beyond the sand itself. Merely touching the space they were flying about would put one to sleep.

The battle should have been over when they had faced each other and Roger had scattered the final sand in the wind.

…''So why!?

“It’s simple. I have a certain special ability. …Whether standing or doing whatever else, I can instantly fall asleep with my eyes open.”

“You can’t mean…”

“That’s right. When I took my fighting stance and you thought I was about to attack, I’d already put myself to sleep.”

That brought a certain thought to Roger’s mind.

…''Ahh, so he is an idiot.

But to confirm that he was, Roger asked a question.

“So that was all an act when you were groping the air earlier!?”

“That was obviously the quick dream I gave myself. Ha ha ha.

“Oh, I see. So you are always like that. Ha…ha ha ha ha.”

“Ha ha ha ha ha!! Take that.”

That last comment was accompanied by an uppercut with the hilt of the sword.

The blow to his right side knocked Roger’s breath from him, but he managed to keep his knees from collapsing.

“…”

He forcibly braced his legs and tried to move away from Izumo, but then he noticed something.

A gust of wind had arrived from the western sky.

Harakawa felt wind surround him.

In his fading consciousness, he heard Heo’s cry and felt her clinging to him.

…''You idiot. I told you to run.

However, he could not speak his thoughts aloud.

He could only move his arm around to the strength clinging to his back.

…''If you don’t run, I’ll…

He turned to view her with his blurry vision, but he saw something strange behind her.

…''The wind?

It was the same as what surrounded him, but this wind took form.

Something pushed the air out of the way to make its invisible presence known.

“A dragon?”

It was easily several dozen meters long, but it did not knock over any of the surrounding gravestones.

He assumed it was a ridiculous hallucination, but then it opened its windy maw toward him.

He saw the blowing wind of its invisible fangs and could tell it was charging toward him.

He shut his eyes.

…''Oh, is this the demon Heo mentioned?

In an almost subconscious action, he held Heo in his arms.

And then his consciousness truly vanished.

Odor faced the wave of wind that pushed forward.

The girl standing before him faced to the west, the direction the wind had arrived from.

“————!!”

The wave of air shot out like an explosion.

The surging sound shook the ground and made the surrounding stones rattle. The wind raced across the area in an instant, descended to the base of the mountain, rustled through the trees, and blew away the flowers decorating the stones.

The scattering flower petals were plentiful enough to resemble snow and a single form came into view in the sky beyond them.

In the eastern sky, a white line of water vapor rose toward the heavens.

This was not a contrail from a jet engine. It was a line of cooling produced by pure speed.

It extended through the eastern sky and vanished.

“…!”

Odor lowered his left arm. He no longer viewed the girl before him as an obstacle, so he quickly walked westward where everyone else had gone.

He did not hide his wounded right hand or stop the bleeding and he ignored the sound of the girl turning toward him and raising her spear.

“Roger! Roger! Was that Black Sun!? Hurry up and capture it!!”

As his shouting voice traveled into the western sky, more wind blew in from that direction.

Meanwhile, three figures walked through a gentle wind in a forest too thick to see the sky.

The figure parting the tall underbrush in the lead was a six-legged creature made of plants.

The two people following him were Sayama in his suit and Shinjou in her safari coat.

As they walked, Shinjou looked up at the ceiling of trees and the slight bit of light seeping through.

“So this is the 4th-Gear reservation.”

“It feels more like an area of dense vegetation than a forest.”

She nodded in agreement and parted that vegetation as she walked.

Their destination was filled with humid air, thick underbrush, and trees.

However, the pathless path eventually ended.

While they followed the guiding plant creature and pushed through the vegetation, Shinjou gave a short voice of surprise.

“Ah.”

She quickly stepped up next to Sayama.

“There’s a lake up ahead, Sayama-kun.”

He looked forward where the forest opened up into a field of shorter undergrowth.

A lake of about one hundred meters across lay at the center of the field.

And the lake had a giant form in the center.

“Is that Tree Serpent Mukiti?” asked Sayama as he peered out from the forest.

A giant form of about thirty meters thick grew from the center of the lake and lay collapsed to the east.

It was a giant collapsed tree that’s top half had been cut away.

With the sunny clearing and lake behind him, the plant creature turned back toward the two humans.

He swayed happily and spoke.

“Promise.”

And…

“Mukiti is waiting.”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume9 Preface|Preface]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume9 Chapter 19|Chapter 19]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 12

2026-05-29T03:00:12Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 12: A Reunion with Someone New==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0335.png|thumb]]
''A meeting is the beginning of a restriction

''That is why meetings last only an instant

''The eternity continuing afterwards is a choice between that restriction and a parting

A square three-story building was located on the northeastern end of the general school buildings of Taka-Akita Academy.

The flat building was partially made of brick and had a terrace. The front of the building also had an entrance leading to the basement. That entrance was labeled with a placard saying “Central Cafeteria Building”.

Only the basement area was open during spring break.

A wide staircase led downstairs. The placard attached to the wall there said “Open 24 Hours a Day” in thick gothic lettering. “However, only limited services are available late at night and on holidays,” it went on to say.

Down the stairs were eight large glass doors lined up side by side and a dimly lit area beyond.

The lobby contained a line of cafeteria ticket machines and several large bulletin boards.

Past the lobby was a fifty meter square space with white walls. Square pillars were located at set intervals and tables for eight filled the space between them.

However, few people were inside. The shops in the corners had sheets over them and only the area around the counter across the eastern wall was lit up.

At the tables were a few people wearing personal clothes and school uniforms as well as a few people wearing the red shirts of rugby uniforms. In addition, a girl wearing a school uniform and a black cat were standing near the counter.

The girl whose gray hair flowed back behind her was Brunhild.

Brunhild placed her hands on the counter and stared back into the kitchen.

Finally, the item she was waiting for arrived.

An old woman wearing a cooking apron carried out a cardboard box thirty centimeters square.

The box had a dishcloth laid out on the bottom and sitting in the corner were two flat-bottomed porcelain bowls. One contained water and the other contained dried corn that had been crushed into relatively large pieces. The small bird hopped between the two bowls.

“This is a large burden you are taking on. But it is already mostly grown, so you should not have too much trouble,” said the old woman.

Before the woman could hold out the box, Brunhild bowed and reached her own hand out.

She placed the box in her hand.

“…”

Brunhild embraced the box.

The bird looked up at her from within the box. As it tilted its small head, Brunhild smiled.

She heard the old woman say, “How nostalgic. I caught one when I was a child, too.”

“Did you?”

“Yes, yes. Even an old lady like me was once as young as you.”

Brunhild fell silent, but the black cat at her feet lightly struck her left shin with its front paw.

Brunhild used her left foot to kick the cat away below the counter.

The old woman had not noticed this exchange of blows, so she looked down at the small bird and spoke.

“It was not long after the war. I swiped some of the wheat and sake my father got through the black market. I soaked the wheat grains and place them on the ground.”

“To give them…to the bird?”

“Yes, yes. I threw one a good distance away. Once it ate that, I threw another one a bit closer to me before repeating the process. By the time it was close enough to me, it could not fly.”

“Because it was drunk?”

“Yes. But it disappeared the day after I caught it. My father looked disappointed it was gone and he complained that the bird had looked delicious. …I knocked him down with a piece of firewood afterwards.”

Brunhild ignored the last half of the story and fell silent, but the black cat lightly struck her right shin once it made its way back.

She kicked it away with her right foot, looked slightly down, and glanced over at the cat.

It was looking up at her from where it lay on the floor.

But when their gazes met, the black cat cowered down and backed away.

Brunhild tilted her head and wondered if the look in her eyes had really been that harsh.

But she then sensed a presence behind her. This was why the cat had backed away.

“…!?”

She placed the box on the counter and turned around. A chest covered in a black vest lay directly in front of her eyes within arm’s reach.

Surprised, she took a step back and looked up to assess the situation.

Above the black vest was the collar of a white shirt. Above that was a white beard and bald head.

Brunhild knew this man.

Before she could do anything, a voice spoke beyond the counter.

“Oh, Zonburg-san. You are late today.”

Siegfried Zonburg stood beside Brunhild. He bent over his large body to place his cafeteria ticket on the opposite side of the counter.

The old woman looked at the ticket and asked, “Which one?”

“The Doria.”

“Oh, the vomit rice. Now, do I have any rice left?”

“Even if that is what everyone calls it, I think the one making it should avoid that name.”

“I can hardly call it Doria. I only learned how to cook from my mother.”

“Doria is a household dish. There is nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“Is that so?” asked the old woman with a laugh, but Siegfried’s expression did not change.

Brunhild looked up at him while holding her breath.

Suddenly, he turned toward her.

Brunhild took a defensive stance at that. She brought her right hand up into the air and her left hand into her blazer pocket. All expression vanished from her face and she stared intently at him.

However, Siegfried was not looking at her.

He was looking at the box on the counter. The small bird inside looked up at him and chirped once. Siegfried returned the bird’s gaze and opened his mouth to speak.

“Brunhild Schild-kun.”

Brunhild gasped at having her name called.

She gulped and asked, “Why do you know my name?”

“Whenever you borrow a book, you thank the library assistant but not me. I manage the library cards, so I naturally learned your name.”

“…You certainly are petty.”

“No, that is simply the reason I know your name. I am not demanding you thank me. That is the decision your pride has led you to make.” Siegfried looked back across the counter. “The library is open. The biology and animal section has some books on caring for animals. You should borrow one right away.”

“Is that an order?”

“I merely wish the best for the bird. …But I cannot approve of caring for a bird in the same environment as a cat.”

“Do not worry. My cat is loyal to me.”

That comment elicited a light strike against her calf from the black cat’s front paw. Brunhild swung her right heel back to kick the cat away before she grabbed the box.

Siegfried was not looking in her direction.

She took a step back to open a slight gap between them.

Siegfried provided a clear response to her silence.

He ignored her and let the silence continue.

“…”

Brunhild turned around toward the entrance.

She began walking and the black cat frantically ran after her.

She looked down into the box to find the small bird looking up at her with its head tilted.

Brunhild continued to look at the bird and did not look back.

She held her breath and quickly walked out of the cafeteria.

A line of white buildings existed to the north of the general school buildings. The buildings were aligned in a cross shape and they all looked like three-story school buildings at first.

However, the windows lined up on the southern side were smaller and more numerous than those of a school.

Through each window were two desks next to the window and a bunk bed next to the wall.

These were the student dorms.

The dorms were currently dyed in the colors of the setting sun.

A single figure could be seen moving between the crimson of the sunlight and the bluish-black shadows created by the buildings.

This was Sayama, still wearing his gray suit. He quickly made his way to the building on the southwest end of the line of dorms.

He arrived at a white walled entrance with a sign saying “Fourth General School Dormitory – True Boys’ Dormitory”.

Sayama stopped at the entrance.

A look at his wristwatch told him the time was 5:30 PM. He had just returned after speaking with Ooshiro about the following day’s preliminary negotiations with 1st-Gear’s peaceful faction.

Sayama glanced down and saw Baku was sleeping with his head sticking out of his breast pocket. And…

“?”

Sayama suddenly turned to the east where the cafeteria building was. He had spotted some motion.

He could see a girl carrying a box toward the general school buildings.

…''That is the head of the art club I passed by this morning.

She must have still had work to do.

''She puts in a lot of effort,'' he thought as he took a breath. ''I need to visit Siegfried in the library and Izumo and Kazami in the girls’ dorm later.

He then turned back toward the dorm building and looked up at his own room on the eastern end of the second floor.

In the very next moment, his expression changed. He frowned.

“…The light is on?”

As the window reflected the setting sun, he could see the bright room beyond.

He did not remember turning on the lights before leaving for the Imperial Palace during the day.

''Who could it be?'' thought Sayama as he hurried into the dorm.

At the same moment, he heard Ooki’s voice from up ahead.

“Oh, Sayama-kun.”

She walked out of the exit in sandals while wearing a shirt and a tight denim skirt.

“Perfect timing.”

Ooki descended the low staircase at the entrance in a single step and arrived in front of Sayama with the sound of gravel.

“What is it, Ooki-sensei? I have urgent business at present, so I would like to hurry to the scene in question.”

“Heh heh heh. You always speak so formally. But you will regret it if you don’t listen to what I-…wait!”

As Sayama ignored her and tried to move past her, she grabbed his sleeve.

“Could you not grab onto that? It is actually rather expensive.”

“I think you should not decide what is important based on monetary value.”

“It is Italian and cost 720,000 yen.”

“Wah! I’m sorry! Just so you know, I could never, ever pay for that!”

“I know. I think you should stop taking up a standard seat in front of the shop in the cafeteria building.”

“But I love jam bread. It’s so sad the shop is closed during spring break… Wait, please listen to what I have to say before leaving!”

This time, she grabbed Sayama’s hand. He sighed, turned toward Ooki, and nodded.

“I apologize, but I fear I will catch your poverty. Please keep your Ooki germs away from me.”

“If you say things like that, I won’t tell you that you have a new roommate!”

“If you say things like that, it makes me want to inform you of your severe idiocy.”

“Huh?” said Ooki as she thought back on what she had said.

Sayama politely removed her hand and asked, “At any rate, what is happening here? I obtained this single-person room thanks to a miracle when I had the wonderful luck of being chosen in the drawing.”

“I will not ask how you influenced that miracle and wonderful luck… Anyway, that miracle and wonderful luck end today. Just give up now.”

She pointed at Sayama as she spoke, but he ignored her. She immediately tugged on his hand.

“Why are you ignoring me!?”

“Well, you already told me what I need to know, right? A parasite has arrived,” said Sayama.

Ooki raised her index finger and lightly clicked her tongue.

“Listen. Let me warn you first. …Your new roommate is not used to you yet, so try not to do or say anything inappropriate.”

“Have you gone completely insane, Ooki-sensei? When have I ever done or said anything inappropriate?”

“You are doing so right now in real time!”

“Now, now,” said Sayama as he held out his right palm to calm down Ooki. “I understand what you are trying to say, so calm down. You want me to be perfectly polite, correct?”

“Yes,” nodded Ooki before crossing her arms. “That is what I want…but with you…”

She groaned and Sayama wordlessly flicked her on the forehead with his right hand.

Sayama checked in at the reception desk, changed into his slippers, and climbed the stairs.

Baku raised his head from Sayama’s breast pocket and climbed up to his shoulder. Baku must have known they were almost to the bed because he stared straight ahead from Sayama’s shoulder as they rounded the turn of the staircase.

Sayama quickly finished climbing the stairs. He moved from the landing to the hallway. His room was the last room on the left.

The fluorescent lights lit the hallway more than the setting sun. Sayama could tell the door to his room was sitting open.

A few cardboard boxes were sitting at the end of the hallway next to the door. Someone was moving in.

“…”

Sayama silently walked forward.

He could hear noise within the room. Someone was opening a cardboard box and removing its contents. He could hear someone piling up clothes and stacking books. These noises reminded Sayama of the past.

…''I made these exact same noises last year.

He approached.

He peered inside the dorm room through the open door.

As soon as he did, a figure took a step out of the room.

The figure had a slender and small build.

The figure stumbled forward between the boxes but managed to remain standing.

“Oh.”

Inertia caused a baggy shirt and culottes-style shorts to sway. And something else swayed even more than the clothes: the soft black hair tied behind the figure’s head.

The figure looked up and widened its eyes slightly.

Sayama recognized that face.

“…Shinjou-kun?” he asked.

“Ah,” said the figure.

The voice was identical to Shinjou’s as well.

That confused voice left Sayama thinking.

…''This is the boys’ dorm.

But his thoughts did not end there.

…''If Shinjou suddenly decided she desired a life with me, what would happen?

Shinjou belonged to UCAT. This school possessed deep connections with IAI, so it was likely connected to UCAT as well.

Sayama already had Izumo and Kazami as examples. He assumed those two were deeply involved in IAI and UCAT beyond what was officially said about them.

Also, UCAT had asked him if he would accept the rights to the Leviathan Road. Shinjou’s presence could be a means of leading him to accept.

''What should I do? What should I do?'' thought Sayama twice before adding, ''No, whatever the adults may be hoping to gain from this, the fact remains that Shinjou, a girl, has come here.

He recalled what she had said on the bridge in front of the Imperial Palace. She had told him not to be too surprised when he returned to his dorm.

…''That is impossible. I cannot help but be shocked at this.

When Sayama had asked her if she was sending him something, she had nodded and said she felt she had to.

How had he responded to that?

…''I told her I would gladly accept it. I see.

Sayama had reached his conclusion. He had already given his answer back then.

After coming this far, he did not hesitate or make the issue any more complicated. He had decided everything should continue as she wished.

With a serious expression, Sayama nodded toward her. He spread his arms lightly to either side.

“Now, leap into my arms.”

In response, Shinjou bowed with a relieved look.

“Thank you for acting just as inappropriately as I heard you would. I am Shinjou Sadame’s younger brother, Setsu.”

Sayama’s arms were still spread.

Shinjou Setsu raised his body while still smiling.

But Shinjou then said “Um…” while lowering the ends of his eyebrows and holding out his right hand.

With his arms still held out to the side, Sayama smoothly lowered his hips and rotated his body ninety degrees. He grabbed Shinjou’s right hand with the right hand he still held out to the side. He gave the boy a handshake.

That touch told him Shinjou had no ring on his right hand. Sayama stood back up.

“…Her younger brother?”

“Yes,” replied Shinjou with a less nervous voice and smile than before. “Didn’t my sister tell you? She told me to stay here until your arm healed, Sayama-kun.”

His voice and tone were identical to Shinjou’s. The feel of his hand was also identical.

Sayama mentally tilted his head and let go of the boy’s hand.

“How much did your sister tell you about me?”

“She said you protected her when she was almost hit by a car, but you injured your dominant arm in the process. She is busy with work, so she can’t do anything to help even though she wants to.”

“I see,” said Sayama in acknowledgment.

…''Does he not know about UCAT?

“I apologize in advance, but may I check on something?”

Shinjou tilted his head in confusion.

“Sure, I don’t mind. But what is it?”

“Oh, nothing much.”

Sayama stood before Shinjou, slowly pulled him closer, and touched the right side of his chest with his right hand.

“Eh? Ah…Wh-what are you doing?”

As the boy provided light resistance, Sayama felt only ribs and a thin chest.

Shinjou tried to pull away from the left hand lightly wrapped around his back.

But Sayama said, “Please do not move. For one, who was it that said he did not mind?”

“B-but I didn’t think you meant this…”

Shinjou’s shoulders lowered and he stopped trying to draw away.

Sayama nodded and slid his hand over to the left side of Shinjou’s chest. He pressed his fingers in as if trying to massage his chest, but the skin beyond the white shirt was thin and hard. It had little flexibility and lacked the shape of Shinjou’s breasts Sayama had seen the night before.

…''He is male.

Sayama’s body sank down slightly. He took his right hand off Shinjou’s chest and a slight moan escaped Shinjou’s lips. As if to rob Shinjou of this opportunity to relax, Sayama grabbed Shinjou’s waist with his right hand.

[[Image:OnC_v01_0351.png|thumb]]

“Ah,” said Shinjou as Sayama pressed his right ear against his chest.

Sayama heard the slightly quickened beating of Shinjou’s heart.

It sounded the same as what he had heard the night before. The slight sweet aroma in the breath was also the same.

However, the chest he had his ear pressed up against was not the same as the chest he had seen. It was the flat and hard chest of a guy.

Still doubtful, Sayama asked, “Hm… Has your chest always been like this?”

“W-well, yes…”

Sayama looked up to see a flushed face looking down at him. Shinjou was lightly biting his lower lip and bringing together his eyebrows. Finally, he let out a trembling sigh.

“I-is that enough? Are you done? I don’t want you st-staying down there too long.”

Without replying, Sayama grabbed Shinjou’s arm from where it hung awkwardly in the air and brought it around behind his back.

“Eh? Ah… No, Sayama-kun?”

As Shinjou lightly embraced him, Sayama listened to the boy’s pulse.

But nothing changed. The chest still felt like that of a guy. The pulse grew a bit stronger, but that was it.

“I see,” said Sayama with a nod before raising his head.

…''She said they are twins, didn’t she?

Sayama nodded once more in his heart, stood up, and faced forward.

Shinjou stood there with his cheeks red and the ends of his eyebrows lowered. Shinjou let out a breath and Sayama crossed his arms.

“Do not worry. There was nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Y-you were incredibly out of the ordinary, Sayama-kun.”

“Is that any way to act toward someone you just met?”

“You should say that into a mirror…”

“No need,” declared Sayama. “I was just given a warning by Ooki-sensei downstairs. And I am being careful to heed that warning.”

“…I have to ask. What was this warning?”

Sayama provided a clear response.

“Do not do or say anything inappropriate.”

“Wow,” said Shinjou as he drew back.

Nevertheless, Sayama held out his right hand.

“It may only be until my left arm heals, but let us get along, Shinjou-kun. It should not be too difficult. Compared to those around me, I am constantly troubled by how normal I am.”

In the art room at night, Brunhild gave the small bird food while working on her painting. She was adding the green of the forest to the canvas and would provide some food whenever the bird chirped to say it was hungry.

She would grab the crushed and threshed corn with narrow tweezers, soak it in water, and hold it out to the bird. If she did not lightly pinch the corn with the tweezers, the bird could not bring it into its mouth.

The black cat down at her feet spoke.

“You certainly are enthusiastic about this.”

“I have to do this at least until it goes to sleep.”

“I think you need to visit the headquarters tonight. What will you do?”

“It is not time for my periodic report, but yes… It would be best to ask how I should handle this from now on. If it was something simple, I could just have you fly there. But…”

The cat nodded.

“Most likely, they have already noticed the Royal Palace faction’s actions. The headquarters will be full of energy trying to decide what to do.”

“As long as the holy sword Gram is stored below IAI headquarters, there is nothing we can do. …Breaking in to take it is not the type of strategy Venerable Hagen prefers.”

“The second generation group who know nothing of war like Fafner are oddly motivated, though.”

The small bird chirped.

Brunhild fed it with the tweezers.

It swallowed the food and let out a breath. It tilted its head and looked up at Brunhild. She remained expressionless.

“…It’s so cute.”

“You don’t have to keep that to a whisper, you know.” The black cat lowered its shoulders. “But why are you so obsessed with this bird?”

“I am not obsessed. I think the laws of nature are important, but I also think life is important.”

“You’re contradicting yourself.”

“Yes, I am.”

Brunhild picked up her palette and brush. She brought the brush to somewhere other than the forest. She brought it to the area that had been empty up to this point. She brought it to the spot for the cabin and the people.

“Do you want to hear an old story?”

“Yes.”

“This was long ago when I was still very young.”

“How many hundreds of years ago was that? No, ah, s-sorry! Ahhh! The bottom of that brush is pointed!!”

“Shut up. At any rate, a certain person saved a town near our forest back then. A mechanical dragon had gone out of control. When the pilot was joining with it, the rejection reaction was especially strong and he went insane. The town was half destroyed and the mechanical dragon entered the forest to pursue the people who had fled into it.”

The cat said nothing and only nodded.

Brunhild continued speaking as she painted the black base for the cabin.

“This person fought despite being injured and won all on his own. I do not know if it was on a whim or what, but he took in an injured bird afterwards. We all took care of it.”

The black cat looked up at the canvas. A few different people were drawn in charcoal around the cabin Brunhild was painting black.

An old man read a book within the cabin and a girl and a woman played with a bird in front of the cabin.

And a man could faintly be seen as well.

The cat looked at those line drawings before turning toward Brunhild. Lastly, it looked back at the charcoal lines of the flying bird.

“So…” The cat tilted its head. “You want to see those flapping wings once more? Something like that?”

“No,” replied Brunhild with a slight laugh. “This is a painting. It is not real. When our world was destroyed, that bird escaped its cage and…”

She took a breath, but did not continue speaking.

The silence spreading around her caused the cat to tremble, but Brunhild laughed quietly again.

“Ha,” she breathed out before speaking in a trembling but smiling voice. “If he had been there, I think the outcome would have been different. He saved that bird despite knowing the world would be destroyed, so why did he not see it through to the end? And even if it was only for a short time, he had been with Lady Gutrune so much… So why?”

As she asked that question to no one in particular, the black cat’s eyes opened wide.

“Is this person you are talking about who I think it is?”

“Yes. The sorcerer who arrived from Low-Gear. The man who stole the holy sword Gram from 1st-Gear and destroyed that earth and that sky. And the enemy who killed those who were like family to me before running away.”

Brunhild spoke his name.

“Siegfried Zonburg. …Our greatest foe.”

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 11|Chapter 11]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 13|Chapter 13]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 2

2026-05-28T05:00:25Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 2: The Two Meet==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0065.png|thumb]]
''A scream of rejection led to their meeting

''So which one did she really want?

When Sayama came out onto the road down below, he tilted his head in confusion alone on the sidewalk.

The cell phone in his hand would not turn on.

He had checked the battery when leaving his dorm, but now the LCD screen was dark. He shook it lightly, but nothing changed. He thought it might have to do with the signal, so he crossed the two-lane road to reach the sidewalk on the valley side, but this also did nothing. He removed and put back in the general-purpose battery that worked in all small IAI devices, but to no avail.

“What is going on?” he muttered.

But then he recalled the strange voice he had heard not long before.

As he had been traveling down the slope, he had heard a single voice.

—'''Precious metals possess power.

This had not been a reverberating voice amplified with a megaphone. It had been like a whisper from headphones he was wearing. However, a look around had not shown any equipment that could have produced the noise.

And now his cell phone would not function.

He put the phone back in his pocket in confusion. According to his memory, he should reach several restaurants along the road if he walked a bit further. He decided to use a phone at one of them. Wondering what time it was, he glanced down at his watch.

“It’s stopped…”

His watch had stopped. The hour hand, minute hand, and second hand were all motionless.

He frowned and put a hand in his pocket. He pulled out a digital recorder with the IAI mark on it. It was stick-shaped and the top had a red start button.

He pressed it.

However, the recorder did not respond. He remembered fully charging its general-purpose battery as well.

While wondering what all this meant, Sayama realized something else. He looked around the area and then up into the trees of the forest.

“There is no sign of anyone.”

Not many cars used this road. However, not a single one had passed by in the time he had spent climbing down the slope. On top of that, he could not see a single bird among all the trees.

Suddenly, Sayama recalled that the train had returned to Shiromaru. He wondered what had happened.

And then he heard the sound of something being struck in the distance.

The sound had come from the tree-covered slope leading down from the road and to a river.

“That was a tree collapsing.”

He looked and spotted a single distant tree on the slope that had begun to tilt. It was a cedar. The silhouette that resembled a green leaf-covered spire leaned up against the nearby trees and then collapsed.

After seeing that, Sayama moved his gaze west toward the sun setting behind Okutama.

After confirming that was his destination, he nodded.

But then he heard another noise. And this time it was not the cracking of a falling tree.

It was a scream.

“…”

Sayama instinctually raised his head.

He had definitely heard that distant, high-pitched voice. For an instant, strength filled his body, but then he stopped.

He took a breath, frowned, and thought.

He did not think for long. He only needed to remember his past. Just a single memory. He remembered when his mother had brought him into these mountains by car.

“So it is always me who is unable to keep his promises to meet someone…”

He took another breath and brought his hand to the left of his chest. A slight ache from the past lay there, but he suppressed it with his breathing.

He opened his eyes.

The crimson-dyed sky lay before his eyes. Seeing that color, Sayama nodded and began moving.

“Okay.”

He turned toward the valley-side forest below. His right hand loosened his necktie while his left shoulder slipped out of his coat in an instant. By the time the coat left his right shoulder, he had already stepped atop the guardrail on the sidewalk.

He took a step.

His footstep sounded lightly as he used the guardrail as a stepping stone to propel him into the air. As the coat still on his right arm flapped about, it created a solid noise as it struck his back. At that same moment, his feet landed on the underbrush of the slope.

He began walking.

His pace was much faster than when he moved down to the road earlier. He lowered his hips to almost slide down the slope.

The sun had already started to set in the western sky that was hidden by the trees.

Once it grew dark, the forest would be dangerous.

He had to hurry. He lowered his hips even further to rush down the slope.

He entered the forest and ran between the trees. His destination was the tree that had fallen earlier.

Sayama ran straight there while treading on old, dry branches.

He was not out of breath as he had a habit of running every evening.

However, running on such bad terrain and the faint tension he felt did noticeably raise his body temperature. Even so, there was one part of his body he felt no heat in.

That was his left fist. It alone felt cold.

“Ha,” gasped Sayama in what was not quite a breath and not quite a laugh.

He was only about a dozen meters from his destination. He could hear a flowing river through the forest.

He could see several depressions that had once been small streams along the ground. He jumped over them as he ran and raised his head.

Between the trees, Sayama saw the setting sun sinking behind Okutama’s mountain range. Dusk would arrive in less than ten minutes. The forest would grow very dark.

''Hurry,'' Sayama called to himself.

He then spotted some small lights. They were near the tree he was running toward. Light was reflecting off of something scattered across the ground.

…''Did a hiker leave some trash behind?

But he immediately rejected that idea. A hiker would not come this far to throw their trash away. They would do so near the trail or river.

He put up his guard. He stopped next to the light on the ground and looked down. He saw…

“Metal?”

Black metal fragments were scattered primarily around the southern side of a large tree.

And the fallen tree he had seen before was about five trees south of it. A cedar tree just barely too wide to reach around had fallen and the break was visible from here.

Sayama looked over at that break where that loud noise had come from before.

“That is…”

He frowned and fell silent.

The tree had been sliced at about a meter up from the ground.

It was a clean diagonal slice. About four-fifths of the trunk’s diameter had been sliced through in a single blow without leaving any woodchips or sawdust at the base of the tree. The cracking sound Sayama had heard must have been the remaining fifth breaking.

He smelled a slight odd scent. It stank of something burning. He looked again and noticed a slight charring around the cut.

Sayama took a step forward to go check out the cut.

But his right foot trod on something hard.

He looked down and lifted up his foot.

Sayama recognized what he found. It was a short tube made of the same material as the metal fragments scattered around the area.

“A gun barrel.”

…''This is longer than the ones I have seen while staying at the Tamiya household. Perhaps it is not for a pistol.

With that thought, Sayama checked the ground once more.

He found some new information there.

They were footprints. And three different kinds.

The first was fairly old. They were large and had a mountain boot type of pattern.

The second was smaller but had a similar pattern to the first.

And the third was very strange and seemed to trample over the others. These odd footprints were easily over thirty centimeters long and had holes as if from spikes where the toes should have been.

The information did not end there. An intermittent trail of dark wet spots approached from the south.

Those wet spots continued to the tree behind Sayama.

As Sayama held his breath and did not turn around, he felt a slight sensation fall on his left shoulder.

It felt as if someone had tapped on his shoulder, so he looked over.

A single dark spot could be seen on the fabric that had been dyed light red by the setting sun.

What was that?

As if in response, another one fell on his shoulder.

It came from above.

And in the next moment…

“…!”

Sayama unhesitatingly ran forward, to the west, and toward the river he could hear.

He did not check what was above him. He already knew what it was.

If he had looked up, his footing would have been uncertain and he would have been unable to move. That instant would have put him in danger.

He had never been in danger before. And that was why Sayama began to run.

…''Something is in that tree!

The instant he was sure of that, he heard something drop to the ground behind him. It was the sound of two legs landing. Two legs supporting something large. He could hear the feet sinking into the ground.

Immediately afterwards, a voice shot past Sayama and through the forest. It was a beast’s roar. A howl.

…''Is it a bear?

But he denied that possibility. This beast had killed its prey, carried that prey into the tree, and then waited for Sayama to notice the corpse before attacking from above. The first set of footprints belonged to the victim in the tree. The second set had likely fallen for that trap.

Sayama would have been the third victim, but only the second to fall for that strategy.

…''Beasts do not use strategies like that. Only people do.

The howl from behind him had been that of a beast, yet…

“If this thing has a human intellect, I should handle it like a human.”

As if pursuing those words spoken toward the ground, footsteps approached Sayama from behind.

They were fast.

Those footsteps were as deep as a bass drum and each step covered as much ground as Sayama covered in five. However, Sayama did not turn around. He focused only on not slowing his pace.

He refused to turn around. What he needed was distance, not curiosity.

The sound of the river up ahead was growing louder.

He could see light. The ground sloped sharply downwards. Ahead, he could see a rocky river bank covered in the dim light of dusk.

Once he arrived there, he would be able to see his opponent. He might also spot someone there.

Just as Sayama began to wonder if he could call for help, he noticed something odd up ahead.

He noticed the movement of the air spreading out ahead of him and a slight haze of light.

A single obstacle was covering the entire edge of the forest on the slope just above the river. It was…

“A wall!?”

The wind ahead of him was still. And the light of dusk had grown slightly hazy.

He would arrive at this supposed wall in another three seconds.

The heavy footsteps were still approaching from behind.

Should he run directly into the wall or not? In fact, did this wall even exist or not?

How could he check?

A single idea came to Sayama. He slowed his pace slightly.

Once he arrived at the supposed wall, he turned his back. It was as if he had been cornered.

He could see a shadow charging toward him.

That shadow resembled a human. The large figure was over two meters tall. Its entire body was covered in black animal hair, but torn black cloth could be seen at its waist and chest.

Its face was visible above its thick chest.

Its face resembled a dog. Below the pointed ears were two golden eyes and a red slit of a mouth.

…''Is this what you call a werewolf?

He thought that idea was crazy, but only for an instant. The truth lay before his eyes.

And so he needed to move. Amid the dim light, Sayama brought both arms down and his hips back. His opponent likely thought he was ducking down. However, Sayama was using the right hand hidden in his coat to search behind him.

In what should have been empty space, he felt resistance

It was a wall. The sensation he felt through the coat reminded him of a rough eggshell. The coat molded into the shape of that wall, so he could tell it had no gaps.

The enemy came immediately thereafter.

Sayama threw his head back to show off his throat.

The enemy’s right claws were swung down. It was trying to cut off his head as it passed by. It opened its mouth and bared its fangs.

It let out a cry, but…

“Silence,” said Sayama as he dropped his hips down along the wall.

The werewolf’s claws cut through empty air.

Its giant body then slammed face-first into the invisible wall.

This caused a great sound of impact.

It sounded less like flesh being struck and more like a car crashing. The werewolf’s entire body was knocked back by a repelling force. It flew through the air, rotated once, and caused a tremor in the earth where it landed. It then rolled.

The sounds of the beast’s breaths mixed in with the sound of it rolling.

Sayama was almost lying down on the ground and he realized the chest of his vest had been torn.

“That was valuable,” he complained as he stood up and filled his lungs with air.

It did not seem the werewolf had lost consciousness. However, it was lying on the ground with its chest moving up and down as it gasped for breath. It did not seem to know what had happened. The wall may have been unexpected for it as well.

…''Or it simply might not have known where it was.

Sayama began running once more. He had to find a means of defeating the werewolf before it came to its senses. To remain in the werewolf’s blind spot as much as possible, he ran along the edge of the invisible wall. He ran west. This was upstream of the river to his left. After running across a few gentle slopes, he could no longer see the werewolf.

“The meeting time will probably have passed before long,” muttered Sayama as he looked down at his watch.

The silver hands were still not moving.

''What is going on?'' he thought.

And then he noticed a slight light beyond the wall.

It was a vehicle’s headlights.

A red RV was parked about twenty meters ahead on the rocky river bank. It was likely a family on a spring break outing. He could see the family around the RV folding up parasols and leisure tables. The family was made up of a middle-aged couple, a young girl, and her even younger brother. The RV’s headlights were pointed up the slope toward Sayama.

“Hey! You need to leave! It is-…”

He trailed off before he could say “dangerous”.

Something was strange.

The family he had shouted at continued their preparations to leave without paying him any heed.

…''Did they not hear me?

“Hey!!” he shouted while standing in the middle of the headlights where they could see him. However, they did not notice him.

…''Can they not see or hear me?

Sayama took in a deep breath and let it out. He placed a hand on the invisible wall before him and once more muttered, “This has become very odd.” And as Sayama watched on, the family climbed aboard the RV.

After a short pause, it drove off of the rocky river bank. It was headed…

“Up this slope.”

Sayama ran. If he was remembering right, the main road above had a few mountain roads leading down to the river. If the invisible wall to his left extended as far as the road the family was using, the RV would strike the wall from the outside.

What would happen then?

He climbed up the slope and found the road.

The branches of the trees above seemed to create a natural tunnel over the mountain road. The dirt road was about three meters across. Sayama stood atop the bulge in the center created by the ruts on either side.

As he wiped sweat from his brow, the RV’s headlights reached him.

Sayama took a step back while in the center of that light.

However, the family showed no sign of noticing him. The RV continued to approach at the same speed.

…''The wall.

They passed right through it. However, the RV changed.

It became a pale shadow.

It was so thin that the scenery beyond it was easily visible through it. The people inside were the same.

“…!?”

As Sayama stood in the center of that mountain road, the pale shadow of the RV passed through him. He only felt a slight shadow. It produced no wind or sound.

Sayama let out a sigh without even turning around.

“What is going on?”

…''That RV will likely drive up to the main road and eventually drive beyond the invisible wall once more.

And what lay beyond that wall was of course the everyday world.

It was only this space that was twisted. He was sure of that now.

Sayama suddenly crouched down. He spotted a nearby stone on the ground.

He picked it up.

Sayama then looked at the spot where the stone had been. A faint shadow the exact shape of the stone lay there.

It was so faint he could not see it without paying very careful attention.

Sayama replaced the stone and muttered, “Are the objects in this space the actual objects? Or are they the shadows?”

He did not know.

Sayama shook his head lightly and stopped arguing about it in his head. His current priorities lay elsewhere.

He took a breath. But then he froze in place.

He had heard a noise. He had heard heavy footsteps and a small cry in the distance.

The cry was the same voice as the scream from earlier.

“That person is still alive,” muttered Sayama as he looked forward.

He saw a slope. It was the slope he had climbed to distance himself from his enemy.

However, he took in a deep breath and began running down that very same slope.

Dusk was already turning to night.

Night also enveloped the near-deserted school.

In the second year general school building of Taka-Akita Academy, Ooki was in charge of locking up for the night. She was on the western edge of the first floor hallway. Specifically, in front of the emergency exit.

Kinugasa Library was located on the same floor. About four classrooms-length of the hallway had been turned into a storage area.

“What is this, a lawless zone?”

The large Kinugasa Library took up the length of four classrooms and the hallway had not escaped the power of its books. Bookshelves and other shelves were lined up along the walls of the hallway and towers of books were piled up here and there. To make it as far as she had, Ooki had been forced to weave around and jump over the piles of books. The hallway had become a sort of labyrinth.

No books or shelves were located near the emergency exit at the back, but that was only because the books and shelves were often brought in through it.

Ooki turned the key for the emergency exit to lock it. For an instant, she caught a glimpse to the east through the emergency door’s window. The eastern mountains were outlined in crimson, but the sky above created a gradation from purple to black.

“I hope this is okay…” she muttered before turning her back on the window.

She did not want to stay in that deserted labyrinth of books for long. While kicking a few books out of the way, Ooki made her way through the four classrooms-length area on her way to the central lobby.

''This tight skirt makes it hard to walk at times like this,'' she thought.

The hallway’s fluorescent lights felt overly bright because of the shallow darkness of night she could see out of the northern window between two bookshelves. Her reflection in the window showed a bandage on the forehead. That was where Sayama had flicked her.

“That boy did not hold back. …It would be best if I assume that’s just how much he adores me.”

Just as she muttered that, a door opened to the side.

“!”

She gasped and turned around. As she did, her heel caught on a pile of books and she fell backwards.

“…Ah!”

Her legs flew up and her head fell to the floor…or it would have. However…

“My apologies,” said a low and relaxed male voice as a black gloved hand caught her falling back.

As soon as she realized she was being supported, her vision rotated around vertically.

[[Image:OnC_v01_0083.png|thumb]]

Her feet were brought to the ground and she stood on her own.

“…”

Ooki did not quite understand what had happened. Only the word “rotation” floated up in her mind.

“Um…” she muttered as she looked up at whose hand was supporting her waist. “Siegfried-san?”

“Are you okay?”

It was a tall elderly man who answered with that question. His broad-shouldered frame was contained in a white shirt, a black vest, and black trousers. He was bald, had a white beard, and his blue eyes were looking down at her.

Siegfried silently removed his right hand from her waist and brought the white cup in his left hand to his mouth. The aroma that reached Ooki told her it was coffee.

Ooki bowed while trying not to be too distracted by that scent.

“Th-thank you very much. What was that where I spun around?”

“It is similar to what you call aikido in Japan. More importantly, I am glad you are okay. Are you locking up?” asked Siegfried before his gaze moved to Ooki’s forehead. “I apologize for asking so many questions, but what is that bandage?”

“Oh, just something I received from a student earlier.”

“School violence? We cannot have that. I will teach this student a form of punishment passed down for generations. No matter how stubborn they may be, they will confess to being a filthy witch in just one blow.”

“Why is everyone around me like this?” muttered Ooki under her breath before shaking her hand from side to side. “No, no. This boy worked his way up quite high in karate, so I think this was unintentional. Also,” she scratched at her head, “it was done with mutual understanding between teacher and student. I was perfectly fine with it.”

“I see. Then I have no right to speak out against it. …I suppose everyone has their own preferences.”

“Oh, um… I am not sure I would put it that way, but whatever. What are you doing here, Siegfried-san?”

Siegfried pulled a single piece of paper from his breast pocket. He took another sip from his cup and then spoke.

“Some people needed help finding some data. Part of my job is providing help for those searching for data. Could you perhaps help me? There is a book titled ‘The First Plutonium’ somewhere in this hallway.”

“No, no, no, no, no,” said Ooki as she took a step back.

With a word of parting, she bowed and walked out to the central lobby that was actually quite small. She climbed the stairs to lock up on the second and third floors.

From the central lobby, it became clear how dark the school building was even with the fluorescent lights. The building was designed to only be used during the day.

“How scary,” sighed Ooki as she turned on the lights for the stairs.

The light green staircase lit up, but the white fluorescent lights felt somehow cold.

She then heard Siegfried say, “I already locked up the second floor. If you trust me, you can skip it.”

“I trust you!” she replied thankfully to the man who was hidden from view by a corner of the hallway.

She then headed on up.

She knew that the six general school buildings and the faculty building had been built before the war.

“The library was built like that by the founder, Kinugasa Tenkyou.”

It had originally been prepared as the research archive for Izumo Aviation Institute’s General Tokyo Facility that was being built at the time. However, Taka-Akita Academy had been born as a means of creating skilled future personnel.

Ooki thought about the staircase she was currently walking up.

“This was built over seventy years ago…”

Her footsteps sounded loudly as she made it to the second floor. She left the central lobby and looked down the hallway.

She saw only darkness. And beyond that darkness was the music room to the west and the emergency exit to the east. However…

“I trust him…”

She backed up toward the staircase.

Ooki’s shoulders drooped as she sighed and turned on the lights for the staircase up to the third floor. She quickly made her way up.

Once on the third floor, she found darkness once more.

As if plunging her head into the darkness, Ooki stood in the central lobby and looked toward the art room to the west and then the emergency exit to the east. She could see the emergency exit light in the distance.

“Nnn,” she groaned as she turned on the lights to the hallway. The fluorescent lights came on one after another and lit up the area. However, the windows and glass on the classroom doors grew darker.

Ooki stood in the center of the hallway and scratched at her head.

“Well, I have no choice…”

Her shoulders drooped, her head drooped, and she sighed.

She headed east while meaninglessly walking as silently as possible.

But then she jumped at a sudden noise from behind.

It was a cat. A single meow had come from the western art room.

“Nyah…?” asked Ooki as if she was about to cry.

She turned toward the art room while taking a cowardly pose.

She forced strength into her shoulders and slowly sent two jabs, a straight, and an uppercut into the air.

“O-okay, come at me.”

She held her breath for a few seconds. After that silence, she spoke quietly once more with her fists still at the ready.

“If you don’t want to come, you don’t have to…”

She received only silence in response. After a while, Ooki lowered her arms and pressed her hands against her legs. Her trembling had not stopped, but it had lessened.

“M-maybe there’s a cat outside,” she muttered while tilting her head and looking in the art room.

At the same moment, light cut through the darkness of the frosted glass on the art room door. It happened twice. This was not a reflection from a car’s headlights. The light cut across horizontally from left to right and disappeared.

“!”

Ooki wrapped her arms around herself and crouched down. After a moment, she reflexively covered her ears with her hands.

“I-it’s okay, it’s okay. Th-that was just a mysterious phenomenon.”

After realizing what she had said, Ooki let out a cry and shrank down even further.

She decided to return to the stairs. It was only about four meters away. She removed her hands from her ears and began crawling on her hands and knees. She kept her gaze down so as not to look at the art room as she took one step and then two.

As she crawled, she realized that she was acting just like a cat. She was still trembling, but she cast down her eyes in shock that she was doing this in her own workplace. She brought her right hand forward in place of a front paw and could not help herself.

“Nyah,” she said.

But she received a sudden response from a cat behind her.

“!”

She jumped forward in shock.

She twisted around as if trying to clean the floor with her butt. With her guard raised as high as it would go, she brought her knees up to form a defensive wall.

And then she saw what had replied to her.

It was a black cat. It was sitting in the spot she had been in a moment before and it was scratching its head with its hind leg. Meanwhile, Ooki was breathing heavily while looking at the cat with her hands on the floor behind her.

The black cat simply seemed to be relaxing, but she was fairly certain it had not been in the hallway a moment before.

She tried to say “when did that get in here?”, but her voice spilled from her mouth more as a breath than as words. She suddenly realized she had tears in her eyes. And…

“Are you okay, sensei?”

This time, she heard a voice from behind her in the art room. It was a girl’s voice.

Ooki gasped and turned around. She slowly looked up.

A single girl was standing there.

The girl wore her uniform like a model showing off the perfect method. Her platinum blonde hair was almost gray and it flowed down her back and to her legs.

She looked down on Ooki with a sharp look in her purple eyes and opened her mouth with no expression on her face.

“I apologize. You are patrolling, aren’t you? I was so focused on my work that I did not notice night had fallen. The soundproofing in here is quite good.”

“You are…”

“Brunhild Schild, a third year student. I will be the head of the general art club this coming year.”

Ooki stopped breathing momentarily when she heard the word “art”. She slowly moved her upward gaze to the west.

The art room was there.

Its door was open.

Ooki confirmed that darkness lay beyond that open door. And then someone grabbed her shoulders.

Brunhild had circled around behind her.

She leaned down as if trying to hold Ooki down.

She brought her small face over Ooki’s shoulder and spoke.

“Would you like to see my painting?”

“Your painting?”

“Yes,” replied Brunhild.

Ooki heard a slight waver in the girl’s tone. And that waver remained as Brunhild continued.

“A painting of a forest. A deep, dark, depthless, yet abundant forest.”

Sayama ran through the nighttime forest. He ran as if stabbing the soles of his feet into the ground. His legs would plunge forward through the air and his feet would come down to trample any obstacle underfoot. That was the absolute rule for running in a dark mountain.

“Who would have thought the harsh training of the Hiba Dojo would come in handy here!?”

He could hear the rustling of the trees and the cracking of someone treading quickly over branches up ahead.

Someone was being chased. Chased by that werewolf.

''Hurry,'' thought Sayama. ''I do not know who made that scream, but I have come for you.

As he urged himself to hurry, he approached those loud footsteps. It took him five steps for every one of theirs. However, the werewolf could only run in a straight line. He focused on efficiently weaving through the trees to gain as much ground as he could.

Sayama thought. Whoever was being pursued by the werewolf likely had their own method of escaping this situation. The cut that had felled that cedar had been too sharp to have been made by the werewolf’s claws. This person must possess some kind of weapon.

“A weapon?” asked Sayama with a bitter smile.

This was Japan. A weapon that destructive would not be allowed anywhere. Nevertheless…

“But this is real. I suppose I have entered a world where I have no choice but to believe the reality before my eyes.”

The source of the footsteps entered his vision. He saw a large back. It was running through the trees ahead.

Sayama reconfirmed that the footsteps and back ahead of him belonged to an enemy.

He had to hurry. He weaved through the trees while skimming as close by their trunks as he could. As he did, he scooped up two stones in each hand. He then held up his right arm so that his coat spread out.

“I suppose I have to say goodbye to this suit today…”

As he spoke, he could now see both the werewolf and the person running from it.

…''A girl?

He saw a single girl running.

She appeared to be about the same age as him. Her long, soft, and black hair danced about as she fled. She wore a white and black outfit that resembled a dress and in her right hand was…

“A fluorescent light?”

She held a white staff almost two meters long. The side of the upper end had a long cylinder attached that looked a lot like a fluorescent light. It produced a slight bluish-white afterglow that lit up the girl.

As the werewolf ran, it stretched out its arm toward the girl. She swung the staff as if to shine the afterglow on the werewolf.

Sayama heard a sound similar to a spray of water and saw the werewolf’s arm repelled.

He did not understand how it worked.

However, the staff the girl held was definitely the weapon Sayama had assumed she had.

As he ran, Sayama suddenly muttered, “Not good.”

He remembered running through this area.

Several depressions that had once been small streams cut across like stitches.

Sayama poured strength into his legs and ran forward.

At the same moment, the girl looked down as she ran.

“…!”

She let out a meaningless gasp and her slender body flew as if it had been struck.

She had not tripped; she had intentionally jumped.

However, the enemy did not overlook this opportunity. It let loose an attack from the left as if scooping its claws up toward the target that had lost her balance in midair.

The girl swung the staff to hold up the afterglow.

But it was too late.

With the sound of cloth tearing, her body was knocked away.

At the same time, a wind blew through, rustling the leaves of the forest.

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| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]
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Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 1

2026-05-27T04:01:07Z

N-Ch:

[[Image:OnC_v01_0032-0033.png|thumb]]
''It was probably at that moment

''When that which had been stopped

''Began moving once more

—''To me, trying to find or soothe oneself is nothing more than an illusion.

==Chapter 1: Sayama’s Beginning==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0035.png|thumb]]
''The privilege of those who know themselves

''Is being able to restrict oneself

''There is no more relying on others

Below the blue sky were two rows of blossoming cherry trees.

The road between those two rows led to a cement wall surrounding a large area of land. The stone gatepost at the opening to the west was inscribed with the words “Taka-Akita Academy”.

The schedule posted on the gate read “spring break” and the gate itself sat open with no one to pass through.

Once one passed through the gate, the central road continued with the cherry trees on either side.

These trees were in full bloom as well. Continuing further led to a half hectare general sports ground to the right and a martial arts facility as large as a great hall to the left.

Continuing straight on led not to a school building but to a faculty building.

The school buildings were lined up in all four compass points with the faculty building at the center. This was all one school, but other than the six general school buildings, it was broken down by specialization. To provide a proper environment, some of the school buildings were surrounded by rows of trees, but others had a research plant equipped with a silo or an asphalt course for test driving.

The buildings built very nearby those school buildings were the student dormitories.

This school took up the area that would cover three-fourths of a city. It had a few shopping districts, farms, and factories on the grounds and a lot of the city’s people lived inside it.

And every facility within possessed a certain mark.

It was the mark of IAI, the Izumo Aviation Institute. IAI supported this academy city.

However, the academy was nearly deserted during spring break.

This was even true for the western general school buildings nearest the main gate.

A single figure could be seen at the second year general school building just north of the faculty building.

A boy stood on the second story landing of the emergency staircase.

Despite it being spring break, the boy wore his school uniform, blazer and all, and the buttons of his shirt were buttoned all the way up to the collar.

His hair was slicked back and a single stripe of white could be seen on either side. Below that hair were sharp eyes and a sharp face.

He was looking up into the sky.

Floating in the blue sky were thin white clouds and the shadow of an airplane making a wide curve through the air.

“So the American soldiers at Yokota are not taking a break either. They also prefer high places like me. And they too do not return home even when they have the chance,” he said.

He swung up his left arm and the sleeve slid down. A white scar could be seen on his left fist and he wore a woman’s ring on the middle finger. A silver wristwatch was also revealed on his left wrist. The hands pointed to 2:30 PM.

He pulled a single piece of paper from his pocket.

“Sayama Mikoto-sama. To complete the transfer of rights left with us by your grandfather, the late Sayama Kaoru-shi, we ask that you visit the Okutama IAI General Tokyo Facility on March 30 at 6 PM.”

It was an invitation. That simple text was followed by an IAI map and the name of the one inviting Sayama.

“IAI section chief, Ooshiro Kazuo, hm?”

…''The old man, hm?

When Sayama’s grandfather had died, that elderly man had been the first to come rushing over for the funeral. The tall, gray-haired man always wore a white coat at IAI. The two of them would speak every once in a while and the man seemed to enjoy it when Sayama called him “old man”.

But as Sayama looked at the invitation, he muttered, “My grandfather was a corporate blackmailer, so what rights could he have had at IAI?”

He turned around to find the emergency exit and the wall. The aluminum door was polished, but the wall was dirty with sand and dust. Out of sudden curiosity, he approached the wall and touched it. The sand came off and stuck to his finger.

“Hm…”

Just as he wiped off his finger, the emergency exit moved a bit.

A young woman in personal clothes poked her head out through the slight opening. As the bangs of her short brown hair waved, her blue eyes turned in the direction Sayama had been not long before. “Huh?” she said and tilted her head.

Sayama said, “Over here, Ooki-sensei. You must have a lot of free time to be at school during spring break.”

Hearing that, the woman named Ooki frowned and turned around.

“I was sleeping and-…wait, the same goes for you. Are you trying to fully enjoy your youth by staring into the sky in a place like this? Also, Sayama-kun.”

“What is it? If you have a question, then out with it.”

“Okay, my first question: Why do you speak like that to your teacher?”

“That is my acting style. You lose as soon as you question it, Ooki-sensei. Now, any other questions?”

“Okay, my second question: If I punch a student during spring break does it count as school violence?”

“It does not matter as long as no one finds out. So who are you planning to punch? This must be quite a troublemaker if they can anger you.”

“And my final question: …Have you ever looked in a mirror?”

“I use one for a good long time every day. You really do like asking such obvious questions.”

“I was an idiot to try asking questions to someone filled with such originality. In fact, are you sure that acting style is okay?”

In response to that annoyed comment, Sayama removed his hand from the wall and swiped it forcefully through the air. The cloth of the sleeve let out a noise.

“Do not worry. I act this way to everyone. I intend to head down that path in the future, after all. It may be selfish of me, but I do not want people to say I suddenly started acting full of myself when I grow up. …This may give you some trouble though.”

Ooki’s neck relaxed and she gave a bitter smile at that last line.

“You should probably say that last part to the other teachers as well. Oh, but it seems I will be your homeroom teacher next year as well.”

“So you managed to get one of the best students in your class. Excellent work for a newcomer teacher with little authority.”

“Would you sympathize with me if I told you the other teachers were forcing the excellent but overly individual students on me?”

Sayama placed a hand on Ooki’s shoulder and nodded with a completely serious expression.

“If you seek sympathy, it is all over for you, Ooki-sensei. Although you may be almost there already.”

“Sorry, this is irritating me, so it would be nice if you would stop.” Ooki walked out onto the emergency staircase with her eyes half closed. She scratched at her head and said, “Talking with you really exhausts me. You take everything so seriously.”

Sayama gave a slight smile at that.

“Seriously? I-…”

“You don’t? But you were elected vice president in the student council election and your grades are excellent.”

“True,” said Sayama with a nod. He folded his arms and thought for a bit. Three seconds later, “I have never once gotten serious. …I just can’t make myself want to.”

“…Eh?”

Sayama ignored Ooki’s questioning voice and shrugged.

“Then again, everything I run across in school ends before I even have a chance to get serious. I was once scolded by my grandfather. He told me not to settle for being the ruler of a small place.”

“I see,” said Ooki with a nod. She leaned up against the emergency staircase landing’s railing. “Your grandfather was an amazing person. Compared to him, I can see where you are coming from.”

“Yes. Compared to my grandfather who would give Japan’s economy a nice smack from the shadows, the vice president of this academy city is nothing.”

“It’s more than nothing.”

“But it is true I have never actually tested myself. During the race for vice president, my opponent grew so desperate by the end that he even danced around naked in an attempt to gain more popularity. He was simply no match for me.”

“Were you the one that fired a bottle rocket at his butt while he was performing that nude dance?”

“No, that was Izumo while he was crushing everyone else in the presidential race. He even used a metal pipe as a gun barrel to increase his accuracy. Not something you would expect of a third year.”

“In that case, I won’t ask who blew up the stage afterwards…”

“That would be for the best. Are you gradually learning how to get along in life, Ooki-sensei?”

“Yes, yes. But I’m starting to get worried about being the next advisor for the student council…” Ooki frowned and sighed before continuing. “Is school really that boring to you?”

Sayama stopped moving when he heard that.

He turned his gaze to meet that of Ooki’s blue eyes.

After a short pause, he gave a small shake of the head.

“I have no complaints with the school. It is true the student council election and the tests are all such small things that I do not need to grow serious about. However, that does not mean school is boring. It is only natural to feel that school is a small place. And I think that school has its own unique things to enjoy.”

“What a complicated child…”

After falling silent for a short while, Ooki bent her back over the railing she was leaning against and looked up into the sky.

Meanwhile, Sayama glanced at his watch. It was 2:50.

“Ooki-sensei, I think I should get back to my dorm soon.”

“Are you leaving soon?”

“Yes. After changing into a suit, I need to receive something similar to my grandfather’s will.”

Sayama opened the emergency exit. Ooki frantically got up from the railing and charged through the open door. Sayama also entered the school building as he closed the door.

Sayama walked through the hallway alongside Ooki. The last school newspaper of the year was attached to the classroom-side wall. The First PR Club put out the paper weekly. It generally carried articles related to IAI and this issue contained the school’s employment rate to IAI as well as a few other pieces of news.

Ooki stopped as she looked over at an article at her eyelevel which was one level below Sayama’s.

“They have detected an extrasolar star system with a high probability of being habitable. …That’s amazing!”

“It’s only been discovered. Just looking at this article will tell you how difficult a problem anything further would be.”

Sayama pointed at another article. The article’s photograph showed a giant pile of machinery lying collapsed on a large area of asphalt.

“According to this, they created an eight-meter-tall bipedal robot and it failed spectacularly. The joints were made too weak so its knees broke just from walking. …No matter what we may discover, it means nothing if we do not have the technology to use it.”

“Hm. So it’s the same as spotting a good-looking girl but not knowing how to talk to her.”

“I am glad you are so wise. Is that something you told yourself as an excuse?”

“Well, last Christmas, some of my friends and I…wait, no.”

When Ooki said that, Sayama realized she was looking up at his face.

''Why is she staring?'' he wondered.

“Is it that rare to see me smile?”

“No, it’s not that it’s rare. It’s interesting.”

Ooki began walking once more. Sayama followed.

Ooki asked, “Can I ask you about your grandfather?”

“Of course,” replied Sayama.

He had nothing to hide.

And so he spoke. He talked about a lot as they walked.

He told her how his grandfather had left the war during World War Two and had begun researching something.

“And it seems the Izumo Aviation Institute was involved at the time. After the war, he used the connections and discoveries he had made as a base to set out into the financial world and become a corporate blackmailer.”

“A corporate blackmailer, hm?”

“He did a lot of pretty horrible things. …Every time he was in the newspaper, he would give the following line.”

Ooki nodded and cut in.

“ ‘The surname Sayama indicates a villain’, right? I saw it once in a weekly magazine.”

“That’s right. My grandfather was a villain through and through. When he saw some giant opponent as an enemy or evil, he would fight them by becoming an even greater evil. And…that is also why I do not want to grow serious about anything.”

“That is?”

“I am inexperienced. ‘The surname Sayama indicates a villain.’ My grandfather always told me my abilities were meant to perform necessary evils. However, I lost him when all he had taught me was how to do it.”

“So… You don’t know when the evil you perform is truly necessary?”

“Yes. I do not want to die, so there may be times when I will get serious. However, growing serious when I cannot tell if it is truly necessary is a frightening thing.”

As he spoke, Sayama suddenly brought his right hand to the left side of his chest.

As he brought his hand inside his coat and held his chest, Ooki spoke without turning toward him.

“It sounds like you have it tough in your own way.”

“Yes,” he nodded.

“Then can I ask you about your father?”

“Why?”

“I never asked last year despite being your homeroom teacher, and…” The ends of her eyebrows lowered. “I think this is part of a teacher’s job.”

Sayama nodded as he lightly held the left side of his chest. After taking a breath, he spoke.

“There is nothing to worry about. It is a simple issue. More importantly, how much do you know, Ooki-sensei? I am curious.”

Ooki glanced upwards and folded her arms.

“Your father was adopted by your grandfather and he entered IAI at the same time as your mother. However, he was killed in the great Kansai earthquake at the end of ’95. Your mother, um, well, brought you with her and-…”

Ooki trailed off and Sayama smiled bitterly.

“Before I tell you not to worry about it, I need to correct some of that. My father died as a secondary casualty of the earthquake when he was sent by IAI for earthquake relief.”

Sayama took a breath. He held up his empty left hand. That scarred left fist had a women’s ring on the middle finger. The pearl decoration glittered a bit in the dimly lit hallway.

Ooki turned to look at it as she walked.

However, Sayama also looked at the ring instead of looking at her.

“Go where those precious to you are waiting, hm?”

As his words deepened, Sayama felt as if something was moving within the left side of his chest.

It was pain.

And it felt like his chest was creaking.

It was coming.

And then Sayama saw Ooki looking up at him with her face completely pale.

“Sayama-kun. A-are you okay?”

He tried to answer “yes”, but he realized he was not breathing. When his body bent forward, he realized someone had suddenly started to support his chest.

Ooki had caught him from below.

“Ah…”

When he heard Ooki say that, all of his body’s senses returned.

He first felt exhaustion. He then felt he could breathe again and sweat poured from his back and legs.

He brought strength to his legs to stand up, but Ooki was still lightly holding her arms out toward him.

“A-are you okay?”

“I am fine.”

“Really? Okay? You are okay?”

“I am okay, but that is not correct English.” His body was now obviously returning to normal. He nodded and said, “I am fine, so do not worry. It seems I get stress-induced anginas from this topic.”

“Then why did you agree to talk about it?”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to know? You truly are a horrible teacher if you forgot that.”

“Oh, but, um…”

As Ooki began frantically waving her hands in denial, Sayama smiled again.

“What are you trying to deny? Think about it. I am free to say what I want. And you are free to support me when I fall. I would say you performed the better deed here. Don’t you agree? But let me say one thing.” Sayama removed his right hand from his chest. “My mother would often tell me she hoped I could do something one day. I have to wonder if she ever did anything. And now the child raised hearing that has no idea what he can do. And so I must ask: what should I do?”

“I see… So you do not know what you can do.” Ooki nodded and her shoulders drooped. She looked up at Sayama and earnestly said, “I finally understand why you are so extreme about everything.”

“I cannot overlook that. Who are you calling extreme?”

“What? You didn’t hear me? I said it quite clearly. Is that a nose on the side of your head?”

Sayama’s left hand gave a lightning-fast flick against the forehead that had asked that question so seriously.

“Eeee,” groaned Ooki as she crouched down.

Sayama brought a hand to his chin and said, “Some teachers can say truly horrible things about their students.”

In the end, Sayama did not leave his dorm until past four.

It had taken time to put on the three-piece suit he had inherited from his grandfather and to prepare the seal and digital recording device needed for official records. He wrote down his time of departure at the dorm’s reception desk and left.

The sun was still in the sky.

He walked through the gravel clearing located between the general school buildings and the dorm. It normally functioned as a faculty parking lot. He was headed toward the main gate.

As he cut behind the second year general school building as a shortcut, he heard baby birds singing in the trees.

As he listened, Sayama heard two sounds other than the chirping of the birds.

The first was organ music coming from the music room on the second story of the school building.

“Silent Night…”

He recalled occasionally hearing it on the weekends. However, this was the first time he had been able to determine exactly where it was coming from. He wondered who was playing it, but it was so perfectly played that he assumed it was not a student.

And as the organ music played, another sound could be heard approaching.

It was the sound of a motorcycle engine. Specifically, the low tone of a 4-stroke.

As he heard that noise coming from the direction of the main gate, Sayama muttered, “Izumo and Kazami.”

He then walked out to the asphalt road west of the school building.

He looked out toward the faculty building, the vast sports ground, and the martial arts facility. He spotted two people riding a motorcycle appearing out from the side of the faculty building. Despite the large amount of exhaust, the black touring motorcycle moved smoothly along the road.

Aboard the motorcycle were a well-built young man wearing a thin brown coat and a girl with semi-short hair and carrying a black rucksack. The back bared by the girl’s white sleeveless top pointed in Sayama’s direction.

The two were chatting while riding the motorcycle.

Suddenly, the young man noticed Sayama. A friendly smile appeared on his fairly long face.

“Hey,” he said with a raised hand.

He then stopped the motorcycle next to Sayama.

The young man was over one hundred eighty centimeters tall and broad-shouldered, so he supported the weight of the heavy motorcycle with his leg.

The girl swayed gently and rested up against the young man’s back.

The young man smiled with the girl leaning up against him.

He looked up and said, “Where do you think you’re going, Sayama, you idiot? To go spew insults at someone?”

Sayama brought a hand to his forehead and sighed.

With a troubled tone of voice, he said, “Izumo, unlike you, my brain is working properly. And I have never spewed insults at anyone, you sick bastard.”

“Sure, sure. Thanks for keeping up your acting style even during spring break.”

[[Image:OnC_v01_0051.png|thumb]]

“No need to thank me. But should the three top members of the student council really be having this sort of conversation?”

The young man, Izumo, smiled bitterly at that.

“Of course not,” he agreed.

The girl leaning on his back turned their way.

“Sayama, you’re going to IAI, right?”

“Yes, I am. Kazami, Izumo. What about you two?”

“I was just headed back to the dorm to have some fun with Chisato…kh!”

As he spoke, Izumo’s head twisted upwards. The girl named Kazami had grabbed at Izumo’s head and jaw from behind. A delicate sound came from Izumo’s neck and he gently fell backwards.

“Kaku, that is not what he asked. Sayama wanted to know where we had been.”

Izumo’s head came to rest on top of Kazami’s thighs and he stopped moving.

“There, there,” said Kazami as she stroked his head. She then showed Sayama the black rucksack next to her and smiled.

“We went into the city. We bought some clothes, new music, and other stuff for the All Holiday Festival. Being on the edge of Tokyo really makes you forget all about culture.”

“…I see. But you two are third years and you live together, right?”

The girl, Kazami, thought for a bit looking troubled, but then spoke.

“Well, that’s how it turned out. Now, when I try to mingle with the others, they’re overly cautious about how they treat me. My role in the dorm has become that of an older sister. An underclassman even apologized just for passing by me in the hall.”

“Your face seems to be turning to cement.”

Kazami turned her head down, said “Oh, sorry”, and relaxed her shoulders. She casually clapped a hand against Izumo who was lying motionless on her thighs.

“Don’t turn into an idiot like him, okay? He abuses his authority as the son of IAI.”

“It seems to me you are enjoying that abuse quite a lot.”

“I know that, and that’s why it angers me so much. He needs to at least take his student council job seriously.” Kazami raised her head to look Sayama in the eye. “Oh, right. Sayama, I was thinking of having our first student council job for the term in the second year school building’s Kinugasa Library. Do you have time? The three of us can make some plans for the All Holiday Festival and Invitation Festival in the spring.”

“I have to head out today and I do not know how late I will be back.”

“We’re leaving for the city again tomorrow afternoon, so how about 9 AM tomorrow in the Kinugasa Library?”

“I can do that,” agreed Sayama. He glanced over at the school building next to them. “The Kinugasa Library, hm?”

On the western side of the second year general school building’s ground floor, an area four classroom’s length across was sticking out. It stuck out about the width of a classroom. Inside this space was an area equal to eight classrooms.

A look in the windows would show the backs of wooden panels. These thick wooden panels created the silhouettes of bookshelves.

The room was a library.

Almost the entire eight classroom space was filled with books and the hallway and basement had been used for extra book storage. That was the Kinugasa Library.

As Sayama glanced toward the library’s window, he heard Kazami speaking.

“The library created by the school’s founder isn’t a bad place for our first job, right? The librarian, old man Siegfried, may be unsociable, but he does put out tea. We used that place a fair bit during the election, so I was thinking we could continue to use it as our base.”

“This year’s treasurer certainly is different.”

“I think the president and vice president will be quite different as well. But what do you think? Are upperclassmen like us suitable for someone as prideful as you?”

“I think that statement alone shows you can compete with me when it comes to pride. …But at the very least, there is no one in this school who is better suited. Izumo Kaku, the son of IAI which supports this city of Akigawa, and Kazami Chisato, the girl who shares a room with him, are true problem children.”

“…”

“There is no way you two are ignorant of what the world says about you. I respect you for your ability to continue acting like this regardless.”

Hearing that, Kazami showed off her teeth slightly and looked down at Izumo who lay on her legs.

“Well, it doesn’t matter what people say. Kaku may cause problems, but he is not a bad person.”

“The same goes for you, Kazami.”

“Then what about you, Mr. Family of Villains?” Kazami raised her head to look at Sayama. She glanced up and down his suit. “You look good enough, but you make things difficult.”

“In what way?”

“I’m having difficulty imagining who would stand next to you. I can’t imagine someone to balance out your idiocy like Kaku is for me.”

“There is no one out there with enough power to handle me on an equal footing.”

“That isn’t what I mean.” Kazami gave a troubled smile. She lightly waved her hand front and back. “I’m talking about balance. Equals can only stand on the same side of the scales, right? You need a counterbalance.”

Sayama thought on the meaning of Kazami’s words.

And, “Someone like that would either be an opposing force or a hindrance.”

“So am I an opposing force or hindrance to Kaku?”

That question was spoken with a small smile. Sayama relaxed his shoulders.

“I do not know the answer to that, so I cannot argue about it with someone like you who does know the answer.”

“Oh, how honest.”

“I am an honest person, Kazami. It is just that, for some odd reason, I seem to end up in trouble for it from time to time. Is this what they mean when they say an honest man will look a fool? Yes, our ancestors said some excellent things.”

“Okay, sure. If that’s how you want to view it in your personal universe, I won’t stop you.”

Sayama smiled bitterly at that. He exchanged a glance with Kazami and spoke.

“Fine, then. I will admit relationships like yours and Izumo’s exist. However, I am doubtful the same could happen to me. I also think it is a problem to even think about placing someone like that next to me.”

“A problem?”

“The surname Sayama indicates a villain. What do you put next to evil?”

Kazami had no answer to that. She only let her shoulders droop and sighed.

“You really are a complicated person.”

“Ooki-sensei said the same thing earlier.”

“Everyone thinks it. We also wonder when exactly you will get serious about something.”

“I have never done it, so I couldn’t say. …And if I did, I am so inexperienced I would likely be afraid of myself.”

“…You really are complicated, Sayama.”

“You do not need to repeat yourself,” said Sayama with a smile before lightly tapping Izumo’s back where he lay unmoving as if asleep. “You’re awake, right? Hurry on back and dive headfirst into your unrestrained lifestyle.”

“Eh?” muttered Kazami as she looked down.

Izumo opened his eyes.

“Hey.”

“No, not ‘hey’. If you came to, why didn’t you get up?”

“You smell really good, Chisato.”

Izumo’s eyes bent upwards happily as Kazami blushed.

“Ha,” laughed Sayama before patting Kazami on the shoulder, turning his back, and walking off.

He continued toward the main gate.

As he did, he noticed a new figure.

Someone was walking down the stairs from the second floor of the second year general school building.

It was a tall elderly man. He wore a black vest, black trousers, and black gloves. He was bald and had a beard.

“Siegfried Zonburg, the librarian.”

Sayama had spoken with him a few times during his student council work. The man used only the bare minimum of words.

“You do not often see him outside of the Kinugasa Library,” he muttered before continuing on.

He looked around once more and saw nothing but the scenery of the school near the peak of spring.

“Such a peaceful place…”

Behind him, he heard repeated sounds of flesh being struck followed by screams from Izumo.

The sun was setting in the west.

Below that setting sun, even a forest surrounded by mountains had light passing through it like wind.

The forest was primarily made up of cedars. A single figure was fallen in front of one of those trees.

The figure was sitting on the ground.

This middle-aged man sat such that the sun shined on him from the side. His close-cropped hair was wet with something so it reflected the sun. The liquid wetting his hair dripped down his forehead and dyed the left half of his face a dark color.

His clothes resembled a white and black military uniform. However, the left shoulder and left leg of that uniform had split open and something dark could be seen flowing out as he breathed erratically.

He stretched out his left hand and scratched at the ground. With the blood in his eyes, he might as well have been blind. His left hand wandered across the ground.

Eventually, he managed to pick something up from between the rocks and fallen leaves.

It was a long gun made of metal. The side was engraved with something written in German.

He embraced the gun tightly and took a deep breath. He stuck a finger into the pouch on his right hip.

“This is Tsuurin Daiichi. My current location is in the mountains near Point 3 between Okutama and Shiromaru. I succeeded in preventing the single enemy from escaping. I successfully read the enemy’s string vibration and sent it in. Currently…everyone but me has been taken out. Please hurry.”

A staticky voice replied from near his throat. It was a female voice.

“Testament. The special division is on their way. We will send aid for you as well, so withdraw.”

“Tes. …Or so I’d like to say. Unfortunately, my leg was taken out. And my healing tools and spells were destroyed along with it. I only have my favorite weapon left to rely on. …When I asked you to hurry, I meant the special division, not aid for me.” He took a deep breath while sweating profusely. “The enemy is from a faction of 1st-Gear’s revolutionary army. Yes, a werewolf from the second Royal Palace faction. He likely came for negotiations with the peaceful faction. He must have had a 1st-Gear philosopher’s stone because he turned into a wolf in this real world.”

“Do not speak. The concept space will be deployed in another five minutes.”

“Ha ha. Make it so a silver bullet will work. Also, young girl…or is it young lady? Anyway, you don’t think this is our fault, do you?”

He was met with silence. He cast his eyes down before continuing.

“Fine. It was our mistake for deciding to go. In the standard division, we have the right to choose…right?”

Once again, he received only silence. Yet he did not stop.

“What unit are you from? Even in the special division, not many units have women in them. But I think there was one put together recently. A unit filled with beautiful UCAT-raised girls and women. I think it was the IAI-…”

He stopped speaking. His eyes opened wide and he stood up by using the tree behind him as a support.

“Hey, when I get back, meet me with flowers. It’ll be a triumphant return. What’s in bloom this time of year?”

“Testament. I think Primula modesta and the like are.”

“No, you’re supposed to say you are.”

He laughed and removed his right hand from the pouch. He moved the long gun from his left hand to his right. He bit the strap, used the stock and grip in his right hand to create three points of support, and faced forward.

He heard wind ahead of him.

A large shadow could be seen in the setting sun shining on the mountain. It was slowly approaching while swaying back and forth.

There was no sign. He simply followed the sound of the wind and squeezed the trigger.

A gunshot traveled across the forest along with the light of the setting sun.

Sayama opened his eyes aboard a train running through the mountains on the way to Okutama.

He had dozed off due to the setting sun shining on his seated back. And he had woken up due to…

“The train has stopped?”

He glanced around the train. The only passengers besides himself were two people seated a short distance away.

One was a white-haired man wearing a black suit. The other was a white-haired girl wearing black clothes and seated next to him. They may have been father and daughter and they were looking outside the opposite window.

Sayama followed their gaze out the window.

There he found the mountains of Okutama. They were all formed from round shapes and no small hills could be seen.

“So we are around the second tunnel near Shiromaru. Only one more stop to Okutama.”

He was familiar with the terrain here. He continued speaking while looking out at those similar-looking mountains.

“This is thanks to Hiba-sensei forcing me to run through these mountains.”

…''If I had not learned the land, I would not have been found until spring.

Sayama nodded and looked down at his left hand. His skin was white around the bones of his fist as if something had scattered across it. His eyes turned toward the ring on the middle finger of that scarred fist.

“It was also around here that we got out of the car when my mother took me with her back then…” he muttered.

According to his watch, it was 5:30 PM. He was to be at IAI at 6:00 PM.

When he calculated the time, his heart seemed to stiffen. He stood up, raised his suit collar to fix it with a snapping noise, and approached the two other passengers. The white-haired man raised his head. The man was wearing sunglasses, but Sayama could tell the man was looking at him. Sayama gave a quick bow.

“Excuse me. Why is the train stopped?”

“It received a stop signal. Once it is released, it will return to Shiromaru.”

The man’s tone had a bit of amusement mixed in and Sayama realized he was younger than he looked. Sayama had initially assumed he was elderly, but a closer look showed he was only just entering middle age.

The girl next to him wore the black dress and white apron of a maid. She was not the man’s daughter.

…''I had heard the ownership of a lot of the mountains around here stretches way back.

Sayama noticed the girl was holding a staff. It was a metal cane that could be attached to the wrist. It was clearly too long for her to use. However, Sayama ended his investigation of them here. He needed to know something else.

“Why is this train returning?”

“Maybe there was an accident.”

“I see,” nodded Sayama, realizing the man must not know the details either.

Suddenly, the girl sitting next to the man looked up at Sayama. With her eyebrows lying flat and no discernible expression on her face, her black eyes that were almost purple peered deep into Sayama’s eyes.

She took a breath and then opened her mouth.

“My apologies,” she said in a low, fairly mature voice.

“Think nothing of it,” said Sayama before turning his back on the two of them.

He opened the opposite window and heard the same voice as before from behind him.

“Are you getting out?”

“I cannot go back. Also, someone is waiting for me.”

“You are being hasty. The train might soon continue forward. Once you regret a decision, it is too late to turn back.”

“I do not know what god of advice you are, but let me tell you something. A decision can lead to joy just as easily as it can regret. I appreciate your concern, but I know this land. And is there anything truly dangerous in this world?”

“True… That is very true. There is no danger in this world,” said the man before closing his mouth in a smile below the sunglasses.

As soon as the man spread his legs out from the seat, Sayama stuck his legs out the window and jumped out.

He landed on the gravel supporting the railroad. He ran out into the open air and onto the mountainside bathed in the light of the setting sun.

“…”

Sayama did not turn back toward the train up the slope from him. He continued through the forest spreading out before him.

He trampled the underbrush as he headed down the mountain.

After only a few breaths, he sank into the shadows produced by the forest. The setting sun coming from the side and the branches of the trees drew a grid of shadows across him. This light and air were familiar to him.

“It’s been two years since I stopped coming to Okutama. I suppose the Hiba Dojo is still around.”

As he muttered that comment, he heard a metallic noise from behind him.

A whistle sounded and the train began to move. He heard it move up toward Shiromaru. The sound of the receding wheels told Sayama he had made the right decision.

“Good,” he said with a nod as he quickened his pace.

Shiromaru Station was an unmanned train station.

When the train came to a stop, the few passengers disinterestedly exited onto the long, narrow platform.

A short distance away from those bored individuals were the two people Sayama had spoken to just before.

The white-haired man held the cane in one hand as he stood next to a card-only payphone located in the shadow of a private home outside the station.

The girl dressed as a maid stood in front of him holding the receiver for the green telephone.

She pulled a bundle of telephone cards from her apron like it was a deck of playing cards.

She quickly lined the cards up in front of the green phone and turned toward the man.

“Itaru-sama. Why do you not carry a cell phone?”

“Because I am a coward, Sf. Remember that. If the phone rang, it would probably give me a heart attack.”

“How about I carry it for you?”

“No. You have not acquired the skill to take messages. If you cannot always answer as if I am gone even when I am with you, there is no point in you having a cell phone. Do you understand?”

“Tes. I understand that possessing one would be meaningless on a fundamental level.”

The girl called Sf stopped lining up the cards while looking at him. She was lining up the well-used cards in order of number of uses. The punch holes showing the number of uses lined up perfectly without the slightest deviation.

Sf casually picked up one card with few uses left and slid it into the green phone.

She used her right fingers to instantly dial a number.

A few seconds later, “This is Sf. Registration Number 9609812B. Connect me to extension #0013.”

Sf then handed the receiver to the man next to her. He took it and spoke.

“This is Ooshiro Itaru. Has Team Leviathan left yet, Sibyl? …I see. I just met an interesting idiot. Something stupid is about to happen. A world of stupid false good and false evil is about to unfold. …You don’t understand? No, someone like you or Sf that has not woken up wouldn’t.”

As Itaru spoke, Sf inserted a new card into the green telephone. When the small sound of connection indicating three minutes had been added came from the receiver, Itaru nodded to Sf. He continued speaking as he saw Sf nod back.

“Sf confirmed this idiot’s string vibration. I’ll have Sf give it to you, so add this idiot’s vibration to the string vibration of the concept space. It’s the usual type, so this change should be easy and the outside will be visible, right? Drag him in from reality. …What? You want to know who this idiot is? You’ll know soon enough.”

Hearing that, Sf asked, “Itaru-sama, is it really okay to get him involved like this?”

“That brat has ignorantly decided that this world is a safe place. We need to teach him a lesson and a first-hand lesson would be best. From now on, he is sure to be overturned again and again. From here on out, he will deny all things because all things exist. He will deny joy because he knows joy. And…Yes, that will continue until the world is satisfied.”

Itaru gave a small smile and handed Sf the receiver.

“Sf, tell them his string vibration. And then we will teach him what reality truly is.”

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Prologue|Prologue]]
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| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 30

2026-05-26T02:25:16Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 30: Inheritance of the Dragon’s Will==
[[Image:OnC_v02_0425.png|thumb]]
''Words are a voice

''A voice rings out

''It asks to drive the response in here

When Fafner left the forest which had become a clearing and entered the grassy field, he saw the white mechanical dragon and a boy and girl fighting as if dancing.

Those steel footsteps tore at the earth’s crust and that giant body whipped up the wind. Sounds of metal clashing rang out. As those figures moved in the moonlight, Fafner’s 1st-Gear comrades and the UCAT members watched on from a distance.

Everyone was standing petrified without speaking a word.

Fafner trembled at the pain in his back, but continued walking forward through the active wind and opened his mouth.

“Why!” He stared directly at the white mechanical dragon. “Lord Hagen! You been avoiding battle, so why?”

Intense pain ran through his back. Fafner fell to his knees as it felt like his spine was being squeezed.

And a figure stood up next to him.

He looked up to find a familiar face.

It was a black half-dragon just like him. This figure also had no wings on his back.

“Father…”

“It looks I made it in time. My son Fafner, look at Lord Hagen.”

Fafner did so.

He watched that white dragon run at high speed, twist his body around, blast dirt into the air, and roar.

A low voice spoke from above his head as he kneeled down.

“That is what you wanted, Fafner. That is what you have been waiting for.”

Hagen’s heart moved within Fafnir Custom.

The deviation from before had disappeared. He knew why: he was beginning to disappear.

With the excess gone, he had been sharpened to the extreme.

He felt the wind on his skin and smelled the scent of the grass.

He felt the dirt between his toes and his claws throwing small stones as he moved.

All of his body’s movements were perfectly synced with the machine.

The adjustments from before had paid off. His will fit perfectly into the machine and there was no waste.

He moved.

He extended his claws and pursued the boy. He expanded his armor panels and defended against the girl’s attacks.

The boy targeted his neck. The two reactors were located there. He likely wanted the Concept Core in the weaponry reactor in front, but the only way to do that was to take his life.

On the other hand, the girl targeted his vision devices, legs, and joints. However, these attacks were not on the level of the earlier one that had intercepted a blast from his main cannon.

''I see,'' thought Hagen. ''So you still do not fully know your role in this battle. But you can only find that answer from there, girl.

Hagen laughed.

“Ha.”

The voice escaped. It had been a long, long time since he laughed like that. He did not think he had ever used his full voice since taking on this body. He had not felt this happy in a long, long time. He was fighting so that everyone could laugh once this was over.

He wanted to win.

As he looked around in amusement, he saw everyone there. They had all come with him.

And now he was fighting where they could not follow. This was something he had to do. Only someone close to the royal family who had been given the greatest attack power in 1st-Gear could do this.

Hagen remembered.

King Wotan had been timid but kind. Hagen’s younger brother Regin had been quick to lecture people but had done it for their sake. Hagen had loved how Princess Gutrune was dauntless yet often suffered for it. And that world had existed alongside all of them.

He may have lost everything, but he knew all of that was true.

“!”

Hagen took in his full range of vision.

He saw the field, the forest, the mountains, the sky, the clouds, and the moon in the center of the heavens.

…''Yes.

Once this battle ended, he would have to leave this space.

…''It has been so long.

Before him were enemies who could choose to be wrong in the right way and right in a mistaken way.

This enemy moved. The boy held up the large sword and leaped to Hagen’s left. The girl fired a scythe of light toward Hagen’s right leg.

It struck. The ground below his right leg crumbled and his posture was thrown off.

His body tilted to the right and the left of his throat and his left side were exposed to his enemy.

The boy came in to take advantage of this opening, but that was a mistake. Fafnir Custom had a cannon installed within. This cannon had shot through the swordsman girl named Mikoku when the information broker Hajji had brought her to that abandoned schoolyard.

Hagen expanded that cannon, wondering if he could win with this.

He fired.

He did not target his enemy; he targeted the holy sword Gram the enemy held.

“!”

He fired three times at close range.

The shockwaves produced a white umbrella of steam and the splitting of the air blew the boy away. He ended up directly in front of Fafnir Custom. That position allowed Hagen to politely let loose his maximum firepower.

Fafnir Custom’s vision devices checked on the results of his attack. The holy sword Gram in his enemy’s hand had lost its light. The metal plate that words should have appeared on was silent. Gram’s voice rang out.

“Four seconds until recovery! Throw me away and run!”

…''That long? I only need one second.

Hagen operated Fafnir Custom. He opened his mouth and braced himself with his four legs.

His enemy had almost let go of Gram during the impact and he turned toward the girl behind him.

''This is the end,'' thought Hagen.

With enjoyment in his heart, he fired his main cannon with a single thought.

…''I want to win.

Sayama gathered strength in his body which was trembling from the earlier impact. He could feel the earth below his feet, so his left arm came next.

Gram was there. The two meter sword was currently silent.

''But,'' thought Sayama. ''I must finish this using this weapon. That is only polite.

“…!”

He gathered strength in his trembling left arm.

Immediately afterwards, he felt intense pain. Blood flowed from the bandage on that arm as if bursting out. He could distinctly feel his muscles and tendons.

But he did not care. Pain was real. The pain throbbing throughout his body showed him his body existed.

His senses had returned.

His sense of touch, hearing, and vision returned and he focused on what lay before his eyes. Fafnir Custom had opened his mouth.

Light could be seen in the muzzle visible deep in his throat.

There was no way Sayama could avoid this.

And so Sayama did not choose what to do. He simply desired victory.

Just as he tried to move forward, someone nestled up next to him as if propping him up.

It was Shinjou.

“Leave the things you can’t do to me,” she said.

And as she spoke, she moved her hand. In an instant, she took the blood flowing from his left arm onto her fingers and wrote something on Gram’s metal plate.

She wrote “holy sword”.

At the same time, the main cannon fired. Sayama swung the holy sword Gram toward that light that had actual mass.

“…!”

He used all of his strength. That which he desired was here.

He smiled. He smiled from the bottom of his heart. And as he did, his left arm felt a light impact.

“!?”

Sayama looked down at Georgius on his left hand. The plus sign medallion on its black surface was emitting a white light.

As if in response, Gram let out a roar. Green light ran across the blade’s surface.

“What is that gauntlet!?” asked Gram.

“I do not know! But it is the power I have inherited!!”

Sayama swung down the holy sword Gram.

The metal blade sliced apart the dragon’s attack. He heard the surging sound of light being sliced and scattered. And at the front, Sayama forcibly twisted the sword upwards, moved it around behind him, and moved further forward.

The distance grew to almost nothing in an instant.

He charged toward Fafnir Custom’s throat.

He swung a diagonal strike similar to a horizontal swing. It was a single blow.

Gram was wrapped in light. At the peak of its arc, it would sever the weaponry reactor in the throat. At the end of its arc, it would target the operation reactor at the base of the neck. That was Sayama’s style of fighting. He would completely neutralize his enemy.

But a strike came from behind to stop him.

It was an attack of light.

Just as Gram arrived at Fafnir Custom’s throat and he felt it break the metal of the armor and the outer core of the weaponry reactor, a thin beam of light came from behind and passed right by him.

That beam pierced and blew away Fafnir Custom’s front right leg.

With a clear noise, Fafnir Custom crumbled to the ground. It looked like he was lying down or bowing down.

The dragon’s movement sealed off Gram’s trajectory. As he fell to the ground, the components within his neck distorted and bit into Gram.

The holy sword’s cutting action was hindered by the mechanical parts that pressed together like praying hands.

Sayama perceived this resistance in the form of a metallic noise, but he continued swinging Gram.

“————”

He swung his arm, continued forward, and made his way out on the other side of Fafnir Custom’s throat.

He looked at his hand. The bloody Georgius on his left hand was not holding anything.

He understood.

He had robbed the mechanical dragon of its power, but the dragon’s throat had stolen the holy sword Gram from his hand.

And that resolution was the conclusion.

Sayama looked behind him.

In the moonlight, Fafnir Custom was getting back to his feet.

However, with his front right leg gone, he could no longer move enough for combat.

Fafnir Custom slowly looked up into the sky and bent his body upwards.

The stolen sword was indeed sticking out of his throat.

The white of his armor and the black of the sword created a silhouette in the moonlight and cast a shadow.

In the darkness he himself created, the mechanical dragon looked up at the moon with his red eyes.

Fafnir Custom’s mouth opened. His throat had been pierced, but he opened his fang-filled maw as if to devour the moon.

It was not a bestial cry that escaped through those metal fangs. Instead, he called for someone.

“Boy.” That quiet voice continued to ask the question in the dragon’s heart. “Was 1st-Gear a formidable enemy?”

Sayama regulated his breathing and clenched his lowered left fist. He squeezed his own blood and opened his mouth.

“Is there any other kind?”

As he answered, Sayama watched the silhouette of the dragon in the moonlight.

He waited for the dragon’s reply.

However, he received no response.

He heard a song carried by the wind. A 1st-Gear girl sang the song. One line reached his ears.

“Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh.”

Suddenly, Shinjou approached from his left side. She treaded softly on the grass and said “Hey.”

Sayama could tell her voice was trembling. The hand she wrapped around his left arm was trembling as well. And so he wrapped his arm around her waist to check on her.

He embraced Shinjou’s slender body and drew her in closer, but he kept his eyes raised. He continued watching the silhouette of the mechanical dragon in the moon.

There was no longer any light in the mechanical dragon’s eyes.

Two girls sighed while atop tree branches in the forest.

The short one, Shino, sang the song she heard coming from the field.

The one sitting on the higher branch, Mikoku, smiled bitterly.

“And with that, the Leviathan Road has begun.”

She jumped down. She easily landed after the four meter drop. She waited for Shino to finish singing and then held her arm upwards. Shino did not hesitate to jump down into Mikoku’s chest.

“You have gotten heavier,” said Mikoku as Shino glanced at her from the side and moved away.

Shino tilted her head slightly and then looked behind her.

“Shall we leave now, Tatsumi-san?”

In response, a woman appeared from the darkness of the forest.

She was tall. Mikoku was tall as well, but this woman was even taller. Her long hair swayed as it flowed backwards and she wore a brown sweater and a long white tight skirt. On her feet were…

“I am not sure you should be wearing sandals, Tatsumi.”

“I managed to get this close without being noticed, didn’t I?”

The woman named Tatsumi looked at the two girls with drooping eyes and a smile with no hint of sarcasm.

“So how was it?”

“Not bad. Shinjou can act now and Izumo and his partner should be useful enough. Sayama… Sayama Mikoto obtained Georgius.”

As Mikoku spoke, she turned her back on the field. The speed with which she turned caused Shino’s shoulders to jump a bit, but Tatsumi took Shino’s hand to stop her from trembling.

“Let’s go home. This concept space is growing thin. Everything will arrive at its conclusion and this place will return to normal. But Mikoku, how was Georgius? Even we have almost no information on that concept weapon.”

“I do not know. I saw a bit of a strange power, but…”

“But?”

“Georgius is the Latin name of St. George who slayed a dragon. But that was thought to be a fictional story, so his sainthood was revoked in the fifteenth century.” Mikoku gave a bitter smile and spoke as she walked through the darkness of the forest. “A false saint. That is an appropriate name for a concept weapon of Low-Gear.”

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 29|Chapter 29]]
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| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 31|Final Chapter]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 21

2026-05-25T05:50:07Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 21: The Path to Relief==
[[Image:OnC_v02_0203.png|thumb]]
''When one steps off that path

''Pain appears before one’s eyes

''So what happens if one wishes for pain?

Sayama returned to the school and walked to the Kinugasa Library.

He took a seat at a table near the counter, opened a book, and read through it.

He placed one side of the book on the table and flipped through the pages with only his right arm. It was the first volume of the mythology research books written by Kinugasa Tenkyou. He was reading the portion related to the Nibelungen epic poem.

The old letterpress printing style caused the pictures to bleed through the pages, but it was easy enough to make out the writing.

The Nibelungen was a European epic primarily passed down in Germany that was based on the Norse legend known as the Volsunga Saga.

“According to the saga, a young man named Sigurd trained under a man named Regin and slayed a dragon named Fafnir with the holy sword Gram he was given. When he drank some of Fafnir’s blood, he became able to hear the voices of animals. The birds informed him that Regin planned to kill him to take the honor for himself.”

He flipped the page.

“After killing Regin, Sigurd fell in love with a woman named Brynhildr, but he was made to forget her with magic and he instead chose a woman named Gudrun. However, Brynhildr resented him when she found out and decided to destroy them all.”

As Sayama closed the book, another voice continued the story.

“In the saga, Sigurd was killed by an assassin in his sleep, but in the epic poem, he died after being stabbed through the heart from the spot on the left of his back that had not been covered in Fafnir’s blood due to a leaf falling there.”

Those words were spoken by the tall man holding a paper cup behind the counter.

Sayama turned toward him and asked, “This has a few terms in common with reality. …Have you ever noticed that? In German, Sigurd has the name Siegfried. And Gudrun is Gutrune. …Has anyone else checked on those terms in common?”

“No, they have not.”

“I see.” Sayama tapped the spine of the hardcover book. “I suppose that would also be the answer if there was no need to check.”

The slight tapping noise caused Baku to raise his head and emulate it by tapping Sayama’s shoulder. Sayama smiled bitterly.

“What does it feel like to be hated?”

Siegfried took a sip from his cup before answering.

“The one saving grace is that all that enmity will end when I die. I have been targeted a few times in the past, but they were not ideal, so I did not die.”

“Hah. You have quite the troublesome death wish. …So what kind of death do you want?”

“Being killed by someone I betrayed and still hates me would simply be too horrible for me to accept. That would be identical to Sigurd’s death.”

Siegfried placed his cup on the counter and laughed at the hard sound of the paper.

“Sayama Mikoto, give this thought. Give this serious thought. Being hated will be inevitable. The question is how small you can make that grudge and who it is that will understand you.”

“And did you fail on both counts?”

Siegfried remained silent, so Sayama sighed.

“What a troublesome idea. Being an adult really is troublesome. You knew something like this could be waiting for you, so why?”

Sayama turned toward Siegfried. And he slowly spoke as if to himself.

“Why did you get involved in the Concept War?”

In the center of Sayama’s vision, the old man stared directly back at him and did not move.

Sayama waited. He waited for his words to vanish from the air of that library.

And once everything had returned to silence, his answer came.

“That was after I had managed to escape fighting in World War Two. I knew all too well that I would lose something if I fought. I did not want any more war. However…”

Siegfried trailed off, but he did not stop. He shook his head and continued.

“Everyone has their own reason for fighting. There is no meaning in me telling you mine. No matter how many ideals they hold, a human will die from a single bullet. When you see that truth before your eyes, you will see what your true motives are.”

“You mean I will see what is worth risking losing my life to a single bullet?”

Siegfried nodded.

“I will not tell you not to fear death. But do not look back. If you want to remain an idealist, do not step onto the battlefield. And if you do step onto the battlefield, do not die. Do you understand what I mean, at least somewhat? You have experienced the battlefield twice now due to our skirmishes with 1st-Gear. What did you think of the people there and of yourself?”

Sayama nodded, thought about the werewolf and the knight, and finally thought about Shinjou.

He kept in his heart the thought of her trembling yet still stepping onto the battlefield and then he tried to say something.

“…”

He was unable to say it.

However, he understood what he and she had in common. He understood what it was they both wanted.

“A battlefield on which we might die, hm?”

There was no doubting what they would find there.

Everything else was up to him. With that in mind, Sayama stood up.

“Thank you. You helped guide me in the right direction.”

He slid the book across the table and grabbed it in his right hand as it began to fall off the edge. His left arm was still not fully healed.

With the book hanging down from his right hand, Sayama walked toward the shelf of books by Kinugasa.

And as he did, he looked outside the narrow portion of window visible between the bookshelves.

The window showed the sun to the southwest and a figure jogging down the road toward the main entrance.

It was Shinjou Setsu. He had his hair bound behind his neck and he held a wash basin and a towel in front of his chest.

…''Is he visiting the public bath I told him about last night?

It was quite early for a bath. A glance at his watch told him it was 4:30 PM.

Just as he began to wonder why Shinjou would take a bath so early, a thought came to Sayama.

“Is he actually her?”

“Did you just say something rather odd?”

Sayama ignored the old man.

…''Is that why he is bathing while no one else will be around?

It was only a hypothesis. He would never find the answer if he did not check.

And that meant he had to go. He had to check once more whether Shinjou Setsu was actually Shinjou Sadame.

He made up his mind and began to move.

“…”

Sayama quickly returned the book to the bookshelf and took quick steps across the library.

His footsteps were loud and Siegfried frowned.

“Excuse me,” said Sayama with a wave of the arm.

Leaving the library and running back to the student dorm would take two minutes. If he chased after Shinjou, he would arrive just as the boy was entering the bathtub. He would be able to catch him in the act.

Sayama would be victorious. With that in mind, he opened the library door. But then…

“Oh.”

He brought himself to a stop.

Someone stood directly in front of him. A small figure stood beyond the opened door in the hallway filled with the light of the setting sun.

A black cat stood at the person’s feet. It was a girl holding a cardboard box with a small bird inside.

Siegfried called her name from behind Sayama.

“Brunhild-kun.”

Brunhild watched Sayama Mikoto rush past her. He was nonsensically muttering “bath” over and over, so it did not seem related to 1st-Gear.

Brunhild took a step forward as she listened to those fading footsteps.

As she did, Siegfried stepped out from behind the counter. He moved quickly and with long strides. It only took him five steps.

“Do you have another problem with the bird?”

Brunhild expressionlessly shook her head. There was something she had to say.

…''Will I be able to say it this time?

Brunhild opened her mouth as she thought about the previous night. Her lips moved as she practiced the words.

The fact that she noticed that movement showed that her legs were not trembling and her body was not cowering.

And so Brunhild raised her head. Her hair waved, she created a face she thought of as expressionless, and she looked up at his blue eyes.

“I will be leaving until tomorrow morning, so please look after the bird.”

“This is quite sudden.”

It looked as if Siegfried’s eyes had widened slightly.

However, he was not refusing or rebuking her. She closed her eyes, lowered her head, and held out the arms holding the box.

“Yes, but…take care of it.” Her head drooped down even further. “Please. You only need to look after it until tomorrow morning.”

She raised her head. She made sure her movements did not cause her to draw back the box.

As she looked at him, Siegfried finally nodded.

“Tomorrow morning, you said?”

“Yes. I will be back by then.”

“I see.”

Siegfried nodded once more and took the box.

Brunhild almost breathed a sigh of relief, but she resisted.

Without changing her expression, she looked at the bird in the box. It tilted its head as it looked back up at her. Siegfried took the box and the bird must have been afraid to leave her because it spread it wings.

And it flapped them.

“…”

However, it could not fly. It fell over, stood back up, and looked up at her again.

Brunhild spoke to the bird.

“Don’t worry. He understands the language of birds.”

As soon as she said that, Brunhild heard a quiet laugh. She looked up at Siegfried’s face, but his expression was the same as ever.

“Is something the matter?”

“N-no. It is nothing. …Thank you for helping.”

With that quick comment Brunhild turned around.

After the third step, she heard the library door close behind her and the chirping of the bird grew more distant.

She passed through the central lobby and headed for the art room. The black cat sighed down at her feet.

“You managed to say the words you had prepared.”

“Yes. I wonder why.”

“Because this is something you knew was important.”

“Really?” she asked before having a thought.

If what the cat said was true, was it the bird or the man she had found to be important?

A shopping district had been built just outside the main entrance of the school.

In it was a 24-hour public bath named Eternal Sunflower.

It was an old-looking facility made of concrete and with a tiled roof, but it stood out because of the large greenhouse with a metal framework to the south. Tropical plants and out of season sunflowers were visible in that three-story structure.

The curtains labeling the men’s bath and the women’s bath had a sunflower mark printed on them.

“The 24-hour public bath named Eternal Sunflower uses underground pipes to use the heat of the school’s boiler facility. It has a few sister facilities outside the school, but this is the one I told Shinjou-kun about last night.”

Sayama passed by the attendant booth, greeted the old woman who worked as the attendant during the day, and put a 100 yen coin in the ticket machine.

He took the card-style locker key the ticket machine gave him and he moved Baku from his shoulder to his head. He removed his clothes in the changing area, placed them in a locker, and draped a towel over his shoulder.

He removed the bandages from his left arm, making the charm covering the wound visible. It had shown no sign of growing damp during his shower the day before, so Sayama assumed it held some sort of power.

He locked the locker and his preparations were complete.

Just to check, he weighed himself at the scale. His weight was the same as the day before.

Everything was going well. All that was left was to head into the bath with nothing but his towel. Using the public bath’s wash basins was the stylish thing to do. And opening the bath door with both hands was the Sayama style.

“Here I go,” said Sayama as he took the first step inside.

The steam-filled bath was large. Four square bathtubs that were ten meters across were lined up to the left and right and washing areas were prepared along the walls.

As he walked down the center area between the bathtubs, his footsteps sounded quietly on the cooled bathwater below.

Sayama searched for his target in his vision that was obscured by the color white.

And he spotted that target. He was in the farthest bathtub on Sayama’s left. Sayama had spotted the color black on the closest corner of that tub.

That color was the color of hair.

Sayama walked in that direction as if cutting through the steam.

As he approached, he saw slender shoulders and black hair dropping into the wash basin sitting outside the bathtub.

That back was submerged up to the bottom of the shoulders, but it was definitely Shinjou’s.

…''He should submerge himself up to the neck.

After deciding he needed to give Shinjou that advice, Sayama began thinking about how to make his approach.

From the boy’s reaction at their first meeting, Shinjou Setsu seemed to be needlessly wary.

Sayama needed to approach him in a way that lowered his guard.

He considered showing unpredictability by leaping into the bathtub or showing open-heartedness by stepping over Shinjou’s head, but he concluded a safer option would be better.

Even as he thought, Sayama continued to approach and observe. He could see the side of Shinjou’s face as he soaked in the tub. His eyes were closed and his expression was relaxed. His body that Sayama was so curious about was sitting on one of the steps on the inside of the tub and his arms were embracing himself.

His arms and the towel worn within the tub hid that body.

…''He is wearing the towel inside the bathtub?

Shinjou’s action made Sayama feel a bit dizzy, but he endured. He could not put Shinjou on guard. However, it was true he could check on his body if the towel were not there. He had to eliminate that trap.

What came first was the boy’s wariness. If Sayama could eliminate that, the rest would be easy.

Sayama silently got down on his knees behind that back soaking in the bathtub. He picked up a nearby wash basin and spoke in order to lower Shinjou’s guard.

“Sir, would you like me to wash your back?”

Shinjou turned around in shock and…

“W-waaah!!”

He let out a scream and fell full force into the bathtub.

A splash and steam filled the air and his long hair was dragged into the tub.

Sayama climbed over the edge of the tub and placed his legs in the waves of hot water, but he remained on his knees.

“What a noisy child. You must not swim in the bath tub.”

“Wh-why are you talking about my back all of a sudden!?”

“I merely wish to wash your back. There is no need to be suspicious.”

“That’s plenty suspicious!!”

''There is no reasoning with this person,'' thought Sayama as he brought a hand to his forehead.

Shinjou stood while hiding his body with his towel and then remained motionless. Through the steam, Sayama could see Shinjou’s eyebrows raised.

“Why are you so suspicious?”

“This has nothing to do with suspicion. …Did you even stop to think what the people who see this might think!?”

Shinjou pointed toward the washing areas along the wall. Soaking at the edge of the bathtub with his arms spread was…

“Oh, it’s Izumo.”

“Hey,” said Izumo as he raised a hand in greeting.

Sayama nodded and said, “Do not worry, Shinjou-kun. That is not a person, so his opinion does not count.”

“Sayama, you idiot, have you ever seen my chromosomes?”

“I can tell without looking. You clearly have about two more than a human.”

“Really? I must be pretty great to have more than a human.”

“Um… Don’t chimpanzees have two more chromosomes than humans?” commented Shinjou.

“What? Screw you, Sayama… You… You’re pretty smart, you idiot.”

“This does not matter, so calm down.”

