Horizon:Volume 1 Chapter 02

Chapter 02: The Classroom's Wrecking Crew

Class is not over until the bell rings.

But what if the classroom has fallen into ruins,

Will the lecture still be resuming?

Musashi Ariadust Academy's classrooms are consists of wood. It was a small room but it did not give a cramped impression as the number of students per class barely reached 20. In the back row, a few vacant seats are evident.

White clouds filled the screen beyond the glass paneled windows.

In front of the blackboard, with a World History textbook on one hand, stood a short-heighted female teacher. Her name is Mitsuki Sanyou, as corresponded to the name written on the tag attached to her body.

"In the past, humans had made a descent from heaven to this land, a place called Far East. However, the environmental climate outside this land proved to be uninhabitable, thus people are unable to migrate outwards. The solution that the old people had thought up is, they created an alternate space similar to a parallel world, by copying the Far East itself, therefore doubling the lands available for settlement. People started residing both in real world and parallel world. But people wondered if they will be able to ascend back to heaven one day. With this, the people had proposed one idea. If they walk the same road that past people had tread before, in other words, by recreating the history, they will be able to return to heaven one day. Because of this notion that they created...

Sanyou paused, resting the chalk she has in hand on the blackboard, and continued,

"...the Testament. An archive of written histories that happened in the previous world.

●

Sanyou tapped the blackboard. She then underlined the word Testament.

"The people in that time thought they could go back to the heaven by creating the same history, that's why they created seven sets of Old Testament and New Testament, which holds the history record of B.C. and A.D period respectively."

It's like a strategy guide for the present world, Sanyou added.

"Having said that, if people knows what will happen in the future, there will be some who will take advantage of it. In order to avoid this problem, people had decided to place a limitation to the amount of history they will read to until the next 100 years. Another thing, they cannot place the duty of displaying the history update to a human, as that human will be liable in exploiting it. However, they resolved this issue by using the Leyline that governs everything as an intermediary and they successfully linked fate with Testament.

Sanyou turned to face her students. She knit her brows. In contrast, everyone eyed her with questioning gazes.

...Shoot. As I thought, all this "fate" talk was hard to comprehend, after all? Maybe it was too early to discuss about the abstract topic.

She got tensed inside. Then she reviewed in her mind the lesson outline that she prepared for this lecture. After taking a breath,

"Do you know what fate is? Let's see... Abe-kun, what is the first thing to come in mind when you hear the word fate?"

She asked one of her student. Then the male student responded bashfully...

"---A marriage?"

Is that a sarcasm against me who just got dumped by a guy who fled to another woman?

For a moment, Sanyou's surroundings has dropped to absolute zero. The male student break into laughter. Even surrounding students started calling him "Marriage Man". That will be his nickname for the rest of his school days, she bet.

Sanyou collected herself, letting loose a bitter smile as she noticed the classroom became lively. Then she resumed the lecture.

"Okay... In other words, when he associated fate with marriage, he meant that marriage is..."

Unavoidable, is what she's going to say.

"Un.. Un... Unavoid... But it's avoiding me, GODDAMMIT!! Shit! Did I choose a wrong image to conduct myself!?"

"Sensei! Please don't sink into self-loathing with reality!"

Shut up you all! Anyone can get married while still young. That's right. I'm still 24. Yes, still young. It's within the range of "still young", right? I haven't yet spent half of 50 years of human life.

For the meantime, Sanyou regained herself, and continued,

"Anyway, to sum it up. Fate means something that is inevitable."

For some reason, the students nodded with sympathetic gazes in Sanyou's words, but Sanyou convinced herself that it was just a mere illusion.

"It has been known that fate actually exists. This has been proven already back in the era of Gods. Fate basically has variability. The existence of fate is the very reason that there is a beginning and an end to everything. Together with space and time, it is accessible in the world's Leyline which governs all creation."

So...

"The incessant flow of fate as long as this world exists and the Testament. The people in the past had managed to link this two together. And then, adjusting with the current time, it will show the history of human until century ahead."

Sanyou resumed writing on the blackboard.

