Horizon:Volume 9B Chapter 58

Chapter 58: The Shizugatake Couple

It’s to soon to graduate

It’s too late to stay

So let’s take each other’s hand

And go wherever we like

Point Allocation (We’re So In Love)

●

Shizugatake ain’t over yet, thought Shibata as he looked up to see the Azuchi slowly start to move.

Because he and Oichi were still alive. Quite a few transport ships were already flying alongside or out ahead of the Azuchi, along with high-speed ships accompanied by Technohexen.

“That’s the problem with kids these days. They don’t join you for the party after the job is done.”

The Azuchi was flying south. After a bitter smile at that, Shibata turned to face Oichi.

She smiled back at him.

“Katsuie-san? I learned something very important here.”

“Oh? So did I, Oichi-sama, but I’d love to hear what you learned.”

“Testament. I learned I was a perfectly normal person.”

“Now, hold on. If you ask me, you’re a stunningly beautiful woman, an excellent cook, and just the greatest person out there with an incredible personality.”

“Thank you,” she said. And, “Katsuie-san.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know why, but…”

He listened.

“I don’t want to die.”

●

Oichi spoke while looking up at Katsuie.

“Why do I feel this way? There were so many times when I killed someone because I knew they couldn’t be allowed to live. I know I’ve done unforgivable things and been selfish, but that’s why I sought you out because you would kill me.”

She could see now she had been noncommittal on this issue. But…

“For some reason, I don’t want to die anymore.”

“Oichi-sama.” Katsuie smiled. “I know why you don’t want to die: because you’re happy. This means you’ve finally found happiness. But do you remember what I promised on our wedding day? That I would spend my life making you happy.”

“Thank you.”

The words spilled out along with some tears.

“Yeah.” Shibata nodded and took a small step back. Then they both took a breath. “Do you know what we do now, Oichi-sama?”

“Yes. I know.”

They both took a step toward each other. At the same time, they both drew a sword with their remaining left arm.

“This was another promise we made.”

With that, they exchanged attacks.

●

“It’s begun,” someone said without looking back after seeing the Azuchi off. “Wow. And they’re doing this with just their left arms.”

It was loud. The sounds of rapid strikes were like a machine grinding through stone.

“But what’s this? The sounds are blending together.”

Because the two of them were approaching each other step by step.

“Oh, damn. Shibata-san must’ve just fallen to his knee.”

He wasn’t defeated. They could tell from the change in the sound that this only brought him to Oichi’s eye level.

The two of them were now trading attacks while facing each other at close range.

●

Oichi smiled within the flying sparks and wildly dancing steel sounds.

“Katsuie-san.”

The demonic man before her was down on his knee, putting him on her eye level.

She – no, they were endlessly deflecting each other’s blades.

“I love you.”

They hugged each other. And at the same time, their blades struck.

“–––––”

The blades stabbed into each other deep enough to emerge from their backs.

Two blades – one from him to her and one from her to him. They were now truly bonded together.

“Oh.”

Opening her mouth let frothy blood spill out. Their embrace meant the blood colored his shoulder red.

And he faced her.

So she didn’t hesitate to kiss him. And…

“Nh.”

He stood up. They each had only a left arm, but he was embracing her and supporting her from below and he began walking.

They were on their way.

Their lips parted and formed smiles.

“Shall we go, Oichi-sama?”

As he walked, his footsteps rang heavy on the deck.

“If, by some chance, we are still alive by the time we reach the ground, we can live a life where we truly live this time.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ll eat good food, get lots of sleep, and motivate our incompetent underclassmen while doing our boring jobs. And on our occasional days off, we can travel somewhere, go shopping, and comment how nothing much happened that day. We’ll live a life where we sometimes try out a different toothpaste, test out a different way of making tea, and stand in front of the mirror and ask if I’m more handsome when I smile.”

“How lovely. …I would love to do that.”

“You would?” he said, walking. She felt so comfortable rocking in his arms. The rocking also made her more aware of the two lines of ice running through her body.

She felt like the chill of the night was passing through the blades to wash her clean of her past.

A pair of full moons shined in the sky and the Azuchi appeared to be flying to the land below them.

“The Testament…contained a death poem for me, didn’t it?”

“Do you know what it means?”

“Yes,” she replied, narrowing her eyes toward the distant departing Azuchi. “The call of the summer bird further shortens the summer night.

“But that bird tells everyone about all the stupid stuff we’re getting up to.”

“Oh, dear.” A laugh escaped her. It came out more as a cough dripping with blood. “Katsuie-san, that is much too liberal an interpretation.”

“And you’re too much of a romantic.”

