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Horizon:Volume 3 Prologue

2014-07-18T16:13:02Z

Purin: More consistency. Batch punctuation. Italics. Proper paragraphs.

==Prologue: The Outsiders on the Bridge==
[[File:Horizon3A 0017.jpg|thumb]]
''Look at that which is close to you

''The times you cannot see underfoot are truly…

'''Point Allocation (Consideration)

'''ANA:''' “Hey!”

'''Dragon Dog'''<ref>A pun. Luynes is spelled “ryuinu” in Japanese and Dragon Dog is “ryuu inu”.</ref>''':''' “What is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “It’s cold. —No, well, it is not that it is cold, I am just feeling cold.”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “It may be some type of failure with the artificial sensory. I will contact those responsible.”

'''ANA:''' “You are flawless… However, I have already had that task completed. I was told the same thing. It might be a possible error in the artificial sensory.”

'''ANA:''' “Hey, is it possible that I might break down?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “It is impossible for me to answer that question. The reason being is that that reality has not occurred. The only conjecture I can make with respect to a situation which has not occurred is, ‘It is possible that both possibilities exist.’ ”

'''ANA:''' “Then, for example if you were to experience the cold, what would happen?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “I would cease to function.”

'''ANA:''' “In that case, hey…”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “What is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “My older brother said it, right? ‘If something happens, please tell me.’ That he would grant any wish. —Just because he has found a person who is important to him and started living properly, he is acting like he is an adult. In that case, hey, is it fine for me to act like a child?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “I have determined that My Lady has always remained as a child.”

'''ANA:''' “That is fine, is it not? However, —Hey,”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “Tes. Please say whatever it is that you wish to say, what is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “I see that you are the same as always. You are flawless. Then I want you to hear me out. You see…”

In the morning sky there was an island.

Floating at a position lower than the clouds, there was a floating island that stretched from north to south for tens of kilometres. The lower strata area, which hung like an icicle, was divided into massive blocks by rocks and structures; sometimes these would slowly move as a result of the internal frame and change the shape of the island.

At the massive floating island there were two massive objects.

One of these, located on the northern side of the island, was a Shinto shrine which possessed a Shinto shrine-styled gantry crane, several tens of kilometres in scale and a sprawling large scale wooden research facility located at its base.

The other of these was located on the eastern side of the island, also connected with a Shinto shrine-styled gantry crane with a massive ship in the interior as though it was being protected.

The vessel, which was comprised of eight individual ships, was installed in the large scale dock which stretched from north to south across the eastern side of the island.

It was Musashi.

The eight ship fleet which received the morning sun on the port-side had all of its ships still maintaining their functionality as a city while they remained within the dock. However, from the surface of each ship, there were multiple small, high-pitched noises being raised by countless shadows clinging to the surface.

Those shadows, whether they were gods of war driving in anchor bolts or people who were assisting in the repair of the ship, including the other species, were all hurriedly working.

Musashi was currently undergoing complete repairs.

There were the figures of many students among the people participating in the construction.

If you let the students talk, their reasoning would be:

“Well, this makes it possible to earn cash during the early morning.”

“I have been helping out after school, so I started doing mornings as well.”

“Out our way, the outer wall is still broken, which is scary.”

Also, between the people carrying raw materials and the kobolds, there were multiple running shadows present.

There was a jersey clad girl with two artificial arms and a tall foreigner in a tank top, a jersey clad retainer who was running with dogs, and, following quite a considerable distance behind the others, there was a silver haired girl.

The girl with the artificial arms and the tall foreigner, who had run further ahead, raised their hand in greeting and split off into a different route.

In contrast the glasses wearing retainer, after passing through the path of a natural area at a leisurely pace, ascended the staircase which was located ahead of her.

As she did, the dogs which were following her circled around at the bottom of the staircase and let out a bark.

Yeah, with the retainer turning around and waving her hand, the dogs emitted one more bark and then dispersed.

The girl retainer then nimbly ascended the staircase.

Once she had finished climbing, there was a building with the nameplate “Musashi Ariadust Academy” and a bridge which reached up to the second floor entrance way. Furthermore,

“Eh? Asama, are you here for morning practice?”

Asama, while continuing to replace the talismans for the hanging lanterns which were built into the bridge, turned around in response to the calling voice.

It was Adele. While regulating her breathing, which wasn’t really disordered, she came over this way.

“Are you here for morning practice Asama?”

“Yeah, something close to that.”

Asama replied with a bitter smile. She held the talisman in her hand out towards Adele.

“Lately our academy has been keeping the lights on all throughout the night, hasn’t it. That’s why I am working on replacing the lighting spells. There’s also that…”

“What is it?”

“When I consider about what might happen from now on, I thought I should increase my stamina. I started from my family’s shrine below, ascended the staircase, and then did a light circuit of the schoolyard with Kimi accompanying me. However…”

Asama looked at the schoolyard. Kimi was collapsed on top of a bamboo bench located in the corner of schoolyard. The red jersey which was covering her head and upper body belonged to her, however,

“Well don’t worry about a thing. I’ll go to recover it later. I’ll return either by the way of my family’s spring or Suzu’s public bathhouse, though whether or not I’ll make it in time for morning class is a mystery.”

“Kimi always makes sure to eat the breakfast the chancellor makes before coming to the academy after all. About Kimi, how should I put it, why is it that, while dancing is not a problem, when it comes to running she is just a slightly higher class than a normal person?”

“Kimi’s ‘Dance of the Summit’ is similar to Futayo’s acceleration technique, they both have fatigue reduction protections being inserted into the ability. She insists that ‘I have no willpower so I did it like that!’ ”

While saying that, Asama though to herself that the ability which required access to customization was quite annoying.

After all, Kimi often didn’t think about things, and when there appeared a situation that couldn’t be dealt with she immediately started on about “New version! New version!” “Okay okay, again? Once again?” “Groin!? Groin is high!?” displaying her insanity. Each and every time, the two of us soaked into the spring together doing this and that,

“My Priestess’s ‘Yearly spell supervision amount’ status rating is in large part a result of handling Kimi’s requests.”

There letting out a sigh she was unaware Kimi had stood up and began walking in this direction. While walking she put on the jacket which had been placed over her,

“Eh, this kid’s jersey, the cloth around the chest area has stretched…! This Priestess, what are you attempting to achieve by creating a breast mould!? Planning on making manjuu or something!?”

“When it fits you perfectly fine what exactly are you talking about!? Ah Adele, would you please stop looking down and averting your eyes.”

From beyond Adele, who was looking this way, a hand suddenly grasped the edge of the overhanging bridge from beneath the staircase.

Eh? There, in front of the girl who was thinking that, from the far side of the grasped palm, an elbow appeared, and then proceeded as if to pull upwards the rest of the body.

“S-somehow I managed one full lap around the ship.”

It was Mitotsudaira.

The jersey figure of Mitotsudaira arrived at the top of the bridge completely out of breath.

…''I-it really does seem like a “somehow” situation.

In front of her eyes, there was Adele who had run the exact same course yet whose breathing was not disturbed, and although she was the same age as her, a huge priestess. Mitotsudaira felt a feeling of irrationality against both these parties, however there was nothing to be done.

In any case, Mitotsudaira used the banister as a support and attempted to stand. However her knees were shaking. “Ow…”

She grasped the banister and attempted to move forward however she began to fall from her knees. Hurriedly she attempted to support her body, though before she could take her next action, Asama had already approached. While she was already holding a talisman,

[[File:Horizon3A_0024-0025.jpg|thumb]]

“Ah, Mito, please do not push your body so much. I will cleanse your exhaustion with a purification ritual.

“It is fine, Tomo, I will use my internal bless for a thing like that, you should use it for another…”

Before she had finished speaking, Asama claimed that it was fine and came to her side. She had Mitotsudaira lean against the banister,

“Good Work—”

Hasami, in order to cast the spell, displayed several forms for conformation. Asama already had the talisman out and was already clearing her throat as the preparation for the activation so there was no way to stop her.

Therefore leaving everything to the agreement, Mitotsudaira lowered her hips, stretched her legs and took a breath. Thus Asama removed Mitotsudaira’s shoes, then, splitting at the seam lining of the ankle, she opened the tights.

“I’ll attach one to the soles of your feet. If it tickles, please let me know.”

“Even If I say it tickles, don’t…”

It suddenly happened. Mitotsudaira tried to endure the strength of the fingers which seemed to be pushing into her sole.

“Hyaaa!”

…''Impossible. This is impossible!

“Hey… Mito, aren’t you too ticklish? Perhaps I should say a rare sensitivity syndrome… hey!”

“W-what is it?”

Asama nodded with a yeah,

“However, if it is like that then it won’t finish. Therefore, shall we continue?”

“Eh? Hey, go easy on meeee!”

Since she was unable to move her legs, her upper body started to thrash about.

She experienced a different type of being out of breath than before, and, at the point where she became exhausted, she also lost the power to resist. She became limp and was left at the mercy of Asama.

“Mito, you have the same soft soles as Adele… They do say that people with soft soles have fast legs.”

Even if she said it earnestly, there was nothing to do about the reality of the situation.

Letting out a sigh that was unrelated to exhaustion, Mitotsudaira lightly shrugged her shoulders.

“Even if you say that I am the same as Adele, I am not fast at all you know? I was even called a Heavy Tank type by Kimi.”

Hmm, the one who was puzzled was Adele. She looked at my feet which Asama was rubbing,

“If I had to say, the fifth special Agent seems more like the type who does the breaking type of movement. I guess you would say the Powerful type.”

Their smiling and attempting to cover for her was a thankful gesture.

That’s why Mitotsudaira took another breath and then opened her mouth. My, my, with a self-deprecating attitude, she raised her upper body,

“Is it because I am a Demi Loup-Garou? Or is there some trick that I am not understanding? I am just not good with fast movements. Where it is that I should put the strength into?”

“Fifth Special Agent. If you put too much power in it will actually have the opposite effect and become slower, you know?”

“Jud, I am often told that by Naomasa, I am taking care to avoid that happening though…”

There Mitotsudaira lightly waved her hand as a demonstration.

The movements were those of a jab, snapped with an open hand and at the end point clenched it.

Since she was relaxed when waving, it was nimble and fast. That is how it should be. It was also accompanied by the sound of the wind. There Asama responded,

“It is sufficiently fast, is it not? Right, Adele.”

“Eh?”

There Adele gave a small reaction. Immediately following this she hurriedly,

“Eh, well—um Jud, It’s sufficiently fast. Yeah.”

Covering for people to hide the reality was Adele’s thankful but poor part as a retainer. Mitotsudaira bitterly smiled about it.

“Do not worry about it. I understand that I am slow. After all, in England, though I received martial arts training from Naomasa to deal with Wallshingham’s War of the Roses, I ended up just being thrown around.”

Mitotsudaira thought of her speed. Her speed would be considered faster than a normal person, however would fall well short when compared to an expert.

That is the reason which Mitotsudaira believes that is preventing her from becoming stronger.

The Fifth Special Agent being located in the fifth position was due to this reason.

She was made to realize this while in England.

When she first arrived in England, when inside the falling cargo ship she witnessed firsthand the speed of Futayo’s actions… It would seem that viewing my role as the power type would be best.

When working on the anti-Wallshingham training, against Naomasa’s throws her nerves were able to react, but her body could not keep pace. “You are slow,” is what Naosama clearly told her, that is why she remembered through experience rather than reacting and practiced until she was able to move though predicting.

However, while massaging my calf Asama abruptly said the following.

“Ah, the exhaustion removal is almost finished. Mito’s regeneration powers are amazing.”

“I did inherit the blood of Loup-Garou after all. Frankly, my toughness is my greatest weapon. It is due to the fact that my body is tough that I am able to strike with such power, and it also allows me to act as a shield.”

However Mitotsudaira saying that as an introduction bitterly laughed.

“If you remember what happened 8 years ago at Bizen IZUMO you will understand the circumstances regarding my mother and me. That is, how tough I am.”

Hearing those words, Asama and Adele exchanged glances, lowered their eyebrows and showed a smile.

After a little while Adele followed up with,

“The Loup-Garou family lineage is quite Spartan. About that story related to the silver chain which has been the subject of rumor for a while now, the Fifth special Agent’s family lineage was a noted family in a high position during the hundred year war, was it not?”

“Mother does not talk about those types of things… She also does have quite an irresponsible personality, however…”

“However?”

Jud, Mitotsudaira nodded her head. This was something that she had heard via the net on Musashi,

“According to a Loup-Garou related thread, after the hundred year war, the Hexagone Française Loup-Garou apparently consisted of two groups, those who choose to live together with the human population, and those which returned to the forest and retained their man-eating tendencies. There the Loup-Garou Queen and the nobles returned to the forest, however they were eventually driven out….It also seems Reine de Garous lost her life a while ago.”

“Lost her…did she take her own life?”

Mitotsudaira nodded in response to Asama’s question which was asked with a frown. During the period she was in Hexagone Française, she was too young, so she didn’t know, and it was an embarrassment for the country and therefore not revealed to the public.

The things that I know are only from the past few years.

“The previous generation Reine de Garous who succeeded the line after the hundred year war, with the forest getting smaller and her companions disappearing apparently offered herself to someone who had come to hunt her. However you might say the Loup-Garou race declined, frankly. My mother as well had the characteristic of having her surroundings being wary of her; it was a species which has had trouble with intimacy with humans.”

Having said that much, Mitotsudaira fell silent once. She rethought that she should not say things to create a wall and shrugged her shoulders.

“My mother’s family line, however, was possibly in a fairly well off position. Before she met my father I do not know where she lived, however, according to her stories the house she lived in was sort of a strange place, something out of a fairy tale, then there is also the silver chain. If she does not talk about the past… She might have been a close associate of Reine de Garous.”

It was a thought that she had formed several times. She sometimes thought how it would be good if she had been a member of the Reine de Garous family lineage. In the past this was a result of her pride, however now this was about strength.

Having experienced a defeat in England was the depth of shame for a knight dedicated to protecting the king.

However,

“If there is the opportunity, I would like to hear the story from my mother, as well as the origin of silver chain, and a good fighting method for a Loup-Garou.”

“However, Mito, you were told by your mother not to descend down into Hexagone Française.”

“Y-yeah, I was made to promise that. I did promise that at Bizen IZUMO.”

Go live as a resident of Musashi; it was that sort of thing.

“IZUMO is a neutral zone. However, it is still part of the south of Hexagone Française which is a part of mother’s promise, the same holds true for Bizen IZUMO.”

That is why I have not descended on Hexagone Française or any of their territories you know, not since that time.

What happened at that time is not something I wished to recall, however it cannot be helped.

Thinking about it now, saying that she was a child then, and now if it happened now she thought she would have not been done in so badly.

“However the only good to come of that was…”

“That the Chancellor was absent,” was what she was going to say but stopped.

The Chancellor did mention how he went to pay a visit to a relative who was on the verge of death.

That is why she nodded to herself on the inside and shut a range of thoughts inside her heart.

She possessed a variety of things to consider. Not just about herself, her surroundings were also piled up.

The issue where she had not received any communication from the Musashi knight alliance was still continuing.

Then, at the time where she had finished that thought, a shadow appeared ascending the staircase.

''Kimi?'' Is what she thought and looked,

“Oh? Everyone, is this where you were?”

It was Tenzou, and following him was Mary, clad in a blue and white jersey.

…''Ah.

Seeing her with E.X. Collbrande suspended on her left and right, Mitotsudaira unconsciously forcefully stood up.

“Ah! Mito.”

Tenzou immediately understood the reasoning behind the crouched down Asama’s voice.

She was in the middle of using an exhaustion removal spell.

Mitotsudaira’s tights were removed from her feet and the talisman still remained attached to the bottom of her feet. He faintly understood the reasoning about why she had suddenly stood up.

…''It was because Mary was present.

At the moment, Mary who was lined up to the side was bowing her head towards everyone,

“Hello, good morning.”

“Good Morning Missus Mary.”

In a certain way, the mistranslation Adele returned was terrifying, however, reflected in Tenzou’s eyes was Mitotsudaira who chose to bow to lower her eye sight in greeting.

It was an inevitable issue.

Ever since Mary had transferred here, Tenzou thought that it was Mitotsudaira who was unable to properly grasp the proper distance. There was also the long-standings issue between England and Hexagone Française to consider.

There is also that they are both nobility.

Following Horizon, Mitotsudaira was second in line for succession for the Far East, while Mary was the future mother of the next king of England.

However Mitotsudaira’s family was a lower noble house and the current status was something that had been assigned to them. On the other hand, Mary’s royal status was something that she was born with…

“Whatever is the matter Tenzou-sama?”

“Eh? Ah, um, it is just good that everyone is training from so early in the morning.”

That is right; Mary’s nod indicated this had no dark shadow.

This was a trait she was certainly born with.

This had nothing to do with the position of royalty; however this was something that was not distorted even through persecution.

However,

“……”

Mitotsudaira, while undergoing Asama’s treatment, remained standing with a downcast expression which could be seen as though she had been scolded.

Then, Asama unexpectedly directed her glance this way. While continuing to press her hands against Mitotsudaira’s feet,

“Umm, Mary, today, after school will you be coming to my family’s place?”

“Eh? Ah, it is okay for me to go, right, Tenzou-sama?”

Taking a part time job at Asama’s family Shrine, Tenzou nodded his head vertically,

“Um, yes, I am fine now.”

Mitotsudaira pulled her legs back almost as if she was running anyway from Asama’s hands. Then, with the talisman still attached to the bottom of her feet, she roughly put on her shoes, took the sock section in hand and started to walk away.

She lightly turned back this way, lowering her head was the minimum amount of consideration.

In response to her, who was seemed like she was going to descend the staircase, Asama went to say something, but stopped.

Adele spoke,

“Will it be alright? I don’t think that all of the exhaustion has completely disappeared yet.”

Yeah, well, there was nothing to do except for Asama to falter. However, Mary waited until the figure of Mitotsudaira had completely disappeared from sight down the stairs before taking a step closer to my side. The thing she whispered happily was,

“She was concealing a bent toe with a pedicure.”

Was this a request for me to paint my nails as well!? Was this a request!?

I must be overthinking the issue; Tenzou calmed himself down and asked Mary

“Still, is that something which one should be embarrassed about?”

In response to the question, Mary loosely bent the scar on her face and said the following.

“The more embarrassing something is, the greater the difference from others. It is something which one can be proud of you know?”

I see, while in front of his nodding eyes, Adele and Asama were fanning each other with clothes and talismans saying: “Ah, hot hot, it’s steamy in here!” “Yeah you think the same Adele, it’s very hot…!” and the like, however this was something that seems like it would be impossible to eventually be something to be proud of.

In any case, from the direction of the bottom of the staircase there was Kimi’s voice,

“Hahahaha, what are you doing slipping and falling onto your bottom Mitotsudaira!? I guess there’s nothing else to be done, I’ll carry you. Come now, ride on these breasts…! Wow! This child got seriously angry!”

Just when he was thinking that she has no mercy, he could hear a sound

It was the announcement of the time. Using the bell of the academy, the six a.m. announcement rang out.

The beginning of a day for Musashi.

Study
[[File:Horizon3A 0036.jpg|thumb]]

IZUMO Outline Diagram

Toori: “Sis! Sis! Exactly what type of shape is IZUMO! As I thought because it is Shrine related they say it is where a deity resides and make it an erotic shape!? Maaraaaaaaa—!(sound effect)”

Kimi: “Hahaha private brother, stop imitating reproductive sounds. —Anyhow IZUMO is a floating island which floats at an altitude of 1000 meters; it is land that was originally on the earth side that was floated. From ancient times, the section which has become the current center was floated for ship development research. Then, with the Harmonic Unification War and the downfall of the Amako clan, they saw the opportunity and took refuge from the surface. That was how it was made.”

Kimi: “This should about sum it up. If Musashi was in this diagram it would have the bow towards the bottom and anchored in a southerly direction. The central area is, in reality, something of an abandoned land, however, when doing individual countries corporation exhibitions or aircraft shows, and when an urgent emergency landing is necessary, this location is used.”

Toori: “Since it is territory where we can finally relax, let’s go to the town beneath the Shrine and go shopping! There are a lot of Far Eastern style goods here, so that's a relief.”

Kimi: “Did you just implicitly say you are going to scour for erotic goods?”

<noinclude>
===Notes===
<references/>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3A School Rules|School Rules]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 01|Chapter 01]]
}}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume7 Chapter 33

2014-07-06T14:46:27Z

Purin:

==Chapter 33: Growing Closer on the Board==
[[Image:OnC_v07_0253.png|thumb]]
''If you advance game pieces along the board

''Where do you place yourself to advance?

''Whether travelling to the past or the future, your heart will occasionally advance

The movements of the sun and moon could not be seen underground, but the clock on the wall gave an indirect look.

The clock in UCAT’s development department gave the current time as 10:21 AM. Below the clock were the large director’s desk and a woman in a lab coat who held a phone receiver to her ear.

It was Tsukuyomi. She toyed with her unkempt gray bangs as she spoke.

“That daughter always was trouble. Yes, Sayama, thank you for calling. Don’t worry. This can be in exchange for the documents we gave you. Nothing’s more frightening than getting something for free.”

All of the partitions before her were filled. The people inside had been working night and day without rest to restore the servers and help the other departments with the aftermath of the attack.

A few people were watching her from above the partition walls. They looked worried, so she smiled and gestured for them to sit.

“Honestly, I’m so busy that I’m more worried about myself than her.” She then spoke to Sayama through the phone. “Are you at the Port of Mizushima right now? And you’re going to set up a formation near Kurashiki, right? You must be busy too. Anyway, use all of the documents Kashima sent you as your summer homework, including the ones you can’t read.” She laughed. “I’m sure the higher ups know. That’s why I’m going to offer the data from our ‘emergency backup’ to help restore the central server.”

His response made her smile bitterly, but that smile quickly vanished.

For a while, she only nodded as he spoke.

“Hey, is anyone here fairly knowledgeable about gods of war?” she shouted to the partitions.

One middle-aged technician in the back stood up and she asked a question before he could speak.

“If a god of war is powered by a Concept Core, what happens when that Core is removed from it?”

“In short, it no longer functions. It dies.”

“Can it be started up again?”

“No. Gods of war are like living creatures. They always exist in a faint standby state. If that is eliminated, their components slow, deteriorate, and then die. Once the circulation is cut off, great damage is done to the internal systems and anyone synced with it will be in danger.”

“I see. Thanks,” said Tsukuyomi while motioning for the technician to sit.

A voice reached her as soon as she pressed the receiver back to her ear and she made a few responses.

“Don’t act so surprised. I didn’t know you could make such human complaints.”

She gave a bitter laugh.

“Ha ha. You should show that side of you to your teammates more often. You’re essentially Team Leviathan’s king after all. …Right. Now do your best and don’t worry about my daughter.”

''Huh?'' thought Miyako.

She was currently on a bed in a dimly-lit room. More importantly, she was not wearing any clothes. Next to her, Apollo had yet to fully remove his own clothes.

“How did things end up like this?”

She had carried him to his room after he collapsed, but her mistake had been falling asleep while lying next to him. When she had woken up past noon, he had also woken, so they had been forced to face each other as they ate the food left by Moira 1st. Afterwards, Apollo had fallen asleep again. It was currently mid-afternoon, but the window was shut and the room only contained a faint light.

Miyako recalled the plate Moira 1st and the other maids had used to leave a note.

“They’re preparing for a sort of festival, are they?”

She did not quite understand, but the maids who occasionally came to speak with Apollo seemed to be enjoying themselves. Apollo’s tearful face from the night before had vanished and he conversed with the maids while showing a comfortable expression lacking any excess concern.

Currently, he spoke next to her.

“Do not worry, Miyako. This should not be a bad thing.”

“Why did I end up stripped down before you? Answer me.”

“Because you had fewer pieces of clothing.”

“No. It’s because you were in such a rush to take them all off me. And you looked pretty happy doing it, I might add.”

While she was not satisfied with his answer, she also wondered if they should be doing this.

“H-hey…”

She realized she had never had a proper conversation with him.

“Let us talk, Miyako.”

“Don’t steal my line.”

She raised her voice and blushed, but Apollo only laughed and approached from the side.

“I would like to hear about your family.”

“About my dad?”

“And your mother and you, Miyako. What is a Low-Gear family like?”

He sat next to her with a smile and she pulled up the blanket to hide her body.

“It’s not very interesting.”

“But a family is something I do not know. …The only people I had were a sister who I was to view as a woman, a father who gave me orders, and those who fought.”

“…”

“I would often look at my father and decide I did not want to turn out like him. I would wonder why I had to follow his orders. Whenever I disobeyed him, he would say it was for my own good.”

That made Miyako laugh and Apollo looked confused.

“I was told the same thing. Everyone else was going to cram school…but you probably don’t know what that is. Anyway, everyone else went, but I didn’t like studying. The thing is, I also didn’t like being separated from everyone else. When he made me go, my dad said that same thing.”

“Ha ha. Why is it that parents try to force happiness onto you?”

“How should I know?” She shrugged. “But those are the only things you remember, aren’t they?”

Apollo nodded.

“It really is unfair. He forced everything onto me and then left without giving me a chance to say anything. …I really don’t want to end up like him.”

“Neither do I.” said Miyako. “Anyway, can I change the subject to the present?”

“You mean Typhon?”

“How did you know? Typhon is a part of your family, isn’t it?”

Apollo gave a bitter smile.

“You got me there,” he said and she held out a hand.

“So what are you going to do about freeing yourself from Typhon’s curse?”

Moira 1st had told her the two methods. The first was no longer possible.

…''And the second requires my feelings.

According to Moira 1st, the organization named UCAT that her mother belonged to also wanted Typhon’s Concept Core.

If she joined with Typhon and the Concept Core was removed, she would die.

She decided now to see if that was actually true.

…''Whether I’ll actually sacrifice myself is a different issue, though.

As she thought, Apollo opened his mouth to speak.

“I see Moira 1st explained the situation to you. One of the automatons told me earlier.”

“Yes. What I know for sure is, if I join with Typhon…”

“No one wants you to do that.” Apollo’s expression grew serious. “I just thought up a third method.”

“Seriously?”

She sat up a little and he shook his head.

“But if I tell you, it will use up all the time I have with you.”

“D-don’t say that, you idiot. More importantly, that third method…it’s nothing bad is it? It doesn’t sacrifice anyone, does it?”

“It does not. It frees me from Typhon’s curse and makes me a king.”

“A king?”

''I’m doing nothing but ask questions,'' she thought as Apollo nodded.

“And when I do, I will take you as my queen.”

“D-don’t be stupid. I never said I’d marry you.”

“I said I would take you as my queen, not ''as my wife''. You could be an honorary queen.”

“You son of a bitch!”

He laughed and she bared her teeth for a moment, but she soon sighed.

…''I was wondering why he looked so serious.

She clicked her tongue and his smile vanished.

“But do not worry. Moira 1st likely told you what she did so that you would worry for me. …But we have a choice.”

“It’s a hundred years too early to think about using that choice to make me your wife.”

“A hundred years? That isn’t long for me.”

“You idiot,” she muttered before sighing again. “Y’know, it may be a bit late to say this, but I’m kind of a failure.”

She lay on her back and looked up at the ceiling. Even the dim orange light seemed bright to her. She crossed her arms in front of her eyes to hide the light.

…''The whole reason I ended up here was failing that interview.

Something like a voice came from deep in her chest. The word “regret” filled her mind, but she did not let it show.

…''Who regrets not getting into a place they didn’t really want to be?

She did not speak that thought aloud, but she did speak her true thoughts. The darkness of covering her eyes made her honest.

“I’ve made myself sound pretty important while I’m here.”

She took a breath.

“But you were right when we spoke below that cliff. I’m staying here because I don’t want to go back out into the world.”

“Miyako.”

“I shouldn’t be doing this…”

“Miyako.”

She raised her arms and found his face.

At some point, he had lifted the blanket and moved above her, but his face looked somehow twisted.

“Don’t cry, Miyako. For some reason, seeing you cry makes me want to cry.”

“Sorry. But…”

“Are you nothing but talk, Miyako? Then why did the automatons accept you as their master? Was it your words? Your thoughts? Or was it your attitude that pushes you ever onwards? Let me tell you this, Miyako. A king who leads the people is someone who possesses all three of those,” said Apollo. “That is something I could not do. Thank you.”

“I should be the one thanking you, idiot.”

Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes and his head lowered.

As she shrank back in surprise, their lips met.

After a few seconds, the wetness took a breath and left, but the heat did not leave her body and cheeks.

She took a breath and moved her legs. She gently held him between her knees and positioned her butt.

“U-um, just to be clear…”

…''Saying this really isn’t like me at all.

“This is my first time. Be gentle, okay?”

“Don’t worry, Miyako. It’s my first time, too.”

“I see,” she responded without thinking. “Wait! What was that!? Don’t lie to me!! Looking like that, you’ve gotta be a real lady-killer!”

“I am not lying. To ensure everything goes smoothly, 3rd-Gear omitted the manual labor. Everything was extracted and done outside the body. Also…lady-killer? I do not like killing, especially of women.”

“No, a lady-killer is…oh, never mind!”

''I’ve had enough,'' she thought to herself. ''This isn’t something where you can try to look good.

Just as she realized that was not much different from normal, Apollo lowered his body.

“Ah, w-wait a minute.”

Her pulse began to race and sweat poured out as if she had been holding it in.

He looked down at her in confusion.

“Y’know, I’ve read that it rarely turns out well when it’s both people’s first times.”

“Do not worry, Miyako. Long ago, I read in a book how to make sure it turns out well.”

“And how many thousands of years ago was that, you idiot? Plus, it’s rare these days to see a non-standard product like me produced in Japan, the nation of mass production. What’ll you do if something goes wrong? Also…”

She looked up at the young man above her and made a prediction based on the somehow happy look on his face.

“I couldn’t tell you why I’m so sure, but you’ll succeed this time. Without a doubt.”

“Low-Gear is far more advanced than 3rd-Gear! You can determine someone’s skill just by looking at them!?”

“It’s not about skill! It’s more like an accidental discharge!”

She punched him straight in the face.

He let out a groan before twisting his body and falling toward her.

“Kyah!”

She was surprised how pathetic her own voice sounded. Unlike when she had held him in the hangar that morning, his skin was warm and even the tickling of his hair rested on her.

“…”

She looked around with her hands lifted above her head, but there was of course no one there.

“You idiot…”

She sighed, relaxed, and wrapped her arms around his back and neck.

…''I’m doing him a huge favor here.

Once she realized that thought was just a way to hide her embarrassment, she gave a mental sigh. She further relaxed her body, sank into the bed, and matched the curve of her body to his.

“Well, I’m sure a lot will happen, but it should turn out fine. Probably.”

He nodded and raised his head to look her in the eye with his own smiling eyes.

His yellow eyes were not the same color as hers, but they contained the same light.

“Do you think we can become a family?” asked the owner of those eyes.

“That’s fine with me, but I wonder what my mom would say.”

“Oh, that’s right. If we become a family, I gain a mother-in-law. At the very least, we will have a family of three.”

''Is that how it works?'' she wondered.

Based on his past, she guessed why he had said that with a smile and she empathized with him. Once she did, she could no longer stop her feelings for him.

“But… Don’t forget about the Moirai and the other maids. They’re family too, aren’t they?”

“I will make sure of it in the future. It will have to be through you before I am used to it, though.”

He raised his body a bit and stuck his arms under her shoulders and back.

She took a breath to relax and she felt the heat of his breath, but she did not reject it.

…''He’s sure to make a good king.

She felt Typhon was holding him back. And if the automatons did become his family, who would no longer be needed?

…''Me?

''They don’t need two masters,'' she realized. ''Staying with this idiot as Typhon is still an option, I suppose.

“You lost your family, didn’t you?” she said. “But you never forget your family, you can make a new one, and you can become part of someone else’s. Don’t you think?”

“That’s right.”

When he nodded, she continued with a relieved smile.

“Then we really are the same.”

The sunset was beginning to disappear to the west.

The sky was quite visible in this area.

Fields continued on as far as the eye could see. The only other things visible were the train tracks and a circle of trucks in a large empty lot. The trucks were all loaded with shipping cargo, but what lay in the center of the circle was different.

Lights brighter than the dim sunset illuminated the people standing alongside it.

Three giant armored warriors were loaded onto the back of trucks. Two were colored black and white and contained the UCAT emblem, but the wholly black god of war next to them had no emblem.

Several people were gathered next to the black one. A whiteboard was placed in front of them and a quick map had been drawn on it by hand. The map was labelled “Kurashiki”.

A large black man spoke in front of the whiteboard.

As he did so, he glanced to the side where two boys and a girl stood.

The boy with sharp facial features and the girl with short hair wore the same white and black armored uniform as the others, but the short boy did not. He wore a black T-shirt, jeans, and a white bandanna.

The bandanna boy spoke the most to the two across from him.

“So Kazami-san, how is Mikage-san?”

“She hasn’t come to yet, but she’ll be driven to Kurashiki ahead of time. Sibyl will be with her, so you don’t have to worry, Hiba. But…should we really bring an injured person to the battlefield?”

Kazami’s eyebrows lowered and she tilted her head.

Hiba could only give a trouble smile in response. ''I’m being selfish,'' he thought.

“I’m not sure. Maybe I shouldn’t have her with me since she might have given up on me.” He gave a small nod. “But we might settle things with 3rd-Gear, so I think she should be there.”

“I see.”

Kazami nodded and pulled a map of Kurashiki from her pocket.

She faced the boy with a sharp face and looked at Baku on his head.

“Sayama, a question. What’s our plan?”

“I will give a quick explanation. Just look over at the map drawn by that bald man.”

Boldman turned around.

“I can hear you!”

“I was not hiding it, so of course you can. …Now, if you can see that poorly-drawn map…”

Hiba looked over to the equilateral triangle representing Kurashiki.

“Kurashiki can be viewed like this if you use the major roads to divide it up. The top corner is Kurashiki Station and there is an amusement park above it. The bottom right corner is the small mountain containing the Achi Shrine. 3rd’s base is also there, so it is the center of the concept space. We will be entering through the bottom left corner.”

“That’s a long way. Isn’t 3rd’s concept space a little too big?”

“In the late afternoon, UCAT’s Okayama branch detected their concept space expanding. I believe it has a radius of three kilometers. Jumping in near the center risks damage to your string vibration and that map shows the two-lane road leading straight to the Achi Shrine.”

Hiba saw the line leading from the bottom left corner to the bottom right corner.

However…

“Since that’s the shortest path, won’t they be waiting there?”

“That is why we will circle around from above,” said Sayama. “It is going a bit out of our way, but it is more certain. Also, there are a few side roads leading right – that is, east – on the way from the bottom left corner to the top corner. If we run up toward Kurashiki Station and send units down those side roads…”

“They can stop any enemies that might pursue from below.”

“A dummy will be sent out in front in case there are enemies at Kurashiki Station as well. An empty and disguised cargo train will be sent ahead on the track running alongside the road and we’ll travel in a truck while the enemy is distracted by it.”

“What’s my job?” asked Hiba.

Out of their three gods of war, his was the only one with full power.

Sayama answered with his gaze.

He looked to Hiba’s left where the side of a disguised truck had been lifted up and something was being lowered down. Some long objects made of black steel were affixed to pallets. There were three of them, two were sheathed swords, and the third was much longer.

“That is the anti-god of war sniper rifle ‘God Piercer’. Our development department remade the world’s very first German anti-tank rifle on the god of war scale. It holds three shots and its effective range is approximately a kilometer. At that range, it can supposedly pierce the armor of three gods of war.”

“I’ve never done much shooting…”

“A specialized auxiliary device was already added at the Kanda Laboratory. If you wield it with Susahito Custom, your aim will be automatically corrected. You have five test shots, so try it out as you like. Your target will be 3rd-Gear’s leader if he attempts to flee. It will likely be a flight-capable god of war, but in the worst case, you will have to shoot Typhon.”

Sayama patted his shoulder.

“If Typhon arrives, you handle it. Finish this once and for all.”

“You’re right. But I explained Typhon’s technique before coming here, didn’t I?”

He was referring to the movement technique that could eliminate time, but Sayama did not seem interested.

“Do not worry. I have only heard about the technique secondhand, but you can overcome it.”

“H-how irresponsible can you be?”

“It is not my responsibility. Also, the technique itself is incredibly simple. All it does is eliminate time. Nothing more. No matter what happens, you must overcome Typhon’s technique and win, so you must find a way to reach an opponent who moves while destroying the intervening time.”

Sayama raised both his hands in front of his eyes before the left one shot upwards and the right one circled behind him.

“Fortunately, Typhon could not eliminate the time it took to fire as it flew like this. Most likely, that technique must be activated by its opponent’s attack.”

“By my attack? But why?”

“Maybe to drive away the fear of death,” cut in Kazami while tilting her head. “If you represent death to her, Artemis may try to hide herself as a starting point toward driving you away. She wishes to escape that symbol of death. But when attacking, she feels the relief of being able to win and isn’t able to eliminate the time.”

“That is a decent theory. It does nothing to help us find a strategy, but pondering it could make for a nice break.”

Kazami glared at Sayama, but Hiba did not mind.

They could make some guesses about Typhon’s attack system and what activated it.

“But that leaves how to break through it.”

“You have already been taught how to do that.”

“Eh?”

Hiba looked over and saw Sayama pointing to the south. He could no longer see it, but the sea was there.

“You would not have won before traveling there, but Izumo and I taught you a few things. According to my calculations, you should easily be able to overcome Typhon. So let me irresponsibly tell you to do your best.”

Hiba gave a bitter smile because he had a feeling he might actually manage.

Sayama would only talk about what they needed to do to win, but he had made a phone call with a serious expression back at the port. Kazami had speculated he was calling Tsukuyomi or someone about a way to save Apollo and Hiba found himself trusting the boy.

…''What is with this trust? I don’t really get it.

“Sayama-san, do you think there’s a way to save Apollo?”

“I do not know. That is 3rd-Gear’s problem and we have very little information,” he said. “But I do wonder if the previous rulers of 3rd-Gear were truly the mad kings they were said to be. Zeus did not view people as human and Cronus resented Zeus for imprisoning him and tried to destroy him. That may be how the father/son relationship works, but is that truly how they were?”

Hiba noticed Sayama’s right hand lightly clutching the left side of his chest.

He did not know why Sayama did that every time he spoke of the past, but he still stopped himself from asking if Sayama’s father had been different. He was afraid he would be intruding on something related to the boy’s chest, so he changed his thoughts.

…''How was it with my dad and me?

His father had been strict and had taught him plenty of techniques, but the man had never known Mikage or Hiba as he was now.

“I don’t know what kind of relationship a real father and son have.”

“Neither do I. But that is exactly why I believe my reasoning is correct. If there is a condition, it would be how well you understand Mikage-kun. That will likely determine whether Apollo can be saved or not.”

“Eh?”

Sayama looked at Hiba.

“I am certain the answer has already been given and Cronus probably predicted it.”

“Are you talking about how to save Apollo?”

“Yes. If I am right, Apollo has already been saved. I want you to trust me when I say that. If something does happen, all responsibility will fall on me. As a villain, I will have deceived you and had you kill Apollo. So do not worry and go fight, Hiba boy.”

Hiba was unable to nod. He did not know what Sayama was talking about and he had no reason to believe it.

…''Can I really trust him?

But he did have something he could trust: he had lost to them.

And so he spoke without actually agreeing.

“Let’s go. If necessary, we can create an answer out of nothing.”

He then faced the rifle and swords that would be his weapons and found a familiar face next to them. It was a short old man with a bent back.

“Grandfather.”

Hiba Ryuutetsu turned toward him and Hiba sensed a smile in the man’s one red eye.

…''Did he ever do anything like this?

Hiba doubled his resolve to settle this and smiled bitterly.

“I’ve prepared myself, grandfather.”

As soon as he said it, something small moved on Sayama’s head.

It was Baku.

Sayama stood within the rain. It almost felt like a mist, but it had actual drops to it.

As he passed through the rain with nothing but his vision and hearing, he realized what had happened.

…''This is the past.

Where was he?

He looked around and saw a certain scene.

“A battlefield.”

Several forms were visible at the bottom of a broad plain surrounded by mountains. They were machines and buildings. Most had lost their original form and had their frames and supports exposed.

Among the buildings, just one thing had escaped complete destruction.

A passageway continued underground beneath the largest building. It had been a three-story prefabricated building and some massive force had smashed entirely through it, but the floor of the first story and below had survived.

That meant the underground passageway and a giant explosion-resistant door remained.

Sayama saw letters engraved into that door: UCAT JAPAN.

“Japanese UCAT.”

He recalled something else he had heard from the past. According to Cronus, 3rd-Gear had planned to work with 9th to attack UCAT after they had stolen Rhea’s child.

…''Is that what happened here?

As far as he could tell, this was a garden of destruction. He belatedly noticed many human forms were collapsed amid it all.

But he also saw a few people moving inside the smoke. Those were the survivors.

How great a force had attacked and how much damage had been done? This was UCAT rather than the National Defense Department, yet it had been so thoroughly destroyed.

“It must have been quite a battle.”

However, the explosion-resistant door leading underground had held.

The evacuated local residents and research items were likely inside.

Sayama then saw something odd. A strange darkness was located in the air near the center of the rain-covered destruction.

It was a gate to another Gear.

He moved toward it and found it was black, tall, and emitting a faint shadow-colored light. As he approached, he realized it was easily over seven or eight meters tall.

This gate was meant for gods of war.

The enemy had appeared and left through the gate, but its light was weakening.

It was vanishing.

However, Sayama saw some movement below it. They were injured men covered in mud. There were about a dozen of them and they called out to each other while setting barrel-like machines below the gate. Sayama heard them say things like “keep it going” and “don’t let it vanish”.

…''Are they trying to preserve the gate?

There were two giant objects near them.

One was Susahito Custom which had a broken right arm.

The other was a blue and white machine even larger than the god of war. It was a mechanical dragon and the Stars and Stripes mark on its side suggested it belonged to American UCAT.

The mechanical dragon was broken and spewing smoke and its windshield was partially opened. A young soldier in a flight suit spoke with blood running down his face.

“We could have managed if we’d had Xolotl 3 here.”

“Wishing for something we don’t have isn’t going to help, Thunderson.”

The response came from below the black god of war. A young soldier sat there with bandages around his right eye and more binding his right arm.

The soldier named Thunderson raised his eyebrows when Hiba stood up.

“Hiba, you idiot. …Are you really going!? That’s enemy territory!”

“You wouldn’t understand. Not when you’re so disheartened.”

Hiba opened the god of war’s stomach with his left hand and pulled out the cockpit door.

“I’m going and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

He then faced toward Sayama.

He was actually facing the soldier named Thunderson and he gave a muddy smile.

“I’m continuing on, Thunderson. You look toward the place you need to go.”

“Hiba!”

Thunderson tried to fully open the windshield to exit the craft, but the bent frame would not let it open further. He tried a few more times, but found it was hopeless.

“You can’t! If you go, what will happen to Toshi and the others!? Is Mikage more important than them!?”

Rather than reply, Hiba climbed into Susahito Custom’s cockpit and closed the door.

Thunderson moved the control column and the mechanical dragon trembled.

“!”

But its front right leg broke and it fell to the muddy ground, jaw first.

“That’s not the issue. It isn’t about who’s more important.”

The black god of war slowly stood up.

The wings on its back were broken, but it turned around all the same. It whipped up the wind in the rain and headed toward the black gate.

The men adjusting the machines supporting the gate opened a large path and saluted.

Susahito Custom saluted back and spoke to Thunderson.

“You go too. Go to the destination you’ve prepared for. I’ll be going on ahead.”

The black god of war took a step forward and vanished.

The rain that had been falling on it now fell through empty space. Meanwhile, a cry rose from the man who had been left behind.

As that roar filled the air, Sayama felt as if he had been thrust backwards.

The past was ending.

…''And this is where it truly began.

This was where 3rd-Gear’s destruction had begun.

Hiba looked up in surprise.

The light of sunset surrounded him and the sounds of truck engines and speaking voices returned. That sudden noise surprised him and the old man before him scratched his head.

“Oh, no. …I’m not sure how to put it, Ryuuji, but wasn’t I pretty cool there?”

“No, you had nothing of my youthful spirit.”

The two of them smiled bitterly and Sayama tapped Hiba on his shoulder.

“Hiba boy, Hiba-sensei, I am sure you have plenty to discuss. Go take a break.”

When Ryuutetsu agreed, Sayama and Kazami nodded expressionlessly before leaving.

Ryuutetsu suddenly looked to the left toward the rifle, the swords, and Susahito Custom beyond them.

“Ryuuji, what are you going to do about Mikage?”

“Good question… Once this is over, I can discuss it with her.”

“You’ve learned a lot, haven’t you? About the past, what you’ll do from now on, and what you’ve been doing until now.”

“Yes,” said Hiba with a nod. “And I’m not the only one who’s been thinking about a lot, am I?”

“Of course not. It’s a bit late to be figuring that one out. …So what’s your answer?”

“I don’t have one,” he answered. “But I want to protect her no matter what.”

“You sound like a stalker.”

“Why do you have to say that!?”

“Calm down, calm down.”

Ryuutetsu walked forward, passed by Hiba, and faced Susahito Custom.

“There’s nothing wrong with not giving an answer and continuing to worry. That can be an answer in and of itself.”

“Were you not allowed even that?”

“You don’t think the elderly always have pasts filled with tragedy, do you?”

He turned around with a smile in his red eye and Hiba swallowed what he was going to say next, but Ryuutetsu narrowed his eyes further.

“Ryuuji, there’s a lot that isn’t easy, but those are the truly important things. The most valuable things I taught you were the peeping techniques and how to take care of Mikage. You need to continue questioning everything and continue choosing what you can. As long as you do that…”

He scratched his head.

“You might make mistakes, but you won’t do anything wrong.”

“Grandfather…”

“What?”

“Just now, you were a little cooler than me. Like the length of a pinkie’s fingernail more. Like this.”

“Ryuuji, you cut all your fingernails down as far as they’ll go.”

“That’s because Mikage-san says it hurts when I’m washing her in the bath and my nails touch her.”

The old man suddenly punched him.

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume7_Chapter_32|Chapter 32]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume7_Chapter_34|Chapter 34]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 3 Prologue

2014-07-01T02:36:26Z

Purin: Accidentally removed.

==Prologue: The Outsiders on the Bridge==
[[File:Horizon3A 0017.jpg|thumb]]
''Look at that which is close to you.''

''The times you cannot see underfoot are truly...''

'''Point Allocation (Consideration)'''

<center>●</center>

'''ANA:''' “Hey!”

'''Dragon Dog'''<ref>A pun. Luynes is spelled “ryuinu” in Japanese and Dragon Dog is “ryuu inu”.</ref>''':''' “What is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “It's cold. ---No, well, it is not that it is cold, I am just feeling cold.”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “It may be some type of failure with the artificial sensory. I will contact those responsible.”

'''ANA:''' “You are flawless... However, I have already had that task completed. I was told the same thing. It might be a possible error in the artificial sensory.”

'''ANA:''' “Hey, is it possible that I might break down?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “It is impossible for me to answer that question. The reason being is that that reality has not occurred. The only conjecture I can make with respect to a situation which has not occurred is, "It is possible that both possibilities exist.".”

'''ANA:''' “Then, for example if you were to experience the cold, what would happen?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “I would cease to function.”

'''ANA:''' “In that case, hey...”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “What is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “My older brother said it, right? ‘If something happens, please tell me.’ That he would grant any wish. ---Just because he has found a person who is important to him and started living properly, he is acting like he is an adult. In that case, hey, is it fine for me to act like a child?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “I have determined that My Lady has always remained as a child.”

'''ANA:''' “That is fine, is it not? However, — hey,”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “Tes. Please say whatever it is that you wish to say, what is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “I see that you are the same as always. You are flawless. Then I want you to hear me out. You see…”

<center>●</center>

In the morning sky there was an island.

Floating at a position lower than the clouds, there was a floating island that stretched from north to south for tens of kilometres. The lower strata area, which hung like an icicle, was divided into massive blocks by rocks and structures; sometimes these would slowly move as a result of the internal frame and change the shape of the island.
At the massive floating island there were two massive objects.
One of these, located on the northern side of the island, was a Shinto shrine which possessed a Shinto shrine-styled gantry crane, several tens of kilometres in scale and a sprawling large scale wooden research facility located at its base.

The other of these was located on the eastern side of the island, also connected with a Shinto shrine-styled gantry crane with a massive ship in the interior as though it was being protected.

The vessel, which was comprised of eight individual ships, was installed in the large scale dock which stretched from north to south across the eastern side of the island.
It was Musashi.
The eight ship fleet which received the morning sun on the port-side had all of its ships still maintaining their functionality as a city while they remained within the dock.
However, from the surface of each ship, there were multiple small, high-pitched noises being raised by countless shadows clinging to the surface.

Those shadows, whether they were gods of war driving in anchor bolts or people who were assisting in the repair of the ship, including the other species, were all hurriedly working.

Musashi was currently undergoing complete repairs.

There were the figures of many students among the people participating in the construction.

If you let the students talk, their reasoning would be
“Well, this makes it possible to earn cash during the early morning.”
“I have been helping out after school, so I started doing mornings as well.”
“Out our way, the outer wall is still broken, which is scary.”

Also, between the people carrying raw materials and the kobolds, there were multiple running shadows present.

There was a jersey clad girl with two artificial arms and a tall foreigner in a tank top, a jersey clad retainer who was running with dogs, and, following quite a considerable distance behind the others, there was a silver haired girl.

The girl with the artificial arms and the tall foreigner, who had run further ahead, raised their hand in greeting and split off into a different route.

In contrast the glasses wearing retainer, after passing through the path of a natural area at a leisurely pace, ascended the staircase which was located ahead of her.

As she did, the dogs which were following her circled around at the bottom of the staircase and let out a bark.

Yeah, with the retainer turning around and waving her hand, the dogs emitted one more bark and then dispersed.

The girl retainer then nimbly ascended the staircase.

Once she had finished climbing, there was a building with the nameplate "Musashi Ariadust Academy" and a bridge which reached up to the second floor entrance way.
Furthermore,

“Eh? Asama, are you here for morning practice?”

<center>●</center>

Asama, while continuing to replace the talismans for the hanging lanterns which were built into the bridge, turned around in response to the calling voice.

It was Adele. While regulating her breathing, which wasn’t really disordered, she came over this way.

“Are you here for morning practice Asama?”

“Yeah, something close to that.”

Asama replied with a bitter smile. She held the talisman in her hand out towards Adele.

“Lately our academy has been keeping the lights on all throughout the night, hasn’t it. That’s why I am working on replacing the lighting spells. There’s also that…”

“What is it?”

“When I consider about what might happen from now on, I thought I should increase my stamina. I started from my family’s shrine below, ascended the staircase, and then did a light circuit of the schoolyard with Kimi accompanying me. However…”

Asama looked at the schoolyard. Kimi was collapsed on top of a bamboo bench located in the corner of schoolyard. The red jersey which was covering her head and upper body belonged to her, however,

“Well don’t worry about a thing. I'll go to recover it later. I’ll return either by the way of my family’s spring or Suzu’s public bathhouse, though whether or not I'll make it in time for morning class is a mystery.”

“Kimi always makes sure to eat the breakfast the chancellor makes before coming to the academy after all. About Kimi, how should I put it, why is it that, while dancing is not a problem, when it comes to running she is just a slightly higher class than a normal person?”

“Kimi’s “Dance of the Summit” is similar to Futayo’s acceleration technique, they both have fatigue reduction protections being inserted into the ability. She insists that “I have no willpower so I did it like that!”

While saying that, Asama though to herself that the ability which required access to customization was quite annoying.

After all, Kimi often didn’t think about things, and when there appeared a situation that couldn’t be dealt with she immediately started on about “New version! New version!” “Okay okay, again? Once again?” “Groin!? Groin is high!?”, displaying her insanity. Each and every time, the two of us soaked into the spring together doing this and that,

“My Priestess’s ‘Yearly spell supervision amount’ status rating is in large part a result of handling Kimi’s requests.”

There letting out a sigh she was unaware Kimi had stood up and began walking in this direction. While walking she put on the jacket which had been placed over her,

“Eh, this kid’s jersey, the cloth around the chest area has stretched…! This Priestess, what are you attempting to achieve by creating a breast mould!? Planning on making manjuu or something!?”

“When it fits you perfectly fine what exactly are you talking about!? Ah Adele, would you please stop looking down and averting your eyes.”

From beyond Adele, who was looking this way, a hand suddenly grasped the edge of the overhanging bridge from beneath the staircase.

Eh? There, in front of the girl who was thinking that, from the far side of the grasped palm, an elbow appeared, and then proceeded as if to pull upwards the rest of the body.

“S-Somehow I managed one full lap around the ship.”

It was Mitotsudaira.

<center>●</center>

The jersey figure of Mitotsudaira arrived at the top of the bridge completely out of breath.

….I-It really does seem like a “somehow” situation.

In front of her eyes, there was Adele who had run the exact same course yet whose breathing was not disturbed, and although she was the same age as her, a huge priestess. Mitotsudaira felt a feeling of irrationality against both these parties, however there was nothing to be done.

In any case, Mitotsudaira used the banister as a support and attempted to stand. However her knees were shaking. “Ow…”

She grasped the banister and attempted to move forward however she began to fall from her knees. Hurriedly she attempted to support her body, though before she could take her next action, Asama had already approached. While she was already holding a talisman,

[[File:Horizon3A_0024-0025.jpg|thumb]]

“Ah, Mito, please do not push your body so much. I will cleanse your exhaustion with a purification ritual.

“It is fine, Tomo, I will use my internal bless for a thing like that, you should use it for another…”

Before she had finished speaking, Asama claimed that it was fine and came to her side. She had Mitotsudaira lean against the banister,

'''“'''Good Work—'''”'''

Hasami, in order to cast the spell, displayed several forms for conformation. Asama already had the talisman out and was already clearing her throat as the preparation for the activation so there was no way to stop her.

Therefore leaving everything to the agreement, Mitotsudaira lowered her hips, stretched her legs and took a breath. Thus Asama removed Mitotsudaira’s shoes, then, splitting at the seam lining of the ankle, she opened the tights.

“I’ll attach one to the soles of your feet. If it tickles, please let me know.”

“Even If I say it tickles don’t…”

It suddenly happened. Mitotsudaira tried to endure the strength of the fingers which seemed to be pushing into her sole.

“Hyaaa!”

… Impossible. This is impossible!

“Hey… Mito, aren’t you too ticklish? Perhaps I should say a rare sensitivity syndrome…... hey!”

“W-What is it?”

Asama nodded with a yeah,

“However, if it is like that then it won’t finish. Therefore, shall we continue?”

“Eh? Hey, go easy on meeee!”

Since she was unable to move her legs, her upper body started to thrash about.

She experienced a different type of being out of breath than before, and, at the point where she became exhausted, she also lost the power to resist. She became limp and was left at the mercy of Asama.

“Mito, you have the same soft soles as Adele… They do say that people with soft soles have fast legs.”

Even if she said it earnestly, there was nothing to do about the reality of the situation.

Letting out a sigh that was unrelated to exhaustion, Mitotsudaira lightly shrugged her shoulders.

“Even if you say that I am the same as Adele, I am not fast at all you know? I was even called a Heavy Tank type by Kimi.”

Hmm, the one who was puzzled was Adele. She looked at my feet which Asama was rubbing,

“If I had to say, the fifth special Agent seems more like the type who does the breaking type of movement. I guess you would say the Powerful type.”

Their smiling and attempting to cover for her was a thankful gesture.

That’s why Mitotsudaira took another breath and then opened her mouth. My, my, with a self-deprecating attitude, she raised her upper body,

“Is it because I am a Demi Loup-Garou? Or is there some trick that I am not understanding? I am just not good with fast movements. Where it is that I should put the strength into?”

“Fifth Special Agent. If you put too much power in it will actually have the opposite effect and become slower, you know?”

“Jud, I am often told that by Naomasa, I am taking care to avoid that happening though…”

There Mitotsudaira lightly waved her hand as a demonstration.

The movements were those of a jab, snapped with an open hand and at the end point clenched it.

Since she was relaxed when waving, it was nimble and fast. That is how it should be. It was also accompanied by the sound of the wind. There Asama responded,

“It is sufficiently fast, is it not? Right, Adele.”

“Eh?”

There Adele gave a small reaction. Immediately following this she hurriedly,

“Eh, well --- um Jud, It’s sufficiently fast. Yeah.”

Covering for people to hide the reality was Adele’s thankful but poor part as a retainer. Mitotsudaira bitterly smiled about it.
“Do not worry about it. I understand that I am slow. After all, in England, though I received martial arts training from Naomasa to deal with Wallshingham’s War of the Roses, I ended up just being thrown around."

<center>●</center>

Mitotsudaira thought of her speed. Her speed would be considered faster than a normal person, however would fall well short when compared to an expert.

That is the reason which Mitotsudaira believes that is preventing her from becoming stronger.

The Fifth Special Agent being located in the fifth position was due to this reason.

She was made to realize this while in England.

When she first arrived in England, when inside the falling cargo ship she witnessed firsthand the speed of Futayo’s actions… It would seem that viewing my role as the power type would be best.

When working on the anti-Wallshingham training, against Naomasa’s throws her nerves were able to react, but her body could not keep pace. "You are slow", is what Naosama clearly told her, that is why she remembered through experience rather than reacting and practiced until she was able to move though predicting.

However, while massaging my calf Asama abruptly said the following.

“Ah, the exhaustion removal is almost finished. Mito’s regeneration powers are amazing.”

“I did inherit the blood of Loup-Garou after all. Frankly, my toughness is my greatest weapon. It is due to the fact that my body is tough that I am able to strike with such power, and it also allows me to act as a shield.”

However Mitotsudaira saying that as an introduction bitterly laughed.

“If you remember what happened 8 years ago at Bizen IZUMO you will understand the circumstances regarding my mother and me. That is, how tough I am.”

Hearing those words, Asama and Adele exchanged glances, lowered their eyebrows and showed a smile.

After a little while Adele followed up with,

“The Loup-Garou family lineage is quite Spartan. About that story related to the silver chain which has been the subject of rumor for a while now, the Fifth special Agent’s family lineage was a noted family in a high position during the hundred year war, was it not?”

“Mother does not talk about those types of things… She also does have quite an irresponsible personality, however…”

“However?”

Jud, Mitotsudaira nodded her head. This was something that she had heard via the net on Musashi,

“According to a Loup-Garou related thread, after the hundred year war, the Hexagone Française Loup-Garou apparently consisted of two groups, those who choose to live together with the human population, and those which returned to the forest and retained their man-eating tendencies. There the Loup-Garou Queen and the nobles returned to the forest, however they were eventually driven out….It also seems Reine de Garous lost her life a while ago.”

“Lost her…, did she take her own life?”

Mitotsudaira nodded in response to Asama’s question which was asked with a frown. During the period she was in Hexagone Française, she was too young, so she didn’t know, and it was an embarrassment for the country and therefore not revealed to the public.

The things that I know are only from the past few years.

“The previous generation Reine de Garous who succeeded the line after the hundred year war, with the forest getting smaller and her companions disappearing apparently offered herself to someone who had come to hunt her. However you might say the Loup-Garou race declined, frankly. My mother as well had the characteristic of having her surroundings being wary of her; it was a species which has had trouble with intimacy with humans.”

Having said that much, Mitotsudaira fell silent once. She rethought that she should not say things to create a wall and shrugged her shoulders.

“My mother’s family line, however, was possibly in a fairly well off position. Before she met my father I do not know where she lived, however, according to her stories the house she lived in was sort of a strange place, something out of a fairy tale, then there is also the silver chain. If she does not talk about the past… She might have been a close associate of Reine de Garous.”

It was a thought that she had formed several times. She sometimes thought how it would be good if she had been a member of the Reine de Garous family lineage. In the past this was a result of her pride, however now this was about strength.

Having experienced a defeat in England was the depth of shame for a knight dedicated to protecting the king.

However,

“If there is the opportunity, I would like to hear the story from my mother, as well as the origin of silver chain, and a good fighting method for a Loup-Garou.”

“However, Mito, you were told by your mother not to descend down into Hexagone Française.”

“Y-yeah, I was made to promise that. I did promise that at Bizen IZUMO.”

Go live as a resident of Musashi; it was that sort of thing.

“IZUMO is a neutral zone. However, it is still part of the south of Hexagone Française which is a part of mother’s promise, the same holds true for Bizen IZUMO.”

That is why I have not descended on Hexagone Française or any of their territories you know, not since that time.

What happened at that time is not something I wished to recall, however it cannot be helped.

Thinking about it now, saying that she was a child then, and now if it happened now she thought she would have not been done in so badly.

“However the only good to come of that was…”

"That the Chancellor was absent" was what she was going to say but stopped.

The Chancellor did mention how he went to pay a visit to a relative who was on the verge of death.

That is why she nodded to herself on the inside and shut a range of thoughts inside her heart.

She possessed a variety of things to consider. Not just about herself, her surroundings were also piled up.

The issue where she had not received any communication from the Musashi knight alliance was still continuing.

Then, at the time where she had finished that thought, a shadow appeared ascending the staircase.

Kimi? Is what she thought and looked,

“Oh? Everyone, is this where you were?”

It was Tenzou, and following him was Mary, clad in a blue and white jersey.

… Ah.

Seeing her with E.X. Collbrande suspended on her left and right, Mitotsudaira unconsciously forcefully stood up.

<center>●</center>

“Ah! Mito.”

Tenzou immediately understood the reasoning behind the crouched down Asama’s voice.

She was in the middle of using an exhaustion removal spell.

Mitotsudaira’s tights were removed from her feet and the talisman still remained attached to the bottom of her feet. He faintly understood the reasoning about why she had suddenly stood up.

… It was because Mary was present.

At the moment, Mary who was lined up to the side was bowing her head towards everyone,

“Hello, good morning.”

“Good Morning Missus Mary.”

In a certain way, the mistranslation Adele returned was terrifying, however, reflected in Tenzou’s eyes was Mitotsudaira who chose to bow to lower her eye sight in greeting.

It was an inevitable issue.

Ever since Mary had transferred here, Tenzou thought that it was Mitotsudaira who was unable to properly grasp the proper distance. There was also the long-standings issue between England and Hexagone Française to consider.

There is also that they are both nobility.

Following Horizon, Mitotsudaira was second in line for succession for the Far East, while Mary was the future mother of the next king of England.
However Mitotsudaira's family was a lower noble house and the current status was something that had been assigned to them. On the other hand, Mary’s royal status was something that she was born with…

“Whatever is the matter Tenzou-sama?”

“Eh? Ah, um, it is just good that everyone is training from so early in the morning.”

That is right; Mary’s nod indicated this had no dark shadow.

This was a trait she was certainly born with.

This had nothing to do with the position of royalty; however this was something that was not distorted even through persecution.

However,

“………”

Mitotsudaira, while undergoing Asama’s treatment, remained standing with a downcast expression which could be seen as though she had been scolded.

Then, Asama unexpectedly directed her glance this way. While continuing to press her hands against Mitotsudaira’s feet,

“Umm, Mary, today, after school will you be coming to my family’s place?”

“Eh? Ah, it is okay for me to go, right, Tenzou-sama?”

Taking a part time job at Asama’s family Shrine, Tenzou nodded his head vertically,

“Um, yes, I am fine now.”

Mitotsudaira pulled her legs back almost as if she was running anyway from Asama’s hands. Then, with the talisman still attached to the bottom of her feet, she roughly put on her shoes, took the sock section in hand and started to walk away.

She lightly turned back this way, lowering her head was the minimum amount of consideration.

In response to her, who was seemed like she was going to descend the staircase, Asama went to say something, but stopped.

Adele spoke,

“Will it be alright? I don’t think that all of the exhaustion has completely disappeared yet.”
Yeah, well, there was nothing to do except for Asama to falter. However, Mary waited until the figure of Mitotsudaira had completely disappeared from sight down the stairs before taking a step closer to my side. The thing she whispered happily was,

“She was concealing a bent toe with a pedicure.”

Was this a request for me to paint my nails as well!? Was this a request!?

I must be overthinking the issue; Tenzou calmed himself down and asked Mary

“Still, is that something which one should be embarrassed about?”

In response to the question, Mary loosely bent the scar on her face and said the following.

“The more embarrassing something is, the greater the difference from others. It is something which one can be proud of you know?”

I see, while in front of his nodding eyes, Adele and Asama were fanning each other with clothes and talismans saying “Ah, hot hot, it's steamy in here!” “Yeah you think the same Adele, it’s very hot…!” and the like, however this was something that seems like it would be impossible to eventually be something to be proud of.

In any case, from the direction of the bottom of the staircase there was Kimi’s voice,

“Hahahaha, what are you doing slipping and falling onto your bottom Mitotsudaira!? I guess there’s nothing else to be done, I’ll carry you. Come now, ride on these breasts…! Wow! This child got seriously angry!”

Just when he was thinking that she has no mercy, he could hear a sound

It was the announcement of the time. Using the bell of the academy, the six a.m. announcement rang out.

The beginning of a day for Musashi.

[[File:Horizon3A 0036.jpg|thumb]]
<center>●IZUMO Outline Diagram●</center>

''Toori'' “Sis! Sis! Exactly what type of shape is IZUMO! As I thought because it is Shrine related they say it is where a deity resides and make it an erotic shape!? Maaraaaaaaa— !(sound effect)”

''Kimi'' “Hahaha private brother, stop imitating reproductive sounds. — Anyhow IZUMO is a floating island which floats at an altitude of 1000 meters; it is land that was originally on the earth side that was floated. From ancient times, the section which has become the current center was floated for ship development research. Then, with the Harmonic Unification War and the downfall of the Amako clan, they saw the opportunity and took refuge from the surface. That was how it was made.”

''Kimi'' “This should about sum it up. If Musashi was in this diagram it would have the bow towards the bottom and anchored in a southerly direction . The central area is, in reality, something of an abandoned land, however, when doing individual countries corporation exhibitions or aircraft shows, and when an urgent emergency landing is necessary, this location is used.”

''Toori'' “Since it is territory where we can finally relax, let’s go to the town beneath the Shrine and go shopping! There are a lot of Far Eastern style goods here, so that's a relief.”

''Kimi'' “Did you just implicitly say you are going to scour for erotic goods?”

<noinclude>
===Notes===
<references/>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3A School Rules|School Rules]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 01|Chapter 01]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 2 Chapter 19

2014-07-01T02:32:24Z

Purin:

==Chapter 19: Those Descending to the Surface==

[[Image:Horizon2A_557.png|thumb]]
''How does one handle

''An excess of thoughts?

'''Point Allocation (Gratitude)

Below the morning sun, Treasurer Shirojiro and Heidi welcomed their English guests on the diplomatic ship’s white deck.

“This is Vice President Honda Masazumi.”

The deck contained a terraced negotiation spot with a lunch table prepared below it.

Masazumi sat at the table with Shirojiro and Heidi to her left.

In front of her were bespectacled Treasurer Charles Howard and Secretary Ben Jonson. Behind those two stood the automaton F. Walsingham.

She felt this was a sufficient group for a meeting between nations, but she also felt there was little need for her own presence. After all, Howard had asked to discuss trade.

Ohiroshiki and Hassan had whipped up a light meal of several courses in the ship’s kitchen and Asama and Adele were bringing it out as waitresses.

Once the first large plate of hors d’oeuvres had arrived, Shirojiro held out his hand.

“Please, eat. This is Musashi’s famous freshly-caught sashimi with a curry sauce. We will be eating later, so go ahead without us. Yes, we will be eating later.”

As Masazumi faced the three visitors, she lowered her head and glanced past Shirojiro and to Heidi, but the girl was calmly typing away at her sign frame.

Howard finally took a bite of the food and almost looked like he was going to bring a hand to cover his mouth.

“O-oh. Th-the raw fish has a completely separate flavor from the curry which gives it a delicate warmth.”

…''You could just come out and say it’s disgusting.

Despite Masazumi’s thought, Shirojiro showed no mercy toward Jonson who had not touched the food.

“Please, go right ahead.”

“N-no. As an athlete, I must watch what I eat.”

Howard gave Jonson a look that held about five years’ worth of scorn, but the athlete poet ignored him. Just as Masazumi began to worry about the meeting, she saw a small light at her feet. Wondering what it was, she realized the white fox Mouse named Erimaki was under the table. Heidi was calmly using her sign frame, so there could only be one reason for Erimaki to be here.

“Do you understand?”

Erimaki held a sign frame so that she could see it. It displayed text that had clearly been written by Heidi.

“Can he come up?”

Instead of nodding, Masazumi beckoned toward Erimaki with her finger. The white fox climbed up her leg, lay down on her right thigh under the table, and pointed the sign frame toward her.

…''He has actual weight.

The weight felt less like an actual animal with four legs and more like something wrapped in a round towel.

''This is nice,'' she thought as she read the sign frame.

“I will be opening a chat room so everyone will know what is going on. Connect.”

'''“Connect : Shared Sign Frame : Shrine-wide Divine Transmission – Limited Domain Authorized via Asama Shrine : Confirmed”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Oh, it went through. Thanks, Asamachi. Everyone should be in by default, so just start posting.”

'''Asama:''' “Everyone, try not to make your names too long. And if anyone says anything too indecent, you will be temporarily removed. Be careful.”

'''Me:''' “Eh? Then am I allowed to say boobs or will saying boobs get me kicked out!? Boo-

'''“Me has been forcibly removed.”

'''“Me has reentered.”

'''Me:''' “D-dammit. You’re as merciless as ever!”

'''Asama:''' “The punishments will only get longer, so please stop saying things like that!”

…''What?

Masazumi looked around without actually moving her eyes. The others behind the English group and further in the distance all had sign frames open.

…''So this is the divine chat system.

It was a text-based discussion system using sign frames that had been developed by the religions with a monotheistic recreation basis such as Tsirhc.

It was nothing more than exchanging text, so it only created a light load. It could also reach people over long distances and it simplified saving the minutes of a meeting or sending attachments. Its value had been especially evident during the Harmonic Unification War.

The Far East had tried to oppose the other religions, but they were polytheistic, so they had many conflicts over rights to divine transmissions and had therefore not developed a divine transmission discussion system at the time of the war. After the war, IZUMO had joined together the major shrines from different parts of the Far East and finally developed a similar system.

Masazumi had not made a contract on the level needed to open a sign frame, so this was the first time she had seen it.

'''Asama:''' “I can attach videos with mine, so just ask if you need it.”

As Masazumi gave a silent expression of admiration, the next course arrived.

“Next is the salad. We have a lightly-smoked raw fish salad with a curry dressing.”

…''Are they going for a raw fish joke more than a curry one?

Just as Masazumi realized she was starting to grow accustomed to her classmates, Erimaki produced more text on her lap.

'''Marube-ya:''' “While Shiro-kun buys us some time, let’s go over the important points of this trade discussion.”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Simply put, this trade discussion with England will discuss what products Musashi and England will trade, under what conditions we will trade them, and when we will begin trading them. Here is what we primarily know.”

'''Products: Due to the battle with Tres España approaching, primarily foodstuffs.

'''Conditions: Quality of products = discounted price.

'''When: To be discussed, but the expiration date of the foodstuffs will determine it.

'''Smoking Girl:''' “We aren’t going to sell them fuel and mineral resources? They have a war coming up.”

'''Marube-ya:''' “With England’s forest resources and coalfields, they can supply close to 100% of their own fuel. And with ether treatment, the coal can be made into Orei Coke, the highest quality of Orei Metallo. As far as minerals go, we would be buying from them. If we did try to sell them IZUMO’s Scarlet Metal or BIZEN’s White Metal, we would lose money.”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “Excuse me a moment. Fuel, minerals, and all other items with a high unit price will rise further in price when they are being hurriedly gathered as supplies before a war. The price was originally high because few can be supplied by the producing area, so the price will not lower when a large number are bought. Products like that are stored up over a long period of time while short-term consumable goods such as food are instead bought cheaply and in large quantities so they will not run out during the war, correct?”

'''Wise Sister:''' “Nations are not much different from the high-level ladies shopping at the market, are they?”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Judge. That’s more or less it. During the armada battle, the invincible fleet arrives to land in England. They then battle for a week while travelling counterclockwise around England. If this is carried out in full, no other nation will be able to approach England and they will have difficulty resupplying their food.”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “How much food does England have stored?”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Probably about two weeks’ worth. They may look like they have plenty, but they also have to worry about the food supplies for the ships taking part in the battle and the different defensive units scattered across the surface.”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “Alsoso…”

'''Wise Sister:''' “Alsoso? Have you finally gone insane, Mitotsudaira!? Excellent!”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “I have not! /Oh, sorry about that. This is Adele. I’m Catholic, so I’m borrowing hers. I’m not used to this keyboard, so I accidentally sent an incomplete message. Anyway… Also, the end of the armada battle means England will expand and destroy the power balance of the other nations. Their trade situation will be forced to change. The other nations will try to suppress England’s expansion. In the worst case, that could continue all the way until the Peace of Westphalia. If that happens, England’s trade would be restricted for over five months. To raise morale and sweep away people’s worries, they need food. If they’re thinking of having a festival, they need to at least have some food.”

'''Worshipper:''' “Ahhhhh! I could add so much to this conversation, but I’m busy cooking!! Okay, next course is up!”

“Go ahead. Our school’s chefs have poured all of their skill into this raw fish foie gras with a curry sauce.”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “Can Masazumi keep up with this? She is only watching after all.”

'''Asama:''' “If you don’t know how to react, scratch your head with your right hand.”

'''Azuma:''' “Oh, she scratched it. I don’t really get it either, but is that food good?”

'''Worshipper:''' “D-do you doubt my skill!? I am invincible when it comes to cooking!”

'''83<ref>83 can be pronounced Hassan.</ref>:''' “Curry is invincible too. That makes it doubly invincible.”

'''Asama:''' “Um, I’ll just ignore all that. Adele seems to be having trouble, so I will set the shared settings to allow ‘hidden’ members. Is there anyone else who can’t post?”

'''Wise Sister:''' “Are you stupid?”

'''Asama:''' “Eh? Oh! I didn’t say that! I didn’t!! Everyone forget it!”

'''Me:''' “Okay, everyone who forgot make a post saying-…”

'''Asama:''' “And there’s the final blow! A-anyway, I changed the settings!”

'''“Flat Vassal has entered.” “Gold Mar has entered.” “Mal-Ga has entered.”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Is that everyone? Then let’s continue the discussion.”

“Now, have a light drink. This is a cold, raw fish soup. Curry flavored, of course.”

Howard gulped slightly when he saw the soup arrive in a teacup.

…''I’m glad I’m Far Eastern.

With that earnest thought, Masazumi lowered her gaze slightly to look at Erimaki’s sign frame.

The information Heidi was sending her way held great meaning.

For the past two weeks, she had not had any new information on the state of England and Musashi. They had also not been given time before landing to decide their stance concerning England.

That was why she had wanted to gather everyone on the deck and hold a meeting.

…''But then these three arrived.

It was possible the timing of their arrival had not been a coincidence.

They wanted to get the upper hand in the negotiations before Musashi could decide on a clear stance.

That was why Shirojiro was almost hostilely stalling for time so they could achieve a consensus.

Fortunately, England had asked for a discussion of trade. Being commerce related, Shirojiro and Heidi could handle it. If it had been a diplomatic issue, Masazumi would have been forced to take charge, but she would have been unable to achieve a consensus with the others because she could not use sign frames.

Currently, Heidi typed out another message.

'''Marube-ya:''' “And so the primary product to trade here is food.”

'''Mal-ga:''' “What will we be selling? Wheat and meat like always? Or will they finally be introducing potatoes using the Fear Eastern interpretation some other countries have used?”

''Mal-ga must be Naruze,'' guessed Masazumi. ''That means Gold Mar is Naito.

They dealt with loading and unloading cargo, so they knew what products Musashi carried.

…''It would cause an international incident if we introduced potatoes to England.

Potatoes were originally from the New World and had been brought to Europe by Tres España halfway through the 16th century. They could be grown on barren land, they were high in nutrients, and they were easy to cook, so they were expected to make a decent replacement for wheat as a primary food. Many European countries were planning to cultivate potatoes instead of making bread, but not every European country could freely cultivate them.

'''Marube-ya:''' “According to the Testament descriptions, most of 17th century Europe still was not cultivating potatoes as standard crops. They were considered dirty because they were root vegetables and they were rumored to be poisonous because of their ugly shape.”

Potatoes could easily become a better primary crop than wheat, so cultivating them was directly linked to the increase of a nation’s power as it tried to support a growing population. The different countries held each other in check when it came to recreating the food-related descriptions and potatoes were a perfect example. The only parts of Europe that had begun to cultivate them were certain areas of Tres España and K.P.A.Italia.

If England began cultivating them and therefore ignored the other countries’ restraints, it would cause an international incident.

'''Silver Wolf:''' “I doubt they will try that here. If they ignored the other countries now, they would be completely isolated even if they won the armada battle. Also, do you know why England cannot cultivate potatoes?”

'''Gold Mar:''' “Did something happen?”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “Judge. According to the Testament descriptions, Queen Elizabeth ate a potato leaf in a salad and got solanine poisoning. That led to concerns over growing them, so the other countries say England cannot grow them during Elizabeth’s reign.”

Mitotsudaira came from Hexagone Française which opposed England, so she knew a lot about these issues.

At any rate, what mattered was that England could only grow wheat as a primary crop and their barren land could not produce large crops of wheat. However, wheat could be made into flour, so emergency reserves could be made by gathering it over long periods of time and trading with other countries. They were planning to go to war with Tres España, so they would have been preparing for a long while and they could not quickly make up for it if they failed.

Even knowing that, there was still another question to ask.

'''Smoking Girl:''' “Heidi, then what food does England want right now?”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Judge. That would be meat.”

Below the bridge of the diplomatic ship was a small waiting room. Oriotorai, Yoshinao, and Azuma were sitting around a table. Azuma was grabbing Far Eastern fried potatoes from the table while looking toward Yoshinao across the table.

He asked a question to the man who wore farming clothes yet sill wore his crown.

“Is meat really that important, Vice Principal Yoshinao?”

“Judge,” said Yoshinao with a nod.

He turned to the side to look at a bucket containing selectively bred crops brought from Musashi. A lot of those buckets had been brought along for Ohiroshiki’s cooking, but some of them also contained meat wrapped in paper. Yoshinao looked back toward Azuma before speaking.

“In a year, the people of Europe eat an amount of meat equal to their body weight, Azuma-kun. During the same time period, the people of the Far East eat little meat and instead gain their protein from soy. …Oriotorai-kun, why are you trying to flee? Consuming meat is not forbidden in the Far East. The Testament Union simply decided it could not be a ‘standard food’. There is no problem.”

''That’s odd,'' thought Azuma while tilting his head.

“The Testament Union usually isn’t so lenient when it comes to the Far East.”

“Judge. There is a simple reason for that.”

Yoshinao pulled a knife from his pocket. It was engraved with a wild beast emblem.

“Europe requires a massive amount of meat for food, but religions such as Tsirhc create an incredibly difficult problem concerning the production of meat. Do you know how meat is produced, Azuma-kun?”

Azuma began to think. He thought about what the starting point was for the meat lined up at the butcher shop.

“You own a farm or specialized breeding center and raise cows, pigs, chickens, or sheep?”

“An excellent answer. But we have worked on farms, so we know you are missing an important step.”

Yoshinao swung the hand holding the knife.

The silver light flew in a straight line toward the wrapped meat in the bucket.

“The slaughter.”

The knife stabbed into the watermelon next to the meat.

“Ah.”

Yoshinao rose from his seat and a few sign frames appeared before him.

'''Me:''' “What was that, We? This is why you’ll always be We. Can’t you do a little better?”

'''Asama:''' “Well, some people hate watermelons because the inside is the same color as blood.”

'''Worshipper:''' “Ahh. Just wait a moment. I’ll add it to a dish.”

“Here is the next dish. Raw fish marinated in watermelon juice with a curry dressing.”

''Should we really be doing this to them?'' wondered Masazumi, but it seemed England had reduced the number of victims to just one. She was also concerned because that victim was their negotiator, but Jonson was preparing a long cylinder labelled “stomach medicine”.

'''Azuma:''' “According to Vice Principal Yoshinao, Tsirhc and other religions forbid the taking of life, so meat production was done by non-citizens or people of other religions.”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “Judge. Cows especially were a great blessing to humans, so killing them was banned. That is why sheep and pigs became preferred. Workers would perform the killing outside the cities and the butchers would sell it using the excuse that they had found an animal which died of natural causes.”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Tres España’s obsession with purity drove out the pagans and other races, so they had fewer and fewer people to do those jobs. That’s why they began to eat more seafood.”

'''Mal-Ga:''' “M.H.R.R. had a strong hunting culture, so they still ate a lot of meat. They also have a lot of ways to process the meat. You can think of them as eating meat along with the beer that they drink instead of eating bread.”

…''But that butcher work can be done by anyone in the Far East regardless of religion.

Even in the Far East, pointless killing was forbidden. However, they had a culture of hunting, so some interpretations could be used to solve the problem.

Basically, the Far East was used as a scapegoat to share any food which could not be produced elsewhere due to the other countries holding each other in check.

Masazumi had known meat was an important item in trade and she had known the general reason, but this was the first she had heard the related information.

''I still have a lot to learn,'' she thought. ''If only I could join in the conversation.

She almost petted Erimaki, but stopped herself. She could not let England realize the Mouse was on her lap.

'''Marube-ya:''' “Anyway, before entering Mikawa, Musashi had made a bulk contract with England which included an order of meat. They asked for a month’s worth of meat for their population of 400 thousand. At Mikawa, we managed to buy a lot of goods cheaply. That of course included meat, so we were able to procure England’s order of meat there.”

'''Smoking Girl:''' “Wait a second. Something about that doesn’t make sense.”

…''What doesn’t make sense?

'''Smoking Girl:''' “The Testament descriptions have allowed the Far East to use freezing-point refrigerators known as ice houses ever since the Yamato period. For most other countries, the descriptions end at their downfall, but they continued on for the Far East. The engine division manages the ice house aboard Musashi and it allows us to preserve perishable products like meat long enough to trade them. But do you remember how long it took us to get here from Mikawa? Normally, we would barter at the reservations on the Seto Inland Sea, but we weren’t able to stop at the major trading spots like Shikoku and Kyushu. The engine division hasn’t opened the ice room for almost a month. The meat has to be almost at its expiration date.”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Judge. That is the main issue here. Does anyone understand what this means?”

Azuma frowned and asked Yoshinao a question.

“You mean the meat on Musashi is about to go bad?”

“Judge. The refrigeration includes spells, but that will only last about two more weeks. If meat like this is sold at market, it would have to be bought the first day. Which means…”

Oriotorai continued for him while munching on an apple she pulled from the bucket.

“I love cheap meat. That taste just before it goes bad is the best.”

“Judge,” muttered Yoshinao as he pulled a pad of paper and a pen from his pocket. “Ignoring the flavor, they will want to drive down the price of meat that must be consumed immediately. We have a month’s worth of meat that will go bad in two weeks, which is half a month. Now, what will this do to the price? Azuma-kun, can you use a simple calculation to tell us?”

“Umm,” thought Azuma. “If they have to consume a month’s worth in half a month, the price will drop by half.”

“Judge. Precisely. Now, let us calculate the amount of meat and the price.”

With a glance toward Azuma, Yoshinao began writing on the memo pad with the pen.

“First, let us calculate how much meat will be sold. In a year, Europeans eat their body weight in meat. On Musashi, that is thought to be approximately 60 kg. According to Heidi-kun just now, England’s meat-eating population is currently 400 thousand. They ordered a month’s worth for that population, so…”

'''Amount of meat = (400,000 people x 60 kg) x 1/12 of a year = approx. 2000 tons

Azuma posted that calculation to the divine chat.

'''Me:''' “Oh, We, you can do math!? That’s amazing! You’re so great! I have to completely rethink my view of you!”

“Shut up. We will have you know that we were certified as a Rank 2 abacus user.”

''Did he handle the finances when he ruled his old territory?'' wondered Azuma.

Meanwhile, Yoshinao continued writing on the paper.

“In Europe, half a cow, or approximately 400 kg of meat, can be bought with three months of the average person’s income. The average Far Eastern daily wage is 10,000 yen, so let us assume the average person can buy 400 kg of meat with approximately 900 thousand yen. A single household needs over six people’s worth,” he said. “Now, then. 900 thousand yen is the standard price for 400 kg of meat on the English market.”

After writing out the numbers, he tapped the paper with the pen.

“If Musashi sold all of its 2000 tons at this price, how much money would be spent?”

“Um,” thought Azuma as he rolled the number of digits around in his head. “If 400 kg is 900 thousand yen, 2000 tons would be…4.5 billion yen.”

'''83:''' “Indian curry arithmetic gives the same answer.”

'''Flat Vassal:''' “A-all right! Hard work got me to the same answer!”

“Judge. Well done. We believe you may have been relying on the correct answer, but you still did well, Hassan-kun and Adele-kun.”

'''Me:''' “Tch. I feel like We and Imperial Boy have been standing out too much lately.”

'''Asama:''' “Toori-kun, can’t you just come out and compliment them?”

'''Worshipper:''' “H-how does it feel, Azuma-kun!? Do you feel the joy of the humiliation I always face!?”

…''Hm. They aren’t attacking my personality, so it doesn’t really bother me. And what does he mean by joy?

As Azuma mentally tilted his head, Yoshinao straightened up.

“This trade deal includes that much meat and money, but the value drops by half because of the expiration date,” said Yoshinao. “Heidi-kun, what is the profit ratio for meat?”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Judge. Normally, it is about 20% of the selling price. The remaining 80% goes to the transportation costs, production costs, and processing costs. Even if you deduct the 20% of profit, reducing the price by half leaves us 30% in the red, so we can’t even recover our expenses.”

'''Noriki:''' “The shortened sales period was for their convenience, but we still have to take the loss?”

'''Marube-ya:''' “We crossed the provisional national border in battle mode and brought an enemy ship with us. They can claim the delay was out of caution and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

'''Smoking Girl:''' “Then can’t we make preserved foods out of it?”

'''Worshipper:''' “We don’t have the facilities or equipment for it. We can dry the meat in drying rooms, but the only places aboard Musashi with enough exposure to the wind are on the surface. Unfortunately, it would be unfeasible to build dedicated rooms now. And since Far Eastern culture does not include much meat-eating, we are not allowed a large-scale preservation industry. That is why we use the ice room instead.”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Judge. That’s right. They plan to profit by adding the difference in price to their national treasury. We agreed to the trade contract, so we can’t back out even if we lose money. I wonder if the men of Musashi’s merchant guild have been waiting for Shiro-kun to fail. He can always make up for the loss by the end of the year, but taking out loans within Musashi would be a bad idea and those men can be depressingly annoying.”

'''Flat Vassal:''' “But, um, even if he makes up for it by the end of the year, losing 30% instead of gaining 20% makes for a loss worth two and a half years’ of the profit.”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Judge. That just means the student councils for the next two or three years will end up hating us.”

'''Everyone:''' “?”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Shiro-kun will take measures to recover and those methods can be really underhanded. I can’t wait to see what he does here. Anyway, it’s time to start the trade discussion, Shiro-kun.”

“Now that you have finished the curry sherbet with raw fish topping, it is time we got down to business.”

Masazumi heard the two people sitting across from her and the two sitting next to her adjust their positions in their seats.

…''So it’s starting.

She realized this was her first time seeing one of Bertoni’s business negotiations. Merchants belonged to the same negotiation combat style as a politician like her, so she was curious to see how he would handle it.

Plus, their opponent, Howard, was also a merchant. Not only that, but he was wealthy enough to have presented an entire fleet of ships to Elizabeth. She expected to see high-level bargaining here.

As she watched, Howard leaned forward and placed his clasped fingers on the table. His eyebrows were raised and he was fully prepared for battle. He must have been nervous or expectant because his face was slightly red and he had sweat on his forehead. His aura showed just how important this discussion was.

Bertoni chose to speak first.

“I would like to make the first statement.”

“Y-yes…!? Testament! What is it!?”

Howard leaned further forward to draw closer to Bertoni. Bertoni nodded once and spoke calmly.

“How about we cancel this trade?”

With a fibrous tearing sound, two beams of blood erupted from Howard’s nose.

“Waaaah!!”

Masazumi knocked her chair over as she moved away from the table. Howard held his nose with his left hand and began quickly wiping up the table with the handkerchief in his right hand.

The handkerchief quickly became a blood-soaked rag, so he threw it away in a nearby trashcan and wiped up the rest with a new handkerchief. Shirojiro, however, remained calm.

“From that reaction, I will assume you agree with my suggestion.”

'''Asama:''' “Ehhhhh!? How did you reach that conclusion!? Are you insane!?”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Oh, my. Shiro-kun is extra lovely when he’s forceful.”

It frightened Masazumi how the assistant treasurer could type that out so calmly. At any rate, she cautiously sat back in her seat and thought.

…''Is this normal for negotiations between merchants?

'''Me:''' “C’mon, Shiro. You can go further than that.”

…''Don’t say anything that will worry me, you idiot.

Meanwhile, Howard’s nosebleed had not stopped.

“Nh… If I die of blood loss here, my wife will kill me!”

''How many times are you going to die?'' she thought. ''But we need to start the negotiations.

“When this happens, you need to look up, hold your nose, and tap the back of your neck two or three times,” she explained.

“Like this?”

Howard held his nose and looked up. Behind him, Walsingham prepared the puppet arm which was drawn back to her chest and displayed text on a sign frame.

“This way?”

She launched a gouging horizontal chop toward Howard’s medulla oblongata.

A sound of impact rang out and blood sprayed up into the air.

“Waaaaah!”

Masazumi knocked her chair over as she frantically moved away from the table and Howard collapsed into a pool of blood on the table.

Everyone fell silent for a while, but Heidi finally spoke slowly.

“The murderer is one of us!”

“You just watched as he died just like the rest of us.”

“C’mon, Masazumi. You’re no fun.”

…''Is that really something worth frowning over?

At any rate, Howard energetically recovered, wiped off the table again, and wiped off his face.

“It seems I still have plenty of youth left.”

…''What do nosebleeds have to do with youth? And I’ve been doing nothing but playing the straight man for a while now.

“Unfortunately, I have one important reason for cancelling our trade,” said Bertoni in a tone that quieted everyone down. “We are being carefully watched by the Testament Union.”

As Azuma watched the information on the divine chat, he asked Yoshinao a question.

“Why is Bertoni-kun trying to cancel the trade? We may lose money, but we’ll still make 50% of the money, right? Wouldn’t that be better?”

“Azuma-kun, England is not Musashi’s only trading partner. And we can also sell things within Musashi.”

''Oh, that’s right,'' thought Azuma.

Musashi itself was a city. It had an economic cycle within itself.

Yoshinao nodded and continued his explanation.

“Of course, we cannot hope to fully cover the expenses now that the quality of the meat has fallen. However, selling the meat cheaply to Musashi’s butchers would improve Bertoni-kun’s relationship with them and stimulation to Musashi’s own economy would bring thanks from our own people. If we are to lose money either way, he has decided the latter is preferable,” he said. “He is also saying to England that we will not sell the meat to them if we will lose more that way. This prevents England from obtaining the meat while forcing a great loss onto Musashi. He is saying they must at least gain our consent first. Also, using the Testament Union as a shield is an excellent tactic for the negotiation. It allows us to ask about England’s stance toward the Testament Union. And thus…”

“Thus?”

“Judge.” Yoshinao folded his arms. “He can attack somewhat forcefully here.”

Masazumi saw Bertoni place a hand on the table as he spoke.

“If we trade with you, will you not be seen as opposing the Testament Union? That thoughtless action would also lead to the other countries being even more wary of us. We wish to respect England’s interests and are thinking of Musashi’s safety. If we cannot avoid a conflict with the Testament Union, it is in both of our best interests to not go through with this trade.”

That was true, but there was another side to it.

…''He’s pointing out that not selling the meat to them is an option for us.

“If neither of us will benefit, we have nothing to sell. We will take responsibility and pay the fee for breaching the contract and then deal with the goods on our own.”

In other words, Musashi would not be giving England anything.

If that happened, it would be fully an issue of Musashi’s responsibility, so Howard could not say anything. He remained silent and that silence pointed toward a certain fact.

…''If he isn’t opposing us here, it means they want Musashi’s goods.

They were not unnecessary. They needed them and wished to buy them cheaply, so Howard finally spoke.

“Testament. In that case, let us work together to make this deal beneficial.”

“Judge. That is a most welcome proposal.”

'''Mal-Ga:''' “Oh, he’s leaving it unclear whether that means to work together as individuals or as nations. At any rate, the worst case scenario is set at cancelling the trade.”

But Howard leaned forward and spoke as if driving in a nail.

“However, our battle with Tres España is drawing close.”

“Judge. Might I ask when it will begin?”

Howard shook his head.

“That is classified, so I cannot answer. However, the question is whether Musashi’s goods can be consumed or prepared for storage before it begins.”

Masazumi felt a chill when she realized what that truly meant.

…''He’s saying the armada battle is beginning in two weeks!

Masazumi went back over the information. The meat within Musashi would expire in two weeks. If England was unsure if they could be consumed or prepared for storage in that time, it meant the battle with Tres España would occur in two weeks.

'''Gold Mar:''' “In other words, the armada battle begins two weeks after they receive supplies from Musashi?”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “Most likely. Tres España has been strengthening their Grande y Felicísima Armada for a long time now. Also, two weeks from now is a convenient time for the non-human races.”

''Why?'' wondered Masazumi just as Mitotsudaira sent the answer.

'''Silver Wolf:''' “The full moon. That night most revitalizes the non-human races who make up most of England. They will likely use that night for the armada battle.”

''I see,'' thought Masazumi just as someone seemed to respond to her understanding.

'''Marube-ya:''' “We can sell that information for a lot.”

Heidi’s usual talkativeness was cut short because she was calculating out the value of that information.

''But,'' thought Masazumi. ''In just two weeks, the two great nations of England and Tres España will approach a historical turning point.

That turning point would begin Tres España’s decline and England’s prosperity. It greatly affected those two nations as well as any related to them.

The world was on the move. In the form of Testament descriptions, this turning point of history would be written about in textbooks long after their deaths. Masazumi thought she could feel history here.

“…”

She shuddered for a moment.

…''So this is the true joy of being a politician!

Heidi then posted some additional information.

'''Marube-ya:''' “The battle with Tres España will take place in two weeks. Also, when he said the question is whether Musashi’s goods can be consumed in time, he was saying the expiration date is near but they will consume it all somehow or other.”

'''Azuma:''' “He wasn’t suggesting reducing the amount they buy because they can’t consume it all?”

'''Marube-ya:''' “An opponent as thoroughly prepared as him would not make a complaint like that. We made a bulk contract, so they have to buy it all and they will have some plan for consuming it all. They will have thought about what is possible and used money and personnel to accomplish it. This was nothing but a reminder of what he has already given us.”

'''Noriki:''' “So he was just warning us to stop being so forceful?”

'''Marube-ya:''' “Judge. To protect England’s producers from Musashi’s cheap goods, they will most likely add tariffs, adjust the price, add compensation fees, and temporarily restrict importing other foreign goods. In other words, they are making a shift toward trading with Musashi and the length will be determined in negotiations within the country and with other countries. I think they have decided it will last until the battle with Tres España.”

…''So they are not invincible.

They wanted the goods and they wanted them cheaply, but they had to protect their domestic goods and negotiate trade with other countries.

…''But…

'''Marube-ya:''' “The battle with Tres España begins in two weeks, but they will decide when the trade begins. That is the problem for us. They will decide on a trade period based on their consumption rate and how long it takes to prepare goods for storage. The period they choose will benefit them and ignore our circumstances. The later the starting date, the lower the price will be driven. We are guaranteed to get a bad deal and it will be Shiro-kun’s responsibility.”

Several pieces of data appeared on the screen. Heidi had created a chart of the circulation of goods throughout England and Ohiroshiki had sent data on England’s factories that processed meat as well as private methods.

…''They made this during our conversation here?

Erimaki looked toward Masazumi and Heidi.

“Praise me,” he said.

''Good boy,'' she thought, but could not move her hand for fear of revealing the Mouse’s location.

She did not know how to respond to the confused little thing’s expectations, but a fried tofu icon appeared and disappeared on the sign frame.

'''Marube-ya:''' “Afterwards, okay? That’s all you get for now.”

Erimaki nodded and Heidi continued typing.

'''Marube-ya:''' “According to this data, England can process a month’s worth of meat for storage if they work for a full week without resting. However, that would require the nation to operate at full capacity which includes the normal citizen’s kitchens. But if they had all the households buy the meat like that, a lot of them would be unhappy, so they will likely use another method.”

''That’s right,'' mentally agreed Masazumi. ''I was thinking the same thing.

That other method was…

…''The processed meat could be bought and sold between the processers and the nation as a whole.

'''Marube-ya:''' “Basically, the more they drive down the price of the meat, the more leeway they will have in their original budget. Once the normal households process the meat for storage, the country can buy back what meat the households don’t need. The extra money in their budget and the expectations for the war allow them to pass some money to those households. …Also, they’re tightening down on goods as the war approaches, but this should help morale.”

All of this told them something.

'''Marube-ya:''' “Simply put, England’s strategy is based on this ‘one week’. The meat inside Musashi expires in two weeks, but England wants to delay the beginning of trade for another week. Consuming a month’s worth in a single week will mean four times the normal amount of meat, so the price will drop by 75%. That is why delaying the beginning of trade by a week is best for them.”

She continued typing.

'''Marube-ya:''' “Of course, they haven’t mentioned anything about being able to process the meat in a week. If that was the baseline, they could no longer lower the price based on the expiration date causing an excessive supply. That is why they are purchasing the meat in the name of selling it normally. Our knowledge of this means we want to maintain the two week time limit by beginning trade as soon as tomorrow.”

'''Silver Wolf''' “But two weeks means the price drops by half, doesn’t it? We were going to drop out of the deal at that price, so doesn’t this mean the trade will not happen at this rate?”

Heidi started typing while also showing Bertoni a sign frame containing a summary of the data.

'''Marube-ya:''' “Shiro-kun came here with an idea for that.”

''An idea?'' wondered Masazumi as Bertoni began to speak.

Musashi’s merchant’s voice was as deep as ever.

“Musashi wishes to rescue England from this danger, but it must be done so the Testament Union does not take issue with the deal.”

“Is there a way to do that?” asked Howard.

Bertoni folded his arms and nodded.

“There is a way of trading that will receive no complaint from the Testament Union and cause no trouble for England.”

That was…

"Musashi and England will hold a joint spring school festival in English territory.”

A spring school festival.

“That…” began Howard.

But Bertoni began speaking plainly without nodding again. To Masazumi, it sounded like the recitation of a pre-arranged statement.

“It will be a history recreation interpretation of the European custom of May Day and the different spring festivals in Asian customs. Musashi contains people from many different countries. Those residents all have their own festivals, so we often gather them together into a single school event that functions as a festival for everyone. Musashi has recently been too busy to hold any of these events, so we still have not held a spring school festival which primarily takes the place of the Duanwu Festival.

“We can do this. As a spring festival, it will naturally include research publications and food stands put out by the different committees and clubs. Musashi is planning to prepare for and open a two-week joint spring festival starting tomorrow. Visitors from England are welcome. As a joint festival, we ask that England hold a festival as well.”
Bertoni looked toward Howard once more.

“The stand for Musashi’s student council will handle meat as well as the other trade items. And that includes purchases.”

''I see,'' thought Masazumi. ''A festival will increase the consumption of food and create secondary economic effects.

'''Marube-ya:''' “During the festival, we can make every night a party to liven things up and a lot of people will have to work to make preparations. During the preparations and the festival itself, we hope to sell some of the meat at the stands and other small sales. If possible, we want to double the consumption rate. Doing that will sell the entire month’s supply in the two weeks of the festival. If they are negotiating based on their secret plan to process the meat for storage in a single week, we can negotiate based on our plan to use the festival to double the consumption rate. This is a clash between our true intentions and our claimed intentions.”

…''If we do that, the value of the meat won’t fall.

The double supply would halve the value, but doubling the consumption rate would balance it out. In reality, it was not that simple, but…

'''Mal-Ga:''' “If we earn a bunch at the festival, it will provide enough of an economic effect. We should be able to make up for our losses.”

“But,” said Howard. “If we do that, won’t the Testament Union complain?”

“Judge. They almost certainly will. But if we take the leading role, you can leave all the blame with us. And if it is based in the school rules, it will become a school event which prevents them from taking military action. They cannot touch us. Musashi will take the leading role in this joint spring festival despite not celebrating Beltane, so we hope for compliance from England. …Now, we wish to make the transactions for most of the trade goods during the preparation phase while deferring payment to the actual festival. That will accelerate the trade period.”

“I see,” said Howard with a nod.

He then fell silent once more.

'''Me:''' “C’mon, man. Quit acting all high-and-mighty and hurry it up. If you get another bloody nose and agree, everyone’ll be happy.”

'''Hori-ko:''' “Oh? Bloody noses are happy things to you, Toori-sama? Then I will not hold back.”

Masazumi heard a few screams in the distance, but she ignored them.

…''That must mean Horizon signed a sign frame contract.

'''Brown Algae:''' “Screams? Screams?”

…''How did they get on this line!?

After another long pause, Howard finally nodded.

“Testament. As long as a certificate can be made guaranteeing the accelerated transactions.”

That meant he agreed to the trade between Musashi and England.

…''So we’ve created a path to trade.

Bertoni nodded and turned an expressionless glance toward Howard.

“Judge. We shall prepare one. However…”

“However?” asked Howard just as a message appeared on the sign frame.

'''Marube-ya:''' “Ah, wait just a second. I’m about to get some urgent work!”

A dozen or so sign frames appeared around Heidi.

Howard also opened several sign frames, but his were the rectangular style of Protestants. Just as Masazumi wondered what was going on, the two merchants spoke at the exact some moment.

“Let us negotiate the length of the festival and the preparations.”

Masazumi first heard Bertoni’s voice as she looked at the sign frame Heidi had sent her. He spoke calmly to Howard.

“Two weeks.”

That was the best length because it created a balance with doubled supply and doubled demand.

'''Marube-ya:''' “Our profit ratio is 20%. 20% of two weeks is about three days, so the trade period can shrink by that much and we will still earn a profit. That means we can concede down to eleven days.”

However, Howard shook his head as if it were only natural.

“Three days.”

'''Worshipper:''' “He’s ignoring the time needed to process the meat and is simply choosing a short time period to give him the upper hand in the negotiation.”

England needed a week to process the meat, but starting there would lead to a larger time period after the negotiation. That was why Howard had set it so low.

…''He’s surprisingly reckless.

Bertoni had announced that Musashi would call off the trade if they were losing 30% which would happen at 50% off the original price. That meant seven days and below was off the table. Eight days was the best England could hope for.

Nevertheless, Howard had started at three days.

Some might call it unfair, but there was a reason he had gone through with it.

…''He has confidence as England’s treasurer.

Despite Howard’s number, Bertoni’s expression was unfazed and he shook his head.

“A week and seven days for preparation.”

Howard had given a number which was excessively low and Bertoni had remained at the exact same number with a different phrasing.

Howard of course shook his head.

“Three days and one day of preparation.”

…''Oh? He conceded a day first but is still pushing for a foundation of three days.

Three days was simply not happening. It was a bluff. But he was sticking with the bluff and treating it as the truth.

…''The final agreement England is going for might be “three days and five days of preparation” for a total of eight days.

Musashi would refuse seven days, so they would add one day to make eight.

England needed these goods, but they would never stop focusing on their own interests above all. And if they could not push a bluff through, what good were they?

But Bertoni let out a breath and made a sudden counteroffer.

“One week and five days of preparation.”

He all of a sudden conceded two days.

Bertoni’s offer caused Howard’s eyebrows to rise.

…''How interesting.

Howard had thought they would use some condition to negotiate in units of one day.

…''But he suddenly gave up two days for nothing in return.

He suspected Musashi had some sort of plan, but unfounded suspicions only led to anxiety. He would continue with his own method.

…''I need to give something of equal value to their offer.

“Testament. Three days for the festival and two days for preparation.”

Now they had both conceded two days. He assumed this brought things back on course.

“Musashi will use its transport ships to transport goods to Scotland and the other blocks.”

Bertoni’s statement led Howard to tap his right index finger on the table.

…''I see. He is trying to buy days with a method other than money.

That gave meaning to the previous two-day concession.

…''He is adding the transportation on top of that concession to see if I will make a large concession in return.

To probe out Howard’s methods, he had conceded his own days while he still had plenty to spare.

…''This is his strategy.

He had played the card of conceded days plus an additional condition while also bringing the starting date closer to his target date.

Howard’s target number of days was eight. He had just offered five, so his remaining options were three days’ worth of cards and whatever additional conditions he had.

Meanwhile, Musashi’s break-even line was likely at eleven days. However, their merchant’s cards had been reduced to twelve. He had only one day remaining.

Even if he tried to concede three more days to bring Howard down to eight days, he would end up in the red at nine days. If they continued making concessions as is, they would end up negotiating over eight or nine days.

Eight or nine days.

…''That is where the true battle lies.

Also, Howard had already considered the idea of having them make the deliveries with their transport ships.

Aerial ships were the Far East’s specialty. England had some technology via IZUMO, but their transport ships for trade and their piloting technology were inferior to Musashi’s. That led Howard to his decision.

“Understood. We will leave that to you. As for land ports…”

“We will use the IZUMO trading companies and warehouses located at the destinations. I own them, so we can handle the transportation charges. Think of it as a complimentary service.”

“Testament,” agreed Howard.

He had intended to have them use the transportation companies he owned, but he would retain all the preparation fees if Musashi would cover them instead. In other words, this meant more profit for him.

Accepting this as an additional condition, he conceded one of his cards.

“That should allow some extra time for the festival, so how about three days for the festival and three days for preparations?”

…''Now, then.

Howard read Bertoni’s hand.

Bertoni was currently at twelve days. He only had one more day to give. Meanwhile, Howard was at six days and had two days left before reaching his target of eight days.

Because Bertoni only had one card left to play, he would fall to ten days if he wanted to meet Howard’s two.

But Bertoni made another unexpected counteroffer.

“How about seven days for the festival and two days for preparations, making a total of nine days?”

He suddenly reduced his offer by three days.

''So he has made his decision,'' thought Howard.

Bertoni had conceded past his break-even line at eleven days. He may have been planning to make up for the loss with secondary income at the festival, but Howard knew one thing for sure.

…''He wants us both to concede three days and settle on nine days.

But Howard did not go along with it.

He cleared his throat.

…''I can add a small condition to counteract his three day concession.

“In that case,” said Howard. He went on to state the condition he felt was necessary to achieve a safe trade. “To reduce the burden of the festival and its preparations, England will expand your landing privileges. Musashi’s residents will be allowed on the third level and the second level. How about those two added conditions?”

Those two additional conditions would reduce the burden in preparations and transportation, so it made up for two days of Musashi’s three day concession.

And…

“I will concede one day. That leaves us at three days for the festival and four days for preparations, a total of seven days.”

If they both conceded one more day, they would agree on Howard’s goal of eight days.

And so he showed no unnecessary greed and simply spoke.

“Then again, you might need some more time for preparations, so I will concede one more day.” He took a breath and shrugged. “Eight days. I would like to settle on that length.”

“Toori-sama, does this not put us in danger of going into debt?”

Toori tilted his head as Horizon asked him a question on the deck’s forward terrace.

“Why?”

Now it was Horizon’s turn to tilt her head. Their heads were tilted in opposite directions.

“Looking at the situation, it seems inevitable. Their negotiator has brought the negotiation to a close.”

“Yeah, but why is that a problem for our cruel merchant?”

“?”

Horizon tilted her head even further and Toori placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Do you want to know what I mean? Here’s the best option: let me massage your chest and you’ll understand!”

“What a coincidence. I just arrived at the best option as well: if I hit you, I will understand.”

“Okay, okay!”

Toori used both hands to calm Horizon down as she held up a hand in preparation. He then used his chin to indicate the negotiation terrace on the stern of the ship.

“Who do you think that is back there?”

“Shirojiro Bertoni-sama. His opponent is England’s treasurer, Howard-sama.”

“Howard is pretty damn good. He isn’t just using England’s authority here. He’s fighting fair and square so as not to tarnish that authority. He isn’t going to let his guard down. To be honest, I don’t really get it, but if a ‘best option’ lover like you says he’s trouble, Shiro must be in a fair bit of trouble. But…”

“But?”

“Shiro is Musashi’s treasurer. And he isn’t Mr. Impossible like me.” Toori smiled a bit. “They’re both treasurers. Anything Howard can do, Shiro can do too. Shiro can do things that will make a ‘best option’ lover like you think Howard’s in a fair bit of trouble.”

Masazumi held her breath and observed her surroundings.

Currently, Howard had conceded one day and proceeded to bring the negotiation to an end.

As he had made a concession, Musashi would have to answer with a concession as well.

…''And that concession has to be accepting his proposal.

Now that he had said eight days was enough, they could no longer get him to concede any more days. They had fallen for his tactic of starting at three days.

…''What do we do!?

She knew she must not look toward Bertoni. That would expose him to the uncertainty she was feeling. Instead, she worked to remain expressionless and lowered her gaze to Erimaki.

'''Me:''' “Seijun! Tell a bad joke! Tell a terrible joke and buy us some time!!”

…''Damn him. I really am going to kill him one of these days!!

'''Asama:''' “Sh-she can’t! If she tells a bad joke and he falls out of his seat, he might use that to stand up and end the negotiations!”

'''Uqui:''' “Hm. You understand this well, Asama.”

…''Wait. Are they indirectly making fun of me here!? If only I could post…

But even if she could, the negotiations would have prevented her from doing so.

…''Then what am I supposed to do?

Just as she thought that, she saw a sudden movement. Bertoni had stood up to her left.

“…!?”

Howard and Jonson were too slow to react to his sudden and expressionless action. Walsingham, however, moved the controllers floating behind her back to prepare for an attack, but a sudden voice came from further back and to the right.

“Hold it.”

Mitotsudaira’s voice and the jangling of chains stopped the bodyguard automaton.

As everything fell silent, Bertoni continued to move. He circled around to the side of the table, arrived to the right of Howard, and lightly jumped up into the air.

In midair, he performed a high-level triple axel and…

“That number of days simply will not work, so I beg you to concede further!”

He completed his pose in midair and landed in a prostration.

Masazumi almost cried out, but she managed to press her lips together and swallow the cry.

…''Ehhhhhh!?

'''Marube-ya:''' “Oh c’mon, Shiro-kun. A Triple Axel Prostration!? I haven’t seen you use that since you nailed it at Interhigh when we were in middle school. Have you been practicing when I wasn’t looking!? I’m falling for you all over again!”

''You’re okay with this?'' thought Masazumi, but a glance forward showed Howard’s expression had changed.

He had wrinkled his brow, clenched his teeth, and sweat had formed on his forehead.

She followed Howard’s gaze and noticed something had appeared between Bertoni’s hands as he prostrated himself. He held a cloth-wrapped confectionery box above his head.

…''Wh-when did he get that!?

Howard noticed Jonson staring at him from the side, so he held out a hand to stop him.

He could not show how much this had shaken him.

…''Splendidly done!

Far Eastern uniforms were known for their long sleeves and wide cuffs. Rotating sideways in midair would wrap those around you and fall out of place on landing. However, this boy’s cuffs were neatly spread out the sides and his landing had not caused any noise.

…''This is the real deal.

The Testament descriptions said a Far Eastern merchant’s special technique was the prostration, so Far Eastern merchants practiced daily to ensure they could perfectly recreate that part of history.

A prostration required shrinking down one’s entire body using one’s flexibility, so it required exercising the entire body as well as anaerobic exercise. To pull them off required three sets of five hundred training prostrations every single day. Even in England, prostrations were required learning to handle Far Eastern merchants, so Howard knew several different techniques: the Left Prostration, the Right Prostration, the Over-the-Shoulder Prostration, the Walking Prostration, the Standing Prostration, the Overturned Prostration, etc.

…''Simply splendid!

When faced with an authentic prostration, Howard knew his own were nothing but conceited child’s play. Far Eastern dance had a technique for forming a sitting position in midair and landing like that, and this was based on that.

In addition, this young merchant had produced confectioneries. In that case, Howard had no choice but to respond. After all…

…''I began this discussion with a prostration of my own!

This merchant had conceded to hold the discussion when faced by Howard’s prostration.

That meant Howard now had to make a concession when faced with this prostration. If he did not, his own prostration would become nothing but a type of fashion. As England’s representative merchant he could not allow that to happen.

“Please raise your head.”

However, the boy did not. But even that was…

…''Splendid!

A prostration was not to be ended until the other party had given in. As a negotiation skill, it was the ultimate technique in which one would not move an inch until their opponent conceded. While it was a type of bow, it was also the ultimate defense. It allowed any insults to pass over one’s head and it prevented one from leaving no matter what trained body tried to make them leave and no matter what attack or removal attempt was made.

Howard gritted his teeth.

“Do you need more time for preparations?”

He received no response, so he took a breath and the confectionery box.

“How about nine days: three days for the festival and six days for preparations?”

Azuma turned toward Yoshinao and Oriotorai with a surprised look.

“Prostrations are amazing, aren’t they!?”

“Don’t try it yourself, okay?” Oriotorai then shrugged. “Nine days? That won’t cut it. I’m not an expert at negotiations, but I’ve done my best to teach you not to do anything halfway.”

“Judge.”

Bertoni rose and bowed toward Howard.

Masazumi saw him slowly return to his seat. His expression was as blank as ever. He looked perfectly composed.

He sat down and placed both hands on the table. Masazumi guessed that was a way of showing he had room to spare in the negotiations and Bertoni went on to lower his head again.

“I appreciate the concession of an extra day for preparations.”

“Testament. Due to the coming battle with Tres España, we do not want to take more time than is necessary.”

Howard’s voice was blank. Not being led by one’s emotions during negotiations was a necessary skill for merchants and it was part of Masazumi’s own politician combat style.

However, that allowed her to guess at his true state.

…''He’s probably livid with rage.

He had likely wanted to settle on eight days, but another day had been added. This was likely still within his margin of error, but the merchants who wanted to defeat him would use this as ammunition. The specific reason he had been forced to concede that ninth day was also an issue.

…''He prostrated first to show his understanding of the Far East.

If he had not done that, he would not have lost the eight day agreement. It had been his own error.

His anger was toward himself, so it would not vanish easily. He could not blame anyone else, so it would simply smolder within him.

''But,'' thought Masazumi. ''This English merchant is no fool.

Earlier, he had prioritized ending the negotiations at eight days, so he clearly did not like unnecessary gambles. He was proud, but he was steady and would not make an attempt if he did not think it would work. He would build up his strategy and do nothing more than what he planned. Setting the starting point at three days was a sign of that method.

Meanwhile, Bertoni’s style still showed he had room to spare. He would aim for an even more advantageous number of days.

…''But how is he planning to draw out the fight any longer?

Meanwhile, Howard spoke.

“Then let us agree to nine days and bring this negotiation to-…”

Just as Howard tried to conclude this negotiation, Masazumi heard Bertoni raise both his hands.

“Nine days, you say?”

He nodded.

“…”

And suddenly, he smiled.

Masazumi saw Bertoni’s slight smile. His eyes arched and his teeth were partially visible. The expression was downright refreshing.

“…!”

Walsingham held her arms up in preparation.

Howard seemed to sense something because he sucked in a breath.

On the other hand, Bertoni kept his hands raised.

“That was a truly excellent negotiation. I was completely outdone. As such, I will provide you an additional concession for free.”

“No, thank you!” shouted Howard. “The negotiation is over!!”

“No, I merely said I was outdone. I had not agreed to your proposal, Lord Howard, so the negotiation is not over. After all, Far Eastern merchants always provide perfect complimentary services as part of the negotiation.”

“And what service are you offering?”

To suppress his caution, Howard erased all expression from his face.

“Do not worry,” said Bertoni. “This may be part of the negotiation, but I will not ask for any concession from you. This is a complementary service after all. It is for your sake and it is entirely free of charge.”

This was the first time Masazumi had heard Bertoni use polite language in his negotiation.

She realized Heidi had stopped typing.

Instead, her expression had loosened up.

…''Is she enjoying this?

However, Masazumi saw no way that a complimentary service could get Howard to concede anything.

…''How is he planning to obtain any more days like this?

As if to answer her question, Bertoni took a small breath, smiled, and spoke.

“I have made many impertinent comments during this negotiation. I believe I have put a great burden on you. As an apology, I will reconsider the length of the trade period.”

He then stated what the “complimentary service” was.

“We can revert to your original suggestion of three days. Yes, that would be best.”

Three days.

After Bertoni went as far as to say that would be “best”, Masazumi turned toward Howard. The merchant was expressionless, but there was a change to his face.

The color of his face had changed from flesh-colored to red and it was quickly growing darker.

The veins on his forehead and nape of his neck were bulging out.

“…”

Suddenly, Howard grabbed his nose and a fibrous tearing sound rang out.

“…!”

Beam-like geysers of blood burst from both his ears.

“Waaaah!!”

Masazumi knocked her chair over as she moved away from the table.

However…

…''Huh? None reached me.

As she had expected, Jonson had toppled his chair backwards to avoid the blood. While trembling, he pointed toward Howard and shouted toward Walsingham.

“Mate! Stop the bleeding! Plug his ears!”

“Testament.”

Walsingham nodded, circled behind Howard, and slammed her palms into either side of his head. Two clear sounds rang out and Howard stopped moving altogether.

'''Noriki:''' “That’s a concussion if I’ve ever seen one.”

'''Flat Vassal:''' “That automaton has been using nothing but dangerous techniques.”

But Howard finally stirred while lying limp in his chair.

“Kh! I-I apologize, but I cannot move right now! So, um…”

His speech was somewhat slurred.

“Three days!?”

“Judge,” replied Bertoni who was no longer smiling. He had returned to his expressionless state. “As a sign of my apology, I am providing a great concession as a complimentary service. That is all.”

“P-please wait a moment.”

“What is it? Surely you do not mean you cannot prepare and hold the festival in three days. You were the one to propose this. I am merely agreeing with you.”

…''I get it.

Bertoni was using Howard’s bluff against him. To end the negotiation at eight days, Howard had set the starting line at three days. It was a bluff, but he had attempted to force it through.

Their information told them England could process all the meat for storage in one week, but what would happen if they only had three days?

…''England will only obtain as much preserved meat as they can create in three days.

England could process a month’s worth of meat in one week, but they could only process 3/7 of that in three days. Of the 2000 tons of meat, 4/7 of it would go to waste.

'''Azuma:''' “Approximately…1143 tons would end up in the trash!”

As a politician, Masazumi knew how much garbage was created. She recalled the daily amount of kitchen waste created by the average household on Musashi.

…''I think it was between 700 grams and 1 kilogram.

Even if it was all rounded up to a kilogram, that was 1,143,000 households’ worth of waste.

London’s population was said to be over 200 thousand. This deal would suddenly create over five times the waste their population did. There was no way they could manage it all.

However…

“Three days. Judge. We will fully comply with your demand.”

…''He’s throwing his bluff right back at him.

If they settled on three days, the value of a months’ worth of meat would fall to 1/10 of the normal. Even at twice the consumption, that was 1/5.

Nevertheless…

“We are prepared to do what it takes. I want you to understand that.”

If Bertoni was going down, he was taking Howard with him.

'''Mal-Ga:''' “Why didn’t he use this reverse bluff earlier?”

'''Marube-ya:''' “He wanted to draw out those additional conditions. We agreed to handle transportation and Lord Howard granted us further landing privileges, remember? If he had used the reverse bluff right away, we wouldn’t have gotten those. Those two conditions allow us a lot more freedom in England. Lord Howard decided to end the negotiation right afterwards, so Shiro-kun just barely got this in at the very last second.”

…''They did a lot to help out.

The transportation and landing privileges would normally be Masazumi’s problem as they were political issues, but Musashi’s merchant duo had achieved them as well.

…''They seek the greatest profit possible.

She felt like she had come to understand their mercantile viewpoint.

They were not wealthy representatives of a great nation like Howard was. They were young merchants on Musashi where merchants of various descents fought over a small and limited pie.

They were greedy and they would forcibly earn a profit even if it meant taking advantage of their opponent.

The idea of using Howard’s bluff against him came from that disposition.

And Howard now had to release himself from the reverse bluff Bertoni and Heidi had placed on him. In other words, he had to return to the negotiating table.

…''He can’t run away now, so he has no choice.

After all, England would create a massive amount of waste if they accepted the three day offer.

Not only would that cause problems for England and its citizens, but he would be effectively punishing England and its citizens for his own failure.

''This Howard is not the sort of man who would run from this,'' thought Masazumi. ''Someone like that would not be trusted enough to hold the position of England’s representative as treasurer.

He had become the great merchant he was because he would take responsibility for his own actions and he had the hidden ability to do so without difficulty.

And to prove it, Howard lightly raised his right hand.

“Testament. Understood. I would love to accept your generous offer.” He nodded once. “But Musashi and the Far East already bear a great burden. As a member of Trumps and therefore a servant of our great nation of England and of our kind Fairy Queen, I do not wish to place any more of a burden upon you. As such…”

As such…

“To show our understanding of Musashi’s burden and to give you more flexibility in your work, how about five days for the festival and four days for preparations?”

Howard suggested a total of nine days. Masazumi reacted by looking at Erimaki on her lap.

'''Silver Wolf:''' “He wants to eliminate the reverse bluff with the same one day addition we earned from that previous farce?”

“Three days for the festival and two days for preparations,” responded Bertoni. “Three days is enough for us, so five total gives us plenty of flexibility.”

Bertoni continued with the reverse bluff. He did not intend to release the opponent he had latched onto.

His strategy was clear.

He would concede two days for every one day Howard conceded. It seemed he was conceding more, but Musashi was still at five days. They still had two days left before reaching seven days and those two days meant just under 600 tons of waste. Howard of course wanted to bring that waste down to zero.

“Ten days. Six for the festival and four for preparations. Will that allow Musashi to carry out its work without any extra burden?”

The tone of Howard’s voice had fallen, so Masazumi gulped in her heart. Hiding one’s emotions was a standard of negotiation, but he had allowed this change in tone to show itself.

'''Marube-ya:''' “It looks like he’s completely given up on the negotiation. If he sees the loss as growing too great, he will call the entire deal off just like we threatened at the start. We need to sniff out where his limit is from his attitude.”

…''In that case, this is the time to back off.

However, Bertoni readily continued speaking.

“We should avoid including your day of rest. Tsirhc considers it immoral to work more than necessary on that day, correct? How about six days for the festival, one day off, and four days for preparations? That is eleven in all.”

Howard fell silent.

He took several breaths. He listened to the waves outside the ship, took a few more breaths, and finally let out a resolved and stifled voice.

“Te-…”

“One more thing,” said Bertoni calmly.

Howard seemed to suddenly realize what that meant and raised his eyebrows slightly.

The English merchant opened his mouth again.

“…!”

Just as he began speaking, Bertoni once more spoke up before he could. However, Bertoni was not addressing Howard this time.

“Mukai, are you listening?”

Howard was left speechless because he did not understand why Bertoni had suddenly called for Mukai Suzu who was blind. Masazumi, on the other hand, did understand.

…''So that’s it!

She finally realized why she was sitting at that table.

And so…

“Wait, Bertoni. This is not for you to decide.”

“Judge. Then I will leave it to you, vice president.”

“Judge,” replied Masazumi with a nod.

She ignored Howard who seemed confused and instead looked at the divine transmission sign frame Heidi gave her.

It displayed the scene in one of the ship’s corridors where Mukai sat on a bench by the wall. Asama sat next to her and the shrine maiden seemed to be controlling the footage.

Masazumi cleared her throat and began.

“Now, Mukai. This may be sudden, but I want you to listen calmly.”

Mukai nodded and visibly prepared herself as Masazumi continued in a definite tone of voice.

“You will be sent to London as a temporary ambassador.”

…''Eh?

Suzu did not understand what Masazumi meant.

…''An…ambassador?

She had heard the term in politics class. An ambassador was sent to another country as a political representative to speak on behalf of their own country. During the history recreation, the practice had begun in 1455 when K.P.A. Italia’s city-state of Milan had sent a diplomat to the city-state of Genoa.

…''Eh? You want…me to do that?

Asama and the others had relayed the details of the negotiation to her. But…

…''Why?

“U-um…”

“You will be able to freely contact us using sign frame divine transmissions. And Adele, you go as her bodyguard.”

“Eh? Me? U-um… Okay. Judge.”

“W-wait a s-second,” began Suzu. She tried to stop the situation from continuing to progress so quickly. “Wh-why? I am…a lot of trouble. You should…not choose me. That would be…better.”

“Well…” said Masazumi in confusion.

The wavering of Masazumi’s voice told Suzu her worries had been misplaced. She felt bad for what she had said, but at the same time…

…''I shouldn’t…make people worry so much.

She wanted to sweep it all away, but it was unlikely to be that easy.

She heard a breath from Masazumi who was unsure what to say and no immediate answer arrived.

However…

“C’mon, Bell-san! How about you leave it at that?”

Toori’s voice suddenly came from the sign frame and Suzu straightened her posture without thinking.

…''Will he think…I’m an unpleasant girl?

“Huh? Bell-san, your face is really red. Are you okay?”

“I-I-I’m fine. Just fine. …Wh-what is it?”

“Eh? Oh, right. You may not have realized it, but even Seijun can’t stand up to you when you question her. That’s what happened here, right?”

“…”

“Listen,” began Toori. “Out of all of us, you’re the one that speaks your mind the clearest, is the most stubborn, and yet takes care of yourself.”

“Th-that…that isn’t…t-true.”

She did not know what to do when he suddenly complimented her like that. She wanted to go hide somewhere, but then she would miss out on the important thing he had to say.

“Wh-what should I…do?”

“It’s simple. Y’see, that money-lover and that flat-chested girl who can’t tell a joke to save her life are-…! S-Seijun! I think your aim’s gotten better!”

“Y-you shouldn’t…do that, M-Masazumi,” said Suzu. “The tsukkomi…is Horizon’s j-job.”

Asama lowered her head along with everyone else.

…''That’s not entirely wrong, but it isn’t exactly right either.

However, she somehow understood what Toori meant. Shirojiro had spoken her name and Masazumi had supported the decision for the same reason.

…''She’ll immediately tell you if you shouldn’t do something.

Anyone could tell the difference between what they should and should not do. But when faced with those things, could everyone come out and say it without compromising or making excuses? Most people could likely do so when it came to protecting those who were important to them, but Suzu was a little different.

…''She can say it when it comes to Horizon.

As seen in her essay from a while back, Suzu respected Horizon. She had said she loved Toori, so it would not be unusual if Horizon held a complicated place in her heart. But Suzu had not forgotten about Horizon and she had continued to value her relationship with Horizon as it had been back then.

She did not waver.

She was blind, so if she wavered, she might not be able to trust anything even if she received help. She did not rely on her vision, so her decisions were instantaneous and that decision always occurred within herself. Letting it leave her would only let it decay.

“Bell-san, can you continue on like that and act as a diplomat for a bit? Seijun and that money-lover will teach you the more difficult things. I’ll contact your parents, so-… Wait, wait! Seijun! Don’t say you won’t let me do it. Don’t worry. I’ll put on some clothes, so don’t worry. It’ll just be knee socks, though! …Anyway, Bell-san. You’ll get a nice room, eat nice food, bathe in a nice big bath, and sleep in a bed so big you’ll sink down into it. There’s nothing to worry about. If someone fires a shell at you, Adele will protect you.”

“Diplomacy doesn’t have such extreme highs and lows!”

Everyone shouted back at Toori without thinking, but Suzu’s tone was still doubtful.

“W-will I really…be okay?’

“You will, Mukai. This is Masazumi. It will only last two weeks and your freedom there is guaranteed. The festival will begin after a few days and that means we should be able to visit you more frequently.”

“Th-then…what do I need to…do?”

“A diplomat has two jobs. First, act as an intermediary between us and England. Second, you have the right to make decisions on our behalf if England insists on a decision.”

“Th-that…that’s…t-too much for…me.”

“Hm? Bell-san, don’t think about it so much. It’s easy as can be.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah,” answered Toori. “You just have to be our ally like you always are. If you think anything is bad for us, just say no. If you think it’s perfectly fine, then say yes.”

“R-really? I-is that…really all…it is?”

''That’s the hardest part, but she finds it hard to believe that’s “all” it is,'' thought Asama. ''She really is a virtuous person. It is most impressive she managed to remain like that in this filthy class. If some monster tries to contaminate her, I’ll shoot them.

Toori then replied to Suzu’s question.

“I’m asking you to do this because your ability to do that is perfect for the job.”

“R-really?” said Suzu. “Then…I’ll do it.”

Suzu nodded as if trying to convince herself, so Asama rustled her sleeves as she gently hugged Suzu. She used her strength and warmth to tell Suzu to do her best and Suzu nodded again.

“M-make sure to…come get me, e-everyone.”

“Sure thing,” said Toori.

Everyone else nodded as well and Kimi’s voice came from the sign frame.

“Suzu hasn’t signed a sign frame contract, has she? Asama, make a quick contract with her. Also, Adele is Catholic, so give her a quick lesson on using Shinto sign frames. If anything happens, Adele would be able to use it more quickly.”

Kimi then gave further instructions but via divine message rather than by voice.

“Also, Adele mentioned that Suzu heard an odd noise coming from England. It apparently sounded like construction or a bell. It occasionally comes from the Tower of London up above, so sending Suzu there has another meaning.”

“Do you think there is something there?’

“I don’t know, but I am curious. Suzu knows a lot about sounds. If she found it odd enough to question it, it must be something not heard in everyday life on Musashi. England must be making various preparations for the Apocalypse and their battle with Tres España, and it wouldn’t hurt to come across one of those things.”

“I see,” said Asama with a nod.

Masazumi nodded back at her before turning toward Howard.

…''The sound Mukai heard does not fit with anything England has mentioned so far.

They had held a light negotiation, but nothing like that had been brought up. However, it was doubtful Mukai was wrong about something like this.

…''Now we can send Mukai herself to check on it.

Most diplomats were also spies. With that in mind, Masazumi spoke to Howard.

“We have no objection to sending a diplomat. And it seems to me that bringing one of our residents into England as evidence of our diplomatic relationship would make a sufficient achievement for England even if it would not remain in history. How about it?”

After asking her question, she immediately spoke again.

“Aoi, can we send Futayo as another bodyguard for Mukai?”

“Eh? Oh, sure, sure.”

“Me?” cut in Futayo. “I am currently consuming curry.”

“Judge.” Masazumi nodded. “This will begin tomorrow. Adele Balfette is solely defensive and she is from a Hexagone Française family. She is perfect for protecting a diplomat who could effectively be taken hostage, but she and Mukai have not trained for their roles. For the next few days, the student council and the cultural types will be busy preparing for the festival, so the bodyguard has to come from the chancellor’s officers. However, England would be wary of Mitotsudaira because she is from Hexagone Française, Naomasa has yet to repair Jizuri Suzaku, Crossunite is busy being gay, and we can’t exactly send the two Technohexen from M.H.R.R. That leaves you, Futayo.”

“Masazumi, I think one of those reasons was a bit odd.”

…''Just ignore it.

“Anyway, how about it, Futayo? With you along, Mukai will have Musashi’s greatest defense and offense with her. Also, Mukai’s words and actions will hold authority as Musashi’s ambassador. You know what that means, don’t you?”

“Judge. In other words, she will not just be the representative of Musashi Ariadust Academy, but of the Far East as a whole. That makes her a representative of the Far East’s ruler, Princess Horizon. …It seems Mukai-sama wishes to express her understanding as well.”

Bertoni nodded next to Masazumi and spread his hands.

“If you think of them as hostages, this is a splendid achievement, isn’t it? You can take away Musashi’s greatest defense and offense. …Then again, it also means you are holding a bomb, but thinking about how to announce your results is another joy of being a merchant, don’t you think?”

“Testament. That is indeed wonderful. Now, the festival will be seven days with one of those days set aside for rest, and…now that we have come this far, how about 5 days for preparations? Let us agree on twelve days total.” Howard shrugged his shoulders. “However, the other merchants’ attempts to interfere should be quite intense now that I have conceded so much. If possible, I would like to be given full authority over England’s side of this deal. Would that be okay?”

“You mean you want us to sign a contract saying Musashi can only trade with England through you?”

“Testament.” Howard nodded. “And if you are the one to make the request, I can use it as an excuse to suppress the other merchants. Also, if you do not charge for the contract, I will be in your debt for that small amount.”

“Judge. Then that is what we shall do.”

Bertoni nodded and produced a sign frame containing a seal in his palm. Howard smiled bitterly but still held out his hand. As he prepared for a handshake, his palm also showed a sign frame containing a seal.

…''The negotiations are over.

Bertoni reached across the table and completed the handshake. At the same time, a sign frame appeared.

'''“Approved : Religion-Independent Seal : Subject – Far East, England, Official Trade Negotiation – Transmitting to Both Administrations : Confirmed”

Fragments of light scattered from their palms. As the light scattered to the ground, the two merchants stood from their seats. Heidi also stood up while typing.

'''Marube-ya:''' “Ahh, ahh. So we have to use our own transport ship? It is true we have some extra fuel because they haven’t been running lately. And, well, I guess persuading them is part of our job.”

Howard must have realized what she was thinking because he released Bertoni’s hand and spoke.

“We will send a carriage for your ambassador tomorrow morning. And in a few days, your representatives should be invited to our royal palace. After a party, we will hold a meeting. That will likely be no sooner than the evening of the festival’s first day.”

“Judge. We appreciate it. Is that information free?”

“Testament. Think of it as a complimentary service.” Howard bowed deeply. “After two days to make arrangements, the twelve days for the preparations and festival will begin. With that, the party, and the meeting, I hope we will both have excellent business with profitable results.”

[[Image:Horizon2A_626.png|thumb]]
Study

Importation of the Potato

Toori: Sis! Sis! Everyone’s been talking about po-tay-toes or po-tah-toes or whatever, but did they really not have potatoes in medieval Europe!?

Kimi: Heh heh heh. Potato-head brother, how was Europe supposed to have foods from the New World before the New World’s discovery? Sweet potatoes, corn, tomatoes, pumpkins, bell peppers, pineapples, and chili peppers are the same. Tobacco came from the New World as well. Anyway, I wrote up a list of years when the potato was imported to different countries.

'''England: Arrived 1586. Cultivation encouraged starting in mid-17th century.

''' Tres España: Arrived circa 1534. Cultivation began in certain areas starting in mid-16th century.

'''K.P.A. Italia: Arrived circa 1566. Cultivation began in certain areas starting circa 1582.

'''M.H.R.R.: Arrived circa 1588. Cultivation began in the western areas starting midway through the Thirty Years’ War.

''' Hexagone Française: Arrived at the end of the 16th century. Small amounts cultivated in very small areas starting at the same time.

'''Far East: Arrived circa 1600. Cultivation for food began circa 1624.

Toori: That’s a wide range. And the Far East got them by circa 1600? Isn’t that too soon?

Kimi: Some theories say 1576 or 1598, but it’s a bit unclear because the taro and the sweet potato were brought in at about the same time and the European ships bringing them in were filled with all sorts of things. It’s thought they had definitely arrived by 1610, though. They were apparently grown even in the cold areas of Tohoku.

Toori: But wasn’t Europe really slow to start growing it? Weren’t people saying growing them provided enough food for a population explosion? So isn’t this a bit slow?

Kimi: Heh heh heh. Foolish brother. The earth was warmer during the middle ages, so it was easier to grow food than it is now. But there was a little ice age during the 14th century and the peak hit right around mid-16th century. Until then, wheat and other crops were still producing enough food, but everything grew too cold by the 1600’s. Wheat’s output dropped even further and potatoes finally became a primary source of food.

But in Europe, it was disliked for being a root vegetable and looking ugly, so it was slow to spread even once people started growing it. The Far East did not avoid it like that, so it spread more quickly than in Europe. Also, some areas used the 1576 theory during the history recreation.

Toori: You mean it’s possible Nobunaga and Hideyoshi shouted “Hot damn! French fries!” at some point?

Kimi: First of all, French fries is an English term. Second of all, bow down in apology toward Mikawa this very instant.

<noinclude>
===Notes===
<references/>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 2 Chapter 18|Chapter 18]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 2 Chapter 20|Chapter 20]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 11

2014-07-01T02:29:57Z

Purin:

==Chapter 11: Failure to Understand at the Storefront==

[[Image:Horizon3A_0251.jpg|thumb]]
''If something is uncertain

''Yet not wrong

''What does it have?

'''Point Allocation (Earnest)

Masazumi looked across those sitting on the opposite bamboo bench and let out a voice.

“This may be a bit soon after coincidentally running across each other, but I would like to ask you something.”

She had one thing to ask first.

…''Why are they here?

She understood that the Kantou forces wanted to be on friendly terms with Matsudaira which would rule Kantou in the future, but there was no real reason why they had to do that now. They could even wait to start until Matsudaira ruled the Far East.

…''So why did they charge into this dangerous situation?

It seemed certain that they had indeed come to rescue Musashi. If Matsudaira was lost, Kantou would lose its stability.

That was why they would reach out to help Musashi in its plight.

It was a simple and moving story.

And that was exactly why Masazumi chose not to trust in that. After all…

“Nations take action for their own survival and prosperity. Even if it will bring peace in the future, I doubt you would come here in the present.”

She held a plate in her left hand and glanced toward the god of war named Yatsufusa behind Yoshiyori and the Satou Brothers. The sword hanging at its waist was likely the god of war version of Murasamemaru.

…''Neshinbara would probably insist that I take a picture.

She wondered if they would give her permission to photograph it.

“Why are you here?”

The first to answer was one of the Satou Brothers. The two of them faced each other.

“In order to trade. Right, little brother?”

“Yes, I do believe it was to trade, little brother.”

As the two old men began tugging at each other’s cheeks, Yoshiyori shrugged.

…''I suppose they can’t ignore their official claim that they are here to trade.

“I am not used to meetings as unusual as this. …Would you permit me to exchange opinions with my comrades via sign frame?”

“As long as you do not transmit raw audio or video footage,” said Yoshiyori.

Ujinao and the Satou Brothers nodded as well, so Masazumi turned her focus toward the restaurant.

“Kah kah kah! You arhijaaaah!? Ahh!? Hah hyah ho! Ah peh peh!”

That side of things had surpassed “incomprehensible” and reached an entirely new level, so Masazumi told herself to avoid looking in that direction at all costs.

'''Vice President:''' “Okay. I have coincidentally met up with representatives of Qing-Takeda, Houjou, and Satomi. Does anyone know what they are after?”

'''Asama:''' “What is your guess, Masazumi?”

'''Vice President:''' “Takeda, Houjou, and Satomi are all clans which will eventually be absorbed by Matsudaira and receive its protection. Most likely, they realized Musashi would have difficulty arriving in Kantou due to M.H.R.R.’s flight restriction, so they are here to help come up with a way around that. That much I know.”

'''Worshipper:''' “If you know that much, shouldn’t this meeting go smoothly?”

'''Novice:''' “Not necessarily.”

'''Wise Sister:''' “It is time for today’s super history nerd lecture.”

