Horizon:GT2 Chapter4

Chapter 4: Blame and Circumstances

Adults compare several truths

They don’t choose just one

Hence why some call them liars

Point Allocation (What a Pain)

●

The Honda household woke early. Or they were supposed to. But this day, Futayo woke in the late morning.

“School!”

She scrambled out of bed.

“Oh, right. It’s spring break.”

She didn’t have school. Her Chancellor’s Officers work as the Vice Chancellor’s aide was off as well. So she was fine.

But a thought occurred to her: why hadn’t her father or Kazuno come to wake her?

They had shifted her morning training to match her schedule now that she was working for the Chancellor’s Officers, but she should have had that at the usual time since she was off duty today. Why had she been allowed to sleep in?

“Oh.”

She recalled what those two had said last night.

“We’ve got some minor business to take care of related to Musashi. We should be back tomorrow afternoon. Want a souvenir? I’ll pick you up something if it’s convenient. Hm, I know. How about I buy you around three dozen chicken skewers and as many miso pork skewers as I can get my hands on? …What’s that look for, Kazuno!?”

“Are meat skewers really the best thing you can come up with for your teenage daughter, Tadakatsu-sama?”

Kazuno had glared at Futayo’s father, but he had only fixed the collar of his black summer clothing with a quick flicking motion. It was honestly still a mystery how he managed to make such a solid sound by striking cloth with his fingernails.

Just so you know, he came back with pork skewers for me.

○

Vice President: “So what happened with those two?”

Tonbokiri: “They returned home around evening. There was apparently a crime outside Mikawa and security in the area was tighter, so they decided it was better to wait until the heat died down than try to head back and cause a scene. And then my schedule got a bit busier starting the next day.”

Bell: “Busier…why?”

Tonbokiri: “Because of that murder case. Some of us in Mikawa were lent out to the surrounding guards to avoid friction with Tres España.”

Vice President: “And I went back home oblivious to all of this. To be fair, the incident happened closer to the general landport than to my home. I do remember thinking security was unusually strict that day.”

●

Masazumi rode a shared freight wagon through two checkpoints to reach Mikawa again.

…I doubt I’ve forgotten anything at our house in Mikawa, but I should still put up the futon.

Her luggage was already on the Musashi, so the trip was a lot easier. She thought it would be nice to say goodbye to the home she had lived in for so long. When they left the last checkpoint, they were in the forest. The road split in three there.

One path led to central Mikawa where New Nagoya Castle was located.

One path led to outer Mikawa where important officials and influential people had their homes.

One path led to the outskirts where a hilly route led to the western plaza and the general landport and where a sparse residential area led to the sea.

The trade wagons and pedestrians took their different paths through the forest until the trees thinned out and their view opened up in an exhilarating way. Masazumi often walked to this checkpoint because it acted as a relay station for contacting the Musashi or receiving payments from her father.

“Um, excuse me, Masazumi. Think of this as a message from god sent via the ley lines, but one simple Shinto contract is all you need to do both those things via a sign frame. Then you wouldn’t need to visit the checkpoint at all.”

Gods these days sure are pushy salespeople! And I don’t have the money for that!

She ended up “paying” with her feet.

At any rate, the place was fairly busy today. The road was bustling with trade wagons and pedestrians.

The area where it shifted from a dirt road to a stone-paved route was especially busy. This happened a lot when there were conflicts over who got to go first, but this time…

…Oh, there’s a fork in the road there, but the dirt is all torn up.

There was a large bump between the paved part and the unpaved part. A mechanical horse hurried over and stopped next to a wagon attempting to get through and asked if they were alright.

“Little help please!? Munashi’s 6-wheeled wagon is stuck!”

A few people approached the road, but a lot of the pedestrians were women and children, who couldn’t go and help.

The men seemed to know what had to be wrong. They took a board from another wagon, inserted it below the stuck wheel, and pushed it up.

“There! Now get going!”

Masazumi hadn’t seen this enough to say it was “the usual sight”, but this still happened a lot. Even the people arguing over who got to go first knew that a problem like this would hold everyone up. As long as their reputation wasn’t on the line, they would work together.

The locals all understood this and the middle schoolers would even go around filling in potholes with sand as part of their extracurricular activities.

Masazumi wondered if they hadn’t been doing that as much this year.

