In conclusion.
—The universe had gone rampant right from the beginning.
Before we could stand by ourselves on this world, we were wailing when we were born into this world.
We kept screaming, hollering, I’m right here, fearing the surrounding unknown and threats, dragging our weak bodies as we struggled, racking our brains as we wondered how to survive.
Where did we come from—
—And where will we go?
During this process, we created God out of our fear and cowardice, crafted philosophy as a means to obtain distilled rationality, and discovered mathematics as tools for deductions.
Tentatively, little by little, we created our own history.
…During this process, the world ended several times.
What was once a flat land became a sphere. Us, who were once the center of the universe, now revolve around the sun. Humans discovered the law of universal gravitation, learned how to fly in space, came up with the 5 forces that form the world, and finally, relied on logic, deduction, and the throne of the divine truth.
We used wisdom, languages and violence, shed tears of blood, repeatedly indulged in delight, fury, sadness, and the countless numbers of annoyance, pain, and trauma—
Again and again, we rebuilt our world.
Again and again, we rewrote our history.
Again and again, we extended our lifespans.
However, everything ended in futility.
On that day, that time, that instance, it all vanished in a fleeting bubble.
On the day the Earth was destroyed, the world ended, and the universe ended up that way.
And—when humanity realized the truth.
Our footprints were all wasted. The meandering process of pain and suffering was merely a foolish misunderstanding. The understanding we worked so hard to accumulate was merely a worthless speckle.
Humanity, on the cusp of obtaining the truth, was sent back to the primal age.
This universe was merely a toy box to God.
And it was proven that we are merely ignorant babies.
However—we still had to feel doubt.
If this world, filled with all sorts of ambiguity, uncertainty, irrationality, and paradoxes, was just for God’s amusement.
Does this world, which we live on, really exist?
And so, 1000 years later…
●
In the sky above Grid Akihabara.
20 airplanes glided past the sky.
The turbines rumbled the atmosphere, the fighter jets out letting out shrill sonic booms from their springs, and they were practically steel Pretodacyls.
They were the 7th squadron affiliated to the Tokyo ‘military’, piloting the 7th generation of fighter jets.
—Commonly known as the Sakeshitsu Team.
The strongest aerial fighting corps the Multiple Grid Tokyo ‘Military’ had.
These 20 fighter jets took off from Grid Yokohama, and were headed for Akihabara.
They had only one mission objective,
“—Destroy the unknown massive weapon that appeared in Grid Akihabara.”
“Eat shit and die.”
Inside the machine that was flying through the sky at supersonic speed.
Leading his squadron was Flight Lieutenant Sakeshitsu, and he muttered upon hearing the order that came from the transmission.
He was suddenly woken up in the wee hours, and was ordered to be on standby for combat. He finally got the permission to launch when dawn broke—only to find that it was some unknown massive weapon.”
“AWACS. If you’re so sleepy, how about I spank your ass with a few Attackers?”
This man was infamous for being impatient.
He gave his threat through the communicator in a half-joking manner, only to be met with a curt reply,
“Do watch your language, Lieutenant, this is an official order.”
“Shit’s supposed to come out from the ass.”
“To repeat myself, Lieutenant, this is an official order. The 7th squadron is to quickly destroy the massive unknown weapon that appeared in Grid Akihabara, codenamed ‘Earth Spider’ for now.”
Haa— Flight Lieutenant Sakeshitsu snorted, and guffawed.
“Are you an idiot? No, you definitely are one. You’re actually thinking of me as one.”
“Lieutenant.”
“Hey, idiot, you hear me? I don’t know what that Earth Spider is, but that monster suddenly appeared in the middle of Tokyo? Did the capital guards wank enough to fall asleep or something?”
“The capital guards were all wiped out.”
Upon hearing the AWACS answer, Lieutenant Sakeshitsu went silent.
Following that, visual data from the communicator was sent to all the pilots.
The images that appeared in the sight—included a mechanical spider massive enough to trample buildings, and flames spewing everywhere in the middle of Akihabara. This caused all the pilots to groan.
“All pilots, be warned. As you can see, this threat is real. If Grid Akihabara is destroyed, it can be said that Tokyo—or even Japan itself, will be destroyed. All hands to battle stations!”
“…”
“Also, Lieutenant Sakeshitsu, you are to appear in court once the operation is over. Are you looking forward to it?”
“—Well yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”
If they could return alive, that is.
The snide remark was about to sprout out of the throat, and Lieutenant Sakeshitsu barely managed to swallow it down.
As the squadron leader, he could not be saying this when his subordinates could hear him through the reverberation communicator.
Feeling extremely vexed, Lieutenant Sakeshitsu slammed his fiist onto the canopy.
An unknown massive weapon suddenly appeared in the middle of the capital? Surely it was something to laugh about.
Such a massive thing actually existed in the underground without anyone knowing? If he was to really think such words were convincing, he should have first blown up his head that was full of shit.
They already knew—or at the very least, the ‘higher ups’. However, what was their reason?
If not, why was it that they gave the unknown enemy a ‘codename’, rather than call it ‘target’, and explain the objective…!
—It’s obvious The Lieutenant gritted his teeth, almost gnashing them to bits.
The capital squadron assaulted it when Grid Akihabara was attacked.
—And they failed. Was it part of the plan? Or did something go wrong? Either way…
(Either way, we’re just cleaning up the shit from a shitting bastard here…!)
Lieutenant Sakeshitsu quietly yelled.
It was just an intuition—yet an analysis that couldn’t be any closer to the truth.
The capital guards were not weak soldiers, and they were not forces that were easily expendable.
A lot of the budget and highly intensive training was splurged upon them to protect Tokyo, and they were the strongest fighting force amongst the country ‘military’.
Now, this battalion was wiped out—as shown on the visual beforehand. There was nary a scratch on the enemy.
(So those damned politicians got terrified and left the dirty work to the air force.)
—Way too ridiculous.
If that side fails, come to us—that trail of thought was not only shallow, if anyone was to really think the situation could be dealt with as it was, they would be hopeless idiots.
The capital guards had many weapons with Resonance Cannons mounted upon them.
The anti-land weapons, in theory the strongest, could not deal a single dent on it. This showed that the enemy had defensive capabilities far beyond that, or some sort of nullifier mechanism.
They could not tell what that was, but there was something they could conclude.
That even if they were to expend all the Attacker guided missiles on this jet, the chances of an effective assault was basically—
“We’re reaching our target. All hands, prepare for combat!”
“…Understood.”
Lieutenant Sakeshitsu answered the AWACS, and let out a sigh.
—Let’s just follow orders. It’s a soldier’s responsibility. But—
The higher-ups announced that the enemy had an unknown number of weapons, cannons, and the range was unknown. In that case—he quickly sneered.
He grabbed the microphone at his mouth, and informed all his forces.
“Storm One to all units. Formation Delta—’Burst and Run’.”
This formation was used for the worst possible scenario, to avoid all units from being caught in the enemy’s range.
—To charge in from the maximum range possible, fire all the weapons, and run—in response to that order, the AWACS yelled.
“Lieutenant!? You are not given that order for such an operation!! Acting on your own is—.”
“—Operation? If ‘Shooting down this mysterious Earth Spider’ is called an operation, I’ll just give orders as to how we’re going to do it! If you want to see a show, at least shut that damn mouth up!!”
He would at least follow the orders. That was his responsibility as a soldier. However—
He had a duty beyond that—to avoid any senseless waste of life by avoiding useless battles of attrition.
“You hear me? All units, obey my command. I shall bear responsibility.”
“Lieutenant!”
The AWACS yelled, but the subordinates ignored that, answering,
“Storm Two here, understood. All units, Formation Delta.”
With this command given, “understood” all the units answered, and proceeded to get into position.
“7th squadron…! All of you…!”
An agitated yell could be heard from the AWACS unit, but suddenly—
The signal was cut off.
At the same time, an explosion came from the AWACS flying above their heads.
“Wh-what’s going on here!? Are you—”
“Y-you got to be kidding…they blew up the AWACS!?”
Before more of them could be rattled, at a place far to the front of Lieutenant Sakeshitsu—
The Sonar caught a major reaction, and he clicked his tongue, growling,
“All hands, evasive maneuvers and scatter, and escape at the maximum speed possible using your after burners—we’re in the enemy’s range!!”
“U-understood—”
The units could not hear their anxiety as they followed their leader’s instruction, turning back greatly.
However, even Lieutenant Sakeshitsu himself was left rattled.
(They blew up the AWACS first—? Those shitty bastards…)
—The enemy shot down the AWACS that was 20,000m above the planes, beyond the range of the Attackers.
The intent was obvious.
It was meant to be a clear taunt to all units entering the range…
The lieutenant withstood the tremendous G-force, and flew back with the other units, and the winds caused by the turbines—were ignited.
“!!”
The impact caused by the maximum speed, Mach 5 burst, created a massive pressure that practically crushed his consciousness with the pilot. And while he gritted his teeth, right in front of him was—
A unit that completed its turn and ignited its afterburners. It got blown up.
Having witnessed this, the elites of the 7th squadron widened their eyes.
“Storm 3 was shot down! I repeat! Storm 3 was shot down!”
“Wh-what happened!? What shot it—”
Screams of agony rang through the communicator—and they were cut off. Flashes appeared in front of them.
The squadron evaded and retreated at maximum speed, only to be shot down, and Sakeshitsu gnashed his teeth, yelling,
—How the hell do I know, damn it!
The attack came from beyond the maximum range of the Attacker missiles—beyond 18,000m—
It managed to accurately shoot down the AWACS that’s 20,000m above us? And flying objects maneuvering at hyper sonic? Such a ridiculous Aerial Defense System—No, it was still impossible for a weapon with multiple functions.
The reality remained however that Sakeshitsu’s units were being shot down one by one.
They could not dodge, let alone shoot back, and were being plummeted—and then…
He had a ridiculous instinct.
“—Damn it!”
Sakeshitsu followed his gut instinct without hesitation, forcefully removed the limit at the front of the plane, and pushed the control stick forward.
The nose of the plane sank, and it sank straight downwards.
He did this while removing the limiter. Normally, this was not something to be done—it was a forbidden maneuver.
The tremendous stress from the ‘Minus G’ caused the blood to gather in the head, and his vision was dyed red for an instance.
—That was a phenomenon known as ‘Red out’, one that would normally kill a pilot. However—
“—…!!!”
A tremendous impact grazed past the top of his unit immediately afterwards, proving that the ridiculous instinct was correct.
Lieutenant Sakeshitsu managed to dodge ‘some sort of an attack’ that closed in from behind.
The moment he realized this, he adjusted the machine back to its balanced position—ignoring the shrilling agony of the intense migraine.
“You got to be kidding! I’m flying at 5 times the speed of sound! —I can’t see anything!!”
—He was attacked in the back while flying at Mach 5.
An attack that ignored the distance caused by the Mach 5 relative velocity?
—There was no doubt. It was a ‘Cannon Strike’.
The speed and precision were abnormal, unbelievable, utterly ridiculous— it was a ‘magic bullet’.
“Storm One to all units! Abandoned your machines and ‘bailout’—right now!!”
Lieutenant Sakeshitsu wiped into the communicator.
The cannon shot was so fast, it was unable to distinguish a maneuver approaching Mach 5—a speed of 1650m per second.
Against such a thing, all their units would be shot down before they escaped the range…
“U-understood!”
Upon affirming the responses of all the surviving forces that proceeded to bailout—
Lieutenant Sakeshitsu too pulled the lever at his feet slowly.
“…!”
His seat, along with the canopy, were ejected.
—The bailout occurred in hypersonic speed flight. While he was about to pass out from the tremendous impact above the canopy, the Lieutenant gave a heinous glare to afar.
Not at the targeted Grid Akihabara,
—But at where the National Diet Building was at—Grid Kasumigaseki.
“You shitty politicians! Just what exactly are you guys attacking…!”
Just when Lieutenant Sakeshitsu howled furiously.
—It appeared that they were all waiting for the complete annihilation of the 7th squadron.
Numerous lights glided past the sky, striking Grid Akihabara. That sight caused the Lieutenant to sneer.
—Ahh, now that the capital guards and the air force failed, we’ll now—as usual, those were shallow thoughts.
