Horizon:Volume 10A Prologue

Prologue: Viewers of the Ascent

My my

Everyone is

Unexpectedly excited

Point Allocation (Pointing)

●

The sky roared.

A noise rang down from the nighttime heavens.

Moonlight shined down from the dark blue canopy.

Not from one moon – from two. And there was some distance between the two.

Countless dark shadows covered the closer moon.

They only looked like specks thanks to the bright moonlight, but they were something like a gentle storm forming a ring around that closer moon.

That ring helped show which moon was closer than the other.

And noise came from that moon.

Two distinct noises.

The first was the sound of the components of the newly-forming ring. As the crust and structures were taken up from the surface, some were released partway up and fell back down.

Those fragments of the earth were scattered from high up in the sky. No, that altitude was too high to even call it the sky.

Most of it was no more than dirt and sand, so it scattered through the atmosphere as gravel, blocking the moonlight.

The dust falling from extreme high altitude made noise as it was stopped by the layer of atmosphere.

The upper surface of the wind became a fluctuation of sound.

The sky’s roar was at a scale on par with the moon and the atmosphere.

The layer of dust turned the air currents and atmosphere into a colossal diaphragm that produced a groaning roar from the air, made the forest rustle, and made the ocean surface tremble. The ground leapt with noise and every structure vibrated until it groaned.

The wild and city animals woke in the night and howled back at whatever was howling at them from the sky. Some howled in warning, others took flight in fear, and some fled from the pressure.

As if hitting them while they were down, the sky now produced a rupturing sound.

The hard or flammable objects among those being dropped from the heavens burned from exposure to the atmospheric pressure. As the fireballs fell, the air and gaps within them expanded from the heat, causing the objects to burst apart. Several shooting stars and rupturing sounds spread across the sky.

And another sound was distinct from all of that noise and movement.

It came from further above. A heavy metallic tone dropped from the moon.

The ringing of a bell.

●

“A bell?”

Near the stern of the Musashi’s 2nd central ship, Ookubo looked up from the bridge before the academy.

The sound descended from the sky and shook the walls and windows of the school behind her.

…What is this?

It was a bell. But rather than the ringing of a Far Eastern temple’s bell, this was the tolling of a European church bell.

Except it only happened once.

Yet it rang across the sky in its entirety.

More than pierce through their bodies, it continued to pass through them for a long time, so just how far did it reach? This area? The Far East? No…

“Is that bell ringing on a global scale?”

Someone asked about the toll that continued as it had begun. And someone responded.

Ookubo realized Yoshiyasu, who had been sitting next to her, was now standing and looking up into the sky.

…Is she going to howl?

Ookubo looked up at her and Yoshiyasu returned the gaze. Yoshiyasu glared at her and…

“What were you expecting me to do?”

“I just thought you might howl back.”

“Satomi does have a dog-themed academy, but that doesn’t make us doglike as individuals.”

You didn’t need to take that seriously, thought Ookubo, but this was a serious time. And since Yoshiyasu had stood up and looked into the sky…

“Can you see something?”

“Judge,” replied Yoshiyasu. She pointed a bit west in the noisy sky, where the second and closer moon hung.

“I thought I saw something shine at the center of the second moon.”

“You saw what?”

Ookubo’s eyesight wasn’t great, but a lot of people had to be observing the sky right now. There would be a recording of it.

“Is there something on the moon?”

“With everything flying around up there, I might have only seen a reflective piece of debris. It was gone as soon as I saw it.”

Just as Yoshiyasu said that, the toll from the sky vanished.

…What?

It didn’t continue. Just the one. But Ookubo recognized the nuance of the single strike.

“A time signal?”

●

Suzu covered her ears.

Two different sounds were falling from the sky. She could understand the initial wind and shooting stars. Debris was falling from the sky and the structures were turning into shooting stars. She had never experienced that before, but she could understand it. She just had to think of it as a type of weather.

But the tolling of a bell she couldn’t understand.

“Suzu-sama! Over.”

“Musashino” hurriedly called her name, so Suzu nodded.

“What is…that bell sound?”

It seemed abnormal to her. Because…

…It shook all of the Musashi at once?

As condensed as the Musashi’s eight ships were, they were still nearly 8km long in all.

At that size, it took around 25 seconds for sound to travel from stem to stern. In fact, Musashi residents were trained in middle school how to use the time it took a sound to reach them to estimate the distance of another ship or to a destination.

