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Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 94

2017-01-01T18:27:27Z

108.35.109.47: /* Chapter 94: Fox of the Sun Shower */

==Chapter 94: Fox of the Sun Shower==
[[Image:Horizon4C_0915.jpg|thumb]]
''Drops fall from the clear sky

''The fox says goodbye

''Into the joyous sound of the rain

'''Point Allocation (Happiness)

“Komahime…”

A name was quietly called in the sky northeast of Novgorod where the Mogami fleet moved in to drive back Shibata’s fleet. It came from the top of Yamagata Castle’s bridge where Mogami Yoshiaki held two large fans. She pressed a closed fan against her forehead and shut her eyes.

“…It was the promise, wasn’t it?”

She added a “yes” as the wind of Novgorod’s fall washed over her.

It was a thick wind. It reflected off the ground and whipped her hair around.

“It was because we promised to protect Oushuu and Sviet Rus that you chose suicide, wasn’t it?”

So…

“Komahime. You are a clever girl, so fulfill that promise. …Your mother will not run away. I will watch over you to the end.”

Komahime stood inside the bridge as the ether fuel overheated and ignited.

The ether fuel pipes burst more due to power system malfunctions than the vermilion flames and their heat and flames filled the bridge with light.

Similar ruptures and tremors occurred in the corridors and lower floors and those countless noises reached the bridge.

But Komahime was alone on the bridge; she had ordered the rest of the Jurakudai’s crew to evacuate.

They had all begun sending out the escape ships to reach Shibata’s fleet, so as flames erupted and ether light raged across the bridge, the only words were spoken by her and her divine transmission ''insha kotob''.

The second-in-command’s voice-only transmission reached her from one of the escape ships.

“Acting Captain! Everyone is accounted for. We are currently approaching Shibata’s fleet while sending out a request to join them!”

“Shaja. …If Novgorod falls and explodes, it will affect the position of Shibata’s fleet too. If I fully open Jurakudai’s defense barrier and divert the gravitational cruising power to the exterior, I can slow its fall and delay its destruction. So…”

So…

“Please take Hidetsugu-sama somewhere safe!”

“Shaja…! But Acting Captain, what about you?”

“I’m fine. My regret came from my desire to be with Hidetsugu-sama, after all.”

Just a few minutes before, she would have been too embarrassed to say that, but now she could use it as a proper reason.

“I am a ghost. I can’t die, so I’ll be fine. And second-in-command?”

“What is it?”

“I’m sure Niwa-sama asked you to, but I must thank all of you for teaching me so much and speaking with me. Thanks to that, it looks like I can manage controlling the ship, even if I am just using the auto-settings.”

The second-in-command gently responded to that.

“Oh, you’re not there yet. Your piloting is still pretty rough. …There’s still a lot we have to teach you.”

“Shaja. I look forward to it.”

With that answer, Komahime thought, ''This is for the best.

She could see the state of the ship on an ''insha kotob'' that kept flickering in and out. The Jurakudai had already taken damage from the after effects of the Musashi’s attack and now it was recklessly trying to support the Novgorod as it fell.

“You can do it.”

Komahime spoke to the ship as she operated the various power conduits. When one had stopped due to a collapse, malfunction, or excessive power, she rerouted the power around it to keep it distributed across the ship. A ship as large as the Jurakudai had countless power conduits as well as secondary ones for use in emergencies, so she displayed them all on an ''insha kotob''.

“You can do it…!”

It got through. A few areas were unusable now, but about 70% of the primary regions had recovered. Outside the bridge, she could see the defense barrier’s multiple layers of light. And in the sky…

“Wah.”

Several giant pieces of rubble fell to the deck. They produced so loud a sound she wanted to cover her ears. When Novgorod’s falling speed had lowered, pieces of its outer hull had fallen away.

But its fall had definitely slowed.

The impact triggered further explosions and shaking inside the Jurakudai. All readings from the rear port side vanished from the ''insha kotob''. That meant the port side thrusters had been taken out.

…''So there’s no escape now.

And so she made up her mind: she would do everything she could.

“The only other thing I need to do is…”

The ether fuel supply was still being limited. She wanted to use up all of the fuel in these few minutes, but the ship had no such setting.

''In that case,'' she thought as she ran to the captain’s spot in the rear of the bridge while protectively raising a hand and dodging some sparks that fell from the ceiling. There were some manual controls there that opened during emergencies. When the divine transmission controls from the bridge’s ''insha kotob'' were cut off, these could directly control the ship via physical means.

The gauges were moving. The support ''insha kotob'' had also opened. ''This will work,'' she told herself.

After double-checking how to do it, Komahime opened the five control valves. She grabbed the slide switch handles and pushed them to the back, one at a time.

Once this was done, the ship could support Novgorod even more powerfully than before. So…

“I need to do it right…”

She knew the Jurakudai could not fully support the falling city and she was certain that she would disappear in the explosion when the Jurakudai crashed along with Novgorod. But…

“All that matters is that Hidetsugu-sama gets away safely. …I’m too afraid to check.”

She had her suspicions that Hidetsugu’s failure to wake had nothing to do with his regret. It was because the Seiryu was stealing away the ether forming him.

But if he woke up now that he was freed from the Seiryu…

“He’ll suddenly find out that he’s married to me and that my regret came from my desire to be with him…”

What would he think of that? She knew this was hardly the time to think about that, but…

…''He’s already been evacuated.

He had seemed to sleep more peacefully now that he was freed from the Seiryu and she had seen the second-in-command and others from the crew carrying him out as they evacuated.

She was the only one here now. So…

“I need to do this properly.”

She would support Novgorod as long as possible and root for those trying to evacuate. She knew that was something only she could do right now, but…

…''It’s hot?

A sudden wave of heat pressed against her back, so she turned around to check.

The door into the bridge had grown red with heat.

“…!?”

The explosion of heat from a flashover blew her backwards and fried the interior of the bridge.

Flames erupted from the Jurakudai.

In the sky north of Novgorod, Shigenaga used her right arm to hold onto the net hanging from the transport ship above her and she saw ether light fire covering the upper levels of the Jurakudai.

The ether fuel had overheated and it had exploded from the fried and broken power conduits.

She could guess that Komahime had been trying to use all of the Jurakudai’s power. She could also guess why the opposite had happened:

…''Was it the rubble from above combined with the damage to the ship!?

The Jurakudai’s defense barriers and buffering spells could cover a 7 kilometer area and that power was currently being used to cover the bottom of Novgorod. The gravitational control used for its half-gravitational cruising was being passed through a buffering spell to divert it from the thrusters to the defense barrier.

The Jurakudai itself was currently a giant box of ether fuel and it could not defend itself or move. It was only remaining afloat thanks to the gravitational control balance points that stuck out above and below it via the buffering spells.

Even if someone wanted to go rescue it, giant pieces of rubble were falling and it was groaning under the strain of the gravitational balance. After another scream of metal from the bottom, it broke from the invisible weight of the upper deck.

“…Komahime!”

Flames erupted from the bottom of the Jurakudai as well.

Komahime immediately came to.

She had been slammed against the wall and could say she had been knocked out, but…

…''I’m a ghost.

The effects of a concussion would only be reproduced when she was hit by a weapon with that kind of divine protection applied. There were ether flames here now, but…

“When I hit the wall, I was just so surprised that I didn’t know what to do.”

She left the wall and placed her right hand in front of her. From that position, she lifted her knees and stood up.

“Ah…”

As she stood in front of the controls, her left hip was crumbling away. Like a piece of clothing unraveling, ether light surrounded that area and the lines of her hip disappeared.

She had either been burned by the flames or melted by the overheated ether fuel. She touched it and could feel the skin and the bone within. She may have been falling apart as ether more than as a ghost.

''Can this be healed?'' she wondered before smiling bitterly. Even damage with no divine protection could destroy a ghost if it was powerful enough to destroy the ether mold. If the ship fell and exploded along with Novgorod, she would never survive.

''Why am I so worried about my appearance?'' she thought as she reached for the controls in front of her.

Her left arm was gone.

Noticing that, she glanced to the floor, but it was nowhere to be found.

She placed her other hand on the control panel to support herself. The ceiling structure collapsed like a pillar on the back right end of the bridge, but she only needed the manual controls.

“Move…”

She still had to move 2 of the 5 power conduit levers, so…

“…Nn.”

Even as her body fell apart, she used her remaining right arm to push one of them forward.

It was hard. She was only using one arm this time, but it also seemed to be stuck on something. Regardless, she managed to push it all the way back and then reached for the other one.

She would be done once she did this, so…

“Nn…!”

She pushed it back. At first, she felt something pushing back, but…

…''I got it!

It was all the way back. She heard the metallic thunk of it locking into place.

That was all 5. The conduits were fully open now.

“I did it.”

She breathed out and straightened up, but then she noticed something.

The 2nd control lever had moved back to the front.

…''You’re kidding.

The manual controls were one-way and received no feedback.

“Then were the controls bent when a piece of the ceiling fell…?”

The 2nd control lever’s lock would not engage and it had fallen back down. That just meant she had to push it back again and hold it in place by hand. That meant she could not leave this spot, but…

“…!”

Komahime grabbed the lever with her right hand and pushed it. However…

…''It won’t go in!?

She heard the ship creaking and new ether light sprayed from the ceiling.

The bridge itself bent and the control panel continued to change shape. So the 2nd lever met some resistance as it slid and would not move. She tried a few more times, but it would not move past that point.

“…!”

Komahime used her entire body to push at the control lever. She produced a solid metallic sound, but it only bounced back. She did not have the same power as the creaking and shaking of the ship.

And when she looked out the window, the light in the sky was gone.

The defense barrier opened to support Novgorod was disappearing like a hole had opened in it.

Rubble fell through that gap and she heard the rumble of Novgorod pushing down on the air.

At this rate, the Jurakudai would be unable to support Novgorod and would fall with it.

“No…”

She tried slamming her entire body against the lever, but it was no use.

“No…”

Why was she crying? She raised a leg and tried kicking the lever, but that did not work either. She grabbed a thin piece of the ceiling that had fallen nearby and swung it at the lever.

“Kh.”

But with a metallic noise, the piece of the ceiling broke free of her fingers and flew into the air.

Her hand hurt and she simply stared at the lever that still refused to budge.

“Kh…”

When she took a breath, even more tears spilled from her eyes. At the same time, the front half of the bridge crumbled away in flames. The ceiling collapsed and a cascade of ether spray formed a curtain of light. Komahime took a deeper breath in the glow of that light.

“…I won’t give up on our promise.”

So she opened an ''insha kotob''. It was for controlling the ship. The entire Jurakudai was highlighted either in the red indicating danger or the black indicating an unresponsive area. And the black was growing. But the central control system was still functioning. So…

“If I can’t release all the power to the defense barrier, I can set the ship’s gravitational control to maximum acceleration.”

The bare minimum defense barrier would be held in place with gravity and she would crash the Jurakudai into Novgorod.

The impact would only last a moment, but that would negate more of the Novgorod’s falling momentum than a ship with no power.

Of course, doing that would destroy the Jurakudai with its own acceleration and gravitational control pressure. And that would be the end of Komahime as well. But…

“I made a promise. So, c’mon.”

''I kind of sounded like Shakenobe-san there,'' she thought with a smile.

But she had sworn long ago to preserve peace between Oushuu and Sviet Rus, and…

“Right.”

She had also promised that she would give up her name, go to some distant place with the person she loved, and live there with him forevermore.

She had failed to keep that last promise, but perhaps that was because it had been too convenient a promise for her.

If she died, she had thought it would indirectly count for Hidetsugu’s suicide as well. That was why she had killed herself, but she had not expected him to do the same thing.

But as a ghost, he would be free if he was released from his inherited name. He could return to Date or he could go elsewhere.

If her disappearance would give him that freedom, then what she was doing here was meaningful.

She concluded that she had successfully protected someone other than herself here.

“So let’s do that.”

She placed a hand on the ''insha kotob''. She set the Jurakudai’s half-gravitational cruising to full speed and she raised the ship’s angle so it would ascend.

“…Good.”

She stared straight ahead and saw the bottom of Novgorod. She prepared to press the confirmation button on the ''insha kotob''. But…

“Mogami Komahime!!”

A sudden divine transmission rang through the bridge.

Komahime recognized the voice but had never met its owner.

…''Musashi’s Vice President?

Why was she sending an open divine transmission to P.A. Oda’s Jurakudai? But before she could think on that question, the arriving voice pierced her body.

“Mogami Komahime! This is Musashi Vice President Honda Masazumi speaking on behalf of the Musashi Chancellor and Student Council President!”

And…

“Musashi will now take action to ensure we don’t lose you.”

“That’s what we’ll do.”

North of Novgorod, the Sviet Rus fleet was descending more rapidly than the city and flying further north, but a giant city ship made of 8 ships was also descending at the same speed as Novgorod.

An idiot in a summer uniform stood on the academy bridge at the back of Okutama.

The idiot had a silver wolf in front of him, a silver-haired automaton at his side, and a spell control shrine maiden and a dancer behind him. And to his right…

“Neshinbara, what happens next in your dream scenario?”

“It’s simple. The Musashi’s main cannon fires on and blows away Novgorod’s power system. That rids it of the elements that would detonate when it crashes.”

“Based on the range I was told earlier, that should work just fine,” said Tenzou on the left as he had Mary used a telescope spell to measure their range.

“Okay, then that’s what we’ll do.”

“Hey, Mogami…um…”

Komahime gasped at the boy’s voice she heard.

…''So they don’t lose me…?

''That’s impossible,'' she thought. But…

“Hey, Umahime.”

“It’s Komahime!!”

“Sure. So we’re about to help you energize or whatever, but we need a bit of time. So, um…how long do we need, Seijun? 2 minutes? That’s way too long! Make it 1! …Oh, sorry, ‘Musashi’. U-um, 1 minute 17 seconds? That’ll work? You can cut it down that far? Okay, Umako, you hold on for that long.”

“Huh?”

“No, not ‘huh’,” he said with a laugh. “Hold on for 1 minute and 17 seconds before you fall. We’ll save you, so you do your best to make sure you can be rescued. Y’see, we’re like some poor little rabbits that are feeling cornered after losing a major battle. We’re bunnies.”

For some reason, it sounded like someone hit someone, but Komahime had a major concern.

“It’s no use! The machine here won’t move!”

“Ugh… Ow… W-well, get it to move?”

“Why was that a question? …And I can’t just get it to move. It isn’t possible…”

“Is it broken?”

This time it was a girl’s voice. The voice sounded calm but also contained a hint of a worried emotion. ''What a strange voice,'' thought Komahime as she looked to the control panel.

The control panel was not broken. It was only bent which kept the control lever from moving. So…

“It isn’t broken. It just isn’t moving…or can’t move…”

“Then there is nothing to worry about.” Some relief entered the voice. “If it is not broken, then it can be moved. And even if it is broken, it can still be moved as long as there is a hand to move it. Right now, your hands are there. And as long as they are, you can move it. Komahime-sama, throw out your despair and grab something else instead.”

“Who are you?”

“A café employee. …So I am used to making gambles.”

Komahime did not understand that, but…

…''I see.

Her right hand was unharmed, so she moved it. She opened an ''insha kotob'', looked back over the power system since it could apparently still control divine transmissions, and set it to the full power available in this situation.

It was not as much as before, but the defense barrier returned outside. However…

“…”

It groaned as a great pressure reached it from above.

Novgorod’s fall was speeding up.

But she had to support it with the Jurakudai, so…

“I’ll do it.”

She held her right sleeve in her mouth and pulled it back. She rolled the sleeve up to her shoulder and once more grabbed the unmoving 2nd control lever.

When she pulled it back and then pushed forward, she felt the metal hit something. ''This is the wall,'' she thought. ''If I can get past this, it’ll work.

She calculated how long until Novgorod’s fall after the power adjustments from the divine transmission control. She spoke while sending the results to Musashi.

“The power will fail within 42 seconds. …If I don’t get the Jurakudai’s full power running by then, Novgorod will fall. And if it begins to fall in 42 seconds…”

“Don’t worry. If we can save you, then you can do it.”

She did not know what he meant by that, but she oddly felt like everything would be okay. So…

“Kh…!”

She gathered strength in her right arm and pushed at the control lever.

The divine transmission from Komahime cut off just as the Musashi began to transform.

It all began with “Musashi” spreading her arms backwards from the top of Musashino’s bridge where she could look out upon everything.

“This new equipment is useless for cleaning, but…”

She drew two black-sheathed swords from the air. One was a short sword and the other a long sword. Ether light sprayed out as she pulled them out and she fixed the scabbards in the air.

Sakai spoke as he sat on the bridge roof next to her and puffed at his pipe.

“ ‘Musashi’-san, you’re actually really into this, aren’t you?”

“What aerial ship would not want to use her new equipment? Over,” said “Musashi”. “Now, everyone aboard the Musashi. At the request of the Musashi King, the Musashi Viceroy, and the Musashi Vicereine, Musashi will use its main cannon to remove the obstacle in its path. This is not a test firing; it is an official firing. This action has the approval of the Novgorod Mayoress and Sviet Rus Chancellor who own the aforementioned obstacle. The negotiations have already been settled, so I will now remove the main cannon’s firing safety. Everyone, prepare the Aerial City-class Gravitational Cannon ACC-GC0021 Kanesada. This time we will be using it in main barrel mode: ACC-GC0021L Large Kanesada. Over.”

“Musashi” then slowly drew the two swords from their floating scabbards.

And with that the Musashi opened up.

It was entering main cannon firing form which was based on the gravitational cruising form.

The transformation began with every ship’s gravitational cruising wings opening.

But even more opened. Before, they had primarily opened on the outer edges of the Musashi’s ships, but now…

“Do it just like before, but all of them this time!! Keep working and get it all up and running!!”

On the orders of the engine division chief, wings opened on the inner edges as well. And…

“Send ascension commands to the outer thrusters! We’re gonna support the 2 center ships with only the outer ships!!”

“Musashi” could tell her gaze was lowering.

When preparing for gravitational cruising, the virtual ocean along the outer hull would vanish. To make up for the lost buoyancy, they would accelerate forward and use that powerful forward momentum to keep themselves from “falling”. But the thrusters were not active at the moment. All of the ships were slowly falling.

As soon as she felt a little lightweight due to the falling motion, sign frames appeared around her.

“Asakusa and Shinagawa have finished preparing their outer gravitational cruising thrusters for horizontal firing! Over!”

“Same for Tama and Murayama! Over!”

“Same for Takao and Oume! Over!”

“Same for Musashino and Okutama! Over!”

“Judge.” “Musashi” nodded and continued slowly drawing the swords. “All ships, lock yourselves in firing position. Over.”

Light exploded outwards from the 1st through 3rd port and starboard ships.

That was the acceleration light of gravitational cruising, but it was not exploding backwards to push them forwards.

It was exploding downwards.

All of the thrusters along the outer hull were aimed down.

“Well done. Over.”

The power used to propel them forward was now being sent down to propel them upwards.

Shigenaga viewed the sight from the deck of the transport ship as it returned to her flagship.

The ships on the Musashi’s port and starboard sides were producing an expansive light and wavering down from the outer hulls.

She understood the idea. Before, the Musashi’s gravitational thrusters would have been fixed in the backwards-facing position, but now…

“Did they use the remodeling to make them movable!?”

Her very question was its own answer. Once the outer thrusters moved out into the open, they rotated and pointed downwards to support the ships.

The downwards acceleration on the outer edges was also transferred to the inner edges using buffering spells. Light gradually wrapped around the bottom of Musashi’s port and starboard ships.

…''It’s like they’re cruising on a sea of light.

But two of the ships received none of the acceleration light: the central two. Their freefall state was not supported by the gravitational acceleration light. Instead, the towing belts let out a metallic groan as they connected those two to the other ships.

Shigenaga did not have to wonder why they would do that. With something like a metallic scream, the central ships shook in the air while supported by the towing belts.

The lights visible on the inner edges of the port and starboard ships were probably sparks caused from the towing belt connections. On occasion, the vertical stretching of the towing belts stripped some of the armor away and it would scatter through the night sky.

What were they hoping to accomplish with this?

But as Shigenaga watched, the central ships’ descent slowed.

They were probably supported by the ships to their left and right.

As her body floated up and everything seemed to be scooped back up by the wind, “Musashi” slowly finished drawing the two swords.

At the same time, the towing belts extending from the port and starboard ships finished supporting the central ships.

But Musashino and Okutama were being pulled up on the left and right, so they were bent in a shallow U shape. To fix that distortion, “Musashi” raised the long Kanesada sword in front of her eyes.

As she did, light wrapped around the straight sword-shaped ram on Musashino’s bow.

That light extended forward in a longer version of the same shape. Light also raced from the stern like a ribbon connecting the two central ships. And that second light tied itself to the stern with a bow.

Meanwhile…

“So, ‘Musashi’-san, is your weight okay?”

“First my age and now my weight? Over.”

“Well, I mean, things are looking pretty bad to the left and right. And you fell a little just now.”

“That was not falling. It was descending. And it was Musashino and Okutama that descended, not me. In other words, it has nothing to do with me. Over.”

'''Musashino:''' “Principal Sakai, could you please avoid provoking the overall captain? Over.”

'''Okutama:''' “Agreed… And, yes, we are very heavy, aren’t we…? Over.”

''They develop nicely once their thought experience accumulates enough,'' thought “Musashi”.

“Now. …We only need to open the barrel. The virtual barrel. Opening main barrel. Over.”

With that, “Musashi” moved.

She slowly pointed the long sword forward.

She aimed the tip toward Novgorod.

But it was not just the sword tip that pointed in that direction.

“Musashi Large Kanesada…main barrel open. Over.”

It began below the Musashino’s bridge. A barrel made of ether extended to the front and back from the thruster installed below the bridge. It was a two-way rotation barrel with a defense barrier built in.

The giant barrel loudly turned on its axis and the two pieces fit together front to back like they were constructing a great tower. And…

“Asakusa, Shinagawa, Tama, Murayama, Oume, Takao…beginning main barrel service. Over.”

“Musashino and Okutama…beginning main barrel service. Over.”

The thrusters on the inner sides of the port and starboard ships faced inwards. Those on the central ships pointed upwards and they formed lines of gravitational control light which supported the barrel.

The barrel was raised to the same height as the inner thrusters of the port and starboard ships.

“Sakai-sama. …Do you understand now why we descended? Over.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Musashi” glanced over at Sakai and then sighed.

“I will tell everyone you said so. Over.”

The barrel pierced front and back between the port and starboard ships. And at the very back…

“Musashi Chancellor, I give you the highest position in charge of Musashi’s martial activities. Please provide assistance to allow synchronization between all the parts. Over.”

“Sure. Just leave it to me.”

With that, light appeared from the back. Musashi’s Chancellor had activated his ether supply spell.

A festival had begun on the academy bridge.

Musashi’s Chancellor stood there and, when the giant barrel extended back to him, he used his ether supply spell.