Sited at the apex of Mount Fuji was the capital defense cannon—an extremely long-ranged, mass particle fixed cannon that gave a glint.
The ‘Amano Mihashira (Heaven’s Pillar)’—the anti-air ace meant to protect the core of the Multiple Grid Tokyo.
Upon the said, Flight Lieutenant Sakeshitsu felt extremely furious, and beyond that—he sneered.
“I guess those useless politicians…already came up with what they wanted to say next.”
While descending with the opened parachute, he was almost convinced.
—Numerous lights ripped through the sky. However, perhaps that was—
Lieutenant Sakeshitsu too pulled the lever at his feet slowly.
“…!”
His seat was ejected out of the window along with the canopy.
—It was a bailout in mid-hypersonic flight. While his consciousness was about to pass out from the intense impact from above the canopy, the Lieutenant glared heinously at a target afar.
He was not eyeing Grid Akihabara.
—But at where the National Diet Building was built on, Grid Kasumigaseki.
“You politicians!! What exactly are you attacking now…!!?”
While he was bellowing furiously,
—It appeared that they were waiting for the entire 7th squadron to be wiped out.
Countless flashes fizzled past the air, striking Grid Akihabara. This scene caused Lieutenant Sakeshitsu to laugh mockingly.
—Ahh, now that the Capital’s security teams and air forces have failed, we’ll then—that was quite a shallow way of thinking.
Those lights were from the Capital’s Defense Cannon—located at the top of Mount Fuji, a gigantic fixed artillery with massive range.
It was the anti-air trump protecting the ‘Heaven’s Pillar’, the core of the Multiple Grid, Tokyo.
Such a scene left Lieutenant Sakeshitsu with something beyond hatred—a sneer.
“Those incompetent politicians…I guess they prepared their lines?”
He had a feeling of near conviction as he descended, his parachute opened.
—Numerous flashes skidded past the sky. However, it was likely that they—
…
●
—The dim, cramped space continued to tremor weakly.
It was a room with a low-ceiling, extending to the sides. The walls were plastered with numerous monitors, and the scaffolding-styled floor was littered with thick glass tubes. Blueish white flashes would appear in the tubes from time to time.
There were approximately 30 men dressed in uniform, not even a wrinkle on them.
All of them were staring at the monitors and instruments in front of them.
“Enemies lost. All units down…assessing the condition caused by the shot from the ‘Capital Defense Cannon’—”
Upon hearing a report, everyone else present gulped,
“We took 8 shots—and 0 damage.”
Upon hearing this report, the crowd was upbeat, ready to cheer at any given moment. In the meantime,
“—Hm.”
The only one seated in the room, a sturdy old man, nodded,
“Phased Out Radar, Reader Lock, Infrared Sight, Railgun, Magnetic Shields are all stable.”
“Power at 12%. More than 2% is needed to restart the recharge rate to the expected level. Please allow for 30% power to be redirected from the Firearms Control Systems (FCS).”
“Permission granted.”
Following the brief answer to the reports, the old man—Gennai Hirayama, let out a deep sigh.
A young man standing beside him spoke up, sounding shrill and agitated.
“That really was an impressive result, my Lord. We actually managed to easily sweep that 7th squadron…!”
“This is an expected outcome.”
Gennai simply answered, reclining his upper body onto the back rest.
Yes. It was obvious, a no-brainer, an expected outcome.
—Humanity in the past used this most convenient power in the universe, one which had a hidden, infinite number of possibilities in them.
Once everything was changed to gears to create this ‘Clockwork Planet’ (this world), researching on that ‘technology’ itself was a crime.
The field of ‘electromagnetism’ dominated 3 of the 5 powers that formed the universe—electricity, magnetism, and Coulombs.
Gear weaponry were mere toys in the face of the results of electromagnetism.
—The complex electromagnetism tactical class mobile weapon, ‘Yatsukahagi’.
Looking back at its origins, it was something that was planned and built on the government’s orders.
The reason why they decided to use the name that was conceived during the development was a sarcastic jab filled with Gennai’s sad past…
“Once the other countries see our results, they will have to admit that our research has shown fruit.”
“…That might be difficult. We merely crushed a squadron.”
Gennai muttered without any emotion, and another young officer seemed agitated as he denied it,
“That’s not true! No country can ignore the fact that we destroyed Tokyo’s defense forces!”
“He’s right, my Lord. Not even the ‘Capital Defense Cannon’ can destroy us here!”
…Well, that’s true. Gennai thought.
It was obvious that the Resonance Cannon of the Capital Defense forces were ineffective.
For it could not trigger a resonance destruction phenomena upon contact with the magnetic armor.
However—the ‘Capital Defense Cannon’ was a particle cannon.
That was the final trump of Japan—used to due with the enemy in case they did attack the capital.
It was a Semi-Automatic Recoil Cannon located at Mount Fuji that could eradicate enemy armadas from exceptionally long distance.
The defense of this armor was due to the electromagnetic coupling of the metallic atoms, but based on the simulated calculations, there was a 50% chance that they could hold up against a blast from the ‘Capital Defense Cannon’—these odds themselves signified their victory.
Also, they unleashed a one-sided crushing on the highly trained air force squadron that was so renowned overseas.
“The Tokyo ‘military’ has no firepower to stand in our way now!”
“Yes…you’re right.”
Upon hearing the adjutant’s words, gennai looked around at the rowdy, amped crowd in the command room, and nodded.
—That doesn’t matter here.
In the end, it was just repaying an eye for an eye.
Their own side was the same as the government, merely repeating the acts of humanity that had carried on over eras.
Humanity could not change, and would never change.
But—Gennai wondered.
In that case, what was the entity called ‘Y’, who managed to recreate this world successfully?
This world continued to work properly, normally, precisely, yet abnormally, inconsistently, and paradoxically.
For a human who was unable to change, who exactly was he, who created this ultimate atypia called the ‘Clockwork Planet’?
He overturned all the laws humanity spent countless years and talent to accumulate like a dream, and on a certain day, suddenly threw at them a truth nobody could understand as if he was fooling around.
The one who did that was just an ordinary human—an ordinary clock technician.
It was laughable—who could actually believe such a thing? Who would accept this? He was an impertinent man who arrogantly declared that he was the truth of the Three Thousand Realms, which even the Gods in heaven would be apprehension off, that even the demons in Hell would remain silent.
Was that—’humanity’ that continued to scale up this land, despite not changing after thousands of years?
On that day
Humanity never changed. That was set in stone.
But only ‘Y’ managed to overturn all premises, and arrogantly caused the universe to break away from order.
—That cannot possibly be from human hands. If someone is able to fulfill the ‘malice’ that was so severe the word ‘evil’ could be considered tame, there was no possibility other than it coming from someone who surpassed the line of good and evil.
—However, Gennai wondered.
If that is the truth, I can accept it.
It did not matter whether he was a god or a demon. If that sort of a monster that surpassed human intellect recreated the world, and let humanity remain in an eternal delusion before their doomsday, then humanity would obviously be left powerless.
In any case, there is no reason why humanity could surpass an enlightened one, therefore.
He was disappointed by history, despaired at the world, and right when he thought he was to die after having seen everything.
There was a boy who appeared, bringing along an automata ‘Y’ created.
Everyone was agitated, feeling invincible, their eyes burning as they set upon the next target.
Gennai’s metallic colored eyes were poised and frosty, hissing in a maniacal manner,
“Now then…come and stop if if you can, ‘Y’…”
From beyond the boundary of good and evil, you arrogantly, undauntingly created this world.
You destroyed the unchanging destiny of the ordinary humans, the destiny to self-destruct.
What else can you say in front of this truth—you monster?
What kind of existence are you, who restructured the world?
Are you an ‘enlightened’ one like gods and demons, or are you just a pompous, haughty human?
Come, prove it to me, with the world on the line…!
●
—At the same time.
In a workshop at Grid Akihabara, a blond girl—Marie, was leaning and seated against the wall, her legs spread. Her green eyes lost their usual luster as she simply remained there, thinking.
This current situation was something akin to a delusion anyone would have had.
The scene from a B thriller movie, where the world was on the brink of destruction due to some reason.
No food, no water, civilization was destroyed, and all she could rely on was her knowledge, her body, and her allies.
…I see, she thought.
It was to be expected why they were called B movies—they did not seem realistic at all.
There was no scriptwriter who actually experienced the world destroyed…and thus, they did not understand reality.
In reality, it was not that simple.
In reality, it was ridiculously far beyond human imagination.
Marie chuckled lifelessly as she saw Halter lying prone with smoke rising from his body—remaining silent. She weakly held onto a screwdriver, and the other screwdriver was firmly stuck to it, seemingly pasted to it as it dangle down.
Destruction of civilization? Only able to rely on her own knowledge, physical body and allies?
You got to be kidding—this is reality. An inexplicable, violent, the worst possible calamity of a reality.
Marie could not help but let out a heartfelt sigh, and at that moment,
“—woah—that’s hot—!?”
A petite boy squealed as he jumped up.
“It’s hot!!? —What’s going on—and why is it noisy inside my earphones?”
The boy, Naoto Miura, had woken up, and was making a ruckus as he frantically tossed aside his earphones. Then, he found Marie staring at him blankly.
“Hey…did something…happen…?”
It seemed he was in intense pain; his breathing was frenetic, his expression contorted as he asked an obvious question.
—Now that’s a good question. Marie smiled.
“It’s my guess…I can tell you this, maybe. We go hit with as ‘electromagnetic pulse’.”
Marie’s reply was a little lifeless. Naoto in turn frowned skeptically.
“An elec—what?”
…Marie could not longer feel anger at this point.
With a hoarse sigh, she raised the screwdriver in her hand, and raised it to Naoto’s face.
“—Everything and anything was destroyed…can you understand that now?”
The abnormally radical and powerful electromagnetic pulse caused everything else to be magnetized.
No—if that was the case, it would have been fine. Marie thought.
It was likely that due to the electromagnetic induction, the particle gears, wires, springs, and all kinds of intricate parts were melted. What was left behind were simply dumb tools that could not be used because they were magnetized.
They were merely clockwork instruments that could not function at all.
Calculators? Cars? The lights and lock off this room, even the screwdriver were wrecked.
“Do I need to make it easier for you to understand?”
Marie opened her hand.
The screwdriver fell to the floor, giving off a dry sound.
“Everything is magnetized now, and we don’t have a way to get out of this room.”
—It had been pointed out since ancient times that the machinery made from gear technology could not resist against magnetism.
And thus, humanity—had no choice but to give up on electromagnetism.
However, though the ‘planet governor’ located at the Poles did obstruct the electromagnetic waves coming from space, they could not completely negate the influence of electromagnetism on this planet. Thus, the technology to counter magnetism—how to prevent the gear machinery from magnetism, was always a topic of research.
One could completely understand after seeing this situation.
To summarize—for Marie, no, for all the ordinary humans living on this planet.
—All the relevant knowledge and technology was completely sealed.
With the clock gear of the ‘Clockwork Planet’ destoryed, not even a single tool could be used, let alone for repairs.
That was akin to a bird who could not fly even with wings—no, that example might be more fortunate.
For even a bird with its wings snapped still had feet.
…But no matter how much Marie was hailed as a genius, she needed the basic knowledge required to take action.
And with this planet refitted entirely with gears, the current situation was—
…This was ‘reality’, the worst calamity.
What should they do—this was not a hopeful situation where they could say this.
They were even robbed of the thought of what could they do.
Marie suddenly recalled. She once watched an utterly ridiculous, foolish movie of the old ages, far beyond the absurdness of this B thriller movie scenario.
Her lips showed a parched smile.
In that story, the world the protatgonist lived in was actually just an illusion.
The world was long destoryed, and humans were connected to a machines, living in a dream world they created. Of course, she knew that such a story was utterly foolish—but if she was to think of it as the truth.
The current situation was, yes, realism was starting to kick in.
Now then, what could she do?
All she had was a brain that could only daydream.
In this world where she was utterly helpless, where everything was a dream.
Should she think of a way to escape the dream, even though she only had a head?
Everything she was seeing was just a dream after all, right?