That experience taught them that even a sound coming from a great distance would not reach every single part of the Musashi at the same time.

Sound expanded and propagated. So no matter the distance or size of a sound reaching the Musashi, it would be spherical and there would be subtle differences in when it reached different parts of the ship.

But this “sound” didn’t do that.

To Suzu’s senses, it was more like it had been produced by the Musashi itself.

An external sound had pierced through them like they were producing it themselves.

“–––––––”

This was a first for Suzu while linked to the Musashi’s sensors.

Her body shook, but not in fear. She felt an odd sense of deja vu.

Objectively, she thought the vibration reaching all of the Musashi at once was the sound of a bell.

Then why did it sound so familiar to her?

“Um, ‘Musashino’-san? That sound…”

“Judge! Suzu-sama, that was no ordinary bell.”

The lack of a closing “over” meant “Musashino” and the other automata were still processing the data and had yet to reach a conclusion. That gave Suzu a chance to answer for them.

This was a view born of the human vagueness that surpassed the accuracy of automaton data processing.

“The world has…become an academy?”

●

That’s right, thought Suzu, agreeing with her own conclusion.

That was definitely what this bell meant. The sound had pierced through the Musashi, but it had a familiar ring to it. It was unmistakably…

“…‘Okutama’-san.”

“Judge,” “Okutama” replied via divine transmission. “That bell was identical to Musashi Ariadust Academy’s time signal. Over.”

●

“Eh? I thought it sounded familiar, but that was our bell?”

Toori stood below the darkening night sky on the deck of a transport ship returning from Honnouji to the Musashi.

The two moons had already passed directly overhead and were now descending toward the west. That seemed to tell him there was no point in watching them any longer.

“So if we were just in ‘class’, does this signal that class is dismissed?”

“I feel like all class discipline broke down and the class president just ran out of the room crying, but what will we do now, Toori-sama? No, wait.” Horizon turned toward Masazumi instead. “There was no point in addressing that question to him. Um, Masazumi-sama.”

“Heyyyyy! Why not at least try asking me first!? And you can go to Seijun once I can’t answer!”

“My king! My king! You make it sound like your failure is guaranteed!”

“Mitotsudaira-sama, you must not give away the punchline in advance. That entertainer can only think so far ahead!”

“Dammiiiiiiit! Stop taking away my material!”

“Um, uh, Toori-kun? Horizon? I think both of you should settle down,” suggested Asama.

Horizon nodded quietly at that. This was indeed a difficult situation.

They had only just finished the Honnouji Incident. She knew that this would be a somewhat difficult time for them.

The two Technohexen were observing the sky from the deck to watch out for trouble.

“Ooh, look at all those fireballs.”

“It’s like a meteor shower.”

Mary had dozed off from battle exhaustion earlier and Tenzou was propping her up in a sitting position while gathering hatred from those watching on. Or in other words…

…The same as always?

That was Toori’s first thought and, yeah, that seemed about right. So he took a look around the others on the deck.

“What’s wrong, everyone? Can’t get started without hearing my opinion first?”

“We already heard your opinion, Toori-dono.”

Then Noriki and Gold Mar stepped out in front of the rest. They both looked up into the sky, struck a simple pose, and…

“We will stop it.”

He knew what “it” was here.

“We will stop the Genesis Project and stop the Apocalypse. Seijun, take care of that, okayyyyy?”

“Hey, hey, heyyyyy, I did not hold the okay that long, okayyyyy? Stop lying about me, okayyyyy?”

“Heh heh heh. Okay brother, I know you said that after Nobunaga appeared to us in such high spirits, but what are we actually going to do?”

“Yeah,” he said, remembering what had happened. He had said that without holding the okay and then when it came to talk about what to do…

“I feel like I just left that all up to Seijun.”

Out of the right side of his vision, he saw Horizon frown and tilt her head at him.

“So he stops me from going to Masazumi-sama when he was relying on her to begin with?”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! Horizon! That was in the past! Now’s different!”

Okay.

“Let’s try that again. …Bring it on, Horizon! Come ask me what we’re going to do!”

He readied himself. He clapped his hands together, spread them apart again, and lowered his hips. And in preparation to support him when Horizon did something, Nate surreptitiously circled behind him, but… Does she really think I’ll let her do anything to me? Really?

