Horizon:GT2 Chapter6
Chapter 6: Attack and Counterattack
There but not back
Approaching and stopping
A brief rendezvous in the dry night
Point Allocation (No Time To Think)
●
What is going on? thought Masazumi.
She couldn’t think of any reason why someone would attack her out of the blue.
For that matter, was she even being attacked? Had she simply collided with a running person? But the arm in front of her was definitely moving to cover her face, and from behind that…
“––––!”
She could tell this was an attack on her. But…
…Wow.
She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t seem to find the part of her that had planned to resist if something happened or the strength she had planned to use.
“Ah…!”
Just as a quiet breath escaped her throat, she heard a cutting sound.
It was the sound of something fibrous being sliced. It reminded her a lot of hair being cut. When she heard that sound by her ear, she thought for sure she was dead. However…
“Excuse me.”
A female voice and a dull thud came from behind her.
She also heard a muffled voice and footsteps circling quickly around either side of her.
Two people were facing each other with her in between.
The one on her right was the attacker in black who had seemed to be placing something over her head.
With her view blocked on either side, she could only see out ahead, but she did see something like scraps of cloth scattering from that person’s left hand.
○
Art-Ga: “Probably a cloth bag. Place that over someone’s head and tighten it around their neck and they won’t be able to resist. Then you can give them a solid blow to show them who’s boss.”
Gold Mar: “That’s especially dangerous when they put a sleep or paralysis spell and maybe even a soundproofing spell inside the bag.”
Silver Wolf: “Why do you two know so much about that?”
Art-Ga: “My family was involved in the security business.”
Horizey: “So who was it that saved you, Masazumi-sama!?”
Silver Wolf: “Horizon! You’re really into this story, aren’t you!?”
●
Masazumi looked to the person on her left.
It was a girl. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and she seemed to be a little older than Masazumi. “Seemed” because…
…She’s nonhuman!?
Was she long-lived? She wore covers over her long ears. While Mikawa was always bustling with trade, Masazumi had grown up on the outskirts and couldn’t judge this long-lived’s age. She wore a white cloth around her neck and had Far Eastern hard point parts, but she was lightly dressed in a kariginu outfit.
Who is she? Masazumi wondered, but she had managed to calm down some. The sweat started to pour and her body felt heavy. At the same time, the girl must have realized what she was thinking.
“Honda-sama assigned me as your bodyguard.”
The girl kept her eyes on her opponent as she spoke and Masazumi didn’t immediately understand.
…Dad did?
Did she lack filial piety if that came as a surprise? But apparently he had sent this girl here. Was she from Musashi, from Mikawa, or a mercenary? Masazumi didn’t know, but…
“Judge.”
She nodded to say “this is in your hands” and the girl stepped forward.
She moved in front of Masazumi and toward the enemy.
She held out her right hand and moved to place herself between the enemy and Masazumi.
…Oh!
Masazumi moved behind her. She figured she had to stay out of the way since she wouldn’t be any use in this fight. Meanwhile, the enemy to her right readied a blade.
The girl rushed toward them, swinging a flash of light that was likely a blade of her own.
“–––––––”
A series of metallic clangs rang out and the two fighters’ movements sent dirt and sand twisting into the air.
In the brief time it took for Masazumi to move back to a safer location, those two had already exchanged several blows.
…So this is a real battle!
Part of her wanted to watch to educate herself, but she was at risk here. However…
“Kh.”
A voice other than the girl’s groaned. And…
…Oh?
Something like black water dripped to the torchlit and moonlit road.
But that wasn’t water. It had to be…
…I’d rather not think about it.
She knew the answer would terrify her.
The enemy pulled back their right arm and its blade and took a step back. Their feet dug into the sand and they stared at the bodyguard girl more than Masazumi.
○
Vice President: “Oh, whoops. They were wearing some kind of hood. I forgot to mention that.”
Horizey: “Masazumi-sama! You’re ruining the mood!”
Vice President: “Oh, and the bodyguard girl was also wearing a hood. Except it was more like a stole that closed at the front. What’s that called again?”
