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Horizon:Volume 6C Chapter 57

2018-06-17T21:54:39Z

162.158.134.115: Typo fixes.

==Chapter 57: Preparers in the Singing Place==
[[Image:Horizon6-C409.jpg|thumb]]
''This is it:

''Something I really

''Risked my life on

'''Point Allocation (Facial Care)

“Um.”

Yoshiyasu awoke to that voice.

…''I fell asleep!?

She remembered she was on the battlefield, but nothing more than that.

Falling asleep should have been entirely off limits. Plus…

…''I can’t breathe…!

''Why am I only seeing white and why can I barely breathe?

''Oh, no. My panic messed with my breathing and I’m not getting enough oxygen…

“…Wait, what’s with this cloth!? An assassination attempt!?”

When she tore the towel from her face and raised her head, her neck cracked.

She must have been sleeping for a while.

But she now remembered placing the towel over her eyes to hide the fact that she was drunk. She had hoped to keep people away by giving off a sense of “you’re annoying me and I’m tired” and hiding the slackness of her eyes had been necessary for that. It should have been an accurate decision.

So who had used the fact that she had fallen asleep to attempt an assassination?

“Did you do this!?”

“Eh!? That’s the Satomi clan’s facial care treatment, isn’t it!?”

…''Of course not!

But based on Kani’s reaction, Ookubo must have done it.

Probably to hide the fact that Yoshiyasu had fallen asleep and stopped moving. In that case…

“Exactly right.” Yoshiyasu crossed her arms and tried to sound convincing. “For Satomi’s facial care treatment, do this once a day and your chest will grow.”

“That sure is a new form of facial care!”

''Oops, I let my own dream slip in there.'' Yoshiyasu changed the subject to avoid further questions.

“But where is Ookubo?”

Kani shrugged and pointed at the ''lernen figur'' next to her face.

Yoshiyasu called up her own sign frame and checked the Siege of Odawara information there.

“…She went and fought a duel?”

“Testament! She left earlier and it seemed like she was hinting she was going to the bathroom for #2, but it looks like she was going to fight a duel!”

The location was listed as “bathhouse”.

“A duel in the bathroom…?”

“I-I wonder how they did that!? Length maybe!?”

“The healthiness would seem more normal.”

“I see!”

While Kani nodded, Yoshiyasu decided not to go see Ookubo for a bit. However, she did not have a bad feeling about her. She had won and the sign frame said she was in her rest period. She had not withdrawn or dropped out. Ookubo was still in this.

And if Ookubo said she was fine, then she was fine. ''In that case,'' thought Yoshiyasu.

“What will you do?”

Ookubo had planned on dueling Kani and Kani had accepted it. However…

“Testament! Satomi Student Council President! Please duel me!”

“Huh?”

Yoshiyasu frowned at the sudden request.

“Um.” Kani sounded troubled. “Please look at this!”

She called up a ''lernen figur'' which displayed the earlier duel request. It listed the participants as Kani and…

“It doesn’t specify who my opponent would be!”

“Hold on. Why me? …And can’t you just cancel that request?”

“The Musashi Representative Council Head submitted it, so I can’t cancel it!”

…''Can’t they make these things so either side can cancel them?

Ookubo’s request was still in effect with Kani registered, but Ookubo had not registered herself and she was no longer here. So…

“You’re on Musashi’s side here, Satomi Student Council President! So please!”

“Yes, th-then I guess I have no choice.”

“Thank you very much! Let’s have a karaoke competition!”

“Huh?”

…''A karaoke competition?

''But I’ve almost never done karaoke.

Yoshiyasu mentally held her head in her hands.

…''I don’t know how to do karaoke.

Kani seemed to be connecting her ''lernen figur'' to the bathhouse service and registering the karaoke program, but Yoshiyasu had no idea how to do any of that.

Of course, she had a general image of how karaoke worked.

You ordered an existing song on your sign frame, the lyrics would appear on the sign frame, and you would sing along with that.

And you would receive a score based on how well you sang.

While doing that, you would eat snacks and whatnot to just generally have a good time.

''Yes,'' thought Yoshiyasu as she thought through her image of karaoke.

…''That’s the polar opposite of who I am…!

''Can I have a good time by singing songs? Can I really? Wouldn’t it feel more like I’m being forced to have a good time while singing? Wouldn’t it? Isn’t that what they call peer pressure? Right? Just come out and say it. Well? Wait, who just said I have no friends!?

“…Ah.”

No, she had done karaoke once.

After a Satomi meeting, they had gone out to celebrate at a local bar called the Kujukuri Tikal Hammer.

There had been a karaoke spell set there.

Her sister had gotten oddly excited about it and she had realized her sister must do that kind of thing a lot, but when Yoshiyori (who had still been named Noritoki at the time) sang, everyone had fallen silent, a few had cried, and it had created an odd atmosphere.

She had been told to sing something, but she did not know any of the songs and she was eventually pressured into singing a Russian song with her sister. Thinking back, it was a happy memory.

…''Although I seem to recall having to sing about vodka up the ass…!

Regardless, that was her only karaoke experience.

“Satomi Student Council President! How much should we sing for the competition!?”

“One song is enough.”

Or rather, she was unsure if she could even sing one song.

Just to be safe, she decided to ask something.

“Kani Saizou, how much do you do karaoke?”

“Testament! I do it all the time at neighborhood association gatherings and with my friends!”

“Is that so?”

“Testament! Although my friends often start asking for life advice right away, so I tend to be the only one singing! But they buy me snacks, so it’s great!”

''She’s an enemy…'' thought Yoshiyasu for some reason.

…''Yes, she’s definitely an enemy.

Yoshiyasu felt like they could get along and she did not think their personalities would clash, but the way Kani lived her life was just too different.

…''No, I guess that’s just how name inheritors are… Yeah…

Generally, singing karaoke at neighborhood associations and eating snacks with friends was just not in the cards for name inheritors. However…

“Ah.”

She recalled how good her sister had been at karaoke. In that case…

…''Am I the odd one out!? Wait!

When she started scrutinizing herself like this, it was best to think of it as her form of individuality.

But even if she kept that problem contained to herself, there was still a risk here.

“…Kani Saizou. How often do you do karaoke?”

“Testament! Four times!”

“Four times!?”

''That’s not much,'' thought Yoshiyasu.

“Four times a week! We often go after our club activities, so it really helps me keep in touch with my friends! I’ve racked up a whole bunch of point cards that way!”

''She really is an enemy,'' silently concluded Yoshiyasu.

Regardless, this was bad. Her opponent was an expert and she was essentially an amateur.

…''How am I supposed to win this!?

No, she needed to think about how to approach this competition.

…''What do I do!?

And while Yoshiyasu thought in the bath, Kani suddenly tilted her head.

“Huh…?”

Kani shut down the karaoke program and then reconnected via the bathhouse divine transmission line.

The available services appeared on a ''lernen figur'' and she searched through the karaoke-related options. However…

…''This isn’t good!

“The karaoke here only has old ''sarugaku''!”

“Old?”

“Testament! This is system is by the Yogakara brand, but since it uses the Reizei format, it’s primarily eastern songs and has almost nothing from the west! That means none of the newer Nijo School songs!”

“For example?”

“There’s nothing new like Red-zome Emon♀’s Number 59 or Semigan’s Rear Razor Burn and it’s all songs by old people like Roman Tomonokika and Mistaken King.”

“What does that meant?”

“There’s nothing I know how to sing!”

“Judge. I see.”

For some reason, the Satomi Student Council President held out her right hand, so they shook hands.

Then Kani looked at the song list again.

…''Which one can I sing…!?

She had heard there were some pretty big cultural differences between the Far East’s west and east sides. She understood the subtle flavor and strong flavor difference after eating some food here, but…

…''The song culture is different too!

But she was not sure what to do about it.

She could not see anything on the list she could sing karaoke-style.

Was this from an older age? Or did they just have a different idea of what was new?

What was she to do?

In the hopes of finding a hint, she tried asking a question.

“Umm. …Are there any easy-to-sing songs on here?”

Yoshiyasu felt her body temperature drop in the bath.

…''Easy-to-sing songs!?

None of them would be easy for her. The only songs she knew were the Song of Passage and the Satomi academy song.

But it would be dangerous to let her opponent know how bad she was at karaoke.

Let Kani take the lead and she might end up challenged to a song only Kani could sing.

…''Kh…!

She had to think. The song did not have to be a pop song or Gagaku.

“…Oh.”

''Come to think of it,'' thought Yoshiyasu. ''That vassal sometimes talks about a divine TV show. I never know what she’s talking about, but maybe I should have watched that.

She was pretty sure it was called Flying Battleship 1648. She remembered the vassal saying it had an aerial warship modeled after the Musashi firing a main canon on the Oda clan, but hadn’t a certain ship done something very similar in reality recently? A ship she had been riding, in fact.

…''I’m pretty sure that show’s theme song was super popular…

She sometimes heard it on the divine radio, but she only half-remembered the intro.

She did not remember the lyrics.

“Well!?”

“It seems I was thinking of a rather difficult one. Yes.”

She had to wonder just how ignorant she was here.

She could not let it get to her. If she was ignorant, she was ignorant.

But if she refused to accept that ignorance, the duel would be over and she would lose.

…''Now, then.

At that point a sudden thought occurred to Yoshiyasu: ''Wait.

She had done karaoke once.

It was an old memory and she did not remember it all that well, but it was a memory with her sister and him. She had been pressured into singing a song with her sister.

She did not remember the name of the song, but…

“…Sorry. There is a song I’m thinking of.”

“What is it!?”

“Well, I was hoping you knew. …It mentions vodka up the ass in the lyrics.”

“You mean the Cossack Enemy Footrace!?”

Yoshiyasu was shocked to find that clue was sufficient.

And she saw Kani hold up her ''lernen figur'' in celebration

“I can sing that! It was one of the theme songs for Dragoon-emon, a drama my dad grew up with 20 years ago! Do you know Dragoon-emon!?”

“Yes…the original opening song went ‘ahn, ahn, ahn, I’ve never done this before, Dragoon-emon’ and got banned almost immediately, right? In every episode of the show itself, the unit would be nearly wiped out until they pulled a mysterious holy gadget from a phase space, but that had a way of only exacerbating their problems.”

“But sometimes it would work out well, so you had to keep watching!”

Kani was only getting more excited. Probably because they were going to compete with a song her father liked.

And for Yoshiyasu, it was the song she had sung with her sister.

“Then I’ll send the lyrics page to you!”

Kani started to operate her ''lernen figur'' but came to a stop and smiled bitterly.

“We didn’t exchange divine mail addresses!”

“That’s fine. Just make me a copy of that sign frame.”

“Testament!”

Kani slid her hand to split the ''lernen figur'' in two and she passed one of them to Yoshiyasu.

Yoshiyasu accepted it and found it was a Catholic-style one. Something occurred to her as she viewed the white frame.

…''Not exchanging addresses there is just like me, isn’t it?

At the moment, she could justify it as being cautious. But was it thanks to her life on the Musashi that she could reflect on these things now?

''Anyway,'' she sighed in her heart before viewing the lyrics.

'''Leaving footprints in the snowy white, we march through the dark night.

'''Dreams of romance dance before our eyes. The enemy force is ten or twenty times our size. We shout like a maniac and charge in to attack.

'''Once every last one has been knocked to the snowy grass, they get the vodka penalty: 120 proof up the ass.

'''How about that? It's like a volcano in your pants. But don't blame us; just do the Cossack dance.

'''Khorosho khorosho khorosho khorosho

'''Setting our sights beyond the tower, we march through the festival hour.

'''We gallop forth to claim our prize. Their sword troops are eight or nine times our size. We hit their infantry and trample them by horse.

'''Once every last one has been flattened on the snowy grass, they get the piroshki penalty: hot spices up the ass.

'''Can you feel it in your guts? The Tatars can really fight. If you can feel the battle, then it's tartar sauce tonight.

'''Khorosho khorosho khorosho khorosho

…''What is this!?

She was now questioning whether she had actually sung this before.

No, she remembered her sister hopping around, so the khorosho part was definitely real.

And what kind of music did you sing this to?

…''Umm.

''This is an emergency,'' she told herself while opening a divine transmission sign frame.

