The air was trembling violently.
Naoto took a tremendous impact, and fell heavily from the chair onto the floor. He laid still on it, unable to get up immediately.
–Even in modern society, where the entire planet was replicated using parts, there would be earthquakes.
It was simply the release of stress from the city’s construct system, at most a slight tremor humans could barely detect, an occasional occurrence that happened spontaneously.
However, this was not that simple.
The impact just now seemed to cause a tremendous jolt, to a point one might feel the entire city would be reduced to rubble.
The cupboard behind the cafe restaurant counter fell.
The massive chandelier in the hotel lobby fell.
A series of accidents happened on the main street in front of the station.
Explosions and noises could be heard one after another, entering Naoto’s ears through the headphones.
During this time, the tremors showed no signs of ceasing.
And then, Naoto saw it,
The red teacups flung off the tables did not fall onto the floor, but floated in the air. The red tea within too floated in the air, taking the form of brown goblets.
…What’s going on?
In what seemed to be a spontaneous response to Naoto’s doubts, Marie exclaimed.
“A gravity anomaly…!”
She immediately crouched onto the floor and hid under the table. Beside her, Halter could only poke his head in (for his body was too big), and he anxiously asked,
“Has the collapse began?”
“Halter, how much time do we have left?”
“7 hours and 12 minutes–it should have been enough.”
Marie widened her eyes in shock.
“Has the ‘military’ begun the purge earlier…?”
“No, calm down. If what the higher-ups of the ‘Guild’ said is true, they won’t allow our technicians to be involved in the collapse.”
“But even so, a telltale sign of this scale is beyond expectations. If the chaos spreads, those guys might try something more forceful…!”
After a while, the tremors stopped.
However, there was a tense atmosphere surrounding them, as if lightning was about to befall upon them.
Naoto shooed the distant screams and growls into a corner of his consciousness, and stood up.
At this moment, Marie spoke up,
“You–”
“Huh?”
“What’s your name?”
Her emerald eyes contained a serious mood as she stared at him.”
Naoto could not ignore it, and answered,
“…I’m Naoto. Naoto Miura.”
Upon hearing that, Marie sighed,
She dejectedly lowered her head, and then lifted it adamantly,
“Good, Naoto. I just introduced myself, but I’ll do it again. My name’s Marie, and though I won’t admit that you’re a technician more amazing than me–”
She stopped talking, for RyuZU was behind her, giving a serious look.
She forced a smile, and continued,
“But I’ll agree to that to save my own life, ‘kay!? Listen up!? Enough with the formalities and courtesy! I just want a definite answer from you, even if it’s small. Do you have something that can possibly deal with this situation!?”
“Erm..”
“We can.”
RyuZU immediately answered in place of the hesitant Naoto.
And then, she calmly said to Marie, who turned around,
“From what you said, your problem is not that ‘you do not have time’, but that ‘you cannot identify the cause of the error’.”
Marie hesitated,
“…That’s right. Even if you say so however, what’s the difference between them?”
“The difference is clear to see. To put it the other way, if you can locate the cause, it should be fine.”
Marie hesitated slightly, and nodded,
“Right. If he can locate the cause, he can leave the rest to us…”
“In that case, there shall be no further issues–Master Naoto.”
“Wh-What?”
“You should have understood very well the cause of the anomaly in this city–the source of this sound.”
Upon hearing those words, Marie inadvertently titled her head.
“Voice?”
If that’s all they need, I guess it’s alright...Naoto nodded,
“But I’m not exactly very sure on where it is…we got to go to the 24th level to find that out.”
“Wa-wait!”
Marie shrieked, and grabbed Naoto tightly.
“How did you know the anomaly happened on the 24th level?”
“Eh?”
Marie looked ready to gnaw as she furiously interrogated a dumbstruck Naoto,
“Neither Halter nor I mentioned anything about the problem happening on the 24th level. How did you know when you haven’t entered the core tower?”
“Why, you ask…”
Naoto looked a little lost as he answered,
“Because the distorted sound is coming from there, right?”’
“–What…?”
“I already felt that it was very noisy, and it got unbearably noisy since two days ago. I thought the ‘military’ neglected to maintain it or something…”
“2 days ago–”
Marie widened her mouth in shock.
She recalled the gravitational anomaly that happened in the wee hours. That anomaly–but the calculations were only compiled by the 10 people in the observation team—no, wait, a distorted sound?
Marie was stunned, and Halter beside her cautiously asked,
“May I ask, Naoto–if what you’re saying is that you managed to pinpoint an anomaly 70km deep from the surface through the sound, through your own hearing, unassisted by any apparatus?
“Yeah, why?”
Naoto nodded casually, but Marie and Halter froze.
They were stunned.
They could understand the meaning behind these words, but on the other hand, they could not believe him at all.
They could not believe that this little boy right in front of them was human.
Marie yelled in a trembling voice,
“H-Hey you! Do you know what kind of an amazing thing did you just say casually?”
“No, erm, don’t you already know?”
Naoto said it as a matter-of-fact, but Marie lashed out forlornly,
“…Yeah, we did, but that’s because we had no choice but to catch a ‘military’ technician and interrogate him after only managing to check the first 2 levels in a single day!”
Naoto widened his mouth in shock, and asked skeptically,
“Why does it have to be that troublesome? Ah, is it because you guys are being careful?”
“It’s because we can’t detect it if we don’t do it…”
After saying those words, Halter made a deep sigh, seemingly wanting to squeeze out all the air from his artificial lungs.
“Huh? My ears are better than ordinary people’s, but you guys have the listening devices, right?”
“…I say, who’ll go through so much work if listening devices can solve this–?”
“Hold on.”
Marie interrupted a frowning Halter, and asked with a tense look,
“–Now that I realize it, aren’t you wearing noise-cancelling headphones?”
“Hm, so what?”
You’re kidding me, Marie shouted hoarsely.
“Yo-You’re wearing such earphones–so why are you still able to converse with us?”
“Even if you ask me, it’s cheap though?”
Naoto looked really lost as he scratched his cheek, and continued,
“It’s not like I often listen to music, but it feels a lot more comfortable when things are quiet.”
–Because I feel a lot more relaxed.
Once Naoto said this, Marie questioned him with a menacing stare,
“–Relaxed? Even the cheap stuff nowadays can block out sounds completely!”
“Even if you say so, I can hear you completely.”
“That’s why it’s really weird! Your ears shouldn’t be able to hear anything now, right? How in the world did you managed to ‘hear’ in such a situation?”
Marie looked ready to gnaw at any given moment, and Naoto merely blinked, scratched his head, and said,
“E-Erm, even if you say so.”
“……No, that’s fine. You don’t look like you’re lying.”
Marie sighed, and solemnly asked,
“In other words, you can detect the cause of the anomaly through the sounds. If we bring you to the 24th level, you will be able to detect it. Once we do find it, we’ll think of some way to deal with the rest–is that okay?”
As Marie continued to stare at him, Naoto scratched his head, looking bothered,
–I know people are pinning hopes on me.
This feeling was very foreign to Naoto himself–perhaps it was the first time even. He could not answer honestly at once, but hesitated a little, and answered unconfidently.
“E-Erm, I’ll tell you before you’re disappointed. I’m just an ordinary High School student, and playing with mechanics is just a hobby of mine. I’m just an amateur who’s not even an apprentice, let alone a technician, you know?”
“Thanks for saying so much nonsense.”
Marie glanced at Naoto as the latter muttered, and shrugged,
“But it’s fine. You’re not familiar with it, but I know how complicated RyuZU’s construct is. Since you’re able to repair her, and since you managed to located the malfunction through your ears, that’s enough. I believe in that.”
Naoto was silent.
After pondering for a little while, Naoto looked at this blond-haired girl for the first time–right in the eyes.
He asked,
“…I say, why are you going to such lengths?”
The wails of the passers-by reached his ears through the headphones.
Since he had known that this city was to be purged, there was no reason to stay here He too wanted to escape immediately.
“I can tell from your words that you have nowhere to go. Your future’s bleak. Why aren’t you running away?”
He thought that was an ordinary thought—however,
“I hate to think of something as being impossible.”
Marie told Naoto,
“There’s a limit to everything in nature, but telling me to give up when I decide to test myself to the limits is something I have to refuse. I’m making challenges no matter when it is, and that too applies to my father, older sister, and all the Meisters.”
Naoto could not comprehend such a thought.
“…Why?”
“Because this world’s just like this–our planet died 1000 years ago. We met out limit, and reached the end. Because of that technician who never gave up however, we’re able to continue living.”
Marie smiled, and continued,
“Something irreplaceable will always stand in the far distance. That’s why I don’t want to give up. If I run away now–I’ll lose my dignity forever.”
“…”
And so, Marie murmured prayerfully,
“Please–lend me your power.”
Naoto could not answer.
The boy who was born as an ordinary person, grew up in the bottom, and enjoyed his current lifestyle.
The prodigy girl who was born as a genius, refined her own talents, and honored her lofty ideals first and foremost.
They were like oil and water.
Their values differed so much it was depressing. There was no way they could understand in such a short time.
“…”
Naoto felt that since this city was about to collapse, he should escape immediately.
Luckily–if he could possibly say so, he had no place to call home. No matter where he went, this fact would not change.
Why should I believe in a creature called Marie I can’t not understand and bring RyuZU to such a harsh scene? More importantly, what’s the benefit for me?
“…Sorry…”
“Ah–Master Naoto. There is something I wish to report.”
The moment Naoto was about to voice his refusal, RyuZU interrupted him.
“I do belong to you, so I do not know if I should answer…”
With these words as the prelude, RyuZU calmly spoke up.
And then, she looked in the direction of the core tower through the glass window.
“If she is not moved away…my ‘little sister’ should be in the underground of Kyoto’s core tower.”
–*THUMP*!!
Naoto sensed an intense throbbing of his heart.
For that instant, he forgot to breathe, as the words RyuZU said echoed in his mind over and over again.
–Little sister…sister, sister…eh? Sister…?”
“Little…sister…?”
–RyuZU’s little sister.
Underneath the core tower?
In this Kyoto?
In this city’s that’s to be purged and buried along with this already dead planet?
His lungs were gasping for breath, the feeling of his blood flowing in reverse running within him.
“…That, in other words, that means…”
He tried his hardest to take a deep breath, trying to act calm.
Naoto then exclaimed, unable to hide his excitement while trying his hardest,
“A-an-an automata that’s built later than RyuZU?”
“Yes. The 4th unit of the Initial-Y series, ‘trishula’ AnchoR lies within there.”
“W-wa-wait, in other words, she’s a more advanced automata than you, RyuZU?”
Upon hearing Naoto’s excited words, RyuZU frowned.
“–There is no automata that is stronger than me in terms of cognitive abilities, but in terms of specifications, they can be superior to me under certain conditions. They are my capable little sisters inferior humans are unable to compare to.”
Naoto staggered to his feet.
His body temperature was surging, his blood pressure skyrocketing.
“Erm, well, before I actually see her, you mind telling me something?”
“Yes, may I know what you wish to ask?”
“Erm…she’s called AnchoR, right? ……how’s she like?”
“Let me think. Pretty and neat short black hair. Her irises are a little small, but she does have bright red irises. She assumes the form of what is equivalent to a 12-year-old human, is less than 140cm in height, and is inapt at expressing her emotions. As her codename ‘trishula’ indicates, she has the strongest fighting mobility and weapons amongst all the automatas–”
“–What’re we spacing out for!? Let’s go, guys!”
Naoto stood up straight and raised his fist to the sky.
He then said adamantly,
“If there’s a small possibility of saving 20 million people hiding in my hands, I’m definitely not going to let go! I guess this is my—destiny!”
Naoto said this with such vigor, his eyes glittering, like his soul was burning.
Normally, they would be called ‘ulterior motives’ and ‘selfishness’.
Humans—especially women like Marie—would not know of this.
They would not know that men would risk their lives to fight just because of a spur of a moment.
These creatures called men were so foolish yet so noble–
“…I say, Milady. Is it really alright to leave this to that guy…”
“Don’t ask this, okay…?”
Marie shook her head and murmured in response to Halter’s mutter.
●
Having decided on heading to the core tower, Naoto and company quickly moved down the hotel’s aisle.
They were headed for the underground parking lot. Halter’s vehicle was parked there.
They passed through the lobby, now in a mess after the fancy chandelier that had fallen, and appeared at the staircase.
And Halter stopped there, turned back, and said,
“Then, how do we deal with them? You know, if we’re going to the core tower, there’ll definitely be interference.”
Halter glanced over at the other side of the wall.
And Marie, who understood the meaning of that, nodded,
“…We have to do something. If we’re discovered to be headed to the core tower, the staff at the workplace will end up taken as hostages.”
Marie sighed, and reluctantly shrugged.
At that moment, Naoto, standing right beside her, called out,
“What are you doing? Aren’t we going to the core tower?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“That’s not much time left, right? Let’s hurry up.”
“…That’s why I’m thinking of what we should do next. Understand?”
Marie clicked her tongue in annoyance.
In response to that, Naoto tilted his head perplexedly.
“You’re talking about those guys over there watching us? They’re the reason why we can’t move forward?”
Naoto displayed a surprising amount of observational skills, and Marie seemed more peeved than before as she frowned,
“…If you found that out, can you at least use your mind a little more? Do you think those guys watching us will let us go without saying anything once they see us?”
“No, but,”
Naoto stared at Halter’s massive body,
“Uncle here is a cyborg soldier, and RyuZU’s here. Can’t we just end them before they make the report?”
“Seriously, you…you’re becoming dangerous once you get motivated.”
And while Halter grimaced, Marie sighed softly,
“I want to do that too if I can, but it’s not that simple. This is politics. The technicians in the ‘military’ are all useless, but their organizational ability–”
“Then what do you want to do anyway? Political games?”
“–!!”
Marie swung a fist at Naoto–and stopped.
Her clear emerald eyes were staring at Naoto, her body trembling in rage.
Unable to hide her furor, she vented her frustrations as she lashed out,
“…You don’t understand anything at all!”
“I don’t understand. It’s because I don’t that I’m asking this, right?”
Naoto said
“What’s with politics, and what’s with organizational ability? Are those more important than going to the core tower and repairing it?”
He had no worries at all.
He was able to show such an unrestrained, unrestricted, radiant expression, for he was an ordinary citizen.
And this youth of freedom, who acted on his own whims for his own desires, said something philosophical,
“–Either way, everything else other than that doesn’t matter, right?”
“–!!”
Marie closed her eyes, and slammed her raised fist at the wall with all her might.
Then, she took a deep breath, and quietly spoke to the big man standing beside her,
“Halter.”
“Here.”
“Though–I’m really unhappy that I can’t out-talk this moron.”
“Don’t call me a moron.”
Marie ignored Naoto’s protests, and continued,
“Tell me, who do you think is correct, objectively?”
