Horizon:Volume 8C Chapter 88

Chapter 88: Meeters in an Edited Land

Wait

Um

Sorry…

Point Allocation (Happens a Lot)

The broadcast arrived at every part of the Far East.

It was seen by Ookubo and Yoshiyasu on the Musashi.

It was seen by the Fairy Queen and the Trumps in England.

It was seen by Tomoe Gozen in M.H.R.R.

By the Roi-Soleil, Terumoto, and the Reine des Garous in Hexagone Française.

By Segundo in Tres España and Juana in Kyou.

By Kagekatsu and Marfa in Sviet Rus.

By Olimpia and Matthias in K.P.A. Italia.

By Shibata, Niwa, Hashiba, and the others in P.A. Oda.

By Masamune and Yoshiaki in Oushuu.

The leaders of the academies and many others saw the divine transmission in Satomi, Sanada, Kyushu, and the Udon Kingdom.

Most of those people had no idea what was happening and didn’t immediately believe it when they heard where this was coming from.

But understanding came when a certain name was given.

“Good evening. I am Akechi Mitsuhide of P.A. Oda.”

He continued.

“I am currently inside Kyou’s inner palace. And I am about to release the emperor.”

“Why is he doing this?”

Silence had fallen in the Azuchi’s dining hall and Takenaka saw Hashiba’s shoulders slump.

The Ten Spears’ staff officer placed a hand on their leader’s shoulder.

“The better the student, the more likely they are to decide ‘this is good enough’ at some point. I’m guessing that’s what this is…although I don’t know if Akechi-san was a good student or not.”

“This isn’t about that!”

“Yeah, I know.”

When Takenaka contradicted her previous statement, Hashiba’s shoulders slumped again.

“Sorry. I’m only complaining.”

“Actually, Hashiba-kun, you’re a pretty good student, so you need to watch out. Oh, and one other thing.”

“Testament,” replied Hashiba. She checked the dining hall’s lernen figur again before bowing toward everyone there. “I will be heading out soon. Because there is something I must do. Takenaka-san, watch what Akechi-san does and respond accordingly. I doubt this will change anything significant and we do have insurance just in case, but this will change something.”

Asama sensed the flow of ether.

The stone door was thick, but when it was closed, it had felt like there was a space directly behind it. However, that wasn’t the case. The other side of the door was filled with light and when they walked into it…

…The space expands around us? It’s a lot like Avalon.

She had a bad habit of analyzing everything she came across, but if it helped her stay focused, she was fine with that. So as her excitement grew, she focused on her duties of examining and recording their surroundings and responding to any minor issues that cropped up. But the next thing she knew, the light had vanished.

Before she could react, they were in a hall.

A hall made of stone.

“Eh?”

A puzzled voice escaped Asama’s mouth. This was supposed to be the emperor’s room in the inner palace, so she was expecting something nicer than this.

In fact, all the books and stories depicted the inner palace as primarily a residence, so she had imagined the interior based on that.

But this was no home.

This was a vast hall carved out of stone. It had to be around 100m in radius. Rails ran straight from the entrance to the central stage. The place was dimly lit, but a few spotlights shined on the path built around the rails and on the central stage.

It reminded Asama of an excavation site, but another spotlight shined on the ceiling.

“Look, that’s the picture Ga-chan drew!”

She looked up and saw it there.

The illuminated image was not a reflection in a mirror. The stone had been carved away, creating a sculpture. And the sculpture’s shape matched what Naruze had shown them the day before.

A faceless baby with celebrating people watching on.

“Is this…the original?” asked Naito.

“No, I don’t think so,” replied Asama. “Chronologically speaking, the Anti-Decline Pro-Tuning Project had the people meet the Environmental Gods first and create the Testament afterwards, so this was probably the last one made.”

“Right,” said Naruze. She tilted her head and glared up at it. “Why did I even bother working so hard on it when we were about to find it right here anyway?”

