Horizon:Volume 10A Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Distant Arrival

Hang on

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Super excited about this?

Point Allocation (Pointing)

●

“Two scattershot shells!?”

Asama sensed danger, her feet lifting a bit from Okutama as they completed their evasive ascent.

“We dodged them, but we’re still in danger!”

While Asama sent Suzu some information, he thanked those who had stopped on the stairs up to Okutama’s bow deck and then pointed to the embers and smoke erupting in the sky.

“Whaddya mean we’re still in danger!? We dodged them! And…what’s a scattershell shot?”

“Ho ho? Couldn’t come up with a joke, so you just said it wrong? So you’ve finally lost your touch, Toori-sama.”

“D-dammit! Then you come up with a joke about scattershot shells! If you can’t, you can massage my boobs! C’mon! Get massaging! With a mother’s gentle touch!”

“Toori-kun, I think your mother would do it with the force of kneading bread dough.”

…Wait, was the Blue Thunder evacuated?

Asama made a mental note to check on that later, but then Horizon raised a hand.

“What is a scattershot shell, Asama-sama? I know they refer to animal excrement as ‘scat’, so is it some sort of dung bomb? Oh, would you look at that. I made a joke about scattershot shells, but I will not be massaging Toori-sama’s boobs. Oh, and why are we in danger despite dodging them?”

“Dammit! Dammit! Why does society have it out to get me!?”

It bothers you that much? wondered Asama as she nodded to Horizon. “Well,” she began.

Asama: “When a scattershot shell either hits its target, travels a set distance, or reaches a time limit, it will detonate and scatter several smaller shells or flying objects. Since they can be made to detonate at a distance and are unlikely to hit you from within your own defense barriers, they are useful at intercepting or stopping a larger force.”

Worshiper: “But we dodged them, didn’t wee? Then why are we still in danger?”

“That’s it, isn’t it?” she said, sending everyone the same data she had sent Suzu.

The danger wasn’t from the scattershot shells.

“This shows Branch and Leaf Connection’s reaction.”

●

Asama took another look at the data she had sent Suzu earlier.

She had supplied Musashi with a targeting divine protection spell called Branch and Leaf Connection that could also be used for defense.

She had first used it while at the Ariake in Kantou during the battle against the Shirasagi Castle. The barrier-based protection spell could identify and track enemy shells, but…

…It was originally made to work with the Ariake.

With the Musashi, it could establish a targeting barrier with a diameter of 10 kilometers, but…

“It has trouble reacting when something gets too close.”

“Talking about yourself, Tomo?”

Her friends were being ruthless lately.

But that was what had happened with the earlier artillery attack from below.

Branch and Leaf Connection’s barrier established a warning network on the outer surface of the barrier sphere.

But that only applied to attacks coming in. If something was fired from within the barrier, it would generally be seen as a Musashi attack and would not be tracked.

However, an exception was made if it did come from an enemy.

And several “exceptions” had just appeared in the sky.

Several objects were glowing in the sky where the scattershot shells had detonated.

They were torii. These Branch and Leaf Connection tracking torii were orange rather than blue or red and they had reacted to the scattershot and remained there.

“Because it is within Branch and Leaf Connections’ range, the Shirasagi Castle was tagged as a priority enemy, so every one of the scattershots hitting the interior of the barrier is being tracked.”

The enemy had gotten in close but then fired outside instead of at them.

That seemed absurd, but it had been assumed that would be an enemy within Branch and Leaf Connection’s range that was either turning around to fire on a pursuing ally or that it was nothing more than a stray shot. To avoid a threat to an ally outside of Branch and Leaf Connection, it produced special torii to inform those outside the barrier.

That was what had appeared here.

The orange torii were set to automatically disappear after a short time to avoid confusion, but…

“There is still a delay until they disappear and you need administrative privileges to cancel them before that time passes.”

“But there is a way to do it, right? Then what’s the danger?” asked Mitotsudaira.

“Well,” said Asama. “When a warning torii exists in a location, a new one cannot appear until the first one goes away. So each of those torii is essentially a ‘hole’ to the outside.”

●

Suzu slowed Oume and Murayama’s forward rotation while grasping the meaning of Asama’s warning.

Branch and Leaf Connection was a lot of help. They had been using its alert network to decide where to activate the defense barriers.

It was a powerful early warning system, but it did have its flaws.

…Their warship fired those scattershot shells to open holes in Branch and Leaf Connection?

It was odd enough for a warship to get this close. Given the size of a warship, it would have to approach to the point that it was essentially ramming them. But…

…The Shirasagi Castle can do it, since it’s just the deck.

She didn’t know why only the Shirasagi Castle’s bow was there.

But this had been planned.

