Horizon:Volume 8C Chapter 76
Chapter 76: Relaxer at the Rest Spot[edit]
The next thing I knew
I was enjoying summer break
More than I thought
Point Allocation (I’m Glad I Noticed)
Narumi sighed with nothing to do but wait for dinner.
…I’m exhausted.
She savored the pleasant weariness in a log seat.
To relax, she had taken a stroll through the forest and checked out some spots she hadn’t gone before.
She had meant it as a simple distraction, but she had soon realized how quick her pace was.
…My mind is still in combat mode.
So after that, she had taken a dip in the spring and river to cool her head some. She had spent some of that time joining the Musashi Vice Chancellor in seeing how many flips they could make when diving from an elevated area adjacent to the spring and she had spent the rest of the time zoning out. She had enjoyed both, but partway through, he had arrived with the storage shed group and the boys.
“Narumi, they say there is treasure buried below that spring.”
The problems had started there.
The spring wasn’t what you would call deep, but it still had depth. It was tricky to work with.
They had split up into groups and started searching below the sand.
“Okay, let’s see who can stay underwater the longest!” the Chancellor had suggested.
Even more problems had started there. Because I can get competitive.
She had thought the 1st Special Duty Officer would last the longest, but half-dragons could seal off their respiratory system, which let him last a while too. But his hands couldn’t grasp much of the “treasure”, so the ones who ended up staying underwater longest were Musashi’s princess, who realized her flexible arms could come in handy here, and the rest of the Chancellor’s Main Blue Thunder group. The winged Technohexen had the most trouble. Viewed from above, their main wings and secondary wings had acted like floats and Narumi felt like that would be worth researching.
The biggest highlight was when the Acting Captain had discovered some agate below the sand, earning everyone’s applause.
Meanwhile, the 6th Special Duty Officer returned from the forest.
“Are you done training?” asked Narumi.
“I have the basics down, but I’m still not combat ready.”
She had apparently equipped new flight devices on her god of war. So she had set up a virtual test ground in the forest to test the control system and gravitational control.
She had set up a hexagonal barrier made from trees. Inside that barrier, the ground was slanted and gravity was stronger. From outside, it looked a lot like the 6th Special Duty Officer was being pushed off balance by something, but she said that was only the sloped ground and powerful wind blowing inside.
…We had a similar facility in Sendai Castle.
Due to all the snow at Date, they used a similar technique to create indoor training grounds. When entering one of those enclosed spaces, the god of war pilots would insist on practicing their surfing to prepare for the summer, but Narumi had always seen that as wasted effort since the ocean water was only tolerable for about a week in the summer.
But when Narumi had visited the forest earlier, she had seen a few trees with the bark stripped from all around their trunks.
During the virtual training, the 6th Special Duty Officer had likely used those trees in place of the god of war’s shoulder-riding hook. The bark was already growing back, another reminder this was the Reine des Garous’s land.
The others were also rounding out their training, taking breaks, or goofing off.
“––––––”
It was only evening, but the campfire was blazing and Narumi felt sleepy seated in front of it and smelling the dinner preparations.
Summer break would be over soon, but…
“How strange.”
“What is, Narumi?” he asked, carrying over some firewood.
“Only now is this feeling like summer break.”
“It has felt that way to me the entire time.”
“Have you finished your summer homework?”
“I had but two assignments: enjoy myself and worship elder sisters.”
“That deserves a thank you.”
She smiled a little, which helped wake her up.
“Now, then,” she said, looking around and noticing some more classmates sitting on the logs around the fire. That just left…
“I would love to see what we discovered about those mysteries.”
“Judge,” replied the Vice President. She took a look around. “We can report on our progress over dinner.”
Soon, dinner began. There was some fierce fighting over the appetizers, but since it was the last day, they took their time with dinner. Masazumi spoke up while watching the idiot put a large piece of meat over the campfire as the post-meeting main dish.
“Okay. I think I’ll start with my own report to sum up what we have accomplished while here.”
Meanwhile, she noted that was probably a pig or boar leg on the fire. The bone had been removed and a stick inserted in place of a skewer. After tying it to the stick with string, the stick was placed horizontally over the fire and rotated to cook the meat evenly.