“Huh?”

Asama tilted her head while sitting on a bench with Mitotsudaira, Horizon, and Toori.

“Um, Masazumi? Toori-kun and everyone else too. I just got a divine transmission from Yoshy-chan, but, um…can any of you sing the Cossack Enemy Footrace?”

Everyone turned toward Kimi.

Mitotsudaira began glaring as she spoke to Kimi.

“After causing us so much trouble this morning – and continuing to cause us trouble now – how about you be useful for once?”

“Heh heh. If you insist… Okay, I’ll show Yoshy how it’s done.”

Kimi pulled a microphone spell frame from her cleavage.

After receiving some audio data from the Asama Shrine Representative, Yoshiyasu played it on her sign frame.

She heard the Chancellor’s sister singing with some simple accompaniment. She had a habit of listening to audio spells in headphones mode so she could listen to divine transmissions while working on her god of war, but what she heard this time was different.

And as the lunatic’s voice reached her ears…

…''How in the world is she this good!?

The intonation carried the emotion so perfectly and there was no way Yoshiyasu could do the same. It would require a fair amount of training to even try to sing it in the same way.

…''I-I’ll take it as a lesson in how high level those upperclassmen are…

''And this is that weird girl…'' she thought as an odd secondary and tertiary shock set in, so she began typing on the sign frame keyboard once more.

“Huh?”

Asama tilted her head again.

She spoke to Kimi who was drinking ginger ale with the others.

“Kimi, Yoshy-chan said your singing is too good to be any help.”

“Eh? But I did it as casually as I do when I’m playing with the children in the park.”

“I’m kind of impressed the children can keep up…”

“Really? But if I’m too godlike for her, then who else can sing it for her?”

“Umm,” said Asama as she looked to someone else. Everyone else turned in the same direction. “Masazumi.”

“Wait! I don’t know that song!”

“Oh? You don’t? The show is pretty popular and, from Mikawa to Odawara, the series tends to start re-airing as soon as a previous airing ends.”

“Maybe so.” Masazumi tilted her head. “But during elementary and middle school, I spent my spare time studying and my dad is really strict…”

“Look! Look, Koni-tan! They’re re-airing Dragoon-emon in this region!”

“Ho ho? With a total of 4712 episodes, that is an impressive undertaking! And it seems they are using a special version of the OP! …Oh, this is the episode where Lieutenant Shotaluvavich returns after escaping the collective farm, fails to suppress her fetish, and gets thrown in solitary confinement. And when they give her a Walk-Through-Walls Icon to rescue her, she ends up falling into an open-air bath full of boys and is arrested a second time…”

“Indeed it is. A lot of children must have developed odd fetishes because of this show. They should re-air it more often! How about we do it on Musashi again!? Yes, let’s do that! Let’s re-air the best episodes, Koni-tan!”

“Nobu-tan! Nobu-tan! You’re already selecting the most severe episodes, aren’t you!?”

''My dad must be working hard right now,'' thought Masazumi with a sigh.

…''I guess this is part of the job too.

“Fine then. But tell the Satomi Student Council President not to expect much.”

After seeing Asama nod, Masazumi opened a microphone spell. It was for speeches, but she figured it was good enough.

She started singing while telling herself it was best to take it easy with these things.

About five minutes passed.

'''Asama:''' “Um, uh, Masazumi? I’ll try to put this in a way that won’t hurt you, but Yoshy-chan said that wasn’t what she expected and she’s wondering if hope has always been an illusion.”

'''Sticky King:''' “How philosophical…”

'''Vice President:''' “You didn’t try very hard not to hurt me, did you!? And don’t blame me! I said not to expect much!”

'''Me:''' “I just listened to that and there was a lot of clipping in the recording. Also, did you sing the whole thing in your speech-giving voice? That’s honestly kind of impressive.”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “Um, my king? I don’t think you need to criticize Masazumi so much.”

Yoshiyasu saw a third audio file arrive from Musashi.

It was titled “Bell + Adele”.

…''I’m skeptical…

She tried playing it.

“Oh, Yoshy-chan just said that one was fine.”

Suzu and Adele grabbed each other’s hands and celebrated at Asama’s words, so Mitotsudaira smiled bitterly.

“With both of you together, she might have been able to pick and choose which sound she liked more.”

“Judge. When it’s just me, everything tends to sound like a march.”

“A-and I…tend to be…too quiet.”

“Heh heh. Listen. That was made from both of your strong points, so you need to praise each other.”

Kimi sounded cheerful.

Then Mitotsudaira looked to Masazumi.

“As Vice President, how do you think things are going?”

“Judge. Thanks to Ookubo’s efforts, we now have two victories over Mouri. That means we can request both Logismoi Oplo from them. On the other hand…”

“Please not the udoooooooooooon!”

Summer uniformed Heidi held her head in her hands, but Masazumi only glanced in her direction and cleared her throat.

“We have a loss each to Date and Hashiba. We have an idea what Date will negotiate for, so we can keep an eye on their actions and enter negotiations. As for Hashiba…”

“That battle was fought with them as Houjou, right?”

“Judge. So I’m trying to come up with some way of using that.”

Futayo opened her mouth to speak after crunching through some watermelon seeds.

“Would we be able to get a win in on Houjou?”

“I feel like it would have been possible if the udon wasn’t out of money, but it would be difficult the way things are now. …It doesn’t look like Houjou Ujiteru intends to leave the café. That leaves Houjou Ujinao and the Mouse named Kotarou, but Mouri’s Reine des Garous and Seki should be moving on them.”

“Yes, Seki will probably duel Kotarou while the Reine des Garous duels Ujinao-sama.”

“My mother can be capricious, but she is not someone you can defeat when she actually takes things seriously.”

That was what made Hassan’s victory such an achievement.

As for the upcoming battles…

“Mogami Yoshiaki defeated Kani earlier, so Hashiba can make up for that loss if the Satomi Student Council President loses here.”

Masazumi crossed her arms. And…

“As an extra line of defense, this is a surprisingly important duel.”

“Now, then,” said Yoshiyasu as she stood up from the bath.

She climbed up to the washing area and lightly dried off her sweat with a towel.

…''I’ve mostly learned it.

She had memorized how the lyrics connected to the music and how to time for the intonation.

For a god of war pilot like her, this was far easier than memorizing her mission orders in one go. The route from Satomi to Houjou could be very complex when flown for an interception or invasion because it would involve lots of ascents and evasions through defended airspace.

When she applied that to the song, the tempo was like the speed and the intonation was like the ascents and descents. The volume of her voice may have been like the combat.

After checking through it five times, she had it all down pat.

“I’m ready. …Let’s do this, Kani Saizou.”

“Testament! I look forward to it!”

Kani left the bath as well.

She opened a ''lernen figur'' in her hand. It displayed the scoring for their karaoke.

It had three scored fields:

'''<Pitch – Volume – Likeness>

“You start with 100 points and you lose points for each mistake! Your final score is whatever you have left at the end of the song!”

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 6C Chapter 56|Chapter 56]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 6C Chapter 58|Chapter 58]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 6C Chapter 56

2018-06-16T21:45:41Z

162.158.134.115: Added missing word.

==Chapter 56: Clever Girl on the Chopping Block==
[[Image:Horizon6-C363.jpg|thumb]]
''You strike the future

''Abandon it and it becomes the past

''The sound of a hit fills the present

'''Point Allocation (Udon)

The Musashi group at the elevated festival could see the straight line of destruction in the Odawara city.

For a few hundred meters in that distant city, the rows of houses were smashed and the straw of their thatched roofs was blasted into the air.

The cloudy sky echoed with the sounds of breaking wood and the reverberation of household belongings rolling and scattering.

“Oh, the result is in.”

While standing below a pine tree on the hill, Masazumi looked at the displayed text.

She compared the report written there with the destruction in Odawara.

“Augesvarer.”

“Eh!? What is it!? Are you going to give me money!?”

“Face reality. …You’re one step closer to making some udon.”

“Wow!” Augesvarer smiled and clasped her hands together. “There’s a way to escape this, right!? Right!?”

“I’m glad to see you can remain positive, but you’re going to have to do what you have to do. Also, it seems Bertoni is actually still alive.”

“Eh?” Balfette pointed at the Odawara city. “He survived that?”

“Judge. He’s injured, but he apparently used most of his money on defense.”

“Wow, I just checked and we only have 130 yen left! Shiro-kun, you don’t deserve to live!”

Was his safety or the money more important to her?

…''Probably the money…

''In a way, she makes it seem more real than he does,'' thought Masazumi.

''But,'' she thought to change her focus. She could hear the secondary damages of houses collapsing under their own weight and the household belongings scattering around.

…''Augesvarer does have a point.

Just like she said, if he was broke and injured…

“Should we have him withdraw…?”

Katou Yoshiaki saw the confirmation of the duel result on her Magie Figur.

She took a breath and wiped away the sweat.

She made sure Weiss Fürstin’s parts were stored in their phase space, but…

“Oh?”

For some reason, the previous impact was preventing the storage spell from functioning properly. The parts must have bent because there was a problem with the spell information.

Thus, she activated it with emergency settings. She set it to forced storage mode and shoved the parts into the space.

Then she looked to the destruction in the distance.

“…We can do it.”

They could stop Musashi.

Of course, the Musashi Treasurer could not use near-unlimited money at the moment. This victory was an imperfect victory, just like Fukushima’s initial victory over the Musashi Vice Chancellor. However…

“Fukushima taught us what that means.”

They could not view that as a victory. They had to look at it differently:

“We can do it.”

She could not see the Musashi Treasurer at the other end of the street.

It did not seem he had decided to withdraw yet, but he had not escaped that unharmed. So…

“We can already win when the conditions are right. And you should eventually be within reach.”

Yoshiaki looked up into the cloudy sky.

She spoke into those heavens that had yet to clear up.

“I hope that ‘eventually’ is sooner rather than later.”

She lowered her gaze to the ''lernen figur'' displaying the result, but she did not announce her withdrawal.

The rest period lasted an hour. It would be useful to use that time to monitor the actions in Odawara and she wanted some time to rest as well. Instead of rushing, she needed to make use of her time. And…

...''What is Kani doing?

She had recently finished a reckless battle against Mogami Yoshiaki, but…

“A karaoke competition? She is having a crazy time for her first battle…”

Ookubo sensed danger within the bath.

…''This is not good…

She kept a smile on her face, but things were bad. As for where the threat was found…

…''The Satomi Student Council President can’t hold her liquor at all.

You could not even blame it on her being tired.

Ookubo had never before seen someone get drunk after two or three sips of super-weak umeshu.

It seemed pretty dangerous for a politician to have no alcohol tolerance whatsoever.

But at the same time, Kani was incredible.

Even though she had been soaking in the bath for a while, she downed the drinks like they were water. Ookubo ordered some stronger drinks to try to take her out, but…

“Oh, this is really sweet! What a weird flavor!”

…''That’s a strong Russian drink…

It was meant to get demons drunk and raise their body temperature in that frigid region. But when that girl drank it…

“There’s this tight feeling in my mouth! Thank you very much! …Oh, you can really taste these vegetables after the drink!”

“You’re really familiar with the etiquette for drinking.”

“Testament! My dad, mom, grandfather, and grandmother are all drinkers! I learned the different flavors by spending time with all of them!”

''So she had a quadruple gifted education?

Part of this would be inherited from her family, but hopefully it was not at four times the intensity.

And Ookubo’s protector was about as effective a shield as a piece of paper. When she glanced over at Yoshiyasu…

“Ahh…”

The swimsuit-wearing girl was resting her head on the edge of the bath. She had a towel folded up and covering her eyes to hide her expression, but…

“Um! Is the Satomi Student Council President not feeling well!?”

“Well, um, she, uh…”

Ookubo thought about it and realized she had seen something similar before.

“Are you familiar with the Satomi clan’s facial care treatments?”

“No, I’m not!”

''Neither am I.'' But Kani sounded interested.

“But I did see it on our divine monitor once! They cover their face, don’t they!?”

“Eh? Yes, um, they do.”

Ookubo nodded and unfolded the towel so it covered Yoshiyasu’s whole face.

The hot and damp towel clung to her face and rose and fell over her mouth as she breathed.

