Horizon:Volume 9A Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Cheerful Girl in the Cell

Yes

When I went to check on her

She was still in there

That was then, though

Point Allocation (Tragedy Soon Struck!)

●

Kiyomasa gestured for her 500 warriors to fall back.

They were small for an attacking force. If they were hiding in the forest, Niwa’s group would have to stay on their guard.

She looked out ahead to see Niwa and her warriors standing on the wall a kilometer away. They numbered 3000, which wasn’t much for a defense unit, but…

“That’s Niwa-sama’s Mehter. I thought they were meant for conquering cities, but they must have been deployed here as defenders or to attack an approaching army.”

There could be even more waiting behind that group. Kiyomasa hoped the Azuchi had managed to check on that while side-flipping above.

But Niwa’s group was looking directly at Kiyomasa’s.

They were ready and waiting.

The report Kiyomasa had seen said Niwa had moved to the north side to support the Takigawa Unit after bolstering their numbers with the Sakuma Team.

But apparently that report had been inaccurate.

This meant Niwa had abandoned the north front.

And now that she was back here, there wasn’t a warrior out of place under her 3000 defenders.

“Did she predict we would be acting separate from the Azuchi?”

Niwa stared down at them from atop the ship.

She was one of the Five Great Peaks. Among P.A. Oda’s top officials, she shared the top two spots with Shibata.

Hashiba, who Kiyomasa served, had created that name by taking a kanji each from those two’s names.

And Niwa was here now in place of Takigawa who had retired just before summer break.

Takigawa had been quite skilled herself and Niwa was considered a suitable replacement for her.

Kiyomasa took a deep breath while looking up at that woman.

“Now.”

Something bothered her. She checked on it while facing that fortress wall made up of ships.

Kiyo-Massive: “Takenaka-sama, we have arrived and located the enemy. How are things on your end?”

●

Takenaka wanted to hold her head in her hands. Because things were moving a little too fast. For one, I haven’t even started on my apple pie yet. Am I supposed to ero after only looking at it?

No, I need to use my head.

…Sorry, but give me some time to think.

Some high-damage would give me the motivation I need to think. Because I don’t want to get hit by it, but I would love to send it our enemy’s way. But…

“Why is Shibata-san doing everything so half-assed?”

She had honestly expected him to predict their side flip maneuver.

It was one of the nicest maneuvers available to the Azuchi.

It let them circle behind their opponent and, more importantly, it was super intimidating for the enemy below.

So of course she would use it.

And an opponent of Shibata’s level would respond. If they were moving behind him, he would already be facing that way waiting for them. And she would have predicted his prediction.

So after the side flip, they would have circled behind the Shibata Team to face them directly.

But this only meant they had predicted each other’s actions. They still had the rest of the battle to think about.

So Takenaka had set something up.

While the Azuchi circled behind the Shibata Team, she had dropped off a separate unit.

She had dropped them off before the side flip maneuver because she hadn’t expected the enemy to predict the drop-off of a ground unit during their feint charge.

After all, that was asking a lot of Kiyomasa and her team.

But the enemy had predicted it after all.

…I think I get it.

Takenaka had a general idea what had happened.

“Did Shibata-san predict this? No, he didn’t. He doesn’t give anything this much thought.”

●

Takenaka sighed and stood up. Her mouth pulled tensely to the sides. She found it hard to believe, but as she gathered the pieces, she became more confident of her conclusion.

…Niwa-san must have predicted it.

But they had launched an all-out attack on the north face. It was odd for Niwa to not respond to that at all. So…

“There must be someone there.”

While she considered it, Takenaka opened a divine transmission lernen figur. She opened a new instance of Three Thousand Worlds while she spoke.

“Kasuya-san? Yoshiaki-san and Wakisaka-san too. Be careful out there.”

Because…

“Someone on Shibata and Niwa’s level is out there. That’s why Niwa-san hasn’t gone your way, so do be careful.”

●

“Huh?” said Angie with a tilt of the head.