Crossunite and Mary were tasked with rotating the stick. They stood across the fire from each other to do so.
“Are you ready, Master Tenzou?”
“Judge. Whenever you are, Mary-dono. I will need your help to know when it is done.”
Unturning: “Is flirting while rotating a pig leg considered good manners?”
Uqui: “How about we try it, Narumi?”
Novice: “It’s really easy to trigger a fire alarm doing that, so do be careful.”
Masazumi wanted to ask him if he knew that from experience, but decided against it after realizing how interminable his answer would probably be. Instead, she opened a sign frame and got down to business.
“Tomorrow morning, we will leave here on a transport ship and fly to Kyou.”
She displayed a map showing Hexagone Française and M.H.R.R. A red line drew out the route from here to the far west end of Kyou and Mitotsudaira asked a question while holding the front of her shirt closed.
“We aren’t going to stop by the Musashi first? Or even have the Musashi join us?”
“If the Musashi moves from where it is, P.A. Oda will raise their guard. Using a transport ship is akin to traveling in secret. As far as we can tell, Akechi hasn’t informed P.A. Oda about our meeting.”
Meaning…
“This is an unofficial meeting. Which is why I think we can actually broach the subject of Akechi Mitsuhide’s inherited name.”
“What if he won’t agree to that?” asked Gin.
Masazumi had a single answer for that.
“We listen carefully to what he has to say.”
That should have gone without saying, but…
“Because you people never listen.”
“Th-that is quite the reason there, Vice President!”
“Which is why I want you to quiet down and listen now, Balfette. I mean, do you have any idea how often someone is trying to say something witty, but the rest of you won’t shut up and the moment is lost? If it weren’t for that, my fantastic jokes would be getting tons of laughs, but instead-”
“Enough!!”
If they all say it, I guess I have to listen. Because we’re a democracy where the majority rules.
“Listen,” she began, waiting until everyone’s eyes were on her before continuing. “Since Akechi’s side agreed to the meeting, he must want to discuss something. Maybe he wants to hear what we have to say and maybe he has something to tell us. And this is after learning we want his inherited name.”
So…
“So we will ask him if he is willing to do that or not. If he isn’t, we just have to ask him why he agreed to speak with us, knowing what we wanted.”
“Judge. That does seem like the right way to go about this,” said Gin, slightly lowering her head.
“What could he wish to discuss if he is refusing our request?” asked Nenji, tilting his entire body.
“He’s probably gonna lecture us on how stupid it was to think he’d ever agree to that. Probably thinks anyone dumb enough to even ask needs a talking to.”
“Toori-kun, these are international negotiations, not a class meeting.”
…Probably shouldn’t mention that’s one of the possibilities I’ve considered.
“The biggest thing we have to watch out for is arriving in Kyou and finding he isn’t there,” said Masazumi.
“Would that mean he is keeping us busy so we cannot intervene in Honnouji?” asked Tenzou.
“Judge. But in that case, we just have to board the Musashi when it catches up to us and head to Honnouji. We won’t have met with Akechi Mitsuhide, so we’ll have to use wanting to hurry the Honnouji Incident along as our reason for intervening. But…”
Asama picked up after the “but”.
“In that case, the Honnouji Incident will probably happen on September 2.”
“Having it tomorrow would be a real pain… But anyway, that’s how I see it. I’m going to simulate some possibilities of what he might say, have Ookubo come up with some ideas, and think about how we should respond. So Naruze, Neshinbara, and Asama, I want the results of your research in case I can use any of it in the meeting. How are things going?”
“Judge. I will go first, while also providing some advice.”
That was Neshinbara. He stood up and opened a sign frame in the light of the setting sun.
Musashi’s Secretary pushed up his glasses.
“Now, let us discuss the coded text and the shadow organization it hints at.”
Hearing that made Crossunite accidentally spin the pork half a rotation too far, so he apologized to a surprised Mary. But…
“Never mind. Go ahead, Neshinbara.”
“N-never mind what, Crossdressing Honda-kun!?”
“Don’t tempt me to say it when I already decided to spare you. Now show us the code.”
Akechi Mitsuhide would know about this code too. As would Hashiba since they had sent it to them.