Regardless, he had to focus on Horizon right now.

Horizon looked at him and nodded. And after an initial “you leave me no choice”…

“Judge. Very well.” Horizon raised her right hand. “Then I go to you, Masazumi-sama.”

“Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”

●

Eh? thought Masazumi, looking up from her sign frame.

It sounded like the conversation had turned toward her, but she hadn’t been paying any attention. Or rather, getting back to the Musashi was the priority right now, so she had been focused on that.

“Do you mean that sound?”

It was gone now, but the ringing of a bell had come from the sky.

…If only we could contact K.P.A. Italia’s academy. They know a lot about astronomy.

She hadn’t heard any news about K.P.A. Italia’s situation since they were effectively conquered by M.H.R.R. Of course, the nation was still active, but with the Thirty Years’ War going on, all their actions gave her an impression of being “safe”.

This all made her question why M.H.R.R. had conquered K.P.A. Italia and why they allowed K.P.A. Italia partial autonomy instead of absorbing it into their own state, but she felt like she had her answer after everything she had learned about the Honnouji Incident and the Genesis Project.

So she had given that question some thought, but…

…I just have too much to think about.

This was the result.

Both politically and otherwise, this night had been a bit too exciting.

So much had happened. So much was set to happen. Each nation would be predicting what those things were and making plans, but at the same time they had to pay attention to what the other nations were doing.

A few groups appeared to be taking swift action, but most of them likely had no idea what what was going on.

So what should she do?

“For now, get some rest, I suppose. …So what’s up? Are you curious about that bell just like Ookubo and Mukai?”

●

…It really was only a single sound yet sounded so much like our bell.

Masazumi had heard it from outside the Musashi, but she agreed with the opinion given by Ookubo, Mukai, and the automata like “Okutama” and “Musashino”.

The school time signal rang from the sky. But it was unusual as a “sound”.

…A sound should be more-

Before she could finish that thought, a light dropped in the north.

It was a fireball.

Immediately, several warning sign frames appeared above the Musashi dead ahead, but then they disappeared.

The falling fireball must not have been on a collision course. And then it burst.

An almost light and dry sound reached them from low in the air.

This one Masazumi felt really was a “sound”.

Sounds were influenced by their surroundings. The sound itself, the humidity, and other sounds all combined to create the environment the sound had to reach you through.

But the earlier time signal was different.

That sound made her feel like she was standing directly below the bell or even touching the bell.

“About that earlier bell sound…”

“I believe that was a ley line phenomenon,” replied Asama.

Everyone’s attention gathered on Asama in her shrine maiden outfit as she gathered the divine transmission sign frames spread out around her and handed them to Hanami.

“IZUMO just released the results of the readings taken from the simultaneous observations at the major shrines around the Far East. The origin point was the second moon. A ley line tremor began there and we sensed it as a sound.”

“Heh heh. Are you saying Nobunaga rang that bell?” asked the Aoi Sister, reaching a hand out toward Asama. Asama handed her a hair washing charm as she responded.

“I think this probably means Nobunaga – or rather, the Genesis Project OS inside her – has begun to operate. Nobunaga is currently linked with destiny…I guess? I can’t exactly confirm it, but the ley line tremor is probably the result of an OS warning reaching the ley lines.”

“Judge. So it is a sign of Nobunaga-sama, the owner of my memories, beginning to perform her task.”

“Heh heh. Such a hardworking girl.”

“You are too kind, Kimi-sama.”

“My, my.” The Aoi Sister began combing Horizon’s hair with a comb charm. And, “But do you think that bell really is our academy’s one?”

“Hard to say. Most any Far Eastern academy has the same bell,” said the Date Vice Chancellor.

Crossunite, who was lending sleeping Mary his shoulder with an arm around her, raised his empty left hand to respond.

“England’s academy had that bell too. In fact, that bell originated in England.”

Is that fact important to him for some reason? wondered Masazumi. Maybe it was.

Then Balfette raised her right hand.

“But why just the one sound?”

“Even on the Musashi, the number of rings matches the hour as long as classes aren’t in session.”

Mitotsudaira was correct.

…Once the academy begins at 8:30 in the morning, the chime generally rings in time with the academy schedule.

At all other times, identical sounds were used to signal the hour without any sort of melody.

But they avoided doing that when the Musashi was near a surface settlement.

