Horizon:Volume 10B Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Announcer at the Wedge Point

That which wasn’t there

In the beginning

That which could have been

After the end

Point Allocation (Reversal)

●

“The Musashi vanished!? Shaja!”

“Azuchi” immediately had all the ships search for the Musashi.

It wasn’t there.

It should have been below them, crushed and submerged when the Azuchi arrived. They had definitely observed the Musashi’s initial movement.

Yet when they rapidly descended on the indicated location…

…It isn’t there!?

Those colossal eight ships were gone. They detected no readings on the ether, optical, and auditory scans.

This was odd.

The two ships had started at about the same time. The Azuchi had backed up when sparks flew from Musashino’s bridge, but they had caught up right away.

Yet they had fully lost track of the Musashi.

The only way for that to happen was for the Musashi to change course and withdraw to the left or right.

But that shouldn’t have been possible with the Azuchi’s port and starboard ships surrounding it. It shouldn’t have been possible for the Musashi to escape to the sides without hitting those guarding ships.

It was also possible the Kanesada-powered back dash had been too much for the Musashi and it tore itself apart.

But it was hard to imagine all eight ships would be annihilated and the Azuchi’s sensors hadn’t found any wreckage floating in the sea nearby.

That meant it had simply disappeared.

To confirm, they fired along and above the path they had taken. The blasts of ether light pierced straight through the entire valley formed in the mist and into the sky.

If the Musashi had activated its stealth, those should have vanished partway through.

That didn’t happen.

And the mist valley reaching the Azuchi’s position didn’t branch off at any point.

While “Azuchi” wondered what this could mean, the view ahead optically cleared up. The mist that had risen high into the sky began to sink and vanish as the temperature of the seawater returned to normal.

She could see.

The valley thinned, revealing Awaji Island to the west and the coast of M.H.R.R. Catholic territory.

But just as she sensed there was nothing there, she double checked the ether sensor report. It had already confirmed there was nothing within 40km around the Azuchi, but…

“…?”

The Azuchi’s own ether reading was of course present at the center of the scan.

The ether scattered by their previous gravitational acceleration had been affected by the thrusters, creating a palely glowing veil in the lernen figur view. It even reached the Azuchi, causing the Azuchi’s ether reading to blur somewhat.

…Which is what made it so hard to determine if the Musashi was below us or not.

The other sensors had confirmed it was not there.

And when she checked the ether sensor lernen figur again to determine where it was, something felt off.

The Azuchi’s ether reading was misty.

The blurred image of the six ships occasionally wavered, moved together, or spread apart.

“–––––”

That was strange. Because when the Azuchi’s ether reading had looked that way before…

…The thruster-affected mist was to blame.

But the mist was gone now. So why would it still be like this?

“All ships, full speed ahead! Shaja!”

Sensing danger, “Azuchi” activated the highest level alert and gave permission to remove all restrictions. They had to move and move fast. Because…

“The Musashi has been located! It is directly below us! I have determined it is rising from the ocean! Shaja!”

●

Takenaka saw the Azuchi perform a rapid acceleration in order to make a right turn and circle clockwise around Osaka Bay.

But it never completed the maneuver.

Just as its thrusters lit up, a mountain of water appeared to its right.

A massive quantity of seawater was pushed up from below like new land forming.

“An ether reading is rapidly ascending!” shouted Hirano as something shot up from Osaka Bay, hanging a curtain of rain in the sky. “The Musashi has surfaced to the Azuchi’s starboard!”

Immediately, the sea split open, the air was thrust upwards, and the sky reacted.

The sudden ascension of such a great mass compressed the air, producing lightning.

The sky flowed in what was more an air current than mere wind, the sea was blasted away by the power of the accelerating ether light, and at the center…

“The Musashi is aiming its main cannon at the Azuchi! Azuchi, you need to back up!”

●

After receiving an assurance of safety from “Musashi”, Ookubo emerged from the shelter at the top of the bridge.

The armor had been stripped from the roof of the bridge, but the wreckage had been wiped away with gravitational control directed outwards from the center.

She ran through the ankle-deep water still flowing like a river and looked out ahead.

All around, mist raced through the sky and seawater rain continued to fall on either side. And despite the lack of clouds in the night sky, the atmospheric changes produced lightning.

