Horizon:Volume 10A Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Reverser at the Station

A sound mind

Resides in a sound cult ritual

Point Allocation (Throw from a Running Start)

●

When intercepting the garbage, “Azuchi” had said she could supply power to the secondary cannons.

But at the time, she had decided that power was better used for acceleration and let Sakon carry a secondary cannon for the interception. The power she had said could be rerouted had instead been pooled and Sakon and Kasuya had manually dragged a lightweight transport ship to the side pier.

Now the transport ship was launched. The pooled power had been used to power a catapult.

This of course produced a reactive force that slowed the Azuchi, but the Azuchi was a composite ship comprised of six ships. Even if one ship was slowed, the other five would move out ahead and the slipstream effect created by the air currents wrapping around them would allow the slowed ship to recover. “Azuchi” had only given approval to fire the secondary cannons after taking that into account.

The small, lightweight transport ship was a 35m wyvern-class.

The ship itself was equipped with an acceleration spell and pasted with reinforcement charms before it was launched.

“This will act as a large artillery shell!”

Kasuya activated the launch trigger.

She used Argent Clou in pile driver form to punch the large ceramic plug containing an ignition spell.

The audible impact shattered the ceramic plug and the ether light spike triggered the ignition correctly.

“Ohh!”

The transport ship raced out faster than Fukushima could turn her head to follow. The mass of metal accelerated all at once, soaring toward the Musashi’s acceleration lights out ahead.

It tore through the night sky.

●

On the Musashino’s bridge, Suzu’s senses and the automata’s decisions intersected over the sudden approach of a transport ship.

The hurried gathering of data came from Suzu’s senses.

The automata then displayed the already-calculated air currents and the paths of the unwanted inventory that continued to be scattered into the air. According to that, the transport ship would receive three direct hits from life-size divine figurines and eleven collisions with unwanted inventory before it arrived behind the Musashi.

“Its course is shifting a bit upwards! Over!”

Most of the automata nodded at the report from “Musashi-Sakai” because the Musashi was already taking a descending course as it approached Mikawa’s bay.

Ascending required power and reduced speed. Conversely, the Musashi would pick up speed on its downward course. So…

“Here it comes!” shouted Suzu, placing her hand on the approaching transport ship.

Its speed had dropped a bit and its course formed a somewhat rising line. Even so, some trash collided with it and it did remain on its ascending course, but…

“There’s…something inside!”

The transport ship and the Azuchi itself were already in Suzu’s sensory range. She tapped her finger on the transport ship and nodded as she worked something out.

“I think…it’s a person! No…this weight!? It’s…more than one person!”

●

“Their super sensory captain will probably be noticing us soon.”

Two sets of wings nodded in the airtight space hidden below where the blasting spell bolts had blown away the flying transport ship’s upper deck.

Gold and black they were. Katou Yoshiaki and Wakisaka Angie.

“What do we do, Kime-chan? Weiss Fürstin and Schwarz Fürstin still have parts out for maintenance thanks to Shizugatake.”

“We should count ourselves unlucky the main thrusters are working.”

“Unlucky, huh?,” said Wakisaka, but she also tilted forward and sent black light into her thrusters. Next to her, Yoshiaki crossed her arms and sent white light into her thrusters.

“Let’s go.”

The two Technohexen more or less slid out into the night sky. But gravitational control took them along a rectangular course.

“First, we need to catch up!”

Their two schale besen carried them on a charge to close in on the Musashi.

●

…I can’t believe this!

While sending Schwarz Fürstin soaring out, Angie felt as if she had been working far too much lately.

This world really needed to treat Technohexen better. They had apparently been revered as shamans in the past, but now that they could fly again after the end of the Technohexen hunt, this was what they had to deal with.

…Life sure isn’t easy!

Would it be easier to just die? She sometimes wondered that, but things didn’t have to be easy. Because…

“I need to find some way to protect this world.”

So…

“I’d look pretty silly if I used death as an easy way out!”

She could see the Musashi’s acceleration lights out ahead. But a much brighter light pulled up alongside her.

“Kime-chan!”

“Angie, I’m impressed you can be so poetic while you fly.”

“Wanna try it!?”

“The wind reaches me / on a late summer night / illegal trash dump.”

“That wasn’t enough syllables and that’s a haiku, Kime-chan!”

“Late summer nights are the season for haiku.”

With that, Yoshiaki deepened Weiss Fürstin’s forward tilt.

