Horizon:Volume 1 Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Commandos in Town

Everyday passes by.

Time passes by.

Destiny passes by.

What does not pass.

Point Allocation (Human Relationships)

●

Sakai's judgements connected within an instant.

Just from the flow of wind behind him, he understood that the girl from just now had come.

No hesitation in his movements, he turned and confirmed.

...Her style is that of a Close-combat martial artistStrike Forcer!? It's major, but this is--

There was a vague memory. Ten years ago, he indeed had met this girl.

Honda Tadakatsu's daughter. The girl whom Masazumi had said was her acquaintance.

What was her name? I don't remember, but-

...She's had sharp movements ever since before! She always carries a spear...!

I don't understand what's happening, but having suddenly twisted around to my back, is she attacking or protecting me?

And now, the movements he felt against his skin was the oscillation of air which the girl, twisting her body, had caused.

The oscillation was large, the initial speed slow.

'Then it's an attack,' Sakai judged. If she was stretching her arms for the sake of protection, then the oscillation would be small, and the initial speed fast. However, because the wind that is raised during an attack is caused by the wielder carrying his own volume, and is for the sake of swinging through completely, at first it's slow, but the movement is large.

Now, it's the latter.

'How will she come?' it was not Sakai's thoughts which formed that question, but his instinct.

I remember this girl's weapon. When she was standing behind Tadakatsu, I was looking at it.

It was not that I became aware of it and was looking at it. The experience of the battles I had cut my way through as a former corner of the Matsudaira Four Heavenly Kings was sunk into a deeper position than awareness. That weapon is of the Shirasu Industries brand. The wooden handle, having been applied with a black matte finish, was a colour contrary to the name of Shirasu, and is sold as something with a durable structure.

The hilt was straight, and because of its length, it looked as if it compensated for the instability which stemmed from its lightness.

...If so.

In that the long hilt is aimed towards easy handling of the blade, it holds a single problem.

A katana is a weapon which slices by touching the opponent and retracting as if shaving a piece off. However that denotes the reality in which the wielder has to cut by pulling the blade, which has touched its victim, towards their own chest.

As such, the blade of a katana cannot cut at any distance but a distance where it is able to be retracted. Because of the judgement of strength in the slicing, it is possible to slice deeply, but the distance which can be cut is the distance it can be retracted.

And if it's a katana which has a long hilt, when it's pulled towards one's front, the hilt will touch one's body.

The distance which can be retracted is short.

In that case, what will the wielder do to make a long cut?

...They will drop their body and swing the blade far!

Dropping their entire body, they will extend their blade far to the front, and pull with their entire body.

If that is done, they will be able to gain the twist of their body as a distance in which to retract the blade.

Now, the wind I feel behind my back is large.

A wind for the sake of stepping her entire body in with all her strength.

The target is my right abdomen. A horizontal slice from my back.

'She's good,' Sakai's instinct acknowledged his opponent.

If she aimed for my upper body, the thick muscle and bone of my shoulder and chest would interrupt her. If it's below the stomach, things will end with just the severing or snapping of the wrist, but she can split the thin flesh of the side-abdomen which is stretched with the pressure of the stomach.

Furthermore, if it's a horizontal flash, then she can pull the blade horizontally.

If she does so, then the she will automatically pull the blade with just a turning movement of her body, and the retracted pommel won't touch her chest or stomach. If she chains with a twisting motion inwards, she doesn't even need to steady her footing.

It's a horrible sword technique in terms of regulation. It's not something that is learned on the practice ground. This is a sword technique from true battle.

What should I do to avoid it?

Faster than he thought, Sakai moved.

●

Sakai moved in a way which could not be called an evasion.

In response to the whirling blow behind him, he-

"This.'

Lightly, took one step back.

"--!"

The slice which came after the step-in, naturally leaped in.

If it's a weapon which slices, by leaping in from this direction, I'm able to make the distance in which to retract zero. Even if the opponent stepped backwards, it should become a distance shorter than the original one where she was able to pull.

The question was, am I able to step back faster than the slice from the horizontal flash.

Therefore, I twisted my body. Not directly to the rear, but towards my left as well as to the rear.

I went.

And furthermore-

"And then-"

Sakai half-drew the tanto he was concealing at the back of his waist.

The draw method was a right backhand, a movement where I pull my shoulder up along with my arm. Because of this, I'm able to protect my right waist with the tanto's blade, and I can protect my right chest with my slanted arm. And even further, I protect the right part of my neck with my raised shoulder.

By doing this, I respond to the opponent's slice, take a good position, and defend.

Having played his best card, Sakai suddenly twisted his body, having leaped towards his posterior-left, to the right.

The opponent who swung the blade should be there.

She was there.

Black hair was visible.

And now, I touch her body, and from the next instant onwards, the initiative is in my hands.

Originally, this would be the time to insert a blow, make her obedient, and show her the difference in form, but now I am the Student President of an Academy. I can't really do anything horrible to a young girl. Approximately, groping breasts is allowed.

And, the opponent's blade tried to hit my blade.

However-

"...h!?"

Sakai saw. That the girl behind him suddenly moved to his anterior-right.

