Horizon:Volume 8C Chapter 72

Chapter 72: Face-to-Face Players

Oh, could you ignore

That piece on the right?

No, no, no

Quit glancing over at it

Point Allocation (Beaten Pretty Badly)

The Honnouji Incident was happening soon.

Yoshiyasu tilted her head at Ookubo’s claim. She stepped up onto the stairs in front of the academy.

“Of course P.A. Oda is preparing for that, but we can’t know we’re their opponent.”

“Remember what the Vice President said? She wants the rights to Akechi Mitsuhide’s inherited name. You get what this means, don’t you? If we do intervene, then the Battle of Yamazaki follows after Honnouji.”

Yoshiyasu climbed the stairs. Ookubo stayed at her side, pushing a reed straw into her ice cream. And…

“The P.A. Oda leadership is going to make some kind of move, before our intervention in Honnouji, after it, or maybe both.”

“Are we ready for that?”

“We are.”

Before Yoshiyasu could ask about that, some light shined in the sky.

It was a sign frame displaying a ship-wide alert – one Yoshiyasu recognized.

“Kanesada is preparing to fire!?”

“Judge,” replied Ookubo, sitting down on the stairs. The wooden stairs had absorbed a lot of heat from the summer sun, but mist was occasionally sprayed over them.

“This is only training. Just watch. Things will go a little different this time.”

Sakai was at Yoshinao’s mansion. That meant on Musashino. The mansion was located near the bow. It was small but had a garden and a game was underway on the grass there.

Sakai and Yoshinao sat on opposite sides of a table, facing a chess board.

Neither one looked up at the alert sign frame in the sky. The ships adjusted their positions to take their Kanesada firing formation, but…

“Vice Principal Yoshinao, can we please start using our captured pieces?”

Sakai lowered his face to the top of the table to view the board from the side, but Yoshinao did the same on the other side to check on the state of the board.

“You may if you wish. We believe hostage negotiations should take place only once the battle is complete.”

“I feel like that would only end in a stalemate for us both. This game is already heading in the same direction as the last one.”

“You could always leave an opening for us to attack.”

“Why would I do that?” asked Sakai, taking an even deeper look from the side.

“We notice ‘Musashi’-kun is not here,” said Yoshinao.

“And I notice your wife isn’t here.”

“She is attending an M.H.R.R. music class today. We have heard M.H.R.R. instruments during this westward journey and they sound so much like the instruments of our home territory.”

“Would that be because M.H.R.R. and Tres España were united under Carlos I?”

“Judge,” confirmed Yoshinao. “Hexagone Française music has been growing gaudier of late, thanks to the opera and such. As has English music. Tres España has gained more strange instruments from the New World, but the best instruments to sing along to are still from Tres España or M.H.R.R.”

“I never knew you had such international tastes.”

“We appreciate the high praise of our wife,” said Yoshinao. And, “We also appreciate how those children are working so hard to intervene in the Honnouji Incident without harming Azuma-kun.”

“Getting down to business because you can’t seem to beat me?”

“You take too long to make your moves.”

“Can’t even admit the truth? Oh, I’ll be taking that knight two turns from now.”

“We placed it there as a sacrifice.”

“Well, that’s annoying,” said Sakai, pulling back to look at the board. “Kyou set things up to assist Azuma’s integration here, but your efforts to accept him were just as important if you ask me. I had hoped his presence would improve Musashi’s status, but everything else has been so intense there hasn’t been a chance to use that political advantage.”

“We mostly wanted to ensure the bloodline of the Far East’s leader was in a safe place, but Akechi’s arrangements were quite thorough as well. Even if all of that was rendered meaningless with the Battle of Mikawa.”

“They consider that battle as their starting point, so they aren’t even considering making use of Azuma. All Azuma did during the battle was look after that unidentified girl in Miriam’s room.”

“About that girl…”

“Which one?” asked Sakai.

“Hm.” Yoshinao crossed his arms. And, “The other one, we suppose.”

“Oh, that was mean.”

Sakai grimaced at the sight of Yoshinao taking his bishop with a knight.

And Yoshinao, “We have seen that Miriam girl out and about more often lately.”

“Yes, and there’s a bit of a mystery surrounding her. I’m not sure when she arrived on the Musashi.”

On the other hand…

“But she is a registered citizen and she takes her classes at home, so I don’t see the problem as long as she doesn’t cause any trouble. It’s just difficult to find older records concerning her. ‘Musashi’-san suggested she is a Funadama, a spirit that lives aboard a ship to make sure it never sinks and ‘disappears’.”

