Horizon:Volume 8C Chapter 82

Chapter 82: Deliverer Between Ships

The roaring holy fire

Carries my power

My howling right arm

Throws a magical pitch

Point Allocation (Deadly Hit By Pitch)

The transport ship’s deck was covered in rushed movements and decisions. First, the idiot panicked, Horizon slapped him, Asama calmed him, and Mitotsudaira protected him. As for Masazumi…

“Mukai!”

“Judge! I-I’m…working on it!”

Suzu drew a model in the air while Adele supported her on the deck.

She drew it rather than built it. She was using the Musashi’s modeling program which had been given “feelings” to speed things up.

The process was simple. The path of Suzu’s fingers, the way she moved them, and the strength she used guided the amount of ether material used for the model. Instead of shaping it, she drew it out in the air. It was a creation of momentum and impression. But the library they had built up replaced that image with a 3D model.

“D-done!”

The model showed their ship, the enemy ships, and Kyou connecting them. It only gave a general view, but it showed them a diagram of the 8km between them and the three enemy ships faster than any other method.

…Got it…in time!

Suzu indulged in some self-praise for not panicking. Not long ago, when she had finished up her first job like this, she had been more hesitant and scared. After all, she hadn’t known what to do after she was done. But now she knew she could relax.

Musashino: “Mukai-sama, this is the Musashino bridge. We have synced the bridge control system with your model data. If you have projection functionality, we can use your fortress parts – that is, your hip hard point parts – to- actually, never mind that. The point is, this will work.”

Bell: “G-good…I’m glad…it will work.”

She gathered that the Musashino bridge would be providing some assistance with the model.

She realized the enemy ship models were already moving on their own and model gods of war were approaching.

Bell: “C-can you show it…30 seconds later?”

Musashino: “We can. The present position will be displayed as ghosts. Over.”

Just as “Musashino” had said, the models’ movements and paths began to show the same future predictions they had used during the Kantou Liberation. Which showed…

…The gods of war…are so close!

Should they move the transport ship? But…

“M-Masazumi! I-is that…the imperial palace!?”

The model map showed a landport to the south of Kyou, but they probably couldn’t use that one anymore. And the imperial palace was…

“It’s there, Mukai!”

“Eh? Wh-where?”

Telling her verbally wasn’t going to help. She needed better instructions and Masazumi knew that.

“Umm.”

Sorry, I think I made the model too big. I’m used to making them for the bridge.

“Seijun-kun, get your ass in gearrrrrrrr!” shouted the idiot.

“Sh-shut up! Mukai, can I touch the models without breaking them!?”

“Y-yes…you’ll only…pass through them.”

All of a sudden, a leg and a left arm lifted from the shoulder by a right arm stuck up from below the model. The leg was Kimi’s and the left arm was Horizon’s. The limbs performed some synchronized swimming along the surface of the model’s water and twirled around before Kimi’s heel tapped at a space between the center and east of Kyou.

“Right here, Suzu!”

Now Suzu knew where it was, but what was she supposed to do about Masazumi who was only now hesitantly entering the model space?

“Sorry, Seijun-kun, but you were tooooooooooooo slow!”

“Sh-shut up! It’s called being careful!”

“We have incoming artillery fire, you two!!”

Asama’s warning was followed by dozens of explosions rattling Suzu’s inner ear.

The defense barriers were functioning, but she immediately identified two shots that got through.

…I need to do better.

She set the ship’s model in motion. Quickly and based on the 30-second prediction.

Asama was in charge of operating the defense barriers.

She used a targeting spell in reverse to determine where the enemy was aiming. Then she fed that information into the ship’s defense barrier activation settings to make sure they would have barriers in place. But…

…We don’t have enough barriers!

Their max number of simultaneous defense barriers wasn’t quite enough to cover all of the enemy’s shells. But if she increased that upper limit, it would reduce the strength of each barrier. She was already adding a slant to them to soften the impacts, but…

…Um, what am I supposed to do in this situation!?

Then she felt a soft tug on her skirt.

Eh? she thought, looking down to find the arms working together to lift a bow.

Of the three Tres Españan transport ships being used for the attack, the easternmost one’s stern suddenly ruptured.

Ether light erupted from it seemingly out of nowhere, so everyone initially thought it was an accident. They assumed the aft acceleration system had exploded.

But they were wrong. The first to react were the ones who had fought in the Battle of Mikawa.

“I-I recognize that ether light! That was Musashi’s anti-ship shrine maiden!”

“Damn! I forgot she shot us down back at Mikawa!”

