Horizon:Volume 1 Prologue

Prologue: Those Lined Up Before the Horizon

Whether to be lost.

Or to be explored.

The reason to keep hold of your heart's compass is something.

Point Allocation (Protagonist)

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A sky exists.

A clear morning sky. In the blue floated two pale white moons, and below the clear air, waves of dark green mountain gorges overlapped, reaching far.

The mountainous region, the expanding sky above the many-edged mountains.

In the sky, divisions which appeared to be pillars were there. Stretching from the earth to the sky, divided segments which held the appearance of pillars existed. Through the reality in which the clouds and wind traversing the sky disappeared as if reaching an invisible wall, and the division of the vegetation of the ground, those wide yet numerous pillar-like segments flaunted their existence.

Though the segments were uncountable, the spatial relationship was sporadic, and their wideness too varied.

The sky, divided in that manner, held three things.

The first was wind. The atmospheric flows of the mountainous region rose, appearing to be entwining, and birthing clouds, they faded away.

And, another one was the waves. In the sky, waves ran. Lines, not of clouds, but where the surf broke were many, stretching out toward the sky, outlining the character [八].

Things in the sky. The last was that which traveled between the clouds and created the waves.

Ships.

Through the pillars of the divisions of the sky reaching past the mountains, raising the sound of the surf, eight white ships sailed.

The Aerial City Ships, bearing towns and natural parks on the surface segment, brought their shadows together, descending towards the mountains. The shadow of the group of ships, two ships lined up in the center and three ships lined up to the left and to the right, engulfed themselves in one of the gorges, which stretched multiple kilometers from head to tail.

Each one of the ships created waves, which streamed from the bow and into the sky, and carrying the echoes of break of each wave, they continued on through the heavens.

Breaking the waves, advancing through the skies, each of the ships were connected to the ships close by with tens of thick ropes. Occasionally, when the group of ships changed their path slightly, the ropes which connected them would be drawn in and pulled out.

At the bows of the eight ships, the name was there. First, on each one of the ships, the name 'Musashi' was written with black characters. Next to that, the ship-names were, as expected, written in black characters.

First Starboard: "Shinagawa"

Second Starboard: "Tama"

Third Starboard: "Takao"

Center Leading: "Musashi Field"

Center Trailing: "Inner Tama"

First Port: "Asakusa"

Second Port: "Murayama"

Third Port: "Oume"

The three ships to the left and to the right acting as outer hulls around the two ships in the middle, with that formation, these eight ships sailed the sky.

And, a sound rang out.

The sound was a voice of song.

From the graveyard in the surface-segment of the bow of Inner Tama, the echoes of that slow voice sang a trembling rhythm.

"--Let me pass--"

Let me pass, let me pass.

If I go, if at some point it becomes a narrow pathway.

The narrow pathway, which goes toward God.

Though you say 'Thine thoughts art useless, thou cannot pass'.

To celebrate this child's tenth birthday.

I go to dedicate two offerings.

The path there is calm, the return is fear.

I wonder, is it the passage of the fear in me--

The song traversed the air, and eventually it disappeared.

In its place, a new, resounding sound was there. Other than the sound of waves from the ship's passage, ringing out was consecutive clangs of a bell.

Sounding once, twice, three times, continuing like music, the sound of the bell which told the time was covered by the voice of a broadcast.

"Our citizens, I inform you that in Bahamut Class Aerial City Ship - Musashi, by the bell of Musashi Ariadust Academy it is currently 8:30. The ship is currently withdrawing from the Sagarmatha Corridor and sailing southwest. In the afternoon, we will be docking in main dock Far East Representative State Mikawa. At the habitable high-skies, we will be entering stealth flight, and will experience information cutoff, therefore we wish for your co-operation. --That is all."

Where the sound and voice were sounding was above the Middle Trailing Inner Tama. A construction atop it was the source of the sound.

Next to each other, two long, wooden, three-story buildings stood. The two structures, ringing the chime, had metal nameplates at the doors of the entrance. Nameplates with "Musashi Ariadust Academy" written.