“Could she be something your teacher set up?”

“I wanted to ask, but they won’t hold a class reunion.”

“There isn’t much we can do about that either.”

“You weren’t a teacher back home, so you could hold a reunion for the both of us.”

“Why do we get the feeling that would be a reunion of ne’er-do-wells?”

“Judge,” said Sakai, but then Yoshinao made his next move.

“You have finally given us an opening.”

“How did you manage that?”

“You always seem to enjoy yourself when talking about women.”

“Eh? Do I? That could be a problem…”

“Not as far as we are concerned. Or is there someone in particular that would make it a problem? And on that note,” said Yoshinao. “How are ‘Musashi’-kun’s tests going?”

“Judge. A more exciting test should be coming soon.”

As soon as the words were out of Sakai’s mouth, a tremor reached them.

The ship shook vertically, lifting them up from below, and sign frames appeared all around.

<Request from Musashi: As scheduled, the base hulls of all ships will undergo a purge test and cleaning. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. Over.>

“It’s kind of hard to see when it’s overhead. If only it would move around a little more.”

Tomoe Gozen watched the show from atop the wall around a Saxony city.

The show was the Musashi moving and coming apart.

She could tell at a glance that the Musashi had rearranged the positioning of its ships. She was pretty sure this was the configuration used to fire their Kanesada main cannon.

But then things changed.

“The base hulls are emerging!”

The center of each of Musashi’s ships were primarily made of residential wide blocks and long blocks lined up together. Those primary chunks were known as the base hulls. Each level had an 8x8 arrangement of wide blocks with a column of 4 long blocks in between each for a total of 92 blocks. The number of levels differed between ships, but those levels were stacked atop each other.

All of that was built in a block structure held in place by guide frames.

Currently, each ship’s surface level and the three levels below it were being removed from the top.

“You occasionally see the Musashi lifting out a few blocks from an interior wide block. Blocks that have deteriorated through aging or have been damaged in a fire can be a concern from a stability standpoint. So the 1st port or starboard ship will be brought in to lift the block out with a crane. Then the damaged portion will be removed and replaced.”

But this was on a much larger scale.

This was practice for fully removing the contents of each ship’s belly. They were only going three levels down this time, but if they could do this, it likely meant they could take the rest of the levels too.

Tomoe Gozen heard a bell resembling a whistle.

Several layers of defense barrier appeared atop the Musashi, both to prevent any external interference and to support the triple-layer blocks extracted by gravitational control.

“It sounds crazy, but they’re lifting out the top three levels all at once.”

“This is probably only possible with the new variable direction gravitational control devices they installed.”

For once, Guericke’s pen was racing across a lernen figur as he drew out a diagram of it all. Tomoe Gozen was reminded that he was a scientist – and one who loved his diagrams at that.

“Hm,” he said. “But,” he added as he moved his pen. “Testament. This is indeed making full use of the gravitational thrusters they use when firing their main cannon. But none of the acceleration light is showing. That likely means the variable direction gravitational thrusters are being redirected inwards.”

“What happens when they do that?”

“They cannot use their gravitational cruising, but all the power used to launch the Musashi at supersonic speed can be used internally. In addition to lifting the base hulls, they should be able to directly transport large cargo when at close range. And if used on the ship’s interior or surface, they could reinforce the frame or provide gravitational barriers for the armor.

“But,” he said. “The most frightening option is removing the base hulls like this. Do you understand what this allows the Musashi to do?”

The cities were being lifted vertically along the guiderails formed by the gravitational barriers.

The sky rang with the sounds of stoppers being removed from each block and the sounds of water pipes and other conduits being disconnected. When damaged, this same process would be used to remove the blocks while they were moved by crane.

A few transport ships were starting to ascend.

There were a few 300m Kraken-classes and a few 1000m Jormungand-classes. They flew up to the floating wide blocks and docked with them.

The cities were dismantled and divided between the transport ships. All with a single goal in mind.

“Is this to quickly evacuate the Musashi so it can focus on combat?” asked Tomoe Gozen.

“That is part of it.”

“Then is it to let them freely reinforce the interior of the ship to make the Musashi itself more powerful?

“That is part of it.”

“Give me the answer now if you know what’s good for you.”