She thought of all that as simple decoration.

Currently, she could see Kanesada being reactivated below the Musashino bridge and…

“I see it in front of us!!”

The Azuchi was there, the timing of its initial acceleration thrown off by the Musashi’s appearance and the explosion of sea and air.

It was oriented perpendicular to the Musashi, its port side facing them.

●

We made it, thought Ookubo.

Before, she had been fighting an honest fight based on the Musashi’s designed functions and its past battles.

She had remained the honor student.

But in the end, she did something else. She did something the Musashi had never done before.

…I submerged the Musashi!

Osaka Bay was 170m deep at its deepest point, making it fairly shallow. When submerged, more than half of the Musashi would stick up above the surface. But the Harmonic Territory within the water was a different matter. That Harmonic Territory recreated the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean of the Harmonic Divine States, so it possessed the outer world’s ocean currents, which had torn into the ocean floor, creating a course with a decent depth – although still not as deep as the actual thing.

The effect was greater between Awaji and the mainland, where a current already existed, creating enough space to submerge the Musashi.

Ookubo had guided them there.

When descending from the sky, that was where she had directed their stern in the end. To prevent the enemy from catching on, she had added a turn to make it look like they were aiming at the Azuchi.

So the Azuchi had followed them. The Azuchi had intended to lure the Musashi in and crush them, but the Azuchi’s accompaniment had blasted away the seawater, making the submerging process easier. The Azuchi appeared to have surrounded them until the stealth barrier, which restricted them to inertial movement, had vanished, but the Musashi had dived to the bottom of the water splashing up on either side of them.

The gamble had been whether or not the Azuchi would notice the depth of the Harmonic Territory, but…

“It comes down to experience.”

Not their experience as an aerial warship, but their experience as a trade ship that had used these routes countless times over the course of decades.

“Although it really comes down to fully scanning the route data.”

Ookubo had played the honor student role to keep them from doing that, which had been fairly mean of her.

But it had been a tricky maneuver.

They had to sink before the stealth barrier shattered and then apply an atmospheric interference spell underwater to deal with all the changes. The disturbed sea returning to normal had helped keep the effect on the water quality from passing the maximum humidity level, but they likely wouldn’t have had time to wait for that to stabilize otherwise.

The calculations said the atmospheric interference spell would only preserve their airtight state for approximately a minute and twelve seconds.

From there, they had to prepare to surface and open fire simultaneously. And…

“I see you.”

The Azuchi was there. A sign frame told her the Musashi’s ships had finished draining the water.

They were ready. The submerging, surfacing, and draining had all gone quickly because the Musashi had removed its base hulls, leaving holes in the hull. She had taken that into account when planning this, but…

“Take aim with Kanesada! Target the Azuchi dead ahead! Begin fire countdown sequence!!”

They were working toward the conclusion.

●

The Azuchi responded.

They did the same thing as before.

They backed up. The cannon barrel made of ether light was already visible beyond the spray, rain, and mist.

They had to back out of its line of sight. Then they had to take up an advantageous position and open fire.

Exposing their port side to the enemy was devastating. The second port ship was already badly damaged after taking a hit from a defense barrier blade as well as a minor hit from Little Kanesada. But…

“Hard to port! Keep the Musashi to our left as we circle behind them! Shaja!!”

They would get on the Musashi’s tail with their port side still showing. It was their only choice.

…Turning to the right to show our starboard side as we circled behind them would require passing in front of them first!

Thus to the left. “Azuchi” knew what to do: accelerate and enter a high-speed turn while moving in behind the Musashi. At the same time, they would roll 90 degrees to direct their port side down and fire with all their artillery.

The Musashi had entered Kanesada’s firing sequence. Maybe they would fire and maybe not, but they wouldn’t be able to turn around quickly at this point.

They weren’t accompanied by any other ships, so no one could assist their turn as a pusher.

So “Azuchi” determined the Azuchi had won the contest of positioning. But…

Kuro-Take: “ ‘Azuchi’! The Musashi has activated its stealth barrier again!”

She visually confirmed it. Most of the port ships’ sensors were cut off from the network, so she had to check from the center ships.

Takenaka was right. The Musashi was vanishing starting from the rear.

They must have predicted the Azuchi would circle behind them and chose to become invisible starting from there. But…

“We can manage a short-range acceleration! Shaja!”