'''Novice:''' “Sorry, but the topic tonight is politics! Anyway, they did indeed come here because they were worried about Musashi. But just as Vice President Honda-kun said, we don’t know why they are truly here. I have a few different ideas:

“'''1: To help us break free of this situation.

“'''2: To tell us we are done for.

“'''3: To see how we will react.

“That’s about all I can think up. It would be easy enough to choose one at random and head forward based on that, but it would bring tragedy if it didn’t match their intentions.”

'''“Tachibana Husband has entered. Tachibana Wife has entered due to shared settings.” “Scarred has entered.”

'''Me:''' “You can read Tachibana Husband as Tachi Hanao, but would it be mean of me to do so?”

'''Tachibana Wife:''' “Master Muneshige, Musashi’s chancellor is saying my screen name can be read Tachi Bride.”

'''Tachibana Husband:''' “That’s right. A bridal gown decorated with red camellias would suit you perfectly, Gin-san.”

'''Wise Sister:''' “Such passion! What is with this heat!? Quick, Asama! Cool me down! Cool me down!!”

'''Vice President:''' “That’s a lot of intensity. I guess when the Tachibanas speak, there is nothing Tachi-banal about it.”

'''Almost Everyone:''' “That cooled things down!!”

…''Huh? That’s odd.

Masazumi frowned at everyone’s reaction.

But Neshinbara was mostly right. Had the Kantou forces arrived to help, to sever their ties, or…

…''Are they here to decide which way to take this?

Neshinbara’s third option of “to see how we will react” was most likely correct, so continuing the discussion based on that assumption had the lowest odds of causing harmful misunderstandings.

With that, she made up her mind.

…''If they are here to judge us, we need to give them something to judge us with.

That meant there was one thing she had to say first.

“Musashi intends to head south after leaving tomorrow morning.”

The representatives of different academies looked up a bit.

“We will travel to Mikawa and then to Kantou.”

Those sitting on the benches tensed a bit.

And so Masazumi took a breath and slightly relaxed her legs.

“I have no intention of providing lip service. Now that Musashi cannot complete its repairs in IZUMO, we want a safe place to continue those repairs. We were always intending to trade in Kantou, so we wish to take a brief rest in Matsudaira’s territory of Mikawa before continuing to Edo, where we can complete our repairs in the floating dock Kantou IZUMO has for Musashi.”

She used her left thumb to point toward the M.H.R.R. ships in the eastern sky.

“Personally, I had hoped to go to Westphalia to show our political intentions, but there is no chance of advancing to the Peace of Westphalia with Hexagone Française and M.H.R.R. the way they are. K.P.A. Italia and M.H.R.R. are glaring at each other too. So I am thinking of ending our business with Europe after building understanding and a relationship with England and Tres España. Instead, I was hoping to consolidate the opinions of the Kantou lords until the Thirty Years’ War and Mouri Invasion have settled down a bit.”

She had Tsukinowa produce a sign frame that displayed a map stretching from the Chugoku region to the eastern sea. A red ribbon line stretched south from IZUMO, protruded out into the Seto Inland Sea, and circled around the Kii Peninsula.

“The route we are considering travels down along the provisional border between M.H.R.R. and Hexagone Française, travels from west to east around the Kii Arabian Peninsula, and arrives in Mikawa. Following the reverse of the route we used to escape from Mikawa and to the Seto Inland Sea also serves to remind Musashi’s people of the starting line. Of course, this is just wishful thinking.”

“That will not work.”

This comment was made by Yoshiyori who sat across from her. He had apparently been waiting for her to finish speaking and his arms were folded.

“But I take it you know that since you called it wishful thinking.”

“Judge,” agreed Masazumi. Neshinbara’s inspection had already arrived, so she checked it. “It seems M.H.R.R.’s Catholic side has deployed a fleet along their provisional border with Hexagone Française. If we begin fighting Hexagone Française, M.H.R.R’s fleet will act as observers and a solid defensive line. We can only travel along those provisional national borders, or the borders between principalities and provinces if we’re lucky, so travelling south will expose us to constant attack from both M.H.R.R. and Hexagone Française.”

Also…

“Even once we arrive at the coast of the Seto Inland Sea, the southeastern end of Hexagone Française’s territory and the southwestern end of M.H.R.R.’s run into K.P.A. Italia. Currently, K.P.A. Italia and M.H.R.R. are glaring at each other, so it is a touchy situation. If we travel south, it could trigger a war between those two and bring Hexagone Française into it too. If that happened, the Testament Union would never side with Musashi on anything.”

“Then what will you do?” asked one of the Satou Brothers while adjusting his grip on the long sword he used as a staff.

For an instant, the brothers looked toward Musashi in the night sky.

“Even if you escape IZUMO using gravitational cruising, fleets will be deployed to the border to stop you. Musashi would be able to slip by them at too high an altitude for other ships, but…”

“But if we ‘flee’, we will remain enemies of the Testament Union and Hexagone Française. That would leave the worst possible impression,” agreed Masazumi. “So if Hexagone Française is going to attack us tomorrow while we have nowhere to go, we must reconcile with them and endure this. Even if we are to leave Europe and travel to Kantou, we must first end this adversarial relationship with Hexagone Française.”

…''So she is trying to involve us.

Satomi Yoshiyori gave a silent evaluation of Muashi’s vice president. She had declared Musashi would battle Hexagone Française, but at the same time…

…''She said that would happen even if they are to leave Europe and travel to Kantou.

In other words, Musashi would not travel to Kantou if they could not endure the attack from Hexagone Française. She was implicitly telling the Kantou forces to help Musashi fight Hexagone Française if they wanted Musashi.

''I see,'' he muttered silently. ''This has gotten interesting.

Satomi was small, but it was combat focused. They could very well play a role here.

“Then let me ask you this,” he said. “What will you do once you endure the attack from Hexagone Française?”

Musashi’s vice president’s eyebrows rose slightly and she smiled bitterly.

“We do not yet know that is even possible.”

“No, but you still must think of the future.”

“True enough.” She nodded. “We will find whatever safe route we can, travel to Mikawa, and then travel to Kantou.”

Before speaking, Masazumi checked the additional information Neshinbara had sent to her sign frame.

“In order to travel to Kantou, there is someone we must speak with. Fortunately, they are sitting right here.”

That person was…

“Satou Brothers. That would be you.”

“Oh?”

Everyone around her let out voices that sounded both surprised and impressed.

But she did not stop speaking.

“I am sure you know why we would choose to speak with you first.”

The two elderly long-lived men stroked their beards before speaking.

“Ho ho. I see. You are referring to the three great crises of Matsudaira Motonobu who will go on to defeat Hashiba and rule all of the Far East, are you not?”

…''Exactly.

Masazumi gave a deep nod.

That was precisely what Neshinbara had just sent her information on.

…''The three great crises of Matsudaira Motonobu.

Everyone who lived the Far East, especially Mikawa or Musashi, knew what those were.

“The crisis we will discuss here is the Battle of Mikatagahara.”

That battle was closely related to the Takeda force sitting before her.

And so she looked at the Satou Brothers in turn and nodded.

“According to the Testament, Takeda Shingen’s army fought Matsudaira Motonobu and devastated the Matsudaira army. The defeat occurred in a field to the west of Mt. Fuji which is to the east of Mikawa. The Matsudaira army was routed by the Takeda army and Matsudaira Motonobu only barely managed to escape to his castle and he lost several skilled men. …That is what happened.”

Neither of the Satou Brothers moved even slightly and their expressions remained unchanged.

And so Masazumi continued speaking.

“So what will you do, Qing-Takeda?” she asked. “If we travel to Kantou via Mikawa, we cannot pass through P.A. Oda to the north, but travelling to the east from Mikawa will take us through Mikatagahara. So what will you do concerning the Battle of Mikatagahara? Will you recreate it or not? If you will, how will you go about it? It is time for some give-and-take, Satou Brothers.”

“The Battle of Mikatagahara? Oh, I know that one, Makiko!”

Sanyou spoke up on the outer edge of Takao, Musashi’s third starboard ship.

“Oh?” Oriotorai held up her Imari porcelain mug. “Okay, Mitsuki, could you give a quick explanation?”

“Well…”

Sanyou looked at the table between her and the other woman. It was created by carving out a thick log. On the table was Sanyou’s Far East meal which contained edamame and tofu and Oriotorai’s M.H.R.R meal which contained sausage and sauerkraut.

…''She’s in as good a mood as ever.

Sanyou opened a sign frame which showed the geography with Mt. Fuji to the east.

“Um, Mikatagahara is in Toomi. It refers to the plateau to the west of Mt. Fuji that stretches from the Tenryuu River on the east to Lake Hamana on the west. If you start at Mikawa’s New Nagoya Castle that blew up, it continues for about eighty kilometers southeast.”

“Very good… No, wait. You aren’t one of my students. Mitsuki, you haven’t made a personal statement.”

…''How frightening. Do the students of Class Plum feel this tension during all of their classes?

She was impressed, but she swore not to incorporate the idea for her own class.

“Anyway,” she said while pointing at the map of Mt. Fuji. “This territory belonged to Takeda Shingen of Kai, an extremely powerful person at the beginning of the Sengoku period. He grew ill and may have known his death was near, so he seriously worked toward the capital during his final years. In other words, he worked to rule Kyou, the center of the Far East, as the ruler of the powerful Kai Takeda. The nobles, the emperor, and the shoguns live in Kyou, so if someone powerful enough to rule the Far East were to bring Kyou ‘under their protection’, they would essentially rule the Far East.”

And…

“Shingen grew serious and decided to travel west, but he could not bring a large army through the mountainous center of the Far East. He would have to travel along the southern coast, but that would bring him to Mikawa and Mikawa was ruled by Matsudaira who were allies of his rival, the Oda clan. That was when Shingen and Matsudaira began battling each other.”

'''Me:''' “Shingen and Matsudaira began battling each other…in bed!?”

When a sign frame suddenly appeared, Oriotorai said “excuse me a moment” and stood up.

She grabbed a nearby deck brush and gave a snap of the wrist.

“We’re being bugged. But from where? Ah, found it.”

A few seconds after she threw it, she suddenly clenched her right fist and another sign frame appeared.

'''Asama:''' “U-um, sensei! Did you just throw something like a deck brush our way!?”

…''How did they know it was her? Did they recognize her personal style?

At any rate, the older teacher waved her hand and smiled.

“Matsudaira Motonobu took a good beating there, right? Was that when he was preparing for battle but the Takeda army ignored him and walked right past the castle? Didn’t he get mad, pursue them, and end up losing five times as many men?”

“Judge. There are a few different theories concerning that, so everyone is waiting to see how the history recreation will play out. Oh, and when I say ‘everyone’, I mean history-lovers like myself.”

“The war-lovers like me are looking forward to it too.”

“Ah ha ha,” laughed Sanyou because she was unsure how to respond.

She then took a sip from her mug to gain a short respite. Her beer did not actually contain any hops, so it was sweet and inadequate. However, it helped her speak more smoothly, so it was useful when she needed to talk a lot while drinking with someone else.

“Anyway, the overall flow of the battle goes like this.”

'''Round 1: The Battle of Hitokotozaka

'''Early Skirmish.''' Takeda army arrives and advances to Futamata Castle which supports Matsudaira’s supply line. Matsudaira Motonobu heads out for reconnaissance, is spotted, and is not treated well.

↓

'''Round 2: Battle of Futamata Castle

'''Preliminary Battle.''' Futamata Castle resists but is defeated. Surrenders on the condition those inside are spared.

↓

'''Round 3: Battle of Mikatagahara

'''Main Battle.''' When his castle of Hamamatsu Castle was ignored, Matsudaira Motonobu could have left well enough alone, but he pursued and paid for it. His army was routed in only two hours. He fled back to Hamamatsu castle, but the Takeda army swiftly pursued and Motonobu’s skilled men sacrificed themselves to protect him.

“I like how you divided it into rounds. Maybe I’ll do that from now on.”

“Go ahead. Recently, I’ve gotten hooked on a fighting game based on the Sengoku commanders. Yes, it’s called Savage Historical Reign and the opening has Sen no Rikyuu give the incomprehensible statement of ‘This is a brand new form of etiquette in which the practical Way of Tea is combined with political power.’ Rikyuu is actually an extremely powerful character. He uses surging tea equipment attacks with incredible force.”

“Oh, that game. The idiots in my class play it during class. I think Persona-kun is ranked third in the Far East. He’s the indoor type and loves reading.”

“Not what you would expect, is it? Ah ha ha ha.”

''Am I starting to get drunk?'' wondered Sanyou as she got back on topic.

She first tapped the sign frame from behind to enlarge the writing. She then opened the next page.

“The Battle of Mikatagahara was essentially a triple loss for Matsudaira Motonobu. He fought three times and didn’t win even once. And there are a lot of anecdotes and tragic stories about this
battle. These are the two most famous ones.”

'''1: While fleeing to Hamamatsu Castle, Matsudaira Motonobu was so scared he crapped himself.

'''2: After fleeing, Motonobu punished himself by having his men draw a portrait of his enraged expression.

“But…” began Sanyou.

Oriotorai smiled thinly.

“What is it? Does something bother you?”

“Judge.”

Sanyou shook her head, hesitated over whether she should continue, and decided Oriotorai probably already knew.

She made up her mind and spoke.

“There is a problem concerning the history recreation.” She tapped on the text for Round 3. “After all, if the battle is recreated accurately, there must be sacrifices from Matsudaira Motonobu’s men. In this case, that will be Musashi’s student council and chancellor’s officers. That was part of the reason so many of the inherited names related to the Far East and the Matsudaira clan were given to automatons while Lord Motonobu was alive.”

“True.” Oriotorai sipped at her beer and narrowed her eyes. “But no one else has inherited those names since Mikawa blew up, so won’t that mean no one has to be sacrificed?”

“No,” replied Sanyou. “There is one person among those who died in Matsudaira Motonobu’s place.”

She pulled up a list of those who took part in the Battle of Mikatagahara. One of those names was written in red text.

“Naruse Masayoshi. 4th Special Duty Officer Naruze is named after him.”

Naruze could tell everyone was focusing on her.

…''But…

Focus was not a bad thing if it was friendly and not based in pity. Plus, there was something she had to say.

“My ‘Naruse’ does not come from Naruse Masayoshi. I have no intention of naming myself after or inheriting the name of someone who will die. …If anyone, I am named after the next generation, Naruse Masanari.”

“Of course,” said the Satou Brother on the right. “Naruse Masayoshi had a younger brother named Masakazu. That brother’s child was named Naruse Masanari and became the next head of the Naruse family. …I believe Masanari became the head of the Matsudaira clan’s firearms unit.”

Unsurprisingly, the Takedas were well informed. After all, Masanari’s father, Masakazu, once served the Takeda clan and he helped the Takeda clan join with the Matsudaira clan after their destruction.

“My presence allows us to say Naruse Masakazu was on Musashi. That means you can take refuge on Musashi if anything major happens to the Takeda clan, right?”

“Testament.”

The Satou Brothers readily admitted it. That fact was a reminder that they were on the Far Eastern side and also a major member of the Testament Union.

“Judge. I am glad you are honest. But to be honest, I had not thought about it that much. Margot’s…that is, Naito’s family apparently named themselves after some Naitou family during her parent’s generation, but Margot and I have our own view. We say her name comes from Naitou Shinjuku, land belonging to the Naitou family that initially made up Matsudaira’s firearms unit.”

“?”

Masazumi tilted her head when she heard that.

“She couldn’t be named after the Naitou family themselves?”

“Judge. The member of the Naitou family who the firearms unit was left to was named Naitou Kiyonari, but he was a judge known as the Kantou Magistrate and well…Urquiaga is already named after Kiyonari.”

“Oh, so Urquiaga’s Kiyonari comes from Kantou Magistrate Naitou Kiyonari. …How did he get from there to an older sister loving interrogator?”

“Try not to think about what the crazy ones do, Masazumi.”

For an instant, Masazumi stared at Naruze in disbelief, but Naruze ignored it, sighed, and continued speaking.

“Anyway, we wanted to avoid doubling up on a name. The Naitou family owned the land the firearms training ground was on, so it was known as Naitou Shinjuku. We made it so Margot is named after that land. We aren’t Shinto and we give little focus to the Far Eastern side of things, so we thought that would be enough.”

“I see.”

Naruze had a sudden thought as she watched Masazumi nod.

…''Oh, this must be the first time she heard that.

She hoped she had not made Masazumi feel alienated, but she did not try to cheer her up either. Instead, the Satou Brother on the right spoke up.

“Takeda has a lot of Naitou clan members and you have firearms users. If the people of Takeda join you using the name of Naruse, she can name herself after one of them.”

“No need. Naito just has to become my wife. That will resolve the surname issue.”

Everyone turned toward her and clearly wanted to say something.

…''That was a close one!

Masazumi began to sweat while feeling very thankful the divine chat had not been set to broadcast their voices. If it had been, that comment would have been sent all over the place.

…''The pope-chancellor would never have remained silent!!

In a dark sanctuary, Innocentius pressed his ear against a cross-style ''cornice firma''.

“Huh? It’s just making a strange noise. And after I went to such trouble to have a spy in Hexagone Française bug that odd meeting. I can’t hear it at all.”

He tried to fix the ''cornice firma'' by hitting it while Galileo tilted his head behind him.

“You are being incredibly immature, former boy.”

“What? Pope or not, everyone loves doing things in secret like this! Afterwards, I can surprise them with a divine ''posta'' saying I bugged their meeting. But not if I can’t hear anything they say, hm?”

“Are you sure you are not confusing the means with the objective?”

“Don’t say that.”

Innocentius took a breath and looked out the sanctuary window.

Several long forms were visible in the eastern sky.

“So we’ve finally put together a formation to defend against M.H.R.R. and Hashiba’s army that’s heading south. Tensions are rising, but we still need to take a break sometimes. And Musashi’s activities are perfect for that. Will they recreate history or take a unique path? Either way, we can’t say anything about their situation.”

“Are you jealous, former boy?”

“As a Catholic, I should be jealous of the troubles they’re going through, right? I personally prefer to avoid as much effort as I can, though.”

Innocentius then turned to face Galileo.

“Anyway, I hear Hashiba has taken an odd action. How about you tell me what that’s all about, hm?”

While Masazumi observed the curious looks everyone was turning toward Naruze, she went over some information. She had Tsukinowa display it on a sign frame and looked over the texts Neshinbara had sent her.

…''Huh?

She realized something odd about what the Satou Brothers had said.

Wondering what it meant, she avoided looking at the two old men and sent a message to Neshinbara.

'''Vice President:''' “It flowed so smoothly that I didn’t notice until now, but can I ask you about something?”

'''Novice:''' “Go right ahead. What is it?”

Masazumi typed into the divine chat.

'''Vice President:''' “I overlooked it, but something odd happened earlier.”

Namely…

'''Vice President:''' “Why did the Satou Brothers help us out concerning Naruze?”

'''Novice:''' “What do you mean?”

It had been subtle enough that she had overlooked it at first, so it would not get through to him unless she explained it. She wanted time to explain it properly, so she held her right palm out toward those around her.

“Excuse me a moment.”

…''This is how Futayo did it, right?

“Thinking time!”

Immediately afterwards, the world fell silent.

Masazumi gained silence.

The commotion from the drunkenness behind her ended in an instant and she heard a single plate break.

“Oh…”

“Sh.”

…''Who just said sh!?

Houjou Ujinao cleared her throat to Masazumi’s right, Yoshiyori seemed not to understand as he sat across from her, and the Satou Brothers were trying and failing to smile politely next to Yoshiyori.

Masazumi had no idea why they were reacting this way.

'''Me:''' “Ahh… Now you’ve done it.”

'''Vice President:''' “D-done what!? Futayo does this all the time!”

'''Tonbokiri:''' “Not even I am this skilled at catching the enemy off guard.”

'''Asama:''' “H-how can you all be so cruel!? Masazumi is desperately trying to make us laugh, so you need to be more understanding! Of course, no one is perfect, so we do not always do what we need to do!”

'''Almost Everyone:''' “What are you even trying to say!?”

…''Is she really a shrine maiden who makes Shinto prayers?

At any rate, Masazumi decided to prioritize what she had to say.

'''Vice President:''' “Neshinbara, are you listening?”

'''Novice:''' “Eh? Oh, yes. Go ahead.”

He did not sound very motivated, so she sent her messages to everyone.

'''Vice President:''' “Listen. The Satou Brothers of Qing-Takeda said they would not kill Naruze at the Battle of Mikatagahara because they needed her when Takeda would join Matsudaira after Takeda’s destruction.”

'''Uqui:''' “What is odd about that? It is certainly convenient for us.”

'''Vice President:''' “Exactly. But this give-and-take itself is odd on a fundamental level.”

After all…

'''Vice President:''' “When the Takeda clan is destroyed, they just have to absorb it into the Qing side. Yoshitsune rules both Qing and Takeda, so there’s no meaning in joining Matsudaira. With that in mind, why would they say they were going to do so?”

What did it mean?

“Now that you mention it, that is odd. Do you understand it, Adele?”

Adele was eating sake lees ice cream for dessert and her shoulders trembled when Asama asked her that question.

“Eh!? Oh, um… Th-the secretary can answer that.”

Adele and everyone else turned toward the secretary.

At some point, that secretary had taken up position on the edge of the terrace. He was leaning over toward IZUMO.

“Ah, over there, Michizane, over there. Yatsufusa is there, right? Get a good photo! …Ahh, I knew it. Sorry, Michizane. You’re a civil official, so your photography ability wasn’t strengthened. The backlight of the night is too much, is it? Okay, then let’s head to the front deck! We can try for a good angle from there! I really want some data on Murasamemaru!”

''The secretary isn’t going to be any help,'' thought Adele. ''But what are we supposed to do?

Masazumi’s question was worth thinking about.

If Qing-Takeda did not need to rely on Matsudaira, why were they acting as if they would rely on Matsudaira after Takeda’s destruction?

…''Are they trying to make us feel obligated to them?

She felt that was close, but something still bothered her. If it was that simple, they would be able to create an even greater sense of obligation.

…''For example, they could agree to settle the entire Battle of Mikatagahara without actually fighting.

As the leader during the armada battle, Adele understood just how much easier it would be to end the battle with a discussion. However, it appeared they wanted to go through with the battle itself but wanted to keep it minor enough that no one would die.

“That means…”

There was something there, but what?

She could not find the words to describe it, but she had a feeling she understood.

…''If they have no need for the give-and-take, why are they doing this?

But then…

…''No, wait. That isn’t it.

There was something wrong about that line of thinking.

She was having difficulty finding the words because she was thinking about it wrong. To find the words, she had to destroy her assumptions. And she realized how to do that.

“U-um, so… Simply put, they ''do not need any kind of give-and-take with us'', right? Even if Takeda is destroyed, they still have Qing.”

“That’s right,” affirmed Asama. “Masazumi’s question was why someone like that would make this deal with us.”

Asama folded her arms in thought and her folded arms pushed up her breasts and altered their shape.

…''Nwoh.

The terms “tsunami” and “vast ocean” entered Adele’s mind.

And…

“Ah!”

She had realized why Qing-Takeda had proposed this deal.

“I know the answer! I’m sure of it!”

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 10|Chapter 10]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 12|Chapter 12]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 07

2014-07-01T02:28:57Z

Purin: Handle name consistency.

==Chapter 07: The Gusting Individuals of the Neutral Zone==
[[Image:Horizon3A_0157.jpg|thumb]]

''That was a vague thing''

''That went through the air''

'''Point Allocation (Approaching)'''

<center>●</center>

Masazumi, who had come out from inside the tea-house together with Naito, saw Futayo.

Futayo took a low landing stance after completing a backwards somersault on top of the road with upraised dust. Her figure which had landed on the ground several meters to the rear however payed no attention to over here and was looking in a slightly upraised direction.

In front of where her eyes　hurried to, in the gusty street, people were currently raising voices of surprise.

…That was natural.

Masazumi thought.That this was a neutral zone, a location where acts of aggression were prohibited. However Futayo had already drawn Tonbokiri and at the end of where her eyes were looking,

“An enemy?”

Was there.

On the rooftop of the alignment of buildings which formed the street. There was a single pair, composed of a man and woman, on the top of a three story restaurant.

The distance was approximately 30 meters. What was there was the figure of the Quin-Takeda school uniform.

Out of the group of two one was a woman with white hair and skin while the other was conversely a dark skinned man.

Both of them were roughly wearing the school uniform . The woman let her hair be blown by the wind while the man lowered his body like a monkey however both of them were looking towards Futayo.

In front of Masazumi’s gaze the man smiled in surprise and spoke.

“That you would be able to receive our first blow.”

The woman also spoke with a smile.

“It was only a simple first strike.”

“As expected of Musashi’s Vice-Chancellor, try saying something like that.”

“Why is it that you pass off the task of praising the enemy to me. It was a surprise attack and that force was no different from a normal attack, it was not anything special. For me and you that attack is the same as always. That’s why—”

“Yeah”

The man who remained crouched at the edge of the roof tilted his body. With the movement which could be described as more like dropping rather than falling he however remained looking at Futayo,

“The same as always.”

The next moment. Masazumi saw the wind in front of her eyes. The one who had coiled up the cloud of dust like a fluttering sheet was,

“I’m sorry for the late introduction. I am — “Unnecessary Number One”. She is number two.”

The next thing she knew the enemy suddenly appeared in front of her eyes. It was the man who just now should have fallen from the distant roof.

…huh!?

The distance from the roof to here was approximately 30 metres. Since the man was looking at Futayo she had been caught off guard.

The single strike from the man who had named himself. Masazumi did not move with the single strike from the thick blade which was released from behind his waist,

“……e!”

<center>●</center>

The sound which Masazumi had resound in her ears was a metallic clang.

Then what her eyes saw was the colors of gold and black.

Furthermore the voice which reached her,

“That was dangerous.”

“That was close.”

In the space between herself and the enemy there was a fully open set of six wings and black hair.

It was Naito and Futayo.

<center>●</center>

Naito gained a sense of amazement inside herself at the situation of being located between Futayo and Masazumi.

……Wow—.

There was no time to bring out Schwarz Fräulein. That’s why she had used her broom’s refreshed deployment defense spells as a shield and attempt to receive the enemy attack using that. However faster than that Futayo had,

……Gone and cut in front of her.

After Naito had rethought about the meaning of the words Vice-Chancellor the wind in front of her eyes occurred　once again.

The stirred up cloud of dust ascended above the road and in an instant the enemy was about 20 metres on the far side. They moved to the rooftop of one of the houses along the street. Then the two, the white woman and the dark man, landed with a light step on the rooftop.

They were composed, that was Naito's impressions.

Conversely in front of her eyes Futayo adjusted the readied Tonbokiri back to her side.

“Naito, please take Masazumi and distance yourself from here.”

Futayo spoke without turning around.

“The job of an escort is to distance that subject from any danger. —I will take charge of this area. You take Masazumi and distance yourselves from here.”

Will you be alright? there she went to say that but stopped. Futayo held a higher official position than her. Worrying about her would achieve nothing. What she should be saying was,

“Make sure that you don’t overdo it okay? You seem a touch irritated.”

“Do I seem like that?”

“Jud, —your horn is already raised to the first level after all. Did something happen?”

Jud, there Futayo nodded. She pulled out a small brochure from her skirt.

“I thought about eating a large amount at the recently rumored cream puff store here in IZUMO.”

“Ah, the store that followed the way of tea, the “Way of cream”. I do think they should do something about that store name though.”

“……However when I went there a previous customer had bought out all the stock and while I was experiencing a bout of anger I suddenly came under attack.”

Oh? The woman on top of the roof, “Unnecessary Number Two”, tilted her head. She pulled the paper bag from under her arm and from the inside took out a large amount of cream puffs,

“You mean these? I got full of myself and ended up buying about twenty of them.”

Naito saw Futayo’s horn shaped hair clip rise up to the second level. Ah, while thinking that this was not good she however also thought that it would fine since there was would be no harm to her. Consequently,

“— I’ll leave it to you.”

“……Jud!”

There at the moment that Futayo leaped forward.

There was a single shadow which passed above the head of her. The one who was leaping by twisting his body and adjusting his stance at a high position was,

“—Bara-yan!?”

It was Neshinbara.

<center>●</center>

Neshinbara was in the middle of combat.

The circumstances that led to the battle were simple.

……While he was walking the street reading the book that he had bought someone had suddenly gone to punch him.

It was a dangerous story is what he had thought, however that power was strong enough to easily destroy a bench which was located at the side of the road was troublesome. The opponents were a group of two and one of them was at that precise moment,

“— Come on!!”

With a sharp enthusiastic shout they leaped and pursued after a person who was in the air.

It was a woman. It was a woman who was wearing a plumed female Far East school uniform with the belly exposed, the figure of a dancing girl .

She leaped into a high position. At the moment when Neshinbara saw that it was not a spell but martial arts.

“”Unnecessary Number Seven” ……On my way!”

The smiling eyes which were donned in heavy makeup stared this way and she waved the weapon she was carrying.

……An iron-ribbed fan!

A massive iron-ribbed fan with fur attached of which every spoke could be used as a blade. The woman gripped the side handle at the base to make it easier to swing around,

“……Okay, come on!!”

She deployed the folding fan like a blossoming flower and the blades were sequentially thrust forward.

“How persistent…!!”

«The wind blew and that body fell down as though it had been tripped.»

His trajectory in the air dropped down by one step.

The blade passed over his head and was it because she feared a counterattack; the woman spun her body around to above the circular expanding blade.

Neshinbara did nothing towards the enemy that was above his head. That was because,

……It was necessary to gain an understanding of the current situation……!

On the street that he was passing over, there beneath his eyes was Futayo who was also fighting with a group of two which were assumed to be enemies and Naito together with Masazumi were moving to take cover in a nearby tea-house. Furthermore on top of the opposite rooftop where he and the “Number Seven” woman were leaping to was,

“The second person of those who had suddenly gone to punch me earlier…!”

“I am the “Unnecessary Number Three……!”

The one who was wearing a Far East uniform which had been remodeled into the appearance of a monk was a middle-aged demon type Elf.
[[Image:Horizon3A_0165.jpg|thumb]]
A large physique. His height which rivaled that of the giants was over four metes. However that body was only slightly bending the opposing rooftop of the house which he was using as a platform,

“Now…!”

At the same time the Demon Monk “Number Three” took a high leap which passed over the street he thrust out his right arm.

However there was a distance of about 10 meters between him and here. While “Number Three” had a large physique and a high jump it was not a distance that his fist could reach.

However “Number Three” twisted his reddish brown arm and let out a shout.

“Preach cannon!!”

The characters and tattoo which were engraved into his large arm changed arrangement and design with the twist of the arm. There in an instant a Homa steps type crest appeared as if to surround the arm. On the palm the fluid letters “Scold” were formed.

…Seriously!?

Neshinbara understood. The woman, “Number Seven”, who had extended her fan above in the sky had not positioned herself above the fan shield as a forecast of his attack.

It was in order not to receive aftershocks from this Monk’s attack.

The cannon was fired.

“Scold…!!”

<center>●</center>

Due to the cannon blast the atmosphere spanning tens of meters was split with an explosion which could be called bright occurring.

In response to the expanding atmospheric wave the woman “Number Seven”,

“Did you get him!?”

Standing on top of the iron-ribbed fan she went as if stepping forward and completed an upside-down180 degree flip. However,

«That body fell in a straight line.>»

Her target was about to fall on his backside onto the second story thatched roof,

«Right before he impacted. He rolled up his body and regained his posture.»

«It was a rushed movement. However—.»

«He made it in time—.»

“Wow, how unfair! That’s cheating you aspiring author. You fell from your backside you know!?”

Towards the words of “Number Seven” who had closed her folding fan and landed two roofs to the side the prey yelled back.

“Won’t you please say that my hands are fast? In the first place why did you suddenly start attacking me?”

With those words the Demon monk who had descended next to “Number seven” yelled. He pointed to his target and,

“It is necessary to beat your immoral spirit back to normal!”

“What do you mean immoral?”

“What is that book that you are holding in your hand—!?”

<center>●</center>

This? there Neshinbara raised the book he had bought from the bookstore and that he was still holding.

“It’s only an ordinary novel right? It’s a modern arrangement of the Tale of the Heike-Awakening version. There’s a bit of “The wildness of my right arm is truly terrifying” and “Melt, drain them my Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi” however the contents are exceedingly normal okay?”

“Normal? Is it normal for a light novel to have its characters have names with “Dark”, “Kill”, ”King” or “Rome” in them you fool!! While walking on the street reading something with special attack names such including “Prison”, “Temple” or “Impact” what is up with saying “Ah, there’s no nipple ticket this time”!? In the first place what is up with talking about nipple tickets something which is nothing more than an urban legend with such a self-satisfied expression!”

'''Four Eyes:''' “……What? You’re still reading those type of　embarrassing stories? It couldn’t be that you are writing them as well right?”

“B-Be quiet, don’t interfere. Well, you see—”

Neshinbara indicated in the direction of the Demon Monk. While thinking that it was a pain,

“—I’m sorry that I really like things such as “Ogre Slayer” and the “Three Sacred Treasures"! However in any case you probably read things like “A famous work which was composed about the exclusive thoughts of teenagers” or “Why is it that I can’t reach an equal understanding of others I wonder” and then say shameless things like “We’re sensitive existences that damage each other” right!?You’ve created those sorts of poems haven’t you!?”

“Huh!? Is there anything wrong with that—?”

“T-there’s an embarrassing old guy who became really serious here!!”

There is nothing wrong with that! there the Demon Monk clenched his fist and yelled into the sky.

“In eternal short poems the maiden is stricken with love and goes near the mansion of a person whom is outside of her reach with a tear-stained face! Alas how fleeting! In one word what can you say!?”

“No matter how you think about it that’s a stalker.”

As soon as he said that the Preach cannon attack came.

“Wah!”

He hurriedly avoided it however the approaching fluid ordinance was not just one shot. Apart from the right arm cannon the left arm of the demon monk was twisted as if it were pulled and there as if entwining it a large rosary form fluid crest assembled. That was,

“……A rosary form fluid charger!?

“That you do not understand is because you are a slow general who lacks imagination…”

A series of scold shots came. That was also at an overwhelming density.

Falling back or going left or right wouldn’t make it. If it were possible,

«That body rode the wind and leaped.>»

He leaped straight up. In addition to that it was a great leap as if to send something flying. With that movement Neshinbara danced his body into the air, however,

“—The imagination of an aspiring author is only that?”

“Number Seven” came from an even greater height than him.

……Damm!

She had used the cannon blast at a distraction. Furthermore she had kicked the back of the Demon Monk and from his shadow leaped overhead. Overhead she was already prepared to use her iron-ribbed fan,

“I’ll take the first credit…”

<center>●</center>

Futayo was conducting a battle with the enemy pair.

At her rear. Naito together with Masazumi had already retreated inside the teashop. That was a decision made due to that immediately flying away was dangerous since the enemy’s movements were clearly not those of a coincidental battle there was also the fear of snipers being arranged.

It anything was to happen they could always take off from the rear entrance, however everything was,

“Depending on my actions!”

The enemy was currently flying throughout the town.

They were not jumping. They were riding the wind, in the street, on rooftops and then freely moving through the sky.

It was the wind.

Thinking that they were going to charge they then instantly circled around to the rear of the teashop and completing several turns like that. There was no stagnation in their coming and going however occasionally they showed a shaking like bend the same as the wind.

That movement was not just horizontally; it was also from above and as if to gouge it oppositely came from below.

That’s why Futayo ran lengthwise and crosswise throughout the town.

The repairs to the half-broken Tonbokiri from her battle with Gin during the Armada battle were still not complete. The expansion and contraction went to the third stage; when it was fully expanded the length had become halved.

However tight turns were effective. In particular repetitive short jumps through the use of the expansion structure was possible,

“…!”

Futayo ran up the wall, ran swiftly around the roof, stepped on the eaves and jumped to higher roofs as well as to those on the far side of the street. The speed which could be said to be continuing momentum was due to using Tonbokiri as a balance stabilizer allowing for her to perpendicularly climb up walls and run horizontally.

As she desired.

Following the gusting enemy both sides were taking a roundabout path through the air. However the “Number One” man who attacked with a short sword and the “Number Two” woman were both aiming for her rear. That movement was,

……Not the actions of a swordsman.

The samurai type strike-forcer which had learned the arts of swordsmanship had a habit of enjoying attacking people head on. Swordsmanship in itself had crossing swords with the enemy from the front as a given.

However this opponent was different. Taking the initiative and aiming for the back was,

……A technique used for assassination.

In that case, these opponents were,

“Ninja!?”

<center>●</center>

Futayo realized that there was no reply to her question.

All that was there was the fact that she was running on the top of a three story building chasing the enemy and that the “Number Two” woman who turned back this way formed a smile for a moment.

That smile was completely fixed on her face,

……They were coming……!

When Futayo had thought that, the smile of “Number Two” completely formed.

“Go you!”

The woman’s hand struck the back of “Number One”.

When she heard the thick noise which was more flesh than clothing the figure of “Number One” had vanished.

She understood that he was riding on the wind. It was something that had previously happened several times. However this time was different. Up until now the two of them had been moving together however,

……A pincer attack from the front and rear!?

A presence appeared from the rear as if to confirm that she was correct.

The rear was dangerous. “Number One” was attempting to circle around there. However,

“How about this?”

“Number Two” grasped a large number of knives from the bag that she was holding under her arm.

At the same time there was the presence, that of “Number One” moving at her rear.

There the knives were thrown. They were not thrown to pierce the opponent. They were scattered, thrown on a trajectory to stop one’s movements. Even if she went to repel them, the knives which were not aimed for her made it hard to read the trajectory.

As a judgment against the enemy in her front and rear and the group of knives,

“………e!”

Futayo took a turn from her pursuit. She leaped to the left at a right angle.

It was an action to slip away from the knives and to escape from the pincer. However,

……They continued to follow!?

“Number One” whose footsteps had circled around to her rear rotated his body once and appended his trajectory. That was almost as if he was aiming for a back-to-back situation.

It was a position in which she could not attack however “Number One” without any unnecessary movements went to stab her left flank with the short dagger he carried with a backhand grip in his right hand.

She could not move left. Consequently as an instant determination Futayo tucked Tonbokiri by her right flank and from the center instantly made it expand to the front and rear.

“Go!!”

'''“'''Understood—'''”'''

In the direction of the front and the rear. Towards the left rear “Number One” went the butt-end. The tip was shot towards “Number two” at the front right.

It was released.

In response, a movement from the rear left occurred first. As “Number One” was very near, he abandoned his short sword then made his lightened body spin and opened up some distance.

Accompanying those movements, which also raised loud footsteps, was a voice containing a smile.

“That was dangerous….!!”

However Futayo had a strange feeling towards “Number One” who had accurately taken a distance against the lengthened butt-end.

…What that just now!?

Futayo had an unusual feeling regarding the enemy.

No, this unusual feeling was not just from this moment but something she had felt from “Number One” for the past few moments. There was something different from him whom she had faced up till now and the current him.

However before she could recognize what that was, at the front right,

“…Ugh”

The tip of Tonbokiri pierced through the chest of “Number Two”

The actions of throwing the knives had created an opportunity.

As if to gouge through the right of her chest the point of Tonbokiri made a direct hit.

It ran her through.

At the same time the voice of “Number One” which contained a hint of surprise reached her.

“Number Two……!!”

She had certainly killed Number Two.

<center>●</center>

“You bitch…!”

Futayo heard that voice of “Number One” from her rear.

In her hand the slightly hard however light reaction was coming from “Number Two”.

Then at the same moment that “Number Two” who had received the spear tip to her chest fell forward. The voice of “Number One” resonated as if to erase all noise. The sound of footsteps stepping on the roof echoed loudly from the rear,

“Damm you….”

He’s coming, there Futayo thought that. “Number Two” was dead. That’s why “Number One” was next.

To achieve that she either had to turn around, retract the butt-side and intercept him or enter an evasive movement. However,

……What was it?

Futayo felt a doubt about the strangle feeling towards “Number One” from before.

Something was odd. That thought changed into confirmation with every action that “Number One” took. There was a slight, however a clear difference, between him from the moment of contact up to now and the current him.

……It was odd!

She did not know what it was however there was something. It was dangerous to start a fight with “Number One” without knowing what that was. That’s why Futayo reached one conclusion,

“—I’ll face you at another opportunity”
Without turning around to “Number One”, who was at her rear, she leaped forward.

She ran away.

<center>●</center>

Futayo as if to pierce through and blow away “Number Two” took a large leap to the front right.

In an instant she had opened up a distance with “Number One”.

Then stepping on the roof creaking as well as footsteps certainly rang out.

……This is—

Futayo realized the source of the strange feeling. However at that exact same timing something moved.

It was “Number Two”

She who had been pierced by the tip of the spear and stopped moving however suddenly said this.

“I’ve been exposed.”

She was not dead. The body of “Number Two” jumped up together with those words.

She was alive.

The movements of her body however did not stop there.

……What!?

That was not a person.

From the area which was pierced by Tonbokiri the woman changed the shape of the entirety of her body like swirling water and distorted herself,

“Oh!”

from something like a half destroyed bag, like spreading smoke and then like a spider trying a to catch its prey, she changed shape. However there still remained the overall indefinite form of a person,

“…Here I go…!”

The entire body of “Number Two” with movements almost like a massive hand expanding and encompassing attacked over here.

What was the identity of those movements? Futayo furrowed her brow and reached a conclusion.

“A Monster!”

<center>●</center>

Futayo saw. From beyond “Number Two” who had changed into a wind monster and was trying to encircle her there was something that the tip of Tonbokiri was thrusting.

The thing that the tip of the white blade was thrusting was a single knife.

It was the same as those which were earlier scattered in this direction. She now understood the meaning for it being at the rear of “Number Two” .

……It was in order to provide a fake sense of reaction!

This woman was a class of monster which was related to the wind. It had no weight and blades had no effect. However the core of her power was to load things on herself and carrying them and she was likely primarily the assistant of “Number One”.

Now Futayo understood. That the cause of the previous strange feeling about “Number One” was the occurrence of footsteps. The footsteps which were not present at all since he had appeared suddenly came about after the two of them had separated to the front and rear. However in order to disguise the fact that woman who was made of the wind had no footsteps “Number One” had purposely created loud footsteps while moving.

Spreading out the knives was to create a false reaction and “Number One” yelling out at the time when the woman was stabbed by the tip of the spear was also in order to disguise that there was no piercing sound.

Creating the delusion that “Number Two” was dead then when she turned around to face “Number One”, “Number Two” would quietly attack from behind.

It was that kind of process.

However since Futayo had hesitated she was not caught. If you are hesitating then move forward,

……Yes, that was something that her father had taught her……

Futayo thought back to the past.

Often when Kazuno had approached her father with a scolding presence he had quickly retreated backwards.

That was that “I have no doubt! Since I have no doubt it is fine to fall back!”, however a serious faced Kazuno simply increased her speed so there was really not much meaning there.

Anyhow Futayo considered how to deal with the enemy.

The enemy was a wind like being, it had no vital point. Since stabbing with a blade did not work then the effect of Tonbokiri’s slicing ability would also probably be weak.

However with a blunder she was moving forward. That was a mistake.

……What have I done!

At this rate if she moved forward and was enveloped by the wind it was likely that she would be blown away. With the instantaneous speed of the enemy’s technique, with that momentum she would expect to be slammed into the ground or somewhere else

She wanted to avoid that.

“In that case”

Futayo moved her left hand around her back and waved it.
What she grasped with her fingers was the short dagger that “Number One” had just now released to lighten his body. Futayo grasped the blade of the dagger which seemed as it had fallen onto the roof which her fingers and while slightly shaving away her skin threw it at “Number Two”.

“Number Two”, the opponent that the heavy armor piercing dagger was flying at was the wind.

Blades have no effect on the wind. However there did exist a place where there was significance in attacking,

“The face!!”

<center>●</center>

In Futayo’s vision the appearance of “Number Two” was constantly changing as if dissolving.

However she could see the modeling of the face. In that case,

……Whether it is a monster or whether it is something else, if it had a face then the sensory organs should be concentrated there!

The same as for the black algae and spirits. That’s why if she aimed at the face, even if it did not stab, the shadow of the blade would steal the opponent vision. Sure enough against Futayo’s thrown dagger,

“…!?”

A minor disturbance occurred in the movements of “Number Two”. It was just for a moment. However Futayo did not overlook that. She lowered her body, ran swiftly and swung her body to the side.

To avoid attack of the wind. She passed through the side.

However “Number One” pursued her from the rear. The footsteps were softer than before almost as if they were fading away.

The pursuing footsteps from the rear grabbed hold of a knife from the space of “Number Two”. It was the hidden knife that “Number Two” had used to create the artificial reaction when she was pierced by the tip of the spear.

That was the moment when Futayo heard the sound of “Number One” taking it in hand. Futayo took action.

“……!”

There Futayo judged that there was an opportunity.

At the moment when the knife was grabbed the top half of the body became exposed. That’s why when Futayo had spun half her body around she extended Tonbokiri,

“Go!”

She drove the tip of Tonbokiri into “Number One” who was between here and “Number Two”. That was what should have happened. What Futayo first saw in her gaze when she half-turned around was the afternoon sky and the thatched roof.

Neither “Number One nor “Number Two” was there.

All there was at her rear was something which had fallen like footsteps pursuing her on the roof. That was,

……Shoes!?

The thing she had heard as footsteps was the sound of shoes being taken off and dropped.

The enemy was not at her rear.

By the use of a body replacement technique they had disguised their location. Furthermore “Number One” together with “Number Two” was concealing his footsteps with the wind and moving to somewhere.

……That was a wonderful swift change of pace!

Then what was going to come was,

“—The rear!”
With the movement of her arm, without any confirmation, she swung and drove the tip of the spear to her rear. The response was,

“……Got it!!”

Piercing through someone, going through bone, there was also the limpness of flesh reactionary stiffening. Futayo, as if following the handle rotated her body, turned around and examined the tip.

She was mistaken. The object the that tip was piercing was not “Number One”,

“A tree branch!?”

The thin tree branch was bonded with a talisman and the spear was piercing through the center of that.

This time was a real body replacement technique.

……This is Ninjutsu!!

When she had thought that the wind came from behind.

Tonbokiri was still extended. Then the tip was stabbed into a talisman which contained the same weight of a person.

She had no method to attack. That is why Futayo,

“—“

She took action.

Futayo let go of Tonbokiri and fell backwards into the wind which was approaching from the rear.

<center>●</center>

“!?”

Both “Number One” and “Number Two” were taken aback by Futayo’s abrupt movement.

After all the target had itself jumped towards here at the moment of attack.

“Number One” who had lost his timing gained a deep simile on his cheeks.

……Now you’ve done it!

Pursuing and attacking from behind was the core of a ninja. Consequently they were taken aback with the actions of the enemy who had fallen backwards towards them. He could not deny that he had the thought that the opponent was a Samurai.

Damm, there while he was smiling towards his chest,

“………e”

The black hair waved, it lightly danced.

Futayo’s back went as if to touch his chest.

At the moment when she thought they were going to make contact as if they were embracing, “Number two” who was enveloping her suddenly moved. She blew her away to the side.

“Noo—”

<center>●</center>

Futayo realized that the two at her rear had split to the left and right with the voice of “Number Two” that she did not understand the meaning of.

Immediately following that Futayo raised her right leg. She placed her leg on the grip of the Tonbokiri which was released into the air,

“Bind Tonbokiri!”

The branch at the tip split into two and scattered through the air. Then pulling her knee to her chest Tonbokiri flew horizontally with good momentum.

“…!”

Towards her who was stepping backwards, “Number One” was trying to pass by the side of her. Stooped his body to pass under Tonbokiri and conversely “Number Two” joined with the wind and climber over Tonbokiri.

She saw the enemy.

Now was the time she perceived the enemy at the forward right and left. She had also determined the above and below positioning.

There was a chance of winning.

However Futayo saw it. The strong gaze that “Number One” and “Number Two” had displayed to her when they had passed by.

They still had some sort of plan left. It was that kind of gaze.

At that time Futayo obtained one involuntary reaction.

At the edge of her mouth the looseness of an arc was born.

……This is amazing.

<center>●</center>

Futayo thought. That even though no matter how you look at it the inexperienced her was desperately evading and struggling, the enemy conveyed that was still going to continue with their gaze.

How admirable.

She had gained knowledge about ninjas from Kazuno and undertaken anti-shuriken training and the like however this was the first time she had dealt with them at this level in an actual battle. The earlier body replacement technique is something she had only seen in the anime “Underpopulated Ninja Tottori” and as she had thought the real technique was amazing.

If she was able to nullify all of the opponent’s attacks then would it be okay to say that she was at the same level as these people.

……No

The enemy’s attacks were something that had been created through years of training; she was just taking advantage of that.

She understood very well that between creating and using, the latter was overwhelmingly easy. In that case, ah, even if she were to win against these opponents she would she not be equal to them.

…That’s why it was interesting.

Futayo took Tonbokiri in her hand and after lowering and compressing her body she leaped backwards.

Into the sky which spanned above the street. There as expected the two enemies once again overlapped their bodies and pursued,

“—!”

A metallic sound loudly rang out.

<center>●</center>

At the time when the sound of ringing metal echoed, there was something that Neshinbara firstly gained. That was the softness of the hand which was lightly pressing on his chest.

Following that what he saw with his eyes was slightly dark skin, a dark haired head with horns and then carrying at the waist and shoulder,

……A four bladed Demon woman!?

The female demon warrior leaped towards “Number Seven” while keeping her eyes closed.

Her clothing was a white Far East school uniform entwined with some decorative fabric.

The blades which were drawn on the trajectory of intersection were the two katana at her waist.

In an instant she drew what could be called a long sword; it was a katana for which the blade length alone was a meter and a half.

The two katana, which were raised overheard as if they were being extended, almost at the same time intercepted the iron-ribbed fan of “Number Seven” which was falling from the sky.

Sparks scattered.

“……Damm!”

Through the expanding movements of the intersecting two swords of the demon woman the iron-ribbed fan was blown away. Conversely “Number Seven” clicked her tongue in the sky,

“How troublesome—”

Those words did not continue. That was because in the air the woman demon who had reached the peak of her leap launched a second attack.

…Eh?

Neshinbara who had been blown away by her observed her movements while landing on a faraway rooftop.

However he was unable to comprehend.

That was because the woman firstly released her hands from the upraised swords, which were raised up as if intersecting, then drew the two katana at her shoulder and then drove the previous two katana into the empty shoulder sheaths.

“You think you can get away, scum!”

While keeping her eyes closed the downward swing of the two katana easily shattered the fan-swords which were expanded into the sky as a shield.

“Ugh!”

The two Katana which were swung straight down cut off the left and right of the shield which was deployed as an arc. On the far side “Number Seven” who was in the trajectory of the katana raised her eyebrows and kicked the wreckage of the iron-ribbed fan towards the demon woman.

It would hit. Right before that the woman released her hands from her two katana. Almost as if spilling from her palms the katana revolved and fell in the empty sheaths at her waist and at that time the two katana from her shoulder were already being swung down.

The attack which entered a downward arc cut apart the kicked iron-ribbed fan and then towards the Demon Monk below,

“Well then. — Finally one down.”

……It was unreasonable!

Neshinbara opened his mouth and looked at the woman who had launched off the consecutive attacks. While wondering about why was it that all the other species of women who appeared in front of him were a bunch of Spartans.

However still while forming a silver arc using both katana and however while directing that power directly towards the enemy,

'''“'''—Wait!!'''”'''

There was something that arrived together with a voice from an audio device .

It was a God of War.

<center>●</center>

The thing that suddenly appeared on the street at the rear of Neshinbara was a large amount of wind and the sound of metal parts colliding.

There standing in the center of the earth tremor and roar which accompanied the dust cloud was a single blue god of war.

It was a female model with a flying unit. The head had armor modeled after the face of a dog and at the tip of the single sword which was trusted out with the right arm,

“If the enemy of my enemy is my friend — then both of you would be my opponent however?”

The white clothed demon woman remained standing in a stance with all four of her blades sheathed.

However the god of war while still creating a haze from the flight unit stopped its movements.

Neshinbara knew this God of war. No,

……That demon woman as well. As well as those people who had attacked them.

The thought in his mind was that it couldn’t be however with this much arranged he was sure.

……These guys are—.

Before he could finish thinking a sign frame opened at the side of his head. The thing that Michizane hurriedly indicated was,

'''Silver Wolf:''' “It is an emergency situation! Please check the sky surrounding IZUMO!”

The likely hurriedly created short words immediately had follow up words being created. That was,

'''Silver Wolf:''' “The fleets of various countries are gathering as if to encircle IZUMO!”

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 06|Chapter 06]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 08|Chapter 08]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 06

2014-07-01T02:26:21Z

Purin: Handle name consistency.

==Chapter 06: The Negotiators of the Tea-house==
[[Image:Horizon3A_0137.jpg|thumb]]

''Did I do something''

''That warranted being told''

''Thank you for coming?''

'''Point Allocation (After This)'''

<center>●</center>

There was a dim however a location where the light shone.

It was a tea-house which had a dirt floor with wooden tables, chairs and lined up partitions. The entrance was open and the afternoon sunlight entered into the store. The store had only just opened for the late afternoon so there were only a few people, however,

“Mate, first of all, this store is an investment of an English cooperation. I promise you safety, peace and fairness on the honour of our Queen.”

“I hope it is like that”

Johnson and Masazumi secured seating at the second table on the left from the entrance which was located across the aisle from the counter.

Johnson took the seat on the interior of the store. Masazumi was in front of him alongside the wall and Naito sat with half her body on the seat on the corridor side.

Johnson formed a slight smile towards Naito who did not place her broom but continued to hold it and who had placed her right wing on the corridor side.

“That’s a good attitude Witch.”

“Even if you flatter me I won’t be swayed, don’t forget that okay?”

"Tes",there Johnson nodded and tea was carried over by only a hand.

The person who had brought it was the Japanese style lady attendant figure of Walsingham. On the other side of the Japanese style counter Walsingham floated a fish, which was held in place by several doubled edged knives, into the air and with her other hand encouraged here to drink.

'''“'''Please.'''”'''

The content of the teacup, which had a picture of a dog drawn on it, was red wine. Masazumi looked at the red contents,

“An aperitif?”

“Well then let’s have a cup Mate.”

Masazumi looked at Naito however Naito had already averted her gaze and was facing towards the outside. There was nothing to be done, there Masazumi stopped after taking hold of the teacup,

“I heard that there was an important story concerning M.H.R.R.”

<center>●</center>

Masazumi formed words while listening to the sounds of the double sided knives of Walsingham striking a chopping board.

“I want to hear your information first.”

“Why is that Mate?”

“The contents of that one-time information is something that I will eventually know. While we are talking like this the freshness of the information you possess is falling. That’s why after you show your goods — we will also reveal our material.”

It was equivalent exchange. She had already, after she had seen the text message that had come through the intermediary Neshinbara, created a list of several pieces of exchangeable information. That’s why Masazumi called out Tsukinowa on top of her shoulder and while thinking about what she should do,

'''“'''Ma—'''”'''

Tsukinowa suddenly started to pull out a large quantity of lists which contained attack spells.

'''“'''——!'''”'''

Walsingham pulled out the cross blade of “War of the Roses”, which she had used to dissect the tuna, from the beneath the counter and Johnson pulled half of his body towards the corridor side.

“Wa-Wait a minute Tsukinowa, this is not that kind of opponent! That is for friends! For use on friends!”

'''“'''Ma—?'''”'''

Tsukinowa tilted its neck however in the meantime folded up the pages of the spell sign frames to close them. While Masazumi, who had counted a number which was greater than triple digits, was breaking out into a cold sweat,

……When had Tsukinowa acquired all of those attack spells?

It would have been something that Asama had done. Anyway Masazumi paused and corrected her posture towards Johnson.

“So, —what is your reply?”

“Just now was a clear act of blackmail wasn’t it? Lady”

“Nope, it was just an accident, yeah”

The one who was the most assertive was the victor. If it was the England’s Fairy Queen then this sort of spontaneous situation was possibly an everyday occurrence. That’s why with a tone to change the topic Masazumi,

“What about M.H.R.R.?"

Yeah, there Johnson nodded and suddenly started speaking.

“—M.H.R.R has prohibited Musashi from traveling above the entirety of M.H.R.R.”

<center>●</center>

……Traveling above M.H.R.R was prohibited!?

Masazumi was unable to react to the words which she had been suddenly been told.

Johnson, who was In front of her eyes, however composedly placed his elbows on the table and did not continue.

There was only one piece of information. This was that kind of secret conference. That’s why he raised his hand towards Walsingham,

“Bring the following”

'''“'''Tes'''”'''

Thereupon pudding and something that seemed like barley tea was carried over by hand in their respective teacups.

While Masazumi looked at the green tea colored teacup with the shaking custard pudding the neighboring Naito said with the following with a serious tone.

“……Thinking about it I wonder if this store has anything other than teacups.”

“Would a bowl have been preferable? Witch”

……Was this actually some kind of harassment that they had concocted?

While thinking that Masazumi drank the contents of the teacup, which had come with the pudding, in order to take a short rest.

It was caramel.

<center>●</center>

“.....!”

There Johnson took refuge and ducked when she reflectively spat it out.

“Nuaaaaa! I-It’s super sweet!! I thought I was going to die!!”

“Yeah I realized but didn’t say anything, was that correct? It was amusing after all.”

“Say something! Why was it filled to the brim!? I thought it was something like barley tea!”

“There’s no way there is barley tea in England, Mate. You were the one who was careless”

She thought about knocking him down however it was true that this was her lack of attention. At the counter Walsingham had started to fill a large teacup with vinegar rice and was creating something like a vinegar rice topped sliced raw tuna parfait however if possible she wanted to end this conversation before that was finished.

……Anyhow since we have gained information from the other side now it is our turn huh.

Masazumi, while poking the teacup with the spoon, considered which information she should use as a card for the deal.

Then after leaving a slight pause for thought,

“I’ll say it as a result of receiving your information. ——From here the flight path that Musashi is planning to take is to travel throughout the M.H.H.R Protestant territories,”

“—Why is that?”

……That had come huh.

Johnson was not saying more than one piece of their information. However he was trying to obtain more detail about the information of here.

That was a good method.

That’s why Masazumi used words which indicated that a deal was necessary.

“I want to hear some type of interesting story”

Equivalent Exchange. Consequently, hmm, there Johnson folded his arms and opened a sign frame. He did not strike the keyboard with his hands. Keeping his hands free, with his feet,　the movement of his toes、 the keyboard in his shoes served as that replacement. Masazumi thought that he was conducting permission to release information with his home country.

<center>●</center>

The English chat was in great prosperity.

'''Drug Poet:''' “Listen Mates! Musashi’s Vice President has requested an interesting story!! Okay Start!”

'''O’Malley:''' “Ah, well our second born children is a precocious brat and their school trip was to India where for their free time they decided to paying homage to an Ueno circumcision god. That was troublesome so before they left for their trip I arranged for an executioner, a splatter type. To break in through the window during the night and make them raise a scream.”

'''Swimming Man:''' “N-no matter how you look at it that is either a painful or a pitiful story!”

'''Koto Mermaid:''' “However Men are such a pain. …We female mermaids often climb up onto the rocks for a break or to use it a tanning salon, look those types of scenes are drawn in pictures. So the male mermaids in an attempt to get close to us try to climb up as well, however since we have no legs we use our hands and climb up the rocks right? At that time, due to the design of the body, the area around the hips slams into the rocks with great force. If the waves are receding then it is fine however if they are coming in then the damage is doubled. Then it quite often happens that they make an unbelieving face for a moment and fall back into the ocean.”

'''O’Malley:''' “Ah, occasionally when male mermaids are floating and making sounds in the oceans is because of that! However when I rescued one once the way they spoke was emphasizing their femininity so I won’t be saving them again, that was because of that, hmm...”

'''Four Eyes:''' “Doesn’t it seem that this is going in an undesirable direction?”

<center>●</center>

Masazumi saw Johnson close his sign window. It seemed like he had done some kind of serious discussion. Then Johnson became silent and slightly pitched his body forward,

“Let’s confirm a consensus Mate. The current state of the world　...After Musashi has come to IZUMO what action does it seem that the other countries are taking?”

“Is it okay to start the conversation from M.H.R.R?"

Tes, there with the nod of the other party Masazumi realized the intent of the conversation. He was saying they should exchange the information of Musashi and M.H.R.R. under the pretense of confirming a consensus.

The things that were to be discussed from here on were what both sides already recognized as common knowledge. It was that type of performance.

In that case, there Masazumi who thought of confirming a consensus even just at the beginning listed up the knowledge she had actually acquired.

……M.H.H.R. huh.

Lately the contents of class had only been on either M.H.R.R or Hexagone Française. With an atmosphere of showing respect to the other party Masazumi spoke the contents which could be described as standard.

“—Germany.”

<center>●</center>

So,

“The foundation of M.H.R.R was the “Carolingian Empire” which was created by the Great Emperor Carl to unify Europe which had fallen into a state of confusion after the collapse of the Roman Empire. After the death of the Great Emperor Carl that country split into the current three countries of Hexagone Française, K.P.A. Italia and M.H.R.R.”

“Tes”

Johnson nodded and displayed a map of Europe. Displayed there were the three countries of France, Germany and Italy.

Masazumi, while looking at the map of the three countries,

“These three countries continued to conflict over the ruler-ship. The one which was in the superior position at the beginning was K.P.A. Italia who had the Pope. After all M.H.R.R’s Holy Roman Emperor required approval of the divine right of kings from the Pope to achieve the position of Emperor and the network of the church was required for Hexagone Française to consolidate their massive territory.”

However, with that word at the beginning Naito spoke. She, with a slightly uninterested tone of voice,

“With the changing era and the country increasing in strength, M.H.R.R’s Holy Roman Emperor became weary of having their status being influenced by a small country. After all the individual territories which comprised the country known as M.H.R.R —well for the Far East the individual prefecture which were “countries” were eager about becoming independent. The Emperor used their status as the Emperor and went to subdue those individual territories however the Pope predicted that and demanded a number of conditions regarding the authority of the recognition of the Emperor."

However, there Masazumi heard Naito say that.

“However as a result of those negotiations continuing for a long the individual territories obtained strength. Eventually the representative of the individual territories became “Prince Elector” and it became that the Holy Roman Emperor was elected and decided from among these representatives of the individual territories.

Then the appointment of the Holy Roman Emperor as a result of elections meant that the Pope became unnecessary; however that Emperor had no influence or anything right? Conversely since becoming the Emperor they were constantly being requested to participate in other country’s wars and became impoverished from assisting with foreign matters and their own individual territories.

That’s why eventually the current situation is that powerful House of Habsburg began to succeed the Emperor. That is how things are.”

Yeah, there Masazumi nodded and Johnson also shook his head vertically.

That is how things are.

The name M.H.R.R was bombastic and then they also had named themselves as the pioneers of European history. However,

……In reality the individual territories were in conflict with even the position of the Emperor being used for political dealing.

In the present M.H.R.R even the position of the Emperor is considered to be just a representative position.

“Furthermore…….”

Masazumi spoke.

“The religious revolution occurred within M.H.R.R.. The individual territories, while still forming the country known as M.H.R.R., split into Catholic and Protestant and conflicted and which is still continuing with the thirty year war.”

“That's right. The flow of it would be something like this.”

There Naito indicated with a sign frame.

'''“The History of M.H.H.R.”'''

'''* Originally, after the fall of the Roman Empire, it was a large country which was subjugated by the Great Emperor Carl. Afterward it split into three, with one of those being M.H.R.R.'''

↓

'''* Beginning: Since the Emperor authority needed the Pope’s approval, the Emperor was at the service of the Pope.'''

↓

'''* Middle: As a result of the Emperor becoming chosen through the Prince Elector elections the Emperors authority was forfeit. It became hereditary.'''

↓

'''* Present: Due to the religious revolution the individual territories split into Catholics and Protestants and are currently at war. The House of Habsburg inherits the position of the Emperor.'''

Masazumi, with a nodding motion at what Naito had written, stuck her spoon deep into her teacup.

Taking a look there was Walsingham placing a take home good into a paper box. The service here is thorough, there Masazumi clenched her fists inside her heart and said the following.

“—Hashiba effectively took advantage of that state of M.H.R.R.”

<center>●</center>

……Hashiba skilfully took in the impoverished M.H.R.R.

While thinking that Masazumi lightly indicated the eastern side of M.H.R.R, that Johnson was displaying, with the front of her spoon. Then she slowly moved the tip of the spoon south to K.P.A.Italia.

“Firstly Hashiba of M.H.R.R. joined together with the Catholics inside the country and began the preparations to invade K.P.A. Italia. Originally the person who was meant to consolidate the country’s Catholics was the Holy Roman Emperor Councillor Rudolph II however…..”

Moving her gaze to the neighboring Naito there Naito shook her head vertically.

“Rudolph “Wahnsinniger” the Second is currently being imprisoned by his younger brother, the Student Council President Matthias and it is that Matthias who holds the actual authority of M.H.R.R. ……Well Rudolph II rather than politics had a trend towards Technomagi and those types of suspicious formulas so there really was nothing to be done though."

In front of her eyes Johｎson nodded with a peaceful face.

"—It’s as you say Mate.”

Johnson nodded.

“M.H.R.R is being controlled by Hashiba and the Emperor’s younger brother Matthias.”

<center>●</center>

'''Drug Poet:''' “Well then everyone, the conference has continued wonderfully up to now! This is no doubt a result of my skill as a secretary…! Come now; please let me hear your praise mates! Praise please!!”

'''Queen:''' “You guys have been boisterous for a while now. Quieten down.”

'''Swimming Man:''' “……”

'''Koto Mermaid:''' “……”

'''O’Malley:''' “……”

'''Seal Boy:''' “……”

'''Queen:''' “Okay, so Johnson what are you doing? —Have you written a reply to celebrate Golden-Tama Jr. who was born the other day?”

'''Drug Poet:''' “No, that is…”

<center>●</center>

Masazumi did not overlook that Johnson’s expression had become slightly sterner as he looked as his sign frame.

It was because from here on they would be talking about matters beyond the consensus. However nothing would begin if she was afraid.

Masazumi, after taking a fleeting glance towards Naito, turned to Johnson and spoke.

“It is a certainty that Hashiba has taken control of M.H.R.R.”

However,

“I am thinking that the reason both of them agreed was not just due to the circumstances of Europe.”

“What exactly do you mean by that? Lady”

Jud, there Masazumi nodded and indicated beneath her feet with her spoon.

“The circumstances of the Far East side.”

Beneath her feet was IZUMO and below that was,

“It is not only Hexagone Française which is in Europe. There is also simultaneously the Mouri clan which is representing the Far East.”

Then Masazumi once again indicated the map of Europe within Johnson’s sign frame with her spoon.

“Do you understand?”

She spoke.

“With the Historical Recreation of the Far East side Hashiba, who are in Kinki, advance their army into the Chūgoku region.

The objective is the subjugation of the western side of the country and firstly in order to crush the Mouri clan.

Consequently that P.A.ODA, Ottoman’s Hashiba, will enter due to the historical reproduction of the Far East side is something that M.H.R.R. cannot avoid, it is something that the Tsirhc countries of the Testament Union are also vigilant of. That’s why using that Hashiba had started support for the remnants of the Amako as an opportunity——"

That’s why,

“—the Student Council President of M.H.R.R. Matthias devised a plan. That if Hashiba was to change from the Murasai doctrine to Catholic and form an alliance then they could be appended into the organization of M.H.R.R."

In other words that was,

“They could bring in Hashiba not as an enemy but as an ally of the Catholics and the Emperor.”

<center>●</center>

It was approximately two years ago when Hashiba had completely joined together with M.H.R.R.

It was a proposal from M.H.R.R. however that Hashiba had accepted that request become a huge incident.

……That M.H.R.R.’s Catholics converted the Ottoman forces was something that often caused a fuss for several days in the daily tile block print.

There was nobody who was able to simply accept that truth.

However due to the reality and achievements that occurred the Tsirhc based countries had no choice but to accept it. That the weakened M.H.R.R. had gained a vast power backer in P.a.ODA and including the fact that Hashiba, with its connections to Ottoman, had already embarked into Europe.

M.H.R.R as well did not know when Hashiba would reinstate the Ottoman side of P.A.ODA and overthrow M.H.R.R in one go. Depending on the situation,

……It would become a situation where Hashiba would take over the governing M.H.R.R.

The point of contact for that deal was the Holy Roman Emperor’s younger brother Matthias,

“At the moment it could be said that Matthias is winning his bet. Naturally Hashiba also inherited the name of the House of Habsburg which governed the territory of Austria where Rudolf II and Matthias were born ……On the side of the Far East the Himeji Castle of Harima was capitulated without any fighting due to Hashiba."

That’s why she understood. Why Musashi was being prohibited from travelling in the sky of all the territory of M.H.R.R.,

……It was that M.H.R.R. did not wish to increase the number of problems within their country.

Musashi was unable to form an alliance with England; however they were able to obtain their cooperation and friendship.

England was a Protestant country. If Musashi which had gained that cooperation and provisions was to head towards M.H.R.R. then obviously the destinations would be focused around the Protestant territories and Masazumi had also had decided to move in that manner.

The M.H.R.R. Protestant territories were concentrated in the northern region. If Musashi was to cooperate with the Protestants then Hashiba, who were presently preparing to invade K.P.A Italia at the Seto Inland Sea to the south, would have a dangerous situation at their rear.

……That’s why ……they had prohibited Musashi’s travel huh.

As a consequence of it being top secret information she could not speak of it. However Masazumi,

'''Vice President:''' “Neshinbara, could you please send me information which only concerns the recent changes in the circumstances of M.H.R.R.?”

In order to gain information she sent words to her comrades. However,

"?"

There was no reply.

<center>●</center>

……Eh?

Even waiting for a few seconds there was no reply in the chat from Neshinbara’s “Novice”. Before here could say anything about that situation Naito was,

“Yeah.”

She slightly embraced her broom.

It was only that little of an action however Masazumi comprehended the situation.

……There was an atmosphere that there was something to be wary of.

Something was happening.

However, there Masazumi thought. That Naito was with her.

She was one of the prominent escorts of the Far East. Beside her was even throughout the entire world a rare level of Technohexen. In that case Masazumi believed in that fact that she could manage if anything occurred. That’s why she readjusted her seating,

“What is the matter Mate?”

Masazumi looked at Johnson’s questioning face.

Realising that the corner of his mouth were slightly upraised that was when Masazumi comprehended the meaning of this conference.

“Johnson”

Masazumi while being self-aware that her eyebrows were slightly raised asked a question.

“……M.H.R.R. has prohibited the passage of Musashi over its territory. I understand the meaning behind those words. However is it all right to ask a single question?”

“What is it Mate?”

She had obtained permission. That’s why she asked.

“……That information. Why was England able to learn that information concerning M.H.R.R.?”

In the face of that question. Johnson deepened his smile and nodded with a Tes,

“It seems that the preparations to confirm the real consensus have been finally completed, Lady.”

“……What do you mean?”

"Don’t you understand?", there Johnson tilted his head.

“—It’s something you’ll immediately understand. Look.”

A wind arrived together with those words. It was not the warm wind of the afternoon. It was a typhoon. Turning around and looking, there the wind which ran thought the street was a single shadow which jumped into the road in front of the store.

That shadow which she saw had rotated once through the air and while falling to the ground carried out control of its stance,

“—Futayo!?”

<center>●</center>

A solitary movement occurred within the bridge of Musahino.

It was Suzu. She who had been reclining on her chain as if she was sleeping suddenly raised her body. With that movement “Musashino” nodded,

“……From earlier I have been hearing a strange noise coming from IZUMO’s northern market area. —Over”

“Ju…..d, There’s also that, umm”

Suzu stood up and with hesitating movements made her hands dance. That direction was at first east, then south, east and circled around to the north.

“U-umm”

Suzu spoke with a troubled expression.

“What are we going to do……”

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 05|Chapter 05]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 07|Chapter 07]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 05

2014-07-01T02:19:37Z

Purin:

==Chapter 05: The Supervisor of the Hidden Room==
[[Image:Horizon3A_0125.jpg|thumb]]

''Even though there is nothing wrong''

''Is feeling that something is wrong''

''From being overly self-absorbed?''

'''Point Allocation (Outside World)'''

<center>●</center>

Mitotsudaira returned home after seeing Horizon and Futayo off from Musashi’s outside entrance.

Because the fighting in the previous day Armada Battle had been concentrated on the starboard side of the ship, the mansion, which lay about four hundred meters away from the hull, had only sustained some light damage from fires.
Nonetheless, considering the threat of fire she had, during the last two weeks, rebuilt the outer wall in a stone material and the roof with western brick, which was still rare in Europe.

… It could be said to be a new residence.

In the afternoon, towards the evening, there was no sense of life within the mansion. Neither in the narrow entrance nor in the connected dining room used for guest reception, nor in the sparsely decorated living room.

The only things in that place were the persisting perfume smell from the curtains and a pale light.

“—”

There were no exclusive servants. The maid model automated doll which had been assigned to her through Musashi’s knight federation attended to household chores during the day. Mitotsudaira’s afternoon schedule included examining the income and expenditure reports from her agriculture and cooperate divisions inside Musashi, granting permissions and giving instructions and also sending her ideas,

… There were two perfume bottles placed atop the dining room table.

The corporate enterprise which she owned had created this new product.

She understood that inside the bottles there was a cream type with the smell of flowers. This was a consequence of her wolf sense of smell.

Mitotsudaira, while thinking about slightly weakening the smell of the flower perfume, entered the bedroom. She hung the case of Silver Chain which she had taken with her to the academy on the wall, and then headed for the bed.

After this was the short patrol of her small territory and her work. She had to change into her street clothing equipment.

That is why she removed her shoes, detached her uniforms skirt and the sleeves of her shirt, fell onto the bed and suddenly sighed.

… What were Horizon and the others doing at the moment.

Kimi and Futayo were with her. As she had gone to hear the story of her mother from Kimi’s grandmother she was achieving something significant.

In the same way,
… Everyone else was as well.

The Tachibana married couple desired a comeback, and Mary was aiming for a fulfilling life aboard Musashi.

The rest as well, Masazumi and Tomo, Adele and Naomasa, they were all on-board Musashi currently doing repairs and strengthening and the like, they were all doings the things that were required of them. However,

“……”

She gazed at the wall.

<center>●</center>

There were two framed documents lined up on the bedroom wall where Mitotsudaira directed her eyes.

The one on the right side, was the verification of Mitotsudaira’s inherited name, a parchment with the country crests of the Far East and Hexagone Française stamped on it. The words which were lined up on the page were about fulfilling her role as both the head of the Mito-Mitotsudaira clan as well as that of a dispatched knight of Hexagone Française.

Lined up in the same manner, on the left side was the certification verifying her affiliation with the Musashi Knight Federation. On this was the purport that Mitotsudaira was welcomed into the top position of the entire federation.

“However… that was not a result of my actual ability.”

It was something from almost twelve years ago. When she had been dispatched here and obtained this certification.

“… It was because I was dispatched directly from Hexagone Française and I had inherited the name of Mito-Mitotsudaira that they placed a selfish girl in that position, and displayed allegiance to the Testament Union.”

In the past she had not realized this fact and had often pushed her selfishness onto the older knights. She was indignant when they did not listen, however they had soothed her because they were adults.

With the passing of time she had become one of the members of the Chancellor’s Board which moved Musashi, and in reality she should have be an equal to them,

… However at Mikawa she had done it.

She had appeared at the confrontation location as the collective representative of the knights to give the civilian side victory, however in the end she had remained as a knight, and furthermore she became allied with the side which had conducted the battle.

Since that time, there had been no notifications about the knight federation meetings or anything. When she had been trapped in the cargo vessel for two weeks in England, or during the London Tower battle, there had been no response at all.

She understood that she was being deprived of her role.

However, because of her status, there was no possibility of her being publicly stripped of her position.

She also wanted to ask some of the other knights about the current status of the federation. However,

“— That is almost as if I am afraid of the reaction of those who are below me, even though I am in the top position.”

While lowering her hips onto the bed she let out a sigh.

… She understood however, that she should not have this type of finalized thinking.

She was distancing herself from them, by arbitrarily deciding that the other side was avoiding her or not taking her seriously.

Thinking about it deeply, it was the same as with the case of Mary.

She had also unintentionally started to feel down after wrongly guessing that she would be selected as Horizon’s escort.

During inconvenient times she wanted to be alone, or if not that, then she wanted to be together with someone.

She was selfish, that was a bad habit.

However she understood quite well when it was that she had become like that.

“It was a long time ago… about the fourth year of elementary school.”

She looked outside the window. Far away, IZUMO’s Kitsuki-Taisha could be seen in the sky, however,

“It was not this IZUMO.… That was at Bizen IZUMO.”

Suddenly she dropped her shoulders and collapsed onto the bed.

She thought that her hair would become horribly disheveled, however it would be fine if she set it later. Anyhow, it was because she had abruptly touched a part of herself that she didn’t like. Even though the incident concerning the knight federation should not matter to her after she had decided to follow her King, once again it had come up.
[[Image:Horizon3A_0131.jpg|thumb]]
She thought about sleeping for 30 minutes to refresh herself, so while looking out the window she collapsed backwards.

Her clothing was partially removed and was in a horrid state, however she thought that since she was alone it was fine.

She collapsed.

Immediately following that.

Outside the window in the yard with the high wall, an idiot carrying a mountain of eroge was sneakily passing through.

“—!?”

<center>●</center>

Mitotsudaira lifted up the vertical closing window at full speed and jumped out into the garden.

Looking to the right, there was an idiot who, with his body drawn back in surprise, had turned one leg in this direction. Mitotsudaira faced her entire body towards there and pointed at the total idiot,

“H-Hey! What are you doing in the yard of another person’s mansion!?”

“Eh? W-What, Eh? isn’t that philosophical? That question. Umm, People are already constantly—”

She slammed the opened window down using one finger, and with that loud noise the idiot stopped his philosophizing.

Ah, the sighing Mitotsudaira bent her body and looked down on the idiot.

“… Chancellor, I will ask once more, okay? — What are you doing in the yard of another person’s mansion?”

“Ah? Ahh!? — I’m not doing anything in the yard, you know!? I have business with the storehouse around the back, I do!?”

“T-There is no storehouse at the back of my place!? Look!”

Pointing her finger and looking, there the ground of the yard had become a lid and was open.

“Eh? Eeeeeh!? W-What is that!? Why is it that the ground at the back of my yard has become a hidden door and has been opened? Is it an illusion!?”

“Are you stupid, obviously I created it of my own accord, okay?”

“It is true that is the only way that it could have happened, however when did you create it!?”

Oi oi oi, the idiot sighed and readjusted his grip on the pile of boxes at his waist.

“When this mansion was remodeled, I struck a deal with the master craftsman to work in exchange for fifteen married wife genre eroge. In other words, this is one of my safe houses. Thank you master craftsmen. Thank you married wives. I’m very blessed, right!?”

Mitotsudaira opened a sign frame with a smile.

"Ah, Tomo? I think that you are currently searching for a person at the moment; I get the feeling that that person is here. Will you come?”

'''“'''Yeah, I’m coming! I’m super coming! Hey Adele, please get the dogs to go ahead!'''”'''

'''“'''Eh? I don’t understand what is going on, but everyone please go on ahead—! Hey Boss, this is an eroge box with the chancellor’s scent so please remember this scent, okay?'''”'''

'''“'''Oh, we will have the remainder after you come back, right?'''”'''

Over there the situation appeared terribly chaotic, however Mary seemed to be having fun. That’s nice; for a moment she hated herself for thinking that, however right now, the situation in front of her eyes took priority.
Mitotsudaira dropped her shoulders and looked at the man in front of her eyes.

“So Chancellor. Is there not something that you wish to say?”

“Eh? Will you grant me forgiveness?”

Mitotsudaira thought about that question. She had already made the arrangements for the cannon priestess and the beast tamer to come; however this was a problem concerning her and him. That is why as for the meantime,

“Do you have the intention to apologize?”

“T-That is…”

The idiot shrunk his body and after taking a position of servitude, offered a pile of about ten eroge in this direction. Then he placed his hand on his cheek and in a flirtatiously manner,

“Could you forgive me with this?”

<center>●</center>

The following moment. The residents of Musashino’s surface section saw a human shaped object break through the wall of Mitotsudaira’s mansion and tumble onto the road. The gale that formed together with the blow made several rectangular goods fall from the sky; however the idiot used that as a distraction and attempted to crawl away. However,

“Yeah, Boss it’s your debut!”

The dogs swarmed on the crawling thing, with people ignoring it after a few seconds the situation ended.

<center>●</center>

She had heard some type of noise coming from the direction of Musashino. Masazumi had that feeling.

She was currently located on the ground.

She had descended from Musashi and headed in the direction of IZUMO’s marketplace. The location was the northern side, close to Kitsuki-Taisha, the symbol of IZUMO.
In the surroundings were tall fields of greenery which were alternated with shelter-belts.

There accompanying at her side was a broom in the sky,

“Naito, I’m sorry. Even though you were in the middle of work, I just saw you and summoned you.”

“Yeah, Jud Jud, Ga-chan said that she would work in my place, and it’s better to have a member of the Chancellor’s Board as an escort. Ga-chan also said that she would do some shopping in IZUMO later, so this works out fine to meet up.”

So then, the technohexen said that while a doing leisurely horizontal spin on her broom.

“Seijun, isn’t it about time you let me hear? Why you are going to IZUMO?”

Yeah, Masazumi responded.

“It’s a top secret conference. A bit of a story came in through via Neshinbara.”

“Neshinbara? Bara-yan is not going, but Seijun? Is it alright for me then?”

“Yeah, if by chance anything happens, then if it’s you it will be possible to escape from the scene, and in the worst case scenario, at least you can escape on your own. Also Naito — at this top secret conference, there seems to be a topic about M.H.R.R.”

Saying that quickly, Naito stopped as if her broom had fallen to the ground.

“I’m however not all that knowledgeable… Did you call the others?”

“Jud, I asked Neshibara and Futayo if they could do some shopping later at the town of IZUMO.”

While she was saying that, they entered the area of the final shelter-belt which was close to the town. In front of her eyes where the wind was flowing through the shadow of the trees, were the short sleeves of summer clothing, and the noises and voices indicating the liveliness of the town could gradually be heard.

It was a different set of noises than on Musashi. Was she just accustomed to Musashi, or was it that she was still observing Musashi as special?

This area which was positioned on the north side had the northern side land harbor, as well as many diplomatic facilities for the diplomatic ships which came from the side of the northern sea. The wooden five story inns which were lined up and creating massive rectangular shadows was something that you could not normally see on the mainland. Then,

“— They’re there, one of the conference attendees.”

At the entrance to the town there was a giant stone shrine arch which straddled the street. It seemed as if it had become a meeting spot with there being a food stall and people who were doing nothing but waiting around.

Among those people there was a tall man that had noticed, looked their way and raised one of his hands. That person was wearing the clothing of the Far East; he was either following the tradition of the country or using it as a disguise. That shadow simply showed a smile full of teeth,

“It’s been a while mate, how about a glass?”

“I have no money. — That’s why I am here as an invited person.”

Masazumi said the following to the other party who was bitterly smiling.

“Where is the meeting place? The “Trump” Number 9 England’s secretary — Ben Johnson.”

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 04|Chapter 04]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 06|Chapter 06]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 04

2014-07-01T02:18:32Z

Purin:

==Chapter 04: Assemblers under the Eaves ==
[[Image:Horizon3A_0103.jpg|thumb]]
''Why is it that.''

''The more you try to listen to a story.''

''The more you end up telling one.''

'''Point Allocation (Reciprocation)'''

<center>●</center>

Beneath the blue sky of IZUMO, beneath the eaves there was the muttered voice of an elderly woman.

“That’s right…, Horizon. About your Mother…”

There, the speaking Mitsu was traditionally seated on top of a cushion on the veranda, with Horizon seated beside her.

In front of her, Kimi and Futayo had put on gloves and were in the yard searching through the vegetable garden,

“Ah It’s a potato! Grandmother, even though it is still widely regarded as a prohibited good. —Confiscated! It’s confiscated!”

“Hmm, the green soybeans which my father liked are grown here, Kimi. —As an offering to my father's spirit, I think I may also take possession of some.”

'''“'''Boiled in Salt—'''”'''

“I had some left over so I said you could do as you please, but what exactly did you come here to do.”

Mitsu said that with half eyes; however the two women didn’t listen. That’s why Mitsu paused for a moment and directed her question to Horizon who was drinking tea by her side.

“Horizon? Why exactly did you come here?”

<center>●</center>

Why did you come here? The questioned Horizon considered that.

… At first it was just because Kimi had invited me…

She considered. If she had to say rather than being the reason she came, it was,

“The reason is that I thought it would be okay to come.”

“That’s nice, being condescending.”

Jud. Horizon raised her right thumb to show Mitsu. Mitsu was already returning the same action.

“……”

The two women exchanged gazes, both nodded and then Horizon once again opened her mouth.

“… Anyway, in the beginning I thought that it was meaningless. Even now, I am still conjecturing whether that is true.”

“You’re very straightforward.”

Once again the two of them raised their thumbs. There,

“Jud, thank you very much. However Toori went “Ah!? I am not going. I am definitely not going! I can’t go for your sake!” and acted stubborn, so I changed my mind and decided I had to come .”

“How rebellious.”

She raised her thumb.

“Jud, thank you very much. In any case, to tell the truth, it is a rare occurrence for me to disembark from Musashi, so in the meaning of study, it is valid.”

Then since she had come, she had only one purpose.

“The current purpose is to hear about Horizon’s mother, that is all.”

“I see!”

Mitsu nodded her head. However, there she tilted her head and asked the following.

“Why is it you want to know?”

It was a simple question. That is why she immediately answered. The contents of her reply was,

“It is because I want to be able to understand my mother.”

“Why?”

“If I can understand her, then the eventual sadness will be reduced. Even if I am no longer able to exchange words with that person, I can think about her, and it is possible for me to inherit her will.”

“Well then. — Let us do something like a little test. About how much meaning talking about the past has for you. A test to measure that.”

“Jud, Please do as you wish.”

That was a good answer, is what Mitsu said. There with a faint smile,

“Okay, I am going to ask? You are saying that understanding is important? In that case… if you can understand something, then is it okay to lose it?”

<center>●</center>

Oh? is what Horizon thought. She had had a similar discussion but from the opposing stance. In London, England, that act which Toori had called a date. Date, it was an English word. To translate it to Japanese, it was “Date”. Did Toori want that badly to go on a date with Horizon, it was strange.

In any case, considering the words he had said at that time.

What had he replied with when she had said the same words that Mitsu had just spoken.

… Ah.

She remembered, and it was something she could accept, that’s why Horizon said the following.

“That is not correct.”

When trying and standing on the opposite parallel line, she had the feeling that she could somehow understood the words that she had been told at that time.

“There is nothing that is okay to lose, that is what I am thinking.”
While conducting multiple layers of judgment, Horizon formed her words. After thinking over the things which he had told her in the past, she began to speak,

“That is why I do not wish to understand just so that I will be okay with losing something.… Unfortunately, everything will eventually be lost, however if you can understand and enjoy spending time together, even when that time unexpectedly comes—”

Was it this kind of thing.

“Would it not be possible to even understand what happens at that time, that is my conjecture.”

<center>●</center>

“That’s an idealist thought.”

With Mitsu’s words Horizon simply asked the following,

“Is that what you determine? That it is nothing but an ideal?"

Jud, Mitsu who was resting her chin in her hands spoke.

“If you die, no matter how much time you spend together, it is still saddening. For those who are left behind. It was the same for my husband and for my parents.”

“Is it not possible to have an understanding concerning losing something?"

“The contents of your question are quite harsh.”

The two of them raised their thumbs.

However, Horizon did not say that she was sorry in response to Mitsu’ words. If she apologized for asking something that was necessary to her, it would be that her necessity was lowering her head. That’s why,

“I understand that it will change the topic, but I would like to request a lecture. — Advice on how to resolve the sadness of loss.”

“Those are some nice words.”

Mitsu laughed. Then she said.

“Understanding the deceased is quite a difficult task. After all, they are already gone, however on the other hand, there is no way to confirm anything more than that. That’s why as a reference for you who is trying to learn about your mother, I will tell you a bit of my story. You may experience the same amount of hardship, after all.”

“There are hardships?”

Mitsu responded that there were.

“My mother, well that would be the great grandmother of that kid out there who is digging up potatoes. That great grandmother, when Toori and Kimi were in elementary school… was it the fifth year?”

“Haha, it was the fourth year. Eight years ago. Have things become a bit unclear?”

“You just grew up fast. Because you have nothing above your neck. — Well in that year, Musashi’s route was an eastern circulation via Bizen. It just so happened that they came to Hexagone Française's northern IZUMO during the end of the year. However great grandmother was in a bad condition. They wouldn’t make it at that rate. However—”

Mitsu pointed in the southerly direction.
The deal which Musashi made over in the direction of K.P.A.Italia — Due to Hashiba starting their full-scale movements, the rule of Nagahama begun, and the route was no longer useable, so they were forced to stop at Bizen IZUMO at the southern country border of Hexagone Française. However the Pope Chancellor of K.P.A.Italia Innocentius allowed the trade with the surrounding countries, and in order to obtain repair parts, there were permitted a limited capacity of cargo ships to come and go between IZUMO, so as to continue the trade of other countries with Musashi, well there were also a variety of political factors.”

“That was—”

“They came here, however only Toori and Kimi, the checks were apparently soft on children,”

Hey,

“Kimi, what sort of situation was that?”

<center>●</center>

With Mitsu’s question, within Horizon’s gaze Kimi raised her body with a state of disappointment.

“Don’t you remember?”

Well, Kimi folded her arms.

Then she looked over this way and pointed to the eastern sky and Musashi.

“That foolish brother did, right? He suddenly knocked on my door and said “Let’s go sis. If mum were to find out, it would be trouble, so let’s go while we can.” It seems like he had requested earnestly to the people in the provisional council. Thinking about it now, it is a lot easier for the other side to accept something when it comes to children going to give their final greeting to a relative.

“Now? Then, at that time?”

“That the adults were suspicious, I was thinking that if something happens I have to protect my foolish brother.”

I see, Horizon nodded. She was interested in the fact that Futayo seemed to be getting excited over the fact that the turnip had long roots, however at the moment hearing the rest of the story was more important.

That’s why Horizon returned her gaze to Mitsu. She thought that she wanted to hear the remainder of the story.

“It was in that way that Toori and Kimi were able to come? Apart from that… did anything happen?”

“Jud, the two of them only spent a few normal days here. After they returned… on the return, you returned to the halted Musashi at BIZEN IZUMO by carriage and walking, didn’t you?”

“That’s right, okay? Since the schedule didn’t match up with the cargo vessel, we returned while being assisted by some kind people. On the way too much stuff happened, even if I talked about it, no one would believe me which is why I don’t talk about it.”

Is that so, Mitsu said. Then she looked this way and paused with a smile.

“Horizon listen, okay? After some time had passed, a letter arrived from my stupid daughter on board Musashi saying “I locked those two who had returned for two, three days.”. Then…”

“Then?”

At the time when she was wondering what had occurred.

Mitsu looked up at the sky and spoke.

“Great grandmother, my mother smiled.”

<center>●</center>

“That was…”

Horizon thought that was a normal, an everyday reaction. There was a difference between people about the value of the existence called great grandchildren, however if they had arrived home safely, then you would be smiling.

However,

… In that case, why was Mitsu especially remembering that smile?

She didn’t understand. That is why Horizon did not speak,

“—”

However after being silenced, in front of her Mitsu tilted her brown teacup towards her mouth. Then,

“I wonder why!”

“What is it?”

Ah.

“Mother laughed and spoke. — That I don’t know whether my life was meaningful, however if my grandchildren who are connected through my soul came to visit me before I go… I think I lived a proper way of life if it meant they came.”

“That was…”

She realized that she was saying the same words as before.

The meaning that the words Mitsu were saying was something she thought she could understand, however could not. That was why she stopped her words part-way through,
“— I apologize; I am unable to reach an understanding.”

“That is a good thing. After all, I don’t really understand it either. That’s why I told this story.”

There, Mitsu showed her first bitter smile. Then she adjusted her chin in her hands,

“It is not like my mother spent a lot of time together with Toori and Kimi. After my mother died, I also became sad and wept. However… I think mother at the very least beatified the satisfaction that she felt towards Toori and Kimi.”

Do you understand? Is what Mitsu said. She then suddenly looked at the yard,

“I wonder what form that the satisfaction of understanding takes. — Hey, Kimi!”

“Haha, what is it? I’m in a good mood today so I’ll answer across the generation, okay?”

“Well then, — Kimi, how was it at that time when you and Toori returned to Musashi? Did you think about anything regarding my mother?”

“Actually Grandmother. There’s no way that I remember something from that long ago.”

Ah, however Kimi formed a wry smile.

“Foolish brother, he said it. — That great grandmother was cute. That she was thankful, thankful towards everything, that her being delighted was cute.”
With those words, Horizon nodded.

“Jud. I see, I have understood that part.”

There Horizon with the frank opinion which had formed inside her heart said the following.

“Toori is indiscriminate when it comes to raising flags.”

<center>●</center>

The women fell silent and the grandma conducted eye contact with her grandchild.

After that, the grandchild instructed “calm down” with her hand, and the grandma nodded. After a while the grandchild cleared her throat and spoke to Horizon.

“Okay? Horizon. It’s alright. They are relatives, you know? — You can’t conquer them.”

“In other words, it will be added as part of the supplementary DVD.”

The grandchild looked at her Grandma.

“— Grandmother, what should I do at a time like this.”

“How should I know.”

Anyway, is what Mitsu said. Then, saying however to connect her sentences, she once again took a breath.

“… Ah well, it is true that Toori looked at my mother in such a manner. That my mother ended her life being thankful to a great many things.”

… Ended her life being thankful….?

Horizon repeated Mitsu's words within her heart.

Then Horizon thought this.

……I don’t understand.

Why had the fact that the two, Toori and Kimi, had come led to being thankful to anything and everything.

Why had Mitsu’s mother,

“Why was she thankful? Should the thankful ones not be the later generation who had been given birth to and received their upbringing?”

“Horizon!”

Mitsu, while turning back this way asked the following.

“— Do you think that something that had completed its purpose is no longer necessary?”

Jud, is what Horizon went to answer. After all, a machine which had completed its purpose will become a unnecessary, useless object. Once you switch to a new good, the old good is fine to be dissembled and recycled.

That’s why Horizon went to voice an affirmative response,

…No.

Conducting her thoughts, Horizon shook her head to the side.

“I do not think that is true.”

“Why not?”

“That is because Horizon was once like that.”

That was,

“One may think their purpose is over, and while that may be correct, … being more important to someone than you think you are is something that often happens.”

Even Horizon, who believed that she was nothing, was not abandoned at Mikawa.

It was not just her. At England it was the same for Mary, in that case… perhaps it is the same for others.

That’s why,

“If you wish to decide that you are unnecessary, then you must ask everyone in the entire world. Also not just those people in the same generation, but also those in the generations which follow. The reason being is that I am now thinking about wanting to know my mother. In my mother’s generation, even if her mother had been shunned by the entire world, at the moment I, of the following generation, wish for her.”

“That is a good answer.”

The two of them raised their thumbs.

Thus, Horizon connected her thinking to the previous topic. The reason why Mitsu’s mother was thankful to everything was,

“She was able to believe that, not just the physical things in front of your eyes, but the things beyond, their thoughts of her, was important to them. … From that two people who were connected to her by blood had come from far away.”

“That’s right. That’s why it will be good to remember that.”

“What would?”

Ah, Mitsu spoke.

“Your mother is not here. however she is glad that you have come here. — Indeed, so am I who has once again formed a connection with you as well.”

“—”

Mitsu, as if to connect everything together, formed words. Understand? Putting that as a preface,

“I was also one of those people who thought of “meeting” the lost you. Well, to you it might be just a “test”. That’s why I am trying to teach you to think that meeting me was a good thing.”

That was,

“About your mother.”

<center>●</center>

“About… my mother?”

Horizon slightly prepared her consciousness.

She had come here wanting to know about her mother.

However, she had absolutely no memories of her mother.

It was certain that she had one. After all she was here, however

… what kind of person was my mother?

Was it a result of Phylargyria that she wished to follow up on the doubt she had suddenly thought up. However, that thought immediately became words, and turning it into a question. The words which escaped from her mouth were,

“Mitsu-sama, my mother was….”

“There isn’t much I can say.”

Towards her who had become unable to form words, the old woman showed eyes which looked like the shape of a smile.

“Your mother was a brilliant student. She came to this IZUMO during her middle school period, at the time I was at high school doing ritual Shinto spell and fluid research when she came to see me. She was doing earth pulse research and wanted knowledge on the Far East formulas.

“Mitsu-sama, you used to be an instructor?”

“Jud, I am one of the students who participated in the suppression of the Shimabara Rebellion, the accelerated reproduction of the Far East Catholic revolt from fifty years ago. After the harsh war ended and I returned here, I received a recommendation from the Testament Union. Well, they determined that leaving a young girl who liked to go wild was dangerous. Thus I served as an instructor here, and it was when my hair started to turn white that your mother came.”

“That was—”

“It was thirty five, six years ago. She came to this middle school the same year as my idiot daughter; they hit it off and got along well.”

In that case, Horizon thought. If she spent her time in middle school then what came next was,

“Was her high school here or at Musashi?”

With that question, Mitsu shook her head to the side.

Then she spoke the same words which had the same meaning as the shaking of her head.

“I don’t know. — Where that child attended high school.”

<center>●</center>

“… You don’t know?”

Determining that parroting her words was meaningless, Horizon followed with another question.

“Why is it that you don’t know? Academies are all facilities which have records being recorded; they are the cornerstone of politics and military of each country.”

That’s true; there the corners of her mouth formed a smile.

“I’ll say it in advance, but I’m the one who wishes to know something. My daughter was also quite indignant. — However, at a certain time, that child unexpectedly received a single letter and disappeared. Without leaving a note. Then once again at a certain time, she suddenly came back.”

Breathing in, Mitsu spoke.

“—It was around eighteen, nineteen years ago. She was slightly worn out though, surprisingly she possessed a permit to live on Musashi directly from Mikawa’s Lord Motonobu, however she said the following.”

In my womb is Lord Motonobu’s child. I will live with an escort on-board Musashi. However — before that I will travel through the individual territories of the Far East. Please protect me.”

“I determine that she is selfish.”

“That’s true. My daughter said quite a lot to her as well. However well, it seems like she reached some type of resolution. As expected after howling about it for three days, my daughter was tired of it. With exasperation, she was forcibly dragged by her companion through a journey of the Far East. It was a three month forced march through the important places.”

That’s true, speaking there was Kimi. She embraced her body,

“However by that time, she was already pregnant with me. Foolish brother came after boarding Musashi, though.”

“… If that is the case, then was Toori-sama a house warming celebration.”

“… You show no mercy on those close to you.”

Mitsu formed a wry smile and said this.

“Well, that’s about all I can say. If my daughter will not say what we saw on our journey, then it is not for me to say. However…”

“However?”

“I don’t know where she was and what she was doing during those several tens of years after she vanished. Honda and Sakai also shouldn’t know either. That’s why it is likely she was not in Mikawa, if anyone was to know, it would be only Lord Motonobu.”

What do you say.

“How’s this as a proposition? How about trying to understand your own parents. I still have a long way to go. That’s why — until you get at least to my age, even if you have not discovered the answer, you cannot give up. You cannot give up and reach the conclusion that losing something is saddening.”

Having that said to her, Horizon came to a self-realization. The fact that her mother was also certainly lost. She was an important existence to her, however she was a stranger. If she was able to understand that existence,

“People who I have not met, and also things I have not seen …… is it really possible to become able to understand these?”

“— You shouldn’t immediately try and come to a conclusion. However, the only advice I can give is to not give up. Following that? I think it would be good for you to go after that child.”

“Why do you think that?”

Ah, there Mitsu said.

“There is a theme the child was researching.”

That was,

“The resolution of the destiny of Sin through the Earth pulse.”

<center>●</center>

“—”

At the side of her who had involuntarily lost her words, Kimi and Futayo stood up together after extracting a green spring onion.

“That’s the first time I’ve heard that? Ah, I’m also going to take this spring onion.”

“Isn’t it about time you paid some money. — However, Kimi hearing it for the first time is that kind of thing. After all, it wasn’t something to be told to someone who was not involved, right? However Horizon, Lord Motonobu turned you into the Armour of Deadly Sins in order to influence the end of the world. Your mother was also doing research into the deadly sins. About the fate of Karma which people cannot escape from.”

What do you say, Mitsu said once again.

“—There is great value in understanding, don’t you agree?”

<center>●</center>

“That is also something I’ve heard for the first time, Teacher.”

There Kimi heard an unforeseen voice from the back of the house.

The familiar voice was,

“Teacher?”

Jud, there together with the voice, Oriotorai came from the back of the house carrying paper bags filled with goods. Both Horizon and Futayo turned that direction and then Grandma as well,

“Well, it is something that there was no reason to talk to you about, Makiko.”

“Grandmother, do you know our teacher?

Together with Horizon’s tilted neck question, Oriotorai showed the palm of her hand and urged grandma to go on. In a responsive movement, Grandma placed both her hands on her hips and nodded,

“For Makiko to become a teacher! I was in charge of her history and ritual spell instruction. Enough that there was even a time when she stayed over for a period. She ate a lot. — So, well, I also did teach this child’s former official, … I wonder was having two outstanding talents in a row due to the end of the world.”

No no, there Oriotorai smiled and puffed out her chest.

“Someone like me still has a long way to go, Teacher. There are other people who ate more than me."

Oriotorai not referring to herself as Teacher was fresh. However, hmm, Grandma and Horizon looked alternatively over here who was repeating deep nods,

“……”

If you were to say that being silent and at a loose end was cute, then it was cute. That’s why,

“Horizon, are you returning?”

“— Jud, I was able to hear a variety of important stories. Then—?”

From here on, Horizon continued her words with that.

“I think that I will search the obscure circumstances regarding my mother. It will be good if there are still records of her residence or grave and the like remain in Musashi, however.”

That's right, Mitsu nodded.

“There are some steamed sweet jelly beans in the kitchen, so take them and go. Also, Toori is-”

“If you’re talking about foolish brother, he will come later so don’t worry. Foolish brother is not good with difficult talk.”

“He’s been an idiot from long ago. However, the idiot became king, huh.”

Mitsu looked towards Musashi

“— The world is also ending.”

From far away from the direction of IZUMO, the sound of a festival orchestra which had been arranged into house style could be heard.

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 03|Chapter 03]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 05|Chapter 05]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 03

2014-07-01T02:16:50Z

Purin: Handle name consistency.

==Chapter 03: Hard Worker of the Unfamiliar Site==
[[Image:Horizon3A_0077.jpg|thumb]]

''In a place one does not know''

''To make a living''

''What should be done''

'''Point Allocation (Ability to Take Action)'''

<center>●</center>

“Wow, a pear tart from IZUMO below?”

The blonde with a scarred face turned around with a surprised voice inside the grounds of a Shrine which possessed the sky of an atrium.

The location was the third underground floor at the rear of Okutama. Within the atrium established using the two side streets, the ascending stairs there led to the Shinto shrine arch, where there was a grove and a shrine.

The name which was bestowed on the large Shinto shrine archway on the bow side was “Asama Shrine”.

Through the waterfalls formed by the rivers falling from the surface section and sunlight entering from the atrium, shadows and light intersected several places within the shrine grounds. Inside those shrine grounds the one who had spoken the previous words was the priestess-styled inner-suit figure of Mary.

She, while taking the paper box which was offered,

“Is it all right? Adele, is it alright for me to accept this.”

Jud, the one who nodded was the blue jersey clad figure of Adele.

“These were provisions provided by “Musashi” and the others to the official positions and important offices. Earlier when purchasing tableware from down below, “Musashi” requested that I carry them with me when I return, in order to reduce her load. Please have it together with the first special agent. — Hey!”
Adele who was speaking, directed those final words to the surrounding pack of shadows which was jumping around.

It was the dogs.

Those with collars, without collars as well as young, adult and old dogs. With Adele’s single word the dogs, with a stray white dog in the centre, sat down all at once. Adele faced the dogs,

“This is where you get your water from, okay? Anything else is prohibited. The toilet is also at the prescribed location.”

The dogs let out a single loud bark as if to nod.

Good, Adele nodded and began to provide the feed she had received from passers-by in orderly fashion. Turning around and looking, the smiling Mary who was there was,

“… However, well, I would never have thought that you would take a part-time job as a priestess at the Asama Shrine.”

<center>●</center>

She started to say that if you think about it historically, it’s a chaotic situation, furthermore

…… this is the First Special Agent’s tastes.

Is what she also wanted to say, however Adele remained silent. After all, she was a normal individual. She was not someone who should become too deeply involved in the situation of royalty or deviants.

However Mary, with a white inner suit as the base, and with red tights, shaking the tail ballast with the broom which hung at her waist, could be seen to look good.

That Mary showed a smile this way,

“I am only doing things such as cleaning, tidying and the preparations for the store, I think it would be good if I could work more… however, I lack a proper understanding of Shinto, so I'm depending on these a little.”

There was a small PC hanging from the hard point on her waist. What was displayed there was an explanation of Shinto formulas and spells. She was studying in her own way, there after understanding that,

“To continue to inherit the name of Mary, you are after all unable to discard the Catholic religion. However, being on board Musashi and continuing like that would be a bit of a difficult situation… that’s why I talked using the “Hidden” Catholic setting.”

“Jud, normally it seems the “Hidden” setting was used for believers of Shinto who wished to believe in Catholicism, however since my situation would be the reverse, it apparently makes the application complicated.”

So working at the shrine to “Demonstrate her belief” was done in order to relax the application conditions.

However, Adele thought. Like her who only believed in Catholicism, she was able to respect her beliefs in everyday life, and if Asama was there acting as an intermediary, it was simple to achieve messaging. However,

“Why did you say that you wanted to understand Shinto?”

Eh? After forming the words, Mary hesitated and her cheeks reddened.

“If I have the same as Tenzou-sama, then there are not a lot of inconveniences…”

If any of our class were here at the moment, the fate of the First Special Agent would have been sealed tomorrow. I’m glad it was me. I’ll let him off with just spreading it over the net.

However Mary bowed her head in this direction,

“— In any case, thank you for everything back in England.”

“Eh? Ah No, after all I didn’t cause a ruckus at the London tower nor have any real activity during Armada. I was waiting for maintenance on my armour shell so it was pretty easy-going.”

More importantly,

“Mary, how are you feeling at the moment?”

“Jud, I can talk with the neighbours, I can work here, cook food and sew, there’s a lot I can do. The Far East also has many books which allows me to enjoy my time here.”

“Have you descended into IZUMO?”

No, she showed something like a troubled smile.

“My free time did not match with Tenzou-sama; he has his job down at the engineering section, after all.”

That guy, leaving behind his blonde large breasted wife in priestess clothes, what exactly is he doing. Adele who was about to mentally enter a preaching stance, instead lightly stopped her breath at Mary’s next words.

“Also even if it is only IZUMO, as someone who was born in England, I feel some difficulty when it comes to the territory of Hexagone Française. I am also meant to have gotten married in Hexagone Française after all.”

Hearing the difficult content of those words said without any hesitation, Adele thought of the word “consideration”.

Her mother and father were both from Hexagone Française, however she was born on Musashi. There was also her father who had lost his place within Hexagone Française, she was taught to place a greater value on her existence as a retainer over her country. She was a Catholic, a retainer and from the lineage of Hexagone Française, however she was a resident of Musashi.

That is why she realised that Mitotsudaira and Mary were keeping a distance from each other. Like her, they both held the thinking of the era of knights, however following her birth one held a different type of awareness towards her home country. That was Mitotsudaira.

There was probably a similar situation for Mary. She bitterly smiled,

“… At the point when you feel that you should not be aware that it is already hopeless, you then think once again that is also hopeless, however you wonder if it is truly hopeless, and it goes around in repetition.”

However,

“I talked with Tenzou-sama about going down to IZUMO, — I requested about a variety of purchases at IZUMO, and he would help on a later date. It was simple to solve.”

<center>●</center>

“Really…”

Adele thought, that First Special Agent is doing quite well.

She was questionably moved emotionally. That is why Adele first went to go about her business,

“So, umm, I’m sorry, where’s Asama?”

“Eh? Umm, earlier she was peering under the veranda and then doing something about the arrangements for a seal… however now, something about stacking firewood out front towards the staircase, she is doing the cleansing of firewood in the forest around the back.”

… Something happened with someone close…

She nodded on the inside, however it would be better not to let Mary predict the particulars.

However Mary, who was tilting her head, compared here to the surrounding dogs.

“Adele, you were at IZUMO for shopping… and walking your pets?”

“Eh? Well, during the morning and evening, I run as training. However, since I continued from a while ago, the dogs thought I would play with them and continued to follow me. Then they gradually continued to increase in number, and lately this has become a sort of specialty with people who have a daily routine of throwing bait when I pass, and even people who seem they are too busy to take them for a walk, so they leave it to me.”

“Jud. It is very lively.”

Receiving an appropriate follow-up was something to be grateful for.

However well,

“This was something that Asama’s father thought up, attaching talismans to these dogs and have them run which would then conduct the ship’s tuning. Using the purification talismans “Space” which are created by the practitioners of Shinto as a rudimentary training — well even if they are badly made, we attach these which are gathered for free and attempt to remove the localized distortions within the vessel. In short, guard dogs to prevent the occurrence of Phenomena.”

However, if Asama was busy dealing with the misconduct of someone close,

“I guess it will not be happening today. Well lately, due to the repair of Musashi, even if there is a distortion the poor part should have disappeared, so it should be okay.”

I also wish to view the new tableware, which I bought to replace the broken tableware during Musashi’s full turn the other day, when placed on the table. That’s why Adele thought she would return home, however Mary

“Adele, it is almost time for my break, so how about this?”

She held up the box with the pear tart.

“Will you have it together with me? As well as having Asama and other part timers join us.”

There is a god…! Adele thought that from the bottom of her heart. That a suggestion with no downside would bring about a sense of awe! Ah, after this long time Adele was glad that this person was not executed.

Then in front of her. The goddess directed a smile this way,

“It is quite large after all; I shall have the remainder together with Tenzou-sama.”

While she was wondering whether this was all right. Black wings descended from the sky.

Descending and before touching the ground, spreading her wings as if striking the atmosphere and regaining her posture was,

“Fourth Special Agent? … Are you working?”

“Jud, could you pass this along to Asama for me? — It’s nothing important.”

“T-That’s a strange way of describing something…!”

“Oh, Naruze we were just thinking about having some tea, however…”

Hmm, Naruze looked at the paper box that Mary was holding. Then she directed her gaze below to the dogs that were looking up at her wings with great interest,

“We received ours a little while ago, but I guess it would be fine to have that tomorrow. — Okay, while it isn’t a Technomagi tea party I’ll join you for a bit”

“Fourth Special Agent, what about your work?”

“Margot should also currently be taking a break.”

Naruze pointed in the port side direction, over towards Tama.

Then towards Mary, with a smile on her face, what she said was,

“—Jud, over where your Husband and Naomasa are working.”

<center>●</center>

"To continue training even though it is your break time is admirable, Muneshige."

A single voice echoed around the outside front wall section of Tama which basked in the sun of the second day of the month.

As a result of damage to the outer wall, this location was one of the places where footholds had been installed for repairs. Not just the maintenance or the repairs section, but while the entire engineering division was conducting repairs throughout Musashi, there were many people being hired, however,

“Well, it is good that I have found a place to work where I can also complete my training. Don’t you agree, Tenzou.”

Jud, holding his hand to the white steel wall was the jacket-less figure of Tenzou.

“The fact that Naomasa and Mitotsudaira also participate is something to be highly appreciative of. Well then, about today's training it’s fine, right Muneshige?”

In front on him when he turned around was a single young married couple who were on top of a widely created foothold.

It was Muneshige who was wearing a work vest and Gin who was clad in the jersey of Tres España.

Looking at the two of them, Tenzou thought the following.

… However well, it is surprising that we managed to join together with the Tachibana married couple.

After all, it was only about two weeks ago when those two were considered the enemy.

However those two had now submitted an application to Tres España for the removal of their inherited names, and while Muneshige’s had been accepted, it was heard that Gin’s was still pending.

… That was due to Gin having her father also being a member of the Tachibana lineage.

Masazumi had made a deal with Tres España such that “If the individual in question wishes to be one of Musashi’s crew, we will treat them as a resident of the Far East” and with that settled things with Tres España. In other words, as long as they remained on Musashi, they were neither residents of Tres España or Musashi but “Far East Residents” as the original Tachibana Clan.”

In reality it could be said that Gin’s future was depending on what she wanted to do with herself.

This was not Gin’s comment. However, if Gin chose to remain with Muneshige who has had his inherited name revoked… he was thinking about doubling his efforts for the time when he would once again inherit the name.

Anyhow, Tenzou stopped that train of thought and went to deal with the issue at hand. What needed to be done now was,

“Advancing the rehabilitation training of Muneshige’s legs to the next stage.”

<center>●</center>

“Is it all right?”

Tenzou lifted his hand slightly in the direction of Naomasa. With that, Naomasa cut one part from the rolled paper-like object she was gripping with her artificial arms and formed a pipe,

“Here.”

Tenzou caught the somewhat heavy solid paper pipe which was tossed over to him. Then when he held that rolled up paper-like object and showed it to the Tachibana couple. Gin tilted her neck and spoke.

“… A Shinto damaged metallic part repair deity talisman. It provides an artificial life force to metal and using fluid as a basis, conducts an automated repair. It is however considered a prohibited technique by Catholics due to being similar to the act of God…”

Gin shifted her eyes to the side. Where she shifted her eyes there was multiple white talismans which were attached to the wall. All of that white was identical to the one which Tenzou over here was holding.

Then Naomasa also tilted her gaze towards the white horizontal line,

“Honestly, this is an ineffective method of repair. Well, for emergencies and light damage such as light scratches where it would be wasteful to replace the plating, it can be useful.”

“Jud, normally you assemble a foothold and then attach them horizontally in an orderly fashion—”

Tenzou indicated above. To a position which was approximately twenty meters above. Floating there on a broom were golden wings who waved her hand in this direction. It was Naito. She raised her hand next to her mouth,

“From what I can tell the repairs in this area aren't done properly.”

Naito poked a section of the outer wall with the tip of her broom. Seeing that, Naomasa nodded,

“Since this area is my responsibility, do you think you could give it a try?”

With that question, Muneshige looked up at the wall which seemed perpendicular.

“You’re saying to climb this?”

Nope, Tenzou spoke.

“— I’m saying to run.”

<center>●</center>

I see, is what Gin thought. That there was meaning in consulting with the ninja First Special Agent who seemed knowledgeable about occupations which could be used for training.

“At first, when I heard that it was work which could serve as training, I thought it was simply manual labour like carrying materials and assisting in creating footholds…”

Gin looked up at wall.

“That served as basic training, with the next stage being running up this near perpendicular wall?”

Inquiring to Muneshige who was beside her, he directed a sharp gaze towards the ninja. The proposed question was,

“— Without a run up?”

The way that this person was already seriously looking at this ninja conduct was something that Gin thought enviously of. There the ninja lightly nodded in response to Muneshige and with the head indicated towards his legs.

“Looking at the way that you are walking, you appear to be overly conscious of your knees.”

“— Certainty, since I damaged the ligaments I have developed a tendency to protect them.”

“I see. Then I wish for you to answer the next question honestly.”

That was,

“— Have your injuries completely healed?”

Gin heard Muneshige’s answer in response to the ninja’s question.

“— Jud.”

Previously he had replied with Tes.
However, now both he and I are different.
Not different, we have just tried to start our new selves. Thinking that was a meaningful answer, Gin slightly lowered her head to the ninja,

“Do not worry, — please provide instructions without holding anything back.”

“Jud, in that case I will have you understood the main aim here.”

Saying that, the ninja vanished.

<center>●</center>

…!?

The reason Gin reflectively looked upwards was not a result of her sense of sight, but a matter of intuition.

Sure enough, there looking above her head at the surface of the wall, the shadow of the ninja was already running at a position greater than ten meters.

Nimble.

He was not climbing. The ninja was running on the wall as if he was floating for every step.

It was martial arts. It was pure martial arts with there being no Fluid light being emitted.

However, usually if you were to climb, you would lose momentum and fall back to the ground. That’s why,

“— Muneshige-sama, that martial art…”

“Jud, in order to continue going upwards, it is important to keep accelerating faster than you are falling.”

To achieve that,

“Compared to a normal running style, you do not use your legs to kick. Instead, you use the sole of your forward leg to hang onto the well, and then, so as to not to lose momentum, you repeatedly pull yourself forward in a short cycle.”

It was not kicking behind and propelling the body forward but rather hanging on and pulling the body forward.

I see, is what Gin thought.

… Up until now as a result of carrying materials in an unstable environment, the kicking and pushing was done as rehabilitation and now, this pulling movement was the next stage of his rehabilitation.

“Ju— “

Gin who had gone to say that it made sense suddenly stopped.

“Is this it?”

In the sky beside the nodding Technomagi. The ninja was standing on the wall.

<center>●</center>

… Huh?

In front of Gin’s gaze the ninja was standing on the surface on the wall.

He had his right leg slightly lowered and while making his body seemingly slightly fall onto the wall. He stood on the wall with a seemingly relaxed atmosphere.
In front of her, momentarily dumbstruck, was Musashi’s Sixth Special Agent who folded her arms and formed the following words.
“— Ninja are apparently able to always stand on top of a still blade. Well, even though he is like that, on-board Musashi he is a high level ninja; it is good to observe.”

While those words continued, the ninja who while continuing to talk to the fallen angel tilted his body slightly forward towards the wall. Thinking that he was going to fall,

“There is some damage over here.”

The ninja remained on the wall like that and moved to the left.

Then as if following the fingertips of the Technomagi, he attached a talisman to the wall, then using his fingers and grasping the slight thickness of the talisman, he rotated his body in the opposite direction,

“Naito, here you go.”

From his breast pocket he pulled out a bamboo can of “Saint Max George Coffee” and passed it over to the Technomagi. In his movements there was no sense of him rushing or hurrying. He moved with an air of composure.

From there, the ninja turned his body and fluttered through the air.

“Well then.”

Without a sound or lowering his body, he simply descended onto the foothold.

The unstable foothold did not shake or make a sound.

… Unbelievable…

Musashi’s First Special Agent usually served a role as a feint during battles; even at England’s London Tower he had not participated in any direct combat. However even then,

“I see, I understand.”

Seeing the ninja who was approaching this direction, Gin muttered.

“What saved Mary Stuart was not just the actions of those in the surrounding.”

“— Hmm? Is there something wrong?”

I wonder if the ninja who tilted his neck had not realized his ability. No,

… If he had not realized it, then there was no way he would be displaying it.

He had self-awareness about his ability. However for those in his surroundings, this was a matter of fact. That was why it was not pointed out.

With respect to that fact,

“…It is the same as us in the past. I wonder if this is also that kind of place, Muneshige-sama.”

“Jud, it would seem so.”

While saying that, he moved forward.

With that sudden movement, oh, she looked up and the corners of Muneshige’s mouth there was a smile which seemed as if he was trying to tolerate something.

… Good grief. Even he had only just received permission for everyday activities from the treatment facility.

This person liked this kind of stuff, being challenged.

<center>●</center>

Muneshige, while nodding to Tenzou’s words “This area is right beneath the target.” stood in front of the wall. Then sending a fleeting glance in the direction of Tenzou,

“— Thank you for all the arrangements and such.”

Don’t worry about it; there Tenzou waved his hand from side to side.

“I don’t have the personally or position to be teaching people. That’s why after this assignment, I want you to learn on your own, is that all right?”

In other words that was,

“… In the First Special Agent's opinion, by the time I am able to complete this task, it will be that I have achieved a sufficient ability?”

That was also that; however Tenzou while scratching his head shrugged his shoulders.

“If you can complete this, then the places where you can work aboard Musashi will increase, you know?”

Jud, Muneshige laughed. He had realized lately that Musashi was constantly facing a lack of personnel, and engineering, maintenance and repairs job were always available. Among those jobs, the ones with the good pay were work on the outer wall or in high places.

It was Muneshige’s thinking that the most necessary thing for newcomers was money.

… In that case, the challenge will be whether my legs can take on those tasks.

Muneshige placed his right leg on the wall. Then,

“… well then.”

He went.

<center>●</center>

Muneshige ran up the wall.

He was beginning to understand the method. By the third step, he had grasped most of the tempo.

That’s why he thought he could do it, however

“Oh!”

At the seventh step he suddenly began to lose speed.

He understood the reason quite well.

Towards the leg which he was using to pull his body up, he was holding power into it for too long.

… His leg power had decreased by a lot.

He thought that if it had been the past him, he could have gone further.

In reality he thought that in his current form, he could still go about three more meters, a total of twelve meters, however Muneshige,

“—”

At the ten meter mark of the twenty meters that he was meant to run, he kicked the wall.

He did a backwards somersault, entered a landing posture and there from far above his head the Technomagi,

“Ah — Even though I waited with the coffee.”

Before he could assert he was sorry, he landed on the foothold.

Together with a banging sound, the wooden floor and the strengthened bamboo of the foothold let out a screeching sound. Thinking that it was an unsightly landing, he stood up and looked and there was Gin who had come with a towel.

He realized that his entire body was covered in sweat.

Tenzou also finally came.

“Okay. How splendid. Getting that far on your first time is well done. As expected.”

In response to his words, Muneshige went to say something. However

“—”

There was a weight from the depth of his chest.

It was oxygen deprivation. As a result of extreme tension and movement, light oxygen deprivation symptoms had occurred and the depth of his chest feel heavy.

… After all, I surprisingly enough don't do these types movements much.

Muneshige looked upwards at the ten meter position, and carved it into his heart. That he could make it up to that position.

There before he could say anything to Tenzou who had come to his side, Gin who was next to him and she lightly bowed her head.

“… Thank you very much. However Muneshige-sama, it did seem like you could have gone a little further—”

At Gin’s prompting words, Muneshige nodded his head. He breathed air into his lungs and lightened his body,

“Jud, — however I did, have to land afterwards.”

Muneshige thought back about his last landing. He had lowered his body to its limit; however the shock from his soles had not disappeared. That was to say that the springs of his muscle strength and sense of balance had decreased.

“It is my thinking that if I had gone any higher than that, something would have gone wrong with my landing.”

“Jud. — The best way is to not try the impossible, if you can manage that, then afterwards you will improve on your own. In no time you will be better than you were before.”

Tenzou said that and looked over everyone,

“Well then, shall we take an official break. I believe we can do something about drinks—”

“Ah, shall I go buy them? Even though I’m like this, I did use to be a deliverer in the postal service.”

“No, no. There." Tenzou waved his hand around his waist and returned it.

Seeing several bamboo cans hanging from his hand, Gin muttered.

“… You’re not saying you did that just now with that weight attached?”

That was,

“… Almost as if you’re always a fast gofer.”

“G-Gin, wasn’t that a bit harsh! Ah, I’m sorry!”

“No, that type of being at ease is also more comfortable for me.”

Saying that, the ninja paused for a moment. Then he looked in the direction of the west.

There was IZUMO and the path which led to it.

There was a flow of movement on the dirt path. With the tremor of the brown hair which could also be seen as a gathering of brown wind,

“Would that be Kimi?”

Kimi was heading in the direction of IZUMO. However, she walked towards a suburban house which was along the way.

<center>●</center>

Beneath the afternoon sky danced a brown color.

It was hair. The girl who was wearing a Far East uniform, modified into something suiting a dancing girl, was looking up at the sky.

It was Kimi.

The place where she was basking in the western wind was a garden of a suburban house at IZUMO.

The spacious garden was enclosed by a fence. It was a fence which was entwined with Japanese morning glory shoots which yet had no flowers.

Raising one’s face and looking up from there, it was possible to overlook everything in the surrounding scenery.

In the east was Musashi, in the south was country and forest and then in the north and west there was the city of IZUMO, there could be seen a massive multistory shrine combined with a white development center.

In this garden which took a distance from all of these was a house with a southern facing thatched roof.

It was just one of the many farm-like buildings in the suburb. It was that kind of house and farm.

Then after Kimi had looked in all four directions, she directed her gaze to the east, towards Musashi.

“— Well then.”

Beneath the blue of the early summer and the low clouds, there was a massive black and white ship. From her current position, the whole aspect of the starboard side looked as if a cliff of great length.

The dancing girl, while entwining her hair, blown about by the wind, around her arm, let out a small laugh.

“Looking from below makes it seem so large. Don’t you think so, Uzui?”

Calling out, there from the gap in her chest a wavy-haired little girl Mouse crawled out and nodded.

She clapped her hands once and pulled out a sign frame. The contents were,

'''Silver Wolf:''' “Kimi, Horizon has headed that way. Can you see her?”

'''Wise Sister:''' “Easily Wolf. From just now though.”

As if following Musashi’s outer wall, Kimi moved her sight downwards.

On one of the several bridges connected to Musashi, there were two shadows on the road heading in this direction.
There, coming along between the shelter-belt forest road which had a slight heat haze was,

“Haha, as I thought, foolish brother chose to abstain. With your lady attendant as your escort — you seem to be on your leisurely way, Horizon.”

While still far away, Kimi saw the silver hair which seemed as if it was immersed in the heat haze come along. Well then, without changing her posture Kimi, turned her back on Horizon and Futayo.

'''Wise Sister:''' “Mitotsudaira, in that case you should come down here as well. Have you longed for your mother’s scent so much that you can’t come down? You being too considerate of Mary is also something you should avoid…”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “This way of speaking…!”

Aha, Kimi softly laughed, however she lightly lowered her eyebrows.

Looking at the sign frame,

“Well, do your best.”

Leaving a voice which wouldn’t reach, she then looked forward, to the north.

There was a city.

In the surroundings there were rice-plant paddies and irrigation channels with in the north side there was a town, with a Shinto shrine arch and a group of research facilities that could be seen as a massive fortress. On the far side of the Shinto Arch there was a staircase which spanned over several kilometers, and above that a shrine.

“Izumo-Kitsuki-Taisha. — The core of the Large Company IZUMO, from the age of the gods it has been the large financial support of the gods and is now what the citizens of the Far East rely upon….. hmm”

Taking a breath.

“Meeting my grandmother who lives in a place like this, I wonder what Horizon will think?”

“Lives in place like this is quite a thing to say, Kimi.”

From the depth of the house, from the direction of the tatami mat floor which received the rays of the sun there was a voice.

It was a woman’s slightly subdued voice.

“— Grandmother”

“How many times do I have say that either Mitsu or Grandma are fine before you understand. I’m not someone who needs that much respect.”

Appearing from the house frontage was an elderly woman who was wearing the clothing of the Far East with the front closed as many married people had it, and whose hair had faded to a light brown.

“So? Horizon is alive? I heard about Mikawa and the rest. Here and there were disturbances and wariness. Then well, the reason you came here wasn’t to learn about ritual techniques or smiting, was it? — What did you come here for?”

“As far as we know, for the moment we want to hear the oldest story that we can.”

What stories? In regards to her grandmother’s question, Kimi answered like this.

“About Horizon’s mother. Mother would not talk about it… however, what about Grandmother? Is there anything that you can say in front of Horizon herself? After all, Horizon may have lost her memories but it is not like she has lost her past. There is a lot she should know—”

“She should know?”

Haha, Kimi nodded her head.

“Horizon might experience sadness if she were to suddenly come to face her past without knowing anything, you know? If that happens, foolish brother might become discouraged. That is also something which I do not wish for.”

That’s why Kimi directed her gaze to the silver hair which was walking to here from far away and said.

“For the sake of Horizon who knows nothing… Will you let her hear your words so that she can confront that past?”

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 02|Chapter 02]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 04|Chapter 04]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 02

2014-07-01T02:14:05Z

Purin:

==Chapter Two: The Pioneers of the Location==
[[Image:Horizon3A_0051.jpg|thumb]]

''Being there''

''Even without being told''

''What is a good place''

'''Point Allocation (The Right Person in the Right Place)'''

<center>●</center>

'''Dragon Dog:''' “My Lady, I have obtained permission. Before I depart tomorrow it seems I will be able to take possession of the letters. However your friend did require some arrangements being made . Also—”

'''ANA:''' “Also, what is it?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “There was also a letter from My Lady’s friend’s spouse. They were saying about doing something with the picked fruit however I took possession of only the flowers.”

'''ANA:''' “Jeez…. Everyone is being tactful of strange areas.”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “No, it was me who made that request. That I wanted them to be tactful.”

'''ANA:''' “……You are flawless.”

<center>●</center>

The after school activities had begun.

The students left the school grounds and headed off into their respective locations, however many went to assist in the repairs of Musashi or headed towards the location of their part time jobs.

The time when voices were exchanged, separated and once again assembled at the location where they pleased.

The gaze which overlooked all of this was however located inside a closed room.

From the bridge, which was as if it spanned over Musashi’s central forward vessel Musashino, there was someone who was observing everything.

The person who had hurriedly come here after school had finished was,

“Suzu-sama…. Here you go, green tea and apple pie which was purchased from the fair below. Over.”

“T-Thank yo-u , “Musashino”.”

It was Suzu.

<center>●</center>

The heart of the bridge. Even after the teacup and plate were placed on the side-table next to her chair she did not immediately reach for them.

For her who had just come here, the first thing she laid her hands on was the space which surrounded her chair.

…The imitation of Musashi and IZUMO are just about done.

In the space in front of her outstretched hands, was the surface section of Musashi as well as the surrounding geography and town, created of light.

As Suzu sat in a chair, the model of the world scolled with the movements of her hands, and adding and removal of the three-dimensional model was conducted accordingly.

Looking at that spectacle Musashi said,

“It appears that the modelling of Musashi has been considerably completed. Over.”

“Umm but since it changes e-every day… I am unable to keep up.”

Particularly in this area, Suzu pointed to an area near the deck of the first right and left ship which had wide repair spots, and formed a smile.

“When something occurs again, w-will this be useful?”
Jud, the automated doll nodded her head.

“I can conclude that when we carry out instructions it will be different if we have a detailed understanding of the deck, also when we act in the support of everyday activities if there is a map which was created with a different viewpoint than the reasonable judgment of our automated dolls, it will be very helpful. It will also be helpful to the elementary school children and the other people who come here for sightseeing. Also—, when Toori causes a problem, compared to the geographical understanding of the automated dolls, the map Suzu has created makes the “hiding places” easier to determine. —Over.”

It's That right?, Suzu nodded with a smile, took a breath and adjusted her seating.

After hesitating for a moment, Suzu took the teacup from the side table in both her hands and sat back in her chair.

However Suzu, who went as if to sink into the model of Musashi, then abruptly let out a small laugh.

“Whatever is the matter? —Over.”

“Jud, everyone’s after school is varied.… Look everyone.”

Suzu put the teacup up to her mouth and then as if to count the models individual locations she indicated with her right fingers.

The fingers which indicated in order from the front lastly indicated one location.

A building at the rear of Okutama. It was the imitation of the Musashi Ariadust academy.

<center>●</center>

Even when it was after school, there were still the shadows of people inside Musashi Ariadust Academy.

Among those remaining were not only the students who were part of the indoor clubs,

“So I came for this examination, however this school council room is totally not cleaned and handled quite irresponsibility. Mitotsudaira… is a member of the Chancellor's Board so you don’t use this room, right?”

Masazumi surveyed the place where she was currently standing.… This is the school buildings frontal side third floor’s student council room, huh.

You could even call this position the face of the school, however…

By all rights this room should have had quite a large floor space; however there were chairs, desks as well as other goods piled up left and right, as if to create a corridor from the door to the windows.

This was evidence that the successive generations of the student council had not been functioning.

In front of Masazumi, who was surveying the valley of goods, was Mitotsudaira who had opened a window and then turned around with a fed up expression.

“This is more like a storeroom than a student council room; however well it is the same for those of the Chancellor's Board as well.”

“Is that so?”

Jud, while trying to avoid touching anything, Mitotsudaira shrugged her shoulders.
“The members who make up the Board use the Board room down below; however it is in the same state as here. After all, the Far East operated under the premise that there would be no emergency situations under the oppression of the Testament Union. Even after Mikawa, if something happens, it is usually settled in the classroom or cafeteria or on top of the bridge. However — why now of all times did you want to use this place, Masazumi?”

I wonder why, Masazumi looked at the objet d'art which was composed of carelessly piled up goods and desks, enough so that the ceiling on the left and right was obscured, and she let out a sigh. She folded her arms, and while once again thinking about what was going on,

“When I was appointed as the vice president, I came here to look once, yeah the Far East Student Council was after all a mere skeleton and decided to give up.”

However,

“—The classroom, the cafeteria, on top of the bridge, the courtyard or Blue Thunder, we can hold a strategy meeting anywhere. I came to realize recently that the Far East was that kind of place. However on the other hand I thought it necessary for everyone to have a place to share.”

“Then, that place which everyone could share is—”

Yeah, Masazumi shook her head downwards. Motioning towards the floor with her right hand,

"It's not that I’m suggesting we have to be here all the time. However when we can’t make contact, when we wish to save someone, when there is a time to be patient… you should come here, what I want is a place like that.”

While saying that, she remembered something that occurred at Mikawa. The feeling of being dumbfounded when she returned home on a certain day and realized that her mother was gone still remained inside her heart.

To supress her past fear, she wanted a place where people could believe that someone was there.

“I wonder why!”

Masazumi looked at the outside of the seemingly narrow window. The city of Musashi was spread out under the afternoon sky, beyond that was the edge of the dock and fields and shelterbelts, the city of IZUMO. However Masazumi gazed with sharp eyes further into the interior, the south-eastern sky and the forest and valleys of the mainland which spread out beneath IZUMO.

“—Only one week until the repairs are complete. After that is complete, we will begin moving again in order to gain the cooperation of many countries. However this part of Europe is currently in the middle of the thirty year war. I cannot deny the possibility of sustaining damage like we did during the Armada battle. If we hold an official position when that happens there will be a large change in the civilian’s sense of security.”

“Jud, —it is also my opinion that what will occur from now on will be the true battlefield. There is also Neshinbara’s opinion that in the previous Armada Sea battle, in order to preserve their own fleet, the strategy of Tres España was “Through the use of a small efficient force, aim for not the sinking of Musashi but the stoppage”, it was not all-out war for them.”

Listening to Mitotsudaira’s words, Masazumi thought that she was correct.

That’s why she nodded and,

“I want to strengthen the Student Council and Chancellor’s Board. Think of it as a hidden urgent business.”

Masazumi thought after saying that. That in Mitotsudaira’s expression there was a shadow. That’s why,

“Is there something troubling you?”

“Eh? Ah, no.”

In front of Masazumi’s eyes, Mitotsudaira lightly waved her hand from left to right. Then as if she was arranging her thoughts,

“I have to make sure to be reliable. I have to take into account my true abilities.”

“I think that Mitotsudaira is doing a fine job.”

During the crash of the cargo ship it was her who had supervised things like the night watch, the transport of supplies and the construction inside the ship. If she had not been present at that scene then there were many of Tenzou's orders which would not have functioned, this was something that anyone who was at the scene realized. However,
….Was it because Mitotsudaira was a member of the Chancellor’s Board I wonder.

There is also one’s duty as a knight. Thinking about her role during battle,

…In England she suffered a draw with Walsingham….

While on-board Musashi together with Walsingham she was unable to stop Tres España vice Chancellor Takakane Hironaka, this is what is known as the difference in strength, however,

“Even though there is always someone stronger, I sill wish to become stronger you know?”

“In that case, the path of strengthening, it would be good to search for a suitable location. If there is anything let me know. After the Armada Sea Battle, there is an understanding in the public opinion towards battle. It will make it easier to gain acceptance.”

Jud, Mitotsudaira nodded and a slight silence occurred.

Thinking that it would be bad for the silence to continue, Masazumi purposefully let out a large breath,

“Well then.”

Saying that in a distinct voice to bring Mitotsudaira to her senses, she rolled up her jacket sleeves.

“Well then, shall we do a little examining….?

“L-Let us do that. However this is….”

In front of Mitotsudaira’s half opened eyes. What was there was,

“……Ah? Right from the start, what is this mountain of mail order, ….. Huh, eroge have been placed and piled up in here!”

<center>●</center>

Masazumi took the brown wrapped package which was lightly covered in dust in hand. Narrowing her eyes and holding it aloft that was indeed exactly what she had thought it was.

Good grief, after putting that as a preface Masazumi went,

“That idiot, what does he think this place is…!!”

“…..It is amazing that you have no doubts about who that belongs to, Masazumi.”
If there is some other possibility, I would like to know.

However Mitotsudaira with a testing air also took one in hand,

“However what exactly is this, on the invoice “Theban Genuine Force VS Spartan Homo army corps. Remaining 300” is resolutely written, you know? …. Furthermore not only the title but the subtitle “There are no women! Regain your sanity!” is excessive. Is his head alright?”

“Like I would know. In any case we have to dispose of any crying games because if that idiot dies, the existence of this country will be in jeopardy. I have to clearly tell him that he should buy the next one only after he had finished clearing the current ones.”

“However, I have the feeling the Chancellor puts all the earnings from his part time job into this….”

…This when I’m already finished with just food and book expenses! A family which provides food is enviable!

While thinking about her real motivations, she summoned her ant eater Tsukinowa as a response to the situation in front of her eyes. After getting positioned on her shoulders, patting her head and rubbing her cheeks, together they opened the chat,

'''Vice President:''' “Asama, I will send you an image of the eroge that are here, if we sold them, how much would that be?”

'''Asama:''' “Umm, from the looks of it everything would be worth about 12000 yen… huh, why was I called as the appraiser!?”

She had already told me what I wanted to know. Having personnel who did not hold official positions yet were still talented was a good thing to have for the country.

“Anyhow, selling all this and only getting about 12000 yen. ….I really don’t understand males.”

“— Even though in the past you were trying to become one?”

Having that said to her with a bitter smile, Masazumi considered her own circumstances. However she was unable to come up with a good explanation.

“I’ll correct myself, I don’t understand that idiot.”

In contrast to Mitotsudaira’s deepening bitter smile, Masazumi, feeling uncomfortable, directed her gaze at the window. Beneath her eyes was the overhead bridge in front of the
school yard where she had done the public debate, thinking that it was around there that she had debated,

……she had also had her trousers yanked down…..!

“Ah umm Masazumi, you seem to be upset about something? Was it what I just said?”

“Eh? Ah no, it has nothing to do with that. It was something else, from a while back”

Masazumi shifted her glance to the front. As she did, beneath the bridge, on the other side of the descending staircase lay Remorse Way,

…the port side natural area is where the park is.

After she had seen Sakai off to Mikawa and returned, it is the park path she used when going through the natural area.

In the center there was a retreat building, a small place where there are always children playing. After that time, she had stopped by several times and spent her reading time there. It was one of the few spots inside Musashi where Masazumi could relax.
Sooner or later, while thinking that it might be nice to have a meal or a conference at the hermitage, Masazumi rolled up her the sleeves of her jacket.