“Let’s get this started.”

With about 20 on the left and 20 on the right, lines indicating ether supply connections raced out into the air like whips. They struck the thrusters on the inner sides of the port and starboard ships and on both sides of the central ships and they provided those thrusters with light.

“…!”

Behind him, a shrine maiden twanged her bow and a dancer danced to pressurize his spell.

The 40 or more ether supplies grew to twice that number and all of the Musashi’s inner thrusters roared in unison like they were musical instruments.

“Contact!!”

The silver wolf grabbed the back of the barrel with her silver chains. She pulled on it to inform the Musashi of its exact position. Then the Acting Captain’s voice reached them.

“Making…contact…!”

On the deck of Shibata’s flagship, the Kitanoshou, Shibata watched it with everyone else.

“Hold on. Who were those powerful nations that claimed to have the Far East under their provisional rule? They sure have egg on their face now…”

Shibata clenched his teeth in a smile as the large cannon completed its barrel which measured more than 8 kilometers in length.

“How can they create such a large cannon with nothing but defense barriers and gravitational acceleration control?”

He was answered by Fuwa. She scanned the optical and ether readings and she opened her mouth.

“I think this is the accumulation of the Musashi’s experience as it has continued flying for 30 years…no, technically for 160 years. They have learned to balance such a large ship and have honed the gravity barriers that defend it. And in recent years, they’ve installed gravitational thruster technology and gained experience using that. …You could call this the skill of an experienced craftsman.”

“I’m glad you dumbed it down for me at the end there. But how much can that thing do?”

“Shaja.” Fuwa nodded and scrolled through the readings she had taken. “It can pierce through the half-destroyed Novgorod. Depending on the makeup of the shell, it might even be able to entirely destroy the city. For example…”

Yes.

“Musashi currently has enough striking power to split a floating island the size of Aki’s Itsukushima.”

Shibata lightly whistled at that.

At the same time, flames rose below Novgorod.

They had erupted from the rear of the Jurakudai. As everyone watched, the defense barrier shrank and just about disappeared. And if it did…

“The Jurakudai will fall!”

Komahime barely managed to bring back her consciousness.

Some of the falling rubble had hit the top of the bridge. That had knocked part of the ceiling down, that had hit her, and she had passed out for just a moment.

There was just one thing she had to do now: support Novgorod above her.

There were people working hard to save her, so she had to work hard too.

But the tilting of the ship and her unsteady footing told her the ship was beginning to fall. The countdown on the ''insha kotob'' had reached 20.

“Right…”

She nodded, grabbed the control lever with her right hand, and pushed.

It moved, but it once more stopped partway back.

She pushed.

It would not budge, but she had to keep pushing. There was nothing more she could do.

…''I won’t give up!

With that thought, she leaned her entire body forward. She pushed with her shoulders behind it.

“…”

She thought she heard some creaking metal. It was a tiny, nearly inaudible sound, but it was definitely coming from the base of the control lever.

…''Move!

Just as she thought that, the Jurakudai hopped up with a heavy reverberation. It was enough for her feet to leave the floor. The lever just about left her hand, but she held on and pressed her body against the control panel. But…

“…!”

Wind passed by overhead. She heard the ceiling breaking and splitting. And the sky came into view. But it was not the night sky she saw when the upper armor was blown away.

It was the stone of Novgorod’s bottom surface.

The stone fell from the giant structure in the sky. It was falling straight toward her.

…''Kh!

Komahime did not let go of the control lever.

“Move…!”

The stone was going to reach her. It was going to crush her. But just before it did…

“You might not need it, but I came to rescue you.”

Someone placed their left hand on her right hand.

Komahime looked to her right.

She could not believe who she saw.

…''Hidetsugu-sama…

No.

“Kojirou-sama!!”

“Testament. It’s been too long, Komahime.”

I…

“I’m here to fulfill my promise.”

The boy with a single dragon horn raised his right hand. When he moved it, something raced by overhead. It was a giant arm made of ether. It was the right arm of the Seiryu’s ether form.

Kojirou used the azure metal arm to strike the falling stone.

The roaring noise became an umbrella that defended against and protected her from everything.

Komahime saw him turn toward her.

He had a smile in his eyes.

“I woke up in the launching zone’s lobby, but there was a letter there. They were apparently acting on the instructions of someone named Niwa, but it said they had given me a divine transmission connection with Musashi and that we should work toward something together. …It said that’s the first thing any married couple should do.”

“S-sorry…”

Komahime knew it was an emergency, but she still wanted to run away and hide.

“E-even if I didn’t have much choice, I still made myself your concubine without your permission…”

“That’s fine. My regret was the same as yours.”

“————”

Bluish-white light stirred from the left hand he had placed on her hand.

It was the dragon’s power. It was the proper form of the Dragon God’s power which used the Seiryu to protect those of the Date family. It surrounded her body.

“Ah…”

Her left arm and hip regained their form. She felt a little embarrassed that he was seeing her bare arm, but she still looked him in the eye and nodded.

“Then…”

Komahime and Kojirou grabbed the control lever together.

And before they began to push, a giant and powerful hand lowered to support them.

It was the Seiryu’s right hand. With that light and power protecting them, Komahime spoke.

“Here goes…!”

In the sky over western Kantou IZUMO, a girl sighed on the bridge of the Date flagship, the Aoba Castle, as it defended the Ariake.

A blue gate of light was faintly visible behind her, but it produced no wind and simply pulsed with light.

The girl rested her sword on the deck and turned her one eye to the west.

“Kojirou. …So you ended up being the first to use the Seiryu’s power properly.”

She sent a weak but definite smile in that direction.

“You decided to take the path that would save Date. And…”

She shook her head and raised her lowering head.

“We will not forget it.”

“Toori-sama, Asakusa and Shinagawa have detected the recovery of power in the Jurakudai below Novgorod. Novgorod’s altitude has stabilized! Over!”

After that divine transmission from “Musashi”, the barrel’s direction was fixed in place.

As Toori stood behind the very bottom of the giant barrel, a targeting sign frame appeared in front of him.

“Ohh!” He smiled with the firing portion of the barrel’s back end in front of him. “We created something pretty badass, didn’t we?”

The idiot then looked to Masazumi who was crossing her arms behind him.

“Hey, Seijun. How do you shoot this thing? You did it earlier, right?”

“I did command the firing, but…that was a test firing of the short barrel, Small Kanesada, at 30% power. And we were firing straight down, so there was no distortion to the barrel and the service thrusters didn’t have to do much. The shell was also a lot like a non-piercing air blast. …So this will be the first official firing.”

“Hmm,” said the idiot while turned around to speak with Masazumi.

In search of something to lean on, he placed a hand on the nearby sign frame.

“So how do I shoot this thing?”

“ ‘Musashi’ will target it for you.”

“Then do I have to shout something? Like ‘Musashi Beeeeeeeam!’ or ‘Tenzou Crotch Short Barrel Blast!’ or ‘Wabisa-beeeeeeeam!!’ ”

“Wh-why would you use me in your joke!? I’m trying to monitor the target’s range, so I can’t give a decent reaction right now!”

“Hey,” cut in Urquiaga’s voice. “Don’t leave out Narumi and me while just because we’re out on Musashino’s bow monitoring the range from there.”

“As the overall captain, I must ask that you do not shout anything weird. Especially that 2nd one. Over.”

“Hmm, so even ‘Musashi’ asked for a retake, huh? …Okay, everyone, think up a good thing to yell in the next 3 seconds.”

“Wait, you idiot.”

“Hmm… Seijun-kun, yelling that when we fire wouldn’t be very funny…”

“Wait, um,” said Mitotsudaira and Asama. The two girls were looking at the sign frame out in front. It was set to grow solid when touched, so the idiot was leaning his hand on it and sitting on it.

“W-wait! Um, my king?” said Mitotsudaira. “Can you look at this?”

“Y-yes, Toori-kun. This, um, might be bad.”

“Hm?”

The idiot followed their gazes and Masazumi also pointed out ahead.

“Look more carefully. They mean that.”

“Hmm?”

The idiot peered at the sign frame which contained the word “Authorize?” and a handprint.

“Huh?”

The idiot looked between his hand and the authorization handprint for a few seconds before quickly looking up at the giant barrel.

The barrel had already begun its two-way rotation and moved forward to cock itself.

“Ah, hey… Wait, you idiot!!!”

With that yell, the Musashi fired its main cannon.

Suzu sat in the seat installed for her on Musashino’s bridge.

“Wah.”

She felt the seat rotating backwards, but just as she thought about asking why, it happened.

The Musashino and Okutama were knocked back by the cannon’s recoil.

The two ships hanging from the towing belts rushed backwards through the air like they were sliding on rails. With her seat turned backwards, the force of it pushed her into the seat back.

Toori’s ether supply was cut off and ether sprayed out between him and the port and starboard ships.

And Suzu sensed those port and starboard ships spreading outwards in a fan shape to absorb the motion of the Musashino and Okutama as they were pushed back by the force of the cannon.

The towing belt connectors and the ships’ movements were the key.

Suzu displayed the model of the Musashi in front of her and swiftly moved her hands to tell the ships how to move. To prevent the towing belts from snapping, she had to make sure the central ships did not go too far.

…''U-um…

She pictured it like a model boat being pulled by the current of a stream. The more it tried to move, the greater the resistance. So…

“Like this…maybe?”

She had recently come into contact with ether wind pressure while at Date, so she had an even greater feel for wind than before.

…''Yes. This will…work.

All of the Musashi moved back about 2 kilometers while dropping its speed. The port and starboard ships were positioned a little further forward, but the central ships were pulled back to them by the towing belts. Meanwhile, the barrel had finished its role, so it scattered as countless fragments of light and all of the ships were surrounded by a virtual ocean.

Then she shifted her focus forward.

Novgorod. Suzu turned her entire seat around to face the center of that floating city.

“It’s empty…”

The hemispherical bottom had a round hole straight through it.

Yoshiaki had stopped moving.

The wind was blowing.

Musashi had fired its main cannon. Even with buffering spells suppressing the shockwave when it fired, some noise and wind were unavoidable.

“Turn the bow straight toward Musashi’s muzzle! We’re going to ride this out!”

This was no time to be approaching Shibata’s fleet while also moving toward Novgorod.

Yoshiaki could see Shibata’s forces doing the same. They had already withdrawn to the southwest, but they were using the same wind to gain even more distance.

But even as the undulating winds passed by and a few of the ships’ virtual oceans were scattered, Yoshiaki saw something.

As Novgorod fell helplessly with its power system gone, the Jurakudai appeared below it as what could only be called wreckage.

The ship had been crushed flat and it was lit like a stage by the erupting flames and scattering ether fuel.

And Yoshiaki saw something else.

Two people stood on what little remained of the deck by the bow.

It was Hashiba Hidetsugu and Komahime.

They were holding hands and looking her way.

Komahime realized her end had arrived.

She was not dying. She had already died and was currently at a place beyond death.

“My regret is gone.”

The power allowing a ghost to exist was their attachment to the world of the living.

She had felt regret because she had wanted to be with him.

He had felt regret because he had wanted to be with her.

So now that they knew they could be together, their regrets vanished and they could no longer remain in the world of the living.

They would leave this world together. She could not quite put it to words, but…

“I’m glad,” he said by her side. “There’s a lot I left undone, but I’m glad there’s nothing I regret not having done.”

“So am I.”

Komahime pulled on his hand. They faced north together. They smiled toward the giant form floating there. Toward the Musashi.

Novgorod fell behind them. It had lost all power and fell as a mere corpse. It was picking up speed and moved like water blown along in the wind, but the Jurakudai endured it. Finally, they heard some noises below them. They heard stone colliding with stone and a great mass of it collapsing, knocking over trees, and falling into a canyon.

But Komahime opened her mouth with all those sounds of destruction in the background.

“Thank you very much.”

Asama saw the two of them bow on the large sign frame.

If they had done nothing, those two might have still been together, but they would have fallen with Novgorod and been destroyed.

Allowing them to be like this was only a small difference, but…

“Toori-kun.”

Asama looked to his back as he scratched his head and viewed the two in the sign frame.

“And Horizon.”

Horizon glanced back toward her. With that as her cue, Asama continued.

“The two of you chose not to lose someone, so you resisted and now you are smiling.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Are you smiling?”

And…

“You can smile, can’t you?”

“Yes,” confirmed Asama as she, Mitotsudaira, and Kimi (who had moved up close to Asama’s side) all smiled. Horizon could not smile, but she looked at the others and spoke.

“Once I have more of my emotions, will I have my own thoughts about this? But even without all of my emotions, I still want to be with all of you. And I believe I will feel the same even with all of my emotions. After all…”

After all…

“I could not have done this if I was alone or if I only had Toori-sama with me.”

“Then,” said Asama with a smile. “Let’s continue on together, Horizon.”

“Judge,” agreed Horizon.

And as Asama looked to Horizon and Mitotsudaira, Kimi embraced her arm and whispered in her ear.

“So as soon she announces the creation of a harem, you speak up to claim your spot?”

“Wh-what are you talking about!? I am a shrine maiden! A shrine maiden!!”

“Heh heh. Then maybe I should take the assistant/supreme commander role…”

She was not listening. Horizon did not seem to have heard and was tilting her head, but based on Mitotsudaira’s reaction, she had caught on. Mitotsudaira glanced over at Horizon, looked like she was about to protest to Kimi, but then turned her back, hung her head, and sat on the bridge.

…''A-at least deny it!!

Asama had to wonder why she felt so panicked and cornered right now. She started to come up with some ways to reject or confirm this, but she stopped because she he had a bad feeling about how it would turn out.

So to reject it for the time being, she used the same reasoning she always had:

…''Right. Our roles are just too different! Our roles! A pervert and a shrine maiden don’t go together at all! So we’re not close at all. We’re miles apart.

Then Masazumi approached from behind. She looked to the barrel’s ether light as it continued to scatter into the sky and she formed a relieved smile.

“That was like a powered-up version of Asama’s already powerful blasts, wasn’t it? Who would’ve thought Aoi would take over Asama’s role.”

“''He’s'' moving closer to ''my'' role!?”

''But wait, is that really my role?'' she wondered. ''I’ve spent way more time working on divine transmissions and tuning, but I guess life is all about what makes the biggest impact.

Regardless, the situation was still underway on the sign frame in front of them.

The two people on the Jurakudai were fading as light surrounded them.

With their regrets gone, they were disappearing.

Komahime looked to the northeast.

She saw the familiar shape of the Yamagata Castle. Her mother had to be watching her. And her mother was a strict person, so she had to be celebrating what Komahime was doing.

After all, foxes left their parents when they grew up. So…

“Mother…!”

She called out. She shouted the words she had been unable to say when she tried to go away before.

“I kept my promise! You take care of the rest! I am no longer Komahime, so I will go with someone who is no longer Kojirou-sama, live happily, and never return to Mogami!”

She squeezed the hand she held. That hand barely existed anymore, but…

“Exactly right.”

He squeezed back and that strength seemed to push more words from her mouth.

“Thank you for everything! And…”

According to the Testament, the Mogami clan would gain its greatest territory after Sekigahara, but due to a subordinate’s plot, its heir would be lost and it would be purged. It would lack the number of clan members needed to continue and it would fall into decline.

Aged Yoshiaki would grow ill when that happened, but…

“Take care of yourself…!!”

Komahime thought her mother would be okay, but it was still worth wishing her well.

And she opened her throat.

She produced the voice that foxes used to say goodbye to their parents.

“Ke…”

That voice rose into the heavens.

“…n.”

Once the reverberation faded, she sensed light.

She felt her and the boy next to her floating upwards.

“We’re leaving now.”

The two of them nodded and she left.

Yoshiaki watched the light rise into the sky.

Two spiritual lives were released from their humanoid forms and, in this case, chose to ascend.

Yoshiaki narrowed her eyes as her daughter’s cry of parting echoed in her ears.

…''That brings me back.

She too had made that cry when she left on a journey. She was still single and had never been reunited with her mother or the others, but Komahime had a husband who had chosen to leave on that journey with her. So…

“Take care. …Komahime.”

''That is my one and only wish,'' she thought.

Then rain poured from the clear night sky. The Musashi’s cannon had disturbed the air at the higher altitudes and brought this sun shower from the night sky. Shakenobe cried out in joy as the water fell on him behind her.

“Yoshiaki-sama! Is this what they call a fox’s wedding, mon!?”

“Yes, it is. Heh heh. …Komahime, you are such an excellent child.” Yoshiaki’s wet bangs hid her expression. “Your mother had you without a partner, so I never knew this rain. …Seeing it now…heh heh…makes me feel like I’ve been wed too.”

She ignored the drops flowing down her cheeks, formed a smile on her lips, and hid those lips behind her fan. Then she opened a sign frame and spoke.

“Satomi Yoshiyasu. …We can call this your victory.”

“I wasn’t really trying to compete with you.”

“Then are you saying this was the natural way of things?”

“Yes. …Everything found its way to where it belonged. That’s all.”

“Testament,” said Yoshiaki. “Mogami will now support Musashi with everything we have. That is Mogami’s vote in the Hidetsugu incident.”

“Testament,” agreed the ruler of Date in Kantou’s sky.

She looked back and up to see the Seiryu’s gate had closed behind her.

“Date will also trust in Musashi and we swear to support Musashi in its fight against Hashiba.”

Masamune’s shoulders relaxed as she exhaled and she brushed up her bangs.

Below her one eye and the sword guard eyepatch over the other, she smiled. And she spoke while her comrades lined up on the deck and bowed westward to support her.

“Kojirou desired and worked to fulfil that promise, so we will set that as our vision of the future. But it we will no longer restrict ourselves to Oushuu and Sviet Rus. We will remake it as a promise to Musashi which visits all of the Far East.”

“Sviet Rus will also follow you when the time comes. And we will pay a deposit now.”

Masazumi heard Kagekatsu’s divine transmission on the academy bridge.

…''A deposit?

As she looked around, something like the ground itself rose from below.

It was a group of ships. It was the entire Sviet Rus fleet. And they were floating upside-down. The more than 100 ships were a mixture of unharmed and damaged, but they all lined their decks up alongside each other.

“Until we meet again, Musashi!”

With Marfa held in his left arm, Kagekatsu waved from the flagship’s deck.

Among those looking up at him, Masazumi saw the idiot waving back.

When she thought about it, casually waving to Uesugi Kagekatsu, the representative of Sviet Rus, should never have happened from a global perspective.

She never would have imagined this situation half a year ago.

…''This is all so crazy.

And then the deposit arrived.

A coffin-shaped Sviet Rus drop container was dropped from Kagekatsu’s side.

It fell through the air.

“Wah.”

And as soon as it hit the bridge, it opened with a solid sound. It spread out like a flower to reveal…

“Maska Orge!”

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 93|Chapter 93]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 95|Chapter 95]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 93

2016-12-31T18:55:20Z

108.35.109.47: /* Chapter 93: Forerunner in a Gathering Place */

==Chapter 93: Forerunner in a Gathering Place==
[[Image:Horizon4C_0879.jpg|thumb]]
''When did

''We get so close

''And without even noticing it?

'''Point Allocation (Looking Back)

It was Avalon.

Futayo was surprised when she continued below the entrance hall.

“What is this place?”

It was a circular space the same size as the entrance hall. The ceiling was tall and the passageway from the entrance hall was not a slope or stairway. It was a square black “gate” measuring 5 meters across. And inside…

“A grassy plain, a forest, and a stream…”

The greenery rising to ankle height and the forest giving off a leafy scent were real. The water of the stream audibly circulated and a light easily mistaken for the sun slowly revolved at the ceiling.

“What is this…?”

“It’s the main garden.”

She heard someone step on the grass behind her and turned to see a half-dragon, a mobile shell, Masazumi, and Asama step through the “gate”. And following them…

“So Horizon-sama, Mitotsudaira-sama, and Mary-sama are with us too.”

She omitted the idiot and the ninja. Masazumi tilted her head as she looked around.

“This is the same as Avalon’s system. …And what do you mean this is the ‘main garden’?”

“Well,” replied the mobile shell. “Our main garden is based on environmental construction technology cultivated since the Age of Dawn. I don’t know what this Avalon you mentioned is, but this is either the starting point of that technology or one of the places that inherited that technology from the Age of the Gods.”

“A good analysis,” said a voice.

A giant tree stood in front of the large curving southern wall and the trunk had a blackboard hanging on it.

They were indoors, but it still felt like an outdoor classroom. And someone stood there in black clothing.

“Come here. …We have no time.”

Futayo looked to Masazumi and Masazumi looked to the idiot. The idiot turned to Princess Horizon.

“U-um. …C-can we go? Is that okay?”

“What has you so scared?”

Princess Horizon called over a silver chain and had it dangle the idiot out in front.

And just as they started to walk, the ninja suddenly spoke.

“Everyone…look around you!”

Asama activated Konoha, her false left eye, just in case.

It instantly scanned her surroundings and confirmed there were no kinetic readings. As it did, it scanned the structure of the walls and placed line drawings over them. But…

“That’s…”

The walls all around them had originally had some kind of pattern.

Images had been carved into them.

They formed giant reliefs far too large to see all at once even when viewed them from the center of the garden. The circular walls were decorated with a total of 8 engravings.

Mary said what they were as her eyes widened and she eventually tilted her head.

“That’s the story of the Age of Dawn, isn’t it?”

“It is. And there are 8 of them. That’s the same as the number of images on the partition screens last night. From what I can see, the distribution and order of the images is more or less the same…”

This was a great discovery from an academic perspective. But Asama noticed something else as she followed Toori who looked up at the ceiling while carried by the silver chain.

Konoha had not stopped working. There was something it had yet to scan.

…''Eh? What?

She did not know what this was. Perhaps it was gathering some initialization information after visiting this unfamiliar place. But at the same time…

'''<Emergency: Class 1 Taboo Mysterious Phenomenon: Appearance – Underway.>

A sign frame appeared to inform her of an emergency situation and another appeared to provide support information.

They warned her of a mysterious phenomenon appearing.

Asama gasped.

Ever since Mikawa, Musashi had supplied all of its residents with divine protections to defend against mysterious phenomena. They had been installed in the residents’ hard point parts and Asama had put together all of Class Plum’s while using all of their different shrines as intermediaries. Considering the possibility of the Princess Disappearances or other mysterious phenomena that took people away, she had made sure she could forcibly purify them by cutting off the ether flow to provide temporary safety.

Light sprayed from the backs of everyone but Narumi.

One barrier’s worth of ether had been cut off in the space behind them.

Because she worked for the Asama Shrine, she first placed the strongest defenses on herself. Then the binder skirts on her left and right hips automatically switched to free mode. She pulled Katatsubaki and Kataume from the left and right, opened them, and…

“There!” declared Hanami. “Clap!!”

She could see 3 locations where mysterious phenomena were likely to appear, so she quickly checked them.

“Masazumi! Mary! …Horizon!?”

