Horizon:Volume 1 Chapter 05
Chapter 05: Those Reunited Under the Fair Sky
At that time.
To that person.
What should I have said?
Point Allocation (Emotion)
“...But I would never have thought that I would meet you in this kind of place.”
That voice, with a tendency to look downwards, was brought to life in the graveyard.
The owner of the voice, Masazumi, was crouching in front of the graveyard next to the main road adjoined with the greenery.
She was weeding.
“Are you cleaning? It’s often said that automatons really do like to clean no matter where they are.”
“Jud., that principle does exist. The cleaning of this place is a daily routine.”
P-01s, plucking the weeds of the nearby graveyard in the same manner as I, answered.
When the taken weeds had become a certain amount, P-01s took the trash that consisted in clumps of dirt and fallen leaves along with the piled up weeds and brought them to the gutter adjacent to the path.
As if responding, the lids of the gutter was lifted, and from below, pale black algae stuck their faces out.
“Useless? Natural materials?”
Facing them, P-01s lifted her index finger before her nose and gave the trash to the algae. With that, the algae bore that atop their heads and once again descended into the gutter.
Masazumi was speechless in response to the feeding actions which had been happening behind her back since a while.
She had noticed it from a while before, but somehow, below the gutters, the black algae creatures of the sewage pipes seemed to have gotten used to P-01s.
Furthermore, the shared opinion between P-01s and the black algae creatures seemed to be that it wouldfor the better if it is not known that the black algae creatures were going outside.
...It was because that would mean that the black algae creatures are slacking off from their work...
“Not known? OK? Alright?”
“Jud., I can discern that it is alright. Our activities are perfect.”
...Aside from the absolute lack of basis in that assumption, now it’s perfectly known by me...!!
While I was thinking and pulling the weeds, a voice suddenly came from behind me.
“Masazumi-sama does the maintenance of this gravestone quite often.”
“Ahh, that’s because it’s my mother’s. There’s not even any remains, so inside are only her mementos... Even if I say like that, it would be hard to understand for automatons? ...You’re born from souls, so you don’t have anything like a mother.”
“Jud. I will frankly state my thinking... Masazumi-sama sure loves her mother.”
I was told a sudden thing.
...Love, huh?
Because it was a rather direct statement, Masazumi lost the timing of her response.
‘No’, or, ‘that’s right’? Without giving back an appropriate response, an affirmation or negation, without being certain which feeling should be the correct one, Masazumi just looked down at the flowers in the bucket beside her.
White flowers. When she let that color to flow to her own heart, P-01s voice was heard from behind.
It was...
“...Let me pass...”
Suddenly, a song.
...Eh?
What was audible was a song that even Masazumi knew. A well-known children’s song.
The song named “Song of Passage”. From the throat of an automaton, it was heard.
——Walk yonder path, walk yonder path.
Set out now perchance to find
The narrow path to Gods does wind.
Do not say such, it perils much.
Rejoice, this child is now ten of age.
and will need offerings 'gainst heavens rage
The journey may be bliss eternal
Could this...
“passage downwards ‘gain be fear infernal~?”
From Masazumi’s ears to her chest, there was something akin to trembling. A trembling of excitement and pleasure came, a feeling which seemed as if the depths of her skin were being wrung.
Before, there was something which she had heard from the shopkeeper. That P-01s’ soul was in her throat.
Then, that voice of song was the trembling of P-01s’ soul. However...
...This song is...
I know it. No, if one lives in the Far East, then anybody would know it.
According to the Testament descriptions, the original song of the Song of Passage began to be sung during the 17th century, but a hundred years before it was supposed to be informed by Testament there was an experiment where this song got original versions in many places.
That experiment was the Song of Passage.
At the time where the provisional rule of each country was established, this became a song which brought the people of the Far East together.
From about thirty years ago, all the versions of the song were collected, and now it was being used as a song to put children to sleep. As the children sang it, it became something for playing the game matched to the song ‘I wonder if it's a passage’.
However, Masazumi had no memories of singing this together with everyone.
She had only heard from afar when other children played while singing it.
However, hearing it from nearby, it had happened that she really had sang it.
It was something from her youth. At the time where her awareness of her surroundings was not yet certain...
...It was my mother, as a lullaby...
When she thought that...
“Is there something wrong, Masazumi-sama?”