“Well…if it’s adults debating, you’re probably correct, Milady.”
Halter stroked his chin, and shrugged as he continued,
“–But if it’s between kids, isn’t it alright to agree with that brat’s view like a kid? This uncle’s job is to wipe the butts of a kid.”
…Kid. Marie murmured this word, and nodded, saying,
“Well–you’re right. I’m still a little girl after all.”
“Hm. You’re not a technician now, you’re nothing, just an arrogant snobbish Princess who’s inexperienced in the matters of the world.”
Halter chuckled happily.
He then reached out his sturdy palm, saying in a teasing manner,
“Is there any job you wish to hand over to me, Marie?”
“–Hm.”
Marie nodded, grimacing.
And RyuZU, standing beside them, coldly interjected,
“Are you finally done? Precious time is being wasted in masses like flowing water while you continued to hesitate. May I at least hope that you have the ability to reflect upon this?”
“I got it…but RyuZU, may I include you as fighting strength?”
In response to Marie’s question, RyuZU showed an elegant expression as she lifted the hems of her skirt slightly, and bowed.
“My job is to eliminate all obstacles standing in Master Naoto’s path.”
Marie nodded, and turned to Naoto,
“Naoto, since you said such big talk, you’re going to help me out, right?”
“Let me say this first. I’m weak at fighting.”
“I don’t have any expectations regarding that. More importantly–”
Marie placed her hands on her hips, and said to Naoto tauntingly,
“This ‘talent’ RyuZU said you have–show it to me.”
Naoto nodded, and sighed gently.
He slowly removed the cheap headphones that were giving off a green light.
And then,
–Amidst the sea of noise that was nauseating, Naoto stumbled.
“Uu…”
He frowned, and gritted his teeth.
He even had the feeling that everything entered his ears, and was stuck in his mind.
It was probably due to the change in gravity. The gears in the city were all giving off strange noises, and there were confused people shouting in response to the sudden turn of events. All sorts of noises could be heard, forming a sacrilege of an orchestra that entered Naoto’s ears.
“Master Naoto.”
Once she saw that Naoto was about to fall over, RyuZU immediately went over to support him.
“It is alright. If it is you, Master Naoto–you can definitely do it.”
Yeah. Naoto took a deep breath.
“I can’t ruin my name as a mechanical nerd here if I want to repay the trust of the best automata in this world.”
He closed his eyes.
–In the midst of the maddening storm of noises, a clear zephyr-like melody could be heard.
It was the sound of RyuZU’s gears moving, such a beautiful, elegant, perfect, fateful melody.
Thanks to the harmonic melody from RyuZU, Naoto was able to extract the important information from the massive pool of data that entered his mind.
And then–
“…Now then–let’s go.”
Naoto slowly started to count the number of those things.
●
Marie elegantly descended the spiral staircase leading to the parking lots.
And Naoto followed her from behind tentatively.
However, there appeared 2 men in their way, standing on the landing of the stairs.
The two hulking men stood side by side in front of Marie, giving off a pressure of wanting to crush her.
One of the men glared at her, saying,
“Are you ex-Meister Marie Bell Breguet?”
Marie grinned, and said,
“You won’t believe me even if I tell you no, right?”
The men did not smile however,
“We’re from the ‘military’. There’s something we would like to ask you, regarding the disappearance of the military technician Niijima.”
“I see, so you used this as an excuse already. That’s quite some preparations you made.”
One of them stepped forward to grab Marie by the shoulder, however,
Marie lowered her body.
She stuck a leg out to trip the man grabbing her shoulder, and then slammed a high kick at the falling head. It was so strong a bone crack could be heard.
She looked down at the man that was taken down before he could say anything, and clicked her tongue.
“–Who allowed you to touch me? At least know your place.”
“Brat! You wanna fight–!?”
The other man too got agitated as he reached out for Marie.
Marie coldly knocked that hand away in a flowing motion.
And then, her arm drew an arch, the tightly clenched fist slammed directly into the chin.
The man tumbled over, unable to endure the pain, and defended his upper body as his posture was staggered.
At that moment, Marie pranced.
She did a sharp turn, the boot pounded deep into the man’s solar plexus with the help of centrifugal force.
This hulking man was taken down in that instant, and one could only hear the heavy sound of flesh tumbling onto the floor.
“–”
Marie landed on the floor together with her lofted coat.
And then, she drew a candy from her pocket without looking at the downed man, popped it into her mouth, and chewed on it.
Upon seeing this, Naoto instinctively knelt down.
“Sorry for saying all sorts of big talk to you just now!”
Please don’t use those attacks on me. Naoto seemed to be begging this, and,
“Good. Glad that you understand.”
Marie nodded, and turned around.
She turned to look at the corridor at the bottom of the stairs, linking to the parking lots.
Unexpectedly, there appeared a military automata.
It was a light-armored type that was bipedal. It had the silhouette of a human, but the two overly thick arms were ugly. The front end of the right arm was a muzzle, aimed right at the duo on the landing.
Marie widened her eyes in the face of this weapon that could easily mince 2 children.
“You got to be kidding me. That’s scary.”
However, this line was not intended to be said about the enemy.
Her face showed no signs of fear, despite being basked under the mechanical killing intent.
“Halter!”
A massive body responded to Marie’s call, and leap down from above the corridor.
*THUMP* there was a dull impact.
Halter’s fist landed firmly on the automata, using the falling momentum, causing the frame to be severely deformed and wrecked.
The automata staggered backwards, and Halter landed, protecting Marie and Naoto.
The automata immediately calculated the threat level of the enemy that had just attacked—through the analysis of the body functions and enemy distance, it assumed the completely mechanized soldier Halter to be the biggest threat, and changed targets from Marie to him.
But at that moment, Halter was standing right in front of the automata.
He grabbed the massive right arm and crushed it using his own weight.
“–!”
The wires popped out, the gears and springs flying everywhere.
The automata stumbled a few steps backwards–but spun greatly, stamped on the floor and leapt at Halter.
The remaining left arm swung at him like a guillotine.
This was a hit that could send a human flying–but Halter easily blocked it with one hand.
“–, –!”
The automata started to tremble.
Halter grinned as he blocked the military automata that was struggling with all its might.
“That’s quite a simple battle algorithm. Hey, you want to tussle this completely mechanized me with the output of that light armor?– Aren’t you looking down on me now?”
The automata’s arm was crushed in a creak.
Halter grabbed that arm, his fingers twisting the armor. The shaft was shattered, and the frame was hammered.
“You—idiot!”
And then,
Halter stomped onto the floor, causing a radial crack upon it.
He exerted all his strength in an explosive punch.
This hit came faster than the flying shrapnel.
He activated all the functions in his body, and punched through the armor of this military automata, wrecking the core without mercy, forcefully terminating the functions of this enemy machine–
The shredded springs fell, the wrecked pistons rolling emptily.
He tossed aside the scrap machine, and Marie, standing behind, said to him,
“That’s to be expected of you, Halter. Good job.”
Halter turned around, spotted the girl walking down the stairs, and shrugged,
“That’s just a mere chore. However–”
He stared at Naoto, and wondered,
“You’re able to find out the number of enemies and their locations so accurate..are your ears sonar or something?”
Right–the intel Naoto had picked up was frighteningly precise.
Halter could not tell how Naoto could determine ‘these guys have bad intents on us’, but either way, he did thoroughly pick up on the enemy numbers, locations and weapons.
How much of an advantage can such an ability bring in strategic planning–
But Naoto did not think anything about it as he asked Halter excitedly,
‘Uncle uncle! You’re not using normal military prosthetics, right?”
“Oh? You know that too? That’s right, I look like an ordinary good guy, but my insides won’t lose to anyone, you know? This is the ‘8th Generation’ created by the Breguet Company.”
“What? The 8th generation? Don’t they only have the ‘6th Generation’ on the market now..?”
“This is a prototype more advanced than the next generation that’s to be introduced to the market. IT’s a real high-end product.”
And then, Halter posed to show off his muscles.
“I’m the bodyguard of this Princess, so we used some secret techniques of the Breguet Company through some connections.”
“Wow~! Hey, please detach yourself and show the parts to me–!”
“What disgusting things are you two guys saying!? Let’s go!”
With Marie prompting them, Naoto and Halter kept quiet.
They hurried down the stairs, and quickly arrived at the parking lots.
A black sedan was parked by the entrance.
But the moment she was about to approach the door.
“Don’t move!”
A really loud voice, amplified by the loudspeaker’, boomed throughout the underground parking lots.
Marie widened her eyes as she looked up, and standing in the middle of the path leading to the surface was a stout steel giant—its Electricity Conservation Measures functions removed.
“The VS-08 ‘Grat’–!? An armored soldier? You got to be kidding me!”
Halter murmured, cold sweat trickling down.
That was a humanoid weapon with mechanical clockwork functions, developed by the Vachron family.
It was completely silent, imbedded with silencers, and also had a stealth mode comprised of thermal and optical camouflages. It was an ace used in combat under special environments–and had overwhelming fighting abilities such that many of the light-armor automatas from before could not defeat it even if they banded together.
The cannon was so powerful it could easily blast through the latest combat prosthetic Halter used.
It turned its cannon to Marie’s group in a flowing manner, and then…
–BOOM.
●
After hearing the report over the communicator, Limonz gasped.
…What did that imbecile just say!?
He felt sweat seeping out of the hand holding that communicator.
“……C-can you repeat that again?”
“As I said, Marie Bell Breguet and her two escorts resisted greatly, so we had no choice but to shoot them down. Also, an ordinary citizen was involved in this battle–”
“That ordinary citizen does not matter!!”
Limonz clicked his tongue, and continued,
“Who permitted you to kill them!? I said to capture them alive!!!”
“Yes, but–”
This ambiguous answer caused further anxiety in Limonz, and he hissed in an interrogative manner,
“You folks activated our company’s Grat, and you still cannot catch a single brat!?”
“…Please pardon me. It is a little inappropriate to think of this target as an ordinary person.”
“She is simply a little rascal.”
He spat sharply.
He slapped the communicator over and over again, completely seething.
“Right, she is simply a little rascal after all. The most she can do is to fool around with mechanics.”
“..”
“You killed her, right?…I see, so she is dead.”
He licked his lips, and inhaled some air.
“I guess there is nothing of her left after she got caught in the Grat’s machine gun fire.”
He sounded as if he was a little expectant of something, and the informant gave him a definitive answer.
“…Yes. The corpse took massive damage. It will take us some time to figure out if it’s really her–”
“No need for that. Just bury the corpse. We do not need a report. Marie Bell Breguet disappeared during the collapse of the city. We just have to settle it as that.”
“…Is that really alright?”
“If news gets out that the princess of the Breguet family got killed by Vachron’s men, things will get out of hand. These streets will sink in a few hours anyway.”
“Understood.”
Once this line was said, the call was ended.
Limonz quietly hung up the phone–and flipped it together with the table.
He widened his eyes, his teeth gritting as he howled in fury.
“Fools! Those useless morons…!”
It would be troublesome if she was really dead.
He wanted to use Marie Bell Breguet as the scapegoat of this incident, to be scorned by the public, and weaken the Breguets.
However, that could only work if she was alive.
The dead could not bear responsibility, and if their daughter was killed, the Breguets would be more aggressive in response. This was the exact opposite of what the Vachrons wanted.”
“That filthy whore! She wants to shame us even in death…!?”
–And more importantly,
If she were to die so easily, he would not be able to let her experience much shame.
Limonz wanted to humiliate her.
He wanted to enjoy the moment, how her beautiful face would contort when her pride and dignity was lost.
If not, he would show mercy as a bait during the hearing or to reinstate her, and make that arrogant girl break down in tears, serve him like a cheap prostitute–such a future was not impossible.
But these wretched desires became meaningless the moment she was dead.
He was fuming.
However, he had no choice. He wanted to at least kick at her corpse, he did not have enough time to do so. The anomalies in the city were starting to hasten, and the time to purge was about to occur.
Limonz cursed as he hastened his steps to the helicopter parked on the roof.
●
–
“…Is this really okay?”
Halter asked as he switched off the recorder.
Marie smiled cheerfully and nodded,
“Yeah. The Princess of the Breguets got killed by the Vachrons—you really recorded it down, right?”
“To be honest, I feel that this plan is full of flaws…”
Halter stroke his chin as he murmured,
“Well, it’s fine. This voice recording shall become actual proof, and no matter what the soldiers say afterward, it will simply be treated as evidence that can’t be hidden.
“If Marie dies, those guys’ plan will be more or less ruined…that’s the logic, but I never thought you would think of faking your own death.”
Halter sighed, and turned to look behind.
Behind the duo, RyuZU had sliced the armored soldier into bits, piling it in a hill.
The youth–Naoto searched through the heap, and muttered with an annoyed look.
“This is the signature work of one of the 5 Enterprises Vachron…there’s no artistic sense at all.”
“That is correct. However, Master Naoto, if it is something a child created through block stacking, even worthless refuse should be given a suitable amount of reward. For example–you have worked hard.”
The girl standing beside Naoto–RyuZU, whispered scathingly.
Halter watched the duo, and spoke softly,
“…Two humans, one light-armor automata, one armored soldier, and a recon soldier. All of them got picked up accurately by Naoto’s ‘ears’–I thought he was mistaken about the armored soldier.”
“If the Vachron Company finds out that this Grat stealth system they’re so proud of was easily seen through, what sort of expressions will the weapons developers there show–hohoho, serves them right♪”
“You look rather happy there.
Halter put down the communicator, stood up, and sighed,
“As an ex-soldier, even I don’t really want to believe this after seeing this. He could even hear a stealth machine underground; how did he do it.”
“But there’s no room to doubt. He’s the real deal.”
Marie narrowed her eyes.
–In fact, it was impossible in theory.
Animals like ‘elephants’ did not listen using their ‘ears’, but through their ‘feet’.
They sense the tremors on the ground their soles, and use it to communicate with their comrades far away. The tremors on the earth, the surface, the air–even voice was a vibration. Those that could cause interference with everything else would create a resonance.
It was impossible for the ‘footsteps’ of those underground–the vibrations of the air to reach the surface. However, the air tremors would cause the walls to shake, and the walls would shake along with the building.
There were animals who can hear a coin drop from several kilometers away.
There exists radars and sonars, which uses the same concept.
However–Marie glanced aside at Naoto.
–Naoto Miura.
He is a ‘human’. Or is supposed to be one.
He was able to carry out a conversation despite wearing noise canceling headphones. If he could detect slight vibrations through his entire body–for example, through the bones or anything like that, such a phenomena could be explained.
But if such a thing was to exist in real life and even made use of till this day, how should she explain this?
Such a phenomena could not be simply explained as ‘a unique skill’.
If it can be described in a single word from the vast knowledge Marie had amassed–it was a ‘superpower’.
In this world that is completely made of gears, this ability, the value of that power, if it were to be measured in a mere person’s terms, there would be much significance in this–
“Marie?”
