Chapter Two / 18 : 10 / Searcher

...I’m getting sleepy.

The girl thought, her mind covered in a dense fog.

She just couldn’t seem to grasp where she was or what she was doing. She had been like this for so long, she could hardly remember when it began. Recently, however, her driftings had been especially troublesome.

Like a harsh winter landscape, where anything and everything was frozen, her heart sank into numbness.

Playing cards, solving puzzles, drawing—none of them seemed as interesting as they did before. There weren’t even any cards, puzzles, or crayons here to begin with. And of course, simply cleaning things up wasn’t interesting at all...

...Ahh, the girl thought.

I see, that’s why I’m dozing off.

There wasn’t anything she had to do, nor did she know what it is that she wanted to do. As such, there was nothing left for her but to sleep and dream.

—I want to go back.

The faint thought suddenly popped into her head. Recalling her memories lifted the fog of her mind just a little. A room filled with toys, gently warmed by the sun.

Word puzzles and code puzzles.

A clockwork bear.

A collapsible chess set.

A curiously distorted mirror.

A hand organ that sounded towards the player instead of outwards.

A spring-wound bat that flew in the sky.

If she could leave those toys scattered around here as she slept on top of that luxurious sofa, she would surely be scolded by her big sister, but nonetheless, it would feel very good.

...But, she thought, as the fog’s tide came upon her once more, Just where was that nostalgic house located again...?

●

The sun was about to set.

Above the ocean in the distance, the sky was beginning to turn scarlet, dying the planet made of steel in a red hue.

—The Clockwork Planet.

On this planet in which everything had been reconstructed with gears, the cities people lived in were built atop enormous cogwheels that ranged from several kilometers to up to several dozens of kilometers in diameter. Gears of neighboring cities meshed with each other, turning slowly as they circulated the enormous energy generated by the Equatorial Spring to every nook and corner of the planet.

One of those mechanisms, which numbered several million gears in total, was Kyoto Grid. At this very moment, Kyoto Grid was about to mesh with the gear of a neighboring city—Mie Grid.

On one tooth of that absurdly enormous gear were countless holes; each hole was about ten meters in diameter. The holes, lined up next to each other in an orderly manner, looked like a beehive.

On the other enormous gear moving to mesh with this one were, unsurprisingly, similar-looking holes.

The enormous municipal gears slowly meshed with each other, their gaps lining up against each other to a tee. —That instant, a deafening roar rang out from both teeth. Screeching, thunderous sounds as if several thousand cannons were firing overlapped with one another. The roar was so loud that it sounded like the gears would break.

Though this continued for a short while, the sounds eventually subsided when the two perforated teeth detached from one another as their gears continued turning.

—It was the sound of transfers happening on the cylindrical railway, a means of transportation that connected cities together.

At the connecting station where the municipal gears meshed, massive cylinders holding passengers and cargo were simultaneously shot out and exchanged between the two cities in large numbers. After, the cylinders gathered at the terminal before being sorted and transferred to the various means of each grid’s municipal transportation.

Though there were things like clockwork trains and buses and self-driving taxis within the city, because every city was constantly rotating, there was no road that connected any two cities together. Because of that, this kind of special means of transportation was necessary, but—

“...Hey Naoto, what’s with you? You look like you’re about to die.” Marie had just gotten off the passenger cylinder and stood at the platform. Seeing Naoto walking like a zombie, she had addressed him in annoyed disbelief.

“Shut up... Rather, how are you guys all fine? ...It feels like my brain is still shaking.” Naoto looked to be suffering as he pressed down on his headphones and let out a pained groan.

The passenger’s cylindrical railway was piled with many layers of sound insulating material, more than enough for the ears of any ordinary traveler. For Naoto, whose headphones also had a one hundred percent noise-cancelling function, the roar of transferring had still taken its toll.

“...Well, being a normal person, I guess I have no idea what a pervert who can pick out electromagnetic waves heard just now. Those ears of yours must make everyday life a challenge.”

While looking after the staggering Naoto, RyuZU opened her mouth to speak in his stead. Though she maintained her characteristic elegance, an undercurrent of hostility could be heard in her voice. “What a truly barbaric method of travel. It may be fine to transport base lifeforms and cargo like this, but to force Master Naoto through such torment without even preparing a first-class seat—could it be that you do not even know of the word ‘accommodation’?”

“Like there would be a special seat made for such a singular super-ultra-pervert,” Marie muttered coldly.

Halter followed apologetically, “Sorry about this, we didn’t think it’d be this bad for Naoto. We sort of thought it’d be overkill to use air travel just to travel to a neighboring city.

While muttering curses, Naoto shook his head unsteadily, “...Ah— No, it’s not your fault, the shock just now made me remember. I rode this thing once when I was a kid, and the noise crippled me that time too. Guess it was so traumatic that I erased it from memory... damn it.”

“Dang. Sorry about this, I’ll arrange for us to travel by air for the return trip.” The four of them walked, RyuZU supporting Naoto, whose steps were unsteady, with her hands.

As the cylindrical railway was a transportation system that instantaneously moved a great number of things and people several times throughout the day, the terminal was jam packed with people. The four of them wove their way through the crowd, climbing up the stairs to ground level and exiting through the ticket gate.

They were already in Mie Grid at this point.

From the entrance of the above-ground connecting station were the cornerstones of urban transport, a circular shuttle, and a pool of unmanned taxis lined up and waiting for customers.

To get out of the way of human traffic, the four moved to a corner of the entrance where there was a rest area. Settling in, Marie locked her hands together and placed her chin on top of her hands, “Anyhow—let’s not forget that there’s a masochistic punk who’s been patiently waiting for me to slap him in this city. Kuhuhu~”

Looking askance at Marie laughing menacingly, Halter said, “Ah— Princess, I think this goes without saying, but we still only know the general location that the message came from right now, you know? It’s not like we’ve successfully pinpointed the specific location of the sender.”

Marie smiled, brimming with confidence. “Are you making light of me, Halter? Since then, I’ve already narrowed the sender’s location down to an area with a radius of five hundred meters by making various approximations from the weather data and rotational speed of the municipal gear at the conjectured time of transmission. I couldn’t narrow it down further than this since the original data had some areas of uncertainty, but if we just match it to the local information now, the rest should work out one way or another. Pleasure time is just a step away, fufufu...”

Seeing Marie’s evil countenance across from him Naoto muttered in annoyed disbelief, “...Just how serious is this girl gonna get cuz of a mere prank message.”

“To be unable to dismiss disparaging and slanderous remarks as the delusions of a fool shows not just a simple lack of composure—but of self-confidence.” RyuZU maintained a smile on her face as she fired off those cold words; however, Marie only sneered.

Closing her eyes sardonically and, keeping her hands joined, she raised and shook just one index finger, “Tsk tsk tsk. It appears that you’re misunderstanding, RyuZU. I’m used to hearing mere words of envy, jealousy, and abuse from the masses.”

“...In that case, why are you so pissed?” Naoto asked with a squint as he straightened his posture. He seemed to be feeling a bit better now.

“Pissed? Me? Hahah, aren’t you a joker... Angering me would be an astounding feat, you know? Yep, no kidding. I’m not pissed; no siree, not at all.” Marie stared at Naoto with glazed eyes as she curled her lips, “‘If a lady is slighted, she shall snap at each and every insult with a smile and slap the offender silly after chasing him down to the ends of the Earth.’ I’m simply honoring the words of my elder sister.”

Naoto sighed, looking incredulous. “...Wow, I hope I never meet your sister my whole life.” It was a sincere wish from the bottom of his heart.

●

—Mie Grid.

Though it was next to the city where Naoto was born and raised, this was his first time actually visiting it. To begin with, traveling to a different city isn’t easy in and of itself. As such, many people never leave their native city their entire lives...

But leaving that aside—Naoto thought as he made his first impression of Mie Grid: “...It’s hot... Why is it so hot?”

The sun had already begun to set. It would be night anytime now. Despite that, the heat and humidity were so high that even standing in the shade was still enough to make one sweat.

“It’s because the neighboring Shiga Grid was purged in the past, isn’t it?” Answering briefly, Marie walked out. She was heading towards the end of the terminal where one could board the clockwork trains that revolved around the city—the ring-line.

Following behind her, Naoto asked, “Could it be that it was also a conspiracy like the recent incident at Kyoto...?”

“......Just what are you learning at school? I can see why you failed your tests.” Marie shook her head before continuing,

“Dropping a city into the earth... it’s true that doing so will inflict fatal damage to the planet in the long run. Even so, if cities with irreparable malfunctions were left alone, the entire planet would be affected. Choosing to sacrifice the afflicted city to contain the damage before that happens—that’s what a purge is.

“It’s normally something that’s done only after going through the formal procedures, which include many thorough calculations and discussions. Generous aid is appropriated for the people who are displaced as well—” After rattling off this far in one breath, Marie seemed to have become unable to bear the heat as she fanned herself with her right hand. “...It really is hot isn’t it. For the air to be shimmering after the sun has set...”

“Well, even so, it’s better than Siberia,” Halter said with a cool-looking face. It seemed like, as a cyborg, he was perfectly fine.

To those words, RyuZU tilted her head slightly, “Now—as far as I remember, Siberia should be a frozen tundra, no?”

“During the time you’ve been sleeping—on the eighth of June forty-two years ago—Neryungri Grid was purged,” Marie answered concisely.