...This is--

The place the girl was standing was directly in front of my right shoulder. She was showing me her back. She seemed to have dropped her hip.

I don't know what's happening.

I don't know, but that there was an instantaneous movement is a fact.

And I know the reason for her having moved to the right and front of me.

..So that her own blade wouldn't clash with mine, huh!?

Blades are made of metal. Even if it's polymerized such that it has durability, even if it's tempered, if it hits something hard, it will bend or even crack. If one is a master, one can sever metal with a blade without Ability or blessings, but that was not something easy to do for even Sakai while he was still in service.

As such, the girl avoided the clashing of blades.

Evading, bursting forward, she controlled her body, twisted for the sake of her slice, by dropping her hip.

The katana, readied to the left as if shouldered, matched with the movement of her standing up, and leaped upwards-

"----"

It came.

Swinging a blade upwards from a bent position, and biting into my neck from the bottom right with that movement. An irregular cut.

Sakai's right arm, the hand which held the tanto, was suppressed by her back.

...She's good.

Reading my movements, she always aims for a fatal blow. That she's not afraid of contacting the opponent is the result of her training.

Sakai tried to evade before the blade leaped up to meat him-

"No."

The tip of his right foot was stepped upon by her deeply retracted left heel.

I withdrew my toes. But, it was too slow. On the contrary, my attention was taken by the act of withdrawing my toes.

I cannot dodge. And before my eyes, the girl showed the initial movements of swinging the blade.

This is bad. But when I looked at the two former colleagues in front of me-

...Those bastards, what are they clenching their fists and watching the battle for...!

If I could attach voices to them, I could not come up with anything but, "Go--!", on their faces.

While thinking 'I'll lay them flat afterward,' Sakai moved.

Now, he cannot draw his tanto. Therefore, Sakai made an instantaneous decision. An instinctive movement. That was-

"Slap."

Sakai released his tanto, stuck that hand between the girl's back and shouldered blade, and touched her left butt.

He held her left buttcheek with his hand, which had become free. And-

"--!?"

From the girl's mouth, a scream which held a tint of surprise existed.

●

"Yes, as such, have you just about gathered it all? The ingredients for the food for the celebration tomorrow?"

At Asama's words, dressed in miko garments, the three figures following her nodded.

The lcation was the commercial street on the starboard section of the surface segment of the Second Starboard Ship - Tama.　Having the benefit of being a ship aimed towards sightseers, it was an attractive place. Within the people who were walking back and forth, there were those who had come up from Mikawa, and the students of K.P.A. Italia and Tres Espana who had come from the southern continental port.

While one of the four who were standing in the midst of that, Naomasa, was spinning and fiddling around with the large wrench used for ship-interior maintenance with her prosthetic arm, she looked the other three, Adele, Suzu and Asama.

"Number of people notwithstanding, didn't we buy too much in one go?"

What Naomasa's words indicated was the mountain of paper bags that everyone was holding. Let alone the arms of the four, they were even hanging at their elbows, and were even suspended on the hard points of their waist.

"I-If Ga-Gacchan and Gocchan...came, it would have been nice, but-"

While Suzu, comparatively slight and light, shook the object-oriented hanging sensors at the side of her waste-, she adjusted her hold on the burden she was clutching, and spoke. That done, Asama-

"Knight and Naruze, those two, are doing some transportation work. I think that they are flying around between the ships right now, but earlier, when Toori was blown away by Mito, we should have asked them in advance."

At Asama's words, the girl with glasses, Adele, sighed with a 'Haaah,'-

"Well, thanks for your work too, Asama-san. Being in miko garments, the work of the Asama Shrine is pretty busy now, isn't it?"

"Yes. At the end of spring, there's a lot of contract-related work, and I'm really busy with counter operations...Even with Ability, everyone seems to want overpowered ones, so the amount of our monthly orders are getting huge."

"Doesn't everyone think that they can get overpowered ones if they go to your shrine?"

Noamasa spun the wrench, and while ｆlipping it over her shoulder from her side, she spoke.

"Didn't you go for the archery club's human target practice at the culture festival last year and completely take out even the club members who were seriously running away from the archery range? And then, you took all the prizes and gave them to the orphanage. Even the orphans thought that the presents were something which were acquired in exchange for sacrifices, right? The lives of people are lighter than that of prizes, huh."

"Masa, I mean, something like shooting people that don't even include Acceleration-types is easier than shooting ducks, so I couldn't have helped it, could I? Screaming and trying to come running outside would have really troubled the people outside, so I just blew them away."

"...Please understand the word 'disturbance'."

'Hmm?' in response to Asama, who tilted her head, Naomasa gave the wrench on her shoulder a glance.

"Anyways, coming with us like this, you'll be coming to the 'ghost hunting' today, right? I've also gotten a nights shift off from the chief, Taizou-jii-san, but--"

Naomasa indicated towards Asakusa with her chin. The cargo ships which were Asakusa and Shinagawa lowered the sails from their masts, their entire heights above 100 meters, and were opening up the derricks which used the left and right arms of the masts. Pulling the ropes going through the pulley on the tip of the arms, the suspended derricks utilized the labor-use Gods of War, Aerial-races, and workers for the sake of pulling the ropes and managing the movements of the upper segment.