And such a hallucination was—or rather, if it was really a hallucination, ‘that’ would be a happy despair. She looked around through the thick windows, and the place where she caught sight of was the thing triggering this nightmare.
There was a gigantic mobile weapon, standing tall there, blotting the sun.
That monster easily crushed everything and anything, clearly existing there as the sign of despair.
“—Hey—R-RyuZU!?”
Naoto’s cry echoed in the room, and Marie turned around to look.
Entering her eyes was the sight of the fallen silver haired girl.
A frantic Naoto hurriedly leapt over, wanting to carry her beloved girl—
“—It’s hot—!!?”
The moment he touched her, no, he was really screaming right when he was about to touch her, and he retreated.
And then, he finally realized the reason why he woke up from the heat.
His face paled, blood practically drained from his face.
—RyuZu was lying in a pool of blood.
What caused this impression was the metallic panels on the floor, heated so much that they were somewhat melted.
And the reason that occurred was because of RyuZU.
Her body, now collapsed and unable to move, was giving off enough heat to melt metal.
Naoto looked to be utterly overwhelmed by fright, and with a trembling voice, he yelled,
“Hey, what about AnchoR? Old man Halter! That uncle head (Vermouth)—”
Upon being asked that, Marie wordlessly averted her eyes.
Lying over there was Halter, giving off fumes.
And right beside him was AnchoR, like a puppet with her strings severed, or as one would say, a statue as she laid down there silently. She did not move at all, and it appeared that she—was dead.
And then, Marie stared at Vermouth, whose was left with a head that rolled to her feet, the eyes looking completely blank, and chuckled,
“Didn’t you hear what I just said?”
She began to talk with the tone of one narrating a nightmare,
“Everything is destroyed…”
…
The silence was like a deep sea.
“—Don’t kid around with me…”
Naoto gnashed his teeth so hard them were creaking, and lifted Marie while the latter was leaning weakly against the wall.
“Then we got to hurry up and fix this thing—you can fix right, right!?”
Marie let Naoto shake her around without putting up and fight, and coldly snickered,
“Yeah, I can…just get rid of the magnetism—if we can get rid of it, that is.”
“Then what are you spacing out for!? Hurry—”
“How?”
After hearing Marie’s calm voice, Naoto was left flabbergasted.
With hollow eyes, Marie stared at the eyes that were staring right back at her, continuing,
“It’s really great to be ignorant, isn’t it, Mr Naoto? I’m really envious.”
Get rid of the magnetism? Of course she knew how to.
She could magnetize a clockwork installation, and looking at it the other way, of course she could remove it.
As an ex-Meister, Marie could do the easy job of adjusting a magnetized clockwork installation with her eyes closed. The theory was simple; add a similar level of magnetism or electric current, and reverse the magnetic field; the magnetism would be removed, gone.
That was all. Marie knew very well the necessary methods, skills and order.
However, the important thing—
“Electricity is a must here! Do you understand? That shitty weapon just released a real taboo amongst all forbidden stuff in the international treaties! That shitty electromagnetic power is forbidden in the regulations…!”
After hearing Marie’s lament—no, her lamenting cry, Naoto was overwhelmed, and let go.
Marie again leaned at the wall, pondering,
—Yeah, of course.
No country or organization would actually abid by this clause.
Halter and that Vermouth had the illegal electromagnetic devices installed in their cyborg bodies..
And to put it, just in case—though it might be impossible on this planet—certain parts themselves were already invariably emitting electromagnetic fields, so a part of the ‘Meister Guild’ and the military had some legal electromagnetism dispelling devices that were permitted by the International Supervision System(ISS). Marie herself had such an experience before.
However—
“Those amazing ears of yours are able to hear, right!? That electromagnetic pulse destroyed everything in Grid Akihabara! So? How am I supposed to get out of this room!? Where do I get the devices to remove the magnetic fields? Can you explain that to me in a few simple words…!?”
Marie lashed out—and tears were in her eyes as she got to the latter half.
—It was impossible.
Marie knew very well the method to generate electricity from gears.
But that method could not possibly generate an electric current that could be controlled precisely for magnetism removal.
Researching on such knowledge itself was a crime, let alone knowing it.
And also, a legal magnetic remover required a strict set of controls akin to that of a level 4 contagion.
It would be difficult for Marie, no different from an ordinary civilian at this point, to obtain one at this point.
Furthermore, there was no such magnetic remover as large as a humanoid robot anywhere in the world, let alone this city grid.
If one were to take a long retreat say—even if they could intrude into a control facility and steal a magnetic remover, they could only remove it from a few delicate parts.
The protection on Halter’s head might still be working at this point…but there was still insufficient time.
At this point, it was already—
“…We can’t get out of this room in the…first place…”
Marie muttered, and looked down.
—But that move alone,
Was that enough to render her so helpless?
Because of one single move, all the knowledge she accumulated to this point, expertise she etched within her body—
That was really…like an illusion—just when she shed a tear, at that moment—
—Suddenly, a crack could be heard from that thick glass.
Marie lifted her head in shock, and found Naoto smashing the window with a chair.
Twice, thrice,four times—the crack on the hardened glass began to expand after multiple hits.
“R-argh!”
And after an umpteenth hit, the window finally broke.
It seemed that as Naoto was too forceful, the chair slipped from Naoto’s hands, and flew out of the window.
“Okay. RyuZU, AnchoR, old man Halter…I guess we can just hold that head in our hands. We can throw them all down one after another…the 8th floor? Well, we’ll just get a long cable or cloth to get to the ground.”
“…”
While Marie continued to remain still, Naoto clicked his tongue,
“—Argh, enough already! Get over there, you’re so slow you’re in the way!”
After saying that, Naoto again moved over to RyuZU.
Without hesitation, he reached his hand out to the body that was so hot, it could melt the floor.
“Wa-wait a sec!”
Naoto ignored Marie, who was trying to stop him, and grabbed RyuZU’s body.
“—(sizzles)”
Naoto’s face suddenly winced, and the smell of burnt human flesh reached Marie’s nose.
But Naoto naturally lifted RyuZU, appearing not to be in ay pain.
Marie shrieked at him,
“Do you know what you’re doing!?”
“Shut up! If you’re not going to be helpful, then just stay in a corner and shut up!”
Naoto dragged RyuZU along the scorching floor, and yelled,
“I don’t know what I’m doing at all! But I know that I can’t let RyuZU remain like this!”
The moment he yelled this, he put RyuZU back down onto the cooled floor.
The sight of her lying face up, to put it lightly, was that she was hideous.
The parts, starting from the abdomen, were starting to melt—even her skeletal frame seemed to be transforming, probably due to being in excessive heat over a long time.
If it were an ordinary automata, surely such severe damage would have warranted her to be scraped.
Even Marie could not patch up this level of damage immediately.
It was not merely an issue of tools; there were too many pricy parts to be replaced.
But at the same time—Marie sensed that something was amiss.
Was this ‘merely the level of damage’ caused by a high temperature that could melt metal.
She thought about the parts in the abdomen; they probably were at several thousand degrees Celsius heat at some point.
But despite the effects of that heat, there was no damage to be seen on the clothing, the artificial skin, or the hair, nothing other than the abdomen.
No. Marie already had a doubt.
Was the heat that melted the parts due to the electrical resistance?
“—!”
However, upon seeing RyuZU in such a state, Naoto shook his head hard, and suddenly got up.
He did not care about the burnt skin and melted adhesive sticking onto his clothes as he proceeded into the workshop to look for wires, cables or something that appeared sturdy, and tied them all together.
Marie watched his back, and stammered,
“…What…are you doing…”
“Can’t you tell? Oh great genius!? If you can’t open the door, get out from the window!”
As Marie had said, this was a workshop, a sealed environment where not even a speck of dust could get in. The automatic door that was locked by machinery was damaged, and they could not open it—now then, what could they do?
—Just break through the window used for lighting and get out.
That was simple enough. However…
“—Once you get out, what are you going to do…?”
The moment Marie asked this question, Naoto turned his head around in frustration.
Those eyes were clearly—giving a condescending glint, and he yelled at her without hesitating.
“Get out of here! Try and find a way to get to that bellend! RyuZU, AnchoR, and get old man Halter and Vermouth along!? And fix that guy up!”
Then, Naoto’s face was suddenly contorted.
That was the most heinous glare Marie had yet to see before.
He glared outside the window while a vengeful glint, of which a killing intent would be putting lightly.
—That was the culprit behind everything.
He glared at the massive weapons stomping through the streets of Akihabara, saying,
“I’m going to boil those guys who got my wife and daughter involved alive, you hear me!?”
—
“If you aren’t going to help, then just stop getting in my way and just shut up!”
—This guy really doesn’t understand the situation after all? Marie wondered, but at the same time, she understood.
If they could not get out through the door—they could slip out from the window—truly, she had fallen on hard times, to be unable to think of things even an idiot could think of.
“…I told you already, right? The magnetic fields in Grid Akihabara basically means that everything ‘stopped’…even our normal means of getting to the next Grid are limited. Don’t know…?”
“It’s much better than just stupidly staying around here!”
“Yeaaahhh…—I guess that’s really the case!”
Yes, she had to admit this.
Naoto, who had been taking action without thinking, was correct as compared to her.
After hearing this unexpected answer, Naoto was momentarily stunned.
At the same time, Marie patted her face, and stood up, meeting Naoto in the eyes.
As usual—no, the grey eyes gave off a brighter glint than usual in the dim light .
She had the eyes of one who was not defeated despite this situation.
At this point—she would let those eyes guide her.
“First, we need to make sure to get to the arranged place with Teacher Conrad and the others—Grid Ueno. Normally it’s not easily to get over there when the one of the areas in the Multiple Grids stops functioning—but nobody’s around in Grid Akihabara, so we probably can use the forbidden bridge…”
Marie continued on, and suddenly felt something strange.
Once she saw Naoto lower his eyebrows, looking relieved as he beamed, she felt her heart skip a beat.
At this moment.
“—Magnetic field confirmed to have vanished. Emergency Sequence Ended. Booting normal sequence.”
Upon hearing that soft voice, Naoto and Marie immediately turned their heads over.
Right where they were looking at was—
“…That shocked me.”
AnchoR blinked her round eyes, widened them, and tilted her head in confusion.
We’re the shocked ones here, okay? Marie thought. Faster than her was—
“WAAAAHHHHH!!!! ANCHOORRR’S FINNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEE YOU NEARLY SCARED ME THERE DAMMIT!!!”
Naoto, who was right beside her, immediately leapt right at AnchoR, screaming excitedly,
“—!? I don’t want papa to die!”
And while AnchoR innocently believed Naoto’s words as she embraced him firmly, Naoto continued,
“Okay, don’t worry, I won’t die! RyuZU’s not too bad, or else I really would have passed out.”
“…Is it AnchoR’s fault? …Is AnchoR, a bad girl?”
“Not at all, you’re really a good girl! It’s thanks to you that papa here didn’t die! Papa might think of dying right away if you aren’t moving at all, AnchoR!”
“…? Papa nearly died because of AnchoR, but thanks to AnchoR…?”
After hearing that conversation between the idiot and the automata, Maria could not say anything.
—How did it end up like this?
She actually managed to withstand a electromagnetic pulse?
That was a magnetic field that utterly burned through Halter’s defenses!? And the latter had the next generation military cyborg body developed by the Breguets.
This is not the moment to be surprised by them, right? N-no—if that was not it, why is it that they stopped until just a while ago? No no no! More importantly, what did that idiot just say?”
“—Naoto, did you just say…that AnchoR was moving…”
“Eh, ah, she was up and running the entire time. That’s why I gave up on killing myself.”
Naoto stated this as if it was a matter of fact.
“Since AnchoR was moving, I thought RyuZU would be heated up due to something, but I didn’t have any proof, so I thought I had to hurry and do something, even if it’s a second earlier. And then you were hesitating so much, Marie…”
Marie ignored Naoto’s voice as he grumbled and caressed AnchoR, thinking,
—The reason—why she got hot…?
And for an instance, right before Marie was about to think about something, AnchoR said apologetically,
“…So-rry…the ‘anti buzz’ function…erm…”
She explained, not understanding her own functions—or rather, she appeared not to understand herself at all.”
