Horizon:Volume 10B Chapter 50
Chapter 50: Reunited Ones at the Border Line[edit]
This time
My hand can reach you
This time
I won’t run away
Point Allocation (Ten Years)
●
After taking Toori’s hand, Horizon saw several sign frames appear behind him.
<Contract Violation: Asama Shrine Original Spell: Confirmed>
<Emotion Detected: Confirmed>
<Forced Substitution: Confirmed>
<Spell User Aoi Toori’s life will be confiscated for payment violation of ether supply spell: Confirmed>
This and much more text was all established with the signature of Asama Shrine God Sakuya. At the same time, the displayed sign frames shattered.
“–––”
Strength faded from the hand she held and the rest of Toori’s body.
Her arm was pulled down, but she did not let go. Because she had told him to come to her and he had promised to join her.
So she pulled on his collapsing body and, just when his body was going to sprawl out on the stone pavement…
“Intervention established!!” shouted Asama.
Two figures rushed in and propped up Toori’s body.
That was Kimi and Mitotsudaira.
●
Asama: “Dad! Is everything ready!?”
Asama Dad: “What happened, Tomo!? Did you overwork Toori-kun in bed and now his hips are giving out!?”
Asama: “We need to cut the bond! Okay!?”
Silver Wolf: “Tomo! Tomo! Freaking out here is understandable, but please hurry!”
●
Horizon realized she was holding her breath.
…I am not used to this.
She looked down at the body that’s hand she was holding. Kimi and Mitotsudaira flipped it over onto its back and propped it up.
“We will carry him,” said Mitotsudaira. “Should we take him to the Asama Shrine?”
“Yes, please do. There is still time, but do hurry…except we couldn’t keep up with your full speed, Mito, which would defeat the purpose, so just keep up a decent pace.”
Asama-sama is being picky, thought Horizon as she watched Mitotsudaira pick up his body which had gone entirely limp.
Kimi picked up the opposite side, smiled a little, and rapped her brother on the head.
“So you finally managed to cry, foolish brother.”
Yes. He had said what he wanted to say, cried, and relaxed.
“He hasn’t looked like this since before the Battle of Yamazaki.”
“I know what you mean. He looks like he always does when sleeping in class. …Oh?”
Mitotsudaira pulled back a little when a light appeared. One of the sign frames bearing Sakuya’s signature hadn’t disappeared. It hovered over Toori’s forehead.
“Tomo, what is this?”
“It means my intervention worked. He should be fine for now.”
Meaning…
“We need to get him back to the Asama Shrine. Help me!”
●
Vice President: “Huh? Aoi died? Is this another bit?”
10ZO: “No, apparently it’s real. I’m on my way to Asama-dono’s place to find out what’s going on.”
Flat Vassal: “What!? But he was doing so well when I saw him just a bit ago!? Was he sick!?”
Uqui: “He didn’t seem to be suffering from a sickness as severe as Tenzou’s.”
Scarred: “What!? Master Tenzou is sick!?”
10ZO: “The symptoms rapidly fade when I am by your side, Mary-dono, so there is nothing to worry about.”
Worshiper: “Uqui-kun has it just as bad if you ask me. It’s gross.”
Almost Everyone: “You are not one to talk!!”
Nagaya-Stable: “Hey, Vice President! What is going on!? Hey! Hey! Don’t hang up on me!”
●
…This throws a wrench in our plans.
Masazumi wondered if she should go to the Asama Shrine but decided against it.
“I’d only get in the way if I was there.”
…Would the best place to meet up for gathering information be Mukai’s bathhouse?”
No, there were a lot of people there at this hour.
Then it had to be the Blue Thunder.
Since Horizon worked there part-time, she could also ask about what the idiot’s group had been doing of late.
With that decided, she started toward Tama’s surface city. When she arrived, she ran across the right arm. The basket it held suggested it was delivering some late night food, but that meant she was on the right track.
Checking inside, she saw Mary was there too.
“Good evening. Oh, did Crossunite head to the Asama Shrine?”
“Eh? Oh, yes, Lady Masazumi. He felt he could help out there.”
“Yes, he is good at investigating crimes. Will you be helping too, Mary?”
“Judge. I will head by soon to provide ether support, but I thought I could borrow the kitchen here to make Master Tenzou a bento first.”
