Horizon:Volume 9A Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Expert at Knowing When to Quit

You are aware

Of that person

When that person

Becomes aware of something

Point Allocation (My, How Flashy)

●

The Azuchi continued its bombardment.

The Sakuma Fleet’s ascending rear lines were left in place while the rest scattered. That served to obstruct the Azuchi’s view ahead.

Their best plan was to clear a path by breaking through the scattering ships based on Katagiri’s instructions and then either strike Sakuma’s Kariya Castle or pass below it.

“ ‘Azuchi’-sama! We have detected a pattern in the Sakuma Fleet’s movements! Shaja!”

What that fleet was doing was obvious at a glance. The ships around the Kariya Castle were flying on every side of it to act as physical shields.

Those defenses would last mere moments against the Azuchi’s main cannons, but…

…I only now noticed.

She had the spec chart in her head, but she only realized this after viewing the ship here.

“Sakuma-sama’s Kariya Castle is a size smaller than the rest of the ships. Shaja.”

It was small, fast, and well defended. Which meant…

“It’s designed to use the other ships as shields. This must be her last resort! All hands, continue the counterattack. Shaja!”

●

“Sakuma-sama! See you later!”

The ship to the right scattered in the wind. Sakuma pressed against the bridge’s front windshield to wave goodbye. Both the arms pressed against the glass were prosthetic. That was her “reward” for screwing up at Novgorod. But she thought they looked pretty cool and she figured they might come in handy when it came to retreating.

But as she pressed those hands against the windshield with enough force to crack the glass, she asked a different question.

“How about that!?”

She had been defeated at Novgorod.

Her retreat had been defeated by a massive ship and its combat power. She was facing an equivalent force now, so…

“How about that!? I’ll show you I’m not as useless as I once was!”

●

Sakuma thought, My history recreation is already mostly complete.

She had inherited multiple names from the Sakuma family that served the Oda clan.

She was fighting in the Battle of Shizugatake as Sakuma Morimasa, who was known for his bravery, but as an Oda clan vassal, she was the master of Kariya Castle – “Retreating Sakuma” Nobumori.

Nobumori was a bit of a pain. He was originally an important vassal of the Oda clan, right alongside Shibata and the others, but when he was left in charge of the fight against the Ikko Ikki, he had trouble against Honganji Kennyo and his companions, causing the war to drag on. To take responsibility for that, he was rebuked by Nobunaga and then exiled.

Sakuma’s unfortunate fate was to become a monk at Mount Koya and live out a quiet life there.

But the time for that had come and gone for her and for the world.

…So I can’t really get after Shiba-chan for calling this a party.

This is pretty fun.

I can’t hide that’s what I really think. I can show off my skills here, I have comrades I get along with, we can all work toward the same goal, and we have an enemy to defeat together.

But battles aren’t easy. I know you can’t always win.

So if someone is there to save your ass when you have to retreat, they’re a hero, right?

That’s me.

I’m thankful the Sakuma family was used by Oda so often I could inherit more than one of their names and switch between them when necessary. That let me defend Kantou and now I need to be Sakuma Morimasa who fought at Shizugatake.

I wouldn’t be allowed to move between battles like this if I wasn’t worth it.

No matter the battlefield or border, I’ll defend it and keep the enemy from crossing. It’s that ability that lets me keep fighting when my time should have ended long ago.

It’s fun.

I’ve never failed to thank everyone for letting me do this. And I have so much freedom on the battlefield because they just tell me to “join in wherever and protect anyone who’s in a bind.” If they manage to win, I celebrate with them. If they lose, then it’s my time to shine as the hero.

“But what about this?”

Protecting people no matter how bad things get is my special move.

That’s why my fleet is designed for defense, but I generally don’t have any special ships designed just for me. Sometimes I have to use a substitute fleet made up of transport ships to lay out an impenetrable defense.

At Novgorod, I managed to resist Sviet Rus’s great numbers.

And then there was Musashi. That massive ship managed to fly right over me.

Isn’t that cheating?

But, she also thought. They felt the need to deploy the Azuchi and other large ships against us. In that case…

“Is this where I’m supposed to end my career!?”

She hadn’t been exiled. She hadn’t lived out the rest of her life quietly. Who did she need to thank for that? Nobunaga? Shibata? Or…

…Musashi!

She was reminded of that enemy by the Azuchi’s presence.

“Sakuma-sama!”

A divine transmission arrived from the ship protecting her out front. The ship was breaking apart and engulfed in destructive flames and the abandon ship alarm was playing over the transmission.

“It’s up to you now!”