That summed up the basic system.

“We’ve been in stealth mode a lot since Mikawa, which applies audio stealth to the Musashi. Even so, the time signal usually doesn’t play at night to keep the sound from disturbing our surroundings.”

So at the moment the people of Musashi saw the academy chime as a signal for morning and evening.

“But if we ignore those special circumstances…what time is it right now?”

On her right shoulder, Tsukinowa opened a sign frame and she read the numbers there.

…2:12 AM.

Musashi had traveled to Honnouji at around midnight. She was surprised to learn how much time they had spent there, but…

“That time signal wasn’t at one o’clock, was it?”

“Maybe it was for two? If so, maybe it will ring for three as well,” suggested Naruze, while looking out from the transport ship. She used an optical sensor spell to mark the shooting stars. “Asama, do you want me to track the temporal frequency of the falling debris?”

“Oh, that would be great. We’re probably the only ones who have been observing it from the beginning, after all.”

…Shinto will work with just about anyone, won’t they?

Masazumi tried using that line of thought to kill some time, but it only lasted so long.

What was that bell sound? For now they knew…

“It was a Far Eastern and English chime, but we don’t know why it was just the one.”

They didn’t know.

They could make some predictions, but it would only serve to kill time. They couldn’t leave the realm of speculation.

But setting aside the shooting stars falling from the sky…

“You know what we need to do once we reach the Musashi, don’t you?”

●

“Yes,” replied Gin.

It was currently past 2 AM. They would ordinarily be asleep by this hour.

Even shortly after a battle, they would normally hold a briefing aboard the transport ship and then take a nap before making their official report.

But not this time.

“Prepare for battle. Both politically and militarily.”

She could forbid anyone from sleeping, but that would be asking too much. Still, they had to remain in as much a state of readiness as possible.

…Because…

Before she could continue that thought, Muneshige spoke from the side. He had a sign frame open and was writing up a greeting to the Tres Españans he had greeted at Kyou.

“Judge. If we’re ready to go, it leaves the Vice President, Treasurer, Asama Shrine Representative, and others free to act, right?”

Precisely. While she gave a “judge” of confirmation, someone voiced a question.

It was Asama. She tilted her head and…

“Um, why me?”

“You don’t know, Asama!?” asked the Chancellor’s sister. “With everyone else busy preparing for battle both politically and militarily, they’ll be too preoccupied to get distracted by your jiggling boobs, leaving you free to act! What is that blank stare for, Adele!? Anyway, do you see how logical I’m being!? Surprised, Miss Free Boobs!?”

The Asama Shrine Representative raised her right fist and the Chancellor’s sister made a short dash to escape.

Gin felt the need to address the issue.

“That is half correct.”

“Eh!? It is, Gin-san!? So Asama-san’s boobs really will be free!?”

“Not that half.”

“Ouch,” said the 4th Special Duty Officer, slapping the vassal’s forehead. Meanwhile, the 3rd Special Duty Officer took a quick glance down from the sky and spoke.

“When Seijun and the others make a decision, we need to be in position to act on it immediately, don’t we?”

“Judge. That is correct.”

Gin inhaled and looked over to see Honda Futayo already holding her spear and the 5th Special Duty Officer standing a bit in front of the Chancellor. They were both in stances of readiness.

…Honestly.

She could never figure out what those optimists were thinking, but maybe that optimism came from always being ready to go when the time came.

Or maybe they were just sick of worrying.

Gin was suddenly reminded of Tres España. She had been there only half a year ago and it was a cheerful place that also carried constant worries about the future.

But Juana had seemed awfully positive at Kyou, so Gin hoped the leaders there were no longer worried about the decline promised by the Armada Battle.

And now Gin found herself in another similar place.

She noticed Honda Futayo’s eyes on her.

She had been leading the current topic of discussion, so Futayo was probably waiting for her to speak.

…In that case…

Before she could say anything, she sensed a presence behind her. She looked back to see the arms carrying a basket of breads for the group to eat.

Then she turned back toward Futayo.

“What is it, Honda Futayo?”

“Judge. I was hoping you could grab me a bean paste bread.”

“Honda Futayo!”

When Gin raised her voice, the 3rd and 4th Special Duty Officers began whispering.

“Did you hear that? I think she’s communicating just in how she pronounces her name.”

“Gin-chan is perceptive like that.”