“Well, I’m not planning to do a full-scale job, but shall we see what it's like deeper inside…”

Once that is complete,

“Shall we descend to IZUMO for a break? Mitotsudaira”

<center>●</center>

Mitotsudaira listened to Masazumi’s question.

“There is apparently a festival happening down in IZUMO.”

With those words, Mitotsudaira experienced a moment of indecision.

…She was being considerate of my circumstances.

As a matter of fact, Hexagone Française was the homeland of Mitotsudaira, however even after receiving permission to enter IZUMO, she had not descended into IZUMO. Naturally, there was a reason she had not done so.

The promise she had made with her mother.

That’s why; even though many people, including her friends, were descending to take a break, she herself did not go.
It seems like Masazumi had realized that fact. Consequently,

…That she didn’t ask why I do not go but instead invited me to go with her was—.

This was her way of being considerate due to the short friendship that existed.

Everyone in her surroundings already knew the reason, thus they no longer made this type of invitation, however it did provide a sense of freshness.

That’s why Mitotsudaira with a bitter smile mixed in,

“It is alright, I still have management of my territory inside Musashi to do. In a little while Musashi will be heading in the direction of Edo right? I think that I will descend at my actual territory.”

“I see.”

At that point Masazumi put an end to that topic. There with both parties taking a short pause the conversion did not restart.

……ah……?

Mitotsudaira thought about the present situation with a slight doubt, this was a situation almost as if “directly following mentioning a bad topic”.

……Uh

From Masazumi's current silence she could feel an atmosphere of “sorry”. Masazumi had also already realized it as well, however if she immediately brought out a new topic it is certain that it could be felt that she was avoiding the previous topic.

It was now Masazumi's turn to wait, and for her to bring out a new topic to as a way of saying “Do not worry about it.”.

Mitotsudaira thought that she had to say something.

….H-however, umm.

Frankly, she was not good with this kind of situation. Wiping away an uncomfortable sweat, Mitotsudaira continued,

“U-umm, that is…”

Right when she finished panicking. Unexpectedly a voice came from behind her. That was,

“Oi oi oi oi you guys! What are you doing with my treasure library!?”

Turning around, there in the corridor was an idiot carrying an eroge package.

Masazumi who was in a state of completely half-closed eyes turned around to the culprit responsible for the state of this room. On her shoulder

'''“'''Ma-'''”'''

There, there Tsukinowa. You were not mistaken in deploying attack spells. However, those were the anti-ghost spells that Asama gave us during the battle against Hatton. You need anti-object or anti-personal spells. Also, it is fine if you do not do that against other people, okay?

However, while this side was conducting something like a strategy meeting through eye-contact, that idiot said,

“Ah! These guys. Even though I went to great trouble to arrange the titles in several orders, you went and ruined that! Seijun! Do you understand how much the “The Changelings – throbbing labyrinth version” that you are currently holding is worth!?”

“It comes to about 300 yen out of the 12000 yen, doesn’t it?”

Saying that, the idiot pulled a textbook from his breast pocket, dammit!! , and threw it against the floor. Following that, the naked guy who was still wearing clothes pointed in this direction,

“You don’t understand! Don’t understand at all, Seijun! The values of goods are not determined by their price alone!”

“Ah! It is whether they are useless or not.”

The idiot again threw the textbook against the ground. Following that he looked at Mitotsudaira,

“Oi oi Nate! Say something to her. By the way Nate, won’t you come down to IZUMO and hang out with everyone? The fresh meat there from Hexagone Française is delicious. At the moment it's lamb! Lamb! How about having a bite of one which is only salted and spit roasted?”

“Uh…… Um, that is, well.”

In contrast with Mitotsudaira who was unable to follow the flow of the conversation, the idiot while scratching his head said,

“It’s fine Nate.”

Hmm, there the idiot tilted his neck,

“It’s not like your mother told you never ever to return. It’s not the mainland but IZUMO, once in a while let’s all go down and grab a meal together, yeah? Everyone wants to have a meal with you, you know!? An expensive one!”

“…Is that because you want it to be my treat?”

That is what I was thinking, is what Masazumi muttered to herself. However, on the other hand her thinking was,

……Mother?

That was the first time she had heard that story.

<center>●</center>

Masazumi did not know very much about Mitotsudaira.

About all she had heard was that she was originally of a small nobility, and that her family structure was her mother being a Loup-Garou and father being a human.

There was also that, for some reason or another, she had inherited the name of the Mito-Matsudaira clan and was dispatched alone to Musashi which had led to the current situation.
…Mitotsudaira’s last name was also originally a different name.

Masazumi did not know the specific details with regards to the circumstance regarding her name inheritance.

This was because recently in Hexagone Française, not only the important roles but also the noble lineage had been frequently interchanging due to the historical reconstruction of the thirty year war and the Catholic and Protestant civil war.

Recently the treasurer as well as the vice Chancellor had also just been changed. Everything was all part of the flow to welcome the era of the monarchy of Louis the Fourteenth.

Louis Exiv was the king who, after going through the civil war and the chaos of the thirty year war, would implement an unconditional monarchy.

In the Testament it was recorded that Hexagone Française would experience unprecedented prosperity at the behest of that king.

Consequently, other countries attempted to delay the name inheritance of Louis Exiv with Hexagone Française having to accept many disadvantaging conditions and to escape from these oppressions.

The year before last, from the time of the first year of high school, the name of Louis Exiv was inherited, however

…Mitotsudaira being dispatched to Musashi from such a young age was also part of a deal in order to speed up that flow.

From the fact that Mitotsudaira was placing importance on her livelihood as a dispatched knight from Hexagone Française even while aboard Musashi, it was likely she had not totally cut herself from Hexagone Française. That she would not even descend to IZUMO was,

Her mother, huh.

She did not know the finer details but when it came to family bonds, the story was different. If you became involved with the thing known as “family”, even if you pry into it there was also a portion which could not be dealt with through emotion.

“Mitotsudaira, afterwards want to go get something to eat?”

“Eh? …… It is not like I don’t want to go to IZUMO…”

“Nah, Tama is fine as well. Since Tama is also a foreign exchange ship, we can eat meat from Hexagone Française and there is also a good view. The guys who descended below will probably bring something as well. — Mitotsudaira, it’s fine if you bring green soybeans and ah, natto right?”

“No, that is, it is not that my main business is natto…., Chancellor! Where are you planning to sneak away to while carrying the goods that we are trying to clean up!?”

“Ah, don’t you get it? To a different safe house, safe house.”

“Where is that?”

“Ah! Beneath the veranda at Asama’s Shrine and inside the attic of Shiro’s shop, I spent a lot of effort remodeling them.”

'''Vice President:''' “Did you hear? Can you go and have a quick look?”

'''Asama:''' “They are really there. When did he!”

'''Me:''' “Ah! Idiot, that is where the ones with priestesses are, wait till I arrive!”

'''Asama:''' “I understand. Well, once you have arrived I’ll burn them in front of your eyes okay?”

'''Me:''' “You Idiot. Think about the feelings of the people who created them. Do you get it!?”

'''Novice:''' “If you burn them, they won’t become a part of the second hand market, I, as an author, see that as a viable choice.”

'''Me:''' “D-Dammit, the net is full of enemies! It’s fine since I’m living in reality. In this reality space my power is threefold! However your powers have fallen to one-third! Get it!?”

'''Worshipper:''' “That’s from ‘Space Magistrate Echizen’ which started the other day. The one who equips their combat gear in 180000 milliseconds.”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “How about a thirty minute program that ends with just the transformation? In a certain way it is realistic.”

'''Asama:''' “How should I put it, with those calculations if the original level of power was a tenth of the enemy's, even with corrections you would still lose by a narrow margin.”

“Da-dammit! You guys reality assessment is zero sugar! Did you see that just now!?”

However the idiot, perhaps realizing something, slowly turned around. There,

“Huh? Horizon, what are you doing pretending to smoke a cigarette and blowing smoke out of your nose? Are you going to help me?”

The following moment. The students of the exercise based club who were practicing in the courtyard saw the window of the student council room smash and a human shaped something fly through the sky. However, after conforming that it fell on top of the bridge, everyone returned their gazes and continued their respective defense, attack and training.

Jeez…, Mitotsudaira who saw Horizon stretching out the fingers of her right hand, looked at the broken window and while experiencing an uncomfortable sweat,

“H-hey, Horizon?”

“Jud, today I have plans to go with Kimi-sama to IZUMO. However on the way I thought about bringing Toori-sama along, and have been chasing after him.”

“Yeah, now that you mention it, you did mention something about that during class……”

“Jud. It is the store master’s family. The store master’s parent, Toori-sama’s grandmother, is there.”

The reason for going there was,

“It appears that grandmother knows about the past Horizon, therefore I wanted to meet her at least once.”

Hearing the contents of the spoken words, Mitotsudaira lightly held her breath.

There were a lot of things to consider.

There was the fact that Horizon had begun to hold interest regarding her past self, and that she was going to face her past head-on. There,

…Kimi had probably proposed the idea; however the Chancellor was not eager to go.

Horizon wished to know about her past self.

I wonder if the fact that he was trying as much as possible to not interfere, was because there's still a part which he was drawing back from Horizon.

That’s why,

“…Catch the Chancellor—”

She tried suggesting that for a reaction.

“Shall I accompany you? As an escort.”

Hey, Masazumi called out to her from behind. However Horizon,

“No.”

That was rejected.

However, before the shock of being told she was unnecessary arrived, Horizon continued speaking.

“Yes, — I have already requested that Futayo-sama accompany me.”

“I-Is that so?”

As if trying to fill the void which had opened up inside her, Mitotsudaira asked a question.

In front of Mitotsudaira’s eyes Horizon, nodded in response. That was correct.

“Jud, lately Futayo-sama has been extremely busy, due to her effectiveness at her job slicing the remains of armor plating she has been called “Lady Ueno”, I thought she should take a breather. Just now when I could not find Mitotsudaira-sama, I called out to Futayo-sama and there she was “I do have interest in the confections of France.”.

“…It seems that over there Futayo has been unable to acquire any free time, and her tension seems like it is falling.”

However well,

“In the case of Futayo's tension falling, if it is confection, if she had said so I could prepare them, you know?"

“Is it possible for Mitotsudaira-sama to produce confection?”

Mitotsudaira nodded her head slightly.

She was confident that she could cook.

Her cooking had a tendency towards those of a wolf, though with confection, as long as citrus fruits were not used, she could make them. Particularly those western confections which used dairy products such as butter and cream were among her favorites. That was, in other words,

“Confections that use the fat of animals. — They suit the tastes of a wolf, you know?”

“Jud. Well, eventually I would like you to teach me how to make those. If I had to say it, then a lot of what Blue thunder handled were “Meals”, the master had also said that she has wished for that kind of repertoire.”

Really? The one who raised their voice was Masazumi.

“Well, while I’m a supporter of the Eastern confection, I do still have interest in Western confection. My father likes them, and it would be good if I could serve them before and after meetings. — Would you be willing to teach me, Mitotsudaira?”

Jud, Mitotsudaira went to reply, however thought about it for a moment.

If I had to say, recently the main trend of French confection were small goods. Taking into account the fact that Horizon was working in a bakery,

“If it is something you plan to sell in the store, I believe that there is a more suitable person than me.”

“Who would that be?”

“Jud, Mary Stuart.”

Mary who was provisionally seeking asylum from England was, together with the Tachibana couple, presently members of our class. However, Mitotsudaira had hardly exchanged words with Mary. The reason was simple.

…It was because she was British.

During the Middle Ages Hexagone Française had invaded England; however those invaders became indigenous and created the southern part of England. Consequently, England repeatedly attempted to be involved with the Royal succession of France; there was also the famous Joan De Arc who caused the Anglo-French 100 year war.

Hexagone Française even now still considers England as a vassal state or territories of Française and is treating it as an insurgent nation. Mitotsudaira also had from a young age gown up listening to her mother’s stories about Joan De Arc. A mere two hundred years ago, France almost came under the control of England, with its lands and people being ravished, and there the girl who had leaded the salvation of France was burnt at the stake by the English.

It was a long time ago, is what her mother would always tell her and laugh and tell her. That now is the world of “stories”.

……That is why; it is not like she held any resentment towards England, however.

Her sentiment was that she must find some positive points. They interfered with her country and plundered many things, however England had probably gone ahead and returned something.

That was a negative way of thinking.

She was thinking that she should not bring historical problems into her and Mary’s personal relationship.

Therefore she was taking a distance from Mary to make sure that part did not come out during a chance remark.

However, during the time while she was thinking about herself who had made the claim that Mary was a suitable substitute concerning the production of confection,

“— Mitotsudaira-sama?”

“Eh?”

In contrast to her, who was falling into a spiral of deep thought, Horizon called out to Mitotsudaira who seemed as if she was taken aback.

“Why Mary-sama?”

“Ah, umm, well…”

While feeling a one-way sense of disappointment that if she did not explain, they would not accept, Mitotsudaira spoke.

“Rather the confection of Hexagone Française, in England there are more goods which would be considered evolutions of bread. If I had to say Hexagone Française’s confection has a lot of small goods—“

“That is the type that I wish for, Mitotsudaira-sama. If it is an evolution of bread then it would be somewhat difficult to distinguish from the goods on the shelves.”

“…Is that right?”

“Jud. — The store master is always originally from IZUMO; however it would appear that she is a magnificent real samurai and that confection creating and the like were our one shot in her way of living. If I had to say, it seems like that she learned to make bread in England.”

Well, she nodded and behind her Masazumi softly laughed.

“Argente Loup confection classroom huh. I wonder if this would be held regularly.”

“Masazumi…!”

Turning around, outside of the window a pair of black wings appeared holding a package.

“Eh!? What? Service contravene classroom…!? What is that material? I’ll use it!? — Ah, this is that idiot’s goods.”

“Malga, would you please stop mishearing such strange things… If that package is a Priestess work, then please forward it over to Asama’s place.”

Ah, Naruze looked at the name and address, then kicked the broken windowsill and did a backwards somersault.

It looked like she was correct.

Lately every night she had been flying around together with Naito testing the functionality of Schwarz Fräulein and Weiss Fräulein however,

“As expected, you don’t use them during the day? I understand that the noise is dreadful after all.”

“They have bad fuel consumption. During the day since people and ships are flying, we have to make quick stops and circumvent a lot of them, which makes the fuel costs nothing to sneeze at. That’s why at night, when it is only people we know, is the real deal. — For the time being, we have also been setting “Geheimnis Sabbat” during the night, will you come watch?”

Jud, Horizon was the one who replied. She nodded and,

“I will bring the confection that Mitotsudaira-sama has created along with me.”

Hmm, Naruze showed a meaningful smile and flew above the wind sill.

“That sounds nice — it has been a while. I’m looking forward to it.”

She thought about protesting, however before she could voices echoed up from below.

“He ran away!” “He’s crawling!... He’s fast” “Eh, no stop!”

There among the screams of the students was the sound of footsteps mixed in,

“…It’s the Chancellor.”

“…Horizion will ignore this and go ahead with Kimi.”

There’s nothing to be done, Masazumi’s voice was heard, however it suddenly stopped. Thinking about what the matter was, Tsukinowa was opening a sign frame.

Masazumi who was looking at the sign frame slightly furrowed her brow, however when she noticed here,

“Ah, — please go on ahead. A message has come in from Neshinbara, so I just have to deal with that.”

“If something happens, make sure to immediately let me know, okay?”

Jud, after hearing that answer, Mitotsudaira, together with Horizon, went out into the corridor. Everyone else as well, for example Mary, at this time was living while embracing a variety of thoughts.

[[Image:Horizon3A_0076.jpg|thumb]]
'''Study - IZUMO CORPORATION'''

''Toori'':　“Sis! Sis! I descended down into IZUMO however there were a variety of branded goods and I did not know which I should buy! Do you have any advice please!”

''Kimi'':　“Let’s see, having a basic look, there should be no problem if you buy the IZUMO brand. It’s a composite syndicate so you can go from a castle or ship to even a grain of rice. The representative brands of IZUMO as are below.”

*'''Izumo Industry:''' IZUMO’s parent organization. In reality IZUMO is also a brand of the Izumo Industry however since Izumo industry has Shinto and aviation technologies as the primary concern the positions are now reversed.
*'''IZUMO:''' IZUMO’s main brand. Having Shinto, aviation technology and commodities as the primary concerns, it has developed at many levels by using the transportation capacity of the Shinto network which connects the entirety of the Far East. It is the largest enterprise of the Far East. Since the Shirasago Enterprise started dealing with serious goods, in reality they have started developing into a variety of areas including joke material.
*'''Shirasago Enterprise''': In contrast to IZUMO which liked to develop a variety of new products, with serious staple goods and Shinto-related as the core of the brand, they have in reality changed into a different shrine. The headquarters are located below IZUMO on the land of the old IZUMO. They often get caught up in the messes of IZUMO and ends up in the role of facing that trouble.
*'''Bizen''': A brand which handles ironworking related activities. It is located upon the southern provisional country border of M.H.H.R. and Hexagone Française and conducts the provision of Olay Metal to both countries. Its expansion into other country is BIZEN.
*'''INARIFOX:''' an Inari-related development section which was merged during the Harmonic Unification War. Specialises in the development of Mouse and Executive Assistant
*'''Izumo Divine Transmission:''' A provider which handled the Shinto divine transmission network from ancient times. It is the foundation of the entire Far East’s Shinto divine transmission network, after the Harmonic Unification War they also took charge of the heavenly god divine transmission network system of the Capital and the Ise force.

''Kimi'': “There are also the gods of war MINO and the fast food stalwart BURGER, however these should describe those relating to life on Musashi and those located nearby. Musashi has the majority of Shinto goods and Divine transmissions of the Shirasago brand as a result of the Asama Shrine being connected to Shirasago, however in other cities of the Far East, the names of IZUMO and Izumo Divine Transmission are larger. Each brand has goods that are considered their speciality, so it might be good to keep that in mind.”

''Toori'': “Well…., with all these being available I have to make sure to decide by genre.”

''Kimi'': “No, you’re talking about Eroge again.”

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 01|Chapter 01]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 03|Chapter 03]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 02

2014-07-01T02:12:36Z

Purin: Handle name consistency.

==Chapter Two: The Pioneers of the Location==
[[Image:Horizon3A_0051.jpg|thumb]]

''Being there''

''Even without being told''

''What is a good place''

'''Point Allocation (The Right Person in the Right Place)'''

<center>●</center>

'''Dragon Dog:''' “My Lady, I have obtained permission. Before I depart tomorrow it seems I will be able to take possession of the letters. However your friend did require some arrangements being made . Also—”

'''ANA:''' “Also, what is it?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “There was also a letter from My Lady’s friend’s spouse. They were saying about doing something with the picked fruit however I took possession of only the flowers.”

'''ANA:''' “Jeez…. Everyone is being tactful of strange areas.”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “No, it was me who made that request. That I wanted them to be tactful.”

'''ANA:''' “……You are flawless.”

<center>●</center>

The after school activities had begun.

The students left the school grounds and headed off into their respective locations, however many went to assist in the repairs of Musashi or headed towards the location of their part time jobs.

The time when voices were exchanged, separated and once again assembled at the location where they pleased.

The gaze which overlooked all of this was however located inside a closed room.

From the bridge, which was as if it spanned over Musashi’s central forward vessel Musashino, there was someone who was observing everything.

The person who had hurriedly come here after school had finished was,

“Suzu-sama…. Here you go, green tea and apple pie which was purchased from the fair below. Over.”

“T-Thank yo-u , “Musashino”.”

It was Suzu.

<center>●</center>

The heart of the bridge. Even after the teacup and plate were placed on the side-table next to her chair she did not immediately reach for them.

For her who had just come here, the first thing she laid her hands on was the space which surrounded her chair.

…The imitation of Musashi and IZUMO are just about done.

In the space in front of her outstretched hands, was the surface section of Musashi as well as the surrounding geography and town, created of light.

As Suzu sat in a chair, the model of the world scolled with the movements of her hands, and adding and removal of the three-dimensional model was conducted accordingly.

Looking at that spectacle Musashi said,

“It appears that the modelling of Musashi has been considerably completed. Over.”

“Umm but since it changes e-every day… I am unable to keep up.”

Particularly in this area, Suzu pointed to an area near the deck of the first right and left ship which had wide repair spots, and formed a smile.

“When something occurs again, w-will this be useful?”
Jud, the automated doll nodded her head.

“I can conclude that when we carry out instructions it will be different if we have a detailed understanding of the deck, also when we act in the support of everyday activities if there is a map which was created with a different viewpoint than the reasonable judgment of our automated dolls, it will be very helpful. It will also be helpful to the elementary school children and the other people who come here for sightseeing. Also—, when Toori causes a problem, compared to the geographical understanding of the automated dolls, the map Suzu has created makes the “hiding places” easier to determine. —Over.”

It's That right?, Suzu nodded with a smile, took a breath and adjusted her seating.

After hesitating for a moment, Suzu took the teacup from the side table in both her hands and sat back in her chair.

However Suzu, who went as if to sink into the model of Musashi, then abruptly let out a small laugh.

“Whatever is the matter? —Over.”

“Jud, everyone’s after school is varied.… Look everyone.”

Suzu put the teacup up to her mouth and then as if to count the models individual locations she indicated with her right fingers.

The fingers which indicated in order from the front lastly indicated one location.

A building at the rear of Okutama. It was the imitation of the Musashi Ariadust academy.

<center>●</center>

Even when it was after school, there were still the shadows of people inside Musashi Ariadust Academy.

Among those remaining were not only the students who were part of the indoor clubs,

“So I came for this examination, however this school council room is totally not cleaned and handled quite irresponsibility. Mitotsudaira… is a member of the Chancellor's Board so you don’t use this room, right?”

Masazumi surveyed the place where she was currently standing.… This is the school buildings frontal side third floor’s student council room, huh.

You could even call this position the face of the school, however…

By all rights this room should have had quite a large floor space; however there were chairs, desks as well as other goods piled up left and right, as if to create a corridor from the door to the windows.

This was evidence that the successive generations of the student council had not been functioning.

In front of Masazumi, who was surveying the valley of goods, was Mitotsudaira who had opened a window and then turned around with a fed up expression.

“This is more like a storeroom than a student council room; however well it is the same for those of the Chancellor's Board as well.”

“Is that so?”

Jud, while trying to avoid touching anything, Mitotsudaira shrugged her shoulders.
“The members who make up the Board use the Board room down below; however it is in the same state as here. After all, the Far East operated under the premise that there would be no emergency situations under the oppression of the Testament Union. Even after Mikawa, if something happens, it is usually settled in the classroom or cafeteria or on top of the bridge. However — why now of all times did you want to use this place, Masazumi?”

I wonder why, Masazumi looked at the objet d'art which was composed of carelessly piled up goods and desks, enough so that the ceiling on the left and right was obscured, and she let out a sigh. She folded her arms, and while once again thinking about what was going on,

“When I was appointed as the vice president, I came here to look once, yeah the Far East Student Council was after all a mere skeleton and decided to give up.”

However,

“—The classroom, the cafeteria, on top of the bridge, the courtyard or Blue Thunder, we can hold a strategy meeting anywhere. I came to realize recently that the Far East was that kind of place. However on the other hand I thought it necessary for everyone to have a place to share.”

“Then, that place which everyone could share is—”

Yeah, Masazumi shook her head downwards. Motioning towards the floor with her right hand,

"It's not that I’m suggesting we have to be here all the time. However when we can’t make contact, when we wish to save someone, when there is a time to be patient… you should come here, what I want is a place like that.”

While saying that, she remembered something that occurred at Mikawa. The feeling of being dumbfounded when she returned home on a certain day and realized that her mother was gone still remained inside her heart.

To supress her past fear, she wanted a place where people could believe that someone was there.

“I wonder why!”

Masazumi looked at the outside of the seemingly narrow window. The city of Musashi was spread out under the afternoon sky, beyond that was the edge of the dock and fields and shelterbelts, the city of IZUMO. However Masazumi gazed with sharp eyes further into the interior, the south-eastern sky and the forest and valleys of the mainland which spread out beneath IZUMO.

“—Only one week until the repairs are complete. After that is complete, we will begin moving again in order to gain the cooperation of many countries. However this part of Europe is currently in the middle of the thirty year war. I cannot deny the possibility of sustaining damage like we did during the Armada battle. If we hold an official position when that happens there will be a large change in the civilian’s sense of security.”

“Jud, —it is also my opinion that what will occur from now on will be the true battlefield. There is also Neshinbara’s opinion that in the previous Armada Sea battle, in order to preserve their own fleet, the strategy of Tres España was “Through the use of a small efficient force, aim for not the sinking of Musashi but the stoppage”, it was not all-out war for them.”

Listening to Mitotsudaira’s words, Masazumi thought that she was correct.

That’s why she nodded and,

“I want to strengthen the Student Council and Chancellor’s Board. Think of it as a hidden urgent business.”

Masazumi thought after saying that. That in Mitotsudaira’s expression there was a shadow. That’s why,

“Is there something troubling you?”

“Eh? Ah, no.”

In front of Masazumi’s eyes, Mitotsudaira lightly waved her hand from left to right. Then as if she was arranging her thoughts,

“I have to make sure to be reliable. I have to take into account my true abilities.”

“I think that Mitotsudaira is doing a fine job.”

During the crash of the cargo ship it was her who had supervised things like the night watch, the transport of supplies and the construction inside the ship. If she had not been present at that scene then there were many of Tenzou's orders which would not have functioned, this was something that anyone who was at the scene realized. However,
….Was it because Mitotsudaira was a member of the Chancellor’s Board I wonder.

There is also one’s duty as a knight. Thinking about her role during battle,

…In England she suffered a draw with Walsingham….

While on-board Musashi together with Walsingham she was unable to stop Tres España vice Chancellor Takakane Hironaka, this is what is known as the difference in strength, however,

“Even though there is always someone stronger, I sill wish to become stronger you know?”

“In that case, the path of strengthening, it would be good to search for a suitable location. If there is anything let me know. After the Armada Sea Battle, there is an understanding in the public opinion towards battle. It will make it easier to gain acceptance.”

Jud, Mitotsudaira nodded and a slight silence occurred.

Thinking that it would be bad for the silence to continue, Masazumi purposefully let out a large breath,

“Well then.”

Saying that in a distinct voice to bring Mitotsudaira to her senses, she rolled up her jacket sleeves.

“Well then, shall we do a little examining….?

“L-Let us do that. However this is….”

In front of Mitotsudaira’s half opened eyes. What was there was,

“……Ah? Right from the start, what is this mountain of mail order, ….. Huh, eroge have been placed and piled up in here!”

<center>●</center>

Masazumi took the brown wrapped package which was lightly covered in dust in hand. Narrowing her eyes and holding it aloft that was indeed exactly what she had thought it was.

Good grief, after putting that as a preface Masazumi went,

“That idiot, what does he think this place is…!!”

“…..It is amazing that you have no doubts about who that belongs to, Masazumi.”
If there is some other possibility, I would like to know.

However Mitotsudaira with a testing air also took one in hand,

“However what exactly is this, on the invoice “Theban Genuine Force VS Spartan Homo army corps. Remaining 300” is resolutely written, you know? …. Furthermore not only the title but the subtitle “There are no women! Regain your sanity!” is excessive. Is his head alright?”

“Like I would know. In any case we have to dispose of any crying games because if that idiot dies, the existence of this country will be in jeopardy. I have to clearly tell him that he should buy the next one only after he had finished clearing the current ones.”

“However, I have the feeling the Chancellor puts all the earnings from his part time job into this….”

…This when I’m already finished with just food and book expenses! A family which provides food is enviable!

While thinking about her real motivations, she summoned her ant eater Tsukinowa as a response to the situation in front of her eyes. After getting positioned on her shoulders, patting her head and rubbing her cheeks, together they opened the chat,

'''Vice President:''' “Asama, I will send you an image of the eroge that are here, if we sold them, how much would that be?”

'''Asama:''' “Umm, from the looks of it everything would be worth about 12000 yen… huh, why was I called as the appraiser!?”

She had already told me what I wanted to know. Having personnel who did not hold official positions yet were still talented was a good thing to have for the country.

“Anyhow, selling all this and only getting about 12000 yen. ….I really don’t understand males.”

“— Even though in the past you were trying to become one?”

Having that said to her with a bitter smile, Masazumi considered her own circumstances. However she was unable to come up with a good explanation.

“I’ll correct myself, I don’t understand that idiot.”

In contrast to Mitotsudaira’s deepening bitter smile, Masazumi, feeling uncomfortable, directed her gaze at the window. Beneath her eyes was the overhead bridge in front of the
school yard where she had done the public debate, thinking that it was around there that she had debated,

……she had also had her trousers yanked down…..!

“Ah umm Masazumi, you seem to be upset about something? Was it what I just said?”

“Eh? Ah no, it has nothing to do with that. It was something else, from a while back”

Masazumi shifted her glance to the front. As she did, beneath the bridge, on the other side of the descending staircase lay Remorse Way,

…the port side natural area is where the park is.

After she had seen Sakai off to Mikawa and returned, it is the park path she used when going through the natural area.

In the center there was a retreat building, a small place where there are always children playing. After that time, she had stopped by several times and spent her reading time there. It was one of the few spots inside Musashi where Masazumi could relax.
Sooner or later, while thinking that it might be nice to have a meal or a conference at the hermitage, Masazumi rolled up her the sleeves of her jacket.

“Well, I’m not planning to do a full-scale job, but shall we see what it's like deeper inside…”

Once that is complete,

“Shall we descend to IZUMO for a break? Mitotsudaira”

<center>●</center>

Mitotsudaira listened to Masazumi’s question.

“There is apparently a festival happening down in IZUMO.”

With those words, Mitotsudaira experienced a moment of indecision.

…She was being considerate of my circumstances.

As a matter of fact, Hexagone Française was the homeland of Mitotsudaira, however even after receiving permission to enter IZUMO, she had not descended into IZUMO. Naturally, there was a reason she had not done so.

The promise she had made with her mother.

That’s why; even though many people, including her friends, were descending to take a break, she herself did not go.
It seems like Masazumi had realized that fact. Consequently,

…That she didn’t ask why I do not go but instead invited me to go with her was—.

This was her way of being considerate due to the short friendship that existed.

Everyone in her surroundings already knew the reason, thus they no longer made this type of invitation, however it did provide a sense of freshness.

That’s why Mitotsudaira with a bitter smile mixed in,

“It is alright, I still have management of my territory inside Musashi to do. In a little while Musashi will be heading in the direction of Edo right? I think that I will descend at my actual territory.”

“I see.”

At that point Masazumi put an end to that topic. There with both parties taking a short pause the conversion did not restart.

……ah……?

Mitotsudaira thought about the present situation with a slight doubt, this was a situation almost as if “directly following mentioning a bad topic”.

……Uh

From Masazumi's current silence she could feel an atmosphere of “sorry”. Masazumi had also already realized it as well, however if she immediately brought out a new topic it is certain that it could be felt that she was avoiding the previous topic.

It was now Masazumi's turn to wait, and for her to bring out a new topic to as a way of saying “Do not worry about it.”.

Mitotsudaira thought that she had to say something.

….H-however, umm.

Frankly, she was not good with this kind of situation. Wiping away an uncomfortable sweat, Mitotsudaira continued,

“U-umm, that is…”

Right when she finished panicking. Unexpectedly a voice came from behind her. That was,

“Oi oi oi oi you guys! What are you doing with my treasure library!?”

Turning around, there in the corridor was an idiot carrying an eroge package.

Masazumi who was in a state of completely half-closed eyes turned around to the culprit responsible for the state of this room. On her shoulder

'''“'''Ma-'''”'''

There, there Tsukinowa. You were not mistaken in deploying attack spells. However, those were the anti-ghost spells that Asama gave us during the battle against Hatton. You need anti-object or anti-personal spells. Also, it is fine if you do not do that against other people, okay?

However, while this side was conducting something like a strategy meeting through eye-contact, that idiot said,

“Ah! These guys. Even though I went to great trouble to arrange the titles in several orders, you went and ruined that! Seijun! Do you understand how much the “The Changelings – throbbing labyrinth version” that you are currently holding is worth!?”

“It comes to about 300 yen out of the 12000 yen, doesn’t it?”

Saying that, the idiot pulled a textbook from his breast pocket, dammit!! , and threw it against the floor. Following that, the naked guy who was still wearing clothes pointed in this direction,

“You don’t understand! Don’t understand at all, Seijun! The values of goods are not determined by their price alone!”

“Ah! It is whether they are useless or not.”

The idiot again threw the textbook against the ground. Following that he looked at Mitotsudaira,

“Oi oi Nate! Say something to her. By the way Nate, won’t you come down to IZUMO and hang out with everyone? The fresh meat there from Hexagone Française is delicious. At the moment it's lamb! Lamb! How about having a bite of one which is only salted and spit roasted?”

“Uh…… Um, that is, well.”

In contrast with Mitotsudaira who was unable to follow the flow of the conversation, the idiot while scratching his head said,

“It’s fine Nate.”

Hmm, there the idiot tilted his neck,

“It’s not like your mother told you never ever to return. It’s not the mainland but IZUMO, once in a while let’s all go down and grab a meal together, yeah? Everyone wants to have a meal with you, you know!? An expensive one!”

“…Is that because you want it to be my treat?”

That is what I was thinking, is what Masazumi muttered to herself. However, on the other hand her thinking was,

……Mother?

That was the first time she had heard that story.

<center>●</center>

Masazumi did not know very much about Mitotsudaira.

About all she had heard was that she was originally of a small nobility, and that her family structure was her mother being a Loup-Garou and father being a human.

There was also that, for some reason or another, she had inherited the name of the Mito-Matsudaira clan and was dispatched alone to Musashi which had led to the current situation.
…Mitotsudaira’s last name was also originally a different name.

Masazumi did not know the specific details with regards to the circumstance regarding her name inheritance.

This was because recently in Hexagone Française, not only the important roles but also the noble lineage had been frequently interchanging due to the historical reconstruction of the thirty year war and the Catholic and Protestant civil war.

Recently the treasurer as well as the vice Chancellor had also just been changed. Everything was all part of the flow to welcome the era of the monarchy of Louis the Fourteenth.

Louis Exiv was the king who, after going through the civil war and the chaos of the thirty year war, would implement an unconditional monarchy.

In the Testament it was recorded that Hexagone Française would experience unprecedented prosperity at the behest of that king.

Consequently, other countries attempted to delay the name inheritance of Louis Exiv with Hexagone Française having to accept many disadvantaging conditions and to escape from these oppressions.

The year before last, from the time of the first year of high school, the name of Louis Exiv was inherited, however

…Mitotsudaira being dispatched to Musashi from such a young age was also part of a deal in order to speed up that flow.

From the fact that Mitotsudaira was placing importance on her livelihood as a dispatched knight from Hexagone Française even while aboard Musashi, it was likely she had not totally cut herself from Hexagone Française. That she would not even descend to IZUMO was,

Her mother, huh.

She did not know the finer details but when it came to family bonds, the story was different. If you became involved with the thing known as “family”, even if you pry into it there was also a portion which could not be dealt with through emotion.

“Mitotsudaira, afterwards want to go get something to eat?”

“Eh? …… It is not like I don’t want to go to IZUMO…”

“Nah, Tama is fine as well. Since Tama is also a foreign exchange ship, we can eat meat from Hexagone Française and there is also a good view. The guys who descended below will probably bring something as well. — Mitotsudaira, it’s fine if you bring green soybeans and ah, natto right?”

“No, that is, it is not that my main business is natto…., Chancellor! Where are you planning to sneak away to while carrying the goods that we are trying to clean up!?”

“Ah, don’t you get it? To a different safe house, safe house.”

“Where is that?”

“Ah! Beneath the veranda at Asama’s Shrine and inside the attic of Shiro’s shop, I spent a lot of effort remodeling them.”

'''Vice President:''' “Did you hear? Can you go and have a quick look?”

'''Asama:''' “They are really there. When did he!”

'''Me:''' “Ah! Idiot, that is where the ones with priestesses are, wait till I arrive!”

'''Asama:''' “I understand. Well, once you have arrived I’ll burn them in front of your eyes okay?”

'''Me:''' “You Idiot. Think about the feelings of the people who created them. Do you get it!?”

'''Novice:''' “If you burn them, they won’t become a part of the second hand market, I, as an author, see that as a viable choice.”

'''Me:''' “D-Dammit, the net is full of enemies! It’s fine since I’m living in reality. In this reality space my power is threefold! However your powers have fallen to one-third! Get it!?”

'''Worshipper:''' “That’s from ‘Space Magistrate Echizen’ which started the other day. The one who equips their combat gear in 180000 milliseconds.”

'''Silver Wolf:''' “How about a thirty minute program that ends with just the transformation? In a certain way it is realistic.”

'''Asama:''' “How should I put it, with those calculations if the original level of power was a tenth of the enemy's, even with corrections you would still lose by a narrow margin.”

“Da-dammit! You guys reality assessment is zero sugar! Did you see that just now!?”

However the idiot, perhaps realizing something, slowly turned around. There,

“Huh? Horizon, what are you doing pretending to smoke a cigarette and blowing smoke out of your nose? Are you going to help me?”

The following moment. The students of the exercise based club who were practicing in the courtyard saw the window of the student council room smash and a human shaped something fly through the sky. However, after conforming that it fell on top of the bridge, everyone returned their gazes and continued their respective defense, attack and training.

Jeez…, Mitotsudaira who saw Horizon stretching out the fingers of her right hand, looked at the broken window and while experiencing an uncomfortable sweat,

“H-hey, Horizon?”

“Jud, today I have plans to go with Kimi-sama to IZUMO. However on the way I thought about bringing Toori-sama along, and have been chasing after him.”

“Yeah, now that you mention it, you did mention something about that during class……”

“Jud. It is the store master’s family. The store master’s parent, Toori-sama’s grandmother, is there.”

The reason for going there was,

“It appears that grandmother knows about the past Horizon, therefore I wanted to meet her at least once.”

Hearing the contents of the spoken words, Mitotsudaira lightly held her breath.

There were a lot of things to consider.

There was the fact that Horizon had begun to hold interest regarding her past self, and that she was going to face her past head-on. There,

…Kimi had probably proposed the idea; however the Chancellor was not eager to go.

Horizon wished to know about her past self.

I wonder if the fact that he was trying as much as possible to not interfere, was because there's still a part which he was drawing back from Horizon.

That’s why,

“…Catch the Chancellor—”

She tried suggesting that for a reaction.

“Shall I accompany you? As an escort.”

Hey, Masazumi called out to her from behind. However Horizon,

“No.”

That was rejected.

However, before the shock of being told she was unnecessary arrived, Horizon continued speaking.

“Yes, — I have already requested that Futayo-sama accompany me.”

“I-Is that so?”

As if trying to fill the void which had opened up inside her, Mitotsudaira asked a question.

In front of Mitotsudaira’s eyes Horizon, nodded in response. That was correct.

“Jud, lately Futayo-sama has been extremely busy, due to her effectiveness at her job slicing the remains of armor plating she has been called “Lady Ueno”, I thought she should take a breather. Just now when I could not find Mitotsudaira-sama, I called out to Futayo-sama and there she was “I do have interest in the confections of France.”.

“…It seems that over there Futayo has been unable to acquire any free time, and her tension seems like it is falling.”

However well,

“In the case of Futayo's tension falling, if it is confection, if she had said so I could prepare them, you know?"

“Is it possible for Mitotsudaira-sama to produce confection?”

Mitotsudaira nodded her head slightly.

She was confident that she could cook.

Her cooking had a tendency towards those of a wolf, though with confection, as long as citrus fruits were not used, she could make them. Particularly those western confections which used dairy products such as butter and cream were among her favorites. That was, in other words,

“Confections that use the fat of animals. — They suit the tastes of a wolf, you know?”

“Jud. Well, eventually I would like you to teach me how to make those. If I had to say it, then a lot of what Blue thunder handled were “Meals”, the master had also said that she has wished for that kind of repertoire.”

Really? The one who raised their voice was Masazumi.

“Well, while I’m a supporter of the Eastern confection, I do still have interest in Western confection. My father likes them, and it would be good if I could serve them before and after meetings. — Would you be willing to teach me, Mitotsudaira?”

Jud, Mitotsudaira went to reply, however thought about it for a moment.

If I had to say, recently the main trend of French confection were small goods. Taking into account the fact that Horizon was working in a bakery,

“If it is something you plan to sell in the store, I believe that there is a more suitable person than me.”

“Who would that be?”

“Jud, Mary Stuart.”

Mary who was provisionally seeking asylum from England was, together with the Tachibana couple, presently members of our class. However, Mitotsudaira had hardly exchanged words with Mary. The reason was simple.

…It was because she was British.

During the Middle Ages Hexagone Française had invaded England; however those invaders became indigenous and created the southern part of England. Consequently, England repeatedly attempted to be involved with the Royal succession of France; there was also the famous Joan De Arc who caused the Anglo-French 100 year war.

Hexagone Française even now still considers England as a vassal state or territories of Française and is treating it as an insurgent nation. Mitotsudaira also had from a young age gown up listening to her mother’s stories about Joan De Arc. A mere two hundred years ago, France almost came under the control of England, with its lands and people being ravished, and there the girl who had leaded the salvation of France was burnt at the stake by the English.

It was a long time ago, is what her mother would always tell her and laugh and tell her. That now is the world of “stories”.

……That is why; it is not like she held any resentment towards England, however.

Her sentiment was that she must find some positive points. They interfered with her country and plundered many things, however England had probably gone ahead and returned something.

That was a negative way of thinking.

She was thinking that she should not bring historical problems into her and Mary’s personal relationship.

Therefore she was taking a distance from Mary to make sure that part did not come out during a chance remark.

However, during the time while she was thinking about herself who had made the claim that Mary was a suitable substitute concerning the production of confection,

“— Mitotsudaira-sama?”

“Eh?”

In contrast to her, who was falling into a spiral of deep thought, Horizon called out to Mitotsudaira who seemed as if she was taken aback.

“Why Mary-sama?”

“Ah, umm, well…”

While feeling a one-way sense of disappointment that if she did not explain, they would not accept, Mitotsudaira spoke.

“Rather the confection of Hexagone Française, in England there are more goods which would be considered evolutions of bread. If I had to say Hexagone Française’s confection has a lot of small goods—“

“That is the type that I wish for, Mitotsudaira-sama. If it is an evolution of bread then it would be somewhat difficult to distinguish from the goods on the shelves.”

“…Is that right?”

“Jud. — The store master is always originally from IZUMO; however it would appear that she is a magnificent real samurai and that confection creating and the like were our one shot in her way of living. If I had to say, it seems like that she learned to make bread in England.”

Well, she nodded and behind her Masazumi softly laughed.

“Argente Loup confection classroom huh. I wonder if this would be held regularly.”

“Masazumi…!”

Turning around, outside of the window a pair of black wings appeared holding a package.

“Eh!? What? Service contravene classroom…!? What is that material? I’ll use it!? — Ah, this is that idiot’s goods.”

“Malga, would you please stop mishearing such strange things… If that package is a Priestess work, then please forward it over to Asama’s place.”

Ah, Naruze looked at the name and address, then kicked the broken windowsill and did a backwards somersault.

It looked like she was correct.

Lately every night she had been flying around together with Naito testing the functionality of Schwarz Fräulein and Weiss Fräulein however,

“As expected, you don’t use them during the day? I understand that the noise is dreadful after all.”

“They have bad fuel consumption. During the day since people and ships are flying, we have to make quick stops and circumvent a lot of them, which makes the fuel costs nothing to sneeze at. That’s why at night, when it is only people we know, is the real deal. — For the time being, we have also been setting “Geheimnis Sabbat” during the night, will you come watch?”

Jud, Horizon was the one who replied. She nodded and,

“I will bring the confection that Mitotsudaira-sama has created along with me.”

Hmm, Naruze showed a meaningful smile and flew above the wind sill.

“That sounds nice — it has been a while. I’m looking forward to it.”

She thought about protesting, however before she could voices echoed up from below.

“He ran away!” “He’s crawling!... He’s fast” “Eh, no stop!”

There among the screams of the students was the sound of footsteps mixed in,

“…It’s the Chancellor.”

“…Horizion will ignore this and go ahead with Kimi.”

There’s nothing to be done, Masazumi’s voice was heard, however it suddenly stopped. Thinking about what the matter was, Tsukinowa was opening a sign frame.

Masazumi who was looking at the sign frame slightly furrowed her brow, however when she noticed here,

“Ah, — please go on ahead. A message has come in from Neshinbara, so I just have to deal with that.”

“If something happens, make sure to immediately let me know, okay?”

Jud, after hearing that answer, Mitotsudaira, together with Horizon, went out into the corridor. Everyone else as well, for example Mary, at this time was living while embracing a variety of thoughts.

[[Image:Horizon3A_0076.jpg|thumb]]
'''Study - IZUMO CORPORATION'''

''Toori'':　“Sis! Sis! I descended down into IZUMO however there were a variety of branded goods and I did not know which I should buy! Do you have any advice please!”

''Kimi'':　“Let’s see, having a basic look, there should be no problem if you buy the IZUMO brand. It’s a composite syndicate so you can go from a castle or ship to even a grain of rice. The representative brands of IZUMO as are below.”

*'''Izumo Industry:''' IZUMO’s parent organization. In reality IZUMO is also a brand of the Izumo Industry however since Izumo industry has Shinto and aviation technologies as the primary concern the positions are now reversed.
*'''IZUMO:''' IZUMO’s main brand. Having Shinto, aviation technology and commodities as the primary concerns, it has developed at many levels by using the transportation capacity of the Shinto network which connects the entirety of the Far East. It is the largest enterprise of the Far East. Since the Shirasago Enterprise started dealing with serious goods, in reality they have started developing into a variety of areas including joke material.
*'''Shirasago Enterprise''': In contrast to IZUMO which liked to develop a variety of new products, with serious staple goods and Shinto-related as the core of the brand, they have in reality changed into a different shrine. The headquarters are located below IZUMO on the land of the old IZUMO. They often get caught up in the messes of IZUMO and ends up in the role of facing that trouble.
*'''Bizen''': A brand which handles ironworking related activities. It is located upon the southern provisional country border of M.H.H.R. and Hexagone Française and conducts the provision of Olay Metal to both countries. Its expansion into other country is BIZEN.
*'''INARIFOX:''' an Inari-related development section which was merged during the Harmonic Unification War. Specialises in the development of Mouse and Executive Assistant
*'''Izumo Divine Transmission:''' A provider which handled the Shinto divine transmission network from ancient times. It is the foundation of the entire Far East’s Shinto divine transmission network, after the Harmonic Unification War they also took charge of the heavenly god divine transmission network system of the Capital and the Ise force.

''Kimi'':『There are also the gods of war MINO and the fast food stalwart BURGER, however these should describe those relating to life on Musashi and those located nearby. Musashi has the majority of Shinto goods and Divine transmissions of the Shirasago brand as a result of the Asama Shrine being connected to Shirasago, however in other cities of the Far East, the names of IZUMO and Izumo Divine Transmission are larger. Each brand has goods that are considered their speciality, so it might be good to keep that in mind.”』

''Toori'':　『Well…., with all these being available I have to make sure to decide by genre.』

''Kimi'':　『No, you’re talking about Eroge again.』

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 01|Chapter 01]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 03|Chapter 03]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 01

2014-07-01T02:05:37Z

Purin: Handle name consistency.

==Chapter 01: The Companions of the Closed Room ==
[[Image:Horizon3A_0037.jpg|thumb]]
''What does it mean to be able to speak.''

''Without a guilty conscience."

'''Point Allocation (Composure)'''

<center>●</center>

'''Dragon Dog:''' “My lady.”

'''ANA:''' “What is it?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “It appears that there is a situation in which I can go there. I think that it will become a situation where I will intrude on the co-operators. On the way, however, it seems that several kind souls will intermediate.”

'''ANA:''' “Yeah, I mostly understand, it is that old man... Ah, however however if you are coming over here, I want a letter. One from my elder brother, one from her and one from my friend. Ones which are handwritten, okay?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “That degree of an order then one way or another.”

'''ANA:''' “My my, you do not care who the requested party is?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “It is simply saying that I want the thing which I want. I determine that it does not matter who is the other party.”

'''ANA:''' “You are flawless.”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “It is an honour to be praised by you. Well then, my lady, is it not about time that you sleep?”

'''ANA:''' “Yeah…, however…”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “The cold is?”

'''ANA:''' “Perhaps that is right I wonder?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “In that case, please relax. During the next few days the sun should be visiting there. For my lady who has received the nickname “Moon” in order to receive the sun, the time when the sun has arrived has come. That is something that I try saying.”

'''ANA:''' “Once the morning comes, the moon disappears you know? Is something which I try and say.”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “No, my lady, it is simply that it becomes impossible to see. It yields the light to the sun. There is no way that the moon disappears. It is a physical impossibility.”

'''ANA:''' “You are flawless.”

<center>●</center>

There was a classroom which was warmly accepting the light of the sun.

The window was open, with class being conducted among the incoming wind.

In front of the blackboard there was a female teacher with a nametag Sanyou, who while stretching her back was drawing a hexagon with blackboard chalk.

“Well now, Musashi is currently in Hexagone Française I’m sorry that two weeks have passed since we have arrived here, and that the scope of class had finally reached this part—”
Even since England, after covering English history, things had livened up and had been unable to catch up. While Sanyo was thinking that at this rate after the second semester would be perilous, for the time being she completed drawing the hexagon.

“Okay, this is the shape of Hexagone Française, however originally during the era of the Roman Empire this area was the land of the barbarians. At the present moment, this might be difficult to believe, however at the time with regards to Europe, beneath the southern areas of Rome was not a country but simply a deserted land in which several tribes came and went. That being the case, the Roman Empire called the part of this large land that would eventually become a part of Hexagone Française the Gaul province.”

Then,

“In order to suppress the threat of the barbarians, the Roman Empire dispatched Caesar. There in 511 B.C. Caesar oppressed a large portion of Gaul. This era of Caesar’s memorandum is still being conveyed today through “Caesar’s Military History”.”

Sanyou thought to herself, Lord Caesar had accomplished a variety of different things

With respect to the historical reproduction, since Caesar’s invasion of Gaul was the keystone for the territory segmentation that followed, it was re-enacted through a detailed plan. However as a consequence of being too passionate, a rehearsal ended up being conducted and after the main event, Caesar ended up writing “Came again, Saw again, and Won again” in “Caesar’s Military History”.

“Anyhow after the collapse of the Roman Empire, this land once again returned to being a lawless area. During the eight-ninth century, this area was once again conquered and the individual who granted this area peace was Charles the Great. In French he was known as Charlemagne. He put this area from present day Europe up to Tres España under his
command, however after his death this “Carolingian Empire” was split into three…”

On the right side of the hexagon Sanyou drew a shape like an upside down shogi piece. Beneath both of these she drew a boot shaped diagram.

“One of these, the one on the right side was M.H.R.R. Another one of these, the one at the bottom became K.P.A.ITALIA. Lastly, where the former Gaul province was located became Hexagone Française.”

Well then,

“Do you know which part of Hexagone Française makes it weaker in regards to M.H.R.R. and K.P.A.Italia?”

<center>●</center>

In response to the question everyone looked around. When she indicated someone as a test the blonde-haired student,

“Ah, I’m sorry, my family is Catholic…”

Sanyou formed a wry smile. People do have a lot of circumstances, after nodding in recognition she took a breath,

“Well Hexagone Française does not have either a Holy Roman Empire or a Pope. In other words, it is simply a country which possesses a large volume of land. Therefore compared to the other two countries they possess a weaker level of influence, even when they installed an internal king this wasn’t recognised by neither M.H.R.R. or K.P.A. Italia, with this conversely being something that was exploited. However…”

Sanyou drew multiple oblique lines on the interior of the hexagon and created a plane.

“The central region. In respect to M.H.R.R. which consists of a large number of mountains and forest and K.P.A. Italia which has a small landmass, Hexagone Française with its rivers and large plains had an advantage when it came to production. Using this land as a foundation, by the time of the crusades, Française had become a country which compared favorably to other nations, following this there were the civil wars due to the hundred year war and the religious revolution, however on the contrary these events were used to establish “Gallicanism”, a Catholic style which was not controlled by the Pope. Then…”

Sanyo wrote “Emperor” in the center of the hexagon.

“After increasing national power and obtaining an original Catholic style, they also obtained their own Emperor. This was not like the Roman Emperor who was bound by Catholicism and history; it was an Emperor for the sake of Hexagone Française.”

“Among those Emperors, the individual who led Hexagone Française to its peak was—”

There she took a breath. While looking over everyone, with her back hand she wrote on the blackboard.

“The current Chancellor Louis Exiv.”

Tapping the blackboard and taking a look, there was an unreadable something written on the blackboard, with that Sanyou halted her movements.

<center>●</center>

“… Well then,”

While thinking that the neighboring classroom that had suddenly become quiet was a mystery, Mary stood up from her chair.

Inside the silent classroom, she raised her right hand and at her hands appeared a Shinto style sign frame.

It was a set with Tenzou.

The previous day, the confirmation for the contract has passed through Asama and using the setting “Hidden Tsirhc” a combination of Catholic and Shinto was achieved.

“— Mary? Can you give your opinion? Is it all right?”

“— Eh? Um, Jud, my apologies teacher, I was just doing a bit of thinking about Tenzou-sama.”

For some reason everybody straightened their posture and took a position where they were straining their ears. By the window side, the wet man and his older sister were fanning each other with desk mats, and Musashi's Princess was watching that. On the opposite side, the corridor side,

“Muneshige-sama… I just now almost let my soul escape from my body.”

“Eh? What’s the matter Gin. There’s nothing strange about thinking about your partner.”

While thinking that there were people here who understood what she was saying, Mary operated her sign frame. While thinking that if Tenzou, who was next to her on her right hand side staying silent and looking downward, was feeling unwell she would look after him later, she,

“Well then, Hexagone Française which had gained Louis Exiv as its Emperor, increased the size of its territory. It was a result from of the shape becoming a hexagon that there was a trend for Française to be called Hexagon. This was the origin of Hexagone. Then according to the recreation of History, they will be the victor of the thirty year war and it is the current thinking that they will become an existence which could be said to be the supreme ruler of the entirety of Europe.”

However,

“Louis Exiv decided to cooperate with the Mouri clan who governed the Far East portion of Hexagone Française. He had a student marriage with the current head of the Mouri clan, the women who inherited the name of Mouri Terumoto.”

Mary thought. That there is someone who is in a similar situation as her.

She had come to the Far East by claiming the survival of England as her just cause however there was also that type of thing between Mouri and Hexagone Française.

Mary while thinking back on the knowledge on the Far East power balance that she had Tenzou teach her every night,

“Originally the Mouri lineage was a powerful regional clan of a small force; however in the generation of the enlightened monarch Mouri Motonari, they expanded the scale of their force. At that time, the Amako family who was overseeing the Izumo region was brought down, however IZUMO, which was being overseen by the Amako family, feared the intervention of Hexagone Française—”

Mary looked out the window. Everyone else looked as well.

What was outside the window was the land and city floating in the sky.

It was a floating island, a place where things such as the construction of Musashi were done.

On the occasion of the large scale reconstruction that Musashi had underwent 10 years ago; she had come from England to see it together with her younger sister.

This IZUMO was,

“Prior to the Mouri invasion, the shrine and the central development were floated; furthermore, the surrounding ports, companies and workshops were also floated and considered a neutral territory. There were many connections to the Amako clan in IZUMO…”

She had heard that Milton and Walter, who were of the Amako clan, even after overseeing the flotation of IZUMO, had continued to battle with Mouri. They were doing this as a preventative measure against Mouri and Hexagone Française who were trying to interfere with IZUMO.

It was two years ago when those two came to England. I wonder if it was because they had decided that IZUMO’s status as a neutral territory was stable.

On the inside Mary happily thought that it was after she had departed from England that she had become able to think that way about them.

“There are quite a number of individuals originally from IZUMO who are currently in Musashi.”

The one who nodded in agreement was Oriotorai.

“That holds true for me, as well as Suzu’s father, Toori and Kimis’ mother’s family side were also from IZUMO. Also… Sanyou was as well”

The one who nodded in agreement was Kimi.

“Haha, at IZUMO our grandmother was doing fluid related…., now she would be an advisor I wonder? Anyway, it's that type of feeling right? If I can make the arrangements, I was considering visiting her today, however, Foolish brother?”

In front of the dancing girl’s question, the wet man however tilted his neck.

“Hmm….. You’re planning to bring Horizon along with you right? Nah, I’m a little reluctant, I'll go afterward.”

“Is that so, Toori-sama? Why?

In response to the Musashi’s princess’s question he scratched his hair with an um.

“Well, for some reason or another I guess.”

Mary who was thinking that there must be some circumstances, looked towards the puzzled Horizon. There,

“So about this Mouri family, at the moment they have a slightly difficult situation approaching them. That is because in the era of the Mouri family current head Lady Terumoto, they become the representative of Hashiba’s side, the western force, during the final battle deciding the rulership of the Far East, and battle with the Eastern forces of Matsudaira—”

She took a breath.

“— As a result they meet their defeat and lose a large amount of their force.”

<center>●</center>

Nonetheless, in order to get across her words, Mary opened her mouth. There,

“However the Mouri clan, Lord Motonari prospered with his three sons, and prepared for what was to come. Towards his three sons so as to unite their abilities there in the story of the “three arrows”, a famous anecdote of Lord Motonari right?”

This was knowledge that she had heard from Tenzou just the previous day.

Lord Motonari called his three sons together and first handed his eldest son a single arrow which he was made to break.

After that he handed his next oldest son two arrows, which he somehow managed to break by himself. However,
…..when he handed his third eldest three arrows, he tried to break these on his own, however he was unable to do so.

The eldest and second eldest were both unable to break the three arrows. The three men who were unable to break suffered a trauma. Consequently Lord Motonari,

“……You must not ostracise. As to combine the abilities of the three of you. You will suffer emotional damage otherwise…!”

Saying that, the three of them peacefully combined their abilities and overcame the difficult situation, it seemed to be that sort of instruction.

This apparently was something that nearly became inconsistent with the historical re-enactment, however this was apparently averted thanks to Lord Motonari’s praised ad-lib ability.

The the people of the Far East have high skills for performance, is what Mary thought.

“— There Lord Motonari sent his second and third born sons into the east and west countries that Mouri was suppressing in order to solidify the defences of the indirect rule that Mouri was conducting. However the first-born son who was succeeding the Mouri clan soon passed away. Consequently the child of the oldest born son, the grandchild of Lord Motonari Terumoto ended up becoming the young heir to the Mouri clan.”

However Lord Motonari, who was supporting the young ruler, before long also passed away.

While being supported by her two uncles who had gone to different families and her other uncles who were the children of Lord Motonari’s concubines, she took command of the Mouri clan.

“However, afterwards they suffered the Hashiba invasion and surrendered, choosing to become incorporated into the organization as this was the path to keep Lord Terumoto alive.”

I wonder if it was because of this, it is said that Hexagone Française and the Mouri clan formed a close relationship in order to prevent the invasion on the Far East side and prevent the interference in Hexagone Française’s rule.”

Well then, there Mary spoke. What was being displayed in her sigh frame was Hexagone Française’s structure.

* '''Chancellor: Louis Exiv: Inherits the blood of the gods. Testament Armour user.'''
* '''President: Mouri Terumoto: Wife of Exiv. Also inherits the name of D'Artagnan. Testament Armour user.'''
* '''Vice Chancellor: Lord Turenne: Due to the name inheritance being announced only recently, details unknown'''
* '''Vice President: Luynes : Refers to the God of War Palais Cardinal . Also inherits the name of the treasurer Mazarin.'''
* '''Secretary: Mouri Motokiyo: Hexagone Française’s automated doll Mouri 1. Terumoto’s adviser'''
* '''Special Agent: The Three Musketeers (Henri, Armand, Isaac): Battled styled automated dolls attached to Terumoto.'''

“— That should sum it up. Since France had formed their relationship with Mouri, it was then that they first began to exchange automated dolls as personnel. It is said that they are a part of Mouri’s side force replenishment, however including that nothing is said about Turenne’s identity except that they are a first year different species, it is a source of uncertainty.”

The one who nodded in agreement was the glass wearing boy who was close with Shakespeare. In front of Mary’s eyes, while he was pulling out a sign frame with the same contents as hers,

“It would seem that it was a personal recommended by Louise Exiv’s younger sister, the former provisional chancellor and student president Anne D'Autriche, who as the result of an incurable disease is currently undergoing treatment at an M.H.R.R. Protestant city. However, according to talk, this person apparently passed the test implemented in Hexagone Française by quite a narrow margin. It is said she might be the possessor of some type of specialized ability or something.”

“Well, from what I hear, that is in other words an idiot?”

“No, after all being at the Vice president class, there is no way that it is that straight forward. It is something to be cautious of.”

The one who spoke in agreement was Oriotorai who was standing at the podium. While writing a summary of the words with chalk on the blackboard, she sent a smile of recognition this way.

“Well, that should sum it up. Thank you for your opinion Mary, you did a good job.”

Being told that by the person who was in charge of this class, there was relief that she was becoming a member of this class.

“Thank you very much!”

“Jud. Well Mary, our class has this kind of atmosphere okay? Um, the contents of your punishment are—”

She said Jud, however Mary tilted her head. While questioning what exactly was occurring on her inside,

“I think it was determined by majority so it become like that… however, how does me kissing Tenzou-sama constitute a punishment?”

The neighboring Tenzou hung his head, tilted it and fell onto his desk, and then Oriotorai, while still keeping her back facing this way, raised a strange noise with chalk on the blackboard.

<center>●</center>

Masazumi was reflexively taken aback at the ear-splitting noise which penetrated her ears to her core.

I’m really bad when it comes to this type of noise. Glancing around her surroundings, there directly in front on her, Mitotsudaira's hair was completely standing on end and shivering.

“My my my! Nenji! You’re rippling!”

“Yeah! Shake my surface!!”

How noisy.

Nevertheless, Oriotorai in response to Mary, dragged the strange noise until she reached the edge of the chalkboard.

During that time, Masazumi was lightly clenching her teeth and shaking, however

“Ah!”

The strange noises vanished, and at the same time that Oriotorai turned around the end of class bell began to slowly ring out

Oh, well, Oriotorai who had checked the time placed the chalk and paused for a moment.

“Well for now today’s class is finished. Then during HR we will discuss the preparations for the upcoming planned field trip. Well, the current Musashi has not yet decided where it is headed yet, when the situation is clear it is something that I want to decide. Also the person who is going to Miriam’s place, please take the notes."

Hearing the words being said, Masazumi suddenly thought.

Determining the situation of Musashi is my job, is it not.

Well, what should Musashi do for the current future? That plan had been mostly decided upon.

There Mitotsudaira who was in front of her turned around and spoke.

“Masazumi? In approximately one week, Musashi’s repairs should be completed. If there is something that you haven’t decided upon, I am available for consultation you know? My hometown is in the sky of Hexagone Française after all.”

“Ah, in that case, I’ll have you accompany me after school for a bit. There something that I wish to examine a little. I also wished to discuss with everyone where we should direct Musashi from here on out.”

With those words, everyone in the classroom turned around. Oriotorai also raised a smile, however loudly clapped her hands.

“Okay, okay but for now, wait until after we have finished HR okay? Then you can do as you please.”

Jud, Masazumi exchanged nods with Mitotsudaira, then as if to convince herself Masazumi muttered.

“I have to keep a level head. Both for the future of Musashi and the Far East… First thing to do is HR. Once that was finished, it would be after school. That was the start of free time.”

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Prologue|Prologue]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 02|Chapter 02]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 3 Prologue

2014-07-01T02:04:26Z

Purin:

==Prologue: The Outsiders on the Bridge==
[[File:Horizon3A 0017.jpg|thumb]]
''Look at that which is close to you.''

''The times you cannot see underfoot are truly...''

'''Point Allocation (Consideration)'''

<center>●</center>

'''ANA:''' “Hey!”

'''Dragon Dog'''<ref>A pun. Luynes is spelled “ryuinu” in Japanese and Dragon Dog is “ryuu inu”.</ref>''':''' “What is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “It's cold. ---No, well, it is not that it is cold, I am just feeling cold.”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “It may be some type of failure with the artificial sensory. I will contact those responsible.”

'''ANA:''' “You are flawless... However, I have already had that task completed. I was told the same thing. It might be a possible error in the artificial sensory.”

'''ANA:''' “Hey, is it possible that I might break down?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “It is impossible for me to answer that question. The reason being is that that reality has not occurred. The only conjecture I can make with respect to a situation which has not occurred is, "It is possible that both possibilities exist.".”

'''ANA:''' “Then, for example if you were to experience the cold, what would happen?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “I would cease to function.”

'''ANA:''' “In that case, hey...”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “What is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “My older brother said it, right? ‘If something happens, please tell me.’ That he would grant any wish. ---Just because he has found a person who is important to him and started living properly, he is acting like he is an adult. In that case, hey, is it fine for me to act like a child?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “I have determined that My Lady has always remained as a child.”

'''ANA:''' “That is fine, is it not? However, — hey,”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “Tes. Please say whatever it is that you wish to say, what is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “I see that you are the same as always. You are flawless. Then I want you to hear me out. You see…”

<center>●</center>

In the morning sky there was an island.

Floating at a position lower than the clouds, there was a floating island that stretched from north to south for tens of kilometres. The lower strata area, which hung like an icicle, was divided into massive blocks by rocks and structures; sometimes these would slowly move as a result of the internal frame and change the shape of the island.
At the massive floating island there were two massive objects.
One of these, located on the northern side of the island, was a Shinto shrine which possessed a Shinto shrine-styled gantry crane, several tens of kilometres in scale and a sprawling large scale wooden research facility located at its base.

The other of these was located on the eastern side of the island, also connected with a Shinto shrine-styled gantry crane with a massive ship in the interior as though it was being protected.

The vessel, which was comprised of eight individual ships, was installed in the large scale dock which stretched from north to south across the eastern side of the island.
It was Musashi.
The eight ship fleet which received the morning sun on the port-side had all of its ships still maintaining their functionality as a city while they remained within the dock.
However, from the surface of each ship, there were multiple small, high-pitched noises being raised by countless shadows clinging to the surface.

Those shadows, whether they were gods of war driving in anchor bolts or people who were assisting in the repair of the ship, including the other species, were all hurriedly working.

Musashi was currently undergoing complete repairs.

There were the figures of many students among the people participating in the construction.

If you let the students talk, their reasoning would be
“Well, this makes it possible to earn cash during the early morning.”
“I have been helping out after school, so I started doing mornings as well.”
“Out our way, the outer wall is still broken, which is scary.”

Also, between the people carrying raw materials and the kobolds, there were multiple running shadows present.

There was a jersey clad girl with two artificial arms and a tall foreigner in a tank top, a jersey clad retainer who was running with dogs, and, following quite a considerable distance behind the others, there was a silver haired girl.

The girl with the artificial arms and the tall foreigner, who had run further ahead, raised their hand in greeting and split off into a different route.

In contrast the glasses wearing retainer, after passing through the path of a natural area at a leisurely pace, ascended the staircase which was located ahead of her.

As she did, the dogs which were following her circled around at the bottom of the staircase and let out a bark.

Yeah, with the retainer turning around and waving her hand, the dogs emitted one more bark and then dispersed.

The girl retainer then nimbly ascended the staircase.

Once she had finished climbing, there was a building with the nameplate "Musashi Ariadust Academy" and a bridge which reached up to the second floor entrance way.
Furthermore,

“Eh? Asama, are you here for morning practice?”

<center>●</center>

Asama, while continuing to replace the talismans for the hanging lanterns which were built into the bridge, turned around in response to the calling voice.

It was Adele. While regulating her breathing, which wasn’t really disordered, she came over this way.

“Are you here for morning practice Asama?”

“Yeah, something close to that.”

Asama replied with a bitter smile. She held the talisman in her hand out towards Adele.

“Lately our academy has been keeping the lights on all throughout the night, hasn’t it. That’s why I am working on replacing the lighting spells. There’s also that…”

“What is it?”

“When I consider about what might happen from now on, I thought I should increase my stamina. I started from my family’s shrine below, ascended the staircase, and then did a light circuit of the schoolyard with Kimi accompanying me. However…”

Asama looked at the schoolyard. Kimi was collapsed on top of a bamboo bench located in the corner of schoolyard. The red jersey which was covering her head and upper body belonged to her, however,

“Well don’t worry about a thing. I'll go to recover it later. I’ll return either by the way of my family’s spring or Suzu’s public bathhouse, though whether or not I'll make it in time for morning class is a mystery.”

“Kimi always makes sure to eat the breakfast the chancellor makes before coming to the academy after all. About Kimi, how should I put it, why is it that, while dancing is not a problem, when it comes to running she is just a slightly higher class than a normal person?”

“Kimi’s “Dance of the Summit” is similar to Futayo’s acceleration technique, they both have fatigue reduction protections being inserted into the ability. She insists that “I have no willpower so I did it like that!”

While saying that, Asama though to herself that the ability which required access to customization was quite annoying.

After all, Kimi often didn’t think about things, and when there appeared a situation that couldn’t be dealt with she immediately started on about “New version! New version!” “Okay okay, again? Once again?” “Groin!? Groin is high!?”, displaying her insanity. Each and every time, the two of us soaked into the spring together doing this and that,

“My Priestess’s ‘Yearly spell supervision amount’ status rating is in large part a result of handling Kimi’s requests.”

There letting out a sigh she was unaware Kimi had stood up and began walking in this direction. While walking she put on the jacket which had been placed over her,

“Eh, this kid’s jersey, the cloth around the chest area has stretched…! This Priestess, what are you attempting to achieve by creating a breast mould!? Planning on making manjuu or something!?”

“When it fits you perfectly fine what exactly are you talking about!? Ah Adele, would you please stop looking down and averting your eyes.”

From beyond Adele, who was looking this way, a hand suddenly grasped the edge of the overhanging bridge from beneath the staircase.

Eh? There, in front of the girl who was thinking that, from the far side of the grasped palm, an elbow appeared, and then proceeded as if to pull upwards the rest of the body.

“S-Somehow I managed one full lap around the ship.”

It was Mitotsudaira.

<center>●</center>

The jersey figure of Mitotsudaira arrived at the top of the bridge completely out of breath.

….I-It really does seem like a “somehow” situation.

In front of her eyes, there was Adele who had run the exact same course yet whose breathing was not disturbed, and although she was the same age as her, a huge priestess. Mitotsudaira felt a feeling of irrationality against both these parties, however there was nothing to be done.

In any case, Mitotsudaira used the banister as a support and attempted to stand. However her knees were shaking. “Ow…”

She grasped the banister and attempted to move forward however she began to fall from her knees. Hurriedly she attempted to support her body, though before she could take her next action, Asama had already approached. While she was already holding a talisman,

[[File:Horizon3A_0024-0025.jpg|thumb]]

“Ah, Mito, please do not push your body so much. I will cleanse your exhaustion with a purification ritual.

“It is fine, Tomo, I will use my internal bless for a thing like that, you should use it for another…”

Before she had finished speaking, Asama claimed that it was fine and came to her side. She had Mitotsudaira lean against the banister,

'''“'''Good Work—'''”'''

Hasami, in order to cast the spell, displayed several forms for conformation. Asama already had the talisman out and was already clearing her throat as the preparation for the activation so there was no way to stop her.

Therefore leaving everything to the agreement, Mitotsudaira lowered her hips, stretched her legs and took a breath. Thus Asama removed Mitotsudaira’s shoes, then, splitting at the seam lining of the ankle, she opened the tights.

“I’ll attach one to the soles of your feet. If it tickles, please let me know.”

“Even If I say it tickles don’t…”

It suddenly happened. Mitotsudaira tried to endure the strength of the fingers which seemed to be pushing into her sole.

“Hyaaa!”

… Impossible. This is impossible!

“Hey… Mito, aren’t you too ticklish? Perhaps I should say a rare sensitivity syndrome…... hey!”

“W-What is it?”

Asama nodded with a yeah,

“However, if it is like that then it won’t finish. Therefore, shall we continue?”

“Eh? Hey, go easy on meeee!”

Since she was unable to move her legs, her upper body started to thrash about.

She experienced a different type of being out of breath than before, and, at the point where she became exhausted, she also lost the power to resist. She became limp and was left at the mercy of Asama.

“Mito, you have the same soft soles as Adele… They do say that people with soft soles have fast legs.”

Even if she said it earnestly, there was nothing to do about the reality of the situation.

Letting out a sigh that was unrelated to exhaustion, Mitotsudaira lightly shrugged her shoulders.

“Even if you say that I am the same as Adele, I am not fast at all you know? I was even called a Heavy Tank type by Kimi.”

Hmm, the one who was puzzled was Adele. She looked at my feet which Asama was rubbing,

“If I had to say, the fifth special Agent seems more like the type who does the breaking type of movement. I guess you would say the Powerful type.”

Their smiling and attempting to cover for her was a thankful gesture.

That’s why Mitotsudaira took another breath and then opened her mouth. My, my, with a self-deprecating attitude, she raised her upper body,

“Is it because I am a Demi Loup-Garou? Or is there some trick that I am not understanding? I am just not good with fast movements. Where it is that I should put the strength into?”

“Fifth Special Agent. If you put too much power in it will actually have the opposite effect and become slower, you know?”

“Jud, I am often told that by Naomasa, I am taking care to avoid that happening though…”

There Mitotsudaira lightly waved her hand as a demonstration.

The movements were those of a jab, snapped with an open hand and at the end point clenched it.

Since she was relaxed when waving, it was nimble and fast. That is how it should be. It was also accompanied by the sound of the wind. There Asama responded,

“It is sufficiently fast, is it not? Right, Adele.”

“Eh?”

There Adele gave a small reaction. Immediately following this she hurriedly,

“Eh, well --- um Jud, It’s sufficiently fast. Yeah.”

Covering for people to hide the reality was Adele’s thankful but poor part as a retainer. Mitotsudaira bitterly smiled about it.
“Do not worry about it. I understand that I am slow. After all, in England, though I received martial arts training from Naomasa to deal with Wallshingham’s War of the Roses, I ended up just being thrown around."

<center>●</center>

Mitotsudaira thought of her speed. Her speed would be considered faster than a normal person, however would fall well short when compared to an expert.

That is the reason which Mitotsudaira believes that is preventing her from becoming stronger.

The Fifth Special Agent being located in the fifth position was due to this reason.

She was made to realize this while in England.

When she first arrived in England, when inside the falling cargo ship she witnessed firsthand the speed of Futayo’s actions… It would seem that viewing my role as the power type would be best.

When working on the anti-Wallshingham training, against Naomasa’s throws her nerves were able to react, but her body could not keep pace. "You are slow", is what Naosama clearly told her, that is why she remembered through experience rather than reacting and practiced until she was able to move though predicting.

However, while massaging my calf Asama abruptly said the following.

“Ah, the exhaustion removal is almost finished. Mito’s regeneration powers are amazing.”

“I did inherit the blood of Loup-Garou after all. Frankly, my toughness is my greatest weapon. It is due to the fact that my body is tough that I am able to strike with such power, and it also allows me to act as a shield.”

However Mitotsudaira saying that as an introduction bitterly laughed.

“If you remember what happened 8 years ago at Bizen IZUMO you will understand the circumstances regarding my mother and me. That is, how tough I am.”

Hearing those words, Asama and Adele exchanged glances, lowered their eyebrows and showed a smile.

After a little while Adele followed up with,

“The Loup-Garou family lineage is quite Spartan. About that story related to the silver chain which has been the subject of rumor for a while now, the Fifth special Agent’s family lineage was a noted family in a high position during the hundred year war, was it not?”

“Mother does not talk about those types of things… She also does have quite an irresponsible personality, however…”

“However?”

Jud, Mitotsudaira nodded her head. This was something that she had heard via the net on Musashi,

“According to a Loup-Garou related thread, after the hundred year war, the Hexagone Française Loup-Garou apparently consisted of two groups, those who choose to live together with the human population, and those which returned to the forest and retained their man-eating tendencies. There the Loup-Garou Queen and the nobles returned to the forest, however they were eventually driven out….It also seems Reine de Garous lost her life a while ago.”

“Lost her…, did she take her own life?”

Mitotsudaira nodded in response to Asama’s question which was asked with a frown. During the period she was in Hexagone Française, she was too young, so she didn’t know, and it was an embarrassment for the country and therefore not revealed to the public.

The things that I know are only from the past few years.

“The previous generation Reine de Garous who succeeded the line after the hundred year war, with the forest getting smaller and her companions disappearing apparently offered herself to someone who had come to hunt her. However you might say the Loup-Garou race declined, frankly. My mother as well had the characteristic of having her surroundings being wary of her; it was a species which has had trouble with intimacy with humans.”

Having said that much, Mitotsudaira fell silent once. She rethought that she should not say things to create a wall and shrugged her shoulders.

“My mother’s family line, however, was possibly in a fairly well off position. Before she met my father I do not know where she lived, however, according to her stories the house she lived in was sort of a strange place, something out of a fairy tale, then there is also the silver chain. If she does not talk about the past… She might have been a close associate of Reine de Garous.”

It was a thought that she had formed several times. She sometimes thought how it would be good if she had been a member of the Reine de Garous family lineage. In the past this was a result of her pride, however now this was about strength.

Having experienced a defeat in England was the depth of shame for a knight dedicated to protecting the king.

However,

“If there is the opportunity, I would like to hear the story from my mother, as well as the origin of silver chain, and a good fighting method for a Loup-Garou.”

“However, Mito, you were told by your mother not to descend down into Hexagone Française.”

“Y-yeah, I was made to promise that. I did promise that at Bizen IZUMO.”

Go live as a resident of Musashi; it was that sort of thing.

“IZUMO is a neutral zone. However, it is still part of the south of Hexagone Française which is a part of mother’s promise, the same holds true for Bizen IZUMO.”

That is why I have not descended on Hexagone Française or any of their territories you know, not since that time.

What happened at that time is not something I wished to recall, however it cannot be helped.

Thinking about it now, saying that she was a child then, and now if it happened now she thought she would have not been done in so badly.

“However the only good to come of that was…”

"That the Chancellor was absent" was what she was going to say but stopped.

The Chancellor did mention how he went to pay a visit to a relative who was on the verge of death.

That is why she nodded to herself on the inside and shut a range of thoughts inside her heart.

She possessed a variety of things to consider. Not just about herself, her surroundings were also piled up.

The issue where she had not received any communication from the Musashi knight alliance was still continuing.

Then, at the time where she had finished that thought, a shadow appeared ascending the staircase.

Kimi? Is what she thought and looked,

“Oh? Everyone, is this where you were?”

It was Tenzou, and following him was Mary, clad in a blue and white jersey.

… Ah.

Seeing her with E.X. Collbrande suspended on her left and right, Mitotsudaira unconsciously forcefully stood up.

<center>●</center>

“Ah! Mito.”

Tenzou immediately understood the reasoning behind the crouched down Asama’s voice.

She was in the middle of using an exhaustion removal spell.

Mitotsudaira’s tights were removed from her feet and the talisman still remained attached to the bottom of her feet. He faintly understood the reasoning about why she had suddenly stood up.

… It was because Mary was present.

At the moment, Mary who was lined up to the side was bowing her head towards everyone,

“Hello, good morning.”

“Good Morning Missus Mary.”

In a certain way, the mistranslation Adele returned was terrifying, however, reflected in Tenzou’s eyes was Mitotsudaira who chose to bow to lower her eye sight in greeting.

It was an inevitable issue.

Ever since Mary had transferred here, Tenzou thought that it was Mitotsudaira who was unable to properly grasp the proper distance. There was also the long-standings issue between England and Hexagone Française to consider.

There is also that they are both nobility.

Following Horizon, Mitotsudaira was second in line for succession for the Far East, while Mary was the future mother of the next king of England.
However Mitotsudaira's family was a lower noble house and the current status was something that had been assigned to them. On the other hand, Mary’s royal status was something that she was born with…

“Whatever is the matter Tenzou-sama?”

“Eh? Ah, um, it is just good that everyone is training from so early in the morning.”

That is right; Mary’s nod indicated this had no dark shadow.

This was a trait she was certainly born with.

This had nothing to do with the position of royalty; however this was something that was not distorted even through persecution.

However,

“………”

Mitotsudaira, while undergoing Asama’s treatment, remained standing with a downcast expression which could be seen as though she had been scolded.

Then, Asama unexpectedly directed her glance this way. While continuing to press her hands against Mitotsudaira’s feet,

“Umm, Mary, today, after school will you be coming to my family’s place?”

“Eh? Ah, it is okay for me to go, right, Tenzou-sama?”

Taking a part time job at Asama’s family Shrine, Tenzou nodded his head vertically,

“Um, yes, I am fine now.”

Mitotsudaira pulled her legs back almost as if she was running anyway from Asama’s hands. Then, with the talisman still attached to the bottom of her feet, she roughly put on her shoes, took the sock section in hand and started to walk away.

She lightly turned back this way, lowering her head was the minimum amount of consideration.

In response to her, who was seemed like she was going to descend the staircase, Asama went to say something, but stopped.

Adele spoke,

“Will it be alright? I don’t think that all of the exhaustion has completely disappeared yet.”
Yeah, well, there was nothing to do except for Asama to falter. However, Mary waited until the figure of Mitotsudaira had completely disappeared from sight down the stairs before taking a step closer to my side. The thing she whispered happily was,

“She was concealing a bent toe with a pedicure.”

Was this a request for me to paint my nails as well!? Was this a request!?

I must be overthinking the issue; Tenzou calmed himself down and asked Mary

“Still, is that something which one should be embarrassed about?”

In response to the question, Mary loosely bent the scar on her face and said the following.

“The more embarrassing something is, the greater the difference from others. It is something which one can be proud of you know?”

I see, while in front of his nodding eyes, Adele and Asama were fanning each other with clothes and talismans saying “Ah, hot hot, it's steamy in here!” “Yeah you think the same Adele, it’s very hot…!” and the like, however this was something that seems like it would be impossible to eventually be something to be proud of.

In any case, from the direction of the bottom of the staircase there was Kimi’s voice,

“Hahahaha, what are you doing slipping and falling onto your bottom Mitotsudaira!? I guess there’s nothing else to be done, I’ll carry you. Come now, ride on these breasts…! Wow! This child got seriously angry!”

Just when he was thinking that she has no mercy, he could hear a sound

It was the announcement of the time. Using the bell of the academy, the six a.m. announcement rang out.

The beginning of a day for Musashi.

[[File:Horizon3A 0036.jpg|thumb]]
<center>●IZUMO Outline Diagram●</center>

''Toori'' “Sis! Sis! Exactly what type of shape is IZUMO! As I thought because it is Shrine related they say it is where a deity resides and make it an erotic shape!? Maaraaaaaaa— !(sound effect)”

''Kimi'' “Hahaha private brother, stop imitating reproductive sounds. — Anyhow IZUMO is a floating island which floats at an altitude of 1000 meters; it is land that was originally on the earth side that was floated. From ancient times, the section which has become the current center was floated for ship development research. Then, with the Harmonic Unification War and the downfall of the Amako clan, they saw the opportunity and took refuge from the surface. That was how it was made.”

''Kimi'' “This should about sum it up. If Musashi was in this diagram it would have the bow towards the bottom and anchored in a southerly direction . The central area is, in reality, something of an abandoned land, however, when doing individual countries corporation exhibitions or aircraft shows, and when an urgent emergency landing is necessary, this location is used.”

''Toori'' “Since it is territory where we can finally relax, let’s go to the town beneath the Shrine and go shopping! There are a lot of Far Eastern style goods here, so that's a relief.”

''Kimi'' “Did you just implicitly say you are going to scour for erotic goods?”

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3A School Rules|School Rules]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 01|Chapter 01]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 3 Prologue

2014-07-01T02:00:14Z

Purin:

==Prologue: The Outsiders on the Bridge==
[[File:Horizon3A 0017.jpg|thumb]]
''Look at that which is close to you.''

''The times you cannot see underfoot are truly...''

'''Point Allocation (Consideration)'''

<center>●</center>

'''ANA''' “Hey!”

'''Dragon Dog'''<ref>A pun. Luynes is spelled “ryuinu” in Japanese and Dragon Dog is “ryuu inu”.</ref>''':''' “What is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “It's cold. ---No, well, it is not that it is cold, I am just feeling cold.”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “It may be some type of failure with the artificial sensory. I will contact those responsible.”

'''ANA:''' “You are flawless... However, I have already had that task completed. I was told the same thing. It might be a possible error in the artificial sensory.”

'''ANA:''' “Hey, is it possible that I might break down?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “It is impossible for me to answer that question. The reason being is that that reality has not occurred. The only conjecture I can make with respect to a situation which has not occurred is, "It is possible that both possibilities exist.".”

'''ANA:''' “Then, for example if you were to experience the cold, what would happen?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “I would cease to function.”

'''ANA:''' “In that case, hey...”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “What is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “My older brother said it, right? ‘If something happens, please tell me.’ That he would grant any wish. ---Just because he has found a person who is important to him and started living properly, he is acting like he is an adult. In that case, hey, is it fine for me to act like a child?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “I have determined that My Lady has always remained as a child.”

'''ANA:''' “That is fine, is it not? However, — hey,”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “Tes. Please say whatever it is that you wish to say, what is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “I see that you are the same as always. You are flawless. Then I want you to hear me out. You see…”

<center>●</center>

In the morning sky there was an island.

Floating at a position lower than the clouds, there was a floating island that stretched from north to south for tens of kilometres. The lower strata area, which hung like an icicle, was divided into massive blocks by rocks and structures; sometimes these would slowly move as a result of the internal frame and change the shape of the island.
At the massive floating island there were two massive objects.
One of these, located on the northern side of the island, was a Shinto shrine which possessed a Shinto shrine-styled gantry crane, several tens of kilometres in scale and a sprawling large scale wooden research facility located at its base.

The other of these was located on the eastern side of the island, also connected with a Shinto shrine-styled gantry crane with a massive ship in the interior as though it was being protected.

The vessel, which was comprised of eight individual ships, was installed in the large scale dock which stretched from north to south across the eastern side of the island.
It was Musashi.
The eight ship fleet which received the morning sun on the port-side had all of its ships still maintaining their functionality as a city while they remained within the dock.
However, from the surface of each ship, there were multiple small, high-pitched noises being raised by countless shadows clinging to the surface.

Those shadows, whether they were gods of war driving in anchor bolts or people who were assisting in the repair of the ship, including the other species, were all hurriedly working.

Musashi was currently undergoing complete repairs.

There were the figures of many students among the people participating in the construction.

If you let the students talk, their reasoning would be
“Well, this makes it possible to earn cash during the early morning.”
“I have been helping out after school, so I started doing mornings as well.”
“Out our way, the outer wall is still broken, which is scary.”

Also, between the people carrying raw materials and the kobolds, there were multiple running shadows present.

There was a jersey clad girl with two artificial arms and a tall foreigner in a tank top, a jersey clad retainer who was running with dogs, and, following quite a considerable distance behind the others, there was a silver haired girl.

The girl with the artificial arms and the tall foreigner, who had run further ahead, raised their hand in greeting and split off into a different route.

In contrast the glasses wearing retainer, after passing through the path of a natural area at a leisurely pace, ascended the staircase which was located ahead of her.

As she did, the dogs which were following her circled around at the bottom of the staircase and let out a bark.

Yeah, with the retainer turning around and waving her hand, the dogs emitted one more bark and then dispersed.

The girl retainer then nimbly ascended the staircase.

Once she had finished climbing, there was a building with the nameplate "Musashi Ariadust Academy" and a bridge which reached up to the second floor entrance way.
Furthermore,

“Eh? Asama, are you here for morning practice?”

<center>●</center>

Asama, while continuing to replace the talismans for the hanging lanterns which were built into the bridge, turned around in response to the calling voice.

It was Adele. While regulating her breathing, which wasn’t really disordered, she came over this way.

“Are you here for morning practice Asama?”

“Yeah, something close to that.”

Asama replied with a bitter smile. She held the talisman in her hand out towards Adele.

“Lately our academy has been keeping the lights on all throughout the night, hasn’t it. That’s why I am working on replacing the lighting spells. There’s also that…”

“What is it?”

“When I consider about what might happen from now on, I thought I should increase my stamina. I started from my family’s shrine below, ascended the staircase, and then did a light circuit of the schoolyard with Kimi accompanying me. However…”

Asama looked at the schoolyard. Kimi was collapsed on top of a bamboo bench located in the corner of schoolyard. The red jersey which was covering her head and upper body belonged to her, however,

“Well don’t worry about a thing. I'll go to recover it later. I’ll return either by the way of my family’s spring or Suzu’s public bathhouse, though whether or not I'll make it in time for morning class is a mystery.”

“Kimi always makes sure to eat the breakfast the chancellor makes before coming to the academy after all. About Kimi, how should I put it, why is it that, while dancing is not a problem, when it comes to running she is just a slightly higher class than a normal person?”

“Kimi’s “Dance of the Summit” is similar to Futayo’s acceleration technique, they both have fatigue reduction protections being inserted into the ability. She insists that “I have no willpower so I did it like that!”

While saying that, Asama though to herself that the ability which required access to customization was quite annoying.

After all, Kimi often didn’t think about things, and when there appeared a situation that couldn’t be dealt with she immediately started on about “New version! New version!” “Okay okay, again? Once again?” “Groin!? Groin is high!?”, displaying her insanity. Each and every time, the two of us soaked into the spring together doing this and that,

“My Priestess’s ‘Yearly spell supervision amount’ status rating is in large part a result of handling Kimi’s requests.”

There letting out a sigh she was unaware Kimi had stood up and began walking in this direction. While walking she put on the jacket which had been placed over her,

“Eh, this kid’s jersey, the cloth around the chest area has stretched…! This Priestess, what are you attempting to achieve by creating a breast mould!? Planning on making manjuu or something!?”

“When it fits you perfectly fine what exactly are you talking about!? Ah Adele, would you please stop looking down and averting your eyes.”

From beyond Adele, who was looking this way, a hand suddenly grasped the edge of the overhanging bridge from beneath the staircase.

Eh? There, in front of the girl who was thinking that, from the far side of the grasped palm, an elbow appeared, and then proceeded as if to pull upwards the rest of the body.

“S-Somehow I managed one full lap around the ship.”

It was Mitotsudaira.

<center>●</center>

The jersey figure of Mitotsudaira arrived at the top of the bridge completely out of breath.

….I-It really does seem like a “somehow” situation.

In front of her eyes, there was Adele who had run the exact same course yet whose breathing was not disturbed, and although she was the same age as her, a huge priestess. Mitotsudaira felt a feeling of irrationality against both these parties, however there was nothing to be done.

In any case, Mitotsudaira used the banister as a support and attempted to stand. However her knees were shaking. “Ow…”

She grasped the banister and attempted to move forward however she began to fall from her knees. Hurriedly she attempted to support her body, though before she could take her next action, Asama had already approached. While she was already holding a talisman,

[[File:Horizon3A_0024-0025.jpg|thumb]]

“Ah, Mito, please do not push your body so much. I will cleanse your exhaustion with a purification ritual.

“It is fine, Tomo, I will use my internal bless for a thing like that, you should use it for another…”

Before she had finished speaking, Asama claimed that it was fine and came to her side. She had Mitotsudaira lean against the banister,

'''“'''Good Work—'''”'''

Hasami, in order to cast the spell, displayed several forms for conformation. Asama already had the talisman out and was already clearing her throat as the preparation for the activation so there was no way to stop her.

Therefore leaving everything to the agreement, Mitotsudaira lowered her hips, stretched her legs and took a breath. Thus Asama removed Mitotsudaira’s shoes, then, splitting at the seam lining of the ankle, she opened the tights.

“I’ll attach one to the soles of your feet. If it tickles, please let me know.”

“Even If I say it tickles don’t…”

It suddenly happened. Mitotsudaira tried to endure the strength of the fingers which seemed to be pushing into her sole.

“Hyaaa!”

… Impossible. This is impossible!

“Hey… Mito, aren’t you too ticklish? Perhaps I should say a rare sensitivity syndrome…... hey!”

“W-What is it?”

Asama nodded with a yeah,

“However, if it is like that then it won’t finish. Therefore, shall we continue?”

“Eh? Hey, go easy on meeee!”

Since she was unable to move her legs, her upper body started to thrash about.

She experienced a different type of being out of breath than before, and, at the point where she became exhausted, she also lost the power to resist. She became limp and was left at the mercy of Asama.

“Mito, you have the same soft soles as Adele… They do say that people with soft soles have fast legs.”

Even if she said it earnestly, there was nothing to do about the reality of the situation.

Letting out a sigh that was unrelated to exhaustion, Mitotsudaira lightly shrugged her shoulders.

“Even if you say that I am the same as Adele, I am not fast at all you know? I was even called a Heavy Tank type by Kimi.”

Hmm, the one who was puzzled was Adele. She looked at my feet which Asama was rubbing,

“If I had to say, the fifth special Agent seems more like the type who does the breaking type of movement. I guess you would say the Powerful type.”

Their smiling and attempting to cover for her was a thankful gesture.

That’s why Mitotsudaira took another breath and then opened her mouth. My, my, with a self-deprecating attitude, she raised her upper body,

“Is it because I am a Demi Loup-Garou? Or is there some trick that I am not understanding? I am just not good with fast movements. Where it is that I should put the strength into?”

“Fifth Special Agent. If you put too much power in it will actually have the opposite effect and become slower, you know?”

“Jud, I am often told that by Naomasa, I am taking care to avoid that happening though…”

There Mitotsudaira lightly waved her hand as a demonstration.

The movements were those of a jab, snapped with an open hand and at the end point clenched it.

Since she was relaxed when waving, it was nimble and fast. That is how it should be. It was also accompanied by the sound of the wind. There Asama responded,

“It is sufficiently fast, is it not? Right, Adele.”

“Eh?”

There Adele gave a small reaction. Immediately following this she hurriedly,

“Eh, well --- um Jud, It’s sufficiently fast. Yeah.”

Covering for people to hide the reality was Adele’s thankful but poor part as a retainer. Mitotsudaira bitterly smiled about it.
“Do not worry about it. I understand that I am slow. After all, in England, though I received martial arts training from Naomasa to deal with Wallshingham’s War of the Roses, I ended up just being thrown around."

<center>●</center>

Mitotsudaira thought of her speed. Her speed would be considered faster than a normal person, however would fall well short when compared to an expert.

That is the reason which Mitotsudaira believes that is preventing her from becoming stronger.

The Fifth Special Agent being located in the fifth position was due to this reason.

She was made to realize this while in England.

When she first arrived in England, when inside the falling cargo ship she witnessed firsthand the speed of Futayo’s actions… It would seem that viewing my role as the power type would be best.

When working on the anti-Wallshingham training, against Naomasa’s throws her nerves were able to react, but her body could not keep pace. "You are slow", is what Naosama clearly told her, that is why she remembered through experience rather than reacting and practiced until she was able to move though predicting.

However, while massaging my calf Asama abruptly said the following.

“Ah, the exhaustion removal is almost finished. Mito’s regeneration powers are amazing.”

“I did inherit the blood of Loup-Garou after all. Frankly, my toughness is my greatest weapon. It is due to the fact that my body is tough that I am able to strike with such power, and it also allows me to act as a shield.”

However Mitotsudaira saying that as an introduction bitterly laughed.

“If you remember what happened 8 years ago at Bizen IZUMO you will understand the circumstances regarding my mother and me. That is, how tough I am.”

Hearing those words, Asama and Adele exchanged glances, lowered their eyebrows and showed a smile.

After a little while Adele followed up with,

“The Loup-Garou family lineage is quite Spartan. About that story related to the silver chain which has been the subject of rumor for a while now, the Fifth special Agent’s family lineage was a noted family in a high position during the hundred year war, was it not?”

“Mother does not talk about those types of things… She also does have quite an irresponsible personality, however…”

“However?”

Jud, Mitotsudaira nodded her head. This was something that she had heard via the net on Musashi,

“According to a Loup-Garou related thread, after the hundred year war, the Hexagone Française Loup-Garou apparently consisted of two groups, those who choose to live together with the human population, and those which returned to the forest and retained their man-eating tendencies. There the Loup-Garou Queen and the nobles returned to the forest, however they were eventually driven out….It also seems Reine de Garous lost her life a while ago.”

“Lost her…, did she take her own life?”

Mitotsudaira nodded in response to Asama’s question which was asked with a frown. During the period she was in Hexagone Française, she was too young, so she didn’t know, and it was an embarrassment for the country and therefore not revealed to the public.

The things that I know are only from the past few years.

“The previous generation Reine de Garous who succeeded the line after the hundred year war, with the forest getting smaller and her companions disappearing apparently offered herself to someone who had come to hunt her. However you might say the Loup-Garou race declined, frankly. My mother as well had the characteristic of having her surroundings being wary of her; it was a species which has had trouble with intimacy with humans.”

Having said that much, Mitotsudaira fell silent once. She rethought that she should not say things to create a wall and shrugged her shoulders.

“My mother’s family line, however, was possibly in a fairly well off position. Before she met my father I do not know where she lived, however, according to her stories the house she lived in was sort of a strange place, something out of a fairy tale, then there is also the silver chain. If she does not talk about the past… She might have been a close associate of Reine de Garous.”

It was a thought that she had formed several times. She sometimes thought how it would be good if she had been a member of the Reine de Garous family lineage. In the past this was a result of her pride, however now this was about strength.

Having experienced a defeat in England was the depth of shame for a knight dedicated to protecting the king.

However,

“If there is the opportunity, I would like to hear the story from my mother, as well as the origin of silver chain, and a good fighting method for a Loup-Garou.”

“However, Mito, you were told by your mother not to descend down into Hexagone Française.”

“Y-yeah, I was made to promise that. I did promise that at Bizen IZUMO.”

Go live as a resident of Musashi; it was that sort of thing.

“IZUMO is a neutral zone. However, it is still part of the south of Hexagone Française which is a part of mother’s promise, the same holds true for Bizen IZUMO.”

That is why I have not descended on Hexagone Française or any of their territories you know, not since that time.

What happened at that time is not something I wished to recall, however it cannot be helped.

Thinking about it now, saying that she was a child then, and now if it happened now she thought she would have not been done in so badly.

“However the only good to come of that was…”

"That the Chancellor was absent" was what she was going to say but stopped.

The Chancellor did mention how he went to pay a visit to a relative who was on the verge of death.

That is why she nodded to herself on the inside and shut a range of thoughts inside her heart.

She possessed a variety of things to consider. Not just about herself, her surroundings were also piled up.

The issue where she had not received any communication from the Musashi knight alliance was still continuing.

Then, at the time where she had finished that thought, a shadow appeared ascending the staircase.

Kimi? Is what she thought and looked,

“Oh? Everyone, is this where you were?”

It was Tenzou, and following him was Mary, clad in a blue and white jersey.

… Ah.

Seeing her with E.X. Collbrande suspended on her left and right, Mitotsudaira unconsciously forcefully stood up.

<center>●</center>

“Ah! Mito.”

Tenzou immediately understood the reasoning behind the crouched down Asama’s voice.

She was in the middle of using an exhaustion removal spell.

Mitotsudaira’s tights were removed from her feet and the talisman still remained attached to the bottom of her feet. He faintly understood the reasoning about why she had suddenly stood up.

… It was because Mary was present.

At the moment, Mary who was lined up to the side was bowing her head towards everyone,

“Hello, good morning.”

“Good Morning Missus Mary.”

In a certain way, the mistranslation Adele returned was terrifying, however, reflected in Tenzou’s eyes was Mitotsudaira who chose to bow to lower her eye sight in greeting.

It was an inevitable issue.

Ever since Mary had transferred here, Tenzou thought that it was Mitotsudaira who was unable to properly grasp the proper distance. There was also the long-standings issue between England and Hexagone Française to consider.

There is also that they are both nobility.

Following Horizon, Mitotsudaira was second in line for succession for the Far East, while Mary was the future mother of the next king of England.
However Mitotsudaira's family was a lower noble house and the current status was something that had been assigned to them. On the other hand, Mary’s royal status was something that she was born with…

“Whatever is the matter Tenzou-sama?”

“Eh? Ah, um, it is just good that everyone is training from so early in the morning.”

That is right; Mary’s nod indicated this had no dark shadow.

This was a trait she was certainly born with.

This had nothing to do with the position of royalty; however this was something that was not distorted even through persecution.

However,

“………”

Mitotsudaira, while undergoing Asama’s treatment, remained standing with a downcast expression which could be seen as though she had been scolded.

Then, Asama unexpectedly directed her glance this way. While continuing to press her hands against Mitotsudaira’s feet,

“Umm, Mary, today, after school will you be coming to my family’s place?”

“Eh? Ah, it is okay for me to go, right, Tenzou-sama?”

Taking a part time job at Asama’s family Shrine, Tenzou nodded his head vertically,

“Um, yes, I am fine now.”

Mitotsudaira pulled her legs back almost as if she was running anyway from Asama’s hands. Then, with the talisman still attached to the bottom of her feet, she roughly put on her shoes, took the sock section in hand and started to walk away.

She lightly turned back this way, lowering her head was the minimum amount of consideration.

In response to her, who was seemed like she was going to descend the staircase, Asama went to say something, but stopped.

Adele spoke,

“Will it be alright? I don’t think that all of the exhaustion has completely disappeared yet.”
Yeah, well, there was nothing to do except for Asama to falter. However, Mary waited until the figure of Mitotsudaira had completely disappeared from sight down the stairs before taking a step closer to my side. The thing she whispered happily was,

“She was concealing a bent toe with a pedicure.”

Was this a request for me to paint my nails as well!? Was this a request!?

I must be overthinking the issue; Tenzou calmed himself down and asked Mary

“Still, is that something which one should be embarrassed about?”

In response to the question, Mary loosely bent the scar on her face and said the following.

“The more embarrassing something is, the greater the difference from others. It is something which one can be proud of you know?”

I see, while in front of his nodding eyes, Adele and Asama were fanning each other with clothes and talismans saying “Ah, hot hot, it's steamy in here!” “Yeah you think the same Adele, it’s very hot…!” and the like, however this was something that seems like it would be impossible to eventually be something to be proud of.

In any case, from the direction of the bottom of the staircase there was Kimi’s voice,

“Hahahaha, what are you doing slipping and falling onto your bottom Mitotsudaira!? I guess there’s nothing else to be done, I’ll carry you. Come now, ride on these breasts…! Wow! This child got seriously angry!”

Just when he was thinking that she has no mercy, he could hear a sound

It was the announcement of the time. Using the bell of the academy, the six a.m. announcement rang out.

The beginning of a day for Musashi.

[[File:Horizon3A 0036.jpg|thumb]]
<center>●IZUMO Outline Diagram●</center>

''Toori'' “Sis! Sis! Exactly what type of shape is IZUMO! As I thought because it is Shrine related they say it is where a deity resides and make it an erotic shape!? Maaraaaaaaa— !(sound effect)”

''Kimi'' “Hahaha private brother, stop imitating reproductive sounds. — Anyhow IZUMO is a floating island which floats at an altitude of 1000 meters; it is land that was originally on the earth side that was floated. From ancient times, the section which has become the current center was floated for ship development research. Then, with the Harmonic Unification War and the downfall of the Amako clan, they saw the opportunity and took refuge from the surface. That was how it was made.”

''Kimi'' “This should about sum it up. If Musashi was in this diagram it would have the bow towards the bottom and anchored in a southerly direction . The central area is, in reality, something of an abandoned land, however, when doing individual countries corporation exhibitions or aircraft shows, and when an urgent emergency landing is necessary, this location is used.”

''Toori'' “Since it is territory where we can finally relax, let’s go to the town beneath the Shrine and go shopping! There are a lot of Far Eastern style goods here, so that's a relief.”

''Kimi'' “Did you just implicitly say you are going to scour for erotic goods?”

<noinclude>
===Notes===
<references/>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3A School Rules|School Rules]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 01|Chapter 01]]
}}
</noinclude>

Horizon:Volume 3 Prologue

2014-07-01T01:58:35Z

Purin: Handle name consistency.

==Prologue: The Outsiders on the Bridge==
[[File:Horizon3A 0017.jpg|thumb]]
''Look at that which is close to you.''

''The times you cannot see underfoot are truly...''

'''Point Allocation (Consideration)'''

<center>●</center>

'''ANA''' “Hey!”

'''Dragon Dog'''<ref>A pun. Luynes is spelled “ryuinu” in Japanese and Dragon Dog is “ryuu inu”.</ref>''':''' “What is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “It's cold. ---No, well, it is not that it is cold, I am just feeling cold.”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “It may be some type of failure with the artificial sensory. I will contact those responsible.”

'''ANA:''' “You are flawless... However, I have already had that task completed. I was told the same thing. It might be a possible error in the artificial sensory.”

'''ANA:''' “Hey, is it possible that I might break down?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “It is impossible for me to answer that question. The reason being is that that reality has not occurred. The only conjecture I can make with respect to a situation which has not occurred is, "It is possible that both possibilities exist.".”

'''ANA:''' “Then, for example if you were to experience the cold, what would happen?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “I would cease to function.”

'''ANA:''' “In that case, hey...”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “What is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “My older brother said it, right? ‘If something happens, please tell me.’ That he would grant any wish. ---Just because he has found a person who is important to him and started living properly, he is acting like he is an adult. In that case, hey, is it fine for me to act like a child?”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “I have determined that My Lady has always remained as a child.”

'''ANA:''' “That is fine, is it not? However, — hey,”

'''Dragon Dog:''' “Tes. Please say whatever it is that you wish to say, what is the matter My Lady?”

'''ANA:''' “I see that you are the same as always. You are flawless. Then I want you to hear me out. You see…”

<center>●</center>

In the morning sky there was an island.

Floating at a position lower than the clouds, there was a floating island that stretched from north to south for tens of kilometres. The lower strata area, which hung like an icicle, was divided into massive blocks by rocks and structures; sometimes these would slowly move as a result of the internal frame and change the shape of the island.
At the massive floating island there were two massive objects.
One of these, located on the northern side of the island, was a Shinto shrine which possessed a Shinto shrine-styled gantry crane, several tens of kilometres in scale and a sprawling large scale wooden research facility located at its base.

The other of these was located on the eastern side of the island, also connected with a Shinto shrine-styled gantry crane with a massive ship in the interior as though it was being protected.

The vessel, which was comprised of eight individual ships, was installed in the large scale dock which stretched from north to south across the eastern side of the island.
It was Musashi.
The eight ship fleet which received the morning sun on the port-side had all of its ships still maintaining their functionality as a city while they remained within the dock.
However, from the surface of each ship, there were multiple small, high-pitched noises being raised by countless shadows clinging to the surface.

Those shadows, whether they were gods of war driving in anchor bolts or people who were assisting in the repair of the ship, including the other species, were all hurriedly working.

Musashi was currently undergoing complete repairs.

There were the figures of many students among the people participating in the construction.

If you let the students talk, their reasoning would be
“Well, this makes it possible to earn cash during the early morning.”
“I have been helping out after school, so I started doing mornings as well.”
“Out our way, the outer wall is still broken, which is scary.”

Also, between the people carrying raw materials and the kobolds, there were multiple running shadows present.

There was a jersey clad girl with two artificial arms and a tall foreigner in a tank top, a jersey clad retainer who was running with dogs, and, following quite a considerable distance behind the others, there was a silver haired girl.

The girl with the artificial arms and the tall foreigner, who had run further ahead, raised their hand in greeting and split off into a different route.

In contrast the glasses wearing retainer, after passing through the path of a natural area at a leisurely pace, ascended the staircase which was located ahead of her.

As she did, the dogs which were following her circled around at the bottom of the staircase and let out a bark.

Yeah, with the retainer turning around and waving her hand, the dogs emitted one more bark and then dispersed.

The girl retainer then nimbly ascended the staircase.

Once she had finished climbing, there was a building with the nameplate "Musashi Ariadust Academy" and a bridge which reached up to the second floor entrance way.
Furthermore,

“Eh? Asama, are you here for morning practice?”

<center>●</center>

Asama, while continuing to replace the talismans for the hanging lanterns which were built into the bridge, turned around in response to the calling voice.

It was Adele. While regulating her breathing, which wasn’t really disordered, she came over this way.

“Are you here for morning practice Asama?”

“Yeah, something close to that.”

Asama replied with a bitter smile. She held the talisman in her hand out towards Adele.

“Lately our academy has been keeping the lights on all throughout the night, hasn’t it. That’s why I am working on replacing the lighting spells. There’s also that…”

“What is it?”

“When I consider about what might happen from now on, I thought I should increase my stamina. I started from my family’s shrine below, ascended the staircase, and then did a light circuit of the schoolyard with Kimi accompanying me. However…”

Asama looked at the schoolyard. Kimi was collapsed on top of a bamboo bench located in the corner of schoolyard. The red jersey which was covering her head and upper body belonged to her, however,

“Well don’t worry about a thing. I'll go to recover it later. I’ll return either by the way of my family’s spring or Suzu’s public bathhouse, though whether or not I'll make it in time for morning class is a mystery.”

“Kimi always makes sure to eat the breakfast the chancellor makes before coming to the academy after all. About Kimi, how should I put it, why is it that, while dancing is not a problem, when it comes to running she is just a slightly higher class than a normal person?”

“Kimi’s “Dance of the Summit” is similar to Futayo’s acceleration technique, they both have fatigue reduction protections being inserted into the ability. She insists that “I have no willpower so I did it like that!”

While saying that, Asama though to herself that the ability which required access to customization was quite annoying.

After all, Kimi often didn’t think about things, and when there appeared a situation that couldn’t be dealt with she immediately started on about “New version! New version!” “Okay okay, again? Once again?” “Groin!? Groin is high!?”, displaying her insanity. Each and every time, the two of us soaked into the spring together doing this and that,

“My Priestess’s ‘Yearly spell supervision amount’ status rating is in large part a result of handling Kimi’s requests.”

There letting out a sigh she was unaware Kimi had stood up and began walking in this direction. While walking she put on the jacket which had been placed over her,

“Eh, this kid’s jersey, the cloth around the chest area has stretched…! This Priestess, what are you attempting to achieve by creating a breast mould!? Planning on making manjuu or something!?”

“When it fits you perfectly fine what exactly are you talking about!? Ah Adele, would you please stop looking down and averting your eyes.”

From beyond Adele, who was looking this way, a hand suddenly grasped the edge of the overhanging bridge from beneath the staircase.

Eh? There, in front of the girl who was thinking that, from the far side of the grasped palm, an elbow appeared, and then proceeded as if to pull upwards the rest of the body.

“S-Somehow I managed one full lap around the ship.”

It was Mitotsudaira.

<center>●</center>

The jersey figure of Mitotsudaira arrived at the top of the bridge completely out of breath.

….I-It really does seem like a “somehow” situation.

In front of her eyes, there was Adele who had run the exact same course yet whose breathing was not disturbed, and although she was the same age as her, a huge priestess. Mitotsudaira felt a feeling of irrationality against both these parties, however there was nothing to be done.

In any case, Mitotsudaira used the banister as a support and attempted to stand. However her knees were shaking. “Ow…”

She grasped the banister and attempted to move forward however she began to fall from her knees. Hurriedly she attempted to support her body, though before she could take her next action, Asama had already approached. While she was already holding a talisman,

[[File:Horizon3A_0024-0025.jpg|thumb]]

“Ah, Mito, please do not push your body so much. I will cleanse your exhaustion with a purification ritual.

“It is fine, Tomo, I will use my internal bless for a thing like that, you should use it for another…”

Before she had finished speaking, Asama claimed that it was fine and came to her side. She had Mitotsudaira lean against the banister,

'''“'''Good Work—'''”'''

Hasami, in order to cast the spell, displayed several forms for conformation. Asama already had the talisman out and was already clearing her throat as the preparation for the activation so there was no way to stop her.

Therefore leaving everything to the agreement, Mitotsudaira lowered her hips, stretched her legs and took a breath. Thus Asama removed Mitotsudaira’s shoes, then, splitting at the seam lining of the ankle, she opened the tights.

“I’ll attach one to the soles of your feet. If it tickles, please let me know.”

“Even If I say it tickles don’t…”

It suddenly happened. Mitotsudaira tried to endure the strength of the fingers which seemed to be pushing into her sole.

“Hyaaa!”

… Impossible. This is impossible!

“Hey… Mito, aren’t you too ticklish? Perhaps I should say a rare sensitivity syndrome…... hey!”

“W-What is it?”

Asama nodded with a yeah,

“However, if it is like that then it won’t finish. Therefore, shall we continue?”

“Eh? Hey, go easy on meeee!”

Since she was unable to move her legs, her upper body started to thrash about.

She experienced a different type of being out of breath than before, and, at the point where she became exhausted, she also lost the power to resist. She became limp and was left at the mercy of Asama.

“Mito, you have the same soft soles as Adele… They do say that people with soft soles have fast legs.”

Even if she said it earnestly, there was nothing to do about the reality of the situation.

Letting out a sigh that was unrelated to exhaustion, Mitotsudaira lightly shrugged her shoulders.

“Even if you say that I am the same as Adele, I am not fast at all you know? I was even called a Heavy Tank type by Kimi.”

Hmm, the one who was puzzled was Adele. She looked at my feet which Asama was rubbing,

“If I had to say, the fifth special Agent seems more like the type who does the breaking type of movement. I guess you would say the Powerful type.”

Their smiling and attempting to cover for her was a thankful gesture.

That’s why Mitotsudaira took another breath and then opened her mouth. My, my, with a self-deprecating attitude, she raised her upper body,

“Is it because I am a Demi Loup-Garou? Or is there some trick that I am not understanding? I am just not good with fast movements. Where it is that I should put the strength into?”

“Fifth Special Agent. If you put too much power in it will actually have the opposite effect and become slower, you know?”

“Jud, I am often told that by Naomasa, I am taking care to avoid that happening though…”

There Mitotsudaira lightly waved her hand as a demonstration.

The movements were those of a jab, snapped with an open hand and at the end point clenched it.

Since she was relaxed when waving, it was nimble and fast. That is how it should be. It was also accompanied by the sound of the wind. There Asama responded,

“It is sufficiently fast, is it not? Right, Adele.”

“Eh?”

There Adele gave a small reaction. Immediately following this she hurriedly,

“Eh, well --- um Jud, It’s sufficiently fast. Yeah.”

Covering for people to hide the reality was Adele’s thankful but poor part as a retainer. Mitotsudaira bitterly smiled about it.
“Do not worry about it. I understand that I am slow. After all, in England, though I received martial arts training from Naomasa to deal with Wallshingham’s War of the Roses, I ended up just being thrown around."

<center>●</center>

Mitotsudaira thought of her speed. Her speed would be considered faster than a normal person, however would fall well short when compared to an expert.

That is the reason which Mitotsudaira believes that is preventing her from becoming stronger.

The Fifth Special Agent being located in the fifth position was due to this reason.

She was made to realize this while in England.

When she first arrived in England, when inside the falling cargo ship she witnessed firsthand the speed of Futayo’s actions… It would seem that viewing my role as the power type would be best.

When working on the anti-Wallshingham training, against Naomasa’s throws her nerves were able to react, but her body could not keep pace. "You are slow", is what Naosama clearly told her, that is why she remembered through experience rather than reacting and practiced until she was able to move though predicting.

However, while massaging my calf Asama abruptly said the following.

“Ah, the exhaustion removal is almost finished. Mito’s regeneration powers are amazing.”

“I did inherit the blood of Loup-Garou after all. Frankly, my toughness is my greatest weapon. It is due to the fact that my body is tough that I am able to strike with such power, and it also allows me to act as a shield.”

However Mitotsudaira saying that as an introduction bitterly laughed.

“If you remember what happened 8 years ago at Bizen IZUMO you will understand the circumstances regarding my mother and me. That is, how tough I am.”

Hearing those words, Asama and Adele exchanged glances, lowered their eyebrows and showed a smile.

After a little while Adele followed up with,

“The Loup-Garou family lineage is quite Spartan. About that story related to the silver chain which has been the subject of rumor for a while now, the Fifth special Agent’s family lineage was a noted family in a high position during the hundred year war, was it not?”

“Mother does not talk about those types of things… She also does have quite an irresponsible personality, however…”

“However?”

Jud, Mitotsudaira nodded her head. This was something that she had heard via the net on Musashi,

“According to a Loup-Garou related thread, after the hundred year war, the Hexagone Française Loup-Garou apparently consisted of two groups, those who choose to live together with the human population, and those which returned to the forest and retained their man-eating tendencies. There the Loup-Garou Queen and the nobles returned to the forest, however they were eventually driven out….It also seems Reine de Garous lost her life a while ago.”

“Lost her…, did she take her own life?”

Mitotsudaira nodded in response to Asama’s question which was asked with a frown. During the period she was in Hexagone Française, she was too young, so she didn’t know, and it was an embarrassment for the country and therefore not revealed to the public.

The things that I know are only from the past few years.

“The previous generation Reine de Garous who succeeded the line after the hundred year war, with the forest getting smaller and her companions disappearing apparently offered herself to someone who had come to hunt her. However you might say the Loup-Garou race declined, frankly. My mother as well had the characteristic of having her surroundings being wary of her; it was a species which has had trouble with intimacy with humans.”

Having said that much, Mitotsudaira fell silent once. She rethought that she should not say things to create a wall and shrugged her shoulders.

“My mother’s family line, however, was possibly in a fairly well off position. Before she met my father I do not know where she lived, however, according to her stories the house she lived in was sort of a strange place, something out of a fairy tale, then there is also the silver chain. If she does not talk about the past… She might have been a close associate of Reine de Garous.”

It was a thought that she had formed several times. She sometimes thought how it would be good if she had been a member of the Reine de Garous family lineage. In the past this was a result of her pride, however now this was about strength.

Having experienced a defeat in England was the depth of shame for a knight dedicated to protecting the king.

However,

“If there is the opportunity, I would like to hear the story from my mother, as well as the origin of silver chain, and a good fighting method for a Loup-Garou.”

“However, Mito, you were told by your mother not to descend down into Hexagone Française.”

“Y-yeah, I was made to promise that. I did promise that at Bizen IZUMO.”

Go live as a resident of Musashi; it was that sort of thing.

“IZUMO is a neutral zone. However, it is still part of the south of Hexagone Française which is a part of mother’s promise, the same holds true for Bizen IZUMO.”

That is why I have not descended on Hexagone Française or any of their territories you know, not since that time.

What happened at that time is not something I wished to recall, however it cannot be helped.

Thinking about it now, saying that she was a child then, and now if it happened now she thought she would have not been done in so badly.

“However the only good to come of that was…”

"That the Chancellor was absent" was what she was going to say but stopped.

The Chancellor did mention how he went to pay a visit to a relative who was on the verge of death.

That is why she nodded to herself on the inside and shut a range of thoughts inside her heart.

She possessed a variety of things to consider. Not just about herself, her surroundings were also piled up.

The issue where she had not received any communication from the Musashi knight alliance was still continuing.

Then, at the time where she had finished that thought, a shadow appeared ascending the staircase.

Kimi? Is what she thought and looked,

“Oh? Everyone, is this where you were?”

It was Tenzou, and following him was Mary, clad in a blue and white jersey.

… Ah.

Seeing her with E.X. Collbrande suspended on her left and right, Mitotsudaira unconsciously forcefully stood up.

<center>●</center>

“Ah! Mito.”

Tenzou immediately understood the reasoning behind the crouched down Asama’s voice.

She was in the middle of using an exhaustion removal spell.

Mitotsudaira’s tights were removed from her feet and the talisman still remained attached to the bottom of her feet. He faintly understood the reasoning about why she had suddenly stood up.

… It was because Mary was present.

At the moment, Mary who was lined up to the side was bowing her head towards everyone,

“Hello, good morning.”

“Good Morning Missus Mary.”

In a certain way, the mistranslation Adele returned was terrifying, however, reflected in Tenzou’s eyes was Mitotsudaira who chose to bow to lower her eye sight in greeting.

It was an inevitable issue.

Ever since Mary had transferred here, Tenzou thought that it was Mitotsudaira who was unable to properly grasp the proper distance. There was also the long-standings issue between England and Hexagone Française to consider.

There is also that they are both nobility.

Following Horizon, Mitotsudaira was second in line for succession for the Far East, while Mary was the future mother of the next king of England.
However Mitotsudaira's family was a lower noble house and the current status was something that had been assigned to them. On the other hand, Mary’s royal status was something that she was born with…

“Whatever is the matter Tenzou-sama?”

“Eh? Ah, um, it is just good that everyone is training from so early in the morning.”

That is right; Mary’s nod indicated this had no dark shadow.

This was a trait she was certainly born with.

This had nothing to do with the position of royalty; however this was something that was not distorted even through persecution.

However,

“………”

Mitotsudaira, while undergoing Asama’s treatment, remained standing with a downcast expression which could be seen as though she had been scolded.

Then, Asama unexpectedly directed her glance this way. While continuing to press her hands against Mitotsudaira’s feet,

“Umm, Mary, today, after school will you be coming to my family’s place?”

“Eh? Ah, it is okay for me to go, right, Tenzou-sama?”

Taking a part time job at Asama’s family Shrine, Tenzou nodded his head vertically,

“Um, yes, I am fine now.”

Mitotsudaira pulled her legs back almost as if she was running anyway from Asama’s hands. Then, with the talisman still attached to the bottom of her feet, she roughly put on her shoes, took the sock section in hand and started to walk away.

She lightly turned back this way, lowering her head was the minimum amount of consideration.

In response to her, who was seemed like she was going to descend the staircase, Asama went to say something, but stopped.

Adele spoke,

“Will it be alright? I don’t think that all of the exhaustion has completely disappeared yet.”
Yeah, well, there was nothing to do except for Asama to falter. However, Mary waited until the figure of Mitotsudaira had completely disappeared from sight down the stairs before taking a step closer to my side. The thing she whispered happily was,

“She was concealing a bent toe with a pedicure.”

Was this a request for me to paint my nails as well!? Was this a request!?

I must be overthinking the issue; Tenzou calmed himself down and asked Mary

“Still, is that something which one should be embarrassed about?”

In response to the question, Mary loosely bent the scar on her face and said the following.

“The more embarrassing something is, the greater the difference from others. It is something which one can be proud of you know?”

I see, while in front of his nodding eyes, Adele and Asama were fanning each other with clothes and talismans saying “Ah, hot hot, it's steamy in here!” “Yeah you think the same Adele, it’s very hot…!” and the like, however this was something that seems like it would be impossible to eventually be something to be proud of.

In any case, from the direction of the bottom of the staircase there was Kimi’s voice,

“Hahahaha, what are you doing slipping and falling onto your bottom Mitotsudaira!? I guess there’s nothing else to be done, I’ll carry you. Come now, ride on these breasts…! Wow! This child got seriously angry!”

Just when he was thinking that she has no mercy, he could hear a sound

It was the announcement of the time. Using the bell of the academy, the six a.m. announcement rang out.

The beginning of a day for Musashi.

[[File:Horizon3A 0036.jpg|thumb]]
<center>●IZUMO Outline Diagram●</center>

''Toori'' “Sis! Sis! Exactly what type of shape is IZUMO! As I thought because it is Shrine related they say it is where a deity resides and make it an erotic shape!? Maaraaaaaaa— !(sound effect)”

''Kimi'' “Hahaha private brother, stop imitating reproductive sounds. — Anyhow IZUMO is a floating island which floats at an altitude of 1000 meters; it is land that was originally on the earth side that was floated. From ancient times, the section which has become the current center was floated for ship development research. Then, with the Harmonic Unification War and the downfall of the Amako clan, they saw the opportunity and took refuge from the surface. That was how it was made.”

''Kimi'' “This should about sum it up. If Musashi was in this diagram it would have the bow towards the bottom and anchored in a southerly direction . The central area is, in reality, something of an abandoned land, however, when doing individual countries corporation exhibitions or aircraft shows, and when an urgent emergency landing is necessary, this location is used.”

''Toori'' “Since it is territory where we can finally relax, let’s go to the town beneath the Shrine and go shopping! There are a lot of Far Eastern style goods here, so that's a relief.”

''Kimi'' “Did you just implicitly say you are going to scour for erotic goods?”

<noinclude>
{{HorizonNavbar
| [[Horizon:Volume 3A School Rules|School Rules]]
| [[Horizon:Volume 3 Chapter 01|Chapter 01]]
}}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 18

2014-06-19T23:12:46Z

Purin:

==Chapter 18: Future Circumstances==
[[Image:OnC_v06_0179.png|thumb]]
''Do you call ambition for oneself the ego?

''Do you call ambition for others hope?

''Do you really need to think so strictly?

When Miyako awoke, her vision was filled with scarlet light.

Every part of her vision, from the center on out, was filled with the colors of orange and reddish yellow.

She noticed the state of her body a moment later. She was lying on her back and the leaves of the forest and the sky lay before her.

Even the layers of green leaves were dyed red.

…''It’s evening.

She looked around and saw a shadowy form. That shadowy form was a man she recognized.

“Hey, you idiot!”

She quickly rose up for two reasons. First, she was not actually lying on the ground. He was holding her. And second…

“You’re bleeding!”

She got up and turned around to find him sitting with his back to the earth that had crumbled from the cliff.

His blond hair was in disarray and dyed red by the light and something dark was flowing down his forehead. For an instant, she recalled her upperclassman in middle school who she hit in the head with a baseball, but she shook her head.

He was not bleeding as much as that incident.

A closer look showed his right arm was bent at a questionable angle. One of the two bones making up his forearm had to be broken.

“You idiot…”

She could tell he had protected her. She felt the pain of a scrape on the outside of her right calf, but it was a light injury compared to his. She could rub some spit on it and let it heal.

She looked around and saw no one else around. It had clearly been a fairly large landslide and the cliff had collapsed diagonally toward the inside of the concept space.

While atop the cliff, Apollo had said the concept weakened around the outer edge, but how strong was the concept here? They were farther from the outer edge than before.

She opened her mouth to call for someone, but something stopped her.

“There is no need to worry. I will heal before long,” said a quiet voice.

She turned around in surprise and breathed a sigh of relief that he was alive, but she spoke so as to hide her relief.

“Don’t try to protect me to show off, you idiot. You’re too weak for that.”

“And here I thought you might thank me.”

He wearily closed his eyes, but formed a smile with only his mouth.

That was the expression of his lies, so Miyako ignored it and took his right arm.

“It’ll hurt a bit, but bear with it. I’ll set it in place.”

“No need. It’s no use, so please stop. You’re being a nuisance.”

“Don’t be stupid. Is that anything to say to the person you just tried to save?”

“Are you any different, Miyako? You are complaining to the person who saved you.” He gave the mouth-only smile once more. “Why didn’t you leave? Now is your only chance. This base will soon prepare for battle and we will be unable to let you go. …I hear you are ‘job hunting’. In other words, you are being tested in order to join an organization.”

“That doesn’t matter. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“It does matter,” he insisted. “Miyako, you live in the world beyond that wall. You must leave those of us who live on this side of the wall. You should prioritize your own future over us.”

“Even if I still have things left to do here?”

“You mean naming the automatons? It makes no difference whether they have names or not.”

“Yes, it does!!” she roared back.

She was aware she was losing her cool, but it was too late.

She grabbed his collar and made him face her. As soon as he opened his narrow eyes, she stared into them.

“My name is Miyako. My father gave me that name so a great number of people would gather around me. You have the name of the sun god and you have that power, don’t you? Are you saying it’s meaningless to give those maids names and let them trust in their own strength!?”

“You truly trust in your name, don’t you?” His eyebrows lay flat and he looked her directly in the eye. “But my father was not like yours. He gave me my name, controlled what I did, and then left after forcing everything onto me. …And I can no longer live up to my name. 3rd-Gear’s sun was lost and there are no more people to wish for a king. Having a name includes things like that as well.”

Apollo spat out a short laugh.

“Go home, Miyako. Go home and tell your father you gave names and strength to a great number of people who gathered around you, but then a heartless man prevented you from doing anything more. That gives you enough of a reason to go crying to your father, doesn’t it? Return to that father who understands you, unlike mine.”

“My father died ten years ago! He left to save others and died!” said Miyako. “Do you even know what Christmas is, foreigner!? I got into a lot of trouble as a kid and I was always thinking that I should be honest with my dad at some point. I used that as an excuse to buy him a small bottle as a Christmas gift, since he loved alcohol. He laughed and we both promised never to drink too much. That was when he first told me why he gave me my name. He said he had work to do and we could discuss it more later, but that was the last I ever saw of him!”

Had he understood her or not?

…''I can never know what he thought of me.

She then realized they were more or less arguing over who had been the most unfortunate.

She did not like it, but she could not forgive someone who thought of themselves as unfortunate.

…''Even in similar circumstances, I never thought of myself as unfortunate.

After all…

“A lot happened after that. I’m not trying to whitewash the past, but there’s one thing I can never forget: the meaning of my name. And I’m trying to live up to that name! Even if my dad is gone and no one is expecting it of me, I won’t back down when it comes to my name!”

She punctuated her words with a headbutt and felt the impact.

It brought pain, but the man shook his head once and glared at her beyond that pain.

She heard him speak.

“You’re trying to live a life you aren’t ashamed of? You won’t back down? Don’t be naïve!”

An answering headbutt reached her.

The sound of impact rang through her head.

It had a decent ring to it.

''This bastard’s not half bad,'' she thought as she was knocked back and quickly recovered.

She started with a return hit.

“Urah!”

But the sound of impact was weak because he had kept his head from being knocked back.

They pressed their foreheads together, he grounded his teeth together, and he spoke some more.

“Leave, Miyako. If you are that insistent, then use your name to take on the world outside of here.”

“Yeah, I will leave and I will take on that world. But I’ll finish things here first.”

“What is there to finish here? Do you like being pampered by automatons that much?”

“I’ll overcome that pampering!”

She gave a point-blank headbutt and pushed him away with the movement of her head.

“The automatons started saying they were grateful for what I had done. I’ll go from being a guest and become someone who can do for them what they can’t! What’s wrong with that!?”

“That is for their master to do!”

“If you’d been doing it, I wouldn’t have been able to take your place!”

“Then are you trying to become their master!? Are you doing these things while setting aside the final human of 3rd-Gear and ignoring his decisions!? How will you take responsibility? The automatons would not have changed if you had left well enough alone, so how will you take responsibility for changing them!?”

His question was accompanied by a headbutt and it was quite effective.

She felt briefly dizzy and somewhat reevaluated him.

…''He’s got a decent amount of resolve.

There was more to a fight than having resolve, but that could be the deciding factor in some things. Without resolve, one could not gather the strength needed to withstand pain.

His question shook her resolve and filled himself with it. That synergy caused twice the damage.

His question of responsibility had likely been what he truly thought, so Miyako opened her mouth to speak.

To bring back her shaken resolve, she did not bother calculating anything out in her mind. If he was throwing his true thoughts her way, she would say what was on her mind as well.

“You don’t know what to do, do you? You lost your world, you lost your father, and now you don’t know what to do.”

''I’m tearing into him,'' she realized. ''But I’m also talking to my old self.

But these were her true thoughts. She did not hold back and she did not think about the consequences.

She went on to say something she should not have if she wanted to maintain an amicable relationship.

“I don’t care about taking responsibility. It doesn’t matter to me that your world was destroyed.” She raised her head. “But I know what I’d do if I were you. I’d eventually find a job in the outside world. I’d make sure of it. Once I desired that, I’d go to the place I desired, work there, become accepted there, make mistakes, complain, kick my boss, get punched by my boss, become friends with my boss, and all the while create something and earn money. And…”

“And?”

“I’d use that money to feed the automatons here.”

She faced forward and saw Apollo’s yellow eyes looking her way.

“The automatons do not need you in order to be fed. They are self-sufficient. In fact, they do not need to eat anything other than small amounts of fuel. And how would you feed all of the automatons here? Would you earn enough money to pay them all a wage?”

“Are you stupid? People don’t eat food. They eat satisfaction.”

She felt she was being naïve, but this was what she truly thought.

Strength filled her grip on his collar. ''This will work,'' she told herself before saying what she had wanted to say at the company interview.

“Money, food, things, social status, questions, answers, going somewhere, returning home, doing something, destroying something, being with someone, and leaving someone are all forms of the same sense of satisfaction!!” she said. “If serving people is what automatons do, then even a small amount of money will make a record of that service. Even adding on one more coin to the pile will make a noise they can store in their mechanical memory and the number of those stored noise will show the passage of time as they’ve served their master. Those memories will prove that it happened in the real world and not just in their heads.”

“And what will that accomplish? That is sentimentality and you are forcing it onto them.”

“What’s wrong with sentimentality? Even machines remember the past and they need some proof to feel pride in their work. If that kind of sentimentality is wrong, are you saying it’s wonderful to have no emotions at all, Apollo!? If you do nothing and avoid any emotions, you’ll never gain the pride you might lose and you won’t have any pain in your past! But isn’t it the lack of those things that led to the destruction of 3rd-Gear’s people and left only machines behind!?”

She laughed.

“The hopeless humans who had lost their emotions died off while the machines with the ability to gain those things survived. And where’s the god who made your world like that?”

“Well…”

“That god is no longer just in our minds. He’s in the sky above those machines who are growing flowers! When those flowers inevitably die, it will scar those dolls’ memories and I’ll tell them not to fear the fact that flowers die. Just as they let the flowers bloom to create their own pasts, the flowers created their pasts to leave behind seeds. The same satisfaction lies in both the dolls and the flowers. I’ll find my satisfaction in increasing 3rd-Gear’s sentimentality like that, so I’ll be perfectly happy ignoring you as you reject that satisfaction!”

She swung back her head and felt strength fill her entire body.

…''This will definitely work.

She gave one last comment as she swung her head toward his forehead.

“Just you watch! If you insist on being an emotionless master, I’ll become a sentimental master!”

Her shout was immediately answered by a voice from the cliff overhead.

“Is that true, Lady Miyako!?”

Moira 1st’s sudden voice was followed by a few dozen figures leaning out from the cliff.

Miyako froze in place when she heard the sounds of several people moving at once. She looked up at the cliff while still holding Apollo’s collar and pulling him toward her.

Moira 1st and the other maids were gathered below the scarlet sky. Moira 2nd was missing, but all those she had named were there.

Miyako looked at them while on her knees.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“We arrived to save you two, but Lord Apollo said he wished to speak with you first.

Hearing that, Miyako looked down and saw the young man’s shoulder’s shaking as he averted his gaze.

…''That son of a bitch.

“Were you faking when you looked unconscious before?’

“Yes, I suppose you could put it that way.”

“And…were you guiding my thoughts?”

“Such cruel suspicion, Miyako. I simply wanted to speak honestly with you.”

“Oh? That’s surprising.”

She nodded and some new dark emotion welled up from the bottom of her gut.

She opened her mouth to speak and only a simple verb escaped.

“Die.”

“Ha ha. No need to be so violent, Miyako. Women should speak with more lovely language than that.”

“Have a lovely death.”

“W-wait. Calm down, Miyako.”

“Death is an instant. Not even I can make it wait.”

“You are quite the poet.”

“Then do I need to write you an elegy? Viva the afterlife.”

As she spoke, Miyako realized something.

…''Huh?

She grabbed his right hand and looked at his supposedly broken right arm.

“What is it, Miyako? Is there something wrong with my arm?”

It was no longer broken.

She felt her back tremble, but not from fear or surprise. She did not understand the truth in her hand, so she gained a feeling of the unknown.

But as she remained speechless, Apollo pulled on her hand and lightly brushed off his arm.

“It seems to have healed. The people of 3rd-Gear have long lives, after all.”

“S-sure,” she agreed while thinking back.

According to Moira 1st, the people of 3rd-Gear had long lives, but their metabolisms were about the same as the people of Low-Gear.

…''So why did his arm heal so quickly?

The injury on his forehead was also gone. She touched her own forehead and found no blood on it. That meant his forehead injury had healed before the exchange of headbutts had begun.

…''What’s going on?

As she thought, Apollo stood up and the maids descended the cliff to meet him. The maids held their hands down, used their gravitational control to press and hold the crumbled cliff face in place, and jogged down.

Moira 1st took the lead and she looked back and forth between the two humans with a smile.

“We have now reconfirmed the two of you as our masters.”

“No, um. I was only…”

As soon as Miyako frantically spoke up, Apollo turned his back and his shoulders shook.

Once she realized he was laughing, Miyako felt her cheeks flush. She assumed no one could tell in the evening sun, so she turned toward Moira 1st, relaxed her shoulders, and had a single thought.

…''Well, that’s how it turned out.

“Fine then. I’ll help out where I can. A university student working to find a job in modern Japan only knows the ideal form of a corporation and I’ve heard people seeking a workplace to achieve their goals is the way out of a recession. Sorry I don’t have the experience to say anything that isn’t straight out of a textbook.”

She took a breath and spoke in response to Moira 1st’s deepening smile and the smiles of expectation behind her.

“Doing nothing is an acceptable choice too. It’s a whole lot better than actively making thing worse. Still, I want to do something with this world that’s being wasted.”

“Really, what is going on?”

A voice filled a small, oblong room.

The student dorm room contained a bunk bed and the lockers near the entrance were labelled “Center of the World – Sayama” and “Sensible One – Shinjou”.

The beginnings of night could be seen through the window across from the entrance and someone sat at the desk by the window. The short boy had a white bandanna around his head and he wore a black T-shirt and the pants of his school uniform.

He spoke to someone over a cell phone.

“How is Mikage-san doing? Oh, that’s her journal. She writes in it every day. Could you put her on for a moment?”

After a few seconds, he spoke toward the sounds coming from the phone.

“Mikage-san, you’re writing in your journal, aren’t you? I don’t think I’ll be able to read it today, but would it be okay if I read it tomorrow morning when we travel to Okayama with the others?”

After a short silence, he lowered his head a bit.

“I’m sorry. I should have been more reliable. Anyway, I’ll call again in the morning, but you can have Kazami-san call me if there are any problems. Don’t worry. She’s my upperclassman, so she holds a higher position than me and you can trust her. I promise she won’t do anything you don’t want. Can you put her back on?”

After more silence, he scratched at his head.

“Oh, yes. That’s right. I can somehow understand her even though she can’t speak. I just have an idea what she’s probably thinking. Sure, I’ll put Izumo-san on.”

Izumo appeared from the bottom bunk wearing a black track suit and raised a hand toward the boy by the window.

The boy tossed the cell phone and Izumo caught it

“What is it, Chisato? Are you lonely?” he asked sleepily. “Yeah, Hiba said something about understanding her even when she doesn’t speak. Making all those assumptions seems pretty dangerous to me.”

“I-Izumo-san! You’re ruining everything!”

“Hm? Don’t worry about it, Chisato. It’s just the complaints of a small fry. We can get across what we want to say without speaking too. Like when we’re in bed every night and- you’ll kill me if I say any more? You’ll shove me out of the helicopter tomorrow? Ha ha ha. No need to be shy.”

“That’s being shy?”

Hiba glared over from the window, but Izumo ignored him.

“Well, I hope you can enjoy your time with Mikage. It’s been a while since you’ve had a female roommate, hasn’t it?”

“Oh, can you pass something on to Kazami-san? Tell her not to help Mikage-san when she uses her cane to walk and not to help her even if she trips. And even if it’s easier to communicate in writing, tell her to avoid it if possible. It might take longer, but she can figure out what Mikage-san is saying from her limited pronunciation.”

