Horizon:Volume 1 Chapter 01

Chapter 01: Participants in a Chance Meeting by the Storefront

Your life exists.

In order to meet.

What then, does a meeting mean.

Point Allocation (Life)

●

Below the white sky, the people flowing at morning that streamed through the streets of Musashi were coming to an end.

Everywhere in the town, people were transitioning to their work, which stretched from early morning to noon.

In the vicinity of central Tama, the Blue Thunder café had also entered into its pre-midday preparations. A string with a sign attached to it closed off the entrance to the eating area. Only the bakery section of the shop, which made use of the bread rack in front of the counter, remained open.

However, it was still too early for the morning to truly move into ‘pre-midday’. The female shopkeeper was still setting up inside the store.

“P-01s, once you clean da front of da shop with water you can leave. I’ll be expectin’ you in the evenin’”

“Jud.”

After P-01s nodded, she left the counter and went outside the shop.

Main street. The cleaning of the road was already done and there were people passing by. Occasionally large two-wheeled carts or horse wagons used for transport passed by, causing the structure of the road to tremble.

It’s time for business, but there are some tourists here and there.

“Looking at this situation, we will soon be at Mikawa. The market will probably become busy soon.”

P-01s muttered. Using her personal functions, P-01s thought of Mikawa, which she had not seen for so long.

...Once in a year, they come to Mikawa. That’s where everything began for her.

Musashi takes a whole year to travel around all of the Far East. Musashi stops at each region’s settlement and makes commercial and transport business, but from what I heard from the shopkeeper, even a year isn’t enough to travel around the whole Far East.

P-01s thinks about the words ‘last year’.

It seems that last year was when P-01s boarded Musashi from Mikawa.

It appears that way because there are no memories from before that.

...When she became aware she was already in one the streets of Tama.

Her civil registration was already done by third person. The civil identity she had was authentic and her residence was in Musashi. But when she went to the house, it had turned into a street.

She was allowed life due to the fact that the proof of citizenship that she carried was real and because the shopkeeper of the café had called out to her in the beginning and became her guardian.

What she was thinking right now was the same thing she thought back then,

...Who made P-01s?

The shopkeeper went to various public offices and companies to ask about it, but she was not one of their products. There weren’t any lost items nor missing person requests for an automaton. The technician who inspected over me said,

“I’ve seen methods from IZUMO and England in your construction, ...but much still remains unclear.”

That was all technician who had examined her said. When she heard ‘much still remains unclear,’ the shopkeeper had tilted her head, but from what the technician said, an automated doll is an aggregation of spells and mechanisms and though they are industrial products, there is a lot of secrecy involved in their construction. Furthermore, he said,

“The soul is in the throat.”

I have heard that automated dolls are dolls which have a soul in their bodies.

A doll won’t move by itself, but when souls that were able to absorb Ether, the power of the leylines, resided in dolls, they their set Drive systems and other similar mechanisms on.

In her case the was a component that was probably her soul, looked like an ornament and it was in her throat, at the base of her voice box.

From what the shopkeeper said...

“Maybe the emotions of very important women lie in their ornaments.”

That’s what she said, but the truth about it is still hidden.

What she knew was that she was an automated doll with no memories from an unknown place.

“——”

P-01s moved her hand to the water tap that was front of the shop and beside the door.

She moved the pail under the water tap using her gravity manipulation without touching it.

The ability of gravity manipulation is a racial power of the automatons. It was a necessary power for souls that resided in something to be able to move that in which it resided to make contact with its surroundings. The automatons have the disposition of devoting themselves to the people using this power.

Placing her body close towards the road, she filled the pail beyond her outstretched hands with water and pulled it closer to her.

She took it.

She splashed water on the path using a ladle.

This was part of her usual routine. Once in the morning, once before noon and once more early in the evening.

The same custom. The same work. The same things to do. By doing that she don’t have to think about herself, so that really helped.

...Speaking bluntly, I can guess that I am merely escaping.

The moment she thought of this,

A voice could be heard.

“Water.”

Small, black, round things were piling up from out of the ground at the edge of the road.

“Want water.”

●

P-01s with the pail with water in one of her hands was getting closer to the direction from where the voice came.

It was the corner of the store’s lot, at the gutters by the roadside.

Because it was connected with the sewage, there were wooden lids covering the gutters. However, when she lifted up the lids, a black, round thing around five centimetres across poked out from below.

The black figure looked like a clump of fur matted with muddy water.

...However, according to their personal statements, they were algae.

The algae were like animals, hanging the bottom of its round body in the verge of the street gutter and using his sense organs, he looked around.

“Are we okay? All clear?”

“It’s okay. All clear.”

The black algae that lay before P-01s’ eyes, the black algae creatures, are hive mind organisms that work in Musashi and other cities by processing the water from the sewers. They use a process similar to photosynthesis, eating the ‘pollution’ and purifying it into ‘cleanliness’. Because of that all the countries made a contract with the black algae creatures’ hive minds to provide them food in exchange for sewage treatment.