Between the gate and the school building, Musashi Ariadust Academy had a schoolyard and a bridge crossing over it.

The schoolyard held a wideness which was nearly a 100-meter line diagonally. The bridge crossing over started from the gate, and using steps, it ascended, connecting to a hatch in the second floor of the frontal school building.

And, the chime which told the time ended, and as if in its place the voice of a woman came from above the bridge.

"Alllllllllllright."

The voice, traveling quite far, flew out towards the school building.

"Third Year Plum Group--. You alright?"

In front of Musashi Ariadust Academy, where the voice rang out, atop the bridge, several figures were there.

First, by the door, one woman was standing. A woman wearing a black, light armor style-jersey, whose back was straight.

Behind her short hair, a single line was on her back. A longsword, painted white, with a hilt of metal.

The scene in front of her she was seeing. The school building. There, wearing black and white uniforms, were youths. Those that might have been human, and those that were not human too were there. Towards them, who were like this, the woman smiled and said this.

"Then, --let's start the physical education lesson!"

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The teacher said this to the students gathered atop the bridge. With a tone which acted humble-

"Now then, the rules are simple."

-so she said. And, sticking her chin forward, she indicated the tip of the group of ships.

"Alright? --Now, I'm going to run with all of my strength to the Yakuza office at the front of Shinagiwa for some Yakuza beating, so I hope everyone can follow along. After getting there, it'll be a practical, all right?"

In reaction to the teacher's words, from the middle of the group in student uniforms, the students, voices went "Eh?"

However, the teacher ignored their voices and smiled.

"If you're late, I might have you do the early morning classroom clean up. --And, your response? Jud.?"

"--Jud."

In answer, everyone returned these words which carried the meaning of 'understood'.

At the same time, a hand was raised. A tall boy to whom the armband 'Treasurer: Shirojiro Bertoni' was attached-

"Oriotorai-sensei, --What kind of relationship does physical education have with the Shinigawa's Yakuza? Is it money?"

"Don't be stupid, Shirojiro. Physical education is doing exercise, you know? And, beating people up is an exercise. A simple thing like that--if you don't know it, there's a problem."

The figure clad in a female uniform tugged the sleeve of the student whose name had been called. The long-haired person to which the nameplate 'Treasurer's Assistant: Heidi Ogezevara' was affixed, smiling all the while-

"You know, Shiro-kun, recently, Oriotorai-sensei was assigned a solitary house on the surface, and when she was rejoicing wildly, her land was bought up, and she went to the bottom level, and she drank some beer, and she　got violent, and she cracked the wall, and she was seriously scolded by the teacher's department.--In short, everything past the middle was her own fault, but without forgetting her original intention, it's revenge, I think."

"It's not revenge. It's just that I got kind of irritated, so I'm just returning the favor."

"That's the same thing!!"

Everyone Tsukkomi'd, but Oriotorai-sensei didn't even seem to care.

And, taking the longsword and sheathe on her back into her hands, clasping it to her side. Rubbing the emblem of the brand name IZUMO, which was on the surface of the sheathe, and with the IZUMO's unique Slicing Effect Amplification activated, she laid her fingers on the hilt, which had a slightly twisted design.

"Is somebody missing? There's no helping Miriam Polk. Other than that, it's about how Azuma finally returns noon today, but as for any others--"

At the question, the group looked around at each others' faces.

Having done that, a girl wearing a black three-cornered hat, the golden-haired girl to whom a "Third Special Duty: Margot Knight" armband was attached opened her mouth. While shaking her six golden wings at her back, she-

"As far as Nai-chan can see, Seijun [正純] and Chancellor aren't here."

In response to that voice, the girl with black wings who she was hugging, "Fourth Special Duty: Malga Naruze" shook her head.

"Masazumi [正純] is going to Tama's Elementary Academy as a Elementary Instructor, and in the afternoon she's going to send Academy President Sakai to Mikawa, so today she should have a free absence. Chancellor...I don't know about Toori."