They had just about conquered the clearing in front of the northern fortress wall of ships. The warriors who had arrived later were working with the nonhuman team to clear the rest of the defenders and the ships, so the clearing was quickly becoming a safe zone. The latecomers were hurriedly setting up a base and creating a space for the injured and any surrendered enemies.

The Azuchi and the Shibata Team were still exchanging artillery fire overhead, but…

…We have a lot of Shibata Team survivors and prisoners down here, so they can’t aim directly down at us.

That might happen eventually, but they were currently setting up a Catholic system for a large antiair defense barriers. That wouldn’t cover the entire space, but it would be enough to protect the key points from angled shots that relied on freefall.

But now…

“You say there’s a powerful fighter coming? Who? Besides, we’re pretty strong too.”

“Angie, pride comes before a fall,” said Yoshiaki.

“Testament. It’s true,” said Kasuya. “For example, they could have a long-range gunner like Hirano. Not all powerful fighters are close-range fighters.”

Angie knew that. But she still had an honest question. They had already conquered this area and Shibata’s team was keeping their distance from the taken ships.

So if someone was coming from there…

“Who could it be? That tentacle guy uses a god of war, doesn’t he?”

“If a god of war was coming, we would see it before it got here. And even if it came in one big leap, our people in the secured ships would see it.”

“Then could it be that crazy berserker? Oichi-sama?”

“Angie, Oichi-sama doesn’t discriminate between enemy and ally. She cuts everyone down equally, so if she were here, the Shibata Team would have to pull out.”

“Then who?”

AnG: “Shouroku, Sakuma-san hasn’t escaped, has she?”

6: “Do you really think you can beat me with a score like that?”

Sounds like she’s having fun. And hurry on over here, Shouroku.

…But that aside, who could it be?

They had to reassess the situation. That began with observing the enemy.

“Take, should we respond once we find this person?”

“I was supposed to deal with Niwa-sama now,” said Kasuya.

“I’m more worried about Kiyomasa than anyone.”

Yoshiaki was right. So for now…

“We wait until things have calmed down in there and then we make our own attack. Yoshiaki and me from above and Take from below as an active defense.”

“Sounds good,” said Yoshiaki and Kasuya nodded too.

“We need to be careful we don’t let our guard down.”

Just as Yoshiaki said that, a lernen figur appeared next to them all.

It was a warning. An alert. The sound and light indicating danger was accompanied by a sudden color. It rose from the ground across the entire area.

“A cold white mist!?”

●

Yoshiaki sensed danger.

Anyone who had trained in Technomagie would recognize this cold mist. That included Angie.

“Um, what is this again? I know what it is! I swear!”

“Angie, you don’t need to hide your minor failings like that.”

This was a rushed countermeasure to what they were doing here.

“Everyone! Hurry back into the forest!”

As soon as Yoshiaki shouted that, something appeared.

…Hands!

Bony arms made of bluish-white ether light grew from the ground. Because this was…

“Necromancy!”

These were ghosts.

They tried to grab at the living’s legs to pull themselves up out of the ground, so Yoshiaki held out a hand to stop Angie and hurried back. By then, she could hear cries of surprise and terror from all around. The wolf looked back her way from the line of ships up ahead.

“Yoshiaki! Wakisaka!”

“Face forward, Kasuya!”

As soon as Yoshiaki said that, the dead bones stood up from the ground. And…

“Evacuate those ships!”

Screams erupted from the line of ships just before a light appeared.

The north gate warship up ahead had been sliced in two.

Something had swung a great ether light attack that produced an explosive blast and a tearing sound and then pushed the warship out of the way.

“A giant ghost skeleton!”

That was the answer right there. Yoshiaki now knew who was here. There were already eight giant skeletons pushing past the line of ships to reach them. And someone stood in the clearing beyond them.

“Is that you, Maeda-senpai!?”

●

“Yes. Yes, it is,” said Toshiie, his arms crossed.