Halter continued, elaborating for Naoto and RyuZU from behind them, “The grid to the south of Siberia had malfunctioned, you see. As it was a grid that had been largely uninhabited to begin with, it took an especially long time to organize and conduct the purge. As such, nearly all of that region had become a scorching desert. The tundra had melted and Lake Baikal flooded, submerging its surroundings... The effects even reached Northeast Asia.

“—Well, nowadays the area’s a greatly prosperous resort spot. Humanity’s indomitable spirit never ceases to amaze me,” Halter laughed cynically.

While wiping away the sweat on her forehead, Marie picked up the rest. “It’s the perfect example of what happens when a malfunctioning city is left alone and unpurged for too long. So, there are times when a purge is unavoidable. Only as a last resort, of course, but...”

Even so—Marie thought.

The most frightening aspect of the Clockwork Planet—the absurd object that “Y” had molded into being—was precisely this.

In the first place—machines that can properly function with missing parts don’t exist. And when it comes to precise clockwork, losing even just a single gear, cylinder, screw, spring, or wire is enough to cause everything to collapse—even the smallest part is critical to the entirety of the mechanism.

However, this planet smashes such common sense.

Almost as if a purge had been taken into account from the very beginning, even if an entire municipal gear was missing, the other cities would adapt and make up for its absence like a living organism.

The astounding synergistic behavior of the gears was nothing if not complicated and full of mysteries. There have even been cases where a single purge affects a city far off in the distance, four thousand kilometers away.

As such, beyond obviously requiring the permission of the local government, purges also require approval from an international agency and the grid’s neighboring countries as well. This is because a purge is a literal last resort that could cause harm to the entire world.

“Of course—” Marie clenched her fists. “Preventing things from coming to that is what we clocksmiths are here for— Wait, what?” Letting out a confused voice, Marie tilted her head. Before she knew it, Naoto and RyuZU were gone. All she saw upon turning around was Halter scratching his head looking bored.

Marie furrowed her eyebrows, “...What happened to those two?”

“Ah— How should I say this...” Marie followed where Halter was pointing to with her eyes.

There—

“Ooh?! A swimsuit that suits you, you ask? —Gah, how difficult!” Staring at the dressed-up mannequins behind the display window of a store next to the station, an idiot happily groaned. “This one... Wait, actually— Somehow the swimsuit pales in comparison to the fine specimen it’s intended to dress up! Shouldn’t it be the other way around?! Am I supposed to pity it?!”

“It appears that such is the case, Master. —In the first place, swimsuits are designed with consideration for those with disappointing figures so as to supplement those disappointing figures of theirs. When it comes to someone shaped as perfectly as myself, it is all the more difficult to find something worthy of adorning this body.”

“I couldn’t agree more! In that case, should we go to a dedicated automaton clothing store after all? No wait! The swimsuit for someone on RyuZU’s level has to be custom-made, right—?!”

“Do you think we have the time for that you idiot,” Marie said, her chilling voice below freezing, as she grabbed Naoto’s collar and pulled him away from the window. “Tomorrow’s Sunday. You can play all you want with your automaton whether at the beach or the mountains after you help me finish my business here, so let’s get going already.”

“AHHhh... RyuZU! I’ll think about it while we’re on the move so take their pamphlet if nothing else!”

“Certainly, Master Naoto.”

●

With the pleasant sound of steel clacking against steel, the train of the ring-line ran on the outskirts of the city that had sunk into the darkness of night. Peeking out through a window in the front car, Naoto muttered, “In any case, what a dreary-looking city...”

The closed-loop train that ran on meshing gears. Its absolute speed was a mere eighty kilometers an hour. However, because it was going in the opposite direction of the rotation of the city, its relative speed reached a hundred forty kilometers an hour.

The scenery passing by outside the window consisted of buildings that had their gears exposed, more buildings, and yet more buildings. At most, a small park would pop up once in a while, but the gray landscape buried in the light of light gears continued on and on.

“Well yeah, you can’t compare this city to Kyoto,” Marie replied indifferently. “Kyoto is a tourist city that possesses a large amount of cultural heritage from ancient times. Meanwhile, Mie is fundamentally an industrial city. This is as good as the scenery gets.”

Naoto looked at Marie, blinking a couple times. “Hey Marie, doesn’t it seem weird that you know more about Japan than me who’s Japanese?”

“Have you forgotten that I’m an ex-Meister? Something like world geography is basic education. Rather, what’s shocking is that you don’t know anything about a city that neighbors your own. You should really get on that...” Marie said in disbelief as she re-crossed her legs. While glancing past the window through the corner of her eye, she muttered, “This country supposedly had a little more nature in the past. A country that had four seasons even.”

“Four seasons?”

“Spring, summer, fall, winter—in the past, summers used to be hot and snow fell during winter in this country,” Halter answered.

Naoto tilted his head, a blank look on his face. It was the first time he had heard of such a thing. “What? Are you talking about how things were a thousand years ago?”

“—No, Master Naoto. The vestiges of the four seasons were still there, even right before I fell asleep a little more than two hundred years ago. The Clockwork Planet had had its climate settings adjusted so as to fully replicate the original Earth, but... things appear to have completely changed,” RyuZU answered. Curiously, there was none of the usual sarcasm in her words. Though she was looking through the train window, rather than the passing scenery, it felt like she was looking at something that wasn’t there.

“...Yeah. Various things are going to reach their limits any day now,” Marie nodded, closing her eyes melancholically.

Silence fell.

Naoto didn’t know what Marie’s words were implying; however, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to ask and find out either, so he just silently looked down at the swimsuit pamphlet in his hands.

—Some twenty or thirty minutes of being swayed by the train later, they arrived on the opposite side of the city’s core tower.

Getting off at their destination, the only things that could be seen above their heads were starlight, moonlight, and the silhouette of the Equatorial Spring cutting across the night sky.

“......” Naoto looked up at the sky in silence.

Next to him, Marie revealed a malicious smile. “Now then—in terms of coordinates, my punching bag should be somewhere around here, but...”

“Princess, you’ve gradually escalated from slapping to punching, you know?” Halter retorted in disbelief, but Marie ignored him.

“Alright Mr. Walking Measurement Device, I’m going to calculate the sender’s precise location so help me with— Huh?”

Naoto ignored both of them.

He had already begun walking towards the platform’s exit while silently continuing to stare at the empty sky. As for RyuZU, she was following behind him silently as well.

“H, Hey Naoto, don’t just go off by yourself! I can’t calculate where the dummy I’m going to use for crash simulations is without you!”

“I see that the punishment you intend to inflict on the guy has finally exceeded that which you can do with your bare hands...”

Having been left behind, Marie and Halter chased after the two of them in a hurry.

Passing through the station’s ticket gate, what appeared before them was the sprawling business district that was located in front of the industrial park. Though Naoto had exited before Marie and Halter, he simply stood there, unmoving, as he stared off into space.

Marie called out from behind him, “Hey Naoto, what’s the big idea?”

“Quiet.”

“Now you look here—” Receiving Naoto’s brusque reply, Marie had opened her mouth reflexively, but—

“Mistress Marie, could I ask that you be quiet for a while?” RyuZU requested as she stood off to the Naoto’s side, keeping a respectful distance between him and herself.

Marie answered her with a slight nod.

She cast her gaze back onto Naoto, but Naoto simply continued staring off into space with his back towards her as if lost in a daze.

Marie had seen him like this before.

It had been during his miraculous performance that had revealed the precise number of the gears in Kyoto’s core tower, which were so numerous that one might as well consider them infinite. Those ashen eyes that were staring intensely into space were seeing something that Marie couldn’t.

—He’s straining his ears.

Marie didn’t know the reason why.

From the beginning, Marie couldn’t comprehend the world that Naoto perceived. However, if Naoto was intentionally straining his ears, there had to be something.

...A cold sweat slowly dampened her forehead. Perhaps because this area was a shopping district, the noise coming from the gears, which had been boisterous on the journey here, was mild. The streets themselves were nice and tidy and had the smell of hot, moist air. That was all that Marie could perceive, but—

Naoto, who could surely hear more, finally opened his mouth after some time. “—I can’t hear anything.”

“Y, You punk, what were you acting all serious for—” Marie almost fell over from the epic let-down. However, Naoto’s eyes remained trained on the industrial zone that could just barely be seen at the end of the shopping district.

Halter spoke up suddenly, “—Say, what time is it right now?”

“Eh?” Marie uttered.

Everyone’s eyes focused onto Halter.

“The time, I’m asking for the time. I believe it should be about seven right now, but...”

“It is 18:58:23 right now according to Western Japan Standard Time—I see, this is strange,” RyuZU answered.

“What do you mean—” Marie started to say before shutting up mid-speech as she realized something. Marie took a look around the area in a fluster, but before she could voice what she had just come to understand herself, Halter said it:

“—Isn’t it too quiet?”

It was seven o’clock—at the entrance to the station. The sun had completely set and light from the light gears was illuminating their surroundings.

There was no wind blowing through this broad avenue. The damp, stagnant air felt heavy; the only thing brushing against their skin as they stood stock still was the hot air that was still simmering up from the surface of the road from the residual heat of day.

Despite the sweltering heat, Marie shivered.

There were no crowds of people crossing the street both ways nor any life in any of the open stores.

