Chapter One / 14 : 30 / Goober

Life is something worthless, however, it isn’t meaningless.

I’m sure there are objections to this statement and even rebuttals—but regardless, this is a truth that no one, not even God, can deny. After all, even if one’s worth is something acknowledged by others, the meaning of one’s life is something determined by the self. That’s why everyone lives out their lives trying to find their own meaning in having been born. We all try to do so, more or less, in our own way. Because I’m sure that everyone knows that that is where true happiness lies. Even if one is poor, or orphaned, or homeless, or one’s looks or brains left more to be desired... finding meaning in having been born, acknowledging it, and living life for the sake of that answer is surely the greatest happiness one can achieve in the world. Naoto Miura was certain of that, because he had found that meaning for himself.

As such... “I’m sure you understand what one should do when he has discovered his calling,” Naoto Miura said as he made a fist and dug his two feet firmly into the ground. In spite of his scrawny body, Naoto’s chest was puffed up with determination. That’s right, Naoto knew the meaning behind his birth. What he was willing to die for. He already possessed a destiny worth betting his life on at this critical juncture in his youth.

“If you’re human... no, if you’re a man!” Naoto’s gray eyes lit up feverishly— “If a man hears that there’s a super cute automaton girl somewhere, then whether she’s at the North Pole or Mar de Ajó, no, even if she’s on the other side of the universe! To dash to her at full speed would be his manly duty—no! It would be his fate!” He shouted as he thrust his fist upwards. As if overpowered by Naoto’s energy, the man closing in on his golden years standing before Naoto nodded slightly.

“...And so?”

“Right! As such, I’m announcing that I’ll be absent from school for a wee bit due to personal circumstances compelling me to charge towards Tokyo.” Just like that, Naoto Miura presented his leave of absence form with a face full of smiles.

In response, his homeroom teacher beamed. “Ah, I know what you are, Mr. Naoto Miura.” The old teacher thrust a different sheet of paper in front of Naoto’s eyes. It was a white sheet of scrap paper with a “0” written in red ink, Naoto’s answer sheet. “You’re an idiot aren’t you?” Seeing Naoto’s smile freeze, the homeroom teacher continued cheerfully. “Just shut up and take your supplementary lessons. If you fail again on the follow-up test then forget a leave of absence, I’ll make you fill out a withdrawal form, and while I’m at it, I’ll introduce you to a good brain surgeon too. Got it?”

And so Naoto Miura’s grand destiny, and the profound resolve to fulfill his life’s purpose, were both crushed mercilessly without any further room for discussion.

Naoto had no other choice.

There was an anomaly in Tokyo.

It’d been confirmed that RyuZU’s little sister—another Initial-Y Series—was there as well. Naoto had immediately resolved himself to depart for Tokyo upon learning of that information, but—while being gazed at with glistening eyes by the girl who was his everything...

“Master Naoto, if you manage to fall to an even lower social rung, even if nothing about you has actually changed, you will at long last be branded as less than an amoeba by society. As my master, I would greatly appreciate it if you could do your best to avoid becoming so pitiful that I would no longer be able to look you in the eyes.”

—The girl’s smile that let Naoto know that she harbored not even a bit of malice.

—Her heartbeat that let Naoto know that she was simply worried for him.

It really was intended to be a well-intentioned lecture, only any hint of the girl’s kindness had been pruned by her active abusive verbal filter.

Seeing the automaton worry lovingly for him—Naoto simply had no choice to begin with— “And thus, the history of human warfare ended a thousand years ago.” The bland voice of the history teacher was the only thing ringing in the nearly empty classroom.

“The Earth had been mechanized with an exceedingly advanced technology and humanity was not foolish enough to engage in warfare while atop what was essentially as delicate an instrument as a finely tuned clock. So, eventually an international treaty limiting the military force of all nations to only the amount necessary for the defense of its municipal grids was signed. Furthermore, the public use of older technology, which stands out among the things that threaten the survival of humanity today—in particular, the kind known as electromagnetic technology—was nearly entirely ban—”

The teacher continued the lecture by simply reading aloud the contents of the textbook and jotting down some key points on the blackboard every now and then. While propping up his chin with one hand and looking bored, Naoto asked the silver-haired girl sitting next to him, “Hey, RyuZU. What’s ‘electromagnetic technology’?”

“Long ago, humanity in its greatness tried to understand the unknown with their childish brains. Electromagnetic technology is the remnants of that effort.” The girl who was asked—RyuZU—answered Naoto, deepening her bewitching smile. Her voice, high and clear like that of a music box, rang clearly inside the classroom.

“There is likely nothing wrong in calling it a futile pile of labor that even monkeys would sneer at. In the modern day, such things are just worthless antiques of little significance. Considering the capacity of Master Naoto’s brain, learning about electromagnetic technology would simply squander the little resources in memory that you have left.”

“Ah— In other words, it wouldn’t be a problem in the slightest if I didn’t know about it?”

“It’s nothing that an elite like you would need to be expressly informed about on a day off, Master.” RyuZU answered with a blooming smile that would put even a flower to shame. Her eyes, however, were filled with malice—it was as if they were a pair of knives at the ready to murder some hated enemy.

Prickled by RyuZU’s sharp gaze, the teacher continued in a trembling voice, “T, This is mandatory knowledge that is taught in elementary school you know! B, Because electromagnetic force causes gears to become misaligned—excluding the ‘planet governor,’ the magnetic field deployed from the North and South Poles to protect the Earth from solar radiation—its use and research has been completely banned.”

