Horizon:Volume 10B Chapter 30

Chapter 30: Intership Rulers

I only decorate my room

With the bare minimum

So it isn’t a sign of my actual tastes

Don’t you get it?

Point Allocation (Bare Minimum of Taste)

●

Adele listened to the sounds as she ran.

The battlefield was inundated with all sorts of sounds, but some distinctive ones were beginning to arrive from a few locations with enough force for her to notice them.

Impacts. Clashing metal. Roaring wind. The rapid percussion of footwork. And…

“Satomi President!”

Righteousness and the Unambitious mechanical dragon roared by in the air, racing in between the artillery fire. Righteousness was smaller, but the larger mechanical dragon was managing as well.

…Wow…

The mechanical dragon was the real surprise. The Satomi President was a skilled god of war heavy knight and she had proven her worth when they were boarded by the Sanada dragon Kakei Torahide.

She had a way of settling matters with pure skill no matter the size of her opponent.

And that mechanical dragon was keeping up with Yoshiyasu. Its greater size meant the smaller, high-powered Righteousness should have been flying circles around it, but it was keeping up.

Just as Adele realized that was a dangerous opponent, a beam flew in from behind her.

“Oh, whoaaaa!”

While running along the deck, she made a gentle diagonal spin. And just as that replaced her next step, she saw the beam of light shoot past her side and diagonally up into the sky.

It had missed.

…Thank goodness!

Checking the rearview sign frame displaying the scene behind her, she saw Komaoumaru running in from the bow. Her team had to move aside to get out of his way, but the mobile shell animated by a dead spirit did not stop for them.

Adele’s team members watched him pass them by and continued running, without getting too close to him, as they shouted up to her.

“Captain Balfette! I think he likes you!”

“That’s right, captain! I think he sees this as a chase between the two of you!”

“Aren’t you lucky, captain!? All the non-human males can’t contain their love for you!”

“I don’t want love expressed in the form of deadly beams!!”

She resumed her run and opened a sign frame by her hands.

Flat Vassal: “Someone! Someone come up with a solution here!”

Uqui: “Adele, didn’t you imply earlier that you could handle things there? What happened to that?”

Flat Vassal: “Humanity wasn’t meant to handle beams! I know that now!”

Still Got It: “The problem is you’re trying to defeat them. Let them vaporize you and you can calm yourself and go all out. It feels wonderful, I promise.”

She broke the sign frame with her assault spear. She hoped that didn’t qualify as an international incident.

Anyway, she was in serious trouble. As she pulled away from Komaoumaru, it really did feel like two lovers chasing after each other and flirting, but…

“––––”

She briefly dropped her hips when a beam swept through horizontally. After her shin armor slid along the deck and the attack grazed the top of her head, she kicked at the floor with her toes. She leaned her body forward and continued on.

She kept going. She ran. She simply raced forward. And again…

Flat Vassal: “Someone! Someone please come up with a solution!”

Unturning: “Step 1: Equip your Unturning Centipede.”

She broke the sign frame with a dashing headbutt.

●

The vassal is having a rough time, thought Yoshiyasu.

It wasn’t a walk in the park for her either. After all, the red mechanical dragon was quite good.

It knew how to throw itself around. The pilot knew exactly how to fly. Yoshiyasu didn’t know anyone from the Kantou to Tokai area with this level of proficiency.

…If only Houjou had a mechanical dragon force like this.

The Date clan used a dragon as its symbol, but they primarily used gods of war, so she never would have ended up in a battle like this unless she took on Sanada’s dragons.

That said, Kantou’s Far Eastern forces were excellent, so she had fought opponents of this size, even if they didn’t have this much maneuverability.

Namely, aerial ships.

She had fought small and large ones and, while they weren’t “ships”, Houjou used mechanical phoenixes. Looking at their speed and size, those weren’t any less of a threat. So by drawing on her own combat experience against those and the data gathered by the god of war, she knew the basic maneuvers needed here.

She flew.

Satomi’s gods of war were best known for their aerial maneuverability. When intercepting Houjou over Edo Bay, aerial battles were a necessity, which meant high-speed maneuverability.

That was what she did here.

The intership space between the Azuchi and the Musashi was less than 100 meters across. She flew between them and, when necessary, kicked off the decks or armor to make a turn. The two of them attempted to get on the other’s tail, but they also tried to keep their speed up and to not get too closely intertwined.

“Toh!”

Some artillery fire was incoming.

The Musashi and the Azuchi were firing, but the ones from the Azuchi were worse.

Their firing control was probably linked with the mechanical dragon. A few of the shots were clearly targeting her.

…So the Azuchi knows how to fight better than the Musashi!

The Azuchi had built up ample combat experience as P.A. Oda. Operating newly constructed ships with the same level as an experienced ship was one advantage of a nation with plenty of combat experience.

They used all of that to help the mechanical dragon pursue Yoshiyasu here.

It came up behind her.

It was fast. Instead of catching up to her, it felt more like the mechanical dragon flew in all at once.

Yoshiyasu responded by kicking off the Musashi’s port edge to change her course. Then she used the flight device on her back to launch herself straight up.

It was more jumping than flying. She instantaneously changed position and…

“Can you keep up!?”

Below, the mechanical dragon lifted its body and maneuvered as if clinging to the air. The thrusters on the bottom of its torso were directed forward for rapid braking and then…

…Here it comes!

The large thrusters on its wings, which doubled as its forelegs, pointed straight down as it pursued.

An explosion of acceleration light backlit the mechanical dragon as it flew straight up.

It was fast.

The god of war was lighter than the mechanical dragon. The power-to-weight ratio gave Yoshiyasu more instantaneous acceleration.

After flying outside the mechanical dragon’s close range, she should repeat the process to keep an advantageous distance between them, but…

“It’s flying in!”