She quickly saw what appeared there.

…''Rings of light!?

Red circles of light that looked almost hand drawn appeared behind those three. They all looked back in surprise and Asama saw a red glowing line extend left and right from the center of the circle. Which formed…

“The Double Border Crest!!”

Asama immediately synchronized Kataume and Katatsubaki and then prepared to fire. Mitotsudaira looked her way.

“Tomo!?”

“I’m on it!”

She drew a purified arrow from her binder skirt and considered going for a rapid fire attack.

But at that very moment…

“…Eh?”

The Double Border Crests behind those three vanished.

Those symbols of the Princess Disappearances left as suddenly as they had appeared.

Asama stopped halfway through nocking the arrow.

…''Wh-what does that mean?

The Double Border Crests had vanished. To make sure that was accurate, Hanami looked around.

“It’s okay. Clap.”

The Mouse smiled and clapped.

The Double Border Crests were gone. But it had been a sudden disappearance. There was no indication that anything had even happened. All that remained was everyone looking concerned and Mary clinging to Tenzou.

…''Ohh, Mary-san has gotten pretty bold…

“And yet you did nothing at all to me, Toori-kun.”

“The chains! Can’t you see these chains!? I’m kind of tied up at the moment!”

As everyone ignored the struggling crossdresser, the Prince of Orange spoke from behind the large tree.

“The Princess Disappearances, hm? …I suppose you could call that a double captivity. Although you could also say it’s our responsibility.”

…''A double captivity?

Asama questioned it, but she did not understand. But since Masazumi pointed toward the large tree, she turned in that direction too.

They all hurried over there, so she followed.

Masazumi watched Mitotsudaira release the chain and lower the crossdresser to the ground.

The crossdresser stepped out ahead of the others. He stood ahead of them on the grassy field with his back to them.

“Hey, Seijun. What will we do once we see what the Genesis Project is?”

“Think about whether we should stop it or cooperate. …We still don’t know how the Logismoi Oplo are supposed to stop the Apocalypse, so this will hopefully provide a hint.”

“Neshinbara would probably love this,” said the idiot with a smile. But…

…''What was that just now?

The Double Border Crest had appeared behind her. In fact, it had appeared behind more than just her.

…''Does it just appear indiscriminately?

Mary had lost her father Henry VIII to the Princess Disappearances, so she had enough of a connection for the Double Border Crest’s appearance behind her to make sense.

The same was true of Masazumi herself.

…''So is that how it works?

There was no point in confirming that here. Especially when Horizon had no memories of her past. So she focused on following the idiot as he walked out ahead.

She heard a voice from the large tree. It was the Prince of Orange.

“This is a story from the past.”

His words rang out.

“We once tried to become friend with the Princess.”

“Eh?” said Asama and Crossunite, but the Prince of Orange continued.

“But we failed at that, so we decide to come up with another method. And…”

And…

“We received an ugly sort of salvation.”

The Prince of Orange’s words stopped there like he was taking a breath.

Masazumi gulped as she listened.

She did not know what he meant, but she understood what must have happened.

…''A sacrifice.

Just as Masazumi muttered that word in her heart, Mitotsudaira asked her a question.

“Um, Masazumi? Who exactly is the Prince of Orange?”

It was a little late for that, but it was worth going over, so she nodded.

“His name is actually William, Prince of Orange. His Urban Name is the Resisting Chancellor. There are a number of reasons given as to why he goes by his title as Prince of Orange instead of his name: to avoid assassination or to ward off name-seeking curses sent by Tres España or the Catholics, his enemies in his war for independence. But…”

But…

“Looking at his results, he is a very skilled Chancellor. So if he’s here…”

Just as she said that, she realized the crossdresser had stopped walking. And his unmoving back spoke.

“Uqui, Tenzou, take care of this.”

“Judge…!”

While the others came to a stop, Crossunite and Urquiaga rushed out. Crossunite went in low from the right and Urquiaga went in high from the left. And their paths intersected at the giant tree.

Finally, they straightened up and beckoned the others over.

…''What is it?

“I’m not sure, but let’s go. My king, I will make sure you are safe.”

After Masazumi, Horizon, and Asama watched the crossdresser being wrapped in chains again to keep him safe, they jogged over to the giant tree.

The light shining from the sky created a deep shadow below the large trees branches, but as they entered that shadow.

“What happened!? Where’s the Prince of Orange!?”

Urquiaga gestured over with his chin.

Masazumi kept jogging and looked over to see what he meant. She saw the blackboard hanging on the tree.

A Double Border Crest was drawn there.

Masazumi gasped when she saw it.

It was just like with her mother. The Double Border Crest was drawn in blood red and the Prince of Orange was nowhere to be found.

And something was written next to the crest.

As usual the Princess Disappearance came with a message left by the Princess. And it said…

“…What’s keeping Mitsuhide-kun?”

…''What does this mean?

Asama asked herself that as she watched the Double Border Crest gradually fade from the blackboard.

Next to her, she saw Tenzou gently hug Mary from behind after she ran up. ''Ohh,'' thought Asama again. ''Tenzou-kun really has gotten better.'' But that odd impression aside…

…''I need to focus on the Double Border Crest right now.

“Why was the Prince of Orange taken by the Princess Disappearances?”

No, he had given a possible reason earlier. And Horizon pointed that out.

“In other words, if you get too friendly with the Princess, you go bye-bye. That would be the reason.”

“Can you try to treat this with more weight!? Please!?”

Horizon gave her a thumbs up, but if she was right…

“Does that mean Masazumi’s mom and Mary’s dad were friendly with the Princess?”

Mary’s gaze wandered when she heard that. She could not give a definite ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and she finally looked to Tenzou as if to say “I don’t know”. Tenzou responded with a nod.

“Mary-dono, you will not be taken away. I guarantee it.”

He had no proof of that, but it did seem to help Mary calm down. “Judge,” she said with a smile.

But Masazumi was still not moving.

“Masazumi?”

She did not respond even when spoken to, but when Tsukinowa rubbed against her cheek from her shoulder…

“Eh? O-oh. Um…”

It looked like she had only just noticed Asama. Her face was pale and Asama felt apologetic.

…''Her mom was only just taken by the Princess Disappearances last year…

The memory would still be raw and she would not have had time to come to terms with it.

Asama decided she could not ask any further right now, so…

“I will take some evidence that the Prince of Orange was taken by the Princess Disappearances. He is a nation’s Chancellor, so we don’t want anyone thinking we did something to him.”

“Oh, right. Judge…”

Masazumi replied weakly, but then…

“Oh, honestly! I can’t be like this! Sorry!”

Masazumi slapped both her cheeks.

…''I can’t be zoning out!

Musashi had decided to continue toward the future, so she could not let her memories of the past overwhelm her when a mysterious phenomenon appeared in front of her. That might be fine if she was alone, but that was not the case here or now. So she slapped her cheeks again and…

“Horizon! Gather your strength and give me a punch!”

She gritted her teeth, saw Horizon raise her right fist, and quickly stopped her.

“Wait, Horizon. That’s too much strength. That would be dangerous.”

“Heh. I have determined I still have much to learn if my excessive talent is causing people to fear me.”

“Okay, Horizon! Then gather your strength and give me a- gfh.”

As the idiot ran over, he received two lazy kicks to the crotch, flew straight up, and fell back down onto his knees.

“Now, then,” said Horizon. “What shall we do, Masazumi-sama?”

“Well,” said Masazumi as she looked to the fading Double Border Crest and the writing next to it.

…''What’s keeping Mitsuhide-kun?

“Does that mean,” she said to help calm everyone down, “that the Prince of Orange is just Mitsu-hiding?”

It was too powerful and everyone froze over.

“Hey! Seijun! We’re okay! We distributed the damage over everyone here, so it didn’t do much to any one of us!!”

“Dammit. And I thought that was a pretty good one too!!”

For some reason, Mitotsudaira spread her mouth to the sides and wagged her raised finger.

“Well, um, how about we investigate the place a little?”

“Eh? Right. Asama, can you start by recording the situation in-…”

Asama and Hanami were already using a heat detection spell to draw out a human-shaped line to record where the Prince of Orange had been. ''That looks pretty professional,'' thought Masazumi while she checked her sign frame.

'''Novice:''' “The English forces are up above, so I’ll have them look over Asama-kun’s results as a non-Musashi witness. I’ve also spoken with the Provisional Council and they will be telling Holland that ‘just as we tried to hold an anti-P.A. Oda meeting with the Prince of Orange, P.A. Oda attacked and he was taken by the Princess Disappearances’.”

'''Vice President:''' “Thanks. …I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it would be best to keep nothing hidden and to get this information out there as soon as possible.”

“Asama, did he leave anything behind?”

“Oh, yes. His coat is on the ground here. Oh, also his inner suit and his under…wear?”

“…Did he strip?”

For some reason, everyone simultaneously turned toward the crossdressing nudist. Due to the damage from the kicks to his crotch, the nudist hopped back like a shrimp to escape them, but…

“Wh-what’s that look for, everyone!? Sunbathing! He was probably sunbathing! Right?”

“Don’t ask me,” replied Tenzou. “Anyway, this was probably history’s first nudist Princess Disappearance, but did he leave anything else behind, Asama-dono?”

“Yes. This pen had fallen to the ground. It was probably in his coat pocket.”

Asama had Hanami hold it up so as not to get any fingerprints on it. And…

'''Four Eyes:''' “Wait! That looks a lot like the graduation gift from the 13th Mutsugoirei Academy!!”

Shakespeare must have seen it through the sign frame, but it was Urquiaga who responded.

“Wasn’t Neshinbara’s school a new one?”

Hanami tilted her head and spun around at that. The pen she showed off was a cartridge-style ink pen and it had the number “01” engraved on the bottom. Also…

'''Novice:''' “That looks pretty old. There are traces of it being repaired. The design uses a cross with the corners removed, so it’s probably Tres Españan. But the Prince of Orange was originally a leader in Tres España, so it would make sense for him to have something like that. Then again…”

Neshinbara said more.

'''Novice:''' “We fled that academy, but there was a custom of giving out pens like that at the graduation ceremony. So it’s possible that…”

'''Vice President:''' “There was an academy like that in the past too?”

Masazumi nodded when Neshinbara answered with “most likely”.

She did not understand what any of it meant, but she felt like they had gathered a few of the pieces needed to reach the answer. Losing the Prince of Orange was a big deal, but it would also give them a chance to contact Holland in secret.

''I need to stay positive,'' she told herself while taking a breath.

She was not zoning out. She was not focused on her past. So…

“Asama…is already ready it seems. Then let’s leave the rest to Novgorod and get out of here. They’re fighting up above, but once they learn we won, that will qualify as the defense of Uozu Castle and should signal the end of the battle.”

So…

“Let’s go.”

To preserve the scene, Asama laid out thin warning shimenawa.

And she followed the others while creating the paperwork to request that Novgorod preserve and continue to investigate the scene.

In front of her and wrapped in a silver chain, Toori looked up at the ceiling.

''What is he looking at? Or is he looking up toward heaven to pretend he’s a prisoner? He never does change, does he?'' she thought.

“…Hm?”

But then Konoha drew a diagram of white glowing lines in her vision. It had been working even after the scan of her surroundings earlier and now it was doing more work she did not understand. However…

…''Could it be…?

The giant walls had been engraved with the events of the Age of Dawn, but…

“The ceiling…!”

She looked up to the giant domed ceiling and she saw something there.

A large engraving took up that entire space.

Asama saw the ceiling diagram that Konoha had scanned.

“Something that was erased…and people?”

The outside edges of the domed ceiling were carved with people looking to and extending their hands toward the center. There were enough people to circle all the way around the ceiling. Regardless of race or species, they all looked like they were celebrating what was in the center. And when Asama looked to the center…

…''There are marks showing that something was scraped away.

As she had said, there were scrapes on the ceiling showing that something had existed there, surrounded by the people.

It looked like everyone was celebrating whatever had been carved there.

“What in the world was carved in the center there?” asked Mitotsudaira.

Just as Asama started thinking about that, the ground shook beneath her feet.

“An earthquake…?”

''No,'' thought Asama as everyone exchanged a glance. If this was indeed an Avalon and the system worked as Masazumi claimed it did, then it was cut off from the outside crust. Even if Novgorod shook, it would not reach here. But they were definitely feeling a small shaking and trembling.

“Ah,” said Mitotsudaira. “Are you feeling that?”

Horizon nodded at that and placed a hand on Tenzou’s shoulder.

“Are you feeling ‘that’ again? …Please try to avoid doing so at mealtimes, Tenzou-sama.”

“I feel like I’ve been wrongly accused of something lately. I have, haven’t I?”

“Hey, hey. Calm down, Tenzou,” said Toori. “And don’t even think about using this shaking to help with that, okay?”

“So I have been wrongly accused! Whatever it is, I’ve been wrongly accused!!”

Asama ignored those weird people and checked on her surroundings. And…

“Something’s coming from above…no from outside!!”

As soon as she shouted that, the ceiling split apart. And a beam of light dropped from the split like a wall.

“Excalibur!?”

It took a blade produced from the ley lines to interfere with the space inside of an Avalon and that was exactly what split this garden in two.

Novgorod appeared to cover the heavens in the western skies of Sviet Rus, but a bluish-white ether blade pierced it from top to bottom.

Its wielder was on the roof of the city hall in northern Novgorod.

It was Katou Kiyomasa.

She had launched a massive light sword from the combined Caledfwlch. She could not see what was below there, but she felt the tactile feedback through the blade’s light. She raised her eyebrows.

“That wasn’t easy, but I pierced Novgorod’s central power system!”

Kiyomasa reached into her skirt and pulled out a reinforced reed tube measuring more than a meter. It was not an ether fuel tank. It held Orei Nero which contained a program. That program would be used on the power system below Novgorod.

“It will self-destruct with a spell! This is meant to bring down and destroy Novgorod! …Instruct everyone in this region to evacuate!”

With that, she shoved the tube into the combined Caledfwlch’s pommel and removed the upper release plug. That would normally cause the ether to leak out into the air, but…

“Finish this, Caledfwlch…!!!”

The blade’s width did not change, but the amount of light grew.

“Fire straight through!”

The sword of light was sticking out the bottom of Novgorod, but its tip pulled back inside. And a beat later, something else arrived.

It was a cannon blast. The tip of the sword burst apart and became a muzzle. Novgorod’s lower hemisphere portion swelled out in an instant and then Novgorod violently shook up and down.

A 300 meter wide area at the bottom of that lower hemisphere collapsed.

All that remained was Novgorod’s underground bedrock and a torrent of yellow ether light leaking from the central region that supported Novgorod.

That was proof that the power system that kept it afloat had been partially destroyed by Caledfwlch’s blast. The ether extracted from the ley lines overheated and burst into flames.

But Kiyomasa did not hold back. She removed the program tank from Caledfwlch’s pommel, shoved another one in, and shoved a fuel tank in over that.

“Time for another…!”

Once she yelled that, she saw someone jump up onto the southern end of the roof.

It was a pale demon woman. A hornless one.

“Honjou Shigenaga!”

Shigenaga prepared her Honjou Shield on the roof.

She had a 16-layered one in front of her.

“Firing form!”

She tried to strike from behind and hit Kiyomasa, but…

…''Nh!?

It was a noise that told her something was amiss. It had not come from below the roof. She heard it along with something like blowing wind from the nearby skylight, the windows on the outer walls, and the passageway exits.

It was a voice that sounded like a never-ending “oh”. So…

“Kh…!”

Kiyomasa was defenseless after firing, but Shigenaga saw the girl opening a ''sankt okno'' and looking her way.

The decision she made after being seen determined everything.

Instead of sending her Honjou Shield forward as an attack, Shigenaga slapped it with her open hand. The force of that impact caused the 16-layer shield to come apart and point downwards. And just as they seemed to pierce into the city hall’s roof…

“I was right!”

The roof grew scorching hot and swelled out. The area from where Kiyomasa stood in the center to the north end remained intact, but the part of the reinforced wood roof directly above the hall was struck from below.

The roof creaked in resistance for a short time, but this was too much for it to bear.

It exploded in a cannon blast from below.

Shigenaga saw the cannon blast pierce the city hall from underground.

The powerful attack seemed to combine multiple demon spells.

The Honjou Shield was not so much broken as it was melted and scattered.

And the roof did not so much collapse as erupt. The overheated roof broke apart and flew up into the air, so the city hall’s central hall was visible below the shimmering heat and wind.

Nothing remained.

The floor had burned and collapsed and the giant blade of light had pierced a large hole straight down from where Kiyomasa stood.

Shigenaga saw her Sviet Rus comrades in the northern entrance to the hall. Kagekatsu was there, Marfa was in his arms, and Saitou was there too. After a nod from Kagekatsu, they started down the passageway.

They were escaping.

Saitou gestured for her to come too, but…

…''What happened to the Musashi group!?

The large hole leading below Novgorod was currently burning away.

Even the stairway tunnel leading to it had collapsed. The half-dragon and Date Narumi’s mobile shell could fly, but were they in any state to do so? And…

“I must stop them.”

She saw two people in the open hole in front of her.

One was Kiyomasa who was piercing Novgorod with the glowing sword coming from her twin spears named Caledfwlch.

The other was a girl wielding a spear and she stood next to Kiyomasa.

“You’re Fukushima Masanori, aren’t you?”

“We must be leaving soon, but listen: Novgorod is falling and it will be utterly destroyed.”

“That’s true,” agreed Shigenaga.

The enemy was right. Novgorod was already tilting slightly and a low, deep noise was beginning to sound from the bottom.

The fall was too slow to sense yet, but that massive area was pushing down on the air and producing a rumbling noise.

“At this rate, it should take about 4 minutes before it truly begins to fall. Once it strikes the ground, all of the power system’s heat will circulate to the accumulated ether. I believe Novgorod will be destroyed in an explosion. This is the end of the fiercely fought Siege of Uozu Castle. …We will be leaving. We leave it to Sviet Rus to secure this ‘land of Novgorod’.”

“Is that so?” Shigenaga nodded. “Prepare yourself for a rematch.”

“But there are no more history recreations in which Sviet Rus battles P.A. Oda.”

“Not us. …Musashi against you.”

“Ridiculous.” Kiyomasa raised her eyebrows. “How are they supposed to escape this-…”

“You’ve fought them once or twice now and you still haven’t figured it out? Or do you not want to figure it out? Do you want to think you’ve beaten them and thus you don’t have to fight them again?”

If so…

“You could stand to learn a thing or two about persistence, resistance, and comebacks. After all, Musashi is already our comrade.”

Once Shigenaga said that, the light shattered. The light sword being fired from Kiyomasa’s Caledfwlch was suddenly broken. At the same time, the fuel tank in its pommel exploded.

“What…!?”

“Don’t look so shocked. …They’re alive and they destroyed your light sword from below. I don’t know if that was Excalibur or some other power, but I know one thing for sure: No matter what kind of battles they find themselves in from now on, they will never forget that you are their primary enemy. There is no changing that now.”

“Th-that was a close one…!”

Masazumi sighed inside the entrance hall below Novgorod. That 200 meter room had a giant hole in the center where Caledfwlch’s light sword had stabbed through it. At the largest point, that sharp hole was about 2 meters wide and 15 meters long and darkness was visible through it, but…

“It was lucky that was a ley line style of ether sword… That allowed it to interfere with the Avalon and pierce the ley line reactor below, but it failed to directly destroy the Avalon and allowed us to destroy the blade.”

On the south side of the hole, Mitotsudaira held one of the Excaliburs and she exchanged a glance with Mary and the 1st Special Duty Officer who held the other one on the opposite side.

Futayo looked up with Tonbo Spare in hand.

“That is a long way up.”

A point of light was visible far above them.

That was not the light of Novgorod’s city hall. It was the night sky beyond it. There were piles of smashed stone and stairs around the outer edge of the hall, so…

…''Fukushima must have destroyed them.

“Hey, Seijun, what are they trying to do right now?”

'''Novice:''' “Wait, Aoi-kun! Don’t forget about me! …Are you listening!? So you want to know what P.A. Oda is trying to do here in Novgorod!? Well, I can only give my best guess, but-…”

'''Hori-ko:''' “It sounds like he won’t start for a while, so should we change the channel?”

'''Smoking Girl:''' “I’m already on the transport ship back to Musashi, but are you all still wasting time inside? It’s probably going to fall and go boom in about 4 minutes.”

'''Flat Vassal:''' “If you don’t get back soon, I’ll eat all of the snacks I brought back from Mogami.”

'''Asama:''' “They’re already almost gone!? And shouldn’t you be more worried about us!?”

'''Vice President:''' “Seriously though, everyone back on the Musashi needs to think about what’s going to happen to Novgorod and how the Musashi needs to respond. …Mukai!”

'''Bell:''' “Y-yes!?”

'''Vice President:''' “I leave control and approval of the Musashi’s response with you, our Acting Captain. Aoi, Horizon, that’s fine with you, right?”

Horizon nodded and Aoi opened a sign frame.

'''Me:''' “I know you can handle it, Bell-san, so just do it like normal. I know you’ve been away from the Musashi, so enjoy yourself now that you’re back.”

'''Bell:''' “R-right. Judge. And Vice Principal…Yoshinao…?”

'''We:''' “Not to worry. We have already provided our authorization.”

'''Me:''' “We, you’re real quick with that stuff but slow with doing things for real, so try to work on that. You still haven’t finished fixing Adele’s mobile shell, right? Adele, you’ll just have to resist the urge to be a shield this time.”

'''Flat Vassal:''' “I-it’s not like I want to be a shield! It just tends to happen!”

“Isn’t that the same thing in the end?” everyone muttered, but Masazumi could only sigh since it was the usual way of things. And…

'''Shigeko:''' “I’m staring the enemy down right now, but my escape ship has arrived. Can you all get up from down there?”

'''Vice President:''' “Yes, we’re fine. We’ll be up soon.”

Narumi’s mobile shell raised its hand on Masazumi’s right.

“If I change my power settings and armor placement, I can carry three people at my ascension escape speed. …What about you, Kiyonari?”

“I suppose I can handle three as well.”

“Then,” said Mitotsudaira while returning Excalibur to Mary. She smiled and made a suggestion. “2nd Special Duty Officer, please carry Mary, the 1st Special Duty Officer, and Futayo. That will be your three. Narumi can carry Masazumi, Tomo, and me while I use the silver chains to carry my king and Hori-…”

Mitotsudaira seemed to realize her mistake as she made it.

“…”

She froze in place, so everyone else did as well.

'''Musashi:''' “Even if you transfer some of the passengers to the chains, won’t the weight remain the same? Over.”

'''Principal:''' “There have been a lot more tests like that lately. Y’know, where you have to think outside the box.”

'''Asama:''' “You’re not worried! You’re not worried about us at all!? That’s what this is, isn’t it!?”

'''Wise Sister:''' “…”

'''Novice:''' “Aoi Sister-kun, why are you glaring at me!? I didn’t do anything!”