"This testament, as it repeats history, were allotted the same position to the major religious scriptures that existed in the previous world. Except, all of that position were lost now since people who had resided in heaven knew that different Gods actually existed. That's why today, people worshiped not the Gods, but instead..."

She wrote this on the board:

• The recreation of history through Testament, is what people believed in.

"And that leads to our present state. Present religious groups and organizations are suffixed with 教譜 <Kyoufu> , or sometimes 教譜教団 <Kyoufu Kyoudan>, while its followers are called 奏者 <Sousha>. So Shinto for example, here in Far East, it is called Shinto Kyoufu. A Shinto shrine is called Shinto Kyoufu Kyoudan, and people who can use this power are called Shinto Sousha."

Furthermore,

"As far as religions outside the Far East goes, their names are spelled backwards to what they are known before. The reason behind that is, not only it creates a dichotomy between the same religion of the past and the present, but to those people who had moved to the parallel world, it serves as a blessing for them to 'be able to one day leave this closed-off space'. The inverting of names signifies retrogression.

Tsirhc-ian, who worships the Testament, its offshoot Murasai, and anti-Testament faction , all after leaving the Harmonic Divine States, in order to avoid the chaos of reformation, left their names inverted. In present, the main religions are:

• Pro-Testament. Tsirhc-ian branches :
  • Scion : Primarily Demons <Mazoku>. Old Testament partisans. Usually vagabonds.
  • Catholic : Mainly K.P.A Italia, Tres España, Hexagon Francoise. Worships saints.
  • Protestant : M.H.R.R. Testament partisans. Nondescript people but they are good at business.
  • Orthodoxia : Soviet Russia. Also interpreted as Russian Catholic.
  • Anglican Church : Mainly British. Divorce is legal. Officially a protestant but inclines towards Catholic.

• Pro-Testament Offshoot :
  • Murasai : Mainly Middle-East. Requires everyday to go to church or fasting.

• Anti-Testaments
  • Dunhi : India. The way of life and death. Curry.
  • Outa : China. Littered with sages. Ramen.
  • Shintoism: Many Gods. Worshippers are unexpectedly arbitrary.
  • Buddhism: Far Easterner's version of Dunhi. Packed with many spells.

"Well, if you're a residents of Musashi, you're pretty much a Shinto. But those who are not, unless they are your acquiantances, you are free to shoot them down. Or something like that."

And then.

"People started following what histories were written in the Testament. Passing away of country leaders or citizens as recorded in history were treated as retirement. Most wars were carried on with mutual agreement between belligerents, although with a safety net. At first, they were kinda sloppy in history reproduction like that, but they got serious starting the Year 0."

Let's see, Sanyou checked the pace of student's note-taking. She looked at one, to the next one, and then to the next.

...Am I going too fast?

She checked herself if she is not blocking the blackboard from everyone's vision. After a bit of pause, she walked across the room to give everyone enough time to write down notes. When Sanyou reached the back of the room, she thought to herself,

...Am I doing alright?

as she slightly held her head.

●

It's very complicated.

If she, a teacher, finds the lesson difficult, what's more to her students?

Last year, Sanyou made a blunder. According to the second year's curriculum, World History starts from Rome while Far East history starts from Nara period. However, they had spent too much time discussing about the former and Heian period, so she was forced to rush covering the rest of the materials.

...I couldn't help it. Those chapters were very interesting. Especially when we got to the foundation of Rome Empire, that famous line Julius Caesar spoke to Brutus during his assassination, "You again, Brutus?, was very memorable. The said two received a 'retirement' afterwards and were 'secured'.

Her lessons went very in-depth when they got to that part and so ended up wasting a lot of time.

...But they have future career consultation in third year, so it'll be bad if that happens again.

In three years of her teaching, she had taught first and second year students already. But this will be her first time teaching a third year.

Will it be alright? My student's future will be a price to pay if I mess up here.

"............"

She looked at her students taking notes. Looking at them from this way, she can easily identify their distinctions. Far Easterners and Asians are usually black-haired. There are quite a few exceptions but basically it is black.