Being asked, she was unable to respond immediately.
Masazumi sucked a breath, adjusting the uncertain trembling within her body.
“...Haah.”
The breath she exhaled softly trembled just once. Thinking about how to respond, Masazumi thought...
“I remembered a little of something from the past.”
With that, Masazumi put power into her knees.
‘What comes after this is something that does not need to be said, but...’ she said such a preface to her heart...
...As the people who can hear it and find it meaningful are not here.
Therefore, I will dare to say it.
“I’ve spoken about this before, haven’t I? Originally, I lived in Mikawa, below us. My family name is Honda, one of the vassals there. For the Matsudaira, two Hondas are needed.”
She took in a breath remembering the face of the other Honda, the person whom she had not exchanged words with since middle school.
“The first Honda is one of the Four Heavenly Kings, the martial Honda family represented by Honda Tadakatsu. The other was the political Honda family represented by Honda Masanobu. I was not a warrior, so my father...”
“Your father inherited the name of Masanobu-sama?”
“He failed.”
Masazumi rested her hands and spoke.
“Other person, not from the Honda family, got to even change it’s name, inheriting the name of Honda Masanobu. At that time, father was just being too honest. Therefore, I...”
What was I like?
Told by my father, did I myself wish for what I had started then? I don’t even remember the reason, but...
“He thought that a child of Masanobu should try to inherit the name of Masanobu son. And, for the sake of that, he thought that I would do anything, and so I did.”
However...
“I failed.”
Masazumi’s mouth moved.
The words which had just spilled from her lips had not been uttered till now.
‘This won't do,’ her heart thought. That was because...
...The people who can hear it and find it meaningful are not here.
A resting place where my mother isn’t really present. An automaton. Black algae creatures... Were they even still under the gutter? If she was a young girl, inside her own room, she would consult with her own precious doll about the unsettling things which had happened today, but is the situation of now the same?
‘A stupid complaint, isn't it?’ Masazumi thought, and she realized that she had never even shown this out.
Whatever the situation, in Musashi, no matter where or when it was always noisy. In the schools, in the roads, there was always people.
Therefore, if one has no friends that one can talk about various things with, one can’t do anything but search for a place where one can become alone. There is nothing to do but to find a place where one can spit out stupid complaints to oneself and hide. And now, here, finally...
“...Ten years ago, the Matsudaira family carried out the ‘clearing out’ of their vassals. So, many vassals were demoted and relieved of their duties... After that, all of Matsudaira’s vassals and commercial groups were taken up by the Sagami’s mass-produced automatons.”
Facing P-01s, an automaton herself, Masazumi thought that she would not want this not to turn into a series of distasteful complaints. Therefore, she let that be the end about the incident with the automatons.
“You know, I...”
Masazumi touched her chest with her hands. The uniform she was wearing was a male one. Masazumi, pressing her hand deep into that chest, opened her mouth whilst feeling a strange dryness in her throat...
“When I was fighting for the right to inherit the name, I had an operation in order to not become disadvantaged... An operation where a woman like me would be altered into a man. First, they removed my breasts... and when they were still deciding whether to also change the sex organs into masculine ones the sudden ‘clearing out’ made all of it meaningless.”
My father fled to Musashi, and me, whose body had become weak due to the influence of the surgery was left on the surface with my mother.
Me losing my breasts was something I wished for myself. However, after the sudden ‘clearing out’, my goal was completely lost. With all what I did being not even affirmed or negated, my goal merely vanished, with a meaningless sense of powerlessness being all that was left. Is as if, after having decided my way forward and working hard in my studies for the test, that which was supposed to be the road I had to follow just disappeared.
I would have been able to accept it if I just failed the name inheritance.
But it was as if ‘all of what you did was utterly meaningless’ was said to me.
The me from before, the me left in my memory was always apologizing. Without being able to start things by myself, without being able to answer my father’s expectations, I caused trouble for my mother. The same mother that at the end was spirited away in the events known as the ‘Princess Disappearances’...
“Why... was it all just letting go...”
At that moment she muttered.
Suddenly, something spilled out from the corners of her eyes.
Thinking ‘damn’, Masazumi dried her cheeks with the sleeve of her uniform.
“Crying is unsightly.”
“Is that so?”
At P-01s voice, audible from behind, Masazumi nodded. Was it weakness or relief, she didn’t know.