“…I entered an ’emergency’ heat sequence…”
—
Marie did her best to hold herself from passing out.
—Ahh,that was true—there was another way to get rid of the magnetism.
She would admit it, that she had forgotten all about it. Her mind was in turmoil after all.
—But at least let me explain myself somehow, Marie begged to no one.
Because this method typically ‘could not be done ‘, and would ‘hardly be done’.
And furthermore, it was an automatic action. However, with the unknown actually explaining this, Marie exclaimed,
“Heating to remove magnetism? That can only occur at Curie point! Are you kidding me? How do you do that?”
—This was a phenomena called Curie Point,
Where anything with magnetism will lose it once it was heated at a certain temperature.
To put it simply, the magnetism could be removed through heating. It was really an overly simple method.
But such a method would be called a final course of action—
—No, it was such a violent course of action, it would not even be ‘considered’ as a final solution.
Why? Because once it was heated, the objects would naturally expand or melt. Every part was made of different materials, and so the temperatures required to cool them down was different. This would cause any intricate machinery to be ruined in the process of heating.
However, there were automatas that could automatically heat themselves up?
The gears would lose firmness under the heat, and the cables would self-destruct—surely, it would be strange if that was not the case. To look at it another way, even if it was possible, the mechanics would have stopped the moment they were magnetized.
In any case, how was the heating function able to continue working—!?
While Marie continued to ponder alone, Naoto ignored her as he muttered,
In other words, heating can remove the magnetism, right? AnchoR has a ‘perpetual gear’ with zero friction, and can continue running to slowly increase heat. RyuZU herself converted all her energy into heat, and stopped, right?”
After hearing this, AnchoR suddenly stood up, and exclaimed,
“S-sister…! No, she can’t cool down by herself…”
“It’s fine, AnchoR~no matter what happens~don’t worry. RyuZU’s moved to an icy floor!”
“…Papa’s amazing…!”
AnchoR widened her eyes as she marvelled.
However, she turned to look at the burns on the hands, and her eyes lowered sadly.
“…But, you’re hurt. Doesn’t it hurt…?”
“Ahahaha! This isn’t much for my wife and daughter!”
Naoto said with a straight face, basically like a father acting tough in front of his daughter.
Yeah—this really is amazing, Marie was frustrated.
So amazing that it was beyond her comparison, and one could say that it was beyond what was common sense.
—The situation was beyond her understanding.
But after looking at such a scene, Marie merely matter,
“Yeah yeah. The heat dispelled the magnetic fields.”
She could not accept this.
She could not understand.
But Naoto merely ignored her dumbfounded self as he moved forward, and for some reason—
Marie felt a hollow, dry feeling rising in her, and she grabbed Vermouth’s head that was left on the floor.
In any case, she had to do what she could do.
“Anyway, first, we need to get out of Grid Akihabara.”
Saying that, she picked up the head,
And casually tossed it at the scorching floor.
●
“You rotten bitch! You nearly boiled my head off!? Has your head loosened as much as your ass did!?”
While they were moving through the completely silent Akihabara, Vermouth suddenly yelled.
“Oh? You’re still alive? I thought the magnetism removal failed.”
Marie calmly said to the head yelling at her, not stopping at all as she continued to move on.
Vermouth looked over, and found AnchoR carrying RyuZU, with Naoto panting as he straggled at the back. Marie was at the front, tucking Vermouth and Halter’s heads under her armpits.
Intrigued, Vermouth asked,
“What…? What’s going on? How come that Mister’s left with a head too? Hey, ghost girl, mind speaking up and explain—what did you just do, you bitch!?”
Marie slammed Vermouth’s head, now in her right arm, onto the passing street lamp, making him shut up.
Halter’s cyborg body was too heavy, and too damaged to be repaired, so Marie took his head off. Vermouth felt some pity that he was unable to see Marie’s expression back then.
Naoto finally caught up to him, looking a little awkward, saying,
“…Ah, you really woke up at the wrong time, uncle…anyway, you’re okay, right?”
“Huh? Ah, so you’re the guy with this bitch? Ha—on what basis do you say that I’m alright here? The oxygen gauge meant to protect my head was damaged, and I could have died in another 3 seconds. My right eye’s probably gone, and I can’t really differentiate the colors. It’s amazing that I’m still alive, and if I’m caused fine, that corpse should be called completely healthy with her limbs intact, huh?”
—This certainly was an energetic head to be able to rattle back a rattle.
Marie did train for this before, but holding a head in each arm and running at full speed was really an arduous activity. Though they were just heads, each of them was as heavy as a bowling ball.
She really had the urge to simply throw aside the head in her right arm, and narrowed her eyes.
There was nothing moving as the morning sun shone upon the streets of Akihabara, and flames were smoking everywhere, probably because of the scorched gears burning. The most concerning thing how was that for a while, Marie’s ears could pick up some sort of rumbling from the underground.
—Surely this was the noise of this city being destroyed.
“Anyway, brat, how’s my handsome face right now?”
“There’s a really old robot movie with a guy who sank into a furnace of molten steel and melted, you know?”
“My artificial skin got melted!? What did you do to me, you damn slut—hey, this is abuse, right!?”
This time, she smashed Vermouth’s head onto a passing guardrail, saying,
“Be good now, you hear?”
She angrily glared at the head that was raised to her eyes.
“Whether you end up in the trashbin or flushed down the toilet is up to my mood, and I’m feeling so bad right now, I’m thinking if I should just vent on you and heat you up to cook you—but this me who has a rare angelic kindness in the world has decided to keep you alive, so you shitty bastard should be touched to tears and swear loyalty to me, alright?”
“That’s just a choice between a demon and the devil, right?”
Marie ignored Naoto’s snark.
With a tender voice even a demon lord would be terrified by, she said.
“—Serve me, or you can go and die, okay
?”
This is the meaning of your existence; Vermouth could hear the hidden conclusion, and muttered in surprise,
“—Hey, this bitch’s really crazy now.”
“It looks like you either prefer the trashbin, or the toilet?’
“Old man, if you really want to ask if she’s crazy, the answer’s yes. I won’t hurt you here, you better be a little more obedient here.”
“You gotta be kidding brat. Eh—think about it calmly, I too have the right to be angry, right!?”
“The right…but that’s based on ‘timing and location’, right…?”
Vermouth seemed to be enlightened by those words, and he said, looking impressed,
“…You’re still young, but you do know quite a lot, brat. Once I get saved, let’s go get a drink. it’s a deal.”
Marie was huffing after running this much, and upon hearing this deal, she gave a cold snort.
The Mansei Bridge—that was what they always called this place for a long time.
Marie lifted her sights slightly, and could see a massive contour dangling in the dawning sky. With the massive pillar reaching from earth to sky as the center there were many massive round plates overlapped on each other, each spanning a few kilometers in diameter.
These are the city grids that the Multiple Grid Tokyo.
At this point, they were located at this Grid Akihabara, the lowers level of Tokyo.
The bridge connecting this place to the Grid above was the destination Marie and the others were headed for.
(Now then—)
Marie turned her head around.
She stared at the ostentatious massive shadow blotting the morning sun—the gigantic spider that was stamping on the buildings and being blasse towards the city. Then, she said,
“Tell me right now. That weapon was created by combining the results from electromagnetic studies…right?”
“Why ask the obvious?”
Marie stopped.
The head in the right arm fell to the ground, and got stomped on by her.
“Don’t get cocky. Tell me ‘yes’ or ‘no; anything else, and I’ll kill you.”
“Yes.”
“Very good. Next question. What’s it trying to do next?”
“No.”
Marie immediately grabbed Vermouth’s head.
And then, she raised it without hesitation, throwing it over her head down at the Kanda river flowing right below her eyes.
Right when Vermouth was really going to get thrown down, Naoto stopped her,
“Calm down, marie. Don’t kill anyone in front of AnchoR.”
“Hey brat, I’m glad that you’re helping me, but that’s a weird reason, okay?”
Marie then grumbled, looking annoyed,
“I’m really an idiot actually think of relying on this guy—well, let’s ask just in case. AnchoR can at least take on take thing, right?”
If it was that overwhelming fighting ability that could match RyuZU’s ‘Mute Scream’—while Marie thought of this, AnchoR dejectedly shook her head.
“…Sorry…mama…”
“AnchoR needs to charge up right now. Don’t force her to deal with such a thing.”
Naoto buttered in to protect the girl.
After hearing that, Marie understood.
How the Perpetual Gear—which generated an infinite amount of heat such that ‘it remained in perpetual motion’, worked.
But one could tell that even if the power was infinite, there was a limit to the output.
Once the power usage was more than the regeneration, the backup power would start to be used.
The power drain was at its minimum, in the first gear. Once the spring started its initial motion, it could continue to run forever.
That why AnchoR was able to break free.
But after the battle with RyuZU, the severe damages and repairs, the remaining power AnchoR had stored in her ‘Perpetual Gear’ was almost completely gone.
If the gear was kicked on, the power drain would be beyond the output, and she would run out of power in a few minutes.
—In other words, they could not settle this with AnchoR’s power.
Marie shook her head, groaning,
“Well, at the very least, if we know of that guy’s intentions…”
“How many times must I say it now, Missy? You still have to ask when it’s this obvious now?”
“Shut up, or I’ll really throw you into the river.”
“—Get real, you self-proclaimed genius. The pieces are all together. I’m disappointed if you still don’t understand now, okay?”
“—”
After hearing those words, Marie shook her head, wanting to sort out the situation.
She admitted that she was really confused.
The cause of it all was the microwave message sent by this head.
They were tracking a signal down to the underground of Grid Mie, and found a massive weapon. It was a weapon that could destroy the weapon, developed by the ‘military’ technicians affiliated to Grid Shiga that were researching on the illegal electromagnetic technology.
Then, the government wanted to restore its credibility after the failed purge of Kyoto, starting a large scale skirmish with Mie—the old Shiga ‘military’.
Marie’s group took the initiative to stop the conflict, getting all the civilians to evacuate through a terrorist announcement, and lured in the Tokyo ‘military’ Capital Defense Forces to the underground to take on the massive weapon.
However, all that they did was futile. They failed.
That one shock punctured through the city, and the continuous electromagnetic pulse caused Akihabara to be further destabilized. Furthermore, Halter barely managed to escape with his life, RyuZu was so damaged her functions stopped, and AnchoR was lacking in power. Marie was left completely powerful in the magnetized streets.
All their plans were crushed, and their fighting strength completely nullified.
—Till this point, she had yet to recover from that shock.
(The pieces are here…? What does that mean—no…my mind’s just going blank without thinking of anything.)
Marie gritted her teeth in frustration.
But at that moment.
Naoto suddenly lifted his head.
That was the terrifying face she just saw—but that face clearly showed that he ‘saw through everything’.
He gave a piercing glare at the gigantic spider that was blocking out the sun, and said,
“…’nothing’…is that what that shit is doing?”
Upon hearing those words, Marie looked over, dumbfounded.
Immediately, Vermouth’s laugh echoed through this doomsday Akihabara, and AnchoR’s shoulders jolted.
“Ha—hahahaha! You really are good there, brat! Hey Missy, you really picked up someone interesting!”
“What do you…mean?”
—Again.
It seemed there was again something she did not know, a discussion she could not understand.
This anxious frustration caused Marie to frown in an annoyed manner.
Vermouth then said heartily,
“In any case…that thing over there is just appearing there. This itself—is already the worst possible scenario for the ‘government’. It’s like the Queen suddenly appearing on the chessboard in front of the king. It’s just a con—but the winner’s decided.”
—She did not understand.
What exactly did this guy and Naoto see and felt to get that conclusion—
“—Missy.”
Vermouth tried to hold in his laughter as he said,
“Sorry for saying this, but you’re just a kid who has yet to know the world. How innocent of you.”
“Wha—”
“As for that brat—well, you’re cute, and you have such cruel thoughts there. You really have the potential to be a real shitty bastard there, you know?”
“I’m already used to being called a pervert, but I’m against being called a shitty bastard, okay~?”
Naoto pouted unhappily.
—In summary, Vermouth concluded.
“It’s like what that brat said. It’s just waiting for the ‘government to self-destruct’—checkmate.”