“We need to know what it says.”
“Allow me to explain.”
Neshinbara started by displaying the original text of what Christina had given them. It was five lines of numbers.
12-46-57-68-58-78-66-110-32-43
96-26-94-115-79-90-26-42-106-43-82-115-91
90-92-42-23-79-81-104-83-42-105-11-87-84-85-86
31-24-84-73-100-64-43-18-75-90-26-42-83-84-85-86-55
81-43-75-67-19-20-36-77-101-23-90-25
“I think we can safely assume these numbers represent sentences meant to tell someone something. So that just leaves converting them into those sentences.”
“Do you know what the decryption key is?”
“I tried so many different things: the Bible, the Iroha, the official Academy Rules, the names of the people taken in the Princess Disappearances, and so on. But,” said Neshinbara. “The Song of Passage was the winner.”
“Huh?” they all responded.
“Neshinbara, didn’t you say yourself that the Song of Passage wasn’t long enough?”
“I did. The biggest number in here is 115, but the Song of Passage is only 108 characters long. But,” said Neshinbara. “Let’s start by assigning numbers to each Far Eastern character in the Song of Passage.”
To-1
O-2
Ri-3
Ma-4
Se-5
To-6
O-7
Ri-8
Ma-9
Se-10
I-11
Ka-12
Ba-13
I-14
Zu-15
Ko-16
Ga-17
Ho-18
So-19
Mi-20
Chi-21
Na-22
Re-23
Ba-24
Te-25
N-26
Ji-27
N-28
Mo-29
To-30
He-31
To-32
I-33
Ta-34
Ru-35
Ho-36
So-37
Mi-38
Chi-39
Go-40
I-41
Ke-42
N-43
Go-44
Mu-45
Yo-46
U-47
To-48
O-49
Re-50
Nu-51
To-52
Te-53
Mo-54
Ko-55
No-56
Ko-57
No-58
To-59
O-60
No-61
O-62
I-63
Wa-64
I-65
Ni-66
Ri-67
Yo-68
U-69
No-70
O-71
Fu-72
Da-73
Wo-74
O-75
Sa-76
Me-77
Ni-78
Sa-79
N-80
Zu-81
I-82
Ki-83
Ha-84
Yo-85
I-86
Na-87
Gi-88
Ka-89
E-90
Ri-91
Ha-92
Ko-93
Wa-94
Ki-95
Wa-96
Ga-97
Na-98
Ka-99
Ko-100
Wa-101
Ki-102
No-103
To-104
O-105
Shi-106
Ka-107
Na-108
“With this, try decoding the 66-110-32-43 at the end of the first line. Oh, but leave the 110 blank since the numbers don’t go that high.”
Asama raised her hand and tilted her head.
“Ni-?-To-N.”
Everyone exchanged a glance.
“Ni ton? That could mean 2 tons!” said Noriki, looking fully serious. “That’s far too much for one person to carry without a spell!”
“So…what? Were Carlos I and the recipient hitting each other with heavy weights?”
“Why is that the first thing that comes to mind for you, Adele?”
It probably comes naturally to her. But that aside…
“You’re forgetting the ‘?’ in the middle, so it doesn’t seem like it means much of anything. So what does it mean, Secretary?”
“Just for fun, try subtracting 9 from those numbers. In other words, use 57-101-23-34. Can you convert those, Asama-kun?”
“Let’s see…ko-wa-re-ta? So would it mean ‘broken’?”
Everyone exchanged a glance.
“That must mean he used a 2-ton weight, but it broke, 5th Special Duty Officer!” said Adele, looking fully serious.
“Are you volunteering to try it out yourself, Adele?”
“Heh heh. It must mean Asama’s chest has broken since that pair must weigh two tons together! Isn’t that right, Asama! Oh, that smile is soooo cute. Your cheeks are all tense. Are you alright? Are you?”
“Why did we only get an actual word after subtracting 9, Neshinbara-dono?” asked Tenzou.
“Well, you see, I thought maybe the code worked by subtracting a specific code number from each of the numbers. And that number is 9.”
Aoi raised his arms overhead.
“Nein!”