“My apologies!” Guericke prostrated before continuing. “When the base hulls are removed, the Musashi no longer needs to dedicate a large portion of its power to supporting the residents. This allows them to pour all of their fuel into moving the ship. In other words…”

In other words…

“When the Musashi fired its main cannon before, it required their Chancellor’s assistance. But with the base hulls removed, the Musashi should be able to complete its main cannon firing sequence without any such assistance. Then it will only need fire authorization.”

“…”

“Is something wrong, Tomoe Gozen?”

“Well, you see.” Tomoe Gozen paused.

The nearby PR committee member and some students took notice.

“Eek! Gozen-sama is pausing for emphasis!”

“That’s a sure sign of a Protestant Punishment Attack!”

“RIP Kappa!”

An awkward sweat began to pour down Guericke’s brow. He held his hands out and shrugged as Tomoe Gozen glared down at him.

“Tomoe Gozen, isn’t it an insult to god when you let even minor aspects of the world enrage you?”

“It’s okay when I do it.”

Guericke was seriously sweating now. So…

“Um, what is this about?”

She answered him immediately.

“Do you not see the Musashi removing its base hulls as a fleet exercise up there? Well?”

She pointed her thumb up toward the fleet formation used for firing Kanesada.

“They’re doing this in their Kanesada firing formation, so of course this is about preparing to fire Kanesada. Don’t state the obvious to me.”

Her glare made Guericke prostrate again.

But this time she rested her bible hammer on his head like a staff and sighed.

“Right now, the Ariake is returning to Kantou while the Musashi tries to sell itself as a mercenary ship. But it’s also time for Musashi to show off their combat capabilities. That’s why they’re doing this out in the open instead of inside their stealth barrier. The point is to let Kyou, P.A. Oda, and Europe know they can still fight even with their Chancellor’s group absent.”

The cities were being dismantled in the sky.

This was both training and a demonstration. They were only doing the surface levels, but single blocks or several blocks together were being linked to the transport ships and flown around the airspace surrounding the Musashi.

“The entire diplomatic sector is probably being carried around the Musashi aboard a transport ship while the curious diplomats are given an explanation of the Kanesada firing sequence. Quite the advertisement they have here.”

“Tadaoki-sama! Our sector is being carried around in the lead! Wowwwwww, so this is how Musashi’s wide blocks and long blocks are structured and reinforced!”

“Hey, stay away from the edge. It’s windy, so you could be blown right off!”

Tadaoki sighed while a bit disturbed by his wife’s excitement as she got on her knees at the side of the wide block and peered over the edge.

They were in Tama’s surface city, which was currently being carried by a Konishi family transport ship. The ship was carrying a 6-block chunk, 3 blocks long and 2 blocks wide. The Konishi family was a major merchant family and held a position on the provisional council, so they were in charge of the very front of the procession. Christina wouldn’t have known the Konishi family would be in charge here, but when the notification had arrived during lunch, she had suddenly grabbed his hands and insisted they go.

That had come as a surprise since it was basically the first time she had taken his hand and led him somewhere.

…I need to get to the point I can take her hand and lead her.

He had a feeling he would be dealing with his wife’s curiosity for a long time to come, so he needed to be ready. And I chose someone like that to be my wife. Oh, does that mean I’m more grown up than I thought?

At any rate, sign frames opened in the sky. They displayed “Tama”.

“If you will look to the right, everyone, you will see a demonstration of how I produce the shell and how the ships are stabilized. The primary function of the Kanesada main cannon is a localized anti-warship armor-piercing shell, but it also applies gravitational and magnetic control at the time of launch, which can also be used to provide massages that are very effective on joint pain.”

It wasn’t clear if that was a joke, but knowing Musashi’s automatons, probably not. However…

“Hm?”

An alarm suddenly rang in the sky.

“Tama” bowed on the sign frame and spoke with a calm gaze.

“Now, please look behind you to the east.”

He did so. His wife looked up from the edge of the block and turned around.

A large sign frame used a telescope spell to provide a magnified view of the eastern sky.

The optical view of the distant east revealed a ship in a sky that shimmered like heat haze.

“What you see flying above Lake Biwa is the Azuchi.”

Tadaoki noticed several transport ships rising around the Azuchi and descending with large shapes aboard. He knew what those had to be.

“Is the Azuchi removing its base hulls too!?”

“In an emergency, we can dump the extra cargo to increase the odds of survival. It is a standard tactic for both transport ships and warships. To be honest, Hashiba-kun screwed that one up on the way to Kantou.”

On the bow of Azuchi’s central ship, Kazumasa held up a light-blocking lernen figur and viewed the distant blue shape of the Musashi.