“I am.” she nodded and rested her cheek against him. She took in a deep breath and shut her eyes. “And I imagine I always have been.”

She found her body was drained of strength.

If she fell asleep, would she wake up in a place where they could “live a full life” as he had put it?

“Katsuie-sama.”

“Yeah?”

She nestled her cheek against him and spoke while sensing her consciousness fading.

“Do you remember what I said? I said I want to be happy.”

●

“Azuchi” used the Azuchi’s rear sight devices to confirm a large-scale glowing phenomenon coming from the north, where the Shibata camp was located. Then she turned to see it with her own eyes.

She knew what had happened. The report from Fuwa had already arrived at the bridge.

The Battle of Shizugatake was over. So…

“We will now shift into gravitational acceleration cruising and travel southeast at full speed.”

Everyone knew their destination.

“We must hurry to Honnouji and Musashi. At all costs. Shaja!!”

●

“Apparently the Azuchi is on its way here. What should we do?”

Everyone reacted to Asama’s question by exchanging a glance while traveling through the corridor. They had all been freed from the concrete area. It hadn’t managed to soak into them thanks to their purification spells, but some of it did remain on their shoes and the bottom of their clothing.

So some of them had their removed shoes hanging from their hip hard points as they ran in their tights or barefoot.

“The Azuchi’s big, right? How long until we can see it?”

“If you only want to see it, it should be pretty visible by the time it’s on the other side of Lake Biwa. But any artillery fire from that distance can easily be stopped with our defense barriers.”

“So we still have some time,” said Masazumi, a hand on her chin. “We should still hurry, though. We might have some extra time, but the Honnouji side might not. Futayo, Mitotsudaira, please continue to guard us.”

Futayo crouched in front of Masazumi and held her arms out.

“If you wish.”

“I wasn’t saying you had to carry me again.”

Everyone watched this play out.

But then they hurried onward again. They could see the far end of the passageway now. There was a large door, so Mitotsudaira readied Excalibur.

Gold Mar: “By the way, Ma-yan, we borrowed one of your swords. Is that alright?”

Scarred: “Oh, yes. That one was originally fond of Master Tenzou, but it has also grown fond of Lady Mitotsudaira, so I hope the two of them can show it some love.”

Mitotsudaira went ahead and stroked the connection point.

And just as she prepared to slam Excalibur into the door…

Novice: ‘Wait! I have something kind of important to tell you!”

●

Suzu hung her head on the Musashino bridge.

…U-umm…

While she thought, “Musashino” kindly spoke quietly from behind her.

“Why is his timing so bad, Suzu-sama? Over.”

“Um, yes…but that isn’t what I meant.”

“Then let me try again. …‘Kind of important’? So is it important or not? Over.”

“Yes…that’s it.”

A round of applause filled the Musashino bridge and “Musashino” raised her right hand in acknowledgment, but was this really acceptable behavior for them?

●

Mitotsudaira had no choice but to eat a bar of portable food to kill some time. And meanwhile…

Me: “What is it, Neshinbara? You do know we’re right in front of the door leading to the final boss battle, right? Are you going to save our game for us or something? Read the room, man.”

Novice: “No, it isn’t that! I figured out that code puzzle!”

Art-Ga: “Pft. …Oh, sorry.”

Novice: “Wh-why would you laugh!? You’ll regret that afterwards!”

“Yeah, you generally don’t regret things beforehand,” remarked an annoyed Margot. Our Secretary says things like that a lot, doesn’t he?

But the Secretary wasn’t done talking.

Novice: “Listen! This is a big deal! I just know you’ll need it later!”

Vice President: “Are you surrrre?”

Novice: “Why did you hold that ‘r’ for so long, Takarazuka Honda-kun!?”

Me: “Don’t worrrry about it.”

Laborer: “It’s a minorrrr issue.”

Four Eyes: “Arrrre you stupid?”

Novice: “D-dammit! I’m so mad I can’t find the words to respond!”

Vice President: “A vocabularrrry deficiency, huh?”

Novice: “Stop doing thaaaaat! You could at least stick to doing to emphasize a question!”

“We coulllld?” some of the warriors responded. They’re really starting to show their own character.

But Mitotsudaira was already starting on her second bar of food.

Silver Wolf: “You say this is so important, but do we really need to hear it now?”

Novice: “Think more carefully, Mitotsudaira-kun! We’re the group who only just had the mid-boss go ‘eh?’ because we’d failed to do our homework.”

Horizey: “That did happen, didn’t it? A certain Secretary hadn’t done his homework or his research, creating the illusion that the entire group was lacking in intelligence. He said we could count on him, but he never has anything of substance to tell us and he just makes things up, so trusting him has become quite a thrilling affair. He should be thankful that, unlike a normal academy, we will forgive him by counting it as a running gag.”