Though all of the lined-up stores looked a little old on the outside, their exterior designs were nonetheless chic. Despite them all having their shutters raised, there were no customers to be seen.

At the intersection of the main streets was what appeared to be a police box, but even that was unoccupied.

A deserted shopping district—why hadn’t I realized the contradiction?

Now that I’ve noticed, this place couldn’t be stranger.

It was almost as if—

“It’s a ghost town...” Marie whispered, dumbfounded. Unnerved, she let out a quiet groan.

●

In Mie Grid’s heavy industrial zone, there was an elevated platform where one could see the entire area in one view. It was an observation deck set up in the middle of a promenade on top of a small hill. The sun had set. Four silhouettes stood atop the broad, deserted platform.

Naoto, who was one of those four, bent over the railing as he narrowed his eyes and concentrated. What extended below his eyes was the night’s view of factories illuminated by countless light gears. A forest made of steel intertwined in such a complicated way that it vaguely reminded one of an artificial organ. While in a sense, it could be described as eerie, its majestic appearance filled with pulsing energy was beautiful enough to make one sigh in wonder.

...However,

“As expected, nothing,” Naoto said quietly assured, “I can’t hear anything. The clock tower here is stopped—actually, it’s completely empty.

The air sank under a heavy silence.

“...Do you understand what you’re saying?” Marie choked. The words had caught in her throat before she was able to get them out. Her voice was dry and quivering.

The clock tower was stopped.

It might be simple to put to words, but the situation it described was beyond abnormal.

We aren’t talking about a simple degradation in the function of one clock tower and the others making up for it here. If the core tower was the brain of a city, then the clock towers were none other than its internal organs. Together, they formed the lifeline of the city. Every one of them was irreplaceable. For example, if someone is missing any organs, his body won’t be able to function properly.

As an ex-Meister who had been involved in a great number of municipal repairs, Marie could clearly imagine how grave the situation was. However, as Naoto turned to face her, Marie saw that Naoto’s face was filled with an even greater terror; it had turned ghastly pale as if all the blood had been pulled from it.

“I’m telling you, this isn’t on the level of a mere abnormality—this city,” He paused for a breath, “is already dead. It’s been dead for a long time.” Sweat dripped down from Naoto’s cheeks drop-by-drop. This wasn’t due to the humid heat. The trembling of his hands and feet had nothing to do with his will either.

While everyone else became speechless, only RyuZU narrowed her keen eyes, “I see—so that is the reason this city has no wind.” Her mutter made Marie and Halter widen their eyes.

—Indeed, there was no wind blowing.

Over there, beyond the industrial area in front of them—should be the ocean. As such, right now, there should at the very least be a breeze. Despite that, not even a wisp of the ocean was blowing past this elevated platform.

“...Looks like this ain’t peanuts,” Halter spilled out, groaning. Feeling an unsettling sensation creep up his spine, he sighed. The out-of-place feeling that he had felt when they had first set off was now becoming an ugly reality.

Halter glanced at Marie who was still standing next to him, speechless. “Princess. About that transmission you received, wouldn’t it be a good idea to investigate it once more?”

“Eh?”

“I hadn’t planned on saying anything if it would help you kill time, but when things start to smell this fishy, it becomes a different matter.”

“...What do you mean?”

Halter nodded. Placing his hand to his forehead, he sighed, “First... as the premise, a short-wave transmission isn’t something that can be sent to a wide area.”

“I know that much. In other words, the sender knew where—” She stopped. Seeing the realization spread throughout Marie’s face, Halter nodded lightly. She recalled the provocative message. The prank message had been deliberately sent using fossilized technology in this day and age. However, if she considered things calmly, there were several points that made no sense in this interpretation.

Marie sighed before licking her lips. “If that transmission had really been addressed to my location, then there are—conditions—for someone to be capable of sending it.”

“Right. The first is obviously that he would have had to know that the princess was still alive and in Kyoto. And second...”

“That someone would also have to know that there was someone with the capabilities to receive that message—in other words, Halter—by my side.” Marie nodded as she took over for Halter.

Hearing their exchange, Naoto spoke up, seeming to have remembered something. “Ah, I see. You said earlier that those who work ‘certain jobs’ still use wireless transmission even now, right old man?”

“It’s not really like it’s standard equipment, but yeah.” Halter nodded with a wry smile. “It isn’t really an uncommon function for cyborgs who dedicate themselves to special—illegal—activities. I have it as well. Any cyborg who’s a covert operative or part of an infiltration unit somewhere probably has it.”

Moreover, Halter thought, someone with access to such an artificial body would easily be able to get a hold of information on us.

—Marie Bell Breguet had died, and the terrorist behind the information leak remained unknown. However, this was nothing more than P.R.

For a respectable intelligence agency—for example, the intelligence department of one of the Five Great Corporations—Marie and Halter’s current whereabouts and identities were the same as open secrets.

“Of course, the possibility that it really is a prank isn’t zero. The sender might have sent it in every direction over the course of many transmissions. Or, the intended addressee might not have been Marie to begin with. Be that as it may, given what the situation is here, let’s forget about that for now and reassess things from the premise.”

Marie nodded. “So basically, the question is—why did the sender choose to use an electromagnetic wave to send his message, right?” she pondered.

Let’s erase the assumption that Halter had merely received the transmission by chance from the premise for now.

In the first place, unauthorized use of electromagnetic waves is a felony.

The risk was too high for a simple prank message that, for all he knew, might not even be received.

Crossing her arms, Marie pinched her small chin.

In that case, the first possibility that comes to mind is—“...A trap?”

“If that’s the case, then it’s awfully sloppy.” Halter immediately rejected that interpretation, glancing at Naoto. “Which is precisely why I had determined that it being a prank was more likely. After all, even if we took the bait, it would have been impossible to trace the transmission back to its source if it weren’t for Naoto.”

“...I see, so from the culprit’s perspective, we would have lacked the information necessary for him to successfully lure me out.”

“Well, before that, there’s also the fact that you’re the only one who would work yourself up over a message like this, princ— Excuse my impertinence, let’s continue,” Halter had muttered quietly, but held his tongue upon noticing Marie’s prickly gaze.

“In that case... perhaps it’s a warning. Or maybe—”

“Are you thinking it might be a tip-off? Even if that’s the case, it isn’t a good enough reason for him to have deliberately used a short-wave transmission.” Halter shrugged his shoulders. No matter what kind of message it was, it would only have meaning if it reached the intended reader. Even if it was a tip-off, there would still be no reason to deliberately take on unnecessary risk by using an electromagnetic wave.

“In that case,” Marie raised her head up, “what about the possibility that him using an electromagnetic wave was, itself, some kind of message?”

“Wouldn’t that be too roundabout? Why not just write things out clearly? Or, if he wanted to hide the message, he could just encrypt it into code.”

“Then... maybe he had no choice?”

“In just what kind of situation would you find yourself in these days where you can use electromagnetic transmissions but not gear transmissions...” Halter groaned as he sighed.

Upon which, Naoto, who had been silent up to now, suddenly raised his hand. Surfacing a smile, he said in one breath, “I see—all the riddles have been solved!”

“......”

Upon his words, Marie and Halter looked at Naoto with suspicious gazes. Seeing their gazes, Naoto turned serious, muttering, “What’s with the cold reaction...”

“Well, I mean, you know...” Troubled as to what to say, Halter turned his eyes away from Naoto.

Marie sighed. “Say what you’re thinking just in case, I guess. We’ll listen.” She urged him to continue with a voice that sounded like she didn’t have even a shred of faith in him.

Naoto nodded before declaring, full of confidence, “In other words—all this means that there might be an Initial-Y Series automaton here right?!”

“..........” Marie closed her eyes and thought about what Naoto had said. After thoroughly mulling his words,

“—So, Naoto...”

“Yeah?” Naoto replied, proudly puffing up his chest.

Marie smiled gently at him as if she were looking at a kindergartener, “Your conclusion doesn’t follow what we were just saying in the slightest. I’ve thought that your head was funny since the first time we met, but have the screws of your brain finally popped off for good? Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll become better if you take your medicine... Probably, just a little.”

“No, listen to me, seriously. Doesn’t it make sense if you think about things normally?” Naoto grumbled with his eyes half-closed.

Marie sighed, “How? I have no idea why you brought that name up—”

“—I see, so that was the scenario,” RyuZU suddenly interjected. “The goal of the sender was to extract information for his employer, but he was in a situation where he couldn’t do so. As far as a possible reason for such a situation to have occurred is concerned—I see, that is a possibility.”

Marie furrowed her eyebrows suspiciously. What is this automaton even saying? Naoto spewing nonsense out of left field is nothing new, but at the very least, RyuZU should have a proper head on her shoulders, putting aside her abusive verbal filter and her absurd functionality, in any case...

Halter said what Marie was thinking. “...Hey RyuZU, maybe I’m stupid, but I don’t get what you’re saying at all...”

“Yes, that is certainly the case. There is no need to be depressed about it, however. The very fact that you are aware of your own stupidity shows that you are at least superior to the typical flea in some respects, Mr. Junkbot,” RyuZU asserted without even cracking a smile. She then narrowed her eyes. “It seems likely to me that this sender encountered my younger sister.”

“—Huh?”

Everyone’s gaze was focused onto RyuZU.

