Horizon:Volume 1 Chapter 05
Chapter 05: Those Reunited Under the Fair Sky
At that time.
To that person.
What should I have said?
Point Allocation （Emotion）
"--But I would never have thought that I would meet you in this kind of place."
That voice, tending to look downwards, was brought to life in the graveyard.
The owner of the voice, Masazumi, was crouching in front of the graveyard next to the main road adjoined with the greenery.
She was weeding.
"Is P-01s cleaning? It's often said that automatons really do like to clean no matter where they are."
"Jud., as one theory, that does exist. The cleaning of this place as a daily routine."
P-01s, plucking the weeds of the nearby graveyard in the same manner as I, answered.
When the taken weeds became a certain amount, P-01s took the trash that was clumps of dirt and fallen leaves along with the piled up weeds, bringing them to the gutter adjacent to the path.
As if responding, the lids of the gutter was lifted, and from below, pale black moss stuck their faces out.
"Useless? Natural materials?"
Opposing them, P-01s lifted her index finger before her nose and gave the trash to the moss. With that, the moss bore that atop their heads and once again descended into the gutter.
Masazumi was wordless in response to the feeding behaviour which had been happening behind her back since before.
She had noticed it from a while before, but somehow, below the gutters, the black moss creatures of the sewage pipes seemed to have gotten used to P-01s.
Furthermore, the shared opinion between P-01s and the black moss creatures seemed to be that it would better were it not leaked that the black moss creatures were going outside.
...Even for the black moss creatures, it was because it was them slacking off from their work...
"Not leaked? OK? Alright?"
"Jud., I can judge that it is alright. Our activities are perfect."
...Aside from that being completely without basis, it's been perfectly leaked...!!
While thinking, I pulled on the weeds, and suddenly a voice came from behind her.
"Masazumi-sama is does the maintenance of this gravestone quite often."
"Ahh, that's because it's my mother's. There's not even any remains, so mementos are inside...even if I say that, would that be hard to understand for automatons?...You're born from souls, so you don't have anything like a mother."
"Jud. I will frankly state my thinking--Masazumi-sama loves her mother."
I was told a sudden thing.
...Love, huh?
Because it was a rather direct statement, Masazumi lost the timing of her response.
'No', or, 'that's right' without giving back an appropriate response, affirmation or negation, without which feeling should she have to be correct to herself being certain, Masazumi just looked down, looking at the flowers in the bucket beside her.
White flowers. When she dedicated that colour to her own heart, P-01s voice could be heard from behind.
The voice was-
"--Let me pass--"
A sudden song.
...Eh?
What was audible was a song that even Masazumi knew. A well-known children's song.
The song named "Song of Passage". From the throat of an automaton, that-
----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--"
From her ears which heard to Masazumi's chest, something akin to trembling came. A trembling of excitement, a trembling of pleasure came, a feeling which seemed as if the depths of her skin were being wrung.
Before, there was something which she had heard from the shopkeeper. That P-01s' soul was in her throat.
Then, that voice of song was the trembling of P-01s' soul. However-
...This song is...
I know it. No, if one lives in the Far East, then anybody would know it.
According to the descriptions of the Testament, the original song of the Song of Passage began to be sung during the 17th century, but a hundred years before informed by the Testament, there was an experiment where a song had original versions in many places.
That experiment was the Song of Passage.
At the time where the provisional control of each country was established, this became a song which brought the people of the Far East together.
From about thirty years ago, the versions of the songs were collected, and now it was being used as a song to put children to sleep, children sang it, and it became something for the sake of playing the game matched to the song 'I wonder if it's a passage'.
However, Masazumi had no memories of singing this together with everyone.
She had only heard from afar that other children had sang and played.
However, hearing it from nearby, it had happened that she had sang it.
It was something from her youth. At the time where her awareness of her surroundings was not yet certain-
...Mother had, as a lullaby...
At the moment she thought that.
"Is there something wrong, Masazumi-sama?"
Being asked, she was unable to respond immediately.
Masazumi sucked in a breath, adjusting an uncertain trembling within her body.
"--Haah."
The breath she exhaled softly trembled just once. Of how to respond to what, Masazumi thought-
"I remembered a little bit of something from the past."
With that, Masazumi put power into her knees.
'What comes after this is something that does not need to be said, but-' she said such a preface to her heart-
...People who hear it and will find meaning in it are not here.
Therefore, I will dare to say it.
"I've spoken about this before, haven't I? Originally, I was in Mikawa, below us. I'm of the name Honda. The lowest of the vassals. And, for Matsudaira, two Hondas are needed."
She took in a breath. while remembering the face of the other Honda, the person whom she had not really exchanged words with after middle-schooling-
"The first Honda is one of the Four Kings of Heaven, the Martial-type Honda family who represents Honda Tadakatsu. The other was the Governmental-type Honda family who represents Honda Masanobu. I was not of the Martial-type, so my father--"
"Your father inherited the name of Masanobu-sama?"
"He failed."
Masazumi rested her hands and spoke.
"Other people, not of the Honda family, even changed their name, inheriting the name of Honda Masanobu. At that time, father was too honest. Therefore, I--"
What was I like?
Told by my father, did I myself wish for what had started? I don't even remember the reason, but-
"A child of Masanobu should try to inherit the name of Masanobu, he thought. And, for the sake of that, he thought that he would do anything, and he did do anything."
However-
"He failed."
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