“You sure are strict.”

“Mikage-san is the one that wants it.”

“Oh?” Izumo sounded impressed. “Did you hear that, Chisato? Of course, I hear it caused quite a commotion when you reserved the women’s bath for her. She’s pretty mature.”

For a while, Izumo simply nodded as he listened to the voice over the phone.

After a fair number of comments and about seven nods, he turned to Hiba.

“Do you have anything to say?”

“No,” answered Hiba.

Izumo passed it on, hung up, sighed, and placed the phone in the charger stand on the floor.

“Now then.”

Izumo faced Hiba and Hiba frowned.

“What is it? You look like you have something to say.”

“I was just thinking how strange it is that my grandfather, yours, and Sayama’s all knew each other.”

“It is a strange feeling. But…”

“But?”

Hiba scratched his head apologetically.

“I still have no intention of telling you about the second impurity. Sorry.”

“That’s fine, but did that battle this morning make you want to join us?”

Hiba gave a troubled smile and did not answer, so Izumo gave a quiet laugh.

“Hiba, what do you plan to do if the battle with 3rd-Gear ends?”

“That’s easy. That should mean Mikage-san can evolve once more, so I would leave Keravnos with all of you and live in peace.”

“Are you fighting for her evolution?”

“Yes,” he replied. “I think she isn’t evolving because we have to fight and because we don’t have the Concept Core. I just want to be with her and-…”

“Don’t say it all. You’ll spread the feeling too thin.”

“Perhaps, but do you have anything like that?”

“Yeah. I’m always thinking about…well, unspeakably dirty things I can do with Chisato and- What’s with that look? Is that not what you meant?”

“No, but I did gain a bit of respect for you. About 20%…no, 15%.”

Izumo nodded in satisfaction.

“But it doesn’t look like that’s all there is to it. Do you have another reason?”

“Yes. 3rd-Gear’s Typhon abducted someone the other night, remember? Well, I lost an older sister a long time ago. She went missing.”

“An older sister?”

“Yes. My grandfather took her in about ten years ago. It was about three months after Mikage-san arrived. He said he was making her his granddaughter.”

“What kind of girl was she?”

“Despite being a girl, she was an incredibly good swordfighter. I was no match for her at all. I tried so many times to get up close and grope her breasts, but I never managed it.”

“I see. If someone as agile as you couldn’t manage it, she must’ve been quite something.”

Hiba nodded, but clenched his right fist and gathered strength in it.

“I don’t know how it would turn out now. At the time, my father had died and I think my grandfather was planning to make her his successor, but she suddenly vanished about a year later.”

“Vanished? What was her name? I might be able to check on it with IAI’s intelligence network.”

“Her name was Miki. Do you know a Hiba Miki?”

“No.” Izumo scratched his head. “Sorry. But you think it might’ve been 3rd-Gear’s doing, don’t you?”

“We’ve covered more or less why I’m fighting, but what about you?”

“Because it’s fun. Why else?”

His immediate and casual response caused Hiba to stop moving.

After a few seconds of silence, Hiba frowned.

“Fun? People die in these battles.”

“I can’t help it if I find it fun and there’s no point in lying. I’ve given this a fair bit of thought even if I don’t have as much combat experience as you.” A bitter laugh leaked from his mouth. “I have divine protection from my mother, a place where I can go all out, my bonds with Chisato, my trust with my foolish underclassmen and comrades, and other things you wouldn’t believe if I said them aloud. And for the moment, I find all those things out there on the battlefield. With a normal life, I’d probably find them on a sports team or in a club, though.”

“Are you treating the concept battles like a sport?”

“The classroom and the workplace are their own kind of battlefield. Or do you think your battlefields are especially harsh compared to school or work?” Izumo looked straight at Hiba. “If so, you need to apologize to everyone staring out the school window or doodling in class. And you need to apologize to the people standing behind the register or riding a scooter around delivering pizzas. You can apologize by stripping naked, fully prostrating yourself on the ground, and having a photo shoot. And make sure to do it outside.”

“I-I don’t want to do that outside! Oh, but I don’t want to do it inside either.”

“I see. So you don’t like exhibitionism. Then remember this,” said Izumo. “You’ll find battlefields everywhere. No matter where you go, some people win, some lose, some succeed, and some fail. And people can leave or die in accidents anywhere. All I’m saying is that I want to enjoy it all if possible. In that way, there’s no such thing as a fun and peaceful life where you do nothing. If you want to find real peace…”

“Yes?”

“It’s when you sleep with the girl that means the world to you. Although you could say that’s its own kind of battle. So are you going to do nothing but sleep with Mikage?”

“That’s not possible… And you’re absolutely horrible. My respect for you rose to 30%, though.”

“Good, good.” Izumo nodded. “Anyway, I heard from Chisato that you’ve been taking baths with Mikage every day.”

“W-wait a minute! Someone needs to wipe down her body and help her when she can’t get up from the bath.”

Hiba frantically stood from his chair, but Izumo held out a hand to stop him while sitting on the bed.

“No need to panic. I’m not criticizing you. In fact, I heard that her body is still not fully made. Is that true?”

“Yes.” Hiba slowly sat back down and crossed both his legs and arms. “I couldn’t say it before because she was with us, but nothing related to being a girl has developed. I think it’s because her evolution stopped before she had any knowledge about that stuff.”

“Does she have the knowledge now?”

“Yes. An upperclassman in my club works part-time at Yokota, so I asked him to get me a foreign textbook. Mikage-san’s questions when she reads it are so unintentionally severe that you would have a hard time making me that embarrassed if you tried. She’ll lean up against me or suddenly take off her clothes to compare with the textbook. I’m just…how should I put it? I don’t know what to do!”

“Calm down, boy. To her, she’s just trying to learn. You need to restrain yourself. Although I suppose she isn’t equipped for it even if you couldn’t.”

Hiba narrowed his eyes at that and sank a bit in his chair.

“She sometimes asks if I would be happier if she were a proper girl.”

“What do you say?”

“I’m not telling.”

Hiba smiled bitterly and Izumo did too.

“Well, from what I can see, she’s a good girl. I thought she would be more reliant on you, but she’s actually doing what Chisato tells her.”

“She’s neutral about anyone I don’t view as an enemy. The only people she will smile at or let touch her without getting cautious are my mother, my grandparents, and me.”

“She smiles?”

“That was the first thing she learned with her evolution.”

“I see.”

Izumo nodded but did not ask further.

Hiba then seemed to realize something, looked around with a serious expression, and shrugged.

“Anyway, what’s the deal with Sayama-san and Shinjou-san?”

“What do you mean?” asked Izumo.

“There are rumors going around the school that they’re in a homosexual relationship,” he said quietly. “The Daily Rose Taka put out by the girls newspaper club is serializing a novel, the school-wide hard gay poll had Sayama-san at the top, and they were seen embracing each other this morning.” Hiba slapped his knee. “Oh, right. Kazami-san might know something. I hear she was at the school department store with Shinjou-san buying swimsuits. And both of them bought girl’s swimsuits.”

“Wait just a moment. I need to check on something.”

Hiba tilted his head as Izumo pulled out his cell phone.

“Hey, Chisato? Have we not told Hiba about Shinjou?”

As Hiba continued tilting his head, Izumo quietly said something into the phone and nodded a few times. Finally, he slowly returned the phone to its stand.

“…”

He sank back onto the edge of the bed, hung his head, and rested that head on his hand.

“D-did something happen?” asked Hiba.

“Well, it looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of each other for a while, so I should probably tell you.”

“Is it about Sayama-san and Shinjou-san?”

“Yeah.” Izumo nodded and faced Hiba with a serious expression. “Keep it a secret, but everything you’ve heard is true.”

“Really?”

Izumo said nothing and did not nod, but then he sighed.

“As your upperclassman, I order you to sleep on the top bunk tonight. I don’t want to catch the Sayama germs.”

“W-wouldn’t Shinjou-san’s bed be the same?” asked Hiba as he stood.

His foot caught on the chair and the chair’s wheels sent it sliding into the dresser to the side. The collision produced a dull noise.

“Oh, s-sorry. And this isn’t even my room.”

“I wouldn’t poke around over there. You might find some evidence.”

“P-please don’t scare me like that.”

Hiba moved to the dresser hidden behind the bed, so he left Izumo’s sight.

“It looks like something fell from the top of the…”

Hiba trailed off and the silence continued for several seconds.

After a few more seconds of nothing, Izumo tilted his head.

“Hey, Hiba. What’s the matter?’

“Um, Izumo-san?”

Hiba moved out from behind the bed holding something white. He spread out the white object between his hands.

“This fell from the top of the dresser.”

“Looks like girl’s underwear to me.”

“D-don’t act like it’s normal! Why is this here!?”

“Let me be blunt: with Sayama and Shinjou, it is normal.”

“Wait a minute! Have this school’s morals completely crumbled!?”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Izumo as he stood up and slapped his own chest. “Well? Do you see how normal I am now?”

“I think you’re making an unfair comparison.”

“Don’t worry about that either. Anyway, at the Seto Inland Sea training camp tomorrow, I order you to share a tent with Sayama. Good luck. I know you can manage.”

“No, I can’t!!”

As soon as he shouted out with the girl’s underwear in his hand, the chime indicating lights out rang.

A hard sound broke through the stillness.

In the forest below the night sky was a clearing behind a lit factory.

The fifty meter clearing had been created by digging down into the ground and it contained two figures.

The two figures in the darkness were female.

They were both tall, they both had long black hair, and they both held wooden swords, but one was collapsed on the ground.

The one who had fallen to a sitting position was the younger of the two. The girl had sharp eyes, she wore a white denim shirt and jeans, and she clicked her tongue.

“You’re the same as always, Tatsumi.”

She glared up at her opponent. The girl named Tatsumi’s wooden sword was hanging down and not at the ready.

Tatsumi wore a yellow dress and a white cardigan and she had a smile on the eyes below her hair which was brushed to the side.

“If you can give me a look like that, you have the right attitude, Mikoku. You have to leave before long, right? If you’re catching the ten o’clock train to Yokohama, you need to leave here by eight.”

“Isn’t that a little early?”

“You’re going to Yokohama and you’ll be eating dinner there, right?”

Mikoku sighed, ignored Tatsumi’s subsequent complaint, and pointed toward the factory with her chin.

“I would love to visit Chinatown there, but Shino has prepared something for today.”

“Really? But she has her own work to do. …Alex, where is Shino?”

“Asleep. On top of me.”

The voice seemed to come from a megaphone, but it did not reach the surrounding area. It was a directional voice.

“I see,” replied Tatsumi as her shoulders lowered. “If Shino has prepared something, that may be better.”

“That would be best. I’m sure she has made much more than necessary.”

Mikoku began to stand up.

“…!”

But Tatsumi stepped up to her and swung her wooden sword at the younger girl’s ankle.

Mikoku evaded the high-speed attack by using her standing motion to jump straight up and she brought her wooden sword toward Tatsumi.

“!”

Tatsumi was already twisting her body upwards.

The sword swinging down responded to the twisting by jumping upwards.

A clear sound filled the air and Mikoku’s wooden sword broke in half. Pieces of cloth scattered from her shirt’s collar and wind struck her cheek.

She could do nothing while in midair and something struck her chest.

The hard and gently pointed object was the tip of Tatsumi’s wooden sword.

The wooden weapon was lightly pressed against her sternum and a smile gave a warning from the other end of the weapon.

“Open your mouth and breathe out.”

Before she could, something happened.

Strength slowly gathered in the tip of the sword. It was not enough strength to provide pain, but it accelerated over a series of instants.

“This will knock you away, so prepare to land!”

Exactly that happened while still providing no pain.

Tatsumi vanished from Mikoku’s vision and was replaced by the sky.

Mikoku did not know what had happened.

She finally realized she had rotated around, but then her back struck the grassy embankment making the edge of the clearing.

“…!”

She had known this would happen, so she was sprawled out and relaxed. The air in her lungs had vanished and her loosening muscles opened up her chest before she could try to breathe in.

She was able to take a normal breath of oxygen which steadied her vision.

''Where is Tatsumi?'' she thought.

The other girl’s location would tell her how far she had been thrown.

But that idea proved fruitless because Tatsumi stood to her right.

“You are absurd.”

“You should be able to do this much yourself.”

“…”

She did not think she could, but she did not feel like saying it now. They had argued countless times and she always lost.

As Mikoku remained silent, Tatsumi narrowed her eyes and held out a hand.

“I taught you a good bit in today’s lesson. Do you realize that?”

“Yes,” she agreed while reaching out her own hand.

Their hands touched.

“…”

An instant later, Mikoku heard her own footstep below her.

This was simply because Tatsumi had lifted her up in an instant. That footstep had been the sound of her standing.

Tatsumi stood before her like always and that made Mikoku gulp.

“Stick with it, okay? You haven’t been putting much effort into it lately.” Tatsumi narrowed her eyes. “You were not made Hajji’s bodyguard this time out of trust or obligation. Of course you weren’t. You understand, don’t you? You can use that technique too.”

“But I have never gotten a single attack on you during training.”

“You’re the type that shines during real battles.” Tatsumi shot down that excuse and tilted her head with a smile. “The trick is to carefully observe your opponent and use your strength to its fullest. If you observe them, you can see how to evade or block as much as possible, right? I prefer to block and knock them away, but you would likely do better evading and using their own movements to cut them down.”

Tatsumi made a small spiral movement with her outstretched hand.

That motion was the trick to scooping up one’s opponent’s strength and using it against them.

[[Image:OnC_v06_0211.png|thumb]]

Mikoku had never succeeded in using it.

…''I do best when simply using my full strength.

“I do not think I can fight like you, Tatsumi.”

“You don’t have to, but you’ll be in trouble if you can’t even keep Fafnir Custom’s cannon from hitting you. What if Hajji or Shino had been shot immediately afterwards?”

A gentle summer breeze washed over the concept space as Tatsumi spoke.

“Don’t worry, Mikoku. You can gain even more power than this and you will be able to master it for the sake of your world.”

“How can you know that?”

“Because that is what you wish for,” said Tatsumi. “Think about it. The more power or desire people have, the harder it is for them to fully utilize their power. I do not desire much power, but even I can reach this level.”

So…

“The fact that you still can’t fully utilize your power says you will grow to incredible heights.”

“You’re giving me too much credit. What I desire is a small thing.” She brushed aside Tatsumi’s hand, turned her back, and stepped up on the embankment. “I will wake Shino, eat dinner, and head to Kurashiki. Shino has her own mission to deal with.”

She heard a sigh from behind her.

“Are you worried about Shino?”

“Yes. Even if she will have Shiro with her, she is still-…”

“She’ll be fine. The problem is how worried you are, Mikoku,” said the voice behind her. “I’ve thought this for a while, and I think I should tell you now that you are taking on Army missions as an individual. Mikoku, what are you fighting for? Answer me like this is a teen film.”

Mikoku could not answer Tatsumi’s question.

…''What am I fighting for?

She knew the answer, but it was no one else’s business. Not even Tatsumi’s.

She remained silent, stepped on the grassy embankment, and began walking away.

“You can’t do it like a teen film?”

“No,” she answered. “I can’t do it like a yakuza movie or a monster movie either.”

“Yeah, that probably wouldn’t work. Although doing it like last week’s Heidi vs. Mecha Onji could be good.”

“They never showed how the fight between Mach Peter and Giant Clara turned out, so I give that one a D. Anyway, if you have something to say, stop beating around the bush and say it.”

She turned around on the embankment and found Tatsumi had not moved.

As Tatsumi looked up from halfway up the embankment, the moonlight illuminated her quiet smile.

That expression was enough for Mikoku to draw back.

“If you want me to tell you, I will,” said Tatsumi while still smiling. “I believe I know what you are thinking concerning Shino. Once the coming battle with UCAT is over and this world is ours, you will leave everything to Shino and disappear.”

“…”

For a moment, Mikoku was unsure what to say.

…''How does she know that?

She forced herself to shrug in order to hide the surprise in her heart. She gave a mocking laugh and tried to deny Tatsumi’s allegation.

She opened her mouth, but Tatsumi spoke before she could.

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell Shino and she won’t be able to tell how desperate you are unless she crosses swords with you.”

“Wait, Tatsumi. Enough with the crazy delusions.”

“You wanted me to tell you, didn’t you? You have no right to stop me from speaking, so I will speak and you will listen to the end. If you have any complaints, then feel despair and do so with a loud sound effect.”

“Shobon!!”

“Alex, you be quiet. And no eavesdropping on a conversation between girls.”

“Shobon…”

Tatsumi sighed, but Mikoku brushed up her hair while feeling the impatience inside her.

Tatsumi was exactly right.

The Army would eventually clash with UCAT and the Army would use its power to take the leadership role of this world.

But Mikoku knew a certain fact.

…''Winning by force rarely ends well for you even if you manage to maintain control afterwards.

If the Army gained the rights to the world after their victory, Mikoku felt it would be best to leave those rights with the person who seemed the farthest removed from the Army’s power.

And as the one who used that power, she would have to distance herself from that person.

…''I need to distance myself from Shino.

But Tatsumi had also mentioned how she had realized this.

…''She realized I was desperate as we crossed swords?

“Tatsumi,” she called out. “Why is my being desperate related to Shino?”

The answer came immediately.

Tatsumi opened her mouth and spread her arms in the moonlight.

“That’s simple. Being desperate means you are willing to die, but why are you willing to die? Normally, people do not die for their own sake. That means it’s for someone else, and with you, who could it be but Shino?”

Tatsumi’s shoulders moved and she arrived before Mikoku’s eyes before the younger girl could prepare.

She could not even cry out in surprise before Tatsumi held a hand over her head.

The hand was clenched into a fist and pointed down.

“You idiot.”

A great noise burst from the space between the fist and head, pain shot from the top of her head to her butt, and all strength left her legs.

“…!!”

She held her head and crouched down while Tatsumi sighed and put her hands on her hips.

“Y’know,” said Tatsumi as if asking her to prepare for the coming words.

Mikoku looked up toward that swordsmanship teacher who had stopped smiling and gave a relaxed expression.

“Mikoku, you’re fighting for Shino’s sake,” came Tatsumi’s voice. “But if you die, it will be Shino’s fault. That’s what it means to fight for someone else’s sake. You are able to fight because they are there, but it will also mean you died because they were there. It means you would not have died if they had not been there.”

“…”

“It’s fortunate Shino has not realized what you are thinking. If she had, she would stop you from heading out to fight. She would tell you not to do that kind of thing for her. However, that would be more about escaping responsibility than about worrying for your safety.”

“Shino would never think about escaping responsibility!” reflexively shouted Mikoku. “She cares about others and she would never worry about her own responsibility!”

“That is why you can so easily blame your injuries on her. That isn’t fair, Mikoku.”

“…!”

“What’s with that look? Did I hit a sore spot? You can get mad if you want. Give a nice explosion of rage.”

Mikoku took action at that.

Her movement was sudden, but Tatsumi stepped back calmly as if she had predicted it.

However, Mikoku was able to see Tatsumi.

…''To the right!

She used her instincts more than her eyes to step on the embankment and send her right hand out in a jab.

An instant later, she felt something wrap around that hand.

Her hand had been grabbed.

“Kh.”

She could not move. Her wrist was held in place and her legs were stopped by pressure on her thigh.

However, her hand had made it through.

“Is this the first time one of your attacks has reached me?”

Mikoku turned toward that question and found the two of them facing each other halfway up the embankment. Tatsumi’s right hand had grabbed her hand and Tatsumi’s usual expressionless face lay beyond their hands.

“That anger brought your attack to me, so who was that anger for?”

Mikoku’s vision rotated.

By the time she realized she had been thrown, the moon had come into view. She felt the pale moon looked like a glowing jewel.

“…!”

When she struck the ground, she was no longer anywhere near the embankment. She was near the center of the clearing twenty meters away. The impact made her cough and Tatsumi’s voice reached her from the distance.

“You really can be stupid. Why did you let your guard down? Don’t forget to prepare to land and make it easier on your lungs.”

She did not have the composure to reply and she continued coughing as she got up and Tatsumi jogged to her side.

“C’mon, c’mon. Stand up and think. You have a decision to make. Will you yourself desire to fight or will you place the blame on Shino? I will not say either one is right or wrong. If you choose to fight for yourself, you might selfishly head off to your own death,” said Tatsumi. “But Shino is doing her best to be accepted by all of you. She’s not doing it ''for'' you, though. She’s doing it for herself.”

“I…” she began until Tatsumi struck her head.

“You don’t need to give your answer now. Don’t be so hasty.” Tatsumi laughed. “Think about it for as long as you need. Whenever you fight, you will hurt your opponent, they will hurt you, someone important to you may be hurt, and yet you will survive. Whenever that happens, see if you are glad that you survived. See if you can selfishly be more glad that you survived than that you hurt your opponent.”

As Tatsumi spoke, she suddenly looked Mikoku in the eye and her expression crumbled into a smile.

“Don’t make me lecture you too much, okay? Shino is obedient, so lecturing her is boring. You on the other hand fight back, so lecturing you is a lot of fun.”

“That last half was nothing but forcing your own ideas on me.”

But after standing up, Mikoku asked a question.

“If I fight, will I eventually be able to speak on and on about nonsense like that?”

“Do you want to?”

“I have no one to tell it to,” said Mikoku. “And I think I need a partner like that if I am to find my reason to fight. I need someone who will not be shaken when I ask for the meaning of my actions and who will accept it all with a smile.”

“Am I not good enough?’

“Sorry, but you’re just someone I train with. The kind of partner I need in order to fight is an enemy. I need an enemy to take Shino’s place.”

As she spoke, Mikoku realized something.

…''Oh. I’m rejecting the idea of fighting for Shino’s sake. I really am simpleminded.

She had not verified it and Tatsumi may have been guiding her there on a whim, but she was trying to choose some unknown enemy over Shino who she had been with for so long.

…''But I don’t want to make Shino cry when I get hurt.

There had once been a certain dog and that dog had saved Shino at the cost of its own life.

Had that dog done so for Shino’s sake? If not, why had it done so?

…''Did it think doing that would satisfy it?

Or had it been a sudden thing with no real thought behind it?

Mikoku did not know and Shino likely did not either.

What Mikoku did know was that Shino had still not forgotten that dog, that she would leave flowers and water for the dog, and that she would embrace the dog when it was summoned with the power of her philosopher’s stone.

…''Would the same happen if I died?

Part of her hoped so, but another part knew it would be painful.

“Painful…”

She made up her mind.

“But if you make something abnormal a part of everyday life, is there no avoiding that pain?”

Mikoku gave a nod and the harshness vanished from her face. She turned to Tatsumi and found the usual narrowed-eye expression.

“Do you have an enemy, Tatsumi?”

“Yes, I do. And I fight to ask a question.”

“What question?”

“That is something only my enemy knows.”

Mikoku did not know what that meant, so she could only nod toward the other girl’s troubled smile.

“I see. I wonder if I have an enemy as well.”

“Don’t you? For example, there is the one with the surname Sayama on Team Leviathan.”

“I’m not so sure. That boy knows nothing. …Do you think he will become my enemy once he learns the true meaning of the Leviathan Road?”

And…

“Will I be able to find my reason to fight before that happens?”

She looked up toward the moon.

Looking at the cold light of that pale arc, she nodded.

“I need to head out on my mission to protect Hajji. If that results in a fight, I may learn something.”

She lowered her gaze and looked Tatsumi in the eye.

“But why did you bring this up all of a sudden?”

“That’s simple,” said Tatsumi. “I felt like it.”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume6_Chapter_17|Chapter 17]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume6_Chapter_19|Chapter 19]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume5 Chapter 2

2014-06-19T23:09:21Z

Purin:

==Chapter 2: Meeting of Steel==
[[Image:OnC_v05_0103.png|thumb]]
''Stare, stare

''First, face each other

''Then, either hit each other or pass each other by

A white hallway had no windows, but it did have writing on the wall.

That writing said BF2.

This was Japanese UCAT’s second basement floor and the hallway passed in front of the development department. The center of the hallway had a rest area with a sofa and a few vending machines.

A woman stared at the floor in front of the coffee vending machine.

Her long gray hair hung down over the chest of her lab coat which contained a nametag reading Tsukuyomi Chizuru.

She took a sip of the cold coffee in the paper cup she held.

“What is going on?”

“What is it?” asked a sudden female voice.

Tsukuyomi frantically tuned around and saw who was walking down the hallway.

“Diana Zonburg.”

“Is something the matter?” Diana wore a black suit and held a brown paper bag. “I heard you were travelling to Kanda this afternoon to retrieve an examination device for Georgius.”

“Eh? Oh, so talk of that has reached the higher levels, has it? UCAT Director Ooshiro was opposed to the idea, but our younger members offered to help him make a perverted game in exchange.”

“So a mysterious concept weapon is worth the same as an 18+ game?”

“Only when using the Ooshiro currency. …More importantly, what are you doing here?”

Tsukuyomi gulped down her coffee while Diana squeezed the paper bag in her arms.

“I just bought a swimsuit at the store up above and I was taking a stroll through UCAT on my way back.”

“A swimsuit? How luxurious.”

“No, this is part of my job as inspector. Team Leviathan is apparently having a training camp at the Seto Inland Sea the day after tomorrow, so I will be going with them. …This is a job. Let me spell it out for you: this is a j-o-b.”

“Well, it’s quite a luxurious j-o-b.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“The float sticking out of that bag makes it hard to.”

“Th-this isn’t a float. It is a beach mat to lie on while sipping on a drink.”

“How luxurious a time are you planning!?” shouted Tsukuyomi before sighing and facing Diana who was adjusting the contents of the bag. “If I was only five years younger, I would have gone with you.”

“U-um, did I mishear that? I thought I heard a number about ten times too small.”

“You’re supposed to laugh. But when I see you and Doctor Chao, it makes the longevity and anti-aging techniques look pretty good. I was already on the way to being an old lady by the time I joined UCAT, though.”

“Heh heh. But you decided to stay with Low-Gear, right?”

After a pause, Tsukuyomi nodded and narrowed her eyes.

“Yes. I have a daughter, so I can’t undergo the anti-aging techniques,” she said. “Have you heard? My daughter was abducted. And the rumor is that Typhon, that white 3rd-Gear god of war, did it. But they must be a terrible judge of character to abduct her.”

Diana remained silent, but her expression did loosen a bit.

The ends of her eyebrows lowered and she nodded once.

“I have no children, so I don’t really understand.”

“That’s fine. I’m sure there’s a part of it that any woman would understand.” Tsukuyomi gave a bitter smile in return. “Her bag and coat were found at the site the flying object fell last night. She was probably accidentally taken inside the concept space, but…”

“…”

“Don’t give me that look. It’s fine. That girl won’t die so easily. After all that idiot has done to disobey me and do what she wants, she’ll manage on her own.”

“I see she is worrying you.”

“Let’s just leave it at that.”

Tsukuyomi’s bitter smile deepened and Diana nodded.

At that point, a new female voice reached them.

“I am not sure you two should be speaking about 3rd-Gear so openly.”

Diana recognized the voice.

“Sf?”

She tilted her head, looked around, and spotted Sf.

She was standing sideways in the small gap between vending machines.

“U-um, Sf? Did you gain some strange habits when formatted for the Japanese language? Why are you crammed in that small space?”

“Tes. Monitoring Itaru-sama at all times is one of my duties, but he moved out of range of my senses. I have determined he is viewing the sky from a corner of the roof.”

“And that spot is just barely within range?”

“Tes. I have determined it was a dangerous situation. I was on my way back from disposing of some trash at the underground incinerator, and I would have lost him for the first time if I had been just a little slower.”

Tsukuyomi looked back and forth between Sf in between the vending machines and Diana next to her.

“So this is what they call German quality.”

“Th-this is because of the local formatting.”

Diana waved her hands in denial and glanced over at Sf.

“Should I go and tell Itaru to move from the roof?”

“Tes. However, that will not be necessary. Statistically, he never continues any one task for long, so I have determined he will return to his office soon. I will remain on standby here until then. His irregular action here is most likely due to him thinking about the coming Leviathan Road.”

“It is true he used to always go outside while thinking.”

Diana’s comment caused Sf to tilt her head between the vending machines.

“That information is worth adding to my records.”

“You didn’t know that? When we had all reached various dead ends, I was often dragged outside. Both by him and someone else I know quite well.”

“Who is that?” asked Tsukuyomi, but Diana only smiled weakly back.

“If you always choose to continue on, you will eventually arrive somewhere. You remember that too, Sf. And do not leave Itaru alone again.”

“Tes. I will make sure to never again leave him while he is thinking.”

Sf bowed from between the vending machines.

“My ability to wait is infinite, but I will never allow myself to leave him.”

The sun rose high into the sky.

Several large buildings were lined up below the sunlight.

The buildings all belonged to a school. The sunlight covered a large campus and students in summer uniforms walked between the buildings.

Most of the students were headed to the dormitories or their club activities. Some held graded tests in their hands.

Among them all, a few people sat in front of a school building in the center of the campus.

Four students sat on the lawn in front of the library protruding from the school building. Three wore male uniforms and one wore a female uniform.

They were Sayama, Shinjou, Izumo, and Kazami.

A large multi-layer bento box and a small multi-layer bento box sat between them.

With a black binder sitting next to her, Shinjou reached for the small box. She used chopsticks to grab a croquette and held it out toward Sayama to her right.

“Here, Sayama-kun. I even made the filling this time.”

Once it was put in his mouth, Sayama thoroughly chewed the croquette and swallowed it.

Shinjou looked a bit worried, so he thought for a moment and then spoke.

“Yes. A supreme flavor, Shinjou-kun.”

“Wow, I’m glad. I can almost feel the horrible rumor from this morning disappearing within me.”

She smiled and grabbed a new croquette.

“I used the cafeteria kitchen to cook these and this one contains some strange leaves that Old Lady Tome said make a good secret ingredient. She said they only grow on her balcony.”

“Hm. I think I see why that cafeteria has so many regular customers. I would prefer not to know any more details, though.”

Sayama smiled pleasantly in the sun and Shinjou’s cheeks reddened slightly.

Across from them, Kazami and Izumo stared at them with half-lidded eyes.

“Even though I know the truth, it feels weird to see them flirting in male uniforms.”

“I can’t believe they’re doing this when that rumor started only this morning.”

The two tilted their heads, but Shinjou continued feeding Sayama.

As students passed by, a few girls lowered their heads toward Kazami.

“Hello, Kazami-san.”

When she looked up and nodded back, they would bow again and leave.

Izumo looked impressed as she nodded in self-satisfaction.

“You sure are popular.”

“Heh heh. That’s because I’m the only one who can stop you and Sayama.”

That was when more people greeted her. A few boys with disheveled uniforms were passing by.

“Ah… K-Kazami-san. Good morning!”

They immediately covered their faces with their crushed bags and quickly ran away.

They left only the wind behind.

After a pause, Izumo nodded expressionlessly.

“Chisato, I’ll stick with you no matter what, so tell me what happened. And be honest.”

“What do you mean by that? I didn’t do anything ''too'' horrible.”

“Eh?” said Shinjou. She held her nose and made a gesture of something falling from it. “Drip drip?”

“Shinjou-kun, not even cute onomatopoeia can soften this, so do not even try. Now, Kazami, about last night.”

Kazami froze in place when she heard the term “last night”.

After a short pause, she looked around and nodded.

“You mean about Hiba Ryuuji? Don’t worry. I summoned him via his homeroom teacher, so he’ll be here soon. More importantly, I assume Sibyl contacted you this morning.”

She took a breath.

“You heard that Director Tsukuyomi’s daughter was abducted, right?”

Shinjou looked up as she listened to Kazami.

“It happened in the battle that Hiba guy was fighting, didn’t it?”

“Yes. The items left inside the concept space last night show that Director Tsukuyomi’s daughter was there. And Hiba Ryuuji probably knows the truth of the matter. He was taken into UCAT custody, so he probably told them about it.”

She gave a bitter smile.

“Based on Ooki-sensei’s opinion and the fragment of white armor left at the scene, both Hiba Ryuuji’s craft and his opponent have power on the level of a Concept Core. We can’t say anything about Hiba’s, but his opponent was likely Typhon. That proves that some remnants of 3rd-Gear remain. …And Sibyl also mentioned that she discussed another matter with you two.”

“Yes. Sayama-kun received an additional call.”

As Baku mimicked him on his head, Sayama nodded.

“Director Tsukuyomi is headed to the UCAT Kanda laboratory to receive a device needed to examine Georgius and another important item. Shinjou-kun and I will be accompanying her as witnesses of the event.”

“Georgius is going to be examined? But why does Shinjou have to go too if you are only retrieving equipment?”

“Most likely to distract me from my interest in 3rd. Even if I refuse to act as witness for some reason, Shinjou-kun cannot refuse. …And thus I will go too.”

“Uuh… I-it’s true I can’t turn down jobs people ask me to do.”

“Oh, so Shinjou is the lure to get you to go.”

“Kaku, don’t say it like that. The term you want is ‘bait’. That sounds much more normal.”

“Y-you don’t have to make it normal!”

Hearing that, Sayama shook his head solemnly.

“Shinjou-kun, normal is best for humans. If you ever need a model, just watch me.”

“You’re right. Watching you is a good way of realizing normal is best.”

It was unclear if her meaning had reached him because he nodded deeply and crossed his arms.

“At any rate, 3rd-Gear’s Leviathan Road has yet to start and we are already meeting a boy who is personally fighting 3rd-Gear and 3rd has abducted someone. If Japanese UCAT does not wish to provide the other UCATs with any misunderstandings or excuses to interfere…”

“…then they wouldn’t want Team Leviathan to deal with anything problematic? …And then there’s that impurity that Hiba mentioned last night. He said he wanted some time.”

“Yes, but UCAT might be expecting us to do something. We have summoned the Hiba boy to meet us, but no one has interfered. And only Shinjou-kun and I are going to Kanda. Izumo, Kazami, that means the two of you can do as you wish.”

For once, clear irritation could be heard in Sayama’s voice. A hint of harshness had entered his expression as well.

Seeing that, Shinjou smiled in her heart.

…''He wants to take the initiative and gather information himself.

And so she wrapped her ring-wearing right hand around his left elbow.

“Let’s eat lunch.”

“…Yes.”

He nodded, closed his eyes for a moment, and returned to his usual expressionless look. Shinjou was worried she was forcing him to do this, but he looked her in the eye.

“Come to think of it, Kazami, don’t you have something to give Shinjou-kun?”

“Eh? Kazami-san has something for me?”

''What could that be?'' she wondered.

After a moment, she shook her hands in denial as Kazami’s shoulders rose in realization.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that! As thanks for helping me shop the other day, I bought her a raw milk gyuudon at the UCAT cafeteria, but you don’t have to pay me back for that.”

“Chisato, is that why you’ve been worried about your waistline recently?”

“N-no. I ran around the school buildings after I got back that night.”

As she pled her case to Izumo, Kazami pulled an envelope form her pocket and handed it to Shinjou.

“Can I open it?” asked Shinjou as she hesitantly took it.

“What would be the point if you could not, Shinjou-kun? It is for you.”

After a moment of hesitation, she opened it.

She read through the document inside and then spoke.

“I’m being appointed as secretary of the student council?”

Surprise filled her face and a bit of heat followed.

…''Wait. Is this…?

“Did I get this position through connections while ignoring the election? Hooray.”

“Shinjou-kun, choose either suspicion or excitement. Kazami, explain it to her.”

“While this is ignoring the election, the student council has the authority to appoint new members. All the lower positions starting with secretary were open this year because a lot of people pulled out of the running during the election.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Last year, a certain female student performed a flying kick on a dumb yet large candidate during a speech. That led to candidates dropping out like the receding tide.”

“Oh, I-I see.”

“And what exactly do you mean by that?” asked Kazami with a smile.

Shinjou shrank back, but Kazami continued speaking.

“So will you accept the position? If you don’t like secretary, there are plenty of other positions: general affairs director, manager, animal official, and loser. You can also decline the offer altogether.”

Her question had a persuasive tone to it.

[[Image:OnC_v05_0117.png|thumb]]

Shinjou hesitated for a moment and looked over at the black binder next to her.

…''Is it worth having less time to work on this?

“Um, well… What exactly does the secretary do?”

“Well, you take notes on the proceedings of meetings. I’ll interpret for Kaku, so don’t worry about that.”

“I get the feeling you just casually insulted my humanity,” said Izumo. “In fact, I know you did.”

“Ha ha ha. Before you complain about that, try writing so that a modern human can understand it, you foolish primitive,” said Sayama.

“Ha ha ha. It must be nice having no humanity whatsoever and your mindset in the distant future.”

“Oh, and I will handle training these inhuman people, so don’t worry about that either,” added Kazami. She continued as the two boys glared coldly at her. “And once you join, we can talk about the Leviathan Road while claiming it is a student council meeting. We’ll be able to reserve the library and call Ooki-sensei to join us. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?”

She smiled bitterly.

“This school will be our base.”

“Ah…”

With that voice of realization, Shinjou found her answer.

…''It will give me ideas for my novel and help the Leviathan Road.

She felt that was looking at it too simply, but she still nodded.

“Th-then I will be the secretary.”

“Are you sure, Shinjou-kun? If you join the same group as our crazy president and violent treasurer, it will start some unwanted rumors.”

“Sayama-kun, I think you forget to mention someone.”

“Ha ha. Of course I did. It is not right to praise oneself needlessly.”

Kazami glared at him but then ignored him and looked down at her watch.

“Isn’t it about time for you two to leave? Get lost, Sayama. We’ll talk with Hiba and then go shopping. We need to make preparations for the training camp the day after tomorrow.”

“I see.”

Sayama stood up and Shinjou stood up next to him.

As she did, she suddenly saw an odd color. It was a red that resembled a flower or fresh blood.

She focused on that color that was not often seen in an outdoor lawn.

“Eyes?”

She turned around and saw a motorcycle parked on the road running alongside the yard. It had a sidecar attached and a boy sat on the motorcycle itself.

He had short hair, he wore a white bandana around his head, and he was looking their way with his red eyes.

He was Hiba Ryuuji and he had a troubled look on his face.

“Here I am. Just as you asked.”

As soon as he said that, Shinjou saw Baku stir on Sayama’s head.

And then the past arrived.

“…”

Shinjou found herself standing on a road surrounded on either side by green trees.

She had become nothing more than sight and hearing.

…''This is the past.

She was on a mountain and the road running downhill was made of dirt. The light brown dirt was covered in tire tracks and weeds were growing up here and there.

…''Where is this?

She looked around and saw manmade objects to the left and right.

They were pillars. A wooden pillar hardened with turpentine stood on either side of the road.

The fronts of the pillars were split vertically and lacquer had been poured into carved words on the smooth surface.

“Izumo Aviation Laboratory – Tokyo Branch.”

That meant…

“This is the entrance to the National Defense Department!”

As she cried out with her mind, her pulse quickened.

If the National Defense Department lay ahead, there was one fact that drew her interest the greatest.

…''There should be someone with my family name here.

The person had been Professor Kinugasa’s assistant during the National Defense Department days, but all records of them were gone by the time UCAT came about. This person had her family name and a connection to Sayama Kaoru, Sayama’s grandfather.

…''And they might have some connection to my relatives.

With that thought, she tried to move her mind forward. She did not know how far the recreation of the past went, but that person might be in the National Defense Department up ahead.

“I want to see them.”

That comment made her realize her thoughts.

…''I am yearning.

But she had no clear answer what exactly it was for which she yearned. She could only think up immature words, but she never thought about casting aside the desire.

And so she took a step forward.

“…?”

But she stopped when she heard a noise.

Something was approaching from below the mountain behind her. She could tell it was a number of vehicles. She could hear the metallic noises of a dozen or so wheels and chassis.

…''What kind of vehicles?

She turned around and saw the approaching convoy.

It was a line of green jeeps and trucks.

The flat hood of the jeep in the lead had a star mark on a white background.

This was the American military.

But Shinjou found something odd. A number of men rode that jeep, but something was off about their military uniforms. She could not quite place what was wrong with them, but she found the answer once the convoy grew closer and she could see them more clearly.

“…Ah.”

It was the crest on the shoulder of their jackets.

It had a blue shield and a collection of lines surrounded by white wings.

They were UCAT.

A closer look showed that the men in the jeep and those in the trucks behind them were made up of a number of different races.

“American UCAT is leading the different UCATs of the Allies.”

The convoy was approaching while acting as part of the occupying army.

…''What is going on?

Shinjou knew about the origin of UCAT, but she knew nothing more than that the National Defense Department became Japanese UCAT.

She did not know the details of how it happened.

Meanwhile, the convoy approached the two pillars that formed an entrance.

She could hear their engines as they approached.

And just as it felt like they were going to run her vision over, something fell from the sky right in front of her.

It was silver-colored and shaped like a long blade.

It was a Japanese sword.

The curved blade stabbed forcefully down in front of her eyes and audibly tore at the dirt.

“!”

The elderly soldier sitting in the jeep’s passenger seat raised a hand.

In response, the convoy came to a stop. All the vehicles’ brakes screeched, their chassis shook, and they tore up the dirt road surface.

The sounds of the dozen or so vehicles shook the leaves of the forest.

Shinjou heard the wind blow as a sudden wind arrived from behind her.

She turned around and saw motion.

It was a large green military motorcycle.

“Ha ha!”

With a laugh, the motorcycle turned sideways and slid toward Shinjou.

A short young man drove it and his short hair waved in the wind.

“So you’ve decided to show up, have you!? Are you here to steal our position? We work in the same field, don’t we!?”

As he spoke, he forcefully planted his foot in front of the sliding motorcycle.

“There we go!”

And he used that foot to rotate the motorcycle around in front of Shinjou.

The high-speed spin stopped perfectly at 180 degrees.

The young man was directly in front of the Japanese sword that had landed earlier. He now faced the convoy with the blade between them.

He supported the motorcycle with both legs and observed the convoy with his black eyes.

“You want a fight?”

He narrowed his eyes and got down from the motorcycle.

His military boots made his footsteps ring loudly from the dirt.

At the same time, everything began to move.

The people in the leading jeep and the backs of the trucks stood up. Shinjou saw a fair number of women among them.

…''And those weapons.

In addition to guns, they wielded plenty of swords, spears, and shields. And unlike normal blades, they had been modified with exposed cords, components, and tanks.

The technology was still undeveloped, but those weapons had been modified with cowlings.

The elderly soldier then stepped out of the jeep’s passenger seat. He held a spear.

“I ask that you surrender.”

She heard the Japanese meaning of his words over the English he was actually speaking. His tone was polite yet forceful.

However, the young man’s smile remained.

“I don’t have a damn clue what you’re saying, you old foreign bastard.”

The elderly soldier’s spear moved slightly.

And it produced a noise very near the handlebars of the young man’s motorcycle. The single rearview mirror on the right side flew into the sky.

“I am Sail Northwind, representative of American UCAT. My north wind can pierce even steel.”

“Oh, that’s a neat trick.” The young man’s smile did not waver. “I think I’ve figured out what you’re trying to say. This is what you’re saying.” He pointed at the elderly soldier’s face. “ ‘Oh, that was a hell of an entrance! You’re pretty cool!’ ”

As soon as he spoke, all of those standing in the vehicles jumped down. At least a hundred armed people covered the road and forest and prepared to fight.

Countless footsteps and the metallic noises of the weapons filled the air.

But something even more impressive arrived from further down the road.

A giant form suddenly fell behind the young man and his motorcycle.

“…!!”

The form was accompanied by the sound of something extremely heavy striking the ground. The ground split and Shinjou finally saw what it was.

…''A god of war.

She heard everyone gasp as a silver-colored humanoid machine stood behind the young man and his motorcycle. It was approximately eight meters tall, it resembled a female armored warrior, and it had two pairs of wings on its back.

The god of war already held a long, narrow sword in its hands.

With a mechanical noise, the wings on its back moved. They folded up to allow easier motion on the ground.

Meanwhile, the opposing soldiers could not move. They clenched their teeth and stared at the god of war behind the young man.

The spear-wielding elderly soldier’s expression was the one exception. A smile remained on the corner of his mouth and he continued to look at the young man. The young man was looking back at him with an identical expression.

Time seemed to drag on, but it suddenly came to an end.

First, the silver god of war crouched down.

Next, a slender figure appeared from its back and climbed up onto its right shoulder.

It was a woman. The young woman’s blonde hair flowed across her back. As Shinjou looked at her thick eyebrows and strong-willed face, she noticed a certain color.

…''Her eyes.

They were red. That deep scarlet below her inconspicuous eyebrows looked down at the young man.

She opened her narrow mouth as the wind whipped at her white shirt and flare skirt.

“Do not play around, Hiba.”

Both her awkwardly-spoken Japanese and the name she mentioned shook Shinjou’s mind.

…''Hiba? As in, Hiba-sensei?

But something was off. Hiba Ryuutetsu’s left eye had been colored a deep scarlet, the same as the eyes of the woman on the god of war’s shoulder.

…''What does that mean?

With no answer to her question, the woman continued speaking.

“Do any of you match me in power? If so, I will battle you. If not, Hiba will handle it.”

“Who are you?” asked the old man who had given the name Northwind.

The young man grinned when he heard the old man’s perfect Japanese.

“Oh, so you know Japanese after all.”

The woman smiled bitterly.

“I am Rhea, a refugee from 3rd-Gear. And I have decided to seek refuge in Japan’s National Defense Department. If you attempt to take this place from me, I will battle you whether you match me in power or not.”

“…!”

The elderly soldier’s smile strengthened when he heard Rhea’s words.

At the same time, a black figure appeared next to Hiba. Shinjou recognized the tall man wearing a black cloak.

…''Siegfried-san!

The young Siegfried calmly appeared next to Hiba as if he had grown out of the shadows of the trees. He wore black gloves and already held several pieces of paper.

When the elderly soldier saw him and the paper in his hand, he asked a smiling question.

“Siegfried Zonburg!?”

“It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Lord Northwind. Did you perhaps read the reports I sent my nation? …However, you are being too hasty here.”

“It seems so, but I have learned one thing. This is the place that desires the world,” said Northwind.

Hiba folded his arms and nodded.

“You’ve got that right. But think carefully, Old Man Northwind. The Izumo Aviation Institute’s National Defense Department is working for important people right now, but if it is let loose, it will work for something else.”

“And what is that exactly?”

Hiba did not answer. Instead, the woman named Rhea spoke in a dignified voice.

“That would of course be this world itself. This world has nothing and sits at the lowest level, but that is precisely why it has everything!”

Shinjou looked up just as the others were. The red-eyed woman was smiling. Instead of looking down at the people, she faced them and looked across all of them.

“I fled to this world. I abandoned my own concept to the Tartaros and came here as an individual. However, I was treated as a guest rather than a prisoner of war. There were misunderstandings and conflicts, but I now stand here as a soldier because that is my wish! I wish to fight for this world. And…”

She looked across the surrounding area. She looked at the blue sky, the trees, the earth, and the rustling wind. She left a smile in the wind and gently brought her right hand to her stomach. Only then did she look back down toward the others.

“And so that I can be with this child here. We have already begun preparing for battle. If you wish to be with us, then let us speak. But if you obstruct us in the slightest, we will be your enemy!”

“Rhea, you’re sounding a lot more self-important than the rest of us. It might’ve been a mistake to let Kaoru prepare your Japanese lessons.”

“Ha ha. You men are always so slow. When preparing to be a mother, a woman wants immediate decisions. If you do not like it, then bring me something sour to eat. …Soldiers, give your answer.”

There was a clear smile in her voice.

“Do any of you wish to be the ally of my child!?”

That booming question signaled the end of the past.

As her sight and hearing rapidly fell into darkness, Shinjou thought about Rhea’s words.

…''Her…child?

That had been sixty years before, so where was that child now if it had been born?

Shinjou had been in UCAT the longest of the group, but she had never heard about a descendent of 3rd-Gear. She had only ever heard that 3rd-Gear was the Gear of gods of war and automatons.

“Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve heard it mentioned that there were people there.”

She wondered if Sayama was right and the Gear had few people, but she had no way of knowing. She assumed that would be one thing she would learn later. If she stayed with Sayama and the others, she would learn that along with how they were destroyed.

''But,'' she thought. ''What if a descendent of hers is still alive?

Just like Shinjou, they would have no other members of their race and not know their parents.

“I wonder if they feel lost too…”

Shinjou awoke from the past.

“…”

She took a breath and focused on the scene before her eyes.

Standing on the yard around her were Izumo, Kazami, Sayama, and Hiba.

Further away, a lot of students were returning from school and only a few seconds of time had passed.

She let out a breath and looked around. The scenery was the same. Kazami and Izumo were exchanging a dazed look, but Sayama had experienced the past several times before.

“So that is one connection between Hiba-sensei and 3rd-Gear.”

He placed a hand on his chest, took a breath, and faced Hiba.

“I see there was a refugee from 3rd-Gear.”

“Yes. That was the first time I’ve seen something like that, though.”

Hiba’s face was pale as he sat on his motorcycle. He nodded weakly and stepped to the ground. He approached but stopped with a step still separating them.

“What was that?”

Sayama grabbed Baku from his shoulder and held the creature up.

Baku looked to the left and right but suddenly hung its head and began to sleep when it noticed everyone focusing on it.

Sayama nodded deeply.

“I am sure you understand now.”

“I don’t understand at all!”

“Then let me put it simply. Listen and be amazed. Are you ready? Baku here can show people the past.”

“Oh, I see. …I-I mean, wow! That is amazing! I’m shocked!”

''You could make it less obvious,'' thought Shinjou as she stared at him, but Sayama nodded in satisfaction.

“Hiba-sensei was quite young, but he looked somehow like you, Hiba boy.”

“Are you implying I’ll look like him when I grow old?”

Shinjou nodded and tapped on Sayama’s shoulder.

“You should give up now. The more I hear about Sayama-kun’s grandfather, the more they sound alike.”

“Shinjou-kun! That is an incredibly rude assertion. How am I anything like that self-centered old man who did nothing but eloquently mock others?”

Everyone fell silent at that.

Amid the silence, Sayama nodded, smiled toward Shinjou, and slowly spread his arms.

“Just look. Everyone is using their silence to show their agreement.”

“I’ll just jump to the conclusion: you need to go to the hospital.”

Before Sayama could reply, she turned to Hiba and he seemed to pick up on her intent.

“U-um, anyway.”

He frantically looked across the group.

Shinjou observed his expression. He looked frantic and his eyebrows were slightly lowered, so it seemed he was unsure whether he should say something or not.

She tilted her head toward that expression that she herself had often made until recently. She also lowered the ends of her eyebrows.

“There’s something you want to say, isn’t there?”

“Eh? Oh, yes. I hear you all are doing something called the Leviathan Road.”

“What about it? Do you wish to ask us to stop the Leviathan Road with 3rd-Gear?”

“Yes. This is a request from the one whose grandfather destroyed 3rd-Gear.”

His immediate response came with the relief of having said it.

Shinjou and the others judged his meaning and remained silent for a moment.

But then…

“W-wait a minute. Isn’t a bit sudden to just say your grandfather destroyed 3rd-Gear?”

Shinjou understood why Kazami was so hurriedly stopping him. They wanted to know what he had meant the night before.

…''So we need to take this slowly.

Shinjou sat up a bit and spoke.

“Ryuuji-kun… Yeah, I’ll call you that to differentiate you from Hiba-sensei. Anyway, you’re from this Gear, right? So why are you stopping us from negotiating with 3rd-Gear?”

Sayama nodded and added to her question.

“We can discuss Hiba-sensei’s countless wrongdoings at a later date, but your mention of an impurity suggests a larger reason. Based on the situation from last night, you have an automaton, your grandfather belonged to the National Defense Department, and yet you are fighting Typhon without the help of UCAT.”

Hiba’s expression changed at the mention of the name Typhon.

He frowned a bit, so Sayama expressionlessly continued.

“And UCAT has officially told us not to get involved with you. In other words, getting involved in your fight would be a negative for us. Have you come here to tell us why that is, Hiba boy?”

“Y-yes. It is a long story and I am not sure what conclusion you all will reach, but this is what I know for sure,” said Hiba. “If you carry out the Leviathan Road with 3rd-Gear and bring them to your side, it will sully the name of the Leviathan Road.”

“Sully?” asked Kazami.

Hiba nodded.

“There are actually two impurities we must purify. I came here to tell you about one of them.”

“This all sounds very pretentious.”

“I know what you mean. But…even though I intend to bear these impurities, I do not know what will happen once I truly face them.”

“In other words, you’re testing us, aren’t you? You’re going to tell us about a lighter impurity to see if we are prepared to face the true impurity.” Kazami smiled bitterly. “You’re underestimating us.”

But Hiba only smiled bitterly in return.

Seeing his smile, Kazami thought.

…''A bitter smile, hm?

The smile he gave could only be made by one who had thought the same thing countless times. It was the smile of someone who had no other choice.

She wanted to hear him out and speak with him, but some of them had other things to do.

“Hey,” she said and showed her watch to Sayama.

He nodded.

“Hiba boy, I apologize, but I must ask that you give your test to Kazami and Izumo. Shinjou-kun and I already have plans.”

“And those plans are more important than speaking with me?”

“Is speaking with me more important than speaking with Izumo and Kazami? That extreme violence couple has been involved with the Leviathan Road longer than me.”

“Oh, I-I see. Sorry.”

Hiba frantically bowed.

Kazami smiled bitterly and Izumo solemnly folded his arms and nodded.

“Look, Sayama. Underclassmen these days are so polite.”

“Hiba boy, courtesy is an expendable good. Choose wisely who you use it on. For example, you could use it all on me.”

“Oh…”

Hiba did not seem to know what to say, so Shinjou turned a forced smile toward him.

“D-don’t worry too much about what they say. They’re all very strange.”

“Oh, I-I see…”

His gaze stopped on Shinjou’s arm.

Kazami then realized that Shinjou had her arm wrapped around Sayama’s.

“Oh, how passionate.”

“Eh? Ah! Wah! Th-this is just…”

“Ha ha ha. Shinjou-kun, why are you blushing? The opinions of those who do not know the truth about us are irrelevant.”

“Stop saying things that will only confuse this further!!”

Hiba tried to back away from them as he stared at them with half-lidded eyes.

…''What is he doing?

Kazami stood up and tapped him on the shoulder. With an exasperated smile, she spread her arms.

“Do you understand now who the most wholesome and normal of us is?”

“…Using the process of elimination?”

“What was that?”

“Nothing, nothing.”

He shook his head just as someone else cut in.

“Wait a minute, Hiba.”

Izumo suddenly stood up and Kazami saw him look Hiba in the eye.

“How about we continue our talk in the Kinugasa Library? You want to test us, right?”

“Yes, sorry.”

“No need to apologize. I’ll be testing you, too. I want to see what kind of person you are.”

“Eh?”

Hiba tilted his head and took a light defensive stance.

With his arms crossed, Izumo stepped forward. Izumo was approximately 190 centimeters while Hiba looked about 160. Kazami thought Izumo was going to use that difference in height in some way, but he instead opened his mouth to speak.

“The test is simple, Hiba. I have one question about the past we were just shown. …Did you see it?”

Izumo glanced to the side a bit as he spoke and the look on Hiba’s face changed. A sharpness filled his eyes.

But he finally frantically shook his head.

“I-I didn’t see anything. …What is the point of this sudden test?”

Hiba’s arms were spread as if it had started raining.

…''He definitely saw something.

Izumo continued speaking as if he understood what Kazami was thinking. He patted Hiba’s shoulder and looked him in the eye again.

“You saw the same thing in the past as I did, didn’t you?”

“N-no. I didn’t see anything.”

“No, you had to have seen them from below. At least a glimpse. They were blue, weren’t they!?”

“No, they were white! I happened to get a good look!”

Hiba’s reflexive response caused everyone to freeze in place.

Wind blew through the silence that lasted a few seconds.

“…Ah.”

As Hiba realized his mistake, Izumo nodded several times in understanding.

He folded his arms and spoke in a serious tone of voice.

“You have a promising future. I hope you can diligently-…”

Kazami swung her right leg and Izumo vanished.

After a short pause, she heard the sound of a human-sized object hitting the wall to the left, but she paid it no heed. She was used to this.

“Now then.”

She looked at the others who turned toward her after looking to the left.

She saw Baku staring rigidly at her from Sayama’s shoulder.

…''This is the first time he has looked me in the eye.

That made her happy, but she had something to say.

“Next time you want to show us a past with a girl or woman in it, do it when Kaku isn’t around, okay?”

The smile on her face made Baku frantically nod repeatedly.

“Good boy.”

When she reached out to pet the creature, it fluffed up its fur and let her.

Shinjou gave a stiff smile from next to Sayama.

“C-come to think of it, this is the first time you’ve petted Baku, Kazami-san. Isn’t that nice?”

“Heh heh. I guess it’s true that animals can sense people’s emotions. I’m very calm right now. So calm I feel a strong urge to do this.”

Sayama seemed to have chosen not to comment, so she took Baku from his shoulder and held the creature to her chest.

Shinjou frantically took Sayama’s arm and looked back and forth between Hiba and Kazami.

“Um…what do we do now? Th-that leaves Kazami-san to handle Ryuuji-kun.”

“Eh? Ehh? Sh-she’ll break me!”

“Heh heh heh. Don’t be so shy, freshman. Don’t worry. It doesn’t hurt that much.”

With the same smile as before, Kazami cracked the knuckles of her right hand and faced Sayama.

“You two can leave now. I will handle this interrogation…I mean forced information extraction…no, that isn’t it either. Um… How should I put it?” She nodded once toward Hiba. “I’ll have you tell me everything about this test, the impurity, and everything else. How about that?”

With all the hair on his body standing on end, Hiba nodded repeatedly.

Sunlight filled a hallway.

A tall maid walked through the hallway. She was Moira 1st who had spoken with Tsukuyomi Miyako.

She was pushing an ornamented metal stretcher. The table-like surface contained silver plates with semispherical lids.

Outside of the hallway’s windows were a forest, a slope, and a city. The city was packed with small buildings and houses. She glanced over at them and narrowed her eyes.

“The princess will not remember us once she returns there.”

“That isn’t necessarily true,” immediately replied a fairly low female voice.

Moira 1st slowly turned around and saw two people standing by the wall behind her. One was a tall woman in a red suit and the other was a large man wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and a blue apron. Moira 1st looked at the two of them.

“Mistress Gyes and Master Aigaion. Are you working, Master Aigaion?”

The large man named Aigaion brushed up his short-cropped blond hair and looked down at his clothes. The thick material of his blue apron said “Dragon Grocer” in white.

“I have no other choice. I simply dropped by while out on delivery because I heard the princess had woken up.”

“I told you to stay away because your huge body only gets in the way.”

Gyes, the woman with short black hair, shook her head.

“But Cottus is bragging about being the first to see this princess,” said Aigaion. “After all, his position down there let him see her first when Typhon brought her back.”

“Moira 1st, why did Typhon abduct that woman?”

Moira 1st tilted her head.

“According to the maintenance maids, there was an intense scorch mark on Typhon’s back. It apparently came from Keravnos.”

“So it ran across that black god of war. Does that mean it took a hostage in the shock of the initial strike?”

“Most likely,” said Moira 1st.

Suddenly, a new male voice cut in.

“Are you three Hecatoncheires interested in her?”

The voice came from the wall even further down the hallway. A young man leaned weakly against it.

He wore white clothes and had long, blond hair. Moira 1st faced him and raised her eyebrows.

“Lord Apollo, should you really be up?”

“With all the noise out here, it sounded more interesting than the bed or garden.”

He got up from the wall and moved his yellow eyes.

He turned a weak smile toward the plates Moira 1st was transporting.

“Has she woken up?”

“She is quite energetic, Lord Apollo.”

Gyes twisted her head at Moira 1st’s informative tone.

“It might be feigned. All the others who wandered here were like that.”

As soon as she finished speaking, her expression changed.

The harshness left her face and she let out a regretful sigh.

“Sorry. I know this is a rare pleasure for you.”

“There is no need to apologize. What you said is true. But…” Moira 1st tilted her head as she chose her words. “To put it bluntly, she broke through the memory manipulation that Moira 3rd so delightedly applied.”

“It is not that unlikely a turn of events. If the memories you sealed or the story Moira 3rd told included something important to her, she would naturally reject them. Then the seal and the story would vanish, correct?”

“Yes, but the seal is still in place. The new princess believes those memories are missing. Perhaps we should have given more thought to Moira 3rd’s story.”

“What story did Moira 3rd tell? The princess was taken here from the eastern side of this country. No normal artificial memory would form a proper connection.”

“Yes.” Moira 1st nodded with a serious expression. “It was simple. The train the princess was riding from a station called Shinjuku was abducted by a flying saucer and all the people aboard were given physical examinations by aliens. After having her sitting height erroneously measured too high, the princess angrily punched the little greys until she had taken control of the bridge. She then shouted ‘take me to Hawaii!’, but the flying saucer underwent a Dutch roll and crashed in Okayama! The title is ‘The Naked Princess in Space: To Terra’.”

“Sounds exciting, but there’s no heroine.”

“In this case, the protagonist of the princess doubles as a powerful heroine. A meaningless shower scene partway through where she only washes her shoulders is a must. I have studied this with the limited resources available to me.”

“I see.”

Aigaion and Apollo folded their arms and nodded, but Gyes frowned doubtfully.

“At any rate, the fruit of your studies was rejected. …Are you going to try a second story?”

Moira 1st lowered her head but finally answered.

“I think it would be difficult. Moira 3rd’s stories are meant to be placed over the memories I seal, but there should be a half-erased blank there now. If we forcibly attempt to change the story…”

“It could apply pressure to her memories until they break, destroying her personality. …Humans are difficult to deal with.” Having said that, Gyes frantically turned toward Apollo. “My apologies. I was not trying to say that you are difficult to deal with.”

“But I am. I don’t do anything and I’m no use whatsoever.”

Gyes fell silent and Aigaion elbowed her in the side.

Moira 1st smiled bitterly as she looked at the two and then at Apollo.

“In other words, you are sensitive.”

“Yes, exactly. Well said, Moira 1st. Now, Lord Apollo, Moira 2nd says you have been in good health recently, so will you go outside today?”

“Are the dolls worried for their master? …But I do think I will wander around outside for a bit.”

Apollo smiled bitterly just as a maid arrived from down the hallway. Moira 1st saw her jog toward them.

“Do not run in the hallway, 43rd. Now, what is it?”

The maid named 43rd nodded and got down on one knee in front of Moira 1st.

“I apologize. But…the princess has escaped!”

“Escaped?” asked Gyes rather than Moira 1st.

The maid nodded and pulled a piece of cloth from her chest. It was a pillowcase with thick letters written using something brown.

“This was written with the chocolate Moira 3rd gave her.”

Moira 1st read it, let out a laugh, and then turned to Gyes.

“It says ‘Thanks for your hospitality’.”

“You sound happy, Moira 1st. Did you know this would happen?”

“No.” Moira 1st tilted her head and spoke to Gyes, who looked suspicious, and the two men, who looked a bit surprised. “But if you recall, I did say she was energetic.”

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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume5_Chapter_1|Chapter 1]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume5_Chapter_3|Chapter 3]]
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 7

2014-06-19T23:07:57Z

Purin:

==Chapter 7: A Peaceful Morning==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0199.png|thumb]]
''An unfamiliar memory becomes a linchpin

''It holds one in place

''And informs one of something

Sayama was in a grassy plain.

He had no body. Only his vision floated there.

As he glanced around with that vision, he could see the plain was surrounded by cedar trees. The sky above his head seemed to stretch on forever and a mountain range could be seen beyond the forest. When Sayama saw the cirrus clouds crossing the sky, he finally began to think.

…''Is this a dream?

It had to be. Only his thoughts existed in what seemed like another reality.

Was this scene drawn from his memory or created from a mixture of memories? Sayama could not tell. However, Sayama decided this was not actually a dream. The wind, sky, and rustling forest were all too noisy. He could sense the movement and disorder that only real objects held.

The fact that he could feel the wind told him he had his senses.

…''Then can I speak?

“———”

He had no voice. But he could move. Instead of trying to walk, he had to create a feeling like he was tilting his body forward. His body still did not seem to exist, but his vision moved.

And then he heard a sound from the right.

…''?

With that voiceless question, he turned toward the sound. He found a man leaving the forest in the distance. He appeared to be in the gap between middle-aged and elderly. He had graying hair, a slender face, and a lean body. He wore a heavy brown coat meant for mountain climbing. The leather coat had fur added and Sayama guessed that it was quite expensive.

The man was running with the knapsack over his right shoulder shaking back and forth.

He was running toward Sayama’s location and seemed to be chasing something.

He opened his mouth and white puffs of breath escaped.

Sayama heard him say, “It… It really was here!”

From the sound of his voice, his throat had to be very dry.

The man fell to his knees, got back up, and dropped the knapsack from his right shoulder countless times as he ran. As the white puffs of his breathing grew larger and he fell to his knees yet again, he tossed the knapsack aside.

He fell forward once and his right hand reached the ground.

He stood up. He began running once more. He ran and ran some more. He continued in a straight line toward Sayama.

He approached so close Sayama felt he could have reached out and touched the man. At that point, Sayama noticed two things.

The first was that the man’s clothing was not modern.

The second was that the man was missing his left arm.

The design of his leather coat and his pants was very rough. None of the emblems one would expect on mountain climbing gear was in evidence. Sayama took a closer look at the mountain boots treading on the grass.

…''Military boots?

They were antiques made of real leather. As the man ran in those boots and his body swayed, it was clear that his left sleeve had nothing in it. The large leather coat’s sleeve held its form well, so Sayama had not noticed until now.

Sayama instinctually took a step back from the man running toward him.

Sayama did not know who the man was, but he had a feeling he had seen the man somewhere before.

…''Who is he?

At some point, the man had started clutching a machine in his right hand. It looked like a black pocket watch and it had several long hands and short hands.

And then Sayama looked at the man’s face. His thin face had the beginnings of a beard and he was breathing quickly and shallowly. However…

…''He is smiling? No. That is not a smile. That is joy.

This was the expression of a man who had had some wish granted or who had achieved something.

…''I cannot even guess what would give me a look like that.

Just as Sayama had that thought, the man cut by beside him.

While existing as nothing but his vision, Sayama sighed. He would no longer be able to see the man’s expression. The man had passed by, so turning around would only show him the man’s back.

However, Sayama still turned around. He wanted to see what it was the man sought.

…''But there should only be a forest that way.

While taking a step back, Sayama turned around.

And he saw a giant shadow.

“!?”

It was a tower.

A giant tower filled almost his entire vision. It started on the grassy plain and continued all the way up into the heavens.

Beyond the bluish-black shadow, white clouds wrapped around the wind. He looked up, but could not see the top of the tower. Because it stretched up vertically, he could not see the very top from where he was. All he could tell was that the tower seemed to be made out of a collection of rectangles.

''What is this?'' muttered Sayama in his mind. ''That wasn’t there before.

But as soon as he began to wonder why, the answer came to him. That invisible wall in that Okutama forest. A Concept Space. His vision may have moved through to the other side of one of those walls.

He lowered his vision and found the man standing quite nearby. The man’s back was less than ten steps away. As he looked up at the tower, his warm breaths escaped as white puffs of wind.

Sayama heard the man speak.

“So it really was here…”

He breathed out, breathed in, and then dropped to his knees.

His butt then dropped to the ground, but he never stopped looking up.

“Babel… The relic that tells of the beginning of the Concept War!!” he spoke.

His words were like a punch to Sayama’s consciousness.

Sayama jumped up.

“!”

He now saw a different scene from that dream: the top bunk of a bunk bed, a blanket, a small room, a close-by ceiling, a fluorescent light sticking down, and sunlight entering through the window behind him.

There was no wind. There was only the sweat sticking to his body.

“This is…”

He finally realized it was his own room.

“What a pathetic way to wake up,” he sighed while lightly shaking his head. He realized that his body existed once more. The sweat he had felt was definitely there.

And his left arm hurt. The pain seemed to throb in the core of his body.

He frowned slightly and realized once more that this was not a dream.

He hung his head down and something fell from his head.

“…?”

Something small was moving atop his blanket. It was brown and had its limbs sprawled out.

He picked it up in his right hand and held it up to his face. It was Baku. Baku remained obediently still as he held its back between his fingers. When he saw the white fur covering its belly swelling out, Sayama recalled the conversation from the night before.

“You can show people the past in the form of dreams.”

In that case…

“Was that dream…something that actually happened?”

Baku only tilted its head. Realizing it may not have been able to make such distinctions, Sayama smiled bitterly at the fact that he was speaking to an animal. However…

…''Does that tower have something to do with another Gear?

“He called it Babel.”

He decided he would learn about all that this afternoon. Ooshiro had said he would be waiting for Sayama at the Imperial Palace. He did not know what would happen there, though. But for now…

“I have student council work with Izumo and Kazami before that,” he muttered.

He then wondered if Izumo knew about UCAT.

Shinjou sat as the scenery rush by.

She was inside a train. She wore an orange shirt and white trousers while sitting on the end of the seats with a small bag on her lap. Ooshiro Kazuo sat next to her wearing a brown suit.

The two of them were riding a special express train from Oume to Tokyo. They were still only just out of Tachikawa to the west of Tokyo, but a great number of people had come onboard at Tachikawa. A wall of people had formed in front of Shinjou.

She spoke while embracing the bag on her lap.

“Wow. Ooshiro-san, there are so many people… Why are there so many people here?”

“That is a question of eros. Ha ha ha. …It is because the Japanese are a very diligent people.”

“…At what?”

As Shinjou frowned, Ooshiro smiled bitterly. His eyes bent like bows behind his glasses.

“By the way, why did you decide to go to the city for the first time? I thought the princess of UCAT was too sheltered to ask to go along for the preparations.”

“Well…” Shinjou slightly held her own body as if to hide her chest. However, her eyebrows rose slightly. “Sayama-kun doesn’t know that…so it’s okay. And the others will be coming later, right? I can’t be the only one not to go.”

“Does he weigh on your mind that much?”

Shinjou froze in place when asked that.

The train shook. Shinjou shook with it, but Ooshiro did not.

They were arriving at Kokubunji Station. Shinjou ended up leaning against Ooshiro until the train came to a stop. As the doors opened, Shinjou lowered her head slightly toward Ooshiro and fixed her position. She saw even more people board the train.

As the wall of people before her grew even denser, Shinjou let out a cry of wonder. She took a breath and looked over to find Ooshiro staring intently at her.

He was waiting for an answer. Once she realized that, Shinjou lowered her shoulders and shrunk down at the edge of the seat.

“Yes…He does,” she quietly admitted. Once she did that, she had to give a reason. “After all, I realized I never thanked him yesterday. …And I only learned after he left that his clothes, his watch, and his pens were all left for him by his grandfather.”

“He thinks of his relatives as strangers. …So does it really matter?”

Shinjou turned toward Ooshiro with a look of shock.

That was something Sayama had said when speaking with her the night before.

“I-I never told anyone about that. You don’t mean…”

Shinjou brushed her hand along her back and hair.

However, she found nothing.

Ooshiro said, “Do you want me to tell you how I knew that?”

“Y-yes.”

“I see. How honest of you. …But I will never tell y-…Wait, hey. Let go of that.”

“Shut up. No matter how high a position you have, this is an invasion of privacy.”

After tightening Ooshiro’s tie as much as she could, Shinjou let go.

“Last night has influenced me a lot,” she said.

“Like when you weighed Mikoto-kun’s life with the enemy’s life and you could not choose between them?”

“Yes. Saying it was my first time on the front lines is just an excuse. If that sniper shot had not come, who knows what would have happened.”

“You are thinking of this wrong. It is because that sniper shot was there that we do not know what would have happened.”

Shinjou looked up quickly and then hung her head down once more.

“You’re right,” she muttered as Ooshiro looked away from her.

“What a pain,” he said as he looked forward. “Your comrade said they fired because they had deemed the situation dangerous. Are you unable to trust your comrades?”

“I trust them. But…I could see the look of fear in our enemy’s eyes when he saw me. And I could see the injury on Sayama-kun’s left arm.”

“So even though you and your comrade were looking at the same thing, you saw something different. …When did you start talking about what sounds like a concept?” commented Ooshiro. He placed a hand on Shinjou’s head and stroked it. “Then how about you do whatever little you can do? Give flowers to the dead and alms to the living, and you can make up for your sins…or so they say.”

“Tes. But I do plan to give flowers after the autopsy. Same with the advance unit.”

“I see. That leaves alms for the living. You do understand that you are not the type that will be satisfied after simply thanking Mikoto-kun, don’t you?”

“Yes. …What am I supposed to do? Sayama-kun can’t use his left arm very much thanks to the injury.”

“Then you can act as a replacement for his left arm.”

“Eh?” Shinjou turned toward Ooshiro and frantically began waving her hands. “I-I can’t do that. That would require being with him at all times.”

“I know a good way you can do that. It may be a bit troublesome, but you, Shinjou Sadame-kun, do not have to go.”

A look of realization appeared on Shinjou’s face when she realized what he meant.

Ooshiro gave a deep nod of understand and raised his right thumb.

“Well, a lot of people will be coming today: your comrades, him, and a connection to the past. …You can make up your mind there.”

As he spoke, an announcement sounded within the train. They were approaching Mitaka Station.

On that special express train, their stop at Tokyo Station was only seven stops away. The sound of the brakes reverberated through the floor and the train shook.

However, Shinjou no longer shook with it.

Sayama ate an early meal in the cafeteria building and headed for the Kinugasa Library. He walked along the walkway, cut across in front of the third year general school building, and made his way to the back of the second year general school building.

He wore his school uniform, but the left sleeve of the shirt was unbuttoned.

His left arm was still wrapped in bandages. He had removed them when bathing that morning, but he had held a large white bandage-like paper against the wound. It had hurt, but no blood had seeped into the paper. He assumed that meant a powerful hemostatic agent had been applied.

As he walked behind the second year general school building, he suddenly recalled having passed by this way the day before. He looked up at the distant emergency staircase on which he had spoken with Ooki.

…''A lot of strange things have happened in just one day.

It had been past 11:00 PM by the time he had returned to school the night before.

He recalled the conversation with Tamiya Kouji when the young man had dropped him off in front of the main entrance.

Tamiya had bowed and said, “If possible, come visit us sometime soon. My father, mother, and sister would be delighted.”

“I thought I made too much noise night after night with the after-test parties.”

“My father says you can have parties every night if you wish. Also, you may have been staying away, but you and Yume-sama still have rooms in the Tamiya household.”

“Don’t say that,” warned Sayama.

The Tamiya family controlled the entire underside of Akigawa city, but they always protected the Sayama family because they were greatly indebted to Sayama’s grandfather. He did not know what his grandfather had done, but they had protected his grandfather, his father, and himself. He had stayed with them up until middle school.

The relationship was less like that of a family and more like that of superior and subordinate.

Every member of the Tamiya family trusted Sayama as much as his grandfather.

This was not a nuisance. However…

“Will I ever be able to repay them in some way?” muttered Sayama as he walked on.

He checked the watch on his left arm.

The hands of the black watch he had received at UCAT pointed toward 8:32 AM. The arranged time had been nine sharp, but he guessed Izumo and Kazami would already be there. Those two were always together.

“They even go to the absurd extent of living in the same dorm room.”

He smiled bitterly. He did not know the details, but he knew there had been a large dispute over that. It was only natural that the actions of the heir to IAI would be talked about.

“Izumo is actually 20 since he used to live overseas and Kazami’s parents agreed to it. They just barely managed to get by thanks to that.”

He had gotten to know the two of them during the student council election, but he had heard rumors of the two even before then.

''You never know what will happen with relationships,'' thought Sayama as his bitter smile deepened.

He heard a bird chirping from the line of trees behind the school building. It was the voice of a baby bird asking for food. Sayama entered the school building’s back entrance as he listened to the bird.

He continued toward the Kinugasa Library on the western end of the first floor. As he passed through the dim central lobby, he noticed two figures approaching from the front entrance.

One was a girl and one was a cat.

The girl wore a blazer, had gray hair, and had purple eyes. The cat at her feet was black.

Sayama had seen her once before.

…''In March, we had a meeting between the new student council and the upcoming leaders of the different clubs. She was from the art club.

Her name was Brunhild Schild.

Her clothes, hairstyle, and lack of expression were all identical to when he had seen her at that meeting.

Only her eyes moved on that expressionless face.

Sayama realized she was looking at his left arm.

They passed by. As she moved away silently, Sayama gave her one parting glance.

…''It looked like she was measuring the extent of my wound.

Despite seeing his bandages and sling, she had not shown any curiosity, surprise, or fear. She had had the look of someone viewing something they had seen countless times before. While storing that look of hers in his memory, Sayama walked to the entrance of the library.

Brunhild entered the art room and locked the door from the inside.

Once all outside noise was gone, she took a breath. She glanced over at the window to ensure the curtain was closed as well.

Her gaze met with that of the black cat at her feet and she snapped her fingers with a blue stone gripped in her right hand.

With that clear noise, Brunhild asked the cat a question.

“Why did you disappear in your cat form last night?”

“I went to a small meeting. Even those from the peaceful faction of 1st-Gear have a lot of animals like me. I exchanged some information with them.”

“Did you learn anything?”

The cat nodded.

“Ooshiro Kazuo of Japanese UCAT plans to visit the Imperial Palace today. And the peaceful faction will be holding preliminary negotiations for the Leviathan Road tomorrow. It seems they were not given much notice about this.”

“…Is this Ooshiro stupid? If they rush things this much, the Royal Palace faction will panic and take action. They have been rejected by the peaceful faction too much already.”

“Yes. They all said the Royal Palace faction was at their wits’ end. …I hear they are poorly united on the inside. It seems the hawks plan to target Ooshiro Kazuo, but if that fails, the doves intend to surrender.”

“They…do not have a Concept Core. However, our leader, Venerable Hagen, does.”

“It will be difficult for them. When 1st-Gear was destroyed, a gate was opened in the royal palace and in the city. The royal palace one came out near UCAT and the nobles who possessed Concept Space technology escaped through it and became the Royal Palace faction. But they did not have the Concept Core. 1st-Gear’s Concept Core was split into two, but they had neither half.”

“Yes. The king split it into two for safety. The half containing the writing concept was used in the weapon concept reactor of Venerable Hagen’s mechanical dragon, Fafnir Custom.” Brunhild lowered her gaze. “The other half containing the world construction concept was stolen from the concept facility below the royal palace. Stolen by that Low-Gear man who took the holy sword Gram created by Doctor Regin. …It seems Doctor Regin joined with Fafnir to protect the Concept Core. He absorbed the Concept Core into the reactor.”

“I heard about that,” said the black cat. “The battle occurred in that facility below the royal palace you mentioned, right? The king, the princess, Fafnir, and that single Low-Gear man were there. By the time the rest of those in the castle arrived, it was all over and the world was beginning to collapse. When they saw Fafnir and the king dead, and the princess badly wounded, they decided the Low-Gear man had escaped after transferring the Concept Core from Fafnir’s reactor into the holy sword Gram.”

“Yes. According to Fasolt and the others who are now in the peaceful faction, even as she continued to bleed, Lady Gutrune told them the world would soon be destroyed. And Lady Gutrune even managed to call out to the city from the Royal Palace. She told them we had lost and that they needed to hurry to Low-Gear through the two gates.”

Brunhild sighed and scratched at her hair.

She walked over to the easel in the center of the art room.

The canvas with a forest painted on top sat on it. Brunhild stared at the blank space in the center where a cabin and some people still needed to be painted.

“This forest and everything else disappeared. All thanks to that man who came from Low-Gear and the holy sword Gram he stole. It seems he used the world construction concept inside Gram to destroy 1st-Gear.”

“How?”

“1st-Gear was a flat world. It was a closed world where the universe was shaped like a dome and had a clear end. …According to our estimations, the world construction concept was sent out of control and 1st-Gear continually degenerated inwards until it formed a single point and disappeared.”

Brunhild formed an expression. Her eyes opened lightly and her lips formed a shallow smile.

“We lost many lives and our home. And I lost everything important to me. All we gained in return was defeat and the path to dependency. …And now Gram is sealed below IAI headquarters, so we cannot reach it. Fortunately, the Leviathan Road is beginning. We can negotiate to have Gram unsealed.” She looked down at the cat and spoke slowly. “Sixty years is a long time, isn’t it?”

Kinugasa Library was as long as four classrooms.

It was also as wide as two classrooms. It contained so much space it had to stick out from the school building.

Its structure was similar to the inner shell of a ship. The central portion was lowered down in steps and each level contained a space for tall bookshelves and a table for four. The bottommost level had a long wide space with not only a table and chairs but also decorative plants.

The table at the bottom of the library currently had four people using it.

One was Sayama with his uniform’s coat draped over his shoulders.

Across from him was Kazami wearing casual clothes and to the left of her was Izumo wearing a black track suit.

Across from Izumo and to Sayama’s left was Ooki wearing pajamas.

Sayama gathered documents on the table in one hand.

“That settles most of it. From what happened at last year’s invitation for new students, it might be safest to allow activities in the dorm hallways.”

“We need to make it very clear that the doors to the dorm rooms do not fall under the category of the hallways, though. The student council last year did not declare that, so the civil engineering club smashed holes in the dorm room doors when calling for new members.”

“They passionately said they would throw dynamite in if you did not join, right? What happened to the people who joined back then?”

“Starting the next day, they spent a month constructing a dam in Gunma for the new member training camp.”

“And so they had an excellent civil engineering club by the time they came back, hm? Brainwashing is a frightening thing. We need to nip that in the bud this year.”

“Yes,” said Kazami with a nod before turning toward Izumo. Sayama also turned to look at Ooki.

Ooki had her eyes cast down and her hands lightly clasped atop her lap. Her body was lightly rocking forward and backward as she dozed off.

Meanwhile, Izumo’s back was straight, his arms were firmly crossed, and he looked straight forward…all while fast asleep.

“Izumo’s eccentricities give him some convenient abilities. That must come in handy during long meetings.”

“Well, most of the time you and I can answer any questions as the vice president and treasurer. It makes me wonder why we even have a president… But to change the subject, what is that on your shoulder, Sayama?”

When Kazami looked over, Baku raised his head from where he had been sleeping on Sayama’s left shoulder.

“Is it an animal?’ she asked and stretched out her hand.

Baku stared at her before…

“Ah, it looked away,” she said in disappointment.

After seeing Baku lower his head once more, Sayama turned toward Kazami.

She sank down a bit into her chair and folded her arms behind her head.

“Do not worry about it, Kazami. He likely has yet to grow accustomed to his surroundings.”

“I want to touch him. My parents had a bird, so I could never have a cat or dog. …Ah.”

Kazami’s mouth hung open as she looked to Ooki next to Sayama.

To Sayama’s left, Ooki swayed. Before anyone could stop her, her forehead slammed into the table.

Ooki’s forehead reached the table with a thud and her voice leaked out.

“Ee…”

“Oh, Sayama. Looks like she’s gonna cry, so do something about it.”

“Such as?”

“Call out to her in a kind voice to calm her down or hit her even harder to knock her unconscious.”

“It would probably be even more amazing if I could do both at the same time.”

“Hwaaaahhh!”

“Wow, she’s really crying.”

Sayama decided to try to wake her up, but he realized he could not use his left arm.

He had no choice but to turn toward her and pat her on the back with his right hand.

“What is it, Ooki-sensei?”

While still lying face down on the table, Ooki coughed once and said, “A-all of a sudden… All of a sudden there was a thunk. I-it scared the crap out of me.”

“That last part was unnecessary. In fact, where did you learn that phrase? Well, anyway. Let me see your face.”

“Wh-why? Do you want to see me crying that badly?”

“No, the shock of the impact might have knocked a front tooth out of place or smashed the cartilage of your nose. If so, you need to hurry to an excellent cosmetic surgeon. …But do not worry. A yakuza family I know has an excellent one. Even if your pinky is-…gwoh.”

Kazami slapped Sayama after having circled around next to him at some point.

He fell from his chair and asked, “What are you doing to an injured person? We certainly have a cruel student council treasurer.”

“Shut up. C’mon, sensei. Your face is probably fine, so please look up.”

Sayama sighed and moved away from that scene of soothing. He gave Kazami a glance telling her to use his chair and then stared straight ahead. However, Izumo was still boldly remaining fast asleep, so there was no one to talk to.

A glance at his watch told him the time was 10:30 AM. The arranged time to meet in the city was one, so it was still too soon to head out if he was taking the train.

With nothing else to do, Sayama walked over to the stepped floor next to the table. He stood before a random bookshelf.

It was lined with hard cover books as thick as dictionaries. A placard at the top of the bookshelf said “mythology”. A series of 11 black-spined books had the author’s name written in gold thread. The name was Kinugasa Tenkyou. The publisher was Izumo Writings Department.

As Sayama read those two names, he called out, “Kazami.”

“What? I was just getting to the good part, so keep it short.”

“It is about the family of that man sleeping there with his eyes open. Have you heard anything about IAI from him?”

“About IAI? No. He says he plans to actually start studying when he gets to college, though.”

“I see,” was all Sayama said in reply.

However, he felt there was some sort of sign here.

The night before, he had visited of an organization within IAI called UCAT. There, he had learned of ten alternate worlds. There had been a war known as the Concept War during World War 2 and all of those alternate worlds had been destroyed.

That morning, he had been given a strange dream involving a giant tower named Babel.

And now he found these books on mythology in a school strongly backed by IAI.

“Eleven volumes…”

The ten alternate worlds plus this world made eleven.

…''Am I the one jumping to conclusions now?

Just as he began quietly laughing at his own thoughts, he heard Ooki’s voice.

“Are you interested in those books?”

He turned around to find Ooki sitting up with a red forehead. Kazami gave the OK sign behind her and nodded, so Sayama met Ooki’s gaze.

“Is there something special about them?”

“Yes, those books were written by the school’s founder.”

That much was obvious just from looking at the books, but Sayama let Ooki continue.

She wiped tears from her eyes and wiped her pajama sleeve on the table. She then let out a short groan.

“I heard everything about Kinugasa Tenkyou from the headmaster when I arrived here,” she said. “Despite being the founder, he never actually worked at the school. He worked with the Izumo company even before the war and was really well known in the fields of military and mythology. Are you familiar with the First Higher School?”

Kazami shook her head, but Sayama answered.

“It became the University of Tokyo.”

“It seems he worked as a professor there. In his research of Japanese mythology, he crossed the Izumo Province. That is how he gained his connections with the Izumo company.”

“Wow, you know a lot about this. This is the first time you’ve ever seemed like an actual teacher.”

“I would expect something like that from that wicked student over there, but you too, Kazami!?”

Sayama ignored Ooki and pulled out one of Kinugasa’s books. He took the first volume.

The book’s text was written horizontally. As he tried to get used to holding the book in his right hand, he noticed the cover was very worn out. He awkwardly opened it with just the one hand. It began with a world map and it wrote in detail about Norse legends while including black-and-white photographs and illustrations. The publication information said this was the first edition printed in 1934.

…''This must be valuable.

As he flipped through it, he found abundant illustrations and photographs, but…

“There is no photograph of Kinugasa himself.”

“According to Siegfried-san, he was injured during the Russo-Japanese War. Apparently, he disliked having his picture taken after that.”

“Does that old man know about all this? He is not here today, though.”

“Old man Siegfried has been feeding the chickens behind the dorms and the other birds in the area every morning. He opened up for us before heading out today. If there is something you want to know, why don’t you ask him?” suggested Kazami.

After a yawn, Izumo spoke up, “He was sent here from IAI, so he probably knows a lot. The person in charge here died about ten years ago, so he agreed to manage the place and search for any data the company needs.” Izumo stretched his arms up. “Now, what were we talking about, Chisato? Was it about the archery club wanting to have human target practice to invite new members in?”

“That was seven topics ago. We were discussing how to handle sleeping idiots.”

As Kazami grinned and held up her fists, Ooki moved away from her.

Ooki walked over to Sayama, her slippered feet creating muffled footsteps.

She stood beside him in her pajamas.

She ignored the repeated sounds of flesh being struck behind her and looked at the book in Sayama’s hand.

“It isn’t often you show interest in something, Sayama-kun. I think this is a good thing.” She yawned once and held a hand over her mouth. “Did you find an answer to that question from yesterday?”

“What was that?”

“What it is that you could get serious about…yawn.”

“Is that something to ask while yawning?”

“Oh, sorry, sorry. But when it comes down to it, I can be harsh. My motto is to be serious yet carefree so you don’t completely boil away. But can you remember one thing?”

“?”

Ooki used her finger to count the books Sayama had been looking at. She passed by in front of Sayama and her finger topped at the tenth volume.

“If you find something or someone you can get serious about, make sure not to destroy or fear either one. And…” She yawned and rubbed her eyes. “When those who rarely get serious finally do get serious, they can draw out a lot of power. Thinking that you cannot get serious means you are constantly thinking about getting serious.” She took a breath. “So you can do it. I guarantee it.”

“Ooki-sensei, I understand. …But that last comment was unnecessary.”

“Uuh,” groaned Ooki as Sayama glanced at his watch. It was almost eleven.

…''If I take a train that stops at every station and grab some lunch in the city, I can kill enough time.

Sayama nodded and decided to leave.

If he made his way to the Imperial Palace, he would find Ooshiro and maybe even Shinjou.

As he thought about UCAT and her, he suddenly recalled what Ooki had just said.

…''Becoming serious, hm?

He decided it was time to go.

Ooki was looking up at him with a puzzled look. Kazami was punching Izumo.

Sayama spoke to the girl.

“Kazami, I will be leaving now. Is that okay?”

“Die, die, die! …Sure, you can leave. …No, not you!”

“Which one of those was meant for me…?”

With a bitter smile, Sayama noticed it was sunny through the window between the bookshelves.

He could hear violent blows and could see a slightly stiff look on Ooki’s face, but it was a wonderful spring day outside.

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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_6|Chapter 6]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_8|Chapter 8]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 21

2014-06-03T16:25:03Z

Purin:

==Chapter 21: Silently Read Memories==
[[Image:OnC_v06_0287.png|thumb]]
''Someone said to go outside

''What did so before you could respond?

''Your thoughts, your gaze, or your advancing feet?

Below the blue morning sky was a dark blue expanse that reflected the sunlight and rose and fell with waves.

It was the sea, but this sea did not continue to the horizon.

Beyond the ships and water birds was an opposite shore and bluish-gray mountains.

A voice flew toward that sea.

“The Seto Inland Sea!”

The female voice belonged to Kazami.

Her voice came from a wharf sticking out into the sea. A few dozen people were gathered on the concrete harbor and Kazami stood in the lead while holding a wheelchair’s handles.

The wheelchair carried a girl with long blonde hair across the wharf.

That girl, Mikage, looked up toward Kazami, opened her mouth, and spoke with silent words.

“Ee ehoh ihluh ee?”

“That’s right,” replied a smiling Kazami. “The Seto Inland Sea.”

Mikage nodded and looked behind the other girl.

Two boys stood there: Izumo and Hiba. The latter gave Kazami an impressed look.

“Kazami-san, you sure have gotten close to Mikage-san.”

“We’ve been together since last night, including the bus, helicopter, and train rides coming here. Are you jealous, Hiba?”

“I am, Chisato. I’m worried you’re going to awaken to a love that crosses the gender barri- gfh.”

Kazami ended the unnecessary comment prematurely and glanced around.

The ones waiting for a ship on the wharf and harbor were Team Leviathan and the members of the special and standard divisions that often worked with them.

The training camp was taking place on a desert island and they had already travelled from Okutama to Okayama UCAT by helicopter and from there to Kurashiki by train.

They had arrived at the Port of Mizushima on the southwestern side of the Kojima Peninsula, but it was not a fishing harbor. It functioned as an industrial transportation harbor and it was reachable on a train from Kurashiki. The industrial area was used by many corporations such as Mitsubishi.

“The Izumo Company has apparently been using this since the early days of the Izumo Aviation Institute.”

From what Kazami’s father had told her, the area had been an even greater shipbuilding area than Yokosuka during World War Two.

She turned to Hiba, then to Mikage, and finally to the western sea.

“That’s Kure, Hiroshima over there. During the National Defense Department days, warships like the Yamato were built there.”

“They build passenger ships and tankers now, don’t they?”

“Oh, do you know a lot about this, Hiba? Do you like this kind of thing?”

“No, but my grandfather does. Back in the National Defense Department days, the military apparently asked them to share some technology for a giant warship. They planned a warship that flew and fired a destructive beam from the bow, but the military thought they were joking and rejected it.”

''They were probably serious,'' thought Kazami. ''If the plans still exist, my dad could probably use it for something.

Mikage then lifted her body up to look at Hiba.

Kazami guessed that Mikage had not heard that story and that she wanted to hear as much from Hiba as she could.

The night before, they had spoken together and Kazami had occasionally let Mikage handle the calls to Hiba, so she could now understand what the girl was thinking to a certain extent.

…''But I’m probably not as good at it as I think I am.

She had been woken early that morning by the sounds of Mikage attempting to leave the room on her own.

Kazami’s current mood would change based on whether that was due to Mikage’s desire to see Hiba or a desire to get away from her.

''I can’t let my guard down,'' she thought. ''Mikage has her own thoughts. As long as I don’t hastily read too much into her actions, I’ll get my answer eventually.

Suddenly, Hiba glanced around.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Sayama-san or Shinjou-san since Kurashiki Station.”

“Oh, those two couldn’t resist any longer and they can’t exactly do it in front of us, now can they?”

“…What?”

“It happens a lot.”

Kazami beckoned Hiba over. After Mikage tilted her head and Hiba walked over, Kazami crouched down, placed a finger over her mouth, and gestured for Hiba to lower down as well.

“?”

He lowered his head and Kazami reached into his collar and toward the wheel of Mikage’s wheelchair.

She searched around with her hands for a bit.

…''There they are.

When she pulled out two small devices about the size of a grain of rice, Hiba mouthed a word much like Mikage would.

“A uhg?”

''A bug?

Kazami nodded, quickly opened the backpack she wore, and pulled out a handheld recorder much like the one Sayama owned. She switched it on and Hiba whispered a comment on the sound it produced.

“Kazami-san, what is this sound of flesh and bones being struck?”

“Shh. Sayama edited this four hour selection of my attacks. For the moment, it’ll sound like I’m hitting Kaku.”

She placed the bugs in a small pill case she took from her backpack and placed it back in along with the activated recorder.

She tossed the backpack toward Izumo who lay collapsed on the ground. It made a dull noise as it struck his face, so it must have had some kind weapon inside. She decided not to think about it and took a breath.

“Now then, let’s talk seriously.”

“Sounds good. …Wait. Why were we bugged!?”

“Not so loud, Hiba. This isn’t a simple matter. There are people who are interested in our actions, so they asked to have us monitored. Probably from the other side of the sea.” Kazami pointed at Hiba’s collar and Mikage’s wheelchair. “They must have been slipped onto you during the body check before boarding the helicopter. I’ll put them back on you, so we need another way to eliminate them. Hiba, when disembarking from the ship later, purposefully fall into the ocean and change your clothes. Mikage, you try to use your cane instead of the wheelchair. Also make sure to check your tent every day.”

Hiba frantically nodded and Kazami smiled when Mikage emulated him. Hiba had plenty of combat experience and Mikage had a long past, but their one-on-one battles had not prepared them for this kind of tactic.

…''I actually feel like an upperclassman for once.

“So where are Sayama-san and Shinjou-san?”

“After leaving the helicopter at the Okayama IAI branch, Sayama received a phone call, remember?”

“Yes. A group called the Army attacked UCAT and escaped. Shouldn’t you all head back there? I heard most of the internal data was destroyed.”

“They targeted the central data server, so the servers of individual departments were unharmed. It seems transferring over the data from those servers will recover most of it. In fact, the IT department was glad to get a new backup from everyone. A lot of the departments don’t bother with periodic backups to the central server because it’s too much trouble.”

“Then what was the enemy after?”

“Well,” said Kazami while narrowing her eyes. “Do you really think UCAT’s databank had nothing but backup data from the different departments?”

“Eh?”

“Also, that phone call to Sayama wasn’t from an official UCAT contact. It was a secret message from 2nd-Gear’s military god in the development department.”

Kazami intentionally emphasized their connection to other Gears.

…''I don’t really like showing off our strength.

But they needed to demonstrate their past results.

She saw Hiba’s expression stiffen a bit and the look in Mikage’s eyes changed.

“What did that military god say?”

“Something very interesting. His boss had saved the majority of the data from the central server. She acted ahead of time and copied over everything the Army would want to steal and destroy.”

“But how did-…?”

Kazami cut him off with a shake of the head.

“It’s rude to ask that. Anyway, it contained a lot of documents concerning the National Defense Department, including some image data. The military god was instructing Sayama to pick up the important documents by fax so the higher ups won’t notice. He’s probably waiting by a convenience store fax machine near Kurashiki Station right now.”

“Then the idea that he and Shinjou-san went off to do dirty things was just camouflage?”

“Well…” Kazami trailed off in thought, looked up toward the sky, and gathered her thoughts. “That might not be a complete lie.”

Kurashiki was located a bit west of Okayama’s center.

It was somewhat west of the Kojima Peninsula that stuck out into the Seto Inland Sea.

The city was a twenty minute train ride from the prefectural capital of Okayama. To the south of that northeast-southwest railroad were museums and a sightseeing district known as the Bikan district which was filled with antique houses. To the north were an amusement park and a flat, seemingly never-ending residential district.

Kurashiki Station was located in the center of the city, a hotel was situated above the station building, and department stores were connected to either side.

Outside the southern entrance of the station was a large roundabout made with tourists in mind and major roads led away from it in three different directions.

The central street was primarily lined with bars, business hotels, and restaurants. Convenience stores were located between the different stores and restaurants.

Two people stood in front of a convenience store with a blue sign on the left side of the road. One was a boy wearing a vest and suit pants. The other was a boy wearing a white shirt, shorts, and a white straw hat.

The summer sun shined down as noon approached, so the two of them stood in the shade of a tree and out of the way of the walking people.

The one in the straw hat looked to the backpack carried by the one in the vest.

“Sayama-kun, you’ve been carrying that for me this whole time. Isn’t it heavy?”

“Ha ha ha. This bag contains your binder, Shinjou-kun. That would never feel heavy to me.”

“I put Izumo-san’s spare sunglasses in it because they wouldn’t fit in his bag.”

“So that’s why the right side seemed oddly heavy. Is there a trashcan around here?”

“Um…” Shinjou thought and looked at her watch to change the subject. “S-Sayama-kun? It’s 11:55 right now, so we have five minutes until Kashima-san told us to call him. Have you taken care of the bugs?”

“I have. It will only last about 90 minutes, but that should be enough.”

Sayama pulled out a clear plastic case from the backpack’s side pocket.

It contained two listening devices and Sayama’s portable recording device. That combination made Shinjou tilt her head.

“Will that really work?”

“It will. I am playing a dummy conversation I edited together.”

He raised the volume of the recorder so she could hear.

“I-I can’t handle something th-that hard!”

“We are running short on time. You seem extraordinarily interested in this. Anyway, there is no need to be afraid. Ask for it hard and rough!”

“I know I said that…but…”

“Now, then. Continue, Shinjou-kun. …Hm? Why did you just twitch?”

Sayama turned a serious expression toward Shinjou.

“Such a wonderful editing job. Now, do you see a problem with this, Shinjou-kun?”

“I see one in your brain!! …Wait. You aren’t recording everything I ever say, are you?”

“Unfortunately, that proved impossible as we first met and spoke inside a concept space where batteries did not function.”

Shinjou suddenly felt faint and collapsed to her knees, so Sayama’s eyebrows rose.

“Oh, no. Are you anemic, Shinjou-kun? Is there a restaurant that serves liver sashimi around here? No, we must not act like a carnivorous couple. A better option would be-…”

“U-um, try to calm down before you jump to too insane a conclusion. Let’s focus on a more pressing issue.”

She stood up with a hand on her forehead, frowned, and tilted her head.

“Have you been playing that for the bugs this whole time?”

“Of course. The bugging team of UCAT’s special division is likely listening to their headphones with meek looks on their faces. But do not worry. If they attempt to make unauthorized copies or to sell it, I intend to sue them for copyright infringement.”

''This is hopeless,'' realized Shinjou. ''Maybe I should have been more prepared.

She could only sigh, but after a second sigh, she managed to speak.

“Well at any rate, you go do what you have to, Sayama-kun.”

“Why are you waving your hand as if trying to banish me to the convenience store?”

“Oh, um… It just came out that way for some reason.”

She checked her watch and saw it was exactly noon. He checked his own watch, placed Baku back in his breast pocket, and faced the convenience store.

“If possible, I hope to receive some information concerning the Shinjou in the National Defense Department,” he said suddenly.

Shinjou gave a small gasp as he spoke with a straightforward look despite not facing her.

…''He actually thought about it.

She was happy, but she cleared her throat to indicate her next comment was what she felt she ''should'' say rather than what she ''wanted to'' say.

“I’m glad to hear you say that, but you can’t prioritize me. You have to prioritize everyone.”

He gave a bitter laugh, nodded, and turned his expressionless face her way.

“I am well aware. For one thing, information on the National Defense Department should also include information on the mountain ape with the same surname as me. I must eliminate the more disgraceful parts before anyone sees them.”

“I think that’s wrong for a different reason…”

“I see. At any rate, I hope we can learn something from this. Both about our relatives and about 3rd-Gear.”

He turned toward a cloth wrapper attached the backpack’s side with a band. It contained the sword Gyes had given them while promising to speak with them.

“We’re supposed to place that where we think 3rd-Gear’s base is, right? Do you have any ideas?” she asked.

“I have a general idea. When we arrived here, I heard about that attack by the Army that the old man referred to as the ‘delightful beauty invasion’, but he also mentioned a piece of information he heard from Brunhild-kun.”

“From Brunhild-san? Why does she know about 3rd-Gear?”

“The headquarters of 1st-Gear’s city faction were around here. It seems they clashed in the past and 3rd-Gear moved afterwards. When 1st-Gear’s recon team visited the area again, nothing was left.”

“But that makes it even harder to know where they are. If they were still in their original position, we could at least make a guess using the Divine States-World Interaction Theory.”

“Predicting the destination of someone who has gone missing can be quite fascinating and teach you a lot. And that includes your parents, Shinjou-kun. So let’s take it easy for now. I want to think about some things.”

“What things?” asked Shinjou.

“The second impurity the Hiba boy will not reveal to us, for one.”

Shinjou recalled the previous morning. Sayama had been oddly forceful while speaking with Hiba and he had negotiated with Gyes afterwards.

“Did you realize anything after those discussions yesterday?”

“I did. Last night, I was thinking in the bath before you arrived, and…”

“You suddenly lost all credibility…”

“Just listen. Yesterday morning, I asked the Hiba boy why Apollo had switched to piloting Typhon when he had previously used a pale blue god of war.”

“Yes, and he told you he doesn’t know why.”

“That he did, but he did not deny that Apollo had switched from one god of war to Typhon. Do you understand what I mean?”

“Ah,” gasped Shinjou as she recalled what Gyes had said. “Gyes said it is impossible to negotiate with Typhon’s pilot, that they utterly reject that option, and that anyone who knows the secret will bear an impurity.”

“Yes, but Apollo is alive. So why is it impossible it negotiate? Why do they utterly reject it? And why would that lead to bearing an impurity? I think all these mysteries can be narrowed down to a single point: why did Apollo switch gods of war? I already have a theory, but I lack evidence.”

He seemed certain, so Shinjou believed him. When he spoke with confidence, it could often cause problems, but he was never outright wrong. This naturally led to her next comment.

“You’re amazing, Sayama-kun.”

He narrowed his eyes, nodded, and let out a charming sigh.

“That is the ultimate compliment, Shinjou-kun. …From the Hiba boy’s behavior, I think he feels he has already lost his chance to tell us.”

“Then…” Shinjou chose her words carefully. “Is it like when I wasn’t sure I could reveal the truth about myself?”

“Yes. He is likely an incredibly nice person, so he seems to hesitate too much out of concern for others. He views everything as an imposition on others. Mikage-kun’s presence is also holding him back,” he said. “Do you think he ever has her comfort him?”

She could not immediately reply.

She thought about what he meant and applied the concept to the two of them.

…''Ah.

She realized he was referring to when he would rest in her lap.

…''He won’t use my lap unless he’s injured saving me or he beats me at cards.

When he felt he was in a position to freely ask for it, he would show his need for comfort.

“I wonder if Ryuuji-kun is the same?” she thought aloud. “Is he comforted by Mikage-san who can’t evolve, speak, or walk?”

“I am certain Mikage-kun would gladly do so, but I think he would hesitate to ask. He would at least subconsciously view it as placing a greater burden on her and he would deem that as arrogant,” said Sayama. “But there are times when he can accept that comfort without guilt.”

“Eh?”

Shinjou looked up and he smiled back at her.

“And that is connected to his reason for fighting. The question is whether he has realized it or not.”

“Does he really have times like that?”

“He does. Everyone does.”

“Really?”

She did not know the answer.

She felt she had Sayama comfort her too much.

Even being with him now was a part of that.

“I think only a small portion of people ever have that desire for comfort met,” she said.

“Really?”

He tilted his head and she saw something like doubt in his usual lack of expression.

He appeared unsure whether he should say something or not.

Finally, he brushed up his hair, raised his right hand, and began by calling her name.

“Shinjou-kun, there was once a certain automaton.”

“Eh?”

This sudden comment brought only confusion to Shinjou, but she quickly realized he was actually thinking for once.

She did not know what he meant or who this automaton was, but she understood what it was he desired. He wanted someone to listen to his answer, so she spoke up.

“U-um… What about this automaton? Will you tell me, Sayama-kun?”

“I will.”

He took a breath, looked away from her, and continued.

“That automaton was quite foolish.” He paused for a beat. “For some reason, she was set to destroy herself and yet made no attempt to change that. Even when her master asked that she change that setting, she refused with a smile.”

“…”

He remained expressionless, but looked up in the air, brushed up his bangs, and chose his words carefully.

“Perhaps troubling and worrying her master in that way was her way of being comforted.”

And…

“Everyone is comforted in their own way. And that is exactly why everyone has some way or another.”

He let out a small sigh, tightened his tie, and regained his usual expressionless look. It was as if his previous words had never been spoken.

“Well, most of what I said is speculation and the person in question is not with us. You can ignore it.”

“I don’t want to,” said Shinjou.

She could tell the ends of her eyebrows had lowered and a small smile crept onto her lips.

…''What happened to #4 really bothered him.

On the other hand, she had almost forgotten about it.

“I appreciate that you talk about that kind of thing from time to time.”

“Then we truly are opposites, Shinjou-kun. I view it as a horrible failure.”

He spat out the words and did not look her in the eye, but he soon hurriedly looked at his watch.

“It is time.”

“Oh, you’re right. We can leave it at that.”

“What a disagreeable tone you have there.”

“We really are opposite. I wasn’t being disagreeable. I just thought you were being oddly…”

She thought.

“Funny and amicable. What would that combination be in the Sayama language? And if you just combine ‘fu’ with ‘cable’ without thinking what it sounds like, I won’t take a bath with you for a while.”

“…”

“Y-you don’t have to think about it so seriously.”

“I see. But that proves you do not view it as all that important. I would prefer it if you forgot I said anything.”

She stuck her tongue out in response and he merely smiled bitterly.

If she had the chance, she decided to bring up that sort of thing herself next time.

Meanwhile, Sayama took a step toward the convenience store.

“Please wait here, Shinjou-kun. Afterwards, we can take a walk as we gather our thoughts. How about looking around the Bikan district?”

“The others will complain if we’re late. We need to set up the tents and the stove.”

“Our athletic couple can handle the sweaty work like that. We can buy a souvenir that will make them forget.”

He took a few steps and passed through the automatic door to the convenience store. Seeing the door open as if avoiding him made Shinjou smile.

She watched through the glass as he walked inside and spoke to the clerk.

…''The Bikan district, hm?

When he had mentioned visiting Kurashiki, Kazami had been jealous. It was an old city and some old areas remained. Those areas had been preserved and turned into sightseeing areas.

…''A normal girl would be happy to be taken somewhere like this.

She reached into her shorts pocket and pulled out the Okayama sightseeing booklet she had secretly bought. When she had bought a swimsuit with Kazami, she had asked the girl for advice and she had added some labels to the booklet based on her response.

She had thought the training schedule would leave no time for fun, so arriving in Kurashiki so suddenly was quite fortunate. The Bikan district page had a label attached and this backing from Kazami allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Maybe I can let him comfort me a little more,” she muttered.

A car driven by a man in a suit passed by, so she stepped back. With the tree behind her, there was not much space, but there was enough for one step.

“Ah.”

Her back struck something other than the tree. It was more flexible and it shook.

It was a person.

She frantically turned around. This was the result of focusing too much on the booklet and thinking about letting Sayama comfort her. She needed to apologize.

She found a girl about her own age. The girl was tall and had her long hair tied behind her. She wore a black backpack with a cloth fishing rod holder attached.

…''I hope she isn’t mad.

Shinjou looked, but the girl’s expression seemed strange.

When someone was hurt by a stranger, they would normally gather their eyebrows together in a frown, but this girl was staring at her with slightly raised eyebrows.

She almost looked surprised.

''Was it really that surprising?'' worried Shinjou.

“I’m sorry. A-are you okay?”

The girl took a moment to react. The pause was long enough that Shinjou worried she had not heard her.

“…”

The girl’s first reaction was to relax her expression and shoulders.

She then took a breath and brushed up her hair.

“There is nothing to worry about. Um… What is your name?”

The girl asked probingly, but Shinjou saw no reason to question her about it.

“Sadagiri. Shinjou Sadagiri.”

As soon as she answered, Shinjou worried the girl was going to demand money from her. Rude terms such as extortionist, con artist, and ransom abduction filled her mind for a moment.

…''But I have someone even more amazing by my side.

Thinking that put her at ease, so she relaxed and let out a breath so the girl would not notice.

“What about you?”

The girl answered as if she had been waiting to be asked.

“Toda. …Toda Mikoku.”

[[Image:OnC_v06_0309.png|thumb]]

Mikoku saw Shinjou right in front of her.

After hearing her name, Shinjou looked up a bit and moved her lips as she thought on the name.

“Toda-san? I’m very sorry.”

She bowed. The words accompanying that movement of long, black hair were those of one speaking to a stranger.

That fact caused Mikoku’s shoulders to droop a little.

“I knew it.”

“Eh?”

“Nothing. More importantly, you need to be careful. You might be fine on a major road like this, but the back roads of this city are narrow and the telephone poles stick out into the road in a lot of places. Not paying attention to your surroundings is dangerous.”

“Oh, I see.”

Shinjou looked around the major road and then down the narrow roads between buildings.

After confirming what she had been told, she nodded.

“Do you live here?” she asked.

“No, I am from Tokyo.”

The cautious strength in Shinjou’s expression left when she heard that.

“Oh, so am I. Where in Tokyo do you live? I’m from Akigawa.”

Mikoku just about answered but caught herself and gave a displeased frown.

“Nowhere important.”

“I see…”

When Shinjou lowered her head in disappointment, Mikoku frantically spoke up.

“Oh, but I hear Akigawa is nice. For example, the central park was opened up to the citizens after it wasn’t being used for many official events, they rely on other cities for garbage disposal so as not to pollute their own air, and they use a lot of tax money to build up the river banks and keep the river from flooding.”

“I-is it really that nice a place? And you sure do know a lot about it. Do you live in a nearby city?”

“You could say that.”

She had to keep Shinjou from asking further and there was a lot she had to ask as a member of the Army.

She needed to secretly ask about the important points.

“Um… What are your hobbies?”

“Eh?”

That was not what she was supposed to ask. She was focusing too much on the personal side, so she slapped herself on the cheek.

“I am here for work, but what about you?”

She was worried that question was being overly familiar, but Shinjou began to think with a finger in front of her mouth.

“Well… A training camp I suppose. Yes, a student council training camp. We’re staying on a desert island in the Seto Inland Sea.”

“Sounds like quite the adventure. I hear there are pirates known as Wokou in the Seto Insland Sea, so be careful.”

“It’s not the Sengoku period anymore, so I don’t think they’re still around.”

“I see. I did not look into it that far. …Anyway, why are you in Kurashiki? Securing supplies?”

“Yeah, we’re picking up something.”

Shinjou turned toward the convenience store and Mikoku followed her gaze.

“…!”

She saw a boy through the window. He held a fax telephone receiver in one hand while looking through the documents being printed off.

“After we finish here, we were going to look around the Bikan district.”

Her tone was cheerful, but it caused Mikoku to hold her breath. She had a sword inside a cloth fishing rod holder. She could enter the convenience store and swing the sword with all her might while he was trapped in the fax corner.

…''He would not be able to avoid it.

Tension ran across her face and she grabbed the cloth holder.

However…

“Um, can I ask you something?”

Shinjou turned a smile toward her, so Mikoku’s expression returned to normal.

She regained her slightly relaxed smiled.

…''I’m being too soft.

She scolded herself, but then made an excuse.

…''This is better than having her find me suspicious and putting up her guard.

She took two breaths before slowly responding.

“What do you want to ask me?”

“Eh? Oh, right.”

Shinjou held out a booklet with hand-drawn maps of Kurashiki that was turned to the map of the Bikan district.

“You seem to know a lot about Kurashiki, so do you know any interesting places in the Bikan district?”

Mikoku was unsure what to say.

During the overnight train ride, she had carefully read a sightseeing booklet of her own. She had put together a list of places to visit after she finished guarding Hajji, but it had been centered on places to buy souvenirs for Shino.

“Will you be going there with him?”

“Eh? Oh, yes.” Shinjou blushed. “With him.”

“I see.” Mikoku mentally sighed. “Then I have a suggestion for you. There is a photo studio around here in the Bikan district. Also, you can likely take a nice commemorative photo on this street here. I suggest you do so.” She nodded. “That way you will still have a record of it even if you lose your memories.”

“Eh?”

Mikoku belatedly realized what she had said.

…''Ah.

She realized how careless she had been, but did not let it show.

After a moment of hesitation, she held out her hand to distract Shinjou from her question. She held the hand above Shinjou’s head and gently touched the top of her hat.

She could feel the fibrousness and softness of Shinjou’s hair through the white-dyed straw.

Shinjou tensed up a bit, but Mikoku did not pull back.

…''She is so soft.

As she thought, a wind blew through.

Kurashiki was a flat city, so this summer wind was warm and gentle. A few beads of sweat appeared on her face and the surrounding noises sounded louder than before.

“I must hurry on, so this is as long as I can stay. We may meet again some time.”

“Yes. Until then, Toda.”

“Call me Mikoku. It means to carve into life. Much like your name, Shinjou Sadagiri.”

Shinjou’s eyes widened somewhat and Mikoku made sure she would remember that expression.

And then she turned her back.

“Ah.”

Shinjou spoke up, but Mikoku did not turn back around. She merely raised a hand.

“Give my regards to that boy. That fortunate boy.”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume6_Chapter_20|Chapter 20]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume6_Chapter_22|Chapter 22]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 20

2014-06-03T16:17:53Z

Purin:

==Chapter 20: Noisy Challenge==
[[Image:OnC_v06_0245.png|thumb]]
''That which causes commotions should not stay for long

''It should remain on the move

''Like a sudden rain shower

Shino walked down a white corridor.

This was her first time in UCAT and she was likely the first non-intelligence member of the Army to be there.

The intelligence department had used invisibility and silencing philosopher’s stones to acquire the corridor layout down to UCAT’s second basement. They had been unable to continue further down because the doors were too well-defended, but Shino’s mission did not require continuing past those doors.

“Shiro.”

She spoke toward the ground as she walked through the corridor.

A large white dog walked next to her there, but it was not alone.

The entire corridor was filled with dozens of dogs.

They came in countless varieties: small, large, white, black, brown, striped, spotted, raised ears, floppy ears, a prominent bridge of the nose, a lack of one, short legs, and long legs.

None of those many dogs cast a shadow on the floor. They all continually turned to look at Shino and walked along as if protecting her.

She met the gazes of the dogs protecting her from all directions and continued on.

“Thanks, everyone.”

…''I only travelled from Okutama Station to here, but I gathered so many.

She grabbed the philosopher’s stone pendant hanging from her neck. The blue stone was glowing and that light used her will to give form to residual thoughts.

She did not know whether these could be called ghosts.

Even if the philosopher’s stone allowed them to exist, there was nothing more to it than that.

Hajji had speculated that their loss had created a “gap” that functioned as a mold for their form. Shino’s philosopher’s stone was a type of thought synchronizing concept, so he said it might be sending their residual thoughts into that mold and casting a new form for them.

Shino recalled what else Hajji had said:

“Do you not have enough power to give form to humans or did you set your specialty to dogs when you gave form to Shiro? Hm?”

She could now find the remnant wills of dogs, synchronize them with her philosopher’s stone, and allow them to touch objects other than her. When she did, most of them would be confused by being given a form and try to fight her. It was as if she were robbing them of their rest.

When that happened, Shiro would deal with them.

The dogs gathered here were the ones who had joined her and Shiro. She was their master and Shiro was their boss.

As she looked at all of them, she wanted to give them all food, but she could not.

“But we can go see your owners afterwards.”

She had promised to take them each to their former owners after they played together. When they met their former owners, their minds would reach their strongest point. The former owner would either see them for an instant or hear their cry before they disappeared.

Sometimes the former owner would have a new dog, but the dogs would always choose not to meet the owner in those cases. They would realize their appearance was an unneeded intrusion, but they would still lick Shino’s hand and disappear.

…''Will that happen to Shiro someday?

But she had another thought as well.

…''Where do they go when they disappear?

Did Low-Gear have a realm for the dead?

She had heard most of the other Gears did. 1st-Gear had Requiem Sense and 3rd-Gear had the Tartaros, but what about Low-Gear?

“If the concepts are released, will a realm for the dead be created?”

She tilted her head, Shiro looked at her worriedly, and the other dogs looked at her as well.

She was making them worry, so she smiled to tell them they did not have to.

She pulled a paper from her pocket. It was a map of UCAT’s second basement and she was on her way to the central hall.

“The northern wall has a communication line to the center of UCAT.”

With the map in one hand, she used the other to pull out a philosopher’s stone on a string.

“Hajji got this weakened concept from 3rd-Gear. It transforms thoughts into information.”

She wrapped the blue stone’s string around her hand and lowered that hand. The dogs formed a circle around her and licked her hand and the stone it held.

As she let them lick her hand, she showed them the map.

“Okay, everyone. It’s time to eat. Your food tonight is data. Once you’ve been turned to information, please eat everything you find deep in UCAT.”

She took a breath, faced forward, and pointed.

“Go!!”

The group of dogs immediately took action.

They first raised their throats toward the heavens and opened their mouths in a howl.

Several dozen howls shook the white corridor and led to the next action.

As the sound came to an end, they ran.

“…!”

They sprinted along in an undulating line.

With a mission in mind, the dogs did not turn back toward Shino. They quickly formed groups of a few dogs each. Some groups continued straight and others suddenly cut through the walls.

Those information beasts ran through the white corridor and continued to run.

Shiro alone remained to await their return and to protect their master.

Shino watched as the final group disappeared into the wall.

“I hope they’ll be okay.”

She stopped walking and Shiro turned toward her after circling ahead. An unhesitating face lay beyond his sharp nose and he seemed to be telling her not to worry.

She nodded, smiled, gripped the philosopher’s stone hanging from her neck, and opened her mouth.

The movements of her small lips produced a song.

''Silent night, Holy night

''God’s Son laughs, o how bright

''Love from your holy lips shines clear,

''As the dawn of salvation draws near,

''Jesus, Lord, with your birth

''Jesus, Lord, with your birth

The majesty of that song passed through the stone and reached the dogs and their power of information. It encouraged them and told them their master was still there.

She heard answering howls in the distance.

The howls came from the corridor ahead, the intersections with other passageways, and from within the walls. They were responding to the song and their master’s concerns.

Pushed on by their master’s voice, the dogs’ voices contained no fear.

To push them on even further, Shiro howled.

“————”

The bestial reverberation ruled the air.

Until, that is, another sound from directly ahead cut it off.

Several footsteps made by solid shoes and the clattering of metal equipment reached them.

…''Here they are.

Shino prepared herself and Shiro bared his fangs.

“UCAT.”

A moment later, that was exactly who arrived.

People charged out from the left and right at an intersection with another corridor up ahead.

They wore white armored uniforms and other white clothing. There were at least twenty of them and they must have known she had no projectile weaponry because they took up a position to block her path.

Those on the front line lowered their hips, held something in both hands, and peered into it.

…''Weapons!?

She opened her mouth to complain that they were firing without giving a warning, but she realized she was being naïve. Instead, a shouted name escaped her opened mouth.

“Shiro!”

The dog lowered his front legs and shrunk back. Once he began, she knew several enemies would be scattered in an instant.

However…

“Okay! Target is in photographic range!!”

One extraneous word confused her.

“…Eh?”

The doubt in her heart caused Shiro to turn toward her in confusion.

At the same time, the enemy’s front line activated their weapons.

“…!”

She frantically prepared herself and heard a surprisingly reserved mechanical noise.

And nothing else happened. No bullets flew her way and no pain filled her body.

…''Eh?

When she peeked forward between her fingers, she saw the enemy’s front line falling back and the second line stepping forward.

Finally, she noticed what their weapons were: cameras.

“Eh? U-um…”

She relaxed her posture and the retreating front line frantically turned toward her.

“Ah! Sh-she put her hands down! I couldn’t get a good shot of her face because her hands were in the way! Hey, second line. Give me another chance!”

One man tried to step forward, but the members of the second line forced him back.

“Don’t be stupid! This is the order we decided on using requests, recommendations, and official games of rock-paper-scissors! It’s your fault for thinking it’s best to have the first shot at it!”

“That’s right,” said one man who stood in front of all the others. “And by the third round, she’ll have gotten used to it, so the second round is what really matters.”

The old man wore a lab coat, the camera hanging from his neck had a telephoto lens the size of an anti-tank gun attached, and he was holding up his right thumb in Shino’s direction.

Shino knew him because he was well-known even within the Army.

…''Ooshiro Kazuo?

Her question must have passed through the philosopher’s stone because Shiro tilted his head toward her.

She wondered what to do, but Ooshiro spoke before she found an answer.

“Yes, that is an excellent expression. Everyone, don’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity.”

He lay on the floor and opened the bipod on the bottom of the telephoto lens to prepare the camera like a sniper rifle.

“Okay, let’s go!”

“Eh? Um, okay.”

Shino had Shiro sit down and straightened up as she heard the sound of the shutter.

Ooshiro smiled and stood up.

“Thank you very much. Third line, you’re up!”

The third line frantically prepared their cameras and took photos.

“Okay, the three-line photo shoot is complete.”

The entire group began to cheerfully leave, but Shino frantically spoke up.

“Um! I-is that really all you’re doing?”

“Of course it is. We’re off duty right now.”

“Then where are those who are on duty?”

“The dogs arrived while they were gathering their equipment, so they had to deal with that too. With that extra work, I don’t think they’ve managed to locate you yet. They’re driving away the dogs while visually searching for you, but we decided to get what photos we could and then tell them where you are once we get back.”

“Wh-why wouldn’t you tell them right away!? I’m an intruder.”

She had no idea why she was arguing, but Shiro gave a bark of agreement.

However, Ooshiro nodded with his giant camera resting on his shoulder.

“You are indeed an intruder and we’re still UCAT members even while off duty,” he said. “But everyone has their own job. The field operation group is currently running around in order to fight you, so we took the role of recording the intruder’s actions while not getting in their way. But by some strange coincidence, we ran across you before they did.”

Everyone around the old man applauded.

The comments of “nice excuse” and “you are the law” convinced Shino that this entire encounter had been put together by Ooshiro.

…''The rumors about him were true.

It would not surprise her if he had sent false data to the other units just so he could take pictures of her.

“Then you don’t have any combat gear on you?” she asked just to be sure.

“Of course not. Nothing could be more disrespectful than worrying our model.”

''I knew it,'' she thought with a sigh.

“What will you do if I attack you?”

“N-nonsense. Would an honest beauty like you really attack a group of defenseless people?”

He stood tall and opened his lab coat to demonstrate his defenselessness. ''He looks like a flasher,'' she thought, but the word “innocent” was written across the inside of his coat in ink.

Her shoulders drooped.

“Sorry, but please leave. I have serious work to do here,” she said. “A-also, don’t make a bunch of copies of those and spread them around.”

“You heard the model! No publishing these without permission!”

''You were planning to?'' she realized. ''I guess that’s just the kind of place this is. UCAT is a frightening place.

Her shoulders drooped even further.

“Also, I want you to restate something.” She nodded and continued. “I don’t like simply being called a ‘beauty’, so please stop.”

“Ehhh!!?”

The entire group’s reflexive shout caused her to flinch back, but she quickly recovered.

“Wh-why are you so surprised!?”

“C-c-c-c-calm down! H-how about we start by defining our terms!?”

“Wh-what do you mean by defining our terms? I just don’t want to be called that!”

“No! What you want doesn’t matter here! It’s our fantasies that matter! Isn’t that right!?”

Shino smiled and immediately responded to Ooshiro’s question.

“Sic him, Shiro!!”

The group of adults ran in a panic from the charging beast.

Two emotions filled the atmosphere of the development department room.

One was a rushing impatience and the other was the tension that caused.

The source of those emotions was Tsukuyomi’s desk on the southern side of the room. Specifically, they came from Kashima as he watched the monitor and Tsukuyomi as she typed on the keyboard.

“What are these growing damaged areas that suddenly appeared?” asked Kashima as he peered at the monitor. “UCAT’s data is being taken from the server!”

The amount of gray indicating inaccessible damaged clusters was growing on the data map. Those damaged regions had appeared in every direction and were growing as if drawing a line toward the white sphere of the core.

“Director Tsukuyomi, do you think this is the intruder’s doing?”

“I would say so. The damaged regions appeared at almost the same time as the alarm sounded. …Uh, oh. It’s approaching our line.”

The white sphere and blue line were still safe, but the gray regions were drawing ever closer.

Kashima pulled the keyboard toward him and began typing.

“This damage is prioritizing the largest clusters of data, so wouldn’t it work better to gather dummy data as bait rather than setting up a defensive wall?”

The red group that had attempted to block Tsukuyomi’s program was attacking the damaged areas, but the red was overwritten with gray with no sign of resistance.

“It looks like the attack programs are being devoured as small pieces of data.”

“Do we have a large enough amount of dummy data to work as bait?”

“Unfortunately, almost all of the unnecessary data on our personal machines was deleted. What about the family movies left on your laptop?”

“That is not unnecessary data. It is a necessary part of a military god’s life.”

“That’s quite a leap in logic. Anyway, what other unnecessary data is there?”

The two of them exchanged a glance, took a breath, and shouted out at the same moment.

“The 18+ games!!”

Kashima pointed toward the white sphere in the center of the monitor.

“Director Tsukuyomi, there’s a whole bunch right here! It’s a treasure trove!”

“Quit shouting and pointing and actually do something!”

Kashima gave his instructions to the program. As it continued removing data for itself, it created a secondary pathway to send massive amounts of dummy data toward the damaged regions.

The data transfer rate dropped, but the tremendous amount of data slowed down the expansion of the damaged region. Tsukuyomi and Kashima watched as file names scrolled by on their way to be destroyed. It looked like names on a war memorial and Kashima spoke in a serious tone as he read them.

“These are some unpleasant titles. Like this one: ‘Repeated School Year’. The tagline is ‘Be held back!’.”

“I don’t care. I’m more concerned by this one: ‘The Creator of Esperanto Was Named Zamenhof (For Real)’.<ref>The “Zamen” of Zamenhof is spelled the same as “semen” in Japanese.</ref> Its tagline is ‘Time to take over the world!’, but what is it even about?”

“Maybe this is actually a valuable collection.”

“Don’t say that with a straight face. More importantly, look at this-… Wait. Why are we reviewing the titles and taglines of 18+ games!?”

Her shout was accompanied by odd noises out in the corridor.

They heard footsteps and barking.

After a large group of footsteps passed by and gave various frightened shouts, a dog pursued them and a single set of quieter footsteps followed.

“What was that?” asked Kashima.

“How about you get out there and find out?”

The wall of dummy data was forming on the monitor.

“I don’t think we can gather all the core’s data before the dummy data is eaten through.”

However, Tsukuyomi was already listing their gathered data in a different window.

As she looked through the list of names, she smiled.

“It looks like we have a lot of data on the National Defense Department. There are even digitized photographs. Kashima, you find out what’s going on out in the corridor. I’ll have this tidied up and printed out by the time you get back.”

“And then I’m supposed to do something with it?”

“Yes. Fax or otherwise send anything that looks important to the group in Okayama. Use a convenience store or something, so the higher ups won’t notice.” She nodded. “Those children will want this information too.”

Shino faced the bad adults in the central corridor of the second basement.

She had run around quite a bit, but she had been generally making progress toward the exit. The enemy had met up with the field operation unit at an intersection between white corridors and they were catching their breath behind that unit.

…''They’re holding the exit.

The dozen or so members of the field operation unit aimed guns at her. They aimed the guns directly at her and showed no sign of starting with warning shots. The middle-aged man with a commander-ish hat held a Hanshin Tigers megaphone in one hand.

“Um, can you hear me? We ask that you surrender peacefully.”

“I won’t.”

“Um, then can you give your name and affiliation?”

She was unsure whether she should tell them.

“My name is Shino. I am affiliated with…the Army.”

The unit stiffened at that name.

…''That isn’t surprising.

UCAT and the Army had fought a few skirmishes limited to Japan and most of them had involved the theft of UCAT’s information, materiel, and secrets. The Army viewed the battles as secondary and anyone who was captured was ordered to commit suicide.

…''But most everyone returns without being captured.

This may have been close to the first time someone had directly faced them and named the organization.

She noticed the field operation unit, including the commander, was speaking with the camera group behind them.

“?”

She tilted her head and the commander turned toward her.

“What is your objective?”

“Are you not aware what’s happening to UCAT’s data servers right now?”

“We are aware.”

His voice contained a tone of sadness which made Shino feel apologetic. However, she was also glad that the dogs were doing their job.

…''I really am selfish.

But she knew her behavior had to remain resolute and she knew these were her enemies.

“Then please give up. No normal attacks can stop my dogs. If possible, could you open a path and let me through? If you do, I will tell the dogs not to attack you.”

She poured strength into her words and prepared for an attack.

And…

“That expression is mine!!”

An ultra-long telephoto lens poked out from behind the enemy and she heard the sound of a camera shutter.

“No fair!!” shouted most of the enemy.

“I didn’t give you permission to photograph me!!” she shouted.

“That’s right. That’s right,” said the field operation unit as they grabbed the photo group by the collar.

“Listen up all of you,” said a representative member of the unit. “Don’t make us point a gun at a beauty while you have all the fun!”

“I-I said to stop calling me that. Is everyone in this organization a pervert!?”

They all turned toward her.

“You just don’t understand your value! Go look in a mirror and think about what truly matters!”

“I-I don’t want that kind of value! Please stop taking pictures!”

Ooshiro held his telephoto lens and wriggled back and forth behind all the others.

“How…how could you rob an old man of his adorable hobby?”

“Shiro, Shiro. Target that guy first. Don’t hesitate to use your canines.”

“When did beauties become so cement-like!?”

“Just let me leave!!” she shouted. “Do you have a habit of imprisoning young girls!?”

…''I need to move them out of the way so I can leave.

The dogs would catch up to her before long after the finished devouring the data and storing it in their bodies. Once she removed that from them and stored it in the philosopher’s stone, her mission would be complete. UCAT would lose most of its database and the Army would gain all that data.

…''Let’s get out of this unpleasant world as soon as possible.

Even without the dogs, she could use her philosopher’s stone’s power to break into an opponent’s thoughts and make them do what she said.

“Please move out of the way,” she said to the stone hanging from her neck.

A moment later, the few people immediately blocking her path unsteadily stood up.

It had worked. The power of a philosopher’s stone was the same as a concept and there was no way to oppose a power that simply stated how things were.

“…”

She took a breath. As a few people moved to either side, the people behind them frantically spoke up.

“W-wait! You’re controlling them! Is this some kind of miraculous beauty power!?”

“This is not a beauty power! It’s a philosopher’s stone!!”

“Ehhh!?”

She ignored their shouts of protest and stepped forward.

Ooshiro immediately ran forward and held out both hands.

“You’re on!!”

“Please move out of the way.”

She sounded almost exasperated as she gave her order, but then something like a crack ran between her and Ooshiro.

“Eh?”

She heard the sound of cracking glass and saw that Ooshiro had not moved.

She frowned at the fact that her philosopher’s stone was not working.

“Please…move out of the way,” she said while tilting her head.

Another crack ran through the air and a gust of wind blew through, but Ooshiro remained unmoved.

It was not working.

But as Ooshiro held his hands forward, his lab coat shook and a blue stone on a chain fell from his hand.

“Ha ha ha. Too bad. I thought it would be a good idea to bring a weakened copy of a concept that deflects everything.”

“But…”

“I simply deflected your power. Why don’t you try asking more nicely?”

“Please move out of the way!!”

Her shout produced another spatial crack and the bottom of Ooshiro’s lab coat fluttered about. The surrounding soldiers were bent backwards and plastered to the wall with their skeletons creaking from the strain.

“Gwah! U-UCAT Director Ooshiro! We can’t move out of the way any more than this!!”

“Just move out of the way!!”

“Gwaaaah!”

“You all seem to be having fun.”

Ooshiro withstood her power head on.

His expression and stance showed just how calm he was.

…''Huh?

She then realized something. If his reflection concept was related to the hands he held forward…

“Ah.”

She pretended to casually look to the left where the wall contained a single door.

As soon as Ooshiro looked over as well, his stance shifted just enough to alter the angle of his defensive power and he was blasted diagonally to the right. He struck the wall and energetically rolled two or three times.

“Ow! You need to treat the elderly with more care!”

“Please be quiet and let me leave!”

Shino ignored him and her shout silenced all of her opponents via the philosopher’s stone.

She received the desired silence, but she had a thought about her shout.

…''That isn’t what an intruder should be saying.

She realized she was blushing and the adults crawled down from the wall, pressed their heads together, and began discussing something. A few of them would glance her way on occasion and about a minute passed.

Once they faced her again, all their faces displayed the same calm smile.

“Now, let’s take this seriously. We aren’t letting you leave tonight.”

“Y-you sound like you’re lying. Are you hiding something?’

“N-no. O-o-o-of course not. None of you are hiding anything, right?”

They all gave three quick nods and Shino came to the realization that adults were liars.

“Anyway, please don’t move. I need to continue on and leave.”

“Yes, yes. Keep going if you wish.”

Ooshiro’s tone of voice confused her, but she did not know why.

She tilted her head and Shiro suddenly turned back toward her.

“What is it, Shiro?”

He turned toward the right wall and Shino started to as well.

“Ahhh! Don’t look at that wall!! It’ll corrode your eyes away!”

She looked regardless and found a white wall with a placard on it.

The placard contained a green arrow pointing behind her and a single word below it.

“Exit,” she read aloud.

…''Did I get turned around while chasing them?

“Oh, um, that’s where a man named Mr. Exit lives,” said Ooshiro up ahead. “The…the real exit is this way! C’mon, this way!”

“Good! Bye!!”

With that staccato exclamation, she started to turn around.

She was more bothered by her own sense of direction than by allowing them to trick her, so she decided to take some combat training in a closed space once she returned to the Army.

But as she turned around, she heard a voice from the exit leading up to the first basement.

It was a male voice and it was singing.

“A kissss exchanged innnnn the middle of the niiiiiight is a kiss of the niiiight!”

“He’s here!” said someone behind her.

“Wh-what is this strange song!?”

“Our secret weapon. The weapon we wanted to keep a secret!”

Shino heard a singing voice.

As it continued, she stopped moving and watched as someone appeared from down the corridor.

“Yooouuuuu and meeeee in our hearrrrrrrts!”

A pause.

“Yeahhhhhhh!!”

The shout ended just as the young man stopped approximately three meters ahead.

Shino observed him.

He had short blond hair and wore a white summer coat.

He seemed to be hearing things because he spread his arms as if to quiet imagined cheering.

“There will be no encore. Not when I get a job the second I get back from the Sea of Japan.”

Hearing that, Shino guessed who he was and breathed a sigh of relief.

He was most likely an ultra deep-sea fisherman from the coast of the Sea of Japan. The extreme loneliness of the sea had clearly caused him to go mad.

He glanced at her, Shiro, and the UCAT soldiers at the corridor intersection behind her.

“I’m here. It’s Atsuta Yukihito of the development department’s security team.”

“Eh? You’re not a deep-sea fisherman?”

“What are you talking about, brat?”

The young man named Atsuta frowned toward her and then turned back to those behind her.

She could tell he was an enemy, but his general atmosphere prevented her from moving. He was perfectly relaxed, but she had no idea what he would do if she did anything.

She had felt this same oppression when facing Tatsumi in training.

Shiro lowered down next to her but did not let down his guard.

''What should I do?'' she wondered just as Atsuta asked a question to his allies.

“So where’s this supposed enemy? Bring them out here for me.”

She followed his gaze in confusion and saw all those in the corridor intersection point at her.

Seeing that, Atsuta looked at her, paused, and then looked back at his allies.

“Are you stupid? This immature brat isn’t an enemy! If you’re gonna joke, at least put some effort into it. Hey, brat. I don’t know where they scouted you from, but hanging around people with rotten brains will make your own brain melt out your ears.”

“N-no. I…um…am the enemy.”

“Don’t be stupid, brat! Stop playing pretend, go home, and get some sleep!”

Everything he said irritated her.

He must have noticed the stern look on her face because he tilted his head.

“What? You got something to say to me, brat?”

That was when her self-control reached its limit.

She took in just one breath, clenched her lowered fists, and shouted back.

“I am not being stupid! And what is wrong with you!? Why do you keep calling me a brat!?”

“Shut up. You look like a brat, so I called you a brat. Isn’t it summer break? Go get to sleep, head out for the radio exercise tomorrow morning, and get yourself a stamp for attendance!”

“Oh? You keep calling me a brat, but you’re the one singing weird songs and hearing things. You’re more of a child than I am. In fact, you’re beyond saving! Also, the radio exercise wouldn’t be tomorrow morning. It would be this morning because it’s already past four in the morning! You idiot!!”

Her tirade received a response, but not from Atsuta.

The group behind her gasped and seemed to draw back in fear.

But she was no longer afraid and she stuck out her tongue before continuing.

“If you don’t like it, then say something! You stupid adult!”

She saw the young man’s eyebrows rise and he bared his teeth.

“Y-y-you…you…you…”

“Ohhh? Are you having trouble speaking? Heh heh heh. You double idiot!”

“I’ll rape you, brat!!”

His shout pierced through her, but it took her a moment to realize what he meant.

The entire area grew silent and she thought amidst the absolute stillness.

What exactly did those words mean?

“U-um…”

Her knowledge came from newspapers and magazines. When she mixed that with the current situation, she started to feel faint.

Something fell from her eyes.

She momentarily thought about calling for help from Mikoku, but Mikoku was not here. She had to be strong.

She endured and slowly looked up at him while feeling new tears welling up in her eyes.

She had a single word to say to Atsuta’s frowning face. She faced the ceiling, breathed in, and opened her mouth wide.

“Rapist!!”