The students walking by came to a stop. And, as they all resumed walking…
“The 1st Special Duty Officer sure is working late. …Tch.”
“The 1st Special Duty Officer sure is a big help. …Damn.”
“I’ll make him pay one of these days!”
That last one seemed a bit direct, but Masazumi was glad to discover her class had such an excellent reputation.
…And this means word of Aoi hasn’t leaked out yet.
Wondering what was going on inside the Blue Thunder, she stepped inside and saw a familiar face there.
“Sensei.”
“Oh? What? Worried about Toori?”
Figures she would already know. Masazumi nodded and her homeroom teacher smiled a little.
“Asama already had something ready to go and it seems to have worked.”
“What kind of something?”
“Judge.” Oriotri put a hand on her hip and opened a sign frame. “It’s related to Toori’s inherited name. They’re about to complete a history recreation at the Asama Shrine.”
●
“Huh? The Chancellor suddenly died? What kind of opening is that?” asked Naruze.
The early nightfall here seemed fitting.
Both nightfall and daybreak came quick in the M.H.R.R. mountains.
But Naruze, currently going as Margot, was a night owl and she had a lot of spare time at night.
She was in a mountain village somewhere in the Catholic part of southern M.H.R.R. She could only say “somewhere” because the area was a buffer zone on the border between principalities and didn’t technically belong to either principality. Places like that had long been taxed by both sides of the border and tended to become battlefields, so they easily became dens of resistance groups like the Technohexen.
The village she had once lived in had been in a similar place, but because that Technohexen village had not clearly belonged to either principality, they had been put in charge of border patrol.
“I suppose this means times have changed.”
This was M.H.R.R., but the village was Shinto. And the village wasn’t old and run down. It was new.
From what she had heard, that was a Hashiba policy. Villages near the border without a clear affiliation had first been assigned as Far East reservations and then reassigned as shared M.H.R.R. property. Taxes were taken just the once by Hashiba and then distributed between the principalities on either side of the border.
That made them an inviolable territory for both principalities. Making the villages Shinto was a disadvantage, but they could continue their Catholic faith using the hidden setting and, crucially, their safety was assured as long as they paid their taxes to Hashiba. From what Naruze had heard, a lot of people had “fled” here from other places and the population had grown compared to before Hashiba’s arrival.
She guessed those people had gathered together and built this as a new village. Because when she took a short walk, all the buildings had new walls and roofs. When she asked the villagers, they said the village had been approved as a test case by Hashiba’s policy.
It was possible they saw her claims of being special forces as an excuse and thought she was just one more “runaway”.
Still, she needed to be careful. Everything she had heard told her this was a pro-Hashiba area.
…They might report me if I just came out and told them I’m from Musashi.
So she had to be careful about her divine transmissions. Technohexen had some useful skills, including using cardinal directions, the date, the weather, the positions of the stars and more to identifying “pockets” where communication would be safe. They didn’t even need spells to do it.
The small hut outside the village being used as a medical recovery center for M.H.R.R. special forces had apparently originally been used as a gathering place for forestry workers.
The angles and direction of its roof provided a safe time of about half an hour at night during this time of year.
So for the past few days, she had been climbing up on the roof after dinner each evening and opening a Shinto sign frame.
She was afraid to use a Magie Figur in Catholic territory. She was fortunate Asama had provided Shinto sign frames for everyone in Class Plum. She made a mental note to give Asama a happy ending in her next doujinshi.
At any rate, the angle was important.
With only half an hour, a conversation would seem to end before it had even begun. But she was communicating with Asama. Asama was good at summing up information, she had a good grasp of Naruze’s situation, and she even mentioned having contacted Margot too.
Margot had apparently fallen into a similar village on the opposite side of the mountains. In a classic move, she had used the same excuse as Naruze, so Naruze had to hope their excuses didn’t end up conflicting.
Naruze had some thoughts on where they had both ended up, but at least she knew Margot was doing well.
That just left escaping from this place and rejoining Musashi, but…
…How am I supposed to cross the M.H.R.R. Catholic border and reach Shikoku?
A divine transmission sent to Edel Brocken in a Catholic principality would get flagged by territory management. That wouldn’t be a problem for an M.H.R.R. approved Technohexen, but she was a mole – or rather, just a straight enemy. She had lost Weiss Fraulein and her feather duster was on the Musashi. Margot’s Schwarz Fraulein was the broom-storage type, so ideally it had survived and they could escape on it after regrouping.