Me: “Wow. I legit don’t have an answer for this one. Who asked her to do that, anyway?”

Vice President: “I-I did! But how was I supposed to know it was in the palace!?”

Art-Ga: “Sob, sob. Did you hear that, Margot? Masazumi is so mean. She thinks ignorance is an excuse. She might as well say she doesn’t have to take responsibility because she was drunk when we did it.”

Gold Mar: “Yes, yes. She’s the meanest, Ga-chan. You can cheer yourself up by drawing a Seijun porn doujin set in this room.”

Asama: “Um, I think any drawing you make of this place will be deemed ‘harmful’ and erased.”

They never change, do they? thought Mitotsudaira.

Just as Asama was getting more excited but also more relaxed, Mitotsudaira was honestly starting to relax as well. Her king was the same as always and the arms were cautiously patrolling at everyone’s feet…but that wasn’t too unusual.

Simply put, this was an away game, but they were treating it like a home game. So…

“I’m glad you made it.”

Mitsuhide raised a hand in greeting from the front of the hall.

He was 15m away and the tall cylinder behind him was probably the dragon line reactor.

“Okay. First, I want you to answer my question. I expect your Vice President already did so for #18, but I want to hear it for myself.”

This was the question Masazumi had warned might shock them.

“What do you think the emperor is?”

Masazumi answered before Mitotsudaira could even consider the question.

“An automaton.”

Masazumi clearly stated her answer. This was her second time answering, so she was confident and prepared. She stepped out in front of the others as if clearing the way.

“What was used to speak with the Environmental Gods during the Age of Dawn? I’m sure they had all sorts of tech back then, but there’s one really obvious answer: summon them into an automaton.”

So…

“The automaton containing the Environmental Gods is the emperor and the imperial regalia used to control them are used to contain them inside the automaton.”

Mitsuhide nodded.

“Correct.”

He took a step aside to reveal what was behind him.

…Is that her?

Someone sat in a throne there.

It was a doll dressed in white.

She had black hair, small gold decorations, and an outfit that looked like a white kimono with extra volume.

She’s beautiful, was Toori’s initial thought.

Is this what you call the Earth Mother? But it’s hard to say who she looks like.

She kind of looks like Horizon, but also like Asama, Nate, sis, mom, maman, and Yoshiko. Oh, and Seijun too. I could keep going forever.

But as uncertain as that impression was, he was certain of one thing.

“She’s so small.”

“Eh? She’s surprisingly tall, actually. Around 170cm, I think.”

“I didn’t mean her height.”

Horizon slapped him.

“O-owww! That was really loud! I’ve never heard a slap so loud!”

“Toori-sama, making a visual judgment is an amateur mistake. You cannot know for sure without grabbing them to see.”

“Grab them and see? Let’s try it.”

He tried it on Horizon and she slapped him again.

“C-couldn’t you be a little more like Mary with Tenzou!?”

“Um, um,” interrupted Suzu with Asama’s support. She pointed at Mitsuhide. “You’re ignoring…him.”

“Oh, don’t mind me. I didn’t see anything. So, anyway.” He turned toward Masazumi. “How did you know?”

“Because we were asked what the emperor is.” Masazumi placed a hand on her chest. “Several options came to mind, but none of them felt right. Then, when I considered what you have in common with us, something occurred to me.”

That was…

“Azuma.”

Masazumi had even asked Reizei if Mitsuhide and Azuma had known each other.

“If Reizei was asking me the same riddle as you, that had to be the key. Then I thought about the emperor while removing Azuma from the equation. And when I asked Reizei about Azuma, she said he was said to be the emperor’s child.

“She asked what the emperor ‘is’ and told what Azuma is ‘said to be’. She was pointing to the actuality of the emperor and an interpretation of Azuma.”

So…

“So if Azuma is only the emperor’s child through interpretation, then he could be eliminated from the equation.”

She didn’t really want to think about this, but it was probably the truth.

“In that case, only one thing I can think of fits all the conditions needed for the emperor: an automaton.”