Izumo had begun to stand up, but he sank back down and let out a breath. He looked back and forth between Sayama and Shinjou.

“I don’t know what the confusion is about, Sayama, but you need to wash yourself before entering the bathtub. That is one of the five rules of Eternal Sunflower.”

Sayama nodded and looked toward Shinjou. He stood in the center of the bathtub.

“Why do you look so angry?” asked Sayama.

“B-because, well…”

“I do not believe I have done anything to you yet.”

“How about you say his very existence is odd? And wait… What do you mean ‘yet’?”

Sayama ignored that suggestion from Izumo. At any rate, Shinjou would have no escape once Sayama washed himself.

He stood up and walked to the washing area. Behind him, he heard Shinjou walk through the tub and back to his previous spot. He could see it in the washing area’s mirror. Sayama sat in a seat placed in front of that mirror near Izumo. Before using the shower, Sayama filled a nearby wash basin with water a bit cooler than human skin and placed Baku inside.

Baku floated for a bit, but then sank without struggling.

Sayama pulled him out and placed his front legs on the edge of the wash basin. Baku seemed to be a nonresistant animal.

Sayama took a breath, untangled his swept back hair and ran his hands through it.

“Izumo,” he said quietly.

“What is it, you idiot?”

“I have a question for you.”

“Oh? What lowly question do you have from someone as great as me?”

Sayama nodded and began rubbing the provided soap on his skin.

“How was Shinjou-kun’s body?”

Sayama saw Izumo turn toward him in the mirror. He nodded once with a serious expression.

“Here is my opinion on this matter: you are insane. Well? Do you get it? If not, let me put it more simply. You. Are. An. Idiot. Well? Get it now?”

“I see you still have no reservations about saying hurtful things. Go to hell, you son of a bitch.” Sayama took a breath and stared straight at Izumo through the mirror. “I am not joking about this. I am completely serious. …How was Shinjou-kun’s body?”

In the mirror, Izumo’s face darkened, his expression clouded over, and he averted his gaze.

“Sorry. I didn’t realize you were serious.”

“I am. As long as you understand.”

“Yeah, sorry. I would never have thought you were serious. I’m satisfied with Chisato.”

“I see. Then I suppose I asked you something you cannot answer. Is this where I should say, ‘die, you useless bastard’?”

“Is this where I should say, ‘get lost, you gay bastard’?”

Just as Sayama silently held the shower in his left hand and the valve for the hot water in his right, he heard a splash behind him.

He checked in the mirror and saw a back with long black hair trying to sneak out of the bathtub.

''You are not getting away,'' thought Sayama as he brushed up his hair once, turned around, lowered his hips, and dashed.

“Wait just a second!”

As he ran, he saw Shinjou try to turn around.

He could not let Shinjou prepare. Making sure Shinjou did not notice took top priority.

To escape Shinjou’s sight, Sayama dropped to his knees on the wet tile floor.

He slid on his knees through the puddles of water.

As his sliding produced a wet noise, he saw Shinjou’s eyes cut across horizontally as if he had lost sight of something.

In the next moment, he grabbed hold of Shinjou’s waist.

That backwards-turned naked body gave a start when Sayama’s hands grabbed onto its waist.

Shinjou looked down at Sayama from above. He had to twist his shoulders and neck around to do so.

“Wh-what are you doing, Sayama-kun!?”

While sitting on his knees, Sayama held onto Shinjou as he tried to twist his body around and escape.

“Calm down.”

“Wh-what!? I don’t understand what you mean!”

“You do not understand? I am saying to remain relaxed and tranquil while not panicking.”

“That isn’t what I meant!!” shouted Shinjou, but he stopped trying to escape. He blushed and asked, “Wh-what is it? If you need something, just tell me already!”

“There is something I must see. It is not something you can simply tell me. And… It is an important matter for you.”

“Important?’ Shinjou frowned and averted his gaze. Finally, he said, “Y-you aren’t going to do some other strange thing to me, are you?”

“Of course not. When have I ever done anything strange to you?”

“U-um, Sayama-kun? …Please look either to your right or left.”

Sayama chose left. He looked over and saw himself and Shinjou in a mirror in a washing area.

He was sitting on his knees and he had his arms wrapped around Shinjou’s butt.

It was nothing more than one step in the process of determining if Shinjou was a girl or not.

“I see nothing strange there,” he commented.

Shinjou hung his head down with a look of realization.

“Oh, I get it now. Strange people do not realize how strange they are.”

“Such a sad story.”

“I’m talking about you!!”

“It seems you have a persecution complex. …At any rate, please stay still.”

“Uuh…” groaned Shinjou.

Sayama lowered his head and looked forward.

There he found a butt. The two round humps were sticking out toward him a bit because of how he was holding on to Shinjou. Water droplets from the bath could be seen on it. His body line extending up and down to his waist and thighs swelled out.

''It is very round,'' thought Sayama. ''How magnificent.

He squeezed with his hands a bit and those round humps distorted softly. The water droplets that had collected between the flesh made their way around and dripped down. Seeing that, Sayama gave a mental sigh of admiration.

…''How erotic,'' he thought earnestly.

But as soon as he realized what he had thought, he shook his head.

He needed to see if Shinjou was female or not. This was no time to be holding a viewing of Shinjou’s ass. However…

“How can I sum up this beauty in a single word?”

It was round and erotic. Sayama thought for a moment, let out a breath, and expressed it in a single word.

“Eroundic.”

“Wh-what? What did you just say!?”

“I merely found a new expression is all. Do not worry about it.”

Sayama realized he could not determine Shinjou’s sex from the butt. That was obvious. And so he spoke.

“Now, let us do this. Turn toward me, Shinjou-kun.”

“U-u-um, Sayama-kun? Do you know what you’re saying? And what do you mean ‘do this’?”

“It is too late to ask questions! This is important!” shouted Sayama.

All strength left Shinjou’s body. Sayama looked up and saw the ends of his eyebrows drooping.

“D-do I really…have to turn toward you?”

“Yes. There is something I cannot know otherwise.”

“…”

Shinjou averted his gaze without speaking and Sayama loosened his grip on Shinjou’s butt.

Shinjou slowly turned toward him. He stood with his knees together, but Sayama showed no kindness.

“Why are you acting so embarrassed? Move that towel and your arms.”

“D-do I really have to show you? Th-this isn’t right. You’re going to do something strange, aren’t you?’

“How many times do I have to tell you? This is important for you, Shinjou-kun.”

“Really? Is it really important for the two of us? Is it really?”

Sayama stared silently back and Shinjou closed his eyes a bit. His cheeks reddened, he bit his lower lip, and his body stiffened.

[[Image:OnC_v02_0223.png|thumb]]

“Don’t do anything weird.”

Shinjou dropped the towel. The wet cloth softly struck the floor.

However, Shinjou was still using his hands to cover his chest and the area between his legs.

“Move your hands,” said Sayama.

Shinjou did not nod. However, he lifted his hands, let out a moan, and covered his face with those hands.

Sayama had watched the hands move up, but he now slowly lowered that gaze.

The eyes on that blushing face looked down at him through the gaps in the fingers.

His shoulders were drooping down and the chest between them was flat. It was the same chest Sayama had touched the day before.

Water droplets ran down his damp skin from the chest to his sides and navel. The water seemed to dissolve into his skin.

Sayama followed the falling water droplets with his gaze. He finally arrived at Shinjou’s crotch.

“Hm…”

“Wh-what does that mean? N-no. Don’t stare like that.”

“My apologies.”

Sayama had confirmed that Shinjou was a boy. The proof lay right before his eyes. It was certainly there.

Sayama had no more room for doubt and he felt a sense of loss at having his suspicions disappear.

Shinjou spoke from above in a trembling voice.

“A-are you done? You are, right? You’ve seen enough, right?”

Sayama started to agree, but then his thoughts ground to a halt.

…''Wait a second. I can clearly see it before my eyes, but…

What if this was some kind of trick?

He knew the level of technology UCAT had. They could easily pull something like this off.

If he was going to check, he had to do so thoroughly enough to have no doubts remaining.

However, Shinjou’s guard was currently raised. Asking for permission here would likely only be wasted time.

And so Sayama gently grabbed it.

The texture, the warmth, the weight, and the material all checked out. That left strength.

In what was more an examination than a confirmation, Sayama tugged downwards.

He tugged a total of three times, changing the direction slightly each time.

“Hm.”

But it did not come off. That meant it was not a trick.

He knew for sure now. There was no mistaking it. His suspicions finally vanished.

''Yes, this confirms it,'' thought Sayama as he raised his head.

He breathed a sigh of relief and his shoulders drooped. He looked Shinjou in the eye and a slight smile naturally formed on his lips. This was good news. He nodded and spoke.

“You can rest easy, Shinjou-kun. You are a boy.”

“I already knew that!!”

A slap arrived from below his field of vision as if the hand were scooping something up.

It struck Sayama’s jaw, his head rotated backwards, and he collapsed to the side.

The setting sun sank into the mountain range to the west.

In the city, the movements of that crimson light could only be seen from a high vantage point.

A pair of eyes followed that sinking sun from the rooftop of Taka-Akita Academy’s second year general school building. Those eyes were above the bell tower attached to the roof. A single figure sat there.

The figure wore black clothes and a three-cornered hat. That girl holding a broom with a giant scythe tied to it was Brunhild.

She looked toward the silhouette of the western mountain range outlined by the setting sun. She remained perfectly still, held her arms around her knees, and hid so those down below would be unable to see her.

A black cat sat next to her. The cat looked up at its unmoving owner and tilted its head.

While still looking to the west, Brunhild expressionlessly spoke.

“Don’t worry. I have already dealt with my problem.”

“Really?”

“Yes, this will tell me everything. If he arrives when we take back the holy sword Gram, it will mean he has abandoned the bird I left with him. I will know he has betrayed me.”

“And if he does not come?”

“Then I will forgive him,” said Brunhild while narrowing her eyes slightly. A small sigh escaped her lips. “But this question is a one-way issue. I will not return here. If we win, I will join the negotiations alongside Lord Hagen as a member of 1st-Gear. If we lose, I will die.”

“So you won’t be coming back.” The black cat’s head drooped. “Then I should confess something. I was the one that tore up the calendar in your room.”

“That is fine. It was provided by the school, so I forgive you.”

“Thanks. But I was also the one that destroyed the cup the school gave you.”

“I see… I quite liked that cup, but I will not be returning. I forgive you.”

“I also stained your pillow with drool and camouflaged it so it looked like you did it.”

“I see… So that’s what happened.”

“Also, I hid where I peed a bit under your blanket. That is why it has smelled recently.”

“…I see. So that’s what the smell was. If there is anything else, say it now. You will be freed from your pain.”

“Just out of curiosity, what do you mean by freed from my pain?”

“You will not have to feel anything ever again… Wait, don’t run away!”

When Brunhild began to stand, she saw the cityscape lit up by the setting sun.

“…”

She stopped moving and looked out in every direction. She saw houses, buildings, fields, small forests, and a mesh of roads.

That entire landscape did not realize she was here standing in the light wind.

For some reason, she frowned. The black cat turned toward her.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.” Brunhild reached out a hand and grabbed the cat. “Farewell, scenery. You are completely different from the forest I once lived in.”

With those words, Brunhild nodded and enacted her punishment.

Sayama and Izumo each drank a bottle of coffee milk on a bench in Eternal Sunflower’s meeting area. The wooden bench had faded red paint and it creaked under Izumo’s large body.

When Sayama saw he still had some milk left in his bottle, he placed it on its side next to him. He lowered Baku from his head, and the beast stuck its head in the sideways bottle and began licking up the remaining milk.

“That is a truly useless animal.”

“Apparently, it actually lives by watching and showing people’s pasts and dreams. It will eat anything you give it, though.”

“But what do you think, Sayama? Putting a hand on your hips when drinking coffee milk is the standard, but what about using both hands?”

With an outline of the bottle around his mouth, Izumo looked over his shoulder. Sayama followed his gaze and found the curtain for the women’s bath.

“Are you waiting for Kazami?”

“Did you even listen to my majestic comment?”

“I avoid doing things which have no value for my life.”

“I don’t see how those bizarre actions of yours in the bath have any value to your life.”

“They do. Now I will make no misunderstandings about Shinjou-kun.”

“I think you’ll be the one people have misunderstandings about now… That was a splendid concussion. There’s nothing harder to describe than a guy collapsed in the bath with his ass sticking out.”

“I have not received a blow that solid in quite a long time. I must have let my guard down.”

Izumo sighed when he heard that. He looked around and confirmed that no one else was nearby.

He placed his empty bottle on the ground and spoke.

“Speaking of valuable things, what are you going to do about the Leviathan Road?”

“You mean that scene of death?”

“Yes. You saw Chisato’s shot, right? And then the enemy killed himself. A situation like that might come to us next time.”

“Then why do you and Kazami take part?”

“I’m the son of IAI’s president…and there’s some other issues, too.” Izumo turned toward Sayama without a hint of a smile on his face. “We are prepared. But what about you? There’s nothing in your school life, but it’s better than dying, right?”

“That is true, but what do you think would happen if I did not agree to the Leviathan Road?”

“Our unit would be broken up. The adults would handle it. Our supervisor is Ooshiro Itaru, after all.”

“Ooshiro Itaru… Does he have that much power?”

“I don’t really know. Most members of Japanese UCAT died along with IAI’s relief team during the great Kansai earthquake at the end of 1995. From what I hear, they got wrapped up in a secondary disaster.”

“Is that what led to Japanese UCAT being temporarily dissolved? I heard about that from Fasolt.”

“Yeah. After that, it seems only the upper levels and Ooshiro Itaru were left. In fact, it seems he’s the only middle generation member of Japanese UCAT left.”

“That’s a lot of ‘it seems’… I thought you were the heir to the Izumo company?”

“Sorry, but I wasn’t here at that time,” said Izumo as he folded his arms. He groaned, looked up, looked down, and tilted his head. “The thing is, I… Okay, I’ll just say it. I’m a troublesome kid who was born to my Low-Gear father and a 10th-Gear girl.”

“Is that so? What a surprise. Truly unexpected.”

“Don’t dismiss my important announcement like it’s nothing…”

“It does not benefit me in any way. And being of mixed race is very common these days.”

“Ha ha. I guess someone with a troublesome family of his own would think that way. But let me tell you something else: even if you do not accept the Leviathan Road, Kazami and I will be part of Team Leviathan with Ooshiro Itaru as the negotiator.”

“Why? You make it sound like you cannot refuse.”

“We can’t,” said Izumo. “Our weapons are concept weapons we acquired during the commotion when I arrived two years ago. My V-Sw is 6th’s Vajra and Vritra. Kazami’s G-Sp2 is 10th’s Gungnir.”

Sayama recalled Izumo’s large single-edged sword and Kazami’s long single-edged spear.

“Both give the Concept Core a cowling in the form of a weapon. The very existence of a concept weapon is a concept, so it creates its own field and its power can be used under the effects of any concept. Also, our weapons have much greater power than the normal philosopher’s stone method because they use Concept Cores. Their users have to see things through to the end.”

“And both of the weapons have accepted you as their masters?”

“Yeah. They both have wills of their own. We obtained them during the commotion two years ago, so 6th has fully aligned with UCAT and 10th has mostly joined UCAT. At the very least, the Leviathan Road for 6th and 10th-Gear is already over.” Izumo gave a bitter grin. “Those concept weapons really will come flying to you if you call for them.”

“That is quite the bizarre phenomenon.”

“Ha ha ha. You don’t believe me do you, you dumb bastard?”

“Ha ha ha. Try not to speak your nonsense aloud, you son of a bitch.”

The two of them both let out a sigh. Sayama brought a hand to his chin and spoke.

“So the Leviathan Road will continue without me. With you, Kazami, and Ooshiro Itaru.”

“Yeah. I heard your grandfather’s blood pressure shot up when he heard about my irregular commotion resolving some of the negotiations. I think his will included some method of dealing with this if you refused, but UCAT probably had some other reason for approving it.”

“Two years ago was when my grandfather was talking about my entrance exam. He was being particularly hard to please. Now I know why.”

“But Shinjou is different from Kazami and me. If you refuse your right to the Leviathan Road, she will likely be removed from the unit. Ooshiro Itaru and the higher ups are always extra nice when it comes to Shinjou.”

Sayama frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“They don’t get serious when it comes to her. Or at least it seems that way to me. She was put in the unit on the recommendation of old man Ooshiro, but it looks like Ooshiro Itaru wants to distance her from it all. Also,” said Izumo. “Ooshiro Itaru seems to hate you for some reason.”

“I learned that well enough from how he acted yesterday.”

Sayama nodded and heard a solid sound from next to him. He looked over and found Baku had tried to remove his head from the bottle but could not. As Baku frantically spun his back legs around fruitlessly, Sayama grabbed the beast and pulled him out like a cork.

Meanwhile, he heard Izumo speaking.

“Anyway, try to stay on good terms with Shinjou Setsu. You might not understand, but normal people will let their guard down if you show some concern about them.”

“Thank you very much for the advice,” said Sayama with a bitter smile. He grabbed the empty bottle, placed it in the case next to the bench, and turned his back to Izumo. “I will do my best to stay on good terms with him. Say hello to Kazami for me.”

Izumo sighed after Sayama left. He leaned against the back of the bench and called out the name Chisato.

The curtain for the women’s bath split open and Kazami’s head poked out. He watched her look back and forth.

“What are you avoiding him for? Don’t we need to show him how strict we are as current members of the Leviathan Road?”

“Yeah…but it was just too sudden.”

“What a complicated girl,” muttered Izumo as Kazami walked over and sat next to him.

Izumo frowned when he saw what she was holding.

“What are you drinking?”

“Tomato juice. I need to replenish my iron after taking a bath. I am a girl after all.”

“I didn’t think my Chisato was the kind of girl to discriminate based on sex…”

“C’mon. Stop hanging your head down with such a forced expression. Is it that important that I drink milk?”

“If you don’t drink milk, your breasts won’t grow.”

“They’re big enough already!”

“Really?” Izumo tilted his head, lightly grabbed at thin air with both hands, and tilted his head again. “Maybe you’re right.”

“I’m not sure I want you agreeing with that…” Kazami opened the pull tab, took a sip, and looked up into the sky. “But this is a difficult issue…”

“What is? Your breast size? Yeah, I suppose it is… What?”

“That isn’t what I meant, you idiot. …I was referring to all of this going on.”

As she said that, someone else exited from the women’s bath. Izumo turned around.

“Oh, it’s Ooki-sensei,” he called out.

Ooki was wearing track pants and a T-shirt.

“Hi!” she called back to Izumo.

Suddenly, Kazami jabbed an elbow into Izumo’s side while she drank her tomato juice.

“?” thought Izumo as he looked over at Ooki. Once he saw what she held in her hand, he whispered to Kazami.

“A soda, hm? She’s gonna get fat.”

“And they can dissolve bones, too. She’s going to look pitiful when her teeth are falling out.”

“Wh-what kind of ominous things are you two saying!?”

Ooki groaned and stopped the two of them. She then drank the soda so they could see.

“Th-this is a flavor children wouldn’t understand.”

“Is that so?” said Kazami with her half-lidded eyes turned toward the ground. She then added, “But I don’t think you should say that while the carbonation is bringing tears to your eyes.”

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| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 22|Chapter 22]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 20

2026-05-24T04:12:04Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 20: Intent to Escape==
[[Image:OnC_v04_0155.png|thumb]]
''What do you call it when you flee despite having nowhere to escape to?

''Is it parting ways?

''Or is it being cornered?

The morning of the festival was overall noisy.

The All Holiday Festival was handled by the different committees, the different circles, and the volunteers from the classes.

A lot of students were taking part because the school had no classes on Sunday, but the morning of the first day was still used for preparations.

Music played from music players and other speakers around the school. Sounds of mic tests and hammering could also be heard and bicycles and motorcycles with trailers could be seen transporting materials.

Amid it all, Shinjou hung his head next to a row of trees warmed by the sun.

Sayama was walking him around to the different stands and introducing them, but not much of it was entering his head.

There were a few different reasons for this.

When he had woken up at around seven that morning, he had been embracing Sayama.

His waking had woken Sayama who had noticed what Shinjou was doing.

Sayama had assured him it was fine, but then…

“We were seen.”

After Harakawa had brought in the materials for their stand using his motorcycle, he and their other classmates had stopped by their room. They would have normally contacted Ooki, but she had been late as usual.

…''They looked so surprised.

They had explained the situation and Harakawa himself had seemed to accept it.

But the others had apparently spread the rumor. When they had left the dorm and when they had eaten at the cafeteria, they had been interviewed by the gossip newspaper which was one of the school’s multiple newspaper clubs.

…''Sayama-kun responded to them so easily.

He had merely insisted it was nothing to worry about.

However, Shinjou still felt he had caused trouble for him.

And that kind of rumor had a way of sticking around.

…''He is already known as the eccentric student council vice president who is well known for doing odd things.

Izumo had been absent, so Sayama had handled the opening ceremony.

It depressed Shinjou to remember the slander and jeers a few people had shouted.

“Want one?”

Something was held out into his downturned vision. It resembled a large dried plum and was held with a pair of chopsticks. It was wrapped in what looked like clear glass.

“What is this?”

“H-have you never seen an apricot candy before? This is… This is a shocking revelation.”

“Wh-why do you have to wiggle around and give such an over-the-top reaction?”

“I see. Then how about we both calm down? …Listen. This candy is the festival’s must-have item.”

“Really? Are things like this needed at a festival?”

“Yes. There are other similar items such as the plastic bag containing a goldfish you stole from a tank or the blade-carved ice with carcinogens placed on top. And at the center of it all is the wooden tower playing bewitching music that everyone repeatedly circles around while dancing in a trancelike state. Ventura! Ventura!”

“I have a feeling your descriptions aren’t entirely accurate…”

Shinjou tilted his head and licked the candy.

“It’s sweet. I thought it would be sour.”

“The outside is nothing but a sugary syrup. It is hard because it was placed in ice. The trick is to eat the whole thing after licking it down a little bit.”

Shinjou nodded and started to pull out his change purse, but Sayama stopped him.

“No need to pay. The first year girl at that stand gave it to me for free. She told me to ‘do my best’. I am impressed that first years these days are trying to form connections with the student council by bribing them with food.”

“I am one hundred percent sure that is not what she meant. What did you say in return?”

“I said I would give it my very best effort, so leave it to me. She gave an excited scream, so I think she might have a brain disease.”

“Ahh…”

Shinjou held his head in his hands.

“What is it, Shinjou-kun? A headache? If you do not eliminate the cause, headaches can be dangerous.”

“I don’t want to hear that from the source of the danger,” he muttered while staring into empty space.

He then heard the sound of an engine behind him.

He turned around and saw a large black motorcycle with a sidecar. Harakawa was driving it. The brown-skinned boy with wavy black hair lowered his sunglasses.

“Hey.”

He stopped the motorcycle next to them.

The boy may have had difficulty telling Japanese people apart because he treated everyone in the class the same. He even acted casually around Sayama who everyone else kept some distance from.

“What is it, Harakawa? Are you about to leave?”

“Yeah. The automobile research club’s all set up, so I’m on my way to meet my mother and then head to my job in Yokota.”

“Tightening bolts and sorting old books? Do your best. …Oh, and how are your new club members?”

“There’s this one perverted kid who wants to get a sidecar a girl can ride in. I like his style. And we’ll probably get more people after the demonstration during the festival.”

“Demonstration? What’s that?”

“Oh, no one’s told you, Shinjou? Well, first we drive our motorcycles side by side along the rows of trees at the main entrance.”

“Okay.”

“Then we all shout ‘our budget was too small and we couldn’t maintain our brakes!’ and charge into the school building.”

“That’s illegal! Sayama-kun, don’t you have something to say about this?”

“Do not try to run up the stairs. Last year, there were some motorcycles flying off the roof, but I do not think it was a stunt.”

“We were targeting the motocross crowd. Preventing the front suspension from bottoming was hard.”

“I’m starting to see why this school is so strange,” commented Shinjou.

“Yes. Even someone practically brimming over with common sense like me has difficulty understanding a lot about this school.”

“S-sorry, but if you’re ‘brimming over with common sense’, how much do you think I have?”

“You? Common sense? I distinctly remember you asking what ‘that spinning square thing’ was when I turned on the game system in the dorm room. How can you not know about the rule of spinning polygons?”

“B-but it really was the first time I’d seen something like that…”

As Shinjou lowered his head, Harakawa sighed.

“Well, you could say this school gathers people with a strange sort of common sense.”

“I-I’m not strange.”

“Ha ha ha. Shinjou-kun, that is what all the strange people say.”

“Sayama-kun, I’m pretty sure I’m the one that’s supposed to say that.”

Harakawa smiled bitterly and gathered attention on himself again.

“More importantly, I’m sorry about this morning, Shinjou Setsu.”

“Oh, um, it’s fine. It was an accident and you actually let us explain. And if you’re going to apologize, apologize to Sayama-kun. I’ll be leaving the school before long.”

“Really? That’s news to me.”

Harakawa turned toward Sayama, but Shinjou could not bring himself to do the same.

“Yes, it is true.”

When Sayama did not deny it, Shinjou gave an emotionless nod.

“Also, Harakawa-kun, I don’t want to leave any misunderstandings behind. The one Sayama-kun is interested in…”

Shinjou paused.

“Yes. The one Sayama-kun is interested in isn’t me. It’s my sister…unfortunately.”

He casually added the “unfortunately”.

''Ah,'' gasped Shinjou in his heart.

He probably should not have said that. For Sayama’s sake and for his own sake.

To avoid any questioning from Sayama, he lowered his head.

But the one to take action was Harakawa. While facing Sayama, he nodded and poked at his shoulder.

“…”

He seemed to be reprimanding Sayama for something and he wordlessly drove off on his motorcycle afterwards.

The engine sounds slowly but surely grew more distant. Meanwhile, Shinjou bit into the apricot candy to stall for time. Some sourness joined the sweetness, but it was so little he had to focus on it to notice.

“Shinjou-kun.”

The voice he had dreaded arrived.

Wondering what he was going to ask brought a certain emotion.

…''I’m scared.

Would he seek some kind of conclusion here?

“Are you still feeling unwell?”

It took Shinjou the span of two breaths to understand the unexpected question and then he thought on it.

An answer floated up in his heart and he spoke it while looking toward the ground.

“I don’t know.”

[[Image:OnC_v04_0163.png|thumb]]

“You do not know?”

“I don’t know what I should do. I’m scared and I keep thinking only about myself.”

Having Sayama embrace him had brought such relief the night before, but now he felt he should avoid that.

…''What look is on my face right now?

“This is a weird question, but…Sayama-kun, are you interested in boys?”

“No, I am not. I am normal in that sense.”

“I see.”

Shinjou gave a weak nod and Sayama tilted his head.

Sayama’s gaze held concern, so Shinjou spoke up before he could say anything.

“Th-then… How do you feel about Shinjou Sadame?”

It took Sayama a moment to answer that testing question. He remained as expressionless as ever.

“She is important to me.”

“Yes,” said Shinjou. “I suppose she would be.”

He nodded and his vision grew distorted.

“Sadame is a girl and you are a boy. You don’t care about people seeing us this morning because you will choose Sadame. You…You can’t choose me, can you?”

“Shinjou-kun.”

He tried to say “What?”, but different words came out.

“Sorry, I don’t want to hear it.”

Sayama held out his hand and Shinjou twisted out of its way a moment later.

He turned his back to Sayama and lowered his head. The distortion to his vision fell to the ground.

He looked forward where a path led away from the school. A sudden breeze blew in.

“Sorry. I need to go calm down a bit.”

Shinjou ran forward and away from the school. He ran as far away from Sayama’s words as he could.

“Shinjou-kun!”

Shinjou did not turn back toward the voice. He heard footsteps pursuing him, but a group of elementary students visiting the school crossed their path and blocked the way for Sayama.

Shinjou took a breath, straightened up, and passed through the school’s gate.

…''I just did something I shouldn’t have.

Sayama was surrounded by the elementary students pressing in from the front gate.

He saw Shinjou turn a distant corner and disappear.

“Shinjou-kun! …What is with this crowd of children!?”

“With this many, it’s hard to lead them around.”

Sayama turned to the side and found Ooki scratching her head amid the sea of children.

“So it is our tardy teacher who is in charge of them. You appear unable to move, so when did you appear next to me?”

“I was just caught in the flow.”

“I am glad to see you are the same as always. Now, what is with these children?”

“On the way here, the head of a children’s home asked me to take the children to the festival since I was already late. I am quite popular, you see.”

“So even the children’s homes know my homeroom teacher is always late.”

“If possible, I would like to hear what you have to say about my popularity.”

Sayama ignored her.

He looked around and found a stomach-height crowd staring intently up at him.

“Anyway, Ooki-sensei. Why did you use these children to block my path?”

“When I arrived, I saw you and Shinjou-kun were playing a game of tag, so I had them join in and…ow ow ow!”

“Was it the brain inside this skull that had such an idiotic thought?”

Once Sayama gave Ooki a red spot, the elementary school students began swarming around them.

“D-don’t be mean to her!!”

“Do not let her fool you! She is a bad person!”

His decisive shout brought the children to a halt. They all stared up at them.

“A-a bad person?”

“N-no! Sayama-kun, why are you calling your teacher a bad person!?”

“Oh? Bring your hands to your heart and think very carefully. Have you never once done anything bad?”

Ooki brought her hands to her chest and thought.

“Um…” She tilted her head for several seconds and finally smiled without any further hesitation. “No, not once.”

“Under the Sayama code of law, lying is punishable by death. Are you sure you do not want to reconsider?”

Sayama glared at her with half-closed eyes, but someone suddenly called out behind them.

“Why are you people getting so worked up in the morning? You’re blocking the way.”

He turned around to find Brunhild standing beyond the children.

The art club’s stand sat on the sidewalk behind her.

It was shaped like a Venus de Milo measuring over ten meters tall. The statue was created with an increased bust and had a grilled chicken stand embedded in the stomach. Green smoke blew from the nose up above.

Brunhild smiled toward the children.

“Welcome.”

The black cat on her shoulder meowed and the children drew back.

As the group of children moved away like a receding wave, Sayama stepped forward.

“I thank you.”

“No need. Having them gathered here would affect sales. More importantly, are you preparing for 2nd-Gear’s Leviathan Road?”

“Did Kazami or one of the others tell you?”

“No. …Izumo is absent today, isn’t he? Have you heard why?”

“No. Kazami merely said he fell from the rooftop yesterday.”

“That sounds like one of her excuses. …From what I hear, they were doing some kind of training on the roof last night. She said they had figured out the trick to something, but Izumo had to sleep because of an injury.”

Sayama gave a bitter smile. That training had likely been to find a countermeasure for 2nd-Gear’s Art of Walking.

But he had nothing to say about the fact that they had not told him.

“They probably had another strange idea.”

“What will you do? Will you head to UCAT where your runaway friend’s sister is?”

“Yes, that is my plan. I have other business in Okutama, too. I was about to ask the dormitory head to call me if Setsu-kun returns and then speak with Sadame-kun at UCAT.”

“Speak about what?”

“About why I must be looked down on like this.”

“Eh?”

Brunhild’s questioning voice and expression elicited a bitter smile from Sayama.

“It seems Shinjou…Setsu-kun does not want to hear what I have to say.”

“There are times like that.”

“But I cannot stand it. And…I doubt that is what he truly wants.”

Sayama spoke his true feelings to the girl he had once fought.

“Who else is going to listen to what I have to say?”

“Don’t be so humble. Someone from 1st-Gear who listened to you is standing right here.”

“Do not misunderstand. I made you and your Gear listen by force. But with Shinjou-kun…both Shinjou-kun’s, I want them to listen of their own free will.”

“You have a serious case of just about every illness I can think of.”

“That is fine by me. They say overcoming all kinds of illness leads to good fortune. …The time has come for me to decide how to face them.”

“Then what will you do now?” asked Brunhild.

Suddenly, the left side of Sayama’s chest vibrated.

It was his cell phone.

He pulled Baku from his pocket and then grabbed his phone.

“It is me.”

“Sayama-sama? This is Sibyl of Team Leviathan. Do you have a moment?”

“Testament. What is it?”

“2nd-Gear has announced the details of the Leviathan Road. The time and place are 8 PM tomorrow in the concept space within Showa Memorial Park. 2nd-Gear’s representatives will carry out joint training with Team Leviathan and its support units. The victor will be the one to acquire Totsuka from the bridge in Susaou’s head. Simply put, it will be a mock battle. What do you think?”

“So the military god has finally made up his mind.”

“I predicted you would say something like that.”

Sayama frowned at the hint of enjoyment in her voice.

“Did the others give different comments?” he asked.

“A few, but one person said the same thing you did.”

“Who was that?”

“Ooshiro Itaru-sama.”

Sayama gulped.

''Why him?'' he wondered as Sibyl continued.

“Please come to UCAT soon. We must exchange the necessary paperwork and I will prepare the documents related to 2nd-Gear.”

“Testament,” replied Sayama before putting away his phone.

He looked up and found Brunhild looking at him.

“You are going to UCAT, then? I have business there as well.”

“To visit the 1st-Gear reservation? Send my regards to Fasolt and Fafner.”

“That family has recently seriously tried to create pulp from kitchen waste. It smells too bad to get anywhere near their house. And they got into a serious fight and partially destroyed that house recently.”

“Who knew giant monsters were battling so close to home?”

“Yes,” said Brunhild. “But you mentioned a military god, didn’t you? The god-class members of each gear are powerful. Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“This military god wants us to face him. And if you recall, I once faced a girl who was the god of the underworld and a dragon who could only be defeated with a holy sword. Nevertheless, here I am alive.”

“Not only are you foolish, you’re full of yourself, too.”

“I will take that as a compliment. It was someone who was referred to that way that defeated a god. …And I already know that the ones I am facing now are as formidable an enemy as you were.”

“I see.” Brunhild nodded and expressionlessly continued. “If you have not forgotten that, then I am still the god of the underworld. …But I am one who is no longer opposing you.”

“Then shall we go to UCAT together? I plan to head over once the afternoon group takes over here.”

Brunhild began to nod, but someone suddenly flipped her skirt up.

“…!”

She turned around to find one of the elementary kids from before. A boy in shorts was smiling at her.

“Yay! It’s the coldhearted girl’s panti-…gwoh!”

“Hm. Starting out with an iron claw? Rather harsh, don’t you think?”

“Sorry, Sayama. I’ll head to UCAT on my own after dealing with this kid.”

Ooki frantically ran over.

“Ahhh! I’m sorry, Brunhild-san! There are just too many energetic and perverted children!”

“Don’t worry about it. No one will be left to worry about it.”

“D-don’t say such ominous things with that cement-like face!”

As Ooki panicked, Brunhild smiled and pointed toward the stand behind her.

“Want to see it? Don’t worry. …I’ll convince you.”

On the north end of Akigawa was a cemetery on a mountain near Oume.

A sign reading Nishitama Cemetery and a pair of guests stood at the entrance.

Walking below the midday sun was a man and woman wearing black. They both had white hair.

One was Ooshiro Itaru and the other was Sf.

As he climbed the stairs to the cemetery, Itaru held his cane in one hand and a bouquet of chrysanthemums in the other.

Next to him, Sf held up a bucket of water in her right hand.

“Itaru-sama, should I carry the flowers for you?”

“Oh? How surprisingly considerate. Do you want to carry them that much?”

“No, not really.”

“Then I will have you carry them.”

Itaru handed Sf the flowers. She placed them in the bucket of water and looked around.

Tombstones were lined up along the mountain slope and a path continued on between them.

“I have determined this is an incomprehensible place.”

“Why?”

“Tes. If this megalithic culture was capable of constructing such ley lines, why was it destroyed?”

“It looks like your brain is tuned to some special program. …Remember this: the culture that made this is very much alive. It has not been destroyed. Also, this has nothing to do with ley lines.”

“So it is a graveyard? In that case, I have concluded it is all the more incomprehensible.”

Sf once more looked across the gravestones.

“If people felt strongly enough about the people to set up gravestones, why did they place them so far outside the city? If you have strong feelings, wouldn’t you place them nearby? I cannot make any sense of it, so I have determined the answer is based on emotions.”

“There are some things you feel are important and have strong feelings about but want to put at a distance. …You don’t understand that?”

“Tes. I cannot understand the actions of distancing something or distancing yourself from something.”

“Is that so?”

“Tes. For example, ever since I was activated in Japan, I have not left a one hundred meter radius of you. I have been monitoring your heartbeat, breathing, and body temperature in real time.”

“Oh? I see the Germans install extreme stalker protocols in their machines. I had always thought a maid and her master kept a fair bit of distance, but maybe I was imagining it.”

“That is not something I can understand without emotions.”

“I see, I see.”

Itaru came to a stop at the top of the staircase.

The graveyard lay on a gentle downward slope in front of him.

As he walked forward, Sf continued alongside him.

“My memory says we have been here once before. It was on the way back that we met Sayama-sama.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Tes. I choose a bow from my different apology options.”

Itaru stopped walking and Sf lowered her head.

A few seconds later, she began to raise her head, but something struck it.

“Itaru-sama, a chop has struck the back of my head.”

“It’s a form of silent communication. Doing things like this is fine from time to time.”

“Tes. But I have determined this was not your idea.”

“Oh, have you?”

He removed his hand and she adjusted her hair decoration.

“Tes. Unless you are troubled, you would not choose to touch me.”

“You remember too damn much.”

“Tes. My ability to brighten my master’s day with as-yet-unknown features is what makes me the secret masterpiece of German UCAT. Please look forward to what you will discover in the future. …Should I add a catchy comment at the end?”

“I would love it if you said ‘die’ or ‘go to hell’ with a smile.”

“Tes.”

Sf bowed, suddenly stopped moving, and recorded everything.

She turned her expressionless face toward her master and tilted her head concerning his action.

“Itaru-sama, what is with that weak chop?”

“I used to know a guy who did stupid things like that,” he said quietly as he came to a stop in front of a gravestone. “Sf, give me the flowers.”

“Tes.”

She handed him the flowers and he began to place them in the vase in front of the gravestone.

But someone must have been there before them because the vase already contained new flowers. And the bright flowers were not chrysanthemums.

“Diana…”

“Diana-sama? Why?”

“You wouldn’t understand, Sf. Not that I do either.”

With a bitter smile, he loosened his black necktie that blew in the mountain wind.

“This world is full of things I don’t understand. Not only that, but only me and a few other people even know of the world’s true mystery.”

“The world’s true mystery?”

“That’s right, Sf. Have you never thought about it? This Gear has nothing but negative concepts, so why has it never before fallen too far to the negative side and been destroyed?” His bitter smile deepened. “That Sayama must search out the answer to that question…no, he must search out an even greater answer than that. Those once known as the Eight Great Dragon Kings asked the question and the Five Great Peaks sealed the answer.”

He placed his own flowers in the vase.

“Sf, the water. …No, wait!”

He turned around just in time to see Sf preparing to dump the contents of the bucket on the gravestone.

“But you did this last time we were here… Is there a problem? I even checked my memory three times over.”

“Don’t repeat what every Japanese person thinks at some point.”

“Tes. I understand. You are saying I should not repeat a gag, correct? What gag should we go with this time?”

“German machines are a pain in the ass. …Do it like you’re watering the gravestone.”

“Tes.”

Sf pulled a small watering can from beneath her apron.

“Just out of curiosity, why were you walking around with that?”

“Tes. So I could carry out any request you might have. I was correct to bring my S equipment that I take with me on walks. The S stands for ‘stroll’ and the equipment was decided on with a strict lottery. Would you like to attend the next selection meeting? The prize for attendance is a notebook and pencil.”

“UCAT has become a very wasteful organization.”

“Tes. That is a sign of stability. …Hm?”

“What is it, Sf?”

“I only just now notice the name on this gravestone.”

The front of the watering can pointed toward the front of the gravestone. The sprinkled water revealed a name there.

“Sayama.”

Shinjou sat in a sofa with a jacket on as she waited in front of UCAT’s underground training rooms.

It was currently 4 PM and she was waiting for an opening in the training rooms. The adults around her were doing the same. The men’s and women’s locker rooms faced each other, so men and women of all ages gathered in the lobby.

“There isn’t going to be an open training room at this rate. But I told Sayama-kun I was training today.”

The wall in front of the locker rooms contained electronic boards displaying the status of each training room.

…''2nd-Gear is using all of them for official secret training.

As they were preparing to oppose the Leviathan Road, they had top priority. Even Team Leviathan had to wait for a cancellation that might not come.

She wondered what 2nd-Gear was doing.

…''They’ve definitely started moving.

That thought eliminated all calm from her body.

She wore white jeans and her legs were crossed. She rested both her elbows on her lap and held a small handheld game system.

A UCAT worker had given her the two-button device. The game took place in a southern ocean where the player repeatedly gathered treasure from the bottom of the ocean while avoiding the legs of a large oceanic creature that was trying to communicate.

But the old and blurry LCD screen would reach game over and stop running after only ten points.

She did not recognize any of the other people waiting.

She looked around and saw that it was truly a strange mixture of people.

Some of them were not even human and those stood out the most.

She then realized something. Ooki, for example, would not show her long ears except in a concept space.

''Do they not mix well with this Gear?'' she wondered. ''Do Sayama-kun and I mix well?

That last thought caused her to shake her head.

…''Why am I thinking such dark thoughts.

She put the game in her jacket’s inner pocket and stood up.

It was unlikely any of the training rooms would open up, so staying would only bring more dark thoughts.

Just as she decided to go elsewhere, everyone around her suddenly stirred.

“…”

She turned in the same direction as everyone else and saw one of the labels on the electronic board had changed. The scarlet indicator had vanished and a voice came from the speaker on the ceiling.

“Um, thank you very much for, um, using Japanese UCAT’s training room. Um, what comes next…? Oh, Training Room 7, Training Room 7. 2nd-Gear’s training is complete. The door will open soon, so be careful. The same training room will now be used by German UCAT. Um, anyone trying to force their way in will be… I just said not to go in, you goddamn ape!! Okay, the door will close now.”

Shinjou heard several disappointed groans and her own shoulders drooped.

She took two or three steps away from the others because she just wanted to get away.

But before she could, a new stir ran through the crowd.

A group had left the men’s locker room.

The men still wore UCAT’s white combat uniforms.

A dozen or so men walked out while still prepared for battle.

Their harsh atmosphere silenced the crowd.

Shinjou spotted Kashima and Atsuta within the group.

Kashima stood out at the front of the group because he alone wore a work uniform.

He was explaining some numbers to Atsuta while gesturing with his hands.

Behind those two were a few elderly men with tools hanging from their waists and people carrying computers and large instrumentation on stretchers.

The men waiting their turn commented as they passed by.

“They gathered all of 2nd-Gear’s engineers, didn’t they?”

And then everyone gasped when the next stretcher was carried from the locker room.

It contained a large white table on which a pile of Cowling Sword fragments sat.

It all had to have made up at least thirty swords originally.

The weapons had been created to combat alternate worlds, but they had broken.

“You can destroy those?” someone muttered.

No one else dared speak.

“…”

Shinjou stared blankly at the swaying stretchers and the men.

That was when Kashima looked up.

Her gaze met his head on.

“Ah…”

She took a step back, but the sofa was directly behind her.

By the time she wondered what to do, he was already right in front of her.

As she stood defensively, he opened his mouth to speak.

“You are Shinjou Sadame of Team Leviathan, aren’t you? Do you have a moment?”

Kashima looked at Shinjou in front of him.

She wore an orange jacket, a white shirt, and white jeans.

He felt it was not just his imagination that her slender frame looked unreliable. She had taken a defensive pose.

…''But she’s trembling.

Before entering the training room, Tsukuyomi had informed Ooshiro Itaru when the Leviathan Road would begin.

At the same time, Tsukuyomi had received documents on the members of Team Leviathan.

All of the documents had some portions blacked out because the information was classified.

But Shinjou Sadame’s document had contained a certain note.

…''Based on her mentality, it is possible she is not suited for an offensive role.

He had dug further and found that her Ex-St had never been used at its full output.

Most of the retrieved data stopped before reaching the highest output range. The one exception was a single time during the battle with 1st-Gear when the output had gotten very close.

He remembered it had been the same when he had met her in the cafeteria.

She had been standing right next to Sayama when Atsuta had provoked the boy, but she had not moved.

He did not know why.

The blacked out portions of her file may have explained it and they may not have.

The one thing he did know was that she was the one who stood by Sayama’s side.

''But,'' he thought. ''That boy hopes to fight.

Then what about this girl?

“Shinjou Sadame-kun, we have not met since the cafeteria, have we?”

“Wh-what do you want?” she asked cautiously.

He nodded once to put her at ease.

While thinking about her and Sayama, he spoke.

“Since then, I have chosen to fight. How about you?”

He saw her shrink back at his question.

She let out a short breath and looked up at him with no strength in her eyebrows.

“I don’t know…”

“But you want to know, don’t you? You asked me about my lie in the cafeteria.”

She thought for a moment before answering.

“I want to know? …What answer do you want?”

She was likely asking herself the same question, so he nodded.

As she trembled before his eyes, he spoke as if to teach her and to warn her.

“For the sake of the future, I want the answer to all my questions.”

He thought back and the landslide from eight years ago entered his mind.

“Why could I not forget my power when I tried so hard to forget?”

He recalled Natsu’s hand that he had grabbed.

“Why do I hurt the person who I want to be with?”

He thought of his parents.

“Why do I feel alone when so many people care for me?”

He recalled his grandfather on his deathbed.

“Why do I feel like I am out of sync with this world?”

And he brought back his memories of the past eight years.

“Why do I feel as if I cannot just choose one or the other?”

He asked each question in a calm tone, but Shinjou shrank back further and further.

He opened his mouth yet again as if to draw her back.

As he spoke his final question, he thought of Natsu, of Harumi, and of the future.

“Why do I want to gain everything with my own power even as these questions eat into me?”

Shinjou bit her lower lip and trembled.

She lowered her head as if thanking him. She then lowered her shoulders and let out a breath.

“Kashima-san, do you think you will receive your answer if you fight?”

“I will not receive my answer. I will go out and take it. …It scares me, though.”

She raised her head and looked at him with slight tears in her eyes.

He placed a hand on her head and stroked it gently to put her at ease.

“You do not know whether it is the truth or the lie that makes you fear yourself. But I am sure the person who cares for you is waiting for you on the side of truth.”

He took a breath.

“I spent eight years lying. When will you be able to choose yourself within the fear?”

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| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 21|Chapter 21]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume12 Chapter 15

2026-05-23T02:35:31Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 15: The Ordinary Extraordinary==
[[Image:OnC_v12_0421.png|thumb]]
''I thought

''I understood

''And finally, I decide

A room had a blackboard on the wall and several lines of desks.

The desks and chairs were filled by boys in black school uniforms and girls in navy blue uniforms.

However, the back of the far left row by the windows contained a color not seen in the rest of the room.

Everyone else’s hair was black, but this girl’s short hair was blonde.

The nametag on her uniform said Heo T.

Heo placed her notebook, textbook, and pen case on her desk before facing forward.

The windows on the left side of the classroom provided a view of the courtyard and the back of Building B. The classroom was located on the third floor of Building C, which was the farthest north of the buildings.

Despite the view of the gray sky, the air conditioning kept the chill out.

…''It’s actually a little too hot inside, so sitting by the window feels nice and cool.

With that thought, Heo began copying down what the teacher wrote on the blackboard.

This was modern Japanese class and they were working an interpretative problem.

She enjoyed class. She learned a lot and…

…''It helps me forget about last night, at least a little.

She remembered what Harakawa had said as he left.

He had told her to stay away from the Leviathan Road because she was safe.

He had said someone who was safe did not need to head into danger.

…''But…

She wondered what she was supposed to do if she saw something she wanted to protect in that danger.

She did not know the answer and that was why she had said nothing as he had left.

She suddenly realized something from that. ''Oh,'' she told herself.

…''He left because I couldn’t give him a proper answer.

In that case, had her anger been nothing but a misplaced outburst? She had already consumed a lot of their snacks, so…

…''C-calorie-wise, I’ve made a horrible mistake!

''No, I’ll be fine. I’m still young,'' she told herself just as she heard a voice.

“Heo? Troubled? Troubled?”

Surprised, she lifted her drooping head.

She looked around, but no one else had noticed the voice. She could only hear the air blowing in from the heater and the teacher’s chalk scraping on the blackboard.

She also heard the occasional turning of a page in a student’s notebook, so she relaxed her shoulders a bit.

…''Looks like they didn’t notice.

Her usual bag sat to the left of her desk, but she had brought an additional black backpack today and it was slightly opened.

A green point peeked out of the backpack. It was the nose of a plant creature.

The nose moved back and forth as if sniffing around and Heo whispered at it.

“Um, sorry, but I’m in the middle of class right now.”

“Outside.”

The creature unexpectedly began to leave the backpack as if peeling it away.

“!”

Heo frantically grabbed its shoulder and shoved it back inside.

“S-sorry, but it isn’t quite time to come out yet.”

“Heo? Panicking?”

…''Yes, I am!!

For the time being, she zipped up the bag with the creature’s nose sticking out.

She quickly looked around, but she only noticed a few people giving her curious glances.

They seemed to think she had only impulsively decided to take something out of her bag.

She nonchalantly faced her notebook again, stretched her back, and picked up her mechanical pencil.

She steadied her breathing and began copying down her notes again, while fully aware of the gazes on her.

…''I-I’m a delinquent. I really am a delinquent today. How could I bring an animal to school!?

When she thought about it, she realized not even delinquents brought animals to school.

Plus, this was not an animal. It was the resident of another world.

…''I-I’ve packed up what you could call a person. …I’m a world-class delinquent!

But this was part of her job as a member of Team Leviathan. The plant creature had showed up at her home, asked for her specifically, and asked to redo their negotiations.

Kazami had contacted her that morning and given her the following advice after hearing about the situation:

“Try to get along.”

That was about as vague as one could get and Kazami had also told her that Hiba and Mikage had been taken to the hospital the night before and that Top-Gear had stolen 3rd-Gear’s Concept Core.

It also seemed Sayama and Shinjou had arrived at Izumo UCAT.

That meant Heo had to deal with this on her own.

She could not leave a guest alone all day, so she had brought the creature with her.

“Heo. Water. Water.”

The worst part was its need to soak up water once an hour, so she quickly raised her hand.

“Excuse me! I’m not feeling well.”

Her elderly female homeroom teacher smiled bitterly.

“Miss Thunderson, don’t push yourself too much in your everyday life.”

The others gave her looks of pity, so she began to worry just what kind of character they saw her as.

At any rate, she left the classroom with the plant creature’s backpack in hand and she made her way to the building’s central hallway.

She opened the girl’s bathroom in the cold air and entered a stall.

She closed the pale green door and opened the toilet lid.

“U-um, you need water, right?”

She pulled a thermos of hot water from the backpack’s side pocket.

She then opened the backpack and the plant creature pushed its way out.

It bent itself toward the center of the open toilet.

“Water.”

“Y-you mustn’t use that water. You mustn’t.”

She gave the creature the same lecture for the third time that day and placed it across the toilet.

It placed its six feet along the open toilet seat and she poured a cup of the thermos’s hot water over it.

“Feels good.”

By the time the water passed through the plant creature, it had lost its heat.

The splashing sound would continue until the water ran out.

Heo breathed a sigh of relief that she was pulling this off.

…''D-dealing with other worlds isn’t easy.

She stretched while making sure her back did not touch the wall and the creature asked a question.

“Heo? What were you doing?”

“Studying Japanese.”

“Japanese?”

“That’s this country’s language.”

“Hard?”

She knew what it meant. They spoke directly via thoughts, so they used what one could call a perfect language. From their perspective, having to use many different languages might sound like a lot of hard work.

“I think it’s a lot of fun.”

“Then 4th boring?”

Heo gasped at that tremendous reversal.

She started by making sure she maintained her smile.

“Heo. Sweating.”

“Y-yes. It’s a very unpleasant sweat, too. N-no, you don’t need to absorb anything from me. You don’t. Th-this much is normal for me.”

''I can say some bold things when cornered, can’t I?'' she thought while finding an answer.

“4th’s language is fun too.”

“Why? Only one.”

Heo thought about the plant creature’s use of the word “one” and she chose her words carefully.

“In that case, languages are a means of conveying your thoughts, so Low-Gear’s languages and 4th-Gear’s language may take different forms, but they’re the same kind of fun in the end.”

After a while, the creature answered.

“4th and Low-Gear the same? Why?”

She knew the answer to that thanks to living in Harakawa’s home.

“Because we’re living together. Languages are meant to convey thoughts to each other, so even if they take different forms, they’re the same if we can properly convey our thoughts.”

“Living together makes the same?”

“Yes, together makes the same.”

''I’m speaking like it now,'' she thought with a bitter smile.

“Even if we’re different, we can be the same.”

“But Harakawa not together. Not the same?”

The ends of her eyebrows lowered at that question.

The plant creature had not seen Harakawa. She did not know where it had learned about him, but it was bothered by the fact that he was not with her.

Why was he not with her?

That was the question she most wanted to know the answer to.

…''Why?

However, she had to be a proper representative of Low-Gear when speaking to the 4th plant creature.

If 4th-Gear viewed Harakawa and herself as Low-Gear, then they were going through a slight civil war. She believed that it was only a temporary split and that it would not be permanent.

“Harakawa isn’t with me for the moment.”

“The same, but not with you? Always?”

She almost answered “maybe”, but…

“…”

She swallowed the words. She wanted to say no and she tried to come up with an excuse for doing so.

…''Oh.

After a realization, she gave her answer.

“Perhaps.”

“Really? Heo and Harakawa are not together?”

“Yes, perhaps.”

She gave a clear answer.

“But perhaps not.”

“Which one?”

Her voice was steady as she replied.

“I don’t know because it’s up to me.”

She was not sure, but she had a feeling this was the answer. She felt like this would lead her to the answer.

…''Yes.

If Harakawa had rejected her, she had to figure out why and fix whatever she needed to fix.

She had ended up crying because she had not tried to figure out what it was and she had assumed there was nothing wrong with her.

And as soon as she realized that, a knock came on the stall door.

“…!?”

The plant creature was not done with its water, so she was thankful she had locked the door.

“O-occupied!”

“Is that you, Heo T? Are you okay?”

The voice belonged to her class’s health committee member.

Heo nodded at the nickname her nametag had produced.

“Y-yes, I’m fine. What is it?”

“Our teacher told me to go check on you, Heo T. You’ve been talking to yourself a lot today and doing weird things. …Are you sure you’re okay? I’m been, um, hearing quite a lot of, uh, water in there.”

“Ohh…”

Oddly calm thoughts of “that’s a misunderstanding” and “what should I say?” entered her mind, but her silence must have worried the girl.

“U-um, Heo T? By any chance, d-did you really have to go?”

“Eh? Well, um…”

Heo looked down at the plant creature standing across the toilet and accidentally spoke aloud.

“This big green thing wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

“Eh!? Have you been eating a lot of fiber and a lot of beta-carotene-rich vegetables!?”

“Ah! N-no, ignore that! Ignore that! I didn’t say anything!”

“No, Heo T. You need to take care of this properly! Go to the infirmary and get a suppository!!”

“Suppository?” asked the plant creature.

“I-it’s a type of medicine,” replied Heo.

“Ah, Heo T’s talking to herself again! Teacher! Teacher! Heo T’s in trouble!”

Heo brought a hand to her forehead as she heard the bathroom door open and footsteps run out into the hallway.

“Today’s troubles are getting going earlier than usual…”

“Heo T?” asked the plant creature.

“Um, yes. Some people say my name that way.”

She sighed and touched the plant creature.

It had already gone through all the water.

Shinjou and Sayama stood in a dark corridor.

Shinjou held a fist-sized stone. It was the Messenger of Wanambi, but…

…''It’s warm.

The hard stone was emitting a gentle heat from within.

…''It’s been cold lately, so it would be nice having something like this under the covers at night.

Meanwhile, she saw something up ahead.

It was a long white console with a bookshelf and a cupboard for dishes.

“My mom’s workplace.”

The coffee cup she had seen in the past was in the cupboard.

She hesitated briefly.

“…”

She placed the stone on the console, opened up the cupboard, and pulled out the white cup with both hands.

It was cold, but she felt an imagined warmth in it.

The ends of her eyebrows lowered as she held up the cup and lowered her head.

“She was here.”

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes and she realized how prone to tears she had been lately.

So she breathed in, tensed her gut to hold in the tears, and embraced the cup.

“You can cry if you want, Shinjou-kun.”

“No.”

She forcibly shook her head, causing the drops in the corners of her eyes to waver.

“We’re going to Sakai. I’m sure I’ll cry there, so…I don’t want to cry until then. That way I can cry a whole bunch.”

She raised her head and forced a smile. ''The tears never left my eyes, so it doesn’t count as crying, right?'' she told herself as she wiped at her eyes.

She then gently set down the cup on the console.

“Are you sure?” “You won’t take it?” “Belongs” “to” “Yukio”

“My mom didn’t leave this for me and she didn’t spend her time with it after I was born. It belongs to her from the time she was here.”

“Tes” “Understood” “Yukio” “Different” “Shinjou” “Name” “Name?”

“Sadagiri,” she said firmly.

After a while…

“Shinjou” “Sadagiri” “Shinjou” “Yukio”

And…

“Individual” “Inherit” “Understood” “Tes” “Testament”

She nodded at that with a smile.

“Thank you.”

“Thank you” “Thank” “Thankful” “Grateful” “Great” “Amazing” “Maze” “Labyrinth”

“Does your excess intelligence sometimes send your associations out of control?”

“Sorry.”

And then…

“Speak to ourselves” “Happens a lot” “Try not to” “Endure” “Entertainment” “TV” “Video” “Osaka” “Arm”

They started playing shiritori.

…''I feel like I could watch them all day, but have they always been doing this?

She imagined Wanambi and them all rapidly playing shiritori to increase their heat while living in their empty world during the Concept War.

…''Actually, where did they learn that game?

''Probably Sayama-kun’s grandfather or my great-grandfather,'' she decided.

“I wonder if my great-grandfather was like your grandfather, Sayama-kun.”

“Sh-Shinjou-kun, please do not insult your ancestors like that.”

“Insult” “Insulate” “Insulation” “Too cold?”

“No, no. I’m fine,” answered Shinjou as she rubbed the head of the stone in front of her.

She then looked up.

Sayama did the same next to her.

They both looked to the darkness beyond the console.

In their dream of the past, it had been filled with a jungle of piping and walls of giant tanks, but now…

“What is this empty space?”

A spherical area fifty meters across was gouged out of the darkness.

The empty space had eaten into the surrounding machines and pipes as well. The neighboring machines and tanks all had the edge of a sphere torn into them and their internal components were exposed.

Shinjou could only think a massive space had utterly vanished.

Some panels were laid out at the bottom of the empty space to create a level area and futons were laid out on them. The automatons hiding out below ground were likely using it as a place to sleep.

“I bet that higher bed with a canopy is Miyako-san’s.”

Miyako’s voice reached them from the distant entrance.

“Don’t go peeking at our stuff!”

Shinjou tensed her shoulders and grabbed onto Sayama’s arm.

She questioned how they were supposed to investigate this area without seeing the beds, but…

“What is this hole? It wasn’t there in the dream, was it?”

“No,” Sayama shook his head and Baku emulated it from his head.

Suddenly, a voice reached them from further in.

“This was the result of creating a concept and then eliminating it. That prevented the facility from ever being used, but it also means the concept creation theory was completed.”

Shinjou turned toward the voice coming from down the corridor and the voice continued.

“Hi. You’ve seen a lot here, haven’t you? So can you tell me what you think of it all? Has it cheered you up and made you feel like you can keep going after all? Has it?”

The owner of the voice appeared from the darkness.

“That guy in the white suit.”

“That’s right. The name’s Izumo Retsu, so try to remember it if you can. I’m more famous than my son, after all. Anyway, since I fell down, I decided to wait for you on my way back up.”

The elderly man in a white suit revealed what he was hiding behind his well-built back.

It was a white, A4-sized touchpad, but…

…''It has the same cowling as a concept weapon!

''In that case,'' she thought.

Retsu smiled. It was a troubled smile with lowered ends of the eyebrows.

“8th-Gear’s Wanambi is in here. You can carry it back with you and complete the Leviathan Road on your way.”

His tone made it clear there was a “but”, so Shinjou stiffened.

Sayama spoke up as if responding to her tension.

“You sound like you have something else to say.”

“I would expect no less of Old Sayama’s grandson, Mikoto-kun. …Yes, there is something I want to say and something I want to ask.”

“Tell us what you want to say first.”

“I will.” Retsu nodded and looked to Shinjou. “Shinjou-kun, now that you have come here and seen that large empty space, have you noticed a certain mystery?”

Before she could ask what he meant, he looked to the large hole, narrowed his eyes, and continued.

“That was 1st-Gear’s writing concept. It was a pre-existing concept, but it was created as an original rather than a copy. But to make sure the double presence of that concept did not destroy the world’s balance, the concept created inside of an experimental concept space grew negative and caused that.”

“Then…my mom really did create a concept?”

“Yes.” Retsu’s voice was quiet and he stared into the distant darkness. “By constructing a theory based on the available data, she created a working theory.”

Those words led Shinjou to realize what he meant by a mystery.

There was indeed a mystery here. If her mother had successfully created a concept…

“Why was the facility below Okutama never completed?”

They would have had all the data and her mother would have had her theory near completion.

“Why?”

“That is simple. She went to Top-Gear and…she made some clever alterations to the data she left behind.”

His use of the word “alterations” left her speechless.

However, he looked her way and spoke with a calm expression.

“I feel like making a joke here. Should I?”

“No. I think that’s due to the pervert genes of the Izumo family, so just keep talking.”

Retsu hung his head and sighed, but he quickly looked back up with a troubled expression.

“Well, anyway. By the time we checked over the data, it was too late. Once we had reason to doubt some of the data she left, all of it started looking suspect, so Asagi-kun decided to end the project. All that remained was the wasted facility on Japanese UCAT’s sixth basement…and the fact that Low-Gear was in trouble.”

“B-but why? Why did my mom do that?”

“I don’t know. I’m not your mom, so I can only guess.”

She fell silent at that and he shrugged.

“Was that a little too harsh for you? But it’s the truth. And none of us know why it happened. Was she telling Low-Gear to die? Or did she not want Low-Gear to use concepts as a weapon? That’s for you two to find out.”

“For us to find out?”

“None of us want to remember those times, but you want to investigate it, don’t you? And you’re their kids. You have more right to know and to think about it than I do.”

With that said, Retsu straightened his back, tossed up the PDA in his hand, and caught it.

“I just gave you ‘the past’ as a gift. So next…”

“You want my brilliant self to give you ‘the present’ as a gift?” asked Sayama.

“That speeds things up.” Retsu smiled and brushed a hand through his gray hair. “Yes, I just have one thing I want to ask you. …If, hypothetically, Top-Gear turned out to be one hundred percent in the right, would there be any point in lending you Wanambi? There wouldn’t, would there? So I want to ask you why you would borrow Wanambi and complete the Leviathan Road if Top-Gear is in the right. Or to put it more bluntly…”

He took a breath, spun around for no reason, and pointed at Sayama.

“Prove to me you can complete the Leviathan Road even if Top-Gear is entirely in the right!”

Shinjou thought about what Retsu’s question meant.

…''That’s what Sayama-kun was talking about, isn’t it?

She remembered their conversation on the emergency staircase the day before.

…''He told us he has a last resort against Top-Gear.

It was something that even Sayama had referred to as “treading on thin ice”, but that was exactly why it was a last resort.

…''What is it?

Sayama crossed his arms in the face of his questioner.

“Father of Izumo, what a silly question. What if I were to say I simply hate quitting something without finishing it?”

“Your need to ask ‘what if’ is enough to know that isn’t the case. Get on to what you really think.”

Shinjou was taken aback by Retsu’s reasoning.

…''He isn’t letting Sayama-kun have his way.

''I probably would have fallen for it,'' she realized.

“Mikoto-kun,” said Retsu with a bitter smile.

“Please, there is no need to use ‘-kun’. You can simply call me ‘Mikoto-sama’.”

Sayama ignored Shinjou’s glare and Retsu’s bitter smile grew.

“Then, Mikoto-sama, I’m sorry to say that I’ve known your father and grandfather for a long time. I’ve come to learn quite a few verbal tricks in that time. …Do you get what I’m saying?”

“Yes. You are saying you have an overabundance of terrible memories.”

“Wow, the grandson’s the same? That’s three generations in a row!!”

“Heh heh heh. It won’t be long until Shinjou-kun and I produce the fourth generation. Prepare yourself.”

That comment surprised Shinjou.

She took a step back and brought a hand to her chest.

“But they’ll be like me too. Then again, your side might be so strong it overpowers my side.”

“Hmm. I seem to have misspoke, Shinjou-kun. That is not what I meant. I would want our child to have your beauty, eroundism, intelligence, hardworking spirit, rejecting acceptance, and blessing from the butt spirit.”

“I’m not sure all of those are compliments.”

At any rate, Shinjou pointed down the corridor.

Sayama looked down that way and saw Retsu crouched down and playing shiritori with the Messenger of Wanambi.

“Fox. Ha ha ha. How do like the suffering of all these x’s? …Oh, are you done over there?”

“Yes, can we continue speaking?”

Retsu nodded and stood up. He looked over at them from his great height.

“Right now, my stupid son’s bridal candidate says the other kids are renegotiating with the other Gears. So you can finish the Leviathan Road with 8th-Gear, learn of the past in Sakai, and put together a plan to deal with Top-Gear. …But when are you going to handle 9th’s Leviathan Road? 9th is pretty much the Army’s main force. And…”

His mouth opened wide and bent up in a smile.

“When are you going to do Top-Gear’s Leviathan Road?”

That question brought something to mind for Shinjou.

…''First, Kazami-san and the others have to defeat the other Gears in their rematches to preserve the previous parts of the Leviathan Road.

“And if we finish the Leviathan Road with all of the Gears except for 9th-Gear, which was the Army, and Top-Gear…”

…''The Gears will either take Top-Gear’s side or Low-Gear’s side.

She quietly spoke her conclusion aloud.

“The world will split into two factions which can meet for a negotiation.”

She brought a hand to her mouth and raised her voice to a yell.

“Every Gear can gather and hold a negotiation over whether Top-Gear or Low-Gear is right!”

“Indeed,” agreed Sayama. “We can create a venue for more than just Top-Gear’s view!”

He looked to Retsu.

“No matter what sort of righteousness Top-Gear has on their side, we can hold it back. …No matter how righteous the past may be, it is limited in number. If a greater number support the present’s righteousness, the past’s righteousness has no choice but to restrain itself!”

“You mean you won’t let the past rule unopposed?”

“Yes. I do not yet know what form this meeting will take. I do not even know if Top-Gear will agree to it, what topics to discuss, or how to set it up. Not knowing if such a thing can be arranged at all is the biggest challenge at the moment.”

Based on their periodic contact with the others, they knew 3rd-Gear’s Concept Core had been stolen, 4th was renegotiating with Heo, and 2nd was still a mystery. There were too many unknowns for concrete plans at this point.

“Also,” said Sayama. “At that meeting, we will be competing with Top-Gear to see who is in the right. We just received a large hint from Shinjou Yukio’s past, but we must solve those mysteries in our negotiations with 8th and the further information on her we find in Sakai.”

Shinjou listened to him talk about her mother.

“We must face whatever led up to Top-Gear’s destruction and determine the truth.”

She gave a deep nod at that because the past he was searching for was closely connected to her.

…''I want to find the truth about my mom and the others.

Sayama smiled a bit and nodded toward her.

“Yes,” he began. “We know two things for sure. First, the end of the Leviathan Road comes at the conclusion of the Leviathan Road meeting where each Dragon’s representative is gathered. And second, we will use the past and future we have gained to battle Top-Gear there.”

He extended his left hand toward Wanambi in Retsu’s hand.

When Retsu saw his outstretched hand, he showed off his teeth in a smile.

“An excellent idea. In that case…”

Just as he was going to say something more, he stopped.

''Eh?'' thought Shinjou as she noticed where he was looking.

…''Below?

She looked at his feet where the Messenger of Wanambi’s sand was forming letters.

“Hurry it up” “Hand it over”

“It sounds a little like the yakuza,” commented Shinjou as Retsu reluctantly and silently passed them Wanambi.

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume12 Chapter 14|Chapter 14]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume12 Chapter 16|Chapter 16]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume10 Chapter 13

2026-05-22T03:50:53Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 13: The World’s Expression==
[[Image:OnC_v10_0327.png|thumb]]
''It is hidden

''And it is trampled on

''It then flatly vanishes without bending

The sunlight was shifting to afternoon.

The sky was clear and the air was still.

The westering sun was accompanied by the scent of the ocean as someone ran down an asphalt slope.

It was Shinjou.

Her long black hair danced while tied back in a ribbon, the bottom of her orange jacket swayed, and the bag on her back and her skirt hopped up with each running step.

“I need to hurry.”

She held copy paper with the Sakai municipal office’s stamp on it. It contained the information on volunteer centers and churches she had received at that municipal office.

She saw a mountain to the east and the city and port bordering the Seto Inland Sea to the west.

A faded sign for tourists was set up halfway up the slope. It indicated that Sakai’s port was located down below.

About two hours before, she had received quite a bit of information at the municipal office.

…''But a lot happened before that.

She had arrived in Osaka in the early morning.

She had left the night train at Osaka Station and looked up at a train station’s route map for the first time.

It had also been her first time to check with a station attendant despite standing right in front of the proper platform and her first time unfolding her map despite being on the right road.

…''I don’t know anything about the world and I’m really not used to traveling.''

By the time she had finally managed to reach the Sakai municipal office, it had been just before nine in the morning. The office had yet to open, so she ate a light breakfast at a nearby café and then faced the morning congestion inside the office.

…''I went there to get a list of orphanages or churches.

According to the document in Izumo UCAT, Shinjou Yukio had been left with an orphanage church in Sakai.

She had asked for city documents from before the earthquake, but she had received a certain response.

“There is no complete documentation from before or after the earthquake.”

…''You’re kidding.

These were records for something as large-scale as a city and yet they did not exist.

This was mostly due to the old municipal office burning down, but that was not all: the landscape had changed during the earthquake, a lot of people had left the city, a lot had come to the city, and a lot of documentation had simply stopped being updated partway through.

The city’s newer documents were updated much more frequently because the government had decided to fully digitize everything in 2002, but the old paper documents were barely even treated as documents anymore.

Shinjou recalled the explanation given by the woman at the municipal office.

“Things like real estate and banks were linked with other information and completed in order to preserve the bare minimum of the old information needed to keep everything running. But…there’s some information that we can get by without, right? We wanted to put the people at ease and recover as quickly as possible, so we got the office back up and running even if it meant abandoning a fair bit of information. After all, the sooner the office was back to normal, the sooner we could bring back public order and the city administration.”

“…”

“The people who lost their houses in the large-scale landslides abandoned their destroyed land and moved. A lot of people did the same with the houses they lost in fires. There is documentation for the people who did report the loss, but the city bought up the land of those who lost everything or the land that is too dangerous to live on. There was so much confusion at the time that a lot is still unknown. Even now, people will find their old land was mistakenly registered as their neighbor’s.”

The woman had sighed and apologized.

…''That could normally never happen.

It had happened so easily because the situation had needed to advance even if everything was not perfect.

The problem was how to compensate when it did happen. That was the most effective way of using your time and effort and this city still had no time or effort to spare.

In another decade or two, they would likely have become a city that could immediately answer Shinjou’s question.

Shinjou did know one thing.

According to the research she had done before the trip, a quarter of the city’s population of eight hundred thousand had arrived after the earthquake.

Numerically, that was two hundred thousand people.

In ten years, a full quarter of the city had been remade, including the residents themselves.

“Those people came here to help with the trouble that still remains. The office was in such a rush back then that we couldn’t handle everything. …Just the other day, some people came from another prefecture after finally deciding to visit their relatives’ graves.”

As she spoke, the woman had made the list of churches.

There were about forty of them.

“There are probably street corner churches and ones using prefabricated buildings left over after the earthquake. The places that registered or moved when the phone lines were down often didn’t bother writing down their phone number. And during the phone number changes the year before last, the areas with phone lines cut by the faults were given entirely new numbers, but…”

“But the change might not have been recorded here?”

“That would normally never happen, but we’re still dealing with the disaster. So…”

The woman had handed over a few pieces of copy paper.

They contained a few phone numbers, addresses, and group names.

“These are the earthquake volunteer offices. I don’t know if they’re still running, though. We made sure they could work without having to register their activities with the city.”

Shinjou had taken that list and was now hurrying along.

She had a reason to hurry. After leaving the municipal office, she had eaten lunch at a café and called UCAT.

…''Ooki-sensei was the one to answer.

The woman had insisted nothing had happened and that everything was fine.

''That was a lie,'' she thought. ''Something happened.

…''She would normally unintentionally say something that made me worry.

However, Ooki had immediately said everything was fine and that nothing had happened.

Something must have happened to Heo, Harakawa, Hiba, or Mikage after the phone call the night before.

Pain suddenly filled her stomach.

This intermittent pain had begun in the morning and it was the same pain she had at the end of every month in place of a period. Perhaps due to her worried stress, it was especially bad today.

Even so, she ran. She needed to quickly finish this personal business and return. She intended to return on the bullet train the following morning.

…''I can complete today’s tasks as long as I have the time. I will eventually find Shinjou Yukio.

That fact eliminated the pain in her stomach.

She was pursuing someone who might not even be her relative, but she would limit that personal business to this one day. Heo and Ooki had both told her to do her best, so she would do what she could.

However, today was the only day for that.

She would use this one day for herself, but then she would return to her proper place and act alongside those who were with her.

And once that proper place was safe, she could act for herself once again.

A late-night bullet train could reach Tokyo this same day.

With that thought, she let out a breath.

“This one is the largest volunteer office. I’ll start there!”

The address was near the entrance to Sakai’s port. Apparently, the largest volunteer office had existed there from the earliest stages in order to process the relief goods. It was at the top of the list she had received at the municipal office.

If she went there, she would be able to gather the broadest range of information.

Her running feet took her down the slope to the port.

The sea air seemed to sting her skin and smelled somehow nostalgic. This was the scent of the Seto Inland Sea she had experienced during the summer.

The road reached a T-intersection. The road continuing right and left was wide and something came into view beyond the guardrail across that road.

“The sea.”

She saw the back of the port’s wharf beyond the slope’s T-intersection.

She was in an elevated area, so she was able to look down on the Seto Inland Sea.

The sea almost looked black and it reflected the pale late autumn sun like a fish’s scales. She saw the lines of ships parting those scales and realized the sight before her eyes was much larger than she had thought.

…''It’s so big.

She looked down and saw the wharf was brand new.

She recalled what Kazami had told her on the helicopter ride to the Seto Inland Sea during the summer.

“Back then…”

After the Great Kansai Earthquake, IAI had provided large-scale support for a recovery.

They had built an artificial island and all of the transportation routes – whether by land, sea, or air – had run from there.

The coastal port would have been remade at that time and then officially built even later.

The city had been made new, but that new city filled Shinjou with a certain emotion.

…''It scares me.

The old things were disappearing. One day, those things would suddenly vanish and something new would take their place.

A quarter of the city’s population was made up of people who had arrived after the earthquake. They would of course know about the earthquake, but…

…''They don’t know what actually happened beneath their feet or in the places they can see.

''I’m the same,'' she thought, but then a memory of the past came to her.

She remembered the firebombing of Tokyo.

While in Shinjuku during the Leviathan Road with 2nd-Gear, she had seen the moment in the past when the city of Tokyo had been burned away.

The city and so much else had been lost then and replaced later.

The Concept War was similar.

Many Gears had vanished and the survivors were being replaced here in Low-Gear.

Thanks to her classes, her textbooks, the newspapers, and the TV news, Shinjou knew this country had fought a war.

She had looked through quite a bit of historical information in the library since she had started attending school.

Even so, she did not know what was buried beneath her feet.

Even so, she did not know if the scenery around her was the same as it had once been.

Even so…

…''I don’t know my father or my mother.

She had already thought about this after the dream of the past Baku had given her the day before.

In the dream, Sayama’s parents had rushed though the burning city of Osaka.

…''But what were they fighting?

The remains of their battle might lie beneath her feet as she walked through this city that had been destroyed in an earthquake.

…''And are my parents down there, too?

“————!?”

She shuddered and woke from her thoughts.

She wanted to cling to someone, but that someone was not with her. And she only realized that because…

“I’m trying to cling to him.”

He was not here. Everything was back to the way it had been.

It was the same as when she had been alone in UCAT for so long.

“But it’s different now.”

She had somewhere to return to, so she could go outside. She had someone to cling to for support, so she could leave him for the time being. She had no parents, so she was searching for them. It was all perfectly natural. And so…

“Here I go.”

She faced the T-intersection and her gaze settled on the ocean beyond it. She trembled a bit from the unease trying to control her, but it was weak enough that she could still move.

“Here I go!”

The road to the right continued down the slope to the port’s entrance.

She began to run to the bottom of the slope while watching the Seto Inland Sea rise to her left. She ran to the port and her goal.

The firmness of her footsteps on the asphalt helped her control the tremble in her heart.

…''It’ll be okay.

It would take time, but she could continue pursuing Shinjou Yukio.

In the same way, she would eventually find her parents.

Suddenly, something rose up from the left side of the slope.

It was a green two-story prefabricated building. It had a large gray storehouse behind it.

“!”

The prefabricated roof was covered with stacks of plywood panels and on top of blue sheets and lumber.

The green corrugated iron wall had the words “Great Kansai Earthquake Sakai Port Relief Office” written in black spray paint.

“…!”

Shinjou sped up.

She was now racing down the hill more than she was running.

Eventually, her legs could not keep up and wide gaps appeared between footsteps.

She was almost leaping as she made her way down the slope.

She circled around the guardrail and into the open area at the port entrance.

Beyond the people running transport vehicles and forklifts, she saw the wharf that was now level with her.

She heard cranes moving, vehicles beeping as they backed up, many different voices, and countless engines.

The smell of salt water was strong.

However, she ignored it all.

She moved left as if reversing her downward momentum and she threw her body toward the prefab building.

The building was less than ten meters from the port entrance.

She imagined knocking on the door, giving a greeting, and entering to walk across the somewhat soft floor. She pictured a man or woman like the one at the municipal office.

“…Eh?”

Her imagination stopped there.

And that was not all that had stopped. Her legs, her momentum, and the strength in her gaze had all stopped as well.

She simply faced forward.

She looked to the prefab building in front of her.

“It’s…closed?”

Shinjou saw a closed door.

Beyond the glass on the upper half of the aluminum sash door was a curtain faded to white by the sun.

No light could be seen beyond the curtain.

“…”

Her feet suddenly moved and brought her closer.

She stepped up on the block used in place of a front step.

“Excuse me…”

She called out and knocked on the door.

The glass shook and the corrugated iron wall audibly bent a little.

She waited a few seconds, but there was no response.

Unable to endure the silence, she spoke.

“Um.”

She lightly knocked on the door.

“Excuse me.”

She knocked.

“I have a question!”

But there was no response. All she heard was the shaking of the door and the bending of the corrugated iron.

After those sounds of her own creation vanished, she listened to the surrounding noises once more.

She heard the moving cranes, the beeping of transport vehicles backing up, people’s voices, and running engines. Those sounds of the city permeated her from behind.

Her silhouette was reflected in the window with the somewhat dulled sunlight in the background. It was reflected in the darkness beyond the curtain.

“Um…”

With that weak call, she peered inside.

There was nothing there.

No, there was something. Blue sheets were laid out on the plastic floor, plywood panels were piled up, and a few folding chairs were stacked on top of those.

She also saw color on the ceiling.

…''Chains of colored paper?

They must have been celebrating something because several chains of colored paper were still hanging from the ceiling.

That was all. She could see nothing else.

“…”

She took a step back and found nothing there.

She completely forgot she had been standing on a block.

“Ah.”

She fell onto her butt.

Looking up at the door from the ground, she noticed something.

A piece of paper had been stuck on the inside of the door’s glass in front of the faded curtain.

Still sitting, she looked at the paper that had also faded. She read aloud the large writing printed off from a word processor.

“Exactly nine years have passed since the earthquake and we are entering the tenth year. We have long received support, but the time for widespread material relief efforts has ended. We believe it is now time for local support, efforts of the recovering city administration, and moral support.”

…''When we opened this office, we decided we could not continue running it for a full decade. Not because we could not keep it up but because we could not allow the earthquake to take a full decade of our lives from us. We were determined to take back our lives before a decade had passed.

“We lost so very much, but the people in temporary housing have all been moved to permanent homes and the city’s population was reported to have surpassed the pre-earthquake number last year. We are viewing that as a sign that we have truly retrieved our lives, so we have decided to close up before entering the tenth year. From now on, local areas will handle their own problems. We would like to thank all of you for the support you have provided us for so long. We are praying for the happiness of those lost in the earthquake, those lost in the recovery, and those who live on.”

The date it gave was the end of the previous year. After that, it gave contact information said to have been valid through March of this year, phone numbers of local volunteer offices, and the phone number for the municipal office.

And that was all.

…''What is this?

She knew.

The municipal office was still dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake, but the large-scale disaster relief stage had already ended.

After ten years, the land had been restored, houses had been built, the city had been made into a place for people to live once more, and the population numbers had returned.

The main issue in the current stage was administrative troubles.

“…”

Still sitting on the ground, she suppressed the emotions welling up in her heart.

While restraining her heart, doubts filled her mind as words.

…''Is the past being replaced by the present?

She did not know what had been below her feet or in the places she could see around her.

It had all been replaced with new things.

“And even if you try to remember the past and record it, the memories feel fresh yet you can’t go that far.”

She would eventually learn about the past, but that was a long time from now.

By then, she would have nothing left connecting her to that past.

Part of her thought that was fine, but she also shook her head.

“I’m standing in the divide between the past and a new era.”

As she muttered those words, something thin and hard fell onto the back of the right hand she had placed on the ground.

She looked down and found the envelope Sayama had given her.

He had given it to her while saying he was leaving her with a piece of his past and it seemed to have slipped from the opening of her backpack.

…''The envelope makes itself known as forcefully as its sender.

Feeling like she was being embraced by the one who had left it with her, she picked it up.

If she let this break her, she would never be able to read it.

''Right,'' she thought while gathering strength.

Suddenly, a man called out to her from the wharf.

“Hey! That place isn’t running anymore! You should head to the municipal office!”

“R-right!”

She stood up, turned around, and found a man raising his hand in a group of men walking between warehouses. The gesture seemed to be telling her to keep trying.

She bowed and turned around. She grabbed the backpack, put the envelope away, and pulled out another document. It was the list of volunteer offices and churches.

She looked down at it and took a deep breath.

“Calm down.”

She had run all the way here, but now that she thought about it, she had been in too much of a hurry.

She could only think the anxiety and hope of her first trip alone had mixed together and excited her.

She was nervous, but she could do what she needed to do.

Before she returned to Tokyo the following morning, she wanted to grasp a part of her past that would otherwise be forgotten. That way she could use that part to drag out the past when she eventually came here again.

…''I need to think.

She put the bag on her back and began to walk with the papers in hand.

“How can I most efficiently check all of them?”

The sky was a little bit cloudy.

A girl and a white dog walked through the faint shadows cast on a road.

They were Shino and Shiro.

While walking along the wide sidewalk, Shino checked the sign hanging below the street’s traffic light.

…''Akigawa.

This had been a long walk.

She lived in Hachioji to the south of Akigawa, but the cities were only directly connected by road and several mountains divided them. She had taken the train, so she had been forced to travel through Tachikawa or Haijima station.

This walk could be called a short trip.

She saw no problem in bringing Shiro with her. He cast no shadow, but it was an overcast day.

He was an information being, but he generally treated the walls and ground as solid to match Shino.

He would always “hide” somewhere on the trains out of concern for her.

Whenever she passed through the ticket gate, he would vanish and he would reappear by her side once she left the ticket gate.

He had learned to hide after she had tried to take him with her and gotten into an argument with the station attendant.

She did not know how it worked, but it was probably completely normal for him.

Currently, he was allowing himself to be seen as she walked alongside him.

She had passed by the municipal office earlier and she was now walking right into the wind blowing down from the north.

A long wall continued to her right.

“That’s Taka-Akita Academy, isn’t it?”

She always saw those buildings when she came to Akigawa. In fact, one could say the facility was Akigawa itself.

A group in white approached from up ahead.

…''?

She reflexively grew defensive, but she realized it was a group of girls in white track suits.

A female teacher drove a car behind them while shouting to set their tempo.

“C’mon, you have to help prepare for the festival and you still have normal classes until midday.”

“Ah, I wish we were in Ooki-sensei’s class. They have a self-study day today.”

The teacher gave a bitter smile as she responded to the student’s exasperated comment.

“C’mon, you delinquent students. Don’t you know Ooki-san goes to the trouble of teaching supplementary lessons? Of course, that’s to make up for how often she’s late.”

Laughter spilled out and the entire group picked up speed.

That was for a PE class, so they were likely running a long distance. Shino waited for the footsteps and voices to approach.

“————”

She and Shiro watched them pass by.

Most of the students had their heads drooping and were weakly leaning forward as they propelled their bodies in the same direction. Shino imagined they were sick of running.

A few of them softened their expressions as they looked at her and Shiro, but…

“C’mon, quit looking to the side. You’re gonna trip.”

''What’s wrong with that,'' thought Shino while watching them pass by.

But at the same time…

…''That may be true.

She did not know what a life like theirs was like.

She had never lived a life like theirs.

She could not live a life like theirs.

They lived in the same world, they were both human, they were from the same generation, they wore the same sort of clothes, they ate the same kinds of food, they breathed the same air, and they experienced the same time, but something was different on a fundamental level.

…''How long will this last?

“Shiro, let’s go.”

When would she be able to call herself a “normal” person?

She recalled what Hajji had said.

…''When we crush UCAT and wipe out the last remnants of the Concept War.

She began to walk into the blowing north wind with Shiro by her side.

She walked beside that wall she could never enter.

“Shiro, Hajji told me something. The Army’s attack tonight will change tomorrow morning. The morning will change in some fundamental way that the rest of the world doesn’t know about. Nothing else will change, but the victors known as UCAT will vanish and the world will belong equally to everyone.”

She rubbed Shiro’s head while walking alongside him.

“People want to avenge the past or avenge what was lost, but with the target of that vengeance gone, they will have no excuses left and will have no reason left to fight. …It may take time, but we will all be able to live together in the same world, as identical humans, in the same generation, while wearing the same sort of clothes, while eating the same kinds of food, while breathing the same air, and while experiencing the same time.”

She looked down at the dog’s walking feet. They scraped on the asphalt, but he did not cast a shadow.

“Will I be able to live with you too, Shiro? Even if nothing else changes, if the rulers vanish, then eventually…”

They reached the wide main entrance, but she did not peek inside the school.

She turned her back, crossed the road, and continued on.

Shiro must have remembered the way because he walked on ahead.

It was true she had taken Shiro this way a few times before. She would sometimes come here without telling anyone else. Hajji seemed to have a hunch, but Mikoku only thought she was going to some distant place for fun.

…''Should I really be doing this?

They had all been given some free time because this was the day of the attack, but Mikoku was training on her own to make up for losing to Jord the night before.

On the other hand, Shino had come here. She was using her free time for herself.

…''But all I’ve been doing is thinking.

“Sorry, Shiro. We can go to the usual central park later.”

He turned back toward her and gave a small bark.

She felt like he was trying to cheer her up, so she smiled.

She walked between the houses lining the road and saw thin clouds in the sky.

The clouds were supposed to clear by nightfall, but she wondered if they really would.

She also had another thought.

…''What will happen once the attack is over?

Whether they won or lost, a lot would change.

…''But one thing will return to normal.

“Mikoku.”

The girl would no longer have to tell Shino not to fight.

In fact, Shino would be the one telling Mikoku they no longer needed to fight.

She could not wait for that to happen.

She wanted all the fighting to end and for Mikoku to not be so upset all the time.

“…”

She slowly came to a stop.

At the same time, she heard an electronic chime and a voice behind her.

“The festival committee will now announce the beginning of today’s school festival preparations and would like to give some warnings. Let’s see… First, when riding a bicycle, motorcycle, or car onto school grounds, make sure your license is displayed in a visible place. Second, ‘I couldn’t resist any longer’ is no excuse for making the preparations in the nude. And third, if anyone else tries to sell stimulants at increased prices in the cafeteria, the committee’s purge division will…”

Shino simply sighed without even turning toward the voice.

“Ahh.”

She began to walk away from the sounds behind her and the people creating them.

“It will all be over soon and then I can be with Mikoku and the others.”

She had waited for so long, but that wait would end tonight and she would have all her answers by morning.

She briefly closed her eyes and nodded.

…''If I…

“If I had been like Shinjou-san, I wouldn’t have had to wait for the new world,” she muttered. “If only I had been someone irreplaceable.”

She looked up and faced forward.

There, she saw what lay in front of Shiro as he sat and waited for her.

It was a large house surrounded by a long fence.

She walked toward the wooden gate and saw a nameplate that said “Tamiya”.

“I came here again…”

Her voice sounded both resigned and exasperated.

A moment later, a female voice reached her from beyond the gate.

“Like! I! Said!!”

The tone of protest made Shino gasp.

She wondered what was going on and the voice traveled through the gate once again.

“Honestly, Kouji. Why are you such a stubborn boy!?”

A young man and woman faced each other in the Tamiya family yard.

The woman wore a blue kimono and the man wore a gray suit.

The man spoke to the woman whose eyebrows were raised.

“Fine, fine. Just calm down, my sister. Besides, you shouldn’t be calling your brother a ‘boy’ when he’s past twenty.”

“Then I’ll level you up to a stubborn man. Or I could say you were ‘born stubborn’ to make it rhyme.”

“Ha ha ha. They may be spelled the same, but they don’t actually rhyme. …Anyway, you need to spend some time in the storehouse thinking about what you did. I can’t believe you would give the young master some of our special drugs.”

“But he and Setsu-chan are like family. What’s wrong with giving them some of our drugs?”

“Those are for business! They’re for the guests in the confinement room down below. Just because mom and dad are on a hot spring excavation tour in the hopes that Mount Aso will erupt doesn’t mean you can just take some.”

“But, but, but. Won’t this help advance their relationship? Do you really not get it, Kouji?”

The woman, Ryouko, sighed while striking a pose like it had started to rain.

“They’re going to be apart for a little bit, so they’re just using some drugs to excite themselves and get them through the rebound. There’s nothing wrong with this. And if it goes well, it means I was their Cu-Cu-Cu-Cupi-…”

“Cupid. You can’t even say that right?”

“I-I just stuttered a little. I don’t remember raising a man who would gripe about something so trivial! …And if you don’t like it, try saying some profound thing yourself!”

“I’d really like a peaceful everyday life.”

“That’s definitely not happening.”

“Why is that the only time you give a serious answer!? …And you’re the reason it isn’t happening!”

After Kouji shouted, his shoulders drooped.

“Anyway, sister, I would also like to say I wasn’t raised to be like that, but don’t forget that a large part of my personality was formed by cleaning up after your mistakes.”

“Wh-what? Are you saying it’s my fault you’re like this?’

“About eighty percent your fault, yes.”

“You mean you have eighty percent of a sister complex!? Oh, you poor thing! You’re definitely dangerous!”

“Calm down one hundred percent, my sister. How in the world did you reach that conclusion?”

“Don’t try to deny it!” Ryouko pointed at Kouji and raised her voice. “There’s nothing wrong with having a sister complex. With a sister this attractive, it isn’t something to be embarrassed about. After all, even the single and unemployed son of Ishii-san who lives cattycorner of here has been spying on me with binoculars!”

A second-story window on the house diagonally behind Ryouko quickly closed, but they heard someone stomping up the stairs followed by screams and sounds of impacts in one room on the second story.

Ryouko sighed toward the ground.

“Well, with as many pheromones as I produce, I guess I can’t blame you for having a sister complex. You can have one if you want. After all, I’m the one that finds it disgusting, not you.”

“I’m going to ignore that misunderstanding and how you destroyed peace in the neighborhood, but you are amazingly individualistic, sister.”

“Yes, but Kouji? Did you really see your sister like that?”

“Yes. About four times a year, I would tell myself I didn’t want to turn out like you.”

“You made a quarterly habit out of it!? …You’re the worst, Kouji. Instead of just thinking things again and again, you need to make actual changes in your life.”

“Then can I go on a trip? Maybe one that lasts three years?”

“Fine, but make sure to clean my room first. And once you get back, you’ll have to clean the three years’ worth of messiness. And that isn’t mandatory; it’s an order.”

“Those are the same thing! And what kind of sister makes her younger brother clean her room!?”

“Now you’re ignoring our familial bonds? You really are the worst! I’m not putting up with this.”

She turned around, slid the gate’s latch to the side, and pulled it open.

She opened it with all her might and looked over her shoulder at Kouji.

“I’m going to work and you can’t stop me! I’m going to get rich and use all my money to show you who’s better! I’ll slap you with a pile of cash and make you cry.”

“I’m sorry, sister, but all of the money you earn goes right into the company vault.”

“A-are you embezzling it!? …Huh?”

Ryouko saw a girl and a dog through the gap of the opening gate.

Seeing the surprised look on the girl’s face, Ryouko’s own look of surprise changed to a smile.

“Oh, my.” She placed a hand on her cheek. “Are you preparing for the school festival? You are, aren’t you? Are you from the young master’s class?”

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| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume10 Chapter 14|Chapter 14]]
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Owari no Chronicle:Volume8 Chapter 10

2026-05-21T03:38:14Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 10: One who Commands Great Power==
[[Image:OnC_v08_0281.png|thumb]]
''What is that?

''Can it be seen?

''Is it correct?

The scarlet light of the evening sun created a shadow between the mountains and a group of white buildings filled that shadow.

It was IAI’s Okutama branch.

Behind the white buildings was a long and wide asphalt line continuing back into the valley.

It was a runway.

Currently, the runway contained motion. That motion came from shadows. The evening sun in the period halfway between summer and autumn created several long shadows on the runway.

The shadows came from moving people.

First, a single person moved from east to west along the three kilometer runway.

A group of people surrounding the first person at a distance moved in the same direction, but they suddenly vanished.

They had been crushed.

That action had been accompanied by three sounds.

First, the footsteps and snapping fingers of the elderly man in a suit who was moving west on his own.

Second, a multitude of sounds as something struck the surrounding people and the sounds of them falling to the asphalt.

And third, a roar from the eastern sky that acted as the background music for it all.

The elderly man walked on while surrounded by all those sounds.

“Now, now. What is this? American UCAT’s inspector has arrived, so aren’t you going to give him a proper reception? And yet you insist on using the concepts of all the Gears.”

As he walked, the men surrounding him tightened in. They wore white and black armored uniforms and they blocked his path from the front to the sides at a distance of five meters.

“Wait! Why is American UCAT’s inspector harming us!?”

“Harming? I’m not harming you. This is a greeting. Sixty years ago when the different UCATs visited the National Defense Department, they would do this to us if we didn’t prove our strength to them. …Japanese UCAT is in this state because you have no strength, so let me give a new greeting.”

He raised his right arm and spoke the Japanese he had learned before leaving the United States.

“Konnichiwa, konnichiwa.”

He snapped his fingers and around a dozen men were simultaneously slammed to the asphalt.

“Domo arigato and sayonara.”

The weapons that hit the ground were anti-concept combat gear, but they broke and the people were mercilessly crushed against the hard ground in their armored uniforms.

Nothing that fell even bounced. They seemed to be slammed and then pressed down.

“This…yes, this will end it. When I, Odor, snap my fingers, a single odor will crush you all. Can an organization like this really hold back the other UCATs, begin the Leviathan Road on its own, and stand at the center of the world?”

He raised his right arm toward the unit located diagonally to the right from him.

He snapped his right fingers and crushed them.

Once he turned his right hand toward the unit to the left, the members of that unit lowered their hips and aimed their rifles at him.

“Move any further and we’ll shoot!”

Nevertheless, Odor swung his hand a second time which caused them to pull the triggers.

The gunshots were accompanied by a metallic sound between them.

An instant later, two things happened.

Several sharp bullets were knocked to the asphalt in front of Odor and those who had pulled the triggers also crashed into the asphalt.

Odor continued on while ignoring their groans. There were still plenty of people surrounding him up ahead, so he raised his right hand toward those people visible in the distance.

He snapped his fingers and a metallic sound burst into the air.

“…!?”

He saw a giant form standing between him and the others.

The man of over two meters wore a white combat coat and had a white turban wrapped around his head. His wrinkled skin had the dark color of Middle Easterners and the hands of the same color pointed a giant white spear toward the sky.

“I am Abram Mesam, Director of Japanese UCAT’s field operations department. What do you want?”

“Would you look at that, would you look at that. One of those known as the Eight Great Dragon Kings has come to greet me. I am American UCAT Inspector Odor and I want two things,” said Odor. “They are simple, simple things. End the Leviathan Road and transfer all authority thereof to the other UCATs. In other words, my country and a few others have decided it is too dangerous to leave the fate of the world in the hands of a few Japanese children.”

“Testament. And do you intend to get your way through force?”

Someone else lined up alongside Abram. It was a girl with long, blonde hair and a white armored uniform.

Odor raised his right arm, but left it above his head.

“Who? Who are you?”

“Testament. I am Sibyl of Japanese UCAT.”

Sibyl then spread her arms.

At the same time, something jumped from beyond the five-story transportation control building behind her.

Odor snapped his fingers.

“…!”

But his power was deflected by twin giant swords.

The jumping form landed behind Sibyl and produced a heavy metallic rumble as it did. The shaking proved how heavy it was.

“This is Lady Rhea’s god of war from 3rd-Gear. We have unintentionally recreated the situation from sixty years ago, so what will you do? At the time, the UCATs were true military forces and the National Defense Department was outnumbered.”

“Funny. Now this is funny.

“What is funny?” asked Sibyl.

“What? What was that you just said?” Odor gave a bitter smile. “It shows just how conceited you have grown, Japanese UCAT. Yes, sixty years ago, the Allied UCATs arrived with a military force and were unable to harm the National Defense Department they outnumbered. But…”

He repeated the word “but” while lowering his head.

He pressed his left hand against his forehead, and brought the same hand below his neck as if resisting something.

After a few seconds, he let out a laugh.

“Sixty years ago… Yes, it was sixty years ago. The United States forgave a certain island nation. They had picked a fight with us, but we generously forgave them because of how small yet courageous they were and we helped them develop their civilization afterwards. What if I told you the same applied to the National Defense Department?”

He raised his head and showed off his clenched teeth with a smile.

“A wonderful story. A truly wonderful story. And a wonderful greeting. A truly wonderful greeting. It is because we did not crush you sixty years ago and because you have forgotten that we forgave you back then that you now believe you possess great strength and believe you are equal to others.”

He snapped his right fingers toward the sunset sky.

A single metallic sound filled that sky and it was followed by the roar that had been present there for a while.

“What is this?”

As Sibyl frowned, Odor stuck both hands in his pockets.

“It’s over. My greeting is over.”

Everyone heard a voice respond to those words.

—'''Objects fall down.

And the world changed.

As everyone wondered what had happened, something happened in front of them.

A few of the items belonging to their comrades on the asphalt floated up a little. It looked as if they were drifting in the water at the beach.

“This is 5th-Gear’s flying concept, isn’t it?” asked Abram. “Bullets and other objects with no designated ‘bottom surface’ are not affected by gravity and anything that can change its sense of ‘down’ can fly freely.”

“Yes. During the last century… About halfway through the last century, my country obtained it. Just watch.”

Odor’s words were followed by a change in the sky. Something suddenly appeared to the east in the sunset sky.

They had presumably already been flying there while using a concept to hide their form. They had merely shown themselves after entering the concept space that had just been created.

The objects flying toward the gathered people appeared to have avian forms at first glance. Twelve of them were visible in the distance, but they quickly approached.

They produced a great roar and shook the forest as they arrived at extreme low altitude over it.

“Dragons!?”

The physical answer to that question reached the people gathered on the runway.

They were mechanical dragons. They were about thirty meters long and clad in blue.

They all resembled fighters at first glance, but a change occurred as they loudly passed by overhead.

“!?”

Their framework extended, their wings folded up, and their four limbs extended to take a dragon’s form.

These were fully transforming mechanical dragons.

“Look. Just look, Japanese UCAT. We will let you see this and we will not hide it. After the Concept War, American UCAT developed these to combat the remnants of the different Gears. These are the Blanca 9 fully transforming mechanical dragons.”

The twelve mechanical dragons instantly ascended, completed their transformation into dragons, and turned around in midair. They twisted their bodies like cats to fly back the amount they had overshot the runway and then chose to drop straight down.

With no concern for their mechanical bodies, they dropped from the sky and to the hard ground.

They landed with a noise befitting their great bestial forms and they landed only a few meters behind Odor.

The sunset scenery was filled with the heavy sounds of twelve sets of four legs and a tail tearing into the runway.

But that was not all. Several new objects appeared in the sky behind them.

They were transport planes.

Also, several dark green four-ton trucks slowly drove up the road beyond the runway.

The air shook from the roar in the sky, the sounds of engines on the ground, and the sounds of the massive machines breathing on the runway.

Standing in front of them all, Odor observed what lay in front of him.

He saw Abram with spear at the ready, Sibyl with her god of war preparing its swords, and the other Japanese UCAT members re-aiming their firearms.

Behind them were a white building, the mountains, the evening sky, and the scarlet sun.

While facing them all, he spoke.

“Listen. Listen, all of you. American UCAT is speaking. Many unforeseen problems have surfaced in the Leviathan Road and it is focused too exclusively within Japanese UCAT. The actions of the ones known as the Army are also a problem and you cannot deny that there are many concerns about a possible danger in carrying out the Leviathan Road.”

He took a breath.

“As such. As such, we now demand that the Leviathan Road be temporarily halted, that Japanese UCAT abandons any actions taken solely at its own discretion, that the Leviathan Road be placed under the authority of every UCAT, and that all decisions be made by a committee made up of representatives from each country.”

“Testament. Odor-sama, you are asking that we abandon the Leviathan Road, aren’t you? And you will bring it fully under American UCAT control in the name of using a committee.”

“That is a poor way of putting it. Very poor. We are not putting the United States in the lead. It is just that American UCAT possesses the greatest strength of any UCAT. We do not need to be in the lead for we stand in the center of justice. Japanese UCAT’s mistaken understanding of the ‘individual’ has merely caused you to lose sight of the ‘whole’ of the world.”

“But does American UCAT have the right to stop the Leviathan Road!? It is an inviolable negotiation agreed to by Sayama Kaoru!”

“We do,” declared Odor. His words of violating the inviolable brought silence to the others. “We do. And as long as we do, Team Leviathan cannot continue with the Leviathan Road. There is a reason why we have that right and it was given to us by Mr. Richard Thunderson’s death.”

“What do you mean?” asked Sibyl.

“We have no obligation to tell you. Not someone of your level. Our previous justification is enough for you. After all, any enemy of ours is evil. I hear Japanese UCAT once contained villains. If you still possess any of those cowards who could not advance without excusing themselves as villains, we will not fear to call ourselves just and teach them the truth in order to crush them. I ask you, are you evil!?”

“We are not, but let me tell you one thing.”

Abram held his spear tight and narrowed his one eye as he watched the transport planes landing on the distant eastern end of the runway.

“A villain still exists within Japanese UCAT.”

“I see,” replied Odor. He nodded and smiled. “Good. Very good, everyone. Then let the world continue once more.”

A long, hardwood hallway had a twelve square meter Japanese-style entrance on one end, but it had a darkness unreached by the ceiling light on the other end.

The walls were plaster and several sliding doors were located on either side. A few of the closer sliding doors were opened and several people were moving between them.

Most of those people were large men, slender middle-aged men, or women with thin smiles, but they all had a single point in common: they carried plates of food.

A woman sat and watched them from the entrance.

She wore a red kimono and glasses and she had a black telephone on her lap.

“Oh, I see. So you and Setsu-chan won’t be visiting today? Yes, I’ll eat your portions, so don’t worry. Not a problem. I won’t gain any weight.”

Ryouko showed off her teeth in a smile.

“So you’re on a trip with Setsu-chan. This is a big moment for you, young master. So where is he? Yes, I’d like to talk with him a bit. I can tell him what positions are best with a guy like him. Eh? He’s in the bath right now?”

Ryouko’s expression grew serious and she held the receiver in both hands.

“Young master! This is your chance! Your grandfather taught you how to open a locked door, didn’t he? Yes, yes. The method you trained for by opening the door to the city gym’s girl’s locker room and then running away. If I recall, you escaped the police car by kicking your grandfather into its path so it hit him and-… Eh? You’re past that level?”

She heard footsteps. She did not turn toward them, but she heard the voice.

“Sister, can you help the others carry in dinner?”

“Hm? But I just finished lighting incense at the shrine in the backyard.”

“That is a standard duty as master of the house. And our profession means we must take extra care with that sort of thing.”

“Eh? But, Kouji, you’re the futuristic type that was wondering if we should get robot guards the other day.”

“No, that’s not quite accurate. The IAI ‘Dog Willpower’ that I ordered have protective charms for household safety and prosperous business placed inside. You know how superstitious IAI can be, don’t you?”