They had regained the launch timing that had been interrupted by the Musashi’s rapid surfacing.

…Not that that was much of a barrier to begin with!

They could recover quickly from being thrown off balance. They were a warship. With plenty of power to work with. So…

“Approval granted! Shaja!”

That settled it. We made it, she thought as the Azuchi got started. The Musashi must have predicted this action because they began slowly turning to the left.

They were slow. So slow. Was the Azuchi really moving that fast? No, the Azuchi was moving at normal speed.

The Musashi was just slow. How nice it was to be a warship. The time for artillery was fast approaching.

They only had to move in behind the Musashi. Then they could use their superior power to hold that position.

They could do this. They would circle in with their speed throwing ocean spray into the sky, tear through the wind, and hurry. By attacking before the Musashi fully vanished, they could keep the Musashi visible.

“We will position ourselves on the Musashi’s tail! Shaja!”

Just as she shouted that, the Azuchi’s front three ships crashed into a wall.

●

“Azuchi” didn’t understand what had happened.

The Hashiba group watching from the sky above also didn’t understand.

But the Musashi group watching from the other side of the sky did understand.

They knew what had caused the light that illuminated the sea and sky too far in the distance for the sound to have reached them. The Azuchi’s front three ships had crashed into something at such high speed the bow rams had pierced into it while the ships themselves were bent.

The Azuchi’s rear three ships collided with the front three. A loud crash rang out through the sky.

The Musashi group knew what was behind it all.

“Oume!?”

Just as everyone shouted that, the splitting sounds of the two triple crashes reached their ears and the massive Azuchi floated upwards.

●

“Oume” and her crew were taking a break in Okutama’s stern cargo port.

Oume: “I already thought this was an unlucky night, but I didn’t expect to lose my true body… Over.”

Okutama: “Um…if you need to vent, I am listening. Yes. Over.”

“No need,” said “Oume” as she used staticky sign frames to receive data from the ship that was her true body.

She gathered up the several sign frames and distributed them to the other automata for analysis.

Oume: “Ookubo-sama was correct. Ships can be repaired, but victory cannot. Over.”

“But,” she added, looking back toward the crashing noise that shook her body, the sea, and the sky.

As the sound struck her face and body and passed through her, she saw her true body pierced by the rams of the Azuchi’s front three ships and lifted into the sky.

The Azuchi was not boasting a victory.

When the three ships rammed Oume at speed, it was lifted up a bit by the air resistance.

Before the three piercing ships could react, the three rear ships collided with them.

They were unable to keep down their rising bows as their sterns were pushed forward, causing the Azuchi’s front three ships to stand up.

The view of this was rotating.

The Musashi was turning as it went.

And when the Azuchi’s collision vanished behind Takao, “Oume” held a hand to her chest and spoke.

“Musashi Third Port Ship – Oume. …I gave my all for victory. Over.”

●

“Azuchi” existed within a series of straining groans.

She applied emergency gravitational control to protect herself and Hashiba, but the automata within the ship would only have their anti-shock protections.

The ship was being lifted higher and higher. She could see the entire situation from the bridge roof.

The Azuchi was bent.

The ship was capable of a ramming battle, but this collision with an enemy ship had happened at high speed and without the appropriate preparations. The bows had survived intact, but with the collision and the rear ships colliding with their sterns, the bows had bent upwards.

A lernen figur report confirmed that the main frame was bent.

Two fifths of the automata inside had been slammed into the walls or floor, taking critical damage or being completely destroyed. The cores that acted as their souls were still functioning, so some free automata would collect those and evacuate.

Hopefully some transport ships had survived. If not, they had been instructed to use descent spells to dive into the ocean.

“Azuchi” sensed danger in the fact that the rear ships were still pushing in, compressing the front ships lengthwise and preventing any power control.

The sterns of the front ships and the bows of the rear ships were digging into each other and some parts had welded together from the heat created by the compression at the moment of collision.

The Azuchi’s sturdiness had worked against it. The outcome would have been different were it designed lighter and more crushable.

But that wasn’t the case.

Because it was a warship, the Azuchi was left immobile and tangled as it stood up into the sky.

But there was another problem.

The Musashi.

That sister ship was slowly turning to aim its main cannon this way.

