Horizon:Volume 8C Chapter 70

Chapter 70: Resigned Girl at Rock Bottom

Curling up in a ball

And bawling like a child

Is called loneliness

Point Allocation (Self-Improvement)

I do not understand, thought Fukushima.

Why was she crying all of a sudden?

She had no idea what had caused this.

Her training was going well and she was thinking back on some good memories. She was fulfilled.

She had just figured out what to do about the anxiety plaguing her ever since she arrived here, so she had finally felt some calm and relief.

So why would she start crying now?

She didn’t know.

And she wanted to eliminate that mystery, so she tried to wipe the tears from her face.

“Oh.”

She couldn’t move.

Was she stuck to the rock shelf? She felt like the water flowing from her suit acted like paste and glued her in place.

Even a single drop of water running along her body felt as heavy as steel shackles, pinning her down with gravity.

She felt like every last one of her hairs had fallen and couldn’t get back up.

…What is this?

She was sprawled out on her back and, when she looked up into the night sky, she finally heard the roar of the waterfall.

That watery sound was both refreshing and noisy.

But it seemed almost friendly considering how she had been using all her might to train below it earlier.

She decided to sleep here tonight. The rock made for a hard bed, but her body temperature preservation divine protection was in effect. She wouldn’t get chilled.

But once she gave up on so many things, she came to understand one thing.

“I was tired, wasn’t I?”

She was exhausted.

She didn’t want to move any more.

She wanted to give up on thinking as well.

Why was that?

The answer came to her suddenly: I have been thinking too much about too many things.

About Kiyomasa.

About their enemies and their allies.

About herself and about the present. About the past and about the future.

She thought back on how she had thought about all of those things.

“––––”

She had thought enough.

She was alone here.

No one was watching or listening.

This wasn’t cowardly or weak She was simply tired.

“Kh, ah.”

I can’t believe this.

How much preparation did she need to realize something so obvious? How much was her pride going to hold her back?

If she couldn’t allow herself this when she was alone in the world, when could she?

In fact, she didn’t need to allow herself.

She was too exhausted to move, so she simply had to accept that fact.

If she wanted to prove she wasn’t tired, she only had to get moving. She only had to gather her strength in her fingers, get her elbows below her, sit up, and tilt forwards to stand up.

So that was what she would do.

She pressed her fingers against the rock as if grabbing it, pushed down, and got her elbows underneath her.

Sitting straight up was difficult. It was easier to twist your body and push both hands in the same direction as you did so.

So that was what she did.

“Nh.”

She did it. She managed it. She sat up.

Yes, she wasn’t tired. That was an illusion born of her weakness. That weakness wanted to irresponsibly throw everything out and take the easy road by not even thinking about anyone else or anything that required effort.

She was stronger than that. So…

“Oh.”

She saw the night sky directly in front of her.

Which meant she hadn’t moved a single finger.

“––––––”

She was still sprawled out on her back.

Thinking she had moved was the actual illusion born of her weakness.

In reality, she hadn’t even budged. Her thoughts about the others and the many pressures bearing down on her had driven her to the point that she hallucinated that movement.

She couldn’t move.

She knew why. She had worked her body hard without a bite to eat. But the former at least was what she had wanted to do.

She had wanted to keep training until she didn’t have to think anymore.

This was the result. She couldn’t move her body separately from her thoughts.

All she did was shed tears.

“Ah.”

She realized she had been making sobbing breaths for a while now.

What was this?

She couldn’t stop doing it.

…I can’t stand it anymore.

She couldn’t stand all this fighting while questioning herself. She couldn’t stand all the pressure she had placed on herself so she could think about the others and work toward their shared goal.

And she couldn’t stand herself for saying such awful things to Kiyomasa.

It was all true, so she had to accept it and live with it.

But that was so painful.

She kept telling herself it couldn’t be helped, but the pain kept growing.

She was being selfish. She had chosen this path and now she was complaining about it.

But no one was watching or listening. And she couldn’t even move anymore. She no longer had any of the things needed to preserve her pride.

“––––––”

Yes, it’s painful. I can’t stand it. I should stop.

That’s right.