“Young master, young master. Listen. Kouji’s all obsessed with machines now. Could this get any worse? As his sister, I’m really worried about his future. …I know, right? Real people are the best. …See, Kouji? Getting real people for guards is best.”

Kouji sighed and looked down at his sister.

“If you keep making excuses to get out of work, I’m going to tell our parents. They’re on a tour that simulates being stranded in the Mount Fuji Sea of Trees, but they’ll be back with their souvenirs tomorrow.”

“Eh? But they only told me to look after the shrine out back. …Eh? Oh, yes. I’ll tell you once you’re married, young master. My father told you the same thing about the Tamiya family shrine, right?”

Ryouko laughed into the receiver.

“Yes, yes. The best women have lots of secrets. You really know how it works. …Oh, yes. Something just arrived at your room? A communicator? …Oh, okay. I won’t ask if it’s part of your job, but do your best. Setsu-chan’s with you, right? No, that’s fine. So what is it?”

She narrowed her eyes as she listened to the phone and she slowly turned to Kouji.

“Kouji, the young master says we should cook some sekihan next time he visits with Setsu-chan.”

“And who exactly is going to do that? No, I suppose my first question should be who it’s for.”

Ryouko frowned at that, removed her right hand from the receiver, and raised a finger toward him.

“C’mon, Kouji. It’s sekihan, so it’s gotta be for Setsu-chan.”

“It can’t possibly be for him! He’s a boy!”

“The body doesn’t matter. You’ve seen a lot of people like that, haven’t you!?”

“I have, but the people here had to go through a certain process to get to that point! Setsu-kun may be more than eighty percent there in how he feels, but you should normally stop someone from doing that! Don’t you all agree!?”

His question was answered by several nodding heads visible through the sliding doors on the left and right of the hallway.

They all spoke in unison.

“It can’t be helped with us, but it probably isn’t the best idea for a current child.”

“Idiots!”

Ryouko reflexively stood up and gave a fierce glare toward Kouji and the rest.

“How can you be so stupid!? How can you be so moronic!? How can you be so…um, to supplement for myself, I’m so happy!”

“Thankfully, I have no idea what you mean, sister.”

“I’ll ignore that, but you can’t give up just because ‘it can’t be helped’!” She stuck out her tongue. “It can be helped. No matter what people may do, they can be happy as long as they do what feels good to them, they don’t die, and they don’t cause problems for others. That’s why I support Setsu-chan and I’d be happy if all of you would do the same!”

“That was certainly amazing if you actually think that was a good argument. …You back there, you don’t have to cry and nod in agreement!”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes. If that single dissenting opinion from my brother is the only one, the Tamiya family democracy declares that the Tamiya family will fully support Setsu-chan.”

“Um, sister.”

Kouji’s shoulders drooped.

“Listen. Have you forgotten that Setsu-kun has a sister?” He took in a breath. “And it’s the sister that the young master is interested in. Setsu-kun said as much. I’ll check the listening device recording later to make sure!”

Her brother’s attack from an unexpected angle put Ryouko on her guard and she embraced the phone as if to protect it.

“B-but…”

“What is it, sister?”

“H-have you ever seen Setsu-chan’s supposed sister?”

“I have. She greeted me when I picked the young master up at IAI.”

“That was a fake!!” she declared while adjusting her grip on the phone. “It was Setsu-chan in disguise! Yay! You were tricked by Setsu-chan! And I would’ve seen through it because of his scent.”

“Stop insisting the impossible. And it was clearly a girl.”

“Are you saying you checked by grabbing and pulling the penis like the young master did!?”

“If I’d done that, I’d have been taken to the police or a hospital! And don’t shout that kind of thing so loudly! The neighbors can hear you!”

“Don’t change the subject, Kouji. Listen carefully. You didn’t strip off her clothes? You didn’t hold her down so she couldn’t move? And you didn’t visually or tactilely check? Then you can’t know anything! As someone in the security guard business, you should be ashamed by your behavior!” she said. “Also, the young master might not be getting along with Setsu-chan’s sister! For example, he might have barged into the locker room, suddenly stripped off most of her clothes, and started touching her. Or he might have pushed her to the bed and forced her to spread her legs. If he did that, she might have started hating him, right? And if you think about it logically, whose turn is it then!? Tah, dah! Se! Tsu! Chan! See? I used staccato to emphasize it!”

With that said, she sighed and gave an exasperated pose with the phone still in her right hand.

“You sometimes have real trouble thinking logically, Kouji. Life might seem easier if you believe everything you see, but it worries me when you live in delusion like that.”

“I’m sorry, sister. It will cut the conversation off rather suddenly, but can I collapse right here and now?”

“Sure, go ahead. But the floor is too hard to get any good rest on, so go buy some sekihan beans instead.”

Kouji ignored her.

He sat on the floor with his back to his sister and slowly threw himself forward.

Seeing that her brother was no longer moving, Ryouko nodded with the ends of her eyebrows lowered.

“Such a troublesome boy.”

She gave another nod of understanding and sat with her back leaning against the wall.

“Sorry, young master. Yes, the evil was slain. Kouji sometimes says the most nonsensical things. Oh, right. Sorry for getting so worked up on this end when you went out of your way to inform us you wouldn’t be coming to dinner. Make sure the two of you do your best with your work. Oh, and another thing.”

She fixed her bangs that had gotten out of place in the argument with her brother.

“There’s a half-Japanese boy in your class, right? Yes, the one who seems like a silent hitman who helped clean and carry things on the last day of preparations for the All Holiday Festival. …Yes, yes. Harakawa-kun. Earlier today, he was at the supermarket with a girl. They seemed to be buying food for dinner.”

She turned toward the front door and the wood lattice entrance that could not be seen from inside.

“Yes, she was a younger girl with short blonde hair. …Yes, I listened with a parabolic microphone and her name is Heo. How about I try using that to extort something from him? Yes, I have everything I need. …Eh? I can’t? But it’s a good piece of information?”

A broad smile covered her face.

“Well, of course it is. Nothing I say is wrong or bad. Anyway, make sure you work hard. I’m sure it won’t be easy.”

The sun was setting over the mountain ridge.

Its light washed over a long stretch of asphalt with a great many figures moving on it.

Some were people, some were dragons made of metal, and one was a large, artificial human form.

Gunfire, footsteps, sword strikes, voices, and metallic sounds filled the air. The wind also swept in another roar as it landed on the runway.

It came from transport planes.

Their back hatches opened and released flat Hummer-type vehicles and several American UCAT soldiers. They all wore blue armored uniforms and ran along the runway at superhuman speeds. The mechanisms installed within their armored uniforms accelerated their movements.

They included women and people of different skin color, they were joined by the group that had arrived by truck, and the blue wave rushed down the runway.

As if pulling them forward, the blue mechanical dragons roared and ran forward. Their steel legs smashed the asphalt, but their movements were almost light as they led the way.

Meanwhile, the white group formed a wall for them to crash into.

The blue wave and the white wall both got what they wanted.

The blue wave was stopped by the wall and the white wall was broken as it tried to suppress the wave.

Some of them formed a large whitecap as they clashed within the surging wave.

One of those was Sibyl and her white god of war as she faced a mechanical dragon.

“…”

She knew she had to stop it. If she did not buy time here, many different things within Japanese UCAT’s headquarters would be captured: materiel, personnel, data, and the remnants of feelings.

Most of those had to be evacuated. The materiel and personnel would be guided underground while the data would be locked down in the server by the information division.

The key to it all was the fifth basement. Everything below was a top secret zone. The Concept Core equipment and Sibyl’s god of war were stored on that fifth basement.

The other UCATs had not been told what lay below that floor.

Ooshiro had given permission to evacuate there, but everyone and everything still had to get there.

“So I need to buy some time.”

She clashed with a single mechanical dragon. The blue dragon was taller than her white god of war and she had heard its name was Blanca 9.

“I once heard from Mr. Richard Thunderson that the craft meant to be officially adopted by American UCAT was named Blanca.”

The blue mechanical dragon lowered down like a cat and fired shells from the secondary cannons on its shoulders.

“…!”

Sibyl held her hands forward to deflect the shells with her blades.

She deflected them into the sky because there were people down below.

More shells arrived, so she continued swinging the swords to deflect them.

The dragon moved forward as it fired.

The repeated sounds of shellfire tore into the space between the two machines and the dragon stepped forward each time.

However, Sibyl also moved forward.

She did not need any strength to step into the great sound and pressure. She held her arms apart and moved her fingers through the air as if playing an instrument. The white god of war responded with detailed movements of its swords with the sounds of deflected shells forming the notes.

Metal and sparks resounded.

Among the movement lit by the twilight sky, the white god of war made music from the dragon’s attacks and moved forward.

They closed in on each other.

Suddenly, light appeared to Sibyl’s right.

Another mechanical dragon had fired its main cannon, the dragon cannon in its mouth. The bluish-white beam of light was at least several meters across and it swept toward her across the runway with a splashing sound.

The clear sound of the blue light raced across the runway.

The light’s destruction sent several people in white armored uniforms flying through the air and it tore into the ground.

It threatened to swallow up Sibyl and the god of war.

“…!”

It hit and she heard a sound, but the sound was wrong.

It was not the sound of spraying light. Instead…

“Fire!?”

The sound everyone identified was accompanied by the appropriate phenomenon.

The bluish-white dragon cannon had been burned away.

Red flames instantly burned it down to the base as if it were a scrap of paper or a cloth soaked in oil.

The dragon was pierced through by the flames that reached it.

They first entered through the cracks in the cowling covering its mechanical body and then they burst out its back and into the sky behind it. After that, the sound of scorching flames enveloped the blue dragon.

“———!”

The supposedly formless flames roared like a crimson dragon.

And then the supposedly metal dragon burned to ashes without melting.

“That was the Cowling Lance B-Sp which uses 9th-Gear’s Concept Core, wasn’t it?” said Sibyl. “An appropriate power for 9th which worshiped fire.”

She turned from the silenced enemy and to the large man holding a white spear to her right.

“Testament. Thank you very much, Director Abram.”

“Testament. I should be the one thanking you for helping with a field operations job.”

He lowered the spear and it, B-Sp, had transformed. It had originally had an extremely thick tip, but that tip was now split into a double-bladed spear.

“I must be getting old,” he said. “I no longer feel the desire to show off.”

“Testament. Even so, it is an honor. I never had a chance to fight alongside you sixty years ago.”

“Do you…know about me?”

“Testament. I was unable to meet you because I was asleep, but when I saw you and Arnavaz-sama two years ago, I used my knowledge of the people I had met back then and the history afterwards to put most of it together.”

“I see,” said Abram while looking expressionlessly in front of Sibyl.

The blue mechanical dragon was preparing to fight once more.

“Shall I handle this?”

“No, Abram-sama. You worry about the others.”

The dragon aimed both its secondary cannons and opened its mouth for its dragon cannon, but Sibyl smiled.

Abram gave a bitter smile in return.

“Does a maintenance worker smile at all times so the others can relax?”

“Testament. Did you not call it an automaton trait because you felt this was kinder? Also, it appears to me that Arnavaz-sama always waits for you with a smile.”

“I don’t exactly approve of bringing up household issues on the battlefield.”

With that said, he leaped over the many blue and white figures, flipped around, and ran toward a different mechanical dragon. Sibyl faced forward after watching him leave.

She saw light in the mechanical dragon’s mouth.

However…

“Here I come.”

She launched herself forward, swung up her arms, and attacked.

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| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume8 Chapter 11|Chapter 11]]
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Owari no Chronicle:Volume8 Chapter 1

2026-05-20T03:10:11Z

N-Ch:

[[Image:OnC_v08_0026-0027.png|thumb]]
''I think I want to go somewhere

''I also think I want to be somewhere

''Are those the same thing?

—''You may not know the answer

—''However, you will not even know that unless you seek the answer

==Chapter 1: Descent of Darkness==
[[Image:OnC_v08_0029.png|thumb]]
''Something comes this way

''With no footsteps

''With nothing to communicate

A large lobby had a high ceiling and an oil painting on the wall displayed the Virgin Mary holding her child.

It was the lobby of UCAT headquarters which was disguised as IAI’s transportation building.

Currently, the lobby’s front window showed the darkness of night, but the inside was bright and filled with different colors.

The colors came from the decorations added to the lobby. Banners of red and white or black and white were hanging from the walls, gold paper balls and chains of colored paper hung from the ceiling, and…

“Why are there paper cranes and straw dolls, Diana?”

A gray-haired girl looked across the lobby and spoke. She had a black cat at her feet and a blue bird sitting on her head and she looked to the woman in a black suit who was decorating the empty lobby on her own.

The woman, Diana, hammered a straw doll with a red and white band around its stomach to the wall.

“Oh? In Japan, these are used to pray for a visitor’s safety. You didn’t know that, Brunhild?”

“I’ve never seen a showy tradition like this in Japan.”

“That is because the Japanese are a modest people who coexist with nature. They tend not to show off this sort of celebration. From what I have read, these straw dolls are made from a natural material that is kind to nature and they are secretly hammered to trees near shrines. There even seems to be a rule about only hammering one hundred times so you don’t hurt the trees. …Want to help?”

Diana turned around and pointed at a nearby work table.

Brunhild looked over and saw long nails, straw dolls, and a wooden hammer on the table.

“What is this? It has a paper attached that says Ooshiro Kazuo.”

“UCAT Director Ooshiro paid for the celebratory wreaths and I still had money left over after preparing both the red and black ones, so I made these dolls as well. That one has one of his hairs in it, so it should properly represent him during the celebration.”

“I see.”

Brunhild nodded and walked over with doll, hammer, and nail in hand. She arbitrarily stopped in from of a red and white sotoba on a nearby wall.

“But what is the celebration for?”

“An inspector is arriving from American UCAT. Team Leviathan will soon begin the Leviathan Road for 4th-Gear and 5th-Gear, right? Well, 5th has strong connections to America.”

“They sure took their time in calling in a major player like that. The business with 3rd was finished at the end of July, but it’s already October and they’re only starting to talk about the next Leviathan Road now? The world is going to be destroyed at this rate. …Would I be right in assuming that’s because Japanese UCAT was too busy dealing with the restraints placed on them by the other UCATs?”

“Yes. You may be aged, but I see the blood is still reaching your brain.”

“Oh? That’s because I belong to a race that naturally ages slowly unlike a certain someone whose brain is wrinkling while she keeps her appearance looking young.”

Brunhild placed the straw doll on the wall and made the first strike on the nail.

“I also hear Shinjou met someone from that ridiculous group called the Army. The automaton named Gyes handed over some information on them, right? There’s that girl named Shino that I saw, the woman named Tatsumi and the mechanical dragon that showed up after the battle with 3rd, the Toda Mikoku that Shinjou met, and the man named Hajji that Gyes mentioned. What are you going to do now that they’ve shown themselves?”

Diana did not respond, so Brunhild hammered the nail again and clicked her tongue.

“Are you planning to give the inspector such a warm welcome so you can avoid that issue?”

“Sorry, but this inspector quite likes Japan even if he doesn’t show it. Once he’s here, the Leviathan Road should go quite smoothly. I don’t know the details myself, but UCAT Director Ooshiro says he will take part in the Leviathan Road with 5th-Gear.”

“What do you mean he will take part? …And who is he anyway?”

“Richard Thunderson, one of the Eight Great Dragon Kings. He is the one who destroyed 5th-Gear. …Also, I do not know how he will take part in the negotiation. He may be an intermediary to avoid the restraints set in place by American UCAT.”

Brunhild frowned and hammered again. The nail pierced the doll, the sotoba, and then the wall behind them.

“That sounds nice, Diana, but why are you decorating for his arrival. I thought you didn’t like America.”

“I will talk about that once our guest arrives. …Or do you really want to know now?”

“Hah. The words of some elderly witch aren’t worth hearing.”

Brunhild looked away from Diana and repeatedly hammered in the straw doll. Diana did the same to her doll and Brunhild nearly lost herself in the overlapping sounds.

But then the black cat at her feet spoke.

“Brunhild, seeing this doll celebration gave me a thought. Are you sure we aren’t being gradually fooled by this entire world?”

Just as Brunhild was going to ask “about what”, someone exited the stairs leading to the lower floors.

“Tes. Diana-sama, I have gathered most of them.”

Sf placed countless straw dolls on the work table.

“I have taken hair samples from eighty percent of UCAT’s personnel ranked supervisor or higher and placed them inside the dolls. I have determined the blessing effect during the celebration will be extraordinary if all of these dolls are hammered to the walls.”

“Just out of curiosity, how did you take those samples?”

“Tes. I visited the individuals as they worked and took the samples.”

“I see. That’s surprisingly normal.”

“Tes. The automatons of German UCAT are very well made. To ensure I did not interrupt their work, I approached silently from behind and pulled out the sample such that it caused no pain.”

Brunhild glared at Sf and Diana approached the work table to pick up a certain doll.

“Oh? You made a doll of Itaru? Are you sure about that, Sf?”

“Tes. I explained their purpose to him and he gave me permission to take his hair sample as long as I did not use it for anything bad.”

“That isn’t what I meant. Are you sure ''you'' want to do this?”

“Tes. My decisions are ranked below Itaru-sama’s.”

“Is that so?” Diana’s eyes narrowed and bent as she held the Itaru doll out to Sf. “I’m giving this to you.”

“You will not be using it for the celebratory ritual?”

“Itaru told you not to use it for anything bad, right? That did not limit its use to celebration, so I am giving it to you based on my own decision.”

“Tes.” Sf nodded. “Thank you very much. I will use my Japanese-style modesty function.”

She waved her hand side to side in front of her face.

“No, no. I have determined that is not necessary. …How was that?”

“No, no. Take it. I insist.”

“Tes. I have determined that was an excellent comeback, Diana-sama. In that case, I apologize, but I will take it.”

She took the straw doll, held it in both hands, and raised it toward the ceiling.

“But what is this? The real Itaru-sama is still there. This is not him. Yet it contains a portion of him. So what is it?”

“Can you imagine it?”

Diana’s question was answered not by Sf but by Brunhild who was still hammering.

“She can’t. A machine is a machine, so it doesn’t have a person’s imagination.”

“Tes. Brunhild-sama is correct. I will activate my praise circuits.”

She placed the doll on the table and gave five expressionless claps toward Brunhild.

“I have determined that was wonderful. …How was that?”

“That was more than enough.”

Brunhild gave an annoyed sigh, placed the handle of the wooden hammer against her forehead, and thought for a moment.

“Y’know,” she began. “A complex system like imagination might be difficult for a machine, but doesn’t a machine have its own form of imagination? For example, if you want to think of the doll as that gray-haired man, how about you try identifying the doll as him? Give it his name or something.”

“Tes. I have determined that idea is based on 2nd-Gear’s concepts. But I must say that the doll does a poor job of reproducing Itaru-sama even if it is given his name. It will not function as a replacement.”

“Don’t blame me for that,” said Brunhild. “Okay, we don’t have to worry about the definition. Just answer me this: do you want to throw away that doll or do you want to keep it? If you want to throw it away, I’ll burn it right here. If you want to keep it, then take good care of it.”

Hearing that, Sf looked at the straw doll on the table. She picked it up, held it up, and hugged it thrice.

“Tes. Understood. I have determined I should place it in a vacuum-sealed vault to store it unquestionably safely.”

Brunhild saw Diana smile bitterly.

She also felt something tap her leg. She looked down and saw the cat looking up at her.

“I need to reconsider my opinion of you, Brunhild.”

She kicked it away with her heel and began hammering once more.

Amid the noise, the doll hugging a doll spoke.

“Come to think of it, the guest should have arrived already.”

A short silence followed.

“I wonder where he is.”

It was night.

Below the dark sky was an expanse of land containing mountains and a city.

However, there was one odd thing about the city constructed between the mountains.

An area with a diameter of a few hundred meters stretching from the city’s northwest edge to the center was surrounded by a slight shadow. Also, the shadow was too faint to see without looking closely.

It was a concept space.

That alternate space was created by altering a portion of reality and recreating reality inside. But in most cases, the inside would be deserted and the electricity and water pipes would be cut off.

Not a single light illuminated the city and the cars on the main road had lost their drivers and come to a stop after either hitting each other or running up onto the sidewalk.

Even the traffic signals had lost their light, so they were nothing but obstacles. A red car had crashed into the base of one signal and the sign hanging from it indicated this was the city of Akigawa.

Two sets of footsteps traveled below that sign and to the south.

One was the sound of light shoes and the other was the sound of leather shoes with one leg dragging a bit.

The two who were running south along the dark road were a girl and an old man.

The girl’s shoulder-length blonde hair was illuminated by the light of the real nighttime scenery outside the concept space. She ran but soon looked over her shoulder. Her eyebrows twisted a little over her blue eyes.

“————?”

The words she spoke were in English and her appeal of a question was directed at the old man who was dragging his right leg. His gray hair was cut short, he was tall, and he too had blue eyes.

He nodded and looked around the area. They were in the center of the two-lane road. Nearby, a white sedan was stopped by the curb of the sidewalk.

The old man dragged his leg and shook the bottom of his summer coat as he slowly approached the white sedan. The driver’s side window was open and he spotted the key in the ignition.

He further peered inside, corrected the position of the gear shift and hand brake, and turned the key.

But the car did not react. He turned the key a few more times, but it would not start.

“…”

He slowly muttered something to the girl.

“…?”

She repeated his words as a question and he nodded after moving away from the car. He narrowed his eyes and looked across the sky with his right hand in his pocket. There was a division between inside and outside the concept space. The border was marked by the line along which the low clouds and shimmering of heat came to an end.

They currently stood on the southern side of the dome-shaped concept space.

After confirming that, he sighed.

He removed his hand from his pocket, looked to the girl, and spoke a name instead of more English.

“Heo.”

The girl looked up and the old man held his right hand toward her and opened it.

A wristwatch sat on his palm. It was large, undecorated, and old. The original blue and white coloring had peeled off and the brass frame now dully reflected the light.

However, the watch was functioning even in the concept space, including the red dial below the hours, minutes, and seconds hands.

Five letters were currently displayed on that odometer-style red dial: ACCEL.

The girl named Heo tilted her head even further when she saw those letters, but the old man only smiled back. He said something and pushed his palm even further toward her.

Heo hesitated, but she finally reached for the old man’s watch.

She gave him one last questioning look and finally took it once he nodded.

She then followed his instructions by placing the watch around her slender left wrist, turning the stem, and manipulating it in a few other ways.

The meter dial displayed a series of letters, five at a time.

NEWRI DERSE TUP!!

After seeing that text, the old man raised his hand and pointed to the south.

Heo’s shoulders trembled and she shook her head.

“—————”

He spoke and brought a hand just beneath her neck.

She wore a necklace made of stones around her skinny neck. It was missing a few stones, but Thunderson called her name as he touched it. When he spoke next, he no longer spoke English.

“You learned this piece-of-shit and pain-in-the-ass language from me and your teacher, right?”

“Y-yes. I don’t think it’s a piece of shit, though.”

“I see. We can’t have that, Heo. This language is used by shitty people. It is loved by an insincere and deceptive bastard who pretends to be evil and a mountain ape that loves martial arts.”

“I don’t think you can blame people for using their native language.”

“Heo is making excuses!” The old man looked up to the sky with a hand over his eyes and he sighed. “Where did I go wrong in teaching you!? Now how am I supposed to face the parents who left you with me?”

“Um, g-great-grandfather? Y-you’re right. It is a piece of shit, isn’t it!? I understand, so please stop lamenting and preparing to lecture me.”

“I see, I see. As long as you understand that this country is a piece of shit.”

Satisfaction filled the old man’s face and he nodded, but Heo was already hanging her head and speaking to herself.

“I’m sorry, mother, father. I just used a bad word. I’m sorry, teacher. I just lied. I’m sorry, god. It felt kind of refreshing.”

“What are you muttering about, Heo? You were just telling it like it is. Say it proud.” He lightly patted her on the back. “Well, you’ll be using that language in this country until you get sick of it or don’t like it, Heo. Here, I’m sure you’ll be able to say goodbye to all the moving around and transferring to new schools.”

“B-but, great-grandfather, I thought I was only coming here to visit my father’s grave and maybe get some information on my great-uncle if we’re lucky. …What is this? What’s pursuing us?”

“Our luck ran out once we arrived in this country that you left ten years ago. This pain-in-the-ass country must have taken a liking to the family of thunder.”

“You mean…”

“It’s a premonition, Heo. Sounds like nonsense, doesn’t it?”

Heo was left speechless by how definitively he said it, but he puffed out his chest and continued.

“Premonitions are great. The one’s that excite you are the best.”

“I only have bad ones.”

“Then there must be something wrong with your brain.”

“G-great-grandfather, you sometimes need to be more careful how you phrase things.”

“Don’t worry about it. I had a time like that long ago. A time when everything looked bad and made me uneasy.”

He maintained his smile and pointed to the south with his chin.

“Go on ahead, Heo. You like running, right? You missed the last athletic festival when you transferred schools, but I think this country’s one is coming up soon. Go enter at the last minute and take first place. I’ll be right behind you.”

“…”

“What is it?”

“I don’t want to go without you.”

The old man smiled again when he heard that.

“Don’t worry. I’ll have this dealt with before long and then I’ll be right behind you. Have you ever seen me lose in a fight?”

She shook her head and he pulled something from his summer coat.

It was a grip with a double-edged blade attached to the end. The grip was made of a hard white material, but with a swing of his right hand, it extended into a spear.

He saw Heo’s eyes open wide and he clenched his teeth in a smile.

“This is your first time seeing this, isn’t it? The leader of a group I belonged to sixty years ago taught me some techniques. I’ve only used it to plow some fields lately, but I can probably still tear into steel.”

“Great-grandfather… You look like a dangerous person.”

“Is that so? I guess you still can’t recognize the charm. …But you’ll understand eventually.”

“I-I don’t think I really need to.”

“Heo isn’t listening to me!”

It took an entire minute for Heo to calm the old man.

Afterwards, he lowered his shoulders and looked behind him to the north.

“It’s about time,” he muttered before turning back to Heo. “Everything you see here will be new to you and also the truth, but it would take too long to explain any of it. I’ll do the explaining when we meet again, Heo. I’ll also explain about the mother and father who gave you your name. …Oh, right. We need a rendezvous point.”

“The embassy?”

“No, it’s possible they’ve sent people there. Spend the night in a business hotel or somewhere like that. You have money, don’t you? And we can meet up… There was a cemetery we passed on the way here today, remember? Was it called the Nishitama Cemetery? We’ll meet at its entrance at 2 PM.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yes, tomorrow. And I may need to shake pursuit and contact some people, so return at the same time for three days if I’m not there. If I still haven’t arrived after three days, go to IAI in Okutama, show them that watch, and tell them this.”

His words filled the air.

[[Image:OnC_v08_0045.png|thumb]]

“Show me to UCAT, you pieces of shit.”

“…”

However he may have interpreted the drooping of her shoulders, the old man reached out his left hand and rubbed her head.

Next, he grabbed her shoulders, pointed her to the south, and patted those shoulders.

But what he said afterwards was not her name or an instruction to go.

“—————”

It was some kind of name.

However, it contained the intent to take care of something. He spoke it as if checking on something and Heo hesitantly looked over her shoulder.

“Great-grandfather, what was that?”

“The name of a friend. The friend who taught me the meaning of your name, Heo.”

He looked up into the sky with a smile. The Evening Star shined in the southwestern sky.

Just as Heo looked to the sky as well, a wind blew in. It was a nighttime north wind.

The chilly current of air washed over her in an instant and she narrowed her eyes.

She then heard the old man speak.

“So the north wind is supporting the child of thunder. Then this journey is sure to be a new experience. Heo, your great-grandfather promises you one thing: we will meet again very soon.”

“Y-you really promise?”

“Yes.”

Hearing his agreement, she moved forward.

She began hesitantly, but she leaned forward without turning back and she began to run.

“Go ahead!”

Hearing the old man’s shout, she accelerated.

The old man gave a sigh as he watched Heo leave.

He saw her skinny and small back vanish down the dark road.

“Is this the last piece of atonement I can do for you after you died sixty years ago, James? If possible, I wanted to be her great-grandfather…and find your other child.”

Holding the spear, he turned to the north where footsteps approached.

The source of the footsteps came into view.

It was just one person and he stared at the slender person in a gray combat coat.

“What, just one?”

As he spoke, he thought. Most likely, he and Heo had been accompanied by disguised guards from Japanese and American UCAT on their way here. This single person had reached them through all of those guards and expanded the concept space to capture them inside.

“This looks like it’ll be a pain. …To get right to the point, you’re from the Army, aren’t you? You haven’t done much in America, so I take it your base is in this country.”

The person stopped their approach but did not answer his question.

They were approximately fifteen meters away on the road and they wore their coat’s hood over their head. Their hands were empty, but their stance allowed them to move at any time.

The coat-wearing figure then asked a question in a female voice.

“You are Richard Thunderson, correct?”

“Now that’s a terrible pronunciation. It’s even worse than the mountain apes I met sixty years ago. …What is this about? No, I’m sure you’re here for 5th-Gear’s Concept Core. You want me to tell you where it is, don’t you?”

“…”

Thunderson took her silence as a yes.

“I hear the Army attacked Japanese UCAT and took a peek inside their databank a while back. You supposedly weren’t able to take everything in the core back with you, but you should have seen a good bit. For example, you should now know that the half of 5th-Gear’s Concept Core in Japanese UCAT’s possession is inside a mechanical dragon weapon.”

“But we did not know what that weapon is. And let me tell you one thing. The Army already has an excellent mechanical dragon. We have no interest in acquiring 5th-Gear technology.”

“You mean…that mechanical dragon uses 5th-Gear technology? How did you get it?”

“I do not need to tell you that. I will be the one asking the questions. Also, the Army will be the one to win. We are already on the verge of developing a new weapon that uses a god of war’s remote control system. We simply want to know the identity of your weapon.”

The coat-wearing figure removed her hood and a girl with sharp features appeared from below.

“I am Toda Mikoku and I am here for that answer. The Army knows how to choose which enemies it fights. If you hand over the information, I will do nothing to you.”

Mikoku observed the old man facing her.

His name was Richard Thunderson. He was around one hundred eighty centimeters tall, he was armed with a spear, and his leg was injured. He would be unable to move too intensely, but his height gave his arms and spear a decent reach and he was one of the Eight Great Dragon Kings of the former National Defense Department.

She assumed his spear was a concept weapon, but she was armed with a single Japanese sword. He definitely outdid her in reach and, even if her sword was well-made, it was only a Low-Gear one Hajji had bought.

…''All of the Army’s weapons are currently on their way to Takao.

The factory manager and his men were spending sleepless nights modifying all of the weapons. They were using the slight information stolen from UCAT and methods they had come up with themselves.

Mikoku had defeated a few disguised UCAT bodyguards on her way here. She had caught almost all of them by surprise, but she still had a few injuries.

…''And the old man in front of me must be a lot stronger than those bodyguards.

Every factor seemed to be against her, so the sword felt heavy at her waist, both physically and otherwise.

She told herself not to let her guard down while she faced Thunderson.

“Will you answer or not?”

But he responded with a question of his own.

“You said your name is Toda, didn’t you?”

“…Yes, what about it?”

“What is your mother’s name?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“You don’t feel like answering?”

“No, I do not. And I think I will pretend I don’t know.”

Mikoku gave a bitter laugh in her heart as if she had just remembered something.

…''He must be thinking something similar.

She came to an odd sense of understanding.

If their thoughts were the same, it actually meant there was something about her that was different from him.

With an internal nod at that thought, she drew the sword from her right hip below her coat.

“Well? Will you answer or only ask questions of your own?”

She then received her answer.

She first sensed wind blowing next to her right ear. The subsequent sensation of cloth told her what was happening. The right side of her hood had been cut away.

But she had not taken her eyes off of Thunderson. The tall old man rotated the spear once in a single hand.

“My spear can pierce even steel.”

“Are you proud of piercing something more easily pierced than a human?”

She stepped forward and the next attack arrived as her footstep rang from the asphalt.

It was wind and it was aimed at the center of her chest, the core of a human body.

Before it hit, she maintained her step forward but collapsed the rest of her body forward.

The wind stabbed by above her lowered head.

To support her collapsing body, she moved forward. She ran along the asphalt with the same motions as running up a wall.

“…!”

She approached Thunderson from low to the ground.

By spinning his spear around and thrusting it forward, he could hold back his opponent and keep his distance, but there was a common fear with any bladed weapon: hitting the blade against the ground or a wall.

If the blade struck something hard, it would stop one’s attacking motion and possibly chip the blade. A spear’s long grip was good for swinging it around in the air, but it was especially difficult to use around the limited area at one’s feet.

As Mikoku approached from low down, Thunderson stepped back with his unhurt leg to put some space between them.

A moment later, Mikoku leaped. She saw he held the spear in his right hand, so she leaped to her own right.

As they passed by each other, she passed her sword to her left hand and moved to his right and behind him.

She then turned around while slashing behind her with her left hand.

The silver line raced through the air and toward Thunderson’s back as he took his step back.

But the blade she had sent out as a counter was deflected with a metallic noise.

“!?”

She looked and saw he had held the spear vertically and rotated it around to the center of his back.

Her sword had struck the grip and that white grip with “Northwind” printed on it had powerfully deflected the blade. As her sword was tossed back, she could not immediately prepare it for another attack.

…''Damn!

As if pulled back by the deflected sword, she moved away from Thunderson.

However, he twisted his body toward her. He rotated using one leg as the axis and he swung the spear.

There was wind.

“…”

Mikoku had to make a decision. Would she lower her hips to take the attack or would she flee? Choosing the latter proved to have been the correct decision.

When she leaped to the right, a pale white line ran through the spot she had just been in.

…''Is that the true form of the wind?

Before she could finish thinking, she heard a dull sound behind her.

Next, the movement of the air told her something had happened there.

One of the concrete telephone poles on the roadside was cut at its base.

It collapsed and brought the surrounding power lines with it.

Once the pole collapsed, she would have to escape to the left or right. The power lines would likely eliminate the front or back as options.

She instead chose to move forward before the pole could fully collapse.

But then Thunderson cried out.

“Stand back!”

“What!?” she shouted back.

She slipped below the collapsing telephone pole and escaped to the side. She heard the sound of destruction as the concrete pole fell onto the asphalt.

“Why are you telling me to stand back!? Do you think I can leave empty-…”

She trailed off before saying “handed”.

She had realized why he had told her to stand back.

A certain presence had suddenly approached. It felt like a great pressure that weighed down on the air.

“What is that!?”

And then it arrived.

—'''Everything falls.

It was a voice.

Specifically, it was the voice of a text added to the concept space.

Thunderson felt the true form of the voice.

He spoke to the girl named Mikoku who stood at a distance.

“Leave, Army girl. Playtime is over. My enemy has arrived. …You felt something in that concept text, didn’t you?”

The girl who was clearly cautious of her surroundings nodded after a short pause.

“You called this your enemy. …Is this change to the wind caused by that enemy?”

“Yes,” muttered Thunderson.

As she had said, the flow of wind in the area was odd. The wind had been blowing from the north earlier, but something like a disturbed air current was circling around the area.

It was as if something giant existed in front of him to the north.

Mikoku seemed to realize that because she looked northward.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Leave,” he muttered with raised eyebrows.

He then looked up to see the shape of the sky changing. The domed roof surrounding them was disappearing. In its place, the current in the sky was creating an invisible cylindrical wall with a diameter of several kilometers.

The previous added text was remaking the concept space.

“So you really have recovered after being shot down sixty years ago. And you’re pursuing your enemy.”

He took a defensive stance toward the empty darkness to the north and he saw the air tremble.

It happened on a large scale. It went beyond the cars stopped nearby and shook the air over several dozen meters.

He heard Mikoku taking a defensive stance within that pressure.

''She has good instincts,'' he thought with a bitter smile.

And so he took action. He took a light step with one leg and moved toward her.

“…”

She looked blankly at him, but he was unsure if she was questioning the fact that he had easily approached before she could do anything or if she was questioning what was going to happen.

However…

“Gives you a nice premonition, doesn’t it?”

He knocked her away with the bottom of his spear.

…''Girls really are light.

As she gasped, she rose several meters and flew through the air as if being carried. She vanished into the darkness on a smaller road running alongside the main one.

After a moment, she could be heard landing on her feet and speaking in the darkness.

“Damn you!”

“Leave! And tell them that 5th-Gear’s Concept Core is looking forward to fighting you.”

“Is the entire Concept Core with UCAT?”

“No,” he answered as he turned from the smaller road to the north. “But the family of thunder will acquire it under the name of happiness.”

He took a low stance, held the spear tightly, and faced the presence that rose like a mountain in the darkness.

“Let’s resume this sixty-year-old battle, Black Sun. My final weapon is the spear of my dead commander, but it should be enough for you.”

The darkness moved as if responding to his words.

And then something appeared within the wind as if the empty darkness was melting away.

It was a giant black form. Not only did it fill the road, but it stretched far into the distance.

Thunderson smiled as he spoke to it.

“Come, Black Sun. I will show you the destination of my resolve. And this time, you will lose once and for all. …To be honest, there’s a lot I’m uneasy about, but I’m sure the descendants of Sayama and the others will find the answer using my final riddle. They will find the answer of happiness.”

He held the spear even tighter, clenched his teeth, and continued speaking.

“My thunder is swift, the stars watch over it all, and the north wind can pierce even a dragon.”

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| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume8 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume8 Chapter 8

2026-05-19T03:50:33Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 8: Confirmation of a Word==
[[Image:OnC_v08_0229.png|thumb]]
''To hear

''And to speak

''A single word

''I hid and let spill so many feelings

A certain room overlooked the ocean.

The window gave a view of a vast bay underneath the late-afternoon sky.

The room itself was divided into two spaces of ten square meters each. The bedroom space by the window had a desk and a double bed while the living room space by the entrance had a tatami mat floor. The bath and the entrance to the shared bathroom were located next to the door.

“But it seems we can use the 24-hour underground hot spring, Shinjou-kun.”

The boy placing his travel bags next to the living room table spoke and received a reply.

“Wow, this bed is amazing. I bounced back up just from sitting on it. Look, look, Sayama-kun.”

Shinjou had placed her travel bag by the bed and was checking the bed’s springs.

“Ha ha. I feel kind of bad doing this while working on the Leviathan Road, but I never thought we would get to stay in a hotel like this. Not to mention that this is my first time traveling as far as Kyushu.”

“Did UCAT not have company trips?”

“You already know about the summer training camp, but they also had one at the end of the fiscal year. They would have an Izu dancer training camp or a snow tunnel escape training camp. I never went because I didn’t want anyone to know about my condition, though.”

“Based on the names, I think you were right not to go, Shinjou-kun.”

“You’re probably right.”

She smiled, got off the bed, approached the window, and picked up the guest tourist pamphlet placed on the bed’s pillow.

“I never thought my first trip would be to Nagasaki. I thought our senior trip would be my first.”

“I see. Perhaps I should have invited you somewhere before now. It never even crossed my mind.”

Sayama crossed his arms and nodded, so Shinjou frantically shook her head.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. You don’t have to worry about that. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of chances for trips in the future and there’s still a lot we have to do. There’s also the money. Also, I’m glad my first outing like this could be with you. No one would ever guess the two of us were on a trip toge-…”

Despite sounding so excited, she suddenly stopped and her expression froze.

“We left the dorm and school with our luggage, didn’t we?”

“Yes, we left while greeting the students preparing for the athletic festival. What about it?”

“There’s probably a good chance that rumors about us might be perhaps spreading through the school right now!!”

Hearing that, Sayama pulled a calculator from his pocket and pushed a few buttons.

“Probably, a good chance, might be, and perhaps. If I multiply them together as ninety percent each, that drops the total odds down to about sixty-six percent, Shinjou-kun.”

“But unfortunately, that’s still over fifty percent, Sayama-kun. And I’ve heard rumors that you’re smart, but can I mentally deny them?”

“Heh heh heh. Shinjou-kun, any intellect measurable on the standard scale is no match for me.”

He pulled up a rocking chair from the desk and sat in it. He looked to the same sea Shinjou was watching, looked down to the harbor and city, and finally looked to Shinjou herself.

“What do you think of the view? I think this was a nice room that happened to be vacant.”

“I have a feeling you’re hiding a complaint, but yes. This hotel is connected to IAI, isn’t it? It’s fun seeing everything from seven stories up and the wind is nice.”

“Indeed. If there was a fire, there would be no saving us.”

“Stop trying to make this more exciting than it is. …Anyway, it’s nice how the airport is close by, we can reach the city easily, and we can see the ocean.”

She looked past the bay and to the few islands visible on the boat-filled sea.

“This is nice. The Seto Inland Sea was good too, but this has a different feel to it.”

“Well, most of the islands you can see here are just as empty as the ones in the Inland Sea. But you can see the Goto Islands there and far beyond them but out of sight is China.”

“4th-Gear’s reservation is on one of the desert islands, isn’t it?”

“I believe its island is not visible from here. We have to take a ship from Nagasaki Harbor to reach the IAI-owned island. I believe the IAI ship is set to leave first thing tomorrow morning.”

“So we’ll be going out to sea.”

“The Seto Inland Sea was your first time on the beach, wasn’t it? So will this be your first time out on the ocean?”

She nodded while looking out the window.

“Yes. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen the Pacific Ocean. Izumo-san swam in it last night, though.”

Hearing that, Sayama replied in agreement toward her back.

…''Although you call that being “swept away” not “swimming”. But who cares about Izumo.

After he gave a nod of deep emotion, she took a step away from the window, sighed in satisfaction, and turned toward him.

“But we only got a chance to see this scenery because we got here so early.”

“Let’s wait a bit before heading out. A Nagasaki UCAT employee is supposed to bring us a communicator to contact the new headquarters in Okutama. It will apparently take some time to get here, though.”

“I see. Well, I suppose work does come first.”

She nodded and slowly walked toward him and his rocking chair.

She then sat down on his lap.

Her warmth, her softness, and the weight supporting them reached him through the double skirt.

“Let’s talk.”

When Sayama heard what Shinjou said, he nodded.

“Yes. There is a lot I want to say, but how about you go first, Shinjou-kun?”

“Sure.” She gently rested her hair and back on his chest. “Um, thank you for last night. You put up with it even when I said something strange, made an impossible request, and then started crying.”

“Did you?”

“I did. I know it’s impossible and that you lied when you said you could do it. It may be a little conceited, but I think it’s partially my fault that you had to tell that lie.”

“I see.”

Sayama recalled the conversation from the previous night.

How was Shinjou to have a child when she belonged to a race that switched between male and female at a set interval?

Everything might work fine while she was female, but what happened when she became male? She had also once said that she did not belong to any known race.

…''That means she might be a unique product of crossbreeding between two races.

He could also think of several other possibilities such as human experimentation and the effect of some form of concept.

But no matter how much they looked into the cause, it would not change the fact that she belonged to a race that switched between sexes.

That was why she had spoken out about her worries and then cried.

“Am I…okay?”

“Of course you are. You are wonderful.”

“This might be a mean question, but…do you know something?”

“I do. I know that everything about you is wonderful. Am I wrong? That is the main tenet of Shinjou-ism.”

“Then let me teach you the main tenet of Sayama-ism: this isn’t a joke.”

Her shoulders shook a little and she smiled. In order to keep that trembling inside her, Sayama lightly embraced her from behind.

“Let us get right to the point. Do you think you can never have a child with me?”

“Eh? Um…u-uh, well… If we aren’t going to read too deeply into what that means, yes.”

“Good. Now let me rephrase my answer from last night: that is not a problem, so do not worry.”

She gasped and turned toward him. Her long hair twisted and her eyebrows were lowered.

“O-of course it’s a problem.”

“Have you ever tried it?”

“B-but I still haven’t had my period and the boy side isn’t working either.”

“What if it simply takes longer for you? Or what if you still have issues with your body?”

To tell her to calm down, he gathered strength in the arms embracing her and gently moved the rocking chair.

“You dressed like this today, but was that because you think you still have issues with Setsu-kun’s body and want to remain as Sadame-kun as much as possible? But no matter how you dress yourself up, there are times when you are a boy, Shinjou-kun.”

“But…”

“I know what you want to say and this may be a step forward in a certain way.”

She looked up in confusion, but he returned her look with his usual expressionless face.

“Before, you hated your body itself and tried to stay as Sadame-kun for my sake. But now you prefer Sadame-kun because there is something you want to do. That is a major step forward. So listen. I will now resolve some of your unease.”

And he did so.

“3rd-Gear has technology for in vitro fertilization as well as cloning technology. You may not be able to carry the child yourself, but that technology will still allow you to have a child. That possibility is available to us now that 3rd-Gear has joined us.”

“…”

He heard Shinjou gulp and felt her hold her own body within his arms.

He then embraced her even more and continued rocking the chair.

“You are perfectly capable of rocking a cradle like this. We only need to take an egg cell from you, or – if that isn’t possible – modify one of your cells into an egg cell. So until we decide to do that, how about you try to do it on your own?”

“You mean…?”

“Do you still not understand?” Sayama shrugged. “The worry behind your tears has already been solved by the Leviathan Road. All that remains is to continue trying to see if you can do it without relying on that technology.”

Sayama’s words filled the air and time passed.

Shinjou took several breaths on the slowly moving rocking chair and then opened her mouth to speak.

“U-um?”

She sounded hesitant and troubled.

“C-can I really trust in that and test myself?”

“You can. At any time, at any place, and in any way. Right?”

She nodded and formed a slightly crumpled smile.

“Yes, that’s right. I can continue testing myself at any time, at any place, and in any way.”

However, her head shot up and she frantically turned toward Sayama.

“D-did I just fall for a dangerous leading question!?”

“Oh? What ever are you talking about, Shinjou-kun?”

“Y-you asked me if I would test myself at any time, at any place, and in any way. Th-that’s leading me into accepting all sorts of kinky things!”

“You say some funny things, Shinjou-kun. Ha ha ha. It takes an amusing person to refer to an ethical truth of the universe as a leading question.”

“Stop lifting my skirt while you say that!”

He answered her shout of protest with a deep nod of understanding.

“Then I will do so silently.”

He bared Shinjou’s legs and gave a cry of admiration.

Shinjou frantically tried to twist out of his grasp, but…

“Wait, Sayama-kun. Stop making me straddle you.”

“Do not ask the impossible. Also, I believe it was you that did that.”

“That’s because my stockings slipped on my skirt and my feet aren’t reaching the ground.”

“I see. So your skirt is in the way. Such a naughty skirt. Allow me to take care of it.”

With a sigh of exasperation he sincerely lifted it up to her stomach.

“Now, that should make it easier to move your- gh. Wh-why are you elbowing me, Shinjou-kun?”

“It’s strange how I feel like I did something wrong when you ask so seriously.”

As Shinjou spoke, Sayama gently twisted her skirt into place and embraced her from behind once more. She trembled a bit and twisted her shoulders around to face him.

“Um, Sayama-kun? I-it’s not even five yet.”

“Listen carefully, Shinjou-kun. We have been too busy to do this sort of thing lately and I have a certain thought. Out of her dislike for Setsu-kun, Sadame-kun gave him her hairstyle and clothes, but in a way, could that be a form of Setsu-kun that Sadame-kun is more comfortable with?”

“…”

“When testing Setsu-kun, it was almost always in the school uniform, but that may have been a mistake as it emphasized that it was him. Perhaps it would be better to do it in an outfit that you are comfortable in no matter the situation. Also, this is not the dorm room in which you originally showed your resolve. In a way, it is a place of comfort because you will never return here, so try to relax.”

“But Setsu is…”

She began to speak but stopped.

Sayama thought on the continuation of that sentence.

…''Does she still have a problem with Setsu-kun?

As he thought about what lay within her mind, he asked about it.

“Is there a problem with Setsu-kun? Is it about having a child or that he is a boy?”

It took her a fair amount of time to answer.

“…”

''What is it?'' he wondered about her.

At the very least, he felt he had answered the questions concerning Setsu that she had mentioned.

…''But what is it this time?

What he had to do was simple.

…''I can do nothing but trust in her.

He grabbed her shoulders, squeezed, and then embraced her slender body once more.

She took in a breath before speaking.

“Wait. U-um?”

She took in a few more breaths and moved her lips to test the words she was about to say.

She gently held her own body within his arms. She grabbed her elbows, held her sides, held the bottoms of her shoulders, and shrank down.

“Do I…”

Her voice trembled.

“Do I really not have to worry? Will it really be okay?”

After taking a breath, Shinjou spoke again and her voice was quieter this time.

“What is this fear I feel about being Setsu? It’s there, I still feel some unease, and I want there to be more, but…” She shook her head. “Can I really believe at least a little bit that I don’t have to worry about that?”

Sayama felt her relax in his arms and heard her let out a breath.

He felt a trembling heat in the soft back he embraced.

She then nodded and the hair that held a trace of her body heat shook between his chest and her back. After nodding a few more times, she quietly but firmly spoke.

“Will we really be able to use 3rd-Gear’s technology?”

“If you are worried, you can ask the automatons about it. They will do everything they can to serve people.”

“Then… I can have a child even if it won’t be with my actual body? I can do that?”

And…

“I can rejoice about that?”

“You can, but that is only the bare minimum of joy. If you test yourself and it goes well, you can rejoice much, much more.”

“Ah…”

She let out a sigh as she curled up her back and sank into his chest.

As she entrusted herself to him, he rubbed his cheek against hers from behind.

She then lowered her cheek in a nod.

“Right.”

In response, he slowly lifted her skirt back up.

“Ah.”

He lifted it above her knees and then exposed everything from her gently spread legs to the bottom of her stomach. Before she could change her mind, he reached for her white underwear and gently lowered it down to her knees. With a shriek, she hid her cheeks behind her hands.

While making sure not to interfere with that movement, he lifted one of her knees and removed the underwear from that leg.

“Um, Sayama-kun?” she said with heat in her voice. “Th-this is embarrassing.”

“It is all over for someone if they forget their shame, Shinjou-kun.”

“I suppose someone who long since traveled that road would know.”

“Ha ha ha. Now, let us continue.”

“This is hardly new, but what you’re saying doesn’t follow from what I said. A-also…”

She looked forward through the gaps between her fingers.

“Aren’t you going to close the window?”

“What are you talking about, Shinjou-kun? You need to show off your newfound self to the world.”

“You can do that on your own. W-wait. Stop kicking the chair and move away from the window. It’s too soon for me to try exhibitioni- Ahh! This is way too close to the window!!”

“Calm down, Shinjou-kun. We are on the seventh floor. No one can see us from outside.”

“A-are you sure?”

“I am, Shinjou-kun. You would have to be flying through the sky to see us. …Oh, look. An airplane.”

“They can see from the airplane!!”

“Just calm down, Shinjou-kun. Please trust me.”

“R-really? That won’t be easy given your previous offenses.”

“I will admit I have been rude to you on occasion, but try to remember when we first met. My behavior towards Setsu-kun was immaculate.”

“I just remembered that immaculate record began with you pressing your ear against my chest and then pulling on me while saying nonsense in the bath. The trauma’s coming back!!”

Sayama continued regardless.

“Quiet down and stop trying to close various things, Shinjou-kun. I have no proof, but I have a feeling things will go well today. How about you?”

“W-well, I feel like it might work today, too. This isn’t the same as the usual dorm room and my worries from before are gone.”

Her tone lowered as she spoke and Sayama smiled at her.

“I see. If this will go well, then perhaps I should call the lobby and put in an advance order for sekihan.”

“Y-you don’t have to do that. I’d rather this be our secret.”

''Such lovely words,'' he thought while gently rocking the chair once more.

“Ah.”

She spread her legs to balance herself and he raised his knees.

With his knees pressing up against her butt, she further spread her legs and he placed the backs of her knees over the arms of the chair. He brought her stockings to a position they could safely slip from and she brought her hands to her face.

“S-Sayama-kun?”

“What is it? I do not have time to deal with jokes right now.”

“That’s my line!! U-um? Will you please listen to me?”

She bent backwards to press her forehead against his neck and she took a breath.

“You always stop when I’m about to cry, don’t you?”

“Do I?”

“You do.” She blushed and lowered her gaze a bit. “But don’t do that today. Sometimes, I wonder if it would go better if you showed less restraint because of me.”

“I see. Then today is a day for both of us to face our problem areas.”

She gave a small smile while still blushing.

“Ah,” she said when he touched her hand. “U-um? Can I ask something else?”

“What is it?”

“Well,” she said with her hands on her cheeks. “You’re recording this, aren’t you?”

Izumo and Kazami traveled east along a road that ran along the JR Itsukaichi Line that existed between Harakawa’s apartment and Taka-Akita Academy.

To their right were a guardrail, a small embankment, and the railroad track. To their left was a field. The only other things around were the evening sun and the cool wind that carried some sand in it.

Izumo kept the motorcycle engine on, but he held the clutch and moved the vehicle forward by kicking off the ground. A sign by the field gave the speed limit, but he was moving the motorcycle well below that.

“Hey, Chisato.”

He called behind him where Kazami sat on the motorcycle.

“Come to think of it, we ended up skipping school today.”

She looked up into the sky and gave a short groan.

“Well, that may be true. We can try getting Ooki-sensei to work something out for us tomorrow.”

“No, let’s not do that. Cheating isn’t gonna help.”

He spoke lazily and she agreed with her eyebrows lowered in a smile.

He suddenly stopped moving and turned back toward her.

“Chisato, why did we stop keeping an eye on that Harakawa guy’s place and start wandering around?”

“Hm? Oh, there was something bothering me. And I don’t think I was wrong.”

“Did something happen? Not that I see any reason to keep an eye on a figure-obsessed guy’s apartment.”

“Wait a second.” Kazami leaned up against his back and tilted her head. “U-um, Kaku? Do you really think that stuff about Harakawa having a figure is true?”

“Yeah. You saw that women’s underwear, didn’t you? He’s doing the same thing Old Man Ooshiro did for a while.”

“But don’t you find it odd that a boy on Ooshiro-san’s level lives so nearby?”

“Chisato, UCAT has a lot of people on the same level as him. They just have different tastes.”

''Crap, that’s actually a good point,'' she thought.

However…

“Oh, but that Harakawa isn’t in UCAT.”

“Sayama didn’t used to be either. Strange people have the talent from the beginning. I know it can be hard for normal people like us to understand, though.”

“Yes. Sometimes I have difficulty keeping up with them. Anyway, Kaku, you’re making a decent argument, but I think it’s a little different this time.”

“You do? Then I guess it is.”

“Why did you change your mind so quickly?”

“Because you don’t lie,” he answered with a serious expression.

“That’s not true.”

“Then maybe you deceive me out of concern for me and I don’t realize it. But if so, that kind of lie isn’t gonna harm me, so there’s no problem. Anyway, you think there’s something more to this Harakawa, don’t you?”

She gave a mental nod to his calm question and shook her hair in the chilly wind that carried an earthy scent.

“What he’s hiding is one of the reasons I said to leave his apartment.”

“If it isn’t a figure, what is it? Did he abduct someone?”

“Please don’t say something I could hear Sayama saying. Although that might be it.”

She stepped down from the motorcycle and spoke in the opposite direction.

“Basically, we have a guest. Isn’t that right?”

A man in a gray suit stood behind them on the road lit by the evening sun.

He was tall and his face and hair pointed to a certain fact.

“A foreigner?”

“He was watching us from near the apartment. I thought he might need something, so I had him come here. It took some time before he showed himself, though.”

The man bowed and formed a smile in the eyes behind his glasses.

“Thank you very much for taking this outside of the public eye. My name is Roger Sully.”

Roger spoke in English and Kazami frowned.

“What did the foreigner say?” asked Izumo.

“He said, ‘I’m Roger Sully and make sure you remember it, idiot.’ ”

“I did not go that far.”

“Wait!” shouted Izumo. “So you can speak Japanese!?”

Roger narrowed his eyes further.

“I see, speaking in Japanese will work better. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am the assistant inspector from American UCAT.”

Kazami frowned at that and partially removed her hips from the motorcycle seat.

“A pleasure to meet you too. I am honored that American UCAT’s inspector would go out of his way to greet us.”

“As assistant inspector, I felt I had to greet the two who wield Concept Core weapons.”

…''I see.

Kazami’s frown became a smile.

She had referred to him simply as an “inspector”, but he had reiterated that he was the “assistant inspector”. That meant she had not misheard and he had not misspoken. He did indeed have a full inspector above him.

…''And his refusal to abbreviate the title means his organization is strict about rank.

She had heard that American UCAT was primarily made up of people from the American military. If he was the same and he would not use the same term to refer to both his own rank and his superior’s rank…

…''His superior must have the skill befitting the role of inspector.

He had likely used a spy satellite or American UCAT personnel to find the two of them.

Roger then asked a question.

“What are you two doing out here today?”

“Well, there’s a student who isn’t showing up to school and his homeroom teacher asked us to urge him to attend. However, he refused to come out, so we have to wait until tomorrow to try again.”

She was not lying and she interpreted his nod as evidence that they had not yet located Heo.

Realizing she had the advantage here, she relaxed a bit.

“But the Leviathan Road negotiator seemed to be with you,” pointed out Roger.

“Yes, the student in question is his classmate.”

As she spoke, she thought about whether she should tell the man what Sayama was doing and whether she should approach or avoid the information about Heo. Telling him about Sayama would likely satisfy him, but making Sayama’s actions sound too important could make him question the visit to Harakawa’s apartment.

She weighed the benefits and the dangers and spoke.

“But Sayama had to leave partway through for the Leviathan Road.”

“Is that so?” Roger bent back a bit and smiled. “Thank you for the wonderful piece of information. Yes, this means American UCAT must negotiate with Japanese UCAT as planned.”

“What kind of negotiation?”

“Nothing violent, I assure you. We will merely be carrying out the wishes of Mr. Richard Thunderson.”

“His wishes?”

“Yes. The reason he came to Japan. Surely you did not think he would be making the Leviathan Road run more smoothly, helping you escape the restraints of American UCAT, or introducing you to your negotiation partner, did you?”

They had thought all of those things.

''This is bad,'' thought Kazami while no longer smiling. ''Something dangerous is happening here.

…''What is this?

American UCAT was plotting something. As she wondered what, she lowered her hips into a defensive stance.

“Kaku.”

Before she could finish speaking his short name, Izumo had stopped the motorcycle and moved next to her.

Meanwhile, Roger brushed a hand through his hair and continued smiling.

“Now this is a problem,” he said.

“Is it? All I did was put up my guard. What happens now is up to you. Tell us what you’re after and why Richard Thunderson came to Japan.”

“I believe those are things I should tell the Leviathan Road negotiator.”

“Then think of this as us getting the answer out of you with a more physical form of negotiation. Got it?”

“Is that so?” Roger lowered his head a little and wrinkled his brow despite still smiling. “Then you are a little too used to peace.”

Kazami frowned at that and the wind blew through.

“…”

In that vast flat area of land, the dry wind of approaching autumn carried the scents of evening and the field.

“Hey, Chisato. I can see your panties because the wind is blowing up your-…”

She threw an elbow, but Izumo did not collapse. While she wondered if she had gotten a poor angle, Roger removed his hand from his hair.

As she wondered what he would do, he snapped his fingers.

She then heard a metallic sound from her left. It was followed by the sound of something heavy falling on the asphalt.

She looked over and saw Izumo’s motorcycle lying in two pieces. The break was perfectly straight as if a giant blade had split it. Oil spilled from the unfamiliar and complex structure inside the engine and a large piston lost its momentum and stopped.

…''What was that?

“You could say this was a bit of a concept,” said Roger with a smile. “Just to be clear, I have yet to finish introducing myself.”

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume8 Chapter 7|Chapter 7]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume8 Chapter 9|Chapter 9]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume7 Chapter 39

2026-05-18T03:57:42Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 39: Light of Shadow==
[[Image:OnC_v07_0419.png|thumb]]
''What is it that glows?

''What is it that reveals?

''And what is it that releases it all?

A voice filled the road.

It was a mechanical roar.

Sayama ran out into the road and came to a stop while holding a fan and a battery.

The white and black gods of war were facing each other while turned to the side. From his perspective, the white was to the right and the black to the left.

The situation between them was simple.

The black one was crouched low and had just fired a sniper rifle at the white one. That was all.

However, something changed. The cry from the white one drowned out even the gunshot of the large gun the black one had fired.

Nevertheless, the bullet reached the white one in an instant as if opposing that shout.

Or it should have.

Sayama saw the white god of war suddenly appear behind the black one.

The white one’s cry was already over and it was already swinging down its sword from overhead.

…''It cut and abbreviated the time!

To avoid its death, it had used its own concept in the instant it was attacked. That was 3rd-Gear’s concept of time that was controlled by Apollo and Artemis.

As Typhon’s eyes glowed a pale blue, it swung the sword toward Susahito Custom’s back.

“!”

The movement gave no time to evade, but Susahito Custom still moved.

It had predicted Typhon’s action, so it leaned forward and flew ahead by flapping its wings on either side.

Even so, Typhon caught up. It stepped forward and the sword struck Susahito Custom on the waist. It was a perfectly horizontal strike.

Shinjou gasped where she stood next to Sayama.

Her eyebrows rose and her eyes opened wide.

“Sayama-kun! Ryuuji-kun and Typhon!”

“Stop speaking with nothing but nouns, Shinjou-kun. There is nothing to worry about. The Hiba boy is evolving into someone who can fight.”

He saw Susahito Custom’s upper body collapse down and the black armor over its stomach open.

Below, a boy hovered in midair. It was Hiba who had already left the cockpit.

“This is thanks to a certain idiot teaching him the fear of being struck by an attack.”

Hiba kicked off the overhang of the stomach armor and flew through the air so he would not be crushed beneath his own god of war.

Hiba curled up in the air.

He bent his back in an arc and he fell to the asphalt below while ensuring that arc was oriented down.

He landed, bounced, rolled four times to escape the impact, extended his arms and legs, and used the momentum of his roll to stand up.

He then threw his body forward, landed on his hands, twisted his waist, and entered a cartwheel.

He landed as if stabbing into the ground, but he dealt with the remaining momentum by bending his waist, lowering down, and letting his feet skid along.

He turned around and saw the black god of war being smashed to pieces.

This was his first time to see his own craft destroyed. Naturally, it was also his first time to have the enemy win.

He took a breath and found himself unable to stand properly after the shock of the roll and rotation. Strength returned with each breath he took, but he was still a long way off from one hundred percent.

However, the victor sought further victory.

Typhon stepped forward on a direct path for him.

The white god of war easily crushed the wreckage of the black one underfoot and as it approached from only ten meters away.

“—————!”

It let out a cry while looking up to the sky and Hiba still could not stand properly.

He saw Sayama and Shinjou walk up next to him, but Shinjou’s cannon was not yet ready to use.

…''Damn.

Typhon spread the wings on its back.

That produced eight cannons.

It had chosen a surefire attack of homing projectiles rather than its sword.

It fired and thirty two beams of light flew into the night sky like fireworks. The beams were all solid, but they curved into a descent.

Hiba tried to stand up and leap backwards.

He did not think it was useless. He wanted to try anything that had a chance of saving him.

…''This is a lot like 3rd-Gear’s willpower.''

As he thought that, the light arrived.

“!”

He gulped, but then a giant form appeared in front of him.

It was the red god of war belonging to Gyes. A woman in a red suit and a woman in a white outfit stood on its shoulders.

Gyes shouted toward Hiba.

“I’m leaving this to you, descendant of Hiba! Give the king the resolution he needs!”

At the same time, the woman in white raised her voice while still facing Typhon.

“Stand back, Artemis! You aren’t the one that should be fighting here!”

Gyes’s god of war prepared its six swords against the descending light.

However, all of the swords were destroyed. The initial strike produced a clear sound and cracks from the blades, the next strike caused them to audibly shatter, and the remaining projectiles shot through Gyes’s god of war with more sounds of destruction.

Like smashed ice, the barrage caused the red craft to break apart and fly in every direction.

The impacts of light caused an explosion which sent those on its shoulders into the air.

Gyes took Miyako’s hand in midair.

Simply holding onto that hand and eliminating Miyako’s momentum took all of her gravitational control. Sending the god of war out here and preparing a gravity barrier to defend against the final projectiles of light had lowered her current output.

…''Is this the end for me?

She predicted her landing point based on her parabolic trajectory. She would drop Miyako on a nearby building roof, but the recoil would send her crashing to the ground. She would hit on the shoulder and the impact would likely break her neck and smash her head.

Suddenly, a new motion reached her.

Miyako shoved her away using the hand she held.

“…!?”

As she flew face up through the air, Miyako smiled.

Gyes could no longer reach her. Her mind raced yet she could not find an answer.

“Lady Miyako!”

“You idiot, why are you looking so panicked now? You were smiling just a moment ago.”

Miyako’s voice filled the air.

“You can’t plan to die. You have to be like me and assume you’ll get out of this somehow or other.”

There was no way for that to happen. Gyes had been pushed toward a roof, but Miyako was falling toward the road.

The boy they had protected was down there, but she was falling from around a dozen meters up. That was not something he could stop.

“Lady Miyako!”

Hiba heard three sounds.

One was Gyes’s god of war being destroyed.

Another was Typhon’s footsteps as it approached after causing that destruction.

The last was the shout of an automaton.

“Lady Miyako!”

Hiba knew who that was. It was the person falling from above.

She was a woman wearing a white outfit and she would eventually fall within his grasp. However, he could not save her and Sayama and Shinjou would not make it in time as they ran up the road.

…''What should I do?

That thought was immediately followed by Sayama’s voice.

“Hiba boy! Do not hesitate to use the power given to you! You have the right to do so now!”

As soon that shout entered his ears, he felt something placed on his shoulders from behind.

[[Image:OnC_v07_0427.png|thumb]]

They were hands and he knew that sensation well.

“It can’t be…”

He looked up and to the back and saw a familiar girl standing with the moonlit night sky behind her.

The tall girl had blonde hair.

It was Mikage.

He saw her cane fallen to the ground beside her. Her legs were shaking, but she was still standing on them.

About five meters behind her was a jeep driven by a gray-haired automaton.

A gray-haired man with a cane sat in the passenger seat.

“I’m only repaying Ryuuichi-san for what I owed him, so don’t thank me.”

The jeep would not help anyone from that point on.

Mikage then opened her mouth.

“I ill ight, Ryuui-un.”

Hiba gave a resolute nod when he heard her high-pitched voice for the first time, heard her wishing to fight, and heard her calling his name.

He looked overhead at the one he had to save, spread his arms, and let out a shout with a smile.

“Susamikado!!”

Just as Mikage spread her arms behind him, a pitch black body frame appeared above Hiba. It combined with the drivers, artificial muscles, and the frames for the limbs and then it enveloped his and Mikage’s bodies.

As it enveloped him, he combined with it. The sensation of becoming the machine and growing close to her felt comfortable and ticklish to him.

The entire body was built up in an instant, but what happened next was different from usual.

The armor plates for the shoulders, waist, and chest were not constructed as normal.

…''More are being added!?

Extra parts appeared from thin air and attached around the drivers, artificial muscles, legs, and waist.

He realized what this meant.

…''Mikage-san has evolved.

Susamikado could now walk on its own and protect itself, so the equipment and parts prepared for that purpose had been released.

After they all attached, he moved.

He tried swinging the arm, but even that motion was clearly stronger, faster, and more accurate than before.

He felt it was as if he had come to understand Mikage.

His quickened vision and reflexes easily grasped Miyako’s location as she fell.

“…”

Susamikado quickly caught her.

He eliminated some of the shock and momentum of the fall by twisting his wrist, but he noticed Miyako had still passed out.

He brought her toward the jeep behind him and placed her on the hood.

“Let’s go, Ryuuji-kun.”

“Right,” he said with a nod.

Typhon’s eyes were still a pale blue as it approached.

…''Do I need a way to overcome that time elimination technique?

Regardless, it was obvious what he had to do, so he spoke clearly.

“Let’s go settle this with their king and cleanse the impurity along with him.”

There was a large empty area in the amusement park.

The Ferris wheel had been there, but it was now a shallow crater about one hundred meters across.

Three people stood in the center.

One was a giant blue god of war with most of its armor destroyed. Another was a large man with his right arm missing.

The small figure approaching them was a short old man.

The large man’s muffled voice spoke to the old man.

“You are Hiba Ryuutetsu, aren’t you?”

“That’s right. …And you’re two of the Hecatoncheires, I take it.”

Ryuutetsu walked toward them as they created pale reflections of the moonlight and the amusement park’s lights.

“You two were taken out pretty spectacularly, Cottus, Aigaion.”

“No excuse,” replied Cottus.

Ryuutetsu saw a line on Aigaion’s neck.

“You’re bleeding pretty badly there. Are you okay?”

“No, I’m done for,” readily answered Aigaion with a slightly muffled voice. “My neck connector was severed. I’m holding it in place with my gravitational control, but it won’t last long. I came here because I saw Cottus, but this is my limit. I am only watching on while not getting in the way of the others.”

“Who did that to you?”

“The Army. You’ve heard about them, haven’t you? Their leader is a man named Hajji from 9th-Gear. I was defeated by a girl named Mikoku who seems to be his daughter or something.”

Ryuutetsu frowned, which made Aigaion smile and stand up.

Ryuutetsu took a quick step back on the soft ground.

“Oh? Are you gonna fight? You want a rematch after sixty years?”

“It can’t be a rematch when we’ve never fought before. …We didn’t make it in time back then.”

“Then why did you stand?”

Cottus stood up as well.

“Philosopher’s stone reading.”

“I don’t know what it is, but there is an odd philosopher’s stone reading at the very top of the concept space. A large one. It arrived a while back and it has been circling up there as if waiting for something.”

“Intercept.”

“Yes. I don’t know how it will turn out, but that is our duty.”

Cottus lowered his hand and Aigaion jumped onto it while holding his head.

“Hiba Ryuutetsu, however this Leviathan Road might end, can you promise me one thing?”

“What’s that?”

“There is a greengrocer named Dragon Grocer in the Kurashiki Station shopping area. Send a replacement worker there. The owner has a bad back, so he needs some help.”

“Just go yourself,” replied Ryuutetsu.

Cottus’s shoulders trembled slightly and Aigaion’s smile grew.

“I’m counting on you.”

With that, the blue giant flew into the sky. The gravitational control did not even leave any wind as the giant blue form became a shadow, became a speck, and finally vanished among the stars.

Ryuutetsu looked up toward them and finally clicked his tongue.

“What’s with them?” he began. “Now I’m gonna feel lonely here.”

Cottus and Aigaion rose rapidly into the night sky and the nighttime city spread out below them.

“Look, Cottus! That’s where I worked.”

“Specific location uncertain.”

“Look more closely.”

The city below was separated out by the circle of the concept space. Peaceful lights filled the area outside the circle, but smoke and sparks were still visible within. Sparks also flew on the central street.

“Are those sparks from Lord Apollo?”

“Uncertain.”

“If only it was.”

Aigaion looked straight out and his quickly rising vision could see more than just Okayama. In the distance, he saw Shikoku, Kobe, Osaka, and even the Shimonoseki area.

He saw the distant lights of cities and the shadow of the sea. The circle of Kurashiki was growing hard to see down below.

As they continued up, his breath grew white and they began passing through some thin clouds.

“Cottus, what do you think Gyes will say about us?”

“Impossible to determine.”

“I figured you would say that. We are the same model, after all.”

He nodded.

“Then I guess we’re the same.”

He looked up. The light of the stars had grown quite clear, but there was one light that was clearly not a star.

Aigaion created a mass of gravity in his left hand and shouted toward it.

“Uninvited guest, if you wish to earn an invitation, answer our questions!”

He received wind as an answer. The overpowering wind dropped headfirst toward them.

In an instant, Cottus prepared his living cannons and fired over a wide area.

The light flew into the sky and Aigaion fired his gravity toward the center. The obvious light was spread out to lead their opponent to the gravity in the center.

It was a two-stage coordinated attack.

However, the automatons saw something happen to their bombardment and gravity.

“They vanished!?”

Before they could receive any kind of answer, their plunging enemy arrived.

It was a steel-colored dragon.

As soon as they saw it, the sharp-nosed dragon was right in front of them.

A girl stood on the dragon’s head. The wind that not even the dragon’s gravitational control could eliminate blew at her hair as she held up a sword.

The sword had a certain color.

It was a golden black that was a mixture of the light and gravity the automatons had fired.

“This is the Cowling Sword Mimei. I suppose this is the second time it has been wielded for domination.”

She swung the sword down and the power it produced was clearly greater than what they had produced.

Aigaion shouted toward the light and shadow flying toward him and the sword that had produced it.

“So our coordination wasn’t enough!? If Gyes and her close-quarters combat had been with us, we might have been able to defeat you!”

He smiled.

…''It is because we are so poorly made that we are dolls!

…''Leaving job to Gyes.

Aigaion nodded when he received Cottus’s thoughts.

In the instant the attack hit, he looked down below.

He could no longer see the city, but the final battle had to be occurring down there.

Typhon was fighting Susamikado.

…''A clash between Lord Zeus’s child and the power left by Lord Cronus.

But he had another thought as well.

…''If Lord Cronus, Lord Zeus, and Lord Apollo are the same…

This fight contained an assumed death which was born from a family of malice.

“How will it end?”

His words were swallowed up by the light and shadow and they vanished.

The steel dragon blew all the dust away as it flew on through.

Hiba moved quickly along the ground.

He ran toward Typhon and poured his full speed into his second step.

He did not stop.

On the fourth step, he used his wings as if his great speed was not enough for him.

He continued on while noticing and not ignoring Mikage’s injuries or anything else, but also accepting them without lamenting them.

“Let’s go!”

“Right.”

Mikage’s enduring voice sounded reliable to him and he trusted in her thoughts.

Even if there was pain, there would be no misunderstandings or missed meaning.

And so he moved. He had not used the wings since they had been put together, but he did not hesitate to have them explode. He trusted Mikage to handle any slight deviation in the motion.

He moved forward and first collected his weapon along the shortest route.

He launched his body forward and raced through midair as if to crash into Typhon. Before Typhon could turn around, he slipped by its side.

…''My sword!

He grabbed the weapon he had set aside when picking up the sniper rifle in Susahito Custom.

Once he grabbed the hilt, he turned around and flew.

Typhon was trying to turn toward him, but it was clearly slow. That was partially due to him having sped up, but that was not all.

…''It’s confused by our transformation!

He realized this was the time, so he took action.

He charged toward Typhon’s turning side and swung the sword toward it.

He used all his strength and the spray of asphalt and creaking of metal could no longer keep up.

“!”

He drove the sword forward, but Typhon reacted with something other than its speed.

It cut through and abbreviated time.

Nothing remained in the spot Susamikado had attacked.

At the same time, Susamikado was in the spot Typhon was about to attack.

“…!”

He tried to move Susamikado, but at that moment, Hiba saw something in his sped-up vision.

It was Sayama.

The boy stood on the sidewalk down the road and Baku was looking toward Hiba and waving its hands from the boy’s head.

With that as the sign, the past demanded a moment of his time in order to break through everything.

Sayama was inside a giant temple.

Everything was gigantic in that white space. Most of it was empty space, the ceiling could only be seen as dim darkness, and the supporting columns looked like high-rise buildings.

The sky was visible past the columns, but that sky was filled with darkness. More temples and land were visible beyond that sky, but they were all situated on floating continents.

…''So this is 3rd-Gear.

He also saw a few objects in front of him.

They were gods of war.

The closest one was a pale blue. It resembled Typhon and held a sword.

Past it was a gray one standing at the top of some giant steps.

That was Zeus’s god of war.

They were looking Sayama’s way, so they had to be looking at something behind him.

…''What is there?

It was a person and a god of war.

A short man in a military uniform stood before a fallen black god of war and he had blood flowing from his chest. His breathing was rough, but he looked straight up at his opponent with the one eye not covered by a bandage.

He was Hiba Ryuutetsu.

Something resembling a coffin lay next to him and his god of war. It was covered in glass and a girl lay inside.

“—————”

She was crying out. She produced no voice, she shed no tears, and her eyes were not focused. She simply looked afraid of everything.

That was Mikage. Her body was that of an automaton and there was no order to her movements as she sobbed.

The gray god of war facing him spoke.

“We will soon enter your Gear with Typhon as our flagcraft. We can produce more children using Rhea’s daughter there, but the humans of Low-Gear may be able to help. …You should be honored.”

Sayama saw the pale blue god of war’s shoulders tremble a bit at that, but it was Ryuutetsu who spoke back.

“Are you stupid? Do you not understand the situation here? Cronus created another god of war besides that Typhon you’ve got safely tucked away. It’s-…”

“I am aware of that. I also know it is sealed inside a concept space belonging to that girl. Cronus gave her a concept space and a god of war, and then he sealed Keravnos inside when it should have been given to Typhon.”

However…

“That girl is still a baby. She can do nothing but cry futilely, so how can you be so sure she is on your side?”

“You don’t get it? That’s why you’re only third rate!”

Ryuutetsu turned toward Mikage just as the gray god of war waved a hand toward the pale blue one.

The pale blue one hesitated for a step but then charged forward.

Three steps were more than enough for a god of war and Ryuutetsu looked to Mikage in that time.

“Cronus doesn’t know what he’s doing either.”

With his back to the approaching god of war’s footsteps, he looked down at Mikage.

“Even with a fake, he should’ve used the same color as Rhea’s.”

With that, he removed the bandage wrapped around his right eye.

Sayama saw a single color below the white bandage: red.

It was an eye of that color.

…''He took Rhea’s eye to replace his missing right eye.

He used that eye to look directly in Mikage’s black eyes.

In that instant, Mikage stopped her voiceless cry and gasped.

She turned her barely-focused eyes toward Ryuutetsu.

“Mikage.”

He spoke such that only she could hear and he cried out even as the god of war footsteps approached.

“That’s your name. When your mom saw our world, she was looking at you with this eye and she gave you that name. So…you should remember it.”

He took in a breath and bared his teeth in a shout toward Mikage’s weak gaze.

“For now, just shout it in your heart! I’m sure some idiot will come along eventually and call your name, so lend me your power now!”

He shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Susamikado!!”

Mikage mimicked the movements of his mouth and it all happened in an instant.

A black giant appeared, breaking the coffin and a column in the process. It enveloped Mikage and then Ryuutetsu.

The coming pale blue giant had already drawn its sword, but Susamikado charged forward.

It evaded the descending sword. Ryuutetsu used that movement to reach out a hand and draw the other sword prepared on the pale blue god of war’s shoulder.

“If you had been king, this might’ve turned out differently. You can ask Cronus and your sister whether you’ll live or die.”

“What?”

“You don’t understand?” Ryuutetsu swung the blade. “Before your sister was turned into that god of war, it seems she asked something of Cronus. She said she wanted to protect you and make sure you lived if anything happened. …So it’s time you were cut down to size for the sake of the next generation.”

With a single strike, Susamikado cut the god of war in two.

The sword broke, but Susamikado did not stop moving.

It used two of its wings to fly straight for Zeus.

Space opened up around its right arm and Keravnos took form. Susamikado raised it in midair and the gray god of war drew its sword and let out a roar.

“Don’t think this is over!”

“That’s the line of a third rate villain! If you’re gonna do that, I’ll copy a certain insufferable bastard I know!”

It had yet to evolve, so the small Keravnos only fired a single white spear.

When it smashed through the sword and torso of the gray god of war, Ryuutetsu raised his voice.

“We are those who have taken the role of villain! Be destroyed, 3rd-Gear.”

Susamikado raced past but then turned around. He saw the gray god of war as it thrust its broken sword upwards as if reaching its hand for the heavens.

It was still alive despite the large hole in its torso.

Susamikado came to a sudden stop on the stone floor and heard several sets of footsteps coming from the temple’s lower floor.

“Tch. Reinforcements or maybe automatons. I don’t have time to deal with them.”

“Are you…going to take me hostage?”

“No, I’m not,” replied Ryuutetsu.

However, the footsteps from below grew closer.

“Damn.”

As Susamikado prepared, the gray god of war moved. It brought its right hand to its smashed stomach, walked down the stone steps, and approached the pale blue god of war lying in the hall.

“There is a gate in the back. Use it to leave. Take Keravnos with you and destroy this world.”

“What about you?” asked Ryuutetsu. “Cronus told me he failed to replicate Zeus’s mind.”

That meant Zeus had not been sent to the Tartaros and was still inside that gray god of war.

The gray god of war, Zeus, did not reply.

Ryuutetsu clenched his right fist with Susamikado’s body.

“Cronus laughed and said he purposefully failed so you couldn’t escape to the Tartaros, but that old man’s as eccentric as my comrades. He said that because it’s what you wanted, didn’t he?”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because he also died without going to the Tartaros. He instead became a component for Susamikado. Why?” he asked to Zeus’s back. “Why did you pretend to be a fake and try to assist your child?”

But Zeus’s reply was not an answer to the question.

“Leave. The maids are coming from below.”

That was all the gray god of war said and it did not turn around. It took a slow step as a black liquid and metal parts spilled from its stomach.

“I have something I must do. I cannot allow the royal line to be ended.”

“Cronus said the same thing. …Are you going to have him inherit your impurity?”

The gray god of war arrived in front of the pale blue one and crouched down.

“I do not know. That is for them to decide. But…”

It used both arms to pick up the pale blue god of war that had become two pieces.

Black liquid gushed from the hole in its stomach now that nothing was covering it.

However, it stood up and spoke.

“I will not let our king be lost.”

He walked toward the approaching footsteps without turning back around.

Sayama heard a sudden rumbling. The shaking of his vision and the air reminded him of a certain fact.

…''3rd-Gear became unstable after its floating continents were unbalanced during 9th’s invasion.

As the temple began to slowly crumble, the gray god of war continued walking with the pale blue one in its arms. The gray one looked down at the pale blue one.

“I will not let you die.”

It nodded.

“You can no longer make anything but happy decisions.”

Hearing that, Susamikado also moved. It spread its four wings and flew into the darkness in the back of the temple.

“Ridiculous.”

With that comment spoken through clenched teeth, the past came to its end.

Sayama thought as his vision darkened.

…''Will the conclusion be a happy one?

He decided it would.

Hiba awoke from the instant of the past.

He had a lot to think about, but there were two facts facing him in the present.

First, there was the danger of Typhon behind him.

And second…

…''There’s something I must do!

In that past, he had seen others with things they had to do. They had power, they had their own thoughts, and they had things they believed in even as they clashed.

''That’s right,'' he thought. ''I’ll be going there too.

Typhon had to be performing its attack after cutting through time, so he took action.

Without turning toward Typhon, he rotated his body and swung his sword backwards and up.

His high speed action led to scattering sparks and an impact.

“I stopped it.”

But he could not stop his movement.

While turning around, his defensive sword continued on toward Typhon.

However, Typhon once more cut through time and circled around behind him.

But Mikage expanded the armor panels to defend against the position on which she predicted Typhon would attack.

As a metallic noise and more sparks filled the air, Hiba used that opening for another attack.

And Typhon once more cut through time.

This time, he could make it in time. He used the momentum of his slash to rotate around and made an outward swing of the sword he held in one hand. His attack collided with Typhon’s.

“Oh!”

If Typhon cut time again, Mikage could handle the defense.

Their movement, attack, and defense all joined together.

Hiba charged full speed toward Typhon which would use his attack to enter its own attack time.

The opening Hiba had to aim for was the time between Typhon performing the attack and the attack actually hitting.

He focused solely on throwing his own attack into that opening of these nearly point blank range attacks.

It was impossible.

No matter how many attacks he performed, it took time to prepare and swing back his weapon.

However, a certain power assisted him.

“Mikage-san!”

“Right.”

Susamikado’s armor panels were not mere armor. Mikage moved them around as living armor. Her role was to use the actuators to move the armor around like wings at speeds rivaling Hiba’s sword strikes.

If Typhon repeated its attack time again and again, Susamikado would quickly attack and deploy its defenses at the same time.

That was the answer.

If their enemy could cut through time, they simply needed enough speed to interfere with that cutting.

Hiba moved and gave a silent cry from his voice device.

“————!”

He picked up speed.

He moved faster so he could have his opponent cut through time any number of times, be attacked any number of times, and receive damage any number of times.

…''And so I can keep fighting for as long as it takes!

He had learned this from his fight with Sayama. There was only one way to rule the fight.

He had to think the fight would not end.

He launched a barrage of sword strikes, quickly rotated his body, predicted where his opponent would be, and left to Mikage what was best left to her. All the while, Susamikado moved about as if dancing.

Suddenly, a song escaped his mouth.

“Silent night, holy night.”

The white god of war roared at the song, but his words continued as if in response.

“God’s Son laughs, o how bright.”

He sang and produced an explosion of speed that accelerated him even further.

The high-speed dance became a barrage of Typhon’s attacks with Susamikado at the center.

Several blurry afterimages of Typhon appeared and then vanished in turn.

''This is a dance,'' realized Hiba. ''It probably looks like the white knight taking the black princess’s hand and dancing about her.

Wherever his moving body and sword went, metallic noises and sparks colored the air.

“Love from your holy lips shines clear.”

Hiba moved.

“As the dawn of salvation draws near.”

His high level concentration caused the surrounding noises to vanish and he gave his five senses over to nothing but the movement around him and his own song.

No, that was not all. Mikage was always nestled up next to him while inside this god of war.

He swiftly sang and moved while feeling that reliable sensation.

Typhon was crying out as it constantly appeared behind him. Its voice was loud, but it had lost the tone of a scream. Hiba had a thought about that cry of Typhon’s.

…''Is it angry?

The bringer of death it had finally killed had been revived.

Was he imagining that it seemed to be expressing its hatred of those with a human body?

…''No.

That was something he had occasionally sensed in Mikage. He had wondered if she viewed herself in that way and he himself had thought that way in the past.

But that was only in the past.

…''So I’m imagining it. That isn’t the case now.

He had no intention of apologizing to Mikage over that because he had the convenient idea that she had surely thought something similar.

“Jesus, Lord, with your birth.”

He gave a bitter smile, rotated his body around in the scattering sparks and movement, and looked around.

He saw the city of Kurashiki covered in the lights of night.

…''Will I be able to visit this place with Mikage-san once the battle is over?

It seemed she was able to walk now, but would she need someone to support her? If not, he would be sad but, at the same time, happy.

But even as those feelings appeared and disappeared, they were not done yet.

…''That’s right. We can continue doing that kind of thing from now on.

They would continue on and on to bring everything to and end yet ensure that nothing ended.

And so he desired more speed.

“Mikage-san!”

“Right!”

Within their speed, his footing grew slightly more certain. Mikage had diverted most of the nerves to the drivers.

Hiba further raised his speed.

Sayama and Shinjou could no longer follow the movement.

They saw black and white winds clashing and rotating, but…

“Is the black one pushing forward?” asked Shinjou.

Sayama nodded.

The movement of the wind was reversing. The white had been pushing before, but the black was now the one pushing.

The black one had surpassed the white.

Just as Sayama became certain of that, Kazami sighed after walking up to them. She spoke quietly while blankly watching the scene before them.

“My dad asked why Zeus stopped at sealing Typhon, but I get it now. He must have been leaving it for the next generation that he knew would have improved over his generation. He was leaving it as an assignment.”

“Parents certainly are selfish.”

“So are children,” muttered Kazami as she looked up into the sky. She narrowed her eyes at the moon and stars there. “What a lovely night. …Hey, did you know this?”

“Know what?”

“I remembered while fighting earlier, but the stars in the sky make the shapes of the constellations from Greek mythology. People used to use them as guides at night and as the subjects of stories.”

She gave a bitter smile.

“In that case, the moon and the stars of those constellations are watching over the sun as it races across the earth. And they give no thought to taking the sun king’s place here.”

Those powerful words were followed by a metallic noise on the road.

Susamikado’s movements had completely surpassed the cutting of time.

The sound was that of Typhon making a frantic strike as Susamikado moved forward.

Susamikado’s sword broke. The black blade had been worn down as it was used to defend and it now shattered into dust.

However, Susamikado spread its wings and charged straight forward.

It ran. The black god of war poured all of its strength into its body, lowered down, and ran.

It slipped beneath the sword Typhon swung down and reached out a hand in the middle of that rotation. The black hand grabbed the remaining sword on Typhon’s shoulder.

After drawing the white blade, Susamikado used it to attack while passing by Typhon.

This was a replaying of the events from sixty years before.

This disturbed Typhon’s movements and there was a single reason.

The pale blue light vanished from its eyes.

“Did the replaying of the past lead Artemis to accept her death!?”

But a new light appeared. A yellow light. And the owner of that light nodded toward someone.

“Take a rest. I was always the one that should have protected you.”

After speaking, Typhon brought its sword forward and caught Susamikado’s sword.

“Now, let’s continue our fight!”

After gaining control of Typhon, Apollo wished to fight.

He was now at one win and one loss and he had overcome the replaying of the past.

The clashing swords parted and the black god of war took evasive action and moved away.

But Apollo would not let him escape.

“This ends here!”

He gathered strength in his back.

The white god of war’s six wings spread out and fired thirty two homing projectiles with a clear noise.

He watched his greatest firepower head out to settle things with the black god of war.

However, the black god of war turned around and moved forward.

In an instant of swift motion, Susamikado slipped through the barrage.

The blast of the light landing behind it gave it even more acceleration as it arrived.

When it thrust its sword forward with all its strength, Apollo realized something

…''You two desire this fight as well!

He answered with his own concept.

He cut away time and flew full force into his attack time.

When he appeared behind the enemy, he found the blast of his own cannon fire.

The explosion of white light caused Typhon’s armor to creak, but it also launched him forward.

He also used the power of his wings to advance toward the back of the black god of war.

He was going to catch up.

His enemy had accelerated too much to handle attitude control, so he could catch up and defeat that enemy without having to cut away time again.

In that instant, his enemy seemed to abandon the fight.

It forcefully threw its sword into the air overhead.

Needless to say, it would not help defend or act as a decoy.

…''What are you doing!?

Apollo then saw his enemy powerfully open its right fist in the air.

Without fearing Typhon’s approach from behind, Hiba and Mikage cried out in unison.

“Keravnos!!”

With that word, a roar and an impact reached their right arm.

A concept space opened around the arm’s exterior and Keravnos’s parts appeared while disassembled.

However, its form was different from before. The spear frame portion was not the first thing to be spatially ejected.

“A back connector arm!?”

Floating in the air was a large arm that connected to the back below the wings.

Next, the spear frame portion was ejected, but it was clearly longer than before.

Also, three shock absorbers appeared around the arm, the top of the device, and the front. Next came the claw to lock onto the arm and the rails for firing the spear bullets.

The side guide rails and the upper counter head attached and the counter head was cocked to adjust its position.

A further shock absorber and an acceleration thruster connected to the back and the spear bullets entered inside.

The spear bullets were the main part of Keravnos. They were the half of 3rd-Gear’s Concept Core further divided into three spears.

However, the space for the spears to enter was odd. Inside the closing parts were five spots to store spears.

“I’m evolving because I want to become stronger.”

Finally, a line of eighteen steel bolts were ejected. With nine on either side, they each forcefully jabbed into Keravnos to hold it in place. That high-pitched harmony of steel ensured the device would not waver.

It all created a pile driver measuring over six meters in length.

Hiba used that pile driver to gouge into something: the ground.

The air resounded with the sound of the earth being struck.

And with that sound, Susamikado forcibly changed its direction while fleeing forward.

It used the recoil of Keravnos to fly up into the sky.

It spread out its limbs and wings to circle around over Typhon’s head.

It rotated around to orient itself face up and then used its wings to perform a power dive in front of Typhon.

Its left arm moved to grab the sword it had thrown into the air.

Meanwhile, Typhon read its actions. Susamikado would send a decisive sword strike using all of its weight.

“!”

So Typhon reflexively cut away time.

It appeared in the air above Susamikado as it descended in a power dive. Typhon also spread its limbs and wings to descend. Also, the cannons on its back were already aimed toward the ground and therefore at Susamikado.

But for some reason, Typhon saw the tip of a blade before its eyes.

It was the tip of the sword Susamikado had thrown earlier.

Susamikado had pretended to reach for it but had not actually touched it.

It had all been a feint based on the assumption that Typhon would circle around behind it.

It did not create the end of the battle. It was only a continuation of the battlefield.

“…!”

Typhon reflexively cut away time once more. It moved toward the blind spot of Susamikado’s blind spot and Susamikado shouted what that was.

“Its original location!”

As he shouted, Hiba saw Typhon appear on the ground in front of him as he fell.

Its cannons were already ready to fire, but that would not do anything about Susamikado’s action.

Keravnos fired its three spears.

He fired into the stomach rather than the chest. That was harder to hit from above, but the reactor containing the Concept Core was there. If his aim was even slightly off, he would destroy the cockpit and kill Apollo instantly.

But if he destroyed only the reactor, there might still be a chance.

Typhon fired, but Hiba did not care.

He fired his own attack while leaving everything else in the hands of his speed, the armor, and Mikage’s adjustments.

A few of his armor panels could not withstand the damage and broke. That created a small deviation in his actions.

…''Dammit!

As he silently swore, he saw a certain light.

It was a pale blue light in the form of a woman and it appeared in front of Typhon’s stomach armor.

It was Artemis.

She looked clearly at him, but her crying face changed to a smile and she lightly waved both hands.

Typhon then cut away time.

However, it did not move behind Susamikado this time.

Typhon moved to the front of Keravnos with Artemis still in front of the stomach armor.

In response, Susamikado landed and unhesitatingly fired Keravnos into her.

A metallic roar filled the air, Hiba felt it hit, and the smiling Artemis nodded before scattering.

“…!?”

Hiba wondered what her nod had meant, but it was Mikage’s shout that answered him.

“Keravnos and Typhon!”

He looked and saw light rapidly gathering in the spear of light that had stabbed into Typhon.

Keravnos was consuming Typhon’s Concept Core.

To support it, the back of Keravnos expanded and received the extra light. It acted like it was a machine originally created to combine the Concept Core into one.

''It can’t be,'' thought Hiba.

He then thought about what Sayama had said while preparing for the battle.

…''Is this what he meant when he talked about how much I understand Mikage-san?

“Is the destructive weapon of Keravnos following Mikage-san’s evolution and evolving into the Tartaros Machina that contains the Tartaros?”

The Concept Core Tartaros had been the cause of 3rd-Gear’s destruction and it had now been recombined into one.

…''Why did Cronus make this?

He also wondered if Zeus truly had not realized it.

However, there was no way to know.

He gave a groan as the noise and impact continued. Finally, the Tartaros was completely stored inside Keravnos.

In response, Typhon’s entire body trembled and something was expelled from its back.

A large cockpit left the white god of war.

The giant white metal block was slowly ejected and it fell to the ground with a loud metallic noise.

Hiba then heard a voice. Among the allies and enemies surrounding them, the blonde head maid spoke up while bringing a hand to her mouth and lowering her eyebrows.

“It can’t be… Lady Artemis is recomposing Lord Apollo using the high output of the moment in which the Concept Core is joined together.”

Hiba did not entirely understand what that meant, but once her quiet words finished reverberating through the air, a heavy metallic noise appeared before him.

The white god of war named Typhon had fallen to its knees.

…''Is this… Is this the end?

He looked up into the sky where the moon and the stars looked down.

Everyone surrounding them then let out cries that expressed the various thoughts held within them.

Amid the shouting, Shinjou watched Keravnos’s new form, but she suddenly turned to Sayama.

He was staring at his left hand instead of at Susamikado.

There was a light there and it came from Georgius.

“Again?” she asked.

He nodded and held up Georgius. White light throbbed around the medallion embedded in it.

Wondering if it was all right, she held up her own hand out of curiosity.

Suddenly, Georgius reacted and the light rapidly grew.

“Eh!?”

As everyone else was focused on Susamikado, Georgius’s light intensified between her and Sayama.

At the same time, Susamikado’s Keravnos let out a roar.

“!?”

It was so sudden that everyone froze in place. As they all watched on, sound rushed from Keravnos’s surface.

Something was dented and gouged into its black armor.

…''Writing?

She could not read the writing, but she understood what it meant.

However, it was not anyone from UCAT who read the writing on Keravnos.

It was a female voice that came from a black-haired woman in white clothes who stood a short distance from everyone else. She stared blankly at the text on Keravnos as Gyes supported her.

“We of 3rd-Gear…” She took a breath. “Vow to become a power that gathers a great number of people along with the wills of the sun king and moon queen!”

Once she finished speaking, her expression changed to a relaxed smile.

As if in response, a single maid stepped toward Typhon. She had short blonde hair and both of her arms had been destroyed, but she still faced Typhon’s cockpit which had fallen to the ground.

“Lady Miyako.” She turned around and nodded. “Lord Apollo will most likely be fine. Lady Artemis protected him just as she promised.”

Miyako closed her eyes in a smile and all strength left her body.

Everyone frantically cried out and ran over, but it was not just the UCAT members who did so. A great number of automaton maids did as well. Some ran and some walked, but they all approached.

Amid it all, Shinjou listened to the UCAT members speaking as they walked up from behind.

“Hey, doesn’t this seem wrong if you go by the story?”

She heard a bitter laugh.

“After all, Typhon gave birth to the king and the queen.”

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| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume7 Chapter 40|Chapter 40]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 18

2026-05-17T05:06:01Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 18: Future Circumstances==
[[Image:OnC_v06_0179.png|thumb]]
''Do you call ambition for oneself the ego?

''Do you call ambition for others hope?

''Do you really need to think so strictly?

When Miyako awoke, her vision was filled with scarlet light.

Every part of her vision, from the center on out, was filled with the colors of orange and reddish yellow.

She noticed the state of her body a moment later. She was lying on her back and the leaves of the forest and the sky lay before her.

Even the layers of green leaves were dyed red.

…''It’s evening.

She looked around and saw a shadowy form. That shadowy form was a man she recognized.

“Hey, you idiot!”

She quickly rose up for two reasons. First, she was not actually lying on the ground. He was holding her. And second…

“You’re bleeding!”

She got up and turned around to find him sitting with his back to the earth that had crumbled from the cliff.

His blond hair was in disarray and dyed red by the light and something dark was flowing down his forehead. For an instant, she recalled her upperclassman in middle school who she hit in the head with a baseball, but she shook her head.

He was not bleeding as much as that incident.

A closer look showed his right arm was bent at a questionable angle. One of the two bones making up his forearm had to be broken.

“You idiot…”

She could tell he had protected her. She felt the pain of a scrape on the outside of her right calf, but it was a light injury compared to his. She could rub some spit on it and let it heal.

She looked around and saw no one else around. It had clearly been a fairly large landslide and the cliff had collapsed diagonally toward the inside of the concept space.

While atop the cliff, Apollo had said the concept weakened around the outer edge, but how strong was the concept here? They were farther from the outer edge than before.

She opened her mouth to call for someone, but something stopped her.

“There is no need to worry. I will heal before long,” said a quiet voice.

She turned around in surprise and breathed a sigh of relief that he was alive, but she spoke so as to hide her relief.

“Don’t try to protect me to show off, you idiot. You’re too weak for that.”

“And here I thought you might thank me.”

He wearily closed his eyes, but formed a smile with only his mouth.

That was the expression of his lies, so Miyako ignored it and took his right arm.

“It’ll hurt a bit, but bear with it. I’ll set it in place.”

“No need. It’s no use, so please stop. You’re being a nuisance.”

“Don’t be stupid. Is that anything to say to the person you just tried to save?”

“Are you any different, Miyako? You are complaining to the person who saved you.” He gave the mouth-only smile once more. “Why didn’t you leave? Now is your only chance. This base will soon prepare for battle and we will be unable to let you go. …I hear you are ‘job hunting’. In other words, you are being tested in order to join an organization.”

“That doesn’t matter. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“It does matter,” he insisted. “Miyako, you live in the world beyond that wall. You must leave those of us who live on this side of the wall. You should prioritize your own future over us.”

“Even if I still have things left to do here?”

“You mean naming the automatons? It makes no difference whether they have names or not.”

“Yes, it does!!” she roared back.

She was aware she was losing her cool, but it was too late.

She grabbed his collar and made him face her. As soon as he opened his narrow eyes, she stared into them.

“My name is Miyako. My father gave me that name so a great number of people would gather around me. You have the name of the sun god and you have that power, don’t you? Are you saying it’s meaningless to give those maids names and let them trust in their own strength!?”

“You truly trust in your name, don’t you?” His eyebrows lay flat and he looked her directly in the eye. “But my father was not like yours. He gave me my name, controlled what I did, and then left after forcing everything onto me. …And I can no longer live up to my name. 3rd-Gear’s sun was lost and there are no more people to wish for a king. Having a name includes things like that as well.”

Apollo spat out a short laugh.

“Go home, Miyako. Go home and tell your father you gave names and strength to a great number of people who gathered around you, but then a heartless man prevented you from doing anything more. That gives you enough of a reason to go crying to your father, doesn’t it? Return to that father who understands you, unlike mine.”

“My father died ten years ago! He left to save others and died!” said Miyako. “Do you even know what Christmas is, foreigner!? I got into a lot of trouble as a kid and I was always thinking that I should be honest with my dad at some point. I used that as an excuse to buy him a small bottle as a Christmas gift, since he loved alcohol. He laughed and we both promised never to drink too much. That was when he first told me why he gave me my name. He said he had work to do and we could discuss it more later, but that was the last I ever saw of him!”

Had he understood her or not?

…''I can never know what he thought of me.

She then realized they were more or less arguing over who had been the most unfortunate.

She did not like it, but she could not forgive someone who thought of themselves as unfortunate.

…''Even in similar circumstances, I never thought of myself as unfortunate.

After all…

“A lot happened after that. I’m not trying to whitewash the past, but there’s one thing I can never forget: the meaning of my name. And I’m trying to live up to that name! Even if my dad is gone and no one is expecting it of me, I won’t back down when it comes to my name!”

She punctuated her words with a headbutt and felt the impact.

It brought pain, but the man shook his head once and glared at her beyond that pain.

She heard him speak.

“You’re trying to live a life you aren’t ashamed of? You won’t back down? Don’t be naïve!”

An answering headbutt reached her.

The sound of impact rang through her head.

It had a decent ring to it.

''This bastard’s not half bad,'' she thought as she was knocked back and quickly recovered.

She started with a return hit.

“Urah!”

But the sound of impact was weak because he had kept his head from being knocked back.

They pressed their foreheads together, he ground his teeth together, and he spoke some more.

“Leave, Miyako. If you are that insistent, then use your name to take on the world outside of here.”

“Yeah, I will leave and I will take on that world. But I’ll finish things here first.”

“What is there to finish here? Do you like being pampered by automatons that much?”

“I’ll overcome that pampering!”

She gave a point-blank headbutt and pushed him away with the movement of her head.

“The automatons started saying they were grateful for what I had done. I’ll go from being a guest and become someone who can do for them what they can’t! What’s wrong with that!?”

“That is for their master to do!”

“If you’d been doing it, I wouldn’t have been able to take your place!”

“Then are you trying to become their master!? Are you doing these things while setting aside the final human of 3rd-Gear and ignoring his decisions!? How will you take responsibility? The automatons would not have changed if you had left well enough alone, so how will you take responsibility for changing them!?”

His question was accompanied by a headbutt and it was quite effective.

She felt briefly dizzy and somewhat reevaluated him.

…''He’s got a decent amount of resolve.

There was more to a fight than having resolve, but that could be the deciding factor in some things. Without resolve, one could not gather the strength needed to withstand pain.

His question shook her resolve and filled himself with it. That synergy caused twice the damage.

His question of responsibility had likely been what he truly thought, so Miyako opened her mouth to speak.

To bring back her shaken resolve, she did not bother calculating anything out in her mind. If he was throwing his true thoughts her way, she would say what was on her mind as well.

“You don’t know what to do, do you? You lost your world, you lost your father, and now you don’t know what to do.”

''I’m tearing into him,'' she realized. ''But I’m also talking to my old self.

But these were her true thoughts. She did not hold back and she did not think about the consequences.

She went on to say something she should not have if she wanted to maintain an amicable relationship.

“I don’t care about taking responsibility. It doesn’t matter to me that your world was destroyed.” She raised her head. “But I know what I’d do if I were you. I’d eventually find a job in the outside world. I’d make sure of it. Once I desired that, I’d go to the place I desired, work there, become accepted there, make mistakes, complain, kick my boss, get punched by my boss, become friends with my boss, and all the while create something and earn money. And…”

“And?”

“I’d use that money to feed the automatons here.”

She faced forward and saw Apollo’s yellow eyes looking her way.

“The automatons do not need you in order to be fed. They are self-sufficient. In fact, they do not need to eat anything other than small amounts of fuel. And how would you feed all of the automatons here? Would you earn enough money to pay them all a wage?”

“Are you stupid? People don’t eat food. They eat satisfaction.”

She felt she was being naïve, but this was what she truly thought.

Strength filled her grip on his collar. ''This will work,'' she told herself before saying what she had wanted to say at the company interview.

“Money, food, things, social status, questions, answers, going somewhere, returning home, doing something, destroying something, being with someone, and leaving someone are all forms of the same sense of satisfaction!!” she said. “If serving people is what automatons do, then even a small amount of money will make a record of that service. Even adding on one more coin to the pile will make a noise they can store in their mechanical memory and the number of those stored noise will show the passage of time as they’ve served their master. Those memories will prove that it happened in the real world and not just in their heads.”

“And what will that accomplish? That is sentimentality and you are forcing it onto them.”