It was slow.

Likely so they could complete the firing sequence properly. It turned at a leisurely pace and…

“Is that…!?” shouted “Azuchi” as she saw it.

In addition to the Representative Committee Head, who was acting as the enemy commander, Principal Sakai Tadatsugu and an automaton were atop the Musashino bridge.

“ ‘Musashi’!! Shaja!”

●

“Azuchi” visually confirmed the presence of the captain automaton of her older sister ship.

Earlier, during their approach before the descent, she had seen her from an angle that didn’t require looking vertically up at her. But now she didn’t even need a telescope spell to see her greatest foe.

“Musashi”.

That sister ship had existed from the moment she was born, but “Musashi” had to see her as an outsider who came along later.

She hadn’t really thought about it when she pursued the Musashi in Kantou.

Because at the time, the Musashi had been no more than a large ship with excellent defenses and speed.

And the automaton commanding it had been a transport ship automaton unaccustomed to combat.

But now that opponent had gotten a new start and “Azuchi” knew she had demonstrated even more absurd maneuvers and operations. Now “Azuchi” was forced to play “catch up” to her.

So “Azuchi” found she had no choice but to think about that opponent.

Her own specs were greater.

In terms of combat, she had the greater armor, firepower, mobility, and everything else. That was indisputably true. But “Musashi” had survived it all and made it this far.

“–––––”

“Azuchi” did not stop sending orders. She continued to tell all her ships to turn. The six ships all obeyed her command and attempted to activate their gravity thrusters, but power conduits were severed and the ships were tangled together and immobilized.

Still, she didn’t stop. Because…

“I have not yet fulfilled my orders as the Azuchi!”

Those orders were…

“To win!! Shaja!”

With a roar, she sensed what felt like her body vanishing.

The Musashi’s main cannon Large Kanesada had shot through the linked sterns of the front ships and bows of the rear ships.

It was a direct hit.

●

In that moment, Hashiba saw “Azuchi” turn toward her and bow.

“It ends here, Hashiba-sama. It has been long in coming. Shaja.”

She didn’t have to ask what “Azuchi” meant. She nodded and responded in the instant before it hit.

“You served me well, ‘Azuchi’. …And I am sure you will continue to serve me well.”

At first, “Azuchi” didn’t seem to know what that meant. But…

“–––––”

She then put on an expression that may have been a smile, but may not have been. And after another bow, she spoke her line.

“The Azuchi will now conclude its role as the P.A. Oda flagship. Shaja.”

●

A hole formed in the iron and steel before it all collapsed.

The shot fired a bit diagonally upwards from west to east spread its force deeper from the point of impact.

The entrance hole was small and the exit hole wide.

It tore through.

And broke out the other side.

The exit hole had already reached a diameter of 300 meters, but the force of the shell reaching the other side spread it even wider. In an instant, an unseen force compressed the interior in all directions, spreading it wide, roaring out as an impact from every hole.

The force applied pressure, ripping open the exit.

The metal was torn like melted candy.

The sound of the tearing instantly reverberated like a musical instrument and the six destroyed ships, instead of being blasted backwards, seemed pulled spinning toward the sky and sea in front of them.

They scattered parts as they were all thrown toward the sea.

All that remained was the bow of Azuchi’s central ship that had continued to ascend even as it was torn thanks to the thrusters. It looked like a wedge floating in the night sky after the rest of the Azuchi vanished.

Oume and all else were among the water and waves. Even the wind smelling of scorched metal eventually faded away.

The only things left were the people watching from the sky and the white and black behemoth that was gently ascending despite losing a ship and taking damage to the rest of its ships.

In other words, the Musashi.

The aerial city ship that represented the Far East had achieved victory over the Azuchi.

●

Masazumi heard unrestrained cheering.

And when she tried to celebrate too…

…Wow.

She first felt some unusually heated sweat and a sense of relief.

“Maa?”

She couldn’t blame Tsukinowa for tilting his head on her shoulder. She realized she had some tears in the corners of her eyes. When she wiped them away and tasted them, they were definitely salty.

…This isn’t fair of me.

She truly believed that. Because her joy here was less about Ookubo’s victory and more about them not screwing this up and about the Musashi returning to them.