Is Azuma going to complain when we get back? wondered Toori. But he’s been flirting with Miriam a lot lately, so maybe it’ll be fine? he also wondered.

Meanwhile, Mitsuhide looked upwards.

“Thank you for providing such a difficult answer. Now we can move on.”

“Hey, not so fast,” said Toori. “What do you think about Imperial Boy?”

“Imperial Boy? Oh, um, testament. I will explain why later, but I only want him to be happy. That is why I arranged to have him sent to you. I knew Musashi would accept him no matter what he is.”

“You’re good with words. And don’t worry. He’s plenty happy now that he’s got a girlfriend and a kid.”

“M-Miriam! This is some pretty heavy stuff related to my origins, so don’t take the sign frame away!”

“Papa and mama are having sex on the bed!”

“H-how do I edit out the unnecessary parts!? Is this sign frame completely useless!?”

A protest arrived from Imperial Boy, but Toori chose to ignore it. He saw Asama hang her head and send a response, so he made a mental note to make her some snacks and let her scold him later.

But following Mitsuhide’s gaze toward the ceiling showed three sign frames slowly circling above the emperor automaton’s head. They were each about 2m long.

“These are the imperial regalia. The mirror is for divine transmissions, the magatama for control, and the sword for security. I have already taken control of all three with my Jibril.”

“What are you hoping to do with them?” asked Masazumi.

Mitsuhide shrugged.

“Deactivate the control system and return her to the Environmental Gods.”

“Wouldn’t that cause something similar to the collapse of the Harmonic World?”

“The Harmonic World is gone and the Far East is stable. The Environmental Gods are working on repairing the outside world’s environment after running wild for so long. The repairs might take just as long, but the process is already under way and restoring control to them should speed things up.”

“Hey, wait.” Toori raised his hand to interrupt. “Does that girl there want that? I mean, if you return what’s inside her, won’t she be empty?”

“It would be more accurate to say I am offering this body to the Environmental Gods. It will be returned to them. Although she no longer has a soul.”

Mitsuhide pointed at the left chest of her clothing.

“Ah,” gasped Neshinbara from behind Toori. “0003. She’s a single digit!”

“Yeah, well my student number in class is always #2. Right after sis.”

“Heh heh heh. Yes, I am #1! And Asama is #3! How about that!?”

Suzu, Asama, and even Mitotsudaira this time moved to intervene. Then Masazumi spoke to Mitsuhide.

“Sorry. Our idiot doesn’t know when to shut up.”

“C-calling someone an idiot proves you’re the real idiot! Heh heh. Take that, idiot!”

“Velázquez, this is really hard to watch. Even if it is audio only.”

“Let’s just assume this means things are running smoothly.”

“You know,” said Masazumi, pointing at the idiot. “This is a very important meeting and you’re the only one acting like an idiot, Aoi. Everyone else did their part. That’s what brought us here! Yes, this is the culmination of everything we have done!”

“It really is,” agreed Mitsuhide. “You cracked Carlos I’s code and solved the mystery they were discussing. And now you know all about my teacher’s project and their Slavic wordplay.”

“Huh?”

…What project? What Slavic wordplay?

She started to sweat, but the Date Vice Chancellor whispered behind her.

“I know we cracked the code, but I thought there were still parts we couldn’t read or didn’t understand.”

“Yes. We only figured out it set the Honnouji Incident as a time limit.”

Raising her hand while listening to those voices was quite the challenge.

This is so awkward, she thought while she spoke up.

“Sorry. We haven’t gotten that far.”

“Eh?”

Gold Mar: “He, uh, just said ‘eh?’ ”

Flat Vassal: “Does this mean we came here too soon?”

10ZO: “If anything, isn’t it like skipping through all the cutscenes and finding you have no idea what the final boss is talking about?”

Horizey: “Or like we neglected our summer homework because we were so busy with our summer event, harassment, finger sucking, and surprise kisses.”