“What’s wrong with sentimentality? Even machines remember the past and they need some proof to feel pride in their work. If that kind of sentimentality is wrong, are you saying it’s wonderful to have no emotions at all, Apollo!? If you do nothing and avoid any emotions, you’ll never gain the pride you might lose and you won’t have any pain in your past! But isn’t it the lack of those things that led to the destruction of 3rd-Gear’s people and left only machines behind!?”

She laughed.

“The hopeless humans who had lost their emotions died off while the machines with the ability to gain those things survived. And where’s the god who made your world like that?”

“Well…”

“That god is no longer just in our minds. He’s in the sky above those machines who are growing flowers! When those flowers inevitably die, it will scar those dolls’ memories and I’ll tell them not to fear the fact that flowers die. Just as they let the flowers bloom to create their own pasts, the flowers created their pasts to leave behind seeds. The same satisfaction lies in both the dolls and the flowers. I’ll find my satisfaction in increasing 3rd-Gear’s sentimentality like that, so I’ll be perfectly happy ignoring you as you reject that satisfaction!”

She swung back her head and felt strength fill her entire body.

…''This will definitely work.

She gave one last comment as she swung her head toward his forehead.

“Just you watch! If you insist on being an emotionless master, I’ll become a sentimental master!”

Her shout was immediately answered by a voice from the cliff overhead.

“Is that true, Lady Miyako!?”

Moira 1st’s sudden voice was followed by a few dozen figures leaning out from the cliff.

Miyako froze in place when she heard the sounds of several people moving at once. She looked up at the cliff while still holding Apollo’s collar and pulling him toward her.

Moira 1st and the other maids were gathered below the scarlet sky. Moira 2nd was missing, but all those she had named were there.

Miyako looked at them while on her knees.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“We arrived to save you two, but Lord Apollo said he wished to speak with you first.

Hearing that, Miyako looked down and saw the young man’s shoulder’s shaking as he averted his gaze.

…''That son of a bitch.

“Were you faking when you looked unconscious before?’

“Yes, I suppose you could put it that way.”

“And…were you guiding my thoughts?”

“Such cruel suspicion, Miyako. I simply wanted to speak honestly with you.”

“Oh? That’s surprising.”

She nodded and some new dark emotion welled up from the bottom of her gut.

She opened her mouth to speak and only a simple verb escaped.

“Die.”

“Ha ha. No need to be so violent, Miyako. Women should speak with more lovely language than that.”

“Have a lovely death.”

“W-wait. Calm down, Miyako.”

“Death is an instant. Not even I can make it wait.”

“You are quite the poet.”

“Then do I need to write you an elegy? Viva the afterlife.”

As she spoke, Miyako realized something.

…''Huh?

She grabbed his right hand and looked at his supposedly broken right arm.

“What is it, Miyako? Is there something wrong with my arm?”

It was no longer broken.

She felt her back tremble, but not from fear or surprise. She did not understand the truth in her hand, so she gained a feeling of the unknown.

But as she remained speechless, Apollo pulled on her hand and lightly brushed off his arm.

“It seems to have healed. The people of 3rd-Gear have long lives, after all.”

“S-sure,” she agreed while thinking back.

According to Moira 1st, the people of 3rd-Gear had long lives, but their metabolisms were about the same as the people of Low-Gear.

…''So why did his arm heal so quickly?

The injury on his forehead was also gone. She touched her own forehead and found no blood on it. That meant his forehead injury had healed before the exchange of headbutts had begun.

…''What’s going on?

As she thought, Apollo stood up and the maids descended the cliff to meet him. The maids held their hands down, used their gravitational control to press and hold the crumbled cliff face in place, and jogged down.

Moira 1st took the lead and she looked back and forth between the two humans with a smile.

“We have now reconfirmed the two of you as our masters.”

“No, um. I was only…”

As soon as Miyako frantically spoke up, Apollo turned his back and his shoulders shook.

Once she realized he was laughing, Miyako felt her cheeks flush. She assumed no one could tell in the evening sun, so she turned toward Moira 1st, relaxed her shoulders, and had a single thought.

…''Well, that’s how it turned out.

“Fine then. I’ll help out where I can. A university student working to find a job in modern Japan only knows the ideal form of a corporation and I’ve heard people seeking a workplace to achieve their goals is the way out of a recession. Sorry I don’t have the experience to say anything that isn’t straight out of a textbook.”

She took a breath and spoke in response to Moira 1st’s deepening smile and the smiles of expectation behind her.

“Doing nothing is an acceptable choice too. It’s a whole lot better than actively making thing worse. Still, I want to do something with this world that’s being wasted.”

“Really, what is going on?”

A voice filled a small, oblong room.

The student dorm room contained a bunk bed and the lockers near the entrance were labeled “Center of the World – Sayama” and “Sensible One – Shinjou”.

The beginnings of night could be seen through the window across from the entrance and someone sat at the desk by the window. The short boy had a white bandanna around his head and he wore a black T-shirt and the pants of his school uniform.

He spoke to someone over a cell phone.

“How is Mikage-san doing? Oh, that’s her journal. She writes in it every day. Could you put her on for a moment?”

After a few seconds, he spoke toward the sounds coming from the phone.

“Mikage-san, you’re writing in your journal, aren’t you? I don’t think I’ll be able to read it today, but would it be okay if I read it tomorrow morning when we travel to Okayama with the others?”

After a short silence, he lowered his head a bit.

“I’m sorry. I should have been more reliable. Anyway, I’ll call again in the morning, but you can have Kazami-san call me if there are any problems. Don’t worry. She’s my upperclassman, so she holds a higher position than me and you can trust her. I promise she won’t do anything you don’t want. Can you put her back on?”

After more silence, he scratched at his head.

“Oh, yes. That’s right. I can somehow understand her even though she can’t speak. I just have an idea what she’s probably thinking. Sure, I’ll put Izumo-san on.”

Izumo appeared from the bottom bunk wearing a black track suit and raised a hand toward the boy by the window.

The boy tossed the cell phone and Izumo caught it

“What is it, Chisato? Are you lonely?” he asked sleepily. “Yeah, Hiba said something about understanding her even when she doesn’t speak. Making all those assumptions seems pretty dangerous to me.”

“I-Izumo-san! You’re ruining everything!”

“Hm? Don’t worry about it, Chisato. It’s just the complaints of a small fry. We can get across what we want to say without speaking too. Like when we’re in bed every night and- you’ll kill me if I say any more? You’ll shove me out of the helicopter tomorrow? Ha ha ha. No need to be shy.”

“That’s being shy?”

Hiba glared over from the window, but Izumo ignored him.

“Well, I hope you can enjoy your time with Mikage. It’s been a while since you’ve had a female roommate, hasn’t it?”

“Oh, can you pass something on to Kazami-san? Tell her not to help Mikage-san when she uses her cane to walk and not to help her even if she trips. And even if it’s easier to communicate in writing, tell her to avoid it if possible. It might take longer, but she can figure out what Mikage-san is saying from her limited pronunciation.”

“You sure are strict.”

“Mikage-san is the one that wants it.”

“Oh?” Izumo sounded impressed. “Did you hear that, Chisato? Of course, I hear it caused quite a commotion when you reserved the women’s bath for her. She’s pretty mature.”

For a while, Izumo simply nodded as he listened to the voice over the phone.

After a fair number of comments and about seven nods, he turned to Hiba.

“Do you have anything to say?”

“No,” answered Hiba.

Izumo passed it on, hung up, sighed, and placed the phone in the charger stand on the floor.

“Now then.”

Izumo faced Hiba and Hiba frowned.

“What is it? You look like you have something to say.”

“I was just thinking how strange it is that my grandfather, yours, and Sayama’s all knew each other.”

“It is a strange feeling. But…”

“But?”

Hiba scratched his head apologetically.

“I still have no intention of telling you about the second impurity. Sorry.”

“That’s fine, but did that battle this morning make you want to join us?”

Hiba gave a troubled smile and did not answer, so Izumo gave a quiet laugh.

“Hiba, what do you plan to do if the battle with 3rd-Gear ends?”

“That’s easy. That should mean Mikage-san can evolve once more, so I would leave Keravnos with all of you and live in peace.”

“Are you fighting for her evolution?”

“Yes,” he replied. “I think she isn’t evolving because we have to fight and because we don’t have the Concept Core. I just want to be with her and-…”

“Don’t say it all. You’ll spread the feeling too thin.”

“Perhaps, but do you have anything like that?”

“Yeah. I’m always thinking about…well, unspeakably dirty things I can do with Chisato and- What’s with that look? Is that not what you meant?”

“No, but I did gain a bit of respect for you. About twenty percent…no, fifteen percent.”

Izumo nodded in satisfaction.

“But it doesn’t look like that’s all there is to it. Do you have another reason?”

“Yes. 3rd-Gear’s Typhon abducted someone the other night, remember? Well, I lost an older sister a long time ago. She went missing.”

“An older sister?”

“Yes. My grandfather took her in about ten years ago. It was about three months after Mikage-san arrived. He said he was making her his granddaughter.”

“What kind of girl was she?”

“Despite being a girl, she was an incredibly good swordfighter. I was no match for her at all. I tried so many times to get up close and grope her breasts, but I never managed it.”

“I see. If someone as agile as you couldn’t manage it, she must’ve been quite something.”

Hiba nodded, but clenched his right fist and gathered strength in it.

“I don’t know how it would turn out now. At the time, my father had died and I think my grandfather was planning to make her his successor, but she suddenly vanished about a year later.”

“Vanished? What was her name? I might be able to check on it with IAI’s intelligence network.”

“Her name was Miki. Do you know a Hiba Miki?”

“No.” Izumo scratched his head. “Sorry. But you think it might’ve been 3rd-Gear’s doing, don’t you?”

“We’ve covered more or less why I’m fighting, but what about you?”

“Because it’s fun. Why else?”

His immediate and casual response caused Hiba to stop moving.

After a few seconds of silence, Hiba frowned.

“Fun? People die in these battles.”

“I can’t help it if I find it fun and there’s no point in lying. I’ve given this a fair bit of thought even if I don’t have as much combat experience as you.” A bitter laugh leaked from his mouth. “I have divine protection from my mother, a place where I can go all out, my bonds with Chisato, my trust with my foolish underclassmen and comrades, and other things you wouldn’t believe if I said them aloud. And for the moment, I find all those things out there on the battlefield. With a normal life, I’d probably find them on a sports team or in a club, though.”

“Are you treating the concept battles like a sport?”

“The classroom and the workplace are their own kind of battlefield. Or do you think your battlefields are especially harsh compared to school or work?” Izumo looked straight at Hiba. “If so, you need to apologize to everyone staring out the school window or doodling in class. And you need to apologize to the people standing behind the register or riding a scooter around delivering pizzas. You can apologize by stripping naked, fully prostrating yourself on the ground, and having a photo shoot. And make sure to do it outside.”

“I-I don’t want to do that outside! Oh, but I don’t want to do it inside either.”

“I see. So you don’t like exhibitionism. Then remember this,” said Izumo. “You’ll find battlefields everywhere. No matter where you go, some people win, some lose, some succeed, and some fail. And people can leave or die in accidents anywhere. All I’m saying is that I want to enjoy it all if possible. In that way, there’s no such thing as a fun and peaceful life where you do nothing. If you want to find real peace…”

“Yes?”

“It’s when you sleep with the girl that means the world to you. Although you could say that’s its own kind of battle. So are you going to do nothing but sleep with Mikage?”

“That’s not possible… And you’re absolutely horrible. My respect for you rose to thirty percent, though.”

“Good, good.” Izumo nodded. “Anyway, I heard from Chisato that you’ve been taking baths with Mikage every day.”

“W-wait a minute! Someone needs to wipe down her body and help her when she can’t get up from the bath.”

Hiba frantically stood from his chair, but Izumo held out a hand to stop him while sitting on the bed.

“No need to panic. I’m not criticizing you. In fact, I heard that her body is still not fully made. Is that true?”

“Yes.” Hiba slowly sat back down and crossed both his legs and arms. “I couldn’t say it before because she was with us, but nothing related to being a girl has developed. I think it’s because her evolution stopped before she had any knowledge about that stuff.”

“Does she have the knowledge now?”

“Yes. An upperclassman in my club works part-time at Yokota, so I asked him to get me a foreign textbook. Mikage-san’s questions when she reads it are so unintentionally severe that you would have a hard time making me that embarrassed if you tried. She’ll lean up against me or suddenly take off her clothes to compare with the textbook. I’m just…how should I put it? I don’t know what to do!”

“Calm down, boy. To her, she’s just trying to learn. You need to restrain yourself. Although I suppose she isn’t equipped for it even if you couldn’t.”

Hiba narrowed his eyes at that and sank a bit in his chair.

“She sometimes asks if I would be happier if she were a proper girl.”

“What do you say?”

“I’m not telling.”

Hiba smiled bitterly and Izumo did too.

“Well, from what I can see, she’s a good girl. I thought she would be more reliant on you, but she’s actually doing what Chisato tells her.”

“She’s neutral about anyone I don’t view as an enemy. The only people she will smile at or let touch her without getting cautious are my mother, my grandparents, and me.”

“She smiles?”

“That was the first thing she learned with her evolution.”

“I see.”

Izumo nodded but did not ask further.

Hiba then seemed to realize something, looked around with a serious expression, and shrugged.

“Anyway, what’s the deal with Sayama-san and Shinjou-san?”

“What do you mean?” asked Izumo.

“There are rumors going around the school that they’re in a homosexual relationship,” he said quietly. “The Daily Rose Taka put out by the girls’ newspaper club is serializing a novel, the school-wide hard gay poll had Sayama-san at the top, and they were seen embracing each other this morning.” Hiba slapped his knee. “Oh, right. Kazami-san might know something. I hear she was at the school department store with Shinjou-san buying swimsuits. And both of them bought girl’s swimsuits.”

“Wait just a moment. I need to check on something.”

Hiba tilted his head as Izumo pulled out his cell phone.

“Hey, Chisato? Have we not told Hiba about Shinjou?”

As Hiba continued tilting his head, Izumo quietly said something into the phone and nodded a few times. Finally, he slowly returned the phone to its stand.

“…”

He sank back onto the edge of the bed, hung his head, and rested that head on his hand.

“D-did something happen?” asked Hiba.

“Well, it looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of each other for a while, so I should probably tell you.”

“Is it about Sayama-san and Shinjou-san?”

“Yeah.” Izumo nodded and faced Hiba with a serious expression. “Keep it a secret, but everything you’ve heard is true.”

“Really?”

Izumo said nothing and did not nod, but then he sighed.

“As your upperclassman, I order you to sleep on the top bunk tonight. I don’t want to catch the Sayama germs.”

“W-wouldn’t Shinjou-san’s bed be the same?” asked Hiba as he stood.

His foot caught on the chair and the chair’s wheels sent it sliding into the dresser to the side. The collision produced a dull noise.

“Oh, s-sorry. And this isn’t even my room.”

“I wouldn’t poke around over there. You might find some evidence.”

“P-please don’t scare me like that.”

Hiba moved to the dresser hidden behind the bed, so he left Izumo’s sight.

“It looks like something fell from the top of the…”

Hiba trailed off and the silence continued for several seconds.

After a few more seconds of nothing, Izumo tilted his head.

“Hey, Hiba. What’s the matter?’

“Um, Izumo-san?”

Hiba moved out from behind the bed holding something white. He spread out the white object between his hands.

“This fell from the top of the dresser.”

“Looks like girl’s underwear to me.”

“D-don’t act like it’s normal! Why is this here!?”

“Let me be blunt: with Sayama and Shinjou, it is normal.”

“Wait a minute! Have this school’s morals completely crumbled!?”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Izumo as he stood up and slapped his own chest. “Well? Do you see how normal I am now?”

“I think you’re making an unfair comparison.”

“Don’t worry about that either. Anyway, at the Seto Inland Sea training camp tomorrow, I order you to share a tent with Sayama. Good luck. I know you can manage.”

“No, I can’t!!”

As soon as he shouted out with the girl’s underwear in his hand, the chime indicating lights out rang.

A hard sound broke through the stillness.

In the forest below the night sky was a clearing behind a lit factory.

The fifty meter clearing had been created by digging down into the ground and it contained two figures.

The two figures in the darkness were female.

They were both tall, they both had long black hair, and they both held wooden swords, but one was collapsed on the ground.

The one who had fallen to a sitting position was the younger of the two. The girl had sharp eyes, she wore a white denim shirt and jeans, and she clicked her tongue.

“You’re the same as always, Tatsumi.”

She glared up at her opponent. The girl named Tatsumi’s wooden sword was hanging down and not at the ready.

Tatsumi wore a yellow dress and a white cardigan and she had a smile on the eyes below her hair which was brushed to the side.

“If you can give me a look like that, you have the right attitude, Mikoku. You have to leave before long, right? If you’re catching the ten o’clock train to Yokohama, you need to leave here by eight.”

“Isn’t that a little early?”

“You’re going to Yokohama and you’ll be eating dinner there, right?”

Mikoku sighed, ignored Tatsumi’s subsequent complaint, and pointed toward the factory with her chin.

“I would love to visit Chinatown there, but Shino has prepared something for today.”

“Really? But she has her own work to do. …Alex, where is Shino?”

“Asleep. On top of me.”

The voice seemed to come from a megaphone, but it did not reach the surrounding area. It was a directional voice.

“I see,” replied Tatsumi as her shoulders lowered. “If Shino has prepared something, that may be better.”

“That would be best. I’m sure she has made much more than necessary.”

Mikoku began to stand up.

“…!”

But Tatsumi stepped up to her and swung her wooden sword at the younger girl’s ankle.

Mikoku evaded the high-speed attack by using her standing motion to jump straight up and she brought her wooden sword toward Tatsumi.

“!”

Tatsumi was already twisting her body upwards.

The sword swinging down responded to the twisting by jumping upwards.

A clear sound filled the air and Mikoku’s wooden sword broke in half. Pieces of cloth scattered from her shirt’s collar and wind struck her cheek.

She could do nothing while in midair and something struck her chest.

The hard and gently pointed object was the tip of Tatsumi’s wooden sword.

The wooden weapon was lightly pressed against her sternum and a smile gave a warning from the other end of the weapon.

“Open your mouth and breathe out.”

Before she could, something happened.

Strength slowly gathered in the tip of the sword. It was not enough strength to provide pain, but it accelerated over a series of instants.

“This will knock you away, so prepare to land!”

Exactly that happened while still providing no pain.

Tatsumi vanished from Mikoku’s vision and was replaced by the sky.

Mikoku did not know what had happened.

She finally realized she had rotated around, but then her back struck the grassy embankment making the edge of the clearing.

“…!”

She had known this would happen, so she was sprawled out and relaxed. The air in her lungs had vanished and her loosening muscles opened up her chest before she could try to breathe in.

She was able to take a normal breath of oxygen which steadied her vision.

''Where is Tatsumi?'' she thought.

The other girl’s location would tell her how far she had been thrown.

But that idea proved fruitless because Tatsumi stood to her right.

“You are absurd.”

“You should be able to do this much yourself.”

“…”

She did not think she could, but she did not feel like saying it now. They had argued countless times and she always lost.

As Mikoku remained silent, Tatsumi narrowed her eyes and held out a hand.

“I taught you a good bit in today’s lesson. Do you realize that?”

“Yes,” she agreed while reaching out her own hand.

Their hands touched.

“…”

An instant later, Mikoku heard her own footstep below her.

This was simply because Tatsumi had lifted her up in an instant. That footstep had been the sound of her standing.

Tatsumi stood before her like always and that made Mikoku gulp.

“Stick with it, okay? You haven’t been putting much effort into it lately.” Tatsumi narrowed her eyes. “You were not made Hajji’s bodyguard this time out of trust or obligation. Of course you weren’t. You understand, don’t you? You can use that technique too.”

“But I have never gotten a single attack on you during training.”

“You’re the type that shines during real battles.” Tatsumi shot down that excuse and tilted her head with a smile. “The trick is to carefully observe your opponent and use your strength to its fullest. If you observe them, you can see how to evade or block as much as possible, right? I prefer to block and knock them away, but you would likely do better evading and using their own movements to cut them down.”

Tatsumi made a small spiral movement with her outstretched hand.

That motion was the trick to scooping up one’s opponent’s strength and using it against them.

[[Image:OnC_v06_0211.png|thumb]]

Mikoku had never succeeded in using it.

…''I do best when simply using my full strength.

“I do not think I can fight like you, Tatsumi.”

“You don’t have to, but you’ll be in trouble if you can’t even keep Fafnir Custom’s cannon from hitting you. What if Hajji or Shino had been shot immediately afterwards?”

A gentle summer breeze washed over the concept space as Tatsumi spoke.

“Don’t worry, Mikoku. You can gain even more power than this and you will be able to master it for the sake of your world.”

“How can you know that?”

“Because that is what you wish for,” said Tatsumi. “Think about it. The more power people have or desire, the harder it is for them to fully utilize their power. I do not desire much power, but even I can reach this level.”

So…

“The fact that you still can’t fully utilize your power says you will grow to incredible heights.”

“You’re giving me too much credit. What I desire is a small thing.” She brushed aside Tatsumi’s hand, turned her back, and stepped up on the embankment. “I will wake Shino, eat dinner, and head to Kurashiki. Shino has her own mission to deal with.”

She heard a sigh from behind her.

“Are you worried about Shino?”

“Yes. Even if she will have Shiro with her, she is still-…”

“She’ll be fine. The problem is how worried you are, Mikoku,” said the voice behind her. “I’ve thought this for a while, and I think I should tell you now that you are taking on Army missions as an individual. Mikoku, what are you fighting for? Answer me like this is a teen film.”

Mikoku could not answer Tatsumi’s question.

…''What am I fighting for?

She knew the answer, but it was no one else’s business. Not even Tatsumi’s.

She remained silent, stepped on the grassy embankment, and began walking away.

“You can’t do it like a teen film?”

“No,” she answered. “I can’t do it like a yakuza movie or a monster movie either.”

“Yeah, that probably wouldn’t work. Although doing it like last week’s Heidi vs. Mecha Onji could be good.”

“They never showed how the fight between Mach Peter and Giant Clara turned out, so I give that one a D. Anyway, if you have something to say, stop beating around the bush and say it.”

She turned around on the embankment and found Tatsumi had not moved.

As Tatsumi looked up from halfway up the embankment, the moonlight illuminated her quiet smile.

That expression was enough for Mikoku to draw back.

“If you want me to tell you, I will,” said Tatsumi while still smiling. “I believe I know what you are thinking concerning Shino. Once the coming battle with UCAT is over and this world is ours, you will leave everything to Shino and disappear.”

“…”

For a moment, Mikoku was unsure what to say.

…''How does she know that?

She forced herself to shrug in order to hide the surprise in her heart. She gave a mocking laugh and tried to deny Tatsumi’s allegation.

She opened her mouth, but Tatsumi spoke before she could.

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell Shino and she won’t be able to tell how desperate you are unless she crosses swords with you.”

“Wait, Tatsumi. Enough with the crazy delusions.”

“You wanted me to tell you, didn’t you? You have no right to stop me from speaking, so I will speak and you will listen to the end. If you have any complaints, then feel despair and do so with a loud sound effect.”

“Shobon!!”

“Alex, you be quiet. And no eavesdropping on a conversation between girls.”

“Shobon…”

Tatsumi sighed, but Mikoku brushed up her hair while feeling the impatience inside her.

Tatsumi was exactly right.

The Army would eventually clash with UCAT and the Army would use its power to take the leadership role of this world.

But Mikoku knew a certain fact.

…''Winning by force rarely ends well for you even if you manage to maintain control afterwards.

If the Army gained the rights to the world after their victory, Mikoku felt it would be best to leave those rights with the person who seemed the farthest removed from the Army’s power.

And as the one who used that power, she would have to distance herself from that person.

…''I need to distance myself from Shino.

But Tatsumi had also mentioned how she had realized this.

…''She realized I was desperate as we crossed swords?

“Tatsumi,” she called out. “Why is my being desperate related to Shino?”

The answer came immediately.

Tatsumi opened her mouth and spread her arms in the moonlight.

“That’s simple. Being desperate means you are willing to die, but why are you willing to die? Normally, people do not die for their own sake. That means it’s for someone else, and with you, who could it be but Shino?”

Tatsumi’s shoulders moved and she arrived before Mikoku’s eyes before the younger girl could prepare.

She could not even cry out in surprise before Tatsumi held a hand over her head.

The hand was clenched into a fist and pointed down.

“You idiot.”

A great noise burst from the space between the fist and head, pain shot from the top of her head to her butt, and all strength left her legs.

“…!!”

She held her head and crouched down while Tatsumi sighed and put her hands on her hips.

“Y’know,” said Tatsumi as if asking her to prepare for the coming words.

Mikoku looked up toward that swordsmanship teacher who had stopped smiling and gave a relaxed expression.

“Mikoku, you’re fighting for Shino’s sake,” came Tatsumi’s voice. “But if you die, it will be Shino’s fault. That’s what it means to fight for someone else’s sake. You are able to fight because they are there, but it will also mean you died because they were there. It means you would not have died if they had not been there.”

“…”

“It’s fortunate Shino has not realized what you are thinking. If she had, she would stop you from heading out to fight. She would tell you not to do that kind of thing for her. However, that would be more about escaping responsibility than about worrying for your safety.”

“Shino would never think about escaping responsibility!” reflexively shouted Mikoku. “She cares about others and she would never worry about her own responsibility!”

“That is why you can so easily blame your injuries on her. That isn’t fair, Mikoku.”

“…!”

“What’s with that look? Did I hit a sore spot? You can get mad if you want. Give a nice explosion of rage.”

Mikoku took action at that.

Her movement was sudden, but Tatsumi stepped back calmly as if she had predicted it.

However, Mikoku was able to see Tatsumi.

…''To the right!

She used her instincts more than her eyes to step on the embankment and send her right hand out in a jab.

An instant later, she felt something wrap around that hand.

Her hand had been grabbed.

“Kh.”

She could not move. Her wrist was held in place and her legs were stopped by pressure on her thigh.

However, her hand had made it through.

“Is this the first time one of your attacks has reached me?”

Mikoku turned toward that question and found the two of them facing each other halfway up the embankment. Tatsumi’s right hand had grabbed her hand and Tatsumi’s usual expressionless face lay beyond their hands.

“That anger brought your attack to me, so who was that anger for?”

Mikoku’s vision rotated.

By the time she realized she had been thrown, the moon had come into view. She felt the pale moon looked like a glowing jewel.

“…!”

When she struck the ground, she was no longer anywhere near the embankment. She was near the center of the clearing twenty meters away. The impact made her cough and Tatsumi’s voice reached her from the distance.

“You really can be stupid. Why did you let your guard down? Don’t forget to prepare to land and make it easier on your lungs.”

She did not have the composure to reply and she continued coughing as she got up and Tatsumi jogged to her side.

“C’mon, c’mon. Stand up and think. You have a decision to make. Will you yourself desire to fight or will you place the blame on Shino? I will not say either one is right or wrong. If you choose to fight for yourself, you might selfishly head off to your own death,” said Tatsumi. “But Shino is doing her best to be accepted by all of you. She’s not doing it ''for'' you, though. She’s doing it for herself.”

“I…” she began until Tatsumi struck her head.

“You don’t need to give your answer now. Don’t be so hasty.” Tatsumi laughed. “Think about it for as long as you need. Whenever you fight, you will hurt your opponent, they will hurt you, someone important to you may be hurt, and yet you will survive. Whenever that happens, see if you are glad that you survived. See if you can selfishly be more glad that you survived than that you hurt your opponent.”

As Tatsumi spoke, she suddenly looked Mikoku in the eye and her expression crumbled into a smile.

“Don’t make me lecture you too much, okay? Shino is obedient, so lecturing her is boring. You on the other hand fight back, so lecturing you is a lot of fun.”

“That last half was nothing but forcing your own ideas on me.”

But after standing up, Mikoku asked a question.

“If I fight, will I eventually be able to speak on and on about nonsense like that?”

“Do you want to?”

“I have no one to tell it to,” said Mikoku. “And I think I need a partner like that if I am to find my reason to fight. I need someone who will not be shaken when I ask for the meaning of my actions and who will accept it all with a smile.”

“Am I not good enough?’

“Sorry, but you’re just someone I train with. The kind of partner I need in order to fight is an enemy. I need an enemy to take Shino’s place.”

As she spoke, Mikoku realized something.

…''Oh. I’m rejecting the idea of fighting for Shino’s sake. I really am simpleminded.

She had not verified it and Tatsumi may have been guiding her there on a whim, but she was trying to choose some unknown enemy over Shino who she had been with for so long.

…''But I don’t want to make Shino cry when I get hurt.

There had once been a certain dog and that dog had saved Shino at the cost of its own life.

Had that dog done so for Shino’s sake? If not, why had it done so?

…''Did it think doing that would satisfy it?

Or had it been a sudden thing with no real thought behind it?

Mikoku did not know and Shino likely did not either.

What Mikoku did know was that Shino had still not forgotten that dog, that she would leave flowers and water for the dog, and that she would embrace the dog when it was summoned with the power of her philosopher’s stone.

…''Would the same happen if I died?

Part of her hoped so, but another part knew it would be painful.

“Painful…”

She made up her mind.

“But if you make something abnormal a part of everyday life, is there no avoiding that pain?”

Mikoku gave a nod and the harshness vanished from her face. She turned to Tatsumi and found the usual narrowed-eye expression.

“Do you have an enemy, Tatsumi?”

“Yes, I do. And I fight to ask a question.”

“What question?”

“That is something only my enemy knows.”

Mikoku did not know what that meant, so she could only nod toward the other girl’s troubled smile.

“I see. I wonder if I have an enemy as well.”

“Don’t you? For example, there is the one with the surname Sayama on Team Leviathan.”

“I’m not so sure. That boy knows nothing. …Do you think he will become my enemy once he learns the true meaning of the Leviathan Road?”

And…

“Will I be able to find my reason to fight before that happens?”

She looked up toward the moon.

Looking at the cold light of that pale arc, she nodded.

“I need to head out on my mission to protect Hajji. If that results in a fight, I may learn something.”

She lowered her gaze and looked Tatsumi in the eye.

“But why did you bring this up all of a sudden?”

“That’s simple,” said Tatsumi. “I felt like it.”

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 17|Chapter 17]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 19|Chapter 19]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 28

2026-05-16T04:37:14Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 28: Song of Battle==
[[Image:OnC_v04_0359.png|thumb]]
''Sing the war song of unavoidable conflict

''People stand on the battlefield of inevitability

''They await an anticipated answer

The battle began once more.

Tsukuyomi stood on the northern field in front of the forest. From there, she saw the enemy emerge from the opposite forest.

They numbered about half of what they had when they had entered the forest. Sayama and his group were not among them.

But they advanced with great force.

…''They have some sort of plan.

She heard their battle cries, their footsteps, and the blowing wind.

Riding on the momentum of those three noises, the white combat uniforms clashed once more.

With the protection of their concepts, 2nd-Gear had the upper hand.

But something bothered Tsukuyomi: the boy and girl who had charged into battle earlier. Sayama and Shinjou.

Especially…

…''The way Shinjou used Ex-St.

According to the records, she had never used the full ability of her Cowling Staff. Ex-St would remove its limiter in accordance with its user’s will and it would even destroy itself with its maximum power.

That wall of light had not been the weapon’s full power.

“But that was different from normal.”

What had she done?

Tsukuyomi knew the answer: she was beginning to accept her own will. It was the same as a newborn animal becoming aware of its own body and standing up to get a closer look at its parent’s face.

“Perhaps we should view this differently.”

''I just hope this decision isn’t too late,'' thought Tsukuyomi as she spoke to the managers around her.

“Everyone, move forward!”

Many male voices let out a cry in response.

Forward.

They would tread on the grass and go forward to the land the moonlight had fallen on.

As they advanced, their vanguard collided with the enemy on the other side of the field.

As Tsukuyomi watched, she saw something odd.

“Light?”

It was the enemy.

2nd-Gear had supposedly exhausted the enemy’s weapons and cut off their supplies, but they were firing light, darkness, flames, and ice. As she tried to remember if they had ever created weapons like that, an elderly manager spoke from next to her.

“To me, it looks like they are firing strange beams from their hands, feet, and eyes.”

A closer examination showed most of the projectiles were coming from Ooshiro Kazuo.

While striking strange poses, shouting strange things, and smiling, light shot from his hands and feet. He would even summon a strange black shadow from his laptop screen which would blow away his enemy.

“Wa ha ha ha ha ha ha! Take this! Miyoko’s Wrath!”

Tsukuyomi did not hesitate to fire moonlight at him.

This produced an explosion, but…

“Miyoko Barrier!”

A dark dome appeared in the field and an unharmed voice came from within.

“What do you think you’re doing, Director Tsukuyomi!? This is my youth!!”

Once Tsukuyomi realized her words were not going to reach him, she fired more moonlight at the barrier.

“You are an embarrassment to Japan!!”

She fired five times in a row. The third shot shattered the barrier and the fifth struck him.

For some reason, the old man looked delighted as he was blown away.

And so she fired another shot. Light exploded out and the surrounding people let out a cheer.

But Ooshiro quickly stood back up and threw his arms into the air.

“St-stop that! Is it that fun blasting me across the field!?”

“Try acting your age, UCAT Director Ooshiro! Your son is going to throw you to the ground again!”

Tsukuyomi’s warning produced applause from the elderly managers around her. They then began chanting.

“Once more! Once more! We want to see you show off some more!”

“Fine then. I’ll make it flashy this time.” She smiled as she drew the bowstring. “I don’t quite have a full charge, but this will do!”

As the light dispersed, she fired the large bowstring toward the sky.

It produced a high-pitched tone and light fell from the sky.

“Come, light of the moon!”

Not as much light fell this time, but it was limited to the grassy field.

A few dozen beams of light poured down to the earth.

…''Will this finish it?

But then she froze in place.

In the center of her vision, a new group exited the distant forest.

Tsukuyomi recognized them.

Sayama, Shinjou, Izumo, and Kazami were in the lead. Following them was a group of people in combat uniforms.

Kazami and Izumo ran toward her.

Sayama and Shinjou also ran toward-

“No.”

Those two were not looking at anyone.

They were focused on Susaou behind her.

But…

“Before you reach Susaou, you have to escape the falling moonlight! How will you manage that!?”

Tsukuyomi’s shouted question received a response.

It was a song. It was a Low-Gear hymn.

A female voice from the forest calmly sang Silent Night.

''Silent night, holy night''

''Brought the world peace tonight''

''From the heavens’ golden height

''Shows the grace of His holy might

''Jesus, as man on this earth

''Jesus, as man on this earth

As if reacting to the meaning of those words, the hammer of moonlight weakened.

It grew quieter and thinner. The moonlight returned to being normal light and merely illuminated the field.

“…!”

Tsukuyomi gasped and the singer’s voice continued from the forest.

The singer had long blonde hair. One of the elderly managers near Tsukuyomi spoke the singer’s name.

“Sibyl. She’s a maintenance girl who knows a lot about gods of war and automatons. She has the name of a goddess and blonde hair, so how about we invite her to the development department?”

“Don’t I provide enough femininity to the department?”

“Not nearly enough,” said all the elderly managers.

Tsukuyomi smiled bitterly, but she did not relax the hand drawing her bowstring.

“Well, this battle isn’t over yet and we have the advantage.”

The appearance of these new enemies from the forest caused her allies to change their means of attack.

Those with flight-associated names attacked from the air.

From what Tsukuyomi remembered, Kazami was the only member of Team Leviathan who could fly.

None of the others had surnames with the same meaning.

“Here they come,” said one of the elderly managers with a bit of surprise in his voice.

And then Tsukuyomi saw a few members of Team Leviathan do something unexpected.

“They’re flying?”

Their movements were hesitant, but they rose into the air as if climbing stairs and they began to use their weapons.

As she wondered what was happening, Tsukuyomi drew her bowstring even tighter. And she aimed horizontally toward Kazami and Izumo.

“It can’t be!!”

Among those who had remained in the forest, a small figure stood with a cat and a bird.

“The two name system, hm?” said Brunhild in exasperation. “So that’s the simple thing related to names that Sayama was talking about before.”

Next to her, Sf nodded from next to Itaru.

“2nd-Gear’s names indicate a role, so they are analogous to Low-Gear’s surnames. 2nd-Gear is a group of engineers, so they treat their surnames as their true names. They view their given name as nothing more than a number to distinguish between family members.”

Diana, who stood next to Sf, picked up where the automaton left off.

“But in Low-Gear, surnames became symbolized and given names drew more focus.”

She went on to explain why those Team Leviathan members could fly.

“They have sky, wind, or other characters related to weather phenomena and animals in their given names. In this country, the characters for fly, mist, light, and dragon are almost always used in the given name rather than the surname.”

Brunhild nodded and looked beyond the forest.

Past the trees, the heavens opened up. Shouts and light were produced there.

“Are you worried about them?” asked Diana.

“I wouldn’t say that. I was asked to inspect, so I am watching.”

“Oh, dear.” Diana shrugged and turned toward Itaru. “Itaru, I thought your father chose her as 1st-Gear’s inspector because-…”

“That’s right. To keep an eye on you.”

“Heh,” bitterly laughed Brunhild.

She took a step back in order to move away from Diana.

And then she glared up at the woman.

“I don’t care why I was given the position. As long as I can monitor such an infuriating woman so she can’t make petty complaints about Team Leviathan, that’s enough. So let’s try to get along, just as Siegfried asked us to.”

“That isn’t a very nice way to put it. I am not going to make any petty complaints.” Diana sharply narrowed her eyes and formed a gentle smile. “As soon as I find a problem, I will crush it on the spot.”

“For German UCAT’s sake?”

“No. This is not for German UCAT or for myself. If I had to say, I would say it is for everything that was lost to reach this point.”

“Everything that was lost? Like what? The destroyed Gears?”

“You only think that because you still know nothing.”

“…”

“No one knows what truly happened in our past.”

Brunhild silently listened to that statement.

After a while, she picked up the black cat at her feet.

“Fine. I will overlook it for tonight. I cannot use my spells well in 2nd-Gear’s concepts.”

“Oh? It does not bother me if you do not overlook it. My spells are perfectly strong 24/7.”

“Is that so?” Brunhild narrowed her eyes and stared up at Diana. “I suppose that’s what happens when you carry around fuel in your breasts. Perhaps I do not need to sympathize with your lack of experience now. Just so you know, I only showed you about twenty percent of my true power at the school.”

“Oh, my. That was only about fifteen percent for me.”

“Wait, I miscounted. It may have been about five percent.”

After watching those two repeatedly reassess their number with a smile, Sf turned to Itaru.

“Which one is giving a false report?”

“Neither one is true, but both of them are serious.”

As soon as Itaru spoke, Diana and Brunhild moved away from each other.

The cat looked up in Brunhild’s arm.

“Eh? Wait. Wh-why aren’t you putting me down?”

“That cat will not function as a shield. This will shoot right through him.”

“Hmph. He’s no normal cat. He can probably withstand one shot. …Hang in there, okay?”

“D-don’t I get a say!?”

The cat’s protests and struggling were stopped by a tight embrace.

The two witches exchanged a smile and both said “now then”.

And then five figures charged from the forest to the right.

“Supervisor Ooshiro Itaru of Team Leviathan! This is Mikami and Katori of the development department!”

Five young men appeared wielding swords.

The man in the lead, Mikami, turned toward the other four.

“Let’s use our standard…”

He trailed off.

He had spotted the two witches glaring at each other.

“…”

Silence fell.

As Mikami and the other four remained motionless, Brunhild slowly turned toward them.

“Heh. Looks like we have some good targets to compare our strength on.”

“Oh? It isn’t often I agree with you. Who will go first?”

“Eh?” said the group of five as they stepped back.

“W-wait a second.” Mikami spread his arms. “Why is German UCAT and 1st-Gear…”

“Keep quiet, target! But when I blow you away, make sure to give a proper scream.”

“That’s right.”

The two witches caused the five men’s faces to stiffen and freeze.

And then…

“Please stop.” With a dignified voice, Sf ran in front of Diana and Brunhild. “The inspectors are not permitted to take part in the battle.”

The two groaned and stopped moving.

After a moment, Mikami began frantically nodding.

“Th-that’s right. If anyone is going to attack us, make it Team Leviathan.”

Sf nodded and looked at the group of five and group of two.

After making sure they were all looking at her, she nodded and brought her heels together.

“Tes. I am pleased you all understand. I have determined this is thanks to the negotiation program I have installed. If you were impressed, please email your thoughts to the SF development team of German UCAT. Lately, they have been delighted even if you write ‘bravo’, but ‘khorosho’ is still strictly forbidden.”

“U-um? Sf? That is all well and good, but what should we do about the immediate situation?”

After a moment of confusion, the 2nd-Gear men finally began to nod.

From behind Mikami, the plump Katori wiped sweat from his brow and looked toward Sf.

“Surely you aren’t going to fight us. Low-Gear weaponry is almost entirely meaningless here.”

“Tes. I appreciate your concern, but I exist as a piece of Team Leviathan’s equipment. You can rest easy while thinking of me as a piece of equipment.”

Sf’s words brought a confused look to Itaru’s face.

“I’ve never once been able to rest easy around you.”

“Itaru-sama, when you truly rest easy, you do not even realize it is happening.”

“Oh? Then what is the strange thrill I feel around you every day?”

“Tes. That is a pinch of spice to combat the boring routine of life.”

Itaru silently turned to Diana and she frantically shook her head.

“A-are you sure this thought pattern didn’t come from how you formatted her?”

“I should have known you would weasel out of any responsibility.”

“Um…listen, Sf. Itaru is saying he’s curious how you will fight.”

Diana’s frantic comment led Sf to look at Itaru. He nodded in annoyance.

“Handle this in a way that will delight your opponent, okay?”

“Tes. In that case, please look at this equipment, everyone.”

Sf bowed. She then lifted up the right side of her skirt and stuck her hand inside.

“It was developed in order to instantly defeat one hundred approaching enemies. Once it proved able to do exactly that, everyone began to refer to it by the name of its creator and that name gained the meaning of singlehandedly defeating great numbers of enemies on the battlefield.”

When she pulled her hand out, it was accompanied by a black mass of steel almost two meters long.

The thick barrel could have easily been mistaken for a cannon and it was made by fixing together six rifle barrels.

“This is the Gatling gun. As I have prepared this for tonight, I have determined I can more than meet your needs.”

Sf lowered her waist as she held up the heavy weapon.

“Also, my name is Sein Frau. I exist and fight to meet my master’s demands. I ask that you too give this everything you have.”

And as she spoke, the 2nd-Gear men’s expressions stiffened.

“Y-you ask…? And how did you fit something so large under your skirt!?”

Sf faced them as she answered.

“I have many as-yet unseen features to make every new day enjoyable. I am German UCAT’s hidden masterpiece, so please look forward to what I will do in the future.”

Sf formed a mechanical smile.

Itaru had instructed her to do so and she knew what she had to say afterwards.

Itaru had said these words would delight the person she spoke them to.

And so she spoke to Mikami and the others with the mechanical smile on her lips.

“Die or go to hell.”

The attack began.

Sibyl sang in the center of the unit while Sayama and the others ran forward.

Sayama and the others at the front of the group had to break through the enemy lines.

[[Image:OnC_v04_0375.png|thumb]]

Sayama swung up Georgius on his left arm and shouted out.

“Go ahead!”

The others cried out as they prepared to clash with the enemy.

On the grassy field and below the moonlight, Sayama ran alongside Shinjou while Izumo and Kazami ran ahead.

They kicked off the dirt as they approached the metal giant beyond the enemy lines and beyond the forest.

Kazami led the group as she ran directly toward it.

And she was backed by Sibyl’s singing voice.

“Brought the world peace tonight.”

''That is exactly right,'' thought Sayama as he thought about the meaning of the lyrics.

He realized Shinjou was quietly singing the song next to him.

“Show the grace of His holy might.”

…''That is exactly what we must do on this night.

As he thought and ran, he approached the enemy’s main unit.

They were thirty meters apart.

Tsukuyomi’s group and Sayama’s group stared at each other.

The one group ran forward to attack while the other waited.

And then the enemy took action.

Specifically, Tsukuyomi did.

While holding her large black bow, she suddenly moved away from her unit.

“Is she trying to leave Sibyl’s song?” asked Sayama.

Kazami clicked her tongue up ahead.

“They’re taking this seriously for a mock battle. They know they’ll win if they defeat us here!”

Kazami began running even faster. She began moving in the same direction as Tsukuyomi.

“I’ll take care of that old woman! And Sayama! You know Yamata’s question and answer, right? And you’ve thought of a way to deal with the flames and heat when Yamata is released, right? It would really cheer me up if you were burned to death, though!”

“Unfortunately, Kazami, I do not think you will be very cheerful once this is all over.”

Shinjou turned a worried glance in his direction, so Sayama continued speaking.

“I have thought about both and have made the proper preparations. Go, you two. Finish your battle. You have yet to get back at her for striking you with moonlight earlier, have you?”

“We’ll be making a triumphant return before you can!”

Kazami took a large step forward as she turned fully toward Tsukuyomi.

Izumo followed, so only Sayama and Shinjou continued toward Susaou.

Tsukuyomi smiled bitterly as she saw Kazami and Izumo pursuing her through the forest.

…''Yes. That’s how you do it.

This was a mock battle. It was a fight between comrades where everyone held back so as not to kill anyone.

…''But this is 2nd-Gear’s final battle against Low-Gear.

If 2nd-Gear had not been destroyed by Yamata sixty years prior, this battle might have happened for real.

“It may be for the best that Ooshiro Hiromasa was unable to save 2nd-Gear.”

If 2nd-Gear had not become naturalized to Low-Gear, Kazami and Izumo would not have had that strength in their gaze as they charged toward her and Sayama and Shinjou would not have headed toward their goal with such determination.

…''And Kashima, Atsuta, and the other young ones wouldn’t have acted the way they have.

She wondered what her husband would have thought of this battle if he were still alive.

She had been told he had died as a secondary casualty of the great Kansai earthquake at the end of ’95, but she did not believe that.

She believed it had not been an accident and she believed “something” had happened there.

…''Did he know the world would turn out like this?

She did not know the answer.

…''What if he died so that the world could turn out like this?

“And as the ones who remained behind, it is our job to give meaning to this world.”

She looked up as she ran through the forest.

She could see the moon through the leaves. The shadows weakened the moonlight.

And two people energetically pursued her about fifteen meters behind.

Those people were Izumo and Kazami. Even in the dark forest, they remained perfectly by each other’s side.

They made a good pair.

But what should she do?

As she thought, Tsukuyomi looked toward the Heavenly Moon Bow in her left arm.

“I only have one shot like this.”

Sayama and Shinjou ran out from the path through the forest.

Their eyes had adjusted to the darkness, so the moonlight blinded them a bit.

However, that light did not attack them.

They safely entered the clearing in front of the lake.

Once their eyes adjusted, they looked at the weed-filled clearing, at the lake, and at the pier.

“Susaou…”

That giant dark shadow stood on the lake surface.

And two figures stood before the pier leading out to Susaou.

One was Kashima who held a laptop.

The other was Atsuta who rested a giant metal sword on his shoulder.

After exchanging a glance with both, Sayama nodded.

“We have arrived.”

“So you made it.”

Kashima sounded relieved and he nodded before looking at his laptop.

“During the battle here, I will be adjusting Futsuno’s output in real time. I want to ensure the power’s torque pattern is constantly rising. That means we will essentially have two people fighting.”

“Are you saying the two of us should take on that blade-happy man?”

“Hah! Don’t make me laugh, Sayama’s brat! Even working together, you don’t stand a chance against me!”

Atsuta’s words made Sayama notice an aching in his chest.

“Sayama’s…?”

Atsuta’s comment had meant that he was the child of Sayama.

…''Did he know my father?

As Sayama looked over, Atsuta gave a smile that showed off his canine teeth.

“Ryouko was my classmate. I always heard her speak so fondly of your father. I might know him better than you do. And I know about the bomb in your chest as well. …I saw what happened when you spoke with Kashima in the cafeteria.”

Sayama gasped a bit.

The usual pain returned to the left side of his chest.

Atsuta continued speaking while focusing on the right hand Sayama used to clutch his chest.

“Well, the night is young. I can finish you off after having some fun. Ryouko told me to stop you if you were trying to do something dangerous, so I’ll stop you from doing anything dangerous ever again.”

“I retract the request in her stead. She was being foolish.”

“What?”

“She knows full well that I can only advance while experiencing danger,” he declared.

Something wrapped around his left hand. It was Shinjou’s right hand.

Her slender hand gripped Georgius on his left hand.

The ends of her eyebrows were raised slightly, but she nodded with a smile.

“Let’s defeat them.”

Her words produced a bitter laugh from Kashima.

And Sayama nodded when he heard it.

He faced forward and stared at the two men of 2nd-Gear and the giant behind them.

“We shall win,” he said as he moved forward.

Kazami and Izumo ran through the forest.

They pursued Tsukuyomi who ran fifteen meters ahead of them.

However…

“We can’t get any closer!”

Light flew toward them. It was a shot of moonlight. In the shadows of the forest, it was slender and weak.

But at a distance of fifteen meters, it was not completely weakened.

If it hit them as they ran, they would be blown away.

“Could this be any more annoying!?”

Izumo chopped the flying beam of light with V-Sw and a word appeared on the weapon’s console.

“Bored?”

“My tactics aren’t matching up well. If I could only use the second form…”

But the rules of the mock battle prevented that, so Kazami could only agree with him.

In the forest, she could not bring out the wings of X-Wi and fly. If she did try, she could easily run into a tree.

And so she ran and thought.

…''Are we being tested?

More light arrived from ahead of them and Izumo destroyed it again. Tsukuyomi’s shots were both accurately aimed and accurately timed. She never missed the mark and she would fire whenever they were trying to catch a breath.

…''But it’s weak.

That may have been due to the forest. Tsukuyomi had not fired a thick beam of light ever since entering the forest.

And since she was firing repeatedly like this…

“She can’t charge up and send moonlight down from the sky.”

Kazami then wondered what Tsukuyomi’s goal was.

The moonlight was weak in the forest, so why had she entered it?

“There isn’t anywhere convenient to the moon.”

…''Wait. Yes, there is.

As she ran, she looked up. She saw what lay ahead.

Needless to say, she saw lines of trees ahead, so she could not easily judge where she was.

But she knew the terrain after investigating the forest the other day.

“This forest surrounds the artificial lake and it has rivers running through it!”

Even in a forest, the shielding trees would not exist on the river.

If Tsukuyomi stood in the moonlit river, she would be able to draw out the full power of the bow and her name.

And that was precisely what Kazami saw.

There was a break in the forest visible in the distance.

Seeing it startled her.

As if to further her panic, the sounds of a river reached her ears.

Izumo clicked his tongue next to her.

“What do we do, Chisato? Should we keep going, knowing she’s luring us there!?”

Kazami considered Tsukuyomi’s strength and their own.

She and Izumo lacked mobility.

Tsukuyomi lacked attack power. Even on the river, she would only be able to fire horizontally if she wanted to fire repeatedly.

That left a single answer. Kazami cried out to her own equipment.

“We have to defeat her before she can make it to the river! X-Wi, let’s go!”

“You idiot! Are you going to fly!?”

“No!” shouted Kazami as she leaned forward.

At the same time, words scrolled along the watch on her left wrist.

—'''Light is power.

As if proving those words true, wings of light shot out of her backpack.

Kazami knew what she had to do.

She had seen this method in the battle with 1st-Gear. The half-dragon named Fafner had not used his wings to fly.

“He used them to accelerate and turn!”

As soon as the wings took shape, she faced forward.

Tsukuyomi was just about to leave the forest.

If she was going to do this…

“It has to be now!”

As she cried out, Kazami moved forward. An explosion of wind appeared behind her back.

Instead of flying, she began racing forward.

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 27|Chapter 27]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 29|Chapter 29]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 21

2026-05-15T03:21:51Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 21: Honest Intentions==
[[Image:OnC_v04_0185.png|thumb]]
''When your question repeatedly rings out

''It resembles striking stone again and again

''In which case, what will the answer sound like?

In the Tamiya household, breakfast and dinner were split into two.

The family ran a security company, so they served food for the employees who lived in the house. They would eat once before being sent out and once upon returning.

It was currently 6:00 PM, the first dinner.

Japanese food made by Kouji and those not on duty was laid out on the dinner tables lined up in the main hall.

On the upper end of the table were those who had just returned from their security job and a few of those tables had beer on them. The three central seats of honor were all empty while Kouji and Ryouko sat in the two seats to their left.

Kouji would eat at the later dinner, so he munched on some beans, sipped on some tea, and sighed.

Ryouko ate at this earlier dinner, so she cheerfully swayed back and forth while poking at the food on her plate.

Kouji could not help but comment as he watched his elder sister eat her food.

“Tonight sure is peaceful.”

He lowered his gaze toward those surrounding the tables.

There were currently fifty-one of them and they were primarily those with day duty and those off duty that day. Adding in those currently out on night duty, there were seventy-seven people total.

He looked at them, looked at his sister, and slowly opened his mouth.

“Everyone, just put up with it all for two more days. Father and mother will be back then.”

Just as everyone let out a sigh of relief, Ryouko’s shoulders rose slightly.

“Sorry, but our parents called a bit ago. They said they’ve taken a liking to the hot spring they stopped by on their way back, so they want us to send that body board. Y’know, the one they bought last year. Here, this has the address of the inn and when they will be back.”

She pulled a note from her kimono sleeve and handed it to Kouji. Kouji’s expression clouded over.

“They won’t be back until next week?”

“Did I say anything wrong?” asked Ryouko.

“No, the blame does not lie with you. It’s just like how the blame does not lie with nuclear power itself.”

“Kouji, try not to mention nuclear power. Look, Shige-san is holding his head and trembling.”

“Sorry, sorry. Hey, could someone bring him his Marxism book?”

Once that was complete and the dinner began again, Kouji sighed again.

“By the way, I hear Atsuta-san stopped by the other night when you were locking up.”

“Yeah, he did. We chatted a bit. How did you know?”

“I met him yesterday and he mentioned it.” Kouji frowned. “But I take it you told him about the young master.”

“I did. Why do you bring it up? The young master is no longer so nervous, so it doesn’t matter if I tell people, does it?”

Kouji’s face paled.

“Sister, do you know why Atsuta-san passed by our house?”

“It was just a coincidence, right? That’s what he said.”

“How do you feel about him?”

“I guess he’s a nice guy.” She tilted her head while Kouji’s pale face stiffened. “When we would play pachinko back in our school days, he would lend me balls. He was also good at getting the slots just right. And when he would go on his own, he would bring back presents for me. It was usually cookies or some other snack.”

“He was trying to lure you in with food. …Anyway, just like old times, do not tell anyone about the young master.”

“Eh? That’s no fun. I need to brag about him to the people in the neighborhood.”

“But you help out the neighborhood and work for the neighborhood association.”

“Stop arguing with me.”

As Ryouko began pretending to cry, a sound came from her right elbow.

Kouji looked down and found she had toppled her teacup and tea was spreading across the table.

“Ah,” she said.

“Sister…” said Kouji with a cold look in his eyes.

“Th-this time, it wasn’t my fault. Wait, don’t lock me out again. Ahh, Kouji! Why are you pulling on my ear!?”

Kouji ignored her, stood up with her ear still pinched between his fingers, and looked around at the others.

“Please excuse us. Feel free to continue eating.”

“Ow ow ow ow! Stop, Kouji! Help me, everyone! I’m the company president.”

“Yes, yes. We all know how important you are, sister. Now, let’s go outside. …Please ignore this, everyone. This is a family issue.”

“C’mon! If you treat a female president roughly, there will be a murder!”

“That murder will occur at nine on Tuesday night and will be solved by eleven. Everything will be fine.”

“Wrong! It will be solved at 10:45! Ow ow ow ow ow!! S-stop! Who do you think pays your allowance?”

“Masa-san from accounting.”

“Masaaa!! Why are you buying people off!?”

That shout was ignored as the sliding door opened and closed. The siblings and their voices soon vanished down the passageway.

A few people calmly wiped up the spilled tea and continued eating.

Shinjou was out in the city of Okutama.

Night had almost completely fallen. Her wristwatch said it was just past 6:30 PM.

The IAI bus was enough to reach the city, but she had opted to walk. She had taken a long route which took around two hours.

If she had taken the bus, she might have run across Sayama.

That was also why she had gone out to the city.

“I don’t know where to go,” she muttered.

She was currently on the grounds of the Hikawa Shrine near Okutama Station. If one left the station, left the roundabout to the south, and crossed the intersection, the shrine was right there.

The bus passed through this area, but the shrine was located near a flowing mountain stream on a lower level.

The vehicles passing by on the road above could only see the shrine’s roof.

Shinjou sat in front of the shrine on stone steps which were chilly from the night air.

As it was night, there were no playing children around and the air chilled her skin.

She figured it was about time Sayama would leave UCAT and return to the school dorm.

He ate dinner at eight, so he always returned by that time.

The only exceptions were when he met Shinjou Sadame at UCAT and ate dinner there.

Because she was currently here, he would definitely return to school by eight.

“…”

Traveling from Okutama to Akigawa took an hour and a half by bus and train.

To return by eight, he would have to head for Okutama Station from UCAT at just past six.

Earlier, she had seen the roof of the IAI bus pass by on the road above. It had been headed north, toward the station. That was the most likely bus for Sayama to have been on. Once another bus passed by, she would return to UCAT.

“It’s been a while since I slept at UCAT.”

A nap room at UCAT was Shinjou’s “home”.

But she did not have much there at the moment.

“Setsu took it all with him.”

She held her own body while thinking. She thought about how she did not want to see Sayama and what Kashima had said.

“What will I choose…?”

She bent forward while thinking. She placed her chin on her raised knees and swept sand off the stone steps with both hands.

And then she realized something.

…''I want to choose, but I’m afraid to.

Would she continue with her lie or would she stop?

“It scares me…”

She raised her head from her knees and sighed.

Suddenly, a bus passed by on the road above.

It was the IAI bus. Was Sayama on that bus?

“If so, it’ll pull into the station.”

It stopped.

“And he’ll get out.”

She recalled Sayama’s brisk actions. He would make his way into the station only a few seconds after disembarking the bus. As she pictured the scene in her head, she smiled bitterly and muttered to herself.

“This is goodbye, isn’t it?”

She stood up, brushed off her butt, looked around again, and realized the darkness had deepened.

The only light was coming from the incandescent lights on the shrine’s grounds.

She began walking. As the slight night wind washed over her, she silently descended the stone stairs, left the shrine’s grounds, and climbed the slope next to it.

As she headed for the shrine’s entrance, she heard the whistle of the train leaving the station.

Past some external lights, she saw a line of lights moving quickly through the darkness of the mountain. As the train traveled along a raised structure, it headed east toward the city of Tokyo.

Sayama was likely on that train.

…''He left without ever knowing I was here.

And that thought brought something else.

“Uuh…” she groaned.

For some reason she suddenly stopped walking and strength gathered below her mouth.

“What am I…?”

''What am I doing?'' she belatedly thought.

She recalled what she had been doing all day.

…''And yet he is always looking out for me.

“I’m running away because I’m too scared of the answer I might get…”

That thought seemed to hit her head hard. Her stomach felt heavy and her vision grew distorted.

She felt heat gather at the corners of her eyes, she let out another quiet groan, and she wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

Checking her sleeve told her that her eyes had been a bit damp.

Why had they been damp?

''Ahh, I’m completely hopeless,'' she thought when she realized why.

She held something so heavy in her heart.

“And yet I’m avoiding Sayama-kun.”

She was not trying to speak with him.

In front of the training rooms, Kashima had told her to choose, but Sayama had already left.

“It’s all because I lied…and ran away.”

As she spoke, an unexplainable feeling squeezed at her chest and began to grow stronger.

She could not stand it, so she moved beneath a large cedar tree at the shrine entrance.

“Why was I so afraid of Sayama-kun that I chose my lie?”

She began shedding tears as if providing a release for the painful feeling welling up within her.

A sob escaped her lips and she frantically wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket.

But as more and more tears appeared, she was unable to keep up.

She had no choice but to place the sleeve over her eyes and cover her face.

As if blocking her vision had been a sign, her shoulders began to tremble and her breathing grew erratic.

She cried.

She began coughing and could not form words, so she thought.

…''Sayama-kun. I really do want to see you.

She thought it was silly to think that now, but a scratchy voice finally escaped as she thought about the fact that he had left.

“I want to see you.”

…''This is what I really think.

What would he say to her if she did see him? When he asked her something, how would she respond?

She did not know. She simply wanted to see him. It scared her, but she did.

“Hyah…”

The tears showed no sign of stopping, so she gave in to the crying.

While the desire to see him and the knowledge that she could not mixed together, she tried to lean against the trunk of the cedar tree.

She wanted something to support her.

And…

“Shinjou-kun.”

The voice she heard caused her to tremble and stop breathing.

In Shinjou’s teary vision, she saw a boy and an old man backlit by the outdoor lights.

While holding a sake bottle, the boy approached from the sidewalk in front of the shrine.

Shinjou defensively held up her hands at chest level, but…

“Sayama-kun?”

She did not step back. She only asked the question filling her mind.

“Why?”

“What a silly question, Shinjou-kun. You wanted to see me, did you not? Would you like to join us? I was on my way to eat dinner at run-down Hiba-sensei’s wonderful dojo.”

“Mikoto, I think you mixed up your descriptions of me and the dojo.”

“Sensei, listen carefully. Appearance is not what matters with people. It is first impressions that matter.”

“That’s the same thing, you fool.”

Sayama ignored Ryuutetsu’s opinion and held his left hand out toward Shinjou.

Shinjou stared at his hand and took in a breath. Her trembling lips moved a few times and she breathed out.

“Why are you here…?”

“Because you wished for it and I wished for it,” he said as the wind brushed through his hair. “If you are feeling pain and I wish to protect you, I will protect you. If you do not wish to be alone and I wish to speak with you, I will speak with you. If you have decided you wish to carry your worries alone and I care for you, I will leave you to be on your own. If you do not wish to be here and I wish to do what is best for you, I will hate you.”

And…

“If you wish to grow closer to someone and I see you, I will stand by your side.” He kept his hand held out toward her. “How does that sound?”

But she did not answer by taking his hand.

What she had thought she had lost now stood before her.

That fact eliminated her fear. She let out a voice that split through the night sky and she leaped toward his chest.

“Ahhh!”

Sayama firmly caught her.

All she could do was shed tears, cling to his chest, and speak.

“I don’t want to…”

She breathed in and repeated her confused thoughts.

“I don’t want to lie…”

Her hands scratched at his suit, shirt, and vest and she pressed against him.

“But…but… If you learn my lie…you’ll hate me… That scares me…”

She sobbed as she breathed in and out.

“Both Setsu and I are important.”

“I know.”

“Setsu is the same.”

“I know.”

“B-but Setsu keeps causing trouble for you. He can’t be with you, but he wants to be.”

She did not know what to do.

“I don’t know what to do… I don’t know and it scares me!!”

“I see,” he said and reached his hands around to her back.

He embraced her awkwardly at first, but then adjusted his grip as if making sure.

As strength entered his arms, she heard a bottle breaking at their feet.

The old man to the side let out a dismayed cry, but they both ignored him.

“I want to be with you…”

Shinjou’s heavy breathing struck his chest and tears spilled from her eyes.

“I want to be with you…”

She could tell Sayama had nodded.

But he said nothing in response. He only patted her back lightly with his left hand. He repeated the action again and again as if telling her to calm down.

[[Image:OnC_v04_0199.png|thumb]]

And for some reason, she felt the excess strength leave her own body. She slightly loosened her grip on him and her tears slowed. There may have been something nostalgic about the patting on her back.

It felt like nostalgia for part of her own past that she did not remember.

She heard his pulse through the ear pressed against his chest.

The sound was slightly hastened but still calm.

She matched her breathing to his and relaxed further.

She was exhausted.

The weariness rose from the bottom of her body. The sudden tired feeling seemed to fill the core of her mind.

“I’m sorry. I only ever cause trouble for you…”

He only replied once she said that.

He gave a confident nod and spoke.

“That is not true.”

Just as he had in the past, he denied her words. She did not know how to respond.

Should she smile or shake her head?

Before she came to an answer, she lost consciousness in his arms and toppled over.

A large, white space was filled with several large machines.

This was the third production room. A single red-hot sword sat in front of the large, flat work table in the center of the room.

It was a thick blade with a length of over two and a half meters.

It was named Futsuno.

Futsuno was split in two. The hilt and blade were broken and separated.

That damage had been caused by an accident during an experiment.

A single man wearing a work uniform stood in front of Futsuno’s broken form.

He was Kashima.

But he was facing forward rather than at Futsuno. He was facing the third production room’s entrance.

He was watching five younger people in identical work uniforms.

“Now then,” he said to them. “We have completed the first stage of the repairs. It does not need to be hammered out any more with a chisel, so we will now re-carve the name that the sword lost when it was broken.”

A chubby young man with short hair asked a question.

“Manager, we have the frame for the Cowling Sword, but when will we make the cowling to regulate and direct the power?”

“An excellent question, Katori. But we do not need one for Futsuno.”

Everyone else gasped.

“B-but a concept weapon like that would be too dangerous.”

“The danger is determined by who uses it. When someone’s life is taken, do you blame the weapon?”

One of the others began walking toward Kashima.

The young man was named Mikami and he had a sharp look in his eyes.

“I am opposed to everything that is going on in here.”

“Are you? Why?”

Kashima casually nodded toward Mikami and the young man’s eyebrows formed a harsh look.

“You are being conceited. You assume we are on the side of justice and that it is acceptable for us to wield destructive weapons.”

“Wow. That’s quite something,” said Kashima in a sarcastic tone.

Mikami glared at him for an instant.

But he quickly turned toward Futsuno and spoke.

“Powerful weapons can become tools of killing depending on who uses them.”

“Hmm. I suppose that’s true.” Kashima relaxed his shoulders. “But what if the weapon you create can’t stop our enemies?”

“Well…”

“What will you do then? Will you blame the weapon? Of course not. The blame lies with us, the ones who created the losing weapon.”

The others frowned when Kashima said “us”.

As they all watched him, he looked down at the ring finger and little finger of his own left hand.

“It’s quite something, but there is justice there.”

“Where!?”

“In the trust. But not the trust in the weapon’s power. The trust between the one who made it and the one who wields it. For example, Atsuta has promised me he will not kill.”

“…”

“Swords are swords and people are people. Weapons exist to fulfill their role as weapons. Am I wrong?” He took a breath. “Do not fear your power, do not fear your weapon, and do not feel overly proud of either one. We create weapons. Our thoughts are transferred to the blades and reach the ones who wield them. So gather your beliefs as you forge the sword and only hand it to someone you can trust. If you do that, they will exhibit only the power we want.”

Kashima took a step back and approached Futsuno and the shimmering of heat rising from it.

He then looked toward Mikami and the others.

As he nodded, he looked at the collection of machines behind the others.

They were machine tools and heat-resistant equipment that they had brought in from the second production room.

Noticing where Kashima was looking, Katori tilted his head.

“Is there a problem?”

His voice trembled slightly. It was a weak tremble and the ends of his eyebrows were lowered.

But Kashima ignored that trembling and emotion. He replied casually.

“What is all that equipment for? Don’t tell me you plan to use it on Futsuno.”

“But to work on the high-temperature frame, we need-…”

Katori’s words were cut off by a small laugh.

It was not Kashima’s laugh. The bitter laugh came from behind.

Kashima’s shoulders drooped in exasperation and he turned around.

An elderly manager stood before a white plant base which was tempering metal.

The one-eyed man turned his darkened face toward Kashima.

“That’s right, Kashima. You’ve gotta teach them from the ground up. These kids started down the path of swordsmithing from an intellectual standpoint.”

“What a pain. …Okay, do you all understand your own name?”

While looking at the younger men, Kashima placed his left hand on Futsuno’s blade.

That mass of metal was red-hot and the air above it shimmered.

The five men before his eyes all gasped at his action. But…

“Nothing happened?” asked Mikami with a pale face.

Kashima nodded.

As Mikami had said, Kashima’s left hand was unaffected by the high temperature blade.

“We are sword gods, military gods, and swordsmith gods. You cannot be harmed by that which you are meant to use. With a block of metal that has yet to be made into a blade, you need nothing but a metal comb and chisel. In fact, even that is too much. The more you work through unnecessary tools, the more your conversation with the metal will stray off track.”

Kashima grabbed Futsuno’s broken hilt.

He picked it up, spun it around, and held the hilt out toward the five of them.

“If you believe in your name enough to touch this, you may help work on Futsuno. Got it?”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 20|Chapter 20]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 22|Chapter 22]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 19

2026-05-14T03:00:14Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 19: Night of Compensation==
[[Image:OnC_v04_0137.png|thumb]]
''What should I say?

''I cannot tell the truth no matter what

''The more I want to, the more I hesitate

In a small living room, the sounds of a late-night television show played quietly.

This was the Kashima household’s living room.

Two people watched the television while listening to the faint sound of rain from outside.

They were Kashima and Natsu who was leaning up against him.

They sat on cushions and had a table in front of them.

The table contained two sake bottles and two matching sake cups.

“I see you liked the stir-fried sandlance.”

Kashima suddenly realized he kept bringing his chopsticks back to the bowl of small fish.

“The trick is to separately cook the sandlance and the fried tofu in bonito sauce and mix it together later.”

He did not know what effect that had, but the number of fish he had grabbed said plenty.

“It goes well with the sake.”

He took a sip of the sake they rarely brought out.

He then recalled last night’s dinner.

The main dish had been a squash and adzuki bean dish with boiled bamboo shoots wrapped in cured ham.

It had all come together well with the rice and miso soup.

He felt so much better when at home.

It helped that he had someone precious by his side.

Being with her made him feel like he was slowly working through the thoughts which had been bothering him.

Something new filled the place where he had trembled in fear in front of the third production room.

What had he chosen?

''Everything will be okay,'' he thought as he went back over his thoughts.

But would Natsu realize where his thoughts were? She carried her thick sake cup to her mouth and laughed quietly in a cat-like voice.

Kashima smiled at that and poured more sake into her cup.

“Oh, Akio-san. Why are you trying to get me drunk? Are you plotting something?”

“I enjoy watching you drink more than drinking myself.”

“Really?” she asked as she took another drink and laughed again.

She then held up her cup.

“Do you remember this? It is from the school trip in our fourth year.”

“Yes. That was when the seminar students were forced to march as slaves in the name of an excavation trip in Inawashiro, wasn’t it? You caused a huge commotion when you got heatstroke.”

“Th-that was my punishment for trying to show off. When I was being sent back to Tokyo, you ran up to me on the platform and gave me this.”

“Your fath-…The professor was a strict person. I thought it was wrong to force you back home without even a souvenir.”

Kashima smiled bitterly as he remembered. He had simply been worried about her, but he had needed an excuse back then. He decided now he should tell her what his true reasons had been.

He tried to tell her he had been worried about her.

“…”

[[Image:OnC_v04_0141.png|thumb]]

But he stopped.

Telling her the truth about that would change nothing in the present.

She was currently observing the thick sake cup in her hand.

“That was quite funny, thinking back. You said you had a souvenir for me, but you handed me this which you can buy at any store. So I asked you why you got me this.” She gave a smile that did not reach her eyes. “And you told me you wanted something that would not break if I dropped it because I can be careless. Of course, there are plenty of other things that would have worked.”

And…

“You were in quite a rush, weren’t you?”

''Wow,'' thought Kashima as he shrank down. ''She’s got me there.

“That was all I saw at the time. But I never expected you to give me the exact same gift in return after summer break.”

He lightly held up the sake cup in his hand. It was just as thick as hers.

“You got it on some short trip, didn’t you? Your family can be demanding about that kind of thing.”

“I was glad to do it because I wanted to give you something in thanks. But I can be careless, so I wanted to get something I wouldn’t drop and break before I could give it to you.”

…''What a horrible way of returning the favor.

Kashima could find nothing to say in response to her smile, so he scratched at his head.

Natsu then nodded wordlessly.

“But my worries were unneeded.” She held up her cup in her left hand. “After all, you were willing to take something even after it had been dropped and broken.”

Still smiling, she drew back a bit.

''I see,'' thought Kashima when he saw that. ''I made her worry.

He had made his wife bring up the topic he should have headed toward himself. That topic being his true feelings regarding the past.

And so he nodded and spoke.

“Natsu-san.”

“Yes?” she said while politely sitting next to him and lowering the television’s volume with the remote. “Is it about your job?”

“Yes. How did you know?”

“I do not really know anything about this. I do not know what is causing that uncertain expression of yours or that secretiveness of late. But…that is what lets me know it is related to your job.”

“Have I been worrying you?”

“No. I know you will always ultimately discuss it with me or apologize. After you suddenly bought that expensive video camera, you spent a month bowing down to me and coming home at a normal time every day.”

“Well, a lot of that was because I wanted to ''use'' the video camera… But whatever.”

They exchanged a glance and smiled at each other.

After a breath, Natsu brought her hands to her chest.

“It’s okay. I have been drinking, so if I start crying, I can blame it on the alcohol.”

“You’re quite prepared.” Kashima led that statement smoothly into his next. “Can I have about two days? I need to stay over at work to finish an important job. To be honest, I think I won’t want to be in contact with anyone outside the office. And after that…”

“This will happen again from time to time, won’t it? You will occasionally prioritize your work over your home.”

Hearing that, he looked up.

Natsu had her hands against her chest in a way that looked somewhat protective.

…''She knows what I am about to say.

And so he nodded without hesitation.

“That is correct,” he said clearly.

“I see,” she said with slightly lowered eyebrows. “Then I will return to the family home while you are gone.”

Someone moved in the darkness.

It was Shinjou as he awoke under the blanket.

After speaking with Sayama at around eight, he had passed out due to pain.

How much time had passed? It felt like an instant, but it could have been hours. He wanted for it to be morning, but the darkness and silence outside the blanket told him it was the middle of the night.

The odd feeling in his stomach remained, but he felt warmth all across his body as he lay curled up while facing the left.

The blanket must have been holding in the heat well because he was not feeling cold at all.

''The pain should leave soon,'' he thought in relief.

He took a breath, the tension left him, and his pulse sounded louder than before. He could feel sweat on his brow, but he did not want to move his hands from his body. It was improper, but he tried to rub his forehead against the sheet to wipe off the sweat.

“…Eh?”

He suddenly realized his head lay on something like a pillow.

His head was drawn under the blanket, so his head could not be on his pillow.

Wondering what this pillow-like object was, he raised his head.

The cool air outside the blanket touched his face and his night vision told him what it was.

“Sayama-kun?”

Sayama was sleeping while lightly embracing Shinjou.

His right arm passed below Shinjou’s left cheek and around Shinjou’s back. His left arm was wrapped around Shinjou’s right shoulder and also wrapped around Shinjou’s back.

Shinjou remained silent while held in Sayama’s arms. He more strongly held his own left-facing body and curled up even tighter.

He had seen this composition before. A verse of a song he knew had been made into a painting and that painting showed a holy mother embracing her crying child.

“Christ the Savior is here…”

''What is he doing?'' wondered Shinjou as he muttered a line of the song.

But he knew why that holy mother was embracing her child.

…''This is what you do when someone important to you cries.

The feeling of that left hand on his back seemed to bring back a memory of the past.

He had a memory of someone lightly patting his back while he was suffering.

Was this a memory of what Sayama had done just now or was it a memory of Shinjou’s forgotten mother?

''It doesn’t matter,'' he thought. ''Either way, it is a welcome memory.

Shinjou realized Sayama’s left arm was pinched in at the shoulder a bit.

When Sayama recalled the past, he would bring his right hand to the left side of his chest.

But right now, that arm was being used as Shinjou’s pillow. In that case, what did it mean that his left arm was pinched in like that?

''Sorry,'' he thought. ''His mother must have done this for him.

Shinjou nodded and looked next to the head of the bed.

The alarm clock said it was just before twelve.

Had Sayama been embracing him for the entire four hours since he had passed out?

…''Sorry.

Sayama’s expression as he slept was different than the one he had when Shinjou would wake him in the morning.

It was the peaceful expression of someone who had completed a job. He accepted the pain in his chest as normal.

…''I need to reconsider my actions.

Before, he had left everything up to his pain, hinted that he would disappear, and tried to force his plot on Sayama.

“Why did I do that?”

…''He will eventually read my plot even if I hadn’t done that.

Shinjou pressed his forehead against Sayama’s chest.

“What do you think about me?”

He closed his eyes.

“What will you think about me once you learn my lie?”

Kashima immediately reacted to Natsu’s comment about returning to the family home.

He had expected to hear her say that. She was here because he was here. So if he left…

“That would be best.”

“Yes. It has been a while since I was there, so it should cause some confusion at first.”

“Yeah.”

But her father drew picture books and loved children. If she brought Harumi with her, he would not scold her or refuse to let her in.

“There will probably be a lot of cleaning to do.”

That was true. Kashima had heard Natsu’s room was untouched from when she had let.

…''This is going to be a lot of trouble for her.

She must have realized what he was thinking because she nodded and spoke.

“But it is about time for them to be planting the rice, isn’t it? I like doing that.”

“Eh?”

“What? Why are you so confused?”

“Wait a minute, Natsu-san. When you said you would return to the family home, where exactly did you mean?”

“I meant your mother and father’s house, of course.”

She tilted her head as she answered and Kashima felt his strength leave him.

He collapsed backwards and sprawled out on the floor. Tatami mats were horribly cool and comfortable at times like this.

“Ah,” said Natsu as she realized something. “S-sorry. But…um…I am Kashima Natsu now.”

“No, I was the one that jumped to the wrong conclusion. I guess you could call both of them the family home.”

“I-I can’t believe you. I am not the kind of wife that would do that.”

“No, you’re not. You’re really not,” he said as he sat back up.

He crossed his legs and faced forward where Natsu was blushing and giving a troubled expression. He sighed.

“I guess they won’t complain if you suddenly show up.”

“I actually called them today. They hinted that they were shorthanded for planting the rice, so I thought I would go help if you were leaving for a while.” She stared at him. “They should give us some rice, so I can go, right?”

“I get the feeling my parents are bribing my wife with food… But what about Harumi?”

“Your mother says she will teach me a new way to hold her. It apparently involves supporting her on my back with a sash. I will probably get to hear how she carried you around like that.”

“Sorry, but I think I’m going to buy a hidden microphone tomorrow. Please let me monitor what they say.”

He smiled bitterly. He felt bad for Natsu’s family, but this was better for him.

He almost apologized out loud, but he stopped himself.

“Anyway, Natsu-san.”

“Yes?”

“I know this is a lot of trouble for you, but I still can’t tell you about my job.”

He slowly reached out and took Natsu’s left hand. That hand was missing the ring and little fingers. He enclosed the remaining fingers in his hands and she asked a question.

“That means you are lying to me in the sense that you are hiding the truth, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. I have been ever since I took your hand like this for the first time.”

“Then for this upcoming job are you returning to who you were before you took my hand?”

“Yes. I will return to the person I was before I left the university and met you on that rainy night.”

“I see,” she said as she tilted her head a bit.

She took a breath, smiled with the ends of her eyebrows lowered, and asked another question.

“Does this job have anything to do with this hand of mine?”

Kashima responded clearly to Natsu’s question and the gaze she directed straight at him.

“It does. But I can’t say any more than that.”

“I see,” she said again before biting her lower lip for a few seconds.

But she did not lower her head. She continued staring straight at him and asked yet another question.

“But things will remain the same at home, right?”

“They will. Just as before, I will continue to lie.”

Natsu’s expression changed. She formed a smile with lowered eyebrows and lowered her head.

“Please do. And do not apologize. Do not sacrifice yourself for the life Harumi and I have.”

Before she could use her right hand to wipe her eye, he let go of her other hand.

He used his own hands to wipe both of her cheeks.

She narrowed her eyes and took a single rough breath.

“Akio-san, I don’t know, do I?’

“Know what?”

“I… I married you without fully knowing you, so it would be a problem if you did not continue lying.”

Natsu’s words caused Kashima to tense up.

Seeing that, she raised her head and spoke in a mischievous voice.

“And I lie to you too, you know?”

“You do?”

Her teary face smiled a bit.

“Yes. About my childhood, about my mischief and romantic relationships as a student, about my parents, and about my relationships with people at my workplace now. I…I lie a lot too.”

Tears spilled from her arched eyes.

“You’re such a liar, Akio-san. You’re Yamato Takeru.”

“Th-that’s kind of ominous. According to the legend, didn’t Yamato Takeru’s wife Ototachibana-hime drown herself to calm a storm?”

“Yes, but a liar’s wife will of course be a liar. She drowned herself, but she did not actually want that. That is why there is more to the story.”

“Eh?”

Natsu grabbed Kashima’s hands as he wiped away her tears.

“Yamato Takeru searched for her and found her washed up on a certain beach. That beach was named Soga because she was brought back to life there. That beach is in Chiba, near Tokyo.” She took a breath. “Soga means to resurrect oneself. That is just like the two of us, isn’t it?”

“…”

“And afterwards, Yamato Takeru continued his work and died of fatigue. But neither he nor his wife died while lost in their lies. The world is a harsh place. But try not to work yourself to death.”

She raised her head and the motion caused some tears to fall from the corners of her eye. She then smiled once more.

“Now, I have a request for our family’s Great God Kashima and Yamato Takeru.”

“What is it, our family’s Ototachibana-hime and crybaby wife?”

“Oh, my.”

Natsu blushed, but her expression quickly calmed down.

“You can work if you like. You can lie if you like. You can get wrapped up in late-night violence with that delinquent Atsuta-san and his motorcycle if you like.” She took a breath. “But please always return home.”

He had a single answer. He very nearly said “testament”, but caught himself.

“I promise.”

He embraced her, took her left hand, and gently kissed it.

“Ah.”

She looked troubled, but brought the missing part of her hand toward his mouth.

The stumps of the two fingers had slight depressions due to the wrinkles.

When he pecked at them, she laughed quietly.

As he licked her scars, she trembled a bit and spoke.

“For me, this place – including the lies – is the truth.”

Her outstretched hand tasted of sweat which slightly resembled the flavor of blood.

She had appeared calm as they had spoken, but she must have been nervous.

''The same as me,'' thought Kashima as he held her firmly in his left arm.

She would be able to hear his pulse now.

“I will return home and I will not apologize. That alone is most definitely not a lie.”

“Thank you.”

Natsu looked up even though her eyes were closed and he removed his mouth from her hand.

He would do what he must do where he was wanted.

He once more heard the sound of rain from outside.

“Akio-san.”

“What is it?”

He looked over at her, but she was smiling without fearing the rain.

“I feel bad doing this to Haru-chan.”

She made a quiet request.

“But can you give a little of your time to only me?”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 18|Chapter 18]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 20|Chapter 20]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 17

2026-05-13T04:00:10Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 17: A Scream in the Rain==
[[Image:OnC_v04_0085.png|thumb]]
''Not everything is inevitable

''There are some places where “yes” will certainly be said<ref>'certainly' and 'yes' are 'kanarazu' and 'shikari', the kanji of which when together are the word 'inevitable' ('hitsuzen').</ref>

''But the one to shout it has to reach that place first

Just as the clouds hid the afternoon sun, the wind began to blow.

The white-walled building of Japanese UCAT’s headquarters trembled very slightly in the wind.

The noise could be heard in the first-floor lobby.

Two figures were there to hear it: Ooshiro Itaru and Sf.

Itaru sat on the sofa while drinking a glass of water.

“Sf, how is my old man doing?”

“Testament. He is holed up in his room. Should I check inside with my thermovision?”

“Can you also shoot lasers? If he’s playing an 18+ game, fire one into his ass.”

“Eye beams is an available option. Please email a request to German UCAT’s Sf Development Official. Students receive a 50% discount, so I can forge a student ID if necessary.”

“Oh? How kind of you. What goes on in that brain of yours?”

Sf nodded and pointed at her own head.

“Testament. The artificial synapses of my artificial brain are preserved at minus forty degrees, a temperature cold enough to hammer a nail with a banana.”

“I see. Is that why you’re so coldhearted?”

“No. The oil that acts as my blood is kept at room temperature. My exterior is kept at a slightly lower temperature to reproduce an artificial coldness.”

“That’s what makes you coldhearted.”

Itaru sank into the sofa and did not even turn toward Sf as he spoke.

“You sit down, too.”

“Testament.”

Sf sat sideways on Itaru’s lap.

He half-closed his eyes.

“What’s this? Did I ask you to use your master as a chair?”

“Testament. You told me to sit down. My deep memory contains an incident when you asked me to sit down in a train and you stopped me when I attempted to sit on the floor. If the floor would be preferable, I can move there.”

“I see, I see. I’m shocked. You can actually learn? I’m truly shocked.”

“Testament. If you are delighted, please stamp this card.”

Itaru wordlessly stamped the card and returned it. Sf bowed.

“Testament. Kazuo-sama certainly has been staying in his room a lot lately. Is he trying to rot away in there?”

“Let him rot. This is because…his old man destroyed 2nd-Gear.”

“That statement is incorrect. Based on the records I have recently reviewed and the conversation from the other day, 2nd-Gear was destroyed because the people of the Gear overused their control system until they lost control of it.”

“That’s why. If there was anything the people of 2nd-Gear could have done, they could have shared the sin. But my old man’s old man was the one who should have been able to do something. He failed on his own and bore the sin on his own,” explained Itaru. “Remember this: my old man’s feelings about this are complicated. He’s the one person who knows the full story.”

“The full story?”

“That’s right. His old man was the one who couldn’t stop Yamata in 2nd-Gear, so why was he able to do it here in Low-Gear? My old man was a kid back then, so he knows the answer.”

Itaru looked up at Sf.

“Do you want to know why?”

“Not really.”

“Then I won’t tell you. …Now, I’m about to talk to myself for a bit, so don’t listen.”

“Testament. I will begin speaking to myself as well.”

Itaru took a drink from his glass, looked up at the ceiling, and opened his mouth to speak.

“The project to build Susaou began March 12, 1945. Three days before that, a certain event occurred in Tokyo. And my old man’s old man took part in the event even though his friends tried to stop him.”

“I can determine this event was something quite flashy. …By the way, that was me speaking to myself.”

“Then this is me talking to myself. …It was a flashy festival. So flashy it’s still written about in history textbooks.” Itaru let out a breath. “After all, it created such a cry of pain that the city of Tokyo was almost destroyed.”

Shinjou and Sayama arrived at Shinjuku in Tokyo.

Sayama had said they needed some material on World War Two, so he had gone around to the different major bookstores and bought a few books. Shinjou had never seen the big city before, so she was overwhelmed by the size of the bookstores.

“Would you want to live in a place like this?”

When Sayama had asked her that, she had nodded.

After leaving the Showa Memorial Park, he had not asked about her.

He had not asked about why she had been late or about the lie she had mentioned the night before.

[[Image:OnC_v04_0091.png|thumb]]

Currently, he was simply pulling on her hand as they walked toward Shinjuku Station.

They were surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the city. People and their voices filled every direction.

And seemingly catching all those people were the lines of buildings and car-filled roads.

When the faint oppressiveness of it all caused her to look up toward the heavens, she saw the gloomy sky and felt the wind blowing down from it.

The humid wind was filled with the scent of the city.

The dampness of the wind told Shinjou it would rain soon and she started to look around.

“A-are we going to the station? Are we going back? Is it going to rain soon?”

“Ha ha ha. I will answer each of our questions in turn: we can reach the station from anywhere, we can return at any time, and we still have some time before it rains. After all, we are on our way to a moment in the past.”

Sayama let go of her hand and pulled a book from the paper bag under his arm.

“I have finally found a common point between 2nd-Gear and us for this Leviathan Road. Here it is.”

“An overview of American aerial missions during World War Two? How… How is this a common point?”

“Do you remember when the project to build Susaou began? March 12, 1945. …When you think about it, there is no greater point in common. Do you remember back in UCAT’s cafeteria when I said I would mention something once I had confirmation?”

“Oh, that’s right. Did you find some kind of meaning in that date?”

“An excellent question, Shinjou-kun. I feel as if I am returning to a simpler time. …Three days before that date, something very similar to 2nd-Gear’s destruction occurred here in Low-Gear.”

“Eh?”

What did he mean?

The other Gears were connected to Low-Gear in fixed places via the ley lines. However, she had not heard of any indirect effects like that. And this would be something similar to destruction.

“Y-you’re kidding, right? After all, Tokyo is right here. It wasn’t destroyed.”

“No, it was not. It survived and it recovered.”

Sayama suddenly stopped walking.

They stood at the center of the large scramble crossing in front of Shinjuku Station’s east entrance.

“Look, Shinjou-kun.”

Drawn by his words, Shinjou looked around.

A great number of people were moving out of the way and walking past them. Lines of cars were waiting for all of the people to cross.

And on the asphalt road supporting them all were structures made from a metal framework.

Shinjou felt the humidity press in at her throat.

Sayama’s left arm suddenly wrapped around her back.

“A busy place, isn’t it?”

“Looking at it again… Tokyo is an amazing place.”

“Yes, but this city was nearly destroyed once. That is a fact.”

“Eh?”

Her questioning tone brought Sayama’s gaze toward her.

“It happened on March 9, 1945. That was approximately five months before Japan surrendered in World War Two. And it was three days before the project to build Susaou began. On that day, the American military performed a certain experiment on the city of Tokyo.”

“A-an experiment? What kind of experiment?”

“The same experiment they had earlier performed on Hamburg, Germany and failed. While bombing, they used flammable fuel in place of normal explosives. They performed a firebombing,” said Sayama. “Tokyo was constructed from wood, so the result of the experiment was clear. In one night, approximately one hundred twenty thousand people died and almost all buildings in Tokyo were destroyed. That experiment elicited the greatest cry of pain Japan gave during World War Two.”

“You mean…”

“Yes, the Firebombing of Tokyo.”

And…

“Why did Ooshiro Hiromasa grow so serious about constructing Susaou and Totsuka after he did not save 2nd-Gear? …The answer is simple.”

“You don’t mean…”

“Yes. He was here when Tokyo was bombed. He saw it with his own eyes. He saw his own world of Low-Gear destroyed in flames.”

Sayama remained expressionless as he spoke.

And Shinjou saw Baku poke his head from the breast pocket of Sayama’s suit.

The first thing Sayama could sense was light.

He saw crimson. He saw the color of flames.

He also heard noise, saw motion, and saw the scenery. But…

…''It is all mixed together.

Flames burned.

Was he in a village, a town, or a city?

Sayama knew the answer: this was Tokyo.

The sky was covered with dark clouds and smoke. Flames and wind blew across the land.

Countless shades of scarlet colored the crumbling people and houses.

He heard countless sounds of something being dropped from the sky.

He also heard ringing fire bells and people’s voices.

The heat sent countless voices crying together into the sky.

Amid those voices were people crying for their father, their mother, their son, or their daughter. Some were crying for their grandfather or grandmother.

All those voices gathered together, but not a single response came.

The sounds of destruction and the whistling of flames slammed the crying voices into the ground and the color of flames blasted up into the sky.

The scene of Tokyo burning lay before Sayama.

“…!”

He clearly saw it.

He saw dark shadows. As they crumbled in the flames, he could not even tell if they were people or buildings. As people ran and shouted in confusion, the attacks from above scattered the color scarlet across them.

The wind blew, but it did not bring in rain. It only caused the flames to dance.

This air current was created when a large area was burning. It first gathered flames around itself and then raced across the city in search of oxygen.

The wind was not merely hot; it was burning.

Wind as hot as fire raced across Tokyo in every direction and burned away rows of houses just by caressing them.

East, west, north, and south. The raging wind guided the flames in every direction.

That wind raced about to find air.

The rivers flowing through Tokyo were all filled with people trying to escape the heat, but the burning wind descended to the river and roasted them as well.

The people standing atop the bridges were struck by the hot wind flying in from the side.

The heat cooked the metal of the bridges and easily bent them. Once set afire by napalm and exposed to the blazing wind, the bridges’ arch structures melted and they collapsed into the river in no time at all.

Before the water could splash up, the shimmering of flames and the black of smoke rose up.

No one could escape. They were not allowed to.

Most of the air-raid shelters were roasted inside and out because their doors were sucked open by the pressure difference created by the flames.

The roads, buildings, rivers, basements, people, and everything else touching the air were roasted and they instantly showed one what carbon was.

Above the rising smoke, shimmering, and screams, countless dark shadows and dark rain could be seen in the sky.

The shadows were large B-29 bombers and the rain was a barrage of incendiary bombs.

Occasionally, a few of the bombers would descend and fly close by over Tokyo.

As the great noise and heat assaulted Tokyo again and again, Sayama saw something.

A man stood still in front of an Izumo truck which had been burned with the city.

Sayama knew who he was.

“Ooshiro Hiromasa!”

Hiromasa wore a lab coat and stood within that city which was nothing but shimmering and light.

The stone hanging from his neck emitted its blue light at full force.

That light protected him so that he grew dirty but did not burn. He shouted something and questioned the city.

“————!?”

Is anyone there? Hurry up and evacuate. Get out of here. All of his cries were drowned out by the wind and the bombs. The heat twisted the screams he heard, so he could not even grasp how far away they were.

But he continued shouting and ran aimlessly through the burning city. He jumped over what looked like clumps of charcoal lying in the roads, tripped over one, fell, and continued running.

He ran through a flame-filled alley, trying to find a safe street.

But just before he made his way out into one, a burning wind passed through the street like a wall.

“!”

That one quick pass brought a great roar with it.

Once the flaming wind had passed, nothing remained.

The buildings, people, and everything else were unrecognizably covered in flames, leaving only black silhouettes.

No matter which way he looked, he saw only the burning ground and the night sky filled with sparks.

He fell to his knees when he reached the empty, flame-filled street.

Sayama suddenly spoke while watching him from behind.

He spoke his unheard voice which could not reach the past.

“You failed.”

Hiromasa hung his head down.

“You knew there was nothing you could have done, but you still wanted to gather the survivors and feel that you had ‘saved’ them. That desire came to you here, didn’t it? You wanted to atone for failing to save 2nd-Gear.”

But…

“But the destruction did not even allow you that.”

Hiromasa touched the blue stone hanging from his neck.

“So will you destroy yourself? If destruction is the only path remaining for the world, will you gain a lonely superiority by destroying yourself ahead of time? If that is what you intend, just look before you.”

A wave of crimson assaulted the street before Hiromasa’s eyes.

That wave resembled a giant serpent. It was the largest fire current created by the center of Tokyo burning. It undulated, blew across the rows of houses, and brought a burning wind.

“Now, Ooshiro Hiromasa. This is a crossroads. To take responsibility for being able to do nothing, will you throw away your protective stone and wish to be destroyed along with everyone else? Or will you cling to your small life and expose yourself to the shame?”

The expanding flames seemed to answer Sayama.

Hiromasa reacted. He squeezed the philosopher’s stone in his right hand.

“!”

He tore it from the string around his neck.

“Now, what will you do with that stone? Make your decision!”

As if responding to Sayama’s question, Hiromasa slowly raised his hand.

He was preparing to throw it.

But then he saw something.

The flames approaching around him lit up everything and made their structure clear.

“…”

Something lay collapsed there.

Something sat motionless on its knees.

Something lay motionless over a child.

Something had placed a blanket over a child to protect it, but had become just as motionless as the child.

Hiromasa had a child of his own. But the flames ignored that fact as they easily burned everything away.

Everything burned. Everything turned to charcoal.

Soon thereafter, Hiromasa opened his mouth.

“Oh…”

A voice escaped.

“Oahhhhhh!”

His voice became a great cry similar to a newborn’s and it did not stop.

He then began to move.

But he did not throw away the stone. He held it in his hand as he formed a solid fist.

The philosopher’s stone which kept him alive was no longer something which simply hung from his neck. He now clenched it in his fist.

He forcefully stood up while continuing to cry out.

Sayama only existed as his vision, but he smiled at the action.

“So you have chosen to live in disgrace, engineer of the past! That is the action of one who continues forward without fearing failure!”

With the flames before him, Hiromasa looked up into the sky.

He opened his mouth, arched his back, and shouted something further.

This was a cry of protest. It was a voice of anger.

As Sayama watched, he spoke in response to that protest.

“Shout! Feel your anger! Destroy your hesitant heart! Face the unreasonable sight before you!”

He looked at the flames in front of him.

“Let out a scream!”

And Hiromasa did just that. He let out a loud, loud voice toward the many, many flames before him.

“I…”

He threw his fist toward the burning wind which ripped him from the ground and blew him away.

“I…!!”

As Sayama heard that shout, he was knocked from the past.

A narrow road traveled through the forest of Okutama’s mountains.

No cars drove on this road, but a man wearing a work uniform walked along it as clouds began to cover the sky.

He was Kashima.

The right shoulder of his clothes was still torn from a sword strike.

In his left arm, he held the thick waterproof envelope his parents had given him.

He thought while the cold wind bringing rain pushed at his back.

…''What should I do?

That thought filled his mind and would not leave.

What should he do?

With his past in the third production room before his eyes, he had run away. That had reminded him of a certain fact.

…''That is where I used to be.

Long ago when he had failed to fulfill his grandfather’s dying request, he had tried to forget by losing himself in his power as a man of 2nd-Gear.

And in doing so, he had forgotten about the person he cared about as a man of Low-Gear.

“Natsu-san…”

He had forgotten about her and had only remembered once he had hurt her and rescued her.

He would never forget that again.

But at the same time, he had begun to deny something.

He had been denying that thought for so long now.

“I was denying that I had not forgotten my power.”

The cut in the right shoulder of his clothes told him all he needed to know about his power.

…''I can never truly be someone of Low-Gear.

He looked like one, his culture was similar, and he had a family there, but there was nothing he could do about his own existence at the base of it all.

But the thought still would not leave.

“What should I do?”

There was a simple answer: he just had to stop having these thoughts.

He just needed to forget about his power. If he did not, he could not be honest with Natsu and Harumi.

…''Should I continue lying and lose myself in my power again?''

''No,'' he thought.

“But,” he muttered.

…''But what am I supposed to do?

Suddenly, the cold wind blew across him once more.

The chill snapped him out of his thoughts and he realized he had stopped walking.

Ahead of him, the road turned sharply to the right. This was to circle around a steep slope that jutted out.

“This is…”

It was where that landslide had occurred eight years ago. This was where it had all been determined.

Kashima stood at the location of his past.

As he stood silently, something small struck his shoulder.

It was rain.

The rain fell from the sky and began gently striking Kashima and his surroundings, but it gradually grew stronger.

The rain did not stop.

It only grew more intense.

In the plaza in front of Shinjuku Station, rain clouds filled the sky and the wind blew, but the flow of people did not lessen.

As everyone moved to their destinations to escape the coming rain, a single figure sat on a stone step.

This figure crouching at the bottom of all the noise was Shinjou.

Another figure walked toward her.

It was Sayama. He held a cup out toward her.

“Want a drink?” he asked.

Shinjou looked up and gave a weak smile.

“Oh, sure. Thanks. What kind is it? Don’t tell me it’s 100% sea urchin juice or something.”

“Ha ha ha. We are not in a shady secret organization beneath Okutama. It is just tea.”

“I see. …That feels kind of empty,” she said with a bitter smile.

Sayama thought on her comment.

…''Would it have fit her ideal image of me if I had bought something strange?

If he had searched for an IAI vending machine, he could have found something that packed a punch. It would not have been as much as what one found in UCAT, but it would have been a start.

…''Did I make the wrong choice? No, but… No, no. But…

“S-Sayama-kun? It looks like you’re lost in thought about something. A-are you okay?”

“Y-yes. Sorry. I was just thinking about my ideal self.”

“That sounds suspicious… But what drink did you get?”

“Strawberry milk.”

“…”

“I have a lot to think about, so I need sugar for my brain. I also need calcium for concentration, so this was the best option. Yes. Now that I think about it again, this choice is well worth praising me ove-… What is with that look?”

“Nothing. I was just thinking nothing I said could stop you.”

Shinjou’s expression then returned to normal.

“I can’t believe you’re fine after seeing such a harsh part of the past. You really are tough, Sayama-kun.”

“Really? Setsu-kun once said I am surprisingly timid.”

“Enough about that,” she said with an exasperated look.

He was unsure how to react and Shinjou seemed to sense something from his expression. She lowered her head and said “sorry”.

“But I wonder if Ooshiro-san’s father was able to truly feel the destruction of 2nd-Gear in that bombing,” she said.

“I think we can assume so. He saw what would happen to this world if Yamata appeared here. That was why he put all his thought into creating Susaou and answering Yamata’s question.” Sayama nodded. “And the people of 2nd-Gear held the same thoughts. And they must still hold them.”

“Eh?”

He narrowed his eyes and nodded in response to Shinjou’s questioning tone.

He spoke what it was he had learned during the preliminary negotiations.

“I believe 2nd-Gear is a sleeping dragon. They wish for peace, but are still able to choose the best option. That is what they did sixty years ago. Those who created Susaou and Totsuka had to have raised a cry of resistance in response to what they had lost.”

He took a breath and asked a question.

“Can you hear it, Shinjou-kun? Can you hear 2nd-Gear letting out a scream as they awaken from their slumber?”

The rain soaked Kashima, but he continued facing the slope ahead of him.

His eyes stared forward at the guardrail that cut him off from the slope.

The guardrail turned to the right to follow the new road, but the old road lay behind it, buried by the slope.

Most of the bottom of the slope was hidden by concrete.

This was a place of memories. It had once received that concrete makeup, but the rain caused hard mud to spew from the cracks and from above. Its old face peeked through.

As the mud spilled down, he heard a soft noise. It seemed to be asking a gentle question: why are you here?

The sun must have warmed the ground because mist began to rise across the area.

He was surrounded by rain, mist, and a slight wind.

The gathering clouds above produced the rain.

As he heard the rain falling, Kashima looked into the forest and up into the sky.

“A world much like this once existed.”

The people who had tried and failed to protect that world had argued with each other.

But even as they did, they had worked to protect this new world.

Why was that?

Why had the two fought yet protected this world together?

…''I don’t know.

That was the past and it was what others had done. There was no way he could know.

But he had had a certain thought about it in the past.

“Even if I can never fully understand, I can still approach an understanding.”

…''That’s right.

His grandfather had told him stories of a war in a different world.

He had not thought they were true and his grandfather had always enjoyed telling them, but the old man had always looked sad at the end.

…''I never said anything about that sad look.

“Can we really just forget it all?”

Could they really just forget about his grandfather and the thoughts his grandfather had given him?

“Can we really just forget it all?”

He realized the answer was no. And he realized no one but him could arrive at that point.

“…”

The sky suddenly grew blurry in his vision. He assumed the rain had fallen in his eye.

The rain felt oddly warm. It seemed to have body heat. As he felt that rain, he spoke to himself.

“I need to decide.”

''What are you saying?'' he thought, but not even that could stop the words from coming.

“This must be the place where I need to make a decision.”

This was where he had come to fear his own power and where he had gained something precious.

He trembled as he stared at the slope which was partially covered in concrete.

The trembling he had felt in front of the third production room returned.

Choosing the old road would bring trembling.

With that in mind, he turned toward the new road to his side. That safe road brought no trembling.

But he quickly shook his head. It looked like he was shaking something off.

“There is something I need before I can head down that road.”

He took a breath and took a certain action.

He would cross the guardrail. He would move to the other side where the slope lay waiting.

Amid the rain, he took one step and then another.

With that action, he crossed the guardrail and stopped on the other side.

He could not stop the trembling.

Even so, he had chosen to stand here.

That was his decision.

He used his trembling body to take in a breath.

He opened his mouth and spoke as if addressing someone.

“This is the method I choose.”

He took a breath.

“I will carry the past as I walk down a new road.”

He walked through the rain and approached the slope.

He trembled, but the trembling gradually vanished as he continued forward.

And as he walked, he recalled the past.

He recalled his grandfather asking for forgiveness in the very end.

He recalled the disappointment of finding the bridge in Susaou’s head destroyed.

And he recalled causing this landslide and grasping Natsu’s incomplete hand.

Amid all of those memories, there was one thing he could say for sure.

There was one thing in common about all of his questions, anger, resentment, and joy.

…''It all came from having this power.

He could not forget or rid himself of those memories.

Those memories had left him conflicted for so long and he had not been able to shake free of them even when he gained a family.

“But there is one thing I never asked of the power that caused it all.”

He stood before the slope and spoke in a scratchy voice.

“Can my power do anything other than take things from me?”

He took in a breath and placed his left hand on the dirt of the slope.

He slowly held up his right hand and shook his head.

“I know it’s selfish! But I…I want to use this power which hurt the person I care for the most!”

He swung his right fist into the muddy slope before his eyes.

A splashing sound rang out.

“I want to use it to regain everything I lost!”

His hand sank into the mud up to the wrist. The soft and wet mud was warm from the sun.

As he felt the heat in his right hand, some of the rain on his face entered his mouth.

That warm rain dripped onto his tongue and he tasted it.

…''It tastes just like blood.

He tasted that flavor and sensed his right hand in the mud.

The wet feeling in his hand was a lot like what he had felt while holding Natsu’s hand back then.

He had not forgotten.

The trembling of his spine expressed the emotions brought by the same sensation as eight years ago.

But he could no longer turn his back on the slope.