“Aah... if it was possible, I’d want to hide somewhere. But I can’t do that here too, right?”
“Jud., thank you for your understanding. And now, one question about Masazumi-san has been resolved.”
“And that is?”
‘Jud.’, P-01s voice could be heard.
“If I were to speak frankly, that Masazumi-sama wearing male uniforms was not hobby.”
Masazumi was returned to reality in an instant.
...Wait a second, wasn’t I hiding the fact that I am a woman?
Should I get mad? No, rather, is it resentment? What is it, this strange feeling which is welling up in the pit of my stomach? It’s obvious that it’s not affect. If I were to speak with the power of debate that I practiced in my specialized essay classes, I am supposed to indicate my conclusion first; so if I were to say it in one sentence, it would be “like hell it’s that.” Furthermore, what on earth is that ‘That’ at the end, an exclamation as if just stuck there. Even further, the black algae creatures...
“Mound? Mound?”
Who was it who taught them those kinds of words, or is it racial memory?
I really forgot. Because this was a place where I could be alone, even if there was a doll that would hear my idle complaints, this doll just did an amazing tsukkomi. However...
“Masazumi?”
The black algae creatures asked P-01s her name in confirmation, and Masazumi felt surprise.
Responding, P-01s also hid the black algae creatures from me while starting to act as if she was plucking weeds.
“Jud., she is Masazumi-sama. Do you remember her? Do you remember how when Masazumi-sama was starving and collapsed you were nearly crushed unknowingly?”
Masazumi then thought that from this time onwards she had to check the surroundings when she fall.
“Masazumi... Seijun?”
“Jud., that is correct, she is a politician. She is a conservationist at work and exploits taxes to help the people.”
It would have been better to deny it, but that too again seemed to be a joke, so Masazumi was silent. With that, the black algae creatures asked some words.
“Friend?”
“--Jud., that is what is said about the both of us acknowledging each others’ existence.”
“Able to become... Friend?”
‘That is,’ P-01s stopped speaking, and there was an indication that she was looking this way. So, Masazumi turned her back on them, and while acting as if looking at the sky...
“Recently, I’ve wanted some friends.”
“Can I be one?”
“Jud. ...Speaking frankly, Masazumi does not have many friends, so this is my chance. In other words, it pretty easy. Do not worry, Masazumi-sama is a politician, so she loves the management of things like sewage.”
...What’s with that faulty way of saying things!!
When she thought that, something suddenly came above her head.
“--?”
The sky split, the colour blue suddenly spread outward before her eyes, bursting open.
“Ah”
It wrapped around the entire surroundings in an instant. The blue sky was the proof of the disengagement of stealth flight. Indicated by that was...
“...Have we arrived at Mikawa?”
Below, there was a mountain range. The other side remained unseen, but eventually, there was a continental port for Musashi’s use visible in the colossal valley and the adjoining open-air type common use flat continental port should appear soon. And on the other side of those, the village of Mikawa where she herself had once lived was there.
...‘I’ve returned’. That was something she could not say.
She herself was already a resident of Musashi, Mikawa too had continued to change from the time she had been there. Nowadays, it was rumoured that in the large workshop which had four Leyline Reactors, they were making a gift to P.A.ODA, so just in one year, Mikawa had really changed. Because a warp in the leylines, caused by the Leyline Reactors, Phenomena happened frequently, accompanying the ‘clearing out’ national policy.
“How many people left in Mikawa?... the other Honda’s second generation should still be there.”
She herself had come to Mikawa, but most people had not left Mikawa for many reasons and were living in the outskirts while thinking that the incompleteness of business functions in the city center because of the ‘clearing out’ and danger of the Phenomena was rather inconvenient.
“I wonder how all of it turned out... Well, I’m just sending President Sakai today, so I’ll just be looking on it from afar.”
The sound of the wind could be heard and the trembling echoes of the wind hit the wind-protection spell which Musashi had.
However, that wasn’t all of it.
Above and directly in front, as if exiting the area above Musashi’s Center Leading ship, Musashino, a single ship had come.
It was an aerial passenger-ship with length around 120 meters. From above Musashino, it was trying to circle to the area above here, Okutama. Compared to all of Musashi’s ships, it’s size did not even fill up one tenth of them, but looking at it, the ship had a size large enough to project a shadow across one of the horizontal passages.