If someone sent any kind words my way now, those words would only be cruelty disguised as kindness if they would return me to this path of pain.

And because they would sound so kind, I would feel all the worse for not wanting to accept them.

…Kiyo-dono.

She finally understood.

This was why Kiyomasa had cried. Fukushima had thought she was being kind, but she had forced a lie onto Kiyomasa. She had unfairly demanded Kiyomasa accept that lie in order to receive her kindness.

How could I do that?

“I am sorry.”

Her voice failed to form the words.

But no one was here to hear it.

What mattered was that she had apologized. Through that apology, she had come to understand how careless she had been.

“I am so sorry.”

I want to free Kiyo-dono.

I want to release her from my cage of shallow false kindness.

Can I do that if I apologize?

Can I eliminate some of my pain if I do that?

There I am thinking about myself again.

But it all goes back to me. If I give up on myself, that will only place more of a burden on her. I would only be forcing her to accept my self-sacrifice whether she wanted it or not.

So I need to take my selfishness, face her directly, set her free, and accept the consequences.

But at the moment…

“I am sorry.”

She was sprawled out on her back. Defenseless. If someone attacked now, she would be killed.

The roar of the waterfall drowned out all else, leaving her with only the stars in the sky and her own thoughts. Now that she felt like she had become a part of the rocks, the words of apology came so readily.

…Kiyo-dono.

She continued thinking.

…I shouldn’t have done that to thee.

I didn’t want to force my one-sided feelings onto thee and ended up doing so anyway. And I tried to manipulate thee to protect myself.

What a terrible thing to do.

I am sorry.

I hurt thee.

If I ever see thee again… If I have that opportunity…

“I…”

She formed the words, breathed in, and felt like her body had gotten even heavier.

Her vision blurred, darkened, and sank. Her breaths shortened and she felt some panic, but…

“–––––”

She didn’t remember what she had said.

She wasn’t even sure if she was passing out or falling asleep.

Her mind sank into darkness like it was sinking into water.

Koroku was playing a video game.

Night had fallen. It was well past dinnertime and past the usual lights out.

It was 1 AM. She only played a game that late when she was fairly serious about it.

She was still borrowing Fukushima’s room and she had a wall-size lernen figur open. The size wasn’t just on a whim – it gave her a wider view and let her keep more information on the screen. She had an optical processing lernen figur open in front of her face to view the screen in 3D.

“Kh.”

A god of war was moving on the screen.

She was on the Mikawa stage. She was fighting in the ancient city with New Nagoya Castle being destroyed by its ley line reactors in the background.

She moved among the rows of tall buildings.

She wasn’t seated on the floor like usual.

She was using Fukushima’s bed as a chair.

She had control lernen figurs on her palms, her back, and her feet. The palm ones controlled the god of war’s arms and were primarily used to attack, the back one let her tilt her body to move, and the feet ones were for special functions.

Leaning forward and pulling her feet back was the command for dashing.

Her god of war instantly passed by her field of view. The black giant resembled Genbu. It was named GENBU and the UM label indicated it was a user-created machine. But…

…The leg movements are too quiet.

She wished it let you customize that too. In fact, she wished it let you customize the layout of the power system instead of just the specs.

…Because Genbu is heavy.

She had attempted a variety of adjustments to lighten the real Genbu’s movements, but its transforming armor and gravitational control system made that impossible. So she had installed a dual power system for certain parts which let her give it a “speed boost” when she needed to push it past a certain limit.

But being fast and being nimble were too very different things.

When you needed that heavy speed, it was great, but it could also work against you.

It was doing that here.

“Shit.”

If the room’s owner heard her saying that, she would probably say, “Hachisuka-dono, I did not know thou used language like that,” but she used it a fair amount. But only when she was alone.

She ran. She had located the enemy. Genbu had solid ether detection, so she wouldn’t lose track of the enemy after locating them once. So she turned toward them and accelerated.

…There you are.

She saw a slender black form. A close-range god of war wearing a sword on its back cut across the street.

When the enemy noticed her, it turned toward her in the middle of the street.

But the enemy kept crossing the street to the left and moved behind one of the ruins.