“I…”

His voice trembled as if he were bearing with something.

“I am going to lie to you, Natsu-san.”

''I’m sorry,'' he thought. ''I’m sorry, Natsu-san.

''I am trying to once more wield the power that hurt you.

''I’m sorry, Harumi. Your father is a liar.

''But I will not apologize for lying after this. I will not say sorry.

“Because I have made up my mind.”

He had decided to lie and to protect everything with his own power.

And with his decision made, he turned to the right.

He grasped the feeling from eight years ago as well as some mud and looked toward the new road.

The asphalt road seemed to continue on forever.

“…”

Every part of his body sensed his heavy breathing and racing pulse.

But his heart remained calm.

…''I am not choosing 2nd-Gear or Low-Gear.

“I am choosing to hide my 2nd-Gear power and remain within Low-Gear.”

…''The place to which I am headed is not one or the other.

He had decided. He felt it was selfish, but he could find no more opposition to the idea than that.

And so he made up his mind.

He pulled his right hand from the slope and opened his mouth.

“Oh…”

A voice started to escape.

He had no reason to oppose his thoughts.

He opened his mouth toward the heavens and released it.

He cried out. It was like the cry of a newborn baby.

His trembling vanished as if thrown off of him and his voice grew even louder.

“…!”

He twisted his body, bent forward, and arched backwards.

His body stretched toward the sky, breath passed from his lungs to his throat and his mouth, and he let out a cry.

His great roar tore into the gathering clouds in the sky.

Below the dark clouds and amid busy Shinjuku, Shinjou’s shoulders trembled at Sayama’s question.

“A cry?”

“Yes.”

Sayama nodded and brushed up his hair in the wind.

He looked up into the sky with a calm expression. He spoke as if remembering something.

“People who struggle and people who fight will use their voice or their thoughts to raise a cry that is either voiced or silent. Just like Ooshiro Hiromasa did.”

And…

“Just like 2nd-Gear is sure to do.”

Shinjou gasped.

She remembered two things: what Ooshiro had told her about Kashima the night before and the past she had just seen.

…''Will he make up his mind like Ooshiro-san’s father did?

He would. She was sure of it. After all, he knew what power he held.

…''But…

What about her?

She had no answer. The emotion that fact brought caused her to tremble.

“!”

She reflexively moved.

To reject the thought, she stood up and gathered her strength.

But…

“…”

When she realized what she had done, she looked over at Sayama who was looking up at her.

He gave her a questioning look which caused her to realize again what she had done.

“S-sorry. I’m not feeling well.”

Her shoulders drooped and she took a breath.

And when she awkwardly sat back down, she heard Sayama speak.

“I can understand having difficulty getting over seeing that scene from the past, but it is not healthy to be so tense.”

“I know…”

To keep him from realizing how shaken she was, she forced a smile and asked a question.

“Th-then do you have anything to talk about so I can get my mind off it?”

Sayama thought.

After a few seconds, he clapped his hands. On his head, Baku emulated the action. He then turned his head and Baku toward her.

“Then how about I once more invite you to the All Holiday Festival tomorrow?”

For just an instant, the word festival brought a look of joy to Shinjou’s face.

But she quickly realized something and her shoulders trembled.

…''I can’t.

She frantically waved her hands toward Sayama.

“U-um, I have to train tomorrow, so…well…enjoy the festival with Setsu.”

“That does sound nice, but…”

Sayama’s halfhearted tone brought an immediate question out of Shinjou.

“Do you not like Setsu?”

“Of course I like him.” He embraced the binder under his arm. “But I was asking if ''you'' would come.”

“Ah,” gasped Shinjou.

She realized what her question meant and what Sayama was thinking.

She realized his consideration and her reasons for rejecting it.

“…”

She did not know what expression was on her face.

Sayama’s slightly frowning expression told her the answer: she was about to cry.

“Shinjou-kun.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

She stood up and took a step back.

She checked her watch and found it was just about to turn 5:40 PM.

“U-um, Sayama-kun. I…I’m not feeling well, so…I’ll head back on my own.”

Sayama’s eyebrows moved.

He raised his head as if in realization and put on a serious expression.

“Given the subject matter, I will ask indirectly, but is it your perio-…gfh!”

Her knee struck his gut mid-sentence. He doubled over and she panicked further.

“S-sorry, but it slipped out because I think ‘indirect’ means something else.”

“Heh…heh heh heh. That was an excellent attack, Shinjou-kun. And it was actually a repeat joke, so I suppose I deserved that. However…”

“Enough of that. For one thing, I still haven’t started having a period.”

“What a pain,” he muttered.

But then his eyebrows moved. He formed a puzzled expression and spoke in a puzzled voice.

“You still haven’t started?”

“Ah,” said Shinjou when she realized what she had said.

…''But it’s true.

She held her own body to harden her defenses. She then took a deep breath so she could look him in the eye.

“Is that…strange?”

She felt it was strange, but she asked to be sure.

However, his answer was different. He straightened his tie and collar as he answered.

“It differs from person to person, so I cannot say anything one way or the other.”

“I see.”

Even as she nodded, Shinjou could tell her face had grown red.

What was she supposed to say here?

“Sorry I’m just a kid. But there’s a reason for it… And I think that same reason is causing problems for you.”

“Is this reason the lie you mentioned last night?”

“…Yes. But I can’t say anything more.”

Shinjou quietly nodded and then turned toward the station.

“If I say anything more now, I don’t think I can stand it… But I do want to ask one thing. Will you let me ask a sudden question?”

“If you wish to ask it, go right ahead.”

She had permission. That fact brought relief and she formed the words.

“I said I wanted you to go to the All Holiday Festival with Setsu, right? Well, I’m not sure how else to put this… Would you be fine if Setsu left?”

“…?”

“Don’t give me that look. Your arm is healed now, right? And…and even if Setsu leaves, you still have Sadame…you still have me. So you don’t need Setsu, right?”

Shinjou somehow managed to draw out the words which were sinking down in her gut.

“But right now – just for a bit – stay by Setsu’s side.”

That was all she could manage. She could not continue.

She glanced at his face and saw a slight look of surprise. That expression made her feel apologetic.

And so she turned her back, brought strength to her legs, and began walking.

“Sorry. …I’ll see you later! Later, okay!”

She immediately checked her watch and switched to a run.

Sayama stood up, but he could not make it in time.

She slipped into the crowd and between two women carrying large bags.

Something fell from the sky and landed on the shoulder of her jacket.

It was not an incendiary bomb that fell on her. Something else was falling on the world of the present.

“Rain.”

<noinclude>

==References==
<references/>
<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 16|Chapter 16]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 18|Chapter 18]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 15

2026-05-12T03:36:06Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 15: Point of Acquisition==
[[Image:OnC_v04_0029.png|thumb]]
''Look back

''Look back

''And remember so you never need to look back again

Kashima stood in the passageway behind the design room that led to the production rooms.

He wore his usual work uniform and lab coat and he held the cardkey Tsukuyomi had given him.

“What am I supposed to do? Director Tsukuyomi told me to face this, but…”

''What will that teach me?'' he wondered.

His heart was feeling restless and he looked forward in order to fill the hole he felt there.

In the past, he had often used that white walled passageway, but now he only occasionally passed by its entrance.

…''The newcomers probably think I’m a useless guy who loiters around the entrance.

That was not inaccurate.

His job was to perform the final modifications, but the newcomers seemed to think he was stealing their final job.

A few of those newcomers avoided speaking to him.

The Kashima family had a history with the sword god and swordsmith god families such as Katori or Mikami.

“The military gods of Kashima ended up forging the swords that those families were meant to forge.”

He had heard about it from his grandfather.

As the Concept War had continued, the military gods of 2nd-Gear had started forging their own swords because they had experienced the battles for themselves.

…''The original smithing gods ended up forging small tools and daily items instead.

“But the situation has reversed these days.”

Kashima gave a bitter smile toward the floor and then faced forward.

The first production room was on the right side of the passageway and the second was on the left a bit further down.

What mattered was the room past the corner and at the very end.

That was an area which had existed since the days of the National Defense Department.

…''The third production room.''

“I used to use that room constantly, but now it is used by no one.”

Kashima nodded and began to walk.

After a dozen or so seconds, he passed by the first production room.

After a similar amount of time, he passed by the explosion-resistant door of the second production room.

The passageway turned to the right and the third production room was about one hundred meters further down.

“…”

Kashima walked.

…''I sure am calm.

His pace was steady and his grip on the cardkey in his right hand was relaxed.

…''Is this all?

No hint of trembling could be heard in his footsteps and they were not too loud. He tried to move his shoulders and had no difficulty.

He felt an odd sense of loss in his body. He felt himself being cut free of something as if he was announcing that the past was only the past.

He approached the corner.

He turned right.

He focused on his actions again, but his pace was still steady and he was still looking forward.

The white explosion-resistant door of the third production room was about one hundred meters away.

The thick double door looked as white as the day it had been made.

And that was all.

“…”

Kashima touched the left side of his chest just as he had seen that boy named Sayama do in the cafeteria.

Everything was normal. His pulse was not racing and he felt no pain.

…''Why am I so calm?

For some reason, the accident from eight years ago felt like a long gone event.

He recalled the sensation of the rain, of the mud, and of Natsu’s hand.

…''They all feel so distant.

He wondered why. This was completely different from what he had expected.

He had thought trying to remember would cause him to relive the past in real time.

“But the past is nothing but the past,” he muttered with a sigh.

He relaxed his body once more, faced forward, and began walking.

…''At this rate, I’m going to have to reassess myself.

Kashima predicted he would be able to walk up and open the third production room as if it meant nothing to him. Then he could pick up the two pieces of Futsuno’s broken frame.

“I need to do something about it.”

Given his current calm, his options were limitless.

He could smash it on the spot and dump it down the garbage chute. He could reforge it, deliver it to Atsuta, and receive his friend’s thanks. However…

“Either way, I might quit UCAT.”

If his connection to the past was gone, he would no longer need to feel guilty concerning Natsu.

…''I will be able to be an even better husband to her.

He was now only twenty meters from the door.

He continued walking while thinking about what was to come.

He thought about what he would do once he no longer had to worry about the past.

…''I might be able to help with Natsu-san’s rehabilitation. She might recover to the point that her left hand and the rain no longer bother her.

Perhaps that was being arrogant, but this burst of confidence showed just how much the past had been bothering him.

But now the past was just the past.

He had feared it so much, but now that he was facing it and approaching it, it was nothing.

“I feel so stupid for avoiding it for so long.”

Kashima faced forward once more.

He had not moved a single step closer to the third production room’s door.

Atsuta arrived at the back entrance to the Tamiya household on his motorcycle.

The back entrance was a small wooden gate. Atsuta was greeted by a young man in a suit. It was Kouji.

Kouji folded his arms while the slight afternoon wind washed over him.

“Long time no see. What brings you to the back entrance of our house?”

“You’re as stubborn as ever, Kouji. What’s going on out front anyway? It’s so loud I didn’t want to get anywhere near it.”

“The same thing you and my sister did back in your school days: preparations for the All Holiday Festival.”

“Oh, the festival. Ryouko was the student council president, so the festivals were pretty crazy back in our day. We didn’t make any preparations at your place, though”

“I knew how destructive your singing is, so I did everything I could via our parents to keep that from happening.”

“Y’know, you’re pretty damn rude.”

Kouji ignored him, sighed, and changed the subject.

“Anyway, my sister is currently out.”

“With Sayama?”

Kouji immediately reacted to that name.

His body moved ever so slightly and Atsuta’s right arm shot up.

An object suddenly appeared between Atsuta’s index and middle fingers.

“A sashimi knife? You’re about 0.2 seconds faster than before. Toh!”

Atsuta’s final shout came as he jumped down in front of his motorcycle. He kept his hands on the handlebars and performed a flip. At the same time, Kouji’s left hand sent a kitchen knife through the air in a backhand swing.

“You have more techniques than the last time I saw you, Atsuta-san.”

Kouji faced Atsuta’s back as the other man landed.

Immediately afterwards, Kouji swung both arms and threw two kitchen knives at the exact same moment.

But Atsuta did not even turn around.

“If I couldn’t do this much, I wouldn’t be able to protect Ryouko!”

Atsuta swung the sashimi knife he had caught.

That produced two metallic noises.

As he slowly turned around, two knives broken at the center lay at his feet.

He faced forward and saw Kouji standing next to the motorcycle and holding a new knife in a backhanded grip.

“Atsuta-san, where did you hear about the young master?”

“Ryouko mentioned him last night.”

“And what is your relationship with the young master?”

“Like I’d tell you.”

“Then please leave. And please do nothing which would harm the young master.”

“C’mon, Kouji. Are you really gonna say that to me? You know you’re no match for me. In the same way, I know only you can handle Ryouko’s problematic side.”

“I am aware I am no match for you.” Kouji gestured toward the motorcycle next to him. “Which is why I will instead do things to this motorcycle that will make you cry.”

“That will make me cry?”

“Yes. First, I will use this knife to write ‘real Yankees never die’ on it. Later, I will periodically use my family’s information network to locate the motorcycle wherever it may be and carve new statements into it.”

“Please stop. In fact, when did you get so cunning?”

“Anyone would after constantly being caught up in the trouble my sister causes.”

Kouji stared off into the blue sky and Atsuta sighed.

“Don’t say that,” said Atsuta while recalling the past. “She helped me out quite a lot. She’d go apologize to the families of the people I punched and she’d bring me a lunch when I had no money.”

“I see. For some reason, my memories of my middle school days involve being lectured with my sister at strange houses and being forced up at the crack of dawn to make two lunches for her. I suppose it is important to view everything in a positive light.”

“You got a problem? Why do you keep staring off into the distance?”

“At any rate, please leave. What is with today, anyway? You never act for anyone but yourself. Are you having some trouble with a friend?”

Atsuta smiled bitterly, climbed back onto the motorcycle, and removed the kickstand.

“That’s right. A friend of mine is having some trouble. He doesn’t seem to know who he is.”

Kashima gulped as he stared at the thick door.

He had not moved even a step closer to the white metal door since the last time he had looked at it.

He looked down and could see he was standing. His legs were not trembling. He could feel the floor beneath his feet and he could sense his waist and abdomen being supported by his legs.

But despite thinking he was walking, Kashima had not moved a single step since arriving twenty meters from the door.

“I was standing still while convincing myself I was moving forward.”

He checked his left arm to see if any concept was in effect, but the black wristwatch had not reacted since entering the design room.

What was happening?

…''I can’t move forward.

The feeling welling up in his heart seemed to slide up his spine.

He was not sure how to describe the sensation or the emotions it gave him. His desire to deny it formed words.

“My inability to face the past has reached a subconscious level.”

He did not feel any fear, but he could not approach that place.

He faced that explosion-resistant door while wondering why.

A few colored metal plates were attached to the wall next to the sealed white metal of the door.

Those metal plates were engraved with the surnames of the past managers of that production room.

The leftmost plate contained the name Kashima.

However, his own name was not what he focused on now.

He started with the earliest name. That name belonged to the very first manager of the third production room.

“Ooshiro Hiromasa.”

Next to that name was the name of the second manager.

“Kashima.”

This time, Kashima was not written in kanji. Kashima’s grandfather had refused to write it that way because he opposed fully naturalizing himself even if he had abandoned his old surname of Takemikazuchi.

Kashima finally began to tremble when he saw those two names.

He felt an extra strong beat of his heart. He did not know what to call it.

He knew nothing of his grandfather or Ooshiro Hiromasa.

Nevertheless, those two names were there. His own name was listed far to the left.

…''How can this be?

Carved into that steel were names from the past and the name of the one who was to inherit the past.

Only someone who was the same as those in the past could arrive here.

Kashima recalled the past. He recalled that day nine years ago.

He had finally managed to see that giant humanoid weapon, but the bridge in the head had been mostly destroyed.

…''My grandfather’s dying request to go to Susaou became meaningless.

He had focused solely on demonstrating his power in the third production room so that he could pursue his grandfather.

As he did nothing but pursue his own power, he had forgotten all about the girl he had grown close to in his college days.

“What happened to me after that?”

He suddenly heard a certain noise.

It was the sound of rain.

…''It can’t be.

He was underground. There was no way he could be hearing that.

But he was undoubtedly hearing rain.

He had gained something on that rainy night when the earth had collapsed.

What had it been? How had he acquired it?

He absentmindedly raised his left hand up in front of his face. He did so ever so slowly.

But he could not fully raise it. It stopped while positioned diagonally down.

It looked like he was holding his hand out to someone.

…''To who?

“Stop.”

…''Don’t think back. Don’t think back to what you reached for and what you gained.

He had thought he had carved it into his heart, but he had actually avoided touching it and simply deceived himself.

…''Don’t look straight at it.

But his left hand was definitely grasping something in the empty air.

He was grasping the hand of someone he cared for. He could feel the missing fingers and the warm wetness.

“…!”

Just as before, Kashima let out an enraged cry.

He clenched his hand which was covered in phantom warmth and heat. He faced forward.

He only recognized three of the names: the two rightmost names and his own name on the left.

“Why…?”

Why had he wanted to have his name engraved there?

''Back then, I viewed it as my pledge to pursue the past,'' thought Kashima. ''Please… Please let it be a lie.

He wanted to erase the fact that he had ever wanted that.

Otherwise, everything he had now would become a lie.

Natsu, Harumi, their house, the flowers in the garden, his parents’ concerns, their own concerns…all of it.

But all he felt in his hand were missing fingers and wet blood.

“That is the truth,” proclaimed the letters in that steel. “Everything you have gained is nothing but a lie used to escape from us.”

Kashima distinctly recalled the feeling of creating Futsuno.

…''I felt such superiority.

He had felt joy, but that joy had frozen over in an instant when he heard the scream.

He trembled as he recalled the emotions he had felt.

“Please,” he muttered.

…''I don’t need any of that anymore.

“Please rid me of this name…”

His trembling voice received no response. The engraved names sent him nothing but silence.

Those names would not move from the past.

That truth caused him to instinctually move back. He took a step back and immediately followed it with another.

“Ah,” he said quietly as he turned his back on those names. “Ahh…”

He tripped and almost fell as he began to run. There was nothing he could do to stop himself. He finally realized his entire body was trembling.

…''Run.

“Ahh…”

He felt as if the door behind him had opened and some unknown presence had come from within.

It was already right behind him. The names of the past and the names of the present were trying to swallow him up.

''Is this what I abandoned?'' he thought again.

“…!”

Kashima ran. After taking a few steps, he realized he still held the cardkey in his right hand. He threw it behind him.

He did the same with everything he thought would get in the way of his escape: the pen in his lab coat pocket, his calculator, his handkerchief, the lab coat itself, and the glasses on his face. He threw them all at the presence pursuing him.

But the past would not leave him. That feeling that caused him to tremble refused to let go.

He felt as if it would never let go again.

He swallowed a scream and continued to run.

…''I have Natsu-san and Harumi now.

He turned the corner and ran out into the empty design room without looking back.

…''So why won’t my power leave me?

“Okay. How should we handle this?”

A woman in a lab coat stood beneath the clear sky.

It was Tsukuyomi.

She was inside the 2nd-Gear concept space containing Susaou. She was in the small open area next to Susaou’s lake.

Other than the lake to the north, she was surrounded by forest.

With the rotting pier extending toward Susaou to her back, she stood in the cool wind with her arms folded and a slight smile on her lips.

She faced a boy wearing a suit. He was Sayama Mikoto.

She used her smile to welcome him and slowly began to speak.

“Sayama Mikoto-kun, are you alone?”

“Yes. The others do not like negotiations, so they are investigating the area. How about you?”

“I’m alone, too. Kashima had to gather his thoughts a bit, so he won’t be coming. I, Director Tsukuyomi Shizuru of the development department, will handle the preliminary negotiations in his place.”

“So you will be my opponent, is that it?”

“Yes.”

She nodded just before her expression changed.

Someone had exited the forest behind the boy.

The person wore an orange jacket and a white dress.

She was out of breath and Sayama turned toward her.

“Shinjou-kun,” he said.

“Yes,” replied Shinjou Sadame upon having her name called. She looked at him and then Tsukuyomi before giving an exhausted smile. “Sorry I’m late. This is the preliminary negotiations, right?”

<noinclude>
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|-
| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 14|Chapter 14]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 16|Chapter 16]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 14

2026-05-11T04:00:51Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 14: Location of the Answer==
[[Image:OnC_v04_0011.png|thumb]]
''Sing the song of temporary relief

''Will that achieve preparation or rest?

''All will be known at the conclusion

A certain ten square meter room had wooden floors and brown wallpaper.

It was a kitchen.

A skylight on the white roof let in the noontime sun. A sink, stove, and refrigerator sat along the wall. Three people were eating lunch at the table in the center.

Two girls sat on the east side of the table by the entrance. They were named Mikoku and Shino.

An elderly Arab man sat on the west side of the table by the refrigerator. His name was Hajji.

His white scarred left eye was closed and he held a newspaper in his left hand. In this right hand…

“Isn’t it a bit early for alcohol, father?” asked Mikoku.

He turned from the glass in his right hand and focused on her.

Mikoku was staring at him while eating pasta with nothing but olive oil on it.

“What is it, Mikoku? This is no different from normal.”

Hajji knew what it meant when Mikoku acted differently than normal.

“Do you have a request to make for Shino? You do, don’t you? Hm?”

“Nn… You are as sharp as ever. Shino.”

“Eh? Oh, okay.” Shino had not touched the pasta on the plate in front of her. “U-um, father. I have a request.”

“What is it? I will do anything within my power.” Hajji then began to think with his hand on the newspaper. “Could you wait a moment? It has been a while since we have had this sort of conversation, so I want to act like a real family by guessing what it is you want. Let’s see…”

“Do you know?”

“Yes.” Hajji immediately nodded. “Have you fallen in love!? Hm? That’s it, isn’t it? I’m jealous of this guy. Ha ha ha,” he laughed. “I’ll burn him at the stake!”

“That is illegal in Japan, father. And Shino would not like that.”

“Kwah! You are as cement-like as ever, Mikoku.”

It seemed his guess had been wrong, so Hajji hid his mouth with his hand.

“That was a joke. It was just an opening jab, so it doesn’t count, okay? This next one will be for real.”

“You are not going to guess it, so just hurry up.”

Hajji ignored Mikoku and thought for a full minute. However…

…''I don’t know.

He started to sweat.

…''Not good. Think harder.

There had been no problems with food lately.

Shino was handling the shopping herself and she had offered to take turns cooking because Mikoku’s cooking only came in three varieties: grilled, boiled, and raw.

Was there anything else?

“…”

Across the table, Mikoku sprinkled soy sauce on her olive pasta.

“I see the former great general of 9th-Gear does not know how to handle household matters. Perhaps that failing comes with the job.”

“W-wait, Mikoku. Do not underestimate your father.”

“Then give me your answer.”

Hajji thought some more. And then…

“Ah.”

But that was not it. They had rearranged the bath order only half a month ago.

''I have to take this seriously,'' he thought while setting the newspaper aside.

“I see,” he finally said.

“Do you have an answer?”

“No, I have not the slightest clue. …Ow! Wh-what are you doing, Mikoku!?”

“Mikoku, that was the right spot for a tsukkomi, but the salt shaker might have been too painful.”

Hajji grabbed the salt shaker before it fell to the floor and sprinkled some salt on his pasta.

Mikoku continued eating indifferently across the table.

“Mikoku, you haven’t been communicating with me as much lately.”

“Hitting you with things is a faster form of communication than speaking.”

“I see,” said Hajji with a nod.

The older girl seemed to have entered a rebellious phase recently. He tried to think of a reason.

“Is this because of…what do they call it? Secondary sex characteristics? That must be nice. I remember getting into all sorts of trouble when I obeyed my hormones. Is that what this is? It is, isn’t it? Ngah!”

“Sorry, father. It looked like you wanted me to pass the pepper.” She then turned to Shino. “Shino, if this continues any longer I will reach the third stage of ‘annoyed – pissed – angry’.”

“Oh, right. Father, for the sake of peace in our household, I will get right to the point: can we take this afternoon off?”

Hajji stared up at the ceiling while holding the pepper shaker.

…''Where did that come from?

The Army made use of a fair number of people and it carried out many different activities. However…

“Lately, everyone has been performing maintenance on Alex in the factory below Takao. And Team Leviathan is heading to the concept space in the Showa Memorial Park today, but there is nothing we can do there. Is that what you mean?”

Hajji nodded at his own question.

They had maintenance to complete, but there was no actual work to be done as the Army. Until Team Leviathan finished their negotiations with 2nd-Gear, there was nothing to do but head out with a small group to make contact with the remnants of other Gears.

“I see,” muttered Hajji before nodding again. “Well, one afternoon should be fine.”

“Really?”

“I can’t say no. I am not a thoughtless enough man to stop the daughters who I gained from the ending of everything. This is a special service as your adoptive father.”

“Yay! Thank you so much.”

“But try to tell me the night before from now on, hm? Also, make sure to contact the others. Your training with Tatsumi is not just meant to kill time, okay?” said Hajji with a smile.

Shino nodded and gave a smile of her own.

“So what are the two of you going to do today? Hm?” he asked when he saw her smile.

“Mikoku said she wanted to do a bit of shopping, so I thought we could go to a nearby supermarket and I could find some books to read.”

Shino turned toward Mikoku and froze up.

At some point, Mikoku had put down her shaker of sesame salt. She now held a casual magazine.

“U-um, Mikoku? Why are you looking at the shopping pages for Harajuku and Shibuya?”

“Because we will be going there today. We need to resupply on the necessities, so there is a lot to buy.”

“Wait a second. You said we would only be doing a bit of shopping. Do you have any idea who long it will take to get from here in Hachiouji to Harajuku and Shibuya? Wait, don’t add Shinjuku to the list! How is this ‘a bit’!?”

“It is only a distance of thirty kilometers and there are almost no obstacles. This will take little effort.” Mikoku turned toward Hajji. “Okay, father. I will escort Shino on her shopping trip.”

“Eh? But I want to take it easy at home. And you’re clearly making an excuse,” complained Shino.

“Do not worry about it. Now, we need to get going. We must find some equipment for you. …I have never been to Harajuku before. I hope they have my size. I am incredibly excited in a composed sort of way.”

“…Mikoku. Try not to mix your excuse and your true intentions like that,” warned Hajji.

Mikoku raised her smiling face from the magazine.

“How about you come too, father? You can carry our bags. It can be a special service for your adoptive daughters.”

Shinjou Setsu sat on the porch of the Tamiya household.

He was sitting in the warm sun while drinking plum tea Kouji had given him. His classmates were preparing for the All Holiday Festival in the yard in front of him.

The students were using their lumber, metal pipes, and other materials to construct a festival stand.

Ooki wandered among them all, but a student with a piece of paper saying “manager” taped to his back followed her around and ensured she caused no harm.

Sayama had left, saying he had student council work to take care of. He had said he was meeting Izumo and Kazami in Tachikawa.

An old man sat next to Setsu.

His name was Hiba Ryuutetsu.

He ran a martial arts dojo named the Hiba Dojo in Okutama and he had been a friend of Sayama’s grandfather.

He was an old man with a crimson left eye.

Shinjou had been speaking with him about Sayama.

“That idiot Mikoto had a rebellious phase back when he entered middle school. He was so cute back then. When you hit him, he would seriously say ‘thank you for the lesson’.”

“Th-that’s some harsh training.”

“Not really. I was kind to him. For example, there was when he first came to my dojo. He was a first-timer, so I took him out into the mountains.”

“And you trained there?”

“No. I shoved him toward the edge of a cliff. When he really fell off, I panicked and ran home. I trembled in my futon all night expecting the cops to show up. Ha ha ha ha ha.”

“That isn’t something to laugh about! That’s attempted murder!”

“Oh, c’mon.” Ryuutetsu scratched at his head. “They say lions throw their cubs into the bottom of ravines, right? I knew a chance like that would never come again, so I just couldn’t resist. I ended up doing it again three or so times afterwards, though.”

“Um… I’m going to ignore all the problems with that, but what happened to Sayama-kun?”

“He made it back alive each time and tried to kill me in my sleep. I of course beat him until he couldn’t stand afterwards. Then we would eat. I was impressed he could eat a proper meal after all that.”

“I think I understand why Sayama-kun is the way he is, but what do you think of him now?”

“He needs to keep growing. He’s still no match for us.”

“Us?”

“The people who bring pain to him here.”

Ryuutetsu placed a hand on the left side of his chest.

Shinjou could see no malice in his crimson eye.

''It’s so pretty,'' thought Shinjou. ''It looks like a woman’s eye.

Shinjou then realized he had been looking at the eye for too long.

“S-sorry for staring.”

“It’s fine. Having a young kid like you staring at me is gonna make me blush.” Ryuutetsu then gave a bitter smile. “But I want Mikoto to overcome various different things. …You heard that the room in this house where he and his mother lived is never opened, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“That idiot is a lot of trouble for you, isn’t he?”

“I’m not sure I would say trouble, but he does a lot of things I don’t know what to think about…”

“You don’t have to stare blankly into the distance as you say it.”

Shinjou smiled bitterly.

“I have always been alone, so it’s been fun having Sayama-kun with me. …Not only was I alone long ago, but I was betrayed too.”

“Betrayed?”

“I was alone once and no one came for me,” answered Shinjou. “The person who was looking after me at the facility said someone would eventually come for me, but they never did. …My memory of crying all alone is still so clear.”

“We have a way of remembering the unpleasant things,” said Ryuutetsu with a calm smile.

Shinjou then noticed what might have been a scar above and below the old man’s left eyelid. It was hard to tell what exactly it was because of the man’s tan.

…''He must have something in his past, too.

Shinjou suddenly wondered how much this man would make his chest hurt if thinking of his past affected him the way it did Sayama.

However, that would never happen.

Shinjou took a sip of the plum tea and Ryuutetsu asked him a question.

“How do you feel about yourself now?”

“Oh, I am definitely a bit different now. In the past, I did nothing but wait, but now I feel like waiting is not enough. Still…”

“What is it?”

Shinjou could tell he had lowered his head.

“I came here to help with Sayama-kun’s injury, but it’s healed now. I have to leave him before long. Staying for no reason would be a bother.”

“Have you asked him if it would be a bother?”

“I’m afraid to.”

That was why he could only think about the reason he had come in the first place.

Once that reason was gone, he would have to leave.

“I see,” said Ryuutetsu. “Well, you should give this some thought. By the way, I saw you hand something to Mikoto before he left. Mind telling me what that was?”

“It was a loose-leaf binder. It contains the story of a novel I hope to write someday.”

“A novel? Literature sure is great. A villa in Karuizawa, the highlands, the wide-open sky, and the silent nights…”

“I feel like I heard something similar recently…”

“Hah hah hah! It was from that idiot Mikoto, wasn’t it?”

Ryuutetsu laughed and suddenly reached over to rub Shinjou’s head.

“Well, keep at it. You seem like the type to put a lot of effort into this.”

Sayama, Izumo, and Kazami rode a train to Tachikawa. Izumo and Kazami would normally have used Izumo’s motorcycle, but Kazami had wanted to discuss a few mysteries concerning Yamata.

“Sayama, should you really leave when your classmates are working on the stand?”

“The Leviathan Road takes precedence, Kazami. And there is nothing to worry about. This year, Mr. Kim is not the only specialist helping. The Musclekov Brothers from the old Soviet Army will be helping too. From their name, I expect they will be quite strong.”

“I get the feeling your class’s stand will look like a giant mass of metal.”

“Ha ha ha. You can praise us in advance if you like. It bothers me horribly to leave Shinjou-kun behind. He seemed to be in a bad mood. But…”

“But what?” asked Kazami.

Sayama smiled and held up the black binder in his left arm.

“Heh heh. Shinjou-kun gave me his secrets. This has to be full of…ah… I don’t think I can resist for much longer!”

“Stop wiggling around like that, you idiot,” cut in Izumo. “Didn’t you say that’s the plot of the novel he plans to write? I doubt it will have anything as exciting as you think.”

“Oh? Are you jealous of the trust Shinjou-kun and I have? Then I will give you a single chance, Izumo.”

“A chance for what?”

“A once-in-a-lifetime chance to earn my trust. Every morning, climb up to the roof of your dorm building and shout the following to the world below: ‘Sayama-sama is #1 in the universe! I dedicate my life to him!’ If you keep it up for one hundred days straight… Wait, why are you and Kazami staring out the window together? This is a serious discussion.”

“Kaku, don’t let him get to you. I can’t have you getting any weirder than you already are.”

“Don’t worry. My tolerance gauge is so full that only surface tension is keeping it from spilling over. Nothing more will fit.”

“That sounds like a difficult situation,” commented Sayama.

“Whose fault do you think it is!?”

At any rate, they continued the conversation.

Kazami stated the following mysteries:

1. Yamata’s name did not refer to his job or position in society.

2. Susanoo’s name did not change even after being restored to his original position.

3. Some mystery surrounded Kusanagi as well.

Their meeting in the train would last for the fifteen minutes until they arrived at the Showa Memorial Park.

As they began the discussion, Kazami confidently gave her opinion.

“I was thinking about Yamata’s question that Sayama heard in his dream. It’s just a guess, but I think he might be asking for his name.”

In the design room on UCAT’s second basement, Kashima looked up from his laptop.

He realized the room was deserted.

“Oh, everyone has left for the Showa Memorial Park,” he muttered to himself.

While noticing how quiet it was, he looked at the top of his desk.

A single cardkey sat there.

It was the cardkey to the third production room that Tsukuyomi had given him.

“What I abandoned still waits in there.”

…''How do I even feel about that anymore?

Kashima suddenly stood up in order to cut off his thoughts.

He stared at the cardkey on his desk and had a single thought.

…''The Leviathan Road.

He then spoke the words that followed his uncertain thoughts.

“That boy named Sayama should begin the preliminary negotiations with Director Tsukuyomi before long. If they are truly trying to learn about 2nd-Gear, they should realize what Yamata’s question is soon.”

Kashima placed a hand on the cardkey.

“What is Yamata’s true name?”

On the train, Izumo tilted his head in response to what Kazami had said.

“Yamata’s name? Isn’t it Yamata?”

“Weren’t you listening? Why does the serpent that swallowed the divine sword of Kusanagi not have a name that reflects that role? I think that applies to 2nd-Gear’s Yamata as well. Why was the system controlling 2nd-Gear’s biosphere given the name Yamata?”

Sayama’s eyebrows moved a bit when he heard that. He still held Shinjou’s binder.

“Before, you said your name changes when your role changes. And 2nd-Gear’s control system lost control and became a flame dragon. So are you saying that transformation caused it to lose its old name and gain the name of the burning flame dragon Yamata?”

“Yes. From that perspective, you can see why Yamata held a grudge against the residents of 2nd-Gear and could not trust them, can’t you? The people of 2nd-Gear caused him to lose his original name, so he asks them what he originally was. In other words, he is asking them to speak the name of the world that was destroyed when they forgot it.”

“So it’s a grudge on the level of an entire world? That’s no joke.”

“But in that case, Yamata’s name is a simple matter,” said Sayama.

Kazami and Izumo looked a bit surprised.

Seeing that, Sayama took a satisfied breath and brushed up his hair with his left hand.

“Heh. If you come crying to me and beg, I might just tell you.”

“Heh heh. Sayama? Did you know divine punishment can strike people even on trains?”

“Now, as a special service, I will tell you. Basically, Yamata is the result of something proper falling to the side of evil. Think of what Susanoo did as cutting away the evil with Totsuka and producing its proper form from within.”

“You mean Yamata’s name is Kusanagi? And the name Yamata referred to the outer form hiding it?”

Kazami looked both surprised and happy, but Sayama spoke up again.

“It is too soon to relax.”

Kazami turned a concerned look toward him.

“Eh? Wh-why?”

“Kazami, there is still your final mystery concerning Kusanagi. Listen carefully. Kusanagi has two names. Once it was presented to the heavens, its name changed to Ama no Murakumo. The name Kusanagi can be seen to refer to a cool breeze blowing through the grass, so Murakumo could refer to the wind that brings in the rain.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Then which one is the sword’s real name?”

“I do not know, but that is the true question we are being asked. That will determine whether we are viewing 2nd-Gear properly or not.”

“You mean everything’s riding on whether we choose Kusanagi or Murakumo?”

“A man named Ooshiro Hiromasa once gave the correct answer and died. We should probably research him a bit. We need to know why he was so attached to his answer that he was willing to risk his life on it.” Sayama frowned. “But I know the answer to another of your mysteries, Kazami. I know why Susanoo’s name did not change.”

“Eh?”

Kazami tilted her head and Sayama gave a satisfied expression.

“The name Susanoo may also refer to the hero who presented Kusanagi to the heavens. Both the name Kusanagi and the name Murakumo are related to the wind, so he had the name of the king of storms. Whether you render it as Susanoo or Susaou, the name of the wind king would not change when he acquires a sword of the wind.”

“Hm. But that doesn’t help us decide whether Kusanagi’s real name is Kusanagi or Murakumo,” said Kazami while forcing a stiff smile. “We’ll find the right answer, won’t we?”

“Do not worry. I intend to face everything and find the answer. I am invincible, you know?”

“While you may be #1 in the universe in some ways, what proof do you have that you’re invincible?” asked Izumo.

Sayama replied while watching their train stop at its destination.

“There is no such thing as having proof of invincibility. But I am invincible, so you two can rest easy even without proof.”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Preface|Preface]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume4 Chapter 15|Chapter 15]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume3 Chapter 13

2026-05-10T03:33:15Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 13: Blooming World==
[[Image:OnC_v03_0365.png|thumb]]
''The desire to convey something awaits you

''Does it wait behind your blooming back in the past?

''Or in your budding arms in the present?

Sayama frantically thought while flying through the air.

He was facing upwards and the rotation of his body was compact.

It had been a surprisingly quick throw.

If he twisted his body to bring his feet to the ground, his momentum would cause him to topple over.

What should he do?

The correct answer was to twist his body, bring a single foot to the ground, and throw his other foot forward.

He would use the momentum of the throw to run forward.

And he did so.

His foot struck the ground.

After a single footstep, he moved his other foot forward and took his second step with the momentum of his spin.

He could not eliminate the momentum, but he could control it. He twisted on his toes to turn and face his opponent.

He took a large step backwards and lowered his hips in case of a second attack.

He reached for Baku on his shoulder, but the creature had not fallen.

He completed his defensive stance while performing that check.

But no second attack came.

“…”

Sayama faced forward while relaxing a bit.

He saw Ooki and Shinjou looking surprised, but a small figure had joined them.

It was an old man wearing a black T-shirt and a mountain vest.

He had short gray hair and his right eye was red.

Seeing that color, Sayama spoke his name.

“Hiba-sensei.”

“Hi,” said Hiba.

“Long time no see, you immortal old man,” said Sayama with a small smile and a hand raised in greeting. “Why have you descended from the mountain today? Did you forget how to speak the language of man, so you had to come relearn it?”

“It’s been a while since I heard your nonsensical polite speech.” Hiba smiled and raised a hand of his own. “I had been wondering why you haven’t been stopping by the dojo lately, but I see you’ve been living a normal life. I gathered some nice mountain vegetables today, so I was bringing some to the Tamiya family. When I heard you’d be coming, I knew I had to show you who’s boss.”

Shinjou walked up from the side and tugged on Sayama’s sleeve.

“I gather he’s your teacher, but do you not get along?”

“Of course we get along. We get along well enough to knock each other to the ground. Right, Hiba-sensei?”

“That’s right. We’re always like this.”

The smile vanished from Hiba’s eyes as he observed Sayama’s stance.

The smile only remained on his lips.

“You were careless to let your friend distract you like that, but you haven’t gotten rusty, have you?”

Kashima and Tsukuyomi faced each other within a partition of the UCAT development department’s design room.

The rest of the design room’s personnel had already left for the Showa Memorial Park.

Kashima was chatting a bit with Tsukuyomi in the empty room.

However, she had suddenly glanced at her watch while he discussed his family.

“Now, I think I will head to the Showa Memorial Park like Director Abram suggested.”

“?”

“I will handle the preliminary negotiations for the Leviathan Road, but what about you? Will you be coming?”

“To be honest, I don’t think so.” He shrugged. “Will he be coming?”

“You mean Sayama Mikoto? He will of course be there. Do you think he can find the answer, Kashima?”

“I don’t know. But I think we should give him the same thing my grandfather gave Ooshiro Hiromasa. Take this to the preliminary negotiations.”

Kashima inserted a nearby floppy disk into his laptop.

He operated the laptop for just an instant.

He copied a single piece of data and ejected the disk.

He put the unlabeled floppy in a case and wrote on the case in marker.

He wrote “List of 2nd-Gear Residents”.

“These are the countless names used to create Totsuka. Another file contains Yamata’s question.”

“The names used to create Totsuka?”

“Yes. Totsuka required enough power and capacity to seal Yamata, so names were used in its construction. The countless names of the 2nd-Gear residents who were connected to the biosphere via their names were incorporated into the metal.” Kashima nodded. “But because the seal was to occur within Low-Gear, Low-Gear names were used instead. In other words, they used our current names. …My grandfather gave this list to someone who then investigated Japan’s shrines and temples to find the names that corresponded to our original names.”

“Was Ooshiro Hiromasa the one to looked up those names?”

“Yes. My grandfather apparently forged Totsuka while looking at the list of names Ooshiro Hiromasa wrote for him.” He took a breath. “Ooshiro Hiromasa also discovered the answer to Yamata’s question, but I think this list may have served as a hint. So if you give this floppy to that boy, the situation should be almost identical to back then. He will have our names and the question.”

“But what about him? Ooshiro Hiromasa risked his life to seal Yamata, but do you think this boy will go as far?”

“Yes. I think he views the Leviathan Road with 2nd-Gear as important enough to risk his entire existence on.”

The day before, that boy had said he wanted to go through with this Leviathan Road so he could face the other Gears afterwards.

…''He will not choose to back off.

And what would that boy do afterwards?

Would he learn of the past, learn what those who came before him thought, and try to approach those thoughts himself?

Kashima then recalled Sayama holding his chest in the cafeteria.

That boy felt pain when he learned of the past.

“…”

…''So that’s it. He has accepted even the past. He is Susanoo.

That boy was honest to himself, did not lie, and gained everything.

In that case, what was Kashima?

…''No, I haven’t officially chosen to confront him, so it’s too early to think about that.

Kashima suddenly realized Tsukuyomi was staring at him.

He recalled the floppy disk, shrugged, and held it out to her.

She took it with a bitter smile.

She then used her other hand to strike his head.

“You have a serious problem with getting lost in thought. Did you know that?”

And she suddenly said something else.

“I heard you were thinking about quitting UCAT.”

That unexpected comment left Kashima flustered.

“I-it was Atsuta that told you, wasn’t it?” he said while scratching his head. “He can be really talkative about the weirdest things.”

“He’s worried about you, so don’t be too hard on him. …But are you serious about this?”

“I’m not going to hand you a letter of resignation right away if that’s what you’re worried about. UCAT pays well, so I’ll stick around long enough to pay off my mortgage and save up for Harumi’s tuition.”

“Oh, how responsible. She’s still a baby, but you’re already planning to send her to private school?”

“I don’t know, but I think I’ll go discuss this with my parents.”

“About whether to choose a private school?”

“No. About me and my family. My choice here will directly affect my family’s finances.”

“I suppose that’s true. You can take this afternoon off and head to your parents’ home.” Tsukuyomi’s bitter smile deepened and her tone grew exasperated. “You really are worrying over all of this, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am. There’s just no connection between me and 2nd-Gear, so…”

“So you want to pass the truth of 2nd-Gear on to me and leave the front line?”

“Yes, I think that would be best. That Sayama boy I met last night has his own stance toward the Leviathan Road: the surname Sayama indicates a villain. That stance brought 1st-Gear to UCAT’s side and now he’s facing us.”

“He is quite brave.”

“Yes, but at this rate, I would be giving him our answer without a stance of my own.” He nodded. “So instead of pretending I understand, I will give someone else the word to control Yamata and then I will leave. Giving the word to you would work.”

…''What will this Sayama boy think of that?

Given the history of 2nd-Gear and his association with UCAT, would he accept it?

Kashima realized his thoughts were turning toward what was convenient to him, so he stopped thinking.

Meanwhile, Tsukuyomi lowered her shoulders and sighed.

But her expression suddenly grew serious and she spoke up.

“One thing.”

“What is it?”

A short silence followed.

Those few seconds contained hesitation.

She used that time to look at him like she was observing him.

She then scratched her head as if having a hard time finding the right words to use.

“Kashima, do you think you’re conflicted on this issue?”

“Yes, quite a bit.”

His response was perfectly casual.

Tsukuyomi replied with a single question.

“Kashima,” she began. “Why are you this conflicted?”

Natsu was speaking on the phone.

She was sitting on the floor with the window to her left.

She held Harumi within a towel in her right arm and her left hand weakly held the black phone receiver.

She was watching the weather forecast on the muted television, but she closed her eyes when she saw the symbol for rain.

She instead opened her mouth and spoke.

“Yes, thank you so much for the vegetables. I made all sorts of things right away. Yes, Akio-san seemed to find it a bother.” She laughed a bit. “I would like to thank your husband as well. …Eh? He ticked you off during a fight over the remote, so you locked him in the storage shed? It’s been twelve hours now? You two always get along so well. Hee hee. By the way, I would like to stop by for a visit before long. Are you planting the rice soon? Oh, in three days?”

She turned toward the wall.

The calendar hanging on the wall had no red circles around the dates for the next few days.

After checking that, Natsu turned her attention back to the phone.

“That should be fine. I’ll take Harumi with me, but I think Akio-san will try to come up with an excuse to not go.”

Her eyes bent in a smile and she looked down into her arm.

Harumi was curled up in her arm sleeping.

“Yes, you have been a lot of help with Harumi. You taught me how to hold her and how to care for her. Akio-san thinks I knew it all from the beginning. …Eh? If he doesn’t think I’m clever he won’t let me control the finances? And I need to add in the spice of a bit of violence? I’m not very good at that kind of thing. I’m not sure I can do it.”

Natsu smiled bitterly, but her eyebrows suddenly lowered weakly.

She cast her eyes down a bit.

“I think Akio-san has been worrying about something lately. Does he think our marriage-… Oh, I see. Sorry. But then what is it?” She tilted her head. “I think it probably has to do with his job, but he has a friend at work who is reliable in a certain sense of the word. Have you two noticed anything?”

A short pause followed.

After that discouraging time passed, Natsu received a response. However, that response caused her face to cloud over.

“You don’t know? I didn’t really think you would.”

She almost sighed, but gulped instead so the phone would not pick it up.

“I try not to say anything about his job, but I can’t help but worry. His sense of responsibility can be too strong sometimes.”

She glanced toward her left hand holding the receiver and then down toward her own neck. A ring hung down from a necklace there.

“Yes, thank you for being so considerate. Yes, he takes everything so seriously, so I want to avoid putting any unnecessary burden on him. …I can more or less guess what he’s thinking.”

After a few seconds, Natsu raised her head and nodded.

“Yes, I am confident.”

Her expression was just as confident as she said, but she was blushing slightly.

“I think he wants to work. He is past thirty, so it is about time he began thinking about what he can and can’t do in his life. …No, the thought came to me after marrying him and giving birth to Harumi. When I was in the Takagi family, I knew nothing of the world and didn’t think about anything.”

She smiled bitterly and moved her eyebrows.

Harumi opened her eyes in her arm. Natsu lightly rocked Harumi and she narrowed her eyes.

“Oh, Harumi just woke up. Yes, I will put her on. Haru-chan?”

Natsu held the receiver in front of Harumi and the child stretched out her small hands.

“Ah…dah…” said Harumi.

Natsu smiled and brought the receiver back to her ear.

“Did you hear her?” Her smile loosened at the response from the phone. “Thank you very much. Yes, quite a lot. Yes, I will make sure to drag Akio-san out there sometime soon. Yes, the girls outnumber him two-to-one, so he can’t win.”

With a smile, she gave a word of parting, dragged the black phone over, and returned the receiver to it.

The quiet tone of a bell was followed by complete silence.

Natsu looked at Harumi in her arm and turned toward the veranda.

Beyond the large opened window, most of the potted plants lined up on a shelf in the small yard were blooming.

The flowers were white, blue, purple, red, scarlet, and more white.

The flowers that were not blooming would bloom during a different season.

“Haru-chan, those are the flowers of spring.”

She looked at the different colored flowers and then up into the sky.

A bit of white was mixed in with the blue of the sky. The clouds were densest to the south and those clouds would bring in rain.

Natsu lightly bit her lower lip as she watched those gray clouds.

“It’s going to rain again,” she finally said.

Tsukuyomi had asked why Kashima was as conflicted as he was.

That simple string of words got to the core of the issue.

That was why Kashima found himself unable to answer right away.

He lightly closed his eyes and thought.

…''Why?

He wanted to answer. He wanted to answer with his thoughts.

He first thought of Natsu.

“I am denying my power.”

The instant he said that, Tsukuyomi spoke up.

“No. You aren’t denying your power.”

“…”

Kashima stood up from his chair without thinking.

…''How?

“How can you say that? For eight years now, I have-…”

“You are conflicted.”

Tsukuyomi stood to face him with a pleasant smile on her lips.

“But,” she said. “Why are you so conflicted? Isn’t it because you can’t deny your power? If you had denied it, wouldn’t you have long since quit UCAT and focused on your family?”

And…

“And while you were feeling so conflicted, you saw someone who was fighting against their own confliction, didn’t you?”

Kashima had no answer for that.

Tsukuyomi sighed with a troubled look.

“Remember this: the more you desire something, the more confliction you will feel. You want to be both a part of Low-Gear and of 2nd-Gear, so you find yourself unable to choose and you keep lying. But…”

“But?”

Tsukuyomi folded her arms and brushed up her hair.

“I think that is also the state of 2nd-Gear as a whole.”

Kashima felt himself tremble a little when he heard that.

“Kashima, you need to give this thought. Your parents chose the truthful path of completely joining Low-Gear, but not many people can make that decision. Even I am not telling my daughter about UCAT or 2nd-Gear.”

“…”

“This is why you are qualified to represent us in the Leviathan Road. Do not try to rush this. The time will come when you can make your decision and you will choose Low-Gear, 2nd-Gear, or maybe some third path. But at the same time…”

“At the same time?”

“Do not try to give an answer until that time comes. And while you still feel conflicted and cannot make up your mind, do not try to give anyone else the word to control Yamata.” Tsukuyomi took a breath and gave one last question. “Is that clear?”

“Testament.”

His weak affirmation was met by lowered shoulders and a nod from Tsukuyomi.

“Then I will be on my way to Tachikawa. I will tell Sayama Mikoto that you will eventually make up your mind.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t give me that look. Take a break and go ask your parents for advice. You might find the way to your answer there. Also…”

She placed the floppy in her lab coat pocket.

In its place, she pulled out a white card.

“What is that?”

She ignored his question and placed the card on the desk.

“Your past is in there.”

“You don’t mean!”

He instinctually stepped back and saw the card was a keycard for a production room.

And the card did not have a 1 for the first production room used by the newcomers or a 2 for the second production room used for research.

“That 3 stands for the third production room…”

“Yes. What you abandoned is still there. And it is precisely because you abandoned it that you want it so much now.” Tsukuyomi nodded toward him. “You feel conflicted because you want an answer and you want an answer to bring an end to your confliction. If you feel like it, go face what lies in that room. Then you should understand what you have lost as you stand in the gap between confliction and an answer.”

With that said, she turned around.

Kashima heard her receding footsteps and one last comment.

“It’s worth doing at least that much.”

At half past noon, Sayama left the Tamiya household and walked to the train station.

For once, Izumo and Kazami traveled by foot along with him.

“It seems Chisato has some ideas about a few mysteries,” said Izumo.

She apparently had some issues they could discuss while riding the train to the preliminary negotiations.

After Sayama had told Hiba and the others he had to leave, Shinjou had handed him something.

It was the black loose-leaf binder Shinjou had been carrying with him.

Sayama had not forgotten the slight look of fear on his face as he handed the binder over.

To calm Shinjou down, Sayama had promised to read it eventually and he now held it under his arm.

The sky above was clear, but gathering clouds were visible in the distance and the wind was strong.

“This is nice weather for a preliminary negotiation. I feel like humming a yodel.”

“Hey, idiot. Enough about yodeling. Just tell me what you plan to do about this negotiation and 2nd-Gear’s Leviathan Road as a whole. They don’t look too motivated.”

“My answer is incredibly simple, so listen closely.” Sayama took a breath and looked up into the sky. “I will confront them expectantly as I wait to see if they are a lazy serpent or a sleeping dragon.”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume3 Chapter 12|Chapter 12]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume3 Afterword|Afterword]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume3 Chapter 12

2026-05-09T03:30:18Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 12: Morning Plan==
[[Image:OnC_v03_0337.png|thumb]]
''Welcome to a place of comfort

''The wind blows along the heavenly path

''And the people return to the grass of the land

Even on Saturday, the Kazami household got an early start.

The father was a project planner, so he could choose to take days off but had no set days off.

He usually took off when Kazami announced she would be returning home, but her decision had been sudden this time. As such, the father had to begin eating breakfast at seven in the morning.

Her familial duty outweighed her sleepiness, so Kazami joined them for breakfast.

The small built-in kitchen was as pristine as ever.

The table contained cups of soup and ingredients to make breakfast sandwiches.

Kazami’s parents looked toward her from the table.

“Oh.” Her mother’s long hair swayed as she stood up. “What do you want to drink?”

“Coffee. Chisato, you want coffee, right?” Her father stopped putting together a sandwich on his plate and looked at her through his glasses. “I know you’re tired, but I would love it if you could fully wake up for breakfast.”

“Oh, sure. I’ll have tea.”

Not even Kazami was sure who she had been responding to as she sat in her chair.

Her father looked a bit disappointed as he reached over the table.

A few plates were lined up on the table which contained lettuce, lightly fried eggs, ham, onion, tomatoes, and other ingredients.

The Kazami family’s style was to make a sandwich by taking what you wanted and piling it up on bread.

“You’re taking too much, dad.”

“A-am I? Maybe I am. It’s just so fun.”

“Are you ever going to grow up?”

Her mother gave a troubled sigh when she saw the ingredients piled ten centimeters thick.

Seeing her mother in a blue shirt preparing a teapot and her father folding his arms in a gray hooded sweatshirt, Kazami finally felt she was truly home.

“You’re dressed too, mom? Are both of you going somewhere?”

“Yes. I’m going to the site with him.”

That comment cleared away Kazami’s sleepiness.

She could tell her shoulders had jumped. She belatedly noticed the chill of the morning air.

“Are you singing again?”

“I’m just going with him.”

Her mother had a hint of warning in her voice, but her father spoke up.

“But there is a plan for a combined Christmas concert toward the end of the year. The main performers will of course be whoever the sponsors choose, but there’s still room for a guest performer. What should I do?”

“I see.”

Kazami nodded and turned toward her mother who was preparing tea.

Her actions were no different from normal, so Kazami had no idea what she was thinking.

…''Does she think it’s just his usual nonsense?

However, the delighted look on her father’s face left Kazami almost certain he was serious. The way he meaninglessly began eating his sandwich starting with the top of the pile was the same as always, so her certainty only grew.

Then her cup of tea arrived along with two slices of bread on a plate.

“I see both my parents are working hard,” commented Kazami as she spread margarine on the bread.

“What about you, Chisato? Are things going well with Izumo-kun?”

She wished he had not brought that up.

“Well…” she said as she thought.

“Make sure to bring him by sometime. Don’t drive him away on the doorstep.”

“I’m not driving him away…”

“But you are kicking him away so he leaves, aren’t you? I saw you,” said her mother as she sat down.

Her lips were smiling, but her eyes were not.

“I’ll invite him in next week,” obediently promised Kazami.

“All right!”

Her parents smiled and high-fived.

…''Why is that idiot so popular?

Kazami sighed inwardly, but her mother was already humming.

“I’ll make korokke next week. I’m sure your papa and Izumo-kun will eat and drink like crazy in another competition, so I can make a whole lot. I’ll make white ones, curry ones, cream ones, and rare super-spicy wasabi ones for a surprise.”

“Sounds great. Make sure to put in plenty of chopped cabbage. We need to show who the better man is once and for all. I’ll do my best! Even if it’s meaningless!”

“Kyah! You’re so cool! Even if it’s pointless.”

“U-um, mom, dad? Why are you discussing next week before this week is over?”

“Hm? Did you say something, Chisato? Could you say it again?”

“No, never mind. …And mom, why have you had such a scary look in your eyes lately?”

“Don’t worry about it. You need to root for Izumo-kun next week. We’re pointlessly splitting into a parents team and a daughter/son-in-law team, so…”

“Sorry, but what kind of project are you working on now, dad?”

He looked up at the ceiling for a moment.

“It might be due to the material I came up with that was used on that suspicious educational program ‘Can You Do This?’ last week. At any rate, I’m working on a replacement project for the anime ‘Mr. Guevara’ that’s ending due to censorship.”

“I’m going to ignore half of that, but what is the replacement project?”

“It’s a sequel to the Aretorman series. Y’know, that cult classic from the Showa era. We’re making Aretorman Shoot which follows the story after Aretorman Cement. In the first episode, Shoot refuses to shake the monster’s hand, climbs on top of him, and punches him for three minutes straight. He doesn’t stop even as the monster tries to tap out. It’s really exciting.”

“Let me guess. In the second episode, does the monster get behind him, pin his arms, and make him put up with it for three minutes?”

“How did you know? That’s my daughter for you. Once Shoot realizes how to reverse the situation, he gradually begins to learn how to wrestle properly. He learns at the Aretor Training Base known as the Man Hole.”

“I have a feeling this is going to be taken off the air for a different reason.”

“Hmm.”

Her father folded his arms and thought.

Kazami saw her mother pour him some tea, but she was fairly certain his cup had originally held coffee. She began to sweat, but then he took a sip.

“Delicious. Your tea is always great.”

She knew she would never be any match for those parents. She also began to wonder if she would end up like them in the future.

But she ignored that thought and her father asked her a question.

“What has you lost in thought? If you have any trouble or problems at school, just tell me. What does it matter that I won’t be any help whatsoever?”

Unsure what to say to that, she changed the subject.

“How about you two calm down for now? It’s breakfast time.”

She sighed and began to make a sandwich of her own. She started with a lightly fried egg, lettuce, and mayonnaise. Then…

“Let’s add some jam, salted kombu, yam, and-… gah! Ch-Chisato! Domestic violence is wrong!”

“Mom, do something about him.”

“Bad papa.”

''Is that all?'' she thought, but her father really did hold his head and tremble.

She realized this was another method of scolding someone.

“Chisato, just put up with it. Having you back has left your papa a bit wrong in the head.”

“I’ll agree with that last part.”

Suddenly, Kazami realized how she could make use of her father.

“Hey, dad. Have any of your past projects dealt with Japanese mythology?”

Her father raised his head.

“Hm? Oh. Yes, they have.”

“I was investigating some stuff with Kaku and a few underclassmen, so do you know anything interesting related to Yamata no Orochi?”

“Hmm. Yamata no Orochi, you say? …There’s a lot there. Do have any keyword to focus on?”

“Well…”

When she brought a hand to her chin and tilted her head, she realized her mother was making the exact same pose as she thought. She had not noticed Kazami though, so Kazami merely smiled bitterly.

…''What would be a good keyword? 2nd-Gear is only known by UCAT, so they wouldn’t know that term. Then what? 2nd-Gear’s concepts deal with…

“Names. Do you have anything interesting related to the keyword of names?”

“Names?” asked her father as he looked up again.

The smile on his face told her she had chosen right.

“Chisato. Tell me the story of Yamata no Orochi’s slaying.”

“Well,” began Kazami. “After being banished to the surface, Susanoo fell in love with Kushinada-hime who was to be sacrificed to Yamata no Orochi. She promised to marry him and he got Orochi drunk and cut off the serpent’s heads. Is that good enough?”

“You shortened it like crazy, but that’s more or less it.”

“I’ve been studying it lately. Oh, and the sword that cut off Orochi’s heads was called Totsuka. The sword chipped in the process and, when Susanoo checked to see what had happened, he found another sword within Orochi. It was a nice sword, so he gave it a test swing and it easily cut through the surrounding grass. That was Kusanagi, aka the Grass Cutting Sword.”

And…

“Susanoo married Kushinada and settled in the Izumo province. When his descendant presented Kusanagi to Amaterasu, he regained his position as god. That’s the story, right?”

Her father nodded and muttered the word “names”.

“I am going to explain this in an indirect way, Chisato. In ancient Japan, people changed their name upon coming of age. You learned that in ancient literature class, right?”

Kazami nodded, but she did not actually remember that.

“Good, good,” said her father without realizing the truth.

The bitter smile on her mother’s face made it clear she had caught on.

Kazami once more realized she would never be a match for them.

“Okay, Chisato. Why do you think people would change their name?” asked her father.

“Eh?”

She did not know, but she gave it serious thought.

“Because they were adults?”

“Sorry, but no. Think about it. In Japanese mythology, Yamato Takeru gained that name upon killing his enemy, Kumaso Takeru. Changing one’s name does not mean becoming an adult.”

Then what was it?

As she thought, she saw her mother shaking back and forth a bit. For some reason, her right hand would rise some and fall some, but Kazami ignored her.

Kazami continued to think and realized the answer was surprisingly close by.

When she had first met Izumo Kaku, he had used the language of 10th-Gear. His language and his name had been different. And now he used Japanese.

“Because their position changed?”

“Correct. In ancient times, one’s name indicated their job or position in society. When that changed, their name changed. Returning to Yamato Takeru, the name Takeru means hero. The hero of Kumaso was Kumaso Takeru and the boy who killed him was given the position of the hero of Yamato.”

Kazami’s mother secretly snapped her fingers and struck a pose.

Her father did not notice his wife’s action and raised three fingers on his right hand.

“Now, with that in mind, let’s get down to the real issue. There are three mysteries surrounding the story of Susanoo and Yamata.”

He lowered his ring finger.

“The first mystery is why the name Yamata no Orochi does not refer to a job or position.”

“…Eh?”

“Think about it. What does Yamata no Orochi refer to?”

It meant Eight-Forked Great Serpent, so it referred to his form.

“Ah,” said Kazami when she realized that. “Are you asking why Yamata didn’t have a name?”

“Yes. Yamata no Orochi had the important role of producing the sword Kusanagi, but he was not given a job or position. This goes against the established rules. So why was this giant, eight-headed dragon of Japanese mythology not given a name?”

He then lowered his middle finger.

“The next mystery is about Susanoo.”

Kazami knew this one, so she took the initiative and raised her hand.

“It’s why he kept the name Susanoo after being banished from the heavens, right?”

“Yes. He descended to the human world, but he kept his name. Why is that? You have the great serpent with no name, the storm god whose name did not change, and then one other mystery.”

“The last one is related to Kusanagi, right?” said her mother.

Kazami and her father turned her mother’s way. She shrunk back and said “sorry” while sticking out her tongue.

But Kazami did not understand.

“What’s wrong with Kusanagi?”

“Oh?” Her father turned toward her with an expression similar to a smile. “How about you discuss that with your friends? This is a topic I tried to get put on an educational program, but no one would take it. I hope it will be some use to you, Chisato.”

There was no worry of that.

…''This is more than enough.

Not only did she have some hints, but she had realized some things herself too. She felt that was quite good for the athletic type. On top of that, she had some mysteries for them to solve.

“I’m glad I came home to visit,” she said.

Her parents cheered and high-fived.

She would never be a match for them.

It was still morning, but Kashima was in UCAT’s cafeteria.

It was only occupied by a few night shift workers, so it was nice and quiet.

“Why did you bring me here, Atsuta? I haven’t even entered the design room yet.”

“This is about the time you usually get some napa cabbage from your parents. If so, you’ll be working on getting rid of your extra pickled vegetables. Hand them over.”

Atsuta wore his combat uniform and held out chopsticks and a bowl piled high with white rice.

“Are you going to eat nothing but pickled vegetables and rice?”

“Don’t underestimate me, military god. An old saying says to eat vegetables on your rice and a bowl of soup. This is the same.”

He pulled something out of his pocket and placed it on the table.

It was a can of coffee. It was a UCAT brand named Morning Coffee Gotz. To increase its morning image, a high contrast red and white image of a healthy butler wearing nothing but an apron was printed on the can.

“Is that your ‘soup’? I suppose the color does resemble miso soup, but having that, napa cabbage, and rice for breakfast is really mixing Japanese and western, don’t you think?”

“You got a problem with this? Keh. You sure have gotten full of yourself.”

“Do you even know what ‘full of yourself’ means? Anyway, you want me to provide the vegetables?” With an exasperated sigh, Kashima took Natsu’s homemade bento from his bag. “Natsu actually predicted this. Look, she even put in some of the pickled cherry blossoms you like.”

“Oh, where she pickles the flower petals? They’re a bit bitter, so they go good with alcohol. …Unlike you, your wife does everything so well it almost pisses me off.”

“I can’t tell if you’re complaining or complimenting her.”

“You idiot. A guy can’t compliment women that easily.”

“You mean you have to compliment them difficultly?”

“Eh? Oh, well, um…what? I guess, uh… You idiot!”

“I’m not sure how you ended up there, but that’s quite the conclusion. At any rate, I’ll tell Natsu-san what you said.”

“Yeah, you do that. Tell her ‘Please make more, dammit!’ ”

“I really don’t understand what you’re trying to say half the time,” said Kashima with his usual sigh.

He suddenly realized Atsuta had opened the pack in his hand and started eating.

He did not approve of using the Art of Walking on friends, but using it may have been second nature to Sword God Atsuta.

“Is it good?”

He took the lack of a response as a yes.

The next thing he knew, Atsuta had refilled his bowl of rice and the pickled vegetables were almost gone.

Atsuta then spoke up as if carried by his momentum.

“So what’re you gonna do about the Leviathan Road?”

“I’m not sure. …How about you do it?”

“C’mon.” Atsuta stopped moving his chopsticks. “You really have no motivation, do you?”

“To be honest, no. The commotion here yesterday reminded me I have no reason at all to care about 2nd-Gear.”

“Stop treating this all so seriously and just give yourself a reason, you idiot.”

“Don’t say that. I really don’t have a reason. Seeing the damage to Susaou made my grandfather’s dying words meaningless, and now I have a family.”

He recalled Sayama’s words from the day before.

…''He wants to properly face 2nd-Gear.

“They’re all so serious, so I think they deserve someone better than me.”

“Then quit.”

Atsuta took a breath and spat out more words.

“Just quit UCAT.”

Kashima thought for a while about Atsuta’s suggestion.

“That might be a good idea.”

“Wait.”

“Don’t give me that look, Atsuta. To be honest, for someone with my lack of guts, in my position, and with my thoughts, running away by dropping out might be easier.”

If he quit, he would not have to worry anymore. He would have no reason to hold on to it all anymore.

He suddenly thought about how his parents lived. Rather than choosing the path of a swordsmith, they had chosen farming. The only blades they held were kitchen knives and sickles.

Natsu felt bad about receiving vegetables from them, but it delighted them.

“Some people have more than one option. That’s just how it is.”

“And are you one of them, Kashima?”

“I don’t know, but I left the path of a swordsmith after that accident eight years ago. My hands never again held a chisel and I only provide adjustments to finished products using a keyboard.” Kashima lightly tapped his fingernails on the table. “It’s been eight years. I have not made a single Cowling Sword since then. If I have a chance to leave…”

“Are you saying that chance is now? Are you saying you’ll run just as you’ve been given the important role of Leviathan Road negotiator?”

“Yes, that’s what I’m saying.” He took a breath. “I can’t reveal anything. I can’t even tell my child about the weapons-making skills passed down by my ancestors. If I’m going to quit, now is the time. I can join Low-Gear and have a happy family. …I always wondered if I was a resident of Low-Gear or not, but my child won’t.”

“Then what are you gonna do about the truth of 2nd-Gear you mentioned before? Only your family knows about it.”

“I can pass it on to Director Tsukuyomi and leave the decision with her.”

He looked forward and saw Atsuta who was rising up from his chair a bit.

“Are you serious?”

“I’m not sure. I just went with the flow of the conversation. But this is tough.” His shoulders drooped. “I can’t seem to decide what I should do.”

Atsuta clicked his tongue and lowered back into his chair.

“You don’t really need a reason, y’know? I enjoy cutting people down for no reason.”

“Are you hoping to find someone who agrees with how your brain works?”

Kashima gave a bitter smile and Atsuta narrowed his eyes.

“Oh? You think I don’t have a reason to care about the Leviathan Road, do you?”

“I-it can’t be. …Do you?”

“Don’t act so surprised, you idiot. Yes, I do. It’s about a girl I’ve fallen for.”

“That classmate from your school days? That’s an odd connection. Well, I won’t pry, but it sounds like a personal grudge.”

“How is that not prying?”

With a look of annoyance, Atsuta slid over the pack of pickled vegetables.

“What? You don’t want it?”

“Idiot. I can’t eat the pickled vegetables of a woman who seduced a military god.”

“Ha ha ha. You’re jealous that I have such a great wife.”

“Do you ever listen…?” Atsuta spat out a “keh” and took a sip of coffee. “Gather your things and get lost, you loser. This is pathetic. Completely pathetic. The Kashima family of Takemikazuchi, 2nd-Gear’s greatest military god and swordsmith, is dropping out to be with his wife and kid? Have fun with your home life, dammit.”

“I’m amazed you can say this much about it.”

Atsuta clicked his tongue, leaned back, and looked up at the ceiling.

Kashima did not resent him. He felt he was a good friend to have around.

“I haven’t decided whether I will drop out or not. I just don’t have the energy to face the Leviathan Road. UCAT pays well and sticking with it will allow me to pay off my mortgage. …I’m just troubled because I don’t enjoy it at all.”

“Fine, fine.”

Atsuta straightened up and picked up his bowl. He grabbed the salt from the seasonings on the table and sprinkled some on the rice.

“Hey, Kashima.”

“What is it, Atsuta? And aren’t you putting too much salt on that?”

“You idiot, I need salt because I have low blood pressure. You didn’t know that?”

“First I’ve heard of it. Relative to you, the rest of humanity must have extremely low blood pressure.”

“If you’re gonna say that, I have something else to say. I’ll ask this in place of a parting gift: What is the truth of 2nd-Gear and Yamata’s question?”

“I will tell that to Director Tsukuyomi first.”

“Is it that important?”

“I don’t really know.” Kashima tilted his head. “My ancestors have been passing it down for generations, so we’ve kind of lost sight of the importance. And that’s apparently why Yamata didn’t trust my ancestor’s answer when 2nd-Gear was destroyed.”

“Then isn’t it useless now?”

“It’s still useful as a negotiating tool. Low-Gear wants to know it.” Kashima folded his arms and said something even he felt was unlike him. “Ooshiro Hiromasa found that word in exchange for his life. My grandfather resented him and that word made him suffer and swear complete submission to Low-Gear. …It must have value.” Kashima smiled bitterly and kept the smile on his face. “But it’s been sixty years. We’ve become too influenced by Low-Gear.”

Once he finished speaking, Atsuta stopped moving his chopsticks and gave an annoyed look.

Kashima wondered why for a moment, but then realized the answer.

…''Oh. I’m giving a strange smile, aren’t I?

His eyebrows were bent weakly and his head was lowered, but his smile remained.

As he wondered what that kind of smile was called, Atsuta’s voice prodded at his thoughts.

“Well, if the desire to quit doesn’t go away, stop by the design room’s third production room.”

“The third-…”

Kashima suddenly frowned.

The third production room was a forbidden room in the development department.

It had remained unopened since that night eight years ago.

“That’s where I sealed-…”

“You can’t say it? But you haven’t forgotten, have you? There’s something in there that can’t just be thrown out as oversized trash. The power you sealed away is in there.”

Kashima suddenly remembered.

Eight years ago, he had saved Natsu from the mud and carried her into the rescue vehicle.

Afterwards, while he was soaking wet from the rain, he had lifted something up from the mud without even wiping the blood from his fingers.

It was a sword frame that had broken in two.

…''I sealed it deep in the corporation bearing the name Izumo.

“Do you get it, Kashima? You sealed away what should’ve been given to me: the Cowling Sword Futsuno. Even while sealed, the residual fear it emits is enough to keep the newbies away.” He took a breath. “If you quit, get rid of it. It’s only polite.”

As the morning came to an end, Sayama and the others wore their school uniforms as they walked through the city.

They were on their way to the Tamiya household where Sayama had grown up.

Sayama, Ooki, and Shinjou Setsu led the way and other volunteers from their class followed.

They all held wooden panels, paint, metal pipes, or other materials.

Shinjou turned back toward line following them and spoke to Sayama.

“We’re skipping fourth period to build a festival stand at your mansion. This is kind of amazing.”

“Ooki-sensei did a splendid job of forgetting to order the materials. I have business in Tachikawa later, but I can help out until then. We have to get this stand built fast.”

That afternoon, he had the preliminary negotiations with 2nd-Gear in the concept space within Showa Memorial Park.

…''I wonder if that Kashima will show up.

As Sayama thought, he saw Ooki walking ahead of him.

She wore a blouse and was swinging her arms while humming a cheerful tune.

“Lunch at Sayama-kun’s place is sure to be magnificent!”

Shinjou poked at Sayama’s arm.

[[Image:OnC_v03_0359.png|thumb]]

“Sayama-kun, can’t you stop her from speaking her mind so honestly?”

“No. If it was possible, I would have done so last year. The results were less than satisfactory.”

“That must have been tough.”

Ooki suddenly turned around with a smile on her face.

“I wanted to go with the entire class, but I guess that isn’t going to happen. A lot of people are busy preparing the stands for their clubs or have part-time jobs. Harakawa-kun rode off on his motorcycle right away.”

Sayama glanced behind them and Shinjou followed his gaze while carrying a binder of loose leaf paper. About thirty students followed them.

“But about seventy percent of the class saw this as their top priority.”

Sayama saw Shinjou turn an impressed look toward Ooki. Ooki on the other hand looked troubled.

“Sorry, Sayama-kun. I actually wanted to solidify the bonds of our class with a cookout, a campout, or a marines-style training camp.”

“I will kindly ignore that last one, but you should not feel bad about using the Tamiya household instead.”

“I know. And your home knows the trick to creating a good festival stand.”

Shinjou tilted his head at that.

“I thought the Tamiya family ran a security company? Do they do construction too?”

“No, they just so happen to have a lot of specialists like that. Mr. Kim from China joined the company about four years ago and he is really good at building sturdy mobile stands.”

“Really?”

“Yes. The only problem is he likes to add bulletproof shields, GPS, and escape devices if you are not careful. …He takes it seriously, don’t you think? Ha ha ha.”

“I-I think he might be building something other than a festival stand.”

“But we won the award for best stand last year!” added Ooki.

“Yes. Thinning the armor paid off in the high-speed cruising. And by giving it electronic controls inside, a commander and driver could take on a great number of people on their own. It was quite powerful.”

“S-sorry, but what are we talking about here?”

“A crepe stand. Have you never seen one? They are quite common.”

“Oh? So stands that can fly are common?”

“Do not worry about it.”

Sayama patted Shinjou’s shoulder.

Shinjou looked up at him with a hint of dissatisfaction in his eyes.

But Sayama’s eyes were fixed on the binder Shinjou held in his arms.

Shinjou must have noticed what he was looking at because he held the binder tighter as if to protect it.

“U-um. I…uh…didn’t bring this so I could avoid helping prepare.”

“You did not want to let go of it, did you?”

That was a part of it, but Shinjou lowered his head and blushed.

“I finished the plot, so I wanted you to take a look at it. …Would that be a problem?”

“Why would it be a problem?”

“Well…” said Shinjou as he looked around.

Ooki had faced forward once more and was humming. The other students were speaking with their friends. No one was paying any attention to them.

Shinjou quickly moved closer and whispered so only Sayama could hear.

“I think you might figure it out if you read it.”

“Figure what out?”

Shinjou stopped walking for an instant.

He lowered his head and did not look toward Sayama.

And so Sayama asked another question.

“You mean I will figure something out if I read this plot, correct?”

“Y-yes.”

Shinjou raised his head, revealing his slightly reddened face.

And then…

“…”

Shinjou’s shoulders trembled and he wrapped his arms around his stomach.

As Shinjou seemed to shrink back, Sayama wrapped his arms around his back.

“Is something wrong?”

“N-no. I’m fine.”

Shinjou’s raised head showed a weak smile.

Shinjou checked to make sure no one was watching them and spoke.

“Th-this happens sometimes. About once a month, I get this feeling like my stomach is sinking down. …It hadn’t happened recently, but it just came now.”

“Hm. This is a touchy subject, so I will try to ask this tactfully: is it your period?”

“Has the meaning of the word ‘tactfully’ changed since I last checked?” Shinjou sighed. “Not to mention that I don’t have a period.”

From his expression as he spoke, Shinjou seemed to be fine now.

But when he finished speaking, his eyebrows lowered and Sayama was fairly certain he saw a disappointed look on his face.

At any rate, Sayama nodded.

“When we arrive at the Tamiya household, I will have Kouji prepare you a hot drink. Also, I think Ryouko has an excellent painkiller. You can take some.”

“Medicines don’t have much effect on me.”

“Not to worry. The Tamiya family’s secret original formula uses no chemical additives. According to Ryouko, half of the drug is made from ‘mercy’.”

“And is the other half made from ‘absolute seriousness’? Are you sure it’s okay?”

“Of course it is okay. I tried some once. The next thing I knew, three days had passed and I was surrounded by tons of people.”

“That isn’t okay at all!”

Shinjou sighed, lowered his shoulders, and looked forward.

Sayama faced forward as well.

The path opened up ahead of them and a large flat silhouette surrounded by a fence came into view.

That tile-roofed mansion with a large yard was the Tamiya household. Trees, large stones, and a pond were visible over the tall fence and the vast mansion sat in the center.

Shinjou sighed again and this time it was a mixture of relief and wonder.

He realized everyone had stopped walking and Ooki stood before the gate.

“Um… Oryaaah!”

She pushed on the gate, but it did not open.

Sayama and Shinjou watched on, wondering what she was planning to do. Ooki tilted her head and then clapped her hands together in realization. She knocked on the gate and let out a shout.

“I request an audience with the master of the house!”

“Ooki-sensei, what era do you think it is?”

“Eh? But the gate opened on its own when they said that on TV yesterday.”

“That was the TV drama version of Tsujigiri Samurai that began yesterday at eight. Can you not see the intercom next to the gate?”

“Oh, you’re right.” Ooki brought a finger to the intercom. “Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding, ding, ding… Sixteen in a row! …Ow ow ow ow ow! What kind of student hits their teacher’s head sixteen times in a row, Sayama-kun!?”

“Shut up. For the sake of mankind’s sanity, never touch that intercom again. Got it?”

As soon as he said that, Sayama sensed a presence to his right.

He felt the air move in toward the side of his non-dominant hand.

“I see you haven’t changed, Mikoto.”

Sayama heard a husky voice and all of a sudden found himself looking up at the blue sky.

He had been thrown through the air.

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume3 Chapter 11|Chapter 11]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume3 Chapter 13|Chapter 13]]
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Owari no Chronicle:Volume3 Chapter 6

2026-05-08T02:40:55Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 6: Former Admiration==
[[Image:OnC_v03_0147.png|thumb]]

''The world’s entrance is surprisingly close by

''Will you turn around or look upwards?

''The easiest boundary to accept is at your feet

When Ooshiro Itaru awoke, it was the afternoon.

Instead of his usual private room, he was on the roof of the UCAT building.

He had been sleeping in a cloth reclining chair and a blanket while below a large parasol.

Next to him was an astronomical telescope and…

“Sf, what are you doing with that notebook?”

“Tes. I am recording the heavenly bodies we saw last night.”

“Oh? I only remember showing you dark parts of the sky and saying ‘Look, dark matter’.”

He sat up and noticed Sf was filling the entire notebook page with the color black.

“Wait. Are you saying this was my fault?”

“This was what you wanted, Itaru-sama.”

Itaru brushed up his hair and placed a hand on the telescope.

“Wanna look at the stars during the day?”

“Tes. Thank you very much. Now I can use a different color of colored pencil.”

“What color are you going to use now?”

“Tes. Only the color blue.”

“So you think you can only see the sky, is that it? It’s time I taught this ill-tempered German machine that the stars do exist.”

Sf tilted her head in response.

“Are you sure you want to talk about the stars?”

“For me at least, they’re meaningless. But I have an interest in that kind of thing. Remember that.”

“Tes,” said Sf with a nod.

“Did anything happen since I fell asleep last night?” asked Itaru.

“According to the business division, Sayama-sama wishes to meet with the 2nd-Gear representative.”

“Ha. They haven’t even agreed to a mutual contract and he’s already here for a preliminary investigation? Any sign of him coming to me?”

“Tes, none at all. Kazami-sama and Izumo-sama arrived ahead of him and were let inside the Second Reference Room along with Sibyl-sama. I predict he will meet up with them.”

“I see,” said Itaru with a happy look. “He can dig up the past with his friends and trick himself into thinking he knows everything.” He gave a bitter smile. “2nd-Gear is a lot like us, but that means they won’t open up to us.”

Sayama walked through a corridor in UCAT along with Ooshiro.

He was on his way to a meeting with 2nd-Gear.

He had chosen to carry out the meeting alone because Kazami and the others were focused on inspecting documents.

“Most of the development department is asleep right now because they work through the night and the Leviathan Road representative has yet to arrive? It sounds like I will not be able to meet with them.”

Ooshiro nodded in response as they walked down the corridor.

“I can still introduce you to the director of the development department. And you need to experience 2nd-Gear’s concepts for yourself, don’t you?”

“True.”

They both created a loud footstep as they came to a stop.

They stood before the standard division’s first armory on UCAT’s second basement.

When the automatic door’s camera spotted Ooshiro, the door opened.

“Did you see that, Mikoto-kun? I’m a total VIP. You should show me more respect.”

“Wow, that’s amazing. …Is that enough?”

Ooshiro ignored him and stepped into the darkness before their eyes.

Sayama followed.

He heard a voice.

—'''Names provide power.

Sayama checked the red text scrolling across the watch on his left wrist.

He stared forward and saw that a dimly-lit storehouse had appeared at some point.

The ceiling emitted a bluish-white light and endless rows of steel shelves were covered in swords.

Countless swords were displayed while affixed to the shelves, scabbard and all.

“Listen. While in here, we gain power simply by having our names.”

“I see. Then what does Sayama give me?”

“Hmm… One theory says the name Sayama refers to a certain territory. Instead of giving you a special ability, it gives you the social status of owning that land. My name of Ooshiro means I am sturdy.<ref>Ooshiro means “great castle”.</ref>”

Ooshiro pulled a box cutter from his pocket.

He pressed it to his wrist and drew a line.

“See? Nothing happened.”

“Oh, now that is a surprise. But I am not sure I like the idea of an organization of which the leader walks around with a knife. Should I report you to the police? Also, old man, there is a flaw in your theory.”

Sayama took the box cutter from Ooshiro.

He immediately traced the blade along his own arm.

“Ahh! Mikoto-kun is going along with the latest fad!”

For some reason, Ooshiro raised his right thumb as he shouted out. Sayama showed him the right arm he had cut.

However, the arm was unharmed. The only mark was the slight redness of pressing something up against it.

“This box cutter is mass produced, so it has no inherent ‘name’.”

Sayama pulled a pen from his pocket and wrote the word “blade” on the knife blade.

“In 1st-Gear, this would have made it a blade.”

He did not hesitate to stab Ooshiro in the gut.

“Wahh! Wh-what are you doing, Mikoto-kun!?”

“Stop shouting. It only cut your clothes. It unfortunately did nothing to what lies within. Do I have to name it the ‘something-or-other knife’ for it to work? …This restriction is fairly strict.”

As he spoke, someone was staring at him with half-lidded eyes, but it was not Ooshiro.

He received a response from an amused female voice coming from further back in the armory.

“That’s more or less it. …You are a crazy person, bearer of the Leviathan Road.”

The voice held a bitter tone and Ooshiro scratched his head as he looked around.

“Hey, Director Tsukuyomi, could you come out to help us study 2nd-Gear?”

“Sure, but wait a moment. I need to put on some makeup with a young boy present.”

“Why bother?” asked Ooshiro.

As soon as he spoke, the old man flew backwards.

A sound of impact rang out.

''What was that?'' thought Sayama just as he spotted a light.

A bluish-white light had knocked Ooshiro beyond the automatic door.

However, it quickly disappeared.

“What was that?”

“Curious? You have excellent focus. Of course, that could cost you your life someday.”

The female voice suddenly came from quite nearby.

Sayama turned to the left and saw someone standing there.

An elderly woman in a lab coat stood in the dim light. Her narrowed eyes were turned toward him.

“You are here out of interest in 2nd-Gear, I take it?” She took a breath. “I am Tsukuyomi Shizuru, director of the development department. I will teach you a thing or two about 2nd-Gear’s concepts.”

The Second Reference Room was large.

Between two of the gray bookshelves on the white floor, Kazami wandered around with a few bundles of copy paper in her arms.

The sides of the lined up bookshelves gave the subject their documents were classified under.

“And the bookshelves covering the same subject are divided up by year and other subdivisions.”

Kazami was currently looking at the employee histories.

That was where she would find the data on the 2nd-Gear members working in UCAT.

The documents on the shelves were the master copies and a copier within the room was used to make copies that could be taken out.

However, some concept seemed to be in effect because some of the documents would have a portion blacked out on the copy.

“The truth lies in unseen places, hm?”

Also, it seemed there was some information they could read but would immediately forget and some they would interpret as entirely different text when they tried to read it.

Supposedly, a man had once snuck in to steal some income and expenditure reports, but when he arrived at home, he realized he had instead printed out twenty-six chapters’ worth of a story featuring a sick younger stepsister.

Kazami guessed that man had been Ooshiro.

“I get the feeling that would actually make more people want to sneak in… Anyway, you can’t take anything out at all unless you can alter its string vibration. And we only have permission to take out what we print onto the designated copy paper.”

…''I wonder if Sayama could find a hole in the concept’s rules and take out any information he wanted.

“He probably could…”

She smiled bitterly.

''That underclassman of ours can be a bit of a thief and he tends to let the ends justify the means,'' thought Kazami. ''But what if Shinjou was with him?

The Shinjou siblings acted as a stopper for Sayama’s eccentric actions.

Sadame had filled that role during the battle with 1st-Gear, but at school, Shinjou Setsu had often acted in Sayama’s place and warned or stopped him concerning his speech or actions.

Kazami did not know much about Shinjou.

She had first met Sadame when Team Leviathan had been put together and had first met Setsu during spring break. Before that, she had only heard that there was someone named Shinjou who UCAT was protective of.

The one thing Kazami really did not understand was why Sayama made no effort to look into who those siblings were despite having both by his side.

…''He must have some reason and he must be satisfied just having Shinjou with him.

Her relationship with Izumo was similar.

They knew each other’s families, but the details about the other’s parents were mostly unknowns.

They were okay with not knowing and that might have meant what they already had was enough.

“I don’t know, though,” muttered Kazami as she thought. “Even if you’re fine not knowing about the other, you still want them to know about you. And that desire grows stronger the closer the two of you get.”

…''And Shinjou’s secrets are probably larger than ours.

For those sheltered siblings, the desire had to be even stronger.

“But will Shinjou be able to reveal her secret?”

Kazami just hoped Shinjou would not feel guilty if she continued keeping quiet about this important secret.

As she thought, she heard Sibyl’s voice in the distance.

“Chisato-sama.”

Kazami shrugged and turned toward the bookshelf.

Unfortunately, she had yet to gather the documents she had been tasked with finding.

…''Sibyl is way too fast.

She had no intention of feeling bad about being slower than Sibyl, but it made her stomach ache how Sibyl continued to call out her name.

“Um, uh, Chisato-sama…”

“Yes, yes. Wait just a moment.”

''That doesn’t even buy me a minute,'' thought Kazami as she looked forward.

The employee histories were lined up before her by department.

She glanced along the filing numbers on the edge of the clear file folders holding the documents and reached for the file she wanted.

But Kazami suddenly noticed a certain fact.

“There’s…”

“A missing period, right?”

Kazami turned around when she heard Izumo’s voice to her right.

He had a ten centimeter stack of copied documents detailing the development of 2nd-Gear concept weapons, but he tilted his head as he looked at her.

Kazami looked first at the blank spot on the shelf and then at the documents in Izumo’s hands.

“There is a blank period…but what’s with those documents?”

“Oh, Sibyl helped me gather th-…ow ow! Why would you start kicking me out of the blue?”

“Shut up. Guys who take the easy way out will never be good for anything.”

Sibyl’s skill was amazing, though.

“She is a master of information. The name Sibyl is based on a goddess, right?”

“Yes, Cybele. I wonder who named her that.”

“It was probably someone connected to UCAT, but I couldn’t say who.”

“Chisato-sama!”

“Oh, sorry. I ran into a distraction, so wait just a bit longer.”

“A distraction?”

“A terrible distraction. …Kaku, why do you look so upset?”

Despite Izumo’s expression, Sibyl called out again.

“Chisato-sama, how about I help you search?”

''Now there’s a good idea,'' thought Kazami. She almost agreed but swallowed the words. ''No, no. We asked her to help, so I can’t have her help any more than this.

Sibyl was always bringing tea and snacks during training.

In fact, Kazami had a feeling she would occasionally bring them bentos too. Bentos Kazami had taught her how to make.

…''Not good. She’s surpassing me and I never noticed until now. What do I do?

“Chisato, you look really conflicted, but some things are easier if you just give in.”

“Shut up. That comment settles it.”

''That’s right. I can’t rely on her. I need to stubbornly refuse her,'' she thought.

“I’m on my way,” said Sibyl.

Kazami’s shoulders drooped and she looked up at the ceiling.

''Dammit,'' she thought as Izumo spoke up next to her.

“Sibyl’s the type to not think too much about our feelings. But now you’ve been dragged into the same world of laziness as me. Wa ha ha! Give in to the laziness beam and just laze around until you die.”

“I’ll ignore that, but was it the same when she ended up helping you?”

“She walked up next to me and began pulling out all the documents I was after and piled them up with a smile. There was nothing I could do.”

“Sibyl really likes helping people, doesn’t she?”

“The scary part is how it’s like an indiscriminate bombing. Some people hate that kind of thing and there are some things people have to do themselves, so try to drag her away at times like that.”

“Sure,” said Kazami. “But, Kaku, what’s the deal with that blank period?”

“From the few bookshelves I saw, there are some shelves that really are empty. There’s nothing but a few abandoned documents remaining. I wonder if there’s a Third Reference Room where the really important stuff is-…”

“It was not moved anywhere like that,” said Sibyl as she walked up from behind.

Kazami turned around and saw Sibyl circle around a bookshelf while her high heels produced loud footsteps.

“Judging by the maintenance department’s concept space facility maintenance records, UCAT has no other concept space of this same type,” continued Sibyl. “I looked through most of the shelves and it seems the blank period exists here in the Second Reference Room as well.”

“As well?”

“Testament. UCAT has a past that is kept hidden from everyone.”

In the dim armory, a scarlet light appeared before Sayama’s eyes.

The light came from the sword in Tsukuyomi’s hand. The matte black blade was spewing red flames.

She turned toward him with a confident look.

“This is a piece of equipment used by the standard division. It is a Cowling Sword named Hinokagutsuchi. With a philosopher’s stone, it can produce high enough heat to cut through metal. In this concept space, its name gives it the ability to shoot out fire.”

“Can you control that fire?”

“Someone with the name of a sword god or someone with great skill would likely be able to.”

Tsukuyomi showed him the blade. The fire it produced illuminated the name “Ichiroumaru”.

“We number them like this so it’s still a name.”<ref>The name Ichiroumaru can be interpreted as the number 160.</ref>

“That is very thorough. But isn’t it inconvenient to call in power using names? Compared to 1st-Gear’s writing concept, it seems a lot more restrictive.”

“Didn’t 1st-Gear’s lack of restrictions prevent them from leaving behind many written records?” Tsukuyomi gave a bitter smile and returned the sword to its scabbard. “In 2nd-Gear, the bearer of power was determined properly. The different powers were controlled by those who possessed them and were used to their fullest when released. 2nd-Gear was a Gear of specialization in skills and ability.”

“Then 2nd-Gear’s representative for the Leviathan Road is…?”

“Yes, a man with great power. Kashima Akio is 2nd-Gear’s greatest military god and swordsmith.”

“He will negotiate with me?” asked Sayama before asking another question that floated up in his chest. “Did you make a military god your representative because you expect the Leviathan Road to involve combat?”

“It is a distinct possibility, isn’t it?” Tsukuyomi’s expression changed. The ends of her eyebrows lowered and she looked up with a troubled expression. “But it may not happen. I just hope he can face the Leviathan Road seriously.”

“Does he feel no desire to negotiate because 2nd-Gear is already on the same level as Low-Gear?”

To test the waters, Sayama threw out the question he and the others had raised earlier.

However, Tsukuyomi did not give him an answer.

“Kashima has his reasons. But that is exactly why I chose him. Sayama-kun? Do you have some time?”

“I intend to train with my comrades and exchange information on 2nd-Gear. Afterwards, I plan to tell the old man you knocked outside whether I would begin the Leviathan Road with 2nd-Gear or not.”

“I see. Then there is no need to hurry. But it would be best if you met Kashima soon. If you do, you should be able to face the question you have about 2nd-Gear.”

Sayama replied to the slight smile in her voice.

“Director Tsukuyomi, may I ask you one thing about that question?”

“What is it?”

Before he spoke, Sayama thought back once more to what Ooki had said.

“The people of 2nd-Gear are supposedly little different from the people of this world. But what do you think? Have you and the others been fully naturalized to Low-Gear?”

“Well.” Tsukuyomi thought for a beat while returning the sword to the shelf. “Those of us who do not know about 2nd-Gear and know nothing of concepts likely have no doubts they belong here. My daughter is like that.”

“I see. Are you saying you and the others here are different?”

“Hm, I don’t know. Everyone is different. We have a certain power, but we all view that differently. Personally, I have no intention of passing that power on to my daughter, but I still think it is useful.”

Tsukuyomi then added another answer to her statement.

And the smile on her lips deepened as she did so.

“How about you learn firsthand just how useful the power of 2nd-Gear’s ‘names’ is?”

Tsukuyomi snapped the fingers of her right hand.

In the next moment, Sayama sensed something coming from overhead.

He looked up and saw light. It was the beam of bluish-white light that had knocked Ooshiro away earlier.

Sayama took a defensive stance against the falling light and he heard Tsukuyomi speak.

“The name Tsukuyomi means to ‘read the moon’, so it lets me control moonlight. The dim light here is modeled after a moonlit environment, so the light here is my ally. This is the power of the name belonging to 2nd-Gear’s former imperial family.”

Meanwhile, the light arrived.

Sayama moved on reflex. He moved back to distance himself from Tsukuyomi. However…

“The light…”

The light should have fallen to the floor, but it suddenly bent and curved.

The light shot by across the ground and jumped up toward Sayama’s stomach.

Sayama stood in the narrow area between shelves, so he could not evade.

Tsukuyomi stopped smiling and spoke.

“If you make it through this, I will admit you understand a bit about us. And if you do, I will show you a certain technique as a reward.” She took a breath. “It is an anti-foreign world combat technique we can use without relying on the concepts of our Gear.”

Sibyl spoke to Kazami and Izumo in front of the rows of document shelves.

“A portion of the documents have been removed from the freely available First Reference Room as well. The period seems to span from 1985 to about 1995. Half of ’96 is missing as well.”

Kazami recognized one of those years.

“So it’s the ten years leading up to ’95 when this Gear’s negative concepts began to activate?”

“Testament. It is the ten years leading up to the great Kansai earthquake. …I am sure you have heard that information on UCAT was nearly exposed when we lost so many people in that earthquake. To avoid inspections and whistleblowers, the documents were destroyed. Some people refer to it as UCAT’s blank period.”

“So they decided it was safer for the important documents to not even exist, is that it? It is true the security here is ridiculously tight.”

“Is it?” asked Kazami with a hint of uncertainty.

“Yeah,” said Izumo with a nod. “I was looking at a porn magazine I found with the confiscated documents and none of the contents would reach my brain properly.”

“…Could you stop talking about that kind of nonsense so seriously?”

“Chisato-sama, that is just who Izumo-sama is. I would be more surprised if he said something worthwhile.”

“Hey, you two? Are you denying something about me?”

The other two ignored Izumo’s refreshing statement.

“Anyway, Sibyl, thanks for the help. …We really gathered a lot.”

“You are going in to train next, right? I will organize it all by the time you are done.”

“Thanks,” said Kazami again before sighing. “Sibyl, even ignoring the blank period, there’s still a great divide between us and the higher ups. Both Sayama and Kaku’s grandfathers died before they could learn about them.” She turned toward Izumo. “And he couldn’t find any documents on his father.”

“…I wasn’t looking for anything about him.”

“Fine, fine. If you say so. I saw you wandering around on your own, though.”

Kazami stroked his head as he glared at her and then she took a document from him.

The copied document described 2nd-Gear’s past concept weapon development.

She read the top of the fairly old-looking paper.

“A god of war?”

Printed at the top of the A4 piece of paper was the title Overall Diagram of the Humanoid Machine.

Sibyl peered over Kazami’s shoulder at the blurry lines of the paper.

“That is a very unrefined design. It is not a direct descendant of the ones from 3rd.”

“Well, it’s really old. Look, it says 1945…”

Kazami gasped when she realized what her own words meant.

“That’s the year Japanese UCAT was founded!”

Sayama took a certain action as the moonlight attack approached.

He looked up at the line of bluish-white lights on the ceiling.

Those lights produced the “moonlight”.

After checking on the faint lights filling the armory, Sayama faced forward.

Tsukuyomi looked a bit surprised.

“You plan to receive the attack? It’ll blow you away!”

“I will not let it!”

Sayama stared at the beam of light that was just about to strike him.

And he swung up his left arm.

With that single motion, he removed his coat and transferred Baku from the coat pocket to his head.

“If this is moonlight…”

Sayama placed the coat over his head as the beam of light approached from the front.

It all happened in an instant.

“If the moonlight is cut off from the moon, it cannot reach me!”

When the coat cut the beam off from the lights on the ceiling, it visibly weakened.

At the same time, Sayama kicked the moonlight up into the bundled-up coat.

The sound of the strike resembled a splash.

Particles of moonlight scattered from below the coat.

And finally, the light disappeared.

The coat fell to the ground, but Sayama left it there and continued moving.

He took another step toward Tsukuyomi.

…''Show me 2nd-Gear’s anti-foreign world combat technique!

He stepped forward with his left foot and threw a kick with his right. He aimed low down at her feet so it would be difficult to avoid.

He did not hold back because his opponent was a woman or because she was elderly.

“That is what it means to fight.”

Sayama kicked.

In the next instant, an unthinkable change occurred.

Tsukuyomi disappeared from before his eyes.

“!?”

His foot flew through empty air and he took a defensive stance.

Wondering where she was, he began to turn around.

“A negotiator should not drop his coat.”

Hearing that voice behind him, he hastened his turn. He found his coat held out toward him.

He slowly took it from Tsukuyomi who was holding it.

Based on the timing with which she had held out the coat, Sayama calculated the time it took her to move there.

“After I threw my kick and lost sight of you, you walked behind me and picked up the coat?”

During that time, she had vanished from his sight.

''What happened?'' he wondered while Tsukuyomi showed a bitter smile.

“Mysterious, isn’t it? 2nd-Gear developed techniques like this that we can use without concepts. That way we can win no matter when someone wants a fight,” she said while looking extremely pleased. “You will be looking into our past now, right? I hope you can bring us an excellent negotiation afterwards.”

Kazami looked at the humanoid machine drawn on the diagram in her hand.

It was a metal giant that seemed to be made by connecting together the bodies of warships using giant cylinders and bolts. The torso was a simple T-shape, but the arms and legs were very thick just like a toy.

Even the modern gods of war UCAT had started sending out into battle more closely resembled humans than this.

“The Yamata Sealing Humanoid Machine named ‘Susaou’. Jointly developed between Low and 2nd. …The central format is listed as Mikage format?”

Kazami thought she heard Sibyl gasp at the word “Mikage”.

However, Kazami did not ask about it. If Sibyl wanted to talk about it, she would.

She gave a bitter internal smile and continued looking through the blurry words of the copy.

How advanced a machine could they have made when Japanese UCAT was first established?

“The project to construct it was proposed March 12, 1945 and completed August of the following year. So they started this about half a year before the end of the war. …I’m amazed they could do that while Japan was undergoing tons of air-raids.”

“It was developed along with 2nd-Gear, so it most likely works under 2nd-Gear’s concepts rather than those of 3rd-Gear, the world of gods of war. That must be why it is called a ‘humanoid machine’ instead of a god of war.”

“I see.”

Kazami nodded and checked the measurements given around Susaou. She read off the blurry writing.

“Crew size: approximately 200 people. Total height: approximately 500…”

She trailed off. Her head was unable to keep up with what she read.

“…What is this? A height of approximately 500 rice? Like, five hundred grains of rice?”

“No, Chisato-sama. That means five hundred meters. Meter used to be written with the character for rice.”

“Um, Sibyl. Even in a concept space, that’s too big to be real.”

“But these documents mean it is real,” said Izumo. He took a breath and met her gaze. “Are your thoughts bound by common sense by any chance?”

“O-of course they are.”

“Well, this huge thing exists somewhere in Tokyo along with Yamata. And there’s something even more surprising on that copy.”

Izumo moved in closer to her and pointed at one line on the copy.

It listed the names of Susaou’s captain and second in command.

“The captain was Ooshiro Hiromasa and the second command was Kashima. …Do you see the UCAT connection now?”

“I don’t recognize the name Kashima, but Ooshiro…”

“That’s right. …It’s all connected between sixty years ago and today.”

<noinclude>

===Notes===
<references/>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume3 Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume3 Chapter 7|Chapter 7]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 19

2026-05-07T01:11:56Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 19: Prematurity of Thoughts==
[[Image:OnC_v02_0143.png|thumb]]
''What is the difference between being hasty and acting quickly?

''The answer is incredibly simple

''It is decided by whether the outcome is successful or not

The preliminary negotiations with Fasolt began with a check of the initial assumptions.

“At the moment, there is no sign of the City faction joining us. The negotiations will primarily relate to the Royal Palace faction joining. These negotiations are the preliminary preparations for the Leviathan Road.”

From there, Fasolt informed Sayama of a few matters:

UCAT had asked that Fasolt remains 1st-Gear’s representative, UCAT special division security guards would be maintaining a presence in the reservation for a temporary period of time after the Royal Palace faction arrived, and due to cultural similarities, the reservation would prefer if those guards were sent in from German UCAT.

Sayama replied that he understood, Shinjou nodded, and Ooshiro typed it up on his keyboard to keep records.

Once the initial assumptions had been clarified, Fasolt said, “The day after tomorrow, 167 members of the Royal Palace faction will be arriving here. It is impossible for us to secure enough arable land for all of them.”

“Are you asking for an expansion to the concept space creating the reservation?”

Fasolt did not nod. Sayama turned to Ooshiro.

“What would happen if it was expanded?”

“It already covers a radius of one kilometer. If the radius was expanded by one hundred meters, the area would increase by twenty-one percent. …It is a simple calculation, but you understand what it means to increase their yearly budget by twenty percent, right? We already put ten digits worth of budget a year into maintaining this place.”

“I see.” Sayama turned back toward Fasolt and said, “Just because the Royal Palace faction is joining you, I cannot approve merely expanding the reservation.”

“Why not?”

“You mentioned before that there is a process for naturalization. That means you try not to bring in anyone who can survive outside of 1st-Gear’s concepts, correct?”

“Yes.”

“That means we need to go over the list of those arriving and see how many belong to races that can be naturalized. We can build temporary lodging for those who can be naturalized, temporarily prioritize food distribution, and build houses for and expand the fields for those who will be ultimately staying. I think we can hold new negotiations over the land issue once you know how many will be staying.” Sayama gave a bitter smile. “But I think you knew all this. That is why you said what you said: ‘It is impossible for us to secure enough arable land for all of them.’ And that is why you did not answer my question, isn’t it?”

After a short silence, Fasolt laughed from deep in his throat.

“Yes. I did no more than tell the truth, Sayama Mikoto. You are the one that misinterpreted, boy.”

Sayama smiled and Shinjou let out a sigh next to him.

''Something is beginning,'' thought Sayama.

He quickly began to calculate out what he and his opponent had at their disposal.

Via UCAT, Sayama had the authority to do whatever he wanted with the concept space. However, if he used that authority, he would be distancing 1st-Gear’s cooperation in the Leviathan Road.

On the other hand, his opponent had a past Sayama was unaware of and could make demands from the position of a victim. When he used the sudden arrival of the Royal Palace faction as a shield, Sayama had difficulty telling the truth of his demands because too much was unknown.

…''At any rate, he will be making demands.

He would give some reason for making a demand no matter how ridiculous. If Sayama misjudged the situation and accepted it, his opponent would profit.

Possessing a kind heart would be a disadvantage here.

Sayama trusted his prediction that the negotiations had already begun.

He took a breath, pulled a handkerchief out of his breast pocket, and wiped his brow.

Fasolt watched Sayama.