''Isn’t you not doing anything the problem here?'' thought Masazumi, but then Narumi placed a hand on her centipede mandible.

“Weight-wise, four people would probably be my absolute limit. And even that would be pretty unstable…”

'''Mal-Ga:''' “Then leave it to us! …We’ll be right there!”

'''Vice President:''' “Naruze!? Are you free?”

“Judge,” replied Naruze and Naito’s voice followed.

'''Gold Mar:''' “Shibata’s fleet is starting to retreat to the south and Shibata’s forces are escaping Novgorod! …If you don’t get out of there soon, you’re in real trouble!”

Naito and Naruze embraced in the night sky.

Schwarz Fräulein and Weiss Fräulein were combined. Now that they were literally Zwei Fräulein, they could use their greater acceleration to rush to Novgorod’s city hall.

…''We need to hurry.

The Sviet Rus fleets in the north were also leaving Novgorod and descending. They were ensuring they would not be hit by the powerful winds and air currents created when Novgorod exploded.

The bottom of Novgorod was already surrounded in light where the power system was.

And in their great speed, Naruze asked something of her partner in this embrace.

“Margot. …Can you tell it’s started to fall?’

“Judge. According to my reduction detection, the power system’s ether is only partially escaping. With nowhere to go, I think it’ll overheat and sublimate. At this rate, the remaining fuel really will detonate when it crashes.”

As they flew through the wind, they could see the giant floating city. Several curving pillars of light burst from the bottom like flares and they began circulating within themselves.

That process would reach the internal fuel when it crashed and then Novgorod would be blown away as a giant bomb.

'''Musashi:''' “Novgorod’s internal power system is of an unknown type, but given its size, Novgorod’s own destruction will be the primary damage, but the secondary damages of scattering fragments and shockwaves will be much greater. Over.”

'''Mal-Ga:''' “So it’s like a bomb with shrapnel placed inside to make it more lethal? How far will the damage spread?”

'''Musashi:''' “The only records of such a large structure exploding are abstract ones from the Age of the Gods. But based on what data is available…its maximum radius will be about 70 kilometers. The effective range of the blast will likely reach a radius of 21 kilometers.”

'''Wise Sister:''' “Heh heh. They’re done for! They’re done for yet again! My clever brain has been thinking: whenever someone decides to destroy an entire city, they like to make sure it ruins our lives as well, don’t they!? Asama! I’m about to head to the Asama Shrine and infiltrate your room, but is there anything you want me to do before the end!? Like disposing of some sexy underwear!?”

'''Asama:''' “I don’t have any of that, so don’t bother. More importantly, there’s a stack of porn games waiting to be poison tested next to the PC on the right side of the room. Could you have them all incinerated in Toori-kun’s name? Also please delete the ‘poison testing’ folder on the PC.”

'''Me:''' “S-stop! Those are my…my…! Sob, sob. You’re so mean…”

'''Mal-Ga:''' “I’m having second thoughts about rescuing them…”

'''Gold Mar:''' “Ga-chan! Ga-chan! Lose motivation and your piloting gets pretty rough!!”

''I guess we need to hurry,'' thought Naito. As the floating island grew in their vision, they took a rising parabolic arc to arrive directly above the city hall.

But at that very moment, something shot by below them and toward Novgorod.

…''Eh?

Naito was briefly confused because she recognized the shape.

But before she could think any further, Naruze shouted the answer.

“Zwei Fräulein!?”

Gold and black wings. White and black wings.

That was what Naruze saw. The multi-wing shape looked a lot like her and Naito flying in combined form, but there was one clear difference.

…''It’s held together with gravity!

The wings and outer hull were not held on by bolts and expansion joints like they were for Naruze and Naito’s Weiss Fräulein and Schwarz Fräulein. The thrusters and wings were held on with gravity and the overall device was sharp and large.

“What is that…!?”

She did not know.

She could not see the pilots from above, but since the wings contained the emblem of Edel Brocken…

“Is that a different version of Schwarz Fräulein and Weiss Fräulein!?”

That was likely. Their versions had been proven effective, but they were still in the prototype stage. So it would make sense for there to be competing versions.

But the problem was whose side these belonged to. The rail wings and ''schale besen'' had M.H.R.R.’s emblem drawn on them several times. And there were also emblems saying SPEER-04 and SPEER-05.

That meant this was #4 and #5 of the Ten Spears.

And as the enemy Zwei Fräulein flew by below them…

“Ga-chan, they’re transforming!”

The gravity construction meant it had no frame or expansion joints, so the position of the thrusters and wings could be freely altered.

So the enemy focused most of the thrusters on the back and made use of their powerful acceleration.

“…!”

They instantly shot out ahead.

Naruze and Naito’s ascending trajectory was no excuse. The other pair had gained a powerful kick of power and they left a line of acceleration in the sky.

White mist and a line of residual ether light split the air.

The sound of the splitting air arrived a moment later, but the flying enemy was already passing over Novgorod by then.

They had completely shaken Naruze and Naito.

Shigenaga was there when it happened.

Something flew by at such low altitude that it was better described as “overhead” than “in the sky”. It was low enough that she felt the need to duck.

…''A mechanical phoenix!?

No. She had seen gold and black wings, but those were Technohexen thrusters attached to the top, bottom, and center of the ''schale besen''.

The metal wings slammed into the wind like it was a solid wall and hopped up in the air. The next thing Shigenaga knew, they were ascending straight up into the northern sky.

Fukushima and Kiyomasa were no longer in front of her. They had been snatched away by the owner of the ether light that had risen into the sky and was now circling west to disappear into the south. And in their place…

“Musashi’s Technohexen are here!!”

The pair known as Zwei Fräulein dived into the hole in the city hall’s roof without slowing down.

The wind scattered and the roof swelled out, peeled away, and flew. Within that destruction and noise, Shigenaga decided to leave instead of watching it through to the end.

She would hurry to the transport ships still waiting to the north. Or she intended to. However…

…''Will we make it!?

The northern transport ships were slow to leave port.

Because Novgorod was slowly beginning to fall, people had to board using suspended nets instead of piers. But the bigger problem was the shell fire from Shibata’s fleet. That fleet had already withdrawn, so as they fell back to the east while Cavendish’s ship fired on them from the west, they were still within range of Sviet Rus’s main fleet.

They used physical shells. A hit from such a long range was more about the density of shots than about targeting, but the occasional hit prevented the Sviet Rus fleet from leaving for the northern sky and everything was brought to a standstill.

“That main force protected everyone as they escaped, but now they’re blocking the way like a giant lid!?”

Then something else happened.

Shigenaga felt a floating sensation at her feet.

Novgorod had begun dropping all at once.

The giant island instantly fell about 100 meters.

The sky roared, the air below spread out in the shape of Novgorod, and white fog formed.

The transport ships at the northern land port lost their stability. If Novgorod had just started plummeting, that would be one thing, but it almost immediately returned to its previous falling speed, so the air bounced back.

The transport ships were shaken up and down and the people climbing aboard desperately tried to hold on.

Then light raced out from below once more.

It was a second explosion and it was far larger than the previous one. So…

“…!!”

Novgorod shook and started to fall again. This was devastating for the collapsing fleet.

A rumbling sound continued without end and the rubble exploded and cascaded down. But…

“…Eh?”

The Sviet Rus transport ships wandered a bit, but they did not fall. The boarding warriors were thrown about, but none of them fell off.

The expected blast of turbulent air never arrived.

The demons yelled “Yes!” or “We’re saved!” to express their relief, but a few voices all asked the same question.

“Why…?”

They were looking below Novgorod.

Something was supporting the crumbling bottom of the floating city.

“Why is the Jurakudai supporting Novgorod!?”

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 92|Chapter 92]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 94|Chapter 94]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 92

2016-12-31T10:04:27Z

108.35.109.47:

==Chapter 92: She who Surpasses Her Position==
[[Image:Horizon4C_0843.jpg|thumb]]
''More than a visual

''It is the vividly and clearly seen

''Destination of the future

'''Point Allocation (Plans)

Futayo saw a small light in the darkness.

She was descending into a vast emptiness below Novgorod’s city hall.

The wind seemed to blow in from below and the distant light gradually grew.

“Is that…?”

It was a great hall. The circular stone hall was 200 meters across, but the center had a slope covered in stairs, allowing one to descend further.

The hall was lit, so someone must have arrived here before her. And…

“Welcome, those of you journeying to the depths of the world.”

A man’s voice rang out. It was amplified with a spell and it reverberated so much it was a little hard to make out.

“I am the Prince of Orange, Holland’s ‘Resisting Chancellor’. That isn’t my actual name, but I will omit why that is. I am currently in the ‘classroom’ below the entrance hall.”

Now, then.

“I would like for you to reach me here. I have something to show you. What can you see in the depths of the world, in the abyss leading ever deeper? My teacher was Matsudaira Motonobu,” he said. “And this unworthy student will teach you that you can find here exactly what he said you could.”

A quiet laugh entered the city hall’s central hall.

It was from Marfa who was supported by Kagekatsu in the center of the hall.

The hall was under attack from Shibata’s forces from the central corridors on the west and south. Sviet Rus’s demon warriors had created a wall of ice with a spell and were firing with rifles and spells.

They were so focused on defending by the corridors that the center of the hall was nearly empty. As the gunfire reverberated, Marfa spoke quietly.

“This was my first time letting someone underneath here. None of the other mayors ever did either. …But Novgorod is meant to welcome ‘guests’. The previous mayor’s records say that someone would occasionally show up as a ‘guest’, hoping to view the investigation records left by the historical mayors.”

“Was that Matsudaira Motonobu?”

“Most likely,” confirmed Marfa. “The previous mayor wished to know the truth and identity of the ruins below here. Of course, he was also a disciplined member of Sviet Rus and he was the first to volunteer to become a warrior during the purge in my generation. He said it was all to protect Novgorod.”

Marfa continued.

“Yes, former mayor. We have a chance of fulfilling your hopes now. …Because you protected this place using the tool known as death, we were given enough time for some others to possibly arrive at the truth.”

“Allow me to speak of older times.”

As the Prince of Orange’s voice reverberated around them, Mitotsudaira took the lead down the large hole descending underground. Futayo and Fukushima had already gone down, so the silver wolf hurried after them.

Her king was wrapped in a silver chain behind her and they were followed by the 1st Special Duty Officer, Mary, and…

“Horizon!”

Asama and Masazumi were with them too. Sviet Rus’s primary forces had protected those 3 girls and allowed them to arrive from the north. Horizon was seated on a silver chain that supported her back like a chair, but the other 2 silver chains were broken and could not carry Asama and Masazumi.

“I’ll take care of them. …Can you trust me?”

Unturning Centipede ran after them without making a single audible footstep. Mitotsudaira nodded back at Date Narumi who had Urquiaga with her.

“Judge!”

But she was not the only one to respond. Horizon and Asama also agreed despite never having met the girl and Narumi picked up the 2 girls while nodding back.

Shortly thereafter, the stairway came to an end and they reached a landing.

The proper route was the staircase spiraling around the inside wall of the large hole, but…

…''Oh?

Mitotsudaira noticed a portion of the landing’s railing was bent and cut away. It had long since corroded and rusted, but…

'''Novice:''' “This means the ancient people also had some people as stupid as all of you. For some reason, crazy people always feel the need to climb up or jump down when they see an elevated place.”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “Wh-what’s wrong with that!? It feels nice!”

With that said, she pulled in her silver chains and held Horizon and her king as they sat on her shoulders.

“My king, when did you start crossdressing again?”

“Oh, c’mon, Nate. Being carried by a knight is a princess’s job. I’ll be a royal court girl from now on!”

“Mitotsudaira-sama, I am the real princess. Please throw out the faker.”

''What am I supposed to do about this?'' she wondered as the stairs came to an end. After glancing back at those following her…

“I will be going on ahead.”

She jumped into the abyss. She heard a voice as she felt a sense of floating in her freefall.

“It happened around 30 years ago. In a certain place, we were researching a solution to the Apocalypse.”

The voice came from down below, but she also heard…

…''Clashing metal?

“The greatest minds of every nation went into hiding and gathered together for 2 years. Lord Motonobu visited each of us individually and invited us like this: ‘Let’s form a new Testament Cross-Borders Unit.’ It was such a childish dream.”

The voice continued as sharp metallic noises rang out.

It was Futayo. She was fighting in the hall below.

“And to save the world from the Apocalypse, we came to know a certain individual.”

That was…

“We referred to that friend as…the Princess.”

Fukushima battled Futayo.

She had no time. She knew that all too well. After all, she was not stopping the Prince of Orange from saying anything unnecessary and the rest of Musashi’s group was falling from above.

If she could intercept Musashi’s group with an anti-air attack, her worries about the future would probably vanish. But Musashi Vice Chancellor Honda Futayo did not give her time for that.

…''She is very different from the other day!

Her top speed was not that different, but she no longer crumbled at low speeds.

Her acceleration spell was a cumulative purification one. So any disturbance in the acceleration direction would cause the spell to misfire and send her flying.

But that did not happen. She appeared to move frantically, she would move on unsteady legs, she would swing her arms around, she would whip her string-bound hair behind her, and it all looked disturbed despite how gentle it was.

“…!”

But she contained it all inside herself and unified it.

As her body was nearly blown away, she seemed to be holding it back, restraining it, soothing it, and containing the overflowing power within while allowing it to flow elsewhere undiminished.

…''This is…

Fukushima felt it was like the wind. It blew wildly and roughly, but it never scattered and it would continue blowing wherever it pleased even when one held their hand up to stop it.

Just when Fukushima thought the girl was going to circle behind her, Futayo would pass by her, collide with her, pass through, or approach as if entangling the two of them.

When she seemed heavy and slow enough to touch, she was fast. But when she seemed light and quick, she actually grew heavy.

This was nothing like before.

She had moved like a person before. Where had she learned to express the wind instead? Fukushima could make a guess, but…

“Testament…!”

She had to focus only on her desire to battle this opponent and on her hope to defeat her.

The battlefield was where hopes were fulfilled. So…

“Headfirst Fall…!”

Fukushima threw herself into a fall as if to circle around the wind.

Narumi was the one to increase the speed of her descent. She sent power to Unturning Centipede’s back wings and began a power dive along with Urquiaga. She was supporting Musashi’s shrine maiden and Vice President, so she had to worry about the opening created in the moment of landing.

“I will cover for you!” announced Urquiaga. “Let’s head down at full power!”

'''Asama:''' “Eh!? Ah, wait, um!!”

'''Vice President:''' “If this is enough to scare Asama, I might not be able to handle it!!”

'''Tsukinowa:''' “Maa.”

''Should we really do this?'' wondered Narumi as she flew straight down. The faster they got to the bottom, the sooner they could hold off Fukushima Masanori. So she did not hesitate to take the shortest route down. But…

“Would you look at that…”

Narumi noticed something about the battle far down below.

She did not know much about Musashi’s Vice Chancellor or Fukushima Masanori of the Ten Spears, but something stood out about their exchange of offense and defense.

'''Asama:''' “They seem to fit together really well…”

Narumi agreed. It probably helped that they had both mastered similar techniques and were both wielding spears. And they had also fought once before, so they both knew what the other could do. But…

…''It’s pretty.

Their evasions and attacks were different actions, but they fit together so well.

Musashi’s Vice Chancellor would spin and circle around her opponent with light steps.

She generally swung her spear up from below and spun it around, so if her opponent moved to her right or left, she too could place herself beyond her spear and the spear’s rotation would turn her around.

She moved in circles. Her body was disturbed and had an unsteadiness that threatened to send her flying at any moment, but she just barely bore with it and kept moving. To make the ideal movements, she moved gently but kept her entire body spinning in a certain direction to shift her body weight. And occasionally…

“—————”

She would pass through in a pure straight line.

''So this is Musashi’s Vice Chancellor,'' thought Narumi. She was still unsteady, her movements showed great room for improvement, and she would suddenly shift between fast and slow. And…

…''As for Fukushima…

She made constant changes between fast and slow. By limiting the effective range of her falling acceleration spell named Headfirst Fall, she could use it for short distances or long distances. It could be a single step at the shortest and several meters at the longest. During it all, she would spin her body around, take somewhat heavy steps, and yet always accelerate.

She continually kicked off the floor and launched herself forward in a pose that looked like she was sitting in the air. She attacked with horizontal sweeps or spinning her body to make a jab.

Their movements were different, but they fit together well.

Sudden shifts between fast and slow versus constant changes between fast and slow.

Maintaining speed versus repeatedly accelerating.

Martial arts meant to preserve speed versus martial arts meant to continue accelerating.

Vertical attacks versus spinning attacks.

All of those came together, they rotated around as if entangling their feet together, they jumped or ducked, and they moved out or circled in.

…''It’s almost like they’re sparring.

''Was I like that with Masamune?'' Narumi thought she had seen something like this back when the main garden’s cherry trees had green leaves and were still shedding their flowers. And…

“There are flowers here too…”

They were sparks. As the two combatants sped up, they came into contact in more places.

Narumi and the others would land in a few more moments. She kind of wanted them to continue a while longer, but…

…''Yes.

She figured that girls as skilled as these would settle this by the time she landed, so she poured further acceleration into the wings on her back.

A moment later, the number of scattering flowers grew below her.

The battle between Musashi’s Vice Chancellor and Fukushima had begun to fit together perfectly.

The two girls had chosen to move clockwise.

Futayo pursued while Fukushima fell back. They ran in a circle measuring 5 meters across.

And their attacks constantly clashed inside that circle.

After a few exchanges, Futayo held Tonbo Spare below her right arm and targeted Fukushima’s chest from her lower right. Fukushima responded by sweeping her spear horizontally from her right to her upper left.

Sparks flew as Tonbo Spare was swept away. And as Futayo rotated her weapon back, Fukushima placed the horizontally sweeping Ichinotani below her right arm and spun her entire body to the left.

With Ichinotani below her right arm, Fukushima pushed and spun it to the right with her right hip so that the bottom end would sweep out and strike Futayo.

Futayo responded by ducking below Tonbo Spare as it spun vertically to her right. She placed the rotating Tonbo Spare on her left and caught Ichinotani’s shaft on the center of the rotation.

Fukushima had made a wide swing of the bottom of her spear and Futayo did not fight it when she caught it on her weapon.

Her feet left the floor a little, but she slowly spun Tonbo Spare as sparks flew, and…

“—————”

She let Fukushima’s weapon push her in a circle around the girl.

After it pushed her and finally released her, Futayo twisted her body and placed Tonbo Spare on her right.

Meanwhile, Fukushima pushed the bottom of her spear with her hip and turned her body toward Futayo. Fukushima had no weapon in front of her, so Futayo swung up her spear tip to slice through the girl’s crotch from below.

Fukushima accelerated her body. But she was not trying to move away. By falling over the extremely short distance toward the spinning spear bottom, the left side of her back was pulled back and she turned her right side toward Futayo.

With Fukushima turned to the side, Tonbo Spare’s shaft shot up just in front of her body, grazing her breasts and nose, but it did not actually hit her. Instead, she moved her spear forward while still holding it under her right arm. She swung it up to strike Futayo’s now undefended body.

Just as Futayo’s rising spear tip pointed diagonally upwards, she lifted her feet from the floor.

She used the upwards swing of the spear to pull herself upwards and somewhat dangled from it in order to turn her right side forward. She kept her toes just barely on the floor throughout, but Fukushima’s spear tip raced past the front of her slightly shifted body.

And once Futayo returned Tonbo Spare to her right, they both faced each other at close range with their spears held outwards.

“…”

They clashed. They slammed their left shoulders together and spun around on that point.

They both tilted their bodies to the left and pushed at the other’s shoulder while making feints disguised as attacks and using accelerated footwork to spin in a circle once, twice, and then thrice. And…

“————”

They simultaneously pushed back the other’s shoulder and jumped back themselves before simultaneously sending the spear held under their right arm at the other.

They both turned their left side forward at the same time and grabbed at the enemy’s spear.

“…Oh!”

They forcibly spun their bodies to the left, turning their right side toward their enemy this time. They used their entire body to pull the other girl’s spear to the left, stole it, and raised it before swinging their left arm like a whip to send a high-speed horizontal sweep of their enemy’s spear from the left.

They both immediately moved forward. They approached their enemy beyond the center of their enemy’s horizontal sweep and caught the shaft on their waist.

This was not a hit.

The principle of leverage meant the blow was weaker when they moved further in than the fulcrum point. This put a greater burden on the one supplying the leverage, so their opponent’s hand was knocked from the spear shaft. Now that the two spears were free again and they had both built up their momentum, the circled past their enemy’s waist and around to their back.

They both grabbed the spear tip passing by there. And they reversed their wrist to make an attack, Futayo from the lower left and Fukushima from the upper left.

The two diagonal paths grazed past each other and the two girls caught them by moving forward. Fukushima supported hers below her right arm and Futayo supported hers on her right shoulder.

And from the shoulder and side, the spears spun around to their backs and then diagonally to the other side and shoulder.

They both grabbed the rotating bottom of the spear. And this time…

“…!!”

Futayo attacked from the lower right and Fukushima from the upper right.

They did not stop.

The two spears passed back and forth, circled around their bodies, and changed direction entirely when they moved their hands. The two girls continued a literal exchange of weapons as they spun around.

The ideal acceleration and the ideal falling brought them through a high-speed series of spear strikes while within arm’s reach of each other.

“Ohh…!!”

Their toes collided. They had nowhere else to go, but their acceleration spells did not break.

Fukushima activated Headfirst Fall to rotate herself and Futayo opened her mouth to sing.

“And.”

She used a phrase she liked. For this technique, she would determine the axis line of her feet and then shift that line slightly to continue her acceleration. She repeated the same phrase again and again, but then she suddenly changed the words.

“Waver.”

Fukushima’s expression changed when she heard the song.

“Is that…?”

Fukushima’s eyebrows rose, but…

“Is that how thou expresses thyself…!?”

The corners of her mouth rose and she looked on the verge of laughter. But there was no mockery there. She immediately clenched her back teeth, wrinkled her brow, and seemed unable to contain herself.

“What comes next…!?”

“Never ceasing.”

Futayo slowly spoke. She spun her body and rotated the bottom of her spear around from her back to her right side.

“Always.”

She sped up.

“Toward your destination.”

Futayo approached Fukushima. She did not approach from the front. She accelerated her rotation and quickly moved in from the side.

Fukushima gasped when she saw Futayo almost seeming to descend toward her from the left.

She was currently using Headfirst Fall right up to the limits of what she could control. How could the enemy produce enough speed to easily ignore that?

No, she understood the logic behind it. And she understood why the girl was able to draw out that logic.

It was the song. It was probably a song she had been given to maintain her timing when she had learned this speed technique. It acted as a trigger and allowed her to use this high speed technique.

This gave her even greater speed than before.

“Are you honing your axis of movement!?”

'''Asama:''' “Kimi, can you hear Futayo singing!?”