“But wait! I didn’t detect her usual launch sequence!”

“Either way, this ship is unstable! We need to evacuate!”

They all screamed and jumped out into the empty air. The ship had already lost rear power, seeming to lean back as its aft slipped downwards.

“Abandon ship! If you’re on the bow, have the 2nd ship collect you!! Keep firing while you move!”

And…

“Send in the gods of war!”

“Oh, dear,” said Asama, wiping sweat from her brow.

She had her gauntlets and Umetsubaki but not her shrine maiden outfit, so she hadn’t been able to connect the side binder skirts or the tail binder.

That meant she couldn’t use her clothing for directional anchoring or for targeting support, so she had been forced to make up for that with spells. However…

…Fortunately, that actually shortened the targeting sequence!

If the enemy had detected that sequence, they might have erected a multi-layer defense barrier. After all, she had used this against them at Mikawa and the Armada battle. That wouldn’t be a problem if she could boost the power with spells, but she was in her summer uniform, which deprived her of the proper equipment.

She had been right to set the targeting to ether detection only and then boost the speed as much as she could. The arrow had torn into the enemy’s thruster and now the ship was losing control and sinking. So…

“That was a close one. That will reduce the amount of enemy artillery, so we should take fewer hits. A solid defense is so important in battle.”

“Defense, Asama-chi? That looked a lot more like offense to me.”

“D-don’t be silly, Naito. Like they say, a good offense is the best defense.”

Naruze immediately whispered into Naito’s ear.

“Does she think that means offense should be your only defense?”

“Wait, wait. I can do more than attack…I think.”

Still, this should have considerably reduced the strain on their defenses. The ship she had hit was working to regain enough control to make a gentle landing while the athletes on the deck chose whether to jump overboard or jump to another ship. The latter group would soon rejoin the artillery barrage, but…

“The barrage has let up for now. Suzu-san, take us to safety!”

Asama looked over to see Noriki giving Suzu some kind of advice with lots of gesturing. He had fought the Valdes Siblings before, so he probably had some useful information for her. For now, Asama needed to strengthen their defenses while…

“The gods of war!”

Three gods of war had arrived within visual range.

They aimed their three rifles toward the Musashi transport ship.

“Incoming attack from midsized aerial gods of war!”

“Cavaleiro Azor Unit A1 to A2 and A3. Pass them on the right while firing! Use this first pass to get a feel for the target’s size! Afterwards, we’ll match their turn!”

One of the three flying gods of war – the one with purple on its shoulder armor – flew out in front.

He, A1, opened a cadena firma in front of his facial sensory devices. He did the same for his two wingmen.

“Check this! It’s the enemy transport ship’s predicted course!”

A red ribbon line drew out the transport ship’s path along Kyou’s terrain.

The ship had arrived from the west and it was heading east, passing near the center of Kyou. But its bow was starting to turn south while rising. That meant it would be ascending and rapidly turning to the south. And a turn of 270 degrees would place it on a due north route, which would take it to…

“They plan to head north along Kyou’s main street to reach the imperial palace!”

The gods of war were coming from the north, so they would pass by the southward-turning ship from stern to starboard. They would fly in along the inner corner.

“A2, A3. Don’t get caught in their turn!”

“Don’t worry. I won’t get that close!” said A2 while making a quick descent. He flew on his back and aimed his rifle skyward, toward the bottom of the enemy ship’s hull.

Meanwhile, A1 moved out ahead and A3 fell back.

“You think there are any cute girls onboard!?”

“Get me some footage of Suzu-sama!”

“Testament!” replied A3, ascending.

A1 watched that and continued out ahead.

This three-craft formation was for assault recon.

They knew the enemy was turning south, but their port side was still pointed north.

So even with the Tres España artillery reduced, some of it would still hit the enemy on the port and the stern, which was turning north.

That was why the gods of war took the starboard side where the enemy ship itself would shield them from the artillery fire.

And the more defense barriers the enemy had to put up for their attacks, the fewer they would have to defend against the barrage from the north. If the enemy failed to respond properly to their attacks, even god of war weaponry could do serious damage to a transport ship.

So A1 flew out ahead. He dodged the enemy attacks on pure guts and drew the ship’s attention starboard as much as he could.

A2 provided support from below. That would force the enemy to focus down there as well and very few transport ships had cannons installed on the bottom. If A2 could bring down the ship, he would.

Then there was A3 flying in from above, using A1 and A2 as diversions. His attacks wouldn’t be very effective with the thick armor and defense barriers on the upper deck, but observing the enemy’s upper deck from visual range would provide intel on the enemy’s personnel and tactics.