…''I’m not trying to assassinate the Satomi Student Council President here, am I?

''Well, it doesn’t matter. This is a dangerous situation and dealing with that takes precedence.

If Kani realized that one of them was nothing but a burden, her response to them might change.

And regardless of what she herself intended, she could receive instructions from Houjou or Hashiba.

Especially if that Ootani learned of the situation. As a program, he might insist Kani take the optimal action.

''I need to be careful,'' thought Ookubo.

Ootani was lying down in his Mouse form.

He was on top of the embankment by the ocean.

“It’s so boring on my own…”

He still needed about 10 hours before he recovered from his damage.

Until then, he had to stay put and leave everything to the ether fuel sent from the ley lines and his self-cleaning function.

He could not join the duels, there was no one else here, and he had no hobbies.

All he could do was sleep.

The commentary being sent from Odawara told him that Yoshiaki had defeated the Musashi Treasurer and Kani was engaging a Musashi fighter in a karaoke competition. Part of him wanted to protest risking national interests on karaoke, but he was in his Mouse form, Kani was fighting for Houjou right now, you could say this was a classy thing if you thought of it like the old poetry competitions, and…

“I suppose anything can be a good experience.”

That was his conclusion.

But he was still bored. He did have some snacks for ether lifeforms that the two Technohexen had left for him, but…

…''Were they trying to be nice when they left ones shaped like bones and bundles of straw?

''What do they think I am?'' he wondered just before he sensed a presence.

He looked up to find a cat.

It was the one that the Technohexen had been loving on the day before.

He gave a bitter “heh” of laughter, got up, and faced the cat.

“What? Are you all alone too?”

His full body was immediately hit by a cat slap from the right.

It happened so casually that not even Ootani managed to react.

By the time he gasped, he had fallen from the embankment and started rolling along the ground.

After three rotations, he scrambled to his feet.

“Y-you damn feline…!”

It had circled behind him. By the time he gasped again, a cat hammer had slammed down on him from above, pushed him to the ground, and started repeatedly striking him.

“Ah, wait, dammit! Don’t use me as a scratching board! Stop, wait, ahhhhh!? I’m supposed to be monitoring things in Odawara!! You damn feliiiiiiiiine!!!!”

''We are being monitored after all,'' thought Ookubo while sensing the danger of the situation.

This duel would influence the actions of nations.

She had requested the duel, but she had yet to specify a location. But once it began, that would be made known as well.

She had to do something about Yoshiyasu before then.

Of course, she did not have any sobering spells with her. The best she had was one to accelerate the metabolism, which would cause the girl to break down the alcohol more quickly.

She wanted to come up with another idea, but Kani would notice if she tried anything. So…

…''I guess I’ll go ask at the attendant’s booth.

They were sure to have something to help overheated customers.

So first she had to withdraw to the changing room and that required an excuse to leave the bath area.

“I’m going to go place another order. Kani-kun, is there anything you would like?”

“Eh? Can’t you use that menu ''lernen figur''?”

She was unexpectedly sharp.

…''If I said there’s a secret menu, she’d probably come with me.

So Ookubo smiled bitterly and shook her hand back and forth.

“I drank a lot, remember? I’m going to fix my makeup while I’m at it.”

“Ah! I see! …Good luck!!”

…''With what?

She stood up. She had a habit of placing her towel over her prosthetic left arm, but she was not trying to hide it. The prosthetic was just good for holding a towel. She smiled bitterly at that excuse.

…''I can be so stubborn even with myself.

With that thought, she dried off a bit and moved to the changing room.

''I haven’t been to a public bath in so long,'' thought Ookubo in the chilly changing room.

Her home was a mansion on the surface level, so it had its own bath. Her grandfather always took his bath first, but since she also had work to do, she generally did not take her bath until late at night.

It was unusual for her to take a bath at this time.

…''Speaking of unusual things since arriving in Odawara, I don’t often duel people either.

''This city is full of rarities,'' she thought while operating a sign frame to open a locker to her left. She pulled out her wallet and put on a stole so she would not get too cold.

The attendant’s booth was near the entrance on the left. It was a counter that looked like a hole opened in the wall. The changing room had rental tables for playing shogi or chess and you could even do some cooking in the back.

Ookubo asked a question of the automaton standing behind the counter.

“Excuse me. …Do you have any spells or whatever for sobering someone up?”

“—————”

There were two automatons behind the counter and the one out front ignored her. The one behind that moved. However, she also ignored Ookubo, stayed out of the other automaton’s way, and moved straight toward the very back of the counter area.

Ookubo nodded once while still being ignored.

“Please. How much does it cost?”

At the same time, she leaped to the left.

That decision proved to be a good one.

A blade stabbed straight into the spot she had just vacated.

“…!”

It was an enemy.

Ookubo’s bare feet sounded on the floor as she kept her balance.

Someone was hidden behind the counter.

The blade that swung from behind cover was a wakizashi-class double-edged knife. The thick blade was meant for use against demons or small dragons.

She managed to identify the wielder’s uniform by the sleeve visible on the arm swinging the long knife.

“Hexagone Française. …You’re Seki Masasada, aren’t you!?”

Seki was surprised by the enemy’s decision.

…''What incredible intuition…!

After losing sight of Yoshiaki, she had set her sights on Ookubo. The girl’s position had been readily apparent with Ujiteru and Genan in pursuit and a few other conditions had aligned to make sniping look like a good bet at first.

But then the Satomi Student Council President had arrived.

She had saved Ookubo from Seki’s sniper shot and sheltered her in the bathhouse.

Seki had known Kani was already in the bathhouse.

There was no reason to target Ookubo if Kani would defeat her.

She had considered searching for another opponent, but Mouri Terumoto wanted results from Houjou and Musashi.

Houjou had already had Genan drop out of the fight.

Ujiteru must have had some kind of idea because he had not done anything even after his rest period ended. He was working at a café and creating an unprecedented situation where “automaton Houjou Ujiteru is cooking soba in a maid uniform”, but since participants would gather there during their break periods, it was hard to make an attack.

Houjou also had Kotarou and Ujinao, but those two had gone to their base at Odawara Castle and were best left to the Reine des Garous.

As for Musashi, the curry boy had decided to withdraw and the merchant boy had been defeated by Hashiba.

That meant Seki had to go after Ookubo. The girl was a good opponent for her in a few different ways.

But if she was defeated by Kani, it would waste a lot of time and she might even withdraw.

Seki had wanted to end this with a sniper shot, but if she stayed put in a sniping position, another participant might attack her.

…''So I decided to enter the bathhouse.

“Well done.”

How had Ookubo sensed she was hiding there?

Seki felt like her timing had been poor, but it really just meant her opponent was better than her.

In that case, there was no point in hiding.

She nodded and used a ''signe cadre'' to report the beginning of the battle. She was really supposed to do that before starting, but the first attack had been meaningless anyway. She thought of it as a greeting.

“Here I go.”

Ookubo forcibly swallowed a heavy breath.

She was panicking on the inside. She forced her body to move as it tried to tense up and she started by opening a locker.

She did not have time to put on her clothes, but she could grab the two swords she normally wore at her hip.

She grabbed the stockers that doubled as large and small scabbards and she felt the weight of the weapons in her hands.

The sense of the metal did a lot to calm her heart. Then she started sweating.

…''That was way too close…

She had noticed Seki due to something seeming ever-so-slightly off.

There had been two automatons behind the counter: one in front and one behind.

They had ignored her because of the rules of this battle.

But if she ordered some medicine, they would ignore her but still bring the medicine to the counter. Instead of serving her the medicine, they would effectively grab some medicine and place it on the counter for no real reason.

So the rear automaton had started to fulfill her request.

She had walked to the back of the counter area to grab the sobering spell or whatever it would have been.

However, Ookubo had sensed something odd in that movement.

The automaton had stayed out of the other automaton’s way and moved straight toward the very back of the counter area.

…''That’s the kitchen entrance.

They would not keep a spell or medicine in the kitchen.

Something like that would be kept on the shelves to either side of the kitchen entrance.

And automatons always took the optimal action.

If they had a destination, they would take the shortest route there.

But this automaton had walked straight back instead of diagonally to the left or right.

If the medicine had been on the right, she would have walked diagonally to the right.

If the medicine had been on the left, she would have walked diagonally to the left.

''In that case,'' thought Ookubo. ''Someone had to be behind the counter on the left.

[[Image:Horizon6-C379.jpg|thumb]]

Someone, that is, who the automaton was ignoring but had to avoid.

In other words, an enemy.

That instantaneous decision led to the present situation.

“Kh…”

Ookubo breathed in to regather her body’s strength.

In that instant, someone moved up onto the counter as if sliding on their belly.

It was Seki. She held a pistol in each hand, both aimed at Ookubo.

Ookubo took action the moment she saw the glint of black metal. She moved forward.

“—————!”

Gunshots rang out.

Kani soaked in the bath while watching a recording of her battle on a ''lernen figur''.

The footage was focused on her during the battle. It was a program she had installed on the ''lernen figur''s she used for acceleration spells and other spells and the footage would often be fragmentary, but it followed her throughout.

She would use the recording for simulations and training later and it was much more complete once she started ejecting the spears. That was because the ''lernen figur''s used to control the eight spears were recording her. And as she watched that…

…''Wow, this is embarrassing…!

She was often shown footage of her training. That way she could check to see if she was moving like she wanted and locate any mistakes or flaws.

But an actual battle was different.

The camera’s “eye” moved based on her actions, so the image swung all over the place and her movements would not settle down. Based on her best from training, she had surpassed her normal momentum, but her accuracy had dropped to about 70%.

It was her first time on the battlefield, she had been up against a powerful enemy, and she had been pressed for time – a number of excuses came to mind, but as she watched the rough footage…

…''I’m just inexperienced…!

She had wanted to do her best during the battle against Yoshiaki and this let her review how well she had done.

However, there was one thing missing from this footage: sound.

Ahead and to her left, Yoshiyasu remained motionless while performing her facial care treatment.

Kani was trying to watch the footage without Yoshiyasu noticing, so she could not turn the sound on. However…

“Ah.”

There was a way. She could use an auditory spell to turn two ''lernen figur''s into headphones.

She could simply stop reviewing the footage if Yoshiyasu ended her facial care treatment and began to move.

…''That sounds good!

She was kind of excited because she realized she might hear Yoshiaki’s voice.

She drank some more alcohol from a bamboo mug floating on a tray and she booted up the auditory spell.

The two ''lernen figur''s that floated in a headphone shape were rotating, growing, and shrinking based on the sound they were playing. She grabbed them and placed them over her ears.

…''Huh…!?

She thought she had heard gunshots, but why would she hear that?

The recording spell may have picked up the sounds of some other battle while recording hers.

Yoshiaki appeared on the screen but immediately swung her body and vanished, so Kani focused.

That had been an incredible experience. She lowered her gaze toward the footage to remind her of that.

…''What kind of experience is this…!?

Ookubo defended against Seki’s gunfire.

Her locker’s door was at the same height as the counter, so she had flung it open with a snap of her left arm.

And…

“…!”

It hit the bullets. The two bullets had definitely been aimed at her face and upper chest.

But the locker door was made of wood and the bullets easily splintered it.

…''This is way too dangerous…!

Ookubo shouted in her heart, but she was already on the move.

She ducked below the splinters of the locker door and moved forward.

She kept low, but immediately twisted her body to take a legs-first sliding pose.

Seki had entered the changing room by sliding sideways over the counter, so Ookubo took a course to slip under her. Also…

“…Seyah!”

She drew her short sword and swung it upwards.

While Seki slid in from above, Ookubo made an attack from below as she passed by.

But Seki had seen it coming.

With a gun in each hand, she could not control her movement. So instead, she got up on her elbows and knees without slowing her sliding momentum.

“Hah…!”

She made a sideways jump from the counter and soared into the changing room.

She dodged Ookubo’s sword.

While sliding, Ookubo’s back caught on the floor and made a loud sound. It tugged at her skin and created a burning feeling.

But she slipped below the counter and reached the packed dirt floor of the entranceway.

She heard flapping clothing in the changing room behind her. Seki had landed.

Ookubo did not hesitate. She rolled forward with her short sword in hand.

