Horizon:Volume 9A Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Visitors in the North

We never ate any

Kitakata ramen, did we!?

Where’s that again?

Point Allocation (That Would Be Further East)

●

“They’re still not moving. Is Hashiba’s group alright?”

It was late summer, but there was still a scattering of snow in the plaza where Shibata stood on the upper deck of his ship.

…They can worry about the weirdest things at times.

“But we’ll devour them if them if they don’t take this seriously. …What do you think, Oichi-sama?”

He called over to Oichi who stood at the deck railing, viewing the lights of the surrounding ships.

“Hashiba-kun and her companions will come. You are not hard to figure out, so I think they will know what you want.”

She looked out from the deck. Everywhere she looked were aerial ships waiting for the battle to begin.

They expected a glorious ground battle. This would be settled by the blade, not in the sky. That was the plan, anyway.

Oichi detected the scent of the combat food being cooked and she shook her head in satisfaction.

“Wonderful. …Isn’t this beautiful, Katsuie-san? We haven’t had any battles for a while, so it’s been so long since I saw these lights at night.”

She looked up into the night sky.

“Look, Katsuie-san. The two full moons are fading in our light.”

“Ohhh, you’re a real romantic, Oichi-sama! See, I got it right this time. I didn’t say romancist. And tonight, you’re the romantic. That’s the way I see it, Oichi-sama!”

“You have such refined tastes, Katsuie-san,” she said with a smile.

She’s so beautiful, he thought while she said more, still smiling.

“Do you think tonight will be fun?”

“I’m sure they’ll make it fun for us. Although to be honest, I was also wondering if we would ever get a chance to settle things with Musashi.”

“I doubt that will ever happen. Remember, they aren’t even looking at us. Novgorod was just one point along their path.”

“Ever the romantic, Oichi-sama. Can you enjoy yourself, not seeing them again?”

“The refined thing is to think ‘if only we could see them again’ and leave it at that.”

“True,” Katsuie replied. “Anyway, this was my decision.”

“What do you mean?”

“Testament.” He nodded and stepped up next to her. Damn, I’m cool. I’m firing on all cylinders tonight, he thought. “So all that pain-in-the-ass Genesis Project stuff is happening right now, but one decision from me determines whether or not the people who sided with Musashi were wasting their time. There’s Matsunaga, Takigawa, and Akechi – and that’s just in P.A. Oda. We’d be here all night if I listed out all the foreign people who don’t even know about the Genesis Project but still sided with Musashi.”

“Are you going to side with Musashi too?”

“C’mon, now. Let me talk a little longer.”

“Sorry,” she said, smiling. It was a nice smile. A truly great smile.

“The thing is, Oichi-sama, the reports from Hashiba tell us Musashi still hasn’t found an effective way of stopping the Apocalypse. I’d have to be pretty damn drunk to decide it’s a good idea to side with them. I’m the Vice Chancellor, remember? I’m the final line of defense. Which is pretty damn cool when you think about it. I can’t make that decision so lightly – especially when it means siding with an enemy.”

“But you also think it would be interesting if there was an alternative to the Genesis Project, don’t you?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because I couldn’t inherit our master’s name. For one simple reason: I didn’t want to do that.”

“I see.” He had said this so many times now, but… “I’m so happy we had our master. Because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to do this now.”

“And I finally managed to regain my true self when I met you, Katsuie-san.”

So…

“I thought it would be nice if there were multiple options and we could choose whichever one we liked whenever we liked. A single option leads to suffering. For me, at least.”

“For me too.”

Katsuie placed his hands on the railing and nodded. The railing easily bent. Oops. Will that come out of my pay? Fuwa isn’t here to find money for it… Eh, whatever.

“I wasn’t sure what to do when I found I found out how strict the conditions are for the Genesis Project. Now, I’m sure something can be done about that, but…”

But…

“I thought it would be worth it to call another star onto the stage and it seems like Akechi understood what I wanted.”

“You like Akechi-san, don’t you?”

“Do I?”

“You like people who don’t know what they should do. Like Sassa-kun, Maeda-kun, Fuwa-san, and so many others.”

“They take everything way too seriously. What I like is teasing people like that. The only ‘person who doesn’t know what they should do’ that I do like is you.”

“Why did you fall in love with me when I didn’t even know who I was?”

“I knew the person I spent my final moments with had to be someone capable of taking me in a one-on-one fight and I knew that had to be you.”

“I can’t wait,” she said. “Which is why I chose to side with you.”

