Horizon:Volume 10B Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Chooser on the Back Way

Don’t cry, Underclassman

Point Allocation (Upperclassman)

●

Of course, she’s probably heard a lot of it already, thought Masazumi of the underclassman who, instead of taking a seat, placed her hands on the terrace railing and gazed out to sea.

She had expected her to be worn out, but she wasn’t. She could trust this underclassman enough to have passed that point after three weeks.

But the lack of stains or wrinkles on the summer clothing below her stole separated her from Masazumi and Class Plum. She could tell that underclassman really would recover from this.

Whatever the case, Masazumi rested her elbow on the railing next to Ookubo and also gazed out to sea.

Straight ahead, the opposite coast was K.P.A. Italia. Aki, split and brought down by the Yamato, looked like a dark mass with the lights of the surface villages behind it.

The image sent by her father showed Surface Musashi emitted a fair amount of light and made its presence known as a collection of multilevel cities. But…

…Say something.

Ookubo remained silent. She must have come here for a report on the current situation, but Kanou had withdrawn toward the cafeteria and Masazumi wasn’t sure how to play this.

She decided starting with some small talk would be best.

“So did you hear the cafeteria has a new item on the menu? It’s called sushi curry. I was expecting that thing they served when we were meeting with England, but apparently it’s a set with two separate items.”

“Hey, I’m here for a sitrep.”

…Then say so!

Masazumi ended up glaring, but Tsukinowa gave her a warning slap on the cheek, so all was forgiven.

“In that case,” she said. “The Treasurer pair tried to run off with Musashi’s money.”

“…Do you have to start with something so shocking!? What have you been doing!?”

“Hey, I’m not in charge of that.”

“What do you mean?”

Apparently she had Ookubo’s attention. The tongue click meant this was going quite well.

“You know how they started a new bank within Musashi? The one that’s been holding money for nations, corporations, and individuals ever since the Battle of Mikawa.”

“I do. I thought I could view it as a silver mine and use it for my history recreation, but the Battle of Mikawa threw a wrench in that plan.”

…If her resentment of the Treasurer is one reason she lashed out at me, I really lost out on that one.

Whatever. She’s actually listening. I need to hold her attention, she thought.

“But most of that money was meant to secure people’s assets against plunder and their fears of war, the Apocalypse, and so on, so it remained with the Musashi Treasurer even after the Musashi was lost. Isn’t that right?”

“It is.”

Ookubo nodded a little. Encouraged by that, Masazumi spread her arms and continued.

“So to allay fears about the safety and continuity of that money, we had people go around explaining that the Musashi’s money is in Kantou and being protected by Ariake, Satomi, and other allied nations.”

“Even so, there will be some loans made to Musashi that can’t be repaid now that the Musashi has sunk.”

“That’s why the Treasurer’s direct subordinates have been going around explaining the situation. They’ve even brought my father and other provisional councilors with them.”

“Continue.”

“Judge,” nodded Masazumi and had Tsukinowa open a sign frame. It displayed a report sent by the Treasurer the other day.

“Due to those losses and withdrawals made in response to mistrust in Musashi, we have lost around a third of our assets. According to ‘Oume’, we should consider ourselves lucky it wasn’t worse.”

“I agree with her there. …How are compensating them?”

“Surely you’ve seen that. We’ve set up a service letting anyone in Surface Musashi view the financial data the Swedish Chancellor had privately collected.”

“Right.” Ookubo closed her sign frame. “It’s fortunate Musashi uses the common Far Eastern currency of the yen instead of its own independent currency. The other nations don’t want to influence the value of the yen when they also use it for trade.”

To preserve the value of the yen, the value of the ducat was being lowered, which increased the relative value of the yen. That was an excellent result for Musashi since they lacked the exports needed for trade.

“You need to thank the Swedish Chancellor for this. This only happened because she cautioned the other nations and then sent us accurate data as part of that ‘service’.”

“Judge. We’ve prepared separate rooms for Nagaoka and for her in Murayama’s surface city. They’re on opposite sides of a wide block.”

“Why not make them neighbors or roommates?”

