Horizon:Volume 1B Chapter22

Chapter 22: Unconcerned Colleagues

Of an era alike?

Of an era bygone?

Of an error it sprang?

Point Allocation (Adult)

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A girl swiftly walked down the long hallway, lit up by rays of sunshine.

Her black hair waved in the air as she walked, and she was dressed in a black and white uniform. The girl wore a nametag, on which the name "Asama" was written, and the corridor she walked was lined with the doorplates of different classes. The corridor lay on the second floor of the outer building in Musashi Ariadust Academy.

"It's quite a bit before eight, I guess no one would be here..."

As she walked, Asama stared at the door at the end of the corridor with her bichromatic eyes. It was the door to her class, the third year Plum Class.

...The state of emergency in Musashi has finally lifted, but...what should I do?

There was quite a lot of things to do last night, so I ended up going to bed in the morning.

There wasn't a big uproar or anything. After all, the provisional council started their deliberations once it was confirmed that Mikawa had been destroyed. And because of that all citizens were instructed by security squads to stay in their houses.

However, the Asama shrine — Asama's home — confirmed their status as a proxy for the Mikawa shrine, which had disappeared. Due to this and a request from the security squads, there was a need to prepare for the Phenomena that would result from disharmony in the Ether.

...Well, I had already steeled myself to some degree, since I was on night watch for the shrine last night.

The atmosphere was tense, and if the situation continued to be a mass of unknowns, some form of mental stress was to be expected.

But as a result of Musashi being divided into separate ships, and the night watch closing the gates between the ships, nobody went back and forth between the ships, even if news and information did. The only incidents that occurred were responses against people left their houses against all instructions.

Due to the load on the divine communication channels, Mice of different kinds could be seen scurrying about the roads or flying through the skies. It was surprising to have a small shadow suddenly flit past, but I had handled three cases of mice getting lost and being brought to me in tears by the security squads.

And I heard that during the meeting between the provisional council and the representative of the Testament Council, it had been decided that Horizon would be dismantled and Musashi would be handed over. All this had happened before the state of emergency in Musashi had been lifted.

Despite this, there was no big response in Musashi. More accurately...

"—We couldn't do anything even if we wanted to..."

Musashi belonged to the Lord of Mikawa, Lord Motonobu. And that same Lord Motonobu had engineered the destruction of Mikawa. And Musashi itself is devoid of any weapons. Well, there's the anti-artillery gravity shields, which make use of gravity control fields normally used against strong winds, but those are only good for local protection. It would be extremely difficult to appropriate it for offensive purposes.

...We have nothing that we can rely upon and use to act, to do something...

Added to this, Tres España, the biggest military, and K.P.A. Italia, the head of the Catholic church and the Testament Union is in our vicinity. If we act out of turn in a situation like this, Musashi's very existence would be called into question.

And hammering in the point, K.P.A. Italia's broadcast personnel was broadcasting videos of Mikawa's destruction and the state of the affected areas. Videos of the ruins of the annihilated Mikawa, the towns that tumbled into fissures, and the crowds of people evacuating from the unaffected outskirts. Images and interviews with wounded soldiers also being broadcasted, this all served to emphasise the seriousness of the situation.

As I was coming to the Academy, I would occasionally saw crimson Ether lights rising into the sky above Mikawa. Most likely the disturbed leyline forcing the clots within itself out into a medium with less resistance: the sky.

In a situation like this, people aren't whispering resistance against the decision of the provisional council.

...They're saying, "What else can we do?...

The provisional council had decided to use the transport ships that had brought commodities in and out of the residential area as a temporary refuge for the evacuating citizens of Mikawa. The arrangement was to link them up with Musashi and provide life-support spell charms.

That's why I could see a bunch of transport ships headed to the Mikawa outskirts as I was coming here. But the amount of actual citizens in the towns are few, more common is the sight of security squads. A view rarely seen. It's situations like this that cause impurities, making it easier for Phenomena to occur.

"......"

Asama stopped in front of the classroom. Taking a hand mirror from her sleeve, she examined her face and hair.

I may have went to bed in the morning, but I guaranteed myself six hours of sleep with a charm of compressed slumber.

...Even then I slept through the morning's purification ceremony, only to be awoken by Hanami...

I guess using the Izumo-made DMT water-heater "Hot-water ATARISHOCK" on the shrine's spring was a bad idea. Dad just likes new stuff way too much. He said that at the Kyuushuu shrine, the grass creatures who inhabit Africa would take away our fatigue, but is that really the right way to go about things? Or maybe I just like animals too much?"

"Well, that's that."

What should I do? Dad's handling communications with other shrines, especially the ones in the other countries. There've even been rules laid down for posts regarding Musashi on the Izumo and Shirasago Industry sponsored divine communication channel/community site for shrines. My only role is to periodically update with current information, I don't have to handle the deluge of questions from the outside. If those rules were taken away things would get loud pretty quickly, but even that's better than what's happening now.

Everyone's probably in the same boat.

...What do I do?

Putting away the mirror, she brought her hand to touch the door. I'm the first one. I guess that's unsettling? Asama thought.

But when everyone comes and sees that I'm here before them, they'd probably feel a little bit more secure. So...

"...Well then."

She opened the door, revealing...

"Toori-kun!?"

The classroom was lit up by thin strands of sunlight, slanting in from the windows. Toori was slumped over on the window seat of the row furthest back.