“Later…!”

She leaped outside.

Ookubo went outside.

She could see the cloudy sky overhead. She belatedly realized she could hear cicada cries.

But she could not just stand around. Seki was coming from behind.

She had to escape quickly. She was unsure if she could successfully elude this opponent for the next half hour, but hesitating would not help.

…''Hurry…!

Still barefoot, she moved to the right. She held the short sword in her right hand and going right placed the bathhouse on her right, so she could use the weapon to deter the enemy.

But just as she chose right and attempted to pass by the entrance to the adjacent men’s bath…

“Eh?”

The next thing she knew, her body had been blown to the right, her vision went dark, and…

“————!?”

She realized she had been sent flipping sideways through the air.

She had been sniped and she had caught it on her prosthetic left arm.

A thought entered her mind for just a moment.

…''Two of them!?

She mistakenly thought the enemy was working with someone.

But that was not the case.

She had been sniped.

When she was fleeing from Genan, Yoshiyasu had saved her and then roughly pushed her to the ground. But that had been to move her out of the path of a sniper bullet.

Seki had made that sniper shot.

…''I’m so dumb…!

Seki had aimed pistols at her earlier, hadn’t she?

Why had she not connected that gun attack with the previous sniper shot?

Seki did not need to pursue her to fire on her. She only had to set up her sniper rifle at the bathhouse’s entrance and remotely control it with gravitational control or a spell.

Then she only had to get Ookubo to leave the bathhouse.

Even from the narrow entranceway, the sniper rifle could easily shoot the target.

And that was exactly what happened. Ookubo’s body was shaking from the impact and her limbs were spread out as she flipped through the air.

“Ah.”

She was sent right back into the darkness of the changing room from which she had left.

Seki breathed a sigh of relief.

…''My plan worked.

Musashi’s Representative Committee Head was collapsed on the floor in front of her.

She lay face down with her head turned toward the entrance. Her white stole almost seemed to be covering up her body.

“That looks about right for a summer nap…”

Seki raised her pistols. She stood about 5 meters away, so she could not possibly miss. However…

“…?”

Seki heard an unexpected noise and took a defensive stance.

She heard something moving overhead.

…''Was it a trap?

She had set up her own sniper trap, so she looked up, wondering if Ookubo had set up a trap of her own.

There was something there.

A silver color was stabbed into the entranceway ceiling at the end of the pole there.

It was the short sword Ookubo had held. When the girl was sent flying by the sniper shot, it must have slipped from her grasp. The blade was shaking unstably.

Seki estimated it would eventually fall down and roll along the packed dirt floor.

…''There is no cause for concern.

But just as she thought that…

“…Eh?”

Ookubo’s body was moving.

She was crawling to bring her trembling body outside.

Her knees were too weak to stand up, so she used her thighs and arms while lifting her hips and working her way toward the sunlight shining through the entrance. And…

“———————”

Ookubo suddenly raised her head.

Seki knew what she was looking at: the sword stabbed into the entranceway ceiling.

She was waiting for it to fall and moving into position so she could catch it.

…''It is no use.

Seki raised her guns and took aim.

She prepared to squeeze the triggers to fire, but…

“Musashi Representative Committee Head! Are you still not done!?”

A girl’s voice reached them from the bath.

…''Hashiba’s Kani Saizou?

Satomi Student Council President Satomi Yoshiyasu would be there as well. And based on Kani’s tone of voice, the three of them had been speaking together.

If they had formed some kind of pact, they might interfere here.

''I need to end this quickly,'' decided Seki as she aimed her guns at Ookubo.

“…Ah.”

The stole was in the way.

She wanted to target the girl’s torso or head, but the white cloth blocked her view.

Since the guns would make noise, they would only invite interference if she did not finish it in a single shot.

But targeting the legs sticking out from the bottom of the stole would not be fatal.

Meanwhile, Ookubo’s sluggish movements brought her to the entranceway’s packed dirt floor. She placed her right hand on the edge of the entranceway.

“——————”

And she pulled herself fully onto the packed dirt floor.

The sword was overhead and its blade was about to come free from the ceiling.

…''Not good.

Seki could not give her opponent even the slightest possibility of victory. She knew that with the certainty of her ''Belle de Marionnette'' sensibilities.

She would crush the enemy’s optimal.

That was the certain method a ''Belle de Marionnette'' used to achieve victory.

So she moved. To ensure the girls in the bath did not hear, she attached the pistols to her waist hard points and drew the long knife from her apron.

Then she took a virtual breath and moved.

She attacked crawling Ookubo from behind.

Seki took action.

She moved to strike Ookubo who was crawling toward where the short sword would fall.

She targeted the girl’s torso.

The stole was in the way, but there was no helping that. She targeted the body pushing the stole up from below.

She made the attack.

While holding the long knife in a backhand grip, she raised it to face height and swung her entire body forward to slam it down.

Or she should have.

…''Huh?

Just as she stabbed the blade toward the stole, something got in the way.

It was a scabbard. Ookubo had worn two scabbards on her waist hard points and the one for the short sword appeared from below the stole. It slid Seki’s long knife to the side.

It was made of lightweight metal, so it split as it protected its owner.

The long knife’s blade was deflected and it stabbed into the floor.

It made a dull sound.

Ookubo had avoided the attack and Seki decided it was no coincidence. That kind of defense and movement did not happen by random chance.

Ookubo could not move her body properly.

But she had made the optimum response under those circumstances.

Since she could not recover from her weakened state, she had not tried to hide it and instead used it to guide Seki’s actions. She had lured Seki into attempting to finish off a weakened opponent.

If you could predict your opponent’s attack, defending was easy.

And Ookubo had crawled to the entranceway.

Seki had been unable to let her go any further than that.

''But,'' thought Seki. ''I am in danger if I cannot surpass her expectations.

So while pulling the long knife out of the floor…

“…!”

Seki kicked her right foot into crawling Ookubo’s legs.

She rolled the girl’s body past where the sword was stabbed into the ceiling.

Her slender body rose into the air, her back slammed into the entranceway column, and she bounced off to roll along the dirt ground.

But that was not all.

“This is in the way.”

While walking forward in pursuit of Ookubo, Seki swung her long knife upwards from forward to back.

She let go of the long knife and used gravitational control to strike the short sword in the ceiling.

With a metallic clang, the short sword came loose and stabbed into the changing room’s floor.

Ookubo no longer had a weapon.

And Ookubo coughed quickly.

The kick and the impact from rolling outside had reverberated through her body. Her lungs were shaken and she must have been having difficulty breathing.

Seki approached the girl who doubled over and tried to breathe while lying on her side.

“Excuse me.”

Seki lightly but sharply shoved her toes below the girl’s head.

This blow did not have the force to send her flying, but that was one of the human body’s weak points. Sending a vibration through the throat and sternum would knock the breath out of her and drain her body of strength.

That knowledge was used for assassinations.

Before killing the target, you struck a weak point like that so they would be too limp to scream, struggle, or tense up.

That made it easier to remove the blade from their body and prevented anyone nearby from noticing.

As Musashi’s Representative Committee Head, this girl would not be aware of that.

Thus, she would have no countermeasure for it.

After an instant of tension, Ookubo’s body went limp.

Seki used her toes to roll her onto her back and then prepared her long knife. She was prepared to lean forward and drive the blade into Ookubo.

Then she noticed something.

When the stole fell away, swimsuited Ookubo was missing something: her left arm.

…''Huh?

The stole had been hiding that fact all this time. And just as she saw it, Seki saw something stabbing out from the left side of her chest.

It was a blade.

While she leaned forward, this attack had come from above and pierced through her back. It was…

“A sword…!?”

She looked up to the left side of her back and saw a white arm holding a sword.

It was Ookubo’s prosthetic.

Ookubo caught her breath.

…''It made it.

She had never been relying on the short sword stabbed into the ceiling.

Her hopes had been riding on the prosthetic arm and sword caught on the eaves at the entrance.

When she was sniped and blown away, she had made a few predictions about the future.

The most important was that the impact would keep her from moving for a while.

If she could not move, carrying a weapon was meaningless. In fact, there was a chance the enemy could steal the weapon and it could lead the enemy to be extra cautious or extra quick to finish her off.

So she had immediately drawn the sword and used the flailing of her limbs to remove her prosthetic arm.

Then she had left them elsewhere so she could reclaim them once she recovered.

She had been fortunate the enemy kicked her.

She had not known exactly when the arm and sword stabbed into the eaves would fall down.

But when she rolled outside after being kicked, the blade in the eaves had been visible and hitting the column had shaken it. So…

“It made it.”

She could move her body. She had been surprised when Seki kicked her in a weak point, but her mental preparedness had helped her recover more quickly.

…''Honestly.

“…Ahh.”

She took in a lungful of air and moved her body.

Seki stood more above her than in front of her.

The automaton looked unsure what to do about the sword stabbing into her back.

That created an opening.

Ookubo took action. Her body was still trembling, but there was one part that would not be shaken and that she could still move.

“My prosthetic arm…!”

Something spilled from Seki’s back and into view.

It was a white prosthetic left arm. The upper arm had split from the earlier sniper shot, but Ookubo hopped up toward its connector.

She only had to move for an instant.

The arm connection could be established in an instant. She had paid a lot of money to have it special made that way.

“—————”

Seki understood what was happening and stabbed down with the long knife in her right hand.

But it was too late.

Ookubo connected the arm to herself as if slamming her body into Seki’s left side.

As for the long knife…

“…!”

She pulled back with the prosthetic arm to push the blade deep into Seki’s back.

The long knife was deflected when it hit the sword stabbing out of her chest.

Then Ookubo moved forward.

As if passing by Seki, she threw her weak body forward but gave accurate instructions to her prosthetic arm.

“Cut her down…!”

The blade had entered Seki’s body diagonally.

When she forcibly swung the sword around, it sliced through Seki’s body from the left side to the right of her chest.

A tremor ran through Seki’s body. Her senses had been instantaneously cut off in response to the slice from the foreign object.

This opponent felt no pain.

But regardless, Ookubo made a few more motions while continuing to hack through Seki.

The swinging blade sliced through the automaton’s torso and smashed the internal components.

“———————”

Just as the drawn sword broke, Ookubo’s body left the entranceway and rolled into the changing room.

Ookubo finally relaxed her body.

She wobbled on the changing room floor and rolled from her right shoulder.

Her slender body bumped back-first into the bottom of the counter, but she stopped there.

The exhaustion was intense, but words escaped her mouth:

“I did it…”

She had won.

This was a Mouri opponent. It was another Mouri victory following Hassan Furubushi’s.

With two victories, they were as good as guaranteed to get the two Logismoi Oplo.

She had achieved success.

That put a smile on her face and she did not fight it when her body collapsed to the left.

A moment later, a long knife was slammed below her left collarbone.

“…!?”

Ookubo’s eyes widened at being pinned to the wall by a blade and she looked forward.

Seki was there.

She had a blade sticking out from the right side of her chest and she touched the left-to-right slice in the chest of her clothing.

“My apologies. …I failed to correct for your falling motion and stabbed you in suboptimal spot.”

She then pushed on the long knife.

It was a casual but forceful movement.

“Ah…!”

The thick blade below Ookubo’s left collarbone moved with slippery speed as it left her shoulder and entered the wall.

There was barely any pain. The edge of the blade only felt like having something sharp pressed against her.

She only felt an unpleasant sensation like something was leaving her body. Almost like her body had become a mass of flesh and bones meant to let a blade pass through it.

“Please do not exhale. It will relax your muscles and allow the bleeding to begin.”

Seki spoke calmly, but her body strained. And all of a sudden…

“Nn.”

She expressionlessly released a breath, so she must have taken considerable damage.

However, she literally “extended” her left arm backwards.

She released the joints to send her hand back toward something.

“I will borrow this short sword.”

She held it in her left hand.

Her right hand pushed on the long knife and her left hand raised the short sword.

And she leaned over Ookubo.

…''Kh!

Ookubo grabbed the hilt of the long knife with her left hand.

But that hand merely held Seki’s hand.

Seki had the stronger grip and Ookubo could not press her weight down on it like Seki could.

“Shall I break your fingers? I have determined I can end this while I do so.”