"Mmm, then, is anybody who knows about "Impossible" Toori here?"

At the question, everyone looked at one place. At a place a little bit backward and below the middle of everybody. Standing there was a girl with tea-coloured wavy hair. She folded her arms, making a bow-shaped smile, and-

"Fufu, everyone, you want to hear about my idiot brother Toori that much? You want to hear about him, don't you? I mean, he's Musashi's Chancellor and Student Council President, isn't he. Fufu. --However, I won't tell you!"

'Ehh?" Everyone raised a questioning voice. With that, she who was going against them nodded a meaningful nod,

"Because around eight in the morning, when I woke up, he wasn't there already."

"Even though you're always so lively, you wake up really late, you know!"

"Fufufu, it's all right, my make-up was done, and I, Belle Flore Aoi, will make clear my time in the morning. But, that idiot brother, waking up early without making my breakfast, it would be good if at the judgement after death he would receive the foul ball judgement by the umpire and drop to hell! After all, it's about time the world ends from an apocalypse!"

"Umm, Kimi-chan?"

At Knight's call, Kimi turned around. With an expression where her eyebrows were slightly raised-

"Margot...not that name, you know? Something like Aoi Kimi [葵・喜美] if it's something like "Blue yolk [Aoi Kimi(青い黄身)]" then what kind of name is it when it's like you don't know if it's something you ate and came out of your ass? So, call me Belle Flore, alright?"

"Nai-chan is just thinking, but wasn't it Josephine three days ago?"

"The Nakamura-san three over named the dog she's taking care of the same name, so it's not that! That girl has a cute hobby of, with the enjoyment of an old person, attaching a collar to that animal with long and soft-looking fur just like a little girl, and training it while it's nude! It was frustrating, so next time she'll let me hug it, you know!? Hey, aren't I the underdog like this!?"

'I wonder' As Knight, who was being grabbed by the collar and being shaken, said those words, Oriotorai was silently adding check-marks to the attendance record she had taken from out of the chest-area of her jersey.

"Then, Toori is...late?--Even though he's the Student Council President and Chancellor...this won't do."

At her line, everyone smiled helplessly. Voices going, 'We-well,' could also be heard.

And, Oriotorai, who was against them, too faced everyone, who was like that, and smiled wrly.

"Well, yeah. It'd be dangerous if Musashi's Chancellor were to get a hold of himself...There's a reason, after all."

After sweeping her gaze about as if looking at the surroundings, she opened her mouth.

"Well, this is troublesome. Even though the Divine States, below us, was our territory, it's now being provisionally controlled by every country, and people're being chased into the Far East residency area--Can't believe the direct control territory which are the Divine States is going to become that of just Musashi."

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Oriotorai slowly said those words while looking up towards the sky.

"...Currently, this Divine State, which fell from the Harmonic World in the 'Destruction of the Harmonic World' roughly a hundred and sixty years ago, merged with another Divine State, leaving cracks in between. After the 'Harmonic Unification War', it was effectively completely occupied by each of the world's countries, and the name Divine State was even changed to the name 'Far East'."

Within Oriotorai's vision, its owner looking at the flow of the clouds in the sky, which were divided by numerous pillar-shaped spaces, everyone tensed their bodies slightly.

However, Oritorai continued her words.

"At the time, with the treaty of not applying military control or governmental dominion, each of the countries of the world established the Union of the Testament, they held the academic institution which is the Academy, which acts as a military and governmental facility, and with that, they committed. That's why, currently, under the name of the Testament Union, the principal countries place the Academy as the most important governmental and military facility, and provisionally occupied the Far East, dividing it. While using the monarchs who had been placed under control, they enacted the original Territory War as a fight between students of the Academies, didn't they?"

And,

"This Musashi is different from the Far East residency area which was prepared by the temporarily controlled territories and countries on the ground, it is the only acknowledged territory of the Far East, but we're really going to be under the Testament Union's surveillance. Anyway, as for the Far East Academy's Chancellor and Student Council President--"

she said it.