And while using these conversations to learn that Margot’s broom was being repaired through a game of telephone, another piece of information reached her.
“Huh? What do you mean the Chancellor’s dead?”
●
Flat Vassal: “Wait!? The 4th Special Duty Officer is back in the chat!?”
Art-Ga: “Huh? …What? Why am I back all of a sudden!?”
Asama: “Oh, I’m kind of busy right now and this is a pain, so I just tossed you in here.”
Smoking Girl: “A pain?”
Gold Mar: “Yay! It’s Ga-chan!”
Art-Ga: “Ahhhhh! Margot! Margot! I’m sorry, but I used your name as a fake name!”
Gold Mar: “No problem. I used your name the same way.”
Art-Ga: “That’s fine! Use my name all you want! Change if it if you want! If you don’t like the L and the final A in Malga, you can change them to an R and an OT and make it Margot!”
Vice President: “Can we please stay on topic?”
Horizey: “What have I dooooooooooooooooooone!?”
Silver Wolf: “Um, uh, Horizon? You don’t have to switch to voice input and yell.”
Horizey: “Well, in that case, Toori-sama wasn’t making up his mind, so I hit him with a straight punch, slapped him, and grabbed his hand and then he fell over dead.”
Unturning: “She’s unbeatable…”
Worshiper: “It’s been three weeks since I heard a Far Eastern sentence that bad.”
Asama: “Um, we all need to exchange some information. Horizon, Mito, and Kimi? Can you join me in the spring? I will explain how to bring him back.”
●
When Mary, Masazumi, and the right arm arrived at the Asama Shrine, there were fires burning in the shrine grounds.
Torches were set up on either side of the path leading to the shrine building’s entrance and Tenzou stood between them. Mary bowed at the shrine maidens who were working hard at cleaning the surrounding area.
“Master Tenzou, I brought you dinner. And Lady Right Hand here brought some food for the rest.”
This earned a reaction from Naomasa and some others who had been setting up a shrine stage diagonally in front of the shrine building. They walked over and…
“Is it true Toori died from his spell?”
“I thought Vicereine Horizon confessed it was her combo starting with a straight that did it?”
“That would make it murder, which is not something I want to deal with,” said Tenzou.
Oh, so there are different stories going around, noted Mary as she looked around and saw the shrine building was open. There was light on inside and she saw a large tatami mat space within.
“Oh.” said Tenzou. “The shrine maidens will be setting up a mirror and surrounding it with shimenawa for some kind of spell, but once that’s done, can you go to the futons and see if purification is complete?”
“The…futons?”
“Asama-dono said she has to go to sleep to call back Toori-dono.”
“Oh.” An idea occurred to her. “They will be using dreams as a catalyst for carrying themselves to another realm, won’t they? In that case, this probably is the best-”
Before she could say “way”, she saw the shrine maidens carrying three 18-liter barrels of sake. In her personal opinion…
“Won’t it be hard to reach another realm while intoxicated on sacred sake?”
“Asama-dono told me that is an offering for the spell.”
Mary felt bad for making such a rude misunderstanding. But the barrels were set up in the back of the shrine building, a futon was laid out, and torches formed a path leading up to the entrance. The shrine building would likely be tightly locked during the ceremony.
“Then this resurrection spell must be uniquely suited for the Asama Shrine.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Mary pointed from the shrine building to the torch-lined path as she explained.
“It’s a birthing, Master Tenzou. …The shrine building acts as the uterus and he will pass down this path to be given life. Simply put, Master Wet Man’s soul will be summoned and brought here.”
●
“Well, I will be following Sakuya’s instructions for the spell, but it’s basically a summoning and fixation.”
Asama stood back up after soaking up to the shoulders in the spring water.
The only people here were Horizon, Mitotsudaira, Kimi, and herself. The four of them already had purification spells open on the backs of their necks and they were also washing away their impurities in the spring. As for what they were wearing…
“Tomo? Are you sure we can wear swimsuits? Don’t we need to wash our bodies?”
“This is an ether purification, not a physical cleansing, so this is fine. And these swimsuits I gave you are designed for shrine maidens, so they enhance the purification effect.”
“Heh heh. This is all feels very authentic. So what are our posts?”
“Oh, that,” said Asama, opening a sign frame.