“Did you hear that, Master? The teacher has just courteously informed us that in the end, all he knows how to do is regurgitate what he has memorized from the textbook.”

The teacher trembled with a start at RyuZU’s immediate snarky response. Naoto tilted his head looking perplexed. “Why do you say that?”

“If both the use and research on electromagnetism were banned, then there is no way that he actually learned about it. In the first place, everything he has said for some time now has been, word for word, the text in the textbook. Are modern lectures just a public recital? I must say, if that is the case, then lectures are nothing but a waste of time. It would be more efficient to read the textbook by oneself at home.”

“Well... yeah, but if it weren’t for lectures, I wouldn’t learn anything. I never study on my own,” Naoto muttered as he sighed.

However, RyuZU deliberately folded her arms. “To begin with, just who was it that committed this act of utmost insolence by summoning my Master Naoto to school on the weekend? Would it be that venerable pig over there fat and ready for the slaughter? This swine who has only been equipped with a textbook recital function?”

The teacher’s face stiffened intensely from RyuZU’s sharp tongue. Naoto covered for the teacher while letting out a bitter sigh, “...You’ve got it wrong, RyuZU. It’s my fault for being so on the verge of failing this class that I have to take remedial lessons.”

“I see.” RyuZU made a big, theatrical nod—it was in such a humanesque way that, for a moment, even Naoto forgot that she was an automaton. RyuZU continued with an unchanging smile, “In that case, who could be the person who judged that my Master Naoto would fail? Where is the self-alleged all-knowing and almighty person who is in reality at the apex of incompetence? Surely it is not that person over there whose regrettable head has been left wanting in terms of both brain and hair?”

Seeing the teacher tremble all over with a sidelong glance, Naoto shook his head, “...No, RyuZU, the reason he said I would fail the class is because I failed the final exam.”

“I see. In that case, which monkey was it that came up with the blasphemous test questions that made my Master Naoto fail? Could it be that baboon at the podium who is trembling for some strange reason? The one who is so apparently adequate down there that he exchanged pleasantries with his neighbor’s wife last night?”

“W—W-W-Why do you know that?!—Er, no, wait! That’s not what I meant!” the teacher, who had clearly become flustered, shouted with tears in his eyes, “I’m simply trying to fulfill my duties as a teacher! It’s not like I have it any better; I’m working on a weekend just for Naoto you know! Can’t you have some consideration for this futile endeavor that I’m obligated to attempt as well, RyuZU?”

However, RyuZU continued smiling despite the teacher’s pained appeal. “Yes. Receiving a lecture from a flea is surely a waste of time, so I have been politely requesting with the utmost discretion and sincerity that you let Master Naoto go home accordingly, but... it appears that you will not understand unless I speak in a flea’s language.”

—Indeed, in the first place, there was no way that RyuZU would accept these remedial lessons that were set up on the assumption that Naoto would likely have to repeat a year. Thus—already on the second day after the lessons started, she showered the teacher with abuse that endlessly chipped away at his ego.

RyuZU was completely unaware of her words herself; what she spoke was simply the result of her properly functioning abusive verbal filter. As such, she wasn’t trying to be rude. In her mind, she really was making a polite and courteous request with full sincerity. However, there was no way that anyone aside from Naoto, who could hear her operational sounds, could understand that.

Thanks to the artistic vituperation that RyuZU had mercilessly spewed out throughout the remedial lessons, the spirit of the teacher who had endured it until now was about to collapse. I’ve done my best up to now, so it’s fine if I just end it all here, right— Just as the teacher’s heart and knees finally began to fold...

ding dong dang dong...

The school bell rang.

“I, I’ve had enough—enough I tell you! Mr. Naoto Miura! Tomorrow’s Sunday so the next remedial lesson will be on Monday. From Monday onwards the teacher will be that of a different subject, so show up with that in mind! Principaaaaaaaaaal! I’ll haaaaaaaaaave you know that I’m going to apply for overtime pay and mental therapy for work-related injuries!!!”

Seeing the teacher run out of the classroom shouting, Naoto looked up at the ceiling—meanwhile, RyuZU, unaware of her own wicked tongue, simply tilted her head looking puzzled.

“Has he finally become aware of his own imbecility and resolved himself to visit a hospital for treatment? Though his intellect is less than that of a flea, if he learns some modesty now after having become aware of that fact, I feel I can respect him for his self-reflection.”

“...Right, what should I say. Make sure to apologize to him so that his anger at being unduly abused isn’t directed at me, alright?” Naoto held his head in his hands as he left the school with RyuZU.

I guess I should come up with some countermeasures before the new victim shows up on Monday...

●

Marie Bell Breguet had no experience of going to school.

—Well, to say that would be a little misleading. After all, she had graduated valedictorian from several prestigious universities overseas. Even so, if we’re talking about how things felt to Marie, who was attending Tadasunomori High School in Kyoto—this was her first day of school.

As the daughter of the president of the Breguet Corporation, one of the Five Great Corporations that rule the world economy, Marie had been given the supreme educational environment fitting for her enormous potential. A wealth of talented tutors. An abundance of funds. The very best equipment. For a person like Marie, what reason could she have for going to school?

Even the greatest educational institution in the world couldn’t hope to match the Breguet family’s educational environment. As such, the reason that Marie entered college was neither to study nor to do research. It wasn’t even to expand her social network, something that being the daughter of a respected family demanded. It was for proof.