“I can.” Kimi smiled bitterly on the academy bridge. “It’s a bit of a problem that she can’t sing without getting worked up first, though. But I’m stealing a look at your display of Futayo’s ether output and it looks stable enough. She’ll be fine.”

“What’s the trick to this?” asked Neshinbara as he stood on the stairs. “I highly doubt her previous acceleration spell suddenly got faster. If we learn the trick to this, I think we could strengthen all of our fighters’”

“That wouldn’t work. You need skill on my or Futayo’s level and you need the earnestness of a ‘specialist’. After all…”

Kimi spun around while looking up at the exchange of cannon fire in the sky.

She used the toe of her shoe to make a perfect horizontal rotation without wobbling in the slightest.

“Do you get it now?”

“No, not at all.”

“You’re so useless.” Kimi placed both feet back on the bridge and shrugged. “Before, Futayo would kick off the ground with the bottom of her feet or her toes, but her body learned something in our training today: to move her body, she only needs to alter her axis of movement. And…”

And…

“The smaller and sharper that axis of movement, the more of the power she gives it will be used.”

“You mean it won’t just disperse?”

“No.” Kimi spun her hair around. “Life can be broken down to a single cell. And an axis of movement is just as simple. But as it grows, it grows wasteful, gains various ways of expressing itself, and loses that simplicity. So it isn’t that she’s keeping her power from dispersing. She’s returning it to its simplest form. And to do that…”

She kept a light rhythm with her feet and she repeated the same phrase again and again.

“You take a pulse-like rhythm, convert it into words, and make those your own Words. It moves gently and never stops. I would say we all know it from before we were born, but I’m not sure about that. Still, it is familiar to us all. It is a phrase from when we were little and would trip far too easily. From when we were held and rocked. If you can remember that, regaining a simple axis of movement is easy. I mean…compared to standing up for the first time in your life, this is the easiest thing in the world.”

Futayo caught up to Fukushima and asked her a question.

“Are you a coward!?”

She received no clear answer, but Fukushima’s expression did change. Her eyebrows briefly shot up and her eyes widened, but a moment later she was smiling with her eyebrows raised.

That was all the answer Futayo needed, so she moved forward and briefly leaned back.

“Perfect!!”

She hit Fukushima with a headbutt.

Their hair shook and their bodies shook. And they sent out the spear bottoms they had held at their hips. But while Fukushima targeted the center of Futayo’s body, Futayo set her sights on something else: the bottom of Ichinotani thrusting toward her.

The two spears collided, sparks flew, and both girls’ bodies shook further. But…

“And.”

Futayo stepped forward as if twisting her toes on the floor.

“Never ceasing.”

She used her toes to suppress the shaking of her body.

“Always.”

She made quick adjustments from her toes to her ankles, knees, thighs, hips, gut, back, shoulders, and arms.

“Toward your destination.”

Her rotating spear tip struck Fukushima. It was a direct hit, but it hit the shaft of Ichinotani that Fukushima had lifted back up as if embracing it. However, Fukushima had already lost her balance, so she failed to control her Headfirst Fall acceleration spell.

“Kh…!”

A noise rang out. It was the sound of Headfirst Fall’s spell circle shattering.

The light burst and her entire body flew.

She was thrown through the air by her out-of-control acceleration.

Fukushima controlled herself in midair.

She used her martial arts and physical strength to pull back her twisting and spinning body and she aimed her feet toward the floor.

“Kh.”

She ended up landing on her knees.

She slid backwards across the stone floor and her hair followed her as it was pulled in toward her. Beyond it, she saw her enemy gently rotating her body. She was 50 meters away. New enemies had finished descending and landed behind her. And…

…''The entrance leading further down is behind me!

Fukushima knew it all came down to this, so she pulled her arms back.

She opened Ichinotani’s tip and held it at the ready.

Ichinotani had two different abilities.

The first was to absorb an approaching attack inside the opened tip to neutralize it.

And the second was to…

…''Fire the absorbed power from the opened tip!

So she raised her voice in her intent to settle this here.

“Fall…Ichinotani!”

After descending under Narumi’s power and yet landing softly, Asama looked forward.

It happened in just an instant.

Futayo was standing near their landing point, but then she disappeared.

…''Eh?

Asama looked further forward.

Futayo was there. She had leaped 50 meters in an instant. She charged in before Fukushima’s spear could finish opening its firing system.

“Ah.”

And in no time, a metallic crash shook the air.

Fukushima flew through the entrance behind her and slammed into the wall beyond.

The tip of Futayo’s Tonbo Spare had stabbed into the opened tip of Fukushima’s spear and prevented it from firing.

But Asama recognized the way Futayo had moved.

…''That was…

Futayo had used it after falling from the scaffolding and into empty air at the end of her training with Kimi. After falling, she had just barely managed to plant her feet on the vertical scaffolding but could not stop her fall. She had then subconsciously done this.

She had focused her body’s axis of movement on just her toe tip and thrown all of her acceleration into that.

“That must be how the Hassou Tobi works…”

But in Futayo’s case, her acceleration was much sharper. Her course was nearly a straight line and her speed was high. She had shot forward too quickly for her enemy’s projectile.

“It really is like soaring wings.”

Unable to rid herself of her momentum, Futayo spun around and landed. And the instant she stood back up, Fukushima raised her voice from where she had collided with the opposite wall.

“Oh…!”

As if peeling herself from the wall, she landed and tried to attack Futayo.

Her spear was already opened, so this spear jab would include cannon fire.

But Asama saw that Futayo was already moving.

She held Tonbo Spare vertically. And that meant…

…''Is she using it!?

Asama’s question was answered by Futayo’s voice. It was far clearer and calmer than expected.

“Bind…Tonbo Spare!”

Futayo did not hesitate.

She knew all too well that Tonbo Spare had yet to activate even once.

She had only just made a great leap with Soaring Wings and she could not correct her posture in time to use it again.

So as she landed, she reflected her enemy in Tonbo Spare’s blade and raised the spear. Tonbo Spare’s internal processing speed was slower than Soaring Wings’s acceleration, but she had decided that would not matter if she prepared it in advance.

…''Will this work?

Her hands did not feel it activating.

Perhaps because she was so focused, time seemed to pass excruciatingly slowly.

If it did not activate, she would lose. So her heart felt a temptation to jump away with Soaring Wings. But…

“—————”

She chose not to trust her hesitation.

Instead, she chose to stop holding any doubts in Tonbo Spare. Because she was absolutely certain that Tonbo Spare would not “activate”.

It was not something that “activated”.

Tonbokiri had not been either.

The divine weapon left with the Honda family possessed great power, so it decided for itself who was a worthy master.

''So,'' she thought.

…''The will of this weapon of war would never choose a master who doubts it.

So she told herself that this was not a Tonbo Spare she held.

It was power.

That power had been left in her care. It was the same as her arms and legs.

She knew what she had to do to produce the results she wanted.

Words were needed to activate it, but what came next was not done by Tonbokiri or Tonbo Spare. She herself had to draw out the power left in her care.

That power would move once it was released.

''Move, Tonbo Spare. Move, my power.'' It was like reaching out a hand or moving a leg forward.

She had a single goal. Her father had left that goal with her as a member of the Honda family.

“I must simply win!”

A moment later, a dragonfly-shaped sign frame appeared around Tonbo Spare’s spear tip.

It had already locked onto the person reflected in the blade.

“Understood,” it said.

The locking sign frame shattered. And…

“…!”

Fukushima reflexively raised her spear for defense, but it was too late.

The spear’s shaft was split diagonally and the weakened power struck her.

The cutting power was even weaker than Tonbo Spare and shattered easily for a blade, but the diagonal strike hit Fukushima and once more slammed her against the wall behind her.

The power hit a 30 meter section of the wall and Fukushima was caught in the aftermath.

“You have my thanks!”

Futayo bowed and turned her back as the wall collapsed.

A quick thought occurred to Futayo.

It came to her through the activation of Tonbo Spare.

…''I…

If she would flinch in the face of a name inheritor’s resolve, she only had to give herself that same task. She knew someone who had taken up a far higher position and became a more formidable foe than any other name inheritor: Honda Tadakatsu.

If she set that name as her goal…

…''What would my father have thought?

When she faced forward, she saw everyone there: Masazumi, the princess, and the idiot too, but the idiot raised his hand.

“Hey, looks like you’ve finally got your groove back. That’s a real help.”

“Judge. I was a bit of a burden, wasn’t I? I look forward to being more useful in the future.”

She had recovered enough to say that, but the idiot smiled bitterly. He gave a thumbs up while standing next to the princess.

“We were right to take you in at Mikawa. I heard from Seijun that you’d have gone to Aki otherwise.”

“Judge. That was my intention as commander of the guard unit.”

Saying that reminded Futayo of something.

What had her father said at Mikawa?

…''He told me to do whatever I wanted once I arrived in Aki.

She could not arrive in Aki now. Itsukushima had fallen. But she had arrived at Musashi.

“…”

In her heart, she bowed to her father and Kazuno and gave herself a command.

…''Do whatever you wish.

And so she spoke.

“From now on…I think I will work toward inheriting the name of Honda Tadakatsu.”

Masazumi heard the idiot say, “I see.”

''I see,'' she thought herself as Futayo moved alongside Horizon.

Inheriting the name of Honda Tadakatsu would probably take a lot of effort, but she was probably prepared for that. If that meant Futayo was looking to the future, that was enough for Masazumi.

Her classmate had found a plan for the future. Sensing expectation, joy, and loneliness in the girl, Masazumi recalled Futayo’s attack and asked about it.

“Was that a cutting power?”

“No, instead of cutting, it more broke it with an impact… You could call it a splitting power.”

“So it’s missing the last part?” asked Mary with a smile. “Just like ‘Tonbokiri’ becomes ‘Tonbo’ Spare, you removed the end of ‘cutting’ or ‘katsudan’ to get ‘splitting’ or ‘katsuda’. And that Far Eastern wordplay might also work as a good luck charm, since ‘katsu da’ means ‘it is victory’.”

“That’s right.” Masazumi nodded and opened her mouth. “And if it’s a splitting power-…”

For some reason the others stopped her.

“Calm down, Masazumi. There are no enemies around right now!”

“That’s right, Masazumi-dono! You should save that until we’re surrounded!”

“But I have determined she might need to periodically make small puns to let off the pressure. Otherwise the pressure might build up until a devastating one is released without warning.”

“Stop making things up about me!”

Asama looked the other way and started viewing some kind of frequency graph with Hanami, but Masazumi decided to ignore that. At any rate, that was when a voice reached her ears. It was the Prince of Orange’s low voice.

“Now, come to me. …Everything is here.”

“The battle underground is complete. The only question now is what the Musashi group will see down there.”

Shibata’s forces continued their assault on the main hall and Sviet Rus’s warriors held them off with barricades and counterattacks. As Kagekatsu supported Marfa, she asked him a question.

“How about we settle things between us now, Kagekatsu?”

“What do you plan to do, Marfa?”

Despite saying that, he stopped supporting her. That likely meant he was prepared to do this, so she announced his crimes.

“Not only did you have me inherit the name of Kagetora…but at the time you needed the Testament Union’s help to fight back against P.A. Oda, so you were forced to faithfully carry out the history recreation. That is why you simultaneously recreated the purge of Novgorod and the purge of the Kagetora faction that lost the Siege of Otate fought over who would succeed the Uesugi clan. Do you have any idea how many precious subordinates and friends I lost?”

“Your subordinates and friends were my subordinates and friends as well.”

“Then,” said Marfa. “Do you have any idea how much wrath there is in my heart?”

“…I do.”

“Then,” repeated Marfa.

And she pulled a weapon from her back.

“This is Maska Orge. …Do you know what that means?”

“Testament,” confirmed Kagekatsu. He placed his staff in front of him and both hands on top of that.

There was no hint of resistance in his action, so Marfa raised Maska Orge and aimed it at him.

Saitou looked back while commanding the interception unit. His eyebrows rose.

“Kagekatsu! You must not do this!”

“It is fine. There is nothing to fear. After all…”

He looked Marfa right in the eye.

“Marfa… You will not shoot.”

“Nonsense. …None of your conceited words can change the way I feel at this point.”

“But you will not shoot, Marfa. That is certain. To shoot would be an insult to your subordinates and friends…to my subordinates and friends who laid down their lives for you when you accepted my orders and resolved yourself,” explained Kagekatsu. “You would not want to find peace alone, would you? So let me say one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Do not shoot me, Marfa. Do not think about shooting me…and thus bringing peace only to me, Marfa.”

So…

“You will not shoot. Marfa…I will always remain with my subordinates and friends…with your subordinates and friends. And…”

And…

“I am with you. That is our promise, Marfa.”

“When did we ever promise that? I don’t remember anything of the sort.”

“I am making it right now,” said Kagekatsu. “Promises are not just made in the past and fulfilled in the present.”

Kagekatsu thought.

He thought about the idiot who he had only met a few hours before but had ignored everything to walk right up to him.

He knew that idiot had always regretted a past mistake and had decided to move forward so as to never feel that kind of regret again.

But that idiot had shown Kagekatsu something else now.

He had moved forward, not to rid himself of regret, but to leave regret in the past while gaining a world where he and everyone else could be happy.

If Musashi’s Chancellor had been trying to wipe his past clean, Kagekatsu would not have been moved. But that boy had the same thing as Kagekatsu, he had held it with him as regret, and still…

…''He said he would go apologize with me.

He was not wiping that regret clean.

If the regret was lost, nothing would remain.

Instead, he would leave the regret as is while obtaining happiness.

That was worth working toward. He could look to the future while still holding that regret inside. And…

…''If the happiness you wish for is true happiness, everyone will follow you!

He had to walk forward based on happiness, not regret.

Musashi’s Chancellor had shown him it was okay to do that.

The boy may have forgotten all about that because he had continued underground with his friends, but that was fine. Kagekatsu was king of Sviet Rus.

It had been more than enough just to teach him that he could start forward on his own.

That was an important starting point for him. And he had definitely seen that in the boy. Instead of wallowing in past regrets, he could move forward to avoid future regret and to obtain further happiness.

So he spoke to Marfa.

“We will be bound together until our promise is fulfilled in the future. So…”

He looked her in the eye.

“So, Marfa, will you grow accustomed to regret and grab the reins of happiness with me?”

Marfa gasped.

But silence could be taken as agreement, so she forced out a breath.

“I will shoot.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m stubborn, Kagekatsu.”

The corners of her mouth rose and she fired Maska Orge.

But she did not fire it at Kagekatsu. She reversed her wrist and aimed at herself.

“Honestly. …Most of my anger has always been directed at my unlovable self.”

She fired.

Maska Orge materialized one’s anger for the target as damage.

…''I really am stubborn.

She was not so pathetic that she would take issue with that purge from the past. She had been one of the leaders then too. If she had anything to say now, it was that she should have resisted it more herself. But she had not, she had chosen to go with the flow, and she had led her subordinates and friends to lay down their lives out of concern for her. She had only her own softness to blame for that.

She understood that the anger she expressed was only the reverse side of what she felt for herself. So…

“I wonder how effective this will be.”

With that thought, she began to close her eyes, but she suddenly stopped.

An external power moved the hand holding Maska Orge.

…''It can’t be.

Kagekatsu stood before her after throwing aside his staff.

His right hand had grabbed her right hand which held Maska Orge. And…

“Kagekatsu…!”

He had aimed Maska Orge at himself.

It had fired toward him.

Kagekatsu thought to himself after turning Maska Orge’s blast toward himself.

…''I-I’m scared! This is way too scary!

Part of it had to do with the fact that she had actually fired, but he was also surprised by his own actions.

Marfa had to know he was sweating bullets in his heart. They knew each other long enough for that. But even if she knew how he was feeling, he knew exactly what he had to say.

“Marfa.”

He moved forward. He nodded and took a step toward her with Maska Orge on his right.

“That did not even hurt.”

He held her in his arms.

…''I’m not scared! I’m not scared at all!

He could tell his movements were stiff from nerves, but demon skin was nice and hard. His movements would look normal to the others. Or the others were at least kind enough to overlook it if they did not.

But he also felt someone shrinking down and struggling in his arms.

Marfa was not used to this either. And so she spoke.

“You fool… Why would you have me shoot you before myself? …You’ve had enough interactions with England, so surely you’re familiar with their culture of ‘ladies first’.”

He was. During wartime, English Queen Elizabeth liked to fire Ex. Caliburn before anyone else did anything. That had to be what it meant.

…''Such a violent culture.

He would prefer to keep things more peaceful. So…

“I am familiar with it. And that is why I have this to say.” He embraced the woman in his arms. “I will give you a happy future. And that will bring me happiness. That will mean you are always happy slightly before I am, Marfa Boretskaya. In that way, I will allow you to get ahead of me as a traitorous Vedma.”

He heard a breath that might have been a laugh, but she did not struggle.

So he wanted to stay like this for a while longer and he wondered if his friend had found the path ahead while underground.

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 91|Chapter 91]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 93|Chapter 93]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 91

2016-12-31T02:16:38Z

108.35.109.47: /* Chapter 91: Dreamers at the Gathering Place */

==Chapter 91: Dreamers at the Gathering Place==
[[Image:Horizon4C_0823.jpg|thumb]]
''Why did

''We choose to

''Gather there?

'''Point Allocation (Promise)

The white light of a flare rose from the northern end of Novgorod’s city.

It belonged to P.A. Oda. That meant they had arrived at the city hall.

One of those who saw it was partway up the hill east of Novgorod.

“Damn, I really need to hurry, but these things are not easy to toss over the edge!”

Naomasa stood on Jizuri Suzaku’s shoulder and she had her hands full commanding and controlling the god of war.

She was currently dealing with what seemed to be the support gods of war for the weird one named Mori that had not been much of a challenge at all. The seven of them were having trouble moving properly and tended to wiggle around as they approached her.

Their movements made it clear they were outside of their master’s control. They would suddenly bend backwards, shake around, and…

…''Just move weirdly in general.

However, the bombardment from Date’s gods of war did not do enough damage to blow them away. Their bodies were made from bundles of artificial muscles, so they could avoid or absorb the damage and then heal themselves with their repair functionality.

They were annoying her, so when Naomasa approached them, she would throw them and slam them into the ground.

“Um, Mori? I’d really like it if you stopped leaning backwards, shouting ‘ahn’ or ‘nhee’, and twitching like that. It’s distracting me from my calculations.”

Behind a barricade inside Novgorod’s south gate, Fuwa was calculating out their losses in the battle, but Mori quickly shook his head when she made that request.

“Wh-why are you imagining lewd thing when you see me, Fuwa!?”

“You’re not lewd; you’re obscene. Could you at least not moan?”

“Y-you expect me to get by with only my cutaneous respiration!? Besides, I have to receive all the pain from my separated units to reward their efforts even if I can’t control- ahhhhhhhn! Ah, no, no, Naomasa!”

“Maybe I should get some of the engineers to bury you.”

“Oh, no need. That’s going to happen soon regardless.”

Naomasa slammed one of Mori’s support gods of war into the ground like a pile driver.

She really wanted to throw it over the edge, but the other gods of war were too close. It would be a pain if they tackled her while she threw the first one.

So she accelerated Jizuri Suzaku’s wrists and buried the enemy god of war in the ground from head to waist.

…''This is a lot of trouble.

The most effective method was to throw them off of Novgorod. These gods of war could not fly, so they could not get back up if they fell over the edge. She had gotten 9 of them over the edge so far, but she was having an annoying amount of trouble grabbing them now. But…

…''If that’s the only way, then that’s just what I’ve gotta do!

With that thought, Naomasa prepared to fight. But then a ship from Sakuma’s fleet, which had descended to rescue the fallen ships, ascended and carelessly dropped down all of Mori’s support gods of war that it had collected below.

“Well, screw you too!!”

As Naomasa yelled up at the ship, the dropped gods of war and the ones still on Novgorod moved in unison. The dropped ones leaped forward as soon as they stood back up and the others rushed forward to tackle her.

Naomasa frowned as they all attacked at once.

With all of them together, they must have put together some kind of shared mind because they charged forward with much clearer intent and movements.

The Date gods of war fired and blew away two of them, but Naomasa noticed something.

The one she had slammed into the ground earlier was missing. She assumed it had crawled out, but…

…''Next to me!?

The ground blasted into the air and it appeared. She did not know what this meant, but it wriggled around as it dug head-first through the ground like a worm.

She did not know what this meant. This was clearly not something a human would do and it was meaningless, but it was so unexpected that Naomasa was slow to react. When the god of war appeared next to her, it was just barely within reach of Suzaku’s arm and that only caused her to hesitate further.

And that allowed the enemy in close to her. Not the one next to her, but the four that jumped in through the air.

''Oh, no,'' she thought. Except…

“…Huh?”

The Suzaku’s right hand covered her on its right shoulder.

She had not ordered this. And she had set its autonomous control parameters so it would not care what happened to her. But it had clearly moved on its own here.

…''What is this?

The Suzaku was developing a will of its own. It had most likely started during the battle with the Byakko and the influence of the Seiryu had further activated the Suzaku’s OS.

So Naomasa had to wonder: ''Is the Suzaku’s will my sleeping sister’s will?

“I don’t know, but things are bad right now either way!”

She thought about how to handle this. Her conclusion was to use both hands to defeat two of the gods of war arriving from above. That left her unable to do anything about the other two or the one next to her. Which meant…

…''I’ll have to figure that out once it comes to it!

Just as she started to move, something slammed into the four in the air.

They had been shot from the north.

'''Smoking Girl:''' “Asama-chi! Four shots in a row!? What’s got you so excited!?”

'''Asama:''' “Huhhh!? Didn’t I just save you there!? Why are you finding fault!?”

But that was not all. A voice filled the sky as those four were blown away.

“Your target is on the ground, Musashi 6th Special Duty Officer.”

With that, a giant windless form passed by from the sky behind her.

Immediately, the four sent tumbling through the air were sliced through.

Whoever had passed by had swung a sword to bisect them.

They had been sliced through from bottom to top when not even Date’s gods of war could do any real damage.

“Satomi Student Council President!?”

Yoshiyasu landed silently on the night field and had Righteousness walk forward.

Ahead, enemy gods of war were approaching and prepared to tackle.

She had sliced through the four in the air earlier, but…

'''Novice:''' “Satomi Student Council President! Those gods of war are highly resilient and truly formidable foes, but you just chopped them apart like it was nothing, didn’t you!? What’s the trick!?”

'''Wise Sister:''' “Heh heh heh. This must be all about compatibility! Yes, compatibility! We’ve found an enemy that is weak to flat girls! So that was the Flat Chest Slash!”

''What kind of skill is that?'' wondered Yoshiyasu as she had Righteousness prepare for a one-handed strike.

'''Righteousness:''' “I could tell when my sword hit one of them up in the sky earlier. These gods of war are most likely designed to resemble a creature from the Houjou Association of Indian States, or something similar.”