The mechanical dragon was approaching from below with speed rivaling a mechanical phoenix and maneuverability rivaling a god of war.

●

Nabeshima realized just how terribly calm she was.

She hadn’t been like this during the Keichou Campaign. Then, her body had been wrapped in the exhaustion and activity one associated with the word “battle” and she had been desperate to win.

But not so now. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t feel rushed.

Unambitious was operating correctly. The Ryuuzouji five were assisting her. That didn’t fully explain it, but she had a clear view of what she had to do.

Before, the Satomi god of war had destroyed the Azuchi’s bottom dock. Had her anger over that actually helped calm her? She knew she couldn’t underestimate this opponent’s skill, so she knew she couldn’t afford to rush this. So…

“I will defeat you.”

Her quarry suddenly disappeared.

The Ryuuzouji five shouted “above you, milady!”, so she stood up. And she didn’t actually check to see her opponent overhead. She knew they were up there, so even without looking…

…Toh.

She jumped straight up.

The actual process was a combination of many different actions, but it felt to her like she had simply looked up and jumped.

She knew this action.

What did she need to do for her mechanical dragon to accomplish something here? She felt like she was guiding herself toward the answer as she conveyed it to the mechanical dragon.

…That’s right.

She couldn’t just strive toward her goal. She had to guide and pull herself up toward the goal. That way she was sure to succeed.

“I can see it.”

She had worked out the route to her goal, so she had no reason to doubt.

As she built up smaller successes, the joy of success would ensure she did not stray from her ultimate goal.

Small and unexciting successes were fine with her if they were the shortest route to her goal.

That was the reason.

That was why she was so calm.

She could rejoice at each little success, but achieving her goal came first.

She didn’t want another failure like at the Keichou Campaign. She was through crying and losing. So for now…

…Up there.

She looked up and pursued. She set that as her immediate goal and pulled herself up toward it.

Rise up.

●

…Here it comes!

Yoshiyasu realized just how precise this opponent was. She was impressed.

The pilot was operating something as large as a mechanical dragon, but what hesitation and aberration existed were accounted for in her calculations. Yoshiyasu couldn’t be certain, but she guessed that Nabeshima Naoshige sat in the cockpit fully calm.

She predicted where Yoshiyasu would go, calculated out the shortest route to reach that point, and then followed the path laid out before her.

Doing that required something: experience.

Once you had traveled a path, you would no longer hesitate on it. Similarly, once you had experienced something once, you would no longer hesitate when doing it again and you would find the way back easier too.

That was true of all things.

It was true of piloting a god of war and it was true of piloting a mechanical dragon.

“So you’ve built up enough of it.”

Yoshiyasu had seen the records of the Keichou Campaign. That had been a Satomi history recreation, so she had searched out as much of the Satomi-side combat records as she could get her hands on.

The battle between Nabeshima Naoshige’s mechanical dragon and the Hexagone Française gods of war had been most enlightening.

Unambitious’s estimated specs had been quite accurate. That was why she had managed to dive in and destroy the dock immediately after fighting.

But there had been no sense of calm there.

…Because of summer break?

As if grazing the nose of the mechanical dragon flying up toward her, Yoshiyasu jumped over its face and flew back behind it. And…

“––––”

The dragon pitched in midair. From its vertical ascent, it made a pitchwise pivot turn around its head as if the air toward its belly were a wall. But before that clockwise motion could reach vertical, it stopped at 9 o’clock.

…Here it comes.

And it did.

With no wasted motion, the red mechanical dragon rapidly switched goals in its pursuit.

●

Nabeshima concentrated.

She controlled Unambitious, switching from one necessary maneuver to the next, updating the small goals needed to reach her big goal, and even adjusting that big goal when necessary.

The battlefield was on the move.

So she played it by ear, not lingering on each individual success or failure and always moving on to the next.

…Always forward!

She thought one and even two moves ahead.

She could see her goal and could calculate back from there.

So as she adjusted her predictions on the fly, she began thinking less about what she could do now and more about doing now what would be necessary in the future.

That kind of preparation was only possible when she could predict what was to come.

This improved her course adjustments more than anything else.

If she had to make a turn up ahead, she could begin turning now to shorten the time and distance that would take.

So…

“I can close in on her!”

She slipped between the artillery fire and kicked off defense barriers or accelerated in pursuit of the enemy.

That enemy was the Satomi Student Council President. Although Nabeshima had heard she was mainly calling herself the Satomi Chancellor now.

But that title came from…

“Our failure during the Keichou Campaign!”

Nabeshima would avenge the defeat that had brought her to tears back then. So…

“I will catch up!”

●

…I will catch up!

Nabeshima’s goal filled her clear mind.

Her greatest goal was to catch up to the Satomi President’s god of war.

That would require moving in close.

Her immediate goal was to ascend.

That meant facing up.

So while doing so, she poured on further ascension.

And she pursued.

Her next goal was to take the best course to start closing in on her opponent’s continuous flight.

But no matter how many feints her opponent made, she would settle on a single course in the end.

So Nabeshima averaged together the god of war’s feint courses to reach a single course. Then she tentatively sent her mechanical dragon along that course.

She flew.

The god of war must have realized the feints weren’t working because it accelerated to Nabeshima’s right.

To the right. And back behind Nabeshima.

Behind her. Preventing the god of war from circling around her like that became her next goal.

She moved.

She blasted the large thruster on her left foreleg. Then she opened the brake panels on her right side to air brake. This spun the mechanical dragon around its right foreleg, automatically turning it towards the god of war.

Her gaze pursued. Her body spun.

And she again reset her goal to catching up.

She pursued the enemy as she rotated.

The god of war just barely entered her spinning view. From the right.