…That was a close one.

She had thought the Musashi might go all the way and run a firing demonstration for Kanesada.

It would show off their strength as a mercenary, but it would also act as a show of force that their actions were inviolable.

It would show they were a valuable ally and a formidable enemy. It was necessary to ensure people took them seriously, but Kazumasa felt it was a little late for Musashi to be doing that.

But the meaning changed when it also acted as a warning to the base hull residents.

“They plan to go all out this time.”

Kazumasa could predict what they were going to do and Takenaka agreed.

So the Azuchi would do the same thing.

There was a basic difference in how the action worked since the Musashi had a virtual main cannon and the Azuchi did not. The Musashi removed their base hulls to give them more usable ether fuel and allow them to operate the virtual main cannon on their own.

But if the Azuchi removed their base hulls and preserved their ether fuel…

“We can strengthen our armor and frames and fire our ether cannons as much as we like.”

Their speed would be about the same. The Musashi would likely have the stronger defenses after their remodeling since it had no side cannons. That just left offense. The Musashi had fewer cannons, but their virtual main cannon was extremely powerful. The Azuchi had more cannons, but no virtual main cannon.

One had a single powerful attack and the other had plenty of weaker attacks.

They both had their pros and cons, so it was important for the Azuchi to make a demonstration as well.

If the Musashi was going to show off to gain popularity in Europe, the Azuchi would do the same.

The Azuchi’s base hulls were primarily made up of residential areas and warehouses. There were some living spaces, corporate space for R&D, and school space, but even with all of that, it took up less space than the Musashi’s base hulls.

However…

“How much of an advantage does this give us, ‘Azuchi’?”

“Testament. It provides a constant pool of about 27% power output. A lot of that will be used on reinforcements to make up for the missing structures, but in the short term, we should be able to use the full pool.”

Simply put…

“If we purged the base hulls like this on our way to Kantou, I predict we could shorten the trip time by about 20%. Over.”

“If only Hashiba-kun had been this resourceful.”

Kazumasa’s comment was her way of grading Hashiba’s performance.

Of course, Takenaka would have something to say since she had been in command at the time. Maybe they could have arrived at Kantou and won, but they would have purged their warehouses and been short on supplies. In the worst case, the battle could have begun anew and they would have lost the second time around.

But, thought Kazumasa.

…Why worry about that when you didn’t even win in the first place?

Takenaka and the others had ensured they would have a stable position after winning and gambled on whether or not they would arrive on time.

Kazumasa would have ensured they would arrive on time and gambled on whether or not they would could hold onto their victory afterwards.

In the end, Takenaka and the others had arrived on time, but Kuki had abandoned the fight.

Kazumasa might not agree with Kuki’s decision, but she admired the conviction behind it. He had given up on the immediate victory in order to protect the Honnouji Incident.

And if not for his decision, they would have suffered an even larger loss there.

That meant the problem was the delayed arrival that had pushed Kuki’s forces to that position.

Of course, Kazumasa had the advantage of hindsight here. She had watched the Azuchi’s rush from Paris to Kantou while eating at a teahouse next to Lake Biwa.

“Now, then.”

She opened a document in a lernen figur.

It listed the advantages of the purge in regards to Azuchi’s trip to Kantou. It was dated before summer break.

But she operated the lernen figur to fully delete it.

“We won’t be needing this anymore,” she said. “If I had helped them there, they would never learn anything. Defeat is an excellent teacher, so they will learn everything they need without me. Truly the best teaching method.”

And…

“Seeing the Azuchi purge its base hulls today will tell Europe and the surrounding nations they will have to deal with the Azuchi and Hashiba if they get involved with Musashi. So who will want to ally themselves with Musashi now? A show of force is the best way to isolate yourself. Now Musashi will need to defeat us if they hope to return to the way things were.”

Kazumasa raised her right hand as she spoke.

She surrounded the distant Musashi with it and raised her eyebrows in a slight smile.

“Have a gold star. You have put on an excellent show as our enemy.”

Fukushima left her tent.

I slept a long time, she noted.

Her plan now was to get some food and then train. The afternoon was ending and night was falling, but she decided now was as good a time as any to get her day started.

“I really have lost all discipline.”

After crying herself to sleep in her exhaustion last night, she had changed her outlook on a number of things.

Had the crying helped? Or was it letting out her honest thoughts that had done it?

She wasn’t sure what had caused it, but the tension inside her was gone.