Neshinbara ignored him. Our shticks don’t work well together. Yours isn’t beautiful enough. But…
“Um…wh-why…9?”
“An excellent question, Mukai-kun!”
“Get to the point,” said Date Narumi, cracking her neck.
He hesitated for 5 seconds before obeying. As the Secretary, I want the meeting to run smoothly. So this is good.
“The first code number I considered was 1. This is Carlos I’s memo after all.”
Someone had a question about that: Mary, who was rotating the meat. She was humming with Crossunite to sync their timing, but she stopped for now.
“Where did the other 8 come from?”
“You would know better than anyone, Stuart-kun. Because…”
“Oh, from my father, Henry VIII.”
Art-Ga: “She just stole his line, didn’t she?”
Gold Mar: “I think he gave her too big a hint.”
10ZO: “Mary-dono herself mentioned Henry VIII back in the Tower of London.”
Novice: “W-well excuse me! What does it matter as long as the answer is out there now!?”
Neshinbara saw Mitotsudaira raise her hand.
“Question, Mitotsudaira-kun?”
“Not really. I’m just amazed you managed to figure out that code number.”
“It is all about having sharp perception and determination. Yes.”
Meanwhile, the Technohexen were whispering to each other.
“I bet he brute-forced it – trying each number until he found one that worked.”
“Yeah, he definitely came up with that stuff about Henry VIII after the fact.”
“Just a thought,” said Aoi. “But couldn’t it be a reference to the 9 deadly sins?”
“Oh, no! This poor code was forced to reveal itself! We have a code rapist on our hands! Carlos I must be blushing in his grave! ‘No! My code! Taken by force!’ ”
“I-it doesn’t matter how I solved it! Blame him for making such a lazy code!”
Hearing that, Ariadust started sweating and turned toward Asama.
“Um, Asama-sama.”
“Eh? Wh-what is it?”
“Judge. You know how we set up locking spells on our partitions before coming here?”
“Oh, did you come up with a lazy password and then immediately forgot what it was? Let’s see…yes, I can unlock that for you, so I will arrange that as soon as we get back.”
“Yesssssss! You’re so nice, Asama-sama!”
Gold Mar: “So is Asama-chi a villain now?”
Horizey: “Which gives me the modest position of villain’s landlady!”
Silver Wolf: “You’ll use whichever identity works to your advantage at any given moment, won’t you!? Impressive, Horizon!”
This is good stuff. I should use it in my next book.
But I had completely forgotten about the Logismoi Oplo as a possibility for the code number, thought Neshinbara. And…
“So anyway. We want to subtract 9 from all of the numbers and try reading it. This is what you get.”
Risototooukowareta
Nagayoshinozugaigatadashii
Zukiiinofukiwoiwaoniosame
Nazuowarikotamanizugaiwoosameyo
Futarinoseijiyohaizuko
There it is, thought Adele. It didn’t have any spaces, but she thought she could read it.
“Let’s see,” she started. She interpreted it to mean…
“The risotto and the king are broken.
“The friendship diagram is correct.
“Place the zucchini butterbur in the rock.
“Break the shepherd's purse and place the diagram in the egg.
“Serves 2. All done. Oops.”
Adele realized what she had just read.
“Were they traying to cook a European dish for two and screwed it up!? But what’s that about a rock!? Is there a rock freezer that works like an ice box!? Or does it mean a stone oven!?”
“You’re just hungry, aren’t you?”
Then Gin raised her hand.
“Secretary, based on this text, I don’t think you have enough characters to write the full plaintext. I don’t need the specifics, but how many characters are missing from the Song of Passage?”
“Judge. If you use the Song of Passage to encode a text, you won’t have an ‘a’. It is also missing a ‘su’, ‘bu’, and ‘tsu’.”
“In that case,” said Asama. “They may have used a similar sounding character in their place. For example, any ‘su’ or ‘tsu’ might be encoded as a ‘zu’. If we include those possibilities, it would look like this.”
Risototooukowareta
Nagayoshinozu(tsu/su)gaigatadashii
Zu(tsu/su)kiiinofu(bu)kiwoiwaoniosame
Nazu(tsu/su)owarikotamanizu(tsu/su)gaiwoosameyo
Futarinoseijiyohaizu(tsu/su)ko
Everyone observed the text Asama sent to their sign frames and attempted to read the altered parts.