She reacted by moving forward. She ended her spin and flew forward.

She simply moved forward in pursuit, confident she had closed in on her opponent.

“Go!”

She had captured the god of war in the center of her view.

She was clearly on course to achieve her major objective.

●

…She’s closing in so carefully!

Yoshiyasu realized just how skilled her opponent was.

The mechanical dragon was not moving like an expert. An expert could eliminate the unnecessary back-and-forth, creating a course that only benefited them.

But at the same time, this mechanical dragon was beyond the level of common.

This was someone who was building up experience on the way to achieving expertise.

Yoshiyasu knew she had to be the same.

Nabeshima Naoshige was a first year. That meant she was growing faster than a second year like Yoshiyasu.

…I see.

The Kantou Liberation.

The records Yoshiyasu had received told of Nabeshima’s battle at the Miura Peninsula. That battle had changed her.

She had abandoned her momentum-focused fighting style and shifted to a calm focus on victory.

…It’s ironic really.

She had lost to gods of war piloted by automata. Automata always made the best and most optimal moves, so they piloted gods of war in the same way.

After losing to them, Nabeshima had adopted that same sensibility.

But what about Yoshiyasu?

She honestly hadn’t reached the point Nabeshima had. She simply rushed toward whatever opportunity she saw before her eyes and made whatever choices presented themselves afterwards.

She was great at ad libbing, but she couldn’t really help that.

Her training partners had been too good and too bad at the same time.

After all, they had been her sister and Yoshiyori. Her sister had been strict with her own and Yoshiyori had simply been strong. She had said goodbye before she could even imagine a way of defeating them and she still struggled to imagine the scene.

If either of them had achieved expertise, she thought it had to be Nabeshima. She must have still had vivid memories of going through intense training in an environment well suited for her.

That was best.

But what about Yoshiyasu? She had lost her environment, all of her training was based on that environment, and her memories of it had grown hazy.

But, she thought.

…I do have the skills to get by.

She had learned that in her battle against Konishi during the Kantou Liberation. She thought of herself as poor at fighting, but when it came to the skills needed to survive and snatch away victory…

“I endured my sister and Yoshiyori.”

That wasn’t something to be proud of, but it had made her who she was. She couldn’t deny that.

She would endure and never let a chance at victory get away.

If her opponent was on the path to expertise, she would leap over that side path. And to do that…

“Here goes.”

Ignoring school year and social status, she faced this as a challenger.

●

“Oh?” Narumi heard him say.

They were at the cargo port on Takao’s stern. With his healing and repairs complete, he had been looking up into the sky, observing and reporting on the artillery fire and density coming from the Azuchi, but now…

“Entering Osaka Bay seemed to give the Satomi President and her opponent a burst of energy.”

“Maybe the weight of the air changed.”

“Perhaps the space feels larger without the terrain below.”

Even as she listened to him, long roars of acceleration passed from stern to bow. There were two in all, but the leading one used four main thrusters while the pursuer had two primary power sources with eight main class thrusters.

…Does that mean the Satomi President is being pursued?

Narumi had known Yoshiyasu a long time and that didn’t seem like her, but that mechanical dragon was quite good.

“The thruster sounds are linking together. She isn’t rushing the switchover.”

“She would have more freedom if she moved away from the Azuchi and Musashi. I suppose she hasn’t figured that out yet,” he said. “But while the mechanical dragon’s flight is as precise as a needle sewing together two pieces of cloth, the god of war is rushing more. How long she can endure the exhaustion will determine the outcome for the Satomi President.”

●

The mechanical dragon set achieving an advantageous position as its goal.

The god of war used its acceleration to change position and endured.

The mechanical dragon set pursuit as its goal.

The god of war used its acceleration to change position and endured.

The mechanical dragon set not hesitating as its goal. It set predicting the god of war’s path as its goal.

The god of war used a rapid ascent to lure in its opponent and endured.

The mechanical dragon set pursuit as its goal. It set instantly changing course and ascending as its goal.

The god of war leaped up along a rapid forward course and endured.

The god of war accelerated.

The mechanical dragon set accelerating forward during its ascent as its goal.

The god of war accelerated.

The mechanical dragon set acceleration as its goal.

The god of war accelerated.

The mechanical dragon accelerated.

●

Nabeshima closed in.

She layered goal atop goal, pursued, and realized she was slowly but surely following the process needed to achieve her major goal.

…I’m so close!

Not in terms of distance.

In terms of the process.

Even when her opponent pulled away, she had things set up so a small process was enough to catch back up. So more than closing in in terms of distance, she had control over her opponent’s position and timing.

No matter how far away her opponent got, she could close back in on her with only two or three steps of her process.

This was not like the Keichou Campaign.

Back then, she had only closed in in terms of distance.

She had not done so in terms of the process needed to reach victory.

That had changed. But when had it changed? During the summer training camp? No, it was before that.

“When I cried!”

●

Nabeshima’s mechanical dragon pursued. It was slowly but surely closing in.

Meanwhile, Yoshiyasu simply increased her speed. But…

…I can’t match her top speed!

She could practically feel her opponent moving in to “grasp” victory.

That opponent seemed calm, but she carried a powerful obsession toward her goal of victory.

She was the kind of person who could still look up to her role models.

Could Yoshiyasu never catch up to her sister, Yoshiyori, or the others no matter how much she fought?

There was a reason she suspected so. Yatsufusa. She had left it with Musashi’s engine room’s god of war maintenance division and it was now stored in the large hangar being carried to Sanuki. That and Murasamemaru under its management.

Only a proper Chancellor and Student Council President for Satomi could combine with and use them. That god of war and sword still rejected her after the Kantou Liberation.