“Hm?”

She heard something behind her.

It came from the checkpoint. A large sign frame had opened on the main gate there.

“An emergency notice?”

She realized a sign frame from her Musashi contract had appeared by her head at the same time. It said…

<Notification: Your change of residence request has been temporarily placed on hold due to circumstances in Mikawa. You will be informed as soon as this changes, so please wait until then. Apologies for the inconvenience.>

…My request is on hold?

“Well, things should be back to normal by this evening, so it’s not a big deal. And I did only arrange it this morning.”

Would whatever this is about be in the news? she wondered with a tilt of her head.

<With that out of the way, it is time for the Musashi Divine Transmission Shopping Show.>

“Hello! Beforrrrrrre we get to today’s recommendations, here’s my daughter! So, daughter, has anything been bothering you latelyyyyyyyyy!?”

“Yes, whenever I sleep recently, mosquitos – and bugs in general – have been getting in.”

Um, uh, what about my request?

“How awful! But we have the perfect thing for anyone who can’t sleep because of all the gross bugs! IZUMO’s insecticide team has developed Tomorrow’s Target, a miniscule automatic counterattack insecticide light beam cannon! When it detects a mosquito, it automatically zaps them with an extra-deadly beam spell! And, if you can believe it, it hangs on your wall disguised as one of three varieties of flower vase! Order now and you get a printing press for no extra charge!”

“Oh, my. An entire printing press!?”

Wait, isn’t that the shrine maiden I met earlier?

○

Flat Vassal: “Vice President! Vice President! Shouldn’t you have been panicking over your frozen request, not making calm observations like that!?”

Vice President: “I mostly remember what left the biggest impact on me at the time, so it’s going to be about others, not my own thoughts.”

Asama: “More importantly, I’m pretty sure we were offering a free portable vacuum purifier at the time, not a printing press. Give me a second to write up a correction.”

Bell: “A-Asama-san…calm…down.”

Silver Wolf: “Anyway, the crime scene was on the outskirts of Mikawa, so we arrived via the western plaza. But what did you do after that, Masazumi?”

Vice President: “After tidying up the house and locking up, I didn’t really have anything left to do. I had left my futon out, so I considered taking a nap until I returned to the Musashi that evening, but I was too hungry to sleep and decided to read instead, but I realized there weren’t any books left there, so I ended up reading the ads in the newspaper left in a corner, which really only told me that meat was pretty cheap two weeks before.”

Flat Vassal: “Vice President! Vice President! This makes you sound more lazy than poor!”

Silver Wolf: “Um? Masazumi? Don’t you have any hobbies?”

Vice President: “Reading is my hobby. Which is why I read those ads.”

Girls: “You’re hopeless!”

Asama: “Regarding your request being on hold, my dad told us to hurry up with the murder case in Mikawa. That’s why we went to Mikawa to investigate.”

●

The investigation in Mikawa began in the midafternoon. For Mitotsudaira…

…I want to get this done with before sunset.

They were at an inn near the forest on the outskirts of Mikawa. There was no smoldering heat left. It was completely burned down.

The site was around 30m long and wide. The excess wood had been moved outside to assist with the investigation, but its original location had been recorded and could be displayed as a virtual image if necessary.

According to Mikawa’s committees, the inn hadn’t been getting much business because, although the road led from the outskirts to the landport, the ancient roads in the New Nagoya Castle area had recently been fixed up for trade purposes.

There were also fewer guests due to the frequent mysterious phenomena, so it was only used as an inn when the landport was busy and was otherwise used as a storehouse.

“So the two victims were staying there in secret, but they were killed and the inn was set on fire.”

“And they both had their throats slit. …Oh, the bodies were already recovered, but I checked through the data. It isn’t clear if it was the murder weapon, but a scorched dagger was recovered from the inn.”

Asama emerged from the tent set up nearby and sighed.

She was exhausted after checking over so much data. Mitotsudaira sighed too.

“This is always difficult. I’ve investigated a few crime scenes as a knight, but it never gets easier.”

“And my prosthetic eye lets me see the residual ether…not that I think it would be much easier without that. I hope we can quickly identify the victims and return them to their families.”

“Their identities aren’t known?”

“Not yet.” Asama shook her head. And, “Let’s have sushi tonight, Mito.”