'''Wise Sister:''' “Oh, a snake god, right? The Far East has a lot of snake worship in the east too.”

'''Asama:''' “Huh? You mean it’s not the demon of worldly desire, Ma-…”

'''Wise Sister:''' “Ra, ra, ra, ra! You were going to say ‘ra’, weren’t you!?<ref>Mara is a Buddhist demon which is also used as a slang term for the penis in Japanese.</ref> Weren’t you!? Onbashiraaaaa! Or to put it a little more mildly, the 10th sign of the Eastern zodiac! And don’t call it a rooster…!”

'''Asama:''' “Eh? No, I wasn’t saying that. I wasn’t saying that at all. I was only saying ‘maa’ to sound like Tsukinowa! Right, Hanami!? Over here! Look over here, Hanami!”

''I know what they’re trying to say, but is dodging only after taking a direct hit their traditional form of performance art or something?

But…

'''Flat Vassal:''' “What do you mean the Satomi President knows exactly how to handle the 10th sign of the Eastern zodiac?”

'''Righteousness:''' “Please don’t put it like that. …And I can cut through them because Houjou would sometimes send in things like that to harass us, so I’m used to it. They were small enough that foot soldiers could deal with them, but they all loved giant breasts, so they always went after my sister and left me alone. That let me practice slicing through them all I wanted.”

Saying that made her sad, but she chose to believe that was due to remembering her sister. ''Oh, but now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure they attacked Yoshiyori too. I wonder why.

There was a trick to cutting them. After the blade touched them, you had to push instead of pulling back to slice. That would allow the blade to dig into the thick skin and the blade could directly touch them while ignoring the slime or whatever. Just keep pushing from there and they were cut.

She proved it with her actions.

After bisecting two more, she slammed into them with all of Righteousness’s strength to blow them away. And she spoke while watching the result.

“The Mogami group has returned. You just need me to secure this area, right?”

Behind her, Fukushima heard the metallic sounds and spraying water as Kiyomasa began her defense outside.

Fukushima was currently traveling down a white corridor. It was the central corridor of Novgorod’s white stone city hall.

The non-glowing ''lernen figur'' she opened in front of her face showed her it led to the main hall and to the passageway leading underground.

The world’s very first academy was said to exist below Novgorod.

She had heard that Holland Chancellor Prince of Orange had gone there. He had bizarrely gone alone with no bodyguards whatsoever, but there was a dangerous rumor surrounding his actions.

He supposedly wanted to meet with Musashi and to tell them the secrets of P.A. Oda’s Genesis Project.

And Fukushima had been sent here concerning that. Taking out the Prince of Orange was only natural for someone belonging to M.H.R.R., but things were different when the Genesis Project was on the line.

She had been instructed to punish the Prince of Orange and to destroy Novgorod’s underground structure.

She knew about the Genesis Project. Almost all of P.A. Oda’s leadership and commanders did.

As did all of the Ten Spears. They all knew. And…

“It must be carried out without compromise, so I must eliminate any possible obstacle!”

So she would strike at anyone who announced their intent to interfere. And she would destroy the location that allowed that negotiation to take place.

It was simple.

But someone else was trying to interfere with that simplicity.

“Do thou intend to get in my way, former Sviet Rus Vice Chancellor Marfa Boretskaya-sama!?”

“To be honest, I don’t. I only want to face Kagekatsu.”

The voice came from the center of the circular hall. The dark figure wielded a sword.

She spread her arms to protect the large door in the wall behind her and her mouth split left and right in a smile.

“Ha ha. But it wouldn’t be fair if I only let you through. …Every last mayor of Novgorod has searched through these depths and vaguely realized the truth. I’m only the most recent one to do so. But…”

But…

“Those past mayors’ guesses were most likely correct! …What happened surrounding the Anti-Decline Pro-Tuning Project during the Age of Dawn? It was probably ‘happiness’. It was probably ‘salvation’. It was probably ‘hypocrisy’. No…”

“What do thou mean, no!?”

Fukushima shouted back as she charged into the hall and Marfa answered her.

“It was all an undeniable ‘deadly sin’!!”

A moment later, Fukushima saw something.

In the darkness, the starlight entered through a skylight and the flames and other outdoor lights shined in.

“It’s time you felt the restriction of Sviet Rus’s former Vice Chancellor, the Vedma.”

A tiger appeared in the entire space behind Marfa.

As Fukushima ran head on, it looked like wings.

But it was not.

“…Arms!?”

“As the main line of the demon race, I have inherited the ability to summon the arms of my family’s bodyguards. I have the arms and techniques of those who wished to protect us even in death.”

There were more than 1000 of them. And they were all one of two colors.

“Those that wished to be preserved after death turned yellow from the change to their bodily fluids. Those that wished to be modified turned black as their blood congealed. When they are lined up in this pattern, my ancestors called it the Tiger Wings, but I prefer another name: Kagetora, the Shadow Tiger.”

In the darkness, the demon arms all held weapons or were unarmed.

“Pierce her.”

Four digits’ worth of slashes and blows collided with Fukushima as a tiger’s roar.

Marfa watched the tiger attack she had sent out.

The floor was shattered, the walls were torn apart, and beyond the 1000+ arms that she slowly pulled back…

“Oh?”

Fukushima was still standing. Her hair swayed behind her and her clothes had been torn, armor and all, but…

“Can you use your acceleration technique to pull off the ideal movement?”

“I am still unexperienced, so it is only a crude attempt.”

''I see,'' thought Marfa. Experts would control their own speed in battle to make the ideal movements, but there was more than one way to do so. Some used martial arts and others made miniscule movements linked to their sense of sight or hearing.

To put it another way, no special technique was needed. If someone focused on their own movements and truly mastered them, they would eventually reach that level. But…

“You must have had quite an excellent teacher. It is rare indeed for a human at your age to pull off even a crude first step toward the ideal.”

“…My teacher is no longer with me.”

“Is that so?”

It was unclear if that was due to death or a simple parting of ways, but Marfa had no intention of asking for clarification. Instead…

“Were you loved?”

“Enough to be fine as long as I have my comrades.”

“Testament,” replied Marfa to wish peace on that soul. Then bluish-white flames left the corner of her mouth. For an undead demon, bringing peace to a soul would burn their own body. ''When you’re too powerful, just a slight word qualifies as purification, so it can be a problem at times,'' thought Marfa with a small smile. And…

“Then I’ll go with this.”

Marfa activated attack spells with all 1000+ arms of Kagetora.

She used wide-range, straight-line, projectile, and permeating spells all at once to leave no ideal move to take.

“This unavoidable attack is known as Kagetora Roar. …Ohh, and now I’m laughing at the name I gave it as a joke.”

It scored a direct hit.

Marfa saw it happen.

Immense power was slammed into a single enemy in the form of flapping wings. It was extremely large even for the Kagetora technique.

But Fukushima moved at the center of it all. She simply held her weapon’s flat spear tip forward, and…

“Fall, Ichinotani!”

With those words, the spear tip opened. It almost looked like a T-shaped rake or a dragonfly, but…

…''The power is vanishing?

The spell disappeared as it collided with Fukushima’s opened spear tip. But it was not erased. The heat, the cold, the gravity, the light, and everything else were…

“Stored!?”

“Testament. This is the power of the defensive divine weapon named Ichinotani!”

The power was devoured and torn apart. Beyond it, Fukushima was nearly blown away by the portion of the power that escaped to the sides or above.

But she narrowed her eyes and spoke two words:

“Headfirst Fall!!”

Kagetora grew beyond a simple impact and peaked as something more like an explosion, but Fukushima accelerated toward Marfa. This was more than just taking one step at a time. That girl could make the ideal movements, so she made definite progress that built up a smooth momentum in a straight line.

“…Fall!!”

She fell forward.

So Marfa also moved. She had Kagetora flap and gather together.

“I see…!”
The corners of her mouth rose in a smile. She raised her blade on the right to intercept the girl.

“It’s just as the Prince of Orange said! So this is one of the new era’s commanders! I can see why Toby is so fixated on you!!”

Immediately, all of Kagetora’s power exploded and the two blades clashed.

Fukushima realized in an instant that the world had fallen from light to darkness.

Kagetora’s explosion had ended and darkness had returned to the city hall.

She stood on the right side of the wall behind Marfa. She was crouched down on the wall’s surface storing up her strength for a leap.

The main hall was filled with heat and dense wind.

And Marfa turned back toward her.

There was a black line running from the center of her chest to her left collarbone. It had been torn, not cut. That was the mark from Ichinotani’s closed tip piercing her diagonally.

A normal human would have released a spray of blood and died from shock after their blood pressure plummeted.

But Marfa was different. She was not bleeding; she merely looked down at the black wound, and…

“The weak point of the dead is their ‘soul corpse’. It exists at the center of the body, so strike here, in the center of my chest. Destroy this and my soul’s mold will disappear.”

Of course…

“The dead wont’ let you do that so easily.”

Fukushima nodded and dropped down with Headfirst Fall. She was targeting the point Marfa indicated.

Fukushima thought that anyone who was obedient to battle would respond to an enemy’s request to target them. Especially when their life was hanging in the balance.

After all…

…''The battlefield is where hopes are fulfilled.

When the battle ended, the victor’s hope would of course be fulfilled. So Fukushima wanted the battlefield to be a pure place. She wanted it to be a place that held nothing more than everyone’s hopes.

The air here had been scorched and frozen and the area was filled with ether wind, but it was being washed clean by a great power.

“Toh.”

By the time her feet landed, she was half a step closer.

She wanted to take two more steps and move to the best of her ability in order to fulfill hers and her opponent’s hopes, but her speed rejected that. The moment was pure, so her speed told her to hurry up and end it.

And so she took another step and directed an attack toward Marfa that slipped past even the wind resistance.

But at that very moment.

“Sorry.”

A voice reached her from the side and her pure attack was deflected with a metallic clang.

Marfa looked to the person standing in front of her.

It was a higher demon man wearing a black-dyed Sviet Rus uniform.

He had intervened in Fukushima’s speed and deflected her spear tip with his staff. He was…

“Kagekatsu…!”

“Sorry.”

He repeated that word, but his apology was not directed at Marfa.

He was speaking to Fukushima who had tried to attack her.

“Leave this place to me, human.”

Fukushima hesitated.

Interfering in someone’s battle was rude, but she could not let her emotions get the better of her. However…

…''Is this Sviet Rus Chancellor and Student Council President Uesugi Kagekatsu-sama!?

Her heart longed to battle him. Sviet Rus was P.A. Oda’s enemy at the moment. It would be perfectly possible to battle him and this might be her only chance to do so. But…

“Do thou desire this place?”

“Testament. …I made an appointment earlier. I arrived a little late, though.”

That meant she was the one intruding. This was where Kagekatsu and Marfa were meant to face each other. To keep that battlefield pure, she had to leave.

…''Then I will leave this place to Kagekatsu-sama.

But just as she thought that, someone carrying a spear passed by from the left.

It was Musashi Vice Chancellor Honda Futayo. She briefly glanced Fukushima’s way with an “oh?”, but then kept running.

“Do these stairs lead to the underground ruins of the Whatever-It-Was-Called Academy?”

“Testament,” confirmed Marfa. “So you’re the first to arrive.”

Hearing that, the Musashi Vice Chancellor tilted her head but then smiled.

“I’m the first to arrive!?”

Fukushima watched as the girl raised her spear and ran to the back of the hall.

“…Ah.”

And she frantically ran after the girl.

At the same time, a group of noise and people ran into the hall.

Fukushima did not even bother looking back. It was the Musashi group.

She pursued the Musashi Vice Chancellor and descended into the emptiness belowground.

Just as she did, she heard a voice. At the head of the group, the Musashi Chancellor spoke up the instant he set foot in the hall.

“Ohh! Kagekatsu! You’re looking pretty cool there!”

Kagekatsu grew bashful when he heard the Musashi Chancellor.

…''C-cool? You’re gonna make me blush, Aoi-kun!

But he had only made it in time because they had created a diversion. Saitou’s assault unit and the Musashi group had continued their invasion even after the supply line of additional troops had been cut off, and that had allowed for what came next:

“Heh. Sviet Rus’s main force is arriving in the city of Novgorod along the northern cliff route!”

Horizon, Masazumi, and Asama left the Musashi and used the northern route to reach the city. By the time they met up with Toori’s group, Novgorod was divided in two.

The dividing line ran diagonally from the north end to the east end. The northern city hall was on the northwest end and the line cut southeast from there.

P.A. Oda had more overall area in their bottom division, but Sviet Rus and Musashi’s top division was denser.

Just inside the city gate on the south end, Fuwa recalculated the transition of forces now that Sviet Rus’s main unit had scaled the cliff from the northern port. She had P.A. Oda’s forces gather to the north, and…

“Shibata! We can secure the city hall from the south to the west!”

“Shaja! …This is our final job! If you can still move, get fighting until we receive the signal from Fukushima or Kiyomasa of the Ten Spears!”

On Katsuie’s barked order, the highly mobile members of Shibata forces and the skeleton warriors gathered to the north.

Meanwhile, O’Malley of the Trumps had been gathering the attention of about 1/4 of Shibata’s fleet as a diversion in the southern sky, but now Shibata’s fleet turned to the south and prepared to withdraw. Then they continuously fired their rear cannons over Novgorod and toward Sviet Rus. The Jurakudai continued to float in the west and it kept a defense barrier up at the midpoint even as it spewed smoke. That prevented Sviet Rus’s fleet from invading Novgorod from the sky as well.

On Novgorod’s surface and in the sky above, everything was holding both sides in check, but…

“Things must be different underground,” commented Naruze as she fired on the ship in the southern sky.

And she was right. In the space below Novgorod’s city hall, the clash between the cooperative Sviet Rus and Musashi unit and Shibata’s forces was only intensifying.

The battle over the Divinely Ordained Prayer Academy below Novgorod had entered its final stage.

<noinclude>
===Notes===
<references/>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 90|Chapter 90]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 92|Chapter 92]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 89

2016-12-29T23:36:06Z

108.35.109.47: /* Chapter 89: The Peerless Out of Range */

==Chapter 89: The Peerless Out of Range==
[[Image:Horizon4C_0761.jpg|thumb]]
''Why am

''I here?

''Why am

''I doing this?

'''Point Allocation (Exhibition)

Mitotsudaira ran to the distant northern end of Novgorod.

She and the 1st Special Duty Officer (who was carrying Mary) ran across the roofs.

She could smell her king. And more than that…

…''This noise!

It was an exchange of swords. She could hear the solid sounds of at least a 2-against-1 battle with the 1 wielding 2 swords. And she also noticed the Tachibana couple’s unique scent of Far Eastern food. ''Yes, that smell of Far Eastern food with some ham mixed in is characteristic of them and so irresistible.

But there was something odd about the sounds of consecutive attacks. She had attacked with 6 weapons at once using her silver chains and arms, but this exchange of blows was rivalling that in speed.

…''Just how fast are they fighting!?

Muneshige continued the exchange.

The first thing he realized was that Oichi moved in a series of curves. When she swung her weapons around, rotated her body, spun around, and leaped, she never came to a stop and simply maintained the speed and weight of her actions.

He moved around quickly as he faced her. He could not follow her movements and he could not move against them either. If he followed them, she would match her movements to his. If he moved against her movements, she would make a counterattack.

So he stuck to a straight line and charged forward to tear into her as she spun around.

He had to be careful because Oichi was not using any acceleration spells.

She was fighting through pure martial arts.

''She is,'' thought Muneshige. ''She is a lot like Lord Honda Tadakatsu.

He had to be careful.

She was not as polished as Tadakatsu, but she never stuck with any one action and kept moving to give herself an advantage.

…''She does not use an acceleration spell to grasp victory like we do.

She simply fought to grasp what it took to become an expert and she opened the way to victory. But…

“————”

Muneshige reconsidered what he had just thought. When he had said “like we do”, who was the “we”?

He was not sure.

Would she be coming here?

Gin spoke as she briefly lined up alongside him to assist.

“Will Honda Futayo be here?”

If so…

“This should be even more exciting.”

“This party has gotten pretty exciting!”

Katsuie exchanged fire with Walter.

They were not exchanging sword strikes. The dozen or so gravity swords Walter sent out through the air had no actual blades. If Katsuie blocked them with a sword, they would pass right through it, so he had to attack from a distance, or…

…''Go in for a close-range exchange!

A ghost was already carrying his right arm for him, but his remaining left arm was not wielding Kamewari.

“I’ll attack with seven lighter weapons at once!!”

He opposed Walter by throwing out short swords and long swords of Western and Eastern design like he was juggling them. They had all fallen to the battlefield, but they did not all belong to the combined corpse warriors. Some belonged to the ghost warriors and Katsuie would toss them up with his left hand or trap them with his foot and send them up with his knee.

“How about this, you bastard!?”

They both swung, jabbed, and pulled back all of their blades. They would instantly swap them out and sometimes even throw them.

He had a reason for placing those blades in midair. When fighting with a single sword, he would have to move the weapon to the left, to the right, or into the air when he wanted to change from where he was attacking his opponent.

That was only a short distance, but it created a time lag and weighed down his hand.

So he attacked with blade after blade using a snapping motion.

…''This is a lot like whack-a-mole, isn’t it?

With that thought, he moved forward. He attacked Walter with seven blades in quick succession. But…

“—————”

He could not hit him. Walter simply tilted his body gently and adjusted his grip on his gravity sword a few times. That was all, and yet Katsuie could not hit him.

…''Can he see through all this!?

Katsuie attacked where he saw an opening, but Walter understood where his openings were and rearranged them. He changed his stance for launching his gravity swords so that he could change the location of the openings at his elbows and sides to lure Katsuie in or to avoid Katsuie’s attack.

So he used a special kind of footwork. Instead of walking, he alternatively slid his heel or toes along. By doing that, he had free use of his knees and thighs and could remake the openings there.

And when his rearranged stance proved correct, he would grip one of the hilts hanging in the air and…

“…!”

Walter rushed straight in.

But he did not launch an attack. Just as Katsuie was doing, he placed several gravity sword blades in midair and simply placed his fingers on the pommel.

“…”

Instead of pushing them, he made a slight movement that prevented them from falling right away.

That was enough to catch Katsuie. Katsuie was trying to push through with strength and power, but Walter’s invisible blades would slip through the small gaps left over.

Simply moving forward caught Katsuie in the counterattack.

Walter was making those small attacks. And once a gravity sword’s fuel tank grew empty, he would throw it to stop Katsuie’s knee or elbow and to distract him.

…''This guy!

Yamanaka Yukimori was a samurai who acted a lot like a ninja. While he was skilled at fighting while withdrawing, he also made excellent battlefield decisions as a commander and had sharp instincts toward survival.

When he had gotten P.A. Oda’s help to rebuild the Amako clan for the history recreation, he had ended up with nothing to show for it just as in the Testament descriptions, but he had fought well leading up to that.

He had often fought Hexagone Française’s Mouri clan with only a small group on his side, but even when he was captured, he had managed to return alive under his own power. And now…

“Hey,” said Katsuie as they exchanged attacks that never hit. “I wish we could’ve fought like this back in the day.”

It would have been quite a bit different from now and it would have meant something different. Looking at it like that made Katsuie feel like he had wasted a lot of his past.

But Walter suddenly sent a sword toward him.

It was aimed at his face.

The sudden silent attack was the first one targeting the very center of his face.

But Katsuie felt like he understood what his enemy was saying.

…''That’s right.

“Sorry. This is the best we can do. We wouldn’t be out on the battlefield otherwise.”

He had lost his right arm, but this was his best. That was not bravado; it was a fact.

…''I can attack even more than when I had my arm, and I can do it with even more focus and speed.

The lack of his right arm’s weight affected his body’s balance, but it also lightened his body. He lacked the “power” brought by its weight, but his instantaneous speed had definitely risen. So…

“I see.”

Just as he thought about what his opponent was after, Katsuie sensed that something ''did not add up.

…''Huh?

He did not know what it was that did not add up, but something was definitely off.

He kept his focus on the battle while the back of his mind subconsciously sensed danger and told him something was not right.

Walter’s attack toward his face suddenly shrank.

But it did not stop there.

It ran out of fuel and the blade entirely vanished.

Katsuie was caught off guard.

Walter had targeted his face, but the blade had run out of fuel and disappeared. It was the number of times that sword had been used that had not added up. Their exchange had taught him how Walter used the gravity swords and allowed him to calculate how many times they could be used.

…''What?

He could not figure out what this meant and a dangerous doubt entered his gut.

And so he acted on pure instinct. He simply sent his empty left arm forward.

He had reason to do so.

Walter was right-handed and he carried a large gravity sword on the right side of his back.

If he was making some kind of decisive attack, he would use that.

And if Walter was going to swing that large gravity sword resting on his shoulder, Katsuie had to move even faster.

“…!!”

Katsuie lightly clenched his left hand but then straightened the hand at the moment of impact.

The attack stabbed into something hard.

He had broken through the fuel tank in the large gravity sword hilt supported by Walter’s right shoulder.

He had needed to rush forward at the very last second, so the spear-like attack would have been impossible with his right arm intact. It was only possible now that his left arm was his only one.

The momentum tore apart and scattered the large gravity sword hilt.

And the giant invisible blade born from the guard scattered as ether light. The same happened by Katsuie’s hand. The ether fuel leaked from the hilt as a spray of light and shined on their surroundings.

He had defended against the enemy’s attack, but then…

…''Oh, no!!

The large gravity sword was shattering beyond his hand.

But as it shattered and fell apart, it was thrown a little in the air.

This was not just the result of his strength. Walter had lifted up the large hilt with just his right arm.

Where had the enemy’s left hand gone?

He could not see it. After all, the large gravity sword had shattered and the blade’s ether and the hilt’s ether fuel were scattering bright light below him.

Walter’s left hand had been thrust forward through the expanding light below.

Katsuie could not tell what his enemy was doing, so he tried to put some distance between them. But he had just thrust his hand forward.

“…!”

His great demonic strength forced his upper body back. If he could pull his legs back too, he would be clear.

He took one step back. And…

“Nh…!”

Something cold passed through the ground at his feet from top to bottom.

He knew what Walter had done. He had stomped on Katsuie’s left foot and then used one of the short swords Katsuie himself had left in the air to stab vertically through both their feet.

Katsuie was pinned to the ground by two things: Walter’s foot and the short sword.

He was currently leaning backwards.

And Walter had launched a gravity sword on the right while crouching low to the ground.

He was aiming above the leg pinned to the ground. In other words, at the knee. The invisible attack arrived in a straight horizontal line.

…''Not bad at all!

So Katsuie moved.

“Let me show you what I can do!”

Katsuie demonstrated a certain action. He used his momentum as he leaned back.

“…!”

Despite the short sword pinning it down, he swung up his foot and performed a back flip.

Both commanders looked up into the night sky as they back flipped on the battlefield of the dead.

Walter had noticed what Katsuie was doing and made a jump of his own.