Maybe that was just her self-destructive side talking. Regardless, the others were making a lot of noise around her. The shouting came from the Oume residents.

“Ah! How are we supposed to go home now!?”

“We’ll be stuck on the bottom level of some other ship until the new Oume is ready!”

“Hooray for a new home and a delayed return to school!”

Those issues and more would be the politicians’ job to deal with.

“Ookubo did a good job,” said Masazumi and a few others turned her way as if they had picked up on her words. But she didn’t care. She was looking a bit up into the sky. Crossunite breathed a sigh of relief much like her own, picked up Mary who had worn herself out crying and fallen asleep, and spoke.

“They must be celebrating on the Musashi too. I expect we will rejoin them once Ookubo-dono declares victory.”

●

There were times when you wanted to speak but couldn’t.

Ookubo could only manage to breathe in and out.

The Musashi was ascending toward the evacuated transport ships. She looked up into the night sky and when her gaze was horizontal once more…

“Ookubo-sama.”

“Musashi” supported her shoulder from behind and spoke to her.

“It is time to declare your victory. Over.”

Only then did Ookubo realize she couldn’t just breathe. She had to say something here.

“The enemy ship Azuchi has been-!”

She prepared to say “sunk”, but…

…Huh?

She notice something as those waiting above came into view.

●

Ookubo saw the Musashi group celebrating in the worst way.

Her sign frame showed the Vicereine Princess spitting water around while the Chancellor sprayed water on the deck below from his crotch.

“Here, have some natural spring water of victory!”

She wanted to tell him to die for the first time in a while, but that wasn’t the important part.

The Hashiba group was.

The Azuchi had sunk and some of the automata had escaped via transport ship while others jumped out into the open air. Collecting them should have been Hashiba’s first priority, but…

…They aren’t doing anything?

Not one of the Hashiba transport ships had moved from their earlier position.

And that wasn’t all.

One piece of Azuchi wreckage continued to slowly rise into the sky.

The entire Hashiba group was looking up at the surviving bow of the Azuchi’s central ship as it used all its remaining power to ascend.

●

“Shoot.”

Guericke heard Tomoe Gozen speak that word while standing up on the city wall.

●

“Shoot them,” said Mogami Yoshiaki while tracking the situation via sign frame.

●

“You need to shoot,” said the Reine des Garous, removing her eyes from her signe cadre to view the eastern sky from the depths of the dark forest.

●

“Fire!”

Ookubo opened a sign frame and shouted into the sky ahead from atop the ascending Musashi’s bridge.

“Target the Azuchi’s remaining bridge! Every cannon needs to open fire as soon as it has a shot!!”

●

Masazumi saw ether light soaring through the night.

From her perspective, the Azuchi’s wreckage and the Musashi were in the western sky.

The Musashi was closer and the Azuchi’s wreckage beyond that. They were both nearly horizontal to her and, even at night, she could see how worse for wear the Musashi was after the artillery hits and being submerged.

A scattering of artillery blasts and lights raced out from the Musashi.

They were directed toward the western sky where the Azuchi’s bridge continued to ascend like a wedge.

Did they intend to destroy that to earn a complete victory? That felt like overkill, but at the same time…

“It will help us on the political front if we claim a total victory over Hashiba here.”

She saw two shapes while watching the shells fly.

A pair of figures stood on the broken ram at the upper tip of the Azuchi’s ascending bow.

Someone else noticed them before she could wonder who they were. Crossunite turned toward Asama to report, but Asama had already opened a telescope spell by then.

“They’re there!”

Those words were enough to put everyone on their guard andt hey all looked to the large sign frame that opened in front of them.

The telescope spell footage of the Azuchi’s bow was sent to the other ships too and it indeed showed two figures there.

“Is that Hashiba and ‘Azuchi’?”

It was. Hashiba, who had been left in charge of the Azuchi, and the ship’s captain automaton stood there together.

●

Mitotsudaira watched as the Musashi’s shells approached their target.

In that moment, Hashiba held her hand out in front of her.

“–––––”

The footage showed her saying something.

Light appeared from all four sides of the zoomed-in image and the entire screen was dyed in white.

A shell filled with ether had hit and burst.

The attack had hit. But…

“They’re unharmed!?”

Past the scattering ether light and sparks in the image, the pair remained standing in the exact same place, showing no sign of having budged at all.