The original idea had probably been to hit them with the scattershot shells from below. And as a backup in case that failed, they would use the scattershot to open holes in Branch and Leaf Connection. That was why an incomplete warship piece had been placed down there.

An exception had been prepared to create exceptional circumstances.

That meant waiting for the torii to automatically disappear would be dangerous.

They needed to be forcibly closed with administrative privileges.

This kind of situation had been predicted. If left around after detecting a shell, the torii targeting spell would ask for confirmation at the calculated estimated hit time.

Canceling could be done individually, across a range, or for all active torii and Suzu wanted to do it for all of them. But that would temporarily reset everything within the tracking range, so they would briefly lose their defenses.

The range option had the same problem. They would be defenseless within the indicated airspace. That left the individual option, but…

“Suzu-sama! I will handle the individual canceling! Over!”

As soon as “Musashino” gave her response, the many sign frames covering the sky disappeared. This was indeed the perfect task for an automaton, so Suzu focused her senses on the area around the vanishing torii.

…If there is something out there…

It had to be there. Where the tracking torii were still open. If something had passed through there, Branch and Leaf Connection wouldn’t react since that space already had a warning. So if the enemy was coming in…

“Found them!”

She sensed a few shapes at the torii.

Eighteen in all. She used her hands to sprinkle them across the modeled night sky.

“Mobile shells!?”

“That is M.H.R.R.’s anti-air ground unit, the charging company Schau Essen! They are aiming for Murayama during its forward rotation! Over!”

●

Men fell from the sky. They had also been ready to go at the Battle of Shizugatake, but after the Azuchi flew over Shibata’s formation, the colossal skeletons had prevented them from making an aerial bombing run.

“And so we were entirely unharmed and able to remain on standby and eat!”

“Testament! We’re as stuffed as we can get!”

“Men! Are you maintaining a weight of 150kg!? Then drop like you’ve never dropped before!”

They had jumped from a transport ship flying high in the sky. Minor error correction had made all the difference during the Siege of Bitchu Takamatsu Castle, so all their mobile shells were equipped with adjustable wings.

And the men with an average weight of more than 150kg approached the Musashi at an angle that just barely allowed for error correction. They pressed their arms to their sides, extended their legs, and…

“Combine!”

A few of them swooped diagonally through the sky. They grabbed the ankles of those out ahead of them and…

“Activate serial speed boosting protections! That will multiply our speed based on our number! And furthermore…”

The human spears made of six people in three columns began to spin.

“This gives us twice our usual speed!”

They could see the Musashi below. To give them a clear view as they spun, the lernen figurs in front of them gave them a view of the way ahead.

They cleared the gap in no time. They were headed for the Musashi’s second port ship which was finishing its forward rotation.

“Hit it!!”

●

Finally, thought Yoshiaki, viewing the result.

She and Angie were using the worn-out Weiss Fürstin and Schwarz Fürstin to pursue the Musashi.

Their schale besen were constantly triggering warnings. She wanted to head back to the Azuchi and repair them.

…If we let Edel Brocken fix them, they wouldn’t give them back in the middle of a battle.

So now, while pursuing the Musashi, they were waiting to regroup with the Azuchi as it approached from behind. Their relative speed forced the Technohexen to continue flying, but they would still have to pass through the Azuchi’s air currents when joining it.

“Schwarz Fürstin’s in pretty bad shape.”

So is mine, thought Yoshiaki as she saw explosions of steam directly above the Musashi.

Schau Essen had begun their multi-phase acceleration.

…Go!

Their target was the same as the Shirasagi Castle’s: Murayama.

They had needed to enter the torii from as close to the same angle as the scattershot as possible to avoid triggering a new reaction from the Musashi’s anti-air spell torii.

But the Shirasagi Castle’s firing angle had been estimated to be nearly straight up. To dive through holes at that angle, their transport ship had needed to carry them in at high altitude.

That had required a distraction.

…Which is where Angie and I came in.

That was why they had forcibly crossed the flames, chosen a lower route, and matched their actions to the Shirasagi Castle’s artillery fire.

AnG: “This is some real thankless work. Really, they shove a lot of this work onto the Technohexen of the Ten Spears, don’t they? Like when I flew all the way from Kantou to Bitchu Takamatsu Castle.”

Kimee: “The academy working us hard isn’t exactly new, but I do appreciate that it gets results.”

She watched as Schau Essen performed their final acceleration.

“Now…it’s on, Musashi!”

●

Suzu realized this was the final moment.

The bay was already right ahead of them. They were just barely not there yet. If they could get through this, they could claim to have arrived at Mikawa. In her opinion. So she raised her voice in response to the close-range charge.

“Asakusa, Musashino, Okutama…get ready!”