“We tried, but she went ‘No! If he’s that close, he’ll hear me and I’ll die!’ and pulled out those explosive tubes.”

“Couldn’t she use auditory stealth?”

“I suggested that, but she grabbed my collar half in tears and shouted, ‘But then I couldn’t hear him!’ A good reminder that we live in a world of Contradiction Allowance.”

Don’t fall silent now.

“Anyway, the Treasurer tried to run off with our money by buying up the strong currencies expected to eventually rise in value. Dealing with them would have been a pain, so we had Satomi Vice Chancellor Masaki Tokishige and the Mogami Chancellor intervene in Kantou.”

“…How exactly did they intervene?”

“The Satomi Vice Chancellor used her god of war to attack the ship loaded with hard copies of certificates and such. When the Mogami Chancellor boarded them, the Treasurer pair attempted a Double Drive Prostration, but the Mogami Chancellor won the initiative and blew them away.”

They had the visual footage from the Satomi Vice Chancellor’s god of war and it was a sight to see.

Yoshiaki was clearly an experienced negotiator. Realizing the merchants would try a prostration, she had launched a spin kick the very instant those two arrived on the deck already in their double drive form.

“Is it a compatibility issue?”

“The Mogami Chancellor can’t prostrate, but she’s so fast to intervene.”

●

Mogami Yoshiaki took a short hop toward the pair who had landed on the deck after their failed prostration.

That put her too close for a retaliatory prostration. And the entrance up onto the deck was so close behind them they couldn’t use a backflip prostration either.

Heidi, however, took action. With a swift move of her hand behind her back, she flicked a 500-yen coin, using its spin to keep it stationary in the air.

‘Time for a midair prostration, Shiro-kun!”

In dance, that was known as a midair seat. They would be performing a prostration in midair, which was said to be difficult for even experts to pull off flawlessly. It was normally done in completely empty space, but it could be made easier by viewing the coin as the “floor”.

Shirojiro jumped from his sitting position with no change in his pose and then he moved to complete the technique.

“A merchant should know what this means.”

Yoshiaki drew the sword at her hip and thrust out in front of her.

That was the old-fashioned divine weapon Onikiri.

●

“Onikiri severs the relationships of whoever is reflected in its blade. For a merchant, that means losing every last one of your business connections. It’s more than enough to change the minds of Bertoni and Augesvarer after they spent all summer break laying a foundation in Kantou.”

“Where are they now?”

“Well.” Masazumi opened the report the Treasurer’s subordinates had sent. “They have been making daily visits to Mogami to secure the food market once the trade route is established and to build connections with Date and Sviet Rus.”

“How does Mogami benefit from this?”

“Apparently Tres Portugal ships have recently started reaching Date again.”

That news came from the Treasurer pair.

“Tres Portugal is part of Tres España, but they have an unusually high opinion of us. That may be the Tres Españan Vice President’s doing. They appear to be sending ships over because a port jointly run by Date and Musashi provides double the assurance, making it easier to sell their goods.”

“And that creates an influx of European goods to Mogami as well.”

“There has been some arguing with Sviet Rus because this keeps them from selling European goods in Ou at an inflated rate, but Sviet Rus has greater quantity and variety of goods. They shouldn’t have much trouble working this out.”

“This all sounds so reliable…”

“Well, it’s all the result of their connections and businesses. They should be able to work their way into the major markets in Kantou, so they’re still acting as the contact point for Musashi’s bank. My father and the other councilors are trying to build physical branches in other places to provide local services where everything was done over the divine net before.”

“You’re letting everyone else do all the work.”

“I’ve been busy. …Without you around.”

Ookubo fell silent there.

Without a word, she turned away from Masazumi and looked out to sea. Masazumi’s entire being was shouting…

…Argue back at me!

Should she say it out loud? But Ookubo finally did open her mouth.

“…So you can get by without me.”

“Were you even listening?”

“No, I’m not your secretary and my job isn’t to clean up your messes.”

“Hold on. I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”

“Oh? And what is that?”

After a moment of thought, Masazumi reconsidered and pointed at Ookubo.

“I don’t remember ever treating you like a secretary or had you clean up my messes.”

“You mean you did it without even noticing!? You idiot!”