“–!”
This voice pulled Marie out from her vortex of thoughts.
“Wh-what…?”
“Nothing. I just saw you spacing out there. What are you thinking about? Aren’t we rushing for time?”
Marie watched Naoto staring at her with a strange look, his head tilted.
“–Yeah, that’s right. Sorry.”
She apologized and ceased her thoughts, putting her skepticism aside.
This was not the time to think about such things.
At this moment, the most important thing was to see if this youth was just as RyuZU had said–someone she could entrust her thoughts to. And then…
“…Now then, are you alright, Milady?”
“Yes, Halter. I’ll leave this to you.”
Marie removed the Chronopass dangling at the chest of her coat.
This was the proof of a Meister.
The girl called Marie Bell Breguet once received this medal.
And she,
“–!!”
Threw it into the air.
And Halter fired at it.
The ‘Chromepass’ dancing in the air was shot down by Halter’s accurate bullet.
“–”
And it, it broke apart, scattered into countless gears.
“Right–it doesn’t matter to me at all. What ‘Meister’?”
These words seemed spiteful, but Marie’s tone was very refreshed.
This ultra-intricate pocket watch, comprised of 9 gears of all sizes, was reduced to powder.
It was the proof of being one of the best technicians in the world.
Some people even offered their lives to get one.
Outstanding qualities, remarkable talents, unyielding hard work–they gathered all these, bet their careers, and yet there were many technicians who despaired over their failure, as many as the stars in the skies even.
Even Marie, hailed as the jewel of the Breguets, only managed to attain it after so long.
“–”
But it was fine to her either way.
This thing had no use for her current ‘objective’, and would simply stand in the way of her ‘ideals’. It was completely worthless to her.
“Let me do everything I want from now on.”
Marie lifted her head, and looked around at everyone.
She clenched her fists, and said with vigor.
“I want to save this city. It doesn’t matter what happens later on. Anything that can’t help me now isn’t no different from shit. I’m going to go my way, and if anyone’s going to stop me, I’m going to crush it.”
Anyone got any issues!? Marie forcefully asked, and Halter answered back with a laugh.
And then, he covered his mouth and looked down, saying
“Of course it’s fine, but Professor Marie, I do think it’s unfitting of a posh lady to say the word ‘shit’.”
“Shut up, you idiot!”
Marie retorted, and placed her hands on her hips.
“The Meister Marie Bell Breguet is dead. I’m now Marie, and I have no responsibilities now. I’m just a little girl.”
She showed a feisty smile.
And then, she turned to Naoto and RyuZU.
“Now then, I’m of equal standing as you right now. Get ready to be commanded at any given moment.”
“Ah, er…yeah. I’ll do my best, yeah.”
At that moment, Halter had already checked through quickly if there were any explosives or traps installed in the car. He then unlocked it, and cheerfully said,
“Let’s get on board then. We’re going.”
●
Marie sat in the co-driver seat, while Naoto and RyuZU were seated in the back.
Once everyone fastened the seat belts, Halter sneered and stepped on the pedal.
The car rocketed up the slope of the parking lots as it flew up, and Halter turned the pedal around maniacally, causing the car to drift rightwards greatly. Naoto hurriedly grabbed the handle.
The car accelerated as its gravity engine roared.
“–This is terrible.”
Marie murmured as she watched the outside.
No matter how one tried to sugarcoat things, the fact remained that the outside looked deplorable.
Smoke churning in the air, thunderclouds churning, and one could even see a few twisters trampling upon the streets.
Under the effects of the gravity anomaly, there were houses, rubbish–and humans thrown into the air.
The destruction showed no signs of quelling as it expanded.
It was basically an impactful scene of a disaster in a panic movie, where metals flew about everywhere.
Halter’s spinning car continued to race through the streets like this.
They were headed to the center of the city–the massive core tower stretching through the sky and the earth.
The massive core control functions that manipulate all the weather and natural functions in this city.
“Hurry, Halter!”
“Got it!”
There were car accidents seen everywhere along the wide main street, but Halter continued to dart between the gaps, and even accelerated.
Naoto, having removed his headphones to concentrate on his hearing, suddenly whispered,
“Well, just think of it as gibberish from me if you notice it already–two dangerous looking cars are approaching us from the left right now.”
“What? The ‘military’!?”
“No–that doesn’t seem to be the case?”
Naoto shook his head, and two gray cars flew in from the flank.
Two unmanned cars with machine guns mounted on their flat surfaces.
After gliding for quite a while, they switched directions and chased them at an alarming speed.
“–Warning! Warning! Please stop your car!”
One of the cars let out a corrupted voice.
“They’re unmanned police patrol cars, and not the pursuers from the ‘military’. The cars themselves are akin to automata, so they probably gave chase based on their own judgment.”
“Eh? Why’s the police chasing us now?”
Marie growled furiously, and Naoto pondered for a while, before answering,
“I guess–it’s because this car is way beyond the speed limit?”
“You gotta be kidding me!?”
Marie growled as she stamped at the dashboard.
“They still care about speeding at such a moment!? Are all Japanese morons or something!?”
And then, she turned to Halter the driver, and asked,
“Can we shake them off?”
“I’ll be tough. They’re moving faster than us, and the troublesome thing is that they’ll get in our way.”
“Understood.”
Marie undid her seatbelt, turned around, and raised the co-pilot seat. She then began looked around for something, and asked Naoto,
“Naoto, are you sure those are unmanned?”
“Yeah. No doubt about that. What do you want to do?”
“Lower your head and hang on tight.”
“Eh?”
“Master Naoto, please come over to this side.”
RyuZU then pulled Naoto to her side, ostensibly protecting him.
Naoto’s body inadvertently froze up once he heard the pursuing cars approach.
Marie opened the sunroof of the car, and poked her body outside.
Her hands were holding, onto a 25cm long thing–?
“Wha!?”
A sub-machine gun.
She ignored Naoto’s surprise outburst as she fired at the car on the right.
The fully automatic rain of bullets was pelted upon the unmanned patrol car.
However, the scattered bullets bounced off the surface armor of the car, and the car itself was left unscratched.
“…A bulletproof type even. This is getting audacious.”
Marie clicked her tongue in disgust as she thought about how it was a mere patrol car. At this moment, Naoto interrupted,
“Erm, if this is an action movie, I don’t know whether this ordinary citizen A that got innocently involved in this should interrupt…”
“What?”
“That car you attacked just now has two wheels. The front right is moving a little strange, so if you stab–”
Before Naoto could even finish, Marie quickly reassembled the sub-machine gun in her hand.
–Coil Spear.
She raised the weapon that had essentially become a mini-rifle at that instant, and started firing at will.
The bullets bounced off the asphalt, and hit the suspension of the fore right wheel—the tire on the right side was knocked aside, and the car shook greatly.
The car started to spin.
The car lost its balance, and veered greatly to the right, slamming to the other patrol car pursuing them, causing both cars to roll and tumble together, slam into the guardrail, and fell on its side.
“…Your ears are really convenient.”
Marie returned to the co-driver seat and latched on the seat belt as she marveled.
And Naoto trembled as he asked,
“Is it really a need to know how to shoot if you want to be a Meister…?”
“Don’t use this Princess as the standard.”
Halter laughed, and turned the steering wheel.
The car glided down a wide traffic junction, and raced off at a tremendous speed.
Their current location was between the buildings in the administrative district, the road long and wide.
All they had to do was to pass through this stretch, and they could reach the entrance of the core tower,
“…Things are going well up till now. I thought there’d be at least a checkpoint.”
“It’s necessary to get as much fighting strength when sealing the city. They probably got mobilized elsewhere.”
Halter answered as such to console an uneasy Marie.
Immediately afterwards, Naoto felt a chill tingle up his spine.
But before he could speak up–
“If you excuse me, Master Naoto.”
RyuZU, who had remained quiet till this point, got to action.
She lifted Naoto forcefully while the latter leaning on her. “Ah—woah.” Naoto, upon being buried in RyuZU’s soft breasts, let out a strange sound.
“? What are you—”
Marie turned back to look, and stopped midway through.
For RyuZU’s skirt was fluttering slightly.
Having been well acquainted with RyuZU’s construct, Marie knew the meaning of such an action.
It was the only ‘weapon’ RyuZU had–the black scythe extend out from underneath the skirt, and swung down at a speed even Halter, a cyborg, could not tell.
And with a snap, the car was severed in half like it was a joke.
The car was nearly sliced in half, into left and right as they glided on the road due to inertia.
“Wooahhh!?”
“What are you doing–!?”
Marie and Halter screamed, and then, there was a boom.
A sharp object flew in between the severed car sections.
–‘that thing’ flew by at supersonic, and even Naoto with his superhuman senses could not sense it.
Soon after, the explosion behind revealed its true identity.
A rocket shell–a high explosive shell with overwhelming firepower.
It flew by the sky.
The car bodies collapsed unstably due to the gales from the explosion. While the car body screeched on the ground, giving off a large amount of sparks, RyuZU embraced Naoto and leapt out of the car.
Though she was carrying only a person, she was practically dancing in the air.
And then, she landed gracefully.
She looked down at Naoto, who blinked in surprise while being in her chest.
“Master Naoto, are you hurt in any way?”
“No, I think they have a bigger problem however…”
Naoto said as he slid down from RyuZU’s arm.
The car, severed in two parts, continued to skid forward due to inertia. The frame got contorted, and the wheel rolled about, facing the sky.
Are those two still alive–the moment Naoto thought of it, a white fabric fallen beside the car–Marie suddenly leaped out, her summer coat slightly stained.
It seemed she managed to leap out at the last moment.
Her beautiful emerald eyes were filled with hostility as she lashed out,
“Ryu–ZU!! Were you trying to kill me!?”
But the being involved, RyuZU, remained surprised,
“That certainly is an extraordinary thing to hear. On a subjective side, it should be seen as be saving those feeble, fleeting lives of yours while I was saving Master Naoto at this same time. Should you not be lowering your heads and thanking me graciously in such a situation?”
“Don’t you know what it means to do things in moderation!?”
Beside her, Halter, who was also all dirtied, stumbled out.
He turned to look behind, stared at the road covered with pitholes, and muttered with a troubled tone,
“…Hey, Marie, instead of worrying about that, those guys are firing on the streets.”
“Ahh, seriously! Does anyone here have a normal working mind or something–!?”
“It seems Master Marie does have some unstable emotional tendencies. A lack of calmness is a sign of infancy, so would you at least show some maturity beyond that infant-like body of yours?”
Marie was left speechless by RyuZU’s words, and lowered her head.
She clenched her fists, trembling, her mouth leaking a voice that sounded as if it came from Hell.
“…It looks like the hatred borne from this ridiculous treatment is allowing me to rip a military automata to shreds.”
“Is that so? Wanna try it out now?”
Marie lifted her head, wanting to rebut at Halter’s teasing, but she was left speechless after seeing what was in front of her.
There was a red light in the middle of the road, approximately 300m away.
–It was an eye. A monoeye was shining from a humongous shadow blocking the path.
This gigantic frame was 6m long, and the circular silhouette was attached to 2 legs through 2 inverse joints. The silhouette was such that one would think of a hare or a short-legged ostrich. Also, there was a 120mm cannon installed on the abdomen.
Marie inadvertently spat out air.
“What now, Milady? Can you use those fists you’re proud of to do something?”
“You said that while knowing this right, Halter!? That’s a Heavy armor automata.”
–Heavy armor automata.
An unmanned automata developed for assault and repression, equipped with a powerful cannon, multiple layers of sturdy armor, and outstanding mobility even on uneven surfaces; due to it being more apt at turning in small angles, such an automata was without a doubt one of the strongest weapons in modern urban warfare.
Also, it was not the only unit appearing in front of them.
Looking far away, there was also a 2nd, 3rd…they could seen 16 such units in their field of vision.
Standing beside the heavy armor automata were many light armor automata and self-propelled artillery, and unmanned helicopters could also be seen in the air. With so many enemy units, Halter could only clench his fist.
“…It looks like we’ve been checkmated? What a bummer; my dream to hit the jackpot in Las Vegas and get a blond model to serve me hasn’t been fulfilled.”
“Please forget about such vulgar thoughts.”
Marie glanced at Halter condescendingly, but she was not looking relaxed after that.
“These unmanned weapons…they’re probably set to taking down anyone who approaches the core tower.”
The reason why they had yet to continue attacking was because the set distances to intercept a moving object like a car was far from the humans that were standing still
“They used an entire battalion’s worth of firepower. Where has the idea of moderation gone to.”
“It’ll be bad if they don’t get any form of damage if they want to make this look like an accident.”
Though they sounded relaxed when talking, an atmosphere of despair began to surround them.
During this time, RyuZU silently stepped forward, and asked,
“Then, am I allowed to assume…that you are going to give up?”
“Well–”
Marie grumbled impatiently.
“We can’t break through them head on. Right now, we need to think of loopholes in their settings and find another route in–”
“If you assume that there is such time, I have no choice but to re-categorize Master Marie from being a ‘small fry’ to being ‘less than a small fry’…”
RyuZU mocked Marie scathingly as she stepped forward elegantly.
“RyuZU? What are you planning to do?”
In response to Naoto’s worried voice, RyuZU merely answered briefly,
“Eliminate.”
And then, she pulled a leg back by half a step.
She glared at the obstacles in front of her, as if they were vile, crude things.
“Since such grotesque, distasteful litter has pointed their guns brazenly upon Master Naoto. They shall be the ‘enemies’ I have to eliminate.”
Upon hearing RyuZU say such assertion, Marie yelled out with apprehension,
“Wa-wait! Those are the latest MAs, you know!?”
“So?”
“What so? You…!”
“If you wish to say an antique from a 1000 years ago is unable to beat the latest weapons.”
RyuZU showed a little fearless smile.
Her golden eyes were staring at the front.
“This is my answer–”
And then, RyuZU looked up.
“You have yet to make progress even after 1000 years, and are only able to create ‘toys’ inferior to me–the weakest of the ‘Sisters’. This is why your minds are unable to graduate beyond the level of mites.”
A sound was ringing.
It was not akin to a gentle sounding singing voice.
In a businesslike, mechanical tone, RyuZU said these words–or to be precise, she declared.
“Defining Declaration–Initial Y series, Unit 01, ‘Yourslave’ RyuZU.”
Right, it was a real declaration.
“Inherent function–‘Dual Time’…activating sequence, begin.”
It was the assertion of a rebellion.
She declared her intent that from this point onwards–she would defy the laws of Physics.
Naoto widened his eyes in shock.
He heard a sound within RyuZU, a sound no ordinary person would be able to hear.
Tik tack, tik tack, tik tack, the sound of the second hand ticking.
The sound was smooth, precise, irregularly, incoherent, yet it was–being warped so beautifully, so naturally.