The ancient building the enemy was using for cover was about 70m tall. Were they waiting to see what Koroku would do? If so…

“You’re on.”

Koroku ran toward the ruins on the left and attacked with the gravitational pressure of Hyper Jab, a special attack she launched from her left hand.

She launched the attack as if tossing it to the ground near the background building.

…It worked.

The entire building shook as a prelude to the effect. The impact traveled along the building’s internal frame and the windows shattered like a ripple running up the structure. Then the exterior and interior walls noisily collapsed, bending and breaking the frame in the process.

The entire building collapsed with a wave of destructive noises. However…

“There you are.”

Genbu’s ether detection could see right through the attack and resultant destruction.

The detection lernen figur showed the enemy stop before moving to the center of the street.

She had their attention.

…Now, then.

After a moment of consideration, Koroku turned her running body toward the collapsing building.

Genbu wouldn’t be crushed by destruction of that level.

With its high power and warship-class defense barriers, she could walk across the growing pile of rubble, break through the collapse, and reach the other side. That would let her charge at the enemy in the street from above and to the side. However…

“So what will I do?”

Koroku only had a moment to consider it.

Would she charge through the collapsing building, or would she turn and move along the street?

If her opponent had two options, she had two options as well.

Which would it be?

“Along the street?”

If so, she needed to consider the fact that the enemy would look to the collapsing building and realize they were being targeted.

Her enemy would likely expect her to break through the building, but if she was seen turning and using the street instead…

…They’ll have enough room to react.

If she chose the street and was seen, her enemy could respond.

That meant breaking through the rubble was the better option. That would prevent her enemy from seeing her initial action.

Genbu had the armor to pull it off.

This one building would let her stop the enemy’s escape and catch up.

That was a small price to pay. So…

“I’ll do it.”

She tilted her feet to take two steps. She adjusted her stance toward the collapsing building with rubble starting to pile up on the street and she sent the black giant along a forceful curve.

But a moment later…

…Hm?

She detected a sudden rise in her opponent’s ether reading on the other side of the building. Had they used a spell or some other boost after seeing the building’s destruction? Which could only mean…

…They’re coming.

The ether detection showed the enemy on the move.

They took a straight path.

They ran through the collapsing building.

Koroku couldn’t see the enemy.

The blown-up building’s rubble and glass were bad enough, but they were also illuminated by the ley line reactor collapse in the sky, resulting in random reflections.

The troublesome optical data could be handled by a physical filter on the sight devices, but that wouldn’t let her see through the collapsing rubble and glass.

…Stupid ruins.

Modern buildings would be connected to information torii or chapels, so she could use her authority as one of the Ten Spears to borrow their sight devices and gather their surrounding data.

But that didn’t work here. Much like in the attack on Paris, this was an outdoor battle where she only had her own sensors to rely on.

And the enemy was coming.

The enemy dot on her ether reading display was running through the collapsing building.

“But their god of war barely has any armor. Are they crazy!?”

She knew of people who would pull stunts like this, but it was still a bit disturbing to see for herself.

Besides, as tall as those ancient buildings were, they were designed for humans. Each floor was only about 2.5m tall.

That didn’t at all accommodate a heavy god of war’s height of around 10m.

There were only two ways of passing through there.

First, a lot of effort.

And second…

…A trick.

The latter would be a problem. It would mean her opponent knew she was using ether detection.

It would also mean they were using a more powerful ether reading as bait or a diversion.

That would use her ether detection against her.

And in that case, it wouldn’t matter if they had detected her or not.

If they knew how she moved – number of steps, length of her paces, and her momentum – they could work out where she was.

That was the kind of person she was up against here.

So which was it?

Was this real or a trick?

And if it was a trick, what was actually approaching her?

…A spell.

Ether detection detected an opponent’s ether output. That usually meant their motors or fuel system, but a spell would also work.

A boosting spell could be cast on a single point, which would create a strong ether reading even when the target was small.

If that was the case here, what had they boosted?

“A blade.”

They had boosted the sword on their back to break through her defense barrier and armor. They must have poured their entire power system into that boosting spell, which was why her ether detection had latched onto it.