Seki moved to strike with the short sword.

In that instant, Ookubo pulled her right leg back to her chest. She pressed her right knee against her chest.

“If you’re taking the short sword, then I’ll borrow this.”

Her toes had grabbed a black metal pistol which she passed to her right hand. It was one of the ones at Seki’s hip.

“Sorry about having sticky toes, but don’t worry. I won’t let anyone hear the gunshot.”

Ookubo pressed the muzzle against Seki’s stomach and pulled the trigger.

Seki was shot at point-blank range.

The impact hit her stomach. But…

…''I can endure this!

She was wearing an armor apron and the maid uniform was also armored.

Plus, her current ''Belle de Marionnette'' body was an anti-machine model. Her body was covered by flexible armor and could absorb the impact of a bullet.

She concluded that she could endure two shots.

Besides, her opponent was exhausted. Ookubo’s movements when making the previous sword attack proved that she had yet to recover from the damage of the initial sniper attack.

Her arm could not bear the gun’s recoil.

Two shots was likely her limit. She could fire two shots, but her hand would fail to hold onto the gun for the third. And then…

…''It is my turn!

But just as Seki thought that, a third shot hit her stomach.

“…!?”

A fourth and fifth shot arrived. And…

“Ah…!”

Her apron was torn apart and something was destroyed below: her body.

Her stomach structure split open, and…

“So it took six shots.”

As the force of the impacts accumulated and reverberated in the core of her body, Seki felt herself floating.

…''How!?

Her unsteady vision looked down to see Ookubo looking up at her.

She saw something at the girl’s throat: light.

It was the ether light of a spell charm.

“This was for the Satomi Student Council President, but of course I’ll use it if it’s there on the counter. …It’s a sobering spell. In other words, it activates the mind,” said Ookubo. “Simply put, it wakes you up and lets you move your body. …And now to end this.”

She fired the seventh shot. And on the eighth shot…

“Oops.”

She must have missed Seki’s floating body because the bullet flew past the counter.

The automatons behind the counter looked up at the newly-formed hole in the ceiling but ignored the fighters.

At the same time, the gunshots had caused Seki’s right hand to go limp, so Ookubo’s prosthetic arm deflected the fingers holding the long knife.

As Seki watched, Ookubo forcefully pulled out the long knife along a perfectly straight path.

Seki sensed danger.

The enemy was following her optimum, but Seki could not move.

The repeated gunshots had lifted her body into the air with her upper body collapsed nearly 90 degrees forward.

She only had the short sword in her left hand.

“—————!”

As she forcefully swung that around, Ookubo had already pulled out the long knife and stood up.

A moment later, her white left hand grabbed ahold of Seki’s face.

And she used the full strength of that prosthetic.

“I sometimes work part-time in the engine division. …I’ve had it reinforced.”

She forcefully slammed Seki’s head onto the counter while it was turned to the left.

A powerful blow struck the right side of Seki’s head and her vision shook.

Of course, her face was turned to the side. And it was turned so the back of her head was facing Ookubo.

''She got me,'' thought Seki.

Her opponent had done damage to her chest, her stomach, and now her head.

Every one of her ''Belle de Marionnette'' cores had been damaged beyond the point of on-the-fly adjustments.

…''Princess…!

Her princess had wanted a victory over Houjou or Musashi. At this rate, she would be unable to provide that.

For a ''Belle de Marionnette'', it was humiliating to fail to grant her master’s wishes.

Besides, combat was her only strong point. She was a defective doll. Her princess had still given her a position of importance, so if she could not repay her for providing that raison d'être…

“Why did I even inherit this name…!?”

But she did have one stroke of luck. When she hit the counter, the sword stabbed into her chest exited through her back.

Without that impediment in her chest, her body no longer strained when she moved her arms.

…''This is my chance.

Ookubo stood to her right. She had to stand there because she had to hold Seki in place with her prosthetic left arm. However, that meant she could only attack using her right hand.

Even if she used the long knife, it would be a right-handed attack past her left arm, and how much power could she really place behind that?

Ookubo must not have known what to do next because she gathered strength in her left arm.

The inner shell of Seki’s head strained as it was pushed down onto the counter.

But despite the static entering her vision, she passed the short sword from her left hand to her right below the counter. She spun the hilt around in her hand and grasped it tightly.

…''I will take this victory…!

She swung the short sword outwards.

Her target was Ookubo’s left side. The slash would be fatal to a human.

But that was fine. Nothing mattered more than victory right now. So she released her elbow joint mid-slash to make a high-speed snap toward Ookubo.

A moment later, Seki noticed two oddities.

First, her sword strike had sliced through empty air. And second…

…''Eh?

The prosthetic arm pressing on her head had gone limp.

Those two oddities could only mean one thing.

Ookubo had removed the prosthetic arm from her shoulder and dodged.

Seki understood that Ookubo’s movement was a form of evasive action.

She had likely done everything she could to dodge Seki’s attack.

As a result, she had given up on holding Seki in place. That meant Seki had her freedom back, but it also invited a certain danger.

Ookubo’s left arm no longer got in her way.

…''Not good…!

Seki knew she had to move quickly.

At the same moment, the limp prosthetic arm fell away from the side of her face.

That opened up the left side of her vision.

She could see the ceiling.

And she saw something there.

A shutter was lowering toward the counter.

“—————!?”

It was a security shutter that would close to protect what was inside.

The ''Belle de Marionnette''s had ignored her throughout the battle.

But they would react to the surrounding situation.

Earlier, Ookubo had fired on her, but she had missed the final shot which had flown past the counter. That had not been the result of carelessness.

It had been to make the automatons close the shutter.

And sure enough, the security shutter was lowering. Its metal material was made to resist both physical and spell attacks.

“Princess…!”

Seki moved. She moved her head to pull it out before the shutter fell.

“You can have this back.”

The long knife pierced her through the back and into the counter below her.

She was pinned in place and her head groaned as the shutter tried to crush it. However…

“—————!”

She pulled her body out.

She let the long knife slice through her chest and forcibly distorted the shape of her head to pull herself free.

“Ha.”

With control of her full body restored, she stood up.

Ookubo saw something unbelievable.

An automaton covered in broken parts stood before her.

The shutter had left a mark on the left side of her head, there was a horizontal slash through her chest, there was a vertical slash up through her right collar bone, and the stomach of her inner suit shook past the torn apron.

The only thing supporting her at this point was a portion of the external armor and her gravitational control.

But she turned to face Ookubo.

“Princess…”

Seki opened a ''signe cadre'' and spoke into it.

“I will fulfill your request.”

…''That’s crazy!

What could she do in that state?

But Ookubo heard a voice coming from that ''signe cadre''.

It was Mouri Terumoto.

Her voice was staticky over the divine transmission.

“Well done. I’m following the situation. …You did well to stand back up on your own at the end there, Seki Masasada. My ''Belle de Marionnette'' had better not lose.”

Listen.

“Don’t lose. …Simply ''accept'' defeat.”

Those words stopped Seki’s movement. And she finally nodded.

“Testament. Therefore…”

“Testament. Move on to the next one, Seki. And before that, show her the conqueror’s courtesy.”

“Testament,” repeated Seki before moving again.

Ookubo saw the damaged automaton placed a hand on her chest and kneel.

“In the name of Lady Terumoto’s generosity…I will accept defeat here, Lady Ookubo Nagayasu.”

In front of Ookubo, the automaton bowed once and then stood up.

Ookubo felt like the automaton was smiling a little.

But Seki’s eyes were barely focused beyond her cracked glasses.

Even so, she spoke.

“I am so glad the princess has not given up on me.”

“…Where will you go now?”

“I will make what readjustments I can…and move on to Houjou.”

With that, Seki bowed again.

If the previous one had been for her master, this one would be from her personally.

In an instant, Seki vanished.

Seki Masasada was a Mouri ninja. No matter how badly damaged she was, she would not do an inadequate job as long as she knew her master had not given up on her.

“Honestly…that really is crazy.”

Ookubo muttered to herself as she slumped down to the floor.

“Oh, man.”

She intentionally opened her mouth wide as she spoke.

“I can’t keep going like this.”

The warm bleeding below her left collarbone had started on her back as well.

A few sign frames appeared and began healing with divine protections. It had been a sharp blade, so the wound would close up before long. She knew further treatment would be necessary to ensure the disturbance to the blood flow did not leave a mark as it healed. However, that was not her present concern.

“Hey, excuse me.”

She turned toward the shuttered counter and placed an order.

“Could I get something to wipe myself off with, some food with a lot of iron, and something to drink?”

Also…

“I’m curious about the karaoke in the bath, but I want to sleep so bad.”

''I really am exhausted,'' she thought deep in her heart.

The shutter slowly opened behind her.

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 6C Chapter 55|Chapter 55]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 6C Chapter 57|Chapter 57]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 6C Chapter 55

2018-06-13T22:39:10Z

162.158.134.115: Missing words and formatting errors fixed.

==Chapter 55: Surprise Attacker at the Festival==
[[Image:Horizon6-C317.jpg|thumb]]
''Um, uh, I

''…What is happening to me…?

'''Point Allocation (Beginner)

Mitotsudaira heard a sudden voice while she and the silver chains cleaned up after eating.

It was Masazumi who was stacking up paper plates.

“Huh? What is this?”

“…What is what?”

“Judge,” said the girl while holding up something related to the next duel for a Musashi fighter.

A request had been sent in advance of the actual duel in the Odawara city.

“That is from the Representative Committee Head, isn’t it?”

She had evidently found a convenient opponent. But she must have needed time to prepare or something because she had sent in a request to ensure she was not attacked or challenged to a duel by another opponent in the meantime.

It was a solid defensive move that was very much like her.

And it provided the type of duel the Representative Committee Head was requesting.

“…Karaoke?”

“I could see someone settling on that format after some discussion. …Think of it like Uta-awase.”

“Judge,” agreed Kanou who was waiting to the side. She looked to the Odawara city before continuing. “She often participates in karaoke to entertain guests. She can earn very high scores, so I assume she is using that to ensure an advantage over her opponent in this ‘duel’.”

“I see…”

''There are so many different ways to fight,'' thought Mitotsudaira.

“Hey, everyone, the festival stands are about to be switched out for the night ones, so this is your last chance to order any of the afternoon foods.”

Some occasional blue gaps were visible in the sky as Tenzou walked down from the festival stands.

Tenzou pointed back toward the festival.

“The stands are being swapped out and I only stopped by to inspect the new stands, but I didn’t see any problems. The old stands are selling their food for cheap, so if you want to stock up, now would be the time.”

Adele clenched her right fist when she heard that. And Naomasa raised her hand.

“I’m going to go cool off back at the main base. Righteousness has apparently returned to the Musashi up above, so I want to compare the malfunctions and damaged parts to Suzaku’s patterns.”

“Are you gathering autonomous movement data, 6th Special Duty Officer?”

“More or less. And by checking which parts Suzaku tends to damage more often, I can guess where Righteousness will damage itself. Units that can fight autonomously are rare even on the Musashi, so I’ve suddenly gotten a lot busier when it comes to data management and application.”

“Judge.” Tenzou nodded but then looked to Masazumi and the others who were discussing something. “Did something happen in Odawara?”

“Ookubo says she’ll be fighting a duel via karaoke, so we were discussing what kinds of songs are popular these days. …That’s an area I have almost no knowledge in.”

“Is that so? …Well, competing in verse is an ancient tradition used by the Heian nobles and later in renga matches. It sounds perfect for a literary type like Ookubo-dono.”

“That’s true,” everyone agreed.

Just then, Mary stood up within the group. She held up a bag of burnable trash in each hand.

“Master Tenzou.”

“J-judge! If you were about to throw out that trash, I could take it for you.”

“Oh, no. I can go too, so please take this one.”

She handed him one of the full bags. After checking the location of the garbage dump on a sign frame, she opened a few more sign frames and bowed toward Asama.

When she noticed Mary’s action, Asama smiled and waved back.

Then Mary turned toward Tenzou with a smile.

“Okay, let’s go, Master Tenzou. And, um…”

Tenzou knew what she was going to say, so he said it first.

“Mary-dono, how about we take a look around the afternoon festival while we still can?”