So with that in mind…

“Let’s do this!”

A1 flew in.

He fired intermittently. His magazine held 36 ether bullets. To reduce the weight, they weren’t physical bullets, but they were wedge-shaped to better split the transport ship’s armor.

He estimated the length of the enemy ship. A quick calculation using that length and his movement speed told him how often to fire to not run out of ammo but also to not have ammo leftover after reaching the end of the ship. By sending that data to the god of war’s fingers, the god of war would automatically fire for him. I used to have to do that manually. These modern gods of war are impressive. He could focus on flying and send the fingers any updates to his speed.

He flew.

The Cavaleiro Azor midsized god of war wore armored clothing modeled after a summer uniform. The higher ups had decided that was good enough since it was meant for midair martial arts and not flying high in the sky, but A1 felt like it would get chilly come autumn. But for now…

“This works!”

Ether bullets had little recoil when fired. His hands were mechanically controlled, so they didn’t budge, staying perfectly aimed just below the transport ship’s deck edge. That would prevent those on the deck from ignoring the bullets – perfect for a diversion.

As long as he kept firing, he could at least fulfill that diversion role.

With no return fire, he felt this was a fairly easy close-range battle, but…

…Oh?

A familiar face raced across the deck.

He knew that boy. It was former Tres España 1st Special Duty Officer Tachibana Muneshige. Muneshige raised his hand in greeting.

“Hello! Long time no see!”

That cheerful freak! thought A1 for the first time in a while. He had thought the exact same thing when Muneshige had obtained a wife who took strong-willed to strange new places and was fed poison by her, yet only smiled and said, “Who knew poison was so sweet?”

But now he was running toward A1.

On closer inspection, he was carrying an artillery shell below each arm. And…

“Hi.”

A1 saw Muneshige leap from the edge of the deck into the empty air beyond.

A1 didn’t initially know what had happened. And a moment later…

…Did that freak jump to his death with a pair of shells!?

He clearly wasn’t going to fly far enough to reach A1. Well, he would probably have a descent spell at least, but…

“He’s falling too fast for that!?”

Muneshige was clearly falling. He wasn’t using any kind of spell to slow his descent. That was when A1 figured it out. If that rapid descent continued…

“A2! Get out of there!”

A2 was flying rapidly below the transport ship and firing on its hull, but then he noticed a gap appear in the defense barriers protecting against his fire.

Its position meant he would have to approach the ship to take advantage of it. Taking some grazing hits wouldn’t be a problem, but…

“A1, can you get closer to draw away-”

He was going to say “to draw away the enemy fire from above”, but the person he was trying to speak to shouted back at him instead.

“A2! Get out of there!”

A2 obeyed on reflex.

He moved away. He didn’t know what, but A1, his commanding officer, had detected a threat.

The enemy was above, so he would be safe as long as he moved away from the transport ship. But…

“God of war unit!”

A new voice arrived from the Tres España ships to north. The same ships still firing on the enemy.

“Look out below!”

A1 didn’t understand.

He knew Tachibana Muneshige had dropped down directly in front of him.

But if that was meant for A2, the correct warning was “look out above”. Muneshige was below A1, but the boy lacked any way to ascend.

So had the main group misread the situation? Had they mistaken Muneshige and A2’s positions? Or…

“A1,” said the observer back with the main group. “I meant you!”

The first thing A1 checked after hearing that was Tachibana Muneshige.

He was the only thing below, so he had to be the threat.

The god of war’s sight devices focused on falling Muneshige. He was holding artillery shells, so was he going to fire them at A1? Or…

“…?”

One of A1’s sight devices detected a strange movement. The preliminary lock on Tachibana Muneshige suddenly shifted.

There was another enemy.

This one was much more distant, even further along the straight line connecting A1 to Muneshige.

Far below the other side of the transport ship, someone had been hidden behind Muneshige until now.

…Her?

A1 recognized her as that freak’s wife.

“Tachibana Gin!”

She had gone first.

She had jumped off the other side of the ship ahead of her husband.

The husband had been a decoy to draw A1’s attention.

They had tricked him. Their falling positions had taken into account their shifting positions as they all moved, so who had crunched those numbers?

Muneshige twisted around in midair and something flew past his side and toward A1.

It was an artillery shell launched by Gin.

“Dammit!”

A1 returned fire and tried to take evasive action, but it was too late.

The hit prediction said it would hit his left side. A direct hit. Damage from the left side hard point to the internal frame. The bottom left of the four wings would be destroyed and the upper left would receive minor damage. That would reduce his propulsion by 42%.