They would start up, but the check booted her out. Since that was the result of the checker activating, Engine Room Chief Taizou had offered to try to locate and remove the checker, but if the OS relied on it, Yatsufusa might stop working altogether. And the same would happen to Murasamemaru since it was managed by Yatsufusa.

So that wasn’t an option.

The symbol of the Satomi Chancellor refused to recognize her. However, that fact didn’t bother her all that much.

…If this is just my lot in life, then so be it.

It had become normal for her to think of herself as not having reached her sister and Yoshiyori’s level.

She did think she had nearly equaled them in results, position, and status.

But those things weren’t everything. She had trouble verbalizing it, but she felt like she lacked something a Chancellor or Student Council President was supposed to have.

And something else had occurred to her lately.

…Is my way of being Chancellor and President different from my sister and Yoshiyori’s way?

Was that an excuse?

Did these thoughts come from her wanting a way out of thinking she wasn’t doing as well as them and hadn’t reached their level? It would be pathetic if so, but something else had occurred to her during the Kantou Liberation and the Siege of Odawara.

Her sword style did not come from herself, but it also wasn’t her sister’s or Yoshiyori’s.

It looked like her own personal style, but it inherited her sister and Yoshiyori’s movements while also acquiring something in opposition of those two.

In that case, she thought as she used her flight device to race between the artillery fire and defense barriers and asked a question of the mechanical dragon in pursuit of her.

“If I adapt to you, will that too become part of my style?”

●

Yoshiyasu accelerated.

She swung Righteousness around in a wrapping way and kicked off defense barriers to turn in an attempt to move toward the mechanical dragon.

Her speed would determine if the move was decisive.

But as she made a series of short accelerated turns to circle around, the mechanical dragon reacted.

Its thrusters were in its forelegs.

It began with great speed that seemed to drag the full machine forward, but after reaching its top speed, it was a little on the slower side. It was better suited for a midair dogfight or a frenzied battle between two ships like this than a large battle in the wide open sky.

When fighting on the ground, the records said it could blast its thrusters to accelerate kicks with its forelegs and to move around quickly.

In other words, this was its stage.

Yoshiyasu was at the disadvantage and the only area where she had the upper hand was in combat experience.

And their fighting styles were fundamentally different.

The opponent looked ahead to victory while Yoshiyasu prioritized enduring.

The mechanical dragon flew in. Predicting her attempt to gain a better position, it moved to prevent that.

How cautious, she thought.

“Time to do this.”

Their courses intertwined at high speed, neither of them decelerating at all.

●

The mechanical dragon set defeating the god of war as its goal.

The god of war accelerated to endure the mechanical dragon.

●

Nabeshima looked out ahead while picturing herself with her palms held together.

This wasn’t about the mechanical dragon’s wings or her own hands.

It was a mental image of her methods reaching her ultimate goal.

All of her actions and concentration were directed toward catching the god of war in the center of her field of view.

No matter how much she maneuvered.

No matter how much she accelerated.

No matter how much she fought.

She always held the path to success in her hand.

…Good.

This was good. It would work. It was good and she wanted it.

Each time she maneuvered.

Each time she accelerated.

Each time she fought.

The success in her hand grew to the point that she now felt like she was holding it in her arms.

A tremor ran through her.

Even with success in her hand, a certain thought filled her mind.

…I want to win.

She doubted she was being careless. In fact, she still hadn’t fully formed the process inside herself. To the point that it all felt kind of slapdash. She had gained a lot of knowledge through speaking with the Sanada Terrestrial Dragons from morning to dusk and they had said she mustn’t skip the middle steps.

But even that would be over soon.

“Damn.”

What a waste.

Once she acquired the success in her hand, this would be over. Of course, she didn’t know for sure she could acquire it, but it would be over whether she did or not.

She would know once the process was complete.

She would know if she would succeed or fail.

But she wanted that answer. Instead of enjoying this or rejoicing in it, she wished for this moment, this situation.

That wish would come true. So…

“–––––”

God of war. Satomi President. No, you’re Chancellor now, aren’t you?

Maneuver for me.

Accelerate for me.

Fight for me.

Come at me with everything you have so I can see how far my process takes me and just how many processes I can boast. But…

“Yes.”

Why are you going that way? That acceleration won’t work on me anymore. My process has already surpassed you. So…

“What a waste.”

But it was over. She would end it out of respect for the process she had fully built up within herself.

●

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”

Nabeshima allowed herself to raise her voice.

This was her first time roaring since she shouted inside her mechanical dragon as it tumbled through the sea in the early morning of the Keichou Campaign.

It was drowned out by the noise dragon’s mechanical sounds and the roar of the air arriving through the armor, but it definitely reverberated through her entire body.

Immediately, she used her thrusters to charge at the god of war dead ahead.

Direct hit.

●

Nabeshima saw the mechanical dragon’s nose shatter the blue armor.

But she shouted at the impact she felt, the shape of the metal scattering in the image from the sight devices, and the additional data coming in.

“No!”

This was not the god of war itself. She had seen this method before. This was…

“The purged flight device!”

The enemy god of war…

…Made me charge at it!!

Using her dragon cannon or secondary cannons at this speed would stall her out. Aware of that, the enemy had lured her up to a speed that ultimately gave her an advantage and then created a situation where a tackle would work best.

Then the enemy abandoned the flight device on her back and had Nabeshima hit it.

The flight device was a decoy. Nabeshima still didn’t know when the next attack would come, but…

“I know it’s coming!”

She could do that much. She had seen this before, which provided her with the necessary experience. She wouldn’t let her guard down this time. So she looked out ahead. After passing through the broken component, she looked for the falling god of war.

…There it is!

The god of war was aiming a weapon this way.

A rifle. It was a collapsible pseudo-anti-ship gun.

This was the first Nabeshima had seen of that. It must have been hidden behind the flight device.