“Angie, our side thrusters have been angled toward the center, so you’ll skid if you take your turns too sharp. You’ll have to roll and then add in an ascent or descent to make up for it.”

“Eh, I can get by on intuition!”

Angie waved her right hand dismissively before seeing light scattering ahead of her. She thought it was some ether light shards, but it wasn’t.

“That’s a scattershot of burning doujin manga!”

●

“Attach incendiary spell charms and dump them! But anything longer than 25 pages might not fully burn before reaching the ground, so hold onto those and count to ten before dumping them!”

On Noriki’s instructions, Persona-kun and the rest of the dumping squad and some brave volunteers from the Health Committee tossed away the unwanted inventory. But…

“Damn! There’s just no end to this unwanted inventory! It would make a great barrage, though!”

“Then here’s what we’ll do! Follow my lead, everyone!”

The Health Committee Head tied together a stack of around 20 books, made a blazing log out of it, and lifted it toward the sky. The flames intensified and embers scattered everywhere, but the rules said he only had to wait for ten seconds.

Embers poured onto him over his fireproof mask.

“Ooone! Twooo! Threee! Yiiiikes, this is hot, but fourrrr! Fiiive!”

“H-head! I’ll join you! I’m a man too!”

“Me too! I’ll join you too!”

The inventory disposal and the Technohexen pair’s return fire covered Oume’s stern with pillars of flame.

Art-Ga: “Huh? Why are they starting some cult ritual at Oume’s stern?”

Gold Mar: “Is that a ritual? I thought those things were normally done on Takao.”

Laborer: “Whatever you call it, we’re about to throw them!”

●

The Technohexen pair flew straight into the thrown wall of flame and smoke.

The cords came apart, the pages whipped in the wind, paper scattered, and embers flew. As a whole, it jutted out in the middle while spreading out like an umbrella.

“Angie!” shouted the white Technohexen, tugging up on her schale besen with her full body. She grabbed the nose and sent her back and wings behind her to gain momentum as she pulled up.

The angle she took was nearly perpendicular. Her schale besen acted like a full-body shield, but she did not fly.

“Kime-chan! Slower!”

“I’m terrible at letting intuition take over.”

At the same time, the firestorm reached the pair from the front. But the white and black Technohexen did not fly away or redirect their course.

“Ride it!”

They gently spread out their schale besen like a bird’s wings and caught the wall of fire.

●

…It isn’t as hot as I expected.

Yoshiaki’s upper body was lifted as she used the Magie Figur at her hands to operate Weiss Fürstin’s full gravitational control.

She was not adjusting the direction of the thrusters’ acceleration like normal. Her fingers were linked to Weiss Fürstin’s acceleration panels and grasping the force of the fire.

She focused on her task as Weiss Fürstin ascended the surface of the explosive flames as if flapping unseen wings.

However, she was not opposing the firestorm. As the force of the fire burst, stretched, and scattered toward the Azuchi, she made use of the reverse current.

…I grasp the movement of the flames, catch the heat, and let it push me up.

Her speed did not drop. She simply didn’t collide with the flames.

She caught the explosive heat as a “surface” and soared up along that.

Of course, that was only how it felt to her.

The reality was different.

She was using Weiss Fürstin’s gravitational control to grasp the heat and, when that grew strong enough, used the thrusters to push herself up. By doing it all with the acceleration panels, she could ride atop the currents without opposing the flames.

This was possible because Weiss Fürstin and Schwarz Fürstin’s gravitational control did more than just acceleration – it also held each acceleration panel in place and turned it to operate in either direction.

Then by including a thermometer spell, she only had to take control with her hands.

She slid along the surface of the incoming flames while using gravitational control to ensure she didn’t lose any speed.

“––––”

She took the shortest ascending path.

●

Angie was silently astonished by Yoshiaki’s control out ahead of her.

…She says she cant let intuition take over and then she does this!

If this wasn’t intuition, she had to be consciously aware of the movements and reactions of each individual acceleration panel, but that seemed like the more superhuman feat to Angie.

They crossed the flames. Crossed them like surfing along a swelling wave. Or like bouldering. But they avoided ascending too far. That was their plan.

Angie honestly thought they could just ascend vertically and cross over it all at once. Weiss Fürstin and Schwarz Fürstin had decent main thrusters, so what they were doing now was more dangerous.

But there was a reason they couldn’t. There were a few different reasons, but most relevant to them…

“The Musashi’s air currents are descending!”