At the same time, the sound of gears being meshed together could be heard. With the sound of dominoes falling, the shape and color of RyuZU’s black dress was changed. Her white skin was revealed, and a thin, clear veil fluttered, forming a tight-fitting crystal-colored wedding veil around that ample body of hers.
At that instant, the golden eyes seemed to change into a blazing ruby.
“–Beginning shift from 1st clock ‘Real Time’ to 2nd clock ‘Imaginary Time’.”
The clock disk in front of RyuZU’s chest was pressed like a shutter.
After that, the second clock disk hidden within showed itself.
The ticking of the second hand that could not be heard before hammered at Naoto’s eardrums.
However, the supernatural sound released from RyuZU caused her, her time, and even her existence to transcend beyond the normal laws.
He could not understand.
But his instincts had clearly caught up to the changes in that sound.
“Activating (Chrono Hook)–jumping from real movement to imaginary movement.”
RyuZU suddenly turned around.
Naoto gasped.
The crimson eyes facing him were glowing lightly like an avant-garde design, a blaze emerging from within.
RyuZU then spoke in a melodic manner,
“Master Naoto.”
“–Ye-yes?”
“A mere gear that caused me to cease functions for 206 years; the ‘Imaginary Gear’ you repaired for me, Master Naoto, shall be activated. Though it may be a temporal moment for you, it is the same as being several hours on ‘my time plane’.”
–Naoto looked confused, not understanding the meaning behind these words.
RyuZU however closed her eyes in an apologetic manner, and continued to say stoically,
“This function will not cease until the energy from the spring has been used up. However, I shall return back to you, so until then–please spin my spring bac.”
“Ye-Yes.”
“Now then, though it will be 3 hours from my point of view, please pardon me to leave your side.”
And so, RyuZU lifted the hem of her skirt elegantly as she bowed deeply.
And then, she said the name of that function,
“–‘Mute Scream’–”
In that instant, everything ended within Naoto’s cognition.
●
Naoto was unable to explain that in order.
For his—no, humans’ imperfect vision could only think that everything happened at the same time.
That was really the case.
It felt as if 5 minutes had suddenly jumped by in a film.
It was an unnatural feeling, one where it seemed everything that should have passed by was omitted.
An illogical reality where every single change happened within that instant.
It was even a blasphemous scene that could not be explained.
If one had to start from an obvious beginning–that would be,
The 16 military automatas that were standing in their way at first were shredded in unison.
Their remains fell in piles, and the countless hundreds of light armor automatas were sliced along the necks, torsos and legs, without exception.
The self-propelled artillery, installed at vital positions, were sliced horizontally like they were props used for comedy.
The stealth helicopters, numbering more than 10, had given off some pressure as they dominated the sky, yet their rotary blades were snapped off without a trace, and explosions echoed about before they could even collapse.
That was the beginning, and the end.
The massive battalion of unmanned military that was deployed to seal off the core tower was completely reduced to metal scrap ‘in that instant’, just as the term implied, falling onto the ground, lying in piles.
“Wh-What’s…going on…?”
Halter muttered, looking flabbergasted.
“…Did RyuZU do all of these?”
Naoto said this, and suddenly noticed the comforting weight leaning upon his feet.
He looked down, and found RyuZU leaning there, her face showing the expression of a child coaxed into sleep by her parents,
“R-right, I got to spin her spring–”
Naoto recalled the request behest to him, and hurriedly set her down.
He carried RyuZU on his arms by her slender waist, pulled aside the silver strands of hair, reached for RyuZU’s spring–the little grip hidden cleverly on her forehead, and cautiously spun it around.
On the other hand, Marie shrieked,
“Imaginary…? Imaginary time–!?”
Her eyes showed fear that could not be hidden completely,
“H-how’s that possible…time control’s a skill that can’t even be even a rumor here! How’s that possible!?”
“Ah, sorry to interrupt when you’re so agitated, but mind explaining things here?”
I don’t understand. Halter muttered.
And Naoto looked over at Marie in a very intrigued manner as he continued to spin RyuZU’s spring.
Marie gulped.
After taking a few deep breaths, she calmed herself down, and said,
“–Imaginary time is like how time flows in a dream or something like that…for example, well, have you been in the sort of situation where you only slept a few minutes, but that you had a long dream of a few days or something?”
Within dreams, time did not merely pass by.
There existed no continuity and congruence.
The time detected in dreams would hasten and slow down at times, and could skip to the past, the future, at will.
That demonstrated the fact that the concept of ‘time’ was all relative.
The absolute concept time that had flowed from the past to the future at a regular speed–the clock was merely measuring the human continual consciousness against the common time.
The evidence revealing this was by using mathematics, it was proven that this time plane runs perpendicular to the ordinary time plane.
In fact, imaginary numbers did not exist.
Thus–it was called the ‘Imaginary Number’.
–In the face of this long babble from Marie, Naoto said,
“Erm, sorry. I don’t understand the language you’re saying.”
“I’m speaking everything in Japanese, okay!?”
Marie yelled with all her might as she lashed out, and panted furiously.
Beside her, Halter sounded off skeptically.
“…But does such a thing really exist? Sorry, I really don’t know anything.”
I’m just a Gazelle after all. Marie then answered Halter’s grumble,
“…It doesn’t. No, I can’t tell even if it does exist.”
The observation of Imaginary time could only be shown through mathematics, and that something had to be running in imaginary time in the first place.
Since human consciousness was something could only flow continuously in a single direction, such a concept could never be understood, let alone observed.
But, well, Naoto tilted his head.
He stopped his hand spinning the spring, and pointed nonchalantly at RyuZU,
“Don’t we have one here?’
“That’s why I say it’s impossible!!”
In his attempt to appease this howling Marie, Halter interrupted and concluded,
“In other words, this Missy here can control imaginary time and move on a different time plane from us, causing such a devastation, is it?”
“No–that’s impossible.”
In response to Halter’s answer, Marie shook her head strongly to deny it.
“It’s impossible. Using plus energy to give minus output…there’s no way to explain other than such an impossible action. That’s probably just a random name and something else altogether–”
“Ah, that’s it, right?”
Naoto suddenly seemed to realize something as he called out.
Marie gave him a skeptical look.
“What? You got a lead?”
“RyuZU did say it right? Her functions stopped because of a certain gear.”
“Ahh, speaking of which…”
“RyuZU broke down back then because of that single gear–”
Naoto said,
“The gear was spinning clockwise, yet it was giving off energy of a counter-clockwise movement.”
“…………………………………………………………………………..Huh?”
After a long silence, Marie raised her eyes and stared at Naoto,
“Wh-What did you just say?”
“Nothing much. It’s as what I said. With such a gear present, as long as it doesn’t matter–”
“How in the world do you fix such a thing!?”
“Eh, erm–is it really weird?”
Marie then butted back, and yelled,
“That’s definitely very weird, right!? There’s no way such a thing is possible in the first place! Are you sick in the head or something!?”
“E-erm…?”
“Think about it normally!! What exactly did you learn in school!?”
“Ah, well…I’ve been sleeping except during practical class.”
Tehee, Naoto stuck his tongue out, and Marie watched him silently.
Sensing that there was a dangerous presence emanating from her, Naoto frantically continued,
“Ah…well, you probably never fixed it because you decided it was supposed to spin in a clockwise direction, right?”
And so, Marie hissed with a frigid expression and tone,
“Do you think it’s possible to throw a ball forward and have it flying at you from the back?”
Upon hearing her ask this, Naoto tilted his head, looking flabbergasted.
“……Ahh, now that you mention it, it is a little weird, right?”
“Right. That’s why–”
Looks like he finally gets it. Just when Marie heaved a sigh of relief, Naoto said,
“But there’s no other choice if the design’s like that, right?”
“D-D-D-DON’T KID AROUND WITH ME—————————————!!!!!!!”
Marie screamed in agony, her hair disheveled.
Her shoulders were trembling,
“All the generations in the 1300 year old Breguet family actually lost to a crazy, unimpressive, perverted bastard…what kind of a joke this this…!?”
Son of a bitch! Marie could not help but grit her teeth.
This imbecile in front of her was truly as he was described–one lacking common sense.
If it was not for this irrational, maddening logic, there was no way they could have repaired this automata. In that case—I see. Marie could truly understand why all the technicians born in the Breguets have failed.
She could understand this, but,
“…I really don’t want to admit this. What’s with this irrational thinking that defies all thinking…?”
Upon hearing Marie moan in anguish, Naoto tilted his head, and said,
“But I’ll say, we shouldn’t be talking about what common sense or impossible things now, right?’
“…What are you trying to say?”
“Because RyuZU’s made by ‘Y’, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
“I say–isn’t a guy who can think of using gears to move an entire planet crazy in the head or something?”
“———————————————————————————————————–”
“If such a guy made an automata, it’s logical to go beyond common sense here, right?”
“———————————————————————————————————–”
Marie could not answer.
Her tongue was seemingly frozen, unable to move.
‘Y’.
The legendary technician whose real name nobody knew of.
He was the designer of this planet–the ‘Clockwork Planet’, and also RyuZU’s creator.
Marie had never doubted his existence before.
She respected him as a technician, and researched hard, hoping to catch up to the skills he left behind.
However,
For the first time, on this day, she found some form of anomaly to him.
That monster created skills that were yet to be surpassed even after a thousand years, designed the blueprint to this planet, and even had control of relative time–imaginary time.
“–This is preposterous. Such a thing is impossible.”
But no matter how weird it was, the skills and the object itself was right in front of her. That was why she had no choice but to admit it. As Naoto had said, it was ‘that thing’.
…However, the chill she felt at that moment did not vanish.
The feeling of the ground at her feet collapsing did not fade away.
“–”
At that moment,
“……Good morning, Master Naoto.”
RyuZU, after having her spring wounded up, was activated again.
Upon seeing her, Marie and Halter inadvertently got into defensive stances.
What their eyes showed as they stared at RyuZU was clear to see–fear.
That was the most natural reaction a clock technician could do after personally seeing RyuZU the automata display such a ridiculous ability.
Dual time–Mute Scream.
As the words indicated, it was a function that spread death silently.
This automata could destroy anything and everything when time stands still, without any resistance facing it.
–Also, none of them could guarantee that they would not be attacked.
It would be alright if it were simply a weapon,
But RyuZU, an automata, had her own free will, and would not accept their commands.
Also, she was not bound by the ‘ethical code’. That means that she would kill. If there was a need for that, this automata could kill people easily…
With such a reality laid out in front of them, nobody would remain fearless. There would not be a fearless person.
But while RyuZU slowly got up,
“RyuZU.”
Naoto took a deep breath,
“Please be my bride!!!”
He yelled.
●
RyuZU gave an immediate reply.
Her voice was as clear as a music box, gentle, melodic.
Her cheeks slightly reddened, her thin smile filled with a little emotion mixed into it.
She said,
“It seems you have fallen head over heels for me, Master Naoto. I suggest you should discern your own standing however.
——……
Upon hearing such a merciless severance, Naoto collapsed on the ground, writhing.
A heartbreaking silence descended upon them.
Marie lifted her head, and stared at Halter,
He too narrowed his hollow eyes and stared back at Marie, who nodded as she stared at his cold, gloomy face. Both of them were thinking the same thing,
What is this guy saying now–
“Naoto…”
Marie sighed as she said to the trembling boy lying on all fours,
“You’re still normal, right–no, I guess that’s impossible already, but are you really alright? What sort of weird thinking process did you have that made you say such a thing…?”
But Naoto shuddered as he answered with a teeny-weeny voice,
“No…that was said on reflex…”
Because–I think I had no choice after seeing such a thing.
Naoto thought as he shuddered.
He liked machinery, loved machinery, and was so passionate about machinery he lived for him.
In his life, surrounded by so many gears, RyuZU’s existence was certainly the best thing that happened to him.
As an automata with the best specifications, she had the appearance of a very, very, very cute girl, the sound of the gears spinning like an angel’s singing voice, and he just so happened to be her master. So,
–How can I NOT fall for her?
And that transformation too.
Once he saw this girl, the most precious being to him in the universe, appearing in a wedding dress, he felt, when else am I going to confess other than this moment!
This was not an excuse; it was his soul screaming, driven by his instincts.
–So, because of that
RyuZU’s words stabbed through his heart like a fatal blow.
“Master Naoto, I conclude that your mind has been affected by something.”
RyuZU then repeated herself,
“–Even if I am a paramount piece of art, an incomparable automata, the concept of marriage is such that both male and female are to be on the same standing. For a marvelous clockwork follower is requested of this, it is an incoherent concept, to put it lightly; to put it clearly, it is an abnormality.”
“Don’t say it! My life value is already negative!”
Fufufu, Naoto continued to draw circles as he laid on the ground, saying,
“No, erm, I understand…I know that RyuZU’s already embarrassed to have me as a master Yes, I was being too idiotic…well, I upgraded you from being the world’s greatest treasure to my greatest treasure in my mind…so I lost control. I’ll reflect on it deeply and find a hole to bury myself.”
Even Marie pitied him slightly as she said to that trembling, anguished back,
“We-well…calm down a little, okay? Though anyone will back away after being proposed to by someone like you. But you see, if you’re still alive, something might happen–”
“–Please pardon me, Master Marie.”
For some reason, RyuZU reacted to those words.
She spoke in a serious, threatening tone,
“As a member of humans, the lowest of all organisms with brains beneath that of a mitochondria, you should consider your own inferiority for looking down on my Master Naoto like this.
“Eh—I-I’m standing on your side here. Why am I being told off by you like that!? And those words at the back don’t show that you find it offensive at all!”
“Hey, Missy.”
Halter interrupted, looking surprised as he stroked his chin, saying,
“…Since you wanted to kill our Princess, I guess the ‘ethical law’ doesn’t exist within you at all, but have you not been set to serve your Master Naoto unconditionally?”
RyuZU answered,
“I am ‘Yourslave’–the program ‘set’ within me is merely to follow Master. Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yeah, in other words, the program never included you showing affection for your master, right?”
These words dealt a fatal blow, and Naoto was sobbing in agony.
However–
“There seems to be a difference in understanding of those words just now, so I do wish to correct. While is true that I am designed to be a ‘follower’, unconditionally serving my master, my fondness of Master Naoto is of ‘my own free will’. Please do not think that I am a compromising bitch that will open my legs wide upon recognizing my Master.”
“…Free will? Did that automata just say such a term, Halter!?”
Marie exclaimed, but Naoto ignored her as he stopped crying,
RyuZU just said it. She did say it.
‘Fondness’.
…Okay, calm down, don’t panic. Naoto told himself.
It was a spider web dangling into Hell, and if he were to tug at it carelessly, he would be betraying Buddha’s mercy.
Naoto slowly got up, and asked tentatively,
“…Maybe…RyuZU, doesn’t…hate me?”
“Me? Hate Master Naoto?”
RyuZU was stunned. However, Naoto did not miss this slip–or rather, he heard it.