“You were just saying so yourselves, were you not? That electromagnetic transmission is not an uncommon function among cyborgs who pursue illegal activities. And that the sender deliberately used short-wave transmission out of necessity. If we accept those assumptions, we can infer that he was not in a normal situation—in other words, that he was in the middle of a mission.”

RyuZU continued to weave her words together dispassionately.

“Most likely, the sender had acquired some sort of classified information, but had become unable to escape due to some unforeseen circumstance. As a last resort, he sent an encrypted message to Mistress Marie. Does that not sound possible? Lastly, that would mean that something that could force him into such a predicament must have been present.”

“Ohh, as expected of RyuZU! Right right, that’s what I wanted to say!” Naoto nodded merrily.

However, Halter stroked his chin, looking unconvinced. “In other words... you’re saying that that ‘something’ is an Initial-Y Series automaton?”

“My, do you have an objection of some sort?”

“I’ve got nothing but objections. There are a myriad of situations that could arise during a mission that would make escape impossible. —In the first place, what reason would a covert operative have to do something as random as sending information to our princess in the middle of an operation. The sender isn’t someone affiliated with the Breguets, you know? I’m willing to bet on that.”

“I do not know that much, nor do I think it is a particularly important detail.”

“But isn’t that the biggest mystery...?” Halter groaned.

However, Marie nodded next to him. “But it’s true that, if the sender were a covert operative in the middle of an operation—under that assumption, there would be an adequate explanation as to why he used short-wave transmission instead of a more standard transmission by resonant gears.”

“Oy, princess.”

“Their reasoning might have skipped a few steps, but it does check out. If we also leave the question of why he had addressed the message to me aside for now, the only question that would remain is—what is the true intent behind that message?”

That message, the transmission that was the reason for Marie coming here in the first place. That was—

—Hey, harlot.

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?

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.—

RyuZU stated the message smoothly, as if playing back Halter’s recorded voice.

The vein beside Marie’s temple swelled conspicuously as she menacingly laughed, “—Even if there really is beneficial information encrypted in this, I’m still going to hang this guy, after all.”

RyuZU continued with a serious face, “However, Master Naoto, with all due respect: Is there really a secret message in this? Though he may have poor character, are his eyes not truly keen? No matter how I think about it, it seems to me that this letter contains nothing but truth.”

“Do you want to be smashed into pieces?! I’m a virgin!”

“...wow—”

“guh...”

It had been an outdoor proclamation of virginity in a very loud voice. Marie turned her face away, flushing bright red from anger and shame. Her tightly clenched fist was trembling. Placing his hands on her shoulders to hold her back if necessary, Halter advanced the conversation. “...Well, let’s assume that deduction is correct and try thinking about things from there. First, that section—what was it, ‘small guys with big cocks waiting to bang you’? It’s clearly a strange section.”

Crossing his arms, Naoto opened his mouth, “If you think about it normally—well, it’s gotta be that. Small guys with big... dicks.”

“It can also mean ‘rooster’ or ‘stopcock,’ but yeah.” Halter smiled wryly before continuing, “Apart from that, it can also mean ‘nonsense’ or ‘weather vane’—it can also be used to mean a ‘whim’ as a secondary meaning based on those two primary definitions. Additionally, though I don’t really want to think about it, when I was in the army...” Halter broke off there.

Marie looked like she was still agitated from before. She urged him on while glaring upward at him obliquely, “What?”

“...It was used to refer to firing hammers.”

“———”

Silence fell.

Marie narrowed her eyes, looked downwards, and placed her right hand onto her chest. “...In other words, a gun that’s small but has gigantic firepower?”

“Yeah. But let me just say that you won’t find many guns that use firing hammers these d—”

“I know. ‘Cocking’—an antique gun, right? A small but high caliber, antique firearm. Armament...” While muttering as if singing a rhyme, Marie suddenly turned her gaze towards RyuZU who was standing right next to her.

“...? Yes?” RyuZU tilted her head.

Without answering her, Marie licked her lips.

—The First of the Initial-Y Series.

An antique automaton that could destroy modern arms with extraordinary ease. ...Don’t tell me, that what this secret message really means is— “A small body with a big cock... A small but powerful weapon...?”

The instant RyuZU heard Marie’s mutter, she surfaced a sweet smile onto her face. She then pinched up the sides of her skirt—sinister sounds of gears rang out from the hem. “Mistress Marie, to claim that I am equipped with a male reproductive organ—I am deeply sorry for not having noticed how tired you were of life. I shall humbly grant you your wish at once.”

What flew out along with those words was a black scythe that could easily cut through even a heavily-armored automaton. Marie raised both hands, shrieking, “Wait, sto—?! T-T, THAT’S NOT IT!!!”

Don’t tell me... she thought as she turned her gaze towards Naoto. What lay on the boy’s face was—a somewhat blank expression, but if one were to look at it from another angle, one could interpret his expression as nonchalant, even arrogant. Had this guy ended up with the same conjecture as me purely on instinct?

Marie squinted her eyes in suspicion. There are holes to this. I can think of any number of objections, and the logic behind it is definitely a little loose. Even so, I can’t deny that it’s possible. It’s just that it’s both incredibly absurd and highly unlikely.

That meant that the possibility of it being the case was not zero. And more than anything else, his odd, even unnatural, thinking that led him to reach this conclusion in an instant—Marie had seen something similar to it before.

Her older sister—but also a few of the Meisters that she had once worked with—were this type. People who judged things from their intuition. Those who, rather than arriving at the answer through a process of logical deduction and verification, found the right answer with one big leap. People who possessed extraordinary judgment...

Their assertions always came more or less out of nowhere. Even so, if one inspected one of their conjectures closely, one would find that it would be nearly fully correct. If Naoto Miura, someone who possessed a sense that was in the realm of the supernatural was that type of person, wouldn’t his intuition be extremely close to the truth?

Marie groaned internally. She then opened her mouth, admitting, “—Though it’s absurd, there really may be an Initial-Y Series here.”

“Oy princess, are you serious?” Halter spoke up.

Returning his exasperated gaze with her own, Marie held up her hands. “It’s not like I know where all the Initial-Y Series automata are. I just can’t deny the possibility of one of them being here.”

“I mean, it’s not like this has to be referring to an Initial-Y Series. I think there are many other possible interpretations... Don’t you think you’re assuming a bit too much?”

“I’m well aware of that. I’m simply saying that I can’t completely deny the possibility. In practice—” Marie said, turning her gaze towards the city below her. According to Naoto, the city had already died. It was a paper mache city, one that had already had its gears pulled out. “...We have no choice but to infiltrate those factories and check, if we’re really going to know for sure.”

“Oohh! In other words, we’re going to search for an Initial-Y Series! Marie, I’ll be participating in the sandbag punching as well, got it? Encountering RyuZU’s cute little sister before me, how envioutrageous! We’re going, RyuZU!” Naoto’s inner fire was blazing, his desire at full throttle.

Seeing him like that, Marie swayed her shoulders. “You never break from character do you...”

Standing next to her, Halter lowered his head slightly to say, “...I can’t recommend taking action while we’re uncertain of the information.”

Marie nodded at Halter’s respectful warning; however, she then shook her head. “...Whatever the case may be, it doesn’t change the fact that someone in a position to know about our situation sent us a transmission that normally would have been untraceable from this abnormal place.”

“Yes, that’s true, but...”

“It might not be an Initial-Y Series. But the chance that the message was intended as a trap or warning is low. As such, that message might really have been an offering of information from someone at his wit’s end.”

“...You’re surprisingly cool and collected, aren’t you princess?”

Marie nimbly lifted just one eyebrow. “Don’t tell me that you thought that a provocation like that could actually piss me off.”

“I did, actually. Was I wrong?”

“Do you even need to ask? —Of course, I am going to kill whoever sent the message, but...”

Halter rolled his eyes.

Seeing that, Marie snorted, turning her chin away, “It’s not like I’m acting on emotion. We’re talking about your experience and my finesse alongside Naoto’s senses and RyuZU’s combat potential. With this lineup, infiltrating an industrial facility should be a piece of cake, no? We can just promptly turn back if nothing turns up after we gently probe around.”

“...Hmm.” Halter nodded, crossing his arms and stroking his chin. It was as Marie had said. It wasn’t like she was talking about trying to infiltrate a military base. If they put the abilities of everyone who was present here to use, infiltrating a common factory should be easy.

If they acquired more information, they would be able to plan out their next move, and even if their hypothesis ended up being wrong, they wouldn’t lose anything. However, Halter thought, while I can’t refute this—I can’t consent to it either.

It wasn’t because their conjecture was preposterous. That wasn’t the problem. Regardless of what he thought himself, if Marie was convinced that there was a possibility that it was true, then he was certain that her line of reasoning was the correct one.

Even so, though he couldn’t express the reason for his reluctance in words, the back of his neck felt intolerably tingly.

—I have a bad feeling about this.

This wasn’t the intuition that Naoto had displayed, nor the analytical logic that Marie had used. If he had put it into words, it was the sum of his life experience.

As someone who had run through a field showered with bullets—an otherwise normal person who marched through scenes of carnage where life meant nothing and lived to tell the tale—he possessed a vague sixth sense for danger that belonged only to cowards. Just as easily, however, could one dismiss it as simple paranoia.

In truth, Marie’s assessment of their capabilities wasn’t incorrect. Marie was a genius-level ex-Meister. In addition to her being well-versed in martial arts, if she used her Coil Spear, it goes without saying that she’d be able to deal with a typical combat automaton without a problem.