"Well, there's that, but if I'm going to help with Jizurisaku, I'm going to head off right now."

As she was speaking, she used a pull of the rope, and the God of War was suspended above the derrick, descending towards her. Adele, who saw that, twisted her eyes into bow-shapes-

"Occasionally, let's use it as a gondola or play with it as swings. Wouldn't that be nice?"

"Just by the way, that's work research too. Anyways--somehow the sky's become really noisy, hasn't it."

The sky. Between Asakusa and Shinagawa, between every ship, trailing behind streams of white mist, there were numerous figures which had started to soar the sky.They were Aerial-races and Technohexen. While taking trajectories which seemed to intertwine at high speed, each of them traversed between the ships, but-

"The supervision of Tres Espana's Gods of War has ended, so the delivery workers have started to race and have mock battles. Naruze said that there're a lot of people who were aces from every country, but couldn't compromise with their churches, so they fled here; because of that, the exchange of technique and knowledge is world-class."

"Ah, Naruze and Knight were also flying around just now, you know? At a speed which would be invisible if not for 'Konoha'...According to what they were saying, their two-man unit is of the strongest class."

"Well, those two are also doing their work and things like that right now, and they're going to gather at the Academy at night. Really, around me, there's nobody that's good."

"...Masa, please look in a mirror and say the last line again."

At Asama's words, Adele laughed softly. She placed the paper bags and packages on her raised knee and adjusted her grasp-

"But well, there's also Mikawa's fireworks, but as expected, everyone's going to the Chancellor, huh...I'm also going to join battle with a mock-use support-lance with a Anti-ghost Ability, though."

"I-I'm al-also going."

Suzu also spoke, and nodded. Asama, who was looking at everyone with her two-coloured eyes, lowered the corners of her eyebrows, and laughed.

"What is this, everyone's interested in Toori-kun, aren't they?"

"That's true. The entire world is noisy with Oda and the Logismoi Oplo and the End of Days, but well, within that, whether an idiot's confession will make it through or not is really, not the Song of Passage, but--"

Naomasa, shouldering the wrench behind her neck, looked up at the mid-afternoon sky and spoke.

"It's scary, huh....That idiot has really gotten motivated."

And Naomasa, lowering her gaze, looked at Asama and opened her mouth. The words which exited were-

"You, along with Kimi, have been with him longer than all of us, haven't you."

●

After Asama, who had been questioned by Naomasa, had thought for a little while, she nodded. Looking at everyone-

"Well, even if you say 'longer', there's the relationship between our parents, and the memories from when we were young are rather vague."

"But, only you have being together with him before elementary schooling. Everyone else was after elementary school. So everyone, well, knows what kind of person Toori is, but--"

"Ma-Masazumi-san is di-diffe-rent. And al-also, A-Azuma-san."

Asama nodded in resopnse to Suzu's words.

"That's because Masazumi transferred here last year...Even today, she didn't come to the Academy and set off towards Mikawa with the School President--different from us, she seems to treat the Academy as just a waypoint of her life."

And also-

"Azuma-kun also entered after middle school, so I don't think that he completely understands Toori-kun."

'But,' Asama tilted her head. Looking at Naomasa-

"Why do you ask?"

At the question, Naomasa smiled wryly.

"--We, who are here, just like Toori, know about Horizon."

At those words, Asama fell silent along with everybody. 'What should I say, and how should I say it', they all thought.

Even Naomasa, who had spoken, shut her mouth lightly, but after a while, she-

"Shall we continue walking?"

Naomasa indicated the road with her chin. That too was while she was lightly playing around with her wrench like it was a pendulum.

However, while passing people by, the road she was walking was-

"Um, th-the end of this path is-"

She knows. The reason Suzu is shaking her head is-

"Ahh, the snack shop that Toori always comes to in the morning is here, huh. But don't worry, at this time, the person whom Suzu fears has gone out--She's doing her afternoon grave visit. You should know."

At Naomasa's line, Asama felt surprise in her heart. Stepping one step as if following Naomasa, who had started walking-

"I'm a little surprised. That Masa would be interested in her."

"--There's no difference between me and you, who know of her grave visiting. When I take a break in the outer shell's emergency level after my morning or afternoon work, it mostly becomes audible, you know. That song."

"By that song..."

'You know about that, right?' Masa, who had already gone to the front of everyone, who had started walking-

"The Song of Passage. The song that we sang when we played together with Horizon. Outlining formations on the road with rocks, everyone would pass under each other's arms...whoever was left in the middle of the formation when we finished singing was the loser."

"Horizon had this strange part of her which would be concerned about all of us, and occasionally, there were times when she would lose because of herself. She thought that nobody found out, but everyone knew..."

After a while, Asama, who had spoken, noticed that everyone, who was walking, was looking at her-

And now, Asama understood the intent of Naomasa's words just now. The reason she was asked about the length of her companionship was-

...They're telling me to talk about old memories of Horizon, aren't they.

Horizon.

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