However, that quality barely filled half of the classroom. Looking around the room, other hair types that are present are blonde, brunette, red-haired, and even white-haired. Lastly, there are some people that has no hair... or rather, were innately born like that.

The majority of half-dragon and arch-demon races have scaled skin and cannot grow hair. The same goes for Sprite or spirit races.

Conversely, beast-type races are furry instead. Some of them have three colors of fur, some are short or long tailed. Anyway, different type is in abundance.

As she watched her student, she realized that in the past, her teacher must have been watched her that same way she is looking at her students right now.

...But I feel like my teacher at that time were more capable than I am right now.

Sanyou let out a sigh. As she approached the locker, she heard a voice coming from the next classroom. It is a voice of another teacher having a lecture.

...3rd year, Class Plum. It's Makiko-senpai's class.

In the faculty room, Sanyou and Makiko Oriotorai's seats are next to each other. To Sanyou who just got hired two years ago, Oriotoria's existence was a big help. There are many times that she helped Sanyou in predicaments, although her solutions cannot be expressed as smart.

The voice that Sanyou hears from beyond the wall said,

"Long story short, right now, the capital is being ruled by the P.A. ODA."

Not really. To be precise, Akechi of P.A. ODA approved the country to run in self-autonomy.

...Makiko-senpai, please take your lecture seriously!

That was Far East history she's teaching, right?, Sanyou guessed.

Musashi Ariadust's teachers were limited. As such, the advising teachers are mandated to teach all the subjects that they can teach in class.

Oriotorai's lecture were always noisy. However, Sanyou secretly envies how she gets along well with her students.

...What's her secret? Like, right now, I wonder how she is doing her lecture?

Last time was a bungee-jump lesson. But right now, what Sanyou hears is...

"Strip! Strip! Strip!!"

...What kind of lecture are you doing!? Really, it bugs me!

●

Oriotorai's lecture basically has a high-risk-high-return, penalty kind of system. This is how it works:

1. She lectures.

2. Ask a question.

3a. If the student is unable to answer correctly, they will not be penalized in grade but will receive punishment instead.

3b. If they answered correctly, they will receive a grade in proportion to the punishment they submitted.

Regarding the punishment, they will submit their preferred way of punishment during every first day of the month.

Although you have freedom with your choices, you can't really lower your guard because the content will be reviewed by gathering everyone in class minus the submitter, and make changes accordingly if needed. Sometimes when the punishment submitted was lenient, those people who have gathered will make it ten times harder just for their entertainment, so having a connection beforehand is vital.

If you decided to write a harder punishment, you will get higher grades if you answered Oriotorai's question.

Lastly, there is a special system in Oriotorai's lecture called, "Presentation". About this,

"Okay everyone. In Far East history lesson today we'll cover the Unification War and the sequence of events leading to the Provisional Ruling of Divine States. "

Oriotorai sat in a chair next to the podium.

"Let's see... Suzu. Explain as much of the topic as you can for presentation."

"E-Eh!? Ah, y-yes! A-About Unification War, right?"

The girl with eyes hidden by fringe, named Suzu Mukai, nervously stood up. With a red face, she spoke,

"A-A long time ago, the world was divided into two, the Divine States and the Harmonic Divine States. D-Divine States is the original land, whi, while Harmonic Divine States is the copy of the former. T-The latter was repro...duced by controlling the power of L-Leyline to exist in a separate plane than the former. F-Far Easterners inhabited the Divine States while people from another countries re-resided in the Harmonic States. And they lived in harmony... I think. A-Am I doing fine?"

"You're all good. To summarize it, that's how people solved the problem of scarcity of land, as both Divine States (original world), and Harmonic Divine States (the other world) tries to reproduce history through Testament."

Everyone nodded, except for one.

"O-i Bell-san. Rest assured! If you blunder, I'll take her punch in your stead. I'll be fine! At least, I don't think I will die until I get to the first branching route."

"You! Quit saying lines that reeks of 'impending-death flag' and listen to my lecture once in a while. And what are you doing perusing a game manual in place of textbook, and to top it all, even filling up a survey!?"