Halter himself was a full-body cyborg whose configuration made good use of the Breguet Corporation’s cutting-edge technology. Most problems could easily be solved by the two of them alone—

On top of that, they had Naoto’s detection that saw through even “Goliath,” the state-of-the-art stealth weapon of the Vacherons.

And finally, they had RyuZU—Placed against the overwhelming power characteristic of an Initial-Y Series automaton, any weapon would surely be powerless.

As Marie had said, there wasn’t a single problem anywhere. ...However, no matter how many times he confirmed that for himself, Halter’s unease just wouldn’t dissipate.

●

The place was a giant factory right around the center of the heavy industrial zone on the outskirts of the city. Though nearly everything inside this industrial district had come to a halt; it was the one factory that was still operating, albeit just barely. As for what kind of factory it was, not even Marie could tell from just its exterior. Having identified its location thanks to Naoto’s hearing, the four of them observed the factory from a distance atop a steel pylon.

Security guards wearing military uniforms were constantly patrolling the factory’s perimeters. Marie was peeking at them from their vantage point while lying prone. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see some human personnel here, even if the rest of the city is deserted.”

“Well, all things considered, they can’t just leave the security completely to automata,” Halter replied as he turned around to see Naoto facing the ground with his eyes closed. He wasn’t wearing his trademark headphones right now. With his superpowered hearing that allowed him to converse with others through 100% noise-cancelling headphones———Naoto was mapping out the facility below them.

Naoto spoke without opening his eyes, “...It’s definitely a big facility. It looks normal on the outside, but the walls are pretty dang thick, the workspace area’s abundant too. The factory’s also connected to various other places from underground. Its lowest floor is unnaturally spacious and... Huh? There’s ‘something’ down there, but it’s inoperational.”

Marie turned towards Naoto, furrowing her brows. “What do you mean ‘something.’”

“Well, it’s not operating so I can’t tell... but it’s seriously huge whatever it is. This—building?—is practically the size of an entire neighborhood.”

“...I see, sounds suspicious. So, can you find a path for us to enter through?”

“Well, I can tell you where the structure is and the positions of the surveillance devices and security guards.”

“That’s plenty, please do.” While nodding lightly, Marie unfolded a blank map in her mind. Doing so, she filled out that blank map and identified an infiltration route based on Naoto’s report. After acquiring the necessary information, Marie slowly stood up. Halter, who was standing next to her, picked her small body up with just one arm. Marie didn’t mind; her eyes remained focused on the clockboard of the watch she wore on her wrist. —She took a breath...

“Now.”

He jumped. The direct distance from their position to the rooftop of the target factory was about a hundred meters. Halter covered that distance in a single leap. A small thud rang out as Halter landed on the concrete rooftop. A moment after, RyuZU soundlessly caught up to them with Naoto in her arms.

Inside of the factory made with reinforced concrete the passageways were broad so as to allow for the easy moving of equipment. Light gears installed at regular distances from each other brightly illuminated the entire network of passageways.

A young man in a white lab coat who appeared to be a researcher was walking alongside a small, four-legged automaton through one of the passageways. The man, who had been looking down at the bundle of papers in his hands as he walked, suddenly stopped. Matching him, the automaton by his feet also stopped. He turned around. There was nothing there.

The man tilted his head, then sighed. It felt like someone was watching me, but it was just my imagination, huh. Smiling bitterly, he faced forward again, before hearing the word— “Bonsoir,” in fluent French. Surprised, the man swung himself around to see a beautiful blond-haired girl smiling at him.

The man opened his eyes wide, unable to say anything in response. The defense automaton next to him that had been built to deal with any situation, however, revealed a gun from inside itself and announced a warning in a robotic voice, “In.tru.ders. de.tect.ted.” Immediately after, the man fainted after being struck at the nape of his neck from behind. Simultaneously, the automaton by his feet was torn into scrap iron pieces.

“Bonne nuit,” Marie whispered, seeing the man and the robot sprawled out on the floor.

Seeing the young man he had knocked out before him, Halter stroked his head, “—Oy, isn’t this too easy?”

It’d already been ten minutes since they had infiltrated the factory—though one could also say that it’d only been ten minutes—in any case, the four of them had easily made their way to the elevator that led to the deepest parts of the facility. It’s not that the security up to this point had been lax. Quite the opposite, it had been much too tight for an ordinary factory. Despite that, Marie shrugged her shoulders at Halter with a face that said “obviously.”

“Why are you surprised? Naoto not only pinpointed the positions of the guards and the surveillance devices, but even informed us of the building’s floorplan. There might as well be no security at all.” Marie continued speaking over her shoulder. “...Those ears of yours really are convenient aren’t they. I think you’d be dissected for research if the world found out about your ability.”

Actually, I wouldn’t mind doing so myself. Marie glanced at Naoto, who was straddling RyuZU’s back, but he didn’t reply. It was RyuZU who had torn the security automaton to pieces. Because Naoto was the only one whose physical ability was below average among them, they had decided to have RyuZU carry him so he could focus purely on his hearing without them having to worry about him becoming tired or out of position, but...

“.........”

At the moment, he was ogling something right next to him just below RyuZU’s shoulders. Considering how outstretched his neck was, it was obvious what he was focusing on. Marie addressed him with a smile that took all her effort. “Mis.ter. Na~oto—?”

“—Huh? Ah, no, I wasn’t thinking about it. I wasn’t wondering at all whether RyuZU would let me touch her boobs, you know, seriously, I mean it!” Naoto spun off an obvious lie.

RyuZU replied with a composed face, “—If Master Naoto wishes to eliminate his carnal passions which resemble those of a beast, then by all means, grope them to your heart’s content. I have no objection to it.”

“Eh, really?! But if you say it like that, my desire weakens somehow. Ahh, my boyish heart feels so conflicted—”

“No one cares, so could you two put that off for later?” Marie muttered, throwing them a freezing stare with her eyes half-closed in disgust. She pointed at the double door at the end of the passageway. There was a panel of buttons on the wall next to the doors which were firmly shut. This was a high-security elevator that couldn’t be used unless one entered the correct password.

“Well?”

“—Its structure is the same as the one that was on the previous floor. If you unfasten the thirty-sixth hook from the right of the fourth inner layer, it’ll open.”

“Got it,” Marie replied briefly before flashing her hands about. Immediately after, the panel next to the doors was removed in an instant and screws began to float in the air as if there were no gravity.

On the inside of the wall was a multi-layered clockwork padlock. Normally, this kind of lock would take even an experienced clocksmith several hours of cautious work to unlock. However, Marie stuck her hands in indifferently. At the same time, the thirty-sixth hook from the right of the fourth inner layer—a part the size of one’s pinky nail—was unfastened with surgical precision before the panel was closed as if nothing had happened. With the whooshing sound of her hands, the door was opened like a magic trick. It had only taken an instant.

“Alright, let’s go. It’s under where we’re standing, right?”

“Yeah.” Naoto nodded without hesitation.

Confirming that, Marie boarded the elevator exultantly. Observing everything from the rear, Halter, the last one to board the elevator, inadvertently sighed.

—The detection device that could expose the facility’s security more perfectly than any sonar no matter how advanced, Naoto.

—The clocksmith who disarmed the security at a godly speed based on that information, Marie.

—The force that destroyed even heavily-armored automata without allowing even a single counterattack, RyuZU.

With this group as one’s opponent, any level of security and vigilance would be completely meaningless. Even if this was the headquarters of one of the Five Great Corporations, they could probably infiltrate it easily.

No security system could last longer than ten seconds with Naoto and Marie as its opponents. As for physical barriers without a disabling password, they were sundered in less than a second by RyuZU’s scythe. The latest traps and surveillance devices were meaningless as well. They were immediately detected, dismantled, and destroyed. As for the patrolling guards, researchers, and automata, they were either slipped by or incapacitated.

Even though they were infiltrating a facility with such a tight web of security, these three were behaving like they were on an educational field trip.

...If this isn’t cheating, then what is?

If I had seen this back when I was in the army, I’m sure I would have retired immediately.

...However, it still won’t go away.

If anything, the prickly unease that coiled around his neck was tightening ever more. Inside the elevator that was descending deep underground to the lowest floor of the facility, Marie studied Halter’s expression. “What’s wrong, Halter? Your face looks gloomy.”

“...It’s nothing.” Halter shook his head, yet his eyebrows furrowed.

The infiltration is going well, true. Actually, it’s going so well that I’m taken aback even... Yet, what is this mysterious sensation—no, I should stop pretending. Halter let out a deep sigh quietly. The truth is, I know what this is. I’ve felt this sensation before. This is—that’s right...

The deja vu of the thoroughly equipped unit that he had been inside advancing forward, everyone’s minds complacent from seeing the enemy’s weak resistance. —This is exactly the kind of time when something unexpected happens. For example, yes... it was just like this when, before we knew it, we had plunged into the enemy’s kill zone. Halter had a feeling that a terrible situation like that was waiting for them—correction, he had the conviction.

“Ah, wait... I hear something,” Naoto began suddenly, cupping his ears with his hands.

“What do you mean by something?” Marie asked.

“The sounds are difficult to discern, they’re pretty soft, but... the aggregate sounds of the missing parts? —No, there are way more sounds than that.”