Having removed his headphones, he clearly heard it.
There was the slight sound of ‘gears changing’ within reason.
“What reason do I have to hate Master Naoto for putting in so much effort looking for things beyond flaws?”
–In other words, there was no reason for her to either like or hate him.
That probably seemed the case for Marie and Halter. If he were to accept the words at face value, Naoto would have slammed his head into the ground and buried his head.
But he could firmly believe.
Till this point, though RyuZU had been verbally scathing to him, he never felt displeasure for some reason. This probably, perhaps, maybe was not because Naoto had some unique perverted fetish.
…No, though he probably should have admitted it obediently for proposing marriage to RyuZU as a mechanical nerd, this topic should not be heading this way–
“RyuZU, c-can you tell me the reason why? Why you can’t be my ‘bride’?”
“Because I’m Master Naoto’s follower…but as a bride–in other words…a couple.”
RyuZU’s expression remained the same as she answered, elegant and fluent, and on first glance, there were no changes.
This time, Naoto did not miss out again. Her stare did move around a little.
“This, couple thing, refers to existences standing together on the same plane. In terms of looks, smarts, rationality, and tastes, I am much more outstanding than you, Master Naoto, to a point that it is meaningless to compare. However, you are my master, and I am the servant. If we are to talk about equal standings…I implore you to appraise yourself first.”
Upon hearing those words, Naoto firmly believed it.
He asked,
“Erm–just maybe, RyuZU…do you have an ‘abusive language filter’ or something inside you?”
And so, RyuZU tilted her head slightly.
She squinted her eyes at these words, looking surprised,
“–Abusive language? Me? Master Naoto, for a creature like you at the bottom of the pyramid, someone like me standing at the apex should not need to spend unproductive deliberate effort and words chiding you, and ruin my own character saying such human-like abusive language.”
“““YOU’RE NOT AWARE OF IT!!?”””
Naoto was not the only one exclaiming, as even Marie and Halter’s voices were overlapped.
To adjust his frantic breathing, Naoto placed a hand on his chest.
“C-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-calm down, Naoto Miura…! You’re now standing at the ultimate crossroads!”
If RyuZU did have a swear filter (temp name), all her words till this point are to be suspected.
He had to find a way to avoid that swear filter (temp name), and skillfully find a way to ask RyuZU’s hidden true thoughts.
–Does RyuZU really like Naoto Miura, or hate him?
In this case, the outcome would be a difference of Heaven and Hell…!!
Naoto said,
“Th-Then, about about this? Nod if yes, and shake your head if no.”
Nod. RyuZU nodded.
…Alright, now it looks like I got past this swear filter (temp name) if I stop her from talking.
Once he confirmed this fact, Naoto started to use this cobbled spider web mind of his to get the correct answer, and cautiously chose his question.
He asked,
“Then, first…RyuZU, the ‘free will’ you talk is a program that makes you obey your master unconditionally?”
Shakes head— RyuZU shook her head.
Right, this is going well. Naoto gave a fist pump in elation.
The answer of the content was satisfactory. In other words, though it is a rule for RyuZU to follow her master, the feelings she may have was not automatic.
And then, but,
“Then…are there any other cases of ‘feelings developing due to free will’?”
After a short pause, Naoto utilized a cautious–or rather, timid question.
Since the swear filter (temp name) was a function RyuZU had never recognized, there was a possibility that this free will was interrupted by some occurrence.
If he follow the previous occurrence, he could confirm the condition. Thus, once he deduce whether RyuZU did activate it subconsciously, if he could determine the logic in that–
However,
Shakes head.
RyuZU merely shook her head.
“–Eh? There’s no, previous occurrence?”
She nodded.
“E-erm. In other words, though it never happened before–it’s happening to me?”
She nodded
…Naoto was starting to get more confused.
Though Marie did not say it, this useless, unassuming pervert seemed to have pressed some switch.
–S-Speaking of which.
RyuZU’s moist eyes were looking around frantically.
Her white cheeks were reddened, her slightly opened lips trembling.
Her back, usually straightened elegantly, seemed unstable as she fidgeted and swayed about.
It seemed—surely it resembled a maiden anxious over her love.
Is this, maybe, but, really…?
It was extremely obvious, for it was different from her usual response of issuing spiteful words.
Perhaps this was the real RyuZU, and that he did not realize this because it was hidden by the words.
…got too check this out no matter what.
“Then, well, I got only 2 things left…to ‘confirm’. Is that okay?”
She nodded.
“First–RyuZU, you have feelings for me, not because of a certain person’s design, but of your own will, through your own judgment…is that…right?”
Gently.
She nodded.
Having lost the swear filter at this point, the feelings hidden within were all revealed.
She was short of breath, her hands clasped together with nowhere to go, as if she was begging. Her moist eyes was slightly lowered, but as a ‘follower’, she could not turn her head away–
Naoto panted.
His mouth was so dry it was unbearable, and his pulse raced, ready to explode.
There was something hot rising from his chest. He was terrified of the girl in front of him; he wanted to shout, run away–but he still stood his ground firmly.
His vision was trembling.
He said the last thing he wanted to confirm.
“–Then, how deep are those feelings…nod an appropriate number of times respective to the affection level.”
That could be considered a request instead of a confirmation.
Having understood her master’s wish, the automata’s face reddened, and she she slowly moved.
1, 2, 3…
Nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod–
Naoto looked up at the sky.
The warm tears were flowing, drenching his face.
Delight filled his body and mind. At this point, the most precious thing to him in this world had shown that she liked him. In the fact of such a fact, what meaning was there to ask whether this was called love, what machines and humans could do?
–Ahh, the world is so beautiful.
It was like a shining ray whitening the dark, night sky.
Like the sun showing its face through the clouds, enlivening all scenery.
Like a baby crawling out from the mother’s womb and opening its eyes for the first time.
With such a feeling, Naoto merely looked up and let out a voiceless yell.
I win!
My time has come!
My life’s is really bad. To be honest, I’m a loser. I do think of crying before, and I even thought of dying before. Seriously, I might end up falling dead at any given movement.
–Ahh, but it’s good to be alive.
Nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod.
A blushing RyuZU seemed to feel that this was inappropriate, and yet continued to nod over and over again; Naoto naturally knelt on his knees in front of her.
He could not hold back his tears, clasp his trembling hands, and raise them high up to high heaven as he lowered his head.
A prayer.
A prayer of thanks.
For the first time since he was born, Naoto truly thanked a certain great existence on this world.
–ahh, really, thank you very much…! I love you—!!!
…And then.
After RyuZU nodded 255 times.
“–I suppose you are happy now?”
She suddenly spoke in an icy tone.
“So you even have an interest in humiliation play. It seems the category slots for my personality classification of Master Naoto is almost insufficient. I suppose I have to designate you in a specialized case as ‘a pervert that goes beyond human boundaries’.”
However, these spiteful words from RyuZU became less sharp due to her thoroughly reddened face.
Naoto wiped his tears away as he showed a cheerful smile, saying,
“Whatever you want. I’m currently enjoying the joys of being alive.”
“Is that so?”
RyuZU nodded.
“If you intend to stay here and enjoy such a delight, such delight will only last your for around 6 hours or so. I suppose it can be considered happiness to spend such times without leaving any regrets behind.
……Huh?
“6 hours? What’s with that?”
Naoto tilted his head, and Marie, who had been speechless till this point, suddenly exclaimed.
“That’s the time left till this city and us go down the gutter, you idiot pervert bastard!”
Upon hearing these words, Naoto stood up, looking stunned as he looked up at the massive tower in front of him.
He recalled the current situation he had forgotten due to his delight, and exclaimed,
“–Woaaaaahhhhh!!! This is bad!? There’s still the repair of the core tower.”
At this moment, RyuZU spoke in an icy tone.
“Yes, have you forgotten? I assumed you have some amazing amount of courage to carry out such a humiliation play with an automata using its limitations in such a situation. It was simply you being narrow minded.”
Naoto sensed that her words were more spiteful than me, and asked tentatively.
“Ah…RyuZU. Are you fuming inside or something?”
“Fuming? Why do I have to show a shaken look because of those insignificant words of yours, Master Naoto?”
“Sorry. No, I’m really sorry. Sorry…but I won’t forget that.”
“–Whatever you wish.”
In the face of such a sweet-sounding banter, Marie screamed,
“Leave the romantic comedy for later! Do you guys really get the current situation?”
She was glaring at Naoto and RyuZU with a look hot enough to melt titanium alloy.
Behind them, Halter let out a deep sigh.
There was a strong look of fatigue appearing between his eyebrows.
“Just spare me already. I’ll never hear the end of it in the other world if we die like this–”
●
As they frantically head off to the core tower, a severe doubt crept into Marie’s mind.
–‘Y’.
The clockwork technician who modified the world, and also RyuZU’s creator.
The ‘Imaginary Gear’ was a technique there should not exist.
And the automata that had ‘free will’, the concept of love implausible before this.
However, this, was too…
“Is he really human…? Speaking of which–does he really exist?”
Nobody answered this question Marie inadvertently let out.
●
72,000m underground.
In a wide space filled with gears.
There was an intersection of different paths, each leading to certain areas on the level–the central corridor.
The ceiling was 300m away from where they were, and the edge was 200m away. Though it might be a large place, this room was merely a small part of this entire 24th level.
The remaining space was all filled by the spinning gears controlling the city. The ceiling, walls and even the floor had countless of gears latched upon each other in an inconceivably complicated manner.
This wide place itself was left empty, and other than these four that had entered, nobody else could be seen.
“..Nobody’s here. Were they taken away by the ‘military’?”
Halter murmured as he picked up a piece of data scattered on the floor.
Though the equipment and date were still present, the technicians were the only ones who disappeared. If they had taken the initiative to evacuate on their own, they would have taken back everything they could use. Thus, their disappearance may not be out of their own will.
Marie sighed, and nodded,
“It might be alright if that’s the case. At least they’re safe…”
“Hm? No, wait.”
Halter lifted his head.
“Sounds like there are people inside. They’re returning here.”
The moment he said this, a group of people appeared at the passageway leading to the inside of the level.
This group of more than 10 people exclaimed upon noticing them.
“Professor Marie!?”
They called her name and dashed towards her.
They were the elderly staff, all dressed in work clothes. Amongst them was the chief mechanic and the observation team leader.
“Ahh, good thing that you’re alright.”
Chief mechanic Conrad stood forward to speak on behalf of everyone.
Marie widened her eyes, and said,
“I’m alright? What do you mean?”
“Right after you left for the surface, those guys in the ‘military’ came over and told us to leave. We grumbled to them saying that we only came here 2 days ago, and that they’re saying such irresponsible things, but they said vague things like you were arrested, and that they had discussed this through with the ‘Guild’…so we got no choice but to let the young ones evacuate.”
Marie exclaimed in shock,
“Why didn’t you evacuate?”
“”This doesn’t seem like something you would normally ask.”
The chief mechanic stroked the disheveled beard on his chin, and snorted,
“We still have some work we haven’t done yet, so how can we run away? Besides, aren’t you back now?”
“Speaking of which, I though the surface was already sealed off by those ‘military’ guys. How did you make it in?”
The observation team leader Hannes asked.
Marie gave a troubled, wry smile, and shook her head, saying,
“Ah…We’ll talk about that later. Right now, we don’t have much time. The gravity anomaly on the surface is already very serious. We need to get to work as quickly as possible.”
“…Regarding that.”
Hanners said with a gloomy look.
“You may have just arrived, Professor Marie, but I do apologize for this. Please evacuate as well.”
Marie raised an eyebrow, and said,
“What are you saying!?”
“I’m serious. There has been a chain of anomalies just now.”
The observation team leader lowered his head, showing an anguished look in his eyes.
“We never had much hope in the first place, and now that we’re in this situation…but if you evacuate now, there’s still a very high chance of escaping.”
“You’re still so young, and are already more talented than us. We can’t stand to see you die along with us old fogies.”
The chief mechanic interrupted from the side.
However, Marie stared at the duo harshly.
“I came back to save this city, not to hear the old people cry to me.”
“But…right now, the problem is that we don’t have any hope…”
“Don’t worry. We have a secret weapon.”
“Secret weapon?”
The chief mechanic, the observation team leader, and even the remaining workers all showed surprised looks.
Marie smiled, and nodded,
“Right, let me introduce. This is a citizen–”
Marie turned around, but stopped talking midway through.
In front of her sights and hand was the thing she nearly introduced as the the secret weapon.
“Here…”
Her mouth was twitching.
That thing–Naoto was looking at the ceiling, completely enthralled by it.
The passionate eyes were as radiant as a drug abuser, and his mesmerized raving that occurred over and over again showed that he was obviously very ill in the head.
Also,
“–Ohh, so pretty…”
“……Huh!?”
Marie’s voice never entered his ears as he stumbled forward carelessly.
He stared at the countless machinery installations on the walls and ceiling, giving an infatuated look in his eyes.
“This is so pretty…! This is the first time I’ve seen such a perfect mechanism besides RyuZU’s insides…! This is amazing; who did this, damn it! What kind of god came up with such a design with pretty, attractive, exciting, and amazing mechanical movement…!?”
While he twitched his body about as he said such nonsense without restrain, Marie could only feel a chill and take two steps away from this weird person.
There was silence.
Behind her, a staff member asked in a skeptical tone,
“…Secret weapon?”
“No, that, please wait for a moment, ‘kay?”
“No, erm, just wait a moment, okay?”
It was truly overboard to call him such a moniker, and Marie could only mutter and shake her head.
“Master Naoto.”
It seemed RyuZU too could not bear to watch this as longer as she spoke harshly
“I suppose that is not what we should be concerned with.”
“Ry-RyuZU! You’re finally saying something decent…right! That isn’t–”
Marie was thoroughly moved, her lips curled.
RyuZU however nodded at such a stare, and answered with an elegant tone,
“It does not matter who came up with the blueprint. The most important is the audacious words you said, calling this old, moldy antique as ‘the most beautiful since ‘–I cannot pay exception to hearing that, you know?”
“That’s not the main point either!?”
Marie wailed.
On the other hand, Naoto was flustered, ostensibly struck in a painful area.
“Eh, bu-but? No, erm, I understand very well that you’re amazing, RyuZU, but…”
“Do refrain from the the ‘buts’ and ‘butterscotch’ and the like. When you saw my body on that day and called it ‘really pretty’, were all those words a lie?”
“–Body?”
Marie murmured blankly, and Naoto frantically denied it.
“Th-th-th-that’s not the case! How can that be a lie!?”
“And now, you are being allured by such an antique. I request an explanation.”
I don’t understand what’s going on anymore…Marie could not help but cuddle her head.
RyuZU’s tone and attitude was the same as before, her face showing a serene smile while her sharp tongue remained present; however, for some reason…her image at this point seemed different.
It seemed as if–she was acting like a woman chiding her boyfriend for ogling another girl.