"--from the midst of the Academy, the least powerful, the least able person was picked. Someone like Toori. And, an urban nickname like "Impossible" was even given to Toori."

"But, the reason for doing something like that was: 'That is what proves the reality of which the Far East is peaceful,' isn't it?"

Throwing those words out was a boy wearing glasses. He, who had the armband "Secretary: Neshinbara Toussaint", closed a Torii-gate design signframe which was displaying in the air.

"It's already been that since a hundred and sixty years ago. In that time, the Far East has made excuses for its mistakes, and for the sake of avoiding being targeted by each country, we have always kept our head down, supported others, and used our money, so even though this Musashi has become the core of the Far East, with the tattered power of just moving around, nothing can be done.

Anyway, even though each country's students have an unlimited upper-age limit, Far East's students graduate at 18--if that is exceeded, one can't participate in the government or military."

"The Far East is well talked about, isn't it--The students are privileged, or so they say."

"That's what the Testament Union affiliated countries say. 'Those that aren't students aren't people' right?"

At Neshinbara's words, from the middle of those gathered, voices saying "Hey..." could be heard. While one boy in the middle, a nameplate with "Ohiroshiki" attached to his round body, brought some packet snacks to his mouth,

"Shousei, isn't saying things like that kinda dangerous--?"

"It's all right."

Neshinbara said.

"Around the ship, the Testament Union's Gods of War fly, in the midst of observing us, but they don't have the time to to pick up on our voices one by one, and we're about to go into the controller of the Far East and the owner of the Musashi, Lord Matsudaira Motonobu's Mikawa after all. Mikawa is under the Testament Union's observation, but they've allied with P.A.ODA, who've half-ceded from the Testament Union and opened hostilities, so in its vicinity, the Testament Union can't move carelessly. --It's not something to care about."

"Ehhhh, so mature. But this time, it's not just the Tres Espana who're observing Mikawa; K.P. Italia's Pope Chancellor's large-scale destruction armament　Loizmoi Oplo's new model is coming, completely innocently. Please have a little care. --It's fine if it's just a little, though."

So said Oriotorai, keeping a smile at the edge of her mouth. Neshibara, facing her, spread his arms outward exaggeratedly, did a bow, and everybody took a breath.

'But, well...' Oriotorai muttered softly. A smile stuck to her face, she cocked her neck,

"Like that, this country has troublingly been suppressed, but do you all know what you want to do from now on?"

At the question, everyone remained silent.

Was it because that silence held an answer? Oriotorai did not ask further.

...But, everyone's a third year already, aren't they?

Around this time next year, we'll probably be at a place which is the answer to that question, but-

"Now, the world is pretty noisy. The history book of prophecy, the Testament, had not been re-enacted, and with the end of the last described contents, the "Westfallen Conference", it's being said that it's probably the end of days where the world will end.

Everyone knows that the Earth Pulses are disturbed, and everywhere, phenomena happen often, don't they? Things like the M.H.R.R's 'Disappearance of the Man Who Played Pipes' or Soviet Russia's 'Null Land'."

At those words, the battle-able lineage-strand and technical-strand students hardened their expression. Incidents where they had been deployed to exorcise monsters born from the disturbance of the Earth Pulse had happened, and they had detailed information concerning these phenomena.

Everyone passed normal days, but occasionally, a question which set them off flew.

That was,

"If the world is to end this year, what will our route become, right?"

But, so Oriotorai said.　Whilst re-stopping the parts fixing the the hilt to the base of the sheathe.

"Well, it's troublesome, but the reality that we'll probably be able to go to a pretty good place exists, you know. We'll eventually know what the world will become, so until then do what you can."

"...You also feel that way, Sensei? 'It's troublesome that we're being suppressed, but do what you can.'"

At the question which Naruze, who had tilted her head, asked, Oriotorai looked at the sky. And,

"That's right."

