Horizon:Volume 1 Chapter 09

Chapter 09: The One Waiting Beyond the Door

When I had thought that it was nobody existsnobody .

That was not it.

It was not no need for somebodyno body either.

Then, what was it.

Point Allocation (At the point of death)

●

There was an underground hallway. It was an illuminated underground passage in the residental areas.

In the corner, a single boy with his shoulders down was standing in front of a western sliding door.

It was Azuma.

Without even paying attention to his messed hair, he thought.

"In the end, I came back here... But I really failed..."

I was planning on resolving the situation where there was already a previous resident of the room which would be my new residence, but...

...What kind of wild goose chase was I subjected to?

First, I went to the office which manages the rooms. The manager's office was at the entrance to a vertical passage at the end of the horizontal sections.

But at the office I discovered that they weren't the ones managing the paperwork needed for my moving even when they were supposed to be the ones in charge of the residences, so I was said that I had to bring my resident change documents from the Academy if I wanted to change my room.

At least, at that office I was able to confirm who was the resident who had moved into the room.

Miriam Poqou, 18 years old. She was in the same class as me. The manager, who was an aged werewolf looked into it and bursted into laughter.

"Isn't that fine! Appearance is so important among the younglings!!"

He also said: 'If that's the case, then as expected, this won't do,' Then I thought. I had largely completed my transition into secular life yesterday, but living together with a girl from my same class right when I become a citizen after being a member of the imperial family is too big for a character change.

...And more than that, the other side of this equation is troubling.

However, when I went to the Academy's business office in an attempt to acquire my residence change documents.

I was told, 'You need the permission of your guardian'...

After that, as it was really important, I was stuck searching for Oriotorai. It seems she wasn't carrying the paperwork I needed and it wasn't in the teacher room either so I had to look it around the school. In the classroom being used by the tea ceremony club, an acquaintance of mine, Asama, was there along the other club members performing the tea ceremony with sport drinks for the athletics club. Then, Asama placed a hat and pierced it with arrows from the side, drinking the IZUMO-type's lemon-flavoured sports drink "CC-EMON" while kneeling and I was explaining her my case, but she said.

"Isn't that fine? Appearance so important among the young."

In short, all what happened is that I learned that girl was also and exception.

However, according to their information, Oriotorai had the habit to watch her territory around that time so with everyone's cooperation I found Oriotorai in the cafeteria two hour later.

When I was trying to head to the cafeteria, I heard a laughter and I saw that an woman that was drinking the sake local brand since noon was there.

I didn't really understood it, but a recklessly cheerful Oriotorai said.

"Ain't that fine!? Appearance is really important among the youngs!"

...Could it be that the residents of Musashi had been brainwashed in such a way that their thought patterns have been completely standardized?

And after talking about a lot of things for what was likely whole hour...

"I've been utterly defeated..."

In other words, that Azuma was now in front of that room thinking that this was bad at the bottom of his heart.

Being defeated meant that I can do nothing but stay in this room. But if I do so and stay in this room given my young age my image will be probably affected. Meaning that I can't, so I will live outside. There should be some place sheltered from the wind and rain even there, right? But, isn't too to big for a character change being homeless immediately after my return to secular life?

...Could it be that now, I am in the midst of running away from reality?

While he was thinking a girl's voice was heard from the other side of the sliding door that was before his eyes.

"What are you doing? You can come in, it's fine."

...Eh?

After that question, he panicked and glanced around at his surroundings. The current time was after school, so the students in the clubs were going to their respective activity areas and all the people in the hallways were the ones on their ways to make the laundry or cleaning their rooms. So that meant...

"It is... fine?"

After that question, there was a pause.

In that empty space of time, he make a breath, a second one too and when he was in the middle of the third...

"...Huh? Did I say something wrong?"

At that question, he started sweating heatedly and then at that moment she said.

"—I don't really understand what you mean, but I guess it's fine even if you don't come in?"

"Ah, no."

So naturally, his hand reached to the sliding door. While he was thinking if this was really fine he felt that not entering was even worst so therefore, Azuma opened the door to the left.

"Um."

Faster than he was able to clearly look at the figure of the girl seated in the wheelchair in front of him, she said this.

"—I want to talk with you a little. It's that fine with you, Azuma?"

●

Azuma did not close the sliding door.

He didn't want to give the feeling that he was going to stay by closing the door, but...

"Please close it. This is a room with a girl inside, you know."

As it was said, he decided to close the door. He closed it, hands behind his back such that he would make the least amount of noise possible.

Directly in front of him, the girl called Miriam Poqou continued to face her wheelchair towards the desk and looked his way just turning her head.

And then...

What should I say? No, I should start with my question.

"I was told by the Academy that I would stay in this room from today onwards by the Academy——"

"That's fine."

His words were cut off. Miriam looked as if she was thinking a little, but...

"It's something that happens all the time. Generally, everone gets perplexed, but you'll get used to it."

"Get used to it..."