●

Sakuma’s view opened up. She only shouted the word “charge”.

The Kariya Castle accelerated. It accelerated downwards like she had ordered. And the bridge’s side escape hatch was purged by spell explosives.

The entire crew was abandoning ship. They all gave Sakuma worried looks as they escaped ahead of her.

Wind roared through the bridge. Sakuma merely looked out ahead with two insha kotobs in hand.

Wreckage filled the air. Explosive flames illuminated the night sky. Ether light scattered through the atmosphere.

She had seen these sights countless times on countless battlefields. And…

“There they are!”

The Azuchi’s 2nd central ship hadn’t slowed down at all. It was on a collision course. But Sakuma saw something in her newly cleared view.

The Azuchi’s main cannons were accurately aimed her way.

●

“You have approval. Fire at will.”

Takenaka spoke quietly in the upside-down dining hall.

“Because Sakuma-san is a friend.”

●

“Azuchi” watched as the twin main cannon blasts slammed into Sakuma’s Kariya Castle.

With such a close-range shot, the scattering light only barely preceded the great scraping noise.

…Were they destroyed!?

But “Azuchi” confirmed the answer with her mechanical sight devices. As the bursting ether light fell away, she did not see any wreckage or shards.

“The Kariya Castle is lightly damaged! I have determined its charge continues! Shaja!”

Sakuma’s Kariya Castle was a small ship, but it had managed to deflect the Azuchi’s main cannons. How did it do that?

“Did they match our timing and counteract it with their own cannons!? Shaja!”

●

“Y’know,” Sakuma said on the windy bridge. “You’re supposed to aim before you fire.”

One of her insha kotobs shattered. It was the one for the Kariya Castle’s firing control. She was focusing it all on sharpshooting and for one singular reason.

“If it’s bright enough out, the cannons can track your movements. That’s a lesson for you, Azuchi.”

She had fired her cannons as a counterattack against the enemy’s main cannons.

Only a warship could pull off that trick when there was no other option for defense.

Using an attack to defend was an unorthodox example of her retreating principle.

She mustn’t fire first. By activating acceleration spells within the long barrels, she could generally negate the enemy attack before the barrels were destroyed. And in the same way, she would lose if she was too slow.

If possible, she wanted to aim for the first moment after the enemy shells were launched. If that threw off their initial angle, they would be way off course before they reached her.

“Now, the shell acceleration spells have shattered and their ether is scattering as chaff!!”

She had sniped their main cannon blasts immediately following their launch. She had less power, but the shells themselves had been transformed and they scattered a shockwave all on their own. That also scattered the spells meant to protect the outer casing of the shells.

The main cannon shells meant to smash her smaller warship had instead spread their power across the Azuchi’s upper surface.

The Azuchi’s 2nd ship had to have lost sight of her.

But she knew the 6 ships were already linked. The 2nd central ship’s view was blocked, but the other ships would take over there. Which meant…

“Are they coming!?”

Artillery blasts from 5 directions slammed into her all at once.

The other 5 ships had opened fire now that the diversionary wall was gone.

●

Niwa was watching it play out with a magnification spell.

“Sakuma-san…”

The bombardment from 5 sides caused explosions, filling the night sky with a dust and spray of ether light.

It was a direct hit. Descending courses had a tendency to take straight lines. They must have aimed for that. So…

“Will she reach them!?”

“Eh?” said the others, looking her way, so she expanded the magnification spell insha kotob she was watching.

It displayed the southern sky. The Kariya Castle dumped flames and a cascade of light into the air, but…

“She hasn’t fallen yet. She’s lost her armor, but she’s ‘undamaged’!”

Niwa didn’t need to explain why. “Oh,” one of the others said. “I see the ship!”

Exactly. A ship had stripped off all the fire, ether light, and shards scattering out into the sky.

“She purged all her exterior armor to avoid the bombardment and to increase her speed. It’s a plan Sakuma-san put together to bring the Kariya Castle home alive, not just for defense. Technically speaking, any ship could do it, but not all at once like that and not to defend against an attack.”

But it was obvious what this would lead to. The Azuchi’s 2nd ship could not fire its main cannons again right away. And the other ships’ cannons had only just reached a decent firing angle.

They couldn’t respond to the Kariya Castle’s sudden acceleration.

●

Sakuma decided to see this through to the end.

She would find the answer to her question: was she good enough?

“Answer me!”

Shibata would be retiring here. Takigawa already had, as had Matsunaga and so many others, even from other nations.

It must have been fun and they kept on doing it. So…

“Hashiba! Prove to us that our way won’t cut it anymore!”