They had thrown everything into offense. They weren’t considering the possibility of being attacked themselves.

That took guts.

So what could Koroku do about it?

She didn’t know for sure that was a sword flying through the building.

But since it was a possibility…

“Testament.”

Koroku moved Genbu.

…Backwards!

By putting distance between herself and the building, she would have time to determine whether it was a blade or the enemy approaching her.

And if it was only a blade and the enemy had moved back to the street to attack that way, she would have the distance to detect it and respond. She placed her feet down, leaned back, and took two steps back with each foot for a total of four. That made Genbu dash rapidly backwards.

She had her distance, so now she needed to worry about…

“Above!”

If this was a nimble enemy, that was what they would do.

…They would climb the collapsing building and dive at me.

Genbu couldn’t do that.

To watch out for it, Koroku checked overhead with her sight devices while backing up.

A moment later, Genbu detected motion.

A new ether reading had jumped from the roof of the crumbling building.

Her reaction was immediate action.

Genbu dodged the blade flying in from the front and tilted to the side. It used its tilt to slide one step to the side and straightened back up.

“Hyper Jab!”

It sent a gravity attack toward the diving enemy overhead.

Koroku responded with three consecutive actions.

She counterattacked with a Hyper Jab at the figure overhead.

She dodged the blade approaching from the front.

She looked to the street to…

…Respond!

The collapsed rubble exploded toward her.

“The sword!?”

The large sword was surrounded by ether light and a spell lernen figur effect and it flew straight toward her chest after she had supposedly dodged it.

They had predicted her response.

How far had they predicted it? She had already taken evasive action.

She quickly raised her toes. This created a space between the ground and the bottom of her feet, or in Genbu’s case, its bottom surface. Then she only had to alter the angle of the gravitational control for…

…Gravitational sliding!

This only worked with the solid footing of the urban area.

Genbu shifted half a body width to the right.

Then she swung up her left arm.

“An overhead Hyper Jab!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the power of a Hyper Jab burst above her.

The space-distorting attack created a ripple of light as it launched its force skyward.

It was directed at the reading from the roof. The rubble and the power that traveled through it struck the target located 12m overhead.

It was a scabbard.

The long shape was meant to contain the large sword and it was scattering ether light. That was probably some kind of defense spell.

That too wasn’t the enemy.

It was another decoy.

The enemy wasn’t in front or overhead. Which only left…

…Down the street!

Just as Koroku turned to look right, a shape flew down the street.

This time, it was shaped like the enemy.

Koroku resumed her gravitational sliding and sent Genbu to the right.

“There you are!”

The shape flew out from behind the rubble, using the street.

It had a humanoid shape, but…

…Armored clothes!?

It was only the armored clothing worn by gods of war.

The stripped-off garment had been blasted this way by the powerful wind produced by the building’s collapse. The enemy had even gone to the trouble of adding ether light to the black armored clothing.

“That wasn’t them!?”

Then where are they? she wondered.

Yet another shape arrived dead ahead from behind the flying sword.

It was a slender black god of war.

The slender god of war didn’t have a single lernen figur on it.

It had no boosting spells, but it hadn’t taken any damage either.

It had made its way through the collapsing building using martial arts and…

“A blade boosted enough to break through Genbu’s defense barrier can slice right through the force of the collapse,” explained the god of war in a woman’s voice.

It caught up to the sword flying out ahead of it, grabbed the hilt in both hands, and left the collapse with forced acceleration.

“Your judgement was solid, Koroku-chan.”

The enemy had a smile in her voice, but that was not sarcasm. The praise was sincere and it pierced right through Genbu.

Genbu’s left arm was pointed upwards and the right one was free.

Genbu attempted to intercept the slender god of war with its free right arm.

But it was too late.

The blade pierced through it just as the praise had.

The enemy had only praised her because the battle was already over.

The slender god of war passed by Genbu, but without dodging aside or circling around.

“–––––”

With slow-looking but swift footwork, it passed right by Genbu’s side. The motion actually looked smooth.

“I’ll be taking that back.”

On her way past, the enemy grabbed the tip of the blade emerging from Genbu’s back.

They pulled while moving away with a turn.