"This isn't the first time I've shared a room... It's the first time with a boy, though."

"I-if that's so—"

"It'll be fine once we get used to it, that applies for the both of us. Until now, there's been a lot of cases where boys and girls are assigned to the same room. I think that that's just what happened this time... Also, if this room was assigned to you, then your right is the same as mine.

Even so, asking whether it's fine for yourself to be here is the same thing as asking me whether you should leave, you know? I don't want to leave. So it's fine if you stay as well."

And...

"Use the space in front of you as you please and the corner will be mine. Also, I want to use the bed on the bottom, but is that fine?"

Azuma could not answer the question as his actual state was one where he had lost all his words.

...Doesn't she think it's a problem?

She said, 'It's something that happens all the time.' The girl who lives the life of one in a wheelchair. The 'all the time' she's saying is different from my 'all the time.' When he thought about that meaning, Miriam tilted her head.

"...Well, whether it's some sort of consideration or whether it's a mistake, it's something the Academy decided upon, right? It's something that happens all the time. I think that I'll be able to get used to it, but is it fine for you? Staying in the same room as I."

"For me?"

He said himself and realized, 'Is this about the distance between boys and girls?' Therefore, Azuma returned a question with the same words.

"For you, is it really fine to share a room with a boy?"

"...Umm, you don't really understand what I'm saying, do you——? Well, whatever. You know Azuma, if you really think that it's wrong for boys and girls to live together, why're you standing there?"

Miriam's voice could be heard.

"I'm at a level where I've showed things like my body to doctors, you know. And there's no distinction between doctors and male students in that if there's a mistake, it'll become a crime, and I don't think you're that kind of person."

"Why——"

'You know,' Miriam said.

"I basically understand what you did after you left earlier. You understand the meaning of boys and girls being in the same room, so you went to object, and you were argued with because you're too nice. You're honest to an extent where you couldn't think, 'but it's fine if she understands,' so you were standing in front of the door, right?

Isn't it fine? If you understand just that one thing, I know that when both of us get rid of this nervousness, it'll be over and done with. That's why... first, I'd like for you want to make a promise with me, is that fine?"

"A promise?"

"Yes... to not raise a word against each others' lives. For example, I'm an overly religious Catholic but you're a Shintoist, right? That's also included... that's right, if we were to talk about the extremes, I wouldn't say anything even if you brought a girl here."

"I-I won't do anything like that."

"My, 'won't' means that it's something that you 'can' but won't do?"

Spoken to, Azuma felt that heat was rising to his cheeks. Words like 'No' or 'Um' leaked from his mouth, but in response, Miriam suddenly relaxed her eyes, and with a small laugh she waved her hand.

"I'm sorry, I was joking. That was my bad, I know that you're serious."

"That's why you made fun of me?"

"Not that. I wanted to confirm if you were even more serious than what I thought. It was unnecessary, I apologize."

'You know,' Miriam said again.

"Fundamentally, that I take classes through the notes that everyone brings to me means I'm treated the same as taking lessons at home. And, I'll choose times when the bath and meals are empty, so if you're interrupted by my life, you won't be able to do anything. I move at different times from everyone else."

"Sh-should I help you?"

"Eh?"

Her eyes opened, and being asked in question, Azuma noticed that he had reflexively said the words of just now.

Therefore, while feeling panic in his heart...

"I mean, things like help to move people in wheelchairs..."

The sound of his voice decreased after he strongly felt that he was saying something unnecessary.

In response, Miriam closed her opened eyes in a relaxed manner and narrowed them, smiling wryly.

"You didn't share a room for that purpose, did you?"

After he was remonstrated Miriam looked around the room...

"Is it fine? Being treated the same as us, if that wasn't a mistake or a misunderstanding... Then it means you'll be trusted by us, you know? Looking from your viewpoint, this is probably because there was some sort of mistake or misunderstanding, but looking from my viewpoint, it'd be nice if the guilt stemming from the fact this room is being wasted was gone. That I'm treated the same as a human is also proof of my gratitude."

At her words, Azuma felt something hard around his throat.

...The same as a human ...huh?

Something that is the equivalency which the girl in the wheelchair hopes for.

...That is, to welcome the resident of the same room as her just like the other people...

That what everyone is doing, so she herself can do it too. She is saying that she is thankful for that kind of normal thing.

"——"

Azuma thought of himself. His power sealed, he returned to normal life, and started to live as a normal person, but...

...He didn't even thought that is was something to be thankful for.

It was not something which he had to think. Because, his standpoint and Miriam's standpoint were different. However, this crossed Azuma's mind: 'The daily life of she and I hold a different weight for both of us'.

And now, Miriam was saying him to not care about her legs.

She was saying that it was fine even to live together with a boy if she got used to it. Even saying that this had happened before.

'She also has something like obstinacy in her,' Azuma thought. To not make others hold concern for her, she tried to be normal, and there were also times where she would use the words 'it's alright', therefore...