The short sword Walter had stabbed into Katsuie’s foot had the blade facing Walter’s direction, so when Katsuie kicked up his foot, it sliced out to the gap between his second and third toes and slipped out from there.

“…!”

It rotated.

But the blade was still stabbed through Walter’s foot.

So he arched his back, sped up his flip, and landed with the stabbed foot placed horizontally on the ground. The strong stomp sent the short sword hopping straight up.

But by the time he grabbed the short sword and held it vertically to his right, Katsuie had already landed.

“How about this!?”

A demonic hand was stabbing straight toward Walter’s face.

At the same time, a light arrived from behind Walter.

An automaton stood there. It was Walsingham who had broken herself apart and hid within the combined corpse warriors.

“Did you hide inside the light of the shattered gravity sword to reassemble yourself!?”

“Nice answer.”

A beam of light left the cross sword cannon, grazed Walter’s head, and flew toward Katsuie’s face.

There were three actions.

The first was Walsingham’s cannon. The second came a moment later.

“Lily Flower…!”

Narimasa charged in and smashed the twin cross swords with a kick.

And the third was Katsuie forcibly twisting his outstretched left arm inwards to lift up his shoulder. It was only a slight movement, but it tilted his thick demonic head.

“Great job, small fry!”

His hard black cheek skin was shaved off, but the guard dog’s cannon did not score a direct hit.

Needless to say, Katsuie’s hand did not hit Walter’s face either. Walter had also moved his head to the side.

And so Katsuie used the momentum of his arm twist to bend his elbow inwards.

He intended to pursue Walter with the pointed elbow strike.

But then a new movement intervened.

Just as Katsuie’s elbow was going to hit Walter, something arrived from the side.

“Oh, excuse me.”

Walter was sent flying to the left by what was more the bottom of a running foot than it was a jump kick.

…''Huh?

The person who had kicked Walter away nimbly landed back on the ground.

“Musashi’s Vice Chancellor!?”

''Eh?'' thought Futayo as she looked around.

This was the battlefield. She had decided to follow Muneshige and Gin and had set off running, but on the way, she had found what she thought was a shortcut.

…''I got as lost as naturally as being swept away by the current of a river…

''That must have been destiny. In other words, it was not carelessness.

''Good,'' she told herself. ''I haven’t been careless yet today.''

Futayo checked her surroundings. She saw an automaton she had seen in England, she saw Walter who she had just kicked away, and she saw the guy she was fairly certain was named Sassa Narimasa. ''I remember because I saw him at IZUMO.'' But beyond him…

“…”

She thought it was Shibata Katsuie.

But she did not know any other demonic long-lived, so what if that race all looked the same and had no individual differences in build? And the Shibata Katsuie she knew had two arms, but this demonic long-lived was a little different. No, he was quite a bit different on that front.

So she asked.

“Um.” She tilted her head. “Who might you be?”

“I am Shibata Katsuie, you fool!!”

''He scolded me. But what am I supposed to say? You’ve changed a lot, but I guess it was the missing right arm? That probably wouldn’t work.''

She chose her words carefully.

“Are you making the switch to being a southpaw?”

“My arm was cut off by your ninja, you fool!”

“Our ninja…? Um, uhh… Oh! The one that stands next to Mary-dono! That ninja!”

''I see.

“From what I have heard, that ninja has been constantly feeling himself down below these days. And…!!”

“Eh? I…I had my arm cut off by someone like that?”

Katsuie looked to Narimasa.

“Don’t ask me!?” shouted Narimasa. “How the hell should I know!? He’s a ninja, so maybe he can do it without anyone noticing!”

“I’m honestly a little impressed you could come up with a proper response to that one. …But, I see. That would be why he was crouching down so much. Oh, and he must have attacked me because I’m just too sexy.”

“Given the size of your chest, Shibata-dono, I suppose you would count as ‘busty’.”

“Ha ha ha,” laughed Katsuie while thrusting Kamewari forward.

Walsingham saw it after she moved away from Narimasa and escaped to a rooftop.

She could determine that Katsuie’s attack had entirely caught Musashi’s Vice Chancellor by surprise. But…

…''What?

The girl circled around to Katsuie’s side.

Walsingham thought it must have been an acceleration spell, but she could detect none of the wind that accompanied high speeds.

To Walsingham’s eyes, it simply looked like Musashi’s Vice Chancellor was walking. But Soaring Wings’s sign frame was displayed at the girl’s feet.

This was a new one. She had shattered the previous one when moving, but…

“…?”

Walsingham was confused. Why was the girl’s speed not rising?

And…

…''Light?

Musashi’s Vice Chancellor’s movements were light. They were even lighter than simply walking, so it was more like she was standing still. She stood by Katsuie’s side as if she had no weight at all. And so…

“—————”

Katsuie moved half a step away.

He was not fleeing. His eyes were somewhat narrowed and directed straight ahead. He was viewing everything around him.

He too had noticed there was something different about Musashi’s Vice Chancellor. And…

“Hey. You said you ran here, right? How many steps did it take you?”

Musashi’s Vice Chancellor looked puzzled by that.

Walsingham concluded that it was a silly question. Why ask how many steps it had taken after arriving from the Musashi floating in the northern sky?

It would not even work as a trick to distract his opponent. Except…

…''Answer?

Walsingham began some abnormal thought patterns. Her Mouse main body hanging from the back of her neck was telling her something about Shibata Katuie’s question.

…''Serious!

Musashi’s Vice Chancellor was trying to answer it. She briefly looked up, raised her left hand, and started folding down the fingers.

“One, two, three, four…”

As the girl counted, Katsuie took action. He made a horizontal sweep of Kamewari in his left hand.

Katsuie saw it.

Musashi’s Vice Chancellor dodged his blade as it rapidly slipped horizontally through the air.

She had used Soaring Wings. But…

…''Hold on. What’s this!? It looks like fun!

Katsuie had come across a few Soaring Wings users in his considerable combat experience. It and its derivatives were the stereotypical Shinto acceleration spells, so it had long been a popular choice.

It created a cumulative acceleration via purification, so it could only be used with long strokes and it could not pull off changes in direction over short distances. But…

“You…!”

His opponent was relaxed. She had no speed and, instead of walking, only seemed to transfer her body weight over, like she was on top of a pulley.

Musashi’s Vice Chancellor broke through 37 instances of Soaring Wings and calmly dodged Kamewari’s blade.

She dodged it slowly.

No, she dodged it ''because'' she moved slowly.

…''She lowers and suppresses her speed enough to fully control each and every one of her joints and then she makes the ideal movement!

She did not move quickly. While staying slow, she watched carefully, moved her body properly, and dodged with the smallest possible movement.

This was the ideal.

It was a technique that only upper level swordsmen could pull off.

Katsuie did not know what method she had used, but she had created an unbreakable Soaring Wings.

She was light.

And she circled to his side once more.

He looked to her face and she looked back at him.

…''Ohh.

Her eyebrows were raised and her eyes were firmly focused on him. The way her mouth was shut showed him she was feeling a fair bit of tension.

That was not the look of a coward.

Katsuie recalled when he had confronted this girl at Magdeburg.

He remembered her focusing on defense and putting up an insulting fight.

The cold look on her face back then was nowhere to be seen now.

Instead, he saw a girl’s tense and serious expression. She had taken her own fighting techniques too far, so one wrong step and she could kill herself. She had the look of fearing her skill but also trusting in it.

Her own power would not let her grow careless. She would always stay at the top of her game to draw out her full power which could even harm herself.

There was somewhere she could not reach without doing so.

She might die without reaching it even if she did do so.

The look on her face said she understood that, but she still pushed herself and chose the battlefield.

''I like that,'' thought Katsuie. ''So you’ve finally arrived here, have you?

“Hey.”

He thought about who he should call out to.

But whoever he directed his words to, he had a feeling it would get depressing.

He had promised Lady Oichi that he would have fun with it to the very end.

So he simply moved. His enemy already held her spear at the ready. He certainly couldn’t just say nothing and then get taken out.

''Okay,'' he thought. ''I won’t hold back.

He had never held back before either.

After all, Shibata Katsuie was the fierce commander known as Demon Shibata in the Testament descriptions.

If he had been known as a demon in a human body, how ferocious did he have to be to be called that in a demonic body?

If he was going to hold back, it had to be as a demon.

So he took action. If his opponent was going to determine the ideal action and move oddly, then…

“Yeah.”

Shibata dodged his enemy’s jabbing spear.

He slowly drew out all of his strength but used it to control himself.

His movements were the demonic ideal.

Narimasa noticed Katsuie’s “technique”.

He had seen Musashi’s Vice Chancellor move in what he could call the ideal.

But with Katsuie…

…''Is he serious!?

In an instantaneous exchange, Katsuie had measured his enemy’s skill. So unlike normal, he did more than just not hold back.

…''He added in something extra!

He used his demonic strength not for explosive movement but for calm action.

He made the smallest possible movement at the lowest possible speed. To do that, he had to be perfectly aware of his enemy’s attack, perfectly see it coming, and perfectly respond to it.

The Vice Chancellors of Musashi and P.A. Oda slowly swapped places.

It was like a dance performance. It would have looked silly had Narimasa still been inexperienced, but with his skill, he could tell they were making the best possible actions over the shortest distance and he could sense the great thought that had to go into it all. Similarly…

“…Kh.”

They took the best possible action over the shortest distance to apply a lethal blow to their opponent and they took the best possible action over the shortest distance to dodge that.

In that dense space, the strongest attack was met with the ultimate evasion over and over.

Katsuie would dodge a jabbing spear by a layer of skin and send out his own blade alongside it without even ducking.

Musashi’s Vice Chancellor would respond by letting the blade pass in front of her eyes by a hair’s breadth and then use the pulling back of her hips to pull back her spear while re-aiming the tip toward the demonic long-lived’s torso.

Their movements were almost leisurely, but with all excess excised from their movements, there was a lot of tension. But…

…''Shibata’s pretty damn good!

Musashi’s Vice Chancellor was using an acceleration spell, but Katsuie was only using his own strength. He also had only one arm and he was matching things to his opponent’s shorter height.

How much strength did all that take? And…

“…Toh.”

Katsuie slowly bent to the right to avoid the spear swung down on his left.

Narimasa had “read” that one too. And so he reached a certain conclusion: Musashi’s Vice Chancellor would lose.

As if to prove him right, her ideal movement – the best possible action over the shortest distance – went exactly where it should have.

Katsuie moved.

While bending to the right to avoid Musashi’s Vice Chancellor’s spear, he raised his left arm to counterattack.

He was not just relying on his strength. He did not use any more strength than necessary, he did not rush himself, he kept his elbow out while sending his arm and blade on the most accurate route, and he pushed them forward.

She reacted by trying to calmly circle to his left side. She tried to dodge his rising left arm and Kamewari like that. But…

“—————”

Her pace was relaxed and calm, but she took the long way around.

…''That’s right.

He had kept his left elbow held outwards, so avoiding that elbow had eaten up some time.

…''You won’t escape my rising left arm fast enough.

But she had avoided Kamewari’s blade. Activating its smashing power here would not help. She was leaning out to the left, which put her outside of Kamewari’s firing range.

So he used the guard.

As Kamewari rose alongside his body, he pushed the guard against Musashi’s Vice Chancellor’s spear as she passed by.

And from there…

“Now, then.”

He threw the spear and Musashi’s Vice Chancellor as if placing them on the sword guard.

He tossed them. It was a lot like gently pushing a paper airplane out into the air.

But that action definitely sent her flying. When she twisted her body and rose up a little, he lifted her.

“—————”

And he calmly threw her.

The overall distance was 40 meters.

As Futayo flew in a parabolic arc, she searched for the closest place to land.

She found it. She moved her legs over and placed her feet on…

…''A pillar!

The wall around a house had been broken in the battle, so just one piece of the white birch wall remained standing, albeit tilted. It was unsteady, but…

“…”

Futayo landed on it regardless.

To keep her body level to the ground, she bent her legs and she killed her momentum while…

…''Soaring Wings!

She used her footwork to gently but surely adjust her position on the pillar.

Her eyes were facing forward the entire time. In her current position, up was straight ahead and there she saw Katsuie directing a power toward her.

It was Kamewari.

Narimasa sensed the result.

Musashi’s Vice Chancellor would lose.

Her acceleration spell, Soaring Wings, used purification by removing any impurities in the direction of her acceleration.

She needed somewhere to plant her feet if she was to accelerate.

Her current footing had her directly facing Katsuie, but…

…''It’s gonna collapse.

If she lightly kicked off, she would push it back and it would fall over. She had just landed, so she had to be just barely maintaining her balance.

He knew what she was trying to do. He did not know how she had managed it, but during her ideal movements, she had built up Soaring Wings without it shattering.

So she would use that to charge straight across this long distance. However…

“…”

The pillar would fall over. The momentum she could not fully rid herself of in her landing was pushing at it.

What would happen when she took that first step?

The pillar would definitely collapse and when her feet met empty air, she would stall out. All of her accumulated acceleration would explode and she would be blown away.

Even if she did manage to jump forward, Kamewari’s counterattack awaited her.

Even with the accumulation from Soaring Wings, she would have difficulty moving forward faster than Kamewari could activate. After all, she would be smashed as soon the blade recognized her.

Narimasa knew it simply was not possible. But…

“————”

He heard a voice.

It was a song.

Within the calm but dense series of ideal and short actions, Musashi’s Vice Chancellor sang.

“And.”

He heard more.

“Dance.”

In that instant, Katsuie’s voice reached Narimasa’s ears.

He made a counterattack to break apart the girl’s singing.

“Get her, Kamewari.”

After the destruction, the result arrived in silence.

Kamewari’s smashing power had cut through and smashed up everything for 30 meters ahead of him.

Houses had scattered, the road was split, sounds of dust and rubble rang out, and all that noise finally ended.

“Now, then.”

With Kamewari still lowered in his left arm, Katsuie looked back.

He looked a dozen or so meters away just once, but he immediately nodded.

“Over there, huh?”

He looked about 30 meters away.

In the war-torn city, someone was facing away and kneeling on the roof of an old house.

It was Musashi’s Vice Chancellor.

She was breathing heavily, unable to control herself, and supporting herself with her metal spear to just barely avoid collapsing.

Seeing her from behind, Katsuie asked a question. Even on the battlefield, his booming voice reached her. And it said…

“Is your heart still not ready to use that Tonbo Spare?”

She did not answer, but he smiled thinly and bitterly.

“No, at your current speed, you’d have a hard time reflecting me in the blade. You should probably increase the spear’s processing speed. And I think I’ll do the same.”

After all…

“How the hell’d you outdo Kamewari’s recognition speed?”

After he said that, Musashi’s Vice Chancellor began to collapse forward.

The deer antler hair decoration on the back of her head split and her hair split, but…

“————”

That was all. She clung to her spear to stop collapsing. And…

“Ha.”

Just as she took a breath and stood up, the front of Katsuie’s left shoulder split open and blood sprayed out.

A tremor similar to the beat of his heart shook his body. But…

“Now that was fun.”

He bent his left arm, his shoulder swelled out, and the bleeding stopped. He had tensed the muscles in his side.

But he moved no further. His left arm had been about half-severed. He could use neither arm now, but…

“Wanna keep at it a little longer?”

“No.” Musashi’s Vice Chancellor took a deep breath. “I have somewhere I must go.”

“I’m just one step along the way then?”

“No. You are a great wall that I will run across wherever I might go.”

“Then you’ll run across me again, huh?”

“Judge. I may have lost this time, but it was a necessary step toward eventual victory.”

Katsuie smiled bitterly.

“True enough. …It was my left shoulder and your hair. My attack was closer to the center of the body. If we did it again now, I’d definitely kill you.”

But, well…

“I’ve lost use of both my arms this time. Bring Tonbokiri next time and I’ll take you on then.”

“I am in your debt.”

Musashi’s Vice Chancellor bowed, and…

“—————”

She vanished. As she stood up, she must have already started accumulating Soaring Wings. There was no point in trying to follow her by eye. She was already gone.

“I suppose she’s gone on to the friends she needs to catch up with. …Hey”

Katsuie turned around to find Narimasa waving a hand and saying, “You stink, you stink!” So…

“You son of a bitch!”

Katsuie threw a stone only to have blood spray out again.

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 88|Chapter 88]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 90|Chapter 90]]
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</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 88

2016-12-29T22:54:26Z

108.35.109.47: /* Chapter 88: Ruler of the Comeback Theatre */

==Chapter 88: Ruler of the Comeback Theatre==
[[Image:Horizon4C_0729.jpg|thumb]]
''What is this

''Flowing down my cheeks?

'''Point Allocation (Spice)

Shellfire boomed in the sky and both footsteps and impacts rang through the city.

Katsuie saw Toshiie’s ghost warriors standing up and moving around, but he clicked his tongue.

…''This right arm thing is a pain.

He was still tensing his right shoulder to tighten the muscles, squeeze the blood vessels, and stop the bleeding. If he relaxed, that strength would leave him and the blood would erupt out, but it actually helped him maintain tension during the battle.

''But I really didn’t expect them to sever my arm,'' he thought. ''I’ve taken hard hits and been covered in my own blood before, but this is my first time losing a body part.

Some people would be unable to accept what had happened and die of shock from the drop in blood pressure, but…

…''Well, I’m not too surprised.

This was the result of his carelessness and his opponents’ teamwork. To the opponents who had used a variety of unique conditions to produce the result, this would be a reward, but to him, it was nothing more than unfortunate.

He wanted to discard his right arm if possible, but rehabilitation with a prosthetic would be too much effort. P.A. Oda was going to start moving toward the Genesis Project soon, so he wanted to avoid anything time-consuming.

“Oh, damn… I’m really in an annoying position, aren’t I?”

“Huh? What, did you actually catch on? Did getting your arm chopped off after running out ahead finally open your eyes, you idiot?”

Narimasa stood to his right.

Katsuie slapped his own shoulder with his right arm and looked to Narimasa.

“Oh? What’re you doing here, small fry? Worried for your upperclassman?”

“What? Some idiot got carried away and got his arm chopped off, so I came to laugh at him. Obviously.”

“Oh? You were that worried for me, were you? Ho ho… Hehh… Hmm…”

“I really can’t stand it… God, you’re annoying.”

“Eh? Annoying, am I? Then what should I do, Naru Naruuu? Tell me and I’ll fix it. C’mon, just tell me.”

“And now he’s learned how to be creepy on top of annoying.” Narimasa looked forward “But…”

There were corpses there, but they were not the skeleton warriors Toshiie had summoned. They were the combined corpse warriors used by Novgorod. The elites had come out to protect Novgorod’s city hall.

“Hey, small fry. How many does this look like to you? I’ll praise you if you can answer while shaking in your boots.”

“Probably around 3000. And I think there’s about the same number behind us.”

“Wow, that reaction was boring. …Let’s take a 1000 of them together. Hashiba’s Ten Spears are probably headed for the city hall, so we can probably help by creating a diversion,” said Katsuie. “The Genesis Project will belong to their generation, after all.”

“True enough,” agreed Narimasa as he watched the wave of enemies approaching up ahead. “So how many do you think you can take?”

“Well…”

Katsuie swung his right arm forward and something burst out ahead of him.

“Quit darting around everywhere, you little puppy.”

He smashed some ether cannon light with Kamewari. Beyond that, he could see someone on the wall to the left of the road.

It was Walsingham, England’s guard dog.

Narimasa saw the English automaton looking their way.

“Sight.”

That meant she had taken aim.

…''Is she coming for us?

As he wondered that, Walsingham hopped down among the combined corpse warriors charging down the road. But with the way she moved, he doubted she was going to get trampled to pieces by them. And…

“Wars of the Roses.”

The guard dog’s cross spears fired countless double-edged knives into the air.

They vanished. She herself sank into the swarm of corpses and all of the knives hid behind that charging group.

“Ho ho?” Katsuie leaned back and smiled. “Nice! An assassination technique!? P.A. Oda’s assassin squad could learn from you! Lately, they keep climbing up to the highest spot they can find and just messing around up there!”

“The enemy is here!!”

Narimasa shouted and pointed toward an approaching wind. It was a gravity sword blade.

“Yamanaka Yukimori!”

After he and Katsuie dodged the invisible blade, Narimasa looked to his opponent.

The samurai casually wore an English uniform and Narimasa showed off his teeth in a smile.

“Do you regret temporarily getting P.A. Oda’s help to restore your clan!?”

Walter did not respond. He simply walked forward while matching his movements to those of the charging combined corpse warriors.

“…!”

And he sent out a sharp sword strike.

Naito sensed the battle growing more chaotic.

To keep the ships from firing on the city, she and Naruze were firing on Shibata’s fleet along with Cavendish’s ship from England, but Naito did not overlook what was happening in Novgorod.

…''Maybe we’re actually pulling it off.

The overall trend appeared to be in their direction.

The skeleton warriors were headed toward Walsingham and Walter in the center, so the battlefield was shifting toward the center. And the combined corpse warriors were pushing in like a wall from the north, so they appeared to be pushing back at the skeleton warriors from the north, east, and west. But…

'''Mal-Ga:''' “More and more skeleton warriors keep appearing. And from the outer edges. They plan to attack the combined corpse warriors from behind too.”

'''O’Malley:''' “That’s because Maeda can create a limitless supply of them. …Hey, don’t land on the top of the sail. You’ll be blown away when it’s highly pressurized.”

Occasionally, guided anti-air fire would arrive from the sky. While pursued by the guiding Garudas, Naito circled to the front of Cavendish’s ship.

'''Gold Mar:''' “Would the bow work?”

'''O’Malley:''' “As long as you don’t land on the figurehead. Come to the deck and we’ll give you some donuts.”

Then a white figure turned toward Shibata’s fleet. It was Naruze.

She glanced toward Naito.

'''Mal-Ga:''' “You’re planning on holding a Technohexen tea party? Our wings burn a lot of calories, so we eat quite a bit.”

'''O’Malley:''' “We’ve got plenty of gluttons too.”

'''Gold Mar:''' “Ohhh, then bring Ga-chan and me some marzipan later.”

“Okay, okay,” replied O’Malley, but she had more to say.

'''O’Malley:''' “But anyway, we’ve got a way of sweeping up those skeletons, so let’s try it out. …Cavendish! You’ve got everything ready, right!?”

'''Harp Mermaid:''' “I would have done it whether you told me to or not. Besides, I’m here as the Number 5 representative, so I can act on my own discretion, O’Malley. So…”

Once Cavendish said that, a noise came from both sides of her ship. It was the sound of several vertical launchers cocking on the sides of the ship. And Cavendish spoke from her piloting cradle in the back.

'''Harp Mermaid:''' “Musashi Technohexen, and O’Malley too, thank you very much for keeping the enemy occupied. And Musashi’s Industrial Committee, thank you for transporting these to such dangerous airspace. My ship will now be using a new model of dropped shell on Novgorod.”