—Something that would make the talent and capability of the young girl called Marie Bell Breguet obvious at a glance.

Everything had been for that cause. As such, from Marie’s perspective, she couldn’t say that she had ever gone to school. She had simply spent a bit of time taking the necessary exams to acquire a few certifications. That was all it had been.

Her mentality hadn’t been much different from that of a job-hunting graduate filling in the qualifications section on an application.

On the other hand, here, at Tadasunomori High School, how the educational environment could compare goes without saying—the level of the teachers and the students were child’s play compared to their counterparts at the universities that Marie had graduated from.

There was absolutely nothing that Marie had to learn from here after all her experiences working on the front lines as a Meister, not even as an independent study of society—

—However, in spite of that considerable gap, there was something that Marie had just borne witness to for the first time. That something was— “I see now that a failing mark is a real thing...” Marie muttered earnestly with a maccha dumpling in her mouth.

Halter looked down at the girl who had abruptly said such a thing with an indescribable gaze.

She had brilliant golden hair and pale, ethereal skin. She was as beautiful as a porcelain doll, but a powerful will resided in the dazzling emerald pupils showing from her eyes that squinted in annoyed disbelief. She was wearing a standard middy uniform with an orange parka... Despite that, the girl exuded an air of such class—and ardor—that her outfit did nothing to mask her regal aura.

Halter asked in a suspicious tone, “...Just for the record, you really didn’t know?”

“I knew of the phrase, but I thought it was more of a theoretical kind of thing. I didn’t think that it actually applied in practice.”

“Well, given that there’re tests and those tests are graded, there’ll be some students that fail too.”

“That’s what’s so confusing.”

“Hmm?” Halter tilted his head, to which Marie asked to make sure, “They’re taking lessons at school right? The contents of which show up on the exams right? Final exams are basically a means of checking whether the students understood the lessons or not, right?”

“Well, yeah.” Halter nodded, wondering why Marie was asking such obvious questions.

To that, Marie’s face turned into one that expressed just how utterly baffled she was, “Then—how can they fail?”

“Well...”

“I mean, that would mean that even though they took the lessons they still couldn’t answer questions about the content, you know? Doesn’t that contradict itself?! —How truly profound. What kind of phenomenon is it, really...”

“Princess... you’ve just made every student in the world your enemy.” Halter sighed as his shoulders drooped. When the man with a practically bear-sized body changed his posture, the bench draped in red cloth that he was sitting on creaked.

They were sitting next to each other at a tea house in a tourist area in Kyoto Grid, Japan. The shop was located in the midst of a bamboo thicket, and the building itself was made of wood. There were even red paper umbrellas to provide shade for its outdoor seats—in other words, it was a total tourist trap.

In that regard, the teahouse was certainly successful. Sightseers seemed to enjoy its style, as the other foreign clientele around Marie and Halter would attest.

Kyoto Grid was a leading tourist city even for Japan. A thousand years ago—when the Earth had been reconstructed using gears—nearly all of the cultural heritage sites of the world had been preserved as much as possible in their former state. Among them, Kyoto was known for having preserved a particularly large number of sites.

Biting into her second dumpling skewer, Marie tilted her head. “I could understand a little if things they didn’t know appeared on the exams, but for stuff that they learned in the lecture? .........Why can’t they answer that? I don’t understand.”

“I don’t understand you either, princess.” Halter sighed deeply. As an average person who had experienced setbacks as much as anyone else in his life, he found the bluntly naive questions of this girl genius objectionable.

After paying the tab, the two of them left the teahouse behind them to take a walk in the bamboo thicket.

Packed earth filled the gaps in the white stone paving of the promenade they were on.

The sunlight was gentle thanks to the shade of the bamboo leaves making the air nice and cool.

When the wind rustled the leaves, an earthy scent would tickle one’s nose.

This scenery wasn’t man-made; it was real, authentic, nature.

This super-ultra-finely tuned Clockwork Planet. Because its mechanisms were simply too complex, maintenance of this hollow planet remained exceedingly difficult even now, a thousand years later. Maintaining natural greenery above the gears of this planet—just how much money and technology did the sight before them require?

“...Really, the Japanese get hung up on the strangest things. Was it really necessary to be this thorough?” Marie inadvertently spilled out in admiration.

Completely reproducing the scenery of a thousand years ago—one could feel the dedication, even unrelenting obsession, of the artisans in the path of the bamboo thicket.

“Well yeah, Kyoto isn’t one of the world’s leading sightseeing cities for nothing. It’s precisely because of that consideration. For the last thousand years—a few thousand years if you include the period before the planet died—they’ve preserved ‘this’ amidst countless climate changes and calamities. Of course the tourists are impressed.”

“Well, true, I would like to express my heartfelt respect for that great effort, but—” Marie smiled bitterly as she continued, “When I think of the government that readily tried to purge it, I’m forced to wonder if they have any regard for the will of the people at all.”

“Humans all have some things that they won’t yield, princess. For the artisans, thoroughly preserving nature is an obsession that they won’t let up on.” Halter smiled bitterly as he fiddled with a fallen leaf in one hand, and his expression seemed to harbor some hidden meaning.

At the end of the ancient promenade were the precincts of a large temple. It was Kyoto’s five-storied pagoda—one of its most famous tourist destinations.

“...Humph, should I say something like this was expected? I can see why he would recommend this.” Marie smiled bitterly while holding up the hand-drawn sightseeing map that was unfolded in her hands.