She flew toward the bridge of the Azuchi’s 2nd central ship. She wasn’t falling – she was descending. She could fall after hitting them.

She would stop them here. And…

“Give me an answer!” she shouted, right when it happened.

On the Kariya Castle’s deck, visible out from the bridge, something rapidly descended from directly above, arms spread toward either side of the small ship’s deck.

It was Hidamari Genbu.

●

The heavy black machine sank into the deck’s outer panels and Koroku used the sole control to keep it from breaking through.

She had gravity active in both arms. If necessary, she would hit the enemy with the gravity barrier she had used to repel Bernard’s dragon swarm, but…

“Sakuma Morimasa!”

She shouted exactly what Takenaka had told her to say.

“Is this your final retreat!?”

●

Sakuma clenched her teeth.

She could already see her destination.

…What do you know!?

But she clenched the metal fists held against the windshield and spat out a breath.

“Damn!”

Whether she or anyone else tried to understand each other or not, this was still a battlefield.

What was her answer? She already knew.

“Shiba-chan…I’ll do everything I can!”

Her party had ended, but she hadn’t stopped. That wasn’t allowed.

From here on, she would probably stew with envy toward Shibata and the others who had completed their stories. She knew she was behind the times and she was no longer the hero.

…Damn!

But this was a battlefield. Whose battlefield? Shibata’s.

So she raised her voice.

“Ahh!”

She raised her hands and slammed them against the windshield. The wind blew and the glass washed over her like spraying water. But she didn’t care.

She spoke to the black god of war in front of her.

“I, Sakuma Morimasa, surrender!”

She surrendered. She did not fall.

●

Sakuma descended toward the Azuchi.

Niwa watched as a black god of war jumped down onto the Azuchi.

The magnification spell showed Sakuma standing on the god of war’s shoulder with arms crossed. She looked confident, but it had to be at least partially bravado.

But this meant the privet was over.

The Kariya Castle was now ownerless and it descended behind the Azuchi on autopilot.

Genbu landed on the Azuchi.

The black god of war slid along the deck and had to stop itself on the raised section at the base of a cannon.

But that was all.

Sakuma’s retreat was over. And…

“Niwa-sama! Why did Sakuma-sama choose to surrender!?”

“No, that was her final retreat.”

Because…

“If she continued down, the Kariya Castle would have been destroyed by Genbu, accomplishing nothing. But if she’s taken prisoner, the Azuchi has to respond and protect her. Which option slows her enemy more, preventing their invasion for just a while longer?”

With exclamations of surprise, everyone applauded toward the southern sky, but Niwa was honestly concerned.

…Since when did Sakuma-san get so passionate?

She must have felt a need to prove herself facing a massive ship for the first time since Novgorod.

Plus, tonight was a history recreation linked to Shibata.

…What if that passion affects me too?

I need to be careful, thought Niwa.

“Niwa-sama! The Azuchi has reconnected itself! It’s beginning the side flip maneuver!”

●

“Oh,” said Magoichi when she saw it from the Lake Biwa Azuchi.

As a gunner, she reflexively reacted to sudden movements, but this one was especially large. And it was one she recognized.

“So we can see the Azuchi’s flip from here.”

She had seen it up close at Kantou, but this was the opposite. In the distance, she could see them attempting to fly over the Shibata Team’s heads.

They were beyond the short mountain range north of Lake Biwa. A black wall rose up into the sky there. The Azuchi’s six ships took a course like they were swinging themselves upwards.

It was hard to tell with such a colossal ship, but they had to be moving faster than sound. That may have been why arcing clouds trailed after the ships, decorating the dark night.

“Quite the picture,” sighed Magoichi as she watched it all.

A fierce battle awaited that ship.

And the people here had their own preparations to complete. The Musashi was hidden behind its stealth barrier and they had no idea when it would reemerge.

Also, preparations for the Honnouji Incident were underway southeast of Lake Biwa. Magoichi was certain the Musashi would respond when Honnouji began, but…

“They must be resting before the battle right now. A nerve-racking silence for us.”

She pondered the differences between the two sides when she heard the roar of the six ships in the northern sky.

“When did Musashi become the ones pursuing us?”

●

“Hmm?”

Toori awoke in a dark room.

…Huh? Didn’t this already happen?

Didn’t I wake up for no good reason and…oh, right. I was thankful for something and I joined the arms in some bowing.

And now…

“Oh.”

He hadn’t noticed it before, but the ceiling was unusually high up. Which meant…

“Right.”

He finally realized that this was Horizon’s room.

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