Curving lines raced through the sky. Several lines of launching smoke appeared directly overhead as the vertical launchers on Cavendish’s ship released their payload toward Novgorod below.

There were 32 in all. After rising toward the heavens, their tips pierced guidance spell sign frames and they dropped down. They fell toward the night in rapid straight lines.

'''Harp Mermaid:''' “Hit confirmed.”

The 32 lines had definitely pierced the city of Novgorod.

'''Harp Mermaid:''' “Musashi IZUMO’s 32 carefully-made bamboo spear dropped shells have hit with a margin of error no greater than 20 cm! Activating wide-range anti-ghost armaments!”

Fuwa saw what was happening on the battlefield. 20 meter pillars of bamboo stabbed into the ground as if surrounding inner Novgorod and then all of their sections opened up.

A moment later, largescale destruction hit the battlefield. It seemed to spread out from the bamboo pillars.

“————!!”

Toshiie’s skeletons rapidly crumbled. And they even raised their arms in joy as they were given a peaceful rest. Fuwa’s sharp gaze raced along her surroundings as the destruction and salvation of the ghosts spread in the blink of an eye.

“What is this wide-range salvation attack!? Did they create some kind of wide-range chemical weapon!?”

But then she realized what their enemy’s attack was. Something was wafting in from the distance.

She could smell it as the aroma reached her nose.

“Curry!?”

'''83:''' “Simply sniffing the smell of curry will take you straight to heaven.”

'''Unturning:''' “Eh? What is going on…? I really don’t understand this…”

'''Uqui:''' “Heh. You still have a lot to learn, Narumi. You’ll be eaten alive on Musashi if you let a little thing like this shock you.”

'''10ZO:''' “That doesn’t even begin to explain what’s happening here.”

'''Vice President:''' “And whose idea was this!? Don’t throw curry around in Russia!”

'''Novice:''' “Heh. Only after surpassing common sense can you find blood-red victory shining in the darkness…”

'''Vice President:''' “So it was you!!”

Mitotsudaira was healed by Mary behind a building in northeastern Novgorod while she watched a large group of skeleton warriors given a peaceful rest. The smell of curry filling her nose was hard to deal with, but…

“This is an effective anti-ghost attack, don’t you think, 1st Special Duty Officer!?”

“Well, we did some tests with the Chancellor’s Officers before, but how to mix this curry is a complete a mystery and only Hassan-dono can make it…”

“Wh-what’s in it!?”

It was useful, but they were unsure if it could be mass-produced. However…

“Um, Lady Mitotsudaira, please don’t move. I’ll give you something to fight the pain.”

“Judge.”

Mitotsudaira had the chest of her summer inner suit removed. She had a red swelling below her left breast that was forming a bruise.

“The bone is broken, but I will suck it out through your back.”

“Suck it out?”

Mary demonstrated what she meant by embracing Mitotsudaira’s body. She pressed on the left side of Mitotsudaira’s back, just below the shoulder blade. And then Mitotsudaira felt something on the front of her body, just above the broken bone.

…''Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!!

''I sound like Adele!'' she thought, but then something soft pressed against the surface of the pain. It was Mary’s lips. She was embracing Mitotsudaira’s body, and…

“Nn…”

Just as Mitotsudaira felt the girl sucking at her skin, she felt something leaving the pained area. Nothing actually left or seeped out, but the pressure on her back no longer turned her into Adele.

The pain was replaced by an incredibly light feeling.

“Wait, 1st Special Duty Officer! What do you think you’re looking at!?”

“I-I am not looking! I’m really not! The top of my hat only shows my expression, so I see from down here!”

Mary breathed out and removed her lips. She smiled sweatily, pulled some herbs woven into a charm from her skirt pocket, and brought it to her mouth.

She wiped her mouth with it and brought something in her mouth to the tip of her tongue.

“There, that should do it. How do you feel?”

Mitotsudaira moved her left arm and tensed her side, but she felt no pain. The lightness she felt was clearly different from Naito’s pain reduction.

“Your wound caused your flow of ether to grow stagnant, so I sucked out the stagnation. I pushed an empty portion in from your back, so once you’re healed, it should spread out once more and the flow should return to normal. But while I did set your rib in place, it is still broken, so don’t push yourself too hard.”

“Set it? What do you mean?”

“I wrapped ether around it like ivy. …I practice by tying knots in cherry stems with my tongue.”

“Oh?”

Mitotsudaira looked to the 1st Special Duty Officer, but he was already looking the other way.

'''Mal-Ga:''' “So she already knew how to tie knots. I bet someone just imagined something lewd.”

'''Azuma:''' “That kind of skill means something inappropriate? How?”

'''Gold Mar:''' “Ga-chan, Ga-chan. You can’t afford a nosebleed in the middle of battle.”

At least everyone was doing well. But even if it was temporary, sweeping away the skeleton warriors meant a lot. It would make things easier for her king and the others who had continued on to the city hall. However…

“…!?”

Mitotsudaira saw a large quantity of light.

Boxes of ether light rose from 32 locations in Novgorod as if forming cages. And they rapidly expanded.

…''Are those two-way defense barriers!?

This was a Catholic spell, so it would not be Musashi or Sviet Rus’s doing it. M.H.R.R. had to be setting up two-way defense barriers for some reason or another, but…

“This is strange,” said the 1st Special Duty Officer. “The ghost warriors are being given a peaceful rest by the mystery powder, so why are they surrounding them with two-way barriers so they can’t escape!?”

The combined corpse warriors would be inside as well. If they could not escape, the skeletons would be under attack by the curry and corpses, putting them at an extreme disadvantage. However…

…''It can’t be!

Just as Mitotsudaira realized what was happening, Novgorod was dyed in explosive colors.

Crimson flames detonated inside the 32 barriers.

The trick had been set up by hand. When he landed, Maeda Toshiie had prepared a powder of mostly flour and spell gunpowder and a few of the ghost warriors had dumped bags of it inside the various barriers.

From there, they had lured the combined corpse warriors in.

“…!”

The detonation had been triggered with flint instead of a spell.

Fire had instantly raced across the powder-filled air and created a vacuum and shockwaves inside the closed space. The ghost warriors were blown away, but the combined corpse warriors were also hit by the flames and wind.

Corpses generally did not breathe. But when moving around, they would have an unmoving mass inside their body if they did not keep their lungs moving. So they would open their lungs and bring air inside them just to keep their bodies moving rather than to breathe.

Toshiie’s ghost warriors had lured in the combined corpse warriors in order to have them bring air into their lungs. And that had brought the powder into their lungs too.

“…!!”

Scorched by the flames and explosion, most of them burst into flames from within or had their lungs explode in their chest before they stopped moving.

Once the barriers were deactivated, all that remained were the large apes and large skeletons that had formed from the broken ghost warriors. They all rose to their feet at once in 32 parts of Novgorod.

And Toshiie’s voice rang out to support their rise.

“How about that!? I learned my lesson last time and put this strategy together! I just emerged victorious over the flavor of the gods! I conquered my fear of curry! Oh, the tears…the tears won’t stop! The spices are stinging a little!”

Now.

“Novgorod’s warriors have been halved and we’re stronger than ever! Now go get them!”

'''O’Malley:''' “Wasn’t there a mermaid around here trying to impress us about how she could act on her own discretion?”

'''Harp Mermaid:''' “Um, yes… I think there was… Want some…snacks?”

'''Novice:''' “In my defense, finding victory by surpassing common sense works for the enemy too!”

'''Four Eyes:''' “You repeated the same material and failed miserably? You’re useless.”

'''83:''' “I will not forgive whoever wasted all that curry.”

'''Almost Everyone:''' “It was you!”

'''Smoking Girl:''' “Hey, sorry, everyone! I’m dealing with the copies or whatever of that previous god of war, so I can’t help out up there! The demon warriors tried to rush in, but the skeletons showed up and now they can’t protect Toori’s group! ….Can someone else hurry over there!?”

Tenzou nodded at Naomasa’s words and analyzed the wind and the sounds around him.

They were the only ones available to help out Toori’s group. Urquiaga and Narumi were already protecting them, but the enemy was too numerous. If England’s forces would hold Shibata’s group’s attention…

…''We need to regroup with Toori-dono and head below Novgorod’s center.

He did not know what was there, but it was apparently a crucial secret related to P.A. Oda’s Genesis Project. So…

“Let’s go, Master Tenzou, Lady Mitotsudaira.”

“Mary-dono…”

“Judge. I will be fine if you protect me, Master Tenzou. We can have Lady Mitotsudaira clear a path while we assist her.”

“Judge,” was all he could say. Mitotsudaira put her broken silver chains away in their obelisks and smiled a little while holding the two remaining long swords.

“Let’s get to our true battlefield.”

“Judge,” agreed Mary with a smile and a nod.

That was when Tenzou heard an odd sound. The next thing he knew, Mitotsudaira was looking north.

“Someone’s crying…? It came from my king’s route.”

It was a long, trembling wail.

“I heard about this during our information exchange with Sviet Rus! P.A. Oda has a battle-crazed lady who wails as she destroys the battlefield!”

And…

“Her name is Oichi! …She is powerful enough to singlehandedly destroy the Asai clan!”

Saitou and the demon warrior elites took the Musashi Chancellor with them to Novgorod’s city hall, but he had predicted the enemy’s arrival.

It was Oichi.

The other day, this woman had singlehandedly done devastating damage to Sviet Rus’s border guard unit and the outer edge division that included the Ikkou-Ikki, so…

…''I knew she would be here, but…

“Ah…!”

And here she was. Her black hair fluttered behind her as she kicked up a white spray in the south and ran toward them. She half-dragged the long sword she held and she destroyed any of Toshiie’s ghost warriors in her way.

She was crying.

“You’re so…mean…”

How were they mean? But the slashes that arrived with her sobs answered that question. She slashed at anything and everything, enemy or ally, and…

…''She’s severing their right arms as she passes by!?

Saitou knew this was revenge for Katsuie.

He had received a divine transmission earlier saying that Musashi’s 1st and 5th Special Duty Officers had fought Katsuie and severed his right arm at the shoulder. He thought that was an incredible victory, but how did the Musashi group view it? Regardless, that event had led to this wailing voice.

“What do I do?”

She stopped 30 meters ahead of them and trembled a little with her head hung low.

“What do I do?” she asked. “If Katsuie’s arm can’t be reattached, he won’t be able to kill me. …And then I won’t be able to believe in my own ending…!”

And so the woman cried. Her shoulders rose and fell as she tried to move. And then…

“…!!”

A hole was opened in her left chest.

A gunshot had pierced through her, creating a hole that widened as if swelling outward.

Saitou’s eyes caught the fatal attack supplied to Oichi.

The sniper shot had been fired through the gaps between the arms, shoulders, and sides of the 30 or so people behind him.

Oichi’s body wobbled and then went limp. The impact caused all of her muscles to tremble and she could not adequately gather her strength. So…

…''We need to get through now.

This was an offering to the comrades they had lost the other day. This would be enough of a flower for them.

So Saitou took a step forward. But he immediately came to a stop.

Oichi should have fallen to her knees, but she had not.

She had stopped at the left shoulder. Her head was lowered and her arms and legs were limp, but her body was dangling in midair as if she were sewn there. And…

…''Her wound…

It was being repaired. This was different from healing. The splattered blood returned, the shredded blood vessels were rebound and reconnected, the flesh closed up, and…

“…Ah.”

She slowly stood up.

Immediately, three more gunshots hit her. Saitou was too focused to even hear the surrounding shellfire as the bullets slammed into Oichi’s body. But…

“———”

Her body was repaired and she got up.

“Can she regenerate?” asked someone behind Saitou.

''No,'' he thought. After all, something behind her was rising above her head.

It was a silver ring made of feathers. It looked like a laurel wreath or an angel’s halo, but anyone at Saitou’s level had seen something like it before.

“A Testamenta Arma!”

It was shaped like a halo. According to Testament Union information, it was…

“K.P.A. Italia’s Caput Fides – Vetus!?”

But that led to a question.

“I thought the Testamenta Arma could only be used inside the nation that owned them!”

“Beginning activation of Caput Fides – Vetus.”

Inside Novgorod’s west gate, Fuwa operated an ''insha kotob'' while checking on the situation.

…''Looks like this is working.

They had borrowed Caput Fides – Vetus, one of K.P.A. Italia’s Testamenta Arma, from Olimpia. Toshiie had brought it over the other day, and thanks to some research by their technicians…

“We had to settle on a forced ley line circulation pathway, but I guess it’s fine as long as it works.”

Activating a Testamenta Arma required the ether from its nation’s Testament. They had initially tried to activate it with the Sixth Testament “Fortitudo” that P.A. Oda owned, but that had failed. Instead, they had copied the ether pattern of K.P.A. Italia’s First Testament “Fides”. The foundations of an ether pathway had been imprinted in important cities and villages from K.P.A. Italia to here and that connected them to the ether of K.P.A. Italia’s Testament with a 30% drop in power.

It was a little lacking in power, but it was effective enough.

Testamenta Arma Caput Fides – Vetus had a certain effect:

“The life of one with faith will be entrusted to that faith.”

In other words…

“As long as they have faith, that person will not die from any injury or illness.”

Fuwa sighed on the battlefield.

“That’s right. Lady Oichi isn’t Tsirhc, but there is one thing she has faith in concerning the Testament.”

“What’s that?” asked the tentacle waiting next to her.

Fuwa nodded.

“The Testament itself. …It says she will die at the hands of Shibata. She has faith in that, so…yes, she has the faith needed to martyr herself for the Testament. That is her wish.”

So…

“As long as she has faith in the gift of death she will be given, she cannot die and cannot even be scratched.”

Saitou saw Oichi stand up with the glowing halo floating over her head.

She had definitely been injured, but she had been repaired, clothing and all.

…''Honestly.

He had lost track of how many times he had thought that word today.

“Is this battlefield of man going to test the Zhong Kui with demons, gods, and everything else too?”

As he spoke and time passed, Oichi’s body returned to normal. She planted her feet at shoulder width and then walked forward.

She was coming.

And to do so, she threw what she held in her left hand.

It was the right arm of one of the demons in the assault unit.

The arm was as big as her entire body, but she threw it into the air, leaned forward, and started forward.

As he prepared to intercept her, Saitou thought, ''Honestly, I’ve had to prepare myself for the worst so often now that I’m close to retirement.

“That is unavoidable.”

Oichi would probably appear from behind the thrown arm when it fell.

Would she take the left or the right? Or above? Or would she throw a weapon? After predicting a few moves ahead, Saitou raised his defenses.

Everyone prepared to move. He did, his men did, everyone did.

Finally, he once more heard the surrounding shellfire, crashing sounds, and screams of buildings burning from the explosions.

This was the praise of the battlefield.

And the right arm fell. But without warning…

“Hey, hold on. Treat that thing with more care!”

Someone casually ran out from the side and snatched the falling right arm from the air.

…''Huh!?

It was the Musashi Chancellor.

Saitou saw the idiot dragged down by the weight of the right arm he caught before he swung it around so it did not reach the ground. But he ended up spinning around in an unstable diagonal angle.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

He somehow managed to stop himself. And the idiot looked Saitou’s way while lifting the demon’s right arm in both his own arms.

“Whose is this? I had this happen to me even if I don’t remember it, but I’m sure you don’t want a scar, so raise your hand if it’s yours!”

Everyone exchanged a glance at his carefree question. And then one of the demons who had escaped Oichi to the left raised one of his left arms out of the total of three arms he had left.

The injured demon gave Saitou an uncertain look, but the idiot did not care. As if to say Saitou’s permission was not needed, he smiled, nodded, and carried over the arm.

“Man, this thing’s huge. Take care of it, okay?”

But as he approached, Saitou saw Oichi behind him.

She was there.

But she too had frozen in place at this sudden development.

She had stopped while preparing to take her first step.

…''What is this?

She had lost her chance. The idiot’s intrusion had divided the battlefield layout and thrown the timing out of whack.

The woman who wept in battle was off tempo. If she had taken even one step, she might have continued on momentum alone, but that step and the arm she was using as an obstacle had been taken from her.

And so she raised her head.

“—————”

Her tearful face looked forward. That teary face turned their way. Saitou gasped when he saw it. He had heard that she never came to a stop in battle, but…

…''When Shibata grabs her and stops her, she returns to her senses.

The idiot had done something else. Saitou did not know if it was only a coincidence or not, but he had stopped her initial action.

…''I’m not sure what to say.

''I am known as a Zhong Kui,'' he thought. ''And I can use my experience to predict how a battle will go.

''But,'' he also thought, ''I lack experience in a battle being stopped before it is fought.

Unable to move, the weeping voice returned to her senses.

And the idiot turned toward Oichi and spoke.

“Hurry on back so you can heal your husband.”

Oichi said nothing. She also did not feel like stopping the tears spilling down her face, so…

“Are you worried?”

She said nothing to that question, but the idiot said more.

“Is something scaring you?”

She definitely felt fear, so she inhaled and answered.

“Of course…” she said while sobbing. “Because there’s no way…that Katsuie’s arm can be fixed.”

The idiot shrugged.

“Hold on a sec,” he began. “Unlike me, your husband looks pretty tough, so he’ll be fine. I can’t prove it, though. …But if you’re gonna heal him so he can kill you or whatever, then think about it a little.”

“Think about what?”

“Well,” said the idiot. “If he’s able to kill you at any time, then just live out the rest of your life without worrying.”

For a moment, she did not know what he meant. Her heart reflexively called him an idiot, so she looked to the halo over her head.

“As long as this shines, I intend to die.”

“When will it stop shining?”

“When I am dead.”

“Then,” he said. “I hope that doesn’t happen for a long time and that it isn’t yours or someone else’s decision that leads to it. And if we could stop that from happening, that’d be even better. Please.”

But…

“If you’re worried about that plan for the future, then we’ll help you work through that stress. I mean…how should I put it?”

The idiot handed the right arm to the injured demon and spoke to her.

“You’ve gotta be a good person.”

“…?”

“You’re using his ability to kill you as an excuse, but you’re worried about your husband.”

“I…”

“And I bet he’s the same. He uses his obligation to kill you as an excuse to always stay with you.”

So…

“Stay with him always. And if that worries you…well, you must want a hell of a lot of happiness. But since we’re your opponents right now, we’ll help you work through that stress.”

“Wait,” said a voice. The enemy’s elderly commander spoke to the idiot. “Who do you think is going to be her opponent!? Surely not you!”

“Well, it’s not like I’m alone. Someone’ll come if I call for them.”

He clapped his hands twice.

“Heyyy!”

His clapping received no response whatsoever.

Saitou saw the idiot tilt his head.

“Huhhhh?” he said. “Heyyy!”

He clapped again, but even after waiting 3 seconds, there was no response from anyone anywhere.

“That’s odd. They’d normally be rushing here.”

“Y-you fool! Fine, I’ll handle this!”

“Hey, hey. Wait, wait. Old man, if this was an RPG, your MP would clearly be at 0. And you’ve used up your last ‘Recovery Herb (Makes you feel good and forget the pain)’. If you die, I’ll have to make another old man with the character creator, but making an old man would stress me out, so stand back.”

He heard a laugh.

It was Oichi. She held a hand to her mouth.

“You could both take me on at once,” she suggested.

“Do you make a good shield, old man?”

“It’s too soon to give up!”

“D-d-d-d-don’t be ridiculous. I-I-I-I haven’t given up at a-a-a-a-all. Think about it. I haven’t given up on using you as a shield!”

“Curse you!!”

He thought about lecturing the boy, but then a sign frame appeared in front of the idiot.

“Ah!? Seijun!? Don’t you have anyone to help me!? Wait, why are ''you'' mad at ''me''!? No, I’d really rather not die on my own! That ain’t happening! Besides, I’ve got an old man with me~ Ah! Don’t hang up!”

The idiot continued facing the vanished sign frame for about 3 seconds before turning around. Then he placed a hand on Saitou’s shoulder.

“I’ll talk with everyone to smooth things over, so you focus on fighting, old man.”

“Curse you! Do you…!? Do you not have any idea how to behave on the battlefield!? Dammit!”

He grabbed and shook the idiot by his collar, but then something else happened.

Oichi inhaled, hung her head, and hid her face behind her hair. But instead of fully facing the ground, she showed off a red crescent moon smile through the gap in her hair. And…

“Heh.”

She arrived lightly. She used relaxed motions that seemed to have no weight to them.

…''Kh…!

This was not what he had heard about her. He had heard she had more momentum than this and simply swung herself around using her weight, but as she charged in now…

…''Is she being thrown around by her emotions!?

She felt joy mixed with unease. She raced forward with a trembling lightness.

Oichi felt a liberating feeling in her muddled heart and she saw something.

After she charged in and swung her right sword forward, there should have been two bodies collapsed on the ground.

But there was not.

…''?

Her gentle surprise and frustration was directed at what had caught her sword.

It was a spear. It had a long straight spear tip. A boy held it, and from his back…

“Thank you, Master Muneshige. Although I could have run myself, so you did not need to carry me.”

It was a girl in a Far Eastern summer uniform. She wore a brand new one and her giant false arm was painted the same color.

They seemed to push at Oichi and then they moved away.

Unable to stop her movements, they leaped backwards. After landing, they gently gathered their strength in front of her. The boy who had spoken with her earlier now spoke to them.

“Ohh! It’s Mune Mune and Mune Wife!”

“Judge. …It would seem we arrived in time.”

The couple stood up and prepared to fight.

…''That must be nice.

With that thought, Oichi once more shifted her balance forward. She picked up a fallen sword with her left hand so she now wielded two.

“Two at once is perfect. …I am kind of cheating, after all.”

The wife looked to the halo over Oichi’s head and frowned.

“Is that…a Testamenta Arma?”

'''Novice:''' “An explanation! You want an explanation, don’t you!? If I don’t explain it now, you’ll be in trouble, won’t you!? I bet you will, so I think I’ll explain it for you!”

Gin used the voice input on her sign frame.

“Shut up.”

'''Novice:''' “Eek!”

Then Muneshige asked a question next to her.

“Gin, what is that?”

“Judge,” she replied.

This was a Testamenta Arma. She knew she had to explain the details to Muneshige as best she could, so she opened her mouth and gave the most detailed explanation she could of the enemy’s Testamenta Arma.

“With that, she cannot die.”

'''Mal-Ga:''' “That nerd could learn a thing or two from such a straightforward explanation.”

“I see.” Muneshige nodded. He lowered his gaze in thought but then looked back up. “So with that, she can’t die?”

“She cannot die.”

“Kamenuki is a pseudo-divine weapon. What if I use this?”

“You will die.”

“I’ll die?”

“Yes, die.”

'''Asama:''' “I-I think this conversation is going to drive me crazy…!”

“She’ll go crazy?”

“Yes, crazy.”

Gin ignored Asama’s shriek and spoke.

“Then let us go for it without holding back.”

“Judge, let’s go for it.”

So they went for it.

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| [[Horizon:Volume 4C Chapter 89|Chapter 89]]
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