It displayed a diagram of the Asama Shrine from above. And it was limited to the shrine grounds and the shrine building.
“Once our purification and other preparations are complete, Mito, Horizon, and I will enter the shrine building with Toori-kun. We will lay Toori-kun down with his head toward the entrance and Mito and I will lay on either side of him with our heads toward the back of the building. There will be a mirror reflecting us and I want Horizon to wait on the other side of it, facing us. Once the spell begins, Horizon can do whatever she wants as long as she stays in that position. I wouldn’t cut loose too much, but Sakuya is lax about these things.”
And then…
“Kimi, you are in charge of the dancing and music on the shrine stage built outside. You can simply DJ it instead of doing it yourself, so just keep a performance that Toori-kun would like going until the ceremony is over. And then…”
“Tomo, Tomo. You’re going through it all too fast.”
Asama looked over to see Mitotsudaira and Mitotsudaira pointing at Horizon.
She looked to Horizon who had a hand on her forehead.
“Let’s see. Toori-sama goes that way and Mitotsudaira-sama and Asama-sama go that way…”
Maybe drawing up a diagram would be better.
But Kimi laughed.
“Heh heh. You’re pouring everything into this, Asama.”
“I mean, this is probably the biggest job I’ve ever been in charge of.”
“You’ll cry once it’s over, won’t you? ‘Oh, Toori-kun! Don’t scare me like that!’ or something like that!”
“Nooo…”
Will I? she wondered with a tilt of the head.
“I know it’s a little late now, but there are a lot of strict conditions for this to work. And there is one major hurdle to clear, which I think will leave us exhausted.”
“What’s that?” asked Mitotsudaira.
“I will explain that later. Also, Horizon? If you want to swap roles with one of us, just say so. I will do what I can to improve the odds of success.”
Asama opened a new sign frame. She could feel the spring’s heat gradually gathering in her body.
“This will be an Asama Shrine-style – or Sakuya-style, really – dead soul retrieval spell.”
●
Mary opened a sign frame while seated on the edge of the shrine stage.
…I imagine the shrine maidens here understand most of this already…
Still, she would do what she could to explain.
A large round mirror had been set up in the back of the shrine building earlier. She first gestured toward that building.
“The shrine building there acts as a uterus.”
That mirror was probably the most crucial part.
“Master Wet Man will likely be laid on the futon in front of the mirror and then the recalling shrine maidens will lie on either side of him. When his life is recalled to him, he will ‘be born’, so his head will be directed outwards. The recalling shrine maidens will be ‘birthing’ him, so I assume they will have their heads directed toward the back of the building.
“Excuse me.” The vassal raised her hand. “But won’t that just be them lying there? Won’t it require a lot of power to enter a spell from there?”
“Judge. That is what the mirror is for. Reflecting the three of them in the mirror gathers them into a single category instead of being three separate individuals.”
Just then, a skinny man left the shrine house and raised a hand in greeting.
He was Asama’s father.
He was walking to the shrine building while carrying a large mirror with a covering over it.
“Very perceptive of you, Mary-san! But if I may add, there will be one more mirror in the back. Otherwise, they would recall his mirror image and his soul would enter his body in a reversed state.”
“Judge, I thought that was what the sacred sake was for. To use the reflection in the liquid’s surface.”
“Oh.” He smiled a little. “That’s for Tomo to drink to cheer herself up or to have one of the other girls drink if they can’t work up the nerve. I guess I’ll use it for an offering if there’s any left afterwards.”
●
Flat Vassal: “Asama-san! Asama-san! You lied earlier, didn’t you!?”
Asama: “What? N-nooo, shrine maidens don’t lie, so you must be mistaken.”
Uqui: “Sounds like it will be used as an offering. She just failed to mention how else it would be used.”
Tachibana Wife: “Well, there are times when you need the power of alcohol to get you through something.”
Gold Mar: “Oh? Oh? What a fascinating thing to say, Gin-chan!”
●
Asama’s father set the mirror up in the back, waved again, and returned to the shrine house. He appeared to be gradually bringing out what would be needed in the ceremony.
Mary looked to the back of the shrine building where the two mirrors were set up, one in front of the other.
“That is the key position.”
It looked to her like there was more space behind the mirrors. Behind that was the main shrine linked to the shrine building by a corridor.