“Y-you idiot! Don’t take it literally!!”

“Wahhhhh!!”

“Don’t cry!!”

But the next voice came from the corridor intersection.

“You bastard!!”

A thunderous voice was accompanied by countless guns being aimed.

“Atsuta! You’ve made one of this planet’s most precious resources cry! But that expression is nice too!”

“Stop being so inconsistently perverted!” he shouted back. “Anyway, is she the enemy!?”

“You’re the entire universe’s enemy!!”

“Don’t be stupid! Do you want me to slice you all to pieces!?”

As Atsuta’s shout reverberated down the corridor a new man spoke up.

“Wait just a second. Listen up.”

Shino rubbed the tears from her eyes with both hands and turned around to find a young man in a lab coat and sandals jogging from the right side of the intersection.

“What are all of you doing?”

“Oh, Kashima. These idiots are treating me like their enemy for some reason.”

The young man named Kashima turned toward Ooshiro and sighed.

“UCAT Director Ooshiro, Atsuta always approaches combat seriously. I can’t imagine why you would need to aim your guns at him. There must have been some kind of mistake.”

“That’s right, that’s right. Tell that perverted old man how wonderful I am.”

Ooshiro nodded and gestured Kashima over.

Kashima leaned in and Ooshiro whispered in his ear.

He nodded a few times and then turned to Atsuta.

“That was a bad thing, Atsuta.”

“Don’t betray me that easily!”

“Keep it down!”

Shino saw yet another new person enter.

The door on the wall to the left slid open and a short girl stepped out.

She had long gray hair and a black cat at her feet.

Shino knew that her name was Brunhild and that she had been part of 1st-Gear’s main force during their battle with UCAT.

She looked first at the corridor intersection and then at Shino.

“Is it all of you causing all that noise?”

She clearly did not expect an answer because she frowned and spoke in a quick, irritated voice.

“I am seriously busy, so keep it down.”

Feeling scolded, Shino frantically spoke up.

“S-sorry.”

“Oh? Do you really think sorry is enough?”

The frowning face turned Shino’s way.

''Oops,'' she thought. ''My reflexive apology gave her an excuse to accuse me.

Brunhild narrowed her eyes, tilted her head, and looked diagonally down at Shino.

“Do you want to know what I was doing?”

“N-not really.”

“I see.” Brunhild smiled. “I’ll tell you: I was working on my summer homework.”

Shino had heard that term before. She had never gone to school. The adults of the Army had given her a fair amount of professional knowledge, but she had only a little bit of knowledge on the customs of normal schools.

From what she had heard, summer homework was something everyone made a big deal out of yet always put off until the very end of summer break. People who finished it at the beginning of summer break were supposedly quite valuable.

And one such valuable person stood before her.

Her joy at meeting someone like that took the form of a question.

“Wh-what are you doing for your homework?”

That curious and interested question caused Brunhild to hold out her hand ten centimeters from Shino’s face to display what it held.

“Cicadas. I’m collecting insects.”

“…”

“I caught them yesterday evening. I just finished the preparations and was in the process of making specimens out of them. Do you know how that’s done? First, you inject an anesthetic into the end of their butt with a syringe. Once they stop moving, you inject a poisonous hardener into them, also through the butt. Then you stab a pin into the center like this.”

Shino gasped at the pierced stomach of the cicada.

“Don’t worry. I injected the anesthetic. But when I was injecting the hardener, the commotion out here caused the needle to go in at an angle and the hardener leaked out.”

“Eh?”

“It’s still alive.”

The cicada suddenly moved. Its six legs trembled and writhed about while it gave its chirping cry.

The sound of the bug made Shino step back.

“Nooo!!”

But Brunhild continued staring at her without so much as glancing at the cicada.

“I told you to keep it down.”

She pressed something hard against Shino’s forehead. It was slightly pointed, it moved, and it grasped painfully to her skin.

Once she thought about what it was, she just about passed out.

The cicada cries stopped and six sharp objects dug into her forehead.

She started hearing dog footsteps and barking in the distance and wondered if she was imagining things, but then another sharp pain reached her forehead.

As soon as she wondered what it was, Brunhild spoke.

“Oh, it’s sucking.”

Her instincts told her what was sucking, so she opened her mouth and her limbs tensed up.

“Cicadaaaaaa!!”

She screamed and dogs burst from the walls and ceiling.

The girl with the cicada prepared for a fight as the barking was accompanied by screaming adults and gunfire.

She threw the scalpel from her insect collection kit toward Atsuta.

“Sword god, make yourself useful!”

“You don’t have to tell me what to do!!”

Just as Atsuta caught the blade, Shiro began to move, and paper flew from Brunhild’s sleeve.

It was explosive paper.

A swordfight and explosion began.

The moon was visible as the night approached dawn.

The third quarter moon was already floating in the west at a height that indicated morning was near.

A woman stared at that moon.

She stood next to a white building atop a small mountain near a wide, flat city.

She wore white sleepwear and stood on an elevator at eight stories up. She was leaning on the railing and looking at the moon, but she suddenly stopped.

She lowered her gaze to the city.

“Kurashiki. It’s weird to think I can see it but they can’t see us.”

Night came early for that historical city, but its mornings seemed normal. The moon was out and the 3rd-Gear clock said it was early dawn, but…

“There aren’t many lights on.”

That flat city was not filled with agriculture and had no harbor, so the people there worked to protect history and preserve their city.

…''But they’re still living a life that faces the present.

“How preachy,” Miyako muttered self-deprecatingly as she looked into the sky.

When she had decided to remain that evening, Moira 1st and Gyes had given her two pieces of information to give her a chance to rethink that decision.

She turned her thoughts toward one of those two.

“I’m from 2nd-Gear.”

Her mother had never said a word about that.

According to Moira 1st, she had likely been naturalized and a lot of 2nd-Gear had joined Low-Gear once the Concept War came to an end. She had also mentioned that Tsukuyomi was the surname of 2nd-Gear’s imperial family.

“Heh.”

…''So I am a princess.

She didn’t like it and Gyes had gone on to say the following:

“According to some information we have received, a woman named Tsukuyomi works as the development department director at the Tokyo branch of UCAT, Low-Gear’s anti-Concept War organization and our enemy.”

“That would definitely be my mom,” she had replied.

…''What is with this? I was finally onboard and spoke so harshly, but it turns out I’m not from Low-Gear and my mom’s a leader in the enemy organization.

Moira 1st and the others had asked her to decide by the next morning whether she would leave or stay.

She thought about the ever-changing situation and began to sing a song.

“Silent night, Holy night.”

''What a memorable song,'' she thought.

On the last night she had spent with her father, the family had sung that song.

She would occasionally sing it to remember that time.

Her mother had instead avoided singing it, but she had suddenly started humming it again during May. It had started when her mother had stayed overnight at IAI for a “party” and come back with a hurt back.

''What happened to her then,'' Miyako wondered.

She then gave another self-deprecating laugh.

“Heh. First that interview and now I can’t figure myself out.”

…''And I don’t know anything about others.

“You’re far from being an adult, Miyako.”

As soon as she muttered that into the sky, she saw a light.

The pale light resembled moonlight, but it had not come from the sky.

“Inside!?”

The pale light was moving through the dim corridor visible through the emergency exit behind her.

It had a human form.

…''A woman?

The woman emitted a pale light and long hair of the same color rippled through the air as she climbed down the stairs next to the emergency exist.

''She’s not human,'' realized Miyako.

After all, humans did not glow and the background could not be seen through them.

“And can they make that face?”

She saw a face with the ends of the eyebrows lowered. The mouth was crumbled as if weeping and the eyes were powerless as if searching for something.

''If she were human, she would be wailing,'' thought Miyako. ''Her expression looks like it’s frozen in the instant before crying.

But if she was not human, what was she?

''A ghost?'' she guessed before shaking her head.

When Moira 1st had told her about 3rd-Gear the day before, she had mentioned the Tartaros Machina. People’s souls were wholly brought inside, but a specified person could not be called out.

That meant there were no ghosts of individual people.

“Then what is this?”

She stood up from the elevator railing, but the glowing woman was no longer visible even at the bottom of the stairway. She knew that stairway led to the hangar down below.

Wondering if she should go check, Miyako remembered something.

“Wasn’t that the woman in the framed paintings in the hallway?”

…''Artemis?

That was Apollo’s sister.

Was she inside this base in some form or another?

“Or am I so tired I’m hallucinating?”

She brought a hand to her forehead and found sweat.

That dampness and her cold forehead told her she had seen the truth.

And then noise came instead of light.

A shout reached her from below.

“—————!!”

The shout was in a mechanical voice and it came from the entrance to the hangar. It seemed to shake even the light leaking from the cracked-open door and it sounded almost bestial.

…''That was a scream.

The high-pitched scream continued from below.

She recognized it as Typhon’s shout, but she did not know why Typhon would be raising its voice now.

What was going on?

She tried to listen more closely, but the scream shook her spine.

“Kh.”

An unpleasant feeling twisting deep in her gut sent her inside.

The red carpet felt pleasantly soft below her feet and the scream from the hangar entrance vanished.

When she realized it was not coming from the bottom of the stairway, she breathed a sigh of relief.

With that warm breath, she leaned against the wall.

…''What was that scream?

It had already vanished and she did not hear a second one.

That relieved her even further, but at the same time…

…''Sorry.

Either because she had seen that pale glowing woman’s expression or because she understood Typhon’s scream, she wanted to do something about it.

“Dammit.”

She held her right hand before her eyes.

“Dammit!”

She clenched her left hand and struck the wall.

She realized once more how conceited she was. During the day, she had given the maids names and been surrounded by them. During the evening, she had spoken with Apollo. After that, she had felt she understood them to a certain extent.

…''But I don’t.

She decided to stay here. Tomorrow, she would eat breakfast and head to the hangar. There, she would face Typhon fair and square while the others worked.

“Dammit…”

As she spoke, she realized a sound lingered in her ears: Typhon’s scream.

The intensity of that scream had rivalled the yellow she had seen in Typhon’s eyes.

“Kh!”

She covered her face with her outstretched hand and recalled the young man with the same color eyes as Typhon.

What would he do if he heard that scream that had the same intensity as his eyes?

And who had caused Typhon to cry out like that?

…''Was it not Apollo?

Moira 1st had said he was the only human in the base, which meant he was the only one who could pilot Typhon.

But who had that woman been?

…''Typhon screamed after she went down there.

But she shook her head. An actual body was needed to pilot a god of war. That woman’s body had been made of light and she had not even created footsteps.

In that state, she could not cause anything to move.

“What is going on? I thought this was the land of machines.”

She considered asking Apollo, but she shook her head.

She would wait until tomorrow.

She would then head to the hangar and find the truth there.

“That rich boy wouldn’t give me a straight answer even if I asked him.”

<noinclude>
===Notes===
<references/>
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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume6_Chapter_19|Chapter 19]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume6_Chapter_21|Chapter 21]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume6 Chapter 16

2014-06-01T23:19:34Z

Purin:

==Chapter 16: Flowers on the Board==
[[Image:OnC_v06_0113.png|thumb]]
''The seasonal colors begin to change

''There is no right answer when coloring the blue of the heavens and the green of the earth

Sunlight filled a large space.

It was a lobby with windows covering the southern wall. An oil painting of the Virgin Mary holding her child decorated the back wall and six lines of a song were engraved into a copper plate below it.

Three figures sat on the sofas by the window to the side.

One was an old man in a lab coat.

The other two were a black cat and a girl in black with a bird on her head.

A three-cornered hat lay next to the girl and she was facing forward.

A shogi board sat between her and the old man.

She moved her hand across the board.

“UCAT Director Ooshiro, I hear Sayama and the others intercepted 3rd-Gear. Check.”

“Wow, you don’t hold back. …You weren’t there at the time, Brunhild-kun?”

“I detected a strange philosopher’s stone reading this morning, but it was all over by the time I went out. I threw the cat at the disguised food stand to stop it from leaving and I asked them what happened. I also got a rice ball. Check.”

“Oh, right. They were serving breakfast there. I’m jealous.”

The black cat glared at his owner from the side, but Brunhild did not notice.

“Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of pudding. Caramel tastes bitter to me. Check.”

“Damn, you’re persistent. Anyway, why are you here today?”

“I asked Siegfried about 3rd-Gear, but he wouldn’t tell me anything. Check.”

“Gwah. I think you might know more about it than him. When 1st-Gear and 3rd-Gear came to this world, you were right next to each other in the Chugoku region and the Setouchi region, weren’t you?”

“All I know is that they did not take any real action until five years ago. Check.”

“What do you mean that’s all you know?”

Brunhild stopped moving for a moment and finally grabbed a pawn.

“Will you give me that silver? I like silver. It’s nice and refined.”

“Fine.”

Ooshiro moved the silver general forward.

Brunhild returned the pawn to its previous spot, grabbed a bishop instead and moved it behind the silver general.

“Check.”

“Ahhh! That’s just immature, Brunhild-kun!”

“How about we start talking?”

“Okay.”

As Ooshiro calmed down, Brunhild lightly crossed her legs.

“It’s simple. Five years ago, 1st-Gear’s city faction considered moving to the west, but found that area was already occupied. Occupied by 3rd-Gear. Check.”

“Did you greet them?”

“Yes. Our scouts gave a polite and hostile greeting of weapons and spells. They were given a warm welcome by 3rd’s automatons. Check.”

“A warm welcome?”

“Yes.” Brunhild nodded. “They apparently held a sukiyaki party. And the leader of their automatons, Moira Something-or-Other, told them to stay away from their concept space between eight at night and four in the morning from then on. That prevented us from moving. Check.”

“I see. But I assume the radicals inside the city faction had other ideas.”

“Yes. We wanted a larger area. And…”

Brunhild moved her hand, announced “check” again, and continued quietly.

“There were those in 1st-Gear who held a grudge against 3rd because their relatives had been taken away. Those people formed a revenge unit before Venerable Hagen could decide how to handle 3rd.”

“And what happened then?”

“The day after they left without permission, they too received a warm welcome. Check.”

“Another warm welcome?”

“Yes.” Brunhild nodded again. “This time it was a slaughter party. We found them all as corpses and it seemed to be a message telling us not to approach them again. …Also, 3rd-Gear’s fortress had disappeared.”

“Disappeared?”

“It was no longer where it had been before. It had likely been moved along with the space it existed in.” Brunhild looked up at Ooshiro’s face. “I heard UCAT was spotted at the time. UCAT followed the string vibration of 3rd-Gear’s fortress being moved, didn’t they? Check. Having 3rd-Gear out there somewhere was a problem and UCAT was poking around, so we gave up trying to move. Check.”

The bird on her head chirped quietly and she pulled a small wooden box from her pocket.

She opened it to reveal some yellow bird food and a portable water bottle.

The bird started pecking at the food.

The cat stared intently at it, but Brunhild grabbed his tail and pulled him toward her.

“The final transmitted text from the ones who died said ‘white god of war’, ‘insurmountable opponent’, and ‘can’t attack or even defend’. Venerable Hagen realized what that meant. I’ll tell you what that was, so give me that gold.”

Ooshiro moved forward the gold general and she actually took it with the pawn this time.

“I don’t get this country’s culture. What do minerals have to do with war?”

“War is an economic activity.”

“I don’t care, so give me that knight.”

Ooshiro did as he was told and spoke with a serious expression.

“Please spare me this one. I’ll cry.”

“I won’t stop even if you do cry, so don’t worry. Or do you accept defeat?”

“No, no. I can turn this around.”

“Then let’s keep fighting and talking. The white god of war was likely Typhon, the strongest god of war that 3rd-Gear developed for their royal family. Venerable Hagen realized that, so the slaughter and the mysterious messages reminded him of another fact: 3rd-Gear’s next king and his sister possessed the 3rd-Gear’s concepts of time.”

“In other words, 3rd-Gear’s next king and his sister were piloting Typhon and controlling time to assist their attacks?”

“Not quite. Check. I do agree the attacks included time control, though,” said Brunhild. “The ones who had met 3rd-Gear earlier had learned a few things from their automatons: Apollo was 3rd-Gear’s only survivor, he was ill, and they wanted to keep things quiet for him. Check.”

“I see. That would mean Artemis was not there.”

“Yes. But that leaves a mystery. If Typhon really was created for the royal family and was controlling time, Apollo would have to be the one piloting it. But do you think a sick person could pilot a god of war and use something as powerful as a concept of time? Simply piloting it would sap his strength and kill him. Fighting would be out of the question.”

“Perhaps the automatons were lying.”

“It would take a special kind of automaton to lie about their master. There were countless automatons receiving them, but no one there doubted what they were saying. Check.” Brunhild raised her right index finger. “It seems 3rd-Gear’s concept of time is divided in two. Apollo controlled the daytime and Artemis controlled the nighttime. With only one of them, do you really think 3rd Gear could freely use the concept of time in the urgency of a battle? Also, wasn’t Artemis supposedly turned into a god of war?”

“Then who is piloting Typhon?” Ooshiro exaggeratedly tilted his head. “Such a mystery.”

“It seemed like Venerable Hagen had a vague idea of what happened. Check. He said it was all related to the connection between Zeus’s children. I hear UCAT is stopping the Leviathan Road with them, but I doubt you can stop Sayama and the others. How about you secretly tell them where 3rd-Gear’s fortress is? Check.”

Ooshiro tilted his head even further.

“To be honest, I don’t actually know where it is. UCAT is still searching for it. We know it’s somewhere in the Kurashiki region, but there are a lot of decoys and they’re hard to detect because they travel at extremely high altitudes.”

“I’d like for you to crush them. I’m not saying that as an inspector; it’s a personal opinion. They may not have been the smartest bunch, but a group of my brethren was killed by 3rd. …And you need to give up already. Check.”

“Brunhild-kun, you need to show more respect to your elders.”

“Oh? And how old are you? Check.”

“About sixty. I’m at the age where I finally gain a refined charm.”

He raised his right thumb and Brunhild replied by looking to the side and somewhat relaxing her shoulders and expression.

“Heh.”

“Th-that was a laugh of scorn, wasn’t it!?”

“Quiet down. Check,” she said. “Listen. While I’m here dealing with club activities and my summer break research project, Team Leviathan will apparently be enjoying themselves at the beach. Sounds lovely. Check. How about you actually make them do some work for once? I thought you Japanese were supposed to never stop working.”

“Brundhild-kun, I have nothing against sending one more person to the beach.”

“Oh, I said nothing about wanting to go along. Why would I want to soak in saltwater and throw of my body’s salt content? Anyone who confuses that for fun can go cleanse their body’s impurities with salt. Check.”

“Then if I win, you have to hold a photo shoot at the underground saltwater pool instead of going to the beach.”

Brunhild frowned.

“How can you hope to win now? Moving your king toward my pieces isn’t going to help.”

Ooshiro silently moved his bishop deep into Brunhild’s pieces.

“That promotes it.”

He flipped over the bishop, but the lacquered engraving said “nuke”.

“W-wait a minute! What is this!?”

“You’ve never heard of Ooshiro shogi? Too bad! This nuclear suicide bomber turns every piece in a range of three spaces to ‘ash’. Damn, that’s harsh!”

Without speaking another word, Brunhild flipped over the shogi board.

Below the afternoon sky were a forested mountain and a giant white building at the top.

Several figures stood in the empty land in front of the building.

Twenty were maids in black and one was a princess in white.

The maids all held flowerpots and the princess held a hoe in front of them.

They were all speaking together.

The princess spoke in a very masculine way and instructed them to answer her with “yes, sir”. The maids complied.

Her voice carried to the automatons who were opening the windows of the living space at the top of the white building.

They all looked down on the commotion.

“Okay, everyone. Get back to work. Lady Miyako is about to do something with the others, but she has prepared enough for everyone.”

Moira 1st’s voice filled the rooms and the automatons there resumed their work.

They placed their brushes against the floor or wiped down the walls, but still exchanged a glance. Their high-speed conversations achieved by accessing their shared memory devices were all about those down below.

Moira 1st walked between the rooms and viewed everyone’s shared memories.

Only identical models could access the shared memories and they were something like a multi-way phone connection. She listened to the conversations there, but still asked a question from the princess’s room.

“What are they doing down there?”

She did not actually know the details.

The night before, Miyako had asked for a list of all the automatons. She had given a powerful nod and thanked Moira 1st upon receiving the list, but she had not said what she wanted it for.

…''What is she doing?

Moira 1st asked the question out of expectation rather than suspicion and a maid in front of her looked down from the window.

“Well, from what I’ve heard…”

“?”

“It seems the princess is giving everyone names,” explained the maid running a vacuum cleaner across the floor.

“Names?”

Moira 1st looked out the window and saw Miyako speaking while gesturing with the hoe in hand.

“We told her that we do not have names,” said the maid next to Moira 1st. “We said that is not one of our functions. But then she asked Master Aigaion to prepare all this before he left this morning.”

“All what?”

“The pots they’re holding and the flower seeds.”

Moira 1st looked more closely at what those below held.

“She says we need to care for the flower whose name we choose. She says there are autumn flowers, winter flowers, and spring flowers, but we should take one of their names because they all bloom eventually.”

Below the blue sky, maids were lined up in front of a giant white building.

All twenty of them stood side by side in a single line.

Across from them, Miyako wore what resembled a white dress and rested her elbow on the bottom of a hoe.

“Okay, does everyone have your seeds?”

“Yes, sir!”

Miyako nodded at their answer.

…''This is going well. With a group this obedient, I could probably conquer Kantou at least.

But she noticed one maid with a downcast look who was not looking at her flowerpot like the others.

She stood at one end of the line, she had braided hair and glasses, and she was staring intently at the ground in front of her rather than the flowerpot with flower seeds in it. The ends of her eyebrows were slightly lowered and her expression was weak.

Miyako tilted her head and realized there were differences even among the same model of automaton.

However, she was curious what was causing the maid’s downcast look.

“What’s wrong?”

“Eh?”

The maid quickly pointed her glasses upwards and hurriedly spoke again after seeing Miyako’s bitter smile.

“Oh… Y-yes, sir.”

“Good, good. Always try to put some energy behind your answers. …Anyway, what’s wrong? Why do you look so down?”

“Y-yes, sir. I do not have that sort of emotional functionality. I am simply having trouble deciding.”

“What do you mean?”

Miyako stood in front of her.

“You chose a flower, right? Do you not want to take that name? If you don’t want a name, that’s fine. I was just hoping you would take one is all.”

The glasses maid lowered her head again.

''That must not be it,'' thought Miyako. ''This look is coming from somewhere else.

…''But what?

She thought back to when the automatons had taken the pots. They had walked up to the lines of seeds and pots and they had chosen the one they wanted while thinking and conversing.

…''Oh.

Miyako remembered that this maid in glasses had not joined in with the others.

She had been the one to take the last remaining option. Miyako sighed as she realized why she was having difficulty deciding.

“Do you not like a name you didn’t choose?”

…''Not that I chose my name.

Her parents had given her that name, but she could guess what the problem here was.

“You’re thinking that you might have chosen something else had you chosen on your own, aren’t you?”

And…

“You’re thinking that this name doesn’t suit you, aren’t you?”

The maid looked up in surprise and started to say something but stopped.

“…”

She lowered her head again, but Miyako did not overlook it.

Miyako pushed up the maid’s head with a finger under the jaw and looked her right in the eye.

“Where’s your answer?”

Miyako was sure she had been right, but the maid shook her head. By not answering, she was eliminating her own will.

Miyako understood why. If she said yes, she would be complaining about those who chose first and she would be personally admitting how terrifying it was to take a name.

…''This is her consideration as an automaton.

But something about it seemed odd, so Miyako mentally tilted her head. They were all automatons, so why was only this one lowering herself and prioritizing the others?

…''It must be a difference in ability. Or a difference in the work they can do as an automaton.

There had to be differences between automatons. Not only were they given different appearances, but there also had to be differences in the quality of their parts and the way those parts fit together. Just like a human’s height or muscle distribution, that would influence their body’s functionality and determine their strengths and weaknesses.

This maid likely had a great number of weaknesses and so her duty was to act after all the others so as not to be in the way. And here she had determined that those who worked more deserved priority in choosing a name and that she was not suited even for the name the others had not chosen.

''Don’t be stupid,'' thought Miyako. ''Look at it in reverse, and it’s obvious you want a name more than anyone.

“Where’s your answer?” she repeated.

The maid started to shake her head, but Miyako used her fingers to hold the maid’s jaw in place and facing her.

“Silly maid, ‘yes, sir’ doesn’t have to be an affirmation. Here in Japan, it works as a denial too, so feel free to use it.”

“Y-yes, sir.”

Miyako nodded, let go, and reached into her pocket.

[[Image:OnC_v06_0129.png|thumb]]

She pulled out a pile of documents made from strange sheets that were clearly not paper. They had data on the maids engraved into them. In fact, they contained all the information on the 63 maids that Moira 1st had supplied the night before.

Miyako had memorized the information during the night. She had done some teaching work in college and she had found that learning people’s names helped calm her down and helped relax the other person as well.

That was why she pulled out the documents but faced forward without looking through them.

This maid was 13th, but Miyako did not use that number. She instead picked up the seeds from the pot the maid held.

The white flowerpot contained a flower seed packet bought at a flower shop and that packet had a picture of purple flowers on it.

Miyako held up the packet and looked to the right.

On one end of the empty land was Aigaion who wore his greengrocer apron and some bandages. He currently had a large pile of flowerpots at his feet. When he had returned at midday, he had said “we failed”, but he had brought everything she had asked for. Feeling thankful, Miyako turned back toward the maid.

“That guy bought these and he made sure they’re all different.”

She held the seeds out toward 13th and asked a question.

“So why did you choose these?”

“Yes, sir…”

“When everyone was distributing them, you refused to join in, you hesitated even when invited, and you simply took the last one left, didn’t you?”

“Yes, sir…”

“Was this a leftover?”

“Yes, sir…”

“If so, were you the one that made it a leftover?”

“Yes, sir…”

All of her responses were identical, so Miyako felt she was repeating the same decision in her head. Miyako did not know how the individual automatons gained their individuality, but 13th understood she was the reserved one of the group and was trying to hold herself back to keep it that way.

…''This is not the time for that.

So Miyako asked a question.

“Do you not like this flower? Does the name scare you?’

“Yes, sir…”

“Is that because you chose it as the last one left? And is it because you are inferior?”

“Yes, sir…”

“Really? Did you really choose this one because there was no other option? Are you really not suited for this name?”

“Yes, sir…”

“I see.” Miyako nodded. “Then let’s throw out this leftover and unsuitable name.”

“!”

The instant Miyako let go of the seeds, 13th reflexively reached out and grabbed the seed packet.

The automaton brought the packet to her chest as if embracing it, trembled, and looked at Miyako with obvious caution.

“I see.” Miyako nodded again. “You were lying when you said you didn’t want it, weren’t you?”

“Eh?”

“Where’s you answer!?”

“Y-yes, sir.”

“Okay.” Miyako rested her elbow on the hoe’s handle. “Then let me ask again. You don’t like that flower, do you?’

“…Yes, sir.”

“You didn’t want to choose it, did you? You feel it’s wasted on you, don’t you?”

“Yes, sir…”

“But you still think it came to you, don’t you? Even if you think the name doesn’t suit you, you’re thankful for it and you want to make it suit you. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes, sir.”

She was repeating the same words, but the strength behind them was changing.

Miyako smiled.

“I fell into old habits and spoke a tad harsher than I should have. Sorry about that.”

“…Yes, sir?”

The maid’s tilt of the head deepened Miyako’s smile and Miyako placed her fist over the hands holding the seeds to the maid’s chest.

“Listen. That flower’s name is Violet. It means ‘modesty’ in the language of flowers. That’s the name that came to you. If you choose to trust in that name, then use it as your own.”

“…”

The blank look on the automaton’s face did not mean she was indecisive. It meant she was truly unable to make the decision.

So Miyako gave a shout to awaken the one who had been given the name of that flower.

“Where’s your answer!?”

“Yes, sir!”

Hearing that, Miyako raised the hoe and slammed it down.

It created a clear noise as it gouged into the ground.

“Everyone, over here! I will once more teach you the names you’ve chosen! And from now on, even after I’ve left, take care of yourselves instead of waiting for some princess to arrive! And take care of the names that have come to you!”

Moira 1st smiled at the voices down below.

She turned toward the back of room where a maid stood hidden behind the window’s vertical blinds.

“Moira 2nd.”

Moira 2nd turned her blue eyes toward Moira 1st and tilted her head.

Moira 1st approached the window and used her gaze to ask what was going on.

Down below, Miyako was explaining how to plant the seeds. Moira 3rd stood next to her and she must have done something because Miyako karate chopped her head.

Laughter rose from below.

“We don’t use that function very often.”

Moira 1st looked toward Moira 2nd and found the ends of her eyebrows slightly lowered.

“I think we can trust her.”

But Moira 2nd shook her head.

In response to her younger sister’s denial, the elder sister placed a hand on her cheek and sighed.

“It is true that you might not be able to think about this like I do. The ability you were given means you must be the closest one to the princess. I erase memories and 3rd creates new ones, but you view child string vibrations. You are the Moira meant to manage the princess’s health.”

Moira 2nd said nothing, but Moira 1st continued.

“Is it that hard to forget the other princesses who have come here? Is it that hard to forget the ones who feared us when they learned we were automatons, who wished to return to Low-Gear as soon as possible, and who did not even try to leave this room? Is it that hard to forget the ones who did not call for you? And…”

And…

“Do you still insist on remaining silent because you were not given the opportunity to work when you wanted to?”

The question was quiet but not hesitant.

Moira 2nd closed her eyes while facing out the window.

Moira 1st lowered the ends of her eyebrows.

Suddenly, someone appeared at the room’s entrance and Moira 1st turned toward her.

“Lady Gyes. If you’ve returned, you should get some rest.”

“I have a new job thanks to information from Moira 2nd.”

Moira 1st saw her Moira 2nd’s expression stiffen, but that younger sister did not reply. She kept her eyes closed and her mouth shut.

Moira 1st reached out and grabbed her sister’s shoulders.

“Moira 2nd, what did you tell her?”

“Don’t scold her, Moira 1st. This is important.”

“It is important for us too. Have you forgotten our raison d’être!?” shouted Moira 1st while still holding her sister’s shoulders. “A 3rd-Gear woman might have fallen into some other Gear during the Concept War. If we find one, we need to teach her 3rd-Gear’s history and stabilize her body. That is why we three sisters were created in order to safeguard 3rd-Gear’s fate. And Lord Cronus once told us this.”

She took a breath.

“We are to support the Concept War’s surviving world even if it is filled with those of another Gear. We are to make no decision that will cause even one of them to be lost!”

“Even if that princess of yours might be from UCAT!?”

“…?”

Moira 1st froze in place, so Moira 2nd gently grabbed her hands and raised them.

Moira 1st saw her sister look out the window with opened eyes.

“According to Moira 2nd, that princess is a pure-blooded member of 2nd-Gear. We also have some internal UCAT information thanks to a certain information broker. Tsukuyomi Miyako is most likely the daughter of Tsukuyomi Shizuru, director of Japanese UCAT’s development department. She is part of 2nd-Gear’s imperial family! She might be giving names to those mass-produced models in order to control them through their names as a member 2nd-Gear!”

“I have determined there are too many uncertain factors in that information. For example, her mother belonging to UCAT does not mean she does.”

“True.” Gyes crossed her arms and entered the room. “That is why I’m suggesting giving her a test. Last night, you gave her as much information as you were allowed. And just now, Lord Apollo discussed something with me.”

“What did you discuss?”

“He suggested letting her leave even though the automatons like her and even though she has her memories.” Gyes nodded. “Lord Apollo knows nothing, not even that she is a descendent of 2nd-Gear, but if she takes him up on his offer and tries to leave the concept space…”

Gyes walked toward the window and looked at Aigaion down below.

“Aigaion and I will dispose of her. We must eliminate that possibility of danger.”

“So that is the conclusion of a combat automaton.”

Moira 1st could make no sense of it, so she remained motionless for several seconds.

Eventually, her stalled brain abandoned that line of thinking and produced a different thought from her memories. She recalled her conversation with Miyako the day before. Moira 1st trusted that Miyako would not run away.

She took a breath, turned toward Moira 2nd and Gyes, and used the breath to adjust her control mechanism.

“Fine then,” she said. “I know what Lady Miyako would say to this test: if you want to test me, go right ahead, but make sure you’re suitably prepared.”

“You certainly have grown fond of Low-Gear.”

“I tested her and received something suitable in exchange.” Moira 1st brought her hands to her chest and smiled. “She did not flee, she tried to learn about us, and she made sure to keep in mind her position here. Because of all that, I made a brand new decision to trust her even more. My payment for testing her was my obedience and the use of functions I rarely use.”

Moira 1st smiled again, but unlike before, this smile was filled with confidence.

She looked down below and saw a blond figure approaching Miyako and the maids who were moving the pots to a sunny spot.

The figure was Apollo.

He raised a hand in greeting and Miyako used the hoe as a cane with an annoyed look.

Moira 1st watched Miyako ask a question and Apollo scratch his head.

“I hope you are prepared, Lady Gyes. And Moira 2nd, if you really do not trust Lady Miyako, then go down there and see what she is doing. Go see that and learn what possibilities Low-Gear holds.”

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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume6_Chapter_15|Chapter 15]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume6_Chapter_17|Chapter 17]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 19

2013-08-15T09:37:56Z

Purin:

==Chapter 19: Prematurity of Thoughts==
[[Image:OnC_v02_0143.png|thumb]]
''What is the difference between being hasty and acting quickly?

''The answer is incredibly simple

''It is decided by whether the outcome is successful or not

The preliminary negotiations with Fasolt began with a check of the initial assumptions.

“At the moment, there is no sign of the City faction joining us. The negotiations will primarily relate to the Royal Palace faction joining. These negotiations are the preliminary preparations for the Leviathan Road.”

From there, Fasolt informed Sayama of a few matters:

UCAT had asked that Fasolt remains 1st-Gear’s representative, UCAT special division security guards would be maintaining a presence in the reservation for a temporary period of time after the Royal Palace faction arrived, and due to cultural similarities, the reservation would prefer if those guards were sent in from German UCAT.

Sayama replied that he understood, Shinjou nodded, and Ooshiro typed it up on his keyboard to keep records.

Once the initial assumptions had been clarified, Fasolt said, “The day after tomorrow, 167 members of the Royal Palace faction will be arriving here. It is impossible for us to secure enough arable land for all of them.”

“Are you asking for an expansion to the concept space creating the reservation?”

Fasolt did not nod. Sayama turned to Ooshiro.

“What would happen if it was expanded?”

“It already covers a radius of one kilometer. If the radius was expanded by 100 meters, the area would increase by 21%. …It is a simple calculation, but you understand what it means to increase their yearly budget by 20%, right? We already put 10 digits worth of budget a year into maintaining this place.”

“I see.” Sayama turned back toward Fasolt and said, “Just because the Royal Palace faction is joining you, I cannot approve merely expanding the reservation.”

“Why not?”

“You mentioned before that there is a process for naturalization. That means you try not to bring in anyone who can survive outside of 1st-Gear’s concepts, correct?”

“Yes.”

“That means we need to go over the list of those arriving and see how many belong to races that can be naturalized. We can build temporary lodging for those who can be naturalized, temporarily prioritize food distribution, and build houses for and expand the fields for those who will be ultimately staying. I think we can hold new negotiations over the land issue once you know how many will be staying.” Sayama gave a bitter smile. “But I think you knew all this. That is why you said what you said: ‘It is impossible for us to secure enough arable land for all of them.’ And that is why you did not answer my question, isn’t it?”

After a short silence, Fasolt laughed from deep in his throat.

“Yes. I did no more than tell the truth, Sayama Mikoto. You are the one that misinterpreted, boy.”

Sayama smiled and Shinjou let out a sigh next to him.

''Something is beginning,'' thought Sayama.

He quickly began to calculate out what he and his opponent had at their disposal.

Via UCAT, Sayama had the authority to do whatever he wanted with the concept space. However, if he used that authority, he would be distancing 1st-Gear’s cooperation in the Leviathan Road.

On the other hand, his opponent had a past Sayama was unaware of and could make demands from the position of a victim. When he used the sudden arrival of the Royal Palace faction as a shield, Sayama had difficulty telling the truth of his demands because too much was unknown.

…''At any rate, he will be making demands.

He would give some reason for making a demand no matter how ridiculous. If Sayama misjudged the situation and accepted it, his opponent would profit.

Possessing a kind heart would be a disadvantage here.

Sayama trusted his prediction that the negotiations had already begun.

He took a breath, pulled a handkerchief out of his breast pocket, and wiped his brow.

Fasolt watched Sayama.

In one hand, the boy was folding the handkerchief he had pulled from his breast pocket.

Fasolt looked up and found the sun was at its highest point.

“It really is hot,” said Sayama as if informing Fasolt who was looking up into the sky.

“Yes, it is,” agreed Fasolt before lowering his gaze.

''He is very young,'' thought Fasolt about Sayama who was looking directly at him.

Fasolt thought back to the previous conversation. The boy had responded properly to his slight test and he had seen through Fasolt’s intentions. Even the standard UCAT negotiators could do the same. It was an issue of paying attention.

But this boy had intentionally pretended to be mistaken and had thought up an actual means of handling the situation, even if only a superficial one.

His solution had been incomplete, but it was the specialists’ job to finish it off.

For a leader, what truly mattered was negotiating without making any mistakes and deciding on a general course of action.

Fasolt had yet to fully make up his mind about Sayama.

Sayama looked up toward the sun high in the sky and began to remove his coat.

He roughly gathered the sleeves, folded it so the front was visible, and handed it to Shinjou next to him.

As soon as he did, Shinjou’s eyes opened wide and she whispered to Sayama.

“Wh-what are you saying? I c-can’t do that…”

Shinjou looked over at Fasolt. She then frantically adjusted her position and held Sayama’s coat.

With a slightly disappointed look, Sayama returned to his proper position. He wiped his brow with his handkerchief and placed it in the pocket on his shirt. The handkerchief stuck out from the shirt a bit.

Nevertheless, Sayama turned toward Fasolt.

Next to him, Shinjou continually glanced over at him, but Sayama did not seem to notice.

Fasolt then looked over at the coat Shinjou was holding. Its breast pocket was turned toward him.

Fasolt thought about the boy before his eyes. ''He really is young,'' he concluded before making his next move.

Sayama heard Fasolt speak.

“Our demands are quite simple, Sayama Mikoto. We want you to hand over Siegfried, the holy sword Gram, and the Concept Core held within the sword. Until then, we will not give you the right to use 1st-Gear’s Concept Core and we will not help persuade the City faction.”

“What?”

Fasolt did not even acknowledge his question.

“After the Concept War, this reservation agreed to cooperate with UCAT, but we agreed to nothing concerning the Leviathan Road. That is why we demand that we begin anew here. Hand over the war criminal. If you promise that, the Royal Palace faction and the City faction will both fall in line with the peaceful faction. We will make sure they do.”

“And you want us to hand over Gram and the Concept Core inside it?”

“I think it will be necessary to convince the City faction, but what do you think? Even if we persuade them to join with us, I doubt they will do what we say if we have not been granted some power.”

Sayama remained silent. Fasolt watched him as he sat silently.

“Just to be clear, threatening to remove this concept space to aid your negotiations will gain you nothing.”

Sayama did not say he would not do so. If he had to, he would. Fasolt had warned it would gain him nothing, but those were nothing but words. It was impossible to know what would happen if he actually did it.

However, that was a last resort. Using it would end the relationship between them.

Sayama took a breath.

“Could you stop testing me? Unnecessary statements could hinder our negotiations,” he said.

“Saying many things in quick succession is the special characteristic of a storyteller.”

The dragon gave no apology. That gave Sayama an odd sense of relief.

His opponent was a proud person. That may have been a common characteristic of 1st-Gear. No matter how far they lowered themselves and no matter what means they chose to use, they would always give precedence to their self-respect.

…''They are obstinate and direct.

They were easy to handle as allies, but impossible to avoid as an enemy.

With that in mind, Sayama once more pulled the handkerchief from his breast pocket.

He wiped his brow and Shinjou’s shoulders jumped slightly next to him.

At the same time, Fasolt looked over at Shinjou.

“There is nothing to be afraid of. As Ooshiro said, you can take it easy.”

“Oh, right,” said Shinjou as she slightly relaxed her legs which had been strictly kept in the seiza position.

As soon as she did, Fasolt’s hand moved.

“Ah,” gasped Shinjou, but Fasolt had already snatched the coat from her lap.

“This is a nice coat. Do you mind if I take a look at it?”

As Fasolt asked his question, an object fell from the suit coat in his hand.

Sayama clearly saw the cell phone drop. It was able to record audio.

“Whoops,” said Fasolt as he grabbed it in midair.

And with a clear noise, he crushed the cell phone in his hand.

“Oh, my mistake. I give you my personal apology. However.” Fasolt returned the suit coat to Shinjou and held up the remains of the cell phone in his other hand. “This was not running by any chance, was it? You were not so concerned about me that you felt the need to give a sign to have me filmed from the side, were you?”

Fasolt saw Sayama’s expression change twice in response to his words. It changed from tense to harsh and then from harsh to joyful. Fasolt’s thoughts raced as he saw those changes.

…''Did he notice my trick?

When Fasolt had watched over the autopsy of the werewolf that had committed suicide the day before yesterday, he had inspected Sayama’s possessions. And knowing that Sayama would be his opponent in the negotiations, he had thought up a certain trick.

He had switched on the digital recorder to drain the battery and had left the cell phone untouched. If Sayama brought the two items to the negotiations, he would need to use the cell phone to record any proof of what was said.

However, the cell phone’s microphone was weak, so it and the built-in camera would have to be on the surface.

Locating Sayama’s hiding spot for it had not been difficult. The camera had been sticking a bit out of his coat pocket.

Fasolt was certain the boy had been recording him. He had seen the small exchange between Sayama and Shinjou and he had seen Shinjou’s movements.

''Such awkward teamwork,'' thought Fasolt.

That was why he had grabbed the coat and smashed the cell phone.

Sayama’s use of the cell phone was proof that he had viewed the negotiations as dangerous and had wanted to secretly leave some proof behind. Taking that from him and destroying it while also warning him would inflict inescapable pressure on the boy.

Sayama was currently looking at the smashed cell phone.

“I do not believe I had it running,” he said with his head down as if trying to recall.

''Liar,'' thought Fasolt with a bitter smile in his heart.

As Fasolt watched, Sayama turned to Ooshiro to his left.

“Not that it matters. The old man here will handle recording what is said.”

Fasolt followed Sayama’s gaze and watched Ooshiro typing.

He nodded and said, “Unfortunately, Ooshiro’s records will not pass as proof.”

“Wh-why not?” asked Shinjou as she held the coat.

Fasolt nodded and replied, “That data can be easily altered. That is why I want to resolve these negotiations right here like this.”

Fasolt pulled a sheet of canvas from the inside pocket of his vest.

It was covered with the writing of 1st-Gear. Sayama would be able to read it because an image of the meaning took priority here.

It was a contract saying UCAT would accept the reservation’s demands. Below the agreement was a five centimeter underline.

Once he saw Sayama’s gaze stop on the underline, Fasolt spoke in a tone that held a slight smile.

“You will stamp your seal there. …You have your seal with you, don’t you? It is with the digital recorder with the dead battery.”

Shinjou embraced Sayama’s coat. She squeezed it between her arms.

And she glanced over at Sayama next to her.

''What will he do now?'' she wondered. ''Is there anything he can do?

As she watched on, Sayama stared expressionlessly at the contract.

He then suddenly moved. He pulled his handkerchief from his breast pocket with his right hand and lightly shook his wrist.

He looked at Fasolt and said, “So you saw through it. Yes, the battery is indeed dead. In that case, I no longer need it.”

He produced a digital recorder from the handkerchief. The power light was off which indicated it was not running. However, he was not looking at the recorder. He was looking at the broken cell phone that had fallen to the ground.

“I was planning to record any promises you made to perhaps later change our demands.”

Sayama sighed and took his seal case out of his pocket using his free left hand.

He placed the digital recorder and handkerchief next to him and placed the seal before him.

“But I am not yet ready to stamp my seal,” he said.

“Are you saying you will eventually do so?”

Sayama gave no response.

He remained silent and his face held no expression.

Faced with this, Fasolt froze in place.

Shinjou gulped lightly at seeing this silence and expressionlessness from Sayama for the first time. However…

“…”

His pulse was calm.

''Why is that?'' she wondered.

She felt as if she had seen him like this before.

When had it been?

She searched through her memories and arrived at a certain moment in the past.

The night before last, when he had stood before her and beyond the werewolf.

''What happened after that moment?'' she thought.

She thought back. In that moment, Sayama had stepped forward and spoken to their enemy. He had provoked the enemy. And now…

“You should learn that those who trust in writing can be betrayed by writing.” Sayama lightly raised his right hand. “Let me be clear up front: I cannot agree to any one of the demands you have given.”

“Then what will you say when you see this?”

Fasolt pulled a thick book from his vest and held it so Shinjou and the others could see.

It was a hardcover book made of canvas sheets and cloth. Shinjou had seen it before.

“That’s the book the knight had yesterday.”

“Yes. It is an investigation report on the destruction of our Wotan Kingdom. Volunteers from the Royal Palace faction visited both the peaceful faction and the City Faction to gather the records to create it. These records could only have been made by the Royal palace faction that sat in the middle. Neither we nor the City faction could have made it.”

Sayama took the investigation report and opened it.

Shinjou peered at its contents from the side. It listed a calculation of the total amount of destruction while using spelling that avoided any dangerous terminology. Each time Sayama turned the page, Shinjou could sense the image of the destruction detailed within.

Arton Central Street was smashed along with the decorations for the festival in the small park: 38 dead.

Ethos District 3 contained a wooden school, but it was crushed along with the people who had taken refuge inside: 91 dead.

The evacuation warning never reached the 3rd redevelopment sector and the pioneer village was eliminated without knowing what was happening: 46 dead.

In addition, there was damage to houses in several sectors or out in nature, the loss of assets and livestock, and a calculated value of the land lost. It was all calculated out to reach a final sum for the damages.

“Once converted to the currency of philosopher’s stones, UCAT must maintain this reservation for 7022 years. We have lived her for 60 years, so that still leaves 6962 years. Exchanging that debt for one man and a sword sounds like a bargain to me.”

''That’s absurd,'' thought Shinjou with a gulp.

She slowly looked over at Sayama so Fasolt would not notice her internal panic. She found Sayama as expressionless and silent as before.

''What will he do now?'' she thought.

And she had another thought.

She recalled what Fasolt had said when he had destroyed the cell phone:

You felt the need to give a sign to have me filmed from the side.

She did not know what he had meant by that. She had not been given that role.

But even if she did not understand, Shinjou knew that everything was advancing. And she knew that Sayama likely had some plan.

Sayama looked at Fasolt.

Fasolt had been looking at him for a while now. With that in mind, he spoke.

“Giving concrete value to people’s lives is something else I am not willing to do.”

“If doing so is necessary for a negotiation, we will choose that as our weapon.”

“And so you are demanding a human life in the place of money?”

“Demanding? No. My role here is to present you with possibilities. Your role here is to choose, Sayama Mikoto. I have presented you with a means of paying reparations for the damages. You are the one that chooses whether you will pay for your ancestors’ mistakes with seven thousand years of expenses or by handing over that man and Gram.”

“And if I handed them over, I would be putting a price on a human life?”

“Yes, if you did. We would have prepared a different path, but you would have chosen that path because you could not pay. It would not hurt us in any way.”

Sayama thought. According to Ooshiro, it was impossible to even increase the reservation’s yearly maintenance expenses by 20%. That meant it was beyond impossible to pay off the seven thousand years’ worth of debt right away. And that was why he asked the next question.

“Are Siegfried and Gram really that valuable?”

“They are.”

“I see.” Sayama picked up the contract and the seal case in front of them. “Shinjou-kun, hand me a pen from my coat’s breast pocket.”

“Oh, right.”

Shinjou took a silver ballpoint pen from the pocket and handed it over.

Sayama flipped over the contract and wrote something while using the cover of the investigation report as a desk. He stamped what he wrote with the seal he took from the case and then placed the contract in front of Fasolt.

“If you want something of such great value, then how about we resolve everything like this?”

Everyone looked at the back of the contract.

Shinjou gulped, Fasolt clenched his hands, and Ooshiro smiled bitterly.

Sayama read what he had written on the back of the contract.

“Seven thousand years shall be added to the current seven thousand year debt. In exchange, we shall buy the half-dragon Fasolt and all of his rights. …That should be fine with anyone who will give monetary value to people’s lives.”

“You will buy your negotiating opponent!?” cried Fasolt.

A wind blew through and disturbed Sayama’s hair, but he ignored it and spoke.

“If doing so is necessary for a negotiation, we will choose that as our weapon. Those are your words. And I believe we had agreed to that view. …You asked me to sell someone’s life if I could not pay.” He gave a bitter smile. “But that also means I can buy someone’s life if I can pay.”

“…”

“We will pay what is needed. It does not matter how many years it takes, who might suffer, or even if you refuse us. So let me say this: you may think you all have pride, but you only have the spirit of poor slaves.”

“Slaves? Now you’ve said it, you aboriginal.”

“Aboriginal? We certainly have evolved. I miss the days when we were called yellow monkeys.” Sayama’s bitter smile deepened. “Fasolt, let me tell what kind of race we are. We are the Japanese, the ‘economic animals’. We have nothing to fear when it comes to money. A debt? We just need to save up. The government? It runs on money. A grudge? That is just a bias of the poor. Now, Fasolt, for fourteen thousand years of peace for your comrades, you will be ours. And let me say this: you will physically remain with 1st-Gear, but as our possession,” he nodded, “you will withdraw all of your demands. No need to lower your head. You are our comrade now that we bought you. We have the right to do this. You are the one that brought up buying people’s lives, something we had never done before.”

At that point, Sayama threw the investigation report to the ground.

“This is absurd, Fasolt.” He took a breath. “What is this investigation report? It may have some truth to it, but how much of it is truth? If you are going to carry out an investigation, have a third party do so or at least do so while we are present. Otherwise, this is nothing more than reference material. …Is presenting unreliable material at the negotiating table the 1st-Gear’s way of doing things!?”

Fasolt responded to the last part more than anything else.

The creaking of his fangs could be heard from his clenched mouth.

But that was as much of Fasolt’s power as was seen.

He slowly reached out a hand and picked the book up from the ground. He let out a long sigh.

“It is true this contains a fair bit of personal opinion for an investigation report. But are you really going to use the lack of records from this conversation to say such abusive things?”

Sayama turned a smile in Fasolt’s direction.

“Abusive? That was a rebuke over how useless your investigation report is. …I was trying to say that your actions were showing contempt for the value of 1st-Gear. If you misinterpreted me, I apologize.”

“No need.” Fasolt drew back and held the book to his chest. He spoke once more after suppressing the anger in his voice. “Either way, we will not give you the right to use the Concept Core unless you accept our demands. …How do you intend to gain that right from me?”

Sayama glanced around. The nearby houses had their windows open because it was a sunny day, so he could see inside. Inside the shadowy houses, he could tell the items within were a bit different from those he was used to. Every house had bare walls and they grew flowers.

Sayama was searching for ''a certain object'' within those houses.

But from what he could see at a distance, it was not there. It was a completely normal object in his world, but it was absent here.

…''It could be easily brought in from outside, but there is none here.

The possible reasons for this were simple. It may never have existed in 1st-Gear and was not needed, or UCAT feared letting 1st-Gear have it and so refused to do so.

It was one of those or possibly both.

Once he realized that, another fact came to Sayama. He realized the true purpose behind the negotiation.

“…”

He silently relaxed. He cooled his head that had begun to grow serious.

''If I am right about the true purpose of this negotiation,'' thought Sayama, ''trying to crush Fasolt would not be the best strategy.

And that was why Sayama said what he did next. He breathed out, breathed in, and then spoke in a calm voice.

“Instead of Siegfried and the holy sword Gram, we will provide you with technology equivalent to seven thousand years’ worth of budget or allow you to use said technology.”

“Technology equivalent to seven thousand years’ worth of budget?” asked Fasolt before laughing from the throat. “What do you mean by that? We already sustain ourselves. Is there any technology we could possibly want and is there any technology Low-Gear could possibly provide us with?”

“There is.”

“And what is it?’

Sayama thought and said, “It can be used as a weapon. It can be used as culture and civilization. It can be power and it can become anything in existence.”

“Hah! How amusing! We in 1st-Gear live with the power of writing, so what more culture and civilization do we need!? And with our mechanical dragons, why would we need weapons?” Fasolt strongly held the hardcover book against his chest. “Tell me, Sayama Mikoto. What is this technology you think we would exchange our Concept Core for? What is this technology that UCAT has been keeping from us?”

Sayama nodded and spoke a single word.

“Paper.”

Fasolt almost dropped the book he was holding to his chest.

“Why would you think we need-…?”

“All of your writing is on parchment or canvas. And I do not see any bookshelves in these 1st-Gear houses. Paper is a necessary item to bring a society past a certain point, but it is being restricted here in some way. That is why I thought I could use the removal of that restriction as a bargaining chip.”

Fasolt understood what Sayama meant.

In 1st-Gear, writing held power, so spelling something out held the possibility of danger. Needless to say, creating that writing in the proper form to create power was difficult and it was nothing but scribbles if done wrong.

However, nothing was as frightening as an unlikely accident.

That was why a storyteller like Fasolt passed down writing in the form of sound and most records were kept using symbols that were difficult to call writing. The writing in the investigation report had been carefully chosen so it would provide the proper images yet not have actual power.

Due to the conditions of their world, writing technology had not advanced. Most of the tools that could easily write had been in the control of the royal family and very few were produced.

As a storyteller, he knew very well that 1st-Gear’s culture was built around that.

But he had to wonder what would happen if that assumption was removed.

The boy before him spoke.

“What if you used the safe writing used in that investigation report as the foundation for a carefully selected set of everyday writing with little power? Wouldn’t that allow you to pass down your current culture and allow anyone to perform research?”

He was saying the current state of 1st-Gear’s culture would change.

Sayama held a hand out toward him. He reached for the book at his chest.

Fasolt handed the boy the hardcover book as he wanted.

Sayama took it and flipped through the pages.

“You had so many houses. And the people living in them worked at the schools, stores, and government offices. But out of fear of dangerous writing, you could not record any of it. You never expanded the writing technology that would support those records and UCAT is currently keeping our technology from you.”

“That is true…”

“UCAT will remove the restrictions on that technology as a form of reparations,” said Sayama.

Fasolt turned to Ooshiro who looked back at him.

“Well, we would need to negotiate it out with the UCATs from other countries. What a pain,” said the old man.

Fasolt gave a quiet laugh from the throat and listened as Sayama continued to speak.

“Our world is immature, Fasolt. About a thousand years ago, we believed our world had the same table shape as your world. But our people walked, left records, and changed our beliefs to match the truth. And even now we are building up more and more records to divide truth from falsehood.”

“And you are telling us to do the same? I see,” said Fasolt with a nod.

It was a nice idea. If they had writing tools that could be mass produced, they would only need people with the ability to write in the proper way. And instead of restricting usage of the writing tools as the royal family had done, they would restrict the words that held power and spread the safe words.

Knowledge would spread and they would even be able to interact with other cultures. However…

“Sayama Mikoto. That is a nice idea, but a problem remains. And our negotiations must continue.”

“Eh?” said Shinjou as Fasolt turned back toward Sayama.

Sayama showed no panic or surprise over his words.

He only said, “Yes, you understand, don’t you? Writing can betray those who use it. Building up and spreading records can do more than create; it can also destroy.” Sayama held up the hardcover book. “If you obtain the technology to publish books, you will have books like this one. And that will pass your grudges down to the later generations. The power we give you will create more enemies for us.”

“And that is why I must ask you something, boy… No, you are no boy. You are merely Sayama Mikoto. Can you give us this technology without fearing the spread of our grudges, protect Siegfried and the holy sword Gram, and also acquire the Concept Core?”

“Of course,” replied Sayama.

Shinjou’s eyes opened wide when she heard what Sayama said.

“Y-you can’t, Sayama-kun! You can’t make an enemy of him!”

“I think it will be fine. Fasolt understands that this investigation report is nothing more than reference material. After I rebuked him, he admitted that it includes personal opinion.”

“He did, but…”

Fasolt nodded.

“Those comments and the records of them are worth nothing. At the negotiating table, only the final decision matters.”

Ooshiro looked up and said, “Um, you do know I am working really hard typing up everything you say, right? Please do not say it is worth nothing.”

Fasolt ignored him. The half-dragon looked down at the remains of the cell phone lying between Sayama and himself.

“My comment admitting the investigation report contains personal opinion will not remain in the records. That means I can insist on its legitimacy. No matter what you say, it will be seen as accurate. Even if you protest, it will be published and distributed to everyone. A large number of people will believe it over you!”

“Fasolt, I am about to test how much you have been paying attention. Is that okay?”

Sayama’s sudden words caused Fasolt to look up.

“What?”

“I will be asking some questions and you will answer me. Got it? When you destroyed the cell phone whose remains lie before me, did you check to see if it was running?”

Shinjou did not understand the point of the question.

And Fasolt did not seem to either.

He sank down slightly and asked, “Are you saying…it was not running?”

Those words which were inarticulate for a half-dragon caused Shinjou to tilt her head in confusion.

“What do you mean?” she asked and Fasolt quickly turned toward her.

“Why are you asking?”

“Oh, um, it’s nothing. Nothing at all. There might have been a slight misunderstanding.

She frantically waved her hands in front of her, but Fasolt kept his gaze on her. He opened his fang-filled mouth and spoke.

“What is going on? Shinjou, I thought you and Sayama were working together. He would give you a sign and you would record what I-…”

“W-wait a second!”

Shinjou did not understand some of what he had said. And it reminded her of another baffling thing Fasolt had said earlier. Shinjou asked about the confusing parts.

“What do you mean we were working together? And what sign?”

Fasolt had been leaning forward, but he straightened up in an instant.

While still looking at Shinjou, he bared his teeth and trembled.

“Sayama Mikoto handed you the cell phone along with his coat. When he raised his handkerchief as a sign, you began recording, did you not? He wanted you to record my abusive remarks.”

“Eh? N-no. I wasn’t given that role.”

He was mistaken about something. For some reason, that half-dragon was focused on her even though she had been doing nothing but listen.

Fasolt continued to speak to provide his evidence.

“Then why did you squirm a bit whenever Sayama Mikoto pulled out his handkerchief and wiped his brow? He provided you with instructions when he handed you his coat, correct? I heard you say you could not do something.”

Shinjou gasped.

“N-no!”

She looked to the side and found Sayama staring expressionlessly up into the sky. He must have noticed her looking at him because he picked Baku up from his left shoulder and placed him on his head.

He and the beast squinted as they looked up into the sky.

He was determined to ignore her.

That left her with no choice. While prepared to blush, Shinjou proved her innocence to Fasolt.

“I-I will tell you what Sayama-kun told me to do when handing me his coat!” She hesitated for a moment. “ ‘I am so nervous that I really want to feel up your butt. If I am unable to resist any longer, I will give you a sign by raising my handkerchief. When I do, stick your butt out for me’! But I can’t do that. B-but it was a request from Sayama-kun, so I-I would jump in shock a bit whenever he pulled out his handkerchief!”

As she blushed and gave her explanation, Fasolt’s mouth hung limply open.

He slowly faced forward while his open mouth continued to produce no sound.

He stared at Sayama who still had Baku sitting on his head.

In response to everyone’s gazes, Sayama picked up what was lying next to him and held it up.

It was the digital recorder wrapped in his handkerchief. Its red power light was lit.

Sayama nodded and looked at Shinjou. He then spoke quietly for his own curiosity.

“Now, please continue, Shinjou-kun. What happened after you jumped in shock?”

“Why is that running!? Wasn’t its battery dead!?”

“Could you remain quiet, Fasolt? That will make it more difficult to edit later.”

“Th-the difficulty doesn’t matter! Explain what is going on!” demanded Shinjou.

Sayama picked up a part from the remains of the cell phone.

It was a battery that had been badly bent.

“You want to know why it is running? If you cannot answer a question this easy, I look forward to the difficulty you will face once you have paper, Fasolt. The answer is simple. I switched out the cell phone’s battery before entering this concept space. Most modern handheld devices use a standard battery type whether they are IAI-made or not. You should remember that.” He nodded and asked, “Fasolt, you were outside this place just before we entered the concept space, weren’t you? You used your limited time outside to observe me. Isn’t that right?”

“How do you know that?”

“The forest was too quiet. When a human is lurking in the forest, the birds and beasts grow cautious, but it was even more silent than that. In other words, there was something greater than a human there. Also, you had come from the field, but your jika-tabi had moss on them. That proves you had run through the forest. When you noticed me looking at it, you frantically kicked it off.” Sayama showed Fasolt the digital recorder. “When I noticed this recorder’s battery was dead, I realized someone had tried something. Once I knew my opponent had tried to eliminate my use of this device, I merely had to use that to my advantage. Once I received them from Shinjou-kun, I switched out the batteries and decided to use the cell phone as a decoy.”

“Then, Sayama-kun, this entire negotiation…”

“Has been recorded, yes. But it is missing the one thing I said while taking it out and placing it next to me. I had to turn it off to make it look like its battery was dead.”

Fasolt gulped and recalled what Sayama had said back then.

“You said the recorder’s battery was dead and that you intended to record any promises I made with the cell phone… Was it all to put me at ease so I would bring out greater demands!?”

“Now, now. Please stop discussing comments you have no proof were ever spoken,” said Sayama. “Or should I play back what I have recorded? I have you calling us aboriginals in response to my rebuke.”

“No, more importantly…what do you want?”

Sayama shook his head in response.

“I want nothing. But let us do what is natural. I will approve providing you with our technology if you allow us use of the Concept Core. And you may carry out an investigation of 1st-Gear’s destruction if it is done in cooperation with UCAT. For mutual understanding and reconciliation, we must have records if you are to have them. And once that is complete, we can begin thinking about what to do afterwards. …Am I wrong?”

In lieu of a response, Fasolt raised both of his hands.

Sayama sighed.

''So it is over,'' he thought.

He lowered Baku from his head and muttered a short statement.

“What a farce.”

Sayama’s annoyed statement caused Shinjou to tilt her head. She could see he was frowning.

“A farce? Why? You look displeased.”

Sayama nodded, looked in her direction, and then turned toward Ooshiro.

“Old man, please do not make me do this again.”

Ooshiro looked up and gave a bitter smile. Shinjou could make no sense of the exchange.

“Wh-what do you mean? What did Ooshiro-san do?”

“I realized it partway through. The old man set all this up. Think about it. How was Fasolt able to touch my possessions? And who asked you to return them to me? How was Fasolt able to wait for us outside the concept space during his limited time outside of it? And who was it that stopped us in front of him and asked if I was carrying anything?” He took a breath. “Simply put, these preliminary negotiations were a test. I realized it once I noticed the paper technology issue. 1st-Gear is obedient enough to go along with Low-Gear’s restrictions. In that case, it was odd for Fasolt to be on the attack. I am ashamed I did not realize why and grew so worked up over a prank.”

Sayama folded his arms and closed his eyes. Shinjou was unsure what to say to him.

Fasolt laughed from deep in his throat.

“Do not feel too bad, Sayama Mikoto. You may not believe me, but I was serious.”

“Serious, hm?”

Sayama sighed with his eyes still closed.

His shoulders drooped and he seemed to have his own thoughts on the matter.

…''Does he think Fasolt went easy on him?

“O-Ooshiro-san. Was today’s negotiation effective?”

“Yes, removing the restriction on paper manufacturing is indeed a useful idea. I believe this was effective.”

“Take this seriously. Sayama-kun wasn’t arguing for fun.”

Hearing that, Sayama opened his eyes. Shinjou looked him in the eye and thought.

…''He can manage something in any situation.

“You are like the evil king of sophistry.”

“Thank you for the blunt opinion,” said Sayama with a bitter smile.

But Shinjou looked at him once more. When faced with an opponent making an absurd argument, this boy had refused to negotiate properly and had replied with an absurd argument of his own.

…''The surname Sayama indicates a villain. Is that it?

She recalled that Sayama had said he possessed the abilities needed to carry out evil.

''Is this what he meant?'' thought Shinjou.

She wondered what she would have done had she been in his place.

…''If I had come back with a proper argument, I might have only been faced with another absurd argument.

But the truth of that could not be known. And it was a fact that Sayama’s absurd argument had caused Fasolt to give in.

The only other information she had was Sayama’s expression and the drooping of his shoulders.

…''He did not get serious. That is probably because he realized partway through what Ooshiro-san had done.

She nodded and decided she would willingly play the role of listener if he wanted to complain about anything.

Doing so would surely be valuable for what had ended here today.

And just as Shinjou made up her mind, Fasolt turned to Sayama and spoke.

“This really did not go as I planned. Perhaps I should have expected that with Sayama’s grandson.”

Shinjou saw Sayama hold the left side of his chest. He frowned and looked up at Fasolt.

“You knew my grandfather?”

“I did, even if it was only for a short time. When we first arrived in this world, he was the member of UCAT that prepared the location which became this reservation. Siegfried had given him the holy sword Gram, so he extracted the concepts needed to create this place. I have not seen him since those initial negotiations, though.”

“I see. Then I suppose you would know nothing of my father. He worked for IAI.”

“We do not leave this place, so we know nothing of that. However, I do remember your grandfather quite well,” said Fasolt. “Sixty years ago, we exchanged arguments very similar to these provisional negotiations. He too shouted angrily at me when I requested reparations equal to the number of the dead. He told me not to calculate the number and value of the dead and to instead live peacefully here and put together a plan to restore our lost pride, even if there was an opposing faction. We have yet to do that, though.”

Shinjou suddenly turned to Ooshiro who sat next to Fasolt. Ooshiro glanced toward Fasolt’s back.

On that back that she had once clung to were the scars from the severed wings.

''Oh,'' realized Shinjou in her heart. ''So that’s it.

A short silence followed. Whatever Fasolt may have thought of that silence, he slowly turned toward Ooshiro who was looking up at him. While glancing over at the old man, he spoke in a critical tone.

“This is more your problem than mine, but UCAT is filled with too many mysteries.”

“It is an organization that has hidden itself in the world so that it may save that world. Of course it has a lot of mysteries.”

“So not even 1st-Gear’s representative knows the details,” commented Sayama.

Fasolt nodded and said, “We know almost nothing about UCAT’s activities. The one thing everyone knows is that a large scale change occurred in 1995. Japanese UCAT was temporarily dissolved and reorganized.”

Shinjou and Sayama both spoke in unison.

“Temporarily dissolved and reorganized?”

Sayama saw Fasolt look at Shinjou and himself.

“So you do not know about that. It happened suddenly at the end of ’95 which was almost the exact same time Shinjou was taken in by UCAT. All of the personnel other than the leaders left the organization.”

“Why?”

“I do not know, Sayama Mikoto. I would love to be told. I would assume only Ooshiro here and a few others know the truth behind it. One theory is that they were taking responsibility for the many deaths during relief operations after the Great Kansai Earthquake.”

“I see,” said Sayama with a nod.

He was not discouraged.

The Leviathan Road had come with several conditions added by his grandfather. One of those was that they had to gather all of their information themselves.

Here, he only needed to learn about 1st-Gear. And…

…''This just means I need to investigate UCAT in addition to the ten Gears.

Sayama nodded and Fasolt nodded in return. The half-dragon then turned to Shinjou and opened his mouth to speak.

“I have gone back and forth on whether I should tell you this, but I will tell you now since you have returned after so long.”

“Eh? Me?” she asked.

“Yes. It will be an old story for you two. This concept space was constructed by Sayama Kaoru, but he said he was only able to do so by basing it on some data he had been given.”

“From another UCAT member?”

“No, he said it was from another member of the former National Defense Department. While investigating for the National Defense Department, this person had managed to estimate what concepts the different Gears used. Sayama Kaoru said he had only followed the data from back then.”

Fasolt looked up into the sky. His gaze moved slowly around as if he could see the invisible wall forming the concept space.

“This person originally became involved in the National Defense Department while working as the assistant of a Professor Kinugasa, but they never joined UCAT. I do not know what became of this person.”

“Who was this person?” asked Sayama.

Fasolt spoke a single surname.

“Shinjou. That is all I was told.”

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Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 19

2013-08-05T06:43:28Z

Purin:

{{Incomplete|percentage=50}}
==Chapter 19: Prematurity of Thoughts==
[[Image:OnC_v02_0143.png|thumb]]
''What is the difference between being hasty and acting quickly?

''The answer is incredibly simple

''It is decided by whether the outcome is successful or not

The preliminary negotiations with Fasolt began with a check of the initial assumptions.

“At the moment, there is no sign of the City faction joining us. The negotiations will primarily relate to the Royal Palace faction joining. These negotiations are the preliminary preparations for the Leviathan Road.”

From there, Fasolt informed Sayama of a few matters:

UCAT had asked that Fasolt remains 1st-Gear’s representative, UCAT special division security guards would be maintaining a presence in the reservation for a temporary period of time after the Royal Palace faction arrived, and due to cultural similarities, the reservation would prefer if those guards were sent in from German UCAT.

Sayama replied that he understood, Shinjou nodded, and Ooshiro typed it up on his keyboard to keep records.

Once the initial assumptions had been clarified, Fasolt said, “The day after tomorrow, 167 members of the Royal Palace faction will be arriving here. It is impossible for us to secure enough arable land for all of them.”

“Are you asking for an expansion to the concept space creating the reservation?”

Fasolt did not nod. Sayama turned to Ooshiro.

“What would happen if it was expanded?”

“It already covers a radius of one kilometer. If the radius was expanded by 100 meters, the area would increase by 21%. …It is a simple calculation, but you understand what it means to increase their yearly budget by 20%, right? We already put 10 digits worth of budget a year into maintaining this place.”

“I see.” Sayama turned back toward Fasolt and said, “Just because the Royal Palace faction is joining you, I cannot approve merely expanding the reservation.”

“Why not?”

“You mentioned before that there is a process for naturalization. That means you try not to bring in anyone who can survive outside of 1st-Gear’s concepts, correct?”

“Yes.”

“That means we need to go over the list of those arriving and see how many belong to races that can be naturalized. We can build temporary lodging for those who can be naturalized, temporarily prioritize food distribution, and build houses for and expand the fields for those who will be ultimately staying. I think we can hold new negotiations over the land issue once you know how many will be staying.” Sayama gave a bitter smile. “But I think you knew all this. That is why you said what you said: ‘It is impossible for us to secure enough arable land for all of them.’ And that is why you did not answer my question, isn’t it?”

After a short silence, Fasolt laughed from deep in his throat.

“Yes. I did no more than tell the truth, Sayama Mikoto. You are the one that misinterpreted, boy.”

Sayama smiled and Shinjou let out a sigh next to him.

''Something is beginning,'' thought Sayama.

He quickly began to calculate out what he and his opponent had at their disposal.

Via UCAT, Sayama had the authority to do whatever he wanted with the concept space. However, if he used that authority, he would be distancing 1st-Gear’s cooperation in the Leviathan Road.

On the other hand, his opponent had a past Sayama was unaware of and could make demands from the position of a victim. When he used the sudden arrival of the Royal Palace faction as a shield, Sayama had difficulty telling the truth of his demands because too much was unknown.

…''At any rate, he will be making demands.

He would give some reason for making a demand no matter how ridiculous. If Sayama misjudged the situation and accepted it, his opponent would profit.

Possessing a kind heart would be a disadvantage here.

Sayama trusted his prediction that the negotiations had already begun.

He took a breath, pulled a handkerchief out of his breast pocket, and wiped his brow.

Fasolt watched Sayama.

In one hand, the boy was folding the handkerchief he had pulled from his breast pocket.

Fasolt looked up and found the sun was at its highest point.

“It really is hot,” said Sayama as if informing Fasolt who was looking up into the sky.

“Yes, it is,” agreed Fasolt before lowering his gaze.

''He is very young,'' thought Fasolt about Sayama who was looking directly at him.

Fasolt thought back to the previous conversation. The boy had responded properly to his slight test and he had seen through Fasolt’s intentions. Even the standard UCAT negotiators could do the same. It was an issue of paying attention.

But this boy had intentionally pretended to be mistaken and had thought up an actual means of handling the situation, even if only a superficial one.

His solution had been incomplete, but it was the specialists’ job to finish it off.

For a leader, what truly mattered was negotiating without making any mistakes and deciding on a general course of action.

Fasolt had yet to fully make up his mind about Sayama.

Sayama looked up toward the sun high in the sky and began to remove his coat.

He roughly gathered the sleeves, folded it so the front was visible, and handed it to Shinjou next to him.

As soon as he did, Shinjou’s eyes opened wide and she whispered to Sayama.

“Wh-what are you saying? I c-can’t do that…”

Shinjou looked over at Fasolt. She then frantically adjusted her position and held Sayama’s coat.

With a slightly disappointed look, Sayama returned to his proper position. He wiped his brow with his handkerchief and placed it in the pocket on his shirt. The handkerchief stuck out from the shirt a bit.

Nevertheless, Sayama turned toward Fasolt.

Next to him, Shinjou continually glanced over at him, but Sayama did not seem to notice.

Fasolt then looked over at the coat Shinjou was holding. Its breast pocket was turned toward him.

Fasolt thought about the boy before his eyes. ''He really is young,'' he concluded before making his next move.

Sayama heard Fasolt speak.

“Our demands are quite simple, Sayama Mikoto. We want you to hand over Siegfried, the holy sword Gram, and the Concept Core held within the sword. Until then, we will not give you the right to use 1st-Gear’s Concept Core and we will not help persuade the City faction.”

“What?”

Fasolt did not even acknowledge his question.

“After the Concept War, this reservation agreed to cooperate with UCAT, but we agreed to nothing concerning the Leviathan Road. That is why we demand that we begin anew here. Hand over the war criminal. If you promise that, the Royal Palace faction and the City faction will both fall in line with the peaceful faction. We will make sure they do.”

“And you want us to hand over Gram and the Concept Core inside it?”

“I think it will be necessary to convince the City faction, but what do you think? Even if we persuade them to join with us, I doubt they will do what we say if we have not been granted some power.”

Sayama remained silent. Fasolt watched him as he sat silently.

“Just to be clear, threatening to remove this concept space to aid your negotiations will gain you nothing.”

Sayama did not say he would not do so. If he had to, he would. Fasolt had warned it would gain him nothing, but those were nothing but words. It was impossible to know what would happen if he actually did it.

However, that was a last resort. Using it would end the relationship between them.

Sayama took a breath.

“Could you stop testing me? Unnecessary statements could hinder our negotiations,” he said.

“Saying many things in quick succession is the special characteristic of a storyteller.”

The dragon gave no apology. That gave Sayama an odd sense of relief.

His opponent was a proud person. That may have been a common characteristic of 1st-Gear. No matter how far they lowered themselves and no matter what means they chose to use, they would always give precedence to their self-respect.

…''They are obstinate and direct.

They were easy to handle as allies, but impossible to avoid as an enemy.

With that in mind, Sayama once more pulled the handkerchief from his breast pocket.

He wiped his brow and Shinjou’s shoulders jumped slightly next to him.

At the same time, Fasolt looked over at Shinjou.

“There is nothing to be afraid of. As Ooshiro said, you can take it easy.”

“Oh, right,” said Shinjou as she slightly relaxed her legs which had been strictly kept in the seiza position.

As soon as she did, Fasolt’s hand moved.

“Ah,” gasped Shinjou, but Fasolt had already snatched the coat from her lap.

“This is a nice coat. Do you mind if I take a look at it?”

As Fasolt asked his question, an object fell from the suit coat in his hand.

Sayama clearly saw the cell phone drop. It was able to record audio.

“Whoops,” said Fasolt as he grabbed it in midair.

And with a clear noise, he crushed the cell phone in his hand.

“Oh, my mistake. I give you my personal apology. However.” Fasolt returned the suit coat to Shinjou and held up the remains of the cell phone in his other hand. “This was not running by any chance, was it? You were not so concerned about me that you felt the need to give a sign to have me filmed from the side, were you?”

Fasolt saw Sayama’s expression change twice in response to his words. It changed from tense to harsh and then from harsh to joyful. Fasolt’s thoughts raced as he saw those changes.

…''Did he notice my trick?

When Fasolt had watched over the autopsy of the werewolf that had committed suicide the day before yesterday, he had inspected Sayama’s possessions. And knowing that Sayama would be his opponent in the negotiations, he had thought up a certain trick.

He had switched on the digital recorder to drain the battery and had left the cell phone untouched. If Sayama brought the two items to the negotiations, he would need to use the cell phone to record any proof of what was said.

However, the cell phone’s microphone was weak, so it and the built-in camera would have to be on the surface.

Locating Sayama’s hiding spot for it had not been difficult. The camera had been sticking a bit out of his coat pocket.

Fasolt was certain the boy had been recording him. He had seen the small exchange between Sayama and Shinjou and he had seen Shinjou’s movements.

''Such awkward teamwork,'' thought Fasolt.

That was why he had grabbed the coat and smashed the cell phone.

Sayama’s use of the cell phone was proof that he had viewed the negotiations as dangerous and had wanted to secretly leave some proof behind. Taking that from him and destroying it while also warning him would inflict inescapable pressure on the boy.

Sayama was currently looking at the smashed cell phone.

“I do not believe I had it running,” he said with his head down as if trying to recall.

''Liar,'' thought Fasolt with a bitter smile in his heart.

As Fasolt watched, Sayama turned to Ooshiro to his left.

“Not that it matters. The old man here will handle recording what is said.”

Fasolt followed Sayama’s gaze and watched Ooshiro typing.

He nodded and said, “Unfortunately, Ooshiro’s records will not pass as proof.”

“Wh-why not?” asked Shinjou as she held the coat.

Fasolt nodded and replied, “That data can be easily altered. That is why I want to resolve these negotiations right here like this.”

Fasolt pulled a sheet of canvas from the inside pocket of his vest.

It was covered with the writing of 1st-Gear. Sayama would be able to read it because an image of the meaning took priority here.

It was a contract saying UCAT would accept the reservation’s demands. Below the agreement was a five centimeter underline.

Once he saw Sayama’s gaze stop on the underline, Fasolt spoke in a tone that held a slight smile.

“You will stamp your seal there. …You have your seal with you, don’t you? It is with the digital recorder with the dead battery.”

Shinjou embraced Sayama’s coat. She squeezed it between her arms.

And she glanced over at Sayama next to her.

''What will he do now?'' she wondered. ''Is there anything he can do?

As she watched on, Sayama stared expressionlessly at the contract.

He then suddenly moved. He pulled his handkerchief from his breast pocket with his right hand and lightly shook his wrist.

He looked at Fasolt and said, “So you saw through it. Yes, the battery is indeed dead. In that case, I no longer need it.”

He produced a digital recorder from the handkerchief. The power light was off which indicated it was not running. However, he was not looking at the recorder. He was looking at the broken cell phone that had fallen to the ground.

“I was planning to record any promises you made to perhaps later change our demands.”

Sayama sighed and took his seal case out of his pocket using his free left hand.

He placed the digital recorder and handkerchief next to him and placed the seal before him.

“But I am not yet ready to stamp my seal,” he said.

“Are you saying you will eventually do so?”

Sayama gave no response.

He remained silent and his face held no expression.

Faced with this, Fasolt froze in place.

Shinjou gulped lightly at seeing this silence and expressionlessness from Sayama for the first time. However…

“…”

His pulse was calm.

''Why is that?'' she wondered.

She felt as if she had seen him like this before.

When had it been?

She searched through her memories and arrived at a certain moment in the past.

The night before last, when he had stood before her and beyond the werewolf.

''What happened after that moment?'' she thought.

She thought back. In that moment, Sayama had stepped forward and spoken to their enemy. He had provoked the enemy. And now…

“You should learn that those who trust in writing can be betrayed by writing.” Sayama lightly raised his right hand. “Let me be clear up front: I cannot agree to any one of the demands you have given.”

“Then what will you say when you see this?”

Fasolt pulled a thick book from his vest and held it so Shinjou and the others could see.

It was a hardcover book made of canvas sheets and cloth. Shinjou had seen it before.

“That’s the book the knight had yesterday.”

“Yes. It is an investigation report on the destruction of our Wotan Kingdom. Volunteers from the Royal Palace faction visited both the peaceful faction and the City Faction to gather the records to create it. These records could only have been made by the Royal palace faction that sat in the middle. Neither we nor the City faction could have made it.”

Sayama took the investigation report and opened it.

Shinjou peered at its contents from the side. It listed a calculation of the total amount of destruction while using spelling that avoided any dangerous terminology. Each time Sayama turned the page, Shinjou could sense the image of the destruction detailed within.

Arton Central Street was smashed along with the decorations for the festival in the small park: 38 dead.

Ethos District 3 contained a wooden school, but it was crushed along with the people who had taken refuge inside: 91 dead.

The evacuation warning never reached the 3rd redevelopment sector and the pioneer village was eliminated without knowing what was happening: 46 dead.

In addition, there was damage to houses in several sectors or out in nature, the loss of assets and livestock, and a calculated value of the land lost. It was all calculated out to reach a final sum for the damages.

“Once converted to the currency of philosopher’s stones, UCAT must maintain this reservation for 7022 years. We have lived her for 60 years, so that still leaves 6962 years. Exchanging that debt for one man and a sword sounds like a bargain to me.”

''That’s absurd,'' thought Shinjou with a gulp.

She slowly looked over at Sayama so Fasolt would not notice her internal panic. She found Sayama as expressionless and silent as before.

''What will he do now?'' she thought.

And she had another thought.

She recalled what Fasolt had said when he had destroyed the cell phone:

You felt the need to give a sign to have me filmed from the side.

She did not know what he had meant by that. She had not been given that role.

But even if she did not understand, Shinjou knew that everything was advancing. And she knew that Sayama likely had some plan.

Sayama looked at Fasolt.

Fasolt had been looking at him for a while now. With that in mind, he spoke.

“Giving concrete value to people’s lives is something else I am not willing to do.”

“If doing so is necessary for a negotiation, we will choose that as our weapon.”

“And so you are demanding a human life in the place of money?”

“Demanding? No. My role here is to present you with possibilities. Your role here is to choose, Sayama Mikoto. I have presented you with a means of paying reparations for the damages. You are the one that chooses whether you will pay for your ancestors’ mistakes with seven thousand years of expenses or by handing over that man and Gram.”

“And if I handed them over, I would be putting a price on a human life?”

“Yes, if you did. We would have prepared a different path, but you would have chosen that path because you could not pay. It would not hurt us in any way.”

Sayama thought. According to Ooshiro, it was impossible to even increase the reservation’s yearly maintenance expenses by 20%. That meant it was beyond impossible to pay off the seven thousand years’ worth of debt right away. And that was why he asked the next question.

“Are Siegfried and Gram really that valuable?”

“They are.”

“I see.” Sayama picked up the contract and the seal case in front of them. “Shinjou-kun, hand me a pen from my coat’s breast pocket.”

“Oh, right.”

Shinjou took a silver ballpoint pen from the pocket and handed it over.

Sayama flipped over the contract and wrote something while using the cover of the investigation report as a desk. He stamped what he wrote with the seal he took from the case and then placed the contract in front of Fasolt.

“If you want something of such great value, then how about we resolve everything like this?”

Everyone looked at the back of the contract.

Shinjou gulped, Fasolt clenched his hands, and Ooshiro smiled bitterly.

Sayama read what he had written on the back of the contract.

“Seven thousand years shall be added to the current seven thousand year debt. In exchange, we shall buy the half-dragon Fasolt and all of his rights. …That should be fine with anyone who will give monetary value to people’s lives.”

“You will buy your negotiating opponent!?” cried Fasolt.

A wind blew through and disturbed Sayama’s hair, but he ignored it and spoke.

“If doing so is necessary for a negotiation, we will choose that as our weapon. Those are your words. And I believe we had agreed to that view. …You asked me to sell someone’s life if I could not pay.” He gave a bitter smile. “But that also means I can buy someone’s life if I can pay.”

“…”

“We will pay what is needed. It does not matter how many years it takes, who might suffer, or even if you refuse us. So let me say this: you may think you all have pride, but you only have the spirit of poor slaves.”

“Slaves? Now you’ve said it, you aboriginal.”

“Aboriginal? We certainly have evolved. I miss the days when we were called yellow monkeys.” Sayama’s bitter smile deepened. “Fasolt, let me tell what kind of race we are. We are the Japanese, the ‘economic animals’. We have nothing to fear when it comes to money. A debt? We just need to save up. The government? It runs on money. A grudge? That is just a bias of the poor. Now, Fasolt, for fourteen thousand years of peace for your comrades, you will be ours. And let me say this: you will physically remain with 1st-Gear, but as our possession,” he nodded, “you will withdraw all of your demands. No need to lower your head. You are our comrade now that we bought you. We have the right to do this. You are the one that brought up buying people’s lives, something we had never done before.”

At that point, Sayama threw the investigation report to the ground.

“This is absurd, Fasolt.” He took a breath. “What is this investigation report? It may have some truth to it, but how much of it is truth? If you are going to carry out an investigation, have a third party do so or at least do so while we are present. Otherwise, this is nothing more than reference material. …Is presenting unreliable material at the negotiating table the 1st-Gear’s way of doing things!?”

Fasolt responded to the last part more than anything else.

The creaking of his fangs could be heard from his clenched mouth.

But that was as much of Fasolt’s power as was seen.

He slowly reached out a hand and picked the book up from the ground. He let out a long sigh.

“It is true this contains a fair bit of personal opinions for an investigation report. But are you really going to use the lack of records from this conversation to say such abusive things?”

Sayama turned a smile in Fasolt’s direction.

“Abusive? That was a rebuke over how useless your investigation report is. …I was trying to say that your actions were showing contempt for the value of 1st-Gear. If you misinterpreted me, I apologize.”

“No need.” Fasolt drew back and held the book to his chest. He spoke once more after suppressing the anger in his voice. “Either way, we will not give you the right to use the Concept Core unless you accept our demands. …How do you intend to gain that right from me?”

Sayama glanced around. The nearby houses had their windows open because it was a sunny day, so he could see inside. Inside the shadowy houses, he could tell the items within were a bit different from those he was used to. Every house had bare walls and they grew flowers.

Sayama was searching for ''a certain object'' within those houses.

But from what he could see at a distance, it was not there. It was a completely normal object in his world, but it was absent here.

…''It could be easily brought in from outside, but there is none here.

The possible reasons for this were simple. It may never have existed in 1st-Gear and was not needed, or UCAT feared letting 1st-Gear have it and so refused to do so.

It was one of those or possibly both.

Once he realized that, another fact came to Sayama. He realized the true purpose behind the negotiation.

“…”

He silently relaxed. He cooled his head that had begun to grow serious.

''If I am right about the true purpose of this negotiation,'' thought Sayama, ''trying to crush Fasolt would not be the best strategy.

And that was why Sayama said what he did next. He breathed out, breathed in, and then spoke in a calm voice.

“Instead of Siegfried and the holy sword Gram, we will provide you with technology equivalent to seven thousand years’ worth of budget or allow you to use said technology.”

“Technology equivalent to seven thousand years’ worth of budget?” asked Fasolt before laughing from the throat. “What do you mean by that? We already sustain ourselves. Is there any technology we could possibly want and is there any technology Low-Gear could possibly provide us with?”

“There is.”

“And what is it?’

Sayama thought and said, “It can be used as a weapon. It can be used as culture and civilization. It can be power and it can become anything in existence.”

“Hah! How amusing! We in 1st-Gear live with the power of writing, so what more culture and civilization do we need!? And with our mechanical dragons, why would we need weapons?” Fasolt strongly held the hardcover book against his chest. “Tell me, Sayama Mikoto. What is this technology you think we would exchange our Concept Core for? What is this technology that UCAT has been keeping from us?”

Sayama nodded and spoke a single word.

“Paper.”

Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 18

2013-08-04T21:05:09Z

Purin:

==Chapter 18: Broken Horizon==
[[Image:OnC_v02_0123.png|thumb]]
''What are you going there to see?

''Is that a question one can answer?

''After all, that is what you are going there to find out

Sayama followed Ooshiro Kazuo to the 1st-Gear reservation. They climbed a hill behind UCAT.

They walked past UCAT transportation control, made their way through vegetable and flower gardens and a cedar forest, and finally arrived at a paved road. Ooshiro turned toward Sayama on that road. He flipped up the hem of his burnt white lab coat.

“Do you have anything with anything written on it or carved into it?”

Sayama was just about to answer when he suddenly looked toward the surrounding forest.

“…?”

''Something is off,'' thought Sayama.

He had felt some sort of presence.

However, he could not see anything in the area. He found only silence.

“It certainly is quiet here.”

“Maybe that’s because we are near the concept space. But I visited here a few times a long time ago. And those times,” Shinjou tilted her head, “I remember hearing more birds.”

''I need to be cautious,'' thought Sayama.

He nodded and answered the previous question.

“I decided to be cautious and avoided bringing any products with writing on them. But will electronics work inside?”

Sayama pulled his cell phone from his pocket. It had a microphone and a built-in camera that allowed it to record audio and video.

Sayama pointed at the camera and Ooshiro scratched at his head.

“Hmm, it should work. To prevent a rebellion, the reservation is based on Low-Gear concepts. If you are clever in how you use it, you might be able to give it extra ability from the concepts added to the reservation. But…”

“But it will not work as a phone, right? The phone tower exists outside.”

“There are specialized devices that allow you to communicate outside, but they are quite valuable.”

Hearing that, Sayama returned the cell phone to his suit’s breast pocket. He kept the camera facing outwards.

Sayama then looked toward Ooshiro’s left side. He held a laptop there.

When Ooshiro noticed, he tapped the gray body of the device and raised his right thumb.

“This is for recording what is said. The keyboard and switches are unmarked. At the press of a button, it can switch to a setting that does not display anything.”

“I did not know you were that skilled with computers, old man.”

Shinjou looked over toward Sayama. She was slightly out of breath from climbing the slight hill.

“He plays video games a lot in his room. But when SF, the others, or I try to look at the screen, he panics and switches off the display. I think Itaru-san scolded him about it once.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes. And the walls in Ooshiro-san’s room are covered in long vertical posters. They all have gaudy drawings of lewd girls.”

After thinking on what Shinjou had said, Sayama looked over at Ooshiro. He turned a small smile toward that man carrying a laptop.

“Old man.”

“D-do you need something?”

“I will say this in an indirect way: you will not die in any decent way, you perverted old man.”

“Wow, you really said it. …And Shinjou-kun, you shouldn’t tell on people!”

“Eh? B-but I thought an hour of video games a day was an acceptable way of extending your hobbies.” With her head tilted, Shinjou pulled what looked like a card out of her back pocket. “I have this. It isn’t the same as yours, but it is a handheld game system UCAT gave me.”

Sayama took it from her and realized it was a small game device with an LCD screen. The black and white LCD screen was located in the center, a single round button was located on either side of the screen, and it had two selection buttons. From the patterns visible on the LCD screen, the game involved people jumping down from a building which the player had to bounce into an ambulance with a stretcher.

“It has a clock mode and the game has a normal A Mode and a hard B Mode. I got the max score in A Mode once, but the battery died and my high score was lost.”

Sayama nodded in understanding as he listened, but then he spoke to Ooshiro.

“I just now realized that it is UCAT’s doing that Shinjou-kun is so strange, but what am I supposed to do about it?”

“I-I’m not strange.”

“You have been brainwashed. Video games are normally played on the television or with a color LCD screen.”

“Eh? You can play games on TV?”

“Old man! This has reached the level of personality modification!”

“I’m not actually sure how this happened either,” he said. “I can only think people have been giving her what they have to spare.”

“I see,” said Sayama with a nod. He returned the handheld game system to Shinjou. “Take care of this. …But get ready because I will make sure Setsu-kun educates you on this. I think I have some things in storage that a graduate left behind.”

“Eh? Y-you don’t have to do that. I would feel bad.”

“No, this is an excellent chance to teach you that you do not live in the Showa era.”

Sayama sighed and continued forward. As Ooshiro walked in front of him, the man suddenly disappeared.

Sayama frowned and wondered what had happened, but then the watch on his left wrist suddenly vibrated.

—'''Writing is a representation of power.

He heard a voice and red words scrolled across the face of the watch.

Sayama realized this was the same concept text he had heard at the Imperial palace.

But he felt as if nothing had changed.

The scenery around him had barely changed. The types of trees were slightly different and the smell of earth was a bit stronger, but that was all. He could not help but compare it to the concept space that had caused the direction of gravity to change.

“This is a bit underwhelming.”

“Not all of them are quite so exciting.”

He looked over to find Ooshiro and Shinjou standing next to him.

Sayama nodded and they began walking once more. Beyond the forest on either side of the path were fields of crops.

Sayama continued walking along the earth between the trees as he looked at the crops in the distance. He soon came to the top of the hill.

The visible area opened up before him.

Above were the blue sky and the white clouds and below was a village. The fields on either side of the path continued on to the village.

Most of the trees had been left intact in the village and several houses had been built among them. Most of those houses were made of built up stones with cement filling the gaps. The roofs were made of wood. A small vegetable garden and storage shed existed next to each house.

An even more open area existed beyond the trees and houses. A green sea was visible there.

“Wheat?”

“Yes. Some potatoes and other things are grown individually. Growing crops in a concept space can be unstable. About twenty years ago, large amounts of soil was brought in from outside so they could be self-sufficient.”

“Is that part of UCAT’s job?”

“Yes, but UCAT’s budget is limited. For anything more than that, the reservation residents need to earn it themselves. They do so by sharing techniques and knowledge or by working in UCAT. And if they wish to be naturalized, we will gladly help them.”

“Is that because the fewer the people in the reservation, the easier it is to keep them fed?”

Just as Ooshiro nodded in response, a low voice called out from the field to the side.

“Yes. And if we are to welcome in new members, we must send out those who can leave.”

The figure that climbed up to the pathway was huge. Sayama looked up at that two meter figure.

“A dragon?”

In front of him was a humanoid dragon covered in a black shell and skin.

His pointed face and sharp eyes were turned toward Sayama. The low shoulders below his fairly long neck were covered by a simple white outfit that had a fisherman’s vest worn over it. On his feet were…

“Jika-tabi?”

They were the type sold cheaply in supermarkets. The toes were covered in dirt and moss.

He must have noticed Sayama’s gaze because Fasolt opened his mouth and laughed from the throat. He kicked the ground to knock off the dirt and moss and shook the flowers and straw in his left arm.

“These shoes work best with the three claws I have received from the reign of the dragon god. They also work well with agricultural work. Don’t you agree? What is your name, human youth and boy of Low-Gear? I am Fasolt, the leader and storyteller of this 1st-Gear reservation.”

His lungs must have been able to hold a lot of air because the words all came at once.

Sayama saw Baku ball up his tail and pull back his hips where he stood on Sayama’s shoulder.

[[Image:OnC_v02_0131.png|thumb]]

“I am Sayama Mikoto. It seems I am the tentative Low-Gear representative. It is nice to meet you, leader from another world,” said Sayama as he held out his right hand.

“Ahh,” groaned Fasolt as he held out his right hand which was covered by a large work glove. But his outstretched hand was clenched in a fist. “We do it like this in 1st-Gear, Sayama Mikoto. According to folklorists, the purpose is to show you are not holding a weapon, but a lot of us would injure each other if we held hands.”

It was true that Fasolt’s hand had claws sticking out from the work glove. The ends were round, but those ends were white from being filed down. Sayama decided to clench his right hand into a fist as well.

Fasolt struck Sayama’s fist with his own. Sayama did the same in return.

“Excellent. Do not forget to use your palm instead when greeting a woman. If you want to remember how to greet people in 1st-Gear, just remember to punch the men and stroke the women. That saying comes from the city’s 14th block and I used to follow it quite a lot.”

Fasolt’s words arrived all at once, but they were easy to listen to.

''It has a nice rhythm,'' analyzed Sayama.

Ooshiro said, “In 1st-Gear, writing produces power, so they never advanced very far when it came to keeping documents and records. The dragon race has a long life, a large lung capacity, and an excellent memory, so they were often record keepers, judges, and historical storytellers.”

“Yes. I gave up the position of judge due to my age, but I will continue as storyteller until I die. Not many speak like this anymore, but I suppose that is just the age we live in. Oh, but I am a bit disappointed that you do not seem very surprised to see me, Sayama Mikoto. Shinjou there was quite surprised when she first saw me.”

“I-I was just a kid. I didn’t really understand.”

Shinjou lowered her head and blushed while Ooshiro folded his arms and spoke.

“When she first met Fasolt, she climbed up on his back and was surprised not to see a zipper.”

“B-but I was watching Aretorman Cement and there was one on his back.”

“Why were you watching a minor Showa tokusatsu show? Do television broadcasts arrive in Okutama with a time lag?”

Fasolt laughed from the throat and closed his eyes nostalgically.

“It was even more amazing when Ooshiro met me the first time as a child. He wet himself as soon as he saw me and was so surprised he let out some strange shriek and ran up to attack me. I knocked him to the ground without even thinking. It is a complete mystery how that never affected the negotiations afterwards.”

“Hitting someone who deserves to be hit does not affect the negotiations.”

“I see, I see. I thank you for solving that 50-year-old mystery, Sayama Mikoto.”

Sayama and Fasolt lightly tapped their fists together. The half-dragon ignored Ooshiro who seemed to want to say something.

“Now then. If you like, we can begin the provisional negotiations. Public matters should be done in a public place, so our custom is to do this in the public square.”

Sayama nodded, but then said, “If possible, could you perform your job as storyteller first?”

Fasolt and Ooshiro looked over at him, but Shinjou nodded.

“That’s right. Shinjou-kun and I don’t know much about 1st-Gear.”

“You are quite different from Ooshiro despite being the same race. I am a bit moved. Tes.”

After giving his consent, Fasolt turned his back and began walking.

Ooshiro began to follow Fasolt, but first looked over at Sayama and turned his thumb downwards.

“You had better remember this.”

“Is that any way for an adult to act?” replied Sayama.

Ooshiro ran after Fasolt while blatantly pretending to cry.

Sayama exchanged a glance with Shinjou and sighed. With a bitter smile, he jogged after Fasolt.

As he did, Sayama looked at Fasolt’s back. His low shoulders stuck out from the collar of his clothes. On either side was a portion not covered by the shell or scales. That area was as long and thick as an arm and the skin was dark red and hardened like a burn scar.

Shinjou whispered to Sayama from where she walked alongside him.

“Those are the scars from cutting off his own wings. Or so I’ve heard.”

Whether he heard her or not, Fasolt spoke as he looked across the earthen public square that existed between the trees and houses and a wheat field.

“On a sunny day, the air, the wind, and stories of the past will all flow far and wide. Before we begin the negotiations, I will tell you the history of our land.”

Instead of just taking a breath, Fasolt seemed to store up even more breaths before speaking once more.

“As well as its destruction.”

Brunhild was dreaming. 1st-Gear’s destruction was recreated in her dream.

In the darkness of the night, their small cabin shook. The ground shook as if it was being struck.

Brunhild ran through the cabin. She held the birdcage in her arms and called out the names of those she trusted as she went from room to room.

In the distance, she heard the earth trembling as if she could feel it in her gut. From nearby, a vibration shook her bones.

As she heard these noises, she cried out while shedding tears. And she ran once more through the rooms she had looked through so many times already.

The fireplace in the central room had crumbled and the stone inside had burned and scattered.

The six-row keyboard against the wall of the back room had been broken by a fallen joist.

The wall and ceiling of the tilted room were decorated with rolled cloth written with the words for good luck. They were for the festival.

“Why is this happening on the day of the festival…?”

The trembling of the earth grew stronger and she tripped. The cage struck the ground and she almost fell on top of it.

That was when an arm reached out and supported her from behind.

She picked up the cage and turned around to find a red-haired woman.

“Miss Gutrune…”

“Yes,” nodded Gutrune.

She tried to embrace Brunhild, but her eyes stopped on the birdcage. In that shaking cabin, she smiled and kissed Brunhild on the cheek.

“Listen, Nein. I have to go to the royal palace. I can only think something has happened to the Concept Core there.”

“…Eh?”

Brunhild, who had been called Nein, was confused, but the ground shook once more and the roof groaned.

Gutrune looked up and said, “The weapons laboratory is likely closer. If it comes to it, the gate will be opened, so wait there. The doctor and Lord Hagen are in the laboratory. They will give you a snack to eat, okay?”

“No, I want to be with everyone. Where are the doctor and the others? Are they not here?”

Gutrune fell silent, but Brunhild continued to ask questions.

“The book on Gram was missing from the back room. So was the book on Fafnir. …Where is Siegfried? Did he betray us? Hey, did he betray us!?”

Gutrune took the questions head on. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth to speak.

“…”

And she closed it once more.

She took a breath and opened her eyes. She stared directly at Brunhild.

“He…might have. But he might not have.”

Brunhild realized her expression had brightened somewhat when she heard those words. She knew that Gutrune trusted him, too.

Gutrune pulled Brunhild toward her while lightly embracing her, birdcage and all.

“I will go check, so you run away ahead of me.”

“C-can’t you go with me at least?”

Gutrune gently let go and shook her head.

“I am a member of the royal family. The high officials have returned to their homes for the festival, so only the doctor and I can enter the basement. And something must be happening there. I must go.”

“Why? Why do you have to go?”

“I am sure I will be able to save someone or something.” She gave a bitter smile. “My father has grown weak ever since my mother died. I should have saved him…but it seems I can do that now. Whatever happens and however this turns out, there is something I must do as a member of the royal family.”

“What will you do if Siegfried betrayed us?”

“Do not worry. No matter what happens, I will persuade him. Together, we can preserve and save this world. …But as a member of the royal family, I may have to be forceful with him. If that happens, you take care of him.”

“And…and once that happens, we can all be together again someday?”

“Of course. I will persuade him and you will support him. And…we will always be together.”

“Do you promise?” asked Brunhild.

Gutrune smiled and replied, “Yes, I promise we will always be together.”

She rubbed Brunhild’s head. The gentle sensation calmed Brunhild and she finally smiled.

“You are a good girl, Nein,” said Gutrune with a smile of her own.

The bird in the birdcage chirped amid the shaking and the sounds of trembling.

As Brunhild heard that chirping, she awoke from her dream.

When Brunhild opened her eyes, she saw the art room turned on its side.

She had fallen asleep with her head lying on the work table. Her face was pointed to the left. Her neck felt stiff as she straightened up.

She touched her cheek and felt the tile pattern of the work table’s surface.

“This is not a good way to live.”

She looked down to find the small bird had left its box and was looking up at her.

The contents of the food dish had clearly lessened. The bird seemed plenty hungry.

She held her hand out on a whim and the bird flapped its wings and flew up to her shoulder.

Brunhild laughed. Turning her head hurt a bit, but she endured. She looked the chirping bird in the eye. She could not say whether the tears in her eyes were from the dream, the pain in her neck, or the bird’s recovery.

Brunhild looked down and searched for the black cat.

But it was not there.

She thought back and the scene just before she fell asleep appeared in the back of her mind.

She turned toward the door and found it was unlocked.

“I managed to send him off for the periodic report…”

She breathed a sigh of relief as the cat’s owner. She turned away from the door and her gaze naturally focused on the center of the art room.

An unfinished painting stood on an easel there.

A single small cabin was visible in a forest of black and green. Brunhild spoke to the bird as she looked at the cabin which had been started with pale black.

“This is the world I came from.” She gave a bitter laugh. “The final promise made to me there was never upheld. She never came back. I doubt she was able to persuade him. And…It seems he betrayed us and abandoned us. The only person left was me, the one who had trusted everyone else.”

Brunhild looked at the bird.

“But,” she began.

The bird chirped. It waved its tail up and down happily.

As she listened to that chirping, Brunhild sat in the chair in front of the easel. She lowered her head a bit.

“I shouldn’t have asked him why he saved you,” muttered Brunhild as she recalled the scene from her dream. “Why did she say that when she was going to the palace to be killed by him? Why would she ask me to take care of him or say that we would always be together?”

There was no one who could answer that question. Instead, the bird stopped chirping and tilted its head.

In the center of the 1st-Gear reservation’s public square, a few blue plates were flipped upside down on the ground. The bottom of those plates said “floor” and the top said “public square”.

Sayama and the others sat on the plates below them as the “floor” while listening to Fasolt speak.

He gave a summary of the greatest reaches of time, beginning with the dragon god’s creation of the land.

After he spoke for several minutes, his continuing words spoke of the creation of man and the formation of a kingdom.

“Was that the Wotan Kingdom?” asked Sayama and Fasolt nodded.

He continued his stories even as villagers passed by and as he greeted the winged people and members of the giant race.

Once Fasolt reached the leader of the kingdom from three generations back when a black dragon was captured when it came flying through the sky from one of the other worlds of the dragon god, the story ceased to be told secondhand.

Time continued to pass and, at one point, a single strange visitor arrived in their world.

“He was not a descendent of the dragon god and he came from a land that was meaningless to us. King Wotan had lost his wife, and when one of his mechanical dragons began rampaging, this visitor arrived and defeated it.”

Fasolt took a breath. The sounds of continued breathing came from the back of his neck and his sides.

When he opened his mouth to speak again after about a minute, he spoke in the rhythm of conversation rather than the rhythm of storytelling.

“Regin joined with Fafnir to help the king protect the concepts, but Siegfried killed the both of them with the holy sword Gram and sent the concepts out of control to lead 1st-Gear to a closed annihilation. Most believe he also killed Princess Gutrune when she arrived. Siegfried himself has admitted it.”

And…

“Most of 1st-Gear’s residents still hold a grudge and they have continued to seek the destruction of Gram and Siegfried’s assassination even after escaping to Low-Gear.”

“Why do they wish to destroy Gram? I thought that was your world’s weapon.”

“The holy sword Gram was created as a concept weapon with a will of its own, Sayama Mikoto. They view it as a crime for the sword to have agreed to take Siegfried as its master. The militant groups of 1st-Gear wish to enact vengeance on Gram after acquiring 1st-Gear’s Concept Core from it.”

“I see,” said Sayama. “So that is Siegfried’s past.”

“When he rescued the village, he was injured. The wise man Regin took him in. Venerable Regin had also taken in Princess Gutrune when the king distanced her after losing his wife and a girl named Nein of the long-lived race who was orphaned during the Concept War. At first, he intended to ask Siegfried for information on Low-Gear.”

“There was no hostility between them?”

“I hear there were a few conflicts, but Siegfried and the princess got along well. Music…Yes, Siegfried was also skilled at music, so they had that in common. But,” said Fasolt, “that ended on the day of the star festival. It happened while the royal palace was at its most empty because we had all returned to the lands we ruled over. There was a sudden earthquake and the sky split apart. The world never recovered.”

“…Siegfried did that?”

“By that time, he had already left through the gate in the royal palace. We never met him again. As the princess wished, we brought her to the palace’s viewing platform and let her deliver a speech. She told the people that 1st-Gear had lost and would be destroyed. She instructed them to escape to Low-Gear through either the gate in the royal palace or the gate in the city. If she had not done so, I doubt the chaos in the city would have ever died down, but she ran out of strength there…”

“…”

Fasolt closed his eyes and nodded when Sayama replied with nothing but silence.

“As the world was destroyed, we split between the eastern and western gates. The gate near the royal palace led here. The gate near the weapons laboratory most likely came out somewhere in Japan’s Chugoku region. Our gates mostly opened into the European country of Germany, so that one would be the primary gate. And that is the story of 1st-Gear’s destruction as I know it,” concluded Fasolt.

Ooshiro sat cross-legged next to him while typing on the laptop sitting on his lap.

“It has continued to be difficult ever since then. The peaceful faction that escaped through the royal palace gate entered under UCAT’s protection, but the radi-…militant faction refused our protection and is continuing to fight. And of those who escaped through the royal palace gate, another militant group called the Royal Palace faction split off with some concept space technology. But you saw what became of them yesterday.” Ooshiro nodded and formed a smile. “These provisional negotiations will include all of that. …At any rate, just take it easy.”

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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume2_Chapter_17|Chapter 17]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume2_Chapter_19|Chapter 19]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 17

2013-08-03T22:25:00Z

Purin:

==Chapter 17: Tranquil Flowers==
[[Image:OnC_v02_0101.png|thumb]]
''Peaceful, peaceful, peaceful

''The noisier the person, the more they desire silence

''The noisier the person, the more they sink into silence

Brunhild’s awakening began with surprise.

A slight sensation suddenly came to her right cheek.

“…!”

Her shoulders shook and she opened her eyes. She looked at her right shoulder, but saw nothing there.

''What was that?'' she wondered as she saw an unfamiliar scene. She was not in her usual dim dorm room. The ceiling was tall and bookshelves were lined up. She could see the light of morning.

The clock on the wall was larger than the one in her dorm room and it read 6:30 AM. Seeing that time caused her to panic slightly. Her panic raised her heart rate which swept away the last of her drowsiness. A clear question floated up in her mind.

“Where am I?”

This was not her dorm room. It was some other place. It was somewhere larger and warmer.

She focused on her vision, but all she could see were the tall ceiling, the bookshelves, and the large space. However, Brunhild recognized it. Her memories took the form of words.

“The library counter.”

She was sleeping on a chair rather than a bed. The fact that she had fallen asleep, the stove next to her, and the green blanket someone had placed over her all made her feel she had failed.

However, she wondered how long it had been since someone had last placed a blanket over her. She had just woken up, but she placed the blanket over her shoulder where it had slipped down some and gave herself in to its warmth.

As she did, she saw what had woken her. A small form stood on the blanket near her chest.

The sunlight entering through the window between two bookshelves and the light from the ceiling illuminated a small bird with a blue head and black wings.

Brunhild’s eyes met with the bird’s. The bird raised its tail and chirped quietly.

Brunhild stopped moving.

“Ah…”

A small voice escaped her lips and the ends of her eyebrows lowered.

She moved her hands to lift up the blanket and gently held the bird through the blanket.

With a creak from the chair, Brunhild stood up. The small bird tilted its head on top of her hand and the blanket. It pecked at the inside of its wings, but it otherwise remained still.

“You can jump out of the box, but you still can’t fly, can you?”

Brunhild held her hand out toward the cardboard box.

The bird jumped from the slope of the blanket and into the box.

The state of the box’s contents had changed from the night before. The food dish now had tiny yellow grains in it.

It was millet. Siegfried would scatter it for the birds in the morning and it appeared the bird had pecked at it some while Brunhild slept. However, the bird looked up at Brunhild and opened its upturned mouth.

A comment on the bird came from the side.

“It seems to have taken a liking to you.”

That low voice was followed by a white paper cup in an outstretched hand. Both steam and a slightly sour smell rose from the cup. It contained coffee.

Brunhild turned toward the person holding out the cup.

A tall old man stood there. It was Siegfried. He nodded once.

“After drinking this, take your bird and cat and leave,” he said to emphasize what she should do.

The old man placed the cup on the counter.

He turned his back, put out the stove, and began organizing the objects below the counter.

Brunhild placed the blanket over the chair and woke the black cat sleeping curled up below the chair. The cat stood up and looked around. Its sleepy eyes turned toward Siegfried’s back.

The cat nodded once and tapped at Brunhild’s leg.

It pointed its front right leg toward Siegfried before bringing its front paws together as if in prayer.

Brunhild nodded and stood.

“Um,” she muttered under her breath. She touched her face to find it held the same expressionless look as ever. Her hair was disheveled, but she decided it was within acceptable limits. She picked up the cup from the counter and took a sip of coffee.

She felt as if this was the first time in a long time that she had tasted actual food or drink. The remnants of her tension had left an odd iron taste in her mouth, but the coffee washed it away.

The taste seemed to warm her body. After drinking the entire cup of coffee, she realized there had been sugar at the bottom. But she could not have done anything about it because she had no spoon. She almost gave a bitter smile toward the crouching back that continued to organize things below the counter.

“…”

She regained her proper expression. The cup produced a light noise as she placed it on the counter. She knew what she had to say.

“Sorry about…last night.”

“You mean your sudden visit?”

“There is that,” Brunhild replied to the back’s question. “But you kept me warm even after I fell asleep and you gave me soup…”

“My help was already over by the time you fell asleep. Do not worry about it. You asked me for help. At that point, you only needed to fall asleep.”

As he spoke, Siegfried picked up some documents.

As he slowly turned around, Brunhild tried to take a silent step back. However, something pressed up against the back of her lower leg. It was the black cat’s back.

Brunhild stopped moving backwards. She faced Siegfried. He was two heads taller than her. Brunhild looked up at his blue eyes. His eyes held no emotion and Brunhild realized the look in his eyes was the same as hers.

She felt danger. Not from him but from her past. Holding any more emotional bonds was dangerous.

And so she lowered her head in order to avert her gaze.

“Thank you very much.”

She thought about what to do next. First, she would raise her head. Second, she would pick up the bird’s box. Third, she would turn around. Fourth, she would casually kick the black cat. And fifth, she would walk to the door. She began to implement this plan.

And she was suddenly stopped at the very first step.

“…Ah.”

When she began to raise her head, something large gently pressed down on it from above.

It was Siegfried’s hand. He was stroking her head.

“You did well.”

She could feel her cheeks reddening at his words and the sensation passing through her hair.

“P-please stop that.”

She shook her head and tried to place her hands on her head in order to escape his hand. She hurriedly placed her arms on the cardboard box for the small bird so she could carry it. She turned around.

And when she turned her head to glance back, she saw Siegfried with the exact same look on his face as before.

“My apologies.”

Those words caused Brunhild to realize why she had avoided him.

She averted her gaze, fully turned her back to him, and lowered the edges of her eyebrows.

“No… I was just a bit surprised.”

“I used to know a girl who loved it when I did that.”

Brunhild shut her eyes when she heard that statement.

“…Zonburg-san?” she said.

“What is it?”

“Why did you decide to save this bird last night?”

“Because you-…”

“You decided to save the bird because I asked you to?”

After she cut off Siegfried’s answer with that question, she received a short silence in response.

Brunhild took a breath. She took one, two, three, four, five breaths. On the fifth, she received her answer.

“It is a means of atonement for me. Even if it is going against the law of nature…”

Brunhild opened her eyes and listened to his voice.

“I do not want to lose what cannot be regained.”

Brunhild moved slightly when she heard that. She brought the arms carrying the box closer to her chest and walked toward the door.

All strength had left her body without her realizing it.

As she wondered why, Brunhild reached the door and opened it.

Siegfried’s voice arrived from behind.

“If anything else happens or you need to leave for a bit, you can leave the bird with me.”

Brunhild nodded and walked out into the hallway. She closed the door. This was a school hallway, but it was the early morning during spring break. The entranceway was dimly lit and the air was cold.

That darkness and chilliness awoke her body rather than her mind.

And even though her body woke, it still felt weak.

Brunhild sighed. She walked to the central lobby and leaned up against the wall. She felt the box up against her chest and the cold wall against her back. The bird’s chirping and the coldness on her back caused her body to tremble.

The black cat arrived at her feet.

“Are you okay? Maybe you should rest in the art room instead of walking back to the dorm.”

“Yes,” said Brunhild with a nod.

She sucked in a breath, looked up at the ceiling, opened her mouth, and straightened her throat.

''I look like the small bird asking for food,'' she thought.

She brought air into her lungs and contemplated why her body felt so weary.

She did not know.

But she did understand one thing: Siegfried.

“Atonement…”

Brunhild closed her eyes and mouth and lowered her face.

She closed herself up but thought with her heart. She thought on what she had learned after sixty years:

He had not forgotten either.

The large clock on the school wall indicated it was 9:00 AM.

It was spring break, so the bell did not ring. Instead, a motorcycle engine could be heard.

A black touring motorcycle passed through the main entrance and continued toward the parking lot behind the dorms. A couple rode it. They were Izumo and Kazami.

The motorcycle engine ceased to rev as it came up alongside the line of school buildings. With his brown coat fluttering in the wind, Izumo gripped the clutch letting the engine go free. He placed his heel on the ground and lowered their speed.

He removed his helmet with his right hand and muttered to no one in particular.

“…So being stubborn will leave you sleep deprived.”

“Sorry about having you come with me,” said Kazami who was riding tandem.

Izumo stopped the motorcycle and turned around. The girl wearing a warm sleeveless top and a men’s leather jacket held her helmet along with her rucksack.

Kazami’s expression had her eyebrows bent downwards a bit. Nevertheless, she had a smile on her lips. After seeing her face, Izumo looked forward once more.

“Well, I’ll stick with you until we get an agreement.”

“Sorry. I think it will be like this at least until Sayama decides for himself.”

“Really, it doesn’t bother me that much. Will your friend have the new song done in time for the Zenren Festival in May? We’re already printing posters for the school band competition.”

“We have enough songs stocked up. And if it comes down to it, I can head home and beg for help from my father, so everything will be fine.”

“Really?”

Izumo glanced back to see Kazami nod and change her expression. Her eyebrows rose slightly and her eyes looked straight up at him.

“Friends are important, but there is something else we need to prioritize. Let’s start there.”

“The Leviathan Road?”

“Yes. As the ones who are already involved, isn’t there something we should be showing him?”

“Yeah, I can think of some things he would want to see. Like-…Ah, wait! I didn’t say anything yet!”

“Tch. You’re getting smarter.”

Kazami lowered the right fist she had raised in order to tear into Izumo.

She sighed. The collar of her jacket slipped from her limp shoulder.

Something other than skin was visible on Kazami’s bared right shoulder.

Izumo reached out his hand without warning. He placed the hand on Kazami’s slightly cold collarbone.

“Ah…What is it?”

Kazami cowered down a bit as she wrapped her arms around her rucksack and helmet, but Izumo quickly moved his hand to her shoulder. As she looked up with a troubled expression, he showed her what he held between his fingers.

It was a small yellow flower petal.

“…”

Kazami’s expression clouded over when she saw its color and shape. She cast her eyes down a bit and her eyebrows drooped.

Izumo sighed.

“Chisato.”

“Hm? Wh-what?”

When she opened her mouth to speak, Izumo suddenly shoved his finger and the flower petal inside her mouth.

“Nn!” gasped Kazami before swallowing the flower petal.

Izumo pulled out his finger and said, “Listen. That gloomy look isn’t like you at-…Ow ow ow! Dammit, now this is more like you!”

“Shut up! Why would you do that all of a sudden!?”

“You don’t like it all of a sudden? Okay, next time I’ll ask permission first.”

“That! Is! Not! The! Issue!!”

Kazami’s repeated blows rang out in staccato. She struck him in the body, hit his face with a left-handed backhanded blow to the left when his head stuck forward, hit him in his unguarded right flank with a hook, and began a left-handed uppercut.

“Oh?”

But she stopped there. Izumo took a breath while waiting for the uppercut that should have come.

“H-huh? This feels inadequa-…no, I mean. What’s the matter, Chisato?”

“I hear an organ,” replied Kazami as she pointed toward the second year general school building which they could see the back of from there.

Izumo turned an ear in that direction and realized he could hear it, too. It was coming from the music room on the second floor of the building.

“Is that Silent Night? You do hear it on occasion. Does that room have bad soundproofing or something?”

“No music room would have bad soundproofing. Look, the window is open.”

Izumo looked up toward the second floor and the music room’s window was indeed open.

“See?” said Kazami. “The art room and music room actually have excellent soundproofing. We use the music room for practice, so I know.”

“You say that, but we sure could hear that bird from above while in the Kinugasa Library yesterday.”

“It must have passed through the ventilation. …You never hear anything while up above because the library’s supply room is always quiet.” Kazami’s gaze stopped on the third floor. “That’s unusual. One of the art room’s curtains is open. …Oh, it’s Schild’s black cat.”

Drawn in by Kazami’s last word more than anything else, Izumo looked up at the art room’s window on the third floor. A single black cat sat in the window. The cat did not seem to have noticed them. Kazami held her helmet up against her chest.

“How cute. That kind of cat is just perfect for a completely cement-like German girl like Schild.”

“I think the things you say are a lot more cement-like…”

The instant Izumo looked over at Kazami, she gasped and her eyes opened wide in surprise.

Izumo followed her gaze to the art room window to find the curtain closed.

“K-K-K-Kaku?”

“What?”

“Th-the cat just closed the curtain. It closed it. It really did!”

“How?”

“I-it stood up, grabbed it with its paws, and tugged like this.”

“I see. …You seem to be having a hard time of it, Chisato.”

Without saying anything more, Izumo faced forward and kicked off the ground to begin driving once more.

“Now, then. Let’s head back and get some sleep.”

“Please believe me!!”

As Izumo’s back shook from repeated blows, he muttered with an annoyed expression.

“Is it really that surprising in the world we live in?”

Sayama arrived at an IAI-affiliated hospital located across the Tama River from IAI.

Shinjou had come from the IAI lobby and brought him to the central of the five white buildings making up the hospital. Shinjou showed a card at the reception desk and they were led to a staircase to the side of the reception desk.

They walked down approximately five floors and passed through a few barriers that opened up before them. They arrived at a stairway that split off in two directions and Sayama followed Shinjou down the left path. There he found…

“A room? Is it a waiting room leading to a large hall?”

At the end of the staircase were a small cement room and a dark space that opened beyond it.

The northern end of the room had a large elevator, but the floor number display did not go up to the first floor. It ran from B3 down to B7.

Sayama frowned at the atmosphere of the room. Baku’s nose twitched from where he sat on Sayama’s shoulder.

Sayama recognized the smell in the room. It was the scent of incense. He had recently smelled it at his grandfather’s funeral.

And he could hear the sounds of an air conditioner.

Both the smell and the sounds came from the dark space beyond the room.

The room had a stone sink with running water, a trashcan next to it, and a waiting room sofa. The trash can contained tall, withered flowers and white cloth.

“…”

Shinjou turned around in the center of the room to face Sayama. She removed her brown jacket to reveal a black shirt and black trousers below. Only the scarf around her neck was white.

“U-um. This is my second time, but…well…this is…”

“You do not have to say it. If you had told me we would be coming here, I would have worn mourning clothes.”

“Ooshiro-san told me to bring you by before the negotiations. He raised his thumb like this.”

“Is that why you do not look very cheerful today? You did not seem to be listening when I told you about your brother’s arrival.”

“Oh, th-that’s right. Sorry. Here, take this.”

Shinjou pulled a black necktie and a small plastic bag from the inner pocket of the jacket hanging from her hand. The necktie was for the funeral and inside the plastic bag was…

“These are the objects I had on me the day before yesterday.”

It contained an IAI cell phone that could record audio and video with its microphone and camera, a handheld digital voice recorder, and a black leather seal case.

“I was told the pens and broken watch were sent in for analysis.”

Sayama first took the plastic bag and opened it. The handheld recorder’s battery was dead.

“Did someone accidentally switch it on?”

He placed it in his pocket along with the cell phone and seal before placing the plastic bag on the sofa.

Sayama removed his current necktie in an instant and took the black necktie from Shinjou.

He tilted his head, wrapped the tie around his neck, and tied it.

“Oh, it’s a bit crooked.”

Shinjou walked over and grabbed the tie.

As she held the knot in place with her right hand, the ring on her middle finger glittered a bit. Shinjou fixed the tie, took a step back, gave a small groan, and fixed it once more. She asked a question as she moved the base of the tie.

“How was Setsu?”

“It seems he decided to visit back home this morning. He was gone when I woke up.”

“Oh, um, that isn’t what I meant. What did you think of him?”

“I try not to speak about people when they are not present.”

That put a bitter smile on Shinjou’s face. She stroked Baku’s head as he sat on Sayama’s shoulder.

“That is just like you, Sayama-kun.”

“Is it? Well, there are some people for whom I have partially removed that restriction. Izumo and the old man, for example.”

“That is also just like you,” said Shinjou with a grin. She then asked, “Setsu said that you are a strange person.”

“Oh, that is probably because I suddenly checked over his body. It may have been a bit too soon for that.”

“I want to know what you think ‘a bit’ means…”

“Do not worry about it. I did it because I thought Setsu-kun might be you.”

“Eh?” asked Shinjou.

Sayama replied, “Last night, I thought about removing Setsu-kun’s underwear while he slept to see if he was you.”

“S-Sayama-kun? …Are you crazy?”

“How rude. …How about I ask you why you are tying my necktie with a smile on your face?”

“Am I not allowed to do that? And, well, Setsu is a boy. You understand what I mean, right?”

“Yes, I do. And I have only just met him. That is why I have a request for you instead.”

“Eh? What is it?”

“I memorized the bodylines of Setsu-kun’s legs and butt last night. I would like to compare them to your body, so I can-…”

Before he could finish speaking, his tie was tightened to its limit.

A few minutes later, Sayama and Shinjou bowed in greeting and entered the next room. It was quite large. Stone platforms were arranged in four rows and five columns. Seven of them were currently in use.

Six of them were covered with white cloth and one was covered with black cloth.

Each of the cloths had flowers placed next to them. However, one of the white cloths was decorated with a light purple flower Sayama did not recognize.

“That is Primula modesta. It was growing in a flower bed behind UCAT. Sibyl, who is in charge of communications and maintenance, was picking them earlier. You haven’t met her yet have you, Sayama-kun? …I bet those flowers are from her.”

“I see. Who are these six?”

“The members of the advance unit. They pursued that werewolf. Their normal duty is that of guards, but they requested to be sent out because it was an emergency. It is UCAT’s job to capture suspicious people and radicals.”

''And to know how that turned out, I only need to look in front of me,'' thought Sayama. ''So this is why Shinjou-kun told me I should decline the Leviathan Road.

Shinjou pulled an unopened package of incense sticks and a lighter from her back trouser pocket. The cheap and well-used lighter belonged to Ooshiro. It had his name and its intended location (“On top of the TV”) written in marker.

She lit it.

The two of them each placed an incense stick next to and brought their hands together at each of the six stone platforms.

“We have permission from the families of that one and that one, so you can look at them.”

“I see.”

Sayama pressed his hands together once more before lifting up the cloth. He did not hesitate and he was not surprised. After his time with the Tamiya family and his grandfather, he had seen the same thing a few times.

However, this was the first time he had seen a body that had been ripped apart by a beast.

The first body looked as if the area from below the neck on the right to the left flank had been dug out with a shovel. It must have been gouged out by a poor-quality blade because white fragments of bone were visible within the blackened folds of flesh.

The second body had no visible external wounds aside from three large ones and some bruising on the head. However, the neck and abdomen had sunk in like a deflated balloon. That area must have been crushed with a powerful blow.

Sayama replaced the cloth and placed his hands together again. Shinjou did the same next to him.

Shinjou had said this was her second time, but her face still looked pale. Sayama showed no concern, however.

In this place, the dead took precedence.

Shinjou glanced over at the cloth hiding one of the bodies.

“It seems this incident has led to some second thoughts about the current system. Specifically, the entrance requirements for the special and standard divisions, the division of work, and the process for dealing with this sort of situation if it happens again.”

“If someone dies, how is their family told?”

“Official employees are said to be overseas while on active duty. In that case, the family is told there was an ‘accident’ while they were on guard duty in a dangerous part of the world. Any family members that are in UCAT are simply told the truth.”

“What if a student like Kazami died?”

“She is not connected to UCAT or IAI, so it would be said she was in an accident.” Shinjou looked up at Sayama. “Are you mad?”

“Of course not. It is only natural for a corporation to protect itself. And… With a conflict like this, they would never understand if you tried to tell the truth. I am sure each country’s UCAT works with the government and corporations to keep certain information hidden.”

“Yes,” said Shinjou with a nod.

Shinjou then looked toward the one remaining cloth. This was the black cloth located at a distance from the others.

Sayama had a guess who was below that cloth.

“Is that the werewolf from the day before yesterday?”

“Yes,” affirmed Shinjou.

She handed Sayama a piece of cloth she took from her back pocket. It was white canvas. It had something written on it with black paint.

“Placing this by the body on your first visit is the 1st-Gear custom.”

Sayama looked over and saw that a number of the pieces of cloth were placed at the body’s feet while the flowers were placed next to the head.

While Sayama placed the cloth, Shinjou dipped her finger in a glass cup of water placed next to the flowers. She let water drip down onto the cloth covering the chest.

Sayama did the same.

As he let the cold water drip down, his gaze stopped on the arrangement of the flowers.

In addition to the white flowers that had also been placed with the other six, there were two bouquets of yellow chrysanthemums. From the number of fallen flower petals, Sayama deduced that one bouquet had been brought the day before and the other today.

The water in the cup was cold and it contained no sediment or bubbles.

…''So someone is properly watching over him.

Suddenly, his eyes moved to the stems of the chrysanthemum offerings. Each flower had a straight horizontal scrape fairly high up the stem.

Sayama sighed when he saw the slight watery green color in the scrapes.

“What is it, Sayama-kun?”

“Oh, it just seems I cannot help but be surrounded by softhearted people. But if that is who they want to be, I will go along with it.”

“Eh?” asked Shinjou as she tilted her head.

“Do not worry about it,” said Sayama.

He placed a hand on the top of the black cloth.

“Do we have permission for him?”

“Yes, we received it from both the peaceful faction and the ones we captured yesterday. …The Royal Palace Faction was it?”

“I see,” said Sayama with a nod.

They likely wanted to go into the negotiations with no secrets.

He brought his hands together, bowed, and lifted up the cloth.

In his mind, he was picturing the werewolf’s expression at the conclusion of their fight the day before yesterday.

…''What will I think if that expression is still there?

He did not hesitate or show any surprise. He merely pulled the cloth down with that question in mind. However…

“A person?”

Below the cloth was a brown-haired foreign man. He had short, messy hair and an angular face. His eyes were closed, so his expression made it seem he was only sleeping.

Sayama heard Shinjou speak.

“The werewolves of 1st-Gear turn into wolves when they are tense. And they return to normal when that tension leaves. They can’t actually turn into wolves within the concepts of Low-Gear, but a philosopher’s stone making an inferior copy of 1st-Gear’s writing concept was found in his stomach. …Can you see the traces of that fight?”

Sayama looked closer and noticed the man’s lips were split and he had been stabbed in the center of the chest. The area around those wounds was burnt. That had been caused by Sayama’s watch and ballpoint pen.

A line as wide as a business card cut through his left and right sides. That was from Kazami’s sniper shot.

“Apparently, the peaceful faction gave permission to shoot to kill when they heard the situation.”

“He killed himself in the end… He must have known he had no allies left.”

Sayama placed the cloth back over the body.

He bowed and then glanced around the room. In that quiet, dimly lit hall were seven people who had already been lost.

…''And the same could happen to me.

He thought for a moment and a single question came to him. This could happen to him, but if that did not happen…

“This could happen to someone else…”

“Eh?”

As Shinjou let out a questioning voice, she and Sayama exchanged a glance.

Sayama looked into Shinjou’s black eyes and had a sudden thought:

Would Shinjou choose a battlefield on which she could be lost?

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| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume2_Chapter_18|Chapter 18]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 16

2013-08-03T22:19:19Z

Purin:

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

''If I sing well

''Will it reach someone?

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

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

The clock on the wall read 2:00 AM.

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

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

Brunhild breathed a sigh of relief.

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

The small bird was inside.

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

It was not moving.

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

Brunhild suddenly realized she was sitting on the floor.

She could not remember why she had sat down.

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

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

And then…

“Brunhild!”

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

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

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

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

“What are-…?”

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

“Brunhild.”

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

“It’s still alive.”

“Eh…?”

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

“What do you mean?”

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

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

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

“You couldn’t swallow it, could you?”

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

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

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

Brunhild thought on that question.

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

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

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

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

She did not know.

“But at this rate…”

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

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

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

“But this is my only option.”

“Well, first you need to change.”

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

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

“But,” began Brunhild before gritting her teeth.

She ground her teeth together, but nodded.

“I am from 1st-Gear…”

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

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

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

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

She heard silence. Nothing but silence

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

“What am I supposed to do…?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…''What am I doing?

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

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

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

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

He saw only darkness.

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

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

“…”

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

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

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

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

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

…''I was wrong.

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

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

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

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

That was something his grandfather had not taught him.

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

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

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

“…”

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

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

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

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

“…So that is what happened.”

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

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

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

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

Sayama saw a dimly-lit area.

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

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

And then Sayama looked down at himself.

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

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

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

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

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

…''Is that paint?

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

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

…''What?

A single slab of stone was placed in the fireplace.

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

Fire.

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

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

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

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

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

“Siegfried…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I suppose we have to keep it…”

“Yes,” replied a quiet voice.

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

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

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

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

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

“…Where is Nein?”

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

Gutrune looked toward the hallway and Sayama followed her gaze.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Are you referring to me?”

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

Gutrune then stroked Regin’s bald head.

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

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

“…Did you do the same to him?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You need to thank him. Okay, Nein?”

That was the girl’s name.

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

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

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

“Did Baku show you the past?”

“You can tell?”

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

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

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

Sayama watched Siegfried grab the kettle from the potbelly stove.

“I thought Germans were picky about their coffee.”

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

“?”

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

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

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

“It is too faded to see very much…”

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

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

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

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

Siegfried placed a cup on the counter for Sayama.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“…Where is my grandfather?”

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

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

He let out a breath.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“An excellent choice.”

Sayama picked up the paper cup from the counter.

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

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

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

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

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

“Wait…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“A lot happened back then.”

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

Siegfried picked up the photograph on the counter.

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

“Why did it become UCAT after the war?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“?”

Sayama watched his long strides.

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

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

Sayama thought he heard a voice at that time.

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

“Nein.”

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

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

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

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

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

Please.

She had to say that one word.

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

But now that she was here…

“…”

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

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

But her lowered vision showed her the small bird.

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

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

Her footstep was quiet.

However, the response it received was forceful and loud.

The door slid open in front of her eyes.

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

A tall shadow stood in the center of that light.

Siegfried Zonburg. That was the shadow’s name.

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

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

“What is it?”

He then spoke her name.

“Brunhild Schild-kun.”

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

“Ah…”

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

Please. Help this small bird.

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

She spoke. Or rather, she tried to.

“…”

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

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

What was it?

She did not know.

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

Please.

“Help…”

Help this small bird.

“Help…!”

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

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

“Understood. …I will help you.”

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

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

Brunhild raised her still trembling voice in a question.

“Really?”

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

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

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

…''I really have become kind.

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

“Oh?”

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

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

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

“Is this the luggage for the shared spaces?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…''Is that important to Shinjou-kun?

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

Sayama gave a small smile.

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

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

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

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

Sayama was not in the picture.

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

“…”

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

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

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

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

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

“Nn…”

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

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

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

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

“Is that really not Sadame-kun?”

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

And he continued to think.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“…Sorry.”

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

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

“I am always wrong…”

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

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

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

…''Am I that vague a person?

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

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

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

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

“Nn…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

He let out a breath and some words.

“What are the conditions for being a villain?”

<noinclude>
===Notes===
<references/>
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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume2_Chapter_15|Chapter 15]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume2_Chapter_17|Chapter 17]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 15

2013-08-01T07:51:16Z

Purin:

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

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

''The most definite things might be the passing voices

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

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

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

The only response came from the blowing wind.

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

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

“The wind is not too-…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

However, that commotion did not approach her any further.

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

“…”

Brunhild sighed after hearing the final chirp of a bird.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

His entire body only glowed palely in the moonlight.

Fafnir Custom turned to face Brunhild.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Brunhild,” said the black cat.

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

“Ah…no…wah!”

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

“Watch out,” she cried.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I-I don’t…”

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

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

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

“Stop that!” scolded Brunhild.

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

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

“Venerable Hagen…”

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

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

“Fafner just wants to use you.”

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

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

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

“What do they want to do?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“The bird…?”

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

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

“I…gave up that name long ago.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“It is time we left.”

Only then was she finally able to smile.

But it only lasted an instant.

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

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

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

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

“My apologies.”

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

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

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

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

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

“I will be going.”

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

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

It flew in a slight arc up into the sky.

“…!”

Brunhild looked down as the wind pressed down from above.

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

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

“…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They belonged to people.

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

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

[[Image:OnC_v02_0061.png|thumb]]

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

Two girls walked behind him to the left and right.

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

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

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

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

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

“Silent night, Holy night

All’s asleep, one sole light,

Just the faithful and holy pair,

Lovely boy-child with curly hair,

Sleep in heavenly peace

Sleep in heavenly peace.”

Fafnir Custom knew that song.

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

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

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

They were birds.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finally, it faded away and silence fell.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As they were introduced, Mikoku nodded and Shino bowed.

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

His smile suddenly disappeared.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I see…”

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

He targeted Mikoku, the girl on the right.

“…!!”

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

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

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

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

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

She struck the ground.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

The second…

“Why…is the girl I killed there?”

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

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

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

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

Fafnir Custom saw her look toward him just once.

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

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

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

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

Hajji cast his eyes down and shook his head.

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

“What…!?”

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

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

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

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

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

“Negotiations about what?”

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

“What is truly true?”

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

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

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

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

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

Hajji replied to that reverberating question with a smile.

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

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

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

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

Fafnir Custom heard that answer.

The three figures had disappeared from his vision.

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

Fafnir Custom quietly muttered to himself in that wind.

“So Gram will be transported tomorrow…”

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume2_Chapter_14|Chapter 14]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume2_Chapter_16|Chapter 16]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume2 Chapter 14

2013-08-01T03:20:22Z

Purin:

==Chapter 14: Proof of Determination==
[[Image:OnC_v02_0011.png|thumb]]
''Wondering what you are being shown

''Might very well be

''The same as wanting to see something

Brunhild began to glide after approximately half an hour of flying at full speed.

She watched the scenery shooting by at high speed. The area down below had been dark for a bit, but it had once more grown bright.

She could see the lights of a city below and a bay gouged out a section to the southwest.

“Kobe, Osaka, and Sakai.”

Brunhild muttered the names of the cities visible below and used her right fingertips to lightly tap the blue philosopher’s stone used to pilot the broom. As her speed decreased, she checked to make sure a single vertical stability wing had emerged from the bottom of the broom. Being in the windbreak area she lifted her body up.

Her toes were still on the brush, so her position was similar to being seated seiza-style. The light coming from the brush had returned to being bluish-white, so Brunhild lightly tapped the stone to bring the light outside of the visible spectrum.

“Doing this at low speed has terrible fuel efficiency.”

She sighed, wiped frost from the end of her three-cornered hat, and looked back down.

The light below her was dwindling once more. The darkness of a mountainous area was filling the area below.

As she stared down at the earth, she spoke to the cat clinging to the tip of the handle.

“Hey, there’s the forest.”

She waited for five seconds, but received no response. She tilted her head and looked forward.

The cat was clinging to the broom handle with its entire body. And that was all it was doing.

For some reason, the cat’s body was glittering slightly in the moonlight.

“?”

Brunhild looked closer to find the cat’s entire body was covered by frost. That frost was reflecting the moonlight.

“How pretty,” she muttered just before the cat came loose from the handle.

It lost its balance and fell down. After watching for a moment, Brunhild let out an “ah” and stretched out an arm. She grabbed the cat’s tail and pulled it back up.

She held the black cat in front of her face. Its eyes were opened wide and staring straight forward and both ends of its mouth were frozen in place while raised up as far as they would go. Brunhild frowned and shook the cat up and down.

“What are you doing? That’s dangerous.”

Finally, the cat gave a start.

“Wah!” it shouted and shook its legs. “I-I-I-I’m gonna die! You’re killing me!”