A cold white mist wafted across this space. Just like in Novgorod, he had a feeling ghosts did well in cold environments. Well, maybe it doesn’t improve their abilities in any way, but they at least look more at home.

But he was currently summoning a large group of ghost warriors.

“Hired for 4 gulden, the Landsknechte fight to fulfill their promise to their holy land and their god.”

Nice, he thought. It’s been too long since I’ve done this. But at the same time…

“I’m not sure how to put this, but sorry. I know this is nothing but a nuisance for you. I really do wonder what I’m even doing here. I mean, I don’t like these internal squabbles. I was hoping it could all work out for everyone and even sent out a ship to take you away. Then I was going to wait to join you all at Lake Biwa Azuchi.”

But…

“That I couldn’t do that and that I came back shows I’m still not as decisive as I’d like.”

He snapped his fingers. He flicked the hilt of his currency sword and some gold fell out.

He had plenty of funds to work with. When he had returned, Shibata had told him to “use all of this, idiot”. And…

“My contract with Shibata-senpai has me working for half an hour. To follow the Testament, I’ll be joining Hashiba’s side partway through the battle, so then we can go to Lake Biwa Azuchi. But I will be fulfilling my obligations until then, Hashiba.”

The rising army of ghosts collected the gold, raised a hand to greet Toshiie, and made their way to the battle line.

“Yes, I’m counting on you all. There’s no curry this time. Oichi-sama makes it a lot, but not tonight. I know because I can’t smell it. So…”

He pointed out ahead with Matsu mimicking him from his shoulder, her little wings spread behind her.

“Go, Kaga Millionen Geist. Make me look good before I leave the party early.”

●

Kousaka and Inada quickly left the line of ships to reach the clearing.

“Fall back into the forest! Hurry!”

From a ley line perspective, field spells couldn’t cross the boundaries between different kinds of terrain. Maeda’s Kaga Millionen Geist was generally used inside enemy territory, so it would actually have a hard time escaping from the kind of terrain it was used in.

If that remained true tonight…

…We have to get the rookies and ordinary people out of there!

The rest was a job for Kousaka and the other nonhumans. She knew there were a lot of those ghosts and she knew ten of them could join together to upgrade their form and fighting power. She and the other nonhumans had fought alongside Maeda a few times while fighting in M.H.R.R. Because he was…

…Wallenstein the Mercenary King!

She had never expected to be fighting against him. But…

“Let’s go, everyone!”

They were worn out. But they had received supplies and used stamina recovery and cooling spells.

They had to last half an hour against these ghosts. Ghosts were slow, so that sounded doable. However…

“Huh?”

She couldn’t immediately react to the enemy that suddenly appeared before her.

It was a ghost. Supposedly, anyway. The color and the ether light were familiar enough. But the speed was different. The humanoid ones were supposed to be slow, meaning only their great numbers made them a threat.

And yet this one ordinary-looking skeleton had rushed right up in front of her.

…Oh, no!

In the split second opening created by her careless assumption, she saw a blade rushing toward her. But…

“Kousaka!”

A bear claw shattered the enemy from the side.

That was Inada. After a moment of hesitation, he moved out from her side and further shattered the skeletal remains with his knee. Ether light scattered and he grabbed something from within.

“Check this out!”

Inada held up a metal piece of equipment.

“I don’t believe it.”

These enemies were definitely ghosts. But there was a reason why they could move faster and heavier than ordinary people.

“The ghost army is using high-speed mobile shells!”

●

Yoshiaki sensed danger.

The large skeletons that had smashed through the warships up ahead stood more than 10m tall.

But that wasn’t the whole story.

They had reinforcing armor roughly covering themselves, making them look like gods of war.

Instead of attacking with claws or just their arms, they held official swords or spears. It was almost like…

“We’re up against a group of mass-produced gods of war!”

The large skeletons roared. Their roars were strained and distorted.

Then they raised their weapons and used their great strength and reinforcing armor to open the bisected warships like gates.