He wouldn’t be able to fly. The recommendation was to eject.

…It can tell all that before I’m even hit?

These modern gods of war are impressive. But…

“Your cannon is Tres Españan too!”

The shell hit.

A2 and A3 knew A1 had been hit. They could share the sight device data sent from A1. He had been in a hurry to send it out and it still included the chest and windblown skirt of the summer uniform girl who had managed their takeoff, but the others chose to keep that a secret.

You’d do the same for us, thought A2.

At any rate, the cannon named Tachibana Gin was falling from the port side and the frea- the husband was falling from the starboard side. That wasn’t a problem for A3 up above, but A2 was below.

“Kh!”

They were using small, lightweight crafts, but their flight power system was really just a scaled down version of the El Azor one. The unneeded acceleration launched him about 100m away in an instant.

He saw A1’s components scattering as they fell from above. A1 had already purged his right arm to rebalance himself. His right wing was still functional, so he must have shifted all his weight to the left side so he could try and descend as if dangling from that wing.

A3 wanted to provide assistance, but he was in danger himself. He was monitoring Tachibana Gin’s position, so he ascended and circled above Tachibana Muneshige so he could-

…Huh?

Muneshige was above him.

Muneshige was running up the empty air like he was climbing a hill. Well, empty save for A1’s scattering components.

That seemed absurd, but A3 still took action. He accelerated backwards to put as much distance between them as he could. But…

…I can’t lose him!

He noticed Muneshige was holding his spear out toward him. Was that some kind of thruster?

If so, he thought, aiming and firing his rifle. The enemy gained a burst of acceleration at the same moment.

Muneshige’s spear was aimed for the muzzle of A3’s rifle, not A3 himself.

The bullet left the barrel at about the same time as Muneshige landed atop the barrel.

It had happened so fast.

That serious-faced boy raised his right hand right next to the god of war’s facial sight devices.

I’m dead, thought A3 just before Muneshige spoke.

“Long time no see. You were with the god of war unit that assisted us in the New World, weren’t you?

Anyway,” he said, taking the pair of shells he carried under his arms and pushing them into the god of war’s collarbones.

Wait, no, stop that. That’s a weak point.

But Muneshige looked back with a smile and bowed.

“It was a pleasure meeting you again.”

Then he tapped the bottom of his spear against the ignition explosive spell installed on the bottom of the shells.

Gin visually confirmed a second scattering of god of war parts in the sky.

…That should be enough.

Muneshige’s Kamenuki would accelerate toward its target. If used against a moving object in midair, it could follow after that target.

There of course had to be a limit to that ability, but the scattering components were not moving that fast. So for Muneshige, footholds had effectively been raining from the sky. He had used the wreckage of the god of war Gin had destroyed in order to get close enough to the 2nd god of war.

And now he was descending on the wreckage of that 2nd one.

Gin was descending too. Yes, they knew the baseball team’s suppression team was not the only threat.

“The track team is down on the ground!”

Some athletes in red light armored uniforms were sprinting down Kyou’s 100m-wide main street.

Those were the finalists of Tres España’s track team.

They were headed to Kyou’s imperial palace, which was visible on the right side of the main street. That was Musashi’s destination.

“How are things up above!?”

Gin looked up as she fell. She saw the transport ship making its ascending turn with A3 in pursuit.

Gin is trouble! thought Juana from the bottom of her heart.

The girl seemed docile, but she was a warrior through and through. She was quick to action and rivaled Muneshige in skill. Muneshige rivaled Takakane in offensive power, so logically speaking…

“Lady Juana, try not to get lost in thought,” said Flores, handling her pitches alone.

Juana knew Flores was right.

The track team was racing through the city of Kyoto under Fusae’s command.

And that wasn’t all. The baseball team’s outfielders were taking control of Kyou’s guardian gates located at the four cardinal directions. They would soon return to join with the track team, so…

…If we can hold the imperial palace’s entrance, we will have the Musashi group surrounded!

They were buying time. Gods of war A1 and A2 had been shot down, but without them, Musashi’s transport ship would likely have come from the west and taken a direct north route. They were instead taking a circular route to the south because they wanted to assess the situation and ensure they had a path to the north.

“They are also ascending, so they probably plan to take a descending path for greater speed.”

“You mean they’re going to crash into Fusae’s group at the palace entrance?”

“Musashi has never rammed people with one of their transport ships.”

Was it naïve to trust in your opponent’s conscience?