The yank on the blade produced a hard metallic clang. The sword’s guard had hit Genbu’s chest.

That was the end of it.

As soon as the lernen figur on the tip of the blade vanished…

“Class dismissed.”

With those words, a tremor spread outwards through Genbu.

The attack spell enclosed in the blade had erupted within Genbu’s armor.

The ancient building’s collapse ended at the same moment. Most of the rubble was blasted out across the ground like a landslide and only the reverberation hung in the air. And…

<Game Over>

A game over notification appeared on a console between kneeling Genbu and the slender god of war.

<Winner: Ishikawa Kazumasa. Win Streak: 10. Rank Up: Tiny Shogun -> Minor Shogun. Wins needed to reach Middle Shogun: 200 ordinary or a streak of 10 against higher-ranking opponents.>

Genbu had lost.

That meant Koroku’s combat training was complete.

<Today’s Special Apology: You have been chosen for August 26’s apology! To apologize for your shut-in life, we are offering you 6000 in-game pickling stones (material)!>

Sorry, but I don’t have a pickling craft skill, thought Koroku while lying cross-legged on the floor.

“Shit.”

She couldn’t stand this at all.

A one-way divine transmission came from her opponent. With video.

The location was brightly lit even though it was after lights out.

It was a large, crowded place with bright lights and heavily decorated walls. Several lights were visible lower down, but they were probably lernen figurs.

That was an arcade.

The one on the surface at Lake Biwa Azuchi. She had heard it was originally a training ground full of simulators for aerial ships, mechanical phoenixes, gods of war, and anti-personnel combat.

But all the ones that were out of date or unused for other reasons had been regathered and used for supplementary training. Before long, people had started coming to play them after school.

“And they had an arcade on their hands before they knew it.”

Someone moved into the center of the crowded image on the lernen figur.

It was Kazumasa.

The teacher wore a short-sleeved M.H.R.R. shirt and vest. She had her sword-bearing back to Koroku and her right arm thrust into the air.

Everyone there was cheering.

They were probably celebrating her victory. A great way to put Koroku, the loser, in a bad mood.

Then Kazumasa turned toward her.

She was smiling. Smiling so wide, it shut her eyes.

…She is downright merciless when it comes to competitions.

You could call it immature, but the woman still always won.

Kazumasa grabbed the lernen figur and pointed it toward herself. As a one-way divine transmission, the video and audio were reaching Koroku, but her own voice and image wouldn’t reach Kazumasa.

She couldn’t exactly complain like that, so she sent a request for a voice-only two-way divine transmission.

“What do you want?”

“Koroku-chan? I won.”

“We’ve only played once.”

“That was our 10th match. Although I did say continues were allowed, so I guess you could call all of that one very long match.”

That was true.

But Koroku hadn’t expected to lose 10 times in a row.

“Where did you learn to play like that?”

“Right here. Where else?” Kazumasa narrowed her eyes and nodded twice. “Listen,” she said. “While you were maintaining the Azuchi and working up a sweat training with Genbu, I was ignoring all of that and spending all day gaming in here.”

“I thought teachers were supposed to be good role models.”

“Hey, I won, didn’t I?”

Koroku didn’t have a comeback for that. Kazumasa smiled a little as she continued.

“Anyway, earning god of war pilot qualifications sounds like a pain and I don’t have the time, but I wanted to help train you. And then I saw you registered on the divine transmission version of this game. I was only interested in wining the prizes at the bowling alley here, but I thought I should put in some real effort to get along with my student better.”

“How much effort are we talking about here?”

“After getting an explanation of the controls, I spent 5 matches getting owned and 10 more matches getting the hang of the controls. After that, I worked my way up the ranks, figuring out how each of my opponents played. I only figured out yesterday you can customize your machine.”

Normally, you were supposed to customize your machine first, get a feel for how your custom machine moved, and adjust accordingly.

Had her machine been so devoid of upgrades because she had been fighting with the most basic machine to start with?

Even though it was a game, the machine’s hitbox was true to the visual appearance of the parts and the movement response took customizations into account as well.

When Kazumasa charged in toward Koroku, she had used some very precise movements to “slip past” Koroku, but…

…That was about as impressive as Fukushima’s ideal movements.