In conclusion.
—The universe had gone rampant right from the beginning.
Before we could stand by ourselves on this world, we were wailing when we were born into this world.
We kept screaming, hollering, I’m right here, fearing the surrounding unknown and threats, dragging our weak bodies as we struggled, racking our brains as we wondered how to survive.
Where did we come from—
—And where will we go?
During this process, we created God out of our fear and cowardice, crafted philosophy as a means to obtain distilled rationality, and discovered mathematics as tools for deductions.
Tentatively, little by little, we created our own history.
…During this process, the world ended several times.
What was once a flat land became a sphere. Us, who were once the center of the universe, now revolve around the sun. Humans discovered the law of universal gravitation, learned how to fly in space, came up with the 5 forces that form the world, and finally, relied on logic, deduction, and the throne of the divine truth.
We used wisdom, languages and violence, shed tears of blood, repeatedly indulged in delight, fury, sadness, and the countless numbers of annoyance, pain, and trauma—
Again and again, we rebuilt our world.
Again and again, we rewrote our history.
Again and again, we extended our lifespans.
However, everything ended in futility.
On that day, that time, that instance, it all vanished in a fleeting bubble.
On the day the Earth was destroyed, the world ended, and the universe ended up that way.
And—when humanity realized the truth.
Our footprints were all wasted. The meandering process of pain and suffering was merely a foolish misunderstanding. The understanding we worked so hard to accumulate was merely a worthless speckle.
Humanity, on the cusp of obtaining the truth, was sent back to the primal age.
This universe was merely a toy box to God.
And it was proven that we are merely ignorant babies.
However—we still had to feel doubt.
If this world, filled with all sorts of ambiguity, uncertainty, irrationality, and paradoxes, was just for God’s amusement.
Does this world, which we live on, really exist?
And so, 1000 years later…
●
In the sky above Grid Akihabara.
20 airplanes glided past the sky.
The turbines rumbled the atmosphere, the fighter jets out letting out shrill sonic booms from their springs, and they were practically steel Pretodacyls.
They were the 7th squadron affiliated to the Tokyo ‘military’, piloting the 7th generation of fighter jets.
—Commonly known as the Sakeshitsu Team.
The strongest aerial fighting corps the Multiple Grid Tokyo ‘Military’ had.
These 20 fighter jets took off from Grid Yokohama, and were headed for Akihabara.
They had only one mission objective,
“—Destroy the unknown massive weapon that appeared in Grid Akihabara.”
“Eat shit and die.”
Inside the machine that was flying through the sky at supersonic speed.
Leading his squadron was Flight Lieutenant Sakeshitsu, and he muttered upon hearing the order that came from the transmission.
He was suddenly woken up in the wee hours, and was ordered to be on standby for combat. He finally got the permission to launch when dawn broke—only to find that it was some unknown massive weapon.”
“AWACS. If you’re so sleepy, how about I spank your ass with a few Attackers?”
This man was infamous for being impatient.
He gave his threat through the communicator in a half-joking manner, only to be met with a curt reply,
“Do watch your language, Lieutenant, this is an official order.”
“Shit’s supposed to come out from the ass.”
“To repeat myself, Lieutenant, this is an official order. The 7th squadron is to quickly destroy the massive unknown weapon that appeared in Grid Akihabara, codenamed ‘Earth Spider’ for now.”
Haa— Flight Lieutenant Sakeshitsu snorted, and guffawed.
“Are you an idiot? No, you definitely are one. You’re actually thinking of me as one.”
“Lieutenant.”
“Hey, idiot, you hear me? I don’t know what that Earth Spider is, but that monster suddenly appeared in the middle of Tokyo? Did the capital guards wank enough to fall asleep or something?”
“The capital guards were all wiped out.”
Upon hearing the AWACS answer, Lieutenant Sakeshitsu went silent.
Following that, visual data from the communicator was sent to all the pilots.
The images that appeared in the sight—included a mechanical spider massive enough to trample buildings, and flames spewing everywhere in the middle of Akihabara. This caused all the pilots to groan.
“All pilots, be warned. As you can see, this threat is real. If Grid Akihabara is destroyed, it can be said that Tokyo—or even Japan itself, will be destroyed. All hands to battle stations!”
“…”
“Also, Lieutenant Sakeshitsu, you are to appear in court once the operation is over. Are you looking forward to it?”
“—Well yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”
If they could return alive, that is.
The snide remark was about to sprout out of the throat, and Lieutenant Sakeshitsu barely managed to swallow it down.
As the squadron leader, he could not be saying this when his subordinates could hear him through the reverberation communicator.
Feeling extremely vexed, Lieutenant Sakeshitsu slammed his fiist onto the canopy.
An unknown massive weapon suddenly appeared in the middle of the capital? Surely it was something to laugh about.
Such a massive thing actually existed in the underground without anyone knowing? If he was to really think such words were convincing, he should have first blown up his head that was full of shit.
They already knew—or at the very least, the ‘higher ups’. However, what was their reason?
If not, why was it that they gave the unknown enemy a ‘codename’, rather than call it ‘target’, and explain the objective…!
—It’s obvious The Lieutenant gritted his teeth, almost gnashing them to bits.
The capital squadron assaulted it when Grid Akihabara was attacked.
—And they failed. Was it part of the plan? Or did something go wrong? Either way…
(Either way, we’re just cleaning up the shit from a shitting bastard here…!)
Lieutenant Sakeshitsu quietly yelled.
It was just an intuition—yet an analysis that couldn’t be any closer to the truth.
The capital guards were not weak soldiers, and they were not forces that were easily expendable.
A lot of the budget and highly intensive training was splurged upon them to protect Tokyo, and they were the strongest fighting force amongst the country ‘military’.
Now, this battalion was wiped out—as shown on the visual beforehand. There was nary a scratch on the enemy.
(So those damned politicians got terrified and left the dirty work to the air force.)
—Way too ridiculous.
If that side fails, come to us—that trail of thought was not only shallow, if anyone was to really think the situation could be dealt with as it was, they would be hopeless idiots.
The capital guards had many weapons with Resonance Cannons mounted upon them.
The anti-land weapons, in theory the strongest, could not deal a single dent on it. This showed that the enemy had defensive capabilities far beyond that, or some sort of nullifier mechanism.
They could not tell what that was, but there was something they could conclude.
That even if they were to expend all the Attacker guided missiles on this jet, the chances of an effective assault was basically—
“We’re reaching our target. All hands, prepare for combat!”
“…Understood.”
Lieutenant Sakeshitsu answered the AWACS, and let out a sigh.
—Let’s just follow orders. It’s a soldier’s responsibility. But—
The higher-ups announced that the enemy had an unknown number of weapons, cannons, and the range was unknown. In that case—he quickly sneered.
He grabbed the microphone at his mouth, and informed all his forces.
“Storm One to all units. Formation Delta—’Burst and Run’.”
This formation was used for the worst possible scenario, to avoid all units from being caught in the enemy’s range.
—To charge in from the maximum range possible, fire all the weapons, and run—in response to that order, the AWACS yelled.
“Lieutenant!? You are not given that order for such an operation!! Acting on your own is—.”
“—Operation? If ‘Shooting down this mysterious Earth Spider’ is called an operation, I’ll just give orders as to how we’re going to do it! If you want to see a show, at least shut that damn mouth up!!”
He would at least follow the orders. That was his responsibility as a soldier. However—
He had a duty beyond that—to avoid any senseless waste of life by avoiding useless battles of attrition.
“You hear me? All units, obey my command. I shall bear responsibility.”
“Lieutenant!”
The AWACS yelled, but the subordinates ignored that, answering,
“Storm Two here, understood. All units, Formation Delta.”
With this command given, “understood” all the units answered, and proceeded to get into position.
“7th squadron…! All of you…!”
An agitated yell could be heard from the AWACS unit, but suddenly—
The signal was cut off.
At the same time, an explosion came from the AWACS flying above their heads.
“Wh-what’s going on here!? Are you—”
“Y-you got to be kidding…they blew up the AWACS!?”
Before more of them could be rattled, at a place far to the front of Lieutenant Sakeshitsu—
The Sonar caught a major reaction, and he clicked his tongue, growling,
“All hands, evasive maneuvers and scatter, and escape at the maximum speed possible using your after burners—we’re in the enemy’s range!!”
“U-understood—”
The units could not hear their anxiety as they followed their leader’s instruction, turning back greatly.
However, even Lieutenant Sakeshitsu himself was left rattled.
(They blew up the AWACS first—? Those shitty bastards…)
—The enemy shot down the AWACS that was 20,000m above the planes, beyond the range of the Attackers.
The intent was obvious.
It was meant to be a clear taunt to all units entering the range…
The lieutenant withstood the tremendous G-force, and flew back with the other units, and the winds caused by the turbines—were ignited.
“!!”
The impact caused by the maximum speed, Mach 5 burst, created a massive pressure that practically crushed his consciousness with the pilot. And while he gritted his teeth, right in front of him was—
A unit that completed its turn and ignited its afterburners. It got blown up.
Having witnessed this, the elites of the 7th squadron widened their eyes.
“Storm 3 was shot down! I repeat! Storm 3 was shot down!”
“Wh-what happened!? What shot it—”
Screams of agony rang through the communicator—and they were cut off. Flashes appeared in front of them.
The squadron evaded and retreated at maximum speed, only to be shot down, and Sakeshitsu gnashed his teeth, yelling,
—How the hell do I know, damn it!
The attack came from beyond the maximum range of the Attacker missiles—beyond 18,000m—
It managed to accurately shoot down the AWACS that’s 20,000m above us? And flying objects maneuvering at hyper sonic? Such a ridiculous Aerial Defense System—No, it was still impossible for a weapon with multiple functions.
The reality remained however that Sakeshitsu’s units were being shot down one by one.
They could not dodge, let alone shoot back, and were being plummeted—and then…
He had a ridiculous instinct.
“—Damn it!”
Sakeshitsu followed his gut instinct without hesitation, forcefully removed the limit at the front of the plane, and pushed the control stick forward.
The nose of the plane sank, and it sank straight downwards.
He did this while removing the limiter. Normally, this was not something to be done—it was a forbidden maneuver.
The tremendous stress from the ‘Minus G’ caused the blood to gather in the head, and his vision was dyed red for an instance.
—That was a phenomenon known as ‘Red out’, one that would normally kill a pilot. However—
“—…!!!”
A tremendous impact grazed past the top of his unit immediately afterwards, proving that the ridiculous instinct was correct.
Lieutenant Sakeshitsu managed to dodge ‘some sort of an attack’ that closed in from behind.
The moment he realized this, he adjusted the machine back to its balanced position—ignoring the shrilling agony of the intense migraine.
“You got to be kidding! I’m flying at 5 times the speed of sound! —I can’t see anything!!”
—He was attacked in the back while flying at Mach 5.
An attack that ignored the distance caused by the Mach 5 relative velocity?
—There was no doubt. It was a ‘Cannon Strike’.
The speed and precision were abnormal, unbelievable, utterly ridiculous— it was a ‘magic bullet’.
“Storm One to all units! Abandoned your machines and ‘bailout’—right now!!”
Lieutenant Sakeshitsu wiped into the communicator.
The cannon shot was so fast, it was unable to distinguish a maneuver approaching Mach 5—a speed of 1650m per second.
Against such a thing, all their units would be shot down before they escaped the range…
“U-understood!”
Upon affirming the responses of all the surviving forces that proceeded to bailout—
Lieutenant Sakeshitsu too pulled the lever at his feet slowly.
“…!”
His seat, along with the canopy, were ejected.
—The bailout occurred in hypersonic speed flight. While he was about to pass out from the tremendous impact above the canopy, the Lieutenant gave a heinous glare to afar.
Not at the targeted Grid Akihabara,
—But at where the National Diet Building was at—Grid Kasumigaseki.
“You shitty politicians! Just what exactly are you guys attacking…!”
Just when Lieutenant Sakeshitsu howled furiously.
—It appeared that they were all waiting for the complete annihilation of the 7th squadron.
Numerous lights glided past the sky, striking Grid Akihabara. That sight caused the Lieutenant to sneer.
—Ahh, now that the capital guards and the air force failed, we’ll now—as usual, those were shallow thoughts.
