Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume20 Chapter 6 (section)

===Part 1===

It was 4 AM.

Some might call that early morning instead of late night, but it was still too soon for dawn.

Nevertheless, an excessively bright and large explosion at the peak of Mount Fuji swept away all the darkness.

“Laser fortress gun is confirmed destroyed and Mount Fuji’s height has been reduced by more than 2m!! That was the Manhattan’s electromagnetically-launched reactor cannon recorded in our previous battle report. It uses a giant railgun to launch a JPlevelMHD reactor that blows away its target with a blast of tens of thousands of degrees Celsius over dozens of kilometers. The center reaches a temperature of…100 million? M-Mount Fuji’s surface has been glassed by the high temperature!!!!!!”

The cruiser operator’s shouted report explained the highly unusual mountaintop sunrise they had witnessed.

The entire ship rattled and the inertial force nearly tossed the crew to the side thanks to the rapid atmospheric disturbance producing an artificial storm with a massive pressure difference. Frolaytia braced herself against the sideways movement of the ship and checked the monitor to see several unusual streaks of light near the mountain summit. Unnatural lightning had to be striking there.

This Object’s range and power were both off the charts. If one of those was dropped into Tokyo Bay, the entire Together By Chance fleet could be wiped out. And the Manhattan could do more than just that.

That was just one of the many cards in its deck.

It had positioned its 20km self in the only exit from the bay, so it was not going to let them escape.

Frolaytia toyed with her kiseru.

“The Capulet AI network and the Juliet that manages the Rush are compatible, aren’t they? Could your Pilot Elite stage a cyber attack against the Manhattan 000?”

“It’s called the Gatling 033. And things are different from last time. There might be some online vulnerability in the Capulet, but it will have already been manually fixed. Generally speaking, cyber attacks are one-use things.”

The question was why the Manhattan – no, the Information Alliance – wanted to fight here.

Frolaytia Capistrano and Lendy Farolito listed off the possibilities together.

“Possibility 1: Some Together By Chance members came from the Information Alliance. This could be meant to purge those who disobeyed their orders and left the military…all in order to get them to obey the will of the world powers.”

“Possibility 2: They may also want to preserve the world war that has torn apart the world powers, so they want to eliminate Together By Chance since our goal is to end it.”

Both options meant battle, but their position in that battle changed entirely. Did the Manhattan want to preserve the world powers or doom them? Unfortunately, either option made sense for the Manhattan. It would benefit greatly either way.

A tense moment followed.

Lendy Farolito used her chin to gesture toward the radio, so Frolaytia Capistrano accepted the transmission from the front lines with an exhalation of smoke.

(Why do I always get stuck with the worst jobs? I bet this dumbass idol lover climbed the ranks by crushing her rivals under all the annoying work.)

“Listen.”

“Melly Martini Extradry? Did you bring the Manhattan all the way out here as a spokesperson for the Capulet?” asked Frolaytia.

“We have already achieved our goal in this world war. The Legitimacy Kingdom, Capitalist Corporations, and Faith Organization’s social and mental support pillars have been destroyed. Thus, the old world powers paradigm no longer holds meaning. Lay down your arms. We have ended this war already. The Information Alliance has survived the world war as the only worthy power, so the time has come to rule the entire planet on our own.”

(Has she completely fallen to the AI network? No, it’s too soon to decide she’s a Martini Series gone berserk. She is technically benefiting the Information Alliance as a whole here.)

They had contacted Melly before, but she sounded like an entirely different person now. She was probably reading from a script, which also explained the lack of three digit numbers.

Those numbers were apparently tags that helped her recall the memories later, so did that mean she didn’t consider this worth committing to memory?

Frolaytia bit the mouthpiece of her kiseru.

She strongly told herself now was not the time to let her emotions show.

(So it isn’t even Possibility 2? She doesn’t care what the rest of the world powers want. She isn’t listening to anyone else!)

Lendy erased all the text covering her whiteboard and added a new message in large black writing at the very center. She made certain not to make any noise as she did so.

*The rest of the world powers mean nothing. Wants to end it with only IA surviving?

*Using the world war.

*Probably going around breaking pillars needed to support other world powers.

Frolaytia nodded.

That wasn’t enough to take control of the conversation, but having someone else visualize the information helped organize her confused thoughts.

Melly Martini Extradry continued speaking.

“The war is already over and we are merely declaring victory. Again I tell all surviving soldiers to lay down your arms. Obey any further instructions from us and await the restructuring. We do not wish for any unnecessary bloodshed. I repeat, as the new managers of this world, the Information Alliance does not wish for any unnecessary bloodshed.”

The war was already over?

What had happened in the rest of the world while Frolaytia and the others were fighting in the Island Nation?

Had they been left behind by history like a soldier trembling in the deep jungle and cut off from all outside information?

If the Legitimacy Kingdom no longer existed, could Frolaytia find a strong enough reason inside herself to continue fighting?

But then…

“Now hold on there. If you really had us so thoroughly checkmated, you wouldn’t need to come tell us all this, would you? It’s pretty obvious you’re bluffing and hoping we’ll fold.”

This didn’t come from Frolaytia Capistrano or Melly Martini Extradry.

It was Quenser Barbotage.

Melly’s self-centered announcement came to a stop, so it was possible the Martini Series and the Capulet were of split opinions.

The ordinary boy’s voice spoke over the radio again.

“This isn’t over yet.”

He did not hesitate.

He was part of the group that had gathered to end the world war.

Frolaytia and Lendy were as well.

“Three of the table’s legs have been broken. Leave it like that and maybe there is no stopping the world from collapsing. But there is one way left of restabilizing it. We stop using the legs. Maybe we’ll nail it to the wall and maybe we’ll suspend it from the ceiling, but we don’t need you anymore.”

So no one stopped him.

No one could stop that battlefield student with no real authority of his own.

And eventually…

“Are you saying you will kill us – 251 – and end the world war? Ah ha ha. The Manhattan 000 is no more than a tool. The Capulet and the Martini Series are only pieces of the AI network, so you haven’t even seen the core of the Information Alliance for yourself.”

There was more than tension in Melly’s voice.

There was also a strange elation that didn’t fit the circumstances or her appearance.

No one had noticed what was so wrong with the world, but now she had found the one person who had. Her young spine may have been tingling with excitement.

“Yeah, ''last time'' the Capulet AI Network said she was the camouflage used to hide the Information Alliance’s true representatives.” Quenser punctuated that with a snort of laughter. “I guess it would be mean of me to suspect those ‘true representatives’ don’t really exist. But if they haven’t shown themselves with all this going on, they might as well not exist. Maybe they’re programmers or analysts, but I’m betting they aren’t the warfighting type. At the very least, they can’t influence our field out here.”

“So – 979 – are you saying you can kill me?”

“I’m shouting it. You apparently get off to walking around the camera-filled city in nothing but body paint, but courage and taking on greater risks don’t actually increase your strength. Once the truth is out, you’re the one who’ll be in tears.”

Thus, he wasn’t interested in how deep the Information Alliance rabbit hole went.

Quenser Barbotage wasn’t going to let the information deceive him any longer. He was already facing the actual enemy he needed to defeat.

And he made one final statement.

“Maybe the Capulet AI Network really doesn’t have a center point. But I’m the only one in the world who knows where to find your weak point – the breaker you intentionally had made. You’re the one who taught me there that you’re like a billboard and anyone who realizes the truth is given great riches to ensure their silence. Isn’t that right, Capulet?”