In the corner of that large scrap of paper were the words “Naoto Miura” signed in awful handwriting. When Marie had pressed Naoto asking what she and Halter should do for the duration of his remedial lessons, Naoto had retorted, “If you’re so bored, go sightseeing like a normal exchange student why don’t you?!” This hand-drawn map was what he had thrust at her.

The twelve tourist spots listed on it were all ones that Kyoto was famous for. —However, their outward appearances were just facades. Inside, they were all clock towers. Though they were called “clock towers,” they weren’t the kind of buildings that notified the public of the time. Rather, these twelve towers assisted Kyoto’s core tower in maintaining the city’s environment.

This five-storied pagoda was one of them as well. A wooden pagoda with a height of twenty meters. As it was a facility that was deeply involved in the city’s functioning, its location was top-secret information held by the military. Naoto only knew about it himself because of his superior hearing. As such, it maintained an outward appearance of a temple building befitting of a tourist attraction even though its interior had been secretly replaced with clockwork.

Marie probably wouldn’t have realized it if Naoto hadn’t told her.

She made her way to an inconspicuous spot near the tower, then fetched a small device from her shoulder bag while gazing at the clock tower in its flawless disguise. It was a measurement device used by clocksmiths. A vibrational frequency measurement device—a tool used to examine gear-based mechanisms in detail without taking them apart.

Marie activated the device causing it to make sounds like those of a typewriter as it displayed a number. She had remained expressionless as she studied the readings, but eventually clicked her tongue. “I suppose it’s too hard to tell with a mere toy like this, after all.”

“You’re calling equipment that you pilfered from Meister Guild a toy...”

“I know that it’s cutting-edge equipment that hasn’t made it to market yet. However, no matter how much it bills itself as a convenient, portable device, what good is that portability if this is its degree of accuracy when I’m already this close to the tower? It’s useless.”

—Three weeks ago, Marie had become involved in the attempted purge of Kyoto, and had successfully stopped it.

It had been a major, unprecedented incident in which the government, military, and Meister Guild had conspired together to destroy a city and sacrifice its twenty million residents as collateral. In order to prevent such a catastrophic tragedy, she and Naoto had worked together to temporarily seize control of all the gears that made up this city of Kyoto.

Marie had come to this clock tower in order to investigate the aftereffects of the climate interference that they had carried out at that time—as well as the many other irregular phenomena that they had caused, beginning with their forced manipulation of gravity. However, now that Marie had lost her status as a Meister and was just a regular civilian, it goes without saying that she didn’t have the authority to enter the core tower or the clock towers, both of which were under the military’s jurisdiction.

Because of that, she had no other choice but to examine the status of the mechanisms using a portable measurement device from outside the clock towers, only... “—There’s no helping it huh.” Marie said with a dangerous expression on her face.

To which Halter sharply reminded her without a moment’s delay, “If you’re thinking of illegally trespassing on a whim, then spare me, princess. You’re just an ordinary person right now.”

Marie pouted at those words. “I know that. Do you think I’d go and cause trouble over each and every little thing?”

—You better believe I do, Halter thought, as someone who knew the girl’s “criminal record.” However, he chose not to say this to Marie.

Marie, who had no way of knowing Halter’s inner thoughts, continued, “What I was thinking of was using that iii~~~diot,” Marie growled. She had emphasized the word “idiot” with a peculiar intonation. Then, as if struck by a sudden inspiration, she took a deep breath, crossed her arms, and closed her eyes.

“...”

Marie tried straining her ears.

—Just like how, Naoto Miura, the dunce about to become a repeat student who was in the middle of remedial lessons at this very moment, had done in demonstrating his superpower.

It was a miracle she had witnessed in the midst of that nauseating conspiracy. At that time, at that place, he—Naoto Miura—had been able to observe the operation of ten quadrillion gears. One could make the mistake of labeling his talent as irregular hearing and call it a day. However, what Naoto possessed was much more than a special talent... Marie understood that instinctively.

No matter how much one pushed the advanced measurement devices of today, they still wouldn’t reach anywhere near Naoto’s level of capability. Not even close. Even with Marie straining her ears and focusing her attention like so, she couldn’t even manage a poor imitation of his ability. The most she could hear was the sound of the wind, the chirping of the birds, the chatter of the tourists, and a dull vibration coming from underground—that was it.

—In the first place, it goes without saying that sound is a vibrational wave. Furthermore, it also stands to reason that if two waves collide with one another, their shapes will change. It should be common sense that one wouldn’t be able to recognize the original shapes of two colliding waves, to say nothing of when the number of these waves are unfathomable.

Several hundred million, several trillion, several ten quadrillion—he had “understood” the sounds of an epic, immeasurable number of gears. Given that—just what had he heard?

However, at this moment, the miraculous talent that no one could replicate was stranded elsewhere.

And for the ridiculous reason of failing a high school test, no less.

“...Ahh, god! For an imbecile who can’t even digest basic high school education to possess such an absurd power, just what is this bullshit! Am I being made a fool of?!” Marie shouted as she violently turned the measurement device off and thrust it back inside her bag.

“He’d be less loveable if he were a flawless superman though. Well, not that it makes his character make any more sense.” Halter paused briefly before grumbling, “But given that his talent itself goes beyond all reason, what’s the big deal if his grades are terrible?”

“For god’s sake... If things had gone as planned, we’d be in Tokyo by now!”