The incoming flames were shaped by the air currents created by the Musashi.

It would be easy enough to fly outside those air currents to avoid the flames, but then they would either have to once more dive into the wall formed by the Musashi’s air currents or break through the atmosphere themselves.

Schwarz Fürstin and Weiss Fürstin weren’t currently sturdy enough to handle the former.

The latter they could manage if taking a perpendicular course, but Angie wasn’t certain they had the power for it.

But by circling around by effectively riding the flames, they could slip into the air currents beginning to wrap around behind the Musashi and the empty space there.

“We just have to go for it!”

As soon as she shouted that, a life-size divine figurine pierced through the flames and flew right in toward her.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

●

The divine figurine wasn’t alone. Angie instantly realized five were incoming.

She didn’t ask herself what to do.

She lived on intuition. Before, when deciding what to get for lunch at Lake Biwa Azuchi, Yoshiaki had opened a lernen figur, but Angie had just said “That place looks good!” Whether or not that intuition had been accurate was another matter.

Regardless, this was the same. Yoshiaki’s “Angie! What is that!?” seemed like an honest question, but Angie noticed the cold cast witch girl figurine had been given charms to ensure it survived the flames and then destroyed itself at high altitude.

Her intuition told her what to do.

It was a split-second decision.

As soon as she realized it was going to hit, she kicked forward one of Schwarz Fürstin’s acceleration panels.

The kicked panel struck the incoming divine figurine in the head.

The attack normally would have done a fair amount of reactive force damage, but she had upped the panel’s power.

The solid blow broke off the figurine’s head, sending it flying. And she…

“There.”

Her one leg was kicked out through the front of Schwarz Fürstin, so the schale besen was spread out like a long flared skirt. So she kicked her other leg forward too, allowing her to “wear” the schale besen.

“Kime-chan, I’m going on ahead.”

She kicked the flying figurine’s head and flew up the fiery surface in steps.

“Angie! That’s rude! Look out ahead!”

She smiled bitterly at Yoshiaki’s line shouted within the back and forth of high-speed flames and winds, but she also sensed something off.

…What did that second sentence have to do with the first?

Angie flew to the top of the flames and beyond. With the fire behind her, everything ahead appeared illuminated by a scarlet light.

She had felt the night’s chill in the late summer sky before, but now she felt a heat roasting the front and back of her body.

“Wait, the front and the back?”

She was right to question this. The back made sense since she had moved past the fire, but this meant there was something more ahead of her.

Ahead and to the left, some people were running this way on the stern of Oume, Musashi’s 3rd starboard ship.

The group of boys was entirely shirtless. They were muscular and wore fireproof masks and they raised burning pillars of flame in their hands.

“Ten seconds!”

They all sped up. They didn’t slow even at the very stern, where they swung their bodies to throw the pillars of flame.

“Musashi Health Committee!”

What kind of cult ritual is this?

●

Yoshiaki was relieved to find Angie was looking out ahead. Because that girl was great at reacting to what was happening before her eyes. She would have been missing out if she hadn’t seen that cult ritual in the distance…but more than that, it was dangerous.

But something else was even more dangerous.

“Angie! Stop staring at them so expectantly! Look this way!”

“Eh? Oh! Sorry, Kime-chan but I just saw an incredible piece of Far Eastern culture!”

“Wait, no, keep your eyes forward!”

Because an even greater explosion of fire was incoming.

●

“Let’s clear out that inventory!”

Noriki raised his arms and yelled while fire exploded with the intensity of a festival’s fireworks all going off at once.

The light and paths of the embers covered the sky in the Musashi’s wake.

Noriki lined up alongside the Health Committee Head who was brushing off his fireproof gloves and observed the spreading curtain of fire and the flames dancing in the wind. He thrust his right hand out and…

“Defeat those Hashiba Technohexen with a second cult ritual!”

Novice: “Don’t forget you needed my help for this! Just saying!”

Flat Vassal: “Isn’t it the readers’ rejection of your book we should be thanking? Just saying.”

Asama: “Dumping those books is reducing the Musashi’s ether stagnation a fair bit. Neshinbara-kun, you really shouldn’t write things out of pure stubbornness. Just saying.”

●

Yoshiaki made a split-second decision.

…These flames are bad news.

Unlike the earlier flames, these did not spread out in the air currents created by the Musashi’s passage. These approached while spreading out to absorb the flames she had avoided.