“Eh? M-me too?”

“I’ll contact Toori-kun, so I’m sure he’ll deliver us plenty of sushi when we return to the Asama Shrine. Yes.”

The way Asama calmly opened sign frame and arranged that showed how accustomed to it she was.

Meanwhile, Mitotsudaira spoke with the Mikawa guards who were cleaning up and doing a preliminary investigation. There was some confusion at first since she was with the Musashi Chancellor Officers and Knight League but was dressed as a shrine maiden, but things went smoothly once they understood the situation. Asama stepped forward and recorded the relevant information.

“So you say there is a record of those two passing through the general landport checkpoint?”

“But Tres España says they aren’t missing anyone.”

They were answered by the Public Morals Committee Head who was acting as the guards’ representative here. Mitotsudaira saw herself as only a junior member of Musashi’s Chancellor’s Officers and felt hesitant to interact with someone with an official position like that, but Asama had no trouble at all.

Or maybe she did, but there was no way to tell from the outside. Just from looking at her….

…She’s so big.

I meant her height. Among other things.

“A-are you having rude thoughts, Mito?”

No, so keep working. While they exchanged information with the committee head, they heard a voice from the road. They looked over to see a group approaching with the clank of light armor.

…It’s them.

Mitotsudaira did not recognize the individuals, but she knew who this had to be. These were the vanguards of the Tres Españan Catholics.

“Are you the inquisitor and her knights?”

“Testament. We have come to investigate. We have been given full authority in this case.”

A girl with short brown hair wore a white cape.

“I carry the inherited name of Don Rodrigo. I am paying you a visit during the history recreation of my trip around the world.”

●

Asama kept her guard up just in case. Shinto was lenient and could get along with any religion, but the Catholics might not see things that way. An inquisitor in particular was tasked with hunting down heretics and Technohexen, which was concerning when Musashi was a common destination for such people. So…

“Here is my business card.”

“And mine. …Oh, from the shopping channel.”

They exchanged business cards via sign frame. Rodrigo gave a quick bow and received some data from the Mikawa committee head who walked up next to her.

…Oh, Mikawa is being more polite with her than with us. And giving her more data too.

Asama checked the nearby ether transfer rate while pretending to inspect the crime scene.

“They’re giving her nearly twice the data they gave us,” she said via sign frame.

“Which will take her twice the time to digest. Makes it easier for us,” replied Mitotsudaira.

That’s true, thought Asama as Rodrigo bowed to the Mikawa representative. The Public Morals Committee Head gestured toward the road leading westward from the front of the inn.

“Based on our inspection, we know the two of them arrived from the west. A group of P.A. Oda traders were passing through after crossing the border from old Kitabatake territory, so they likely came from there.”

“Can you confirm that?” asked Rodrigo, but the Public Morals Committee Head shook her head.

Asama decided to raise her hand.

“I couldn’t help but overhear. Is that all right?”

“Judge. I don’t mind.”

The way she smiled said this wasn’t a big deal at all.

She took a breath and looked to both Asama and Rodrigo.

“We have no way of confirming that they arrived from the western border with P.A. Oda. P.A. Oda traders have priority when it comes to passage through Mikawa, so if they ask for passage as a group, we will check how many people in their group and what they are transporting, but we will not check the identities of each member of the group. They only go through what I would call a standard security check.”

“Which was the last group to arrive?”

“One working for P.A. Oda’s Matsunaga.”

“Oh,” said Mitotsudaira on Asama’s sign frame. “Matsunaga Hisahide Danjou. He is a P.A. Oda commander who works for Nobunaga, but he is said to have influenced Nobunaga with the burning of Toudaiji and other incidents where he chose to destroy or ignore people’s preconceived notions and the established power structure if he considered it necessary to acquire more power for himself or to defend his own power. My king told me he has since gained an interest in the arts, so he posts recommendations for porn games and doujinshis. If he is involved in this, it all looks a lot more suspicious to me.”

“The Matsunaga traders made an offering at the local shrine the day they arrived, called in the local people, and held a Far Eastern festival as a sign of friendship.”

“Why is that unfortunate?”

“it means they have the local god’s protection, Mito.”

●

“Huh?”