In one hand, the boy was folding the handkerchief he had pulled from his breast pocket.

Fasolt looked up and found the sun was at its highest point.

“It really is hot,” said Sayama as if informing Fasolt who was looking up into the sky.

“Yes, it is,” agreed Fasolt before lowering his gaze.

''He is very young,'' thought Fasolt about Sayama who was looking directly at him.

Fasolt thought back to the previous conversation. The boy had responded properly to his slight test and he had seen through Fasolt’s intentions. Even the standard UCAT negotiators could do the same. It was an issue of paying attention.

But this boy had intentionally pretended to be mistaken and had thought up an actual means of handling the situation, even if only a superficial one.

His solution had been incomplete, but it was the specialists’ job to finish it off.

For a leader, what truly mattered was negotiating without making any mistakes and deciding on a general course of action.

Fasolt had yet to fully make up his mind about Sayama.

Sayama looked up toward the sun high in the sky and began to remove his coat.

He roughly gathered the sleeves, folded it so the front was visible, and handed it to Shinjou next to him.

As soon as he did, Shinjou’s eyes opened wide and she whispered to Sayama.

“Wh-what are you saying? I c-can’t do that…”

Shinjou looked over at Fasolt. She then frantically adjusted her position and held Sayama’s coat.

With a slightly disappointed look, Sayama returned to his proper position. He wiped his brow with his handkerchief and placed it in the pocket on his shirt. The handkerchief stuck out from the shirt a bit.

Nevertheless, Sayama turned toward Fasolt.

Next to him, Shinjou continually glanced over at him, but Sayama did not seem to notice.

Fasolt then looked over at the coat Shinjou was holding. Its breast pocket was turned toward him.

Fasolt thought about the boy before his eyes. ''He really is young,'' he concluded before making his next move.

Sayama heard Fasolt speak.

“Our demands are quite simple, Sayama Mikoto. We want you to hand over Siegfried, the holy sword Gram, and the Concept Core held within the sword. Until then, we will not give you the right to use 1st-Gear’s Concept Core and we will not help persuade the City faction.”

“What?”

Fasolt did not even acknowledge his question.

“After the Concept War, this reservation agreed to cooperate with UCAT, but we agreed to nothing concerning the Leviathan Road. That is why we demand that we begin anew here. Hand over the war criminal. If you promise that, the Royal Palace faction and the City faction will both fall in line with the peaceful faction. We will make sure they do.”

“And you want us to hand over Gram and the Concept Core inside it?”

“I think it will be necessary to convince the City faction, but what do you think? Even if we persuade them to join with us, I doubt they will do what we say if we have not been granted some power.”

Sayama remained silent. Fasolt watched him as he sat silently.

“Just to be clear, threatening to remove this concept space to aid your negotiations will gain you nothing.”

Sayama did not say he would not do so. If he had to, he would. Fasolt had warned it would gain him nothing, but those were nothing but words. It was impossible to know what would happen if he actually did it.

However, that was a last resort. Using it would end the relationship between them.

Sayama took a breath.

“Could you stop testing me? Unnecessary statements could hinder our negotiations,” he said.

“Saying many things in quick succession is the special characteristic of a storyteller.”

The dragon gave no apology. That gave Sayama an odd sense of relief.

His opponent was a proud person. That may have been a common characteristic of 1st-Gear. No matter how far they lowered themselves and no matter what means they chose to use, they would always give precedence to their self-respect.

…''They are obstinate and direct.

They were easy to handle as allies, but impossible to avoid as an enemy.

With that in mind, Sayama once more pulled the handkerchief from his breast pocket.

He wiped his brow and Shinjou’s shoulders jumped slightly next to him.

At the same time, Fasolt looked over at Shinjou.

“There is nothing to be afraid of. As Ooshiro said, you can take it easy.”

“Oh, right,” said Shinjou as she slightly relaxed her legs which had been strictly kept in the seiza position.

As soon as she did, Fasolt’s hand moved.

“Ah,” gasped Shinjou, but Fasolt had already snatched the coat from her lap.

“This is a nice coat. Do you mind if I take a look at it?”

As Fasolt asked his question, an object fell from the suit coat in his hand.

Sayama clearly saw the cell phone drop. It was able to record audio.

“Whoops,” said Fasolt as he grabbed it in midair.

And with a clear noise, he crushed the cell phone in his hand.

“Oh, my mistake. I give you my personal apology. However.” Fasolt returned the suit coat to Shinjou and held up the remains of the cell phone in his other hand. “This was not running by any chance, was it? You were not so concerned about me that you felt the need to give a sign to have me filmed from the side, were you?”

Fasolt saw Sayama’s expression change twice in response to his words. It changed from tense to harsh and then from harsh to joyful. Fasolt’s thoughts raced as he saw those changes.

…''Did he notice my trick?

When Fasolt had watched over the autopsy of the werewolf that had committed suicide the day before yesterday, he had inspected Sayama’s possessions. And knowing that Sayama would be his opponent in the negotiations, he had thought up a certain trick.

He had switched on the digital recorder to drain the battery and had left the cell phone untouched. If Sayama brought the two items to the negotiations, he would need to use the cell phone to record any proof of what was said.

However, the cell phone’s microphone was weak, so it and the built-in camera would have to be on the surface.

Locating Sayama’s hiding spot for it had not been difficult. The camera had been sticking a bit out of his coat pocket.

Fasolt was certain the boy had been recording him. He had seen the small exchange between Sayama and Shinjou and he had seen Shinjou’s movements.

''Such awkward teamwork,'' thought Fasolt.

That was why he had grabbed the coat and smashed the cell phone.

Sayama’s use of the cell phone was proof that he had viewed the negotiations as dangerous and had wanted to secretly leave some proof behind. Taking that from him and destroying it while also warning him would inflict inescapable pressure on the boy.

Sayama was currently looking at the smashed cell phone.

“I do not believe I had it running,” he said with his head down as if trying to recall.

''Liar,'' thought Fasolt with a bitter smile in his heart.

As Fasolt watched, Sayama turned to Ooshiro to his left.

“Not that it matters. The old man here will handle recording what is said.”

Fasolt followed Sayama’s gaze and watched Ooshiro typing.

He nodded and said, “Unfortunately, Ooshiro’s records will not pass as proof.”

“Wh-why not?” asked Shinjou as she held the coat.

Fasolt nodded and replied, “That data can be easily altered. That is why I want to resolve these negotiations right here like this.”

Fasolt pulled a sheet of canvas from the inside pocket of his vest.

It was covered with the writing of 1st-Gear. Sayama would be able to read it because an image of the meaning took priority here.

It was a contract saying UCAT would accept the reservation’s demands. Below the agreement was a five centimeter underline.

Once he saw Sayama’s gaze stop on the underline, Fasolt spoke in a tone that held a slight smile.

“You will stamp your seal there. …You have your seal with you, don’t you? It is with the digital recorder with the dead battery.”

Shinjou embraced Sayama’s coat. She squeezed it between her arms.

And she glanced over at Sayama next to her.

''What will he do now?'' she wondered. ''Is there anything he can do?

As she watched on, Sayama stared expressionlessly at the contract.

He then suddenly moved. He pulled his handkerchief from his breast pocket with his right hand and lightly shook his wrist.

He looked at Fasolt and said, “So you saw through it. Yes, the battery is indeed dead. In that case, I no longer need it.”

He produced a digital recorder from the handkerchief. The power light was off which indicated it was not running. However, he was not looking at the recorder. He was looking at the broken cell phone that had fallen to the ground.

“I was planning to record any promises you made to perhaps later change our demands.”

Sayama sighed and took his seal case out of his pocket using his free left hand.

He placed the digital recorder and handkerchief next to him and placed the seal before him.

“But I am not yet ready to stamp my seal,” he said.

“Are you saying you will eventually do so?”

Sayama gave no response.

He remained silent and his face held no expression.

Faced with this, Fasolt froze in place.

Shinjou gulped lightly at seeing this silence and expressionlessness from Sayama for the first time. However…

“…”

His pulse was calm.

''Why is that?'' she wondered.

She felt as if she had seen him like this before.

When had it been?

She searched through her memories and arrived at a certain moment in the past.

The night before last, when he had stood before her and beyond the werewolf.

''What happened after that moment?'' she thought.

She thought back. In that moment, Sayama had stepped forward and spoken to their enemy. He had provoked the enemy. And now…

“You should learn that those who trust in writing can be betrayed by writing.” Sayama lightly raised his right hand. “Let me be clear up front: I cannot agree to any one of the demands you have given.”

“Then what will you say when you see this?”

Fasolt pulled a thick book from his vest and held it so Shinjou and the others could see.

It was a hardcover book made of canvas sheets and cloth. Shinjou had seen it before.

“That’s the book the knight had yesterday.”

“Yes. It is an investigation report on the destruction of our Wotan Kingdom. Volunteers from the Royal Palace faction visited both the peaceful faction and the City faction to gather the records to create it. These records could only have been made by the Royal Palace faction that sat in the middle. Neither we nor the City faction could have made it.”

Sayama took the investigation report and opened it.

Shinjou peered at its contents from the side. It listed a calculation of the total amount of destruction while using spelling that avoided any dangerous terminology. Each time Sayama turned the page, Shinjou could sense the image of the destruction detailed within.

Arton Central Street was smashed along with the decorations for the festival in the small park: thirty-eight dead.

Ethos District 3 contained a wooden school, but it was crushed along with the people who had taken refuge inside: ninety-one dead.

The evacuation warning never reached the third redevelopment sector and the pioneer village was eliminated without knowing what was happening: forty-six dead.

In addition, there was damage to houses in several sectors or out in nature, the loss of assets and livestock, and a calculated value of the land lost. It was all calculated out to reach a final sum for the damages.

“Once converted to the currency of philosopher’s stones, UCAT must maintain this reservation for seven thousand twenty-two years. We have lived here for sixty years, so that still leaves six thousand nine hundred sixty-two years. Exchanging that debt for one man and a sword sounds like a bargain to me.”

''That’s absurd,'' thought Shinjou with a gulp.

She slowly looked over at Sayama so Fasolt would not notice her internal panic. She found Sayama as expressionless and silent as before.

''What will he do now?'' she thought.

And she had another thought.

She recalled what Fasolt had said when he had destroyed the cell phone:

You felt the need to give a sign to have me filmed from the side.

She did not know what he had meant by that. She had not been given that role.

But even if she did not understand, Shinjou knew that everything was advancing. And she knew that Sayama likely had some plan.

Sayama looked at Fasolt.

Fasolt had been looking at him for a while now. With that in mind, he spoke.

“Giving concrete value to people’s lives is something else I am not willing to do.”

“If doing so is necessary for a negotiation, we will choose that as our weapon.”

“And so you are demanding a human life in the place of money?”

“Demanding? No. My role here is to present you with possibilities. Your role here is to choose, Sayama Mikoto. I have presented you with a means of paying reparations for the damages. You are the one that chooses whether you will pay for your ancestors’ mistakes with seven thousand years of expenses or by handing over that man and Gram.”

“And if I handed them over, I would be putting a price on a human life?”

“Yes, if you did. We would have prepared a different path, but you would have chosen that path because you could not pay. It would not hurt us in any way.”

Sayama thought. According to Ooshiro, it was impossible to even increase the reservation’s yearly maintenance expenses by twenty percent. That meant it was beyond impossible to pay off the seven thousand years’ worth of debt right away. And that was why he asked the next question.

“Are Siegfried and Gram really that valuable?”

“They are.”

“I see.” Sayama picked up the contract and the seal case in front of them. “Shinjou-kun, hand me a pen from my coat’s breast pocket.”

“Oh, right.”

Shinjou took a silver ballpoint pen from the pocket and handed it over.

Sayama flipped over the contract and wrote something while using the cover of the investigation report as a desk. He stamped what he wrote with the seal he took from the case and then placed the contract in front of Fasolt.

“If you want something of such great value, then how about we resolve everything like this?”

Everyone looked at the back of the contract.

Shinjou gulped, Fasolt clenched his hands, and Ooshiro smiled bitterly.

Sayama read what he had written on the back of the contract.

“Seven thousand years shall be added to the current seven thousand year debt. In exchange, we shall buy the half-dragon Fasolt and all of his rights. …That should be fine with anyone who will give monetary value to people’s lives.”

“You will buy your negotiating opponent!?” cried Fasolt.

A wind blew through and disturbed Sayama’s hair, but he ignored it and spoke.

“If doing so is necessary for a negotiation, we will choose that as our weapon. Those are your words. And I believe we had agreed to that view. …You asked me to sell someone’s life if I could not pay.” He gave a bitter smile. “But that also means I can buy someone’s life if I can pay.”

“…”

“We will pay what is needed. It does not matter how many years it takes, who might suffer, or even if you refuse us. So let me say this: you may think you all have pride, but you only have the spirit of poor slaves.”

“Slaves? Now you’ve said it, you aboriginal.”

“Aboriginal? We certainly have evolved. I miss the days when we were called yellow monkeys.” Sayama’s bitter smile deepened. “Fasolt, let me tell what kind of race we are. We are the Japanese, the ‘economic animals’. We have nothing to fear when it comes to money. A debt? We just need to save up. The government? It runs on money. A grudge? That is just a bias of the poor. Now, Fasolt, for fourteen thousand years of peace for your comrades, you will be ours. And let me say this: you will physically remain with 1st-Gear, but as our possession,” he nodded, “you will withdraw all of your demands. No need to lower your head. You are our comrade now that we bought you. We have the right to do this. You are the one that brought up buying people’s lives, something we had never done before.”

At that point, Sayama threw the investigation report to the ground.

“This is absurd, Fasolt.” He took a breath. “What is this investigation report? It may have some truth to it, but how much of it is truth? If you are going to carry out an investigation, have a third party do so or at least do so while we are present. Otherwise, this is nothing more than reference material. …Is presenting unreliable material at the negotiating table the 1st-Gear’s way of doing things!?”

Fasolt responded to the last part more than anything else.

The creaking of his fangs could be heard from his clenched mouth.

But that was as much of Fasolt’s power as was seen.

He slowly reached out a hand and picked the book up from the ground. He let out a long sigh.

“It is true this contains a fair bit of personal opinion for an investigation report. But are you really going to use the lack of records from this conversation to say such abusive things?”

Sayama turned a smile in Fasolt’s direction.

“Abusive? That was a rebuke over how useless your investigation report is. …I was trying to say that your actions were showing contempt for the value of 1st-Gear. If you misinterpreted me, I apologize.”

“No need.” Fasolt drew back and held the book to his chest. He spoke once more after suppressing the anger in his voice. “Either way, we will not give you the right to use the Concept Core unless you accept our demands. …How do you intend to gain that right from me?”

Sayama glanced around. The nearby houses had their windows open because it was a sunny day, so he could see inside. Inside the shadowy houses, he could tell the items within were a bit different from those he was used to. Every house had bare walls and they grew flowers.

Sayama was searching for ''a certain object'' within those houses.

But from what he could see at a distance, it was not there. It was a completely normal object in his world, but it was absent here.

…''It could be easily brought in from outside, but there is none here.

The possible reasons for this were simple. It may never have existed in 1st-Gear and was not needed, or UCAT feared letting 1st-Gear have it and so refused to do so.

It was one of those or possibly both.

Once he realized that, another fact came to Sayama. He realized the true purpose behind the negotiation.

“…”

He silently relaxed. He cooled his head that had begun to grow serious.

''If I am right about the true purpose of this negotiation,'' thought Sayama, ''trying to crush Fasolt would not be the best strategy.

And that was why Sayama said what he did next. He breathed out, breathed in, and then spoke in a calm voice.

“Instead of Siegfried and the holy sword Gram, we will provide you with technology equivalent to seven thousand years’ worth of budget or allow you to use said technology.”

“Technology equivalent to seven thousand years’ worth of budget?” asked Fasolt before laughing from the throat. “What do you mean by that? We already sustain ourselves. Is there any technology we could possibly want and is there any technology Low-Gear could possibly provide us with?”

“There is.”

“And what is it?’

Sayama thought and said, “It can be used as a weapon. It can be used as culture and civilization. It can be power and it can become anything in existence.”

“Hah! How amusing! We in 1st-Gear live with the power of writing, so what more culture and civilization do we need!? And with our mechanical dragons, why would we need weapons?” Fasolt strongly held the hardcover book against his chest. “Tell me, Sayama Mikoto. What is this technology you think we would exchange our Concept Core for? What is this technology that UCAT has been keeping from us?”

Sayama nodded and spoke a single word.

“Paper.”

Fasolt almost dropped the book he was holding to his chest.

“Why would you think we need-…?”

“All of your writing is on parchment or canvas. And I do not see any bookshelves in these 1st-Gear houses. Paper is a necessary item to bring a society past a certain point, but it is being restricted here in some way. That is why I thought I could use the removal of that restriction as a bargaining chip.”

Fasolt understood what Sayama meant.

In 1st-Gear, writing held power, so spelling something out held the possibility of danger. Needless to say, creating that writing in the proper form to create power was difficult and it was nothing but scribbles if done wrong.

However, nothing was as frightening as an unlikely accident.

That was why a storyteller like Fasolt passed down writing in the form of sound and most records were kept using symbols that were difficult to call writing. The writing in the investigation report had been carefully chosen so it would provide the proper images yet not have actual power.

Due to the conditions of their world, writing technology had not advanced. Most of the tools that could easily write had been in the control of the royal family and very few were produced.

As a storyteller, he knew very well that 1st-Gear’s culture was built around that.

But he had to wonder what would happen if that assumption was removed.

The boy before him spoke.

“What if you used the safe writing used in that investigation report as the foundation for a carefully selected set of everyday writing with little power? Wouldn’t that allow you to pass down your current culture and allow anyone to perform research?”

He was saying the current state of 1st-Gear’s culture would change.

Sayama held a hand out toward him. He reached for the book at his chest.

Fasolt handed the boy the hardcover book as he wanted.

Sayama took it and flipped through the pages.

“You had so many houses. And the people living in them worked at the schools, stores, and government offices. But out of fear of dangerous writing, you could not record any of it. You never expanded the writing technology that would support those records and UCAT is currently keeping our technology from you.”

“That is true…”

“UCAT will remove the restrictions on that technology as a form of reparations,” said Sayama.

Fasolt turned to Ooshiro who looked back at him.

“Well, we would need to negotiate it out with the UCATs from other countries. What a pain,” said the old man.

Fasolt gave a quiet laugh from the throat and listened as Sayama continued to speak.

“Our world is immature, Fasolt. About a thousand years ago, we believed our world had the same table shape as your world. But our people walked, left records, and changed our beliefs to match the truth. And even now we are building up more and more records to divide truth from falsehood.”

“And you are telling us to do the same? I see,” said Fasolt with a nod.

It was a nice idea. If they had writing tools that could be mass produced, they would only need people with the ability to write in the proper way. And instead of restricting usage of the writing tools as the royal family had done, they would restrict the words that held power and spread the safe words.

Knowledge would spread and they would even be able to interact with other cultures. However…

“Sayama Mikoto. That is a nice idea, but a problem remains. And our negotiations must continue.”

“Eh?” said Shinjou as Fasolt turned back toward Sayama.

Sayama showed no panic or surprise over his words.

He only said, “Yes, you understand, don’t you? Writing can betray those who use it. Building up and spreading records can do more than create; it can also destroy.” Sayama held up the hardcover book. “If you obtain the technology to publish books, you will have books like this one. And that will pass your grudges down to the later generations. The power we give you will create more enemies for us.”

“And that is why I must ask you something, boy… No, you are no boy. You are merely Sayama Mikoto. Can you give us this technology without fearing the spread of our grudges, protect Siegfried and the holy sword Gram, and also acquire the Concept Core?”

“Of course,” replied Sayama.

Shinjou’s eyes opened wide when she heard what Sayama said.

“Y-you can’t, Sayama-kun! You can’t make an enemy of him!”

“I think it will be fine. Fasolt understands that this investigation report is nothing more than reference material. After I rebuked him, he admitted that it includes personal opinion.”

“He did, but…”

Fasolt nodded.

“Those comments and the records of them are worth nothing. At the negotiating table, only the final decision matters.”

Ooshiro looked up and said, “Um, you do know I am working really hard typing up everything you say, right? Please do not say it is worth nothing.”

Fasolt ignored him. The half-dragon looked down at the remains of the cell phone lying between Sayama and himself.

“My comment admitting the investigation report contains personal opinion will not remain in the records. That means I can insist on its legitimacy. No matter what you say, it will be seen as accurate. Even if you protest, it will be published and distributed to everyone. A large number of people will believe it over you!”

“Fasolt, I am about to test how much you have been paying attention. Is that okay?”

Sayama’s sudden words caused Fasolt to look up.

“What?”

“I will be asking some questions and you will answer me. Got it? When you destroyed the cell phone whose remains lie before me, did you check to see if it was running?”

Shinjou did not understand the point of the question.

And Fasolt did not seem to either.

He sank down slightly and asked, “Are you saying…it was not running?”

Those words which were inarticulate for a half-dragon caused Shinjou to tilt her head in confusion.

“What do you mean?” she asked and Fasolt quickly turned toward her.

“Why are you asking?”

“Oh, um, it’s nothing. Nothing at all. There might have been a slight misunderstanding.

She frantically waved her hands in front of her, but Fasolt kept his gaze on her. He opened his fang-filled mouth and spoke.

“What is going on? Shinjou, I thought you and Sayama were working together. He would give you a sign and you would record what I-…”

“W-wait a second!”

Shinjou did not understand some of what he had said. And it reminded her of another baffling thing Fasolt had said earlier. Shinjou asked about the confusing parts.

“What do you mean we were working together? And what sign?”

Fasolt had been leaning forward, but he straightened up in an instant.

While still looking at Shinjou, he bared his teeth and trembled.

“Sayama Mikoto handed you the cell phone along with his coat. When he raised his handkerchief as a sign, you began recording, did you not? He wanted you to record my abusive remarks.”

“Eh? N-no. I wasn’t given that role.”

He was mistaken about something. For some reason, that half-dragon was focused on her even though she had been doing nothing but listen.

Fasolt continued to speak to provide his evidence.

“Then why did you squirm a bit whenever Sayama Mikoto pulled out his handkerchief and wiped his brow? He provided you with instructions when he handed you his coat, correct? I heard you say you could not do something.”

Shinjou gasped.

“N-no!”

She looked to the side and found Sayama staring expressionlessly up into the sky. He must have noticed her looking at him because he picked Baku up from his left shoulder and placed him on his head.

He and the beast squinted as they looked up into the sky.

He was determined to ignore her.

That left her with no choice. While prepared to blush, Shinjou proved her innocence to Fasolt.

“I-I will tell you what Sayama-kun told me to do when handing me his coat!” She hesitated for a moment. “ ‘I am so nervous that I really want to feel up your butt. If I am unable to resist any longer, I will give you a sign by raising my handkerchief. When I do, stick your butt out for me’! But I can’t do that. B-but it was a request from Sayama-kun, so I-I would jump in shock a bit whenever he pulled out his handkerchief!”

As she blushed and gave her explanation, Fasolt’s mouth hung limply open.

He slowly faced forward while his open mouth continued to produce no sound.

He stared at Sayama who still had Baku sitting on his head.

In response to everyone’s gazes, Sayama picked up what was lying next to him and held it up.

It was the digital recorder wrapped in his handkerchief. Its red power light was lit.

Sayama nodded and looked at Shinjou. He then spoke quietly for his own curiosity.

“Now, please continue, Shinjou-kun. What happened after you jumped in shock?”

“Why is that running!? Wasn’t its battery dead!?”

“Could you remain quiet, Fasolt? That will make it more difficult to edit later.”

“Th-the difficulty doesn’t matter! Explain what is going on!” demanded Shinjou.

Sayama picked up a part from the remains of the cell phone.

It was a battery that had been badly bent.

“You want to know why it is running? If you cannot answer a question this easy, I look forward to the difficulty you will face once you have paper, Fasolt. The answer is simple. I switched out the cell phone’s battery before entering this concept space. Most modern handheld devices use a standard battery type whether they are IAI-made or not. You should remember that.” He nodded and asked, “Fasolt, you were outside this place just before we entered the concept space, weren’t you? You used your limited time outside to observe me. Isn’t that right?”

“How do you know that?”

“The forest was too quiet. When a human is lurking in the forest, the birds and beasts grow cautious, but it was even more silent than that. In other words, there was something greater than a human there. Also, you had come from the field, but your jika-tabi had moss on them. That proves you had run through the forest. When you noticed me looking at it, you frantically kicked it off.” Sayama showed Fasolt the digital recorder. “When I noticed this recorder’s battery was dead, I realized someone had tried something. Once I knew my opponent had tried to eliminate my use of this device, I merely had to use that to my advantage. Once I received them from Shinjou-kun, I switched out the batteries and decided to use the cell phone as a decoy.”

“Then, Sayama-kun, this entire negotiation…”

“Has been recorded, yes. But it is missing the one thing I said while taking it out and placing it next to me. I had to turn it off to make it look like its battery was dead.”

Fasolt gulped and recalled what Sayama had said back then.

“You said the recorder’s battery was dead and that you intended to record any promises I made with the cell phone… Was it all to put me at ease so I would bring out greater demands!?”

“Now, now. Please stop discussing comments you have no proof were ever spoken,” said Sayama. “Or should I play back what I have recorded? I have you calling us aboriginals in response to my rebuke.”

“No, more importantly…what do you want?”

Sayama shook his head in response.

“I want nothing. But let us do what is natural. I will approve providing you with our technology if you allow us use of the Concept Core. And you may carry out an investigation of 1st-Gear’s destruction if it is done in cooperation with UCAT. For mutual understanding and reconciliation, we must have records if you are to have them. And once that is complete, we can begin thinking about what to do afterwards. …Am I wrong?”

In lieu of a response, Fasolt raised both of his hands.

Sayama sighed.

''So it is over,'' he thought.

He lowered Baku from his head and muttered a short statement.

“What a farce.”

Sayama’s annoyed statement caused Shinjou to tilt her head. She could see he was frowning.

“A farce? Why? You look displeased.”

Sayama nodded, looked in her direction, and then turned toward Ooshiro.

“Old man, please do not make me do this again.”

Ooshiro looked up and gave a bitter smile. Shinjou could make no sense of the exchange.

“Wh-what do you mean? What did Ooshiro-san do?”

“I realized it partway through. The old man set all this up. Think about it. How was Fasolt able to touch my possessions? And who asked you to return them to me? How was Fasolt able to wait for us outside the concept space during his limited time outside of it? And who was it that stopped us in front of him and asked if I was carrying anything?” He took a breath. “Simply put, these preliminary negotiations were a test. I realized it once I noticed the paper technology issue. 1st-Gear is obedient enough to go along with Low-Gear’s restrictions. In that case, it was odd for Fasolt to be on the attack. I am ashamed I did not realize why and grew so worked up over a prank.”

Sayama folded his arms and closed his eyes. Shinjou was unsure what to say to him.

Fasolt laughed from deep in his throat.

“Do not feel too bad, Sayama Mikoto. You may not believe me, but I was serious.”

“Serious, hm?”

Sayama sighed with his eyes still closed.

His shoulders drooped and he seemed to have his own thoughts on the matter.

…''Does he think Fasolt went easy on him?

“O-Ooshiro-san. Was today’s negotiation effective?”

“Yes, removing the restriction on paper manufacturing is indeed a useful idea. I believe this was effective.”

“Take this seriously. Sayama-kun wasn’t arguing for fun.”

Hearing that, Sayama opened his eyes. Shinjou looked him in the eye and thought.

…''He can manage something in any situation.

“You are like the evil king of sophistry.”

“Thank you for the blunt opinion,” said Sayama with a bitter smile.

But Shinjou looked at him once more. When faced with an opponent making an absurd argument, this boy had refused to negotiate properly and had replied with an absurd argument of his own.

…''The surname Sayama indicates a villain. Is that it?

She recalled that Sayama had said he possessed the abilities needed to carry out evil.

''Is this what he meant?'' thought Shinjou.

She wondered what she would have done had she been in his place.

…''If I had come back with a proper argument, I might have only been faced with another absurd argument.

But the truth of that could not be known. And it was a fact that Sayama’s absurd argument had caused Fasolt to give in.

The only other information she had was Sayama’s expression and the drooping of his shoulders.

…''He did not get serious. That is probably because he realized partway through what Ooshiro-san had done.

She nodded and decided she would willingly play the role of listener if he wanted to complain about anything.

Doing so would surely be valuable for what had ended here today.

And just as Shinjou made up her mind, Fasolt turned to Sayama and spoke.

“This really did not go as I planned. Perhaps I should have expected that with Sayama’s grandson.”

Shinjou saw Sayama hold the left side of his chest. He frowned and looked up at Fasolt.

“You knew my grandfather?”

“I did, even if it was only for a short time. When we first arrived in this world, he was the member of UCAT that prepared the location which became this reservation. Siegfried had given him the holy sword Gram, so he extracted the concepts needed to create this place. I have not seen him since those initial negotiations, though.”

“I see. Then I suppose you would know nothing of my father. He worked for IAI.”

“We do not leave this place, so we know nothing of that. However, I do remember your grandfather quite well,” said Fasolt. “Sixty years ago, we exchanged arguments very similar to these provisional negotiations. He too shouted angrily at me when I requested reparations equal to the number of the dead. He told me not to calculate the number and value of the dead and to instead live peacefully here and put together a plan to restore our lost pride, even if there was an opposing faction. We have yet to do that, though.”

Shinjou suddenly turned to Ooshiro who sat next to Fasolt. Ooshiro glanced toward Fasolt’s back.

On that back that she had once clung to were the scars from the severed wings.

''Oh,'' realized Shinjou in her heart. ''So that’s it.

A short silence followed. Whatever Fasolt may have thought of that silence, he slowly turned toward Ooshiro who was looking up at him. While glancing over at the old man, he spoke in a critical tone.

“This is more your problem than mine, but UCAT is filled with too many mysteries.”

“It is an organization that has hidden itself in the world so that it may save that world. Of course it has a lot of mysteries.”

“So not even 1st-Gear’s representative knows the details,” commented Sayama.

Fasolt nodded and said, “We know almost nothing about UCAT’s activities. The one thing everyone knows is that a large scale change occurred in 1995. Japanese UCAT was temporarily dissolved and reorganized.”

Shinjou and Sayama both spoke in unison.

“Temporarily dissolved and reorganized?”

Sayama saw Fasolt look at Shinjou and himself.

“So you do not know about that. It happened suddenly at the end of ’95 which was almost the exact same time Shinjou was taken in by UCAT. All of the personnel other than the leaders left the organization.”

“Why?”

“I do not know, Sayama Mikoto. I would love to be told. I would assume only Ooshiro here and a few others know the truth behind it. One theory is that they were taking responsibility for the many deaths during relief operations after the Great Kansai Earthquake.”

“I see,” said Sayama with a nod.

He was not discouraged.

The Leviathan Road had come with several conditions added by his grandfather. One of those was that they had to gather all of their information themselves.

Here, he only needed to learn about 1st-Gear. And…

…''This just means I need to investigate UCAT in addition to the ten Gears.

Sayama nodded and Fasolt nodded in return. The half-dragon then turned to Shinjou and opened his mouth to speak.

“I have gone back and forth on whether I should tell you this, but I will tell you now since you have returned after so long.”

“Eh? Me?” she asked.

“Yes. It will be an old story for you two. This concept space was constructed by Sayama Kaoru, but he said he was only able to do so by basing it on some data he had been given.”

“From another UCAT member?”

“No, he said it was from another member of the former National Defense Department. While investigating for the National Defense Department, this person had managed to estimate what concepts the different Gears used. Sayama Kaoru said he had only followed the data from back then.”

Fasolt looked up into the sky. His gaze moved slowly around as if he could see the invisible wall forming the concept space.

“This person originally became involved in the National Defense Department while working as the assistant of a Professor Kinugasa, but they never joined UCAT. I do not know what became of this person.”

“Who was this person?” asked Sayama.

Fasolt spoke a single surname.

“Shinjou. That is all I was told.”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 18|Chapter 18]]
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| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 20|Chapter 20]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 18

2026-05-06T04:00:42Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 18: Broken Horizon==
[[Image:OnC_v02_0123.png|thumb]]
''What are you going there to see?

''Is that a question one can answer?

''After all, that is what you are going there to find out

Sayama followed Ooshiro Kazuo to the 1st-Gear reservation. They climbed a hill behind UCAT.

They walked past UCAT transportation control, made their way through vegetable and flower gardens and a cedar forest, and finally arrived at a paved road. Ooshiro turned toward Sayama on that road. He flipped up the hem of his burnt white lab coat.

“Do you have anything with anything written on it or carved into it?”

Sayama was just about to answer when he suddenly looked toward the surrounding forest.

“…?”

''Something is off,'' thought Sayama.

He had felt some sort of presence.

However, he could not see anything in the area. He found only silence.

“It certainly is quiet here.”

“Maybe that’s because we are near the concept space. But I visited here a few times a long time ago. And those times,” Shinjou tilted her head, “I remember hearing more birds.”

''I need to be cautious,'' thought Sayama.

He nodded and answered the previous question.

“I decided to be cautious and avoided bringing any products with writing on them. But will electronics work inside?”

Sayama pulled his cell phone from his pocket. It had a microphone and a built-in camera that allowed it to record audio and video.

Sayama pointed at the camera and Ooshiro scratched at his head.

“Hmm, it should work. To prevent a rebellion, the reservation is based on Low-Gear concepts. If you are clever in how you use it, you might be able to give it extra ability from the concepts added to the reservation. But…”

“But it will not work as a phone, right? The phone tower exists outside.”

“There are specialized devices that allow you to communicate outside, but they are quite valuable.”

Hearing that, Sayama returned the cell phone to his suit’s breast pocket. He kept the camera facing outwards.

Sayama then looked toward Ooshiro’s left side. He held a laptop there.

When Ooshiro noticed, he tapped the gray body of the device and raised his right thumb.

“This is for recording what is said. The keyboard and switches are unmarked. At the press of a button, it can switch to a setting that does not display anything.”

“I did not know you were that skilled with computers, old man.”

Shinjou looked over toward Sayama. She was slightly out of breath from climbing the slight hill.

“He plays video games a lot in his room. But when SF, the others, or I try to look at the screen, he panics and switches off the display. I think Itaru-san scolded him about it once.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes. And the walls in Ooshiro-san’s room are covered in long vertical posters. They all have gaudy drawings of lewd girls.”

After thinking on what Shinjou had said, Sayama looked over at Ooshiro. He turned a small smile toward that man carrying a laptop.

“Old man.”

“D-do you need something?”

“I will say this in an indirect way: you will not die in any decent way, you perverted old man.”

“Wow, you really said it. …And Shinjou-kun, you shouldn’t tell on people!”

“Eh? B-but I thought an hour of video games a day was an acceptable way of extending your hobbies.” With her head tilted, Shinjou pulled what looked like a card out of her back pocket. “I have this. It isn’t the same as yours, but it is a handheld game system UCAT gave me.”

Sayama took it from her and realized it was a small game device with an LCD screen. The black and white LCD screen was located in the center, a single round button was located on either side of the screen, and it had two selection buttons. From the patterns visible on the LCD screen, the game involved people jumping down from a building which the player had to bounce into an ambulance with a stretcher.

“It has a clock mode and the game has a normal A Mode and a hard B Mode. I got the max score in A Mode once, but the battery died and my high score was lost.”

Sayama nodded in understanding as he listened, but then he spoke to Ooshiro.

“I just now realized that it is UCAT’s doing that Shinjou-kun is so strange, but what am I supposed to do about it?”

“I-I’m not strange.”

“You have been brainwashed. Video games are normally played on the television or with a color LCD screen.”

“Eh? You can play games on TV?”

“Old man! This has reached the level of personality modification!”

“I’m not actually sure how this happened either,” he said. “I can only think people have been giving her what they have to spare.”

“I see,” said Sayama with a nod. He returned the handheld game system to Shinjou. “Take care of this. …But get ready because I will make sure Setsu-kun educates you on this. I think I have some things in storage that a graduate left behind.”

“Eh? Y-you don’t have to do that. I would feel bad.”

“No, this is an excellent chance to teach you that you do not live in the Showa era.”

Sayama sighed and continued forward. As Ooshiro walked in front of him, the man suddenly disappeared.

Sayama frowned and wondered what had happened, but then the watch on his left wrist suddenly vibrated.

—'''Writing is a representation of power.

He heard a voice and red words scrolled across the face of the watch.

Sayama realized this was the same concept text he had heard at the Imperial palace.

But he felt as if nothing had changed.

The scenery around him had barely changed. The types of trees were slightly different and the smell of earth was a bit stronger, but that was all. He could not help but compare it to the concept space that had caused the direction of gravity to change.

“This is a bit underwhelming.”

“Not all of them are quite so exciting.”

He looked over to find Ooshiro and Shinjou standing next to him.

Sayama nodded and they began walking once more. Beyond the forest on either side of the path were fields of crops.

Sayama continued walking along the earth between the trees as he looked at the crops in the distance. He soon came to the top of the hill.

The visible area opened up before him.

Above were the blue sky and the white clouds and below was a village. The fields on either side of the path continued on to the village.

Most of the trees had been left intact in the village and several houses had been built among them. Most of those houses were made of built up stones with cement filling the gaps. The roofs were made of wood. A small vegetable garden and storage shed existed next to each house.

An even more open area existed beyond the trees and houses. A green sea was visible there.

“Wheat?”

“Yes. Some potatoes and other things are grown individually. Growing crops in a concept space can be unstable. About twenty years ago, large amounts of soil was brought in from outside so they could be self-sufficient.”

“Is that part of UCAT’s job?”

“Yes, but UCAT’s budget is limited. For anything more than that, the reservation residents need to earn it themselves. They do so by sharing techniques and knowledge or by working in UCAT. And if they wish to be naturalized, we will gladly help them.”

“Is that because the fewer the people in the reservation, the easier it is to keep them fed?”

Just as Ooshiro nodded in response, a low voice called out from the field to the side.

“Yes. And if we are to welcome in new members, we must send out those who can leave.”

The figure that climbed up to the pathway was huge. Sayama looked up at that two meter figure.

“A dragon?”

In front of him was a humanoid dragon covered in a black shell and skin.

His pointed face and sharp eyes were turned toward Sayama. The low shoulders below his fairly long neck were covered by a simple white outfit that had a fisherman’s vest worn over it. On his feet were…

“Jika-tabi?”

They were the type sold cheaply in supermarkets. The toes were covered in dirt and moss.

He must have noticed Sayama’s gaze because Fasolt opened his mouth and laughed from the throat. He kicked the ground to knock off the dirt and moss and shook the flowers and straw in his left arm.

“These shoes work best with the three claws I have received from the reign of the dragon god. They also work well with agricultural work. Don’t you agree? What is your name, human youth and boy of Low-Gear? I am Fasolt, the leader and storyteller of this 1st-Gear reservation.”

His lungs must have been able to hold a lot of air because the words all came at once.

Sayama saw Baku ball up his tail and pull back his hips where he stood on Sayama’s shoulder.

[[Image:OnC_v02_0131.png|thumb]]

“I am Sayama Mikoto. It seems I am the tentative Low-Gear representative. It is nice to meet you, leader from another world,” said Sayama as he held out his right hand.

“Ahh,” groaned Fasolt as he held out his right hand which was covered by a large work glove. But his outstretched hand was clenched in a fist. “We do it like this in 1st-Gear, Sayama Mikoto. According to folklorists, the purpose is to show you are not holding a weapon, but a lot of us would injure each other if we held hands.”

It was true that Fasolt’s hand had claws sticking out from the work glove. The ends were round, but those ends were white from being filed down. Sayama decided to clench his right hand into a fist as well.

Fasolt struck Sayama’s fist with his own. Sayama did the same in return.

“Excellent. Do not forget to use your palm instead when greeting a woman. If you want to remember how to greet people in 1st-Gear, just remember to punch the men and stroke the women. That saying comes from the city’s fourteenth block and I used to follow it quite a lot.”

Fasolt’s words arrived all at once, but they were easy to listen to.

''It has a nice rhythm,'' analyzed Sayama.

Ooshiro said, “In 1st-Gear, writing produces power, so they never advanced very far when it came to keeping documents and records. The dragon race has a long life, a large lung capacity, and an excellent memory, so they were often record keepers, judges, and historical storytellers.”

“Yes. I gave up the position of judge due to my age, but I will continue as storyteller until I die. Not many speak like this anymore, but I suppose that is just the age we live in. Oh, but I am a bit disappointed that you do not seem very surprised to see me, Sayama Mikoto. Shinjou there was quite surprised when she first saw me.”

“I-I was just a kid. I didn’t really understand.”

Shinjou lowered her head and blushed while Ooshiro folded his arms and spoke.

“When she first met Fasolt, she climbed up on his back and was surprised not to see a zipper.”

“B-but I was watching Aretorman Cement and there was one on his back.”

“Why were you watching a minor Showa tokusatsu show? Do television broadcasts arrive in Okutama with a time lag?”

Fasolt laughed from the throat and closed his eyes nostalgically.

“It was even more amazing when Ooshiro met me the first time as a child. He wet himself as soon as he saw me and was so surprised he let out some strange shriek and ran up to attack me. I knocked him to the ground without even thinking. It is a complete mystery how that never affected the negotiations afterwards.”

“Hitting someone who deserves to be hit does not affect the negotiations.”

“I see, I see. I thank you for solving that fifty-year-old mystery, Sayama Mikoto.”

Sayama and Fasolt lightly tapped their fists together. The half-dragon ignored Ooshiro who seemed to want to say something.

“Now then. If you like, we can begin the provisional negotiations. Public matters should be done in a public place, so our custom is to do this in the public square.”

Sayama nodded, but then said, “If possible, could you perform your job as storyteller first?”

Fasolt and Ooshiro looked over at him, but Shinjou nodded.

“That’s right. Shinjou-kun and I don’t know much about 1st-Gear.”

“You are quite different from Ooshiro despite being the same race. I am a bit moved. Tes.”

After giving his consent, Fasolt turned his back and began walking.

Ooshiro began to follow Fasolt, but first looked over at Sayama and turned his thumb downwards.

“You had better remember this.”

“Is that any way for an adult to act?” replied Sayama.

Ooshiro ran after Fasolt while blatantly pretending to cry.

Sayama exchanged a glance with Shinjou and sighed. With a bitter smile, he jogged after Fasolt.

As he did, Sayama looked at Fasolt’s back. His low shoulders stuck out from the collar of his clothes. On either side was a portion not covered by the shell or scales. That area was as long and thick as an arm and the skin was dark red and hardened like a burn scar.

Shinjou whispered to Sayama from where she walked alongside him.

“Those are the scars from cutting off his own wings. Or so I’ve heard.”

Whether he heard her or not, Fasolt spoke as he looked across the earthen public square that existed between the trees and houses and a wheat field.

“On a sunny day, the air, the wind, and stories of the past will all flow far and wide. Before we begin the negotiations, I will tell you the history of our land.”

Instead of just taking a breath, Fasolt seemed to store up even more breaths before speaking once more.

“As well as its destruction.”

Brunhild was dreaming. 1st-Gear’s destruction was recreated in her dream.

In the darkness of the night, their small cabin shook. The ground shook as if it was being struck.

Brunhild ran through the cabin. She held the birdcage in her arms and called out the names of those she trusted as she went from room to room.

In the distance, she heard the earth trembling as if she could feel it in her gut. From nearby, a vibration shook her bones.

As she heard these noises, she cried out while shedding tears. And she ran once more through the rooms she had looked through so many times already.

The fireplace in the central room had crumbled and the stone inside had burned and scattered.

The six-row keyboard against the wall of the back room had been broken by a fallen joist.

The wall and ceiling of the tilted room were decorated with rolled cloth written with the words for good luck. They were for the festival.

“Why is this happening on the day of the festival…?”

The trembling of the earth grew stronger and she tripped. The cage struck the ground and she almost fell on top of it.

That was when an arm reached out and supported her from behind.

She picked up the cage and turned around to find a red-haired woman.

“Miss Gutrune…”

“Yes,” nodded Gutrune.

She tried to embrace Brunhild, but her eyes stopped on the birdcage. In that shaking cabin, she smiled and kissed Brunhild on the cheek.

“Listen, Nein. I have to go to the royal palace. I can only think something has happened to the Concept Core there.”

“…Eh?”

Brunhild, who had been called Nein, was confused, but the ground shook once more and the roof groaned.

Gutrune looked up and said, “The weapons laboratory is likely closer. If it comes to it, the gate will be opened, so wait there. The doctor and Lord Hagen are in the laboratory. They will give you a snack to eat, okay?”

“No, I want to be with everyone. Where are the doctor and the others? Are they not here?”

Gutrune fell silent, but Brunhild continued to ask questions.

“The book on Gram was missing from the back room. So was the book on Fafnir. …Where is Siegfried? Did he betray us? Hey, did he betray us!?”

Gutrune took the questions head on. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth to speak.

“…”

And she closed it once more.

She took a breath and opened her eyes. She stared directly at Brunhild.

“He…might have. But he might not have.”

Brunhild realized her expression had brightened somewhat when she heard those words. She knew that Gutrune trusted him, too.

Gutrune pulled Brunhild toward her while lightly embracing her, birdcage and all.

“I will go check, so you run away ahead of me.”

“C-can’t you go with me at least?”

Gutrune gently let go and shook her head.

“I am a member of the royal family. The high officials have returned to their homes for the festival, so only the doctor and I can enter the basement. And something must be happening there. I must go.”

“Why? Why do you have to go?”

“I am sure I will be able to save someone or something.” She gave a bitter smile. “My father has grown weak ever since my mother died. I should have saved him…but it seems I can do that now. Whatever happens and however this turns out, there is something I must do as a member of the royal family.”

“What will you do if Siegfried betrayed us?”

“Do not worry. No matter what happens, I will persuade him. Together, we can preserve and save this world. …But as a member of the royal family, I may have to be forceful with him. If that happens, you take care of him.”

“And…and once that happens, we can all be together again someday?”

“Of course. I will persuade him and you will support him. And…we will always be together.”

“Do you promise?” asked Brunhild.

Gutrune smiled and replied, “Yes, I promise we will always be together.”

She rubbed Brunhild’s head. The gentle sensation calmed Brunhild and she finally smiled.

“You are a good girl, Nein,” said Gutrune with a smile of her own.

The bird in the birdcage chirped amid the shaking and the sounds of trembling.

As Brunhild heard that chirping, she awoke from her dream.

When Brunhild opened her eyes, she saw the art room turned on its side.

She had fallen asleep with her head lying on the work table. Her face was pointed to the left. Her neck felt stiff as she straightened up.

She touched her cheek and felt the tile pattern of the work table’s surface.

“This is not a good way to live.”

She looked down to find the small bird had left its box and was looking up at her.

The contents of the food dish had clearly lessened. The bird seemed plenty hungry.

She held her hand out on a whim and the bird flapped its wings and flew up to her shoulder.

Brunhild laughed. Turning her head hurt a bit, but she endured. She looked the chirping bird in the eye. She could not say whether the tears in her eyes were from the dream, the pain in her neck, or the bird’s recovery.

Brunhild looked down and searched for the black cat.

But it was not there.

She thought back and the scene just before she fell asleep appeared in the back of her mind.

She turned toward the door and found it was unlocked.

“I managed to send him off for the periodic report…”

She breathed a sigh of relief as the cat’s owner. She turned away from the door and her gaze naturally focused on the center of the art room.

An unfinished painting stood on an easel there.

A single small cabin was visible in a forest of black and green. Brunhild spoke to the bird as she looked at the cabin which had been started with pale black.

“This is the world I came from.” She gave a bitter laugh. “The final promise made to me there was never upheld. She never came back. I doubt she was able to persuade him. And…It seems he betrayed us and abandoned us. The only person left was me, the one who had trusted everyone else.”

Brunhild looked at the bird.

“But,” she began.

The bird chirped. It waved its tail up and down happily.

As she listened to that chirping, Brunhild sat in the chair in front of the easel. She lowered her head a bit.

“I shouldn’t have asked him why he saved you,” muttered Brunhild as she recalled the scene from her dream. “Why did she say that when she was going to the palace to be killed by him? Why would she ask me to take care of him or say that we would always be together?”

There was no one who could answer that question. Instead, the bird stopped chirping and tilted its head.

In the center of the 1st-Gear reservation’s public square, a few blue plates were flipped upside down on the ground. The bottom of those plates said “floor” and the top said “public square”.

Sayama and the others sat on the plates below them as the “floor” while listening to Fasolt speak.

He gave a summary of the greatest reaches of time, beginning with the dragon god’s creation of the land.

After he spoke for several minutes, his continuing words spoke of the creation of man and the formation of a kingdom.

“Was that the Wotan Kingdom?” asked Sayama and Fasolt nodded.

He continued his stories even as villagers passed by and as he greeted the winged people and members of the giant race.

Once Fasolt reached the leader of the kingdom from three generations back when a black dragon was captured when it came flying through the sky from one of the other worlds of the dragon god, the story ceased to be told secondhand.

Time continued to pass and, at one point, a single strange visitor arrived in their world.

“He was not a descendant of the dragon god and he came from a land that was meaningless to us. King Wotan had lost his wife, and when one of his mechanical dragons began rampaging, this visitor arrived and defeated it.”

Fasolt took a breath. The sounds of continued breathing came from the back of his neck and his sides.

When he opened his mouth to speak again after about a minute, he spoke in the rhythm of conversation rather than the rhythm of storytelling.

“Regin joined with Fafnir to help the king protect the concepts, but Siegfried killed the both of them with the holy sword Gram and sent the concepts out of control to lead 1st-Gear to a closed annihilation. Most believe he also killed Princess Gutrune when she arrived. Siegfried himself has admitted it.”

And…

“Most of 1st-Gear’s residents still hold a grudge and they have continued to seek the destruction of Gram and Siegfried’s assassination even after escaping to Low-Gear.”

“Why do they wish to destroy Gram? I thought that was your world’s weapon.”

“The holy sword Gram was created as a concept weapon with a will of its own, Sayama Mikoto. They view it as a crime for the sword to have agreed to take Siegfried as its master. The militant groups of 1st-Gear wish to enact vengeance on Gram after acquiring 1st-Gear’s Concept Core from it.”

“I see,” said Sayama. “So that is Siegfried’s past.”

“When he rescued the village, he was injured. The wise man Regin took him in. Venerable Regin had also taken in Princess Gutrune when the king distanced her after losing his wife and a girl named Nein of the long-lived race who was orphaned during the Concept War. At first, he intended to ask Siegfried for information on Low-Gear.”

“There was no hostility between them?”

“I hear there were a few conflicts, but Siegfried and the princess got along well. Music…Yes, Siegfried was also skilled at music, so they had that in common. But,” said Fasolt, “that ended on the day of the star festival. It happened while the royal palace was at its most empty because we had all returned to the lands we ruled over. There was a sudden earthquake and the sky split apart. The world never recovered.”

“…Siegfried did that?”

“By that time, he had already left through the gate in the royal palace. We never met him again. As the princess wished, we brought her to the palace’s viewing platform and let her deliver a speech. She told the people that 1st-Gear had lost and would be destroyed. She instructed them to escape to Low-Gear through either the gate in the royal palace or the gate in the city. If she had not done so, I doubt the chaos in the city would have ever died down, but she ran out of strength there…”

“…”

Fasolt closed his eyes and nodded when Sayama replied with nothing but silence.

“As the world was destroyed, we split between the eastern and western gates. The gate near the royal palace led here. The gate near the weapons laboratory most likely came out somewhere in Japan’s Chugoku region. Our gates mostly opened into the European country of Germany, so that one would be the primary gate. And that is the story of 1st-Gear’s destruction as I know it,” concluded Fasolt.

Ooshiro sat cross-legged next to him while typing on the laptop sitting on his lap.

“It has continued to be difficult ever since then. The peaceful faction that escaped through the royal palace gate entered under UCAT’s protection, but the radi-…militant faction refused our protection and is continuing to fight. And of those who escaped through the royal palace gate, another militant group called the Royal Palace faction split off with some concept space technology. But you saw what became of them yesterday.” Ooshiro nodded and formed a smile. “These provisional negotiations will include all of that. …At any rate, just take it easy.”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 17|Chapter 17]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 19|Chapter 19]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume13 Chapter 34

2026-05-05T01:23:42Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 34: Signature of Reversal==
[[Image:OnC_v13_0323.png|thumb]]
''As if there was a time of happiness

''As if to say everything was right

''You have gathered everything together and arrived at this evidence

In the library, Heo began her explanation of the world’s creation.

Ten black spheres had appeared in the projected blackness.

“In ’95, Noah was sent from Top-Gear’s Osaka and into the emptiness of the void. This created the impossible phenomenon of ‘something existing in a place of nothingness’, so Noah gained a contradiction concept.”

The ten activated negative spheres within Noah attempted to grow.

“Here, the ten positive concepts were reactively purified from the surrounding space. They attempt to restrain the negativity, but they are pushed back by the repulsive force.”

After reaching a certain distance from the ten negative spheres, the ten positive spheres began to orbit around the negative ones as if attempting to escape the power pushing them away.

“This allowed them to suppress the negative concepts, but some of the repulsive force remained.”

As the ten negative spheres gathered together to form Low-Gear, another Gear began to appear next to it.

This Gear contained ten positive concepts.

“And that force became a mirror image of Low-Gear. This…this is the true identity of Top-Gear. And because Noah formed the foundation of Low-Gear…”

The projected image changed to a map.

It displayed a portion of Japan’s Kansai region. Specifically, the Mount Ikoma region.

“Babel is not a Concept Core storage facility that Top-Gear created in Low-Gear. It is the storage facility for the negative concepts that form the core of the entire world! It is Noah!!”

Heo’s voice penetrated the darkness.

At the same time, the lights above her and Hajji reactivated and she gave a shout.

“The world has performed a loop around Noah and Top-Gear is not the mother Gear! That is my objection!”

“I see.”

Hajji crossed his arms and nodded at Heo’s shout.

He then brought a hand to his chin and breathed out.

“An interesting theory. It is true we could view it that way if we use your interpretation of sending Noah into the void.” He shrugged. “But, 5th-Gear representative, while I am sure you simply could not bear to watch Low-Gear being criticized, I am sorry to say that your theory is nothing more than an amusing idea.”

“If we investigate the interior of Babel, we should find the truth. Babel is sure to accept anyone from Top-Gear and I think Sayama Asagi was let in because Shinjou Yukio added him to Noah’s approved list during the battle in Osaka.”

“It may have been mere coincidence that he was let in.”

Hajji refused to admit it. As their enemy, he insisted they produce the missing evidence.

“And…what about Professor Kinugasa? Why was he allowed inside Babel?”

Everyone fell silent because there was obviously no evidence to explain that.

However, Hajji heard Heo’s resolute voice from directly ahead.

“I-I don’t know about him. But I do have proof that Noah was sent into the past.”

When he heard that, Hajji’s expression changed to include some faint joy.

…''Well done.

He hurriedly covered his mouth.

…''As their enemy, I can’t be making an expression like this.

“And…and what is that? Are you claiming to have seen the creation of the world?”

Someone answered him, but it was not Heo.

The boy standing beyond her, Sayama, made a guess of his own.

Hajji heard the enemy display his key to the truth.

“Could you mean… Heo-kun, is it Georgius?”

“Yes,” said the girl with a nod.

She turned toward Sayama and gave him an urging and pleading look, so a light shined on him as well and he opened his mouth.

He brought a hand to his chin to think about what he should say. After a short pause, he glanced briefly toward Hajji and they seemed to confirm something with each other.

“Listen. After the battle with Top-Gear, my mother had gained one half of Georgius, but she lacked the other half. Why, you ask?”

He pointed his thumb over his shoulder and toward the entrance to the preparation room.

“Because it is in there. Strange, isn’t it? After all, Georgius should be a pair, but it exists across two different eras.”

“Couldn’t you just assume the two halves were made separately in two different eras and two different places?”

“That is one way of viewing it, but there is another way.”

Sayama answered Hajji’s question as if they were solving Heo’s puzzle together.

“When Noah was sent to the void, my father gave the authoritative decree from the center of the barrier. The fall into the void began from the center and grew shallower toward the outer edges. So perhaps the areas toward the edges of the barrier never reached an absolute void and perhaps they were mostly thrown into the intervening time and gathered there,” said Sayama. “Noah initially fell somewhere other than Top-Gear – namely, Low-Gear – and then fell to the zero-point of time as something that ‘did not exist’. Artifacts have been found around the world in eras where they do not belong, so perhaps that phenomenon was the cause. And what if one of Georgius’s halves was caught in the explosion of the barrier?”

“Then, Sayama, is this what you are saying? It ended up in the past and was found by Kinugasa Tenkyou?”

Hajji crossed his arms and checked to see if Sayama’s claims were the truth.

“Then let me say this: Unfortunately, that is still not definitive proof.”

“Not definitive?”

“That’s right.” Hajji looked to Sayama. “What proof do you have that the Georgius stored in the back of this library came from Top-Gear’s Osaka in ’95? If you managed to bring it out, would you have some way of proving it is the pair to the one you already have?”

He took a breath.

“Or has Kinugasa Tenkyou signed something admitting to this? Does he claim it arrived from the future and was made in Top-Gear? Do you…”

Hajji spread his arms and realized this was likely going to be his final question.

“Do you have a signature like that?”

His definitive question caused Heo to shrink down.

“Well…”

She hesitated, so he gave her a nod of understanding and spoke.

“Unless you have some evidence like that, this is nothing but speculation, 5th-Gear representative.”

His words reverberated through the library and everyone fell silent and motionless.

…''So it ends here, does it?

With that thought, he relaxed his shoulders and turned to Sf.

“Moderator, I believe this is the end of the questioning.”

Heo and Sayama looked up in surprise, but they had nothing else they could say.

They tensed but found nothing to say as Sf slowly stood up behind them.

She looked across everyone and then to Sayama and Heo.

“Sayama-sama, Heo-sama, do you have anything to say? Do you have any way of proving your theory as Hajji-sama has requested?”

But neither of them could say a word.

This settled it.

Their argument would end in uncertainty.

And that would not change as the trial and vote began.

But to put it another way…

…''If they could prove their theory here, they could overturn everything about Top-Gear.

The Gear would lose the superiority alluded to in the word “top” and it would become just another Gear. It had possessed a great many concepts and that did give it an advantage, but it could also be called “another Low-Gear”.

It would be the Gear that spoke of emotion while being a mirror image of the Gear that had destroyed it.

That would be a decent Gear to stand up to Low-Gear and its representative that spoke of reason, but…

“If you have nothing, then we can bring this to an end.”

Hajji heard Sf speak and he heard nothing from Sayama or Heo.

As silence continued, Sf simply nodded and turned to Hajji.

“Tes. Then I declare Low-Gear and Top-Gear’s question-and-answer session comple-…”

Another voice prevented her from finishing her declaration.

“Objection!!”

Racing footsteps brought the speaker in from behind Hajji and Sayama spoke the individual’s name.

“Shinjou-kun!?”

Shinjou charged into the center of everyone while gasping for breath.

However, she did not stop there.

Her white armored uniform fluttered upwards and her black hair flowed through the air as she spun around toward Hajji as if protecting Sayama.

Her eyebrows were slightly raised as she stared directly at the man.

“We do have proof!”

She waved a report in her hand as if spreading it out.

“I have the signature that will change the world!!”

Sayama glanced at Shinjou’s report after an automaton handed him a copy.

It contained additional information on Heo’s world creation theory.

In front of him, Shinjou held just one page and spoke to everyone else.

“Listen. There is proof that Georgius fell into the past. It’s right here. …You said a signature would suffice, right?”

But Sayama saw Hajji tilt his head as he looked at the English report.

“Where does it say anything about that? It just looks like a report on Georgius and Kinugasa Tenkyou to me.”

“That’s what it looks like to me too,” said Heo with a nod.

Sayama agreed with them.

But then he saw Shinjou turn toward him with her face slightly pale.

…''When she is pale, it almost looks like you can see through her. How beautiful.

''Wonderful,'' he thought as she looked at him and opened her lips.

“Look more closely, everyone. Someone’s signature is right there.”

She smiled a little.

“And just like my mom, that person must have studied mythology and the Bible to guide us all. And all while telling us he did not belong here in Low-Gear…while telling us he was a mirror image.”

“A mirror image? Who are you talking about?”

Shinjou answered Hajji’s question with a certain man’s name.

“Kinugasa Tenkyou.”

That name silenced everyone.

That man had been one of the national defense department’s founders, the one to notice the Concept War before nations around the world established their UCATs, and the one to find and investigate Babel.

…''But what is she saying about him?

Sayama’s questioning gaze watched as Shinjou breathed in.

She closed her eyes just once and calmed herself by bringing the ring on her right hand to her chest.

“Listen. Professor Tenkyou’s name isn’t actually Tenkyou. Did you know that?”

“Yes,” answered Sayama. He had heard this from Siegfried before. “The same characters are apparently pronounced Amayoshi or Amayasu.”

“Yes. His encyclopedia’s publication data used Amayasu. Normally, when spelled out in the alphabet, that would make his name ‘Kinugasa Amayasu’,” she said. “But according to the publication data, even Kinugasa is pronounced differently. It’s actually Igasa. And for some reason, Amayasu is spelled without the final ‘u’.”

“…”

“Do you understand what that means?”

When he heard her final question, Sayama realized it all.

And she went on to explain for everyone else.

“Igasa Amayas.”

Or when read in reverse…

“Sayama Asagi. His name was the mirror image of Sayama Asagi.”

She raised her right hand which wore a man’s ring.

“I feel like everything is finally starting to make sense. This must belong to Sayama-kun’s dad!”

As soon as she made her shouted announcement, Sayama sensed motion on top of his head.

It was Baku.

The creature was showing them the past based on the evidence they had built up.

Everyone saw it.

Three people ran through the center of an artificial barrier of light.

A girl took the lead, a woman in a white armored uniform was next, and a man in a similar white uniform followed.

The man held an aluminum case under each arm.

They barely had a path to walk on and their surroundings resembled sand dunes.

The sky was painfully white and the very air seemed to glow.

And for some reason, a faint song could be heard in the light. It was the hymn Silent Night.

The woman looked back to face the man who followed a step behind.

“A-chan, will we make it out in time!?”

“We will. Yu-san smiled and saw us off, so we definitely will.”

But he supported the girl as she almost tripped and pushed her forward.

Five blue stones hung from the girl’s neck and they clinked together as they swayed.

“Um, these stones…”

“Yes, don’t worry. We’re adults, so we’ll be fine, Sadagiri-kun. So please wear them without worrying about us. If you do…you will be just fine.”

He turned to the woman.

“Make sure you look after her. Yu-san…and her husband left her with us. We have to get her out of here safely.”

At that point, more light appeared behind the three of them. That explosive pressure of the void resembled a wall of light.

The three of them gasped and simply ran. There was another wall of light ahead and a hill lay behind it.

“Everyone’s there,” said the woman.

However, the explosion of light approached them from behind.

At the same time, the barrier wall emitted its light and attempted to close in order to shut out the explosion.

“…”

It was closing, but the three of them were not going to make it in time.

“…!”

The woman embraced the girl from behind as if trying to protect her from everything.

But in that moment, the two of them were shoved forward from behind.

They were pushed by the man’s left arm which held one of the two cases.

He pushed on their backs to send them outside the closing barrier.

And a moment later, the girl and women were thrown outside and the barrier closed.

There was no sound and no voices. There was only motion as the woman fell to the ground, turned back while still holding the girl in her arms, and saw it.

“Ah…”

On their side of the closed wall of light, a left arm in a white armored uniform lay on the hill where it had been severed by the barrier. It still held the aluminum case.

“Ah…!!”

The woman opened her mouth and let out a scream.

And the girl saw what was on the other side of the closed white wall: an expressionless face with empty eyes.

But she finally lowered her gaze and saw something else: a ring on the fallen left hand.

Shinjou walked forward.

She held her left hand in her right, removed her ring, and arrived at the desk in the center of the library.

Below the light, she looked to Sayama and smiled for some reason.

…''It’s like this place was made for this very moment.

She smiled and Sayama took her right hand in his left.

The two of them faced the preparation room.

She calmed her breathing and took the first step with him.

After a second and third, they finally reached the step up from the bottom of the library.

Sayama wore his suit and she wore her white armored uniform as they reached the top step while the entire world watched on.

The entrance to the preparation room lay before them, but someone stood in front of it.

“Sf-kun? Do you want to know why we have come here?”

“As moderator, it seems only natural to ask.”

“Indeed,” agreed Sayama. “The hidden door back here requires two people to insert their hands and turn them. It seemed ideal for Shinjou-kun and me, but it would not turn for us. However…”

The two of them held up the rings they had removed from their fingers.

“These belonged to my mother and my father, but we had the genders backwards.”

“I see.”

Sf cleared her throat quietly and then held out her hands.

“Then exchange your rings.”

“Right.”

Shinjou tensed her shoulders and held out her ring.

Sayama extended his left hand and did not hesitate to stick his ring finger into it.

She blushed and he began fiddling with the ring he had removed from his finger.

“Sayama-kun, why are you pulling out super glue?”

“Well, it would be a disaster if it happened to slip off your finger.”

She swiped the ring from him and almost put it on by herself.

“You won’t do anything weird?”

“How could I possibly do anything like that here?”

“You were just about to but I stopped you!”

She then held out the ring and raised her right hand.

He took the ring and held it gently.

“Ah…”

He pulled on her ring finger and put on the ring.

…''Wow…

She blushed when she saw how perfectly the ring fit on her finger.

“Thank you…”

“And thank you, Shinjou-kun. …Eventually, I would like to put one on your left hand.”

They walked together toward the back of the preparation room and the study.

On the back wall, two holes were positioned next to the white door. Sayama stuck his hand in the left hole and Shinjou did the same with the right hole.

At some point, everyone had left their seats and gathered in front of the preparation room to peer into the dimly-lit space.

Brunhild was there, Kazami was smiling with her arm around Brunhild’s shoulders, Sibyl and Ooki were there, Hiba’s legs were still turned inward, Harakawa was lending him a shoulder, Heo was clasping her hands as she watched Sayama and Shinjou, the plant creatures and Messengers of Wanambi were there, Tsukuyomi was saying “my, my”, Kashima was with her, Izumo was crouching down and slapping Boldman’s head, Miyako was pretending she did not care while never taking her eyes off of them, and everyone else was similarly looking at the two in the cramped space.

“…”

It happened in an instant.

The white door opened and revealed a six square meter room filled with white light.

The impossible area was due to it being a concept space.

The two of them entered the room from either side like it was a theatre stage.

Inside, they found a wooden table that looked terribly out of place and on top of it…

“An aluminum case identical to the one we saw in the past just now.”

Shinjou detected a slight tremor in Sayama’s voice.

“So my father was waiting here.”

He slowly but surely spoke the words with his right hand on his chest.

“Waiting for someone to arrive at the lies two worlds made while thinking of each other.”

He picked up the case and Shinjou supported him because he seemed on the verge of collapse.

“It’s okay, Sayama-kun. You can ache.”

She was only looking to Sayama, but everyone heard her words.

“You know what? I don’t think the pain in your chest is the guilt you feel for not dying with your mom.”

She pressed her ear against his chest.

“I think it means you’re sad.”

“You mean…?”

“Yes. You don’t let your feelings show much, you can be stupid, you can be dangerous, you’re honestly a lot of trouble, you’re beyond saving, and I think saving you would just bring you back to a previous kind of crazy, but…”

“I can see you have been observing me very closely.”

“The most amazing part is that you don’t deny any of that. …But you know what? Despite all those things…”

She let out a breath that may have been a bitter laugh.

“But you feel sadness more than anyone else. You feel so much sadness that it hurts.”

So…

“It’s okay. It’s okay to ache, Sayama-kun. If it hurts, you can rely on me. So…”

She looked to everyone else with a troubled and blushing smile.

Finally, Sayama breathed out too and faced in the same direction.

And just as they faced everyone, Sf spoke to them all from her position closest to Sayama and Shinjou.

“I suppose this proves the relationship between Top-Gear, Low-Gear, and the entire world.”

Shinjou saw everyone slowly let out a breath when they realized what Sf meant.

They held Georgius and Sayama Asagi’s signature which were the proof of this world.

Sf faced the two of them, looked to Georgius’s case, and spoke.

“Low-Gear was created by Top-Gear’s Noah, but Top-Gear was created by Low-Gear’s presence. In that case, I suppose both can be called the mother of the world.”

No one argued.

And for that reason, Sf turned back to the others with her usual expressionless face.

“In that case, I declare Low-Gear and Top-Gear’s question-and-answer session complete.”

She raised her head, waved a hand, and lowered in a curtsy.

“After a short recess, I would like to begin the trial and vote.”

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Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 26

2026-05-04T02:22:05Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 26: Recommendation to Lie Prone==
[[Image:OnC_v02_0321.png|thumb]]
''A pain once had

''Is related to your current self

''By becoming a pain someday

Sayama and the others checked on various things before heading out.

First, they placed a simple table in the center of the basin area and used it as a meeting spot.

Ooshiro Itaru and Sf stood at the side of the table pointed toward the mountain.

Across the table from them, Sayama stood with the others around him.

As Sayama watched, Itaru placed his cane on the ground.

“The ultimate objective of the Leviathan Road is to bring every concept to UCAT and release them all simultaneously. Doing that will suppress the negative concepts here in Low-Gear. You understand that, right?”

“Where are these negative concepts? I have heard 1st-Gear’s concepts are contained in the Concept Core that is currently split between the sword known as Gram and Fafnir Custom. But what about the negative concepts of Low-Gear?”

Ooshiro gave no response, but Sayama began to think upon seeing the smile that appeared on his lips.

And after thinking, he spoke.

“Each Gear’s Concept Core is contained in a weapon or the like that is unique to that Gear.”

“And?”

“The negative concepts are contained within the mythology that does not fit into the other ten Gears. Namely, the Bible.”

“And if they are? What would it be that contains Low-Gear’s negative concepts?”

Sayama nodded in response and glanced at Baku on his shoulder.

“That would be…Babel. Am I wrong?”

Everyone turned toward Itaru. Izumo and Kazami nodded and everyone else frowned.

As some people whispered “Babel?”, Itaru gave a slight nod while still smiling.

“You really are an annoying brat. You are correct. …Did you see that tower?”

“Yes.”

“I see. That is your ultimate destination. The ten negative concepts reside in that tower and it was the epicenter of the great Kansai earthquake. To reach it, you must deal with all the other Gears.”

Having said that, Itaru pulled a metal case out from under the simple table.

The case he placed on the table with a heavy metallic noise was the color of iron and thirty centimeters square. It was about ten centimeters thick and the letter L was carved into the surface.

Sayama looked at Itaru, but the man only silently held the case out toward Sayama.

As if taking Itaru’s place, Ooshiro stepped up to his right and nodded.

“Open it.”

Sayama had already begun undoing the lock on the side of the case.

With the sound of air escaping, the upper lid shifted.

Sayama placed a hand on that lid and opened the case.

The inside was divided into two blocks.

The left block contained a metal medallion. Its silver surface had a plus symbol carved into it. And the right block contained…

“A glove?”

A black, fingerless gauntlet sat within a cavity in the block created to match its shape.

It was made to protect the wrist and other points and the top had a round metal hard point attached.

It was made for the left hand.

As Sayama observed it, he heard Ooshiro speak.

“We are giving that to you. Its name is Georgius. That is the name of a holy lance.”

Sayama frowned.

“You mean the lance St. George used when slaying the dragon? I know one theory said it was Longinus, the same lance used to stab the son of god.”

“Yes. It seems to have been named after that. It was named after the lance that can injure god and slay a dragon. However…” Ooshiro trailed off and Sayama looked up at him. When their gazes met, Ooshiro nodded and continued. “We do not know what power this Georgius has. We do not know many of the details about what it is. It is a concept weapon with many mysteries.”

Sayama glanced around. Everyone was focused on Georgius in front of him. Kazami, who stood behind him, suddenly realized he was looking at her.

“This is the first time I’ve seen it.”

She nodded and so did everyone else.

Puzzlement could be seen on their faces, so Sayama spoke their doubts and his own question to Ooshiro.

“If you do not know what good this gauntlet is, why was it stored so exaggeratedly?”

“It is a memento of your mother.”

The instant Sayama comprehended those words, he felt a tightening in the left side of his chest.

Intense pain filled his body. It was much stronger than it had ever been before.

“…”

He could tell everyone had frozen in place and was staring at his back. Sayama placed his right hand on his chest and grabbed at it.

From behind, only a slight movement should have been visible, but they might have noticed.

But it did not matter. If they had noticed, there was nothing he could do about it.

He endured the pain and took a breath. And then Itaru opened his mouth across the table.

“So you get chest pains when you hear about your parents or your grandfather. You intend to walk down the Leviathan Road with that odd bomb inside you, don’t you? Your father died and left you behind, your mother tried to kill you along with herself, and your grandfather passed away without telling you anything of import. …Sayama Mikoto, you are a pitiable person. A truly pitiable person.”

A small stir spread through the surrounding people. A mixture of voices and gasps responded to Itaru’s final words.

Pitiable.

Sayama vigorously raised his head against that atmosphere that seemed to be looking down on him.

He glared. He glared straight forward where Itaru lowered his sunglasses and looked at Sayama as if glancing up at him. And just as Sayama was about to speak a rude word toward those eyes and the smile on those lips…

“Everyone has a weakness,” said a figure standing to the left.

Itaru, Sf, Ooshiro, and even Kazami and the others behind him looked to his left.

Everyone’s gazes gathered on Ooki.

[[Image:OnC_v02_0327.png|thumb]]

“Um…” she said as she placed a hand on her chest and looked up into the sky. “But it is overcoming that weakness that gives us valuable experience. For example, Itaru-san, you have your cane and Sf-san to help you with the disability in your legs. Sayama-kun will find something or someone to act as his cane or his Sf-san. I don’t know if that will be this glove or someone from UCAT, though. But…”

Ooki nodded and glanced around. She looked at Itaru, Sf, Izumo, Kazami, Sibyl, Boldman, Ooshiro, and her other comrades.

“Sayama-kun will be fine. I guarantee it.” Ooki seemed incredibly satisfied with her own words. “Yes, yes. That’s just how it is. For example, Izumo-kun is an idiot, but Kazami-san corrects him. Kazami-san is violent, but Izumo-kun absorbs it all. Mr. Boldman is bald, but everyone pretends not to see it and it helps make him more unique. Am I wrong?”

“I think you might have just ruined everything you had built up, Ooki-sensei.”

“Eh?” asked Ooki as three hands grabbed her collar and dragged her into the crowd.

While listening to Ooki’s “Hyaaaaah!”, Sayama sighed.

The pain in his chest was gone. It had disappeared. And so he spoke to Itaru.

“You can decide whether I am pitiable or not based on my results from now on. Let me ask you one thing: were my parents members of UCAT?”

“Yes. They were disguised as IAI personnel and they acquired Georgius during a certain mission.” Itaru clicked his tongue once, but his smile did not disappear. “Here’s another job to add to the Leviathan Road. It seems Georgius has a right hand as well, but it was lost and not even UCAT can find it. You find it on your own.”

“Is it needed to complete the Leviathan Road?”

Ooshiro Kazuo answered this question.

He nodded and said, “All I can tell you is that this is a weapon that can bend any concept to your will and there is meaning in having both the left and right hand. Everything else, including its creator, is unknown.”

“That is all…my mother said?”

“Yes. Your mother, Yume-san, told us that and left it with us. We believed her that it holds some kind of meaning for the Leviathan Road.”

After Ooshiro finished speaking, Sayama suddenly realized a sigh had escaped his lips.

He recalled his memories of the past and of his mother right up to the line of the dangerous territory.

He recalled a woman with short black hair and slightly sharp eyes. This was a created memory.

He had little memory of what she had done for him or told him.

''She hoped I could become someone who could do something,'' he thought. ''And she tried to kill me.

His memories were vague, but he had gained something new he could add to them:

Georgius.

“It is hard to understand. She had hopes for me, tried to lose me, and gave me this.”

She was selfish, that was for sure. However, Sayama looked down at Georgius.

“Can I take this?”

“Yes, but be careful. We are unable to equip Georgius. When we try to touch it, we are spatially repelled. Trying to force one’s hand into it will rip your fingers apart.”

Ooshiro showed off his left palm. White scars from some slight lacerations were visible.

“I see,” said Sayama.

But he grabbed Georgius without hesitation. From the way Ooshiro jerked his left hand back in fear, it seemed that was when the rejection reaction would have occurred.

“It seems nothing happened.”

Sayama equipped Georgius on his dominant left hand. It was a bit large for him, but tightening the band on the wrist set it in place. The scars on his fist were hidden as the characteristic warmth of leather covered his hand.

The palm had a shallow semispherical metal part corresponding to the hard point on the back of the hand. That half sphere had a plus sign carved into it. Other than that, the gauntlet was unremarkable.

Sayama pulled the plus sign medallion out of the case. He placed the medallion in the round hard point on the top of Georgius. It fit perfectly.

As soon as he did, Georgius suddenly began to vibrate.

“…”

Wind gathered and was sucked into the space between the medallion and Georgius.

Everyone froze in place around Sayama. Izumo stopped pulling on Ooki’s ears and shouted out.

“…What kind of special effect is this!?”

A word rang out over the other voices of protest. An unfamiliar male voice came from the surface of the gauntlet.

“I…!”

But that was as far as it went. The wind disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.

Georgius stopped shaking and calm returned.

Everyone stared at Sayama while still in defensive stances. As those gazes fell on him, Sayama lightly shook his left hand with Georgius on it. Nothing happened. After determining that fact, Sayama spoke to the others.

“It seems something even more amazing will happen with both of them.”

With the black cat on her shoulder, Brunhild met up with and marched with her comrades.

Their loud and hurried footsteps traveled toward where the holy sword Gram had fallen. They had recently calculated out the general location, so their priority was gaining control of that area.

UCAT’s Gram recovery team was closer than they were. They had to catch up with that team and defeat them.

Fafnir Custom was at the lead of the marching army.

He tried to fell as few trees as he could manage, but he still created a path for the rest.

The sounds of his four massive legs and of toppling trees could be heard.

Brunhild walked quickly along while making sure to look at the break in each felled tree so she could remember it. Those around her did the same. And most likely…

…''Venerable Hagen is doing it as well.

They were occasionally ambushed by enemies with guns and occasionally came across explosives.

But they were all stopped and quickly crushed by Fafnir Custom.

Fafnir Custom spoke as he received the effects of the gunfire and explosions.

“Do not interfere.”

The others obeyed him. They did not draw their swords or aim their guns.

As Brunhild watched, she saw that Fafner did the same as he walked behind Fafnir Custom.

The white dragon of steel took on all the fighting.

The group of green and black cloaks merely walked forward.

And then several white figures became visible in front of Fafnir Custom. There were at least ten of them.

“We’ve caught up to UCAT!”

Fafner raised his voice and everyone put more strength into walking.

This was UCAT’s Gram recovery team that had been sent ahead. As Brunhild watched from behind Fafnir Custom, they stopped moving and turned their weapons toward the dragon. It seemed their plan was to make a stand here.

''That’s impossible,'' thought Brunhild.

Suddenly, she felt a soft sensation on her cheek. It was the tail of the cat on her shoulder.

“…?”

The cat met her gaze for just an instant and then looked behind her.

Brunhild’s pace slowed slightly as she walked.

She looked behind herself as well.

What she saw first were the others walking toward her. Their forward-bent march made them appear to be approaching her specifically.

As she cowered down a bit, those green and black cloaks slipped past her and walked on ahead. No one said a word. They only looked forward and marched toward the awaiting battle.

But Brunhild saw something else. It was even further behind those marching soldiers.

It was in the distant forest beyond the mountain range. She saw a light so small one had to pay close attention to even see it.

That was the forest basin where they had been not long before.

It had been abandoned as a gathering point, so no one should have been left.

“…They’re coming, aren’t they?”

She stopped walking altogether as she muttered those words.

The others continued forward like a muddy stream flowing beside her. They continued forward to pursue their enemy and acquire Gram.

But Brunhild had a thought: were they really driving their enemy away?

She heard Fafner’s voice behind her in the direction everyone was headed.

“What is it?” he asked.

He received an answer from Fafnir Custom further up ahead. His voice was partially drowned out by the wind.

“I asked her to stop the enemy pursuit. We will hurry ahead and retrieve Gram.”

Brunhild shut her eyes at those considerate words. She had no recollection of him asking that of her.

She could not thank Hagen. She merely held Requiem Sense up a bit. His auxiliary vision devices would see it.

The moonlight fell down as if sliding across the curve of the scythe.

Brunhild began to walk while thinking how obtrusive that light was.

She walked forward. She walked in the opposite direction of the others.

Sayama and the others prepared to head back out into battle.

Sayama stood within the basin. The others gathered a few meters in front of him as if creating a wall.

Sayama swung his right hand in front of them all. That hand that sliced through the air and stopped held six scraps of paper. He used his thumb to spread those six cards out.

Each of them had the word “steel” written on it.

“Now. This is all of our unbreakable and unbendable ‘steel’. Sf-kun, if you do not mind.”

After Sayama finished, Itaru spoke.

“Go. Earn yourself some gratitude.”

“Tes.”

As she spoke, Sf took a step in front of the others.

Sayama swung his right wrist and threw the six pieces of paper into the air.

They no longer moved like paper. They rotated and flew up with real weight to them. That paper was now “steel”.

As the lights set up in that basin illuminated the paper, the paper reflected that crimson light.

Sf raised her right hand.

By the time she did, the sounds of six gunshots on the ground and six metallic noises in the air had all faded away.

Sf’s hand had already returned to its original position.

While paying no heed to the smoke spreading out before her eyes, she wordlessly bowed toward Sayama and then toward everyone else. As her white-haired head lowered, six small lights fell at her feet.

They were empty shell cases.

Everyone there gulped, but Sf returned to the wall of people without caring. Unlike before, the wall of people split open to let her in.

And as she turned her back, six pieces of paper fell to the ground.

Sayama picked them up. He reached down and grabbed the papers that had stabbed into the soft ground.

“Now then. This one, this one, and this one are no good. They have holes.”

The fourth one had a large dent where it had bent in the shape of a bullet.

“This one seems to have been about as effective as a bulletproof textile. The writing is very nice, though.”

“Ahh,” groaned Kazami at the front of the wall as she brought a hand to her forehead. “But I earned the intermediate level in calligraphy.”

“This cursive one was tougher. It only bent.”

“Oh! That was me! That one’s mine!”

Ooshiro took a break from typing up records on his laptop to joyously raise his right thumb.

Sayama ignored him. He picked up the final paper and frowned.

“This is splendid. It did not bend and it does not have a scratch on it.”

He showed it to everyone.

“But what is with this writing? It looks like the death throes of an earthworm suffering from a twisted intestine. Who wrote this curse?”

“It was me, you damn idiot! Are you trying to pick a fight!?”

Izumo took a step forward and the shoulders of everyone behind him drooped.

“I knew it,” they said in unison.

“What do you mean by that!?” he shouted.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” said Kazami as she patted his shoulder. She sighed and added, “I can’t believe my intermediate level calligraphy lost to these worms…”

“Hey. Are you trying to comfort me or complain? Make up your mind.”

“It seems what matters most is the image the writing gives you, not the technical shape of the character. Instead of writing it neatly so the Japanese can read it, we need to make it so anyone can understand it… Writing that looks more like a picture may be more effective in this world. Here, take this.” Sayama tossed the paper to Izumo. “Now, Izumo. Gather all the writing tools here and write this character on as many objects as time allows. Write it on our equipment, the paper we have, stones on the ground, and sticks you find. Strengthen everything we can use.”

Sayama nodded.

“So written information has power in this concept space…”

He walked forward. He made his way to Ooshiro who held his laptop under his arm.

“Old man.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Could you give me all of that computer’s storage devices to use as explosives?”

“What!? Wh-what are you talking about!? Explosives!? Wh-what writing makes it an explosive!?”

“Shut up, you ancient otaku. Answer my question honestly. …How much disk space on that computer is filled with 18+ games?”

“Th-thirty gigs maybe?”

“…Thirty?”

“F-fifty… N-no, I think it might have been one hundred twenty.”

“Have you fully completed all of those games using your real name?”

“O-of course not. I don’t have the time to-…”

“Hey! Someone come torture this painful old man!”

“I do! I have time! I have more than enough time! Other than the one I’m currently working on, I completed them all on my own!”

“I see. That likely makes this a worldly desire bomb with the destructive power of a nuclear bomb. Very good.”

Sayama nodded, took a step back, and looked over the silent line of people.

“Please understand. He is merely a victim of modern Japan.”

Hearing that, first the men and then everyone else formed a line and patted Ooshiro on the shoulder one by one.

“T-trying to comfort me like this is only going to hurt me further!”

“You have nothing to worry about. Now you can brazenly leap into the world of eroticism while on the job. Just place a note on your back saying you are producing bombs.”

“Oh, you’re right!”

Just as Ooshiro’s expression brightened, Itaru grabbed his shoulder rather than patting it.

“We are having a family meeting once this is over.”

Shinjou ran through the forest.

Behind her, she could hear the footsteps of Fafnir Custom that sounded like cracking stone and the footsteps of the marching 1st-Gear troops. Their advance was made clear by the sounds of falling trees and breaking stone.

As those sounds of destruction pursued her, Shinjou was accompanied by injured UCAT members.

After being chased from the remains of the base by Fafnir Custom and getting separated from Izumo and the others, Shinjou had met up with these people.

They said they were the Gram recovery team. They said no reinforcements were coming but they were going on ahead regardless.

And now they were being pursued by that white mechanical dragon.

“Ah.”

Shinjou was out of breath.

She felt the weight of the Cowling Staff named Ex-St in her arms.

When she had encountered Fafnir Custom at the remains of the base, it had ultimately been Kazami who put an end to Izumo and Fafner’s attacks. She had interfered from the side and deflected Fafner’s pressure so it destroyed the earth’s crust.

Shinjou had been unable to do anything.

She was out of breath. Her weapon felt heavy in her arms.

But she thought of the injured men running alongside her. And so she sucked in some air.

“Everyone.”

Shinjou turned toward the man running next to her. This man was lending his shoulder to an injured comrade.

“I’ll draw his attacks to me. Look to the right up ahead,” she said to him.

As they ran through the trees, a stone could be seen sticking up in the middle of the forest.

“Let’s split up behind that stone. You go hide.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! You can’t do anything on your own!”

Shinjou looked up at the man and forced a smile.

“Don’t worry. Team Leviathan will catch up soon. …They are my comrades.”

The man’s expression vanished for an instant when he heard that unit name. He then gave a troubled smile.

“That’s difficult to hear.”

“Wh-why?”

“My friend died the day before yesterday when Team Leviathan showed up too late.”

Shinjou was at a loss for words. She could tell her smile had vanished.

She ran with her head hanging down and began to apologize.

“Don’t say it. An apology isn’t enough for me to forgive you,” he said. “But those of us in the normal division rank lower than the special division. That relationship is absolute. However, if you truly want to keep it absolute, make sure to keep your word. If you will remember that, we will not forget either.”

“…What won’t you forget?”

“A small thing. Someone left flowers for our comrade.”

Just as Shinjou heard those words, they arrived at the tree they had used as a landmark.

The men fired behind them and leaped to the right without saying a word.

Shinjou leaped to the left and turned around to check behind her. The gunshots and bullets flew toward where Fafnir Custom was felling trees and the others were taking shelter.

Shinjou was not sure if they had seen what the men had done.

But she ran all the same.

To make sure the enemy could see her, she flipped the hem of her armored uniform into the air.

The white mechanical dragon saw his prey before his eyes.

That white figure was a single girl.

That girl had been running alongside the men who had been in the lead just a moment before. The fact that she was alone now meant…

''She is covering for her comrades,'' thought Hagen within Fafnir Custom.

He saw her spread her body out with exaggerated motions and the white of her clothing was easily visible in the darkness.

And she ran. She kept her back to him and ran deep into the forest.

Either way, she was headed the same direction they were.

Choosing her was unavoidable. As if pursuing that running prey, the mechanical dragon felled more trees and hurried forward.

“—————”

He roared. That reverberating, high-pitched, creaking noise informed his comrades behind him where they were to go.

Fafnir Custom created a path and pursued his prey. The hot armament reactor located below his neck emitted a heated wind. The Concept Core within was functioning properly.

Fafnir Custom was running well.

''But,'' thought Hagen who had combined with the mechanical dragon. ''I do not have long.

He could move his body, but he felt a slight sensation similar to fatigue. A mechanical body was not supposed to grow tired.

Combining with a mechanical dragon was not the same as simply being inserted as a component of the machine. All of one’s information was converted to writing data and synced with the machine. This was a 1st-Gear modification of the mechanical life form synchronization systems created in 5th-Gear and 3rd-Gear.

Just as writing on paper gave that paper power, a living being could be converted into writing data and added to a machine.

A deviation had appeared in that synchronization.

This deviation was caused by Hagen’s writing data deteriorating over time. Even though he was inside a machine, this was the proof that he was still alive. This was a reminder to ensure he did not lose sight of himself, but it was also his weakness.

Hagen thought to himself as he listened to his advancing footsteps.

''Please hurry.

This was a battlefield. The more Fafnir Custom moved, the more he would push the limits of his abilities and the greater that destructive deviation would grow. He had to resolve this while he could still move.

He thought of the holy sword Gram, of Brunhild, and of Fafner.

''Please hurry. Please hurry, my enemy.

Hagen watched his enemy from within Fafnir Custom. He watched the back of that girl up ahead.

''Please hurry.

''I need an enemy to resolve everything.

As he thought, Fafnir Custom let out a roar. This loud voice seemed to rule over the concept space he had created.

He put all of his thoughts into this roar.

…''I want to win this.

As Sayama and the others ran through the destroyed remains of the forest, they heard what sounded like the distant roar of a beast.

“That is Fafnir Custom.”

Everyone tensed when they heard Siegfried’s explanation. However…

“Hurry.”

That was the conclusion they reached.

That group wearing clothes of white and black traveled along the moonlit path left by the dragon. Their footsteps were not in unison, their equipment was not identical, and the whistles blown by a few of them were scattered.

But they all hurried. They all moved further and further ahead.

And as they ran, a black shadow moved out of the forest to the left and into the middle of the moonlight.

“!?”

Everyone took defensive stances and stopped their hurrying feet.

The shadow before them was a human form.

This human wore a three-cornered hat and black clothes. A black cat sat on her shoulder. Kazami spoke the name of the girl who carried a long scythe.

“Brunhild Schild.” With a bitter smile, she adjusted the backpack on her back. “What a coincidence. We only just saw each other around here. …Did you forget something?”

“Yes, I did. Student council president, vice president, treasurer, and…the school librarian.”

Brunhild held the scythe horizontally in both hands.

At the same moment, Izumo took a step forward and spoke in a disinterested voice.

“Let me guess, the thing you forgot was our lives.”

“No. I only forgot one thing: my mercy.” She was completely expressionless. “And I had just remembered where I forgot it. …I believe it was back at school.”

“Well, that ain’t good. I hope you wrote your name on it. With writing as pretty as mine.”

Izumo laughed and Siegfried grabbed his shoulder.

“Go on ahead. And correct the comment about your writing.”

“Old man, the writing comment was a joke at my own expense. You’re supposed to laugh.”

Siegfried gave no response to Izumo. He spoke while looking at the girl standing in the moonlight ahead of them.

“This is my fate. I cannot hand it off to anyone else.”

Izumo finally began to move when he heard that.

His shoulder’s drooped and he sighed. He then pushed Siegfried’s hand off of his drooped shoulder.

“Old men who are into young girls tend not to live long.”

Izumo gave a bitter smile and Kazami smiled back at him. Sayama nodded and looked to Ooshiro next to him.

“It sounds like you will not live long.”

“Are you still stuck on that!?”

Sayama grinned bitterly, patted Siegfried’s shoulder, and then held that hand up.

“Let’s hurry on ahead. We have our opponent, he has his opponent, and I have my precious person.”

He took a breath and they all began to move. They began to walk along a course around Brunhild.

They all gave her a parting glance, but they soon hurried toward their destination.

And just as they all left, Brunhild raised her scythe.

She held the blade up toward the night sky as if it were a partially eclipsed moon.

Below it, Brunhild looked toward Siegfried.

She moved her small lips and quietly spoke some perfectly ordinary words.

“Now, how about we get started?”

Shinjou heard giant footsteps pursuing her.

When she turned around, she could see the approaching giant white form that was snapping trees underfoot.

Shinjou cowered down a bit as she ran, but her eyebrows moved inward as she nodded resolutely.

…''Yes. This is for the best.

She could not fight well, but she could do this.

She cleared her mind as she ran. This purification of her thoughts produced movement and she held up her Cowling Staff in both hands.

She ran and leaped. She twisted her body around and fired the instant she was pointed backwards.

She was targeting the legs of the white mechanical dragon approximately one hundred meters behind her. This was a diversion she did not intend to hit with, but it was enough to draw his attention and stop him for a step.

''That’s right,'' thought Shinjou.

She had a way to join the fight. She could not currently think of any way but this, but she was sure of something.

“I know I too can…”

As she muttered, she landed. She turned her body around and ran forward once more.

“I too can…?”

Who was she comparing herself to?

“I too can…do what? What do I want to do?”

Suddenly, her pulse quickened. Thoughts of a certain boy floated up in her mind.

What was this?

What did it mean that she thought of him? Why had she thought of him?

As those questions ran through her mind, light spread out before her eyes.

She had come to the end of the forest.

“!”

Before her was a space with no cover. It was nothing but moonlight and a grassy plain. She saw more forest about two hundred meters ahead. That forest looked pale in the moonlight and it continued on to the distant shadows of the mountain range.

The grassy plain continued as far as she could see to the left and right. The wind blew past her.

“Kh.”

Shinjou ran. She ran toward the forest on the other side.

The heavy metal footsteps pursued her from behind.

“There they are! That’s the recovery team that went ahead!”

Sayama and the others rescued their injured comrades from a rocky area on the way.

The surrounding area was already filled with battles against 1st-Gear.

As the initial sounds of gunfire passed by over their heads, those with nothing else to do began treating the ten or so injured men.

Ooki and Sibyl covered the wounds with the charms they had received from Chao and wrapped bandages around them. As they were being treated, the men spoke while trying to catch their breath.

“A girl who also belongs to Team Leviathan went on ahead…”

Sayama’s eyebrows moved when he heard that. He looked toward the middle-aged man who seemed to be the team leader. The man nodded and began to speak as blood flowed from his head and he shut one eye.

“The holy sword Gram is located just outside this forest.”

“I see,” nodded Sayama.

Hearing that was enough.

He looked into the distance. Beyond the scorched areas filling the forest was their enemy. And that enemy was pursuing something.

The back of a white mechanical dragon was visible at the lead.

They were approximately two hundred meters away. The trailing members of the enemy group had noticed them and begun to approach.

The mechanical dragon was moving toward an open space where the forest ended. It was a grassy plain filled with moonlight.

That would be where Shinjou was. Sayama had to break through the enemy army.

He stood up as he listened to the sounds of clashing swords, gunshots, and explosions that had begun to reverberate loudly through the area.

He was surrounded by the members of Team Leviathan. Itaru and Sf simply watched on from the back and Ooki and Sibyl worked at healing the injured. However, Izumo and Kazami stood to his left and right and Boldman stood behind him.

“Okay,” said Sayama. He looked toward the approaching enemy forces. “Izumo, create a path for me.”

When he heard that, Izumo finally put on a smile.

“Now we’re talking! Boldman! Cover me from behind!”

Izumo pulled what looked like a single white cloth from the torn sleeve of his coat.

“With this, I’m invincible.”

Shinjou fought as she fell back.

She ran along the moonlit field, spun her body around, held up her Cowling Staff, and fired. Its light was fired at the white mechanical dragon’s legs one hundred meters behind her.

She also had to turn her focus and attacks toward the sky.

Leaving the forest meant the soldiers of the winged races could fly up into the sky.

Their arrows of light flew in accurate straight lines toward her current location or the location she would soon be in.

The sound of the attacks resembled that of white spray.

She gasped for breath.

She fired.

That Cowling Stock labeled Ex-St on the side was Shinjou’s personal weapon. It was a concept weapon that functioned by using the philosopher’s stone located near the back end. To ensure it could be used under any concepts, the front end where the attack functionality was focused could be swapped out for other parts.

…''Its attack power is proportional to the strength of my intentions.

It would not create more destruction than the user wished. That was the one thing Shinjou had requested. And it was also the greatest thing holding her back. If she hesitated to attack and did not produce an effective strike, that powerful weapon was no more than a cane.

But she fired.

A scythe of light flew and struck the front right leg of the white mechanical dragon. The scythe shattered with the sound of breaking glass, but the dragon’s leg was left unscathed.

In the corner of her vision, Shinjou saw a single book be ejected from the book holder on the front end of Ex-St. She had drawn out all of the power collected inside.

She had two books left.

Her ammunition was running low, but her attacks were having no effect.

Just as she regretted that fact, she saw a light in the sky.

“!”

She jumped backwards as her legs tangled together. Again and again, light stabbed into the spot she had just been standing in.

A great impact exploded out.

Dirt and scraps of grass flew into the air and covered her face and legs. And before Shinjou could find that annoying, she fired into the sky and began to take a step backwards.

However, she felt something overpowering arrive at her feet.

It was a shell fired by Fafnir Custom.

“…Kyah!”

The ground was split apart and all sound disappeared from her ears.

Her vision blacked out in an instant.

She only avoided passing out because of her fear. Her fear of losing herself quickened her pulse, caused her spine to tremble, and stopped her consciousness from sinking into darkness.

She brought herself back as if waking up. And when she did, her vision was filled with a dark blue.

…''What is…?

Before she could finish her thought, her mind grew clear.

What she saw was the night sky.

It seemed she had collapsed onto the grassy ground. She could feel almost nothing with her body’s senses.

A weak “ah” escaped her lips. Or at least she thought it had.

She could not hear anything.

Her mind told her she was in trouble and she hurriedly stood up. But her action held no strength. The core of her body was numb and her consciousness alone moved ahead. With horribly rough movements, she rolled to the side, placed her hands on the ground, and got up.

She stood up and her vision returned to its proper angle.

Above her was the night sky and below her was a grassy plain with a giant hole in it. That was as it should have been.

Her vision swayed to the left and right. She planted her feet in the direction she swayed and balanced herself. She gave a bitter smile in her heart as she wondered if this was what it was like to be drunk.

She looked forward where the white mechanical dragon stood one hundred meters away. She had nowhere to run and she could not move her body properly.

Sound began to return to her ears. She managed to focus her eyes.

The mechanical dragon’s eyes glowed red directly in front of her.

…''Is it coming?

Just as she asked herself that, the white mechanical dragon, Fafnir Custom, spoke.

“I will give you five seconds. Surrender to 1st-Gear.”

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| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 27|Chapter 27]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 13

2026-05-03T01:13:05Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 13: Location of the Heavens==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0357.png|thumb]]
''A gaze looking down from heaven

''Is actually bound to that high place

''The pleasure of doing so is a different matter

As night began to fall, Sayama joined Izumo and Kazami in the Kinugasa Library.

The three of them sat around a table in that library that had a stepped floor leading toward the center.

Sayama sat on the eastern side of the table. Izumo and Kazami sat across from him.

Siegfried was making black tea at the counter where he supervised the library.

Sayama wore suit pants and a shirt and had his bandaged left arm resting on the table.

He waited for the black watch on his arm to reach six o’clock before speaking.

“Now, can you tell me the whole story about what is going on here, Kazami, Izumo?”

His sharp gaze was pointed toward Izumo who wore a black track suit over his well-built body.

“Ahh, I get the feeling an interrogation is starting here. Am I just imagining things?”

“What a coincidence, Izumo. I have that same feeling. Let us do our best to get through this together.”

“I’d rather not…”

Kazami wore a sleeveless outfit and gave a half-lidded look toward the two boys.

“This doesn’t really matter, so let’s keep it serious and cheerful. If you don’t, you’ll probably receive divine punishment.”

“You heard her, Izumo. Let us have a serious and cheerful interrogation.”

“So basically, it’s interrogation play? I know about that. At night, I’ll go like this with Chisato and…”

As he spoke, Izumo began making a kneading motion with his hands in midair before suddenly disappearing from Sayama’s vision.

Immediately afterwards, he heard a great sound of impact to his right.

“…”

Sayama looked to the right and found Izumo and his chair rolling below a bookcase. He rolled across the stepped floor once, twice, and thrice before coming to a stop.

He lay face down with his limbs sprawled out and did not move. After seeing that, Sayama turned toward Kazami.

She was lowering her hand to the table and was still seated.

“Hm?” she said as she noticed his gaze. She quickly reached her hand under the table and fixed her disheveled clothing. She finally looked over at her partner who was sprawled out on the floor. The ends of her eyebrows lowered, she brought a hand to her mouth, and spoke.

“Ahh, looks like the divine punishment really did come… God must have wanted Kaku to prostrate himself.”

“My eyes were not quick enough to catch it, but is divine punishment limited to the area below the table?”

“Yes. As they say, ‘god repays you in ways you cannot see’.”

“So he endorses assassination… But I did not expect god’s response to be quite so direct.”

“Well, it is. So what will you do? My god is the type that wants to punch with the left after punching with the right.”

“Hm.” Sayama adjusted his tie. “Then I will do as your god says and take this seriously.”

“Don’t accept this so casually!” Izumo stood up and pointed at Kazami. “What if I had been injured!?”

“But you weren’t… I have to wonder how, though,” said Kazami in annoyance.

Izumo looked down at his own body and said, “Oh, that’s fine then.”

“It is?” asked Sayama and Izumo shrugged and nodded before putting his chair back and sitting down.

After seeing the two back to normal, Sayama turned toward Izumo.

“Why are you so sturdy? I have wondered that for a while now.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s just a bit of divine protection.”

“Due to that, Kaku never learns his lesson and I catch myself reacting the same way to other people.”

“Chisato was amazing the other day when a molester touched her ass on the train,” said Kaku fondly. “She put the molester on the railing next to the seats like it was a wooden horse and shoved his crotch against the metal pole like this, again and again.”

“Evil must be destroyed and molesters must die. Never forgive them even if they shout and scream. …That was the slogan for the girls’ dorm last month.”

Kazami then nodded and loudly clapped her hands.

“Okay, let’s get started with the serious discussion! To get straight to the point, Kaku and I entered UCAT two years ago. The incident back then completed the Leviathan Road for 10th-Gear and 6th-Gear. My parents are both normal people who have no connection to IAI or UCAT. …What do you think?”

“I thank you for the quick and simple explanation.”

“Well, there’s no point in hiding any of this,” said Kazami.

Siegfried spoke up from behind the counter.

“It is only appropriate that the Izumo family handled those two Gears.”

“What?” asked Sayama with a tilt of the head.

With a small smile, Izumo explained, “My grandfather destroyed 6th-Gear and 10th-Gear.” He then asked Sayama a question. “This will take a while to discuss. Is your roommate okay? …Do you need to go and strengthen the bonds of friendship?”

“I will show him around the school later. …He is Shinjou-kun’s brother. Do you know him?”

“Oh… I have…heard a bit about him.”

“He does not know about UCAT. He is taking care of his luggage at the moment, so we should have time.”

“I see… Then, Chisato, bring out the world map. Let’s get this over with quickly.”

Kazami brought over a large map meant for a classroom. It was made of cloth and measured a meter square when spread out.

As she held onto one end and spread it out, a slight smell of wood scattered from the cloth.

A complete map of Japan which had discolored slightly with age lay on the table.

Izumo looked across it toward Sayama and opened his mouth to speak without a smile.

“It’s actually been a while since I’ve heard anything related to the National Defense Department other than about my grandfather. UCAT stores all of that sort of information in their archive and won’t let in anyone who doesn’t have permission. I did learn that old man Siegfried is a former member of the National Defense Department during the trouble a few years back.”

Sayama realized Izumo’s gaze was slowly moving up behind him.

Sayama turned his head around to find Siegfried standing there with a silver-plated tray.

The aroma of tea wafted from the four cups sitting on it.

“I would like to open a café, but I cannot do so right away.”

Kazami took the saucer and cup held out to her.

“They have tea in Germany, too. I drank quite a bit when I was there on a trip a long time ago.”

“Eh?” Izumo frowned as he took his cup. “Wh-when did you become such an international person?”

“It was before I met you, Kaku. I ended up all over the place thanks to my father’s job during my middle school years. It was my experiences then that taught me how to speak English. …Do you really have to give me that look? Sayama is even more of a threat. If I recall, he knows twelve-…”

“I know thirteen languages. My grandfather drove it all into me, so you cannot say it was my own ability.” Sayama took his cup and looked up at Siegfried. “Although that same grandfather told me nothing about himself or you.”

“That is unsurprising. I believe Izumo and Kazami only just learned I destroyed 1st-Gear today.”

“You’re right about that. Anyway, how much will you be helping us?”

“I will tell you the bare minimum of what I remember. And I will correct your knowledge.”

Kazami gave a short whistle at that. Siegfried frowned when he heard it, but she rid him of the frown with a single embarrassed smile.

She lowered her cup and said, “That sounds good to me. The two of us have been with UCAT for about two years, but we haven’t been given much information. And yet Kaku is the heir to IAI. Not to mention that the last time his father came to visit him was-…”

“Chisato.”