“Angie!”

“Got it!”

Angie pulled her legs out of Schwarz Fürstin, bent backwards toward Yoshiaki, and threw herself into the air behind herself. Yoshiaki followed with a single flap of her wings and a midair front flip.

“Zwei Eisen Combined Form!”

They pushed Weiss Fürstin and Schwarz Fürstin together with their hands, the top of one fitting into the bottom of the other. The acceleration panels that acted as joints connected as if by suction, the acceleration systems combined, and a double power system was constructed.

“Let’s go, Angie!”

As soon as they raced out into the air as if kicked forward, a massive collision of fire occurred in the sky.

The earlier explosive flames had retained their form thanks to the reverse air currents, but the later fire caught up to them and pierced them.

●

That was a larger blast than anticipated, thought “Musashino”.

The dual fire throw had been a request from the field, but it was the automata who had predicted the result. The physical phenomena were mixed with the divine protection effects, so it had largely been a standard case. She had determined it wasn’t worth bothering Suzu with and approved execution of the move.

The idea had been to create a pincer attack using walls of flame.

The initial fire wall was carried by the air currents created by the Musashi, but flames consumed the oxygen in the air as they burned. So the passage of the flames created a pathway of thinner air that was gently held in place by the Musashi’s atmosphere buffering spell.

Then the surrounding air rushed in. But the buffering spell compressed and thickened the air.

The rest was simple. By sending in a second fire wall after the enemy passed the first, the second would follow the buffering spell passage and accelerate as it consumed the air flowing in. It would burn with the force of the ignition, spreading out while colliding with the first wall.

So that was what they had done. The enemy was close, fortunately within range of the buffering spell, and the later flames had collided with the earlier ones two seconds earlier than predicted.

“Two burning stacks of unwanted inventory exploded! Over!”

The spreading blossom of fire reached a diameter of 1.3 kilometers. And…

“The enemy is pulling away!”

The two enemy Technohexen had avoided a direct hit. Suzu had sensed that. They had combined their schale besen and used the combined acceleration to escape the dangerous airspace.

They had gotten away. But this was good enough. Because…

“The enemy Technohexen have left Musashi’s air currents! Over!”

●

Oh? thought Naruze as she tracked the enemy’s course with an observation spell. Suzu, the Musashino bridge, and Asama were probably also tracking them, but the Hashiba Technohexen would likely strike again from beyond the Musashi’s course.

They had taken a downwards course. So instead of following after the Musashi, they were flying above the mountains spread out across the surface.

Light would occasionally scatter behind their craft. They used gravitational control to fly, so Naruze figured that was the ether light of the spells used to determine the direction of acceleration. But she also had a question.

…Do they intend to keep up with the Musashi’s top speed?

True, it was possible for Weiss Fräulein and Schwarz Fräulein to keep up with the Musashi’s gravitational acceleration when using their max power. But these two were completely removed from the Musashi’s course. And…

“Are they malfunctioning?”

Margot was right. The enemy’s thruster light would occasionally fluctuate even on a straight course. Maybe it was to keep the amount of light from dropping, but they appeared to be altering the panels that formed the thrusters.

Naruze knew why.

…They’re worn out after the Battle of Shizugatake.

Just like Musashi had gone through the Honnouji Incident, Hashiba must have gone through even more while battling their upperclassmen.

So why were they still being so persistent here?

“Because they only have to get in one hit to end the Iga Crossing history recreation?”

But they had veered off course. The Azuchi was using the Musashi’s air currents to boost its speed, but those small aircraft would have a hard time returning now that they were off that course.

Not only would they receive a powerful blow passing through the air current barrier, but they could even be caught in the fierce winds and swept away. However, following directly behind the Musashi was dangerous too. After all, the remaining inventory was being used as kindling on Oume’s stern while…

Novice: ‘Ha ha ha! How about that, Technohexen!? I’ll burn you at the stake!”

Art-Ga: “Oh? What was that?”

Novice: “How did I know you would respond!? I’m not talking to you! You’re not the bad Technohexen! Yes, you’re not one of the bad ones, but you are my enemy! I’ll have my revenge one of these days!”

Naruze used the divine net to send him the invoice for the book transportation she and Margot had done for him at the Ariake.

Regardless, it looked like aft defense was adequate.

That meant the Hashiba Technohexen had to be following along at low altitude, looking for an opening, but…

“Oh, Ga-chan.”