“No, that’s because, you see, this is made a thousand years ago! It’s made a thousand years ago, and can still function so perfectly that I can even see all the details! It’s amazingly bared out in front of me, and this structure is really pretty–”
“I see. In other words, you are asking for me to ‘strip’?”
HUH!? RyuZU ignored Marie’s shrill shriek as she placed her hand on her clothing.
“Wa-wai-wai-wai-wait a minute, you! Ho-how can a girl show her skin in front of a group of guys like that–”
“Do not worry. I am an automata, and not a girl. No matter the number of parts, the precision or performance-wise, I am more outstanding than them. However, he has unreasonably called me inferior to such a mass-produced antique, and right now, no matter how he tries to excuse himself through ignorance or folly, he can no longer hope for my forgiveness–”
“Ahh–”
At this moment, Marie understood.
She was referring…to that.
In this critical moment.
In this moment, when the fates of this city, 20 million people, remained in the balance.
This automata was burning with jealousy.
And so, RyuZU started to move her hands and strip her lower body,
“Ahhh—–GOODNESS GRACIOUS——-!!!!!!”
Marie snapped.
Her scream echoed everywhere, clattering numerous gears buried in this place.
“THINK OF THE CURRENT SITUATION! WE’RE GOING TO SINK WITH EVERYONE HERE IN ANOTHER FOUR HOURS, YOU KNOW!?”
This yell seemingly showed some effect as both of them kept quietly.
They nodded in unison,
“–Hm, you’re right too.”
“I do sincerely apologize for Master Naoto not comprehending the situation.”
“Eh, me!?”
“Whatever!! That’s enough already!? We have 4–argh, less than 4 hours left!!!”
Marie continued to shout as she pointed at her pocket watch.
“In another 3 hours and 57 minutes, about 20 million because will sink to the bottom with us because of their purge!! Are you going to ask them to die while waiting your afternoon melodrama!?”
…What happened to the serious atmosphere up till a moment before!?
Spurred by the emotion of wanting to choke her old self that had believed in this pervert and this automata, her shoulders were heaving up and down as she panted heavily.
Upon seeing that serious fuming look, Naoto blinked and wiped away the nosebleed he had.
“Ah—yeah, sorry. Time to get serious, RyuZU.”
“Yes, Master Naoto. We shall leave these words for later.”
“Please, seriously…”
Marie murmured, and nearly fell limp.
Behind her, chief mechanic Conrad spoke up tentatively,
“Erm, Professor Marie…who are these two…?”
“I know what you’re saying, Chief Mechanic! I already know that!”
Her face seething red with rage and shame, Marie turned her head back. Once she saw the chief mechanic’s utterly stunned look, she continued on with a sobbing tone,
“But please give him some time on my account. No matter whether you can’t or don’t want to believe it…he’s our only hope.”
The chief mechanic stared at Maire sternly.
He had been alive on this world for 50 years. During this time, he had personally witnessed technicians who had fallen weary due to the intensive job, or who had left because they were crushed by their own talents.
Thus, he was even wondering if this girl in front of him has fallen dejected because of overwhelming despair, however–
Marie stared back at the chief mechanic.
Her eyes were a little swollen, red, but they were filled with strength. It was a normal stare with a glint of rationality in them.
The chief mechanic sighed, and nodded gently.
The many doubts he had were not solved, but he could somewhat understand that this girl in front of him could be trusted.
“I understand. I shall trust you at least.”
“Thank you very much.”
Marie’s teary face broke into a smile as she said this.
She looked back.
In front of her, Naoto was already seated down over there.
He was in a cross-legged posture, his back straightened as he took in large deep breathes. He then removed the neon green headphones quietly, and threw them over to RyuZU.
“Help me hold this.”
“Understood.”
RyuZU bowed.
Naoto answered her with a smile, and turned away, remaining silent.
He continued to stare into space, remaining still.
Leaving aside Marie’s group, the staff members they had just met had no idea what Naoto was doing.
One of them spoke in frustration.,
“…!? What exactly is he doing–”
“Be quiet.”
Naoto spoke in a piercing tone
The words were without any dignity or vigor, but the sharpness in it caused the staff member to remain silent.
The heavy silence continued on.
The sound of numerous gears engaged with each other, the squeaking, and the air-ripping sounds rang quietly.
In the midst of this somewhat oppressive atmosphere, Marie wondered.
–How are these sounds being captured by this guy?
He had a hearing ability to hear an anomaly in this 24th level from the surface. With this ability of his anyone would have laughed off, how would this world full of gears appear to him?
She was wondering for some reason.
“–”
Naoto continued remain still and stare into space as he ignored Marie’s thoughts.
Time slowly ticked by.
One could sense the anxiety the staff members had. In around 4 hours, they wold sink together with the city and perish with 20 million lives.
In such a situation, they had to wait about quietly, observing this silence.
Such a pain was the equivalent of a torture.
But whenever an impatient person wanted to speak up or leave–the silver-haired automata standing beside the boy would show them a sharp glance to stop them.
–Don’t talk.
–Don’t move.
The stare filled with such a clear intent nailed the staff members to where they were.
2 minutes, 4 minutes, 6 minutes, what seemed like eternity passed by.
And then–
“—-Got it.”
Naoto muttered.
The tension up till this point was released.
The staff members, bounded by silence till this point, were finally released from this stifling, unsettling atmosphere. Whispers of skepticism started to spread amongst them.
Amongst them, one person, observation team leader Hannes frowned,
“You say you know?”
He spoke with a chilly tone,
“What are you saying? That you wasted precious time? If you’re saying that we’re doomed, we already know that.”
But Naoto did not pick up on the observation team leader’s sarcasm.
It seemed he did not care as he looked into the distance, and declared,
“18 places.”
“What…!?”
In response to Naoto’s incomplete words, Marie interrupted,
“You mean that if we fix those 18 places, we can reset the gravity control to normal?”
“Yes.”
Naoto nodded briefly.
Upon hearing his response, the observation team leader lambasted agitatedly,
“What foolish words are you saying!? How can you know such a thing! Are you saying that you understand the structure here just by sitting there!?”
“Yeah.”
Naoto immediately answered, straight to the point.
The observation team leader again burst into a rage, and was about to lash out at this child in front of him, only to be speechless once he saw Marie run over to him with a blueprint.
“Where are the 18 places.”
Marie laid the blueprint out and asked.
After staring at the ground for a while, Naoto quickly frowned, and shook his head, saying,
“Sorry, it’s too hard for me to read. I’ll tell you the location, so just look at it on my behalf.”
“Okay, leave it to me.”
Marie nodded.
As those two conversed, everyone else present reacted as if they were watching some sort of a horror flick.
The observation team leader asked Marie while the latter had her back turned on him,
“…Professor Marie, are you serious? Are you really going to act according to this boy’s rubbish when he said that he can’t even read the blueprint?”
“Yeah.”
Hannes could not help himself as he yelled,
“Professor Marie! How can someone like you allow yourself to play such a childish game with this person?”
Marie turned back, and said,
“I know you won’t believe me, but right now, we have no other way. Since there’s no other way of dealing with this, I want to bet on a miracle.”
“Professor Marie!”
The observation team leader screamed. He really thought that this girl, who was normally poised and intelligent, may have gone insane. He was filled with anxiety within, but was driven by his sense of duty, trying to make her regain her sanity and leave this place–however,
“–43,985,000,047,245,908–that is the correct number of parts.”
Naoto continued on, his words causing a chilly atmosphere amongst them.
There was silence in the passageway.
Even Marie and Halter, who had personally known of it, had goosebumps on them.
His tone certainly showed that he was not stating a random number.
He really counted them all–no, it sounded as if he was reading off a specifications list.
He merely said it so calmly, in a matter-of-fact manner, without a single doubt.
“There are 4047 parts with anomalies inside there, but 4029 of them aren’t directly related to the current situation–in other words, 18 places. Once you repair those areas, you can control the gravity anomaly.”
–What’s with this guy?
Even the experienced staff members of the ‘Guild’ were speechless.
The chief mechanic and the observation team leader were stunned.
They could understand what Naoto had said, and what he said was clear and precise, but their brains were rejecting such a notion.
Nobody could have known the structure of the core tower in this city.
Even the ‘military’, who had done several hundred years worth of maintenance here, would not have individual path, it would take a massive large scale analysis project, for hundreds of technicians to observe over a few months.
Even they, who hailed themselves as the best in the world, had to spend 2 weeks doing everything flawless in such a critical situation.
No matter how much they struggled–that was the amount of time needed.
But this boy just sat there for 10 minutes before saying this.
…This should not be true.
It should be simple gibberish said out of lip service–but the terrifying thing was that it did not seem to be the case.
It felt as if they had heard of different laws of the universe different from theirs.
Like they had encountered aliens they could not understand.
An unusual, strange, bizarre, intriguing, weird, unique, unexplainable, unreasonable–truth.
Everyone present gulped.
What kind of feeling were they experiencing?
At least, the expressions they showed Naoto was not of respect or condescension.
If one had to classify it–
“–Did you not say that you do not have much time?”
To break this frozen time, RyuZU spoke in a frigid tone.
She stared back at the surprised staff in turn, and spoke sharply,
“You may continue to remain stunned there, but if you are only able to shiver in such a critical situation, would you not agree that your abilities are inferior to that of a cat’s?”
Her vicious tongue caused the workers to regain some blaze in their eyes.
They were called first-rate, and did first rate work. After such self-defeat, they were burning up again.
The chief mechanic seemed to have realized something as he sighed hard,
“…Yeah. It’s true that we don’t have any other way now. Since Professor Marie has said so, I shall believe in her. What he said does not seem to be completely bogus.”
“But chief mechanic…!”
The observation team leader continued to complain, but went silent for he did not know how to continue.
He truly understood the difficulty and importance of observation based on his duty, and he had much more difficulty accepting this reality than anyone else–but he still lost to the reproving look from the chief mechanic and Marie’s determined emerald eyes.
He gritted his teeth, seemingly enduring something, and then nodded,
“…I got it. Let’s get to work.”
The chief mechanic patted him on the shoulder gently, and turned around, saying,
“–Then, give us the instructions, Professor Marie.”
●
After obtaining as much detailed information from Naoto, Marie made some markings on the blueprint, and marked out the appropriate places based on the estimated areas the observation team had deduced.
She then quickly issued the assignments based on the abilities of the remaining workers.
Once they were done with the immediate arrangements and assignments, all that was left was to do their usual work.
With all sorts of equipment in tow, everyone sprinted off to their work places.
Marie watched their backs, and sighed.
–There’s nothing to worry about now. They’ll finish their work.
“Then, last of all is…RyuZU!”
Hurry here. Marie yelled.
Upon hearing the summon, RyuZU looked over bitterly at Marie.
“What is it? I do not wish to be commanded so nonchalantly by you, Master Marie.”
“There’s only one place humans can’t get inside.”
Marie ignored RyuZU’s vicious tongue as she continued.
In this short span, she had already understood how to due with the latter.
“We normally need to use some work equipment, but the settings will take too long, so I’m counting on you here. Act according to my instructions without any mistake.”
“The only one able to order me–”
“RyuZU, listen to her.”
Naoto said.
RyuZU showed a thoroughly disgusted look as she frowned, and nodded unwillingly.
“…Understood. Please give the instructions.”
Marie did a quick browsing of the blueprint, watched the meter in her right hand, and quickly did some mental calculations.
Based on the results she got, she issued some instructions to RyuZU.
Turn left 91.2 degrees from where you up, lift your sights by 47.5, and leap 22.3m from here. Over there, turn 180 backwards, move up vertically by 75 degrees, jump up by another 14.25m and land there. After that, move 57cm to the right, find the 17th gear in the 33rd shaft from the right. Down there, at 67 degrees to the bottom right side, there is a gap 0.2mm wide; insert this screwdriver in. There is a gear 0.7 micrometer in diameter skewed there. Set it back it place and make sure ‘it doesn’t stop spinning’>
–This was no longer an instruction; it was basically a set of precise commands being input.
Once Marie finished her spiel of words in a single breath, RyuZU let out a sigh.
“I understand.”
She bowed, turned back smoothly, and leapt.
Naoto widened his eyes as he watched the figure disappear into the left wall of gears.
Marie folded the map, got up, and said,
“Now then, let’s get going. I heard that there are still 3 suspicious areas, so we need to check them out. Halter, carry Naoto and follow me.”
“Alrighty then. If you excuse me.”
Halter followed Marie’s instruction and got to work, reaching his thick arms out to carry Naoto by the armpits.
Naoto was carried up like a cargo crate, and he groaned,
“Am I being used as a tool now…?”
Marie raced forward towards the scene, and Halter followed her, saying,
“We got no choice here. Your body’s too weak. If you wish to be a technician, training your physical abilities; this is a physical job that normally requires overnight work of 2-3 days.”
“Eh?”
Naoto gasped, and sighed. If he had to run using his own feet, he definitely had no self-confidence that he could reach such blazing speed.
Upon seeing Naoto quietly accept himself as being baggage, “However,” Halter continued,
“With that power of yours, you probably won’t have to worry about such details.”
“There’s nothing impressive about me…”
In response to Naoto’s troubled murmuring, Halter concluded adamantly,
“You’re amazing, or rather, your ability is too convenient it’s terrifying. That observation team leader was shivering in a pitiful manner, wondering what he has been doing up till now.”
“–There’s no need for him to be so dejected even after seeing the perverted act this pervert just did.”
Having finally caught up to her, Marie whispered coldly.
Halter knocked his head, and said,
“…Milady, this person here is still the savior from this massive crisis we’re facing. It’s better not to casually call him a pervert.”
“He just sat down there, not talk for 10 minutes, and point out all the anomalies within 3km without a single mistake! What else am I going to call him?”
“…Well, I’m already used to being called a pervert–wait.”
Naoto’s words caused Marie and Halter to suddenly stop.
As he continued to be carried about, he looked around,
“It’s that one, the movement over there, 4th from the right.”
He pointed at the bottom.
Marie leaned out from the railing of the passageway to check.
It was a set of gears moving up and down. While the similar parts were continuing their piston actions, the 4th one from the right was slower by 0.5 seconds.
“–Got it. That’s the one, right?”
Naoto nodded, but frowned.
The issue in question was about 20m in the air right below them. There was no place for footing, and they could not lower a rope because the other installations were congested, blocking their path.
Naoto looked over to Marie, and asked,
“What now? Go back and get the work equipment?”
“You kidding me? We don’t have that time.”
After a short answer, Marie removed her coat and threw it aside.
She then leapt over the handrail and flung her body into the gears that continued to spin around.
“Hey–!?”
“It’s alright. Don’t worry.”
While Naoto called out in shock, Halter gently patted him on the shoulder and chuckled,
“Watch closely. This is the skill of a premier Meister.”
–And so, Naoto witnessed a miracle.
Marie silently landed on a nearby shaft, and lowered her body before leaping again.