Silver Wolf: “D-do you have to single me out just because it was so recent!?”

Art-Ga: “So who’s the biggest idiot here?”

Novice: “Hey! Hey, come on! Don’t stare at me like that! I had a deadline to meet! The pure white wings of my heart are being stained red!”

Almost Everyone: “You sure are in top form!”

Mitotsudaira saw Masazumi raise her hand while everyone was sweating.

“Sorry, Lord Akechi. We’ll figure out the rest later, so can we continue this discussion based on what we do know?”

It wasn’t often she sounded so cornered. But…

“Yes, well, I was never the best student myself. Hm, I suppose I can limit what I tell you,” said Akechi. “First, let’s discuss your friend Azuma-sama. The emperor is an automaton and she contains the Environmental Gods, but office work automatons at the time could not give birth. So technically speaking, Azuma-sama is not the emperor’s direct child.”

Azuma was listening to the divine transmission atop the bed.

He had felt a strange, uneasy feeling ever since Masazumi had answered Mitsuhide’s question.

He had thought “it couldn’t be” countless times now and even said it jokingly to Miriam. But…

“Mitsuhide-sama is talking about me?”

There was no doubting that. But in that case…

“Am I-”

Before he could finish, he felt a weight on his shoulders.

“Silly boy. Don’t let this get you down in the stereotypical way.”

It was Miriam. She had wrapped her arms around his shoulders as if resting on his back. And he realized what that meant. She could not use her legs, so shifting position to do this meant…

“Thank you.”

“Judge. Yes, that’s better. No matter who or what you might be, you’re still someone who knows how to thank people when they do you a favor. As long as you can form relationships with others, then it doesn’t matter who you are. Isn’t that how it works on Musashi, Imperial Boy?”

“Y-yes. Although a lot of people here are pretty awful.”

“True. If you accept that your existence can’t be explained then I’ll be here with that unexplainable Imperial Boy.”

That would mean… thought Azuma before smiling bitterly.

“I’m not sure how many points that’s worth.”

“Judge. All of that can come later. Of course you’re confused the first time. Now, listen.”

Miriam shook his shoulders, so he looked to the sign frame again just in time to hear another voice.

“According to #18, an intruder alert sounded and she ran in here to find #3 holding a baby.”

“That must be the motherless child!”

Mitotsudaira saw Mitsuhide shake his head at Neshinbara’s exclamation.

“Azuma-sama appeared to #3. And when he was investigated, it was discovered he had a human form and body as a spirit being, but he was essentially the same as a Loup-Garou and similar species. So it was assumed #3 had created him from the ley lines for some reason.”

“There you have it! Neshinbara-kun was wrooooooooong!”

“Dammit! Can you erase that mistake from the records!? Please!?”

He’s reached national treasure levels of pathetic, thought Mitotsudaira, but with her king there, she could think of some other things they might want erased from the records.

“But,” she said to Mitsuhide, shaking her hair and asking a question. “Why did you have Azuma secularized?”

“Since this is the emperor, the request came from #18, albeit rather indirectly. She said if Azuma-sama remained here, people would try to use him to get close to the emperor. And that would be harmful for him. The truth of the emperor was a secret, so we had no other choice.”

Because…

“The emperor is not the manager of the Environmental Gods – she is simply the system used to access and directly speak with the Environmental Gods. What do you think the nations would do once they discovered that?”

“Hold on. I fail to see the issue there.”

That interruption came from Masazumi and Mitotsudaira agreed. Something about Mitsuhide’s statement didn’t add up.

It also applied to the imperial regalia overhead.

“Isn’t it more convenient if you can access and send commands to the Environmental Gods?”

“That’s right,” said Mitotsudaira. “Why does it matter if the emperor is actually a negotiation system as long as you the nations agree to a management pact? And you have the regalia, so…”

Mitotsudaira realized something while she spoke. If the access itself was the problem…

“Is there some reason contacting the Environmental Gods is a bad idea?”