She knew what Margot meant. The low-altitude enemy took a forceful course, their acceleration light flaring bright.

…Here they come!

The attack was beginning. Excitement filled everyone on the stern of Oume and Takao. But…

“Ga-chan! Something isn’t right!”

●

“Suzu! Be careful!” Naruze shouted on reflex.

…Yes.

This wasn’t right. She had been carefully watching the enemy Technohexen’s movements, but she had been doing more than simply observe.

She had been questioning.

Something felt off and she couldn’t shake the feeling.

That was why they had been doing so much explanation regarding the enemy’s course, speed, and tactics. They wanted an explanation for this odd feeling regarding the enemy’s pursuit.

It was weird.

Margot explained the vague feeling that had kept Naruze’s eyes glued to them.

“Ga-chan.”

Unlike Naruze, Margot was the contemplative type. It could be irritating at times, but she generally arrived at a conclusion after thinking deeplyl. And now she opened her mouth to speak.

“If it was us, we would quickly launch an attack without showing off our presence like that!”

Exactly. “Judge,” was the only possible response.

●

Naito had only thought of the enemy Technohexen in a “well, we can figure something out if they become a problem” way, but Naruze was behaving a little different from normal.

She had a way of noticing the weirdest things and following them at length with her eyes. You could call that the focus and curiosity of an author and Naito had always found it catlike and adorable, but…

…Is she curious about those Technohexen and their schale besen?

It seemed so and, when Naito commented on what she had noticed, she realized what had captured Naruze’s attention.

This was odd. When she considered why that was and traded a few thoughts with Naruze, she finally arrived at an answer.

…We wouldn’t do it this way, would we?

No, Technohexen in general wouldn’t. When viewed as air fighters, they lacked the armor and artillery of aerial ships and had to battle with only their schale besen and spells.

Techno Magie had been specialized for attack and defense during history, so Technohexen did seem powerful in battle, but the foundation of aerial combat was hit-and-away.

So they normally wouldn’t fly alongside an enemy, showing off their presence. Furthermore…

“The instant we see a chance to attack, we take it. And if we can’t, we find somewhere we can attack and do it there!”

That was how Technohexen did things. Which was why Naruze shouted into her Magie Figur.

“Suzu!”

Naito had just explained the source of the odd feeling gnawing at the two of them. That meant it was now Naruze’s turn to explain it on an intuitive level. Why would the enemy create this odd feeling?

“There’s an enemy out there! Other than the Technohexen!”

●

Suzu gasped.

…That’s…not good!?

She hurriedly scanned around the Musashi. She had already been doing so regularly, but she had been focusing the scan aft since the Azuchi was pursuing them and they had been dealing with the Technohexen.

In situations like this, her humanity acted as a bottleneck. Her focus to aft had shifted the entire ship’s scanning that way. If the automata had been in charge, they would have scanned everything evenly. And while thinking that…

“Check the data…on the Mikawa area!”

“Judge. The M.H.R.R.-owned Mikawa Cochin Farm has been on the northern coast of Mikawa since summer break! It is run by Ikeda Terumasa! Over!”

Suzu was familiar with the Mikawa Cochin. When the Musashi visited Mikawa, Mitotsudaira had served them to everyone as yakiniku and Suzu’s parents had stocked up and used it in bentos for a while afterwards.

…Eh? Eh? But why is M.H.R.R. involved?

And a name inheritor? That part was especially baffling, so she thought there might be a threat there. But then “Nishi-Kunitachi” turned toward her.

“Scan of the requested area is complete! Five aerial transport ships detected! There is also a farm and a few buildings forming a base, but I don’t see any kind of fighting force! Over!”

No one was going to naively assume that meant there was nothing to worry about. Naito and Naruze thought the enemy was acting as a diversion. Currently, the enemy Technohexen were making a run on the air current barrier formed by Musashi.

“The Technohexen are matching our course!”

Here it comes, thought Suzu.

…Assuming Go-chan and Ga-chan are right!

“Measure the distance! For artillery fire to match…when they reach us!”

●

“Musashino” accurately completed Suzu’s instructions.

Given the Musashi’s speed and maneuverability, how long would it take for the Technohexen to match their course to the Musashi’s? After calculating that…

…What if a still-unseen enemy fires on us just as the Technohexen match our course?

If that was done at the moment they were guaranteed a hit, the distance to the enemy could be determined.