“Hold on…”
The 6th Special Duty Officer pursed her lips before giving her interpretation.
“Something and the king are broken.
“Nagayoshi’s skull is correct.
“Offer the something weapon to the rock.
“At the end of summer, offer the skull to the orb.”
Things were making a little more sense with those replacements. Even Adele could tell.
“Where’d the risotto go!?”
“The 2-ton impact is gone as well, Adele!”
Why does everyone think I care about that? Fine. I’ll send Raging Beast after you all.
But the 1st Special Duty Officer spoke up while rotating the pork with Mary.
“That message is starting to sound ominous. But…”
“Judge,” agreed the Vice President. “The end of summer is right now, Neshinbara.”
The Secretary nodded.
“It feels like we solved the code only to find another code. Some of the words here are probably a code for something else. And I get the feeling these are something only the sender and receiver would understand. I mean, take Nagayoshi for example. Does anyone here know a lot about name inheritors?”
Gin raised her hand and nodded.
“Nagayoshi could mean Nori Nagayoshi, Ikeda Terumasa’s brother Ikeda Nagayoshi, Miyoshi Nagayoshi, or even Asano Nagamasa who we fought at Satomi since the historical one went by Asano Nagayoshi as a child. But,” she said. “What could it mean that one of their skulls is correct?”
“That isn’t even the problem here. Remember, this memo was written at least a decade ago. The only one of those name inheritors who was around back then was Miyoshi Nagayoshi, but we don’t know if he went missing for a while 30 years ago.”
Vice President: “Ookubo.”
Nagaya-Stable: “Give me a second. …Miyoshi Nagayoshi is still alive. But the conditions for his inherited name have been completed, so he is currently working as a negotiator at his home reservation. As for 30 years ago…”
Ookubo paused.
Nagaya-Stable: “Couldn’t have.”
Novice: “Why not?”
Nagaya-Stable: “He turned 24 this year. There’s no way he could have gone to that whatever-it-was academy. So do you need his skull?”
Vice President: “No, thanks. It probably isn’t him.”
Adele nodded.
“If they are using his skull at the end of summer, I bet that Miyoshi Nagayoshi is not having a fun time right now.”
“Would using him even matter if he doesn’t have his inherited name anymore? Anyway, what does everyone else think about this?” asked Masazumi.
“I say Nagayoshi is a code for something else,” said Ohiroshiki, wiping away the sweat produced by the fire’s heat. “Remember, these people used their own names as part of the code, so the entire code could be based on things only those in their immediate group would understand.”
“So could Nagayoshi be a nickname?”
“Then what about the skull?”
“Skull could mean head, which could mean that person’s idea,” suggested Mary.
Everyone nodded in agreement there. Except the Vice President who crossed her arms.
“Thanks to my time in England, I mostly associate skulls with explosions.”
“Vice President, what were you doing in England?” asked Adele.
“Well, while you and Mukai were flying through the sky, I was running away from an army of skeletons!”
Come to think of it, that wasn’t a fun time for any of us, was it? But…
“Whether it’s an idea or a bomb, it sounds dangerous to me.” Narumi stared into the fire and sighed. “The end of summer. What could that be referring to? The Honnouji Incident? The Battle of Yamazaki? The Battle of Shizugatake?”
“Wait, Narumi.”
Narumi heard him stop her.
“Why? Are you suggesting the code might not be referring to this summer since it was written so long ago?” she said. “But P.A. Oda hasn’t done anything that matches this code in previous years. And now they’re up to something at the end of this summer. I say we should be on our guard.”
“Not that, Narumi.”
“Then what?”
He held his hand out in front of her face. He used his finger to draw out the line of her gaze from her eyes to the fire.
“Are you planning on hogging all the meat from the back of the pig’s knee?”
“How could you tell?”
“I know you well enough to recognize when you are using important-sounding fluff as a diversion.” He sighed. “Besides, it doesn’t matter if what they’re doing is related to this code or not. Our job is to harass them when we see fit. Solving this code is only for our own self-satisfaction. And…”
And…
“That is why you were using the topic to hide how you were eyeing the meat.”