They had prepared this from the moment they knew there was more to this. They had known the enemy would target either Murayama or Oume as they rotated forward. That narrowed down the enemy’s target. And the strategy sent by Neshinbara was to…

“Pull…on Murayama!”

Murayama was caught and pulled forward by Asakusa and Musashino’s towing belts while Musashino and Okutama pulled it toward the center.

From above, it looked like Murayama was being pulled between Asakusa and Musashino.

But the towing force was insufficient. So…

…Starboard!

The three starboard ships began sliding right and forward.

The three ships’ worth of towing force pulled the two central ships right and forward, indirectly increasing the pull on Murayama.

The eight ships lost cohesion and their air resistance increased rapidly. But the goal was already in sight. Suzu knew the Azuchi couldn’t catch up. It would be a close thing, but…

“Now!”

The ships pulled.

●

Murayama’s movement was the result of the towing force, but the fact it hadn’t completed its forward rotation helped.

That advice had come from Naomasa in the engine room when she heard Neshinbara’s plan, so while Oume returned to its proper orientation and released its towing belts with Murayama, Murayama itself stopped its forward rotation without eliminating its forward rotating momentum and then resumed it with Suzu’s authorization.

The forward rotating momentum threw the great ship forward and down.

That widened the gap between it and the three descending assault teams and also gave it speed in the forward down direction, so the towing from a total of six ships clearly moved Murayama. That motion quickly accelerated and…

“Ohhh, it’s coming this way!”

Ookubo heard the idiot shouting from Okutama’s bow deck, so…

“Ohhh, don’t you dare come this way!”

It was unclear if she meant the ship or the people.

But as the Musashi’s second port ship whipped up the wind, it dove into the clearance created by the central ships’ rightward slide and performed multi-stage braking with buffering spells while opening up the space where it had been.

And those bordering the space between the central and port ships saw the result.

The three assault teams falling from the sky broke through the roaring wind created by Murayama.

They missed their target.

●

Horizey: “That worked!? Well done, Suzu-sama!”

Masazumi checked the divine net and saw Horizon’s comment from Okutama’s bow deck where she would have seen it all firsthand.

Masazumi was on the academy bridge at the rear of Okutama, so she only had the movement, wind, and multiple metallic noises to go off of. But…

…Did we dodge it?

Cheers erupted from all over the Musashi.

Knowing what that meant, she finally allowed herself to sigh.

They had dodged the attack.

She didn’t know if that meant they were safe, but it did mean they had moved on to the next stage.

They had established the Iga Crossing. That signaled the end of Honnouji and made them Matsudaira again.

…Good.

With that in mind, she looked out to see the enemy columns falling where Murayama had been. She saw they had released their serial connections. She figured they were preparing to land and guessed the Azuchi would pick them up when it arrived.

But then…

…Eh?

She noticed something in the space Murayama had vacated.

The falling and disconnected enemy columns each still had their center.

“What…?”

Three from each column had not released their serial connection and were facing upwards as they fell. They were…

Vice President: “White mobile shells! Watch out!”

●

The members of Schau Essen had thrown themselves out into the sky. But that wasn’t all they had done. They had already used fall control spells to reduce their falling speed. So…

“Use us as footstools!”

“Thanks!”

Three in each column had been held at the center of the serial connection and carried this far by Schau Essen’s falling skills. And they were the complete opposite of Schau Essen. They were skinny, but…

“Go! Altbayern! Only you can make it back up!”

Without even a nod of acknowledgment, the white mobile shells of Altbayern leaped up into the sky. Their target was…

“The third port ship which lacks the benefit of the towing belts! Oume!”

●

Altbayern’s rising spells were essentially the same as Schau Essen’s.

They each used a mobile shell, but theirs were based on what would be known as repulsion spells in Technomagie but were instead built around a Tsirhc fasting protection. With the spell compression boost provided by the serial connection, it was just like increasing momentum or speed with a spin or other conditions. The only difference was…

“While they increase their weight with gluttony, we approach heaven through fasting!”

They had sufficient altitude and the enemy was close by. Before the near immediate clash, they began to a spin that didn’t get in each other’s way and sang to give themselves a divine protection.

It was a song of the knights parting with their loved ones as they left to face the dragons in Altbayern’s home of Bavaria.

“I adore you who will remain in this town, but I must leave.”

They accelerated.

“If I am able to return one day, then I will come see you, my beloved.”

The bottom hull of their target ship was already in view.

“Even if I cannot be by your side, I leave my happiness with you.”

They flew.

“If I am able to return one day, then I will come see you, my beloved.”

They readied their spears and prepared for the coming clash.

“Eat trash!”

A counterattack hit them as something passed them by.

It was a life-size divine figurine. That had been dumped from the ship.

●

Naito and Naruze moved in concert.