“Personally, I’d like to have us stay under the radar for the time being... It’s only been three weeks since the attempted purge, we can’t say that things have completely cooled down yet, you know?” Halter said with a sigh.

The great tumult that Marie had caused by anonymously exposing a great deal of top-secret information wasn’t something that would fizzle out within a month or two. Though society was calming down on the surface, the incriminating revelations weren’t so frivolous that people would simply forget about them.

Marie pouted. “...Humph. More importantly, what about Tokyo. Has there been contact since then?” In the first place, the reason Marie was so irritated was because despite receiving important information about an anomaly in Tokyo, she couldn’t leave because she was stuck waiting on Naoto’s stupid remedial lessons.

Halter replied, “‘Thankfully,’ no. For starters, though you’ve been calling it an anomaly—in short, an Initial-Y Series automaton was sighted and incidentally, the military is also behaving somewhat suspiciously. Those are the only things that have happened, right? How about calming down a little, princess.”

“That Initial-Y Series automaton—was her name AnchoR? Just the confirmation that she’s there is reason enough. You should know as well, having seen RyuZU in action, no?”

“...Yeah I guess.” Halter ran a hand over the stubble of his buzzed head and lightly shrugged. The miracle that they had witnessed three weeks ago... Actually, Naoto’s superpower wasn’t the only thing that was absurd.

—The Initial Y Series.

The automata that the designer of this Clockwork Planet, “Y,” had left behind. RyuZU, the First of the Initial-Y Series, was yet another absurdity that smashed Marie’s common sense into pieces.

One of RyuZU’s abilities, Mute Scream, allowed her to move within a world frozen in imaginary time and annihilate an entire battalion of military automata in an instant. Her capabilities were, to say the least, alarming. Despite that, according to the automaton herself, she was the weakest among her sisters.

Just the fact that one of the other Initial-Y Series was in someone else’s hands was already dangerous in and of itself. However, it was also true that rushing off to Tokyo when there hadn’t been any follow up information wouldn’t accomplish anything.

“Going to school in Japan is a rare opportunity for you. How about relaxing and enjoying the life of a commoner?”

“The last two weeks have been more than enough for something like that.” Marie pouted, while sporting a stern expression. “The exchange student Maribel Halter is just a cover. It’s a façade for the girl who’s secretly active as a terrorist that saves the world, understand? —‘Big brother dearest.’”

Marie sardonically addressed the soldier standing next to her so as to nail in her point. Being siblings was the provisional character setting that Marie—who had faked her own death—had set as cover for the two of them in order to attend high school together, but...

“Even now, I find that setting... unbearable.” Halter grimaced, looking annoyed as he shuddered.

Seeing him so uncomfortable, Marie surfaced a sadistic smile. “Oh, would ‘big bro’ have been better? Or perhaps something like ‘elder brother’?”

“Stop it, princess, I’m begging you. I’m going to puke.”

“My, my what a thing to say to such a cute girl! Are you that unhappy with being siblings? In that case...—” Marie brought her lips to Halter’s ear. “—Should I call you ‘daddy’?”

“———”

The moment Halter heard the word “daddy,” he recoiled so hard that he nearly fell backwards. “Dual role of bodyguard and secretary,” Marie muttered. “Well, I’ll let you off the hook for now. Staying here any longer would just be a waste of time. Let’s head back home for now.”

“—Ahh, I guess you were beyond the life of a commoner the moment that you could call a suite of a high-class hotel ‘home,’ especially after so casually booking it,” Halter groaned as he stood up.

Marie knitted her eyebrows. “What choice did I have? Having a workspace and equipment is vital for a clocksmith. We wouldn’t have been able to find a private place with enough space to cram the necessary equipment with such an excellent level of security in such a short amount of ti—”

“—Hold up, princess.”

Suddenly, Halter gestured for Marie, who had been rattling on and on, to stop with the palm of his hand.

“—? What?” Marie asked quizzically.

Halter furrowed his eyebrows as he stroked his chin, “......Ah—princess, I’ve just received a transmission that’s a bit unusual.”

“Is it a follow-up report regarding what’s going on in Tokyo?”

“No, I’d told them to send information on that to our suite’s access terminal. Ah— ...Gee, I wonder if it’s really okay to relay this to you.”

Seeing Halter looking conflicted only made Marie more curious. “...? It’s fine, so just tell me already, what does it say?”

Hearing those words, Halter seemed to have resigned himself as he sighed, “Well... I’ll obey your order, princess, but... make sure to keep firmly in mind that these aren’t my words.”

After emphasizing that point to Marie, Halter cleared his throat. He then slowly opened his mouth and— Read aloud what he had just received.

●

—At that same time,

“...gh?” Naoto, who was in a manga café, looked up. To his side—RyuZU was nestled right up against him in the couple’s seat. She had the textbook open and was grumbling with half-closed eyes.

“—Master Naoto. If my private lessons are boring you to such an extent, could you kindly just say so?”

“Eh?! Ah, no, I’m not—”

RyuZU’s voice was as beautiful as always, a composed calm full of elegance. However, Naoto could hear a minute change in her inflection. Her voice, ever so slightly higher than usual, had creaked faintly as it lightly twinged—in other words, she felt hurt. Realizing that, Naoto, as flustered as could be, shook his head in a hurry.

Seeing his reaction, RyuZU pressed him in a dispassionate voice, “...In that case, please provide me with a reasonable explanation as to why you were paying more attention to the stains on the ceiling than me. Given how great a man Master Naoto is, I am sure that there must be an equally great reason for his distraction—have you succeeded in some great feat on the level of corresponding with aliens?”