But if your opponent followed a certain rule, it was best to incorporate it into your tactics.

Still, Flores had said earlier they would have a hard time of it if the transport ship took a descending path.

“Will we be able to fire on them, Flores?”

“Hmm. We can aim lower, but their transport ship is a flat type. It isn’t very tall, which is a problem for us.”

Because…

“Throwing a low but stable pitch is tricky.”

“I will have to trust you on that, but does this mean they know how our artillery fire works?”

“Probably. Still, our regular players can handle that, so let’s take them off the bench and put them out front. An underhand pitch like mine should be pretty stable. The problem is swapping out the pitchers will lighten the attacks on the enemy ship for a short time.”

“The Student Council warriors can pick up the slack.” Juana raised her right hand. “Student Council warriors. Spell team. Prepare your banned book cannons!”

Masazumi watched as the last of the enemy gods of war passed by while firing into the air above.

Defense barriers opened in the sky and ether fragments scattered. The sounds of the hits and the sounds of the enemy fire played a rhythm for the wild dance of light and trembling found on the deck.

Masazumi couldn’t shout over the din, so she spoke through her sign frame.

Vice President: “Mukai! Are we still not done turning!?”

Bell: “W-we’re only…just starting!”

The ship was making a wide turn to invade Kyou from low altitude.

Noriki had noticed the enemy baseball team’s pitches were less accurate when thrown low. Partially because of his past battle with the Valdes Siblings and partially because he liked baseball. No, it was more accurate to say he had gained an interest in it after the Armada battle.

But taking a lower altitude course meant sinking into the city of Kyou. That meant straightening out their course and flying along the main street, but…

…Once we do that, we’re sitting ducks. There’s always a downside.

But the battlefield was always in motion. If they were not constantly making their own moves and fighting back, they couldn’t do anything at all. That of course applied to the enemy as well, so…

“Asama-kun! Incoming spell fire from Tres España!”

Neshinbara shouted his warning and expanded his sign frame. He observed the enemy movements and gathered what intel he needed to respond appropriately.

“Those are banned book cannons!”

Naruze was unfamiliar with the weapon name Neshinbara shouted. But…

…This can’t be good!

She could make a good guess what they were and what process they used to fire. Basically…

“They burn porn doujinshis to convert the sinful energy into a weapon, don’t they!?”

“Kiyonari, how am I supposed to respond to something like that?”

“Narumi, simply follow one of Catholicism’s lessons: if your enemy stands before you, punch him.”

Naruze was pretty sure some of those doujinshis features those two, but Neshinbara’s sign frame showed a fire burning high from the enemy’s deck. The fire struck the spell circle placed above it like a lid. With a sound like a beating drum, ether formed reproduced pages in the hands of the students lined up on either side.

“Here it comes! Those are acceleration cannons made with an average of 24 pages!”

From the cover in the very back to the back cover in the front, the 12 pieces of ether paper, with drawings on both sides, acted as an acceleration pathway.

…Weaponizing sinful energy? Not bad!

There were 12 lines of students in all. That many beams of light flew toward the transport ship while it was still trying to make its turn.

A3 ascended and checked on the result of the cannon fire.

Banned book cannons were a type of ether cannon. Just as one’s spirit of worship became Blessings, the feelings people poured into objects also became Blessings. And the narrative path of a story created a sort of current. If that was viewed as a Blessing conduit, then a book could function as a cannon if the Blessings of its creator’s passion and craftsmanship were accelerated down the narrative path.

Then they only had to place an ether shell inside.

Manga was actually best for this because they had a good number of pages and rate of story progression. Novels had more pages, but their acceleration pathways jammed easily, meaning they were powerful but were smaller caliber.

Today, they were using 500 books selected by the Library Committee’s archive team. They were all very lewd, but would become holy fire when burned by a holy flame. By then converting them to ether and reconstructing them, they formed page-based acceleration cannons.

Someone had spent days on end pouring their passion into these books, knowing very well they were creating a banned book. How powerful would they be?

The flying beams of light crashed into the enemy transport ship.

The defense barriers shattered noisily.

Eight beams had hit. So many had missed because the enemy ship had begun their turn and the Student Council’s warriors didn’t have the skill to react. But the power of the attack was still impressive. The enemy must have been cautious because they had opened 8-layer defense barriers, but each of them had been shattered down to the 6th or 7th layer.

A3 sent a report back to the main unit. It included some praise.

“That sure packed a punch! You nerds can really fight!”

Juana set up her targeting spell. Each variety of PC included in her uniform could run a Catholic artillery spell. That didn’t work when she was this far away, but she could still provide multitasking targeting support for the others. However…

…This is tricky when the enemy is in motion.