“Contact them, Nate!? You mean like this!?”

Her king faced the emperor and suddenly dropped his pants and underwear.

“Hey! Mouri-01! Why’s it raining all of a sudden!? The sky was clear a second ago!”

“Princess! I don’t understand either, but I’m sending out the laundry unit! So I’m kind of busy!”

“S-stop that! She’s sensitive, so don’t stimulate her like that!”

Is that how you put it? thought Masazumi while watching all the others restrain the idiot.

Mouri was sending some kind of complaint, but they couldn’t prove anything. But if this was how it worked…

“I can see how this could be a problem, but is it really that big of one? It seems to me you could prevent this by adding a strict ‘no idiots’ clause to the pact.”

“That is because you don’t understand the Environmental Gods,” said Mitsuhide. “Now, what were the people of the Age of Dawn attempting to access through the Environmental Gods?”

Me: “Based on what happened, I’d guess the weather.”

10ZO: “But the environment would include the crust movement and ocean currents too.”

Novice: “It would be more accurate to say the ley lines themselves. That lets them access all things.”

Unturning: “But what good is accessing that?”

Novice: “U-um, once you have access to all things, you can of course…what can you do?”

Gold Mar: “Hmm. Is there anything useful you could do?”

Asama shook her head at Naito’s question and then looked to Mitsuhide.

“Access to the ley lines is used for making ley line reactors and divine transmissions that travel through the ley lines. But if all you do is access them, the ley lines as a whole are a vast current where you can’t make out any one thing. So simply accessing them is not enough to, for example, mess with the surface of the planet.”

“Asama-sama, is that similar to how eating the red flesh of a watermelon does not let you change the shape of the rind?”

“Well, um, more or less. There isn’t really a surface to the ley lines, but without a well-defined mold, it’s nothing more than a current. That’s why we have the Environmental Gods manage the planet’s surface on our behalf, but I’m not sure what you could accomplish by directly accessing the ley lines through them.”

But that was already known. She had to think further than that.

What had the Age of Dawn people done by accessing the ley lines?

…Send a divine transmission? Transport something? Or extract fuel?

While she thought, Asama realized how solidified her thoughts were. Her detailed knowledge of the relevant techniques and information bound her thinking. So…

“Toori-kun?”

She would rely on him. He tilted his head.

He didn’t know the answer either. But she felt a strange sense of relief and amusement from that.

“So, Asama. Why did the Age of Dawn people create this girl? Did that never come up when we spoke with Oushuu’s Taikou?”

He meant Yasuhira and Asama thought it might have. So she held a hand out to tell everyone to give her a moment while she ran a search with Hanami. Eventually…

…Here we go.

During the Age of Dawn, the Anti-Decline Pro-Tuning Project was proposed with a certain goal in mind.

This was given in a few books and Asama read it out loud now.

“There were four decisions.

“1. Acquire the power to prevent humanity from being destroyed and to both protect and preserve them.

“2. Speak with the Environmental Gods to prevent the world’s environment from growing even more extreme.

“3. Create the Harmonic Divine States, a copy of the Far East, in a phase space as a response to the growing population and to the extreme environment of the outside world.

“4. Create the Testament as a guide for the people.

“Those four decisions became known as the Anti-Decline Pro-Tuning Project.”

And one overall objective summed up them all.

“ ‘Reinforce destiny and acquire a destiny which does not lead to ruin.’ ”

Asama had found the answer.

This was what the people had tried to take from the current of all things.

“A collection of the time, existence, and causality of all things.”

She had seen the answer, even if she still didn’t know how they had done it.

“In other words, destiny. The people back then realized the all-encompassing current of the ley lines was destiny.”

“Well done.”

Mitsuhide complimented the next generation.

They must have gathered a lot of information to reach this point.