Novice: “M-my shame can’t get much more intense, so please stop!”

Smoking Girl: “Can you at least get on with whatever you wanted to say?”

“Oh, right,” said the Secretary.

Novice: “If you hear me out now, you’ll understand what the final boss tells you! Then you won’t make them go ‘eh?’ because you have no idea what’s going on!”

Asama raised her hand. “Go ahead,” prompted Mitotsudaira, so she nodded to everyone.

Asama: “Um, I do a lot of explanatory work for the shrine, right? And at this point, it seems to me it would be faster to skip Neshinbara-kun’s explanation and just ask the final boss to explain it to us.”

●

Mitotsudaira saw Horizon’s right hand shoot up.

“Aiyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Great point, Mighty Shaman Asama-sama! Having Final Boss-sama explain it to us would be just as fast as having Neshinbara-sama explain it! So let’s go and question the final boss!”

“Yes,” agreed Naruze. “They might attack us right away, but if it ends in a fight like that, then so be it. And if it doesn’t, Masazumi can swallow her pride and just ask like she always does.”

“What do you mean like I always do!?”

Everyone ignored Masazumi’s protest. But then the lieutenant of the warriors raised his hand.

“Will they really just tell you if you ask?”

“Heh heh. There’s nothing quite as unbearable as being interrupted by people who have no idea what’s going on. Yes, no idiot can bear it, can they!? Makes you go, ‘oh, you silly idiot!’ Oh, what’s this, Mitotsudaira? Can you not bear me!? Well, you don’t have to! Come and be open with me!”

Offering Kimi a strawberry-flavored bar quieted her down, so Mitotsudaira let the rest slide. But then Margot clapped her hands and nodded.

“Oh, I think I finally get why final bosses start explaining their plans before the final battle. It’s that thing smart people do where they can’t stand seeing an idiot. So it’s a form of kindness.”

“I see.” Futayo nodded. She also tilted her head even as she carried Masazumi over her shoulder. “But in that case…were all our discussions and investigation a waste of time?”

“Hm… Technically speaking, I guess it would be.”

“Tomo, you can be awfully harsh.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Asama tilted her head too. “I was part of that investigation too, but if you focus on the total time spent on it, then asking the final boss is a lot faster than gathering all that outside information. It might not be the most dignified method, but just asking cuts out a lot of wasted time and ensures there are no misunderstandings between us.”

“How would you put it in terms of video games?”

“Well…let’s say you hunted enemies as you pleased, did a bunch of dungeon crawling, completed all the events, and leveled up to enjoy yourself on the way to the final boss, then the final boss explained all the plot stuff about the mysteries of the world, his grudge against that world, and his bloodline, and then you defeat him instantly.”

“Doesn’t that make it seem like you silenced him for knowing too much?”

“I feel nothing but sympathy for Final Boss-sama.”

“Yeah, he probably wanted to hunt monsters, go adventuring, and enjoy his life too.”

“But anyway,” said the 1st Special Duty Officer, crossing his arms and nodding. “There are a number of things we wouldn’t have had so many misunderstandings about if we had just spoken to each other at an earlier stage.”

“So to sum up, if the world’s in danger, we need to talk it out with the final boss to untangle our misunderstandings.”

Everyone applauded Mitotsudaira’s king’s words. Mitotsudaira and the silver chains did as well.

Then she raised Excalibur overhead.

“Okay, everyone, here goes.”

Novice: “Waiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!”

Laborer: “What now!?”

Novice: “P-please! Just listen to me!”

Vice President: “Fine, we can listen, but why are you so desperate?”

Four Eyes: “I believe because he received some information from a foreign officer. Like he did from me.”

Everyone glared at the sign frame. And the Secretary…

Novice: “Wh-what’s wrong with that!? I didn’t know the answer, so I asked for help! It’s called being honest!”

He has really learned how to be stubborn recently.

●

“Now, then,” said Neshinbara.

He was at the Asama Shrine, sitting on the stairs beneath the torii.

The place usually had an atrium structure, but the sections forming the outside of the inner walls had all been purged. There were also large transport ships docked all around to finally purge this place once it was necessary to reduce the Musashi’s weight to the limit.

The docking and securing work was visible down the inner wall pathways.

…I need to document this as reference material!

That urge was what had delayed him so much.

So he had gone ahead and asked.

Novice: “Allow me to introduce you all to our guest commentator.”

Juana: “I am not entirely sure what this is about, but you wanted my thoughts on the information you sent me earlier, yes? Good evening, everyone. This is Tres España Vice President Juana.”

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