Gold Mar: “A poncho maybe?”
Vice President: “Isn’t it called a capa?”
Tachibana Wife: “A common mistake for Far Easterners. A capa was the Portuguese term for a cloak when they arrived in the Far East. It comes from the same root as the word ‘cape’. It was eventually adopted as the Far Eastern word for a raincoat, which is how you know it, but a capa generally does not include a hood. It is classified as a long stole. Meanwhile, a poncho is a Spanish term with its origins in the New World.”
Girls: “I didn’t know that!”
Circle Be: “W-wait! I’m in the middle of some business negotiations, so I’m going to use that to make myself sound smart! I am so using it!”
Unturning: “Is it really a good idea to have this discussion while we sort between the edible and poisonous plants?”
●
And so Masazumi saw the hooded attacker turn to face the girl.
“You!?”
“I know why you did what you did.”
The girl’s response suggested they knew each other. That short response was all she said.
But Masazumi heard the attacker gasp at the girl’s words.
…What was that about?
Masazumi of course had no way of knowing. But she did hear new footsteps on the road behind her.
“From behind!?”
The girl turned around and looked behind Masazumi. Her words and gaze meant…
…Behind me?
Masazumi did sense motion in the air behind her and she saw a line of light come from the right side of her vision.
That meant a new combatant. But Masazumi didn’t have time to turn around toward the attack. She only managed to bend her knees on the bodyguard girl’s gestured instruction.
Just as she felt a tug on her legs, the enemy behind her stepped in.
“Kh!”
The furious grunt was likely in response to the blade failing to reach her now that she had crouched. Which meant she would have been hit if she had carelessly stepped back instead. How’d I get so good at this?
“Don’t you have the bodyguard’s instruction to thank for that? Oh, think of this as the bodyguard’s thoughts at the time.”
Masazumi had the misfortune of imagining a Scwharz Hexen’s voice.
At any rate, something swept rapidly above her head from behind. Then the next attack came. The swung blade changed course to swing back toward her.
The bodyguard girl gave another gestured instruction.
She gestured as if shoving something aside, but…
…Eh? What’s that supposed to mean?
She failed to communicate and Masazumi had no idea what to do, so…
…Like this maybe?
Masazumi gestured as if moving a box from the right to left and the girl’s eyebrows rose.
“…!”
The girl repeated the same gesture as before but stronger this time.
Why would I suddenly understand it the second time? Masazumi wondered, but it looked like the girl was upset with her. Meanwhile, the approaching blade flew straight toward its target this time.
●
“Masazumi’s deeeead!!”
P-01s shouted out loud while eating popcorn and watching the highlights of the excellent modern-day movie “Now’s Your Chance, Ookubo Nagayasu! 20 Tons of Explosives in the Silver Mine!” with the manager and the Blue Thunder’s guests.
“Manager! The Masazumi character definitely died in that explosion, right!?”
“No, Honda Masazumi always gets extra stubborn after this point.”
“That’s right!” “Yeah!” agreed the guests. Seeing that, P-01s decided to come up with the perfect breakfast menu to make her first official day on the job a day to remember.
○
Gold Mar: “So did Masazumi die?”
Horizey: “No, it turned out the character was indeed stubborn. He emerged with soot covering him and smoke coming from his ears and chased after the protagonist while brandishing a metal rod. At the end of the movie, he fell into a volcano.”
Vice President: “Why do I get the feeling that movie was sponsored by the Ookubo family?”
Art-Ga: “So did you die or not?”
Vice President: “Is my presence here not enough of a clue!?”
●
Masazumi realized she wasn’t going to dodge in time.
But then she heard an odd sound from the attacker behind her.
The percussive sound could have been a noise or a voice. And…
“Huh?”
Sensing something strange, Masazumi turned to see what was there.
She found a familiar sight. Someone she knew had sent a sideways kick right into the enemy.
Someone new had joined the fight. Well, not quite new. She demonstrated exactly the “suddenness” Masazumi was accustomed to with her as she landed and raised her right hand in greeting.