Sited at the apex of Mount Fuji was the capital defense cannon—an extremely long-ranged, mass particle fixed cannon that gave a glint.
The ‘Amano Mihashira (Heaven’s Pillar)’—the anti-air ace meant to protect the core of the Multiple Grid Tokyo.
Upon the said, Flight Lieutenant Sakeshitsu felt extremely furious, and beyond that—he sneered.
“I guess those useless politicians…already came up with what they wanted to say next.”
While descending with the opened parachute, he was almost convinced.
—Numerous lights ripped through the sky. However, perhaps that was—
Lieutenant Sakeshitsu too pulled the lever at his feet slowly.
“…!”
His seat was ejected out of the window along with the canopy.
—It was a bailout in mid-hypersonic flight. While his consciousness was about to pass out from the intense impact from above the canopy, the Lieutenant glared heinously at a target afar.
He was not eyeing Grid Akihabara.
—But at where the National Diet Building was built on, Grid Kasumigaseki.
“You politicians!! What exactly are you attacking now…!!?”
While he was bellowing furiously,
—It appeared that they were waiting for the entire 7th squadron to be wiped out.
Countless flashes fizzled past the air, striking Grid Akihabara. This scene caused Lieutenant Sakeshitsu to laugh mockingly.
—Ahh, now that the Capital’s security teams and air forces have failed, we’ll then—that was quite a shallow way of thinking.
Those lights were from the Capital’s Defense Cannon—located at the top of Mount Fuji, a gigantic fixed artillery with massive range.
It was the anti-air trump protecting the ‘Heaven’s Pillar’, the core of the Multiple Grid, Tokyo.
Such a scene left Lieutenant Sakeshitsu with something beyond hatred—a sneer.
“Those incompetent politicians…I guess they prepared their lines?”
He had a feeling of near conviction as he descended, his parachute opened.
—Numerous flashes skidded past the sky. However, it was likely that they—
…
●
—The dim, cramped space continued to tremor weakly.
It was a room with a low-ceiling, extending to the sides. The walls were plastered with numerous monitors, and the scaffolding-styled floor was littered with thick glass tubes. Blueish white flashes would appear in the tubes from time to time.
There were approximately 30 men dressed in uniform, not even a wrinkle on them.
All of them were staring at the monitors and instruments in front of them.
“Enemies lost. All units down…assessing the condition caused by the shot from the ‘Capital Defense Cannon’—”
Upon hearing a report, everyone else present gulped,
“We took 8 shots—and 0 damage.”
Upon hearing this report, the crowd was upbeat, ready to cheer at any given moment. In the meantime,
“—Hm.”
The only one seated in the room, a sturdy old man, nodded,
“Phased Out Radar, Reader Lock, Infrared Sight, Railgun, Magnetic Shields are all stable.”
“Power at 12%. More than 2% is needed to restart the recharge rate to the expected level. Please allow for 30% power to be redirected from the Firearms Control Systems (FCS).”
“Permission granted.”
Following the brief answer to the reports, the old man—Gennai Hirayama, let out a deep sigh.
A young man standing beside him spoke up, sounding shrill and agitated.
“That really was an impressive result, my Lord. We actually managed to easily sweep that 7th squadron…!”
“This is an expected outcome.”
Gennai simply answered, reclining his upper body onto the back rest.
Yes. It was obvious, a no-brainer, an expected outcome.
—Humanity in the past used this most convenient power in the universe, one which had a hidden, infinite number of possibilities in them.
Once everything was changed to gears to create this ‘Clockwork Planet’ (this world), researching on that ‘technology’ itself was a crime.
The field of ‘electromagnetism’ dominated 3 of the 5 powers that formed the universe—electricity, magnetism, and Coulombs.
Gear weaponry were mere toys in the face of the results of electromagnetism.
—The complex electromagnetism tactical class mobile weapon, ‘Yatsukahagi’.
Looking back at its origins, it was something that was planned and built on the government’s orders.
The reason why they decided to use the name that was conceived during the development was a sarcastic jab filled with Gennai’s sad past…
“Once the other countries see our results, they will have to admit that our research has shown fruit.”
“…That might be difficult. We merely crushed a squadron.”
Gennai muttered without any emotion, and another young officer seemed agitated as he denied it,
“That’s not true! No country can ignore the fact that we destroyed Tokyo’s defense forces!”
“He’s right, my Lord. Not even the ‘Capital Defense Cannon’ can destroy us here!”
…Well, that’s true. Gennai thought.
It was obvious that the Resonance Cannon of the Capital Defense forces were ineffective.
For it could not trigger a resonance destruction phenomena upon contact with the magnetic armor.
However—the ‘Capital Defense Cannon’ was a particle cannon.
That was the final trump of Japan—used to due with the enemy in case they did attack the capital.
It was a Semi-Automatic Recoil Cannon located at Mount Fuji that could eradicate enemy armadas from exceptionally long distance.
The defense of this armor was due to the electromagnetic coupling of the metallic atoms, but based on the simulated calculations, there was a 50% chance that they could hold up against a blast from the ‘Capital Defense Cannon’—these odds themselves signified their victory.
Also, they unleashed a one-sided crushing on the highly trained air force squadron that was so renowned overseas.
“The Tokyo ‘military’ has no firepower to stand in our way now!”
“Yes…you’re right.”
Upon hearing the adjutant’s words, gennai looked around at the rowdy, amped crowd in the command room, and nodded.
—That doesn’t matter here.
In the end, it was just repaying an eye for an eye.
Their own side was the same as the government, merely repeating the acts of humanity that had carried on over eras.
Humanity could not change, and would never change.
But—Gennai wondered.
In that case, what was the entity called ‘Y’, who managed to recreate this world successfully?
This world continued to work properly, normally, precisely, yet abnormally, inconsistently, and paradoxically.
For a human who was unable to change, who exactly was he, who created this ultimate atypia called the ‘Clockwork Planet’?
He overturned all the laws humanity spent countless years and talent to accumulate like a dream, and on a certain day, suddenly threw at them a truth nobody could understand as if he was fooling around.
The one who did that was just an ordinary human—an ordinary clock technician.
It was laughable—who could actually believe such a thing? Who would accept this? He was an impertinent man who arrogantly declared that he was the truth of the Three Thousand Realms, which even the Gods in heaven would be apprehension off, that even the demons in Hell would remain silent.
Was that—’humanity’ that continued to scale up this land, despite not changing after thousands of years?
On that day
Humanity never changed. That was set in stone.
But only ‘Y’ managed to overturn all premises, and arrogantly caused the universe to break away from order.
—That cannot possibly be from human hands. If someone is able to fulfill the ‘malice’ that was so severe the word ‘evil’ could be considered tame, there was no possibility other than it coming from someone who surpassed the line of good and evil.
—However, Gennai wondered.
If that is the truth, I can accept it.
It did not matter whether he was a god or a demon. If that sort of a monster that surpassed human intellect recreated the world, and let humanity remain in an eternal delusion before their doomsday, then humanity would obviously be left powerless.
In any case, there is no reason why humanity could surpass an enlightened one, therefore.
He was disappointed by history, despaired at the world, and right when he thought he was to die after having seen everything.
There was a boy who appeared, bringing along an automata ‘Y’ created.
Everyone was agitated, feeling invincible, their eyes burning as they set upon the next target.
Gennai’s metallic colored eyes were poised and frosty, hissing in a maniacal manner,
“Now then…come and stop if if you can, ‘Y’…”
From beyond the boundary of good and evil, you arrogantly, undauntingly created this world.
You destroyed the unchanging destiny of the ordinary humans, the destiny to self-destruct.
What else can you say in front of this truth—you monster?
What kind of existence are you, who restructured the world?
Are you an ‘enlightened’ one like gods and demons, or are you just a pompous, haughty human?
Come, prove it to me, with the world on the line…!
●
—At the same time.
In a workshop at Grid Akihabara, a blond girl—Marie, was leaning and seated against the wall, her legs spread. Her green eyes lost their usual luster as she simply remained there, thinking.
This current situation was something akin to a delusion anyone would have had.
The scene from a B thriller movie, where the world was on the brink of destruction due to some reason.
No food, no water, civilization was destroyed, and all she could rely on was her knowledge, her body, and her allies.
…I see, she thought.
It was to be expected why they were called B movies—they did not seem realistic at all.
There was no scriptwriter who actually experienced the world destroyed…and thus, they did not understand reality.
In reality, it was not that simple.
In reality, it was ridiculously far beyond human imagination.
Marie chuckled lifelessly as she saw Halter lying prone with smoke rising from his body—remaining silent. She weakly held onto a screwdriver, and the other screwdriver was firmly stuck to it, seemingly pasted to it as it dangle down.
Destruction of civilization? Only able to rely on her own knowledge, physical body and allies?
You got to be kidding—this is reality. An inexplicable, violent, the worst possible calamity of a reality.
Marie could not help but let out a heartfelt sigh, and at that moment,
“—woah—that’s hot—!?”
A petite boy squealed as he jumped up.
“It’s hot!!? —What’s going on—and why is it noisy inside my earphones?”
The boy, Naoto Miura, had woken up, and was making a ruckus as he frantically tossed aside his earphones. Then, he found Marie staring at him blankly.
“Hey…did something…happen…?”
It seemed he was in intense pain; his breathing was frenetic, his expression contorted as he asked an obvious question.
—Now that’s a good question. Marie smiled.
“It’s my guess…I can tell you this, maybe. We go hit with as ‘electromagnetic pulse’.”
Marie’s reply was a little lifeless. Naoto in turn frowned skeptically.
“An elec—what?”
…Marie could not longer feel anger at this point.
With a hoarse sigh, she raised the screwdriver in her hand, and raised it to Naoto’s face.
“—Everything and anything was destroyed…can you understand that now?”
The abnormally radical and powerful electromagnetic pulse caused everything else to be magnetized.
No—if that was the case, it would have been fine. Marie thought.
It was likely that due to the electromagnetic induction, the particle gears, wires, springs, and all kinds of intricate parts were melted. What was left behind were simply dumb tools that could not be used because they were magnetized.
They were merely clockwork instruments that could not function at all.
Calculators? Cars? The lights and lock off this room, even the screwdriver were wrecked.
“Do I need to make it easier for you to understand?”
Marie opened her hand.
The screwdriver fell to the floor, giving off a dry sound.
“Everything is magnetized now, and we don’t have a way to get out of this room.”
—It had been pointed out since ancient times that the machinery made from gear technology could not resist against magnetism.
And thus, humanity—had no choice but to give up on electromagnetism.
However, though the ‘planet governor’ located at the Poles did obstruct the electromagnetic waves coming from space, they could not completely negate the influence of electromagnetism on this planet. Thus, the technology to counter magnetism—how to prevent the gear machinery from magnetism, was always a topic of research.
One could completely understand after seeing this situation.
To summarize—for Marie, no, for all the ordinary humans living on this planet.
—All the relevant knowledge and technology was completely sealed.
With the clock gear of the ‘Clockwork Planet’ destoryed, not even a single tool could be used, let alone for repairs.
That was akin to a bird who could not fly even with wings—no, that example might be more fortunate.
For even a bird with its wings snapped still had feet.
…But no matter how much Marie was hailed as a genius, she needed the basic knowledge required to take action.
And with this planet refitted entirely with gears, the current situation was—
…This was ‘reality’, the worst calamity.
What should they do—this was not a hopeful situation where they could say this.
They were even robbed of the thought of what could they do.
Marie suddenly recalled. She once watched an utterly ridiculous, foolish movie of the old ages, far beyond the absurdness of this B thriller movie scenario.
Her lips showed a parched smile.
In that story, the world the protatgonist lived in was actually just an illusion.
The world was long destoryed, and humans were connected to a machines, living in a dream world they created. Of course, she knew that such a story was utterly foolish—but if she was to think of it as the truth.
The current situation was, yes, realism was starting to kick in.
Now then, what could she do?
All she had was a brain that could only daydream.
In this world where she was utterly helpless, where everything was a dream.
Should she think of a way to escape the dream, even though she only had a head?
Everything she was seeing was just a dream after all, right?