●

I don’t envy Hashiba-kun’s group, thought Oichi.

“You’re forcing Hashiba-kun’s group to do all this because you’re so nice, aren’t you, Katsuie-san?”

“You call this nice? I’m just playing the self-important upperclassman here. You know, ‘Hey, Hashiba and co, get your asses over here. You think the Honnouji Incident is more important than me? Think again.’ ”

“But you know they wouldn’t come here if you didn’t do that.”

And…

“As things are, Musashi isn’t likely to reach their possible alternative answer and Hashiba-kun’s group is unlikely to reach Musashi’s level. You just won’t admit to that part.”

“They seem plenty strong to me. Like that one we met near the mountain on our way back. Who was that again?”

“Will she be able to kill us?”

A faint but insuppressible feeling rose deep in Oichi’s chest. Was it anticipation, or was it better called a tremor? But she did know it wasn’t fear, so she faced it head on and embraced it.

“I was allowed to live at Novgorod,” she said.

“And they let me go,” said Katsuie.

“Which means,” she said. “Musashi contains the ‘possibility of killing us’, don’t they?

“Which means,” she repeated. “Hashiba-kun’s group has yet to prove they do, right?”

Laughter escaped her throat.

“If we say the Battle of Shizugatake is a P.A. Oda political measure, they will obey, however reluctantly.”

“You know that’s not my style. Besides, I’m the kind of charismatic commander who just has to tell people to show up. Have you seen Naru Naru-kun? I know he’ll defend me and take responsibility for this railing I bent.”

“A shame we have to handle all the bills ourselves with Fuwa-san gone. But…”

Oichi turned to face him. The lights shining up from the fleet cast deep shadows on his demonic features.

“You’re smiling.”

“So are you.”

“True. Because right now, everything counts on us.”

That made her happy.

“Will Musashi find an alternative to the Genesis Project? Will Hashiba-kun’s group rise to the challenge of Musashi? No other nation and no one else could carry both those conflicting futures on their shoulders, but here we are doing it.”

You know what, Katsuie-san?

“I always knew I would be helpless. When I failed to earn an inherited name, I felt so hopeless and powerless, so I thought the most I could do was leave my regrets in someone else’s hands and then die. I thought that was the most I was allowed, so when I was with Azai-san, he suggested we die together. I suddenly went ‘now, wait a second’ and indicated I wasn’t ready for that and, next thing I knew, I had destroyed everyone there. Sorry about that, by the way. …Oh, I got sidetracked.”

“Not at all. Quite a shocking revelation to throw at me at this point. So, what? You cut them down to try and calm them down because you felt it was too soon to accept death?”

“My body moved all on its own.”

That really was true. She had felt released from some kind of bonds and it had felt incredible.

“It usually feels like I’m floating in water staring up at the ceiling. …Oh, but you made such an impact it reached me even in that state.”

“Good thing I’m so sloppy then. Toshi never could’ve done it. He’s too precise.”

“Matsu-san can reach me surprisingly well. And I don’t think It’s just because she’s a ghost.”

…But at the same time…

“Aren’t you like that too, Katsuie-san?”

“Like what?”

“You never thought you would be in this position, did you? The upperclassman is supposed to let their underclassmen take over, but now it’s all on you.”

“If the super strong upperclassman steps into the batter box for the final at bat, all the underclassman are gonna place their hopes on him, right?

“But,” he added. “I didn’t think P.A. Oda or the world were at their final at bat quite yet. So if the world does make it past the Apocalypse, even I’m just one point along the way. And I’ve started thinking I can live with that.”

“You mean you don’t want to be #1?”

“I already am. Haven’t you seen how strong I am?”

So…

“I’ve proven that enough that everyone knows it already. That leaves me with a new question: what now?”

“When did you start thinking this way?”

She wanted to know and he gave her an answer.

“Between Magdeburg and Novgorod, I think.”

●

Oichi listened to Katsuie speak.

“At Magdeburg, there was that Anne woman, remember? The previous Hexagone Française Chancellor who stayed belowground there. We fought her on the border back when she could still go out in the open. She was of course in a bed in Paris, deep within their territory, but her frontline fighters’ morale was crazy high. I asked about her and they said she was a young girl, but my takeaway was other people out there were in a situation like ours.”

“But she died at Magdeburg, didn’t she?”

“Testament. She was a hell of a woman. You’re still #1 of course! But I don’t mean it that way with her. We won that battle, right? We did what had to be done, we sacked Magdeburg, and we cornered Anne who was the very center of Hexagone Française. Everything would have been so much easier without her around. That’s how I mean it with her.