“Oh! I was wondering who was out here, but it’s you, Masazumi!”
“Um, uh…Futayo? I don’t remember you being so casual with me at this time.”
Whatever, decided Masazumi. Futayo said “judge”, grabbed something from behind her, and held it out.
“Have a to-may-to, Masazumi! Or in the Far Eastern pronunciation, a to-mah-to! Do you see what I mean!?”
Not a bit.
●
Futayo was honestly a little unsure what to do.
Her father had fortunately returned home, but he had apparently helped rescue a stuck wagon near the checkpoint, and…
“As thanks, they gave me a ton of these.”
She was carrying a sack full of to-may-toes. According to Kazuno…
“No matter how loud Tadakatsu-sama yelled, it would not budge. So I put my back into it and solved everything with my gravitational control. He insisted he hadn’t ‘gotten serious yet’ and that he was ‘about to get it’. It was most pathetic.”
“Huh!? I meant what I said! I was still only at 15% of my full power!”
Kazuno had silently walked toward the shed where they stored their weapons, so Futayo’s father had nervously handed Futayo the sack.
“Anyway, go hand these out around the neighborhood! Or at the meeting place!”
And so Futayo was out visiting the neighbors, but mysterious phenomena were Mikawa’s latest specialty. So when she knocked on a door at night…
“Excuse me! I have to-may-toes! Would you care for some to-may-toes!?”
They apparently found that suspicious, so she tried explaining herself better.
“A to-may-to is a juicy red to-mah-to! They were once avoided for being the color of blood, but they were later used as ornamental plants and then as food!”
Oh, they activated a defense spell from the inside.
I was fairly upset over how cold everyone in Mikawa was being, but then it turned out the meeting place was closed. Then I heard a commotion and ran over with an acceleration spell.
“Hm. I seem to have sent someone tumbling along the ground.”
That was when I heard a boy forcing a falsetto voice from a distant alley.
“F-fire! There’s a fire!”
Hm? What a suspiciously ninja-like falsetto! ○
Gold Mar: “I bet that could have been Tenzou.”
Art-Ga: “I bet it definitely was.”
Asama: “I bet it was…or I would if that wouldn’t be cheating. When we passed through the checkpoint on our way back to the Musashi, he reentered Mikawa by climbing down on the canyon side, so it had to have been him.”
Vice President: “I bet he was sent to look after me… Actually, I bet he wasn’t.”
Silver Wolf: “I bet that was when he was patrolling Mikawa to see if he could find anything of interest. He reported on everything that happened to the 1st Special Duty Officer the next morning, so we could check.”
Scarred: “I bet Master Tenzou plays a big role in this story!”
Tonbokiri: “I bet he doesn’t. Because I know he doesn’t.”
●
A strange voice led to sounds of movement from the nearby homes.
“Damn!” cursed the two attackers before quickly turning around. Only then did Masazumi notice something.
…There are more of them!?
She heard several sets of footsteps coming from an alley down the road.
The bodyguard girl was gone after running off to pursue the attackers, but in her place, people emerged from the nearby homes.
“Is there really a fire!?”
“What is it!? Arson!? A mysterious phenomenon!? Spontaneous combustion!?”
“If someone’s started a fire, they’ll regret it once I get my hands on them!”
Futayo raised a hand in greeting toward the people storming out and rolling up their sleeves.
“Hold it right there. I am Mikawa Vice Chancellor’s Aide Honda Futayo. I was trying to stop a fight here and accidentally sent someone tumbling away.”
“Not again,” said a scattering of voices. When I heard, that I found myself hoping that all of the people Futayo used to stop herself or change direction had been criminals.
“Writing an essay, Masazumi?”
You don’t have to read my thoughts. Regardless, Futayo brought a hand to her chin.
“Just as I carelessly performed some human braking, I heard a strange voice from over there.”
“Huh? Wait, Futayo-san!? Are you saying there really is a fire!?”
“No, not to my knowledge.”
“Huh?” The people exchanged a glance and then began whispering to each other.