Tohri shouted "Hahh!?" in response.

"Sheesh, I just want this membership bonus disk they're giving for free. Can you leave me alone, Teach?"

"Aha... yeah. Actually as much as I want to do that, I can't... this is my business."

"You're blunt, Teach! Business? You said business!? Then I'll be frank as well... adults are unfair!!"

Tohri stood in a chair, pointing both fingers to Oriotorai.

"It's about money right!? I can see through your scheme. You plan to extort money from school by doing lecture, am I right!?"

But isn't that what a teacher does in her job?, everyone whispered, but Tohri appears not listening. He continued at inspecting the game manual as he raise it up against the sun.

"Damn. It won't give me any hint at all. This game is absurd! No matter what I do, I couldn't score that class pres character! What's more, they won't let you change the name of the protagonist in the middle of the game! I was planning to go through a yandere/death-ending first, that's why I put in Tenzo's name."

"W-Why use my name!? You know that I only have a thing for busty blondies!!"

"Don't worry Tenzo! I'll use Urquiaga in the next playthrough. Then we'll gun for that guy character!"

"Preposterous! You know that I only have a thing for older sister characters!!"

From left to right: Neshinbara Toussaint, Heidi Ogezavara, Shirojiro Bertoni

Shirojiro, the Student Council's treasurer, raised his head towards the three idiot's commotion. He looked at them disapprovingly, and said,

"Pipe down, you three. I'm in the middle of work here. Although there were imports coming from Mikawa but for some reason, we don't export anything there. The competition for stock security nowadays is severe. And Heidi, what's that look?"

"Hmm... Shiro-kun, we're in the middle of class as well."

Everyone!, Neshinbara shouted in reproach, but Tohri, as usual, wasn't listening.

Even Suzu couldn't help chuckling. Her tiny shoulders trembled, and after a while,

"C-Can I continue?"

After Suzu checked everyone, she resumed,

"N-Nanbokucho War was the start of everything."

●

Everyone glanced at their textbooks.

Nanbokucho War is also known as the War between North and South Courts.

"Back in the days of Divine States, which is the old name of Far East, there exists two deputies representing the emperors. They fought and declared war at each other."

In the Divine States, the legitimate emperor uses three sacred instruments to control the environmental elements, thereby, controlling the world's Leyline in the process.

However, the emperor refused to take part in politics, as he and his family were living Gods, isolated from everything. The governing of Divine States were appointed to the two deputies instead.

That's why reproducing the histographical description of deputies in the Testament, was the job of the deputy approved by the Imperial Palace.

"T-The war ended after the North and South signed an armistice agreeing to each other to alternately take turns in administration. However, according to the history written in the Testament, t-the North broke this treaty, deliberately not relinquishing power to the South, and announced dictatorship in 1412... I think. And then the South started a rebellion."

Suzu spoke the next words clearly.

"In 1443, the South stormed the Imperial Palace and usurped the sacred instruments from the emperor. In turn, u-until it was retrieved back in 1457, they lost control of the Leyline. The Harmonic Divine States in another space, which has its stability supported by the Leyline, collapsed. T-They were forced to retreat here, in the Divine States."

"...And then, what happened?"

"M-More than half of Harmonic Divine States was destroyed. The remnants of it, got merged to the Divine States and overwrote most of it. Those invisible pillars interspersed in the land are actually caused by that."

"The denizens of the Harmonic Divine States that fled to here, demanded Divine States for responsibility of their action, as well as providing them a refuge. The Divine States refused, war raged across the land, and ultimately, the Divine States surrendered to the consolidated army of Harmonic Divine State countries. This event is known as the Unification War."

However, the countries around the world couldn't amalgamate completely with the Divine States. Why? The answer is simply because it was not written in the Testament.

So in order to circumvent Divine State's military and political suppression, every country established a highest system called Academy, a place for civil-military training, as they took over the land. Their pretext for that is "A peace and stability through bestowment of knowledge".