“From where?”

“Roughly—around 74,850 meters below maybe.”

“Around seventy-five kilometers underground...? That’s impossible,” Marie immediately rejected.

Naoto pouted, “Why?”

“Because there’s nothing down there. That’s below even the base of the core tower. When the Clockwork Planet was created, this planet’s crust and mantle were used to make the enormous municipal gears, you know?

“As such, this planet is hollow. If there was something down there, it would be the cooled core of the planet at best—” Marie paused, seeming to have suddenly realized something, before muttering, “If that’s the case, I can only think that there’s a floor that was added on after the Clockwork Planet had already been created.”

After about an hour and a half, the elevator arrived at the lowest part of the facility. The four of them exiting the opening double doors saw a plate on the wall right next to the elevator that read, “The 25th Floor.” As far as Marie knew, this was the deepest floor in Mie Grid.

Beginning right outside the elevator, this floor was a spacious atrium. By the ceilings and walls were exposed gears operating systematically. The area was as bright as noon thanks to the radiance of the light gears embedded in the walls. Naoto slowly shuffled his feet, walking towards the center of the area. There, he turned around and kicked the floor lightly.

“It’s under here. As expected, there’s a hollow space... and ‘something’ underneath.”

Marie silently looked down at the floor where Naoto was standing. There was a metal panel affixed to the ground. Below that should be a protective layer then the outer shell of the building. Any floor beyond these layers would be a very deep underground level—in other words, it would be a floor that should be below the municipal gear.

Naoto was saying that there’s something there.

“...To confirm, you’re certain that there’s one more floor below this one, right?”

“Yeah, there’s no doubt about it. I don’t know where the entrance is though.” Naoto nodded.

Nodding back, Marie squinted. “That floor is probably connected to the core tower. Where we are is simply the base of the city and nothing more, so there wouldn’t be an entrance to a floor below the city around here to begin with.”

“Then, what are we gonna do?”

“Let’s rip the floor here to shreds then descend,” Marie said nonchalantly. “If it’s just this much, even my Coil Spear should be enough to dig out a hole. Stand back.”

“No, wait, the depth of the floor below is... -327.3 meters, you know?”

“...Just how big is it, jeez. I assume that RyuZU can carry you down, but... it’d be too much for Halter’s legs, no matter how strong they are. Let’s use an anchor wire.”

“...Roger.” Answering briefly, Halter narrowed his eyes. His expression was stiff as he continued to stay on guard. “Stay focused, princess. I’ve been smelling danger for some time now.”

“I know. This isn’t normal no matter how you look at it.” Marie nodded, then flashed her Coil Spear.

They dove into the hole she had created. It was a free fall of over three hundred meters—despite that, RyuZU elegantly adjusted her stance in midair while carrying Naoto and landed silently as if it was nothing. A few seconds after, Halter landed with Marie in his arms, having rappelled by wire. Jumping out of Halter’s arms, Marie blinked again and again.

“...It’s so dark.”

It was pitch black without a single light. Forget the face of Halter who was standing next to her, she couldn’t even make out her own arms and legs. Looking up at the ceiling from where they came, there was a large, glowing hole that looked like a full moon in the midst of this all this darkness.

Naoto began, seeming timid, “—Hey, Marie, this is...”

“Wait a second. I’m not a pervert like you who can tell everything through just sound, ya know. Let me put up some light first, alright?” Having whispered that, Marie transformed her Coil Spear with a swing of her hand. Pointing the muzzle up high, she fired a flare. In an instant, the vast space became buried in light as bright as noon by means of the device’s violently turning flash gears.

At that moment, something emerged from the darkness.

“—What kind of a joke is this,” Halter groaned, seeing the sight before him. Why can’t my bad premonitions ever end up being wrong?

“...What, is this...” Marie widened her eyes, flabbergasted.

Halter clicked his tongue, “It’s obvious isn’t it.”

He took a deep breath.

“—It’s something nefarious that’s going to be used for another fucked up scheme. Sons of bitches!” Halter glared at it through his heavily shaded glasses.

—What was there was mountains of steel.

That was the only way to describe it.

It was enormous, simply too enormous, way too enormous no matter how one looked at it. Anyone who saw it would only be able to comprehend it as such. Try as one might, it simply wasn’t possible to capture the entirety of its form in one’s field of vision.

As Marie took it in, somehow keeping a perspective in mind despite its massiveness—she thought that it looked like a spider.

A terrifyingly enormous, multi-legged—automaton, probably.

This thing moving was so implausible that it would be insane to believe it ever could; however, as far as the ex-Meister Marie could tell, at the very least, its exterior structure was made to do so. Even so—its mammoth size exceeded the realm of sanity by miles.

Even just the joints of its folded legs were each the size of a skyscraper. Those legs were covered entirely in black plating that looked like the scales of a fish and were equipped with an absurd number of cannons sticking out through countless gunports.

As for the trunk of its body, its size was as big as a full-sized aircraft carrier. Like its legs, the exterior was also clad with countless protruding cannons that covered every inch of it like the fur of a hedgehog.

Marie didn’t need to rely on Naoto’s hearing to tell. There was no room for doubt that this was—a preposterous weapon.

She opened her mouth, squeezing out, “—Halter, you know the Military Force Limitations Agreement that was established by the International Grid Management Organization? ...I wonder if you remember what its first article says?”

“‘All research, manufacture, and possession of weapons of mass destruction that could inflict fatal damage to the municipal gears—and consequently, the planet’s mechanisms, therein threatening humanity’s habitat—are permanently banned,’ right?”

“...So, why am I seeing this joke of a thing that looks like a superdreadnought WMD in front of me? There wasn’t something in my coffee, was there? Is this just my imagination?” Marie lied to herself. Her voice was dry and cracking.

“Yeah, unless it’s paper mache, you’re probably right on the money,” Halter replied, his voice shaky.

As the two of them stood frozen, Naoto threw something at the gigantic weapon. Something the size of his palm, maybe an iron scrap, spun in the air before hitting the plating of the weapon. Clonk. The sound resounded in the air. After the small echoes had completely faded away, Naoto said, “...Miss Marie, Mr. Halter, I probably don’t need to tell you this considering you two are professionals, but can I say it anyway?”

“...What?”

“We’re in a staggeringly dangerous situation right now, you know?”

“Yup, we know,” Marie replied. While gazing at the ceiling in a daze, she continued, “Now then, Mr. Naoto. Could we hear your expert opinion on the situation? As a someone with your ability—what kind of danger are we in?”

“...First, I can assure you that this was where the missing parts of the hollow clock tower went.”

Upon those words, Marie swallowed her breath. —So the parts of an entire clock tower were diverted to make a weapon, huh.

“I see... so this is the city’s ‘cause of death.’”

“I thought the Japanese’s fondness for giant robots was in reference to a thousand years ago...” Halter groaned as he stroked his bald head.

However, Naoto shook his head and went on, “But, even that’s not enough. I can’t clearly tell because this thing isn’t in operation, but—at the very least, it’s using six times the number of parts needed to make up the missing sounds.”

Marie raised a hand above her eyes, still remaining silent. Narrowing her eyes and shading them from the flare’s light, she glared at the all too gigantic weapon, trying to gauge its depth.

“Naoto, I can’t get an overview of this thing, it’s just too big. Can you tell how big it is?”

“Look here, do you think I’m a sensor or someth—?

“Just answer me!”

“It’s not in operation so I can’t tell exactly, but judging from the respective sounds I hear from the gear closest to us and the one furthest away, I would estimate its height to be about 320 meters and its depth to be 932 meters... Damn! Adding to that, it seems like it’s fully ready to start up at any time!! ———Shit!” Naoto panicked, pointing diagonally to his left. “There are forty-two sets of human footsteps, and eighteen sets of unnaturally heavy footsteps filled with killing intent coming right at us us!!”

—Found us out, huh? Marie ground her teeth. But it doesn’t matter, whatever this weapon may be, we can’t just leave it as is.

“RyuZU.”

“You are acting unduly familiar toward me, but yes, what is it?”

“—Can you destroy this thing’s exterior with your scythe?”

RyuZU silently tilted her head as she pointed her eyes towards the gigantic weapon’s plating. With a flutter of her skirt, a scythe extended forward at a speed that couldn’t be visually recognized.

—As a sharp, clear sound rang out, sparks flew.

“?!” RyuZU’s eyes widened in surprise at the rare occasion.

Scrutinizing her black scythe and the construct’s plating that had received just a mere scratch, she compared them with each other before curling her lips. “...This is most surprising. It appears that even with humanity’s mosquito-sized brains, something meaningful can unexpectedly be accomplished if one trains their minds toward the singular purpose of making something ‘very hard’ and nothing else—this is a new discovery.”

Marie asked with a suspicious squint, “—So can you destroy it or not?”

“Mistress Marie, to think that your intellect was so deplorable that you would have to ask whether a kitchen knife can cut through tungsten alloy—”

“Start with a yes or no!!” Marie cut RyuZU off as she began to scramble. “Hurry up and snatch something, documents, schematics, anything that’s proof of its existence! We’re getting out of here!”

“Wai, wha, are we just going to leave this thing as is?!” Naoto yelled out from behind her.

Marie shouted back without turning around, “What do you expect me to do against something that that piece of junk made with futuristic technology can barely even scratch?!”

“But isn’t this thing absurdly dangerous?!”