At first, Mary did not understand what he had said to her.

…''Eh?

He had ''invited her'' out for some fun while in front of everyone. She hesitated over that fact.

Just as Masazumi had said in the divine chat earlier, they had their diplomatic relations with England to worry about. So it was always her who invited him to share in her interests and curiosities.

Also, he could be somewhat shy. She knew full well that he was taking good care of her and she felt blessed by that, but…

…''He generally only invites me to do something when it is necessary…

And this was in front of everyone. He tended to avoid festivals and other public areas like this.

That was why she had tried to invite him while giving him a good excuse, but…

“U-umm.”

He had predicted it and invited her instead.

''Most likely,'' she thought, ''he invited me himself so I wouldn’t have to invite him.'' But when she thought about it…

…''He doesn’t think I am an indecent girl who does the inviting herself, does he?

She wanted to deny it. She wanted to say that was not what this was about. But…

“Um, uh…”

She could not raise her lowered head. She could feel heat gradually filling her downturned cheeks.

And what was this?

…''Water lilies?

Ether water lilies were starting to blossom around her.

''What do I do?'' she wondered.

…''I’m being indecent, yet I feel so happy that Master Tenzou invited me himself…

Asama saw something unbelievable.

Next to her face, Hanami frantically pointed a sign frame her way. It showed the surrounding ley lines growing abnormally active.

Because Mary had some dryad blood in her veins, her emotions were interfering with the ley lines and raising their energy level. The ether flowers blossoming around her were proof enough of that.

“No…”

Mary brushed away the surrounding flowers without raising her head.

She was embarrassed to have her emotions so visible. However…

'''Gold Mar:''' “You’ve really done it now, Tenzou…”

'''Mar-Ga:''' “That was way too much of a surprise attack… This is the kind of bombshell you drop when you aren’t used to dealing with women.”

'''Flat Vassal:''' “Um, what are you talking about?”

Asama understood. At times like this, Mary would usually invite Tenzou.

Because Tenzou felt so much responsibility concerning her, he took good care of her. After all, she was a crucial part of England’s future. Carelessly interfering with that would cause an international incident.

Mary understood that as well, so she made a point of inviting him herself.

…''When she does the inviting, the responsibility lies with England.

But Tenzou had broken that rule. He had invited Mary before she could invite him.

It had probably been a casual thing for him. It had looked like he simply spoke up so Mary would not have to invite him out for some fun before a major battle. However…

'''Asama:''' “For Mary, that flipped a lot of things on their head and affirmed everything…”

Mary must have thought she would continue inviting him until she was confident she could act as a part of England’s history.

But that had changed.

The change had probably come from Masazumi and Mary’s earlier exchange.

Tenzou probably had not thought about it too deeply, but he had made a decision.

He had decided to enjoy the present instead of just using the present as insurance for the future.

'''Gold Mar:''' “But Ma-yan has no idea what to do since he sprung it on her without warning.”

Because…

'''Gold Mar:''' “Tenzou’s in the smooth mode he used to confess and he’s saying he’ll continue on like this forever.”

Mary was troubled.

…''What am I supposed to do…?

She could not look him in the eye.

No, he had only invited her to the festival. So couldn’t she just accept that invitation?

She only had to be as detached as her sister.

…''I-I can’t…!

It had been too much of a surprise attack. He had suddenly accepted her and everything that entailed.

This was not the same as going shopping, on walks, or to the academy. Even if it was a history recreation, they were essentially going out for some fun before a battle.

And he had cut her off so she would not have to act indecently in front of others.

Her invitation played no role here.

If anything happened, all of the responsibility would lie with him.

She understood what that meant.

But that was the entire point.

When he had confessed to her, she had felt like she could leave everything with him and trust him. That same feeling existed in the present rather than in some distant future.

Everything from that London night to now had not just been insurance for the future.

It had all been the same.

She had been relieved to have him taking care of her, but she may also have felt a happy resignation about that luxurious time.

So this had been a surprise attack.

She had indecently felt relieved in their happiness and thought it was all about a distant future.

“Um.”

But now she felt she could experience unrestrained happiness in the present.

And when she realized that, she saw a color around her.

It was white.

The ether water lilies were blossoming so wildly that waving her hand around only spread them meaninglessly around.

Just then, she heard his voice.

“Mary-dono, the fun does not really begin until we reach the festival.”

Tenzou suppressed the urge to run away.

…''I need to concentrate! Now is the time to concentrate!

He knew Mary enjoyed the happiness they currently had, but he also know she felt some dissatisfaction concerning him. On the night that Sanada’s Torahide had fallen on them and caused a commotion, she had gotten drunk and made some complaints.

She was happy the way things were and she thought it was good enough, but she still felt some dissatisfaction.

It was a feeling she could not quite put to words.

She had mentioned moving to another room, but that came from her desire to sleep with their futons side by side.

If she did not like sleeping so far apart…

“…”

''The problem is my lack of assertiveness,'' thought Tenzou.

On that night, Mary had eventually settled down with her head in his lap and she had not remembered it all the following morning. But he remembered it all quite well, including how she had placed her chest on his head while she was awake.

He felt really bad about it all.

…''Mary-dono is always working so hard at everything.

Perhaps because she had lived with the assumption of an imminent death, she treasured each and every day. And she tried to experience and gain as much as possible during those days.

In that sense, he did not treat her right.

He was trying to take good care of her, but that was a form of “preservation”, not a means of mutual improvement.

They wanted to be together no matter what it meant for England or the Far East, so they would have to spend their time together in a way that allowed them to hold their heads high when faced with the people they had betrayed.

So he had tried saying it. And Mary had blushed and hung her head.

Tenzou had not been using a ninja technique like Smooth Response or Tasteful Handling. He had tried to invite her in as carefree a way as he could. That was all. However…

…''Incredible.

Water lilies were blossoming all around Mary.

They were in public and near the others. She must have been embarrassed that everyone could see the flowers that were her emotions because she restlessly tried to brush away the nearby ones. However, they continued to blossom and they began to pile up around her.

All he had done was invite her in public without letting his fear stop him. Was that really enough to make her this happy?

''If so,'' he thought. ''This was for the best.

They had Masazumi and the others for maintaining things between England and the Far East, and they could prepare for battle if need be. Carrying a burden yourself did not mean you could not ask others for help.

They were residents of Musashi.

'''10ZO:''' “Masazumi-dono, on the topic of national sovereignty, where do the people fall into the three factors needed to establish a nation?”

'''Vice President:''' “Judge, they are protected and given a guarantee by the nation’s laws and military might. Even when their opponent is something greater than an individual. …That is why people desire the framework of a nation.”

“Judge,” replied Tenzou before looking to Mary.

Hanging her head did not hide her blushing or her emotions. She was very different from normal.

“Mary-dono.”

When he called out to her, her shoulders finally shook.

“…Y-yes?”

In order to look at him, she lifted her gaze up to around his neck but then stopped.

And he could tell her gaze was dropping back down as if being boiled away.

So he held out his right hand.

“Let’s go.”

She did not immediately respond. Two and then three seconds passed. The span of a breath passed after that.

…''Th-this silence is saying “I’m sorry!”, isn’t it!?

But just as he thought that, Mary suddenly grabbed his proffered right hand between her hands.

She held it tightly.

Her hands were covered in scars which were not immediately noticeable. Those hands and fingers were the proof of her life on England’s third and fourth levels and they had cut down three hundred people.

They held his hand as if biting it. It was a desperate grip that was so like her.

And after fully latching onto his hand, she moved her upper body vertically.

“Y-…yes. Judge.”

She responded with something of a false start and she no longer tried to stop the scattering flowers.

Tenzou gave her his right hand and lowered his hips slightly.

He picked up the trash bag she had dropped. Or he pretended to. Instead, he pressed his lips against the back of her hand as it held his right hand.

“Ah…”

The flowers blossomed all the more. Tenzou stood up and lifted the trash bag in his left hand.

“How about we get going, Mary-dono?”

Asama watched as the couple formed in England walked off.

Mary held his right hand in her left while her right hand held his arm. As for him…

“—————————”

He briefly looked back and nodded.

Once he faced forward again and walked off, everyone else nodded too.

'''Mar-Ga:''' “…Yes, I understand perfectly. …You’re saying I can use this in a doujinshi…”

'''Gold Mar:''' “Tenzou can be really reckless sometimes…”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “But those times almost all have to do with Mary, don’t they?”

While the wolf breathed a sigh of astonishment and envy, Asama felt a cold sweat in her heart.

…''I look that way too, don’t I?

''Both of us look just like “a maiden in love”!'' she thought about herself and Mary.

This likely applied to Mitotsudaira as well.

However, there was something else that applied to Mary as much as them.

…''Mary also seems to have skipped straight past the romance phase and entered the pure love phase.

Since Asama and Mitotsudaira had known him for so long, they had not really gone through that phase either.

But it was hitting them now.

Realizing your own or someone else’s feelings after the fact was not an easy thing. The rebound from the past was so harsh that she was losing sight of herself.

Of course, there was no need to change the relationship from before.

But she had a choice now that she had realized what a truly happy environment she lived in.

Should she treat him even better than before?

Or should she keep everything the same, hide the happiness in her heart, and trust in their mutual understanding?

She felt that everyone was different, but everyone was a beginner when they first noticed that happiness.

So they would not know what to do about it.

Anxiety and unhappiness could be countered with purification and action. Mary was a well-made girl. She would be able to do the same.

But no one was accustomed to that happiness. When you became old enough to look to your future, you would think your life would end within your current framework.

But that was not necessarily the case.

Your life could also become a life spent with someone else.

And if that happened, that framework was easily broken.

Especially if you made an attempt to change your usual self.

That was true even for Mary who had already been so close to Tenzou. Asama watched those two walking away. Mary was hanging her head and being half-dragged along, but Asama smiled a little.

She tried to say “that can’t be easy”, but different words left her mouth.

“How nice…”

Asama gasped.

…''H-how nice!? What am I saying!?

She felt like her emotions had been far too honest lately. But if that was the case…

…''Then this isn’t a lie.

She had thought that things could not be easy for Mary and Tenzou, and that was not a lie. But that was less important.

It could not be easy, but it seemed nice.

“…Wow.”

“Wow what?” asked Mitotsudaira.

…''She heard me!?

Had she also heard the previous “how nice”?

Asama gave her a hesitant glance and saw Mitotsudaira’s cheeks were red. Past her, the idiot sister kept a straight face while holding a hand to her ear and directing her ear toward Asama, but that girl was abnormal and was best ignored.

Then Mitotsudaira elbowed her right arm.

Asama gave her a questioning look and Mitotsudaira whispered to her with a frown.

“There’s nothing wrong with feeling that way. …I thought the same thing.”

“H-ho ho?”

This friend did not often offer her raw feelings like this.

So there was something she wanted to say.

“Um, Mito? I kind of want us to die together right here, but can I ask something?”

“…That is awfully morbid, but what is it?”

“Well.” Asama took a half step toward Mitotsudaira and spoke while still facing forward. “Did you think ‘how nice’ while watching Mary and Tenzou-kun?”

“Judge. I did.”

“And did you also think ‘that can’t be easy’ beforehand?”

“Judge. I did.”

“Then,” said Asama. “If you imagine us in their place, do you think things ‘can’t be easy’ between yourself and Toori-kun?”

…''Wow.

Mitotsudaira was hit by a harsh counter.

That was true. When she thought of them in those positions, she did not think it “can’t be easy” like she did when it was someone else.

It was not a burden. Because it was necessary for her.

So when they thought of themselves in Mary’s place, only the “how nice” remained.

She nearly fell to her knees when she realized that.

“Well done…”

Asama had done an impressive job of guiding her here.

…''T-Tomo really is better than me when it comes to using words…!

Asama had noticed this, so she had dragged Mitotsudaira into it as well.

“Well, um…do you admit defeat?” asked Asama while blushing.

“Wh-why do you sound so victorious!? You stepped on that trap first.”

“Ho ho? So you admit I am ahead of you?”

“That is not something to brag about.”

But at the same time…

“Mary has a ways to go too, doesn’t she?”

While the two of them relaxed their shoulders and watched the couple leave, they heard a voice from behind.