…Huhhhh?

She had to cross her arms and think good and hard about this one, but for now she tried asking about it.

“Got any examples?”

After a harsh glare, Ookubo answered.

“The way you don’t think twice about giving me work in the middle of the night.”

“I mean, that’s only because there’s work to be done in the middle of the night.”

“The way you give me tons of work without considering if I can handle it all.”

“I mean, if there’s work to be done, I have to pass it on to you.”

“The way you give me, and only me, work like it’s an afterthought.”

“I mean, you always seem so eager for more work to do.”

“Listen carefully,” they both said before stating their conclusion.

“Don’t delegate so much work!”

“You don’t delegate enough of your work.”

I’m really just justifying my actions here, thought Masazumi as she made her point.

“The Representative Committee Head is the leader of the Representative Committee, which is made up of representatives of each class. The other committees are also made up of students, so that makes you the leader of each committee and their heads. When I give work to you, you’re supposed to send it on down to the other committees.”

So…

“You’re only the entrance, so just dump it all on the other committees and the people working for them.”

“But then I’m no better than you,” said Ookubo. “I don’t think I can surpass you by doing the same things you do.”

●

What is this? thought Ookubo.

When facing each other alone at night in a strange land, was it really so easy to say these things aloud?

It came down to her competitive spirit.

Her pride wouldn’t let her view herself as inferior to her opponent.

And trying to overthrow them was what someone of inferior status did.

It had to be this place, this time, and this situation that let her openly say this to her rival. The view of the distant ocean and the city lights on the opposite coast was just so different from what she was used to.

…We’re normally in the sky instead of the ocean and, instead of seeing another coast, we have a view of another ship, which tends to be a lot closer.

“This is the difference between a politician and a bureaucrat. I know the difference exists. So these are just idle complaints.”

She said it.

Here she could say the things she normally couldn’t.

“We exist to deal with the work the politicians can’t handle. Politicians come up with ideas. We verify them and, if we give the go sign, the work can commence. That’s how it works. When you have work and you of course can’t complete it all, it stalls whatever Musashi is doing. It’s our fault if we let that happen. That’s why you send work my way.”

“I get it now.”

“What?”

“Judge.” The Vice President nodded. “You can’t stand that you lost.”

●

“Where did that come from!?”

Masazumi saw Ookubo turn toward her with eyebrows bent.

…So that’s it.

“You intended to defeat Hashiba three weeks ago, didn’t you?”

Because…

“We failed to defeat them, so if you defeated them, it would mean you were better than us. That’s what you wanted.”

But Ookubo had lost.

…No one can blame her given what happened.

No one could have predicted Hashiba had something like the Yamato hidden up her sleeve.

But this underclassman regretted her loss. Because it had been more than a simple battle or negotiation.

“Can you not stand that you failed to surpass us?”

“Stop putting words in my mouth!”

Ookubo clenched her lowered fists and shouted. Both the right and the left. The left one was prosthetic. She tightly clenched two different kinds of fists.

“I did the best I could! And we set things up so my loss was a rebel’s loss, so no one could blame the Student Council or the rest of you, remember!? That means all that loss proved was that Hashiba was superior to ‘me’!”

So…

“I achieved the best, least painful case! There’s no more to it! I took the last three weeks off so I could heal from my wounds and, since the sinking of the Musashi was my responsibility, I thought it was best to wait until management of Surface Musashi was fairly well established, but I was receiving reports from Kanou-kun on a daily basis!”

The underclassman took a breath and continued.

“We can continue things as normal now! The Musashi is gone, but we have this place! We may have a deadline for the Genesis Project now, but we aren’t going to lose this place, right? So we can just stay put here and do what we can from here! That’s what I came here to say!”

“I see.”

Masazumi looked straight at Ookubo.

“Then why are you crying?”

●

By the time she noticed, it was too late.

She wiped it away with her left arm, but the prosthetic arm wasn’t very absorptive and it only spread it around. Her glasses were in the way too.

But worse than that, her breathing was rough and…

…Dammit.

“I am not,” she said. Or tried to.

“Ah.”