Mitotsudaira turned toward Asama. Rodrigo and the Mikawa representative did the same, but the shrine maiden only tilted her head with eyebrows raised.

“Participating in a local festival is a way of greeting the local god and receiving their protection. This applies to travelers as well, so they receive the local divine protection. So…”

So…

“The Matsunaga traders essentially used the festival to make ‘here’ their home.”

●

Something about this didn’t make sense to Mitotsudaira.

…U-um?

She didn’t understand. She wasn’t confused about what had happened, but…

“Why would they do that?”

Her instincts were rejecting the concept because it seemed like an odd thing to do. Because…

“Let’s assume the Matsunaga traders did bring those two here. They would have effectively been smuggling the pair in. So why would they reveal their identities here?”

Yes. To receive a god’s protection required revealing your identity to that god and registering your identity with the shrine.

“If they were planning to do something in Mikawa, wouldn’t it be safer to remain anonymous? So why would they reveal their identities, even if only at the shrine?”

…If they had been illegally smuggled into Mikawa, wouldn’t it be best to avoid that?

She asked that question with her eyes, but Asama still tilted her head.

The Public Morals Committee Head looked apologetic and Mitotsudaira felt much the same. But Asama tilted her head again and looked to the others in turn before speaking.

“If they didn’t reveal their identities like that and then committed a crime, we would know it was committed by a visitor. And the current Shinto network and other religious networks are advanced enough that we would only have to look at a few pieces of information to determine who it was. And without registering with the shrine, they wouldn’t receive the local divine protections, which would be a little inconvenient for committing a crime.”

“Inconvenient how?”

“If a visitor attempts to commit a crime, the god might intervene with divine punishment to protect the local people and land.”

“Oh,” said Mitotsudaira, finally understanding. “You mean they would end up with something shoved up their-”

Asama slapped Mitotsudaira’s shoulders with the biggest smile she could manage.

○

Asama: “Mito! Mito! Did you really think they would know what you are talking about!?”

Silver Wolf: “I assumed they would know all about it.”

Gold Mar: ‘Even if they did, did you really have to mention it?”

●

“Anyway, I think you get the picture,” said Asama, clearing her throat.

…But there’s still a lot we don’t know.

None of this applied to the two victims. Both in terms of their identity and origins, but also…

“If their identities had been registered in the same way, we would know who they are, correct? Have you heard anything about that, Mikawa Representative?”

“Well…”

She was hesitant to speak.

Asama wondered why while she got to work. She opened a sign frame and used the previously-shared data to access the local god. She ran a search of recent registrations, but…

“What?”

The sign frame stopped responding with a single message displayed:

<Locked Data: This data has been designated an international matter>

Her Shinto privileges had been locked out by someone with higher privileges. She knew who that had to be.

“Mikawa’s Student Council and Chancellor’s Officers must maintain Mikawa as neutral ground. Thus, we requested all data on the identities of the victims be locked,” calmly explained Rodrigo with her eyes closed. She produced a Catholic, Tres España, and Testament Union emblem. “Two people have been found dead on neutral ground. If they have indeed been murdered, then knowledge of their identities and nationalities could lead to an international incident. This could even threaten Mikawa’s neutrality. Thus, my nation and the Testament Union demanded the data be locked down.”

“Does that mean the victims were Tres Españan?”

“I never said so. Are they?”

Asama thought that was a good response. Rodrigo was implicitly saying she could claim Asama was threatening Mikawa’s neutrality if she continued this line of questioning.

…It sounds like this isn’t a straight forward case.

Which meant she had something to say.

“I have one question I must ask given my position.”

That was…

“You say Tres España and the Testament Union wanted data on this case locked. And Mikawa has agreed to it. But a failure to investigate could threaten local security, so were we called in as outsiders to perform that investigation?”

“No,” said Rodrigo, raising her right index finger. “Tres España and Mikawa have agreed to lock down the relevant data, but we have made no such agreement with Musashi. You will obey your request from Mikawa and investigate as much as you can without intruding on our agreement.”

“That’s a warning to not dig too deep on this one, isn’t it?” said Mitotsudaira on Asama’s sign frame.

It was a pain, but that probably about covered it. But Rodrigo had more to say.

“We do not know much about this case either. We will be performing our own independent investigation to better understand the situation, so please do not intrude.”