“What’s the matter? You make this sound so dangerous. Did you have a bad dream again?”

“Y-y-y-y-yes yes yes! I had a dream I was thrown into the air and frozen! …That was a dream, right?”

“Of course it was. But how very odd. You fell asleep with history’s most amused expression.” Brunhild held the cat in one arm. “Well, even if you had a scary dream, don’t worry. I am here.”

“Can I really trust you?”

“Did you say something?”

“No, nothing,” came the response within her arm.

At that point, the land down below became fully covered in darkness.

Brunhild tilted the broom slightly down and to the right. She turned toward the depths of the mountain.

Slowly but surely, their altitude lowered. But with the dark mountains below and the night sky above, it was hard to tell they were descending. Brunhild checked the nightscape of Osaka behind her to check the horizon.

She descended.

The darkness below gradually gained visual features. The bare mountain surface and shapes of trees grew visible in the moonlight.

“Almost there,” she muttered while focusing on the forest floating up in the moonlight.

Brunhild could see a line of rectangular manmade objects. They were buildings.

This line of unlit buildings in the mountain forest created a village.

The black cat held at her chest spoke.

“There’s never anyone there. It really is a ghost town.”

“…Having ruined areas in your Gear is the height of luxury.”

“The people who lived in this village and the people who live in that giant city over there know nothing about the destruction of our Gear. If they knew, they might show some regret.”

The abandoned village flowed slowly by below them.

As she watched it, Brunhild said, “But why didn’t UCAT tell anyone about the Concept War?”

“They probably wanted to play the role of heroes. They wanted to secretly finish things without bringing confusion to their world… That was the complete opposite of 1st-Gear’s king. The king did everything he could to protect 1st-Gear. He deployed the mechanical dragons for defense and split the Concept Core in two.”

“And Siegfried took advantage of that. The royal palace was destroyed and the chain of command fell apart. Doctor Regin joined with mechanical dragon Fafnir and tried to protect the half of 1st-Gear’s concepts that were held inside, but Siegfried stole the holy sword Gram Doctor Regin had created and…” She took a breath. “If Doctor Regin’s Fafnir had been Venerable Hagen’s Fafnir Custom, it might have turned out differently.”

“How? What’s different about the modified version?”

“Oh, wait a second. I can see the headquarters.”

Two large buildings were visible a short distance from the abandoned village. It was a school. The two buildings were the school building and a gym. Brunhild descended toward the gym.

“The modified version is a mechanical dragon strengthened for defense. It has two reactors: one for movement and one for its weaponry. The old Fafnir that Venerable Regin joined with had only one reactor, so it had to die when the holy sword Gram was used to destroy the reactor where half of the Concept Core was stored in.”

“On the other hand, Venerable Hagen’s Fafnir Custom is…?”

“It has the remaining half of the Concept Core sealed in the weaponry reactor. That power is the grudge of 1st-Gear itself. Even if it is lost, either the remaining movement reactor will be used to crush the enemy or it will be annihilated.”

Brunhild felt the cat tremble.

“Are you afraid? Do not worry. Venerable Hagen will not be defeated.”

“Um, no. That isn’t it. Being cooled down like this makes me need to use the bathroo-…Wait, stop hanging me down like this! Ahh, wetting myself is so humiliating!”

Kazami and Izumo were performing treasury work in the Kinugasa Library at night.

“This may be spring break, but we’ve been doing a lot of work since taking over from last term. …Oh, Kaku. You don’t have to be so focused on pasting those receipts that you end up looking like a robot. You actually have a serious look in your eyes.”

“Oh, how should I put it? I’ve gotten hooked on the smell of glue. …I guess you could say it’s a habit?”

Kazami ignored him. She diligently divided the account book in her hands between debit and credit.

But she suddenly looked up. Izumo noticed from where he sat next to her.

“What is it? Is something odd about-… gah!! Y-you idiot! I didn’t even say anything yet!”

Kazami ignored Izumo’s protests and pulled back the hand she had sent to the left in a slap. Siegfried looked over from the counter, but she waved back to say it was nothing. She then stood up.

“…A sound? How odd,” she muttered before walking over to the western edge of the Kinugasa Library.

A supply room was located there. She passed through the narrow entrance into a small space where piles of books and large rolled up maps were kept.

“What is it?” called Siegfried across the four classrooms’ length distance between the counter and the supply room. Kazami turned back and looked across the entire length of the Kinugasa Library. She spoke loud enough to reach from the entrance of the supply room.

“Have you heard a bird chirping for a while now?”

“The wall over there must resonate because you can hear noises from the upper floors. The art room on the third floor and the music room on the second floor come in separately.”

“But why a bird? Am I hearing it wrong?”

Just as she asked, Kazami looked up in realization. She had heard it once more.

“Hm. I believe Brunhild Schild, the head of the art club, is raising one. She is the only one using the art room during spring break.”

“You know a lot about this,” commented Izumo.

Siegfried nodded once and replied, “She seems to dislike me.”

He spoke so naturally that Kazami could not think of anything to say in response.

She walked back toward the table. As Izumo listened to her footsteps, he asked a question to smooth things over.

“Come to think of it.” He chose his words cautiously. “How powerful is 1st-Gear really? The remaining remnant is the City faction, right? How much power do they have?”

He turned his question toward Siegfried.

The man looked over from behind the counter.

“We had a conflict today, remember?”

“Yeah. How powerful are they compared to that?”

“Today’s battle was mere child’s play. 1st-Gear’s true power is not magic created from words. It is pure violence supported by words.”

Brunhild descended toward a schoolyard that had puddles remaining.

Dry leaves were scattered across the schoolyard and neither the school building nor the gym had any glass left.

It was an abandoned school.

Brunhild lowered in front of the gym while spreading wind around her. At five meters from the ground, she began the landing preparations.

In her right hand, she held a blue stone and the broom handle. She slowly loosened the grip of her right hand while moving the brush portion down. She gradually stood the broom up vertically.

Once the wind blowing from the brush swept across the ground directly below, the black cat jumped down as if peeling itself from the handle. Next, Brunhild placed her feet on the ground and completely stopped the broom’s output.

She let out a breath.

She removed the blue stone wrapped around the broom with a chain, tapped the handle, and muttered, “Excellent work.”

Afterwards, they both stretched their stiff bodies at about the same moment.

“Ahh… Standing on the ground is definitely best.”

“I just heard the most selfish comment in the world…”

“I’m in a good mood, so I will ignore that,” said Brunhild with a smile before walking toward the gym.

The door to the gym was tilted out of place. The inside could be glimpsed through it. The floor had rotted, the boarding had been torn up, and large holes existed here and there. Of the basketball goals prepared for the two courts, one was hanging down at an angle and two had fallen to the floor.

Brunhild walked inside this abandoned gym through the main entrance.

Once she did, faint light gathered around the blue stone at the center of the pendant around her neck.

She heard a voice. This was the Concept Text created from the Concept Core within the mechanical dragon. It supported the worldview of 1st-Gear.

—'''Words have the ability to provide power.

At the same moment, the words carved into the pendant were given light.

The cat at her feet was also surrounded by blue light for an instant.

And then the world changed.

When Brunhild looked forward once more, she saw a fortress.

The floor and stage within the gym had been removed and replaced with a wooden-floored hangar. Several shelves were lined up and filled with combat brooms, rifles, spears, and other weapons. The shelves also contained organized arrangements of backpacks and other equipment for heading out.

The center of the hangar contained a large wooden lift leading underground. Next to it was a single hole containing a slope leading underground as well.

Brunhild walked toward the downward slope and greeted the giant soldiers patrolling around the hangar.

“I have not been by in a while, but are things okay here? You haven’t been found, have you?”

“Everything is fine,” replied an old giant as he gave a light wave and turned around.

Brunhild waved back and continued toward the slope. A glance at the lift next to the slope showed that the surface had the word for steel carved into its surface.

However, that word had large scratches running through it.

Giant claws had left those scratches. Brunhild looked down at the black cat.

“Venerable Hagen loves the moonlight, so he comes out whenever he can,” she said with a sigh.

She then continued down the slope while looking at those scratches.

The inside of the slope was lit by the word for light written on the ceiling. The word for nonslip covered the floor, so she had no problem keeping her footing.

She reached a landing partway and continued down.

The slope came to an end at the door that had originally been used as the school building’s main entrance. The large door had a large piece of glass inside and “sturdy” was written on the surface. This prevented the inside from being seen despite the glass being transparent.

Brunhild pushed on the door.

A large space had been created underground. The area was fifty meters square and it was shielded by square lumber and wooden flooring. The ceiling which emitted pale crimson light was seven or eight meters high. The bulkhead door in the center of the ceiling was opened to raise the lift on the floor.

Currently, a number of figures were gathered in front of the lift platform.

It was a gathering of people and other beings.

The figures were split down the middle with approximately fifty on either side. A few were standing, a few were facing each other, and they were exchanging words. The words held enough force to call them shouts.

The left side contained mostly youths with excellent physiques while the right contained mostly older people with slender bodies.

The voices reverberating through the underground area reached Brunhild as mere noise.

The black cat at her feet asked, “The representatives of the radicals and the conservatives are at it again.”

“How depressing. If I worked here, I would probably be shouting over there with you at my side.”

“I’m just a cat you took in after leaving here. If you were here, I would not be with you.”

“I suppose so,” said Brunhild as she glanced to the side of the entrance.

A shelf was located there with a few personal brooms on it. Brunhild frowned as she looked at the brooms lined up there.

“Kids these days forget all about tradition and go straight for the strange nose art. And what is this six-tone horn?”

“Our broom has a floral pattern cover, you know?”

“Don’t call it a cover. It’s a vector nozzle.”

Brunhild then placed her broom next to the others.

Behind her, an especially loud voice came from the gathered people. The black cat turned its ear toward the voice.

“That’s Fafner.”

“He certainly has energy. He was about to die when he arrived here after leaving the peaceful faction, though.”

“Well, the concept environment of Low-Gear is not suited for his race at all.”

“What a pain,” said Brunhild as she turned around.

A strange figure could be seen on the left side of the gathering. That figure was almost two meters tall and was covered in a black shell. He had a sharply angled face, three horns, and long blond hair. Instead of clothes put on over the head like Brunhild’s, he wore an open-backed jacket and shirt that were affixed to the shoulders. The reason for this was…

“The wings on his back are raised… Is he trying to intimidate them?”

The silhouettes that looked like arms covered in a shell were two wings. They were both black and stretched toward the ceiling in a V-shape.

As Brunhild watched on, Fafner glanced across his opponents and shouted.

“What is it that we need!?”

Fafner spread his shell-covered arms as he spoke. He swung his long lower arms.

“What we need is to take back the world of 1st-Gear that we lost! We must take back Gram from UCAT and make the Concept Core ours. By releasing it and having it oppose the negative concepts of Low-Gear, we can turn this world into 1st-Gear!”

In response, a single youth stood up on the opposite side. He swung up a hand.

“No! What we need are rights here in Low-Gear. After retrieving Gram from UCAT, we must use it to merge with the peaceful faction! Afterwards, we can manage the release of 1st-Gear’s concepts and use that to our advantage in negotiations!” The youth continued. “Fafner, we have not gathered here to fight. Our ultimate objective is the acquisition of Gram and a social position more than equal to Low-Gear’s. We do not wish for anything more than that, and even if we must fight to gain that, we do not wish to head down that path before it is necessary. Your ideas are nothing more than a reverse invasion!”

As the youth’s words reverberated throughout the underground space, the figures sitting next to him all nodded slightly.

As Fafner watched those many movements of agreement, he tilted his head in confusion.

“A reverse invasion? No. Call it recovering lost territory. The land protected by our ancestors was destroyed. Isn’t it only natural to fight for land to take in its place?”

[[Image:OnC_v02_0025.png|thumb]]

“Low-Gear will never allow that! If they allowed us to recover our lost territory, they would be forced to accept the identical demands of the other Gears. Do you really think Low-Gear will allow that to happen?”

“That’s why we fight. Do you really not get it?” asked Fafner.

He lightly bent both arms as if scooping up those seated next to him and clenched the large fingers at the end of those arms.

The crimson light pouring down from the ceiling cast the motions of his fingers on the floor in the form of shadows.

“Listen. Low-Gear is acting as if the Concept War never happened. They have sealed off all information on it and any actions taken in retribution or attempts to release the information are suppressed by UCAT, the militaries of various countries, or those countries’ governments. …Let me ask you one question: where exactly are we in this Gear?” He pointed toward his feet. “We are currently in the shadows of this Gear. It was the same in the UCAT reservation. We are shoved into small pieces of land. The sky is closed in low over our heads and we cannot interact with the outside world.”

“Is that not why we are attempting to win this battle and gain the right to freedom in this Gear?”

“…Freedom? If this world is not filled with the same concepts as 1st-Gear, I and some of the other races cannot even breathe properly. Our cardiopulmonary abilities are not supported by this Gear’s concepts. When you speak of freedom, are you including true freedom for all of us?”

“Well…”

“You don’t understand. Your race is similar to the humans here in Low-Gear. Your body can function under the concepts of this Gear and you can mix into their society. As long as you are able to touch water for half the day. …Tree spirit, you can never understand our pain. Or the pain of always fighting on the front lines.”

Fafner ignored how his opponent clenched his back teeth.

He instead looked over at the entrance to the large hall. A figure was circling around them, heading further in.

It was a girl in black clothing followed by a black cat. Fafner called out to her.

“Are you heading further in? Lord Hagen is asleep.”

“I am sure your voice woke him up.”

“Hah! I hope it did! Anyway, how are things going on your end, Nein?”

The name he gave caused the girl to stop.

This was no natural action. She stopped as if stabbing her foot into the ground.

Fafner folded his arms when he heard that footstep ring out. The girl glanced over at him.

“…Only Venerable Hagen may call me by that name. Are you attempting to infringe on his authority?”

“My apologies, Brunhild. I thought you were fighting to regain that name you lost,” said Fafner with a hint of amusement in his voice. “Weren’t you supposed to monitor Siegfried and assassinate him if you had an opening? It has been three years of nothing but periodic reports. I sincerely hope you are not simply talking your way out of this. After all, when you were young, you and Siegfried-…”

Fafner stopped speaking because of a loud shout from the ground at the girl’s feet.

“Stop!”

The shout had come from the black cat following her. It brought its claws out on the floor and rose up offensively.

“We are doing our job, Fafner! And what about this discussion of yours today? You are having a meeting concerning the Royal Palace faction’s battle we saw, aren’t you? All you do is discuss things! We are actually working!” The cat then smiled slightly while still in its offensive pose. “If you want to cheer her on, how about doing so in a more straightforward fashion?”

“Lately, cheering people on is making me depressed. I apologize for being so roundabout,” replied Fafner while still smiling. He then turned toward the girl. “Get going, long-lived girl. I need to speak with him afterwards, too.”

He then faced forward once more.

He looked across his opponents’ faces one by one.

“Do you get it now? Not everyone here can live under this Gear’s concepts like you can. Gaining our freedom and turning this world into 1st-Gear are one and the same.” Fafner clapped his hands together. “Unless we transform this Gear into 1st-Gear, we cannot exist here! We may be able to gain certain rights without doing that, but are those true rights at all!? What meaning is there in being treated favorably if you are stuck in some cramped space?”

The youth opposite him clenched his back teeth.

Just as he began to back down, someone supported him from behind. It was the old man sitting next to him.

The gray-haired man placed a hand on the youth’s shoulder and had him sit down. The old man then faced Fafner.

And he asked, “Fafner, that was an excellent speech. But you are forgetting one thing.”

“And what is that?”

The old man pointed toward Fafner and nodded.

“You were not yet born when 1st-Gear was destroyed. It was not your world that was destroyed. It was our world. You-…”

“But I am a half-dragon of 1st-Gear,” cut in Fafner before the old man could finish. “Listen. I believe that I am of 1st-Gear. And that is where it all begins.” Fafner sank down slightly so as to stare the old man in the eye. “I know nothing. I do not know my countless ancestors. I do not know the kingdom or its king. I do not know that limited land. I do not know a moonless night. I do not know a sky in which I can fly. I do not know the day of destruction on which we lost. And I do not know what it is I should protect. And that is why I do not know what pride is!” He took a breath. “But you elders know. You know what pride is. That is why you can rely on your pride when forced into these cramped areas. But we have nothing. And yet we are still of 1st-Gear. We wish to be. …Then what are we to do? How are we supposed to gain that pride!?”

The old man frowned as Fafner watched him, but he fell silent.

Viewing that silence as a type of response, Fafner rose up once more.

He let his voice resound throughout the entire area instead of just those gathered in the center.

“What I want is proof that 1st-Gear is still with us! If you have a method that does not require turning this world into 1st-Gear, then let me hear it!”

A single voice rang out within the Kinugasa Library. It was Siegfried’s voice.

“1st-Gear had trouble heading into other Gears. The differences between its own races are so great that many of them cannot live while not under the concepts of 1st-Gear.”

He stood next to the table with a cup in hand while Kazami looked up at him from her seat.

“How did they survive in 1st-Gear?”

“With the power of writing. No in depth investigation has been done, but it is thought their genetic arrays also carry the function of writing. The same goes for their world. The air and sky contained spirits that carried out the meaning of the writing.”

“So the concepts and the residents fit each other perfectly,” said Izumo from next to Kazami. “Those who had grown fond of that Gear would have a difficult time of going to other Gears.”

“Yes. 1st-Gear was never a powerful Gear. But they strengthened their races and repeatedly fought the other Gears until they finally succeeded in constructing the mechanical dragons that were the masters of land battles. At the very end of their research, they constructed two Fafnirs as their flag-dragons. But the 1st-Gear mechanical dragons had a certain defect.”

“A defect?”

“When the pilot joined with them, they produced a powerful rejection reaction that would kill most of the pilots. And even if the pilot survived that, they could never again return to their original form. They would be a mechanical dragon for the rest of their lives.”

“And one of those survivors still exists, right? A major one called Fafnir Custom.”

“Yes. Of the two Fafnirs, I killed the one being serviced within the royal palace. However, the one being modified in the weapons laboratory escaped the destruction of 1st-Gear.”

“Why would they create those? The representatives of 1st-Gear must have really loved war.”

Siegfried shook his head.

“They hated war. 1st-Gear’s king lost his queen in the Concept War. That was why he created the mechanical dragons for defense. He did not want anyone to enter 1st-Gear until the time of destruction. He also split the extracted Concept Core in two, used the concepts that controlled the construction of the world to seal the world, and settled into a defensive role.”

“Isn’t that…the same as abandoning the Concept War?”

“Yes, it is. And that is why…”

Siegfried suddenly trailed off. He brought his cup to his mouth and said something else.

“Depending on Sayama’s actions, you will likely learn the rest before long.”

A large bulkhead existed at the back of the large hall underneath the 1st-Gear base.

Brunhild walked toward the side entrance next to that bulkhead.

She could hear Fafner’s voice behind her, but it disappeared once the door closed behind her.

In exchange, the area grew dark. The black cat at her feet dissolved into the darkness.

“It is cold in here,” she said with a nod before looking up.

The ceiling was high and a single light existed in the middle. That crimson light was coming from a small hanging bell with the word for “torch” engraved into it.

As her eyes adjusted to that light, Brunhild looked down.

She was in a large hall just like the one next to it.

“But this is not public space. It is a private room…”

As she lowered her gaze, a giant mountain-like silhouette existed before Brunhild’s eyes.

But this was no mountain. It was a collection of structures with several surfaces and it all formed seven mountains colored white. The head, the body, the four limbs, and the tail made seven.

A steel dragon lay before her.

This mechanical dragon was over thirty meters long and was currently lying down. Its basic coloration was white and dark green, but the moving parts were covered in black. And most of the weaponry had been removed.

Each of the hard points had black dummy weapons attached. Other than the heat sinks that looked like folded up wings and the standard blades on the back and four limbs, no offensive ability could be seen on the surface. Most of its standard weaponry was kept inside, but all of the closable slits on the armor plates were covered in the yellow labels meaning maintenance was complete.

“…”

As Brunhild silently watched the dragon, a voice suddenly called out to her from above.

“What is it, Brunhild?”

She looked up in surprise and found a figure on the dragon’s back.

It was a tall old man. He had long, wavy gray hair and a beard to match. He was of course wearing a dark green cloak.

He glowed slightly in the dim darkness and he was transparent.

Brunhild bowed as she looked up at him.

“I, Brunhild, have returned, Venerable Hagen. Were you asleep?”

“No, I was awake. …Well done making it back.”

The old man’s eyes narrowed in a smile and his mouth moved, but the voice came from elsewhere. The voice came from a ventilation opening-like black slit on the dragon’s back that lay before her eyes.

When Brunhild moved once more, small noises came from across the mechanical dragon’s body. This sound reminiscent of light being slightly reflected came from the auxiliary vision devices covered in a protective material. It was the sound of the dragon’s gaze following her.

But Brunhild paid none of that any heed as she looked toward the old man. The old man spoke to her as if he really was nothing but an old man.

“How has it gone?”

“My familiar will provide the details. …What will the Royal Palace faction do?”

“It seems they will surrender three days from now. A messenger told us their actions are over after that final attack.”

“I see,” said Brunhild with a nod.

The black cat at her feet sighed and said, “So that’s what has Fafner and the others so worked up. Put a stop to it, Venerable Hagen.”

“Hey, what are you saying?”

Brunhild grabbed and strangled the cat while the old man, Hagen, smiled bitterly.

“I cannot do that, my small comrade.”

“Really? Because they’re comrades?”

“No. If I did it, they would die even if I held back. We can’t have that.”

The cat looked up at Brunhild.

“Am I supposed to laugh at that or ignore it?”

“You are supposed to avoid asking that sort of question,” said Hagen with another bitter smile. He then frowned worriedly. “Brunhild, I can get the detailed report form that cat later. Is there any other information you need to give me?”

“Yes. UCAT has sent a special unit for the Leviathan Road into combat while still putting it together. Also, Fasolt who is working with UCAT as part of the peaceful faction will apparently be meeting tomorrow with the person in charge of the Leviathan Road.”

“They certainly are rushing this. So Fasolt has completely turned toward Low-Gear’s side…”

“I understand why Fafner is feeling so desperate. He is Fasolt’s son after all.”

“A warrior who calls his father a loser… He is arguing right now, isn’t he? How is he? Young?”

“…I would say inexperienced rather than young. He seems to be using childish arguments and claiming they represent justice.”

Hagen’s bitter smile deepened at Brunhild’s words.

“He cannot help but give childish arguments. This is a child attempting to persuade the adults who need a reason for doing anything. But…once adults grow accustomed to acting based on arbitrary reasons, they will finally lose once the children begin seriously insisting on childish justice. They do not lose to the children’s argument, but to something much more dangerous.”

“Something…much more dangerous?”

“Yes, something very dangerous. Something we once had, something we will never have again, and something we once used to push aside the adults.” He rested his chin on his hand and looked up. “Fasolt’s son was given an honest upbringing.”

“It seems Fasolt has gone through a lot of hardship in that UCAT reservation.”

“Yes,” said Hagen while still looking up. “Fasolt has actually done quite well in that UCAT reservation. He has accepted relying on UCAT to control the concepts while seeking for safety in that tiny reservation. Everyone complains that he has done nothing more than that, but the peaceful faction has their lives in UCAT’s hands while on that reservation.”

“If the concept space is removed, most of them would not last half a month.”

“Fasolt and the others there are only able to live the way they are because of the negotiations they carried out using the possessions and knowledge they escaped with…and because of UCAT’s kindness, I suppose.”

“You must not say that to the others.”

Brunhild frowned and looked up at Hagen.

As the old man rested his chin on his hand, a slight smile was visible on his lips. That smile slowly widened.

“I know that. After all, I was the one that led everyone here and used the Concept Core we had to create this concept space. …As a former guide and current protector, I am needed as everyone’s leader. As troublesome as that can be.” He turned toward Brunhild. “How about we trade? You can take my Fafnir Custom and I can take your Requiem Sense. I would be a lot happier chatting about old times with the residents of the underworld.”

“That is impossible. After joining with the mechanical dragon, you cannot separate from it, right? And the concept creating the underworld is too weak here in Low-Gear. Even if you opened it with Sense, the residents could only come out for short periods of time.”

“True. …If we could speak with them properly, it might help lessen everyone’s enmity.”

Hagen raised his head and looked at the bulkhead separating this hall from the next.

“If we had not feared the destruction of the world, we might have been able to save many more.”

He lowered his gaze. Small sounds came from across Fafnir as darkening filters were added to the vision devices.

“It is a shame about that bird as well.”

“That was his fault. He abandoned it.”

“He may have been the one to abandon it, but we were the ones that did not save it.”

Hagen opened his eyes as he spoke. And then he suddenly uttered a single name into the darkness.

“Fafner.”

The vision devices moved and Hagen’s face turned toward the area behind Brunhild.

She turned around and saw a black shelled figure in the darkness. Brunhild and the black cat frantically took a step back and took a defensive stance.

“…How long have you been here!?”

“I only just came in. Don’t act so defensive. My element is darkness. I am a darkness-travelling half-dragon. I can move anywhere I wish as long as it is filled with darkness.”

Fafner changed from being a presence in the darkness to having an actual physical body.

Without turning toward Brunhild, he bowed toward Hagen.

“What will we do?” he asked.

Hagen sat up and pointed toward the bulkhead with his chin.

“You were holding a discussion on the other side, weren’t you?”

“Our view won out, so we concluded by deciding to have you make the decision, Lord Hagen.”

“I see you are speaking formally again,” muttered Hagen as he scratched his head. “Hmm. How about I make my decision after seeing what Fasolt does tomorrow? Brunhild, you said he is carrying out preliminary negotiations with UCAT tomorrow, didn’t you?”

“Yes. This information came from the peaceful faction, so there is no doubt about it.”

Brunhild nodded and looked toward Fafner.

Fafner looked at her, let his shoulders droop, and sighed.

“Um, Lord Hagen, this may not be my place to speak, but…”

“Oh, you’re back to your normal self. Speak freely.”

Fafner skillfully crossed his long lower arms and rested his chin on his hand.

“Why do you put off making decisions? We gathered around you and were led this far by you.”

“I would prefer if you did not speak as if I have no independence.”

“This is your duty as the one in charge.”

“I suppose you are right… Sorry.”

When the black cat heard that, it tapped at Brunhild’s leg.

“…Which of these two holds the higher position?”

“I do,” replied Brunhild and both Fafner and Hagen turned toward her. She nodded and said, “Please continue with your constructive discussion.”

Fafner sighed, lowered his chin from his hand and brought that hand to his head.

He tapped at the shell of his head with a claw before speaking once more.

“Lord Hagen, your younger brother, Venerable Regin, and your niece, Lady Gutrune, were killed by Siegfried and you were unable to protect the king. Where is your grudge over that?”

“That is actually a very good question. I know it is inside me somewhere, but I have lost track of where exactly it is. Fafner, I am sure you hope that it is within my weaponry reactor. And…” Hagen gave a small nod. “It was not only my family that was lost. I have decided not to act based on personal feelings. I will act when everyone agrees or when the perfect opportunity arrives. Currently, that opportunity has not come. Do not rush this, Fafner. Rushing this will lead to losing something.”

Hagen did not stop speaking there. He continued with a question.

“And what is it you are fighting for, Fafner?”

Fafner raised his head. He met Hagen’s gaze and slowly began speaking.

“To regain…that which we once had.”

“I see,” replied Hagen. He did not look away from Fafner’s gaze as he continued. “Then make sure you remember those words. …Never forget them.”

Sayama and Shinjou walked through the school grounds at night.

Both the front and back doors to the second year general school building had been locked, so they could not enter.

With Baku on his shoulder, Sayama tried to turn the knob several times.

“No good… If only I had the same skills as Kouji.”

“Is Kouji the person who picked you up yesterday?”

Sayama began to nod in response, but he stopped. He looked to the person standing next to him.

“I only mentioned him offhand just now…but why do you know about Kouji, Shinjou-kun?”

After a moment, Shinjou began shaking his hands back and forth.

“Oh, um, my sister told me someone amazing came to pick you up.” Shinjou stopped moving his hands and stared at Sayama’s face. “What’s that look for? Don’t tell me you suspect I’m my sister.”

“No. I settled those suspicions when I checked over your body earlier. You may look oddly like her, but you are male.”

“Would you have preferred if it was my sister who had come?”

“She did not, so there is no point in discussing it. …At any rate, there is no point in being here if I cannot show you around the inside. I heard an odd noise on the roof earlier, so I thought someone might be inside. We can return to the dorm for tonight.”

Shinjou’s shoulders drooped when he heard that last sentence.

“I wanted to walk around some more.”

“But you have not opened even five of your boxes.”

Shinjou groaned and folded his arms at that.

Sayama then said, “I will be leaving tomorrow for some business I need to take care of, but we can go buy some daily items for you once I return. I can show you some nearby stores…but if you wait until tomorrow to deal with your luggage, you will not know what you need, will you?”

“I suppose not. But I’m surprised, Sayama-kun. You can actually make proper arguments.”

“…I get the feeling I need to sit down and straighten you out about a few things.”

“Heh heh. Anyway, I am not used to this area, so you have a lot to teach me: the roads, the stores, and the people. I heard the bath here can’t be used during spring break.”

“Yes. Only the dorm showers are usable at this time. If you are not in a hurry, there is a 24-hour public bath just outside the school’s main gate.”

“Okay,” nodded Shinjou.

He then cast his gaze down, smiled slightly, and walked alongside Sayama.

The two walked side by side.

The moonlight cast their shadows on the ground. Suddenly, Shinjou pointed toward the schoolyard next to the school building.

“Sayama-kun. What is that tower-like thing on the other side of the schoolyard?”

“Oh, that is the climbing bungee jump the exploration club created for last year’s school festival. Several lifelines hang down from above, so you tied them to your feet, scaled the 20 meter wall with your own strength, and then jumped down from above.”

“That really is showy…”

“Yes. Unsurprisingly, it had problems with the people dropping from above crashing into the people climbing from below. Ha ha ha.”

“That is no laughing matter!”

“Do not worry about it. Humans are surprisingly sturdy.”

“Really?” sighed Shinjou. He then pointed toward a wall-like piece of art next to the cafeteria building. “What’s that?”

“Oh, that was created to commemorate a graduating class a long time ago. They made clay versions of their handprints and baked them into a board. It is one of the famous locations in the school.”

“Oh? So it’s a famous location.”

“Yes. It was meant as a commemorative decoration, but it turned into some kind of horrifying piece of art because there were a thousand students involved. They tried to remove it, but the digger was knocked over and ended up with handprints all over it. Ha ha ha.”

“Stop explaining this kind of thing so happily.”

“There is more. The giant hand visible on the other side is-…Ah, wait. Stop pulling on me.”

Shinjou grabbed Sayama’s sleeve and pulled him toward the dorm.

For an instant, Sayama glanced back toward the second year general school building.

He saw the landing of the emergency staircase on the side of the building. He had seen it that morning as well.

For some reason, he had the feeling his situation changed every time he looked at it. He grinned bitterly.

Shinjou must have noticed where he was looking because he spoke up.

“What is it?”

“With your arrival and plenty of other things, I was thinking that my daily life keeps changing.”

''Just how much will it change?'' Sayama asked himself.

And then a dark feeling resembling unease arrived.

…''Am I even able to change?

Just as he muttered that thought in his heart, Shinjou tilted his head, looked up at him, and spoke.

“Were you wondering how much it will change?”

Sayama turned back toward Shinjou upon hearing that question.

“…”

Under the moonlight, Shinjou’s face was close enough that Sayama could have reached out and touched it.

Shinjou’s black hair swayed in the bluish-white moonlight. His black eyes looked straight up at Sayama.

Sayama recognized the movement of that swaying hair and the color of those eyes.

''That is Shinjou Sadame’s hair and eyes,'' thought Sayama. ''But that is an illusion.

He felt it was rude to Setsu, but his heart was wrapped in other feelings. He felt it weighed that much on his mind because he had accepted her.

…''She is the opposite of me.

He and Shinjou. Ordinary and extraordinary. Normally conflicting ideas were overlapping.

When those thoughts came to mind, his mouth moved involuntarily and he spoke quietly.

He first gave an answer to Shinjou’s question.

“I was…wondering.”

Shinjou’s eyes narrowed slightly. Sayama was unsure if it was due to a smile or not.

But Sayama nodded toward Shinjou and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

“But…I was not wondering how much it will change. I was wondering if I would be able to choose change myself.”

“You are a very serious person, Sayama-kun.”

“No, I am not.”

As soon as he said that about himself, his smile became one of self-derision. And…

A single motion seemed to arrive in response to Sayama’s words.

It was the wind.

It came from the west but not as a noise or a sound. It suddenly came as an overpowering pressure.

“…!”

This tremendous wind seemed to slam into them.

It was powerful enough to strip away all other sound.

As it washed over Shinjou, he held his hair down and ducked down. And as soon as Sayama saw that…

He took action. As Shinjou grimaced at the wind, Sayama pulled Shinjou in and held him in his arms.

“Ah,” was all Shinjou could say as his slender shoulders were contained within Sayama’s arms.

At the same moment, the wind struck Sayama’s shoulders like a physical mass.

Baku was almost shaken off, but he frantically clung to Sayama’s shoulder.

Amid this tremendous wind, Sayama saw a collection of smoke fly up from the second year general school building’s rooftop.

“!?”

He narrowed his eyes and looked up through the wind. The white smoke spread out like fog and quickly disappeared into the sky.

…''What was that?

Sayama’s suspicion was deepened by a further question from Shinjou.

“…Sand? No, it can’t be. There wouldn’t be sand on the rooftop.”

But Sayama could see nothing else that smoke could be.

The wind lessened and ultimately disappeared.

As if in response to acclimating to the wind, Shinjou’s body stiffened slightly in his arms.

His slender finger poked at Sayama’s chest and his black eyes looked up at Sayama.

“U-um, I’m fine now, so…”

Shinjou’s voice sounded slightly flustered and he began struggling a bit in Sayama’s arms. When Sayama loosened his grip, Shinjou removed himself from those bonds and took a step away.

Sayama heard the sound of Shinjou stepping on the gravel as the remnants of that west wind cut between the two of them.

The sensation of those slender shoulders remained in Sayama’s arms as Shinjou spoke.

“That surprised me. I never expected you to suddenly embrace me.”

“It looked like the wind was hurting you.”

“B-but…I’m a boy.”

Sayama tilted his head at that. He was confused why he would bring that up.

“What connection is there between you being a boy and that you were feeling pain?”

“N-none I suppose…”

“We are roommates. There is nothing wrong with doing this much. If you wish for it and I wish for it, then I will grant that wish of yours. That is all there is to it. That is the etiquette of the Sayama family that I believe in.”

He swung his right hand to stretch out his shirt sleeve and held his right hand out toward Shinjou.

“If you are feeling pain and I wish to protect you, I will protect you. If you do not wish to be alone and I wish to speak with you, I will speak with you. If you have decided you wish to carry your worries alone and I care for you, I will leave you to be on your own. If you do not wish to be here and I wish to do what is best for you, I will hate you.”

And…

“If you wish to grow closer to someone and I see you, I will stand by your side. How does that sound?” asked Sayama. “I will demand nothing of you. I will demand everything of myself. To lay this etiquette at the foundation, I must spread trust. The surname Sayama indicates a villain. Therefore, if you do not oppose me, I will simply grant you this. …And if you do, I will not take it back.”

Shinjou looked down toward Sayama’s outstretched hand. Shinjou lightly raised his right hand to take Sayama’s hand.

“…”

But he stopped.

Sayama looked up and saw a face with drooping eyebrows beyond Shinjou’s stopped hand.

With that uneasy-looking expression, Shinjou tilted his head and asked a question.

“Aren’t you being a bit formal, Sayama-kun?”

“I am giving you my etiquette and trust. Do you think I am someone who could do this without really meaning it?”

Shinjou stared at him for a few seconds.

Shinjou opened his mouth as if about to say something, but stopped. And then…

“No.”

He shook his head and his shoulders relaxed. With the ends of his eyebrows still lowered, he smiled a bitter smile.

Shinjou then reached out his right hand and took Sayama’s hand.

Shinjou’s hand was soft. Sayama held those fingers with care, nodded, and breathed a sigh of relief before speaking.

“Then let me say it formally: It is nice to meet you, Shinjou-kun.”

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| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume2_Chapter_15|Chapter 15]]
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Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Afterword

2013-07-01T02:24:32Z

Purin:

==Afterword==

Sorry, I only just finished proofreading, so I’m a little excited. For those who are here for the first time: welcome. For those military commanders who are saying “First time? More like my second or third time. Mwa ha ha!”: go sit down over there and stick out your head. For everyone else: Nothing has changed here. Welcome back.

When you get down to it, I’ve been writing the City series for the entire six years since I won the Dengeki Game Novel Prize, but now I have my first new series (does that make any sense?).

This time, I suppose you could call it a fairy tale taking place in modern times. Some of the geographic issues and a few of the phenomena are completely fictional, so please be understanding.

Anyway, I have the plot complete up to the very end, so I hope it will live up to your expectations as much as possible. Of course, hoping is easy, so I can hope for anything I want (ha ha).

Please continue reading the coming books as well.

Anyway, 2005 is 60 years after World War Two. I first thought up this story during the 80s and I initially thought of it as the story of two generations: a parent and child. However, this really isn’t the era for that kind of story…

I looked into a lot of things and found out my grandfather on my mother’s side worked building battleships at Nittetsu’s Akashi factory which was almost hit in an air-raid. Whenever you come across stories like that it makes history feel so close by.

At any rate, I had a bit of a chat with a friend while looking into that kind of thing.

“Hey, so what did you think of my new series?”

“Well, let’s see… I thought there was a rule saying your heroines had to be blonde with huge breasts.”

“What kind of rule is that, you Titty Prefecture resident? And is that really your first comment?”

“But it’s always been that way. Just take a look at your criminal record. Out of 15 novels, the blonde rate was 11/15 and the obviously huge breast rate was 4/15. That’s a total batting average of 5.00. Not even major leaguers are that high.”

“Your Honor! I believe there is sophistry in that calculation! May I call him a rotten bastard!?”

“Quiet down. I am justice. Too bad for you.”

“That’s the first time I’ve ever been told ‘too bad’ by justice…”

“Bear with it. Anyway, you went with a black-haired heroine this time, hm? It looks like the accused is showing remorse for his past deeds. As such, I judge you innocent and sentence you to death.”

“You’re horrible. And are we really going with this from the very first afterword of the new series?”

“Don’t worry about it. More importantly, how have you been lately? Have you been chasing after any cats?”

“No. I’m not ‘I’, so I don’t chase after them. A black cat comes and goes from the yard of a half-deserted house in my neighborhood. It seems to be someone’s pet, but I recently learned that there are two of them. When I approach, one rolls over to show me its belly and the other hisses at me. It’s an obvious example of seduction versus anger.”

“Sounds like twin sisters from some sort of game. The standard method is to have the hissing girl not actually hate you either.”

“For not actually hating me, the look in that cat’s eyes sure was serious.”

“Do your best. If you can shout ‘It doesn’t hurt! It doesn’t hurt!’ while it bites you, any animal will grow attached to you.”

“Did you mix a lot of jokes into that?”

“Don’t worry about it. Anyway, according to the Divine States-World Interaction Theory, the area around my family home is Morocco.”

“Oh, what’s wrong with Morocco? Don’t worry about being in Morocco. From now on, I’ll call you Morocco. And how about I add ‘detective’ to that? Hm? What do you think, Detective Morocco? I can call you Moroc for short.”

[[Image:OnC_v01_0387.png|thumb]]

“You will definitely die in some horrible way.”

I would say the same about him, but what do you think?

Well, it should be something like this every time, so you can look forward to that.

I just finished proofreading while listening to the background music I used while writing this novel. Namely, Jinnouchi Taizou’s “Boku wa Nanika wo Ushinaisou da”. (I cry every time I hear it.)

“Who exactly will begin it?”

It gives me that sort of thought once more.

At any rate, Part B will be out before long. Just wait a bit longer.

March 2003. An early morning of allergies.

-Kawakami Minoru

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Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 13

2013-07-01T02:09:55Z

Purin:

==Chapter 13: Location of the Heavens==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0357.png|thumb]]
''A gaze looking down from heaven

''Is actually bound to that high place

''The pleasure of doing so is a different matter

As night began to fall, Sayama joined Izumo and Kazami in the Kinugasa Library.

The three of them sat around a table in that library that had a stepped floor leading toward the center.

Sayama sat on the eastern side of the table. Izumo and Kazami sat across from him.

Siegfried was making black tea at the counter where he supervised the library.

Sayama wore suit pants and a shirt and had his bandaged left arm resting on the table.

He waited for the black watch on his arm to reach six o’clock before speaking.

“Now, can you tell me the whole story about what is going on here, Kazami, Izumo?”

His sharp gaze was pointed toward Izumo who wore a black track suit over his well-built body.

“Ahh, I get the feeling an interrogation is starting here. Am I just imagining things?”

“What a coincidence, Izumo. I have that same feeling. Let us do our best to get through this together.”

“I’d rather not…”

Kazami wore a sleeveless outfit and gave a half-lidded look toward the two boys.

“This doesn’t really matter, so let’s keep it serious and cheerful. If you don’t, you’ll probably receive divine punishment.”

“You heard her, Izumo. Let us have a serious and cheerful interrogation.”

“So basically, it’s interrogation play? I know about that. At night, I’ll go like this with Chisato and…”

As he spoke, Izumo began making a kneading motion with his hands in midair before suddenly disappearing from Sayama’s vision.

Immediately afterwards, he heard a great sound of impact to his right.

“…”

Sayama looked to the right and found Izumo and his chair rolling below a bookcase. He rolled across the stepped floor once, twice, and thrice before coming to a stop.

He lay face down with his limbs sprawled out and did not move. After seeing that, Sayama turned toward Kazami.

She was lowering her hand to the table and was still seated.

“Hm?” she said as she noticed his gaze. She quickly reached her hand under the table and fixed her disheveled clothing. She finally looked over at her partner who was sprawled out on the floor. The ends of her eyebrows lowered, she brought a hand to her mouth, and spoke.

“Ahh, looks like the divine punishment really did come… God must have wanted Kaku to prostrate himself.”

“My eyes were not quick enough to catch it, but is divine punishment limited to the area below the table?”

“Yes. As they say, ‘god repays you in ways you cannot see’.”

“So he endorses assassination… But I did not expect god’s response to be quite so direct.”

“Well, it is. So what will you do? My god is the type that wants to punch with the left after punching with the right.”

“Hm.” Sayama adjusted his tie. “Then I will do as your god says and take this seriously.”

“Don’t accept this so casually!” Izumo stood up and pointed at Kazami. “What if I had been injured!?”

“But you weren’t… I have to wonder how, though,” said Kazami in annoyance.

Izumo looked down at his own body and said, “Oh, that’s fine then.”

“It is?” asked Sayama and Izumo shrugged and nodded before putting his chair back and sitting down.

After seeing the two back to normal, Sayama turned toward Izumo.

“Why are you so sturdy? I have wondered that for a while now.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s just a bit of divine protection.”

“Due to that, Kaku never learns his lesson and I catch myself reacting the same way to other people.”

“Chisato was amazing the other day when a molester touched her ass on the train,” said Kaku fondly. “She put the molester on the railing next to the seats like it was a wooden horse and shoved his crotch against the metal pole like this, again and again.”

“Evil must be destroyed and molesters must die. Never forgive them even if they shout and scream. …That was the slogan for the girls’ dorm last month.”

Kazami then nodded and loudly clapped her hands.

“Okay, let’s get started with the serious discussion! To get straight to the point, Kaku and I entered UCAT two years ago. The incident back then completed the Leviathan Road for 10th-Gear and 6th-Gear. My parents are both normal people who have no connection to IAI or UCAT. …What do you think?”

“I thank you for the quick and simple explanation.”

“Well, there’s no point in hiding any of this,” said Kazami.

Siegfried spoke up from behind the counter.

“It is only appropriate that the Izumo family handled those two Gears.”

“What?” asked Sayama with a tilt of the head.

With a small smile, Izumo explained, “My grandfather destroyed 6th-Gear and 10th-Gear.” He then asked Sayama a question. “This will take a while to discuss. Is your roommate okay? …Do you need to go and strengthen the bonds of friendship?”

“I will show him around the school later. …He is Shinjou-kun’s brother. Do you know him?”

“Oh… I have…heard a bit about him.”

“He does not know about UCAT. He is taking care of his luggage at the moment, so we should have time.”

“I see… Then, Chisato, bring out the world map. Let’s get this over with quickly.”

Kazami brought over a large map meant for a classroom. It was made of cloth and measured a meter square when spread out.

As she held onto one end and spread it out, a slight smell of wood scattered from the cloth.

A complete map of Japan which had discolored slightly with age lay on the table.

Izumo looked across it toward Sayama and opened his mouth to speak without a smile.

“It’s actually been a while since I’ve heard anything related to the National Defense Department other than about my grandfather. UCAT stores all of that sort of information in their archive and won’t let in anyone who doesn’t have permission. I did learn that old man Siegfried is a former member of the National Defense Department during the trouble a few years back.”

Sayama realized Izumo’s gaze was slowly moving up behind him.

Sayama turned his head around to find Siegfried standing there with a silver-plated tray.

The aroma of tea wafted from the four cups sitting on it.

“I would like to open a café, but I cannot do so right away.”

Kazami took the saucer and cup held out to her.

“They have tea in Germany, too. I drank quite a bit when I was there on a trip a long time ago.”

“Eh?” Izumo frowned as he took his cup. “Wh-when did you become such an international person?”

“It was before I met you, Kaku. I ended up all over the place thanks to my father’s job during my middle school years. It was my experiences then that taught me how to speak English. …Do you really have to give me that look? Sayama is even more of a threat. If I recall, he knows 12-…”

“I know 13 languages. My grandfather drove it all into me, so you cannot say it was my own ability.” Sayama took his cup and looked up at Siegfried. “Although that same grandfather told me nothing about himself or you.”

“That is unsurprising. I believe Izumo and Kazami only just learned I destroyed 1st-Gear today.”

“You’re right about that. Anyway, how much will you be helping us?”

“I tell you the bare minimum of what I remember. And I will correct your knowledge.”

Kazami gave a short whistle at that. Siegfried frowned when he heard it, but she rid him of the frown with a single embarrassed smile.

She lowered her cup and said, “That sounds good to me. The two of us have been with UCAT for about two years, but we haven’t been given much information. And yet Kaku is the heir to IAI. Not to mention that the last time his father came to visit him was-…”

“Chisato.”

Kazami stopped speaking when her name was called.

“Sorry,” she said.

Izumo nodded and so did Sayama.

“He does behave badly,” commented Sayama. “Even parents have their own feelings about things.”

“I’m not sure if I should stand up for him or not…”

“Let’s just leave it at that,” said Izumo as he placed a hand on the map. “You heard about the Divine States-World Interaction at the Imperial Palace, right? Japan is connected to the world and that condition has continued to this day. After the ten Gears were destroyed and Japan lost World War Two, Japan escaped occupation by slowing the ley line acceleration and taking on the strange phenomena of the world.”

Izumo looked over at Siegfried. The old man merely nodded.

Sayama decided Izumo’s information must be accurate. It would be safe to let him take the role of teacher.

“Continue. What I want first is a list of the ten Gears. At the Imperial Palace, you said they influenced the myths, legends, and cultures of this world. And 1st-Gear is…”

“The Volsunga Saga of Norse mythology and the more well-known ‘The Song of the Nibelungs’. It’s the story of a hero defeating a dragon and then losing his life after being betrayed by his wife and old lover. The name Siegfried even appears as the hero,” said Izumo with a nod. He tapped between Japan’s Kinki and Sanin Region on the map. “At any rate, that’s 1st-Gear. You know where 1st-Gear’s Concept Core is, right?”

“Yes. Half of it is inside the holy sword Gram and kept in UCAT’s western branch underneath IAI headquarters. But the other half is inside Fafnir Custom, the mechanical dragon of a radical faction.” Sayama lightly folded his arms. “A mechanical dragon… Have you ever seen one, Izumo?”

“Once, but it wasn’t Fafnir Custom. Simply put, it’s a dragon-shaped machine. The main body alone is over 30 meters long. I hear there are some amazing ones that can fly.”

“They were the most powerful standalone weapons of the Concept War,” said Siegfried. “As Ooshiro explained, the Fafnir I slew with Gram had only one reactor. Destroying that one killed it. However, the modified version has two reactors and the crucial Concept Core is sealed inside the weaponry reactor at its throat. If it comes to a fight, destroying the weaponry reactor will not be enough.”

“Fafnir Custom would still be running, so it could crush us?”

“A mechanical dragon can fight effectively enough with just its gigantic body.”

Sayama nodded at Siegfried’s explanation.

…''If I accept the Leviathan Road, will it mean taking on that thing?

He grinned bitterly. He recalled what Shinjou Sadame had said that evening: you might die.

She might very well have been right, but for the moment, Sayama needed to gather information. He brought a hand to his chin.

“Next, I would like to ask about 2nd-Gear.”

“Oh, 2nd is easy. It’s Japan.” Izumo raised his hand and pointed toward the seven Izu Islands on Sayama’s side of the map. “That Gear is thought to be the basis for the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki. Its Concept Core is apparently a fire dragon called Yamata. The people of 2nd-Gear have mostly acclimated to life here. Negotiations with them should be easy.”

Izumo moved his outstretched arm to the side, pointing toward the Seto Inland Sea.

“3rd-Gear is the basis of Greek mythology. I don’t know much about its Concept Core. …It’s been split in half and one half is carried by something called Typhon. And…”

“And? What is it?”

“Have you seen the large humanoid machines we call Gods of War? You have, right? 3rd-Gear is a world of those and automata. That’s why I think this Typhon must be a God of War. The problem is that we can’t find the other half. Searching for it will probably be left to us. If you accept the Leviathan Road, that is,” said Izumo before adding, “Another problem is that we might have to fight those Gods of War.”

Sayama had seen it the night before in UCAT’s underground hangar. He had seen a metal giant over eight meters tall.

…''First the mechanical dragons and now this. It’s all so showy.

He now further understood why he might die.

“What about 4th-Gear?”

As Sayama asked for further information regardless of the danger, Izumo gave a bitter smile. He pointed toward Kyushu.

“Africa. From what I hear, the Concept Core was made into the model of the tree serpent Mukiti and it is in UCAT’s possession. …And 5th-Gear is the Americas.” He pointed toward Hokkaido. “I’ve heard 5th-Gear is the Gear of mechanical dragons. Half of the Concept Core was apparently turned into some amazing weapon which is stored in UCAT, but the location of the other half is unknown.”

“6th-Gear is already taken care of, correct?”

“Yes. That world is the basis for Indian mythology. That Gear was ruled using a dragon named Vritra. If you see any Indian people in UCAT, you can assume they’re from 6th-Gear.”

While still smiling, Izumo slowly moved his hand over to point at Tohoku.

“I’ve been told 7th-Gear is China, but we don’t know anything about its Concept Core.”

“This is a lot to investigate…”

“Think of that as part of your duty. Next, 8th-Gear is Australia. That’s Shikoku on the map. Its Concept Core is held by the stone serpent Wanambi, but it is kept in the UCAT western branch below IAI headquarters.”

“We have a surprising number of them stored to the west.”

“Yes,” said Kazami as she stood up and pointed at the Chugoku region for Germany, the Seto Inland Sea for Greece, Shikoku for Australia, and Kyushu for Africa. “All of these were focused in the west. It seems they decided it would be useful to have them nearby in case of an emergency. Was that actually the reason, old man Siegfried?”

“It was, but it also grew difficult to move them afterwards. The remnants of the different Gears would plot to steal each other’s Concept Cores.”

“So the fighting continued even after the war ended. I suppose that should not surprise me. …Next, what about 9th-Gear?”

“9th is the Middle East. It has been suggested as the basis for Zoroastrian mythology. It seems they had some gigantic mechanical dragon named Zahhak, but 9th-Gear lost and its Concept Core is stored below UCAT. 10th is last, but it’s already been dealt with.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“Okay,” said Izumo as he pointed above Kinki. “10th-Gear is thought to be the basis for Norse mythology separate from 1st-Gear. 1st-Gear is less about the legends of the gods and more the basis of the folklore and myths. 10th-Gear is directly the world of the gods.”

“I see,” nodded Sayama.

That was the legends of 10 different locations in the world and the corresponding Gears. And…

“You may not know about 7th-Gear, but are all the Concept Cores related to dragons?”

“Yes. And they are also often contained within weapons. In almost every case where the Concept Core has been split in half, one is in a dragon and the other in a weapon.”

Sayama thought on that.

…''So it is the dragon and the weapon to defeat it.

Power and restraint, wealth and influence, enemy and hero. It was a primitive symbol of that relationship.

“So it is called the Leviathan Road because it involves dealing with the dragons of the ten Gears.”

“And Leviathan also refers to the devil’s dragon in the biblical book of Revelation, right?” added Kazami. “I know a bit about it since my father is looking into that kind of thing right now for some event planning. The Leviathan has the appearance of all beasts.”

“That’s what’s wanted from us.” Izumo folded his arms. “This is just a guess of mine, but I think the Leviathan Road is a negotiation in which we confront the dragons of the ten Gears after acquiring the weapons needed to defeat them.”

Sayama began to nod at what Izumo had said, but then stopped.

There was a lot he still did not know. It was too soon to accept that deduction.

…''And something bothers me about that explanation of the Gears.

He got the feeling Izumo and Kazami’s explanation had contained no conscious errors. They had been clear about what they understood and what they did not.

However, Sayama still felt something crucial was missing. But what was the problem?

“Hm…”

Sayama crossed his arms and stared at the map of Japan. And then…

“?”

The arms folded in front of his chest felt a small movement in his shirt’s breast pocket.

It was Baku. He must have woken up from sleeping in the pocket because he looked up at Sayama.

“Wah,” said Kazami with a look that plainly said she wanted to touch Baku, but Sayama ignored her. He stroked Baku’s head and told him to stay put.

It was as Baku nodded and sank back into the pocket that Sayama realized what it was that had been bothering him.

In the dream Baku had given him that morning, he had seen some ruins.

He immediately gave voice to his thoughts.

“Babel. Izumo, do you know of a tower named Babel?”

Izumo looked up and exchanged a look with Kazami.

“Now that’s a surprise. We don’t know anything about it besides the name. How do you know about it?”

“Baku here gave me a dream with a giant tower in it. Where is it on this map?”

Izumo and Kazami exchanged another glance at that question.

From the way the ends of their eyebrows moved slightly, Sayama could guess the answer.

“You don’t know?”

“No. Since it’s called Babel, we know it’s most likely located in Japan’s version of the Middle East near Osaka. And…Babel must be related to Low-Gear’s biblical mythology.”

“You sound very certain for saying you don’t know,” said Sayama. “Are you saying this is a mythology of Low-Gear that has no influence from the other Gears?”

“Yes. Biblical mythology is thought to be a Low-Gear original.”

Izumo smiled bitterly and pointed toward the bookshelf behind him. It contained Kinugasa Tenkyou’s books that Sayama had looked at that morning.

“Do you remember the books you looked at this morning? The 11 books on mythology. Volumes one through ten correspond to the lineup of Gears we told you about. And do you know what the eleventh volume is about?”

“…The bible?”

“That’s right. Japan possesses the appearance of the world’s ley lines. I don’t know if Babel in Japan influences the Middle East or if the Middle East influences the Osaka region, but that tower definitely exists.”

“Do you really not know any details concerning Babel?”

“We tried to look into it, but the information has been completely shut down. Of course, that almost tells you it exists right there. We have no idea why it is being kept secret when it is related to our Gear,” explained Kazami with a shrug.

Sayama gave a bitter smile.

''I see,'' he said in his heart. ''These two have seen the mysteries in their situation and have investigated some of them over the past two years.

Something else seemed to click in place in his head.

“Is that why UCAT uses some terms related to the bible? Like saying ‘testament’ for ‘understood’. Testament can also refer to the bible.”

“Yes. There are a total of 11 different Gears: Low-Gear with the bible and the other ten that act as models for different mythologies. Your grandfather and the others from the National Defense Department destroyed all of the others.”

“But this is referred to as Low-Gear. Why does it have such a humble name?”

Siegfried nodded in response.

“The other Gears referred to each other by numbers based on the order of their worlds’ string vibration frequencies. Those codenames were created as the Concept War continued. And so we came up with our own. American UCAT suggested naming ourselves Law-Gear because we fought for victory and justice. But…”

“But?”

“Professor Tenkyou misspelled it when making the announcement. We have been Low-Gear ever since.”

“Am I supposed to laugh at that?” said Sayama with a sigh. He then took in a breath before asking, “At any rate, which of these Gears did my grandfather destroy?”

Siegfried said nothing, but he cast his eyes down.

Seeing that brought a pain to Sayama’s chest. He frowned and sucked in a breath.

Izumo must have noticed this change because he frowned. Kazami spoke from beside him.

“Sayama? Are you-…?”

The two of them were aware of his illness. That was why Kazami stood up from her chair and began to approach him. At the same moment, the entrance to Kinugasa Library opened behind him.

“Um, is Sayama-kun here?” asked a high-pitched voice.

“…”

Sayama raised his lowered head and turned toward the library entrance beyond Siegfried.

Shinjou Setsu stood there in personal clothes. Shinjou’s hair was worn up and it swayed as he looked toward Sayama.

His eyes were wide as he looked through the library and they narrowed once he spotted Sayama.

“Are you done with your work?”

Sayama nodded and realized a certain fact.

…''My chest pain is gone?

He did not know why. However, it was clear that Shinjou’s presence had played a role.

Sayama smiled bitterly in his heart as he wondered why.

He stood up and looked over at Izumo and Kazami. A smile appeared on Kazami’s lips.

“Go on. I hope you can take good care of your first roommate.”

Sayama listened to Kazami’s words and nodded. He walked over toward Shinjou who was tilting his head with a smile.

In the unlit art room, Brunhild stopped her hand that was moving the brush.

Her wristwatch told her it was 7:30 PM.

“I have been focusing on this for quite a while.”

She looked to the side. The small bird was sleeping in the cardboard box placed on the work desk. The dish cloth inside the box was crumpled such that a depression existed in the middle like a nest. The bird stood on the brush placed there in place of a perch. Its eyes were cast down in sleep.

As Brunhild watched the bird, she swung a leg. This produced a voice at her feet.

“Ow. What is it? I had just gotten to sleep.”

She heard the black cat’s footsteps on the floor. Looking down, she saw its slender body standing up and looking up at her.

Brunhild pressed her index finger against her mouth.

“Are you trying to pick your nose?” asked the cat.

She gently kicked the cat through the air.

The cat turned its back to her, rolled over, and began complaining, but Brunhild ignored it. She stood up and checked the food and water in the box. She soaked a few pieces of food in the water and left them for the bird.

She then crouched down, grabbed the back of the cat’s neck, and picked it up.

“Now, let’s go to the headquarters.”

“Ah? What about the bird? Is it okay?”

“It’s sleeping, so this is our chance.”

Brunhild lowered the black cat to the floor and walked toward the lockers. They were the lockers for the art club located in the back of the room. As she walked, she loosened her uniform’s tie and removed her coat.

She draped the coat over her arm as she arrived in front of one of the lockers. She touched the door and it opened.

“Sorry, Requiem Sense. The time to use you has not yet arrived.”

The giant scythe folded up in the locker called orbs of light into the surrounding area. As she watched that pale firefly-colored light, Brunhild grabbed some folded up cloth from the bottom of the locker.

As she lifted it up and spread it out with one hand, the black cat spoke its name.

“The black clothes of the witch.”

Hanging down from her hand were a black dress and a black three-cornered hat.

As Brunhild drew the black clothes toward her, she tossed her coat into the locker.

Her empty hand ran through practiced motions. Her uniform’s skirt fell from her waist and to the floor, she unbuttoned her shirt, and she slid her body out of it.

Partway through, her hand got caught on the right cuff of the shirt, but she bit the button to remove it.

She was now wearing only black underwear and stockings.

She then lightly waved the black clothes again to spread them out.

These black clothes had no stitches along the collar or chest. She sucked in a breath to make her body as slender as possible and slipped the hem of the skirt down her body. She breathed out and the three-dimensional form created by the darts below the chest and the tucks at the waist fit perfectly to the shape of her body with no need for a belt.

Brunhild pulled a pendant with a blue stone embedded in it from the dress’s breast pocket and placed it around her neck.

She lifted the three-cornered hat up in both hands and placed it on her head.

“Finished.”

Without even checking in a mirror, Brunhild began to move. She grabbed the shirt and skirt at her feet and threw them into the locker without bothering to fold them.

“Ah.”

The shirt got caught on Requiem Sense, so she frantically removed it.

She blushed and looked down. The black cat looking up at her quickly shook its head.

“I-I wasn’t thinking anything! I wasn’t laughing! I wasn’t thinking ‘you fool’ or ‘you ape’!”

[[Image:OnC_v01_0377.png|thumb]]

“Fine then,” she said quietly.

She shut the locker and the pale light floating around the area disappeared.

She glanced around to make sure no light remained. Afterwards, Brunhild looked over at the cleaning supplies locker three to the left.

She walked over, opened the wooden door, and pulled out a broom. It was a meter and a half long and meant to be used in both hands. The brush portion had a plastic cover with a floral pattern.

Brunhild spun it around in one hand to ensure the bristles had not come loose from the shaft.

“I hope this will be okay. During the major cleaning, a first year was pretending to play heavy metal on this.”

“And who was it that knocked him out by suddenly chopping him in the medulla oblongata with her hand?”

“I-I just panicked a little. I couldn’t think of any other way.”

“Your form was excellent for it being a split-second idea.”

“Shut up. Anyway, we need to hurry there and hurry back.”

Brunhild began walking and the cat sighed before following.

She unlocked the art room door and stepped out into the hallway. She then walked to the staircase. Their destination was the rooftop.

Once they reached the rooftop, the wind and moon showed themselves.

Brunhild looked up at the bluish-white glowing moon and frowned.

“This makes it more difficult. I’ll be seen if I fly.”

She looked down at herself to find her black clothing reflecting the moonlight, coloring her a bit blue.

The shadows of the broom and three-cornered hat on the rooftop were bluish black as well.

After puffing air out of her nose, Brunhild pulled a small pouch out of her vest pocket. It was leather and rectangular. The folded upper corner was the only portion made to open.

The black cat’s tail stuck up and trembled when it saw the pouch.

“I’m afraid of your driving enough already… Are you really using that too?”

“Come on. If I took off with my own power, the noise and light would give me away.”

“Low-Gear really is inconvenient…” said the cat as it hung its head down.

“Yes,” was the only response she gave before opening the pouch and tilting it downwards.

Sand spilled out.

Brunhild began to walk. She moved toward the western edge of the rooftop. She held the broom in her left hand and lightly shook the pouch of sand in her right hand.

Suddenly, she began to hum. She hummed the melody line of the hymn Silent Night.

The sand that glowed white in the moonlight fell to the rooftop amid the wind and seemed to mix together with the music in her breaths.

Despite the blowing wind, the sand fell straight down without scattering. The path Brunhild walked along and the way she moved her hand drew out a single pattern.

This pattern was a written character. This single 1st-Gear character measured a meter square.

From the center of the roof to the western edge, she lined up 40 of the same character and then lined up 20 of a different character.

After she had finished writing the 60 characters, Brunhild lightly shook the pouch next to her ear. She nodded in satisfaction at how much was left and put the pouch away in her pocket.

She then returned to the black cat who had not moved. She stood atop the first character and faced the western sky.

“Now, let’s go.”

Brunhild pulled a single blue stone from her pocket. The stone had a thin chain attached to the front. She wrapped that chain around the middle of the broom.

She placed the broom’s brush on the ground and placed her right foot atop the joint between handle and brush. She moved the right hand holding the handle forward. This created a reverse triangle between the broom and her own body.

She carelessly grabbed the neck of the black cat at her feet and tossed it onto the front of the broom.

“Not the froooooonnnnnnt!”

“Shut up,” said Brunhild as she took a light step with the left foot that was still on the floor.

The first character was located there.

In the instant the sound of her step rang out, a change came over all 60 characters.

The change came in the form of pale light and movement. The sand of the first 40 characters gave off a slight blue light and the sand of the 20 characters after them gave off an orange light. The sheet of all 60 characters began to move with the 20 characters in the lead.

Starting below Brunhild’s feet, the 60 meter long sheet created from the 60 characters created a shallow slope leading up into the sky.

After approximately 30 seconds, a slope of characters had been created with the very end raised by three meters.

This shallow slope could not be seen without ascending to the roof of one of the other school buildings.

A wind blew in from the east as if to wash across the backs of the characters.

Brunhild then stepped on the character on the floor beneath her feet once more.

It all happened in an instant.

The character beneath her feet produced a wind. This wind did not blow; it pushed.

“!”

A wind that had the mass of a wall pushed at her feet and her back. It started her, the broom, and the cat along the slope.

She picked up speed. Brunhild first felt the thickness of the atmosphere. She then felt the speed.

As her body sank down on the broom, she could see the scenery ahead and the line of characters shooting by at high speed below her feet. Once she passed a character, it would lose its light, return to being sand, and scatter across the floor.

In the period of time known as an instant, the first 40 characters scattered.

When Brunhild reached the remaining 20 orange characters, her body began to float.

She began to accelerate further in a straight line.

The wind pushing her from behind began also pushing diagonally at her back and from below her butt.

When Brunhild saw the end of the slope and the starry western sky beyond, she lowered her body on the broom even further. She clung to the broom with her entire body.

Before she could even take a breath, all of the characters on the floor scattered and Brunhild shot into the sky.

A roaring noise struck her body.

“!”

She was in empty air.

Nothing was supporting her body. For an instant, that was all she could comprehend.

Her five senses were disappearing after being struck by inertia.

However, all of her senses returned soon thereafter. She felt the cold nighttime wind tickling from the front of her neck to the back.

“…Ah.”

When her slightly darkened vision recovered, she noticed a line of private homes running along below her.

The broom moved at high speed and it was falling as if scraping away at her gut. Brunhild was clinging to the broom’s handle with her entire body and the broom was shaking violently to the left and right with no sign of settling down.

Brunhild raised her head. She checked to make sure a pale bluish-white light was coming from within the floral pattern cover over the broom’s brush. She then released the cat from where she had been pressing it to the handle with her left hand.

As she flew through the wind, the sea of light flowing by below her was approaching. It only took her an instant to decide what to do.

She needed to rise. And to do that…

“Continue in flight form.”

Brunhild squeezed the stone wrapped around the broom and used a leg to push the brush toward the ground.

By the principle of leverage, the end of the broom pointed toward the sky.

That was the start.

As if in response, the floral pattern cover over the brush began producing its own driving force.

The brush portion emitted light downwards toward the ground.

Light shot from the left, right, and top of the tip of the handle. That light transformed into small fixed-position wings that looked like bird wings.

With thrust, wings, and an upward orientation, the broom would be sent up into the sky.

The night scenery flying by below was continuing to approach, but Brunhild ignored that visible cityscape.

“Here we go!!”

The light coming from the bottom of the broom suddenly exploded.

A solid sound burst out.

The tip of the broom produced a ring of steam and it was given permission to accelerate up into the sky.

With a roar similar to artillery fire, it shot straight up toward the heavens.

Brunhild flew.

By the time she felt the recoil, she was already much higher in the sky.

The broom continued to rise. However…

“…”

Brunhild silently observed the sea of light spreading out below her.

That was Tokyo.

But Brunhild let a bitter laugh out into the wind and looked up toward the heavens. She looked into the starry western sky. The moon was not visible that high in the sky.

She squeezed the stone in her right hand and accelerated further. She put all of her speed into ascending and moving to the west.

She flew. She rose up into the night sky. Every feeling in her body urged her to curve through the sky and continue west. The feeling of being thrown out into the sky brought joy to Brunhild. And so she added even more speed.

The cat was shouting something, but it fell silent when she replied with a smile.

She moved onward and upward.

As she shot by just below the clouds, she refused to let up or stop her speed until she reached her desired altitude.

<noinclude>
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 12

2013-06-30T01:59:59Z

Purin:

==Chapter 12: A Reunion with Someone New==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0335.png|thumb]]
''A meeting is the beginning of a restriction

''That is why meetings last only an instant

''The eternity continuing afterwards is a choice between that restriction and a parting

A square three-story building was located on the northeastern end of the general education buildings of Takaakita Academy.

The flat building was partially made of brick and had a terrace. The front of the building also had an entrance leading to the basement. That entrance was labeled with a placard saying “Central Cafeteria Building”.

Only the basement area was open during spring break.

A wide staircase led downstairs. The placard attached to the wall there said “Open 24 Hours a Day” in thick gothic lettering. “However, only limited services are available late at night and on holidays,” it went on to say.

Down the stairs were eight large glass doors lined up side by side and a dimly lit area beyond.

The lobby contained a line of cafeteria ticket machines and several large bulletin boards.

Past the lobby was a 50 meter square space with white walls. Square pillars were located at set intervals and tables for eight filled the space between them.

However, few people were inside. The shops in the corners had sheets over them and only the area around the counter across the eastern wall was lit up.

At the tables were a few people wearing personal clothes and school uniforms as well as a few people wearing the red shirts of rugby uniforms. In addition, a girl wearing a school uniform and a black cat were standing near the counter.

The girl whose gray hair flowed back behind her was Brunhild.

Brunhild placed her hands on the counter and stared back into the kitchen.

Finally, the item she was waiting for arrived.

An old woman wearing a cooking apron carried out a cardboard box 30 cm square.

The box had a dishcloth laid out on the bottom and sitting in the corner were two flat-bottomed porcelain bowls. One contained water and the other contained dried corn that had been crushed into relatively large pieces. The small bird hopped between the two bowls.

“This is a large burden you are taking on. But it is already mostly grown, so you should not have too much trouble,” said the old woman.

Before the woman could hold out the box, Brunhild bowed and reached her own hand out.

She placed the box in her hand.

“…”

Brunhild embraced the box.

The bird looked up at her from within the box. As it tilted its small head, Brunhild smiled.

She heard the old woman say, “How nostalgic. I caught one when I was a child, too.”

“Did you?”

“Yes, yes. Even an old lady like me was once as young as you.”

Brunhild fell silent, but the black cat at her feet lightly struck her left shin with its front paw.

Brunhild used her left foot to kick the cat away below the counter.

The old woman had not noticed this exchange of blows, so she looked down at the small bird and spoke.

“It was not long after the war. I swiped some of the wheat and sake my father got through the black market. I soaked the wheat grains and place them on the ground.”

“To give them…to the bird?”

“Yes, yes. I threw one a good distance away. Once it ate that, I threw another one a bit closer to me before repeating the process. By the time it was close enough to me, it could not fly.”

“Because it was drunk?”

“Yes. But it disappeared the day after I caught it. My father looked disappointed it was gone and he complained that the bird had looked delicious. …I knocked him down with a piece of firewood afterwards.”

Brunhild ignored the last half of the story and fell silent, but the black cat lightly struck her right shin once it made its way back.

She kicked it away with her right foot, looked slightly down, and glanced over at the cat.

It was looking up at her from where it lay on the floor.

But when their gazes met, the black cat cowered down and backed away.

Brunhild tilted her head and wondered if the look in her eyes had really been that harsh.

But she then sensed a presence behind her. This was why the cat had backed away.

“…!?”

She placed the box on the counter and turned around. A chest covered in a black vest lay directly in front of her eyes within arm’s reach.

Surprised, she took a step back and looked up to assess the situation.

Above the black vest was the collar of a white shirt. Above that was a white beard and bald head.

Brunhild knew this man.

Before she could do anything, a voice spoke beyond the counter.

“Oh, Zonburg-san. You are late today.”

Siegfried Zonburg stood beside Brunhild. He bent over his large body to place his cafeteria ticket on the opposite side of the counter.

The old woman looked at the ticket and asked, “Which one?”

“The Doria.”

“Oh, the vomit rice. Now, do I have any rice left?”

“Even if that is what everyone calls it, I think the one making it should avoid that name.”

“I can hardly call it Doria. I only learned how to cook from my mother.”

“Doria is a household dish. There is nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“Is that so?” asked the old woman with a laugh, but Siegfried’s expression did not change.

Brunhild looked up at him while holding her breath.

Suddenly, he turned toward her.

Brunhild took a defensive stance at that. She brought her right hand up into the air and her left hand into her blazer pocket. All expression vanished from her face and she stared intently at him.

However, Siegfried was not looking at her.

He was looking at the box on the counter. The small bird inside looked up at him and chirped once. Siegfried returned the bird’s gaze and opened his mouth to speak.

“Brunhild Schild-kun.”

Brunhild gasped at having her name called.

She gulped and asked, “Why do you know my name?”

“Whenever you borrow a book, you thank the library assistant but not me. I manage the library cards, so I naturally learned your name.”

“…You certainly are petty.”

“No, that is simply the reason I know your name. I am not demanding you thank me. That is the decision your pride has led you to make.” Siegfried looked back across the counter. “The library is open. The biology and animal section has some books on caring for animals. You should borrow one right away.”

“Is that an order?”

“I merely wish the best for the bird. …But I cannot approve of caring for a bird in the same environment as a cat.”

“Do not worry. My cat is loyal to me.”

That comment elicited a light strike against her calf from the black cat’s front paw. Brunhild swung her right heel back to kick the cat away before she grabbed the box.

Siegfried was not looking in her direction.

She took a step back to open a slight gap between them.

Siegfried provided a clear response to her silence.

He ignored her and let the silence continue.

“…”

Brunhild turned around toward the entrance.

She began walking and the black cat frantically ran after her.

She looked down into the box to find the small bird looking up at her with its head tilted.

Brunhild continued to look at the bird and did not look back.

She held her breath and quickly walked out of the cafeteria.

A line of white buildings existed to the north of the general school buildings. The buildings were aligned in a cross shape and they all looked like three-story school buildings at first.

However, the windows lined up on the southern side were smaller and more numerous than those of a school.

Through each window were two desks next to the window and a bunk bed next to the wall.

These were the student dorms.

The dorms were currently dyed in the colors of the setting sun.

A single figure could be seen moving between the crimson of the sunlight and the bluish-black shadows created by the buildings.

This was Sayama, still wearing his gray suit. He quickly made his way to the building on the southwest end of the line of dorms.

He arrived at a white walled entrance with a sign saying “Fourth General Education Dormitory – True Boys’ Dormitory”.

Sayama stopped at the entrance.

A look at his wristwatch told him the time was 5:30 PM. He had just returned after speaking with Ooshiro about the following day’s preliminary negotiations with 1st-Gear’s peaceful faction.

Sayama glanced down and saw Baku was sleeping with his head sticking out of his breast pocket. And…

“?”

Sayama suddenly turned to the east where the cafeteria building was. He had spotted some motion.

He could see a girl carrying a box toward the general school buildings.

…''That is the head of the art club I passed by this morning.

She must have still had work to do.

''She puts in a lot of effort,'' he thought as he took a breath. ''I need to visit Siegfried in the library and Izumo and Kazami in the girls’ dorm later.

He then turned back toward the dorm building and looked up at his own room on the eastern end of the second floor.

In the very next moment, his expression changed. He frowned.

“…The light is on?”

As the window reflected the setting sun, he could see the bright room beyond.

He did not remember turning on the lights before leaving for the Imperial Palace during the day.

''Who could it be?'' thought Sayama as he hurried into the dorm.

At the same moment, he heard Ooki’s voice from up ahead.

“Oh, Sayama-kun.”

She walked out of the exit in sandals while wearing a shirt and a tight denim skirt.

“Perfect timing.”

Ooki descended the low staircase at the entrance in a single step and arrived in front of Sayama with the sound of gravel.

“What is it, Ooki-sensei? I have urgent business at present, so I would like to hurry to the scene in question.”

“Heh heh heh. You always speak so formally. But you will regret it if you don’t listen to what I-…wait!”

As Sayama ignored her and tried to move past her, she grabbed his sleeve.

“Could you not grab onto that? It is actually rather expensive.”

“I think you should not decide what is important based on monetary value.”

“It is Italian and cost 720 thousand yen.”

“Wah! I’m sorry! Just so you know, I could never, ever pay for that!”

“I know. I think you should stop taking up a standard seat in front of the shop in the cafeteria building.”

“But I love jam bread. It’s so sad the shop is closed during spring break… Wait, please listen to what I have to say before leaving!”

This time, she grabbed Sayama’s hand. He sighed, turned toward Ooki, and nodded.

“I apologize, but I fear I will catch your poverty. Please keep your Ooki germs away from me.”

“If you say things like that, I won’t tell you that you have a new roommate!”

“If you say things like that, it makes me want to inform you of your severe idiocy.”

“Huh?” said Ooki as she thought back on what she had said.

Sayama politely removed her hand and asked, “At any rate, what is happening here? I obtained this single-person room thanks to a miracle when I had the wonderful luck of being chosen in the drawing.”

“I will not ask how you influenced that miracle and wonderful luck… Anyway, that miracle and wonderful luck end today. Just give up now.”

She pointed at Sayama as she spoke, but he ignored her. She immediately tugged on his hand.

“Why are you ignoring me!?”

“Well, you already told me what I need to know, right? A parasite has arrived,” said Sayama.

Ooki raised her index finger and lightly clicked her tongue.

“Listen. Let me warn you first. …Your new roommate is not used to you yet, so try not to do or say anything inappropriate.”

“Have you gone completely insane, Ooki-sensei? When have I ever done or said anything inappropriate?”

“You are doing so right now in real time!”

“Now, now,” said Sayama as he held out his right palm to calm down Ooki. “I understand what you are trying to say, so calm down. You want me to be perfectly polite, correct?”

“Yes,” nodded Ooki before crossing her arms. “That is what I want…but with you…”

She groaned and Sayama wordlessly flicked her on the forehead with his right hand.

Sayama checked in at the reception desk, changed into his slippers, and climbed the stairs.

Baku raised his head from Sayama’s breast pocket and climbed up to his shoulder. Baku must have known they were almost to the bed because he stared straight ahead from Sayama’s shoulder as they rounded the turn of the staircase.

Sayama quickly finished climbing the stairs. He moved from the landing to the hallway. His room was the last room on the left.

The fluorescent lights lit the hallway more than the setting sun. Sayama could tell the door to his room was sitting open.

A few cardboard boxes were sitting at the end of the hallway next to the door. Someone was moving in.

“…”

Sayama silently walked forward.

He could hear noise within the room. Someone was opening a cardboard box and removing its contents. He could hear someone piling up clothes and stacking books. These noises reminded Sayama of the past.

…''I made these exact same noises last year.

He approached.

He peered inside the dorm room through the open door.

As soon as he did, a figure took a step out of the room.

The figure had a slender and small build.

The figure stumbled forward between the boxes but managed to remain standing.

“Oh.”

Inertia caused a baggy shirt and culottes-style shorts to sway. And something else swayed even more than the clothes: the soft black hair tied behind the figure’s head.

The figure looked up and widened its eyes slightly.

Sayama recognized that face.

“…Shinjou-kun?” he asked.

“Ah,” said the figure.

The voice was identical to Shinjou’s as well.

That confused voice left Sayama thinking.

…''This is the boys’ dorm.

But his thoughts did not end there.

…''If Shinjou suddenly decided she desired a life with me, what would happen?

Shinjou belonged to UCAT. This school possessed deep connections with IAI, so it was likely connected to UCAT as well.

Sayama already had Izumo and Kazami as examples. He assumed those two were deeply involved in IAI and UCAT beyond what was officially said about them.

Also, UCAT had asked him if he would accept the rights to the Leviathan Road. Shinjou’s presence could be a means of leading him to accept.

''What should I do? What should I do?'' thought Sayama twice before adding, ''No, whatever the adults may be hoping to gain from this, the fact remains that Shinjou, a girl, has come here.

He recalled what she had said on the bridge in front of the Imperial Palace. She had told him not to be too surprised when he returned to his dorm.

…''That is impossible. I cannot help but be shocked at this.

When Sayama had asked her if she was sending him something, she had nodded and said she felt she had to.

How had he responded to that?

…''I told her I would gladly accept it. I see.

Sayama had reached his conclusion. He had already given his answer back then.

After coming this far, he did not hesitate or make the issue any more complicated. He had decided everything should continue as she wished.

With a serious expression, Sayama nodded toward her. He spread his arms lightly to either side.

“Now, leap into my arms.”

In response, Shinjou bowed with a relieved look.

“Thank you for acting just as inappropriately as I heard you would. I am Shinjou Sadame’s younger brother, Setsu.”

Sayama’s arms were still spread.

Shinjou Setsu raised his body while still smiling.

But Shinjou then said “Um…” while lowering the ends of his eyebrows and holding out his right hand.

With his arms still held out to the side, Sayama smoothly lowered his hips and rotated his body 90 degrees. He grabbed Shinjou’s right hand with the right hand he still held out to the side. He gave the boy a handshake.

That touch told him Shinjou had no ring on his right hand. Sayama stood back up.

“…Her younger brother?”

“Yes,” replied Shinjou with a less nervous voice and smile than before. “Didn’t my sister tell you? She told me to stay here until your arm healed, Sayama-kun.”

His voice and tone were identical to Shinjou’s. The feel of his hand was also identical.

Sayama mentally tilted his head and let go of the boy’s hand.

“How much did your sister tell you about me?”

“She said you protected her when she was almost hit by a car, but you injured your dominant arm in the process. She is busy with work, so she can’t do anything to help even though she wants to.”

“I see,” said Sayama in acknowledgment.

…''Does he not know about UCAT?

“I apologize in advance, but may I check on something?”

Shinjou tilted his head in confusion.

“Sure, I don’t mind. But what is it?”

“Oh, nothing much.”

Sayama stood before Shinjou, slowly pulled him closer, and touched the right side of his chest with his right hand.

“Eh? Ah…Wh-what are you doing?”

As the boy provided light resistance, Sayama felt only ribs and a thin chest.

Shinjou tried to pull away from the left hand lightly wrapped around his back.

But Sayama said, “Please do not move. For one, who was it that said he did not mind?”

“B-but I didn’t think you meant this…”

Shinjou’s shoulders lowered and he stopped trying to draw away.

Sayama nodded and slid his hand over to the left side of Shinjou’s chest. He pressed his fingers in as if trying to massage his chest, but the skin beyond the white shirt was thin and hard. It had little flexibility and lacked the shape of Shinjou’s breasts Sayama had seen the night before.

…''He is male.

Sayama’s body sank down slightly. He took his right hand off Shinjou’s chest and a slight moan escaped Shinjou’s lips. As if to rob Shinjou of this opportunity to relax, Sayama grabbed Shinjou’s waist with his right hand.

[[Image:OnC_v01_0351.png|thumb]]

“Ah,” said Shinjou as Sayama pressed his right ear against his chest.

Sayama heard the slightly quickened beating of Shinjou’s heart.

It sounded the same as what he had heard the night before. The slight sweet aroma in the breath was also the same.

However, the chest he had his ear pressed up against was not the same as the chest he had seen. It was the flat and hard chest of a guy.

Still doubtful, Sayama asked, “Hm… Has your chest always been like this?”

“W-well, yes…”

Sayama looked up to see a flushed face looking down at him. Shinjou was lightly biting his lower lip and bringing together his eyebrows. Finally, he let out a trembling sigh.

“I-is that enough? Are you done? I don’t want you st-staying down there too long.”

Without replying, Sayama grabbed Shinjou’s arm from where it hung awkwardly in the air and brought it around behind his back.

“Eh? Ah… No, Sayama-kun?”

As Shinjou lightly embraced him, Sayama listened to the boy’s pulse.

But nothing changed. The chest still felt like that of a guy. The pulse grew a bit stronger, but that was it.

“I see,” said Sayama with a nod before raising his head.

…''She said they are twins, didn’t she?

Sayama nodded once more in his heart, stood up, and faced forward.

Shinjou stood there with his cheeks red and the ends of his eyebrows lowered. Shinjou let out a breath and Sayama crossed his arms.

“Do not worry. There was nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Y-you were incredibly out of the ordinary, Sayama-kun.”

“Is that any way to act toward someone you just met?”

“You should say that into a mirror…”

“No need,” declared Sayama. “I was just given a warning by Ooki-sensei downstairs. And I am being careful to heed that warning.”

“…I have to ask. What was this warning?”

Sayama provided a clear response.

“Do not do or say anything inappropriate.”

“Wow,” said Shinjou as he drew back.

Nevertheless, Sayama held out his right hand.

“It may only be until my left arm heals, but let us get along, Shinjou-kun. It should not be too difficult. Compared to those around me, I am constantly troubled by how normal I am.”

In the art room at night, Brunhild gave the small bird food while working on her painting. She was adding the green of the forest to the canvas and would provide some food whenever the bird chirped to say it was hungry.

She would grab the crushed and threshed corn with narrow tweezers, soak it in water, and hold it out to the bird. If she did not lightly pinch the corn with the tweezers, the bird could not bring it into its mouth.

The black cat down at her feet spoke.

“You certainly are enthusiastic about this.”

“I have to do this at least until it goes to sleep.”

“I think you need to visit the headquarters tonight. What will you do?”

“It is not time for my periodic report, but yes… It would be best to ask how I should handle this from now on. If it was something simple, I could just have you fly there. But…”

The cat nodded.

“Most likely, they have already noticed the Royal Palace faction’s actions. The headquarters will be full of energy trying to decide what to do.”

“As long as the holy sword Gram is stored below IAI headquarters, there is nothing we can do. …Breaking in to take it is not the type of strategy Venerable Hagen prefers.”

“The second generation group who know nothing of war like Fafner are oddly motivated, though.”

The small bird chirped.

Brunhild fed it with the tweezers.

It swallowed the food and let out a breath. It tilted its head and looked up at Brunhild. She remained expressionless.

“…It’s so cute.”

“You don’t have to keep that to a whisper, you know.” The black cat lowered its shoulders. “But why are you so obsessed with this bird?”

“I am not obsessed. I think the laws of nature are important, but I also think life is important.”

“You’re contradicting yourself.”

“Yes, I am.”

Brunhild picked up her palette and brush. She brought the brush to somewhere other than the forest. She brought it to the area that had been empty up to this point. She brought it to the spot for the cabin and the people.

“Do you want to hear an old story?”

“Yes.”

“This was long ago when I was still very young.”

“How many hundreds of years ago was that? No, ah, s-sorry! Ahhh! The bottom of that brush is pointed!!”

“Shut up. At any rate, a certain person saved a town near our forest back then. A mechanical dragon had gone out of control. When the pilot was joining with it, the rejection reaction was especially strong and he went insane. The town was half destroyed and the mechanical dragon entered the forest to pursue the people who had fled into it.”

The cat said nothing and only nodded.

Brunhild continued speaking as she painted the black base for the cabin.

“This person fought despite being injured and won all on his own. I do not know if it was on a whim or what, but he took in an injured bird afterwards. We all took care of it.”

The black cat looked up at the canvas. A few different people were drawn in charcoal around the cabin Brunhild was painting black.

An old man read a book within the cabin and a girl and a woman played with a bird in front of the cabin.

And a man could faintly be seen as well.

The cat looked at those line drawings before turning toward Brunhild. Lastly, it looked back at the charcoal lines of the flying bird.

“So…” The cat tilted its head. “You want to see those flapping wings once more? Something like that?”

“No,” replied Brunhild with slight laugh. “This is a painting. It is not real. When our world was destroyed, that bird escaped its cage and…”

She took a breath, but did not continue speaking.

The silence spreading around her caused the cat to tremble, but Brunhild laughed quietly again.

“Ha,” she breathed out before speaking in a trembling but smiling voice. “If he had been there, I think the outcome would have been different. He saved that bird despite knowing the world would be destroyed, so why did he not see it through to the end? And even if it was only for a short time, he had been with Lady Gutrune so much… So why?”

As she asked that question to no one in particular, the black cat’s eyes opened wide.

“Is this person you are talking about who I think it is?”

“Yes. The sorcerer who arrived from Low-Gear. The man who stole the holy sword Gram from 1st-Gear and destroyed that earth and that sky. And the enemy who killed those who were like family to me before running away.”

Brunhild spoke his name.

“Siegfried Zonburg. …Our greatest foe.”

<noinclude>
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|-
| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_11|Chapter 11]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_13|Chapter 13]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 10

2013-06-24T10:05:45Z

Purin:

==Chapter 10: Development of Will==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0277.png|thumb]]
''Is hesitation feigned goodness or is it courage?

''Then is determination feigned evil or is it recklessness?

''Neither one is a bad thing

The knight swung his shield and deflected the liquid.

When the pale yellow liquid struck the metal shield, smoke rose from it. A hole was eaten into the surface of the shield.

“That is quite a deadly poison!” commented the knight.

“You were really going to pour that into my ear!?” added Ooshiro.

The knight ignored the old man and silently squeezed the trigger of his long rifle.

Bluish-white light emitted from the side of the book loaded into the gun.

That bookshelf rifle drew out the meaning of that collection of words in the form of heat.

It was a more primitive method than adding a new ability with the words, but it was plenty powerful.

He fired.

A ball of light shot from the rifle’s barrel. However, he was not targeting either of those lying on the ground below him.

He targeted the black cat.

In the amount of time known as an instant, the bright yellow bullet grew to 5 meters across and travelled in a shallow arc to the south side of the grassy area.

The reverberation of electrical discharge was drowned out by the sound of destruction when it struck.

It exploded.

“!”

The southern end of the grassy area grew warped, crumbled, and then shrank inwardly, trees and dirt included.

In the next instant, everything within a 20 meter square was blasted up into the sky.

A tremendous roar was heard.

The knight said, “I doubt that was enough.”

He then turned toward the two below him.

“Now! I will handle the two of you. Even if this sullies my name, seeing this through is how I show my pride!”

The boy lying on the ground then muttered something.

“So you have decided what path you will take as well, have you?”

“What?” asked the knight.

However, he quickly lifted his rifle again and focused on the battle.

The book loaded in the rifle was already emitting bluish-white light from all of its pages.

If he squeezed the trigger, he could eliminate the two people clinging to a sheer cliff.

“I am sorry,” said the knight.

Unexpectedly, the boy answered him.

“There is no need to apologize.”

As he spoke, the boy suddenly stood up.

He stood atop the ground which should have been a cliff to him. He placed his feet on the ground and stood while keeping his body low.

“What…!?” The knight drew back. He held back up his shield and shouted, “Damn you! Have you added the same concept as us!?”

Without replying, the boy ran.

The knight’s comrades began to move and prepare to attack, but it was too late.

The boy circled around to the knight’s left which was the north. The knight tried to follow the boy’s motion with his rifle, but he did not make it in time.

With his back turned, the boy jumped lightly up.

He performed a reverse roundhouse kick.

It hit home.

His heel struck the knight’s left shoulder with more weight than expected.

The knight’s bones creaked and his body was lifted up.

“Kh.”

He endured the pain and lowered his hips to land properly. He tried to aim the rifle in his right arm toward the boy, but his body felt numb and he could only aim to the front.

While remaining on guard for another kick, the knight rotated his entire body. He held his shield toward the boy.

He found the boy landing from his kick on all fours.

He then gently lifted his body a bit before running. He circled around to the north once more.

When the knight tried to follow him, one of the giant attendants shouted out from behind him.

“Look!”

The knight turned toward the deep voice and found the old man named Ooshiro moving to the south of the grassy area. His stance was low, but he was definitely running.

“How?” muttered the knight.

South was set as down, so the ground should have been perfectly vertical.

He and his companions were only able to stand due to the effects of the philosopher’s stones they held. Their enemies should not have had any of their own, yet they were still running around on that vertical ground.

“How!?”

To the north of the grassy open area, a line of trees had escaped the destruction of the stone wall.

It now functioned as footing stretching out perpendicular to the ground. On one of the tree trunks, the battle beginning far below was visible. Sf stood there carrying a single café set.

She held a parasol, a portable cooler, a table, and chairs. She skillfully placed them on the tree trunk as she heard the knight’s question from far below: How?

Sf gave a small nod.

She pulled a single bullet from her pocket. On its side, the words “bullet, one more hit” were written.

“You made a mistake in your theory.”

She placed the bullet atop the table which was sitting on the line of trees.

The bullet remained still at first, but it eventually accelerated and began rolling.

“That area may appear to be a wall, but it is actually a slope,” said Sf as if to confirm it. “Setting south as down was a naïve decision but not a surprising one for a resident of a flat world such as 1st-Gear. …After all, the earth is round and Japan is located on the northern hemisphere.”

Sf looked at the grassy area below her. Sayama charged into the center of the enemy ranks and was fighting while focusing on evasion. He was running along a slope of about 40 degrees while repeatedly evading and attacking.

Sayama’s method of attack was simple. He would circle around to the north of his enemy, choose an attack method such as a direct kick or roundhouse kick that would make full use of his body weight, and then directed it toward his enemy down the slope to the south.

Sayama had no choice but to stand on a slope.

He had to keep his stance low, but this made it easier to avoid his enemy’s attacks. When he was cornered, he could jump far to the south, using the slope to gain more distance. Sf nodded as she watched on.

“To forestall an initial attack from his enemy, he pressed down against the slope, pretending it was a wall.”

As she spoke, Sf placed the cooler’s strap over her right shoulder and held the parasol in her hand.

She suddenly looked up to find a winged archer had noticed her.

“Oh, dear,” said Sf as she opened the cooler.

The archer above brought a hand to his bowstring. The center of the string had a single piece of cloth attached. The cloth had words written on it. The archer drew the bowstring and an arrow of light appeared between the cloth and the bow.

Instead of firing right away, the archer twisted the cloth to the right.

The string grew tauter and the bow creaked, but the arrow of light multiplied to three.

Finally, the archer fired.

The sound of the light being released sounded similar to a flute.

As that high-pitched trio rained down from the sky, Sf bowed slightly.

“Thank you for such an ordinary attack. As thanks, I shall provide a common attack of my own.”

She pulled what looked like two long metal staffs from the cooler.

The two objects appearing from below the canned drinks were a machine gun and its barrel.

She attached the heavy barrel with one hand and loaded the ammunition belt. The first bullet was instantly brought into the chamber.

“Over 40,000 have been produced. That should be common enough.”

With that comment, Sf aimed into the sky and squeezed the trigger.

Sayama could tell he was being surrounded. His enemies were once more beginning to hold him in check.

The old men wearing square bonnets who looked like priests and the old women wearing hoods who looked like magicians were clearly keeping their distance while the two giant attendants began circling around to his north. They were preventing him from taking his advantageous position.

But Sayama felt that was fine as sweat flew from his brow.

At the very least, he had drawn the enemies away from the woods were Shinjou was and Ooshiro Kazuo had been able to escape.

That meant he need not worry about this battleground. And he had another thought.

…''I was right. Shinjou-kun did not fire.

When he had attacked the knight, he had given the signal, but Shinjou had not fired. He had predicted it, but it was still a slight shock.

''She really does continue to surprise me,'' he thought as he walked around.

“Shinjou-kun is serious about everything,” he muttered. “Even when she hesitates.”

It was because she took this so seriously that she had been unable to pull the trigger this time as well.

Sayama suddenly recalled what had happened that morning. He recalled Ooki’s words to him.

…''When those who rarely get serious finally do get serious, they can draw out a lot of power. Is that it?

“And thinking that you cannot get serious means you are constantly thinking about getting serious.”

Sayama decided Shinjou had to have reached that stage.

…''But what about me?

“Will I ever-…”

Would he ever get serious?

His questioning gaze caught sight of the end of a magician’s staff glowing. Instead of leaving behind an afterimage of the light, it looked more like the word was being burned into the atmosphere. Sayama did not recognize the word, but he could read it.

It meant fire.

He leaped as soon as he read it. He leaped south down the slope.

In the next instant, a pillar of fire shot up in the spot he had just been standing in.

As he heard the air burning, crimson flames shot up in a triple helix. The end of the spiral bloomed outwards and scattered through the air as the pillar of fire energetically came apart and disappeared.

Sayama landed.

At the same moment, Sayama realized the enemy’s formation was complete.

The priests and magicians to his north split to the left and right. The two giants traveled down the center of that group. They were approximately three meters tall. Under their dark green cloaks, those attendants wore light armor and were armed with black knives.

They could not make tight turns, but they used easily-wielded knives to cover for that disadvantage.

They came.

Sayama prepared himself. He could not defeat them head on. He needed to run around them. He lowered his body and sucked in a breath. He suddenly glanced over at his hard-to-move left arm and his left hand.

He saw the scars on his hand and the ring on his finger.

He tried to clench his left fist, but received only stabbing pain.

It was a phantom pain, but it felt real to him. And he could not swing the fist regardless.

An instant later, Sayama looked up from his left hand and ran.

He shrank down, stretched out, and sent his body forward.

At the same moment, he spotted a shadow coming from the sky above.

It was an archer.

''Not good,'' he muttered silently.

His enemies were not planning to have the giant attendants attack him.

They would surround him and he would be shot from the air.

“Kh.”

Sayama took in a breath and twisted his body around.

To avoid the coming attack as much as possible, he rolled along the ground.

But what fell to the ground was not an arrow or even a bow.

It was wings.

“!”

With the sound of flesh being struck, a giant four-winged form fell to the ground where Sayama had been a moment before. It was the archer who had been in the sky. Sayama could see red blood spewing from the base of his upper right wing.

Sayama got up on his knees and heard a certain sound before he could even wonder what was going on.

He heard gunfire.

He looked up. He looked to the north which was up to him.

In the sky there, another set of wings fell.

The four-winged archer fell into the woods to the east while staining his wings with red blood.

Only then did everyone look over.

A white and black figure was jumping down from a distant line of trees to the north.

“Sf-kun…”

She held a machinegun in her left hand, a parasol in her right, and a large cooler under her right arm.

Despite carrying two objects that looked too large for her body size, she was not running down the slope. She leaped through the sky.

She did not seem to care that one of the four-winged archers had fallen among some nearby trees.

She dropped down.

In the next instant, one of the magicians reacted. She wrote several words in the air, turned them into spears of light, and threw them at Sf.

The light flew with a high-pitched dash.

Sf took a single action in response. She held up the parasol in her right arm and opened it. With the sound of the wind being struck, Sf’s body appeared to be lifted up by the parasol as she began to float.

The spears of light passed by below her feet and stabbed into the grass in the distance.

Just as the spears of light could be heard bursting in the distance, Sf let go of the parasol.

After that, she travelled in a straight line.

Guided by gravitational acceleration, Sf’s heels crashed into the giant attendant who was on the left from Sayama’s perspective.

The impact caused a great noise.

“…!”

She sent all of her weight into both legs as they struck the attendant’s side and his body was knocked up into the air. Sayama backed away as the attendant rotated around in midair and slammed into the ground headfirst.

Repeated powerful sounds were heard as his armor and flesh crashed to the ground, but he eventually came to a stop.

The attendant no longer moved.

Instead, the slender woman who had only just now arrived on the scene moved.

She had short white hair and she wore a black dress with a white apron. Her silhouette spread out with the hem of her skirt and she bowed before Sayama.

“I am glad to see you are the same as ever.”

It was Sf.

Sayama glanced around. As Sf greeted him, the enemies were once more falling into formation around them.

The knight entered to replace the lost attendant and the two magicians moved back.

As they watched her, Sf opened the cooler and stuck her left hand inside. The formation of enemies prepared themselves as the sound of ice and water came from the cooler.

However, Sf was not looking at them. She was crouched down and looking toward Sayama.

“Sayama-sama, take this. It is a new product that is perfect for breaks between exercise.”

She handed him a plastic sports drink bottle. He took it and she bowed before sticking her left hand in the cooler.

“The rest of you can have this,” she said as she pulled out a black, glittering submachine gun.

She rotated around, firing all the while.

“!”

At the sound of gunfire, the attendant, knight, and other enemies frantically held up their shields or gauntlets.

But they were too slow.

As metallic noises rang out, they were either forced back or blown away.

Sayama stood up. Bluish-white smoke surrounded him and Sf. The formation around them had widened slightly and one magician lay collapsed on the ground. Sayama looked toward the magician while opening the lid of the drink bottle.

“She is not dead. As expected, they have some form of defensive power. This is not causing much damage.”

Sayama realized Sf’s right sleeve was torn. That showed she had already received some sort of attack. And the arm he saw below the torn black cloth was…

“A machine?” asked Sayama after a citrus flavor flowed into his mouth from the bottle.

Sf’s arm was made of what looked like narrow pearl-colored armor. The arm narrowed in considerably at the elbow joint between her upper arm and lower arm and only black plastic filled the gap.

Without turning around, Sf tossed the submachine gun to the ground.

“I am Sein Frau, an automaton created by German UCAT using 3rd-Gear technology. My body was put together for Itaru-sama’s exclusive use, so I am able to do the shopping or receive guests in bad weather and under inconvenient circumstances. My compact exterior can run for 24 hours if the philosopher’s stone is swapped out, so even the most sudden of unreasonable demands can be-…”

“Enough with the late-night infomercial sales pitch,” said Sayama as he handed the empty drink bottle back to Sf. And then, “What are your combat abilities?”

“According to German UCAT, the German people are the most excellent people in the world. I was created using their technology, so my combat abilities are top notch.”

“Didn’t that ‘most excellent’ right-wing country lose World War Two?”

“Truly excellent people need not desire victory. Victory is not needed in the eternal quest to grow stronger.”

“Who said that?”

“I do not know. However, it has been etched into my mind.”

As she spoke, Sf moved the machinegun in her right hand to her left and placed the muzzle against the ground. She moved the muzzle to the side so that it drew a curve in the dirt.

“My name is Sein Frau, ‘the woman who should exist’. I am a nonhuman who was born from the desire to ‘exist’. Now, come and bring the reason for your birth with you. If that reason is weaker than mine, you will not even be able to ‘exist’.”

[[Image:OnC_v01_0293.png|thumb]]

With a turn of her heel, she transformed the curve on the ground into a ring.

“I was created for the sake of my master. I sacrifice my steel for his bones, my chains for his flesh, my oil for his blood, and my determination for his heart. But there is one thing he has for which I have nothing to sacrifice.”

When the ring connected, she placed the gun’s muzzle on the point of connection.

“His tears. …As I have no emotions, I have nothing to give in return for those. As such, I do not desire my master’s tears. I desire only an outcome that requires no teardrops.”

She raised the gun.

“Steel for his bones, chains for his flesh, oil for his blood, determination for his heart, and…”

She took a breath.

“Selflessness for his tears.”

As she spoke, Sf squeezed the trigger while aiming at the line of enemies.

Shinjou sat on a tree trunk.

The trembling of her hands was beginning to abate, but strength would not return to her fingers.

“What do I…” she muttered.

''…lack at times like this?'' she finished in her thoughts.

She heard a voice from below.

“You had excellent scores in training and your marksmanship while providing covering fire from the rear guard was quite good as well. But it looks like you’re no good on the vanguard where a real battle is right before your eyes. Do you think I should remove you from Team Leviathan, Shinjou?”

Shinjou gave a quick gasp.

But the voice from below laughed.

“Hah. What’s with the serious look? I may be the supervisor, but you know I can’t do everything on my own discretion, right? You were added as a member on the recommendation of my old man. I can’t move you without his permission and your agreement.”

Shinjou frowned at the laughing voice and clenched her back teeth.

“Why are you always like this!? Ever since you took me in…”

“You really want to know?” said a smiling voice. “It’s because I know everything but understand nothing.” The voice then changed the subject. “Look, the fools are in trouble. Do whatever you can.”

Shinjou looked out toward the grassy area and realized what he meant.

Sayama and Sf moved around amid the gunfire and their enemies were collapsing from the attacks.

But a few of those had begun to move once more. First was the attendant Sf had defeated. He was trying to stand. And he was hidden behind another enemy, so Sayama and Sf could not see him.

Shinjou stood up on the tree trunk.

“Sayama-kun!”

As the knight charged toward her from the front, Sf charged in with her right shoulder held forward.

With the cooler still held under her right arm, she filled the gap between her and the knight in an instant.

The knight aimed his long rifle at her.

Sf raised the machinegun in her left arm slightly before swinging it.

She slammed her own machinegun against the enemy’s gun barrel.

With a metallic scraping noise, Sf pushed the knight’s rifle down and moved forward. Her running right foot reached the ground, but her left foot stepped down on the lowered rifle’s barrel.

The knight’s long rifle now had its tip sticking diagonally into the ground.

Sf used her machinegun as a cane and continued forward.

She thrust the machinegun into the ground and let go. She took a step along the knight’s rifle with her left foot and swung her right leg up to climb up the rifle.

The upward swing of her right leg continued into a kick.

Her foot flew toward the knight’s face. It was a straight and speedy kick.

The knight made up his mind in an instant.

He let go of the rifle.

With only the long rifle’s strap still in his hand, he leaped backwards.

“!”

The knight tugged on the strap as he moved back. The rifle that had been left stabbing into the ground was powerfully pulled back even with Sf halfway through her kick atop it.

He felt a bit of resistance, but the rifle still pulled out of the ground.

“!?”

Sf had her left pivot leg on the rifle, so her footing was pulled out from under her. She began to fall backwards.

Even so, she managed to kick off the rifle and jump high into the sky behind her.

But it was too late.

The knight had already pulled the rifle back into his hands by the strap.

He narrowed the sight in on Sf as she tumbled through the air.

Just as he was about to squeeze the trigger, something happened.

Sf’s body shrank down in the air and she rotated around once.

After jumping back, Sf had taken a crouching position in midair. Something was supporting her from below.

It was the machinegun she had stabbed into the ground like a cane earlier.

Sf’s right foot sat atop the gunstock that was sticking up toward the sky.

In the next instant, she stretched her body out and jumped.

Her skirt flapped through the air and the bullet of light produced by the knight’s rifle shot by below her feet.

Sf flew.

She swung the cooler through the air above her head and cartwheeled using it as a fulcrum.

She landed behind the knight.

The knight turned his shield toward her just as she pulled an object from the cooler and threw it at him with her back to him.

What she tossed under her arm with only a flick of the wrist was a large cylindrical object.

The knight reflexively swung his shield to strike the flying object from the side.

With a heavy yet soft sound, the shield deflected the object. It flew accurately back towards Sf.

The knight continued his rotation to aim the rifle at Sf.

As he did, he realized what the object she had thrown was.

It was a 500mL plastic drink bottle.

“Wha-…?”

The dumbfounded knight saw Sf stand up.

She was facing him. Her left hand was in the cooler. Her gaze was focused squarely on the center of the knight’s wide open body.

With the sound of pieces of ice striking each other, she pulled a long metal object out of the cooler.

It was a shotgun.

Sf swung the barrel forward, using the action to cock it.

She used the reverse motion of it sliding back into place to pull the trigger.

A gunshot exploded out.

The shot first destroyed the drink bottle flying between the knight and Sf.

Immediately afterwards, it struck the knight’s breastplate.

A sound of impact exploded out.

The knight flew backwards as if he had received an uppercut.

And at that moment, a voice rang out across the open area.

“Sayama-kun!”

Sf turned toward the voice and saw a large shadow.

It was the attendant she had supposedly defeated earlier. His giant form had stood up and was now charging toward her.

After she had just fired, evasive actions were asking too much of Sf.

And the attendant held a knife in his right hand. It would strike her momentarily.

“A total loss is expected,” concluded Sf expressionlessly.

Her body grew limp as she prepared for the shock.

But then an attack flew toward the charging attendant from the side.

“…!?”

It was Sayama.

From a position back and to the right of Sf, he used the momentum of the slope and all his strength to throw a reverse roundhouse kick. His heel sliced through the air in a sharp curve before striking the attendant in the side.

It sounded more like a piercing strike than a dull one.

The attendant lost his forward momentum.

However, Sayama was half-deflected and thrown through the air due to the great difference in inertia. He kept low to the ground as he landed and took a breath.

He was not looking toward Sf. He was looking toward the woods.

Shinjou stood on the slope there.

After seeing where he was looking, Sf amended her conclusion.

“Partial damage is expected.”

Immediately afterwards, the charging attendant and Sf crossed paths.

The sound of fibers being torn could be heard.

Everything past Sf’s right shoulder flew through the air.

With its support gone, the cooler fell to the ground.

Sayama turned around and asked, “Does it hurt?”

“No, I have no sense of pain. The only pain I feel is from being unable to remain by Itaru-sama’s side.”

As she replied, her right arm fell atop the dirt and rolled two or three times down the slope.

And Sf saw something else.

Behind her, the attendant was preparing for his next attack with blood spilling from his mouth.

Sf rotated around and prepared to intercept him, but then her eyes narrowed slightly.

Behind the charging attendant, the knight was aiming his long rifle her way after he had recovered due to something written by one of the priests. And behind him, the remaining magician wrote something in the air using light.

The magician was not looking at Sf and Sayama. She was looking toward the woods where Shinjou had emerged.

Sf sensed Sayama moving behind her. She moved as well. However…

“…!”

The attendant’s charge, the knight’s shot, and the magician’s blast all came before Sf could aim the shotgun in her left hand or Sayama could take any kind of action.

The three attacks were loosed in quick succession.

Sayama saw the attack coming.

But it did not come from in front of him. It came from above. It came from above the charging attendant.

“What are you doing!?”

It was a girl.

The girl wore a lightweight white outfit and held something with a long silhouette in both hands. Her heels slammed into the attendant’s back. It was less a landing and more like a pile driver smashing the attendant into the ground.

By the time Sayama realized the girl held a long single-edged spear and a shield, he had already heard the attendant’s giant body crashing to the ground.

The attendant was struck to the ground without bouncing as if he had been hit with a hammer appropriate for his body size.

The knife he had held stabbed into the ground. It was only 15 centimeters away from Sf’s foot.

However, she had escaped any further damage. Nothing had happened to Sayama either.

''What is going on?'' wondered Sayama, but then he recalled two other things.

Specifically, the knight and magician behind the attendant.

The knight had supposedly fired his long rifle.

That bullet of light should have destroyed everything within a 20 meter square of the point it hit, but it had never arrived.

Sayama frowned and took a closer look.

Beyond the collapsed attendant and the person who stood on his back was another silhouette.

This one was a young man.

He wore a white coat and held a giant single-edged sword in both hands.

To cover his body, he held the large white sword so the bottom of the grip was pointed up and the blade was pointed down. A bluish-white electrical discharge came from its blade.

Sayama recognized both of these newcomers.

Sf spoke to them as if to reconfirm Sayama’s memory.

“You are late, Izumo-sama, Kazami-sama.”

“Don’t say that… But I do apologize for not making it in time to save your arm.”

The one apologizing and holding a long, curving spear and shield was Kazami.

She wore the same type of white suit Shinjou had worn the night before, but her waist was wrapped in cloth. She also had a backpack that folded over.

She turned toward Sayama with the same smile she always had at school.

“Oh? You don’t look too surprised.”

“Of course not. After all the bizarre things you two do, this is easy to accept.”

“Well, that’s disappointing,” said Izumo.

With his back to Sayama, he lowered the giant sword using just his right arm and glanced over his shoulder.

“Team Leviathan Primary Team, Izumo Kaku. …How’s that for a cool way to name myself?”

Sayama ignored him.

Something else was bothering him: the magician’s spell. It had unmistakably been fired toward Shinjou.

''Is she okay?'' he wondered as he turned around.

He found a figure standing before the woods with her long hair waving in the wind. It was Shinjou.

But she was not alone.

Another familiar figure stood next to Shinjou. It was a tall old man wearing a white shirt, a black vest, and black trousers. When Sayama saw him standing there empty-handed except for his black gloves, he muttered the man’s name.

“The librarian of Kinugasa Library, Siegfried Zonburg…”

The man nodded, turned around, and met Sayama’s gaze with his own blue eyes. His white beard moved as he spoke.

“You need to add two other titles to that: former consultant to the National Defense Department and sorcerer.”

“Aren’t you forgetting one!?” shouted the knight.

Everyone turned toward him. The knight vigorously swung his long rifle up toward Siegfried.

“You are the great criminal who destroyed our 1st-Gear!!”

Izumo was closest to the knight, so he reacted first.

“How about you stop that!?” he shouted while swinging his large sword horizontally.

The single-edged sword soared smoothly and easily through the air.

However, the sound it produced was not that of it striking the knight’s armor.

The magician interfered.

“What!?”

The old woman used her staff as a shield to catch Izumo’s blade in front of the knight.

The staff bent and then broke and she was knocked into the air.

In exchange, the knight managed to pull the trigger of his long rifle.

It produced a metallic noise and light was emitted from the book loaded into the rifle.

It fired.

Light flew in a shallow arc toward Siegfried.

It was as if it had been thrown down at him from above.

In response, Siegfried lightly swung his right hand.

Something fell down from his palm.

It was a piece of paper.

Siegfried took a step forward.

He swung his right arm up at the light shooting toward him.

That mass of power had grown to five meters across.

He casually struck it with the piece of paper in his right hand.

In the very next moment, that powerful light disappeared.

As everyone’s eyes opened wide, Siegfried took another step.

“!”

He began to run.

The paper in the hand he held above his head had writing on it.

That paper that had been blank just before now had a certain destruction report written in powerful handwriting.

Sayama could not read the writing, but the images were transferred to his mind.

It was an itemized list of the dead in a certain district of a city.

Siegfried held the paper in his hand as he ran.

As he clenched it into a cylindrical shape, a blade of light appeared from it.

“…So this is the power of a grudge.”

He muttered those words and moved all in the same instant.

Siegfried charged right up to the knight.

The knight aimed his rifle and fired.

However, the attack shot below Siegfried’s arm.

Siegfried had moved as if about to sink down to the ground, but had instead raised the sword of light above his head and swung it down.

His strike targeted the knight’s rifle.

The trajectory of the blade left an afterimage of light behind and the sound of the gun being sliced sounded like a rock splitting open.

The front of the destroyed rifle where the book was loaded slid vertically before completely falling off. Seeing that, Siegfried stood up and swung his left hand.

The knight tossed his rifle aside and took a defensive stance.

However, Siegfried’s left hand was not headed toward him.

His left hand grabbed ahold of the book as it fell toward the ground.

Siegfried then held it out toward the knight and spoke.

“Do not drop this. Treat your books carefully. Even when making use of them.”

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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_9|Chapter 9]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_11|Chapter 11]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Talk:Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 9

2013-06-23T22:35:32Z

Purin: Created page with "I think you forgot a break between […] “Does your pride only exist for your own sake? […] and The knight pursed his lips at Sayama’s question. ~~~~"

I think you forgot a break between […] “Does your pride only exist for your own sake? […] and The knight pursed his lips at Sayama’s question. [[User:Purin|Purin]] ([[User talk:Purin|talk]]) 17:35, 23 June 2013 (CDT)

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 9

2013-06-23T22:21:21Z

Purin:

==Chapter 9: The Circumstances of Justice==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0251.png|thumb]]
''Difficult things are generally numerous

''Easy things are always few

''And it is once more time to think

Sayama could tell the world had tilted to his left which was to the south. If the voice he had heard was accurate, everything would fall to the south in the Concept Space that had been created.

He grasped his own situation and the situation around him in an instant.

Ahead of him to the west, the only footing was the stones surrounding the grassy area. Behind him, there was the wall of the rest area as well as the tree-covered slope and viewing platform behind the rest area. To the south on his left, there was nothing but the walkway and the trees of the garden.

The only effective footing was the trees behind him.

Sayama immediately picked up Shinjou.

“S-Sayama-kun!?”

He did not have time to respond. Sayama moved to the left and leaped to the trees to the south.

His body fell in an instant.

The ground was already a wall. Sayama landed on one of the tree trunks and leaped toward the slope to the left, toward the viewing platform.

''Hurry,'' he thought.

The reason for this thought came soon thereafter. Shinjou looked up at the rest area from his arms.

“Ah…”

The sound of glass breaking sounded from well above their heads. The counters and tables in the rest area had slid down the tilted ground and crashed into the entrance.

With the ground now a wall, anything not solidly attached would become a falling object.

And they came. The tables that had broken through the rest area door and the benches in the grassy area all fell down.

But it went beyond that. The castle tower foundation to the north had a large stone wall. It crumbled and created a tsunami of giant rocks.

As these falling objects approached, they produced a great roar like the surging waves of the sea.

Sayama ran. Once he approached the eastern slope, he jumped. He was aiming for the trees covering that slope. That would provide somewhere to stand. The railing on the way up the observation platform would make especially good footing.

He leaped.

He silently apologized and threw Shinjou ahead of him into the trees.

After seeing Shinjou land backside-first on one of the trees, Sayama placed his feet on the ground which had become a wall. He lightly kicked off that wall of earth and controlled his posture. He shot up above Shinjou’s head, landed on the trunk of a pine tree, and quickly turned around.

At the same moment, the other three jumped onto trees lower than himself.

Ooshiro Itaru was carried to a nearby tree in Sf’s arms.

Ooshiro Kazuo was out of breath and he suddenly realized he still had his drink cup in his hand. Immediately afterwards, the tsunami from the crumbled northern stone wall struck the rest area. It had already made its way across the grassy area.

“…!”

As Shinjou held onto a tree one level below, she visibly ducked down as the earthquake-like noise approached.

It all happened in an instant.

After the roar and cloud of dust passed them by, everything that had been around them previously was gone. The bench they had been sitting on, the trees that had been behind them, and even the rest area had been thoroughly smashed or had vanished.

The roar continued on to the south below them. When it struck the trees down below, some of it passed through and some of it was brought to a stop.

''This is a dangerous situation,'' thought Sayama.

But he immediately denied it. They had escaped their enemy’s initial strike. It was not as dangerous as it might have been. They could handle this.

He nodded. And as he did, a dark figure stood up before him.

It was Sf. She stood on a tree trunk and looked toward the open area where most of the grass had been torn up.

“The enemy is coming.”

Sayama looked over and found the people wearing dark green cloaks were standing perpendicular to the ground and walking toward them.

“Sf-kun, why can the enemy stand and walk on the ground?”

“They have philosopher’s stones. Those are catalytic crystallizations of a concept’s string vibration. Anyone holding one can add concepts without modulating their parent string vibration. They are also used as fuel for concept weapons. The enemy must be holding philosopher’s stones made from inferior reproductions of some concept.”

Just as she finished speaking, a nearby pine tree trunk suddenly burst.

Sayama looked over, assuming it had been a bullet, but he found a few of the enemies standing still in the center of the open area were holding staff-like objects toward them.

He then heard a voice. It belonged to the man who seemed to be their leader. He wore dark green armor underneath his dark green cloak, so he looked like a knight.

“Are you coming!?” he shouted.

However, Sayama heard another shout duplicated over that one. This other shout was in a language that’s pronunciation was somehow similar to German. Sayama grasped that this was the language the man was actually speaking. Some sort of mutual understanding concept was in effect.

“That’s a convenient power.”

“As long as it is not used incorrectly,” agreed Sf.

Ooshiro Itaru then shouted from below.

“Hey, Sf.”

Three meters below where Shinjou sat one trunk below them, Ooshiro Kazuo sat on a tree trunk. Next to the old man, his son lay in his black suit on the railing heading up the observation platform. His legs were crossed and his arms were folded behind his head.

“Hurry it up. I’m gonna hold you to those 3 minutes.”

“Tes. Then take this, Sayama-sama.”

Sf pulled a black metal object out of her pocket. It was a handgun.

“That looks like a perfectly normal handgun to me.”

“The bullets are anti-1st-Gear weapons. They possess the power of writing that 1st-Gear’s parent concept provides. Objects defined by writing possess a stronger existence and are given power. As was stated previously…”

Sf pulled a handkerchief and fountain pen from her pocket and wrote a word on the handkerchief. Specifically, “fire”.

And then…

“It’s…burning?”

The area written on grew brown, then black, and finally burned away.

“The more expressive the handwritten words, the more the words’ power will be embodied in the object. Any phenomenon possible under that world’s concept can be made a reality. However, invincibility, immortality, and resurrection are not possible in any Gear. …When fighting under their concepts, your armaments will not have their proper power unless they have writing engraved into them.”

“What do this gun’s bullets say?”

“Every bullet has “bullet, one more hit” written on it. If you hit once, the next shot will automatically home in on the target. Try to use that effectively. I must retrieve the equipment I left at the café. They had a String Watch with them, so they will have been brought into the Concept Space.”

“Wouldn’t they have fallen with the rocks earlier?”

“No, I did not observe them among the fallen debris. I believe they were swept among the remaining garden trees on the northern slope. …I will have them in three minutes.”

“So you want me to hold the enemies’ attention until then?”

“Tes. You are not currently my top priority, Sayama-sama. I must ask you to take this job. By the way, my order of precedence runs Itaru-sama, Shinjou-sama, Sayama-sama, and in a very distant last place, Kazuo-sama.”

“Wait. Why are you treating me so differently?” asked Ooshiro.

“Family comes last, you damn old man. Get going, Sf. If I die, it’s your fault,” said Itaru.

“Tes. If that is your desire, I will grant it later.”

Sf circled around behind Sayama and began moving upwards. She worked her way up by grabbing onto the tree trunks growing from the earth wall, pulling herself up onto them, and swinging her body to balance herself. The tree-covered slope had originally grown from a low hill, so it looked like an overhang when looking up at it. Sf chose to remain in the shadow of the hill to hide her ascent from the enemies.

Sayama was filled with wonder over how precisely and quickly Sf moved, but he suddenly noticed the weight of the gun in his hand. He shrugged and looked down to find Shinjou blushing as she followed Sf’s movements above.

“What is it? Why are you blushing?”

“Eh? Oh, um, she was standing on the tree directly above me, remember? And, well, sh-she’s surprisingly adult?”

“What do you mean by adult?”

Sayama grinned bitterly as he looked down. Shinjou did not have a weapon, Ooshiro Itaru showed absolutely zero intention of fighting, and Ooshiro Kazuo was too old to count on in a fight.

Shinjou looked toward the open area and shouted, “Ah, here they come!”

''So they’re here,'' thought Sayama as he placed the hand holding the gun against the wall next to him. He nodded and decided he needed some kind of plan. He needed a way of fighting despite the poor footing.

He suddenly looked to his right. He was holding his right arm out straight against the wall made from the ground.

He then looked down at his feet. His was standing atop a root next to the wall.

“So down is determined by the planet’s south.”

“…Eh? What about it? Doesn’t that just mean the ground is a cliff like this?”

“There is a hole in the theory,” said Sayama with a grin.

He looked down and both Itaru and Ooshiro were grinning as well.

“I see. It looks like the crueler of us have caught on. But our enemy has not. And even you are viewing it wrong. If we can draw in the enemy and take advantage of this, we might be able to pull something off here.”

The group from 1st-Gear’s Royal Palace faction was made up of eleven people. They were spread out in a fan shape around the woods their target was hiding in. The knight who was their leader was at the front. He was flanked on either side by two attendants who were over three meters tall. They were members of some large race of beings. Beyond the attendants were two woman hidden below a cloak and holding a wooden staff. Behind each of them were two men wearing square bonnets for a total of four.

And at the very back of each row was an archer. The two of them had removed their cloaks to reveal four wings on their backs. Their wings vibrated, drawing in air from the front and blowing it behind them. Both of them tilted their bodies backwards at almost the exact same moment. It was as if they were throwing themselves to the ground or lying down. And as soon as their four wings were level with the ground…

“!”

The sound of wind burst from their backs.

Their four wings gave a single strike. And that send them flying up into the blue sky above their heads.

Once they reached a height of 15 meters, they took a position of leaning back only slightly. They tilted their wings behind them to hover in place, aimed their bows toward the woods, and pulled back the string without nocking an arrow.

The knight at the head of the group below the archers threw open the front of his cloak to show his arms.

He held a long rifle in his right hand and a shield in his left. The rifle was made of wood and metal. Instead of a magazine, a black hardcover book was sticking into the top of the rifle. The book was made of canvas material instead of paper.

A white beard moved underneath the knight’s helm as he spoke.

“If you give no response, we will continue to advance on you!”

He began to take a step with his long boots.

But then two figures appeared, standing perpendicular to the side of a tree trunk at the front of the woods.

In the front was an elderly man in a brown suit. Behind him was a boy in a gray suit.

The boy gently pushed the old man forward.

The man’s lean figure was forced to jump down from the woods and into the open.

The knight froze in place for an instant. That open area was a sheer cliff to his enemies.

For a moment, the knight almost looked up to the archers in the sky. However, he stopped himself.

The old man stood as if clinging to the ground.

He was on the very edge of the lawn area. A slight curb stuck up there.

The old man was standing tiptoe on that narrow curb while clinging to the ground.

Next, the boy in the suit jumped down. He held a paper cup with a straw.

As they both clung to the ground, they moved around three meters closer along the stone curb.

At a distance of approximately five meters, the two of them stopped.

The elderly man lightly raised his hands. He looked up at the knight and the others while in a position similar to lying on the asphalt ground. He had a troubled smile on his face.

“Hi there. Sorry about this, but could you leave for a bit?”

“No, we cannot,” immediately replied the knight quietly.

The boy standing next to the elderly man spoke in response.

“Oh, I think you can.”

Sayama looked up at the knight standing on the wall to his left. He could not see his eyes through the face of his helm, but he could see his mouth. While focusing on trying to pick up on his expression, Sayama inwardly sighed.

…''So he is at least reasonable enough to speak with.

From the speed of the knight’s reply and the calm in his voice, Sayama concluded the man was relatively experienced.

With some tension in his expression, Sayama said, “If you did not intend for us to discuss something, you would not have prepared a concept that allows us to understand each other. It seems to me you have some objective other than killing us.”

In response, the knight aimed his long rifle at him.

“What if that objective is having you beg for your life?”

“Then I would be amazed at how little difference there is between knights and bandits these days.”

“We are fighting for revenge. …We simply want those who must be punished to realize the value of life. Do you think bandits would be so merciful?”

“Are you the one that gets to determine what is merciful? If not, who do you think does?”

The knight’s mouth stiffened at that. Sayama noticed, but he continued speaking with the same expression as before.

“Do you understand where it is you stand here? Is it a scene of revenge or is it the stage of a turning point in history? If it is the latter, what do you think decides everything here? If you think it is you, you should go burn every single history book you can find. There would be no point in anyone reading them.”

The knight kept his rifle aimed at Sayama and did not move.

Sayama could see his finger on a button that was likely the trigger.

Sayama asked, “What exactly is a merciful knight? I thought it was someone who actually carried out merciful actions rather than someone who simply understood what was generally considered to be merciful. Am I wrong?”

“…”

With a bitter smile, the knight removed his finger from the rifle’s trigger. Sayama bowed.

“I thank you for your mercy.”

“It is only natural. ''However'', what do you hope for in a situation such as this?”

Sayama moved his aching left arm and placed the paper cup in his left hand on Ooshiro’s shoulder.

“Are you listening?” he said to the knight. “Ooshiro Kazuo here is the head of Japanese UCAT. His brain is filled with all sorts of valuable information. And as he has aged, his endurance has weakened, making it easier to get information out of him.”

“Hmph,” muttered Ooshiro as he glanced over at Sayama.

Sayama only ignored him.

“Ooshiro Kazuo here has not shown himself in public much recently, but today he is here in person at the Imperial Palace and even wearing normal clothes. As a special service, I will now-…”

“Are you trying to use him as a hostage?” asked the knight.

“No,” replied Sayama.

Sayama held up the drink cup with his hurting left arm. He held it next to Ooshiro’s face. The cup had the word “poison” written on it with a fountain pen and the straw was already sticking into Ooshiro’s right ear.

The knight clenched his teeth when he saw it. Sayama looked directly at the face of the knight’s helm and spoke.

“I will now give this valuable item a public execution. Perhaps.”

Sayama saw the knight take a step toward him without thinking.

But the knight stopped there.

After glancing back toward his comrades behind him, he spoke.

“Such foolishness.” He gave a bitter smile. “Kill him if you wish. That simply saves us the effort.”

“Even if Ooshiro Kazuo here rethinks his pitiful character and seeks asylum with 1st-Gear?”

“Enough nonsense!” shouted the knight and Ooshiro gave a start.

He shouted out, “Help meeeeee! I don’t want to diiiiie! What am I supposed to do!? Ow ow ow ow ow!”

Sayama lifted up the foot he had used to stomp on Ooshiro’s foot.

He then whispered, “Old man, you’re giving this too much effort.”

The knight was bending over to stare at them more closely.

''Not good. I chose the wrong person,'' thought Sayama. ''Shinjou probably would have been better.

He wondered what kind of scream she would have let out. What would it have sounded like? He regretted missing out on that.

…''Is it too late to turn back now!? Well, I can save that for some other time.

With that last thought, Sayama quickly refocused his attention.

[[Image:OnC_v01_0265.png|thumb]]

He made sure the knight could see he was giving the cup in his left hand a light squeeze.

“What will you do? I am ready to go ahead with this,” he said so as not to give the knight any longer to think.

Sayama had determined the knight was not actually after a battle.

It was likely because they had learned the leader of UCAT would be here that they had come to the Imperial Palace. That meant they were after Ooshiro Kazuo. Sayama decided they had intentionally created a situation where Ooshiro could not move so they could speak with him and have him take a certain action.

…''Most likely, they either want to abduct him or force him to sign some sort of agreement.

As Sayama nodded in his heart, he spoke to the knight.

“Listen carefully. If you try to harm any of us, I will put an end to this old man. That means it is your responsibility if his pitiable life is taken.”

“…But you are the one trying to kill him.”

“Yet you are not trying to stop me from doing so, Sir Knight.” Sayama spoke that last word with enough force to make the knight grit his teeth. He went on to say, “You announced you were merciful, so are you really going to do nothing as poison is poured into a poor old man’s ear, as he dances around in pain, and as he finally dies? If that happens, UCAT will start by punishing me. However, they will blame you as well. And that blame will spread until it affects all of the survivors of 1st-Gear.” He took a breath. “How is that merciful? You are a knight in name only. …You can lose all trust and live a life of being scorned if you wish. And it will all be for your victory here, Sir Knight.”

“Mh,” groaned the knight. “Is that poison real?”

“Do you not trust in the power of your own Gear? It even has pieces of the main ingredient inside to ensure the contents are 100% effective.”

“100% effective, you say?”

“Yes,” nodded Sayama.

He pulled a fountain pen out of his pocket and wrote another word on the cup. Above “poison” he wrote “amazing”.

“What do you think of this amazing poison? It has plenty of iron, so it’s perfect for when you finish exercising. What will you do?”

But after drawing back from Sayama’s words for an instant, the knight said, “Wait.”

He lowered his stance, took a breath, and spoke.

“I was just about to be deceived with my own Gear’s laws. Think about this.” He held up his long rifle once more. After aiming it at Sayama, he proclaimed, “You are writing on the container. I highly doubt Low-Gear has constructed a means of transferring the effects of the words to the liquid inside. The contents are nothing but a normal liquid.”

“Do you want to test that?”

Sayama smiled and the knight stopped moving once more.

After allowing a short silence, Sayama asked a further question.

“Can you take responsibility if you test this and white smoke begins spilling from this old man’s ear? Dissolve the brain, and any human will die. The same goes for any dog or monkey too, of course.”

The knight lightly bent his body back when he heard that. His bearded mouth formed a smile.

“Heh,” laughed the knight from his nose. “Hmph. Go right ahead. And as soon your threat has proven empty, I will shoot you.”

The smile the knight formed along with his words told Sayama something.

Their acting had been too over the top. And so he took action.

“Then I shall.”

With a quick movement of the fountain pen in his right hand, Sayama added “container for” above “amazing poison”. When Ooshiro saw that, his eyes truly opened wide.

“Ah,” he started. “Ahhhhh! Stop that!! This wasn’t part of the plan!!”

“Shut up. Quiet down. It is all over for you. Just do as you are told and scream. Oh, and cry too.”

Just as Sayama pushed the cup with his left hand to pour the liquid, someone reacted to the last thing Ooshiro had said.

It was the knight.

The smile from before had completely disappeared from the knight’s lips.

“Stop!” he shouted.

He covered the distance between them in an instant.

It only took him two steps. After covering five meters that quickly, he skidded to a halt along the dirt ground.

His shoes could be heard digging into the ground, his cloak flipped up, and he sent out a blast of wind.

His dark green cloak shook and the armor and equipment below created repeated metallic noises. But he came to stop there.

He was already directly in front of Sayama. He held his long rifle out toward the boy.

Sayama raised his head and looked up from his position clinging to the ground that was a wall.

The knight aimed his rifle from so close Sayama could reach out and grab it. He aimed at Sayama, not Ooshiro.

That told him that the knight’s target was definitely Ooshiro.

He could see writing on the cover of the book loaded into the top of the gun. The writing resembled the alphabet, but was a different language. He could not read it, but he could understand what it meant. It said “Investigation Report on the Destruction of the Wotan Kingdom”.

''Is that a report on the destruction of 1st-Gear?'' asked Sayama silently. ''I remember reading a story involving a king with that name.

The title of the story was on the tip of his tongue, but this was not the situation to try to remember it in.

He could see a bluish-white light leaking from between the book’s pages. The light seemed to be pulsating.

As he watched that light, Sayama asked, “What is the matter, Sir Knight? I thought I was saving you the effort of killing him?”

“…What do you want?”

“Currently, I want to pour this amazing poison into this old man’s ear. Is that a problem?”

“I am telling you to stop.”

“And I am telling you I do not want to.”

“Why?”

Ooshiro nodded in agreement with the knight’s question.

“Y-yes, why do you want to do this, Mikoto-kun?”

“Shut up, old man. …Sir Knight, let me ask you instead: what do you want?”

After a pause, the knight replied, “Revenge.”

Sayama nodded in his heart and thought.

…''That may be the truth, but he knows it will never actually happen.

As he thought, Sayama looked at the people behind the knight. Including the knight, there were eleven in total. They were all surrounded by a tense atmosphere, but they were also all quite old.

They clearly had no younger options to choose from.

Even if they fought here and won, they did not have the strength of an organization that was needed for an ultimate victory. That was why they planned to take a hostage in this battle before moving to their true stage: the negotiating table.

“…”

Sayama looked at the knight’s white beard. 1st-Gear’s destruction had apparently been around the same time as World War Two. That was 60 years ago.

Their desire at the time had been revenge. But what was it now?

The word “remnant” flashed through Sayama’s mind.

But that caused him to brace himself. Those with nothing to lose could be quite frightening.

And so he chose his words carefully as he spoke next.

“We will be holding preliminary negotiations with 1st-Gear’s peaceful faction tomorrow. Your actions here will be taken into account then, so could you perhaps fall back for now?”

“You want us to retreat?”

“Can a knight’s sword not be sheathed? If you do not sheathe your sword, a grudge will be held against all the people of 1st-Gear in any negotiations held afterwards. And that includes everyone you stand for.”

“There are times when one cannot sheathe his sword for reasons of pride. Am I wrong?”

After hearing that calm request for confirmation, Sayama let out a breath.

…''This is the crucial moment.

He thought and finally said, “Does your pride only exist for your own sake? Or is it for the sake of all those waiting for you?”

The knight pursed his lips at Sayama’s question.

He did not speak, but the sound of his teeth grinding leaked from his jaw. However…

“…”

The knight’s rifle barrel shook slightly. His white beard moved as he opened his mouth to speak.

“What does a boy from this lowly Gear know of the pride of a 1st-Gear knight?”

Without even a smile, Sayama shook his head.

“I only asked you a question concerning your pride. I am asking you to make up for my lack of knowledge on the subject.” He took a breath. “Now tell me. What is your pride? Tell me as calmly as you can.”

The knight’s moustache formed a small smile at that.

And he began to lower his rifle.

Just as he did, he suddenly looked up and tension filled his entire body.

“…!”

The knight took a step back and turned an intense look in Sayama’s direction.

However, the eyes below the helm were not looking at Sayama’s face. They were looking beyond him, to the south of the large open space.

Sayama turned to look in the same direction.

Amid the trees to the south that had taken a lot of damage from the falling stone wall, a single small black form was visible.

It was a black cat.

The cat sat on a pine tree trunk just as the UCAT group had done. It was staring up at them. However, Sayama was certain that the knight had reacted to that black cat.

Sayama felt he had seen the cat somewhere before, but he shook his head.

…''This is not the time for that.

He turned back toward the knight to find everything wrapped in tension. All eleven of the people spread out in front of him were starting at the black cat and holding their breath.

Their silence felt as if it could burst at any time. And it was finally broken by a word from the knight.

“Sorry.”

He spoke with his eyes cast down, but he had not been speaking to Sayama.

Nevertheless, he quickly raised the long rifle, aimed, and pulled the trigger.

At the same instant, Sayama took action.

Shinjou clearly saw tension run through the group from where she was amid the trees.

She looked in the direction the 1st-Gear group was looking and spotted a black cat.

“What is that?”

Itaru spoke from below where he sat on the railing leading up to the viewing platform.

“A familiar used by a 1st-Gear sorcerer. They’re used to contact people. In other words, these idiots were being observed and they only now realized it. That means they can no longer run away.” He smiled bitterly. “After the destruction of 1st-Gear, its residents split into three factions in Low-Gear. Fasolt’s peaceful faction, the Royal Palace faction that split off with Concept Space technology, and the City faction that has the mechanical dragon named Fafnir Custom. This is the Royal Palace faction that has no real distinguishing characteristics. …Almost makes me feel bad for my old man. He’s being forced to act so desperately against these small fries.”

“Why does everyone around me say such horrible things about their parents…?”

Shinjou frowned and sighed where Itaru could not see her. She held the handgun Sayama had left with her. The weight and coldness of the black metal did not warm up even in her tight grip. She simply could not get used to the feel of it. However…

“He left this with me.”

Sayama had asked her to let the knights walk toward him. And if the negotiations failed, he had said he would raise his right hand. Then she was to fire.

Currently, the knight stood at the head of the enemy’s fan-shaped formation and he was facing Sayama. If the negotiations failed, Sayama’s plan was for her to fire at him.

From where Shinjou was, Sayama was about 15 meters forward and 5 meters down. That was at about the limit of what an amateur could hope to hit with a handgun.

The ballistic trajectory would drop. With a handgun’s weak rotation, a slight margin of error would definitely exist.

And the knight held a shield on his left arm. That shield was in her way. However…

“If the negotiations fail, he will have the knight move his shield to leave him open in this direction.”

Could she do it? Shinjou tilted her head, but abandoned the question.

The situation was desperate. The knight took a step back and lowered his head slightly.

“———”

He said something she could not hear and held up his long rifle.

At the same moment, Sayama moved.

He waved his left arm toward the knight. The paper cup in that hand flew toward the knight while scattering its contents. The knight held his shield up to knock away the cup.

Shinjou stared at the half of the knight’s body that was now wide open.

Sayama raised his right hand. That was the signal.

“Now!”

Shinjou aimed and squeezed the trigger. She aimed for his body. That was her limit.

But a sudden voice came from below.

“Why aren’t you aiming for the head? …You always have been soft.”

It was Itaru. And he did not stop speaking there.

“If you shoot at his body, his armor will deflect it. If you do not kill the knight, ''he'' might die.”

Her hands holding the grip began trembling at the word “he”.

Shinjou suddenly recalled what had happened the previous night. She recalled the instant in which she had been unable to do anything.

And so she tightened her grip on the trigger. She tried to fire as soon as possible.

She squeezed it. And at the same moment, Itaru shouted at her. His powerful tone of voice lacked any hint of a smile.

“Kill him!!”

Shinjou’s shoulders shook and she squeezed the trigger. But that action did nothing.