And such a hallucination was—or rather, if it was really a hallucination, ‘that’ would be a happy despair. She looked around through the thick windows, and the place where she caught sight of was the thing triggering this nightmare.
There was a gigantic mobile weapon, standing tall there, blotting the sun.
That monster easily crushed everything and anything, clearly existing there as the sign of despair.
“—Hey—R-RyuZU!?”
Naoto’s cry echoed in the room, and Marie turned around to look.
Entering her eyes was the sight of the fallen silver haired girl.
A frantic Naoto hurriedly leapt over, wanting to carry her beloved girl—
“—It’s hot—!!?”
The moment he touched her, no, he was really screaming right when he was about to touch her, and he retreated.
And then, he finally realized the reason why he woke up from the heat.
His face paled, blood practically drained from his face.
—RyuZu was lying in a pool of blood.
What caused this impression was the metallic panels on the floor, heated so much that they were somewhat melted.
And the reason that occurred was because of RyuZU.
Her body, now collapsed and unable to move, was giving off enough heat to melt metal.
Naoto looked to be utterly overwhelmed by fright, and with a trembling voice, he yelled,
“Hey, what about AnchoR? Old man Halter! That uncle head (Vermouth)—”
Upon being asked that, Marie wordlessly averted her eyes.
Lying over there was Halter, giving off fumes.
And right beside him was AnchoR, like a puppet with her strings severed, or as one would say, a statue as she laid down there silently. She did not move at all, and it appeared that she—was dead.
And then, Marie stared at Vermouth, whose was left with a head that rolled to her feet, the eyes looking completely blank, and chuckled,
“Didn’t you hear what I just said?”
She began to talk with the tone of one narrating a nightmare,
“Everything is destroyed…”
…
The silence was like a deep sea.
“—Don’t kid around with me…”
Naoto gnashed his teeth so hard them were creaking, and lifted Marie while the latter was leaning weakly against the wall.
“Then we got to hurry up and fix this thing—you can fix right, right!?”
Marie let Naoto shake her around without putting up and fight, and coldly snickered,
“Yeah, I can…just get rid of the magnetism—if we can get rid of it, that is.”
“Then what are you spacing out for!? Hurry—”
“How?”
After hearing Marie’s calm voice, Naoto was left flabbergasted.
With hollow eyes, Marie stared at the eyes that were staring right back at her, continuing,
“It’s really great to be ignorant, isn’t it, Mr Naoto? I’m really envious.”
Get rid of the magnetism? Of course she knew how to.
She could magnetize a clockwork installation, and looking at it the other way, of course she could remove it.
As an ex-Meister, Marie could do the easy job of adjusting a magnetized clockwork installation with her eyes closed. The theory was simple; add a similar level of magnetism or electric current, and reverse the magnetic field; the magnetism would be removed, gone.
That was all. Marie knew very well the necessary methods, skills and order.
However, the important thing—
“Electricity is a must here! Do you understand? That shitty weapon just released a real taboo amongst all forbidden stuff in the international treaties! That shitty electromagnetic power is forbidden in the regulations…!”
After hearing Marie’s lament—no, her lamenting cry, Naoto was overwhelmed, and let go.
Marie again leaned at the wall, pondering,
—Yeah, of course.
No country or organization would actually abid by this clause.
Halter and that Vermouth had the illegal electromagnetic devices installed in their cyborg bodies..
And to put it, just in case—though it might be impossible on this planet—certain parts themselves were already invariably emitting electromagnetic fields, so a part of the ‘Meister Guild’ and the military had some legal electromagnetism dispelling devices that were permitted by the International Supervision System(ISS). Marie herself had such an experience before.
However—
“Those amazing ears of yours are able to hear, right!? That electromagnetic pulse destroyed everything in Grid Akihabara! So? How am I supposed to get out of this room!? Where do I get the devices to remove the magnetic fields? Can you explain that to me in a few simple words…!?”
Marie lashed out—and tears were in her eyes as she got to the latter half.
—It was impossible.
Marie knew very well the method to generate electricity from gears.
But that method could not possibly generate an electric current that could be controlled precisely for magnetism removal.
Researching on such knowledge itself was a crime, let alone knowing it.
And also, a legal magnetic remover required a strict set of controls akin to that of a level 4 contagion.
It would be difficult for Marie, no different from an ordinary civilian at this point, to obtain one at this point.
Furthermore, there was no such magnetic remover as large as a humanoid robot anywhere in the world, let alone this city grid.
If one were to take a long retreat say—even if they could intrude into a control facility and steal a magnetic remover, they could only remove it from a few delicate parts.
The protection on Halter’s head might still be working at this point…but there was still insufficient time.
At this point, it was already—
“…We can’t get out of this room in the…first place…”
Marie muttered, and looked down.
—But that move alone,
Was that enough to render her so helpless?
Because of one single move, all the knowledge she accumulated to this point, expertise she etched within her body—
That was really…like an illusion—just when she shed a tear, at that moment—
—Suddenly, a crack could be heard from that thick glass.
Marie lifted her head in shock, and found Naoto smashing the window with a chair.
Twice, thrice,four times—the crack on the hardened glass began to expand after multiple hits.
“R-argh!”
And after an umpteenth hit, the window finally broke.
It seemed that as Naoto was too forceful, the chair slipped from Naoto’s hands, and flew out of the window.
“Okay. RyuZU, AnchoR, old man Halter…I guess we can just hold that head in our hands. We can throw them all down one after another…the 8th floor? Well, we’ll just get a long cable or cloth to get to the ground.”
“…”
While Marie continued to remain still, Naoto clicked his tongue,
“—Argh, enough already! Get over there, you’re so slow you’re in the way!”
After saying that, Naoto again moved over to RyuZU.
Without hesitation, he reached his hand out to the body that was so hot, it could melt the floor.
“Wa-wait a sec!”
Naoto ignored Marie, who was trying to stop him, and grabbed RyuZU’s body.
“—(sizzles)”
Naoto’s face suddenly winced, and the smell of burnt human flesh reached Marie’s nose.
But Naoto naturally lifted RyuZU, appearing not to be in ay pain.
Marie shrieked at him,
“Do you know what you’re doing!?”
“Shut up! If you’re not going to be helpful, then just stay in a corner and shut up!”
Naoto dragged RyuZU along the scorching floor, and yelled,
“I don’t know what I’m doing at all! But I know that I can’t let RyuZU remain like this!”
The moment he yelled this, he put RyuZU back down onto the cooled floor.
The sight of her lying face up, to put it lightly, was that she was hideous.
The parts, starting from the abdomen, were starting to melt—even her skeletal frame seemed to be transforming, probably due to being in excessive heat over a long time.
If it were an ordinary automata, surely such severe damage would have warranted her to be scraped.
Even Marie could not patch up this level of damage immediately.
It was not merely an issue of tools; there were too many pricy parts to be replaced.
But at the same time—Marie sensed that something was amiss.
Was this ‘merely the level of damage’ caused by a high temperature that could melt metal.
She thought about the parts in the abdomen; they probably were at several thousand degrees Celsius heat at some point.
But despite the effects of that heat, there was no damage to be seen on the clothing, the artificial skin, or the hair, nothing other than the abdomen.
No. Marie already had a doubt.
Was the heat that melted the parts due to the electrical resistance?
“—!”
However, upon seeing RyuZU in such a state, Naoto shook his head hard, and suddenly got up.
He did not care about the burnt skin and melted adhesive sticking onto his clothes as he proceeded into the workshop to look for wires, cables or something that appeared sturdy, and tied them all together.
Marie watched his back, and stammered,
“…What…are you doing…”
“Can’t you tell? Oh great genius!? If you can’t open the door, get out from the window!”
As Marie had said, this was a workshop, a sealed environment where not even a speck of dust could get in. The automatic door that was locked by machinery was damaged, and they could not open it—now then, what could they do?
—Just break through the window used for lighting and get out.
That was simple enough. However…
“—Once you get out, what are you going to do…?”
The moment Marie asked this question, Naoto turned his head around in frustration.
Those eyes were clearly—giving a condescending glint, and he yelled at her without hesitating.
“Get out of here! Try and find a way to get to that bellend! RyuZU, AnchoR, and get old man Halter and Vermouth along!? And fix that guy up!”
Then, Naoto’s face was suddenly contorted.
That was the most heinous glare Marie had yet to see before.
He glared outside the window while a vengeful glint, of which a killing intent would be putting lightly.
—That was the culprit behind everything.
He glared at the massive weapons stomping through the streets of Akihabara, saying,
“I’m going to boil those guys who got my wife and daughter involved alive, you hear me!?”
—
“If you aren’t going to help, then just stop getting in my way and just shut up!”
—This guy really doesn’t understand the situation after all? Marie wondered, but at the same time, she understood.
If they could not get out through the door—they could slip out from the window—truly, she had fallen on hard times, to be unable to think of things even an idiot could think of.
“…I told you already, right? The magnetic fields in Grid Akihabara basically means that everything ‘stopped’…even our normal means of getting to the next Grid are limited. Don’t know…?”
“It’s much better than just stupidly staying around here!”
“Yeaaahhh…—I guess that’s really the case!”
Yes, she had to admit this.
Naoto, who had been taking action without thinking, was correct as compared to her.
After hearing this unexpected answer, Naoto was momentarily stunned.
At the same time, Marie patted her face, and stood up, meeting Naoto in the eyes.
As usual—no, the grey eyes gave off a brighter glint than usual in the dim light .
She had the eyes of one who was not defeated despite this situation.
At this point—she would let those eyes guide her.
“First, we need to make sure to get to the arranged place with Teacher Conrad and the others—Grid Ueno. Normally it’s not easily to get over there when the one of the areas in the Multiple Grids stops functioning—but nobody’s around in Grid Akihabara, so we probably can use the forbidden bridge…”
Marie continued on, and suddenly felt something strange.
Once she saw Naoto lower his eyebrows, looking relieved as he beamed, she felt her heart skip a beat.
At this moment.
“—Magnetic field confirmed to have vanished. Emergency Sequence Ended. Booting normal sequence.”
Upon hearing that soft voice, Naoto and Marie immediately turned their heads over.
Right where they were looking at was—
“…That shocked me.”
AnchoR blinked her round eyes, widened them, and tilted her head in confusion.
We’re the shocked ones here, okay? Marie thought. Faster than her was—
“WAAAAHHHHH!!!! ANCHOORRR’S FINNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEE YOU NEARLY SCARED ME THERE DAMMIT!!!”
Naoto, who was right beside her, immediately leapt right at AnchoR, screaming excitedly,
“—!? I don’t want papa to die!”
And while AnchoR innocently believed Naoto’s words as she embraced him firmly, Naoto continued,
“Okay, don’t worry, I won’t die! RyuZU’s not too bad, or else I really would have passed out.”
“…Is it AnchoR’s fault? …Is AnchoR, a bad girl?”
“Not at all, you’re really a good girl! It’s thanks to you that papa here didn’t die! Papa might think of dying right away if you aren’t moving at all, AnchoR!”
“…? Papa nearly died because of AnchoR, but thanks to AnchoR…?”
After hearing that conversation between the idiot and the automata, Maria could not say anything.
—How did it end up like this?
She actually managed to withstand a electromagnetic pulse?
That was a magnetic field that utterly burned through Halter’s defenses!? And the latter had the next generation military cyborg body developed by the Breguets.
This is not the moment to be surprised by them, right? N-no—if that was not it, why is it that they stopped until just a while ago? No no no! More importantly, what did that idiot just say?”
“—Naoto, did you just say…that AnchoR was moving…”
“Eh, ah, she was up and running the entire time. That’s why I gave up on killing myself.”
Naoto stated this as if it was a matter of fact.
“Since AnchoR was moving, I thought RyuZU would be heated up due to something, but I didn’t have any proof, so I thought I had to hurry and do something, even if it’s a second earlier. And then you were hesitating so much, Marie…”
Marie ignored Naoto’s voice as he grumbled and caressed AnchoR, thinking,
—The reason—why she got hot…?
And for an instance, right before Marie was about to think about something, AnchoR said apologetically,
“…So-rry…the ‘anti buzz’ function…erm…”
She explained, not understanding her own functions—or rather, she appeared not to understand herself at all.”