Judging from its trajectory and speed, the trip was just trying to pass above them. If there wasn’t some sort of mistake...
...It was a flight which wanted to see all of Musashi.
While thinking about it, Masazumi looked at the side of the passenger ship. On the other side of the rustling leaves of the trees, where the side of the passenger ship was with waves streaming from its water line, there was a family emblem.
In the midst of the sun’s reflection, it could be seen that it was the family emblem of the three-petaled hollyhock.
The only family able to use that emblem was the Matsudaira family. So that meant...
“That’s the ship of the lord of the Matsudaira, Lord Motonobu!?”
Ten years ago, right before Musashi had been renovated, Lord Motonobu descended to Musashi. After that, he had never returned. This is becase ten years ago, when the provisional alliance with P.A.ODA had become a formal alliance, the Testament Union forbid him to board Musashi, as it was able to become a mobile fortress, as a proof of Mikawa’s neutrality.
...Why he is doing this? Has Lord Motonobu come to welcome Musashi?
She knew very well Lord Motonobu’s tendency for a service, and she also knew pretty well his his face and voice too.
If it were to be said why...
“...Greetings, it’s been a while Musashi’s residents. Do you remember your teacher’s face?”
From Musashi’s every external speaker, this man’s voice resounded.
That was not all. At every shrine, on top of the hall which housed the shrine, Torii-shaped enormous signframes appeared. Reflected in the middle of the frame there was a single man whose back was facing the bridge of a ship.
His hair was covered with a black scholar’s cap with his glasses hung. To the announcing device which was the mic, held by the right hand with pinky finger outstretched he said.
“Thank you for continuing with us, I am Mikawa’s lord, Matsudaira Motonobu. But it’d be great if you called me teacher.”
...It was because of this.
Sagging her shoulders, Masazumi thought. “Motonobu really loves making appeals with the Divine Transmission.”
Originally, because people were leaving Mikawa’s center due to the phenomena and the clearing out of people, it seemed that it was something he started so his voice could reach the outskirts. But as the time passed, it turned into an exhibition that was performed at the slightest chance.
His specialty was a one-sided rambling, so that he called himself ‘Teacher’. And even now, he was still going along with that.
“Because of the Testament Union’s instructions, Musashi’s residents cannot descend to Mikawa. But, do not worry. We’ll be bringing lots of things from Mikawa, and the people who’ve come to sightsee will talk about it, right? So everyone, I want you to use your shrine’s leyline Divine Transmission or connections to have exchanges with Mikawa. And if it’s possible, Teacher also wants to know what kind of life are all of you living and what you want to do from now on? I’d like to let me hear that from all of you, that’s all. Then, let’s start. There’s lots of time, so let’s use it all effectively.”
He continued.
“Tonight, I’ve prepared something special. At night, it would be nice if all of you could look in Mikawa’s direction because, I’ve prepared some fireworks. With this... today’s first lesson is over!!”
Along with his words, the Divine Transmission disappeared and the display frame above the shrines also closed and disappeared.
Now, Motonobu’s ship was passing over their heads.
Masazumi chased the passing figure of the ship with her gaze, and she turned towards her back...
“Really, not just Mikawa, even the Lord has come...”
‘Hasn't he’, those were the words that Masazumi was not able to say.
Her gaze was fixed upon P-01s, behind her.
P-01s’ back was facing this way, and was waving at the ship traversing the sky.
“Eh...?”
When the question leaked out from between her lips, the small black figure at P-01s feet panicked and hid in her shadow.
However, P-01s remained waving. Eventually, the ship showed its rear side, and crossing the sky of Musashi Ariadust Academy towards the east the bow turned and until it took its path back to Mikawa, all P-01s did was to wave at it.
The wind moved, and the automaton’s hand was lowered. However, opposing P-01s, who did not turn around, Masazumi said.
“...You’re doing something that a tourist from the country would do, you know.”
“Jud., on the bottom of that ship, someone was waving his hand at me from the other side of the glass.”
Who that was was unknown to Masazumi and it should have been unknown to P-01s too.
However, P-01s said this.
“He was looking this way and smiling.”
Along with those words, a sound could be heard.
It was the ring of a bell. The sound of Musashi Ariadust Academy finishing its fourth period and entering its lunch break.
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