There was no gunshot, no recoil, and no bullet flying out. There was nothing.

As she had tried to pull the trigger, the grip had fallen from her hands. Her grip had no strength. The handgun hung down from her fingertips by the trigger guard as her opened hands trembled.

She could not fire. And as soon as she realized that…

“Ah!”

The trembling of her hands spread to her shoulders.

In the next moment, she heard a gunshot that had not come from her gun.

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| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_10|Chapter 10]]
|-
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Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 8

2013-06-23T20:15:03Z

Purin:

==Chapter 8: Chasing the Past==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0225.png|thumb]]
''If the past lies before your eyes

''What are you as you view it?

''Surely, you would not even be yourself

After a bit over an hour of being shaken on the train from Akigawa, Sayama arrived at Tokyo Station.

After leaving the station building, it was only a straight path to the Imperial Palace.

“I was called to…the remains of Honmaru in the East Garden.”

Wearing a gray suit, Sayama entered through the front gate, passed through a gap in a stone wall almost 10 meters tall, and made his way to the top of a hill.

The area inside was large. The air felt cold in the shadow below the stone wall and he walked on and on up a slope.

After making it to the top of the asphalt slope, he found an open area covered in grass.

To the north of the open area was the giant raised foundation for the main tower of a Japanese castle. The open area itself was two hundred meters square and surrounded by pine trees and thickets. The lawn was divided in two by the asphalt path cutting down the middle, but it was not off limits.

The sounds of the city could be heard in the distance. Those sounds were so faint they felt like something from a dream. It was all coming from beyond the trees surrounding the area.

And when Sayama entered this area, he saw no other visitors.

He stopped his hurrying feet and took a breath.

As usual, Baku was sleeping in his left breast pocket. The watch on his left wrist told him it was 1:10 PM. He had made it in time. Now he only needed to find them.

…''Where is Shinjou-kun?

As Sayama looked around the deserted area, he realized something.

He was supposed to be looking for Ooshiro, not Shinjou.

He gave a bitter laugh. It shook his lungs slightly and he could feel it reverberating in his left arm.

Suddenly, he heard the grass rustling.

It was the wind.

The wind was blowing in from the east. He turned toward the rest area in that direction and the wind blowing up from the bottom of the hill shook the leaves of the trees and thickets on the slope that contained a viewing platform.

The wind moved the trees and the atmosphere moved.

Someone walking in front of the bench installed on the western wall of the concrete rest area displayed the movements of the wind.

It was as if she was playing with the strong wind.

She had long black hair. Slender, glossy bunches of her hair were dancing and undulating in the blowing wind.

The orange shirt below the hair and the white trousers supporting her slender figure were also blown around a bit as the wind picked up strength. He saw her shoulder, her back, and her other shoulder. She slowly lifted her head as her hair whipped around.

He saw her narrow black eyes and her lips with a hint of teeth between them.

Sayama’s gaze met with those smiling eyes.

In that moment, she stopped walking. Still smiling, her mouth opened.

“Sayama-kun.”

Sayama opened his mouth as well.

“Shinjou-kun.”

The wind gave one last gust. Her hair swayed. Sayama watched that black glossy movement.

“…”

It danced up and fell back down.

In the next moment, Shinjou brushed the hair on her shoulder back. Her black hair spilled from her shoulder and down her back.

When Shinjou looked back at him, her head was tilted a bit in puzzlement as she smiled.

“Good day, I suppose. What am I supposed to say at times like this?”

Sayama nodded in response. He looked behind Shinjou and spotted Ooshiro raising his right thumb from where he sat on the bench. Sayama ignored him and spoke to Shinjou.

“It is good to see you again, Shinjou-kun.”

They began their talk at the bench Ooshiro had been sitting on.

Sayama sat in the afternoon sun with Shinjou on his right and Ooshiro on his left.

Shinjou sat with her legs held together and Sayama sat deeply on the bench with his elbows resting on his lap. On the other hand, Ooshiro sat with one leg up on the bench as if sitting partially cross-legged.

Sayama spoke first and it was in the form of a question.

“You said you would explain the details of the Concept War and the Leviathan Road, but why did you call me here?”

“Is it enough of an explanation to say it was to help persuade you? I actually have a fair bit of influence, so I reserved the place for us.”

“UCAT can do that?”

“We’re doing it right now. Speaking inside the Imperial Palace itself would have been best, but I’m not allowed inside after the fireworks incident…”

Sayama ignored that comment and looked around the area. It was true that there were no other visitors.

However, there was a single open-air café on the north end of the deserted area. A white mobile kitchen set was surrounded by three tables with white parasols containing the UCAT logo.

No one was working at the café, but two customers sat below one of the parasols.

“I had the guards leave as well. This is important, after all.”

As he spoke, Ooshiro pulled a black change purse from his pocket. He tossed it into Shinjou’s hands. She looked confused as she caught it.

“Umm…What is this?”

Sayama nodded and answered, “Most people refer to it as an allowance.”

“Wow. I’ve never gotten one before.”

“I see. You must be happy. But be careful. Lonely old men like him think they can buy relationships with money.”

“…I think that’s different from the kind of allowance I’ve heard about.”

“Just go buy some drinks,” cut in Ooshiro. “You can spend 300 yen.”

“In that case, get me an iced tea, Shinjou-kun. You can order whatever you want.”

“Um, Mikoto-kun. Why did you say nothing about my drink?”

“That café’s sign says drinks cost 150 yen.”

“What? When did Japan’s prices get so high! I’m shocked!”

“Old man, you should return to the mountains of Okutama. Tokyo is a dangerous place.”

“You two sure get along well…” said Shinjou with a bitter smile.

She stood the coin purse up in her hand, took out exactly 450 yen in change, and handed the coin purse to Ooshiro. He took it and spoke in a completely serious tone of voice.

“I would like a hot red bean soup.”

“I doubt they have it, but I’ll do my best…”

As he listened to her footsteps across the gravel growing more distant, Sayama sighed.

“Once our drinks arrive, can we finally discuss the Concept War?”

Brunhild drew a brush across the large canvas.

After refining the shade of green on the palette, she added leaves to the forest that had already been painted over countless times. The black cat was curled up at her feet.

“You sure are taking your time with this. And to think you don’t spend any time at all on your makeup.”

“Do you want your prided black fur to be green?” she asked with a slight smile on her lips.

The cat looked up to find Brunhild’s eyebrows as well as the corner of her mouth raised a bit.

A quiet song could be heard on her breaths. The rhythm Brunhild was subconsciously singing was the hymn Silent Night. The cat moved its ears to listen to the song.

“Is painting that much fun?” it asked.

The song stopped, but the brush did not.

“Yes. It is the one thing Lady Gutrune taught me that I can continue doing. How could I not enjoy that?”

“But you always paint scenery I have never seen.”

The cat hung its head down and Brunhild’s hand finally stopped. She looked down at the cat. However, the cat only yawned once with its head still hanging down.

Brunhild’s shoulders drooped as she smiled bitterly. She placed the palette and brush on a table to the side.

“Do you know what the 1st-Gear world was like?”

After thinking for a bit, the black cat raised its head and shook its head.

Brunhild nodded and picked the cat up. She held it to her chest and stood back up.

The cat panicked and asked, “Shouldn’t you be painting?”

“Shouldn’t you be heading out to do your job soon? Earlier, I saw your observation target leaving down below.”

“You’re the one charged with observing him, so why am I always the one going after him? I was born here. I’m not a 1st-Gear creature.”

“Don’t be like that. But if that is how you are thinking, maybe I should teach you something about 1st-Gear before you leave.”

“Hmm,” thought the cat before finally nodding.

Brunhild smiled slightly and said, “Good, good. Come to think of it, you haven’t been told anything since the ceremony. You might have picked a bit up from what Venerable Hagen has told you, though.”

“Most of that is just fragments of information. People who know the whole story tend to omit aspects they assume everyone knows.”

“True. Sorry.”

She approached the blackboard at the back of the classroom.

The blackboard was stained with a pale whiteness. Brunhild placed one of her right fingers on it and slowly drew an oblong ellipse. She covered the top of the ellipse with a semicircle.

“This is 1st-Gear. This at the bottom is the ground and this at the top is space.”

“Wow, that’s lazy…Ow ow ow ow! Ahh! M-mommyyy!!”

“You were originally an abandoned cat, so you don’t remember your mother.”

“D-don’t be so rude. Of course I remember her.”

“Then tell me about her. If your information is accurate, I can find her for you.”

“Well, let’s see… I think she was a female that was older than me…ow ow ow! I give, I give!”

Brunhild sighed and flicked the ellipse on the blackboard with her finger.

“Listen. This is 1st-Gear.”

Before the black cat could say anything, she scratched the blackboard with her nails. The cat cowered down and trembled at the high-pitched noise, so she continued her explanation.

“Essentially, it is a table of land floating in nothingness. The sun circles through the sky during the day, sleeps and becomes dark at night, and then returns to its original position. …We do not have what Low-Gear refers to as a moon.”

“That sounds like ordering a plain pizza. Isn’t it boring without any toppings like the moon?”

“Think of it as having the beauty of simplicity. You do not worry about something that was never there in the first place. …Although it is true the land is limited. Even so, the people and animals managed to live on as they adjusted to each other.”

“Was it peaceful?”

“Yes. The Concept War may have continued for a long time, but the king only prepared two gates that an enemy could easily enter through. …The knights and mechanical dragons fought in the war, but we rarely invaded anyone. We had pride. We would survive until the time of destruction and then the world would judge us.”

“The time of destruction, hm? …That was what this world calls 1999, when every single Gear would collide. Only the Gear with the most positive concepts would survive. Personally, I don’t see how 1st-Gear’s method of remaining on the defensive could let you survive.”

“It was a matter of pride. We were fighting to protect ourselves, so we could be proud of what we were fighting for. …The king disliked the idea of fighting to destroy our opponent. Especially after the queen died in the Concept War.”

“So did the king leave the princess with Venerable Regin because she reminded him of the queen?”

“Yes. It was after that when Lady Gutrune took me in within the forest. …And a while after that, the Low-Gear man made his way in through a temporary gate.”

Brunhild looked behind her. On the large canvas there, a single area was not painted.

“…”

Brunhild silently walked over to the back of the art room. A locker was located there.

The label on the locker said it was for the club head. She placed a hand on its door and spoke.

“Seeing the world close in and be destroyed was a dreadful sight. We watched it to the end by the gate, knowing that the world had gone too far in the negative direction to be fixed even if we retrieved the holy sword Gram. We saw it all disappear into nothingness.”

“…”

“Do you know why the king prepared only two of the gates needed to attack other Gears and created mechanical dragons based on 5th-Gear technology despite the risks? After losing the queen in the Concept War, he did everything he could to protect 1st-Gear. It was all for the bare minimum of offense and defense needed. That was the pride of 1st-Gear. We would do whatever it took to survive until the time of destruction.”

“What were you going to do then?”

“If 1st-Gear was to disappear, we would proudly surrender to the victorious Gear. …Even if we were surrendering, it was assumed that Gear would approve of our method of fighting.”

She smiled bitterly. And the bitter smile continued on to form a full smile.

“1st-Gear knew it was a weak Gear. …And that was taken advantage of. Once we were destroyed, it was obvious we had done nothing but run from the fight. There is no pride in that.”

As Brunhild spoke, she knocked on the locker door.

With the sound of a hinge, the door opened on its own. And inside the tall, narrow locker was…

“The 1st-Gear concept weapon, Requiem Sense<ref>Requiem Sense is German for Requiem Scythe</ref>.”

It was a giant scythe with the blade bending down. A supporting grip stuck perpendicularly from the long handle so that it could be used in fields. The blade that was the true essence of a scythe arced to the front and back from the decorative attachment at the top, and just the front portion of the blade was over a meter long.

And this scythe’s ability went beyond its form.

Small lights began to gather around the opened locker. They were bluish-white lights that resembled fireflies. Those lights trailed light behind themselves as they gathered around the locker and gradually grew larger.

Brunhild stared at the blade which had some kind of writing engraved on it.

“This scythe stores the souls it hears. It is the underworld itself. Venerable Hagen possessed it as the chief administrator of the underworld, but…”

The black cat reached a paw out towards the lights. It tried to touch one, but its paw passed right through it. Brunhild gave a small laugh.

“It’s no use. But it was about 10 years ago that this much light became visible here in Low-Gear. Before that, nothing was visible without preparing a Concept Space. …This Gear is slowly being damaged by the negative concepts and the Concept Cores of each Gear are reacting.”

“Are the souls of Lady Gutrune and the others inside that blade?”

“Most likely. But with so many souls inside, we would never see them clearly. Not unless something caused them to separate from all the others.”

Brunhild snapped her right fingers.

The locker slowly closed and the surrounding light vanished.

Brunhild then lowered the black cat to the floor.

“Now, it is time for your job. …You know where your observation target was headed, right? Use the abilities given to you as a familiar to follow him into a Concept Space or wherever else he might go.”

Shinjou soon returned with three cups in her hands.

She glanced back at the café behind her with a slightly surprised look.

“It really was a UCAT café. They all looked so bored.”

“How about you say they were working hard to make it look more convincing?” said Ooshiro in resignation.

Next to him, Sayama took a cup with a straw in it. The aroma coming from it told him it was plain black tea. Shinjou seemed to have orange juice.

“Ooshiro-san, they did not have hot red bean soup…so I got you 100% juice instead.”

“I see. That is a healthy choice. Thank you.”

Ooshiro raised his right thumb and audibly drank through the straw.

Just as he did, Shinjou added, “It’s salted beef tongue juice.”

Ooshiro began choking magnificently, but Sayama ignored him and smiled at Shinjou.

“That is quite an exciting choice. And technically, it is not juice.”

“But this is a UCAT café. They said it has pieces of beef tongue in it to really bring out the flavor of the ingredients. Oh, and it was him over there that suggested it.”

Sayama looked over. Under a parasol sat two people who were difficult to tell apart in the shadow. One of them was raising a hand.

As Ooshiro kneeled on the ground in front of the bench, he commented, “So it was his doing.”

“Do you know him?”

“I’m sure you will be introduced to him later. More importantly, let us get to why I chose this place for today.”

Ooshiro sat back on the bench and looked toward Sayama’s chest. Baku poked his head out from his suit’s breast pocket.

Ooshiro held his hand out and Baku silently let the man pet his head.

“Did he show you the past?”

“He showed me a strange dream.”

“Eh? Of what?”

“Well,” Sayama nodded. “A one-armed old man approached while out of breath in a grassy plain surrounded by a forest. When I turned around, I saw a giant tower.”

“If we view that as a dream, the one-armed old man would represent your true character and the giant tower would represent the scope of your perversion. What do you think?”

“I am too perverted for even myself to see the top when I look up? …That is quite something.”

“No, that is not what I meant… Your description of the dream lacked a lot of information, didn’t it?”

“It did. Everything the man in the dream wore was old. I would guess it dates back to before the war. And the man referred to the tower as Babel. What was it?”

A smile appeared on Ooshiro’s lips and he raised his right thumb.

“Excellent. It seems Baku has already approved of you. Baku will show his owner whatever truth they subconsciously wish to see. If you tell him your current intentions in words, he can show you the past of different Gears. However, you cannot see it if you do not wish to. Remember that.” Ooshiro stood up and put his hands in his suit pockets. “It was all decided here before World War 2. At the beginning of the Showa era, a scholar noticed Babel and took action.”

“…Who was he?”

“A man who worked as a professor at First Higher School – what is now known as Tokyo University – as a technology adviser for Izumo Steel, the predecessor to IAI. He went on to found your school and made the original proposal for Izumo’s National Defense Department. His name was Kinugasa Tenkyou,” said Ooshiro. “He discovered some ruins on a trip through the Kinki region. That was Babel. After the events of the dream you saw, he entered Babel. He described Babel as being strange ruins. No one fully believed him. After all, he was the only one able to enter Babel.”

“I find it hard to believe, but did those ruins have some sort of security mechanism?”

“Yes. For some reason only he, the initial discoverer, was able to pass through that mechanism. At the time, people accused him of rigging it so he could monopolize the knowledge inside. However, he asked for no compensation from Izumo and revealed everything he learned within, so those suspicions eventually disappeared. Izumo quickly entered the aviation and electronic industries, so it gained a position as a special research institute for the military. And eventually,” he tapped at the asphalt with his toes, “a certain proposal was made right here. It was 1933. As Japan was preparing its military, the most powerful person in the country was troubled by one thing: did this country truly approve of him?”

“…”

“And so this powerful person confided in a soldier who had worked as his chamberlain in the past. He wanted to do everything possible to protect the country from the rest of the world, so he wanted to know if the country could do anything from its position as the land of the gods.”

Ooshiro lowered his gaze.

Sayama felt their gazes meet.

And then he felt a small movement in his left breast pocket.

It was Baku.

Baku stuck up out of the pocket.

And then Sayama saw the past.

Sayama existed as nothing but vision. He was in the same open space as before.

However, it looked different. The trees surrounding it were shorter and the path was made of dirt instead of asphalt.

The biggest difference was the absence of the distant noises of the city.

''This is the past,'' realized Sayama.

A single table was set up where the café had been a moment before.

Two figures sat below the large white parasol.

Sayama moved toward them.

The first was a middle-aged gentleman wearing a white shirt and brown pants.

The second was an elderly soldier wearing a white military uniform.

The soldier had two maps spread out on the table.

They formed a world map centered on Japan.

The soldier opened his mouth to speak. Sayama heard two different voices. In addition to the actual words spoken in the past, he heard the meaning of those words in his own language.

“The Izumo Aviation Institute has an old professor named Professor Tenkyou. He developed this odd theory known as the Divine States-World Interaction Theory. According to this theory, the layout of ley lines gives Japan a layout identical to the entire world.”

“Oh?” The middle-aged gentleman nodded and pushed his glasses up his nose. “What exactly does this man propose?”

“Japan’s shape causes the Divine States to correspond to the continents of the world. All of those continents possess ley lines and all of those ley lines coincidentally pass through Japan. Or so his theory says.” The elderly soldier pulled a fountain pen from his chest and held the map down with his hand. “I will now indicate where the ley lines connect.”

The middle-aged gentleman nodded and the soldier brought the fountain pen to Japan.

He drew a ring of ink from Honshu's Tohoku region to Chubu region. He then drew a circle over East Asia. The top of the circle covered the Soviet Union and China and the bottom reached Burma. Lastly, he connected the two circles with a line.

“Tohoku to Chubu corresponds to East Asia. The coast starting at the northeast is the coast along the Soviet Union, Tokyo Bay is the Yellow Sea, the Izu Peninsula is Thailand, Shizuoka is India, Ise Bay is the Persian Gulf, and the Kii Peninsula is the Arabian Peninsula.”

“What part of Japan corresponds to Japan as a part of the world?”

“Japan and the Philippines are the Izu Islands. When looking at this world map, Japan’s prided Mt. Fuji fits perfectly with the location of Mt. Everest above India.”

The soldier drew a circle around Honshu’s Kinki region to its Chugoku region, drew a circle around Europe, and connected them with a line.

“Lake Biwa is the Caspian Sea and the nearly enclosed Osaka Bay is the Black Sea. The Kojima Peninsula is Greece and the area around Kure is the Italian Peninsula. Tsushima is Great Britain, the Shimane Peninsula is Norway, and Sado is the Arctic islands.”

The soldier paused for a moment.

However, the gentleman said nothing. He remained silent.

After a few seconds, the soldier’s hand moved once more. He drew circles around Kyushu and Africa before connecting them with a line.

“Other than having Madagascar correspond to the area around Tanegashima, you can see the similarity in shape.”

“Then does Shikoku correspond to Australia?”

“Exactly.”

The soldier drew circles around Shikoku and Australia and connected them. He then drew circles around Hokkaido and the Americas and connected them.

“Hokkaido’s Oshima Peninsula is Alaska. The central portion is North America. Nemuro and the four northern islands can be thought of as South America. Antarctica is covered in ice and most of the land is below the ocean surface, so the portion of Japan’s geography that protrudes onto the bottom of the ocean on the Pacific side corresponds to it.”

“I see. And that is called the Divine States-World Interaction? What good is this absurd idea?”

“According to Professor Tenkyou, the whole influences the part and the part influences the whole. If Japan possesses the layout of the world due to the world’s ley lines passing through, he suggests we could influence the world from here.”

“How exactly?”

“All things are created from waves just as sound is and the ley lines of feng shui are vibrations – or waves – of the earth. In that case, if we can strengthen the amplitude of those vibrations, we can stimulate the earth’s ley lines as they pass through Japan. That could allow Japan to take the earthly energy of those other parts of the world so as to protect the country.”

Once the soldier made it that far, the middle-aged gentleman nodded as if urging him on.

The soldier bowed and said, “The Izumo Aviation Institute will create a National Defense Department and facilities for stimulating the ley lines located around Japan. The Izumo Aviation Institute has already appropriated funds for these facilities and can act at any time. They say they can grasp the flow of the ley lines around the world using the flow through the ley lines here and that they can increase Japan’s earthly energy.”

“So in other words, they can read ahead what will happen in the world while also strengthening Japan. Perhaps strengthen it to the point that it could be revived even if it was about to sink into the ocean.”

The soldier gasped at that last comment from the gentleman. However, he then nodded.

That small sign of understanding led the gentleman to ask another question.

“What do they say?”

“Simply that they wish for the National Defense Department to be untouchable.”

“Then they had better show results.”

“I will have them read something from the flow of the world within the week. …The world is in upheaval at the moment. If they predict this accurately, you will trust them.”

“If they do, I will approve the creation of the Izumo Aviation Institute’s National Defense Department.”

“Understood. It would be unprecedented, but they ask to be treated as a shrine belonging to the Imperial Household Department. That way, the ley line alterations can be done as Shinto rituals. They will submit a report once a month as a form of fortune-telling.”

The soldier folded up the map.

With the sound of the paper, the past also folded in.

Sayama’s consciousness slowly folded toward reality and he awoke.

“Oh.”

The next thing he knew, he was sitting on the bench. It seemed Shinjou had seen the same thing while sitting to his right. Her face was pale and she was looking forward with unfocused eyes.

“Ah…”

Shinjou’s shoulders jumped and she turned toward Sayama. He nodded to calm her.

To his left, Ooshiro narrowed his eyes in a smile yet spoke in an indifferent voice.

“It seems the civilization which built Babel had a complete understanding of concept theory. Professor Kinugasa used the knowledge he gained there to perform tests on influencing space with vibration waves. He chose the ley lines for these tests. All of that about protecting the country was mostly an excuse made up for this important person. In the end, it is unknown if they actually read the ley lines or if they merely made educated guesses, but the Izumo Aviation Institute correctly predicted the Nazis taking political control in Germany and Japan withdrawing from the League of Nations. After that, the National Defense Department was created.”

“Then was that-…?”

Before Sayama could continue, he was cut off by another voice in front of him.

“That was the beginning.”

“!?”

He reflexively sent a sharp look forward and found two people standing there.

He recognized them.

It was the white-haired man and the maid girl from the Okutama-bound train the day before.

The only difference from then was that the man in a black suit was supporting himself with a cane in his right hand. Just like on the train, the man had a smile on his lips.

“Sounds like they weren’t thinking at all, doesn’t it? It is true the world and Japan are connected by the ley lines. But they did not understand what that called in. At the time, no one knew about the Concept War. If only they had been a little smarter.”

“What a rude man,” muttered Sayama as he stood up. “Who are you? Wearing all black and not providing a greeting shows a complete lack of taste and manners.”

He felt a tug on his right arm. He turned around to find Shinjou holding his right sleeve.

The ends of her eyebrows were lowered and she was shaking her head.

“That is the supervisor of Team Leviathan. He is Ooshiro Itaru-san, the son of this Ooshiro-san.”

“What? This guy with horrible taste is?”

Sayama looked over at the father who was wearing a brown suit and holding salted beef tongue juice. When their gazes met, the man raised his right thumb. Sayama ignored him and turned back to Itaru in this black suit.

“I suppose you can’t fight it when bad taste runs in the family…”

“Sayama-kun, that has nothing to do with this,” said Shinjou as she tapped him lightly on the shoulder.

“I apologize,” spoke up the maid standing next to Itaru. She moved in between Itaru and Sayama before looking around the area. “This may be a bother, but would you please listen? I have detected some strange child string vibrations for a while now. They are not registered with me. …They are coming from that direction.”

She pointed to the northwest which was to Sayama’s right.

The grassy open area was located in that direction. Everyone but them had supposedly been cleared out of that area.

However, some shadows had appeared there at some point.

It was a group of dark green shadows.

The color came from the cloaks they all wore.

There were eleven of them. And it was hard to simply say it was a group of people. Sayama saw some silhouettes that he doubted were human.

…''Are these comrades of the werewolf from yesterday?

The maid kept her gaze on them but asked the group from UCAT a question.

“You have no concept weapons or other armaments, correct?”

Ooshiro Kazuo nodded.

“Bringing that sort of thing was your job.”

“Tes. The enemy is reading in the child string vibration of us and the surrounding space… They have finished. Our reinforcements waiting below are hurrying here. They will arrive in approximately five minutes. It may be a bother, but please withstand any attacks the enemy might send your way.”

“For five minutes?”

“No, for three. …After that, I will use the weapons I have prepared.”

“You are quite the courageous maid. What is your name?”

“I am Sf.”

Sf gave an expressionless bow and Sayama nodded.

“Your name and master may have terrible taste, but your choice in actions is a different story. I need to make some changes to my estimation of you.”

“Thank you very much. …Here comes the Concept Space. It is a standard type using the writing system,” she said quietly.

They all turned toward the group of enemies.

A woman standing at the front of the dark green group held up a metal tube-like object in each hand. They were about 30 centimeters long.

“Those are the collections of Concept Texts used by 1st-Gear,” said Itaru with a slight smile still on his face.

The woman let go of the metal tubes. They fell through the air and struck the grassy ground.

As soon as they landed, the tubes spread out like blooming flowers.

What appeared from within was…

…''Metal plates?

They were small bundles of metal plates that looked like tanzaku.

Some kind of writing appeared to be engraved on the surface of the metal plates and those plates scattered through the air as the tubes bloomed. There were more than several hundred of them and they flew through the air like a blizzard.

The metal plates emitted by the two tubes struck each other, glowed, made noise, and disappeared.

A high-pitched noise could then be heard.

It sounded like a metallophone being played or a bell being rung on the hour. That series of short metallic noises changed to a deep clear noise.

Sayama realized the noise was rushing past them.

And at the same time, he heard a voice. It was the voice that informed him the world was changing. He had heard this voice the previous night when entering the forest and when entering that underground passageway in UCAT. He recognized the voice.

It was his own.

He had not spoken a word, yet he heard a voice similar to his own in his ear.

Sayama spoke. The world worked through him to inform him of the change.

He figured the others must be connected to the world via themselves in the same way. He listened closely and could indeed hear the world saying, “I am changing”.

A few voices he could not quite hear repeated themselves to construct the foundation of this space.

And then an announcement with discernible meaning came. This was the absurd theory created by bringing together countless concepts. This was the Concept Text applied to this Concept Space.

—'''On this planet, south is down.

—'''Writing possesses power.

Two voices. This was a combination of more than one Concept Text.

In response, the watch on Sayama’s left wrist vibrated. He looked down and saw the words he had heard scrolling across the watch’s black face in red text. And the instant after he read those words…

The world literally turned on its side.

<noinclude>
===Notes===
<references/>
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|-
| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_7|Chapter 7]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_9|Chapter 9]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Talk:Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Prologue

2013-06-19T17:32:54Z

Purin:

When you mention them in plural (once), you call them "Heavy Gods of War", but when talking in singular (twice), it says "Havy War of God". Taking into account that on the Kyokai Senjou no Horizon Guidelines the equivalent is "Gods of War", which one is correct?--[[User:Kemm|Kemm]] ([[User talk:Kemm|talk]]) 17:55, 6 June 2013 (CDT)

―

“Ah,” leaked out another noise. Shouldn’t it be …another noise leaked out, or …she leaked out another noise? Didn’t change it since I’m not sure about the original.

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Prologue

2013-06-19T17:22:22Z

Purin:

==Prologue: Saint’s Song==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0011.png|thumb]]
''He called out.

''She sang.

''Those words continued until the sound completely vanished.

It was night.

An area of land emitted light below the darkness of the heavens.

It was a city.

In the center of this city, a large white structure sat where the railways gathered.

This train station building stood eight stories tall.

The second story of the north entrance was made into a large terrace with the words “Tachikawa Station North Entrance” displayed in blue.

The clock on the opposite building read 10 PM. The station building’s workers had left for the night, but the last train was still a long way off.

However, no one could be seen in the station, on the station terrace, or on the traffic circle in front of the station.

Below a row of green-leaved trees along near the traffic circle was a line of cars. However, not one of these cars was moving. No busses were running either. The train tracks stretching away from the station had no trains running on them.

The entire area was deserted.

A single noise could be heard in that unmoving world.

It came from above.

It was on the eastern side of the upper levels of the station building. Specifically, a tenant window on the seventh floor. Someone was beating on the window from within.

The silhouette visible through the glass was feminine.

She suddenly stopped moving. Then she left the window and ran in the opposite direction.

The very next moment, a new shadow appeared in the window.

Taking the place of the feminine figure was a large silhouette over two meters tall.

It slammed into the window.

The window bent, bulged out, and then broke when it could no longer withstand the force.

A single shattering sound could be heard. It was followed by the sound of shards spraying out into the air.

Three silver arcs shot out the window as if trying to scratch at those glimmers scattering through the air.

They were claws.

Those arcs of light scratched at the flying glass shards with compact movements.

The giant shadow the claws belonged to turned around as it swung its arm. In the space of half a breath, the shadow disappeared from the window frame. It was pursuing the fleeing feminine figure.

The outside wind blew into the building as if following after the shadow.

After hours, the train station building’s escalator landing only had the bare minimum of illumination. A single figure was stopped there gasping for breath. The emergency lighting showed a girl with disheveled hair and wearing a blazer.

The girl held a large black case and the floor number printed yellow on the floor below her feet read “3”. If she turned around and continued down another floor, she would reach the second floor.

“I can get to the terrace from there,” she said before coughing. She coughed twice and then thrice before raising a trembling voice. “You have to be kidding me… What is this? What is attacking me?”

The dry cough continued after she spoke and it only further dried the air in her lungs. She bent over and her lips formed voiceless words:

I’m sorry. I was an idiot to not come home right away.

She strengthened her grip embracing the black case in her arms.

A flute symbol could be seen next to the maker’s logo on the top of the case. A single piece of paper was balled up in the side pocket. She caught sight of the white of the ribbon attached to the paper.

“All my bad luck started here. Three years of bad luck. And now when I lose my nerve and come to hide in my usual spot, my security guard grandfather is gone… And then a strange shadow starts swinging blades around…”

Before that had happened, she had thought she had heard some kind of odd voice. The voice had reverberated in her head. That had woken her up.

She tilted her head while wondering what that had been, but she quickly swung her head back into place.

…''I need to run away before that shadow catches up.

She breathed out and a noise reverberated from overhead as if in response.

Running footsteps that sounded like stakes being driven into the ground were approaching from directly upwards.

“…!”

She grabbed the strap to her case and moved gracefully toward the escalator.

She chose to continue down. Down, down, down. Down to the second floor. Every additional element of the situation only told her to hurry.

She ran down the aluminum steps. Solid sounds rang out ever time her leather shoes slammed down on the steps.

She heard footsteps from above overlapping with her own rushed footsteps.

But it did not all come to an end there.

“…Wind?”

It came from outside. It came from the building’s northern wall, the same wall as the window she had knocked on before.

A single sound approached that wall from outside. It was a deep, long, wide, reverberating, and low sound.

''What? '' she thought and braced herself. In the next moment, the building shook as if it had been struck from the side.

“…!?”

The noise was tremendous. Just like the sound of a passing airplane, this explosion of air robbed her of all her bodily senses.

Her entire body trembled and the hair all across her body stood on end. Her running feet were stopped in an instant.

The great roar she could feel in the core of her body passed at high speed from the east to the west. The sound of wind that followed behind it also shot by to the west and into the western sky.

Silence followed.

She all of a sudden realized she had been released from the noise.

She shook her body once and took a step. Her legs trembled and her body filled with strength. Her will begged her to move forward.

''I need to go,'' she realized. She took a deep breath, looked down, and saw the escalator ended after only a few more steps.

''Hurry,'' her feelings shouted, but the information provided by her vision brought those feelings to a halt.

A slight darkness covered her vision. It was the shadow of the escalator landing above.

The footsteps from above disappeared within her ears.

…''Something is…!

Before she could think “coming”, she acted. She strengthened her grip on the strap in her hand.

“Sorry.”

She swung the case upwards in a motion similar to a golf swing.

Her vision turned upwards. The black shadow fell down into the upwards path of her strike.

She hit.

The corner of the case struck the shadow right in the flank.

It was knocked away. The case at the end of the strap and the case’s contents weighed over five kilograms. The resentment behind that weight came both from this chase and from her three years with the instrument inside.

With the sound of flesh being struck, the shadow doubled over. The case broke and the instrument inside scattered about.

The shadow’s body was knocked to the right.

But the cold light in the shadow’s hand was still swung down toward her.

And then she finally realized something. What she had thought were blades were actually giant claws. And the owner of these claws was a large beast.

As her eyes focused on those claws, the corner of her vision showed that shadow of a giant beast take the same stance as a human.

Everything after that happened in a single instant.

The claws swinging down from above smashed the side frame of the escalator, but the beast could not stop itself from collapsing. Its giant body fell down toward the neighboring escalator.

“…!”

The beast let out a roar. The sound of an impact followed.

But she did not hear that cry of protest. She only heard the sound of the instrument scattering across the floor.

''Sorry,'' she apologized in her heart.

In the next instant, she fully lost her balance due to her previous attempt to evade. She fell down atop the escalator.

She now gave her physical pain precedence over her emotional pain. Her momentum spun her around backwards.

Her back struck the corner of one of the steps and she had the breath knocked out of her. Even her skirt was in complete disarray.

But she grabbed the handrail and forced herself back onto her feet.

From below, she heard the voice of the beast. The voice was filled with anger and rage and did not seem to know what had happened.

She ignored it.

She began to run, now with nothing in her hands. She ran down the escalator and to the second floor.

On the left and right of this barely-lit floor were lines of boutiques. Every store was covered by a shutter. The girl would occasionally see this same sight when being led by a security guard. Today, she ran by it all.

She was focused on the glass door at the end of the floor. That door alone had no shutter covering it.

If she left that door, she would reach the large entrance to Tachikawa Station that cut across north to south on the second floor of the station building.

She tired her best to open or unlock the door. She then slammed her shoulder into the glass door.

It was a dull impact. However, that pain slowly pushed her through to the other side.

The door to that after-hours station building opened.

“What…is going on?” said the girl as she tumbled out into the fresh air.

Her knees landed on the tiles of the entrance floor.

She was surrounded by a vast, deserted space. The Tachikawa Station entrance was about 15 meters wide.

She suddenly felt something on the back of her right hand. It was a soft, damp sensation.

She looked down to find a cat. The brown cat still had some youth remaining.

But the presence of this cat sent a chill running down her spine. She could see no sign of anyone else in the area. She had seen no one but the shadow that had attacked her. The traffic circle she had earlier seen from above had also been deserted.

Thinking the cat might be the same as her, she picked it up. In the instant their gazes met, the cat had been looking up at her, but its eyes narrowed when she lifted it from the ground. And that was why she decided to take it with her.

She stood up.

“I need to get to the northern terrace,” she muttered as she looked to her right where the northern end of the entrance led to the terrace.

And that was when a wind accompanied by a metallic noise dropped down onto the traffic circle beyond the terrace.

She looked up and saw the wind surrounding on the traffic circle had a giant gray form.

It was a giant gray humanoid machine.

For the upper body to stick up above the terrace, it had to be at least 10 meters tall. It was a fully gray-…

“Robot? No…Armor?”

As if to answer the girl’s question, the giant silhouette stood up. And then it turned to face her.

The gray giant had a single blue light where its eyes would be.

The girl felt like she was being watched.

Her pulse seemed to freeze and she cowered down. She could not breathe and she realized for the first time that she was frightened.

Meanwhile, the cat wriggled in her trembling arms. It seemed to be complaining that her arms were wrapped to tightly around it.

The cat let out a sweet meow while showing no concern for the armor’s gaze.

That out-of-place noise made a bitter laugh escape the girl’s lips.

She realized fear meant nothing to the cat. The cat did not understand anything that was happening and therefore was not afraid.

“…”

She let out a shallow breath. And as if that was a sign, strength returned to her body.

''I can do this. I can do this,'' she thought twice.

To the left, there was a staircase leading down between the entrance and the terrace. Given that giant’s size, it would have difficulty making its way below the terrace.

She was 15 meters from the staircase. It would not even take her three seconds if she used all her strength.

And so she immediately decided to run. She went all out from the very first step. However…

“Ah.”

Her right foot seemed to catch on something and she tripped.

“Wh-what!?”

Her body jumped more out of surprise than pain. She looked down and saw her leather shoe lying in front of her right foot. It had torn from the opening to the side sole. It must have ripped when she had fallen on the escalator earlier.

''Oh, no.

When she tried to stand up, she felt pain in her right ankle.

She could not stand. Strength left her knee and she collapsed to the cold tile floor.

“Kh,” she groaned while looking behind her from the floor.

The giant was holding its right arm toward her from beyond the terrace. Something like a tube was attached to the outer edge of the arm. It was obviously a cannon.

It was targeting her.

“Ah,” leaked out another noise.

She felt more noise coming, but swallowed it all down. She let out tears instead.

And then she noticed the cat was standing next to her collapsed hips.

As if worried about her, the cat was rubbing its head up against her leg.

The girl reflexively picked the cat up once more. She then looked up and glared at the giant.

In the next instant, some power exploded out of the giant’s right arm toward her.

She first saw flames. In the following instant, white smoke raced through the air.

A high-pitched sound of something slicing through the wind raced toward her.

A shell had been fired.

It was coming. It was dangerous. She tried to stand up, but her ankle filled with pain and her hips collapsed back down.

Nevertheless, she tried to stand up once more.

“…!”

The noise that leaked from her throat was not a scream; it was anger at herself.

The power this enemy had fired arrived in an instant.

And it exploded.

She opened her eyes.

She noticed the wind blowing around her and also that the cat was still in her arms.

“I’m alive?”

She could not hear her own voice. Her ears were not working.

She looked around while unsteadily sitting on the ground.

The floor of the vast station entrance had smoke and wind racing across it.

An explosion had definitely occurred. However, she was still alive.

“What happened?”

She could faintly hear that question. Sound was returning to her ears.

She could hear the sound of wind. And she looked in the direction that wind was blowing from.

[[Image:OnC_v01_0023.png|thumb]]

Backlit by the lights of the terrace and traffic circle was a single girl.

She wore a white and black outfit and stood with her back to the girl as if shielding her from the gray giant.

This feminine figure’s long hair and long skirt were fluttering in the wind.

She held a giant staff-like object in her right hand and held her left hand out toward the terrace.

In front of her outstretched hand, smoke swirled above the terrace and a chunk of its floor had been gouged out.

The wind raced by and the smoke lingering over the terrace was blown away.

The giant still stood beyond the terrace.

The cowering girl’s question regarding what was going on was cut off by a high-pitched voice. The voice belonged to this new girl standing before her eyes.

“Sayama-kun. This is Shinjou. …One intruder detected. Making contact.”

Another voice replied to her words.

“I can see all that, Shinjou-kun.”

This voice was male. And it came from very nearby.

The girl looked up with the cat still in her arms to find a young man standing there.

He was likely the person named Sayama. He wore white and black clothes that resembled a military uniform, he had a single stripe of white on the sides of his slicked back hair, and he had a sharp look in his eyes.

“Hm,” he muttered with a nod in the wind while looking down at the girl and the cat. “How unusual.”

He stretched out a hand and stroked her head. His fingers felt tough.

The girl suddenly recalled the instrument she had broken.

If this had not happened today, would she have ever broken it?

And as soon as that question appeared in her heart, Sayama spoke.

“Well done.”

Strength left her at those words.

She felt as if her body was sinking into the floor.

''Oh, no,'' she thought, but she was already losing consciousness by that point.

“Now then…”

Sayama supported the collapsed girl’s back with a hand and lowered her slender body to the floor.

The cat showed no sign of leaving her side. It remained with her like a guard.

Sayama gave a bitter smile before turning toward the girl he had called Shinjou. He raised his elbow and scratched at his hair.

“What’s the situation?”

“Our enemies are 15 human-types and 3 Heavy Gods of War. Our main force has been deployed to deal with all of them. We have not had anything on this nice of a large scale in a while. I think we should have let the Concept Space fully take hold just beforehand.”

“It looked like Harakawa and Hio-kun were going nuts at an extreme low altitude a bit ago…”

“They were driving out the one over there. Ryuuji-kun and Mikage-san are battling the other two. But the northern entrance…just look. It’s been blown away.”

When Sayama heard what Shinjou had to say, he exaggeratedly shook his head and spread his arms wide.

“We even told Harakawa not to cause so much destruction. If our destruction rate goes up any further, we will never be able to apologize to the future world. Don’t you think that delinquent needs to be tortured just once?”

“I am sure Hio-kun will tell you to be gentle with him.”

“How about you shut up!?” came a staticky male voice from Sayama’s neck.

Sayama looked down at the communications phone-mic attached to his neck and tilted his head in confusion.

“What are you talking about Harakawa? I am saying this for your sake and for the world’s sake. I can introduce you to someone for that later. Depending on the voltage, I hear you’ll be much more obedient in about 5 seconds.”

“Sayama, there’s one important thing I’ve always wanted to say to you.”

“What might that be? No normal praise will get any reaction out of me.”

“Go to hell.”

After hearing the staticky sound of the transmission ending, Sayama brought a hand to his forehead.

“Honestly, he is such a troublesome guy. People with that much pride are only harmful to this world.”

“…Have you ever looked in a mirror?” asked Shinjou.

“I have. I check over myself thoroughly every morning and night, but what does that have to do with Harakawa?”

“Oh, nothing. I was only seeing once more just how strangely wonderful you are, Sayama-kun.” Shinjou spoke while continuing to face the giant beyond the terrace. “How is that girl?”

“She’s fine. She is injured, but she did not lose.”

“I see,” said Shinjou as she finally turned around. She looked at the girl sleeping on the floor and narrowed her eyes. “I am glad. It was worth using up all of my defensive concept charms on that attack.”

The giant began to move.

It lowered its hips while creating mechanical noises. With each step it loudly smashed the asphalt below its feet.

But it was not Shinjou that reacted to the sound of the ground splitting open; it was Sayama.

He first lowered the hand on his forehead to his chest, raised it up next to his face, and then sliced it to the side. He then loudly snapped his fingers.

“Now then, Shinjou-kun. Double-check the situation with everyone before we punish this idiot who is disobeying the solutions gathered in Low-Gear.”

Shinjou looked forward. The cannon on its right arm was aimed directly at her.

“So you’re motivated because I have no defenses left? What a pain.” She brought her left hand up to her neck. “This is Shinjou. We have made contact with the intruder and secured her. We are currently…”

Before she could finish speaking, the giant machine known as a Heavy God of War fired.

It all began there.

The great power flying toward her was a large artillery shell with a metal outer casing.

As this power tore through the wind toward her, Shinjou continued speaking.

“…engaging the enemy Heavy God of War.”

As Sayama watched on, Shinjou spun her large staff around vertically with a single movement of her right fingers.

The belly of the staff stopped on her right shoulder, leaving it lying vertically. With a single metallic noise, she grabbed hold of the front portion with her left hand. Her right hand ran across the side of the staff. Her right fingers were moving toward a single long panel made of something like glass.

Her fingers wrote something there.

“We fear seeking power but do not fear using power!”

The writing appeared in a blue light over the transparent panel and then disappeared.

The shell arrived as if in response.

But Sayama showed no concern about the shell from where he stood behind Shinjou.

He was looking only at Shinjou. With a hand on his chin, he looked at her thin back, her slender hips, and her round ass. His eyes narrowed and he let out a breath.

“So beautiful. Give it your best shot.”

Shinjou let out a bitter smile and operated her staff. She slid the portion in her left hand forward and a grip appeared. She grabbed that and pushed it in to cock it. When she pressed the trigger on the grip, the staff would fire a counter attack.

And she pressed it.

They could hear the sound of the air being split. Shinjou’s body was knocked back. The output point on the end of the staff split open and burst apart.

And in exchange for all that, a white light was emitted.

The white light stabbed through the air and erased the flying shell.

The light did not dim there. The white afterimage continued in a gentle upward curve and struck the gray God of War.

There was a great noise of impact.

The armor panel on the God of War’s chest was smashed. The light that burst out held great power.

“!”

A solid sound tore through the air and that giant form of over 10 meters had its head thrown backwards.

A heavy noise followed as the entire mass of metal collapsed backwards.

A hot wind blew through the entrance, passing by first Shinjou and then Sayama.

And Sayama saw something.

Beyond the wind, shadows were appearing from the staircases leading up to the entrance from either side.

These bestial shadows looked like a wolf walking on two feet. They were over two meters tall. Six of them arrived from the left and four from the right.

Sayama nodded as he saw them lower their stance in preparation for an attack.

“Now, the girl you attacked did not scream to the very end, so I hope you can give this some effort, too.”

He began walking forward through the center of the blowing wind. His footsteps sounded loudly as he gave a slight smile.

“Let’s go all out. I am just as lenient with everyone. I won’t hold back.”

Sayama’s flowing voice joined his footsteps.

Shinjou walked alongside him. She held her broken staff as if embracing it, opened her mouth, and began singing.

It was a hymn. It was a verse of Silent Night.

“Silent night, holy night.

Shepherds first see the sight.

Told by angelic Alleluja,

Sounding everywhere, both near and far.

‘Christ the Savior is here.’

‘Christ the Savior is here.’ ”

Sayama opened his mouth as he listened to the song. He spoke into the phone-mic on his neck.

“Everyone!” He swung up his right arm while staring at his foes. “Let me say it here. …The surname Sayama indicates a villain!”

Shinjou gave a slight smile while singing next to him. Sayama returned the smile.

“I am giving you an order here! Do not become lost here and do not lose them. After all, if anyone is lost here, this world will become that much lonelier.” He took a breath and raised his head. “Do you understand!? Then ahead! Ahead! Go ahead! Give these idiots a punch and a warning before they do anything stupid! And then bring them here! If you understand, then give me a response!”

As he watched the enemies before his eyes, Sayama forcefully swung his hand down to the right. The right sleeve of his uniform stretched and let out a loud sound like paper being struck.

Voices replied to him both from the phone-mic and from the area around him.

“Testament!”

“Okay,” agreed Sayama before continuing to walk forward.

The crouched shadows before him were growling and seconds away from bursting forward.

Sayama gave a slight smile and spread out his left arm.

His right arm had already been spread, so it now looked like he was preparing to embrace his enemies.

And while continuing to smile, he said, “Now, how about we all come to an understanding!?”

The story now returns two years to the spring of 2005.

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| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_1|Chapter 1]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 6

2013-06-17T10:06:25Z

Purin:

==Chapter 6: Their Impressions==
[[Image:OnC_v01_00169.png|thumb]]
''Fitting and unfitting

''To be together

''Is a complex sort of restraint

In a certain room, one could look out into the mountains and valleys of Okutama at night.

The aboveground portion of UCAT was disguised as an IAI transportation administration building. This room was on the top floor of that building.

Specifically, it was on the eastern end of the fifth-floor of that large white-walled building hidden in the mountains.

The private room was five meters square and had a single light and a single air conditioner on the ceiling. The walls and ceiling were white, so not a single dark color was visible. However, the floor was covered with disorderly shadows.

Books, documents, cardboard boxes, and packaging were piled up all across the floor. The area around the desk by the window was especially bad. The desk had several cluttered strata piled atop it.

A white-haired man was sitting between the desk and the window. He was wearing a white coat and was the man named Itaru that Sayama had met on the train.

He was sitting shallowly in a wooden chair with his sunglasses still on.

His hand was moving. He was folding a piece of paper.

He was making a paper airplane using a document from a pile on the desk. The text at the top revealed it had been sent to Ooshiro Itaru.

“This is how you deal with documents not even worth looking at.”

Ooshiro Itaru tightly folded one end of the paper, held it up, and aimed. He aimed at the room’s white door.

The pile of documents on his desk was in the way, so he had to lean out a bit.

And he threw it.

The sharply pointed paper airplane soared in a straight line toward the door.

But then the door opened and a girl entered.

This was the maid-uniform girl named Sf. She held a silver tray in one hand.

“Itaru-sama. I have brought your dinner,” she said just as the paper airplane struck her forehead.

With a small yet solid noise, the paper airplane bounced off. It rotated around and fell to the floor that was already cluttered with documents and boxes. Several other paper airplanes were already on the ground at her feet.

However, Sf did not even look at the paper airplane. She remained expressionless.

“Could you give some sort of reaction?” complained Itaru. “Something like, ‘You mustn’t make even more trash! Ukii!’ ”

“This has only altered the form of the trash from a sheet of paper to an airplane. Also, you never continue with the same task for long, so this flight test is unlikely to last long.”

“You’re so boring.”

“German UCAT created what was needed for the situation. According to my creator, I perfectly meet every one of your demands.”

“And that is why you are boring.”

“Thank you very much. It is my duty to meet your demands, Itaru-sama.”

With that said, Sf walked expressionlessly forward. She lightly crushed the paper airplane underfoot.

Sf walked lightly across that paper, other documents, and even the boxes. She finally arrived next to Ooshiro where he sat at his desk.

She bowed and held the silver tray forward. It contained a soup cup and a hamburger.

“This is a soup and a hamburger. Are you familiar with them?”

“Wow, I’ve never seen anything like them before! …And if you are displeased about something, just come out and say it.”

“Tes. …Thank you very much for the polite response.”

“You really are boring. So what is it?”

“These are 100% chemical compounds. Not a single natural ingredient was used. UCAT completed the design as an experimental food and announced their research today, but it is not being sent out to be sold by IAI.”

“So it is a food that does not exist in this world but has been created in this world. That would probably sell.”

“I hear they have a large repertoire and the prototypes have been frozen. The head of the dining hall said they would be serving a few different patterns over the next year.’

“I see,” nodded Itaru.

Sf continued, “This provides worse balance when carrying it around than with the solid foods from before. Its performance and nutritional value remain unchanged, so I must deem it an inferior product as it is more difficult to carry and transport.”

“Just get used to it. The head of the dining hall is going to keep serving it until it’s gone no matter what you say.”

“Why? If I am not given a clear answer, I will request the previous type of food from the head of the dining hall.”

“Just think of it as humans needing human food just like dogs need dog food. And the same holds even if this human can no longer eat normal food.”

Without waiting for Sf to respond, Ooshiro took a bite of the hamburger. Cheese, onions, pickles, and beef were held between the buns. None of them were real.

He finished it in five bites and reached for the soup cup.

He gulped it down all at once.

“I thought it would be too hot, but that wasn’t bad.”

“Its temperature was quite high, so I stuck my finger in it on the way here to cool it. My internal temperature is kept low.”

“You really are a machine that meets my every demand. If I could return you, I would do so in a heartbeat.”

Saying that, Itaru returned the soup cup to the tray and wiped his hands on Sf’s apron.

He glanced up at her and said, “Not even a displeased look? I’m dirtying your equipment.”

“Do not worry. This apron is meant for you to wipe your hands on. I also have one for outings, office work, cleaning, receptions, sleep, and ceremonial occasions. This one functions as a disinfectant, so feel free to use it.”

“You are truly an amazing machine. Where can I send my thoughts and requests? Please tell me.”

“Tes. Please send any mail to the Sf assistance official within German UCAT.”

“…You really don’t know what a joke is, do you?”

“I will interpret that as a request, Itaru-sama…Oh.” Sf bowed and leaned forward. She adjusted the position of Itaru’s metal cane leaning up against the chair. Then, “I will be going.”

She turned to leave the room. Itaru called out to her.

“What’s my old man doing?”

“Kazuo-sama was at the first floor’s central entrance not long ago. He was with Shinjou-shi,” while still expressionless, she tilted her head slightly, “and Sayama Mikoto-shi who we saw on the train. It appeared they had discussed the Leviathan Road while underground.”

“Do you know the details?”

“Tes. Sayama Mikoto-shi was informed that there are ten alternate worlds known as Gears, that his grandfather worked with UCAT to destroy them, that the world is facing a crisis, and-…”

“And that he is to gain cooperation from the survivors of the other Gears by engaging in the postwar negotiations known as the Leviathan Road?”

“Tes. He was told to ask Shinjou-shi for any simple information he lacked. …Also, he was handed the sacred beast Baku from 7th-Gear. It is to help him by showing him the past.”

“When will that old man stop putting on airs? He should just tell the little shit to not even think about it.”

“Tomorrow, they will meet at the Imperial Palace at 1:00 PM to explain the details of the Concept War and of the current situation. The day after that, they will visit UCAT’s 1st-Gear reservation for preliminary negotiations with 1st-Gear’s peace faction.”

“Is this Sayama brat really willing to go that far?”

“No. According to Kazuo-sama, this is all tentative. Sayama Mikoto-shi can still reject the right his grandfather has left him. He is being told to make his decision after learning what the Leviathan Road truly is.”

“My old man’s gotten too soft. …Although he is the one that encouraged us on the verge of death way back when.”

“What is the objective of the Leviathan Road?”

“You want to know?”

“Not really, no.”

“Then I’ll tell you.” Ooshiro Itaru picked up a document from his desk. He folded it as he said, “1st- through 10th-Gears were all created from their own unique concepts. We call those positive concepts. On the other hand, our Gear has nothing. The reason for this is simple: this Gear is created from negative concepts. Do you understand so far?”

“Tes.”

“The Concept War was fought by destroying the other Gears, but do you know what basis would have been used to determine which Gears were destroyed and which one survived when all the Gears collided in 1999?”

“No.”

Ooshiro Itaru gave a bitter smile and added another fold to his paper.

“When that time of destruction arrived, the Gear with the most positive concepts would survive. That was why the Gears fought and did their very best to extract and take home as many of the enemy worlds’ concepts as they could. And since this Low-Gear had nothing but negative concepts, it was apparently abandoned right away.”

“But despite being made of negative concepts, this Gear succeeded in destroying the other Gears made of positive concepts. …Is that why we receive so much enmity for winning the Concept War?”

“That’s only one of the reasons, but yes, the underdog won. However, that result means the other Gears’ concepts were brought into this Gear. They are stored in the form of Concept Cores which are masses of concepts on the level of an entire world. That goes well beyond a simple Concept Text.”

The sound of folding paper continued. He made a fold that pointed up like a mountain, spread out the center, and created corners on the four sides.

“Most of the Concept Cores are stored in UCAT. If those Concept Cores are released, they will eat into this Gear’s negative concepts and destroy our current ideas of common sense. However…”

“However?”

“Ten years ago, the negative concepts of this Gear began to activate for some reason. If nothing is done, this Gear will continue even further in the negative direction and be destroyed. To stop this, all the positive Concept Cores must be released to create a balance. We know this will change the world, but it is our only option.” His hands stopped moving. “My old man says this is accepting the existence of the lost Gears. This world will accept the powers of those destroyed Gears and will maintain its existence using those powers. However, most of the Concept Cores were split and a portion remains in the hands of the Gear’s survivors. Also, the war ended 60 years ago, so we cannot act like conceited victors and simply do as we wish with the Concept Cores. We must hold official negotiations with each Gear and gain permission to use the Concept Cores.”

“And that is the Leviathan Road? To be honest, I cannot determine if this is true. What proof do we have that the negative concepts have become active?”

“Japan and you, Sf. The ones you and those like you are based on fell asleep when brought from 3rd-Gear. Now, tell me when they awoke.”

“…December 25, 1995.”

“And what happened in Japan on that day?”

Sf immediately replied, “If my memory is correct, the great Kansai earthquake.”

“Yes, you are correct. That was one aspect of this. And the Concept Cores must have had some sort of reaction too because their concepts began to leak just a tiny bit into this Gear. That is why those girls became able to move ever so slightly.”

“…”

“The negative concepts are even now growing more and more active. It has been predicted that their activity will reach its critical point at exactly ten years after it began. In other words,” he powerfully added a fold, “December 25 of this year.”

Ooshiro Itaru’s hands stopped there. He placed what he had folded atop the pile of documents on his desk. It was a square with one end pointed. It had a square protrusion on the top.

Sf looked at it and asked, “Is it a boat?”

“Does it look that way to you? No. It is a tower. Look at it like this.”

He pressed down on the back of the square to stand it up. It was a tower stabbing straight up to heaven.

“It all begins here.”

Sayama and Shinjou left the white-walled UCAT headquarters which was disguised as a large IAI transportation administration building. They then walked toward the main entrance through the IAI grounds.

He had left his cell phone with UCAT along with his torn coat so they could be inspected after the battle. Sayama called someone from back home using the cell phone he had been provided with.

A car would arrive for him in half an hour. He had to make his way out of both UCAT and IAI grounds in that time. However…

“This place is much larger than I expected. Maybe we should have waited for the bus,” Sayama said.

“I-I agree. I thought I wanted to walk for once, but that may have been a mistake,” replied Shinjou.

The UCAT area was filled with 3000 meter runways and large hangars that were visible under the nighttime lighting.

A kilometer long valley could be seen partway across and it was what hid UCAT from the surrounding areas. The IAI area on the other side had many more lights and the buildings on the surface were much larger.

Sayama and Shinjou spoke as they walked down the central road between the buildings.

He asked her what she knew about the Concept War and the time of destruction.

He then asked her about the person from 1st-Gear who had been their opponent that evening.

“The 1st-Gear Concept Core has been split into two. 1st-Gear was a world that sat on a flat table. The first Concept Core constructed that single isolated world. The other provided the unique aspect of 1st-Gear. That is the concept that gives power to words and allows 1st-Gear to use something like magic.”

“Does UCAT possess both of those Concept Cores?”

“The world construction Concept Core was sealed in a 1st-Gear sword and is stored in Japanese UCAT’s western branch located below IAI HQ. But the word concept one was sealed in a mechanical dragon belonging to the radicals that fled into this world.”

“A mechanical dragon?”

“It is a weapon shaped like a dragon. I’ve never actually seen one, though.”

As he watched Shinjou shrug, Sayama decided she was not lying.

“That sounds like a weapon out of a manga or something,” he said.

“Oh, I actually prefer novels. I don’t read much manga, so I wouldn’t know.”

“Hm. It is sad to hear you denying part of Japan’s culture like that. …But at any rate, if I accept these rights from my grandfather, I will ultimately have to negotiate with these radicals, won’t I?”

He nodded in understanding. A break in the conversation formed and he looked around as he walked. Several giant white buildings could be seen under the outdoor lights. At this point, the UCAT buildings were nowhere to be seen.

“So UCAT is a hidden village. …The normal IAI workers know nothing about UCAT and think the area further in is an airport.”

“As you were told before, the Izumo Aviation Institute’s Tokyo branch had a national defense department during the war. That department learned of the Concept War, researched it, and became Japanese UCAT immediately after the war.”

“Do you know a lot about that?”

“No. Tonight was the first I ever heard about your grandfather being a part of it all.”

“Same here. That probably means my parents did not know either. They only worked for IAI. They must not have known that my grandfather had anything to do with the transportation facility over the valley.”

As he spoke, Sayama brought his hand to the left side of his chest and looked toward his left shoulder. A single small animal stood there.

The 15 centimeter animal was of a type he had never seen before. Its face looked like a boar, it had a round body, and its legs had hooves.

“That’s Baku, right? I’ve never seen it before. It can…show people the past, right?”

“The old man said it was like dreaming. Apparently, it was on the verge of dying but managed to survive due to the slight release of the positive concepts in reaction to the negative concepts beginning to activate ten years ago.”

When he reached out his hand, Baku drew back but then reached out its front legs to grab his finger.

“I wonder what kind of past it can show me… I suppose it could only be an unpleasant past.”

He glanced over to find Shinjou hanging her head down.

While walking alongside her, Sayama asked, “What is it?”

“Oh, sorry. It’s just… I didn’t know anything about you and 10 years ago, Sayama-kun.”

“Oh, you mean when my father headed to Kansai with the IAI rescue team and-…”

“You don’t have to say it. You don’t have to talk about your chest pains either. …It would be best if you don’t talk about it.”

“I do not mind.”

“You should. You shouldn’t talk about your parents and yourself like they are strangers.”

“But my parents more or less are strangers and I work to view myself objectively.”

In response to his words, the ends of Shinjou’s eyebrows drooped slightly as she looked up at him.

Sayama received her gaze head on.

''She is likely in the right here,'' he muttered in his heart. Shinjou had said she had no memory of her parents. She wanted to search for them. He decided that was what led her to be right.

When Sayama had been told that the objective of the Leviathan Road was the suppression of the negative concepts, the topic had turned to the activation of the negative concepts and the great Kansai earthquake ten years ago.

And that had naturally led to Sayama’s parents. Sayama had seen the look on Shinjou’s face change when she heard about his father’s death during relief work for the earthquake, about his mother taking him with her and trying to commit a double suicide, and about his angina.

When she had once more asked about the ring he wore, he had given her the proper answer.

It was a memento of his mother.

She had then apologized. She had said she had not been thinking when she had said what she said in front of the medical room.

She was now looking up at him with the same expression as back then. The ends of her eyebrows had lightly lowered above her black eyes.

Before, it had been an expression of apology. But now it was an expression of admonition over speaking as if his parents were strangers. Sayama thought on Shinjou’s words and expression.

…''When she should be criticizing me, why does she use the expression of someone who has done something wrong?

But before Sayama could come up with an answer, Shinjou made a move. Her head drooped down.

“Sorry,” she said.

Sayama tilted his head in confusion. He was the one who deserved to be criticized here.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“B-because I was being an imposition on you, Sayama-kun.”

When Sayama heard those words she spoke to the ground, he spoke.

“There is one thing I hope you understand.”

But then his lips produced another statement.

“That is not true at all.”

After he spoke, Sayama realized what he had said.

Why had he permitted someone else to give their opinion on his pet theory?

As he felt that slight shock, he saw Shinjou look up at him wide-eyed with her eyebrows still lowered. A bit of surprise could be seen on her face as well.

''She is surprised from the simple fact that someone accepted what she said,'' he thought.

She was serious about this.

It was related to one’s memories of one’s parents. That was something that she lacked.

Sayama thought as he watched Shinjou’s expression change before his eyes.

Why had he allowed Shinjou’s opinion?

…''That is because she understands.

Her expression changed ever so slightly.

…''She understands what it is she seeks.

The ends of Shinjou’s eyebrows lowered and her eyes narrowed around her large pupils.

[[Image:OnC_v01_0185.png|thumb]]

…''That is something I do not have.

She opened her mouth slightly, let out a soft breath, and spoke.

“Thank you…”

Sayama nodded and looked away as he changed the subject.

“At any rate, I need to think about whether I should accept the Leviathan Road or not.”

“Y-yes. If you do, it will involve more than just negotiations. You will be dealing with people as desperate as this evening.”

“I see.” Sayama nodded and muttered under his breath. “I wonder if he viewed me as desperate.”

''I was not,'' he thought with a sigh. It had ended before he could. And Sayama remembered what he had felt when he had been about to take action at the end. He had thought that he had been wrong.

He understood why he had felt that way.

…''I am inexperienced. Even if I am wrong, I simply need to think it is necessary.

Sayama wondered when he would become the kind of person his grandfather had been.

He then recalled the battle from that evening.

“Our enemy was serious and so were you. …I have seen many different fights, but that battle was not fought hopelessly or as a game.”

“According to Ooshiro-san, we will head to the 1st-Gear reservation for the preliminary negotiations the day after tomorrow. It seems they realized we are taking action, so one of the radicals tried to win over the peaceful faction on the reservation.”

“So he made his way into the middle of enemy territory. …What leads people to head down such dangerous paths?”

“Well…”

“How about we leave it as ‘there are things that cannot be explained with words’. According to the old man, tomorrow we will go to the Imperial Palace so he can show me the beginning of the Concept War and the day after tomorrow we will meet with representatives of 1st-Gear’s peaceful faction for preliminary negotiations. If that was all, I would not be remotely interested. However, I saw one of the radicals today. I am interested in the Leviathan Road.”

…''So that is what it looks like when two serious people clash in desperation.

“Utilizing force creates enmity, but there are some who will never accept it if you do not. What can be done about that? …These negotiations are wrapped in contradiction. Perhaps that is why I was chosen.”

Sayama looked forward to find they were approaching the main entrance. The guard noticed them and activated the automatic gate. With a sound like rattling chains, the gate disappeared belowground.

Amid that sound, Shinjou stopped walking and asked a question.

“That is why…? Why would you have been chosen, Sayama-kun?”

Sayama stopped as well. He supported Baku who almost fell from his shoulder.

“My grandfather would boldly declare that the surname Sayama indicates a villain. He was a lone wolf corporate blackmailer. …This is a similar dirty job. Someone is needed to crush this kind of idiot underfoot.”

…''And they hope that person will be me.

Sayama wondered if he could manage it.

If he was to leave, he had to do it now.

“…”

Sayama fell silent. With a click of the heel, he began walking once more.

A step later, Shinjou rushed up to join him.

“Wait!” she called.

But Sayama did not turn around.

He heard Shinjou’s footsteps line up beside him.

“Um, Sayama-kun. Sorry, but…”

“What is it?” he asked.

Shinjou’s head drooped and she folded her hands in front of her waist.

“Umm,” she started. “I just want to check one thing about what you said.”

She formed a troubled smile and asked her question.

“What is a corporate blackmailer?”

“What?”

“S-sorry. I know it was a really important part, but…well…I’m not quite sure what it means.”

Sayama’s mouth hung open and he let out a “ha!”

…''Oh, I see.

He did not care if his laugh reverberated in his left arm. He let loose and laughed without restraint.

''Is that all it was?'' he thought.

Meanwhile, Shinjou’s face grew red.

“Wh-why are you laughing? Is it that funny?”

“Apologies. You are an honest person, Shinjou-kun. A corporate blackmailer is someone who uses violence or influence hidden from the law to threaten corporations into giving them something in return. They bring harassment or unseen violence and if the corporation wants it to stop, they have to give them some sort of influence or a good rate in negotiations.” He thought for a moment. “But unlike normal ones, a lone wolf corporate blackmailer who acts out of conviction is an idiot. When they see an enemy or evil, they wield their justice and charge in. They make no threats, they harass no one, and they cause no violence. They cry out about the injustices and fraud of corporations and wield their power in the name of justice. And they do not care who else is damaged in the process. They do not care if they are hated.”

Shinjou gulped. At that moment, they passed through the main gate. The guard bowed and they bowed back.

“Will you…choose the same thing as your grandfather?”

“Perhaps. …He truly was hated by a lot of people. When he dug up corporate injustice, not many corporations could withstand the reorganizations and dismissals that followed. He did not know the meaning of the word mercy.”

“Really?”

Sayama nodded as he thought about his grandfather. He brought a hand to his forehead and sighed.

“Yes. When I was in fourth grade, I ignored a lame gag he made. That developed into an actual fistfight. What kind of person fights an elementary school boy while wearing nothing but his underwear, goes in for a cross counter, and then takes a photo to commemorate his victory? You will never find a more childish old man in all of human history. I suppose that breed went extinct recently.”

“I think I see a candidate before me…”

“That would be nice,” replied Sayama with a smile.

They stopped in front of the main entrance. Across the wide road in front of them was a cliff with the Tama River flowing down below and forests on the mountains and valleys beyond. The lights of the IAI hospital and employee dormitory could be seen in the distance.

While listening to the sound of the river, Sayama spoke to Shinjou.

“At any rate, I think my grandfather was hated because he was a true villain and nothing else.”

“Why did he continue to do that even though it made him so hated?”

“I do not know. And to be honest, I am jealous. Why was he able to do that? …If I understood that, I could choose my own path without so much doubt.”

Sayama said no more. And shortly thereafter, headlights approached from the Akigawa direction of the road.

“Is that from your family?”

“It is from a yakuza family that became indebted to my grandfather. They run a security company now, though.”

As he spoke, the car pulled up. It was a large, black car. The windows were all tinted black so the inside could not be seen.

It came to a stop.

“Wah,” said Shinjou as she drew back.

A man had stepped out of the driver’s seat on the left.

This young man had close-cropped hair and wore a blue suit. He turned toward Sayama.

“Young master, I have come to take you home.”

He bowed and looked toward Shinjou. Slight caution could be seen in the young man’s actions.

He then turned his eyes toward the bandages wrapped around Sayama’s left arm.

Sayama nodded and said, “Kouji, do not worry. I trust her. She…treated my wound when I tripped in the forest. Her name is Shinjou-…”

He trailed off when he realized he had never asked her given name. Shinjou picked up on this and answered.

“Oh, it is Sadame. My name is Shinjou Sadame.”

“I see. My apologies. I am Tamiya Kouji. It seems you have been of great help to my young master.”

“Eh? No, um… He helped me too…”

Shinjou took a step back, stood right next to Sayama, and whispered.

“You tripped in the forest?”

“I can hardly tell him the truth, can I?”

“Yes, but I wasn’t the one to treat you. …And this is an amazing reception. Why is he treating you like this?”

“You could say this family is a memento of my grandfather. I did not acquire this myself. Do you not-…”

Sayama was going to say “have anything like that”, but he swallowed the words.

Shinjou sighed, thought for a moment, and then spoke.

“Don’t worry. I do have…a younger brother. My twin brother. But…” She gave a bitter smile and lowered her head slightly when she saw Tamiya looking at her. “Your environment… Whether you can call it a family or not, it’s quite amazing.”

“I see,” said Sayama with a nod. He then amended it to, “I suppose so.”

At that point, he realized he had a bit of leeway within him now. He knew she was not completely alone.

He concluded that the male language mixed into her speech<ref>The most prominent example of her use of male language is using “boku” to refer to herself.</ref> was due to that environment of hers. He then nodded slightly in her direction.

“Now then. Thank you for seeing me off. …Will I see you tomorrow?”

Shinjou nodded and gave only a slight smile. That was the sign of their parting.

A girl stood on the rooftop of Takaakita Academy’s second year general school building.

She stood on the western edge overlooking the nightscape of Akigawa City.

It was Brunhild wearing her uniform and with her gray hair blowing in the wind.

As the moon shone down on the rooftop, she placed her hands on the railing and opened her mouth.

She cast her eyes down while otherwise expressionless. Her opened lips did not produce simple words. She sang.

It was the hymn Silent Night.

“Stille Nacht Heil’ge Nacht

Alles schlaft einsam wacht

Nur das traute hoch heilige Paar

Holder Knab’im lockigten Haar

Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh

Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh.”

She slowly raised her head.

Once she finished singing, she opened her eyes to find the round moon in the heavens. While watching that light, her expression changed.

“I hate this sky… It has that light that our sky did not. It is not the light of the underworld…”

Brunhild sighed as the moonlight reflected in her eyes.

And then her expression changed once more as if it was jumping up. Her eyebrows leveled out, her eyes sharpened, and the expression from before vanished.

“Here he comes,” she muttered as she reached her right hand into her pocket.

She pulled out a small blue stone and held it tightly in her right hand. She then slowly raised that right hand.

A wind then descended from the night sky. It was a black wind. Like a string or small stream, the black wind whirled around and wrapped about Brunhild’s right hand. It solidified into a single object.

That black wind took the form of a black cat.

This glossy black cat stood atop her right arm.

Brunhild stretched her arm out horizontally as easily as if the cat was weightless. The cat climbed across her arm and onto her right shoulder. Brunhild lowered her arm and the cat climbed down it to the floor.

Immediately afterwards, Brunhild wrote something in the air using her right hand and snapped her fingers.

As soon as that clear sound rang out, the cat looked up. And…

“Ahh, I’m exhausted. It can be hard to tell which is the real me.”

A young male voice came from the cat. Nevertheless, Brunhild remained expressionless.

“We have to keep up appearances so as to avoid suspicion. More importantly, how did it go?”

“As expected, the Royal Palace faction is hopeless. They don’t have the strength of an organization like we do.”

“I did not ask for your impressions. I want a report on the facts.”

Brunhild folded her arms and began tapping her right toes on the floor.

Seeing that, the cat said, “I think you are absorbing some bad habits from Low-Gear. You have such bad manners.”

“Shut it. If you say anything more, I’ll throw you into the room of a classmate who is yearning for a pet.”

“No, I don’t want that… It’s only any fun at first.” The cat hung its head, sighed, and then straightened up once more. “The peaceful faction that sympathizes with UCAT turned away a messenger from the Royal Palace faction. The messenger was a strong member of the Royal Palace faction, a werewolf named Gale-…Gale-something. But he was cornered by UCAT and killed himself.”

“They did that to a werewolf? I know their species gets a lot stupider when their true nature kicks in, but that couldn’t have been easy.”

“Well, the pursuit unit was slaughtered, but the UCAT special division arrived afterwards and trapped him in a Concept Space. Werewolves are a poor match for precious metals when it comes to elemental concepts. Okay, now this.”

The black cat rolled over and showed off its belly. He was asking Brunhild to rub it, so she crouched down and poked his belly with her index finger. The gentle jab caused the cat to arch its back.

“Ahhh! My hips! Not the hips! My guts! I feel some indescribable sensation in my guts!!”

“Stop speaking so oddly and get on with the report. What will we do regarding the peaceful faction and the Royal Palace faction?”

“W-we of the Urban faction will not contact either side. Fafner who has worked his way up lately made the announcement. …And according to Venerable Hagen, the Royal Palace faction will likely take action out of desperation.”

“The Royal Palace faction will? A group that split from the peaceful faction based on nothing but ideals is planning to attack UCAT? They don’t think they can manage by relying on nothing but youthful vigor like Fafner does, do they?”

“No, they don’t.”

The cat got up and began licking his belly.

While still crouched down, Brunhild said, “Stop acting so self-important and get on with it.”

“C’mon, you don’t have to act like that. We were both deployed here, so we are on equal footing, right? You have been getting a bit carried away lately, Brunhild.”

“Have I?”

“Yes. Just the day before yesterday, I took a peek inside the sweets shop in front of the school and you suddenly had a kid in there strip naked and bow down before you.”

“Do not misrepresent what happened. He flipped up my skirt first. For a woman of 1st-Gear, having anyone but her husband do that is a humiliation. I was crying in my heart as I made him bow down. And I also swore to never forgive that kid.”

“Sorry. My heart must have been too clouded because I could not see any tears. …And is that really such a humiliation?”

Brunhild grabbed the black cat’s back legs in her hands, spread them out in a T-shape, and lifted him up. She then shook him up and down.

“Ahhh! Such humiliation! Stop, stop! If you keep looking at me like this, a new side of me will awaken!”

“As long as you understand.”

She put the cat back down. The cat dragged his limp waist along and forced a smile.

“E-every day with you is quite stimulating. Although becoming numb to stimulation is a sign your life is over.”

“Just finish with the report before I decide to do something else.”

“Hmm,” thought the cat. “Do you remember the Leviathan Road? That thing Venerable Hagen mentioned.”

“Yes. That information he got from a strange information broker, right? …We had predicted it ourselves as well. On December 25 of this year, the activation of the negative concepts of this Gear will reach the critical point.”

“Yes, and so we must take back the other half of 1st-Gear’s Concept Core from UCAT and stop the activation of the negative concepts as part of 1st-Gear. …And UCAT is trying to do the same but with themselves in charge. Anyway…the Leviathan Road is an attempt by UCAT to obtain all of the Concept Cores. But…”

“?”

“It seems a unit put together just for that purpose has begun to move. It was apparently that unit that cornered the messenger of the Royal Palace faction. It is known as Team Leviathan and was created from the top elites of UCAT’s special division.”

“What is your point?’

“You can’t tell? Some higher members of UCAT are involved with this unit. And so the Royal Palace faction will target Team Leviathan instead of UCAT as a whole. If they could capture Ooshiro Kazuo, the head of Japanese UCAT, they might gain a significant advantage in negotiations.”

Brunhild stood up, folded her arms, and slowly moved her head down.

“Hmm,” she murmured as the black cat looked up at her.

“But… Hey, Brunhild, were you singing before I arrived?”

“Eh?” Brunhild looked down at the cat and finally spoke without changing her expression. “I was not singing.”

“Really? I seem to remember hearing it on the wind. You, Venerable Regin, and Lady Gutrune loved that Low-Gear man’s-…”

“Do cats show sentimentality by speaking of things they know nothing about?”

“I am being serious here, Brunhild. In a way, you were the person in the closest position to the cause of 1st-Gear’s destruction.”

“…”

“It bothers me that, as our fight approaches its end, you are here,” the cat slowly lay down, “observing the man who destroyed 1st-Gear. It seems to me that would be bad for your mental health.”

Brunhild’s eyebrows arched slightly, her lips formed a smile that was not quite bitter, and she crouched down to pet the cat’s back.

“Am I really that on edge?”

“You were earlier. When Miss Feigned Ignorance stopped by, you were legitimately mad when you mentioned how much you love forests and she replied by mentioning celery.”

Brunhild dug through her memories before replying.

With a serious expression, she said, “That is because I hate celery.”

“…”

“I can’t stand Chinese chives or mitsuba either. Whenever I order udon at the cafeteria, I ask for no mitsuba, but Old Tome always legitimately forgets and puts it in. …And that old woman is too cute to complain to.”

“It doesn’t really matter, but I think you are building up too much stress from little things.”

“Oh? I am not building up stress at all.”

“Really? Then how are you relieving-…no, ah!! Stop, stop! Not the ass! The ass is the last place I want-…!”

Once Brunhild rendered the cat unable to stand, she stood up.

She walked over to the north edge of the rooftop where she could see level scenery with the lights of houses and buildings in the distance.

Headlights could be seen running along the roads within the school grounds, but that was the only movement.

She looked straight down and spotted light falling on the grass behind the school building. The light came from the first floor hallway in front of the Kinugasa Library. She could see a single shadow moving through that horizontal line of lights.

“Siegfried…” she muttered. “What would he do if he knew a ghost from 60 years ago had returned?”

===Notes===
<references/>
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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_5|Chapter 5]]
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| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_7|Chapter 7]]
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Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 6

2013-06-16T19:10:58Z

Purin:

==Chapter 6: Their Impressions==
[[Image:OnC_v01_00169.png|thumb]]
''Fitting and unfitting

''To be together

''Is a complex sort of restraint

In a certain room, one could look out into the mountains and valleys of Okutama at night.

The aboveground portion of UCAT was disguised as an IAI transportation administration building. This room was on the top floor of that building.

Specifically, it was on the eastern end of the fifth-floor of that large white-walled building hidden in the mountains.

The private room was five meters square and had a single light and a single air conditioner on the ceiling. The walls and ceiling were white, so not a single dark color was visible. However, the floor was covered with disorderly shadows.

Books, documents, cardboard boxes, and packaging were piled up all across the floor. The area around the desk by the window was especially bad. The desk had several cluttered strata piled atop it.

A white-haired man was sitting between the desk and the window. He was wearing a white coat was the man named Itaru that Sayama had met on the train.

He was sitting shallowly in a wooden chair with his sunglasses still on.

His hand was moving. He was folding a piece of paper.

He was making a paper airplane using a document from a pile on the desk. The text at the top revealed it had been sent to Ooshiro Itaru.

“This is how you deal with documents not even worth looking at.”

Ooshiro Itaru tightly folded one end of the paper, held it up, and aimed. He aimed at the room’s white door.

The pile of documents on his desk was in the way, so he had to lean out a bit.

And he threw it.

The sharply pointed paper airplane soared in a straight line toward the door.

But then the door opened and a girl entered.

This was the maid-uniform girl named Sf. She held a silver tray in one hand.

“Itaru-sama. I have brought your dinner,” she said just as the paper airplane struck her forehead.

With a small yet solid noise, the paper airplane bounced off. It rotated around and fell to the floor that was already cluttered with documents and boxes. Several other paper airplanes were already on the ground at her feet.

However, Sf did not even look at the paper airplane. She remained expressionless.

“Could you give some sort of reaction?” complained Itaru. “Something like, ‘You mustn’t make even more trash! Ukii!’ ”

“This has only altered the form of the trash from a sheet of paper to an airplane. Also, you never continue with the same task for long, so this flight test is unlikely to last long.”

“You’re so boring.”

“German UCAT created what was needed for the situation. According to my creator, I perfectly meet every one of your demands.”

“And that is why are boring.”

“Thank you very much. It is my duty to meet your demands, Itaru-sama.”

With that said, Sf walked expressionlessly forward. She lightly crushed the paper airplane underfoot.

Sf walked lightly across that paper, other documents, and even the boxes. She finally arrived next to Ooshiro where he sat at his desk.

She bowed and held the silver tray forward. It contained a soup cup and a hamburger.

“This is a soup and a hamburger. Are you familiar with them?”

“Wow, I’ve never seen anything like them before! …And if you are displeased about something, just come out and say it.”

“Tes. …Thank you very much for the polite response.”

“You really are boring. So what is it?”

“These are 100% chemical compounds. Not a single natural ingredient was used. UCAT completed the design as an experimental food and announced their research today, but it is not being sent out to be sold by IAI.”

“So it is a food that does not exist in this world but has been created in this world. That would probably sell.”

“I hear they have a large repertoire and the prototypes have been frozen. The head of the dining hall said they would be serving a few different patterns over the next year.’

“I see,” nodded Itaru.

Sf continued, “This provides worse balance when carrying it around than with the solid foods from before. Its performance and nutritional value remain unchanged, so I must deem it an inferior product as it is more difficult to carry and transport.”

“Just get used to it. The head of the dining hall is going to keep serving it until it’s gone no matter what you say.”

“Why? If I am not given a clear answer, I will request the previous type of food from the head of the dining hall.”

“Just think of it as humans needing human food just like dogs need dog food. And the same holds even if this human can no longer eat normal food.”

Without waiting for Sf to respond, Ooshiro took a bite of the hamburger. Cheese, onions, pickles, and beef were held between the buns. None of them were real.

He finished it in five bites and reached for the soup cup.

He gulped it down all at once.

“I thought it would be too hot, but that wasn’t bad.”

“Its temperature was quite high, so I stuck my finger in it on the way here to cool it. My internal temperature is kept low.”

“You really are a machine that meets my every demand. If I could return you, I would do so in a heartbeat.”

Saying that, Itaru returned the soup cup to the tray and wiped his hands on Sf’s apron.

He glanced up at her and said, “Not even a displeased look? I’m dirtying your equipment.”

“Do not worry. This apron is meant for you to wipe your hands on. I also have one for outings, office work, cleaning, receptions, sleep, and ceremonial occasions. This one functions as a disinfectant, so feel free to use it.”

“You are truly an amazing machine. Where can I send my thoughts and requests? Please tell me.”

“Tes. Please send any mail to the Sf assistance official within German UCAT.”

“…You really don’t know what a joke is, do you?”

“I will interpret that as a request, Itaru-sama…Oh.” Sf bowed and leaned forward. She adjusted the position of Itaru’s metal cane leaning up against the chair. Then, “I will be going.”

She turned to leave the room. Itaru called out to her.

“What’s my old man doing?”

“Kazuo-sama was at the first floor’s central entrance not long ago. He was with Shinjou-shi,” while still expressionless, she tilted her head slightly, “and Sayama Mikoto-shi who we saw on the train. It appeared they had discussed the Leviathan Road while underground.”

“Do you know the details?”

“Tes. Sayama Mikoto-shi was informed that there are ten alternate worlds known as Gears, that his grandfather worked with UCAT to destroy them, that the world is facing a crisis, and-…”

“And that he is to gain cooperation from the survivors of the other Gears by engaging in the postwar negotiations known as the Leviathan Road?”

“Tes. He was told to ask Shinjou-shi for any simple information he lacked. …Also, he was handed the sacred beast Baku from 7th-Gear. It is to help him by showing him the past.”

“When will that old man stop putting on airs? He should just tell the little shit to not even think about it.”

“Tomorrow, they will meet at the Imperial Palace at 1:00 PM to explain the details of the Concept War and of the current situation. The day after that, they will visit UCAT’s 1st-Gear reservation for preliminary negotiations with 1st-Gear’s peace faction.”

“Is this Sayama brat really willing to go that far?”

“No. According to Kazuo-sama, this is all tentative. Sayama Mikoto-shi can still reject the right his grandfather has left him. He is being told to make his decision after learning what the Leviathan Road truly is.”

“My old man’s gotten too soft. …Although he is the one that encouraged us on the verge of death way back when.”

“What is the objective of the Leviathan Road?”

“You want to know?”

“Not really, no.”

“Then I’ll tell you.” Ooshiro Itaru picked up a document from his desk. He folded it as he said, “1st- through 10th-Gears were all created from their own unique concepts. We call those positive concepts. On the other hand, our Gear has nothing. The reason for this is simple: this Gear is created from negative concepts. Do you understand so far?”

“Tes.”

“The Concept War was fought by destroying the other Gears, but do you know what basis would have been used to determine which Gears were destroyed and which one survived when all the Gears collided in 1999?”

“No.”

Ooshiro Itaru gave a bitter smile and added another fold to his paper.

“When that time of destruction arrived, the Gear with the most positive concepts would survive. That was why the Gears fought and did their very best to extract and take home as many of the enemy worlds’ concepts as they could. And since this Low-Gear had nothing but negative concepts, it was apparently abandoned right away.”

“But despite being made of negative concepts, this Gear succeeded in destroying the other Gears made of positive concepts. …Is that why we receive so much enmity for winning the Concept War?”

“That’s only one of the reasons, but yes, the underdog won. However, that result means the other Gears’ concepts were brought into this Gear. They are stored in the form of Concept Cores which are masses of concepts on the level of an entire world. That goes well beyond a simple Concept Text.”

The sound of folding paper continued. He made a fold that pointed up like a mountain, spread out the center, and created corners on the four sides.

“Most of the Concept Cores are stored in UCAT. If those Concept Cores are released, they will eat into this Gear’s negative concepts and destroy our current ideas of common sense. However…”

“However?”

“Ten years ago, the negative concepts of this Gear began to activate for some reason. If nothing is done, this Gear will continue even further in the negative direction and be destroyed. To stop this, all the positive Concept Cores must be released to create a balance. We know this will change the world, but it is our only option.” His hands stopped moving. “My old man says this is accepting the existence of the lost Gears. This world will accept the powers of those destroyed Gears and will maintain its existence using those powers. However, most of the Concept Cores were split and a portion remains in the hands of the Gear’s survivors. Also, the war ended 60 years ago, so we cannot act like conceited victors and simply do as we wish with the Concept Cores. We must hold official negotiations with each Gear and gain permission to use the Concept Cores.”

“And that is the Leviathan Road? To be honest, I cannot determine if this is true. What proof do we have that the negative concepts have become active?”

“Japan and you, Sf. The ones you and those like you are based on fell asleep when brought from 3rd-Gear. Now, tell me when they awoke.”

“…December 25, 1995.”

“And what happened in Japan on that day?”

Sf immediately replied, “If my memory is correct, the great Kansai earthquake.”

“Yes, you are correct. That was one aspect of this. And the Concept Cores must have had some sort of reaction too because their concepts began to leak just a tiny bit into this Gear. That is why those girls became able to move ever so slightly.”

“…”

“The negative concepts are even now growing more and more active. It has been predicted that their activity will reach its critical point at exactly ten years after it began. In other words,” he powerfully added a fold, “December 25 of this year.”

Ooshiro Itaru’s hands stopped there. He placed what he had folded atop the pile of documents on his desk. It was a square with one end pointed. It had a square protrusion on the top.

SF looked at it and asked, “Is it a boat?”

“Does it look that way to you? No. It is a tower. Look at it like this.”

He pressed down on the back of the square to stand it up. It was a tower stabbing straight up to heaven.

“It all begins here.”

Sayama and Shinjou left the white-walled UCAT headquarters which was disguised as a large IAI transportation administration building. They then walked toward the main entrance through the IAI grounds.

He had left his cell phone with UCAT along with his torn coat so they could be inspected after the battle. Sayama called someone from back home using the cell phone he had been provided with.

A car would arrive for him in half an hour. He had to make his way out of both UCAT and IAI grounds in that time. However…

“This place is much larger than I expected. Maybe we should have waited for the bus,” Sayama said.

“I-I agree. I thought I wanted to walk for once, but that may have been a mistake,” replied Shinjou.

The UCAT area was filled with 3000 meter runways and large hangars that were visible under the nighttime lighting.

A kilometer long valley could be seen partway across and it was what hid UCAT from the surrounding areas. The IAI area on the other side had many more lights and the buildings on the surface were much larger.

Sayama and Shinjou spoke as they walked down the central road between the buildings.

He asked her what she knew about the Concept War and the time of destruction.

He then asked her about the person from 1st-Gear who had been their opponent that evening.

“The 1st-Gear Concept Core has been split into two. 1st-Gear was a world that sat on a flat table. The first Concept Core constructed that single isolated world. The other provided the unique aspect of 1st-Gear. That is the concept that gives power to words and allows 1st-Gear to use something like magic.”

“Does UCAT possess both of those Concept Cores?”

“The world construction Concept Core was sealed in a 1st-Gear sword and is stored in Japanese UCAT’s western branch located below IAI HQ. But the word concept one was sealed in a mechanical dragon belonging to the radicals that fled into this world.”

“A mechanical dragon?”

“It is a weapon shaped like a dragon. I’ve never actually seen one, though.”

As he watched Shinjou shrug, Sayama decided she was not lying.

“That sounds like a weapon out of a manga or something,” he said.

“Oh, I actually prefer novels. I don’t read much manga, so I wouldn’t know.”

“Hm. It is sad to hear you denying part of Japan’s culture like that. …But at any rate, if I accept these rights from my grandfather, I will ultimately have to negotiate with these radicals, won’t I?”

He nodded in understanding. A break in the conversation formed and he looked around as he walked. Several giant white buildings could be seen under the outdoor lights. At this point, the UCAT buildings were nowhere to be seen.

“So UCAT is a hidden village. …The normal IAI workers know nothing about UCAT and think the area further in is an airport.”

“As you were told before, the Izumo Aviation Institute’s Tokyo branch had a national defense department during the war. That department learned of the Concept War, researched it, and became Japanese UCAT immediately after the war.”

“Do you know a lot about that?”

“No. Tonight was the first I ever heard about your grandfather being a part of it all.”

“Same here. That probably means my parents did not know either. They only worked for IAI. They must not have known that my grandfather had anything to do with the transportation facility over the valley.”

As he spoke, Sayama brought his hand to the left side of his chest and looked toward his left shoulder. A single small animal stood there.

The 15 centimeter animal was of a type he had never seen before. Its face looked like a boar, it had a round body, and its legs had hooves.

“That’s Baku, right? I’ve never seen it before. It can…show people the past, right?”

“The old man said it was like dreaming. Apparently, it was on the verge of dying but managed to survive due to the slight release of the positive concepts in reaction to the negative concepts beginning to activate ten years ago.”

When he reached out his hand, Baku drew back but then reached out its front legs to grab his finger.

“I wonder what kind of past it can show me… I suppose it could only be an unpleasant past.”

He glanced over to find Shinjou hanging her head down.

While walking alongside her, Sayama asked, “What is it?”

“Oh, sorry. It’s just… I didn’t know anything about you and 10 years ago, Sayama-kun.”

“Oh, you mean when my father headed to Kansai with the IAI rescue team and-…”

“You don’t have to say it. You don’t have to talk about your chest pains either. …It would be best if you don’t talk about it.”

“I do not mind.”

“You should. You shouldn’t talk about your parents and yourself like they are strangers.”

“But my parents more or less are strangers and I work to view myself objectively.”

In response to his words, the ends of Shinjou’s eyebrows drooped slightly as she looked up at him.

Sayama received her gaze head on.

''She is likely in the right here,'' he muttered in his heart. Shinjou had said she had no memory of her parents. She wanted to search for them. He decided that was what led her to be right.

When Sayama had been told that the objective of the Leviathan Road was the suppression of the negative concepts, the topic had turned to the activation of the negative concepts and the great Kansai earthquake ten years ago.

And that had naturally led to Sayama’s parents. Sayama had seen the look on Shinjou’s face change when she heard about his father’s death during relief work for the earthquake, about his mother taking him with her and trying to commit a double suicide, and about his angina.

When she had once more asked about the ring he wore, he had given her the proper answer.

It was a memento of his mother.

She had then apologized. She had said she had not been thinking when she had said what she said in front of the medical room.

She was now looking up at him with the same expression as back then. The ends of her eyebrows had lightly lowered above her black eyes.

Before, it had been an expression of apology. But now it was an expression of admonition over speaking as if his parents were strangers. Sayama thought on Shinjou’s words and expression.

…''When she should be criticizing me, why does she use the expression of someone who has done something wrong?

But before Sayama could come up with an answer, Shinjou made a move. Her head drooped down.

“Sorry,” she said.

Sayama tilted his head in confusion. He was the one who deserved to be criticized here.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“B-because I was being an imposition on you, Sayama-kun.”

When Sayama heard those words she spoke to the ground, he spoke.

“There is one thing I hope you understand.”

But then his lips produced another statement.

“That is not true at all.”

After he spoke, Sayama realized what he had said.

Why had he permitted someone else to give their opinion on his pet theory?

As he felt that slight shock, he saw Shinjou look up at him wide-eyed with her eyebrows still lowered. A bit of surprise could be seen on her face as well.

''She is surprised from the simple fact that someone accepted what she said,'' he thought.

She was serious about this.

It was related to one’s memories of one’s parents. That was something that she lacked.

Sayama thought as he watched Shinjou’s expression change before his eyes.

Why had he allowed Shinjou’s opinion?

…''That is because she understands.

Her expression changed ever so slightly.

…''She understands what it is she seeks.

The ends of Shinjou’s eyebrows lowered and her eyes narrowed around her large pupils.

[[Image:OnC_v01_0185.png|thumb]]

…''That is something I do not have.

She opened her mouth slightly, let out a soft breath, and spoke.

“Thank you…”

Sayama nodded and looked away as he changed the subject.

“At any rate, I need to think about whether I should accept the Leviathan Road or not.”

“Y-yes. If you do, it will involve more than just negotiations. You will be dealing with people as desperate as this evening.”

“I see.” Sayama nodded and muttered under his breath. “I wonder if he viewed me as desperate.”

''I was not,'' he thought with a sigh. It had ended before he could. And Sayama remembered what he had felt when he had been about to take action at the end. He had thought that he had been wrong.

He understood why he had felt that way.

…''I am inexperienced. Even if I am wrong, I simply need to think it is necessary.

Sayama wondered when he would become the kind of person his grandfather had been.

He then recalled the battle from that evening.

“Our enemy was serious and so were you. …I have seen many different fights, but that battle was not fought hopelessly or as a game.”

“According to Ooshiro-san, we will head to the 1st-Gear reservation for the preliminary negotiations the day after tomorrow. It seems they realized we are taking action, so one of the radicals tried to win over the peaceful faction on the reservation.”

“So he made his way into the middle of enemy territory. …What leads people to head down such dangerous paths?”

“Well…”

“How about we leave it as ‘there are things that cannot be explained with words’. According to the old man, tomorrow we will go to the Imperial Palace so he can show me the beginning of the Concept War and the day after tomorrow we will meet with representatives of 1st-Gear’s peaceful faction for preliminary negotiations. If that was all, I would not be remotely interested. However, I saw one of the radicals today. I am interested in the Leviathan Road.”

…''So that is what it looks like when two serious people clash in desperation.

“Utilizing force creates enmity, but there are some who will never accept it if you do not. What can be done about that? …These negotiations are wrapped in contradiction. Perhaps that is why I was chosen.”

Sayama looked forward to find they were approaching the main entrance. The guard noticed them and activated the automatic gate. With a sound like rattling chains, the gate disappeared belowground.

Amid that sound, Shinjou stopped walking and asked a question.

“That is why…? Why would you have been chosen, Sayama-kun?”

Sayama stopped as well. He supported Baku who almost fell from his shoulder.

“My grandfather would boldly declare that the surname Sayama indicates a villain. He was a lone wolf corporate blackmailer. …This is a similar dirty job. Someone is needed to crush this kind of idiot underfoot.”

…''And they hope that person will be me.

Sayama wondered if he could manage it.

If he was to leave, he had to do it now.

“…”

Sayama fell silent. With a click of the heel, he began walking once more.

A step later, Shinjou rushed up to join him.

“Wait!” she called.

But Sayama did not turn around.

He heard Shinjou’s footsteps line up beside him.

“Um, Sayama-kun. Sorry, but…”

“What is it?” he asked.

Shinjou’s head drooped and she folded her hands in front of her waist.

“Umm,” she started. “I just want to check one thing about what you said.”

She formed a troubled smile and asked her question.

“What is a corporate blackmailer?”

“What?”

“S-sorry. I know it was a really important part, but…well…I’m not quite sure what it means.”

Sayama’s mouth hung open and he let out a “ha!”

…''Oh, I see.

He did not care if his laugh reverberated in his left arm. He let loose and laughed without restraint.

''Is that all it was?'' he thought.

Meanwhile, Shinjou’s face grew red.

“Wh-why are you laughing? Is it that funny?”

“Apologies. You are an honest person, Shinjou-kun. A corporate blackmailer is someone who uses violence or influence hidden from the law to threaten corporations into giving them something in return. They bring harassment or unseen violence and if the corporation wants it to stop, they have to give them some sort of influence or a good rate in negotiations.” He thought for a moment. “But unlike normal ones, a lone wolf corporate blackmailer who acts out of conviction is an idiot. When they see an enemy or evil, they wield their justice and charge in. They make no threats, they harass no one, and they cause no violence. They cry out about the injustices and fraud of corporations and wield their power in the name of justice. And they do not care who else is damaged in the process. They do not care if they are hated.”

Shinjou gulped. At that moment, they passed through the main gate. The guard bowed and they bowed back.

“Will you…choose the same thing as your grandfather?”

“Perhaps. …He truly was hated by a lot of people. When he dug up corporate injustice, not many corporations could withstand the reorganizations and dismissals that followed. He did not know the meaning of the word mercy.”

“Really?”

Sayama nodded as he thought about his grandfather. He brought a hand to his forehead and sighed.

“Yes. When I was in fourth grade, I ignored a lame gag he made. That developed into an actual fistfight. What kind of person fights an elementary school boy while wearing nothing but his underwear, goes in for a cross counter, and then takes a photo to commemorate his victory? You will never find a more childish old man in all of human history. I suppose that breed went extinct recently.”

“I think I see a candidate before me…”

“That would be nice,” replied Sayama with a smile.

They stopped in front of the main entrance. Across the wide road in front of them was a cliff with the Tama River flowing down below and forests on the mountains and valleys beyond. The lights of the IAI hospital and employee dormitory could be seen in the distance.

While listening to the sound of the river, Sayama spoke to Shinjou.

“At any rate, I think my grandfather was hated because he was a true villain and nothing else.”

“Why did he continue to do that even though it made him so hated?”

“I do not know. And to be honest, I am jealous. Why was he able to do that? …If I understood that, I could choose my own path without so much doubt.”

Sayama said no more. And shortly thereafter, headlights approached from the Akigawa direction of the road.

“Is that from your family?”

“It is from a yakuza family that became indebted to my grandfather. They run a security company now, though.”

As he spoke, the car pulled up. It was a large, black car. The windows were all tinted black so the inside could not be seen.

It came to a stop.

“Wah,” said Shinjou as she drew back.

A man had stepped out of the driver’s seat on the left.

This young man had close-cropped hair and wore a blue suit. He turned toward Sayama.

“Young master, I have come to take you home.”

He bowed and looked toward Shinjou. Slight caution could be seen in the young man’s actions.

He then turned his eyes toward the bandages wrapped around Sayama’s left arm.

Sayama nodded and said, “Kouji, do not worry. I trust her. She…treated my wound when I tripped in the forest. Her name is Shinjou-…”

He trailed off when he realized he had never asked her given name. Shinjou picked up on this and answered.

“Oh, it is Sadame. My name is Shinjou Sadame.”

“I see. My apologies. I am Tamiya Kouji. It seems you have been of great help to my young master.”

“Eh? No, um… He helped me too…”

Shinjou took a step back, stood right next to Sayama, and whispered.

“You tripped in the forest?”

“I can hardly tell him the truth, can I?”

“Yes, but I wasn’t the one to treat you. …And this is an amazing reception. Why is he treating you like this?”

“You could say this family is a memento of my grandfather. I did not acquire this myself. Do you not-…”

Sayama was going to say “have anything like that”, but he swallowed the words.

Shinjou sighed, thought for a moment, and then spoke.

“Don’t worry. I do have…a younger brother. My twin brother. But…” She gave a bitter smile and lowered her head slightly when she saw Tamiya looking at her. “Your environment… Whether you can call it a family or not, it’s quite amazing.”

“I see,” said Sayama with a nod. He then amended it to, “I suppose so.”

At that point, he realized he had a bit of leeway within him now. He knew she was not completely alone.

He concluded that the male language mixed into her speech<ref>The most prominent example of her use of male language is using “boku” to refer to herself.</ref> was due to that environment of hers. He then he nodded slightly in her direction.

“Now then. Thank you for seeing me off. …Will I see you tomorrow?”

Shinjou nodded and gave only a slight smile. That was the sign of their parting.

A girl stood on the rooftop of Takaakita Academy’s second year general school building.

She stood on the western edge overlooking the nightscape of Akigawa City.

It was Brunhild wearing her uniform and with her gray hair blowing in the wind.

As the moon shone down on the rooftop, she placed her hands on the railing and opened her mouth.

She cast her eyes down while otherwise expressionless. Her opened lips did not produce simple words. She sang.

It was the hymn Silent Night.

“Stille Nacht Heil’ge Nacht

Alles schlaft einsam wacht

Nur das traute hoch heilige Paar

Holder Knab’im lockigten Haar

Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh

Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh.”

She slowly raised her head.

Once she finished singing, she opened her eyes to find the round moon in the heavens. While watching that light, her expression changed.

“I hate this sky… It has that light that our sky did not. It is not the light of the underworld…”

Brunhild sighed as the moonlight reflected in her eyes.

And then her expression changed once more as if it was jumping up. Her eyebrows leveled out, her eyes sharpened, and the expression from before vanished.

“Here he comes,” she muttered as she reached her right hand into her pocket.

She pulled out a small blue stone and held it tightly in her right hand. She then slowly raised that right hand.

A wind then descended from the night sky. It was a black wind. Like a string or small stream, the black wind whirled around and wrapped about Brunhild’s right hand. It solidified into a single object.

That black wind took the form of a black cat.

This glossy black cat stood atop her right arm.

Brunhild stretched her arm out horizontally as easily as if the cat was weightless. The cat climbed across her arm and onto her right shoulder. Brunhild lowered her arm and the cat climbed down it to the floor.

Immediately afterwards, Brunhild wrote something in the air using her right hand and snapped her fingers.

As soon as that clear sound rang out, the cat looked up. And…

“Ahh, I’m exhausted. It can be hard to tell which is the real me.”

A young male voice came from the cat. Nevertheless, Brunhild remained expressionless.

“We have to keep up appearances so as to avoid suspicion. More importantly, how did it go?”

“As expected, the Royal Palace faction is hopeless. They don’t have the strength of an organization like we do.”

“I did not ask for your impressions. I want a report on the facts.”

Brunhild folded her arms and began tapping her right toes on the floor.

Seeing that, the cat said, “I think you are absorbing some bad habits from Low-Gear. You have such bad manners.”

“Shut it. If you say anything more, I’ll throw you into the room of a classmate who is yearning for a pet.”

“No, I don’t want that… It’s only any fun at first.” The cat hung its head, sighed, and then straightened up once more. “The peaceful faction that sympathizes with UCAT turned away a messenger from the Royal Palace faction. The messenger was a strong member of the Royal Palace faction, a werewolf named Gale-…Gale-something. But he was cornered by UCAT and killed himself.”

“They did that to a werewolf? I know their species gets a lot stupider when their true nature kicks in, but that couldn’t have been easy.”

“Well, the pursuit unit was slaughtered, but the UCAT special division arrived afterwards and trapped him in a Concept Space. Werewolves are a poor match for precious metals when it comes to elemental concepts. Okay, now this.”

The black cat rolled over and showed off its belly. He was asking Brunhild to rub it, so she crouched down and poked his belly with her index finger. The gentle jab caused the cat to arch its back.

“Ahhh! My hips! Not the hips! My guts! I feel some indescribable sensation in my guts!!”

“Stop speaking so oddly and get on with the report. What will we do regarding the peaceful faction and the Royal Palace faction?”

“W-we of the Urban faction will not contact either side. Fafner who has worked his way up lately made the announcement. …And according to Venerable Hagen, the Royal Palace faction will likely take action out of desperation.”

“The Royal Palace faction will? A group that split from the peaceful faction based on nothing but ideals is planning to attack UCAT? They don’t think they can manage by relying on nothing but youthful vigor like Fafner does, do they?”

“No, they don’t.”

The cat got up and began licking his belly.

While still crouched down, Brunhild said, “Stop acting so self-important and get on with it.”

“C’mon, you don’t have to act like that. We were both deployed here, so we are on equal footing, right? You have been getting a bit carried away lately, Brunhild.”

“Have I?”

“Yes. Just the day before yesterday, I took a peek inside the sweets shop in front of the school and you suddenly had a kid in there strip naked and bow down before you.”

“Do not misrepresent what happened. He flipped up my skirt first. For a woman of 1st-Gear, having anyone but her husband do that is a humiliation. I was crying in my heart as I made him bow down. And I also swore to never forgive that kid.”

“Sorry. My heart must have been too clouded because I could not see any tears. …And is that really such a humiliation?”

Brunhild grabbed the black cat’s back legs in her hands, spread them out in a T-shape, and lifted him up. She then shook him up and down.

“Ahhh! Such humiliation! Stop, stop! If you keep looking at me like this, a new side of me will awaken!”

“As long as you understand.”

She put the cat back down. The cat dragged his limp waist along and forced a smile.

“E-every day with you is quite stimulating. Although becoming numb to stimulation is a sign your life is over.”

“Just finish with the report before I decide to do something else.”

“Hmm,” thought the cat. “Do you remember the Leviathan Road? That thing Venerable Hagen mentioned.”

“Yes. That information he got from a strange information broker, right? …We had predicted it ourselves as well. On December 25 of this year, the activation of the negative concepts of this Gear will reach the critical point.”

“Yes, and so we must take back the other half of 1st-Gear’s Concept Core from UCAT and stop the activation of the negative concepts as part of 1st-Gear. …And UCAT is trying to do the same but with themselves in charge. Anyway…the Leviathan Road is an attempt by UCAT to obtain all of the Concept Cores. But…”

“?”

“It seems a unit put together just for that purpose has begun to move. It was apparently that unit that cornered the messenger of the Royal Palace faction. It is known as Team Leviathan and was created from the top elites of UCAT’s special division.”

“What is your point?’

“You can’t tell? Some higher members of UCAT are involved with this unit. And so the Royal Palace faction will target Team Leviathan instead of UCAT as a whole. If they could capture Ooshiro Kazuo, the head of Japanese UCAT, they might gain a significant advantage in negotiations.”

Brunhild stood up, folded her arms, and slowly moved her head down.

“Hmm,” she murmured as the black cat looked up at her.

“But… Hey, Brunhild, were you singing before I arrived?”

“Eh?” Brunhild looked down at the cat and finally spoke without changing her expression. “I was not singing.”

“Really? I seem to remember hearing it on the wind. You, Venerable Regin, and Lady Gutrune loved that Low-Gear man’s-…”

“Do cats show sentimentality by speaking of things they know nothing about?”

“I am being serious here, Brunhild. In a way, you were the person in the closest position to the cause of 1st-Gear’s destruction.”

“…”

“It bothers me that, as our fight approaches its end, you are here,” the cat slowly lay down, “observing the man who destroyed 1st-Gear. It seems to me that would be bad for your mental health.”

Brunhild’s eyebrows arched slightly, her lips formed a smile that was not quite bitter, and she crouched down to pet the cat’s back.

“Am I really that on edge?”

“You were earlier. When Miss Feigned Ignorance stopped by, you were legitimately mad when you mentioned how much you love forests and she replied by mentioning celery.”

Brunhild dug through her memories before replying.

With a serious expression, she said, “That is because I hate celery.”

“…”

“I can’t stand Chinese chives or mitsuba either. Whenever I order udon at the cafeteria, I ask for no mitsuba, but Old Tome always legitimately forgets and puts it in. …And that old woman is too cute to complain to.”

“It doesn’t really matter, but I think you are building up too much stress from little things.”

“Oh? I am not building up stress at all.”

“Really? Then how are you relieving-…no, ah!! Stop, stop! Not the ass! The ass is the last place I want-…!”

Once Brunhild rendered the cat unable to stand, she stood up.

She walked over to the north edge of the rooftop where she could see level scenery with the lights of houses and buildings in the distance.

Headlights could be seen running along the roads within the school grounds, but that was the only movement.

She looked straight down and spotted light falling on the grass behind the school building. The light came from the first floor hallway in front of the Kinugasa Library. She could see a single shadow moving through that horizontal line of lights.

“Siegfried…” she muttered. “What would he do if he knew a ghost from 60 years ago had returned?”

===Notes===
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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_5|Chapter 5]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_7|Chapter 7]]
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Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 2

2013-06-16T13:14:42Z

Purin:

==Chapter 2: The Two Meet==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0065.png|thumb]]
''A scream of rejection led to their meeting

''So which one did she really want?

When Sayama came out onto the road down below, he tilted his head in confusion alone on the sidewalk.

The cell phone in his hand would not turn on.

He had checked the battery when leaving his dorm, but now the LCD screen was dark. He shook it lightly, but nothing changed. He thought it might have to do with the signal, so he crossed the two-lane road to reach the sidewalk on the valley side, but this also did nothing. He removed and put back in the general-purpose battery that worked in all small IAI devices, but to no avail.

“What is going on?” he muttered.

But then he recalled the strange voice he had heard not long before.

As he had been travelling down the slope, he had heard a single voice.

—'''Precious metals possess power.

This had not been a reverberating voice amplified with a megaphone. It had been like a whisper from headphones he was wearing. However, a look around had had not shown any equipment that could have produced the noise.

And now his cell phone would not function.

He put the phone back in his pocket in confusion. According to his memory, he should reach several restaurants along the road if he walked a bit further. He decided to use a phone at one of them. Wondering what time it was, he glanced down at his watch.

“It’s stopped…”

His watch had stopped. The hour hand, minute hand, and second hand were all motionless.

He frowned and put a hand in his pocket. He pulled out a digital recorder with the IAI mark on it. It was stick-shaped and the top had a red start button.

He pressed it.

However, the recorder did not respond. He remembered fully charging its general-purpose battery as well.

While wondering what all this meant, Sayama realized something else. He looked around the area and then up into the trees of the forest.

“There is no sign of anyone.”

Not many cars used this road. However, not a single one had passed by in the time he had spent climbing down the slope. On top of that, he could not see a single bird among all the trees.

Suddenly, Sayama recalled that the train had returned to Shiromaru. He wondered what had happened.

And then he heard the sound of something being struck in the distance.

The sound had come from the tree-covered slope leading down from the road and to a river.

“That was a tree collapsing.”

He looked and spotted a single distant tree on the slope that had begun to tilt. It was a cedar. The silhouette that resembled a green leaf-covered spire leaned up against the nearby trees and then collapsed.

After seeing that, Sayama moved his gaze west toward the sun setting behind Okutama.

After confirming that was his destination, he nodded.

But then he heard another noise. And this time it was not the cracking of a falling tree.

It was a scream.

“…”

Sayama instinctually raised his head.

He had definitely heard that distant, high-pitched voice. For an instant, strength filled his body, but then he stopped.

He took a breath, frowned, and thought.

He did not think for long. He only needed to remember his past. Just a single memory. He remembered when his mother had brought him into these mountains by car.

“So it is always me who is unable to keep his promises to meet someone…”

He took another breath and brought his hand to the left of his chest. A slight ache from the past lay there, but he suppressed it with his breathing.

He opened his eyes.

The crimson-dyed sky lay before his eyes. Seeing that color, Sayama nodded and began moving.

“Okay.”

He turned toward the valley-side forest below. His right hand loosened his necktie while his left shoulder slipped out of his coat in an instant. By the time the coat left his right shoulder, he had already stepped atop the guardrail on the sidewalk.

He took a step.

His footstep sounded lightly as he used the guardrail as a stepping stone to propel him into the air. As the coat still on his right arm flapped about, it created a solid noise as it struck his back. At that same moment, his feet landed on the underbrush of the slope.

He began walking.

His pace was much faster than when he moved down to the road earlier. He lowered his hips to almost slide down the slope.

The sun had already started to set in the western sky that was hidden by the trees.

Once it grew dark, the forest would be dangerous.

He had to hurry. He lowered his hips even further to rush down the slope.

He entered the forest and ran between the trees. His destination was the tree that had fallen earlier.

Sayama ran straight there while treading on old, dry branches.

He was not out of breath as he had a habit of running every evening.

However, running on such bad terrain and the faint tension he felt did noticeably raise his body temperature. Even so, there was one part of his body he felt no heat in.

That was his left fist. It alone felt cold.

“Ha,” gasped Sayama in what was not quite a breath and not quite a laugh.

He was only about a dozen meters from his destination. He could hear a flowing river through the forest.

He could see several depressions that had once been small streams along the ground. He jumped over them as he ran and raised his head.

Between the trees, Sayama saw the setting sun sinking behind Okutama’s mountain range. Dusk would arrive in less than 10 minutes. The forest would grow very dark.

''Hurry,'' Sayama called to himself.

He then spotted some small lights. They were near the tree he was running toward. Light was reflecting off of something scattered across the ground.

…''Did a hiker leave some trash behind?

But he immediately rejected that idea. A hiker would not come this far to throw their trash away. They would do so near the trail or river.

He put up his guard. He stopped next to the light on the ground and looked down. He saw…

“Metal?”

Black metal fragments were scattered primarily around the southern side of a large tree.

And the fallen tree he had seen before was about five trees south of it. A cedar tree just barely too wide to reach around had fallen and the break was visible from here.

Sayama looked over at that break where that loud noise had come from before.

“That is…”

He frowned and fell silent.

The tree had been sliced at about a meter up from the ground.

It was a clean diagonal slice. About four-fifths of the trunk’s diameter had been sliced through in a single blow without leaving any woodchips or sawdust at the base of the tree. The cracking sound Sayama had heard must have been the remaining fifth breaking.

He smelled a slight odd scent. It stank of something burning. He looked again and noticed a slight charring around the cut.

Sayama took a step forward to go check out the cut.

But his right foot trod on something hard.

He looked down and lifted up his foot.

Sayama recognized what he found. It was a short tube made of the same material as the metal fragments scattered around the area.

“A gun barrel.”

…''This is longer than the ones I have seen while staying at the Tamiya household. Perhaps it is not for a pistol.

With that thought, Sayama checked the ground once more.

He found some new information there.

They were footprints. And three different kinds.

The first was fairly old. They were large and had a mountain boot type of pattern.

The second was smaller but had a similar pattern to the first.

And the third was very strange and seemed to trample over the others. These odd footprints were easily over 30 centimeters long and had holes as if from spikes where the toes should have been.

The information did not end there. An intermittent trail of dark wet spots approached from the south.

Those wet spots continued to the tree behind Sayama.

As Sayama held his breath and did not turn around, he felt a slight sensation fall on his left shoulder.

It felt as if someone had tapped on his shoulder, so he looked over.

A single dark spot could be seen on the fabric that had been dyed light red by the setting sun.

What was that?

As if in response, another one fell on his shoulder.

It came from above.

And in the next moment…

“…!”

Sayama unhesitatingly ran forward, to the west, and toward the river he could hear.

He did not check what was above him. He already knew what it was.

If he had looked up, his footing would have been uncertain and he would have been unable to move. That instant would have put him in danger.

He had never been in danger before. And that was why Sayama began to run.

…''Something is in that tree!

The instant he was sure of that, he heard something drop to the ground behind him. It was the sound of two legs landing. Two legs supporting something large. He could hear the feet sinking into the ground.

Immediately afterwards, a voice shot past Sayama and through the forest. It was a beast’s roar. A howl.

…''Is it a bear?

But he denied that possibility. This beast had killed its prey, carried that prey into the tree, and then waited for Sayama to notice the corpse before attacking from above. The first set of footprints belonged to the victim in the tree. The second set had likely fallen for that trap.

Sayama would have been the third victim, but only the second to fall for that strategy.

…''Beasts do not use strategies like that. Only people do.

The howl from behind him had been that of a beast, yet…

“If this thing has a human intellect, I should handle it like a human.”

As if pursuing those words spoken toward the ground, footsteps approached Sayama from behind.

They were fast.

Those footsteps were as deep as a bass drum and each step covered as much ground as Sayama covered in five. However, Sayama did not turn around. He focused only on not slowing his pace

He refused to turn around. What he needed was distance, not curiosity.

The sound of the river up ahead was growing louder.

He could see light. The ground sloped sharply downwards. Ahead, he could see a rocky river bank covered in the dim light of dusk.

Once he arrived there, he would be able to see his opponent. He might also spot someone there.

Just as Sayama began to wonder if he could call for help, he noticed something odd up ahead.

He noticed the movement of the air spreading out ahead of him and a slight haze of light.

A single obstacle was covering the entire edge of the forest on the slope just above the river. It was…

“A wall!?”

The wind ahead of him was still. And the light of dusk had grown slightly hazy.

He would arrive at this supposed wall in another three seconds.

The heavy footsteps were still approaching from behind.

Should he run directly into the wall or not? In fact, did this wall even exist or not?

How could he check?

A single idea came to Sayama. He slowed his pace slightly.

Once he arrived at the supposed wall, he turned his back. It was as if he had been cornered.

He could see a shadow charging toward him.

That shadow resembled a human. The large figure was over two meters tall. Its entire body was covered in black animal hair, but torn black cloth could be seen at its waist and chest.

Its face was visible above its thick chest.

Its face resembled a dog. Below the pointed ears were two golden eyes and a red slit of a mouth.

…''Is this what you call a werewolf?

He thought that idea was crazy, but only for an instant. The truth lay before his eyes.

And so he needed to move. Amid the dim light, Sayama brought both arms down and his hips back. His opponent likely thought he was ducking down. However, Sayama was using the right hand hidden in his coat to search behind him.

In what should have been empty space, he felt resistance

It was a wall. The sensation he felt through the coat reminded him of a rough eggshell. The coat molded into the shape of that wall, so he could tell it had no gaps.

The enemy came immediately thereafter.

Sayama threw his head back to show off his throat.

The enemy’s right claws were swung down. It was trying to cut off his head as it passed by. It opened its mouth and bared its fangs.

It let out a cry, but…

“Silence,” said Sayama as he dropped his hips down along the wall.

The werewolf’s claws cut through empty air.

Its giant body then slammed face-first into the invisible wall.

This caused a great sound of impact.

It sounded less like flesh being struck and more like a car crashing. The werewolf’s entire body was knocked back by a repelling force. It flew through the air, rotated once, and caused a tremor in the earth where it landed. It then rolled.

The sounds of the beast’s breaths mixed in with the sound of it rolling.

Sayama was almost lying down on the ground and he realized the chest of his vest had been torn.

“That was valuable,” he complained as he stood up and filled his lungs with air.

It did not seem the werewolf had lost consciousness. However, it was lying on the ground with its chest moving up and down as it gasped for breath. It did not seem to know what had happened. The wall may have been unexpected for it as well.

…''Or it simply might not have known where it was.

Sayama began running once more. He had to find a means of defeating the werewolf before it came to its senses. To remain in the werewolf’s blind spot as much as possible, he ran along the edge of the invisible wall. He ran west. This was upstream of the river to his left. After running across a few gentle slopes, he could no longer see the werewolf.

“The meeting time will probably have passed before long,” muttered Sayama as he looked down at his watch.

The silver hands were still not moving.

''What is going on?'' he thought.

And then he noticed a slight light beyond the wall.

It was a vehicle’s headlights.

A red RV was parked about 20 meters ahead on the rocky river bank. It was likely a family on a spring break outing. He could see the family around the RV folding up parasols and leisure tables. The family was made up of a middle-aged couple, a young girl, and her even younger brother. The RV’s headlights were pointed up the slope toward Sayama.

“Hey! You need to leave! It is-…”

He trailed off before he could say “dangerous”.

Something was strange.

The family he had shouted at continued their preparations to leave without paying him any heed.

…''Did they not hear me?

“Hey!!” he shouted while standing in the middle of the headlights where they could see him. However, they did not notice him.

…''Can they not see or hear me?

Sayama took in a deep breath and let it out. He placed a hand on the invisible wall before him and once more muttered, “This has become very odd.” And as Sayama watched on, the family climbed aboard the RV.

After a short pause, it drove off of the rocky river bank. It was headed…

“Up this slope.”

Sayama ran. If he was remembering right, the main road above had a few mountain roads leading down to the river. If the invisible wall to his left extended as far as the road the family was using, the RV would strike the wall from the outside.

What would happen then?

He climbed up the slope and found the road.

The branches of the trees above seemed to create a natural tunnel over the mountain road. The dirt road was about three meters across. Sayama stood atop the bulge in the center created by the ruts on either side.

As he wiped sweat from his brow, the RV’s headlights reached him.

Sayama took a step back while in the center of that light.

However, the family showed no sign of noticing him. The RV continued to approach at the same speed.

…''The wall.

They passed right through it. However, the RV changed.

It became a pale shadow.

It was so thin that the scenery beyond it was easily visible through it. The people inside were the same.

“…!?”

As Sayama stood in the center of that mountain road, the pale shadow of the RV passed through him. He only felt a slight shadow. It produced no wind or sound.

Sayama let out a sigh without even turning around.

“What is going on?”

…''That RV will likely drive up to the main road and eventually drive beyond the invisible wall once more.

And what lay beyond that wall was of course the everyday world.

It was only this space that was twisted. He was sure of that now.

Sayama suddenly crouched down. He spotted a nearby stone on the ground.

He picked it up.

Sayama then looked at the spot where the stone had been. A faint shadow the exact shape of the stone lay there.

It was so faint he could not see it without paying very careful attention.

Sayama replaced the stone and muttered, “Are the objects in this space the actual objects? Or are they the shadows?”

He did not know.

Sayama shook his head lightly and stopped arguing about it in his head. His current priorities lay elsewhere.

He took a breath. But then he froze in place.

He had heard a noise. He had heard heavy footsteps and a small cry in the distance.

The cry was the same voice as the scream from earlier.

“That person is still alive,” muttered Sayama as he looked forward.

He saw a slope. It was the slope he had climbed to distance himself from his enemy.

However, he took in a deep breath and began running down that very same slope.

Dusk was already turning to night.

Night also enveloped the near-deserted school.

In the 2nd year general school building of Takaakita Academy, Ooki was in charge of locking up for the night. She was on the western edge of the first floor hallway. Specifically, in front of the emergency exit.

Kinugasa Library was located on the same floor. About four classrooms-length of the hallway had been turned into a storage area.

“What is this, a lawless zone?”

The large Kinugasa Library took up the length of four classrooms and the hallway had not escaped the power of its books. Bookshelves and other shelves were lined up along the walls of the hallway and towers of books were piled up here and there. To make it as far as she had, Ooki had been forced to weave around and jump over the piles of books. The hallway had become a sort of labyrinth.

No books or shelves were located near the emergency exit at the back, but that was only because the books and shelves were often brought in through it.

Ooki turned the key for the emergency exit to lock it. For an instant, she caught a glimpse to the east through the emergency door’s window. The eastern mountains were outlined in crimson, but the sky above created a gradation from purple to black.

“I hope this is okay…” she muttered before turning her back on the window.

She did not want to stay in that deserted labyrinth of books for long. While kicking a few books out of the way, Ooki made her way through the four classrooms-length area on her way to the central lobby.

''This tight skirt makes it hard to walk at times like this,'' she thought.

The hallway’s fluorescent lights felt overly bright because of the shallow darkness of night she could see out of the northern window between two bookshelves. Her reflection in the window showed a bandage on the forehead. That was where Sayama had flicked her.

“That boy did not hold back. …It would be best if I assume that’s just how much he adores me.”

Just as she muttered that, a door opened to the side.

“!”

She gasped and turned around. As she did, her heel caught on a pile of books and she fell backwards.

“…Ah!”

Her legs flew up and her head fell to the floor…or it would have. However…

“My apologies,” said a low and relaxed male voice as a black gloved hand caught her falling back.

As soon as she realized she was being supported, her vision rotated around vertically.

[[Image:OnC_v01_0083.png|thumb]]

Her feet were brought to the ground and she stood on her own.

“…”

Ooki did not quite understand what had happened. Only the word “rotation” floated up in her mind.

“Um…” she muttered as she looked up at whose hand was supporting her waist. “Siegfried-san?”

“Are you okay?”

It was a tall elderly man who answered with that question. His broad-shouldered frame was contained in a white shirt, a black vest, and black trousers. He was bald, had a white beard, and his blue eyes were looking down at her.

Siegfried silently removed his right hand from her waist and brought the white cup in his left hand to his mouth. The aroma that reached Ooki told her it was coffee.

Ooki bowed while trying not to be too distracted by that scent.

“Th-thank you very much. What was that where I spun around?”

“It is similar to what you call aikido in Japan. More importantly, I am glad you are okay. Are you locking up?” asked Siegfried before his gaze moved to Ooki’s forehead. “I apologize for asking so many questions, but what is that bandage?”

“Oh, just something I received from a student earlier.”

“School violence? We cannot have that. I will teach this student a form of punishment passed down for generations. No matter how stubborn they may be, they will confess to being a filthy witch in just one blow.”

“Why is everyone around me like this?” muttered Ooki under her breath before shaking her hand from side to side. “No, no. This boy worked his way up quite high in karate, so I think this was unintentional. Also,” she scratched at her head, “it was done with mutual understanding between teacher and student. I was perfectly fine with it.”

“I see. Then I have no right to speak out against it. …I suppose everyone has their own preferences.”

“Oh, um… I am not sure I would put it that way, but whatever. What are you doing here, Siegfried-san?”

Siegfried pulled a single piece of paper from his breast pocket. He took another sip from his cup and then spoke.

“Some people needed help finding some data. Part of my job is providing help for those searching for data. Could you perhaps help me? There is a book titled ‘The First Plutonium’ somewhere in this hallway.”

“No, no, no, no, no,” said Ooki as she took a step back.

With a word of parting, she bowed and walked out to the central lobby that was actually quite small. She climbed the stairs to lock up on the second and third floors.

From the central lobby, it became clear how dark the school building was even with the fluorescent lights. The building was designed to only be used during the day.

“How scary,” sighed Ooki as she turned on the lights for the stairs.

The light green staircase lit up, but the white fluorescent lights felt somehow cold.

She then heard Siegfried say, “I already locked up the second floor. If you trust me, you can skip it.”

“I trust you!” she replied thankfully to the man who was hidden from view by a corner of the hallway.

She then headed on up.

She knew that the six general education school buildings and the faculty building had been built before the war.

“The library was built like that by the founder, Kinugasa Tenkyou.”

It had originally been prepared as the research archive for Izumo Aviation Institute’s General Tokyo Facility that was being built at the time. However, Takaakita Academy had been born as a means of creating skilled future personnel.

Ooki thought about the staircase she was currently walking up.

“This was built over 70 years ago…”

Her footsteps sounded loudly as she made it to the second floor. She left the central lobby and looked down the hallway.

She saw only darkness. And beyond that darkness was the music room to the west and the emergency exit to the east. However…

“I trust him…”

She backed up toward the staircase.

Ooki’s shoulders drooped as she sighed and turned on the lights for the staircase up to the third floor. She quickly made her way up.

Once on the third floor, she found darkness once more.

As if plunging her head into the darkness, Ooki stood in the central lobby and looked toward the art room to the west and then the emergency exit to the east. She could see the emergency exit light in the distance.

“Nnn,” she groaned as she turned on the lights to the hallway. The fluorescent lights came on one after another and lit up the area. However, the windows and glass on the classroom doors grew darker.

Ooki stood in the center of the hallway and scratched at her head.

“Well, I have no choice…”

Her shoulders drooped, her head drooped, and she sighed.

She headed east while meaninglessly walking as silently as possible.

But then she jumped at a sudden noise from behind.

It was a cat. A single meow had come from the western art room.

“Nyah…?” asked Ooki as if she was about to cry.

She turned toward the art room while taking a cowardly pose.

She forced strength into her shoulders and slowly sent two jabs, a straight, and an uppercut into the air.

“O-okay, come at me.”

She held her breath for a few seconds. After that silence, she spoke quietly once more with her fists still at the ready.

“If you don’t want to come, you don’t have to…”

She received only silence in response. After a while, Ooki lowered her arms and pressed her hands against her legs. Her trembling had not stopped, but it had lessened.

“M-maybe there’s a cat outside,” she muttered while tilting her head and looking in the art room.

At the same moment, light cut through the darkness of the frosted glass on the art room door. It happened twice. This was not a reflection from a car’s headlights. The light cut across horizontally from left to right and disappeared.

“!”

Ooki wrapped her arms around herself and crouched down. After a moment, she reflexively covered her ears with her hands.

“I-it’s okay, it’s okay. Th-that was just a mysterious phenomenon.”

After realizing what she had said, Ooki let out a cry and shrank down even further.

She decided to return to the stairs. It was only about four meters away. She removed her hands from her ears and began crawling on her hands and knees. She kept her gaze down so as not to look at the art room as she took one step and then two.

As she crawled, she realized that she was acting just like a cat. She was still trembling, but she cast down her eyes in shock that she was doing this in her own workplace. She brought her right hand forward in place of a front paw and could not help herself.

“Nyah,” she said.

But she received a sudden response from a cat behind her.

“!”

She jumped forward in shock.

She twisted around as if trying to clean the floor with her butt. With her guard raised as high as it would go, she brought her knees up to form a defensive wall.

And then she saw what had replied to her.

It was a black cat. It was sitting in the spot she had been in a moment before and it was scratching its head with its hind leg. Meanwhile, Ooki was breathing heavily while looking at the cat with her hands on the floor behind her.

The black cat simply seemed to be relaxing, but she was fairly certain it had not been in the hallway a moment before.

She tried to say “when did that get in here?”, but her voice spilled from her mouth more as a breath than as words. She suddenly realized she had tears in her eyes. And…

“Are you okay, sensei?”

This time, she heard a voice from behind her in the art room. It was a girl’s voice.

Ooki gasped and turned around. She slowly looked up.

A single girl was standing there.

The girl wore her uniform like a model showing off the perfect method. Her platinum blonde hair was almost gray and it flowed down her back and to her legs.

She looked down on Ooki with a sharp look in her purple eyes and opened her mouth with no expression on her face.

“I apologize. You are patrolling, aren’t you? I was so focused on my work that I did not notice night had fallen. The soundproofing in here is quite good.”

“You are…”

“Brunhild Schild, a third year student. I will be the head of the general art club this coming year.”

Ooki stopped breathing momentarily when she heard the word “art”. She slowly moved her upward gaze to the west.

The art room was there.

Its door was open.

Ooki confirmed that darkness lay beyond that open door. And then someone grabbed her shoulders.

Brunhild had circled around behind her.

She leaned down as if trying to hold Ooki down.

She brought her small face over Ooki’s shoulder and spoke.

“Would you like to see my painting?”

“Your painting?”

“Yes,” replied Brunhild.

Ooki heard a slight waver in the girl’s tone. And that waver remained as Brunhild continued.

“A painting of a forest. A deep, dark, depthless, yet abundant forest.”

Sayama ran through the nighttime forest. He ran as if stabbing the soles of his feet into the ground. His legs would plunge forward through the air and his feet would come down to trample any obstacle underfoot. That was the absolute rule for running in a dark mountain.

“Who would have thought the harsh training of the Hiba Dojo would come in handy here!?”

He could hear the rustling of the trees and the cracking of someone treading quickly over branches up ahead.

Someone was being chased. Chased by that werewolf.

''Hurry,'' thought Sayama. ''I do not know who made that scream, but I have come for you.

As he urged himself to hurry, he approached those loud footsteps. It took him five steps for every one of theirs. However, the werewolf could only run in a straight line. He focused on efficiently weaving through the trees to gain as much ground as he could.

Sayama thought. Whoever was being pursued by the werewolf likely had their own method of escaping this situation. The cut that had felled that cedar had been too sharp to have been made by the werewolf’s claws. This person must possess some kind of weapon.

“A weapon?” asked Sayama with a bitter smile.

This was Japan. A weapon that destructive would not be allowed anywhere. Nevertheless…

“But this is real. I suppose I have entered a world where I have no choice but to believe the reality before my eyes.”

The source of the footsteps entered his vision. He saw a large back. It was running through the trees ahead.

Sayama reconfirmed that the footsteps and back ahead of him belonged to an enemy.

He had to hurry. He weaved through the trees while skimming as close by their trunks as he could. As he did, he scooped up two stones in each hand. He then held up his right arm so that his coat spread out.

“I suppose I have to say goodbye to this suit today…”

As he spoke, he could now see both the werewolf and the person running from it.

…''A girl?

He saw a single girl running.

She appeared to be about the same age as him. Her long, soft, and black hair danced about as she fled. She wore a white and black outfit that resembled a dress and in her right hand was…

“A fluorescent light?”

She held a white staff almost two meters long. The side of the upper end had a long cylinder attached that looked a lot like a fluorescent light. It produced a slight bluish-white afterglow that lit up the girl.

As the werewolf ran, it stretched out its arm toward the girl. She swung the staff as if to shine the afterglow on the werewolf.

Sayama heard a sound similar to a spray of water and saw the werewolf’s arm repelled.

He did not understand how it worked.

However, the staff the girl held was definitely the weapon Sayama had assumed she had.

As he ran, Sayama suddenly muttered, “Not good.”

He remembered running through this area.

Several depressions that had once been small streams cut across like stitches.

Sayama poured strength into his legs and ran forward.

At the same moment, the girl looked down as she ran.

“…!”

She let out a meaningless gasp and her slender body flew as if it had been struck.

She had not tripped; she had intentionally jumped.

However, the enemy did not overlook this opportunity. It let loose an attack from the left as if scooping its claws up toward the target that had lost her balance in midair.

The girl swung the staff to hold up the afterglow.

But it was too late.

With the sound of cloth tearing, her body was knocked away.

At the same time, a wind blew through, rustling the leaves of the forest.

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Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 6

2013-06-15T19:09:30Z

Purin:

{{Incomplete|percentage=30}}
==Chapter 6: Their Impressions==
[[Image:OnC_v01_00169.png|thumb]]
''Fitting and unfitting

''To be together

''Is a complex sort of restraint

In a certain room, one could look out into the mountains and valleys of Okutama at night.

The aboveground portion of UCAT was disguised as an IAI transportation administration building. This room was on the top floor of that building.

Specifically, it was on the eastern end of the fifth-floor of that large white-walled building hidden in the mountains.

The private room was five meters square and had a single light and a single air conditioner on the ceiling. The walls and ceiling were white, so not a single dark color was visible. However, the floor was covered with disorderly shadows.

Books, documents, cardboard boxes, and packaging were piled up all across the floor. The area around the desk by the window was especially bad. The desk had several cluttered strata piled atop it.

A white-haired man was sitting between the desk and the window. He was wearing a white coat was the man named Itaru that Sayama had met on the train.

He was sitting shallowly in a wooden chair with his sunglasses still on.

His hand was moving. He was folding a piece of paper.

He was making a paper airplane using a document from a pile on the desk. The text at the top revealed it had been sent to Ooshiro Itaru.

“This is how you deal with documents not even worth looking at.”

Ooshiro Itaru tightly folded one end of the paper, held it up, and aimed. He aimed at the room’s white door.

The pile of documents on his desk was in the way, so he had to lean out a bit.

And he threw it.

The sharply pointed paper airplane soared in a straight line toward the door.

But then the door opened and a girl entered.

This was the maid-uniform girl named Sf. She held a silver tray in one hand.

“Itaru-sama. I have brought your dinner,” she said just as the paper airplane struck her forehead.

With a small yet solid noise, the paper airplane bounced off. It rotated around and fell to the floor that was already cluttered with documents and boxes. Several other paper airplanes were already on the ground at her feet.

However, Sf did not even look at the paper airplane. She remained expressionless.

“Could you give some sort of reaction?” complained Itaru. “Something like, ‘You mustn’t make even more trash! Ukii!’ ”

“This has only altered the form of the trash from a sheet of paper to an airplane. Also, you never continue with the same task for long, so this flight test is unlikely to last long.”

“You’re so boring.”

“German UCAT created what was needed for the situation. According to my creator, I perfectly meet every one of your demands.”

“And that is why are boring.”

“Thank you very much. It is my duty to meet your demands, Itaru-sama.”

With that said, Sf walked expressionlessly forward. She lightly crushed the paper airplane underfoot.

Sf walked lightly across that paper, other documents, and even the boxes. She finally arrived next to Ooshiro where he sat at his desk.

She bowed and held the silver tray forward. It contained a soup cup and a hamburger.

“This is a soup and a hamburger. Are you familiar with them?”

“Wow, I’ve never seen anything like them before! …And if you are displeased about something, just come out and say it.”

“Tes. …Thank you very much for the polite response.”

“You really are boring. So what is it?”

“These are 100% chemical compounds. Not a single natural ingredient was used. UCAT completed the design as an experimental food and announced their research today, but it is not being sent out to be sold by IAI.”

“So it is a food that does not exist in this world but has been created in this world. That would probably sell.”

“I hear they have a large repertoire and the prototypes have been frozen. The head of the dining hall said they would be serving a few different patterns over the next year.’

“I see,” nodded Itaru.

Sf continued, “This provides worse balance when carrying it around than with the solid foods from before. Its performance and nutritional value remain unchanged, so I must deem it an inferior product as it is more difficult to carry and transport.”

“Just get used to it. The head of the dining hall is going to keep serving it until it’s gone no matter what you say.”

“Why? If I am not given a clear answer, I will request the previous type of food from the head of the dining hall.”

“Just think of it as humans needing human food just like dogs need dog food. And the same holds even if this human can no longer eat normal food.”

Without waiting for Sf to respond, Ooshiro took a bite of the hamburger. Cheese, onions, pickles, and beef were held between the buns. None of them were real.

He finished it in five bites and reached for the soup cup.

He gulped it down all at once.

“I thought it would be too hot, but that wasn’t bad.”

“Its temperature was quite high, so I stuck my finger in it on the way here to cool it. My internal temperature is kept low.”

“You really are a machine that meets my every demand. If I could return you, I would do so in a heartbeat.”

Saying that, Itaru returned the soup cup to the tray and wiped his hands on Sf’s apron.

He glanced up at her and said, “Not even a displeased look? I’m dirtying your equipment.”

“Do not worry. This apron is meant for you to wipe your hands on. I also have one for outings, office work, cleaning, receptions, sleep, and ceremonial occasions. This one functions as a disinfectant, so feel free to use it.”

“You are truly an amazing machine. Where can I send my thoughts and requests? Please tell me.”

“Tes. Please send any mail to the Sf assistance official within German UCAT.”

“…You really don’t know what a joke is, do you?”