3rd and 4th Special Duty Officers! she thought, but she realized she really was kind of communicating through name pronunciation. She didn’t like that, so…

…Muneshige-sama!

Oh, there I go again!

She was a little shaken by noticing this habit of hers, but…

“Gin-san.”

Muneshige spoke to her. He grabbed the basket raised by the arms.

“There are only two curry breads and I was thinking we could take them for ourselves. What do you think?”

“How about we split one of those and the egg sandwich next to it?”

“Judge,” he said, taking the indicated sandwiches and letting the arms cheerfully continue on toward Honda Futayo. Futayo practically stuck her face into the basket, but she soon raised her head again.

“I am in your debt, Gin-dono!”

“Bean paste isn’t a favorite of mine!”

Oh, I used actual words that time.

But aside from that, she continued the conversation. If the previous discussion was about being in an “on” state…

“We must prepare things so the Vice President and other decision makers within Musashi are free to act.”

So…

“We don’t want to start making preparations only once they make a decision. We need to prepare ourselves so we can take action the instant they ask something of us.”

●

“You say prepare ourselves, but how does that differ from just staying in battle readiness?” asked Noriki.

Naito nodded and shook her hand dismissively.

“That’s good enough for you, Noririn. But there’s more people like me have to do.”

“Yes. Margot and I have to inspect our equipment and then get up in the sky while fully equipped.”

More was demanded of the officers than of the ordinary warriors. Especially in this case. Because…

“We only just finished the Honnouji Incident. Anything could happen now.”

“Right,” replied Narumi. She was looking at a low point in the sky to the northwest. “The conditions are in place for the Battle of Yamazaki where Hashiba pursues Akechi’s forces and slays him to avenge Nobunaga. We need to be ‘on’ at all times.”

“That’s right,” agreed Naito, turning toward Masazumi who would be giving the commands.

And their Vice President avoided their gazes by looking down at a point on the deck.

That was where the Chancellor was fighting over some bread with the arms.

Asama and Mitotsudaira moved to mediate, but Horizon delivered a solid kick from behind.

“Sorry about that, everyone – and especially Masazumi-sama. Please continue.”

How are we supposed to be “on” like this?

–It’s called battle readiness.

Study: About the Iga Crossing

Toori: Sis! Sis! What’s this Iga Crossing thing everyone’s been mentioning lately!? Is it a trial where you walk across chestnut burrs barefoot!?

Kimi: Doing that sounds like it would mess your foot up bad with all the germs.

Toori: Yeah, I really wasn’t looking for a serious response there…

Kimi: Heh heh. Anyway, burrother, the Iga Crossing is simply a retreat across the Iga Region from west to east to reach their base at Okazaki.

Toori: What’s the Iga Region?

Left text: Osaka

Left circle: Sakai

Middle text: Iga

Right text: Mikawa

Right circle: Okazaki

Kimi: The map should clear up that question. It’s the region west of Mikawa and east of Nara. And while it’s called the Iga Crossing, it actually starts further west than that and continues across the bay, but are you familiar with the ninja village?

Toori: Oh, that!? Like the Iga and Koga ninja!?

Kimi: Judge. In the Age of the Gods, a snack based on Karl the Great wasn’t sold in Iga but was sold in Koga, so you could identify a Koga by their knowledge of the flavor and ad jingle.

Toori: Karl the Great sure is…great.

Kimi: Anyway, the Ieyasu group, which was allied with Oda, was traveling from Sakai to Kyou when the Honnouji Incident happened. But when word arrived of Nobunaga’s assassination, they feared they would be attacked by those with a grudge against the Oda clan and decided to retreat to their base of Mikawa.

Toori: What? They made a change of course with no preparation at all?

Kimi: Right. And instead of using the main road, they used smaller roads to stay hidden. Because even the peasants might try to attack them for the reward after learning about the Incident. Ieyasu didn’t have many bodyguards, so there was a higher than usual chance of something happening. And in the Age of the Gods, this became known as one of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s three great crises.

Toori: Cry sis! …Oh, sorry. I just felt like saying that.

Kimi: Heh heh. And I just felt like hearing it.

Toori: But given what happens later, he did make it back alive, right?

Kimi: Judge. But opinions differ on whether he made it back unharmed. Anyway, you can see why the Iga Crossing is an Ieyasu event everyone is looking forward to, can’t you?

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