If Kazumasa could recreate that in the game, then Koroku had no chance of beating her.

A god of war’s movements were much more restricted than a person’s. Especially in a game. But this opponent had brought her movements to the level of a martial arts expert.

“This isn’t good training.”

“But you promised, remember?”

Kazumasa’s words made Koroku glare at her.

“Until summer break ends, I give you permission to be a delinquent every day between dinner and midnight. So after dinner, you can spend your night playing games with me.”

Kazumasa’s smiling statement received applause from the crowd behind her.

Is this what they’re so excited about? realized Koroku, feeling annoyed.

“So I have to put up with that for 4 days…”

She stretched out on the floor and expressed her sorrow at losing her video game alone time for the next while.

Kazumasa sighed in the large space.

She ended the divine transmission with Koroku, turned toward the others, and saw the men bowing at a 90 degree angle.

“Shaja! Thank you very much!”

“Testament! Thank you very much!”

They straightened back up and exchanged slapping high fives.

“Now Hachisuka-san will be coming here!”

“Yeah! A little girl at the arcade at night! What could be better!?”

“We need to make sure she heads back home with a doll from the Unidentified Flying Object Capture Fellow!”

Kazumasa didn’t quite understand, but at least Koroku seemed popular. One less problem for her to deal with as a teacher. But…

“Sensei! What are you doing here!?”

“Like I said earlier, a few of the training machines here were made from the simulation designs I swiped when I left Musashi.”

“Sensei! Sensei! Isn’t that extremely illegal!?”

“Once the models are out of date, they’re only good for playing games with. It worked the same way at Musashi. In a way, this is good for the evolution of our fighting forces and technologies. They probably weren’t happy about it, though.”

“So she’s aware of that part,” someone commented. Like someone always did.

So she gave her usual response.

“Yes, I am aware.”

Because…

“I love Musashi. I was born there a year after the current Musashi was built – you, there! Stop doing the math. Do you want me to knock you off the high score list? But anyway…”

She sighed.

“Because I love it, I don’t want to see it destroyed. Only I am allowed to destroy Musashi.”

A smile formed on the corners of her lips.

She could tell everyone had fallen silent to look her way.

To accept all of their gazes, she moved her legs. She walked to the largish platform that acted like the seat of honor. The largest insha kotob was for the most popular game.

“The equipment here is outdated, but the location is anything but. Sound familiar?” She turned around to see them all watching her from a step below. “I can’t return to Musashi until Musashi has been destroyed. But once that happens, I might be so satisfied I don’t feel like going back. Still…”

Still…

“Only I am allowed to destroy Musashi. But I am a teacher and am forbidden to directly attack them. That leaves me with only one option. Because I am a teacher.”

She reached out a hand and slapped the seat in front of the game.

“Now, let’s get training. Because I refuse to put any effort into my students. A simple shaja or testament is enough to join me. I was looking for a chance to further train myself anyway. I will lose the first 5 times and get the hang of the controls in the next 10 matches. I will kick all of your asses after that, so is anyone willing to try me in the first 15 matches when you still have a chance?”

Everyone fell silent.

But eventually…

“I’ll do it.”

A boy raised his hand. He was from P.A. Oda.

Everyone cheered as the boy approached with his nerves plain to see on his face.

How cute. Especially given how badly I’m going to thrash him.

“Sensei, can I use my main?”

“Testament. Never hold back against me.”

“Shaja,” he replied. Then he took his seat. Insha kotobs opened on his hands, in front of his eyes, below his feet, and on his lap.

“Let’s get the 1st match started.”

Everyone cheered and some smiling cries of support reached both players.

“Get her! Now’s your chance!”

“Sensei, that guy’s good! He held the top national spot at one point!”

“Make sure he doesn’t one-shot you with his first move!!”

“I will.” She nodded back with a smile.

Before she sat in her own seat, she sat on the armrest of her opponent’s seat and spoke to him.

“Listen,” she said. “I did the baseline tests for every game here, either when I was at Musashi or after coming here. I’ll still let you win one of the first 5 matches, though, so good luck.”

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