—A peerless beauty who was currently jealous of ceiling stains. RyuZU’s voice resounded throughout the manga café despite its quiet tone due to its beautiful glass bell-like nature. As it did, it triggered many clicking tongues whose chorus struck Naoto’s sensitive ears from every direction.

The regular patrons would even spit out under their breaths, “Those damn lovebirds again? God...” —Indeed, at this point, the couple’s seat was their designated place at the manga café. This was Naoto and RyuZU’s “home” right now. They were manga café refugees, so to speak, but it wasn’t like they were starving.

With the money that RyuZU had made from her “investments,” they could have bought a new house—even an entire mansion if they had so desired—and still have money left over to play. However, simply accepting such an enormous gift was too much for Naoto’s meek heart. More than anything—

“Or... Was it a lie when you said that you preferred this place because we can more readily snuggle here...?”

—Thump. The sound of people punching the walls of their booths in unison. Naoto didn’t need his superhuman hearing to understand what their neighbors were getting at with their banging: Just blow up and die.

While finding the atmosphere of general unrest unbearable, Naoto looked at RyuZU’s face. At a glance, her face looked the same as usual, dignified and as beautiful as a flower. She had bewitching, pure silver hair, pale skin, ripe, peachy lips, and rosy cheeks. Her golden eyes sparkled like a crown. Her beauty was otherworldly—she was a living jewel.

—However, her beautiful countenance was wavering ever so slightly in insecurity. Naoto, desperate to change the topic one way or another, deliberately took up RyuZU’s sarcasm. “Ah, ahaha, er, so, umm, do aliens really exist?”

“...I apologize, I tried using a sarcastic turn of phrase that you weren’t used to. Let me rephrase. I am asking if Master Naoto’s great brain that is simply too outstanding for a human has finally awoken and transcended not only human limits, but also worldly sense. Have you somehow reached a place beyond even my level of understanding, Master?”

Seeing RyuZU scrutinize him even more coldly, Naoto shook his head desperately. “No, that’s not it! It’s because I heard a sound that made me think, ‘If aliens really existed, their voices would probably sound like this.’”

“...Master Naoto, even if there is no room for doubt that you are the most outstanding human being on this planet right now, beginning to hear sounds that don’t exist would typically be considered—”

Beep. “I’m coming in!!” Ba——-m.

Suddenly, the door of the manga café was violently kicked open, cutting RyuZU off.

The fury who had done so stormed her way closer and closer to them, while bowling over countless things along the way and screeching all the while, “Naoto Miura! Naoto Miura who’s a pervert in many different ways! Answer me this instant!!”

Hearing her voice, Naoto stood up from the couple’s seat in a hurry. Seeing the girl in the narrow aisle between the booths, he shouted, “Naoto Miura, at your service! Hey Frenchie, you do realize that ‘I’m coming in’ is a phrase used to be polite and not a declaration of war, right?!”

However, Marie paid those words of his no mind. Glaring at Naoto, who had stuck his head out, she leapt at him. “There you are, pervert! Now’s the time to put your ultra-pervertedness to super perverted use! Come now, show me this second you pervert!!”

“Wai, sto, I can’t bre—?!”

Marie reached past the partition separating the booths and pulled Naoto up by his collar.

“Uh, umm, Miss? Please be quiet inside the sto— No, nothing, never mind, please enjoy yourself.” A brave employee had boldly tried to warn Marie, but ran away like a startled hare upon being instantly pierced by her glare.

RyuZU stood straight up. Looking down at Marie with a menacing look that signaled that she could explode at any time, RyuZU began sharply, “Oh, Mistress Marie. They say to keep your eyes peeled if you have not seen a boy for a while as boys can mature into men in just three days, but I see that you are just as childish and energetic as ever... How very disappointing.”

“Wow! First of all, I’m not a boy, and second, sorry for being energetic!”

“I mean, given your mental age—and your figure for that matter—I had expressly determined that a boy’s idiom would serve just as well.”

“Today’s the day I’ll take you apart!”

RyuZU met Marie’s threatening glare with her own. “—If Mistress Marie simply refuses to free Master Naoto from the grip of those naughty hands, then I will have to free those naughty hands from you, yes? Who will really be the one to be taken apart, I wonder—”

RyuZU’s skirt fluttered menacingly—

“Cool it you brats!” Halter brought his fist down on the top of Marie’s head.

“~~~~~~gh!” It must have hurt a great deal. Though Halter had held back, his fist was nonetheless made of metal. Marie silently crouched down while holding her head. Nursing her wounds, she glared at the large man behind her with tears in the corners of her eyes.

“You—”

“Got something to say?”

“...gh, Why did you only hit meee...”

“Setting aside the punishment for that rampage of yours, princess, even if it’s clear that RyuZU overreacted, it isn’t physically possible for me to discipline her. Let’s not forget that even if I did somehow manage to lay a hand on her, I’d die.” Halter asserted flatly before turning towards RyuZU, “I apologize for our shrewish princess causing a scene, and also—thank you for not getting physical with her.”

With that, Halter sincerely lowered his head, causing RyuZU to sigh mildly with a smile, “...I never cease to be amazed by you, Mr. Junkbot. Though I very much loathe to admit this, it appears that excluding Master Naoto, you are, by process of elimination, the smartest person around.”

“That’s an honor. So Naoto, are you alright?”