The enemy was targeting Oume, which was below them. And they had justification for dumping garbage.

The two of them grabbed a half-naked life-size divine figurine of Tomoe Gozen and threw it out into the air. This probably had to be thrown out because it was made without her permission, thought Naito. And at the same time…

“Uquiii!”

While they shot out into empty space, Persona-kun and Ohiroshiki threw more divine figurines off of the ship behind them. They were certain Urquiaga and Narumi would have noticed what was happening and would fly in.

They knew them well enough to know that. So to complete their jobs, Naito and Naruze took aim at the white mobile shells rising from below.

“…!”

And hit them.

●

…One down!

Narumi began the count inside flying Unturning Centipede.

There were three enemy groups. One had already been crushed, forcing them to withdraw. Narumi and Urquiaga caught the divine figurines thrown off the ship and flew toward the ship’s bottom hull with their momentum intact.

…Will we make it!?

“Narumi.”

She knew what he was going to do. By powering his half-dragon thrusters with a dragon roar, he could manage a powerful instantaneous acceleration.

She knew the blind spot that created. After all, he had defeated her in their duel at Date by hitting her with that at close range.

The blind spot was down at his feet. It made sense if you thought about it, but back when half-dragons had been dragons, they had flown in friend or family groups. Their thrusters were designed to not affect the others flying with them.

Dragon groups flew with the leader out front and the rest following. But he kept his eyes forward and…

“Narumi. Dragon leaders are generally women.”

“I never knew you were that interested in my butt.”

“Now you know.”

“Fair enough,” she replied while he fired a dragon cannon straight ahead. And she didn’t hesitate to fly right into it.

…There they are!

●

Urquiaga hadn’t felt acceleration like this in a while.

It pleased him that Narumi could keep up with him.

But a job was a job. His half-dragon vision told him the two remaining enemy groups were entirely comprised of men.

“Why aren’t you elder sisterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs!?”

He threw a divine figurine of an elder sister character at one group to reform them.

●

Naruze left the trash-dumping airspace and looked back at the weird yell heard behind her.

With that, her job was complete. The three enemy groups had been crushed and white mobile shell pieces and weapons were scattering through the sky. The enemy assault team had entered falling trajectories, either sprawled out or contorted.

“We did it,” she whispered just before seeing something.

A spear. For some reason, one of the enemy’s assault spears was floating point upwards in their field of view.

●

…Oh, no!

Naruze gasped. One of the enemy assault team’s weapons was floating for unknown reasons. It was rapidly spinning and…

“Kh!”

Just as she realized what was about to happen, the falling enemy knights raised their voices.

“Well done, Far Easterners! But we of Altbayern will do more than just turn our bodies into weapons in order to return to our homeland!”

The spear activated a Catholic spell sign frame. And it wasn’t alone. Another linked to it from below and another from below that.

“Altbayern will skewer the meat! Eat this!”

With those words, the triple spear launched straight up.

Naruze had nothing on hand. But as the spear took a straight line for Oume’s bottom hull…

“Whoa.”

Futayo came running along the bottom hull and caught it barehanded.

However she did it, she used a snap of her wrist to negate the spinning of the spear.

“Judge! That was a close one.”

“It was,” replied Naruze without thinking and then took a look around.

Noticing Margot nodding back at her and the others looking to their sign frames, she lowered her hands, counted to three, and raised them as a cue for everyone to shout.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Why would you catch it!?”

●

“Wait!”

Masazumi gave the next reaction before anyone else could. She was the one who had sent Futayo down there. But…

…I didn’t realize she was unarmed.

She had assumed Futayo would follow Naruze and the others’ lead there, but…

Laborer: “We’re finally out of inventory.”

Novice: “Only because mine hasn’t been moved out of the warehouse! How do you expect me to do that on my own!?”

Vice President: “Why wasn’t that warehouse purged?”

Asama: “Anyway, what happens now, Masazumi? Doesn’t catching the spear mean war?”

Now there’s a wild Far Eastern sentence, she thought while responding.

Vice President: “Look down. We’re already at the Mikawa bay.”

She thought their position said it all. So she raised her voice to make the first move.

Vice President: “This is Far Eastern Representative and Musashi Ariadust Academy Vice President Honda Masazumi! The Musashi has now completed the Iga Crossing! The Hashiba forces launched an attack that could have been construed as a continuation of hostilities, but our Vice Chancellor Honda Futayo caught it and put an end to that possibility!”

Kuro-Take: “That isn’t for you to decide!”

Masazumi had known this was coming. Takenaka’s voice reached her from the Azuchi which had approached quite close behind them.

Kuro-Take: “By timing and by eye, our spear would have hit before the Musashi entered the bay! Because you stopped it by hand, your Iga Crossing has failed!”

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