She couldn’t stop her trembling voice. To support her trembling body, her tear-stained left arm clutched the summer uniform shirt in front of her. Then she grabbed it with both hands, and…

“Ahh!”

I lost miserably, she thought. All because I took command of the Musashi then.

She had lost to Hashiba, she had lost to the Yamato, she had lost so much, and here she had again lost to the Vice President. Thinking back, nothing good had happened since she lost to this girl at Mito.

“It’s you!” she said. “If not for you, none of this would have happened!”

Yes, that was it. If this girl, who wasn’t even a name inheritor, hadn’t suddenly shown up on the Musashi, none of this would have happened. But she understood something else too. This girl so obviously brought nothing other than disaster, but…

“I don’t see how we can beat them without you…”

She had chosen the best option.

She realized she had already accepted it.

She had made the best possible choice and protected the Chancellor’s group – including this girl – but that hadn’t been so they could escape.

This girl had screwed it up this time, but Ookubo knew things would be different next time.

So she had protected her.

She wouldn’t have felt so frustrated if she had protected someone weak.

She had protected someone strong with the intention of standing alongside her as an equal. She was furious with herself because she had failed to do that.

“I understand,” said the Vice President with a tap on Ookubo’s head. “We will beat Hashiba. So help me, Ookubo.”

●

She keeps teaching me so much, thought Masazumi.

But this had told her what it was she wanted.

She had expected the idiot to conveniently say something that pulled her onward.

She had expected the others to gather around the idiot and begin something new.

That wasn’t what they needed.

Given everyone’s current situation and feelings, there was one desire they couldn’t bring themselves to express. It was a desire they couldn’t possibly say given their position.

They had already lost and had no power left. But…

…There are no limits on speech.

“We will win.”

That was it.

That was the idea she hadn’t been letting herself think while hoping someone else would do it for her.

But this was something that had to come from within. She was surrounded by such talented people that she had been keeping the thought bottled up on the assumption someone else would do this eventually, but that wasn’t how this worked.

“That idiot says he’ll be creating a kingdom where people’s dreams come true.”

Was defeating Hashiba a dream? Or something else? Either way…

…I’m going to say it.

That was her job as Vice President.

Crossunite would probably know where to find the idiot. Then she would tell him they were going to defeat Hashiba.

“The idiot might not be all that into it, but I’ll convince him. I’ll tell him we can’t continue on like this. I don’t know how many people will follow me and I don’t know how much of a fighting force I can gather. But the Testament Union underestimated us and gave the idiot the right to Matsudaira’s name. We should be able to use that. So help me, Ookubo. I’m asking for the same thing I always do: do the work needed to help us win.”

“Y-you idiot! What is this all of a sudden!?”

The underclassman let go of her clothes and wiped away her tears. If she was through crying, then there wouldn’t be a problem.

They were in a different land, a different time, a different situation.

This wasn’t about Musashi.

She was going to act.

“First, I need to get that idiot moving. I don’t know if he’s woken up yet, so go question the Main Blue Thunder group to find out. And there is one thing we have to do while preparing a fighting force.”

“What’s that?”

“Learn the truth of the Genesis Project.”

She had questions. This was probably necessary to reach an understanding of their opponents.

“Lord Motonobu created a nonexistent academy and we more or less know who its students were. There’s no need to hide it or claim it isn’t real anymore. So start questioning our friends in other nations, Ookubo. You protected me and it’s time to move past that. Which means it’s time to launch another attack.”

In front of her, the underclassman took a breath. And another one. Then she sighed and…

“Fine. I should show up at the academy tomorrow, then?”

That was all. With that, the underclassman turned away.

But she turned toward the exist into the cafeteria. She didn’t take the back way this time. Masazumi spoke to her back.

“If it was midday, we could have discussed this over a meal and said we were ‘lunching’ an attack, but unfortunately the timing didn’t work out.”

Don’t just ignore me and leave!

●

Kanou had been waiting inside the cafeteria and she watched as her master passed her by without noticing.

…Wonderful.

How long had it been since she was ignored?

Her master was lost in thought, focused on something.

Yes, this was three weeks’ worth. Her focus had been occupied by frustration, scorn, and regret, but now it had plenty of room to think about other matters.