'Well', with that, Oriotorai loosed a small laugh. After a little while,

"If it's me, thinking about dying is what I'm thinking about. That's something from a while ago, though."

Returning her gaze to everybody, Oriotorai smiled a little wider.

...Well, I wonder if the time will come where eventually these kids too will understand the pain of that place there.

She thought, and after nodding, 'Then', the female teacher lowered her body slightly.

And, she looked at those who had instantaneously responded to that movement-

"Alright then, if you have the abilities of a battle-strand, you'd have to "come" then. So--just a little, follow me ready to die. The rules are simple, until we reach the office, if you're able to hit me with an attack--"

She told them.

"I'll give you five more attendance checks. Do you understand? --The ability to skip five times."

At those last words, everyone changed their expression. At the words "five times", everyone whispered to each other-

"In other words, we'll be able to skip five times in the morning...? If that's the case--"

-with that, while everyone was mounting their own hopes, raising his hand with a "Yes," was a boy to whom the armband "First Special Duty: Tenzou Crossunite" was attached. Wearing his hat such that he covered his eyes, along with the aviation-type half-dragon "Second Special Duty: Kiyonari Ulquiaga" next to him,

"Sensei, having the attack "hit" and not "graze" should be fine, should it not?"

"Well, well, the battle-strand is thorough, aren't they? --But yes, that should be fine, you know? I don't care about your methods either."

At those words, Ulquiaga folded his arms. With his dragon-eyes, he looked down at Tenzou beside him-

"Did you hear that? This female teacher has said that it's fine no matter what we do, Tenzou. Is it fine if I use my power of imagination?"

"Jud. I heard it. But, that female teacher, outside of Oge-dono's story earlier, I 'nearly' touched her butt the other day, and she managed to start the disturbance which removed the floor of the residential area herself."

"Fuu, Tenzou, even when faced with reality, the power of imagination is unmatched. That a ninja like you has not noticed that is regretful."

"I understand. --Then, um, Oriotorai-sensei, no matter where we touch or grope Sensei's parts, we won't have points deducted, right? Further, as opposed to that, we should get something like bonus points."

"Ahaha, it's you two that want to die before the lesson even starts, right?"

Saying those words with her eyes half-closed, Oriotorai stuck her tongue out-

"--Then."

'Eh?' Faster than everyone could react, Oriotorai jumped.

It was a leap towards what was behind her. Descending the bridge, towards the stairs going down towards the tip of Inner Tama, Oriotorai jumped as if laying her figure in a black-jersey flat.

To reach her destination, first below the stairs, the path out of the second schoolyard which headed towards the bow. Reaching the large wind tunnels used for ship-interior air flow, at nature park which split to the left and right, take the Inner Tama mid-starboard passage which exits toward the starboard side.

...The mid-starboard passage which is called "Remorse Way".

Ten years ago, after Musashi's Great Renovation, that way was appended that name.

Oriotorai knew the reason why it started to be called that.

The entrance of the mid-starboard passage, in a shoulder of the road on the right, one stone plate was there.

A stone plate decorated with flowers about 50 centimeters in height. On its surface was one sentence.

--1638 All those who reside in Musashi pray for the girl, Horizon A's happiness in her next life.

"Horizon, huh? For those kids, that's definitely the name that became the beginning of everything..."

While she muttered, atop the bridge which had become the top of her vision, everyone was caught in the delay of their instantaneous reaction.

Naive. If there were a cannon strike from an opposing battleship, they would have died.

Did they notice that? From the direction of the bridge, audibly leaking out-

"--Sh-"

Oriotorai heard that voice.

That was the start of the word, 'shit', right? Were they regretting? But, that's fine.

...If they had been outwitted, they'd have to be regretful.

I thought. Of the current Musashi's Chancellor's Board and the member's of the Student Council.

...Those that aren't here and absentees are many, but with only this, that which was strange had been gathered.

Not only them. For everybody else, they were overloaded with great things.

'Interesting, isn't it?' she thought, and as she smiled, the students jumped from atop the bridge.

"...Chase her!!"

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