“I’m a clocksmith, not a mercenary!”

This isn’t a joke, you know? Marie thought. ...That’s right, this absolutely isn’t a joke. How? Just who exactly is supposed to be able to deal with a monster like this?

In modern municipal warfare, the strongest deployable weapons are, undoubtedly, heavily-armored automata. When considering the main model in current use, that it would be unable to match the offensive capabilities of the behemoth shouldn’t come as a surprise. The construct’s unmatched defensive capabilities were what was truly alarming.

For starters, the fact that RyuZU’s scythe could easily cut through the armor of heavily-armored automata was already absurd, but...

You’re telling me that a swing of her scythe did absolutely nothing to this monster?

In other words, by process of elimination, there are no existing weapons of modern warfare that can do anything to it either.

—Well, even if this conclusion is a bit hasty, at the very least, weapons made for intra-city warfare have no chance of damaging that plating.

However, weapons that were made for extra-city warfare—conceived for wars conducted on uninhabited domains—were a different story. The weapons at the upper limit of permissible military force established by the International Grid Management Organization—for example, resonant cannons or heavy artillery that fired ultra-high frequency shells might be able to destroy it. Or, if one of the limited massive projectile weapons were used, it would surely be possible to destroy any type of plating.

However—the problem was this thing’s size.

If the large-scale weapons of extra-city warfare were used to destroy something as enormous as this— “If it comes to that, there’s no way the city would escape unscathed... Tch!” Marie spat out as she clenched her fists tightly. However, in the first place, what was this thing made for?

It was a weapon. As such, it was surely to be used for some military goal. However, weapons could have different “personalities” but be otherwise the same. Weapons were tools that cost a tremendous amount of money and labor, so they were generally made with a concrete concept in mind. For example, to invade others, to defend the homeland, or to deter enemies by simply existing, and so on.

...I feel like this gigantic weapon doesn’t fit any of those categories...

If an automaton of that size really started up, it’s clear what would happen as a result. Whether it be to invade or defend, if something like that moved around, the city would be battered to pieces. Even as a deterrent, its size was much too unnecessarily large. Feeling as if she had been plunged into total darkness, Marie groaned. Disregarding the weapon’s intended use—

If that thing moves, the city will be destroyed.

It’s possible to destroy it before that happens.

However, if we do that, the city will be destroyed along with it just the same.

—In that case, that means that that’s just the kind of weapon it is.

“Tch... What a joke...”A weapon made to destroy cities? No, this is none other than a weapon made to destroy the world.

Just who was the idiot that made such a thing, and for what purpose? ...We need to gather information to figure that out as well.

The identity of the enemy and their goal, the weapon’s structure, its weak points, and its capabilities in detail—There was a mountain of things that Marie needed to investigate. I have to find the blueprint documents and communication records someh—

“Hm...?”

“—Stop, princess,” Halter said with a sharp, still voice.

Only the two of them had noticed her presence.

●

The one standing there was a little girl.

It took a second before Marie managed to respond, “—A child?”

No. She’s an automaton.

A little doll girl smaller and daintier than even Marie, who was petite herself. She was wearing a formal dress dyed red and white and her arms and legs were encased in silver armor. A pendant in the shape of a cube dangled by her chest and a ring made of two half-gears rested above her head like the halo of an angel.

The girl’s face was the avatar of innocence and purity; however, it was covered by a black, uncouth mask.

—That black mask was singularly ominous somehow.

Sweat traced Marie’s forehead as she felt a chill in her spine. Halter quietly stepped out in front of her and held up his fists, at the ready to protect her. Out of context, it might have looked like a bizarre spectacle. A large, cyborg man was on the highest possible alert, and had taken a measured fighting stance against a little automaton girl.

However, Marie didn’t find Halter’s reaction strange or unnatural at all. After all, Marie herself—facing the automaton in front of her who looked like nothing but an adorable child—was so scared that she hadn’t been able to breathe since she first saw her.

RyuZU stepped forward in front of both of them with a smile on her face, “My—you are AnchoR after all. It has been a while, has it not?”

“Huh...? This girl is AnchoR-chan?” Naoto asked with widened eyes as he tilted his head. “Based on what Marie said, isn’t AnchoR-chan supposed to be in Tokyo?”

“I interpreted what she said that way as well. However, in the end, it seems like it was a mistake to have swallowed information from someone like Mistress Marie at face value. ...In any case, what is with that mask, AnchoR? I must say, it is a bit much for good taste.”

Without showing any reaction, the girl simply looked through her mask at RyuZU with a mineral gaze.

Naoto tilted his head suspiciously. ...This is her?

The Fourth of the Initial-Y Series—AnchoR, “the One Who Destroys.”

Considering that it was none other than RyuZU saying so, there should be no doubt that this girl was indeed AnchoR. By no means would RyuZU ever mistakenly take some other automaton to be one of her sisters.

Even so, Naoto thought. —Something is off.

The girl before his eyes was standing silently still. Her operational sounds were practically nonexistent; they were so quiet that even Naoto, whose ears weren’t covered by his headphones, couldn’t be certain that she was operating.

—There was no friction, no inconsistency, no redundancy in her mechanisms. Nothing was grating and nothing was bending. Like water trickling down, they were running in absolute harmony with her form.

Naoto had never heard such a quiet operational sound before. Considering that fact, there was no room for doubt that this girl was an automaton made with aberrant, transcendent technology.

Still, Naoto thought.—Something’s definitely off.

He took a step back. Clenching his jaw, he glared at the girl in front of him. There was no doubt. He was sure of it. The girl before his eyes was quiet. Too quiet. Her mask was distorting her beautifully serene operating sound, ruining it.

It was like an elegant violin solo played all on a single string—something delightful forcefully twisted and distorted into a vehement, violent scream. Such a ferocious, aberrant noise enveloped the girl.

RyuZU called out her name again. “AnchoR?”

“Enemy threat level, Category Two—requesting a boost from the Power Reservoir... Approved.”

The girl suddenly opened her mouth. What came out of her mouth wasn’t a reply, but something much more dangerous and dreadful.

“—Initiating shift to the Third Balance Wheel of Differences.”

The girl’s figure transformed.

Her hair grew longer and her limbs bigger; the red of her clothes turned scarlet, and the white turned black. The ring of half-gears above her head split into two, each standing upright on one side of her head, and the cube by her chest transformed into a solid gear.

The figure of the girl who was as pure as an angel transformed into the figure of a girl who was as tainted as a demon.

“Chrono Hook—initiating output of imaginary power by means of the Perpetual Gear. Materializing.”

Naoto began to hear grating noises in the aberrant sound coming from the girl as it warped greatly.

—It sounded just like a cry of anguish as the girl uttered words of imminent doom, “——‘Bloody Murder’——”

The next instant.

““—Get out of the way!”” Halter and Naoto yelled out at the same time, Halter from his premonition and Naoto from his instinct.

Without questioning what Naoto’s words meant, RyuZU automatically obeyed his order. She picked Naoto up and leapt backwards faster than the blink of an eye.

The girl, AnchoR, raised her hands, upon which the shape of the solid gear floating above her head changed. Immediately after,

—The air exploded.

Whatever it was, it was so overwhelming that it could only be described as such. Things that shouldn’t be breakable broke and things that shouldn’t be tearable tore. The noise pierced Naoto’s eardrums.

Then, Naoto saw it. The spot where he and RyuZU had been standing until just a moment ago had been annihilated. The floor, made of a complex alloy which most things wouldn’t even be able to scratch, had disappeared without a trace.

“—Wha”

No way. Marie was left speechless.

Meanwhile, seeing the floor sunken into the shape of a crater, RyuZU narrowed her topaz eyes as a dark cloud came over them.

“AnchoR?” RyuZU called out her name once again. However, the tone and gaze with which she did so were no longer like how she would address someone close to her.

“——I shall give you just one chance. Explain yourself wisely. Based on your intentions behind bearing your fangs against Master Naoto, even if you are my cute little sister—”

At that point, RyuZU’s emotions froze. All signs of RyuZU’s human warmth receded as she became a machine who only cared about fulfilling its purpose. She threatened AnchoR in a flat, frigid voice,

“—I’ll shatter you—thoroughly—beyond repair.”

RyuZU’s eyes turned red. That was the sign that she was initiating the native functionality that belonged only to her. However, Naoto yelled out to stop her, “Wait a second, RyuZU! That girl—she isn’t functioning!”

RyuZU replied without diverting her gaze, “Even though we were just attacked?”

“That’s not it; even though she’s operating she isn’t functioning! She’s broken—no, that’s not exactly it either. In any case, she isn’t in a normal state!”

—He could hear it even now. The sound of gears twisting, bending, grating. Naoto knew what kind of sound this was—it was the “cry” of gears that were trying desperately to defy an overwhelming power. It’s almost as if... Naoto turned his eyes towards AnchoR.

“—gh” His eyes met with hers through her mask.

It’s not my imagination, Naoto thought. He felt it. He was sure now. This is what the eyes behind the mask were unmistakably saying:

—No, I don’t want this!—While despairing over being unable to convey that to anyone, while lamenting over being unable to be heard by anyone, she yelled hoarsely over and over again with her inner voice. —Big sister, please, destroy me—

“Damn it.” Naoto ground his teeth while clenching his fists. Don’t say something so sad.