"A large part of the Divine States is under the Provisional Rule by respective country's academy, as well as the Testament Union. The designation of different country's academy in the Far East are..."

"Can you explain it?"

"Ah, y-yes."

World Map

Suzu recited the following lines as she counts with her fingers.

Shimazu + Africa Union: Rules Kyushu territory. A land of plant-type race being. Possess large manpower.

Oouchi and Ootomo + Tres España: Rules Shinomoseki territory. Reigned by Phillip II. A country with great debt as the king invested in developing New Continent.

Mouri + Hexagon Francoise: Chuugoku territory - An updown duo of Louis XIV and Terumoto Mouri.

Hashiba + M.H.R.R (Holy Empire of Rome): Rules Kinki territorry. Current emperor under house arrest. Catholics and Protestants are in disarray.

Oda + P.A. ODA: Rules Kinki ~ Tokai territory. Ottoman Empire. Half-cessated from the Testament Union since 8 years ago, during the succession of Nobunaga Oda.

Houjou + Indian Union (United States of India): Rules Tokai ~ Kanto territorry. Houjou, with great longevity, together with the automaton's civilization, does a backseat role behind the union.

Uesugi + Soviet Russia: Rules Hokuriku territorry. Raitei-san, the Sakra, does a good job in ruling the land by fear.

Aki + K.P.A Italia: Setouchi - Alliances of cities centralized by the Pope of Tsirhc Catholic.

Takeda + Qing: Rules Kanto. A large country centralized by the moving city-nation of long-living races. (!)

N/A + England: Currently inhabiting the Floating Island. Ruled by the Fairy Queen Elizabeth. Residents are a mix of beast and fairy races.

Matsudaira + Far East: Rules Tokai and Kanto region. The representative of Far East. Formed an official alliance with P.A. ODA 10 years ago.

Suzu paused for a bit,

"Also, b-because of the history reproduction, the Tes-Testament Union couldn't designate control of the savage lands."

Siberia - Touhoku - Arctic land sparsely inhabited by aliens. (!)

New Continent - Hokkaido - Mostly uncharted lands, but recently, rising of potential powers is seen there.

Savage Land - Shikoku - Mostly barren land due to the fusing of the remains of Harmonic Divine State. Primarily inhabited by silicon-type aliens.

Suzu took a break in speaking. Oriotorai nodded, and asked,

"Why is there no designation for the British?"

"A-Ah, I think that's because... In Harmonic Divine States, England is located in Tsushima. Originally, Tsushima was too small for them to accommodate, so they solved the land problem by surfacing the seabed. During the hour of the collapse, they only moved the whole island here by swapping the Leyline. They didn't lost their land so in turn, they didn't take part in the Provisional Ruling. U-Umm... they took a neutral position instead, acting as a mediator for both Far East and other countries."

"Right. Because of that they are receiving various technologies like floating of their island, from Izumo Enterprise."

Jud, replied Suzu, who's still standing.

"Good job, Suzu. You were far better than me doing the lecture. Maybe I should count on you again next time."

Suzu sighed a breath of relief and sank back to her seat.

Tohri suddenly stood up, and said,

"Teach! You're one dirty swine!!"

●

"Eh!?", everyone looked towards Tohri, whose both index fingers pointed at Oriotorai.

"Just because you are incompetent, sucking up to Bell-san like that and exploiting her just to save your ass is dirty! Really, adults are so unfair. But don't count on me, okay!? Don't call me for presentation!"

"...Uh, Tohri. You've been continuously jabbering nonsense about your confession plan ever since this morning. Do you really want to die that much?"

"Huh!? Why would I die? Oh wait, don't tell me you're planning on murdering me if I confess to another girl!? What kind of jealousy genre is that!? Are you obsessed with me that much, Teach!?"

"Ahahaha. Yes, I'm obsessed with killing you right now."

"I-Is that a thing to say to your student!? Teach, you're cool!"

Tohri clapped his hands, glanced at everyone and announced.

"Everyone! Let's have a party tonight in celebration of my confession eve. The place will be--- "

Shirojiro butted in without taking his eyes away from the monitor.