“But,” he said. “She didn’t fear death. Even though she’d combined with her god of war and slept underground for so long. Even though she wouldn’t have done all that to keep herself alive unless she really, really didn’t want to die. But not wanting to die and fearing death are two different things.”

“How so?” asked Oichi. She was genuinely curious. “Don’t people fear death because they don’t want to die?”

“Not quite, Oichi-sama.”

The way Katsuie crossed his arms and held his head proudly high was so cute. So…

“Tell me.”

“You got it! I’ll tell you all about this neat thing I realized. See, she had people to take over for her. I’m talking about Hexagone Française – its Chancellor, student council, officers, name inheritors, and everyone else in between or not in between. I’m talking about its cities, its towns, its villages, its roads, its nature, its everything – everything she had protected as Chancellor. And with all of them to take over for her, she could believe that everything would be alright even without her around.”

So…

“She didn’t want to say goodbye to all those people and things she held dear – she didn’t want to die – but she didn’t fear death. Because she’d done her job – done and completed it – so she could believe in everyone else. Which meant she didn’t have a worry in her heart when she died.

“But you know what?” he said. “I didn’t get all of this when it happened. I just thought she was one hell of a woman and felt like I’d won the battle but lost the war. I felt like that one woman was the only person there we hadn’t managed to defeat.”

But…

“I wondered why I felt that way. I mean, we’d won. Won big. So how could that woman act like that? And then I was wondering why Matsunaga – from my perspective anyway – ‘gave up’ before he’d finished his job. Then the same thing happened with the Kantou group.”

“Maybe they were obsessed with the idea of self-sacrifice?”

“It doesn’t make sense, right!? Living is obviously better!”

“And then Novgorod?”

“Testament,” he said, turning his enormous body to look north – toward that floating city. “I faced a fairly troublesome group there.”

●

Shibata explained.

“The first pair I faced included the Reine des Garous’s daughter.

“And the next person I faced was Honda Tadakatsu’s daughter.”

“I know him. Honda Tadakatsu was Mikawa’s Vice Chancellor. I met him a few times. You must have seen him when Matsudaira’s people visited P.A. Oda.”

“Yeah, but their Chancellor Sakai barely ever showed his face. Tadakatsu and Sakakibara would hang out with me for fun when they were in P.A. Oda.”

So…

“We even fought a few times. He was strong. I couldn’t hit him. And he couldn’t get through my armor.”

‘I wonder if that would be different if you could fight again now.”

“Yeah, aging is a pretty major factor for humans. Still, he had Tonbokiri. And I have Kamewari, so it’d probably have been a hell of a battle.”

He sighed at that point.

“But Honda Tadakatsu was blown up at Mikawa. To be honest, he was on my list of people who would be a real pain in the ass if we ran into him on the job. Makes me wonder how he let himself be killed so easily that night. Like, is that just how Far Eastern samurai do things? I had hoped we’d have another chance to fight over who’s #1.”

And after that came Magdeburg and Novgorod. With the Battle of Mikatagahara between them. But…

“I had a lot of fun after joining P.A. Oda, you know? We got into a lot of trouble during Nobuhide’s era before our master’s generation. Then Niwa came along…oops, that kind of gives away her age. Eh, whatever. And then the rest came along. When Hashiba showed up and said she would build the one-night castle, I hoped she wouldn’t push herself too hard. Then she did exactly that, so I did what I could to help in secret. And riding down the rapids was crazy fun. My point is we had a blast in our own way and everyone was fun to be around.”

Shibata realized he was trying a little too hard to get his point across.

…That’s right. We still have a lot of fun. That fun never stopped.

They started having fun and then they kept going and going.

“Anyway, I lost an arm at Novgorod and took a solid hit. But at the time, I found myself thinking I wasn’t going to lose to them yet. I knew I was still #1.”

“Yes. They might kill you, but you wouldn’t lose to them.”

“Exactly.”

But he had been wrong.

“On the trip back, I heard Tadakatsu’s daughter was aiming to inherit Tadakatsu’s name.”

At the time, he had felt she didn’t have what it took, even if Tadakatsu had died so easily at Mikawa.

“It was just like with Anne.”

Yes.