It would only be an estimate, but it was a crucial matter right now.

The calculated time was approximately 5 seconds. Using that, she calculated the possible artillery ranges for both M.H.R.R. anti-ship guns and other forms of gun as well.

…Approximately 1.5 kilometers!

That would change a fair bit depending on the shell speed and type, but there were a few tricks they would employ to attempt a hit without being noticed.

First, the shell speed would be supersonic.

Second, they would use a physical shell that did not emit light.

And third…

…Asakusa! Shinagawa! Be on alert! Over!

She determined the enemy would target the bow. Even if the enemy used a supersonic shell to keep the launch from being noticed, the Musashi was long. If Musashino was the target, the pursuing sound would reach Asakusa or Shinagawa before the shell reached Musashino and could be detected. So they had to try and…

“There!” shouted Suzu, indicated the west side of the Mikawa bay. Past the downward slope. That was a bit north from the Musashi’s position. There they could see…

“The bow of a warship!? Over.”

Just the bow of a warship loaded with guns was located there. Before “Musashino” could wonder what it was doing there, the Musashi’s sensors automatically opened a sign frame and worked to identify it. The bow belonged to…

“P.A. Oda’s Shirasagi Castle! That is the bow if its central hull!”

●

…They noticed!?

Yoshiaki saw a slight shift in each of the Musashi’s ships.

She knew why that had happened.

The Musashi’s sensors had detected the Shirasagi Castle hidden on the west side of Mikawa.

“How good are their sensors!?”

Hearing Angie’s voice was enough for Yoshiaki to imagine the astonishment on her face. And Yoshiaki couldn’t blame her for feeling that way. The two of them had trouble getting a solid reading on anything at all within these air currents.

But the Musashi had pierced its own atmospheric barrier and detected the guns hidden in the shadows.

That had to be the result of the Musashi’s history as a defense-oriented trade ship and the internal systems and power source used to utilize that experience.

And more than that, the combination of human and automaton in their command center gave them an advantage.

The Musashi was shaking lightly in front of Yoshiaki, but the wind wasn’t to blame. That was the initial movement leading into some bigger action.

“Kh!”

They definitely knew. The Shirasagi Castle was being managed by 1st Year Ikeda Terumasa, right? If they had demanded he put off his other duties to work for them tonight and it all ended up accomplishing nothing…

“I’ll feel kind of responsible as his upperclassman!”

“Don’t worry about it!”

Angie gave her permission without being told what that was about.

So it would be fine. In this wind, focusing on the present mattered more than worrying about the future.

“Weiss Fürstin! Schwarz Fürstin! Anti-ship cannon mode!”

●

“Whoa,” gasped Naito.

The Technohexen pair, who had clearly been performing a feint, had just changed their plans.

There had been a lightness to their movements before. But now as they passed through the wind to rejoin the Musashi’s course…

Bell: “Time…to hop!”

…Bell-rin!?

Suzu sometimes asked for some ridiculous things, but she usually gave a warning like that, which was much appreciated. Because it gave you a chance to accept your fate. And in this case, I think that warning was so brief most people won’t know what you meant, Bell-rin.

Horizey: “Are you changing course to avoid the enemy attack, Suzu-sama!?”

Bell: “Y-yes…that’s right!”

Unturning: “Eh?”

Uqui: “Narumi, why are you preparing to jump?”

Unturning: “I thought I would warm up to prepare for the real thing.”

Yeah, sure. But the enemy Technohexen visible out ahead had pulled a crazy stunt.

Even as they crashed into the wind, they separated their joined schale besens. Now they both formed simple cannons, which were aimed toward the Musashi.

They were single-shot cannons. Even at such close range, it was too blatant. If Naito could see them, then Suzu would be able to react and instantly deal with it.

…But what about the other attack on the Musashi!?

No information had reached her about the enemy attack that had caused Suzu’s panic. That showed just how busy the bridge was, but…

“Here it comes!”

In front of her, which was aft of the Musashi, two great flames had already scattered through the sky, but the two Technohexen now spread their wings as if to absorb the distant Azuchi.

The fully-spread black and white wings had Magie Figurs active in places, perhaps to protect them from the damage of colliding with the air.

The impact on their bodies being stopped in the wind would likely have been more severe than to their schale besen.

But they had still done it.

Katou Yoshiaki and Wakisaka Angie.

Naito had learned those names as data and recalled them a few times, but now she really took them to heart.