The exterior and interior of the battlefield were now connected. The base Hashiba had set up was now joined with the interior of the Shibata Team’s formation. And that vast land was covered by countless skeletons and great apes made of bones.

The garden of the dead shined a ghastly white in the moonlight.

In that field of white and ether light, every red glowing eye was directed toward the Hashiba group. Around a third of them wore crude mobile shells and all of the large skeletons joined together to…

“…!”

…emit a deafening roar and rush toward the Hashiba group.

●

Sounds traveled surprisingly far. That applied to the roars and artillery blasts coming in from outside, but also…

“It’s pretty loud when I bang on my cell!”

Kani briefly wondered what she should do. She had filled her stomach and gotten some sleep earlier, so now she was trying to escape from here.

She wanted to leave because of how loud everything was outside.

She didn’t know what exactly was going on, but almost everyone had left the ship’s quarters where she was being held and she kept hearing artillery fire and destruction outside.

She could guess that the Battle of Shizugatake had begun and her allies had made it this far.

Which meant she needed to get out and fight too. She had had opportunities before, but she hadn’t taken them because escaping was meaningless if her allies weren’t here yet. So she had eaten and slept instead, but…

…I can’t summon Sasamura here!

They must have set up a spell field inside this cell. She had thought she would only need to summon Sasamura, but it wasn’t that simple. So her first order of business was finding another way to escape.

“Toh!”

She dashed from one edge of the room and threw a kick into the bars.

It made a loud sound and, for just a moment, the locking spell’s lernen figur appeared in front of the lock. Some of the bars bent a little bit, but not enough for her to escape.

…These bars are tough!

But just as she thought it might work eventually, she heard a commotion from the hallway.

She looked out to see a familiar face. He looked a lot like an octopus hot dog.

“Mori-senpai!”

“Oh! Kani-kun! Is this where they had you locked up!?”

The tentacle approached her cell. But after he noticed the bent bars…

“Kani-kun!? I know what you were trying to do, but you can’t! You aren’t supposed to escape when someone locks you up!”

“That is very true, I suppose!”

“Testament! Kids these days shouldn’t be so quick to search out excitement. Listen. This cell was built with P.A. Oda tax money. That means it was made out of the taxes your parents paid. And here you are trying to destroy it. Doesn’t that seem wrong to you?”

“Um, can I say one thing, Mori-senpai!?”

“What is it?”

“Well!” Kani asked the tentacle her question. “The toilet paper at school is paid for with tax money too, which means it’s made out of the taxes my parents paid! So when I wipe my butt with it, am I wiping my butt with their money!?”

“Teenage girls should not be talking to tentacles about their b-butts! Th-that seems very wrong to me!”

She felt like he was avoiding her question. But…

…Huh!?

When she checked the state of the lernen figur, she realized things had changed for the better.

So she placed her back and hips against the curve of the bent bar. A lot like she was pushing her back toward the hallway.

“Um! Mori-senpai! Please move out of the way!”

“Kani-kun! You mustn’t bend those bars any further!”

“Okay! I won’t bend the bars anymore!”

“Good! I am glad to hear it!”

“The thing is! The cell’s field extends a bit into the hallway, but it seems to follow the room layout because it didn’t follow when I bent the bars! So now that I’ve bent the bars beyond the field, I can press my back against them like this and set Sasamura’s summon coordinates to out in the hallway!”

In other words…

“I’m going to escape!”

“Hey, wait!”

She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to wait for, so she went ahead and summoned Sasamura.

●

…The ejection summoning has so much momentum I can’t use it in enclosed spaces!

Kani realized her mistake.

She shouldn’t have summoned eight Sasamuras in the narrow hallway. The ejected cowling spears had detected the narrow space and, in their attempt not to hit anything around them, they had all collided with each other. The force of the impacts had caused them to bounce outwards, splitting and smashing the hallway and breaking through its walls.

“Wow! That was fun!”

Kani kicked down the cell’s bars now that they their foundation had been torn up and she rushed out into the hallway.

She found herself on a balcony with an excellent view outside.