“…I entered an ’emergency’ heat sequence…”
—
Marie did her best to hold herself from passing out.
—Ahh,that was true—there was another way to get rid of the magnetism.
She would admit it, that she had forgotten all about it. Her mind was in turmoil after all.
—But at least let me explain myself somehow, Marie begged to no one.
Because this method typically ‘could not be done ‘, and would ‘hardly be done’.
And furthermore, it was an automatic action. However, with the unknown actually explaining this, Marie exclaimed,
“Heating to remove magnetism? That can only occur at Curie point! Are you kidding me? How do you do that?”
—This was a phenomena called Curie Point,
Where anything with magnetism will lose it once it was heated at a certain temperature.
To put it simply, the magnetism could be removed through heating. It was really an overly simple method.
But such a method would be called a final course of action—
—No, it was such a violent course of action, it would not even be ‘considered’ as a final solution.
Why? Because once it was heated, the objects would naturally expand or melt. Every part was made of different materials, and so the temperatures required to cool them down was different. This would cause any intricate machinery to be ruined in the process of heating.
However, there were automatas that could automatically heat themselves up?
The gears would lose firmness under the heat, and the cables would self-destruct—surely, it would be strange if that was not the case. To look at it another way, even if it was possible, the mechanics would have stopped the moment they were magnetized.
In any case, how was the heating function able to continue working—!?
While Marie continued to ponder alone, Naoto ignored her as he muttered,
In other words, heating can remove the magnetism, right? AnchoR has a ‘perpetual gear’ with zero friction, and can continue running to slowly increase heat. RyuZU herself converted all her energy into heat, and stopped, right?”
After hearing this, AnchoR suddenly stood up, and exclaimed,
“S-sister…! No, she can’t cool down by herself…”
“It’s fine, AnchoR~no matter what happens~don’t worry. RyuZU’s moved to an icy floor!”
“…Papa’s amazing…!”
AnchoR widened her eyes as she marvelled.
However, she turned to look at the burns on the hands, and her eyes lowered sadly.
“…But, you’re hurt. Doesn’t it hurt…?”
“Ahahaha! This isn’t much for my wife and daughter!”
Naoto said with a straight face, basically like a father acting tough in front of his daughter.
Yeah—this really is amazing, Marie was frustrated.
So amazing that it was beyond her comparison, and one could say that it was beyond what was common sense.
—The situation was beyond her understanding.
But after looking at such a scene, Marie merely matter,
“Yeah yeah. The heat dispelled the magnetic fields.”
She could not accept this.
She could not understand.
But Naoto merely ignored her dumbfounded self as he moved forward, and for some reason—
Marie felt a hollow, dry feeling rising in her, and she grabbed Vermouth’s head that was left on the floor.
In any case, she had to do what she could do.
“Anyway, first, we need to get out of Grid Akihabara.”
Saying that, she picked up the head,
And casually tossed it at the scorching floor.
●
“You rotten bitch! You nearly boiled my head off!? Has your head loosened as much as your ass did!?”
While they were moving through the completely silent Akihabara, Vermouth suddenly yelled.
“Oh? You’re still alive? I thought the magnetism removal failed.”
Marie calmly said to the head yelling at her, not stopping at all as she continued to move on.
Vermouth looked over, and found AnchoR carrying RyuZU, with Naoto panting as he straggled at the back. Marie was at the front, tucking Vermouth and Halter’s heads under her armpits.
Intrigued, Vermouth asked,
“What…? What’s going on? How come that Mister’s left with a head too? Hey, ghost girl, mind speaking up and explain—what did you just do, you bitch!?”
Marie slammed Vermouth’s head, now in her right arm, onto the passing street lamp, making him shut up.
Halter’s cyborg body was too heavy, and too damaged to be repaired, so Marie took his head off. Vermouth felt some pity that he was unable to see Marie’s expression back then.
Naoto finally caught up to him, looking a little awkward, saying,
“…Ah, you really woke up at the wrong time, uncle…anyway, you’re okay, right?”
“Huh? Ah, so you’re the guy with this bitch? Ha—on what basis do you say that I’m alright here? The oxygen gauge meant to protect my head was damaged, and I could have died in another 3 seconds. My right eye’s probably gone, and I can’t really differentiate the colors. It’s amazing that I’m still alive, and if I’m caused fine, that corpse should be called completely healthy with her limbs intact, huh?”
—This certainly was an energetic head to be able to rattle back a rattle.
Marie did train for this before, but holding a head in each arm and running at full speed was really an arduous activity. Though they were just heads, each of them was as heavy as a bowling ball.
She really had the urge to simply throw aside the head in her right arm, and narrowed her eyes.
There was nothing moving as the morning sun shone upon the streets of Akihabara, and flames were smoking everywhere, probably because of the scorched gears burning. The most concerning thing how was that for a while, Marie’s ears could pick up some sort of rumbling from the underground.
—Surely this was the noise of this city being destroyed.
“Anyway, brat, how’s my handsome face right now?”
“There’s a really old robot movie with a guy who sank into a furnace of molten steel and melted, you know?”
“My artificial skin got melted!? What did you do to me, you damn slut—hey, this is abuse, right!?”
This time, she smashed Vermouth’s head onto a passing guardrail, saying,
“Be good now, you hear?”
She angrily glared at the head that was raised to her eyes.
“Whether you end up in the trashbin or flushed down the toilet is up to my mood, and I’m feeling so bad right now, I’m thinking if I should just vent on you and heat you up to cook you—but this me who has a rare angelic kindness in the world has decided to keep you alive, so you shitty bastard should be touched to tears and swear loyalty to me, alright?”
“That’s just a choice between a demon and the devil, right?”
Marie ignored Naoto’s snark.
With a tender voice even a demon lord would be terrified by, she said.
“—Serve me, or you can go and die, okay?”
This is the meaning of your existence; Vermouth could hear the hidden conclusion, and muttered in surprise,
“—Hey, this bitch’s really crazy now.”
“It looks like you either prefer the trashbin, or the toilet?’
“Old man, if you really want to ask if she’s crazy, the answer’s yes. I won’t hurt you here, you better be a little more obedient here.”
“You gotta be kidding brat. Eh—think about it calmly, I too have the right to be angry, right!?”
“The right…but that’s based on ‘timing and location’, right…?”
Vermouth seemed to be enlightened by those words, and he said, looking impressed,
“…You’re still young, but you do know quite a lot, brat. Once I get saved, let’s go get a drink. it’s a deal.”
Marie was huffing after running this much, and upon hearing this deal, she gave a cold snort.
The Mansei Bridge—that was what they always called this place for a long time.
Marie lifted her sights slightly, and could see a massive contour dangling in the dawning sky. With the massive pillar reaching from earth to sky as the center there were many massive round plates overlapped on each other, each spanning a few kilometers in diameter.
These are the city grids that the Multiple Grid Tokyo.
At this point, they were located at this Grid Akihabara, the lowers level of Tokyo.
The bridge connecting this place to the Grid above was the destination Marie and the others were headed for.
(Now then—)
Marie turned her head around.
She stared at the ostentatious massive shadow blotting the morning sun—the gigantic spider that was stamping on the buildings and being blasse towards the city. Then, she said,
“Tell me right now. That weapon was created by combining the results from electromagnetic studies…right?”
“Why ask the obvious?”
Marie stopped.
The head in the right arm fell to the ground, and got stomped on by her.
“Don’t get cocky. Tell me ‘yes’ or ‘no; anything else, and I’ll kill you.”
“Yes.”
“Very good. Next question. What’s it trying to do next?”
“No.”
Marie immediately grabbed Vermouth’s head.
And then, she raised it without hesitation, throwing it over her head down at the Kanda river flowing right below her eyes.
Right when Vermouth was really going to get thrown down, Naoto stopped her,
“Calm down, marie. Don’t kill anyone in front of AnchoR.”
“Hey brat, I’m glad that you’re helping me, but that’s a weird reason, okay?”
Marie then grumbled, looking annoyed,
“I’m really an idiot actually think of relying on this guy—well, let’s ask just in case. AnchoR can at least take on take thing, right?”
If it was that overwhelming fighting ability that could match RyuZU’s ‘Mute Scream’—while Marie thought of this, AnchoR dejectedly shook her head.
“…Sorry…mama…”
“AnchoR needs to charge up right now. Don’t force her to deal with such a thing.”
Naoto buttered in to protect the girl.
After hearing that, Marie understood.
How the Perpetual Gear—which generated an infinite amount of heat such that ‘it remained in perpetual motion’, worked.
But one could tell that even if the power was infinite, there was a limit to the output.
Once the power usage was more than the regeneration, the backup power would start to be used.
The power drain was at its minimum, in the first gear. Once the spring started its initial motion, it could continue to run forever.
That why AnchoR was able to break free.
But after the battle with RyuZU, the severe damages and repairs, the remaining power AnchoR had stored in her ‘Perpetual Gear’ was almost completely gone.
If the gear was kicked on, the power drain would be beyond the output, and she would run out of power in a few minutes.
—In other words, they could not settle this with AnchoR’s power.
Marie shook her head, groaning,
“Well, at the very least, if we know of that guy’s intentions…”
“How many times must I say it now, Missy? You still have to ask when it’s this obvious now?”
“Shut up, or I’ll really throw you into the river.”
“—Get real, you self-proclaimed genius. The pieces are all together. I’m disappointed if you still don’t understand now, okay?”
“—”
After hearing those words, Marie shook her head, wanting to sort out the situation.
She admitted that she was really confused.
The cause of it all was the microwave message sent by this head.
They were tracking a signal down to the underground of Grid Mie, and found a massive weapon. It was a weapon that could destroy the weapon, developed by the ‘military’ technicians affiliated to Grid Shiga that were researching on the illegal electromagnetic technology.
Then, the government wanted to restore its credibility after the failed purge of Kyoto, starting a large scale skirmish with Mie—the old Shiga ‘military’.
Marie’s group took the initiative to stop the conflict, getting all the civilians to evacuate through a terrorist announcement, and lured in the Tokyo ‘military’ Capital Defense Forces to the underground to take on the massive weapon.
However, all that they did was futile. They failed.
That one shock punctured through the city, and the continuous electromagnetic pulse caused Akihabara to be further destabilized. Furthermore, Halter barely managed to escape with his life, RyuZu was so damaged her functions stopped, and AnchoR was lacking in power. Marie was left completely powerful in the magnetized streets.
All their plans were crushed, and their fighting strength completely nullified.
—Till this point, she had yet to recover from that shock.
(The pieces are here…? What does that mean—no…my mind’s just going blank without thinking of anything.)
Marie gritted her teeth in frustration.
But at that moment.
Naoto suddenly lifted his head.
That was the terrifying face she just saw—but that face clearly showed that he ‘saw through everything’.
He gave a piercing glare at the gigantic spider that was blocking out the sun, and said,
“…’nothing’…is that what that shit is doing?”
Upon hearing those words, Marie looked over, dumbfounded.
Immediately, Vermouth’s laugh echoed through this doomsday Akihabara, and AnchoR’s shoulders jolted.
“Ha—hahahaha! You really are good there, brat! Hey Missy, you really picked up someone interesting!”
“What do you…mean?”
—Again.
It seemed there was again something she did not know, a discussion she could not understand.
This anxious frustration caused Marie to frown in an annoyed manner.
Vermouth then said heartily,
“In any case…that thing over there is just appearing there. This itself—is already the worst possible scenario for the ‘government’. It’s like the Queen suddenly appearing on the chessboard in front of the king. It’s just a con—but the winner’s decided.”
—She did not understand.
What exactly did this guy and Naoto see and felt to get that conclusion—
“—Missy.”
Vermouth tried to hold in his laughter as he said,
“Sorry for saying this, but you’re just a kid who has yet to know the world. How innocent of you.”
“Wha—”
“As for that brat—well, you’re cute, and you have such cruel thoughts there. You really have the potential to be a real shitty bastard there, you know?”
“I’m already used to being called a pervert, but I’m against being called a shitty bastard, okay~?”
Naoto pouted unhappily.
—In summary, Vermouth concluded.
“It’s like what that brat said. It’s just waiting for the ‘government to self-destruct’—checkmate.”