“Ah— ...I guess? Well, if anything, I’d like a reasonable explanation for why I was suddenly given a shakedown, but...”

“Well, that’s understandable... Anyways, there’s something we’d like to ask you to do knowing full well that it may be an unreasonable request... Well, princess? You’ve calmed down by now, right?”

Urged on by Halter, Marie slowly stood up. It seemed like her head still hurt, as she was still a bit teary-eyed. While rubbing her head, she asked, “...We’d like you to trace a transmission to its source.”

As far as Naoto knew, all transmissions were either sent through a wired connection made of a chain of sound-conducting gears or by the way of a wireless connection made of gears that can communicate across long distances via resonance. Put plainly, the underlying principle behind both methods is ultimately no different from a tin can telephone.

As such, if one reeled in the string connecting the cans, one should be able to find the party at the other end.

So why were they asking him?—

“You see, the transmission didn’t go through any relays—to tell you the truth, it was a short-wave transmission sent using electromagnetic waves.”

Naoto squinted his eyes at Halter’s smooth answer.

“...It just so happens that I just learned that that’s illegal in my remedial lessons, yes?”

“Now now, sweating the small stuff will make you lose your hair, you know?” Halter laughed, slapping his receding hairline for emphasis.

Looking at him with eyes filled with compassion, RyuZU whispered discreetly to Naoto, “Master Naoto, they say that experience speaks volumes. He must have lived his life worrying about small things often. The state of his head makes his claim profoundly persuasive, no? I believe we should pay close attention to what he has to say right now.”

Halter nodded, then made slight movements with his lips.

(“—Protecting the law won’t be worth anything if we’re defeated because of it.”)

Ordinary people would have had no chance at hearing his sarcastic voice just now; however, Naoto heard it clearly.

“There are ‘certain jobs’ out there that don’t play by the rules. It doesn’t matter how dirty it is, or how illegal, if there’s a chance that the enemy will use it, you have to be able to deal with it somehow. Even things that don’t seem particularly useful like radio communication can count in a pinch. In any case, like I said, don’t sweat the small stuff.”

...So he says, but...

Being an ordinary person with zero affinity for the rough-and-tumble, Naoto stiffened his face. “...No way, even if you say that, I don’t want to be arrested at such a young a—”

“By the way, you do know that it’s unquestionably illegal for you to own RyuZU, right? Her specs far exceed anything permitted for a civilian-use automaton by miles.”

“Law shmaw! Now, why don’tcha tell me what it is you had to say, Mr. Halter!” In a record reversal, Naoto exchanged a firm handshake with Halter.

—That’s right, RyuZU said so as well didn’t she? That crime becomes crime only upon coming to light.

“Well then,” Marie interjected. “I’ll cut to the chase—Naoto, didn’t you hear a strange sound?”

“Sound? If we’re talking about your angry voice, then I heard that nonstop, but?”

“That’s not it! ...Rather than a sound, it’s more along the lines of a considerably high frequency wave. If we were to call it a sound regardless, then it would probably be an abnormally shrill sound, but...”

“Abnormally shrill, you say...” Naoto furrowed his eyebrows as he crossed his arms, thinking hard.

Halter muttered with a sigh, “I do think this is a bit too unreasonable to ask even of you, but...”

Upon which, RyuZU nodded, seeming to have thought of something, “—I see, so that was the source of Master Naoto’s ‘ceiling aliens.’”

“T, That was an ‘electromagnetic wave’? No wonder I thought it was a sound that I hadn’t heard much before.”

“—Hah?” Halter widened his eyes at Naoto’s unassuming answer. “...Come on Naoto, I know your ears are good but you’ve gotta be kidding me.”

The short-wave transmission that Halter had received was an electromagnetic wave with a frequency of thirty megahertz. Catching a wave whose frequency is fifteen hundred times higher than the upper auditory limit of humans with just his ears and through 100% soundproof headphones at that—?

—Just what does this guy “hear”? A chill inadvertently ran down Halter’s spine. However, next to him, Marie nodded, her face not even showing the least bit of surprise.

“—What are you so surprised about? Compared to distinguishing the sounds of all the gears of this city’s core tower, this isn’t much is it? —More importantly, Naoto.” Leaving Halter behind, Marie continued, “Can you tell roughly where that sound came from?”

“Umm, straight above... no, about eighty-eight degrees. From this direction I think? —Hey, wait, what are you doing!”

Without waiting for Naoto’s reply, Marie forced herself onto Naoto’s lap and snatched the pencil and notebook that had been lying on the nearby table. Retracting her legs, Marie curled up into a ball and began to write something at an astonishing speed.

“...Excuse me, Mistress Marie. Just whose permission did you receive to climb onto my Master Naoto’s—”

“Ah, RyuZU, your expression right now is amazing!! If you’d like to sit on my lap, I’d be happy to oblige at any t—”

“Shut it you lovebirds!” Marie yelled sharply before assuming the tone of a lecturer—

“What was used was a short-wave transmission. Short waves are what the Planet Governors at the North and South Pole deflect by deploying a magnetic field to protect the planet from solar radiation. If we know the direction and angle it came from, we can use trigonometry to pinpoint the source of the transmission. If the electromagnetic wave came from almost straight above, then the source has to be close—if we further calculate how far the gears moved from the elapsed time, then...”

It seemed like Marie had already figured out the answer, as she vigorously circled the coordinates that she had computed. “The location is—Mie. It’s a neighboring city. From the relative coordinates, it’s in the industrial zone... We’re going there right this instant.”