Mitotsudaira looked away from the telescope spell, wondering what this meant, and saw the answer.

A defense barrier. A single barrier had opened to protect the Azuchi’s bow.

But something was odd about it. It had to come from Hashiba with her raised hand, but…

“What is with that size and number of layers?”

The barrier was thirty meters square and it was composed of at least a double digit number of layers.

It took a Musashi or Azuchi class ship to create something like that, but this had been emitted from Hashiba’s hand.

“Horizon! Can the Logismoi Oplo do that!?”

Everyone’s eyes turned toward Horizon who crossed her arms and inclined her head.

“Hm. With such a convenient function, don’t you think we would have already conquered the world by now?”

“Does no one know the answer!?” asked Mitotsudaira.

On the screen, Hashiba opened her mouth. She was clearly looking at them.

“–––––”

She was saying something.

“–––––”

She was saying something.

“–––––”

“Azuchi” tapped on Hashiba’s shoulder from behind. Hashiba made an unmistakable “eh!?” face and “Azuchi” began explaining something.

Eventually, “Azuchi” opened an insha kotob and held it in front of her chest. Hashiba faced the audience again and…

848: “I am speaking on behalf of Hashiba as a whole.”

She spoke.

848: “We will continue fighting. Musashi, make no mistake and come to defeat us.”

●

Ookubo felt her breath catch in her throat.

…They’re continuing!?

It was true the Azuchi’s bow and “Azuchi” had survived. But…

“What fighting force do you still have left!?”

She turned toward a light shining next to her and saw “Musashi” holding a sign frame in front of her chest.

“Thanks.”

“Do not mention it. Now, Ookubo-sama, continue. Over.”

●

Hashiba released a deep breath. There were things she could and couldn’t do with this new body and she now had to show off one of the things she could do.

…I can use the Logismoi Oplo.

After firing two of the weapons, the optimal pathways had been worked out within her. So she would gradually improve at operating those prototype Logismoi Oplo.

But there was one more thing she could do. It was something she still hadn’t used, but…

“Hashiba-sama used it fairly freely, didn’t she?”

“Testament,” said “Azuchi”. “Hashiba-sama herself knew how to use it properly, which is why I obeyed her command. Mitsunari-sama, you need the usage rights transferred over from Hashiba-sama, but that has already been done. So please make use of it as Hashiba-sama. I will obey.”

And with all that said, “Azuchi” spoke one final word.

“Over.”

Hashiba answered that confirmation with a nod.

…I have to do it then.

Hashiba had done it, so logically she could too. The functionality remained and, as far as the OS was concerned, this body was meant to be hers from the start.

You could say plans had changed with the arrival of the Ten Spears. So without hesitating…

848: “Because P.A. Oda was not given a Logismoi Oplo, Nobunaga-sama granted each of the Six Heavenly Demon Armies the power of an angel. Musashi, I believe you have seen five of them.”

So…

848: “Do you know what I, Hashiba, was granted as the least of the Six Heavenly Demon Armies?”

Out ahead, she could see the Musashi and its people remained motionless. They had no response.

And the Hashiba group who served her also made no move. But their silence was different from Musashi’s because most of them knew the answer.

848: “Matsudaira, who will later rule the world, has the Musashi – a peaceful trade ship meant to represent world peace. …Even though you have been doing nothing but wage war recently.”

●

Masazumi saw Noriki turn her way and with a carefree smile…

“Hey! Masazumi! Tell her it isn’t war! It’s your hobby!”

“You really have gotten carefree, haven’t you!?”

But Masazumi more or less understood what Hashiba was saying. Including the answer hidden behind it.

She looked up to the large sign frame Asama had placed overhead.

Vice President: “You have something?”

848: “We have something.”

Next to her, the idiot began shouting, “We have sooooomething! We totally have sooooomething!”, but she felt like maybe that was her fault.

But Hashiba’s response had revealed something important.

Masazumi opened her own sign frame, awkwardly typed out a message, and sent it to…

Vice President: “ ‘Musashi’, be on your guard.”

Musashi: “Judge, I understand. We are already fully prepared, Masazumi-sama. Over.”

That was a relief. Concluding they could just barely make it through like this, she took the next step. She verbally tread on the fact that was likely the most dangerous ground of the night.