The enemy must have thought she couldn’t react if she hadn’t seen it before.

“I know that weapon!”

The Keichou Campaign had ultimately been decided by the pseudo-anti-ship gun used by Hexagone Française Head Maid Hoida Motokiyo’s god of war.

Guns were better than blades for a god of war battling a mechanical dragon.

So even if the Satomi President’s primary weapon was a sword, Nabeshima had predicted she would be carrying an anti-warship gun for use against mechanical dragons.

The blue god of war had readied the collapsible gun with a single flash of sparks and now had its muzzle aimed Nabeshima’s way.

Too slow.

Why was that too slow?

“Because this is the battlefield!!”

A moment later, the blue god of war was blasted to the side.

By an artillery shot from the Azuchi.

●

“Stayyyyyy focussssssed!!”

In the fire control center below the bridge, Asano shouted up to the high-speed battle in the sky.

Everyone else in the 90-degree tilted room turned her way, but she didn’t care. This battle was all about the Special Duty Officer class fighters using their best weapons to take air superiority for their side. Leaving any enemy undefeated could allow the god of war to reclaim the sky and put the Azuchi at risk.

…Iiit would be niiice if they let us do thaaat.”

Yes, the reverse would be nice.

After all, the god of war had abandoned its flight device. What was she thinking? Even if she defeated Nabeshima, she wouldn’t be able to hold onto air superiority.

She was ad libbing and living in the moment a little too much.

Asano didn’t think Nabeshima had let her guard down against this opponent.

Inside the fire control center, Asano was in charge of syncing everything with Unambitious’s movements.

Knowing where she had to “place” the many attacks, she set it all up.

This was an adaptation of what Mochizuki had taught her at Sanada. Just like traps, artillery fire could act as a diversion and keeping it up would boost the odds of success. By further managing it to mix up the timing and direction, she could boost those odds even more. So that just left…

“Calculaaations.”

Each individual attack was weak, but the accumulation was what mattered. And…

“Nabe-saaan!”

Unambitious accelerated and dove toward the scattering enemy.

The main sign frame, which was opened large and tilted at 90 degrees, applied brightness amplification to clearly show the mechanical dragon rushing toward the falling god of war.

It was on its way.

●

…Buuut this iiisn’t over yeeet!

Asano had shouted for the charging mechanical dragon to stay focused.

That enemy was the Satomi President.

They hadn’t met or spoken with her. She may have been on the deck when they landed on the Musashi to refuel, but that didn’t count.

They didn’t know each other.

But Asano knew of her.

“Satomi Yoshiyasu!”

She had only learned of her recently.

Only after their defeat at the Keichou Campaign had they looked up information on the winner.

Sanada had plenty of documents on Kantou. Hashiba had stored records related to the progression of the Keichou Campaign and they had been able to access the parts related to themselves via the divine net as long as they submitted a request.

Asano excelled at gathering relevant information from records like that. Nabeshima hadn’t seemed all that interested in reading it at first, but at some point a change had come over her.

“That Satomi girl has been through a lot…”

That was all she said.

But she had changed. She had started joining Asano in reading through it.

They couldn’t experience the same hard times, but how much could they make this one defeat into their own hardship? And how much valuable could they make the hard work of their summer training camp?

In a way, this battle felt like a way of showing the Satomi President how much they had grown.

They had gnashed their teeth, wept, and raged, but how could they strike back at that battle now?

“Nabe-saaan!” shouted Asano. “Secondary cannon volley!”

●

I thought you weren’t going to hold back, thought Nabeshima as she accelerated and added to the artillery fire.

The enemy was falling, taking fire, and losing armor while Nabeshima charged down toward her and hit her with a volley of secondary cannons.

The god of war’s speed was dropping, but it no longer had its main thrust system. One of the secondary wings at its hip seemed dead. All she could do now was control the course of her fall. Nabeshima had to make sure she didn’t accidentally overshoot her as she fired her…

“Secondary cannons!”

The mechanical dragon was the same size as a light warship. But the movable range of the parts and the need to reduce resistance during flight meant it couldn’t carry that many secondary cannons and their size was limited.

That was thanks to its largest cannon: the dragon cannon. The secondary ones were primarily anti-personnel weapons or used to destroy enemy shells and defense barriers, so they weren’t primary weapons.

But this was an exception.

She would win this.

The dragon cannon left her wide open to attack. Currently, she was holding off on using it until she had some distance between them and could use it as a finishing blow.

A collision would be more certain.

However, that required stripping the enemy of her maneuverability. Of her sub-thrusters, she still had one of the thruster wings on her hips. Plus…

“She isn’t falling!?”

Asano’s coordinated artillery fire from the Azuchi should have been a surprise.

But the blue god of war remained intact. The falling god of war had lost some armor from its left shoulder and side since that side was directed toward the Azuchi, but the secondary armor below was bent but not broken.

…Did she dodge it!?

No, that wasn’t it. This was the enemy’s unique trait.

“Did she endure it!?”

●

…Not yet!

Yoshiyasu had not fully endured it. She told herself now was the time to bear with it.

She stopped her respiration.

Even when combined with the god of war, her body’s biological functions were virtually reproduced by substitute functions and spells. Respiration was mostly handled by the air intake and exhaust systems and the voice devices, but she had shut those off for now.

That wasn’t actually necessary to help her concentrate, but it was useful as a ritual.

By shutting off the extraneous things inside her, she could push the god of war’s reactions to their top speed.

The cannon blast from the side had been bad.

It had been wholly unexpected, so she had Righteousness’s sensors to thank for picking it up. Her past combat experience had it automatically detect the approach of any flying object, allowing her to make a decision.