“The importance of what was done forced the people to hide what they did and how they did it. And later, Houjou Tokiyori began an investigation during his pilgrimage around the Far East. Later still, when the Oda clan gained a connection to Kyou during the Warring States period, Oda Nobuhide, the teacher two generations before me, began researching the Northern and Southern Courts and reached an understanding. No one person was responsible. It took several generations of teachers and students to finally arrive at the answer.”

So…

“The people of the Age of Dawn used the Environmental Gods to create a gentler environment, but also to manipulate the ley lines in a very specific way.”

Namely…

“They made destiny our ally.”

That’s hard to believe, thought Masazumi. Hadn’t they just concluded that the ley lines were too vast for people to understand? So how could they make destiny their ally?

“But apparently they did it, so I guess you would call it ‘fate accompli’.”

Nagaya-Stable: “Hey! Vice President! Tres España and the Udon Kingdom are complaining about heavy rains and Sviet Rus is thanking us for the balmy temperature! Hey! Don’t ignore me!”

“Seijun, you need to stop making such shocking puns. They’re cataclysmic.”

“Yes. In the Age of the Gods, it’s said the gods of comedy would line up in a row and attack each other, rising to a higher level each time they won. That must have been quite disastrous.”

Masazumi shook that thought from her head.

“It isn’t possible. They couldn’t do it. And if they did get destiny on our side, why are all these tragedies happening? And why is the Apocalypse happening? It doesn’t make sense.”

She thought back to her own past. It had happened a long time ago and she had come to terms with it, but if destiny was on their side…

“Why!?”

“You mean the Double Border Crest? Yes, and the Princess.”

As soon as Mitsuhide said that, Masazumi saw a light behind him.

Red light drew out a circle to form…

…The Double Border Crest!?

Mitsuhide glanced behind himself.

“Don’t be so impatient. I’d like to play at being a teacher a while longer.”

“Lord Akechi!”

He swung his hand their way.

He threw an insha kotob shaped like wings. It appeared to be a spell.

“Take this. It will make you Akechi Mitsuhide. Because this is the end for me.”

Asama watched the insha kotob gently flying toward them. It was directed toward Horizon and him, but…

“…”

They both silently dodged it. “Eh!?” shouted Mitotsudaira as it nearly hit her, but she dodged back behind him.

“H-hey!”

Asama didn’t want it to fall, so she caught it. Then he and Horizon turned toward her.

“That’s for you then, Asama,” he said.

“It does seem to be a real pain-in-the-rear one-off spell,” Horizon said.

“No, no, no, no. I can’t do it! Here, Toori-kun! Or Horizon!”

“In that case.” Masazumi raised her hand. “Let’s say it belongs to those two, but Asama holds onto it for management and transport purposes?”

“Yeahhhhhhhhhh! Great decision, Masazumi-sama! The villains know how to allocate their work!”

“Um, are you calling me a villain?” asked Asama. “And I feel like this is just placing more work on my plate. Oh, and if this is an information release spell, I think it would conflict with my own release spells.”

No one was paying her any attention anymore. Except for him, who was holding up just one hand in prayer, but…

“That isn’t how you pray.”

“Take care of that for me.”

She couldn’t say no when he said that. The spell was Mlasi. If it was set to “hidden” it would need some hierarchical operation, but she thought she could at least set its ownership for now. And…

“With that done, I will give you a hint regarding your assignment.”

The mark of the Princess Disappearances appeared behind Mitsuhide. And behind that…

“Do you remember when I said Oda Nobuhide, the teacher from two generations ago, may have proved the existence of the Princess?”

She did. That had been back at the Ariake. And…

“Motonobu-sensei carried on where he left off by creating a certain project.”

“Which wasn’t the Genesis Project, right? You said that was half right.”

“Correct,” answered Akechi. “Lord Nobuhide’s Golgotha was only a theory and it came first.”

…Huh?

And…

“Lord Motonobu’s Messiah was actually completed.”

Asama didn’t understand.

She did often hear the terms Golgotha and Messiah. For example…

Novice: “See!? What did I tell you!? The world does have a secret underside!”

…Um, yes. I can’t really deny that at this point.