“Fair enough,” said Asama with a sigh and a smile.

The Mikawa representative sighed, releasing the tension from her shoulders. And…

“Mikawa is neutral ground. We agreed to lock down the relevant data to preserve that neutrality and to help avoid trouble in our land. We asked for Musashi’s assistance because we cannot do much of anything with that data freeze tying our hands. So…we cannot reach any conclusions ourselves.”

She bowed.

“We would like you to investigate, process the data you discover, present that to the Mikawa Student Council, and leave.”

●

“Huh? Is Tenzou not here?”

Adele heard the idiot’s voice as he arrived at the Asakusa construction site.

He took a look around, said “whatever”, and started toward the plaza on the other side of the lodgings. Noriki and the others would be there, but…

“Um, Toori-san? Are you here to help?”

“Don’t be silly. How’s a frail little thing like me supposed to do hard labor?” He held up the basket he was carrying. “I’ve brought some refreshments for Noriki and…is Uqui here? Anyway, I’ve agreed to meet Chuuko over there, so make sure everyone eats all this before I get back.”

Chuuko was Torii Mototada, who would be serving as Chancellor when the new school year started, but how many connections did that boy have? Or rather, how widespread was the harm that living harassment produced?

But there was one thing Adele wanted to ask.

“Asama-san said they were heading down to Mikawa for a job, but have you heard more about that? I know Tenzou-san said he would be catching up with them later.”

“Mikawa? Huh? It’s not about something I did, is it?”

“What did you do this time?”

“Well.” The idiot tilted his head. “I may have imported a whole bunch of porn games. Mikawa gets shipments in from P.A. Oda, so they have a great selection of dark-skinned ones. Pretty great, right? Hey, don’t give me that look of pity! Anyway, I thought I had covered my tracks well this time, but it’s possible they noticed something and are following the trail.”

“I don’t think it’s about that, so you can rest easy.”

“That’s good,” said the idiot, his shoulders relaxing.

“If it’s that much of a problem for them to find out, you could just not do it in the first place, you know?”

“Hm. Maybe this is something I can only get away with while I’m single.”

But…

“I guess it could still worry Horizon, Asama, Mitotsudaira, and sis.”

○

Asama: “Adele, um, are you sure you aren’t embellishing this conversation?”

Unturning: “The mention of the Vicereine alone says she is.”

Art-Ga: “Does it matter? You’re supposed to interpret this as what was always in his heart. Either that or Adele is putting words in his mouth.”

Horizey: “Guys who cling to the past are such creeps.”

Silver Wolf: “Tomo! Tomo! We’re cutting that line from the record, aren’t we!?”

●

Adele thought while eating the macaron he gave her.

…It’s unusual for Toori-san to see the error of his ways.

He usually caused some kind of trouble and Asama would have to go pick him up at the guard station. But…

“So even Toori-san knows he’s a nuisance.”

“H-hey, is it just open season on insulting me now!? Is that it!?”

“Oh, what’s this?” said a voice from starboard. It was Ohiroshiki. He raised a hand and approached. “What are you doing, Aoi-kun and Adele-kun? Trading insults again?”

“Huh? I’ve never once insulted anyone, Ohiroshiki. How stupid are you?”

“Th-that’s an insult right there, Aoi-kun!”

“Calm down.” Adele held out her hands to calm Ohiroshiki’s anger. And, “What are you doing here, Ohiroshiki-san? There are no little girls here.”

“Good point, Adele. What’re you doing here, Ohiroshiki? There aren’t any little girls here.”

“N-now you’re teaming up on me!? But anyway,” said Ohiroshiki. “It may be related to the reason Tenzou-kun, Asama-kun, and Mitotsudaira-kun went down to Mikawa, but an official notice is going around.”

Ohiroshiki ran the Ohiroshiki Group, one of Musashi’s leading restaurant chains. He would naturally receive any information relating to diplomacy, but…

“What is it about, Ohiroshiki-san?”

“Judge,” he replied, opening a sign frame. “Mikawa and Tres España have sent out a troublesome request related to the processing of people moving from Mikawa to Musashi.”

●

Masazumi noticed something inside the house which was practically empty at this point. She had been using a futon as a cushion and reading an advertisement to pass the time when a sign frame appeared next to her head.