“—Just asking to be sure. Miss, can you win against that thing?” Halter whispered. Even as he asked, his gaze didn’t leave the girl in front of him for a single moment, he fully understood that every little move of hers could lead directly to their deaths.

RyuZU replied without turning around, “...Under ‘Mute Scream’—I would say that my chances are around twenty percent.”

Silence fell upon her answer. RyuZU—the one who had single-handedly destroyed an entire battalion of cutting-edge heavily-armored automata in an instant by manipulating imaginary time—was implicitly asserting that she had almost no chance to win. The other three’s faces paled upon swallowing that fact.

Each of them recalled what RyuZU had once said:

—The Fourth of the Initial-Y Series... AnchoR, “the One Who Destroys.” She was the one who boasted the strongest combat ability of all automata.

Notwithstanding, RyuZU took a step forward, declaring, “There is no problem. In the worst case, I can at least hold her back long enough for Master Naoto to esc—”

“Rejected! Halter, turn right!” Naoto yelled, cutting RyuZU off.

At the same time, the cube floating above AnchoR’s head twisted once again. Responding to Naoto’s words, Halter at the ready immediately shifted into double gear and picked Marie up before jumping to the right. In an instant, the space where Halter had been standing was hollowed out.

The cube twisted further.

“RyuZU, behind you! Halter, it’s from the left!!”

While evading the silent, invisible attacks assaulting them by relying on Naoto’s instructions, Halter groaned internally. He’s reading her attacks—? Just what can he possibly hear that would let him do that?! He couldn’t comprehend it. However, that was their only lifeline right now. He had to entrust his life to something he couldn’t understand—Halter tasted something bitter in his mouth. The thought of that was unbearably frightening to him.

After several rounds of attacks, it appeared that AnchoR had judged this method to be fruitless. Changing strategy, the cube rotated at a fierce speed before stopping. At that moment—seeing an enormous sword appear in AnchoR’s hands, Marie cried, “You’ve gotta be kidding me! She’s capable of spatial manipulation—?!”

The all too enormous sword was terribly mismatched against her small body. It hadn’t been stored through compression with clockwork technology. It had materialized from nothingness into AnchoR’s hands. It was a super technology that couldn’t be mimicked with current clockwork science.

—This is AnchoR’s native ability? Marie’s eyes opened wide. The frozen gears in her head began to turn again, accelerating.

—RyuZU can’t use Mute Scream. There’s no way this opponent would let RyuZU activate it. No, even if she managed to activate it somehow and defeat AnchoR, her spring would become fully unwound in doing so. It would be game over at that point.

Even Marie could now hear the enemies that Naoto had detected earlier approaching. Forty-two soldiers and eighteen military automata. If they engaged in direct combat while RyuZU was asleep, there would be no way for them to win no matter how they struggled. Then—in that case, what do we do?!

“RyuZU! Halter! Target the floor!” Naoto yelled.

Upon which Marie yelled, “Halter! Throw me up!”

With the enormous sword from the void in her hands—in an instant, AnchoR closed in on RyuZU at the speed of an artillery shell while spinning like a top. RyuZU evaded her attack by a paper-thin margin. At the same time, her black scythe ripped the floor below her.

Meanwhile, Marie, who had been catapulted into the air by Halter, whipped her Coil Spear around once—and shot out a high-explosive shell. Without missing its mark, the shell scored a direct hit on AnchoR just after she had swung down her sword. A thunder-roar rang out as flames burst forth.

—Despite this, Marie thought, AnchoR is uninjured. I’m sure of it. She hadn’t counted on the shot to injure AnchoR in the first place. Buried in flames and smoke, AnchoR couldn’t be seen. At the same time, AnchoR couldn’t see them either.

Halter charged, going on the offensive. From his ankles to his knees, thighs, waist, torso, shoulders, and arms—Halter shifted his entire body into double gear in unison and instantly accelerated. He threw out his fist with the utmost output a cyborg was capable of, a punch that exceeded the speed of sound—however,

Slap. A sound that was all too light rang out as AnchoR caught his fist with one hand.

Halter groaned, his lips stiffening, “...Oy oy, what kind of shock absorption mechanism are you equipped with, friend? You’re gonna hurt my feelings.” He let out a smile as he opened up his fist and cast the gunpowder in his hands towards AnchoR’s feet.

His target was not AnchoR—but the floor itself.

It exploded.

First RyuZU’s scythe, then Marie’s explosive shell, and finally his directional detonation with the help of a metal jet. Even the complex alloy floor with a thickness of more than twenty meters was unable to withstand these successive attacks. As a giant crack ran through the ground, AnchoR lost her footing.

Broken metal pieces fell into the abyss from the jagged, newly-formed hole—Marie clenched the grip of her Coil Spear tightly as she watched to make sure that AnchoR really was gone. Dangling down from the anchor wire she had shot into the ceiling, she asked implicitly with her eyes, This is what you meant, right Naoto—?!

This was a “dock” that had been created as an add-on below even the city’s lowest floor. In that case, beyond this was the hollow interior of the planet. A vacuum beyond which only the thoroughly cooled core of the Earth awaited. RyuZU was more than capable of escaping with Naoto, and Halter could escape the explosion by firing his own anchor wire as well.

Only AnchoR would fall into the abyss along with the collapsed floor!

—However, as the floor collapsed, AnchoR became visible again. She adjusted her posture. Halter immediately reeled in his wire and transported himself to where Marie was. As he did so, AnchoR chased him with her gaze. Once again, the cube rotated, and the gigantic sword in AnchoR’s hands disappeared. Replacing it was a warped pillar whose tip was twisted into the shape of three drills.

The drills began rotating fiercely—hearing their sound, Naoto gasped, “Holy crap—this sounds super bad.” I’ve never heard this sound before, but I do remember reading about something that operates with three drills like this. If I remember correctly, the textbook said that—Naoto turned his face upward and yelled, “Marie! What’s the phenomenon that occurs when three linked drills turn in resonance with each other?!”

Marie swallowed her breath upon Naoto’s words, “—Is this a resonance cannon?! At that size?! Don’t mess with me!” Marie gasped.

Normally, it would be a massive, destructive weapon that might be installed onto a heavily-plated helicopter or perhaps a destroyer. Both its firepower and the energy it required limited how compact it could be—there was no such thing as a portable version of it.

In the first place, a resonance cannon had enough firepower to cause a building to collapse with one shot. At the moment, the barrel of such a weapon was currently pointed towards Halter and Marie.

There was no time to evade it.

Should AnchoR pull the trigger, the two of them would evaporate without leaving a trace. Feeling the premonition of inescapable death, a chill ran through her stomach.

—I’ve gotta, I’ve gotta come up with something... Her mind was spinning without direction. She couldn’t collect her thoughts. She couldn’t come up with an answer. Her genius faltered. With the end before her eyes, she became aware of her own helplessness.

I won’t make it. There isn’t enough time. Yeah, but, can this at least buy enough time for RyuZU and Naoto to escape...? Marie considered their chances in the corner of her mind when...

“—RyuZU! Stop that thingggggGGG!!” Naoto yelled.

““—Wha?!”” Marie and Halter doubted what they had just heard. However, RyuZU had faithfully dispatched her black scythe upon Naoto’s words.

The scythe pierced through the barrel of the cannon that AnchoR held in her hands. Immediately after, a screech rang out as the barrel burst in an explosion. The scythe was caught up in the explosion and blown to pieces as well. During that time, Halter succeeded in covering Marie inside his embrace.

Discarding the broken cannon, AnchoR turned her gaze towards RyuZU and Naoto. Once again, the cube twisted. However, before it could finish its twists, RyuZU turned around in midair and dispatched her remaining scythe. Striking AnchoR from her blind spot, RyuZU swiped powerfully at AnchoR’s feet—making AnchoR lose her footing.

However, RyuZU lost her balance in midair as she did so. “Naoto?! RyuZU?!” Marie yelled through all the debris. RyuZU tried to adjust her posture while carrying Naoto—however, with her bearings still a mess and debris continuing to fly in her face, AnchoR drew out a new cannon from the void and pointed its muzzle towards RyuZU and Naoto——— And fired.

...Watch out! Marie was about to verbalize her warning, but before she could, Naoto yelled, “RyuZU—fall faster!”

Responding to those words, RyuZU gave up on trying to find her balance in midair. She swung her scythe against the debris floating above them. Their fall accelerated because of the principle of equal and opposite reactions. Thanks to that, though AnchoR’s shot grazed them, they were able to avoid a fatal hit.

However, unable to fully withstand the impact, RyuZU ended up in a tailspin and was falling down among the debris. What lay beyond was—

“Halter! The anchor wire!”

“It’s no good, princess, it won’t reach them!”

RyuZU fell into the abyss with Naoto in her arms. Marie and Halter quickly lost sight of them as the falling debris covered them up.

What lay beyond—was the core of the planet from which one could not return once one had fallen. At this point, even RyuZU was helpless. Even if she was a legendary automaton who could manipulate imaginary time, a force which remained beyond the grasp of modern technology a thousand years later—she didn’t have the ability to fly.

Narrowly managing to grasp onto the edge of the hole, AnchoR hung on, staying where she was. Her eyes were pointed downwards. She was watching RyuZU and Naoto fall into the abyss. Her face, concealed by her mask, betrayed no sign of emotion. However, the cube twisting above her head... swayed ever so slightly as it rotated.