She had woken around noon and gone through the motions of getting up.

Her mind had refused to hold any thoughts in it. She had only managed to gulp down plenty of water before returning to the tent and going back to sleep.

When she woke again, the entire day had passed. She had been holding her blanket in a tight embrace, but that may have been what gave her such an odd sense of relief as she slept.

Strangely, she no longer felt any need to say anything.

Before, she had spoken to herself a lot, but now she was shockingly silent, as was her mind.

After fixing some food, she realized night had fully fallen.

When did that happen? she wondered.

No, it had nearly been night when she got up. But her brain wasn’t working very well, so she stared at the campfire and wondered why it was still so bright out. Finally, she looked up and noticed all the stars in the sky.

“Oh.”

That was her first time speaking in a while, but it was really more just a sound escaping her throat.

…Nothing has changed.

She had worried, struggled, cried, worn herself out, and slept for an entire day, but had that changed anything?

Nothing had changed.

So had these past few days been a waste?

In the sense that nothing had changed, they had been.

But the fact that she could recognize the lack of change felt like it made everything worthwhile.

The question was how to look at this afterwards.

She was currently in a meaningless state.

She felt that was a surprisingly valuable thing.

She didn’t know what was going on in the world. Everyone may have been fighting in skirmishes around the world or they may have been learning a lot from their training camps, but she was not with them.

They would get by without her and the world would keep going without her.

Noticing movement in the campfire, she held out her hand.

The wind was making the fire flicker.

But the fire did not go out and the flickering vanished soon enough.

Nothing changed.

It looked like it had, but it returned to normal before long. So it was no surprise she couldn’t change anything when she was away from everyone. And…

“It is the same for us all.”

She was currently alone.

And everyone else was “alone” in relation to her. No one could reach her. Everyone was “isolated” from her at the moment.

That thought brought some more tears.

But these tears did not come from exhaustion and hitting a dead end.

She didn’t really understand it herself, but if she had to describe them, she would call them “tears of joy”.

Instead of feeling fear over being alone, she felt relief over knowing everyone was the same.

They were far apart. They could not speak with or see each other. It was possible some of them had even died.

But it was all the same as long as she didn’t know about it.

She could still trust them.

And if they were all in the same position in relation to each other, then they were all the same.

It didn’t matter that she couldn’t see them.

She trusted them. Maybe they would betray that trust in the end, but that would not change the fact that she had trusted them at one point. That was how she saw it. Because…

“–––––”

She could still feel the hard rock on her back from when she slept. And the corners of her eyes were still swollen from crying. She could trust in that.

So if she was alone, she wanted to relax and ignore even her own thoughts. She would simply do what her body told her to do.

She would train as much as she liked. Once she got tired, she would sleep until she wasn’t anymore. She would eat when she was hungry. If she didn’t have enough, she would go on a walk and search out more.

So that was what she did.

It was all very carefree.

She knew she was lacking a lot here, but it was easier on her body. And her mind remained much clearer since her body was handling all the decision making. She could only describe it as…

…Letting go of all that excess tension.

Something occurred to her while she was eating and looking up into the sky.

…Could I see the Musashi if I moved to the west side of the mountain?

It should be right there if she climbed the mountain.

She decided that wouldn’t be a bad thing to do on the final day of her training or shortly before, when she had gathered up all her things. That thought improved her mood a lot.

“Okay.”

As the night wore on, she grabbed Ichinotani and headed to the waterfall basin for the day’s training.

She trusted that the others were doing much the same thing.

The days passed and August came to an end.

Kiyomasa’s team had finished their training at Sanada. They planned to use September 1 as a rest day and return to Lake Biwa Azuchi on the 2nd.

Fukushima’s team was contacted by Takenaka on the Azuchi and told to instruct Fukushima to return from the mountains on the 2nd.

Meanwhile, Ishida and Kasuya’s teams were facing one of the pope’s worst dreams yet.

“Wh-why are there three more of them this time!? That isn’t the usual pattern!”

“Her dream isn’t adding in as many as we hunt down, is it?”

“Excuse me! I would love it if you stopped talking and gave me some help over here!”

They sometimes had to force Ootani out onto the front line, but the number of dragons was reducing.

The Musashi group planned to end their hidden training at the candy house on September 1 and to head directly to Kyou from there on the 2nd.

The final reports on their research and investigation topics would be held during their party on the night of September 1, so that whole day would be a rest day. They could set their various thoughts and tensions aside as they approached that rest day in a half-active and half-drained state.

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