"Then, I want you to make a promise with me too."

"...What? What promise can I make to you?"

Azuma spoke to her, who was frowning slightly and tilting her head. After giving a single gesture...

"—If the other looks troubled, I hope that it will be allowed to at least ask about it."

"...You won't suddenly make a move?"

He nodded, and Miriam showed a smile where the corners of her eyes dipped.

"You are serious, aren't you."

With the same expression, Miriam shook her head up and down.

However, when she raised her face, she had already changed her expression to its regular smile...

"But, if asking questions is allowed, then can I ask a single question right now? ...You know? Why have you been shaking the entire time we have been talking?"

"—Eh? No, um."

"Would it have been better if I were a cute and quiet girl?"

No matter what he answered, it seemed as if it would be an insult, but without a doubt, denying that would be a lie. Therefore, Azuma...

"That's unfair... it feels like you have been testing me the whole time."

"Is that so? Even if I'm the one to give you points as score, you're the one that can earn points, you know?"

"? Why is it that girls can't earn points?"

"That is because a girl's points are determined by... the points of the boy she's with."

'Huh?' Azuma faltered. In front of him, Miriam was laughing softly while waving the palm of her hand.

"Is that fine? No matter how one is dressed up, if it's dressing up then it's just a hobby. The expression is what people notice as you dress up. Because of that, it's fashionable if you are able to dress up in such a way that people are captivated. And if you are able to dress up such that you can steal the eyes of the person who holds the points that you want..."

Thickening her smile, she looked up from drooping her head...

"...that's called having adoration in the palm of your hand."

Saying that, Miriam looked this way. She left a smile at the edge of her lips...

"What kind of person are you? An honest person, a soft-hearted person unable to throw away your earnestness..."

"Le-let's stop with all this points business."

"—You're rather conceited, so I got a little ahead of myself, didn't I?"

He was laughed at. 'But, that really is true,' he thought...

...Am I earnest?

'That's a bad point,' he also thought.

And looking at Miriam, who wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes which came about from laughing, Azuma thought this.

...It's fine.

Marking the lines of each others' spaces, without interfering in each others' lives, we ask if we take interest. In short, this is...

"Good for strangers, isn't it."

"If you say 'let's start as strangers,' that'll be the time I say, 'that's the end, get out.', you know?"

"Ahh, then... now, my points have been given."

So he said, and Miriam raised her eyebrows. For about a breath, she looked his way with an expression which could not take hold of either a smile or surprise, but suddenly she bent her body forward, burst out laughing, and formed words.

"—If you didn't say that you'd have rather high points. You are so foolishly earnest."

'But', saying that, Miriam stuck her left hand out this way. Lightly opening her hand of handshake...

"—I can never doubt foolishly earnest people."

●

The checkpoint at the foot of Kakamigahara had a bridge.

It was a checkpoint different from the quarantine and trade checkpoint at the upper side of the mountain. To be sure things that descended from the mountain would be unable to immediately enter Mikawa, it was a place whose purpose was a second inspection.

The gate which was proof of the checkpoint was built on the riverbank of the river running down the mountain, in front of a bridge.

The wide, roofless gate was open, and from the opened gate, a bridge around 10 meters in width was visible.

And south from the bridge, if one looked at the sea, on the other side of the wide fields and forests, at the foot of the gentle slope, a village stained with blue was there.

At the center of the village, the flat New Nagoya Castle existed, as if covered by brown cloth.

Before its background, there were three figures.

One was a past middling, slender man.

One was a full-figured man, around the same age.

And the other was a girl sticking close to the back of the second.

The three were standing with the village of Mikawa to their backs.

To that place, another figure came. He too was a past-middling, hunchbacked man...

"Oh, that two of the Matsudaira Four Heavenly Kings, Sakakibara Yasumasa and Honda Tadakatsu would come to greet me... Was this to not disappoint me? Where's Ii? Sakakibara, Dacchan."

At his words, the middling, slender man called Sakakibara raised his face slightly. He brushed his white hair aside...

"About that, Sakai-kun, actually, Ii-kun has—"

"Don't say a word about Ii. Have you forgotten, Sakakibara?"

The middling, full-figured man called Tadakatsu spoke without turning his gaze to Sakakibara.

Sakakibara, beside him, let his lips falter, but looking in Sakai's direction he shut his mouth together with a nod.

As if a substitute, Tadakatsu stepped forwards half a step. Tilting his body forward a little...

"—Show me."

An instant. The figure of the girl at Tadakatsu's back disappeared.

In response, Sakai raised his face slightly...

"Huh? Heyheyhey, the 'show me' that you're saying isn't something good is i—"

Faster than the end of his line, a figure which outlined two arcs approached Sakai's back.

One of the arcs was the trajectory that the tied hair of the girl from just now had traced.

The other arc was a silver trajectory which told of a drawn blade.

The movement did not stop. And as such...

"——!"

Sakai also put his body into motion.

Translator's notes and references

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