The eight Sasamuras were floating in the air after freeing themselves from the hallway, but someone might come running if they saw the cowling spears, so she stored them once more.

She did make sure to connect to the ship’s information system and report the damage.

…Because honesty is the best policy!

Only then did she remember something.

“Oh! Mori-senpai!”

She didn’t see him around. He was below her, along with the broken ship materials. This was the equivalent of a building’s third floor and, when she looked down, she saw an impressive pile of smashed materials and…

“Mori-senpaiiiii!”

She couldn’t tell if he was in that rubble pile or not, but he didn’t respond.

What do I do!? She doubted he was dead, but she would feel bad if he was hurt. After all, she had never seen someone who would look so tasty on display in a butcher’s shop. She had once described him to Maeda as “the type who’s probably really tasty if you slice him up”. The boys in the area had all frozen in place, so Maeda had smiled and warned her not to say such things in front of the boys. She had taken that to heart and only ever repeated it in front of the girls afterwards. Fuwa-senpai thought it was hilarious!

Anyway, what do I do!? she wondered when someone approached from the side.

“What is happening over here- oh? Kani!?”

“Fuwa-senpai!”

It was Fuwa. She wore a coat over her winter uniform and she sighed as she surveyed the state of the ship.

●

…Let me guess: Kani was in there.

Fuwa could guess that much from what she saw.

Kani had caused all this damage in an escape attempt. Fuwa had come to this ship because it was where the Shibata Team’s administrative business was concentrated, but…

“Kani, I guess I’ll ask: what happened here?”

“Oh, testament! I summoned Sasamura a little, but Mori-senpai was in the way!”

“Hm, that wouldn’t be enough to kill him, so don’t worry about it.”

“Really!? Then I won’t!”

Fuwa felt a little bad for Mori, but then Kani asked a question of her own. She looked out through the hole in the wall first.

“Um, what are you doing here, Fuwa-senpai!? I thought you boarded a ship leaving here!”

“Um, yes, but I got talking with that idiot and it felt like we should go our separate ways.”

“Oh…oh, s-sorry! I didn’t realize you and Sassa-senpai broke up!”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

Don’t let it get to you, thought Fuwa as this underclassman’s senior. But if she was asked to explain how she did mean it, she wasn’t really sure what she would say. However…

“Fuwa-senpai! What are you doing here!?”

I’m even less sure what to say to that…

●

Kani heard a long, drawn-out “uh” from Fuwa.

Then Fuwa held a hand to her face.

“Here’s the thing, Kani.”

“Yes!?”

“I’m honestly not too excited about this, but, well, I don’t think I have much of a choice.”

Fuwa swung her arms outward a bit.

That motion opened several insha kotobs around her.

And she smiled with her eyebrows lowered.

“I don’t know how this is going to turn out, though.”

No, she did. She definitely did. Because…

…She’s a name inheritor and an officer!

So Kani spoke from the subordinate position of an underclassman.

“Are you accepting the challenge, Fuwa-senpai!?”

Fuwa briefly raised her eyebrows.

But then her widened eyes bent in a smile and she mouthed a word.

“Idiot.”

Yes! thought Kani. I’m an idiot! Because…

“I’m an underclassman! I’m not good enough yet!”

So this time, she properly summoned Sasamura. There was only one thing to say at this point.

“May the best fighter win!”

A loud roar arrived from outside. Almost like a response to her determination.

●

Niwa kept her eyes on Kiyomasa in the distance while she listened to the noise coming from behind her to the north.

She recognized the sounds of metal splitting, colliding, and sparking.

She knew what had to be happening. Maeda was enjoying himself on the north end.

“In the end, Maeda-kun really did want to join in, didn’t he?”

No matter how smart they pretended to be, boys were ultimately all idiots. Instead of giving themselves over to their emotions, they would bind themselves with duty and such things, which only let their stress grow.

Niwa was different in that regard.