The Student Council warriors generally fought ground battles. They had received anti-air artillery training, but Musashi’s transport ships were flatter and faster than those of the other nations. Juana hurriedly adjusted a few settings and linked with the others’ artillery spells, reaching a point where she only had to give authorization, but…

“You there! Stop reading that! Have you forgotten how many of the selection group had to be imprisoned!?”

“S-sorry! But I saw the title ‘A Crash Course on Extreme Witch Hunting’ and I couldn’t help myself!”

“Th-the last panel on this page has her shout ‘spiritual!?’ and now I have to know what happens next!”

“Um, this one’s circle name is ‘No Lewd I Dwell On’, but that’s not quite a palindrome, is it!?”

How many times did I tell you not to read them? And no, that last one isn’t a palindrome. At any rate…

“If the installation is complete, then get going!”

“Excuse me!” shouted the 2nd student on the 1st right row. “This one gives you and the Chancellor a happy ending! What should I do!?”

Juana hardened her heart and shouted “fire”.

Flores ordered a pitch at the same time as Juana’s cannon fire. The pitches were a tad faster, but the banned book cannons were more powerful.

Musashi would have their turning side struck and…

…We might even take out their stern acceleration system!

Musashi had done that to them, so they could get payback. And if they shot the transport ship down over southern Kyou, her brother’s group could return from the four gates and fortify the defenses on the main street. So…

“Go! St. Elmo’s fire!”

Ether flames appeared across her body and she installed them into the metal ball. The others around her cheered as she pitched along with them.

A3 ascended and entered a wide turn from south to west. He was constantly firing on the transport ship’s bow. He was providing support for his allies firing on the port and stern, but it also prevented the enemy from firing on him while he observed them. His job was to maintain a certain distance from the transport ship while weaving left and right.

Then horizontal beams of light flew in along horizontal paths from the north. The banned book cannons and metal balls had been launched together with perfect timing.

The transport ship was turning while it ascended. It had still only just entered its turn.

It was ascending so it could begin descending during its turn and use that descending route to shorten the total turning time. Using gravity to provide some yaw was faster than simply rotating the ship horizontally.

But Tres España targeted that.

This would be their last chance to fire on the ship from side to stern.

The god of war’s brain system predicted the hits. Nine of the banned book cannons were on course to hit. 31 of the baseball team’s pitches were. A3 didn’t know where Musashi would send their defense barriers, but the hit rate was going to be higher than before.

“Hit them!”

In the instant of the hit, A3 saw the transport ship’s stern suddenly sink down.

…Did they hit it!?

No. A roar, which if described as a color would best be called white, came from the airspace around the transport ship. It was caused by…

“Their virtual ocean!”

A3 saw the ocean. It was spread out horizontally high in the air.

…I recognize that.

He had seen something like this before. Back at the Armada battle, he had witnessed something he had thought wasn’t possible.

An aerial ship had performed a loop. The maneuver had begun by forming a virtual ocean around the bow and pulling the ship up with that. But what happened if this was done with the stern thrusters stopped?

“The ship stands upright, but inertia pushes the stern out front!”

It rotated backwards. While the bow was lifted diagonally up, the air resistance pushing against the bottom eventually reached the point that the entire massive structure stood vertically.

The artillery from the north had arrived, but the enemy transport ship was standing up. The artillery had been fired in a horizontal row, so the vertical transport ship had minimized the surface area exposed to the attacks.

It was hit, but…

“Banned book cannon hits: 3! Metal ball hits: 11!”

A3 knew what would happen now.

“The transport ship is about to make a rapid turn to the north!!”

We haven’t stood a transport ship up like this since the Kantou Liberation, thought Narumi.

She was standing on the deck thanks to the ship’s gravitational control and her own martial arts. Even Musashi’s noncombatants knew how to handle this, so you could tell these were people who called the sky home.

And at the center of the deck, one girl held the sky in the palm of her hand.

Suzu.

She had the skill to earn the title of acting captain and she was focusing all of her control on this one transport ship. She stood the model transport ship up in the virtual space like she was holding a baby.

“Good.”

Suzu had stood the real transport ship up in south Kyou just a bit southeast of the center.

But the ship still had southeastward momentum. That was still placing air resistance on the ship and pushing it upwards, but now that it was vertical…

…The depowered stern is going to drift out in front of the vertical bow.

As things were, the stern would slip through and the ship would fall deck-side down.