“Uh, look here...” Naoto scratched his head. I don’t get it.

He was still completely clueless as to why this blond-haired walking landmine was so angry. Naoto turned his gaze toward the angry girl on his lap and with his head tilted asked, “In the end, what did that transmission say?”

Upon those words, Marie froze with a start.

“Y, You see, that’s... Hyah? Ow?!”

The instant that Marie had begun to mumble, RyuZU deployed her scythe from under her skirt. She had deftly hooked Marie’s collar with the blade and tossed her out of the couple’s seat.

“—Now then.” RyuZU surfaced a smile so gentle that it looked fit for a saint. “Just what kind of emergency transmission would warrant this continuous violence against Master Naoto? You surely have an appropriate answer for this, yes?” In the midst of her flowery smile, only her gaze affirmed the chilling malice behind her words.

“Ah... well, how should I put this...” After taking a quick glance at Marie, who kept silent, Halter reluctantly opened his mouth. Clearing his throat, he began—

“‘—Hey, harlot.’”

Marie froze with a start. She began to tremble all over again. Catching that with a sidelong glance, Halter sighed as he continued with as bland and emotionless of a voice as possible,

“‘I see that you’ve been getting awfully cocky for the ghost of a bratty girl. What’s wrong, is your pussy feeling lonely without the attention?’”

“———”

Silence.

Marie had made tight fists with both her hands. She smashed those two trembling fists onto the floor. Taking his eyes off her, Halter continued reading out the last paragraph,

“‘No need to worry, there’re a bunch of small guys with surprisingly big cocks here waiting impatiently that can give you the bang you’re lusting for. Shake your cute little ass and beg for it and they just might do you the favor, bitch.’”

(—So yeah, that was the message that we received.)

“...That was sent to Marie?”

“No? Short wave transmissions aren’t precise enough for that. It was sent to this whole region, I just happened to pick it up.”

Well, in that case. Naoto tilted his head, pointing at Marie, who was trembling on the ground. “In that case, why is Marie blowing her top off as if the message had been directed at her?”

“Master Naoto... thick-headedness is the prerogative of a main character, but asking such a thing is simply too cruel. People become angry when they face the truth. It has been like this since time immemorial. Mistress Marie, if your hole is feeling lonely, there are shops that carry tools for that kind of thing nearby.”

“That’s absolutely not it!” Marie shouted as she sprung up, her face completely flushed red. “Ghost. Of. A. Bratty. Girl! Here! This is clearly referring to me, isn’t it!?”

“Rather, why do you know about those stores, RyuZU?”

“That, of course, would be because your sexual fetishes have distorted so much that they’re no longer recognizable, Master Naoto. Satisfying her master’s lust falls under the duties of a follower as well. Thus, in order to promptly meet your expectations whenever such a request might be made, I had—”

“Listen to me!” Marie angrily shouted. She then held her head as if exhausted, “Ahh, I’ve had enough, talking to you guys makes me nauseous...! At any rate, you guys are coming with us right now.”

“...Eh, to buy toys?”

“I’m really gonna kill you, ya know!? We’re going to tie up the idiot who sent this message and mount him on the wall! What else could it be? Or do you want me to try a dry run on you first!?”

“Please spare me from such advanced sexual play...” Naoto groaned with his eyes half-closed.

Next to him, RyuZU nodded. “Apart from that, I am also unable to understand the meaning in our going together. While I could not be more opposed to them, Master Naoto does have remedial lessons, not to mention my personal lessons that I’m giving him so that he can break out of his current situation of being looked down upon by the imbeciles of society as well, so—please, you are welcome to go by yourself.” Her words were curt.

Halter interjected in a calm voice, “...Say, Naoto. Tomorrow’s Sunday. You shouldn’t have remedial lessons, right?”

“Hm? Well, yeah, but...”

“If the coordinates that this princess gave us are on the mark, it’s somewhere in the industrial zone. If my memory serves, there’s a seaside resort there.”

Twitch.

Seaside resort—those two words made Naoto freeze.

Curling his lips from seeing Naoto’s reaction, Halter continued his barefaced act in monotone, “Oh my, I had forgotten, it’s February right now, the absolute perfect season for fun at the beach. It’s truly the best season for appreciating swimsuits—”

“Ah, excuse me, we’ll be checking out. Please ring me up!”

Even Halter turned around in shock at the fact that Naoto’s voice came from behind him—more precisely, from the front desk.

“Well, it’s fine if we return by Monday, right? Alright, let’s go everyone! Don’t drag your feet, time won’t wait for stragglers y’know!”

“As expected of Master Naoto. Could you not somehow use that energy of yours that you currently only exhibit when you are filled with a twisted, vulgar lust for a clockwork doll on other things? Perhaps, if I said that I would fulfill any one request of yours if you were to receive perfect scores on the makeup exams—”

“Alllright! Leave it to me! I’ll memorize the entire textbook in one day when I come back!”

Naoto and RyuZU rushed out of the manga café while making a commotion. Watching them from behind, Marie spit out a sigh.

“...You’re good at dealing with those two aren’t you.”

“When you seek cooperation from others, show the other party what they have to gain. It’s the basics of negotiation you know, princess,” Halter said as he ran his hand over his smooth head. “Well, let’s get going as well, princess. We’re gonna be left behind at this rate,” Halter urged Marie on. However, he suddenly felt a strangely discomforting sensation.

Will things really turn out as expected? Was that message really just a mere provocation...?