It surprised her a fair bit.

The problem was that it glowed. She had been told the Double Border Crest mysterious phenomenon seen when her mother disappeared had also glowed.

She initially looked to the back room which she had barely set foot inside after cleaning up after that incident. She had weighed caution against fear and the caution had won out, so the sliding screen was still removed.

The crest had been drawn out in blood, but that blood had soon disappeared and it was only a white wall now.

There was nothing there.

The glow came from her neck. She held out a hand and found she couldn’t touch it, but it still moved forward as if she were pushing it.

It was a sign frame. She had been lying down reading the ad, so it had been pushed up against her neck when it appeared.

“Oh, it’s only a message.”

She recognized the Asama Shrine label from that morning.

It was currently 3 PM, so why would they be contacting her now?

…Did my request go through?

That was unusually fast. She considered returning to the Musashi now.

This house held a lot of memories for her, but…

“I’m so bored.”

There was nothing to do. She had already transferred her luggage and being here only brought back some unpleasant thoughts, like about her mother’s disappearance. She had been so busy preparing for the move lately and she had been emotionally detaching herself from the place since she planned to leave, but…

…Now that I have some time, I start thinking about it.

Anyway, what were the Musashi people trying to tell her? She decided to adjust her plans based on that, so she moved the sign frame in front of her and (“Is this how you do it?”) called up the message.

<Emergency message.>

However, the message was not from Musashi.

It had been relayed by Musashi, but it bore the emblem of the Mikawa Student Council.

<At the request of the Mikawa Student Council and Chancellor’s Officers and the Tres España Student Council and Chancellor’s Officers, all change of residence requests from Mikawa to Musashi will be temporarily frozen.

A brutal crime has been committed in Mikawa and this measure is meant to prevent the culprit from escaping to Musashi.

If you are affected by this, please wait patiently in Mikawa. Or you could reconsider leaving our wonderful city?>

○

Silver Wolf: “Why did it try to talk her out of moving at the end?”

Vice President: “That really happened! I’m pretty sure it really said that!”

Tachibana Wife: “It sounds like my old colleagues were involved in that, but they actually froze all change of residence requests? I don’t understand.”

Tonbokiri: “Gin-dono. It means no one was able to move from Mikawa to Musashi.”

Flat Vassal: “Gin-san! Gin-san! Stop grabbing handfuls of plants and ripping them apart!”

Asama: “This happened right after we spoke with Rodrigo-san, so it had a real ‘now she’s done it’ feeling to Mito and me.”

Circle Be: “Ohhhh! Sorry to butt in from Kantou, but I remember that. Shiro-kun and I had bought up a bunch of houses and renovated them to sell to the people arriving from Mikawa, so we were in serious trouble.”

Flat Vassal: “Why do our Treasurers always take such huge risks?”

Circle Be: “Now, now, now. We were still minor merchants at the time and we were at the age where you feel the need to try out some get-rich-quick schemes, you know?”

Asama: “Oh, that explains why you kept showing up back then to ask about the mysterious phenomenon situation in Mikawa.”

Smoking Girl: “So what happened to that unsellable property?”

Circle Be: “Well, we learned our lesson, so while we could have used them for some futures trading, we decided it was safer to sell them off through our connections. But we needed some connections to sell them through, so we were really hoping some influential person from Mikawa would move to Musashi.”

Silver Wolf: “You don’t mean Masazumi, do you?”

Circle Be: “Of course not. Seijun isn’t a name inheritor, so we weren’t interested in her. If anything, we were hoping Futayo would make the move.”

Tonbokiri: “Oh, I do remember my father telling the Chancellor’s Officers to send me away from Mikawa.”

Vice President: “Probably because Lord Tadakatsu acted as a special sort of reserve force as Mikawa’s Vice Chancellor. Sending you elsewhere would have been best for your and Mikawa’s futures.”

Tonbokiri: “A year later, I went to Aki as the head of the guard unit and I was free to do whatever I wanted afterwards, but I never imagined that would mean returning to Mikawa and then moving to Musashi. It is strange to think about even if I can blame Gin-dono for a lot of that.”

Tachibana Wife: “Th-there’s a lot I could blame you for too, you know!?”

Asama: “Um, Gin-san? Take this mortar and pestle and put that aggression to good use.”

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