“You mean that weird voice was lying? What a troublemaker!”
“Arson deserves the death penalty, but so does this kind of lie!”
“True.” Futayo nodded and tilted her head. “The voice seemed to be a weird ninja doing falsetto.”
“A weird ninja!”
They all exchanged a glance.
“Find him, execute him, and hang his head up as a warning!”
“Yeah, he can’t get away with ruining our peaceful evening and disturbing me during my Monday night episode of Tanzawa Restoration – The Flood!”
“He couldn’t have gotten far! Hunt him down!”
Thinking back, the only people still in Mikawa at the time would have been former members of the Chancellor’s Officers or Student Council or people who worked with them. They were all quite skilled and they had built up a lot of stress given the state of Mikawa, so…
…I hope that weird falsetto ninja will be alright…
○
Gold Mar: “I bet Tenzou was in big trouble.”
Asama: “I bet he was too. And I can bet this time because I didn’t know about this part. These records reveal such fascinating things.”
Scarred: “I bet, um, I bet…!”
Silver Wolf: “I bet you have nothing to worry about because we don’t know what did or didn’t happen.”
Art-Ga: “I bet Mitotsudaira has something against fun!”
Horizey: “I bet I want to know what happened to the to-may-toes.”
Vice President: “I bet that part doesn’t matter, but it was all a lot of trouble either way.”
●
Masazumi parted ways with Futayo who gathered a group of youths and began searching for the weird ninja. As Futayo hurriedly left, she said “take these!” and handed Masazumi the sack of tomatoes.
“What am I supposed to do with this? Can I eat them?”
With the extra security – or a search party really – the way home was automatically safe now, but she still decided to inform the guards what just happened.
The guard unit that served the Chancellor’s Officers met with her. They listened to her at first, but they put down their writing implements when she mentioned Futayo. Once she was done, she said, “um, and these are the tomatoes she gave me”. Every last one of their heads was hanging, so Masazumi felt bad about stopping by at all.
Since Futayo had said she was handing out the tomatoes, Masazumi left enough for everyone as thanks, but that was mostly to reduce the weight enough for her to carry the sack more comfortably.
○
Silver Wolf: “Um, Masazumi? I feel like your story is focusing more on the tomatoes than the attack.”
Vice President: “It really was too heavy for me to get it home otherwise.”
Flat Vassal: “Then how did the Vice Chancellor manage to run around with it on her back?”
Tonbokiri: “Hm? It wasn’t even as heavy as a person. At the very least, it was lighter than Gin-dono or Masazumi.”
Tachibana Wife: “When have you ever carried me, Honda Futayo!?”
Asama: “Anyway, Masazumi let them know about her situation and that information made it back to Musashi.”
Vice President: “The attack had witnesses, so I guess they couldn’t cover it up.”
Silver Wolf: “Right. Now, I was thinking of moving on to what happened the next morning. Is that alright?”
Tonbokiri: “Judge. By the way, because we got separated in all the confusion, I wasn’t entirely sure it was Masazumi I met then, so the first time I properly met her after middle school was at the Battle of Mikawa. Oh, and I returned home to my father before too long.”
Vice Chancellor: “Well, at least you finally got confirmation about our little meeting there…I guess.”
●
At the time, Futayo returned home and reported on her successful mission to her father.
“Father! I gave away the to-may-toes after rescuing someone from an attacker! …And to think that person was Masazumi.”
“Eh? An attacker? Gave them away to who? The things you do can be…a challenge to understand.”
While her father tried to find a nice way of stating that, Kazuno drew a hidden sword from her broom’s handle behind him.
“You may have made a mistake, Tadakatsu-sama. Most likely, a double mistake.”
“N-no, wait. I’ll visit the Chancellor’s Officers station tomorrow, check what happened, and deal with it!”
“Father, the Chancellor’s Officers station is really busy dealing with that murder case. When I stopped by earlier, they all said I would be most helpful if I went for a jog.”
“In a way, you have a pretty sweet deal there, don’t you?”
He complimented me, so dinner tasted extra good.
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