That it had given her a chance to make a decision meant it could also skip past her input in an emergency. That was why experts would probably operate it entirely manually, but she didn’t do that.

Because a lot had been left in her care.

She hadn’t reached her sister or Yoshiyori’s level, but she had been left with even more than they had. That had begun with Houjou Genan’s death had been confirmed and it had likely been set in stone when she spoke with the Musashi Representative Committee Head in the park after the battle.

She had to survive.

That was not in conflict with enduring, so she knew what choice to make.

She would endure even if it meant not getting to make a decision.

And that was what happened.

“Now, then,” she said without breathing.

She was inside her god of war. The virtual space contained within her mind appeared as a small room to her.

The room was poorly lit and had weapons and books stacked up all around her. In there, she was below the loft that acted as her bed and viewing a wide-range sign frame displaying the view outside. She had her right hand resting on her cross-legged lap and her left hand on her chin in a thoughtful pose.

She would ordinarily open control sign frames on her limbs and operate Righteousness.

Combining with the machine made her feel like they were one and the same. But that would create discrepancies in the length and speed of different body parts and she would lose objectivity.

That was the point of this place.

But for now, this was all there was.

The combination had been temporarily severed, meaning she could only control the god of war with the signals sent from here.

Righteousness had forced her into this situation.

…Because the damage feels like it’s happening to me when I’m combined.

To keep her from panicking, her virtually recreated body would react when it was hit. So Righteousness had her stay here until the spells and program had made the necessary adjustments.

But…

…There isn’t enough time.

Her thoughts were being adjusted to match the god of war’s processing speed.

While piloting, that generally meant 5 to 30 times normal, but it could be dragged up to nearly 1000 times when necessary.

The limit there had been removed and it had been dragged up to 10,000 times, bringing it nearly to the danger zone.

The situation might require she eject, so Righteousness was not holding back.

She thought it was a well-made god of war.

But while this meant she now had ten thousand seconds for each second that passed in the outside world, her brain couldn’t withstand it for long.

Righteousness had chosen to do it, yet it displayed a warning this would only last about “180 seconds”.

In the approximately three minutes she had in this time, she needed to decide what to do about this. But…

…I have to make predictions.

With her reaction speed boosted this far, any decision she made was more about prediction than reaction.

She would like to respond at 800x speed afterwards, but the god of war had taken so much damage it might not make the speed switch in time.

So she had to predict as much as she could before making her decision.

What would the mechanical dragon do? She couldn’t imagine. But she did now…

“I’ve taken damage.”

Righteousness’s automatic evasive reactions had activated, avoiding a direct hit by the shell.

Or more accurately, Righteousness had intentionally purged its left shoulder armor to hit the shell and divert its path.

She again appreciated how well-made a god of war it was, but to perform an action outside the basic automatic evasive maneuvers required reproducing an appropriate maneuver from the pilot’s combat experience.

…Did I do that in the past?

It seemed too dangerous. Am I stupid? she wondered, but if Righteousness had used it, it must have rated it highly, so maybe she shouldn’t be so hard on herself? No, it still seems too dangerous. In other words, am I stupid?

Regardless, she had avoided the greatest risk at the cost of nearly all of her left side’s armor. The primary frame remained intact. The left arm frame’s elbow could barely move, so she was glad she had asked the engine room’s maintenance team to adjust the movable range of all the moving parts. At the very least, she had had it all relax at the moment the impact her her shoulder, the equal freedom of movement in each joint allowing the damage to escape.

That just left…

“This.”

The enemy’s attack.

She could tell some things in this nearly frozen moment.

First, her opponent was charging toward her.

Second, her opponent felt safe enough to fire her dragon cannon.

Third, her opponent was launching a volley of secondary cannons, knowing it would make her stall.

So if Yoshiyasu could endure the secondary cannons, either she would be allowed to go or she would be hit by either the charge or the dragon cannon.

The immediate problem was the number and angle of the secondary cannons.

After using the number of incoming projectiles to determine the number of guns that had approached within firing range, she used her virtual body to take the same pose as the god of war and lay down on the tatami mat floor.

“Yes.”

…I would be stooping to the Musashi Vice President’s level if I said this makes me Yoshi-yes-u.

Did that thought mean she had managed to calm herself?

Then Righteousness sent over a sign frame.

<Left Arm Elbow Damage – Medium – Movement Range Restriction – Confirmed>

<Left Arm Wrist Damage – Medium – Movement Range Restriction – Confirmed>

<Left Vision Adjustment – Light – Recovering Focus Function>

More similar notifications of damage and injury to different body parts appeared, but at the end…

<Combination Privilege Restoration – Do You Accept? Y / N>

She didn’t hesitate to press Y. Righteousness had to understand this battle was dangerous. One of the standard messages passed down from the Age of the Gods appeared.

She read it.

“Activating ‘Full Barrel Open’ to respond to the enemy force. Beginning counterattack.”

●

Nabeshima gathered strength in her hands.

Both in her real hands and in the mechanical dragon’s forelegs. She pictured herself grasping success. But it was…

…Hard!

It was fully in her hands and only some light leaked out from between her fingers, but she couldn’t close her hands. Was the power within resisting, or was she afraid?

“Kh…”

She fired her secondary cannons. Unambitious’s auto-tracking accurately sent out the shells. But…

“it won’t go down!!”

The god of war had changed its stance.

Instead of just falling, it directed the soles of its feet toward her to reduce the area exposed to her fire. And to avoid losing any toes, the heels were pushed out toward her and opened up to fire shells and provide resistance. Its shin and knee armor was used to deflect and scatter the secondary cannon projectiles.

Some did hit of course. But they only tore away armor and exterior components. The one surviving secondary thruster shifted its position slightly to avoid a critical hit.

…She’s tough!