And her master was considering what to fill it with.

Kanou was delighted to find she wasn’t even worth paying attention to.

That was someone focused on a goal. And until she had fully focused herself, she would simply move on without any attention on those around her.

In this state, her master might just be able to produce results even greater than the Vice President. But…

“The Vice President is making her move too, isn’t she?”

Kanou looked back toward the terrace beyond the open doors and the Vice President was no longer there. She must have taken the back way to the city. Most likely in search of the Chancellor.

The season was changing. Kanou hoped everything would be ready to go by the time they put on their winter uniforms.

Her master had recovered. The Vice President had regained herself.

The Chancellor will be next,she thought just as she noticed a plate on the table on the deserted terrace.

“She didn’t pay!!”

Why did the employee bring the receipt to her?

●

Asama accepted the receipt for dinner at the Blue Thunder.

Tama’s surface city had been purged from the Musashi early because it had a lot of embassies. That had allowed it to recover quickly after being set down as a multilevel city and now the Blue Thunder was accepting customers just like it used to.

The finances for the Main Blue Thunder and this one were kept separate. Probably so his mother could one day return the cafe to Horizon’s mother.

On their way back from the study shack, they had stopped here for dinner and Kimi had joined them. And when Asama accepted the receipt for the entire group, his mother had whispered to her.

“That idiot has been trying to show off by getting lost in thought about something, but it’s about time that ended, isn’t it? But if it is something important, will you stick with him and listen to him with Horizon and Mitotsudaira-san? Unlike before, Toori knows what part is his to play now.”

“Yes, we agree with you there. And I think that’s why he has been taking this so unusually seriously.”

“He’s so easy to read it can actually make things harder, huh?”

It felt wrong to say that was nothing new. He would come up with the answer if they gave him time. It was that trust in him that let them work together like this.

After leaving the Blue Thunder, she let his wandering feet lead the way.

The multilevel city looked so different from the Musashi, which made it fascinating. Without the wide blocks and long blocks acting as outer walls, everyone had a cross section view of the city’s structure, which provided an interesting view of the flow of people and materials. The lights visible in the rooms’ windows gave it the orderly beauty of a tall building on the surface.

And the dark ocean and the lights of the opposite coast were visible in the distance.

Things like this made life on the surface not so bad.

…If Toori-kun really had gone down to the surface and I had followed him, this is what I would have seen.

She felt like she had received a glimpse of the many possibilities here.

But part of that was due to her excitement. She knew she had to calm herself.

Because as they walked a few different streets, he was taking them toward somewhere they all knew quite well: Udon Okutama.

The Asama Shrine was there, but that wasn’t where they were going. The academy was there, but they weren’t going there either.

“Remorse Way?” suggested Mitotsudaira.

That was exactly where he took them.

●

Five sets of footsteps echoed down Remorse Way.

“Asama,” quietly called Kimi, receiving a formal nod in response.

…So it’s time.

The feeling could be summed up as “at long last” but also as “took you long enough”.

But the time had come and was approaching fast.

Kimi thought it would be alright, but…

…Heh heh. What happens if I give him some rough encouragement now?

The lack of fear was just like her.

All she felt now was anticipation. So…

“Why did you come here, foolish brother?”

“Well,” said her brother, coming to a stop. He looked to the woods on the left, but there was only a stone pedestal and a hole there.

A monument had been there. Horizon pulled it out of the storage space behind her, but that wasn’t why they were here.

“This is where Horizon was in an accident long ago, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Her brother’s shoulders drooped. And he took a breath. “Hm, but something’s different. Or does it matter?”

“What is it, my king?”

They all stood near her brother – Horizon next to him and the rest of them along the curb of the walking path. Then her brother expressed his thoughts while scratching his head.

“Looking at this as our starting point, I just wanted to check something.”

“Check what, foolish brother?”

He took a breath. A deep breath.

“I was wondering if I’d got everything wrong after starting from here. Screwing it all up right after the starting line is so stupid it sounds like something I’d do, but if that’s the case…how should I put it?”

Unable to form an answer, his shoulders slumped again before he continued.

“What am I supposed to do?”

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