Vice President: “Matsudaira has the Musashi because we bring about world peace. But Hashiba conquers the Sengoku world and seeks further conflict afterwards…so what do you have?”

848: “Testament. There is a simple answer to that: we have the Azuchi.”

Vice President: “That’s not it.”

This was dangerous. She was being lured in.

…Hashiba must not be confident of it herself.

That would explain why Hashiba was constructing it for herself through this conversation. Most likely, she was filling in the gap between the previous Hashiba and this one. And…

848: “There is one unanswered mystery about the Battle of Mikawa, isn’t there? It all began with the destruction of New Nagoya Castle, but that castle was a massive factory.”

Hashiba was drawing Masazumi’s interest. And next to Masazumi, Horizon raised her right forearm.

“Do P.A. Oda’s literary types have an irresistible compulsion to explain things?”

I see, thought Masazumi. And so she spoke to Hashiba.

Vice President: “Sorry. Not interested.”

●

…Ehhhhhh!?

This turn of events was so unexpected Mitsunari nearly fell off the bow. She regained her balance with some help from “Azuchi”, but another shell was incoming, so she needed a bit of defense. And after that…

848: “N-no, you must be interested! You must want to hear all about it! I mean, New Nagoya Castle was a factory and the ley line reactor overloaded, but what if it wasn’t a normal overload and they were actually making something there!?”

Vice President: “I have no time for groundless theories.”

848: “I-it’s not groundless! It’s true! So look this way! This way!”

AnG: “Wow, she’s bad at this.”

Kimee: “The body of a child with the negotiating skills of a child. What do we do about this?”

…D-do you want to take my place here!? It isn’t that easy!

She was mad, but she knew saying anything would mean a fivefold retaliation, so she held her tongue. However, she did receive some help.

Kohime: “Wait, upperclassmen, Mitsunari-sama is doing her best! She’s standing way up there all on her own – no, wait, she has ‘Azuchi’-san with her – while she works hard to negotiate with Musashi – which isn’t working out too well, but at least she’s trying really hard!”

She doubted that would help.

Black Wolf: “Y-you have a point that Mitsunari is trying hard.”

…Oh, she pities me!

She could recognize people’s subtle emotions better than she used to. And it turned out that ignorance had been bliss.

At any rate, she would have to do it herself.

848: “Lord Motonobu created the Six Heavenly Demon Armies’ Angels in order to strengthen P.A. Oda so that Nobunaga-sama could carry out the Genesis Project.”

Vice President: “Can I leave now?”

848: “No!! I’ll tell Matthias-sama you failed to complete this history recreation!”

Vice President: “This new Hashiba is a lot less impressive.”

848: “I-I was originally Ishida Mitsunari, so I can’t really help that!”

Novice: “Wait!”

Oh? thought Mitsunari. Why should she wait exactly?

Novice: “You said we had seen the Six Heavenly Demon Armies’ Angels! We do know Lord Shibata was given 2nd Angel Mikal, Lord Akechi was given 3rd Angel Jibril, Sassa and Maeda were given 4th Angel Israfil, and Niwa was given 5th Angel Uriel! But…”

The view of the Musashi transport ship provided by a telescope spell showed the Musashi Secretary swiftly striking a new pose each time he said something. He held his left hand over his face and spread his right hand out toward her.

Novice: “Where are the 1st and 6th Angels!? Maybe you have the 6th, but we still haven’t seen the 1st!”

Oh, she thought while taking a breath. She quickly answered the Musashi Secretary’s question.

848: “The 1st Angel is Nobunaga-sama’s OS itself.”

They had already seen it. Once as Nobunaga and now as destiny in the moon.

848: “Al-Fadila was customized for the Genesis Project and given the name P-01M.”

●

Horizey: “So the owner of my memories who took a trip to the moon immediately after appearing on the stage was named after a utopia? You just name things whatever, don’t you?”

Vice President: “I wonder if she never mentioned it because she was embarrassed by it.”

Unturning: “If so, she probably wouldn’t want her subordinate making this smug reveal about it.”

●

Ookubo read Hashiba’s words.

848: “You have also seen the 6th Angel. It originally belonged to Nobunaga-sama and was left with Hashiba-sama. And now it is mine. …What do you think it is?”