She glided through the screws, cylinders, wires, springs, gears in a cat-like manner, approaching the problematic place.
She was moving at a terrifying speed.
And without stopping for a single moment.
The spinning machinery was moving so strongly, so sharply, it could have easily shredded a human’s body upon contact, but the girl barged in without a single moment of hesitation.
She finally kicked herself off a cylinder, and hooked her foot on a single frame.
She hung herself upside-down over there, and the 4th mechanism was right in front of her.
The slender white legs stretching out from her short pants were really dazzling.
Perhaps due to the amazing momentum just before, the tools fell out from the belt strapped upon her thigh.
Or so it seemed to Naoto.
However, they did not fall out.
Marie had been catching, using and letting go of them, repeating the same process over and over again.
The tools were dancing in the air, as if they were being juggled, staying in limbo.
The screws, wires, gears were all spinning in front of her eyes like an endless dance, before being fitted back into a suitable position.
All these proceeded on at a speed where even after images could be seen.
And in a Topsy-turvy position, to boot.
Naoto was intimidated by this, almost forgetting to breathe as he noticed the happenings in front of him.
He gasped, murmuring,
“Am…azing… this that a Meister…!”
Halter gave a wry grin.
“Don’t try to copy her. An ordinary Meister, they’ll normally use some work machinery or get a scaffold to work.”
“…Then, what’s that about?”
In response to Naoto’s somewhat hoarse question, Halter answered,
“Her expertise may be different from yours, but that Princess there is an outstanding genius too. She didn’t get the title of the youngest Meister in the world for nothing.”
“…Amazing.”
Naoto exclaimed.
That was the apex.
That was the peak.
One may say that of a beautiful feat worthy of the gods, so what would someone describe this elegant performance done with those two hands?
It was a music he had never heard of before.
The music made by humans was filled with discomfort, irregularity, and instability, but this piece of music performed by the person in front of him, Marie was such that even the blood circulation, breathing, and grating between the bones and muscles had reached complete harmony.
“Haha…ahahaha!”
He suddenly burst into laughter.
An explosion of exhilaration rose within his chest.
One day–
Can I perform such a sound?
Marie finished the work within a minute.
But to Naoto, who had etched all these in his mind through the help of his eyes and ears, the time elapsed seemed several dozens, even hundreds of times that.
Marie returned the fallen tools back to the belt as if it was a trick. She looked on calmly, climbed up in a fluid manner just as how she climbed up, and quietly returned to where they were.
She flipped herself over like a circus act, and raised her eyes, saying,
“What are you doing? Hurry to the next one!”
And she sprinted off alone like the wind.
Halter ran after her, and turned to Naoto, giving him a wink.
“–How about it? You can’t help yourself, right?”
●
3 hours.
Having finished their work, the staff members returned to the central corridor. Everyone gulped as they waited for the observation team leader to make a report as he watched the device.
“…Brownian motion at normal value. Confirming the list–all clear.”
“Th-This means…”
Marie stammered dryly,
With every staff member looking on, the observation team leader lifted his head and looked away from the meter gauge.
On his intriguingly contorted stare, large beads of tears were trickling down his eyes.
“The repair, work…has succeeded! Unbelievable!”
Even the tone in his report had become shrill.
The dirty faces of the workers were filled with fatigue as they stared at each other silently, giving the ‘is this really over’ looks? They started to worry, wondering if they should be cheering.
But the delight slowly spread amongst them–
They exploded,
“““WE DID IT——-!!!”””
And broke into cheers.
The experienced old staff members broke into cheers that echoed in the passageway, their wrinkled, firm faces soaked in tears as they seemingly forgot their age.
“You got to be kidding me! We actually did it!”
“Hahahaha! Am I seriously not dreaming here!?”
“God…! I’ll go to Church once I get back and donate all my assets!”
Far away from the rambling crowd jumping on the floor, there was a figure.
The bearded man–chief mechanic Conrad.
He approached the boy, Naoto standing slightly away from the buzzing crowd, with the automata standing beside him.
“May I have some of your time?”
He spoke with a sharp, steady tone.
“Heh? Ah…yeah, sure.”
“Thank you.”
He thanked the latter briefly, and said down.
Upon seeing that Naoto looked so nervous, he gave an earnest stare, and lowered his head slightly,
“It’s thanks to you today that we’re able to be saved today. My name is Conrad. What’s yours?”
“Ah…Naoto. Naoto Miura.”
I see. The chief mechanic nodded, and again lowered his head in a proper posture.
“Naoto Miura, I do apologize on behalf of everyone else for the rude remarks they had made. Thanks to you, we, Professor Marie, and more importantly, 20 million lives in this city managed to be saved. I sincerely thank you here.”
Naoto blinked his eyes, looking lost. This was the first time in his life that he was being thanked seriously by such an outstanding adult male.
Feeling somewhat embarrassed, he looked away.
“Ah…no, about that, I just pinpointed where the annoying sounds are coming from. The ones who really completed the repairs are Marie and all the technicians.”
“You don’t have to be humble. There’s no doubt that without your power, this repair work would not be completed.”
The old man’s vigorous voice caused Naoto to gulp.
His stare wavered about, unable to remain calm, and his palms were opened and closed for a few times carelessly. His shoulders were slightly puffing as he stared at the old man in front of him.
He spoke tentatively in a trembling voice,
“Erm…”
“Hm?”
He asked,
“Di-Did I manage to help out?”
The chief mechanic smiled.
“No matter how many words I say now, it will be insufficient in expressing my thanks to you.”
Unable to endure the emotions within him, Naoto lowered his head,
There was something hot at his eyes. He had an urge to shout rising to his head. He recalled the fear and passion he felt during the conversation with Marie several hours ago, and was trembling all over; the feelings he felt back then is similar to this point, yet a little different. It was hard to distinguish
He could tell that such a feeling was not bad, however,
A soft feeling was pressed upon his palms lying on the ground.
He lifted his head subconsciously, and found RyuZU’s face close to his, causing his heart to nearly skip a beat.
The smile she showed seemed to discard the usual venomous remarks she made.
The chief mechanic showed a smile to Naoto,
“Naoto, I have a proposal. Do you wish to enter the Academy?”
Naoto widened his eyes, blinking. The chief mechanic nodded.
“Right. That is the specialized school that allows you to go on a springboard to being a Meister.”
“Erm…but I remember only those at the level of Gazelle can enter..”
“That is one of the conditions. However, if two current active Meisters are to recommend, you may be enrolled as a special student. I think the talent you showed today certainly fits that category. I shall write one of the letters, and the other–”
“I can write a recommendation letter too.”
A singing voice came from above, and Naoto lifted his head.
Marie was right in front of his eyes, beaming away.
“It’ll be a real pity to have your talent remain hidden like that, so go to the Academy and receive formal education, Naoto Miura. If you can learn the skills, knowledge a Meister needs–and the learn the personality and character required of you, you’ll probably become the best technician in the world.”
“Marie…did you just deny my personality?”
Naoto narrowed his eyes sharply as he glared back.
Beside him, RyuZU spoke with contempt.
“It seemed you have finally understood reality, but understanding itself is simply not enough, you incompetent humans. Master Naoto is already the best technician amongst humans.”
“Is that so?”
Marie curled her lips mischievously, and closed an eye.
“Don’t blame me for being hard on him here, but if he wants to be called the best technician in the world, the first thing he has to do to convince others that is to at least understand the blueprint, right?”
RyuZU frowned unable to say anything, and Naoto showed a grimace.
At this moment.
A boom and shockwave seemed to echo through the core tower.
Marie lost her balance and fell upon Naoto, “ugh!” causing a weird sound from below her, but she lifted her head while ignoring him.
“What happened?”
Nobody could answer her call. The sudden jolt caused every person to be flustered, confused.
Amongst them, Halter was the first to recover, and he gave an urgent look as he went to the gauge.
“Hey Marie, this is bad! The altitude’s falling!”
“What did you say?”
The observation team leader leaped to his feet, pushed Halter aside, and checked the gauge.
He immediately widened his eyes, his face looking paler than paper.
“The purge has begun!”
Upon hearing the scream, the commotion in the central corridor got more intense.
The staff members inadvertently started to doubt their eyes, and as the tremor shook in the midst of their shocks, they started to shriek, their faces drained in fear.
“That’s impossible!”
“You got to be kidding me! The city’s anomaly was fixed, right?”
“And more importantly, there’s still an hour till the supposed purge time!”
“Did the military not realize that the issue has been settled?”
“No, they should have checked the situation with the core tower if they’re planning to start a purge!”
“Then what’s going on!”
In the midst of the ruckus, Halter missed out on the moment to panic as he stood still, started, and suddenly seemed to think of something as he hissed,
“–Are those guys planning to deal with this as if it wasn’t repaired?”
A terrifying silence descended upon them.
Everyone present at this place looked speechless.
…This is impossible!
They all doubted their own imaginations, but they had to accept the fact shown by the gauge.
Someone amongst them could be heard sniveling.
In terms of endurance, nobody could possibly outlast these skilled clock technicians, but they were feeling deflated, subjected to the setback. The bigger the delight over repairing this, the more they could not handle the despairing shock of betrayal that backstabbed them, seemingly sending them into the abyss.
‘You got to be kidding…”
Noaot murmured blankly.
It was really unbelievable.
–There’s no way any bastard who would think of such dastardly things and do it can exist.
The cruel thing however was that Naoto realized this. Outside the metropolis, the spinning shafts connecting the city to the outside areas.
He could clearly hear the boom…
…Is this the end?
He fell to his knees, having lost all will. He could sense the term ‘despair’ gradually corrupting his heart. The warmth he just experienced was cooling off, becoming chilly.
After so much effect…
After seeing a few things
–
Immediately after that,
“DON’T MESS AROUND WITH MEEEEEEEEE!!!”
Marie yelled.
“–Right when everything’s about to end!? In this moment!?”
Marie’s bellow echoed through the corridor.
While everyone else was on their knees sobbing, only one of them stood on her feet, adamantly trying to raise the spirits as her emerald eyes glittered.
She ran to the table beside her, and quickly drew out the blueprint.
She then bellowed at the chief mechanic while in such a position.
“Chief mechanic! The gravity control is also left to the city’s control mechanism when this planet was reconstructed, right?”
The chief mechanic, upon being questioned so loudly, nodded in skepticism, and answered,
“Eh…hm, yeah. That’s also developed by gears.”
“Can you specify that place?”
“About that–it should be on this level. But what can we do even if we know?”
Marie ignored the question as she lashed out at RyuZU.
“RyuZU! You know the concept behind the gears creating gravity?”
“….A massive energy is created when powerful kinetic movement and heat is generated by the gears.”
RyuZU answered in a stoic tone.
Marie seemed to be delighted with this answer as she bared her teeth, grinning,
“Thanks–right, the generation of gravity is because of a larger mass and energy, causing the space to be distorted! If we use your ‘Imaginary Gear’ to change the values to negative–we can cause it to spin in reverse, right?”
“…It is possible in theory.”
RyuZU took Marie’s stare and answered cautiously, but lowered her stare immediately.
“But if my gear is the only one to be used to reverse the gravity field of this entire city, I do not know how long I can last.”
“You can’t estimate?”
“…In the most optimistic situation, I think I can only last for 30 minutes or so.”
“That’s good. As long as we can get that amount of time, we can operate in reverse and reconnect!”
Marie snapped her fingers, and raised the edges of her lips.
But Naoto leaped up and got in between Marie and RyuZU.
“Hey wait. What are you saying? What do you want to do to RyuZU?”
Marie looked straight back at him.
And told him in an affirming manner,
“This city will fall in the purge because gravity exists. This gravity is created by a certain mechanism here and controlled.”
“…And then?”
“Once we interfere with the system, we can create an ‘anti-gravity’ of equal force to the falling city at the bottom, and we can stop the city from falling for the time being. WE’ll then hack into the purge system, reverse everything, and reconnect again.”
Naoto however gave a skeptical look.
“Wait…interfere with the purge system? Why didn’t you do that right from the beginning?”
“Because we couldn’t do it.”
Marie answered Naoto’s doubts simply, and continued,
“We can only do this after what happened just now. I deduced the structure of the route when you verbally explained the layout of this level. As for the detailed mechanism, we’re going to do it in 5 minutes, starting from now.”
The experienced staff members widened their eyes upon hearing Marie’s words.
Even the chief mechanic could only stare at Marie incredulously. Even them, first-rate clock technicians, Meisters, had assumed that such a technology could not be replicated.
Naoto exhaled in his attempt to calm himself.
“Understood. Then what’s the thing about asking whether RyuZU can hang on?”
“We’re going to use the little gear inside RyuZU to connect the control system that manages the massive energy and gravity. If we fail, the gear will shatter immediately, and even if we succeed, it’ll be wrecked if we maintain it for long.”
“No can do then.”
Naoto immediately refused, and turned back to say to RyuZU,
“RyuZU, is it possible to escape now?”
“No.”
“If you can run away alone and break through the military’s ranks–”
“This is why I say it is impossible. There is never an option for me to run away and abandon you, Master Naoto.”
“That means we don’t have a choice now!? What do we do!?”
As Naoto growled, RyuZU shook her head, and pointed at Marie,
“No, Master Naoto. As this self-proclaimed genius girl has proposed, you can avoid this calamity by sacrificing me.”
The pale-looking observation team leader gulped upon hearing RyuZU’s words,
“–! Is that really possible!?’
Naoto turned back,
“Idiot, how’s that possible!”
“It is.”
RyuZU calmly replied.
The observation team leader raised his eyebrows in frustration.
“What’s going on? If there’s a way to save this city–”
“I said it’s impossible already! Didn’t you hear that we’re sacrificing RyuZU?”
“But–exchanging an automata for 20 million lives–”
“I don’t care whether it’s 20 million or 200 million!! Will you kill that person without hesitation if you need to sacrifice the most important person to you to save this world!? Tell me!!”
Naoto looked dead serious, ready to punch at any given moment. The observation team leader merely shook his head timidly.
“C-calm down, you. Even if you say she’s the most important person to you in the world…sh-she’s still an automata, right?”
“Yeah, she’s an automata? So what?”
Naoto said with a somewhat serious look.
And then, he ignored the speechless observation team leader as he turned back and ordered,
“RyuZU, this is an ‘order’. Evacuate right now.”
“I ‘refuse”>
This automata clearly ‘refused’ her master’s orders.
RyuZU ignored the gang, who remained speechless upon seeing this scene, and continued,
“As long as it is an act that will lead to Master Naoto’s death, I shall refuse it according to my ‘free will’.
“RyuZU.”
Naoto’s forceful tone merely earned back a joking expression from RyuZU.
“How about this? In place for me alone being unable to function, you will get back an automata inferior to me, yet outstanding in her own way–my little sister AnchoR, and you can also get a body you can play with because I cannot move. As a ‘bonus’, you can also save the lives of 20 million that are no different from the dust. What do you think? Do you not feel that it is barely of equal value?”