Kazami stopped speaking when her name was called.

“Sorry,” she said.

Izumo nodded and so did Sayama.

“He does behave badly,” commented Sayama. “Even parents have their own feelings about things.”

“I’m not sure if I should stand up for him or not…”

“Let’s just leave it at that,” said Izumo as he placed a hand on the map. “You heard about the Divine States-World Interaction at the Imperial Palace, right? Japan is connected to the world and that condition has continued to this day. After the ten Gears were destroyed and Japan lost World War Two, Japan escaped occupation by slowing the ley line acceleration and taking on the strange phenomena of the world.”

Izumo looked over at Siegfried. The old man merely nodded.

Sayama decided Izumo’s information must be accurate. It would be safe to let him take the role of teacher.

“Continue. What I want first is a list of the ten Gears. At the Imperial Palace, you said they influenced the myths, legends, and cultures of this world. And 1st-Gear is…”

“The Volsunga Saga of Norse mythology and the more well-known ‘The Song of the Nibelungs’. It’s the story of a hero defeating a dragon and then losing his life after being betrayed by his wife and old lover. The name Siegfried even appears as the hero,” said Izumo with a nod. He tapped between Japan’s Kinki and Sanin Region on the map. “At any rate, that’s 1st-Gear. You know where 1st-Gear’s Concept Core is, right?”

“Yes. Half of it is inside the holy sword Gram and kept in UCAT’s western branch underneath IAI headquarters. But the other half is inside Fafnir Custom, the mechanical dragon of a radical faction.” Sayama lightly folded his arms. “A mechanical dragon… Have you ever seen one, Izumo?”

“Once, but it wasn’t Fafnir Custom. Simply put, it’s a dragon-shaped machine. The main body alone is over thirty meters long. I hear there are some amazing ones that can fly.”

“They were the most powerful standalone weapons of the Concept War,” said Siegfried. “As Ooshiro explained, the Fafnir I slew with Gram had only one reactor. Destroying that one killed it. However, the modified version has two reactors and the crucial Concept Core is sealed inside the weaponry reactor at its throat. If it comes to a fight, destroying the weaponry reactor will not be enough.”

“Fafnir Custom would still be running, so it could crush us?”

“A mechanical dragon can fight effectively enough with just its gigantic body.”

Sayama nodded at Siegfried’s explanation.

…''If I accept the Leviathan Road, will it mean taking on that thing?

He grinned bitterly. He recalled what Shinjou Sadame had said that evening: you might die.

She might very well have been right, but for the moment, Sayama needed to gather information. He brought a hand to his chin.

“Next, I would like to ask about 2nd-Gear.”

“Oh, 2nd is easy. It’s Japan.” Izumo raised his hand and pointed toward the seven Izu Islands on Sayama’s side of the map. “That Gear is thought to be the basis for the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki. Its Concept Core is apparently a fire dragon called Yamata. The people of 2nd-Gear have mostly acclimated to life here. Negotiations with them should be easy.”

Izumo moved his outstretched arm to the side, pointing toward the Seto Inland Sea.

“3rd-Gear is the basis of Greek mythology. I don’t know much about its Concept Core. …It’s been split in half and one half is carried by something called Typhon. And…”

“And? What is it?”

“Have you seen the large humanoid machines we call gods of war? You have, right? 3rd-Gear is a world of those and automatons. That’s why I think this Typhon must be a god of war. The problem is that we can’t find the other half. Searching for it will probably be left to us. If you accept the Leviathan Road, that is,” said Izumo before adding, “Another problem is that we might have to fight those gods of war.”

Sayama had seen it the night before in UCAT’s underground hangar. He had seen a metal giant over eight meters tall.

…''First the mechanical dragons and now this. It’s all so showy.

He now further understood why he might die.

“What about 4th-Gear?”

As Sayama asked for further information regardless of the danger, Izumo gave a bitter smile. He pointed toward Kyushu.

“Africa. From what I hear, the Concept Core was made into the model of the tree serpent Mukiti and it is in UCAT’s possession. …And 5th-Gear is the Americas.” He pointed toward Hokkaido. “I’ve heard 5th-Gear is the Gear of mechanical dragons. Half of the Concept Core was apparently turned into some amazing weapon which is stored in UCAT, but the location of the other half is unknown.”

“6th-Gear is already taken care of, correct?”

“Yes. That world is the basis for Indian mythology. That Gear was ruled using a dragon named Vritra. If you see any Indian people in UCAT, you can assume they’re from 6th-Gear.”

While still smiling, Izumo slowly moved his hand over to point at Tohoku.

“I’ve been told 7th-Gear is China, but we don’t know anything about its Concept Core.”

“This is a lot to investigate…”

“Think of that as part of your duty. Next, 8th-Gear is Australia. That’s Shikoku on the map. Its Concept Core is held by the stone serpent Wanambi, but it is kept in the UCAT western branch below IAI headquarters.”

“We have a surprising number of them stored to the west.”

“Yes,” said Kazami as she stood up and pointed at the Chugoku region for Germany, the Seto Inland Sea for Greece, Shikoku for Australia, and Kyushu for Africa. “All of these were focused in the west. It seems they decided it would be useful to have them nearby in case of an emergency. Was that actually the reason, old man Siegfried?”

“It was, but it also grew difficult to move them afterwards. The remnants of the different Gears would plot to steal each other’s Concept Cores.”

“So the fighting continued even after the war ended. I suppose that should not surprise me. …Next, what about 9th-Gear?”

“9th is the Middle East. It has been suggested as the basis for Zoroastrian mythology. It seems they had some gigantic mechanical dragon named Zahhak, but 9th-Gear lost and its Concept Core is stored below UCAT. 10th is last, but it’s already been dealt with.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“Okay,” said Izumo as he pointed above Kinki. “10th-Gear is thought to be the basis for Norse mythology separate from 1st-Gear. 1st-Gear is less about the legends of the gods and more the basis of the folklore and myths. 10th-Gear is directly the world of the gods.”

“I see,” nodded Sayama.

That was the legends of ten different locations in the world and the corresponding Gears. And…

“You may not know about 7th-Gear, but are all the Concept Cores related to dragons?”

“Yes. And they are also often contained within weapons. In almost every case where the Concept Core has been split in half, one is in a dragon and the other in a weapon.”

Sayama thought on that.

…''So it is the dragon and the weapon to defeat it.

Power and restraint, wealth and influence, enemy and hero. It was a primitive symbol of that relationship.

“So it is called the Leviathan Road because it involves dealing with the dragons of the ten Gears.”

“And Leviathan also refers to the devil’s dragon in the Biblical book of Revelation, right?” added Kazami. “I know a bit about it since my father is looking into that kind of thing right now for some event planning. The Leviathan has the appearance of all beasts.”

“That’s what’s wanted from us.” Izumo folded his arms. “This is just a guess of mine, but I think the Leviathan Road is a negotiation in which we confront the dragons of the ten Gears after acquiring the weapons needed to defeat them.”

Sayama began to nod at what Izumo had said, but then stopped.

There was a lot he still did not know. It was too soon to accept that deduction.

…''And something bothers me about that explanation of the Gears.

He got the feeling Izumo and Kazami’s explanation had contained no conscious errors. They had been clear about what they understood and what they did not.

However, Sayama still felt something crucial was missing. But what was the problem?

“Hm…”

Sayama crossed his arms and stared at the map of Japan. And then…

“?”

The arms folded in front of his chest felt a small movement in his shirt’s breast pocket.

It was Baku. He must have woken up from sleeping in the pocket because he looked up at Sayama.

“Wah,” said Kazami with a look that plainly said she wanted to touch Baku, but Sayama ignored her. He stroked Baku’s head and told him to stay put.

It was as Baku nodded and sank back into the pocket that Sayama realized what it was that had been bothering him.

In the dream Baku had given him that morning, he had seen some ruins.

He immediately gave voice to his thoughts.

“Babel. Izumo, do you know of a tower named Babel?”

Izumo looked up and exchanged a look with Kazami.

“Now that’s a surprise. We don’t know anything about it besides the name. How do you know about it?”

“Baku here gave me a dream with a giant tower in it. Where is it on this map?”

Izumo and Kazami exchanged another glance at that question.

From the way the ends of their eyebrows moved slightly, Sayama could guess the answer.

“You don’t know?”

“No. Since it’s called Babel, we know it’s most likely located in Japan’s version of the Middle East near Osaka. And…Babel must be related to Low-Gear’s Biblical mythology.”

“You sound very certain for saying you don’t know,” said Sayama. “Are you saying this is a mythology of Low-Gear that has no influence from the other Gears?”

“Yes. Biblical mythology is thought to be a Low-Gear original.”

Izumo smiled bitterly and pointed toward the bookshelf behind him. It contained Kinugasa Tenkyou’s books that Sayama had looked at that morning.

“Do you remember the books you looked at this morning? The eleven books on mythology. Volumes one through ten correspond to the lineup of Gears we told you about. And do you know what the eleventh volume is about?”

“…The Bible?”

“That’s right. Japan possesses the appearance of the world’s ley lines. I don’t know if Babel in Japan influences the Middle East or if the Middle East influences the Osaka region, but that tower definitely exists.”

“Do you really not know any details concerning Babel?”

“We tried to look into it, but the information has been completely shut down. Of course, that almost tells you it exists right there. We have no idea why it is being kept secret when it is related to our Gear,” explained Kazami with a shrug.

Sayama gave a bitter smile.

''I see,'' he said in his heart. ''These two have seen the mysteries in their situation and have investigated some of them over the past two years.

Something else seemed to click in place in his head.

“Is that why UCAT uses some terms related to the Bible? Like saying ‘testament’ for ‘understood’. Testament can also refer to the Bible.”

“Yes. There are a total of eleven different Gears: Low-Gear with the Bible and the other ten that act as models for different mythologies. Your grandfather and the others from the National Defense Department destroyed all of the others.”

“But this is referred to as Low-Gear. Why does it have such a humble name?”

Siegfried nodded in response.

“The other Gears referred to each other by numbers based on the order of their worlds’ string vibration frequencies. Those codenames were created as the Concept War continued. And so we came up with our own. American UCAT suggested naming ourselves Law-Gear because we fought for victory and justice. But…”

“But?”

“Professor Tenkyou misspelled it when making the announcement. We have been Low-Gear ever since.”

“Am I supposed to laugh at that?” said Sayama with a sigh. He then took in a breath before asking, “At any rate, which of these Gears did my grandfather destroy?”

Siegfried said nothing, but he cast his eyes down.

Seeing that brought a pain to Sayama’s chest. He frowned and sucked in a breath.

Izumo must have noticed this change because he frowned. Kazami spoke from beside him.

“Sayama? Are you-…?”

The two of them were aware of his illness. That was why Kazami stood up from her chair and began to approach him. At the same moment, the entrance to Kinugasa Library opened behind him.

“Um, is Sayama-kun here?” asked a high-pitched voice.

“…”

Sayama raised his lowered head and turned toward the library entrance beyond Siegfried.

Shinjou Setsu stood there in personal clothes. Shinjou’s hair was worn up and it swayed as he looked toward Sayama.

His eyes were wide as he looked through the library and they narrowed once he spotted Sayama.

“Are you done with your work?”

Sayama nodded and realized a certain fact.

…''My chest pain is gone?

He did not know why. However, it was clear that Shinjou’s presence had played a role.

Sayama smiled bitterly in his heart as he wondered why.

He stood up and looked over at Izumo and Kazami. A smile appeared on Kazami’s lips.

“Go on. I hope you can take good care of your first roommate.”

Sayama listened to Kazami’s words and nodded. He walked over toward Shinjou who was tilting his head with a smile.

In the unlit art room, Brunhild stopped her hand that was moving the brush.

Her wristwatch told her it was 7:30 PM.

“I have been focusing on this for quite a while.”

She looked to the side. The small bird was sleeping in the cardboard box placed on the work desk. The dish cloth inside the box was crumpled such that a depression existed in the middle like a nest. The bird stood on the brush placed there in place of a perch. Its eyes were cast down in sleep.

As Brunhild watched the bird, she swung a leg. This produced a voice at her feet.

“Ow. What is it? I had just gotten to sleep.”

She heard the black cat’s footsteps on the floor. Looking down, she saw its slender body standing up and looking up at her.

Brunhild pressed her index finger against her mouth.

“Are you trying to pick your nose?” asked the cat.

She gently kicked the cat through the air.

The cat turned its back to her, rolled over, and began complaining, but Brunhild ignored it. She stood up and checked the food and water in the box. She soaked a few pieces of food in the water and left them for the bird.

She then crouched down, grabbed the back of the cat’s neck, and picked it up.

“Now, let’s go to the headquarters.”

“Ah? What about the bird? Is it okay?”

“It’s sleeping, so this is our chance.”

Brunhild lowered the black cat to the floor and walked toward the lockers. They were the lockers for the art club located in the back of the room. As she walked, she loosened her uniform’s tie and removed her coat.

She draped the coat over her arm as she arrived in front of one of the lockers. She touched the door and it opened.

“Sorry, Requiem Sense. The time to use you has not yet arrived.”

The giant scythe folded up in the locker called orbs of light into the surrounding area. As she watched that pale firefly-colored light, Brunhild grabbed some folded up cloth from the bottom of the locker.

As she lifted it up and spread it out with one hand, the black cat spoke its name.

“The black clothes of the witch.”

Hanging down from her hand were a black dress and a black three-cornered hat.

As Brunhild drew the black clothes toward her, she tossed her coat into the locker.

Her empty hand ran through practiced motions. Her uniform’s skirt fell from her waist and to the floor, she unbuttoned her shirt, and she slid her body out of it.

Partway through, her hand got caught on the right cuff of the shirt, but she bit the button to remove it.

She was now wearing only black underwear and stockings.

She then lightly waved the black clothes again to spread them out.

These black clothes had no stitches along the collar or chest. She sucked in a breath to make her body as slender as possible and slipped the hem of the skirt down her body. She breathed out and the three-dimensional form created by the darts below the chest and the tucks at the waist fit perfectly to the shape of her body with no need for a belt.

Brunhild pulled a pendant with a blue stone embedded in it from the dress’s breast pocket and placed it around her neck.

She lifted the three-cornered hat up in both hands and placed it on her head.

“Finished.”

Without even checking in a mirror, Brunhild began to move. She grabbed the shirt and skirt at her feet and threw them into the locker without bothering to fold them.

“Ah.”

The shirt got caught on Requiem Sense, so she frantically removed it.

She blushed and looked down. The black cat looking up at her quickly shook its head.

“I-I wasn’t thinking anything! I wasn’t laughing! I wasn’t thinking ‘you fool’ or ‘you ape’!”

[[Image:OnC_v01_0377.png|thumb]]

“Fine then,” she said quietly.

She shut the locker and the pale light floating around the area disappeared.

She glanced around to make sure no light remained. Afterwards, Brunhild looked over at the cleaning supplies locker three to the left.

She walked over, opened the wooden door, and pulled out a broom. It was a meter and a half long and meant to be used in both hands. The brush portion had a plastic cover with a floral pattern.

Brunhild spun it around in one hand to ensure the bristles had not come loose from the shaft.

“I hope this will be okay. During the major cleaning, a first year was pretending to play heavy metal on this.”

“And who was it that knocked him out by suddenly chopping him in the medulla oblongata with her hand?”

“I-I just panicked a little. I couldn’t think of any other way.”

“Your form was excellent for it being a split-second idea.”

“Shut up. Anyway, we need to hurry there and hurry back.”

Brunhild began walking and the cat sighed before following.

She unlocked the art room door and stepped out into the hallway. She then walked to the staircase. Their destination was the rooftop.

Once they reached the rooftop, the wind and moon showed themselves.

Brunhild looked up at the bluish-white glowing moon and frowned.

“This makes it more difficult. I’ll be seen if I fly.”

She looked down at herself to find her black clothing reflecting the moonlight, coloring her a bit blue.

The shadows of the broom and three-cornered hat on the rooftop were bluish black as well.

After puffing air out of her nose, Brunhild pulled a small pouch out of her vest pocket. It was leather and rectangular. The folded upper corner was the only portion made to open.

The black cat’s tail stuck up and trembled when it saw the pouch.

“I’m afraid of your driving enough already… Are you really using that too?”

“Come on. If I took off with my own power, the noise and light would give me away.”

“Low-Gear really is inconvenient…” said the cat as it hung its head down.

“Yes,” was the only response she gave before opening the pouch and tilting it downwards.

Sand spilled out.

Brunhild began to walk. She moved toward the western edge of the rooftop. She held the broom in her left hand and lightly shook the pouch of sand in her right hand.

Suddenly, she began to hum. She hummed the melody line of the hymn Silent Night.

The sand that glowed white in the moonlight fell to the rooftop amid the wind and seemed to mix together with the music in her breaths.

Despite the blowing wind, the sand fell straight down without scattering. The path Brunhild walked along and the way she moved her hand drew out a single pattern.

This pattern was a written character. This single 1st-Gear character measured a meter square.

From the center of the roof to the western edge, she lined up forty of the same character and then lined up twenty of a different character.

After she had finished writing the sixty characters, Brunhild lightly shook the pouch next to her ear. She nodded in satisfaction at how much was left and put the pouch away in her pocket.

She then returned to the black cat who had not moved. She stood atop the first character and faced the western sky.

“Now, let’s go.”

Brunhild pulled a single blue stone from her pocket. The stone had a thin chain attached to the front. She wrapped that chain around the middle of the broom.

She placed the broom’s brush on the ground and placed her right foot atop the joint between handle and brush. She moved the right hand holding the handle forward. This created a reverse triangle between the broom and her own body.

She carelessly grabbed the neck of the black cat at her feet and tossed it onto the front of the broom.

“Not the froooooonnnnnnt!”

“Shut up,” said Brunhild as she took a light step with the left foot that was still on the floor.

The first character was located there.

In the instant the sound of her step rang out, a change came over all sixty characters.

The change came in the form of pale light and movement. The sand of the first forty characters gave off a slight blue light and the sand of the twenty characters after them gave off an orange light. The sheet of all sixty characters began to move with the twenty characters in the lead.

Starting below Brunhild’s feet, the sixty meter long sheet created from the sixty characters created a shallow slope leading up into the sky.

After approximately thirty seconds, a slope of characters had been created with the very end raised by three meters.

This shallow slope could not be seen without ascending to the roof of one of the other school buildings.

A wind blew in from the east as if to wash across the backs of the characters.

Brunhild then stepped on the character on the floor beneath her feet once more.

It all happened in an instant.

The character beneath her feet produced a wind. This wind did not blow; it pushed.

“!”

A wind that had the mass of a wall pushed at her feet and her back. It started her, the broom, and the cat along the slope.

She picked up speed. Brunhild first felt the thickness of the atmosphere. She then felt the speed.

As her body sank down on the broom, she could see the scenery ahead and the line of characters shooting by at high speed below her feet. Once she passed a character, it would lose its light, return to being sand, and scatter across the floor.

In the period of time known as an instant, the first forty characters scattered.

When Brunhild reached the remaining twenty orange characters, her body began to float.

She began to accelerate further in a straight line.

The wind pushing her from behind began also pushing diagonally at her back and from below her butt.

When Brunhild saw the end of the slope and the starry western sky beyond, she lowered her body on the broom even further. She clung to the broom with her entire body.

Before she could even take a breath, all of the characters on the floor scattered and Brunhild shot into the sky.

A roaring noise struck her body.

“!”

She was in empty air.

Nothing was supporting her body. For an instant, that was all she could comprehend.

Her five senses were disappearing after being struck by inertia.

However, all of her senses returned soon thereafter. She felt the cold nighttime wind tickling from the front of her neck to the back.

“…Ah.”

When her slightly darkened vision recovered, she noticed a line of private homes running along below her.

The broom moved at high speed and it was falling as if scraping away at her gut. Brunhild was clinging to the broom’s handle with her entire body and the broom was shaking violently to the left and right with no sign of settling down.

Brunhild raised her head. She checked to make sure a pale bluish-white light was coming from within the floral pattern cover over the broom’s brush. She then released the cat from where she had been pressing it to the handle with her left hand.

As she flew through the wind, the sea of light flowing by below her was approaching. It only took her an instant to decide what to do.

She needed to rise. And to do that…

“Continue in flight form.”

Brunhild squeezed the stone wrapped around the broom and used a leg to push the brush toward the ground.

By the principle of leverage, the end of the broom pointed toward the sky.

That was the start.

As if in response, the floral pattern cover over the brush began producing its own driving force.

The brush portion emitted light downwards toward the ground.

Light shot from the left, right, and top of the tip of the handle. That light transformed into small fixed-position wings that looked like bird wings.

With thrust, wings, and an upward orientation, the broom would be sent up into the sky.

The night scenery flying by below was continuing to approach, but Brunhild ignored that visible cityscape.

“Here we go!!”

The light coming from the bottom of the broom suddenly exploded.

A solid sound burst out.

The tip of the broom produced a ring of steam and it was given permission to accelerate up into the sky.

With a roar similar to artillery fire, it shot straight up toward the heavens.

Brunhild flew.

By the time she felt the recoil, she was already much higher in the sky.

The broom continued to rise. However…

“…”

Brunhild silently observed the sea of light spreading out below her.

That was Tokyo.

But Brunhild let a bitter laugh out into the wind and looked up toward the heavens. She looked into the starry western sky. The moon was not visible that high in the sky.

She squeezed the stone in her right hand and accelerated further. She put all of her speed into ascending and moving to the west.

She flew. She rose up into the night sky. Every feeling in her body urged her to curve through the sky and continue west. The feeling of being thrown out into the sky brought joy to Brunhild. And so she added even more speed.

The cat was shouting something, but it fell silent when she replied with a smile.

She moved onward and upward.

As she shot by just below the clouds, she refused to let up or stop her speed until she reached her desired altitude.

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 12|Chapter 12]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Afterword|Afterword]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 12

2026-05-02T05:26:32Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 12: A Reunion with Someone New==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0335.png|thumb]]
''A meeting is the beginning of a restriction

''That is why meetings last only an instant

''The eternity continuing afterwards is a choice between that restriction and a parting

A square three-story building was located on the northeastern end of the general education buildings of Taka-Akita Academy.

The flat building was partially made of brick and had a terrace. The front of the building also had an entrance leading to the basement. That entrance was labeled with a placard saying “Central Cafeteria Building”.

Only the basement area was open during spring break.

A wide staircase led downstairs. The placard attached to the wall there said “Open 24 Hours a Day” in thick gothic lettering. “However, only limited services are available late at night and on holidays,” it went on to say.

Down the stairs were eight large glass doors lined up side by side and a dimly lit area beyond.

The lobby contained a line of cafeteria ticket machines and several large bulletin boards.

Past the lobby was a fifty meter square space with white walls. Square pillars were located at set intervals and tables for eight filled the space between them.

However, few people were inside. The shops in the corners had sheets over them and only the area around the counter across the eastern wall was lit up.

At the tables were a few people wearing personal clothes and school uniforms as well as a few people wearing the red shirts of rugby uniforms. In addition, a girl wearing a school uniform and a black cat were standing near the counter.

The girl whose gray hair flowed back behind her was Brunhild.

Brunhild placed her hands on the counter and stared back into the kitchen.

Finally, the item she was waiting for arrived.

An old woman wearing a cooking apron carried out a cardboard box thirty centimeters square.

The box had a dishcloth laid out on the bottom and sitting in the corner were two flat-bottomed porcelain bowls. One contained water and the other contained dried corn that had been crushed into relatively large pieces. The small bird hopped between the two bowls.

“This is a large burden you are taking on. But it is already mostly grown, so you should not have too much trouble,” said the old woman.

Before the woman could hold out the box, Brunhild bowed and reached her own hand out.

She placed the box in her hand.

“…”

Brunhild embraced the box.

The bird looked up at her from within the box. As it tilted its small head, Brunhild smiled.

She heard the old woman say, “How nostalgic. I caught one when I was a child, too.”

“Did you?”

“Yes, yes. Even an old lady like me was once as young as you.”

Brunhild fell silent, but the black cat at her feet lightly struck her left shin with its front paw.

Brunhild used her left foot to kick the cat away below the counter.

The old woman had not noticed this exchange of blows, so she looked down at the small bird and spoke.

“It was not long after the war. I swiped some of the wheat and sake my father got through the black market. I soaked the wheat grains and place them on the ground.”

“To give them…to the bird?”

“Yes, yes. I threw one a good distance away. Once it ate that, I threw another one a bit closer to me before repeating the process. By the time it was close enough to me, it could not fly.”

“Because it was drunk?”

“Yes. But it disappeared the day after I caught it. My father looked disappointed it was gone and he complained that the bird had looked delicious. …I knocked him down with a piece of firewood afterwards.”

Brunhild ignored the last half of the story and fell silent, but the black cat lightly struck her right shin once it made its way back.

She kicked it away with her right foot, looked slightly down, and glanced over at the cat.

It was looking up at her from where it lay on the floor.

But when their gazes met, the black cat cowered down and backed away.

Brunhild tilted her head and wondered if the look in her eyes had really been that harsh.

But she then sensed a presence behind her. This was why the cat had backed away.

“…!?”

She placed the box on the counter and turned around. A chest covered in a black vest lay directly in front of her eyes within arm’s reach.

Surprised, she took a step back and looked up to assess the situation.

Above the black vest was the collar of a white shirt. Above that was a white beard and bald head.

Brunhild knew this man.

Before she could do anything, a voice spoke beyond the counter.

“Oh, Zonburg-san. You are late today.”

Siegfried Zonburg stood beside Brunhild. He bent over his large body to place his cafeteria ticket on the opposite side of the counter.

The old woman looked at the ticket and asked, “Which one?”

“The Doria.”

“Oh, the vomit rice. Now, do I have any rice left?”

“Even if that is what everyone calls it, I think the one making it should avoid that name.”

“I can hardly call it Doria. I only learned how to cook from my mother.”

“Doria is a household dish. There is nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“Is that so?” asked the old woman with a laugh, but Siegfried’s expression did not change.

Brunhild looked up at him while holding her breath.

Suddenly, he turned toward her.

Brunhild took a defensive stance at that. She brought her right hand up into the air and her left hand into her blazer pocket. All expression vanished from her face and she stared intently at him.

However, Siegfried was not looking at her.

He was looking at the box on the counter. The small bird inside looked up at him and chirped once. Siegfried returned the bird’s gaze and opened his mouth to speak.

“Brunhild Schild-kun.”

Brunhild gasped at having her name called.

She gulped and asked, “Why do you know my name?”

“Whenever you borrow a book, you thank the library assistant but not me. I manage the library cards, so I naturally learned your name.”

“…You certainly are petty.”

“No, that is simply the reason I know your name. I am not demanding you thank me. That is the decision your pride has led you to make.” Siegfried looked back across the counter. “The library is open. The biology and animal section has some books on caring for animals. You should borrow one right away.”

“Is that an order?”

“I merely wish the best for the bird. …But I cannot approve of caring for a bird in the same environment as a cat.”

“Do not worry. My cat is loyal to me.”

That comment elicited a light strike against her calf from the black cat’s front paw. Brunhild swung her right heel back to kick the cat away before she grabbed the box.

Siegfried was not looking in her direction.

She took a step back to open a slight gap between them.

Siegfried provided a clear response to her silence.

He ignored her and let the silence continue.

“…”

Brunhild turned around toward the entrance.

She began walking and the black cat frantically ran after her.

She looked down into the box to find the small bird looking up at her with its head tilted.

Brunhild continued to look at the bird and did not look back.

She held her breath and quickly walked out of the cafeteria.

A line of white buildings existed to the north of the general school buildings. The buildings were aligned in a cross shape and they all looked like three-story school buildings at first.

However, the windows lined up on the southern side were smaller and more numerous than those of a school.

Through each window were two desks next to the window and a bunk bed next to the wall.

These were the student dorms.

The dorms were currently dyed in the colors of the setting sun.

A single figure could be seen moving between the crimson of the sunlight and the bluish-black shadows created by the buildings.

This was Sayama, still wearing his gray suit. He quickly made his way to the building on the southwest end of the line of dorms.

He arrived at a white walled entrance with a sign saying “Fourth General Education Dormitory – True Boys’ Dormitory”.

Sayama stopped at the entrance.

A look at his wristwatch told him the time was 5:30 PM. He had just returned after speaking with Ooshiro about the following day’s preliminary negotiations with 1st-Gear’s peaceful faction.

Sayama glanced down and saw Baku was sleeping with his head sticking out of his breast pocket. And…

“?”

Sayama suddenly turned to the east where the cafeteria building was. He had spotted some motion.

He could see a girl carrying a box toward the general school buildings.

…''That is the head of the art club I passed by this morning.

She must have still had work to do.

''She puts in a lot of effort,'' he thought as he took a breath. ''I need to visit Siegfried in the library and Izumo and Kazami in the girls’ dorm later.

He then turned back toward the dorm building and looked up at his own room on the eastern end of the second floor.

In the very next moment, his expression changed. He frowned.

“…The light is on?”

As the window reflected the setting sun, he could see the bright room beyond.

He did not remember turning on the lights before leaving for the Imperial Palace during the day.

''Who could it be?'' thought Sayama as he hurried into the dorm.

At the same moment, he heard Ooki’s voice from up ahead.

“Oh, Sayama-kun.”

She walked out of the exit in sandals while wearing a shirt and a tight denim skirt.

“Perfect timing.”

Ooki descended the low staircase at the entrance in a single step and arrived in front of Sayama with the sound of gravel.

“What is it, Ooki-sensei? I have urgent business at present, so I would like to hurry to the scene in question.”

“Heh heh heh. You always speak so formally. But you will regret it if you don’t listen to what I-…wait!”

As Sayama ignored her and tried to move past her, she grabbed his sleeve.

“Could you not grab onto that? It is actually rather expensive.”

“I think you should not decide what is important based on monetary value.”

“It is Italian and cost 720,000 yen.”

“Wah! I’m sorry! Just so you know, I could never, ever pay for that!”

“I know. I think you should stop taking up a standard seat in front of the shop in the cafeteria building.”

“But I love jam bread. It’s so sad the shop is closed during spring break… Wait, please listen to what I have to say before leaving!”

This time, she grabbed Sayama’s hand. He sighed, turned toward Ooki, and nodded.

“I apologize, but I fear I will catch your poverty. Please keep your Ooki germs away from me.”

“If you say things like that, I won’t tell you that you have a new roommate!”

“If you say things like that, it makes me want to inform you of your severe idiocy.”

“Huh?” said Ooki as she thought back on what she had said.

Sayama politely removed her hand and asked, “At any rate, what is happening here? I obtained this single-person room thanks to a miracle when I had the wonderful luck of being chosen in the drawing.”

“I will not ask how you influenced that miracle and wonderful luck… Anyway, that miracle and wonderful luck end today. Just give up now.”

She pointed at Sayama as she spoke, but he ignored her. She immediately tugged on his hand.

“Why are you ignoring me!?”

“Well, you already told me what I need to know, right? A parasite has arrived,” said Sayama.

Ooki raised her index finger and lightly clicked her tongue.

“Listen. Let me warn you first. …Your new roommate is not used to you yet, so try not to do or say anything inappropriate.”

“Have you gone completely insane, Ooki-sensei? When have I ever done or said anything inappropriate?”

“You are doing so right now in real time!”

“Now, now,” said Sayama as he held out his right palm to calm down Ooki. “I understand what you are trying to say, so calm down. You want me to be perfectly polite, correct?”

“Yes,” nodded Ooki before crossing her arms. “That is what I want…but with you…”

She groaned and Sayama wordlessly flicked her on the forehead with his right hand.

Sayama checked in at the reception desk, changed into his slippers, and climbed the stairs.

Baku raised his head from Sayama’s breast pocket and climbed up to his shoulder. Baku must have known they were almost to the bed because he stared straight ahead from Sayama’s shoulder as they rounded the turn of the staircase.

Sayama quickly finished climbing the stairs. He moved from the landing to the hallway. His room was the last room on the left.

The fluorescent lights lit the hallway more than the setting sun. Sayama could tell the door to his room was sitting open.

A few cardboard boxes were sitting at the end of the hallway next to the door. Someone was moving in.

“…”

Sayama silently walked forward.

He could hear noise within the room. Someone was opening a cardboard box and removing its contents. He could hear someone piling up clothes and stacking books. These noises reminded Sayama of the past.

…''I made these exact same noises last year.

He approached.

He peered inside the dorm room through the open door.

As soon as he did, a figure took a step out of the room.

The figure had a slender and small build.

The figure stumbled forward between the boxes but managed to remain standing.

“Oh.”

Inertia caused a baggy shirt and culottes-style shorts to sway. And something else swayed even more than the clothes: the soft black hair tied behind the figure’s head.

The figure looked up and widened its eyes slightly.

Sayama recognized that face.

“…Shinjou-kun?” he asked.

“Ah,” said the figure.

The voice was identical to Shinjou’s as well.

That confused voice left Sayama thinking.

…''This is the boys’ dorm.

But his thoughts did not end there.

…''If Shinjou suddenly decided she desired a life with me, what would happen?

Shinjou belonged to UCAT. This school possessed deep connections with IAI, so it was likely connected to UCAT as well.

Sayama already had Izumo and Kazami as examples. He assumed those two were deeply involved in IAI and UCAT beyond what was officially said about them.

Also, UCAT had asked him if he would accept the rights to the Leviathan Road. Shinjou’s presence could be a means of leading him to accept.

''What should I do? What should I do?'' thought Sayama twice before adding, ''No, whatever the adults may be hoping to gain from this, the fact remains that Shinjou, a girl, has come here.

He recalled what she had said on the bridge in front of the Imperial Palace. She had told him not to be too surprised when he returned to his dorm.

…''That is impossible. I cannot help but be shocked at this.

When Sayama had asked her if she was sending him something, she had nodded and said she felt she had to.

How had he responded to that?

…''I told her I would gladly accept it. I see.

Sayama had reached his conclusion. He had already given his answer back then.

After coming this far, he did not hesitate or make the issue any more complicated. He had decided everything should continue as she wished.

With a serious expression, Sayama nodded toward her. He spread his arms lightly to either side.

“Now, leap into my arms.”

In response, Shinjou bowed with a relieved look.

“Thank you for acting just as inappropriately as I heard you would. I am Shinjou Sadame’s younger brother, Setsu.”

Sayama’s arms were still spread.

Shinjou Setsu raised his body while still smiling.

But Shinjou then said “Um…” while lowering the ends of his eyebrows and holding out his right hand.

With his arms still held out to the side, Sayama smoothly lowered his hips and rotated his body ninety degrees. He grabbed Shinjou’s right hand with the right hand he still held out to the side. He gave the boy a handshake.

That touch told him Shinjou had no ring on his right hand. Sayama stood back up.

“…Her younger brother?”

“Yes,” replied Shinjou with a less nervous voice and smile than before. “Didn’t my sister tell you? She told me to stay here until your arm healed, Sayama-kun.”

His voice and tone were identical to Shinjou’s. The feel of his hand was also identical.

Sayama mentally tilted his head and let go of the boy’s hand.

“How much did your sister tell you about me?”

“She said you protected her when she was almost hit by a car, but you injured your dominant arm in the process. She is busy with work, so she can’t do anything to help even though she wants to.”

“I see,” said Sayama in acknowledgment.

…''Does he not know about UCAT?

“I apologize in advance, but may I check on something?”

Shinjou tilted his head in confusion.

“Sure, I don’t mind. But what is it?”

“Oh, nothing much.”

Sayama stood before Shinjou, slowly pulled him closer, and touched the right side of his chest with his right hand.

“Eh? Ah…Wh-what are you doing?”

As the boy provided light resistance, Sayama felt only ribs and a thin chest.

Shinjou tried to pull away from the left hand lightly wrapped around his back.

But Sayama said, “Please do not move. For one, who was it that said he did not mind?”

“B-but I didn’t think you meant this…”

Shinjou’s shoulders lowered and he stopped trying to draw away.

Sayama nodded and slid his hand over to the left side of Shinjou’s chest. He pressed his fingers in as if trying to massage his chest, but the skin beyond the white shirt was thin and hard. It had little flexibility and lacked the shape of Shinjou’s breasts Sayama had seen the night before.

…''He is male.

Sayama’s body sank down slightly. He took his right hand off Shinjou’s chest and a slight moan escaped Shinjou’s lips. As if to rob Shinjou of this opportunity to relax, Sayama grabbed Shinjou’s waist with his right hand.

[[Image:OnC_v01_0351.png|thumb]]

“Ah,” said Shinjou as Sayama pressed his right ear against his chest.

Sayama heard the slightly quickened beating of Shinjou’s heart.

It sounded the same as what he had heard the night before. The slight sweet aroma in the breath was also the same.

However, the chest he had his ear pressed up against was not the same as the chest he had seen. It was the flat and hard chest of a guy.

Still doubtful, Sayama asked, “Hm… Has your chest always been like this?”

“W-well, yes…”

Sayama looked up to see a flushed face looking down at him. Shinjou was lightly biting his lower lip and bringing together his eyebrows. Finally, he let out a trembling sigh.

“I-is that enough? Are you done? I don’t want you st-staying down there too long.”

Without replying, Sayama grabbed Shinjou’s arm from where it hung awkwardly in the air and brought it around behind his back.

“Eh? Ah… No, Sayama-kun?”

As Shinjou lightly embraced him, Sayama listened to the boy’s pulse.

But nothing changed. The chest still felt like that of a guy. The pulse grew a bit stronger, but that was it.

“I see,” said Sayama with a nod before raising his head.

…''She said they are twins, didn’t she?

Sayama nodded once more in his heart, stood up, and faced forward.

Shinjou stood there with his cheeks red and the ends of his eyebrows lowered. Shinjou let out a breath and Sayama crossed his arms.

“Do not worry. There was nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Y-you were incredibly out of the ordinary, Sayama-kun.”

“Is that any way to act toward someone you just met?”

“You should say that into a mirror…”

“No need,” declared Sayama. “I was just given a warning by Ooki-sensei downstairs. And I am being careful to heed that warning.”

“…I have to ask. What was this warning?”

Sayama provided a clear response.

“Do not do or say anything inappropriate.”

“Wow,” said Shinjou as he drew back.

Nevertheless, Sayama held out his right hand.

“It may only be until my left arm heals, but let us get along, Shinjou-kun. It should not be too difficult. Compared to those around me, I am constantly troubled by how normal I am.”

In the art room at night, Brunhild gave the small bird food while working on her painting. She was adding the green of the forest to the canvas and would provide some food whenever the bird chirped to say it was hungry.

She would grab the crushed and threshed corn with narrow tweezers, soak it in water, and hold it out to the bird. If she did not lightly pinch the corn with the tweezers, the bird could not bring it into its mouth.

The black cat down at her feet spoke.

“You certainly are enthusiastic about this.”

“I have to do this at least until it goes to sleep.”

“I think you need to visit the headquarters tonight. What will you do?”

“It is not time for my periodic report, but yes… It would be best to ask how I should handle this from now on. If it was something simple, I could just have you fly there. But…”

The cat nodded.

“Most likely, they have already noticed the Royal Palace faction’s actions. The headquarters will be full of energy trying to decide what to do.”

“As long as the holy sword Gram is stored below IAI headquarters, there is nothing we can do. …Breaking in to take it is not the type of strategy Venerable Hagen prefers.”

“The second generation group who know nothing of war like Fafner are oddly motivated, though.”

The small bird chirped.

Brunhild fed it with the tweezers.

It swallowed the food and let out a breath. It tilted its head and looked up at Brunhild. She remained expressionless.

“…It’s so cute.”

“You don’t have to keep that to a whisper, you know.” The black cat lowered its shoulders. “But why are you so obsessed with this bird?”

“I am not obsessed. I think the laws of nature are important, but I also think life is important.”

“You’re contradicting yourself.”

“Yes, I am.”

Brunhild picked up her palette and brush. She brought the brush to somewhere other than the forest. She brought it to the area that had been empty up to this point. She brought it to the spot for the cabin and the people.

“Do you want to hear an old story?”

“Yes.”

“This was long ago when I was still very young.”

“How many hundreds of years ago was that? No, ah, s-sorry! Ahhh! The bottom of that brush is pointed!!”

“Shut up. At any rate, a certain person saved a town near our forest back then. A mechanical dragon had gone out of control. When the pilot was joining with it, the rejection reaction was especially strong and he went insane. The town was half destroyed and the mechanical dragon entered the forest to pursue the people who had fled into it.”

The cat said nothing and only nodded.

Brunhild continued speaking as she painted the black base for the cabin.

“This person fought despite being injured and won all on his own. I do not know if it was on a whim or what, but he took in an injured bird afterwards. We all took care of it.”

The black cat looked up at the canvas. A few different people were drawn in charcoal around the cabin Brunhild was painting black.

An old man read a book within the cabin and a girl and a woman played with a bird in front of the cabin.

And a man could faintly be seen as well.

The cat looked at those line drawings before turning toward Brunhild. Lastly, it looked back at the charcoal lines of the flying bird.

“So…” The cat tilted its head. “You want to see those flapping wings once more? Something like that?”

“No,” replied Brunhild with a slight laugh. “This is a painting. It is not real. When our world was destroyed, that bird escaped its cage and…”

She took a breath, but did not continue speaking.

The silence spreading around her caused the cat to tremble, but Brunhild laughed quietly again.

“Ha,” she breathed out before speaking in a trembling but smiling voice. “If he had been there, I think the outcome would have been different. He saved that bird despite knowing the world would be destroyed, so why did he not see it through to the end? And even if it was only for a short time, he had been with Lady Gutrune so much… So why?”

As she asked that question to no one in particular, the black cat’s eyes opened wide.

“Is this person you are talking about who I think it is?”

“Yes. The sorcerer who arrived from Low-Gear. The man who stole the holy sword Gram from 1st-Gear and destroyed that earth and that sky. And the enemy who killed those who were like family to me before running away.”

Brunhild spoke his name.

“Siegfried Zonburg. …Our greatest foe.”

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 11|Chapter 11]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 13|Chapter 13]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 10

2026-05-01T03:21:14Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 10: Development of Will==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0277.png|thumb]]
''Is hesitation feigned goodness or is it courage?

''Then is determination feigned evil or is it recklessness?

''Neither one is a bad thing

The knight swung his shield and deflected the liquid.

When the pale yellow liquid struck the metal shield, smoke rose from it. A hole was eaten into the surface of the shield.

“That is quite a deadly poison!” commented the knight.

“You were really going to pour that into my ear!?” added Ooshiro.

The knight ignored the old man and silently squeezed the trigger of his long rifle.

Bluish-white light emitted from the side of the book loaded into the gun.

That bookshelf rifle drew out the meaning of that collection of words in the form of heat.

It was a more primitive method than adding a new ability with the words, but it was plenty powerful.

He fired.

A ball of light shot from the rifle’s barrel. However, he was not targeting either of those lying on the ground below him.

He targeted the black cat.

In the amount of time known as an instant, the bright yellow bullet grew to five meters across and traveled in a shallow arc to the south side of the grassy area.

The reverberation of electrical discharge was drowned out by the sound of destruction when it struck.

It exploded.

“!”

The southern end of the grassy area grew warped, crumbled, and then shrank inwardly, trees and dirt included.

In the next instant, everything within a twenty meter square was blasted up into the sky.

A tremendous roar was heard.

The knight said, “I doubt that was enough.”

He then turned toward the two below him.

“Now! I will handle the two of you. Even if this sullies my name, seeing this through is how I show my pride!”

The boy lying on the ground then muttered something.

“So you have decided what path you will take as well, have you?”

“What?” asked the knight.

However, he quickly lifted his rifle again and focused on the battle.

The book loaded in the rifle was already emitting bluish-white light from all of its pages.

If he squeezed the trigger, he could eliminate the two people clinging to a sheer cliff.

“I am sorry,” said the knight.

Unexpectedly, the boy answered him.

“There is no need to apologize.”

As he spoke, the boy suddenly stood up.

He stood atop the ground which should have been a cliff to him. He placed his feet on the ground and stood while keeping his body low.

“What…!?” The knight drew back. He held back up his shield and shouted, “Damn you! Have you added the same concept as us!?”

Without replying, the boy ran.

The knight’s comrades began to move and prepare to attack, but it was too late.

The boy circled around to the knight’s left which was the north. The knight tried to follow the boy’s motion with his rifle, but he did not make it in time.

With his back turned, the boy jumped lightly up.

He performed a reverse roundhouse kick.

It hit home.

His heel struck the knight’s left shoulder with more weight than expected.

The knight’s bones creaked and his body was lifted up.

“Kh.”

He endured the pain and lowered his hips to land properly. He tried to aim the rifle in his right arm toward the boy, but his body felt numb and he could only aim to the front.

While remaining on guard for another kick, the knight rotated his entire body. He held his shield toward the boy.

He found the boy landing from his kick on all fours.

He then gently lifted his body a bit before running. He circled around to the north once more.

When the knight tried to follow him, one of the giant attendants shouted out from behind him.

“Look!”

The knight turned toward the deep voice and found the old man named Ooshiro moving to the south of the grassy area. His stance was low, but he was definitely running.

“How?” muttered the knight.

South was set as down, so the ground should have been perfectly vertical.

He and his companions were only able to stand due to the effects of the philosopher’s stones they held. Their enemies should not have had any of their own, yet they were still running around on that vertical ground.

“How!?”

To the north of the grassy open area, a line of trees had escaped the destruction of the stone wall.

It now functioned as footing stretching out perpendicular to the ground. On one of the tree trunks, the battle beginning far below was visible. Sf stood there carrying a single café set.

She held a parasol, a portable cooler, a table, and chairs. She skillfully placed them on the tree trunk as she heard the knight’s question from far below: How?

Sf gave a small nod.

She pulled a single bullet from her pocket. On its side, the words “bullet, one more hit” were written.

“You made a mistake in your theory.”

She placed the bullet atop the table which was sitting on the line of trees.

The bullet remained still at first, but it eventually accelerated and began rolling.

“That area may appear to be a wall, but it is actually a slope,” said Sf as if to confirm it. “Setting south as down was a naïve decision but not a surprising one for a resident of a flat world such as 1st-Gear. …After all, the earth is round and Japan is located on the northern hemisphere.”

Sf looked at the grassy area below her. Sayama charged into the center of the enemy ranks and was fighting while focusing on evasion. He was running along a slope of about forty degrees while repeatedly evading and attacking.

Sayama’s method of attack was simple. He would circle around to the north of his enemy, choose an attack method such as a direct kick or roundhouse kick that would make full use of his body weight, and then directed it toward his enemy down the slope to the south.

Sayama had no choice but to stand on a slope.

He had to keep his stance low, but this made it easier to avoid his enemy’s attacks. When he was cornered, he could jump far to the south, using the slope to gain more distance. Sf nodded as she watched on.

“To forestall an initial attack from his enemy, he pressed down against the slope, pretending it was a wall.”

As she spoke, Sf placed the cooler’s strap over her right shoulder and held the parasol in her hand.

She suddenly looked up to find a winged archer had noticed her.

“Oh, dear,” said Sf as she opened the cooler.

The archer above brought a hand to his bowstring. The center of the string had a single piece of cloth attached. The cloth had words written on it. The archer drew the bowstring and an arrow of light appeared between the cloth and the bow.

Instead of firing right away, the archer twisted the cloth to the right.

The string grew tauter and the bow creaked, but the arrow of light multiplied to three.

Finally, the archer fired.

The sound of the light being released sounded similar to a flute.

As that high-pitched trio rained down from the sky, Sf bowed slightly.

“Thank you for such an ordinary attack. As thanks, I shall provide a common attack of my own.”

She pulled what looked like two long metal staffs from the cooler.

The two objects appearing from below the canned drinks were a machine gun and its barrel.

She attached the heavy barrel with one hand and loaded the ammunition belt. The first bullet was instantly brought into the chamber.

“Over four hundred thousand have been produced. That should be common enough.”

With that comment, Sf aimed into the sky and squeezed the trigger.

Sayama could tell he was being surrounded. His enemies were once more beginning to hold him in check.

The old men wearing square bonnets who looked like priests and the old women wearing hoods who looked like magicians were clearly keeping their distance while the two giant attendants began circling around to his north. They were preventing him from taking his advantageous position.

But Sayama felt that was fine as sweat flew from his brow.

At the very least, he had drawn the enemies away from the woods were Shinjou was and Ooshiro Kazuo had been able to escape.

That meant he need not worry about this battleground. And he had another thought.

…''I was right. Shinjou-kun did not fire.

When he had attacked the knight, he had given the signal, but Shinjou had not fired. He had predicted it, but it was still a slight shock.

''She really does continue to surprise me,'' he thought as he walked around.

“Shinjou-kun is serious about everything,” he muttered. “Even when she hesitates.”

It was because she took this so seriously that she had been unable to pull the trigger this time as well.

Sayama suddenly recalled what had happened that morning. He recalled Ooki’s words to him.

…''When those who rarely get serious finally do get serious, they can draw out a lot of power. Is that it?

“And thinking that you cannot get serious means you are constantly thinking about getting serious.”

Sayama decided Shinjou had to have reached that stage.

…''But what about me?

“Will I ever-…”

Would he ever get serious?

His questioning gaze caught sight of the end of a magician’s staff glowing. Instead of leaving behind an afterimage of the light, it looked more like the word was being burned into the atmosphere. Sayama did not recognize the word, but he could read it.

It meant fire.

He leaped as soon as he read it. He leaped south down the slope.

In the next instant, a pillar of fire shot up in the spot he had just been standing in.

As he heard the air burning, crimson flames shot up in a triple helix. The end of the spiral bloomed outwards and scattered through the air as the pillar of fire energetically came apart and disappeared.

Sayama landed.

At the same moment, Sayama realized the enemy’s formation was complete.

The priests and magicians to his north split to the left and right. The two giants traveled down the center of that group. They were approximately three meters tall. Under their dark green cloaks, those attendants wore light armor and were armed with black knives.

They could not make tight turns, but they used easily-wielded knives to cover for that disadvantage.

They came.

Sayama prepared himself. He could not defeat them head on. He needed to run around them. He lowered his body and sucked in a breath. He suddenly glanced over at his hard-to-move left arm and his left hand.

He saw the scars on his hand and the ring on his finger.

He tried to clench his left fist, but received only stabbing pain.

It was a phantom pain, but it felt real to him. And he could not swing the fist regardless.

An instant later, Sayama looked up from his left hand and ran.

He shrank down, stretched out, and sent his body forward.

At the same moment, he spotted a shadow coming from the sky above.

It was an archer.

''Not good,'' he muttered silently.

His enemies were not planning to have the giant attendants attack him.

They would surround him and he would be shot from the air.

“Kh.”

Sayama took in a breath and twisted his body around.

To avoid the coming attack as much as possible, he rolled along the ground.

But what fell to the ground was not an arrow or even a bow.

It was wings.

“!”

With the sound of flesh being struck, a giant four-winged form fell to the ground where Sayama had been a moment before. It was the archer who had been in the sky. Sayama could see red blood spewing from the base of his upper right wing.

Sayama got up on his knees and heard a certain sound before he could even wonder what was going on.

He heard gunfire.

He looked up. He looked to the north which was up to him.

In the sky there, another set of wings fell.

The four-winged archer fell into the woods to the east while staining his wings with red blood.

Only then did everyone look over.

A white and black figure was jumping down from a distant line of trees to the north.

“Sf-kun…”

She held a machinegun in her left hand, a parasol in her right, and a large cooler under her right arm.

Despite carrying two objects that looked too large for her body size, she was not running down the slope. She leaped through the sky.

She did not seem to care that one of the four-winged archers had fallen among some nearby trees.

She dropped down.

In the next instant, one of the magicians reacted. She wrote several words in the air, turned them into spears of light, and threw them at Sf.

The light flew with a high-pitched dash.

Sf took a single action in response. She held up the parasol in her right arm and opened it. With the sound of the wind being struck, Sf’s body appeared to be lifted up by the parasol as she began to float.

The spears of light passed by below her feet and stabbed into the grass in the distance.

Just as the spears of light could be heard bursting in the distance, Sf let go of the parasol.

After that, she traveled in a straight line.

Guided by gravitational acceleration, Sf’s heels crashed into the giant attendant who was on the left from Sayama’s perspective.

The impact caused a great noise.

“…!”

She sent all of her weight into both legs as they struck the attendant’s side and his body was knocked up into the air. Sayama backed away as the attendant rotated around in midair and slammed into the ground headfirst.

Repeated powerful sounds were heard as his armor and flesh crashed to the ground, but he eventually came to a stop.

The attendant no longer moved.

Instead, the slender woman who had only just now arrived on the scene moved.

She had short white hair and she wore a black dress with a white apron. Her silhouette spread out with the hem of her skirt and she bowed before Sayama.

“I am glad to see you are the same as ever.”

It was Sf.

Sayama glanced around. As Sf greeted him, the enemies were once more falling into formation around them.

The knight entered to replace the lost attendant and the two magicians moved back.

As they watched her, Sf opened the cooler and stuck her left hand inside. The formation of enemies prepared themselves as the sound of ice and water came from the cooler.

However, Sf was not looking at them. She was crouched down and looking toward Sayama.

“Sayama-sama, take this. It is a new product that is perfect for breaks between exercise.”

She handed him a plastic sports drink bottle. He took it and she bowed before sticking her left hand in the cooler.

“The rest of you can have this,” she said as she pulled out a black, glittering submachine gun.

She rotated around, firing all the while.

“!”

At the sound of gunfire, the attendant, knight, and other enemies frantically held up their shields or gauntlets.

But they were too slow.

As metallic noises rang out, they were either forced back or blown away.

Sayama stood up. Bluish-white smoke surrounded him and Sf. The formation around them had widened slightly and one magician lay collapsed on the ground. Sayama looked toward the magician while opening the lid of the drink bottle.

“She is not dead. As expected, they have some form of defensive power. This is not causing much damage.”

Sayama realized Sf’s right sleeve was torn. That showed she had already received some sort of attack. And the arm he saw below the torn black cloth was…

“A machine?” asked Sayama after a citrus flavor flowed into his mouth from the bottle.

Sf’s arm was made of what looked like narrow pearl-colored armor. The arm narrowed in considerably at the elbow joint between her upper arm and lower arm and only black plastic filled the gap.

Without turning around, Sf tossed the submachine gun to the ground.

“I am Sein Frau, an automaton created by German UCAT using 3rd-Gear technology. My body was put together for Itaru-sama’s exclusive use, so I am able to do the shopping or receive guests in bad weather and under inconvenient circumstances. My compact exterior can run for 24 hours if the philosopher’s stone is swapped out, so even the most sudden of unreasonable demands can be-…”

“Enough with the late-night infomercial sales pitch,” said Sayama as he handed the empty drink bottle back to Sf. And then, “What are your combat abilities?”

“According to German UCAT, the German people are the most excellent people in the world. I was created using their technology, so my combat abilities are top notch.”

“Didn’t that ‘most excellent’ right-wing country lose World War Two?”

“Truly excellent people need not desire victory. Victory is not needed in the eternal quest to grow stronger.”

“Who said that?”

“I do not know. However, it has been etched into my mind.”

As she spoke, Sf moved the machinegun in her right hand to her left and placed the muzzle against the ground. She moved the muzzle to the side so that it drew a curve in the dirt.

“My name is Sein Frau, ‘the woman who should exist’. I am a nonhuman who was born from the desire to ‘exist’. Now, come and bring the reason for your birth with you. If that reason is weaker than mine, you will not even be able to ‘exist’.”

[[Image:OnC_v01_0293.png|thumb]]

With a turn of her heel, she transformed the curve on the ground into a ring.

“I was created for the sake of my master. I sacrifice my steel for his bones, my chains for his flesh, my oil for his blood, and my determination for his heart. But there is one thing he has for which I have nothing to sacrifice.”

When the ring connected, she placed the gun’s muzzle on the point of connection.

“His tears. …As I have no emotions, I have nothing to give in return for those. As such, I do not desire my master’s tears. I desire only an outcome that requires no teardrops.”

She raised the gun.

“Steel for his bones, chains for his flesh, oil for his blood, determination for his heart, and…”

She took a breath.

“Selflessness for his tears.”

As she spoke, Sf squeezed the trigger while aiming at the line of enemies.

Shinjou sat on a tree trunk.

The trembling of her hands was beginning to abate, but strength would not return to her fingers.

“What do I…” she muttered.

''…lack at times like this?'' she finished in her thoughts.

She heard a voice from below.

“You had excellent scores in training and your marksmanship while providing covering fire from the rear guard was quite good as well. But it looks like you’re no good on the vanguard where a real battle is right before your eyes. Do you think I should remove you from Team Leviathan, Shinjou?”

Shinjou gave a quick gasp.

But the voice from below laughed.

“Hah. What’s with the serious look? I may be the supervisor, but you know I can’t do everything on my own discretion, right? You were added as a member on the recommendation of my old man. I can’t move you without his permission and your agreement.”

Shinjou frowned at the laughing voice and clenched her back teeth.

“Why are you always like this!? Ever since you took me in…”

“You really want to know?” said a smiling voice. “It’s because I know everything but understand nothing.” The voice then changed the subject. “Look, the fools are in trouble. Do whatever you can.”

Shinjou looked out toward the grassy area and realized what he meant.

Sayama and Sf moved around amid the gunfire and their enemies were collapsing from the attacks.

But a few of those had begun to move once more. First was the attendant Sf had defeated. He was trying to stand. And he was hidden behind another enemy, so Sayama and Sf could not see him.

Shinjou stood up on the tree trunk.

“Sayama-kun!”

As the knight charged toward her from the front, Sf charged in with her right shoulder held forward.

With the cooler still held under her right arm, she filled the gap between her and the knight in an instant.

The knight aimed his long rifle at her.

Sf raised the machinegun in her left arm slightly before swinging it.

She slammed her own machinegun against the enemy’s gun barrel.

With a metallic scraping noise, Sf pushed the knight’s rifle down and moved forward. Her running right foot reached the ground, but her left foot stepped down on the lowered rifle’s barrel.

The knight’s long rifle now had its tip sticking diagonally into the ground.

Sf used her machinegun as a cane and continued forward.

She thrust the machinegun into the ground and let go. She took a step along the knight’s rifle with her left foot and swung her right leg up to climb up the rifle.

The upward swing of her right leg continued into a kick.

Her foot flew toward the knight’s face. It was a straight and speedy kick.

The knight made up his mind in an instant.

He let go of the rifle.

With only the long rifle’s strap still in his hand, he leaped backwards.

“!”

The knight tugged on the strap as he moved back. The rifle that had been left stabbing into the ground was powerfully pulled back even with Sf halfway through her kick atop it.

He felt a bit of resistance, but the rifle still pulled out of the ground.

“!?”

Sf had her left pivot leg on the rifle, so her footing was pulled out from under her. She began to fall backwards.

Even so, she managed to kick off the rifle and jump high into the sky behind her.

But it was too late.

The knight had already pulled the rifle back into his hands by the strap.

He narrowed the sight in on Sf as she tumbled through the air.

Just as he was about to squeeze the trigger, something happened.

Sf’s body shrank down in the air and she rotated around once.

After jumping back, Sf had taken a crouching position in midair. Something was supporting her from below.

It was the machinegun she had stabbed into the ground like a cane earlier.

Sf’s right foot sat atop the gunstock that was sticking up toward the sky.

In the next instant, she stretched her body out and jumped.

Her skirt flapped through the air and the bullet of light produced by the knight’s rifle shot by below her feet.

Sf flew.

She swung the cooler through the air above her head and cartwheeled using it as a fulcrum.

She landed behind the knight.

The knight turned his shield toward her just as she pulled an object from the cooler and threw it at him with her back to him.

What she tossed under her arm with only a flick of the wrist was a large cylindrical object.

The knight reflexively swung his shield to strike the flying object from the side.

With a heavy yet soft sound, the shield deflected the object. It flew accurately back towards Sf.

The knight continued his rotation to aim the rifle at Sf.

As he did, he realized what the object she had thrown was.

It was a 500 mL plastic drink bottle.

“Wha-…?”

The dumbfounded knight saw Sf stand up.

She was facing him. Her left hand was in the cooler. Her gaze was focused squarely on the center of the knight’s wide open body.

With the sound of pieces of ice striking each other, she pulled a long metal object out of the cooler.

It was a shotgun.

Sf swung the barrel forward, using the action to cock it.

She used the reverse motion of it sliding back into place to pull the trigger.

A gunshot exploded out.

The shot first destroyed the drink bottle flying between the knight and Sf.

Immediately afterwards, it struck the knight’s breastplate.

A sound of impact exploded out.

The knight flew backwards as if he had received an uppercut.

And at that moment, a voice rang out across the open area.

“Sayama-kun!”

Sf turned toward the voice and saw a large shadow.

It was the attendant she had supposedly defeated earlier. His giant form had stood up and was now charging toward her.

After she had just fired, evasive actions were asking too much of Sf.

And the attendant held a knife in his right hand. It would strike her momentarily.

“A total loss is expected,” concluded Sf expressionlessly.

Her body grew limp as she prepared for the shock.

But then an attack flew toward the charging attendant from the side.

“…!?”

It was Sayama.

From a position back and to the right of Sf, he used the momentum of the slope and all his strength to throw a reverse roundhouse kick. His heel sliced through the air in a sharp curve before striking the attendant in the side.

It sounded more like a piercing strike than a dull one.

The attendant lost his forward momentum.

However, Sayama was half-deflected and thrown through the air due to the great difference in inertia. He kept low to the ground as he landed and took a breath.

He was not looking toward Sf. He was looking toward the woods.

Shinjou stood on the slope there.

After seeing where he was looking, Sf amended her conclusion.

“Partial damage is expected.”

Immediately afterwards, the charging attendant and Sf crossed paths.

The sound of fibers being torn could be heard.

Everything past Sf’s right shoulder flew through the air.

With its support gone, the cooler fell to the ground.

Sayama turned around and asked, “Does it hurt?”

“No, I have no sense of pain. The only pain I feel is from being unable to remain by Itaru-sama’s side.”

As she replied, her right arm fell atop the dirt and rolled two or three times down the slope.

And Sf saw something else.

Behind her, the attendant was preparing for his next attack with blood spilling from his mouth.

Sf rotated around and prepared to intercept him, but then her eyes narrowed slightly.

Behind the charging attendant, the knight was aiming his long rifle her way after he had recovered due to something written by one of the priests. And behind him, the remaining magician wrote something in the air using light.

The magician was not looking at Sf and Sayama. She was looking toward the woods where Shinjou had emerged.

Sf sensed Sayama moving behind her. She moved as well. However…

“…!”

The attendant’s charge, the knight’s shot, and the magician’s blast all came before Sf could aim the shotgun in her left hand or Sayama could take any kind of action.

The three attacks were loosed in quick succession.

Sayama saw the attack coming.

But it did not come from in front of him. It came from above. It came from above the charging attendant.

“What are you doing!?”

It was a girl.

The girl wore a lightweight white outfit and held something with a long silhouette in both hands. Her heels slammed into the attendant’s back. It was less a landing and more like a pile driver smashing the attendant into the ground.

By the time Sayama realized the girl held a long single-edged spear and a shield, he had already heard the attendant’s giant body crashing to the ground.

The attendant was struck to the ground without bouncing as if he had been hit with a hammer appropriate for his body size.

The knife he had held stabbed into the ground. It was only fifteen centimeters away from Sf’s foot.

However, she had escaped any further damage. Nothing had happened to Sayama either.

''What is going on?'' wondered Sayama, but then he recalled two other things.

Specifically, the knight and magician behind the attendant.

The knight had supposedly fired his long rifle.

That bullet of light should have destroyed everything within a twenty meter square of the point it hit, but it had never arrived.

Sayama frowned and took a closer look.

Beyond the collapsed attendant and the person who stood on his back was another silhouette.

This one was a young man.

He wore a white coat and held a giant single-edged sword in both hands.

To cover his body, he held the large white sword so the bottom of the grip was pointed up and the blade was pointed down. A bluish-white electrical discharge came from its blade.

Sayama recognized both of these newcomers.

Sf spoke to them as if to reconfirm Sayama’s memory.

“You are late, Izumo-sama, Kazami-sama.”

“Don’t say that… But I do apologize for not making it in time to save your arm.”

The one apologizing and holding a long, curving spear and shield was Kazami.

She wore the same type of white suit Shinjou had worn the night before, but her waist was wrapped in cloth. She also had a backpack that folded over.

She turned toward Sayama with the same smile she always had at school.

“Oh? You don’t look too surprised.”

“Of course not. After all the bizarre things you two do, this is easy to accept.”

“Well, that’s disappointing,” said Izumo.

With his back to Sayama, he lowered the giant sword using just his right arm and glanced over his shoulder.

“Team Leviathan Primary Team, Izumo Kaku. …How’s that for a cool way to name myself?”

Sayama ignored him.

Something else was bothering him: the magician’s spell. It had unmistakably been fired toward Shinjou.

''Is she okay?'' he wondered as he turned around.

He found a figure standing before the woods with her long hair waving in the wind. It was Shinjou.

But she was not alone.

Another familiar figure stood next to Shinjou. It was a tall old man wearing a white shirt, a black vest, and black trousers. When Sayama saw him standing there empty-handed except for his black gloves, he muttered the man’s name.

“The librarian of Kinugasa Library, Siegfried Zonburg…”

The man nodded, turned around, and met Sayama’s gaze with his own blue eyes. His white beard moved as he spoke.

“You need to add two other titles to that: former consultant to the National Defense Department and sorcerer.”

“Aren’t you forgetting one!?” shouted the knight.

Everyone turned toward him. The knight vigorously swung his long rifle up toward Siegfried.

“You are the great criminal who destroyed our 1st-Gear!!”

Izumo was closest to the knight, so he reacted first.

“How about you stop that!?” he shouted while swinging his large sword horizontally.

The single-edged sword soared smoothly and easily through the air.

However, the sound it produced was not that of it striking the knight’s armor.

The magician interfered.

“What!?”

The old woman used her staff as a shield to catch Izumo’s blade in front of the knight.

The staff bent and then broke and she was knocked into the air.

In exchange, the knight managed to pull the trigger of his long rifle.

It produced a metallic noise and light was emitted from the book loaded into the rifle.

It fired.

Light flew in a shallow arc toward Siegfried.

It was as if it had been thrown down at him from above.

In response, Siegfried lightly swung his right hand.

Something fell down from his palm.

It was a piece of paper.

Siegfried took a step forward.

He swung his right arm up at the light shooting toward him.

That mass of power had grown to five meters across.

He casually struck it with the piece of paper in his right hand.

In the very next moment, that powerful light disappeared.

As everyone’s eyes opened wide, Siegfried took another step.

“!”

He began to run.

The paper in the hand he held above his head had writing on it.

That paper that had been blank just before now had a certain destruction report written in powerful handwriting.

Sayama could not read the writing, but the images were transferred to his mind.

It was an itemized list of the dead in a certain district of a city.

Siegfried held the paper in his hand as he ran.

As he clenched it into a cylindrical shape, a blade of light appeared from it.

“…So this is the power of a grudge.”

He muttered those words and moved all in the same instant.

Siegfried charged right up to the knight.

The knight aimed his rifle and fired.

However, the attack shot below Siegfried’s arm.

Siegfried had moved as if about to sink down to the ground, but had instead raised the sword of light above his head and swung it down.

His strike targeted the knight’s rifle.

The trajectory of the blade left an afterimage of light behind and the sound of the gun being sliced sounded like a rock splitting open.

The front of the destroyed rifle where the book was loaded slid vertically before completely falling off. Seeing that, Siegfried stood up and swung his left hand.

The knight tossed his rifle aside and took a defensive stance.

However, Siegfried’s left hand was not headed toward him.

His left hand grabbed ahold of the book as it fell toward the ground.

Siegfried then held it out toward the knight and spoke.

“Do not drop this. Treat your books carefully. Even when making use of them.”

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 9|Chapter 9]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 11|Chapter 11]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 5

2026-04-30T05:10:41Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 5: Notification of Ignorance==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0155.png|thumb]]
''What exactly is the enemy?

''History? People? Common sense?

''Or is it all of them?

Every sense in his body was telling him the window to the office floor below his feet was the ground. His left arm that hurt when he moved it was naturally hanging down toward the window. He used his right hand to touch the hem of his clothes and it was hanging down toward his feet as well.

“What is going on?” asked Sayama. “I do not know if you have the technology to control gravity or not, but this is strange. Why are only the things I am touching viewing the direction of my feet as down?”

He looked up toward the hangar above his head. Diagonal slopes had been built in places to connect the walls and ceiling. The area was arranged so that large equipment and that trailer could freely move about.

Sayama looked back down. Shinjou’s gaze met his from where she stood perpendicular to him.

“Shinjou-kun, excuse me, but I would like to try something.”

“Eh?” said Shinjou as she took a step toward him.

Sayama nodded and took her hand.

However, Shinjou remained standing on what was the wall to Sayama.

“So you do not fall this way.”

“D-don’t try such dangerous things.”

“I was prepared to catch you. Do not worry.”

“I’m not sure if I can…”

Ooshiro gave a bitter smile and said, “Unless you jump into the air, what is set as the ground will be constantly updated for you. In other words, the world always exists below your feet in this space. The concept related to gravitational pull has been altered.”

“I see,” said Sayama as he let go of Shinjou’s hand. He looked toward Ooshiro and continued, “What exactly is this power?”

“Let me ask you something instead, Mikoto-kun. How do you think you could explain this power? What if you met with academics and intellectuals from around the world and asked them what power can alter the world so conveniently?”

“They would say it is a trick.”

“Exactly. However, this is the truth. Now, another question. …What basis would they use for determining this is a trick?”

“That is obvious. This breaks the laws of physics.”

“Yes, yes. Indeed it does. Light is bent by gravity, but with this power, light only bends according to the direction set as the ground for it. Even if the real ground is in a different direction. But Mikoto-kun, when you talk about the laws of physics, what world’s physical laws do you speak of?”

“This world’s physical laws.”

“Then let me ask you something else. If alternate worlds did exist, on what basis would we determine they are different from our own? The terrain? The atmosphere? The life forms? Or perhaps the culture?”

With that question, Sayama realized the answer to it all.

He finally said, “Is this what you want to say? There was a world with physical laws fundamentally different from our own. And this power we are seeing follows that world’s laws!”

“Precisely. This world’s physical laws cannot be applied to other worlds. A world with different physical laws will naturally overturn the very basics of the physical laws we know.”

“But there have to be certain absolutes, right? Like the motion of light.”

“No, no. Even that is based on this world’s physical laws. When light is emitted, it spreads and continues on. But why does it do that? Why can’t there be light that does not do that?”

“That is…”

“That is simply what light is in this world, right? But,” Ooshiro took a step forward so their gazes would match perpendicularly, “what if light being that way was actually quite rare?”

“…”

“We only know how things work in this world. We assume the workings of this world are absolute. But what if there were a great number of other worlds and it turned out the rules of this world are great exceptions compared to the other worlds?”

“But we do not know of any other worlds, so we can only assume they would be the same as us.”

A bitter smile appeared on Ooshiro’s lips when he heard that response.

“True,” the old man said. “But another world is another world. They are fundamentally different. What we think is simply ‘how things are’ and what the other worlds think is simply ‘how things are’ are fundamentally different.”

“Are you saying,” Sayama looked down at his feet, “there is a world where this is how gravity works?”

Ooshiro nodded, walked over to the opposite window, and stood on it. He looked straight up toward Sayama.

“The ten other worlds and this world are perceived as individual gears and so we refer to them as such. 1st-Gear through 10th-Gear all had their own unique characteristics. And do you know what we called this power of ‘how things are’?” Without waiting for an answer, Ooshiro said, “Concepts. We called them concepts! They are a power that can control even the laws of physics. They are the ultimate reason behind everything. That is what concepts are!”

Sayama gulped at Ooshiro’s words and looked down toward his feet and then around his entire surroundings.

“In other words, the concept of ‘your feet are on the ground’ is being used to make efficient use of this small underground space? …Was that voice I heard upon entering the concept?”

“That was a concept text. It is made by gathering inferior reproductions of an extracted concept. Each individual concept is very weak, but it can be heard as a voice once it reaches the level of a concept text. This space also has several weaker concepts added on as well, but they cannot be heard as a voice.” He continued. “When an out of phase space has concepts added to it, it is known as a concept space. We think of a concept’s identity as a variable fixed-period vibration wave that we call a string vibration.”

“This just got a lot more complicated. A string vibration, you say?”

Sayama thought.

Ooshiro had said an alternate world was a world with different concepts. In that case…

“So alternate worlds are worlds with different string vibration frequencies?”

“Yes. And everything in any of the worlds has a string vibration for their world and a string vibration for the object itself. The one for the world we call the parent string vibration and the one for the individual we call the child string vibration.”

Sayama nodded and said, “So is it like a numerator and denominator? The denominator tells you what Gear they belong to and the numerator tells you what the individual is.”

“Yes. If the numerator differs, it is a different individual. If the denominator differs, it may be the same existence but from a different world. These alternate worlds are not parallel. They exist in multiple phases atop each other. According to the records, a ‘gate’ that alters one’s parent string vibration is needed to move to and from different Gears.”

Sayama then recalled the invisible wall surrounding the forest.

“This evening…was that a space that’s parent string vibration had been completely altered?”

“Not quite. If its parent string vibration had been completely altered, that space would have completely disappeared from this world. But,” Ooshiro raised his index finger, “what if only a portion of its parent string vibration was altered?”

“In that case, would the altered objects world split into two existences? The real one and the alternate world one would exist on top of each other at the same time. …And that means the objects would not disappear from reality.”

He remembered the stone he had picked up in the forest. He remembered how it had left a pale shadow behind.

“So two versions of that forest existed on top of each other? I am guessing a smaller portion had the alternate world string vibration than the reality string vibration. Could I not leave because of the difference in vibration density?”

“Correct. How very wise of you. That is what we call a concept space. It is only a pseudo-alternate world created by borrowing a portion of an area’s string vibration. Since it is still connected to the real world, it is easier to create and return to normal.” As he spoke, Ooshiro showed off the watch on his left arm. “I gave you one of these before we entered this concept space. These watches are known as string watches. They detect the wall of a concept space and alter the wearer’s parent string vibration accordingly. They are a small version of the ‘gates’ I mentioned earlier.”

“But how did I enter the concept space in the forest without one?”

“Someone secretly read your child string vibration. When the forest was turned into a concept space, your string vibration was registered so you would be allowed in. That is one thing that can be done when creating a concept space. And I apologize,” said Ooshiro as he looked toward Sayama’s left arm. “It seems we rushed things. We only wanted to let you experience it for yourself, but you ended up getting injured due to the inexperience of our units.”

“But it was thanks to that experience that I met Shinjou-kun and am having this conversation now.”

When he said that, Shinjou looked over from her perpendicular position with a troubled expression.

Sayama responded with a bitter smile.

“Come on down now,” instructed Ooshiro.

Sayama nodded and walked down to the passageway where Shinjou stood.

Ooshiro did so as well and looked up at the ceiling.

“Could we return just the inside of the passageway?”

The watch on Sayama’s left arm vibrated.

In the next moment, the surrounding scenery changed. The floors on either side became empty spaces.

Not only were the office desks and maintenance equipment gone, but the materials making up the walls and ceiling were gone too.

They were simply vast, dark areas without even any lights.

“This is what this underground space normally looks like. Everyone does their work in the concept space.”

Sayama placed a foot on the window.

However, he no longer felt any power attracting the bottom of his foot to the window.

He also realized the wrench that had fallen to the floor was gone.

They had returned to reality.

Sayama let out a breath and looked around the empty space.

If he paid very close attention, he could make out the faint shadows of people, desks, and machinery.

Sayama then recalled the battle in the forest.

“What happens if something is destroyed in a concept space?”

“An object’s string vibration is the concept of its very existence. If a portion of that existence concept is destroyed, no portion of the object itself is destroyed. However, its existence percentage drops. If only a dozen or so percent is used, being destroyed once will not lead to the actual object’s destruction. However…”

“If an object is taken in and destroyed again and again, will the damage eventually reach the original? But I suppose that is quite a bit better than simply destroying a portion of the world. Can humans split apart so only a portion is sent into the concept space? That would avoid dying in one.”

“It can be done, but we don’t. As it is only a portion, something inside a concept space is an inferior version of the original. The object must rely on the information from the instant of being taken into the space, so its life force is weak and it has no ability to alter the future. …You could say the objects have no ability to grow and simply ‘act’ before being destroyed. That is why it is difficult to maintain a concept space for long. If it is not released quickly, everything inside will destroy themselves.”

“Is that why there were no animals in the concept space?”

“When choosing the structural elements of a concept space, we do our best to only use terrain that does not move on its own. That also reduces the amount of data needed. …Although if you insist that plants are living things too, I have no argument for you.” Ooshiro gave a bitter smile. “And anything that will actually take an active role within has one hundred percent of itself sent inside so that it will not destroy itself. That is what we did with the UCAT concept space I just showed you. An empty area is turned into a concept space and all of the equipment is brought in from outside. The air conditioning, water pipes, and other things that circulate were tricky.”

Hearing that, Sayama looked through the windows on either side and into the empty spaces beyond. A dark atmosphere seemed to fall over him.

“I see. So shedding blood cannot be avoided. Just out of curiosity, how much of something’s existence percentage must be destroyed before the object itself can no longer exist?”

“At least fifty percent. If more than fifty percent of an object’s existence is destroyed, it will be annihilated. The forest concept space was created by accessing about twenty percent of its string vibration. If the same concept space was created three times and the forest was destroyed each time, its existence destruction would reach sixty percent. That would lead to the real forest being destroyed in some natural way. I cannot say if it would be landslide, a forest fire, or a simple disappearance, but that would be its fate.”

Sayama thought on Ooshiro’s words.

And then he frowned.

“Are you trying to say this kind of thing has actually happened before?”

“I will leave it to your imagination what might have caused the natural disasters that occasionally happen around the world. But can you guess where these rules lead us to?”

Sayama recalled one of the first terms he had been told here.

“You mentioned the Concept War before. Is that it?”

Ooshiro nodded.

“If a Gear loses over fifty percent of its concepts, it will be destroyed. The Concept War took the form of stealing each other’s concepts.”

“So the concepts were extracted and stolen from each Gear… Is that what you are saying?”

“Yes. And the concepts of each Gear were taken to this world in the form of a Concept Core that has even greater density than a concept text. In other words, all the other Gears had their concepts stolen which destroyed them.”

“I see,” responded Sayama. “Is it possible to create a new concept?”

“Let me just say that it was researched at one time. There were…no successes. All we can do is make inferior reproductions. That is why a Concept Core is needed as a master for creating concept texts.” Ooshiro smiled, spread his arms, and looked out across the floors to the right and left. “Do you understand now? Your grandfather was a part of UCAT once it was formed after the war. UCAT fought the ten Gears with different concepts and destroyed them all by taking their concepts. And currently, our primary mission is to protect, negotiate with, stop the terrorist attacks of, and conceal the existence of the refugees of the other Gears. However…”

“However?”

Ooshiro smiled slightly at that question. He paused for a few seconds before replying. The conversation finally arrived at what Sayama’s grandfather had left him.

“This last remaining Gear is known as Low-Gear because it has nothing. And it is currently facing a crisis. As the victors of the Concept War, we must overcome this crisis by negotiating with the survivors of the ten other Gears and having them cooperate with us.” He took a breath. “That is the Leviathan Road. …And your grandfather said to give you the right to be the representative of Low-Gear.”

A certain staircase could be seen at night.

The green painted wall and the white steps were illuminated by the light positioned above the emergency exit at the top of the stairs.

The staircase was located in the second year general school building of Taka-Akita Academy. It led up to the rooftop.

Two sets of footsteps could be heard walking up the stairs.

The two figures unhesitatingly ascending were a human and an animal.

The human was a girl with swaying gray hair and wearing a blazer. The animal was a black cat.

It was Brunhild, the head of the art club, and her black cat.

The footsteps quickly reached the top of the staircase. The door was unlocked and then opened.

With the sound of wind whipping into the building, the two figures dashed outside.

They were not met by the darkness of night.

They saw light.

“…!”

Brunhild stopped moving. She looked up expressionlessly into the sky.

It was bright. After exiting the dark staircase, she was faced with the bluish-white moon floating in the sky.

As she stood on the rooftop, the vast night sky and the moon could be seen overhead.

And the wind of the night blew about.

The feel of the breeze led Brunhild to spread her arms and take in a deep breath.

''Such cold air,'' she thought while bringing that air into her lungs.

“This Gear is filled with so many unnecessary things,” she commented.

She placed her right hand in her uniform pocket and pulled out a single object.

She held a small blue stone the size of her fingertip between the index finger and middle finger of her right hand.

While holding the stone, she rotated her arms. She held her left arm forward and her right arm back.

The black cat at her feet jumped up onto her left arm.

Brunhild moved her right hand. She made a fist and wrote something in the air using the thumb. And then…

“We were delayed by that intrusion, but you have work to do,” she said expressionlessly before snapping the fingers of her right hand.

With a clear note, the cat’s form changed. It bent and came apart as if made of thread.

“Now, go. Notify us of our hated enemy’s condition and inform our comrades of the situation. You are the tidings carried by the black wind.”

After coming apart, the black cat became wind.

A black wind.

Leaving her left sleeve rippling, the black streak of wind danced through the nighttime wind and shot to the west. It waved, stretched, occasionally accelerated, arced, and then arced back as it soared through the night sky.

Brunhild watched the wind leave before lowering her arms. She opened her expressionless mouth and spoke.

“They are beginning to take action, so the time has come for us to respond… We were the first of the Gears to be destroyed. It is time we stopped hiding.” She nodded. “The survivors of 1st-Gear must stop hiding!”

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 6|Chapter 6]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume14 Chapter 19

2026-04-29T03:26:02Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 19: Simulated Tomorrow==
[[Image:OnC_v14_0693.png|thumb]]
''Everyone

''How about we think of tomorrow?

''Of a tomorrow bright with destruction

Evening filled the sky.

Below, the forest sank into darkness.

However, that forest did not maintain its proper form.

The tree-covered earth was split, cracked, and broken.

Ropes and warning lights were set up to block off what little remained of the road.

Night was fast approaching, so most of the trucks and heavy machinery had been pulled back to the base of the mountain.

But even as everyone else was headed down, one figure remained at the top of the slope.

An old man in a lab coat and a yellow hard hat stood on the broken asphalt.

His nametag said Ooshiro and his eyes were pointed downward.

He was looking at the valley filled with dirt.

The dirt piled up at the bottom of the valley was two hundred meters wide and several kilometers long. It also contained fragments of manmade objects.

They were asphalt and metal pieces melted by the heat as well as pieces of white building materials.

Those were the remains of Japanese UCAT.

Ooshiro stared at them in the shadows of the setting sun.

“#8-kun, you’re there, aren’t you?”

He suddenly spoke to someone behind him without turning around.

The air moved slightly and #8 stepped out from between the fallen trees behind him. She too was wearing a yellow hard hat.

<nowiki>#8</nowiki> was wearing jeans and a down jacket instead of her usual maid outfit.

“What are you doing here, Ooshiro-sama? According to our estimations, the positive concepts will react to the activated negative concepts inside the Leviathan and change the world by midnight tomorrow night. To prevent that, the others have gathered at Yokota and Yokosuka and are holding a strategy meeting in Yokosuka’s underground meeting room.”

“And with all that going on, what does it look like I’m doing?”

<nowiki>#8</nowiki> saw Ooshiro looking back toward her with the setting sun behind him and she slowly observed their surroundings.

All she saw were the setting sun and Ooshiro.

…''Is this…?

After confirming the still scenery, she nodded and gave her conclusion.

“I believe you are mentally planning your next 18+ game.”

“A-are you really ignoring the sunset behind me, #8-kun!? Do I really look the same as always!?”

Hearing that, she wondered if she had made a mistake and looked into the sunset again.

“The sun is merely setting for the night. What about it?”

“Wah! This is the problem with you! And when I was really setting the mood, too!?”

“Really?” asked #8 as Ooshiro wiggled in protest. “Testament. Then I will ignore that part. As an emotionless automaton, I cannot hope to guess what is going on.”

She then changed the subject.

“Anyway, everyone is worried about you, so please return to your post as soon as possible.”

“Eh? R-really? I’m the mega hero everyone’s pinning their hopes on?”

“Testament. Everyone in Yokota and Yokosuka was complaining about having no one to shove the unpleasant jobs onto, the construction workers were complaining about an old man getting in the way of everything, and I am complaining because I was called out here when I was supposed to be tuning my spare body. To statistically sum it all up, you need to get back there right away.”

“Th-that’s nothing like what you said before!”

Despite Ooshiro’s complaint, #8 pulled something from her pocket.

“This is the straw doll containing one of Itaru-sama’s hairs. Would this doll be an acceptable substitute for spending your time staring into the sunset?”

Ooshiro looked at the proffered doll.

“This was Sf-kun’s…”

“Testament. Sf-sama followed after Itaru-sama. …Because this doll is not Itaru-sama.”

<nowiki>#8’s</nowiki> tone of voice was firm.

“But you are not the same as Sf-sama. …You are technically human.”

“What do you mean ‘technically’?”

“I went out of the way to leave that unsaid, so why do you insist on nitpicking my wording?”

“I-I’m the one being scolded over this!?”

She ignored him because she had something to say. She had to say this before gaining even more bizarre conversational experience.

“Humans have an imagination. They have the power to imagine someone where nothing remains. So wouldn’t a doll containing something he left behind allow you to imagine him all the more?”

“#8-kun…”

“Yes.” She nodded. “All your pathetic brain can do is imagine things about dolls or an image on a monitor, but that will finally be a useful skill. Now, have a good time imagining.”

“I-I just imagined something really sad about myself!”

Still, he took the straw doll from her hand.

“But #8-kun? It sure would be nice to have something else to cheer me up.”

“Such as?”

“Like having you hug me and console me.”

“How exactly?”

“Calling me Kazuo-chan and hugging me as sweetly and softly as possible! Like the tenderest of simmered meats! Something that would need the sound effect ‘honyo’ or ‘huryo’! L-like this! This! Just like this!”

<nowiki>#8</nowiki> stared at the old man backlit by the sunset as he made his sound effects and bent backwards again and again.

She wondered what to do for about three seconds, but finally said “testament” and nodded at the man. She then pulled her cellphone from her pocket.

“Hello, police? Yes, the pervert that I mentioned earlier is once again blathering on about bizarre nonsensical things while acting extremely suspiciously.”

“Wah, #8-kun! Stop, stop! And what do you mean ‘that I mentioned earlier’!?”

She hung up the phone and glared at Ooshiro.

“Have you made up your mind?”

“About what?”

“Will you be coming or not?”

She further clarified.

“Will you be giving up on or continuing the fight? Which will it be?”

He did not answer her.

He fell silent with the straw doll in hand.

So #8 determined what it was he wanted to say.

She opened her mouth to tell him.

“Testament. Then let’s go, Ooshiro-sama.”

“I-I’m going!? Don’t I get a say?”

“Since you did not answer immediately, I determined you were willing to go either way. And…”

She looked up into the clear sky as she spoke.

“We are in the mountains of Okutama at the end of December. The temperature will fall below zero at night. If you remain here, I have determined the frozen corpse of a pervert will be discovered here by tomorrow.”

“Well, I suppose that’s true.”

“You admit you’re a pervert!?”

“Damn, you’re strict!”

He wrapped his hands around his head and struck a pose, so she turned her back on him.

“You have to leave the mountain no matter what you choose, so your only option is to go. So I have determined there is only one thing to say: let’s go, Ooshiro-sama.”

“Ah, wait, wait!”

Ooshiro took a hesitant step after she began to walk.

“You’re pretty forceful.”

His shoulders drooped, but he followed her.

She looked back toward him.

“Are you coming with me?”

“Everyone wants me to, right?”

He pulled the helmet deep over his eyes.

“They’re hopeless without me, aren’t they?”

“Testament,” replied #8. “I have determined we are about to grow very busy. Prepare yourself.”

“I’ve been ready for ten years now.” His voice fell to the ground. “I thought I had prepared myself for this day back then.”

“You grow tired of things quickly, so I have determined you grew tired of being prepared.”

She suddenly sped up and he had to run to catch up.

“#-#8-kun! Why are you running away from me!?”

“I am not running away. Please stay at least five meters away from me.”

“I doubt I want to know, but why?”

“Testament.” She nodded. “A filthy old man carrying a straw doll approaching you from behind deep in the mountains? Are you trying to become a new urban legend?”

People filled a large space.

The bowl-shaped circular space was the meeting room below Yokosuka.

The room was completely filled with a great mixture of colors.

In addition to the representatives of the international UCATs, the national representatives accompanying them, and the Gear representatives, even volunteers from the normal members of those groups were present.

They all looked to the central space where a 3D image floated above a round table.

The transparent green light drew a 3D map of Tokyo with Shinjuku in the center.

“Tomorrow will be a day for the hidden annals of history.”

A boy in a suit, Sayama, spoke as he walked through the center of the large transparent map.

“This is the Final Concept War that will never be mentioned in the official history books. It will come down to a great urban battle in which a coalition force of UCAT, our various nations, and the Gears split into eight armies to attack the Leviathan.”

The Leviathan sat in midair like a giant island and red lights indicated the positions of the UCAT forces.

“According to our predictions, the positive concepts inside the Leviathan will be complete tomorrow, the 25th, at 10:30 PM. These positive concepts will react to the already activated negative concepts, but they will both fully activate and create the immortality concept at precisely midnight.”

In other words…

“At precisely midnight tomorrow, the world will be changed and the living will all be erased.”

Everyone gulped at Sayama’s words.

He then walked toward the image of the floating Leviathan and the eight red armies deployed in Tokyo moved toward the center.

The ribbon lines of movement had an arrow at the end. They split apart and covered Tokyo while approaching the Leviathan.

Sayama also reached a hand toward the Leviathan.

“If the Leviathan creates and activates the positive concepts, even the existing Concept Core weapons will be useless. After all, we have no idea how to defeat that colossal rampaging dragon,” he explained. “But the Leviathan has left us a decisive opening.”

Everyone looked up and Roger raised his hand in the American UCAT representative seat.

“What is this opening?”

“Until the positive concepts have been created, it must avoid moving as much as possible.”

As he walked, Sayama pointed back toward the curled up Leviathan.

“If it could move, it could have easily destroyed the outside world already. It has not and it has overlooked us as we gather together, so I can only assume it is confident in its own strength and currently cannot move.”

He took a breath.

“I know why. The Leviathan…no, Noah failed in its concept creation before, so it wants to be as careful as possible.”

“In that case, is destroying the Leviathan not our primary goal?”

“Correct. Our goal is to prevent the Leviathan’s positive concepts from reaching completion at 10:30. …I will now show you how.”

Sayama turned toward everyone else. On the 360 degree transparent map, UCAT’s red ribbons split apart and formed eight foundations.

“A representative bearing a Concept Core weapon will be placed in each of these eight directions. While holding those eight directions, a barrier wall will be created in each spot.”

Eight walls appeared to surround the center of Tokyo.

“Oh?” said the Chinese UCAT representative.

The man in black crossed his arms with an impressed look.

“A Bagua-style omnidirectional barrier? It looks just like the Eight Great Dragon King barrier used when sealing 10th-Gear’s Concept Core, though.”

“Not quite. The sealing walls will be used to keep the Leviathan from escaping and the circle itself acts as a declaration of the Concept Cores’ presence. In other words, we reject the creation of the Leviathan’s positive concepts by ''showing off the real ones''.”

Sayama kept his legs moving.

“But that rejection must not have a way out,” warned the man. “A simple eight-direction seal is not enough.”

“Then…” Sayama came to a stop right below the Leviathan made of transparent light. “We do this.”

He waved a hand and red light appeared.

It appeared directly below and above the Leviathan.

Two red walls were displayed above and below the enemy dragon.

“We add two extra Great Dragon Kings to the Eight to install a seal above and below. The Leviathan will have nowhere left to run and we can lecture it from all directions using the presence of the real positive concepts.”

To put it another way…

“Yes, for simplicity, you could call it the ‘Leviathan, your positive concepts are fakes and are thus banned! Ha ha ha. How do you like that?’ barrier.”

“That’s a little too simple!!” shouted everyone else.

“Simple is best, don’t you think?” replied Sayama. “But if you insist, we can call it the Ten Great World Dragons barrier.”

A short pause followed.

After a few seconds, Roger raised his hand in the American representative seat again.

“Who will be in charge of the two great dragons in the heavens and on the earth?”

“Anyone will do. As long as they are worthy of bearing a Concept Core weapon, that is.”

“Anyone?”

“Yes.” Sayama looked across the approaching red ribbons of their armies. “It may be a rough way of looking at it, but the Concept Cores are worlds themselves. They contain elements of the heavens and earth within them. So if two of the Concept Core weapon bearers traveling in these eight armies – or two others on the same level – bring in the Concept Cores, they only need to set up the seals of heaven and earth once the eight-direction barrier is established. To put it another way…”

He took a breath.

“Those two will be trying to score a touchdown on the Leviathan.”

He raised a hand, said “but”, and looked across his audience.

His expressionless face silently observed them.

“But you are thinking this sounds simple, aren’t you? We can transport the Concept Core weapon bearers in with an aerial force, after all.”

Once he said that, a few numbers appeared in the air. They were formatted like a time and they displayed an estimated length of time.

“Based on the time needed for the barrier in Top-Gear’s Osaka and the barriers used to seal 10th-Gear’s and 2nd-Gear’s Concept Cores, we can estimate it will take this long to establish a barrier large enough to seal the Leviathan.”

The proper numbers appeared and everyone gasped.

“The eight-direction barrier will take sixty-four minutes. Counting from there, the heaven and earth one will take sixteen minutes. That makes a total of eighty minutes that we must face the Leviathan. By counting back from there, we know when our attack must begin.”

Diana gave the answer from the German UCAT representative seat.

She gave the numbers with a serious look in her eyes.

“At the very least, it has to be eighty minutes before 10:30 tomorrow night. To give ourselves some breathing room, we need to attack by nine at night.”

“Exactly. And this is going to be quite troublesome.”

Sayama’s words brought the color blue to the map.

Blue ribbons appeared from the Leviathan.

It almost looked like the color blue had exploded from the dragon.

“The Leviathan contains a massive fighting force. Based on what I saw, its concept space hangars hold approximately two thousand five hundred gods of war of various types, one thousand mechanical dragons of various types, and as for automatons…”

He smiled bitterly.

“Approximately three hundred thousand of various types.”

A few people voiced their disbelief.

That simply seemed impossible.

That was when a sudden voice of rejection reached them. It was a sharp girl’s voice.

“You would not regret it if you showed a little more tolerance.”

The voice came from directly next to Sayama.

No one had seen them arrive, but two figures had joined the transparent map of Tokyo.

One wore a black armored uniform and the other was a twelve-winged maid automaton.

They were Mikoku and Noah.

Everyone in the meeting room began to raise their voices at their appearance.

Some reached into their pockets to pull out weapons, but they never completed that action.

“Please quiet down. Over.”

Noah’s voice seemed to be emitted from her entire body and a weight fell down from above.

It was a great burden.

“…!?”

Those who had started to stand up fell to their knees. Those who had reached into their pockets collapsed forward.

The weight bore down on their entire body.

But the cups and pens on the desks before them did not even budge and their clothes were not pulled down.

Only the people were pressed against the desks or the floor while Mikoku and Noah stood tall.

Noah had lightly raised her right hand.

“I have tripled your body weight. Please calm down, everyone. Over.”

But someone opposed those words and began to move.

Sayama stood in front of them and…

“Go!”

On his shout, two figures moved inside the meeting room.

The girl and boy moving quickly forward in their white armored uniforms were Kazami and Hiba.

Their movement time was shortened and they moved too quickly to see properly.

Kazami spread her wings and forced her way through the extra burden.

“!”

She circled behind Noah and thrust G-Sp2’s tip up from below without warning.

At the same time, Hiba rushed directly in front of Mikoku.

Kazami’s attack hit and the sound of the impact exploded out.

However, it hit Hiba.

“Eh!?”

The sound of everyone else gasping was louder than Kazami’s cry of surprise.

At some point, Noah had appeared behind Kazami with Mikoku in her arms.

“…!”

Kazami turned toward the presence behind her and Noah spoke expressionlessly.

“Please quiet down. Over.”

Hiba flew over their heads after being knocked into the air by G-Sp2.

He normally would have hit the tall ceiling from a blow like that, but the distance and height of his flight were shortened by his tripled body weight.

At this rate, he was going to crash into the third level of the stepped meeting room.

His arms flailed wildly, but there was nothing he could do.

His legs also flailed wildly, but there was still nothing he could do.

Kazami knew what to do at a time like this, so she gave him some advice.

“Hiba! It’s no use!”

“Y-you’re the one that did this to me!! You really are the worst!!”

However, he spotted someone to help him up ahead: Izumo.

Izumo was sitting in the stepped aisle between desks eating a hamburger, so Hiba shouted to him while flailing his limbs.

“I-Izumo-san!”

“Yeah…” Izumo nodded and averted his gaze. “It’s just that you’ve been making a lot of gay jokes lately.”

“Don’t give up like that! Try to have a proper conversation with me!”

Hiba braced for impact.

“Izumo-san! C-catch me! Please catch me! It might mean cracking a few bones, but l-let me plow into you!”

“It might mean cracking a few bones?”

Izumo gave a reluctant nod and went with Hiba’s suggestion.

He pointed at Hiba, held his sides like they were splitting, and spoke to the Kenyan UCAT representative sitting next to him.

“Hey, hey. Did you see that!? That idiot’s flying! Wa ha ha ha ha!”

Hiba crashed into the seat next to Izumo.

The sound of destruction was three times greater than normal.

Izumo spoke to Hiba’s legs and hands which were growing from the remains of the wooden desk and chair.

“Was that good enough? But if you want to ‘crack’ people up with your jokes, you can’t force them.”

Hiba shot to his feet, scattering pieces of the seat, and clenched his fist with blood flowing from his face.

“I-Izumo-san! There are some things you just don’t do!”

“And was this one of them?”

“U-um…”

Hiba hesitated, so Sayama shouted over at him.

“Was it!? Or was it not!? Give us a clear answer!”

Rushed by Sayama, Hiba held his head in his hands.

“I-it was…was not…was…”

He looked up in surprise, turned around, spread his arms, and gave his answer.

“It was not was!”

Noah was standing in front of him and she gave her response to his suggestion.

“Please quiet down. Over.”

“W-wah! Even the enemy’s treating me like this!?”

They all ignored him and Noah placed Mikoku back on the floor.

Mikoku took a breath, fixed her collar, and looked across the group in the room.

“Everyone, I am here to suggest you surrender.”

She expressionlessly looked through the transparent map of Tokyo surrounding her.

She looked at the red ribbons of UCAT and the blue ribbons moving toward them.

“To speed up your decision, I will provide you with some details concerning my weapons.”

Sayama fought the weight as he listened to Mikoku provide her numbers.

These were simply the numbers of her army, but…

“Mechanical dragons: 121 Seraph-type, 406 Cherubim-type, and 640 Galgalim-type. Gods of war: 301 Lords-type, 814 Virtues-type, and 1201 Power-type. Automatons: 98000 Prince-type, 10001 Arc-type, and 189000 Angelus-type. Altogether, it is an army of more than three hundred thousand.”

Those simple numbers moved on the map of Tokyo as the color blue.

As everyone pinned to the desks or floor looked to the map, blue ribbons rose from the ground and began intercepting the red ribbons.

Sayama saw Mikoku instruct Noah to end the extra weight.

“Testament.”

With that word, the weight left them all and they breathed a sigh of relief.

No one around Sayama considered attacking Mikoku.

She must have understood that because Mikoku looked first to him and then the others.

“I have no intention of fighting yet. The Leviathan is always under my control. I can send out it and its troops as easily as you can clench your hand into a fist. Blindly attacking with no preparation will only lead to regret.”

“In other words, it is time for a chat straight out of the long-running TV show ‘Disastrous You’?”

Noah tilted her head, but Mikoku nodded and lowered her gaze a little.

“I doubt it will be a very nice chat.”

Someone chose to question that.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”

It was Ooshiro who had entered the meeting room with #8.

People raised their voices to welcome him.

When he fixed his collar and raised his arms in an entrance pose, everyone smiled and applauded.

“Tch. Why’s he alive?”

“#8-san wasted four hours of her life bringing him back.”

“He bought up three or four of the limited-edition figurine I wanted.”

“I-is it just me or are all of you giving into personal grudges a lot lately!?”

“If you have something to say, get on with it, old man.”

“Very well.” He sat on the steps, pointed at Mikoku, and then pointed at the giant dragon on the map. “How should I put it? You may be able to use the Leviathan, but can you really utilize all of those weapons? It must take a lot to fire even a single cannon. Do you have any proof what you’re saying is-…”

Before he could finish, Mikoku snapped her fingers.

Noah nodded in response.

A moment later, everyone saw a building on the southeast side of the transparent map disappear.

Tokyo Tower had completely vanished.

As soon as the green, transparent tower disappeared, the automaton operating the round table controlling the map spoke quietly.

“The tower within the Leviathan’s concept space has been vaporized.”

“Testament.” Noah nodded. “The Leviathan is linked to me. I exist here as an automaton, but I am aware I am nothing but a weapon for Mikoku-sama. Over.”

“I see.” Sayama nodded and looked to Ooshiro. “Why are you even here, old man? It is your fault Tokyo Tower was destroyed inside the concept space.”

“Eh? I-it’s my fault!?”

“Ha ha ha. Who else could we possibly blame?”

Everyone in the meeting room glared at Ooshiro.

He shrieked, rolled along the floor, collided with the next step up, and rolled back to #8.

“#-#8-kun, are you going to give me the same look all of them do?”

She ignored him entirely, pulled a mop from below her apron, and began cleaning the floor with her back to him.

“#-#8-kun! Won’t you help me after going out of your way to bring me here!?”

“I apologize, but I am incredibly busy with nothing to do and am therefore cleaning.”

“How long will you be cleaning?”

Ooshiro asked while sitting on the floor and #8 answered with her back to him.

“Until the filth is gone.”

“Is that…a metaphor for something?”

“Testament. …Of course not.”

“Which is it!? Which of those answers am I supposed to believe!?”

“Ooshiro-sama.” She continued mopping with her back to him. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

He lay on the floor and pretended to cry, so everyone ignored him. Mikoku glanced over at Ooshiro.

“You are a strange bunch.”

“You’re one to talk!!”

Mikoku flinched back at everyone’s retort, so Noah supported her back and spoke expressionlessly.

“Mikoku-sama, do not let them bother you. What could they possibly be looking at to think we are strange? We are far too low-key for that. Over.”

“R-right. I am living such a low-key life that I had plain soba for lunch.”

“Since you would have been floating in the sky while eating it, that is a most impressive way of being low-key.”

Mikoku cleared her throat after hearing Sayama’s opinion.

She looked over at him and held out a hand to indicate the transparent map.

“Anyway, my army of automatons and gods of war has already been deployed within the concept space. Every last one of them wears pure-white armor. Meanwhile, what kind of fighting force do you have?

Sayama responded.

“You already know, don’t you?” he began. “We have millions upon millions of fighters.”

“Let me be blunt. Are you stupid?”

“Heh heh heh. I can see you are shocked by the overwhelming vagueness of our army.”

Mikoku gave Noah a look of protest, so Noah held out her right hand and bent her fingers twice.

“Based on my predictions, they currently have seventy thousand in all. By nine tomorrow night, they will have two hundred and ten thousand. Over.”

“You need to learn to dream.”

“I have never had a dream. Over.”

“That is unfortunate.” Sayama crossed his arms. “Dreams are wonderful. Shinjou-kun will perform all sorts of acrobatic positions while only putting up a token resistance. Come to think of it, I can do that in reality now.”

“Waaaah!!”

The meeting room’s door burst open and a shouting form rushed in.

“Ah! W-wait! Why are you dragging me out! I have an objection! An objection!! I demand an appeal!!”

The figure was taken back outside.

Sayama glanced over at it.

“Would you look at that. The dream has appeared for real.”

“You need to check yourself into a hospital,” said Mikoku.

She crossed her arms and addressed the comparative numbers of the blue and red ribbons.

“Going by the numbers alone, my force is 1.5 times larger than yours.”

Add in the superior fighting power of the gods of war and mechanical dragons and the Leviathan had an overwhelming advantage. Gathering every god of war and mechanical dragon from every Gear would have trouble reaching even a tenth of the Leviathan’s numbers.

Mikoku must have realized that because she continued.

“Therefore, I suggest you surrender. You can do so simply by doing nothing.”

“Why?”

She answered expressionlessly.

“If you do nothing, you can enjoy Christmas night with your families. You would be happier if you made some nice memories before being erased in the instant of the new world’s creation. And just like me, you will be reborn in the new world in some form. If you do not like the sound of that, then this will be your fate.”

She pointed to the map where UCAT’s red ribbons were being devoured by the blue ones.

They were devoured rapidly and in great numbers.

The erasure of the red left everyone in the room speechless.

Could they stand up to that?

But Sayama was unfazed.

“I see.” He looked Mikoku in the eye. “You certainly are brave to suggest we surrender. A very bold move if you ask me.”

“How is this bold? Are you implying you have some chance of winning?”

“Allow me to ask this: Do you seriously think ''you can defeat me?''”