They were still too far to see their faces. Naito could only just barely make out their spread wings and that only because the surrounding Magie Figurs were shining.

But she knew one thing: Those two are our enemy.

Because, she added before Naruze finished for her.

“We can do that much too. …And do it better. Isn’t that right, Margot?”

Just as she nodded, she thought she heard the distant cries of Yoshiaki and Angie as they vanished into the darkness after losing their speed:

“Herrlich!”

●

Suzu knew artillery fire was coming from behind.

The pair growing more distant behind them were scattering an incredible amount of feathers as they fired.

But, she thought. I can’t sense the artillery fire coming from the Shirasagi Castle.

Those shells were moving to quick to sense and the sound of their firing hadn’t arrived yet.

Meanwhile, she could sense the Technohexen shells flying this way from behind.

…They’ve probably…matched their timing.

She assumed they were using divine transmissions or something else to coordinate with the grounded Shirasagi Castle.

The automata had instantly found the Shirasagi Castle on scans. So she knew the orientation of its guns, which told her they were indeed aiming at Asakusa.

So she would evade that shot. Or she wanted to.

But at that same time, an attack was coming from behind.

…What will…they do?

If the Musashi avoided the attack from behind, would they attack from below?

“Hmm.”

Me: “Heyyy, Bell-san.”

Toori’s voice reached her out of nowhere. After a flustered moment, she managed to respond.

Bell: “Eh? Eh? What?”

Me: “Judge. Sounds like we’ve got a real chase going on, huh? But did you know? Those Hashiba guys are mostly younger than us. They’re some kind of elites. Real hotshots.”

They are? was her honest response.

…They sound incredible.

That was what it meant to be part of a nation’s main fighting force before reaching the third year. We have Ookubo-san and Yoshiyasu-san…but then again…I suppose Yoshiyasu-san isn’t a Musashi student. But she’s really blending in…so I guess it’s okay to count her?

But the enemy had a lot of people like that.

And the person who had readied the Shirasagi Castle’s bow was the same.

“Eh?”

Hadn’t that been part of the report from “Musashino” earlier?

…Ikeda Terumasa is an M.H.R.R. first year.

As soon as she recalled that, she made her decision.

“Musashi port ships, evasive action!”

●

Angie fired and watched the launched shell fly in pursuit of the Musashi.

Inertia was still dragging her and Yoshiaki toward the Musashi. In their arms, Weiss Fürstin and Schwarz Fürstin were activating red warning Magie Figurs here and there, but…

…I think they can still just barely fly.

But the Musashi finally made its move out ahead of their shells.

“Evasive action for their first port ship, right!?”

That would be the thing to do if they had noticed the Shirasagi Castle.

But that wasn’t what Angie saw happen. The ships that sent their sterns hopping high into the night sky, whipping up the wind, were…

“Their second and third port ships!?”

●

At the delivery port on the stern of the Okutama, the Musashi’s second central ship, Tenzou collected the flowers spilling from Mary and tossed them over her head.

…Yes, I really come alive whenever I have a job to do!

Just then, the Oume rotated forward.

“Master Tenzou! The Murayama too!”

She was right. Presumably because the Musashi was taking a downward course, Murayama and Oume performed the “hop” Suzu had mentioned by rotating forward.

But that isn’t the standard choice, thought Tenzou. A bridge report for the Special Duty Officers had told him Suzu had detected an ambush up ahead, but…

…If we’re being attacked, wouldn’t you normally do that with the first ship, not the second and third!?

●

“No!” said Suzu as she manipulated the models to release and adjust the towing belts. “Hashiba is mostly second years…but they are just as strong as all of you.”

But not everyone was.

“This Ikeda person at Mikawa…is a first year and a name inheritor…but he runs a Mikawa Cochin farm…and manages transport ships.”

He might have other duties as well, but he definitely had no combat duties. In that case…

“Suzu-sama, are you saying an inexperienced gunner will avoid the first ship since it is harder to hit and instead target the second and third ships since he has a greater chance of hitting them somewhere? Over.”

“Yes,” Suzu replied to “Musashino”. “The Technohexen behind us…are helping out as his upperclassmen! That shows…just how much of a novice he is!”

The Technohexen had first fired on the center ship. That was meant to limit the Musashi’s actions rather than hit. By firing at the center of the hurrying Musashi, the eight giant ships could no longer move to the right or left.

The natural reaction would be to ascend to distance themselves from the ambush below.