His torso was spread out over the desk in front of him, and he lay completely still.

Asama, shocked, took a step into the classroom, but a voice stopped her.

"He got quite a scolding at the nighthouse. The rest of us were sent home early, but Toori-kun was left here."

Recognising Neshinbara's voice, Asama turned around.

"You guys..."

Starting with Neshinbara, there were several figures already in the classroom.

Neshinbara stopped, his fingers that had previously been dancing across the signframe before him falling still. He turned to face Asama. His eyes, visible through his glasses, were obviously suffering from lack of sleep. Despite this, they shined with resolved as he stared at her.

"Welcome to the meeting place of the student council and chancellor's officers — minus their authority. Everyone else will be along shortly."

His voice, though quiet, rang through the classroom.

"Principal Sakai is being debriefed in the checkpoint below and will be unable to attend, but there's lots to decide before he comes back. Specifically, what we wish to do regarding the fates of Horizon Ariadust and Musashi."

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In the mountains, at the midpoint of a valley, there lies a building with a large wooden terrace.

"Mikawa Mountaintop Eastern Checkpoint" was written on the doorplate to this checkpoint, which connected Musashi to Mikawa.

There were, at the moment, several cargo vehicles parked in the clearing used to manage the exchange of goods between the ship and the city.

This in itself would not be strange, but they remained there, no indication that they were moving goods or cargo at all. There was nothing being brought out from the checkpoint's transport warehouse. The owners of the goods were mingling with the people nearby, sitting on the floor and lost in conversation, or playing strategy games with their mobile messengers.

All they did was respond to the occasional calls from the management office, walking over when they were called.

There were two people gazing down at the relaxed motions of the crowd from the terrace above.

Sakai and the automaton "Musashi".

Sakai was reclining on the chair that accompanied a table fixed with a parasol, in the old Japanese style. He was drinking tea served by "Musashi", who was standing at his side.

"'Musashi-san', I'm...totally under house arrest, aren't I?"

"Jud. I believe this because you wandered around last night saying "I'll go back once I've had something to drink." Because of this, you were unable to return to me before the state of emergency was declared, and were taken into custody by K.P.A. Italia here. —Over."

"Weellll..." said Sakai, holding his teacup out to "Musashi".

"It would've been easy for me to run away, but I couldnt've just leave the people in the outskirts like that, could I? There were lots of people there who knew me, and it took quite a lot of time to evacuate them onto the mountain."

"Musashi" stared at the teacup offered to her by Sakai, but she showed no sign of filling it. Puzzled, Sakai looked at her.

"Are you angry?　C'mon, I just came here to meet an old friend and I had nothing to do with what happened here. And during my debriefing they even used spells to confirm that I was telling the truth. Well, that means that...I didn't do anything wrong, right?"

"Musashi" glanced up at the sky. Lowering her gaze again, she turned to the right and raised her right hand. Conjuring a signframe of a simple Torii-design before her eyes, she switched the screen to a list of entries.

"'Didn't do anything wrong," ? Sakai-sama's residence is on the surface of Okutama, and all cleaning, laundry, cooking and errands are left to the captain of Okutama, "Okutama". Your clothes are left lying everywhere, your books are left lying everywhere, you extort from "Okutama," 'screw Greenpeace, I'm leaving the light in the bathroom on,' the middle toenail of your right foot is ingrown - you are the worst. And it seems that you force "Okutama" to do most of your paperwork. Sakai-sama, do you know the meaning of the word 'adult'? —Over."

"But Tama-chan is so capable~"

"Jud. Because "Okutama" is also the caretaker of Ariadust Academy, her management ability is particularly high. Despite this, I am often forced to act when Sakai-sama's unreasonable demands cause problems with "Okutama"'s operation of her ship. A few days ago, you forced her to watch your special black-plated set of the superhero series "Southern Dynasty Cult MASASHIGE" in your place because you wanted to get them out of the way, and I watched it as well through shared memory, but it seemed that from the middle of the season onwards it was just development after development of the hero doing fine and then being weighed down by his companions, which was extremely disappointing. —Over."

"There's the new series "Blood-vessels Bursting Resolution TOKYO," but I feel like I'll be killed if I make her watch that..."

"No, automatons serve humans, so we do not kill them. We just take other measures. —Over."

Sakai nodded hurriedly.

"I really wish I could let you meet Kazuno down in Mikawa. It feels like all management automatons are so uptight about things."

"It is required for management automatons to be fair regarding issues with fellow automatons, so systems that process temporary emotions are separated from the systems that handle speech and behaviour. —Over."

"...Oh? If they aren't connected then that means that you act completely separately from your emotions?"

Hearing this, "Musashi" looked at Sakai, expressionless.

"I am different from the majority, but yes. Was there something bothering you? —Over."

"Yeah, so basically what you're saying is that the secret you that you hide away actually has a high opinion of me?"

Having been asked this, "Musashi' nodded twice at Sakai before looking to the sky.

She opened up a new signframe, inputting several commands.

"I am very sorry. Though I am currently operating in my official capacity, I have complained to several of my kin. Approximately 112GB of information was delivered in the space of a second, low in terms of data, so rest assured. —Over."

"Eh, but knowing that, how do I close the distance between us?"

Ignoring Sakai's question, "Musashi" looked toward the southern sky. Occasionally, red lights would erupt from beyond the mountains, shooting up into the sky. They were not as glaring as the sunlight, but...

"—Leyline lights, huh."

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