Everyone gasped and Ooshiro shouted from the floor.

“M-Mikoto-kun! Don’t provoke her! That’s a big no-no!”

“There is nothing to worry about. We are merely chatting. For today, she will suggest we surrender and we will declare war. So let me make one thing very clear: We will stop the creation of the Leviathan’s positive concepts by 10:30 tomorrow night.”

“Can you? Even after seeing the result of the simulation surrounding you?”

The silence from everyone else grew heavier.

The reason for that silence was simple.

All red had vanished from the map of Tokyo in which Sayama stood and it was absolutely filled with blue ribbons instead.

If that simulation was accurate, every last member of UCAT would be devoured by the Leviathan’s army.

And Mikoku stood in the center of that blue battlefield.

“If all you have is pointless bragging, there is nothing left for you.”

But Sayama did not respond.

He said nothing. That was all.

They had already declared war against each other, so Mikoku looked down, closed her eyes, and hung her head.

“So all that remains is the battle. Understood.”

She sighed and raised her head without opening her eyes.

“Let us fight during tomorrow’s holy night. Let us fight with the entire world on the line.”

As soon as she said that, both she and Noah disappeared.

But they had not completely vanished.

“––––?”

They had lost their human forms.

With a sound much like sand, only a pile of something white remained where they had been.

When Kazami saw it, she frowned and spoke from the floor.

“Salt?”

“Yes,” agreed Sayama. “They were likely creating copies of themselves using gravitational control or something else. Such careful preparation and such overacting. I cannot believe they would force salt to cosplay as them. But…”

He moved his legs to enter the transparent map of Tokyo.

He moved below the Leviathan where Mikoku and Noah had been and stepped on the piles of salt.

“Was that supposed to be their declaration of war?”

No one answered him.

They all simply let tension fill their bodies.

So Sayama opened his mouth.

He let his words soak into them and remove their tension.

“That was an amusing little diversion. Now, let us get back on topic. I will give you my idea of how to escape this situation where Tokyo is filled by the blue ribbons.”

Everyone watched as he raised his hand.

In response, a flower bloomed in the blue Tokyo.

A few red forces suddenly welled up there.

There were not that many of them, but they were definitely there.

“I will now show you the battle as I see it. In other words, I will show you a battle of gods, where everyone is the same as me. And, everyone, I have only one thing to say here. There is only one objective to this plan I am calling Operation Leviathan.”

He spoke the words that were essentially a promise to the others.

“We must not allow the Leviathan to reach reality.”

The area around Shinjuku Station was filled with the lights of night.

According to the clock in front of the station, it was 4:22 AM.

There were people there, but not many. Some people in suits were arriving for the first train of the morning and some younger people and women who had spent the night in the area were moving between empty stores to keep out of the cold.

But there were a few people unlike them.

These men all wore work uniforms with matching blue jackets.

Large trucks were pulling up alongside them not just at the center of the taxi-filled roundabout in front of Shinjuku Station, but also in the alleyways by the south, west, and east entrances.

The trucks were loaded with metal pipes and panels.

“Who would have thought we’d be blocking off Shinjuku and building stages on the roads?”

That comment came from Kazami’s mother who stood in a small clearing in front of Nishiguchi Station.

She wore a coat and the man next to her, her husband, passed her a thermos of tea.

“It’s going to be blocked off from nine to midnight tonight. I’m impressed you got permission for this, papa.”

“Well, I’ve been planning this for a long time and I have some connections here since we used the area a lot for a police drama I worked on. You know the one: ‘Detective Fluke: The Activation’ where he always found the criminal on intuition.”

His wife smiled bitterly at that.

“I remember that. Chisato would always watch your shows back then. Like that popular anime.”

“Oh, you mean the sexual harassment food hero ‘Panpanman’? Chisato came up with a lot of the ideas for the pathogen monsters working for Gaikinman, the enemy boss who refused to work in the office. Choleraman and Aidsman were certainly straight to the point.”

“That one got canceled pretty quick, didn’t it?”

A short silence followed his wife’s comment.

Their daughter would normally keep the conversation going with a complaint, but she was not here and the father had to clear his throat.

“Well, ever since then, I’ve wanted to pretend to conquer Tokyo like this.”

“Oh, my. So are you conquering it with music instead of police authority?”

“Ha ha.” He laughed and smiled bitterly at his wife’s words. “I wonder what Chisato would think if she knew her papa was going to be a dictator tonight?”

“She’d probably come to overthrow you and tell you to stop dreaming.”

“Y-you sure are cement-like!!”

“Am I?” she replied.

Suddenly, a large figure approached them.

Kazami’s father stood up when she saw the man wearing a jacket over a white suit.

“Oh, Izumo-san. Why are you here? D-don’t tell me you searched us out with psychic powers!?”

“That’s exactly right! Esper Beam Beeeeeacon!!”

“Old Man Shield!! And Man Beam Birooooon!”

“What!? Shepaaaah!! …Oh, this is a paralyzing beam, okay?’

“Roger that. But… Ha ha ha. That won’t work on me! Meyo meyo meyo meyo meyo!”

The mother removed a shoe and struck the father’s head as he moved his arms in a wavelike motion and made a bizarre sound effect.

“Ow!”

He bent forward and she smiled his way.

“Why are you two posing at each other? I’ll grab your collar and hit you next time?”

“Hmm, are you saying you’re willing to hit just anyone, mama?”

“Anyway, enough of this nonsense only men can understand. Try talking like human beings.”

“Sure, sure, sure.” He straightened up and turned toward Izumo. “What brings you here so early in the morning?”

“I just have business in the area is all. But on the way, I heard something interesting was going on here. I’m really not sure what to say about this.”

Izumo Retsu looked around the nighttime station area and spotted the loaded trucks hidden in the alleyways.

“It looks like you’re up to no good!!”

“Ha ha ha. I see you understand. You sure are young at heart, Izumo-san!”

“I understand all too well. It’s like you’re conquering Tokyo!”

Wondering how he could tell, Kazami’s mother tilted her head and glared at them, but the two men paid her no heed and began discussing the location of the stage and the timing of the lights and sounds.

Suddenly, Izumo’s father crossed his arms and smiled.

“I wish I could have helped out with all this.”

“No, that would feel like we were abusing Chisato’s connections.”

“True enough.”

The two men smiled bitterly.

“So what do you have planned, Kazami-san?”

“Nothing much. Just calling in artists from around the world and having them perform on different stages simultaneously for a ridiculously exciting Christmas. Walking around the streets of Shinjuku will feel like walking all around the world.”

“Will your wife be singing?”

Kazami’s mother gave her husband a quick look, so the man gave a single nod.

“I’m not so sure.”

“Ah, what a shame! I have her LP, you know? The one where she adds that sound effect to the end. ‘I’m. Still. Seventeen. Piyo-piyo’.”

Kazami’s mother shrieked, held her head in her hands, and crouched down.

Seeing the father frantically try to help her, Retsu scratched his head awkwardly.

“You were traumatized by that? My bad. Then what about after you started writing your own songs? Y’know, like ‘No one will even look my way. I’m a sweet pea of a bygone era’?”

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!”

Kazami’s mother shook as violently as someone on the receiving end of an exorcism, but…

“I-Izumo-san, please stop hitting her past with these uppercuts!”

“Sorry about that.”

Retsu gave an honest smile.

“No matter how it might look now, we all had fun at the time, so I don’t see any reason to reject what happened back then.”

“That’s right. That’s right, mama! Did you hear what Izumo-san just said!? ‘No one has had as painful a life as me’ was a really, really good song!”

“Ow, ow, ow, ow! Papa! You wrote that song!!”

The father looked up in surprise.

“That’s right. That’s the musical curse I wrote when I was so mad at my idiot of a boss! I planned to send it to him, but I accidentally put it in your birthday card instead.”

“Yes, and the card saying ‘I want to be with you from morning to night (heart)’ ended up going to your boss. Didn’t he quit almost immediately after that?”

“Ha ha ha! And it was all thanks to you, mama!”

The mother hit his head with the thermos.

The empty thermos made a nice side, but by then, Retsu was already walking toward the station.

“Are you leaving already?”

“Yes.” Retsu waved without turning around. “I’m looking forward to it. We’re having a pretty serious festival too, so I hope we can enjoy the night together.”

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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume14 Chapter 18|Chapter 18]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume14 Chapter 20|Chapter 20]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume14 Chapter 1

2026-04-28T03:21:15Z

N-Ch:

[[Image:OnC_v14_0030-0031.jpg|thumb]]
''Do I wish

''For it to end?

—'''We will not immerse ourselves in the past.

==Chapter 1: The Joy of an Outing==
[[Image:OnC_v14_0033.png|thumb]]
''Hidden feelings

''Can remain hidden

''They are personal and their joy can also be hidden in your heart

During the night, most of the light had vanished from the residential district, but one area remained lit by more than just the streetlights.

It was a large house surrounded by a wall.

The gate was open and a blue tarp was spread out just inside. A folded-up festival stand and its framework were piled up on the tarp and several people were working to put it away.

But one person sat out in front of the gate.

She was a woman wearing a leather jacket over a kimono. She sat on the gate’s curb and stared intently to the east.

The eyes behind her glasses were fixated on the dark residential district and the pale light in the sky beyond.

That faint brightness came from the lights shining up on the winter sky.

“Taka-Akita’s festival is still ongoing…”

Her comment received a response from the roof of the gate.

“Ms. Ryouko, waiting for Ms. Shino?”

“Yeah. Setsu-chan didn’t come back either, so I thought they might be playing together. Poyanski, you thought so too, didn’t you?”

A deep sound descended from afar. It seemed to shake the air as it traveled through the heavens.

“There have been a lot of planes today.”

“That was fighter jet.”

“I guess a former soldier would know that. Is there a war going on or something?”

Her question was answered by the young man in a suit who walked out from the gate.

“You always make things sound so dangerous, sister. From what we managed to intercept, it seems they’re holding some kind of night exercise in Kansai. But…”

“But what, Kouji?”

“There are more planes flying around than reported. And according to Toki-san, military bases in the West, Asia, the Middle East, and Russia are working together with Japan.”

Ryouko tilted her head.

“If that was true, it would be big news. There would be fighters flying around on a global scale.”

“That’s what doesn’t make sense.”

Kouji sat next to Ryouko and pulled two paper cups of coffee out from behind him.

“Bases around the world are working with Japan, but it seems no one can see any of the fighters.”

“No one can see them?”

“Like I said, the bases are really busy, but they can’t see the fighters.”

“Oh.” Ryouko nodded in understanding. “So the world’s super technology has created fighters that idiots can’t see. That would explain why you can’t see them but I can.”

“If you can see them, then tell me what’s flying overhead right now.”

She looked up in the sky and narrowed her eyes.

“Hmm. Ah! See!? It’s flying! It’s a twin-engine bomber with pink frills! Did that design come from Shibuya? Is it a Shibu-Bomber? That’s so cool!”

“Sister… You don’t have to get all worked up and lie about it.”

“I-I am not lying! I can see it! It’s flying right there! You can hear it cawing to the west!”

“Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, it sure is flying and cawing there. Yeah, no question about it.”

“What are you talking about, Kouji? Is there something wrong with your brain? Are you actually a moron? Oh, sorry. Should I not have asked that?”

“You said it first!”

“Give me some coffee and I’ll go easy on you.”

“Fine, fine.”

He held out one of the paper cups.

“Why is my sister so…”

He trailed off and looked up at the roof with the other cup.

“What about you, Poya-san?”

“Leave there and I will drink.”

“Pes has been asking for it for a while, so are you sure you want to leave it here?”

“I might not drink.”

“Sure, sure.”

Kouji set the cup on the edge of the gate’s lintel and then sat back on the curb.

“But ignoring all that activity, where has Shino-san gotten off to?”

“…”

“I haven’t seen her since she said she would buy us some drinks. Nagase-san, who was playing the Festival Stand Detective, forgot to rehydrate, so the next thing we knew, he was so dehydrated he began giving a confused roadside speech. It was something about demanding the return of the Northern Territories so he could turn them into the Bear Kingdom.”

“That would be problem. Penguin Land better name.”

“But everyone thought the speech was part of the show.”

“Best to ignore, Mr. Kouji.”

“Calm down.” Kouji sighed while quieting down the roof. “But after Nagase-san collapsed, we removed the mask and found him passed out with a refreshing smile on his face. Then again, it might have just been his face stiffening up from the dehydration. …Not that any of that is Shino-san’s responsibility.”

He then faced Ryouko who had fallen silent and he smiled bitterly.

“Do you think she isn’t coming back because the atmosphere here just wasn’t a good fit for- Why did you just collapse on your back and fall asleep, sister! At least listen to what I’m saying!”

“Eh? O-oh, sorry, Kouji. You were letting your love of little girls burst from your soul as all that pedo talk about Shi-chan, so I had to restrain myself so much I actually fell asleep. I was so serious the coffee’s caffeine didn’t stand a chance! So? Have you finished that filthy discussion, you genuine pedophile?”

“I-I didn’t say anything ‘filthy’.”

“And you won’t even admit it!? How was any of that not filthy? How are you not a pedo!? Honestly, I’m promoting you from genuine to super genuine! I hope you become a white dwarf and shrink away!”

“Not that it matters, but can’t I explode and become a black hole instead?”

“Do you have any idea how much trouble that would cause the neighbors? And are you trying to become the center of a galaxy or something? What would your galaxy be called? The Genuine Galaxy? …Yay! I said it, I said it!”

Ryouko was so worked up that she stood and clapped her hands once. Responding claps came from the nearby wall, gate, and manhole.

She then turned around.

“So what were we talking about?”

“You’re the worst, sister!!”

“K-Kouji’s being a bully!!”

“Can you stop talking on reflex and actually use your left brain!? What is even in that half of your skull!?”

“P-probably…brains, I guess?”

“Please don’t sound so unsure.”

“Oh, c’mon. It’s not like you’ve ever seen inside your own head.” She took a sip of coffee. “Well, it doesn’t really matter, but Shi-chan has a big sister. You don’t have to worry about her too much, so get inside and make me a midnight snack.”

“I wasn’t actually out here to wait for her, you know?”

He stood up and let his shoulders droop a little.

“I have a feeling she isn’t coming back, so…”

“So you came here to tell me to stop waiting? Don’t be silly.” Ryouko smiled bitterly and sat back on the curb. “I’m waiting for Shi-chan to make sure I don’t have to wait for her anymore.”

“…”

“This is a ritual for me. And you know what?”

She looked up in the sky and heard an airplane fly from south to west.

“I like to think Shi-chan holds the fate of the world in her hands, so armies from around the world are chasing after her right now. Girls like to dream, you know?”

“That is quite the dangerous dream.”

“Wow, I could hear the young master saying that!!”

Kouji smiled a bit at that, but then sighed and took a step toward the gate.

“Well, you take care of things here, sister.”

“Yes, yes. Leave this to me. …Shi-chan will be okay.”

She took a breath.

“I’m sure she’s surrounded by good people.”

“Yes,” replied the roof. “But Ms. Ryouko, are you okay? Very cold outside. Da, very cold”

Ryouko answered the roof’s concern with a gunshot.

There was a great noise.

It was a high-pitched noise that reverberated through the sky.

The surging sound was created as the atmosphere was split apart and eight aircraft were visible at the front end.

They were twin-engine fighters equipped for a ground attack.

They traveled west below the moon and their sides were decorated with American UCAT’s emblem. They belonged to American UCAT’s Atsugi Base.

The massive payload of bombs attached below their wings and the accelerators attached above the wings rid them of a normal fighter’s silhouette.

The oddly-shaped eight were flying west through the Tokai region.

The northern of the two in the lead lit up his optical communication pod.

“R1, this is BA1. BA and BB have secured our course. Shifting into weight reduction flight.”

A response came from the control craft flying above Suruga Bay far behind them.

“Testament, BA1. BA and BB, maintain your course. Attack craft teams AA and AB have also detected no enemies on their approach from Okinawa.”

“Testament,” replied BA Team’s commander before sighing. “R1, how well are the different countries working together? I want to avoid a midair collision while we’re all using stealth.”

“Testament. It seems the UCAT bases near the Sea of Japan have become a showcase for the world’s fighters. And they’re all waiting for our results.”

“Testament. So we have to do our job right as the opening act, do we? I’m sure D Team’s mechanical dragons will clean everything up once they arrive.”

“Testament. But BA1…”

“I know,” replied BA1. “The enemy has two aircraft: one mechanical dragon and one god of war. …And I remember having all of our mechanical dragons shot down by that god of war a month and a half ago.”

Also…

“I hear the pilot of that white god of war defeated our blue and white mechanical dragon.”

“Testament,” replied R1 before saying what they thought BA1 needed to hear. “Don’t think about fighting. Fly straight in, scatter your bombs while accelerating, and get out of there.”

“I’m well aware. We don’t have the armor, hand-to-hand ability, or firepower of a mechanical dragon, but we still have our top speed since we’re smaller. This kind of mission is perfect for us.”

BA1 continued speaking while tearing through the wind in the lead.

“R1, has the girl of the blue and white dragon woken yet?”

“That is highly classified, so I can’t answer.”

Everyone listening smiled bitterly at the casual tone, but then someone spoke.

“Do you think that mechanical dragon will come back from the alternate space it was sent to?”

“Don’t rely on a girl,” succinctly replied BA1. “And I doubt she wants anyone to rely on her right now. …Not when she’s lost her power.”

But as soon as he finished speaking…

“———!?”

His fighter broke apart and scattered through the sky.

Everyone inside the control craft designated R1 froze when they realized what had happened.

But a moment later, the American UCAT members escaped their surprised despondency and managed to speak or begin moving.

They had already lost the transmission from BA1 and…

“BA2, BB1…and BA3 were lost!”

After the communications officer finished her report, a shout came in from B Team.

“This is BB4! R1… What happened!?”

When they heard BB4, everyone in R1 thought, “You were just shot down.”

They all gulped because they did not know why, but the situation would not wait for them to catch up.

“B Team, scatter and ascend!”

“R1, what is going on!? It looks like we lost some fighters! But there was no explosion or anythi-…”

The next voice was accompanied by the static of being shot down.

“I’m breaking apart!”

“BB4 has been lost!”

The communications officer seemed to have difficulty giving the report.

“A Team’s attackers will arrive in thirty-two seconds!”

Hearing that, everyone turned to one point in the aircraft.

One of Japanese UCAT’s automatons had been deployed to man the radar that checked for philosopher’s stone readings.

The businesslike maid illuminated by the pale red light was named #66. The data from the battle against 3rd-Gear and from the Army’s attack on UCAT had been downloaded into her personal memory.

“I am detecting Typhon and Alex’s readings. Typhon’s is within thirty kilometers to the west, but its output is too weak for flight.”

However…

“I am detecting a philosopher’s stone reading elsewhere, but it only ever lasts an instant.”

“Elsewhere?”

“Testament,” replied #66 while noting that the screen indicated that BB3 had been shot down as well. “The reading appears on the fighters in the instant that they are shot down!”

As she spoke, the information she was receiving confirmed her suspicions, so she turned toward the other frowning people.

“This is not an attack by Typhon or Alex! This instantaneous output is only seen from a close-range attack of a handheld concept weapon!” she said. “The enemy is using a concept weapon to bring down the fighters directly without causing an explosion!!”

BA4 was ascending toward the moon when he saw BB2 break apart in the moonlight up above him.

There was no explosion.

Nor was it broken apart.

It simply scattered its pieces with no flames or smoke.

BA4 saw fragments, the frame, pieces of explosives that scattered without a detonation, and…

“!!”

Someone stood on his own fighter’s nose.

Moonlight washed over the back of a girl holding a curved blade.

The wind blew at her hair, combat coat, and skirt and she wore red pumps on her feet.

There was nothing BA4 could do.

He could not aim his machineguns at someone standing on the nose and the missiles were meant for ground strikes.

He considered accelerating so the wind would sweep her away, but he was already traveling at three times the speed of sound which was apparently not enough.

“…!”

He suddenly rolled to catch her off guard.

He added in a bit of yaw to swing the fighter around, but…

“Impossible!”

He had been trained to react to high-speed movement, so he saw it all.

The enemy kept up with the fighter’s movements simply by lowering her hips a little.

It looked a lot like she was riding a surfboard.

For just an instant, the moonlight revealed her expression.

Her mouth and eyes showed a silent smile.

She then opened that mouth and raised the sword.

“Surprised? I had Typhon throw me from below so I could pretend to be a human shell.”

BA4 recalled that Top-Gear had two female swordsmen. The younger was nearly immortal and the older had a strange concept weapon.

“That concept weapon absorbs its target’s attack and makes it its own.”

“Yes,” replied the smiling girl. “First, I stored one of Typhon’s blasts and used that to destroy one fighter after being thrown here.”

She took a breath.

“Then I absorb the blast created by the explosion to recycle it against the next fighter.”

This enemy also controlled the direction of the destruction so that the recoil of the blast allowed her to hop to the next fighter.

They had scattered and ascended to see what their enemy was, but that enemy had moved to the first ascending fighter and worked her way down as she destroyed them.

And as for the sword she held…

“This is charged with the recycled explosions of eight fighters, so it will cause quite a boom if I use it all at once.”

At the same time, a transmission reached BA4’s ears.

It was the relieved voice of R1’s communications officer.

“BA4! A Team has arrived!”

He saw them both on the radar and with the naked eye. Eight attack craft were arriving from the west.

However, BA4 silently begged them to stay away.

As soon as they arrived, their enemy was going to hit him with the explosive power she had accumulated thus far.

It contained the explosions of eight ground-attack fighters, their explosives, and a blast from Typhon’s cannon.

That would undoubtedly burn through the sky and blow away everything there in an instant.

So BA4 tried to tell them to escape.

But in that moment, the skirt before his eyes fluttered upwards and he shouted something else instead.

“White!”

The enemy stabbed her sword downwards with a smile and BA4 scattered below the moonlight.

In the final moment, he saw her moonlit form.

Heo slowly awoke.

“…”

She seemed to have been placed in a bed on top of some fairly hard fabric.

But she did not know what position her body was in; she could not even guess.

She could not rouse any thoughts.

She felt like her mind was empty and like she was blankly watching herself from the outside.

She did not try to move or even consider it as a possibility.

Her consciousness was entirely closed.

She knew why: she did not want to remember.

If she did remember, she would also remember that there was nothing she could do.

And if there was nothing she could do, she had no power.

So there was no point in doing anything.

She was filled with a great sense of powerlessness.

Thinking about power only reminded her of the moment when she lost it.

If there was no point in being, then she thought she might as well die, but she could not even think about that too seriously and she simply tried to erase her thoughts as a substitute.

If she thought nothing, she would not lose anything. If she hoped for nothing, she would not feel anything.

The only thing at the base of her powerless thoughts was the decision to stay still and let others ignore her.

She wanted to go to some dark place.

She wanted to go to some quiet place.

She wanted to go to some solitary place.

And she felt like that wish was being granted. She felt like a wall separated her from her skin, but that skin felt air which was chilly enough to be called cold and her ears sensed silence.

“———”

She opened her eyes, but not of her own will.

She had simply abandoned even the strength she needed to keep her eyelids shut.

Even keeping her eyes shut had felt like doing something, so her eyes opened and she stared blankly forward.

She should have seen the white wall of the infirmary, but she instead saw the night sky.

Not only that, but she had a full view of that sky and all the stars therein.

“Eh?”

She was lying in a bed, but there were no windows, walls, or ceiling. There was not even a floor.

“…!?”

Fear over this unknown situation won out over her self-imposed stupor.

Her pulse raced and she sat up as she wondered what had happened.

She then realized that this was at the top of a mountain cliff and her bed had been placed on the edge of that cliff.

The bed was the reclining type used in hospitals and its white frame and blanket had been placed on the grassy clifftop such that she was looking up into the sky.

“So you’re finally up, Heo Thunderson.”

She turned toward the sudden voice to her side and saw a boy sitting at the head of the bed on the side closer to the mountain. His right arm held a machinegun encased in a white cowling.

“Harakawa?”

He did not turn her way.

He simply stared ahead and said nothing more.

His silence confused her. Why was he not saying anything?

That was when the sky split open.

Sudden red split through the dark blue of the starry and moonlit sky.

The silence was broken by a bursting sound of impact and crimson flames blossomed in the sky.

For just a moment, Heo knew what that crimson light was, but something else escaped her mouth.

“Why…?”

She gasped a bit as she looked into the sky.

She gulped, tensed her shoulders, and slowly opened her mouth again.

“Why did you bring me here?”

“Don’t ask the obvious, Heo. Heo Thunderson.”

She snapped back at the word “obvious”.

“How is this obvious?”

She spoke quietly, but that was enough to sap her of strength.

She was closing up.

But she continued to speak because she wanted him to understand this at the very least.

“I have no power right now.”

However, Harakawa did not turn toward her.

She only heard him speak a quick question.

“So what, Heo Thunderson?”

This time, Harakawa did turn toward Heo.

There was more noise in the sky, so there was likely light as well.

However, he only looked at her pale face with tears welling up in the eyes.

“There is a battlefield for you whether you have any power or not.”

He could also hear noise from beyond the forest visible west of the cliff.

The American UCAT troops that had dropped them off here had engaged the enemy.

They were fighting with no air support and they would likely change their mission from an assault to a diversion.

Japanese UCAT had yet to arrive, but he knew they had to be nearby since they intended to charge in after American UCAT’s attack.

''But,'' he thought.

“I don’t know if those crazy people can win this time.”

There was a reason for that.

“First, Sayama doesn’t have Shinjou, so he can’t raise his bizarre excitement gauge to max. Also, the violent comedy couple have lost their Concept Core weapon pets. And of course, Hiba has been without Mikage so long he can act without thinking while also having Susamikado off limits.”

“That’s quite an accurate analysis.”

“Yes.” He nodded and looked Heo in the eye. “And we don’t have Thunder Fellow.”

Heo shrank back, but he did not care.

He spoke the truth without holding back.

“Our strength has fallen considerably and our enemy could keep up with us before. That means…”

That meant…

“Our enemy is far more powerful than us right now.”

And…

“There’s another problem.”

“Eh?”

Wind swept her question away.

It was the cold winter wind of a mountain.

The whiteness of her breath made the air seem all the more invisible.

And Harakawa spoke to add meaningful color to that transparency.

“I’m talking about Babel, Heo.”

He looked up at the sky above the mountain.

Beyond the forest, a great tower pierced the heavens in the dim light.

“Based on the documents he found he can read now, Sayama concluded that Babel has been partially active ever since ten years ago to restrain the activated negative concepts contained inside. And since Babel is Noah, the Top-Gear residents will be allowed in.”

He took a breath.

“Noah will treat the people of Top-Gear like gods and do whatever they say. It can create concepts as instructed by its ‘gods’, so Top-Gear can now influence this entire world.”

“B-but…!”

Heo threw her words his way, so he turned around.

As if to surpass the cold wind, she held a hand to her chest with the night sky in the background.

“What can I do in such an important fight!?”

“I have fingers, so I can pull a trigger.”

Harakawa immediately answered her and stood from the bed.

“I have eyes, so I can see the enemy approaching.”

He spoke.

“I have a mouth, so I can inform people of things.”

He continued speaking.

“I have ears, so I can grasp the situation on the battlefield.”

And…

“I have a body, so I can show people that something is there to support them.”

Also…

“Everyone has this much, Heo Thunderson. …Most people don’t have the kind of power we did.”

''Now that I think about it, Sayama’s the representative example of that,'' thought Harakawa.

Heo stared blankly up at him and he spoke toward her powerless eyes.

“But even if I lost my power, I can still drive a motorcycle and I have pretty good eyes. It’s no more of an advantage than anyone else, but that kind of advantage is important on the battlefield.”

What about you?

“Being the same as everyone else doesn’t make you powerless, Heo Thunderson. If you make good use of the slight advantages you have, they will bring even more power. And if you continue to train those advantages and accumulate even more…”

''You’ll probably become the kind of person people call stupid.

''But,'' he thought. ''What about you?

“In battles, everyone is shorthanded. Everyone wants someone by their side when things are feeling hopeless and they want something to protect. The battlefield is for the people who can fight, but more than that…it’s a helpless place that is always asking for help.”

He looked straight at Heo from where he stood.

“So. Are you willing to reach out to the battlefield that is asking for help?” he asked. “And I know it’s a little late for this…but put on some clothes, Heo Thunderson. They’re on the edge of the bed.”

“Eh?”

Heo looked down at herself.

The blanket had fallen from her upper body when she sat up, so it was completely bare.

“Eh? Ah, w-wait. What is this!?”

“It was your teacher that removed your clothes, so don’t ask me. She also put you on the transport helicopter.”

“W-wait a second! Removing some of them is one thing, but why am I completely naked!?”

“Isn’t that your cruel personal skill? Also, Germans are all perfectionists.”

“Y-you find a reason for everything, don’t you!?”

To protest, she gathered the blanket in front of her chest and pounded on the bed.

“Then why…why is everyone trying to get me to fight!?”

She hit the bed again as she shouted.

“Tell me that! Because I’ve lost track of why I’m even here!”

Harakawa heard a shaking sound as she hit the bed.

Heo’s eyebrows were raised in anger, but her face was gradually rising and leaning backwards.

“Huh? Harakawa?”

“What is it, Heo?”

“For some reason, I can see the sky even though I’m sitting up.”

“Yeah, and it looks to me like you and the bed are tipping backwards.”

“Oh, c’mon, Harakawa. You make it sound like the bed is shaking and falling off the cliff.”

“If that was enough for you to understand, I must be better with words than I thought. The bed’s about to reach a ninety degree tilt.”

And it did.

Heo was thrown out into the air.

She gasped as the bed toppled over.

It seemed to scrape her right shoulder as it rotated around to point straight down.

…''The sky…

She was tipped a bit on her back, wrapped in the blanket, and falling.

She felt weightless and the night sky quickly grew more distant.

There was a drop of around a dozen meters behind her.

If she fell, she would die.

She would be no more.

And at the bottom of her vision, she saw Harakawa standing on the edge of the cliff.

…''Harakawa.

But she noticed that he was not trying to help her.

He simply stared at her while still holding the gun.

He did not budge.

She felt like he was pushing her away.

Did she not matter to him?

…''Even I thought I didn’t matter…

And now the person she most wanted to understand her was pushing her away.

''Then this must be the end,'' she thought.

…''Eh?

She noticed a certain fact and a certain contradiction.

First, the fact.

Who did she most want to understand her even as she felt she did not matter?

Wasn’t it Harakawa, the one who had chosen to entrust this with her even though she did not matter?

But that created a contradiction.

Why did she need to choose the end if Harakawa understood her?

Why would that be the case if he had given her his understanding?

She had no power. She was physically weak, she was young, she was short, and her breasts were small. Her breasts and her butt had grown a little recently, although she did not plan to announce that fact until it was more visually noticeable and she had no idea what she was thinking about anymore, but in short, she was powerless.

But she was not alone.

So what should she choose now: the stars visible in the sky or the motionless boy?

“…”

She gulped as she fell.

She was already passing below the edge of the cliff.

The blanket wrapped around her began to flutter in the wind and gravity pulled her downwards.

It was too late.

She had noticed her contradiction and what she wanted, but it was too late now.

However, she saw a new crimson flower blossom in the sky.

In that brief moment, she moved. She reached her hand toward the sky as if to pluck those flower petals.

She thrust her hand skyward and she received an answer.

A power forcibly stretched her body.

It was Harakawa’s hand grasping her own hand.

“It’s all right.”

Her body shook and her entire weight bore down on her right hand and shoulder.

But her entire body was lifted upwards. It was a slow movement that could not quite be called an ascent.

“Yes, there is only one reason, Heo. As I said, it’s ‘all right’. In other words, everything is ‘right’. So it’s all right, Heo.”

She saw him raise his eyebrows in a smile as he pulled up her hand.

“Let’s get to the battlefield, Heo. The idiots will be there soon, too.”

Light raced through darkness.

The light rushing through the forest at the bottom of a mountain was a high speed train.

However, it was already late at night, so no such train should have been running.

Nevertheless, the streamlined front car towed the rest of the cars as they broke through the wind on their westward journey.

Not all of the cars were for passengers.

A few specialized transportation cars were positioned right after the front car and behind the passenger cars.

Also, the passenger cars were covered in armor and figures were visible on their roofs.

Those figures were automatons wearing combat maid uniforms.

Two automatons stood atop the transport container loaded on the second car. They stared sharply forward and sent out their shared thoughts.

“Our current speed is two hundred and seventy kilometers per hour. I have determined we have made up for the time lost transferring over from the transport helicopter.”

“This is an excellent train. But I never knew IAI was developing anything like this.”

They looked down at the racing vehicle below their feet.

“This next generation high-speed train has a top speed of four hundred and twenty kilometers per hour, and yet it is a high-speed stealth train that counteracts the sounds of collisions by creating buffer bands between the cars.”

“They wanted to name it after the fact that riding it is so nice it actually feels good, so they had someone sum up that idea in a single word.”

The automatons looked to the side of the car.

Someone had used a brush to paint “Creepy” in large letters.

“I have determined this is incomprehensible.”

“Testament. We are about to leave the Tokaido Line, so get ready down below.”

Those shared memories were sent to #8, the automaton inside one of the armored passenger cars.

Inside the long passenger car, #8 listened to the report from the automatons on the roofs.

It was almost time to enter the battle.

However, she tried to be considerate. So as not to rush those around her, she served tea and coffee to the people in armored uniforms sitting in the rows of three seats and then slowly spoke.

“Okay, break’s over.”

“Ehhh! Already!?”

Hearing them shout, she wondered if she had worked a little too hard making the break seem nice.

But she refocused and looked across everyone there.

“The Creepy is about to enter autonomous mode. We will accelerate to gain some inertial force, so I have determined the drinks I just served will be your last time to rest.”

“Testament,” replied everyone inside the white light of the car.

They were all from Japanese UCAT’s special division and most of them were from Team Leviathan.

Izumo and Kazami were amusing themselves by playing cards with Sibyl and Boldman while the others were looking down at their card version of mahjong or their handheld game systems.

“Report. American UCAT failed to achieve air superiority over the Mount Ikoma region. They now plan to send their mechanical dragons in by land.”

Everyone clearly focused on the incoming transmission.

After a moment, light boards were handed over the backs of the seats and passed out to everyone. They displayed the documents that each platoon and company used to confirm with their commander what they should do.

Each time a new announcement came in, the text would gain details or additional opinions. By the time they set foot on the battlefield, each commander would know what they needed to do.

…''But…

<nowiki>#8</nowiki> looked to her side.

Sayama sat alone in the very first row of seats.

His seat was fully reclined, a towel covered his eyes, and Baku sat on his head as he slept.

…''Will he be okay?

She had heard that Shinjou was badly injured and also in conceptual danger.

He received regular updates on her state by cellphone, but the situation did not look good. He had finally gone to sleep after Ooki had promised to email him if anything changed.

There was nothing #8 could do, but the very fact that she could not think of any kind of plan made her painfully aware of the wasted cycles of her activity clock.

But he asked nothing of her.

She felt this time waiting for instructions was wasted, but…

…''This means that he is okay.

She upped the thought priority level of that fact she could take from her records. She told herself not to think about anything else or to make unnecessary decisions.

A maid only had to trust in her master because an automaton would not serve someone she could not trust.

Suddenly, she thought of the Moirai.

The Gear reservations had decided to maintain their silence on the current situation.

That was obviously because they had decided the conflict between Top-Gear and Low-Gear was still ongoing.

They had entrusted everything to the Leviathan Road meeting and had said they were waiting for the results.

The Concept Cores must have had a similar understanding because they did not display any kind of desire to be saved.

The only people from other Gears taking part in this attack were the automatons and the people from 2nd or 6th who had joined UCAT and Low-Gear.

But #8 sent Moira 1st access to her shared thoughts and asked what to do when her master looked about to lose heart.

They had given each other access permissions when they had met the other day. She had assumed she could make use of her downtime by receiving some new information or tips.

“Moira 1st-sama.”

After connecting, auditory information streamed in from Moira 1st.

“Yes, Lady Miyako, tonight’s dinner is your favorite instant ramen: Drenched #1 – Soy Sauce Flavor. Say ‘ah’, Lady Miyako.”

“Hold on. That’s really not something you do with ramen.”

“Ehhh? You don’t want to? Does it have to have mayonnaise for that?”

“That isn’t the issu-… What do you think the rest of you are looking at!?”

<nowiki>#8</nowiki> did not listen any longer because it would be an invasion of their privacy. She determined it was an event mission to raise their master-maid intimacy level.

…''If only Sayama-sama would give me that kind of opportunity.

''No,'' she determined. ''Those opportunities are probably being given to Shinjou-sama.

''In that case, I want to set things up for the two of them,'' she thought while closing her eyes.

She cooled her thoughts with a sigh and looked to Sayama.

She simply pulled a blanket from the container above the window and placed it over him, but she felt that was enough. The train would enter autonomous mode in just a few minutes.

With the blanket on him, Sayama stirred a bit and spoke in his sleep as if groaning.

“Ahhh, Shinjou-kun, you are so bold… Y-you cannot mean it. You’re taking it all in your mouth…and…and swallowing it? Yes, if you are going to drink all of the soup, it has to be this high-calorie, high-sodium Drenched #1!”

After noticing he seemed to be having a good dream, she debated whether she should inform Moira 1st of this synchronicity or plainly tell him that instant ramen made you fat. But before she made a decision, she heard someone speak from the opposite seat.

“Are we almost to the battlefield, #8-kun?”

She turned around to find Ooshiro and simply glared at him.

“Why are you here?”

“Wah! You’ve already decided I’m an outcast!? Are you shunning me!? You are, aren’t you!?”

“Please quiet down. More importantly, Ooshiro-sama, are you familiar with the word ‘useless’?”

He raised his hands as a sign of protest.

“I-I am too useful!”

She nodded and accurately reproduced an expression she had recently learned.

“Ooshiro-sama, is this the appropriate way of expressing disrespect? I am still not used to this expression.”

“That’s not just disrespect! That’s a look of pure contempt!”

“Testament. Thank you very much. As it was received much better than expected, I will make ample use of it from now on. Anyway, Ooshiro-sama, you are too thin to act as a shield and get in our way too much to act as a wall, so can’t you do something about that?”

“W-well, you see… I’m quite useful. I have intelligence, strength, and beauty!!”

He stood up and struck a flirtatious pose, so #8 looked around.

She saw the others waving their hands in front of their faces, so she nodded.

“Ooshiro-sama. Please choose one of the following: 1. Pretend you never said that. 2. Take back what you said. 3. Die and apologize. …Which would you like?”

The others all wrote “3! 3!” on their light boards and raised them high, but #8 shook her head.

“You mustn’t do that, everyone. I have determined this is a problem Ooshiro-sama must solve on his own.”

“#-#8-kun, you are surprisingly fair. I’m a little moved.”

“Testament.” She nodded and slapped his head thrice. “Now, please think carefully. 3 is the only real option, after all.”

“How is that thinking carefully!?”

''The majority already decided for you, so stop being so selfish,'' she thought just as an electronic tone played from the car’s speakers.

“Um, uh, um, in thirty minutes, the, uh, Creepy will…enter autonomous mode. Uh, we will begin, uh, accelerating soon, so, uh, all passengers had better stay in your damn seats!! …Uh, I mean please remain seated.”

They all sat back down and #8 started to sit in a nearby seat but hesitated.

However, she ultimately took the seat behind Sayama instead of her usual one.

At the same time, she saw the boy slowly sit up in the seat in front of her.

He raised the seat, so she could not see him, but she heard him.

“#8-kun, thank you for the blanket. …It was short, but I had a wonderful dream. I appreciate it.”

She compared his voiceprint with one from the past but found it was lacking something.

''But,'' she thought. ''If he is willing to thank the one who serves him, he must have regained his awareness that he is my master.

''So he should be fine,'' she decided while speaking with the others via shared memory.

“Get ready. We are about to accelerate.”

A moment later, that was exactly what they did.

The automatons standing atop the high-speed train created a wall of gravitational control to combat the pressure of the wind as they accelerated.

Their clothes, hair, and everything else fluttered and bent in the wind.

“And our hearts only bend to the will of our master!”

The maids saw the track turn a bit to the north. The Tokaido Line turned north to the Kyoto region and then south toward Osaka.

The track had no sharp curves, so the trains could maintain their speed. It was a gradual but definite northward turn.

However…

“That will not take us to the Mount Ikoma region in south Osaka!”

Then what were they to do?

The answer was given by the shouts of the two automatons standing on the front car.

“Prepare autonomous mode!!”

They were answered by the maids standing on the transport container on the second car.

“Prepare!!”

An automaton rushed from both emergency exits on each car.

They pushed at the wind with their gravitational control. There was one on either side of the twelve cars for a total of twenty-four.

They all spread their hands outward.

“Contact!”

As soon as they yelled that word, the white pallet covering the second car suddenly leaped into the air.

The wind carried the giant lid into the night sky and something was revealed below.

“Track Facility Mechanism ‘Moirai’! Begin deployment!”

A giant spindle machine rose from the car.

The mechanism was seven meters tall, twenty meters long, and shaped like an upside-down iron. It had twelve giant spindles on either side, but those spindles were not wrapped with thread.

They were wrapped with rails and the front spindles launched those iron threads.

The two metal rails broke the sound barrier as they flew forward.

The twin lines of steel tore through the night and passed the front car, but the automatons on the front car did not overlook them.

“Begin spinning!!”

Those front two used their full gravitational control to draw the flying tracks toward their hands.

They bent the metal thread down as if rotating it around to the nose of the front car.

“Contact!!”

At the same time, the four automatons standing to the front of the second car stepped down on the back of the front car’s roof.

The high-gravity attack bent the roof, but it also noticeably lifted the nose of the car.

And the car landed atop the track being released from that very same train.

Now that it was on its self-laid path, it only had to continue on.

The spinning machine spun out the track, the automatons on the front car pulled it in, and the maids on the back car supported the bottom of the autonomous track with their gravitational control.

All of this created one thing.

“A high-speed train which can choose its own path!”

The two on the front car accurately bent the track toward the sky.

The sonic train moved at greater than four hundred kph as its own track carried it into empty air.

One of the spindles was exhausted in no time at all.

“Only twenty-six kilometers until we arrive!”

“I have determined we have enough to spare!”

The automatons smiled amid the roar of the wind and the creaking of metal.

Gravitational control was their own technique and they were measuring levels of output they had never seen before.

Where did their limits lie?

As the moonlit automatons learned just that, they expressed the feeling with a single word: pleasant.

After all, they were fulfilling their job. That job was to transport the fighters to the battlefield.

And this was a job only they could do. What word would better describe that than pleasant?

The overheating, creaking, excessive calculations, and all the other burdens felt truly pleasant to them.

The train raced through the night sky.

The wind was cooling, the night was heavy, and the sounds were those of work.

“———!!”

They flew through the dark night toward some moonlit mountains.

They had already passed over the fields and reached the forest at the base of the mountains.

An expressway was visible below and they used that asphalt as a stepping stone.

“Here we go!”

The train leaped once more.

This time, they flew beyond the southern forest and into the mountains.

Based on the information gathered before leaving, there was a river there and they could follow it to the eastern Mount Ikoma region.

It was a fifteen kilometer journey which would take less than three minutes at their current speed.

They flew.

As if throwing their entire bodies forward, the automatons became one with their speed and desired to advance.

Shadowy trees raced by on either side and a river reflected the moon below.

They continued on.

The roaring sound and the wind bent the trees and the shockwave of their passing sent a reverse cascade of water and leaves into the sky after they passed.

The automatons had linked their sight and hearing devices as they focused only on their destination.

They kept on a straight line toward the mountains that had produced the river below.

…''Here we go.

They all thought the same thing.

…''We pull the humans onward to mountains filled with nature.

This was something they had been unable to do in 3rd-Gear.

It was always near the top on the lists of things they wanted to do, but it was always pushed further and further down the list.

They had made all of the food and drink being handed out inside the train.

It would have been perfect had it been daytime and sunny.

It did not matter whether they were heading into battle or not.

The goal was for the master to decide. The means was for the maid to decide.

A trip to the mountains required a box lunch.

And now, they were pulling the humans onward. Just like a maid leading her master to some flowers she had found in the mountains, they predicted what would make their masters happy and guided them to the battlefield.

Such a happy battle.

But…

“———!?”

The automatons on the front car saw an explosion.

The trees on either side of the river up ahead were suddenly blasted into the sky.

There was no sound. When breaking the sound barrier, that was to be expected.

Something charged toward them at faster than the speed of sound.

“That is…a mechanical dragon!” shouted an automaton’s mind.

A mechanical dragon with red, white, and blue armor flew their way with its main cannon mouth already opened.

It had been lying in wait to attack them.

There was only an instant until the attack, but the automatons continued their work. They continued spinning the track without fear.

“Good luck!!”

Alex did not hesitate.

Eighty percent of his armor had been replaced, but his frame had only had charms for the automatic healing of metal attached and his injuries were not yet healed.

Even so, he did not hesitate.

While Typhon was being worked on, Tatsumi had let it throw her so she could hold onto their air superiority. Similarly, it was his job to prevent Team Leviathan from rushing in.

Mikoku had already entered Babel on Noah’s guidance.

After ensuring their air superiority, Tatsumi had shifted to defense.

The others were deployed in formation and plenty of dolls had been sent out.

So Alex did not hesitate.

“This is a showdown!!”

He flew straight toward the train that acted like a long, subsonic shell.

He had no intention of firing on it from hiding or from the side.

…''Justice is justice because it brings its righteousness head-on!<ref>A play on words using the kanji for “justice”.</ref>

So he accelerated.

“Destroy the enemy on sight! Alex Forcer!!”

He prepared to fire his main cannon, but he saw something just before he did.

As the train continued to spin its track and rush forward, the roof of one of the back cars blasted into the sky.

The white lid was cast aside like a cloak to reveal what lay below.

“A black god of war!?”

That was precisely what stood up.

However, this was not Tatsumi’s enemy, Susamikado.

It was a similar yet different model.

“Is that Susahito Custom!?”

As if to answer, Susahito Custom calmly moved.

It forcefully stood in the wind and water vapor trailed from the corners of its armor.

“…!”

It held an anti-god of war rifle.

Alex recognized it as one of those used in the fight against Typhon.

Normally, it would not have been enough to break through a mechanical dragon’s armor.

However, their relative speeds and his imperfect state could change that.

“Bring it on!!”

He shouted and they both fired.

A moment later, the earth and the sky exploded along a straight line and that signaled the beginning of the battle.

<noinclude>

===Notes===
<references/>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume14 Prologue|Prologue]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume14 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 1

2026-04-27T04:16:18Z

N-Ch:

[[Image:OnC_v01_0032-0033.png|thumb]]
''It was probably at that moment

''When that which had been stopped

''Began moving once more

—''To me, trying to find or soothe oneself is nothing more than an illusion.

==Chapter 1: Sayama’s Beginning==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0035.png|thumb]]
''The privilege of those who know themselves

''Is being able to restrict oneself

''There is no more relying on others

Below the blue sky were two rows of blossoming cherry trees.

The road between those two rows led to a cement wall surrounding a large area of land. The stone gatepost at the opening to the west was inscribed with the words “Taka-Akita Academy”.

The schedule posted on the gate read “spring break” and the gate itself sat open with no one to pass through.

Once one passed through the gate, the central road continued with the cherry trees on either side.

These trees were in full bloom as well. Continuing further led to a half hectare general sports ground to the right and a martial arts facility as large as a great hall to the left.

Continuing straight on led not to a school building but to a faculty building.

The school buildings were lined up in all four compass points with the faculty building at the center. This was all one school, but other than the six general school buildings, it was broken down by specialization. To provide a proper environment, some of the school buildings were surrounded by rows of trees, but others had a research plant equipped with a silo or an asphalt course for test driving.

The buildings built very nearby those school buildings were the student dormitories.

This school took up the area that would cover three-fourths of a city. It had a few shopping districts, farms, and factories on the grounds and a lot of the city’s people lived inside it.

And every facility within possessed a certain mark.

It was the mark of IAI, the Izumo Aviation Institute. IAI supported this academy city.

However, the academy was nearly deserted during spring break.

This was even true for the western general school buildings nearest the main gate.

A single figure could be seen at the second year general education building just north of the faculty building.

A boy stood on the second story landing of the emergency staircase.

Despite it being spring break, the boy wore his school uniform, blazer and all, and the buttons of his shirt were buttoned all the way up to the collar.

His hair was slicked back and a single stripe of white could be seen on either side. Below that hair were sharp eyes and a sharp face.

He was looking up into the sky.

Floating in the blue sky were thin white clouds and the shadow of an airplane making a wide curve through the air.

“So the American soldiers at Yokota are not taking a break either. They also prefer high places like me. And they too do not return home even when they have the chance,” he said.

He swung up his left arm and the sleeve slid down. A white scar could be seen on his left fist and he wore a woman’s ring on the middle finger. A silver wristwatch was also revealed on his left wrist. The hands pointed to 2:30 PM.

He pulled a single piece of paper from his pocket.

“Sayama Mikoto-sama. To complete the transfer of rights left with us by your grandfather, the late Sayama Kaoru-shi, we ask that you visit the Okutama IAI General Tokyo Facility on March 30 at 6 PM.”

It was an invitation. That simple text was followed by an IAI map and the name of the one inviting Sayama.

“IAI section chief, Ooshiro Kazuo, hm?”

…''The old man, hm?

When Sayama’s grandfather had died, that elderly man had been the first to come rushing over for the funeral. The tall, gray-haired man always wore a white coat at IAI. The two of them would speak every once in a while and the man seemed to enjoy it when Sayama called him “old man”.

But as Sayama looked at the invitation, he muttered, “My grandfather was a corporate blackmailer, so what rights could he have had at IAI?”

He turned around to find the emergency exit and the wall. The aluminum door was polished, but the wall was dirty with sand and dust. Out of sudden curiosity, he approached the wall and touched it. The sand came off and stuck to his finger.

“Hm…”

Just as he wiped off his finger, the emergency exit moved a bit.

A young woman in personal clothes poked her head out through the slight opening. As the bangs of her short brown hair waved, her blue eyes turned in the direction Sayama had been not long before. “Huh?” she said and tilted her head.

Sayama said, “Over here, Ooki-sensei. You must have a lot of free time to be at school during spring break.”

Hearing that, the woman named Ooki frowned and turned around.

“I was sleeping and-…wait, the same goes for you. Are you trying to fully enjoy your youth by staring into the sky in a place like this? Also, Sayama-kun.”

“What is it? If you have a question, then out with it.”

“Okay, my first question: Why do you speak like that to your teacher?”

“That is my acting style. You lose as soon as you question it, Ooki-sensei. Now, any other questions?”

“Okay, my second question: If I punch a student during spring break does it count as school violence?”

“It does not matter as long as no one finds out. So who are you planning to punch? This must be quite a troublemaker if they can anger you.”

“And my final question: …Have you ever looked in a mirror?”

“I use one for a good long time every day. You really do like asking such obvious questions.”

“I was an idiot to try asking questions to someone filled with such originality. In fact, are you sure that acting style is okay?”

In response to that annoyed comment, Sayama removed his hand from the wall and swiped it forcefully through the air. The cloth of the sleeve let out a noise.

“Do not worry. I act this way to everyone. I intend to head down that path in the future, after all. It may be selfish of me, but I do not want people to say I suddenly started acting full of myself when I grow up. …This may give you some trouble though.”

Ooki’s neck relaxed and she gave a bitter smile at that last line.

“You should probably say that last part to the other teachers as well. Oh, but it seems I will be your homeroom teacher next year as well.”

“So you managed to get one of the best students in your class. Excellent work for a newcomer teacher with little authority.”

“Would you sympathize with me if I told you the other teachers were forcing the excellent but overly individual students on me?”

Sayama placed a hand on Ooki’s shoulder and nodded with a completely serious expression.

“If you seek sympathy, it is all over for you, Ooki-sensei. Although you may be almost there already.”

“Sorry, this is irritating me, so it would be nice if you would stop.” Ooki walked out onto the emergency staircase with her eyes half closed. She scratched at her head and said, “Talking with you really exhausts me. You take everything so seriously.”

Sayama gave a slight smile at that.

“Seriously? I-…”

“You don’t? But you were elected vice president in the student council election and your grades are excellent.”

“True,” said Sayama with a nod. He folded his arms and thought for a bit. Three seconds later, “I have never once gotten serious. …I just can’t make myself want to.”

“…Eh?”

Sayama ignored Ooki’s questioning voice and shrugged.

“Then again, everything I run across in school ends before I even have a chance to get serious. I was once scolded by my grandfather. He told me not to settle for being the ruler of a small place.”

“I see,” said Ooki with a nod. She leaned up against the emergency staircase landing’s railing. “Your grandfather was an amazing person. Compared to him, I can see where you are coming from.”

“Yes. Compared to my grandfather who would give Japan’s economy a nice smack from the shadows, the vice president of this academy city is nothing.”

“It’s more than nothing.”

“But it is true I have never actually tested myself. During the race for vice president, my opponent grew so desperate by the end that he even danced around naked in an attempt to gain more popularity. He was simply no match for me.”

“Were you the one that fired a bottle rocket at his butt while he was performing that nude dance?”

“No, that was Izumo while he was crushing everyone else in the presidential race. He even used a metal pipe as a gun barrel to increase his accuracy. Not something you would expect of a third year.”

“In that case, I won’t ask who blew up the stage afterwards…”

“That would be for the best. Are you gradually learning how to get along in life, Ooki-sensei?”

“Yes, yes. But I’m starting to get worried about being the next advisor for the student council…” Ooki frowned and sighed before continuing. “Is school really that boring to you?”

Sayama stopped moving when he heard that.

He turned his gaze to meet that of Ooki’s blue eyes.

After a short pause, he gave a small shake of the head.

“I have no complaints with the school. It is true the student council election and the tests are all such small things that I do not need to grow serious about. However, that does not mean school is boring. It is only natural to feel that school is a small place. And I think that school has its own unique things to enjoy.”

“What a complicated child…”

After falling silent for a short while, Ooki bent her back over the railing she was leaning against and looked up into the sky.

Meanwhile, Sayama glanced at his watch. It was 2:50.

“Ooki-sensei, I think I should get back to my dorm soon.”

“Are you leaving soon?”

“Yes. After changing into a suit, I need to receive something similar to my grandfather’s will.”

Sayama opened the emergency exit. Ooki frantically got up from the railing and charged through the open door. Sayama also entered the school building as he closed the door.

Sayama walked through the hallway alongside Ooki. The last school newspaper of the year was attached to the classroom-side wall. The First PR Club put out the paper weekly. It generally carried articles related to IAI and this issue contained the school’s employment rate to IAI as well as a few other pieces of news.

Ooki stopped as she looked over at an article at her eyelevel which was one level below Sayama’s.

“They have detected an extrasolar star system with a high probability of being habitable. …That’s amazing!”

“It’s only been discovered. Just looking at this article will tell you how difficult a problem anything further would be.”

Sayama pointed at another article. The article’s photograph showed a giant pile of machinery lying collapsed on a large area of asphalt.

“According to this, they created an eight-meter-tall bipedal robot and it failed spectacularly. The joints were made too weak so its knees broke just from walking. …No matter what we may discover, it means nothing if we do not have the technology to use it.”

“Hm. So it’s the same as spotting a good-looking girl but not knowing how to talk to her.”

“I am glad you are so wise. Is that something you told yourself as an excuse?”

“Well, last Christmas, some of my friends and I…wait, no.”

When Ooki said that, Sayama realized she was looking up at his face.

''Why is she staring?'' he wondered.

“Is it that rare to see me smile?”

“No, it’s not that it’s rare. It’s interesting.”

Ooki began walking once more. Sayama followed.

Ooki asked, “Can I ask you about your grandfather?”

“Of course,” replied Sayama.

He had nothing to hide.

And so he spoke. He talked about a lot as they walked.

He told her how his grandfather had left the war during World War Two and had begun researching something.

“And it seems the Izumo Aviation Institute was involved at the time. After the war, he used the connections and discoveries he had made as a base to set out into the financial world and become a corporate blackmailer.”

“A corporate blackmailer, hm?”

“He did a lot of pretty horrible things. …Every time he was in the newspaper, he would give the following line.”

Ooki nodded and cut in.

“ ‘The surname Sayama indicates a villain’, right? I saw it once in a weekly magazine.”

“That’s right. My grandfather was a villain through and through. When he saw some giant opponent as an enemy or evil, he would fight them by becoming an even greater evil. And…that is also why I do not want to grow serious about anything.”

“That is?”

“I am inexperienced. ‘The surname Sayama indicates a villain.’ My grandfather always told me my abilities were meant to perform necessary evils. However, I lost him when all he had taught me was how to do it.”

“So… You don’t know when the evil you perform is truly necessary?”

“Yes. I do not want to die, so there may be times when I will get serious. However, growing serious when I cannot tell if it is truly necessary is a frightening thing.”

As he spoke, Sayama suddenly brought his right hand to the left side of his chest.

As he brought his hand inside his coat and held his chest, Ooki spoke without turning toward him.

“It sounds like you have it tough in your own way.”

“Yes,” he nodded.

“Then can I ask you about your father?”

“Why?”

“I never asked last year despite being your homeroom teacher, and…” The ends of her eyebrows lowered. “I think this is part of a teacher’s job.”

Sayama nodded as he lightly held the left side of his chest. After taking a breath, he spoke.

“There is nothing to worry about. It is a simple issue. More importantly, how much do you know, Ooki-sensei? I am curious.”

Ooki glanced upwards and folded her arms.

“Your father was adopted by your grandfather and he entered IAI at the same time as your mother. However, he was killed in the great Kansai earthquake at the end of ’95. Your mother, um, well, brought you with her and-…”

Ooki trailed off and Sayama smiled bitterly.

“Before I tell you not to worry about it, I need to correct some of that. My father died as a secondary casualty of the earthquake when he was sent by IAI for earthquake relief.”

Sayama took a breath. He held up his empty left hand. That scarred left fist had a women’s ring on the middle finger. The pearl decoration glittered a bit in the dimly lit hallway.

Ooki turned to look at it as she walked.

However, Sayama also looked at the ring instead of looking at her.

“Go where those precious to you are waiting, hm?”

As his words deepened, Sayama felt as if something was moving within the left side of his chest.

It was pain.

And it felt like his chest was creaking.

It was coming.

And then Sayama saw Ooki looking up at him with her face completely pale.

“Sayama-kun. A-are you okay?”

He tried to answer “yes”, but he realized he was not breathing. When his body bent forward, he realized someone had suddenly started to support his chest.

Ooki had caught him from below.

“Ah…”

When he heard Ooki say that, all of his body’s senses returned.

He first felt exhaustion. He then felt he could breathe again and sweat poured from his back and legs.

He brought strength to his legs to stand up, but Ooki was still lightly holding her arms out toward him.

“A-are you okay?”

“I am fine.”

“Really? Okay? You are okay?”

“I am okay, but that is not correct English.” His body was now obviously returning to normal. He nodded and said, “I am fine, so do not worry. It seems I get stress-induced anginas from this topic.”

“Then why did you agree to talk about it?”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to know? You truly are a horrible teacher if you forgot that.”

“Oh, but, um…”

As Ooki began frantically waving her hands in denial, Sayama smiled again.

“What are you trying to deny? Think about it. I am free to say what I want. And you are free to support me when I fall. I would say you performed the better deed here. Don’t you agree? But let me say one thing.” Sayama removed his right hand from his chest. “My mother would often tell me she hoped I could do something one day. I have to wonder if she ever did anything. And now the child raised hearing that has no idea what he can do. And so I must ask: what should I do?”

“I see… So you do not know what you can do.” Ooki nodded and her shoulders drooped. She looked up at Sayama and earnestly said, “I finally understand why you are so extreme about everything.”

“I cannot overlook that. Who are you calling extreme?”

“What? You didn’t hear me? I said it quite clearly. Is that a nose on the side of your head?”

Sayama’s left hand gave a lightning-fast flick against the forehead that had asked that question so seriously.

“Eeee,” groaned Ooki as she crouched down.

Sayama brought a hand to his chin and said, “Some teachers can say truly horrible things about their students.”

In the end, Sayama did not leave his dorm until past four.

It had taken time to put on the three-piece suit he had inherited from his grandfather and to prepare the seal and digital recording device needed for official records. He wrote down his time of departure at the dorm’s reception desk and left.

The sun was still in the sky.

He walked through the gravel clearing located between the general school buildings and the dorm. It normally functioned as a faculty parking lot. He was headed toward the main gate.

As he cut behind the second year general school building as a shortcut, he heard baby birds singing in the trees.

As he listened, Sayama heard two sounds other than the chirping of the birds.

The first was organ music coming from the music room on the second story of the school building.

“Silent Night…”

He recalled occasionally hearing it on the weekends. However, this was the first time he had been able to determine exactly where it was coming from. He wondered who was playing it, but it was so perfectly played that he assumed it was not a student.

And as the organ music played, another sound could be heard approaching.

It was the sound of a motorcycle engine. Specifically, the low tone of a 4-stroke.

As he heard that noise coming from the direction of the main gate, Sayama muttered, “Izumo and Kazami.”

He then walked out to the asphalt road west of the school building.

He looked out toward the faculty building, the vast sports ground, and the martial arts facility. He spotted two people riding a motorcycle appearing out from the side of the faculty building. Despite the large amount of exhaust, the black touring motorcycle moved smoothly along the road.

Aboard the motorcycle were a well-built young man wearing a thin brown coat and a girl with semi-short hair and carrying a black rucksack. The back bared by the girl’s white sleeveless top pointed in Sayama’s direction.

The two were chatting while riding the motorcycle.

Suddenly, the young man noticed Sayama. A friendly smile appeared on his fairly long face.

“Hey,” he said with a raised hand.

He then stopped the motorcycle next to Sayama.

The young man was over one hundred eighty centimeters tall and broad-shouldered, so he supported the weight of the heavy motorcycle with his leg.

The girl swayed gently and rested up against the young man’s back.

The young man smiled with the girl leaning up against him.

He looked up and said, “Where do you think you’re going, Sayama, you idiot? To go spew insults at someone?”

Sayama brought a hand to his forehead and sighed.

With a troubled tone of voice, he said, “Izumo, unlike you, my brain is working properly. And I have never spewed insults at anyone, you sick bastard.”

“Sure, sure. Thanks for keeping up your acting style even during spring break.”

[[Image:OnC_v01_0051.png|thumb]]

“No need to thank me. But should the three top members of the student council really be having this sort of conversation?”

The young man, Izumo, smiled bitterly at that.

“Of course not,” he agreed.

The girl leaning on his back turned their way.

“Sayama, you’re going to IAI, right?”

“Yes, I am. Kazami, Izumo. What about you two?”

“I was just headed back to the dorm to have some fun with Chisato…kh!”

As he spoke, Izumo’s head twisted upwards. The girl named Kazami had grabbed at Izumo’s head and jaw from behind. A delicate sound came from Izumo’s neck and he gently fell backwards.

“Kaku, that is not what he asked. Sayama wanted to know where we had been.”

Izumo’s head came to rest on top of Kazami’s thighs and he stopped moving.

“There, there,” said Kazami as she stroked his head. She then showed Sayama the black rucksack next to her and smiled.

“We went into the city. We bought some clothes, new music, and other stuff for the All Holiday Festival. Being on the edge of Tokyo really makes you forget all about culture.”

“…I see. But you two are third years and you live together, right?”

The girl, Kazami, thought for a bit looking troubled, but then spoke.

“Well, that’s how it turned out. Now, when I try to mingle with the others, they’re overly cautious about how they treat me. My role in the dorm has become that of an older sister. An underclassman even apologized just for passing by me in the hall.”

“Your face seems to be turning to cement.”

Kazami turned her head down, said “Oh, sorry”, and relaxed her shoulders. She casually clapped a hand against Izumo who was lying motionless on her thighs.

“Don’t turn into an idiot like him, okay? He abuses his authority as the son of IAI.”

“It seems to me you are enjoying that abuse quite a lot.”

“I know that, and that’s why it angers me so much. He needs to at least take his student council job seriously.” Kazami raised her head to look Sayama in the eye. “Oh, right. Sayama, I was thinking of having our first student council job for the term in the second year school building’s Kinugasa Library. Do you have time? The three of us can make some plans for the All Holiday Festival and Invitation Festival in the spring.”

“I have to head out today and I do not know how late I will be back.”

“We’re leaving for the city again tomorrow afternoon, so how about 9 AM tomorrow in the Kinugasa Library?”

“I can do that,” agreed Sayama. He glanced over at the school building next to them. “The Kinugasa Library, hm?”

On the western side of the second year general school building’s ground floor, an area four classroom’s length across was sticking out. It stuck out about the width of a classroom. Inside this space was an area equal to eight classrooms.

A look in the windows would show the backs of wooden panels. These thick wooden panels created the silhouettes of bookshelves.

The room was a library.

Almost the entire eight classroom space was filled with books and the hallway and basement had been used for extra book storage. That was the Kinugasa Library.

As Sayama glanced toward the library’s window, he heard Kazami speaking.

“The library created by the school’s founder isn’t a bad place for our first job, right? The librarian, old man Siegfried, may be unsociable, but he does put out tea. We used that place a fair bit during the election, so I was thinking we could continue to use it as our base.”

“This year’s treasurer certainly is different.”

“I think the president and vice president will be quite different as well. But what do you think? Are upperclassmen like us suitable for someone as prideful as you?”

“I think that statement alone shows you can compete with me when it comes to pride. …But at the very least, there is no one in this school who is better suited. Izumo Kaku, the son of IAI which supports this city of Akigawa, and Kazami Chisato, the girl who shares a room with him, are true problem children.”

“…”

“There is no way you two are ignorant of what the world says about you. I respect you for your ability to continue acting like this regardless.”

Hearing that, Kazami showed off her teeth slightly and looked down at Izumo who lay on her legs.

“Well, it doesn’t matter what people say. Kaku may cause problems, but he is not a bad person.”

“The same goes for you, Kazami.”

“Then what about you, Mr. Family of Villains?” Kazami raised her head to look at Sayama. She glanced up and down his suit. “You look good enough, but you make things difficult.”

“In what way?”

“I’m having difficulty imagining who would stand next to you. I can’t imagine someone to balance out your idiocy like Kaku is for me.”

“There is no one out there with enough power to handle me on an equal footing.”

“That isn’t what I mean.” Kazami gave a troubled smile. She lightly waved her hand front and back. “I’m talking about balance. Equals can only stand on the same side of the scales, right? You need a counterbalance.”

Sayama thought on the meaning of Kazami’s words.

And, “Someone like that would either be an opposing force or a hindrance.”

“So am I an opposing force or hindrance to Kaku?”

That question was spoken with a small smile. Sayama relaxed his shoulders.

“I do not know the answer to that, so I cannot argue about it with someone like you who does know the answer.”

“Oh, how honest.”

“I am an honest person, Kazami. It is just that, for some odd reason, I seem to end up in trouble for it from time to time. Is this what they mean when they say an honest man will look a fool? Yes, our ancestors said some excellent things.”

“Okay, sure. If that’s how you want to view it in your personal universe, I won’t stop you.”

Sayama smiled bitterly at that. He exchanged a glance with Kazami and spoke.

“Fine, then. I will admit relationships like yours and Izumo’s exist. However, I am doubtful the same could happen to me. I also think it is a problem to even think about placing someone like that next to me.”

“A problem?”

“The surname Sayama indicates a villain. What do you put next to evil?”

Kazami had no answer to that. She only let her shoulders droop and sighed.

“You really are a complicated person.”

“Ooki-sensei said the same thing earlier.”

“Everyone thinks it. We also wonder when exactly you will get serious about something.”

“I have never done it, so I couldn’t say. …And if I did, I am so inexperienced I would likely be afraid of myself.”

“…You really are complicated, Sayama.”

“You do not need to repeat yourself,” said Sayama with a smile before lightly tapping Izumo’s back where he lay unmoving as if asleep. “You’re awake, right? Hurry on back and dive headfirst into your unrestrained lifestyle.”

“Eh?” muttered Kazami as she looked down.

Izumo opened his eyes.

“Hey.”

“No, not ‘hey’. If you came to, why didn’t you get up?”

“You smell really good, Chisato.”

Izumo’s eyes bent upwards happily as Kazami blushed.

“Ha,” laughed Sayama before patting Kazami on the shoulder, turning his back, and walking off.

He continued toward the main gate.

As he did, he noticed a new figure.

Someone was walking down the stairs from the second floor of the second year general school building.

It was a tall elderly man. He wore a black vest, black trousers, and black gloves. He was bald and had a beard.

“Siegfried Zonburg, the librarian.”

Sayama had spoken with him a few times during his student council work. The man used only the bare minimum of words.

“You do not often see him outside of the Kinugasa Library,” he muttered before continuing on.

He looked around once more and saw nothing but the scenery of the school near the peak of spring.

“Such a peaceful place…”

Behind him, he heard repeated sounds of flesh being struck followed by screams from Izumo.

The sun was setting in the west.

Below that setting sun, even a forest surrounded by mountains had light passing through it like wind.

The forest was primarily made up of cedars. A single figure was fallen in front of one of those trees.

The figure was sitting on the ground.

This middle-aged man sat such that the sun shined on him from the side. His close-cropped hair was wet with something so it reflected the sun. The liquid wetting his hair dripped down his forehead and dyed the left half of his face a dark color.

His clothes resembled a white and black military uniform. However, the left shoulder and left leg of that uniform had split open and something dark could be seen flowing out as he breathed erratically.

He stretched out his left hand and scratched at the ground. With the blood in his eyes, he might as well have been blind. His left hand wandered across the ground.

Eventually, he managed to pick something up from between the rocks and fallen leaves.

It was a long gun made of metal. The side was engraved with something written in German.

He embraced the gun tightly and took a deep breath. He stuck a finger into the pouch on his right hip.

“This is Tsuurin Daiichi. My current location is in the mountains near Point 3 between Okutama and Shiromaru. I succeeded in preventing the single enemy from escaping. I successfully read the enemy’s string vibration and sent it in. Currently…everyone but me has been taken out. Please hurry.”

A staticky voice replied from near his throat. It was a female voice.

“Testament. The special division is on their way. We will send aid for you as well, so withdraw.”

“Tes. …Or so I’d like to say. Unfortunately, my leg was taken out. And my healing tools and spells were destroyed along with it. I only have my favorite weapon left to rely on. …When I asked you to hurry, I meant the special division, not aid for me.” He took a deep breath while sweating profusely. “The enemy is from a faction of 1st-Gear’s revolutionary army. Yes, a werewolf from the second Royal Palace faction. He likely came for negotiations with the peaceful faction. He must have had a 1st-Gear philosopher’s stone because he turned into a wolf in this real world.”

“Do not speak. The concept space will be deployed in another five minutes.”

“Ha ha. Make it so a silver bullet will work. Also, young girl…or is it young lady? Anyway, you don’t think this is our fault, do you?”

He was met with silence. He cast his eyes down before continuing.

“Fine. It was our mistake for deciding to go. In the standard division, we have the right to choose…right?”

Once again, he received only silence. Yet he did not stop.

“What unit are you from? Even in the special division, not many units have women in them. But I think there was one put together recently. A unit filled with beautiful UCAT-raised girls and women. I think it was the IAI-…”

He stopped speaking. His eyes opened wide and he stood up by using the tree behind him as a support.

“Hey, when I get back, meet me with flowers. It’ll be a triumphant return. What’s in bloom this time of year?”

“Testament. I think Primula modesta and the like are.”

“No, you’re supposed to say you are.”

He laughed and removed his right hand from the pouch. He moved the long gun from his left hand to his right. He bit the strap, used the stock and grip in his right hand to create three points of support, and faced forward.

He heard wind ahead of him.

A large shadow could be seen in the setting sun shining on the mountain. It was slowly approaching while swaying back and forth.

There was no sign. He simply followed the sound of the wind and squeezed the trigger.

A gunshot traveled across the forest along with the light of the setting sun.

Sayama opened his eyes aboard a train running through the mountains on the way to Okutama.

He had dozed off due to the setting sun shining on his seated back. And he had woken up due to…

“The train has stopped?”

He glanced around the train. The only passengers besides himself were two people seated a short distance away.

One was a white-haired man wearing a black suit. The other was a white-haired girl wearing black clothes and seated next to him. They may have been father and daughter and they were looking outside the opposite window.

Sayama followed their gaze out the window.

There he found the mountains of Okutama. They were all formed from round shapes and no small hills could be seen.

“So we are around the second tunnel near Shiromaru. Only one more stop to Okutama.”

He was familiar with the terrain here. He continued speaking while looking out at those similar-looking mountains.

“This is thanks to Hiba-sensei forcing me to run through these mountains.”

…''If I had not learned the land, I would not have been found until spring.

Sayama nodded and looked down at his left hand. His skin was white around the bones of his fist as if something had scattered across it. His eyes turned toward the ring on the middle finger of that scarred fist.

“It was also around here that we got out of the car when my mother took me with her back then…” he muttered.

According to his watch, it was 5:30 PM. He was to be at IAI at 6:00 PM.

When he calculated the time, his heart seemed to stiffen. He stood up, raised his suit collar to fix it with a snapping noise, and approached the two other passengers. The white-haired man raised his head. The man was wearing sunglasses, but Sayama could tell the man was looking at him. Sayama gave a quick bow.

“Excuse me. Why is the train stopped?”

“It received a stop signal. Once it is released, it will return to Shiromaru.”

The man’s tone had a bit of amusement mixed in and Sayama realized he was younger than he looked. Sayama had initially assumed he was elderly, but a closer look showed he was only just entering middle age.

The girl next to him wore the black dress and white apron of a maid. She was not the man’s daughter.

…''I had heard the ownership of a lot of the mountains around here stretches way back.

Sayama noticed the girl was holding a staff. It was a metal cane that could be attached to the wrist. It was clearly too long for her to use. However, Sayama ended his investigation of them here. He needed to know something else.

“Why is this train returning?”

“Maybe there was an accident.”

“I see,” nodded Sayama, realizing the man must not know the details either.

Suddenly, the girl sitting next to the man looked up at Sayama. With her eyebrows lying flat and no discernible expression on her face, her black eyes that were almost purple peered deep into Sayama’s eyes.

She took a breath and then opened her mouth.

“My apologies,” she said in a low, fairly mature voice.

“Think nothing of it,” said Sayama before turning his back on the two of them.

He opened the opposite window and heard the same voice as before from behind him.

“Are you getting out?”

“I cannot go back. Also, someone is waiting for me.”

“You are being hasty. The train might soon continue forward. Once you regret a decision, it is too late to turn back.”

“I do not know what god of advice you are, but let me tell you something. A decision can lead to joy just as easily as it can regret. I appreciate your concern, but I know this land. And is there anything truly dangerous in this world?”

“True… That is very true. There is no danger in this world,” said the man before closing his mouth in a smile below the sunglasses.

As soon as the man spread his legs out from the seat, Sayama stuck his legs out the window and jumped out.

He landed on the gravel supporting the railroad. He ran out into the open air and onto the mountainside bathed in the light of the setting sun.

“…”

Sayama did not turn back toward the train up the slope from him. He continued through the forest spreading out before him.

He trampled the underbrush as he headed down the mountain.

After only a few breaths, he sank into the shadows produced by the forest. The setting sun coming from the side and the branches of the trees drew a grid of shadows across him. This light and air were familiar to him.

“It’s been two years since I stopped coming to Okutama. I suppose the Hiba Dojo is still around.”

As he muttered that comment, he heard a metallic noise from behind him.

A whistle sounded and the train began to move. He heard it move up toward Shiromaru. The sound of the receding wheels told Sayama he had made the right decision.

“Good,” he said with a nod as he quickened his pace.

Shiromaru Station was an unmanned train station.

When the train came to a stop, the few passengers disinterestedly exited onto the long, narrow platform.

A short distance away from those bored individuals were the two people Sayama had spoken to just before.

The white-haired man held the cane in one hand as he stood next to a card-only payphone located in the shadow of a private home outside the station.

The girl dressed as a maid stood in front of him holding the receiver for the green telephone.

She pulled a bundle of telephone cards from her apron like it was a deck of playing cards.

She quickly lined the cards up in front of the green phone and turned toward the man.

“Itaru-sama. Why do you not carry a cell phone?”

“Because I am a coward, Sf. Remember that. If the phone rang, it would probably give me a heart attack.”

“How about I carry it for you?”

“No. You have not acquired the skill to take messages. If you cannot always answer as if I am gone even when I am with you, there is no point in you having a cell phone. Do you understand?”

“Tes. I understand that possessing one would be meaningless on a fundamental level.”

The girl called Sf stopped lining up the cards while looking at him. She was lining up the well-used cards in order of number of uses. The punch holes showing the number of uses lined up perfectly without the slightest deviation.

Sf casually picked up one card with few uses left and slid it into the green phone.

She used her right fingers to instantly dial a number.

A few seconds later, “This is Sf. Registration Number 9609812B. Connect me to extension #0013.”

Sf then handed the receiver to the man next to her. He took it and spoke.

“This is Ooshiro Itaru. Has Team Leviathan left yet, Sibyl? …I see. I just met an interesting idiot. Something stupid is about to happen. A world of stupid false good and false evil is about to unfold. …You don’t understand? No, someone like you or Sf that has not woken up wouldn’t.”

As Itaru spoke, Sf inserted a new card into the green telephone. When the small sound of connection indicating three minutes had been added came from the receiver, Itaru nodded to Sf. He continued speaking as he saw Sf nod back.

“Sf confirmed this idiot’s string vibration. I’ll have Sf give it to you, so add this idiot’s vibration to the string vibration of the concept space. It’s the usual type, so this change should be easy and the outside will be visible, right? Drag him in from reality. …What? You want to know who this idiot is? You’ll know soon enough.”

Hearing that, Sf asked, “Itaru-sama, is it really okay to get him involved like this?”

“That brat has ignorantly decided that this world is a safe place. We need to teach him a lesson and a first-hand lesson would be best. From now on, he is sure to be overturned again and again. From here on out, he will deny all things because all things exist. He will deny joy because he knows joy. And…Yes, that will continue until the world is satisfied.”

Itaru gave a small smile and handed Sf the receiver.

“Sf, tell them his string vibration. And then we will teach him what reality truly is.”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Prologue|Prologue]]
| Return to [[Owari no Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume12 Chapter 17

2026-04-26T01:25:53Z

N-Ch:

==Chapter 17: An Older Time==
[[Image:OnC_v12_0481.png|thumb]]
''Now, you are here

''To test your resolve

''To test what you must know

Two sets of footsteps walked down a dark corridor.

However, this corridor was not surrounded by walls.

It was located between several partitions and machines.

The footsteps traveled down a path lit only by the small emergency lighting.

One set walked out ahead and the other remained a bit behind.

The leading set was created by a pair of sandals.

“What do you think of the sixth basement, Hiba-kun? …Of course, I only came here for the first time just a bit ago.”

The leading footsteps produced a male voice and Hiba stopped observing his surroundings and faced forward.

“Um, well… It feels like I’m somewhere important.”

Hiba, who wore a blue track suit and a bandanna, scratched his head.

“And I didn’t expect you to be showing me around, Kashima-san. To be honest, I thought I was going to be lectured for losing the Concept Core.”

“Ha ha ha. I can let Kazami-kun and the others handle that. I even have permission to film it. …It’ll probably be rated R15 for violence.”

“Why do you make it sound like that’s a foregone conclusion!?”

“Calm down,” said Kashima, asking the impossible. “Anyway, I’m not really the best person to show you around here. I’ve only walked back and forth on this main corridor. This is the sixth basement’s uncompleted concept creation facility.”

Hiba nodded.

He had been told to come here only half an hour earlier, so it had been quite sudden.

Until then, he had been holed up in UCAT’s underground medical room.

The night before, he and Mikage had apparently been rescued directly after Tatsumi’s attack.

He could only say “apparently” because his medical treatment had been complete by the time he came to.

The doctor had said his entire body had been damaged almost evenly. He had apparently fared fairly well for being punched by a god of war and slammed into the ground.

Charms had been placed across his body and he had been given plenty of medicine.

After half a day, he only felt a lot of fatigue and most of his injuries were beginning to heal.

…''The real problem is…

Mikage.

She was sleeping on the intensive care bed in a private room at the back of the medical room.

Her injuries had primarily been the broken right arm and the chest wound.

The doctors had said her right arm would heal nicely if she rested for another night.

That made him wonder if they had let his injuries heal more roughly, but…

…''The chest wound.

The philosopher’s stone in Mikage’s chest was gone.

Specifically, it had fallen out onto the road. The blue stone had lost its light and split in two.

The wound itself was healing. It was apparently less severe than Hiba’s and her head had remained untouched, so she should have regained consciousness before him.

Despite that, she had yet to come to. The Doctor said her brainwaves resembled those of sleep but were highly uniform.

…''Like a sleeping machine.

He wondered how long she would sleep, but he shook his head because there was nothing he could do about it.

He shook off his unease and looked forward to Kashima’s back.

“Um, how far are we going?”

“Just a little further. So do you know where this is?”

Hiba tilted his head at Kashima’s question.

All he could see in the darkness and shadows was outdated-looking machinery, but that was only because of their old design.

He had never seen anything like any of them. Several consoles and layers upon layers of piping joined together to create something.

He noticed what he had previously thought was a wall was actually a number of tanks measuring several hundred meters tall. That was when he realized how massive this facility was.

He maintained the tilt of his head.

“Isn’t it a facility for creating concepts? That’s what you said.”

“Sayama-kun called after obtaining Wanambi and you heard what he said about why this facility is here and why it was never completed, didn’t you?”

“I suppose,” said Hiba noncommittally while thinking.

He had received a regular check-in from Sayama and according to the past that Sayama had seen below Izumo UCAT…

“Shinjou-san’s mother left behind altered data, right? She destroyed the facility below Izumo UCAT and left the people of Low-Gear with a…false theory?”

“Sayama-kun speculated that Shinjou Yukio could not stand to have the concepts used as weapons, so she altered the data on her theory before leaving for Top-Gear. That way, no one could use concept creation for war.”

Kashima took a breath and scratched his head.

“It is true that Shinjou Yukio seems to have gone to Top-Gear and tried to create a space for Low-Gear there. So…”

“Even if she was doing it for peace, it must have been a shock to the people she lied to.”

Hiba knew how Sayama and Shinjou lived at school. And he knew their parents had spent three years at that same school.

…''Being lied to by someone like that couldn’t have been easy.

''Then again, Izumo-san and Sayama-san sometimes lie to each other.

''I guess everyone’s different,'' he thought. But then he remembered the past scene of Shinjou Yukio he had seen in the Kinugasa Library. What he had seen there made it hard to believe she could lie, but he wondered if that was his weakness for girls showing through.

“She was really committed to her decision, wasn’t she?”

“Yes.” Kashima nodded deeply and stopped up ahead of Hiba. “Now, then.”

He scratched his head as Hiba caught up to him.

Once he did, Hiba saw what lay ahead of him.

“A metal bed.”

“Do you know what this is?”

“Um…”

Hiba thought. He thought deeply and added on an additional ten seconds before clapping his hands.

“Yes, it’s a new SM device, isn’t it?”

“Ha ha ha. Hiba-kun, you really are a member of Team Leviathan, aren’t you?”

“O-oh, god. You think I’m like them!”

Kashima smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it. We will all accept you as you are…while keeping our distance.”

“I don’t think you’ve fixed the misunderstanding at all.”

“Calm down.” Kashima nodded and looked to the two meter metal bed ahead of them. “Listen. It was only for a short time, but this place was made to store the Concept Cores to help build the concept creation facility. And since everything has been left untouched since the Concept Cores were stored here…”

He lightly tapped the bed, producing a metallic ring.

“This bed is the same as the one built into Susaou’s bridge to seal 2nd-Gear’s Yamata. …This is where Mikage-kun originally slept.”

Hiba listened to Kashima.

“When Shinjou Yukio analyzed 3rd-Gear’s concepts, she must have used the concept reading coming from Mikage-kun as she slept here. Also…”

Also…

“Mikage-kun was being treated as a mere concept container, so Hiba Ryuuichi may have wanted to take her in and that may have been the condition used to get him to fight for UCAT. …That’s my guess anyway.”

“…”

Hiba was left speechless and Kashima turned toward him with a hand on the metal bed.

“If I’m right, why do you think your father wanted to take Mikage-kun in?”

“Are you saying you know why?”

“No.” Kashima hung his head and shook it. “But I feel like I might. I’m a father too, after all.”

“So it has to do with videos?”

Kashima gave Hiba a serious look and frowned.

“Hiba-kun, this is hardly the time to be discussing that. …Videos should be discussed in a calmer setting. Also, the lighting in here is awful and the sound is far too lively.”

“Yes, I guess you’re right. I really don’t care anymore, so can we get back on topic? Sorry.”

“You have a habit of not taking people seriously, don’t you!?”

Hiba nodded twice and tried to keep his cool.

“I’d love to see some of your videos some time.”

That put Kashima back in a good mood, so he nodded, tapped on the metal bed, and resumed speaking.

“I think your father was trying to protect Mikage-kun. He saw her as a person instead of a Concept Core.”

“But he died in that battle.”

“By that time, he already had you.”

Kashima turned toward Hiba.

“As a father, I feel like I understand what it means to have a child you can leave things to.”

With his eyebrows lying flat, he looked straight ahead and asked a question.

“Have you protected the person he left to you? …I would never leave Harumi with a boy who couldn’t protect her. So what about you? You couldn’t protect her, could you?”

“Well…” muttered Hiba before clenching his fists and breathing in.

He knew the answer. He had not been able to.

But just as his regret began dragging down his thoughts, Kashima said something more.

“Do you want the power to protect her?”

“Eh?”

Hiba frowned.

What did Kashima mean by that?

“W-will you be giving me some kind of weapon? Like an ultimate Cowling Sword called the Goddamn Slayer!?”

“No, no. Not even I am that overly creative. You need something else right now.”

Kashima smiled.

“You need to make ''yourself'' stronger.”

His light comment contained a very simple idea.

''Oh,'' thought Hiba as he realized his thoughts had been running in fruitless circles. He lowered his shoulders a little before speaking.

“If only I could do that…”

If he could do that, he would not have lost to Tatsumi.

…''How can I get as strong as her?

He and Mikage used Susamikado, a top-class god of war.

But as humans, they had been no match for Tatsumi.

And that led him to a certain fact.

…''I won’t be able to protect Mikage-san from anyone on Miki’s level.

He gulped at that conclusion and Kashima gave a deep nod in front of him.

“I understand your concerns. To put it into words…you were having dirty thoughts, weren’t you?”

“N-n-n-n-no!?”

“Uh, why was that a question?”

“W-well…”

Hiba briefly grew flustered. His thoughts had been perfectly serious, so why had he been unable to show any confidence in himself?

“I-it’s possible my adolescent skills have manifested themselves on a subconscious level. In other words, my mind is always in firing mode, so I can’t even trust myself!”

“I see.” Kashima pushed his glasses up his nose. “Can I ignore that?”

“Go right ahead.”

They both sighed, let their shoulders droop, and hung their heads.

After a while, Kashima looked back up.

“Anyway,” he said while scratching his head. “How about we begin training?”

“Training?” asked Hiba as he too looked up. “Is there a 36th Chamber of UCAT or the UCAT Wooden Men or something like that?”

“No, but a personality modification room is in the works. We received quite a few requests to make one for UCAT Director Ooshiro.”

“Oh? Just out of curiosity, what does it do to people?”

“They stop moving.”

“I think you’re modifying something more fundamental than their personality!”

“Calm down.” Kashima smiled bitterly. “At any rate, do you want to get stronger?”

“I…”

He nearly gave a noncommittal answer, but stuck a hand in his pocket instead.

He found two stones there.

They were the two broken pieces of Mikage’s evolution philosopher’s stone.

He wrapped his fingers around those solid shapes.

…''If I’m going to make sure this never happens again…

“Yes.”

He answered on reflex. And…

…''Ah.

Even he was surprised that he had answered so honestly.

''Will this really work out?'' part of him wondered. ''But…'' said another part of him.

The night before, he had only been able to collapse onto the road with Mikage in his arms. He recalled that fact and nodded in his heart.

He really did want to grow stronger.

Meanwhile, Kashima nodded twice and quoted Hiba’s answer.

“ ‘I…yes’, hm? That is a linguistically odd answer, Hiba-kun. Or were you too lost in thought to notice?”

“J-just tell me how already!!”

Hiba glared at Kashima, but he ignored it, stuck his hands in his pockets, and smiled bitterly.

Afterwards, he softened his expression and faced the boy.

“Sorry about that. It was just such a great response. It showed you have a real reason to want this strength.”

He inhaled and straightened up.

“After all, I once hurt someone important to me and tried to cast aside my power. And I continue to lie even now because of it.”

“Eh?”

Kashima did not directly answer that question.

“I want to know why Shinjou Yukio lied to everyone she cared about. And unlike me, you are the type of person who can get by without lying to Mikage-kun,” he said. “So I will give you a chance to fight someone powerful. …You must fight and struggle to grow stronger. That is the greatest way of achieving your goal.”

Hiba then heard a new voice.

It was doing an awful job of singing.

“Memories in the distance! Such a beautiful universe!”

The song continued unopposed.

“Once the beam flashes! The northern hemisphere is destroyed! Now, the apocalypse has arrived! But the bikers! And bike shops! All survived!!”

“Th-that’s Atsuta-san, isn’t it!?”

Hiba saw a man suddenly appear right in front of him.

He had sensed and seen no movement.

…''The Art of Walking.

“Oh, c’mon. Don’t look so shocked when you predicted it was me and everything.”

The man’s short blond hair and sharp eyes were looking down on him from within arm’s reach.

“Listen. The Great Atsuta here is going to give you some training.”

His right hand reached for his back and pulled out a Cowling Sword.

It was a bluish-white sword with a long, narrow, and straight blade.

“This is Prototype Kusanagi. …It’ll apparently be the greatest masterpiece yet, but it’s a little too unstable. I’m supposed to test it out.”

“Test it out? You mean on me?”

“Of course.”

Atsuta frowned and leaned forward to peer down at Hiba from above.

“Aren’t you happy? You can fight a nice battle here. Lose and you’ll die, though. …And you know what? If you do die, 2nd-Gear will call that our official punishment for Japanese UCAT’s lies and leave with Totsuka.”

That meant this battle with Atsuta would be a redo of the Leviathan Road with 2nd-Gear.

But Hiba gathered a bit of strength in his body and took a deep breath.

He looked to Kashima who crossed his arms and nodded.

…''Want to take a stab at it?

The man seemed to be asking him that and Hiba trembled at the thought.

This had to be what he wanted.

…''I can gain the strength I need to protect Mikage-san.

That thought settled it for him.

He suppressed the slight tremor that Atsuta’s powerful presence gave him and he asked a direct question.

“What happens if I win?”

Atsuta’s expression changed.

His eyebrows shot up and he bared his teeth in a smile.

He also tapped Kusanagi against his shoulder.

“You’ve got guts. I’ll have to cut them out of you. Listen up, little monkey. If you beat me, we’ll pay you back for the help the girl who slept here gave us in sealing Yamata long ago.”

Hiba listened to Atsuta.

“To pay you back, the development department will do everything it can to give you the strength necessary to wake up that sleeping beauty. That’ll be enough, won’t it?”

A curtain kept the setting sun out of a white hospital room. The fluorescent light on the ceiling worked to overpower the scarlet glow of the curtain and the people inside the room cast a shadow both to the east and straight down.

The shadows came from two humans and a creature.

One was a girl in a school uniform sitting on a stool by the window-side of the bed.

She was working on something using the black laptop on the side table.

Next to her, a woman sat up in the bed.

The woman had a creature resting on her stomach. It was a plant creature.

Its fur was made of vegetation and it spoke to the woman in the bed using its thoughts.

“Went to school. Heo has lots.”

“You went to Heo-san’s school, didn’t you? And she has a lot of friends, doesn’t she?”

Heo, the girl operating the laptop, blushed when she heard that.

She grew needlessly flustered and had difficulty coming up with an explanation.

“U-um, how should I put it? It was nothing I haven’t told you about, Yui.”

“Heo. Heat.”

Only then did she realize she was blushing despite having no reason to be embarrassed.

…''I’m not used to having people talk about me.

She talked about herself a lot. On the days she visited Yui, she would tell her all about school, but Yui would always listen and ask just the right questions. She asked how she had felt about things, what she had thought, or why she had done something. When she gave a good answer, Yui would praise her and rub her head. When she gave a sad answer, Yui would say something quietly and rub her head.

Yui’s questions allowed Heo to confirm that she really had been there, so she appreciated it. If she ever had children, she wanted to listen to them in the same way.

But that was all a self-report. Having someone else say what she had done felt kind of embarrassing.

“Sorry about that. …I’m not sure why I’m so embarrassed.”

“You’re embarrassed that someone else is talking about you?”

She nodded, thought for a bit, and turned to the plant creature.

“If they say something bad, I can always correct them. But when they say something good, I’m not sure how to correct them. It’s kind of scary and makes my heart pound.”

“So it’s a sort of verbal humiliation with you?”

“Verbal humiliation?” asked the creature.

It took three minutes to correct it and prevent that unnecessary knowledge from reaching 4th-Gear as a whole.

Afterwards, Heo sighed.

“What about you, Yui? If you hear something really, really good about me, but I say it isn’t true…would you feel disillusioned about me?”

As soon as she asked that, a weight reached her head. It was Yui’s hand and the fingers slipped into her hair.

“Heo-san, would you really be able to tell me it wasn’t true?”

Heo thought for a bit before answering.

“Yes. Unfortun- ah.”

She was interrupted by her surprise at having her head rubbed.

She narrowed her eyes and her shoulders trembled at the ticklish feeling on her scalp.

“Um, why? I just said I was a hopeless girl.”

“You know, Heo-san? I won’t be disillusioned to find you aren’t what people say you are. But I would be disillusioned to find you cared more about what people say you are than what you really are.”

“…”

The rubbing hand eventually slowed.

“I like honest people. I like people who don’t lie, can apologize when they do something wrong, and think doing the right thing is so natural they don’t feel the need to tell anyone about it.”

“R-really?”

Heo raised her head and Yui nodded.

“Is there anything you aren’t telling me?”

Heo panicked.

…''Something I haven’t told her!?

''There’s a lot of that. Will she forgive me if I tell her now? Well, this isn’t very much, but she probably wants to hear about it. Um, uh…

“L-last night, Harakawa said he didn’t want me!!”

“My, how awful. He deserves to be executed for that.”

“N-no, I already got back at him plenty! I ate all the snacks he had bought, I stayed up late, and I ate the cake meant for both of us!”

“Oh, my. You’re such a delinquent. How many calories in the cake?”

“W-well! It had a whole 666 calories! Kazami would have committed seppuku if it were her!”

“You really are a delinquent, Heo-san! You’re on an entirely different level. You’re a mega-delinquent!”

“Yes, I am a delinquent! And not just a mega one! I’m a giga-delinquent! S-so I even wore Harakawa’s shirt and slept in his futon last night!!”

“You wore my son’s shirt and slept in his futon!?”

“Y-yes, and on my back!! It was a reverse full-body prostration!”

“A face-up reverse!!”

The plant creature responded to this.

“Morning. Heo hugged futon. Called for Harakawa.”

“Y-yes, I did! I don’t remember it, but I was probably talking in my sleep!!”

“You pass!!!”

Yui rubbed her head hard enough to rock it back and forth.

…''Huh? That wasn’t just being honest.

“That was revealing everything…”

“Don’t come back to your senses now, Heo-san. You need to get even more worked up!”

The woman, girl, and creature clenched their fists, lowered down, and gathered their excitement.

After about half a minute, Yui straightened up and smiled.

“Things are so fun with you around, Heo-san. There’s plenty to look forward to now.”

“Why do I feel like I just made the mistake of a lifetime?”

“Heo T? Worried? Worried, Heo T?” asked the creature.

“Heo T?” cut in Yui.

“Heo called that at school.”

Heo was embarrassed and worried Yui would find it childish.

But the woman seemed to realize where the nickname came from. She looked to her uniform’s nametag before speaking.

“I see. I guess that would make me Yui N, but that doesn’t flow very well.”

Heo tilted her head when she heard the initial N.

“Why N?”

As soon as she asked, both the questioner and the questioned realized something.

For Yui, this was probably her first time letting that slip. For Heo…

…''That’s Harakawa’s late father’s name!

''I shouldn’t have asked that,'' she realized while panicking.

She quickly smiled and waved a hand back and forth.

“U-uh, then why not use the initial from Harakawa? You would be Yui H-…”

She had dug her own grave.<ref>In Japanese, H can mean perverted, lewd, sexual, etc.</ref>

Her hand and smile froze in place and Yui nodded.

The woman gave her a serious expression and picked up the plant creature so it would face her.

She then spoke to the creature.

“Heh heh heh. Heo-san just misspoke. If being Heo Thunderson makes her Heo T, being Harakawa Yui wouldn’t make me Yui H. And once she becomes Harakawa Heo, she’ll be H Heo.”

“H Heo?” asked the plant creature.

“Yes, H Dan and H Heo will make a wonderful H pair! Hooray, so much H.”

As she listened to the woman and creature’s conversation, a cold sweat poured from Heo’s smiling face.

…''This is a test! This is a test I have to endure after messing up twice!

But the test suddenly crumbled away when the plant asked a question.

“Harakawa important to Heo?”

However, it was not facing her. It asked Yui.

“What does Yui think? Harakawa important to Heo?”

…''Eh?

Heo saw Yui smile as the plant creature continued.

“Yui different from Heo. But understands Heo,” it said. “Heo and Yui similar to 4th.”

“Ah.”

That syllable escaped Heo because she felt like she had realized the purpose and meaning behind her renegotiation with 4th-Gear.

The plant creature had not come for a dispute or “just because”.

…''It wants to know if we truly are complete individuals.

Everything in 4th-Gear was either the manager Mukiti or the single entity that made up the entire world.

To them, a fellow member of your race was another part of you that shared your same mind.

…''They see someone trustworthy as a being that shares your mind.

4th-Gear’s creature did not understand, but it was definitely interested. It wanted to know if people could understand others in Low-Gear.

“Heo. Lots of friends.”

And…

“Friends worried. Asked Heo ‘are you okay?’ ”

The creature called for her.

“Heo T.”

“…”

“Used different name: Heo T. But still worried for Heo,” it said. “Strange. What is Heo? Heo and others not together, but the same. Why? Where is the real Heo?”

Heo decided to answer that question. She placed a hand on her chest and said what she wanted to say.

She faced the plant creature and Yui as she spoke clearly to make sure it understood her.

“I am right here. But…”

She smiled.

“I am not here.”

''Huh?'' she thought. ''I feel like I just said something strange.

But she also felt this was the truth.

Long ago, she had made a certain decision when faced with a battle.

She had thought of her mother and the others she had lost, she had thought of all they had left her with, someone important to her had hinted at it, and she had desired to fly.

There had been no need to think about people who were no longer with her, but she had anyway.

…''They aren’t here, but at the same time, they’re here with me.

And so she asked Yui a question.

“Who is ‘Heo’ to you?”

Yui lifted up the plant creature and turned it toward herself.

“My Heo is the same as the Heo you saw. She cares for my son, she trusts him even when he pushes her away, and she trusts in the fact that she has him.”

“Everyone has everyone!?” asked the creature.

“Yes,” replied Yui. She lowered it and rubbed its head. “We have you as well. So you too are both here and not here.”

“The same!”

The creature’s fur stood on end and it shook its body.

“Yui, the same. Heo, the same. Harakawa, the same. Heo! Heo T!”

Heo nodded at its innocent thoughts and it began swaying left and right.

“Heo, the same. Sayama, the same. Shinjou…”

“U-um, let’s not get carried away with who we’re saying I’m the same as!!”

The creature tilted its head and Yui smiled bitterly.

“You’re so cute, Heo-san. Take care of my son, okay?”

There, she suddenly changed the subject.

“How about I tell you about my husband? …It seems my friend won’t stop me today.”

The window was growing dark as the light of the setting sun faded.

The curtain fluttered and Heo realized the window had opened at some point.

Before, there had been an origami crane on the windowsill, but there was a piece of paper there now.

“Herrlich.”

Yui picked up the white paper with that word written on it.

“I hear that boy left for work and hasn’t come back. I bet he was lying about it being for work, but do you know why he doesn’t quit his part-time job at the base when he has his job at UCAT?”

“No…”

Heo shook her head and Yui turned a bitter smile toward the paper in her hand.

“Herrlich,” she muttered under her breath. “That boy is making sure he won’t forget the time when we lived on the base.”

Heo did not need to ask why. She knew Yui was about to tell her that. As for why she would tell her…

“Will you…make me the same as Harakawa?”

“Yes, let’s talk. I’m sure he is learning even more than he already knew right about now. So I will tell you as much as I can.”

Yui’s expression grew serious.

“And all to help you become H Heo!”

Harakawa could see clearly as soon as he came to.

That could be due to the light or how clear his mind was, but it was more due to the light this time.

A white fluorescent light shined down on him from a cement ceiling.

He could clearly see the color of that light.

“…”

He vaguely wondered why he was seeing it.

It was on the ceiling, so he had to be facing up. However, he felt no strain on his neck, so…

…''I’m lying down.

Once his body’s senses returned to him, he could tell what position he was in.

“Why am I lying down?” he muttered

“Oh, are you awake?”

He recognized that voice, so he sat up.

A moment later, he felt like his entire body was breaking or like some great impact had hit him.

“————”

“Your bones are all healed, but your muscles have yet to fully recover. I have extended them and set them in place, so forcing them to bend will feel like breaking your entire body.”

“…!!”

Harakawa ignored that and got up.

After letting out a breath and sitting up with his disheveled hair, he found he had been lying on a white bed.

He also saw someone in front of him.

“Your name was Roger, wasn’t it? …So this is in American UCAT?”

“Testament. You are in American UCAT’s medical room below Yokota.”

“I see.”

He tried to nod, but began sweating instead.

It was a sticky sweat. It felt like his movement had twisted his body and forced out the moisture.

His arms trembled from the shoulder down and he could not gather strength in his fingers. His back was stiff and he had to tense his abs to make sure he did not collapse backwards like a clockwork doll.

The joints of his back were all as stiff as if they were connected by a nail and he had to force his muscles to move properly if he wanted to bend so much as a finger.

But he managed to move regardless. He gathered strength in his gut, slowly but surely pulled back his right leg, and used his hand to move it down from the bed.

“You are very stubborn.”

He did not have it in him to listen. He only now realized there were white cloth partitions on either side of the bed.

He was wearing a smock and his clothes were in a basket to the side of the bed.

He put his jeans on first and then removed the smock. As he did, he noticed Roger’s gaze.

“Are you interested in guys’ bodies?”

“Not particularly. I was just surprised how well-toned you are.”

''Ridiculous,'' he thought.

Anyone who had decided to live on their own would remake themselves in the same way.

…''But…

He remembered coming across one person who had not really done that and that released his excess tension.

His relaxed mood must have acted as a sign because he was suddenly able to move his body better, even if a little awkwardly.

“It’s cold.”

His sweat had rapidly cooled, which meant no more sweat was leaving his body.

He decided to get dressed as quickly as possible, so he put on his leather jacket.

“I had assumed you wouldn’t be able to move for another half a day.”

“Are you basing that on the records of some little kid? If that’s how long it takes your soldiers to recover, it says a lot about American UCAT.”

“To be completely honest, I was basing it on myself.”

“I get the feeling I can actually talk with you.”

Harakawa adjusted his position on the bed and looked up at Roger.

“Will you show me the past?”

“I will not be showing it to you. The sand will.”

“You’re the one that makes the decision.”

He received only a bitter smile in response. Roger pulled a small bottle of sand from his sleeve and held it in both hands.

“This is a blend of sand from Top-Gear…and this base.”

“That sounds like a bitter blend.”

“Testament. I was right to bring a dummy to the meeting yesterday. I don’t have much of this left.”

“Left? I hear regularly imbibing the past isn’t good for you.”

“You are more than qualified to see this.”

Roger lowered his hands and placed his fingers on the bottle’s lid.

Roger did not ask if he was ready.

He did not even ask why.

It was like Harakawa had shown up just as he had wanted to show off a dream of the past.

It was like this had been predetermined.

It was like this had been promised.

And it was like he knew exactly why Harakawa was here.

“…”

Roger opened the bottle’s lid with his fingers.

After the small metallic sound, the man opened his mouth.

“The colonel said to give you what you wanted.”

“He probably went insane.”

“Testament. Then I too must be insane for obeying him.”

“You just do what you’re told. Only your commander needs to be crazy. Any more would be too much trouble for the rest of us.”

Roger laughed bitterly at that.

It was not a very pleasant laugh, so Harakawa frowned.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing much. I just happened to have a very similar exchange over ten years ago.”

“…”

Harakawa felt his hair stand a bit on end and he saw blue sand dance through the air.

“Now, the north wind still seeks the past even after it was broken, but what will it see there?”

He heard Roger’s voice.

“I hope that the north wind can blow once more.”

A moment later, Harakawa’s mind was taken away.

He dropped to the depths of a dream. He fell into an abyss that began in this base and ended ten years prior.

To learn what happened on that Osaka battlefield ten years ago, he fell.

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===Notes===
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