“Not at all!”
Naoto answered with a frown, and RyuZU bowed before continuing,
“Then–how about this?”
RyuZu lifted her skirt, and lowered her head.
“Since this useless automata me has proposed something that will threaten Master Naoto’s life, I shall destroy myself as punishment for my own incompetence, so you should be able to make use of my parts effectively…how about that?”
“Wha?”
Naoto was left skeptical about those words–correction, something crept in his mind before those words.
The black scythes rising from under the dress abandoned the concept of time itself.
And they pierced through RyuZU’s own body.
“!!”
He could not understand.
Or rather, his brain refused to understand the scene happening in front of him.
“If it is you, Master Naoto…you can, definitely do it.”
RyuZU’s smile became a peaceful, ceasing function in front of Naoto.
The scythes stabbed through her chest was holding up a little gear, as pitch black as the night.
The black gear–‘Imaginary Gear’.
“…You’re kidding…”
Once this truth had finally sunk into his mind, Naoto yelled hoarsely.
“You got to be kidding me, damn it!! Why did you do such a thing on your own!! I-I didn’t come all the way here for this, damn it!!”
Naoto grabbed the ‘Imaginary Gear’ as he yelled.
…He had no confidence in repairing her.
This situation was different from back then, when she simply could not move; she was not damaged because of the black scythes stabbed into her. Her body was in a slight disarray as she had pulled out an important part to her forcefully, the gear being forced out from her.
But even so—as Naoto said this while reaching out for her, Marie intercepted him.
“Naoto!”
“Let go! I got to hurry and put this back!”
Marie yelled at a completely agitated Naoto,
“Naoto Miura!”
“Didn’t you hear me to let go!!”
“–I said to listen to me already!!”
Marie grabbed a growling Naoto by the collar.
She whispered back in response to his savage looking gray eyes,
“Memorize this in that empty head of yours, got it!? I never said a single thing about ‘sacrificing RyuZU’. I only talked about the current plan and risks.”
“That’s just the same thing, right!?”
“It’s completely different. A risk is just a risk, a simple possibility. It definitely won’t happen like that in reality. I’ll definitely fix up RyuZU personally, so just go along as what I say.”
“…Me too?”
After hearing the skeptical mutter from Naoto, Marie answered powerfully,
“Yeah. We need your help to understand the structure of this level, but for this plan to succeed, we need to understand the entire core tower area. That’s why your ears–your ‘talent’ is a must here.”
Marie knelt down as she pressed her hands on Naoto’s cheeks as the latter remained silent. She continued,
“I believed in you just now, so please believe in me this time too.”
“…”
“It’s a promise. Once you lend me your strength, everyone can be saved. You, RyuZU, this city, I’ll save everyone.”
“…Where’s that confidence coming from?”
“Of course, that’s because–”
Marie paused, and clenched her fist, placing it on her chest
She paced her breathing, inhaled, and shouted,
“Because I’m Marie Bell Breguet!”
Naoto widened his gray eyes.
Marie’s emerald eyes were filled with the glint of self-confidence.
“Please believe in my ability, Naoto Miura! I’m a daughter of the Breguets, the daughter of an a Meister who used to be the best in the world, and the little sister of the current best in the world. I’m the youngest Meister in history, beating that woman’s record!”
“!!!”
“I’m a woman who thinks nothing is impossible!”
A sudden sense of awe suddenly entered Naoto’s chest, and he could not help but be amazed.
She was too dazzling.
Ah damn it, I’m the one without talent here after all. Who’s the genius here? She’s the genius. She’s the real one—real talents are that dazzling after all.
He looked down at his chest.
Despite her functions ceasing–the golden eyes continued to shine at Naoto.
It was a smile devoid of darkness, a smile of trust , no, firm conviction.
Naoto sighed slightly, and remained silent.
–A shockingly amazing genius just told him.
If you can lend me your strength.
–RyuZU handed her gear to him, with absolute faith in him.
If it is you, Master Naoto…you can, definitely do it.
“–If…”
If I really have such a power.
Naoto held onto the ‘Imaginary Gear’ in his hand firmly, and lifted his head.
He stared back at Marie’s blazing emerald eyes, and bit his lifts.
There was a light flicking in those gray eyes.
“…Tell me, Marie.”
He asked.
“What do I have to do?”
●
At the outer periphery of the Kyoto Area.
Here was a massive installation supporting a massive structure called the ‘city’.
27 levels high, 50,000m in diameter, 90,000m in depth. This massive cylinder was supported by 4 million shafts connected to each other.
There were also relevant shafts located in the outer periphery, allowing one to disengage the shafts linking the city. This system was originally meant to be a final option in cases of dealing with emergency.
Even if a few gears were lost, the remaining gears of the ‘Clockwork Planet’ could take over for each other and continue the usual operation of maintaining the system. If this were to continue for long, the number of gears that could relieve the workload would continue to decrease, and as the burden on each gear increases, they would deteriorate faster.
Thus, the ‘purge’ would be the final method, and also the world method in decreasing the lifespan of the planet.
However–
This worst method was being implemented at Kyoto’s periphery.
“…Confirming that the 26th level is disengaged.”
Upon hearing the voice of the operator in ‘military clothes’, the hulking man standing in the middle of the control area bellowed with a booming voice.
“Right! Time to disengage the last connection!”
Under his orders, the military technicians of 20 men started to work on the machine connecting to the purge system.
Their faces were equally gloomy.
They knew very well what kind of result their actions would bring about, they knew very well this would end up in a slaughter of 20 million people, and they knew they were hiding the incompetence of the ‘military’.
Even they, who were trained to obediently follow orders as part of the military, could not execute this with pride and dignity.
Upon looking at their faces, the man in the control level–the ‘military’ commander clicked his tongue slightly.
–Goodness, these young men nowadays.
This action was not simply a cover-up, but also to maintain the dignity and authority the ‘military’ had, and also to protect the peace of the people under their charge–the ultimate mission to maintain order.
–They’re being so indecisive over just a mere sacrifice!
The same goes for that little lady of the ‘guild’. Is she so concerned about a city of 20 million people that she never thought of the downside to damaging the credibility of the ‘military’? What kind of a genius is that? A 16 year old brat being a Meister? She definitely made it up there due to relations. What a scumbag.
“–All signals confirmed. Connections complete. Final phase on standby.”
Upon hearing the operator’s voice, the commander lifted his head.
He curled his lips, and gave the order,
“Right. Begin the countdown!”
“Understood. Beginning countdown.–5, 4, 3…”
A stoic, emotionless voice started to count down.
The technicians, who had finished their work before this, watched the gauge dejectedly.
The commander bit his lips, and curled them up slightly.
“2, 1. –Final link, purge!”
The operator exclaimed with a slightly agitated voice.
And then…
“!!”
“!!”
…
“…? What?”
The city did not fall.
There was no response on the gauge, at least. There would normally be a little jolt, but even that did not happen.”
“What’s going on? What happened?”
As the commander growled, the technicians and operator again began to check on their work log and gauge.
After a pause, the operator shouted.
“A gravity anomaly!”
“What!?”
The commander turned his head around, looking surprised.
“It’s an anomaly in the city’s structure. It should be something related to the failure of the purge.”
“Yes, no wait. There’s a massive gravity reaction at the base of the city…impossible! The city’s being pushed up!!”
“…What are you saying?”
“In other words…”
The operator’s voice seemingly swallowed the outcry that happened next,
“Someone may have continued the gravity and obstructed the purge–”
There was silence.
And the commander exploded, lashing out,
“What nonsense is that!? Who did it, and how–”
His eyes, reddened due to rage and agitation, suddenly widened.
With a surprised look, he gritted his teeth.
“Was it that little girl–!?”
●
Gravity control system.
It was located on the 289th control block on the 24th level.
It was located deep within the shining gears, a place where it could not be reached easily.
One could see it standing majestically amidst the countless numbers of massive shafts, like an ancient, massive tree standing tall, having went through the vicissitudes of a thousand years.
The clockwork core system was buried deep within the root.
Marie stared at one of the gauges embedded in the base plate, a complicated looking item resembling an animal’s organ. Naoto had the still automata in his arms as he sat down.
There was a gaping hole in the chest of that automata, RyuZU.
The ‘Imaginary Gear’ originally located at her heart was currently placed inside the gravity control system located in front of their eyes.
Naoto calmly whispered,
“–Marie, 3 ‘military’ helicopters are coming to us.”
“Location?”
“35 degrees Northwest, about a distance of 24,906m.”
“Above the 192nd mechanical gear case…it looks like they’re planning to interfere from the connection.”
Marie muttered as shook the thing in her hand slightly.
A ripping boom and 3 explosions rang in Naoto’s ears thereafter.
A cry was heard from the communicator on the wall.
“Professor Marie! We sensed an explosion near the 192nd–!”
“–Any problems there?”
Marie calmly answered.
“No, it’s not obstructing with the work.”
“Please continue the work. The ‘military’s helicopter got taken down due to a slight interference with the air pressure. There’s no problem.”
There was silence on the other side of the communicator.
Naoto ignored her as he continued to report calmly,
“Marie, 24 degrees to the southwest, about 24,589m away.”
“Got it.”
Marie again answered calmly.
And Naoto’s ears again picked up on the explosions that happened far away.
Marie probably sensed the same explosions as she whispered back at the gasping voice from the communicator.
“You heard that?”
“Y-yeah…”
“I’ll take charge of eliminating the interference from the ‘military’, but I’m already at my limit doing this and the gravity control. We’ll leave the connections to you people. I hope that you’ll give your all; every fraction of a second counts here.”
“Understood.”
“Naoto, the circuit on the 5th level can’t seem to connect well. Is there something there?”
“The 5th cylinder that’s currently running can’t be inserted. There’s another system interfering with it 1m above them. If we want to bypass that, we need to turn the 1st cylinder 34 degrees clockwise.”
“Got it. It’s the water reservoir system—okay, connection succeeded.”
The value on the vague was drastically changed, and a new system was shown this time.
Naoto was in charge of ‘observing’.
And Marie was in charge of ‘operating’.
Marie controlled this unknown system of a ‘anti-gravity system’ that they had never known of before this, supporting and balancing this gigantic mass supporting the city. Naoto in turn became her eyes, observing the structure of the core tower and the happenings in the city areas through ‘sounds’.
Naoto waved the conducting wand, and Marie performed the musical instrument.
Their divergent talents were synchronized with each other, meshing together and improving each other.
This last-minute arrangement of session musicians was akin to a complete performance between long-time partners.
It seemed to be a symphony of only two–
“–”
…Halter was flabbergasted as he watched on quietly.
They managed to resist the purge by gaining control of the city’s functions one by one. Through the air pressure controls on the 24th level, they created turbulent airflows, downburst and dust tornados to ‘eliminate’ the ‘military’ that tried to intercept them.
After watching the ‘symphony’ those two made, he only had a single thing on his mind.
“Is this really something humans can do…?”
He had witnessed Marie’s superhuman ‘genius’ several times.
And Naoto’s ‘ability’, one that could be described as a superpower, was certainly startling to him.
But those two worked together to perform this ‘act’.
Was it really a talent humanity had? To master, dominate, control, manipulate a city, let alone the world?
The only thing appearing in his mind was a single alphabet.
The ‘re-creator of the planet’ had achieved an unimaginable, startling accomplishment, to a point of people really doubted his existence.
Nobody knew the name of this man hailed as the greatest genius in human history, and he was only known by an alphabet, Y.
It was overly natural, and nobody had realized the irrationality within it.
But it was a fact that this planet, which had died, was recreated by ordinary humans.
It was not by a conveniently available wizard, nor by a god, but was designed by humans.
At this two, two people managed to control gravity and put the lives of 20 million in their hands.
Was there any hesitation to call them ‘gods’ in this moment?
…Probably, definitely, without a doubt; They had no basis, just belief, just like that.
Should the man who reconstructed this world–‘Initial Y’ be considered to be something like that too?
“–Goodness gracious.”
In the face of the little gods controlling a massive city in their hands, he had the feeling that the impossibility of such a thing would be cleanly denied.
Halter could only give a wry smile as he stroked his bald head.
“–Marie, the gear’s not going to hold out for long.”
Naoto’s words caused Marie’s eyelids to shudder.
RyuZU’s ‘Imaginary Gear’, which had been spinning in reverse and giving off a massive energy, seemed to be reaching its limit.
Marie looked away, and slammed the console.
“…Not yet. Another 10 seconds.”
A sharp voice could be heard from the communicator.
“Professor Marie! The main balance is 0.2 degrees off!”
She slammed the console again.
“…! Targeting done! Angle adjustment complete! Connecting circuit!”
“Marie, it’s at its limit!”
“Give me another 6 seconds!. Count down!”
5.
Naoto stood up.
4.
Marie turned her head back.
3.
Their eyes met each others.
2.
The emerald and gray eyes exchanged a message that could not be put into words–
1.
A boom echoed through the core tower.
“Connection succeeded!”
Naoto pulled out the ‘Imaginary Gear’ before those words reached his ears.
He shouted,
“Marie!”
“Hand it to me!”
Marie snatched the gear from Naoto’s hand, and sprinted to RyuZU.
The gear–was a little contorted, but since it was still able to generate anti-gravity till the very end, its functioning should be alright.
Marie’s hands were moving very quickly.
She corrected the slight tilting, adjusted the frame, and connected the gears, wires and cylinders with a breakneck speed. The gear created an anti-clockwise energy while spinning clockwise, and though the absurd paradoxical mechanism caused the logic and rationality embedded deep within her fingers to wail, she ignored it. It was such a thing, and once she accepted this, she continued with her work, latching the springs and fastening the screws.
After latching on the artificial skin, Marie said.
“Spring!”
“–!!”
Naoto had already reached for RyuZU’s screw spring before she even mentioned it.
“–”
In the midst of the silence, the sound of Naoto spinning the spring echoed loudly.
…Is she not going to wake up again?
Such a terrifying anxiety appeared in Naoto’s head.
Whenever he spun the spring uneasily, an chilly sense of loss would spread within him.
…After a while which seemed to be an eternity.
“–,ah.”
RyuZU opened her eyes.
Her gold topaz eyes were glittering golden, shaking over and over again, blinking.
The eyes slowly moved about, emotion an enigma in them; and so, she looked towards Naoto.
Her angelic lips moved, her clear music box voice ringing.
“Ahh–Master Naoto.”
She smiled.
“You will look really shabby if your already unimpressive face is coupled with those teary swollen eyes.”
Despite her tongue being sharp and venomous, she reached her arm out for Naoto with elegance.
Unlike her spiteful voices, her eyes were teary, her cheeks a tender color.
Naoto too showed a smile as he stroked her hair, and clasped her hand.
Both of them shed tears.
The swear filter within the girl let out a pleasant sound.
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