There was no need to ask. Something that had been shared by those three was right there in front of Ookubo.

Nagaya-Stable: “The Azuchi!?”

848: “That is half correct, Musashi Representative Committee Head.”

Then how was it half wrong? Before Hashiba could say anything more, Ookubo raised her voice. She gnashed her teeth just once before forcibly opening her throat and mouth.

“All hands, abandon ship!!”

Hashiba gave the answer a moment later.

848: “The 6th Angel is Thuban. It is the automaton who captains P.A. Oda’s flagship.”

●

Takenaka saw light in her lernen figur.

Forming wings. The wings of ether that acted as a small symbol had appeared behind “Azuchi”.

That settled it.

“So the transfer has finally been made.”

With an “okay”, she sat down among the group that had already stood up. She stuck her face in an ero bag, accepted what she had seen, and spoke.

“Until now, she was the Hashiba-kun borrowed by Nobunaga-sama, but now she is officially Hashiba-kun. Finally, fiiiinally they’re making the switch from Nobunaga-sama’s flagship of the Azuchi to Hashiba-kun’s flagship.”

Yes.

“Nobunaga-sama left without disposing of the Azuchi, so we couldn’t make the flagship switch. But now that the Musashi has destroyed the Azuchi, we can reveal Hashiba-kun’s flagship, which will be P.A. Oda’s next flagship.”

●

Hashiba held her hands out.

Instead of thinking it was or wishing it was, she behaved as if it simply were there.

“Thuban – summon.”

If she summoned it, it would come. Next to her, “Azuchi” nodded and opened an insha kotob.

“I will now eject the next me, Hashiba-sama. Over.”

●

A massive structure was ejected.

Beyond the Azuchi’s floating wreckage, the first thing to appear were metal points jutting into the sky with a horizontal gap of around 500 meters between them.

They were black on top and red on the bottom.

The tips extended far, far into the west as if tearing away the borderline of ether light.

“Hey…”

A voice came from the Musashi group.

They all watched as the base of the massive structure extending straight out like spears drew out a streamlined shape that eventually took the form of a boat.

A double-hull ship. And at their foundation, similar pointed structures were exposed in the sky.

“Wait,” someone said.

Because they recognized this shape.

A stir ran through most of the Musashi group. The structure ejected into the sky ahead of them was colored black on top and red on the bottom, it was bristling with countless cannons, and its gravity thrusters were all open, but the double-hull structure with an extra central hull, the side armor, and the bridge-shaped bridge were all identical to something else.

“That’s the Musashi!!”

But there were some clear differences. The Musashi had an ether reactor below Musashino’s bridge in order to activate the virtual barrel there, but the eight red and black ships lacked that.

Instead…

“A physical cannon!?”

It had a metal cannon barrel.

The front extended past the support on the first central ship’s bow and continued on out past the front of all of the ships.

The barrel was nearly nine kilometers long and it was suspended from the first central ship’s bridge.

This was a Musashi fully equipped for combat.

●

The appearance of the massive structure caused changes to the climate in the surrounding sky.

That same airspace had been disturbed by the Azuchi and Musashi’s battle earlier. A bit of lightning raced out like a test and then dark clouds began to surround the new colossal ship.

A dome of clouds formed as if to encircle the dueling ships in the sky above Osaka Bay.

Within that dome, what looked like a combination of the Azuchi and the Musashi equipped with a physical main cannon appeared before the Musashi and the Musashi group.

And Hashiba spoke. She and “Azuchi” jumped down toward the barrel extending below them.

“This is the ship created in New Nagoya Castle during the Battle of Mikawa. The destruction of Mikawa was used to send this ship into my phase space using ley line transportation. So that I could use its power to protect the Genesis Project.”

She landed and raised her hand.

“Azuchi” untied her hair and let it scatter in the wind.

Azuchi: “Hashiba-sama, grant me my official name. The name that will give me a permanent position in this world.”

“Testament,” nodded Hashiba.

848: “This warship is meant as an absolute guardian for this world. It is my castle of Osaka Castle. And it is the third Musashi-class ship. I considered the meaning it should hold when I named you. I chose a name that refers to the entirety of the Far East.”

She named her.

848: “ ‘Yamato’. That is your name.”

Back to Chapter 42

Return to Main Page

Forward to Chapter 44