“Now,” said Mitsuhide. “I have one final thing to teach you. Everything is in motion and we should have failed, but the possibility of everything working out has presented itself. So we can’t just follow what my teacher told us. Not even we know what will happen now, so I plan to leave this with the next generation. All so I can irresponsibly ask you to show me what you are capable of. So…”

So…

“I will tell you how the people of the Age of Dawn convinced destiny to take their side. Because just as your Vice President said, destiny is too great to fully grasp.”

He pointed at the ceiling.

“That faceless child is the answer.”

Naruze looked up at an image identical to the one she had drawn.

…This is the answer!?

She didn’t understand.

For that matter, she didn’t even understand why the people had tried to get destiny on their side.

Way back then, there was a time when everyone would have been killed if things hadn’t worked out.

So had they left that problem in destiny’s hands?

Naruze looked up at the image again.

That faceless child had to represent everyone’s destiny. The thing all people celebrated but wasn’t any single person was destiny.

But could you bring that to your side?

She wasn’t sure how effective it would be even if you managed it. After all, she had never considered herself to be particularly lucky. She didn’t see the current world as lucky either.

In Musashi, no one could get by without laughing. That unique atmosphere had to come from everyone’s indifference to destiny.

Most likely, she began.

…That plan failed.

And she had a question. The same one Masazumi had asked: Why?

Why wasn’t destiny on the people’s side now? The Princess, the Apocalypse, and so much more didn’t fit with that idea.

Besides, did destiny have a mold? Even if it did, it would be too large to handle.

What did any of this mean? And how had they done it?

Naruze looked down in order to ask, but…

“Ga-chan.”

Margot had looked down first and she tapped Naruze’s shoulder.

Only then did Naruze notice that Mitsuhide had disappeared.

Horizon looked straight ahead.

Blood-red light wrote out some text below where the Double Border Crest had appeared. It said…

“ ‘You finally made it, Mitsuhide-kun’!”

Horizon gasped, turned toward Masazumi, and raised her right hand.

“Yeahhhhhh! El Presidente Masazumi-sama! I think this means he isn’t Mitsu-hiding like with the Prince of Orange! Or is there some other Mitsu-hidden message here!? Is there some Mitsu-hideous monster waiting for us if we dig deeper!?”

“How did I know you were going to bring that up here!?”

Naruze was jotting down some kind of notes. She never missed a thing. But…

“Oh?”

Horizon looked up to see scattering light. It came from the imperial regalia. She tilted her head.

“The knife, the plate, and the chopstick rest are vanishing!”

“No, Ariadust-kun! I don’t know who made those icons, but let’s ignore how poorly drawn they are!”

At any rate, they were rapidly coming apart. Ether light scattered while another light emerged.

It was a sea of text.

Waves of writing in countless languages filled the space above the stage. And…

“Woah!”

The ground shook enough for Adele to lose her balance.

Asama opened a sign frame and spoke.

“The ley line readings are growing! Three big ones are trying to travel underground. Access privileges for the Environmental Gods using the imperial regalia are being returned!”

Asama opened another sign frame. When she checked the local god status, her eyebrows shot up and she displayed it for the others.

The logo displayed on the expanded frame represented the current manager of this place. The emperor’s sun crest had been replaced by…

“The Double Border Crest?”

“Heh heh. Wrong, Horizon! There’s a small circle in the middle and it doesn’t have the rods sticking out on the sides, right? I know what this is! It’s a failed attempt at drawing a lewd symbol!”

“It’s the Environmental Gods’ logo! The power here is no longer being rewritten by the emperor’s presence!”

The automaton was engulfed by the massive amount of text surrounding her and the crust shook even harder.

…That light.

Bluish-white light flooded out from the center of the stage and gradually grew yellow.

“That’s the ley line! I can’t believe it’s appearing so strongly it’s visible to the naked eye!”

“Um, Asama-sama. I have a simple question: what should we do about this?”