“I will interpret that as a request, Itaru-sama…Oh.” Sf bowed and leaned forward. She adjusted the position of Itaru’s metal cane leaning up against the chair. Then, “I will be going.”

She turned to leave the room. Itaru called out to her.

“What’s my old man doing?”

“Kazuo-sama was at the first floor’s central entrance not long ago. He was with Shinjou-shi,” while still expressionless, she tilted her head slightly, “and Sayama Mikoto-shi who we saw on the train. It appeared they had discussed the Leviathan Road while underground.”

“Do you know the details?”

“Tes. Sayama Mikoto-shi was informed that there are ten alternate worlds known as Gears, that his grandfather worked with UCAT to destroy them, that the world is facing a crisis, and-…”

“And that he is to gain cooperation from the survivors of the other Gears by engaging in the postwar negotiations known as the Leviathan Road?”

“Tes. He was told to ask Shinjou-shi for any simple information he lacked. …Also, he was handed the sacred beast Baku from 7th-Gear. It is to help him by showing him the past.”

“When will that old man stop putting on airs? He should just tell the little shit to not even think about it.”

“Tomorrow, they will meet at the Imperial Palace at 1:00 PM to explain the details of the Concept War and of the current situation. The day after that, they will visit UCAT’s 1st-Gear reservation for preliminary negotiations with 1st-Gear’s peace faction.”

“Is this Sayama brat really willing to go that far?”

“No. According to Kazuo-sama, this is all tentative. Sayama Mikoto-shi can still reject the right his grandfather has left him. He is being told to make his decision after learning what the Leviathan Road truly is.”

“My old man’s gotten too soft. …Although he is the one that encouraged us on the verge of death way back when.”

“What is the objective of the Leviathan Road?”

“You want to know?”

“Not really, no.”

“Then I’ll tell you.” Ooshiro Itaru picked up a document from his desk. He folded it as he said, “1st- through 10th-Gears were all created from their own unique concepts. We call those positive concepts. On the other hand, our Gear has nothing. The reason for this is simple: this Gear is created from negative concepts. Do you understand so far?”

“Tes.”

“The Concept War was fought by destroying the other Gears, but do you know what basis would have been used to determine which Gears were destroyed and which one survived when all the Gears collided in 1999?”

“No.”

Ooshiro Itaru gave a bitter smile and added another fold to his paper.

“When that time of destruction arrived, the Gear with the most positive concepts would survive. That was why the Gears fought and did their very best to extract and take home as many of the enemy worlds’ concepts as they could. And since this Low-Gear had nothing but negative concepts, it was apparently abandoned right away.”

“But despite being made of negative concepts, this Gear succeeded in destroying the other Gears made of positive concepts. …Is that why we receive so much enmity for winning the Concept War?”

“That’s only one of the reasons, but yes, the underdog won. However, that result means the other Gears’ concepts were brought into this Gear. They are stored in the form of Concept Cores which are masses of concepts on the level of an entire world. That goes well beyond a simple Concept Text.”

The sound of folding paper continued. He made a fold that pointed up like a mountain, spread out the center, and created corners on the four sides.

“Most of the Concept Cores are stored in UCAT. If those Concept Cores are released, they will eat into this Gear’s negative concepts and destroy our current ideas of common sense. However…”

“However?”

“Ten years ago, the negative concepts of this Gear began to activate for some reason. If nothing is done, this Gear will continue even further in the negative direction and be destroyed. To stop this, all the positive Concept Cores must be released to create a balance. We know this will change the world, but it is our only option.” His hands stopped moving. “My old man says this is accepting the existence of the lost Gears. This world will accept the powers of those destroyed Gears and will maintain its existence using those powers. However, most of the Concept Cores were split and a portion remains in the hands of the Gear’s survivors. Also, the war ended 60 years ago, so we cannot act like conceited victors and simply do as we wish with the Concept Cores. We must hold official negotiations with each Gear and gain permission to use the Concept Cores.”

“And that is the Leviathan Road? To be honest, I cannot determine if this is true. What proof do we have that the negative concepts have become active?”

“Japan and you, Sf. The ones you and those like you are based on fell asleep when brought from 3rd-Gear. Now, tell me when they awoke.”

“…December 25, 1995.”

“And what happened in Japan on that day?”

Sf immediately replied, “If my memory is correct, the great Kansai earthquake.”

“Yes, you are correct. That was one aspect of this. And the Concept Cores must have had some sort of reaction too because their concepts began to leak just a tiny bit into this Gear. That is why those girls became able to move ever so slightly.”

“…”

“The negative concepts are even now growing more and more active. It has been predicted that their activity will reach its critical point at exactly ten years after it began. In other words,” he powerfully added a fold, “December 25 of this year.”

Ooshiro Itaru’s hands stopped there. He placed what he had folded atop the pile of documents on his desk. It was a square with one end pointed. It had a square protrusion on the top.

SF looked at it and asked, “Is it a boat?”

“Does it look that way to you? No. It is a tower. Look at it like this.”

He pressed down on the back of the square to stand it up. It was a tower stabbing straight up to heaven.

“It all begins here.”

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 4

2013-06-15T19:09:26Z

Purin:

==Chapter 4: A Mysterious Abyss==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0123.png|thumb]]
''Even if offered

''One cannot swallow it all at once

''The truth can only soak in gradually

One awoke when one’s consciousness floated up from the darkness and into the light.

Sayama now felt that light feeling of ascension. He then felt his vague sense of self rapidly return to a single object. He could once more feel the weight of his body.

“…Kh.”

When he heard his own voice, he opened his eyes.

The only coloration his blurry vision could pick up was brightness. He was lying down. His upper body was bare and he felt hard sheets under his back.

He could see a fluorescent light on a neatly arranged white ceiling.

“Where am-…?”

A female voice cut him off.

“This is the medical room, so stay still.”

An index finger suddenly entered his field of vision from the right and pressed down on his forehead. That was enough to prevent him from sitting up. And so Sayama moved only his eyes to look toward the owner of that finger.

It was a short Chinese woman. Her hair was tied back in a bun and her face held a youthful sharpness. A simple black shirt and pants covered her entire body below her white coat.

After seeing that Sayama was not moving, she removed her finger and looked to the side.

“Nijun, call Shinjou in.”

“Tes.”

Sayama looked toward the second voice and saw an old man in a white coat turning his back. He had been standing next to the woman. He cut across the room silently.

As Sayama followed the man’s path across the room, he saw for himself that this was indeed a medical room.

Besides its two beds, the room only had a desk, a chair, and shelves covering the walls. The wall clock informed Sayama it was currently 8:30 PM.

…''So only two hours have passed since then.

The old man named Nijun opened the room’s door while his long gray hair fluttered slightly.

And a girl entered from outside.

It was Shinjou.

She wore a brown dress and a long white T-shirt. She bowed to Nijun, hurried into the medical room, and looked toward Sayama. Once she did, her expression lit up.

“Ah.”

She blushed and covered her face with her hands.

Sayama then recalled that his upper body was bare.

While she turned her head away yet still looked his way, the woman in the white coat spoke to her without even turning toward her.

“Shinjou, please bring the shirt on the chair to him.”

“But Doctor Chou…”

“Just do it. If you’re too slow, I’ll have to beat some liveliness into you.”

The woman named Chou then faced Sayama and lightly bent up the fingers of her right hand.

Assuming she meant he could sit up, Sayama did so.

Once he did, he felt pain from his left arm and shoulder as if someone was squeezing them tightly. His left arm was wrapped in bandages both above and below the elbow and fixed in place by a thin yet hard cloth. He could move his elbow, but it felt heavy.

Chou looked down at him and said, “It seems you received the injury while your arm was bent in an L-shape. Both your upper and lower arm were torn diagonally.”

“How many stiches did it take? I want to avoid too many scars if possible.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. No treatment from me is not going to involve any stitching. But…don’t move it for a while. I have it fixed nicely in place for now, but forcing it to move will mess with that.”

Shinjou was then standing next to him. She held a shirt. When she tried to hold it out to him, Chou slapped her on the ass. Shinjou cried out “Wah!” and Chou frowned.

“Don’t just hand it to him. You have to put it on him, don’t you?”

“…Testament,” replied Shinjou before sitting on the bed. She looked at Sayama and said, “Could you turn that way?”

Sayama turned his back to her. Behind him, he could hear the sound of her spreading out the shirt and of Chou’s dignified voice.

“Shinjou, say it. You have to. Tell him you’ll wash his back for him.”

“What kind of services does this medical room provide?”

“Hah. This is the medical room inside an organization known as UCAT. I am the medical chief, Chou Sei.”

“Doctor!?” cried Shinjou and the sensation of the shirt pulled away from Sayama’s back.

Sounding like she was smiling, Chou said, “Is there any point in hiding it? He is here to see UCAT anyway. …Right, Sayama Mikoto?”

“I believe I was summoned by IAI.”

“Japanese UCAT is the hidden side of IAI. It is located deep in IAI territory and the important parts are underground. The normal IAI personnel know nothing about this special area.”

While listening to Chou, Sayama felt a sudden pain deep in the left side of his chest.

He took a deep breath to suppress the pain. And then the shirt was placed over his shoulders.

He turned around to find Shinjou frowning slightly.

“We’re not actually supposed to answer any questions about it,” she said quietly.

“I see. So that old woman is breaking the rules.”

“Yes,” she nodded, but shortly afterwards her eyes opened wide in surprise. “H-how did you know that Doctor Chou is an old woman!?”

“It is just the way she talks. No matter how much younger you make yourself look, you cannot hide the years in your words. She uses similar old woman speech patterns to Old Tome in the cafeteria who was born in 1945.”

“I see. That’s amazing. You’re the first person I’ve seen that realized she’s an old woman.”

“Well, Old Tome’s speech patterns were quite characteristic. She would occasionally get your order wrong or just stand there like someone had switched off her power, but that exciting clumsy old woman side of her was the secret behind her popularity.”

“I see the two of you want salt rubbed in your wounds next time you get injured,” said Chou.

Shinjou frantically looked over and said, “Eh? Ah! I-in my defense, I only called you an old woman to respond to him with the words he used. I don’t think of you as an old woman at all. Okay?”

“Hm,” said Sayama before turning to Shinjou. “To me, it sounded as if you were quite excited to call her that.”

“Eh? Eh? D-did it?”

To respond to that question, Chou smiled slightly from where she had suddenly appeared next to the girl.

“Shinjou, if you are injured here, you can be healed right away. So what will you do?”

Shinjou frantically began adjusting the shirt over Sayama’s shoulders.

After they were kicked out of the medical room, Shinjou sat with Sayama on a sofa in the hallway outside.

She took a deep breath, faced Sayama, and spoke.

“I was told Ooshiro-san would be here soon. …You had business with IAI, right?” She averted her gaze slightly. “Um, Sayama…-kun?”

After confirming his name, Shinjou felt a troubled smile appear on her lips.

“Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve called you by name.”

“That old woman knew my name as well. Where did you learn it?”

“Hm… I only heard it from Doctor Chou, but it seems she already knew it. But,” the ends of Shinjou’s eyebrows drooped as she looked at Sayama’s left arm, “that will leave a scar, won’t it?”

“Yes,” agreed Sayama. Eventually, he asked a question while choosing his words carefully. “Do you…no, what was that beast? Do the people of UCAT always perform jobs like this?”

“Um…I can’t really say.”

“So you cannot respond without permission. Fine then. But there is a possibility you could receive a similar wound, correct? If you are that worried about my wound, why do you do this kind of thing?”

“There is something I want to know. That is why I do it.”

She replied almost reflexively, but then realized what it was she had said.

She was not sure what she could tell him, but she had to say something to explain what she had meant.

A few seconds of silence followed as Shinjou thought. She tried to determine what she could and could not say.

“Um,” she started. “I was chosen to move from my usual position to what you could call a new team. I used to have a protective role on the rear guard, but this new team is made up of a small group of elites. It works a little differently.”

“What does this team do?”

“We still do not really know. The entire team has not been fully gathered yet. It seems the members who were gathered earlier know some of the details, but this was my first day.”

“Will you learn what you want to know if you join this team?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a tilt of the head. She truly did not know. “But the person who recommended me for this unit…no, I mean team. Anyway, this person said it would allow me to be involved in the world’s past. And I,” she leaned back in the seat, “know nothing about my parents. I have no memories before the age of six.”

“Is knowing about your parents really such a great thing?”

“Y-you only say that because you take that knowledge for granted.”

Shinjou stared at him. Even she could tell her expression showed a bit of displeasure.

Thinking she needed to say something more, Shinjou opened her mouth as she watched him.

But then she saw Sayama place his right hand on the left side of his chest.

For an instant, she thought he was taking up some sort of stance.

She did not understand why, but Shinjou had a feeling that this was not good.

She tossed aside the words she had been planning to use and instead decided to change the subject. At the very least, she wanted to speak about something other than her parents.

Her gaze lowered until she saw his left hand. She then realized what she could use for a new topic.

“U-um.” Shinjou raised her right hand so he could see. She wore a men’s ring on her middle finger. “Do you know what this is?”

“No. It is similar to mine, but I have never seen it before. Why do you ask?”

“It is my sole possession. Besides my name, I only have this ring and a song. You heard the song, didn’t you? It is Silent Night. For some reason I knew that song. It and this ring are all I have. You wear one too, so I thought there might be some connection.”

“It would be interesting if there was, but the odds are quite low. For one thing, a lot of people wear rings as fashion accessories in this day and age. Sorry, but…” Sayama glanced away slightly with a dampened expression. “Have you ever left this place?”

“Y-yes. I know everywhere in Okutama. I even go as far as Oume. It’s a big city, so a train comes in every 12 minutes! That’s five in an hour!”

“To help you save face, I will omit any detailed comments, but you need to get out more.”

“R-really…?”

Shinjou was troubled. But then she spotted someone walking toward them from the hallway to the right.

“Ah,” she said before standing up.

She had seen an elderly man with this thin gray hair swept back.

His slender body had a lab coat around it and he wore sandals on his feet. The eyes behind his glasses were bent like bows.

He raised a hand and opened the mouth below his moustache.

“Hi, there. Long time no see, Shinjou-kun, Mikoto-kun. …Do you remember me? It’s Ooshiro Kazuo.”

Sayama followed Ooshiro down the UCAT hallway.

Shinjou must have viewed the man as her superior because she kept her hands folded in front of her waist and did not speak much.

They passed by a few doors and several people. Four of those people were wearing white coats and one man was wearing the same white and black outfit Shinjou had been wearing in the forest.

Ooshiro would occasionally look over his shoulder and speak.

They discussed Sayama’s grandfather, his funeral, school, and other topics.

But after a few minutes of walking, Ooshiro suddenly stopped and turned toward Sayama.

Behind him was a dead end with a large closed door.

A placard on the wall above the door read “Central Passageway”.

“I think we should discuss the truly important things beyond here.”

Hearing that, Shinjou took a step forward.

“Sh-should I really go with you?”

“I don’t see why not. This is an important topic for you as well.”

“Oh, okay…Testament.”

That was the same word Sayama had heard in the medical room.

He asked Shinjou, “What do mean by testament?”

“Oh, that is a special UCAT sign. From what I hear, some of the terms used here were taken from the Bible as a joke. Testament or just Tes is a sign of agreement similar to ‘understood’. The original term can refer to an agreement or a portion of the Bible.”

“I see,” said Sayama with a nod.

Ooshiro then pulled a single object out of his lab coat pocket.

It was a wristwatch. It was mostly black, but the hands gave off the light green glow of glow-in-the-dark paint.

“Now that is some terrible taste.”

“I have one, too. See, on my left arm,” said Shinjou as she showed him her left hand.

When Sayama saw a black watch there as well, he said, “Okay then. I believe in taking back what I have said when proven wrong, so should I be doing that now?”

“What do you mean ‘okay then’? And shouldn’t you be more concerned with making such quick judgments?”

Shinjou’s annoyed response put a bitter smile on Ooshiro’s face.

“You can have this as a memento of this day. It can replace the one that was broken in the fight.”

Sayama took the watch and put it on. He noticed Ooshiro was already wearing an identical one.

After Ooshiro saw Sayama had finished strapping the watch on his left wrist, he opened the door behind him.

The metal door opened inward.

Beyond the now empty space was a passageway with closed shutters on either side.

“This passageway runs through the center of UCAT. But right now…”

Ooshiro entered the passageway. Sayama stood before the door alongside Shinjou before setting foot inside.

Once he did, he heard a voice.

—'''Your feet are on the ground.

“?”

Sayama tilted his head in puzzlement. He felt as if he had heard a few other voices after that first one, but he had been unable to make out the others. He only recalled that he had heard a voice.

But Sayama recognized this voice.

It was the same voice that he had heard upon entering the forest that evening. However, he did not understand what it meant.

…''What does it mean that I heard this voice?

As soon as he thought that, he felt a small vibration on his left arm.

It came from the wristwatch he had been given. He felt as if it were vibrating.

He looked down and for just an instant saw something like red writing scroll across the face of the watch.

That writing disappeared before he could read it.

“Is this a trick watch?”

It was currently ten till nine, so this was not indicating the top of the hour. Also, Sayama could not determine what that scrolling writing had been.

As question after question appeared in his mind, Sayama suddenly reached behind him.

However, he found no invisible wall. And the second hand of the watch was still moving when he looked back at it.

“Is this okay…?”

“Hm? Is what okay?” asked Shinjou while turning around.

“Nothing,” replied Sayama before stepping up alongside Shinjou.

He looked ahead and found Ooshiro standing in the center of the passageway looking toward him. He was smiling.

“Does that voice really bother you so much?”

“This evening, it was after I heard that voice that the world went insane. …But before that, I would like to discuss my grandfather. The document you sent me mentioned transferring rights left by him. What are those rights?”

“I suppose it would be quicker to start from there. Mikoto-kun, do you know what your grandfather did during the war?”

Sayama felt an ache in his chest at that question, but he took a deep breath and answered.

“I heard he was doing some sort of research and development here at IAI, the Izumo Aviation Institute.”

“Yes. Then, Mikoto-kun, do you know what he was fighting against?”

“Wasn’t it America?”

“Correct,” said Ooshiro with a nod. “A lot of the large corporations that created weapons to use against America are still going strong today. Izumo is still expanding now just like Isuzu, Mitsubishi, and Nittetsu. However, only Izumo received no interference from GHQ after the war. And it has expanded beyond its original field of aviation and into a broad range of fields such as chemistry and electronics. Why do you think that is?”

“There are rumors that Izumo was involved with the Ministry of the Imperial Household at the time. GHQ was having difficulty deciding how to handle the Imperial system, so I suppose they could not touch them. The primary developers from the other corporations saw Izumo as a safe zone and fled there. That created the foundation for the current expansions. Am I wrong?”

“You know quite a lot about this. Nicely done, Mikoto-kun.”

Ooshiro happily smiled and raised his right thumb.

Sayama raised his own right thumb toward Shinjou.

“What do you think of his taste?”

“Eh? U-um…”

“Tell me what you truly think.”

“I-I can’t. He is way, way higher in the organization than me. I can’t say it.”

“An excellent answer. Very elegant.”

Sayama turned back toward Ooshiro to find the man still smiling but pointing his thumb downwards. When Shinjou noticed, she poked Sayama in the side with her elbow.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“He is pointing at his feet. He is trying to brag about his smelly feet.” Sayama ignored the change to Ooshiro’s expression and spoke to the man. “I know I was the one who digressed just now, but when are we getting to the topic at hand?”

“Your impatience is just like your grandfather. However, I must inform you that there is a hole in your reasoning, Mikoto-kun.”

Sayama frowned and tried to fold his arms but realized he could not lift up his left arm. Feeling awkward with just his right arm up, he brought it even further up to scratch at his hair.

He then asked, “A hole?”

“Yes,” said Ooshiro as he lightly spread his arms. “You know the history of IAI quite well. However, what about the history of UCAT? Do you know why the institution known as UCAT is hidden here?” And then, “And what do you think about that monster you fought this evening?”

“How should I know? This is the first I have ever seen of UCAT or that monster. I would like further information to base any conjectures on.”

Sayama had replied out of reflex, but he then realized the ache in the left side of his chest had grown stronger.

As if pushed on by that ache, Ooshiro’s eyes narrowed.

Meanwhile, Sayama lowered his right hand from his hair.

“How long has this organization existed? Was my grandfather involved in it?” he asked.

“I will start with your first question. Japanese UCAT was created in September of 1945. It was just after the war ended here in the old Izumo Tokyo Branch Office. As for your next question,” Ooshiro nodded, “Your grandfather entered Japanese UCAT as a central member of the Izumo National Defense Department that preceded it.”

Sayama’s heart gave a low throb in his chest. He took half a step back as if pushed back by Ooshiro’s words.

Sweat appeared on his brow, but he ignored it and asked, “What was he fighting? Was it things like that monster?”

After thinking for a short while, Ooshiro shook his head.

He took a step forward and said, “Mikoto-kun, your grandfather and the others were not fighting monsters. They were fighting ten alternate worlds lined up alongside this one. Those worlds and ours were fighting to destroy each other.”

Sayama began thinking on Ooshiro’s words. He contemplated what they meant.

“Old man.”

“What is it?”

Sayama looked up at Ooshiro’s face from below.

“I apologize for having to say this after not seeing you since my grandfather’s funeral, but you leave me little choice. Do you really think anyone will fall for such obvious nonsense? What kind of person does this at your age?”

“Oh, I haven’t seen a reaction so wonderfully aggravating since the day of the funeral!” shouted Ooshiro half in joy as he raised his right thumb.

Sayama tilted his head and asked, “Why do you not look remotely sorry? Is the word sorry not in your dictionary?”

“It is not that. This is the truth, so I can’t exactly be sorry for telling it to you.”

“Isn’t this a little farfetched? I mean, alternate worlds?”

“Yes, but… Wait, am I being lectured?”

Sayama could see Shinjou looking puzzled and Ooshiro hanging his head while scratching at it.

“You are.”

Hearing that, Ooshiro looked up.

“What a pain. Anyway, that was the conclusion reached. …I will explain why later. Are you willing to listen to this conclusion and how it was arrived at?”

Sayama frowned at the old man’s question.

He had seen strange phenomena and met a strange beast. But these were two different things. An entire alternate world was on an entirely different level from phenomena and beasts that existed individually.

Mysterious phenomena and monsters could be explained away in some way or they could be faked with tricks or models.

However, the same could not be said for an alternate world. The scale was simply too great. However…

…''Even if it is farfetched, it looks like the conversation will not continue unless I hear him out.

Sayama did not understand why Ooshiro was doing this, but he only needed to find a way to prove the old man’s words were false.

Sayama also wanted to know what purpose the old man had in making him listen to this.

While feeling it was nothing but a bother, he urged the old man to speak.

“I will listen to your nonsense. So there are these ten alternate worlds. …Why were they fighting?”

Ooshiro let out a sigh.

It was obvious Sayama was dubious.

Ooshiro shrugged and placed his hands in his lab coat’s pockets.

He spoke as if reciting lines he had memorized ahead of time.

“The ten alternate worlds and our own did not exist parallel to each other. They would intersect and affect each other on a set cycle. However, it was proven that all of the worlds would intersect at one point during the cycle. When that happened, the world with the greatest power would survive and the others would be destroyed in the impact of the collision.”

“When does that happen? Tomorrow?”

“The collision – that is, the time of destruction – was calculated to be what this world calls 1999.”

Sayama frowned.

“But that did not actually happen.”

“Weren’t you listening? Your grandfather and those he worked with already destroyed the ten alternate worlds.” Ooshiro gave a bitter smile. “Yes. The alternate worlds meant to collide were destroyed long ago, leaving only this world behind. Your grandfather helped destroy those alternate worlds. We refer to that war,” he took a breath, “as the Concept War.”

Shinjou glanced over at Sayama as she listened to Ooshiro. What Ooshiro was explaining was the first thing explained to any member of UCAT.

While some people already knew this when joining UCAT, it was necessary to explain for those who somehow ended up involved in a fight like Sayama had.

And in most cases, they gave the same reaction.

They would reject it. They would call it ridiculous.

Shinjou wondered what Sayama would do.

He had fallen silent. Shinjou waited a few breaths, but the boy continued to stand perfectly still with his right hand on the left side of his chest. His head hung down and after quite a bit of time, he opened his mouth to speak.

He gave an almost exasperated sigh and his drooping shoulders stiffened, but he said the following.

“That is a completely ridiculous story, but I am willing to believe it under certain conditions.”

“Eh?” said Shinjou without thinking.

Sayama and Ooshiro both turned toward her.

She frantically waved her hands and said, “N-no, it’s nothing. Nothing at all.”

“Do not tell me you thought I would readily deny it.”

“But you just did… You asked what kind of person could do this and you called it farfetched.”

Sayama turned back toward Ooshiro, tilted his head, and asked, “Now, old man. Did I ever say those things?”

“Well… Since you have started to show interest, I can hardly discourage it. So no, you did not. You shouldn’t lie, Shinjou-kun.”

“A-adults don’t play fair!”

“This is how politics works.”

“Yes,” agreed Sayama as he brought his right hand up to his chin.

Shinjou let out a sigh of relief and asked, “What made you believe him? You can’t deny that it sounds like nothing but nonsense.”

“True. …And unlike a normal person like me, there is a lot that is odd about the old man. You could say it is unavoidable that he sometimes suddenly cannot resist and will say or do something strange.”

“You cannot say that. And how are you defining ‘normal person’ here?”

“Let us move on from that. Now, there is the crazy talk of a pathetic old man and there is the truth. However, to argue against this, I need proof and not emotions. Currently, the opposing side within me has no proof. And…”

“And?”

“To make this more difficult, the supporting side within me has enough evidence to indirectly believe this. Shinjou-kun, that is you.”

“M-me?”

“Yes. I heard a strange voice in the forest near Shiromaru. That voice told me the crazy idea that precious metals possess power. And after hearing that voice, I heard you scream and saw a tree fall.”

Shinjou brought the fingers of her right hand up to her lips.

“Sayama-kun, did you come because you heard me scream…?”

“I will leave that up to your imagination. The forest I was in was surrounded by a strange wall. Some kind of monster that may have been a type of bear was inside. And so were you. And you told me that precious metals possessed power in that place.”

Shinjou nodded. She had indeed said that.

When Sayama saw her nod, he bowed his head in return.

“I do not know how your weapon worked, but my ballpoint pens and watch possessed power using precious metals. If all of that was a trick, it was a truly excellent one. You would have had to plant gunpowder or some kind of chemical on that monster. However…”

“However?”

Sayama clenched the right hand on his chin and his expression grew serious.

“Shinjou-kun, your expressions were real. That fear and tension were not a prearranged act.”

“Really? What if that fear and everything else up to now were an act?”

“I apologize in advance for saying this, but are you the type of actor that can bring sweat to your skin or quicken your heart rate at will? And this was a cold sweat not brought on by exertion. Can you also freely create the thin tears of someone enduring fear rather than sorrow?”

“W-well…”

Shinjou’s cheeks reddened and she loosely held her own body. He had seen all that.

Whether realizing what she was feeling or not, Sayama looked down as he gave a deep nod.

“Yes. The sweat on your bared breasts and stomach were real.”

“Eh?”

“And when I rested my head in your lap, your well-formed navel was moving in and out with your slightly disturbed breathing. That is not something one can fake. Especially the tension visible in the glimpses of your breasts visible through the gaps that your arms could not quite-…! Ahh! Ahh!!”

“Don’t say that!!”

Sayama drew back as a knee jabbed reflexively toward him.

“Wh-what are you doing? You certainly are a sudden person.”

“That’s my line. Why would you say that all of a sudden…?”

“I was simply giving evidence to the contrary of your claim that you might have been acting.”

“Oh? So your relationship has already reached that level. That speeds things up,” chimed in Ooshiro.

“Now then, Shinjou-kun. I believe this is when you are supposed to say Testament.”

“I’m not even sure where to start correcting you there…”

Sayama ignored her and turned toward Ooshiro.

“At any rate, I have already experienced the truth once. If those mysterious phenomena or that strange monster had been tricks, I could use them to refute you, but I am currently leaning toward saying they were real. However.” Sayama stretched out his right arm. He pointed toward Ooshiro as the sleeve’s fabric let out a noise. “I will admit that something strange happened, but that does not mean I can accept what you have said. Neither those strange phenomena nor that monster directly link to the existence of alternate worlds. Not even if they were engraved with the words ‘made in an alternate world’. We can prove the existence of our world because it exists. …Can you prove the existence of these ten alternate worlds?”

“Technically speaking, no. Those alternate worlds no longer exist,” replied Ooshiro. “But I am sure you understand one thing: no matter what phenomenon it is, there is a point where it is only natural to assume it is no trick. The same can be said for the idea of alternate worlds. Once we pass a certain point, you will know this is something other than our world. …And I will show that to you.”

As Ooshiro spoke, the shutters on either side of the passageway opened.

They made no noise. As those silent shutters rose, an office floor could be seen to the right and a large, three-story maintenance hangar could be seen to the left.

Shinjou watched as Sayama looked out at the sights to the left and right.

''How will it go?'' she wondered. ''What will he decide about this world?

What lay before Sayama’s eyes was a world with no distinction between up and down.

Both the office floor to the right and the large hangar to the left had desks, equipment, and working people on the floor. However, there was more than that.

“They are on the ceiling and walls too…”

People and equipment were there. Work was being done.

To both the left and right, the ceiling was being used as another floor.

As if it was a mirror image of the floor, desks were lined up on the ceiling of the office. The occasional decorative plant could even be seen.

The only thing that differentiated either one from a normal office was that the walkway down the center was made of covered lights which illuminated the other. The ceiling lit the floor and the floor lit the ceiling.

On the ceiling, people wearing office clothes stared at screens on the desks and typed on keyboards, walked here and there with paperwork in hand, or pushed carts full of documents.

Sayama observed those people on the ceiling.

But despite standing upside down on the ceiling, their hair did not stand on end and their feet were not attached to the floor on the ceiling.

Suddenly, a woman carrying documents on the ceiling accidentally bumped her hip against the corner of a desk.

With a look of surprise, several papers scattered through the air. They spread out and “fell” to the ceiling.

She frantically gathered them and a man on the floor directly below her called out to ask if she was okay.

Sayama saw all this.

[[Image:OnC_v01_0149.png|thumb]]

He remained silent as Ooshiro approached one of the windows to the office floor and opened it. Everyone on both the floor and ceiling turned toward him.

“Ooshiro-san!” cried a voice.

He nodded in response and said, “Are you doing well?”

“Testament!”

Hearing that, Ooshiro moved away from the window. As the workers all returned to their work, Sayama finally opened his mouth to speak.

“What is this?”

“It is exactly what it looks like. …Now, look to your left.”

Sayama ignored Ooshiro’s thumbs up and looked to the left as he had been instructed.

That was the three-story maintenance hangar. The passageway he stood in was at the second story portion, so the hangar spread out for one story both above and below.

The vast floor was surrounded in concrete. In there, people were working on not just the ceiling, but the walls as well. All four walls, the floor, and the ceiling were lit by large lights protected by bars at the corners of the surfaces and along the walkways.

A large object was currently located in the center of the ceiling. It was an armor-like humanoid machine about eight meters tall.

Of all things, it was lightly raising both its arms, standing tiptoed on its right leg, and rotating.

Ooshiro opened the window and spoke over the mechanical noises coming from the hangar.

“Oh, would you look at that. A balancer test.”

The humanoid machine stopped after 15 revolutions and went down on one knee as if dizzy. The surrounding workers gathered around it and peered into the area analogous to a face.

This sight brought a wordless thought to Sayama’s mind.

It was strange.

He nodded, now convinced, and suddenly opened the window in front of him.

He heard loud mechanical noises, smelled the burning scent of welding, and saw bright lights higher up.

He had seen a small shadow on the upper edge of the window he had opened. A closer look showed it was a wrench dropped on the floor on the reverse side. Most of the grip was sticking out onto the window, so Sayama could only think it was sticking to the wall by ignoring gravity.

“What is going on?”

Sayama placed a hand on the window frame, placed a foot on it as well, and prepared to jump out to the other side. But then someone grabbed his belt from behind.

“Y-you can’t do that, Sayama-kun! If you fall, you’ll die!”

Sayama stuck his head out the window and looked around.

Despite sticking his head out along a wall, people and equipment were standing straight on it and working.

After watching those workers standing and walking along the wall, he spoke to Shinjou behind him.

“Sorry, but please let me go.”

“Y-you can’t rush this!”

“I have made up my mind. I must go to the other side!”

“You can’t! It’s too soon! Please rethink this!”

“Do you think this is a training ground for jumping to your death? This may only be the second floor, but you might be injured if you fell.”

Hearing Ooshiro say that, a question entered Sayama’s mind. He stopped moving and asked it.

“Why do you think I will fall? They are standing on the other side of this wall, so-…”

He trailed off.

A giant trailer drove along the vertical floor from the left.

It was driving relatively quickly for the small area.

The instant of rumbling, wind, and shadow caused Sayama to duck back a bit as it passed by overhead.

The vibration caused the wrench sitting on the edge of the window to shake and drop down toward him. As he saw the wrench graze his face and fall behind him, Sayama frantically ducked back into the window.

He climbed down from the window frame and onto the passageway floor as wind from the trailer blew in through the window. The wind stank of exhaust, but it also contained a slight citrusy aroma.

Sayama took a breath. He then looked through the window at the humanoid machine standing up on wobbly legs.

“But…” He recalled the school newspaper attached to the wall in the school building. “I thought those things could not walk properly? Is your actual technology at this level?”

“Do you think we purposefully send out weakened mechs to be destroyed so no one will know what level of technology IAI has? Why would we need to put on such a performance? Mikoto-kun, the machine used in the article your school published was a God of War with the same design as this one. However, it was piloted remotely.”

“That machine was unable to walk without destroying itself, so how can this one move like this? Has the durability of the metal or gravity been altered?”

“I am glad the thought occurred to you. …What if we could control gravity?”

Sayama frowned. It sounded ridiculous, but a similar phenomenon could be seen before him. People were standing and working on the ceiling and walls. He looked at them and himself, but then he realized something that did not add up.

“Wait… You said I would fall when I placed my foot on the window frame before. If you could control gravity, I would stand on the wall instead of falling when I exited the window.”

“What if we were merely mistaken?”

“Then tell me this: what is that?”

Sayama pointed at the window to the office floor. A single object sat on the window directly opposite the one to the hangar Sayama had opened.

It was a wrench.

It sat on the window as if that window were the floor.

Sayama approached the window and touched it. A few people working beyond the window noticed him, but Sayama ignored them and spoke.

“We feel no attraction from this window. But this wrench does. …Is gravity being individually controlled for this single wrench? Does this continue until it leaves the effective range?”

Sayama approached the wrench and touched it with his hand.

The wrench immediately fell to the floor. It had been falling toward the window before, but the direction of its fall had changed. And the change had occurred as soon as Sayama touched it.

He looked down at the wrench on the floor.

“This is not gravitational control.”

He thought about why Shinjou had stopped him from leaving the window and about what Ooshiro had told him. And then he thought about the meaning of the words he heard upon entering the passageway.

“It said my feet are on the ground.”

As he spoke, Sayama raised his left foot toward the office floor window before him. He placed the sole of his shoe on the window.

He took a breath as he hesitated slightly.

And then he pushed off the ground with this right foot.

As he brought his right foot up toward his left foot, his body fell perpendicular to the window.

If he did not do anything, the back of his head would crash into the floor.

However…

“So this is how it works.”

Sayama placed his right foot on the window. He placed it right next to the left foot already on the office floor window.

He stood.

He looked around. Shinjou and Ooshiro stood on the wall to his left which was actually the floor.

Sayama was currently standing on the window.

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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_3|Chapter 3]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_5|Chapter 5]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 3

2013-06-15T19:09:21Z

Purin:

==Chapter 3: Her Song==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0093.png|thumb]]
''One, two, three, the words are uttered

''The words are those of a singer

''But only once they are heard do those precious words become a song

Ooki saw a painting of a forest.

A space had been opened in the center of the art room. The easel standing there held a large canvas giving off the scent of turpentine. The canvas contained the forest painting.

“Have you repainted this a whole bunch of times?” asked Ooki.

Brunhild turned around next to the sink at the window of the art room.

While washing the brushes she said, “I have altered parts and painted over areas countless times. But I am not ‘repainting’ it as it is still incomplete.”

“Is a painting not complete when you paint it once?”

“It can change depending on the materials and methods used. And on what you decide is its completed form.”

“Hmm,” replied Ooki as she looked at the forest contained in that rectangular frame. It was a work in progress, so some areas were not fully painted. However, a depthless black forest spread out within the canvas.

For an instant, Ooki felt like she was being sucked inside, so she frantically straightened up.

“If you get too close, you will get paint on you.”

Brunhild dried her hands and the brushes with a dark stained towel.

“Where are the other club members?” asked Ooki toward the girl’s back.

“I am the only one that remained behind for spring break and wishes to paint enough to stop by the art room. I have been making use of the space due to its excellent soundproofing.”

“Hmm,” replied Ooki again as Brunhild pulled a small round case from her skirt pocket.

It was hand cream.

Ooki let out a sigh as she watched the back of that girl rubbing the cream on her fingers.

She looked down and found the black cat looking up at the painting.

Wondering if the cat could understand what it was looking at, Ooki followed its gaze. One section of the vast, deep forest remained untouched. It had no color and the material of the canvas was exposed.

“What will you be putting in this blank area?”

“A cabin.” With her back to Ooki, Brunhild nodded to herself. “Yes, a forest is not just a collection of trees. A forest is a forest because it is a place for people. It is because of the people in the forest that the trees are not just a collection; they are counted and remembered. Forests-…” She trailed off for a moment. “The kanji for forest was the first I learned in this country. I think it is an excellent representation.”

“I see. So you’re the outdoors type… I like green things too. Like celery.”

Brunhild’s fingers stopped moving at that last comment, but Ooki carefully examined the empty spot on the canvas without realizing the meaning behind that. A careful look showed a small cabin and four people drawn in charcoal. Three of the people were visible. An old man read a book inside the cabin and a girl and a woman played with a bird in front of the cabin.

The fourth person was probably a man, but he was hard to make out. The sketched lines had been roughly erased.

However, the direction of the woman and girl’s gazes showed that someone was definitely sitting there.

“Brunhild-san? Who are these people in the cabin?”

“A forest needs people, but those who live in the forest are those known as hermits, their apprentices, and those seeking their protection. …A hermit is the same as a wise man. Those who lament the world live here.”

“I see,” said Ooki as she straightened up and thought while keeping her gaze fixed on the painting. She then whispered, “So you like making up stories to go with your paintings.”

“Did you say something?”

“No, no. Nothing at all.”

Ooki looked over and found Brunhild looking toward her.

The girl’s eyes were narrowed as if staring intently at something.

“Sensei, something has been bothering me. What is that on your forehead?”

“Oh, this? That was thanks to a student.”

“School violence? That is not good. I will teach you a disciplinary method my older sister taught me. Even the biggest fool will regain his obedience in a single strike.”

''Why is this school filled with people like this?'' muttered Ooki in her heart.

“No, no. He is already plenty obedient. If he had been serious, it would never have stopped here.”

“This school has a student that violent?”

“Violent? No, he isn’t violent,” said Ooki. A small smile floated up on her lips. “In his second year of middle school, he advanced to the openweight finals for student karate, but he lost after breaking his fist. Afterwards, his corporate blackmailer grandfather taught him all sorts of things and he now constantly has the top grades in the school. If I had to say he has a problem,” she took a breath, “it is that his knowledge of his abilities and his knowledge of just how much of an advantage he has prevents him from getting serious about anything. This was…not so much violence as it was a mass of strength that had nowhere to go. Okay?”

As his prey flew through the air, the werewolf moved to strike her once more.

The girl was doubled over in midair and the werewolf took a powerful step toward her.

In an instant, a third figure darted between the girl and the werewolf.

The werewolf remembered this person. It was the prey he had been pursuing before the sun set. He had lost sight of this prey after running into a wall and collapsing pathetically to the ground. The prey spread his empty arms wide as if to hide the girl. He was wearing a dark vest, but the sleeves of his white shirt showed up well in the dark forest.

The werewolf chose to use the right hand he had held up to attack the girl. He only had to plunge his claws into that boy’s gut as he ran by and then throw the boy aside. His white shirt would be stained with blood which would add some nice color to the plain forest.

The werewolf made up his mind in an instant, but something else happened slightly before that.

It came from below.

Something like a wall flew toward his face.

“…!?”

The werewolf realized it was a coat.

''Where?'' he thought. The boy had spread his arms wide, but his hands had been empty. That left only one answer.

His feet. It had to be that. When the werewolf had leapt, his focus had been grabbed by the white of the boy’s shirt as he spread his arms. The boy had placed the coat atop his feet and then kicked it up.

This slowed the werewolf’s reaction time.

The coat covered his face. His pointed nose sucked in the odd flowery scent that stained the boy’s clothes and he grew confused. He shook his head in an attempt to remove the coat, but it had wrapped around his head as if embracing him.

''Why?'' he wondered just as he felt an impact run across his shins.

His body seemed to float in midair.

After Sayama swept the werewolf’s feet out from under him, he saw the werewolf begin collapse, starting with the head. As the werewolf swung his arms around randomly, he grazed Sayama’s left arm.

He felt pain, but turned around without checking on the wound.

The girl was what mattered, not the beast. With that thought in mind, Sayama began running alongside the rolling werewolf.

…''He won’t be able to get that coat off of his head easily.

Sayama had tied off the sleeves and then placed a stone in each one and in the lower pockets. If the coat struck something while spread out, the weight of the stones would cause it to grab onto its prey. Sayama had used the principle of a throwing net.

…''But this only buys us some time.

He understood that well.

As he nodded, his eyes looked out on empty space. The girl had reached the fall of her parabolic trajectory.

To his left, the werewolf’s leg had gotten caught in one of the depressions located here and there. The speed of his roll had suddenly increased. Sayama ignored the werewolf as the beast’s giant frame struck the ground.

Instead, Sayama stretched his arm out toward the falling girl.

He was not going to make it. If the girl continued falling with such momentum, she would almost certainly be injured.

He kicked off the ground. He stretched out his hand, he stretched out his fingers, and he grabbed the girl’s skirt.

“…!”

With a single groan of effort, he pulled her in toward him.

Her unconscious form fell into his arms as if she had jumped into them.

He had caught her.

He noticed she still held that long staff in her right hand. Sayama intentionally let his feet slide along the ground to brake quickly. As he did, his right arm holding her shoulders shook her slender body.

“Are you okay?”

As he stopped by tearing dirt up from the ground, she replied with an action rather than words.

Her eyelids opened slightly and her gaze moved toward Sayama.

While surrounded by a sweaty face and disheveled hair, her slightly teary eyes looked right at him. And then…

“Eh?”

Her eyes opened wide.

Upon seeing her gaze, Sayama twisted around which gave her a better look. Behind him, the werewolf had ripped off the coat over his face and was beginning to stand. When she saw the enemy, she looked back up at Sayama.

“Y-you…” she started to say before suddenly looking down at herself.

She had only just now realized she was being held.

“Kyah!” she shouted.

Sayama glanced down to find the white and black material of her bodysuit had been split vertically. Everything from her chest to just below her navel was bared through the wide gap this opened.

Sweat covered her navel and round breasts as they moved up and down with her heavy breathing. She frantically covered herself with her hands.

Sayama unsteadily flinched back as he looked at her.

…''Not good. I should have checked beforehand.

“Okay,” he nodded before asking what truly mattered at the moment. “How can I defeat that enemy?”

“Eh? U-um…What are you-…?”

“This is no time for philosophical questions. I asked a single question and I seek a single answer. How do I defeat that enemy?”

She gulped. However, she gave an answer because the werewolf was getting up.

“Precious metals. Only a weapon using them will be effective.”

Sayama had some doubts regarding what she had said, but he cast them aside.

He decided to trust her. She understood the situation. That was all the reason he needed.

He trusted her.

And so Sayama placed the girl on the ground. He placed her feet on the ground, supported her unsteady back, and kept his gaze on their enemy.

“What is your name?”

“…Shinjou.”

Sayama rolled that hesitantly-spoken surname around in his mouth.

The werewolf stood up and leaned forward. It was preparing to run full speed for them. In another instant, that great power would be charging toward them.

As soon as he saw that, Sayama moved forward. Shinjou called out behind him.

“W-wait a second! Wait until my comrades arrive!”

Sayama’s only reply was a light wave of his left arm. A red flow fell from his fingers to the ground. The girl named Shinjou must have seen it because he heard her gasp behind him.

Her tension told Sayama once more just how limited his time was.

The grazing blow from before had been surprisingly deep.

But he did not hesitate. Even as his left arm felt oddly heavy, he took another step forward.

He fixed his left sleeve which was wet with blood, rebuttoned the cuff, and then lightly raised his right hand which now had blood on it.

He snapped his fingers and a spray of blood shot out.

“Listen.”

He looked down to the chest pocket of his vest. It held two ballpoint pens.

“These are Swiss. The tips are silver. That is a precious metal. …You are in for a painful experience.”

As he spoke, Sayama kicked off the ground and began running.

He ran straight forward.

He had to close the gap before the enemy began running. This was due to their difference in weight. If the enemy began running, he would not even need to stop to crush Sayama. And the girl named Shinjou was behind him.

Sayama wondered if she could fight or not. That staff she held was undoubtedly the weapon that had felled that tree. However, she had only used it the one time. She had felled the tree and done nothing more.

Did the reason for this lie in the machine or in her?

Sayama recalled the eyes he had seen while holding Shinjou. He recalled those black eyes with thin tears running from them.

…''It is the latter.

He was sure of it. She was likely a naïve person. And so she had tried to avoid having to attack.

But Sayama need to focus on the term “precious metal”.

He was approximately three meters from the werewolf. He was not yet close enough for his attack to reach.

However, the werewolf swung his left arm up while leaning forward. He was preparing to knock Sayama out of the way and then charge on to Shinjou.

“Hmph,” snorted Sayama as he reached into his vest’s breast pocket with his right hand. The two ballpoint pens he had previously shown off were inside. He pulled out one of them.

“…!”

And he threw it.

He gave that projectile as much speed as he could manage from a distance of just under two meters.

He aimed for the werewolf’s forehead, but the werewolf used its raised left hand to grab the ballpoint pen from the side. Bluish-white flames and then smoke burst from that palm.

The werewolf shook his right arm and threw the pen away.

His left side was now wide open.

Sayama charged in. He skillfully undid his right cuff button and pulled the other pen from his vest. He then jabbed the pen at the werewolf’s chest as if tackling the beast.

It all happened in an instant.

The werewolf suddenly took an action fundamentally different from his previous ones.

It stopped leaning forward and stood up straight.

“…!?”

It had been a feint. The werewolf had pretended to prepare to run to draw Sayama in.

Sayama’s aim was thrown off when the werewolf raised his body.

His right arm stabbed into empty air.

However, the werewolf’s left arm was still where it was from shaking off the pen and his right arm was still where it was from straightening up. The beast had not yet taken an offensive stance. He may have evaded Sayama’s attack, but he had lost his opportunity for an attack of his own.

Their situations were the same. Or so it seemed at first. However, Sayama’s opponent was not human.

Sayama saw the werewolf choose a third option for attack instead of relying on his arms.

His fangs.

The werewolf opened his mouth.

Even in the dark night, Sayama could see the red of his mouth and the pale yellow of his fangs.

It all came to an end in an instant.

Sayama swung his right arm up as if stabbing into the air and the werewolf lowered his opened maw.

In that instant, the werewolf saw a single object.

The prey’s right hand holding the pen moved back down as if adjusting his aim.

''Useless,'' thought the werewolf. His fangs would tear into the prey’s face before that pen could reach him.

But something odd entered his vision.

Something like a dark wet stone flew between the pen and his jaw.

As his prey swung his right arm up, this object had tumbled out of the sleeve and flown up.

What was it?

Before he could determine that, it flew into his mouth.

It tasted of blood. Of human blood.

''Such a nostalgic flavor,'' he thought just as he realized what had flown into his mouth.

A wristwatch. It had been the one the boy had worn on his left arm.

“…!?”

His memories told him why the boy would do that.

The watch had been decorated with silver. And just before charging forward, this prey had fixed his bloody left sleeve with his right hand.

That was when the boy must have hidden it in his right sleeve. And he had thrown it using the action of stabbing with the pen.

He had done it all after predicting the werewolf would attack with his fangs.

The werewolf looked forward as he bit down on the watch that could be called a silver bomb.

He captured the boy’s movements in his vision.

The boy twisted his right arm around to take a fighting stance.

He had already begun to bring his right knee up.

He pressed his left foot down to jump up.

The momentum of his jump brought his right leg straight up and toward the werewolf’s jaw.

The werewolf could not avoid it.

The kick landed.

Pain and heat exploded in his mouth and his vision became enveloped in bluish-white flames.

“!”

Just as he tried to cry out, a sharp pain stabbed into his chest thanks to the second pen. His body became even further enveloped in fire.

He could hear the boy asking a question.

“Was that a painful enough experience?”

The girl named Shinjou uttered a single short statement after seeing what had happened.

“No way… And against an enemy like that?”

However, she immediately held up her staff. She did not aim the point at the enemy; she instead aimed the side with the fluorescent light toward the enemy like it was a bow.

Before her, the boy stumbled backwards a few steps after landing. Beyond him, the werewolf’s head and chest were enveloped in flames. The boy tried to stand up tall, but his knees gave out underneath him and he collapsed to the ground.

Meanwhile, the werewolf could still move.

“…!”

Even after being turned into a bluish-white torch, the beast howled up into the sky and took a step forward.

The boy managed to stand up, but he seemed to be twisting his body around to do so. Also, his left hand was still hanging limply at his side, his back was arched, and his breathing was visibly erratic.

Shinjou tightened her grip on her staff. She had to hurry. If she did not, she might lose that boy.

She looked at the center of the grip. A narrow chain with an anchor attached hung down from the hole there.

If she grabbed and pulled that anchor, the dynamo inside would supply power to the fluorescent light. The concept that precious metals possess power had been added to the conditions of this space. That was why the dynamo within the staff was created from consecrated silver sheets and gold coils. And the light emitted by the fluorescent light powered by that dynamo was…

“A sacred light created from mercury.”

It was fairly weak as far as the powers of precious metals were concerned, but reflectors were used to focus the light. That gave it enough power to act as a blade within the effective focal length.

With swift motions, Shinjou grabbed the anchor and stared forward.

The boy had taken a fighting stance and the werewolf had swung up his right arm. That sight caused Shinjou to cry out reflexively.

[[Image:OnC_v01_0109.png|thumb]]

“No!!”

The werewolf turned toward her.

And she saw emotion.

She saw the emotion on the werewolf’s face.

Sayama saw the werewolf move.

…''It can still move!?

A bitter smile appeared on his face when he realized his thought was one of admiration rather than fear or surprise.

''I see,'' he thought. He was gasping for breath, but his thoughts raced on.

He could do this. He could still do this.

''Do what?'' he thought, but the answer was already prepared within him.

He would get serious.

He had yet to reach that point. All he had done at this point was perform a simple feint and exchange injuries.

It started here. He felt this was where it truly began.

The instant he got serious, the answer came to him. He simply had to knock down the enemy before him and be the last one standing. He could use any means necessary. After all, the beast before him was his enemy.

He would truly try to crush this enemy. That was the lesson his villain of a grandfather had driven into him again and again.

He began to move. In order to carry out his act of evil, he took an instant to check on the ballpoint pen he had just stabbed into the werewolf’s chest.

His next action could begin once he kicked it up or otherwise got it back into his hands.

Or so he intended.

But before he could, he heard the metallic sound of a staff being held up. Soon thereafter, he heard Shinjou’s voice.

“No!!”

At the same time as he heard that still word, Sayama saw a single emotion.

As the werewolf looked over Sayama’s head, the beast’s face definitely twisted.

Protest, indignation, resignation, grief, anger, and pity.

The werewolf’s face twisted into an expression that was simultaneously all of those and none of those.

When Sayama saw this expression, he stopped moving briefly.

…''Is it really necessary to crush this beast’s emotions?

That thought came to him. He wondered if his evil was just or not.

He was inexperienced.

However, Sayama clenched his teeth and moved.

Shinjou had also seen the werewolf’s expression.

When she realized that expression had been caused by her and the weapon in her hand, a quick “ah” escaped from her lips and her hand pulling the anchor suddenly stopped.

She saw the boy move. He tried to deliver a right kick.

However, it was too late. She was unsure if he would make it in time.

If the werewolf moved with all its strength, the boy and his attack would be crushed.

If she did not pull the anchor, she might lose the boy.

She had to shoot.

But she hesitated.

She did not know why she hesitated. She only knew that this hesitation had existed in her heart all this time.

Was there no better way? Was there some method other than fighting like he was?

Was there some method that would not require either of them to be lost?

She could not think of anything. As she became aware of her own inability, she saw the boy take his belated action.

When she saw his action, Shinjou compared him to herself.

…''He is different.

And then the werewolf’s body trembled slightly. This was the beginning of an action. She could not tell if this was an advance indicator of the beast swinging his right arm down or of some other action.

“N-no!” cried Shinjou.

And yet she was unable to pull the anchor. She could see the fingers holding the anchor trembling. She could not suppress the trembling. It grew so bad that the chain shook and rattled.

“…!”

With a voiceless breath, Shinjou tried to pull the anchor.

In the next instant, her fingers slipped from the anchor.

The chain rattled as it fell slack.

“Ah…” she said as her eyes opened wide and tears poured out.

And suddenly, the werewolf was pierced by a white light from the side.

Shinjou saw it. A white light about ten centimeters wide shot through the center of the werewolf’s torso from left to right.

It had been a sniper shot.

As a light sound of flesh being struck rang out through the air, the werewolf stopped moving.

Finally, the beast’s body tilted backwards.

And the werewolf looked up into the sky. Into the night sky of the dark forest.

“…”

A cry escaped through the fangs in its opened maw and shot into the sky. This cry could be taken as one of protest or one of great emotion.

And then the werewolf moved. He moved his sharp claws. He held his right hand up to his neck and made a single horizontal jerk.

The sound of the flesh being torn was the same as the sound of a fibrous material being cut.

The sound of blood spilling out was the same as the sound of bubbles being formed.

After those two sounds and a stream of blood burst out, the werewolf collapsed.

An unreserved sound of flesh striking the ground rang out.

The beast’s giant form lay sprawled out on the ground while still wrapped in bluish-white flames.

When he saw that, the boy lowered the leg he had swung up for a kick.

The train bound for Okutama began to move.

It had already grown dark outside the window and the black of the mountains and the blue of the night sky were visible through the window that reflected the inside of the train.

The train was near deserted. Only two figures could be seen reflected in the window. One was a white-haired man wearing a black suit and the other was a white-haired girl wearing a maid uniform. The man was named Itaru and the girl was named Sf.

The girl held a metal cane on her lap.

“Do you think the situation has ended by now?”

“Probably. My old man said the preliminary negotiations with 1st-Gear would be held the day after tomorrow, but…”

“There have been a lot of deaths.”

“Yes. What do you think?”

“This can be used to our advantage in the negotiations.”

Itaru gave a bitter smile.

“You’re supposed to say we will not let their deaths go to waste, you idiot. Try to remember to put it like that when speaking to others.”

“Tes. But that representation makes it difficult to arrive at the original meaning.”

“That is supposedly the entire point. And I used to be like that, too.”

“Then I will speak frankly when it is with you, Itaru-sama. I have interpreted that as your demand.”

“…You really are skilled at what you do, Sf,” said Itaru as he gazed out the window. “Look, we’re at Okutama. Hand over my cane. …That is my current demand.”

The location Sayama and Shinjou chose to rest in was the base of the tree she had felled.

Sayama arrived while Shinjou supported him from the right side.

“I think that was a sniper strike from one of my comrades… Help should arrive soon.”

Ever since that comment, she had only hung her head down. However, once Sayama sat down while leaning up against the tree trunk, there was something he had to do. First, he had to stop the bleeding from his left arm.

He took action while relying on the afterglow from Shinjou’s fluorescent light.

He bit strongly into the fabric of his shirt’s left shoulder and ripped it. He placed the torn sleeve on the ground and raised his left arm. He could not feel anything beyond the elbow and the shoulder felt heavy. A close examination showed he was bleeding from one area above his elbow and one below it.

He hurriedly grabbed the sleeve from the ground. He bit one end of the sleeve and wrapped the other end all the way around from his armpit to his shoulder. He let go of the end in his mouth, tied a knot over the artery, placed a finger under the knot, and tightened it.

He suddenly realized Shinjou was watching him. Her mouth was hanging open slightly.

“Is this that surprising?”

“No, um, you just seem used to this.”

“I used to attend the Hiba Dojo, a dojo a bit farther up from here. I learned this as practice there.”

“Hmm,” said Shinjou with a nod.

Sayama then realized she was embracing her own body and trembling slightly.

Shinjou quickly averted her gaze and spoke quietly.

“Sorry.”

She held her knees in her arms. Her bodysuit-style outfit was made so the shoulders and that contained defensive properties were connected together through each of the hard points. It was similar to a modern suit of armor. Holding her knees the way she was showed off the deep-colored stockings covering her thighs. They had some sort of graphic and writing printed on them.

The way Shinjou deeply embraced her knees looked less like she was trying to hide her exposed body and more like she was trying to make herself as small as possible. While lifting her feet up on their tiptoes to bring her knees even closer, she spoke.

“I should have fired, right?”

Her tone was half questioning, but Sayama responded by leaning his head back against the tree and looking up. The shadows of the forest only made the night even darker. He could not see the stars.

“Do you think so?” he replied.

Shinjou turned toward him and lowered the ends of her eyebrows.

“If it were you…would you have chosen to fire in the end?”

“This is purely hypothetical, but I think I would indeed have chosen to fire. …Why did you not fire?”

“It isn’t that I didn’t fire. I couldn’t fire.”

“You couldn’t?”

“No,” replied Shinjou. “You took action in the end, didn’t you? …But I didn’t know what to do when I saw the look in the enemy’s face. I began to wonder if there wasn’t a better way.”

“So you tried to make a different decision than I did.”

''But she could not think of anything and it resulted in being no different from simply choosing to do nothing,'' thought Sayama.

In the end, the enemy had committed suicide after being shot from afar.

Sayama sighed in his heart.

She had been naïve. And that had led to the worst possible result.

''But that is a way of thinking I cannot copy,'' he thought. ''And because a villain like me cannot think like that…

“In reality, I was probably wrong and you were probably right.”

“I was…right? But I might have endangered-…”

Sayama looked Shinjou straight in the eye. When their gazes met, Shinjou stopped speaking.

“Listen. You hesitated because you weighed my life against that of the enemy. That is the right thing to do.”

“Th-that can’t be true. All I did was freeze up because I couldn’t decide which was more important.”

“Anyone who judges the value of people’s lives is in the wrong.” He smiled bitterly. “You did the right thing. Do not try to apologize. I will demand compensation if you do.”

“B-but it bothers me…”

Sayama narrowed his eyes. He looked carefully at her expression.

“Why do you always look so uncertain? It may be difficult for someone like you to survive, but you should be confident that you have survived this long by doing the right thing.”

Shinjou opened her mouth as if to say something in response.

Sayama was certain that whatever words were about to come from her mouth would be a denial of what he had said.

And that was why he spoke before she could.

“Could you lend me your lap? That will be my compensation for that first apology.”

“Eh?” said Shinjou in surprise.

Finally, she removed her arms from her knees. She hid her breasts behind those arms and hesitantly placed her knees down. She sat with her legs bent back to either side.

“I-is this good?”

Having received permission in the form of a question, Sayama moved his body down while half-sliding across the tree trunk.

When he placed his head on top of her thighs, Shinjou trembled slightly. He looked up to find Shinjou looking down with an uncertain expression.

“…Is this okay? If it isn’t comfortable, just tell me. Is there anything else I can do?”

Shinjou removed one hand from her breasts and brushed up his bangs.

Sayama looked up and said, “Let’s see. How about a lullaby? I am exhausted.”

“Don’t you dare die while looking like you’re only going to sleep.”

“That only happens in movies.”

He gave a bitter smile and Shinjou returned it. She then looked away.

“Um…” she began before brushing up his bangs again and opening her mouth.

She began singing. Her voice wavered slightly at first, but it gradually steadied.

Sayama recognized the song. It was the hymn Silent Night.

“Silent night, holy night

All’s asleep, one sole light,

Just the faithful and holy pair,

Lovely boy-child with curly hair,

Sleep in heavenly peace

Sleep in heavenly peace.”

As he listened to her voice, Sayama looked over and noticed some skin next to his face that her arm could not cover. Her stomach and her well-shaped navel moved shallowly in and out with the rhythm of the song and her breathing.

That movement and the sense of her breathing and pulse he could feel through her thighs gave Sayama an odd sense of peace.

He suddenly recalled his conversation with Izumo and Kazami at school.

She did indeed smell good.

As if invited in by that scent, Sayama leaned his head over and pressed his cheek and ear against the sweaty area below her chest.

He heard her say “ah” and her legs drew back slightly, but he could also hear her breathing and pulse in his ear. It was a gentle noise. He could not help but match his own breathing to hers. Sayama smiled a bit in his heart.

…''You did the right thing.

He wanted to say that once more. They had not lost their breathing or the beating of their hearts. In the same way, she had not wanted to lose him or their enemy.

But the words did not come out. He no longer had enough spare energy to move.

As his consciousness thinned, Sayama tried to determine what this peace was that he was given from the warmth and rhythm of Shinjou’s body. It was something nostalgic that he could not quite recall. What was it?

When the boy’s eyes closed, Shinjou panicked slightly.

But when she moved, she noticed his eyebrows slanting a bit.

He was alive. He was only sleeping. When she realized that, she faintly admonished herself for thinking something so dangerous. As he slept with his ear and cheek against her body, she stroked his bangs with her hand.

His expression changed. She thought she could sense peace coming from it.

“Maybe I’m thinking too much of myself…”

Shinjou removed the arm hiding her breasts. She used both hands to reach around behind his head and shoulder and lightly embraced him. Once she actually touched him, she realized he was cold.

''It’s okay,'' she told herself as she looked down at his left arm. Because he had bound his right hand in his armpit, the bleeding had almost entirely stopped.

Shinjou’s gaze stopped on his left hand. The bloody middle finger had a women’s ring on it.

“…Eh?”

Surprised, Shinjou looked at her own right hand that was embracing his shoulder. She removed the glove to reveal a men’s ring on her middle finger. Thinking it looked like they were following the same fashion, Shinjou smiled. He desired battle and she tried to avoid it. They seemed like complete opposites, yet they seemed a lot alike in this one aspect.

As she smiled, Shinjou belatedly realized a certain fact: she had never asked his name.

“You…”

Just as she looked at that peaceful sleeping face, she heard two sets of footsteps on the dirt behind her.

“…”

Shinjou covered him with her own body as if to hide him. After taking that precaution, she turned her head to look behind her.

Two figures stood in the darkness only a few steps away.

A slender figure held what looked like a long spear and a large figure held what looked like a long, wide sheet.

The large one spoke to her. It was a male voice.

“What’s with that look? He’s injured, right? Then hurry up and bring him with you.”

The figure took a breath.

“As long as he isn’t dead, something can be done. …In this world, at least.”

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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_2|Chapter 2]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_4|Chapter 4]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 2

2013-06-15T19:08:40Z

Purin:

==Chapter 2: The Two Meet==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0065.png|thumb]]
''A scream of rejection led to their meeting

''So which one did she really want?

When Sayama came out onto the road down below, he tilted his head in confusion alone on the sidewalk.

The cell phone in his hand would not turn on.

He had checked the battery when leaving his dorm, but now the LCD screen was dark. He shook it lightly, but nothing changed. He thought it might have to do with the signal, so he crossed the two-lane road to reach the sidewalk on the valley side, but this also did nothing. He removed and put back in the general-purpose battery that worked in all small IAI devices, but to no avail.

“What is going on?” he muttered.

But then he recalled the strange voice he had heard not long before.

As he had been travelling down the slope, he had heard a single voice.

—'''Precious metals possess power.

This had not been a reverberating voice amplified with a megaphone. It had been like a whisper from headphones he was wearing. However, a look around had had not shown any equipment that could have produced the noise.

And now his cell phone would not function.

He put the phone back in his pocket in confusion. According to his memory, he should reach several restaurants along the road if he walked a bit further. He decided to use a phone at one of them. Wondering what time it was, he glanced down at his watch.

“It’s stopped…”

His watch had stopped. The hour hand, minute hand, and second hand were all motionless.

He frowned and put a hand in his pocket. He pulled out a digital recorder with the IAI mark on it. It was stick-shaped and the top had a red start button.

He pressed it.

However, the recorder did not respond. He remembered fully charging its general-purpose battery as well.

While wondering what all this meant, Sayama realized something else. He looked around the area and then up into the trees of the forest.

“There is no sign of anyone.”

Not many cars used this road. However, not a single one had passed by in the time he had spent climbing down the slope. On top of that, he could not see a single bird among all the trees.

Suddenly, Sayama recalled that the train had returned to Shiromaru. He wondered what had happened.

And then he heard the sound of something being struck in the distance.

The sound had come from the tree-covered slope leading down from the road and to a river.

“That was a tree collapsing.”

He looked and spotted a single distant tree on the slope that had begun to tilt. It was a cedar. The silhouette that resembled a green leaf-covered spire leaned up against the nearby trees and then collapsed.

After seeing that, Sayama moved his gaze west toward the sun setting behind Okutama.

After confirming that was his destination, he nodded.

But then he heard another noise. And this time it was not the cracking of a falling tree.

It was a scream.

“…”

Sayama instinctually raised his head.

He had definitely heard that distant, high-pitched voice. For an instant, strength filled his body, but then he stopped.

He took a breath, frowned, and thought.

He did not think for long. He only needed to remember his past. Just a single memory. He remembered when his mother had brought him into these mountains by car.

“So it is always me who is unable to keep his promises to meet someone…”

He took another breath and brought his hand to the left of his chest. A slight ache from the past lay there, but he suppressed it with his breathing.

He opened his eyes.

The crimson-dyed sky lay before his eyes. Seeing that color, Sayama nodded and began moving.

“Okay.”

He turned toward the valley-side forest below. His right hand loosened his necktie while his left shoulder slipped out of his coat in an instant. By the time the coat left his right shoulder, he had already stepped atop the guardrail on the sidewalk.

He took a step.

His footstep sounded lightly as he used the guardrail as a stepping stone to propel him into the air. As the coat still on his right arm flapped about, it created a solid noise as it struck his back. At that same moment, his feet landed on the underbrush of the slope.

He began walking.

His pace was much faster than when he moved down to the road earlier. He lowered his hips to almost slide down the slope.

The sun had already started to set in the western sky that was hidden by the trees.

Once it grew dark, the forest would be dangerous.

He had to hurry. He lowered his hips even further to rush down the slope.

He entered the forest and ran between the trees. His destination was the tree that had fallen earlier.

Sayama ran straight there while treading on old, dry branches.

He was not out of breath as he had a habit of running every evening.

However, running on such bad terrain and the faint tension he felt did noticeably raise his body temperature. Even so, there was one part of his body he felt no heat in.

That was his left fist. It alone felt cold.

“Ha,” gasped Sayama in what was not quite a breath and not quite a laugh.

He was only about a dozen meters from his destination. He could hear a flowing river through the forest.

He could see several depressions that had once been small streams along the ground. He jumped over them as he ran and raised his head.

Between the trees, Sayama saw the setting sun sinking behind Okutama’s mountain range. Dusk would arrive in less than 10 minutes. The forest would grow very dark.

''Hurry,'' Sayama called to himself.

He then spotted some small lights. They were near the tree he was running toward. Light was reflecting off of something scattered across the ground.

…''Did a hiker leave some trash behind?

But he immediately rejected that idea. A hiker would not come this far to throw their trash away. They would do so near the trail or river.

He put up his guard. He stopped next to the light on the ground and looked down. He saw…

“Metal?”

Black metal fragments were scattered primarily around the southern side of a large tree.

And the fallen tree he had seen before was about five trees south of it. A cedar tree just barely too wide to reach around had fallen and the break was visible from here.

Sayama looked over at that break where that loud noise had come from before.

“That is…”

He frowned and fell silent.

The tree had been sliced at about a meter up from the ground.

It was a clean diagonal slice. About four-fifths of the trunk’s diameter had been sliced through in a single blow without leaving any woodchips or sawdust at the base of the tree. The cracking sound Sayama had heard must have been the remaining fifth breaking.

He smelled a slight odd scent. It stank of something burning. He looked again and noticed a slight charring around the cut.

Sayama took a step forward to go check out the cut.

But his right foot trod on something hard.

He looked down and lifted up his foot.

Sayama recognized what he found. It was a short tube made of the same material as the metal fragments scattered around the area.

“A gun barrel.”

…''This is longer than the ones I have seen while staying at the Tamiya household. Perhaps it is not for a pistol.

With that thought, Sayama checked the ground once more.

He found some new information there.

They were footprints. And three different kinds.

The first was fairly old. They were large and had a mountain boot type of pattern.

The second was smaller but had a similar pattern to the first.

And the third was very strange and seemed to trample over the others. These odd footprints were easily over 30 centimeters long and had holes as if from spikes where the toes should have been.

The information did not end there. An intermittent trail of dark wet spots approached from the south.

Those wet spots continued to the tree behind Sayama.

As Sayama held his breath and did not turn around, he felt a slight sensation fall on his left shoulder.

It felt as if someone had tapped on his shoulder, so he looked over.

A single dark spot could be seen on the fabric that had been dyed light red by the setting sun.

What was that?

As if in response, another one fell on his shoulder.

It came from above.

And in the next moment…

“…!”

Sayama unhesitatingly ran forward, to the west, and toward the river he could hear.

He did not check what was above him. He already knew what it was.

If he had looked up, his footing would have been uncertain and he would have been unable to move. That instant would have put him in danger.

He had never been in danger before. And that was why Sayama began to run.

…''Something is in that tree!

The instant he was sure of that, he heard something drop to the ground behind him. It was the sound of two legs landing. Two legs supporting something large. He could hear the feet sinking into the ground.

Immediately afterwards, a voice shot past Sayama and through the forest. It was a beast’s roar. A howl.

…''Is it a bear?

But he denied that possibility. This beast had killed its prey, carried that prey into the tree, and then waited for Sayama to notice the corpse before attacking from above. The first set of footprints belonged to the victim in the tree. The second set had likely fallen for that trap.

Sayama would have been the third victim, but only the second to fall for that strategy.

…''Beasts do not use strategies like that. Only people do.

The howl from behind him had been that of a beast, yet…

“If this thing has a human intellect, I should handle it like a human.”

As if pursuing those words spoken toward the ground, footsteps approached Sayama from behind.

They were fast.

Those footsteps were as deep as a bass drum and each step covered as much ground as Sayama covered in five. However, Sayama did not turn around. He focused only on not slowing his pace

He refused to turn around. What he needed was distance, not curiosity.

The sound of the river up ahead was growing louder.

He could see light. The ground sloped sharply downwards. Ahead, he could see a rocky river bank covered in the dim light of dusk.

Once he arrived there, he would be able to see his opponent. He might also spot someone there.

Just as Sayama began to wonder if he could call for help, he noticed something odd up ahead.

He noticed the movement of the air spreading out ahead of him and a slight haze of light.

A single obstacle was covering the entire edge of the forest on the slope just above the river. It was…

“A wall!?”

The wind ahead of him was still. And the light of dusk had grown slightly hazy.

He would arrive at this supposed wall in another three seconds.

The heavy footsteps were still approaching from behind.

Should he run directly into the wall or not? In fact, did this wall even exist or not?

How could he check?

A single idea came to Sayama. He slowed his pace slightly.

Once he arrived at the supposed wall, he turned his back. It was as if he had been cornered.

He could see a shadow charging toward him.

That shadow resembled a human. The large figure was over two meters tall. Its entire body was covered in black animal hair, but torn black cloth could be seen at its waist and chest.

Its face was visible above its thick chest.

Its face resembled a dog. Below the pointed ears were two golden eyes and a red slit of a mouth.

…''Is this what you call a werewolf?

He thought that idea was crazy, but only for an instant. The truth lay before his eyes.

And so he needed to move. Amid the dim light, Sayama brought both arms down and his hips back. His opponent likely thought he was ducking down. However, Sayama was using the right hand hidden in his coat to search behind him.

In what should have been empty space, he felt resistance

It was a wall. The sensation he felt through the coat reminded him of a rough eggshell. The coat molded into the shape of that wall, so he could tell it had no gaps.

The enemy came immediately thereafter.

Sayama threw his head back to show off his throat.

The enemy’s right claws were swung down. It was trying to cut off his head as it passed by. It opened its mouth and bared its fangs.

It let out a cry, but…

“Silence,” said Sayama as he dropped his hips down along the wall.

The werewolf’s claws cut through empty air.

Its giant body then slammed face-first into the invisible wall.

This caused a great sound of impact.

It sounded less like flesh being struck and more like a car crashing. The werewolf’s entire body was knocked back by a repelling force. It flew through the air, rotated once, and caused a tremor in the earth where it landed. It then rolled.

The sounds of the beast’s breaths mixed in with the sound of it rolling.

Sayama was almost lying down on the ground and he realized the chest of his vest had been torn.

“That was valuable,” he complained as he stood up and filled his lungs with air.

It did not seem the werewolf had lost consciousness. However, it was lying on the ground with its chest moving up and down as it gasped for breath. It did not seem to know what had happened. The wall may have been unexpected for it as well.

…''Or it simply might not have known where it was.

Sayama began running once more. He had to find a means of defeating the werewolf before it came to its senses. To remain in the werewolf’s blind spot as much as possible, he ran along the edge of the invisible wall. He ran west. This was upstream of the river to his left. After running across a few gentle slopes, he could no longer see the werewolf.

“The meeting time will probably have passed before long,” muttered Sayama as he looked down at his watch.

The silver hands were still not moving.

''What is going on?'' he thought.

And then he noticed a slight light beyond the wall.

It was a vehicle’s headlights.

A red RV was parked about 20 meters ahead on the rocky river bank. It was likely a family on a spring break outing. He could see the family around the RV folding up parasols and leisure tables. The family was made up of a middle-aged couple, a young girl, and her even younger brother. The RV’s headlights were pointed up the slope toward Sayama.

“Hey! You need to leave! It is-…”

He trailed off before he could say “dangerous”.

Something was strange.

The family he had shouted at continued their preparations to leave without paying him any heed.

…''Did they not hear me?

“Hey!!” he shouted while standing in the middle of the headlights where they could see him. However, they did not notice him.

…''Can they not see or hear me?

Sayama took in a deep breath and let it out. He placed a hand on the invisible wall before him and once more muttered, “This has become very odd.” And as Sayama watched on, the family climbed aboard the RV.

After a short pause, it drove off of the rocky river bank. It was headed…

“Up this slope.”

Sayama ran. If he was remembering right, the main road above had a few mountain roads leading down to the river. If the invisible wall to his left extended as far as the road the family was using, the RV would strike the wall from the outside.

What would happen then?

He climbed up the slope and found the road.

The branches of the trees above seemed to create a natural tunnel over the mountain road. The dirt road was about three meters across. Sayama stood atop the bulge in the center created by the ruts on either side.

As he wiped sweat from his brow, the RV’s headlights reached him.

Sayama took a step back while in the center of that light.

However, the family showed no sign of noticing him. The RV continued to approach at the same speed.

…''The wall.

They passed right through it. However, the RV changed.

It became a pale shadow.

It was so thin that the scenery beyond it was easily visible through it. The people inside were the same.

“…!?”

As Sayama stood in the center of that mountain road, the pale shadow of the RV passed through him. He only felt a slight shadow. It produced no wind or sound.

Sayama let out a sigh without even turning around.

“What is going on?”

…''That RV will likely drive up to the main road and eventually drive beyond the invisible wall once more.

And what lay beyond that wall was of course the everyday world.

It was only this space that was twisted. He was sure of that now.

Sayama suddenly crouched down. He spotted a nearby stone on the ground.

He picked it up.

Sayama then looked at the spot where the stone had been. A faint shadow the exact shape of the stone lay there.

It was so faint he could not see it without paying very careful attention.

Sayama replaced the stone and muttered, “Are the objects in this space the actual objects? Or are they the shadows?”

He did not know.

Sayama shook his head lightly and stopped arguing about it in his head. His current priorities lay elsewhere.

He took a breath. But then he froze in place.

He had heard a noise. He had heard heavy footsteps and a small cry in the distance.

The cry was the same voice as the scream from earlier.

“That person is still alive,” muttered Sayama as he looked forward.

He saw a slope. It was the slope he had climbed to distance himself from his enemy.

However, he took in a deep breath and began running down that very same slope.

Dusk was already turning to night.

Night also enveloped the near-deserted school.

In the 2nd year general school building of Takaakita Academy, Ooki was in charge of locking up for the night. She was on the western edge of the first floor hallway. Specifically, in front of the emergency exit.

Kinugasa Library was located on the same floor. About four classrooms-length of the hallway had been turned into a storage area.

“What is this, a lawless zone?”

The large Kinugasa Library took up the length of four classrooms and the hallway had not escaped the power of its books. Bookshelves and other shelves were lined up along the walls of the hallway and towers of books were piled up here and there. To make it as far as she had, Ooki had been forced to weave around and jump over the piles of books. The hallway had become a sort of labyrinth.

No books or shelves were located near the emergency exit at the back, but that was only because the books and shelves were often brought in through it.

Ooki turned the key for the emergency exit to lock it. For an instant, she caught a glimpse to the east through the emergency door’s window. The eastern mountains were outlined in crimson, but the sky above created a gradation from purple to black.

“I hope this is okay…” she muttered before turning her back on the window.

She did not want to stay in that deserted labyrinth of books for long. While kicking a few books out of the way, Ooki made her way through the four classrooms-length area on her way to the central lobby.

''This tight skirt makes it hard to walk at times like this,'' she thought.

The hallway’s fluorescent lights felt overly bright because of the shallow darkness of night she could see out of the northern window between two bookshelves. Her reflection in the window showed a bandage on the forehead. That was where Sayama had flicked her.

“That boy did not hold back. …It would be best if I assume that’s just how much he adores me.”

Just as she muttered that, a door opened to the side.

“!”

She gasped and turned around. As she did, her heel caught on a pile of books and she fell backwards.

“…Ah!”

Her legs flew up and her head fell to the floor…or it would have. However…

“My apologies,” said a low and relaxed male voice as a black gloved hand caught her falling back.

As soon as she realized she was being supported, her vision rotated around vertically.

[[Image:OnC_v01_0083.png|thumb]]

Her feet were brought to the ground and she stood on her own.

“…”

Ooki did not quite understand what had happened. Only the word “rotation” floated up in her mind.

“Um…” she muttered as she looked up at whose hand was supporting her waist. “Siegfried-san?”

“Are you okay?”

It was a tall elderly man who answered with that question. His broad-shouldered frame was contained in a white shirt, a black vest, and black trousers. He was bald, had a white beard, and his blue eyes were looking down at her.

Siegfried silently removed his right hand from her waist and brought the white cup in his left hand to his mouth. The aroma that reached Ooki told her it was coffee.

Ooki bowed while trying not to be too distracted by that scent.

“Th-thank you very much. What was that where I spun around?”

“It is similar to what you call aikido in Japan. More importantly, I am glad you are okay. Are you locking up?” asked Siegfried before his gaze moved to Ooki’s forehead. “I apologize for asking so many questions, but what is that bandage?”

“Oh, just something I received from a student earlier.”

“School violence? We cannot have that. I will teach this student a form of punishment passed down for generations. No matter how stubborn they may be, they will confess to being a filthy witch in just one blow.”

“Why is everyone around me like this?” muttered Ooki under her breath before shaking her hand from side to side. “No, no. This boy worked his way up quite high in karate, so I think this was unintentional. Also,” she scratched at her head, “it was done with mutual understanding between teacher and student. I was perfectly fine with it.”

“I see. Then I have no right to speak out against it. …I suppose everyone has their own preferences.”

“Oh, um… I am not sure I would put it that way, but whatever. What are you doing here, Siegfried-san?”

Siegfried pulled a single piece of paper from his breast pocket. He took another sip from his cup and then spoke.

“Some people needed help finding some data. Part of my job is providing help for those searching for data. Could you perhaps help me? There is a book titled ‘The First Plutonium’ somewhere in this hallway.”

“No, no, no, no, no,” said Ooki as she took a step back.

With a word of parting, she bowed and walked out to the central lobby that was actually quite small. She climbed the stairs to lock up on the second and third floors.

From the central lobby, it became clear how dark the school building was even with the fluorescent lights. The building was designed to only be used during the day.

“How scary,” sighed Ooki as she turned on the lights for the stairs.

The light green staircase lit up, but the white fluorescent lights felt somehow cold.

She then heard Siegfried say, “I already locked up the second floor. If you trust me, you can skip it.”

“I trust you!” she replied thankfully to the man who was hidden from view by a corner of the hallway.

She then headed on up.

She knew that the six general education school buildings and the faculty building had been built before the war.

“The library was built like that by the founder, Kinugasa Tenkyou.”

It had originally been prepared as the research archive for Izumo Aviation Institute’s General Tokyo Facility that was being built at the time. However, Takaakita Academy had been born as a means of creating skilled future personnel.

Ooki thought about the staircase she was currently walking up.

“This was built over 70 years ago…”

Her footsteps sounded loudly as she made it to the second floor. She left the central lobby and looked down the hallway.

She saw only darkness. And beyond that darkness was the music room to the west and the emergency exit to the east. However…

“I trust him…”

She backed up toward the staircase.

Ooki’s shoulders drooped as she sighed and turned on the lights for the staircase up to the third floor. She quickly made her way up.

Once on the third floor, she found darkness once more.

As if plunging her head into the darkness, Ooki stood in the central lobby and looked toward the art room to the west and then the emergency exit to the east. She could see the emergency exit light in the distance.

“Nnn,” she groaned as she turned on the lights to the hallway. The fluorescent lights came on one after another and lit up the area. However, the windows and glass on the classroom doors grew darker.

Ooki stood in the center of the hallway and scratched at her head.

“Well, I have no choice…”

Her shoulders drooped, her head drooped, and she sighed.

She headed east while meaninglessly walking as silently as possible.

But then she jumped at a sudden noise from behind.

It was a cat. A single meow had come from the western art room.

“Nyah…?” asked Ooki as if she was about to cry.

She turned toward the art room while taking a cowardly pose.

She forced strength into her shoulders and slowly sent two jabs, a straight, and an uppercut into the air.

“O-okay, come at me.”

She held her breath for a few seconds. After that silence, she spoke quietly once more with her fists still at the ready.

“If you don’t want to come, you don’t have to…”

She received only silence in response. After a while, Ooki lowered her arms and pressed her hands against her legs. Her trembling had not stopped, but it had lessened.

“M-maybe there’s a cat outside,” she muttered while tilting her head and looking in the art room.

At the same moment, light cut through the darkness of the frosted glass on the art room door. It happened twice. This was not a reflection from a car’s headlights. The light cut across horizontally from left to right and disappeared.

“!”

Ooki wrapped her arms around herself and crouched down. After a moment, she reflexively covered her ears with her hands.

“I-it’s okay, it’s okay. Th-that was just a mysterious phenomenon.”

After realizing what she had said, Ooki let out a cry and shrank down even further.

She decided to return to the stairs. It was only about four meters away. She removed her hands from her ears and began crawling on her hands and knees. She kept her gaze down so as not to look at the art room as she took one step and then two.

As she crawled, she realized that she was acting just like a cat. She was still trembling, but she cast down her eyes in shock that she was doing this in her own workplace. She brought her right hand forward in place of a front paw and could not help herself.

“Nyah,” she said.

But she received a sudden response from a cat behind her.

“!”

She jumped forward in shock.

She twisted around as if trying to clean the floor with her butt. With her guard raised as high as it would go, she brought her knees up to form a defensive wall.

And then she saw what had replied to her.

It was a black cat. It was sitting in the spot she had been in a moment before and it was scratching its head with its hind leg. Meanwhile, Ooki was breathing heavily while looking at the cat with her hands on the floor behind her.

The black cat simply seemed to be relaxing, but she was fairly certain it had not been in the hallway a moment before.

She tried to say “when did that get in here?”, but her voice spilled from her mouth more as a breath than as words. She suddenly realized she had tears in her eyes. And…

“Are you okay, sensei?”

This time, she heard a voice from behind her in the art room. It was a girl’s voice.

Ooki gasped and turned around. She slowly looked up.

A single girl was standing there.

The girl wore her uniform like a model showing off the perfect method. Her platinum blonde hair was almost gray and it flowed down her back and to her legs.

She looked down on Ooki with a sharp look in her purple eyes and opened her mouth with no expression on her face.

“I apologize. You are patrolling, aren’t you? I was so focused on my work that I did not notice night had fallen. The soundproofing in here is quite good.”

“You are…”

“Brunhild Schild, a third year student. I will be the head of the general art club this coming year.”

Ooki stopped breathing momentarily when she heard the word “art”. She slowly moved her upward gaze to the west.

The art room was there.

Its door was open.

Ooki confirmed that darkness lay beyond that open door. And then someone grabbed her shoulders.

Brunhild had circled around behind her.

She leaned down as if trying to hold Ooki down.

She brought her small face over Ooki’s shoulder and spoke.

“Would you like to see my painting?”

“Your painting?”

“Yes,” replied Brunhild.

Ooki heard a slight waver in the girl’s tone. And that waver remained as Brunhild continued.

“A painting of a forest. A deep, dark, depthless, yet abundant forest.”

Sayama ran through the nighttime forest. He ran as if stabbing the soles of his feet into the ground. His legs would plunge forward through the air and his feet would come down to trample any obstacle underfoot. That was the absolute rule for running in a dark mountain.

“Who would have thought the harsh training of the Hiba Dojo would come in handy here!?”

He could hear the rustling of the trees and the cracking of someone treading quickly over branches up ahead.

Someone was being chased. Chased by that werewolf.

''Hurry,'' thought Sayama. ''I do not know who made that scream, but I have come for you.

As he urged himself to hurry, he approached those loud footsteps. It took him five steps for every one of theirs. However, the werewolf could only run in a straight line. He focused on efficiently weaving through the trees to gain as much ground as he could.

Sayama thought. Whoever was being pursued by the werewolf likely had their own method of escaping this situation. The cut that had felled that cedar had been too sharp to have been made by the werewolf’s claws. This person must possess some kind of weapon.

“A weapon?” asked Sayama with a bitter smile.

This was Japan. A weapon that destructive would not be allowed anywhere. Nevertheless…

“But this is real. I suppose I have entered a world where I have no choice but to believe the reality before my eyes.”

The source of the footsteps entered his vision. He saw a large back. It was running through the trees ahead.

Sayama reconfirmed that the footsteps and back ahead of him belonged to an enemy.

He had to hurry. He weaved through the trees while skimming as close by their trunks as he could. As he did, he scooped up two stones in each hand. He then held up his right arm so that his coat spread out.

“I suppose I have to say goodbye this suit today…”

As he spoke, he could now see both the werewolf and the person running from it.

…''A girl?

He saw a single girl running.

She appeared to be about the same age as him. Her long, soft, and black hair danced about as she fled. She wore a white and black outfit that resembled a dress and in her right hand was…

“A fluorescent light?”

She held a white staff almost two meters long. The side of the upper end had a long cylinder attached that looked a lot like a fluorescent light. It produced a slight bluish-white afterglow that lit up the girl.

As the werewolf ran, it stretched out its arm toward the girl. She swung the staff as if to shine the afterglow on the werewolf.

Sayama heard a sound similar to a spray of water and saw the werewolf’s arm repelled.

He did not understand how it worked.

However, the staff the girl held was definitely the weapon Sayama had assumed she had.

As he ran, Sayama suddenly muttered, “Not good.”

He remembered running through this area.

Several depressions that had once been small streams cut across like stitches.

Sayama poured strength into his legs and ran forward.

At the same moment, the girl looked down as she ran.

“…!”

She let out a meaningless gasp and her slender body flew as if it had been struck.

She had not tripped; she had intentionally jumped.

However, the enemy did not overlook this opportunity. It let loose an attack from the left as if scooping its claws up toward the target that had lost her balance in midair.

The girl swung the staff to hold up the afterglow.

But it was too late.

With the sound of cloth tearing, her body was knocked away.

At the same time, a wind blew through, rustling the leaves of the forest.

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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_1|Chapter 1]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_3|Chapter 3]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Chapter 1

2013-06-15T19:08:37Z

Purin:

[[Image:OnC_v01_0032-0033.png|thumb]]
''It was probably at that moment

''When that which had been stopped

''Began moving once more

—''To me, trying to find or soothe oneself is nothing more than an illusion.

==Chapter 1: Sayama’s Beginning==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0035.png|thumb]]
''The privilege of those who know themselves

''Is being able to restrict oneself

''There is no more relying on others

Below the blue sky were two rows of blossoming cherry trees.

The road between those two rows led to a cement wall surrounding a large area of land. The stone gatepost at the opening to the west was inscribed with the words “Takaakita Academy”.

The schedule posted on the gate read “spring break” and the gate itself sat open with no one to pass through.

Once one passed through the gate, the central road continued with the cherry trees on either side.

These trees were in full bloom as well. Continuing further led to a half hectare general sports ground to the right and a martial arts facility as large as a great hall to the left.

Continuing straight on led not to a school building but to a faculty building.

The school buildings were lined up in all four compass points with the faculty building at the center. This was all one school, but other than the six general school buildings, it was broken down by specialization. To provide a proper environment, some of the school buildings were surrounded by rows of trees, but others had a research plant equipped with a silo or an asphalt course for test driving.

The buildings built very nearby those school buildings were the student dormitories.

This school took up the area that would cover three-fourths of a city. It had a few shopping districts, farms, and factories on the grounds and a lot of the city’s people lived inside it.

And every facility within possessed a certain mark.

It was the mark of IAI, the Izumo Aviation Institute. IAI supported this academy city.

However, the academy was nearly deserted during spring break.

This was even true for the western general school buildings nearest the main gate.

A single figure could be seen at the 2nd year general education building just north of the faculty building.

A boy stood on the 2nd story landing of the emergency staircase.

Despite it being spring break, the boy wore his school uniform, blazer and all, and the buttons of his shirt were buttoned all the way up to the collar.

His hair was slicked back and a single stripe of white could be seen on either side. Below that hair were sharp eyes and a sharp face.

He was looking up into the sky.

Floating in the blue sky were thin white clouds and the shadow of an airplane making a wide curve through the air.

“So the American soldiers at Yokota are not taking a break either. They also prefer high places like me. And they too do not return home even when they have the chance,” he said.

He swung up his left arm and the sleeve slid down. A white scar could be seen on his left fist and he wore a woman’s ring on the middle finger. A silver wristwatch was also revealed on his left wrist. The hands pointed to 2:30 PM.

He pulled a single piece of paper from his pocket.

“Sayama Mikoto-sama. To complete the transfer of rights left with us by your grandfather, the late Sayama Kaoru-shi, we ask that you visit the Okutama IAI General Tokyo Facility on March 30 at 6 PM.”

It was an invitation. That simple text was followed by an IAI map and the name of the one inviting Sayama.

“IAI section chief, Ooshiro Kazuo, hm?”

…''The old man, hm?

When Sayama’s grandfather had died, that elderly man had been the first to come rushing over for the funeral. The tall, gray-haired man always wore a white coat at IAI. The two of them would speak every once in a while and the man seemed to enjoy it when Sayama called him “old man”.

But as Sayama looked at the invitation, he muttered, “My grandfather was a corporate blackmailer, so what rights could he have had at IAI?”

He turned around to find the emergency exit and the wall. The aluminum door was polished, but the wall was dirty with sand and dust. Out of sudden curiosity, he approached the wall and touched it. The sand came off and stuck to his finger.

“Hm…”

Just as he wiped off his finger, the emergency exit moved a bit.

A young woman in personal clothes poked her head out through the slight opening. As the bangs of her short brown hair waved, her blue eyes turned in the direction Sayama had been not long before. “Huh?” she said and tilted her head.

Sayama said, “Over here, Ooki-sensei. You must have a lot of free time to be at school during spring break.”

Hearing that, the woman named Ooki frowned and turned around.

“I was sleeping and-…wait, the same goes for you. Are you trying to fully enjoy your youth by staring into the sky in a place like this? Also, Sayama-kun.”

“What is it? If you have a question, then out with it.”

“Okay, my first question: Why do you speak like that to your teacher?”

“That is my acting style. You lose as soon as you question it, Ooki-sensei. Now, any other questions?”

“Okay, my second question: If I punch a student during spring break does it count as school violence?”

“It does not matter as long as no one finds out. So who are you planning to punch? This must be quite a troublemaker if they can anger you.”

“And my final question: …Have you ever looked in a mirror?”

“I use one for a good long time every day. You really do like asking such obvious questions.”

“I was an idiot to try asking questions to someone filled with such originality. In fact, are you sure that acting style is okay?”

In response to that annoyed comment, Sayama removed his hand from the wall and swiped it forcefully through the air. The cloth of the sleeve let out a noise.

“Do not worry. I act this way to everyone. I intend to head down that path in the future, after all. It may be selfish of me, but I do not want people to say I suddenly started acting full of myself when I grow up. …This may give you some trouble though.”

Ooki’s neck relaxed and she gave a bitter smile at that last line.

“You should probably say that last part to the other teachers as well. Oh, but it seems I will be your homeroom teacher next year as well.”

“So you managed to get one of the best students in your class. Excellent work for a newcomer teacher with little authority.”

“Would you sympathize with me if I told you the other teachers were forcing the excellent but overly individual students on me?”

Sayama placed a hand on Ooki’s shoulder and nodded with a completely serious expression.

“If you seek sympathy, it is all over for you, Ooki-sensei. Although you may be almost there already.”

“Sorry, this is irritating me, so it would be nice if you would stop.” Ooki walked out onto the emergency staircase with her eyes half closed. She scratched at her head and said, “Talking with you really exhausts me. You take everything so seriously.”

Sayama gave a slight smile at that.

“Seriously? I-…”

“You don’t? But you were elected vice president in the student council election and your grades are excellent.”

“True,” said Sayama with a nod. He folded his arms and thought for a bit. Three seconds later, “I have never once gotten serious. …I just can’t make myself want to.”

“…Eh?”

Sayama ignored Ooki’s questioning voice and shrugged.

“Then again, everything I run across in school ends before I even have a chance to get serious. I was once scolded by my grandfather. He told me not to settle for being the ruler of a small place.”

“I see,” said Ooki with a nod. She leaned up against the emergency staircase landing’s railing. “Your grandfather was an amazing person. Compared to him, I can see where you are coming from.”

“Yes. Compared to my grandfather who would give Japan’s economy a nice smack from the shadows, the vice president of this academy city is nothing.”

“It’s more than nothing.”

“But it is true I have never actually tested myself. During the race for vice president, my opponent grew so desperate by the end that he even danced around naked in an attempt to gain more popularity. He was simply no match for me.”

“Were you the one that fired a bottle rocket at his butt while he was performing that nude dance?”

“No, that was Izumo while he was crushing everyone else in the presidential race. He even used a metal pipe as a gun barrel to increase his accuracy. Not something you would expect of a third year.”

“In that case, I won’t ask who blew up the stage afterwards…”

“That would be for the best. Are you gradually learning how to get along in life, Ooki-sensei?”

“Yes, yes. But I’m starting to get worried about being the next advisor for the student council…” Ooki frowned and sighed before continuing. “Is school really that boring to you?”

Sayama stopped moving when he heard that.

He turned his gaze to meet that of Ooki’s blue eyes.

After a short pause, he gave a small shake of the head.

“I have no complaints with the school. It is true the student council election and the tests are all such small things that I do not need to grow serious about. However, that does not mean school is boring. It is only natural to feel that school is a small place. And I think that school has its own unique things to enjoy.”

“What a complicated child…”

After falling silent for a short while, Ooki bent her back over the railing she was leaning against and looked up into the sky.

Meanwhile, Sayama glanced at his watch. It was 2:50.

“Ooki-sensei, I think I should get back to my dorm soon.”

“Are you leaving soon?”

“Yes. After changing into a suit, I need to receive something similar to my grandfather’s will.”

Sayama opened the emergency exit. Ooki frantically got up from the railing and charged through the open door. Sayama also entered the school building as he closed the door.

Sayama walked through the hallway alongside Ooki. The last school newspaper of the year was attached to the classroom-side wall. The First PR Club put out the paper weekly. It generally carried articles related to IAI and this issue contained the school’s employment rate to IAI as well as a few other pieces of news.

Ooki stopped as she looked over at an article at her eyelevel which was one level below Sayama’s.

“They have detected an extrasolar star system with a high probability of being habitable. …That’s amazing!”

“It’s only been discovered. Just looking at this article will tell you how difficult a problem anything further would be.”

Sayama pointed at another article. The article’s photograph showed a giant pile of machinery lying collapsed on a large area of asphalt.

“According to this, they created an 8-meter-tall bipedal robot and it failed spectacularly. The joints were made too weak so its knees broke just from walking. …No matter what we may discover, it means nothing if we do not have the technology to use it.”

“Hm. So it’s the same as spotting a good-looking girl but not knowing how to talk to her.”

“I am glad you are so wise. Is that something you told yourself as an excuse?”

“Well, last Christmas, some of my friends and I…wait, no.”

When Ooki said that, Sayama realized she was looking up at his face.

''Why is she staring?'' he wondered.

“Is it that rare to see me smile?”

“No, it’s not that it’s rare. It’s interesting.”

Ooki began walking once more. Sayama followed.

Ooki asked, “Can I ask you about your grandfather?”

“Of course,” replied Sayama.

He had nothing to hide.

And so he spoke. He talked about a lot as they walked.

He told her how his grandfather had left the war during World War 2 and had begun researching something.

“And it seems the Izumo Aviation Institute was involved at the time. After the war, he used the connections and discoveries he had made as a base to set out into the financial world and become a corporate blackmailer.”

“A corporate blackmailer, hm?”

“He did a lot of pretty horrible things. …Every time he was in the newspaper, he would give the following line.”

Ooki nodded and cut in.

“ ‘The surname Sayama indicates a villain’, right? I saw it once in a weekly magazine.”

“That’s right. My grandfather was a villain through and through. When he saw some giant opponent as an enemy or evil, he would fight them by becoming an even greater evil. And…that is also why I do not want to grow serious about anything.”

“That is?”

“I am inexperienced. ‘The surname Sayama indicates a villain.’ My grandfather always told me my abilities were meant to perform necessary evils. However, I lost him when all he had taught me was how to do it.”

“So… You don’t know when the evil you perform is truly necessary?”

“Yes. I do not want to die, so there may be times when I will get serious. However, growing serious when I cannot tell if it is truly necessary is a frightening thing.”

As he spoke, Sayama suddenly brought his right hand to the left side of his chest.

As he brought his hand inside his coat and held his chest, Ooki spoke without turning toward him.

“It sounds like you have it tough in your own way.”

“Yes,” he nodded.

“Then can I ask you about your father?”

“Why?”

“I never asked last year despite being your homeroom teacher, and…” The ends of her eyebrows lowered. “I think this is part of a teacher’s job.”

Sayama nodded as he lightly held the left side of his chest. After taking a breath, he spoke.

“There is nothing to worry about. It is a simple issue. More importantly, how much do you know, Ooki-sensei? I am curious.”

Ooki glanced upwards and folded her arms.

“Your father was adopted by your grandfather and he entered IAI at the same time as your mother. However, he was killed in the great Kansai earthquake at the end of 95. Your mother, um, well, brought you with her and-…”

Ooki trailed off and Sayama smiled bitterly.

“Before I tell you not to worry about it, I need to correct some of that. My father died as a secondary casualty of the earthquake when he was sent by IAI for earthquake relief.”

Sayama took a breath. He held up his empty left hand. That scarred left fist had a women’s ring on the middle finger. The pearl decoration glittered a bit in the dimly lit hallway.

Ooki turned to look at it as she walked.

However, Sayama also looked at the ring instead of looking at her.

“Go where those precious to you are waiting, hm?”

As his words deepened, Sayama felt as if something was moving within the left side of his chest.

It was pain.

And it felt like his chest was creaking.

It was coming.

And then Sayama saw Ooki looking up at him with her face completely pale.

“Sayama-kun. A-are you okay?”

He tried to answer “yes”, but he realized he was not breathing. When his body bent forward, he realized someone had suddenly started to support his chest.

Ooki had caught him from below.

“Ah…”

When he heard Ooki say that, all of his body’s senses returned.

He first felt exhaustion. He then felt he could breathe again and sweat poured from his back and legs.

He brought strength to his legs to stand up, but Ooki was still lightly holding her arms out toward him.

“A-are you okay?”

“I am fine.”

“Really? Okay? You are okay?”

“I am okay, but that is not correct English.” His body was now obviously returning to normal. He nodded and said, “I am fine, so do not worry. It seems I get stress-induced anginas from this topic.”

“Then why did you agree to talk about it?”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to know? You truly are a horrible teacher if you forgot that.”

“Oh, but , um…”

As Ooki began frantically waving her hands in denial, Sayama smiled again.

“What are you trying to deny? Think about it. I am free to say what I want. And you are free to support me when I fall. I would say you performed the better deed here. Don’t you agree? But let me say one thing.” Sayama removed his right hand from his chest. “My mother would often tell me she hoped I could do something one day. I have to wonder if she ever did anything. And now the child raised hearing that has no idea what he can do. And so I must ask: what should I do?”

“I see… So you do not know what you can do.” Ooki nodded and her shoulders drooped. She looked up at Sayama and earnestly said, “I finally understand why you are so extreme about everything.”

“I cannot overlook that. Who are you calling extreme?”

“What? You didn’t hear me? I said it quite clearly. Is that a nose on the side of your head?”

Sayama’s left hand gave a lightning-fast flick against the forehead that had asked that question so seriously.

“Eeee,” groaned Ooki as she crouched down.

Sayama brought a hand to his chin and said, “Some teachers can say truly horrible things about their students.”

In the end, Sayama did not leave his dorm until past four.

It had taken time to put on the three-piece suit he had inherited from his grandfather and to prepare the seal and digital recording device needed for official records. He wrote down his time of departure at the dorm’s reception desk and left.

The sun was still in the sky.

He walked through the gravel clearing located between the general school buildings and the dorm. It normally functioned as a faculty parking lot. He was headed toward the main gate.

As he cut behind the second year general school building as a shortcut, he heard baby birds singing in the trees.

As he listened, Sayama heard two sounds other than the chirping of the birds.

The first was organ music coming from the music room on the second story of the school building.

“Silent Night…”

He recalled occasionally hearing it on the weekends. However, this was the first time he had been able to determine exactly where it was coming from. He wondered who was playing it, but it was so perfectly played that he assumed it was not a student.

And as the organ music played, another sound could be heard approaching.

It was the sound of a motorcycle engine. Specifically, the low tone of a 4-stroke.

As he heard that noise coming from the direction of the main gate, Sayama muttered, “Izumo and Kazami.”

He then walked out to the asphalt road west of the school building.

He looked out toward the faculty building, the vast sports ground, and the martial arts facility. He spotted two people riding a motorcycle appearing out from the side of the faculty building. Despite the large amount of exhaust, the black touring motorcycle moved smoothly along the road.

Aboard the motorcycle were a well-built young man wearing a thin brown coat and a girl with semi-short hair and carrying a black rucksack. The back bared by the girl’s white sleeveless top pointed in Sayama’s direction.

The two were chatting while riding the motorcycle.

Suddenly, the young man noticed Sayama. A friendly smile appeared on his fairly long face.

“Hey,” he said with a raised hand.

He then stopped the motorcycle next to Sayama.

The young man was over 180 cm tall and broad-shouldered, so he supported the weight of the heavy motorcycle with his leg.

The girl swayed gently and rested up against the young man’s back.

The young man smiled with the girl leaning up against him.

He looked up and said, “Where do you think you’re going, Sayama you idiot? To go spew insults at someone?”

Sayama brought a hand to his forehead and sighed.

With a troubled tone of voice, he said, “Izumo, unlike you, my brain is working properly. And I have never spewed insults at anyone, you sick bastard.”

“Sure, sure. Thanks for keeping up your acting style even during spring break.”

[[Image:OnC_v01_0051.png|thumb]]

“No need to thank me. But should the three top members of the student council really be having this sort of conversation?”

The young man, Izumo, smiled bitterly at that.

“Of course not,” he agreed.

The girl leaning on his back turned their way.

“Sayama, you’re going to IAI, right?”

“Yes, I am. Kazami, Izumo. What about you two?”

“I was just headed back to the dorm to have some fun with Chisato…kh!”

As he spoke, Izumo’s head twisted upwards. The girl named Kazami had grabbed at Izumo’s head and jaw from behind. A delicate sound came from Izumo’s neck and he gently fell backwards.

“Kaku, that is not what he asked. Sayama wanted to know where we had been.”

Izumo’s head came to rest on top of Kazami’s thighs and he stopped moving.

“There, there,” said Kazami as she stroked his head. She then showed Sayama the black rucksack next to her and smiled.

“We went into the city. We bought some clothes, new music, and other stuff for the Zenren Festival. Being on the edge of Tokyo really makes you forget all about culture.”

“…I see. But you two are third years and you live together, right?”

The girl, Kazami, thought for a bit looking troubled, but then spoke.

“Well, that’s how it turned out. Now, when I try to mingle with the others, they’re overly cautious about how they treat me. My role in the dorm has become that of an older sister. An underclassman even apologized just for passing by me in the hall.”

“Your face seems to be turning to cement.”

Kazami turned her head down, said “Oh, sorry”, and relaxed her shoulders. She casually clapped a hand against Izumo who was lying motionless on her thighs.

“Don’t turn into an idiot like him, okay? He abuses his authority as the son of IAI.”

“It seems to me you are enjoying that abuse quite a lot.”

“I know that, and that’s why it angers me so much. He needs to at least take his student council job seriously.” Kazami raised her head to look Sayama in the eye. “Oh, right. Sayama, I was thinking of having our first student council job for the term in the 2nd year school building’s Kinugasa Library. Do you have time? The three of us can make some plans for the Zenren Festival and Invitation Festival in the spring.”

“I have to head out today and I do not know how late I will be back.”

“We’re leaving for the city again tomorrow afternoon, so how about 9 AM tomorrow in the Kinugasa Library?”

“I can do that,” agreed Sayama. He glanced over at the school building next to them. “The Kinugasa Library, hm?”

On the western side of the second year general school building’s ground floor, an area four classroom’s length across was sticking out. It stuck out about the width of a classroom. Inside this space was an area equal to eight classrooms.

A look in the windows would show the backs of wooden panels. These thick wooden panels created the silhouettes of bookshelves.

The room was a library.

Almost the entire eight classroom space was filled with books and the hallway and basement had been used for extra book storage. That was the Kinugasa Library.

As Sayama glanced toward the library’s window, he heard Kazami speaking.

“The library created by the school’s founder isn’t a bad place for our first job, right? The librarian, old man Siegfried, may be unsociable, but he does put out tea. We used that place a fair bit during the election, so I was thinking we could continue to use it as our base.”

“This year’s treasurer certainly is different.”

“I think the president and vice president will be quite different as well. But what do you think? Are upperclassmen like us suitable for someone as prideful as you?”

“I think that statement alone shows you can compete with me when it comes to pride. …But at the very least, there is no one in this school who is better suited. Izumo Kaku, the son of IAI which supports this city of Akigawa, and Kazami Chisato, the girl who shares a room with him, are true problem children.”

“…”

“There is no way you two are ignorant of what the world says about you. I respect you for your ability to continue acting like this regardless.”

Hearing that, Kazami showed off her teeth slightly and looked down at Izumo who lay on her legs.

“Well, it doesn’t matter what people say. Kaku may cause problems, but he is not a bad person.”

“The same goes for you, Kazami.”

“Then what about you, Mr. Family of Villains?” Kazami raised her head to look at Sayama. She glanced up and down his suit. “You look good enough, but you make things difficult.”

“In what way?”

“I’m having difficulty imagining who would stand next to you. I can’t imagine someone to balance out your idiocy like Kaku is for me.”

“There is no one out there with enough power to handle me on an equal footing.”

“That isn’t what I mean.” Kazami gave a troubled smile. She lightly waved her hand front and back. “I’m talking about balance. Equals can only stand on the same side of the scales, right? You need a counterbalance.”

Sayama thought on the meaning of Kazami’s words.

And, “Someone like that would either be an opposing force or a hindrance.”

“So am I an opposing force or hindrance to Kaku?”

That question was spoken with a small smile. Sayama relaxed his shoulders.

“I do not know the answer to that, so I cannot argue about it with someone like you who does know the answer.”

“Oh, how honest.”

“I am an honest person, Kazami. It is just that, for some odd reason, I seem to end up in trouble for it from time to time. Is this what they mean when they say an honest man will look a fool? Yes, our ancestors said some excellent things.”

“Okay, sure. If that’s how you want to view it in your personal universe, I won’t stop you.”

Sayama smiled bitterly at that. He exchanged a glance with Kazami and spoke.

“Fine, then. I will admit relationships like yours and Izumo’s exist. However, I am doubtful the same could happen to me. I also think it is a problem to even think about placing someone like that next to me.”

“A problem?”

“The surname Sayama indicates a villain. What do you put next to evil?”

Kazami had no answer to that. She only let her shoulders droop and sighed.

“You really are a complicated person.”

“Ooki-sensei said the same thing earlier.”

“Everyone thinks it. We also wonder when exactly you will get serious about something.”

“I have never done it, so I couldn’t say. …And if I did, I am so inexperienced I would likely be afraid of myself.”

“…You really are complicated, Sayama.”

“You do not need to repeat yourself,” said Sayama with a smile before lightly tapping Izumo’s back where he lay unmoving as if asleep. “You’re awake, right? Hurry on back and dive headfirst into your unrestrained lifestyle.”

“Eh?” muttered Kazami as she looked down.

Izumo opened his eyes.

“Hey.”

“No, not ‘hey’. If you came to, why didn’t you get up?”

“You smell really good, Chisato.”

Izumo’s eyes bent upwards happily as Kazami blushed.

“Ha,” laughed Sayama before patting Kazami on the shoulder, turning his back, and walking off.

He continued toward the main gate.

As he did, he noticed a new figure.

Someone was walking down the stairs from the second floor of the 2nd year general school building.

It was a tall elderly man. He wore a black vest, black trousers, and black gloves. He was bald and had a beard.

“Siegfried Zoneburg, the librarian.”

Sayama had spoken with him a few times during his student council work. The man used only the bare minimum of words.

“You do not often see him outside of the Kinugasa Library,” he muttered before continuing on.

He looked around once more and saw nothing but the scenery of the school near the peak of spring.

“Such a peaceful place…”

Behind him, he heard repeated sounds of flesh being struck followed by screams from Izumo.

The sun was setting in the west.

Below that setting sun, even a forest surrounded by mountains had light passing through it like wind.

The forest was primarily made up of cedars. A single figure was fallen in front of one of those trees.

The figure was sitting on the ground.

This middle-aged man sat such that the sun shined on him from the side. His close-cropped hair was wet with something so it reflected the sun. The liquid wetting his hair dripped down his forehead and dyed the left half of his face a dark color.

His clothes resembled a white and black military uniform. However, the left shoulder and left leg of that uniform had split open and something dark could be seen flowing out as he breathed erratically.

He stretched out his left hand and scratched at the ground. With the blood in his eyes, he might as well have been blind. His left hand wandered across the ground.

Eventually, he managed to pick something up from between the rocks and fallen leaves.

It was a long gun made of metal. The side was engraved with something written in German.

He embraced the gun tightly and took a deep breath. He stuck a finger into the pouch on his right hip.

“This is Tsuurin Daiichi. My current location is in the mountains near Point 3 between Okutama and Shiromaru. I succeeded in preventing the single enemy from escaping. I successfully read the enemy’s string vibration and sent it in. Currently…everyone but me has been taken out. Please hurry.”

A staticky voice replied from near his throat. It was a female voice.

“Testament. The special division is on their way. We will send aid for you as well, so withdraw.”

“Tes. …Or so I’d like to say. Unfortunately, my leg was taken out. And my healing tools and spells were destroyed along with it. I only have my favorite weapon left to rely on. …When I asked you to hurry, I meant the special division, not aid for me.” He took a deep breath while sweating profusely. “The enemy is from a faction of 1st-Gear’s revolutionary army. Yes, a werewolf from the second royal palace faction. He likely came for negotiations with the pacifist faction. He must have had a 1st-Gear philosopher’s stone because he turned into a wolf in this real world.”

“Do not speak. The concept space will be deployed in another five minutes.”

“Ha ha. Make it so a silver bullet will work. Also, young girl…or is it young lady? Anyway, you don’t think this is our fault, do you?”

He was met with silence. He cast his eyes down before continuing.

“Fine. It was our mistake for deciding to go. In the standard division, we have the right to choose…right?”

Once again, he received only silence. Yet he did not stop.

“What unit are you from? Even in the special division, not many units have women in them. But I think there was one put together recently. A unit filled with beautiful UCAT-raised girls and women. I think it was the IAI-…”

He stopped speaking. His eyes opened wide and he stood up by using the tree behind him as a support.

“Hey, when I get back, meet me with flowers. It’ll be a triumphant return. What’s in bloom this time of year?”

“Testament. I think Primula modesta and the like are.”

“No, you’re supposed to say you are.”

He laughed and removed his right hand from the pouch. He moved the long gun from his left hand to his right. He bit the strap, used the stock and grip in his right hand to create three points of support, and faced forward.

He heard wind ahead of him.

A large shadow could be seen in the setting sun shining on the mountain. It was slowly approaching while swaying back and forth.

There was no sign. He simply followed the sound of the wind and squeezed the trigger.

A gunshot travelled across the forest along with the light of the setting sun.

Sayama opened his eyes aboard a train running through the mountains on the way to Okutama.

He had dozed off due to the setting sun shining on his seated back. And he had woken up due to…

“The train has stopped?”

He glanced around the train. The only passengers besides himself were two people seated a short distance away.

One was a white-haired man wearing a black suit. The other was a white-haired girl wearing black clothes and seated next to him. They may have been father and daughter and they were looking outside the opposite window.

Sayama followed their gaze out the window.

There he found the mountains of Okutama. They were all formed from round shapes and no small hills could be seen.

“So we are around the second tunnel near Shiromaru. Only one more stop to Okutama.”

He was familiar with the terrain here. He continued speaking while looking out at those similar-looking mountains.

“This is thanks to Hiba-sensei forcing me to run through these mountains.”

…''If I had not learned the land, I would not have been found until spring.

Sayama nodded and looked down at his left hand. His skin was white around the bones of his fist as if something had scattered across it. His eyes turned toward the ring on the middle finger of that scarred fist.

“It was also around here that we got out of the car when my mother took me with her back then…” he muttered.

According to his watch, it was 5:30 PM. He was to be at IAI at 6:00 PM.

When he calculated the time, his heart seemed to stiffen. He stood up, raised his suit collar to fix it with a snapping noise, and approached the two other passengers. The white-haired man raised his head. The man was wearing sunglasses, but Sayama could tell the man was looking at him. Sayama gave a quick bow.

“Excuse me. Why is the train stopped?”

“It received a stop signal. Once it is released, it will return to Shiromaru.”

The man’s tone had a bit of amusement mixed in and Sayama realized he was younger than he looked. Sayama had initially assumed he was elderly, but a closer look showed he was only just entering middle age.

The girl next to him wore the black dress and white apron of a maid. She was not the man’s daughter.

…''I had heard the ownership of a lot of the mountains around here stretches way back.

Sayama noticed the girl was holding a staff. It was a metal cane that could be attached to the wrist. It was clearly too long for her to use. However, Sayama ended his investigation of them here. He needed to know something else.

“Why is this train returning?”

“Maybe there was an accident.”

“I see,” nodded Sayama, realizing the man must not know the details either.

Suddenly, the girl sitting next to the man looked up at Sayama. With her eyebrows lying flat and no discernible expression on her face, her black eyes that were almost purple peered deep into Sayama’s eyes.

She took a breath and then opened her mouth.

“My apologies,” she said in a low, fairly mature voice.

“Think nothing of it,” said Sayama before turning his back on the two of them.

He opened the opposite window and heard the same voice as before from behind him.

“Are you getting out?”

“I cannot go back. Also, someone is waiting for me.”

“You are being hasty. The train might soon continue forward. Once you regret a decision, it is too late to turn back.”

“I do not know what god of advice you are, but let me tell you something. A decision can lead to joy just as easily as it can regret. I appreciate your concern, but I know this land. And is there anything truly dangerous in this world?”

“True… That is very true. There is no danger in this world,” said the man before closing his mouth in a smile below the sunglasses.

As soon as the man spread his legs out from the seat, Sayama stuck his legs out the window and jumped out.

He landed on the gravel supporting the railroad. He ran out into the open air and onto the mountainside bathed in the light of the setting sun.

“…”

Sayama did not turn back toward the train up the slope from him. He continued through the forest spreading out before him.

He trampled the underbrush as he headed down the mountain.

After only a few breaths, he sank into the shadows produced by the forest. The setting sun coming from the side and the branches of the trees drew a grid of shadows across him. This light and air were familiar to him.

“It’s been two years since I stopped coming to Okutama. I suppose the Hiba Dojo is still around.”

As he muttered that comment, he heard a metallic noise from behind him.

A whistle sounded and the train began to move. He heard it move up toward Shiromaru. The sound of the receding wheels told Sayama he had made the right decision.

“Good,” he said with a nod as he quickened his pace.

Shiromaru Station was an unmanned train station.

When the train came to a stop, the few passengers disinterestedly exited onto the long, narrow platform.

A short distance away from those bored individuals were the two people Sayama had spoken to just before.

The white-haired man held the cane in one hand as he stood next to a card-only payphone located in the shadow of a private home outside the station.

The girl dressed as a maid stood in front of him holding the receiver for the green telephone.

She pulled a bundle of telephone cards from her apron like it was a deck of playing cards.

She quickly lined the cards up in front of the green phone and turned toward the man.

“Itaru-sama. Why do you not carry a cell phone?”

“Because I am a coward, Sf. Remember that. If the phone rang, it would probably give me a heart attack.”

“How about I carry it for you?”

“No. You have not acquired the skill to take messages. If you cannot always answer as if I am gone even when I am with you, there is no point in you having a cell phone. Do you understand?”

“Tes. I understand that possessing one would be meaningless on a fundamental level.”

The girl called Sf stopped lining up the cards while looking at him. She was lining up the well-used cards in order of number of uses. The punch holes showing the number of uses lined up perfectly without the slightest deviation.

Sf casually picked up one card with few uses left and slid it into the green phone.

She used her right fingers to instantly dial a number.

A few seconds later, “This is Sf. Registration Number 9609812B. Connect me to extension #0013.”

Sf then handed the receiver to the man next to her. He took it and spoke.

“This is Ooshiro Itaru. Has Team Leviathan left yet, Sibyl? …I see. I just met an interesting idiot. Something stupid is about to happen. A world of stupid false good and false evil is about to unfold. …You don’t understand? No, someone like you or Sf that has not woken up wouldn’t.”

As Itaru spoke, Sf inserted a new card into the green telephone. When the small sound of connection indicating three minutes had been added came from the receiver, Itaru nodded to Sf. He continued speaking as he saw Sf nod back.

“Sf confirmed this idiot’s string vibration. I’ll have Sf give it to you, so add this idiot’s vibration to the string vibration of the concept space. It’s the usual type, so this change should be easy and the outside will be visible, right? Drag him in from reality. …What? You want to know who this idiot is? You’ll know soon enough.”

Hearing that, Sf asked, “Itaru-sama, is it really okay to get him involved like this?”

“That brat has ignorantly decided that this world is a safe place. We need to teach him a lesson and a first-hand lesson would be best. From now on, he is sure to be overturned again and again. From here on out, he will deny all things because all things exist. He will deny joy because he knows joy. And…Yes, that will continue until the world is satisfied.”

Itaru gave a small smile and handed Sf the receiver.

“Sf, tell them his string vibration. And then we will teach him what reality truly is.”

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| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Prologue|Prologue]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume1_Chapter_2|Chapter 2]]
|-
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</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume1 Prologue

2013-06-15T19:07:43Z

Purin:

==Prologue: Saint’s Song==
[[Image:OnC_v01_0011.png|thumb]]
''He called out.

''She sang.

''Those words continued until the sound completely vanished.

It was night.

An area of land emitted light below the darkness of the heavens.

It was a city.

In the center of this city, a large white structure sat where the railways gathered.

This train station building stood eight stories tall.

The second story of the north entrance was made into a large terrace with the words “Tachikawa Station North Entrance” displayed in blue.

The clock on the opposite building read 10 PM. The station building’s workers had left for the night, but the last train was still a long way off.

However, no one could be seen in the station, on the station terrace, or on the traffic circle in front of the station.

Below a row of green-leaved trees along near the traffic circle was a line of cars. However, not one of these cars was moving. No busses were running either. The train tracks stretching away from the station had no trains running on them.

The entire area was deserted.

A single noise could be heard in that unmoving world.

It came from above.

It was on the eastern side of the upper levels of the station building. Specifically, a tenant window on the seventh floor. Someone was beating on the window from within.

The silhouette visible through the glass was feminine.

She suddenly stopped moving. Then she left the window and ran in the opposite direction.

The very next moment, a new shadow appeared in the window.

Taking the place of the feminine figure was a large silhouette over two meters tall.

It slammed into the window.

The window bent, bulged out, and then broke when it could no longer withstand the force.

A single shattering sound could be heard. It was followed by the sound of shards spraying out into the air.

Three silver arcs shot out the window as if trying scratch at those glimmers scattering through the air.

They were claws.

Those arcs of light scratched at the flying glass shards with compact movements.

The giant shadow the claws belonged to turned around as it swung its arm. In the space of half a breath, the shadow disappeared from the window frame. It was pursuing the fleeing feminine figure.

The outside wind blew into the building as if following after the shadow.

After hours, the train station building’s escalator landing only had the bare minimum of illumination. A single figure was stopped there gasping for breath. The emergency lighting showed a girl with disheveled hair and wearing a blazer.

The girl held a large black case and the floor number printed yellow on the floor below her feet read “3”. If she turned around and continued down another floor, she would reach the second floor.

“I can get to the terrace from there,” she said before coughing. She coughed twice and then thrice before raising a trembling voice. “You have to be kidding me… What is this? What is attacking me?”

The dry cough continued after she spoke and it only further dried the air in her lungs. She bent over and her lips formed voiceless words:

I’m sorry. I was an idiot to not come home right away.

She strengthened her grip embracing the black case in her arms.

A flute symbol could be seen next to the maker’s logo on the top of the case. A single piece of paper was balled up in the side pocket. She caught sight of the white of the ribbon attached to the paper.

“All my bad luck started here. Three years of bad luck. And now when I lose my nerve and come to hide in my usual spot, my security guard grandfather is gone… And then a strange shadow starts swinging blades around…”

Before that had happened, she had thought she had heard some kind of odd voice. The voice had reverberated in her head. That had woken her up.

She tilted her head while wondering what that had been, but she quickly swung her head back into place.

…''I need to run away before that shadow catches up.

She breathed out and a noise reverberated from overhead as if in response.

Running footsteps that sounded like stakes being driven into the ground were approaching from directly upwards.

“…!”

She grabbed the strap to her case and moved gracefully toward the escalator.

She chose to continue down. Down, down, down. Down to the second floor. Every additional element of the situation only told her to hurry.

She ran down the aluminum steps. Solid sounds rang out ever time her leather shoes slammed down on the steps.

She heard footsteps from above overlapping with her own rushed footsteps.

But it did not all come to an end there.

“…Wind?”

It came from outside. It came from the building’s northern wall, the same wall as the window she had knocked on before.

A single sound approached that wall from outside. It was a deep, long, wide, reverberating, and low sound.

''What? '' she thought and braced herself. In the next moment, the building shook as if it had been struck from the side.

“…!?”

The noise was tremendous. Just like the sound of a passing airplane, this explosion of air robbed her of all her bodily senses.

Her entire body trembled and the hair all across her body stood on end. Her running feet were stopped in an instant.

The great roar she could feel in the core of her body passed at high speed from the east to the west. The sound of wind that followed behind it also shot by to the west and into the western sky.

Silence followed.

She all of a sudden realized she had been released from the noise.

She shook her body once and took a step. Her legs trembled and her body filled with strength. Her will begged her to move forward.

''I need to go,'' she realized. She took a deep breath, looked down, and saw the escalator ended after only a few more steps.

''Hurry,'' her feelings shouted, but the information provided by her vision brought those feelings to a halt.

A slight darkness covered her vision. It was the shadow of the escalator landing above.

The footsteps from above disappeared within her ears.

…''Something is…!

Before she could think “coming”, she acted. She strengthened her grip on the strap in her hand.

“Sorry.”

She swung the case upwards in a motion similar to a golf swing.

Her vision turned upwards. The black shadow fell down into the upwards path of her strike.

She hit.

The corner of the case struck the shadow right in the flank.

It was knocked away. The case at the end of the strap and the case’s contents weighed over five kilograms. The resentment behind that weight came both from this chase and from her three years with the instrument inside.

With the sound of flesh being struck, the shadow doubled over. The case broke and the instrument inside scattered about.

The shadow’s body was knocked to the right.

But the cold light in the shadow’s hand was still swung down toward her.

And then she finally realized something. What she had thought were blades were actually giant claws. And the owner of these claws was a large beast.

As her eyes focused on those claws, the corner of her vision showed that shadow of a giant beast take the same stance as a human.

Everything after that happened in a single instant.

The claws swinging down from above smashed the side frame of the escalator, but the beast could not stop itself from collapsing. Its giant body fell down toward the neighboring escalator.

“…!”

The beast let out a roar. The sound of an impact followed.

But she did not hear that cry of protest. She only heard the sound of the instrument scattering across the floor.

''Sorry,'' she apologized in her heart.

In the next instant, she fully lost her balance due to her previous attempt to evade. She fell down atop the escalator.

She now gave her physical pain precedence over her emotional pain. Her momentum spun her around backwards.

Her back struck the corner of one of the steps and she had the breath knocked out of her. Even her skirt was in complete disarray.

But she grabbed the handrail and forced herself back onto her feet.

From below, she heard the voice of the beast. The voice was filled with anger and rage and did not seem to know what had happened.

She ignored it.

She began to run, now with nothing in her hands. She ran down the escalator and to the second floor.

On the left and right of this barely-lit floor were lines of boutiques. Every store was covered by a shutter. The girl would occasionally see this same sight when being led by a security guard. Today, she ran by it all.

She was focused on the glass door at the end of the floor. That door alone had no shutter covering it.

If she left that door, she would reach the large entrance to Tachikawa Station that cut across north to south on the second floor of the station building.

She tired her best to open or unlock the door. She then slammed her shoulder into the glass door.

It was a dull impact. However, that pain slowly pushed her through to the other side.

The door to that after-hours station building opened.

“What…is going on?” said the girl as she tumbled out into the fresh air.

Her knees landed on the tiles of the entrance floor.

She was surrounded by a vast, deserted space. The Tachikawa Station entrance was about 15 meters wide.

She suddenly felt something on the back of her right hand. It was a soft, damp sensation.

She looked down to find a cat. The brown cat still had some youth remaining.

But the presence of this cat sent a chill running down her spine. She could see no sign of anyone else in the area. She had seen no one but the shadow that had attacked her. The traffic circle she had earlier seen from above had also been deserted.

Thinking the cat might be the same as her, she picked it up. In the instant their gazes met, the cat had been looking up at her, but its eyes narrowed when she lifted it from the ground. And that was why she decided to take it with her.

She stood up.

“I need to get to the northern terrace,” she muttered as she looked to her right where the northern end of the entrance led to the terrace.

And that was when a wind accompanied by a metallic noise dropped down onto the traffic circle beyond the terrace.

She looked up and saw the wind surrounding on the traffic circle had a giant gray form.

It was a giant gray humanoid machine.

For the upper body to stick up above the terrace, it had to be at least 10 meters tall. It was a fully gray-…

“Robot? No…Armor?”

As if to answer the girl’s question, the giant silhouette stood up. And then it turned to face her.

The gray giant had a single blue light where its eyes would be.

The girl felt like she was being watched.

Her pulse seemed to freeze and she cowered down. She could not breathe and she realized for the first time that she was frightened.

Meanwhile, the cat wriggled in her trembling arms. It seemed to be complaining that her arms were wrapped to tightly around it.

The cat let out a sweet meow while showing no concern for the armor’s gaze.

That out-of-place noise made a bitter laugh escape the girl’s lips.

She realized fear meant nothing to the cat. The cat did not understand anything that was happening and therefore was not afraid.

“…”

She let out a shallow breath. And as if that was a sign, strength returned to her body.

''I can do this. I can do this,'' she thought twice.

To the left, there was a staircase leading down between the entrance and the terrace. Given that giant’s size, it would have difficulty making its way below the terrace.

She was 15 meters from the staircase. It would not even take her three seconds if she used all her strength.

And so she immediately decided to run. She went all out from the very first step. However…

“Ah.”

Her right foot seemed to catch on something and she tripped.

“Wh-what!?”

Her body jumped more out of surprise than pain. She looked down and saw her leather shoe lying in front of her right foot. It had torn from the opening to the side sole. It must have ripped when she had fallen on the escalator earlier.

''Oh, no.

When she tried to stand up, she felt pain in her right ankle.

She could not stand. Strength left her knee and she collapsed to the cold tile floor.

“Kh,” she groaned while looking behind her from the floor.

The giant was holding its right arm toward her from beyond the terrace. Something like a tube was attached to the outer edge of the arm. It was obviously a cannon.

It was targeting her.

“Ah,” leaked out another noise.

She felt more noise coming, but swallowed it all down. She let out tears instead.

And then she noticed the cat was standing next to her collapsed hips.

As if worried about her, the cat was rubbing its head up against her leg.

The girl reflexively picked the cat up once more. She then looked up and glared at the giant.

In the next instant, some power exploded out of the giant’s right arm and toward her.

She first saw flames. In the following instant, white smoke raced through the air.

A high-pitched sound of something slicing through the wind raced toward her.

A shell had been fired.

It was coming. It was dangerous. She tried to stand up, but her ankle filled with pain and her hips collapsed back down.

Nevertheless, she tried to stand up once more.

“…!”

The noise that leaked from her throat was not a scream; it was anger at herself.

The power this enemy had fired arrived in an instant.

And it exploded.

She opened her eyes.

She noticed the wind blowing around her and also that the cat was still in her arms.

“I’m alive?”

She could not hear her own voice. Her ears were not working.

She looked around while unsteadily sitting on the ground.

The floor of the vast station entrance had smoke and wind racing across it.

An explosion had definitely occurred. However, she was still alive.

“What happened?”

She could faintly hear that question. Sound was returning to her ears.

She could hear the sound of wind. And she looked in the direction that wind was blowing from.

[[Image:OnC_v01_0023.png|thumb]]

Backlit by the lights of the terrace and traffic circle was a single girl.

She wore a white and black outfit and stood with her back to the girl as if shielding her from the gray giant.

This feminine figure’s long hair and long skirt were fluttering in the wind.

She held a giant staff-like object in her right hand and held her left hand out toward the terrace

In front of her outstretched hand, smoke swirled above the terrace and a chunk of its floor had been gouged out.

The wind raced by and the smoke lingering over the terrace was blown away.

The giant still stood beyond the terrace.

The cowering girl’s question regarding what was going on was cut off by a high-pitched voice. The voice belonged to this new girl standing before her eyes.

“Sayama-kun. This is Shinjou. …One intruder detected. Making contact.”

Another voice replied to her words.

“I can see all that, Shinjou-kun.”

This voice was male. And it came from very nearby.

The girl looked up with the cat still in her arms to find a young man standing there.

He was likely the person named Sayama. He wore white and black clothes that resembled a military uniform, he had a single stripe of white on the sides of his slicked back hair, and he had a sharp look in his eyes.

“Hm,” he muttered with a nod in the wind while looking down at the girl and the cat. “How unusual.”

He stretched out a hand and stroked her head. His fingers felt tough.

The girl suddenly recalled the instrument she had broken.

If this had not happened today, would she have ever broken it?

And as soon as that question appeared in her heart, Sayama spoke.

“Well done.”

Strength left her at those words.

She felt as if her body was sinking into the floor.

''Oh, no,'' she thought, but she was already losing consciousness by that point.

“Now then…”

Sayama supported the collapsed girl’s back with a hand and lowered her slender body to the floor.

The cat showed no sign of leaving her side. It remained with her like a guard.

Sayama gave a bitter smile before turning toward the girl he had called Shinjou. He raised his elbow and scratched at his hair.

“What’s the situation?”

“Our enemies are 15 human-types and 3 Heavy Gods of War. Our main force has been deployed to deal with all of them. We have not had anything on this nice of a large scale in a while. I think we should have let the Concept Space fully take hold just beforehand.”

“It looked like Harakawa and Hio-kun were going nuts at an extreme low altitude a bit ago…”

“They were driving out the one over there. Ryuuji-kun and Mikage-san are battling the other two. But the northern entrance…just look. It’s been blown away.”

When Sayama heard what Shinjou had to say, he exaggeratedly shook his head and spread his arms wide.

“We even told Harakawa not to cause so much destruction. If our destruction rate goes up any further, we will never be able to apologize to the future world. Don’t you think that delinquent needs to be tortured just once?”

“I am sure Hio-kun will tell you to be gentle with him.”

“How about you shut up!?” came a staticky male voice from Sayama’s neck.

Sayama looked down at the communications phone-mic attached to his neck and tilted his head in confusion.

“What are you talking about Harakawa? I am saying this for your sake and for the world’s sake. I can introduce you to someone for that later. Depending on the voltage, I hear you’ll be much more obedient in about 5 seconds.”

“Sayama, there’s one important thing I’ve always wanted to say to you.”

“What might that be? No normal praise will get any reaction out of me.”

“Go to hell.”

After hearing the staticky sound of the transmission ending, Sayama brought a hand to his forehead.

“Honestly, he is such a troublesome guy. People with that much pride are only harmful to this world.”

“…Have you ever looked in a mirror?” asked Shinjou.

“I have. I check over myself thoroughly every morning and night, but what does that have to do with Harakawa?”

“Oh, nothing. I was only seeing once more just how strangely wonderful you are, Sayama-kun.” Shinjou spoke while continuing to face the giant beyond the terrace. “How is that girl?”

“She’s fine. She is injured, but she did not lose.”

“I see,” said Shinjou as she finally turned around. She looked at the girl sleeping on the floor and narrowed her eyes. “I am glad. It was worth using up all of my defensive concept charms on that attack.”

The giant began to move.

It lowered its hips while creating mechanical noises. With each step it loudly smashed the asphalt below its feet.

But it was not Shinjou that reacted to the sound of the ground splitting open; it was Sayama.

He first lowered the hand on his forehead to his chest, raised it up next to his face, and then sliced it to the side. He then loudly snapped his fingers.

“Now then, Shinjou-kun. Double-check the situation with everyone before we punish this idiot who is disobeying the solutions gathered in Low-Gear.”

Shinjou looked forward. The cannon on its right arm was aimed directly at her.

“So you’re motivated because I have no defenses left? What a pain.” She brought her left hand up to her neck. “This is Shinjou. We have made contact with the intruder and secured her. We are currently…”

Before she could finish speaking, the giant machine known as a Heavy God of War fired.

It all began there.

The great power flying toward her was a large artillery shell with a metal outer casing.

As this power tore through the wind toward her, Shinjou continued speaking.

“…engaging the enemy Heavy God of War.”

As Sayama watched on, Shinjou spun her large staff around vertically with a single movement of her right fingers.

The belly of the staff stopped on her right shoulder, leaving it lying vertically. With a single metallic noise, she grabbed hold of the front portion with her left hand. Her right hand ran across the side of the staff. Her right fingers were moving toward a single long panel made of something like glass.

Her fingers wrote something there.

“We fear seeking power but do not fear using power!”

The writing appeared in a blue light over the transparent panel and then disappeared.

The shell arrived as if in response.

But Sayama showed no concern about the shell from where he stood behind Shinjou.

He was looking only at Shinjou. With a hand on his chin, he looked at her thin back, her slender hips, and her round ass. His eyes narrowed and he let out a breath.

“So beautiful. Give it your best shot.”

Shinjou let out a bitter smile and operated her staff. She slid the portion in her left hand forward and a grip appeared. She grabbed that and pushed it in to cock it. When she pressed the trigger on the grip, the staff would fire a counter attack.

And she pressed it.

They could hear the sound of the air being split. Shinjou’s body was knocked back. The output point on the end of the staff split open and burst apart.

And in exchange for all that, a white light was emitted.

The white light stabbed through the air and erased the flying shell.

The light did not dim there. The white afterimage continued in a gentle upward curve and struck the gray God of War.

There was a great noise of impact.

The armor panel on the God of War’s chest was smashed. The light that burst out held great power.

“!”

A solid sound tore through the air and that giant form of over 10 meters had its head thrown backwards.

A heavy noise followed as the entire mass of metal collapsed backwards.

A hot wind blew through the entrance, passing by first Shinjou and then Sayama.

And Sayama saw something.

Beyond the wind, shadows were appearing from the staircases leading up to the entrance from either side.

These bestial shadows looked like a wolf walking on two feet. They were over two meters tall. Six of them arrived from the left and four from the right.

Sayama nodded as he saw them lower their stance in preparation for an attack.

“Now, the girl you attacked did not scream to the very end, so I hope you can give this some effort, too.”

He began walking forward through the center of the blowing wind. His footsteps sounded loudly as he gave a slight smile.

“Let’s go all out. I am just as lenient with everyone. I won’t hold back.”

Sayama’s flowing voice joined his footsteps.

Shinjou walked alongside him. She held her broken staff as if embracing it, opened her mouth, and began singing.

It was a hymn. It was a verse of Silent Night.

“Silent night, holy night.

Shepherds first see the sight.

Told by angelic Alleluja,

Sounding everywhere, both near and far.

‘Christ the Savior is here.’

‘Christ the Savior is here.’ ”

Sayama opened his mouth as he listened to the song. He spoke into the phone-mic on his neck.

“Everyone!” He swung up his right arm while staring at his foes. “Let me say it here. …The surname Sayama indicates a villain!”

Shinjou gave a slight smile while singing next to him. Sayama returned the smile.

“I am giving you an order here! Do not become lost here and do not lose them. After all, if anyone is lost here, this world will become that much lonelier.” He took a breath and raised his head. “Do you understand!? Then ahead! Ahead! Go ahead! Give these idiots a punch and a warning before they do anything stupid! And then bring them here! If you understand, then give me a response!”

As he watched the enemies before his eyes, Sayama forcefully swung his hand down to the right. The right sleeve of his uniform stretched and let out a loud sound like paper being struck.

Voices replied to him both from the phone-mic and from the area around him.

“Testament!”

“Okay,” agreed Sayama before continuing to walk forward.

The crouched shadows before him were growling and seconds away from bursting forward.

Sayama gave a slight smile and spread out his left arm.

His right arm had already been spread, so it now looked like he was preparing to embrace his enemies.

And while continuing to smile, he said, “Now, how about we all come to an understanding!?”

The story now returns two years to the spring of 2005.

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