The greater space created by the ascent meant a shell aimed at Asakusa could reach Murayama.

But what if that shell were aimed at Murayama instead?

That was why, while having the first and second central ships ascend, she had rotated the port ships of Murayama and Oume forward. And…

…I matched the angle of their guns!

In the instant the angle of the guns and the rotation matched, she had lessened the fleet’s rotational movement just a bit.

On the bridge, several sign frames appeared in front of the automata who were communicating with the second and third port ships. That was unavoidable. She had just briefly stopped the forward rotation of those giant ships during some high-speed maneuvering. That stressed the interior of the ships and had likely caused a commotion.

Novice: “Ahhhhhh! The warehouse floor broke open, revealing a large quantity of inventory I forgot I’d hidden there!”

Can’t you just burn that too? she thought.

At the same time, something cold passed up through her hands. Right as she was preparing to resume the rotation of the Murayama and Oume models, two icy blasts passed diagonally up between them on their way to the sky.

Those were the shells fired from the surface.

“We…dodged them!”

●

“I miiiiiissed!!! Damn! Just so you know, my team hasn’t done any artillery training for three months now!”

Nabe3: “You suck!”

Asano: “Ohhh, dearrr. You’ve dooone it now.”

“Teru-ru-ru-ru-ru-ru-ru, you miss-iss-iss-iss-issed! And that was our best chance-ance-ance! Hmph-mph-mph-mph!”

“Well excuse me for not being a perfect shot after going to the trouble of dragging out one part of the ship while it’s still being repaired! And when did you learn to humph at people? Does a warship need to express herself like that? Well!?”

●

Urquiaga and Narumi knew the enemy shells had passed them by.

They were on Takao, so they had to look past Okutama to see the two ships rotating, but…

“It worked,” said Narumi.

Both of them could track non-ether flying objects. These shells were smaller than people, but his senses as a flying half-dragon could easily pick it out. And Narumi had dealt with enemy shells in her mobile shell. She could definitely track them.

The two shells had just passed between Murayama and Oume. And next to Takao, Okutama and Musashino made their own ascent.

The attack from the Hashiba Technohexen passed below those two central ships.

“It worked,” repeated Narumi.

But she wasn’t talking about avoiding the Technohexen attack. She meant they were past the Shirasagi Castle below.

They had avoided it. But Urquiaga was curious about one thing.

…The Musashi’s speed!

The eight ships carrying them all had dropped in speed. Specifically, they were no longer accelerating and it felt like something was pulling them backwards. Narumi was able to accurately measure this using her prosthetic legs.

“The Azuchi is approaching from behind.”

That was only natural now that the Musashi’s speed had fallen. It wasn’t visible from the stern, but he wondered how large their goal, the Mikawa bay, looked from the bow. His sense of smell was already picking up a saltiness in the air, but…

“––––”

He noticed it just as Narumi turned toward him.

She was thinking the same thing. As soon as he realized that, he gave a shout.

Uqui: “Mukai! A second attack is coming!”

●

Naito and Naruze had noticed it too.

They had excellent senses for detecting moving objects in open space, but even more important here was the fact that…

Art-Ga: “The enemy isn’t doing enough!”

Gold Mar: “Maybe I’m just being anxious, but if it was us trying to stop the history recreation, we wouldn’t stop here, would we!?”

Some others had also felt something off about the enemy tactics.

Tachibana Husband: “Gin-san.”

Tachibana Wife: “Honda Futayo!!”

Tonbokiri: “Judge, I am on Musashino because they were distributing food there, Gin-dono.”

Tachibana Wife: “Honda Futayo!”

Vice President: “So, uh, Futayo, any thoughts on the enemy attack?”

Tonbokiri: “Yes. They appear to be holding back. The attacks are so sparse I find it hard to believe the Fukushima-dono I dueled at Novgorod is with them.”

Novice: “Then we need look to the opposite! They attacked from below just now, so you would think the next attack will be from above! But that’s a trick and they’ll actually be making another attack from below! There’s no mistaking it. You have my word that’s what they’ll do!”

Almost Everyone: “Then it’ll be the opposite of that for sure.”

Novice: “Y-you’re going to be like that, are you!? Fine then! I stand by my words! So let’s just see what happens!”

As soon as Neshinbara shouted that, a pair of lights scattered in the sky.

The two shells that had been fired from below and allowed to pass by had detonated in midair.

They were scattershot shells.

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