That was what these black algae creatures did, so every time they soaked with sewage they ended up covered with it. The spilled sewage can be decomposed with the chemicals leaked from the black algae, but the same could not be done for the smell.

They knew that if they came outside from the sewers or gutters, people would hate them.

But they were here. The reason is,

“Water.”

“Is the sewage stagnated again?”

“Yes, again, a little, but some water will do it.”

The body of the black algae appeared to be a little dry. P-01s concluded that this was because of the lack of water.

This was an area where the sewer pipes twisted. Because each ship of the Musashi was gigantic, the inner components fought an eternal battle, attempting to find a way to absorb the deformities of the outer shell.

…The central area is where the most creases took shape. Speaking further, this is the surface level, which is the least supported of all the levels. This was the reason there were so many ships where the centre of the surface level was hollowed out.

The black algae creatures wanted their food, the sewage. However, because the flow of the sewage had slowed down, stagnated and gotten stuck, someone had to use a brush to force out the stagnation and blockage.

Normally this task should have been the responsibility of one of the managers in the public offices, but...

“Nobody others probably serious.”

“—Jud., I understand.”

P-01s sprinkled water on the black algae creature.

The black algae creature narrowed his sense organs and after being saturated with water,

“Thanks.”

It went below the street gutter and another one came.

“One more please.”

P-01s nodded and sprinkled water.

So another black algae creature came, then another, they kept coming.

“Last.”

The seventh one was splashed with water. The last black algae creature thanked P-01s, but when he was going to enter the street gutter,

“Okay?”

“What is okay?”

“Smells right?”

Asked, P-01s tilted her head. The black algae did smell, it smelt of sewers.

Because they were sticking their bodies slightly out from below the gutter, only she had noticed, but if they came out completely the other people will become aware of it. The truth was clear, so P-01s said.

“Jud., to put it bluntly it smells.”

“Why?”

The black algae creature asked why she is helping them if they smell so bad.

“Always helping but others until now got in trouble said no why?”

P-01s answered immediately to this question.

“Your smell is not something you created to harm others. This smell is a result of our actions. And you never go out of the gutters completely to prevent the spread of this smell. So, I can conclude that there is not a reason to P-01s deny you.”

So, the black algae creature said.

“Friend?”

“Jud., if that’s the name of the relationship between those who acknowledge each other.”

In response to the words of P-01s the black algae creature stayed silent for some time. But after a few seconds,

“Name please.”

“...My name is P-01s.”

“Thanks for always.”

The black algae creature compressed its body, as if to nod.

“Wash hands please.”

After the creature went away the cover of the street gutter was closed.

P-01s raised her body that was bent over down. She did like the black algae creature had told her and washed her hands with the water left from the pail and looked over to verify if there was anywhere dirty, but the black algae creatures have absorbed all the sewage dripped.

As if it were a substitute, something fell.

“?”

The something was a person. A black male uniform from the Musashi Ariadust Academy. Short long black hair with a thin body, but without any strength left.

“——”

After shaking a little, he suddenly fell to the ground without even having the chance to put his knees on the ground, a direct hit.

There was a sound, a cloud of dust raised and P-01s thought.

...If a cloud of dust raised, that means that my watering wasn’t enough.

Wondering about that, P-01s called out towards the shop.

“Shopkeeper, there is a client. As always Masazumi-sama is... on the brink of starving to death.”

●

Study - Musashi

Toori: "Sis! Sis! It may be a little late, but what is Musashi's formation!?"

Kimi: "Fufufu idiot brother, you're always walking around the ship and don't know even that...?! Umm... your intelligent sister was about to use inappropriate language!"

Toori: "Hey, hey sis, don't turn into a heretic and just tell me quickly!"

• Musashi’s ships formation

	Left side	Middle	Right side
First ships	“Asakusa”		“Shinagawa”
Second ships/Front	“Murayama”	“Musashino”	“Tama”
Third ships/Rear	“Oume”	“Okutama”	“Takao”

• Musashi can only travels between borderlines of each country.
  • The line shows the way everyone took in the prologue. Name of the places going from down: Musashi Ariadust Academy (“Okutama”) -> Remorse Way (“Okutama”) -> Blue Thunder (“Tama”) -> Yakuza office (“Shinagawa”)

Kimi: "Well, the eight ships look like this. Basically, the first ships are used for carrying cargo. The second ships are for tourism and is mostly made up of people who were born in foreign countries, besides administrative offices and embassies. The third ships contain the people from the Far East and is the place that focus on our industries. The middle-front ship is the center of the operation and control of Musashi. The middle-rear ship has the Academy as its center."

Toori: "Heh! I’m surprised that Sis knew that much! You’re a genius!"

Kimi: "No, you see, I’m really a genius, but it’s seriously bad that you didn't know this!"

Translator Notes

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