But the acting captain did not try to wrestle the ship into control. She only applied a light rotation to turn the deck northward as the stern slid forward.

“You know…that thing?”

Narumi knew what Suzu meant, so she felt a smile on her lips.

“That thing…from Russia…with the upside-down ship? We’re going to…do the privet.”

Juana saw the enemy make what she could only call a challenge.

Musashi’s transport ship collapsed toward them with the deck turned their way.

It shifted to upside-down flight. That would normally be impossible. All of the crew and rigging on the deck would become stress pulling down and might even fall off. But…

…It sped up their turn by a lot!

Juana had assumed they would take a standard wide turn through the air.

But they hadn’t.

Their ascent had been the start of pitching the bow up with air resistance. What had looked like a turn had been the start of spinning the ship on the stern axis. It all made sense in retrospect, but she hadn’t predicted any of it.

It would be easy to chide herself for being careless, but figuring out what to do now was more important. So…

…Now I see what they’re trying to do!

The enemy would let their ship collapse down and fly upside-down while they descended all the way to the imperial palace.

There had to be stress and worries for the crew and equipment on the deck, but they likely intended to use the ship as a shield and abandon it here.

That meant they only had to keep this up for a few more minutes. Meanwhile, Tres España had no way of dealing significant damage to them in that time.

Juana felt pathetic for thinking they could handle this as long as they forced the enemy into a turn. But…

“What’s this, Ju? Feeling down?”

A divine transmission arrived.

It was from Fusae.

Juana listened to Fusae while having the banned book cannons and baseball team continue firing.

Fusae’s group had to be on the way to the front of the imperial palace right now, but…

“Faster, everyone! Full speed! Our goal is arriving 1200 meters south of the palace in 18 seconds!”

What did that mean?

…Are they passing by the entrance of the palace!?

Juana knew what was happening, but she couldn’t figure out what it meant.

“Fusae! Your group’s job was to fortify our defenses at the palace entrance!”

“Our defenses won’t matter much if they ram us with that transport ship. So…”

The track team members running along the main street responded with a united “Testament!”

A white and black giant seemed to rise up at the lead.

That was the flagcraft of Tres España’s god of war forces, Michiyuki Byakko. The heavyweight god of war carried Fusae on its shoulder as it ran out ahead down the main street.

A massive shape appeared out ahead of them.

That was the Musashi transport ship entering the main street at extreme low altitude and flying upside down.

Juana knew what Fusae’s group was going to do. And knowing it, she still made a point of speaking.

“Fusae! Here are your instructions!”

First…

“Stop that transport ship with the track team! The north group of the baseball team’s outfielders will gather in front of the palace! The other groups will mop up the enemy after the track team stops them!”

Yes, yes. That’s it, thought Fusae.

Their Vice President had trouble relying on others. Her desire to be relied on was so strong she tended to take everything onto her shoulders. Fusae knew Juana could handle a lot, but she wasn’t omnipotent and she didn’t have infinite capacity as a person.

…If only Ju would notice jpw the Chancellor she respects so much relies on her all the time.

In fact, the Chancellor could barely function without her around. How could she respect someone who did what she wouldn’t allow herself? This wasn’t about what had happened in the past.

…It’s because she’s taken what he’s working toward and made it into her own dream.

He wanted to save Tres España.

And Juana had to be a part of what he wanted to save.

So by assisting him and letting him rely on her, she saw it as saving herself and improving the circumstances she had been born into. But that felt too cold and unfeeling to Fusae, so she made sure to add “and it’s because Ju loves the Chancellor”.

But lately, Juana was more readily thanking others. Fusae hoped that side of her would grow. And to help that along…

“The trouble I go through for her.”

Fusae had to show off that she could be better than Juana in some regards. And she had to show it was no big deal or else Juana would never accept the help. Juana refused to make herself a burden on others.

Fusae hadn’t found a chance to do this since the Armada battle, so this was looking good. Juana was letting her guard down.

“Let’s go, everyone!”

They had passed the imperial palace, but everyone was staring ahead to their goal: 1200m south of the palace. That was where their top speed would intersect the enemy’s advance.

They were actually pushing themselves a bit too hard, but she knew they could all handle it. They had been training over summer break, after all. So…

“Taka! You guard the palace!”

Fusae dashed along the remaining thousand meters.

Naomasa clicked her tongue in a world flipped upside down.

…The Byakko’s here too!?

Suzaku’s repairs were complete, but she couldn’t use it in battle without giving it a test run first. She might be willing to risk it against the average opponent, but she had lost against Byakko even with everything working right.