Asama placed a hand on her shoulder with a smile.

“We should run! Especially when there’s a dragon line reactor here too!!”

Sure enough, the metal cylinder at the back of the stage was sinking into the ley line. When the idiot saw it, he tilted his head.

“Aren’t we in trouble if that goes boom?”

“It’s actually worse if this continues,” explained Asama. “Like this, this place can continue accessing the Environmental Gods until it stabilizes. So the dragon line reactor is meant to sever that connection.”

“So returning the Environmental Gods’ authority and temporary body created a connection to this place, but the dragon line reactor will sever that ley line link?”

“Correct. So I think the damage in the ley line will be limited to the surface. But as for us…”

Everyone nodded at Asama.

“We had better run away!!”

While everyone shouted and took off running, Masazumi thought from atop Futayo’s shoulder.

…What is even going on anymore?

She more or less knew what had happened in the Age of Dawn. She wasn’t sure how much of it was true, but apparently some people had figured out the hidden truth over the course of a few generations. Those people included Houjou Tokiyori, Oda Nobuhide, and Lord Motonobu.

During that, there must have been a Lord Motonobu faction, which Mitsuhide had since left.

And since he was supporting Musashi, they too must have strayed from what that faction wanted.

In a way, that was a very Musashi thing to do. But…

“Let’s get back to the Musashi. It all comes down to tonight.”

In other words…

“The Honnouji Incident will be tonight. This has to be leading to that.”

“Judge,” replied the others. While running, they passed by unmoving Reizei.

“This way!”

The automatons they had fought earlier were waiting in front of the elevator.

“I am glad they survived,” said Futayo.

Masazumi agreed. Meanwhile, a sign frame opened. It displayed Tres España’s Vice President.

“We are detecting a surface tremor just like the one at Mikawa! We are waiting up top, so board our ship once you escape! We will carry you to the Musashi!”

At 7:13 PM, the Musashi group escaped the imperial palace, where they were rescued by a Tres Españan transport ship. Three minutes later, a powerful quake struck the city of Kyou.

The hypocenter was 3km deep. The physical destruction left a gap in the city over a 500m radius around that point.

The actual crater was centered on the imperial palace, but it did not expand beyond it.

Ether light erupted from a crack in the earth, it sucked in the center of the palace in a conical shape, and every building within 300m collapsed.

The sounds of great stone colliding and the roar of breaking buildings continued for a while like a storm of noise. Afterwards, the detritus at the bottom of the 300m hole was shaken and blasted upwards.

The resultant noise was too deafening for “destruction” to do it justice and the lighter pieces of debris were pulverized and launched into the sky as dust. That fell upon the nearby ruins and buildings, but…

“It’s a good thing you had everyone withdraw ahead of time, Lady Juana.”

“Testament. Whether or not they should suppress the dragon light reactor readings is up to Kyou’s residents.”

While the Tres Españan group and the Musashi group were both gathering data, a relay transport ship arrived from Musashi. The two groups set aside that they had just been enemies and exchanged goodbyes. The Musashi group arrived back on the Musashi at close to 8 PM.

When they arrived, a “what now?” mood hung over them all.

But just as they were starting to get some rest, a wide-area divine transmission arrived.

It came from P.A. Oda. It turned out to be a statement made by Hashiba.

“Starting tonight at midnight, P.A. Oda will host the Honnouji Incident.”

Um…

“If you play a part in that history recreation, please join us. Testament.”

Masazumi made her decision after receiving a nod from Toori.

“The Musashi will depart at 11:30 tonight. It’s time to intervene in Honnouji! It all comes down to this! Everyone, make your preparations and get the rest you need to be at your best!”

But she immediately made an “oh” of realization.

“But I want our class to join me for a bit. We need to organize our information and do some negotiating! We can eat afterwards! Hey, don’t run away, idiot!”

It was oppressive, but it gave everyone something to do.

It was time for a short meeting and some rest in the time before the Honnouji Incident began.

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