She tended to act as a buffer between different parts of the organization. Even in the Testament, she was both one of the older Oda retainers and someone who later gave Hashiba many warnings while Hashiba relied on her.

She knew she was like an excellent piece of furniture meant to fill small gaps, but there were advantages to that.

“Now, let’s do our thing.”

She raised her right hand high and swung it.

The motion she produced indicated four-four time. She was the conductor. The motion set the Mehter behind her into motion.

●

Kiyomasa saw that Niwa was suddenly down in the clearing.

She hadn’t overlooked Niwa’s descent. Niwa’s movement had just been that well done. And Kiyomasa had located her the instant after she was down, so it wasn’t a problem. But something else bothered her a lot more.

She couldn’t hear anything.

Niwa had been swinging her raised right hand for a bit now.

The 3000-man Mehter up on the fortress wall of ships behind her was playing music in response.

Some played string instruments, some played percussion instruments, some played wind instruments, and others sang and danced while clapping to the beat.

But Kiyomasa couldn’t hear any of that.

She thought maybe they had an auditory stealth barrier active, but there weren’t any such spell circles open around the 3000. The only light source she saw were the score display insha kotobs opened in front of them.

Yet none of it made a sound while Niwa approached.

Niwa’s steps were dance steps, suggesting the unheard music was reaching her. That may have been why Niwa reached for the cloth tying back her long, swaying hair.

“––––––”

She untied the cloth as part of her dance.

In that instant, Kiyomasa shouted to everyone behind her.

“Fall back!”

●

The word “danger” came to Kiyomasa’s mind.

…Niwa-sama is one of the Five Great Peaks!

“The Five Great Peaks are actually six!” was the ad copy for P.A. Oda’s famous Five Great Peaks Manju because it was a 5-manju set that always came with a 6th for free. Yoshiaki had complained, saying that just made it a 6-manju set, but Kiyomasa thought it was a matter of human psychology that would take a long time to explain.

Regardless, that showed just how important the Five Great Peaks were in P.A. Oda, but all of them, and Hashiba too, had been given something by Oda Nobunaga.

Nobunaga had given it to them as an alternative when it was decided P.A. Oda would not be receiving a Logismoi Oplo.

“The power of an angel!”

Technically, it was a spell.

Maeda Toshiie and Sassa Narimasa had Israfil, which let them borrow the power of the earth.

Akechi Mitsuhide had Jibril, which gave him authority over words.

And Niwa had…

…Uriel, which lets her convert the kind of power she uses.

Niwa would likely use that authority here.

This was the final night for her friend and colleague Shibata. This was a festival. So…

“–––”

Kiyomasa took a defensive stance while watching light scatter from the cloth Niwa had released into the air.

That was ether spray, meaning that was a spell cloth. And its next effect was…

…A dragon?

A small dragon made of rock appeared on Niwa’s right shoulder. But it had no physical form. That shining being was…

“Kiyomasa-sama, that is an earth dragon! It is a major earth spirit said to cause earthquakes and…”

The warning from the forest behind her never finished.

With a dancing motion, Niwa held up the earth dragon in her right hand and lifted her right leg high.

This caused something.

The earth dragon suddenly vanished. A transformed Niwa appeared in its place. Ether light enveloped her. Stone horns made of ether grew from her head while armor of the same texture surrounded her arms and legs. A tail attached to her as a stabilizer.

“City destroyer spell – Rockflow Encirclement.”

As soon as Niwa said that within the scattering ether light, she swung her raised leg down like an axe.

It dropped.

Once her heel struck the ground, a solid impact rang out and something happened.

A rock wall large enough to block Kiyomasa’s view instantly grew up between her and Niwa.

…Huh!?

It happened too suddenly for Kiyomasa to do anything in response. The stone sliced through the wind as it jutted up from the ground. The rock wall between Niwa and Kiyomasa was well over 700m wide and more than 30m tall. It suddenly broke through the wind directly below Kiyomasa too.

“…!”

The rocky crust rose up all at once, blasting the southern clearing into the sky.

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