She did wonder if the Suzaku’s nearly complete form could manage it, but she wanted to be fully prepared for that. It was still too soon.

“Damn!”

The rational part of her mind wondered when she had gotten so emotional, but she figured it probably bothered her so much because this felt like accepting defeat all over again.

She had 1 win and 1 loss against Byakko. And the win had come from surprising the enemy. She had never won in a fair fight and, based on how much damage was done, she had more or less lost that time too.

She honestly felt like it was a shame she couldn’t do anything. On the other hand, she had a job to do here.

“Suzu!”

That job was evacuating the noncombatants. They had to provide help in escaping the ship and landing. Futayo was already carrying Masazumi for that purpose. Then they had to carry the noncombatants somewhere sheltered from the enemy attack.

“Where’s our rendezvous point!?” she asked.

“Th-the imperial…palace! O-or if that…won’t work…the east should be safe…since Muneshige-san’s group…went there!”

Suzu’s models had stopped updating, but they displayed the result of what she and the Musashino’s bridge had accomplished.

It showed the locations of the enemy track and baseball teams, including predicted paths for the next 2 minutes and 17 seconds.

…It’s hard to believe.

They were capable of getting ahead of the enemy’s actions more than 2 minutes in advance.

But Naomasa knew these were only paths. If a battle broke out or collision occurred, Suzu and the automatons had no idea what would happen or how it would turn out.

“Good enough.”

Knowing the enemy’s path was plenty for escaping. So all she had to do was run away with Suzu in her arms. Only one other thing occurred to her.

“What will you do, Adele?”

“My job is to charge the palace with them!”

Adele pointed toward the warriors who had worked as the transport ship’s crew.

There were about 50 of them, but according to Futayo, this was the assault unit selected from the best of both Mikawa and Musashi.

Then they should be fine, concluded Naomasa, letting them handle things here. And…

“N-Naomasa…-san. Try to stay…aboard…as long as possible.”

“Hah. No one likes a stubborn girl, you know?”

The serious response of “I know” threw Naomasa off a little. But they were about to begin on Suzu’s final tactic, so all eyes were on her.

“And now Seijun-kun is going to tell us all a funny joke!”

Everyone looked to Masazumi instead. Everyone impatiently treaded in place and shook their shoulders while making “wrap it up” gestures, but their Vice President still raised her right hand.

“Our job is to break into imperial palace, but that’s not going to be easy with these Tres Españans being a real Spain in the rear! …Well, feeling more relaxed now? Feel free to laugh.”

“Don’t ask the impossible!”

Everyone’s retort was followed by a tremor coming from the bow.

“Huh!?”

Everyone turned around to check Suzu’s no-longer-updated models.

“Th-the track team…is seven seconds…early!”

Suzu’s sentence took up the few seconds they had left.

So a moment later…

“Goalllllllllllll!!”

A familiar voice reached them as the transport ship’s bow shattered and its shape split apart.

Michiyuki Byakko had hit it with an ultra vibration destruction blast.

Fusae had a plan.

…This lets me crush that transport ship all at once.

She attacked the keel. That was the mainest of the main frames running along the bottom from stem to stern.

She shot through it with Byakko’s Roar Deterioration ulta vibration destruction cannon.

She didn’t actually need to destroy it. She only had to hit it hard enough to tear it free from the ship. That would separate the sub frames from the main frames, leaving the entire ship more fragile

But an obvious problem presented itself to her. This flat Far Eastern transport ship had two keels. Even Byakko would have a hard time damaging both of them at once.

“I guess I’ll just have to do this.”

Fusae put Byakko in a sideways-sliding stance.

And she activated the Roar Deterioration on both shoulders. But while she normally pushed a shoulder out in front to fire, she was in a sideways-sliding stance this time.

“Here goes!”

The Roar Deteriorations opened their mouths. Byakko’s OS opened a ton of cross-style cadena firma around the shoulders, but Fusae ignored them. The center of the transport ship was approaching dead ahead. She aimed Byakko’s right palm toward the horizontal guard on the tip of the upside-down bow.

As if she planned to stop the ship with that hand.

“Roar Deterioration!”

It was more of a propagation than a tremor.

Byakko’s Roar Deterioration was fired from its shoulder cannons, but the vibration devices were contained in the shoulders themselves. So Fusae closed the cannon mouths. The output of the vibration devices could not leave through the cannons and instead traveled through Byakko’s outstretched right arm. As a result…

“Ultra vibration propagation destruction blow!”

The instant Byakko’s palm hit, the ship flying at high speed was blasted to pieces.

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