"Anywhere that costs money is a no-no. I'll hang your neck in Musashi's stern if the expenses surpassed our budget."

"A-All right! The place will be here then! Should we do another trial of courage like last year!? I know it's out of season."

...Umm, Tohri-kun. I don't think that's a good idea."

Asama interrupted. She summoned Hanami, and displayed a torii-shaped signframe.

"There has been an increased supernatural phenomena lately. If we do something like that, a real thing might appear."

"Let's go exorcise it then!"

Ha? Asami inclined her head.

"Most of us has that skill, you know. If a spooky one appeared, we'll just have exorcise it, simple like that. Teach, it'll be okay to stay at school tonight with that purpose right? This is gonna be part of student council activity as well."

"Hmm... Actually, I was gonna do that."

"Is that so?"

Asama asked, with hetero-chromatic eyes open wide. Oriotorai shrugged her shoulders and,

"Seven mysteries are very popular myths in every school, right? The faculties are suspecting that it might be the cause of the recent spiritual activities."

"You should have asked our shrine if that was the case."

"But doing that will cost money, right? Plus it's not confirmed yet whether it is really the cause or not. I was thinking on doing an investigation first, that is why I already signed up for night duty today."

"It's settled! We'll have some ghost-busting tonight!"

"Ah, right. I'll give you the permission. In return, please do the night rounds, and the swapping of all the classroom's sign-plates and talismans in my place, okay? Ah, and if you come across a Shinto altar, don't forget the worships as well. Sensei will have some errands to do while you do that. I have to do an offering to Gods, so this Miki that I bought with my own money needs to be disposed." (T/L: through his stomach)

"You are really the worst!"

Shouted everyone. Oriotorio ignored it with a handwave.

"You all do your best tonight. Spirits do really exist. In fact, there might actually be a Mitama guarding our academy. The reason why we have Shinto altars and putting talismans here and there is because of their existence. They are in there, even if we can't see them. Respecting that kind of "no body" existence, is actually one rule taught in Shinto. Anyway, in case one pops out and it's not a bad one, just act normally. Got that?"

After saying that, Oriotorai crossed her arms, and with chin, she pointed at Tohri.

"Now that's settled. Tohri, it's punishment time."

●

Everyone became silent at Oriotorai's unexpected declaration.

Why? everyone is asking Oriotorai that with their gaze.

Oriotorai scratched her head,

"Back in Suzu's presentation, the North court actually declared dictatorship in 1413, not 1412. It was a slight mistake."

Ah, Suzu gasped. However, Oriotorai shook her hands.

"Don't worry, with that impressive presentation, you've more than vindicated yourself. Besides, you don't get punished for messing up in presentation, remember? ...BUT! We have an idiot here who said we could bean him if you blundered."

Oriotorai picked up the notebook on the podium. Stopping at a certain page after flippping through it,

"...Tohri's submitted punishment this month is... stripping."

"Wha!? Did I write something soft-core like that again? I should've written a very hard-core or even better, adamant-core ones for starters."

Everyone is staring at Tohri, who's standing up and shouting, and after a while, Tohri said,

"Ok! Time to start the strip show!"

●

"Strip! Strip!"

Sanyou heard those voices from beyond the wall. After a few seconds of pause, she heard the students beyond shout, "WOW!!"

......Eh? That would mean, they really stripped!? W-Would that be alright!? This is not an h-game right!?

"WOW!!"

...another layer!?

"WOW!!"

.......Eh!? H-Hold on a bit!

Sanyou looked at her student's uniform. Musashi Ariadust's uniform for male student is comprised of coat, jacket, pants and lastly undergarment; a total of 4 clothes. There have been three shouts already.

"WOW!?!?"

......What was that fourth one!? It's way different than the last!

The moment she formed that doubt in her mind, she suddenly heard a blast. The wall in her left and the locker was blown away, together with the full-naked man, forming a big 大-shaped hole in the wall.

●

"!!"

The students that are taking notes evinced different reactions. The males were half startled while the girls flinched.