“Can you please use that analytical skill on something useful?” protested the Vice President.
A laugh escaped Narumi. She has a point, she thought.
“I really do think this sounds dangerous.” She had a reason for that. “Just think of what P.A. Oda has shown off so far: military might, a great fleet, national strength, the Azuchi, the dragon reactors, and forced history recreation compliance. But this suggests they have something else beyond all that.”
So she wanted them to do everything they could to prepare. With that in mind, she asked a question.
“Secretary, do you have any ideas regarding the parts of the code we still can’t read?”
Asama knew what Narumi was getting at.
…Masa pointed out the same thing, but there are parts we still can’t read at all.
Asama couldn’t figure them out herself, but if Narumi couldn’t either, then that clinched it. In other words…
“What could the ‘risototo’ in the first line and the ‘zukiii’ in the third line mean?”
Neshinbara crossed his arms and tilted his head.
“I can’t make heads or tails of it either. I mean, what could ‘risototo’ possibly mean?”
“Risott-” blurted Adele before noticing everyone’s eyes on her and opting not to finish the word.
Smart choice. Say that again and they’ll be making risotto jokes about you for ages.
Asama had another question.
“Are we sure the ‘oukowareta’ part means ‘the king is broken’?”
“It could mean something else if the ‘risototo’ part connects with the ‘ou’ part. It’s also possible I decoded that line wrong.”
“Could that be a part that uses a second code?” asked Tenzou.
Neshinbara pushed up his glasses.
“I know I said some parts are codewords, but are you suggesting they applied a second code more like the first one?”
“Judge. I mean, the ‘risototo’ is the very first thing in the text. Couldn’t that be a sign that whatever is used to decode that needs to be applied to other parts of the text?”
“Then look at these two sections: ‘ri-so-to-to’ and ‘zu-ki-i-i’. I bet they’re coded in the same way,” said Asama.
“Oh,” said the others.
“Those are both two characters followed by a character repeated twice. I don’t know what the first two characters could mean, but the repeated ones are probably the result of the coding process.”
“So are you asking me to figure out that that process is?” asked Neshinbara.
“Oh, nooooo! The code rapist is at it again!” shouted Kimi.
“I really don’t think he can brute-force this one,” said Asama.
“Calm down.” Neshinbara raised a hand. “We can read most of it now. And that’s as far as I’ve gotten.”
Everyone applauded. “Please, please,” he said, raising his hands to try to stop them, but everyone kept applauding.
“A splendid job, Neshinbara-sama! I never knew you were an accomplished code rapist with a specialty in brute-force fucking!”
“I know it works eventually, but most people aren’t stupid enough to try it.”
“Why would he start with the most difficult method?”
Everyone started clapping more quietly.
“W-wait! Anything but this sad kind of applause! My heart had only just been cleansed by the great outdoors! Must you contaminate it again during the final feast!?”
He’s having fun, I see. Or rather…
…He’s probably in a good mood after breaking most of the code.
“Okay,” said someone else.
It was Naruze. She stuck her pen behind her ear and opened a Magie Figur.
“Neshinbara can go focus on solving that second code. We should have time for another report before tomorrow’s meeting or the Honnouji Incident. Meanwhile, I have something I want to show you and get your opinions on.”
Namely…
“I’ve finished the image from the floor that was reflected off the ceiling.”
Mary saw it while rotating the meat.
…Huh?
Everyone fell silent. They had all been applauding earlier, but now they were frozen in place and staring at the image held up by Naruze.
It formed a circle. People were lined up around the inner edge of the circle, praising the center of the circle. They held hands – some smiling and others singing. But in the center…
“Is that…a baby?”
It was an infant. Its small form was wrapped in a cloth. But…
“Excuse me,” said Mary. “I have a question that may be rude.”
“Go ahead,” replied Naruze. “I know what you’re going to ask and it isn’t rude.”
“In that case,” said Mary. “It’s about that infant.”
She went ahead and asked the question on everyone’s mind.
“Why doesn’t it have a face?”
| Back to Chapter 75 | Return to Main Page | Forward to Chapter 77 |