“Heh heh… This is a happy thing for Mary. She doesn’t have to be so obedient anymore.”

“…How long have you been listening in, Kimi?”

“Oh, come now. I wasn’t eavesdropping. …The voices of defenseless girls just have a way of reaching people’s ears.” Kimi narrowed her eyes. “Aren’t you glad you aren’t such a straitlaced girl anymore?”

“Don’t put it like that…!”

Mitotsudaira gave Asama a sidelong glance to say arguing with Kimi was pointless.

But Kimi was already embracing Horizon from behind.

“Now, then. Horizon, let’s review some data afterwards. We need to submit the results of last night’s photoshoot to have posters printed for the two of us.”

“A-are you making more sexy posters, Kimi!?”

“Oh? It is important that you make sure people can see your best side. That way you know what you need to improve upon.”

Just then, he raised his right hand.

“What’s this about posters?”

“…Huh!?”

Mitotsudaira tilted her head and her crossdressing king eventually did the same.

“I mean, I was cleaning up my room and dead last night.”

''That’s true,'' thought Mitotsudaira as she turned toward her friend with a smile.

“Tomo, can you explain?”

'''Asama:''' “You’re getting back at me, aren’t you!?”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “I need to take whatever chances I can get…!”

But Asama formed a smile and gestured both hands toward Mitotsudaira.

“Toori-kun, you didn’t see Mito’s new swimsuit last night, did you? Because Horizon knocked you out as soon as you stuck your head in.”

“Yeah, that really shook my brain… Judge, I’d love to see Nate’s new one. The previous one was so cool.”

“Y-you saw the previous one!?”

“Judge. I got quite a few glimpses of it. You’re the designer type, so I bet it’d be interesting to hear where you got the ideas from. And the curves from your waist to your hips are so cool, so I’m sure the new one looks great too. So when I heard you’d show it to me, I had to go check it out.”

…''Wow…

That was quite the thing to have him say in front of the others. Mitotsudaira thought Asama was going to tease her, but the girl was only blushing, suggesting she had realized the same thing.
However…

“M-my king, shouldn’t you ask Horizon about hers?”

“No, no.” Horizon waved her hand side to side. “Mine was chosen by the Blue Thunder’s manager. Yes.”

“Yeah…” Her king hung his head. “I tried asking about that during the study camp.”

“You did?”

“And she said something like ‘I chose it because it was on sale’ while doing an impression of my mom’s voice. I’m not into the real mom genre, so that did a lot of psychological damage…”

Everyone gave him sympathetic looks.

Ookubo did her best to keep smiling in the bathhouse.

Her opponent was Kani Saizou.

Satomi Yoshiyasu would take her side in the discussion here.

Kani and Yoshiyasu were both in their rest periods, so they would not begin fighting right away.

However, Ookubo had an idea.

…''I could always duel Kani.

Kani had to be the easiest opponent in Odawara right now.

She had lost some of her weapons in the fight against Mogami Yoshiaki. According to her:

“Testament. Four of my ejection cowling spears were destroyed!”

''It’s always worth asking, isn’t it?'' Ookubo had thought.

Based on what she had seen of the battle held on the Odawara rooftops, Kani had eight ejection spears.

If she had lost four of those, her ability to fight would have been halved.

It was hard to tell why she remained in Odawara. Was she just an idiot, or was she making a proper assessment of her strength? Ookubo could only guess at Hashiba’s decisions here, but since Kani had not been ordered to retreat, it was best to assume the girl could still fight.

…''This must not be enough to bring her power down.

But losing half her equipment had to make her feel at a disadvantage.

So Ookubo suggested a different form of competition.

“We will have a karaoke competition.”

The next step was to not let Kani question it or run away.

Ookubo ordered some food from an automaton, both to fill up the girl’s rest period and to recover from her own exhaustion.

Kani had apparently brought some light snacks with her, but…

“You sure are ordering a lot…!”

“Yes, this is for you as well. …Feel free to eat as much as you want. The Siege of Odawara includes the history recreation of a festival held by the Hashiba forces. And if we’re going to do karaoke, it’s best to set the mood.”

“Oh, but I can’t pay you back…!”

“Don’t worry.” Ookubo smiled toward Kani and waved her hand dismissively. “I’m participating in the Siege of Odawara as Musashi’s Representative Council Head. I will be reimbursed for most any expenses and, when you’re ordered to fight on the battlefield, you deserve to treat yourself a little bit, don’t you think? Also…”

Also…

“If you eat and drink on our yen, it means you had Musashi spend more of our budget. Should a member of the Hashiba forces really reject an offer like that?”

“When you put it like that, no!”

Yoshiyasu was silently glaring at Ookubo.

Ookubo operated the ordering sign frame and smiled as she typed on the keyboard of another sign frame.

'''Nagaya-Stable:''' “You don’t have to give me that look. Just leave it all to me.”

'''Righteousness:''' “Sorry. …To be honest, I’m terrible at this kind of thing. I’m impressed at how easy you make it look.”

'''Nagaya-Stable:''' “I appreciate that you don’t take issue with people who can do this. Also…”

Also…

'''Nagaya-Stable:''' “This is entirely ineffectual against the awful people ‘above’ us.”

“Yeah,” said Yoshiyasu out loud while looking away, so Ookubo elbowed her in the bathwater. Kani had tilted her head at the girl’s reaction.

“Did you order some kind of weird joke food!?”

“Eh? Um, yes. Look forward to it.”

She could not lie, so Ookubo ordered something along those lines.

…''The crocodile steak with bananas should be safe enough…

With that, they would have enough food. That left the drinks.

“Kani-kun. Can you handle alcohol?”

“Testament! I can!”

''That’s what I like to hear.

She had guts to drink alcohol in the bath before some karaoke.

For herself, Ookubo decided to go with a strawberry lassi she could pretend was alcoholic. It was an option for the mixed drinks, so Kani would have no way of knowing whether or not it had alcohol in it.

And for Yoshiyasu…

'''Nagaya-Stable:''' “I hear you can’t hold your liquor.”

'''Righteousness:''' “I can hold it just fine…! It’s just that I keep getting served really strong drinks!”

That was a new one.

But Ookubo did not want to make an enemy here, so arguing would be a bad idea.

“Fair enough,” was all she said while ordering Yoshiyasu’s drink.

'''Nagaya-Stable:''' “I’ll order you an umeshu with super low alcohol content. …You can claim it’s to recover from your exhaustion and get some nutrients.”

'''Righteousness:''' “Thanks. At this time of year, it’ll either have just started steeping or be from last year.”

Ookubo was reminded of umeshu with a steeped and falling-apart plum in it. When pouring umeshu, it was important to strain out the pieces, and she gulped a bit at the thought.

She reviewed the main order while wishing she had gone with umeshu herself.

…''I already ordered the sub order, so it should be arriving soon.

It did.

The door slid open and a bathhouse-equipped automaton walked in with a tray. It carried some light appetizers.

The automatons would treat the fighters like they did not exist, but that apparently changed when they were customers.

“Now,” said Ookubo while leaning her back against the edge of the bath. “Let’s eat and enjoy ourselves until the main order arrives.”

She closed her wings.

Those six golden wings were below the eaves on the road. Katou Yoshiaki inserted a coin into a vending machine and thought about what she should get to stay hydrated. She viewed the options before her eyes and, since this was Houjou, they had an incredible number of curry flavors.

“Right now, this sports nectar is probably better than the black tea or carbonated lassi. Although it looks fairly thick. …But before that, it seems it is time to battle.”

She turned to her right.

“I will make up for falling into the red earlier.”

Musashi’s merchant was there.

…''I see.

Yoshiaki took a breath and nodded.

“Just to be clear, I am part of the Houjou forces here, not the Hashiba ones. So keep that in mind.”

“Then this will kill two birds with one stone.”

''I don’t like that interpretation,'' thought Yoshiaki, but she kept it to herself.

Clashing with someone else’s assertions was such a pain. And the duel would settle everything either way.

She knew Musashi’s merchant had fought and lost to Date. Date would work with Musashi for a long time to come, so if Musashi had given a victory’s worth of rights to them…

…''They could have more and more taken in the long term.

As a merchant, he had to make back what he had lost. It would likely be best to fight Date again and win this time, but he could never recover if he lost again.

He must have wanted a different opponent as a safety measure.

And that opponent was her.

She knew what his choice meant. His mention of killing two birds with one stone explained everything.

She belonged to Hashiba, but she counted as Houjou here. Defeating her would not earn them rights from both Hashiba and Houjou, but it would make it look like Musashi had defeated both nations.

He thought he could make up for his loss against Date and earn something extra while he was at it.

“Do you know the difference between a merchant and a gambler?” she asked.

“Whether or not they prostrate.”

How was she supposed to respond when he said that with a straight face? But regardless…

“A gambler keeps shoving more money into a game they can’t win.”

“That is not a gambler.”

“Yes, it’s a loser.”

The merchant’s eyebrows moved in response to that. And he opened his mouth.

“And if I win in the end?”

“Is fantasizing about a bright future enough for you?”

Just as she asked that, the merchant flicked some kind of power from his hand.

It was a 100-yen coin. It flew toward her in a high-speed straight line.

…''He’s faster than I imagined…

It reached her in an instant.

“So the Treasurer has engaged the enemy,” said Futayo in front of the festival stands built on a hill.

She held a sign frame alerting her of a battle request. Masazumi asked her a question about it.

“Is that a report from Bertoni?”

Futayo looked at the sign frame by her hands.

A brief report on battle information was generally sent to the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor first. However…

“I prefer to leave all the thinking to you, Masazumi, so any reports should be sent to you at the same time as me.”

“Then he must still be fighting. After how quick his previous fight was, I thought this one might be the same.”

Masazumi looked toward Odawara.

“His opponent is Houjou, so I’d really like for you to give us a win here, Bertoni.”

Shirojiro saw the enemy’s response and movement.

Yoshiaki defended against the coin bullet he had launched. And she used…

“A sheet of metal…? No, an armor panel?”

She had ejected a panel of metal from the air. It was about 20cm wide and 1m long.

The panel floated in midair alongside her arm as she turned her right side forward in a guarding stance.

Then she stood up from her low, crouching stance. The metal panel circled around her and came to a stop near the back of her waist.

He could tell this used gravitational control.

And she swung her right arm.

Ether light sprayed out as she ejected something at her hand.

It was a large white blade shaped like a chisel.

The blade portion was thin and long. The flat chisel sword grew to about 4m long. It had a white luster to it and it floated in her hand.

“Carve him…Weiss Fürstin.”

Just as she said that, something shot from atop the blade in her hand.

…''What is that!?

Shirojiro took a defensive stance right before it collided with him.

It was a direct hit.

…''Did that get through?

Yoshiaki spun around the blade that had fired a rapid shot.

She had launched a single coin past the thin mist created by the high-speed shot.

It was a Groschen silver coin. It was growing outdated, but it was equivalent to a Far Eastern 500-yen coin. It was thick for a coin, which gave it a lot of destructive power. It was primarily used as an armor-piercing anti-ship round.

She had used one of those on the enemy.

The shock of impact had created a cloud of dust where the Musashi Treasurer had been.

But Yoshiaki saw something.

“I would expect no less from a merchant with an Urban Name…!”

The Musashi Treasurer was there.

He had caught the silver coin in his outstretched right hand.

But he had not stopped that 500 yen barehanded.

He had used money.

There was a stack of coins in his palm.

“These are 100-yen coins.”

He did not even glance at the coin as it fell from his hand to the ground.

“If it is currency, the god of money can exchange it for an equivalent value. By touching my money, it became my possession, so your silver coin was exchanged for my five 100-yen coins.”

One, two, three – the falling silver coins had something in common.

They had become no more than round and flat pieces of metal.

Yoshiaki tilted her head when she saw it.

“If it was an exchange, shouldn’t that money come to me? I thought this was an equivalent exchange.”

“You consumed its value by firing it.”

“…So you overwrote its existence as money and consumed it using the power of your god?”

“Judge.” He nodded and held up the fourth coin before it could fall. “And that leaves only these plain coins. You are really meant to spend a little extra to ensure the used coins can be used again. But…”

He threw away the fourth coin as he spoke.

“I cannot spare that money at the moment.”