“A shrine maiden will sit behind the reflecting mirrors to link that data with the god. The shrine god in the main shrine behind there will be accessed through her. Then the shrine god will take the data sent to her through the mirrors and the shrine maiden and either overwrite or copy that into the actual afterlife. That will allow the recalling shrine maidens to go meet Master Wet Man in the afterlife so they can link his soul to his body.”
“I see,” said Tenzou. Then he asked another question to keep the conversation going. “I may be getting ahead of myself here, but how will they take Toori-dono back with them?”
She considered that question.
The temple building and temple grounds were set up to simulate a birth. Childbirth was one of the focuses of the Asama Shrine and it was also indicated by the positions of the shrine maidens within the shrine building. But how should she explain this?
“–––––”
Heat rapidly rose into her face and she scattered flowers for the first time in three weeks. And there were other people watching. Tenzou probably hadn’t meant anything by the question, but…
“Y-you are getting ahead of yourself, Master Tenzou!”
She muttered “dummy” under her breath and jabbed him in the side with her hand.
●
Gold Mar: “Do I sense some kind of meter shooting up?”
Art-Ga: “Yeah, I haven’t felt this at home in three weeks… I need to get back soon.”
10ZO: “I miss the three weeks when you weren’t harassing me like this!”
●
That’s Mary for you, thought Mitotsudaira upon seeing the conversation in the shrine grounds transferred into the divine chat.
At the same time, she was listening to Asama explain exactly that method.
Horizon was the first to ask a question.
“You said my position is used to access Sakuya-sama, but wouldn’t you be a better fit for that, Asama-sama? I do not know how to be a shrine maiden.”
“Well, um, the work for that has already been put together into a spell. Really, the access point role just watches things over from this world after we go to the afterlife.
“Also,” added Asama with some hesitance. “You are actually very well suited for the access point role.”
“Because I am so wise?”
“Um…”
…Don’t hesitate there!
Mitotsudaira didn’t know what that was about, but she shoved it out of her mind. Then Asama took Horizon’s hand in the spring.
“You have an automaton body, but the soul that acts as your core is human. So from the point of view of a god who exists purely as a soul, you have barely any of the excess baggage that comes with being human.”
“Heh heh. Are you saying my sister-in-law has no human impurity?”
“That is the natural result of not having a human body. She does have impurity as an automaton, but that is far more standardized than the human kind and it requires far fewer purification spells. There is far less variety to take into account. That normally makes you unusually susceptible to protections and spells, which actually requires the use of a special hooks, but it actually works out in our favor here.”
“Tomo, is that also why we are the recalling shrine maidens?”
“Yes.” Asama nodded. “Our ‘excess baggage’ – that is, our high life force – is crucial there. The combined power of the many things forming our bodies is what matters in this case.”
Did that mean the different roles required different natures?
“Judge,” nodded Horizon. And, “Understood. So you have placed us where we are most suited. I see no problem with the assignments you have made, Asama-sama, but then why did you push me to change roles earlier?”
“Oh, uh, yeah…”
While Asama tried to avoid answering, a question arrived from the shrine grounds. By someone who had likely been listening in here.
Unturning: “In that case, how will you be bringing the Chancellor back?”
●
Asama groaned in thought. Everyone must want to know that.
But she had to choose her words carefully here. Maybe this wasn’t “in public”, but it was in front of their class.
But how could anything bad happen if she gave a serious answer? She just had to phrase it properly.
…We will be doing god’s work with Toori-kun!
Yes, that’s it! That answer will work! It’s perfect!
So she chose her words carefully as she answered. But just before she did, Kimi asked a question.
“Heh heh. Asama, can you hand me that towel real quick?”
…Oh, of course.
“We will be ‘combining’ with Toori-kun!”
●
Almost Everyone: “…”
●
…Hm? Hmm?
After grabbing the towel in front of her, she saw Kimi doubled over in the washing area, struggling not to laugh.
Horizon and Mitotsudaira were also staring blank-faced at her.
…Umm.
Had she screwed something up?
No, she had prepared the perfect answer for this. It should have been flawless. But…
…Huh?
Just as she was going to give it, Kimi had asked for the towel and that may have pushed the perfect answer out of her mind.
She had a vague memory of the carefully-chosen words vanishing before she could speak them.
“–––––”
And, upon realizing what it was she had actually said, a single sound left her mouth.
“…Ah.”
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