Nabeshima had honestly thought she could just ignore her. Let her go.

But that opponent remained intact and still had a sub thruster. If she used her falling speed to escape here, she could become a threat later on. So…

“I won’t give up!”

Just as Nabeshima shouted that, something fell past her face.

A weapon.

The object that fell straight down and into a pair of god of war hands was…

“The pseudo-anti-ship cannon!”

●

Nabeshima realized the one trick the enemy could have set up.

…She threw her rifle into the air the instant Asano’s coordinated artillery hit her!

She didn’t know if the god of war had done so automatically or if the Satomi President had done it manually, but it fell straight down and arrived undamaged in the god of war’s hands.

The muzzle was aimed up at Nabeshima.

“Milady!” shouted the Four Heavenly Kings of Ryuuzouji just as she made up her mind.

“Dragon cannon!”

She would fire. But not at full power. That would create an opening and be overkill.

She would forcibly end the blast midway and change position, not giving the enemy time to set up another trick.

That would likely burn out the mechanical dragon’s interior, but it was worth it to take this opponent. So the instant after firing the dragon cannon would be the…

“Time to finish this!”

●

Asano saw a light vertically pierce the sky on the control center’s main lernen figur.

That was a dragon cannon.

The beam with a diameter of around 20m instantly thrust downwards, but…

“Good ooone!”

Stopping it partway through was a good decision.

A dragon cannon was overkill against a god of war and to make matters more certain…

“You caaan’t charge in when you caaan’t see your oppooonent!”

Nabeshima could use her secondary cannons, so she didn’t need to blindly charge in and approach the enemy.

Maybe it didn’t look good, but if she wanted to guarantee her victory, she had to aim for the lingering light of the dragon cannon and…

“Fire a secondary cannon volley!!”

Just as Asano raised her voice, she saw the mechanical dragon on the lernen figur move.

It spread its forelegs to secure its position in midair. And then…

…Yes!

Unambitious aimed its secondary cannons toward the lingering light below and launched its metal projectiles.

●

She did it, thought Asano.

The dragon cannon’s light still lingered in the air. The hit god of war was scattered within that light and its steel body was finally struck by the rapid blows of Unambitious’s secondary cannons.

Nabeshima stayed outside her opponent’s range, but that was fine. After all, this opponent could endure.

To keep her from enduring, it was best to make sure that enemy couldn’t touch her.

That opponent only had one secondary thruster still functioning. The best option was to chew that up with secondary cannon fire and, if she still tried to fight back, hit her with a dragon cannon and settle things with more secondary cannon fire.

Nabeshima must have had the same idea.

Her victory was assured. The method Nabeshima had chosen wasn’t typical for a mechanical dragon, but…

… Good one!

Just as Asano was confident Nabeshima had won, she saw something.

A figure was standing up within the scattering light and lingering light below the mechanical dragon.

“What?”

Something was there that shouldn’t have been.

The Satomi President’s god of war was located directly below Unambitious.

It was damaged, pieces of its armor were missing, and its external components had been destroyed.

But it was intact.

The blue god of war stood in the night sky with all its main parts.

●

How? wondered Nabeshima, eyes wide.

The god of war was there. The Satomi President’s blue craft was below her with some armor missing.

No, she thought.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t below her. It was about two steps closer to her belly than it had been when she fired her dragon cannon.

…How?

Then she noticed the light at the god of war’s feet.

She knew what that pale light was.

“A Far Eastern defense barrier!!”

The blue craft stood on footing created by stacking several torii-style sign frames.

The enemy had coordinated with the Musashi to escape Nabeshima’s dragon cannon.

●

The Musashino bridge was full of automata, but it was filled with an air of relief.

While they all seemed to relax, “Musashino” spoke.

“I am glad we made it in time. But I have to say this was surprising. Who would think…”

Who would think…

“That Yoshiyasu-sama would ask us for assistance? Would this be the first time she has asked for someone to intervene in one of her battles? Over.”

●

“Is it?” said Suzu as she inserted defense barriers below the model Righteousness’s feet. “We’ve fought together…plenty of times before.”

Yoshiyasu was always saving them.

Suzu thought of her as a reliable ally. But…

“Maybe she used to do everything on her own…but not anymore. If she were alone…she wouldn’t have been able to liberate Kantou. So…”

So…

“So Yoshiyasu-san understands. She knows that…she can ask for help…when it really matters and she can’t do it on her own.”

Yoshiyasu had sent word just before she was hit by the Azuchi’s artillery. Suzu didn’t really understand it, but apparently god of war pilots could enter a state of highly concentrated time and she had sent the text from there.

“Give me a platform.”

That was all.

But it was enough. Because she knew Musashi would respond.

And once they responded, she would use that response to claim victory.

They had that bond of trust. So Suzu had created the platform and hurriedly applied it several times over.

She accurately prepared the platform 20cm to the side of the dragon cannon.

Far Eastern defense barriers were the damping type, so they wouldn’t break until they had received a set amount of damage. Since the start of the Iga Crossing, Yoshiyasu had used defense barrier platforms like this to save the people thrown off the ship. That had to have been her inspiration.

“Yoshiyasu-san.”

Suzu spoke her name before moving a certain model.

The mechanical dragon that had fired its dragon cannon and was now firing its secondary cannons. It was heavy and its falling speed had been reduced by the recoil of its various cannons, but it still had the speed it had used to pursue Righteousness.

Its body was extended vertically after firing the dragon cannon. So…

“Go!”

●

Nabeshima saw something as she poured power into the foreleg thrusters to evade.

She saw the unarmed blue god of war draw a blade against her as she fell.

…Where did she have that equipped!?

The sheath had been destroyed along with its connector unit. She had been holding it during the aerial battle afterwards, but she had switched to wielding the pseudo-anti-ship cannon after abandoning her flight unit.