“They were having fun too. They were doing a ton of fun stuff, they kept doing it, and they hoped it could continue forever. But…but you know what?” he said. “I realized I didn’t have anything that let me be okay with my fun finally coming to an end. I had friends to party with and I had more fun people working for me, but I didn’t have anyone to ‘inherit’ who I am. I’m strong and #1 and cool and the best, but that means there’s no one out there who can replace me. Yeah, it’s lonely at the top. Doesn’t that make me sound sharp!? Hell yeah!”

“Katsuie-san,” said Oichi with a smile. “I am the same. Which is why we will die together. Because I am afraid to die. Neither of us can die just because someone tells us to. And that is why I love you.”

She continued.

“I am the same, so I understand. We made ourselves stronger and stronger because we fear death, but there were people out there who trusted us enough to let us take charge. And I also understand that there are more people who will do everything they can on their own and then let us take charge. And they trust us because you are #1. Because this is something only you can do. And that is why I love you. I will always love you.”

Oichi’s shoulders shook with laughter at that point.

“Oh, dear,” she said. “I think we might actually die.”

“We won’t die. We’ll kill each other.”

“True,” she agreed and rested against his shoulder. “We and so many others are letting Hashiba-kun’s group take charge, but will the time ever come that they will pass it all on and let someone else take charge?”

●

Kuro-Take: “The Azuchi will depart an hour from now. We will travel north and engage in a joint history recreation of the Battle of Shizugatake with the Shibata Team waiting on the Hokuriku border. Let’s see, if that ends early, we will rush back to Honnouji, but we will need to play that part by ear.”

Takenaka had moved to the Azuchi’s dining hall and she sighed as she spoke.

…I finally got it all worked out.

This one was rough. Why was it so rough? Because I understand everyone’s point of view on this one. But I’m sorry to say I’m super fragile mentally. Oh, but I believe taking the most damage here will lead to the biggest return later on. And in that case…

…It all comes down to Shizugatake.

This was clearly a high damage decision as far as the world was concerned, but she was more afraid of the damage they would take if she chose Honnouji instead. “High” might not even begin to cover it then.

“There’s no turning back now. If we all fought and lost to Musashi, then it would all be over.”

Battling the Shibata Team was a risk as well – and in a way, it was more dangerous – but Musashi was Musashi.

If they fought Musashi and lost, they would have nothing left.

But if they fought the Shibata Team, it would be a land battle. In the worst case, they might lose a few of the Ten Spears, but the Azuchi would be safe.

…And we could absorb the Shibata Team to gain authority in P.A. Oda and then put Kani-kun and the rest of the 1st years to work.

It wasn’t a pleasant thought, but she had to remain cool-headed.

Kuro-Take: “Hashiba-kun. You will be participating in the Honnouji Incident with Mitsunari-kun. Will you be alright?”

Monkey Girl: “Um, yes! I contacted Ranmaru-sama earlier and she told me to arrive by the back entrance.”

Her role is a highly unique one, thought Takenaka. Some parts couldn’t go ahead without her there. And in that sense…

Nari Nari Nari: “Th-then if you will excuse me. I would love to help you at Shizugatake, but I am busy with Kyou and Honnouji right now, so I will leave Takenaka-sama in command.”

Mitsunari bowed on a lernen figur that appeared in the dining hall.

She sounded nervous, but even a data entity would be when assisting her own creator. Meanwhile, Takenaka spread some almond cream on the honey toast brought out to her.

Kuro-Take: “You don’t have to worry about us. By the way, is everything alright in Kyou?”

Nari Nari Nari: “Yes, well, I have determined it mostly came down to handing out boxed desserts, but I have noticed some suspicious movements among the people of the city. I believe we need to be cautious even after the Honnouji Incident.”

Mitsunari’s opinion was as well thought out as ever.

She’s good at her job, thought Takenaka, but that was probably because Hashiba had trained her well.

Kuro-Take: “Then can I leave Honnouji in your capable hands? It looks like quite a few reinforcements are on their way, so good luck. I’m sure Musashi will be paying you a visit, but that isn’t a problem as long as you defeat them and ensure the Genesis Project can continue.”

Nari Nari Nari: “Testament. The Genesis Project is not a simple thing, so I will do my utmost to ensure it is completed tonight.”

I see, thought Takenaka with a nod.

She glimpsed some people at the dining hall’s entrance. They probably wanted to get a proper meal before the Azuchi’s departure, so Takenaka beckoned them in and got to work on her own food.

The almond cream on the honey toast brought a salty flavor to her tongue.

We probably won’t have a chance to eat anything like this for a while, she thought.

And I bet the Musashi is just as hectic right now.

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