“Because you’re poor?”

“I am not poor.” He squeezed her silver coin in his hand. “I simply have no money…!”

''I don’t care how forcefully you claim there’s a difference,'' thought Yoshiaki as the Musashi Treasurer raised his hands.

He spread his hands like he was drawing a bow and several acceleration spells activated.

“Let us end this in a single blow.”

“Because you’re short on money?”

“No. …I tried to do my best earlier and failed. A simple battle is better.”

It happened just as he said “so”.

“Go, kickback…!”

An impressive water vapor explosion occurred at the Musashi Treasurer’s hands.

The enemy had fired a coin bullet with multiple acceleration spells. Which was…

…''The same technique he used against Tres España’s Vice Chancellor during the Armada battle…!

Yoshiaki did not hesitate. She could not capture the approaching coin bullet. However…

…''I can read its path…!

This used acceleration spells.

Several of them were lined up in a row.

They formed a perfectly-aligned row in order to provide the coin with speed directed straight ahead.

So if they only looked like a single acceleration spell, you were in the target location.

She did not use her own eyes to search for that.

“…Weiss Fürstin!”

Yoshiaki opened a Magie Figur. The enemy’s acceleration spells were visible to the naked eye. She had Weiss Fürstin recognize those spell ''lernen figur''s and opened a sight-linking system.

She set Weiss Fürstin’s autopilot to fire a counterattack once the spell ''lernen figur''s overlapped perfectly.

…''Will it be fast enough!?

It all happened in an instant. And she heard a sudden but quiet sound.

It was the soft knocking sound of a targeting lock.

This would work.

But then Yoshiaki saw Weiss Fürstin’s counterattack location displayed on her Magie Figur.

…''It’s right on my centerline!

That was dangerous. The enemy had targeted a location that was difficult to dodge no matter which way she moved her body.

It was a shifted up toward her chest a bit, so he may have predicted she would fly.

She sensed his intent to prevent her from escaping. And…

“…!”

Something else from the Musashi Treasurer flew over her head.

They were ten 10-yen coins.

He had made change using a distribution spell.

That meant it had originally been a 100-yen coin. If that was flying in now, he must have set it up earlier.

…''When did he do that…?

She could make a guess.

When he had caught her silver coin, he had used 100-yen coins.

If he had defended with the concept of equivalent value, he would have used five coins. But he had given his explanation after raising the fourth coin.

Where had the fifth one gone? Now she knew.

The enemy had paid for insurance on the final coin and recycled it.

He sent a cluster of 10-yen coins from the sky when she could not fly or dodge. And from ahead…

“—————!”

The recycled Groschen silver coin flew toward the center of her body.

There were multiple actions.

The first was Yoshiaki swinging her bullet-accelerator blade in front of her body.

But not even that accelerator could send the high-speed bullet back the way it had come.

So she did something else.

She rotated the blade.

But this was not a normal rotation. The blade itself drew a U-shaped path in the air.

“Spin around, Weiss Fürstin!”

The scraping of the bullet created a burst of sparks as the blade spun around.

She used that arcing path as the margin and supplied the rest of the rotation speed with…

“Fire!”

Yoshiaki had placed a 500-yen coin on the blade. The gravitational control used to fire it repelled the coin perpendicularly instead of letting it slide down the blade. The recoil spun the blade with the force of a ricochet.

“—————!”

It rotated in front of Yoshiaki as she took a step back.

The enemy’s bullet was scooped up by Weiss Fürstin’s blade, changing its trajectory.

And its path was bent all the way around to send it back the way it had come.

Immediately afterwards, Yoshiaki swung both arms toward the cluster of 10-yen coins dropping from the sky.

“Weiss Fürstin!”

Ten blades were ejected into the air.

All of the coins were caught and rotated. And at the center of them all, Yoshiaki looked forward.

She faced the merchant who had launched his acceleration spells and closed his hands.

“Fire….!”

The silver coin already had the force of the enemy’s acceleration spells and the firing of her blade was added on top of that.

She also redirected the 10 shots from the sky.

“Go!”

She released them all.

“Oh?” said Narumi just as she was preparing to pay her bill.

She heard a familiar sound from the distance outside.

…''That was the Treasurer’s cannon blast.

But the sound overlapping it was odd.

It was almost familiar but not quite. If anything, it reminded her of…

…''The 4th Special Duty Officer’s gravitational acceleration ejection pattern?

The Musashi Treasurer’s opponent was Katou Yoshiaki, a Weiss Hexen. So…

“A close-range artillery battle? Talk about reckless.”

“Hm?”

Mogami Yoshiaki turned toward her while drinking sake at the table.

She tilted her head but narrowed her eyes.

“Very noisy, isn’t it?”

“Judge. But it will prove fruitful. …For one of them.”

“Your bill will be 2700 yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!”

Narumi sighed as she pulled exact change from her wallet and placed it in Ujiteru’s hand.

“I need to fight my next duel too.”

Just as she said that, she heard another solid sound from outside.

“Was that…?”

It was a familiar but loud noise.

Yoshiaki watched her attack.

She had honestly not needed much accuracy from the ten shots she redirected from the sky. She had only wanted them to hold her opponent in place.

But they tore through the enemy’s surroundings before the real attack arrived.

The cluster of 10-yen coins exploded near the Musashi Treasurer.

The blasts reverberated out and dust sprayed high into the air.

Meanwhile, the Musashi Treasurer had his hands thrust forward on either side of him.

Was he preparing a wide-range defense?

But the bombing had come from above.

One of them was in position to pass diagonally through his face. If it hit, it would blow a hole through his head below the forehead.

And…

“——————”

He dodged with no more than swinging his head to the side.

Of course, that was not quite enough to fully dodge it.

The coin diagonally grazed his cheek and some of his hair scattered through the air.

But that was all. The Musashi Treasurer had not moved.

…''Why not?

Yoshiaki had sent the silver coin right back toward him.

So why had he not used his body to dodge it already?

She did not know. So she quickly pulled back the ten blades scattered overhead and focused on the Musashi Treasurer’s actions.

She had trained her eyes for firing and aerial battles and she used that to accurately view his movements.

…''Is that…?

The right hand he had spread out for defense was thrust out in front of his chest.

Of course, there was no way that was enough to catch the high-speed silver coin.

Besides, there were no defensive coins in his hand.

But she had seen something else.

“…An acceleration spell!”

The Musashi Treasurer had opened a spell ''lernen figur'' in his palm.

And that was not all.

The vermilion light her eyes sensed did not come from his hand.

It was larger but hidden.

“Don’t tell me…”

It came from behind him.

He had spread his arms and thrust them forward earlier, but there had been acceleration spell ''lernen figur''s behind them.

It was an arc circling behind him. Countless acceleration spells were arranged behind his back in great enough numbers to reach from his right hand to his left.

He had already prepared that many acceleration spells.

He was likely in the midst of stopping her counterattack. He had taken a defensive stance to hide the acceleration spells behind him.

And he had not refrained from moving his body to dodge because he could not let her see them.

His actions had come from a focus on winning.

It was a gamble that erased the fear that she would catch on and respond with some kind of countermeasure.

But he had won that gamble. And his expression had remained stony throughout.

…''That would be where he got the Urban Name of Ice Face!

The rest only took an instant.

The acceleration spells split and the silver coin flew behind him.

After a series of solid sounds and spraying ether light, the Musashi Treasurer swung his left hand forward.

With vermilion light spilling from his left hand, he created an exit to the acceleration spells prepared behind him.

He had established an unbroken path of speed.

“If I am to make money, I cannot sell victory to you. So…”

She heard his voice.

“I will repay you…!”

After its second and third round of acceleration, the shot broke the sound barrier when it was launched.

Shirojiro could tell the fingers of his outthrust left hand had split.

There was no blood yet because a vacuum had formed. The nails were broken, but…

“…!”

He placed his right hand over his left. He had been supplied with a healing spell when he left for the battlefield, so he could place the divine protection on his left arm without it feeling like a waste of money.

A moment later, a water vapor explosion occurred at the leading edge of the acceleration and the surrounding heat and moisture were blown away.

As the silver coin split the air, it flew toward the enemy as if repelled.

It targeted Katou Yoshiaki.

She was one of the Ten Spears that Hashiba had prepared to oppose Musashi. Was her number 4?

If he could defeat one of them, it would be…

…''Three birds with one stone!

He scolded himself for only realizing that now.

Lately, he had gotten carried away and screwed up some business deals.

A lot of money had been changing hands to guarantee Musashi’s finances, but it had been a mistake to try to supply Musashi’s repair materials in order to line his pockets.

Since they were fighting a war, he had worked behind the scenes at buying repair materials for cheap, but when he started having Musashi, the academy, and the Asama Shrine acquire such things, they had begun making changes for the Musashi Mk. 2.

The materials he had prepared were for the old model and they became a liability. He had made the transactions using a secret second account book, so it automatically counted as embezzlement and, as a result, he had sold vegetables.

But this would bring all that to an end. This opponent counted as both Houjou and Hashiba.

“Transaction complete.”

Shirojiro opened his right hand. In the wind, he swung his left hand and snapped the fingers.

“We have the money back, Heidi…!”

With that, he turned his back on his opponent.

Just then, he heard the loud sound of the bullet reaching her.

It was the ring of a direct hit. However, it was…

“…Far away?”

Sensing something was off, Shirojiro looked back.

Yoshiaki was standing a mere 10 meters away.

Or she had been.

But she was no longer there.

…''Did she run away?

No. She was there. He could see her six golden wings.

But she was not 10 meters away.

She was much more distant. She was at the very end of the road they stood on.

That was a distance of 500 meters.

“Huh…?”

The answer to his vocalized question mark was obvious.

Yoshiaki’s entire body moved as she gasped for breath and she held something under her arm.

It was a ''schale besen''.

The thruster nozzle was aimed his way and he recognized that stance.

It was the same one Naito used in the gunner mode that was Schwarz Techno’s greatest attack.

She would load a bullet into the broom’s brush and then fire it.

His enemy was in that exact same stance. So…

…''That loud noise…

It had not been the ring of a direct hit. It was the ring of the enemy firing.

Yoshiaki felt a cold sweat covering her body.

She had constructed Weiss Fürstin’s foundation just before a direct hit from the Musashi Treasurer’s attack.

She had been right to pull back the ten blades she had ejected into the air.

She could not have used them to fly, but she had successfully built the engine that provided acceleration.

And there was a reason she had managed to do it instantaneously.

“Thank you, Weiss Fürstin…”

After all…

“Weiss Fürstin is a ''schale besen'' constructed using gravitational control. And it uses spell composition, so the engine does not use any bolts.”

It was like origami or a 3D puzzle. The main long blades were necessary, but the other parts had specialized roles and no rated value.

Each individual part had a program applied via magic, so while they all combined to form a gravitational thruster, they could also become a controller or armor.

Just now, she had used the bare minimum of parts to build an acceleration system.

She knew Zwei Fürstin could break the sound barrier in just over three seconds.

But what about with only the thruster?

The result was her own survival.

She had produced an explosion of instantaneous acceleration, connected the acceleration gears, and blocked the enemy’s coin bullet with the nozzle.

But she had not stopped the enemy bullet inside the ''schale besen''.

She had added thruster settings to each of Weiss Fürstin’s parts and swung it around at high speed.

She gave it a 360-degree rotation.

In the end, that re-aimed the nozzle toward the enemy.

If she fired like this, she could fire back at the Musashi Treasurer with even more acceleration placed on top of his.

“But I won’t do that.”

Yoshiaki pulled out what was in her right hand.

It was a roll of Groschen silver coins.

Converted into Far Eastern terms, it was a total of 10,000 yen. She shoved them into the muzzle as it spun around.

“…Herrlich!!”

She fired the bottom end of the coin roll.

The silver coin, that had been super-accelerated by Weiss Techno, struck the coin roll offering like the hammer of a gun.

And the coin roll shot out with the force of a ricochet.

The explosion of air blew away four of the blades forming the barrel.

But the projectile had indeed taken flight.

Yoshiaki saw the destination of the blast: the Musashi Treasurer.

It was a direct hit.

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| [[Horizon:Volume 6C Chapter 56|Chapter 56]]
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