What had changed between then and now?

“The secondary thruster!”

One of the secondary thrusters equipped on the god of war’s hip wings had stopped moving. That hadn’t been the result of Asano’s artillery fire.

…Did she sacrifice it by stabbing her sword into it!?

That was insane.

It must have been an ad lib, but one she had deemed necessary at the time. You could say her refusal to abandon her sword showed some forethought, but it had still been a horrendous choice to make.

The same was true of throwing her rifle into the air and catching it again.

Either she had decided it was worth doing at the time, or the god of war had automatically chosen that as the optimal answer based on her past actions.

But in either case, it was too reckless.

It was the result of short-term thinking. She was only considering what would get her through her immediate bind and hoping she could immediately retrieve the weapon.

And yet…

“––––”

Unambitious’s foreleg thrusters shined bright in an attempt to evade. But it wasn’t enough.

It had extended its body for the dragon cannon, but it couldn’t pull itself back soon enough.

Nabeshima had dived toward her opponent with all her weight and speed.

But the god of war had a fixed altitude thanks to the damping gravity barrier platform it had used to avoid the dragon cannon, and it had also drawn its sword.

Their positions meant the mechanical dragon was approaching the god of war and it was exposing its extended belly to that opponent.

“Reached you,” said Nabeshima, trying to aim her secondary cannons toward the god of war.

She worked the controls, throwing her entire body into evasion.

“And I won’t give up!”

A moment later, as the god of war passed by, it swung its sword up from below.

The blade, nearly as long as the god of war was tall, drew out an arc and sliced into the bottom of the mechanical dragon’s throat.

“No matter what!!”

The mechanical dragon’s own momentum bisected its underside from throat to hip.

●

Yoshiyasu watched the great mass fall before her eyes.

Mechanical dragons contained a lot of internal pressure. Following the cut, its lubrication, circulation, and fuel systems violently ruptured, triggering further small explosions across its body. Each part was quickly shut down to seal and cut off the fluids, but…

“That dragon can no longer manage combat maneuvering.”

Slicing the throat prevented it from firing a dragon cannon. The main thrusters on its wings were off limits thanks to slicing through its underside. If it tried, its entire body would rupture.

The battle was over. This battle anyway. And Yoshiyasu realized something.

…Defense barriers.

Defense barriers had opened around her, stopping several bullets.

The mechanical dragon had fired its secondary cannons at the last second, but additional defense barriers sent by the Musashino bridge had kept them form hitting her.

She hadn’t asked for that. It must have been a free service.

Below, she saw an especially bright flash of light and heard an explosion. The mechanical dragon’s rear thrusters had exploded.

“So I endured. No, I was saved.”

Even as she spoke, the defense barriers below her feet broke and vanished.

“––––”

This was a combat airspace, but a transport ship had arrived below to retrieve her.

She used her remaining thruster to descend just a bit slower than free fall even as she realized she could remain on the battlefield.

…Well, that’s nothing new.

It was in her nature to not see this as a win. But she had relied on others this time. To show her appreciation to them, she raised her voice.

“The enemy commander Nabeshima Naoshige has been defeated!!”

●

“She seems to be doing well,” muttered Naomasa amid the wind and noise.

They were currently sending out the transport ships docked with the Musashi or stored within it.

She was letting the others handle the adjustments in the engine room while she operated one of the transport ships.

She stood on its deck and guided it along a safe route below or between the Musashi’s ships.

Moving up into the sky or to the outer edge of the ships would place her in the battlefield. Even with combat armor installed and defense barrier capability, moving out front would be a bad idea unless she wanted to act as a shield.

…Besides, this artillery fire is a real pain to deal with.

The Azuchi’s attack was cleverly done.

Reports from a few different battlefields said the Azuchi’s artillery would change depending on how it was being guided. Instead of simply destroying or controlling crucial locations, the artillery would work in coordination to defeat several different points.

The skill of the artillery here proved that to be true.

The Musashi was responding, but the Azuchi’s artillery would alter its density between different points as if toying with them. This acted as a feint or diversion, so the Azuchi’s fire control had to be commanded by personnel with some kind of special spell or training.

So Naomasa had to respond.

The locations being targeted were at risk. Dedicating personnel to intercept the artillery fire was a loss in and of itself, plus it probably wouldn’t be all that effective.

So instead of fighting back from the areas being targeted, the Musashino bridge had decided it was better to let the defense barriers handle it.

With the Musashino bridge focusing on defense in those places, those who needed to fight could continue doing so in positions that gave them an advantage.

Musashino: “This is damage control. By compensating for those important points, we can continue fighting. Over.”

Masazumi and Neshinbara had agreed to the tactic suggested by the Musashino bridge.

Novice: “The Musashi has already entered Osaka Bay. Instead of placing our people where we are hurting the most, we should place them where they will have the greatest advantage. That will provide a better message for the Europeans watching.”

Art-Ga: “Ohh, that’s the thought process of the kind of guy who makes a big pile of the book that isn’t selling at the event.”

Naomasa didn’t quite follow, but apparently that was how it worked.

Anyway, it was just about time they settled things with the Azuchi. Their lives would matter most then, so people had to be evacuated from the areas deemed dangerous.

…And if it comes to it, they need to be evacuated to another ship or location entirely.

That was why she was arranging the transport ships. They were also carrying supplies and materials, but they held a different meaning for her.

“There you are.”

She looked down from the transport ship’s deck.

Shells were crisscrossing and defense barriers shattering down below. She was used to all the noise now. A spell made an adjustment as the cacophony rattled her body.

Her attention was on the opponent her eyes had landed on.

“I was waiting.”

The black god of war was Hidamari Genbu, one of the Four Sacred Beasts.

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